“I’ll take him with me,” he said aloud. “Nah. That won’t work. He’d have to sit with me in those briefings.” He couldn’t ask Audrey, because she had to work. Still musing over the problem, he answered the phone.
“Wainwright.”
“Hello, Nelson. This is Audrey. How was your weekend?”
“Wonderful. I’ve never seen a person enjoy anything as much as Ricky enjoyed the cruise and the water. He loves the water as much as his father did.”
“Where did you go?”
“St. Michaels, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I think Ricky wouldn’t mind if we moved over there.”
“Sorry I missed that. I couldn’t make myself call you back and tell you I wanted to go, much as I longed to.”
His antenna shot up. “Are you telling me you changed your mind and couldn’t drum up the will to let me know? Huh?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“Where are you now?”
“In my office. The gov’s man number two is keeping watch. I was wondering if you’d like to go for ice cream or something this evening.”
Her question took his mind back to the problem facing him. “I’d love that, Audrey, but I have to leave for California this evening. Lena isn’t back from South Carolina, and when you called, I was deciding whether to take Ricky with me. I’m damned if I’ll leave him in a foster home.”
“What about me? Why can’t he stay with me? Or...or don’t you want me to keep him?”
“I thought about it, but you have to work, and I wouldn’t expect you to stay away from your office in order to look after Ricky.”
“He and I will work that out exactly as we did when he stayed with me before. What time are you leaving your office?”
“In about an hour. I’ll pick Ricky up from day camp and take him home.”
“Then suppose I meet you at your house in an hour and a half?”
“Okay. You can’t imagine what a load you’ve taken from me. Saying I appreciate it sounds trite, but I do.”
“All right. Hang up and do whatever you have to. See you later.”
* * *
“I have to go to California, son,” he said to Ricky, “and I may be away a few days, but you’ll have a good time with Audrey till Miss Lena comes back.”
“Oooh!” Ricky’s eyes seemed to double in size. “I’m staying with Audie?” He slapped his hands together. “Unca Nelson, please tell her I can have all the ice cream I want. Please, Unca Nelson!”
“I think it’s best to let her judge. After all, she’s a doctor. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of it.”
He packed a bag for himself and one for Ricky and brought them down to the foyer. “I can trust you to obey Audrey, can’t I?” he said to Ricky.
The boy looked up at him with eyes so like his father’s, and he saw in them a sadness. He realized that as much as Ricky would love being with Audrey, the child didn’t want Nelson to leave him. He hunkered beside him.
“I’ll be away only a few days, son, and I’ll call you. All right?”
Ricky nodded, and Nelson could see his struggle to push back the tears that pooled unshed in his eyes. He drew the child into his arms and hugged him. The doorbell rang, and Ricky dashed out of his arms and ran to the door. “Is it Audie, Unca Nelson? Is it?” How like a child to embrace the sure thing.
He opened the door and gazed down into her eyes. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
He took her hand, pulled her inside the foyer and into his arms. He held her as close as he dared considering that he had to leave her within the next ten minutes, and when she opened to him as a flower opens to the morning sun, he cursed his luck. There was a difference in her bearing, in her demeanor and in the way her body surrendered to him. What a time to walk away from her! Reaching deep within himself for restraint, both because he had to leave her and because Ricky had fastened his gaze on them, he pressed a kiss to her lips. She parted them, and he tasted her sweetness, just enough of her to stoke the fire that already blazed within him.
He set her away from him with care. “When I get back, we’ll be together.” She nodded. “Do you understand me?”
She reached up and kissed his cheek. “Yes. Be safe and hurry back.” With that, she picked up Ricky’s suitcase, took the boy’s hand, strapped him into the backseat of her car and drove away.
He watched until he could no longer see them. Then he scribbled a note to Lena, picked up his bag and headed for Dulles International Airport.
* * *
For once she welcomed the security agent who tailed her home. Although familiar with his car and tags, she slowed down until she could see the driver’s face in her rearview mirror. Even so, she didn’t drive through Rock Creek Park. When she reached home, he got out and spoke with her. “Are you taking the boy with you tomorrow morning?”
“I was planning to do that, leave around one for lunch and then come on home. Is that inconvenient?”
“Not at all. I suggest you use your own car, avoid taxis and always make sure that I’m close behind you.”
“In other words, don’t drive fast.”
“You got it. We’re playing it close to the chest until Colonel Wainwright gets back. I’ll check out the house for you.”
“I’m going to have our dinner delivered,” she told him. She hated announcing that she wasn’t much of a cook, and maybe she ought to learn, but she didn’t think Ricky would appreciate the fare she offered. “About seven.”
“No problem. I’ll be around.”
Even with that assurance, she felt uncomfortable. However, Ricky claimed his old room and made himself at home. She found the movies she’d chosen for him when he’d stayed with her previously, and he was soon absorbed in Snow White.
Along with their dinner, she ordered a half-gallon each of strawberry and black raspberry ice cream. “Did you get the ice cream, Audie?” he asked her as she set the table. Assured that she had, he hugged her.
