Dawn Stewardson (9 page)

As the boys trooped out, Lauren glanced at him, saying, “Do you mind if I make a couple of other calls? Last night, I promised my mother I’d check in when I got home, and I don’t want to take any chances on them panicking again.”

“Sure. No problem.” He pushed himself up off the couch. “I’m going to make coffee. Would you like some?”

She said that coffee sounded good and reached for the phone. Then, before he got to the kitchen door, he could hear her punching in more numbers than just a phone number. She was putting the first call on her card.

Walking into the other room, he exhaled slowly. He knew she was only being thoughtful, but he wasn’t so poor he couldn’t pay for a couple of long distance calls. And her charging them, as if she figured he didn’t have two cents, bothered him. He tried telling himself that was a stupid way to feel, but it didn’t help.

He reached for the coffee, thinking that a few other things had started bothering him since she’d come here. Things he normally never gave a second thought. Things like not having a university degree and being an ex-con. If it weren’t for things like that, just possibly…

He shook his head. They were facts. So the sooner she went back to her world, the better.

When he took the coffee into the lounge she was still on the phone, so he put hers on the table in front of her. Then he sat down across from her and tried not to stare. But she was sitting sideways with her legs curled up beneath her, and she looked…cute. And lovely. And every other word he shouldn’t be thinking.

She finally hung up and smiled. “That was my friend Jenny, whose apartment is across the hall from mine. She’s going to look in again and make sure the cat’s still doing okay. But I’m really going to have to decide on a name for him, aren’t I. It seems wrong to just keep calling him the cat.”

Sully ran his finger down the scratch on his arm. “I think you should call him Killer.”

She smiled again. “I think maybe you’re right, although it’s not exactly a classy name.”

“Lauren, at the risk of stating the obvious, he’s not exactly a classy cat.”

When she laughed, it started a warm feeling inside him. She had the nicest laugh he’d ever heard, so quiet and velvety it reminded him of a cat’s purr.

Not Killer’s purr, though. From what he’d seen, Killer was a howler, not a purrer.

“And what did your parents have to say?” he asked after a minute.

She shrugged. “My dad went ballistic, because when I was talking about buying that car he told me not to—said it would be a car thief’s dream. And obviously, he was right.”

“What about your mother?”

“She was mostly worried about how I was going to get home. Suggested I have a limo drive up from the city instead of calling a taxi from around here. She said that at least she’d trust the driver, then. So I did that. He’ll be here at three.”

Sully nodded, thinking he’d never been inside a limo in his life.

“I’m just lucky,” Lauren went on, “that my parents are spending the rest of the weekend in the country with friends. If they were staying home, they’d probably have asked me to check in every hour on the hour until I was safely back in my apartment.”

“I guess that thing with your brother has them really upset.”

She gave another little shrug. “That’s made it worse, but they’re always worrying about me. They’ll probably still be doing it when I’m old and gray.”

He smiled, trying to imagine her as old and gray. The picture that came to him, though, was absolutely crazy. She was old and gray, all right, but she was also sitting in an Adirondack chair on the porch of Eagles Roost—beside an old and gray man who looked suspiciously like him.

Forcing that picture from his mind, he replaced it with a realistic one of her getting out of her limo and walking into her ritzy apartment building. Once he had that in focus, things inside his head made a lot more sense.

W
HEN
B
ILLY GOT
to where it would be about a five-minute run from Mr. Ludendorf’s, he stopped his bike and waved the twins to pull up behind him.

“Okay,” he said to Terry when they had, “lie your bike on its side and sit down beside it. And you know what to say when he comes, right? You say you banged your head when you fell, but you’re startin’ to feel better now. But if he tries to leave too soon, you gotta pretend to be dizzy or somethin’.”

“What if he wants to take me to a doctor?”

“Don’t let him. Just keep him here for a while. You can do it. And Tony’ll come back with him to help you.”

“Billy, I really don’t wanna do this,” Terry whined for about the hundredth time. “Sully’s gonna kill us.”

“Do you want to stay at Eagles Roost or not?” Billy snapped. Tony wasn’t bad for a ten-year-old, but sometimes Terry was a real pain.

“Of course he does,” Tony said. “We all do.”

“Well we can’t unless Sully gets money from someplace. And you guys heard Lauren say she’s goin’ home today for sure. So it don’t look like he’ll get it from her.”

“But why do Tony and me have to do this?” Terry sniveled. “Why couldn’t Freckles and Hoops?”

“I already told you,” Billy said. “’Cuz you two are the youngest. And the younger you are, the easier it is to get someone to help you. And ’cuz they’re bigger, so they can get more of the garage cleaned and maybe Sully won’t know we were gone.”

“He’s gonna know.”

