Once in a Lifetime (9 page)

Russ Harrington’s big frame leaned against the doorjamb, his hands in his pants pockets and his stance wide.

“Oops,” she said. “I thought you were in Baltimore.”

“Sorry if I didn’t think to clear my arrival with you. Getting here by the hallowed hour of seven was about as much as I could manage.”

It wasn’t all-out hostility, but he wasn’t offering a peace pipe either. She ignored his barb. “I hope you’re satisfied with what you accomplished while you were in Baltimore.”

He straightened up. “That I am. How’d you make out while I was gone? Got things going your way?”

In spite of her effort to remember her advocacy of brotherly and sisterly love, no matter the trial or the circumstances, she wanted to throttle Russ Harrington. With as much patience as she could muster, she said, “When things no longer go my way, I’m out of here. And don’t waste you hostility on me. I don’t respond to that.”

“Now, that’s what I call a queen. Don’t get your dander up over anything the commoners say or do.”

“You? A commoner? Whatta you know? And I mistook you for one of the Harrington princes. I must be slipping. You seen Tara?”

He flexed his shoulder in a quick shrug. “Yeah. She was with Henry. But the minute her idol, Mr. Telford, walks in here, Henry’s had it. The two of you have my brother by the nose.”

“I don’t like what you’re implying.”

“You don’t have to like it. I call it the way I see it.”

Telford and Tara walked into the room laughing and holding hands, and she didn’t think she’d ever been happier to see anyone.

Russ permitted himself what he obviously intended as a smile, and gave her a military salute. “I rest my case.”

“Mummy, Mr. Henry said he’s getting me a piano, and Mr. Telford said I can put it downstairs in the game room. I want it in
my
room.”

The affection with which Henry regarded Tara brought tears to her eyes. At last, her child was surrounded by loved ones. Russ’s crankiness and sarcasm detracted little, if anything, from Tara’s happiness. Even though he’d rather they were someplace other than Harrington House, and she clearly preferred his brothers to him, Russ was never unkind to the child.

She thanked Henry and looked at Telford. “Can we put it in her room?”

His sheepish grin surprised her. “Sure, but then I can’t play it.”

“Buy your own,” Henry advised him.

“You can play mine,” Tara assured Telford. She looked at Russ. “Mr. Telford’s teaching me the piano.”

Alexis held her breath while she waited for Russ to answer. Finally he said, “You’re a lucky little girl; Telford’s a good teacher.”

“Who’s that at the back door, Henry?”

Henry went to the door and returned to the breakfast room, where they waited for Drake before beginning supper.

“Rosen, one of the construction workers, wanted me to put his supper in the microwave.”

“Well, did you do it?” Russ asked him.

“Sure, I done it. But he ain’t fooling me. They been working down there for two months, and all of a sudden they wants their lunch heated and their supper warmed. It ain’t their stomach they concerned with, it’s the rise in their testosterone.”

Telford’s head snapped up, and Russ laughed aloud. “Be careful you don’t get a riot on your hands, brother,” Russ said.

“Well, I’ll be…” Telford said. “You can actually laugh. Don’t get too happy, though, pal. Tomorrow evening, they’ll have their own microwave oven, and they can stay the he—” He looked at Tara, who drank in his every word. “They can stay away from this house.”

Laughter poured from Russ until he got up from the table in a fit of hiccups. “I told you to put a microwave oven in there. Add a coffee urn while you’re at it. Threaten the king’s comforts and you’re lucky you don’t lose your head.”

Telford narrowed his eyes, and his face wrinkled into a frown. “Lay off, will you, Russ? It’s best to talk what you know, and you’re way off in left field.”

“Mummy, doesn’t Mr. Russ like… Eeee,” she squealed. “Mr. Drake.”

“Hey, there. At least somebody around here’s glad to see me.” He picked Tara up and swung her around. “How’s my best girl?”

“We waited for you so we could eat.”

He opened his briefcase and gave her a harmonica. “Just don’t play it when I’m around.” She hugged him and ran to her seat.

