Mother Knows Best

by Barbara Bretton

  "Things don't have to end in August, Diana." His words were low, for her alone. "We have to talk about -- " He stopped, tilting his head slightly left. "Did you hear that?"

  "I didn't hear anything," she said then heard the faint chiming of the doorbell

  "Answer the door," Boris commanded. "Ding dong. Ding dong. Avon calling."

  "Maybe it's Mary Ann," Diana said, wishing whoever it was would go away. "Maybe Joey left something behind today."

  "It better not be M.A. -- I'll fire her on the spot."

  The doorbell sounded again.

  "I'd better answer it," Diana said. "Maybe it's important."

  Gregory was muttering something about getting a doorbell answering machine as Diana got to her feet and headed for the foyer and the front doors. Talk about rotten timing. She intended to dispatch with this unexpected visitor in record time and get back into the solarium before the Siamese cats had a chance to create any more mischief -- or Gregory had a chance to change his mind.

  Fixing her best we-don't-want-any look on her face, she opened the door and found herself face to face with her sister.

  Chapter Fifteen

  "I don't believe it!" Diana stared at the man and woman on the front step. "You're in Monte Carlo."

  "Not anymore," said Paula as Art climbed out of the car in the driveway. "I had to see my babies."

  "Don't blame me," Art called out as he approached. "I thought I'd be gambling at the casino tonight."

  Paula pushed her way past Diana into the foyer. "Where are they?"

  "In the solarium."

  "The solarium! They're sick. They should be in bed."

  "They're fine, Paulie. Their fevers are gone. If you'd called me, I would have told you."

  Paula's mouth dropped open as she gazed around the huge, sunlit foyer and at the ocean visible through the French doors at the end of the house. "I don't believe this place! It's incredible."

  "Empty," said Diana, aiming a look at Art, "but incredible." She headed toward the solarium. "Come on. I'll take you to your kids."

  Diana knew she should be ashamed of herself, but she took a fiendish delight in the fact that Kath and Jenny were more interested in Tramp's run from the dogcatcher than in their mother's sudden reappearance.

  "I don't blame them," said Art, shaking hands with Gregory. "Right now I'm not that happy to see Paula either."

  Paula dithered and fussed over the girls who finally gave her offhanded kisses then turned their attention back to the television.

  "To be or not to be," said Boris, training his beady eyes on Paula. "Only her hairdresser knows for sure...."

  "Nasty old bird," Paula muttered. "That commercial hasn't been on in years. "

  Paula did, however, recover her good humor when Diana introduced her to Gregory. Diana found herself crossing her fingers behind her back that her sister wouldn't say anything embarrassing but Paula was so preoccupied with the apparent loss of her children's esteem that meddling in Diana's romance wasn't uppermost in her mind.

  "They hate me," Paula said woefully. "In just a few weeks, they've turned against me." She launched into a mass of psychobabble that made it difficult for Diana to keep a straight face.

  "They're watching Lady and the Tramp," Diana said. "They wouldn't care if you were Big Bird himself right now."

  "Easy for you to say," Paula said, sniffling. "You're not their mother."

  Art looked over at his tiny daughters and a grin split his deeply tanned face. "You did a good job, Diana. Girls look pretty healthy to me."

  "They are healthy," Diana said. "Their temperatures are normal and their appetites are back." She cast a quick glance at Gregory but his handsome face was blandly pleasant. "You really didn't have to come home, guys."

  "Tell that to my wife," Art said. "Wild horses couldn't have kept her away."

  "I feel like a fool," Paula said. "All the terrible things I said to you, Diana. You've done a wonderful job with the girls." Paula's eyes rested once again on Gregory and Diana nearly stopped breathing. Paula made the twins seem like masters of tact and decorum.

  Art unceremoniously clapped a hand over his wife's mouth. "The motor's running, Paula. Let's get the girls' gear and get moving."

  Paula squirmed out of his grasp. "Then turn off the engine. As long as we're here, I want to catch up on everything Diana's been up to."

  "I meant the helicopter's engine."

