Sully looked at Grace, not wanting to believe she’d actually said that. Was he the only one who hadn’t forgotten that Lauren Van Slyke was the enemy?
Around him, the kitchen was silent. The boys had begun clearing the dishes, but now they were all standing like statues. Statues with big ears.
“I’m not sure,” Otis said, “that leaving an expensive car just sitting out overnight would be a good idea.”
Otis was right, of course, but before Sully could voice his agreement Grace was saying, “Oh, don’t be silly, Otis. You locked it, didn’t you, dear?” she asked Lauren.
“Yes, but—”
“Then it’ll be fine. There’s hardly any traffic on that road, especially at night.”
“Well, even so,” Lauren said, “I really don’t think I’d better stay.”
Sully breathed a quiet sigh of relief and shot Grace a look that told her to let it go.
Ignoring him, she glanced back across the table at Lauren, saying, “By the time you got gas and started for home it would be after dark. And you wouldn’t get to the city until the middle of the night.” She turned to Sully again. “She can’t be driving all that way alone in the dark.”
He gritted his teeth, knowing Grace was right. It really wasn’t safe for a woman to be driving alone at night. Especially not a woman like Lauren Van Slyke.
Lauren murmured, “No,” though. “Thank you, but I really couldn’t impose. Besides, the cat’s all alone in my apartment.”
“You said you left lotsa food down,” Billy piped up. “Or maybe you could phone yourc friend across the hall. The one you phoned from your office after you said you’d come here.”
“Well…I really shouldn’t leave him alone for too long when the apartment’s still a strange place.”
There was a silence, then Sully heard himself saying, “Most cats don’t really need much attention. We’ve got three here, and you probably haven’t even seen them around.”
He paused, trying to stop himself before he made things even worse, but for some reason he couldn’t. “So,” he added, “if you don’t get home until tomorrow, the cat will be fine. And Freckles has a room to himself at the moment, so I can use the second bed in there for the night.”
He glanced at Freckles. “You wouldn’t mind me bunking in there, would you?”
When the boy shook his head, Sully looked at Lauren again. “That means you can use my bedroom.”
“Oh, I couldn’t put you out of your own room.”
He shrugged. “I can hardly have you sharing with Freckles, and there isn’t a spare bed in the cottage.”
She’d been watching him as he spoke, searching his eyes with her big blue ones as if wanting to be sure he really didn’t mind the idea of her staying. And the strange thing was that all of a sudden he didn’t.
He wasn’t entirely sure why, except that something in her expression made him doubt she was as self-assured as he’d thought. It was something he often saw in his kids, something that said they weren’t used to being accepted simply for themselves. And it was a look that always made him feel he wanted to help.
That was ridiculous, though, he realized a second later. Lauren Van Slyke didn’t need any help from him.
“Well,” she murmured at last, “if you’re really sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble…”
“Good,” Grace said. “That’s settled, then. Before bedtime, I’ll find a nightgown and robe you can borrow. And what size shoes do you wear?”
“Six.”
“Perfect. I’ll give you some flat shoes and jeans for the morning. I’m sure I’ve got things that would fit you. But right now, let’s do as Sully suggested and take our coffee into the other room.”
Sully glanced at the boys and caught them all giving each other looks. They clearly figured they’d just gotten off the hook, so he said, “We’ll save the rest of our discussions about Billy and Hoops’s trip to Manhattan for tomorrow.”
He turned and followed the other adults out of the kitchen, feeling five pairs of eyes burning holes in his back.
THE MINUTE THE DOOR swung closed behind Sully, Billy wheeled around to the others, saying, “I got a plan.”
“No way,” Hoops told him. “We don’t even know how bad we’re getting punished ’cuz of your last plan.”
“But it worked, didn’t it? She’s here, isn’t she?”
“Well…yeah.”
“Then, listen,” Billy said to all of them. “You still wanna make sure we can stay here, don’t you?”
They all nodded—even Hoops—just like he knew they would.
“Okay,” he went on. “Then we gotta all swear to help. Swear we’re gonna do everythin’ we can. Hands,” he added, holding out his hands.
The others all piled theirs on top of his. Hoops was last, and kinda slow, but he did it, too.
“Okay, then,” Billy said. “Here’s the plan. If Sully and Lauren got to really likin’ each other, then she’d give him the money, right?”
“But he don’t like her,” Freckles pointed out. “You know that. You was the one listenin’ in yesterday. When he told the Plavsics she was a wing nut and all that.”
“So what?” Billy said. “Just because he doesn’t like her now, doesn’t mean she can’t make him like her.”
“What do you know about that kinda stuff?” Freckles said.
“I know lots. I got three older sisters. And girl cousins, too. And all they ever talk about is how to get guys to like ’em. So I know how they do it.”
“But why,” Tony asked, “would Lauren want Sully to like her?”
Billy looked at Tony like that was a real dumb question while he tried to think of an answer. “’Cuz that’s just how girls are,” he finally said. “And even if she doesn’t want him to like her yet, if we fix things right then she’ll start wantin’ him to. And when she does, he’ll have to.”
“Why?” Tony asked.
