by Peggy Webb
"Let's be bold, Jenny."
They raced about, reaching up toward the sunlight, laughing as the sunbeams touched their hands, then filtered through their fingers. Daniel had not known such a carefree moment since he was a boy.
"I almost got one, Jenny." He held his hands out, cupped, to show her how he had almost trapped the sunshine.
"Try with your tongue ... like this." Jenny stuck her tongue out and tipped her face toward the sun. "Hmmm, delicious."
"Save one for me."
With the sunlight bearing down upon his face and Jenny at his side laughing, Daniel felt as if he'd slipped backward into a time before the existence of evil. He was the first man, with Jenny as his Eve, and this happy place beside the river was their Garden of Eden.
"I wish I never had to leave," Jenny said when they were too tired to chase any more sunbeams and were packing the remains of their picnic into the basket.
"We'll have many picnics, Jenny."
"Truly?"
"Truly," he said, really believing they would.
o0o
He drove home slowly, stopping once to purchase a peace offering for Gwendolyn. She was waiting for them on the front porch, her face bunched up with worry.
"Jenny!" She lumbered down the porch steps and wrapped Jenny in her large embrace. "Thank heavens you're safe." She scowled at Daniel.
"Didn't Helen call you?" he asked.
"Yes ... Jenny, honey, why don't you take the picnic basket inside?"
" 'Bye, Daniel." Jenny put her hand briefly on his cheek. A touch of heaven. "Thank you ... for everything." A lovely blush colored her cheeks.
Daniel could hardly bear to let her go. He took her hand and caressed the long, slim fingers. "I'll never forget today, Jenny."
Gwendolyn cleared her throat loudly to show what she thought of their leave-taking.
Jenny gave him a conspirator's grin, and he winked at her. When she carried her picnic basket into the house, she was humming.
Gwendolyn waited until the sound of Jenny's voice faded before she had her say.
"Your message came too late. When I woke up and found her missing, I called Jake and he nearly went wild. It wasn't until after he left that I saw the message light on the answering machine."
The situation was Daniel's worst nightmare come true.
"You've every right to be angry. I should have brought her home first to make certain that no one would be worried."
"First?"
"If looks could kill, I'd be dead."
"Wait till Jake Townsend gets through with you."
"Gwendolyn, I'm not the enemy. I would never do anything to hurt Jenny." Suddenly, remembering the peace offering, he held it out.
Gwendolyn looked at the hat. It was one she'd always wanted, a genuine Panama, handwoven in Ecuador, the kind she could wear in Florida when she retired and had nothing to do but lie in the sun all day like a sausage, frying herself.
"I won't be taking bribes," she said.
"It's not a bribe; it's a gift." He laid the hat on the front porch.
"I won't be wearing it." Her fire suddenly gone, Gwendolyn sank into the rocking chair and wiped a tear from her eye with the hem of her painter's shirt.
"When you brought her that music box and I saw the two of you together ..." She heaved a big sigh then wiped another tear. "Oh, Lordy, I don't know what to believe anymore."
Daniel knelt beside her on the wooden porch floor and took her hands. "I want what's best for her too. Trust me, Gwendolyn."
"Sometimes I want to." She shook her hands loose from his then gave him a wry grin. "Lordy, how you do turn an old woman's head. No wonder Jenny's in love with you."
Daniel walked to the edge of the porch, leaned against the railing, and studied the front yard. Flowers of every kind were in bloom, and the trees were alive with birdsong. Such a peaceful place. A haven for Jenny. What right did he have to disrupt her fife?
"You know that, don't you, Daniel?"
"Yes."
"How are you going to handle it?"
It was a question he'd wrestled with almost from the moment he'd met her.
He turned back to Gwendolyn. "I honestly don't know."
The old porch floor creaked as Gwendolyn left the rocking chair and came to stand beside him. "Maybe you ought to find out." Her face softened as she reached up to pat his cheek. Then she drew herself up and scowled at him. "And don't you be thinking I'm a soft touch, because I'm tough as an old bulldog and twice as mean." She marched toward the front door, then came back to pick up her hat. "And don't you think I'm fixing to wear this hat."
