Stranger in the Moonlight

by Jude Deveraux

  Two minutes later she was calling the person she wanted to talk to about all this. He answered on the first ring and said he’d meet her right away. Twenty minutes later she was pulling into Joe Layton’s parking lot.

  Twelve

  Joe Layton’s solution to every problem was the same: food and work. After he’d spent thirty minutes listening to Kim’s nearly incoherent words that she uttered in between copious tears, and feeding her, he put her to work. As he had her help him put the supplies Travis had unpacked on the shelves that he’d installed, Joe couldn’t help musing on the fact that their turbulent love life was giving him a lot of free labor.

  “I don’t get it,” she said as she picked up boxes of electric drills and put them on the shelves. “Why would he make so much effort to get a man away from me if all he plans to do is leave me and go back to . . . to wherever he lives?”

  “New York,” Joe said. “Lives on the top floor of some big building.”

  “He told you that?”

  “No, but I found out.”

  “That means you’ve known Travis’s last name and you looked him up on the Internet,” Kim said with a sigh. “Reede said I’d find out everything there, but he couldn’t wait to send me info. But who wants to find out about someone on the Web? But then, why does everything Travis tells me have to be a lie? Or an evasion? What’s happened in his life that makes him think even the most ordinary things have to be kept secret?”

  “I don’t know,” Joe said. They were questions that were bothering him too. He’d given Lucy every opportunity to tell him about her son, but she hadn’t. Three times she’d almost said “my son” but each time she’d caught herself. Joe was trying hard not to get angry about it, but it wasn’t easy. “Are you in love with young Travis?” he blurted out.

  Kim paused for a moment in putting a box on the shelf. “How can I be? I thought I knew the boy Travis, but the adult . . . I don’t know who he is. He seems to think he has a right to oversee my life. He takes away from me but gives nothing in return.” She knew that wasn’t true, but her anger wasn’t allowing her to reason.

  The red light on Joe’s cell phone came on again. He had it on silent so Kim couldn’t hear it, but Joe knew that Travis had called him eight times since she’d arrived. He also knew he was going to have to deal with the young man or he’d show up at the door. And with the mood Kim was in now, she might throw an anvil at him.

  “Didn’t I hear that you were supposed to do something special this weekend?” Joe asked.

  Kim groaned. As angry as she was, it didn’t dampen her artist’s eye as she arranged the small machines on the shelves. She put them up with all the finesse that she used to display her jewelry. “Jocelyn—she’s married to my cousin—wants me to go to some little town in Maryland to see if I can find out about some great-great-grandaunt of mine. Joce is doing genealogy charts, and this woman in Maryland had a kid but there’s no father listed. This is back in 1890-something. I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this. But anyway, Dave wanted to go with me and we were going to make it a minivacation. He was going to . . .” She waved her hand. If she continued talking, she’d start crying again. “I think I’d better cancel my reservation.”

  She couldn’t help thinking about what might have been. What would she have done if Dave had asked her to marry him? She’d told Travis she’d known all about the man, but she hadn’t. Hearing that he’d pawned the ring he’d slick-talked Carla into “giving” him had made Kim feel sick. She’d not seen anything in Dave that made her think he was capable of such thievery. He’d always been so very nice—boring, but pleasant and likeable. His talks about her going national with her jewelry had always been presented in the most respectful way, saying that it was her decision, and he was only tossing out ideas. And she really had thought the name he’d suggested was just a crude joke.

  She’d only heard about Dave’s company’s failure the day before Jecca’s wedding, the day before Travis reappeared in her life. She’d seen that two of his vans were on their last legs, but he’d laughed and said he had too much work to do to order new ones. She’d had no reason to disbelieve him.

