She looked back up at the ceiling. “You’re more than that. You work a lot too. You—”
“Hey!” He cut her off, as though he wanted to stop this serious talk. “Are you hungry?”
“Not especially, but I’d put money on it that you are. I’m sure Della would love to have lunch with you.”
Nate got off the bed. “It’s 3:00 p.m. and I haven’t eaten since breakfast. I’ve been listening to stories of how great each man used to be. It seems that today we whippersnappers don’t know what real work is. This was said while I was pulling some black strings off my arms. Got them while diving for trash.”
“You shouldn’t have gone shirtless.” She stood up.
“If a pretty girl is watching me, I tend to strip off. Can’t let all those bench presses go to waste. Why don’t we—”
There was a knock at the door. “Terri? Are you in there?”
“That’s Della,” Terri whispered.
“I can’t find that nice young man who is engaged to marry Stacy Hartman,” Della said through the door. “He isn’t alone in your bedroom with you, is he?”
“Subtle,” Nate whispered, then slid open the door to the outside. “Follow me.”
Terri practically ran past him.
Outside, there were two men attending the big barbecue grill that had magically appeared at Terri’s house. It was covered with sizzling meat. When Nate grabbed sausages and bread, Terri opened a cooler and took out three small bowls of food. She had no idea what they contained.
“Here,” Elaine said from behind her, and handed her a big pink tote bag. “I put a jug of lemonade inside. Take your time. This party hasn’t officially started yet.”
Terri knew she should protest that she and Nate weren’t running off to some love tryst, as Elaine seemed to be implying. They were escaping Della’s nosy questions. But Terri just smiled. “Thanks.”
Minutes later, she was running toward her boat, Nate close behind her.
And not far behind him was Della Kissel calling to Terri.
“Go!” Nate said and Terri stepped up her pace.
They practically leaped into the boat. Nate untied it while Terri started the engine. She took off so fast that Nate nearly flew out the back, but he just laughed.
Terri headed toward Club Circle, where all the shops and public buildings were, but then she made an abrupt turnaround and headed back toward her house. She thought Nate would ask what she was doing, but he didn’t. She stayed close to the east shore, went into a little cove, then came back out near one of the three bridges. It was a place Nate had not seen before.
Terri cut the engine to low, then slowly went near the south side of a piece of land surrounded by water that was known as the Island.
Nate jumped into the shallow water to pull the boat onto shore. There was a stake where he could tie it.
“Damn!” Terri said as she looked at the water. She had on tight jeans and the absurdity of high heels.
Nate walked through the water and held out his arms. He didn’t need to tell her to jump.
Terri decided to forego the girlie protest of “I’m too heavy” and “I could take off my shoes and wade in” etc. In a very practiced gesture, she stepped up to the side and fell backward.
Nate caught her without so much as a grunt and carried her to the sand. “You’ve done that before, haven’t you?”
She did not say “a hundred times” as those words would require explanation. “Maybe. Della is going to torture both of us.”
Nate noted that she didn’t answer his question.
“You can put me down now.”
“Not until we get somewhere we can sit and eat.”
“Ah yes, food. Your number one concern. Did you get me out just to save time?”
He didn’t reply.
She loved the feeling of his big body against hers, and she wanted to lean her head against his chest. If she did, she’d be able to feel the warmth of him, hear his heartbeat. For a moment she’d be able to imagine that this was real and that he belonged to her.
Abruptly, he dropped her legs to stand her on the ground. “I’ll get the food.”
Half an hour later, they’d eaten the food they’d brought. Nate congratulated her on having so wisely chosen two delicious salads and a whole bowl full of brownies. They laughed over how they had blindly snatched and run.
But through it all, she kept feeling that he had something serious he wanted to say to her. Please, she thought, don’t let it be questions about the gossip she was sure he’d heard by now.
When they finished their meal, Nate stretched out on the grass in some dappled sunlight, while Terri sat a few feet away. “I got bawled out by Stacy,” he said.
“Oh? Any reason?” It wasn’t easy to keep the hope out of her voice.
“For imposing on you.”
“Because you make so much noise in the morning? And because you hog the remote and you seem to think that televisions are made only for watching sports? Or is it that you put so much chili pepper on that chicken yesterday that I could barely eat it? And you—” She broke off because he was smiling broadly.
“She doesn’t know about those horrible things.”
Terri drew in her breath. “Are you saying that you haven’t told her that you’re living with me?”
“I’m just renting. We’re not living together.” He turned his face to the sun, enjoying the warmth. “Stacy was quite...uh, vexed with me for inviting people to your house. She wanted to know if I’d asked your permission and I said I had.” He turned toward Terri. “I did, didn’t I?”
“You asked if a ‘few friends’ might come over. And you ignored my warning about the whole lake showing up.” She was teasing him.
“If you want them to leave, I’ll kick them out.” He started to get up.
“No!”
Smiling, Nate lay back down. “I told Stace I didn’t think you were upset, but I promised to make sure.”
