Garden of Dreams

by Patricia Rice

  “I’m an officer of the company, remember? I have access to the company files. I just need the right code word.” Hurriedly, JD typed in those words, wondering if he should explain. It didn’t seem particularly relevant at the moment. He’d lose the company and his shirt if he didn’t stop DiFrancesco.

  ‘That must be an interesting company,” she observed from near the windows as the automatic sprinkler system shut off. “There aren’t too many businesses in Kentucky that would let their CEOs look like you do. Or do you dress up when you go to the office?”

  JD chuckled as he punched the button sending the financial statements to the printer. “My secretary expresses the same sentiments. Unfortunately, I’m in charge of dress code, and I don’t give a damn how anyone dresses, as long as the work gets done.”

  Nina spun around, and JD could sense the admiration in her eyes, even though her expression was shadowed with the light behind her.

  “You really are a CEO? That still amazes me. When I first saw you, I thought you were a motorcycle bum. I was afraid to cash your check.”

  JD stood up and crossed the room, capturing her in his arms while the printer clicked and whirred behind him. He nuzzled her neck. “I’m really a CEO, and I really can produce a list of corporate donors for your gardens, if we can just pry your mother out of them. Is that what worries you?”

  She smacked his chest, but the blow didn’t hurt.

  “You worry me. Your Mercedes friend worries me. Everything worries me. I’ve decided not to think about any of it. I’m on vacation.”

  “Some vacation.” With that, JD gave in to temptation. He might prefer machines to people, but he was still a man. And she was a woman. A beautiful woman with a smile like the summer sun.

  His ship might be sinking, but it could damned well go down under a shining sun.

  Chapter 30

  Feeling more alive than she’d ever felt in her life, Nina stretched, raising her arms high above her head so her fingers brushed the petals of an exotic blossom she couldn’t identify. She needed a gardening book. There were so many things she didn’t know.

  Aunt Hattie would have loved exploring this desert garden.

  No, she wouldn’t have.

  Startled by that rebellious thought, Nina lowered her arms and stroked a thick-leaved plant beside her. Hattie didn’t like change. Helen was right: Hattie liked controlling things. A garden like this one was uncontrollable. In this constant heat and sun, it either died or ran rampant beneath the automatic sprinklers. Hattie couldn’t have controlled either. She would have disapproved of the exuberant bougainvillea spilling over the garden walls as much as she had disapproved of the honeysuckle on the wire fences at home. She would have despised the lizards darting about underfoot. And she would have considered the bountiful cactus blossoms as obscene as the wisteria vines she constantly hacked down. Neat tea roses she could control. Wandering vines had to die.

  Astonished by that revelation, Nina sat down on a bench beneath the unidentifiable flowering shrub and stared blindly at the electronic gate. She loved Hattie. Her aunt had given her the security and mental nourishment every child needs to develop a strong character and mind. But she’d kept Nina neatly trimmed and in her pot by depriving her of the emotional encouragement necessary to brave the world.

  Had Hattie not died, Nina might never have followed JD, never seen this garden, never flown in an airplane. JD had given her that encouragement. JD had made her feel strong and proud within herself, capable of doing anything she applied her mind to.

  Freedom. What a marvelous feeling!

  With love warming her heart, Nina glanced up at the garage apartment windows. She’d left JD buried in armloads of printouts, staring intently at words spewing across a computer screen. He hadn’t even noticed her departure. She supposed she should feel insulted, only she knew he applied that same intense concentration on her when the time was right. She still tingled inside and out from their last session in bed. She hadn’t known what hollowness was until JD had filled her.

  Maybe Hattie was right about some men, but Hattie had never explored beyond the boundaries of Madrid. There were good men in the world, men like JD. So, maybe he was a little dangerous. Maybe he shot off like a rocket in any direction that caught his interest. Maybe that wasn’t so bad. And maybe—just maybe—her natural caution could balance his impulsiveness, and vice versa. Maybe. If she got the chance. Please, God.

  Finding hope after so many years of hopelessness disturbed the rhythms of Nina’s heart. The squeak of the automatic gate brought her back to reality.

