Songbird (23 page)

Desiree took a deep breath as she walked inside, mentally preparing herself for an evening of difficult role-playing. She’d done her best to avoid crowds and promotional events during her radio career, and her childhood, spent in a big rambling house with only one brother and a pair of reclusive parents, had in no way prepared her for the hubbub of a big family gathering.

And a big family gathering it was. In quick succession she was introduced to four friendly, beautiful sisters, three brothers-in-law with hearty handshakes, more than half a dozen giggling and gurgling nieces and nephews, an elderly aunt, a bachelor uncle, two Siamese cats, and a bouncing golden retriever.

To her surprise, Desiree found herself responding almost immediately to their infectious enthusiasm. Everyone seemed delighted to meet her and strove to make her feel welcome. Soon she was laughing and returning spontaneous hugs and kisses, matching quip with quip, and bantering as freely as she did on the air.

“
Pay close attention, now,” teased Joanna, a beautiful redhead, after she and her identical twin had introduced themselves. “There’ll be a quiz on names and birth dates after dinner.”

“
I’ll never pass!” Desiree laughed.

A tall, blond man with a thick mustache, husband to one of the twins, gave Desiree a particularly enthusiastic welcoming kiss on the cheek, then punched Kyle on the back. “Way to go, buddy,” he said, winking.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Desiree caught Kyle’s eye. A flicker of deep emotion crossed his face, something like admiration mingled with sincere regret. She felt a stirring within her and she smiled hesitantly, hopefully. He started to take a step toward her when a cheerful voice rang out above the party hum:

“
There you are!” A rosy-cheeked wisp of a woman in a blue dress and plaid apron squeezed through the crowd and laid a hand on Desiree’s shoulder. Her short, dark-brown hair was streaked with grey, and the laugh lines around her mouth and pale-blue eyes promised a sunny personality. “I’m Stephanie, Kyle’s mother. I’m so delighted you could come.”

Desiree knew at once that she would like her. As she thanked Stephanie for inviting her, Desiree’s heart swelled with gratitude for the welcome she’d received, and regret that she may never see these lovely people again.

“
I’m sorry the place is such a zoo,” Stephanie said. “I warned the girls to at least leave a few of the kids at home, but they all insisted on coming.”

“
I’m glad,” Desiree said. “In a family this size, it’s better to just jump right in and meet everybody at once.”

“
Brave girl you’ve got here,” Stephanie told Kyle. She encased Desiree in a hug, then tilted her lips up toward Kyle. He leaned down and gave his mother a warm hug and a kiss.

“
You look beautiful tonight as always, Mom. Is that leg of lamb I smell?”

Stephanie Harrison looked first at her son and then at Desiree, a quiet smile on her lips. “What else would I make for my favorite son but his favorite meal?”

He chuckled and gave his mother another affectionate squeeze. At the same time his eyes met and found Desiree’s. She read there a silent, earnest apology and a plea for a truce—for forgiveness. Her heart turned over. More than anything, she realized, she’d love to be a part of this happy, exuberant family. She didn’t know if it would ever happen, but just for tonight she wanted to pretend that it could. She wanted to rush into Kyle’s arms, to tell him all was forgiven. She settled for an answering smile that spoke of her love and granted him unconditional amnesty.

He heaved a sigh of relief, wrapped an arm around Desiree and pulled her close to his side. When he lowered his head to whisper against her ear, his voice was rife with emotion. “If we slip down the hall to the back room for a few minutes, do you think anyone will notice?”

Before she could reply, a glass door slid open at the back of the living room. “Hey, why didn’t someone tell me they were here?”

Desiree jumped, startled. If Kyle hadn’t been standing next to her, she would have sworn the voice she’d heard was his. She turned around and caught her breath. The man crossing the room could only be Kyle’s father. Except for the facial lines etched by time in this man’s handsome face, and the silvery hair threaded thickly among the red and brown, the resemblance between the two was uncanny. He possessed Kyle’s trim powerful build, the same brilliant green eyes, the same high cheekbones and slightly upturned nose. She felt as if she’d been granted a vision of how youthful and attractive Kyle would still appear in years to come.

