Finally she had tucked away her grief and built a life without him. She’d done a pretty good job of it, too, she felt. Until last Saturday night, that is.
No, she was not going to think of that again, she decided vehemently while entering her classroom and putting away her purse. The children were arriving, delivered to Kiddie Kingdom by parents or nannies.
“Good morning, Natalie,” she said to a tiny blond girl, who responded with a shy little smile.
And so it went, as did every weekday morning. Andrea greeted each child by name as he or she came in, and when everyone had arrived she began the day’s lessons. Teaching such young children was best accomplished in short segments, with songs and games interspersed among the lessons. Remarkably, some of these tots could already read. Others were just beginning to learn the alphabet. Andrea gave as much one-on-one attention to the children as she could squeeze into their three-hour school day, which to her seemed to fly by.
It was around ten-thirty when the door to her classroom opened and in walked Keith Owens, dressed in tan chinos and a casual, white, open-at-the-neck shirt. Andrea was so startled that she gaped at him with her mouth open. He smiled broadly, as though she shouldn’t be at all surprised to see him, walked to the back of the room and sat on one of the tiny chairs provided for the pupils. He looked ridiculous to Andrea, but worse than that in her eyes, every one of the children had turned around to stare at him. He looked back at them unabashedly, with a friendly sort of half grin, and Andrea soon began seeing smiles on their little faces.
Clearing her throat, clinging to composure through sheer will power, she walked to where he was sitting, bent forward and whispered, “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”
“I’m just visiting, so don’t enroll me,” he said with a devilish twinkle in his eyes.
“How cute,” she said coldly. “You’re a distraction. Please leave,” she added, refusing to laugh at his feeble excuse for a joke.
“A distraction? For whom?”
“For the children! Get off that chair before you break it…and leave!”
“Nope.”
It occurred to her that he might have a child. She didn’t know everything about him, after all, and since she had never encouraged anyone to talk about him, it was possible that he and his ex-wife had children that she hadn’t heard about.
“Do you have a child to enroll?” she asked bluntly.
“No, do you?”
Her heart seemed to flip in her chest. She’d wanted kids so much, and teaching these adorable tots satisfied some of her need to nurture, but not all of it. At that moment she hated Keith more than she had when they’d fought and broken up in college.
“You know I don’t,” she whispered harshly.
Keith could tell he’d struck a nerve, which wasn’t his intention. He’d been hoping that she would laugh over his coming to Kiddie Kingdom and perching on a child-size chair. Didn’t Andrea laugh at anything anymore? “Sorry,” he murmured. “I’d like to watch the class for a while.”
“Even if your presence is a distraction for the children?”
“It’s bothering you a lot more than it is them, Teach,” he said softly. If he let her chase him off every time he appeared, he’d never get anywhere with her. And he wanted to, very much, even if he really didn’t comprehend why.
Andrea realized he wasn’t going to budge. In no position to show her anger, she pivoted on her heel and returned to the front of the classroom. She did her best to ignore Keith while reciting the alphabet with the class, reading a story out loud and passing out cartons of juice, but she was almost lethally aware of him every second.
At recess time she led the children out to the playground, and when she brought them inside again about twenty minutes later, Keith was gone.
It didn’t seem to matter. He had succeeded in turning her inside out once again, and when it was time to go home for the day, she felt totally drained. Andrea drove home with a very suspicious mist in her eyes, and she hated the possibility that she was crying over Keith Owens again. Hadn’t she cried enough tears because of him eighteen years ago?
Pulling herself together, she stopped at the bank and deposited the check in New Hope’s account, the usual routine with donations that she or other volunteers personally received. Tucking the receipt in her purse so she could later pass it to the charity’s accountant, she returned to her car. Underway again, her thoughts immediately returned to Keith’s unmitigated gall that morning.
That had been a one-time intrusion, hadn’t it?
Andrea’s breath nearly stopped. Surely he wouldn’t be back!
But what if he did come back? Maybe she should talk to the principal, but what on earth would she say? Keith Owens is visiting my classroom and driving me up the wall. Would you please do something about it?
Visitors were not unwelcome at Kiddie Kingdom. Besides, should principal Nancy Pringle take Andrea’s complaint seriously and talk to Keith the next time he showed up—if he came by again—he would have Nancy tittering and tee-heeing all over the place with his good looks and glib way of conversing with women. Andrea saw through him, but would Nancy? Oh, he would undoubtedly charm his way out of any accusation Andrea made against him, make no mistake.
So if he did show up again, she was going to have to grin and bear it, Andrea thought with a groan of frustration. In the next instant, however, she switched from frustrated to furious. She might have to bear Keith’s presence until he grew bored with the little game he was playing, but she didn’t have to be nice to him and she was not going to be! He’d catch on. He might be a pain in the neck but he wasn’t stupid. He’d get tired of being ignored very quickly.
Feeling much better, Andrea pulled into her garage, got out of the car and went into the house. Deciding that she needed something to take her mind off of Keith, she prepared some lunch then sat at the glass-topped kitchen table with a pad and pen. She had always enjoyed planning a dinner party, and by the time she finished eating she had five names on her pad, along with the start of a wonderful menu.
