Love Me Tonight

by Gwynne Forster

  “I’d love to know what he was building in Atlanta,” Judson said.

  “Not to worry. I’ll find out. You’ve been more helpful than you can imagine, Aunt Cissy,” Telford said. “Next time I’m in Hagerstown, I’ll drop by to see you.”

  “Let me know you’re coming, and we can have a meal.” She showed him her guest room. “Don’t stay at no hotel when you come here.”

  Judson walked to the gate with Telford. “I’ll find out what Uncle Fentriss was doing in Atlanta around thirty-three to thirty-four years ago, Judson. It shouldn’t be too difficult. By the way, what did you say your adoptive mother’s name was?”

  “Beverly Moten Philips.”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I get a lead. Incidentally, we’re celebrating Henry’s seventieth birthday next weekend, and we’d love for you to come and be with us. You said there’s a woman in your life. She’s welcome, too.”

  “Thank you. I’ll ask her if she can come. If she doesn’t have a travel assignment, I imagine she’d be delighted to come.”

  “What does she do?”

  “She’s a lawyer with the same degree that I have, only she got hers at Yale, and she’s a roving ambassador for the State Department.”

  Telford released a sharp whistle. “How exciting! I’m anxious to meet her.”

  “She’s a wonderful person.”

  Telford’s grin implied a tease. “Of course she is. As hard as we work to avoid getting hooked, only an exceptional woman can manage it.”

  Judson stared at Telford for a second and then released a guffaw. “Tell me about it. I didn’t know that was standard.”

  Telford slapped him on the back. “For us, it certainly is. See you in a week.” To his surprise, Telford embraced him as if he were a brother before getting in his car and driving off.

  Telford drove directly to the house on the corner of Peel and Broad, and when he left, he had the building superintendent’s word that Fentriss Sparkman had indeed lived there and that, over the course of a year, Beverly Moten had spent many nights there with him. As he drove home, he added the pieces of information he had together, including that his uncle Fentriss had given his big apartment building the name of the woman he loved. He didn’t have to be an Einstein to figure out that Judson Philips was the son of Fentriss Sparkman. But, as he and his brothers had agreed, proof was what they needed.

  He phoned Judson. “Uncle Fentriss lived in an apartment in that building just as Aunt Cissy said and, according to the building superintendent, who’s about seventy or so, for about a year, Beverly Moten spent many nights there with him. I’m headed back to Eagle Park.”

  “Thanks for calling and letting me know. I appreciate it. Regards to your family and Henry. See you Friday.”

  Before going home, Telford stopped at Russ’s big redbrick house about half a mile up the hill from his own and walked around to the back gate. He knew he’d find Velma and Russ barbecuing on the deck and enjoying the air.

  He told them what he’d discovered and what he suspected, omitting mention of Beverly Moten’s first name. “We’re on the right track, but we don’t have proof. I’ve invited him and his girl to Henry’s birthday celebration. He knocked me for a loop when he said she has an J.D. from Yale and that she’s a roving ambassador for our State Department. I expect we’ll enjoy having her here.”

  “Yeah,” Russ said. “He’d have been the joy of Uncle Fentriss’s life.”

  “How can you be so sure of that?” Velma asked.

  “When you see him, you’ll realize that the question is superfluous,” Russ said. “It’s almost unbelievable.”

  Velma leaned back against her husband’s thigh. “I can’t wait for next weekend.”

  He wanted to talk with Drake, but he knew that Drake was in Philadelphia again, so he turned the big Buick toward John Brown Drive and headed home to the family that he loved. His cell phone rang, and when he saw that the call was from Drake, he broke his rule against using that phone while driving.

  “Hi. What’s up, Drake?”

  “I’ve just remembered what I was trying to recall the other night. Uncle Fentriss named that apartment building for Judson’s adoptive mother. She was his birth mother. I don’t have any proof, but I’d swear to it, brother.”

