Finding Mr. Right

by Gwynne Forster

  He examined the girl on every point that Jonathan had made, and on each, her response agreed with his. “This is not what I’ve heard from Becky’s father, my client, and I am resigning from this case, because I have been misled.”

  After questioning Becky, the judge removed her from her father’s care, made her a ward of the court and sent her to live with Jonathan’s parents until after the birth of the child at which time she should return to court for further resolution of the case.

  Byron walked over to Darlene and shook hands with her. “If you get tired of that gang you work with, consider Whitley, Chambers and Jones.”

  “What? You’re serious? It’ll be months before I get my feet back on the ground. Me in an outfit like that?”

  “Think it over,” he said and turned to Tyra. “I’m happy for Becky and Jonathan, but I feel a bit wounded, not to speak of furious with Murphy Tate for lying to me.”

  “He’s an awful person,” Jonathan said, “and she doesn’t have a mother to stand up for her. Well, we’ll take care of her now.”

  Byron’s gaze swept over Tyra, drawing her to him the way a flame entices a moth. “May I speak with you?” he asked her.

  “Of course,” she said, hoping that no hard feelings remained between them. “When do you want us to get together?”

  “It’s a quarter of four. Do you have to go back to work?” She didn’t. “If you’ll go home with me, we can pick up Andy, have dinner somewhere, and then Andy and I will bring you home. I divide my time away from work between you and Andy, but I prefer to put him to bed as often as possible. It’s a time he particularly enjoys, and so do I.”

  “Okay. I’ll call Maggie and tell her I won’t be home for dinner.” So something still bothers him. He’s not totally at ease with me. Surely, he isn’t sore because he lost. He shook hands with Darlene, Edward and Jonathan, winked at Darlene and, as he kissed her cheek, he said, “You two make a fine-looking couple. Get to work.”

  Tyra raised an eyebrow. If she heard him, Edward probably… She didn’t finish the thought for, at that moment, Edward took Darlene’s arm and said, “There used to be a place around here where you could get the best ice cream in Maryland. Let’s check it out.”

  As Tyra and Byron walked to his car, he said. “I hope Edward Hathaway isn’t married.”

  “Darlene said he isn’t, and if I know her, she asked him point blank.”

  “Good for her. That isn’t a thing to guess about.”

  “You’re still a little peeved with me, Byron, and I’d thought that when this case was settled, we’d be over this thing.”

  “I thought you and Darlene got a little heavy-handed. It’s appropriate for an attorney to get the best witnesses possible, but she filed letters from a dozen citizens, some of them very distinguished, attesting to Murphy Tate’s blighted character and, particularly, to his mistreatment of Becky. She should have made that information available to me. I didn’t raise it with the judge, because I didn’t want to hurt her. Besides, I was already having a hard time counseling Tate. He’s an immoral man and makes no excuses for that fact.”

  “Then it’s Darlene you should be angry with, not me.” Whenever she reasoned with Byron, he managed to win, and he should, considering the cost of his legal education, she told herself. She tried a different tactic. “Are you going to kiss me, I mean really kiss me when you bring me home tonight?”

  A grin spread over his face, and he tilted his head to the side and glanced at her. “I can pull over at the next rest stop. What do you say?”

  She hadn’t expected that. “I say I don’t want the highway patrolman to take me in for indecent behavior.”

  He stared at her, although his eyes twinkled with mischievously. “Indecent behavior? What are you planning to do to me besides kiss me?”

  “You’re making something out of this that… You know I didn’t mean anything like that.”

  “Anything like what? Sweetheart, if the problem is that you want to have your way with me, I can definitely arrange that”

  “You’re poking fun at me.”

  “Am not. You’re so easy to tease. The answer to your question is that when I take you home tonight, I’m going to kiss you until we blow a fuse and ignite a fire in the furnace.”

  “Which furnace?”

  “Yours, baby. If I light one in any other woman’s furnace, you’ll have my head. Why do you think I’m peeved with you?”

  “’Cause you are, or were. I’m not sure about right now.”

