She brought paper plates and napkins and began setting them out on the breakfast bar. “I hope you like pepperoni with cheese. Neither Marian or I like anchovies, or pineapple and bacon.”
“I’m sure I’ll like whatever you like.”
She stopped dishing out the slices. “You’ve never had pizza before?” He shook his head. “Now I know you’re from another planet.
“No, I’m not, really.”
He picked up a pizza piece and put the large end to his mouth. Leslie stopped him and turned the piece around so the pointed end was closest to his mouth. “It works better this way.”
At the touch of her hand on his, his body did that peculiar thing it was in the habit of doing whenever he was around Leslie. He took a bite off the end she’d indicated and then said, “Are you staying with me tonight?”
“Do you want me to?” she asked, looking suddenly shy.
“Of course I do.”
“Then I’ll stay.”
She seemed content to eat her pizza in silence. She’d brought soft drinks instead of beer and he sipped his dark and tart substance. She said it was a cola. The taste was not unpleasant. He was very sure he shouldn’t mention the fact that he’d never drunk a cola before.
“We should talk about Thanksgiving,” she said.
Talk? He wanted to take her in the bedroom. He didn’t want to talk. “What about Thanksgiving?”
“I’d like you to go home with me to Florida and meet my family. Even if we aren’t going to get married, we’ll be working together in the store and my family will want to know you.”
“Leslie. We’re going to get married.”
She went on as if she hadn’t heard him. “I’ll make the airplane reservations for the two of us…if you think we can leave the store for four days.”
“We are the owners. We should be able to close the store whenever we wish.”
“I’m thinking there won’t be a lot of street traffic over the holiday. It’s a very family oriented time. Transplanted New Yorkers will fly home to be with their parents.” She hesitated and then said in that way she had when she was unsure of his reaction, “I think my family will understand that we are friends and co-owners of the store and you are a very important person in my life. Would you want to invite your family to join us on my family’s ranch?”
“I don’t have a family, Leslie. My parents are no longer with us, and my sister is…traveling in…Africa.”
“But surely she’ll want to come.”
“I’ll ask her. But I doubt very much if she can make it. There are a couple of people I might ask who are not family. Whether they would be able to make the trip to Florida, I don’t know.”
A week later, with the store up and running, Michael told Leslie he had an errand to run and asked if she could watch the store for about an hour.
“Of course.” Her eyes were alive with curiosity, but she said nothing to detain him as he went out the door.
He walked to the brownstone on the West Side. The doorman buzzed him in and he entered the elevator and got out on the fifth floor. An elderly gentleman greeted him. “Mrs. Hudson will receive you in the library. She wishes to serve tea if you’re agreeable.”
“Very agreeable.”
He’d imagined her in a setting like this, surrounded by precious books and works of art that had been in her family since the Civil War.
“So.” She was dressed in what he assumed was her finest, a gray silk gown overlaid with gray lace that fell around her ankles. She did not rise from her chair, a Chippendale original, he noted with some irony. “You’ve come to ask a favor. I knew it would only be a matter of time.”
“I have,” he said. She waved him toward the settee opposite her chair. He sat gingerly on the edge of the flowered cushion.
“Well? Speak up. I don’t have all day to waste on people who can’t do a good deed without expecting a reward. What is it you want?”
“She doesn’t know it yet, but Leslie and I are being married over Thanksgiving. The ceremony is to take place on a ranch in Florida. I wondered if you would honor us with your presence. I could consider you a…surrogate aunt.”
“You want me to come to your wedding?” She looked stunned for a moment. Then she recovered and said, “Expecting an extravagant wedding gift, I suppose?”
“I would consider your presence at our ceremony the greatest gift you could give us.”
She was silent of a moment. Then she said sharply, “Young man, you astound me. I’m beginning to think you are not of this world. Look around you. You can see how wealthy I am. Surely you must want something from me.”
“When I look around, I don’t see your wealth. I see how lonely you are. I’d like to make you a part of my family if I may, since I, too, have no one.”
