Look to the Rainbow (4 page)

     They were, without question, an attractive group; the wives and daughters as beautiful as the husbands and sons were handsome.

     “There’s quite a lot of them,” Tara said.

     “You’ll get them all sorted out in no time at all,” Lily said.

      Tara smiled at her gracious hostess. “I’m sure I will. If you don’t mind, it has been a long day. I think I’ll just go upstairs now.”

      “Of course. We’ll see you in the morning. Sleep well and if you need anything, just ask.”

     Tara climbed the stairs and made her way to the suite of rooms Lily had provided for her use while she worked in Newport.  She kicked off her evening shoes and sat on the sofa in the sitting room reflecting on the day. She had gotten an interesting assignment, become reacquainted with her mother’s childhood best friend and met a man she found interesting and attractive. She tried to sort out the entire O’Brien/Lansing clan and finally gave up trying to remember who went with whom.

     She hung up her evening gown and dressed for bed, brushed her teeth and climbed up on the big carved bed in the bedroom. The bay window opposite the bed offered her the same view she had shared with Kel. She turned off the light and fell asleep with a smile.

Chapter Three

     “Kel,” Lily said casually, “do you know what you need?”

      The family had gathered at Ross and Molly’s house for brunch before Kel’s meeting with Tara. “What’s that Lily?”

     “A wife.”

     “Ah, the universal truth,” Evan remarked to laughter all around.

     Mary Katherine poured another glass of orange juice and said, “I must be a little slow this morning. To which truth are you referring my darling?”

     “To the opening line of
Pride and Prejudice
, in which Miss Austen suggests that a man with a large fortune must be in want of a wife.”

     “I was never a Jane Austen fan,” Mary Katherine admitted.

     “Nor was I,” Evan admitted, “but you must see the resemblances between Kel and Mr. Darcy.”

     “Oh,” said Mary Katherine, “that explains why so many women consider Mr. Darcy the ultimate man.”

     More laughter followed and then Kel said, “Did you have anyone in mind Lily?”

     “Oh, no darling. I just think perhaps you should be open to it.”

     George looked at his wife and shook his head. Lily had always played the matchmaker. And he had a feeling that she did indeed have someone in mind, but he kept quiet. The subject was changed to the strategy for the next phase of the campaign until Ross and Molly’s son Skip came into the dining room followed by Tara who had just arrived for her meeting with Kel.

     Kel stood and said, “Why don’t we talk outside?” Tara greeted the rest of them and followed Kel from the room.

     “Don’t everybody rush out on the terrace,” John said, which brought another round of laughter. With that everyone began to scatter, going off to whatever they had planned for a sunny but chilly day in late January. Skip, Molly and Evan were heading to the stables, where Molly raised race horses, and had no choice but to  exit through the same doors Kel and Tara had gone through.

     Tara and Kel looked up as they came out. “Don’t mind us,” Molly called. “We’re just heading to the stables.”

     “Am I the only one who hasn’t been properly introduced?” Evan asked.

     “You can be introduced later, flyboy. Right now we’re going riding,” Molly said.

     “Oh all right, Red. So bossy…” he said and he followed the others toward the stable.

     Tara said, “Flyboy? Red?”

     Kel laughed. “We’re a complex family with some interesting connections. First you have George and James, my father, who grew up together. My parents had four children, myself, Ross, who’s married to Red there, otherwise known as Molly. Their kids are Skip and Sara. Then there’s Kimberly, who married John, who you know is Lily and George’s oldest son and my best friend. They have a daughter named Casey and a son named Seamus. Bobby , you know, and by another twist of fate, he is married to my late wife’s younger sister Debby and they have Chris and Catriona. George and Lily also have Alan, who I am sure you also know, and my children are Janet and Jim.”

     “And Flyboy?”

     “Well, Flyboy is otherwise known to the rest of us as Dr. Evan Jones, who is my personal physician, Ross’s best friend, husband of Mary Katherine Christenson and coincidently Molly’s first boyfriend. Their fathers, by chance, when they were in junior high school were both at The Naval Academy. Molly used to call him ‘flyboy’ apparently because he was earning his pilot’s license when they met and because his father wanted Evan to follow in his footsteps and become a Blue Angel. They lost contact when Molly’s family went overseas for a few years and didn’t connect again until the first time Evan and Mary Katherine came to visit Newport.”

     “Does that bother Mary Katherine?”

     “Not at all, nor Ross. It was a long time ago.”

      “They spend a lot of time here, I gather.” Tara felt that by getting to know something about Kel’s personal relationships she would be able to get a better feel for who he was, if he was willing to let her into his private world.

