“Why don’t you just say what you mean,” Robin suggested flatly. Her heart had started to thump rapidly, and she felt a definite shortness of breath. Though her existence here was based on a lie, a lie she now hated, it was the lie itself that allowed her to function. She had to defend it in order to defend herself. She waited for his reply.
“I don’t want to see my brother hurt.”
“Neither do I!”
“Are you going to hurt him?”
“I hope not.”
“Do you love him?”
Robin resumed walking and Benjamin followed.
“I asked you a question,” he said when he’d caught up with her.
“Which I consider extremely rude.”
“Lawyers have a reputation for asking rude questions.”
“You’re not a lawyer…yet.”
They turned down the path to Dunnigan Bay. At the street, Benjamin caught hold of her arm. Swinging her around to face him, he said, “You have to understand how we all feel about Eric—”
“Don’t you think I already know?” she interrupted testily. “It’s all I’ve heard since I arrived here. How after your father died, Eric raised you. How he gave up everything. How hard it was…how grateful everyone is. I appreciate that. I’m sure he appreciates that. But I don’t need warning off.”
“That wasn’t what I—”
“First Allison. Now you. Who’s next? David?”
“Allison?” he repeated.
“She threatened to tear me to shreds!”
Benjamin blinked, then, his humor returning, remarked, “At least I didn’t do that.”
“Almost as bad! You questioned my integrity.”
“All I want is for you to play with a fair hand.”
“So you don’t care if I love Eric or not?”
“I care…because he cares.”
“I think you should mind your own business.”
“Eric is my business.”
Robin pulled away from him. “Thanks for coming to walk with me,” she said coolly.
“No problem at all. It’s been…interesting.”
She started to walk away.
“I won’t be here tomorrow, you know,” he called after her. “I’m going back to San Francisco.”
“In order to check up on me?” she challenged without looking back.
He laughed. “I go to school, remember? But I just might have dinner at Umberto’s. Do you object?”
“No, go ahead. The owner knows me.”
“What do you recommend from the menu?”
“The hemlock!”
His laughter at her outrageous answer continued to ring in her ears even as she passed through the gate and started up the walkway to the inn.
Once inside, washed by the same pale yellow light that had shown the way to safety and warmth from the cliff, Robin leaned back against the door and closed her eyes.
She didn’t wish Benjamin harm. She didn’t wish any of them harm. But no matter which way she turned, she was afraid that it was going to happen. She couldn’t even run away. Not for a week, at least. Barbara was relying on her to make the wedding cakes. And David…the boy was starting to make progress. If she was simply to vanish, how would that affect him? So many people in his life had just disappeared.
Gifts from friends and relatives were starting to pile up in one corner of the entryway. Festive bows and wrappings. A celebration.
Instead of being happy, Robin felt deeply troubled. What if Benjamin went to Umberto’s and Simon, her friend, forgot what he was supposed to say? Weeks had gone by since she’d primed him with her new name and her false story. What if he told Benjamin the truth, and Benjamin came back to Heron’s Inn and told everyone else?
Robin couldn’t prevent the cry of pain that escaped her lips, and afraid that someone might have heard, she rushed down the hall and out the French doors into the garden.
Walls were too constrictive for the way she felt. She needed room to think, room to try to form a plan…room to cry unseen, if she felt the need.
BARBARA SIGHED DEEPLY in the seat next to her brother. Eric glanced away from the road to look at her.
“Are you going to be glad when it’s over?” he asked fondly.
“If I’d known it was going to be this bad, I’d have taken Samantha’s advice and Timothy and I would have eloped.”
“Eileen would never have forgiven you.”
“At this point, I’d be willing to take my chances.”
“Just think…when you’re standing at the end of the aisle in your beautiful dress and the church is filled with flowers, the organ starts to play and Timothy is waiting for you…”
“And you’re at my side, looking handsome in your best tux.”
“My only tux!” he said with a laugh.
“And we start to walk down the aisle. I’m glad you’re going to be with me, Eric. Helping me to get through it. I’m grateful you’ve been helping me all along. Without you…”
“You’d have done just fine.”
Barbara shook her head. “Not with Eileen. She knows just how to steamroll over me.”
“One day you’re going to have to take a stand,” he said gently. “You can’t let her continue to run your life. If you do, you’ll be miserable.”
“There was a time when I hoped that you’d take her off our hands.”
Eric looked sharply away from the road. “Me?” he said incredulously.
“She’d agree to anything you asked.”
“Not that!”
“Particularly that.”
Eric started to laugh. “Oh, come on.”
Barbara’s gaze was steady. “I wish you could be as happy as Timothy and I will be when this is all over.”
Eric said nothing, but his thoughts turned back to Robin. She was never out of his mind for long, day or night.
“Eric?” Barbara questioned hesitantly. “You and Robin…is something serious going on between the two of you?”
“Possibly.”
“Do you want there to be?”
“I’d like nothing better.”
“What about Robin?”
“That’s the big question mark.”
“I don’t know how she couldn’t like you.”
