by Gina Wilkins
Her throat tightened. “I know you did, Jeffrey. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
“I thought he liked us.”
“I’m sure he does like us.” He simply liked his freedom better, she thought sadly. “There were things he had to do tomorrow.”
There she was defending him again, even though he didn’t deserve it. She told herself she was doing so only for Jeffrey’s sake.
“Aunt Blair?”
“Yes?”
“Do you still like Scott?”
She had to swallow hard before answering. “Of course. We shouldn’t forget that he’s been very nice to us, even if he disappointed us this time.”
And if she ever saw him again, she might very well throttle him.
“Aunt Blair?”
“Yes, Jeffrey?” she asked patiently.
“Is Scott sort of like my dad? You know, he doesn’t let anything tie him down?”
She wanted to hit something again. Preferably Kirk. Followed, of course, by Scott.
“I don’t think Scott is exactly like anyone,” she said, settling on an answer that neatly begged the question.
Jeffrey pulled the covers to his chin. “I’m pretty mad at both of them.”
“So am I, sweetie. So am I,” she muttered as she left the room.
*
TOO WIRED TO SLEEP, she forced herself to concentrate on paperwork until she had finally relaxed enough to consider going to bed. She had just closed her briefcase when the telephone rang. Since it was nearly ten o’clock, the sound startled her. She snatched up the receiver before it could ring again and disturb Jeffrey. “Hello?”
“Hi.” Scott’s voice sounded a bit muffled. Far away. “Did you get my message?”
She took a deep breath and counted to ten before answering. “I got it.”
“Good. Tell Jeff I’ll come by and see him as soon as I get back in town, okay? I’ll bring him some souvenirs from Hawaii. Maybe a grass skirt for you, if you’ll promise to model it for me,” he added with a chuckle she didn’t respond to. He continued before she could speak. “I want the two of you to make yourselves at home at the ranch tomorrow. Don’t hesitate to ask for anything you need. Everyone there will be available to—”
She finally managed to cut in. “Jeffrey and I won’t be going to your ranch tomorrow. We’re making other plans for the weekend.”
There was a pause, and then he said, “But I thought the kid was looking forward to the visit.”
Could he really be this dense? “He was looking forward to seeing you, Scott. Not a collection of buildings and animals. I don’t blame you, I suppose, for leaving this weekend. After all, you don’t owe us anything. But couldn’t you at least have called Jeffrey to explain the change of plans? You certainly talked to him plenty of times when you were making them with him.”
“You’re angry with me.”
“Let’s just say I’m getting tired of being the one who has to dry his tears every time a man he counts on disappoints him.”
“You’re comparing me to your brother? Blair, that’s hardly fair.”
What was unfair was the devastated look in Jeffrey’s eyes when he had gazed at her from his pillow, Blair thought. “Look, there’s really no need for us to argue. Jeffrey was disappointed, but he’ll get over it.” Just as she would, eventually. “Thank you very much for everything you’ve done for us. I’m sure neither of us will ever forget the time we spent with you.”
It was a jumbled and breathless goodbye speech, but the best she could do at the moment.
Scott sounded startled. “You’re giving me a brush-off? Now? Damn it, Blair—”
“Let’s face it, this is better for everyone involved. Jeffrey and I lead a quiet life here—much too quiet and structured for you. Your life is filled with spur-of-the-moment adventures that don’t—that can’t—include us. It’s better for us to simply say goodbye now.”
“I can’t accept that.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to. Jeffrey has to be my priority now. He needs me. I’m all he has. I won’t let him be hurt again.”
“Surely you know I would never hurt that boy—or you.”
“Don’t you understand, Scott?” she whispered sadly. “You already have.”
“By postponing one outing?”
“No. By making us care about you. You said you never wanted to leave anyone behind to miss you or worry about you, but that wasn’t something you could control. Your staff loves you and misses you very deeply when you’re gone. I can’t live that way—and I won’t accept it for Jeffrey, either. He gets enough of that from his father.”
