From now on, she'd be responsible to herself and for herself. That was what she needed. More than Crista, probably. From the looks of things, the Landon marriage had a very good chance of surviving.
Natalie pushed the kitchen door open, went to the stove and refilled her coffee mug.
A better than good chance, considering Grant's reaction to Crista's announcement.
"I won't let you do this," he'd said.
"You can't stop me," Crista had replied, and then she'd looked towards Natalie. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Don't count on it," Grant had snapped, and Crista had stormed into the house with her husband hard on her heels, his face set in angry lines, his voice rising as they disappeared up the stairs.
Natalie stepped out on the porch again and lifted her mug to her lips.
Watching him, hearing him, had put a lump in her throat.
Grant loved his wife; any fool could see that he didn't want to lose her. But Gage ...
The mug shook in Natalie's hand. She set it down carefully on the railing, hugged her shoulders, and stared out blindly over Espada. .
Gage hadn't done a thing. He hadn't begged or pleaded, hadn't lost his temper. He'd just stood looking at her impassively, delivered that quiet message of warning, and walked off after she'd refused to back down. Walked off, as if her leaving him was just an inconvenience he'd have to deal with.
For one wild moment, she'd come close to going after him.
Damn you, Gage, she'd almost said, what's the matter with you? Are you just going to let me march out of your life without a word?
But sanity had prevailed, and thank goodness it had. She hadn't made a fool of herself by running after him. The truth was, Gage didn't want to try and stop her. Their marriage was over. The divorce would only make it a fact.
Tears blurred her vision. Oh, but she'd wanted him to say something. He should have looked the way Crista's husband had looked, as if the thought of losing his wife was going to break his heart.
Dammit, he should have cared! "Ready?"
Natalie looked around. Crista was standing in the doorway, holding a small overnight bag. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes looked unnaturally bright, as if she'd been crying. Grant stood behind her, arms folded, his body language humming with tightly controlled fury.
"Yes," Natalie said. "I'm ready. But I just remembered ... there aren't any cars available to take us to the airport. I checked earlier."
Crista gave a faint smile. "I phoned for a taxi."
A taxi. It had been as simple as that. Natalie shivered. What kind of idiot was she that the thought of phoning for a cab hadn't occurred to her?
An idiot who really didn't want to leave her husband, perhaps?
"Natalie?" Natalie blinked.
"The cab's out front."
Natalie took a deep breath. "Yes," she said, and without saying goodbye to anyone, without looking back, she followed Crista through the house, out the door, and into the waiting taxi.
Gage stepped out of the shadow of a cottonwood as the taxi pulled away.
"Go on, then," he muttered. "You want to leave me? Do it. See if I give a good ... "
The harsh words caught in his throat. He swung away, eyes burning, face hot, hands knotted at his sides ... and walked straight into the tall, lean figure of his father.
"Mornin'," Jonas said. "Pretty day."
Gage nodded and kept walking. Jonas fell in beside him. "So," he said, "you don't want any thin' to do with
Espada, is that right, boy?"
Gage drew a deep breath. "We had this conversation half an hour ago, Father. I told you then, I have-"
"-A life elsewhere." Jonas chuckled. "Can't blame a man for tryin', right?"
"Right," Gage said, and lengthened his stride. His father lengthened his, too.
"Headin' for the stables?"
Heading for hell, Gage thought. "Not really. I'm just taking a walk."
Jonas nodded, tucked his hands into his pockets and slid a glance at his son.
"She left you, did she?"
Gage stopped and swung towards the old man, his shoulders hunched.
"It's none of your business what she did," he said in a low voice. "When I was a kid, maybe, you could poke your nose into my affairs, tell me that Natalie was wrong for me, but-"
"Whoa, son." Jonas held up his hands. "That was more'n ten years ago."
"Look, what happens between my wife and me isn't up for discussion, okay?"
"Okay."
Gage began walking, more quickly this time, but that didn't stop Jonas, whose long legs made the pace seem easy.
"Actually, I figured it might be time to let you know I was wrong."
Gage swung towards him again. "Jonas Baron? Wrong?"
He laughed. "What is this, Father? Are you turning over a new leaf after eighty-five years?"
Jonas put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his booted heels.
"I figured Natalie was looking for a way out when she took up with you back then. It was no secret her father was a miserable, mean-spirited son of a bitch. And then there was all the Baron money, too."
"Yeah," Gage said grimly, "well, you were wrong.
Natalie and I never touched a dime of the Baron money, now, did we?"
"Nope." A smile cracked Jonas's weather-beaten face.
"You made it on your own, boy."
"My, oh, my. A red-letter day. Jonas Baron admits he made a mistake and gives his son the closest thing to a compliment anybody's ever heard."
"Natalie turned out to be a fine woman."
