Since Saturday, when he’d leased the little house, David had taken great care not to be alone with Coralee, and she’d given no indication that she remembered that tense and treacherous moment in his arms.
She’s probably as ashamed of it as I am by now, he decided, stubbing out his cigarette. He was just starting for the door when the intercom speaker hummed into life and barked his name. “Dr. Sterling, you are wanted on the mezzanine. Dr. Sterling…”
He strode out of the room and heard the continuation of the message as he took the elevator down to the second floor, wondering why he was being paged. He hoped it wasn’t another emergency, for he was anxious to pick up his car and move into his own home.
It was Graham and Coralee waiting in the small lounge halfway up the wide stairs from the first floor lobby. Graham stood up and held out his hand, grinning. “Congratulations, Dave! I just heard about your brilliant coup. You’ve made a good start toward Cyril’s hopes for you. I suppose it’s only fair to warn you that you’ve made an enemy too.”
David nodded. Elwood Browne wasn’t the sort of man to take kindly to being put in the wrong.
“Accept my congratulations too, David,” Coralee said, her eyes showing no more than friendly interest in David as she clung to her husband’s arm. “But of course, we already knew you were wonderful. Didn’t we, darling?” She smiled up at Graham and he patted the fingers that lay in the crook of his elbow.
“We knew you were busy today,” Graham told him, “so Coralee picked up your car for you. It’s out in the parking lot, and she’ll go with you to move your gear to your own diggings, help you stock up and everything.”
“Oh, that—that won’t be necessary!” David stammered, alarm catching at his throat. “I don’t want to put her to all that bother!”
“It’s no bother, and you know it,” Coralee chided gently. “You need a woman’s touch to get settled—and it’ll be fun for me.”
Graham laughed. “Ever see a woman who thought a man could set up housekeeping without her help? You’ll have to give in, Dave, to keep her happy, and you’ll find her a real help, too.”
How could he think that, David wondered, when she apparently turned all their own housekeeping over to Emily? However, in the face of their combined stand, he saw no gracious way to refuse her help, or the cordial invitation to have dinner with them afterward.
The car was a little beauty, a wine-colored Rambler, equipped with the safety-belts and phone specified by clinic regulations, and with the extras he’d ordered himself.
“I sort of cheated on you, didn’t I?” Coralee asked, as he held the door open to help her into the passenger seat. “I got to drive your new buggy before you did.”
He grinned in answer and indulged in further admiring inspection as he walked around the car to take his place at the wheel.
“Want me to show you how all the push-buttons work?” she offered, sliding closer.
“No—I’d rather guess. It’s more fun that way.” He switched on the ignition. The motor hummed into life.
“I suppose you think it’s safer that way, too,” she said in a small voice, moving away from him. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve been avoiding me.”
“You know that isn’t it,” he said, pushing the button that put the car in motion. “And you know the real reason, so let’s not discuss it. And let’s cut out this nonsense about my needing help to move a few suitcases. I’ll take you home.”
“It isn’t the moving, David. We should shop at a supermarket on the way. You said you’d be having your breakfast at home, and plan to do some light entertaining. It takes more than a batch of frozen TV dinners in your freezing compartment. I’ve made a list, and I can help you choose the best brands. Maybe you think I don’t run our house because you don’t see me doing the work. But I plan everything, tell Emily and the cleaning woman what I want done, and I supervise all the marketing, do most of it myself. Let me get things started for you, David. I’ll keep my distance. If you refuse now, after Graham suggested it and found me willing, he’ll wonder why.”
“Graham suggested it?” he asked sharply.
“Well, sort of, after I…”
“After you gave him the idea! Okay, you win this round, but let’s get something understood. Graham and I are good friends—and I need to make a go of my job here!”
“You will!” She spoke softly and patted his arm. “Everybody is impressed with you already. I can tell!”
* * * *
The shopping expedition was without incident, also the time they spent putting things away and rearranging the furniture. Once again Coralee was the cheerful, witty, undemanding companion of the earlier days when they’d gone house hunting in the mornings, and golfing, riding, or playing tennis in the afternoon.
It wasn’t until everything was set and they were about ready to leave that Coralee turned to him impulsively, her fingers clutching at his lapels as she said in a harsh, tragic voice, “David, I can’t stand it! I just simply can’t stand it!”
“What?” He tensed and swallowed hard, clenching his fists at his sides to keep from touching her as he looked down into the wide dark eyes, luminous now with imminent tears. “What can’t you stand?”
“I’ve made a terrible mistake, David.” She released his lapels and slid her hands under his jacket, her palms feverishly hot against his chest through the light material of his shirt. He felt them moving sensuously along his ribs, and stood transfixed, powerless to halt their progress as she went on urgently, “I’ve tried my best to do what’s right—truly I have! But doesn’t it seem as if the longer you work on a mistake, the worse it gets? I mean, the only way to correct it is to back up and start all over again?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. He laid his hands gently on her shoulders and tried to ease her away, but she clamped her arms tight around him and buried her face against his shoulder.