“’Cuz she’s pretty and rich.”
“So what?” Tony said.
“So she must know how to make guys like her way better than my sisters or cousins.”
THE MORE DETAIL Otis went into about that phone call Sully had alluded to yesterday, the less sense it made to Lauren.
She had no idea why some woman would have phoned here claiming to be her, let alone have asked all about Sully’s program. Or, as Otis had put it, tried to dig up dirt. But given the way Grace and Sully were watching her as she listened, they were expecting her to shed some light on things.
Unfortunately, she was no Nancy Drew. She almost never figured out how a mystery was going to wrap up before she got to the ending. And as far as this little mystery was concerned, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to shed even the tiniest ray of light.
“You’re absolutely certain,” she asked Otis once he’d finished his story, “that the woman said she was me. She couldn’t have said she was calling for me?”
“No, she definitely said she was you.”
“Did someone call on your behalf?” Sully asked.
“No…not that I know of. I mean, I certainly didn’t ask anyone to. I’m just wondering if, for some reason, Rosalie…”
“Rosalie?” Grace asked.
“She’s my assistant, but I can’t imagine why she’d have phoned.”
“I met Rosalie yesterday,” Sully told Otis. “And she’s got a Jamaican accent.”
“Then it wasn’t her.”
“You know,” Lauren said slowly, “any woman in the world could have called and said she was me. It could have been anybody who wanted information about your program. And maybe she figured that saying she was me would be an easy way to get it.”
“But why,” Grace asked, “would anyone be curious about what goes on at Eagles Roost? Anyone aside from Lauren and the social services people, I mean.”
Before any of them could hazard a guess, the door to the kitchen swung open and the five boys appeared.
When they stopped as a little group and smiled
straight at Lauren, she couldn’t help thinking something was up. Then the other four looked at Billy, which made her decide there was definitely a plot afoot and that they’d elected him spokesman for whatever was coming.
“The kitchen’s all clean, Sully,” he announced. “So we were thinkin’ it would be nice if we went and helped Mr. and Mrs. Plavsic pack their car. Like now, I mean. Before it’s totally dark.”
“You’re going somewhere?” Lauren asked Grace, the idea making her a little uneasy. When she’d taken them up on the offer to stay the night, she’d certainly assumed the Plavsics would be right there in their cottage.
“Not until morning, dear,” Grace said. “But yes, we’re leaving for Minnesota. We drive out there almost every July. We’re both originally from Minneapolis, and we still have all kinds of family there.”
“Did you ask the boys if they’d help you pack the car?” Sully said.
He looked, Lauren thought, very suspicious.
“Why…no,” Grace told him. She glanced at Otis, gave him a blatantly conspiratorial smile, then looked back at Sully. “But isn’t it thoughtful of them to offer? If we pack up tonight, we’ll be able to get a really early start.”
“Right,” he muttered. “And I’ll bet they don’t have an ulterior motive among the five of them.”
When he looked over at the boys again, Lauren’s gaze followed his.
Their expressions made her think of cats that had just swallowed canaries, and for half a second she didn’t understand what was going on. Then she realized what they were up to and almost started laughing.
If they thought she had the slightest interest in being left alone with their chief eagle, they were out of their young minds. And as for Grace and that smile of hers…well, Grace must be one of those women who can’t resist trying to play matchmaker, whether she was looking at a total mismatch or not.
But even if Lauren believed in the theory of opposites attracting—which she didn’t—she and Sully were a lot more than mere opposites. She doubted they could have a single solitary thing in common.
“Don’t you guys go getting any funny ideas,” Sully said in a decidedly no-nonsense tone. “Lauren is staying here because driving back to the city this late wouldn’t be a good idea. Period. Got it?”
“What?” Billy said, all wide-eyed innocence. “What are you talkin’ about? I never said a word about her. Did I?”
He glanced at the other boys, who immediately began shaking their heads, then he looked back at Sully. “We just wanted to help the Plavsics, Sully. Honest.”
“And I think it’s very sweet of them,” Grace said quickly. “So why don’t we take them up on the offer, Otis?”
Otis shot Sully an amused glance, then pushed himself out of his chair, saying, “We’ll see you both in the morning before we take off.”
“I won’t forget about those clothes, Lauren,” Grace added as they started for the door. “I’ll send them over when the boys come back.”
Sully sat watching the others trail out of the lodge—Roxy bringing up the rear—part of him glad the boys wanted to stay at Eagles Roost badly enough to try to help him, another part wanting to strangle them for their ridiculous plotting.
As the screen door banged shut behind the dog, he turned to Lauren and shrugged. “Sorry about that.”
She smiled. “It’s all right. It just surprised me. I didn’t realize boys that age would think along those lines.”
“Oh, they can be pretty creative thinkers at times. And even though Otis and I explained things to Billy and Hoops—explained there was nothing you could do about the funding, I mean—if kids don’t like reality they tend to ignore it. So they probably figured you could still come up with the money if you decided you really wanted to.”
“And if leaving us alone together led to anything…” Lauren smiled again.
