She began descending the stairs and was half way down when she realized to her horror that Jerry was standing at the bottom staring straight up her skirt! Her faced turned red and Jerry quickly turned away and began making his way to the kitchen. The incident made Ann very nervous and she wondered if he had been staring at her on purpose or if he’d done it inadvertently. Something told her that the former was the case but she hoped that she was wrong. Surely, she decided, Jerry wouldn’t purposely do something that childish When she joined him in the kitchen, Jerry smiled and said, “How about a little stroll through the grounds-if you’re not too tired, that is.”
Ann thought about it a moment. “Sure, why not?”
“Wonderful! And when we get back, I’ll prepare us some dinner. Do you by any chance like lobster?”
“Love it!” Ann said.
“I’m glad to hear that because I picked up a pair of fresh ones at the market yesterday along with a bottle of dry white wine. I toss a pretty mean salad, too.”
“Sounds scrumptious.”
Ann followed Jerry out the front door and zipped up her jacket when the chilly air greeted her. They began walking down the road toward the pond and by time they had reached it, Jerry had taken hold of her hand.
For the next half hour or so they sauntered leisurely around the grounds talking and taking in the quiet beauty of the autumn foliage. Jerry did most of the talking, telling Ann how much he loved it in the country and how he could just pack everything in and stay there forever. Ann could almost sense by his subtle hints that he was trying to sell her on the place, as if he wouldn’t mind it if she could someday join him and live happily ever after here in the middle of nowhere. She remained politely aloof, flattered by his little innuendoes and wondering at the same time how he could so easily forget that his wife had only recently passed away and how he could already be so fervent to start all over again with someone else.
By the time they headed back to this house, Ann found herself puzzled and a little taken aback by Jerry’s gradual change in demeanor. In the span of just thirty minutes, he had somehow become less a casual acquaintance and more like a man with a mission-a suitor trying to win her heart.
She wasn’t sure how to respond to all of this and she sensed that at some point Jerry Rankin was going to put her in a compromising position. He seemed to have suddenly forgotten their prior agreement-that she had no intentions of establishing a romantic relationship with him and that they were only seeing each other on a no-strings basis. Admittedly, she had come to like Jerry Rankin a great deal as a person and no doubt felt physically attracted to his suave good looks. But she didn’t love him and knew in the back of her mind that she never would. Jerry Rankin was simply a pleasant diversion from her otherwise unsettled life since breaking up with Sam, she now acknowledged, and she wondered how on earth she had let things go this far. How had she let herself go against her better judgment and encourage Jerry as she had?
Karen Whaley. She was one of the reasons. Karen had been Ms. Encouragement from day one, coercing her to get on with her life and have some fun. “Don’t let him slip through your fingers,” she had told her in her typical know-it-all tone of voice.
And then there was Shelley Hatcher. Wasn’t that really why she’d started going out with Jerry on a regular basis? Because Sam had started fooling around with Shelley again and she wanted to somehow get back at her ex-husband?
Just as they approached the house, another thought occurred to Ann: the romance novel that she had been reading. This was yet another reason why she had gone so far with this. She had let a silly romance story transform her into some kind of giddy schoolgirl! She quickly glanced down at her white mini skirt and funky Reeboks. Appropriate attire for a forty-year-old woman? Come on, Ann! She wanted to laugh out loud as she realized that she had not only let her waning youth get the best of her but she had been in a sense living vicariously thorough the heroine of that stupid romance novel all this time. Middle aged woman gets married, gives birth to child, gets divorced, moves away with child, meets tall, handsome stranger, has her doubts about “love on the rebound” but nevertheless gives it a shot, and eventually allows stranger to seduce her to his country retreat…
Jerry suddenly gave her hand a squeeze as they approached the porch. “Feeling hungry?” he asked.
“Famished,” she heard herself reply with a forced smile.