  “So would I. I’m just getting home from Hagerstown, where I met with Judson and his aunt Cissy. Shortly before Uncle Fentriss died, he went back to Hagerstown to try and locate Beverly Moten. I believe she’s the reason why he never married. He went back there a number of times looking for her, but she’d married and cut ties with her relatives there. I guess she did it to protect her secret. There’s a good deal more. I’ll tell you when we get together. I’m going to Atlanta to see if I can find any clues there. It shouldn’t be difficult.”

  “Right on, brother.”

  Telford hung up, and a few minutes later parked in the circle in front of his house. Getting home was always the happiest moment of his day.

  Judson got back home around six-thirty that evening. Rick, his big German shepherd, met him with tail wagging, jumping up and down as if he hadn’t seen him for days. “I know I’ve neglected you, boy, but I’ve been so involved with my parentage that I hardly remember to eat.” He knelt and rubbed the dog’s back. He didn’t spend enough time at home to justify having a full-time housekeeper, but at the moment, he wished he had one and the aroma of a delicious, hot meal wafting to him from the kitchen.

  He sat down and telephoned Heather. “Hi, love. How are you?”

  “I’m fine. How did it go in Hagerstown?”

  “Heather, the more I learn, the more certain I am, but these comforting bits of information are not proof. Telford Harrington is a great guy. He wants us to spend next weekend at his place. The Harrington brothers and their families are celebrating the seventieth birthday of Telford’s cook and the brothers’ surrogate father.”

  “Both of them?”

  It was a reasonable question, but he couldn’t help laughing. “The cook and the surrogate father are the same person. Their real father died when Drake, the youngest, was sixteen and Henry helped Telford raise Russ and Drake. Telford put them and himself through college. They’re a tight, loving family. Will you come with me?”

  “Of course I will. Thank you for asking me. You didn’t have to tell them that I existed.”

  “The night I met Telford, I told him that I was in a committed relationship, so when he asked me to spend the weekend, he asked me to bring you.”

  “Really? I’ll look forward to it. Have you had dinner?”

  “No. I walked in here, dropped my briefcase on the floor and telephoned you. I think I ought to get a housekeeper, but that would mean I’d have to come home every evening and eat dinner. Housekeepers are like office wives.”

  “Not if you don’t permit it. I thought of hiring one, too, but if I do, nice men like you won’t come and look after me when I get sick.”

  “Don’t you believe it. As Bacall said to Bogart, ‘All you have to do is whistle.’”

  “I don’t know how,” she said in what he suspected was a tease.

  “Baby, ‘you just put your lips together and blow.’”

  She hooted. “For that, I’ll cook you something to eat.”

  “Thanks. I’d like that one evening when you haven’t worked all day. I’ll bring dinner with me. All I want you to do is set the table. Give me an hour.”

  “Take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

  He didn’t feel like rushing. He wasn’t tired physically, but with half of his mind on Sparkman, and the remainder split between Heather and his law firm, he was becoming mentally exhausted. Even so, knowing that Telford Harrington and his brothers shared his dilemma and had vowed to help him solve it made the burden seem so much lighter. Still, it had to end and soon.

  After a refreshing shower, he dressed and sat on his back deck for a few minutes listening to the night animals. Years, maybe months earlier, he wouldn’t have hear
d them, but knowing and loving Heather seemed to have quickened his senses and elevated his consciousness of nature and all living things. A glance at his watch told him that he risked getting to Heather’s apartment later than he had planned. He stopped at a restaurant he favored, bought two lobster dinners and a pint of raspberry ice cream and drove to Heather’s place at a faster speed than he thought wise. Realizing that he’d forgotten to buy flowers for her, he stopped at a drug store, bought a bottle of Dior perfume and had it wrapped.

  A few minutes later, Heather opened the door and gazed up at him as if seeing him there was a surprise. “Hi. What’s the matter?” he asked her.

  “I…uh…I’d begun to think you either had some trouble somewhere or you fell asleep and weren’t coming.”

  He looked at his watch. “It’s only twenty minutes to eight.”

  “I know, but it seems like ages since I saw you.”

