Love and Arson

by Woods, Karen

  This whole situation made her nervous. She wondered if this was a test of her honesty. That sounded to her like something Jase would orchestrate. If it was, then she knew someone was monitoring everything she was seeing and doing on the system. If it was, there was a log showing everything at which she had looked. That would not be a difficult thing to do. The only thing she liked less than being monitored was the thought perhaps her father’s computer security was actually this inadequate.

  Yet before she spoke to her father about this, she wanted to make sure just how bad the system actually was. She needed more time to do that. She was making notes and had the outline of a preliminary report already drafted in her mind. She knew she would have to talk to her father soon, one way or another, about this. It wasn’t a conversation she anticipated with any degree of joy.

  The phrase ‘right hand man’ fit Jase’s role perfectly. Just seeing the day to day operations with him here, and with him gone, convinced her of her father’s dependence upon both Jase, as VP operations, and upon Beth, as VP finance. It was painfully obvious to her that her father knew just how much he truly leaned on both of them. Harry was expected to retire within the year, leaving the reins of the company firmly in Jase and Beth’s capable hands.

  Dani wondered if there would ever be a real place for her in the company, or within the family, for that matter.

  It was clear to her that her father’s health wasn’t particularly good. Yet, no one had bothered to tell her what was wrong with him. From the diet Sissy had him on, it was probably something to do with either his heart or blood pressure, or both. But Dani hadn’t brought up the subject, and neither had anyone else.

  Dani’s concentration was on the computer monitor and the figures displayed there as she was preparing a report on the cash flow of one of her father’s less profitable operations. She didn’t hear her father walk up behind her. She did see his reflection in the monitor. “Just a minute, Dad,” she said as she issued the commands to place the report she was working on into the print queue. Only then did she turn around.

  “Dani,” her father said, a shade of desperation in his voice, “please tell me you play golf?”

  “Yes, Father. I’ll never play on the WPGA circuit, but I play a decent enough game of golf.”

  “Good. A member of our foursome is down with the virus that’s going around. We’re playing this afternoon with Norman Richter, the head of Richter Development.”

  “How’s the proposed buyout coming?”

  “Not well. Norman is resisting the offer. He’s just stubborn enough to sit still while his company goes down the tube, rather than lose any degree of control. That’s why we need you with us. I want to soften him up with some low pressure socializing, then zing him with the hard facts.”

  “My clubs burned up in the fire. I haven’t replaced them, yet.”

  “Minor problem. Pick up a set of clubs and a new bag at the pro shop out at the club. Pick up a new outfit and shoes, as well. Don’t go cheaply on anything. Norman knows top quality and tends to judge firms and people by possessions. Have everything put on my tab.”

  “When’s the tee time?”

  “Two hours from now.”

  “Cutting it close, aren’t you?”

  “You go on out to the club. Talk to Jim Henderliter, the club golf pro. He’s expecting you and has been told to charge everything to my account. Get the lowdown on the course from him. We’ll meet you at the clubhouse in an hour and a half minutes.”

  “Fine,” she said with a sigh. “I’m going. Just make certain you clear this with Miss Teague. I don’t want any problems with her.”

  Harry smiled. “I still sign Dolores Teague’s paychecks, so don’t worry about that.”

  “We aren’t expected to lose, are we? As a way of softening up Mr. Richter?” she asked, feeling suspicious.

  “Dani, if you don’t play your very best, I’ll be very disappointed in you,” Harry said. Then he smiled. “You should know Norman Richter is a scratch golfer. He’ll be difficult to beat.”

  “That’s all I wanted to know. I’ll be going out to the club in a few minutes, then. You said that the family member-ship covers me?”

  “I added your name when you came home. You don’t need to have any concerns about using the facilities of the club.”

  “I was never concerned about that,” Dani replied.

  “Weren’t you?” her father demanded. “You’ve not want-ed to go out there with us.”

