“I do like it here. I love my condo in Georgetown, but that’s in the city with all of its crowds, noise and crime. This place is peaceful and beautiful. When I come here, I feel nurtured. I’d like to raise my children here.”
“You know I’ll be rooting for you. Are you and Denise getting on?”
He lifted his shoulders in a quick shrug. “We are, Judson. But I don’t think we’re there yet. I’m working on it. She’s…she’s wonderful, but I don’t think she’s sure of me.”
“Is she skittish?”
“No. I can’t explain it without getting too personal, and I don’t want to do that.”
“I don’t suppose you do. I’m aware that she could use more self-confidence, but I wouldn’t have thought it extended to her personal life. It will just take you longer, but you can fix that.”
“I know…provided she lets me.”
Denise couldn’t find Alexis, so she wandered outside, where she encountered Henry, who was removing the pig from the barbecue pit. “You can’t carry that by yourself,” she said. “Let me help.”
“I was going to put him on this here old serving cart and roll him inside. You can help me get him on the cart.” He handed her a pair of tongs and a towel. “Wrap the towel around yer waist.” She did, and picked up the tongs, and together they got the big pig onto the serving cart.
“You roll it,” she said, “and I’ll hold the door open.”
They got the pig into the kitchen, and Henry covered him with aluminum foil. “That finishes me job with that one,” he said as he removed his apron. “Now, I can get dressed for the party.”
“Aren’t you going to carve it?”
“I don’t put a knife in any meat that ya can’t just slice. Russ will carve it. When it comes to food, he loves to have things perfect.” He looked at her for what seemed like a long time. “I hope ya got things straightened out with Scott. He ain’t yer average man, and he’ll make a woman a fine husband. Ya won’t find another ambassador who’ll spend half a day helping an old man prepare food for somebody else’s birthday party. I lived a long time, Denise, and I know you’re the one who’s dragging this relationship. He loves ya a lot. But he’s strong, and he’ll walk away from ya without looking back and he won’t shed a tear. If ya want him, open up to him. And ya better do it soon.” He patted her arm, a rare gesture of affection coming from Henry. “You’ll make me a fine daughter.”
She went into the den, sat down and pondered Henry’s advice. She knew she would not soon find another man who suited her as Scott did and to whom she was so strongly attracted. She had to get over the fear of letting herself love unconditionally, and she had to let him know that she might not be able to fulfill his dreams. She opened her iPad and began surfing for information about Oscar Jefferson. She’d find him if she had to get a private detective. This time, she didn’t begin with Oscar, but with Jeffersons in and around Waverly, Texas. Their one-time affair happened the summer of her high school graduation when he was home after spending his freshman year at the University of Texas in Austin. She didn’t know his parents. But she knew Waverly, Texas, and if he still had connections there, she’d find him.
When Alexis and Tara came into the den, Denise had to cut short her search to find Oscar Jefferson. “Miss Denise, Uncle Russ called and said he and Aunt Velma will be here in half an hour. Daddy’s in the swimming pool. Where is Mr. Henry?”
“Tara has to know everything so she can tell everything,” Alexis said. “My daughter has the makings of a first-class journalist.”
“Yer just in time to help me put the food out.”
Alexis looked toward the sound of Henry’s voice.
“Henry, everything’s wonderful. I’ll help you with it.”
Denise didn’t hear the doorbell, and her nerves were rattled when she looked up and saw Scott. Will I ever get used to his eyes? she asked herself. He mesmerizes me almost every time he looks at me.
“Hi. Did you get any rest?” she asked him.
“Rest? You’re kidding. I made a box so that Pamela and Heather could place fifteen squabs flat and in a way that they wouldn’t move.”
“Did they bring them?”
“Of course not. Judson and I brought them, and Pamela insisted that we walk slowly so as not to disturb them. Imagine the two grown men carrying one five-pound box so slowly that the wind almost knocked us backward.”
