Destiny Bay Boxed Set Vol. 1 (Books 1 - 3)

by Helen Conrad

  But his mind wasn’t on business. His head was full of memories, mostly of Janet—of the feel of her, of the scent of her, of the sound of her voice. He’d thought a week back in his usual territory would start to erode the way he felt about her. But he’d been wrong. If anything, he wanted her more.

  Mickey’s little girl was staring at him around corners again. He tried smiling at her but that made her duck away. The child was adorable, about three years old with a head of blond curls that danced like a field of daisies when she walked. But she didn’t really walk. She bounced. Kind of like Tigger with his bottom made of springs.

  “Meggie, you stop teasing Matt,” Mickey ordered. “He’s got important things to think about.”

  “I do?”

  “Yes, you do. For instance, your new sister-in-law-to-be.”

  “Jennifer?”

  She nodded and gestured toward the door. “Here she is. Now you treat her nice, okay?”

  Matt jumped up and turned in time to see Jennifer coming into the café, her smile as bright as ever, her dark curls flying around her shoulders, and looking very much like she’d looked at eighteen—ready for anything.

  “Jenny,” he said, his smile as wide as the ocean.

  “Matt!” She ran into his arms, laughing and holding him tightly. “Oh Matt, it’s so good to see you. You’ve been gone too long.”

  He pulled back and looked at her, hungry for her energy and happiness. “You just couldn’t wait for me, huh?” he teased. “You had to go ahead and pick Reid.”

  She nodded. “I decided, if it was going to be a Carrington, it might as well be the best one.”

  “Oh!” He acted as though he’d been stabbed in the heart. “You know how to hurt a guy, don’t you?”

  Reaching up, she kissed him on the cheek. “I’m only kidding, and you know it. It feels so good to be back home in Destiny Bay. We need all the Carrington men back here.”

  “I’m glad you feel that way.” His gaze darkened. “How about Reid?”

  She hesitated long enough for him to know there was still some bad feeling there. “Reid is going to flip when he sees you,” she assured him quickly. “You’re coming to the wedding, aren’t you?”

  He searched her eyes. “Do you think Reid would want me there?”

  She grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him, without much in the way of results. “Family should be together,” she insisted. “I want you there. And once he sees you, he’ll feel the same way.”

  He frowned. That didn’t sound all that encouraging. “How about Grant?” he asked her. “Anyone seen or heard from him?”

  She shook her head. “I tried to get him through his manager, but there’s been no news. I just…” She shrugged and looked helpless. “But you’ll be there. Right? Promise me.”

  He promised her. How could he avoid it? She was the same old impossible-to-say-no-to Jenny he’d known all his life. He would be there, whether Reid liked it or not.

  “Have another Pizza Spin.” Baxter’s round face was beaming jovially. “Here, try it with this clam dip. It’s really good. Just try it.”

  Janet couldn’t hide the grin. Baxter, her own personal gourmand. She glanced at the hors d’oeuvre he held in his hand, pizza spices dripping from it, and almost laughed aloud.

  “See? We’ve got her smiling again. I knew this party would do the trick!” Howie blinked his eyes owlishly from behind horn-rimmed glasses.

  Janet smiled at them with genuine affection. Howie and Baxter were trying so hard to cheer her up, even going to the extent of planning a party for her this evening. Who could help but love them?

  “Come on. Try it.”

  Mentally holding her nose, she dipped a round Pizza Spin in the runny clam dip and popped it into her mouth, managing to nod as if she loved it. “Great,” she croaked, swallowing fast so the taste wouldn’t linger.

  “Here, have another one,” Howie demanded, lurching forward to dip it in the clam concoction for her.

  “No ... no ... no .. . no,” she protested, backing away, her eyes wide. “Really, no. My stomach is a little unsettled. I ... I don’t think I’d better have any more just yet.”

  “Excited about the party, huh?” Baxter nodded happily. “We invited all our old lab partners from college.”

