Intimate Portraits

by Cheryl B. Dale

  “Move,” Laney said, hitting her knee against his. “We’re tired of Fran’s monologue.”

  Rennie obediently shifted his legs so that Victoria and Elena could sink down on the floor beside his chair.

  If Autumn was having an affair with Francisco, it wouldn’t last long. Fran tired easily. It would be awful to see Autumn’s heart broken. She was an old friend, almost one of the family. On the other hand, maybe Francisco was in love with her. Maybe he would marry her.

  Whoa. That threw him in the dumps.

  Later, having had the foresight to shower immediately after getting back from their hike, Rennie didn’t need to fight for a turn in the lone bathroom. Instead, he went for a walk in the park. He needed to get away for a bit.

  Something was going on inside himself that he didn’t understand and wasn’t sure he liked. He’d come home hoping to find peace but had found other, deeper desires emerging. Longings he hadn’t known he possessed.

  He wasn’t sure he knew how to handle them.

  Chapter 8

  Autumn, waiting her turn to shower, saw Rennie disappear out the cabin door and immediately looked for Victoria.

  The reporter was on the deck with Norma and Paul, not outside waiting for Rennie.

  Good. Did she dare follow after him? No, if he’d wanted anyone along, he would have asked. He’d probably gone out to his car for something. She’d wait.

  He didn’t come back.

  Looked like it was going to take everyone a while to get ready to go out, so no use trying to get into the bathroom. Might as well do something productive. And if she ran into Rennie…

  Gathering up her Nikon, she went outside and used the remainder of the afternoon to snap pictures of the scenery around the cabin. But she couldn’t find Rennie, and the light wasn’t right, and instead of her mind being on composition, it kept wandering to that moment by the waterfall.

  After a while, her camera sagged. She was wasting her time. These shots would be trash.

  Why hadn’t she simply kissed him at the waterfall?

  Because she was too scared, that’s why. Scared of sticking her neck out. Scared of being rebuffed.

  Coward.

  Maybe it was as well she hadn’t. He’d made it clear long ago she wasn’t for him.

  Drooping, she went back to the cabin where she was last in line to wash up. Then, before she could take her turn in the one bathroom, she learned that a simultaneous and extended shower by Laney and John—remarked on at length by Fran and Norma, to John’s mortification and Paul’s amusement—had left no hot water.

  Laney, never embarrassed, shrugged her pretty shoulders and grinned like a Cheshire cat. “You’ll have to take a cold shower,” she told Autumn.

  “I think not, thank you very much! It’ll heat up.”

  Before the water warmed, the others began to mill beneath the beamed ceiling of the living area, clutching sweaters and jackets and gloves, impatient to leave for dinner in Helen.

  Rennie wasn’t among them.

  Nor was Victoria.

  Victoria could be upstairs getting her coat or outside taking a walk. She didn’t necessarily have to be with Rennie.

  Ragweed doesn’t cause hay fever, either.

  “Y’all go on, Laney.” How could her voice sound so placid? So normal? “I’ll come along soon as I’ve showered.”

  Fran, deep in conversation with Norma and Paul Talliafierro across the room, overheard. “I’ll stay and drive you in.”

  “Nope. I want to do my nails and some other stuff. I might even shave my legs for the occasion. If somebody’ll leave me a car, I’ll be along in a half hour or so.”

  “I won’t go without you,” Fran said.

  Autumn said, “Don’t be silly, Fran.” The back door opened on Victoria, talking to someone outside.

  Rennie, no doubt.

  Autumn wanted to run away. “For pity’s sake, go on, Fran. I’ll be worrying the whole time I'm dressing. You know how antsy you get marking time. I’ll work myself up into a tizzy thinking I’m making you late.”

  The Degardoveras screamed with laughter. “You’ve never been in a tizzy in your entire life,” Norma said. “Do you remember that time Laney was driving us across town to take our PSATs and our horrid car—”

  “Amy,” Laney put in. “Rennie named her Amy Jean.”

