“That’s great. Thanks.” Feeling the wall with his fingertips, he made his way to the door, where he turned toward her. “I really mean that, Allison. Thank you for everything. For last night especially, and I don’t mean the sex.”
Suddenly she wished she could cry. She wanted to let the tears fall and never stop. But she didn’t.
She walked over and moved him aside to open the door. “We’ll be listening for you.”
Shoulders back and head high, showing none of the fear he’d admitted to during the night, Nic moved across the hall and felt his way to the bathroom. Her Frank, the man she’d comforted and made passionate love to, was gone.
Pushing emotion aside, as she had so many times in her life, Allison prepared the room then strode to the kitchen to see about fixing her guests something to eat.
* * * *
After rousing Frank, things progressed remarkably quickly. Dr. Bowman reviewed the chart while they waited for Frank to dress, then joined him in the office. She’d looked forward to asking David a few questions about his employer, but he took a key from his pocket and went out to see if the car could be driven.
Allison got a good look at the little silver Porsche when David parked behind an impressive BMW sedan. With amusement, she noted there was more money parked in her front drive than she made in a year. Except for numerous scratches and a bent fender that David pulled away from the tire, nothing much seemed wrong with the sports car. If not for a bump on the head, Frank would have been able to drive away, perhaps calling later to explain about the fence.
Life was full of ifs. If the deer hadn’t chosen that moment to run into the road, Frank wouldn’t have crashed through her fence at all. If she hadn’t left the reunion early, he might have wandered around and gotten more hurt than he was. If she hadn’t worn that hideous dress, she probably would have stayed longer to help Mary.
Her expression softened. If she hadn’t bought that particular gown, Frank wouldn’t have felt the comfort he had, listening to the sound. The dress suddenly took on a new perspective, and it wasn’t a hideous one at all.
Dr. Bowman came out of the office walking slowly, acting as guide to Frank. Their arms touched, though scarcely, and as he walked toward the front door she had to look hard to see Frank was sightless.
“Do you want something to eat? I’ve started breakfast.”
“Thanks, Ms. Hayes,” Dr, Bowman said politely, “but I’d just as soon get Nic back to his own home as soon as possible. I think he’ll rest better there and I can keep an eye on any changes.”
“Of course,” she murmured.
“David?” Frank stopped when the doctor did.
“Yes, Nic.”
“How’s the car?”
“I’ll get it home. Mark can drive the BMW. You’ll be more comfortable riding in the sedan.”
Frank simply nodded. “What about the fence? People around here take their fences very seriously.” He smiled, an open, generous smile, not particularly directed at her.
David smiled too, watching his boss intently. “I have one of our crews coming out this afternoon.” Turning to Allison, he held out a business card. “The foreman’s name is Stuart Samuels. He’s supposed to check with you so you can give him any specific instructions. Otherwise, they’ll repair the fence line and match their work with whatever’s there. If you have any problems or questions, don’t hesitate to call. My office and cell number are listed on the card.”
“That’s fine, thank you.” She looked at what he’d handed her. NicHughes Electronics, David Wills.
“Wait a minute.” Eyes wide, she stared at the man she’d spent the night making love with. “Frank, you’re NicHughes Electronics?”
The smile faded from Frank’s face. All eyes were on him, although he had no way of knowing.
“Franklin Nicholas Hughes. Nic Hughes is my business name. I explained to you about business things. Later, anyway.” He cleared his throat. “I mean, I didn’t know who you were at first. When we finally talked business, details didn’t seem important.” Turning slightly, he faced her directly, almost as though he could see where she stood. “Is it important?” his tone asked more than the words.
Now all eyes were on her. She understood completely. Nic Hughes was the job. Frank, the man who’d held her heart and soul last night, Frank was the man. “No. It’s not important at all.”
He gave an almost imperceptible nod.
Straightening her shoulders, she took a deep breath then took his hand. “Take care of yourself, Frank. I hope everything turns out very well for you.”
He squeezed her hand. “Thanks. I couldn’t have asked for a better person’s fence to crash through.”
She moved aside. With the railing on one side and the doctor on the other, he made his way down the steps and out of her life.
* * * *
Restless, she moved around the kitchen. The dinner dishes had all been put away, the sink scoured. More coffee had been put on to brew, although she knew she’d had enough already to satisfy her caffeine needs for a week.
She sighed, staring through the back screen door at the sheep walking the wire fence in the lower pasture. Always looking for a way to get someplace new, someplace different than where they were, they searched for where the grass was greener. But they weren’t the brightest animals on earth. Even when he found a hole in the fence, a sheep might not see the opening for what it was. Once passed, the ewe or ram might never find the hole again, and so be stuck forever in one pasture until the farmer and his dog came along. Sheep missed many opportunities for greener grass, new pastures, freedom.
Am I like that? Had she passed by chances, not recognizing them for what they were? Or, more likely, had she conveniently ignored them, taking the easier path? Unlike most of her friends, she’d stayed home, not chancing life or love. Had she used her parents and even her childhood accident as an excuse not to spread her wings? She’d always thought when she was ready she’d do the things other people talked about, things she’d once thought about with enthusiasm herself. Had she let her chances go by, thinking she’d come back to them later? Like the sheep passing the hole in the fence, perhaps she wouldn’t find those opportunities again.
