Lotus Blossom (16 page)

“Did he ask why he wanted to know?” she asked, afraid that he might have told Rob she had been in Las Vegas.

“No, he just said he was thinking about you.” “Yeah. Everyone can sense when the brat is on her own,” her brother Todd interjected, squeezing her.

“Don’t tease her.” Her father put his arm around Lotus. “How’s my baby doing?” Her father gave her a big kiss, his eyes still assessing Dash.

“Good, Daddy. How are you?”

“Fine. Did ya have a good time? Did everything work out?”

“Uh, yes, thank you.”

“You still have a few things to iron out, love,” Dash interjected.

“Love?” Rob echoed, his eyes narrowing, his hands closing into fists. “Lotus, what’s going on? Jeremy is going to join us at Uncle Silas’s, and I think he expected to be your date.”

“I don’t think so,” Dash said mildly.

Todd, the more reserved brother, looked from Lotus to Dash and back again. “Back off, Rob.

Our little sister is growing up. She doesn’t need us to tell her how to behave.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Dash agreed.

Lotus glared at him, then smiled at her older brother. “I do have something to discuss with Jeremy when I see him.”

“Lotus . . .” Ginna Sinclair said worriedly.

Her husband shushed her. “Leave her be, Ginna. She’s always had a good head. But I think there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“Quite a few things, I think,” Rob said darkly. Her cousin, Lee, named after her own mother, Lela, put an arm around her. “Lotus knows what she’s doing.”

“I hope so,” Lotus muttered, eliciting a chuckle from Dash.

“Will you be staying with us, Mr. Colby?” Mrs. Sinclair smiled at him.

“Thank you, but no, ma’am. I have a room downtown.”

“Staying at the Strathallan is a little more than having a room,” Rob interjected, his eyebrows almost meeting over the bridge of his nose.

“Robert,” Mrs. Sinclair admonished. “Mr. Colby is our guest.”

“Yes, Mother.” Robert inclined his head, telling Dash to precede him into the living room of the old-fashioned high-ceilinged house that had been built by their grandfather before the Great Depression. Floor-to-ceiling leaded glass windows overlooked the expanse of Lake Ontario, and though not much could be seen in the dark, the moon and stars cast silver paths across the surface of the water.

Dash accepted a beer from Todd and stared out the window. “It’s beautiful here.”

Lotus turned eagerly and nodded. “Yes, it is. I love it.”

Lee came up to them with a glass in her hand.

I brought you seltzer water and lime.” She smiled up at Dash, her curly blond hair dancing around her pretty face. “You’re the first man Lotus has ever brought home who hasn’t lived in this area. . ."  She sipped her own seltzer water and lime.

"... She has always had boyfriends, that’s for sure.” Lee stopped abruptly, her face pinking.

You’d probably like to be alone. Sorry.”

Lotus hugged her cousin who was also her best friend. They had gone through grammar school and high school together, and though they had gone to different colleges, it hadn’t changed the friendship between them. “Don’t be silly.”

Lee shot Dash a quick glance after he looked out the window again. “What do you think Jeremy will say about the competition?”

Lotus shrugged. “We dated very casually. I don’t think he’ll be too hurt.” She frowned. “We’ve actually been pulling away from each other for a while now. He travels a great deal for the company, and he’s so absorbed in his work.”

“You and he were friends because of Rob and Todd anyway,” Lee said, her lips pursed.

“You and Will have never cared for Jeremy too much . . .”

“We don’t happen to think he’s treated you that well, breaking dates at the last minute ...” Lee stated.

“That was the job,” Lotus answered automatically, using the excuse she had always used when Jeremy had forgotten dates. “It doesn’t matter.” And she knew it didn’t.

“Are you going to marry the hunk from Massachusetts?”

Lotus laughed, bringing Dash’s head around, his face creasing in smiling warmth when he looked down at her.

“What’s funny, darling?”

“Darling! He calls you darling,” Lee said from the side of her mouth. “God, that’s beautiful. Does he have a twin?”

“Ah . . . J. D., do you have a twin?’’ Lotus checked herself in time, trying to remember not to call him Dash.

Dash turned around, Todd at his side. “No. I have three sisters and a younger brother. I do have cousins, just as you do, who are close to my age.”

“Still scouting around, Lee?” Todd said, amusement in his voice.

