Singing a Song...

by Crystal V. Rhodes

  He didn’t flinch, giving no sign of being interested in her comment.

  Regine shrugged. “Anyway, it’s not important.” She couldn’t hide her smile as her heart beat double-time at Thad’s seeming disinterest in Darnell’s love life. Maybe he wasn’t involved with the songstress. Maybe she still had a chance.

  Pulling at Thad’s arm, she started for the patio door. “Don’t be mad at me for trying to help you out by answering your phone. Come on, forgive and forget. Don’t hide out here by yourself like some old man. The band is playing, and I know what a fantastic dancer you are. Come on, dance with me. I’ll protect you from all of those pants chasers in the room.”

  Thad wasn’t amused by Regine’s quips. All he wanted to do was go home. He would dance her toward the door, then make his escape. Without a word, he followed her to the dance floor with his mind racing a mile a minute. Regine was lying! This was the first that he had heard about any impending marriage between Darnell and Lance! It had to be a lie! Darnell wouldn’t leave him hanging like this. She wasn’t that kind of woman.

  As they slipped onto the crowded dance floor, Thad in a trance and Regine reveling in the glory of being the one with whom he was dancing, a photographer appeared. When the music stopped, Regine, giddy from her dance with Thad, planted an inviting kiss on his lips. Neither one of them noticed as the photographer snapped the picture and disappeared back into the crowd.

  * * *

  The excitement in the old Victorian house had reached fever pitch earlier that morning. Word had arrived that a possible donor had been found for Lance. If the donor turned out to be compatible, this would mean that instead of facing years of waiting for a match for his liver, he might be facing only days.

  The atmosphere in the household had lightened considerably, and as Darnell headed down the stairway for the veranda, she uttered a silent prayer of thanks. The time she had spent on the ranch had given her plenty of time to reflect on how precarious life could be. Nothing could be taken for granted. Yet, she had done so with Thad’s love and now faced the possibility of losing him.

  She had been angry at first about the ultimatum he had given her, but the more she thought about it, the more she knew that he was right. She had grown too comfortable in her procrastination, wanting to avoid the inevitable. Years ago, she had made a foolish promise to Lance about something that should have been dealt with long ago. Now it was time to deal with it and to tell him about her relationship with Thad. She planned to do so without further delay.

  With that decision having been made she had called Thad to inform him. She wanted to—no, she needed to—talk to him, but she had been unable to reach him. He didn’t answer her calls, so she had left messages on his cell phone and at his home in Tiburon. She had followed that up with a letter to him. In it, she told him how much she missed him and apologized for her indecisiveness, but that had been days ago, and she still had not heard from him. His silence hurt. Was their relationship really over?

  Whatever happened between Thad and her, the conversation with Lance was inevitable. It was long overdue.

  “God, Dar, you scared me!”

  Lance’s high-pitched exclamation startled Darnell as she found herself standing on the veranda looking down into his thin, pale face. The thick, satiny eyebrows were creased together in surprise. His deep-set brown eyes, accented by short curly lashes, peered at her in annoyance as he quickly folded the letter he had been reading and jammed it into his pants pocket.

  “What were you doing spying on me?” His tone was accusatory.

  “Spying?” Darnell was shocked by his accusation. She knew that the man didn’t feel well, but she was growing tired of him taking it out on others around him. Since their arrival at the ranch, he had been quiet and withdrawn, and spoke in clipped, sharp tones to both Darnell and his parents. When questioned about his behavior, he reacted defensively. Everyone was walking on eggshells around him. “What are you talking about, Lance? I came out here to get a breath of fresh air. I didn’t know you were even out here. And why would I spy on you anyway?”

  Lance looked contrite as he noted Darnell’s angry stance. He knew her well enough to know that he was pushing her with his attitude and she was about to let him know it. He relented. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  Darnell didn’t acknowledge his apology as she slammed back into the house, still perturbed by his behavior. Something was up with that man, and she had the distinct feeling that it was something beyond his health problems. A day later, her suspicions were confirmed.