She blinked several times, and he knew she was holding back tears. He’d touched her heart once again. “I’m not sure I’m up to traveling that far.”
“I would not want you to endanger your health. But if you give it some thought and decide you can make the trip, I could arrange your reservation on our flight so that we may travel together.”
“You and your fiancée just bought that old broken down antique store in East Village, didn’t you? Can’t have a lot of free cash floating around just now. I’ll pay for my own ticket, thank you. That is, if I decide to go. No promise, mind you.”
“I understand.” He rose, quite sure he had accomplished his mission.
“Young man.”
“Yes, Althea?”
“Why is it I can’t find you on the internet?”
“I’m sure I don’t know.”
He walked quickly, making his escape out of the library and out of the brownstone, down onto the street into the crisp fall air and took a deep breath. Why was it humans were so suspicious of kindness?
Chapter Nine
He sat next to Leslie in the plane, his hands splayed on his thighs. Did humans really do this all the time, climb into a very thin-shelled bullet shaped machine with torpedoes for propellant devices and fly thirty thousand feet into the air? He couldn’t believe they would be so reckless with their lives. Leslie had said this was the safest way to travel to Florida. As opposed to what? Shooting oneself out of a cannon?
“Are you nervous, love?” Leslie laid her cool palm on his hand. Not a bit of nervous sweat decorated it.
“No,” he said. This lying was getting to be a habit. Now he understood why humans resorted to it so often. Sometimes you simply did not want to alarm those nearest and dearest to you.
“It was sweet of you to include Jeremy and Althea in our party. They seem to be having a grand chat up there in first class. I’m sorry we’re not up there with them. I didn’t feel we could afford first class tickets.”
He picked up her hand and placed a kiss in her palm. “A frugal partner is a wondrous thing.”
She gave him one of those looks he was beginning to dislike, a look that made him feel as if she could see into his soul. “You aren’t worrying about meeting my family, are you, Michael?”
“Not exactly worrying. Just a little apprehensive.”
“You’ve got nothing to worry about. My family will love you.”
“Perhaps you’d better tell me all their names again and something about them.”
“Well, first of all, there’s my mother. Her name is Elizabeth. She was a princess in a Native American tribe before my father married her. My father is dead, kicked by a wild horse he was trying to train. Jake is my big brother and the head of the family, has been since my dad died. After him comes Gabe. He and Jake are so much alike that they often lock horns. Then there’s…”
“Lock horns? Your brothers have horns?”
“Oh, Michael. I just meant they often disagree with each other and both of them are too stubborn to back down and admit defeat.”
“Oh,” Michael said, greatly relieved.
“Dorian comes next. He’s totally different than my two older brothers. He’s
calm and quiet…more like you. I have to warn you. Dorian has a condition he inherited from my dad. He doesn’t tan, he burns. He has to wear lots of sunscreen and stay out of the sun. So when he stands next to my brothers, he looks very pale. I come after Dorian. The baby of the family is Laura, but she’s not a baby. She’s one year younger than I am. She’s been through college majoring in musical theater, and she wants to come to New York, but right now, she’s helping Jake’s wife Lynn at the community theater Lynn manages. She also helps Lynn with her children. Jake and Lynn have a six year old boy named David and two twin four year olds. Their names are Victoria and Veronica. They are cute as anything, but they are a handful.”
“They are small enough to fit in your hand?”
“I meant they are mischievous and they keep you busy chasing after them. In other words, they keep your hands full. Michael, I’m going to have to find you a dictionary of idioms.”
“I would rather you did not. I will catch on after a bit.”
She gave the hand he still held a squeeze. “Of course you will.”
Should I warn him about Gabe and Jake? If those two tried to pull their usual stunts of inviting him out behind the barn to smoke obnoxious cigars or putting him on the back of an unbroken horse, I’d…well, I’d better have a talk with those two the minute I see them.
