Once in a Lifetime (26 page)

“Man, I used to be so proud that my name was Harrington,” Russ said. “I was four years behind him, but my professors would ask me if I was Big Tip’s brother, and I wouldn’t have
been more pleased to say yes if they’d asked me if I was related to Einstein.”

She’d been proud of him, too, but he would never know it.

“I’d better get back to Barbados,” Telford told Alexis after Thanksgiving dinner, as they stood beside her room door. “We’ve been sending materials and heavy equipment over there, and I have to check on it. Drake will be in Baltimore much of the time, but Russ will be working here at home. We’re putting in a bid for a project in North Carolina, and Russ is drafting the design.”

“How long will you be there?”

“A week, maybe two, depending on what I find there. I wish you could go with me.”

“It would be nice, but—”

“I know. We can’t take Tara out of school.” He tipped up her chin with his right index finger. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? It isn’t like you to be subdued. Look, I’m leaving here day after tomorrow, and when I come back, you’re going to tell me where I stand with you. I want my life in order, and you should want the same. Hell, I can get a housekeeper. A dozen of them. And I’m tired of this arrangement, anyhow.”

She risked looking straight at him, knowing that if she did, the heat between them would burst into flame. His eyes mirrored the compassion, love and, yes, the fire-hot desire that he felt for her. She sucked in her breath as a longing for his warmth, heat and loving swept over her.

For a minute his gaze hypnotized her, his eyes stormy pools of pure want, and all she could think of was how wild he could be in bed. She swallowed hard, and suddenly, he picked her up, fitted her to him and plunged into her open, waiting mouth. He trembled against her, and his groans shocked her into awareness of their surroundings and of the possibility that, at any second, Tara could have opened the door. Stunned both by the force of what she felt and by her carelessness, she slumped against him.

“You’re right. We need a resolution to this, but right now, I’m doing the best I can.”

“It isn’t always necessary to go about things the hard way. When you trust me, really trust me, there won’t be a problem.” He looked at his watch. “Want to go to a movie? I don’t know when I last saw one.”

“If Henry will look after Tara, I’d love to go.”

I’ve got to learn how to enjoy life,
Telford told himself as he walked with Alexis into the theater. Being with her like that, just walking along the street and holding hands, laughing and telling each other jokes made the whole world warmer, friendlier. He felt more carefree, more alive than he ever did as a child.
She’s good for me.

He got in the line leading to the popcorn vendor. “Want some?”

“I sure do, but no butter, please.”

“What do you mean, ‘no butter’?” he asked her, patting the back of her neck. “Since when were you allergic to butter?”

“Okay, I’ll have butter on my popcorn if you promise to discipline your tongue.”

He laughed aloud. “I wouldn’t touch that with a guided missile.”

They took seats near the aisle, and he put the open bag of popcorn between his knees, clasped her shoulder with his left hand and waded into the popcorn with his right one.

“Isn’t it good?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Uh-huh.”

He wanted to kiss her, but settled for a hug.

“All right, you lovebirds up there, be still.”

He recognized that voice and, hard as he tried to dismiss the incident, knowing the man was in the vicinity put a damper on the evening. At the end of the movie, he took his time getting up, and when he did stand and turn around, he didn’t see anyone he recognized. He’d parked two blocks from the theater, and as he turned in that direction, he saw him.

“Well, whatta you know, boss. Surprised to see you at the movies.”

Alexis stiffened and moved closer to Telford, and he put his left arm tight around her waist. “Same here. I thought you were down South.”

“I was.” The man’s gaze swept over Alexis with what was just short of a leer. “Howdy, ma’am.” Her response was to move closer to Telford’s body.

He didn’t care about Biff, but a man should make it a point to know as much about his opponent as possible, and any man who coveted Alexis Stevenson was his opponent.

“What brings you back up here?” he asked Biff.

Biff lit a cigarette, blew the smoke away and leaned against the lamppost, his swagger and outsized ego still intact. “We finished the job. You got anything?”

“Not a thing.”

“Keep me in mind for your next project, will ya?”

Didn’t the man remember why he’d fired him? “If I hired you, Biff, that would create a rift between Russ and me, and nothing’s worth that.”