  Darnell was busy in her room gathering clothes for Mrs. Dawson, the seventy-five-year-old housekeeper who had been with the Austin family since Lance was a baby. She had come with them to the ranch, and she ruled this household with the same iron fist that she ruled the Austins’ main household. In that house, Saturday was washday, and all clothes were to be delivered to her that morning or go dirty until the next week. Darnell wanted to make sure that she complied.

  As Mrs. Dawson stood watching her tie her dirty clothes into the tidy bundle that she demanded from each person, the older woman absently searched through the pockets of a pair of pants she had gotten from Lance’s room. She wanted to make sure that they were empty. They weren’t. She withdrew several sheets of mint green stationary jammed haphazardly into the right pocket just as Darnell turned to hand her a bundle of clothes.

  “Here we go, Mrs. Dawson. All tied together just like you like it.” She noticed the stationary in Mrs. Dawson’s hand. “What’s that?”

  “It looks like a letter or something Lance had in his pocket.” Mrs. Dawson looked at the sheets of paper as if they had come from outer space and had invaded her home. “Now that boy knows I don’t allow nothing to be in these pockets when I’m washing.”

  Darnell plucked the sheets of paper from the woman’s hand in exchange for her bundle of clothes. “I’m sure he forgot, and it won’t happen again. Here, I’ll give them back to him if you’ll take these.”

  The sheets of paper scattered to the floor as the exchange was made. Darnell bent to retrieve them as Mrs. Dawson sniffed indignantly and stalked out of the room, muttering her displeasure.

  Darnell shook her head in amusement as she watched the door close behind her. Picking up the papers, she started toward the door and Lance’s room to give the letter back to him when she happened to glance down at what she was holding. The words on the last sheet of paper caught her eye. I love you madly, and I can’t wait to have our baby. Darnell stopped dead in her tracks.

  CHAPTER 24

  Lance watched the pulse at the base of Darnell’s throat as it moved erratically. That had always been his way of measuring how angry she was with him. Right now, it was leaping like a Mexican jumping bean. Yet her outside manner appeared calm. He was surprised. When was the storm going to blow in?

  In the many years that he had known her, Lance had found Darnell to be full of surprises. While he had pursued what he knew to be an honorable, solid, and profitable career, she had pursued a career he thought of as frivolous and self-indulgent. Despite his unspoken reservations, he had supported her choice, and she had surpassed all expectations. Darnell had signed a recording contract right out of college. The result had been that they both had benefited by her rising star.

  Lance had discovered that his status as Darnell Cameron’s “ boyfriend” afforded him opportunities that he would not have imagined. He was invited to all of the right functions, met all of the right people and received coveted research grants with little effort, all because of his association with Darnell. Yet, during most of their decade together, they had been living a lie.

  “Where did you meet her, Lance?” Her question brought him back to the subject at hand.

  He swallowed, trying to remain calm. He didn’t want to set her off. “When she worked on the research project with me at the hospital.”

  “And she was on the team that went to South America with you?”

  He glanced down at th
e letter in her hand that told it all. “Yes, she was there.”

  “And you’re in love with this woman?”

  A shadow of confusion danced across his face. Was he in love with Ruth? He got a warm feeling when he was with her. He liked her easygoing manner and soft-spoken ways, and she was in his field, medical research. It was a subject about which they could sit and talk for hours. His relationship with Ruth was so much different than the one he had with Darnell. Was he in love?

  “Yes, I think that I am.”

  Darnell looked at his downcast eyes, the stooped shoulders, and the painful expression of guilt on his face. She couldn’t believe that she was having this conversation with Lance, of all people. “And she’s in love with you?”

  There was subtext in the question, and they both knew its source. He looked Darnell in the eye this time. “Yes, she is.” His answer held no reservations.