  Jimmy and Nancy still drove Nancy’s little red Geo. Nina suspected Jimmy would have preferred a slightly larger car for his long legs, but he didn’t appear in the least discomfited as he drove through the gateway. She thought she detected a rather smug expression of contentment on his face, much like the one on her own.

  The gate creaked again as it closed, and Nina shot it a look of mistrust. She didn’t think automatic gates should creak. But Nancy’s excitement as she leapt out of the car distracted her from that thought.

  “We’ve found it! We’ve found the connection! Where’s JD?” Nancy waved the file folder as she hurried across the grass in Nina’s direction.

  “Watch the water sprinkler. It’s just about time for it to go off again. It’s rather like living in one of those fancy Kroger produce departments around here.” Nina walked across to a pathway she’d discovered was safe from the misting sprinklers. She felt a twinge of jealousy observing Nancy’s tanned, blond, Miss America looks. JD had once found this woman attractive enough to marry. Did he still harbor feelings for her? After all, she was Jackie’s mother. It would only be natural.

  Nina had no experience with jealousy. She didn’t like the sensation. Hoping it would go away if she ignored it, she led the pair toward the garage. “He’s working. We may have to hit him over the head to catch his attention.”

  Behind her, she heard Jimmy chuckle, but she ignored that, too. She surmised some sexual innuendo behind that chuckle, and she wasn’t used to that sort of thing aimed at her. The sad part was that he had every right to the thought, whatever it was.

  “JD, we have company.” Leaning in the doorway, leaving their guests outside, Nina observed JD’s broad, bare back hunched over the keyboard. He’d leapt out of bed with some frantic idea, and she hadn’t heard an intelligent word from him since. She didn’t receive one now.

  Shrugging, she closed the door and turned back to the new arrivals. “Better make yourselves at home over at the big house. Is your news important enough that I should bring him out of his trance?”

  Jimmy grinned. “You haven’t whopped him over the head with a keyboard yet? That’s what most of his women do. He can be there all night otherwise.”

  Nancy smacked his arm. “You have the tact of an orangutan, MacTavish.”

  Nina laughed at Jimmy’s surprised expression. “It’s okay. I haven’t tried the keyboard tactic yet, but thanks for the advice. If you understand financial statements, I’ll bring some over to the house and show you what I’ve figured out. He’ll come looking for us eventually.”

  Nancy smiled tentatively. “I never had that kind of confidence. I always hated it when he ignored me.”

  Holding the doorknob, Nina gave that brief consideration, then shook her head. “I’m used to being ignored. It’s when he starts paying attention that I’m in trouble.” She smiled when she said it, and Jimmy and Nancy laughed, though Nina had only half meant it as a joke. What JD did to her when he turned that formidable concentration in her direction scared her stiff. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to melting into puddles.

  She didn’t bother tiptoeing into the apartment after Jimmy and Nancy clattered down the stairs. She figured JD wouldn’t hear an atomic bomb if one exploded in his ear.

  To Nina’s surprise, he looked up the instant she closed the door behind her. He still hadn’t shaved. He looked like a half- naked pirate. He grinned a wicke
d grin that had her tap-dancing heart twirling.

  “I like it when you look at me like that. It makes me feel like Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger rolled into one.” He rose and crossed the room in her direction.

  Nina halted him with a hand to his broad, bare chest. “It’s not pretty faces and brawn we need right now. It’s brains. So stuff it, Marshall.”

  “Brains?” He nuzzled her neck, making short work of her inhibiting hand. “You don’t want me to just go out there and pump lead into the bad guys?”

  Oh, damn. She was melting again. This couldn’t go on. He’d turn her mind to mush, her knees to jelly, and leave her a muddy spot on the floor at this rate. Nina pounded ineffectually at JD’s impervious chest. “Jimmy and Nancy are waiting. The wolf is at the door. And I don’t think your security gate is working right.”

  She didn’t know which statement brought his head up, but she breathed a sigh of relief when his thoughts finally found another focus.

  “I’ll take a look at the gate later. I’d better talk to Jimmy now. I’ve unleashed a dragon, and it may be better if you’re all in China when it roars.”