  “And a botany summer field group who are living in a tent city out in Cider Woods for the month.” Howie chortled. “They said they’d come if they could use your shower.”

  “And the guy who runs the taxidermy shop down on the embarcadero.”

  “Oh, and; Happy Apple Harvest—you know, that old hippie who lives in tree houses and makes earrings out of used plumbing fixtures to sell to the tourists.”

  “Gee,” Janet said, her smile beginning to feel forced, “sounds like a fun group.”

  “Oh, yeah.” They both nodded happily. “People should start arriving any minute now.”

  She hesitated, then asked tentatively, “You didn’t invite any of my friends?”

  Baxter blinked. “Your friends?” They both stared at her. “You don’t have any friends.”

  “Yeah,” Howie chimed in. “That’s why we’re giving you this party. To get you into the social whirl. Get you up and out and into the mainstream.”

  Janet sighed. It was her own fault, really. She did have friends, or at least she’d had them in the old days. Since her father had died, she realized, she had been hiding away with Baxter and Howie, using the two of them as a shield against the world, immersing herself in her work so as to avoid having to come into contact with other human beings.

  Well, she’d been plunged into the real world with a vengeance when she’d broken into Matt’s room. She shivered involuntarily. She seemed to do that whenever she thought of Matt. And that was often. So often, in fact, that Baxter and Howie had begun to wonder if she’d contracted walking pneumonia.

  It had been six weeks since she’d grabbed Alexander and run back to her old, safe life. She’d been determined at the time that she was never going to see Matt again. Once she’d regained the sanctuary of home, however, and she’d had time to think things over, she’d realized she would be needed in the case against Mavis and Gregory. The police would come calling, and she might even have to go to court. Steeling herself, she’d waited.

  But the police had never called. As the days slipped by and there was no mention of an arrest of any kind in the local paper, Janet became more and more curious. What had become of them all? Could she have dreamed the entire affair? It was driving her crazy—like losing the last chapter of a book you’d been deeply immersed in. She had to know.

  Finally she couldn’t stand it any longer. Jumping into her car, she’d driven back over that winding road and turned into Mavis’s driveway. There was the house, just as she remembered it. Only it had a gaunt, empty look and there was a for-sale sign on the garage door.

  Leaving her car behind, she’d walked out over the grounds, visiting the redwood forest where she and Matt had walked that first day. It all came alive for her once again. She could hear Matt’s voice, feel his touch on her skin.

  It had all been so brief, so fleeting. And yet, it had changed her life.

  Walking around the house, she surveyed the ledge she’d climbed to Mavis’s balcony on, marveling at how she could ever have done anything so dumb. And all for that crazy cat who hadn’t stopped napping since she’d brought him home, as though the ordeal had completely worn him out.

  Well, it had worn her out, too. Or something had. She’d thought she was running back to normalcy that evening when she’d made her great escape. Maybe “being normal” had changed. Or maybe she had. But being normal didn’t seem to satisfy her as it once had.

  She’d turned her back on danger, on excitement, on doubts and chances. She’d refused to put herself at risk. And she’d lost Matt by doing so.

  Matt. Suddenly the sense of him was overwhelming. She could almost see him standing in the window, almost hear his laugh. Her body ached with longin
g. Turning, she ran for her car.

  But once inside it, she couldn’t seem to leave. She sat for a long time, staring at the house. Two short days. Such a bare, fleeting time. And yet they’d been packed with more living than the rest of her life.

  Wouldn’t you have thought, she mused, that he would come looking for her, just to talk things over? She’d watched the mailbox like a hawk for two weeks. Not a card, not a note. After all they’d done together, all they’d said, wouldn’t you have thought he’d write? Or call? Just once?

  And what would she have done if he had? She’d shaken the thought away and started the car, driving home fast, as though there’d been a ghost on her tail.

  “There’s the doorbell.” Baxter jumped up, knocking over a bowl of potato chips on his way to the front door.

