“Are they that bad?”
“Wait till you meet them.”
Robin helped David put away the bikes, and as they walked into the house, she tried to brush herself off and straighten her hair. David made no such effort. Voices led them to the living room.
A woman, unmistakably a Marshall, sat in a chair across from Eric. Her hair was cut in a short bob, her makeup applied flawlessly, her dress reflective of style and good taste. She was laughing at something her brother had said, when her attention was drawn to the doorway. She made a soft sound of pleasure, stood up and held out her hands.
David hesitated for only a second before closing the distance to accept his sister’s embrace. As he stepped back, her gaze moved beyond him to Robin.
“Robin,” Eric said, motioning for her to come farther into the room, “this is our sister Allison. Allison…Robin McGrath.”
Allison had the most identifiable face, next to Eric’s, from Robin’s footage. At the time of Martin Marshall’s death, she’d been sixteen, second oldest, and her features hadn’t changed much over the years.
“I’ve heard a number of very interesting things about you,” Allison said, extending her hand.
Robin accepted it. “Nothing bad, I hope.”
“No,” Allison murmured. “Very good, as a matter of fact. Barbara tells me you’re going to make the cakes for the wedding.”
“Yes.”
“You’re very versatile.”
David shifted in place, while Robin moved a sore muscle in her shoulder.
“You were gone a long time,” Eric murmured.
“We didn’t give you a timetable,” David snapped.
Eric continued to look at Robin. “You look exhausted.”
“Eric!” Allison reprimanded humorously. “What an awful thing to say to a person.”
“She’s fine!” David declared, his hostility rising.
Robin placed a hand on David’s forearm, a reminder of the promise he’d made. The boy’s lips tightened, but he said nothing more.
“What I need most right now is a nice hot bath,” Robin said. “David, I had a wonderful time. Thank you for sharing so much of your birthday with me.”
“Oh! That reminds me,” Allison said brightly, reaching for her purse. She handed her youngest brother a greeting card.
He opened it, and before reading the verse withdrew a check.
“I remember when I was eighteen,” Allison explained, “there never seemed to be enough money around to get what I wanted. So I thought a little cash might come in handy for you, too.”
“Thanks,” David mumbled, awkwardly stuffing the check into a pocket.
He glanced at Robin, at Eric and then at the door. It was easy to see that he wanted to escape.
Robin tried to make things easier for him by underscoring her own departure. “Well, if you’ll excuse me…”
“Oh, of course!” Allison exclaimed. “It was rude of us to keep you waiting. We’ll have a lot more time to talk later. The children and I have decided to stay for two weeks, not one. That doesn’t interfere with anything you have planned, does it, Eric?”
“Not in the least.”
“Good!” Allison replied.
Robin edged a step closer to the door. Eric saw what she did and excused himself, as well, at least temporarily. “I’ll be back,” he said. Then to Robin, “There’s something I want to discuss with you.”
Robin frowned. “What?” she managed to ask as he swept her out of the room alongside him. Her last image was of Allison reaching out to give David another hug before urging him into the chair Eric had abandoned.
They stopped just inside the kitchen.
“Allison insists that we have some kind of dinner for David,” Eric said. “She wasn’t here last year. She didn’t see the way he behaved. She wants to take him out to dinner in Vista Point tonight.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
“You won’t be upset?”
“Why should I be upset?”
“I’ve heard you offered to make a special dinner for him yourself.”
She smiled, shaking her head. “I won’t be upset.”
“You’re invited.”
Again, she shook her head. “This should be a family occasion. Just you and your brothers and sisters. Benjamin will be here in time to go, won’t he?”
“He should.”
Robin hesitated. “If you meet David halfway, he’ll meet you.”
“You talked with him?”
“I told you I would.”
“What did he say?”
“Not a lot, but he did promise to try. Just don’t— Try to be nice to him, too.”
“You think I haven’t been nice in the past?”
Robin didn’t want to hurt him, but he needed to be told the truth. “I think that sometimes you both jump to the offensive a little too quickly. Neither of you gives the other person a chance.”
“And I’m the oldest. I should know better, right?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Do you think I haven’t tried?”
“You should try again.”
“And then what? What if it doesn’t work? I’m not one to admit defeat easily. This is not something I planned.”
“You can’t control everything, Eric,” she said softly. “You can’t plan how life is going to turn out. You have to take each day as it comes—each minute.”
“You’re telling me that?” he snapped.
Robin bit her bottom lip to keep from retorting that, yes, she was equally qualified. She had learned that lesson just as cruelly as he. But instead, instinctively wishing to offer comfort, she reached out to touch his cheek.
The feel of him sent slivers of awareness shooting through her body. Sensing danger, she started to move away, but he held her in place.
He pulled her closer. The sensuality that had always hovered in the air between them seemed suddenly to intensify.
“So, it’s your philosophy that we should live only for the moment,” he murmured huskily. “Take what’s offered and forget everything else.”