     “They’re a part of the family. We have many friends, but very few people get as close as Evan has. That’s partially due to his and Ross’s friendship but it’s mostly because of how much we trust him. I know he isn’t sharing anything I want kept private with the press or anyone else. Quite literally I trust him with my life.”

     “With your life?”

     “I’ve had a few close calls. When I say I trust him with my life, I mean it.” The light carefree feeling of the conversation had become more serious.

     “You have to know I want to hear more about that.” Tara said.

     He hesitated. “There’s something about you that makes me want to tell you things I don’t usually talk about. If I explain that comment, you’ll have to give me your word that what I tell you is not for public consumption.”

     There was something about him that made
her
want to hear about his life regardless of any story. She had often heard of chemistry between two people that was instant but had never experienced it before last night. This morning the attraction between them was still present. “All right. Tell me.”

     He leaned back in his chair. “When I was eighteen I was diagnosed with type I diabetes. I take insulin several times every day and have to stay on top of my sugar levels because they fluctuate a lot during the day. I met Evan twelve years ago when I woke up from a week in a diabetic coma. According to John, what he did when I was brought in saved my life. He sat with Ross and John while they waited for me to come out of the coma and prayed for me. Since I haven’t made my diabetes common knowledge, I know I can trust Evan when I need medical attention. I also appreciate his ideas and opinions. I consider John and Alan to be brothers just like Ross and Bobby. It’s the same with Evan.”

     Tara had the sense that Kel was extremely protective of the people he cared deeply about. She liked that he seemed to have such a depth of character beneath his all too attractive façade. The questions she asked him were more about her own curiosity than what she thought would make a good article, but he answered them with ease and sometimes wit and again she marveled at how comfortable the conversation seemed between the two of them. She discovered that he was fluent in five languages, had an extensive art collection and was extremely well read. Trips to snow ski were among his favorite destinations and he owned a house on the slopes at Vail where the family vacationed as often as possible, although they had skied in Europe as well. Polo was perhaps his favorite pastime and she admitted she had never seen a polo match and knew very little about it. He spoke of his beautiful mother who had died of cancer several years before and his father who he had lost at eighteen to a heart attack. When he talked about his children how much he loved them was evident and she really liked that about him. They both avoided the subject of his late wife, and Tara decided to leave that for another day. She didn’t want the time to end, but neither did she want to intrude on his time with his family. She said as much.

     “Believe me, if I wasn’t enjoying talking to you I would have cut this short,” he said, standing. “Would you care to walk down toward the stables? Molly has a steeplechase course set up and I enjoy taking my horse out on it. The others will be back soon and it can become quite a competition.”

     Mary Katherine had come out on the terrace, camera in hand. “I was heading that way myself, if I could join you.”

     Kel placed a kiss on her cheek and said, “You didn’t have to ask. Have you met Tara McCaffrey?”

     “No, but I did photograph her dancing with you last night and I’m told I am her official photographer, so please, Tara, feel free to ask for whatever shots you want. I have quite a collection of photos of him, as he’s obviously an exquisite subject. The camera
loves
him.”

     The three of them walked across the grounds, which were beautifully landscaped and offered a sweeping view of the ocean. She imagined what it would look like in warmer weather when colorful sailboats would dot the landscape. The horses made her a little nervous, as she’d never been one of those girls who went through a horse stage, but Kel was at ease in the stables as he was everywhere else and as she watched him mount his jet black horse and take the jumps, she decided he really was a modern day Renaissance man. Was there anything he couldn’t do and do well? She asked as much of Mary Katherine.

     Mary Katherine lowered her camera and said, “If there is, I haven’t seen it myself. He just makes everything look so easy. I think that’s one of the reasons he and Evan get on so well, because my husband is a bit like that too.”  Kel had given the course to Evan who did indeed execute it every bit as well as Kel had, as did Molly and Skip. Tara exclaimed over how well they all rode. Mary Katherine laughed and told her, “Don’t be overwhelmed by them. As long as they know you’re willing to try and participate it doesn’t matter if you are as good at things as they are. That was Alise’s fatal mistake.”

     “Alise was his wife?”

     “Yes. I never really knew her as she died before Evan and I got close to the family, but she never tried to be one of them. Listening to the stories, I wonder why she married him, except that he was Kelly O’Brien. By all accounts he adored her, but she was never happy. She was in love with someone else and she broke his heart.”

     “How did she die?”

      “A plane crash. She had just told him she was leaving him, she died two hours later.”

     “How long ago was that?”

      Mary Katherine said, “Janet was about eight, I believe. Maybe fourteen or fifteen years.”

      So he’d been a single father for most of his children’s lives. Tara made a mental note to play that up in one of her articles. As she allowed herself the opportunity to admire him from a distance, she was certain of two things. It would be easy to make the public fall in love with him and she very much wanted to spend more time with him.