“You’re exaggerating, Scott,” Denise said.
“Not by much. Women can think up the strangest scenarios. I hope I never see a squab again.”
“If ya ask me, the boney little things ain’t worth the gas it took to roast ’em. Where’s Drake?”
Tara looked out of the window. “He’s coming now with Aunt Pamela and Aunt Heather.”
“What time is Grant coming?” Henry asked Tara.
“They already left home.”
“If ya want to know what’s going on around here, ask Tara,” Henry said. “One of you boys help me get this pig in the oven to warm it up.” Judson and Scott put the pig on an oversize cookie sheet and shoved it into the double oven.
Twenty minutes later, Denise, Scott, the Roundtree family and the Harrington clan—including Henry—sang “Happy Birthday” to Velma. When Telford brought out his violin, Scott said, “I’d give anything if I had my flute.”
“I didn’t know you played the flute,” Denise said. “How nice!”
“I play most other reed instruments, though not nearly as well.”
“Will you play for me sometime?”
“Anytime you ask.”
Remembering what Scott had said, Denise watched Drake and Pamela and Telford and Alexis at the party, seeing them as never before. Scott had said that both couples were so attuned to each other that nothing and no one seemed to get between them. Their attention could be diverted, but only for a short while. It’s the same with Russ and Velma, she thought to herself.
Scott walked over to her. “Are you noticing what I told you about them?”
Her eyes widened. “How did you know I was watching them? Yes, I’m beginning to understand what you mean. This family is wonderful.”
He seemed reflective. “Do your parents get on well?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. “They still call each other every night. Between the District of Columbia and Waverly, Texas, you can imagine the size of their phone bills. My dad’s very protective and mom laps it up.”
“I’d like to meet your parents.”
“Mom’s in Washington Mondays through Thursdays, but she usually goes home to Waverly every Thursday afternoon. I could make a date for one evening this week.”
“Would you have done so if I hadn’t asked?”
After thinking about it for a minute, she said, “Probably not. I wouldn’t presume that you wanted to meet her.”
“Hmm. Interesting.”
Telford had been leaning against a hutch in the dining room talking with Adam Roundtree when he suddenly walked across the room to Alexis, kissed her on the mouth, went back and resumed his conversation with Adam. Denise’s lower jaw dropped, and Scott laughed.
“Get used to it, sweetheart,” he said. “She’s not afraid to let him know how she feels, and you saw how he responds to that.”
“Did I ever!” Denise replied, before a frown creased her face. “My parents didn’t do that in my presence.”
Scott seemed reflexive. “I’m not sure I believe you. You were probably so used to it that you didn’t pay attention. My parents were always touching and hugging each other. Dad wouldn’t let Mom lift much of anything, and he taught my brothers and me to be caring and protective of her. I still miss her terribly.”
She reached out to him and, unconcerned about onlookers, she wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “I don’t want you to hurt,” she whispered.
He stepped back and looked at her as if searching for something deep inside of her. “At moments like this, sweetheart, when you give me something so special, I hate the
thought of ever being without you. Are you with me?”
“I’m working on it, Scott.”
As if he needed no explanation, he hugged her. “If you need my help, I’m here for you.”
The next morning, Denise crawled out of bed, got her cell phone and called her mother in Waverly. “Mom, do you know whether Oscar Jefferson’s family still lives in Waverly?”
“What on earth do you want with them?”
She explained why she wanted to find Oscar. “I’d rather not bring Dad into this.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not going to take anybody’s advice to let sleeping dogs lie. My life is a mess, and Oscar’s partly to blame. I need to confront what happened with him.”
“But Denise—”
“Mom, your help will be less expensive than hiring a private detective.”
“All right. They live in San Antonio.” She gave Denise the address of Oscar’s parents. Two hours later, Denise had the information she needed. “No procrastinating, kiddo,” she told herself and dialed Oscar’s number in Chicago. A professor, eh?
