“Hi. Don’t tell me you two have been here all night,” she said to them.
Wayne seemed to take his gaze from Banks with reluctance. “Hi. I went home to Beaver Ridge.”
“And I slept upstairs, girlfriend. Can’t you tell?”
Justine joined them at the table and poured herself a cup of coffee. “How would I know?”
Banks looked straight at her. “Same way I could tell. Some things scream out at you. Want me to go on?”
Wayne went to Justine’s defense. “You don’t have to say everything you think, Leah.”
Banks shrugged. “What makes you think I do? I don’t miss anything that goes on around me. Not one thing.” She tweaked his nose. “If I said everything I thought, you’d probably run. Anything you want to know, just ask.”
He put his left arm around her shoulder and tugged her closer. “With your bluntness, I’m not sure I’d want to. All right. Why won’t you come home with me? My folks were disappointed that you didn’t come to dinner yesterday.”
She looked him in the eye. “I told you. Your mother’s formidable, and you’re the only person in Frederick who disagrees with me. She and I like each other from a distance, and I think we ought to keep it that way, at least for now.”
“She’s got a strong personality,” he said, “but she also has two sons who are strong-willed, independent, and have made good lives for themselves. That ought to tell you she respects individualism.”
The seriousness of Banks’s tone matched her words. “I didn’t think it was the time for me to visit Miss Mary, not with a crowd of family at a holiday meal, because I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot with her. If she and I don’t have an audience, we’re more likely to get on well. So, try not to push it, Wayne. We’ll get there.”
The tenderness that glowed on his face as he gazed at Banks reminded Justine of Duncan’s expression when he rocked Tonya and sang to her and when he’d held her own body in his arms.
She glanced toward the open door just as Duncan filled it. “Good morning. I didn’t expect that you’d all be here, so I’ve been working in my room.”
“Sure,” Banks taunted, “any excuse will do. You sure we should go fishing? We could freeze on that river.”
“Not to worry, babe,” Wayne said. “We’ll have a fire, and the forest is so thick that we won’t get much wind. But dress warmly. I got enough donuts to last you a week, and we’ll have plenty of coffee, so you ought to be happy.” He looked up at Duncan. “This will be Leah’s first visit to the lodge. I tried to get her to go when Adam and Melissa were here a couple of weeks ago, but she begged off. I still don’t know why.”
Banks raised an eyebrow. “You hadn’t called me in four days, and I didn’t feel like pleasing you.”
Wayne’s shoulders shook as he let himself laugh. “Sometime when I realize I spent thirty-four years of my life without having known Leah, I think about what I’ve missed and I get mad at the world.”
As though to say, the heck with Duncan, he leaned over, pulled Leah into his arms, kissed her mouth, and prolonged it until she wrapped him in her arms. Observing them and their shared passion, Justine squirmed. Finally, she could no longer resist looking at Duncan, who had locked his gaze on her. Without thinking, she let her right hand go to her left breast, as she sucked in her breath. Within seconds, he was there, bringing her out of the chair and into the heaven of his body. Frissons of heat shot through her like hot, metal arrows seeking magnets. His lips adored her mouth until she opened to him, longing to take him in.
But he eased her away, winked, and whispered, “Looks like we can’t be trusted in private or public. You mad ’cause I did that?”
He had made another public statement of their relationship; how could he ask if he’d angered her? “I’m so mad, I never want to see you again.”
“What?”
“Right. It’s a kind of madness that sends me spinning out of this world.”
His even white teeth glistened and sparkles danced in the eyes that she adored. “That kind of talk will get you in trouble, sweetheart, and nail you there.”
This time when she saw that Banks, though nestled in Wayne’s arms, watched them with an inquiring look, she shrugged it off. Let Duncan handle it.
Wayne looked at his watch. “It’s time to get going, folks. The lodge is a good hour from here.”
They went in separate cars. “Too bad we couldn’t take Tonya,” Justine said to Duncan as they sped behind Wayne’s maroon Town Car.
