Bradley, Lex thought, had been busy. “Actually, I’m a photographer.”
“How nice for you,” she said insincerely, ignoring his words. “And, Olivia, how’s that other son of yours? He got loose from that Stafford girl, I understand. None too soon, if you ask me.”
That Stafford girl.
The woman’s voice lowered. “They’re here tonight, if you can believe it. Just walk in as big as life every year as though they had a right to. As though they still belonged.”
That did it. Lex opened his mouth.
“Isn’t that a lovely necklace you have on, Alicia,” Olivia interrupted before he could say a word. “Wherever did you get it?”
“Oh, this old thing?” The Smythe woman patted it as though to remember which one she was wearing. “I stopped by Harry Winston last time I was out in Beverly Hills. It’s so hard to find good emeralds. Why, I was just telling Joyce the other day—”
“Excuse me,” Lex broke in. “I need to go hunt down another drink.”
What he needed was to get out of there before the top of his head blew off. “That Stafford girl.” The silky condescension in Smythe’s voice had him gritting his teeth. What was Olivia doing spending time with these people? What was he? They were insipid, shallow, mean-spirited. They were wastes of time.
The only even remotely pleasant or useful bit of the whole discussion was the news that Keely and her family were there. He’d known Jeannie was doing the flowers for the event. Keely hadn’t talked about coming. Instantly, the night began to look up.
Casually, he navigated the edges of the ballroom, smiling, nodding, never stopping, looking always for the one person who could make the night worthwhile.
And then he saw her.
She was, simply, beautiful. Amid all the rainbow drama of fabrics and jewels, she had chosen simplicity. Her gown was cut like that of a Grecian goddess, draping from the shoulders and falling to her feet in a waterfall of silken white, leaving her arms bare. Gold gleamed—at her ears and throat, in a cuff around one of her narrow wrists that made it look almost unbearably fragile. Her hair was pulled up in a complicated plait that focused the eye on her slender neck.
And on her face. She was luminous, as though she radiated light from inside. Did he see it because she was his? he wondered. Because he knew what it was to watch her expression slip from pleasure into ecstasy while he was inside her?
But then her eyes lit and she smiled at someone past him and he found himself taking an involuntary breath. She smiled and walked directly toward him and all he could do was wonder how the hell he’d gotten so lucky as to be standing in this particular spot at this particular time.
And totally unaware of him, she passed by to go to a white-haired gentleman. “Someone promised me a dance,” she was saying. “I’m going to collect, Mr. Lucas, that’s all there is to it.”
With a bow, Lucas held out his arm. “A dance you want and a dance you shall have.”
Bemused, Lex watched the pair go to the floor. With great seriousness, Lucas held up his hands in dance position. Keely stepped in and they began to move in a slow, formal waltz.
It was the first time Lex had really ever been able to watch her when she was unawares. It was the first time he’d seen her without the threat of the future hanging over her. Her eyes sparkled, her laugh was infectious. She was long and lovely in her fluid gown. She and her partner rose and dipped to the music, moving in and out of the shadows thrown by the chandeliers. And as they circled the floor, Lex felt a sweet twist inside him.
The song drew to an end and Lucas twirled Keely around to a stop at the edge of the floor and bowed. “Thank you, my dear, for a lovely, lovely dance.”
“Thank you,” Keely said, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.
And Lex couldn’t wait any longer. “May I cut in?” he asked, stepping forward.
Keely’s eyes seemed to grow larger as their gazes met. Her lips parted, and it damned near took his breath away. “Of course,” she murmured.
The white-haired guy squinted at him. “Cutting in?”
“If you’re done.”
He gave Lex an assessing look and then nodded. “Okay by me. This one appears to have a brain,” he added to Keely.
“Oh, he does,” Keely assured him, laughter in her eyes.
“Should I know what that was about?” Lex asked as he pulled her into his arms.
“I don’t think so. Merry Christmas,” she added as the orchestra began to play “Tennessee Waltz.”
“Merry Christmas to you. Are you having a good time?”
“Surprisingly, yes. Are you?”
She was featherlight in his arms. He caught a hint of her scent. “I am now.”
Her smile was brilliant. “Smooth talker.”
“You’re beautiful,” he said before he knew he was going to.
Keely missed a step and lurched against him for an instant. “Definitely a smooth talker.” But she didn’t laugh.
In the soft lighting, her eyes were dark and enormous. The chandeliers threw shadows across the fragile curves of her collar bones. Her mouth mesmerized him. “I want to kiss you,” he said.
“We can’t.”