“Stop being so smug, Toddie. Just because you have Kate Dilson barking at your heels doesn’t mean you’re an expert on the subject,” Lee told her cousin, kissing him on the cheek when he reddened. “I’m going to get Aunt Ginna going.” She skipped from the room.

“I like Kate.” Lotus patted Todd’s arm. “She has a great forehand.”

“Ah, yes, tennis.” Todd kissed her cheek. “Did you miss playing while you were away, brat? Rafting must have been rough. Is that where you two met?”

Lotus felt uncomfortable with the lie she was living, but she couldn’t tell Todd about the file just yet. She wanted to get a sample of everyone’s
handwriting at Sinclair’s. Then, when she had the person in the accounting department who was doing the doctoring of the books, she would involve the family, but until she had concrete knowledge of the person she didn’t want to say anything to them.

“We’re hoping to play tennis before we go to Boston to visit my family,” Dash said, trying to get the subject away from where Lotus had been.

Lotus whirled to face Dash, opening her mouth to ask him when they had discussed that; when she saw the small shake of his head she said nothing. “I think I’ll go and help Mother.” Lotus stalked away, her mind whirling. He had some nerve saying she was going to Boston! As far as she knew he hadn’t even called his family to ask if they would be welcome. Was this the fishing season? What if all his family and their children were out in boats?

Once in the kitchen, she began working with Lee and her mother, preparing the big cauldron of bouillabaisse that would be taken just a quarter of a mile down the road to her uncle’s home.

When Lotus saw Lee carry some dishes out to the waiting truck that would cart the stuff down the road, she faced her mother. “Tell me the truth, Mother. Is Uncle Silas better?”

Ginna Sinclair looked at her daughter, then patted her cheek. “He’s truly improving, love, and in just the last few days. We think he’s getting his old fight back. We had a family meeting about the . . . the discrepancies in the books, and we’ve decided” —she smiled at her daughter—“and we felt sure you would have agreed since you are a stockholder,

that we will pay back the loss in small increments just like a loan.”

“Uncle Silas didn’t do it, Mother.” Lotus sounded anguished. “I think we can prove that.”

“Darling, we couldn’t subject your uncle to another painful investigation.”

“But he’s innocent.”

Her mother patted arm. “We know that, child, but there’s nothing we can do about it at the moment without endangering your uncle’s health. I know you don’t want to do that.”

“No.” Lotus inhaled. “Someone used Uncle Silas.” “We know that just as well as you do, dear, but we also feel that the family has to pay this debt, so we will. You agree, don’t you?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t clear Uncle Silas’s name and we must do that.”

Ginna Sinclair sighed and shook her head.

In minutes the rest of the things were loaded with the bouillabaisse in two big steel pans with tight covers.

Dash appeared at her side as she was about to go upstairs. “Showering again?”

Lotus felt herself redden. “No, but I am going to change into a cotton dress. It has warmed up.” “I always feel warm around you,” he crooned, sending her hightailing up the stairs, his chuckle clinging to her like another skin.

When she came back down the stairs after reapplying her makeup, Dash was still in the foyer. He looked up at her from his vantage point at the oak newel post at the foot of the stairs. “Lovely. I like that cherry red color on you. It makes your hair glisten almost the color of a black patent leather belt.
”

“The jacket’s linen,” Lotus said, feeling shy with him. “I was going to wear cotton .. . but. . .”
What a foolish thing to say,
she chided herself.
As though he cares what material you wear! You are a such a fool with him, Lotus Sinclair!

“It looks very cool.” He lifted the black linen jacket from her arm and fitted it around her shoulders, noting that she was wearing higher heels. Now you’re up to my chin . . . almost,” Dash said, leaning down to inhale the fragrance of her, the silken strands of her hair brushing his face.

“It’s a nice evening for a walk. We’ll take the path along the beach and you can see the water.” She looked over her shoulder at him.

Dash took her hand in his, loving the feel of her. God, he wanted to make love to her right in the foyer of her house. “When I was talking to our brother, Todd, he mentioned your uncle.”

'What did he say? Mother says he’s better.” Lotus tightened her fingers around his.

