My Little Runaway (Destiny Bay)

by Conrad, Helen

  “It looks ... a little Hollywood, don’t you think?”

  For some reason Reid’s remark brought all the less-than-wonderful times to mind, and Jennifer’s stubborn streak rose.

  She wore the dress. And the atmosphere in the car on the way to the club could have flash-frozen halibut.

  Jennifer didn’t hold grudges, and she quickly forgot her anger when they entered the club and began to mingle with the excited crowd. The ball was a major event, and the atmosphere was intoxicating. Her eyes shone and glances followed her wherever she went.

  They quickly found Dan and Astrid. To Jennifer’s disappointment, Muffy was out of town. Muffy was still the only woman of this environment she really enjoyed being with. Astrid was coolly unimpressed by everything Jennifer did. Jenny had the feeling that Astrid was tolerating her, just waiting for her to leave again so that Astrid’s life could go back to normal.

  But they all greeted one another in a friendly manner, though Astrid’s eyes turned icy as she looked over what Jennifer was wearing, and Dan looked amused.

  “What a lovely dress,” Astrid said, and Jennifer was sure it wasn’t a compliment.

  “Yes, lovely,” Dan echoed, and from the look in his eyes, Jennifer knew, suddenly, that Reid had been right. The dress was all wrong.

  Reid asked her to dance, but he held her stiffly, and she knew he was still upset. They spun about the floor again and again, and then he deposited her back at the sidelines and began to talk to Dan, ignoring her completely.

  She wandered off on her own to look at the gardens and waved to a few young men milling outside whom she knew from playing tennis, then wandered back in, coming up to stand near where Reid and Dan were still talking. Astrid was a few feet away, speaking to an elderly lady in a wheelchair.

  “There’s General Kurtis,” Dan said suddenly, gesturing across the room. “I told him you’d stop by and speak to him about that civil suit at some point this evening.”

  “That’s right,” Reid replied. “I should go over.”

  Dan laughed softly, watching the older man across the room. “Take a lady along,” he advised. “He goes for that. He gets so involved with being charming that he makes all kinds of concessions without being aware of what he’s doing.”

  Jennifer smiled, nervous but ready to prove herself to Reid again. She’d done it before. Every business client he’d brought home for her to entertain had been treated royally. The Middle Eastern pair were the only ones remotely discomfited, and that had turned out all right, too. She took a deep breath as he turned, ready to take his hand and join him in walking across the floor.

  But Reid didn’t seem to see her there. Instead, he went straight to Astrid and held out his arm. Astrid smiled and curled her slender arm through his, walking quickly by his side as they approached the general. Jennifer’s heart turned to stone.

  Part of her said it wasn’t fair and part of her said he hadn’t seen her and part of her said it served her right for wearing that ridiculous dress. She didn’t know which part was true. But she was hurt.

  Dan spoke to her, but she didn’t pay any attention. She turned and went outside again. After what seemed like hours, when she felt cold outside as well as inside, she finally went in to look for Reid, but he was nowhere in sight.

  She spotted Dan and Astrid, so she made her way to where they were standing, coming up behind them with a glass of wine punch in her hand.

  She was just about to say something when Astrid spoke to Dan, and she stopped, listening. It was obvious neither of them knew she was behind them.

  “I just don’t understand what Reid sees in her,” Astrid was saying. “She’s never going to do him any good at all, and you know it. Oh, she’s trying hard, but look at the results! Can you imagine ‘Little Miss Blue Jean Baby’ helping Reid land a really important client? I can’t.”

  “You don’t see what Reid sees in her because you’re not a man,” Dan chuckled. “Believe me, if you were, you’d get the picture. Fast.”

  “But she’ll be worthless in furthering his career.”

  “He’s not thinking about furthering his career at this time, Astrid darling. He’s thinking about something a bit more basic.”

  Astrid blinked her clear blue eyes. “What exactly are you talking about?”

  Dan threw out his arms. “The woman exudes sex. Hadn’t you noticed?”

