The Heartbreaker

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “Yeah, but so what if it is the same family? In fact, that might be bad, if they’re connected to both of us. If they’ve become lawsuit-happy, they might decide you let them get sunburned on that trip and now they should be compensated for a greater risk of skin cancer.”

  “I don’t think that’ll happen, and I’ll tell you why. That kid of theirs, the one they’re now claiming missed his chance to try out for the big leagues, or however it’s now being exaggerated, was into drugs last year.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. Small stuff, like pot, but he was definitely hanging out with the wrong crowd and giving his parents fits. That hike into the canyon with his folks and his little brother turned him around.” Alana drained her beer. “Not to be immodest, but I turned him around. I told him if he stayed clean I’d make room for him on my first expedition down the Amazon.”

  The Amazon. Beth felt queasy with guilt as thoughts of Mike and their secret washed over her.

  “Hey, are you okay?” Alana leaned forward and put her hand on Beth’s. “Maybe you shouldn’t be drinking beer, after all.”

  Beth straightened in her chair and squeezed her sister’s hand. “I’m fine. And congratulations for getting that kid on the right track. I had no idea that those trips could accomplish that kind of thing.” The beer was definitely having an effect, Beth noticed. She remembered she hadn’t eaten anything since dinner the night before, either, and she was becoming more light-headed by the minute.

  “Get people outdoors, take away the normal distractions, force them to work together and all sorts of dynamics change. I could almost hire myself out as a family counselor. Anyway, I think we can use this kid’s hopes for the Amazon to our advantage, don’t you?”

  Beth was having trouble following the discussion with the slight buzzing in her head. “I think we need a bag of chips.” She stood up. Not a good move. But she needed food of some description, so she forced herself to start toward the hall and the stairs leading up to the apartment.

  Alana leaped to her feet and put an arm around Beth’s shoulders. “I’ll get the chips,” she said, guiding her back to her chair. “I’ll bet you’ve been up all night cutting glass. You work too hard, Beth.”

  “Not really.” Beth sank onto the chair with a little sigh of relief. She wondered how much more of this she could take. Every remark of Alana’s stabbed her with guilt, yet she couldn’t imagine how to broach the subject of Mike, especially while Alana was trying so hard to help her with Colby Huxford.

  “Do you have any of that cheese dip, the kind with the picante sauce in it?” Alana called over her shoulder.

  “I think there’s some in the refrigerator.”

  “Great. This is fun, just like old times, the two of us brainstorming a problem and eating junk.” She took the stairs at a rapid clip.

  Beth rested her head in her hands and tried to think, but her brain wasn’t working worth a darn. When the bell on the front door of the gift shop jangled, she considered hiding in the back and not acknowledging the summons. Whoever had come in would eventually leave. Of course they might leave with some of the merchandise, which she could ill afford if she was about to be sued.

  With an effort she got up and walked out into the shop where Mike was just depositing a stack of boxed cutters on the counter. She’d forgotten he might show up. “Oh, Mike. I—”

  “Don’t say it” He crossed quickly to her and took her by the shoulders. “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have pressured you. Can you forgive me for being a total idiot?”

  She stepped away from him. “Listen—”

  “Please don’t push me away. I need you, Beth.”

  “Is that Mike Tremayne’s voice I hear?” Alana skipped through the double doors of the workroom holding a bag of chips and a jar of cheese dip.

  Mike spun away from Beth. “Well, hello there, Alana.”

  Alana plopped the chips and cheese dip on the counter next to the cutter boxes. “Hello there, Mike.” She gave him a wide smile. “My goodness, you sure have turned into a gorgeous hunk of man.”

  “And you’re even prettier than I remembered,” Mike said, returning her smile.

  “I like the way this conversation is starting out,” Alana said. “Tell you what, I’m ready to forget the past if you are, and after all these years, I think I deserve at least a big hug.” She came forward, arms outstretched.

  Mike enfolded her in his arms. “You deserve a long overdue apology from me, for one thing. I was a rotten son of a bitch, Alana.”

