Terra let the fact sink in. She hadn’t fully realized until now how complicated it was to hide Rafe, how much forethought, timing and careful planning it took. One little slip—such as the open gate the other day— and he’d be exposed.
“Would you mind if they met?”
“Lalie, if they did Josh might mention him to someone.”
“True, but if Josh doesn’t know Rafe by his real name, it wouldn’t give him away.”
“What does Rafe think about it?”
“We mulled it over and he figures no one will think anything if Josh mentions someone named Kermit at my house.”
Terra recalled one of the stuffed animals on the hammock. “As in Kermit the Frog,” she surmised.
“We only have today and next Monday to worry about it,” Lalie said.
“I don’t know, Lalie. Involving Josh in any way seems awfully irresponsible.”
“He isn’t all yours, Terra. He’s Rafe’s child, too, and maybe they should know each other on some level at least. Rafe is so lonely, trying not to go stir-crazy while his body and his spirit are healing.”
Terra bit down on her lower lip to stem a tide of emotion. “Maybe you’re right.”
“He’s in the kitchen at the moment, waiting for me to let him know one way or the other.”
Terra agonized a moment more, then called to Josh. “Let’s go inside, sweetheart. Lalie has somebody she wants us to meet.”
Josh came running, hands dirty from uprooting weeds. “Who?”
Rafe was at the table, lifting a coffee cup to his mouth, when they came in. He pushed back in his chair and stood, giving Terra a wary look. Then he switched his focus to Josh.
Seeing Rafe’s eyes widen, Terra held her breath. But after seeming surprised and baffled by what he saw, he gave a slight smile and introduced himself.
“Hi, I’m Kermit.”
Josh looked up at him. “Really?”
“Yep, really Kermit. I hear your name is Josh.”
“Yeah.” Josh looked up at Terra. “This is Mommy.”
Rafe put a hand out to Terra as if they were meeting for the first time. “Ma’am. How are you today?”
“Fine, thank you.” Terra managed a nervous smile and experienced a surge of warmth when she shook his hand. He clasped hers a little longer than necessary and then slowly released it.
Josh tugged on her other hand. “I gotta go, Mom.”
“Right this way,” Lalie said, whisking him out of the kitchen.
Knees weak, Terra stood looking at Rafe across the table. “Kermit,” she said, at a loss for anything else to say.
His lips quirked. “Nice boy you’ve got. Reminds me a lot of me when I was a kid.”
Terra had been afraid of that, but she did all she could not to show it. “If you ran your mother ragged,” she said lightly, “you’re right.”
“I did my best,” he confirmed, pulling out a chair for her. “Have a seat if you feel like it.”
Terra wasn’t sure how she felt. She wasn’t really prepared to see Rafe, and it put her off balance. Out of the blue she had an image of the way she’d first seen him yesterday—stark naked, steamy clean, all man. The thought sent her blood rushing to her cheeks.
“Okay, don’t,” he said gruffly, making it clear that her hesitation had a chilling effect on him. He sat down again and took a drink of his coffee, eyes narrowed on her over the rim of the cup.
She regretted that they’d gotten off on the wrong foot with each other again, yet she couldn’t explain that she felt too vulnerable about the situation, too uncertain about his innocence or guilt and much too attracted to him.
“I have to leave in a minute,” she told him, but then reluctantly took the seat he had offered.
Rafe observed dryly, “You haven’t changed your mind about turning me in, I guess.”
“Obviously not, since I haven’t turned you in,” Terra replied, matching his cool, sardonic tone.
He drummed his fingers on the table. “Not yet, you haven’t.”
Terra met his eyes. They were a brilliant, edgy blue. He had a white T-shirt on, faded jeans and sneakers. In spite of being thin, pale and rife with suspicion, he looked so good, so purely male, so very much Josh’s father. And so sexy it made her heart race.
“We have an understanding,” she said. “Remember?”
“Sure I do. I lost a few memories in prison, but nothing recent.”
“You suspect my motives?”
“You know I do.”
“As I said, the bottom line is I haven’t turned you in, Kermit.”
“I keep expecting you to.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t have much faith left in human nature. Prison took it out of me.”
“Before that, were you as much of a cynic as you seem to be now?”
“No, I was a good guy before I learned how easily they get shot down. But you’re pretty sure I was never a good guy in the first place, aren’t you?”
“I’m willing to wait for proof that you’re as good as Lalie says. In the meantime, you seem sincere.”
“You seem sincere, too, Terra. Which keeps me nervous about you.”
“Rafe, are you goading me with your doubts so that I will have you arrested?”
“No. I’m just not sure I can trust you.”
Lalie came back to the kitchen right then and caught them glaring at each other. “This is no time to be scrapping,” she scolded. “United we stand, but dividing isn’t going to get anybody’s innocence proven.”
Rafe withdrew into testy, disgruntled silence as Lalie set a photo album on the table in front of Terra.
“Look through this,” she said, “while I take Josh outside with me.”
Josh came skipping into the kitchen and Lalie sent him out ahead of her. At the backdoor she paused and gave Rafe a stern look. “You be nice or I’ll turn you in myself.”
