by Sonia Icilyn
“Who are you?” Donavan demanded hotly.
Dale Lambert was standing like a knight to the rescue. At close quarters, he looked much more handsome than when Avril had last seen him lounging at the bar. And his purpose was intent. He was not going to allow Donavan St Clair any leeway. “I’m a friend,” Dale returned, hardening his gaze. “And I believe you were on your way.”
Donavan took the hint. “I’m cool,” he surrendered, backing off immediately. “Avril and I can catch up another time.” He scooted.
Avril smiled up at Dale. In the white jersey and black tailored trousers he was wearing, he seemed to have grown two inches, though she knew that was not possible. “I thought it was you I saw,” she began, watchful as he straightened his gray leather jacket. “Thank you for gallantly saving me from a worse night than I’m currently having.”
“Not enjoying yourself, huh?” Dale queried, understanding her mood. It was akin to his own.
“No, I’m not.” Avril winced on recalling how Kesse had been with her. “I need an excuse to leave.”
“Here with friends?” he asked, not missing the undercurrent of tension that suddenly sparked between them.
“Over there.” Avril inclined her head and deliberately grimaced. The exaggerated gesture was not missed by Dale. “You?”
It was Dale’s turn to incline his head at a beautiful young woman who was the center of attraction among a cluster of admirers. A whiplash of jealously erupted inside Avril. “Bad date?” she probed.
“My sister, Elyse,” Dale informed, “who really doesn’t need any babysitting from me.”
Relief washed over her. “We’re both having a stale night.”
Dale laughed, affording himself time to think of a suitable response. “Why don’t we get out of here?”
Avril enjoyed his chuckle. It made her heart lurch unexpectedly. “And go where?”
“For a pizza…kebab? Somewhere quiet.”
She didn’t need to think about it. A part of her was already drowning in Dale’s chocolate-drop eyes. “You’re on.”
He smiled. “Meet me outside in five minutes?”
The diamond stud earring in his left earlobe winked at her. “I’ll be there,” she purred.
Dale went to speak to his sister and Avril returned to the bar. On her arrival, she noted that Kesse was doing her level best to shower Rakeem with kisses. Whether the theatrics was for her benefit, Avril could not decide. Nor did she care.
“I’m leaving,” she told the distracted couple. “I don’t need a ride home.”
“Where are you going?” Kesse asked, alarmed.
“Out of here,” Avril chimed. “Enjoy your evening.”
She did not look back as she made her departure and Avril knew Kesse would not follow her given the tone she’d used in her voice. Their communication with one another had broken down and she told herself that things would be better between them in a few days. At least she hoped so.
She spotted Dale on his way toward the club door and was about to speed up to catch him, when Avril was stalled by someone. The Jamaican woman was in a classic cut Roberto Cavalli dress and wearing Jimmy Choo shoes. Her braided hair was elaborately styled on top of her head and dangling gold earrings were at her earlobes, adding panache.
“Excuse me, Miss Vasconcelos?” she asked, vaguely unconvinced.
“Yes,” Avril answered, recognizing Delphine Collins immediately. She braced herself for a verbal attack.
“I daresay you remember me,” Delphine began in a pronounced accent, a lasting reminder that she was a native Jamaican.
“I remember you,” Avril acknowledged. How could she forget. She had spotted Delphine the moment she’d walked into the village church and caught sight of her sitting next to Rick dressed in an apple-green Prada ensemble. “You were at my wedding. I rather thought Meyrick would be the best man instead of his younger brother.”
“We know what happened,” Delphine told her, going straight to the point. “I thought you’d be interested to hear that we found out about Maxwell’s baby. He told us he has a son and—”
“A son!” Avril’s head spun at the revelation.
“Cameron,” Delphine disclosed. “We’re still coming to terms with the news. Rick’s stunned to discover he’s an uncle and that the newest addition to the family was not a bride, but a baby and—”
Avril’s rancor took her by surprise. “You can tell Meyrick that I also found out a little something else about Maxwell from Reuben Meyer,” Avril vented.