  He and Howie had decorated her living room with balloons and streamers. They’d collected a lot of dance music on their ipods, but they were having problems with the speakers so they’d asked a friend of theirs, who played the accordion, to fill in for a while. He’d come gladly. Accordion players didn’t get all that many invitations. And now he was setting up his music on her tropical fish tank.

  “Don’t mind me,” he said whenever she looked his way. “You won’t even know I’m here.”

  With a sheepish grin, he began to play “Lady of Spain” in a soft, but insistent background melody.

  People were pouring in the front door. Janet stood up and backed away, wishing she could run for her bedroom. Every single person she saw was a stranger to her, and most of them looked more than a little eccentric. These weren’t friends. She was tempted to find a way out and head for a coffee shop somewhere. But Baxter and Howie were so pleased with themselves—she couldn’t disappoint them.

  “Hi.” A short woman with freckles and two fat red braids stopped in front of her. “You must be Janet. I’m Amy.”

  “Hello, Amy.” Janet smiled.

  “Did you make this furniture?” Amy asked, looking at the modern sofa and armchair.

  The question startled Janet just a bit, but she smiled. “No. I bought it all.”

  “Oh.” Amy was obviously disappointed. “I’m making mine.”

  “Good for you,” Janet answered without enthusiasm.

  “Have you ever had a transcendental experience?”

  “I ... I don’t think so.” Janet was beginning to look around for help.

  “I have. And it made me a better person-- I was manic depressive once.”

  “Were you?”

  Baxter and Howie were going to pay for this, she thought grimly.

  “That was when I was living in the Mojave Desert with a nomadic shepherd.” Her mouth drooped. “I lost him when he moved to New York to become a stockbroker.” Suddenly Amy brightened. “Where’s the food?” Spotting the punch bowl on the table, she made a beeline for it, and Janet sighed with relief.

  The evening went on in a similar vein. It was funny. Though she got along well with Baxter and Howie, somehow she didn’t seem to be on quite the same wavelength as most of their friends. The conversation with Amy repeated itself in a variety of themes, and she never quite knew what people were talking about.

  Janet escaped gratefully when she heard the landline ring. She’d been delivered from a chat about the magic properties of crickets. She hurried into her bedroom to take the call in privacy.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello. Vanessa dear, is that you?”

  For just a moment she was afraid she was hearing things. “Mavis?” she gasped. “Is it really you?”

  “Yes, dear. And I suppose I should call you Janet now, shouldn’t I?”

  “You can call me anything you want to.” She was laughing and tears were brimming her eyes at the same time. “Where are you? Where are you calling from?”

  “My home. Not where I was before. It’s a new place, quite small, but I love it.”

  “I’m so glad!” She wasn’t talking about prison, was she? No, she couldn’t be.

  “Yes, and that’s what I’ve called for. I’d like you to join me for lunch tomorrow. Can you make it?”

  “Make it?” Mavis was her link to what she’d had with Matt. The thought of being with her again was thrilling. “I’ll be there all right. With bells on.”

  “Good.” She gave her an address. “See you tomorrow at noon.”

  Janet went back to the party, but her mind wasn’t on it. Excitement was stirring in her again for the first time in weeks.

  “Just look at that,” Baxter said to Howie smugly. “We did it. I knew this party would put the sparkle back into her eyes.”

  “We’re geniuses,” Howie agreed. “What would she do without us?”

  Mavis’s new home was certainly nothing like her mansion up in the mountains. In an older part of town, it was a tiny bungalow with roses twining on the gate. Janet let herself into the yard and walked slowly to the front door, her heart pounding.

  “There you are, my dear.” Mavis threw open the door and opened her arms to Janet. Standing straight and tall, she hardly looked like the woman Janet once thought was doomed to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

  Janet shared her embrace a bit hesitantly, still unsure of just how things stood. “How did you get this place?” she asked when Mavis released her.

  She looked around. Once again, books were everywhere, but in this little cottage, the French doors all around let in streams of sunshine and there was hardly a shadow to be seen. “It’s certainly cute.”