  Darnell sat looking at the man before her. For so long, they had been a part of each other’s lives. She had been with him since she was twenty-two. Back then, she had hung onto his every word. She had been mesmerized by his good looks, awed by his brilliance. He seemed to have it all. A love relationship had not been for them, but a close friendship had been. It was a friendship forged by a secret he had shared with her— one that she had pledged not to reveal. It was for him to do so. She had been a young girl when she swore that allegiance. Things were different now. Life had changed drastically for them both. It was time for the pretense to end.

  When she read the letter Mrs. Dawson had found, Darnell had been ready to kill. In a huff, she had stormed into Lance’s bedroom and demanded an explanation. He had looked almost relieved when she tossed the evidence on the bed and stood over him with hands on her hips and lots of attitude. But she surprised herself when her bark turned out to be worse than her bite. As she stood there in all of her defiance, Darnell realized that she didn’t feel that angry because Lance’s actions had freed them both. However, some things still had to be explained.

  “This letter seems to indicate—no, it states—that you and Ruth have been intimate.”

  Lance’s gaze held hers steadily as he nodded. “We have been.”

  For a moment, Darnell hesitated, unsure how to word the next question. She and Lance had rarely discussed the subject. He sensed her dilemma. “I was able to consummate the relationship, Dar, and to the satisfaction of us both.”

  Darnell was unable to keep the shock off her face. “But you said—” She paused to gather her thoughts. “What are you doing, Lance? You told me after the accident that you were impotent. What is this about?”

  Rising from his chair, Lance walked over to the window and braced his body against the windowsill as he spoke. “A while ago, I thought about my life and what I wanted out of it. I thought that if there was a chance, then maybe…”

  “There is no maybe about it, Lance, either you are or you aren’t!”

  “I know, but my parents helped me…”

  “Your parents?” Darnell walked over to stand face-to-face with Lance. “You said that you didn’t want your parents to know. You said that you didn’t want them to look at you differently. You cried and begged me not to tell anyone. You said that it would be awful if anyone knew but me! So when did you tell your parents?”

  “Five years ago. They introduced me to the doctor who helped me.”

  Darnell was stunned as she struggled to understand the implications of what he had revealed. “You have the nerve to tell me that you’ve had some sort of operation, they’ve known about this, and nobody bothered to tell me for five years?”

  Lance shrugged. “You were on tour a lot, and I guess I didn’t think about it. I figured that my parents would say something to you.”

  Darnell shook her head in disbelief as she stared at the man she thought she knew so well. “Let me get this straight. We’re best friends. You begged me not to tell anyone about your sexual problem until you were ready. So, here I am still under the impression that your parents think that we’re a couple, and they let me think it, too.”

  “Well, you know how much they love you, and we are best friends.”

  Darnell held her hands up as if to ward off the information he was imparting. “Wait a minute, Lance, don’t you see a problem with this?”

  He looked at her in confusion and shook his head. “No, I don’t. The only problem I see is that I broke our promise. I said that I would come to you and let you know when and if I found someone I cared for and who cares for me. Then I promised I’d let everyone know.

  “But why didn’t you tell me about all this earlier, Lance?”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m telling you now. I found someone. Its been a year, and I didn’t do…”

  “A year!” Darnell took an intimidating step forward. “You and Ruth have been messing around with each other for a year?”

  Lance shrank away from her. The calm was over, and the storm was rising. “Uh, I meant to say something but you were on tour again, and we didn’t see much of each other, and didn’t get to talk much on the telephone…”

  “Oh, mister, you better make it better than that! You better put that brilliant mind of yours to work and explain to me why you didn’t step up to the plate a long time ago. I told you from the beginning that being impotent wasn’t something to be ashamed of. It was just something that happened, but you were so thoroughly convinced that everyone would think so much less of you and that your career would be affected, which was ridiculous…”

  “At the time it seemed…”

  “No! No more excuses. Oh, you were so certain that if I had a relationship with someone and it became sexual, word would get around that you were less than a man. What was it you said? ‘The dude would know for sure that I wasn’t handling my business.’ As if sex is the only thing that makes a man. ”

  “Darnell, that was a long time ago…”

  “It was yesterday for me!” Darnell had worked herself into a rage. She paused to take hold of her emotions. “Exactly what does this woman mean to you, Lance?”