“How’d it go?” Telford asked him.

“Great. Couldn’t have asked for better. I’d better wash my hands, or Alexis won’t let me eat.” He flashed her a charismatic grin. “Just teasing.”

Alexis watched as Drake greeted his brothers with the now familiar embrace and warmth, and had to stop herself from wishing she were truly a part of the love between them, so strong that she felt it.

“Who says grace?” Tara asked with the surety of one who belongs and knows it. “Want me to—”

“Dear Lord…” Russ began so quickly that Alexis couldn’t restrain the laughter. He wasn’t willing to suffer through another of Tara’s long, rambling supplications.

After Russ finished, Telford rested his elbows on the table and shook with laughter. “I didn’t even know Russ knew how to say grace.”

His laughter commenced again, nearly uncontrollable. How she loved to see him laugh! When he looked at her, bright lights danced in his eyes, mesmerizing her. Transfixed, she gazed at his face, beautiful in his fit of hilarity, and wanted to round the table and squeeze him to her breast. Suddenly, he stopped laughing and, in the deafening silence, she looked from Russ to Drake and found their gazes glued to their older brother. Unaware of their attention; the hot fire of passion blazed in his eyes as he reciprocated the ardor she must have shown seconds earlier.

When she could think of a way to divert the brothers’ attention from Telford, she said, “Henry, do you mind checking on Tara after Telford brings her home tomorrow? It’s my day off, and I need to go to Frederick.”

“Just leave her with me.” He looked at Tara. “How’d you like for us to make cookies?”

Tara showed her delight by running over to Henry, hugging him and slapping her hands together. “Oooh, Mr. Henry, I love cookies.”

“Then we’ll make two or three kinds.”

Russ looked at Henry and winked. “Better watch it. Telford may put a kitchen in the basement and install a dumbwaiter. That way you can cook the food and send it up on the DW without ever going out of there. You’ll be like the prisoner of Chaillot.”

“Never thought you’d get a running mouth,” Telford said dryly.

“I won’t say what I never thought
you’d
do.”

“Hey, you two,” Drake put in. “Didn’t anybody notice how good this roast pork is? Good Lord, Henry, what happened?”

“Don’t think I didn’t taste the difference,” Russ said. He looked at Alexis. “Did you supervise this meal?”

She shook her head. “I gave him the recipe.”

“Hmmm,” he said, savoring some mushroom soufflé. “For this, I’ll even break my neck to get here at seven o’clock. Henry, when was the last time I complimented you on a meal?”

Henry appeared to give the question serious thought. “Never. And ’less you want cabbage stew tomorrow, you’ll find something else to talk about.”

Russ raised his wineglass to Alexis. “Well done. Continue to ride herd on him. Best meal I’ve had in ages.”

She hated to leave the table and Telford, but she had no choice. She pushed her chair back, glancing at him as she did so, and stilled, mesmerized by the savage fire that raged in his eyes. This time, it was Henry who rescued them.

“You can play the piano a little bit for me tomorrow, Tara, while we got the house to ourselves. Anybody want any coffee?”

“Piano?” Drake asked. “When did you get a piano?”

“Mr. Henry bought me a…a what, Mummy?”

“A console. She’s had it a week.”

“Mr. Henry’s my friend, too.”

She grabbed Tara’s hand. “I think I’ll pass on the coffee, Henry. Come along, honey. Good night, all.”

“Good night, all,” Tara echoed.

She wasn’t making herself any promises, if he came after her tonight.

“L
ooks like things have been happening these past two months while I was away,” Drake said to Telford as the brothers sat in the den drinking coffee and cognac.

“Like what?”

“Man, you shouldn’t ask that unless you want the answer,” Russ said, “and you definitely don’t want to talk about this.”

He certainly didn’t. What he wanted was Alexis rolling beneath him in his bed. He wanted it, and he needed it, but he’d never allowed himself everything he thought he wanted. He ignored Russ’s comment.

“We may be in for a work stoppage.” He explained to Russ what he’d already told Drake by phone. “So I’m giving the workers at the school building and the warehouse as much overtime as they want.”