“I still want to. I think I may always want to.” He’d intended it as a quip but somehow as he said it, he realized it was true. In this moment, at this time, he couldn’t ever imagine being with any other woman. It was Keely, all he needed, all he wanted. No one else mattered. No one else ever could.
Like stepping on granite and having it turn to quicksand, she’d once said to him.
Him, the loner, the guy who never got carried away. Him, the guy who knew what he wanted and where he was going. He’d stepped on solid ground, it had turned to water under his feet. And suddenly he found himself in over his head.
In over his head and scared as hell.
Chapter Twelve
The snow crunched underfoot as Lex walked down the road. His breath formed white plumes in the morning air. He hunched his shoulders in his jacket and ignored the cold. It felt too good to be outside and moving.
He’d been up at dawn, restless and edgy, feeling itchy in his own skin. If he’d still been on the rhino assignment, he’d have been hiking in to the blind near the watering hole, hoping to hide out and catch the poachers in the act of setting their snares. He’d be focused on action and activity and the work that made his life worthwhile.
But he wasn’t on assignment, he wasn’t working. He was just spinning his wheels in Chilton, feeling stuck deeper in the mud with each passing day. And so he found himself out on the roads, walking next to the snow banks, proving to himself that he wasn’t completely immobile.
And he was full of it because he knew damned good and well that no matter how far he walked, he wasn’t going to get away from what was really eating at him.
What the hell was wrong with him? He had no business getting serious about Keely Stafford. It was one thing to have a quick affair, to take and give pleasure. It was another to let her get inside his head. It was foolish to let emotions enter into it. And it would be even more of a mistake to start thinking about a future with her.
A mistake for both of them.
The door to Darlene’s jingled as he stepped inside, stomping the snow off his boots. Caffeine was probably the last thing he needed but until something better came along, it would have to do.
It was early enough that the shop was still empty. Darlene bustled out from the back. “Merry Christmas,” she sang out. “Nine more shopping days. Better head to the mall now.”
“Coffee,” he growled.
She raised a brow. “Sounds like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
His reply was interrupted by the ring of his cell phone.
“You going to answer that?” Darlene asked.
Lex shot her a sharp look. He hadn’t brought the phone intentionally. It was only in his jacket pocket because it had been there the day before, a result of Olivia’s campaign t
o get him to carry it all the time. He was in no mood to talk with anyone. For that matter, he couldn’t even figure who might be calling him. Still…
Reluctantly, he pulled out the phone, to see Flaherty’s number on the display. Fighting the urge to curse, Lex snapped the phone open. “You want to tell me why you’re bugging me on a Sunday morning?”
“I thought I’d call and see if you had any sins you wanted to confess, me lad.”
“Father forgive me, for I’m contemplating strangling someone.”
“And who would that be?”
“You.”
Flaherty laughed. “Did I interrupt your beauty sleep? I was just calling to see if you’d had any time to think about our discussion.”
“It’s been three days, Flaherty. I’ve barely gotten home from the train station.” Even he could hear the edge in his voice.
“I just thought if you had any questions, I could answer them.”
Lex stared at an old photo of barnstormers posing with their planes. “Yeah, I’ve got a question. Can you give me some room to breathe here?”
“Well, well, well,” Flaherty said slowly, the amusement replaced by satisfaction.
“What have you got to be so smug about?”
“I know you, Lex, my boy, and if you’d already decided against the job, you’d be telling me to take a hike right now.”
“Is that a dare?”
“Just an observation. The point is, you’re not turning it down.” The whisper of triumph in his voice rankled.
And for the life of him, Lex couldn’t figure what was preventing him from telling Flaherty what he could do with both his observations and his job.
“This is good news,” Flaherty continued blithely. “I think you’re weakening. Have a good rest of your weekend, laddie. My best to your mother. And we’ll be talking again, soon.”
“Go choke on a waffle.” Lex cut off the call and snapped the phone closed.
Darlene stared at him, wide-eyed. “Remind me never to call you on a Sunday morning,” she said.
“It’s just a guy bugging me about a job.”
“Well, I’m sure you’re going to get it, you charmer.”
“I don’t want it.” Flaherty—yet another person trying to back him into a corner.
“What’s the job?”
“Working as a desk jockey for a wire service in New York next year.”
Her eyes gleamed. “Do tell.”
“No, if you don’t mind, I won’t.”
“If you don’t want the job, why didn’t you just say so?” she asked, stacking fresh-baked corn muffins in the display case.
Lex glowered at her. “Don’t you have anything better to do than eavesdrop on customers’ phone calls?”
“Kind of hard not to when they’re three feet in front of me,” she said mildly. “And I noticed you didn’t say no to him. I’m just saying. As an old friend.”
