One Magic Night

by Larson, Shirley

  The pizza was warm and rich with tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni, and after they had eaten, Eve leaned back in her chair and looked almost normal. The meal had been punctuated by congenial conversation and occasional bursts of laughter, and Eve’s face was flushed with the wine, her eyes sparkling.

  She plied Deke with questions about the movies and doing stunts and he answered each one thoughtfully. "A stunt man has to know a lot more about filming than just being able to jump through a window. He has to know about camera shots and lenses and the way a set is built, or he might end up doing his stunt ‘off camera' and have to do it again because he missed the big eye. Of course, unlike actors, every time he has to do it again, he gets paid again.

  Though he isn't considered an actor and doesn't use an agent, he still has to know how to act. He has to take that fall or handle that horse in a way that convinces the viewer he is the actor he's doubling for."

  "You said your specialty was horses," Leigh said, relaxing back against the sofa cushion.

  "Most stunt men don't like working with horses. They'd rather ride a car into a wall. Not me. I'll take a horse any day. Trouble with a horse is, most of them are too smart to ride into trouble. They can see it coming, and they back off. You gotta know that about horses or you can't work with them. Ty hated horses. He did cars and stunts that involved fire."

  The lovely euphoria that had surrounded Leigh fell away. ''Fire…"

  "Yeah, sure. Chances are if you saw a man on fire from his head to his heels in a film, it was Ty."

  She felt a sharp stab of anxiety. "He doesn't do that anymore, does he?"

  "No," Deke drawled, "he doesn't do that anymore." A tiny gleam lit his eyes.

  "Why did you do it?" Eve asked, watching him.

  Deke shrugged. "With me, I just kind of fell into it." He grinned. "No pun intended. I suppose I did it for the same reason anybody risks life and limb unnecessarily, just to see if you can flirt with death and win. Somehow, you always feel more alive afterwards. It's the adrenaline, they say."

  Eve shuddered. "I'll certainly pay more attention to those people I see in the movies hanging around on the side of a mountain from now on."

  "Ah," Deke .said softly, "but if you notice us, it means we aren't doing the job correctly."

  "It's just plain stupid for a man to risk his life like that,” Leigh burst out.

  Deke looked at her, his eyes narrowing. "There are stunt women, too, plenty of them. There's a whole organization."

  “I’m glad," Leigh said coolly. "More coffee?"

  Deke frowned, slid back the cuff of his blue plaid shirt, and looked at his watch. "Guess I'll go on back and see what Ty's up to. Thank you for the company,” his eyes swung to Eve, “and the wine."

  "Thank you for the pizza…and the quick course on stunt people," Leigh said hastily, getting to her feet.

  "My pleasure." With the agile grace of an athlete, Deke got to his feet. At the door, he turned and looked at Eve. "Since it looks like we'll be stranded here for a couple of days, I may see you again."

  "I suppose that's possible," Eve said lightly, gazing up at him.

  "Well…good-night," Deke said, dipping his head.

  When he had closed the door and Eve heard the second riser creak, she said dryly, "Thanks a lot…friend."

  Leigh got to her feet and began to pick up the wine glasses and coffee cups. "You're welcome."

  "Well, don't just scurry around here like Mrs. Good housekeeper. Give. Tell."

  "What's to tell?"

  "You might start with where you met him and end with why you dragged me into this."

  “You heard about the car that lost its brakes yesterday. It was driven by his friend. They'll have to wait till Monday to get their car fixed, and they've rented the apartment below. That's all there is to it."

  "What are Hollywood stunt men doing in the back water of Springwater?"

  "Looking for material for a book, so they say."

  "In Springwater? That doesn't make any sense."

  It did, of course, but Leigh couldn't explain. She had told no one in Springwater of her background, not even Eve. She made her shrug casual. "People from the entertainment world don't have to make sense, do they?"

  "Hey, don't kid yourself. They're out to make a buck just like the rest of us. I don't think there are many bucks to be made in Springwater."

