“Come on, Harlan,” she murmured, starting off, her hand still on his arm. He willingly walked across the room with her. Cade followed on their heels, his skepticism so strong the air was thick with it.
She led Harlan through the connecting door, and he happily crawled into bed and curled up under the blankets. When he closed his eyes she glanced at Cade. He was staring at Harlan and didn’t notice her looking, so she let her eyes linger.
The light from the bedside lamp was playing over his near-naked body, painting planes and hollows in all the right places. And undressed, he was even more attractive than he was dressed. Broad shoulders, a flat stomach and lean muscles everywhere they should be. It made her wonder if he worked out, in addition to the physical labor he did on his company’s projects.
Then he unexpectedly looked at her, and she felt her face flush. Not only had he caught her watching him, but now he was staring at her exactly the same way she’d been staring at him. And it was hardly surprising. She wasn’t exactly fully dressed herself. She tugged on the bottom of her nightshirt, but that only made the silk cling more tightly to her breasts.
Cade finally looked away, grabbing a bathrobe off the floor beside his bed and saying, “Shouldn’t we wake him up? Find out what the hell the deal is?”
“No. It’s hard to wake a sleepwalker. And he wouldn’t remember what happened, anyway.”
“He would if he’s not a sleepwalker,” Cade whispered. He shoved his arms into the sleeves of his robe, then nodded toward the still-open door between their rooms. “Let’s go. I want to get away from Sleeping Beauty and talk to you.”
He hustled her back into her own room and closed the door, saying, “I don’t like this. Never mind just being a weirdo, Harlan’s as crazy as a loon.”
“Cade, the man was sleepwalking.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Well…yes,” she murmured, easing her way over to where her robe was lying.
“You don’t sound very sure to me.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure.” She shrugged into the robe and tied it tightly around her. “If he wasn’t he knows exactly what a sleepwalker looks like. Plus, he’s an awfully good actor.”
Cade eyed her dubiously.
“It’s not that rare a disorder. It also doesn’t mean he’s crazy.”
“No? Well what if he is just an awfully good actor? And what if he was the guy in the hall tonight? If he was, then he was trying to get in here so he could scare the blazes out of you again. Or…or who the hell knows what he had in mind this time?”
Talia tried to think. There was no denying Cade might be right. She had no way of knowing if Harlan was actually a sleepwalker or not. Unless…
“I’m going to phone his mother,” she said.
“What?”
“I’m going to get the number from information, then I’m going to phone his mother.”
Cade glanced at her bedside clock. “Talia, it’s after two in the morning.”
“Which means I’ll frighten her half to death and she’ll hate me for not having waited until morning. But we’ve got to know the truth. At least I’ve got to know it. And I want to talk to her before Harlan has a chance to.”
THE WOMAN WHO ANSWERED the phone sounded both anxious and groggy.
“Mrs. Gates?” Talia said.
“Yes?”
She nodded to Cade, who was sitting on the other love seat watching her. “Mrs. Gates, my name is Talia Sagourin. I feel dreadful about waking you in the middle of the night, but I’m on the Carpaccio jury with Harlan. I’m calling from the Bride’s Bay Resort.”
“Oh, no,” she whispered. “What’s happened to him?”
“Nothing. He’s fine. Perfectly fine. And I really am sorry to bother you like this, but we had a small…problem a few minutes ago.,”
“A problem?”
“Yes. Mrs. Gates, is Harlan a sleepwalker?”
“Oh, dear, oh, dear. Was he sleepwalking in the hotel?”
“Yes, he was.”
“What did she say?” Cade whispered. “Is he?”
Talia nodded a relieved yes. Whatever else Harlan might have been up to tonight, he hadn’t climbed over the wall to her balcony for any nefarious purpose.
“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Gates said again. “I was afraid of this. He didn’t cause any trouble, did he?”
“No, not really. My room is next to his and he…came to my door. But I’m the only one he disturbed. Then I woke the man he’s sharing a room with, Cade Hailey.”
Cade rolled his eyes and Talia smiled at him. Harlan had come to her door. What was there to gain by telling his mother it had been her balcony door? Or that she’d awakened Cade by screaming like a banshee?
“Yes, yes,” Mrs. Gates was saying. “Talia and Cade. Harlan talked about both of you while the trial was going on. But you’re sure he’s all right?”
“He’s fine, Mrs. Gates. I just wanted to know if there’s anything in particular we should be doing.”
“No. Just get him to go back to bed and he’ll probably be okay for the rest of the night.”
“Well, we’ve already got him back to bed. But what about after tonight? Is there any way of preventing it from happening again? Any specific thing that triggers the problem?”
“Yes, but there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s having to sleep in a strange bed. His doctor says it’s something to do with anxiety. And being away from home makes him anxious.”
“Ah. I see.”
“The only other thing we’re sure causes it…You don’t happen to know if he had anything to drink earlier, do you? Alcohol, I mean?”
“I think he had a beer or two with some of the other jurors.”
“Oh, dear, oh, dear. He knows better than to drink. I guess he just wanted to be one of the boys, though. If the others were drinking, I mean.”
