The Game of Love

by Heather Graham

  He gazed at her, not quite sure what to make of her sudden enthusiasm. But he drew the car to a halt and left it only a bit more slowly than she did. His eyes were on the coral rock portico that covered the drive just ahead. Beyond it, the house itself had four symmetrical towers, each surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows.

  “The front is gracious,” she said offhandedly. “The back—well, you’ll see.”

  She led him around the house on a path heavily laden with ferns and flowers. At the rear of the property there was a free-form pool with an island and a gazebo in the center of it. A charming bridge led to it, separating a whirlpool bath from the main body of water.

  “When the whirlpool is on, it cascades like a waterfall into the pool. And there’s a wonderful lighting system for night—blue and green and mauve. It’s solar heated. Mr. Harrison just redid it all last year. Down there is the dock. It needs a little work, but then, you don’t have a boat, do you? You could fix it in time. Back there is the guesthouse—it’s all set up. But come on, you should see the house itself first.”

  The outer patio led into a huge entertaining center with raw rock walls, wicker furniture and a wet bar. Jade led him into the kitchen, which was large enough to contain a huge butcher-block worktable in the middle. Copper utensils hung from the ceiling, and there was a fireplace and a breakfast table with a skylight above it.

  “Well?”

  “I’m impressed—lead on.”

  “I will!”

  There was a paneled library filled with books. There was a real old-fashioned bar, with stools obtained from the old Breakers hotel. There was a formal dining room that could easily seat a dinner party of twenty. The living room was huge, with floor-to-ceiling windows, gleaming hardwood floors and a wonderful old fireplace.

  Jade had always loved the entryway. Its light marble flooring, domed ceiling and gracefully curving spiral staircase were spectacular.

  “Still impressed?”

  He grinned slightly. “Yes.”

  “The best is yet to come!”

  Upstairs, the hallway led both east and west. The rooms were all very large, and two included window seats by the towers. Jade said nothing as she swept through room after room and led him finally to the master suite.

  It occupied the entire eastern end of the house. One door led to the den, one to the bedroom itself and the two rooms were connected by a bath done in red, black and gold. The bedroom itself was huge, with white gauze drapes that would whisper in the sea breeze when the tower window was open. Velvet curtains could be lowered over the gauze in winter; right now they were pulled back, and the view of the bay beyond was breathtaking. The bed was a huge old brass one, tastefully covered with a tapestry spread. There was an entertainment center facing it, complete with television, stereo and VCR. And there was still room for a couch, a little round morning table and a refrigerator, which sat beside the bathroom door. Jade hurried through the bedroom and bathroom to show him how the den connected, then scurried back into the bedroom to stand by the window.

  She barely felt him behind her as she threw open the window to the day. “Isn’t it fabulous?”

  She turned at last to see him watching her. He was curiously intent on her instead of the house.

  “You seem to think so.”

  “I think it’s the most beautiful place in the city,” she said honestly.

  “What’s the price on it?”

  “Two million.”

  His brows rose.

  “It’s worth it! The owner could have priced it even higher. Just the value of the land…well…” She shrugged. She hadn’t really expected him to say, Oh, is that all? Write a contract.

  She planted her hands on her hips and dared him with a grin. “Hey, you wanted land. You wanted water. You wanted a big house. You wanted a pool. This is it!”

  “Yes, I guess it is,” he answered vaguely.

  He was still watching her, and she felt tense suddenly. Very tense. It was as if there were something in the air between them, something electrical. She wanted to beg him to touch her…

  But she didn’t. She steeled herself against the feeling, against the power in his sky-blue eyes. Against the sight of him, tall and dark and lazily powerful like a Bengal tiger.

  “Well,” she replied uneasily, “I guess I had better lock up and get home. I have to pick up Sean, and you have to get Ryan.”

  He nodded. She felt horribly disappointed as she hurried down the stairway. Not because of the house. But because she had been so certain that he was going to kiss her….