“Blair, this isn’t the time to talk about this. When I get back—”
“Nothing will have changed. You know I’m right. You simply haven’t given it enough thought. Goodbye—and good luck with your surfing competition. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it immensely.”
She hung up before he could argue further. And then she buried her face in her hands, wondering if she’d just done something very logical—or incredibly stupid. She had asked Scott not to call again, and there was a good chance he would accept her request. It was possible that she would never see him again.
And that thought broke her heart—just as she had known it would when this happened.
She had to think of Jeffrey first. He was so young, so vulnerable. He didn’t deserve to be hurt time after time by men who placed their own pleasures before his feelings. It was up to her to protect him as much as possible. Which didn’t mean she wouldn’t grieve for the only grand romance she had experienced in her entire thirty years.
Her eyes were watering again. As disappointed as Jeffrey had been, Blair was even more so. She’d been completely unprepared for this. She hadn’t believed that Scott would string Jeffrey along until the very last minute and then figuratively pull the rug out from under him.
To give him credit, he had seemed surprised by her anger. Maybe he simply hadn’t understood how much his presence would have meant to Jeffrey—and to her. But wasn’t that very lack of understanding only further proof of how wrong he was for them?
Gripped in the throes of her sadness, she wasn’t aware at first that someone had joined her on the couch. And then a tentative meow made her lift her head. Belle, the little gray cat, sat on the cushion beside her, looking at her as if asking if there was anything she could do to help. Blair took the cat onto her lap, obligingly scratching her ears when she butted gently against her.
The cat began to purr, snuggling against Blair as if offering comfort. Blair sniffed and rested her wet cheek against Belle’s soft head, thinking that perhaps there was something to the theory that pets were therapeutic. Cuddling the affectionate kitty didn’t make her heart ache any less, but it sure beat grieving alone.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JEFFREY SLEPT later than usual the next morning. Blair didn’t disturb him, thinking that perhaps he’d had a restless night. She’d gotten little enough sleep herself. Unintentionally or not, Scott McKay had interfered with her sleep since she’d met him. Maybe now that their brief relationship—it could hardly be called an affair—was over, she could get some rest.
Small comfort, but she would take what she could get.
When she heard Jeffrey moving around, she started cooking his favorite breakfast. By the time he shuffled into the kitchen, still yawning and rubbing his eyes, she had a stack of buckwheat pancakes and a bowl of fruit waiting for him. “Good morning,” she said, sidestepping his cat as she finished setting the table.
“Morning. That looks good.”
She smiled and poured a glass of milk for him. “Have you decided what you would like to do today?”
“Can we go to a movie? Or an arcade?”
“We can do both,” she agreed. “It’s turning out to be a beautiful day. Why don’t we drive in to Casper this morning and play miniature golf, then have lunch wherever you like, then maybe go to an arcade and a movie?”
“All of that?” Jeffrey nodd
ed. “Sounds good.”
He seemed genuinely pleased, though not quite as excited as he’d been about the visit to Scott’s ranch, she noted with a pang.
She settled across the table from him with her breakfast. “You know, of course, that I’m going to stomp you at miniature golf,” she teased, hoping to make him smile.
She succeeded. “In your dreams,” he retorted.
“I’ll go easy on you, if you like. Maybe let you get a stroke or two ahead at the beginning. But in the end, victory will be mine.”
Jeffrey rolled his eyes. “Aunt Blair, I’m going to blow you off the score card. I could beat you with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back.”
“You think so?”
“Know so. After all, I’m young and sharp and you’re...well.” He grinned.
“You’re calling me old?” She promptly threw her napkin at him, making him giggle. “You are so going to lose, boy.”
“Maybe I’ll let you win a game of air hockey at the arcade.”
“You’re toast, kid.”
He giggled. “We’ll see.”
He finished every bite of his breakfast, looking considerably more cheerful than he had the night before. Blair feigned a carefree mood. While she was pleased that Jeffrey wanted to spend time with her and that he seemed to be getting past his disappointment about the ranch trip, her heart was still very heavy.
