The Red Diary (21 page)

Lauren set the tray off the bed and eased down next to Nick. "Poor Davy. Did he want the dog?"

"Yeah. Elaine didn't think he'd take care of it, but I think he would've. He's good with animals, good with a lot of things. And he really sees things."

"What do you mean?"

He gave his head a slight shake, trying to think how to explain. "He's always pointing out things I'd miss otherwise. Unusual trees or clouds, days when the ocean gets choppy along the causeways. He named my company."

"Really?"

"We were walking on Clearwater Beach one night, watching birds dive for fish. I'd just quit painting for James Staley to start my own business, and I asked Davy to think of a name. Quick as that he snapped his fingers-"Davy said I should call it Horizon. He said it would tell people I could turn things all the colors in the sunset. And I hadn't even noticed the sunset, but I looked then, and the sky was orange and purple and pink, practically glowing. We sat down on the sand and just watched it, all swirling and changing as the sun sank. So I named it Horizon for Davy."

She bit her lip, then leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. He ignored it, turning away slightly, but slid his arm around her at the same time. Shit, when had she tricked him into talking again?

Lauren rested her head on his chest, still unable to believe he'd stayed, and they were communicating, like normal people,

real lovers, and--Oh, the sex. She ached just remembering it, because that had changed, too. While at times just as hot and hard as their previous encounters, it really had been closer to making love. She'd made love before; she knew how it felt, how it could be rough and tender in the same breath. And she didn't know why or how, but things had shifted since yesterday. Nick did have a soul, and he was letting her see it, even if reluctantly.

In that moment, his words from the night before sprang to mind. Hold on to the back of the chair. And don't let go. So close to her own words-in her journal. A chill rippled through her body, just as it had when he'd spoken them last night. A coincidence? Maybe. But added to everything else-no, she couldn't believe that. And she still didn't know what it meant, but it made her feel all the more attached to him, like she could confide in him.

"You want to know something?" she asked softly. "Sure."

''The night you took me to Fred Howard Beach, it was so dark and isolated that I was a little nervous."

"I wasn't trying to make you nervous. I just wanted to get you away from that meat market of a party."

She let a hint of amusement leak through her expression. "Maybe I'm misjudging you, Nick, but you strike me as the sort of guy who would appreciate a good meat market."

"Meat markets are fine if you want to be in one. You didn't look like you wanted that."

She lowered her eyes. "I'll admit I've spent a lot of time fending off unwanted attention at parties like Phil's." "Why do you go?"

"Sometimes it's just a result of ... peer pressure, I guess." She sighed. "Carolyn hounding me, trying to make me feel like I'm boring if I'd rather stay home with my cat than go out and get propositioned thirty times. But sometimes, like the other night, it's sort of a business obligation. Phil is my dad's partner, and I work with him on a regular basis. And when I know my dad and a lot of the other higher-ups at Ash will be there, it becomes a professional thing."

"Princess," Nick said pointedly, "that was the least professional gathering I've ever been to."

She tilted her head against the pillow. "Really?"

He nodded emphatically, and it made her feel a little thick.

"I guess I don't have much to compare it to. I mean, my dad's get-togethers are always like that, so I just assumed .. ." "They are?" "Yeah."

"Honey," he said, "my company might not be as big a deal as Ash, but I have a Christmas dinner for my guys and their families every year. We go to Leverock's, eat some seafood, drink some beer, and talk about work or the weather or the football season. It's pretty tame, but a decent night out. And nobody's sneaking off to have sex or anything. At Phil's, on the other hand, I met Carolyn coming out of the bathroom with that guy, Jimmy, and I stumbled onto Phil himself getting it on with somebody."

She lifted herself onto one elbow. "Jeanne?" That didn't sound like Jeanne. Not at a party, and not as busy as she'd been with the hostessing duties that night.

Below her, Nick shook his head. "No, not Jeanne. I saw Jeanne. It wasn't her."

"But .. ." She pulled in her breath. "Then who .. ."

She shook her head as the shock hit her. "Wait, that's impossible. Phil would never do that."

"Phil would," Nick said. "Did." Then he winced. "I wouldn't have said anything, but I didn't realize it was a secret. I mean, the door was open."