Robin glanced nervously at the open doorway. “Eric, someone could come in.”
He bent to tease her lips, almost kissing her, yet not.
Robin’s breaths were shallow. Her blood sang through her veins.
The French doors burst open and two children erupted into the room. The doors were quickly pushed shut by four hands that fought to control the knobs. Shrill laughter accompanied their attempt to keep someone out. The same height and weight, one child had brown hair, the other dark blond. One was a girl, one was a boy: Gwen and Colin, respectively.
“Uncle Eric! Uncle Eric, help!” Colin cried. “We have to keep Sam out. She was right behind us!”
Eric seemed reluctant to let go of Robin. Because he was slow to release her, she remained in his arms when Allison hurried into the room.
Allison’s gaze slid appraisingly over them before moving on to her children. “Didn’t we have a talk about this earlier?” she demanded. “What did we say?”
The twins turned to face her. “That if we aren’t considerate houseguests, Uncle Eric will ask us to leave.”
“Is this being a considerate houseguest?”
Both sets of blue eyes fell to the floor. “No.” There was something of the Marshall look about them, but it had been diluted by other strong genes. Only the color of their eyes remained true.
Samantha rushed into the kitchen by way of the front door. Out of breath from running, she laughed when she discovered her youngest relatives held captive there.
Robin wiggled free of Eric’s hold. Still, he persisted in rubbing the inside of her arm with his thumb. He didn’t seem to mind that his siblings might notice.
“I won!” Samantha cried. “I touched the stairs before you did,” she added in the ageless singsong voice of childhood.
“Samantha, grow up!” Allison admonished. “You’re not being much of an example
for the twins. I’m trying to civilize them.”
Another Marshall arrived on the scene. Benjamin walked into the kitchen, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He was almost the same height as Eric and almost as muscled. His blond hair was cut close to his head, and his features were somewhat finer. “What?” He pretended amazement. “You’re trying to civilize the brats?”
He tossed the duffel bag into a corner and squatted down so that the children could run into his arms. Much laughter and squealing followed, which made Allison raise her eyes to heaven, as if petitioning for divine guidance.
Benjamin stood up, hugged Allison and Samantha, then came over to Eric with a big smile. He thumped him hard on the shoulder, then gave him a hug, too.
“Who’s this?” he asked of the room at large when he drew back and saw Robin.
“Robin McGrath,” Eric answered. “Bridget’s summer replacement. And before you get any ideas, she’s already spoken for.”
“That’s some fairly fast work, bro,” Benjamin complimented, exchanging a look of masculine approval with his brother.
Robin shook herself free of Eric’s claim, both physically and verbally. “No one should get any ideas,” she corrected him. “Hello, Benjamin.”
“You know my name.”
“It would be hard not to. I’ve heard it often enough.”
“Did they tell you that one day I’m going to be an up-and-coming young attorney who drives a fast car and has lots of money to spend on fun things?”
“I believe I heard something to that effect.”
“Good.” Benjamin drew out the word. “Maybe you’d be willing to wait around? It’ll only take me about five or six years to get there.”
Robin grinned. “I’ll think about it.”
Benjamin had come a long way from the child who had cried so despondently in Robin’s footage. Seeing him happy and seemingly well adjusted lifted a portion of the weight she had carried through the years. His piteous tears had spoken so eloquently for all of them. If he could be truly happy, why couldn’t it happen for all of them, herself included?
“Mom! Mom! Can Colin and me go play on the pier?” Gwen inserted in the tiny silence that followed.
“I…Colin and I,” Allison corrected.
“Can we?” Gwen persisted, undeterred.
“Not alone.”
“I’ll go with them,” Eric offered.
The ten-year-olds whooped and ran over to jump on their uncle. He grinned at Robin, then laughingly adjusted one child under each arm. Instead of going down the hall to the front door, he took them outside through the garden, the opened French doors wide enough for three.
“Don’t let them get into any trouble!” Allison called after them.
“Trouble and the brats go hand in hand, don’t they?” Benjamin teased.
“I shudder to think how it’ll be when they turn fifteen,” their mother said.
Robin eased out of the room, unnoticed, as the others continued to talk.
LATER, AS SHE LAY IN THE tub and soaked her aching muscles with successive additions of hot water, Robin thought about what she’d seen and done in the last hour. The family was now complete. All surviving members had been accounted for and introduced to her. And funny thing…she liked them. Not because she felt she had to, either. Under other circumstances, she would have liked them just as well. She felt the strength of their family unit. The way they stuck together.
What would they think if ever they learned the truth about her? Would they feel betrayed?
Now she knew how a traitor or a spy must feel. Day after day, living a lie…yet still going on. Because once the route was embarked upon, there was no possible way to go back.
THAT NIGHT, ONLY ROBIN and Donal Caldwell remained at the inn, the others having gone to Vista Point for David’s birthday dinner. As she cleared away the remains of the light meal she and Donal had shared, Robin spared frequent thoughts for what might be happening in the town up the coast. Would David make it through this meal without walking out? Was he trying to get along? Was Eric?