It was going to take her quite a bit longer to recover from her own disappointment.
The next few hours were the most pleasant time Blair and Jeffrey had spent alone together. After breakfast they set out immediately for Casper. It was a beautiful day for a drive. They played two rounds of miniature golf, selecting a different course the second time. Blair won the first round, and was pleased that Jeffrey took the close defeat well. Perhaps she could give credit to Scott for that, she thought with a renewed pang. But Jeffrey beat her the second game, to his obvious delight.
He wanted tacos and cheese dip for lunch, after which they spent a long time in a noisy, crowded arcade. Jeffrey slaughtered her at arcade games, of course, but Blair couldn’t care less since he seemed to be having so much fun. He proudly carried out the stuffed monkey he won, a toy Blair could have bought for half the cost of winning it, but she didn’t care about that, either.
Jeffrey selected an animated action movie—which wouldn’t have been Blair’s first choice—and they bought popcorn, soft drinks and chocolate-covered raisins to munch on during the film. Blair enjoyed the snacks more than the story, but Jeffrey was enthralled. He chattered about the characters and the cool weapons all the way home. Blair tried to remember enough about it to respond with some semblance of intelligence.
Listening to his prattling made her smile. So what if her brief fling with Scott hadn’t worked out. She would recover. She had Jeffrey in her life now, and she would take great pleasure in helping him grow into a fine, upstanding man. A man who understood the meaning of responsibility and commitment. A man who wouldn’t make promises he didn’t intend to keep.
A man who would never disappoint a child who looked up to him.
*
SCOTT MCKAY was an idiot. An insensitive jerk. An aging Peter Pan who needed to grow up and start paying attention to other people besides himself. And those were the words of someone who was very fond of him—his loyal but exasperated assistant, Carolyn.
The things he had said to himself were even harsher.
He sat on the couch in Blair’s living room, his only company the small gray cat that curled on his knee. He wasn’t sure he deserved even her careless affection.
For perhaps the hundredth time that day—if not more—he glanced at his watch. He had no idea when to expect Blair and Jeffrey. It was nearly 9:00 p.m., and he’d been waiting since before noon, after spending all night sitting in airports and airplanes. Wanda Townsend had let him into Blair’s house once he’d explained to her that it was urgent he talk to her niece and great-nephew as soon as they returned. Apparently, she wasn’t aware he wasn’t on their good side at the moment; she had seemed to think it would be perfectly fine with Blair if he waited inside.
Scott hoped Blair wouldn’t be too upset with her overly trusting aunt for letting him in.
After an hour had passed with no sign of them, he’d called the ranch, thinking maybe they’d changed their minds and gone there, after all. That was when Carolyn had let him have it about his insensitive behavior.
“It’s bad enough,” she had chided, “that you leave everyone here missing you and wondering when they’ll see you again—if you don’t get yourself killed first. But to disappoint a little boy—not to mention the nicest woman you’ve met in a long time—well, that’s just too much, Scott.” She had gone on to call him selfish and thoughtless, and to predict a sad, lonely old age for him if he didn’t reform his ways. “I only tell you these things,” she had added, “because I care about you and I want you to be happy. And I don’t think you’ve been truly happy for a long time.”
Her words still ringing in his ears, he was tempted to start pacing, but he’d done so much of that already today that he was probably wearing a path in Blair’s carpet. He couldn’t stop remembering the finality in her voice when she had told him goodbye. He had known when she hung up that he had to do whatever it took to win her back. As Carolyn had so bluntly pointed out, Blair was the best thing that had happened to him in a long time. And he wasn’t going to let his old fears about commitment drive him away this time.
He only hoped it wasn’t too late.
When he heard her garage door go up, he stiffened, his sudden tension causing the little cat to look up with an inquiring meow. Blair and Jeffrey were home—and he had some fast talking to do to win back their confidence.
Hearing them enter the kitchen, he set the cat on the floor and stood, turning toward the doorway. The cat ran into the other room to greet them, but Scott remained where he was. Waiting.