“But—”

He held up both hands. “I know what you’re going to say, and I know it’s against our policy, but I have to finish that school on time. It will be ready for the scheduled ceremonies
if I have to hold it up with my back. Sparkman won’t drag us under this time.”

Drake looked at Russ and a frown passed over his face. “Come on, Telford. Sparkman can’t hurt us now. We’ve reestablished ourselves solidly.”

Telford got up, walked to the other end of the room and back. “Not quite. I’m the one who gets it in the face when I’m bidding for contracts. You don’t know how many times I’ve been asked,
Sure you can get it in on time?
We haven’t lived it down yet.”

Russ drained his coffee cup. “But if there’s a strike, it won’t be our fault.”

“Strike or no strike, that building will be ready when school opens in September.” Telford downed the last of his cognac. “I’m turning in.”

“Mind if I ask where?”

“Buzz off, Russ. And be nicer to Alexis, because she’s not going anywhere,” Telford said and headed up the stairs to his room.

“I think she’s got him,” he heard Russ say.

“I sure as hell hope so” was Drake’s reply.

But Telford didn’t agree with either of them. He’d never been in such a tizzy about anything in his life as he was about Alexis. He took what comfort he could in knowing that she probably lost as much sleep about him as he did about her. Yet, he wasn’t willing to declare his feelings. Every time he contemplated it, he could see in his mind’s eye his father groveling for the crumbs of his mother’s affection, which she doled out like a boy holding up scraps to make his puppy jump.

The one time he’d dropped his fences and gone to a girl he liked and who he thought wanted him, she’d smiled coolly and told him he’d made a mistake. After all these years, the pain of that rejection still hurt. There’d been women since then, but he’d been able to take or leave them. Alexis Stevenson, though, had settled inside him, deep down where he lived. And Tara. He looked forward to her smiling face when he
came home every evening, her arms outstretched for his hug and the kisses she planted on his cheek. He’d never thought a child’s love could touch him so deeply and make him feel as if he owned the world.

His heart and his body pointed him back downstairs to the other end of the house where he knew he’d find pure heaven, but his head ruled, and he prepared to take a cold shower.

Alexis read Tara to sleep, stepped out into the garden and sat on the stone bench facing the cluster of rosebushes that she loved. Going to sleep right then was out of the question, for she still throbbed with desire for Telford. If only she knew how to deal with it, what to expect of herself and him. Her years of marriage to Jack Stevenson had left her unprepared for the fire that raged in her.
Thank God I don’t drink. If I did, I’d finish off a gallon.
Telford hadn’t come to her. Maybe she was glad and maybe she wasn’t. She only knew that if he walked into her room that night, he would be hers before he left. She jumped up. The mere thought was self-destructive. She went inside and closed the door.

“I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life crying because I ignored my common sense.” She went to bed.

Telford heard the piano before he put his key in the front-door lock.
She takes to that piano like a fish to water,
he thought with pride. After changing into a pair of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he followed the sound to Tara’s room. When his knock brought no answer, he went to the kitchen.

“It’s after five, Henry, hasn’t Alexis come back from Frederick?”

“If she is, I ain’t seen her. I didn’t think she meant to stay off all day long. Said she’d be back around three or so.”

He shrugged, affecting a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “Maybe something came up, or she went to a movie. We know she’ll be here by seven, because she risks dealing with Russ if she’s late.”

“Yeah. Russ don’t like having to live normal, picking up
after himself, wearing clothes in the house and eating at special hours, but it sure suits me.” He passed the bucket of string beans to Telford. “Here, Tel, don’t just stand there. String these beans.”

“How much did that console piano set you back?”

“Ain’t none of your business. I bought it ’cause I wanted to. I don’t have to spend a penny of my salary.” He stopped stringing beans and smiled. “Don’t she just love it? Never seen such a happy little girl as she was when that piano come in here the other day. She plain jumped nigh to the ceiling.”

“She’s been here less than three months, and I can’t imagine this house without her.”