“And that’s why we’re here?” Terri realized that she’d had a bit of hope that it was for another reason. She knew he was staring at her, but she didn’t dare look at him. He was much too good at reading what was inside people’s minds for her to meet his eyes. “So what else did Stacy say?”
“She reminded me that I have brunch at her parents’ house tomorrow at eleven.”
That idea made her laugh and she turned to look at him. “That sounds exciting. I bet they’ll be overjoyed when you show up in a rugby T-shirt and grab your food with your hands.”
Nate didn’t smile. “Her parents hate me.”
Terri gave a snort of disbelief.
“I’m serious. They can’t stand me. Her dad thinks I’m going to knock over the furniture.”
“Bull in a china shop?”
“Exactly.”
Terri stretched out a few feet from him. Her feet were bare and the grass felt good on her toes. Nate sounded truly upset by this. “I doubt if they actually dislike you. It’s just that you’re not Bob and your parents aren’t the Aldersons. Why don’t you get your mom and dad to come to Summer Hill and court the Hartmans? Or maybe your money uncles could befriend them. Then they might forgive you about Bob and—”
Nate sat up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He sounded shocked. “Who is Bob? I’ve never heard of the Aldersons.”
“Oh dear.” Terri stood up and reached for her heels. “I think we better go back. Della will be telling everyone that you and I are here doing the naughty. We need to cut the gossip off before it begins.”
“Sit!” Nate ordered.
She obeyed. “Wow. Do you know that you sounded just like Kit? Did I ever tell you that he once stopped three boatloads of people with just his voice?”
“I know all about Kit Montgomery. What I don’t know about is Bob and company.”
/> “I don’t think it’s my place to tell,” Terri said primly. “Stacy is the woman you’re going to marry and she—” She couldn’t endure Nate’s intense glare. She swallowed. “Robert—Bob—Alderson was Stacy’s boyfriend all through high school.”
“High school,” Nate said.
“And college. Look, I really think—”
“So when did they break up?”
“I don’t know!” Terri’s voice was rising. “As you’ve seen, Summer Hill and the lake are separate. I went to school in town but we keep socialization in our own territory.”
“When was the last time you saw Stacy and this Bob together?”
Terri gave a sigh of defeat. “Last spring, Stacy came here to talk to Dad about Widiwick, and Bob was with her. Not long after that Della told us that Stacy was in DC and was having an affair with someone Kit knew. Soon after that she told us about the engagement. I’m sure Stacy broke up with Bob before she met you.”
Nate was frowning. “And his parents?”
“They’re best friends with Stacy’s parents.” She stood up. “I think we should go back.”
Nate didn’t move. “So it’s not me they hate, it’s just that I’m not someone else.”
“I guess so. This is something you should talk to Stacy about.”
“What’s Bob look like?”
“Your height but thin. He played basketball in high school.”
“What’s he do now?”
“I don’t know.” Terri was getting tired of this. “I’m a lake person, not one of the Summer Hill elite. I eat food wrapped in paper, not off two-hundred-dollar plates.” She turned away. “I’m going back to the boat.”
Nate caught up with her. “I didn’t mean to make you angry or to pry into town secrets. I’m just trying to figure out why her parents dislike me so much.”
She could see the puzzlement—and some hurt—on his face and she relented. “They’ll be fine once they get to know you. It’s just that the Hartmans and Aldersons have been friends for years. Lew’s first wife died, but when he remarried, his new wife fit right in. And when she had Stacy, everyone said she’d grow up to marry the Aldersons’ son.”
“You said you didn’t know much about what went on in Summer Hill.”
Terri could feel her temper rising. Enough already! “I couldn’t very well miss the head cheerleader and the star basketball player all over each other all through high school, now could I? Oh! Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
But Nate was staring out at the water. “I’m beginning to understand. Poor guy.”
“You mean Bob?”
“Sure. He lost Stacy. He must be miserable. Let’s go back.”
Terri was blinking at him. “Yeah. Sure. Uh... I left my...” She couldn’t think what to say but ran back into the seclusion of the woods. What she wanted to do was scream so loud she’d knock the leaves off the trees. Instead, she made her hands into fists and stamped her feet until she’d stirred up a cloud of dirt. “Poor Bob,” she mimicked quietly. “He lost Stacy. Lost the most wonderful, fascinating, beautiful, intelligent, interesting—”
“Come on!” Nate yelled. “There won’t be any beer left.”
“Princess Stacy will conjure some with her Wand of Perfection,” Terri muttered.
“Are you all right?” Nate was standing a few feet away from her.
“Ah, here it is.” She picked up a pebble off the ground and slipped it into her pocket. “Can’t lose that!” She walked past him with her nose in the air.
Behind her, Nate was smiling.
* * *
When Frank got to the party, it was already in full swing—and that’s what he wanted. He was taking a risk that Brody would throw him out because he was carrying his guitar.
The sight of it did cause Brody to groan, but it didn’t make him angry. That was a step forward! Terri began to ask questions. When Frank told her that her father used to sing in a band, she was shocked. “I never knew. You never told me,” she sputtered.