  “I don’t even want to discuss that business again. It’s over and done. Welcome back, big guy.”

  Beth clenched her hands into fists and willed herself to stay calm when she wanted to forcibly pull her sister away from the man she loved. But of course Alana loved him, too. That much was obvious from the lingering way she hugged him. The trouble was, Mike didn’t seem in a big hurry to let go of Alana, either.

  At last Alana stepped back and turned to include Beth. “So. Here we all are again. Older, and let’s hope, wiser. Come on back, Mike. We’re having a beer and figuring out how to take care of this sleaze Huxford.”

  Mike glanced quickly at Beth. “What about Huxford?”

  “Oh, he’s talked one of Beth’s cutter customers into filing a lawsuit,” Alana said without waiting for Beth to answer. “But I think we can outfox him. Come and have a beer with us, and we’ll tell you all about it.”

  Mike sent another questioning look in Beth’s direction.

  She shrugged.

  “Come on, Mikey. I have a cold one back here with your name on it.” Alana linked her arm through his and started back toward the workroom. “You’re looking so damned fit. I’ll bet you drove those Brazilian girls crazy.”

  “The women of Brazil don’t hold a candle to the women of Bisbee,” Mike said.

  Alana laughed. “That’s my Mike.”

  Beth wanted to scream. She’d had no idea that Alana’s behavior with Mike would rub her nerves raw, or that Mike would fall right back into the old pattern of flirting with Alana. She’d been so worried about Alana’s reaction to her relationship with Mike that she’d ignored the price she’d pay for keeping silent. But if she was in pain, she had no one to blame but herself. She’d been the one who’d insisted that Alana shouldn’t be told right away. Shy, careful Beth. She probably didn’t deserve a guy like Mike.

  Because there were only two chairs in the room, Mike leaned against Beth’s workbench. He drank the beer that Alana opened for him while she told him the story of Colby’s attempt to blackmail Beth into signing away the rights to the patent. Like the quiet, unobtrusive member of the trio she’d always been, Beth listened while Alana and Mike got into a spirited debate about how to handle the problem.

  Then Mike broke the pattern by turning to Beth. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

  Alana answered. “Of course she wants to—”

  “I asked Beth,” Mike interrupted. “This is her baby, after all.”

  Alana’s glance flicked from Mike to Beth. “Well, excuse me.”

  “I’d rather scrap the whole damned project than turn it over to Colby Huxford,” Beth said with a little more vehemence than she’d intended.

  “Whoa, stand back!” Alana said. “I think little Bethy’s mad!”

  “Good for you,” Mike said with an approving look.

  “And if Alana’s willing to use her influence with the Eckstroms, that’s fine with me,” Beth added.

  “That’s all I needed to hear.” Alana popped up from her chair. “I’ll just get in my little Jeep and take me a drive to Sierra Vista.”

  “I’ll close the shop and come with you,” Beth said.

  “Then why don’t we all go?” Alana asked, glancing at Mike. “We can leave from there and go on to Tucson to see Ernie.”

  “I think the two of you will do just fine without me along,” Mike said. “Besides, I have a few loose ends to tie up here before I drive up to Tucson. I’ll mee
t you at the hospital.”

  Alana shrugged. “Suit yourself. I can’t imagine a man turning down a chance to take a drive with two such bodacious babes, but you do what you have to do, I guess.”

  Mike grinned. “Sacrifice builds character.”

  Beth glanced at him and at first saw only the bantering tease he’d always been when the three of them got together. But her senses were more finely tuned to his moods now, and a closer look revealed the faint line of tension between his eyebrows and the uncompromising set of his jaw. Something was on his mind, and it probably had to do with the “loose ends” he’d talked about taking care of. She would bet Colby was one of those ends.

  “Don’t do anything crazy,” she said to him.

  His grin flashed again. “I’m sitting with two women who started drinking beer at eleven in the morning, and one of them is warning me not to do anything crazy?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I don’t,” Alana said, “and I hate it when I don’t know what’s going on.”