  Astrid looked as though she’d just swallowed something unpleasant. “Frankly, no.”

  Dan chuckled. “Take it from me, Astrid. She does. And he’s hooked. But it won’t last. He’s hot for her now, but that will wear off.”

  Jennifer felt as though her world had fallen away and left her dangling in space. Her chest was tight, and it was hard to breathe. She turned and slipped away, trying to quiet her pulse, feeling heartsick.

  Of course, they were absolutely right. How could she have been so blind? How could she have thought that Reid would ever want to marry her? She’d believed it because she’d wanted to—and for no other reason. There’d been something between them for years, but when you boiled it down to reality, what was it but sexual tension? On her part that tension had blossomed into something deeper and truer, and she called it love. But what did he feel for her? He’d said he loved her, but that had been when he was determined to have her reconcile with her parents. Once that had happened, he’d never mentioned love again.

  Standing in the shadow of the terrace plants, she saw Reid talking to a lovely dark-haired woman she didn’t recognize. His head tilted back as he laughed at something she’d said, and the light glistened on his thick dark hair. His genuine worth shone like the luster of gold. He was real, substantial. If he’d lied to her, he’d lied to himself, too, because Reid would never knowingly hurt anyone.

  She admired and respected him. She loved him so— and she wanted him to be happy, but could he ever be happy with someone who could never fit into his lifestyle? Face it, Jenny, she told herself grimly, you don’t fit in. You never have. You never will.

  She’d tried so hard to be a part of this life, to make herself over into what she thought Reid would want. But it wasn’t working, was it? If the truth be known, she missed The Magnificent Munch, missed the feeling of accomplishment and worth it gave her. What was she doing here, masquerading as one of these social leaders? No one believed in it, least of all her.

  She closed her eyes and leaned against the cool masonry of the building. It was over. Reid had been wonderful to her. He’d tried as hard as she had. But it was time to admit that a leopard couldn’t change her spots. The kindest thing she could do would be to give him an excuse to let her go.

  Blinking back tears, she walked blindly out toward the sand, thinking she might kick off her shoes and go to the ocean, but a shout stopped her.

  “Hey, Jennifer!” She turned back toward the terrace to see who was calling.

  “Look, it’s Jennifer. Come and join us!”

  It was a group of young men she knew from the tennis courts. They’d taken over seats around the redwood hot tub and seemed to have commandeered a whole tray full of canapes for their own enjoyment;

  She hesitated for a moment, then smiled and came back. “Having your own little party out here?” she asked.

  “That’s right.” Jonathan Mason had played tennis with Reid only the day before. “Have another wine punch and sit down. Jacob was about to tell us all about his safari to Kenya. Deliver us, please, and you tell us a story instead.”

  She felt a glass being put into her hand, and she took a long, long sip. “I don’t have any stories,” she said slowly, looking around at their eager faces. The warmth of their welcome soothed her, and the wine punch was helping to dull the edges of her pain. “But I do think we ought to figure out something to liven up this dull party.”

  “Dull!” agreed Jonathan. “Stultifying, I’d say.” His eyes gleamed. “What do you suggest?”

  “We could jump into the pool,” Reginald, Jonathan’s heavyset friend offered.
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  Jonathan waved it away. “It’s been done a thousand times.”

  “With our clothes off?” Reginald added.

  All gazes swung around to consider Jennifer.

  “Now, that’s an idea,” Jonathan said with a purposefully devilish grin.

  “But not a particularly good one,” Jennifer returned quickly. “There are, however, certain refinements on the basic plan that we might consider.”

  Would she have done it if she’d been completely sober? That was something she’d never really know for sure. But as it was, the fuzziness in her brain helped convince her that a crazy act would bring about the rift between her and Reid. He needed something concrete in order to let her go—so she’d give him a very good reason.

  It came off like a dream. One of Jonathan’s friends found her a black nylon bikini, which she quickly changed into. Reginald had access to the sound equipment room, and he took over the controls and picked the recording to use. Jonathan recruited more young men; and when the time came, there were twelve of them in the pool, all standing in a semicircle, all dressed in tuxedos, all waist deep in water.

