“Yes, you are, Aurora. The swelling has gone down. You’re just left with some residual pain. These exercises will help.”
She gave him a doubtful look. “If you say so.”
“I do say so. I’m a doctor, remember.”
She continued flexing her ankle with the front of her foot poised on a pool step. Martin enjoyed the view of her springy red hair bound in an elastic band and her ultraconservative flowered bathing suit with its ruffled skirt and blousy top. He wondered why she tried to hide her slim figure. And then he glanced up at the second-story window where his wife stayed and thought perhaps he understood. Someday he and Aurora would have an honest and open conversation about Maggie and eliminate Aurora’s concerns.
“Now stand on your toes and count to ten.”
She lasted less than two seconds.
Martin laughed. “You know, for a tough gal, you are a sissy when it comes to pain.” He offered her his hand so she could exit the pool. “Try sitting on the side and doing some simple flex and retract positions. Keep your toes pointed.”
“Can I have another glass of lemonade first?”
“No. Do you think a physical therapist would let you stop for refreshments in the middle of a session? Five more minutes. You can do it.”
She reluctantly complied and worked the sore ankle in the water. “The pool feels great, actually,” she said. “We should make a profit-share deal whereby my guests can use your pool.” She grinned at him. “That’s assuming I will see profits, a detail I’m not at all sure of right now.”
“You’re pouring a lot of capital into that house,” Martin said. “You’re not running out of money, are you?”
“Not yet. But I don’t have enough for a pool. What I am running out of is patience, with code enforcement officers and electrical and plumbing inspectors. It seems to take days for one little project to be accomplished and then along comes a bureaucrat to tell me what’s been done wrong.”
He brought her a glass of lemonade. “Here. You’ve earned a break.” Taking a seat next to her on the cool tile, he said, “You are making progress, though. I can see the changes from the road as I drive by. The new yellow paint is particularly attractive.”
“Thank you. That is the only project the inspectors didn’t find fault with.” She took a sip from her glass. “So how are you, Marty?”
He was taken aback at the question. He spent hours every day asking people the same thing, but few asked him. “What do you mean?”
“Just that you are a busy man. You have an important job. You take care of your wife and your family. And from what I’ve heard, you’re active in several community activities.”
Since Aurora brought up the subject of Maggie, he decided to pursue it. “What have you heard about my wife, Aurora?”
“Probably close to the sad truth,” she said. “The people in this town like and respect you. I don’t think they would exaggerate your role in your wife’s care, or the seriousness of her condition.”
“Maggie’s diagnosis was the greatest disappointment in my life. Her continued decline was my greatest failure. Modern medicine can only do so much, and it took a lot of soul-searching until I accepted that fact.”
“She’s lucky to have you,” Aurora said. “They all are. I could tell from talking to your granddaughter that your girls love you very much.”
He laughed. “So that’s what you and Lizzie were talking about out here, how much they all love me?”
“In a roundabout way,” Aurora said. “They do love you, but Lizzie was telling me that she’s having a problem with her mother.”
“I know all about it, and I hope you didn’t get involved.”
“I’ve learned not to interfere in another family’s problems. But if Lizzie wants to tell me the details another time, I’ll listen.”
“And will you have an opinion?”
She grinned. “One thing you’ll learn about me, Marty, is that I always have an opinion. Once I tried to influence a family member of my own about his future. I’m still paying the price for that mistake.”
Again, Martin thought about Aurora’s words. There was definitely a story here, maybe an explanation about why she was alone now.
Her concise affirmation that his girls loved him made him sit a bit taller. He knew his daughters appreciated what he did for their mother, but the simple praise from a practical stranger almost meant more. A practical stranger. He’d known Aurora only a few weeks. Their initial meeting had been less than auspicious, and yet he felt connected to her in a way that defied logic. Aurora didn’t treat him like a doctor. She didn’t expect anything of him. She didn’t ask too many questions. And yet her concern seemed genuine.
If his situation was different... But it wasn’t. If he was starting over... But he wasn’t, and had no idea when, or even if, he would be. So for now he would take what pleasure he could from this plainspoken, gutsy neighbor, who embodied the will and determination of a lumberjack.
One simple realization stunned him. Aurora was fun. And fun, the laughing, teasing kind that could inspire closeness, was what a mature man craved, and was lacking in his life.
“Get your whip out, Marty. I’ve got about ten more minutes to devote to this torture before I go home. Make it good.”
He smiled.
* * *
ALEX’S CELL PHONE rang at 7:30. The caller ID identified the call she’d been waiting for, agonizing over. Was he on his way to Greenfield or had he stayed in Columbus? After their argument, she wouldn’t blame him for turning his attention to his constituents and considering her a lost cause.
She connected. “Hello, Daniel.” He’d called her twice during the week, both times to say that he hoped the situation between her and Lizzie had improved. It hadn’t. Sometimes Lizzie seemed close to accepting that her future lay at Bryn Mawr. Still, Alex worked to break down the wall of silence the girl had built between them.
“I’m a half hour away,” he said.