"I wouldn't dream of such a thing."
"Good."
Daniel let her have the last word, then got into his car and drove back to Sullivan Enterprises. Although it was thirty minutes after closing time, the lights were still on in his office.
Upstairs, Helen met him at the door.
"I thought I told you to take the rest of the day off."
"You have a visitor."
He didn't have to be told; he knew. "Jake Townsend?" Helen nodded, too awestruck to do more. "Where is he?"
"In your office. I told him I didn't know if you'd be back, but he said you would, said something about having written the book on obsession. I didn't dare tell him the offices closed at five." Her hands fluttered anxiously over the top of her desk. Finally she latched onto her steno pad and clutched it to her chest. "Shall I go in with you?"
"No, Helen. Go home. I'll handle this alone." She gathered her purse and her umbrella. Rain or shine, Helen always carried an umbrella. At the door, she turned for one last look. Daniel smiled at her. "Thank you, Helen. You did the right thing."
The door closed behind her, and Daniel squared his shoulders. It was time to face Jake Townsend. He knew how the biblical Daniel must have felt when he faced the den of lions.
Chapter Six
Jake Townsend was a great lion of a man, as tall as Daniel himself and just as erect. He had a thick mane of hair that had once been very black but now had enough silver to be called salt-and-pepper, and his eyes were a pale, clear and riveting green. He didn't say a word when Daniel walked in, but leaned back in his chair and treated Daniel to the most intense scrutiny he'd ever endured.
Do I pass inspection? he might have said to someone else, but he didn't dare say it to this man.
"Daniel Sullivan," Jake said. It was not a question.
"Yes." He offered his hand, and Jake took it. His handclasp was strong and firm. "Helen told me you were waiting. Can I get you a cup of coffee?
"No, thank you. This is not a social call."
Daniel sat in his desk chair, hoping the act of sitting behind his own desk in his own company would give him an advantage. It didn't. In Jake Townsend, he'd meet his match.
"Before you say anything, Mr. Townsend, let me assure you that Jenny is completely unharmed."
"I expected nothing less of you." Jake leaned forward and fixed him with a piercing stare. "A Vietnam hero, medevac pilot, flew rescue missions over Da Nang and Chu Lai. Daring Danny Boy they called you, Savior of the Wounded."
Daniel gripped the armrests of his chair. He'd been so young, too young to know fear. It all came back to him, the steamy jungles, the screaming of the wounded, the blood running like rivers.
o0o
"Got one more for you, Danny...."
The popping noises in the distance might have been mistaken for firecrackers celebrating another Fourth of July if it hadn't been for the bodies that were loaded aboard his helicopter. Gnats swarmed in with the wounded.
"Too late for this one, the poor bastard...."
His dogtag was barely visible in the tattered remains of his shirt. Sullivan, Michael, Captain, U.S. Army.
Too late.Too late for his own brother. Oh, God... His hands froze on the controls.
"Get out of here, Danny. NOW!"
o0o
Daniel took a deep, steadying breath. The past was behind him—Vietnam, Michael,
his father, Claire. All the people he'd failed. The important thing was not to fail again, not to fail Megan and Patrick... and Jenny.
He left his desk and poured himself a cup of coffee.
Jake made a careful steeple of his hands, never taking his eyes off Daniel. "There was never any doubt in my mind that my daughter was safe from you and with you. The thing that bothers me most is that in her present state of mind she is not safe from herself."
"The car." Restless, Daniel remained standing.
"Precisely. Call me overprotective, call me any damned thing you like, but I will not allow Jenny to be put in jeopardy again as she was today."
Lesser men might have been intimidated by Jake Townsend, but Daniel had one advantage over lesser men. He loved Jenny as much as Jake did. Perhaps more, if that was possible.
"I agree that taking the car was a dangerous thing for her to do, but she did a remarkable job, considering that no one ever taught her to drive." It was a subtle criticism. Daniel watched to see how Jake would react.
"You have children."
"Yes ... two."
