by Modean Moon
"How on earth did you come up with a name like that?" Janice sputtered.
"Ask Dani," Nick said, grinning wickedly.
Janice turned to Dani expectantly, but Dani flushed and became suddenly interested in studying the pattern on the stoneware mug she held. "Oh, no," she said softly. "I refuse to take any more responsibility for that well than I already have."
Nick's laugh rang through the room, and he hugged her closer to his side. "Dani staked the well," he told Janice and his mother.
Thoroughly embarrassed, Dani searched for a topic of conversation not related to her. "Have you ever seen a location built?" she asked. "It's fascinating the way the bulldozer operator leveled the ground just by looking at it and deciding where to make his cuts. I would have thought he'd need levels or sextants or at least stakes, but he just did it." A thought lodged and she pursued it. "Nick, what will happen to that location after you finish drilling? Will you seed it with grass, or will you just leave it raw?"
"Are you still worrying about that poor overgrazed pasture?" he asked indulgently.
"Yes," she admitted.
"Dani almost took me to task about the surface owner's neglect of the property," he explained. "I think if she had her way, all my locations would have irrigated, manicured lawns and picket fences with climbing roses on them."
"Well?" Dani said indignantly.
He laughed softly. "I'll reseed the location regardless of what happens, but if we make the well I'm hoping for, you just tell me what color to paint the fence and what color roses to plant."
"Enough!" Mrs. Sanders said, holding her side and attempting to regain some composure. "You two go find the boys."
"What is it, Mom?" Nick teased. "Time for your show?"
Janice went off into another fit of laughter before confirming his suspicions. "She's missed it three days in a row, Nick."
In the flurry of laughter and parting comments, Nick opened a many-windowed door and guided Dani out onto the stone breakfast terrace and on down the meandering stone steps.
She sighed contentedly and slipped her arm around his waist. How foolish of her to have been frightened of this meeting. She leaned close to him, reassured by her welcome.
"Nick?" she murmured.
"What?" He rubbed his hand up and down her arm, drawing her closer to him. She could hear the lap of water plainly now, combined with bird calls and the stirring of leaves above her.
"You're a lot like your mother," she said. "But she's so small. Do you take after your father?"
His hand tightened convulsively on her arm. "I look like him," he said in a voice devoid of laughter. "That's all."
What had she said to trigger such a change in him? She started to pull away from him, to look up at his face, when Janice's voice interrupted.
"Send Timmie to the house, will you?" she called from the terrace. "He won't like it, but it's time for his nap."
Nick waved in agreement and turned to Dani with a sad half smile that seemed to plead for understanding. "My father died when I was twelve," he said. "It took me years to sort out the way I felt about it. Sometimes, even now, I have trouble accepting my feelings."
"Which are?" Dani asked softly, his need causing her to break her own rule of not asking anything that would lead him to think he had the right to question her.
Nick half turned from her, thrust his hands into the hip pockets of his jeans and stood staring over the now visible lake. He spoke softly, but firmly. "That it was the best thing that ever happened to this family."
He looked back at her, studying her for any reaction. A thousand questions hammered at her, but she could voice none of them—she had asked too much already. He stood so still, waiting—waiting for her to condemn his thoughts? Ridicule his feelings? She could never do that. Silently she went to him and slipped her arms around him, resting her head on his chest. She wasn't sure whether she was comforting the man Nick had become, or the defiant little boy he had been, but she knew that one, or both, needed comfort.
She held him until she felt him draw a deep breath and then she turned her face to his. He crushed her to him as his mouth descended. They clung together, taking from each other, giving to each other the comfort each needed. At least, in that precious moment, that was how it seemed to Dani, that while Nick had no way of knowing her hidden pain, he shared his strength with her while drawing on hers.
"Hey! Are you two going to stand there necking all day?" This time the voice, a masculine one, came from below them. "Or are you going to help me catch dinner?"
They pulled away from each other reluctantly, and Nick grinned lopsidedly at her before calling down toward the lake. "No! And no!"