  Leigh went on tidying up the apartment, trying to keep a calm, smooth face. Eve was only saying what she knew to be true, but somehow it hurt more to hear it from her best friend. When she picked up the ashtray that Deke had used, she saw that he had left his packet of tobacco lying beside it. "Perhaps when you see Deke again, you can ask him about it."

  "I won't be seeing him again, and you know it. Men like that aren't interested in single, independent schoolteachers." She put her hands on the sofa cushions and pushed herself to her feet. "Well, thank you for a most instructive evening, Miss Carlow. I learned more about movie stunts than I ever wanted to know."

  Leigh turned, frowned. "That's not fair and you know it. You enjoyed listening to him."

  Eve bent over to pick up her purse and, with the easy familiarity of many visits, went to the closet to get her coat. "Too much," she said huskily. "I'd stay and help you with the dishes, but you deserve to be left in the lurch."

  "Eve--"

  "Don't say it," she warned. "I'm too old and too smart to believe a lie. See you Monday morning."

  She went out the door, leaving Leigh standing there looking after her, wondering if she, too, was too old and too smart to believe a lie.

  "Have a good time?" Ty heard the ill humor in his voice, and cursed himself for a fool. Deke stepped into the apartment, closed the door behind him, dropped his denim jacket on the back of a chair and carefully avoided looking at Ty, who was sprawled out on the dark green lounging chair, his feet lifted off the floor, a laptop perched on his thighs, his dark hair tousled as if he had run his fingers through it frequently.

  Deke calculated the odds, decided to live dangerously. "As a matter of fact, I did," he drawled. "Best evening I've had in a long time." He took off his boots, flopped down on one of the double beds, stretched out with his hands folded under his neck…and waited.

  Ty looked down at his computer and scowled. "Save me anything to eat?"

  "Nope." Deke was unrepentant. "We ate it all, every last crumb."

  "Took you all this time to eat one pizza?"

  "No," Deke let the word linger. "We got acquainted,” knowing full well he was being dishonest by omitting mention of Eve's presence. But he was curious. Leigh's reaction to the news that Ty had done dangerous stunts with fire had been interesting. He'd do a little more probing.

  There was a long, drawn-out silence. "Make any headway with her?"

  "Kinda hard to tell at this point, wouldn't you say?" He purposely walked closer to disaster. "What did you find out about the car?"

  "Brake line is rusted through. Must have been that water I had sloshing around inside the back foot well when I was in New York last March and didn't discover till I started back to California."

  "How long will it take to get it fixed?"

  "I’m not sure. Why?" The word was a short, pointed dagger.

  Deke went over the precipice. "Just wondered how much more time I had to get acquainted."

  The bottom part of the lounge chair snapped down. Ty twisted his head and glared at Deke. "Dammit, leave her alone."

  "Hey." Deke held up his hands in mock surprise. "You gave me the impression you weren't interested."

  "I wasn't." The words were ground out.

  "Sounds like you've changed your mind."

  "Maybe I have. Just stay away from her while I'm deciding, okay?"

  "She's not your usual style,” Deke stifled a grin, "especially with those health shoes and that hair tied back in a bun."

  Deke closed his eyes to shut out the look of fury darkening Ty's face. "You should have seen it tonight. That hair glows from th
e inside, like honey held up to the sun. I wonder what it feels like to bury your hands in it…"

  Ty shot to his feet and grabbed his computer, while papers scattering around him like leaves. They fluttered to the floor, white scraps of refuse that Ty stepped over as he went to the closet.

  "Going somewhere?" Deke asked silkily, turning his head to watch Ty thrust his arms into his jacket.

  "Yeah," Ty growled. "Out to look for some peace and quiet."

  Deke closed his eyes and laid his head back down on the pillow. "Don't slam the door, okay?”

  Ty’s answer was to close the door with a violent silence that told Deke he had stretched their friendship to its limit.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Ty wasn't sure at first what had dragged him up out of sleep. He came to consciousness reluctantly. Then he heard them, the clear chiming of church bells. He had never heard a bell rung with such vigor. He could almost see the small boy who must be pulling on the rope to make the sound echo against the hills with such repeated joyousness. He lay still, listening, feeling the discordant, yet melodious clang resound through the valley. Those church bells were a part of Leigh Carlow's life. She had heard them every Sunday since when? Five years ago? Yes, that was what Dean had said. She's been in Springwater five years. And during that time she had not become engaged or married.