With a cup of fresh coffee, she walked outside. She wished Frank were here. The tulips and jonquils were still in riotous bloom, the early azaleas were starting the showy stage of display, and the dogwood was magnificent, at its peak of snowy white and bright pink. With pleasure she would have described the scene to him as they walked up the drive, and would have seen the world in a different way while she did so. As it was, as she was—alone—her beautiful flower beds and pastureland lost some appeal.
She wished she understood this sudden feeling of discomfort in her own home. The reason couldn’t really be Frank. He hadn’t even been in her life one day—barely a full twelve hours, including time asleep. Yet they were hours enough to dislodge the contentment of a lifetime.
When she reached the end of the drive, she was surprised to see her uncle’s truck parked on the side of the road. He and her cousin, Ned, stood examining the new section of fence. She strolled up to them. “What do you think?”
John turned twinkling brown eyes on her. “Never heard such a ruckus with those air compressor nail guns and paint sprayers. Saw them here when we came home from dinner after church. Must have been twenty men putting your fence back together. What happened, anyways?” He stood tall and lean, wearing a flannel shirt mostly concealed by coveralls her aunt insisted on ironing. Much younger than her father, John’s hair was still white from advancing age, but his eyes showed none of the years his hair color indicated.
Ned spoke up. “If we hadn’t known the sheep were in the lower pasture, Allie, we would have come up and fixed the fence. But we figured the work would wait ’til after church.” He stuck his hands in his jeans and gave her a curious look before echoing his father. “What happened?” Stance and expression exactly like his father’s, Ned showed the Hayes color
ing in his auburn hair and dark brown eyes.
“A man ran through the fence last night. He needed someone to look after him and didn’t want to stay at the hospital so I said he could sleep on the sofa in the office.” She shrugged. “This is his way of making amends.”
Her uncle whistled and cast an appreciative glance at the fence again. “Next time tell him I’ve got a perfectly good fence up the road he can crash through.” He flung his hand out toward the new rails and posts. “Look at this! They reinforced and painted the whole dang thing.” Smiling again, he nudged his son with his elbow while watching Allison. “You say he stayed here? Alone in the house with you? Do I need to have a talk with the young man?”
She felt herself blush. “Uncle John. I’m a nurse, for heaven’s sake. Nursing is what he needed last night.” True enough. A nurse and more. “I went to sleep in my own bed and he stayed in the office.”
Fingers crossed behind her back, she waggled her brows at him. “Besides, I was safe, the shape he was in. If I’d wanted to have my way with him, he couldn’t have fought me off.” And he didn’t!
“Aw, Allie, Dad didn’t mean anything.” Impossibly, Ned blushed deeper than she did.
They were the same age but by all indications, he was more backward in the way of love than she. Which is really sad, she thought.
“I know, Ned.” She smiled to ease his mind before taking a sip of coffee.
“Well, just so you know. We trust you.” Ned walked to the driver side of the truck. “Wanna come home with us for a supper? I know Mom’s fixed plenty.”
John hung his head and shook it. “Boy needs a wife,” he muttered.
“No, thanks, Ned. I’ve already eaten.” Ned climbed in as Allison followed her uncle to the passenger door. She was surprised when he stopped and looked seriously at her.
“You know, Allie, no one would have been disappointed in you if something had happened last night. Guy makes up for an accident by doing all this…” he waved at the fence again “—well, he can’t be too bad. Pretty girl like you should be with a man, having a family.”
As simplistic as it sounded, that was how he understood life, for her as well as Ned. If only life was as easy as he saw it. “Uncle John, I’m thirty-two. Hardly a girl, and only sweet people like you, who love me, consider me pretty. Between age and this limp, I’m sure I’m not what the average man is looking for.”
He tapped her nose with his index finger. “That’s your problem, Allie. For someone as good as you, we don’t want an ‘average’ man. He’d better be a whole helluva lot better than average.” With a last look at Stuart Samuels’ carpentry handiwork, he got in the truck and Ned pulled off.
CHAPTER FIVE
Two long months had passed. Two months where she’d received two phone calls from David Wills, one asking if fence repairs had been made to her satisfaction and another the next week to find out how she was and whether there was anything she needed. Allison had assumed the interest had been Frank’s although that wasn’t clear.
She’d also received flowers—a dozen roses the first week, carnations the second, an orchid the third—something different every week, all with very polite thank you notes attached. The kind of gifts a secretary would be told to send. There was no word from Frank himself.
After the second week, she’d given up hope she would hear directly from him. Flowers were nice, but not when what she wanted was to hear him, his voice when he spoke her name, his tone when he said how he felt. He could have called and recited the latest stock report and she wouldn’t have cared. But there was nothing. When she finally accepted that flowers were all she’d ever get from him again, her heart ached.
Foolish! Telling herself over and over didn’t help at all. The plain fact of the matter was, despite her skepticism that such a thing could happen so fast, she’d been struck by love. Inexplicably, against all reason, undeniably hit hard.