"Then you know what it's like to want to keep them safe from all harm. I lost my first wife and daughter in a car accident. I owe my happiness, my very life, to Jenny and her mother, and I would gladly give mine for them."
"As I would for mine."
"Megan and Patrick, ages eight and five." Jake gave him what passed for a smile, one father to another. Under different circumstances they might have been great friends.
"The first thing I did when I left Gwendolyn was to check up on you," Jake added. "There's not much about you that I don't know."
"There's one thing about me that you don't know." Daniel put his untouched cup of coffee back beside the coffeepot then returned to his chair behind the desk. Taking a pencil in his hands, he faced Jake. "I love Jenny."
The silence in the room was so complete, it appeared that neither man even breathed. As Jake and Daniel sized each other up, the only sign of turmoil was the twitch in Jake's jaw and the way Daniel clenched his pencil. It finally gave way under the pressure. The small popping sound brought them out of their trance.
"Everybody loves Jenny. She's an easy person to love."
Jake's statement gave Daniel a temporary reprieve from his ill-timed confession. He loved Jenny. The knowledge sang through him like a symphony. He'd loved her from the moment he'd first seen her swinging in her backyard. Need, desire, passion. He'd called his feelings all those things. But the simple, wondrous fact was that he loved her... man to woman, prince to princess, Adam to Eve... loved her enough to let her go.
"Yes, she's an easy person to love," Daniel said, and in that moment he knew he'd betrayed her. Coward. Bastard. The self-recriminations would have to wait; now he needed all his energy focused on the powerful man sitting in his office.
"I had hoped ..." Too proud to continue, Jake bowed his head as his heart broke for Jenny. What had he expected from a virile, powerful, intelligent young man? Daniel Sullivan would never declare a romantic interest in a woman like Jenny. He'd choose someone who was his equal in every way, someone who could give him children.
Jake straightened his shoulders and fixed Daniel with a steady gaze. "Know this about Jenny: When she loves, she loves with her whole heart. I can't change the way she feels about you, but I can help her forget."
Cold winds swept across Daniel's soul. He'd lost her, lost her because he had neither the courage nor the wisdom to claim a special woman as his own.
"Sarah and I will take her on a long trip ... she loves to travel." Jake didn't have to say more. His eyes said it all. Unless you love my daughter enough to claim her, stay away.
Jake stood up. The interview was over.
They didn't shake hands; they merely parted, not as enemies but as two men who shared a common goal—protecting Jenny.
Daniel stood alone at the window, staring out into the darkness as he mourned the loss of a woman who had taught him to taste sunbeams.
Chapter Seven
The cake wasn't turning out exactly the way Megan wanted it to. She frowned at the cookbook, then scowled at her brother. Everything might have been all right if she hadn't let him put in the eggs.
"How did I know you was s'posed to take 'em out of the shell?" he said.
If only he wouldn't cry, she'd send him out of the kitchen and make the cake all by herself.
"Besides, you shoulda asked Miss Williams," Patrick added.
"Miss Williams is a nanny. She's not a cook. And besides, I want to surprise Daddy."
"How come he's sad?"
" 'Cause grownups get that way sometimes, silly. Now hush talking so I can think."
She wished she knew about fractions and stuff, but she didn't guess it took a mathematical genius to figure out how much sugar to put in a cake. Lots and lots.
"This is going to be delicious," she said, smiling.
o0o
The open letter lay on the table beside Daniel's chair. He didn't have to look at it to know what it said.
Dear Daniel, I have to go away on a trip. It wont be a bus trip like I planned, but it will be nise. Don't forget me. Forever yours, Jenny.
As if he could ever forget her. He lowered his head to his hands.
"Jenny," he whispered. "Jenny."
o0o
"Surprise!"
His two children stood in the doorway looking like two survivors of a kitchen war. Chocolate decorated their faces, their hands, and the fronts of their clothes, and flour billowed from them like mushroom clouds.
"We made you a birthday cake, Daddy," Megan said.
Daniel almost said, "It's not my birthday," but seeing their radiant faces, he stopped himself.