Since this was an impromptu affair for the coming Friday evening, she phoned her friends rather than send written invitations, which was a nicety to which she normally adhered. Delighted that everyone accepted on such short notice, Andrea fluffed out the skeleton menu with some especially delicious side dishes, added two desserts, one made completely of fresh fruit and the other a decadently rich strawberry mousse served in a flaky pastry crust.
She occupied herself for another thirty minutes with a grocery list, which she would fill on Friday afternoon, then sat and stared blankly through one of the tall, undraped windows that framed the splendor of her yard on three sides of the kitchen’s dining nook. A wide overhang shaded every window in the house, which allowed Andrea to leave curtains, shutters, drapes and blinds open, if she wished.
But she wasn’t enjoying the view of evenly trimmed grass and symmetrically perfect beds of flowers as she ordinarily did. She felt blue and lonely, she realized unhappily, and even anticipation of Friday’s dinner party—already a success because everyone had eagerly accepted her invitation—couldn’t dispel the terrible aloneness gnawing at her.
The sensation frightened and then angered her, because feeling like the last rose of summer was not her fault. Something she’d been fighting against believing was suddenly too clear and real to thrust aside any longer: Keith had, for some unknown reason, decided to become a part of her life again. Just how far he wanted to take this new and extremely perturbing admiration of her she could only guess at, but she could hardly assume he only intended them to be on friendly speaking terms when he’d kissed her at the first opportunity. So what did he want, an affair?
Andrea’s stomach began churning in alarm. An affair was so…so…well, it was something she’d never done and just the thought of making love with Keith made her feel shaky and weak. Actually she suddenly felt like going to bed and hiding again, as she’d done yesterday, but she told hers
elf to stop it at once. You cannot run to your bedroom every time Keith and what he might want from you pops into your silly head!
Feeling like a total mess—a rare sensation for Andrea—she dragged herself to her feet and forced herself to clear away the dishes she’d used for lunch.
The next morning Keith was back. Andrea felt her knees go weak when he strolled into the classroom as though he owned the school, the town and all of Texas. No one could ever say that Keith Owens lacked self-confidence, which, at the moment, didn’t make her like him any better.
But, sad to say, even while disliking him intensely—or telling herself she did—she felt his magnetism even more than she had at the ball. And she’d let him kiss her that night! How far might she let him go?
Shaking her head to rid her brain of such nonsense, Andrea went on with the story she’d been reading before Keith’s interruption. It was about frogs and turtles and a small boy on a farm, a sweet, well-written little story that the children had been enthralled with before Keith walked in. Now they were more interested in the big man sitting on the tiny chair at the back of the room.
Andrea said in the gentle way she spoke to her class, “Children, look at me, please.” The little faces turned to her again. “Mr. Owens, unfortunately, was not allowed to attend nursery school when he was your age, and he came here yesterday and again today to learn all of the lovely things you are learning. But we shouldn’t stare at him, should we? Staring is very impolite. Just think of him as another classmate…a much taller classmate, of course…but one who is about the same age as you are. Can you do that?”
Keith almost burst out laughing. Andrea’s putting him in his place, cutting him down to size for intruding on her class, had surprised him. He gulped back waves of rolling laughter and decided again that he had to bring them together. Hell’s bells, their past was so long ago it shouldn’t matter to either of them now. They hadn’t parted on friendly terms, true, but this was another lifetime. She was an intelligent woman, and while she was obviously wary of his intentions, she couldn’t possibly still be holding a grudge after so many years.
“I’m five,” a small boy boasted proudly.
“Not yet, Jason,” Andrea said with a warm smile. “Next month, I believe? Yes, I’m sure of it. Your birthday is in July and then you will be five. Class, would you like to hear the rest of the story?”
“Yes,” the tots all shouted.
“Very well.” Andrea began reading again. At times during the story she was so aware of Keith’s eyes on her that the fine hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She had to stop him from coming here, but how? What could she possibly do that would chase him off, yet appear sensible and necessary to anyone else?
After recess, Keith disappeared again, and Andrea breathed more easily for the remainder of the morning. After parents or nannies had picked up the children, she put away toys and books to tidy her classroom then gathered her purse and left the building. Another teacher walked out with her and remarked on the great weather they were having.
Andrea smiled and agreed. They stopped and chatted for a few minutes about their individual classes and the children they were teaching—there were always anecdotes to relate to other teachers at the school—then they went in different directions to reach their vehicles in the parking lot. Andrea could feel her face turning crimson when she spotted Keith leaning against the back of her car, but she wasn’t sure if her high, hot color was caused by anger or by a large spurt of adrenaline associated with unexpected, instantaneous and extremely shocking sexual awareness.
You’ve lived a celibate life far too long a time if just the sight of Keith can do this to you. And you thought you had every phase of your life under control, you…you dolt. Pull yourself together this instant! Don’t you dare humiliate yourself by letting him know how strongly he affects you. He’s already unbearably full of himself. Don’t give him more fuel to feed his massive ego, for goodness sake!
