Ty laughed.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, but you were kind of wrapped up in stopping to smell the roses.” He took a few steps over to the florist who was sitting on a stool reading a newspaper by the light spilling from the shop.
Liz couldn’t hear the conversation, but within a minute, the florist was handing her the rose she had been examining. “A pretty flower for a pretty lady,” he said. “I have a soft spot for the sterlings myself. They’re my wife’s favorite.”
Liz felt Ty’s hand under her elbow as he guided her to the car. He dropped it when she visibly stiffened. As he had in Salem, Ty opened the door and seated her before getting in himself. The engine turned over and they were on their way to the nightclub.
“Thank you,” Liz said as she sniffed her rose. “You caught me with one of my addictions back there.”
Ty didn’t take his eyes of the traffic as he replied, “You’re welcome. It goes with your dress. For a minute there, I didn’t know where you had gone. The thought crossed my mind that you’d called a cab and run off. Then I saw you at the florist. Tell me, do you always wander off like that on your dates? Has anyone considered a leash for you?”
“No,” was all Liz said in reply. He didn’t need to know how seldom she dated. “Certain kinds of shops just beckon me to go browse at them.”
“Okay, so far we have florists and jewelers. Let me guess. Pet stores, book stores and music stores.”
Liz raised her eyebrows. “Not bad. How’d you know?”
Ty waved a hand dismissively. “Elementary, my dear Elizabeth,” and she felt a thrill as he said her name, “based on what I have observed, you’ve got that crazy cat, so you like animals. I noticed a packed bookshelf with a lot of titles that I like, which means you enjoy reading and I saw a very nice stereo system with a lot of classic jazz CDs, so you’re into music.”
Liz chuckled. “I salute your powers of observation and deductive reasoning.” And she mockingly saluted him.
“It’s why they pay me the big bucks,” he said.
“That and the fact that you win all the time,” she added.Ty turned his head for a second to look her in the eyes. “Not all the time,” he corrected softly. “You’ve beaten me twice and that’s about all I can stand.”
At the jazz club, they were shown to a table near the front and the waiter asked for their order. Before Liz could answer, Ty had ordered a bottle of very expensive champagne for them. Liz tried to protest about the cost, but he overrode it with, “Why not? I can afford it and I want to do it.”
The show began and Liz immersed herself in listening. Diana Krall and her combo cast a spell over the appreciative crowd. The champagne arrived and Liz was about to have her first sip when Ty indicated he wanted to make a toast. Leaning in close to Liz’s ear, so as not to disturb the other customers, he whispered in her ear, “Here’s to serving a suspended sentence” and gently touched his glass to hers.
Liz was so affected by having him this close, she almost forgot to drink. She started to set her glass on the table, but he stopped her. “Bad luck to set it down without drinking.” Liz swallowed some champagne. Usually, she was not a great fan of the stuff, finding it having a nasty sharp edge to it and giving her intense heartburn. However, she noted tonight, there was a vast difference between the kinds sold in the supermarket and the high end stuff. What she was drinking was like liquid velvet, smooth and light. She sipped some more.
They listened for a while. The combo played a varied set of standards and new material, altering tempos and arrangements. After a break, the band came back and Diana Krall began singing “At Last.”
She looked at Ty with arched eyebrows. He was smiling. “How about that?” he whispered.
Liz leaned back in her chair and smiled. Even if this evening was never repeated, the memories would carry her for a lifetime. Even if she never got to look back and say, “That’s when it became our song.”
Ty started to put his arm around her shoulders, but stopped. Liz felt a knot in her stomach. As much as she wanted it, this man was not hers and she could not permit herself to become overly familiar with him. The fight with herself caused her to shiver.
“Are you cold?” Ty rubbed his hand up and down her arm a couple of times. “Here.” He removed his jacket and draped it over Liz’s shoulders. She felt his face lightly brush her hair. “You smell wonderful,” he murmured, “That perfume is fabulous.”
