Moonlight Masquerade (10 page)

“Yeah. I can't very well drive it around and remind Sophie of what I did.”

“It's time for service, anyway. I have a Jeep I can lend you.” Colin was watching his friend. Part of him had a lot of sympathy for Reede. He'd voluntarily agreed to help his cousin out for a few weeks while his arm healed, then Tris had gone to New York and Reede had been stuck in a job he didn't want. And Reede had been saddled with Tris's employees and his patients—all of whom made it clear that they wished their beloved doctor would return.

On the other hand, Colin and everyone else who knew Reede was fed up with his gloomy attitude.

“You like this girl, don't you?” Colin asked.

Reede didn't turn around as he shrugged. “I don't know. I've only had one conversation on the phone with her, but she . . . ”

“She what?”

“Cooked for me, cleaned up that apartment. We talked. It was nice.”

Colin used to live in that apartment, so he knew how depressing it was. Little light, bad smells that wouldn't go away, noises in the night. Returning to it at the end of the day was sometimes more than he could bear. For it to have the smell of good food, a clean floor . . . Yes, that would almost be an aphrodisiac.

Colin knew quite a bit about wanting things, whether it was a job or the woman he loved. “There has to be a solution to this. Surely, something can be done.”

Reede sat back down. “Nothing that I can figure out. I asked Mom to get people to keep their mouths
shut, but the beer dousing was too public. The first Newcomer who sees her will be happy to tell her that Dr. Reede nearly killed her.”

Colin knew that the residents of Edilean could keep a secret—but only if the Newcomers weren't involved. Unfortunately, they'd seen it all. That Sophie hadn't yet been told was a miracle.

“If she could get to know you before she's told . . . ” Colin trailed off because the Reede he'd been seeing lately wasn't the man he knew. Over the years, Colin had twice flown to other countries to help Reede in his charity work. Reede had been organized, efficient, dedicated, and charming to donors. But that wasn't the man he was here in Edilean. Colin tried to think of a way to change that. Reede had always responded to a challenge.

“Oh well,” Colin said. “You and this girl would have been temporary anyway. You're always miserable, so that would have driven her away. And I'm sure she's like all other women and wants a home and kids. If you two were to get together she'd dump you just like Laura did. Besides, I hear Roan is already going after her. She'll probably like him.”

“He's a windbag,” Reede said, his eyes losing some of their gloom. “And who knows? Maybe Sophie would like to travel. There are women who do, you know.” More light was coming into Reede's eyes.

“So you're thinking of marrying her, are you?”

“I just met her! Actually, I haven't even met her. I just enjoyed talking to her, that's all.”

“Talking, eating her cooking, sleeping on sheets she's washed. Sounds to me like a marriage.”

Reede started to protest the absurdity of that statement, but then he laughed. “Okay, so I get your point. I've made too much out of this, but it was nice for a while to hope. I should go back and tell her the truth. She's—” He looked at Colin. “Today Sophie is sorting out my banking. I left her my debit card number, and she's going to set up online banking for me.”

Colin shook his head. “You have it bad. Maybe you can delay the inevitable for a while.”

“I told Mom to give me three days. I don't know what I was thinking. That I'd give such great phone calls that when she found out the truth she'd say, ‘Oh that's all right, I forgive you'?”

“Women don't forgive, and they sure as hell don't forget. As soon as she finds out, you're dead.”

“Thanks,” Reede said.

“Maybe you could—” Colin broke off because the door opened and a pretty secretary entered carrying a big cardboard box.

“Oh, sorry. I didn't know anyone was in here.” She put the box on the desk. “Your dad wants these for tomorrow. He said he wanted to hide the faces of the team that had such a bad last quarter.”

“Sure,” Colin said. “Just leave it there and he'll see it.”

She left, closing the door behind her.

“Anyway,” Colin said, “maybe you could apologize enough that she would—”

Reede had gone to the box on the desk and was looking inside it. “It's Halloween,” he said in wonder.

“Yeah. Dad always gives a little party to the staff and hands out incentive awards, but this year the sales are
so bad that—” He broke off because Reede had pulled out a mask of a werewolf and was holding it over his face.

It took Colin a moment to understand. “A mask would hide you.”

“Yes,” Reede said as he put the furry thing down. “She wouldn't be able to see who I was.”

Colin's eyes showed his racing thoughts. “It would take some work, but maybe we could keep the secret for three days. That's today, Friday, then Saturday and Sunday. There's the big party tomorrow night. Everyone will be in costume. My family will be there. Mom is dying to tell the world that Pere's girlfriend, Rachel, is pregnant.”

“Everyone knows that,” Reede said. “Rachel's bought enough baby clothes for six kids.”

“That's all right. Ariel's pregnant too, and with Gemma, all the clothes will be needed.”

Reede couldn't help smiling. Everyone knew that what Colin's mother, Alea, wanted most in the world was grandchildren, and now her daughter Ariel, her daughter-in-law Gemma, and probably soon-to-be daughter-in-law Rachel were all expecting babies. A wish come true.

“Hey! I have an idea,” Colin said. “What about a private party for you and Sophie tomorrow afternoon? You know the old Haynes house out on McTern road?”

Reede couldn't help drawing in his breath.

“What?”

“That's the house I wanted to buy for Laura and me. The pond . . . ”

“Yeah, right. It's a clone of Tris's Aldredge House.”
Between them passed years of understanding. “Anyway, Ariel and Frank bought that house. They closed on it last week, and it's empty until they return to Edilean.”