In the dark, with the night hours stretched before her, she often relived Frank’s touch on her skin, the feel of his lips coaxing her nipples erect, and the heart-stopping sensation of his being inside her, moving, stoking a fire only he knew how to put out. On those nights she would touch herself, rubbing her clit and imagining Frank’s finger had brought her to completion. Or better, his luscious, full mouth.
But it wasn’t the sex she missed most. It was the quiet companionship. The time they’d spent sharing their lives and the trust each expressed by their simple admissions of need. Of course, she hadn’t told him about the accident, that had seemed too much. He would have pulled back from her knowing how imperfect she was. Most men saw. Not just that she wasn’t a beauty, but her lack of grace and unbalanced walk. In his blindness, Frank had seen only her heart.
Finally, after weeks, Allison forced herself to acknowledge that her love was not only irrational, having little foundation, but also totally one-sided. He’d asked for a night, she’d done the same. Their time had been an experience beyond anything she could have hoped for, but she needed to move on.
The sticking point was how to do that. For the first time, she investigated options that weren’t safe or comfortable. She thought about taking time off and traveling. She had the money. But spending time for pure pleasure didn’t sit well; the need to be busy was too strongly ingrained. Still, she could take a few days and go to Washington, DC. In her mind, she saw herself passing Frank on the street. She’d smile and he’d… He’d walk by because he wouldn’t recognize the woman smiling at him. No, a trip to Washington was out. She’d rather have the memories she carried than take a chance on damaging them.
Using the computer, Allison looked up every piece of information she could on NicHughes Electronics and its owner. His picture, taken a few years earlier, was on the corporation’s website, but more recent photos were found in the Washington newspaper. Over the course of several years, she saw photos of Frank socializing with beautiful women as well as meeting business and government officials. She felt like a schoolgirl with a crush on a man impossibly above her station.
Then one night late in June, the phone rang.
“Mary! How great to hear from you. What’s up?”
“Allison, I know you’re going to want to kick me, but I have a huge favor to ask, and you can’t say no. Tell me right now, you won’t say no.” She took a breath. “Hi, by the way. How are you?”
Allison had to laugh. “Fine. No need to ask how you are since I can tell you’re in your usual tear. I won’t say yes until I hear what the favor is,” she teased.
“But you won’t say no?”
“Spill the beans.”
Deep breath. “We’re having a special meeting to review the reunion. And discuss preliminary plans for the next one.”
Allison groaned.
“I can’t be there. Honestly, Allison, I would drop everything and drive down if I could, but Melissa’s having a recital, and Michael is in a ballgame, and frankly, I can’t keep up with everything going on at work now. Please say you’ll represent me?”
She hesitated, then let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s not fair using your children against me.”
“Yes, I know. Sorry.” Mary didn’t really sound sorry, though.
“Just go to the meeting in your place? I don’t have to volunteer for anything?”
“No volunteering. I’ll send you all the paperwork relating to the weekend in April—which was a big success, by the way. I’m really sorry you missed so much of it.”
The meeting sounded safe, although she had a feeling Mary wasn’t telling her the full story. “Okay, I can help you out, I think. When is the meeting?”
“This weekend.”
Allison snorted.
“I know,” Mary agreed with a what-were-they-thinking tone. “Still, can you go?”
“Yes, no problem. Where is it, at the high school?”
Mary was quiet for a moment. When she spoke, Allison knew just how Mary’s children felt when she was trying to persuade them to take medicine they knew wou
ld taste terrible.
“Nooo, at the country club. Out on the mountain. It’ll be beautiful, won’t it? And this is a dinner meeting, so they’ve reserved a room. Really, they’re going all out. I’ll bet it’ll just be fabulous, and here I’m going to have to miss it.”
“What are you not telling me, Mary?”
“There is one little thing, but it’s not really that important.”
Mary took another deep breath. How bad was this request, anyway?
“Because the theme was so successful, we thought it would be fun to continue it all the way to the end. So everyone is wearing the same retro outfits they did for the dinner.”
“No.”
“Allis…”
“No! I’ll be happy to represent you, but I won’t wear that dress again. I’m surprised I haven’t burned it.” But she knew why she hadn’t, why she’d keep the ugly thing forever.
“Okay, you’re forcing me to tell you this. I didn’t want to because I know how you are about causes. I’ve never known anyone in my life so dedicated to other people.” Mary heaved a frustrated sigh. “You know we have several doctors in our class. Well, in the spirit of competition they started a bet. If we could get everyone at this meeting in the same outfits they wore that Saturday night, they’d donate time or money to a charity of our choice.”
“Who would come up with something so stupid?”
“Adam Wilson, Zachary Barnes and Tommy Jensen. You know how they were in school and they haven’t changed.”
An idea formed in Allison’s mind. Maybe she couldn’t—wouldn’t—take time for a long trip, but she could certainly handle a long weekend to visit a friend. In all the years Mary had lived in Baltimore, Allison had never been to see her, preferring instead to visit when Mary came home to see her family. It had been selfish of Allison, really. But now she could make up for it and make a change in her own life, too.
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