His Girl Friday (16 page)

Norman had spotted Cabe from the high wire wal of his temporary home. He bristled immediately, dropping his dewlap as he got down from the wal , and twisted his body into an imitation of a cat's at ack pose and lifted his elegant tail over his head.

"Hi, pal," Cabe told the big lizard. "I love you, too."

"He's afraid of you," Nicky explained. "They aren't aggres ive at al except during mating season. Then they get real bad tempered."

"I can understand that," Cabe said under his breath.

"He's just nervous and you're awful big," Nicky continued. He made a production of wiping off the cage.

"I like Dani," he added hesitantly. "Are you going to marry her?"

Cabe's face closed up. "Hel , no!" "Oh."

"She's my secretary," he added when he saw the wounded look on the boy's face at his curt tone.

"She knows a lot about lizards," Nicky remarked ' 'Most girls are scared of them. Mom is, although she hides it pret y good." Cabe sat down on the plush sofa nearby, across from the bil iard table, and crossed his long legs. He pulled an ashtray close on the coffee table. "How's school?" he asked.

"Great," Nicky replied with a smile. "I got to go to the Wil Rogers museum on a field trip this month. He was a neat guy."

"So he was." He studied the boy quietly, thinking that someday if he ever married, he might have a son of his own. "What are you going to be when you grow up?"

"A zoologist," Nicky said without hesitation. "I'm going to take a lot of biology courses later on, and zoology when I get to college. I want to specialize in herpetology."

"Wel , this should be good practice for you," he nodded toward the anoles and gekkos and frogs in their neat aquariums. "You'd do a good job of keeping those habitats true to life, and clean."

Nicky beamed. "Thanks, Cabe."

He lifted his cigaret e to his lips. "Has Dad taught you much about the oil busines ? Even if you won't take an active part in it, it doesn't hurt to know something about how it works."

Nicky moved closer, his hands behind him. "Dad stays busy," he replied.

That had been the story of Cabe's young life. His father was forever away at some new oil field or offshore rig. He'd traveled al over the world, and Cabe and his mother had been left alone a good deal of the time. Funny, he'd expected that Eugene would set le when he remarried. He seemed to care about Cynthia a lot. But as Cabe pondered the situation, he realized that most of Eugene's regard toward Nicky was monetary in nature. He gave the boy anything he wanted—except at ention and time.

"Haven't you ever seen a rig operating?" Cabe persisted.

N icky shook his head.

Cabe studied his cigaret e. "One of my customers has a big rig down around Beggs," he said hesitantly. He looked up to catch a strangely hopeful look on the boy's face. "I could take you down there next weekend." He smiled. "I used to work as a rigger."

"I know. Dad told me. Would you real y, Cabe?" he nuked shyly. "I'd real y like that. If I wouldn't be too much trouble. Dad says I'm a wild one." Wild for at ention, probably. Cabe got up and ruffled the boy's hair affectionately. "You won't be any trouble, sprout," he said gently, grinning at Nicky's rapt stare. "Let's go see if we can find something to do besides look at lizards." He glared back at Norman. "Don't they eat Iguanas in Latin America?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes, they do," Nicky said. "They cal them gal ina de polo—chicken of the tree. They're supposed to taste like chicken. But you can't!" he exclaimed. "Dani would never forgive you!"

Cabe sighed as they walked out the door. "I have a feeling she won't, in any case," he said bleakly when he remembered the things he'd said to her out of frustration. He could have been gentler, he thought miserably. He didn't like remembering the tears in her eyes. He didn't like it at al . Nine

Danet a didn't look at Cabe during lunch, or speak to him. Fortunately Nicky was wound up about going to see the oil rig with Cabe the following weekend, and talked nonstop. Cynthia looked radiant when she saw the budding warmth of Cabe's relationship with Nicky. Even Eugene smiled. Danet a was glad about that, but Cabe had hurt her badly, and knowing what he real y felt was kil ing her. She was only a body to him after al , only a prospective affair. He'd said before that he didn't want an affair, but it had probably been a red herring, to keep her from realizing too soon that he had nothing to offer except sex.

They ate the bas . It was fried and delicious, but Danet a hardly tasted it. She'd had such hopes for today. Now she knew that she'd never have anything else with Cabe.

