Eden's Spell (21 page)

He was gone, and she just sat there, silently crying, listening to the surf, to the breeze, and feeling numb.

She had to go back to her house. She had to face Nancy. That much she knew.

Wearily she stood, and started back.

E
VERYTHING SEEMED SO NORMAL!

Nancy smiled at her when she walked in. “I don't mean to be interfering, dear, but we've got lunch under control if you'd like to step into the shower.”

“Lovely. Thanks.” She hesitated. “I'm glad you could make it out today, Mom. Jason has missed you.”

Nancy chuckled, slicing a tomato. “I'm not so sure he has; I can't quite compare with the excitement of the Navy.” Then she turned around and Katrina saw that things weren't quite as normal as they looked. “I—I hope it's all right that I came.”

“You're always welcome here!” Katrina said fiercely.

“Thank you, dear.” She was staring down at her tomatoes. It looked, as if her eyes might be brimming with tears.

I'm so sorry!
Katrina wanted to cry out.
So very, very sorry!

But she couldn't apologize out loud, and she really wasn't certain exactly what it was that she'd be apologizing for. Except that surely, surely, she had hurt this lovely woman she had considered a second mother all her life.

She walked up behind her and slipped her arms around her waist, resting her head against her shoulder. “I love you.”

Nancy paused, squeezing the slim hands about her waist, reaching back to pat Katrina's cheek.

“I love you too. You know that.”

Katrina nodded, then suddenly became, aware that both Jason and Frank were curiously silent. She moved away from Nancy, smiled faintly, and raced for the shower.

Lunch was nice, except that Frank offered her a beer and the smell of it almost nauseated her again. He saw her face and laughed. “I forgot your hangover! Cruel of me!”

Nancy looked up at her, a smile playing about her lips. “You do look a bit ashen.”

Katrina wanted to kick Frank. He was watching her diabolically, as if he knew he was making a point that she didn't want him to make at all.

Katrina bit into her sandwich. “I feel fine.”

A slight frown touched Nancy's brow. “You did make it home all right? I asked Frank to go with you, but he was adamant that you would be all right.”

“I—I made it home fine.”

“What's everybody talking about?” Jason demanded.

“Nothing—” Katrina began.

“Your mom had two white knights fighting over her last night, Jase. Just like the fairy tale princess!”

“Frank!” This time Katrina did kick him.

“Ouch! Oh, she's beautiful, but vicious!” he groaned.

“Frank, I'm going to get a lot more vicious if you don't shut up!” Katrina wailed.

“What happened? What happened?” Jason pleaded.

“Yes, what did happen?” Nancy queried more softly.

But then Frank, at long last, decided to extricate her from the mess he had caused. “Not too much, really. Katrina just got in the middle of something that has been going on a long time, it seems. Anyway, the best man won. She just went to dinner with the wrong one.”

“Who won? Mike won?” Jason's eyes gleamed with pleasure.

“Yep,” Frank assured him.

“Wow!” He looked at his mother. “Mike brought you home?”

“Yes,” Katrina mumbled warily, staring intently down at her food.

Nancy was looking at her with interest. “That's the captain I met last night? The young man you were with this morning?”

“You were with him this morning?” Jason cried out.

“I was—I was out on the reefs this morning. He just managed to stumble along, I guess,” Katrina murmured. She sipped her tea. It didn't help. They were all staring at her. She felt like the main attraction at a circus, and she wished to God she knew what Nancy was really thinking.

But Nancy wasn't going to say any more. She picked up her sandwich. “Oh, Frank, Katrina. Don't let me forget; I have a number for you to call. Some old friends of Dad's want to make a reservation for night fishing. Probably toward the end of next week. Do you think you're free? They're down for a convention from Ohio, and he'd really like them to enjoy the water.”

“We'll make sure that they do,” Frank promised.

“Of course,” Katrina agreed. And then Nancy was asking Jason about school and how he was doing with his homework.

She was off the hook; she could breathe a little more easily.