  “Amy Jean,” Norma acknowledged, “quit in the middle of Jimmy Carter Boulevard? Cars were honking, people gave us the finger, Laney started crying, and I was mad as a hornet.”

  “Hah. You were cursing like a sailor,” Laney said. “Mom would have washed your mouth out with soap if she’d been there. But Autumn laid her seat back and closed her eyes and I swear, I think she slept till a tow truck came.”

  “What else was there to do?” Autumn tried not to listen as Victoria giggled over her shoulder at the back door. “Amy Jean had quit and that traffic cop called for a wrecker. No, I mean it, Laney, Norma. Leave me a car and y’all go on to the restaurant. I’ll be along when I get bathed and changed.”

  Fran would have argued further but Victoria glided in and linked an arm through his. “Come on, Fran. You promised we’d share a pitcher of beer and an anchovy pizza.”

  “We can’t leave Autumn.” His protest, with Victoria clinging to him, weakened.

  Victoria kept hold of him, but addressed Autumn. “You do have a driver’s license, don’t you?”

  Competent, assertive, assured. Everything Rennie liked in a woman.

  Autumn nodded. She even smiled. “Sure do.”

  Victoria turned back to Fran. “See? I’ll bet the helpless little woman can find her way into town on her own, too. Come on, Fran, you promised.” She pouted. On her, it looked good. “Nobody else likes anchovies. I've asked.”

  “Do go on, Fran,” Autumn urged. Why wouldn’t they all leave and let her brood in peace? “I’ll be on as quick as I can.”

  After another few minutes of resisting, Fran gave in. “Here.” He dragged out his car keys and gave them to Autumn, grasping her wrist with mock severity as she took them. “But if you’re not at the pizza place in an hour, I’m coming back to look for you.”

  Autumn, freeing her wrist, dredged up another smile and agreed that if she wasn’t at the restaurant in an hour, he should come back for her.

  Oh, go to the devil, Fran, and take Victoria with you.

  How mean-spirited.

  Although Fran and Victoria did make a nice couple. A power couple, that’s what they’d be if they got together. And Rennie would be free for…

  Hmmm. Food for thought.

  With a little practice, she could become as conniving as Laney.

  “We won’t order anything till you get there,” Laney promised as she looked for her coat.

  “Make that we won’t order anything with the exception of a pitcher of beer.” John came up behind his wife with her pea jacket readied for her arms.

  “Or two,” Fran amended from the door.

  “Uh oh, Autumn. You know what a pitcher or two means to Francisco. We’ll be soused by the time you get there if he has his way,” Norma warned as the group crowded through the kitchen. “Better hurry if you don’t want to miss the fun.”

  “Rennie was right out here a minute ago,” Autumn heard Victoria say as she and Fran went out arm in arm. “Let’s see if he’s already at the car.”

  Great. Victoria wasn’t going to be happy with one man at her beck and call. She had to have two.

  The cottage seemed stark and lonely without the merriment, when everyone had gone and she could take off her happy face and wish again she’d begged off the weekend once Rennie showed up at her condo. She could have pleaded the pressure of work, said she had to get Sarita’s photos together by Monday.

  The small interlude at the falls that had prompted her to gather up her courage might never have been.

  Just as well. Humiliation at seventeen was one thing, but humiliation at thirty was something else. She was old enough to know bette
r. What was that old saying? Once burned, twice shy? No need to stick her hand in the fire again.

  After dragging herself upstairs to get her makeup case, she came back down and took a shower. At least the water had heated back up. Maybe it would leach out her sour mood.

  Fran or one of the others could give her a ride home tomorrow so she wouldn’t have to endure a trip back with Rennie.

  She groaned, turned her face up to the spray.

  The thought of not going back with Rennie was worse than the agony of being alone with him. And if she went with him, he’d probably want to talk to her about Victoria.

  Why couldn’t she be like Norma, forceful and unafraid? Norma had no problems laying out her requirements for men. She knew what she wanted and went after it. So did Laney.

  She washed her hair and shaved her legs in the shower, but when she pushed back the glass door, she didn’t feel any better. She hadn’t expected to.