  But the day before the wedding, when everything was chaos and there were so many people around, Kim had overheard a woman saying she was glad Jecca hadn’t used that “dreadful” Borman Catering. Kim had tried to get him for the wedding, but he’d been booked solid. Kim had asked the woman why she didn’t like Borman Catering and she’d been told the story of the switched ingredients. And she’d heard that people were canceling their future orders with him. At the time, Kim had been so busy helping Jecca that she hadn’t thought about what that meant. When Kim looked back on it, she realized that she hadn’t wanted to see that Dave’s business was going under. And she didn’t want to think about that in connection to how often he asked for the combination to her safe.

  Was Dave yet another man in her life who couldn’t see past her success?

  Kim arranged a hand drill in its case as artistically as she could manage, then started putting up the boxes of bits.

  When Joe excused himself to make a call, Kim continued to work—and to think.

  Okay, so maybe it was true that she didn’t know as much about Dave as she’d told Travis she did, but did that give him the right to . . . to . . . take over?

  She thought of Travis buying Borman Catering. Why? But she knew the answer. He paid all that money just to send Dave away. On the drive to Joe’s she’d called a client who lived in Dave’s building and was told that he’d left with six suitcases and had told the landlord he wasn’t coming back.

  “The landlord was furious,” the woman said. “Dave left so much junk behind and the landlord has to take care of it. But then some man called and said he’d come get everything. The whole building is talking about it. What do you know?”

  “Nothing,” Kim said and politely hung up.

  She’d told Travis she hated the way he’d swooped in and taken over, but there was a part of her that was grateful that he’d saved her from Dave. Kim now wondered if she would have agreed to marry him. Had Jecca’s wedding, her happiness, made Kim so envious that she would have said yes just to . . . ? She didn’t want to think about what could have happened.

  Earlier, as Kim had pulled into Joe’s parking lot, her cell buzzed. It was an e-mail from her brother and there was an attachment. Kim hesitated before opening it because she knew what it was going to be. But she also knew she needed to see the truth. She pushed the button and the first thing she saw was a photo of some drop-dead gorgeous woman named Leslie. The caption read WEDDING BELLS FOR A MAXWELL? The article told how the beautiful model had been going steady with the megarich son of Randall Maxwell for months now. “Travis—über rich, über beautiful—never dates anyone for longer than six weeks. But he and the luscious Leslie have been together for nearly a year now. Can we look forward to a wedding like the world has never before seen?”

  Kim couldn’t stand to read the rest of the documents her brother had sent. That one was quite enough.

  When she got out of the car, Joe was standing in the doorway, and he opened his arms to her. If her dad had been home she would have gone to him, but Jecca’s father was nearly as good.

  She’d cried hard for a while, then Joe had ordered in pizza and huge colas and enough cinnamon sticks to fatten half of Edilean. Kim had cried and eaten, then cried some more.

  “I don’t understand why he lied to me,” she said.

  “Borman or young Travis?” Joe asked.

  “Travis,” Kim said. “Dave is . . . He’s a real person, so of course he lies.”

  Joe raised his eyebrows but he didn’t comment on that statement. In dealing with his children of opposite sexes he’d learned a hard fact. If Joey came to him with a problem, he was asking for help to find a solution. But if Jecca had a problem, she just wanted Joe to listen. No advice. Whereas Joe had been free in telling Travis what he thought, Joe didn’t dare offer Kim so much as a suggestion.<
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  “He lied to me about everything. From day one, I was completely honest with him, but he told me nothing but lies.”

  Joe had to refrain from rolling his eyes. That’s pretty much exactly what Travis had said about Kim. He’d said she’d concealed the fact that she had a boyfriend and had glossed over a story about a missing ring. But Joe made no comment. His cell light went on again and the ID said it was Travis. At the ninth unanswered call, Joe excused himself and went outside.

  Minutes later, he was back—and Kim was still ranting.

  Joe wanted to help her but he didn’t know how. He’d talked to Travis and he was miserable. He said he just wanted to make sure Kim was all right. “She was so angry I was afraid for her to drive.”

  “I guess that means you followed her,” Joe said. Travis’s silence was answer enough. “What have you done about this weekend?”