Lex leaned toward her, planting his hands on the countertop for leverage. “Hey, Darlene? As an old friend—I’ve got enough stuff on my mind right now without one more person putting pressure on me. Now, can I get that coffee?”
Darlene eyed him speculatively as she reached for the coffeepot. “The world is full of pressure these days, isn’t it? Particularly the kind of pressure you get from blond hair and gray eyes, nice figure, good family…” As his eyes narrowed, she laughed. “I’m not blind, Lex, though it seems like the rest of this town might be. I see how you two look at each other. You’ve got good taste. And despite your present crankiness, so does she.”
Great, he was becoming obvious. His immediate impulse was to tell Darlene she was wrong, but one look into her eyes took the fight out of him.
“Let’s not talk about this right now, okay?” he muttered.
Darlene smiled slightly and set his coffee on the counter between his hands. “Maybe this will help. Try some sugar, it’ll sweeten things up.”
She turned to the wall behind her and pulled out a pushpin to take down a postcard. She’d already cleared away at least half of them, he saw.
“You got someone else sending you postcards?”
She shrugged. “The wall was full. I figured I’d take some down to make some more room. Of course, now I’m starting to think maybe I should put them in a scrapbook. I get the feeling you might be sticking around.”
“No way.”
“Don’t dismiss the idea so fast. It’s been nice having you around. I’m not the only one who thinks so.”
And again he could feel the potential entanglements snatching at him, as if his sleeve had been caught by the gears of a giant machine, the one he’d escaped at eighteen. His mother, Flaherty, Darlene. Even Keely. People all around him suddenly wanted things from him, to have him become yet another cog spinning in one place that would make the world this town represented run more smoothly.
Lex placed a dollar carefully on the counter and picked up the steaming paper cup Darlene had set before him. “Go ahead and clear that wall. I’ll send you enough new postcards to cover it twice.” He turned and left the shop, the bell above the door jangling again as it closed behind him.
Sunlight slanted through the stained glass windows at the side of the church. The voices of the choir filtered down from above them like the song of angels. Incense scented the air.
Keely always found services at her childhood church soothing. So maybe she was well and truly lapsed, and maybe she guided her life these days by her own moral compass rather than the teachings of the High Episcopalian church, but there was something about sitting on the polished wood pew next to her parents and listening to the drone of Reverend Richards’ voice that soothed.
And on this day, of all days, she could use soothing.
She wasn’t upset exactly. She wasn’t even quite on edge. She was just…unsettled. Something wasn’t quite right. She couldn’t say how she knew it but she knew it, as though she were walking across a railroad trestle and feeling the first distant hint of an oncoming train in the tiny vibrations of the track.
She turned her head slightly to stare at the stained glass window that showed the Annunciation. She didn’t need archangels appearing with trumpets to tell her what was going on; she’d have settled for a whisper.
“Don’t gawk,” Jeannie chided sotto voce, just as she had when Keely had been a girl.
Now, as then, Keely listened to the Reverend’s voice and let her thoughts spiral away, and suddenly she was back at the gala, warm with the fizz of champagne, circling the dance floor in Lex’s arms.
All little girls, she guessed, dreamed of being a fairy princess in the arms of a prince. And for those few moments, she had been. Under the golden glow of the chandeliers, with the swirling sounds of the orchestra in the background, he’d gazed at her as though she were some priceless treasure. In his eyes, she’d read forever. And she’d felt like her heart was just going to explode with emotion.
All her imagination, though, because when the song ended, so had the look, and she’d barely seen him the rest of the night.
Her mother elbowed her. “Kneel,” she hissed.
Obediently, Keely sank down onto the crimson velvet cushion.
It had turned strange. She wasn’t quite sure why or how, but something was off. Maybe something had happened, maybe too much of what she felt had shown in her eyes. Whatever it was, Lex was already backing away.
And she hadn’t a clue what to do.
Lex unlocked the front door quietly. The last thing he was in the mood for was company. If it had been a different time of year, he’d have just kept walking but after an hour of sub-freezing temperatures, it was too cold to stay outside.
Even for him.
So he opened the door as stealthily as he could manage, trying not to think that it was damned silly for a grown man to sneak in like a guilty high schooler come back from being out all night. He was too old to be tiptoeing down halls. One more example of how out off-kilter his life had become.
Which he really n
eeded to deal with at some point. He needed to have a quiet, diplomatic sit down with Olivia and get this worked out. No, what he needed was to solve the Bradley problem so that he could leave.
“Well, you’re up early,” Olivia said from the breakfast nook, startling him.
“So are you,” he responded, then took a conscious breath. It wasn’t her fault he was in a hell of a mood that morning.
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