"Just what does that mean?" the voice called back.
Nick took her hand and hurried her down the remaining steps. A younger, shorter version of Nick waited for them at the bottom. Dani watched as the two men embraced, and then she was hauled into a bear hug by the waiting man.
"You're Tim," she said when he released her.
"How'd you know?" he said, grinning.
"Lucky guess." She laughed.
There was the sound of running footsteps from the dock and a blur as a whirlwind passed her and hurled itself at Nick. "Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick!"
Nick caught the boy and swirled him aloft. Dani watched in amazement, her head swirling almost as fast as the young boy. My goodness, but they were a touching family, embracing, hugging, reaching out to pat one another—so different from the sterile, emotionless couples who had raised her.
The boy, again on his own feet, tossed back the dark brown hair from his forehead and glanced at her obliquely with hazel eyes before advancing on her, his hand outstretched. "I'm Timothy Daniel Sanders, Jr. I'm seven years old and I live in Los Angeles, California. Who are you?"
Dani choked back a laugh and matched his seriousness, extending her hand. "I'm Dani Simms—"
"Danny?" he interrupted before she could decide just how much more information he would require. "I thought you were going to be a boy. I don't suppose you'll be playing baseball with us now, will you?"
Dani had to smile as Nick swooped down on the boy and turned him toward the house. "That's almost the same reaction I had when I met her, Timmie," he said, chuckling, "but, no, she won't be playing baseball with us now, and we won't be playing baseball now, because your mother wants you at the house now."
Timmie looked up at him in disgust. "Nap?"
Nick nodded seriously.
"I guess if I stayed you'd just talk grown-up talk anyway, wouldn't you?"
Nick nodded again.
"In that case, I'll humor her." He trudged up the first few steps. "But not for very long. I'll be back real quick for baseball."
Dani waited until he was out of hearing range before letting her laughter bubble forth. "He's only seven?"
Tim joined her laughter. "He was born a little old man. Sometimes he plays at being a kid just to keep up appearances, but he never really convinces us. Come on. I've got a cooler of beer over here and some extra fishing tackle."
Dani politely refused the offer of fishing tackle but accepted the cold beer as she settled onto the end of the fishing dock and let her legs dangle over the water. Nick sat down beside her, between her and his brother, and popped the top on his can of beer.
"Aren't you going to help?" Tim asked Nick.
"Nope. Told you I wouldn't," Nick said as he sipped his beer.
"You mean you're going to make me catch the whole dinner?"
"You wouldn't want me to spoil your reputation as a mighty hunter by catching more fish than you, would you?" Nick teased. "Go ahead. You can impress the women today with your prowess. I'm just going to enjoy myself."
They joked back and forth for several minutes before Tim invited Dani into the conversation.
"Where did you take your degree?" he asked.
"Oklahoma City University," she said before thinking.
"Night school?"
"Yes."
&n
bsp; "That's a hard way to go," Tim said sympathetically.
"It was the only way I could go," Dani answered, not letting herself reflect too long on the years of working and going to school and… She took a long drink from the can she held.
"I hear that," Tim told her. "If it hadn't been for big brother's checkbook, I'd have had to do the same thing."
Tim reached into the cooler and drew out another beer, offering it to Dani. She shook her head, but he insisted. "One more won't hurt."
She handed him her empty can and took the cold one. "I haven't done this since college," she said, sighing as she leaned back against a piling.
Tim offered another beer to Nick, who shook his head in refusal. Tim shrugged, opened the can for himself, and tossed the empties into a paper sack. They clinked as they hit other cans in the sack, and Dani noticed Nick's frown. Just then Tim's fishing line began whizzing and all their attention was drawn to the struggle he had to land his catch.
"That's it!" he said triumphantly as he managed to net the fish.
"You don't expect to feed us all with that one minnow, do you?" Nick asked in a drawl. "I'm not sure it's even big enough to keep."