Jeffrey was talking, his voice carrying from the other room. Whatever he and Blair had done that day, the boy had enjoyed it, judging from his obvious excitement. Scott couldn’t help smiling a little, thinking that Jeffrey sounded exactly the way a ten-year-old boy should sound—noisy, enthusiastic, secure.
And then Jeffrey and his aunt walked into the living room and spotted Scott. Their smiles froze, then faded away.
It broke Scott’s heart that Jeffrey was immediately transformed into the boy he had first met—angry, sullen, suspicious. Scott had done that to him this time, he realized sadly. The only difference was that, instead of huddling alone and withdrawn, the boy moved closer to his aunt, as if seeking support from the one person who had not yet betrayed him.
Blair’s expression was stunned. If she felt any pleasure at seeing him, it was masked by her surprise. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “How did you get in?”
“Your aunt let me in. After I promised not to pilfer the silver.”
Neither Blair nor Jeffrey smiled at his feeble attempt at a joke. They just kept looking at him, making him feel a bit like something that had slithered out from under a rock. He cleared his throat and looked at the boy, thinking he might be the easiest to appease. “What have you got there, Jeff? A stuffed monkey?”
The boy glared at him. “Me and Aunt Blair had fun today. We didn’t need you—or your old ranch.”
“Jeffrey.” Blair rested a hand on his shoulder. “There’s no call to be rude. Scott was very nice to make his ranch and his staff available to us, even though we chose to decline the invitation.”
She made the word “nice” sound like an insult, Scott thought with a wince. He shook his head at her. “Let the boy speak his mind. Okay, Jeff, let me have it. Tell me what you think of me.”
Jeffrey didn’t waste time. “You lied to us. You said you would be there today and then you left. You just expected someone else to take care of us. That’s what my dad always does. He makes promises and he never keeps them. And that’s not right!” he added fiercely
.
It was the first time Scott had ever heard Jeffrey express any anger toward his father. Judging from Blair’s expression, she was as surprised as he was. It hurt that the boy had compared him to a man who had caused him so much pain, and yet he knew he deserved the blow. “No,” he said quietly. “It isn’t right when someone you trust lets you down.”
“And you made my aunt cry,” Jeffrey added, visibly startling Blair again. “I saw her, last night when she thought I was asleep. You gave me a hard time when I got lost and made her cry. You said she didn’t deserve it.”
Scott looked apologetically at Blair’s flushed face. “No. She didn’t deserve it from either of us.”
He took a deep breath and went down on one knee to look eye-to-eye with the angry boy. “I’m sorry, Jeffrey. What I did was thoughtless and stupid. I didn’t realize it was so important to you for me to be there today—I thought you just wanted to see the ranch. But that’s no excuse. I invited you to visit me, and it was wrong of me to desert you that way.”
Jeffrey was making a valiant effort not to cry, but one tear escaped him. He dashed impatiently at it. “Then why did you?”
Scott wished he could understand that better himself. “My only excuse is that I’ve been on my own for so long that I’ve gotten selfish. When my buddy called to invite me to go surfing, it was just habit to grab a bag and take off. I thought you’d be happy with your aunt and my staff and my foreman, Jake. I even left instructions for my favorite horse to be available to you. I just didn’t understand that you really wanted me to be there, too. I was a jerk, Jeff, and I’m very sorry. I hope you can forgive me.”
Jeffrey shot a quick look at his aunt. He was obviously swayed by Scott’s apology, but he wasn’t a child who trusted easily. For good reason. But Blair didn’t give him an answer. Her silence made it clear that it was up to Jeffrey to decide whether to forgive Scott for hurting him.
Jeffrey drew a deep breath. “Okay,” he said a bit grudgingly. “But don’t ever do that again,” he added with a shake of his finger.
“I won’t,” Scott said. “From now on, if I make you a promise, you can count on it. It would take a major emergency to cause me to let you down again. Something involving fire or blood or winds in excess of seventy-five miles per hour, at least.”