“Please, David, hold me just a minute.” She caught a shuddering breath and nuzzled her face up against his chin. “I’ve got to see how it is again to feel the arms of a young man around me! Oh, you can’t imagine how it is to be married to a man so much older.”
“You knew his age when you married him!”
“I knew his age—and yet I didn’t! I mean, I didn’t know how it would be! He seemed so wonderful, David. He is wonderful! I never knew a finer man, and I love him, only not the way a wife loves her husband. I adore him the way I did my father until he died. He died when I was so young, and I missed him terribly. Graham is a lot like him. I know that’s why I loved him.”
She was sobbing now, and his grip on her shoulders softened to the comfort of a caress. He couldn’t help it. “You’ve got to help me, David!” She was crying frankly now, her dark eyes brimming with tears that coursed on down her cheeks, her mouth beautiful even though twisted with weeping. “Somebody’s got to help me. And David—”
She crept closer, her eyes huge and imploring. “I’m in love with you! I can’t help it!”
He saw her intention as she lifted her arms to fling them about his neck, and he caught them just above the elbows, holding them firm.
“Listen, Coralee,” he said harshly, “I said this once, and I don’t want to say it again! I will not repay Graham’s kindness by stealing his wife! I’m not going to be a party to hurting him, and that’s final!”
“Then what can I do?” she whimpered. “I don’t want to hurt him either—and I know it would break him up if I left him. But I can’t go on like this!”
“Yes, you can! Before I turned up you seemed quite willing to, so you can just forget I turned up! From now on we’ll avoid each other like poison, and you’ll abide by the bargain you made with Graham to love and honor and cherish—in return for all his worldly goods as well as his love. You’ve gained as much by that bargain as he has—probably more! So co
unt your blessings, and grow up!”
“You’re mean!” she sobbed, twisting her arms from his grasp. “You don’t care how terrible it is for me!”
“No, I can’t say that I do. I’m more interested in seeing that Graham isn’t hurt. Go wash your face and blow your nose now and I’ll take you home. We don’t want Graham to know you’ve been indulging in an emotional orgy at his expense.”
Her face tightened to fury. “That’s all you think it is!” she snapped through clenched teeth. “You think I made a scene just to be dramatic!”
He drew a sharp breath, clutching at straws. “Didn’t you?” he asked, pushing his mouth into a grin. “Be honest now, weren’t you just practicing some of the dramatics you learned for the movies? Hoping I’d be an appreciative audience of one?”
She grabbed a pillow from the couch and flung it at him, then slammed into the bathroom. But the tension had eased, and he hoped he’d found a way to salvage a little of her pride. He didn’t want his best friend’s wife hating him in the role of a woman scorned.
She was more beautiful than ever when she came out, all traces of tears removed except that her eyes had a brighter and more glowing depth.
“Okay,” she said, with a smiling attempt at nonchalance. “Let’s go! Emily will probably have dinner ready by the time we get there, and Graham will be fuming at the bar.”
Graham wasn’t fuming, but he was ready for them with a batch of chilled Manhattans. He took Coralee in his arms for their usual loving caress before he served drinks, and David noted that she clung to him even more lovingly than usual. For David’s benefit, perhaps? Or was she really going to work harder at her marriage?
“Well, here’s to your new bachelor quarters!” Graham said as they raised their glasses for a toast. “And may they not be bachelor too long!”
They laughed and drank, then Graham set down his glass and said with a sly glance at David, “I hear there’s a little red-headed student nurse at the hospital you’ve been showing special interest in. Anything to it?”
He heard the sharp intake of Coralee’s breath, but Graham didn’t seem to notice.
“Good lord! What a grapevine there must be over there!” David said with a chuckle. “What on earth did you hear?”
“Only that you and Milt went to Mildred to plead her cause against Andrews. But from what I gather, you could do a lot worse, David. She’s not only cute, but comes from a family of wealth and influence.”
“I don’t intend to marry a woman for her wealth and influence,” David said dryly.
“Of course not! But it’s always nice if such things come packaged with the woman you fall in love with!”
“Graham, how you talk!” Coralee pouted. “You didn’t marry me for wealth and influence, I hope!”
He laughed. “I’m kidding, of course. No man with any pride marries for what a woman can do for him in that line. But darling,” his eyes glowed on her fondly, “I’d still have married you, even if you were the richest, most powerful woman in the world! Only then, I probably wouldn’t have had a ghost of a chance with you.”
He seemed to be waiting for her to deny that, but she simply handed him her glass and said, “How about another drink, lover? We were late getting started and I’m thirsty as a camel after the long haul.”
Coralee continued to be thirsty, and for some reason dinner was late. David called a halt after the second drink. He watched uneasily as Coralee downed cocktails like punch. At her urging, Graham mixed another batch, and joined her in one more which he obviously didn’t want.
“Really, dear, isn’t that enough?” he asked cautiously when she poured them each still another one. “Dinner must be almost ready by now.”
