The Woman in the News

by K. N. Casper

If ever there was a fool…

  She’d known all along who and what Taggart was. She’d even been aware of what she was doing to herself, but desperation and the cringing fear of being alone had impelled her to debase herself with a man who was a fraud. What did that make her? And the compromise had all been for nothing, less than nothing. She was as alone as she’d ever been and now she was disgraced.

  Swallowing a sob, she stared out the window and willed energy back into her limp body. Once her nerves had settled and the shakes subsided, she went to her private bathroom and freshened up. A quick application of drops erased the telltale pinkness in her eyes.

  At her desk, she told Maxine over the intercom to call Marlee and ask her to come up and see her.

  She’d actually used the word ask, not tell, not order, not demand. Ask. On a muffled chuckle, she realized she was getting soft in her old age.

  She’d half expected Taggart to storm into her office, either to demand she retract her termination notice or to offer some sort of lame excuse for his disloyalty. The fact that he didn’t appear told her he was gone, which further proved she’d never meant anything to him. But then, she’d known that all along.

  Well, that episode of her life was over. If she was lucky, by the time she returned home, all his things would have been removed, all traces of him expunged from her life.

  What she had to do now was get on with business. Sal would have to be informed about events, but she had something she had to do first.

  After a polite tap, Maxine cracked the door open and peeked inside. “Marlee is here,” she announced.

  “Send her in.”

  Marlee entered. She looked neither apologetic nor intimidated by the situation. But then, why should she? She’d conducted herself with honor and dignity, virtues Faye had long since abdicated.

  “Please be seated. Maxine, close the door and take a coffee break.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I heard what went on between you two,” Faye said after resuming her accustomed place. “Did you intentionally leave the mike on?”

  Marlee shook her head. “I remember turning off the recorder. I must have forgotten—”

  Faye believed her. “I’m sorry you had to be subjected to that.”

  Sympathy softened Marlee’s demeanor and her voice. “I’m sorry you did, too.”

  The sincerity of the statement cut like a knifepoint. She hadn’t been very nice to this woman who was young enough to be her daughter. In fact, she’d done everything to thwart her ambitions, yet Marlee had compassion for her pain.

  “I offer no excuse or explanation for the way I’ve treated you, just an apology. Can you accept it?”

  “Yes.”

  Faye nodded her gratitude. “The sports director-anchor position is yours, Marlee, if you still want it.”

  MARLEE FOUND RENN at his dock bare chested, wearing only running shorts. His hair was tussled, his face unshaven. He’d obviously been working hard, because his skin glistened and the veins in his forearms stood out.

  His eyes widened when he saw her strolling down the path. A smile creased his face.

  “Congratulations,” he called out even before she reached the dock, “on your dilemma. Sports director here or reporter in Philadelphia.”

  She laughed. “I should have known you’d have heard.”

  “The grapevine is alive and well. I got a call from Maxine about an hour ago. She said Faye had just sent Taggart packing in front of the whole newsroom. According to her, people almost cheered when he walked out.”

  He set the safety on the sail’s winch, leaned against the mast and folded his arms.

  “I figured with him gone, Faye would have to do something quick if she wanted to keep the place from completely falling apart. Offering you the anchor slot was the logical move.” He grinned, pleased with the accuracy of his analysis.

  Marlee noted he didn’t ask her which choice she’d made. “Getting ready to go out?”

  “It’s a beautiful day. Care to join me?”

  “I’m really not dressed for an afternoon on the water,” she said. “This suit is much too warm.”

  He smiled. “Maybe you should take it off.”

  “Good idea.” She began unbuttoning her blouse.

  He muttered something indecipherable when she reached for her belt buckle and unfastened it. He was still goggle eyed when she pulled out her open blouse and dropped her pants, revealing a creamy-white bikini.

  He let out a captive breath while his eyes raked over her body. Was it her imagination, or did his shorts fit a little more snugly than they had a minute earlier?