  Jennifer was on the high dive, dressed in the black bikini. She looked down at the boys. They looked adorable, like tall penguins lined up at the shallow end of the pool.

  “All the cleaning bills!” she called down in a loud stage whisper.

  “Never mind that,” Jonathan called back. “Break a leg, Jennifer!”

  She heard the loudspeaker crackle and knew Reginald was ready. She held her breath.

  A recorded blast of trumpets split the air. Even the small orchestra playing in the ballroom wavered, not sure whether or not to go on.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Reginald shouted over the speaker, “entertainment will now be provided in the pool area. Please assemble immediately to witness the most daring feat ever attempted here at the country club. Our own lovely Jennifer will make a stunning dive into the center of a pack of wild wolves—namely, our own young men. Enjoy!”

  The needle slipped on the record, producing an ear-splitting screech, but then he got it right and “The Lonely Bull” sailed out dramatically through the air.

  As Jennifer began her long walk to the end of the board, the young penguins swam to the deep end. She could tell the sidelines were filling up, but she didn’t look down. She could hear the gasps, the catcalls. She paid no attention at all.

  The boys were waving their arms and shouting a chant. She wasn’t sure what it was, some football cheer, she thought. Then the time came to do it. She jumped once, twice, then gave a tremendous push, launching herself out over the pool, sailing like a bird, doing the best swan dive of her life.

  The water was rushing toward her, and she arched, pointing her toes, and cut the water like a knife, right in the midst of the tuxedoed men. As she came bursting back up through the water, she could hear the applause, but the first thing she saw when she brushed the water from her eyes was Reid’s thunderous face.

  He reached out a hand, and she took it, letting him pull her out of the pool. Someone threw a towel around her. Reid took her straight to the car, not giving her a moment to acknowledge the congratulations that were being showered around her. Neither of them said a word all the way home.

  CHAPTER TEN:

  Runaway Home

  The newspapers loved it. Society reporters must have had cameras with them, because pictures were displayed prominently in the morning news. The first caught her in midflight.

  “Jennifer Thornton, daughter of Bernard Thornton of Thornton Electronics, as she entertains the crowd with her surprise high-diving skills.”

  The second showed Reid pulling her from the pool, his face stony.

  “Reid Carrington, Jennifer’s escort, apparently doesn’t appreciate her dive as much as the crowd does.”

  This was not the way the wife—or even prospective wife—of a rising young attorney behaved. She knew that. He knew that. The papers knew that. Everyone, in fact, knew it.

  She cringed. Her goose was cooked.

  “Thanks, Mother,” Jennifer groaned, holding her head in one hand and her coffee in the other. “I really needed to see this first thing in the morning.”

  She was sitting at the breakfast table. Her mother had just come storming over and thrown the papers before her.

  “Forewarned is forearmed,” her mother replied. “Where’s Reid?”

  She shook her head and then winced painfully. “He went into work at the crack of dawn. He probably left to keep himself from committing murder in his own house.”

  “I don’t blame him.” Her mother had always been frank. “I’d like to wring your neck myself.”

  Jennifer nodded sadly and leaned over her coffee cup. She felt the same way. It had all seemed so simple last night. She’d decided she was nothing but a burden to Reid. She’d thought he would welcome her doing something really outrageous so that he could cut her loose. But in the morning light, things looked a bit different.

  Now, nothing was quite that clear-cut. She didn’t want to leave him. She couldn’t. She loved him, and she couldn’t live without him.

  He hadn’t said a word to her the night before. In the morning, when she’d felt him leaving the bed that they’d shared for the last few weeks, she’d opened one eye and asked, “Where are you going?”

  “We’ll talk this afternoon,” he’d said evenly, as though he didn’t trust himself to say more. She’d watched him leave, wondering if she would be able to stay long enough to hear what he had to say.