“Another time. She’s better off there with my mother.”
“I know,” Justine said, and in her mind’s eye, she saw her child bonding with the woman whom she would call grandmother and who, if Duncan cut his ties with her, could be the one who reared Tonya and taught her about life. She had a sensation of being crushed between towering forces. The morning slowly lost its darkness, and shades of gray crept into the skies. Like her life. From night to shrouded morning, from not having her child at all to having her and knowing that, at any minute, she could lose her forever.
“You’ve been silent for miles,” Duncan said. “What’s wrong?”
“Paying for last night’s lost sleep.”
He pulled up to the lodge behind Wayne. “This is a great place. You’ll see,” he told her, holding her hand and walking around the house. “That’s the most wonderful woods back there, and the river is magical, but it floods and can be dangerous.”
She scrutinized the lodge. “Duncan, this is a house. I was expecting a log cabin.”
They went inside, put on their fishing clothing, got their fishing gear and cooking supplies, and trekked down to the edge of the Roundtree property—about half a city block from the lodge—where the Potomac river ambled lazily toward the Chesapeake Bay. Wayne made a fire, and they spread out to try their luck with the fish. Duncan quickly caught six croakers, and Banks landed a large trout, but Wayne and Justine had no luck.
“I’ll get these cleaned and in the frying pan in no time,” Duncan said to Wayne and Banks. “Justine, would you put some coals on the fire? I’ll mix some corn bread, and we can have fried fish, cornbread, and coffee for breakfast. If Wayne and Leah do get together, they’ll have to hire a full time cook, because neither one of them can cook anything fit to eat.” He measured the meal and some flour.
“I’m not sure I want any cornbread; it’ll make me gain weight,” Justine told him.
“Yeah? So what if you gain a little weight. You could add another ten pounds and still be perfect.”
Was he aiming at her Achilles heel? “What do you mean by that?”
“What I said. To me, you’re perfect.”
Without warning, his mouth settled on hers with a powerful, searing hunger, and shudders racked him. The hard tips of her breasts proclaimed to him their need as he held her body to him, caressing, rubbing her shoulders, her arms, her back.
“I need you,” she whispered. “Oh, Duncan, you don’t know how I need you.”
He rested her head on his shoulder and held her tightly. He had to be the gentlest, sweetest man alive, she thought, when he pulled away from her. “When we get back home, I mean to Washington, we’ll have to talk about us, Justine. I’m not used to being indecisive, but…well, it seems as though neither of us is directing this drama. I don’t believe in letting life happen to me, and I don’t think you do. I accept that I care for you, and that I’m strongly attracted to you. I haven’t gotten further, and I may not. So I want us to have an understanding.”
“I want that, too, Duncan, and I thought we had one, but our understandings don’t seem to count for much because they’re not based in reality, but in denial. There’s no point in us talking unless we face what we feel. I don’t know that I want to go through that.”
He hugged her. “Are you suggesting we try to stay with what we worked out before we left home?”
She nodded.
“All right, but if it doesn’t work, we try it my way.” He looked around. �
��What happened to Leah and Wayne? They’re not out there fishing.”
“Your sister can take care of herself and especially with Wayne. He adores her.”
“You don’t know that guy. Women are crazy about him.”
“Take a good look at him. Sure they are.”
“Where’d they go?” Duncan asked.
Justine flexed her right shoulder. “Probably somewhere making out,” she said reminding him that it wasn’t really his business and enjoying the glare he gave her for her daring comment.
Banks and Wayne were at that moment walking through the woods hand in hand discussing Duncan and Justine.
“My brother’s crazy in love with Justine and doesn’t realize it.”
Wayne disagreed. “That would surprise me. G. Duncan Banks is in tune with himself and the rest of the world. Besides a man knows how he feels about a woman.”