Her heart contracted. He hadn’t given up on them.
“And I’m starving,” he added. “Are we speaking?”
“Yes, we’re speaking. I’m sorry...”
“No apologies necessary, Alex. Once we start down that road, one or the other of us could be apologizing every day for something. I believe in the principle of get over it.”
She laughed. “I’m willing to go along with that. Now, about feeding you...”
“Can I stop and pick you up? We can order a pizza and take it over to my father’s.” He paused. “You understand I need to see him.”
“That sounds lovely. I’d like to see Gus, too.”
“Great. I’ll be there in—” he paused, as if checking his watch “—approximately twenty-six minutes.”
“Oh, that long? Can’t you hurry it up?” She felt her face flush. She was shamelessly flirting again, and it felt so good.
He chuckled and hung up. Alex went to her room and changed her shorts for a pair of jeans. She tossed aside the old T-shirt she’d been wearing and chose a pink Oxford cloth blouse. Last, she applied a minimum of makeup and swept her hair into a topknot, which she secured with a tortoiseshell clip.
Before going down to wait for Daniel, she stopped at the door to the guest room where Lizzie slept. Lizzie was out, but Alex wrote her a note explaining where she was and left it on the dresser. Then she called Jude to see if her sister would pick Lizzie up if she called. Naturally, she had to explain about Daniel to Jude.
“Looks like your argument with Daniel is over,” Jude said. “You two might make it after all.”
There was no point in denying her feelings for Daniel anymore, Alex thought. She’d protested for so long, saying that her relationship with him was purely platonic, that they were friends and that was all, that she wasn’t dating him in the traditional se
nse. She didn’t know if anyone in her family believed her. She didn’t believe herself. Once she’d admitted that she was attracted to Daniel, she’d careened headlong into a spiral of emotions that both terrified and excited her. She’d missed him this week. She’d agonized over the harsh words she’d spoken and the genuinely sweet gestures he’d made before leaving. She’d worried that he wouldn’t want to see her again.
As Alex went downstairs, she wondered if this was love. Her feelings for Daniel were certainly different from the ones she’d experienced for Teddy. And yet she’d loved Teddy. But she hadn’t felt this... What could she call it? Passion? Desire? Crazy winged creatures playing racquetball in her stomach? If this was love, she thought, it was absolutely, horribly wonderful.
And so tonight, or at the latest tomorrow, but definitely this weekend, she would tell him about his daughter.
She watched out the front window for his car to pull up. Without waiting for him to come to the door, she dashed out and got in the passenger seat. His arm was slung over the steering wheel. The dome light showed the sparkle in his eyes, the genuineness of his smile.
She sighed. “It’s nice to see you...”
He cut her off by pulling her close and kissing her. He smelled so good, as if he’d driven with the windows open. She ran her fingers through his hair, mussing it even more than the wind had done. The kiss lasted until she finally noticed the gearshift sticking into her thigh. She backed away, rubbing the afflicted area.
“Oops,” he said. “I’ll do better later.”
She smiled. “You’re doing fine right now.”
They stopped at Lorenzo’s for pizza and headed into Greenfield. Alex had never been to the Chandlers’ house before. In the increasing dusk, she found the modest bungalow warm and inviting with lamps shining from the windows. The landscaping was trim and neat. A few flowering bushes surrounded the small front porch, imparting their scent to the night air. Streetlights illuminated each corner on Elm Street, showing off the residents’ pride in ownership.
“What a nice place to grow up,” she said, walking to the porch.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Two bedrooms was enough, but have you ever tried to get by with only one bathroom?”
She hadn’t.
Gus met them at the door. He hugged his son. “How was the drive?”
“No problem,” Daniel said.
“It’s nice to see you, Alexis,” Gus said. “Come in. Make yourself comfortable.” He sniffed the air. “What’s that I smell?”
“Pizza, Pop,” Daniel said. “Do you want a slice?”
Gus chuckled, rubbed his hand over his thinning abdomen. “And ruin this pretty waistline? I don’t think so.”
“So how are you feeling?” Daniel asked.
“I’m okay, son. Good days and bad. Today was a good day. Your aunt Margaret left this afternoon. I wanted to tidy the place up for you, but Margaret didn’t leave me anything to do. So I fixed my own supper.”
Gus looked from Alex to Daniel. “But it’s now past my bedtime, so I’ll leave you two kids to your pizza.”
“Don’t you want to tell me about the sale of the inventory?” Daniel asked.
“Now? It can wait. Everything is going according to plan, so you concentrate on pizza and this pretty girl beside you.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” Daniel said. When Gus had left the room, Daniel took a bottle of wine from a cabinet in the corner. “It’s Pinot Noir. Is that okay?”
“Perfect,” Alex said.
He went into the kitchen and returned with the bottle opened and two glasses. He poured for each of them. Holding his glass up, he said, “To the weekend.”
Alex clinked her glass against his. “And to forgetting the last time we were together and starting over, right?”