Lauren was speechless. She knew Phil was no choir- boy, but ... "You're sure it was him? Absolutely sure?" "Yeah."

"I ... can't believe it." "A lot of people do it."

''Well, that doesn't make it right," she replied, still stunned. "Oh God, poor Jeanne."

Nick shrugged. "Maybe she knows."

"No." She and Jeanne weren't close friends, but well enough acquainted that she knew Jeanne thought her marriage was fine. Lauren sat up in bed, nearly beside herself over what she'd just learned. What the hell was Phil thinking? How could he do that to his wife? She clenched her fists as shock and disbelief transformed into anger.

"Listen," Nick said below her, ''forget I said anything if it bothers you."

She glanced down at him. "You don't understand. I consider Phil a friend, and I thought I knew him. I thought he was a good person, and a good husband. I don't know if I can forget about it."

Sliding his arms around her, Nick drew her back down with him, his sexy voice coming low in her ear. "Why don't you let me try to take your mind off it." His hand closed over her breast, and ... mmm, to her surprise, maybe he could take her thoughts elsewhere. Her worry remained in place, but pleasure was slowly surrounding her.

"Don't think about anything but you and me, Princess," he told her. "Think about this." His free hand found hers and dragged it under the sheets until it rested between his thighs.

Chapter Twelve

Lauren thought she was about as satiated as a woman could be as she zipped toward the Ash offices with her car's top down, the wind whipping through her hair. The last eighteen hours had seemed like something she might have dreamed. Well. okay, if she'd dreamed it, maybe she would have changed a few things. Nick wasn't as warm as her previous lovers. And there wasn't that feeling of knowing you both cared deeply, knowing you were involved in something real and lasting. But she'd certainly gotten much more than she'd ever expected from him. He'd talked to her. And he'd held her while they'd slept. And he'd shown her just how gentle he could be when he wanted to.

Certain undeniable questions flitted about the edge of her mind. Where would this lead? Would it go on? And the unavoidable one that had to do with her father: Was Nick using her somehow? Did having sex with her make him feel like he was getting back at Henry in some way?

But she shook her head at her doubts. She'd dived into this headlong, knowing the risks, and she had to face them. Accelerating to merge with the traffic on Route 19, she reached to turn up the radio, letting the music rush through her along with the warm breeze, refusing to let anything bring her down. Because even in its lack of perfection, something about her and Nick, together, simply felt ... magical. Maybe there really was something cosmic connecting them, drawing them together. You're thinking insane things again, she scolded herself, yet it seemed a more plausible explanation for the bizarre twists in their short but frantic relationship every day.

Of course, heading to the office was putting a slight crimp in her mood. Because she wasn't going for anything business-related, yet it was something she felt she had to do or she wouldn't be able to live with herself. A part of her wished she didn't know about Phil's indiscretion, but now that she did, she couldn't keep it bottled up inside.

"Oooh, meow," Sadie said when Lauren stepped in the front door in her leopard-print mini. "I'd give my right arm to be able to wear that."

Lauren laughed. "That's a little extreme, Sadie." "Okay, I'd give my right arm to be able to wear that and to get to fool around with that big, sexy Nick Armstrong."

"Shush!" Lauren let her eyes go wide. "Keep it down, would you?"

Sadie grinned. "So you are fooling around with him. And this is a secret?"

She didn't think of it as a secret exactly, but she wasn't prepared to let her father know she was seeing John Armstrong's son. It might open a very old can of worms that would be better left closed. For now, anyway. "Something like that." Sadie tilted her head. "And just how are things with your hunky painter? You seem much happier than the last time we spoke."

''Things are ... better." She couldn't hide her smile. "So I'm not in trouble anymore for sending him to your house?" Sadie teased.

"You're completely forgiven."

"That puts my mind at ease." The older woman winked, then reached for the phone. "Now, who do you need?" "Phil." Even as Lauren spoke his name, though, his voice echoed up the hall.

"There he is now." Sadie returned the receiver to its cradle, and Lauren had already started toward the sound

of Phil's voice when Sadie added, "Oh, and Lauren?" 'When she looked back, the other woman's eyes twinkled with mischief. "You have a good time with that painter, and kiss him once for me."