  When he dropped her at her house, he said casually, “Do you have a survey on the property?”

  “Yes. At the office.”

  “Do me a favor, if you can. Get it after you pick up Sean. I’ll get a pizza and Ryan and come back, and you can tell me everything you know about it.”

  Jade nodded. She watched him leave in a daze. She had to shake herself before she get into her own car to go and pick up her son.

  Jeff did come back, with Ryan and two pizzas and little containers of salad. After they ate, Jade showed him the legal survey and the architect’s plans. She told him about the Harrisons.

  “They were wonderful people. They never had any children of their own, but they were great to all the neighborhood kids. They had a party every Halloween for all of us. And Mom told me once that during the Depression, they both used to dress up like Santa Claus and drive around with turkeys and hams and presents for anyone out of work.”

  “I’d like to meet him. Think you could arrange it?”

  “Sure.”

  She didn’t know whether to be excited or not. Part of her couldn’t help tallying the money she could make if Jeff bought the Harrison place. Another part of her didn’t care in the least about money. She had no control over the feelings he aroused in her.

  Unfortunately, his manner remained businesslike. He was friendly, but he never came close enough to touch her. He leaned against the piano when they talked. He laughed. Sometimes she felt the touch of his eyes, and the feeling was so sensual that she wanted to scream.

  And yet it couldn’t have been real. He made no advance. At eight o’clock, he called for Ryan and left, telling her he’d like to go out a few more times, because he wanted to see a lot of property before making a decision.

  Jade agreed; they made arrangements for the following Wednesday.

  The weekend came. On Sunday, Sean shouted for her to join him in the family room. She went in to find him watching Jeffrey on television. Jade didn’t know much about sports, nor did she care, but she found herself slowly sinking down beside Sean and staring at the screen. Jeffrey was perfect for the job of sportscaster. He was articulate, and he had a way of speaking that made her feel as if she wanted to know what he was talking about. He was excited about his subject matter, very knowledgeable, and the camaraderie between him and the other sportscaster on the show was easy and relaxed and pleasant to watch.

  Jade was still staring at the television when the show ended.

  She stayed awake a long time that night, watching the ceiling in the dark, wondering if she liked the feeling of falling in love, or if the excitement and the adrenaline and electricity that she felt when he was near were actually a form of torture.

  She couldn’t be in love. She barely knew him!

  * * *

  She saw him at practice on Tuesday. He smiled at her; he talked to her. But then he talked to everyone, because everyone was talking about his Sunday sports program.

  They even went to dinner again. She sat next to him, felt his thigh next to hers, the force of his gaze when he cast it her way. But nothing happened, nothing really personal.

  The next morning they looked at more houses. She showed him more of Coconut Grove, more of Coral Gables, something of Pinecrest and Palmetto.

  They went to lunch at a restaurant in the Mayfair, an outstanding mall in the Grove with expensive shops, exquisite foliage and fountains, marble work and tile murals
.

  They sat in the center restaurant, where skylights opened above them. She told him that she had spoken with Sam Harrison, and that he would be very pleased to meet Jeffrey.

  She grimaced. “Even Sam likes baseball.”

  “Ah, yes, even Sam. But you don’t?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t hate it.” She grinned. “Stick around long enough—you’ll see I’m the only parent who makes almost every practice and every game.”

  “Toby told me about your husband, you know.”

  She looked down at her food, not really knowing what to say. “It wasn’t the game that killed Danny. He was…” She lifted her shoulders and let them fall. “He was entertaining the spectators. Acting the clown.”

  “How old was Sean when his dad died?”

  “Seven.”

  He was pensive for a moment, then he asked, “You only wanted one child?”

  She laughed a little uneasily. “No. I was an only child. It can be very lonely.”

  He grinned. “I know. I’m one, too.”

  Jade fell silent, wondering whether Jeffrey sensed her feeling of loneliness now, her longing to reach out to him. If he did, he made no motion to encourage her. When he brought her home so that she could pick up Sean, he still hadn’t touched her.