Ann felt a pang of guilt as they walked up to the door. Jerry was probably the most considerate man she had ever met and the last thing she wanted to do was to hurt him. He had done more for her in the relatively short period of time she had know him than she cared to admit to herself. Not only had he made her feel like a whole person again, but he had been there for her when she needed a man around the house and a shoulder to cry on. Plus he had helped to get her mind off of Marsha, if only for a little while at a time.
As Ann recalled her lifelong friend she felt a wave of sadness sweep throughout her entire body. She suddenly realized that Jerry had in a sense helped to fill that void left after Marsha’s death by merely entering her life and giving her something optimistic to look forward to. And, as selfish as it seemed, she’d found herself feeling much better after having learned that he too had recently lost a loved one-his wife. This discovery had all of a sudden made her feel less alone in the world and no doubt had helped establish a sort of common denominator between herself and Jerry.
Could Jerry Rankin have come along at a better time? she thought.
And had he not come along when he had, where would she be now? How could she have dealt with all of this turmoil without him?
She felt him let go of her hand as he opened the door and held it open for her. As she stepped inside, she realized that she owed Jerry a lot. And although she knew that she was going to have to end it between them soon before either of them got into this any deeper, she vowed to herself that she would let him down very gently and very gradually. It was the least she could do.
“Have a seat,” Jerry said when they entered the kitchen. “Would you like something to drink?”
Ann strode over and sat down on one of the stools at the mahogany bar that divided the kitchen from the dining area. “A glass of water, if you don’t mind.”
“Coming right up!” he replied jovially. Jerry went over to the one of the cabinets to get a glass, added ice and filled it with Evian. He handed it to Ann.
“Thanks,” she said.
They made small talk as Ann watched Jerry prepare a gourmet lobster dinner. An hour and two glasses of wine later, Ann caught herself staring at Jerry’s paintings on the wall again. There was something about them, the composition, the subjects themselves, something, that drew her curiosity. She knew that Jerry had noticed her staring over at them more than once but it was fairly evident that he didn’t wish to discuss them, or he would have said something. Ann wanted to ask him about two of the paintings in particular-although they were obviously abstract in nature, it appeared as though the women in both paintings were being observed by the viewer through an opening-a window in the first canvas and through a jagged hole of some kind in the second one. Both of these ‘objects’ constituted the foreground of the paintings creating the illusion that the women were in the distance beyond the respective openings. The impassive expression on their faces and the manner in which they were looking off to the side suggested that the women were totally unaware that the Observer was watching them-as though they were being peeped at. Voyeurism? Ann thought. Was that what Jerry was implying in the paintings?
“I have a surprise for you,” Jerry suddenly announced.
Ann flinched. She peered across the table at him.
“A surprise?”
He nodded. “But before I give it to you, you have to promise me that you’ll use it… tonight.”
Ann tried to imagine what it could be. What could he possibly give her that she could use tonight? she wondered.
“OK, I promise,” she said, playing along.
<
br /> Jerry stood up, smiled at her peculiarly then went over to the kitchen pantry and opened the door. A moment later he was back, carrying a gift-wrapped box. Before he handed it to her, he said, “Remember, you promised me that you’d use it tonight.”
“I know,” Ann said. “But you really shouldn’t have, Jerry.”
He smiled and handed her the box. Ann felt a little embarrassed and uncomfortable as she removed the ribbon and tore off the gift-wrap. She cast him a sidelong glance when she opened the box and saw what was inside: a lavender bikini swimsuit.
“Jerry! You tricked me! How on earth can I possibly use this tonight?”
He cocked his head in the direction of the Jacuzzi. “Right out there.”
“But Jerry…” Ann protested.
“You promised, remember?”
“Yes, but, I never dreamed-”
He placed a hand on her shoulder as his expression became serious.
“Listen, Ann. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course. I’m not really trying to put you on the spot. I honestly thought that you may want to try out the tub tonight, so I bought you the swimsuit as sort of an afterthought.” He snickered. “I knew you wouldn’t do it if you had nothing to wear! Anyway, it’s up to you. I’d just like to add that you’re not going to believe how relaxing it is out there with that soothing hot water loosening up those taut muscles. It’s like heaven.”