“I can’t imagine there being any more trouble,” Delphine said, puzzled. “Maxwell arrived back from the Mascarene Islands today and—”
“The Mascarene Islands!” Avril wanted to spit poison. “He used our tickets? With who?”
“The mother of his child,” Delphine returned sympathetically. “He introduced her formally to the family this morning.”
Avril steamed like an engine. She realized if she stayed a moment longer in this club, she was likely to run off the rails. “I’ve got to go.” It was 12:30 a.m. when she left Media Plus with Dale Lambert.
Avril felt sick. Fate had struck an awful blow. The one woman who was the single obstacle preventing her from receiving Meyrick’s full attention was the mouthpiece to deliver the final insult. Her evening was spoiled. Ruined. This was not something she could deal with right away.
“Everything okay with your friends?” Dale asked, guiding her from the building with a persuasive hand at the small of her back.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Avril said with relief. “Your sister?”
“She’s getting a ride from one of her friends,” he said, directing the way ahead. “What do you want to eat?” They arrived at his car and Dale opened the passenger door. “I’ll go with your choice.”
Avril considered as she took her seat. “Southern fried chicken.”
Dale’s smile widened. “Yes, ma’am.” He closed the door, walked around the car to his own seat and took the wheel like a man whose evening had suddenly turned out as he’d least expected. “I know a nice little place at Swiss Cottage, a stone’s throw from where I live.”
Avril was keen. This was the distraction she needed. “Let’s go.”
He put the car into motion and they took off.
“Your friends didn’t look happy,” Dale ventured as soon as he cruised the car into gear. “Is something going on?”
Avril cringed. She was reluctant to indicate Delphine as she was not technically a friend. That left only two people worthy of mention. “Kesse was my maid of honor,” she began in explanation. “She’s also a business associate of the man I was going to marry, but seems to be taking sides.”
“Why?” Dale queried, curiously.
Avril dipped her head then decided to come clean. “I told her that I’m planning to go after Meyrick, Maxwell’s brother.”
The car swerved. Dale fought to cruise it back into the lane. His heart pounded loudly. “I thought everything was over the moment your brother’s job was reinstated, and Lynfa and Georgie Armstrong agreed not to level any charges against you to recover costs,” he said in disbelief. “Why are you making things worse for yourself?”
“Now you’re sounding like Kesse,” Avril said, wounded.
“Your friend has a point,” Dale persisted.
“I’m doing this because…because….” Avril went one further. “Maxwell took a bet on my ass,” she scowled. “He made a wager with the Cultural and Development Commissioner that he could get me to walk down the aisle as his bride if I won the competition.”
“You’re kidding me,” Dale gasped, horrified.
“It’s true,” Avril groaned, still dismayed by the outrageous behavior. “Reuben Meyer told me himself, inadvertently. The competition was fixed. The judges concurred on his choice.”
“So…this is about retribution?” Dale probed, switching lanes.
“Yes,” Avril admitted with relish. “I’m going to make Maxwell Armstrong regret the
day he ever chose to gamble with my life.”
Dale fell quiet. “Wouldn’t it be better if he simply saw you with another man and getting on with your life?” he said after a bout of silence.
“Vengeance would be much sweeter if that man happened to be his own brother,” Avril returned.
But Dale was not convinced he was hearing the full stretch of Avril’s emotions. Since their meeting, he had found himself developing some unusual feelings of his own and felt certain she must be aware of them, too. “Is this about you leveling the score or about you believing you can get Meyrick to fall in love with you?” he asked with a real need for clarity.
“Meyrick and I have feelings—”
“That you are displacing,” Dale ventured, deliberately halting her from revealing information she could regret later.
But Avril pressed on. “They are feelings which are—”
“Best left alone,” Dale cut in. He could not bear the thought of Avril dampening his own yearning for her.
“They’re feelings which we are both holding back,” she finally conceded, though Avril knew she wasn’t absolutely convinced.