  "Helicopter?" Diana whistled in appreciation. "Haven't we come up in the world."

  "Wait until I explain this one on my expense account. I said it was a family emergency."

  "It could have been," said Paula. "They could have been raging with fever."

  "This argument's costing me ten dollars a minute, Paula."

  "Call the airport," Paula suggested as Diana barely suppressed her groan of disappointment. "We can stay here tonight."

  Art looked at his wife, then looked at Diana and Gregory. "Not on your life, Paula. Let's pack the kids' stuff and get back to New Jersey." I'm going to remember you in my will, Art Bradley, Diana vowed as she helped gather together the twins' paraphernalia. You are a brother-in-law without equal. She even made the requisite noises about vacating Gull Cottage for them since it was Art, after all, who was footing the bill but he would have none of it and she quickly gave up the fight. Gregory was quiet but extraordinarily efficient as he helped carry the table and chairs and double stroller out to the car and once Diana thought she saw a wily grin light up his face as he talked to Art beneath the porte cochere.

  "Oh, my God!" The realization of what Paula's unexpected arrival meant hit Diana with the force of a hurricane blowing in off the ocean. Without the girls there as a buffer, there was nothing stopping Diana from taking the next step in her relationship with Gregory Stewart.

  There would be no one to interrupt them, no little faces popping up in the room when they shouldn't, no tender sensibilities to worry about.

  Moonlight kisses. Slow-dancing. Hot sun, cool nights, the promise of erotic splendor.

  Days of breathless anticipation heightened by the fact that until the twins were gone, nothing more would happen.

  Well, the twins were leaving and in a few moments it would be only Diana and Gregory, alone together in the vastness of Gull Cottage.

  And what happened next, she knew, would be change her life forever.

  #

  Paula kissed Diana on the cheek then turned her best smile on Gregory. "And you make certain that Di brings you out to the house for dinner, Dr. Stewart. You did so much for her and my girls -- I just don't know how to thank you."

  Gregory was scrupulously polite, exceedingly charming, and -- to Diana's practiced eye -- more nervous than he had a right to be. "They're good kids," he said, shaking Paula's hand, then Art's. "Glad I could help."

  "One more goodbye and we qualify for the Guinness Book of Records," Art said, putting his arm around his wife's shoulders and propelling her out the front door. "Enjoy the rest of the month."

  Diana and Gregory stood on the top step and waved as the Bradley family in their rented Mercedes disappeared down the driveway. The only sound was the crunching of the tires in the gravel and the loud sobbing from the twins.

  "I don't think the girls wanted to go home," Diana said, as they went back inside and closed the door.

  "Can you blame them?" Gregory asked. "They were having the time of their lives here."

  "I'm going to miss them," she said, suddenly shy and nervous and wishing she had jumped into the Mercedes with Kath and Jenny. "This place will seem empty without them." She looked down at the ground and saw a tiny red sneaker. "Kath's shoe," she said bending to pick it up. "Maybe if we jump into the car we could catch up with them and -- "

  He took the shoe from her and dropped it back to the floor. "No," he said, his voice low.

  "No?" Her own voice was high and abnormally tight.

  "No." He stepped toward her and her heartbeat accelerated. "It's too late now."

 
Her words died in her throat as he gently touched her cheek. The feelings that sprang to life inside her breast were an odd blend of the familiar and the exotic; she felt as if she'd always known him, had always been moving toward this moment in time; and yet as he drew her into his arms, she found herself trembling at the brink of unknown delights.

  "It's not the end of the month yet," she said when she found her voice.

  "We've waited long enough, Diana."

  "I don't take this lightly," she said, knowing she risked shattering the fantasy blossoming around them. "I'm looking for more than a night -- "

  He kissed her with a tenderness that turned desire into something so much more wonderful. "What I feel for you isn't about one night, Diana." His steady gaze held her in thrall. "I think you know that."

  "I know how it is for me, but -- "

  He took her hand and placed it against his chest where she could feel the rapid pulsing of his heart. "Let's take the first step, Diana. Let me love you."