  He stopped in front of his house, checked to determine whether he could squeeze that big Cadillac into the one available parking space, and backed in. “Let’s enter through the back.”

  Away from public view, he stopped walking, stepped close to her and stared down into her eyes. “You’re sweet, soft, feminine and warm, and the way you respond to me makes me feel like a king. But when I see that you’re strong, independent, competent and my intellectual equal, I become a giant of a man.” His arms went around her. “Open your mouth for me.” She did, and he slipped his tongue into her, claimed her and sent shivers plowing through her body.

  Get your act together. You can’t let a man have this much power over you, and you definitely can’t let him know it. But thrill after thrill streaked through her as he stroked her back and whispered, “Yes, I was hurt, but I know you love me. It’s all right now. You’re my whole world.”

  “And you’re everything to me, Byron. Everything.”

  Arm-in-arm, they walked into the house. “Byron, lord, I didn’t know you were bringing Tyra home for dinner. How’re you, Tyra?” Jonie asked. Tyra hugged the older woman. Jonie seemed frantic over not having dinner prepared. “I’ll run out and—”

  “Not so fast, Aunt Jonie. We’re going out to dinner and taking Andy with us.”

  “You’ll have to let him bring along that monkey Miss Tyra gave him, because he hasn’t been two inches from it all day. All of a sudden, he’s gotten real pensive. I don’t know why.”

  “I’ve been away a good deal these past couple of days. He’ll be fine.” His arm tightened around Tyra. “Let me run up and see why he’s so quiet up there.”

  Andy’s fierce and clinging hug shocked Byron. The boy ordinarily enjoyed exercising his independence. Knowing that his son had missed him, he didn’t ask what was wrong but, instead, tried to make up for it.

  “Take a shower and get dressed, son, we’re going out to dinner.”

  Andy’s face brightened. “Are we going to Miss Tyra’s house?”

  That question surprised him, and it also pleased him. “Not this time. You, Miss Tyra and I are going to have dinner in a nice restaurant.”

  “Oh! Can I take Nassau, and can I wear a suit like you?”

  He looked down at the pleading expression on the boy’s face and wondered what had gotten him down. “Yes to both, but we have to leave Nassau in the car while we’re in the restaurant.” Andy’s bottom lip poked out. “None of that. We do as I say, or you stay home.”

  A brilliant smile lit the child’s face. “Okay, but can I go with you when you take Miss Tyra home? Can I, Daddy?”

  The little rascal. “Yes, we’re going to take her home, because we’ll be eating at a restaurant in Frederick, where she lives.”

  “I know she lives in Frederick, Daddy. She told me when she and I were fishing for catfish. I also know she has a sister and a brother, and that she doesn’t have any little children.”

  That took him back a bit. “Well, if you want to eat dinner with her, you’d better get a move on.”

  “Yes, sir.” Andy loved dressing like his father, so Byron laid out the boy’s navy blue suit, the same color as his own, white shirt, red and blue striped tie, black shoes and navy socks. That ought to get him out of the dumps.

  A short time later with Nassau in his arms, Andy charged down the steps ahead of his father, raced to the living room and launched himself into Tyra’s arms. “I’m going to dinner with you and Daddy, but I can’t
take Nassau into the restaurant. Miss Tyra, I love Nassau.” He stared at her. “What happened to your hair? Daddy, what happened to her hair?”

  Byron laughed. “Boy after my own heart. I’ve been wondering the same thing for most of the day.”

  “Oh, all right,” Tyra said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  “Where’s she gone, Daddy?”

  “I suspect we’ll see when she comes back.” He knew she went to comb out her hair, and he also knew that she was doing it for Andy. He wouldn’t have dared to complain about a woman’s hair, and he hoped she knew that.

  “Gee,” Andy said in awe when Tyra returned with her hair hanging around her shoulders. “How did you do that?” She explained that and answered several more of Andy’s questions as they headed for Frederick. He decided not to interfere. Tyra had to learn to deal with the child. However, he sensed the understanding between them and drew a considerable measure of satisfaction from it.