  “Uh…let me get the cooler—I think I’m going to be very thirsty on the water.”

  “I’ll go with you,” she said, “and drop these clothes off.”

  They traipsed up to the house side by side, his eyes flicking over to her. In the kitchen she watched him scoop ice into the chest they’d used in the past. His movements were considerably less fluid than they usually were. He kept sneaking glances at her. Neither of them said a word when he reached into a cupboard, removed a bottle of white wine and put it in the refrigerator.

  “Did you bring sunscreen?” he asked.

  “Oops, I forgot.”

  He seemed to have a comment on the tip of his tongue, maybe about her not being so perfectly prepared after all. What he said was, “I have some in the bedroom. I’ll get it.”

  He returned a minute later with the plastic bottle. “I’ll help you put it on after we set sail.”

  “Thanks.” She grinned at him. “I’d appreciate that.”

  Again, she watched his muscles ripple and harden as he worked the crank to lift the sail. His sinewy build seemed more pronounced, more entrancing than she’d remembered. Sexier.

  They set course for the middle of the main channel. The wind was light and steady today. They made slow progress. She began to coat her arms and legs with citrus-scented sunscreen.

  Renn watched her, then latched the tiller.

  “Here—” he held out his hand “—let me do your back.”

  The lotion was cool on her shoulders and back, but beneath the initial chill she felt the warmth of his palms as they gently worked the unguent into her flesh.

  “I’ve missed you.” His breath was close to her ear. “More than I ever thought I could miss anyone.”

  He kneaded the base of her neck. She luxuriated in the power of his physical contact.

  “Have you decided which contract you’ll accept?”

  His long, powerful fingers tightened and released, sending impulses to hidden regions. “Sort of.”

  “Holding out for more money, huh? Might as well.” His thumbs applied pressure along her spinal column. “You’re in an ideal bargaining position—two stations competing for you.”

  “Money isn’t the issue.” Her breathing went shallow when his fingers brushed under her arms, mere inches from the sides of her breasts. Her concentration began to falter. “Faye and Dick have both offered generous packages, twice what I was making before, with built-in raises and bonuses.”

  “Good deal. Since my agency shingle is up, maybe you ought to hire me to conduct the bidding war between them.”

  “So you’re officially in the headhunting business. Any clients yet?”

  “A couple.”

  “Is there nothing that would entice you back to KNCS?” she asked.

  He gently rubbed the tender spots below her ears. “I’m content with my decision.”

  “Pity.”

  He moved around to face her so fast she could only blink. “Am I missing something?”

  She took a deep breath. “The agreement I made with Faye was that I’d accept the sports director position if she would offer you your old job back.”

  He shook his head. “It would never work. Two people, emotionally involved, working with each other in this business.”

  “Hmm. I suppose you’re right. I guess I’ll just have to accept the job in Philly
.” She started to move away.

  He reached out and tangled his fingers in her hair, brought his body in contact with hers, lowered his head and kissed her hard on the mouth. “I can’t imagine why you’d want me there.”

  She had to establish physical separation from him, not because she didn’t want to have him touch her, but because she couldn’t think straight when he did. “This trip gave me time to think, to put things in perspective, to figure out my priorities.”

  She settled into the deck chair in the shade of the billowing white sail. “I once asked Clark why he didn’t move on to bigger and more lucrative markets when he had so many opportunities to do so. He said because he was happy where he was. He had a good life here, earned enough to support his family comfortably. I didn’t understand him then. My job was the most important thing to me. I couldn’t understand not aiming higher, not wanting to earn more money and have a bigger audience.”

  Renn sat across from her, his hand on the tiller.

  “Flying back here from Philadelphia, I began to see things differently. The reporter job is great, Renn, a terrific opportunity, one I’m sure Clark would have advised me to take.” She scanned the horizon, as if she could see him there. “But I think it would have saddened him, too, because he would have seen that I was chasing after an illusion.”