  “Weekend?” Travis asked, sounding as though he hadn’t thought about it. “You mean Janes Creek?”

  “Don’t dance around me, boy! What have you done?”

  Cautiously, Travis told him of renting every room in the two inns in the little town.

  Joe gave a low whistle. “Did your dad teach you to take over everybody’s life?”

  “I think it’s more that I was born with it in me than that I learned it,” Travis said gloomily.

  Joe almost laughed but didn’t. “I’ll get Kim to go to that town, but you have to take it from there. Think you can manage that?”

  “But Kim said she never wants to see me again,” Travis said, his voice full of his despair.

  Joe snorted in exasperation. “And that’s going to stop you? Haven’t you ever had a woman tell you to get lost?” To him it was a rhetorical question requiring no answer. Of course women had said that to Travis, to all men.

  “No. Not actually,” Travis said. “Never.”

  “What a world you live in!” Joe muttered, then said louder, “That’s because Kim sees you and not the Maxwell name. Try being yourself with her.”

  “But . . .” Travis said, then trailed off. “Will you see that she gets home all right?”

  “Of course,” Joe said and hung up. He took a deep breath, spent a few minutes looking at the stars and wishing he was snuggled up with Lucy, then went back into the shop. He was going to have to say the sentences that women so loved to hear. Every male chromosome in him fought against it, but he had to say them.

  “Kimberly,” he said when he got inside, “I think you need to do something good for yourself. Take care of you. You should treat yourself to a weekend away. Get your nails done, buy yourself some new shoes.”

  Joe stood there looking at Kim and wondering if she’d fall for it. Jecca would know he was up to something, but would Kim?

  Instantly, some of the misery began to drain from Kim’s face. “I think you’re right,” she said. “I’m not going to cancel my reservation. I’m going to Janes Creek and spend the whole weekend thinking about my jewelry and my ancestors. No men anywhere.”

  She went to Joe and kissed his cheek. “I understand why Jecca loves you so much.” She was smiling even though her eyes were still red. “Thanks for everything.”

  She left by the front door and Joe sat down heavily in his big chair. When did he become the man who solved other people’s love problems? He couldn’t even solve his own.

  In the next moment he picked up his phone and punched the button to reach Lucy.

  “Where are you?” she asked. “I just got out of the tub and I have on my—”

  “Lucy,” he said firmly before he lost his nerve, “I think it’s time you and I talked about your son. And your husband.”

  She hesitated. “All right,” she said softly. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

  Joe let out his breath, and the tension left his big body. “What were you saying about what you have on?”

  Kim did her best to sleep that night, but too much was going around in her head. Her dreams were of Travis and in each one, he left. Just walked away as he’d done so many years before.

  She got up at two, started to get some milk, but then poured herself a shot of single malt. She tried to watch a movie but couldn’t keep her mind on it. She told herself it was absurd to compare something a twelve-year-old boy did while hiding with his mother from an abusive father to the man he was now. And when it came down to it, Travis had the right to not tell anyone his last name. She’d never been around anyone who had to deal with paparazzi, so who was she to judge?

  But no matter what her thoughts, or how rational she was, she still felt betrayed.

  When she’d come back from Mr. Layton’s she’d seen that Travis had moved out of the guesthouse. He’d locked the door and left the key on her kitchen countertop.

  She looked at the key but didn’t touch it. To touch it would make his leaving seem real.

  She took a shower, washed her hair, and told herself that everything was for the better. Travis had found out what a snake Dave was; Kim had found out that Travis . . . She wasn’t sure what she’d discovered about him. Finding out that he was the son of some rich, powerful man hadn’t surprised her in the least.

  At 4:00 A.M. she went back to bed and slept until eight. She felt better when she woke up and knew that the last thing she wanted to do was go to work. For one thing, she couldn’t bear to see Carla. It was going to take a while before she could trust the woman again. Yesterday morning, Carla had confessed to what she’d done. In defending herself, she’d said that Dave had been so very persuasive as he talked about how much he loved Kim. And Carla had fallen for it. She’d taken the ring out of the display case and given it to him because he’d said he was going to present it to Kim on their weekend together. He’d elaborated on how there would be candlelight and he would be on one knee. Carla’s sense of romance had overwhelmed her.