“
Well, well. Hello and welcome,” he said, enfolding Desiree’s hand in both of his. “I’m Dan, the old man of the house.”

“
Old man, nothing!” Desiree heard herself say. Laughter shouted out around her.

“
I knew I was going to like her.” Dan grinned. “Say, has anybody given you a tour of this place yet? No? Well then, come on.”

She flashed Kyle an apologetic glance as she was led away. He hid a smile and telegraphed a return message of frustrated longing. A small crowd of youngsters tagged along behind as Dan showed Desiree around the house. She felt overwhelmed by the sense of warmth and love of family that seemed to radiate throughout.

Pictures of Kyle, his sisters, and the grandchildren hung everywhere, together with framed awards and countless childish but clearly cherished attempts at pottery, weaving, watercolor and finger painting. The children proudly pointed out their own particular works of art, and Desiree praised their efforts. Dan had an amusing anecdote for nearly all of the rooms, which were stuffed with odds and ends of furniture, some new, some old, as if he and his wife couldn’t bear to throw anything out. The general clutter made her feel right at home. At least his parents aren’t neat freaks, she thought with a smile.

“
Soup’s on!” Stephanie cried. Dan led her back to the dining room and rang a loud brass gong hanging beside the kitchen door. The children scrambled out to the back porch, where a picnic table had been set for them. An arm darted out from the general uproar, and to her relief and delight, Desiree found herself nestled in Kyle’s arms, against his chest.

“
I think there’s something to be said for small families after all,” he growled. “Whose idea was it to come here, anyway?”

She tipped her head back and smiled at the love she saw reflected in his eyes. “Yours,” she said. “And it was one of your better ideas. I love your family.”

He kissed her, long and hard. Around them she heard good-natured hoots and catcalls.

“
Hey, cut out the mushy stuff!” a voice cried.

“
Save it for Christmas, under the mistletoe!”

They pulled apart, laughing.

Desiree took a seat next to Kyle at one end of the long dining-room table. Throughout the delicious meal, she was besieged with friendly questions about herself and her work. She heard countless Harrison family stories and shot back with a few tales of her own, which were met with uproarious and appreciative laughter.

“
Kyle offered to buy us a big, new house after he started doing so well,” Stephanie confided, leaning across the table toward Desiree. “And you know what I said? I said, thank you, but no thank you. I raised six children in this house. It was big enough then, and it’s big enough now. And if you think I’m going to pack all those pictures and knickknacks and whatnots to move somewhere else, you’ve got another guess coming.”

“
Grandpa! Grandpa! Guess what?” A small girl in pigtails raced into the room and climbed onto her grandfather’s lap. “I passed the Polliwog test at swim lessons and next week I’ll be a Frog!”

“
Wonderful, sweetheart.” Daniel kissed the freckled cheek. “Keep up the good work. Maybe you’ll make the high school swim team someday.”

“
High school, nothing,” said the girl’s father. “Someday she’ll make the Olympic swim team.”

Daniel slapped the tabletop. “Damn right! Excuse me, Stephanie. Say, who wants to make a dollar bet Tracy makes it to the Olympics?” Wallets flashed and several dollar bills were flung on the table amid general laughter and applause.

“
You wait and see,” Kyle told Desiree with a knowing wink. “She’ll make it.”

By the time the peach and apricot pies were brought out for dessert, Desiree felt as if she’d been a part of this fun-loving family for years. After coffee, adults and children alike spilled out onto the front driveway, where Kyle’s father pulled out a box of fireworks left from the family Fourth of July party the week before. The children raced around the yard, drawing designs in the darkness with blazing sparklers. Everyone clapped in delight as screaming rockets sailed through the air and fire fountains gushed red, white, and blue up to the night sky. Caught up in the excitement of the celebration, Desiree waved sparklers and shouted her delight along with the rest of them.

All too soon, the evening came to an end. Dishes were done, goodbyes said, and families piled into individual cars for the drive home. “I hope we’ll be seeing you again soon, and often,” Stephanie said as she hugged Desiree goodbye on the front porch.

