by Francis Ray
“More company?” Ezekiel asked.
“Maureen might have seen Ryan’s car.” Traci came to her feet.
Ryan stood. He doubted it was his mother. She would have called first. “I’ll go with you then.”
“You’re just putting it off.” Easing down in the chair, Ezekiel forked in another bite of cream cheese pound cake.
In the foyer, Ryan caught Traci’s arm. “Look first.”
“I’d planned to.” She put her eyes to the peephole.
“Good.” Glad she remained cautious, Ryan stood by her side. “Well?”
“It’s not Elisa.” Her hands clenched.
Confused, he turned her to him. “What is it?”
The doorbell sounded again. For a brief moment, panic flared in her eyes. “Just trust me. All right?”
“All right.”
She opened the door. Two uniformed policemen stood on the porch. “Yes?”
The officer’s gaze went to Ryan and beyond before coming back to Traci. “Are you Traci Evans?”
“I am.” She ran a hand through her hair and blew out a disgusted breath. “Which one of my clients is in trouble this time?”
“We’re looking for your grandfather, Ezekiel Hightower,” the other officer said.
“Granddaddy?” Shock raced across her face. Her hand went to her neck. “Why? Has something happened to him?”
“No, ma’am.” The first officer who had spoken told her. “His daughter filed a missing person’s report. He has dementia and hasn’t been seen since yesterday. We were asked by the Macon police to check here.”
Apparently used to estranged families, the police didn’t appear to think it strange that his daughter hadn’t called to check herself. Ryan might, but he’d keep it to himself.
“I haven’t seen him. I’ve been home since around six.” She turned to Ryan and briefly introduced him. “Have you checked with his friends?”
“That’s the first thing the Macon authorities did. He didn’t have many,” the officer said. “His daughter thought he might try to come here.”
“As Traci said, we haven’t seen him,” Ryan said, draping his arm around Traci’s shoulder. “If you hear anything, please let us know.”
“We will. Good night.”
“Good night.” Traci closed the door, her eyes and face troubled. “Thanks. You must have questions.”
“One.” He pulled her to him. “Do you ever think your grandfather will let me win?”
Throwing her arms around him, she kissed him. “You make me believe.”
“About time.” Catching her hand, Ryan headed for the great room.
Ezekiel, his expression hard, met them at the entrance. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess.”
Traci went to him. “If I was in trouble and needed help, would you turn me away?”
“No,” he said.
“Neither could I.” She faced Ryan. “Sit down and put yourself out of your misery and I might cook a soul food dinner for you tomorrow night complete with a pineapple cake so good you’d slap your grandmother.”
Ryan took his seat, wondering what else her grandfather had seen and heard.
Her head on his chest, Maureen snuggled closer to Simon’s naked body and sighed with bliss.
“You sleepy?” he asked.
She angled her head up so she could see his face in the dim light of the bedroom. “You couldn’t be thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “You make me insatiable at times, but three times in an hour might just do me in.”
“But what a way to go,” she said, surprising herself, but holding his gaze. Simon made her feel sexy, decadent even. He was her dream lover come to life. He fulfilled every fantasy she’d ever had.
His broad, calloused hand swept up and down the gentle slope of her back. “Glad you think so because I agree.”
“Good.” She placed her head back on his chest and closed her eyes.
“Maureen.”
“Yes,” she said around a yawn.
“I need to talk to you about us.”
All sleepiness vanished. He’d been quiet ever since they’d gotten home from a dinner cruise. Had he grown tired of her?
“It’s important.”
Her body quaking, her mind screaming at the thought of losing him, she gathered the sheet to her naked breasts and sat up. “I’m listening.”
He shoved his hand through his hair. “I rehearsed this a dozen times.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Just say it.”
“I—” He rolled out of bed and picked up his pants. “Maybe I’ll be able to get it out if I’m dressed.”
With supreme effort, she managed to remain quiet as he put one leg and then the other in his pants. She desperately wanted to ask him not to leave her. She’d known that their time was limited, but she hadn’t known the pain would be so deep.
He came back, kneeled by the bedside, took her hand, and stared at her. Obviously, getting dressed hadn’t helped. The waiting was tearing her heart out. “Just say it.”
His face lifted. “I love you. Will you marry me?”
“What?” Shock raced through her.
His hand tightened on hers when she would have drawn it away. “I know the proposal is pitiful. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman, a wife—loving, intelligent, funny. I love you. Will you marry me?”
Never in a hundred, a thousand years would she have imagined this. She swallowed the lump in her throat, tried to ignore the ache in her heart. “You want to marry me?”
“Yes.” His hand grazed over the top of her hand. “I can’t imagine my life without you.”
“I—” She couldn’t think of what to say. Her heart and her head were at war, tugging her emotions in two different directions.
“I know you care about me,” Simon said. “You wouldn’t have slept with me, gone against Ryan, if you didn’t. Our relationship is important to you, just as it is to me.”
“Oh, Simon.” She closed her eyes, fighting the stinging moisture in them.
“Is that a yes?” he asked, but his usual steady voice was shaky.