Ariel, Colin's sister, was in California finishing her medical residency. The plan was that she'd return home and share the practice with Tristan. That way they'd both have time off for their families.

“What if I get Mom to arrange it so you could have a private party for just you and your Sophie at that house? Since it's Halloween it could all be done while wearing masks.”

Reede had to blink a few times as he thought about what Colin was saying. Maybe it could work. Possibly. Probably not. Maybe definitely not. What woman would go out with a man in a mask? Then he remembered Tris saying that Jecca, the woman he married, was an artist, so he'd had to be creative in courting her. “Not easy for a man of science,” Tris had said, “but I did it.” Sophie was an artist too, so maybe she'd like—

Reede looked back at Colin. “Think Sara can find another costume between now and then?”

“I think that if there's any hope to get you out of your gloom and doom this whole town would start sewing and
make
you one. Hell! I'll put on a few buttons.” Colin took out his cell phone. “This is your last chance to say no. Once I call Mom and tell her, there'll be no backing out.”

“Between her and my mother . . . ” Reede didn't want to think anymore. “Sure, why not?”

Colin pushed the key that contained his mother's phone number.

Sophie leaned back
from Dr. Reede's computer and smiled at her work. It had taken hours, but she'd set up online banking for him and had put every bill she could find on autopay. She'd even used his AmEx points to order a new vacuum cleaner and a set of white dishes. The ones he had were chipped and cracked and so old she was afraid the glaze contained lead.

She'd downloaded Quicken and put his expenses into categories. He didn't spend much and his checks were mostly for bills, so it hadn't been too big of a job to do the whole year.

As for his income, savings, and investments, she had no idea what they were. Every few weeks a check would be deposited and it would cover his expenses. If what was deposited was his total income or not she didn't know. If it was, he was far from rich.

“And his financial state is none of my business,” she said aloud as she looked around the apartment. This morning she'd been disappointed when she was told
she wouldn't be meeting Dr. Reede after all. But she understood about medical emergencies. Yet again, the women in the office had talked at length about what a great guy Reede is, how he thinks of no one but himself.

“And he's so very sweet tempered!” Heather said. “Just this morning he was smiling in a way that I'd never before seen any human do. Lit up the entire room, didn't it?
I
certainly felt it!”

The other women enthusiastically agreed as they looked at Sophie with wide eyes.

As she went up the stairs to the apartment, Sophie couldn't help smiling. It was obvious that the women had crushes on their Dr. Reede.

It was at lunchtime, just as Sophie had finished the computer work, that he called. He started with a profuse apology for standing her up that morning.

“It's all right,” she said. “I understand. My job is to help you, not get in your way.”

“That's nice,” Reede said hesitantly. “So how are you getting along?”

Sophie took her time telling him of all that she had done since their last phone call, but he didn't seem interested in the banking.

“What about your art? My sister says that she'd die if she couldn't create things—but then Kim is a bit melodramatic.”

“I used to feel that way, but it's been so long since I created anything that I don't remember what it's like.”

Reede hesitated. “I'm sure Kim told me, but what kind of art do you do?”

“Sculpting.”

“Like welding steel structures?”

“I mainly worked in clay. When I graduated I had a job offer of sculpting the heads of the American presidents for a company that made silverware. I was to make them about a foot tall, then they'd reduce them and put them on the handles of teapots. George and Abe and Mr. Jefferson would have profiles put on flat-ware.”

“That sounds . . . ”

“Tacky?” she asked, smiling. “I'm sure it would have been, but it was a beginning.”

“So why didn't you do it?”

She told him of her mother dying and leaving twelve-year-old Lisa under the care of a disgusting man. “I figured he'd be climbing into bed with her the day after the funeral.”

“So you stayed and took care of her.” There was awe in Reede's voice.

“I did what I had to,” she said modestly.

But Reede saw past her attempt to dismiss what she'd done. He well knew what sacrificing yourself took out of you. “Were you ever tempted to run away?”

“Why don't
you
pack up and leave town now?”

“Family obligations,” he said, then paused. “I see. It was the same with you.”

“Exactly the same.” She was sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, and when she moved she gave an involuntary yelp of pain.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes and no. I'm bruised from hitting the side of a road. A reckless driver nearly ran me over.” She gave him a brief account of what had happened.

“So you don't know who was driving?”

“I know his car and—Wait a minute! Russ was sitting near him at the restaurant, so he knows who he is! I'll have to call and ask him. Maybe I should do that now. The creep should be taken off the road for driving like that. He should—”

“I'm sure he's far away by now,” Reede said quickly. “That's an almost major highway, and we get a lot of tourists in this area.” He wiped sweat from his brow.

“You're probably right,” Sophie said. “If the jerk lives in Edilean I'm sure someone would have told me about him. I did put on a rather public show when I poured beer over his head.”

“Did you?” Reede asked. He was in the new Jeep that he'd borrowed from Colin and he didn't know where anything was. He needed something to wipe away the sweat that was beginning to trickle down the back of his neck. “I bet the man was . . . surprised.”

“Shocked, is more like it,” Sophie said. “I wouldn't have poured beer over him if he hadn't been looking at me as though I were going to ask him for something.”

“Like what?” Reede was unbuttoning his shirt as his body overheated.

“Money, I guess,” Sophie said. “He looked rich.”

“Did he?” Reede pulled his shirt off but his hands got stuck in the cuffs.

“He did. He had that arrogant, bored look that comes from never having to worry about money.”