  A gentle thump came.

  Like the back door closing.

  But everyone had left.

  Spooked, hand frozen in the process of reaching out for a towel, she let the steam curl up around her and listened.

  The noise did not repeat itself.

  The woodstove. That’s where it came from.

  Sure. Logs popped and crackled and fell. A wood fire could make enough noises to unnerve the faint of heart like her.

  That’s what she got for making Fran go on. Of course, if Rennie instead of Fran had offered to stay with her…

  “Darn you, Rennie Degardovera,” she muttered. “What are you? Some kind of sorcerer? I refuse to live my entire life eating my heart out for you.”

  That made her feel better, braver. “Either I’m going to get you or forget you. So there.”

  Sure. As if she had any say-so over her recalcitrant, foolish, sentimental heart. Still, her decision revived her.

  Wrapping one towel round her hair and another around herself, she stepped out into the steamy room, looked into the foggy mirror, and cracked the bathroom door to help dissipate the mist. Though she listened hard, she didn’t hear another thump or any other unexpected noises.

  “Old house noises,” she muttered. “Ghosts.”

  She propped a foot on the john lid and slid her towel down to swipe at her leg.

  Was that blood? Oh, great. She’d nicked her ankle shaving. That’s what she got for letting Rennie Degardovera upset her. She bent over to see how bad it was.

  A door closed.

  Footsteps padded down the hall.

  She stiffened. Before she could move, the bathroom door flew wide open, and she was caught with one leg up in a pose that could have been used for a male magazine.

  She gasped and pulled at the towel to no avail. It stayed stuck beneath her foot.

  Rennie, shock rounding his eyes and mouth, stood framed in the doorway.

  The towel wouldn’t come free, no matter how she yanked.

  “I’m in here,” she said unnecessarily.

  “Madre de Dios,” he said as unnecessarily.

  The door didn’t close.

  She gave up trying to conceal herself, and made a tiny hopeless gesture with her head and shoulders toward him.

  He stood suspended in consternation and astonishment…and something else.

  His mouth softened while his body tightened, swelled, and smoothed the wrinkles of the faded jeans to accommodate his bulk. His thighs flexed beneath the taut fabric, as if every muscle, every cell, and every tissue of his body were preparing to run.

  But his feet didn’t move.

  Nor could hers. Despite her deficient charms exposed to his critical eye.

  Under his stare, a tingling began deep inside her belly, despite its imperfections naked to his view. Her upraised leg revealed everything, but she still couldn’t move.

  The interminable moment ended.

  “Sorry, Autumn.” The syllables came out hoarse and choppy. He was as disconcerted as she. His hand fumbled, found the doorknob and pulled it toward him. “I’m sorry.”

  She bit back a scream as the door closed and separated them.

  Damn, damn, damn. Why had he sneaked in like that?

  She dried her body off with hard scouring motions, detesting the hateful, straight, insufficiently female body that he had now beheld in all its inadequacies.

  “I’m sorry, Autumn,” he called again through the door. His voice had regained its normalcy. “I thought everyone had left for the restaurant.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll be right out.”

  How could she sound so composed when her heart pounded like a jackhammer and her stomach felt like upchucking? Of all people, why did it have to be Rennie who came barging in to see her naked, without makeup and her hair in a towel and…?

  Any hopes of stimulating romantic interest were doomed after he’d seen what little she had to offer.

  Damn, damn, double damn.

  She yanked on a robe and zipped it before compelling her jumpy hands to apply foundation and blush and lip gloss and mascara and liner.

  Better. That was her professional face looking back from the mirror. Her heart had slowed. She wasn’t gulping for breath.

  She was back in control.

  What was the big deal? He’d seen nude women before. A lot better-looking women than me, she told herself as she went out. Jane had been small but curvy, and there must have been others Autumn didn’t know about.

  Rennie would be okay with the whole thing. He probably hadn’t noticed her flat breasts and skinny legs. And if he had, he probably didn’t think a thing about them.

  Maybe he hadn’t noticed.