For the moment, at least.

Entering his lab, Mike was so tense and distracted that he swore softly and perched on his stool, without noticing the tall, very pretty blonde standing by the cages, watching him.

It was several seconds before he became aware that someone was there.

But then his features lit with a beautiful smile, and the hard glitter of his eyes softened.

“Toni!”

She laughed delightedly, running into his arms. He hugged her fiercely, then set her free, looking anxiously into her features, as always the father, assuring himself that she was well, and in one piece.

“I didn't know you were coming today!”

“I finished up at the university early,” she told him, then frowned. “I talked to Stan, and he seemed to be concerned about you.”

“Was he?” A small pulse of annoyance beat against Mike's temple. “I'm fine. What has he been telling you?”

Toni searched her father's face. “Only that there's been a few problems with the project,” she lied smoothly. She shrugged, still watching him. “Anyway, I was just anxious to see you.”

“Honey”—he hugged her again—“I'm always anxious to see you! So tell me, what did you decide? How did you like the school?”

Toni told him about the professors she had met, and that she thought she had found a roommate. “An Army brat—just like I'm a Navy brat!” Toni laughed. “And it's really super, because we can compare all the places we've lived.”

“Well, good,” he murmured, and threaded his fingers through his still damp hair. He stared at her with a paternal eye. “They do call it ‘Sunshine U,' you know.”

“Oh, Dad! The medical school is great.”

“You're not in medical school yet.”

“But I will be,” Toni said confidently, “And there are some programs I'm sure I can horn my way into ahead of time. Dad, you said that I could go to college wherever I wanted.”

He nodded slowly. Wherever she went, Toni would do okay. She was so responsible, so mature.

She had grown into such a beauty, he mused, staring at her tenderly. A good five feet eight inches, a golden blonde, just as her mother had been. For a moment he felt a little bit awed that she was actually his, this lovely young woman. And then he closed his eyes, very grateful that she was. They'd shared the loss of her mother; they'd battled through her teen years. But they'd stayed fiercely close, and she had been, through the years, his greatest supporter.

He caught her hand. “Okay, Sunshine U it is! But for now, you came to work, so get cracking.”

Toni laughed, indicating his bathing trunks. “Looks like you've been working—real hard!” she teased.

“Mmm,” he murmured. “But then I'm the boss, remember? I want some soil samples from the pool, and I want you to pull more vegetation for me too. Good hired help is hard to find these days, I swear!” He moaned, then smiled at her. “But if we get done early, I'll take you out for dinner.”

“And drinks?”

He shrugged. “Are you of legal age in this state?”

“No.”

“There's your answer.”

“Oh, Dad!” she sighed. “Okay, I'll settle for ice cream.”

It was on Monday night that Katrina first saw the blonde.

She had ambled out to the beach, tried to convince herself that she wasn't trying to run into Mike. She gave up when she saw that the lab was dark, and started back through the trail.

But the sound of a motor and that of voices held her still on the trail, and to her horror, she remained there, hiding and watching.

It was Mike. And he wasn't alone. He was with the blonde.

Katrina couldn't see her clearly. She did see that she was tall, slim, and sleek, with a shoulder-length cascade of golden curls.

And Katrina saw Michael's arm around her, with the greatest affection. They were chatting about food, laughing together.

And they disappeared into the lab together.

Her face flaming, Katrina raced back to her house. Thank God that Jason was sleeping! She was free to run straight into her room, throw herself onto the bed, and indulge in a storm of tears. Damn him! First a brunette—then a blonde! What he apparently wanted was a harem, not a wife.

But of course, he had never been serious about his offer of marriage. And of course, she would never take it. It would hurt her, it would be unfair to James, it would devastate Nancy and Ted.

Or would it? Katrina swung her legs over the side of the bed and pressed her forehead tightly between her palms.

No … Nancy would understand. Ted would understand. Katrina forced herself to admit that she had been hiding behind them as much as she'd been hiding behind her own walls.