“Maybe not,” Billy insisted. “If we just tell him Mr. Ludendorf phoned and left a message and stuff.”

“He’s gonna know,” Terry said again. “And he’s gonna be so mad he’ll—”

“Oh, stop being such a baby,” Tony muttered.

“I’m not a baby. I’m three hours older than you.”

“Then act like it. Let’s go, Billy.”

“We’re all countin’ on you, Terry,” Billy said. “’Member that,” he added, pushing off.

He and Tony rode most of the rest of the way to Mr. Ludendorf’s house, then they stopped and he stashed his bike behind a bush.

“Okay,” he said once it was out of sight, “you know which door is to his office?”

Tony nodded.

“Okay, then give me time to hide by it, then come ridin’ up.”

“You really think he works on Saturdays?” Tony said. “You really think he’ll be in his office?”

Billy shrugged, trying to look cool. “If he’s not in there, go to the front door.”

“But then how’ll you get into his office?”

“Maybe he won’t have the door locked. Or maybe through a window. Private eyes always find a way.”

“But you’re not really a private eye.”

He shrugged again. Maybe he wasn’t, but he wanted to be one even more than Hoops wanted to play basketball for the Knicks. And he’d watched a million detective shows on TV, so he knew all about how they did stuff.

“I’ll get into the office,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

When Tony nodded again, Billy took off running. He’d just gotten himself hidden—around the corner of the house from the office, where he could peek out far enough to see—before Tony came racing into the drive, the wheels of his bike spitting up gravel.

He hopped off and started yelling, “Mr. Ludendorf! Mr. Ludendorf!” while he ran up to the house.

He was reaching out to knock when the office door opened and Mr. Ludendorf was standing there.

Billy swallowed hard. His stomach felt woozy, but at least the plan was working.

“What’s the matter?” Mr. Ludendorf asked. “You’re one of Sully’s kids, aren’t you?”

“Yes, sir,” Tony told him. “And I need help. My brother fell off his bike just down the road, and I think he’s hurt bad.”

“Oh, God, I’ll just grab my car keys and we—”

“No, it’s not far. Just down the road. We can run there in a minute.”

“All right, let’s go.”

Billy held his breath, hoping the lawyer wouldn’t take time to lock the door.

He didn’t. He just started off after Tony.

The second they were down the drive, Billy hurried along the side of the house and into the office. Shutting the door fast, he looked around. There was a desk with a computer and stuff, a couple of chairs, a photocopy machine humming in the corner, and two filing cabinets against a wall.

He hurried over to them, trying to decide where he should look first. Under
E
for Eagles Roost? Or under
S
for Sullivan?

Pulling open the drawer labeled
D-G,
he started looking through the
E
files. Lauren had said it would be a lot better if Sully could talk to Mr. Ludendorf’s client himself, and the guy’s name had to be in these files somewhere. A real detective would find it.

Decision time

T
HERE WAS OBVIOUSLY
something on Sully’s mind, and Lauren wished he’d tell her what it was.

Not that she imagined it was anything she’d like, but she didn’t like the way he was looking everywhere except at her and not saying a word, either. She’d been doing her best to be pleasant, while he seemed to be doing his best to make her uncomfortable.

Drinking the last sip of her coffee, she decided that if she didn’t speak up they’d be sitting in silence until the police arrived. “Sully?” she said. “Is something wrong?”

He looked at her for a moment, then said, “Do you want to take a walk? It’s not far to the lake.”

“Sure. I really haven’t seen anything except the lodge and the cabin.”

When they got outside he glanced over at the garage, saying, “It doesn’t sound like there’s much activity in there, but I guess the kids must be working.”

He didn’t say anything more, so she simply walked along with him—across the clearing and into the thick woods where the air smelled of fresh earth and pine trees. It was cooler once they were out of the late morning sun, and the quiet…well, for someone used to the relentless clamor of “the city that never sleeps,” the quiet was incredible.

There wasn’t a corner of Manhattan that was even remotely like Eagles Roost, and she couldn’t help wishing there was. Everyone should have a place like these woods to walk in.

Ahead, through the trees, she caught a glimpse of Hidden Lake, and in another minute they’d reached the shore of a sheltered cove. The water was blue crystal, sunlight shimmering diamonds on its surface.

A weathered wooden boathouse and dock reached out into the water, and beyond the cove the lake sprawled like glass in all directions…the far side visible but distant.

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “Absolutely beautiful. Do you still appreciate that after all these years?”

Sully nodded. “It’s funny. I grew up on the streets of the Bronx, but now I can’t imagine living anywhere except here.”

“No, I can see why.” She looked out over the water for a few more seconds, then gazed at him and caught him watching her. Her heart fluttered and she wished it wouldn’t. Sully would rather she were long gone, so her heart was being incredibly foolish.