"I fed Norman for you, Dani," Nicky told her. "Cabe thought he was going to eat him!" he added with a chuckle. He sure doesn't like you, does he?" he asked his half brother.

"I don't know," Danet a said, speaking for the first time. "With tenderizer and a lit le catsup, he might not taste half bad to Norman." Everybody laughed. Even Cabe, but he noticed that she wouldn't meet his eyes.

"He's a vegetarian. You said so," he reminded her.

His lone was faintly conciliatory, but she wouldn't trust it. " I gues I did."

"Did you know that they're experimenting with cloning Inlmal and vegetable mat er together?" Nicky asked. "I read about it in a magazine. Imagine a carrot that had rabbit cel s. ."

Danet a only half heard him as she worked her way through lunch. She wanted to go home. Even the intruder didn't bother her half as much as being in the same house with Cabe after what he'd said to her.

"I've got this great new computer game, Cabe," Nicky mentioned as they were eating cake for des ert. "It's a mystery with cases to solve, and real good graphics. Dad said you used to like watching Sherlock Holmes movies, so I thought you might enjoy the game'."

Cabe smiled at him gently. "Is that why you bought it?"

Nicky cleared his throat and blushed. "Wel , sort of."

"I'd like to see it, Nicky," he replied, not regret ing the Impulsive decision for one instant when Nicky's face looked like Christmas had come. He glanced at Danet a, but her eyes were on her cake. She didn't look up, even when he left.

"World War III, hmmm?" Eugene asked, pursing his lips as he and Cynthia stared at Danet a.

"I beg your pardon?" she asked nervously.

"Cabe wants her, but without a wedding ring," Cynthia murmured dryly, nodding at Danet a's shocked expression. "We know him very wel ," she added gently. "Yo stick to your guns. He's never brought anybody home to u before, and you're unique. He'l give in. You'l see."

"Al you have to do is play him a lit le," Eugene instructed, leaning forward. "You know, like a big, stubborn fish. Give him enough line and he'l hook himself."

"It's not that simple—" she faltered.

"Sure it is," he replied. "He's halfway there already, or why would he have brought you home?"

"But I told you," she moaned. "My apartment was broken into."

"He could have sent you to a hotel, honey," Cynthia said, pat ing her hand gently. "Or let you come down here alone." She shook her pret y blond head. "No, he didn' have to come with you at al ."

Eugene chuckled as he sipped black coffee.' 'Even worse, he's been roaring around like a mad bull trying to find ou" who burgled you. Made him furious that you were threatened."

She took al this with a grain of salt, but it made her feel a lit le bet er.

"Have you heard from Jenny?" she asked.

He nodded. "And our private detective checked in just before you and Cabe came back from the lake. We've got something planned. Jenny's flying in tomorrow, and you can go home tomorrow night. Cabe wil explain it to you."

She didn't think so. He didn't seem enthusiastic about even spending five minutes with her for the rest of the day. He played the computer game with Nicky and talked to his father, and general y relaxed. Danet a helped Cynthia dig in her newly planted flower garden in the yard, enjoying the manual labor as she hadn't enjoyed anything for a long time. Then they started supper. Before Danet a knew it, bedtime was looming and Cabe stil hadn't told her anything about their plan. He talked to Eugene about it, though, absently, with his eyes out the window instead of on the subject at hand.

"You're preoccupied," Eugene said bluntly. "It's Dannet a, Isn't it?

It was unusual to talk about personal things with his father.He realized with a start that he never had. 'Yes. It's Danet a.We've reached an impas e. I want her, but she wants commitment." He stuck his hands into his pockets and moved restles ly closer to the picture window, staring out at Eugene's cat le. "I don't trust emotions very much. They don't last."

"Don't they?" Eugene perched on the corner of his desk. I gues you got that idea from me because I married Cvnthia instead of going on with just the memory of your mother." Cabe turned, his blue eyes faintly accusing. "That's about the size of it."

Eugene smiled wistfully. "Your mother and I were married when she was eighteen and I was twenty-two because her parents and my parents thought it would be a good Idea. I had a career and some smal amount of fame and a good deal of money. They had nothing. I didn't want commitment, either, but your mother did." He shook his head. "We got married in a fever and it didn't burn out in thirty years, boy," he said huskily, and there was something in his eyes that stopped Cabe in his tracks. "I married Cynthia because it was that or kil myself. That's how much I mis ed your mother. I'l tel you the truth, if you want it," he added with cold anger. "I tried to blow my brains out. Cynthia happened to come over to get some papers to sign—she was my secretary in case you've forgotten—and she took the pistol away and seduced me."