Sully eyed her for a few seconds, deciding she must figure the boys’ scheme was about as crazy as they came. After all, the idea of a man like him and a woman like her getting together…
Besides which, he didn’t even like her. Although, he had to admit she wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d figured at first. And she hadn’t actually gone sneaking around behind his back the way he’d initially thought.
Fleetingly, he wondered again who had made that call to Otis. But it was probably going to remain one of life’s little mysteries.
“Well,” he said at last, for lack of anything better, “I guess I should find some clean sheets for you.”
“I’ll help make up the bed,” she offered. “It’s the least I can do when I’m putting you out of your room.”
When she stood up and smiled expectantly at him, the sudden flip of his stomach took him by surprise. She might be a good-looking woman but she sure hadn’t caused him any of those kinds of feelings before.
It couldn’t be that, he told himself, getting up and starting in the direction of the bedrooms. He simply hadn’t changed a bed with a woman before.
Must have just been a little embarrassment or something. That’s all.
LAUREN HAD ALREADY SEEN the boys’ rooms, which, when Eagles Roost was first built, had been the three guest bedrooms. But Grace hadn’t taken her down to the far end of the bedroom wing. She’d merely pointed toward it, referring to it as “Sully’s space.”
It turned out to be both larger and less Spartan than Lauren had expected—a suite that stretched across the entire end of the lodge, consisting of a large bedroom and private bath, plus an adjoining study that Sully used as his office.
“That’s a separate line from the one in the lounge,” he told her, gesturing toward the phone on the desk. “After the first couple of times I caught kids listening in on the extension, a private line started seeming like a necessity.”
She nodded, but her attention was actually focused on the books that covered one entire wall of the study. Most of them, she could see, were far too recent to have belonged to the original owner.
“Otis keeps telling me,” Sully said, “that wall’s going to fall down if I buy many more books. But I prefer reading to television.”
For a moment that fact surprised her. Then she realized it probably explained why he was so well spoken for someone without the best of formal educations.
By the time her sixty-second tour of his rooms was over, she’d decided that while the tycoon who’d built Eagles Roost might have wanted a rustic retreat he obviously hadn’t wanted to do without his creature comforts.
The bedroom furniture consisted of gorgeous old cherry-wood pieces; the lighting in the room was muted. On the far side of the bed there was only a diffuse glow from a small, electrified railway lantern that served as a bedside lamp. Near where she was standing, a brass floor lamp spread a pool of light over a comfortable-looking leather armchair and matching footstool.
While Sully was getting a set of sheets from the dresser, Lauren peeked at the book lying open on the chair. It was a recent courtroom thriller, and seeing it started her worrying about Elliot again.
Reminding herself he’d said the odds on his ex-client actually trying anything were really low, she did her best to force her worry away.
“Here,” Sully said, handing her the sheets. “You take care of these while I strip the bed.”
The moment he leaned over to begin, she realized that offering to help the boys pack the Plavsics’s car would have been a whole lot wiser than offering to help with this. There was something about being in Sully’s bedroom with him that made her uncomfortable.
She wouldn’t go as far as to say she was attracted to him, but she couldn’t deny being very aware of him. And aware that her initial impressions of him had been way off base.
He wasn’t totally obnoxious, after all. He was simply, as Grace had told her, an unusual man. Which accounted for why he’d required a little getting used to. But it hadn’t taken her very long to realize that under his tough-guy exterior was a man who really cared about people.
It was obviou
s in his dealings with the boys. And seeing that made her feel even worse that she hadn’t written a stronger recommendation to support his program.
She put the top sheet and pillowcases down on the bedside table, then looked at him again, telling herself there was no reason in the world to feel uncomfortable about being in here with him. After all, he hadn’t shown the slightest interest in her as a woman. In fact, it went far beyond that. The man had hated her from the moment they’d met.
Or, more likely, he’d hated her even before they’d met—from the moment he’d received her letter.
“There we go,” he said, tossing the balled-up sheets onto the floor and looking across the bed at her.
His gaze started a fluttering in her stomach, which made her suspect those deep brown eyes could work magic on most women.
Fortunately, she thought, handing him the clean bottom sheet, she was made of sterner stuff.
When he flicked the sheet across the mattress, she reached for her side of it and did her best to keep her eyes off him as she smoothed and tucked.
Her best wasn’t very good, though. Each time he bent forward, his dark hair fell over his forehead. Each time it did, she was ridiculously tempted to reach over and brush it back.
That disconcerting magnetism of his was just too strong to ignore in the confines of the room, and she was glad the bed was between them—although she was extremely conscious that it was a bed. His bed.
She picked up the top sheet and partially unfolded it, then handed Sully his edge. When she did, her hand brushed his and the contact sent a little thrill racing through her.
Lauren silently chastised herself. Her attempt to deny the obvious was downright pathetic, so she might as well stop trying to tell herself she wasn’t attracted to Sully.
Passing him a pillowcase, she kept her eyes on his arms, deciding it was hardly surprising that a man like Jack Sullivan was catching her eye. After all, she’d never before met such a handsome man—her ex-husband definitely included.
Sully picked up the blanket and glanced over at Lauren. She didn’t notice, though. She looked as if her thoughts were a hundred miles away.
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