She laughed and held her drink to the light to stare through it. She was standing at the small bar, facing the men who had remained seated as she moved restlessly about the room.
“I can’t promise you anything about dinner,” she said, taking a gulp and setting her drink on the bar. “Emily forgot to take the meat out of the freezer in time to thaw, so it got a late start. That’s what happens when I’m not here to run things. But who cares? We got David settled all nice and cozy. Didn’t we, Davey?”
She moved languidly to his chair and brushed her fingers over his crewcut. David fidgeted until finally, to his relief, Emily arrived to announce dinner.
Coralee toyed with her food, so obviously tipsy now that Graham was embarrassed, especially when she began to wax sarcastic. A little tight himself, Graham tried to cover for her by talking shop to David, but she would have none of it.
“Who cares who had what operation in your stinking old hospital?” she cried, her voice raspy and nasal as it went out of control. “It’s a damn good thing Davey’s moving to a place of his own! Ever since he’s been here there’s been nothing but talk about sickness and surgery and treatments until I’m ready to heave!”
“But sweetheart,” Graham protested, “you’ve never minded medical talk! You got used to it when you worked at the clinic. I thought you were interested!”
“You thought I was interested!” she mimicked. “So you tell me about your precious David draining pus out of a man’s liver right while I’m eating lunch! As if I had no feelings at all! I’ve tried to pretend I was interested because it made you happy!”
“All right, darling, I understand—but let’s not talk about it now. We…”
“You just think you understand! And why shouldn’t we talk about it now? You afraid David will think we’re not happy as a couple of love-bugs?”
“That’s enough!” Graham half rose from his chair and glowered at her across the table. “We have a guest—and if you can’t behave like a civilized hostess you’d better leave the room!”
She returned his stare for a long, tense moment, pouting like a child. Then with a wide sweep of her arm she sent her plate of food crashing from the table, at the same moment jumping up so abruptly her chair flew backwards with a bang.
“You can’t talk to me like that!” she cried thickly. “I won’t have it, I tell you! I won’t have it!” Covering her face with shaking hands, she ran sobbing from the room.
Graham stared at the broken plate of food on the floor and rang for Emily. “My wife had an accident,” he told the woman calmly. “Dr. Sterling and I will have dessert and coffee in the den, please.”
In the den he started pacing the floor. “You’ll have to excuse Coralee,” he said, plowing distraught fingers through his shock of white hair. “She’s never like that unless she’s had too much to drink on an empty stomach.”
“I understand,” David told him comfortingly. “Think nothing of it.”
“But I don’t believe she’s really unhappy, David, do you? I mean, of course, I am a lot older…”
“I know she loves you, Graham. I’ll be out of here now so she won’t have to listen to so much shop talk. You can’t blame her for being upset. We doctors forget sometimes how things sound to the uninitiated. And in spite of her work at the clinic, Coralee’s still a lay person, actually.”
“If I lost her, David, I think I’d die! Not only because I’m so crazy in love with her—but it cost so much for the privilege of having her! I don’t mean in money—though I took a beating there too. But Mildred’s happiness, my children’s love and respect… They called me an old fool, and it would just about kill me to find they were right. As long as I’m sure Coralee loves me, it’s worth everything I…”
He broke off as Emily came in with a tray of pie and coffee. When she’d left, David managed to change the subject and keep it in more comfortable channels. As soon as he felt it would be polite, he took his leave and went home, hoping that Graham would forget enough about tonight not to suffer embarrassment when they met again.
Chapter 10
David had scarcely arrived at his clinic office the next morning before Graham poked h
is head in at the door and, seeing that David was alone, came on in.
“Look, boy, about last night—I hope you’ll forget it. Neither my wife nor I were exactly ourselves and we…”
“It’s already forgotten,” David assured him. “Don’t give it another thought!”
Graham smiled his relief and launched into a discussion of one of his patients. Not long after he left, the phone rang.
It was Coralee. “Are you alone?” she asked cautiously.
“For the moment, yes. But I’m pretty busy.”
“I know. I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry about, well, about everything! I hope you’ll come to dinner again soon so I can prove it.”
“I’d rather not. I think it will be better if…”
“Graham will think it strange if you don’t, David. Please, you’ve got to help me keep up appearances!”
“Well, we’ll see. But let it rest a while.”
I’ve got to avoid her as much as possible, he told himself. And above all, avoid being alone with her. He was still thinking about it later in the day as he walked down a hospital corridor and saw a trim little red-headed figure ahead of him.
Perhaps the best way to avoid one woman was to spend his time with another one, he thought whimsically. And that little nurse with the cute freckled nose and her feud with her supervisor might be good company for a while.
He caught up with her at the elevator and said, “You going my way?”
Her smile made her eyes sparkle. “I might consider it. Which way are you going?”
“Whichever way you are,” he answered with a chuckle, and they both laughed.
The elevator doors yawned open and they stepped in.
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