  "Yes," she said, surrendering to the age-old heating of the blood. "Yes."

  He swept her into his arms and carried her up the staircase the way she'd imagined he would a thousand times in her most secret fantasies. Moving with powerful grace, he strode down the hallway as if Diana were no burden at all. As if she were precious....desired...valued beyond price.

  As if she belonged to him.

  The master bedroom was bathed in the violet hues of dusk; even the pale pink walls took on a faintly amethyst tone. The girls' beds were pushed against the far wall and Ignatius, who had been curled up on the windowsill, sauntered from the room, meowing his displeasure.

  "Not exactly like the movies, is it?" she asked, as he carried her toward Cleopatra's barge-bed.

  "Movies aren't real life," he said, stopping at the foot of the platform ladder. "Movies don't last forever."

  "This is where it gets complicated," she said, so nervous that her lips began to tremble. The thought of undressing then climbing the ladder in the nude was more than she could bear to contemplate and only a fireman could carry an adult female over his shoulder. "Do we stop here? Do we undress now or once we're actually in bed? What if -- "

  He gently set her down before him. "We do what feels right, Diana."

  She watched, spellbound, as he stripped off his shirt and kicked his shoes under the platform bed. She slid out of her sandals and followed him up the ladder to the vast mattress where she'd spent so many solitary nights imagining this very moment.

  But not even in her most elaborate romantic dreams had she imagined anything as glorious as reality. There, in his arms, she felt beautiful. She felt cherished. She felt as if all that had come before had been nothing more than a wrinkle in time.

  Somehow their clothing disappeared, drifting down to the floor in a slow motion ballet. Gregory opened his arms to her and she went to him freely, joyously; certain that she was where she wanted to be.

  #

  Later on, when the moon rode high over the ocean and the room was dark as the night sky, it occurred to both of them that more had happened in that vast bed than simply the coming together of a man and a woman. Friendship had grown from desire; desire had blazed within friendship. They know longer knew which had come first; they no longer cared. A pledge had been made -- albeit, unspoken -- and both Gregory and Diana had the sense that their futures had been irrevocably joined from the first moment they met.

  "It doesn't seem possible that it was less than three weeks ago," Diana said, trailing her hand along the flat plane of his belly. "Right now I find it difficult to believe there was ever a time when I didn't know you."

  "So do I." Gregory gently cupped her breast in the palm of his hand. "Imagine: we owe it all to a wrong turn in Riverhead."

  She sighed as a voluptuous wave of pleasure shimmered through her. "I love Riverhead. No wonder it's the county seat." She propped herself up on an elbow and looked him in the eye. "Come on," she urged. "You can tell me: what did you think when we first met?"

  "The truth?"

  "I wouldn't expect less from you."

  "I thought you were a cute little blonde who -- "

  "You thought I was a what?"

  " -- a cute little blonde with a fat cat and two kids and an extremely lucky husband."

  "So you did think I was married." She knew the post-liberated woman in her should be annoyed by the phrase "cute little blonde" but at the moment -- twelve and a half pounds over her fighting weight -- she found it pretty endearing.

  He nodded. "The evidence pointed that way."

  She flashed him a saucy grin. "Were you disappointed?"

  "You didn't let me finish: I also thought you were flaky, argumentative, and probably the most disorganized woman I'd ever met."

  "But of course now you know better."

  He grinned back at her. "Of course." He stroked her shoulder, the curve of her breast. "I also wished I had a more liberal attitude on wife-snatching."

  "Don't you want to know what I thought about you?"

  "I'm afraid to ask."

  "Arrogant. Aggressive." She paused for effect. "And absolutely gorgeous."

  "Yeah?"

  She kissed him soundly. "Yeah."

  "A sex object?"

  She kissed him again. "Definitely."

  "Should I be insulted?"

  "Only if you don't like this..." She ran her hands across the muscles of his chest. "And this..." Her hands trailed lower. "Or this." Her hands moved lower still.