“Hello.” For the first time in almost thirteen years, she heard Oscar Jefferson’s voice.
“Professor Jefferson, this is Denise Miller. I doubt that you’ve forgotten me.”
“Of course I haven’t.” After a tense moment, he added, “My mother told me to expect a call from you. What can I do for you?”
“I need to talk with you in person. Can you meet me tomorrow at one o’clock at Farrell’s Restaurant on North Michigan?”
“Yes. I suppose I can. Should I bring a gun?”
She didn’t feel like joking with him. “Thank you for agreeing to meet me. You don’t need to be armed.”
“By the way, where are you?” he asked.
“I’m in Maryland.” He didn’t need to know where in Maryland.
“You’ll fly all the way up here just to talk to me when we could talk now?”
“It’s better that way. See you tomorrow.”
“I’ll be there.”
On the drive back to Washington that evening, she hesitated to tell Scott her plan to spend Monday in Chicago. If she didn’t give him a reason, he’d be suspicious and, at the moment, she didn’t want to give him the details.
She let her left hand rest casually on his knee. “I have an appointment tomorrow in Chicago at one o’clock, but I plan to be back in Washington tomorrow evening. What evening will be convenient for you to have dinner with my mom and me?”
“Let me know what suits your mother, and I’ll make myself available.”
With a befuddled expression on her face, she shook her head. “Sometimes I think you don’t realize that you’re an ambassador.”
“Look, sweetheart, that title doesn’t give me the right to behave like an ass. What will you be doing in Chicago?”
She’d known that he wouldn’t let that pass. “I have decided to collect on an old debt, and it’s time I did that. I hope I’m able to tell you about it when I get back.”
His silence sent chills down her back, and goose pimples popped up on her arms. After a long minute, he said, “All right. If you need me, you know how to reach me.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you when I get home.”
“Phone me when you’re about to leave Chicago, and I’ll meet you at the airport.”
Scott drove home slowly. During the previous forty-eight hours, Denise had handed him more than one surprise. He welcomed the domesticity and nurturing that he saw in her at Velma’s party, and he appreciated the way in which she let everyone at the party know that he was special to her. But why had she not told him about her riding school when they had been horseback riding? What possible excuse could there be? He was past the stage of deciding what she meant to him, so he had decided to find out what the secret was that seemed to cloud their lovemaking. She hadn’t lied about her appointment in Chicago. And from her response, he knew that whatever it was, it was important to their relationship. A sigh of frustration seeped out of him. If only they could have spent the evening together. But he didn’t broach the subject, because he didn’t need a fortune-teller to tell him that it wasn’t the right time. She was concerned about what she’d face in Chicago, and the ache he nursed for her wouldn’t be appeased with half a loaf.
He drove to his home in Georgetown and parked in the garage. It would take him a while to get used to his triplex condo. The furniture from his Baltimore apartment hadn’t come yet, and only his bedroom had been furnished. Fortunately, a nook in the kitchen held a built-in table and fold-up benches, and he could eat his breakfast there. He sat on the edge of his bed and telephoned his father.
“How are you, Dad? I’ve got four messages from you.”
“I’m fine. If you’re planning to be away from home for an entire weekend, leave a message on my answering machine saying as much. I don’t need to know where or with whom, only that you’re not lying there burning up with a fever. I hope you were someplace with Denise Miller.”
“Dad, that’s a laugh. You just said you didn’t want to know with whom, and in the next breath you practically asked if I was with Denise.”
“Well, were you?”
“Of course, we were together much of the time.”
“No need to explain that you’re dragging your feet. And don’t bother to tell anybody that you’re a chip off the old block, because that’s definitely not my style.”
“I never would have guessed it, Dad. But I think Denise read you correctly.”
“How so?”
“She said in effect that you couldn’t count the women who’d flipped over you.”
“Did she, now? Well, there’ve been a few. But they did it without my encouragement.”
