Safe Harbor: A Cold Creek Homecoming

by Sherryl Woods

  “Not so far,” David said cautiously. “Several people seem to be involved, since the volume is high and no one’s passed the percentage that would require them to register with the SEC. So far all of them are covering their tracks well. There’s no way to tell if there’s a link until somebody registers.”

  “Of course there is,” she said. “I want you to make a few discreet calls to our sources around the country. Someone must know something.”

  When she got off the phone, Drew was staring at the ceiling. She tried to decide if he looked guilty, but finally settled for brooding as a more apt description.

  “What was that all about?” he said, his voice casual, his expression so neutral it made her want to shout.

  “David seems to think there’s a takeover attempt underway.” Again, there was no visible reaction.

  “I suppose you want to get right back to Florida.”

  “Actually, no. I think I’d like to make a few stops down on Wall Street.”

  “I see.” Drew’s voice was suddenly cool. Tina had already started toward the bathroom to take a shower, but she turned back as his tone registered.

  “What’s wrong?” She waited for the bomb to drop. It didn’t. She supposed that made sense. Why would he reveal himself now, if he were behind the takeover?

  She came back and sat on the edge of the bed, her fingers tangling in the dark hairs on his chest. “Drew, I asked you a question.”

  “There’s nothing wrong.”

  “Don’t tell me that, Drew Landry. I can read you like a book.”

  “I wonder,” he said softly.

  Tina was inexplicably hurt by the remark. “Drew, are you upset because I want to go check this out?” She hesitated, then said slowly, “Or is it something more?”

  His gaze met hers, then wavered. He was staring at the ceiling again when he said, “No. There’s nothing more to it. Go. It’s what you have to do.”

  “That’s right and it’s exactly what you’d be doing if it were Landry Enterprises.”

  “I suppose.”

  “You know it is. Drew, I love you, but Harrington Industries matters to me, too. It’s a part of who I am. You knew that when you met me. After all I’ve been through in the last few weeks to stay in control, you can’t expect me to turn my back on it now.”

  “I guess I just thought now that the fight was over what we had here might be more important to you.”

  “Loving you is important, but so is Gerald’s company.”

  “That’s really the point, isn’t it?” he said with a bitterness that stunned her. “It’s Gerald’s company. Gerald will always come first.”

  “That’s absurd. He’s dead, Drew,” she said bluntly.

  “But your love for him isn’t. Are you planning to dedicate the rest of your life to his memory?”

  Tina felt a slow-burning rage building inside her. How could Drew put her in this position? He was making her choose between him and Harrington Industries. As he saw it, it was a choice between him and her late husband. The whole idea was preposterous. She was in love with Drew, but she owed something to Gerald.

  “Please don’t make me choose, Drew. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “It’s not the same.”

  “Yes,” she said softly. “Yes, it is.”

  She got up and went into the bathroom then. When she’d showered and dressed, she came back into the bedroom. Drew was gone. His suitcase was missing as well. Drew had made the choice for her.

  In a way, she’d been prepared for the happiness to die, but now that it had, the hurt was far more devastating than she’d imagined and it only got worse.

  In a matter of days Tina was able to exploit her sources and trace the apparent takeover bid to a conglomerate even bigger and more successful than Harrington Industries. It was owned by Drew Landry.

  The sense of betrayal Tina felt was more painful than anything she’d ever known before in her life.

  Drew, who’d always seemed so supportive.

  Drew, who’d professed to love her.

  Drew, who was once again trying to turn her whole world upside down.

  Tina had never run from a challenge before in her life, and she didn’t run from this one. She flew back to Palm Beach and called a meeting of the board, outlining the information she had uncovered.

  “We’ll fight him,” Mr. Parsons blustered. “No question about it. We’re not going to let Landry or anyone else manipulate us.” He stared hard at Tina. “Thought that man was in love with you.”

  “I thought so, too,” Tina said softly.

  To her astonishment there was a look of gentle understanding in Mr. Parsons’s eyes. “I’m sorry, young lady.”

  Tina didn’t trust herself to speak. She simply nodded, took a deep breath and asked, “So what do we do?”

  “We increase our own shares, pull together the stockholders and block the attempt.”

  “I’ll spend every cent I have, if that’s what it takes,” Tina said.

  Within days, though, the flurry of stock purchases died down. The price stabilized in wait of news about a takeover. To everyone’s surprise, no such word came.

  “Tina, you’re looking downright peaked again,” Grandmother Sarah admonished.

  “I’m fine,” she said, sipping on a glass of fresh lemonade as she sat listlessly on the terrace. It was the first day off she’d had in ages, and all she wanted to do was sit and wallow in her misery. It was time she mourned for Drew and then put the whole ugly experience behind her.

  “I don’t mean to meddle, girl, but...”

  “Please, don’t.”

  Sarah’s face took on a stubborn demeanor, and Tina knew she was in for a lecture whether she liked it or not. “I’m not going to sit by and watch you be miserable.”

  “I’m not miserable.”

  “Could have fooled me,” she huffed. “You aren’t eating. When you aren’t at the office, you’re moping around here. You scowl every time you bump into Seth, as though this were his fault.”