  “Isn’t it? Two bedrooms, and a rose garden. What more could I want?” She smiled. “Matt got it for me.”

  Janet’s head was spinning. “Matt?”

  “Sit down, my dear, have a glass of lemonade; and let me tell you all about it.”

  Janet sat down with a thump, reaching blindly for the tall frosty glass Mavis handed her. “Are . . . are you all right?” she asked huskily. “I mean, your legs . . .”

  “I’m fine.” Mavis sat across the coffee table from her on the couch. “I was always just fine. But I guess you realized that before you ran away, didn’t you?”

  Janet just stared at her, dazed.

  “I knew Matt was a fraud from the beginning, you know.”

  Janet nodded. “I thought you knew.”

  “Yes. But he was such a darling, and I was so dreadfully bored, I let him in. It was like a game. I thought I could outplay him.”

  Janet shook her head, frowning. “But the police ...”

  “They arrived shortly after you left. Matt told them the call was a mistake. By that time, we’d already struck a deal.”

  “A deal?”

  “Oh, let me start at the beginning. You know, I haven’t always been a crook. Once I was a perfectly respectable lady. But I did have an accident ten years ago, and the settlement from the insurance came in handy. So the next time, I exaggerated a little, and got more. My last husband left me the house where you found me and I thought I was set for the rest of my life. But Gregory kept demanding more money to further his crackpot schemes, and I was too weak to say no.”

  “He’s your son. You must love him.”

  “Must I?” She smiled, shaking her head. “You know, I think it was because I didn’t love him very much that I gave him the money. Guilt money. Trying to pay him back for lack of motherly affection. It wasn’t until I became close to Matt and saw how a relationship with a younger relative could be that I realized it wasn’t all my fault. Gregory turned out badly. It’s time to admit it.”

  “Oh.” That sounded so sad. She leaned forward and touched Mavis’s hand. “But Matt . . .”

  “Matt is such a darling, isn’t he?” She laughed merrily. “He said right away that he didn’t want to see me go to jail. He only wanted to save his friend’s insurance company. And once he’d told me how things were, I wanted to do anything I could to help him. So I agreed to immediately withdraw my claim. Gregory agreed, under some duress from Matt, to leave me alone in the future. And Matt helped me make
the transition to a simpler and less expensive life-style.”

  “Matt has been here all this time?” She felt a twinge of pain in that. So near and yet so far.

  “Actually, he was in Hawaii last week. But he stuck around long enough to help me get settled. Then he had to go back to Hawaii and take care of his hotels.”

  “Oh.” A wave of disappointment swept over her. “I ... I took the cat.”

  “Yes, I know. Matt explained all that to me. I wish I’d known from the beginning. I would surely have given him to you right away. But I couldn’t let anyone into my room, don’t you know, because that was where I stretched my legs.”

  “Of course.”

  “Now.” She sprang to her feet, much more energetic than she’d ever seemed before. “Come and help me with lunch. It’s almost ready, but I need a little help on the salad greens.”

  Janet followed her into the tiny kitchen and they chatted comfortably as they prepared a lunch of chicken divan and chef’s salad.

  Through it all, Janet’s mind was full of thoughts of Matt. Her Matt. The man she’d called a cheat and a liar. And here all the time he’d been taking care of Mavis, not persecuting her. Had she let her standards cloud her judgment? Had she let herself see him as he really was? Or hadn’t she ever known him at all?

  Carrying the salad out to the table Mavis had set with violet plates, with daisies at each place, she noticed that the table was set for three.

  “Is someone going to join us?”

  “Yes. A good friend of mine.”

  “Oh.”

  The doorbell chimed.

  “There’s my friend now. I’ve got my hands full here. Would you do the honors for me, Janet?”

  Janet nodded, hurrying away, wiping her hands on the apron Mavis had lent her. She pulled open the door and stared at Matt’s handsome face looking down at her.

  Speechless, she swayed slightly, and he reached out to steady her.

  “Hello, Janet,” he said, his eyes dark and unreadable. “Are you all right?”