by SUE FINEMAN
Maria spent the rest of the morning going through house plans with Blade. The one Nick had shown him, the one Al had done in school, didn’t meet Blade’s requirements, and she couldn’t see him living in any of the other plans. Blade wanted a house that reflected his unique personality.
She kept the table between them and insisted he behave himself, and he did, but his thoughts often strayed. She thought knowing she could read his thoughts would make him concentrate on things other than her anatomy and how much he wanted to make love to her. Did he do that on purpose? Maybe. With Blade, she couldn’t tell. He was a confusing man.
She’d never had a problem staying out of other men’s heads, not like she did with Blade. Fred’s thoughts were usually on himself or on sex and other women, and she’d learned to tune him out. She’d never told Fred she could hear his thoughts. She didn’t want to share that aspect of her life with Fred. If she hadn’t been able to read Roberto’s thoughts, if she hadn’t known he was in love with her, if she hadn’t been starved for affection and desperately unhappy in her marriage, she wouldn’t have given him a second look.
Maria shook off her thoughts and got back to the business at hand, finding a house plan for Blade. He wanted a house with two floors and a partial walk-out basement in back, a place to put a pool table. He also wanted a workshop, a place to work on his precious Harley.
“How many bedrooms do you need, Blade?”
“One, but since I have to get married, I suppose my wife will want more. And then there’s that resale thing, in case I decide to live in Europe or Australia or South America for a few years.”
The thought of him moving away, of never seeing him again, gave her a sudden, unexpected sense of loss.
Would you miss me, Maria?
“Yes, I would,” she replied to his unspoken question.
He leaned back in his chair and stretched his long legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. He’d probably practiced that seductive half-smile in the mirror this morning. He was James Dean all over again, only taller and better built. But she’d never wanted to kiss James Dean, and she wanted to kiss Blade Banner. She wanted to do more than kiss him.
She looked away and brought their conversation back to business. “What other rooms do you want?”
“I want an exercise room off the bedroom, a separate office big enough to put a partners desk in, and a library.”
“All on the first floor?”
“No, I want the library upstairs, someplace quiet and private. I’ll need lots of shelves, because my second bedroom is filled with books and I intend to bring my grandfather’s books from New York. If possible, I’d like a balcony off the library overlooking the water, someplace to put a telescope, so I can see the stars.”
Somehow, Maria found it hard to put Blade and library and telescope in one sentence. “Do you read a lot?”
“Everything I can get my hands on. I thought about going for a Ph.D. one of these days.”
“In what?”
He shrugged. “Economics or history, if I could decide which period to focus on, the Revolutionary War era or the Civil War.”
“What would you do with a Ph.D. in History?”
“Teach college, but I won’t have time to teach when I get married. I expect to get involved in my family’s shipping business.”
“Can you do that?”
“I have a master’s degree in business, and once I get possession of my grandfather’s stock, they can’t stop me. I can poke my nose into every aspect of the business once I take possession of the entire estate.”
This man continually surprised her. He only attended one year of high school, but he had a master’s degree in business. He drove a motorcycle and dressed like a biker, he was clueless about how much soap to use on anything, and he turned her inside-out with his kisses. He didn’t like kids, but he didn’t hesitate to help her little boys and their dog out of a jam. And she’d never felt more alive than when she was with him.
“Who are you, Blade Banner?”
“I’m me, honey. I’m one of a kind.”
“Yes, you certainly are.”
He closed the plan they’d been looking at. “This one won’t do. Is Al coming home for spring break?”
“Yes, next week.”
“Good. Maybe he can come up with some ideas while he’s here, assuming the sellers on that property accept my offer.”
As she put the plan back in the drawer, she felt Blade’s eyes on her back. He liked looking at her, and she felt flattered by his attention. After what she’d gone through with Fred, it felt good to have a man think of her as a sexy woman. Fred had accused her of not keeping him interested. He’d blamed her for his infidelity.
Fred hadn’t told her that he’d been married before. Maria didn’t find out until she’d been married to him for nearly a year. She’d had her first miscarriage and heard him arguing with a woman outside her hospital room door. The nurse was his ex-wife. As if losing the baby wasn’t bad enough, she had to learn that her husband had lied about his past. The nurse barely spoke with Maria that day, as if it was her fault the woman’s marriage to Fred had failed.
She felt no animosity toward Fred’s girlfriends. They probably didn’t know he was married, all except the one he planned to marry. She was Molly’s favorite teacher last year, until Molly found out her father was having an affair with her. Molly transferred out of her class and never spoke to her again, and she hadn’t spoken with her father again either. Fred hardly noticed. He didn’t care about any of his children except Robbie, and then only because Robbie carried his name. It was unfair to single out one of his children and ignore the others, but that was exactly what Fred had done. He gave all his attention to Robbie.
Molly hated her father, and the little boys had Uncle Nick and Uncle Angelo, but Robbie missed his daddy. He was the only one of her kids who had a hard time with the separation and divorce, the only one of the kids Fred had ever paid attention to. Fred had never wanted more than one child, a son to carry on his name. When Maria had her second and third miscarriage before Molly was born, Fred said it was her fault, and he’d never have the son he wanted. And then Molly came along, and Fred blamed Maria for having a girl instead of a boy. Fred’s badgering had driven her into another man’s arms. Fred got the son he wanted, but the son who carried his name wasn’t his.