Happy tears flowed freely at the Orlando airport. Elizabeth pulled me into her arms and hugged me so tightly, I wasn’t sure I’d ever breathe again. When I introduced her to Michael, he brought my mother’s hand to his lips and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Rutledge.”
“Please. Call me Elizabeth.” With her intuition working in high gear, Elizabeth sensed how different this man was. He was nothing like she’d expected a New York man Leslie had picked up off the street to be.
Lynne came next. “Oh, sweetheart. I’ve been so worried about you. Why haven’t you been in touch?”
Jake stood behind Lynne, a protective hand on her shoulder as usual. “Damn fine time you were here. Your mother’s been worrying her heart out.”
“I’m sorry, Jake. I’ve had a lot of things happening.” I linked my arm through Michael’s to present a united front to my brother. This would be the tough part. Introducing Michael as my business partner when he was just a little bit more than that.
“This is Michael, the guy I’m going to be working with. Michael, Jake, my big brother.”
“Leslie has told me all about you, how you took on the responsibility for your family after your father died. Very admirable.”
Jake was even more formidable than Leslie had warned. He was tall, tanned and looked toughened from his work out of doors with cattle. He wore a blue work shirt, jeans, and the broad-brimmed hat of a cattleman. Michael knew instinctively that if he appeared fearful or hesitant, this man would think less of him. “Is that all you are? Leslie’s business partner?”
“For now,” Michael said, with a smile.
Althea stood at Michael’s side, impatiently waiting to be introduced. When Michael did the introduction, it was like Tatiana meeting Poseidon. Althea took hold of Jake’s hand and looked straight into his eyes. “You’re the boss on this ranch, are you? Well, don’t think you’re going to tell me what to do. But I do want to thank you for inviting me.”
Jake conceded gracefully. “We are honored to have you as a guest on our ranch, ma’am. Consider it your home.” Jake turned to Michael. He wasn’t scowling exactly, but he was not far from it. “And I’m glad to finally meet you. I thought you were an actor.”
I tightened my grip on Michael’s arm. “That was my last boyfriend. Keep up, big brother.”
“Well. A store owner is a hell of a lot better prospect than an actor.”
“Jake,” I scolded.
“Welcome to the family home, Michael.” This from Dorian, stepping into the breach, holding out his hand to Michael and looking far more amenable than his two brothers. Michael sensed that he had an ally in this man, whose appearance was so different from that of his rancher brothers.
“Would you big lugs give a lady a chance?”
“Lady?” teased Gabe. “There’s a lady here?”
Lynne gave Gabe’s arm a soft hit and stepped forward. “Darling Leslie.” Lynne enfolded Leslie in her arms. “I can’t believe you’re finally here.”
“I wouldn’t be anywhere if it weren’t for you, my wonderful sister. You saved my life, you know.”
“Let’s not speak of that. This is our happy time, to finally have you home. And this is Michael. It’s a pleasure.” He was treated to a generous hug from Lynne, just as Leslie had been.
“Where’s Laura?” I asked.
“Home taking care of our brood,” Lynne said, smiling. “We didn’t promise her much to make this sacrifice, just the moon, wasn’t it, darling?” she said, smiling at Jake.
“I believe I promised her a ticket back to New York City to visit you two at some future date,” Jake said.
When the greetings were over, and the family went to collect the couples’ luggage, Michael whispered, “What did you mean, she saved your life?”
“I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, let’s just get through the trip home.”
Jake insisted Leslie and Michael ride with him and Gabe in his black SUV. Dorian had brought his mother and Lynne in his car and Althea and Jeremy went with him.
“I’ll let you ride shotgun.”
Michael knew better than to ask what that meant. When Gabe pushed Michael into the front seat next to Jake, Michael thought it couldn’t be anything too serious.
Jake moved out of the airport traffic smoothly and onto the four lane highway headed west. “So. How long have you owned this antique store?”