  In the great room, she found him by the front windows where they’d glimpsed the deer that morning. A trace of cinnamon sweetened the air. Coals rustled in the stove. He whistled some unintelligible tune between his teeth, and one broad shoulder leaned against the frame as he contemplated the dusky forest.

  Gray twilight outlined pine trees and bushes, changed them into large sinister splotches trying to smother the night lights that marked the trail around the black waters of the lake.

  An interesting scene, but not one deserving of such absorption.

  It was her. He couldn’t face her.

  She cleared her throat. “The hot water was used up by the time everyone showered,” she said to his back. “I had to let it heat back up. That’s why I was late. I thought you’d gone on with the others and I was here by myself.”

  He turned his head enough for her to see his profile. He still wouldn’t look directly at her. “Hey, don’t apologize. My fault. I saw the cars leave and assumed you were with the rest. I shouldn’t have burst in on you.”

  “It’s okay. I’m through in the bathroom if you want to get in.”

  “Thanks.” He went down the hall, carefully keeping his eyes to the front, but his consideration didn’t matter. She was already scooting toward the stairs. He sounded strange, as if he was still embarrassed by his intrusion.

  Of course he was. Any nice guy would have been embarrassed, and Rennie was definitely a nice guy. She was being silly about the whole thing. If Laney or Norma had been in her place, they would have shrugged it off. Why couldn’t she?

  After drying her hair, she looked for her hairbrush and realized it was still in the bathroom. She finished dressing, donning slacks and her new holiday sweater before pushing the jingle bell earrings through her lobes. Then she fastened her fanny pack around her waist, pushed it to the rear out of the way, and taking a big breath, went back downstairs.

  Rennie wasn’t in the great room. Glancing down the hall, she saw his tall form inside the bedroom door.

  What was he doing in John and Laney’s room?

  To let him know she had seen his trespass, she called, “Are you through in the bath?”

  “Yeah.” He sounded absentminded, but not upset at being caught among his sister’s things.

  Not that it was her business what he was doing. Autumn retrieved her hairbrush and wor
ked on her hair.

  “Autumn.”

  She stepped into the hall. “Yes?”

  “Would you mind helping me out?” He was going through Laney’s bag. “It’s good you’re here. Laney doesn’t know it, but John’s taken a room for them tonight at that hotel by the river.”

  “Tonight? Oh, for their anniversary.” Delight for Laney erased mortification. “How great. I wondered why they wanted to spend their anniversary with us.”

  “John never intended to. He packed his things for me to take over there, but he wants me to get Laney’s stuff. Can you pick out what she’ll need? Like, here’s her pajamas and toothbrush, but what about underwear and all that for tomorrow?”

  “Not those.” She took away the flannel pajamas he held and pushed him aside.

  So that’s why he and John had had their heads together on the walk today. Nothing to do with Victoria. How stupid she was. “Here, let me do it. Laney bought a gown just for tonight. I was with her when she picked it out. It’s here somewhere.”

  She found the new nightgown hidden away in a side pocket. When she pulled it out, the black silk swirled sensuously over her arm.

  “That would suit you.” Rennie gave her his sleepy grin that made her heart scrunch up in a tight aching ball.

  Heat rose to her face. “You think so?”

  “With your hair and coloring, it’d look great. Some blondes can’t wear black, but you can.”

  Unaccountably pleased at the casual compliment, she said lightly, “Thank you, kind sir. I’ll take you shopping with me next time I go.”

  “Just whistle. I’m good at sitting outside dressing rooms. Mom and my sisters trained me well.”

  She hadn’t thought her heart could lighten, but it did.

  In fifteen minutes, they had the bag packed.

  “We’ll drive over to town and drop it off at the hotel after dinner.” Rennie hesitated. “Listen, I’m sorry about barging in on you, Autumn. The house was quiet and locked up. I honestly thought everyone had gone.”

  “Hey, you’ve seen naked women before. Forget it. I have.”

  Her words fell between them, calm and disinterested, sounding for all the world as if she meant them.

  ****

  Rennie couldn’t forget.