  It was the same story when they went out to dinner after practice the following Tuesday. But even though he made no overt advance, she knew that the other parents on the team smiled when they watched them, as if they saw more than she did. Almost as if they were a pair.

  On Thursday night, Jeffrey maintained his distance, but the evening was to end quite differently from their other recent meetings. They fell into a heated argument. Ridiculously, it was over the cars again.

  They were parked back to back, about ten feet apart in the small drugstore lot. Jade put her car in reverse—and the next thing she knew, she was jerking forward as a scraping sound tore through the car.

  “You hit him, Ma!” Sean called out.

  “I hit him—”

  Jeffrey was beside her car in the next instant, pulling her door open. There was nothing casual about him now, nothing nonchalant.

  “Don’t you ever watch what you’re doing?”

  His eyes were indigo in the darkness, his features set in a grim mask. She felt both defensive and furious. It was the second damned time! And once again, his bumper was barely scratched, while the poor Corvette…

  “You drive around in a death trap like that, and then you don’t even watch where you’re going! Dammit, Jade! Women drivers—I swear they should be outlawed on the road…”

  He kept on going. He had the nerve to keep going. Mr. Jock, Mr. Muscles, Mr. Competence—going on about women drivers!

  “You bastard!” she raged suddenly, heedless of the fact that both boys were hearing every word. “Why didn’t you look where you were going? They should have arrested you the other day! They should have put you in jail! You think that just because you can throw a little ball around, you can drive! Oh! I hope they do put you in jail!”

  “I’d like to wring your neck! Someone needs to take you in hand! In fact, someone should take a hand to your fanny, and I’m just about ready to do it!”

  “Oh! You damned well never will!”

  She gunned her car and it jerked forward, right over the low cement piece that marked the parking spot.

  “Mom—” Sean began.

  “Shut up! Just shut up!”

  At home, she paced the living room for half an hour. Sean had the good sense to keep quiet.

  The phone rang. The answering machine was on, but Jade snatched up the receiver anyway.

  “Hello?”

  “Jade, it’s Jeffrey. I—”

  She slammed down the phone. There was one benefit to being single. There was no stupid male to yell at her for wrecking a car, to assume that she was the one at fault just because she was female.

  The phone rang again. She picked it up, ready to tell Jeffrey Martin that he and his big Lincoln could go to hell.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t Jeffrey; it was Ryan, asking her in a very small voice if he could speak with Sean.

  Jade released a long breath and called Sean to the phone.

  Every now and then she caught him looking at her. He spoke mainly in monosyllables and laughed often. It nearly drove her crazy to discover that he usually laughed when he gave her one of his sly glances.

  “Tomorrow,” he said. A few minutes later he said, “Downtown.” Then he added, “Oh, you know about realtors. My mom has what they call a closing tomorrow. When the buyers actually take the house from the sellers.”

  Jade frowned, wondering why Sean was giving Ryan a lesson in real estate. What possible interest could two little nine-year-olds have in a closing?

  “Sandy, Mom’s boss, was supposed to do this one. But his nephew is getting married tomorrow. It takes hours to get everything straight. Yeah, I’m sure.”

  He came up with a few more yeses and nos, and then hung up the phone. He stared at her very smugly, like the cat who had eaten the canary.

  “What was that all about?” she demanded suspiciously.

  “Oh, nothing. Ryan was just curious,” Sean said innocently. He kept his eyes wide and guileless as he went on. “Ryan likes you a lot, Mom. He’s afraid you’re mad at him.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m not mad at Ryan.”

  “Just at Jeff, huh?”

  “Sean, go to bed.”

  “Sure.”

  But he paused. “Ryan says you’re the prettiest lady he’s ever seen, other than his mother.”

  “Oh, yes? Well, that’s nice.” She tried to sound casual. She chewed lightly on her lower lip. “Does he see his mother often?” She was still furious; she didn’t know why she asked the question, except that she couldn’t help herself.