She couldn’t hear the rest of the music over the beating of her heart. She was acutely conscious that the warmth in the jacket had come from his body and it was almost impossible to resist the urge to lean her head on his shoulder or kiss his cheek to tempt him into kissing her.
After the show, Ty signaled a waiter over. He handed him the camera and he and Liz repeated their close together pose. Then, he slipped a cocktail napkin with a note to the waiter and within minutes, Diana herself came over to their table and shook hands. Once again, the camera came out and Liz found herself posing for a photo with one of her favorite jazz artists and a man she’d have given anything to call her own. And then it was over.
They were headed north on Route 93, traffic negligible at this hour. Liz sat with the blossom of her rose against her face and relived the entire evening in her memory.
“You’re awfully quiet there, Counselor,” Ty spoke quietly, but it startled Liz nonetheless. “Penny for your thoughts.”
If you knew what I was really thinking, you’d probably push me down the next staircase we find, Liz thought. “I was thinking about this evening and how, when I didn’t think it could get any better, you arranged for a picture with Diana Krall. I don’t know how to thank you.”
Ty shrugged, “There was film in the camera to be used up and you’ve kept me out of jail,” he said indifferently, “but I’m glad you had a good time. I’ll make sure you get copies of the pictures.”
The rest of the journey continued in silence except for music spilling softly from the car’s sound system. Liz mentally patted herself on the back for having resisted every urge she’d had to throw herself at him. In the dark and in the quiet, her mind was puzzling the question of what kind of lover he’d be. Even the slight physical contact tonight had gotten her juices flowing and she couldn’t imagine what that most intimate of contact would do to her. Her train of thought was interrupted by their arrival at her front door. Again, Ty came around to help her out of the car.
As she got out of the car, Liz dropped her purse and the contents spilled onto the sidewalk.
“Here, let me get that for you,” Ty stooped to pick up the items he could see in the light from her front porch. “What’s this?” He held up her MBTA pass.
Liz tried to remove it from his hand.
“It’s a T pass.”
He kept it away from her and put it back in the bag. “Were you planning to ditch me tonight, Elizabeth?” Ty asked incredulously. “All set to make a run for it?” He sounded angry. “God knows, you’ve been wound up and ready to bolt every time I touched you.”
“No, I wasn’t looking to ditch you,” she said.
“Then why did you bring it?” Ty was looking hard into her face.
Liz squared her shoulders and returned the look. “Because I was taught, when going out on a date, to make sure you had the means to get yourself back to home and safety if it became necessary.” She had been prepared to ditch him if things had gotten too uncomfortable.
She saw him relax a little. “I believe you.”
“Good. Thank you. Would you care to come in for coffee?” And share my bed, if you want it. Mother’s other rules about dating and sex be damned.
“No, thank you. It’s a long haul back to Wellesley and I have to hit the road. I’ll take a rain check, though.” He stepped closer. Liz wondered if he was debating kissing her goodnight. He had her vote to do so. Ty leaned in and kissed her cheek. He leaned back and Liz saw a light in his eyes that only increased the heart pounding the kiss had started.
&n
bsp; “I did enjoy myself, Counselor,” he said. “I don’t get out much. This really was a treat.”
“So did I,” she said. Ty just looked at her for a moment as if he didn’t believe her, then abruptly turned and headed around the car to the driver’s side. Without another word, Ty got in and drove off, pulling away from the curb, fast and noisy.
Liz headed into the house, blocking Beanie’s escape route as she always did. She put her rose in a glass of water, making sure it was out of feline nibbling range (“You so much as lay a whisker on this, Beanie and you’ll find your furry little ass at the Humane Society”).
As she went through her preparations for bed, Liz kept pondering the same questions: was she imagining things or had Ty been aiming for her lips only to change to an alternate landing site on her cheek when he kissed her? And was his hesitation when she’d asked him in due to an impulse to accept the invitation?