Frank noted that Nate Taggert was hovering behind her, as he always seemed to be. Since Nate had arrived, all Frank had heard about was this young man. He worked; he had ideas; he settled problems.
And Terri adored him. The two of them were never apart.
Since Nate’s arrival, Frank had been hoping that the presence of this man would change things at the lake. That he’d change Brody and his daughter. That he’d... Frank had his own ideas about what he hoped the man could do, but he didn’t voice them even to himself.
At the sight of Frank’s guitar, it took just minutes before a couple of old-timers raced off in their electric golf carts. An hour later, thanks to Nate, a sound system was set up outside Terri’s house. When the music started blaring across the water, if there was anyone at the lake who wasn’t there already, they showed up.
Brody sang. His voice was rusty from years of disuse, but he did well. Two of the old codgers could really make the strings on a guitar move, and the women! Lord but they could dance! Down and dirty as if they were sixteen again. When someone yelled, “Long live Woodstock!” there was a roar of agreement.
Through it all, Frank kept his eyes on Terri. What he wanted most in the world was for her to find happiness. She’d been working since she could pick up a fishing pole. She’d been twelve when she first saved the life of a tourist. The guy was drunk, fell off the dock, went under and didn’t come up—and only Terri had seen him. She ran down the dock and kept running off the end into the water, legs still churning. Brody was screaming at her to stop but when she didn’t, he went in after her.
When Terri came up, she had the drunk by the collar and Brody pulled him in. Later he bawled her out and hugged her, then yelled some more, then hugged her more. But it had no effect on Terri.
All through elementary school, high school and into college, Terri had never let up on her workload and her responsibilities.
There was a time during high school when they thought Terri was going to do something besides take care of other people. There’d been a young man. To everyone’s disappointment, it hadn’t worked out.
Since then, as far as they knew, there’d been no other men.
But now there was this Nate Taggert. He and Terri laughed together, danced, passed a beer back and forth.
Throughout the night, the many guests asked questions. Where was this? Was it time for that? Where’s the bathroom? Thousands of questions. What Frank liked was that as many questions were directed at Nate as they were at Terri. It was as though people already saw Nate as belonging at the lake. Maybe even saw him as belonging to Terri. Saw them as a couple.
At the first break the band took, Frank stepped away. He wanted to move around and see what was going on.
The first thing he noticed was that Nate was spending time with little Della Kissel. Damned if he wasn’t flirting with her!
What’s he up to? Frank wondered. He and Kit Montgomery had had some long talks about his work in the diplomatic services. Kit was a great storyteller. “If it hadn’t been for Nate I would have wrung that bastard’s neck,” was something Kit had said more than once. He told how Nate was calm even in the midst of gunfire. And Nate was “so damned likable that people believed he was on their side,” Kit said.
Frank had wanted to see Nate with Terri, but as he watched the young man get drink after drink for that gossipy little woman, Frank became more interested in them.
He wants something from her, Frank thought, and he couldn’t suppress a grin. Brody kept saying that Nate was deeply in love with Stacy Hartman, but what would Della have to say about Stacy? As far as Frank knew, no one had a bad thing to say about her.
Now, Terri... There were a lot of lies told about her. And many secrets were being kept.
If Nate was plying Della with drink to find out something, did that mean he was interested in Terri?
That hope made Frank play the next set with such enthusiasm that people stopped dancing and cheered him. The oldies weren’t the only ones who were good on the strings.
* * *
When Della began weaving from too much to drink, Nate volunteered to drive her home, and helped her into his car. Her house was small and ordinary, the grounds around it neatly kept. Inside, it was packed with furniture that was part antique, part just old, and floor-to-ceiling shelves full of ornaments. It looked like Della’s hobby was haunting auction houses and estate sales. It was all clean and tidy, but the close-knit clutter of it made Nate’s skin crawl.
She was hardly in the door before she turned to him. “So what is it you want me to tell you?”
He was pleased that she knew why they were there. “I want to know about Billy Thorndyke.”
“Billy?” Della gave a sly smile. “Shouldn’t you be asking about Bob Alderson?”
“I know about him. Who I don’t know about is Thorndyke.”
“You’re like me, aren’t you? You want to know everything about everyone.”
“We all rationalize what we do,” Nate said under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Tell me about Thorndyke.”
“Is it him or Terri you want to know about?” Again, that sly look came back.
“I guess I’ll go back to the party,” Nate said. “I’m sure you’ll be all right here alone.” He didn’t get one step closer to the door before Della called him back.
“I think I’m going to need some help tonight,” she said. “When you get to be in your fifties as I am, life is harder for you.”
Before he turned back toward her, Nate rolled his eyes. She hadn’t seen fifty in a decade.
“I’ll just slip into something more comfortable.”
When she stepped behind an old-fashioned screen, Nate walked around the room, looking at what was on the shelves. He’d learned that silence often made people talk. And it was only wanting to know that made him stay there. When he saw some items that he knew were valuable, he was almost distracted from his purpose.
Met Her Match Page 9