Opening the album cover, Terra found that the first photo was portrait-sized. It showed Lalie, at a much younger age, holding a baby in a christening blanket.
Terra looked up at Rafe again. “You?”
He gave a curt nod and looked away. Far away.
Terra continued through the album, a visual history of Rafe’s life: his first tooth, first Eagle Scout badge, first scholarship award, first fish caught with a fly reel. As well, he was pictured with family and friends at various events: school graduations, holidays, church functions, sailing regattas.
One snapshot showed him in an Independence Day parade, marching in a color guard, carrying the Stars and Stripes. Another had him receiving a good-citizen’s award in high school.
In each image of Rafe, Terra noted a resemblance to Josh. But if Rafe had noticed the same thing, he wasn’t saying.
The final photo showed him as Terra remembered him years earlier, on the deck of his sailboat. He had the wind in his dark hair and the gleam of adventure in his blue eyes. She slowly closed the album. Looking up, she found Rafe studying her.
“You remind me of someone,” he mused, “but who?”
She shrugged as if she couldn’t imagine reminding him of anyone. “I don’t know.”
“Or maybe we’ve met before.”
“I don’t see how,” Terra said, shaking her head to convey that he was talking nonsense.
He sat back in his chair, undeterred by her response. “Something about you. I can’t quite get a handle on it, though.”
Lalie came back in, distracting him. She touched the photo album and asked Terra, “Does that look to you like a life gone wrong?”
“No,” Terra replied. It was just the sort of life she wanted for Josh, but she didn’t say so. “It helps me feel more certain that I’m doing the right thing.”
Lalie gave Rafe a triumphant look. “There, Mr. Suspicious. Argue with that.”
“I’d only get my knuckles rapped again,” Rafe muttered. He raised a challenging eyebrow at Terra. “Aren’t you on your way somewhere? Like to work?”
Then she came back in to tell Lalie she’d be back at lunchtime to pick up Josh for an hour or so.
“Kermit,” Lalie said to Rafe, “would you be a gentleman and see Terra to the door?”
Rafe silently, stiffly complied, limping behind her through the living room. He undid the lock, but stopped with his hand on the knob.
“I suppose I should apologize for my attitude,” he said.
“Would you mean it if you did?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. If you really meant what you said about the life I led.”
“I really meant it.”
He considered for a moment. “All right, then, I’m really sorry for doubting you so much.”
“Nonetheless, you still do, don’t you?”
“I’m starting to wish I didn’t. Maybe that’s what I really mean.”
Terra nodded. “That’s fair enough, all things considered. Maybe the longer I don’t turn you in, the less you’ll mistrust me. And the longer you stay put, the more I’ll trust you.”
“Could be.” He blew out a long breath. “Look, if I can help Lalie out with Josh this morning—read him stories or whatever—do you have any objection?”
She could think of several objections she should have, and good reasons for them. “It probably wouldn’t hurt,” she replied. “Thank you for checking with me first.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll make myself useful for a change.” He turned the knob, staying completely behind the door as he opened it. “Have a nice day.”
“You, too.” Terra stepped out and it clicked shut behind her.
She drove away thinking, See you at noon, I hope.
BACK TO WORK at the resort, Terra met with Columbia in the chef’s office adjacent to the kitchen. They put their heads together and sketched out a preliminary plan to produce unique, eclectic menus that would showcase regional cuisine and Columbia’s creative, zestful culinary style.
It would be a challenge because the prodigious chef constantly experimented with ingredients, techniques and presentations. The menus would have to reflect her flexibility and reputation for brilliant juxtapositions of tradition, innovation and stunning surprise.
The time flew and ended too soon. Terra left Columbia’s office with a heavy stack of all the menus the resort had utilized during its long history. The earliest ones were copies of originals that were now preserved in the county’s historical museum. She would look through them for any design ideas they might offer.
She took the menus to her room and then called Macy to touch base. Macy reported that she was busy biting her nails about the practice projects Terra had left for her.
“Relax,” Terra told her. “They’re just for you to cut your teeth on, try your hand at. They don’t have to be perfect.”
“In my mind, they do,” Macy replied, then changed the subject. “Are you having fun there, I hope?”
“More than you can even imagine.”
“Any interesting men?”
“There’s one who’s perfect for you. The marina manager.” She described Kent Prescott m enough detail to make Macy drool, then she lied. “For me, though, there’s no one quite right.”
“You can’t make do with Kent?”
“He’s much more your type than mine,” Terra objected.
“So send him to San Francisco, fast,” Macy said with a sigh. “My blind date is already starting to fizzle out.”
After ringing off with Macy, Terra returned a few calls, then went out and got acquainted with the business center and its manager, Elise. Up-to-date office equipment was available for the guests’ use, and Elise provided technical and secretarial assistance.
Terra had brought her own laptop computer, but needed a modem and printer in the hotel room. Elise arranged it all, including access to several user networks, for Terra’s convenience.
While talking with Elise, Terra learned that she had a seven-year-old daughter named Caitlin. They made friendly, indefinite plans for their children to play together.