Chapter 4
One rainy Saturday, a few weeks after the court-ordered date, tired from a full day in the office, Liz was digging frantically through her purse. T Pass, T Pass, where? Let’s see, keys, receipts (need to enter those in the checkbook), makeup, Swiss Army knife, no T Pass…
Liz could hear a nearby car horn honking through the rain and her preoccupation. She ignored the sound while she continued the search for her pass. It was cold as is generally the case in Boston in late October. The leftovers of a late-season hurricane were dumping icy rain on New England, coming down hard, steely and relentless. It was going to be a mile walk to North Station to catch the train and a very uncomfortable mile at that. Murphy’s Law says if you forget your umbrella, it will rain like there’s no tomorrow. Her umbrella was back up in her securely-locked office and there wasn’t time to fetch it. Liz froze as she heard a distant rumble of thunder. Oh, God, not that. As she felt her stomach clench, the car horn sounded again.
To distract herself from the growing terror of walking through a thunderstorm, Liz continued her search, turning her attention to pockets and briefcase. Still no pass. Great. She hadn’t bothered to carry a lot of cash with her this morning and she wasn’t sure if she had enough for both a cab and the train. And she was running out of time.
The horn honked again. Liz ignored it and looked towards North Station to nerve herself up for an incredibly miserable, terrifying walk. Within 10 strides, she was soaked to the skin and cold, but Liz pushed the thought aside. She heard her name being called. The Mercedes that had been honking had pulled alongside her. Liz peered through the downpour. Ty Hadley’s head popped up over the top of the car, the driving rain quickly plastering his hair to his head. He snapped open a large umbrella and ran around the car to cover Liz. She saw that he was nearly as wet as she was from his brief exposure.
“Get in the car.” He wrapped an arm around Liz and nearly carried her to the car. Once again, Liz felt a rush from his touch. “What were you thinking, walking in this?”
Before she could answer, Ty had muscled Liz into the car, taking her purse and briefcase. She quickly buckled herself in as he made his way around and got into the driver’s seat.
As Ty started the car, he said, “You were really going to walk in this slop, weren’t you?” as he gestured to the rain.
Liz nodded, “No cab fare, no choice. Besides,” she added, “I’m only going to North Station to catch a train.” She squeegeed some water out of her hair. “And I don’t think I’d get any wetter. Sorry about your car upholstery.”
Ty pulled the car into traffic. “It’ll clean, don’t worry. You headed home?” Liz nodded. She winced at a flash of lightning. Ty didn’t seem to notice.
As the car waited at a red light, Ty glanced at Liz. “Long time, no see. How’ve you been?” The tone was casual.
“Busy. We got pulled in on a class action suit and Dan wanted me to research a couple of questions for him and have the answers Monday. Of course, he asked me yesterday at 4:00 PM.”
Ty nodded, his eyes on the road. “Sounds like Dan. You’re working on a Saturday and he’s…” Ty left the question hanging.
“Scottsdale. Hilton Head and Bermuda took too big a hit from Hurricane Katie here,” Liz answered ironically. The light turned green and the car rolled forward, windshield wipers furiously pushing away the driving rain. Between their rhythm and the warmth from the car’s heater, Liz could have easily fallen asleep, except for the brevity of the ride and the presence of Ty.
“Is this Tillson v. Damon Industries? The price-fixing case? I know for a fact he’s had that on his desk for at least a week,” Ty asked. “Why do you put up with his bullshit?”
Liz held her temper. “Because he hired a C student from a fifth-tier law school when everyone else was fighting over the top ten from Harvard. Hey, you missed the turn to North Station, Ty!” Great. She was going to miss her train.
“If I was headed to North Station, I would have missed the turn,” Ty answered evenly as he threaded the big car through traffic towards 93 North. “But I’m not going to North Station.” He spared a quick glance at Liz. “If I recall, your home is in Salem.”
Liz was floored. “But it’s so far out of your way!”
“I have a full tank.”
“The weather’s crappy.”
“The tires are good and the heater works.”
The entrance ramp to the Central Artery was packed with cars and moving slowly. “It’s going to take a long time to get there,” Liz added in a vain attempt to dissuade him.
Ty gave her a long, hard look. “So?”
He turned his attention back to the road. “I’m driving you home whether you like it or not.”
