Scarlett Promise (The Scarletts

by Brenda Barrett

  She was eying Lisa with suspicion and envy.

  They seemed to be getting extra special attention because they were with Ricky.

  Lisa felt like laughing for no other reason than she was feeling giddily happy.

  And she got into the mode of things, talking and laughing with Ricky while a largely silent Madison watched them.

  And then Nathan Cross entered the restaurant, his tall frame almost in line with the low lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

  Lisa was surprised to see him. She had successfully put him out of her mind for the past half an hour or so but here he was, dressed all in black. Even the watch on his wrist was black. And he was cleanly shaven and looked delicious and rested. She only realized that he was with someone else when the maître d' stopped them at the entrance and he conferred with the shorter, stockier gentleman.

  Lisa turned from looking at Nathan and her eyes connected with Ricky's. He raised an eyebrow.

  Madison jumped up in excitement, startling both Lisa and Ricky.

  "Nate!" she waved to him in excitement.

  The guy that Nathan was standing with looked over at them and his eyes widened. He said something to the maître d' and almost dragged Nathan over to the table.

  "Hello, Mr. Mills," he gushed before Nathan or Madison could say anything.

  "Hey there." Ricky smiled benignly. "How are you?"

  "You may not know me but I am Bevon Bedward, with the Merlot McGregor Realtor team."

  "Bedward?" Ricky pretended as if his memory was perfectly fine. "Can't say I do, Bevon."

  "That's okay." Bevon smiled enthusiastically. "Though this is a small town, we have a tendency to be very private. Oh, sorry ladies." Bevon finally realized that there were others at the table. His eyes lingered on Lisa. "You could be family! You look a lot like my cousins, the Scarletts."

  Lisa smiled. "Oh well. I am Lisa Barclay. But you never know."

  Bevon shook her hand and then Madison's.

  "And this is Nathan Cross, the late Senator Cross' son." Bevon indicated to Nathan proudly. Bevon was obviously a name-dropper and very much pleased that he could be basking in the presence of the infamous senator's son.

  Nathan held out his hand to Lisa and she almost didn't take it. Ricky kicked her under the table and she jumped, slapping her fingers into his a little too hastily.

  And then his fingers closed over hers. They were warm; he had a callous on his thumb. She registered all of this in a split second before he removed it. Ricky invited them to join them at the table and said how sorry he was for Nate's loss.

  Nathan sat beside Lisa, much to the chagrin of Madison. The table had five chairs, so the extra places were quickly populated with drinking glasses and napkins and forks from busy waiters.

  Nate deliberately brushed his leg against Lisa's more than once, but every time he did it created a tingling that she had to rub her hands over to calm.

  It was her time to become silent while Madison sparkled.

  "Nate and I go way back," Madison told the table at large. "Since high school. I had a secret crush on him for years."

  Nate laughed but there was discomfort in it. Lisa liked to hear the discomfort; it meant that he didn't feel the same way about Madison and that her blurting out her crush on him caused him unease.

  "Nate and I go way back too," Ricky inserted. "Our parents were friends."

  "Ah." Bevon looked as if he was fit to burst with pride that he was sitting with the prestigious Ricky Mills and Nate Cross.

  Lisa looked at Nathan and found that he was already looking at her.

  Their eyes locked.

  Lisa had no idea if she had the strength to drag her eyes from his. Luckily, he looked away to respond to something that Ricky said.

  "So what brings you to Treasure Beach?" Ricky asked as their first course was served.

  They had ordered the same thing Lisa realized, chicken soup. The others had ordered beef. She didn't know if that was significant.

  "I am your neighbor, actually," Nate said. "I am trying to decide if I should continue with the sale of the house or keep it as a vacation rental. My dad listed last year and it's been on the market since."

  "Ah," Ricky nodded, "I see. I would say keep it as a rental and stay whenever you want a quiet vacation."

  "I am thinking about it." Nate nodded. "So are you living here permanently?"

  Ricky shrugged. "I am not sure. The jury is still out on that one."