Her eyes opened. She stared at the man she had come to love, the man she could never have as her own. “I can’t marry you.”
His hands tightened on hers. “Is it too soon? Do you need more time?”
“No.”
“I know you care,” he told her.
“That’s why I have to say no,” she managed.
“If you’re worried about your finances, I’ll sign a prenup. Whatever you want. You love this house. If you want to stay here, fine, but I’ll take care of the expenses.”
She was already shaking her head. “It’s not that.”
“Then tell me what it is,” he said tersely, his patience clearly strained.
She owed him that much. “You want children. I could never give them to you.”
“Children don’t matter. I want you.”
“For now, but what about two or three years from now?” she reasoned. “I’ve seen your interest in the team you coach and your niece and nephew. You wouldn’t be happy without children.”
“Maureen, I’ve already considered that fact and accepted it. You can’t tell your heart whom to love,” he said gently. “It’s you or no one. I’m asking you again. Will you marry me?”
“Don’t you understand? I care too much to do that to you,” she cried. “Can’t we just go on as before?”
His hands uncurled from hers and he stood, staring down at her. “So all you want from me is sex?”
“No,” she said, shocked, reaching for his hand. He stepped back.
“It’s all or nothing.”
Panic assailed her. “Simon, all I can give you is myself. Let that be enough.”
“All you’re willing to give, you mean.” He snatched his shirt from the floor. Worked his feet into his loafers.
“Simon, please, don’t go. Try to understand.”
He stalked to the door. “I do. You want a stud, and I want a wife.”
She gasped at the accusation. “That’s not true.”
“You know where to find me if you change your mind.” Opening the door, he was gone.
“Simon.” Curling into a tight ball, she wept.
Ryan jammed on his brakes to keep from hitting Simon’s car broadside as it shot out of Maureen’s driveway.
Ryan cursed long and hard at Simon’s recklessness until he jerked open his door and saw his face, his unbuttoned shirt. Ryan’s hand scrubbed over his face. He’d rather eat worms than discuss a lover’s spat when one of the people was his mother. But he happened to like Simon. He made his mother happy. Or had until tonight.
“Is Mother all right?”
“She’s fine.” Simon stared straight ahead, his hands clamped on the steering wheel.
And sheeps flew. His hand on the frame of the car, Ryan asked, “Why don’t you park your car and I’ll drive you home?”
“I’m fine.”
“Simon, I—”
“I asked her to marry me, and she turned me down,” he interrupted.
“What!”
“I thought—” Simon stopped abruptly, his hands flexing. “Do you mind?”
Ryan did, but he didn’t think he’d get any more out of Simon. “You all right to drive home?”
“I’m getting there.” He put the car into gear.
Ryan closed the door and stepped back just in time as Simon pulled away at the posted speed limit. Ryan looked at his mother’s darkened house. Considering the way Simon was dressed, Ryan had no intention of using his key to check on her. Moving his car out from the middle of the street, he got out and called his mother on his cell phone.
“Simon,” she said.
“No, Mother, it’s me,” Ryan said, hearing the hope and tears in her voice. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
She wasn’t. She’d never sounded more miserable. “I talked with Simon. He told me he proposed.” The muffled sound he heard tore at him. “He’s pretty shook up.”
“I can’t talk now.”
“Do you want me to come in?” he asked. “Maybe you shouldn’t be alone. I could use my key.”
“No,” she quickly said. “I’m fine. Good night.”
Ryan heard the dial tone and blew out a pent-up breath. She’d hung up on him. His mother was the worst liar in the world. He dialed another number.
“Couldn’t wait to get home to talk to me?” Traci said, a smile in her voice.
“Simon asked Maureen to marry her. She turned him down, and they’re both in bad shape.”
“Where are you?”
“In front of Mother’s house.”
“I’m on my way.”
Ryan clipped the cell phone back on his belt. He’d gone only a few steps before he saw Traci running across the adjoining yards. Before he knew it, he was racing to her. He caught her in his arms.
“She’s hurting, and I can’t do a damn thing about it,” he said.
Traci held him as tightly as he was holding her. “Not now, but tomorrow and the day after, until she stops thinking about her age and goes with her heart.”
He held her out in front of him. “What are you saying?”
“She loves him, Ryan.”
“Did she say anything to you?” he asked, not sure how he felt about it.
“She didn’t have to.” Traci looked toward Maureen’s house. “You could just look at her when they were together or when she talked about him.”
Ryan considered what she’d said, and wondered if she’d figured out he loved her. “I didn’t notice anything different.”
He couldn’t see her eyes clearly, but imagined her rolling them. “You’re excused because you’re a man.”
He didn’t know how to take that either, so he moved on to what was paramount. “How can we help her?”
“Thanks for including me,” she said.
“It never crossed my mind to do differently,” he said truthfully. “You’re the first person I thought of.”
Pleasure spread across her face. “We certainly won’t let her mope the way she did the last time.”
“You’re calling the Invincible Sisterhood,” he guessed.