  He dropped his packages on the floor, brought her into his arms and held her there. His lips brushed hers. “That’s the best greeting you could have given me. The food is hot, but the dessert needs to go into the freezer.”

  “If you brought ice cream, I’m going to kiss you.”

  He grinned because happiness suffused him. “You’d kiss me even if I didn’t bring you ice cream.”

  She looked into the bag. “Oh, you’re such a tease.” Her arms went around him and tightened. “Thanks. You’re so sweet.”

  He reached in his pocket for the perfume but didn’t take it out. “Heather, I want you to be careful about saying such things to me. You can joke about the weather, even about Armageddon, but please not about what you feel for me or what you think of me.”

  She knitted her brow in a dark frown. “Why can’t you accept that I think you’re a wonderful man, and that I nearly burst with pride when I think that I’m the woman you love?”

  “I can accept that, but I want you to be sure. I’ve heard similar words before, and there wasn’t much truth behind them. I believe in you, but don’t put me up so high. I’m only human, and human beings are prone to mistakes.”

  “You’re not planning to let me down, are you?”

  “I’ll hurt myself before I’ll hurt you, and you may carve that in stone. Let’s eat before this food cools down.” He handed her the small package. “I didn’t have time to go to that florist shop.”

  “Thank you, I used to wear this, and I loved it.”

  “Really? Why’d you change?”

  “I didn’t, but Annie gave me a bottle of Cabochard for my birthday, and I liked it, so I’m wearing it.”

  “I like it, too.” She put the ice cream in the freezer and transferred the food from the foam containers to serving dishes. “Lobster! There are times, like now, when I think you can read my mind. I was hoping you’d get a knack for some lobster.”

  She put a bottle of chardonnay wine on the table, lit the candles and sat down. “Would you please have a seat and say the grace?”

  He took her hand and said the words he’d learned when he was two years old. The memory of Tara teasing about the length of the grace she said floated back to him, and he held Heather’s hand a little tighter. Family. What would it be like to have his own family? Heather looked at him, and their gazes clung. He didn’t want or need passion, but pure love. Unable to resist, he got up from his chair, walked over to her and kissed her lips. As if she understood the measure of his feelings, she stroked the side of his face.

  “I love you, too, Judson.”

  Deeply moved, he struggled to change their moods, sat down and tackled the lobster. She told him the details of her day and of the letters of praise for her work in Bogota that she’d received from her superiors.

  “I have some good news, too,” he said. “Telford has the word of an eyewitness that, in the course of a year at least, my mom spent many nights with Sparkman at his Hagerstown apartment. Furthermore, he returned to Hagerstown many times trying to find her, but she’d cut ties with relatives there, and no one knew her whereabouts. I’m assuming that she didn’t want my dad to know that she’d had a baby out of wedlock. Of course, it’s my guess that she had adopted that baby.

  “If my conclusions are correct, I can at least enjoy the fact that I was a love child, conceived in love. Fentriss Sparkman was last in Hagerstown looking for Mom between three or four years ago. He’s been dead almost that long.”

  “Wouldn’t a DNA test prove paternity?”

  “It would prove that I’m related by blood to the Harringtons, but it wouldn’t confirm that Sparkman was my father, because he had a brother, and that brother was Telford’s father. And don’t forget—I look enough like Drake Harrington to be his twin.”

  Her fork clattered on her plate. “You don’t think—?”

  He interrupted her. “No, I don’t, because I have the letters that Mom and Sparkman wrote each other. Mom kept copies of hers. Besides, Henry said that when Sparkman and Telford’s father were young men, they looked almost like twins. What I’m saying is that genuine and undisputable proof is hard come by.”

  For about an hour after dinner, they sat on the floor playing jazz records. I’m so comfortable with her, he thought, more comfortable with her than he had ever been with anyone. A glance at his watch told him that he’d better get a move on.

  “Will you be unhappy if I leave now?” he asked her. “I have to write a brief tonight for a discussion with my partners at nine in the morning.”