“I love you a lot, Audie. A whole lot.”
“I know,” she said. “And I love you a whole lot, too.”
“I’m gonna eat all of my dinner if you don’t give me too much. I have to eat my ice cream.”
This child is sending me messages, she thought, after singing him to sleep. She stood beside his bed gazing down at his sweet, peaceful face and felt her heart constrict. Surprising herself, she leaned over him, kissed his cheek and fought the impulse to gather him into her arms. At that moment, she saw her life as it was, one-sided. Empty of love and warmth. Unfulfilled.
She plowed her fingers through her hair and rushed from the room. Even with her profession and the solid respect of her peers, she deserved more than she had. “But if I got pregnant, how could I care for my patients?” she asked herself aloud. Appalled at the revealing words, she slapped her hand over her mouth. What on earth was she thinking? What had come over her?
* * *
The second afternoon after Nelson left for California, Audrey received a call from Lena. “I just got home and found the Colonel’s note. You can bring Ricky home, and I’ll give both of you a decent meal. Poor little tyke, I’ll bet he’s starved for some good cooking.”
“He’s been eating like a king. We had McDonald’s hamburgers and fries for lunch, and I sent out for our dinners. Uh...Aunt Lena, if you have something to do, he can stay with me. He loves going to the office.”
“I bet he does, but we got to do what the Colonel wants. Ricky can practice medicine some other time.”
To Audrey’s surprise, after Ricky had embraced Lena with exuberance, he started up the stairs and stopped. “Miss Lena, where’s my Unca Nelson?”
She exchanged glances with Lena. Did the boy remember the time his father hadn’t come back home? He ran to Lena with arms outstretched. “Is Un
ca Nelson coming home?”
Lena bent and hugged the boy. “He’ll be home, son, just as soon as he finishes his assignment.”
“When will he do that, Miss Lena?”
“Two or three days.”
“Oh.” He looked at Audrey. “Are you going to stay with us?”
What should she say to that? “No, but I’ll come see you after I leave the office tomorrow.”
That seemed to placate him, though he didn’t smile. “You will?” She nodded, and he turned his attention to Lena. “I’m hungry, Miss Lena.”
While Lena set the table, Ricky ambled around the house, clearly discombobulated and out of sorts. The telephone rang, and he raced to answer it.
“Hello. This is Ricky Wainwright.”
Audrey watched as his face bloomed into a smile and the light in his eyes brightened. “Unca Nelson! Where are you, Unca Nelson? When are you coming home?” He listened for a while. “How many days till Saturday? Okay. Okay, I will. Unca Nelson wants to talk to you, Audie.” He handed her the phone and ran to the kitchen, the picture of happiness.
“Hello, Nelson.” She gave him an account of Ricky’s visit with her and of her experiences with the guards assigned to secure her safety. “I’ll be glad to see you. If the officials discovered anything since you left, they wouldn’t tell me.”
“Is that the only reason why you’ll be glad to see me?”
“That question hardly deserves an answer. I miss you.”
“Same here. Keep Saturday night for us.”
“All right,” she said, aware that he deliberately said “for us” rather than “for me.”
He spoke with Lena for a few minutes. He wasn’t obliged to talk with his housekeeper, but she knew he spoke with her aunt because he regarded her as a member of his family. It was such graciousness on his part that first garnered her respect and interest, and which now endeared him to her.
After they finished dinner, she read to Ricky and, using her laptop computer, taught him how to log on and access the internet. Later, she supervised his bath, put him to bed and sang to him until he slept.
She would miss Ricky’s bedtime ritual, for it had come to represent to her a time of bonding with him, and in those times she felt closest to him. She drove home under the watchful eyes of man number two.
* * *
By the time Saturday afternoon arrived, her nerves had frazzled themselves. What should she do? How would she respond to him, and shouldn’t she call a halt to the relationship and let them stop torturing each other?
She opened her door to him at seven-thirty that Saturday evening, and noticed at once that he’d dressed to the nines. Elegance was natural to him, but he had obviously put forth special effort to look great. Thank God she’d had the good sense to dress up. She gazed up at him. Quintessential male, and all hers—for the evening at least—if she had the sense and the guts to take him. She held out her right hand.
“Come on in. It’s as if I haven’t seen you in years.”
He brushed her cheek with his lips, and the expression on her face must have mirrored her surprise, for he explained, “Anything heavier than that, and we probably wouldn’t get any dinner. You’re beautiful. What I call the perfect blend of female.”
She did nothing to erase the frown that gathered on her forehead. “What do you mean by that?”
“Where your work is concerned, you’re one-hundred-percent professional, but in your private life, you are all woman. You suit me to a T.”
She gathered up the skirt of her long, flowing red dress as she walked down the steps with him, and when they reached his BMW, she said, “It’s a good thing you can’t see the rush of blood to my face. Thanks, though, for the compliment.”
He buckled her seat belt, closed the door, went around to the driver’s side and got in. “Don’t think of what I said as a compliment. I told the truth as I see it, and that includes the fact that you suit me. I don’t know exactly when I came to that conclusion, but it is irrefutable.”