“Me neither. Ain’t that somebody at the door?”

He put the handful of bean ends on the counter. “I’ll get it.” He couldn’t believe his eyes. There at his back door stood Biff Jackson.

He didn’t like it, and he wasn’t about to behave as if he did. “Need me for something, Biff?”

The man was clearly put off. “Well…I, uh…I didn’t know you’d be home.”

“You came to see Henry? I thought the two of you couldn’t stand each other.”

“Well, I was, uh, hoping to get a glimpse of your housekeeper.”

Telford folded his arms and leaned against the doorjamb. “That’s what I figured. Did she tell you to come looking for her?”

“Well…no, but a man likes to do his own chasing. Right?”

He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and widened his stance, sending Biff a message that said
stay out of my territory.
“I’ll ask Mrs. Stevenson if she wants you to come here to see her. If she says yes, I’ll tell you. If not, this house is out of bounds. Do you understand very clearly what I’m saying?”

“Uh…sure, boss.”

His temper didn’t rear up often, but it threatened to surface
when he saw Biff’s mocking smile. “I’m not speaking employer to employee, Biff. I’m talking man-to-man, and I mean what I said.”

Biff threw up his hands in a gesture of defense. “Sure, boss. I get the message.”

“Make certain that you do, because you have never seen me more serious.” He closed the door and bumped into Henry.

“The man’s a toad if I ever seen one,” Henry said. “He’s forty miles of bad road.”

“If he wants his job, he’d better stay the hell away from this house.”

“Alexis ain’t interested in the likes of Biff, but he’ll make himself a nuisance all the same. He thinks a woman says no ’cause she means yes.”

“I don’t want to have to… Never mind. Biff is not stupid.”

Henry put the beans in a colander and ran cold water over them. “That ain’t my estimation of him.”

“Mr. Telford, Mummy isn’t home yet.” He hadn’t heard Tara enter the kitchen, and he wondered how long she’d been there. He hadn’t heard the piano for almost half an hour.

“She’ll be here before suppertime. I heard your practicing. You sounded great, but I didn’t hear you play the scales.”

“I played them first, ’cause I hate them.”

He couldn’t keep his mind on the small talk. His watch said twenty minutes to six. Where
was
she? He heard the front door and raced down the hall, but before he reached it, Drake opened it and walked in.

“What’s this? What’s the matter, princess, aren’t you glad to see me?”

He looked at Telford. “What’s up?”

“We thought you might be Alexis. It’s past time she was back here.”

“That’s right. She went to Frederick today. Has she driven over there before?”

The concern on Drake’s face did nothing to reassure him. He told himself to remain calm. “No, but… Look, man, it’s only half an hour from here.”

“What’s the matter, Mr. Telford?”

He didn’t want to alarm Tara, but she already sensed their disquiet.

Drake picked her up and hugged her. “Nothing’s the matter. She’s spoiled us, and one of us may have to set the table.”

“Mr. Russ.”

Drake’s grin fell into place. “You mean let Russ do it?”

Evidently as mesmerized as the average female would be in the circumstance, Tara nodded and turned on her own smile.

However, Telford couldn’t enter into their merriment. Alexis was dependable, and she always did as she said she would. He left Tara and Drake, went out front and sat on the steps, something he hadn’t done since he was seven and his mother had left them the first time. He needed to be alone, not that he thought it would help; it couldn’t, but at least he wouldn’t have to pretend he didn’t feel what he felt.

At the sound of a familiar motor, he jumped up and immediately sat back down when he recognized Russ’s Mercedes. Russ parked in the semicircle in front of the house and got out almost before the motor died. Telford wasn’t anxious for Russ’s company right then. Drake would allow him privacy, but Russ would wade in with his questions and observations.

“Say, man, what’re you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be washing your hands?”

He didn’t feel like joshing with his brother. “How’d it go today, Russ?”

Russ was about to pass him on the steps, but he stopped and stepped back. “Something wrong? You all right?”

He threw up his hands in resignation. “Something’s wrong, and I’m not all right.”