  “I mind because I love being with you, but I understand that you were away from your office today, and you have to get your work done. Will you ask Telford to ask his wife about the dress code at their home?”

  “Sure, but I can tell you she looks good at dinnertime, not dressed up, but nice.”

  A grin spread over her face. “In other words, the lady’s good-looking to begin with.”

  “You could say that.”

  “Ask anyway. I’ll walk you to the door.”

  As much as he wanted to spend the night with Heather, he didn’t let his lips linger on hers. Everything in him wanted to lose himself in her. He looked down at her. “You make it hard for a man to use his common sense. If I call you tonight, I won’t get that brief written. I’ll phone you tomorrow.”

  Her arms eased around his waist and tightened. “You’ll get it done, and you’ll be proud of it.” She opened the door. “Get out of here while I’m in a good mood.”

  He worked until two o’clock the following morning, but he was pleased with what he’d done. If he won that class-action suit, his firm would get more cases than it could ever handle. He didn’t take hopeless cases, because he didn’t like to accept payment from an unsatisfied client. He’d done it once, and from that time, he made it a policy not to accept a case unless he figured he had at least a fifty-fifty chance of winning it.

  After the conference with his associates that morning, he called Telford. “What time would you like us to be at your place Friday?” he asked him after they greeted each other.

  “Anytime after noon is good, but by five-thirty at least. Dinner’s always at seven, and Alexis will want to get you settled in and comfortable and enjoy a couple of drinks before that.”

  “Good. I’ll ask Heather if we can plan to leave Baltimore by four-thirty. Friday afternoon traffic out of Baltimore can be horrendous. By the way, what’s the weekend dress code? Since Heather hasn’t met Alexis, she asked me about her style.”

  “We’re country casual, but you saw my wife at dinner. That’s her style. A pretty street dress or something comparable for Henry’s party would probably work. If I’ve misled you about that, I’ll call you back. Women take these things seriously, and I wouldn’t like to get you into trouble.”

  The picture of Heather fuming because he’d given her the wrong information set him to laughing. “I’m single, and I know that much. I laughed because I got a mental picture of Heather’s face if she went to dinner wearing slacks and a T-shirt only to find Alexis sitting at the table in that red si
lk jumpsuit she wore when I was there. I doubt I’d ever live it down.”

  He hung up. He had to buy Henry a birthday gift, and he had no idea where to begin. Perhaps Heather would have an idea.

  Heather sat on the edge of her desk dictating a report to her secretary when her cell phone rang. “Hello.” She listened for a second. “Just a minute.” She looked up at her secretary. “That’s all for now,” she said to him and waited till the man left her office, then resumed her call. “Hi. Did you finish it?”

  “Hi, sweetheart. I did, indeed, and my partners said I hit a home run.”

  “I knew you would. Congratulations.”

  “I won’t keep you because I know you’re busy. Telford said they dress country casual.”

  “Thanks. So she’s a relaxed person, and she doesn’t go to dinner in what she’s worn all day. I get it.”

  “By the way, I need to get us a present for Henry. He’ll be seventy. I imagine he doesn’t leave Eagle Park except on special occasions or when he goes to do the marketing. They’re surrounded by forests, shrubs and their property. The Monocacy River is a short walk from the house.”

  “I’d get him a good rod and reel and a digital camera. Even if he doesn’t have a computer, the Harringtons certainly have them, and they can print out his pictures. Buy them in Frederick, and he can exchange them easily.”

  “What a great idea. It’s not for nothing that I love you, woman. How about meeting for lunch at twelve-thirty today?”

  She realized she’d taken too long to answer and stopped her musing when he asked her, “Are you still there?”.

  “Uh…yes. I was thinking of reasons why I love you,” she said softly.

  “And you couldn’t think of one?” Uncharacteristically, he’d raised his voice, but she figured she might have annoyed him and that finesse was not on his mind.

  “I thought of a few,” she said, “but I was trying to decide which was the most important.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t know. You interrupted my thinking process.” She knew that her voice had carried the sound of laughter and that she’d gotten to him. His next words confirmed that she knew her man.