Cherish

by Sherryl Woods

  At first she looked at a loss for an answer. Finally she said, “It’s not easy admitting to your children that you might have feet of clay.”

  “Then you think of that time in your life as a mistake?” he prodded.

  “Not a mistake exactly, but it was certainly an indiscretion. Neither of us were thinking clearly. We didn’t have a bit of regard for the consequences.”

  “No. We were thinking more of life and death, more of love, than we were of the repercussions. I can’t deny that. We might have been too impetuous, but our actions were rooted in love, Lizzy. Nothing less.” He paused. “At least for me.”

  She sighed. “You’re so sure of that, Brandon. Have you never doubted what we felt? Have you never once thought that maybe we were just caught up in all the drama of your leaving to fight overseas? We wouldn’t have been the only couple to rush headlong into romance, thinking that there might be no tomorrow. Maybe it was nothing more than infatuation.”

  “No,” he said with absolute certainty. “I think the fact that we are here together now proves the point. We have always held a place for each other in our hearts, even when we thought our paths might never cross again.” He regarded her intently. “Or am I presuming too much?”

  “No,” she said softly and with a trace of reluctance. “I suppose I could deny it, but what would be the point? You may take far too many things for granted, but that’s not one of them.”

  “You aren’t feeling guilty because of that, are you?”

  “Guilty? What on earth would I have to feel guilty about?” Elizabeth asked.

  The denial was adamant, her tone clipped. Even more telling was the fact that her gaze slid away from his in a way that confirmed the very point he was making, despite her contradictory words.

  Brandon deliberately shrugged with casual indifference, though he was filled with questions. “From my point of view, you’ve done nothing to feel guilty about. I’m not so sure, though, that you don’t feel that you shortchanged David Newton in some essential way.”

  Again the response was lightning quick—too quick to Brandon’s way of thinking.

  “He never felt that way,” she said.

  He scooped up her hand and held it tight. Again, as they always were when she was most nervous, her fingers were like ice as they laced through his. Still he pressed her, ignoring the increasingly anxious expression in her eyes. He had this feeling that they were finally getting close to the truth. He sensed if he could just find the right question, he would unlock this mysterious attitude of hers that taunted him.

  “I’m not talking about how David Newton felt, Lizzy. How did you feel? Are you feeling the weight of his blame even now for being here with me? Who are you cheating by being here tonight, sharing a full moon and a glass of sangria on this terrace, rather than being home alone?”

  “No one,” she said emphatically, but she withdrew her hand and covered the nervous gesture by quickly picking up her glass. “It’s not as though we’re doing anything immoral, for goodness’ sake. I never thought of it that way even back then. It felt right to be with you from the very beginning.”

  “And now?”

  “I’m not so sure I can describe the way it feels now.”

  “But not quite so right?” he said a little sadly. “Why not, Lizzy? What’s changed? Now we have all the time in the world to get to know each other, to share adventures. No one will begrudge us that. Our children are grown. They don’t need us anymore, despite what we may tell ourselves to feel useful. We’ve had full, satisfying careers. These are our precious golden years. It’s time to live every minute to the fullest. Why can’t you just relax at last and enjoy every experience?”

  “I can’t explain it,” she evaded again, her gaze skittering away from his.

  “Can’t or won’t,” he pressed. “Is there something you’re hiding from me, Lizzy? Something you fear I’ll discover if we spend too much time together?”

  “No, of course not,” she said in a rush of words that came out sounding far more nervous than convincing. She snatched up her purse and scooted from the booth as if she couldn’t wait to escape. “I believe I’ll visit the powder room before they bring our dinner. Will you excuse me, Brandon?”

  He wanted to tell her no. He wanted to force Lizzy to sit right where she was and tell him what had her so worried. But the genuine panic in her eyes wouldn’t allow it.

  “Of course,” he said, standing while she hurried away from the table.

  Away from answers.

  Away from him.