“Yes, I imagine that was it.”
Mrs. Gates sighed loudly. “You know, Harlan’s never been in a speck of trouble his entire life. And I’d hate for him to get into any because he’s on that jury doing his civic duty.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Mrs. Gates. And now that we know about his sleepwalking, Cade will be able to keep an eye on him.”
“Damn right I’ll keep an eye on him,” Cade whispered.
“Well, knowing that makes me feel a little better. But I’m sorry he disturbed your sleep, Talia. And tell Cade that, as well, would you?”
“I will. And I’m sorry I disturbed your sleep, Mrs. Gates. Good night.” Talia hung up and looked at Cade again.
“You don’t think she was lying, do you?” he asked. “I mean, if he’s not a sleepwalker, the minute you asked about it she’d have realized he’d been up to something.”
“No, I don’t think she was lying. Most people have no idea what causes sleepwalking, but she did. And she knew the specific things that make Harlan do it.”
“Which are?”
“Being away from home, for starters. But tonight was a triple whammy. First he was in the bar drinking, which he’s apparently not supposed to do. Then he came back to the room and we upset him with our accusations. Then he had to sleep in a strange bed.”
“So the sleepwalking was definitely for real,” Cade said. “But we still can’t be sure about earlier. About whether he was the guy in the hall.”
“No…but his mother said he’s never been in a speck of trouble.”
“She’s his mother, Talia.”
“True, but we know he can’t have any sort of criminal record. If he did he wouldn’t have been eligible for jury duty.”
When Cade said nothing more Talia simply sat watching him, suddenly struck by the domesticity of the scene. She and Cade sitting together in their bathrobes in the middle of the night. It started her imagining what it would be like to be alone with him in the middle of the night because they’d planned it.
He was rubbing his fingers slowly back and forth on his jaw, clearly lost in thought, and she realized it w
as the first time she’d seen him needing a shave. It made him look even more masculine. And even more appealing.
She could almost feel that stubble. Feel the rough growth of beard against her fingertips…the granite hardness of his jaw beneath her hand…the warmth of his mouth on hers.
“I wish we knew for sure,” he said.
His words jolted her back to reality. “You mean about Harlan? Whether it was him in the hall?”
Cade nodded.
“It seemed perfectly obvious earlier,” she said slowly. “But after he denied it so emphatically…”
“He even told me we both owed him an apology— for accusing him.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. Before he turned in. He said his mother always says people should never go to bed mad.”
“That’s good advice,” Talia murmured, smiling a little. “So did you apologize?”
“Yeah, I did. I figured there was at least a chance we’d been wrong. And if we were he had a right to be mad at us.”
When she wearily shook her head, Cade said, “What?”
“Nothing. I mean, nothing new. It’s just that we still don’t seem to have any answers.”
“So you’ll just keep being very careful until we do. Everything’s going to turn out fine in the end, Talia. But what about the rest of tonight? My offer to stay right here still goes.”
She gazed at him, thinking it had been an extremely tempting offer the first time around. Now it was irresistible. To hell with whatever rumors and innuendoes she might end up facing.
But before she could take him up on it he rose and was saying, “You’re right. It’s not the greatest idea. So look.” He grabbed one of the armchairs. “I’ll brace this against the French doors.”
He did that, then turned back to her. “The lock’s not wonderful, but now nobody can get in without making a helluva racket. The main door’s secure, and I’ll leave the connecting door unlocked on my side. But I really can’t see anything else happening tonight.”
“No, I can’t imagine anything will.” The truth, though, was she could imagine a hundred and one things, each worse than the one before.
When she stood, Cade jammed his hands into the pockets of his robe and took a step backward. “So…I’ll see you in the morning.”
She nodded, her throat tight. It seemed as if every time they’d been alone together tonight she’d ended up wanting him to kiss her. And she desperately wanted him to now. But he obviously had no intention of doing anything but leaving. He took another step back, and just as he did the truth suddenly hit her—with such blinding clarity she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it long ago.
She’d been misreading his interest in her. Or more accurately, his lack of interest. The attraction between them wasn’t really between them at all. It was completely one-sided. The realization struck like a physical blow, and she simply stared at him, thinking she’d just set a new personal low for not recognizing the obvious.
Over the past six weeks she’d been falling for Cade Hailey. And she’d gone along merrily assuming he was falling for her. But she’d been wrong. Oh, given all the time he’d chosen to spend with her, he had to like her. But liking her as a friend was apparently the extent of it.
“Sleep tight,” he said. “And don’t forget to lock your side of the door.”
She simply nodded again, waiting where she was until he’d gone into his own room. Then she locked up and switched on the television, knowing there was no way in the world she’d be able to sleep tight—or any other way, for that matter.
Turning the volume down to a whisper, she climbed into bed with the remote. The hotel had supplied a television guide, so she checked to see if there were any late-late movies.
When she discovered the only one anywhere near the beginning was When a Man Loves a Woman, she pitched the guide across the room and began flipping through the channels, unable to stop wondering what on earth was wrong with her.
The man she’d been busily falling for was only interested in her as a friend. And some man whose identity she didn’t know had tried to frighten her to death.