"My God." Cabe sat down on the sofa, heavily.

"So now you know it al , don't you, boy?" Eugene asked. "There was every chance that I'd made Cynthia pregnant in the fever of it, and I couldn't very wel die and leave her alone with my child. We got married in a real rush, and Nicky came along nine months later to the day." He smiled at Cabe's shocked expres ion. "Does that answer al the questions you've avoided asking me for eight years?"

"I'm sorry," Cabe said with quiet sincerity. "I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about it before. Long before. I don't like remembering the way I've treated Cynthia and Nicky. I won't get over it easily.'

"Cynthia understood," he replied. "She didn't want me to tel you, in fact." He chuckled mirthles ly. "She thought it might les en me in your eyes to find out that I'd been even briefly suicidal."

"On the contrary," Cabe returned. "It would have turned my life around. We al owe Cynthia a lot."

"Not the least of al for Nicky," Eugene said quietly. "It was like having you back, al over again. Except that I seem to be making the same mistake with him. Keeping him in a corner and going overboard at work." He sighed. "I should have taken him to see those oil rigs myself. You knew that, didn't you?" Cabe grinned. "No problem. You can come with us, if you like."

Eugene lifted a thick silvery eyebrow. "There's a suggestion. Why not? Both my boys with me on an outing. I gues I can take it if you can."

"You're al right," Cabe said with gruff affection.

"So are you," Eugene said, equal y gruff. He cleared his throat. "What are you going to do about Danet a?" Cabe sighed. "I don't know."

"She's a proud woman. If you don't watch it, she'l walk out. You'l never find another one like her."

"I know that." He raked his hand through his hair. "It's the idea of marriage. Of being tied." We al come to it, boy," Eugene said quietly. "Marriage is what you make of it. Your mother and I were happy. Cynthia and I have been, too." He smiled at his son. 'There are a hel of a lot of compensations."

"Like sex?" Cabe asked mockingly.

"Someone to come home to," Eugene added. "Someone to sit up with you when you're sick. Someone to talk to when the world closes in. A wil ing pair of hands when you want help. A loving voice when you hurt." He smiled reminiscently. "Sex, sure, that's a healthy, good part of marriage. But without being involved emotional y, it's like scratching your back when it itches. Feels good at the time, but ten minutes later, you don't remember doing it." Cabe chuckled softly. "God, what an analogy!"

"Danet a's a virgin, isn't she?" Eugene asked with his usual bluntnes .

Cabe actual y blushed. "Now see here. .!" he began, outraged.

Eugene got up and pat ed his son on the shoulder with rough affection. "Take a long time with her. It wil be al right. And get married, son. Virgins these days are like diamonds on Main Street. Rare."

He walked out, leaving a poleaxed, ruddy-complexioned Cabe staring blindly in front of him. Al those years of Naming his father for his infidelity to his mother's memory, only to learn a staggering truth. So love did last. Cynthia must have loved Eugene a great deal to make the sacrifice she had, to risk everything for him, even get ing pregnant with his child to hold him to life. He frowned thoughtfully. Did Danet a have that depth of feeling for him? Al at once he was almost convinced that he had it for her. He had to know if it was returned, if she cared enough to make an equal commitment to him. The future loomed dark and uninviting before him when he thought that she was going to be looking for another job come Monday.

Meanwhile Danet a was trying to find out about the plan for returning her to her apartment, and get ing nowhere. Cabe came out of Eugene's office looking oddly thoughtful and remote, except that his brooding stare kept homing to her until her nerves were standing up screaming. He didn't want her, he'd said so, not in any emotional way. So why was he staring at her like that?

"About Jenny.. " she began as the television was turned off at eleven.

"Tomorrow," Cabe said quietly. His pale eyes searched hers for a long, electric moment, but she was through playing games. She turned away. Nicky had gone to bed an hour earlier with Norman cradled in his arms. Norman had warmed to the boy quickly, and seemed to actual y enjoy being carried around by him. Danet a thought that it was probably going to be hard for Nicky to say goodbye to the * big lizard.