  “I guess Jonie and I have done a pretty good job with him,” Byron said to himself in the restaurant, as he watched Andy take great care to use his knife and fork correctly, chew his food slowly—something he didn’t do at home, though he’d been taught repeatedly, and to finish chewing before he started to speak. He didn’t know when he had enjoyed an evening out with Andy so much. The child mimicked his every move, even saying thank you and no thank you to the waiter.

  He nearly choked when Tyra said to Andy, “You are so precious. If I had a little boy, I’d want him to be just like you.”

  “Gee,” Andy said. “I didn’t know I was being that good.”

  She stroked the child’s cheek in a way that told him that she wanted badly to hug Andy. Yes, she will love him and teach him to love her. He didn’t know when he’d been so happy.

  They left the restaurant with Andy holding their hands and dancing between them. Maybe he would finally get his life in order. He didn’t want to raise Andy as an only child, and it was time he got busy on the next one, unless he planned to crawl around on his knees at age sixty with a couple of children on his back. During the coming weekend, he intended to have a serious talk with Tyra about their future together.

  Similar thoughts stirred in Tyra’s mind. She knew he was observing her relationship with his son, and she approved of it. She also knew that seeing each other occasionally was no longer enough for either of them. And since she had no intention of letting him have his cake and eat it, too, if he wanted her in his bed every night, he had to give up his single status.

  “How much for your thoughts?” he asked when they approached his car. She hadn’t said a word since they left the table.

  She couldn’t help grinning. “Not even gold is sufficient to tempt me to incriminate myself like that.”

  His eyes gleamed with a knowing look, and she knew she might well have painted it on canvas and hung it up for him to see. “Don’t worry, you and I may not be far apart.” Her pulse shot forward at a dizzying rate, and she grasped him for support. He held her, gazing down into her eyes, with all that he felt for her blazing in his face.

  “Are you going to kiss her, Daddy?”

  “I’ve been trying to catch up with you, buddy.” A man in a chauffeur’s uniform stepped up to them and said, “You owe me for escort services, and I want my money, or I’ll splash it all over the tabloids that you’re my customer, and you owe me.”

  Icy marbles rattle for space in Tyra’s belly, and she thought she was about to lose her dinner. She watched at Byron’s lower jaw sagged seconds before his eyes narrowed, and he advanced toward the man. “What the hell are you talking about?” He turned to Tyra. “Put Andy in the car while I straighten this out, will you.”

  She opened the back car door, put the boy in his car seat, hooked the seat belt and went back around the car to where Byron stood. On an impulse, she noted the license plate of the stretched-out limousine, turned her back and wrote it in the palm of her left hand. Then, she moved closer to Byron in order to be sure that she heard what she thought she heard.

  “You’re lying,” Byron said to the man, flexing his fists. “I’ve never had any dealings with you or any other escort agency. What’s the meaning of this? Did Murphy Tate put you up to this?”

  “Who is Murphy Tate? You’re the one who’s lying, Attorney Whitley,” the man said. “I can produce records of calls from three of your phone numbers, including your cell phone.” He told Byron the numbers, as well as his home and office addresses. “I wouldn’t embarrass you in the presence of your friend if you’d pay your bills.”

  Byron stepped closer to the man. “I don’t know who you are or what your game is, but you’ll pay for this and dearly.” He walked to the front of the limousine and wrote down the license plate information.

  Tyra thought she had never seen such anger on anyone’s face as on Byron’s as he knocked his right fist against his open left palm., rhythmically and furiously, clearly itching to throttle the man. However, seeing the danger to himself, the man turned toward his stretched-out limousine, then looked back at Byron and said, “You’ll hear from me, and wait till the boys get hold of you.”

  Byron’s hand on her arm unsettled her. How could such a man as Byron patronize an escort service, and why would he need to? Did he have a dark side that he hadn’t exposed to her? Angry and humiliated, she jerked away from him, got into the car and buckled her seat belt. She realized the magnitude of her error when Byron got into the car, started the motor and said, “Thanks for your support. You can’t imagine how much I appreciate it. I’ll take you home.”