“I, uh… I thought he’d get over that…uh…little incident. I didn’t mean no harm.”

“Little incident? If Russ hadn’t been there, you’d have followed through on your threat to impose yourself on a woman who told you she didn’t want anything to do with you. I don’t compete with my employees, Biff, and Mrs. Stevenson is my woman.”

Biff kicked at the pavement, his eyes downcast. “Guess I tore it all the way ’round.” He looked up. “I’m a good worker, boss. Nobody can say I don’t do my job.”

“Competence doesn’t compensate for a lack of morals, Biff. All the best.”

She didn’t speak as they walked to the car.

“I’m sorry we ran into him,” he said.

“Me, too. Would you hire him again?”

“No, indeed. Besides, Russ wouldn’t hear of it, and Drake
always had low tolerance for the man. I’m going to see that he gets a job as far away from here as possible.”

Her laughter rang like a tinkling bell. “Wishful thinking, but I like it.”

He opened the passenger door, waited until she got into the car and hooked her seat belt.

“No way,” he said, easing away from the curb. “And I aim to take care of that before I sleep this night.” He looked over at her and grinned. “That is, unless you’ve got something else you’d rather I did.”

She cast a side glance at him, slowly raised her eyelids, winked and looked straight ahead without uttering a sound. Man, oh, man, this black woman could really turn it on.

“Watch that, baby. You’re putting notions in my head that I couldn’t discuss with a priest unless I was at confession.”

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” she said, filling her voice with awe. “When do you go to Mass?”

“You still don’t know it, but what I said holds nonetheless. And don’t try to knock me off the subject.”

“Really? Wonder if Melanie and her husband visited her parents today.”

“I went in the dining room to tell you. You mean I didn’t? Indeed, they did. I imagine that was one emotional scene.”

“I’m…so happy for them.”

She didn’t sound happy. At best, her tone was wistful, maybe even a little strained. She could deny it as often and as vehemently as she liked, but she was keeping something from him. And he’d bet it was her sense of decency and fairness that forced her to pull back whenever their relationship seemed too much like the real thing, as if it were destined for permanency. She would never commit to him as long as she held that secret.
I’ll worm it out of her if it takes me a year.

At home, he parked in the garage, and they entered the house through the side door near the dining room. Hand in hand, they walked to her room. He didn’t know what she was thinking, but his own mind conjured up images of the two of them silver-haired and still holding hands as they walked
through life. He shook himself, but the pictures stuck in his head.

“I enjoyed being with you,” she said. “I feel like a teenager…I think. I didn’t have many movie dates when I was growing up. Velma and I didn’t want kids to come to our house, so we kept to ourselves.”

“Why? Did your parents drink?”

She shook her head almost with reluctance, as if drunkenness would have been preferable to what they experienced. “Worse than that. They fought all the time. Almost every meal ended in an argument.”

“Oh, yes. I remember your telling me something like that. I’m sorry, Alexis.” He needed to hold her. “How about a kiss? And unless you want company, don’t lay it on thick.”

She poked her tongue in her right cheek and let her gaze travel over him slowly and deliberately. “Does that mean I call the shots?”

“If you play your cards wisely, yes.”

“And you’re not telling me what wise means in this case. Right?”

“Wouldn’t think of it. You’re batting a thousand without any help from me.”

With gentle sweetness her lips brushed his, and she quickly moved away. At his inquiring look, she explained, “I’d rather not learn how to resist responding to you. Thanks again for the movie and the popcorn.”

“What about the company?”

“First-class. ’Night.” With a grin, she went into her room and left him gaping at the closing door.

Musing over what had just transpired, he shrugged first one shoulder and then the other one. She was so right. The woman burned whenever he touched her, and he wanted it to stay that way. He went to his room and called Armand Wright, a contractor and close friend who worked in Oregon.

They greeted each other as friends would. “What’re you doing right now, buddy?” Telford asked him. Learning that the man was recruiting workers for an underwater tunnel he
was about to begin constructing, he recommended Biff. “He makes a first-class foreman, but keep him away from your women.”

Armand’s laugh crackled through the wires. “Man, he’ll be so far from any woman that by the end of the four years, he’ll have forgotten what they look like. Tell him to call me.”