  It was Carla’s date with Russell Pendergast Wednesday night that had made her rethink what she’d done. He’d leaned across the table and looked at her with his beautiful dark eyes and coaxed the truth out of her. Afterward, he’d been clear that he didn’t think what she’d done was in the least romantic. In fact, he’d said that if she didn’t want to go to prison, she had to tell Kim the truth.

  It had taken all her courage but Carla had told Kim the next morning.

  At the time, Kim had been angry but it’s what she’d thought had happened—and why she hadn’t pursued the matter. At no time did Kim think Dave was scheming to steal the ring. Like Carla, she believed the man’s hints of marriage and a future together. Her problem had been how she was going to answer Dave’s proposal. Travis had shown strong signs of jealousy about Dave, so maybe Travis had plans for the two of them.

  Kim hadn’t allowed herself to think of that. She’d reminded herself that Travis was as elusive as a nightingale, that he didn’t stay anywhere too long.

  All that day she’d been nervous, and she’d kept wondering where Travis was and what he was doing. When there was no call from him at lunchtime, she wanted to go home early. Maybe Travis was doing laps in the pool. But customers kept her late, and as soon as she pulled into her driveway, Reede parked beside her. When she saw his face, she knew what was coming. He’d at last remembered where he’d seen Travis—on a racecourse when Travis had nearly hit Reede and his donkey.

  As she walked to her front door, Kim thought about how she was going to defend Travis. She would point out that Reede had been in the way, that he shouldn’t have been standing in the roadway. Kim was totally on Travis’s side.

  What she hadn’t expected was that Reede couldn’t care less about what had happened in Morocco. In fact, he admitted that the whole thing had been his fault. “That doesn’t matter,” Reede said, then proceeded to tell her the truth about Travis.

  It didn’t matter to Kim whether Travis was rich or poor, but it did concern her that he’d not told her such fundamental information about himself.

  Why? Did he think she couldn’t handle it? Did he think she was so provincia
l that she’d be overcome to find out he’d spent his life in a different circle than she had? Did he think the truth about himself would change what was between them?

  She had no answers to her questions.

  The scene with Reede had been bad enough, but then to walk into her kitchen and see Travis and Carla’s date standing there was almost more than she could bear. She could tell by Travis’s face, white with shock—and she had to admit some pain from what he’d heard—that if she didn’t get angry she would have died of embarrassment. She would just plain curl up into a ball and disappear.

  Somehow she’d managed to keep cool enough to tell Travis what she thought of him. But when she began to remember how she’d told her brother that she wanted to spend days in bed with Travis, her anger was taken over by the embarrassment. She knew that if those two men stayed, she’d dissolve into tears in front of them, so she told them to leave. But she couldn’t bear to be alone, so she went to see Mr. Layton.

  Now the morning light was coming through her kitchen window and she was doing her best to be cheerful about her coming weekend. Alone. She tried to think of those old axioms about bowls of cherries and lemonade, but she couldn’t seem to remember them. She’d already called Carla and told her she was to take care of the shop Friday and Saturday. There was another girl who could help, but Kim wouldn’t be there. Carla hadn’t argued or asked for overtime.

  Kim packed quickly and was on the road by 10:00 A.M. It was a four-hour drive to Janes Creek, and she used the time to try to think about her next series of jewelry designs. She needed something different, something a person didn’t see every day.

  She also needed to think about the task Joce had given her to do. Everything she was to research was based on a few sentences that Colin’s wife, Gemma, had found in a letter written around the turn of the century.

  “Please tell me you’re not trying to find more relatives,” Kim said to Joce and Gemma the day they’d asked her to take on the project. They looked at her as though to say yes, that is exactly what they wanted, and why didn’t she understand?