Banks stopped walking and looked at Wayne. “Always? You’re telling me that all men are that clever?” She sucked her teeth. “Well fly me to the moon in your Cesena—”
His hands grabbed her shoulders and he turned her to face him. “Leah stop hiding your feelings behind these clever remarks you like to make. You want to know how I feel about you? Do you care how I feel about you? Do you? Well, ask me!”
“Do I…Wayne. Wayne.”
She wanted to take off her jacket so she could feel his hands on her body when his arms went around her.
“I feel something special for you, Leah. Special and strong. Do you think you could get rid of your sharp tongue when you’re with me and…just be yourself. I thought you’d cry when you lost that first big fish this morning, and I was hoping you would. I need to know when you’re vulnerable.”
“I don’t have such a sharp tongue. Honest, Wayne, I just tell the truth, and you don’t hear it often. Besides, when people see your weaknesses, they take advantage of you.”
He kissed her eyelids. “Not me. Never. I just want to know who you are, who it is that’s worming herself into me.”
She cocked her ear, and when he repeated it, she let her delight shine on her face. “You talking about me?”
“Who else, Leah?”
She didn’t want to get weak and throw herself around him, so she said, “We’d better get back to the fire before my brother sends out a posse for you.”
He shook both of her shoulders. “See what I mean?”
“Not a bad way to express your feelings,” she said of Wayne’s gentle shake. “I enjoyed it.”
His hug wrapped her in heaven, and she sensed that she’d gotten closer to him.
Duncan and Justine sat on a stone bench beside the hot coals. His mind had drifted back to his work when Justine remarked, “You’re awfully quiet.”
He patted her hand. “I’m on a story, and every time I get a lead, it takes me nowhere.” He paused, realizing that it was the first time he’d discussed his work with Justine. Marie hadn’t shown an interest in what he did, and he hadn’t considered discussing it with Justine.
“I don’t remember ever before having gotten so many false tips or gone down so many dead ends,” he went on.
“What’s the problem?”
He was silent for some minutes, deciding whether and how much to tell her. He didn’t discuss his assignments, but he wanted to share it with her. “I’m investigating housing conditions in West Baltimore for a series of articles Wayne asked me to write, and I can’t find out who’s managing those tenements and, in some cases, who owns them.”
“My godfather deals in Baltimore real estate. Maybe he can give you some leads.” She must have been taken aback at what he knew was a stunned look on his face at her offer of help but, nevertheless, she wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to him. Still preoccupied with his thoughts of her and of his assignment, he thanked her, folded the paper, and put it in his pocket without looking at it.
“Any time. We aim to please.”
“You do please me, and in ways that you may not have contemplated.”
“Duncan, I wouldn’t expect you to be a loose-tongued man, so don’t tease me about my…my size.”
“I’m not teasing. You do suit me.”
A woman with an influential godfather? All at once, his mind plunged into its old habit of tormenting him with thoughts of who she might be, whether she was who she represented herself to be.
“By the way,” he heard himself say, “Would you mind telling me why you told those women who answered Dee Dee’s ad that the position was closed and that I’m not looking for a wife?”
If he was looking for a way to put some distance between them, he’d found it. “I already told you. I just couldn’t see turning Tonya over to a stranger.”
“And I said you can remain her nanny as long as you like. But day before yesterday, you told another woman she was out of luck. Look me in the eye and tell me you did that.”
She refused to lie about it or to apologize. As she looked into the distance beyond his shoulder, she knew that her culpability blazed across her face.
His next words stunned her. “If you want me for yourself, tell me. I like a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. The way things are moving between us, I wouldn’t dare guess where or how it will end. Who knows, I might take a call from another one of Dee Dee’s readers on a day when my ego needs stroking.”
“You unfaithful creature.”
“Me? I’m the epitome of fidelity,” he growled, stood, and held out both hands to her. “Come here, baby.”
If they didn’t stop it, she’d lose everything, and he’d break her heart. “Duncan, I work for you, and I live in your house.”