  "And you, Lisa, do you live here?" He asked it low, intimately.

  But Ricky answered before she could. "Lisa goes where I go, at least for now."

  And that was the end of that. Lisa could feel his withdrawal after that definite declaration. She wondered if she should feel disappointed or not.

  Chapter Eight

  After nearly ten courses, Lisa was bursting. The company was good so far. Bevon was full of stories of the Treasure Beach area but she could not relax enough to totally enjoy herself, not with Nate sitting next to her.

  She was half expecting him to turn to her at any minute and ask, "Were you the whore who was at my father's house a couple of weeks ago?"

  He didn't. It was obvious that he didn't know that it was her.

  She took a deep breath and stood up.

  "Excuse me for a while, folks. I am going to check out the notice board in the lobby. It will give me a chance to exercise too, since I am stuffed."

  Everybody laughed.

  "You know what? I think I'll come with you." Nathan put down his napkin. "I could do with a walk before the dessert courses."

  Lisa didn't wait to see if he followed when she exited the dining room. She walked to the front of the building where the spacious lobby was and looked at the sculptures that were displayed there.

  She wandered over to the notice board and saw a sign: Photography Classes from the best couple in the business, Eva and Julius McNab. Learn from two professionals who have worked with Hollywood stars. Intense courses that will make you marketable. You will need your own camera!

  Lisa read it out loud a second time.

  She felt a tingling of anticipation at the thought. She could do something like that. She just needed a camera. Of course, she had no idea what to get.

  She backed away from the notice board and into a solid wall.

  "That's my profession, you know?" Nate murmured huskily.

  She swung around to look at him. He gave her a half smile. "Hey. It took me a while to find the lobby."

  She smiled shyly. "You wanted to see the notice board too?"

  Nate looked at her and then smiled. "Yes, right. I wanted to see the gorgeous notice board; isn’t she pretty?

  Lisa chuckled, forgetting that she was supposed to be apprehensive.

  "Those two, Eva and Julius, are really good at their craft," Nate said after she finished laughing.

  "You know them?" Lisa asked, looking back at the notice board with him.

  "Yes, I know them." Nathan grinned. "Good photographers tend to know of each other; we are like a community."

  Lisa looked at him. "Show-off."

  Nathan nodded. "Yes, I think I am a little bit."

  Lisa grinned. "Well, I think I want to join your community. I have always been interested in photography, especially food photography."

  "Then this is a good start." Nathan gestured to the lobby, "And here is a good place to start. You have access to some great vistas."

  "Mmm," Lisa said, feeling awkward again.

  He turned to her. "I took some pictures of you this evening."

  "You did?" Lisa gasped. "Why?"

  "Because you are very photogenic and I was on my balcony and there you were." Nathan pushed his hand in his pocket. "Just thought you should know that I invaded your privacy quite unintentionally."

  "I want to see them," Lisa said.

  "You are not mad?" Nathan asked.

  "No." Lisa shook her head. "A little flattered."

  "I should be the one flattered," Nathan
grinned. "At dinner you were copying my choice of courses."

  "No, I wasn't." Lisa grinned. "You were. You took all the options I did."

  Nathan grimaced. "And there I was thinking you were silently copying me."

  "Nope." Lisa laughed. "I wasn't."

  He looked at her intently and then shook his head. "So we like the same foods then?"

  "I guess."

  "I wonder what else we have in common?" Nathan asked. "It would be interesting to find out. So you want to show me around this compound?" Nathan indicated with his head.

  "I don't know the place that well." Lisa looked around the spacious lobby.

  "Interesting." Nathan narrowed his eyes at her. "So you haven't been around Treasure Beach that long, then."

  "No." Lisa frowned. "A little more than three weeks."

  "Let's go discover it together, then."

  Lisa shook her head.

  "Come on, I am harmless." Nathan smiled. "We are at your boss', er, friend's place. There is no need to feel afraid."

  Lisa sighed. "It’s not that..."