"That's wonderful, Megan ... Patrick. Let's see it.”
Grinning from ear to ear, they blazed a white trail across the carpet. The thing they called a cake was great chunks of sticky dough held together with toothpicks and hope. Gobs of chocolate sat in fat random patches around the platter. Strawberries formed a crude D; small colored candies made a smiley face, and on top of it all were six twelve-inch candles from the candelabrum on the dining room table.
Daniel was grateful they hadn't decided to light the candles.
"Hmmm. It makes me feel hungry just to look at it." Heedless of their condition, he set the cake on the table, then hugged his children close. "I'm so proud of you."
"Honest?" Megan asked. "Cross your heart and hope to die?"
"Honest. Cross my heart and hope to die." They plastered his face with chocolate-flavored kisses, then he set them on their feet "Shall we go into the kitchen and eat this wonderful cake?"
They skipped along beside him, chattering a blue streak. For a few blessed minutes he forgot the letter beside his chair.
o0o
Jenny knew it was foolish to keep watching out the window. Daniel wasn't going to come.
But, oh, how she hoped he would. Clutching the curtain in one hand and pressing the other against the windowpane, she imagined Daniel riding up on a white horse like a knight in shining armor and rescuing her.
Sighing, she let the curtain swing back into place. How silly she was. Wanting to be rescued from flying off in a private jet with a family who loved her. How ungrateful.
Her suitcase was open on the bed. She took a pink blouse from its hanger in the closet and folded it carefully. Then slowly she walked to her suitcase.
"Are you about finished, Jenny?" Gwendolyn called from the hallway.
"Not quite." She had barely started.
"We'll leave for your parents' house as soon as you finish packing."
Jenny wondered if she could take two weeks. Maybe if she took two weeks, Daniel would come for her.
She took the pink blouse out, unfolded it, and put it back on the hanger. She was tired of wearing pink.
Outside her window a mockingbird called. Jenny's left leg dragged more than usual as she made her way back to the window.
o0o
&nb
sp; Daniel carried Jenny's letter in his coat pocket. When he least expected it, the words flashed into his mind, obscuring everything else. I have to go away. . . . Don't forget me.
"Daniel?" His secretary's voice brought him back to the matter at hand. Dictation.
"Where was I, Helen?"
" 'I will be in North Carolina'..."
"Ah, yes." Daniel leaned back in his chair. "... 'for the grand opening'..." It would be a party. How Jenny would love a party. "Take a break, Helen."
"But the letter ..."
"Can wait."
Helen gathered her steno pad and stood up. "Are you feeling all right, Daniel? You haven't been yourself lately. Maybe you should take some time off."
"I'm fine, Helen. Just tired, that's all."
When the door closed behind her, he took the letter from his coat pocket and read it again. Jenny was leaving. She would be chasing sunbeams without him, and seeing sunsets and moonlight and stars, all without him. An aching sense of loss almost overwhelmed him.
Moving like a tired old man, Daniel picked up his desk calendar and scanned his notations. Expansion to the East Coast complete. Opening gala being planned. Inquiries from the Midwest about putting his stores there.
He was succeeding beyond his wildest dreams. Then why did he feel so empty?
Jenny. Always Jenny.
Daniel closed his eyes and pressed his hands against his lids as if the pressure could drive her from his mind. But even if she left his mind, he knew that she would never leave his heart.
Impossible, he'd said about loving Jenny. And yet, until he met her, "impossible" was not even in his vocabulary. All his life he'd defied convention, had done the unthinkable as well as the impossible.
How could he dismiss the possibility of loving Jenny in every way without knowing the facts? Hope sprang to life in him, and such joy, he almost shouted.
He buzzed for Helen to come back inside. Before she was even seated, he was firing off the rest of the letter to North Carolina.
"Let's see ... where was I? ... 'for the grand opening on July 15. My secretary will call you when all travel arrangements are complete. Regards,' etc." Daniel was pacing now, fired up with a new purpose. "After you get that letter off, cancel all my appointments for the rest of the day. We have some sleuthing to do."