  Alarmed that she hadn’t given Byron an opportunity to defend himself and that she had accepted the circumstantial evidence from someone she didn’t know as proof of a character flaw in the man she knew and loved, she slumped in her seat. “I’m sure there’s a mistake, Byron. That man did seem unsavory and, besides, what he accused you of isn’t your style.”

  “Too late. I don’t need a woman who doesn’t believe in me and who needs evidence before she can trust me. I’m glad the guy showed up. He did me a colossal favor.”

  He parked in front of her house, glanced to the back seat and saw that Andy was asleep. “Good night, Tyra. See you around.”

  Tyra sat still, unable to move. He’d practically told her to get out, and he wasn’t going to walk to the door with her. She was wrong, and she knew it, but that didn’t mean she would accept rudeness from him. “Thank you for a most informative evening,” she said, digging a deeper hole for herself and in a tone iced with bitterness, opened the door, got out and didn’t look back.

  She heard his car drive off before she reached her door, and as she fumbled for her key, she tasted the brine of her tears. In the foyer, she slumped against the wall and let the tears come. She heard the key turn in the front door lock, but she had no will to move, and didn’t try.

  “What the… What’s this?” Clark grabbed her. “Sis, what happened? I just saw Byron at the stop light. Did you two have a fight?”

  His questions exacerbated her pain, and sobs poured out of her stronger than before. He put his arms around her and walked with her to the living room where he sat with her on the sofa.

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” he said, and she struggled to calm herself. He returned with a cup of instant coffee, and put it to her lips. “Sip this.” She did and slowly returned to normal.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  Between whimpers and sniffles, she related the charges that the man in a chauffeur’s uniform lodged against Byron and described her reaction.

  Clark bounced up and faced her. “I don’t believe what I’m hearing. You mean to tell me you accused Byron of that on the basis of some jerk’s word, a guy you knew nothing about. Sis, you can take one look at Byron Whitley and see that he does not need to pay for sexual favors, and I mean no matter what his tastes are, a guy who looks like him can get what he wants for free.

  “And another thing, didn’t it occur to you that when sex is for sale, th
e guy pays in advance. Nobody gives credit for that, and if it’s not satisfactory, you don’t get your money back. Honey, you laid an ostrich egg. He’ll never forgive you.”

  “I know. He as much as said so. What am I going to do?”

  “I wish I could say something encouraging, Sis, but it beats me. I know how I’d feel in his place. If you’re in an intimate relationship with him, I don’t see how you could have slipped up like that.”

  “I came to my sense right away, and I told him it wasn’t true, but he said that was too late. Clark, he didn’t even walk to the door with me. I’ve never been so humiliated.”

  “Think how humiliated he was when you believed he used an escort service, and frequently at that. If you want him, you’re going to have to crawl.”

  “I know, and I’m not going to crawl. Period.”

  “Don’t say what you’re not going to do. You love him. You don’t know what you’ll do. Take it from one who’s been there.”

  She couldn’t focus right then on Clark’s reference to himself, her heart was so filled with agony. “I don’t know what I’ll do, Clark.”

  “I’ve never known anything to beat you down, and this won’t either. Whatever you do, don’t use his physical attraction to you as a means to bring him to heel, because he’ll give in, and then he’ll despise you.”

  She wouldn’t have dreamed that Clark’s personal experiences had made him so wise. “I wouldn’t stoop to that, Clark. I may be miserable, but I will always respect myself.”

  He went to the pantry, poured two glasses of Chardonnay and gave one to her. “Dad used to say that when Jack Kennedy was assassinated, he thought the world had come to an end, but the next day, the sun rose and set as usual. You will survive.”

  “I know. I just don’t care for the idea of surviving without him. Please don’t mention this to Darlene.”

  “Of course not. She’d probably call him and chew him out. Say, I saw her Sunday with a guy named Edward Hathaway at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore. She said he’s an airline pilot.”