Chapter Eight
As hard as Talia had been trying to concentrate on the deliberations, she realized her eyes had strayed to Cade once more.
Looking away, she wished for the hundredth time that he hadn’t plunked himself down next to her in the conference room—just as he’d done every day in the jury box. After she’d tossed and turned all night thinking about him, he was the last person she’d wanted to sit beside this morning.
Of course, she hadn’t really been thinking about him all night. She’d spent at least half the time conjuring up images of the human monsters that would creep into her room if she dared to fall asleep.
But she shouldn’t have been thinking about Cade for even a minute. And she also shouldn’t be so upset about misreading his feelings for her. She’d made a mistake. Everybody did that occasionally, and she’d simply mistaken his gestures of friendship for something more.
Or the other possibility, the one that had occurred to her about five in the morning, was that he had been falling for her, but had been turned off by the way she’d been acting the last little while. After all, she was usually far better company than she’d been since they’d arrived on the island. Well, to be more specific, since Mrs. Wertman had been shot.
There was nothing like walking in on a murder victim to make your sense of humor desert you and to turn you into miserable company. And that wasn’t even taking into account everything that had happened since.
She made another major effort at concentrating and discovered their jury foreman was droning on about something again. The more often he did that the more convinced she grew that they’d made a mistake in selecting him. Although, actually, they hadn’t selected him. It was more that nobody had objected when he’d volunteered.
“I wouldn’t mind doing it,” he’d said. “In fact, I’d like to. I spend half my life chairing meetings, so I can keep things on track.”
At the time she’d assumed he could. Myron Beyers was in his mid-fifties and the financial vice president of a major corporation. But despite his experience, she’d quickly begun doubting his effectiveness.
Besides talking too much himself, he failed to interrupt when people made blatantly wrong statements about the evidence. She and Cade seemed to have been interrupting far more often than Myron.
She and Cade. Slowly she pushed her hair back from her face, aware that every second thought she had began with she and Cade. That had to stop. There was no she and Cade—never would be. And the sooner she purged her mind of that phrase the better.
When she forced her attention back to the deliberations again, it was Roger Podonyi who was talking. He was holding forth about how Joey Carpaccio hadn’t impressed him as the kind of man who’d harm a fly, let alone have someone murder his wife.
“Roger,” Cade said at last, “before Joey took the stand his lawyers probably rehearsed him to death. So we really should be concentrating on the evidence, not on our gut feelings about how he came across.”
Roger shot Cade a glare he’d undoubtedly perfected with his students. He taught English at a private school, and he obviously wasn’t used to being told to shut up—not even as politely as Cade had done it.
“Just take it as a friendly piece of advice, Roger,” Myron suggested. “That’s the way Cade meant it.”
“Advice is worth what you pay for it,” Roger muttered. “And there’s a lot to be said for gut feelings.”
Talia agreed with that, although Roger wouldn’t be happy if he knew what her gut feelings were about him. Forty or so, tall and fit, Roger seemed easygoing enough most of the time. But she sensed an underlying violence, much like what she saw in some of the abusive husbands she dealt with. She was sure he had a mean streak tucked away beneath the surface.
At the very least, he clearly felt Joey’s wife had deserved what she’d gotten, which made him one of the defens
e team’s jury-selection triumphs.
When Myron checked his watch, then began summing up what they’d covered in the morning’s session, Talia glanced slowly along the length of the table, letting her gaze linger on each of the other jurors in turn.
She still hadn’t figured out which one of the others had voted guilty yesterday, although a few of them had made it apparent that they were on the not-guilty side of the fence.
“Well,” Myron said as her gaze reached him once more, “it’s about time to break for lunch. So let’s meet back here at one-thirty.”
“I’ll say it’s about time,” Cade whispered to her. “I’m starving.”
She didn’t have to look at him to know he was expecting to eat with her. They always ate together. But now that she knew how she’d misinterpreted his attentions, she didn’t feel exactly comfortable with him.
What they needed was a buffer, so she caught Harlan’s eye and asked if he’d like to join them. They were on good terms again—reasonably good terms at least—because the first thing she’d done at breakfast was apologize for accusing him last night.
Good terms or not, though, he wasn’t interested in lunch.
“I really have to go up to the room and phone my mom,” he said. “I should’ve called her first thing this morning, because Cade said she was awfully worried when you talked to her last night.”
Talia nodded, suddenly feeling guilty about not phoning her own parents this morning. From the start they’d been concerned about her being on the Carpaccio jury. And by now, with Mrs. Wertman’s murder undoubtedly the top news story in Charleston, they’d be nervous wrecks. Deciding she’d better call them right after lunch, she turned her attention back to Harlan.
“And aside from phoning Mom,” he was saying, “I didn’t get much time on my computer yesterday. So I thought I’d just grab a bag of chips from the guest shop and cruise the information highway for an hour. But maybe we’ll do lunch tomorrow? If we’re still here?”
“Sure. Sounds good.”
Harlan pushed his thick glasses up his nose and gave her a chipmunk grin. Then he hurried off to do his phoning and cruising.
Love And Lies Page 8