  Mike shot one look at Beth, but one look was more than enough. Alana had just said she hated not knowing what was going on. It was an opening anyone could drive a truck through—but Beth chose not to take it. When she told Alana about her involvement with Mike she wanted to be alone with her sister. Alana deserved at least that much consideration, that much respect for her pride.

  “Okay, enough of the significant looks,” Alana said to Beth, her tone impatient. “Tell me what you think Mike might do while we’re in Sierra Vista.”

  “I think he might go beat the hell out of Colby Huxford,” Beth said. “Then Colby will have him arrested for assault, and I...won’t have anyone to run the machine shop and make the cutters,” she concluded, putting everything on a business footing.

  “I promise not to beat the hell out of Huxford,” Mike said. “Although the idea is tempting.”

  “Will you promise to stay away from him?”

  Mike gazed at her. “Nope.”

  “Mike, Alana’s plan might very well work. Once we eliminate the blackmail element, Colby will just have to pack his bags and go home.”

  “I don’t read him as the type to do that, unless he has some extra prodding.”

  “Like what? You promised not to lay a hand on him just now.”

  “And I’ll keep that promise. We’ll just talk.”

  “I don’t like the sound of it.”

  “I do,” Alana interjected. “Let Mike talk to him.” She gazed up at him with an expression of frank admiration. “I’m sure he can be very convincing when he wants to be, right, Mike?”

  Mike winked at her. “Absolutely. I’ll see you two at the hospital around six-thirty.”

  ALANA ZIPPED UP her Jeep’s windows and turned on the air-conditioning, although Beth suspected she’d have ridden to Sierra Vista with the Jeep open despite the summer heat if Beth weren’t along.

  “We’ll stop before we go to the Eckstrom’s, get a Big Mac or something and call to make sure somebody’s there,” Alana said, taking charge as she always had. “I think the mother, Sarah, will be around. She types medical transcripts at home to bring in extra money.”

  “I know she really wants her son to go to college, too,” Beth said. “That’s probably why she fell for this line of Colby’s. You know, the idea that someone would hurt themselves on the glass and sue the manufacturer of the cutter never even occurred to me, Alana. I suppose it should have.”

  Alana reached over and patted her knee. “Not really. You just ran into a skunk. The cutter’s perfectly safe, and you know it. In my case, I’ve been concerned about lawsuits ever since I started Vacation Adventures, Inc. You should see the premium on the insurance I have to pay to protect me in my business. Even so, I’m not sure I’d be covered if somebody died while I had them out on a trip.”

  “What a thought! Have you ever been afraid that might happen?”

  “Oh, yeah! You can’t predict exactly how things will go when you’re hiking up and down mountains, or rafting down rapids. Accidents happen, although I try to take every precaution. And then there’s the off chance that somebody will decide to have a heart attack out in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Ugh. It’s bad enough when you can call the paramedics right away, like we did for Ernie.”

  “Is he really okay, Bethy? I know what the doctor said, but I never know if they’re feeding me a line of bull or not. I’ve been so worried. I’m worried for Mike, too.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Beth sighed. “It was pretty scary, but I think he’s okay, now. We’ll be sure in a couple more days.”

  “When did Mike show up?”

  The question popped up as if it were a hand grenade in a bushel of apples. “A few days ago.”

  “Was he here when I called the other day?”

  Beth refused to tell an outright lie. “Yeah. He’d just arrived.”

  “How come you didn’t tell me about it?”

  “I was afraid you’d come rushing back to see him. I thought your trip with the family was more important. But I realize now I should have told you and let you make that decision.”

  Alana glanced at her, but her eyes were hidden by the sunglasses she wore. “You’re right. I probably would have come back. I’m tired of being alone, Beth. I’m thirty-two years old, and I’m ready to settle down with a guy. Not just any guy, either. I’ve been thinking about Mike a lot, lately, and he’s still the one for me. I’ve loved him ever since we were six, and I still do. The timing was off eight years ago, but did you see the way he looked at me? I think we can start over.”