“You’re playing with fire,” Dale warned, nettled by her perseverance to reach for a man he considered unworthy of her and whom she had no hope to obtain “Isn’t he a naturalist, one of those people who’s always protesting against war, cruelty to the rain forest and always on a crusade?”
“He’s an animal activist,” Avril corrected defensively. “Meyrick’s part of a small society of people who believe that many species are endangered and need protecting.”
“That’s no reason to make a fool of yourself when he is clearly only showing you friendship,” Dale mouthed, embittered by her husky-toned description of Rick Armstrong.
“You know,” Avril said, feeling rebuked that Dale, of all people, seemed not to understand her need for justice. “I think I’d like to go home.”
“Don’t do that,” Dale drawled on a dispirited frown as he slowed the car by a gear.
Avril pretended ignorance. “Do what?”
“Make me feel guilty for offering an opinion,” he answered, wounded. “I’ll say nothing more about you wanting a reprisal against the Armstrongs, but let’s see the evening through.”
“I’m not hungry,” Avril declared stubbornly.
“Then at least join me for a…nightcap. Coffee?” Dale persuaded nicely. “At my place?”
Avril realized she didn’t want to lose Dale’s company, even if he thought she was playing a dangerous game. “Tea,” she accepted, forcing a weak smile. “I’ll have tea.”
Chapter 7
“Welcome to my humble abode,” Dale announced as he pulled his house key from the lock and pushed the door open.
Avril ventured inside and looked around. Darkness met her before Dale switched on the lights. She was immediately surrounded by warmth and comfort as her gaze fell on the long corridor ahead. The floor was richly carpeted beneath her feet in a deep shade of beige and ornamented clay pots with tall green plants added an air of ambience and peace. Four doors on either side indicated a large house.
“Which way?” she asked.
“The top door to your left,” he directed.
Avril walked right into a kitchen. It was large and well equipped with modern maple-colored units and stainless steel appliances hung against topaz-colored tile work on the walls. Shiny copper pots and pans were suspended from a ceiling rack, and a half-moon shaped wooden bench on steel legs with stylish metal stools was against the backdrop of a window draped in yellow voile.
“Very nice,” Avril approved on entering.
“My mother gave me some ideas on her last visit here,” Dale admitted as he threw off his gray leather jacket and rolled up his sleeves. “Tea and scones coming right up.”
His jacket found the hook on the back of the kitchen door and his shoes a place on a shoe rack nearby. With socked feet, Dale padded toward the gas stove.
“Shall I take my shoes off, too?” Avril instantly inquired on watching his actions.
“You’ll feel more comfortable,” Dale encouraged. It felt lovely to be fussing over her, he mused, but Dale told himself not to be too overpowering. Not when Avril had her eyes set on Meyrick Armstrong. Was she a bunny boiler or a woman scorned, he was not sure, but acknowledged that she had not yet put to bed the recent turn of events in her life.
“There,” Avril said out loud as she placed her three inch heels next to Dale’s designer shoes. “Now I’m officially a guest at your home.”
Ten minutes later, they were seated on the high stools drinking hot tea and biting on raisin-filled scones that Dale had toasted on the stove.
“Delicious,” Avril said conversationally. “Are they homemade?”
“Elyse had reign of the kitchen this morning,” Dale said, glancing across at the woman beside him. “That’s one advantage to having her visit. She makes great scones.”
Avril tried to hide her reaction at his close proximity to her. “Is she your only sister?”
“No. I have three,” Dale explained. He took an interest in swirling butter over his scone with a knife while he talked. “Elyse is the youngest. Then there’s Poppy and Lauryn, the eldest. She had a baby last year—my nephew. I was born after Lauryn and before Poppy.” Dale’s gaze fell on her briefly. His thoughts immersed. “And you?”
“Antonio, my older brother,” Avril disclosed quietly. “He’s married.”
“Children?”
“One,” Avril said in a low voice. “A nephew, too.”