  Tina lifted her eyes at last. “I’m sorry, if I’ve been rude to Seth,” she said sincerely. “I know he’s important to you and I know none of this was his doing.”

  “It’s just that he reminds you of his son.”

  “Something like that.”

  “Speaking of which, don’t you think it’s time you talked to Drew? If he trims that hedge back much further hoping to catch a glimpse of you, there won’t be a leaf or branch left on it. Mr. Kelly’s already having a fit.”

  “Tell Mr. Kelly to go ahead and replace the hedge.”

  “That’s not the point, Christina Elizabeth, and you know it.”

  Tina sighed. “No. I don’t suppose it is.”

  “What is the point of all this fussing then? You do love the man, don’t you? Any fool can see that.”

  “Okay, yes. I love him, but it doesn’t matter.”

  “Oh, posh-tosh, girl. Of course it matters. It’s the only thing that does.”

  “The man tried to take everything away from me. First all of you and then Harrington Industries. I hate him for that.”

  “There’s a fine line between love and hate, isn’t there?” Sarah said sagely. “Talk to Drew. You two had so much together. Don’t throw it all away over what might have been just a misunderstanding.”

  “Thousands of shares of stock registered in his name cannot be misunderstood.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. Find out for sure and then make your decision.”

  “Have you talked to him? What did he tell you?”

  “I think he should tell you himself. I’m not going to interfere.”

  “Oh, really?”

  Still, Grandmother Sarah had accomplished her purpose. Tina thought about the o
lder woman’s advice all during another long, lonely night through which not even the sea breeze could lull her to sleep. By morning she had made a decision. She had made several phone calls to complete the arrangements and then she ran, seeking a refuge that would allow her to think through how she could have been so wrong about a man she had loved so much. He had overcome her initial distrust, only to prove that he wasn’t worthy of her love at all.

  Or was it at all possible that Sarah might be right? Could she have misunderstood Drew’s actions? It didn’t seem likely and yet Sarah had seemed so sure that talking would resolve everything and Sarah knew her pretty well.

  She would talk to Drew, she resolved at last, but first she needed time to figure out who she was and what she wanted from life. Could there have been some truth to Drew’s accusation that she was clinging to the past, and if she was, why? Was she afraid of the present? Did she fear the powerful emotions that had swept through her from the very first with Drew? Had she instinctively expected, perhaps even hoped, it would end before it developed into something much more, into a commitment, a marriage that would be stormy and exciting, exactly the opposite of her placid life with Gerald?

  If there were answers to all of that, she had to find them. It was something she should have done a long time ago.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Over the next few days Tina worked until she thought her arms would fall off and her back would never straighten out again. She’d run away to Mr. Kelly’s house in her old neighborhood. There Tina swept cobwebs, scrubbed and painted walls, stripped and waxed the floors and dusted the furniture.

  When she’d finished with the inside and the outside of the house, she went to work on the yard. Mr. Kelly would have been horrified by the state it was in. There were weeds everywhere. Millions of them, if her aching muscles were anything to judge by.

  Tina had returned here instinctively, needing the contact with the old Tina and a way of life that might have been less filled with creature comforts, but which, in the end, had been so much simpler. People back then—even those she hadn’t much liked—were always exactly what they seemed. There were few choices and they’d always seemed clear-cut, perhaps because she’d never allowed herself to see anything but black or white. She’d never allowed for the varying shades of gray that could complicate life, even as they made it more interesting.

  As the week wore on, not only did the physical labor tire her out so that she could sleep at night, but the return to her old neighborhood forced her to think about her life—what it had been and what it had become. At night she sat on Mr. Kelly’s porch and looked across the tiny patch of lawn to the house where she’d grown up. Its porch sagged and it was in need of paint, but it was hardly a slum. It was simply the victim of time, old and tired and well-used. It would have tucked neatly into one corner of her Palm Beach estate and yet, she was just now realizing, it had held just as much love. She was only beginning to understand that nothing else really mattered.

  As a child, she had wanted so much more. She used to sit in this same rocking chair next to Mr. Kelly and tell him about her dream of being somebody someday. People were going to seek her out because she was so smart. They wouldn’t be able to ignore her as they did the scrawny little kid who wore secondhand clothes from the church rummage sale and talked with a halting shyness.

  She’d wanted success and recognition not just for herself, she’d always thought, but for her parents. They’d worked so hard and deserved better than what they’d been given. Now she had to face the possibility that perhaps she’d been thoroughly selfish after all, driven to distance herself from roots of which she was ashamed.

  She dug her hands into the dirt to get at the roots of the weeds and wondered if she could get to the source of her problems as easily. Had it been the money—the so-called root of all evil—after all? Had the money itself, rather than the challenge of getting it, tantalized her in ways she’d never realized? That was certainly what Drew thought.