Russ dropped his briefcase, sat down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Can you tell me what it is?” When Russ shoved aside his tough, cynical facade, he was compassionate and loving, but he nearly always hid that part of him.

“Russ, it’s five minutes past seven, and I don’t know where Alexis is. She left here at noon to go to Frederick.”

“Did she take Tara?”

He shook his head. “Tara’s inside with Drake and Henry. This isn’t what I expect of Alexis.”

“No. She’s like a clock, and she certainly wouldn’t give me a reason to taunt her about being late for supper.”

“Maybe I’d better go look for her.”

“Where would we start? Frederick’s a big place, and there’re several ways to get there from here.”

He stood and Russ did the same. “We could each take a route. I’ll take Route 355, you take 85 and Drake can take 351.”

Russ frowned and seemed reluctant to speak. After a while, he said, “What the devil would she be doing over on 351?”

“That’s just the point, Russ. I…I don’t have any idea
where
she is. If she had Tara with her, I might even think she’d taken off for good.”

“Come on, now. If you don’t have any more faith in her than that, you’ve misplaced your feelings.”

That remarked registered with him, but he didn’t feel like dealing with it right then. Russ picked up his briefcase and slung an arm around Telford’s shoulder. “Let’s go inside.”

“Yeah. Let’s see what Drake has to say.”

“She didn’t phone?” Telford asked Henry.

“If she hada, son, you know I’d a gone out there and told you. Maybe she ran out of gas.”

Telford shook his head. “I keep her tank full, even though she doesn’t know I do it, because I wouldn’t like that to happen on one of these deserted roads.”

“Especially not with critters like Biff sniffin’ around.”

“What’s he talking about?” Russ and Drake asked in unison.

“Long story. You know Biff can’t pass up a good-looking woman, especially if she ignores him.”

He felt Tara’s arms around his leg and looked down at her
worried little face. What could he say to her that wouldn’t be an out-and-out lie?

“Mr. Telford, is my mummy coming home?”

“Of course, honey.” He knelt and took her in his arms, but she wouldn’t be placated.

“Is it seven o’clock?”

“Around that.” He didn’t look at Russ, for he knew that in spite of his brother’s concern over Alexis’s whereabouts, Tara’s question would bring a grin to his face.

“We’re going out for a little while, Tara. You stay with Henry. All right?”

“You going to look for my mummy?”

He decided not to lie to her. “I’m hoping we’ll run into her.”

The strength of her arms clasping his neck startled him. “It’ll be all right, baby,” he whispered. “Now, don’t worry.”

The facial expressions of his brothers and Henry were not reassuring, and a dull, heavy thumping replaced his heartbeat. He lifted Tara and placed her in Henry’s arms.

“We’ll be back soon.”

“I’ll keep the food warm.”

“Thanks.” If he didn’t find Alexis, he wouldn’t want any food.

“Should you take your revolver, Russ?” Drake asked. “In case there’s any foul play?”

Russ had a license to carry it, but he’d never used the gun. “Naaah. Let’s not think like that.”

He opened the front door and stood there. Immobilized. But only for a moment, before he dashed out of the door and met her as she stepped up on the brick walk.

“Alexis, where in the hell have you been? I’m out of my mind with worry, and we’re on our way right this minute to look for you. Woman, what do you mean by…”

He stared at her, the most beautiful human being he’d ever seen, and her wide-eyed almost helpless expression rocked him to the pit of his gut. “Oh, hell, baby, I was going crazy.”

Oblivious to all but his joy in seeing her alive, he opened his
arms, and she raced into them. In that moment, he cared for nothing and no one except the woman whose tears dampened the side of his face.

“You’re still frightened. I can feel it. What happened? Are you hurt? Tell me how you are.”

“I’m…I’m all right. I got lost and I thought I’d never find the way back here. The bridge on that little road going to Route 85 was washed out, and I had to take a detour and then another one till I found myself halfway to West Virginia. Up and down these roads, there isn’t even anyone to ask directions.”