  "You two are lovers and he'll get jealous." Nate sighed. "I was hoping you weren't. Somehow, I didn't get the lover vibe between you two tonight, except for him saying where he goes you go."

  "We are not lovers and Ricky will not get jealous of me and there was no vibe because there is nothing between us," Lisa growled. "Come on, let's go discover or whatever." She stomped off in the direction of the beach end of the property.

  Nathan followed her silently. It didn't take him long to catch up to her. “I am sorry for jumping to conclusions. I won't do it again."

  Lisa took off her shoes and carried them in her hand, feeling the warm sand beneath her feet. "Fine."

  Nathan smiled at her in the half dark; she could see his white teeth flashing. "Very grudging acceptance of my apology."

  Lisa snorted. "It was an insulting subject." She changed the topic. "Is it a fun job— photography?"

  Nathan nodded.

  Lisa watched him as he formulated what to say to her. She was comparing him to the guy she had seen a couple of weeks ago when he had walked into the Portmore house. That night he had looked tired.

  Tonight he looked relaxed. His hair was trimmed low; a couple of nights ago it had looked much fuller. He seemed to favor black; he was dressed in black then too.

  "It's fun, and sometimes thrilling, like my trip to Africa. Sometimes sad—I hid behind the camera at my dad's funeral—and sometimes, happy, especially at weddings and baby photoshoots, which I don't do enough of anymore. My clients are more of the corporate types these days."

  His dad's funeral? Lisa felt a guilty stab in her chest when she thought about that.

  "How was your dad's funeral?" Lisa asked. Francine had gone to pay her respects. Ricky had relayed the information to her casually a few days later and that had been that.

  She had literally seen the man die before her eyes and that had been the sad footnote. She waited on Nathan to speak now.

  Instead he sighed and glanced at her.

  "My dad's funeral was filled with lies. Everybody spoke golden, flowery nonsense about him."

  "Ah," Lisa nodded. "That's to be expected. People usually don't speak ill of the dead."

  "Yep." Nathan chuckled. "It was also funny too. One of his, er...how should I put this...one of his special friends...she said her name was Candy Apple, decided to give a tribute in the open slot.

  “I had the first indication that it was not going to be a regular tribute because she was dressed very suggestively.

  “And I was right; she spoke glowingly of his long and effective member that gave her hours of pleasure."

  Lisa stiffened. "What?"

  "That's not even the worst part; two other special friends who said they had a song to sing went up to the mike. Before one of them sang though, she had to point out that Candy was either drunk or high because my dad's member was average at best but he made up for it with his money."

  Lisa gasped.

  "That was the congregation's response." Nathan smiled sadly. "My aunt almost fainted from shock. My older family members and Dad's conservative friends were very uncomfortable. Yes. It seems that all of his 'special friends' came out to pay their respects. Quite a few of them were in the church."

  Nathan snorted. "My dad was something else...I would never want anything to do with prostitution; to me it is so basic, so cold, so demeaning to the women."

  "Don't look so shocked." Nate stopped and touched her arm, misinterpreting her reaction. It was a good thing he was not a mind reader. "My dad was a virile sixty-seven year old man who had little to no boundaries reigning him in."

  "And you do?" Lisa asked huskily.

  "Very much so." Nathan shrugged. "Dad and I were like chalk and cheese in everything, it would seem. I grew up with my mom and stepdad, who are very conservative Christians. Some of that rubbed off on me. It's just funny how my mom got married to my dad. She was super conservative; he was the opposite."

  "It must have been love," Lisa murmured. "That sort of emotion tends to blind people for a while. Gives them a sense of hope that things will work out despite blatant unworkable differences."

  They reached a gazebo which marked the end of the property.

  "Quite so." Nate stopped, picked up a stone, and tossed it. He watched as it skipped over the water. "So tell me about you, Lisa Barclay."

  "Me?" Lisa squeaked the question and then cleared her throat. "You want to know what?"

  "Everything." Nathan grinned. "Since I just told you about my parents, you can tell me about yours."