"Now, Sadie," she replied, "you know Nick's got nothing on Arthur."

Sadie tilted her head, mulling it over. "You're right. But do you think I could convince Arthur to get a tattoo?"

Lauren laughed as she turned to go find Phil, yet it faded upon recalling the unpleasant task at hand. She met up with him in the hallway with one of the construction supervisors.

"Hi there," Phil said. He wore his usual casual clothes-khakis and a button-down shirt-and looked neat as a pin.

She tried to force a smile, but didn't succeed. "Hi, Phil. Craig." Then she focused on Phil. "Could I see you for a minute?" He held his arms open in his general fun-loving way.

"I've got one right now. Whatcha need?"

"Alone."

He arched one eyebrow. "Are you propositioning me, Pet?" He followed it with a wink that nearly made her ill under the circumstances, and Craig laughed along with him.

"Hardly," she murmured, and the simple word killed Phil's smile.

"Oooh, this sounds serious." He held out an arm in the direction of his office door a few steps away. "After you."

He closed the door, then sat down behind his desk, steepling his fingers in front of him. She took a chair on the other side, although she couldn't quite believe she was here, doing this.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "You're cheating on Jeanne."

His calm expression never changed, but he hesitated a second too long. "Why on earth would you think such a thing?" "Because I saw you," she lied. "At your party. You should've closed the door."

Across from her, he let out a long-suffering sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. It fell perfectly back into place. "You're right. I should've. I was far too careless."

Her heart broke a little at the admission. Maybe she'd been hoping against hope that Nick was wrong. "Phil, how could you?" He met her gaze. "Don't take this the wrong way, Lauren, but I'm not sure this is any of your business.""I consider you and Jeanne both friends; how can I not make it my business?"

She leaned forward, her heart beating too hard. "Does Jeanne know?"

"Of course not!" he snapped. "It would kill her." Lauren sighed, at a loss.

"Why are you doing this?" He got to his feet and came around the desk, settling in the wheeled chair next to hers. Rolling it to face her, he took her hands in his. "You have such a good, pure heart, Pet-"

"Don't call me that anymore." Each time he said it now, it bit into her a little more deeply, making her feel more like an object than a person.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he let her hands drop.

"You're taking this too seriously."

"It is serious. And right now, it's making me sick to even look at you." She got to her feet, ready to leave, almost sorry she'd come.

Phil stood, too. "Look, it's not like I'm the only man in the world who gets a little on the side."

Her blood boiled at the remark. "Maybe not, but I didn't know you were as smarmy as all the rest." And for the fIrst time since Nick had told her about Phil this morning, she found herself wondering about every time he'd ever touched her, or called her Pet. She'd thought they shared a teasing, harmless relationship maybe it wasn't. She didn't even want to think about that aspect of this situation, so she concluded by saying, "Don't do this anymore, Phil," then turned to go.

"Lauren, wait."

She stopped and looked back. "You're not gonna tell her, are you?"

She shook her head. "Not now, anyway. But think about your marriage, and if it means anything to you, start respecting it."

The conversation with Phil left her shaken as she swung through a McDonald's drive-thru to pick up the lunch she'd offered to bring back for Nick. She still couldn't believe this was Phil, the same man she'd known and worked with for the past six years. She also couldn't believe she'd confronted him so boldly-it wasn't really like her-but she was glad she had. The meeting hadn't exactly felt successful, but she hoped it would at least make him reevaluate his actions.

She returned to the house to find Nick making a lot of progress on the paint job. He insisted on eating his Big Mac and fries while he worked, claiming he was on a roll and didn't want to stop. Although he did take the time to talk about a new trim color while he painted, telling her he'd finish the base coat this afternoon and would be starting the trim tomorrow morning. Retreating inside to let Nick concentrate, she wished her day had been as productive as his, and decided to get some work done lest she fall behind, too. Heading to her office, she dug into this week's invoices-but frankly, she still found productivity hard to come by. Her mind swirled with memories of her night with him. and with the continued shock of discovering Phil was cheating on Jeanne. Suddenly, nothing in her world felt quite like it had yesterday.