She didn’t have an answer for that. “Was your mission successful?” she asked, in effect changing the subject.
“You bet. I wish every one of my assignments went off so easily. Lecturing is simple compared to most of the other tasks we get. What do you say we go to Kinkead’s? I have reservations for eight o’clock, but we can still cancel.”
Surely she hadn’t heard him correctly. “Cancel Kinkead’s? You couldn’t be serious. I’d love to go there!” He drove to Pennsylvania and Twentieth Street Northwest, and gave his car over to the valet.
“How did you know I would dress?” she asked him.
He shrugged. “I figured that if I knew the occasion called for it, so did you.”
She looked up at him and then quickly lowered her lashes. “That kind of thinking can get you in a mess of trouble.”
When she looked at him, his wink nearly knocked her off balance. “Trust me. When it’s important, I leave nothing to chance.” Like tonight, he seemed to imply.
The waiter seated them in the upstairs dining room in a cozy alcove that boasted a round table for two beneath a hanging candelabra that lent a soft glow to the setting and gave the palm trees beside it a tropical shimmer.
“Do you like it?” he asked her before the waiter left them.
“It’s very special,” she said, and it was. He accepted the menus and tipped the waiter.
After a dinner that met the highest standards, he paid the check and stood. “Ready to go?”
She guessed so, but the butterflies in her stomach demanded that she deal with them, so she decided she’d best level with him.
“My nerves are shredded,” she said, “and they may not straighten themselves out. Just thought I’d warn you.” She’d meant to sound flippant, but didn’t succeed.
He splayed his hand on her back and urged her toward the exit. People that she suspected were notables greeted him as they passed, and not a few women gaped at him. He walked behind her, and she couldn’t tell what effect that adulation had on him.
During the drive to her home, he spoke for the first time since leaving the dinner table. “Don’t worry about shredded nerves, mine aren’t exactly dormant. But they don’t have to be calm in order for me to be efficient. You know what I’m saying?”
She did indeed, and figured she would be more comfortable with a different subject. “Any chance we’ll get rid of these bodyguards soon?”
She didn’t believe he wanted to talk about that, but he answered her question. “Probably a week, at most. A few things happened while I was in California that suggest Mustache and his friends have become impatient.”
She heard herself gasp. “Friends?”
“Yeah. These things are never a matter of one person. I’m told that their goal is no secret. The only problem is catching them in the act.”
“But that’s dangerous.”
“For them, yes. Our folks are on the job.”
He stopped in front of her house and cut the motor. “I’d like to come in, Audrey.”
She knew that, but she appreciated him saying so. “Want to put your car in the garage?”
He shook his head. “It’ll be fine right here.”
“Would you like a glass of wine?” she asked once they were inside, not as a means of stalling, but because she wanted whatever happened between them to evolve naturally.
“I’d love it, but just one.”
She took that as a signal that he didn’t plan on spending the night. What else could it mean? As if divining her thoughts, he said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for Ricky to wake up in the morning and find I’m not there. He’s not yet as secure about me as I had thought.”
“I noticed that when I took him home and he discovered you weren’t there. Be right back.”
&
nbsp; She slipped into the guest bathroom, brushed her teeth, then got a bottle of chilled white Bordeaux from the refrigerator and two stem glasses.
“Would you like a petit-four? Or I’ve got some cheesecake.”
He stood, took the wine and glasses from her hand and placed them on the coffee table. “Sit here with me, and tell me what you’re nervous about. If you don’t feel that this is right, I’ll understand and we’ll work toward it. But I want you to know that I don’t have a single reservation. I want this with you, and I’ll welcome the consequences.”
“Do you know what you said?”
“Definitely. I said exactly what I meant.” He took her hand and sat closer to her on the sofa. “I know a man misused your trust, that he deceived you. I’ve figured out that he dealt you a blow. I am what you see. If you can’t trust me, tell me now and I’ll be on my way.”
“I’ve done a lot of thinking, soul-searching or whatever you want to call it, since you said you no longer consider this attraction between us as anathema, and I—”
“Whoa! I never said it was anathema, but that a deep involvement with you or any other woman wasn’t for me. But slowly you got into me, seeped into my head, my heart, my veins, my whole being.” He threw up his hands. “Yeah, I fought it, but I’ve been trained to know when I’m losing a battle.” He laughed. “Baby, this one was lost long ago.”
Her heart fluttered like a butterfly in the breeze, and she gave thanks that she was sitting down for, even then, a weakness crept along her limbs. “Are you sure? You’re telling me that you welcome a relationship with me, that you want to see where it will lead? Is that what you’re saying?”
He squeezed the fingers of her left hand. “That night when you kissed my cheek and whispered that I was sweet... From then on, I knew I had to test it, that you could offer what I needed.”
“I’d sworn off relationships completely,” she said, “and for the past five years I’ve kept that vow. The first time you kissed me, I knew I was vulnerable.” The twinkle in his eyes was soon followed by a rumble of laughter from his throat.
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