  “I want a family, Darnell. My parents want grandchildren…”

  “And she’s pregnant?”

  “I hope that I can get her pregnant.”

  “So you two will get married, and you hope she gets pregnant?”

  Lance hesitated, then answered, “I told you, I want a family, and since the two of us weren’t getting together—”

  His words explained almost everything. Darnell sighed heavily. “Have you told this woman that you might not be able to have children?”

  “No, but I might be able to. The doctors think there’s hope, and so do my parents. Why burden Ruth?”

  Darnell looked at him with a mixture of rage and pity. “I love you like a brother, Lance. I protected your secret at all costs. I never wanted anyone to think less of you, but right now I think less of you, and that saddens me. The woman deserves to know everything about you, and she deserves your love.”

  As she watched him struggle to answer her, Darnell began to look at Lance in a new light. He was a man in conflict, and there was nothing more that she could do to help him. He had to help himself.

  She remembered their awkward attempts at making love in the early days of their relationship. No matter what she did, it seemed that she couldn’t satisfy him. They couldn’t seem to satisfy each other. Having both been virgins, they hadn’t realized that they might be sexually incompatible. After his accident, when he revealed to her that he was impotent, it had seemed an answer to their dilemma. The same was proving true now. Despite the cornucopia of emotions that she was feeling about this entire situation, beneath the surface she felt as if a burden had been lifted. Things had been resolved, not the way that she thought they would be, but resolved nevertheless. She and Lance could turn the page and start the next chapters in their lives.

  * * *

  Alerted to the sound of a door opening downstairs, Moody moved to the doorway of Thad’s bedroom as stealthily as a ca
t. He knew that he had disengaged the alarm, so he didn’t expect it to go off; but whoever had entered did expect to hear it, and that could mean trouble. Remaining hidden, he peered down to the floor below. The muscle-bound man who worked for Thad was standing by the front door looking perplexed. Amused by the look on the big man’s face, Moody leaned back so that he wouldn’t be spotted. Fighting the muscular cretin hadn’t been in his plan, but he was ready for him if it happened. He patted the gun tucked in its holster.

  Below, a puzzled Donald stood looking at the silent alarm. He was certain that he had set it before he and Thad left for L.A. He had never forgotten to set it before. Prompted by instinct, he stood listening for a second for any sound that might alert him that he was not alone in the house. Crime had already touched this household when Thad was mugged a couple of weeks ago. All they needed now was a burglary. Cautiously, he moved further into the house, then from room to room downstairs. Nothing seemed out of place. His mother had been checking the house while they were gone. She must have disarmed it and forgotten to re-engage it. His guess was that he could put the disarmed alarm on the list of everything else that had gone wrong while he and his employer were away.

  Walking into the living room, he shuffled the mail he was carrying, frowning in annoyance at his reason for having to return from southern California so early. It seemed that the answering service they had used for years at the Tiburon house had gone out of business without notifying its customers. Neither he nor Thad would ever know how many important calls had been missed. On top of that, Thad had lost his cell phone while in L.A. and had been frantic. After seeing that he was settled, Donald had taken care of the cell phone situation and then had flown back to the Bay area to see to matters in Tiburon.

  As he struggled with the mass of mail that he had requested that the post office hold until his return, the telephone rang. He hurried to answer the ring, spilling several unopened envelopes along the way. Deciding that the ringing telephone was more urgent than spilled mail, Donald hastened to pick up the receiver. Breathlessly, he answered it.