  She shook her head. “There’s something to be said for the old convention of a period of mourning. I’m not quite sure I’m really ready to be out in company, yet.”

  “I know,” he told her in a gentle voice. “But you need to move on with your life. You’ve turned down almost every invitation you’ve received.”

  That was true. Several of her co-workers had invited her to lunch, to dinners, or to parties. But aside from lunches, she had turned them down. She really hadn’t felt much like being in company. The one exception to that had been her growing friendships with Sarah and Michelle, who was one of Sarah’s friends as well as the day dispatcher for the local EMS system. Most of the time, she and at least one of the other women had simply gone out for lunch, or played tennis on the courts on the Devlin estate, or had ridden her father’s horses.

  “Meet us in the clubhouse bar in an hour and forty-five minutes,” Harry informed her. “Charge the clothes and equipment to me, please?”

  * * *

  Dani was seated at a table in the clubhouse bar, wearing her new golf outfit, with her new, terribly expensive, clubs in the new bag by her side, when Steve Anderson, dressed for tennis, came up to her. She was reviewing a stack of print outs, trying to get the figures in her head before this meeting with Norman Richter.

  “Hello, Ms. Devlin. Drinking alone at this hour. Shame on you,” Steve teased. “Can I sit?”

  “Can you sit?” she teased, feeling herself smile. “Do I look like a physical therapist, that I should be able to size up your abilities at a glance?”

  Steve laughed. “Point taken. May I sit with you?”

  “I’d be happy for the company. I’m expecting my father in a very few minutes, however. We have a tee time in about a quarter hour.”

  Steve Anderson lowered himself gracefully into a chair beside her. “Need a bracer to meet your father, Dani?” he asked in concern.

  She took a sip of her beverage. “Never. This is tonic and lime. Very refreshing and non-alcoholic.”

  “So, I hear you’re working for your father.”

  “That’s right. It’s a summer job.”

  “We haven’t seen much of you, except in passing at Church. I was impressed with how well you read last Sunday.”

  “We serve as we can,” she dismissed.

  “Aside from seeing you at Church, I was beginning to wonder if you were just a figment of my imagination.”

  “You frequently conjure women from the depths of your imagination? Funny, I would have thought you would have had enough live companionship to make an active fantasy life completely unnecessary.”

  She wasn’t going to take this guy seriously. But, it was fun to be with someone who appreciated her as a woman, for a change.

  Steve laughed. There were few people in the bar at this hour of the afternoon, yet all eyes turned at the sound of Steve’s open laughter. “There isn’t a woman, anywhere, who could hold a candle to you.”

  “Certainly not. I wouldn’t let them. Wax burns can be nasty things.”

  Steve laughed again. “Come on, why the hermit act?”

  “No act. I am a hermit.”

  “Come on. ‘Fess up,” Steve urged.

  “The only confessions I make are to priests,” she replied with a laugh. “Somehow, I don’t think you qualify.”

  Steve shook his head. “That laugh of yours does strange things to me...”

  “Heavens, I wouldn’t want to do that. Doing strange things to lawyers can be hazardous to my financial
health.”

  “Only if your intent was malicious... And I don’t think you have a malicious bone in your body.”

  She laughed again. This man made her feel happy. She wasn’t going to take him seriously, though. “Bone, no? Cartilage, sinew, muscle, maybe.”

  He chuckled. “Why have you really been in hiding, Dani?”

  “I haven’t been in hiding. This is just the first chance I’ve had to come out. I’ve been pretty busy.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Finding my feet.”

  “They’re where they’ve always been; at the end of your gorgeous legs.”

  Dani laughed. “I should hope so.”

  “What’s an office slave doing at the club in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday?” he asked.

  “Preparing to play a business round of golf. What’s an officer of the court doing here during the middle of the afternoon on a weekday?” she countered.