After Robbie was born, Fred demanded she get her tubes tied, and she’d refused. She was not only a devout Catholic, she wanted more children. When she had the fourth miscarriage, Fred openly celebrated while Maria’s heart shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. She mourned for the lost baby, and she cried alone. Weeks passed before she could work up the courage to tell her family what had happened.
She should have left him then, but she didn’t have the confidence to walk away. They were joined in Holy Matrimony, and no one in her family had ever gotten divorced. That changed when Nick and his first wife divorced. Lisa had committed the unpardonable sin. She’d had an abortion and didn’t tell her husband. Nick didn’t know until he got the bill. Now he had a wife and little boy he loved dearly, and he was such a good husband and father.
Everyone in her family loved kids, and this man sitting at the table in Nick’s office didn’t. Blade wouldn’t know the first thing about being a father, assuming he wanted to be one. But she couldn’t see him celebrating if his wife had a miscarriage.
Maria pulled out two more plans. The sprawling one-level home, what they called a rambler in this part of the country, had a casual, cottage look about it. The bigger two-story plan had a more formal exterior. She had a good idea what he wanted, and although neither of these plans would do, the combination of the two might work well. Al could figure out how to combine the best elements of each. Her youngest brother could do anything when it came to a building design.
In both plans, the living room and kitchen and master bedrooms were in the back, where they’d get the best views of the water. She pointed to a big bedro
om on the second floor of the bigger plan. “You could make this bedroom the library, and if you put a porch on the corner downstairs, you could add a covered balcony over it for the library. What do you think?”
“That might work. This thing has how many bedrooms?”
“Seven, plus a study, and the plan has a big unfinished room over the garage that could be finished at some point.”
She watched him with his head bent over the plan. He was wondering how many bedrooms he’d need if Maria married him. “Don’t do that, Blade.”
He looked up. “How many?”
She called his bluff and counted them off on her fingers. “One for Jimmy and Andy, one for Robbie, one for Molly, one for the baby—”
His hand came up in the universal sign for stop. “Whoa there. Back up. What baby?”
“The one I’d want if I married again, of course, and I couldn’t leave my mother behind, so we’d need a room for her.”
“No problem with Sophia, as long as she cooks every now and then. It’s this crying and changing diapers part I’m not so sure about.” His eyes scanned her body. Although I wouldn’t mind watching you feed my baby with those magnificent—
Maria cleared her throat and backed up a step. “Sorry I brought it up.”
Blade leaned back and looked up at her, thinking, Sophia Loren never looked that good. “So, does this mean you’d consider it?”
“Consider what?” She sat down and listened to his mind.
I’ve never been around kids. I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with them.
“Love them and teach them how to be good adults.”
“Why do I get the feeling they’d be teaching me?”
“It doesn’t matter, because I have no intention of marrying you, Blade.”
Story of my life. Nobody wants me.
Mr. Macho didn’t mean for her to hear that. He excused himself to use the restroom, and her heart went out to him. Down deep inside Blade was a good man, but he wasn’t right for her.
Surely there was a woman in Gig Harbor who was right for him. All she had to do was find her and set them up.
<>
An hour later, Blade sat in June Akiyama’s office going over the counter-offer from the sellers of that waterfront property. He’d offered four hundred thousand and they wanted four-fifty with no contingencies. They’d had a perk test done three years ago, and although the permit for a septic had expired, the sellers assured Blade that the property would handle a four-bedroom septic system.
Blade pulled out his cell phone and called Nick. “Did you do an engineering study on your property?”
“Yeah, all that land along there is safe to build on as long as you anchor the foundation properly.”
“What about septic?”
“We put in two, one on each side of the house.”
“I won’t have enough room for that. Would you sell me a piece of your property to put a drain field on?”
“Tell you what. If you clear that patch of blackberries when you clear your land and let me connect a bathroom and outdoor kitchen to your septic, we’ll call it even.”
“It’s a deal.” Blade closed his phone and turned back to June. “Same price, cash deal, no contingencies. If they don’t take it, tell them I’ll look elsewhere.”
June took care of the paperwork and Blade signed it. He asked for a response by nine this evening, and if this deal didn’t go through, he’d start looking around for something else. He wanted the property, but he wouldn’t pay a hundred thousand more than it was worth. The sellers must think that because Cara Andrews lived on that street, they could jack up the price another hundred thou, but he wouldn’t pay it.
Blade left the real estate office and started home. As he pulled around the corner into his street, he spotted Sunny’s car blocking his driveway. She was going through his mailbox. He stopped and punched in 911 on his cell phone. Sunny was so preoccupied, she hadn’t seen him yet.
“There’s a woman parked in front of my house, and she’s going through my mail,” he told the 911 operator.
After he disconnected, he nosed his Harley against Sunny’s car door so she couldn’t get in. How many hours would it take for the cops to get here?