“I’ve already had an earful from Benjamin and Allison. Is it your turn now?”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
“Aren’t you going to tell me I should know a lot more about her? That it’s silly and irresponsible for me to think I could love someone I’ve known for such a short time.”
“Which one said that?” she demanded.
“Allison.”
“Allison isn’t the person to talk about being silly and irresponsible. She married Patrick before any of us got to meet him. And look what happened to them. I know Robin. I like Robin. So do Samantha and David.”
“David especially. It’s like she’s worked some kind of magic on him.”
“I couldn’t believe it at dinner tonight when he took up for you and the twins!”
“Me, either. But it felt good.”
“Allison is probably only trying to protect you from what happened to her. I can understand that. And Benjamin…he’s just met her. Give him a little time. But if you love her, Eric, that’s enough. You don’t have to be concerned about us any longer, what we think about things. It’s what you think that matters.”
“You’re forgetting someone.”
“I am? Who?”
“The lady in question.”
Barbara smiled one of those secretive smiles that can drive a man crazy. “I wouldn’t worry about Robin too much.”
“Why? Has she said something to you?”
“No. But I can tell.”
“You can tell. What can you tell?”
“That she likes you.”
“Then why did you ask me how she felt earlier?” he asked with mild exasperation.
“Because I wanted to see what you’d say.”
<
br /> “Did I raise you to be so devious?” he demanded.
Barbara grinned. “I suppose you did. And you did a good job, too.”
Barbara leaned close to rest her head on his shoulder, and Eric reached back to pat her cheek.
HE FOUND HER IN THE GARDEN. He came on silent feet and surprised her as she stood staring at a cluster of pink rhododendron blossoms. In the misty light cast into the night through the glass panes of the French doors, the blooms had a pale opalescence that lent them a fairy-tale air. He slipped his arms about her waist, drawing her back against him as he bent to kiss the side of her neck.
For a blissful moment, Robin complied, reveling in the spontaneity of the act. Then, remembering, she resisted.
“I love the way your hair smells,” he said softly in her ear.
“Don’t,” she breathed.
He turned her to face him. “Why not? I love you.”
Robin avoided his gaze. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“But I do.” He leaned sideways for a better view of her face. When he saw the traces of her earlier tears, he stiffened. “You’ve been crying,” he said. “Why?”
What could she answer? Because everything is so hopeless. Because I love you and now you say you love me, and everything could explode in our faces at any moment. Because almost everything I’ve told you about myself is false. Because I hurt so badly because of that, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do to change it. Because if I do, if I tell you the truth, you’ll hate me. I am that little girl on the beach!
Robin bit her bottom lip. “It’s too complicated,” she said.
His fingers threaded through the hair at the back of her neck. “I have very strong shoulders,” he murmured.
At his gentle offer, moisture again stung her eyes. She allowed her head to fall lightly against his chest.
He gathered her closer, seemingly content for the moment just to hold her. “Whatever the problem is, Robin, I may not be able to solve it, but I can help.”
Robin shook her head.
“It can’t be that bad,” he chided lightly. “You haven’t robbed a bank, have you?”
In spite of herself, Robin gave a watery laugh. “No.”
“Then?”
When she didn’t answer, his chest rose and fell in a deep sigh. Moments later, he said softly, “I meant what I said earlier. I do love you. I didn’t expect to, but it happened. I can’t change it. If you don’t love me yet, I can wait. I’m a very patient man.”
She looked up at him. “No. I don’t—I do—”
“You do love me?” He hung on her last word.
“I can’t say that!”
“Do you feel it?”
“I can’t say that, either!”
“You say there isn’t anyone else, yet—” But there was someone else. Only not in the way he meant. There was his father.
He lifted her left hand and examined it in the half-light. “You told me before you weren’t married. Is that the truth?”
“Yes,” she replied tightly, finding solace in being able to admit to that much, at least.
His relief was evident. “Then we’ll go on from there. If and when you need my help, I want you to promise to come to me. You don’t have to be alone in this, Robin. Whatever it is.”
He brought her hand to his lips and with exquisite tenderness kissed each fingertip.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ROBIN SPENT THE NEXT DAY trying to forget what had happened the night before.
To complicate matters, as she and Eric had come inside from the garden, Donal Caldwell had arrived back at the inn from the evening he’d spent with friends. His delighted smile upon seeing them hadn’t needed interpretation. His wink at her and his aside to Eric, “Is there a possibility of two weddings in the Marshall family this year?” only added to Robin’s discomfort.
Eric, of course, had saved the moment with his easy charm. He had humored the older man, while at the same time speeding Robin’s departure upstairs. Robin thought Donal a dear, but at that particular moment she had been too emotionally raw to deal with him—or with anyone else, for that matter.
She felt the same way the next morning and, after breakfast, slipped out of the house and into her car. As she left Dunnigan Bay behind, she wondered what it would be like to leave it for the last time.