  Renn remained silent, listening to her, and that in itself was a source of pleasure.

  “You and I talked about sacrifices once, remember? You said as long as you held on to your number one priority in life, everything else was negotiable. Clark’s highest priority was doing his best for the people who mattered most to him—his family. It made him happy, and it made them happy, as well. I want that, Renn. I want to be happy by doing my best for other people.”

  She got up and sat beside him, gazed into his eyes and placed her hand on his cheek. His skin felt warm under the fine grit of his beard. “The most important person in my life is you. I want us to be together, Renn. I want us to love each other and have children and share that love with them. I want us to succeed where our parents failed.”

  He bracketed her face with his big hands. “I’ll do anything for you, Marlee. Go anywhere.” He brought his lips to hers. “I love you.” He kissed her again. “Maybe we can work something out,” he said, when he broke off a third time. “I have a few ideas I’m exploring.”

  “Do you really?” She smiled, imagining areas she’d like to explore, as well. “A way for us to stay together?” She snaked her arms behind his back, rested her cheek on his hard chest and listened to his heartbeat. Sure and steady. “I don’t know, though. I can be a terrible embarrassment.” She gazed up at him. “I barge into places where I don’t belong, tend to dominate situations, don’t take no for an answer.”

  He tightened his grip on her, joining them at the hips. “Would you be willing to take yes for an answer?”

  “Depends on the question.”

  He arched back and bowed his head to meet her eyes. “I think we’re getting this all backward. What I mean is, will you marry me?”

  She thought a moment. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “That means yes. I’ll marry you.”

  EPILOGUE

  Saturday, June 21

  “STOP FIDGETING,” Audrey ordered, as she adjusted the veil on Marlee’s head, “unless you want to take your wedding vows looking like a cockeyed sailor.”

  Glenda snickered. She was wearing a cherry-red knee-length chiffon number, cut low enough to show a marginally modest hint of cleavage. “I’ll take care of this,” she told Audrey. “Go put on your shoes, or are you planning to be a barefoot matron of honor?”

  “I’m not putting them on till the very last minute.” Audrey’s peach-colored satin dress was set off with a double strand of matched pearls. “And since this happy event is taking place in my own backyard, I reserve the right to kick them off the minute Marlee says ‘I do’.”

  “I’d hold off until Renn says those magic words,” Glenda suggested. “Taking them off too soon might jinx things and mean he’ll keep her barefoot.”

  They all laughed.

  “And pregnant?” Audrey asked, with a twinkle in her eye.

  Marlee blushed. “Not yet, but—”

  “That’s what yachts and honeymoons are for.” Glenda removed the bridal bouquet from the white cardboard box on the edge of the dressing table.

  “Speaking of yachts,” Audrey commented, “it was very generous of your parents to offer you theirs for your honeymoon.”

  Marlee clamped down on the temptation to squirm as she gazed into the vanity mirror. She was convinced Glenda had overdone the eye shadow. “Renn insisted we tell them about our engagement in person,” she said, and wondered what she had forgotten. “I was just going to send them an announcement of our wedding.”

  His request was almost as much of a surprise as the reception they’d received. Her parents had acted genuinely pleased with the news and had invited them to spend the following weekend with them on their sloop in Corpus Christi. While the tension Marlee always felt around her mother and father hadn’t completely dissolved, she was amazed at how well the four of them had gotten along. The short voyage was the closest she’d felt to being part of a family since she was a little girl—aside from Clark and Audrey, of course.

  “Where’s the watch?” Marlee asked now, almost in panic.

  “Relax.” Audrey picked it up from the corner of the dressing table. “It’s right here.”

  The antique gold timepiece was too big for a necklace, so Marlee had elected to wear it as a brooch.

  Audrey pinned it on for her. “Ready?”

  “FAYE’S DEPARTURE was awfully sudden,” Mickey Grimes said, as he tried for the third time to get Renn’s bow tie right.