  Dammit, he had to stop thinking about her. But he couldn't. He'd prowled restlessly through Springwater last night, walking for hours until he was exhausted in an attempt to put her out of his mind. It hadn't worked. He seemed to be obsessed with her, had been from the moment he looked at those pictures of her with her mother. Those pictures had goaded him into driving miles into the Adirondacks to ask Dean endless questions, including the one about men. "Haven't there been any men in her life, any love affairs?"

  Dean had given him a straight look. "She'll have to answer that question for you. I can't."

  Ty had felt a rough impatience at the man's protectiveness, but now, seeing Leigh, he understood it. Outwardly, she was cool, self-contained. But there was a vulnerability about her that made him ache to know her better.

  He couldn’t give in to it. By Monday, possibly Tuesday at the latest, he would be out of here. All he had to do was retain his hold on reality till then. Once he returned to California and started research on another celebrity’s child, he would forget her…if he could.

  He listened to Deke's heavy, even breathing. He'd been a fool to let Deke get under his skin last night. He just hadn't wanted to see Deke get involved, that was all. At least he, Ty, had showed some sense. He'd stayed away. That was the only thing to do, stay away. He’d tell her he was no longer interested in interviewing her and he'd get the car fixed and he'd get the hell out. He was a sensible, logical man, and he'd never yet lost his head over a woman. He wasn't about to start now.

  If only those bells would stop ringing, maybe he could quit thinking about her, about how he wanted her like hell, more every time he saw her, how he wanted to possess that cool mouth again and make it pulse with warmth, how he wanted to run his hands over her slim body and discover its secret, sensitive places, and make love to her again and again.

  He threw back the covers, glancing over at the still-sleeping Deke. He had to do something to divert his mind: write, work. Then later, he'd go see her, tell her he was no longer interested in interviewing her. She would be relieved, and he would be, too.

  Then why wasn't he? Why did he feel irritated and restless? It must be because he was anxious to get out of Springwater.

  When Leigh Carlow stepped out of the church door, the breeze caught at her yellow hat. She reached up and clutched at the brim, holding it with slender fingers as she walked down the sidewalk, her high-heeled pumps making her body sway with a willowy grace in the yellow linen suit she wore. The sun had risen bright and warm, and she wore no coat.

  "Leigh, darling."

  She turned. From the group of people who were clustered in the autumn sunshine in the front of the church, Hunt, looking much slimmer in his dark navy suit than he had in his costume Friday night, stepped out and grasped her elbow. "How are you?"

  "Fine. I didn't see you in church," she said, more for something to say than anything else.

  "I sat where I always do. Strange you didn't see me." He frowned for a moment and then his face cleared. "All right if I stop by this afternoon and pick up your costume?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "Good. See you later, darling. Got to run." He leaned forward to kiss her cheek, and she caught the scent of his cologne, a cloying, spicy scent. He walked away and left her standing there, making her realize how overpowering his cologne was. The scent of another man drifted through her mind, a clean, masculine smell mingled with the smoky aroma of a fall night crisp with stars.

  "Going out with Hunt tonight?" Eve stood beside her, tall and slender in a silky green dress, her black hair blowing around her head.

  "No. Were you coming over?"

  "No," Eve echoed, her face wry. “I’m not coming over."

  "You sound positively unfriendly this morning," Leigh murmured.

  "You're lucky I'm even speaking to you." There was a feverish brightness around Eve's eyes, as if she had hardly slept last night.

  "I needed moral support," Leigh said blandly.

  "Well, get your morals supported somewhere else after this, okay? Good old reliable Eve is no longer available as a port in a storm."

  The waspishness in her words rolled harmlessly off Leigh. She had known Eve too long and they had shared too much for Leigh to be offended. She knew that, for the first time in her life, Eve was running scared.

  "Remember what I said," Eve cautioned, patting her arm, her gesture at complete variance with her words, "A friend leaves a friend alone.”