"What are you talking about? It's two pounds if it's an ounce." Tim glared at Nick, but his eyes sparkled. He pulled a stringer of fish from the water and added the latest one to it. "Do you think this will be enough?" he asked gleefully.
"How many of those did Timmie catch?" Nick asked, still not apparently impressed.
"Four," Tim said and exploded into laughter. "I don't suppose you're going to help clean them either, are you?"
When Nick grinned and shook his head, Tim said, "I didn't think so, but it was worth a try. The outboard's operational if you want to go for a ride."
Tim left, still chuckling, and Nick moved closer to Dani, taking the untouched beer from her, draining its contents into the lake, tossing the empty can into the sack, and gathering her into his arms. "Do you want to go for a ride? I know a wonderful little cove," he said, nibbling at her cheek, "where we can have marvelous, absolute privacy."
Dani felt tendrils of delicious sensation uncurling in her stomach as she leaned toward him, turning to catch his tantalizing lips with her own. "But you came out here to be with your family," she murmured against his mouth.
"Mmmm," he said before silencing her.
Nothing existed for Dani but Nick as they hovered suspended between water and sky. She felt the sun warmed boards of the pier beneath her as he eased her down onto it, but only in contrast to the warmth of his body pressing against her and the heat she felt growing within herself. She moved closer, fitting their bodies more perfectly together, frustrated by the scraps of cloth that separated them, lost in the wonder of the sensations he never failed to evoke in her until, somehow, realization of where they were penetrated her drugged mind and she began drawing away from him. He protested, holding her more firmly, as his lips trailed temptingly from her mouth to her ear.
"Nick," she moaned, barely able to speak. "Best behavior for Mother."
"Right," he murmured as his mouth found the open throat of her blouse.
"Nick." She inched away from him, breathing heavily, wanting nothing more than to be able to continue. "Best behavior for Mother."
"Right," he said as his mouth again claimed hers, silencing her protests in a slow, resistance-destroying kiss.
"How do you breathe?"
Dani tore her mouth from Nick's and jerked her head toward the unexpected voice. Crouched on the pier, studying them intently, sat Timmie.
Her gaze flew to Nick's startled eyes, and she felt the blood rising to her cheeks.
"Is it really more fun than baseball?" Timmie asked.
Nick grinned at her sheepishly and then helped her to her feet. She stumbled against him, and he held her for a moment before ruffling the little boy's hair. "You'll know the answer to both of those questions soon enough, brat."
Nick's casual attitude, and the boy's acceptance of his answer, helped calm Dani's racing pulse as she tried to remember just how involved they had been and what the boy could have seen.
"Grown-ups sure kiss a lot," the boy said, shaking his head. "Mom and Dad do it all the time now."
"Do they really?" Nick asked. As Dani watched a satisfied smile break across his face, she rid herself of the residue of her embarrassment. It was obvious that Timmie had not been aware of the simmering undercurrents taking place on the pier.
"Timmie!" Tim's voice called from the top of the steps.
"Got to go now. I got out of my nap, but now I've got to clean the fish I caught. Dad just sent me down for the cooler."
As quickly as it had appeared, Nick's smile was replaced with a scowl. "Tell your Dad I'll bring the cooler," he said. "You go ahead and get started on those fish."
Dani declined Timmie's offer to teach her how to clean fish and joined Mrs. Sanders and Janice in the kitchen. There, to her surprise, the afternoon flew by as the three of them worked in harmony, shredding cabbage for slaw, preparing and assembling the ingredients for a hot German potato salad, and consuming gallons of coffee while they visited with the ease of old friends. When the men brought the fish, now transformed into fillets, into the kitchen, Nick's mother took her place at the stove, and Dani and Janice carried the food to the dining room and set the long mahogany table, gently chiding Nick and Tim for forcing them to spend the afternoon slaving over a hot stove. Nick's mother interrupted their spirited repartee when she arrived with the platters of golden fish and hush puppies, but only for a moment.
Dani was caught completely off guard when, once seated, the entire family sat with bowed heads while the older Mrs. Sanders said a brief prayer of thanksgiving.