  “The judge took ill. There wasn’t anyone available to cover at such short notice. I couldn’t stand the idea of being cooped up on a gorgeous day like this, so, I’m giving myself some well deserved time off. Say, tomorrow evening, I’ve time scheduled on the tennis court. My planned opponent is down with this summer flu that’s going around. Would you take pity on a poor man and play tennis with me tomorrow evening?”

  “What makes you think I play?” Dani asked.

  “Sarah and Michelle both say you have a fierce back-hand.”

  “Respectable, at least.”

  “Then, will you take pity on me and come play tennis with me tomorrow evening?”

  “What time?”

  “Six.”

  “I should be able to get here from the office by then,” she told him, after a moment’s thought.

  “Loser buys the winner a steak dinner afterwards?”

  “I hope that your pockets are deep. I’m extremely hard to beat on a tennis court. There are few things I like better than a good steak,” Dani replied.

  “There will be a band here tomorrow night. There could be dancing. You might want to dress in something which will knock my eyes out.”

  “But they’re such nice eyes,” she teased. “It would be a shame to knock them out. I detest waste of any kind.” Then she laughed and added in a more serious tone, “This is a roundabout way of asking me for a date, Steve.”

  “Isn’t it, though?” he admitted unabashedly. “Well, anything that works. I’m a pragmatist.”

  With a chuckle, she said, “Steve. I just don’t know about you!”

  “Good. Keep ‘em guessing is the motto I live by. It’s always served me well.”

  “Funny. I had thought your motto was something like, ‘Woman is just woman, but bail is a bond’.”

  Steve laughed. “Dani Devlin, why don’t you marry me?”

  “Possibly because I strongly suspect any woman who became seriously involved with you would face a lifetime of dealing with a revolving array of women, none of whom would last long, but a constant parade of females, nonetheless. You don’t strike me as the type to settle down and be faithful to any one woman.”

  Steve looked at her, suddenly serious, “I wasn’t joking. Will you marry me, Mary Danielle Devlin?”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were serious.”

  “I am serious. It shocks the crap out of me, if you have to know the whole truth.”

  “Do you normally propose marriage to women who you don’t know?” she asked, not at all certain of what to make of this man.

  His smile lit up his eyes. “Have to. The ones who know me won’t have me.”

  She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Steve...”

  “The answer to your question is ‘No’. In fact, I’ve never proposed to anyone, except you.”

  “Well, I won’t hold you to it,” she offered. “Temporary insanity and all that.”

  “I wouldn’t mind if you did hold me to it. Besides, what makes you think anything about how you make me feel is temporary?”

  “I think we had better work on being friends long before we think about anything else, Steve,” she hedged on a sigh. “Besides, I would not be at all good for your legal career.”

  “Wanted for felonies in five states, are you?” he teased.

  “No, I’m not.” After a slight hesitation, she continued, “But I was very nearly married to a man who was charged with multiple violations of the federal RICO Act before he agreed to testify against his clients and took a spot in the federal witness protection program.”

  Steve whistled through his teeth. “RICO? ... That act gets quite a work out in ways Congress never intended, including being used against people picketing abortion clinics, Major League Baseball, Michael Milken, and Mohawk Industries, in addition to organized crime figures. How did they argue your ex was either Racketeer Influenced or part of a Corrupt Organization?”

  “Edward was an investment broker who laundered drug money, lots of it, for criminal enterprises. There were hundreds of millions of dollars involved.”

  Steve whistled through his teeth, once more. “But you had nothing to do with this. So, why should it be a problem.”

  “Thank you for the courtesy of a presumption of innocence. You don’t know what that means to me.”

  “You’re bitter,” he observed.

  “It sneaks up on me, from time to time.”

  “Understandably.”

  “I’m not exactly the type of woman you need to take to a Bar Association function, am I?”

  “Beautiful, honest, witty. I would be proud to have you on my arm, anytime, anywhere,” Steve told her. “The male members of the Bar would be enchanted by you. The female members, jealous of your beauty and sharp wit.”