“Jake.” Leslie chided him. “Couldn’t you wait until we get home before you start with the third degree?” Then, with an anxious look at Michael’s face, she added, “Save your questions until we’ve had a chance to get accustomed to the warm weather and having our feet on the ground.”
“I have a right…”
“No,” Leslie shot back. “You’re my big brother, not my father. You need to treat Michael with respect.”
“I’m always respectful, Leslie.”
“Yeah, right.”
Michael wished there would not be this discord between Leslie and her brother, but he supposed it was natural. Jake was used to being in charge.
Michael looked out the window at the passing scenery, miles and miles of green palm trees and scrub brush, while on the other side of the Beach line, which was the highway Jake had said they were on, there was a steady stream of cars headed back toward the city of Orlando. The sun shone with a brilliance he was sure it never achieved in New York. Everything was so green. He hadn’t been on earth very long, but he realized that Florida was semi-tropical, a world away from the New York climate in November.
Jake decided he’d better ease up on this Michael while Leslie was in earshot. He’d make sure he had a chance at the guy when Leslie wasn’t around. If there was anything, any little thing that was off about this guy, he would do his damnedest to stop her from being his business partner.
If Michael thought he was a world away before, the sight of the Rutledge homestead convinced him. The house was constructed entirely of hewn logs. He expected it to be as primitive on the outside as it was inside, but when they entered, he couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. The opposite wall was constructed of intersecting panes of glass supported by white pine beams, windows that looked out over a lush orchard of orange trees. He’d smelled their scent when he had emerged from the automobile. Leather furniture sat around a fireplace that had a fire box big enough for a man to stand in. The glass wall had sections cut like prisms so that miniature rainbows played over the shining oak floor and the rug adorning it. For it was an adornment, a beautiful hand-woven work of art with a border of red, blue and yellow strands. In the center, a huge black falcon spread his wings in preparation for flight.
“That�
��s Mom’s handiwork,” Leslie said proudly. “We think it’s museum quality. She just says, she made it for our feet and that’s where it’s staying.”
“It’s quite the most beautiful rug I’ve ever seen,” Michael said.
“And he’s seen some beauties. We have some very expensive Oriental rugs in our shop.”
“That’s very kind of you, Michael,” Elizabeth said. “Jake, bring their luggage in. They’ll be staying together in the blue room.”
Jake gave his mother a dark look, but he went to do her bidding.
Leslie, bless her heart, finally looked at him with her shrewd, examining look. “Michael, I think you need a break. Meeting my family all at once must be exhausting. Would you like to go to our room and take a rest?”
“Actually, I’d like to take a look around the ranch, if Elizabeth wouldn’t mind.”
“Go ahead, Michael, and go anywhere you like. Consider this your home while you are here.”
“Thank you, Elizabeth. Beloved.” He picked up Leslie’s hand and kissed it, then took his leave of them.
Anxiously, I turned to my mother. “What do you think of him?”
“He’s very…different. Not at all what I expected. He has about him an air of other-worldliness. I sense he is an old soul. And yet, he seems to have little knowledge of this world.”
“As usual, Mom, you’re exactly right. But you can’t imagine all the good he’s done.”
“Yes. I think he considers himself a servant to the righteous forces in the world.”
“Wow, Mom. You got that after spending so little time with him?”
“Well, after all, my pet, any man who takes you on as a business partner has to be a saint,” Elizabeth said, sharing a laugh with her daughter.
Michael knew something about stables, and he thought this must be one of the best. Like the house, the wall opposite him was glass, separated by white pine beams. A mosaic of a horse decorated the middle section. The walls were all white pine, the confining wrought iron gates a sparkling black, the floor pristine. There were twenty stalls and horses in seven of them. Of the seven horses, one was a beautiful palomino with a snow white mane, one was a black gelding, and one was a gray mare. There was a sweet little pinto mare and in the last two stalls stood two Florida cracker ponies. At the very end, a horse pawed at his stable door. It was a black stallion who might have been the ride of Satan himself.
Some Kind of Angel Page 10