Andrea’s cheeks might be pink, but the expression on her face could not have been frostier when she walked past Keith without a word and unlocked the driver’s door of her car.
“Good afternoon to you, too,” Keith said teasingly while ambling toward her.
She whirled on him. “You know something? I’m glad you hung around today because there are a few things I’d like to say to you.”
Keith nodded. “Good, glad to hear it. I’ve got a whole bunch of things I’d like to say to you, too, but how about us talking over dinner tonight? We could go to Claire’s, or to any other place you’d like. We could even drive to Midland, if you prefer.”
“If I prefer? If I prefer? You…you…” She stopped her furious outburst and took a calming breath. After a moment she said, “Please listen to me. I don’t know why you suddenly decided to annoy me by intruding on my classroom, but…”
Keith broke in. “Andrea, the answer to that couldn’t be easier. I wanted to see you. It’s as simple as that.”
“Do you actually believe that becoming an irritating pest is going to make me like you?”
“Are you saying you don’t like me? Andrea, you like everyone. Or you used to. You’ve become a snob of course, so I guess that changes things, but you have no reason to dislike me.”
“No reason? You obviously have a conveniently selective memory, nice for you but selfish as all get-out for everybody else.”
“Andrea, I’ve never been selfish with anything,” Keith said, because he could see that Andrea was just barely managing to keep her temper in check. In fact the blazing blue light in her eyes truly surprised him; he believed that time healed wounds, real or imagined, big or small, and God knows, eighteen years was a long time.
“Do you actually believe that?” she demanded with astonishment.
“Yes…I do. Look, I realize now that getting the two of us back together isn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought. Or hoped. You’ve obviously got resentments to put to rest, but don’t you realize nothing will be put to rest for either of us if we don’t try? Have dinner with me. Lay your cards on the table. Andy, take the first step with me.”
“Oh, Lordy,” she whispered, turning her face away to avoid seeing the plea in his dark eyes. Gathering her courage, she looked at him again. “I have no cards, nor do you. Any step I would take with you would detour my life into unknown territory that I do not wish to explore. It may be impossible for you to understand, but I have not been living an unhappy existence. My life is full and I’m a contented woman. Or I was. You seem to be doing your level best to upset my personal applecart, and if I resent anything about you, Keith, it’s that. Now, please leave me alone.”
She got in her car, started the motor, checked to make sure he’d moved out of the way, then backed out of her parking place and drove away.
Try as she might, she could not rid her mind of the look on his face when she’d delivered her final statement. Had it been cruel? No, she decided, not cruel, merely honest.
After all, how much pussyfooting could a woman do around a man she didn’t want? Even if he does fan old, all-but-forgotten embers back to life? Especially if he fans old embers back to life, she thought adamantly. A fiery affair at her age was unthinkable. She was a lady, for God’s sake, not a…a…
She stopped that thought before it got out of hand because she could not condemn women for making love. That sort of thing just wasn’t for her; that was really all there was to it.
That philosophy did raise one question, however. If the man pursuing her with such determination weren’t Keith Owens, would she be less strict about her personal code of ethics and morality?
Keith called a meeting at the club late that afternoon. When everyone had arrived and gone to one of the private rooms, Jason said as they got settled, “Something must have happened.”
“Nothing conclusive,” Keith replied. “Yet. But I’ve been going through Eric’s computer with a fine-tooth comb and I found one totally unidentifiable file. There’s nothing in it but numbers.�
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“Rob missed that?” Jason said, looking surprised.
“Rob did a darned good job, Jason. This particular file is not in any way connected to Eric’s personal journal. It was and is attached to an accounting file and is obviously written in some sort of code. I printed it out so y’all could have a look at it.” Keith went into the briefcase he’d brought and stashed next to his chair and came out with a sheaf of papers, which he passed around.
Sebastian spoke first, after studying the pages of numbers. “Is this a crackable code, Jason? With your CIA background, you must know something about codes.”
“Any code is crackable,” Jason said. “But not always easily nor by just anybody. We might be able to figure it out ourselves, or we might not. Should we bring in an expert?”
“I think we should give it a try first,” Will said. “What do y’all think?” he asked, including every man in the circle of chairs in his question. “We’re not cryptographers, but neither are we stupid. It’s possible that we might make some sense out of this. And we’ve only used outside help in the past when absolutely necessary. If we’re to maintain our practice of total privacy, we should only call on outsiders as a last resort.”
“Will’s right,” Keith said. “I’d like each one of you to study those numbers and see if they make any sense. I’ve already thought of bank account numbers, but that idea was easily disproved. I believe it’s a numerical code, with numbers representing letters or words or something else that can be transposed into words.”
“Eric was a damned good accountant,” Sebastian said, “but this is a pretty complex code…”
“Yes, I know what you mean,” Keith said thoughtfully. “But, Sebastian, what’s accounting if not numbers?”
Four
Keith sat in his favorite chair in the den, sipping an excellent cognac and staring into the gas-log flames of the fireplace. The fire wasn’t needed for heat nor was it throwing enough to notice, but Keith enjoyed dancing flames with his cognac and troubled thoughts.
The Bachelor Takes a Wife Page 5