Dale leaned his elbows on the wooden bar, wishing he had the power to interpret Avril’s thoughts. But all he could detect was the hint of sadness in her tone that reached out to him like a long rope. “Do you see him?” He guessed she did not and was right.
“No.” Avril shook her head, dispirited. “My brother’s wife has left him.” She took a sip of tea for bravado. The pungent smell of the strong brew, sweetened to her taste was just what she needed. “He hit his wife when she was five months pregnant and I’ve only spoken to her twice after she gave birth.”
“Is she all right?” Dale queried, concerned at hearing the story.
“Yes,” Avril affirmed, detecting some movement in his eyes that she could not read. “I spoke with her on the telephone before my wedding. I invited her, but she didn’t want to come because of my brother. She’s staying with friends and has sworn me to secrecy not to tell anyone where she’s at. My relationship with Antonio became very strained afterward, but I know she’s planning to see him soon.”
“So your brother hasn’t seen his son?” Dale asked with raised brows.
Something about the way he said it caused Avril’s brows to rise. “Elonwy, his wife, sent a photograph,” she explained, aware that the situation did not look good. “It was more than he deserved given the circumstances. Deep down, I thinks she wants a reconciliation.”
“Your brother will have to learn to control his fists first,” Dale warned, disapproving.
“He’s stopped drinking and has taken anger management classes,” Avril went on, curious why she’d ventured into this conversation. A part of her told her there were feelings she needed to get off her chest. “The whole thing really affected me in the worse way,” she added afterward.
Dale’s chocolate-brown eyes homed in. Avril was unraveling herself to him like a rose budding to full bloom. Dale imagined that this was a rare opportunity for anyone to see her so honest and open. He felt certain that she was a woman who had encountered a lot of emotions in her young life and, for the first time, he was able to relate them to a source.
“How did it affect you?” he asked, concerned. The simple question he was sure would conjure many answers.
“Well,” Avril said and shrugged. “I always saw my brother as someone I could depend on. Suddenly, he’d become dysfunctional. Because of it, I felt unstable. His strength had gone and mine went, too. He was unhappy and I became discontent. I searched for answ
ers in all the wrong people. For the most part, I felt like I was going mad.”
“Your brother is a part of you,” Dale reasoned. “It’s normal that his actions would affect you.”
“But why so profoundly?” Avril probed in a manner that sounded passionate and in earnest.
“I can see that you’re close to him,” Dale exclaimed, reading the fiery glint in her nut-brown gaze. “Perhaps you feel hurt by what he did.”
“I do, very much,” Avril said bitterly. “I like Elonwy, but I thought that she may not be right for Antonio at first because she’s a highly educated woman from Nigeria and I couldn’t see what she liked about him. He’s untidy and lousy at timekeeping. And he only shaves once every three days and has a drinking problem. But she loved him. Elonwy had the guts to take Tony on and sort him out. Somehow, she lost the battle.”
“And when he became derailed with booze, you were affected, too,” Dale finished. “Your brother became weak and that strength you’d always relied on from him wasn’t there anymore.”
“I feel angry about it,” Avril confessed, opening her heart to the truth. “I called on Elonwy on three occasions before she had the baby because she’s my sister-in-law, but he accused me of taking her side and conspiring against him. His behavior affected everyone. My own mother was forced into petitioning the court after the baby was born just to get a photograph of the baby because Elonwy was too frightened of him. She couldn’t bear for any of us to see her. I don’t know how it’s all going to work out.”
Dale took a hold of Avril’s hand and she was chagrined to sense a tremor in his fingers. “I can see that this has all been traumatic for you,” he decided, squeezing her own fingers in condolence. “This is something your sister-in-law needs to work out with her husband. It sounds like your brother has a lot of growing up to do and was very immature in dealing with his wife. Now that they’ve had this time apart and he’s seen the errors of his ways, whatever he finds out when they do talk will be the testing of his character to see if he can behave appropriately.”
“He’ll not behave with me,” Avril bit back. “Antonio accused me of being a crazy psycho chick when I jilted Maxwell at the altar. I don’t think he has any idea how I really feel.”