“Suit yourself,” Liz answered and settled back into her seat. The sudden tension was almost unbearable and added to her physical discomfort.
As the car inched forward, Ty glanced at Liz, “Mind answering a question for me?”
“No.”
“You act as if you’d rather be anywhere but near me. Do you dislike me that much?”
The question caught her off guard. “No, but since I never heard from you after our court-ordered date…”
It took nerve for Liz to say it, but she felt relieved. She’d had hoped that he would call or see her again. The disappointment had been sharp and she’d thrown herself into activities to forget it. Her house had never been cleaner. Liz was a great believer in occupational therapy for heartache. Keep yourself too busy. And people always admired a clean house. Since Liz had channeled a lot of unused sexual energy into it, her house was immaculate and well-decorated. And now, just as she was putting it behind her, here he was…
Ty looked at her incredulously. “Really? Well, Miss Gardner, I haven’t even gotten an acknowledgement for the roses I sent you,” he growled. “I thought that was rather rude.”
“What roses?” Liz was puzzled and confused. “I never got any roses.”
Ty looked at her quizzically. “I sent two dozen sterling silver roses to your office the Monday after our date. You never got them?”
“No. Honest. I got the pictures, but no flowers.” The pictures had come through McCafferty’s office.
He had sent her two dozen sterling roses? Must have been ordered by McCafferty. “What. You said Monday?”
“Yes, Monday. Ring a bell?” Ty looked at her, face and voice deadly serious. His look was penetrating, eyes searching her face for a straight answer to what would normally be a joking question. “Lose track of them amid all the shipments from your boyfriends?”
Liz smiled, trying to soften his mood. “I wish. I love roses, but I have to fend for myself in that department.” He relaxed visibly, but still looked mystified, as if he couldn’t believe that no one sent flowers to Liz. “But anyway, I remember that a perfectly gorgeous bouquet arrived without a card that day and the delivery guy couldn’t make out the name on his clipboard. No one was expecting flowers, so we left them with the receptionist, except that I swiped three for my office. They were beautiful, smelled fabulous and it gave me a lot of pleasur
e to have them. Thank you.”
Ty cursed under his breath, inching the car forward. “Monday morning, I’m gonna…”
“No, you’re not,” Liz surprised herself by interrupting him, quietly and firmly. “It didn’t work out exactly like you planned, but those flowers brought pleasure to a lot of people. Even if I’d gotten the whole thing, I would have divvied them up and shared. Three were plenty for me.”
Ty raised his eyebrows, “Only three?” he asked skeptically.
“Okay, you caught me. A dozen, but it would have been too obvious if I’d stolen that many,” Liz admitted mischievously. She heard Ty’s chuckle. Thank God. She didn’t want to be around when he really got angry. There was some black, carefully walled-off rage she could sense in him and Liz didn’t want to be the cause of its release.
“Ty, what did the card say?”
He was smiling as he focused on the dense traffic. “‘Dear Fisk, Most roses are red, These are kind of blue, Want to go back and dine at the Pru?’” I signed it, ‘Rose.’” Ty glanced at Liz and laughingly shrugged, “I’m a litigator, not a poet.”
“Wish I’d gotten it. I could have used the laugh.” Liz relaxed. She couldn’t fathom what Ty wanted but that didn’t matter. Enjoy the ride and be grateful your transportation problem was solved beyond expectation.
Liz started to shiver. The harder she tried to suppress it, the stronger it got.
“Liz, are you okay? You look pale.” There was concern in Ty’s voice.
“Just wet and cold. No big deal. I’ll warm up when I get home.” She clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering.
Ty touched her cheek, remarking, “You’d have had double pneumonia by the time you got to North Station.” He put both hands back on the wheel. “All right. Let’s get you home.”
He set his shoulders and the Mercedes cut off one of the millions of SUVs clogging the highway. Ignoring the furious horn-honking behind him, Ty kept exploiting the small spaces in traffic until it thinned out and was moving at a more normal pace around Winchester. Slow, because of the rain, but not the bump and grind traffic that it had been.
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