“Look,” he said, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “There’s something I want to explain to you.”

“Yes?” Gazing at him, she realized his eyes weren’t saying he’d rather she were long gone. They were saying he’d put his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her. So if the eyes really were the windows of the soul…

She told herself she was misreading what she saw, and waited for him to go on.

“Lauren,” he said at last, “when I told you it wouldn’t be a good idea to see each other after today…”

“Dumb. You said it would be a dumb idea,” she reminded him, feeling hurt all over again and wishing he hadn’t started in on this a second time. She’d received his message loud and clear the first time.

“Well look, whatever words I used, I gave you the wrong message. I know you thought I was telling you I didn’t like you, but that wasn’t it. Because I really do,” he added with a smile that made her knees weak.

He liked her after all! The little news flash made her so happy it was ridiculous. But ridiculous or not, she was starting to feel bubbly inside.

Then he burst the bubbles by saying, “And it’s because I like you that it’s not a good idea for us to see each other again.”

She simply stood staring at him—and hoping he never decided to enroll in a Logic 101 course because he’d fail for sure.

Finally, she said, “Let me make sure I’m clear on your thinking. If you
didn’t
like me, then it
would
be a good idea for us to see each other again?”

“No, of course not.” He gave her another smile. This one seemed puzzled, as if he couldn’t understand why she was being so dense.

“Look,” she admitted, “I’m missing the point here.”

“The point is that you and I have nothing at all in common.”

She thought about Logic 101 again and decided he wouldn’t have to worry about failing. He’d never even manage to get enrolled. He’d be screened out by an interview or an entrance exam or something, because his reasoning was far too linear to deal with the big picture.

Oh, at first glance, it was clear they didn’t have the major, obvious things in common. He wasn’t looking beyond that, though, wasn’t considering that those weren’t always the important things.

She and her ex-husband had come from similar backgrounds, had moved in the same circles, et cetera, et cetera. But those similarities had hardly added up to a happy marriage.

Which wasn’t to say she had any ideas about marrying Sully. As she’d been thinking earlier, though, it would be nice to have some sort of relationship with him.

Given the fact that she didn’t meet many men she liked, when she met one she did it seemed silly to just walk away without seeing…

Without seeing what?
a voice in her head demanded.

She wasn’t really sure. But she knew she didn’t care for the thought of just walking away.

Their last go-around had left her very leery, but she finally asked, “Were you only trying to make me feel better, or do you honestly like me?”

He smiled once more. “I’ve got my faults, but being a liar isn’t one of them. As I said last night, you seem to have grown on me.”

She took a deep breath, almost afraid to press, then plunged ahead before she lost her nerve. “Sully, you seem to have grown on me, too. So if you like me and I like you…well, then obviously we like each other. And in my books that’s a pretty good thing to have in common.”

“Lauren,” he said quietly, “I’m an ex-con and you’re a wealthy woman.”

“I know that,” she said just as quietly.

There it was, then,
she thought as she waited for Sully’s response. The foremost issue, from his perspective, was that he was an ex-con and she was wealthy. And his laying those cards on the table had her mind racing.

Not that she hadn’t been aware of both facts from the beginning. Her trust fund provided her with a far larger monthly income than she spent, and the first time she’d looked at the file on Eagles Roost she’d learned Sully had a record. So if she’d been thinking along the same lines as he’d been…

But she hadn’t. She hadn’t attached particular significance to either fact until he’d put them into juxtaposition like that.

Now that he had, though, she couldn’t help seeing that maybe he was right. Maybe the idea of ever getting together again really
was
dumb. After all, precisely where had she expected this…whatever it was between them…to lead?

Nowhere,
she silently answered herself. And since she’d never tried to imagine any long-term future for them, why on earth had she thought prolonging the
whatever
would be a good idea?

It was suddenly clear to her that there was no maybe about this. Sully
was
right. So she’d better tell him that she agreed with him.

She glanced at him again, ready to do just that. But the look in his eyes stopped her in her tracks. His gaze was warm and gentle, and something in it seemed to reach inside her and touch her so deeply she didn’t say a word. She merely waited, her chest gradually tightening until she could scarcely breathe.

There was an indefinable quality about this man that made her want to simply remove common sense and logic from the equation. Because, although she barely knew him, she felt as if she knew him incredibly well. And that she was somehow connected to him.

She doubted that made much sense, but it was how she felt. And even if her feelings were downright crazy, she needed time to sort them out.

“You’re close to your family,” Sully said at last.

“Well…yes,” she admitted, not liking what she suspected he was thinking. She knew she cared too much about her parents’ approval. Her father’s in particular. Maybe, though, she should be trying harder to change that. Because something Grace said last night had lodged in her mind.