“Blade, I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Find anything interesting in my mail, Sunny?”
She put the stack of mail on the hood of her car. “Now about the money. I’m broke, and I knew you’d want to help me out.” Her breath smelled like bourbon and her hands were shaking. She was coming down off something. If she was anyone else, he’d pity her, but this woman made his childhood a living nightmare.
Still sitting on his Harley, he waved toward his little rental house. “Does it look like I have money?”
Glancing toward the dumpy little house, she said, “It’s temporary, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, temporary like for the past twenty-five years.” She lived in a nice home, thanks to the Banner money, while he busted his butt to work his way through college and pay off a mountain of student loans. “What did you do with all the money my father gave you?”
“Used it to take care of you, of course. Blade, darling, I’ve been searching for you for the longest time.”
Yeah, for a whole month. She wouldn’t have looked for him if his grandfather hadn’t died. Sunny had no use for him until he inherited Edward’s estate. “Why didn’t you tell me I had a grandfather? Why did you lie to him and omit the truth from me?”
Her shaking hand went to her forehead. “I’m sick, Blade. I don’t have insurance, and I can’t afford medicine.”
“Oh, yeah? Does the medicine cost more than the stuff you gave me when I was a kid?”
“What did you expect me to do with a screaming child?”
“Take me to the doctor. I still have scars from John’s going away present. Did you know that?” He dropped his voice. “Do you care? Did you ever care about me, or did you keep me to get John’s money?”
Blade saw the patrol car coming down the street. He pushed the bike back, parked it behind Sunny’s car, and greeted the Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy. “Officer, glad you could make it. This is the woman I caught going through my mail. I haven’t checked the house yet.”
Sunny lashed out with a bout of swearing that burned his ears. He hoped Maria’s kids weren’t around to hear it. The cop put Sunny through a sobriety test, searched her purse and her car, and pulled out several items of interest. She had an open container of Jack Black under the front seat of her car, several mostly empty vials of something, probably cocaine, in the glove box, and two pieces of Blade’s mail in her purse. One was a credit card statement and the other a letter from Colin Jacobs.
The officer cuffed Sunny and shoved her in the back of the patrol car. He returned to interview Blade. “Do you know her?”
“She’s my stepmother,” said Blade. “I ran away from her abuse when I was fifteen and never looked back. She called me the other day demanding thirty million dollars.”
The cop’s eyes took in the house and the bike. “Did you win the lottery or something?”
“Or something. I inherited some money from my grandfather.”
While Sunny screamed obscenities at Blade, he took the cop into the house. The front door had been pried open. Drawers and cabinets hung open in the kitchen, and the bedroom and his tiny study had been trashed. Blade swore softly when he saw his broken computer monitor. “I don’t give a shit what you do with that bitch as long as you keep her away from me.”
The officer took a bunch of pictures before he left. Blade put the Harley in the garage beside the pickup and picked up the clothes strewn all over his bedroom. Books in the study littered the floor, some with pages ripped. Sunny was looking for money and she didn’t care what she destroyed to find it. Did she find… No, the bank statements were in the file, and that hadn’t been touched.
His cell phone rang. “Blade, this is June. The sellers accepted your offer, and they’d like to close on it as s
oon as the escrow company can complete the paperwork.”
“That’s fine with me. The sooner the better.”
Blade was examining the broken front door when Maria drove past with the kids. She did a double take at the car in front of his driveway, but she didn’t stop. He closed the door and walked down to her house. Seeing Sunny again, knowing she’d searched his house and gone through his mail, had shaken him more than he cared to admit.
He needed a drink.
Only Sunny could do that to him.
<>
Maria gave the kids a snack and sent the boys outside to play with Daisy. She invited Blade inside and called after the kids. “Watch the dog.” Daisy usually stayed in the yard with the kids, but if she saw that white cat, she’d take off again.
Blade sat at the kitchen bar watching Maria clean up. “Hey, where’s my cookies and milk?”
She handed him two cookies, poured him a glass of milk, and sat beside him. “What’s wrong, Blade? Is that Sunny’s car in front of your driveway?”
“I caught her going through my mail, so I called the cops. She had some of my mail in her purse, and she had some things in her car that would have gotten her arrested without the mail theft. One was an open container. The vials of stuff in her glove box looked like cocaine, but they were nearly empty. And the bitch trashed my house.”
“Oh, no.”
Andy burst through the front door. “Blade, there’s a tow truck at your house.”
“It’s okay, Andy. He’s taking that car that broke down.”
“Oh.” The door slammed behind the kid as he ran back outside to watch.
“I hate lying to your kids, but they wouldn’t understand why I’d have my wicked stepmother arrested. Cinderella didn’t do that, did she?”
Maria stood behind Blade and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. No kid should have to grow up like he had, and the man shouldn’t have to relive it now.
He rubbed her arm and leaned back into her. “That feels good, honey.”
She wanted to tell him not to call her ‘honey,’ but she couldn’t tell him now, when he was hurting.
Jimmy ran inside. “Mommy, Daisy ran after Fluffy.”