  “Not since they moved down here,” Sean informed her. “But before that…” He shrugged. “She used to come over whenever she felt like it. He said it hurt bad when they were divorced. They got along okay after the divorce, though, and his mother even came over to stay sometimes. Maybe he hopes they’ll get back together.”

  “Maybe they will,” Jade forced herself to say with a pleasant smile. Sean grinned elusively in return, gave her a kiss good-night and walked on down the hall.

  Damn him! Damn Jeffrey Martin! So he was just marking time until he got back together with his wife! Diana. Jade started to hate the name.

  What did she care? He was a jerk. He was a good reason all by himself for a war between the sexes.

  She was shivering with anger and some other emotion she couldn’t name. She didn’t know if she wanted their relationship to be over or not. Surely it would be best to get away from him now.

  She was afraid; she couldn’t help it. Afraid of wanting him, afraid of being in love with him, afraid of being touched again.

  “I’m not even speaking to him,” she muttered aloud. “So how can I fall in love with him?”

  She kept talking to herself as she got into bed. She called him every name she could think of, but still she couldn’t fall asleep.

  “He’d better have a good apology this time,” she whispered in the darkness.

  * * *

  On Friday morning she drove downtown to the lawyer’s office for the closing. But right after she reached the law offices of Dunlap and McPherston, Sandy came in behind her.

  “Sandy!”

  “Take the morning off, young woman,” he told her grandly.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “That little hothead. My nephew got into a fight with his fiancée last night and the two little twits called the whole thing off!”

  “Oh. Well, better before the wedding than after,” Jade said sympathetically. “But you should have taken the morning off—”

  He grimaced. “The Donaldsons are my clients, and I’m here, anyway. Go home. Take a nap. You look like hell.”

  “Thanks a lot!”

  “Well, you do
. You look tired.”

  Jade sighed and decided that she could use a nap. She just hoped she could fall asleep.

  But when she trudged back to the garage to pick up her car, it was gone.

  She didn’t believe her eyes at first. Then she panicked. Desperately, she searched all the levels of the garage.

  It was gone. Really and truly gone.

  Jade kicked the tires of a Mercedes standing next to the empty space where the beat-up Corvette should have been. Then she burst into tears. And then she called the police.

  The officer was irritatingly casual. Cars, it seemed, were reported stolen all too frequently. He kept acting as if she were a feather brained woman who had probably left her keys in the car. She showed him her keys. He called in the report, chewing gum all the while and giving her very little encouragement.

  “Probably won’t see it again, lady,” he warned her.

  He was decent enough to give her a ride home. Once in the privacy of her house, she started swearing and throwing pillows around. Dammit! The Corvette was so old that she hadn’t been able to insure it against theft. Why hadn’t the jerk taken the Mercedes, whose owner would have made a bundle when the insurance company paid up?

  She was starting to cry with sheer frustration when her phone started ringing. She ignored it; the answering machine was on.

  But she couldn’t ignore the voice that came on the machine. It was Toby’s.

  “Jade! Jade, you have to be there! Pick up the phone! Jade—listen, this is important! They’ve got Jeffrey Martin in the Dade County jail. Now, come on, I know you told him last night that that was where he belonged. But a joke’s a joke; enough is enough, huh? Hey, he was just trying to fix the damned thing for you. Jade! Come on, pick up the phone! They’ve arrested him. He’s in jail. Enough, okay? Jade, please pick up the phone!”

  CHAPTER 5

  Clang!

  That much, at least, was just like the movies, Jeffrey mused.

  He’d been in jail once before. When he was eighteen and had gotten too rowdy. But he’d been arrested by a kindly midwestern sheriff who’d taken him to wait in a comfortable room while he called his father. He’d been the only “criminal” in the jail, and the sheriff had given him a good talking to while pumping coffee into him. He’d been a kid.