  Leigh kept her face expressionless. "I can take a hint."

  "Just until Buck Rogers leaves town, okay?"

  Leigh laughed and tilted her head up under her hat, still holding the brim. "Roy Rogers was the cowboy. Buck Rogers was a space hero."

  "Ranch, galaxy, who cares where he came from? Just so he goes away. And soon. Until then, you don't know me."

  A smile lingered on Leigh's mouth. "What a fair-weather friend you turned out to be."

  "You guessed it. Thank goodness you're smart as well as beautiful. See you in school."

  Eve turned and left, the green silk fluttering around her legs. Leigh watched her go, her mouth lifted in a wry smile. Eve was her own woman, and you had to take her as she was.

  After saying "good morning" to several of the parents and a few of her students, Leigh turned for home. She hadn't bothered to drive; she had walked to church, and now she set off, her heels clipping rhythmically on the sidewalk. The breeze died down, and she took off her hat and enjoyed the feeling of walking in the warm sunshine. The blue sky and the hills mottled with splotches of red and orange maple leaves and dark green pines gave her a feeling of well-being. She strode along purposefully, and it was almost with a sense of regret that she reached the house and climbed the four steps to Viola's porch.

  The sight of her punched the breath from Ty’s lungs. She was a vision of grace and movement, clad in yellow, her honey hair flying free around her face and shoulders. There was a freshness about her, and a studied grace in the way she walked up the stairs that was utterly feminine, utterly destroying. The sensible thoughts, the cool decision to put her out of his mind fled. All that remained was a driving compulsion to talk to her, to be with her, and to possess her.

  Stunned, Leigh stood and stared at their merging reflections. Her hair disheveled by the breeze, her cheeks flushed from the fresh air, the yellow suit she wore made a ghost image over the glass-distorted view of him. It was as if their two separate bodies, male and female, were merging on another plane. Her skin prickled with a fey sense of alarm.

  Framed in the oval of wood, the dark, beautiful face and well-cut, controlled mouth hardened, and the black silky lashes dropped down. Whatever
it was he was feeling, he didn't want her to see it. What was it? Disappointment that she hadn't succumbed to his charm?

  Bitterly aware of an inner struggle of her own, she stiffened and took an instinctive step backwards away from the door. He stepped out onto the porch. Deke followed, looking sleepy but familiar in his blue denim jacket, jeans, and leather boots.

  Ty said, "Good morning."

  His voice rumbled in a low timbre that was disturbingly sensual, too much a reminder of the words he had muttered in her ear and the kiss they had shared in the dark before the dawn.

  "Hello." The word seemed to stick in her throat.

  “Morning, Leigh. Beautiful morning, isn't it?" Deke's voice had a cheerful, nonthreatening sound about it. She relaxed slightly and smiled at him. "Yes, it is." The breeze freshened, and she reached up and brushed back a strand of hair that floated across her cheek.

  Ty took a step away from her and thrust his hand into one of his pants pockets, as if he were anxious to go. Deke shot him a sidelong glance and then turned to Leigh. "I left my tobacco pouch in your apartment last night. We were going out to buy me another, but if you're going right up…"

  "Yes, yes, I am. I did find it, and I came down with it before I went to church, but your apartment was quiet. I didn't want to disturb you."

  “We slept late this morning, at least, I did." To Ty, he said, “You were up working though, when I got up."

  Ty said coolly, “I had some ideas I wanted to get saved in a file."

  There was an odd silence. Self-consciously, Leigh pushed another errant strand of hair away from her face. Ty made a restless movement, and Leigh felt her temper flare. He couldn't wait to be on his way. She said crisply to Deke, ''I'll go up and get your pouch."

  "I'll come with you," Deke said quickly. "You coming, Ty?"

  "No. I'm going to go take another look at the car. You can catch up with me later."

  Leigh climbed the stairs ahead of Deke, fighting to control her annoyance. It had been on the tip of her tongue to invite them both in for coffee and a sweet roll, but now she was glad she hadn’t given in to the impulse. Ty Rundell was an arrogant man who didn't even have the decency to be civil now that he had no further use for her.