“And then I’m playing dirty by inviting myself and Granddaddy over for breakfast since my stove is on the blink,” she mused. “Maureen is too good of a friend, too much of a lady, and too Southern to let us go out or tell me to go to McDonald’s. I’ll casually mention that I wanted to invite the Invincibles over for dinner to meet Granddaddy.”
“She’ll offer her house.”
“You’re catching on.” She smiled, then she looked at Maureen’s house and her smile faded. “I was hoping she would be one of the lucky ones.”
“Lucky ones?”
“The ones who find love.” She shook her head. “Falling in love is like walking in a minefield. You never know when you’re going to make a misstep and the whole thing blows up in your face.”
“Not always.” Ryan swept his hand up and down her arm. “My parents were happy, and so are a lot of other couples I know.”
“Like I said, the lucky ones. But, for others, that big blast is waiting. I’d better get back to the house. I told Granddaddy I was needed next door.”
“You certainly were.” Putting his hands on her arms, he stared down at her face. “Thank you for being Mother’s friend.”
“It’s one of the best decisions I ever made.” She looped her arms around his neck. “Dating you was another.”
He lowered his mouth to her waiting lips. The kiss was sweet and gentle. “Think of me tonight.”
“I will and don’t worry about Maureen.” She started toward the house.
Ryan watched her, smiling as she turned back around to blow him a kiss. He waved, a grin on his face.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a movement in the hedges at the corner of Traci’s lawn. She’d have to pass that exact spot to get to her front door. Uneasiness moved through him. He took off running. “Traci, look out!”
She stopped, glancing around.
He heard car doors slamming, but none of them could reach her in time. “Run, Traci. Damn it, run!”
“He’s mine! Ryan is mine!” screamed Elisa, leaping out of the bushes. Her hands crooked like claws, she went for Traci’s face.
He’d never forget what happened next. Traci stood her ground and cold-cocked Elisa. She crumpled like a marionette whose strings had been cut.
“Are you all right?” he asked, still in awe of what had happened.
Traci rubbed her knuckles. “Better than her.”
The security Dr. Thomas had hired joined them. “She’s out cold,” Bledsoe said.
“No thanks to you. Where were you?” Ryan asked. “She could have seriously hurt Traci if she hadn’t been able to defend herself.”
“We’ve been here since Ms. Evans returned home,” Bledsoe explained. “Elisa must have used the shadows of the houses and the shrubbery to conceal her movements. She was very determined.”
“She needs help. She lives in hell daily, and sees it as reality,” Traci said.
Ryan gazed down at the unconscious Elisa, who was dressed in a black long-sleeved top and pants. Bits of leaves clung to her clothing and her hair. If she had hurt Traci, he might have felt differently. “She’s going to get it.”
He pulled out his cell and called her father. “Dr. Thomas. Elisa just tried to attack Traci. The security team will be at your house with her in twenty minutes. She goes tonight to the hospital or else.” He slipped the phone back on his belt. “Her father is waiting for you. Call me after she’s been admitted.”
“You got it.” Picking up the unconscious Elisa, Bledsoe started back to the van on the other side of the street.
“Where did you learn to fight like that?” Ryan asked when the van pulled off.
“In grade school,” she told him. “It was that or be
picked on.”
“Why would they pick on you?” he asked. When there was no answer, he prompted her. “Traci?”
“Doesn’t matter now. Night.” She hurried across the lawn and into the house.
Ryan let her go. He had a vague feeling that it had something to do with her mother, the woman who had wrongly accused her own father of having dementia. It bothered him that Traci didn’t trust him completely. He wasn’t giving up on that or on teaching her that love meant forever to him and that she was the woman he wanted forever with.
Finally giving up on trying to sleep, Simon pounded out his anger on the punching bag in the exercise room on the ground floor of the condo where he lived.
“You want to talk?”
Simon ignored Rafael standing behind him and kept punching. His youngest brother was spending a few days with Simon so that he could use Patrick’s boat. A light sleeper, Rafael had awakened and, seeing Simon was in a foul mood, had followed him.
“Simon?”
If he tried to talk, he wasn’t sure what would come out. He loved Maureen, wanted forever with her. Why couldn’t he make her see that she was enough?
“All right. I’ll talk. You and Maureen had a tiff. Most couples do. You send her flowers, grovel, and it’s over.”
Simon hit harder, wishing Rafael would just leave him the hell alone. Sweat beaded on his forehead, ran in rivulets down his face. For some idiotic reason, he thought of Maureen’s hot flashes and the first night they’d made love. His balled fists shot out faster and faster. He wouldn’t settle for sex. He wanted all of her or nothing, and the fear that it would be nothing was tearing him apart.
“So this will take more than flowers and groveling. Since Maureen had on some serious bling at the wedding, maybe jew—”
Simon swung around toward Rafael, anger pouring from him, his fists upraised. He’d shopped for a ring for the past week, worried about how she’d feel about taking off the two-carat diamond wedding set she wore. He’d finally decided on a diamond and platinum wedding band.
“If it will make you feel better, swing away.” Rafael took a step closer. “However, before you do, consider that Helen is going to be annoyed with you, and then big bro will get into it. Although a black eye is sure to elicit sympathy from my date tonight.”