David hadn’t been pleased to learn about the dinner. He hadn’t been pleased when Allison chided him into wearing something more appropriate than his usual jeans and T-shirt. He hadn’t been pleased, either, when Robin told him she wasn’t going. But he’d accepted her plea of sore muscles, even to the point of unearthing a heating pad from a storage closet.
Robin actually felt much better after her long soak. Tomorrow she would probably still be sore, but it wouldn’t be as bad as she had once feared.
“Wait till you get to be my age,” Donal said with bright, teasing eyes as he patiently tried to teach her to play cribbage. “I’ve found bones and muscles I didn’t even know I had when I was young, and they create such a protest at times when I haven’t done anything to rile them. You’re young. Enjoy life. There’s enough time tomorrow for aches and pains.”
“Being sore was more of an excuse than anything,” she murmured.
“I thought so. To get young David to go without you. That boy’s certainly taken a shine to you.”
“I like him, too.”
“What about his brother?”
“Benjamin?” Robin feigned ignorance. “I don’t actually know him very well yet. We just met.”
Donal tsked and shook his head.
Robin grinned. “What is this? Are you a professional matchmaker on the side? Painting isn’t enough for you?”
Robin’s fondness for the older man continued to grow the more she saw him. He kept to himself at most times, starting out in the mornings with paints and easel and returning in the evenings with a contented smile. She’d seen the painting he was giving to Barbara and Timothy for their wedding: a view of the coastline where they had met. In it, he’d shown a surprising ability with color and his own unique style.
His smile was grandfatherly. “I’d just like to see Eric settled. He’s given up a lot for those kids. Mind you, I’ve never heard one word of complaint from him. But I know it’s been at a high cost. Why do you think he’s not married? Not because he didn’t have the opportunity. I remember once or twice…I thought the next summer when I came up here, he’d have a wife. But it just never seemed to work out. The women must have been scared off by the prospect of so many youngsters underfoot.”
Robin was uncomfortable with the idea of Eric and other women. Once, she had wanted him to have married, to have had someone with whom to share life’s burdens. But now she didn’t like to think of him being close to, touching or kissing anyone else.
Then realization hit. She didn’t want to think of Eric with someone else because she wanted him herself! She wanted to be the center of his thoughts, the sole object of his desire. Because she loved him?
Her attempts to deal with the chaotic thoughts that followed were not conducive to learning a game of cards, and Donal won each successive hand with gleeful ease.
ROBIN WAS UPSTAIRS, IN bed and staring at the darkened ceiling, when she heard the family’s cars arrive back at the inn. From the happy sounds of conversation that floated up to the third floor, she deduced there had been no trouble at dinner. For all their sakes, Robin was glad.
She heard a laugh. Eric’s laugh. She would know it anywhere. She imagined how he looked in his dark suit, white shirt and claret-colored tie. Achingly handsome. Just as he had been earlier.
If she wanted to, she could seek him out. But how could she do that? Especially now, suspecting what she did and being who she was.
Robin turned over and hugged the cool pillow to her midsection. It offered little comfort.
CHAPTER TEN
“SO! TELL ME ABOUT HER,” Benjamin said as he slumped into the chair that Eric used at his desk and swiveled it to face him.
Eric stood at the wardrobe and slipped his suit pants across a wooden hanger. “What do you want to know?” he asked.
“Who she is, where she came from…”
“I’m afraid I can’t help you much there. I’ve told
you her name. That’s about all I know.”
Benjamin frowned as Eric positioned his dark jacket over the pants and hung them up. He reached for another hanger and, seconds later, stepped into a pair of sweat pants.
“How did she find out about the place? About the job?”
“She answered our ad in the newspaper.”
“What about her references?”
“I didn’t ask for any.”
Benjamin stared at him.
Eric tossed the white shirt he’d been wearing onto the bed and turned to select a sweatshirt from a wardrobe drawer.
“Was that very wise?” his brother asked at last.
“I haven’t acted wisely about her from the beginning.” He pulled the sweater over his head and adjusted its fit. “But she does her job well. I don’t have any complaints. In fact…”
“In fact what?”
“She does it a little too well. She’s a much better cook than this place needs. She could get a job anywhere, probably for a lot more money. So, why here?”
“That’s another form of the question I asked you.”
“I wish I knew the answer.”
Benjamin hesitated. He couched his next query with humor. “You aren’t trying to tell me you really care for her, are you?”
“I think maybe I am.”
Benjamin sat forward. “Whoa! Wait! You say you don’t know anything about her, yet you admit—”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“To you?”
“Strange things happen to me all the time. We don’t exactly live a normal existence. We haven’t for years.”
“What do the others think of her?”
“Barbara and Samantha have taken to her like a long-lost friend. And she has David almost eating out of her hand.”
“I did notice he wasn’t as argumentative. He was quiet, but we made it through the meal.”
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