During the long hours of the night, Robin had made a decision. Shortly after the wedding—if she was allowed to stay that long, if Benjamin didn’t come back to expose her—she would break her commitment to stay on for the summer and return to her real life in the Bay Area. It wouldn’t be easy, but it had to be done. She would cushion the blow to David as best she could. As far as Eric was concerned… Robin shied away from the emotional damage she would inflict on him. If she stayed, it would only be worse.
She could handle her own pain, but she couldn’t bear to think of the pain he would suffer when she could neither tell him the truth about herself nor admit her love for him. She would have to build lie upon lie to find a reason why they couldn’t be together. He’d said he was a patient man, but he wasn’t that patient.
She followed the twisting highway through the isolated beauty of the coastal redwoods. After breaking onto the busy interstate highway, she didn’t stop until she arrived in San Francisco.
She had made do with what implements she could find when preparing the decorations for the test cake. For the actual wedding, she wanted to do it right. She stopped at a supply store she knew and spent the next hour picking and choosing what she needed.
She bought a quick take-out dinner at a corner café and ate her meal while sitting on a bench staring across San Francisco Bay toward her home in the Berkeley hills. She longed to see her apartment again, to just be herself for a half hour—to touch some of her favorite things. But she had one other chore to accomplish before she headed north again. If the idea had occurred to her earlier, she’d have stopped there first. But she only thought of it while she was eating.
Umberto’s was busy as usual, the owner and the staff all bouncing back and forth to cater to the hungry customers, but Robin had parked her car in a tow-away zone and could only spare a few moments herself.
She pushed her way through the line of people waiting to be seated, drawing a number of censorious glares. But when Simon looked up to see her and welcomed her with an exuberant embrace, the aggrieved patrons returned to their previously patient wait.
“Has anyone been here asking about me?” she asked her friend in a rush.
A few minutes later she had jumped back into her car and was zooming off, just as a parking control officer on her three-wheel motorcycle rounded the corner at the end of the street.
That was one problem taken care of, she thought with satisfaction. Benjamin had told her he was coming back to San Francisco today, and he had yet to show up at the restaurant. She had beaten him to it. She had gotten there in time to remind Simon of his promise to cover for her. Now Benjamin could ask all the questions he wanted.
She arrived back at Heron’s Inn shortly after one in the morning, and as she made her way upstairs and down the partially lighted hallway, she stepped as quietly as she could. She didn’t want to wake anyone.
But as she paused to open Bridget’s door, she heard a door farther down the hall softly shut.
Eric’s door. He had waited up for her. Had it crossed his mind to wonder if she would return?
AS ERIC HAD SAID, THE out-of-town guests started to arrive on Thursday morning. By Friday noon, all those who were expected to come were there. Robin was hard-pressed to keep everyone fed. Unlike paying guests, the new arrivals were in a festive mood and wanted to be treated as members of the family, which they either were or would be in a few days’ time. David helped her in the kitchen as much as he could and even Samantha pitched in when she was able, but the girl spent most of her time helping Eric, whom everyone seemed to think existed solely to entertain them. Between catering to their needs and having to continue
to calm Eileen, Eric was beginning to look a bit stressed.
Barbara fared little better. As the days went by, she seemed to exist more and more on nerve alone. She had another argument with Timothy, which again blew over quickly.
Robin was glad she had spent the first part of the week, when she had had the time, creating all the flowers that she would use on the wedding cake. One entire counter had been placed off-limits to everyone so she could prepare and store the flowers on it.
At six o’clock on Friday evening, as the principal members of the wedding party left for the rehearsal and dinner in Vista Point, Robin closed the kitchen. She’d provided an array of snacks in the dining room, along with enough coffee, tea and soft drinks to keep the guests satisfied.
She drew a bracing breath. She had made the cakes the night before. The next step she considered the most challenging and rewarding.
Hours passed without her being aware of it. Her concentration was so intense that she didn’t hear the returning cars or the cheerful voices in the other rooms.
Finally, exhausted, she stepped back to view her work with critical eyes. She saw little to complain about. If pressed, she would have to admit that both the stacked, three-tier wedding cake and the single-sheet chocolate groom’s cake were works of art. She had out-done herself.
She drew the back of her hand across her forehead, sweeping aside loose strands of hair. Now she only hoped Barbara and Timothy would like them, and even Eileen. The three-tier cake was very much like the single layer she had shown them previously, only this time the decorations cascaded from tier to tier in a veritable waterfall of flowers. Baby-fine pale pink ribbons and equally delicate pipings of royal icing blended with the palest hint of color in the flowers. The groom’s cake was simpler, as she had planned, decorated with chocolate icing and pale pink buttercream rosebuds.
A light tap sounded on the swing door leading into the dining room. Robin jumped slightly, startled. “Come in,” she called. She wondered if the guests needed more coffee or tea.
Instead, Eric stepped into the room, holding the door partway open. He looked tired but happy in his fisherman’s knit cream-colored sweater and dark slacks. A few new lines had formed around his eyes and deepened in his cheeks. But nature had a way of increasing a man’s allure when that happened, she thought ruefully.
Room at Heron's Inn Page 14