  He exhaled on a rush of pleasure and leaned back against the pillow. "Being a sex object isn't all that bad."

  "Dr. Stewart," she said, as her lips followed the same path her hands had blazed, "you haven't seen the half of it."

  #

  Brr-ingg.

  "Hi...this is Paula...we got home safely...the girls miss you already...Diana?...Where are you?...Pick up the phone, Diana...I know you must be there...Where are you?...Come on Di, it's the middle of the night...the least you can do is...Art!...Don't take that phone away from me...Art!"

  Click.

  Good night, Paula.

  #

  Diana had never thought of herself as an intensely sexual woman but, apparently, she had a great deal to learn about her true nature. They didn't make love in the solarium -- who knew what incriminating phrases Boris would pick up -- but it seemed to Diana that they made love in every other room of Gull Cottage that weekend.

  Gregory was as inventive as he was passionate, taking her on a trip deep into uncharted erotic territory. Her normal caution didn't stand a chance against the fierce blaze of desire his touch ignited inside her heart. The next few days were a blur of sensation: his blue-green eyes dark with hunger; the intoxicating smell of his skin; the slippery feel of their bodies as they came together in the summer heat; the sound of the ocean crashing against the shore, providing a counterpoint to the wild pounding of their blood. It wasn't until Sunday night, as they ate supper on the deck and watched the sky turn rose and indigo, that she realized it all would end once the month was over.

  "You're quiet," Gregory said as she brought out the coffee and placed it on the small table between them. "Something wrong?"

  She hesitated a moment, then decided anything less than full honesty was unfair to them both. "Time is racing by. In less than two weeks I'll be heading back home." And where exactly is that, she wondered. A motel? Paula's house? The back of her rented station wagon?

  "I know," he said, pouring cream into his coffee and settling back against the railing. "The same thought occurred to me."

  A deep sigh escaped her lips, but, fortunately it was carried quickly away on the ocean breeze.

  "In one month I'll be heading for the Caribbean," he said.

  "I know," Diana answered. "That thought occurred to me, too."

  "Seems like we have a problem, doesn't it?"

  She shrugged in an attempt to look casual and unconcerned. "No strings," she said lightly. "We both knew it from the start."
r />   His answer was pithy and eloquent. "Forget the old rules, Diana. This is something neither one of us expected."

  Her heart thudded violently inside her chest. "Meaning?"

  "You're not leaving here on August 1st."

  "I'm not? Try telling that to Mrs. Geller."

  He put his coffee down on the railing and pulled her into his arms. "I don't give a damn about Mrs. Geller. I'm telling you you're not leaving."

  "What about the new tenants? I can't just decide to commandeer Gull Cottage for another month." Besides, I already tried!

  "You're staying with me."

  "At the animal hospital?" Not that staying at the animal hospital would bother her. She would stay in a shack if it meant being with Gregory a little bit longer.

  "On my boat. I took a slip a few miles from here. I'm bringing her down on the 30th."

  Two weeks. Two more weeks with him. It wasn't long enough -- a lifetime wouldn't be long enough -- but she had no intention of leaving paradise a second sooner than necessary.

  "Say yes, Diana," he urged. "Give us the time to see if this is real."

  He moved against her, all male dominance and power and she fell helpless before the flame. "Yes," she said as she gave herself up to him. "Yes."

  Chapter Sixteen

  "Hello, stranger." Mary Ann Marino waved at Gregory from behind the reception desk on Monday morning. "Long time, no see."

  "I can't take a long weekend now and then, M.A.?"

  There was nothing on heaven or earth that could have pulled him from Diana's side. Those first few days had been more like a honeymoon than simply the start of a love affair; the feeling of permanence, of union, made it difficult for him to leave her side this morning. Who would have figured that Gregory Stewart, the last of the loners, would surrender so completely -- or feel so wonderful about it? "A long weekend? You're going to be taking three months off the end of next month. What was this, a practice session?"

  "I took the boat out."

  "And -- ?"

  "And what? I had a few things to check out."

  Mary Ann rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. "I'll just bet you did."