“
You will, Mom,” Kyle said, wrapping his arms around Desiree.

“
Who wants to make a dollar bet we dance at their wedding before the year’s over?” Daniel asked, a twinkle in his eye.

“
It’s a bet.” Kyle whipped a dollar out of his pocket and shook his father’s hand with gusto.

A warm glow started in the pit of Desiree’s stomach and spread to the tips of her fingers and toes.
Every time my dad makes a dollar bet, he wins,
Kyle had said. If things worked out at the radio station tomorrow, if they offered her a job, maybe, just maybe...

“
Have a good time?” Kyle asked a few minutes later, after they’d climbed into his car and were speeding down the highway.

“
I had a great time. Your family’s wonderful. Every one of them.”

“
Ah! But then you haven’t met my cross-eyed Aunt Bernice from Boston, who lives in her attic, has twenty-seven cats, and paints moody abstracts of dancing flamingos in tutus.”

“
Sounds to me like she’d fit right in.”

They both laughed. “Hey, woman, come here.” He extended one arm across her shoulders, pulling her against him as he drove with his left hand. “I’ve been dying for a moment alone with you all night. I wanted to apologize for acting like a complete jerk this afternoon. I could kick myself for the things I said.”

“
It’s all right, sweetheart. I know why you were angry. A hundred-thousand-dollar loss is no laughing matter. And it’s my fault that—”

“
No, it’s not. None of it was your fault. Leaving Tulsa early was my own decision, and I had no right to take out my anger on you. Harrison Industries isn’t going to collapse over one lousy contract. And Kyle Harrison won’t collapse if a few shoes are strewn around his bedroom.” He kissed the top of her head and massaged her neck beneath her silky mane of hair. “Do you forgive me?”

“
I forgive you.”

“
I love you, my darling,” he whispered against her hair.

“
And I love you.”

***

The moment they got back to Kyle’s condo, they came together in a hot, frenzied coupling of mutual need and desire, both of them anxious to erase the tension between them and the memory of their earlier argument.

Later, inside his glass-enclosed shower stall of gleaming blue and white tile, Kyle’s soapy hands traveled across Desiree’s shoulders, over her firm, rounded breasts, and down the sleek incline of her waist. “Your skin is so silky soft, so smooth and sexy. I love the way you feel.”

“
I love the way
you
feel,” she replied, running her fingers over his slippery, wet biceps. She grabbed the bar of scented soap and stood on tiptoe to wash Kyle’s shoulders and lather the hair across his chest. Her massaging fingers followed the bubbles which slid down the V-shaped wedge of hair and then further down, past his navel.

“
Be careful what you touch down there,” he cautioned, taking a sharp breath, “unless you want to be dragged out of this shower and back to the bedroom before we get a chance to rinse off.”

“
You wouldn’t.” Her eyes flashed a teasing challenge as she pulled him against her. She rubbed the soft bar of soap across the small of his back, down his buttocks, to the back of his thighs. “Think of the trail of hot, soapy water we’d leave across that beautiful carpet all the way to the bed¬.”

“
Yes. Think of it.” He grabbed her around the waist and reached for the shower door handle, but she wriggled out of his grasp and jumped back under the shower’s warm spray.

“
Stop!” She raised her fists in a fighter’s stance and glared at him. Water ricocheted off her head and shoulders in a fine spray and soapy rivulets drifted down her breasts to her abdomen. “It’s your fault I got all hot and sweaty, and I’m not leaving this shower until I’m finished.”

He laughed, then took the bar of soap from her and built up a frothy lather in his hands. “All right. I concede. As long as I’m allowed the honors of finishing.”

He crouched down before her and began to soap her calves with long, loving strokes. She didn’t protest. When his soapy fingers reached up to tantalize her thighs, and then, with gentle massaging motions, moved ever-closer to her womanhood, a small moan escaped her lips and she was obliged to grasp his shoulders for support. Sliding his arms around her waist, he kissed his way up over her stomach, finally pausing to sip the warm water streaming down the smooth, narrow valley between her breasts.