“No. I don’t want to forget anything. Everything that happens is part of this relationship, Alex. You, me, Lizzie—I don’t want to scare you, but I feel like we’re meant to be together through the ups and downs. Maybe I’m speaking too soon. Maybe you don’t want to hear this, but I feel a connection to you and Lizzie that grows stronger every day.”
She took a long swallow of wine, a tactic to give herself time to think. He felt a connection. Of course he did. He’d been the first man, the only other man besides Teddy, that she’d ever made love with, and that one time, that expression of her deepest longing, had produced a baby. His baby.
He took the glass from her hand and set it on the coffee table. “I want to hear all about your week with Lizzie and how that’s working out, but first, I have to know if you’ve thought about me this week, if you’ve felt even something of the connection I’m talking about.”
Only every time I look into my daughter’s face, into those gold-green eyes that defy description and are a perfect match when I look into yours.
“I missed you,” she answered honestly. “I wanted to call you, but I knew you were busy.”
“I was, but I would have made time.” With his knuckles, he traced a line down her cheek, her neck. She bent her head to the side, giving him access to continue. And then his lips followed, nibbling at the soft skin under her ear, the smooth slope of her neck until they found her mouth. The kiss was hungry and passionate, and if she’d wondered at all about that special connection they professed to feel for each other, all doubts vanished.
In this little bungalow, with this man, she was home.
* * *
THE WINE BOTTLE EMPTIED, the pizza box thrown away, Alex and Daniel sat on the sofa. The TV played softly, a documentary they both thought they would like to see, but had abandoned a few minutes ago when Daniel turned down the volume.
“I thought you wanted to watch this,” she said. “It’s about America’s national park system, and you’re trying to put through a bill to make improvements to the Cuyahoga Park, aren’t you?”
“I am, but we have to talk, Alex.”
A flash of alarm skittered down her spine. His voice sounded so ominous. She turned, letting his arm fall away from her shoulders. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know if it’s wrong,” he said. “But it’s important, and it might change some things.” He took a deep breath. “Something happened this week...”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SHE TRIED TO smile and failed miserably. “Daniel, you have me worried.”
He took her hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to worry you, but what I’m about to tell you is life-changing. And since I’ve found you again, since I’ve grown close to you and your daughter, I’m not at all sure I want my life to change, especially if it will change us.”
She exhaled a long breath. “Just tell me.”
“Okay. In a way, what happened is fairly unusual. I mean, I’m only in my first term as a state senator. I had expected to serve at least two terms before seeking another office.”
“A higher office, you mean?”
“Yes, that’s right. State government is satisfying in many ways, but I can’t deny that I have ambition beyond Ohio’s boundaries.”
“And has an opportunity presented itself?” She asked the question, but she had no idea what she wanted the answer to be. Like Daniel, she was just becoming comfortable, hopeful with the way things were.
“It has.” He cleared his throat, held her hand a bit more tightly. “An exploratory committee met with me this week. Their job is to suggest a replacement for Senator Dillingham, who will be retiring at the end of his term.”
“Senator Dillingham from Dayton?”
He nodded. “He’s been one of Ohio’s representatives in the US Senate for years.”
“Yes, and he’s quite well respected, though he is a member of the ‘other’ political party.”
She remained silent for a moment and then said, “So, what you’re tryi
ng to tell me is that this committee thinks you would make a good US senator? They want you to run?”
“That was the purpose of the meeting, yes.” A slight smile curved his lips. “I have to tell you, Alex, I was flattered. I’m not one to respond to other people fawning over me or patting my back for any reason. Usually people who flatter you want something, but there were some important people in this steering committee.”
“And you value their opinions?”
“Yes. They think I can win the seat.” He stood, paced in a small circle. “It’s so early in my career to be considering a move like this. I know I’ve barely gotten my feet wet in state government, and now I’m setting my sights on Washington. Maybe I’m reaching way beyond my grasp. Maybe I should stay where I am for a while. I don’t know.”
“What does your heart tell you, Daniel? Do you want to stay where you are?”
He sat down next to her again. “No, I want to try for that senate position. I know it will be a lot of work. Hours of speech writing, campaigning, learning the other candidates’ positions. Too many public functions to even think about. If I decide to do this, my life will hardly be my own for a while.”
“And when would the election take place?” she asked.
“Next November. If I win, I’d take office in January.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You have to understand, Alex. If my father...if his future were...different, I wouldn’t consider this run right now. But by the time campaigning kicks into high gear, Pop will be gone.” His voice hitched.
She rubbed the back of his hand. “Maybe this is just what you need.”
“I’m thinking maybe I do. Or I will. I’m really going to miss him.”
“I know. It sounds to me like your mind is made up. And you stand a wonderful chance of winning. You’ve done so much for the people of this district. Once word spreads of our charismatic young senator looking toward the nation’s capital, supporters will flock to you.”
She believed what she said. Daniel seemed to have the whole package politically. He was smart, honest, courageous and handsome as sin, but the consequences of his decision weighed heavily on her mind. What would happen to their relationship once she returned to Chicago? If Daniel ran for higher office, he would be required to campaign in every Ohio district, not just this one. She would hardly see him.
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