  “Damn,” she muttered, yanking up a clump of weeds and tossing them over her shoulder. What did it matter to her what Drew Landry thought? He’d only been using her. The pain she thought she’d seen in his eyes when he was convinced she’d chosen Harrington Industries over him must have been another lie. If her priorities were out of kilter, his were worse. He’d betrayed her love to get what he wanted. Disillusionment had sunk in and become her constant, discomforting companion.

  “I will not think about that man for another single minute,” she swore valiantly, but his image didn’t vanish as she might have liked. It lingered on to tease and torment her like a sun-kissed spring breeze that only hinted of warmer weather. She remembered the pain, but she also remembered the moments of incredible tenderness, of loving protectiveness and of blinding passion.

  When she’d first returned to the neighborhood after Mr. Kelly had agreed to let her fix the place up so he could sell it, she’d been so sure she would feel desperately alone, even more so than she had after Gerald’s death. It was a sensation she craved. She had to discover if she could learn to live quietly, with only her own thoughts for company as she’d been unable to do three years earlier.

  In the beginning, it had been difficult. She’d missed the commotion of home—Sarah’s wise counsel, Juliet’s sweetly innocent humor, Mr. Kelly’s grumpiness, their quiet evenings of Scrabble and gin rummy. Most of all, she’d missed having Billy tagging around after her, plaguing her with questions about life and a world that always seemed just beyond his reach.

  After a few days, though, she’d grown comfortable with her own company and that of a straggly marmalade cat. She’d piteously meowed her way into Tina’s heart and slurped up an entire quart of milk before sprawling contentedly on the sunny front porch.

  With only Samantha Junior, as she called the cat, for companionship, Tina tried to analyze her relationship with Drew and with Gerald before him. Both were men of power and single-minded purpose. Both had a vitality that attracted her, but now she wondered why she had been drawn to such strength when she’d only come to resent it when it was used to protect her.

  Both men were similar in other respects as well. Both had offered her their faith in her abilities—or so she had thought. Both had given her freely of their love, but again had it only seemed so? She had never had any cause to doubt Gerald’s feelings for her, but she now had every reason to question Drew’s, despite Sarah’s seeming faith in him.

  “Mind some company?” Drew’s voice startled her just as she pulled another handful of weeds out of the dry soil and tossed them haphazardly over her shoulder. She looked up in time to see the messy clump land squarely in the middle of the pale blue polo shirt that hugged his broad chest.

  “Is that your answer?” he teased lightly, though his blue eyes were very solemn. He looked vulnerable, something she’d never have expected from the confident Drew Landry she’d grown to love over the last few weeks. She was astonished to find that the familiar surge of desire roared through her at the sight of him. Her eyes drank in the expression in his eyes, the tilt of his lips, and worry tugged at her heart when she saw how haggard and drawn he looked.

  So, she thought, she loved him still, after all, no matter what he had done. She was determined, though, not to let him see her response. At least not until she had some answers and maybe not even then. She started with the easiest question.

  “How did you find me?” Her voice was cool, detached, though her insides were churning with misery at the knowledge that she still cared when she felt so strongly that she shouldn’t.

  “Dad wormed it out of Sarah.”

  “I didn’t tell Sarah.”

  “Who’d gotten it out of Juliet.”

  Tina’s eyes were twinkling now, despite herself, as she concluded for him, “Who’d gotten it straight from Mr. Kelly.”

  “Maybe he talks in his sleep as well as tak
ing midnight strolls,” Drew suggested with a shrug. “Now that I’m here, do you want to talk about what happened?”

  Tina shook her head. “I’m still not convinced we have anything to talk about. It all seems pretty clear.”

  “Assumptions are a lousy way to communicate, Tina. Tell me what you think you see.”

  “For some reason, you chose to go behind my back to try to take Harrington Industries away from me. Sarah seems to think you had your reasons and they were valid.”

  “And you? Don’t you want to know what those reasons were?”

  “I know what they were. You’re a smart businessman. It was a good deal, an ideal opportunity for you to expand your own company’s holdings. We’re ahead of the industry in the development of new products. In your position, I might have done the same thing knowing all that you did about Harrington Industries and its growth potential.”

  She stared at him bitterly. “Things I’d confided to you like an innocent little lamb. You must have been laughing hysterically all the way to your broker’s.”

  Drew couldn’t have looked any more shocked if she’d slapped him. “If you believe that, then you did a lousy investigation,” he snapped impatiently, then clamped his mouth shut. When he was in control again, he said softly, “You also don’t have very much faith in my love.”

  “My investigation was very thorough, but you’re right about one thing. I don’t have much faith in us anymore. Can you blame me?” she inquired.

  “No. I don’t suppose so, since you don’t have all the facts.” His voice was heavy with censure. “But I thought you might at least listen to the truth. Sarah seemed to think you were ready.”

  Tina sighed. “Okay. Talk. But it won’t change anything.”

  “Perhaps not, but at least you’ll know exactly what happened, instead of cutting me out of your life for all the wrong reasons.”

  “You were the one who walked out on me in New York,” she reminded him.

  Drew met her gaze evenly. “That was foolish. No matter how upset I was about the choice you made that morning. I should have stayed and talked it out. I’m sure leaving only made me look more guilty in your eyes.”