Gage slapped his hand to his forehead. "Great God Almighty, I'm not up for this! Another one? I wish I'd: brought a tape recorder."
"And," Jonas said, refusing to rise to the bait, "you love her. "
"You don't know a thing about me, or what I do or don’t... " Gage's mouth twisted. "Ah, hell," he said. "Yeah, All right. I do. What now, Pop? You going to twist the knife, point out that for all my loving her, my wife has left me anyway?"
Jonas started walking towards the stables again. After a minute, Gage fell in beside him.
"I had a woman I loved like that," Jonas said softly. "A long, long time ago."
Gage looked at him in amazement. "Did you?"
"She was my heart and soul, boy, my heart and soul." "Was she ... " Gage cleared his throat. "Was she my mother? Our mother, Trav's and Slade's and mine?"
The old man sighed. "Your mother was a good woman. A wonderful woman. And I loved her." He looked down, kicked a clod of dirt out of the way. "But the woman I'm talkin' about was all I ever wanted out of this life."
Gage waited for his father to say more, but Jonas had fallen silent. They had reached the stables, where one of the ranch hands waited, his hand on the bridle of an enormous black stallion. Jonas took the bridle and waved the man away.
"And?" Gage said.
The stallion inside arched his midnight-dark neck and blew through its nostrils.
"And," Jonas said in a voice so low Gage had to strain to hear it, "I gave her every thin' . Every thin' , boy. Even Espada. I built all this for her... but she wanted more."
"What?" Gage said. "What more did she want?"
The old man looked at him, his silver eyes suddenly gone dark.
"I never knew," he said. "She never said-and I had too much pride to ask."
Jonas swung up into the saddle, dug his heels into the stallion’s flanks, and rode off.
Crista's house was exactly as she'd described it.
It was on the ocean, it was pink, it was enormous, it was old and it needed work .... and Natalie loved it on sight.
"It's an eyesore," Crista said cheerfully as the two of them strolled through the high-ceilinged rooms, their footsteps echoing hollowly against the hardwood floors.
"It is that," Natalie agreed. "It's so homely that you just have to love it."
. "Uh-huh. Just like my dog, Annie. Wait until you see her. Her muzzle is all whiskers." She grinned
and looped her arm through Natalie's. "I knew you and I were sisters under the skin the minute I saw you."
"Whoa." Natalie made a face. "If those little porcelain figures in that breakfront are yours, I'm not so sure about that 'sisters under the skin' business."
Crista laughed. "They belonged to my uncle, and if you think this is bad, you should have seen his place in New York." The women, climbed the stairs to the second floor. "Choose your bedroom."
"It doesn't matter. Anyone will be fine."
"Oh, come on." Crista took Natalie's hand and tugged her from one doorway to the other. "Be honest, now. Would you rather have a cabbage rose carpet?"
Natalie laughed. "Wow."
"Or water-stained chartreuse silk walls?" "Oh, boy."
"And then there's what I call the barn. Comes complete with hot-and-cold running drafts."
Natalie laughed again. "Isn't there a bedroom with plain white walls?"
"Sure. But the ceiling leaks." "You're kidding."
"No." Crista smiled, but her smile seemed forced. "It leaks whenever it rains. Grant had it fixed before we were married, but every time they fix one leak, it leaks someplace else."
"Well, I guess I'll go with the cabbage roses."
"Good choice. I'll take the chartreuse walls, and we can put the twins in next door to me, with their nanny on the other side. I can use the kitchen as my workroom. It's the brightest room in the house, and there's this big old butcher~ block table ... " Crista took Natalie's hands and gave her a wobbly grin. "This is going to be fun:'
Who was kidding who? Natalie wondered, and flashed an even more wobbly smile in return.
Six weeks later, Natalie stepped out of one of the most exclusive jewellery shops on Worth Avenue and walked briskly towards her car.
"Afternoon, Ms. Baron."
She looked up, smiled at the man who'd greeted her, and thought how incredible it was that a vice president of one of the largest banks in Palm Beach should know her by name.
Bank presidents, not just vice presidents, had known her back in Miami, but that was because she'd been Gage Baron's wife. Here, she was Natalie Baron, with an identity all her own as sales rep for Designs by Crista. The two-woman operation was rapidly turning into a success. They'd even turned enough of a profit from their first month’s sales to put a down payment on a car.
And, as Crista kept happily pointing out, this was Palm Beach's off-season.
"Just wait until winter," she'd said only that morning.
"We'll be working twenty hours a day!"
Natalie smiled to herself as she reached the car and unlocked it. It looked as if Crista's prophecy was going to come true, and months ahead of schedule, thanks to the visit she'd just paid to The Emperor's Emporium. The owner of the exclusive little shop had sold out every Design by Crista. And now he had a special request, one that would surely put their fledgling business over the top.