  “Let me do that.” Sal Bufano elbowed the best man aside.

  Mickey exhaled with relief and backed away. “I guess we should have seen it coming…after the way Tag humiliated her.”

  “Maybe everybody didn’t like her—” Sal expertly looped the black tie and adjusted the edges to even them out “—but until Clark’s death she was a pretty good vice president.”

  “I think it’s ironic that she asked you,” Mickey said to Renn, “to broker her deal with the network.”

  “Why not?” he shrugged. “In my short-lived career as an agent, I’d already found a job for Wayne out in El Paso. Not on the air like he wanted, but he’ll have a better chance there of making the jump.”

  “He sure screwed up here,” Mickey muttered.

  Renn nodded. “As far as I’m concerned, he redeemed himself when he called Faye into that editing bay to listen in on Taggart propositioning Marlee.”

  Mickey removed the boutonniere from the box on the bed and handed it over to the general manager, perfectly content to let him draw his own blood trying to pin it on Renn’s tuxedo lapel. “I sure hope Faye likes cold weather. She’s not likely to find many hundred-degree days in Alaska.”

  “Actually, she was looking forward to the change.” Renn ran his finger under his stiff white collar. “Turns out she used to be an avid cross-country skier until she came here.”

  “Ski Texas,” Mickey quipped. It was one of the few activities the Lone Star State didn’t offer.

  “I wish her well,” Renn said sincerely. He understood the loneliness he’d glimpsed in her eyes. “By the way,” he said to Sal, “I found out from Audrey that the sports-syndication idea was actually Clark’s. He’d been toying with it for a while and finally broached it to Faye the day before the accident.”

  Sal shook his head. “I wondered about that. I didn’t think Taggart was smart enough to come up with an ambitious concept like that by himself.

  Renn snickered. Maybe the general manager wasn’t as oblivious as people thought.

  After appraising his handiwork, Sal said, “Okay, Mr. Vice President,” referring to Renn’s new job at KNCS-TV, “I think it’s time to face the music.”

  Micke
y hummed “Here Comes the Bride” as he opened the sliding-glass door to the backyard, where everyone was waiting.

  THE WIND WHIPPED tendrils of her long, blond hair against his face. He brushed them aside, bowed and pressed his lips to the curve of her neck. She raised her shoulder into his touch and smiled.

  “It’s been a long day,” he murmured. They’d driven down from Coyote Springs after the wedding, taken the sloop out into the Gulf of Mexico. The longest day of the year was waning.

  She leaned against his chest, her vision filled with the golden glow of the setting sun, her entire body warmed by his closeness. “A wonderful day.”

  He turned her in his arms, touched his forehead to hers. “I love you, Marlee.”

  This wasn’t the first time he’d said those words today, but they still hadn’t lost their magical effect.

  “I never dreamed I could feel this happy.”

  His hair fluttered in the breeze. His body was warm against her, hard and powerful. She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.

  He brought his mouth down to hers. She opened to him hungrily, aggressively.

  The tropical wind filled the jib as they glided farther out in solitude on the undulating sea. An orange moon kissed one horizon as the other faded into darkness. Between them, diamonds twinkled in the black velvet sky.

  Her hands stroked his back. He laid his jaw against her temple.

  “I pledge with all my heart,” he said softly, “with all that I can command, to keep you always as happy as you are today.”

  “I want us to be a family, Renn. I want children we can love and who will love us in return.”

  “Then let’s see what we can do to bring new life from this joy.” He said the words lightly, but they contained a prayer as well as a promise.

  Slowly, he began to undress her. His hands trembled as he unbuttoned her blouse; his fingers fumbled. His touch, when it came, was gentle and almost worshipful. Together they slipped his shirt over his head and tossed it aside.

  She spread her hands across the firm contours of his chest.

  “Shall we go belowdecks?” he asked.