  While she was gone, he reluctantly resolved to probe no more that night. Whatever she was worried about would come out in due time, if he was patient. He sighed heavily. Lizzy always had asked things of him that taxed him. Patience was just one more thing to add to the list. Holding back alone ought to prove to her just how much he cared.

  When she returned to the table, Brandon determinedly changed the subject and saw relief wash across her face. Her eyes brightened, and in no time at all they were laughing together as they once had, laughing as if they had not a care in the world. Whatever dark undercurrents he’d felt earlier seemed no more than a distant memory.

  They walked back to the hotel, hand in hand like a couple of kids. The sky was filled with stars, diamonds on black velvet with a showy full moon. The temperature had fallen, bringing a chill to the air. Even with a delicate, lacy shawl of pale pink wool tossed around her shoulders, Lizzy shivered. Brandon shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders, allowing his arm to linger in a casual embrace once he was done.

  “Have you ever seen such a sky, Lizzy?” he asked, looking up at the cover of brilliant stars.

  “Certainly not in Los Angeles,” she said dryly. “With our smog, I’m lucky to get a decent view of the moon.”

  “Then I’m going to make a proposal.”

  “Oh?” she said, sounding cautious.

  He smiled at her. “Come on, Lizzy. What I’m proposing is not indecent.”

  “That remains to be seen.”

  “Quiet, woman. Let me get it out. I propose that you and I spend the next few weeks auditioning the skies in all the corners of the globe until we find one that’s perfect. What do you say?”

  “It sounds romantic,” she said with an undeniable eagerness, which gave way at once to sober reflection. “And impractical.”

  “Forget impractical. We can do anything we want, remember?” he asked, turning her until she faced him. He could read the wistfulness in her eyes, then the hesitation. “Come on, Lizzy. Say yes.”

  Seconds turned into minutes as their gazes clashed.

  “Lizzy?”

  “Okay, yes,” she said, a trifle breathlessly. She drew in a deep breath, squared her shoulders and met his gaze evenly, adding more firmly, “Yes, Brandon. I think we should.”

  “That’s a verbal contract now,” he teased. “I’ll hold you to it.”

  “Brandon, tell me something,” she teased right back. “Do you always get your own way?”

  “Almost always, at least until I met you.”

  “Then perhaps it’s good that I say no once in a while.”

  “It probably is,” he agreed. “Just don’t make a practice of it, Lizzy. I might get discouraged.”

  “Something tells me a challenge never discourages you. It only draws out your competitive spirit. Just look at the way you turned up in L.A., after vowing never to chase after me.”

  Brandon touched a finger to her chin and tilted her head up so he could look directly into her eyes. “Don’t you try telling me that was a test, Elizabeth Newton. I won’t believe it.”

  “Whether it was or it wasn’t, the result’s the same. We’re here together now. What puzzles me is why I can’t seem to resist you, no matter how hard I try. My daughters would tell you that I’m stubborn as a mule, unshakable in my convictions and a stick-in-the-mud of the first order.”

  “Funny,” he observed. “I hadn’t noticed your inability to res
ist me. Does that mean if I were to try to kiss you now, you wouldn’t slap me?”

  Rather than waiting for her response, he lowered his head until his lips were no more than a hairbreadth from hers. He could feel the soft whisper of her breath on his face as he heard it quicken.

  “Ah, Lizzy,” he said with a sigh, right before he slanted his mouth over hers, capturing either protest or acquiescence.

  Elizabeth felt as if the world had suddenly tilted and the ground had fallen away. Brandon’s kiss stole her breath and left her dizzy. If she’d experienced the same symptoms anywhere other than in his embrace, she thought wryly, she’d have taken herself straight off to a doctor. It had been a long time since she’d known the head-spinning whirl of a man’s passionate kiss. Since being reunited with Brandon, it was becoming a habit.