  Pain surged through Beth. “Alana, I—”

  “I know what you’re going to say. He still wants to spend his time traveling, and he’ll never want a house with a white picket fence around it. That’s okay, because neither do I. That’s why I’m going to make him a proposition. I want him to go into business with me. That way he can satisfy his wanderlust and be part of a growing enterprise at the same time. Think he’ll consider it?”

  “I guess you’ll have to ask him.” Truth be told, Beth was no longer positive that he’d reject the offer. It seemed tailor-made for him, as opposed to running a Brazilian glass studio. When she saw how easily he interacted with Alana, and she with him, they still seemed to be the perfect couple. Maybe they were the perfect couple, and Mike had clung to her because he was in the midst of an emotional time in his life. She pictured the humiliation of announcing to Alana that Mike was interested in her, now, and then discovering that he’d changed his mind.

  She tried to tell herself such a thing would never happen. Mike loved her. He’d said so not very many hours ago. He’d made love to her all through the night. He wouldn’t turn to Alana, now, would he?

  Except that she hadn’t returned his vows of love. She’d insisted on waiting, as if she were some little kid, until Alana came home. No wonder he’d accused her of not being grown up. And it would serve her right if he decided Alana was the woman she didn’t have the guts to be. As Beth glanced at Alana driving the Jeep so confidently with one hand, her body lithe and fit in a way Beth had never aspired to, she wondered if the past few days had been a fantasy, after all.

  13

  AFTER TELLING his machinists to go grab some lunch, Mike made a quick trip home and then set out in search of Colby Huxford. He’d forgotten to ask Beth where the vermin was staying, but his first guess, the elegant White House Bed and Breakfast in Warren, turned out to be on target. Mike talked to the folks there and said he was interested in locating Huxford on some urgent business having to do with the glass cutter patent Huxford wanted to purchase from Beth Nightingale. With that kind of detailed lead-in, he easily got the information that Huxford was probably eating lunch at his favorite midday spot, a little Italian deli in the heart of Bisbee. Mike knew the place.

  Before he walked in, he made sure Huxford was there by sauntering past the glass-fronted deli and glancing at the tables. Sure enough, the weasel sat chowing down o
n what looked like a salami sandwich. How Mike would have loved to go in and ram it down his throat. When he thought of Huxford threatening Beth this morning, he wanted to kill the son of a bitch. But he’d promised Beth he wouldn’t be violent.

  The minute he walked into the sandwich shop Huxford glanced up as if he were a wild animal scenting danger in the air. Mike walked over to Huxford’s table, pulled out a chair and sat down.

  “I’m afraid you’re not invited to stay,” Huxford said. His Adam’s apple bobbed.

  Mike took pleasure in his obvious fear. “I’m not staying. I’m here to deliver a message. By the way, that’s an interesting scratch on your cheek there. Cut yourself shaving, did you?”

  “Don’t get cute with me, Tremayne. Did Beth send you?”

  “No. In fact, Beth and her sister, Alana, are on their way to Sierra Vista to see the Eckstroms.”

  “I’d advise them to send a lawyer instead.”

  “I don’t think they’ll need one.” Mike leaned his forearms on the marble-topped table and deliberately shoved himself into Huxford’s personal space. “Alana took that family on an outdoor vacation last year and single-handedly turned the son from a potential drug addict into a high school sports star. The kid, and the parents, would do about anything for Alana. She’s going to ask them to forget about this asinine suit you talked them into.”

  “We’ll! see.” Huxford leaned back in his chair and flexed his shoulders in a comical show of bravado. “Mrs. Eckstrom seemed quite concerned about her son’s future when I talked with her.”

  “Oh, I think this will work. Beth’s going, too, and folks around Bisbee learned a long time ago that you don’t mess with those Nightingale girls. The fact is they don’t need me to drive the last nail in your coffin. They can take care of themselves. I’m here strictly for my own pleasure.”

  Huxford sneered. “I suppose you’ll threaten to beat me up or something if I don’t leave town by sundown.”

  “That would be fun, but I promised Beth I wouldn’t lay a hand on you. However, I do expect you to be gone by tonight.”