  “Right,” she dismissed. “Steve, I jumped into a relation-ship once, and got burned, very badly. Those scars are permanent.”

  “And painful?”

  “Let’s just say I have no desire to repeat the experience. Why don’t we start by seeing if we can be friends? If it develops into something else, then it does. I’m not completely ruling out the possibility. But I’m not going to rush into anything, and I won’t allow myself to be hurried. Nor do I want to hurt you.”

  “Friends,” he echoed as if savoring the word. “Yes,” he said as he took her hand and lifted it to his mouth. He lightly kissed her palm. “Does this feel like friendship?”

  Dani retrieved her hand from him. “At this point, truthfully, there’s not anything more than friendship here. And I can’t honestly say there will ever be anything more than friendship on my part. That has nothing to do with you. I’m contemplating entering Religious life.”

  The stunned look on his face was nearly comical. “Seriously? A nun?”

  She sighed, wondering why she had even raised the issue with him. “Probably a teaching sister. I can see myself teaching more than living a strictly contemplative life. At this point I’m just seeking the way God wants me to go. I feel rather at loose ends.”

  “Given all the changes in your life lately, that’s to be expected. I’ll have to see what I can do to convince you that your vocation is motherhood and marriage, not in that order. But, honestly, I’m rather rusty at thinking about marriage. There’s been no one serious in my life since my wife died seven years ago.”

  “I’m sorry, Steve, I didn’t know...Hey, I thought you had never proposed to anyone.”

  “I hadn’t. Gwen proposed to me. We were in college when she declared we were going to be married,” Steve replied, his voice soft. “She was a real wool burner, that woman. She saw what she wanted and went for it... Sadly enough, that’s what killed her...”

  She took his hand. “Steve...”

  “It’s okay. I’ll tell you about her sometime, when we know each other better.”

  She cleared her throat as she loosed his hand.

  Her father, Jase, and a man who had to be Norman Richter just walked into the room. She hadn’t seen Jase for any length of time since he had returned from
Reserve duty; a fact for which she was profoundly grateful. He’d gone back to living at his apartment in town, instead of her father’s house. She should have expected Jase would be included in this golf foursome. Yet, she hadn’t even thought about it. She only hoped her father wouldn’t pair her off with Jase. The last thing she wanted was a shouting match on the fifteenth hole. She thought she could probably bite her tongue for that long, but she knew she wasn’t likely to get through eighteen holes without blowing up at him, not if he continued to act in his established pattern.

  She sighed. “You’ll have to excuse me. Here’s my party. I’ll have to leave you. See you tomorrow.”

  Steve caught her hand as she rose. “I’ll be looking forward to it, Dani.”

  “Just bring tons of money. I hear steaks here are very expensive,” she replied with mischief in her voice.

  “My credit is good,” Steve replied.

  “So’s mine, apparently. See you tomorrow.”

  Dani walked up to the three men. “Well, gentlemen, are we walking the course, or cheating by taking carts?”

  Norman Richter smiled and laughed. “Have pity on an old man.”

  “Funny, I don’t see any old men here,” she answered.

  Norman turned to her father. “Harry, your daughter is not only beautiful, she is silver tongued. I have to say, she did an excellent job with the lessons at Church last Sunday.”

  Harry nodded. “So I hear. I’ll have to make an effort to be there the next time she reads.”

  Jase stated, “Under her beautiful exterior is a backbone of steel. She’s a Devlin to the core.”

  She laughed. “Fortunately. Both you and my father would run right over anyone not strong enough to stand up to either or both of you.”

  He smiled at her.

  His smile made her breath catch in her throat.

  “Well, gentlemen,” she offered, rushing into words, “it’s almost our tee time.”

  “What did Steve want with you?” Jase asked as they were riding between the second and third hole.

  “A date.”

  She saw him looking sideways at her as he steered the cart.