With a busy, productive morning behind her, Terra left in the golf cart to pick up Josh. She couldn’t keep excitement from rising in her at the possibility that she’d see Rafe again. He was as compelling now as her memories of him had always been.
Too compelling, she told herself in a futile effort to stem her anticipation. She should be soberly contemplating the possibility that he was guilty; instead she was spinning sexual fantasies about him as she buzzed through the village.
At Lalie’s a few minutes later, she knocked on the door. Lalie opened it with her finger to her lips.
“What?” Terra whispered, stepping in.
Dark eyes soft and smiling, Lalie set the lock. “Come and look.”
Terra tiptoed behind her through the hall to the nap room and peeked in through a crack in the door. There on the hammock were Rafe and Josh, sound asleep. Josh lay with his head on his father’s chest, one hand over the man’s heart. Rafe had one arm curled around the boy, and one leg bent to prop up a storybook.
Terra caught her breath and choked up on sudden, poignant tears that gathered in her throat.
“I hate to disturb them,” Lalie whispered, drawing the door shut without a creak.
Fighting for control, Terra turned away and went back to the living room on tiptoe. She took in a deep, unsteady breath, afraid to say anything and have her voice quake uncontrollably with emotion.
Lalie wiped her own eyes with a corner of her garden apron. “So heartwarming,” she murmured.
Terra nodded, swallowed back the tears. “I’ll leave and come back later,” she managed to say.
“That’s best,” Lalie agreed. “I’ll explain to Josh once he wakes up.”
They stepped out to the front porch. Terra got a tenuous hold on control.
“When will it be safe again next door?”
“They always finish about midafternoon, then I go over to make sure the coast is clear for Rafe.” Lalie crossed her fingers over her heart. “He gets lonely, though, by himself. You could probably visit him now and then over there, get to know him better.”
“I’m not sure I’d be welcome.”
“I have a feeling you would, but maybe you should find out for yourself.”
Terra wrestled her emotions back into line during the quick drive to the resort. She’d hold in her heart forever the image of Rafe and Josh napping together, but she wouldn’t let it overwhelm her. She also resolved that she wouldn’t act on Lalie’s suggestion to visit Rafe.
He was just too attractive and charismatic, in the flesh and in memory. In his presence she had more trouble holding a rational perspective on him than she knew she should have. So she just wouldn’t visit him, period, even if he’d welcome it.
TERRA KEPT BUSY for the next little while by having lunch with Joanie in the employees’ cafeteria. The concierge wasn’t a gossip, but she did bring up an item of intrigue about Liz Jermain. Liz, it seemed, had a mysterious habit of suddenly slipping away for brief periods of time. Everyone suspected that she had a secret lover, but even the omnipotent Shad couldn’t figure out who the mystery man was or where Liz went to rendezvous with him.
Speculating about it was a favorite pastime in the employee ranks. Nothing cruel, however, just intense curiosity.
“What are you up to the rest of the day?” Joanie asked as they left the cafeteria.
Terra replied, “Leisure activities with my son, since I promised Columbia I’d enjoy my working vacation. Josh loves the beach, which is probably where we’ll spend much of our free time.”
They parted in the lobby and Terra went on out to pick up Josh. She found that Rafe had gone back to the estate, which she told herself was just as well. She also found, as usual, that Rafe out of sight wasn’t Rafe out of mind.
Her thoughts continued to fill with him the rest of the day. She and Josh spent it at the beach,
building sand castles. That evening, they had a quiet dinner together in their room and went to bed early.
THE NEXT MORNING, before taking Josh to Lalie’s, Terra got a call from Columbia.
“Bad news,” the chef said. “There’s a broken water pipe drowning my whole kitchen right now. Keep this afternoon penciled in, but skip it this morning. You won’t ever be able to hang around and observe unless you’re in waders.”
“No problem,” Terra told her. “I’ve got notes to take and photos to snap. I’ll be busy.”
Considering that the kitchen hardly needed two more breakfasts to put out at the moment, Terra decided that she and Josh would eat at Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe in the village. They had a nice, comfy breakfast there and Josh made a big hit with the counterman. Then they hopped in the cart and went to drop Josh off.
Lalie was out back, snipping leaves in the herb plot when they arrived. Terra called to her as they approached. Lalie looked up and her expression showed that something was wrong.
Terra quickened her pace and hurried Josh along. When they reached her, Lalie said, “Kermit has come down with a cold this morning, so I’m cutting these herbs to make a healing tea for him.” Her eyes met Terra’s and signaled greater alarm than her calm tone communicated.
Terra got the unspoken message and the understanding that Lalie was keeping a lid on for Josh. For privacy, Terra sent Josh back to the golf cart to fetch her sunglasses.
As he trotted away, Lalie said worriedly, “It’s the fever. Rafe’s got the worst attack so far and it has laid him flat this time.”
“Where is he?”
“Next door.”
“How can I help, Lalie?”
“Sit with him while I brew the tea. He’s half-delirious and I just hate leaving him alone, even for a minute.”
“I understand.” Terra was feeling alarmed herself. “Josh can play on the patio with his ball while we’re both inside.”
“Good idea. It’s best if Josh doesn’t see what chills and fever can do to a man.”
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