  A wonderful, frightening, exciting, dangerous habit! How was she supposed to resist a man who considered it his duty to turn her world topsy-turvy? What possible defenses could she mount against a man who thought nothing of whisking her off to the far corners of the earth just to compare the brightness of the stars? There was clearly nothing tentative or halfway about the way Brandon intended to pursue her. She would have to struggle to keep her wits about her. She’d done that once and lost to his more persuasive determination.

  She would fight harder this time, she thought, just as soon as she knew every nuance of this kiss. When she tired of the way his lips coaxed, when she grew bored with the way his tongue invaded, when she no longer felt this dark, delicious swirl of temptation, then she would fend off his advances. However at the moment, with her pulse scrambling and her insides melting, that seemed eons away.

  Elizabeth was shaky when Brandon finally released her, as shaky as she had been the very first time he stole a kiss. Back then, though she’d acted bold, she’d been new to a woman’s lures, newer yet to a man’s commanding, overpowering sensuality. From that first instant she had known that she belonged with Brandon in an inevitable way she had never belonged with another man. She felt complete in his embrace, radiant beneath his gaze, sensual beneath his touch.

  Once he’d vanished from her life, she had convinced herself that what she’d felt was no more than the product of a child’s romantic fantasies. She’d given up any expectation of feeling that way again. She had settled for what she knew now had been second best. That didn’t make her marriage to David Newton a bad bargain. Perhaps just a misguided one. She hoped he’d never, ever known that.

  Discovering, back in Boston, that she could recapture these incredible, spilling-through-the-sky feelings had both delighted and dismayed her. While it proved, as Penny’s health book contested, that age was no barrier to sexuality, it also indicated that Brandon was the one partner who was expert at stirring her senses.

  Perhaps she had fled California to protect a lifetime of secrets, but the action very definitely had a positive side. For as long as it lasted, she would know the wonder of Brandon’s love again. As long as he didn’t press her for any more than this, she would be content, ecstatic in fact.

  She was still under the spell of his kiss when they reached the hotel. Outside her room, he took her key and opened the door in a charmingly old-fashioned gesture of gallantry, then stepped carefully aside to let her enter. Her blood raced with anticipation as she met his gaze and saw that familiar spark of desire in his eyes. She had newer, far more recent memories of all the promises that look implied.

  He held out his hand and after an instant she took it, then started at the press of cold metal against her palm.

  “Your key,” he said, grinning smugly at her astonishment. “Good night, Lizzy.”

  Before she could recover from the shock, before the stir of disappointment could begin, he had strolled away, whistling under his breath. When Brandon had been a jaunty, self-confident young airman, that whistling had pleased her. Now it began to grate on her nerves.

  She was tempted to march down the hall after him, then tried to envision herself demanding to know why the man had no intention of sleeping with her. Worse yet, she tried to imagine someone overhearing. It was too ludicrous and humiliating to contemplate.

  Wide-awake and all stirred up, she slammed the door to her room with a moderately satisfying thud. Her only regret was that she hadn’t caught some part of that sneaky man’s anatomy between the door and the jamb.

  She turned the television on full blast, soaked herself in a hot tub filled with the fragrant bath salts supplied by the hotel, then ordered a brandy sent up from the bar. She was still muttering about Brandon’s low-down tactics and getting pleasantly drowsy, when the phone rang.

  “Yes,” she snapped, knowing instinctively it was him.

  “Having trouble sleeping?” Brandon inquired lightly.

  “What makes you ask a thing like that?”

  “I was having a nightcap in the bar when I heard your order come in. Then I heard the TV when I passed by on my way back to my room. I can’t be sure, but it also sounded as if you might be cussing a blue streak in there.”

  “Listen to me, you cantankerous old man,” she began, then caught herself. Two could play at his game. Her tone was sweet as honey, when she added, “I’ve just spent a relaxing hour in a bubble bath. Didn’t you mention that honeysuckle is one of your favorite scents?”

  He cleared his throat suspiciously. “Okay, Lizzy, what are you up to?”