“I’ll do that.” He hung up, barely able to contain the laugh that bubbled in his throat.
Talk about justice!

At a quarter of ten that Friday morning, he dropped his flight bag and suitcase at the bottom of the stairs and headed for the kitchen to speak with Henry. The phone rang. “I’ll get it,” he yelled to Henry.

“Telford Harrington.”

“Hi. This is Velma Brighton. Is my sister there?”

“Sorry, she isn’t. She went to take Tara to school and hasn’t gotten back yet. I’ll leave a message for her.”

He went to the kitchen. “I should be back in a couple of weeks at the latest, but in any case, you’ll know where I am. Take care of yourself.”

“Alexis, too?”

“Yeah. And tell her that neither she nor Tara should go walking around here unless Russ is with them. I ran into Biff Jackson night before last, and although I told him what’s what, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did something stupid.”

“I’ll tell her, and Russ, too. You take care of
your
self.”

Several blasts from an automobile horn got his attention. “That’s my car service. See you.”

His plane was forty minutes from Barbados when it hit him. Brighton. She’d said her name was Brighton. Something back in the recesses of his mind told him that name had importance for him. He tried to recall it, but couldn’t. “I’ll get it, though,” he promised himself. “Sure as my name is Telford Harrington, I’ll get it.”

“Henry, where are you?” Alexis called when she returned to the house after taking Tara to school.

“I’m right here doing my work. Where you been so long? Tel ain’t happy leaving here with Biff Jackson roamin’ in these parts.”

She hugged him and quickly moved away. Henry could stomach just so much sentimentalism. “I went into Frederick to do some grocery shopping. Tomorrow is Russ’s birthday, and we have to make him a nice dinner party.”

“Humph. Mr. Gourmet. If he ain’t careful, I’ll cook—”

“You’ll do no such thing. We’ll have smoked salmon with red onion slices, capers and sour cream, herb-stuffed roasted fresh ham, sweet potato soufflé, asparagus tips, Cajun corn bread, coconut layer cake and vanilla ice cream. Tara will have to give in.”

“I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. Russ’ll stretch out and die. Did you bring all that?”

“I sure did.”

“I ain’t gonna eat nothin’ from now till tomorrow night.”

“Oh, come on, Henry. It’s just a good meal, and I remember he said that’s what he wanted for his birthday.”

“Well, you give Drake and Tel big birthday celebrations. If we skipped Russ, he’d be hurt.”

“Wouldn’t think of it.”

“Mummy, what’s that gonna be?” Tara asked Alexis as she grated the coconut for Russ’s cake.

“Honey, it’s a secret. Okay?” Telling Tara something was tantamount to publishing it.

“Oh. If it’s a secret, I can’t tell?”

“That’s right, love.”

“Maybe Mr. Henry doesn’t think it’s a secret. I have to go practice, so I’ll know my piece when Mr. Telford comes back.”

The next evening, she dressed herself and Tara in green jumpsuits, went to the dining room and was admiring the table she’d set when she heard the front door open.

“I almost got arrested trying to get here on time,” Drake said. He picked Tara up and swung her around. “How’s my princess?”

She kissed his cheek. “Mummy’s been making secrets today, Mr. Drake, and she wouldn’t let me see.”

“And I know why. Where’s Russ?” he asked Alexis.

“Upstairs in his room. I was hoping Telford would call.”

“He will.”

“Hey, brother,” Russ said as he loped down the stairs. She looked on as they went through the ritual that never failed: a returning brother was always greeted with an embrace.

“Mr. Drake is gonna say the grace tonight, ’cause Mr. Russ has a birthday.”

Drake didn’t dare refuse in Tara’s presence, but he made quick work of it, and finished just as the doorbell rang. He went to the door and returned with a package.

“Something for you, Russ. FedEx overnight mail. I’ll get you a sharp knife.”

Tara ran around the table and leaned against Russ’s knee while he opened it. Her mouth formed a small O, and her eyes widened. “Gee. Mummy, look!”

“Well, I’ll be,” Russ said, shaking his head as he held up a gray stuffed tabby kitten. He read aloud the tag that the little cat wore. “‘My name is Hugs, and there’s more where I came from.’” He turned the tag over and gazed at it.