  “I’m really sorry I did this to Reid,” she told her mother now. “It was stupid, childish. I thought . . . I don’t know what I thought,” she ended lamely.

  “It’s not working, is it?” her mother said quietly.

  Jennifer looked up quickly. “Maybe I’m not trying hard enough,” she began, but her mother slowly shook her head.

  “You tried, Jenny,” she said affectionately. “We all watched you try. You just aren’t cut out for life in society. You never were.”

  Jennifer stared at her. She’d been desperately searching for reasons to stay, rationalizations to do what she wanted to do rather than what she should do.

  Her mother hit the nail on the head. Who would know better than she? Once that had hurt, but now it only seemed inevitable. She was secure in her mother’s love. She could look at the truth.

  “I’ll have to go, won’t I?” she said at last in a very small voice.

  Mrs. Thornton nodded. “I think it would be best if you did. You’ll just make yourself—and Reid—miserable staying here.” She leaned forward and brushed the hair away from Jennifer’s eyes. “Oh, darling, I’m so sorry. But you’re just trying to do the impossible again, and it’s bound to be the same disaster.”

  Jennifer nodded. “I’ll go,” she said softly. “I’ll go tonight.”

  She was packing when Reid came home. “What are you doing?” he demanded, his eyes cold and unrelenting.

  “I’m leaving.” She threw her last nightgown into the suitcase and turned to face him.

  No thaw appeared in his gaze, but his mouth twisted. “I don’t want you to go,” he said coldly.

  She tried to smile. “No? Not even after the spectacle I made of myself last night?”

  He shook his head. “Though I will admit, having you exhibit yourself on the high dive in your underwear-—“

  “That wasn’t my underwear!” Jennifer interrupted. “That was a swimsuit one of the boys dug up for me to wear.”

  “ ‘One of the boys’?” he echoed sarcastically. “One of your playmates?”

  Holding his gaze, she nodded slowly. “One of my playmates,” she repeated bleakly. “That’s why I have to go. I can’t seem to pull away from play . . . and you’ve forgotten how.”

  “This time I won’t come after you,” he warned. “I’ve forced you back often enough. If you can’t come on your own . . .” His voice trailed off, but the implication was clear. If she left, they were through.
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  Slowly, deliberately, she turned back to her suitcase and tucked in a sweater. She heard his harsh curse, then he was gone.

  Tears blurred her eyes, making packing difficult, but she managed to get it done. She carried her case downstairs and called a cab. Then she went into the study to say good-bye to Reid.

  He was sitting in the gloomy room, smoking and staring out the window at the sunlight on the ocean. She listened for a moment to the steady rush of the waves on the beach and watched the smoke rise in purple spirals from his hand.

  “I’m going,” she said at last, and he turned to look at her. “I—I just want to thank you ...”

  “Do you need a ride to the airport?” he asked harshly.

  “No, I called a cab.”

  One eyebrow raised. “None of your playmates could bother to drive you?”

  She flushed. “I’d like to part as friends.”

  “No.” His eyes darkened stormily. “We can never be friends.” He rose and came to help her carry her bag outside. “It’s been interesting, Jennifer,” he said evenly as they waited for the cab. “You’re a real education.”

  She swallowed hard; Tears were stinging, and she didn’t want him to see them. The cab drove up the driveway, and she turned to look at him. “I love you, Reid.” The words were on her lips, but when she tried to get them out, she choked.

  “Good-bye,” he said gruffly, turning on his heel and striding back into the house.

  She got into the cab and drove away, dissolving into sobs as the car made the bottom of the drive.

  It was great to be back at work at The Magnificent Munch. A few days to get back into the routine and it was as if she’d never left. Almost.

  “Good to have you back,” said Eddie, satisfaction

  glowing in his eyes. “I knew you wouldn’t last with that stick-in-the-mud for long.” -

  “I don’t want to talk about Reid,” Jennifer had answered, her eyes flashing dangerously. “The subject is off limits.”

  He must have passed the word, because no one else asked her a thing about her weeks away.