You have to make your own decisions,
she’d pointed out,
without worrying too much what other people will think. Because it’s you who has to live with the results of those decisions.

“Let’s just say,” Sully went on, “we started seeing each other now and then. How would they feel about it? Your lawyer brother and your artist sister? And your mother who’d worry if you took a taxi home, rather than a limo? And your father who…I don’t even know what your father does.”

“He’s the president of Van Slyke Enterprises. And the company does a variety of things.”

Sully nodded slowly. “Does it do them out of that big building on Madison Avenue? The one your office is in? The one with the Van Slyke name over the main entrance?”

“Sully, I don’t understand why you’re so concerned that my family has money.”

He shrugged. “How would they react if you told them you were seeing me?”

“I don’t know,” she lied. She knew exactly how each of them would take an announcement like that.

Marisa was liberal enough to be okay with it—or at least to hold off judgment until after she got to know Sully. Elliot would disapprove, but he’d keep his opinion to himself. Her mother would want to lock her in a rubber room until she came to her senses. And her father would probably go into cardiac arrest on the spot.

“Well, I know how they’d react,” Sully said. “They’d think you’d lost your mind.”

She tried to smile, but it was tough when he’d hit her mother’s reaction bang on.

“They’d point out,” he continued, “that we come from different worlds. One of them would probably even suggest I’m a fortune hunter.”

Those words stung. Just because she had money it didn’t mean a man couldn’t be interested in her for herself. And it didn’t mean she was too stupid to recognize a fortune hunter, either. She’d been spotting them at forty paces since she’d been sixteen years old—when one had almost broken her sister’s heart.

Sully, though, obviously figured her family had an awfully low opinion of her. And his assuming that hurt far more than she’d have thought it would.

“Sully,” she finally whispered, her throat tight. “I’d like to think the people who love me believe I’ve got a little more going for me than my money.”

“I’m sure they do,” he said softly. “I’m sure they know you’ve got an awful lot more going for you. I’m just trying to be realistic.”

She glared at him. He was being so negative that she wished she’d never opened her mouth. She could certainly live without his giving her a David Letterman-type list of the top ten reasons he didn’t intend to see her again.

“Lauren, don’t look at me like that. As I said, I’m just trying to be realistic.”

“Fine,” she snapped. “And I’m just going back to the lodge. And let’s forget this conversation ever took place, okay? Because I’ve changed my mind. I wouldn’t want to see you again if my life depended on it.”

She wheeled and started back the way they’d come, tears stinging her eyes. Tears of anger, she told herself, because anger was the
only
emotion she was feeling. After all, how could she possibly feel the slightest bit hurt or upset when she didn’t really care about Jack Sullivan one way or the other?

S
ULLY STOOD WATCHING
Lauren march away. Then, telling himself he just might be making the biggest mistake of his life, he started after her.

“Lauren?” he said, catching up as she reached the clearing.

When he put his hand on her arm, she shrugged it off and kept right on walking.

“Come on, Lauren,” he muttered, falling into step, “will you listen?”

She didn’t even glance at him, so he said, “I apologize for hurting your feelings. But you know I’m the one who’s thinking straight here.”

“And you know what you can do with your apology!”

He glared at her—even though she wasn’t aware of it because she was refusing to look at him. He hated having to apologize. He hated it even more when he apologized and his apology wasn’t accepted.

The pulse in his temple had begun to throb, warning him his self-control was on shaky ground, but he did his best to remain reasonable.

“Lauren, all I was trying to point out was that any relationship we got into would have the life expectancy of a mayfly—for a hundred different reasons.”

“So what? I hear all your relationships have the life expectancy of a mayfly!”

“What do you know about my relation ships?”

“I know Grace told me they never last. And I can see why. I’ll bet there isn’t a woman in the entire country who could put up with you for long.”

“Oh, yeah? Well bet again. There are all kinds of women who could put up with me just fine. But maybe I’ve never met one I figured would happily put up with half a dozen stray kids as well. And maybe I’ve never met a woman I
wanted
a long relationship with.”

“Well you don’t have to worry about not wanting one with me,” Lauren snapped. “Because I don’t want one with you. I wouldn’t even want one that was as short as they come.”

“Good,” he snapped back, that shaky ground crumbling completely away. “I’m glad we’ve finally found something we agree on.”

They stomped along in silence until Lauren muttered, “I’ve never been rejected because of my money before. At least that makes you unique.”

“I wasn’t rejecting you. I just—”

“Just what?” she demanded, stopping dead as they reached the porch steps and eyeing him intently.

He stood gazing down at her. Her eyes were flashing, her face was flushed, and she looked as if she’d like to kill him. She also looked so beautiful he knew that chasing after her hadn’t been the biggest mistake of his life after all. He was about to make the biggest one right now, by opening his mouth and saying something totally crazy.