  “Me?” she inquired innocently. “I’m just enjoying the luxury of this big queen-size bed. The sheets are so nice and cool against my skin.”

  She couldn’t be absolutely certain, but it sounded as if he’d groaned. “I feel absolutely decadent, lying here naked,” she added for good measure. “Good night, Brandon.”

  This time she was certain that he groaned as she quietly hung the phone up. There were a few benefits to getting old, she decided. At the top of the list was the ability to give as good as you got. She switched off the light and snuggled beneath the covers. Minutes later she was sound asleep.

  And minutes after that, her dreams turned downright steamy.

  Chapter Eleven

  When the phone in his room rang, Brandon was shaving and thinking of the sly way Lizzy had gotten even with him the night before. Anticipating her on the phone, he was unprepared for Kevin’s voice.

  “Dad, what the devil are you doing in New Mexico?” he asked, sounding thoroughly miffed. “I heard you went to California. Even that I got secondhand.”

  “Good morning to you, too, son,” Brandon said, keeping a tight rein on his own temper. He didn’t want to get in some shouting match with a man who’d been warned to avoid stress. He especially didn’t want to risk alienating the son from whom he’d already been estranged once. His tone mild, he added, “You’d have got it from the horse’s mouth if you’d been in your office when I looked for you on the day I left.”

  “So it’s my fault that I have to find out from my son that my father is chasing around the country after some woman?”

  “I’m on vacation,” Brandon corrected. “Besides, what does it matter to you which state I’m in? I’m retired. You and Jason are in charge.”

  “Pardon me if I don’t take your name off the letterhead just yet. You have a way of changing your mind.”

  “I’m entitled,” he grumbled. “Now was there a reason for this call? I have places to go.”

  “What places?”

  “I’m in Albuquerque. Get a guidebook and figure it out.”

  “Dad, you are straining my patience.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  “Is that woman with you?”

  “That woman has a name.”

  He heard Kevin suck in his breath before he finally said more calmly, “Is Mrs. Newton with you?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes.”

  Kevin groaned. “I knew it. I just knew it. Dad, she’s trying to get her hooks into you.”

  “You’ve got that backward and we’ve already had this discussion once. I don’t expect to hav
e it again,” he snapped, then reminded himself that Kevin’s concern quite likely stemmed from having his mother replaced in Brandon’s affections.

  “Son, my being here with Lizzy isn’t some sort of slap at your mother,” he said more calmly. “I cared very deeply for your mother, but she’s gone now. Nobody’s sorrier about that than I am, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my days all alone. Your mother wouldn’t want that for me, either. If you’d give Lizzy a chance, I’m sure you’d come to love her.”

  “Love her?” Kevin echoed dully. “Does that mean you’re planning on her becoming an important part of your life?”

  “For a man who deals in bottom lines, you sure have a way of dancing around the real question on your mind. I would be very proud to have her marry me. So far, though, she’s not so inclined. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to hang up. This conversation is making me cranky.”

  “Me, too,” Kevin said as he thumped the receiver back on the hook.

  Brandon wondered idly if it was possible to disown his son at this late date. He glanced in the mirror and caught the scowl on his face and forced a smile. “Just getting a taste of your own medicine,” he said ruefully to his reflection. It seemed all the Halloran men were genetically inclined to meddle.

  In the long run, Kevin would come around, he decided. Lacey and Jason were far more understanding. Dana was downright tickled to be a coconspirator. They all could probably make Kevin see reason eventually. And if he didn’t, so be it. Brandon figured he had enough on his mind trying to win Lizzy over without worrying about his son, too.

  The thought of Lizzy had him rushing to get ready. He hadn’t been this anxious to start a day since she’d left Boston weeks earlier.

  Unfortunately before he left the room he made the mistake of answering the phone again.

  “Dad?”

  Lord, give me patience, he thought. “What is it now, Kevin?”

  “I know you said you didn’t want to discuss this again, but I have to ask you one thing. You hired a detective to find this Mrs. Newton for you, didn’t you?”