Natalie tossed her leather briefcase on the seat beside her, took off her silk suit jacket, and lay it on top of the briefcase.
It felt good, knowing she'd had a hand in all this. She felt useful, and happy. And she never, ever thought about Gage or missed him or---or-
Her smile tilted.
Okay. That was still a problem. She did think of Gage, and when she did she felt... she felt...
Natalie took a deep breath. Then she checked for traffic, pulled away from the curb, and drove home.
The pink house was blessedly cool after the hot sun of summertime Florida.
"I'm back," Natalie called as she stepped inside the foyer. A black and tan dog of indeterminate parentage came hurtling around the corner, followed by a gray cat with one mangled ear.
"Hi, guys," Natalie said, kneeling down and opening her arms to the twosome. "Where's the rest of the crew?"
"Anna," two little voices cried, and Jessamyn and Jennifer Landon came toddling towards her, their faces wreathed in smiles.
Natalie gave Annie and Sweetness each one last, loving pat. Then she scooped Crista's daughters up in her arms.
"That's right," she said, laughing as Jess patted her face with sticky hands and Jenn gave her a big grin. "It's Aunt Nat, back from the salt mines. I missed you, too, my angels."
"Hellions, is more like it," Crista said as she came around the comer. But her smile softened her words, and when the twins saw her, they held out their chubby arms. She grinned, took them from Natalie, covered their faces with smacking kisses and then handed them over to Addie, who took one look at her charges and scowled.
"Into the bathroom with you," she said. "Land's sake, you girls are a mess."
The twins gurgled and tugged at their nanny's hair. Addie sighed, muttered something about how they could charm the birds out of the trees, and gave each child a hug as she carried them off.
"The salt mines, huh?" Crista said. "Was it a bad day?" "Oh, definitely," Natalie said, suppressing a grin. "I only sold out everything I took with me."
Crista squealed. "You're kidding!" "I'm dead serious."
"Wow. I really thought it was a fluke. Selling so well, last month. But maybe it wasn't. Maybe we've got something here. Maybe-"
"There's no 'maybe' about it, Crista. Your stuff is wonderful."
"And you're the world's best saleswoman."
"Yeah." Natalie chuckled. "An unbeatable combo." She hesitated, eyes twinkling. "Uh, you can work with precious stones, can't you? Diamonds, for instance." "Well, sure. I mean, -I could, but the cost... Until we're sure we can sell stuff like that..."
"We have a commission."
"A commission? Are you sure? Does this person know how expensive it-"
Natalie leaned forward and whispered a name in Crista's ear.
Crista gasped. "No!"
"Yes." Natalie headed for the kitchen with Crista on her heels. "And," she said, opening the refrigerator door and taking out an orange, "once somebody like that commissions a piece, you can bet your bottom dollar her society friends will, too." She bumped the door closed with her hip. "Maybe it's time I took a few samples and drove down to that mall in Boca Raton."
Crista took an orange segment from Natalie's hand.
"Great! And what about considering some shops in Miami Beach, too? You know, along South Beach."
Natalie's smile dipped, then recovered. "Of course," she said brightly. "There's a world of potential Designs by Crista fans in South Beach. I should have thought of that myself."
"No," Crista said slowly, putting her hand on Natalie's arm. "No, you shouldn't. And I'm a jerk for even mentioning the place." I
"Don't be silly. It's time we expanded. Didn't I just say as much?"
"Nat, I know you don't want to go back there."
"To Miami Beach?" Natalie's smile was brittle. "Hey, it's just a place."
"A place full of memories." Crista hesitated. "Has he called?"
Natalie looked at Crista. "Gage?" she said as if there might be some doubt. "No. Why would he? He said that my moving here would be the end, and I agreed with him. Why on earth should he call?"
Crista leaned back against the sink. "Maybe because he's still in love with you, the same as you're still in love with hi " m.
Natalie gave a trilling laugh. "What a romantic you are, Crista! Gage isn't in love with me. He hasn't been; for a long time."
"And you? Are you still in love with him?"
The women's eyes met, Natalie turned away, dumped the orange peel in the trash and turned on the water in the sink.
"If I were, would I have left him? Would I have moved to another city? Would I be meeting with my lawyer next week to discuss the divorce?"
"I don't know," Crista said softly. "Would you?" "What's the difference?" Natalie said after a moment. Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat. "It doesn't matter. What Gage and I had is over. He doesn't phone, he doesn't write ... And neither do I. Why, I don't even think about him anymore."
"You dream about him," Crista said. "I hear you, sometimes, crying in your sleep."
> Natalie blinked hard. Waking with tears on your cheeks was one thing. Weeping now, during the day, would be quite another.
Marriage On The Edge Page 12