“Okay. You’re fired,” he said, without the semblance of humor. “Now, come over here. I’m cold, honey.”
She walked to where he stood with his back to the fire, took his hand, and stood beside him with her head against his shoulder where he’d put it.
Banks and Wayne found them holding each other, their demeanor quiet and somber.
“Where’s the food?” Wayne asked.
Duncan looked at Wayne’s arm around his sister’s shoulder. “The stuff’s been ready half an hour.”
Justine let herself enjoy the interplay between Banks and Duncan. He played the role of big brother, and she teased him about it. “You could have eaten already, if you hadn’t been otherwise busy,” she told Duncan.
Wayne’s fingers grasped both of Banks’s shoulders. “Honey, the correct response is ‘sorry, I hope it didn’t get cold.’”
Banks half nodded. “Right.”
Duncan eyed them curiously. His sister had actually agreed with Wayne without first giving him a smart comeback. “Well, hallelujah, there’ve been some changes made.”
“Yeah?” Banks asked. “What happened while we were gone?”
Wayne’s laughter echoed through the woods. “You’re incorrigible, honey.”
Duncan remembered the note Justine had given him, took it out of his pocket, and looked at it. His heart began to bounce around in his chest and perspiration beaded on his forehead. Her godfather. Hugh Pickford was Justine’s godfather. He’d gotten into something and, whatever it was, he wasn’t going to like it. For a long time, he contemplated his course of action. Quiet. Pensive. He knew that Justine sensed his cooled feelings, but she wouldn’t question him about it. He admired her innate dignity. No matter how much a thing distressed or hurt her, she laid her shoulders back and raised her head. If he knew one thing about her, it was that she would never crawl.
As though she’d read his thoughts, she looked him in the eye and said, “Who am I looking at right now, Duncan? Same man? The thunder of your silence is almost deadly, ear-splitting like the sound of…” She looked skyward. “Of the…the moon bleating at the clouds. What you’re not saying is stronger and louder than anything I ever heard. I hope you know what it is.” She didn’t wait for his response, but walked away from him and joined Banks and Wayne, who talked a few feet away.
�
�It seems colder. Could we head back to Frederick?” she asked Banks.
Banks looked over at her brother. “Yeah. Let’s.” She put an arm around Justine as though, having sensed the rift between her and Duncan, she sought to comfort her. “It’s great out here,” she said, “but I need some real coffee.” She opened a pack of cigarettes and put one in her mouth.
“Can’t you do without those things for a couple of hours?” asked Duncan who had joined them.
“Not to worry friend,” Wayne interjected coming to Banks’s defense. “She’s blowing her smoke my way.”
Duncan had made Justine uncomfortable but he couldn’t tell her why. Not yet. Not until he got his man. “If you want to leave,” he told her, “I’ll take you.”
Sunday morning, Justine stood at the door with Duncan as they prepared to return to Washington. His mother’s birthday gala had been a gathering of the town’s notables, as well as Arlene Banks’s less well-placed friends. Justine had enjoyed meeting Adam and Melissa Roundtree, Wayne’s brother and sister-in-law, and had marveled at the similarity in stature, physique, and good looks that Melissa and Banks shared. It was the kind of party that she had attended so often during her life with Kenneth and she’d been glad when it ended.
Duncan went to pack their things in the car, and his mother walked over to Justine, placed Tonya in her arms, and kissed both of them. “Justine, I hope you’ve decided what to do about Duncan. He—”
“Mrs. Banks, you know I’m Tonya’s nanny.”
The woman didn’t back down. “And you and I both know that you’re more than that. Duncan suffered during his first marriage and after it ended, and you can hurt him more than Marie ever did. But if you do, remember that my son will always fly. No matter what you do to him, he has it in him to pull himself up and fly. So be careful. No matter how deeply he cares for you, he has the strength to turn away from you. I hope for all your sakes that it doesn’t come to that. If you ever need me, just call.”
Fools Rush In Page 24