  Before Nina could protest, JD hurried toward the bedroom. He hadn’t even questioned her comment about the gate. He’d simply accepted it at face value, as he had the slot machine last night. How could she not love a man like that?

  JD returned wriggling into a T-shirt. He caught up a wad of papers and, placing a proprietary hand at the small of her back, pushed her out the door.

  “We’ve had this argument before, JD,” she warned.

  “I know. And you won. But you’ve done all you can do now.” He caught her arm and hurried her across the drive toward the house.

  “Where can we go that’s any safer than this?” Nina demanded as he opened the side door and practically shoved her through.

  “One thing at a time. Let’s find Jimmy.”

  Silence shrouded the mansion, but JD seemed to know exactly in which direction to go. Nina shivered at the heavily draped, dusk-filled rooms. She definitely needed light and fresh air rather than air-conditioning.

  Fluorescent bulbs lit the immense white kitchen as JD shoved through a swinging door. They caught Jimmy with the refrigerator door open and Nancy setting out rosebud china plates. JD didn’t appear in the least surprised.

  “What did you find?” he demanded as he entered, pulling Nina after him.

  “Dillon,” Jimmy responded from the interior of the huge refrigerator.

  It took Nina a moment to remember the name. Dillon. The lawyer who filed copyrights. Of course.

  “Damn. That’s what I was afraid of.” JD kicked a chair and dropped Nina’s hand. “I just didn’t think he had the brains.”

  “Probably doesn’t.” Jimmy emerged with a jar of jelly. “There’s no food in here.”

  “There’s no people in here.” JD stalked up and down the sparkling black-and-white tile floor. “Dillon’s got the whole damned program. If he’s sold us out, Astro has the real thing. If we don’t move fast, we’ll be ruined.”

  “Nancy found us a new lawyer.”

  Nina noticed Nancy didn’t say a thing. She continued laying out neat place settings, arranging the glasses in a symmetrical pattern, and letting Jimmy do the talking for her. Nina thought she might bust a gut if she’d had to keep quiet like that. Maybe Nancy knew something she didn’t.

  “I read those financial statements, JD,” Nina reminded him, just so he’d remember she existed. She could see how JD and Jimmy worked together all these years. The dynamics might work well while developing computer programs. It left a lot to be desired in the corporate world. “It wouldn’t take much to ruin Astro.”

  “Good, because that’s just what I’m doing.” JD grabbed a cracker from the box Jimmy ferreted out from somewhere. Smearing it with peanut butter he found on a shelf, he returned to pacing.

  With an exasperated sigh, Nancy opened the freezer and began searching through it.

  Jimmy stacked his crackers on one of the rosebud plates and, taking a chair, sprawled his long legs across the floor as he applied the jelly he’d found in the refrigerator. “Nancy’s lawyer is an expert in copyright theft. He’s filing a motion with the court in the morning and going after a search warrant for Dillon’s office. Dillon’s a lawyer. He keeps copies of everything. He’ll still have a copy of the transcript.”

  “Can we put the program into production immediately?”

  Shaking her head, Nina pulled herself up on the countertop and watched the two men work. JD still looked like a motorcycle thug, especially with his week-old beard. But his constant barrage of succinct questions and commands explained his rise to CEO. She didn’t remember his ever saying where he attended college. Maybe the marines sent him.

  Nina chuckled as Nancy closed the freezer and stood waiting, arms crossed, to get the men’s attention. “You could try tripping him,” she suggested, indicating JD’s agitated pacing.

  Nancy shook her head. “He’s too coordinated. He could walk an obstacle course talking like this and never hit anything.”

  “Pity there aren’t any eggs in the refrigerator. We could use him for target practice. How about ice? If we slid it across the floor under his feet?” Nina asked hopefully.

  Nancy looked startled, then amused. “Do you want to slow him down or just get his attention?”

  Nina considered that. “Both. We have lots of useful information he needs to hear, but he’s forgotten we exist. The man needs a lesson in delegating.”

  Nancy shrugged. “That’s what happens with a lot of people who build their businesses from scratch. They’re so used to controlling every detail, they can’t delegate when the business grows too big for one man to run.”