  "Oh." Lisa dug her toes in the sand. "My father was a musician. He played for a band; he met my mother at Reggae Sumfest back stage. She was singing backing vocals for an artiste. They got together the same night. The condom broke.

  "Some well-meaning family member forced them to get married because there was a baby on the way; they did. Three months into the marriage they separated."

  Nathan nodded. "So you were an accident?"

  "Apparently." Lisa stretched. "I got that story from my grandmother. But I never felt like an accident or anything when I lived with my mom. I was with her till I was seven."

  "So where is she…your mom?" Nate was looking at her interestedly.

  "She died of a brain aneurysm." Lisa sighed. "My dad died before I was born. I heard he was riding a bike without a helmet. According to my grandmother though, I was never related to either of them and my real parents are floating somewhere in the world."

  "Your grandmother sounds like a ray of sunshine." Nathan came closer to her, too close. She could feel the fibers of his shirt. She looked up into his handsome features and swallowed.

  He held her gaze, staring at her intently. "How could anybody tell you that you are not wanted?"

  "I...I...don't know." Lisa swallowed.

  "I was thinking of going to Pelican Bar tomorrow; want to come?"

  "I was planning on working out tomorrow." Lisa inhaled shakily. His closeness was making her nervous. Even her eyes were starting to tick.

  "Carry your bathing suit." Nate shrugged. "We can swim there. I hear that people do it all the time."

  "Hey you guys." Madison walked up toward them rapidly. She was panting, her heaving breaths very audible from the few yards which separated them.

  "Ricky is looking for you, Lisa," Madison said, a drip of acid in her tone when she spoke to Lisa.

  Lisa finally stepped back and dragged her eyes from his. She felt weak and shaken, like they were doing much more than staring at each other and talking.

  "Goodnight then, Nate." Her voice was jumpy and sounded squeaky.

  "Night Lisa," Nathan murmured. He watched as she walked back up the beach.

  "You are playing with fire," Madison said huffily to Nate.

  Nate shrugged. "That's an apt analogy. Lisa is like fire, bright and glowing."

  "And deadly if left untended. Don't let her fool you," Maddie warned. "Somethin
g is not right about the whole situation with her and Ricky and..."

  Nate frowned at her.

  "Stop Madison, whatever we had between us four years ago was a mistake. I wasn't thinking straight that night. I am sorry, there is no hope of us ever resurrecting that again. Can we just be friends now? Do you think we can manage that?"

  "Because of her? This girl you met today?" Maddie choked up. "The housekeeper?"

  She spat the word housekeeper as if it were a disease. "Who is sleeping with her boss?"

  "She is not sleeping with Ricky and I don't care if she is a housekeeper or not. Why would that even be an issue?"

  "If she told you that she is not sleeping with Ricky she is lying. And you are right, she is a very unique housekeeper," Madison huffed, "a housekeeper who doesn't do any work!"

  "Stop it!" Nathan walked away and left Madison seething.

  ****

  Lisa woke up from her fitful nightmare-like dreams where she was in the Portmore house kissing Nate, who morphed into his father. She showered groggily. She was still of two minds about going to Pelican Bar with Nate. There were so many reasons why she shouldn't. She had almost been one of his father's 'special friends', a most shameful and repulsive time in her life.

  She should be working to forget it and not encourage a friendship/relationship/ whatever with Nate, but where on earth would she find someone who excited her so much ever again? She had liked him the first moment she saw him. She had spent the rest of her miserable night thinking about him, and now she had a chance to get to know him better. There was nothing stopping her from pursuing Nate.

  She put on her bathing suit under one of Francine's tie-dyed halter neck maxi dresses, combed her hair in a high ponytail and headed down the stairs.

  She found Ricky in the kitchen sitting around the nook, reading the paper. A wide cross-section of breakfast foods was displayed on the counter and food warmers were on a side table. It looked like a buffet style spread for at least fifty people.

  "Hey," Ricky said when she walked in the room.

  "Hey." Lisa sniffed the air. It smelled good. "Are you expecting a crowd?"