Dash lifted her hand to his lips, kissing each nail. “He made the remark that he felt edgy about getting a private investigator to handle your uncle’s case. Two had turned him down.” Dash grinned down at her. “He told me that he assumed I knew about the incident because if I was close to you, you would have told me. He said you are very close to all your family. I told him that I knew and wanted to help.”

Lotus nodded. She stopped for a moment, facing him. “Do you really think we can change ... I mean . . .

Dash leaned over her. “If you’re asking if I think we can find out who did this to your family,

again I tell you that I think we can.” He stared

down at her anxious face. “We will settle this thing, darling. I promise you.”

“Thank you.”

They started to move forward slowly again. “Have you always lived at home?” Dash voice sounded loud in the cool quiet of evening.

“When I was at college I had an apartment, but it was always good to be home. I like the water . . . swimming, water skiing.”

“I like that too. When we get to my home, I’ll take you out sailing.”

She stopped, her foot sliding off the narrow walk into the deep sand that filled the wide beach leading to the water. She shook her foot, hanging onto his arm. “When did we say we were going to Boston?” Anxiety filled her. She didn’t want to lose Dash. Yet she knew they were moving too fast. What if his family disliked her on sight?

“Don’t you think you should meet my family before we marry?”

“We didn’t say we were marrying,” she tried to rally.

“You didn’t. I did.”

“But, Dash, I don’t want to leave my family just now. I want to find out who did this to my uncle. . .

“I can tell you right now it wasn’t your father or your brother, Todd. They—”

Lotus stamped her foot. “Of course it isn’t my brother or my father! I never assumed that it was. The culprit is someone who works at Sinclair’s. I’m sure of it.” She was angry that he had even checked their writing.

“It doesn’t hurt to cover all the bases, love.” Lotus shook her head. “It’s foolish to suspect

my family.” She tried to study the silver mask of his face in the moonlight, but it was closed to her. His eyes were warm but hooded. “I’ll never really know you, will I? There are so many layers to you, so many depths.”

“Ask me anything, darling. If I can’t tell you, I will let you know why. Fair?”

“Yes. Have you ever been married?”

“Yes. I was divorced from my wife after six years of marriage. She obtained the divorce.” “Were you unfaithful to her?”

“I never slept with another woman until my wife asked me to leave our home. She told me that she was filing for divorce. One of the reasons given for the dissolution of the marriage was my infidelity, but I hadn’t been unfaithful to her. I didn’t care at that point what was said. I was glad to be out of it. We had made each other miserable.” “Does she live in Las Vegas?”

"No. She lives in Boston, and she’s remarried twice since then. She still sees one of my sisters and once in a while my mother.”

“I see.”

"No, love, you don’t see. I was never in love with anyone until I met you, but I never knew that until the moment I saw you standing in my office.”

Lotus stood on tiptoe to kiss him and squealed with joy when he swept her high against his chest so that they were mouth to mouth. “I would like to meet your family.”

“Good,” he said against her lips. “First, we’ll settle the problem here. Then you won’t have it on your mind,” he said simply.

All at once she knew with blinding clarity that

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the “problem with her uncle” was almost settled. Dash would see to it!

They arrived at her uncle’s home and were greeted by her uncle and aunt. Lotus hugged the two persons who had been like another set of parents to her.

“Darling, you look well.” Uncle Silas’s mouth twisted in a semblance of a smile.

“And so do you,” Lotus said, relieved, giving her uncle a kiss. She introduced Dash to them, then they moved into the great room of the house where most of the people were gathered. Almost the first person Lotus saw was Jeremy. She felt a stab of guilt as she looked at him and saw the reproachful look he was giving her as he stood with Rob, her brother. “Dash, please forgive me, I have to speak to Jeremy. Alone.”

Dash looked across the room, sizing up the darkhaired, tall but burly man who scowled at him. “All right, but I’ll be close by.”

“Don’t be silly.” She gave a choking laugh. “No one is going to hurt me.”

“I’ll be close,” Dash told her, his face unsmiling. “If you were telling me good-bye, I would want to tear the town apart. So I’ll stay near you.”

“All right.” Lotus left him. She saw that Todd had left his cousin, Will, and was approaching Dash. She walked over to Jeremy and Rob.

Rob nodded at her, then left them.

“I suppose I know what you’re going to say, but it might be better if we went out on the terrace to talk. It’s quieter,” Jeremy said in his cool way.