  “Build their businesses from scratch?” It was Nina’s turn to look startled. “JD built Marshall Enterprises?”

  Nancy gave her a look of amusement. “His drunken old man sure didn’t. I see he still hasn’t learned to communicate the important stuff.”

  Either that, or he didn’t want leeches draining him dry, leeches like impoverished schoolteachers from Kentucky.

  She’d seen the financial statement of Marshall Enterprises. They weren’t cash heavy. They were highly leveraged. But their profits had soared at a breathtaking pace these last few years. Her motorcycle thug was a multimillionaire.

  So much for any errant thoughts she might have harbored about any kind of steady relationship. She’d just been an amusement for JD while he was stranded in the middle of nowhere. No wonder he kept trying to get rid of her. How dense could one person be?

  Her small balloon of hope spiked, Nina collapsed inside. She knew how to take care of herself. She could go home, tend her garden, go back to school, live day-to-day as she always had. It wasn’t a bad life. She still had to contend with her mother. Maybe she could work something out. She should have had someone check on her geranium seedlings.

  “Nina!”

  JD’s sharp voice startled Nina out of her reverie. He never spoke sharply. She must have been daydreaming. Not looking at him, she slid down from the cabinet and searched for a glass. “What?” she asked with irritation, filling the glass with water.

  “Explain to Jimmy about Astro’s finances.”

  “Their last big game program bombed when your firm released the new edition of Monster House. Quicken’s new banking program made their personal finance software obsolete. They’ve lost money for three consecutive quarters, a disaster for any highly leveraged firm. Which Marshall Enterprises is,” Nina reminded them. “Not as badly as Astro, but you’re in risky waters.”

  JD shrugged, took the glass of water she’d poured, and drained half of it before speaking. “Jimmy and I are the ones taking risks. We’d be the only ones hurt. We’re not a public company.”

  “But Astro is. The stockholders are screaming. Banks are unloading their shares. From the printouts JD gave me, it looks as if they’re overdue on several loans. They’re teetering on the brink of di
saster. One report says there’s a demand for a new board of directors. I don’t know where your Dillon stands amid all of this, but DiFrancesco is on the board, which undoubtedly means he holds a substantial block of potentially worthless shares.”

  Timidly, Nancy broke into the temporary lull following Nina’s speech. “From what Jimmy and I can tell, the money Marshall Enterprises borrowed came from a consortium of Astro’s stockholders. Jimmy’s friend at the bank is searching the files, trying to follow the money trail. Dillon borrowed against his law firm to contribute part of the sum. I imagine that means he owns stock in Astro.”

  “Thank God we haven’t gone public yet,” Jimmy muttered.

  “Dillon wanted us to,” JD pointed out. “He and his friends probably would have bought us lock, stock, and barrel if we had.”

  “That’s irrelevant now. Astro has your program, their sales are soaring on the basis of it, and their stock prices have just recently turned around. Without that program, you’re stable, but jerk that program from Astro, and they crumble.” Nina refilled the glass and sipped.

  “I’ve already notified a contact at the Wall Street Journal that we’re pressing a copyright-infringement suit against Astro. If this lawyer you’ve found is any good, he can have theft charges pressed. The news should break soon. I’ve already put it on the Internet. Astro’s stock should start tumbling in the morning,” JD announced with satisfaction.

  Jimmy shouted in glee, and Nina lifted her glass in salute. JD would never stay down long. She’d be wise to follow his example. She just wished her heart were in it.

  “If you announce your intention to go public with your stock, couldn’t you borrow sufficient money to start production of your own program?” she asked.

  “You’re wasted teaching high school, Miss Toon,” JD admonished. “You have a wickedly clever mind. However, I’m taking your earlier suggestion. Astro has production facilities that we don’t. They’ve already sold the program across the country with a sales force we don’t have. When Astro’s stock plummets, I’m personally buying up every share that hits the market. I’ve notified my broker to buy when it hits the price I’ve designated. And I’ve given him a list of major stockholders to contact. My bet is that when the news of our suit hits tomorrow, the rats will scurry to flee the sinking ship.”