Dani raised her head to find Nick grinning at her. Completely out of character with the past few moments, he winked broadly and then said in a voice loud enough to be heard around the table, "That's the last of the civilities. You'd better dig in if you want to get anything to eat, but watch out for flying forks."
"Nicholas!" his mother said in a shocked voice. "You'll have Dani thinking we're a bunch of savages."
Why, she's worried about what I'll think of her! The knowledge stunned Dani. She obviously wasn't the only one who had been concerned about this meeting, but for Nick's mother to be worried about what she would think…
She caught the older woman's troubled gaze. "Oh, no," she said, trying for the same light tone that had carried them through the afternoon. "I know that Nick has been properly housebroken"—she shot a wicked glance at him—"even if he sometimes acts as though he hasn't been."
The conversation flew around the table as the food was passed and consumed, and Dani joined in the light bantering as though it were something she were accustomed to. Only one thing marred the perfection of the meal, but perhaps if she hadn't been watching Nick so closely she wouldn't have seen his frequent frowning glances toward his brother. Tim, unlike the rest of them, had vetoed the idea of iced tea for a beverage and throughout the meal he managed to down a quantity of chilled white wine.
When the last hush puppy was finished, and Nick and Tim lighted cigarettes, Mrs. Sanders and Janice stood and began clearing the table. Dani rose to help them, but Mrs. Sanders stopped her.
"No, dear. You've done enough today. You go on into the den with the boys."
Janice joined her protest. "Everybody gets one time to be company with this family. Take advantage of it. Besides, you don't want to do Timmie out of his turn with the kitchen chores, do you?"
Nick hugged Dani against him. "Not if it means he won't be properly housebroken."
The room lay in darkness except for soft light from two discreet lamps. Dani caught her breath at the view of the skyline at night. She wandered contentedly to the wall of glass, Nick's arm securely about her, and leaned against him in silent communication as they watched the millions of artificial stars twinkling in the distance. Dimly she heard Tim moving at the other end of the room, but for now she and Nick were alone.
She looked up at him and found him watching her, all traces of harshness erased from the planes of his face.
The glow in his eyes warmed as she smiled up at him in appreciation for his gift of a perfect day.
"Share this with me, Dani."
And in those words she realized the answer to longings she she had not dared to acknowledge. She turned in his arms and this time she did not try to hide, even from herself, the anguish that she had for so long pushed back.
"It's not that I don't want to," she whispered, "but too much has happened… too much."
"Whatever—" he began, but he broke off as Tim approached them. She pulled away and turned to Tim, to silence Nick, she admitted to herself. She forced a smile for Nick's brother which turned to one of genuine amusement as she watched him trying to juggle three filled glasses.
Tim held his hands toward Nick. "Your scotch and water is the front one," he said. When Nick took the glass, Tim gestured toward a stemmed glass. "I didn't know what you wanted, Dani, but Janice swears by this cream sherry."
Following Tim's lead, the three of them walked across the room. Dani sank onto a low sofa, and Nick settled himself beside her, while Tim took a wing chair facing them.
Somehow the conversation turned to a discussion of the differences between the two fields of law which they practiced, with Dani attempting to explain how she felt about the exactness of title law, and Tim arguing for the excitement the human element added to labor law. Nick sipped his drink while he watched the interchange between them, and Dani, after one taste, only held hers, but Tim drank steadily. As the level in Tim's glass grew lower, the frown on Nick's face grew deeper.
When Tim finally emptied the glass and started purposefully across the room with it, Nick's voice erupted from him in a low roar. "Just where in hell do you think you're going?"
Dani, who had been watching his darkening mood, still did not expect the heat of his words. Tim, who had apparently not noticed anything to foreshadow Nick's reaction, was clearly stunned.
"To get another drink, Nick," he said calmly. "Why?"
"Why?" The words came out too clipped, too controlled. "Because you have been drinking steadily since before I got here this afternoon. That's why. Don't you think you've had enough?"