Ann smiled. “You don’t have to give me the hard sell, Jerry. I’ve been in a hot tub before.”
“Then you know how absolutely marvelous it is!”
Ann began fidgeting with the swimsuit, still in the box. “I’d love to, Jerry, but it’s getting late. I told Amy that I’d be home by ten o’clock and she may need me to pick her up at her friend’s house if she doesn’t decide to spend the night there.”
Jerry glanced at the wall clock and said, “It’s only seven now. We can hit the tub and have plenty of time to get you home by ten.”
Ann thought it over a moment. “All right, you win.”
She took out the swimsuit and looked it over. “It’s lovely, Jerry. I hope it fits. Where can I change?”
Jerry smiled broadly. “Up in the bedroom if you’d like. You won’t regret this-I promise! I’ll just change down here and get the tub ready in the meantime.”
Ann couldn’t help but smile to herself at Jerry’s boyish enthusiasm. He was acting like a little kid who had just gotten that baseball glove he’d wanted so much for his birthday.
“Okay, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said, getting up from the table.
Once inside Jerry’s bedroom, Ann took the swimsuit into the master bath and began removing her clothes. She didn’t know if it was the two glasses of wine or her not wanting to disappoint Jerry that prompted her to agree to this rather odd idea. But the more she though about it, the more she realized that she was actually looking forward to it. It was all quite harmless, really, and besides, she had always been crazy about hot tubs. In fact, she and Sam had owned one and she used to literally spend hours soaking in it whenever she felt tense or just plain wanted to relax and read a good book. Ann suddenly realized just how much she had missed it in all this time since they had sold the house.
Ann laid her clothes in a neat pile on the floor and slipped into the suit. It fit perfectly. As she looked in the mirror at her lily-white skin, she suddenly wished she had known she was going to be wearing a bathing suit in October and she would have paid a visit to the tanning salon. Oh well, she thought. At least the suit did her body justice in the way it clung perfectly. She marveled at Jerry’s taste in choosing the suit. Not only was she fond of lavender, her favorite color, but the suit fit as if it had been custom tailored for her.
Ann straightened up her hair a little and started to leave but stopped herself, realizing that she was going to feel a bit odd going back downstairs to face Jerry practically naked. She grabbed a bath towel off the rack and draped it over her shoulders.
On the way out of the bedroom, something caught her eye and Ann froze in her tracks. There was a small portion of clothing sticking out from between the sliding closet doors that looked familiar. She went over, slid open the door and saw the sleeve of the very same jacket Jerry had worn the night before. It was hanging up along with an entire wardrobe of clothing; a wardrobe that seemed just a little too extensive to be stowed away at one’s weekend retreat. She quickly rifled though the clothes and recognized two of the shirts she’d seen Jerry wear since she’d first met him. Something now puzzled her: why had he spent last night here instead of at his home in Dublin? The jacket all but proved that he had.
She slid the door closed. Either Jerry was merely leading her to believe that he spent little time in this fully stocked, fully furnished country hideaway or he was flat out lying to her. This place not only had that same lived in feeling that any other full time residence emanated but no one in this right mind would store their entire wardrobe at a location that was over an hour and a half drive from where they lived and worked.
Did Jerry Rankin even own a home in Dublin?
She had never once driven by to see his house in all this time – she had never felt any reason to…
A thought suddenly occurred to her and she began feeling foolish. She had phoned Jerry twice and both times he had answered the phone. The number she’d dialed had been the local number he had listed on his business card. Placing a call out here in God’s country would most certainly have been a long distance call, if he even had a phone here. Ann couldn’t recall seeing a phone during her grand tour.
A cellphone… That would explain some of this She shrugged. Why was she suddenly being so suspicious of Jerry Rankin? This is ridiculous! she thought. And what difference did it make if he had spent the night here last night? It wasn’t any of her business, anyway.