“Hmm. I wouldn’t have thought it.”
“Why not? Someday you’ll have this same conversation with your son, and he’ll be surprised, too. Can you and Denise make a go of it? She seems so right for you.”
“I think she’s right for me, too.” He rubbed the back of his neck and let out a long breath. “But we still have to clear a few hurdles.”
“Don’t forget, son. She has a biological clock, and it can’t be slowed down.”
“I know that, Dad, and hearing you say it is not one bit comforting.”
“All right. That’s it, for now. When you see her again, give her my love. I know women, and Denise is cool on the outside, and a roaring furnace inside. Handle with care.”
He didn’t need further evidence that his dad understood the opposite sex. He had summarized Denise in a few short words. It was what neither he nor his father could see or know that spelled troubled for Denise and him. After hanging up, he shook his head in bemusement. Raynor Galloway hadn’t denied Denise’s assessment of him. A grin spread over his face. He’d have to give his dad a good hard look. As a teenager, he’d thought his dad possessed rakish good looks. Evidently, at fifty-seven, the man still had it. He pulled off his shirt and dialed Denise’s home phone. He waited a few long minutes while the phone rang, and her breathless “hello” told him that she’d raced to answer it.
“This is Scott. Don’t tell me you were already in bed.”
“Hi. No, I wasn’t. I was in the shower.”
He told himself to get his imagination under control.
“I wanted to wish you luck tomorrow. When you get back here, I’ll be waiting. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“All right. I care deeply for you, and I want you to remember that every second that you’re away from here.”
“I…I will, and don’t forget how deeply I care for you.”
“Then we can’t miss. Good night, sweetheart.”
“’Night, hon.”
Chapter 8
Denise walked into Farrell’s Restaurant at three minutes past one. Oscar had already taken a table, and she saw him stand as she approached.
“I never dreamed that you would be so beautiful,” he said, his
expression one of awe. “How are you?”
She shook hands with him, but she didn’t want to engage any pretense of friendliness. Her mission had nothing to do with friendship. “I’m well, thank you.”
As if sensing that she would be all business, he said, “Shall we eat first? I’m not much on having a heavy conversation while I eat.”
“If you wish.” She didn’t want to make small talk about the last twelve years. “Do you mind if we just listen to the music? Small talk would be dishonest.”
His eyes widened. “As you wish.”
When the waiter brought the coffee at the end of the meal, she leaned back in her chair and looked him in the eye. “You lied when you said you’d protect me, and you didn’t use a condom. You were well aware that I wasn’t experienced and wouldn’t know the difference.” A chuckle dripped acidly out of her mouth. “Of course, I trusted you. You swore on your knees that you would love me until the day you died. You lied on both counts. Looking at you now through the eyes of a more experienced woman, I’m glad you walked out of my life, even if you did it in a cowardly way. Have a good life.” She rose to leave.
“Wait a minute! You can’t leave!”
She turned but didn’t sit. “Why not? You left without bothering to find out why I’d wanted to see you.”
He closed his eyes. “I know I behaved like a bastard, but I’ve paid dearly for it.”
She continued to stand, while he talked as if confessing his guilt to a priest. She doubted that he knew when she left. Still so wrapped up in himself, he didn’t even ask her how she’d discovered that he hadn’t used a condom. And he’d never find out from her.
Denise phoned Scott a few minutes before three o’clock, told him that she’d be on Delta’s six o’clock flight, and he was there to meet her when she stepped into the terminal. He searched her face for answers, but her countenance revealed only her delight in seeing him. After taking her bag from her and dropping it on the floor, he wrapped his arms around her, bent his head and parted his lips over hers. She sucked him into her aggressively, as if she wanted to devour him. He broke the kiss, stepped back and looked at her. Tremors rolled through him when she looked him in the eye and, with a solemn expression, refused to deny what her kiss had affirmed.
A Compromising Affair (The Harringtons) Page 14