“Because I am a coward,” she whispered aloud.

But wasn't she right to be one? Wasn't Michael Taylor proving that most men were incapable of the real caring she had known?

“Cheats! They are all cheats!” she whispered aloud. She should call his bluff. She should go running down to the lab and interrupt whatever he was doing with the blonde and tell him that she'd decided to, take him up on his offer!

But she wouldn't do it. She knew she wouldn't.

In the morning she felt so horrible that she took Jason to school, came home, went back to bed, and, exhausted, slept again.

Mike was studying a blood sample from a squirrel when the phone rang. He ignored it, knowing that Toni would pick it up.

“Dad, it's Stan.”

“Ask him if I can call him back.”

“He says it's important.”

Mike sighed, stretched, then accepted the cordless phone from his daughter's hand.

“Yeah, Stan.”

“I need to see you. About that phone call Katrina got. You know, telling her that the project was canceled.”

“All right, I'll be right over to the ship,” Mike muttered.

“No!” Stan protested with a laugh. “The admiral is still ready to bite your head off. He says you go on leave, take out his best nurse, then leave her stranded with a fellow officer you've beaten up! You're not his favorite person at the moment. Meet me on Islamorada.”

“Where?”

Stan hesitated a moment, then chuckled. “At the scene of the crime, I guess. I might as well get to eat at this Lucky Lobster too. And by the way, you're buying.”

He broke the connection. Mike frowned and handed the phone back to Toni.

“What's up?” she asked him.

“I'm not sure. I've got to run over to Islamorada.” He paused, then grinned. “Okay, you've got the afternoon off.”

“Good, I'll go sun on the beach.”

“No, there're still sailors all over the place,” he said darkly, causing Toni to laugh.

“Real wolves, huh, Dad. Hoowwl!”

“Howl, yourself!” he retorted, then hesitated as he doffed his lab coat. “Go lie by the pool, huh? It's a little better protected.”

“Can I go topless there?”

“No!”

“Only teasing!” Toni promised. She blew him a little kiss as he left, and he cast her a warning eye.

“Well?” Mike asked Stan, nursing a beer. They sat at the same table he had shared with Amy.

Stan took a deep breath. “All right. I managed to track down the two Marines who were on the island before you came in that morning. They couldn't find her—apparently she was at the pool. So they said to headquarters.”

“And?”

“Well, they were on radio. And that storm must have already been brewing up. They got a lot of static.”

“And no answer?”

“No, they got an answer.”

“Well?”

“They were told that Katrina Denver was definitely off the island. That they were free to give you the go-ahead to go on in. Neither of them would swear to it, but they think that it was Captain Stradford on the radio.”

“Al!”

“But I can't prove any of it, Mike.”

Mike shook his head, amazed that Stradford would go to such lengths to discredit him.

“What are you going to do?”

He shook his head. “I don't know.”

“Well, you can't go beat him up,” Stan said philosophically. “You've already done that.”

Mike flashed him a sizzling stare.

“Well?”

Mike laughed suddenly. “I don't know. I honestly don't know.” He lifted his beer to Stan. “Cheers.”

Frank Denver thought that he had been hallucinating when he first walked past the pool. He stopped his anxious strides for the house, spun around, and discovered that he hadn't imagined the blonde at all.

God, she was beautiful! Long, leggy, and with a fan of hair so golden beneath the sun it might have been cast from its flame.

She was just there, stretched out on a towel in a snow-white one-piece bathing suit, reading an anatomy book, of all damn things. Frank forgot his concern about Katrina. He forgot everything.

He just stared at the blonde.

And at last she looked up.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” She looked familiar. No, she couldn't be. He'd have remembered her if he had ever met her before.

“Are you a sailor?” she asked him.

“No, I'm a—uh—businessman, I guess. Well, yes, I sail, but not with the Navy. Are you with the Navy?”

She smiled. “Sort of. I'm with Mike Taylor.” She stood up, smiling, stretching out a hand. “I'm Antoinette Taylor.”