Ann turned and left the bedroom. When she reached the first floor, she saw Jerry out in the solarium kneeling down and fiddling with the controls for the hot tub. He was wearing a pair of jockey-style bathing trunks. She slid the door open and stepped out into the solarium.
Jerry glanced over at her expectantly. “How do you like the suit? Let me see it!”
Ann smiled bashfully before removing the bath towel from her shoulders.
“It looks wonderful!” Jerry exclaimed, eying her from head to toe. “Lord, Ann, you sure have one gorgeous body!”
Ann wasn’t sure why she blushed, but she did.
“Thanks,” she replied.
She suddenly felt stark naked as she noticed Jerry’s eyes scrutinizing her body-something he did without reserve or hesitation. Ann felt the impulse to cover herself up but managed to stifle it. Jerry shut the door panel and walked over to her. When she saw how tanned and muscular Jerry looked in his brief bathing suit, Ann began feeling a little less self conscious about her own near nakedness but at the same time wished to Christ her skin wasn’t so damn bone-white.
Jerry reached down and skimmed his hand over the water.
“Ah, just right! I brought out our wine as well-just in case we get thirsty.”
Ann glanced over at the wine bottle and decided that a little more wine might get her a little more in the mood for this.
“It’s a little chilly in here,” she declared, pouring herself a glass.
Jerry followed suit. “Normally it isn’t this cool in here during the day. But once that sun goes down, it does get a bit nippy this time of year. The water is good and warm, though!”
Ann smiled, took a sip and looked around. It was dark as pitch outside now but the solarium was bathed in a warm glow from the tiny track lights mounted strategically along the perimeter of the structure. There was a cozy, almost surreal atmosphere created by the dim lights, the potted tropical plants and the steady low hum of the motor as it churned the chlorinated water around in the tub. She took another sip and soon felt her longing to soak in the hot tub return.
She set her glass down resolutely and eyed Jerry. “Let’s go in
!”
Jerry nodded and made a gesture for Ann to get in first, which she did. The water was just right as she waded over to one of the seats and eased herself down into the hot, swirling water.
“It feels wonderful!” she gushed.
Jerry plopped down beside her. “Absolute heaven!”
“This was a great idea, Jerry,” Ann declared, leaning her head back and staring up at the night sky through the glass ceiling.
“I had a feeling you would approve.”
Ann closed her eyes, feeling the warm pulsating jets of water rushing against her body. She had always enjoyed long baths for as long as she could remember-so soothing and relaxing at times that she would sometimes actually allow herself to drift off to sleep. She recalled a particular evening while she was in high school that she had actually fallen asleep for a full hour before a noise outside the bathroom window had suddenly awoken her. She had been grateful for the “wake-up call” because she’d had a final to take the following morning and hadn’t yet begun studying for it.
She heard Jerry stand up and opened her eyes. “I’m getting my wine-would you like yours?”
“Yes, please,” she replied, watching the rivulets of water rolling down Jerry’s shaved. muscular chest.
He winked at her and stepped out. Ann heard the clinking of glasses as he poured some more wine.
“Here,” he said, handing her glass to her.
“Thanks,” she said, taking a sip.
Jerry suddenly placed his hands on her shoulders and faced her. “Are you having a good time?”
She gazed into his smoldering green eyes, which were staring at her imploringly from his handsomely chiseled face.
“Very nice,” she replied.
He leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. “I’m very happy to hear that.”
For a fleeting moment Ann thought that he was going to embrace and kiss her again and she almost wished he had. But instead, he removed his hands, smiled and eased himself down into the tub. She looked on as he fully submerged himself underwater for a moment, stood up and ran his hands through his thick blonde hair and sat down beside her. Leaning back, he closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, staring pensively at the ceiling. Ann could sense that he wanted to tell her something but hadn’t yet gotten the nerve up to follow through with it. She didn’t know why she had this feeling-maybe it was because of the way he had looked at her a moment ago. He had seemed nervous, tentative, as though he wanted to pour out his heart but had decided that the moment wasn’t yet quite right.
The May Day Murders Page 27