“Would you like some company, or am I being a nuisance?” a well-tanned blond with a northern European accent said, sliding to within an inch of where she sat with her feet dangling in the swimming pool.
“Would you mind getting out of my space?” she asked him. “I don’t like strangers touching my flesh.”
His shrug said much about him, and he jumped up immediately. “No need to waste my time.”
He’s either buying or selling, she thought with a glance at the back of his skimpy bathing trunks, and either way, he’s out of luck.
She dived into the pool, swam a lap, got out and headed for her room, but not before she realized that the pool served as a meeting place for women and men on the make. “As long as they stay out of my way, I don’t care,” she muttered to herself. “I’m not giving up swimming here just because some people don’t care who they sleep with.”
She stepped on the elevator and pushed the number to her floor. “You’re a beautiful woman,” a low and sexy male voice said. She hadn’t looked directly at him in the hope of discouraging conversation. “I’m not stupid enough to assume that you’re traveling alone, but if you are, I’d love to have dinner with you this evening.”
She looked at him then. The man was a knockout, guaranteed to take a woman’s mind off just about anyone and anything. And she didn’t have to be told that he would provide lavish fare, an evening certain to make her unfit for anything the next morning other than sleep.
“Thank you,” she said, “but I have to work tomorrow morning, and I need to be fresh.” She looked up, saw that the elevator had arrived at her floor, smiled and got off. “At least I’m not so besotted with Sloan that another good-looking man can’t tempt me,” she told herself, although she admitted that the temptation wasn’t very strong.
The next morning, in a blistering noonday sun, she strolled onto the court. In the still, dry air she thought she would melt beneath the desertlike sun. Again, she lost the match in the fourth round.
“I was too tired to move another step,” she told Gary. “I could hardly breathe. I know it sounds like an excuse, but it’s a fact. I was relieved when that final point was over, and I couldn’t get to that air-conditioned dressing room fast enough. This is it for me until the Australian Open in January. Nobody’s going to knock me out of the fourth round in that one,” she said.
“I’ve got some news for you—getting into the fourth round gives you some points. In June, you were ranked three hundred and fifty. After this match, you’re number twenty-six, and for your next tournament, you’ll be a seeded player. How’s that for five months’ work?”
* * *
He wasn’t waiting for her when the plane landed in San Antonio. She hadn’t expected it, but if he had reconsidered his position—whatever that was—and decided he at least owed her an explanation for his abrupt and hurtful action, she would have listened and maybe understood. She collected a rental car at the airport, drove to the kennel to collect Caesar and went on home to her big, empty house. After taking Caesar for a run and feeding him, she walked over to see Thelma and take her the bag she bought for her in Seoul.
“You’re spoiling me, but I sure love it. From the time of my husband’s last illness, nobody’s spoiled me but you and Sloan. People don’t pamper old folks. Seems like you were gone a year,” Thelma said. “I sure did miss you. Couldn’t get Sloan to say one word about you. What happened? The poor man was the picture of gloom. He comes to see me regularly, though.”
“He broke off our relationship with no explanation, so you know as much as I do. I hope he realizes how much he hurt me.”
“If he did that, he’s probably thinking about how much you hurt him. Don’t worry. It’ll work out. These things always do. He’s been in our local papers lately.”
Lynne sat forward, practically holding her breath. “What about?”
“I kept the papers for you, and you can take ’em with you when you leave. I saved you some supper in case you came over this evening.” She reached up and patted Lynne’s shoulder. “I hope you can patch things up with Sloan, Lynne. He’s a wonderful man.” She raised her hands as if to ward off a coming argument. “Oh, I know he’s stubborn and maybe a little bit ornery sometimes, but that man loves you. I’d bet my life on it.”
After a meal of roasted chicken, stuffing, string beans and a tomato and red-onion salad, she refused dessert, hugged Thelma and went home to read the papers and find out what Sloan had done to get his name in the local papers.
She heard the sound of thunder in the distance and brought Caesar inside, remembering that electric storms frightened the dog. She sat in her favorite chair with Caesar lying beside her feet, turned on the floor lamp beside her chair and opened the papers. She flipped through the issue of the San Antonio Star, saw nothing of interest, and went back to the first page to read it more carefully.
She found it on the second page. “Sloan McNeil, owner of McNeil Motor Service on Bremont Street, opened a new and modern service center in Castle Hills. Mayor Archer cut the ribbon at eleven o’clock yesterday morning and opened the champagne. McNeil served ham and turkey breast sandwiches and coffee to every motorist who stopped at the McNeil Motor Service center between eleven and one.”
She read the same story in two other papers. “Why on earth would Thelma have a copy of the Houston Defender, a black newspaper?” She went into the kitchen to make coffee and thought better of it when a streak of lightning was followed by a loud clap of thunder that seemed as if it were a few feet above her house. It didn’t surprise her to see Caesar standing beside her in the kitchen. She patted his head. “You’re supposed to be protecting me, not the other way around,” she told him.
She found the story easily, because it was accompanied by a color photograph of Sloan in an elegant gray business suit. She read the full-page story and realized that there was much that she didn’t know about him, such as his work with young boys who didn’t have fathers in their home. She learned that he tutored the boys to improve their schoolwork, gave them tennis lessons and took them on an annual fishing retreat. She also read that his workers recommended him for the NAACP image award and that, after investigating, the organization gave him the award.
Things were happening to Sloan—wonderful things that she longed to share with him. She waited until half an hour had elapsed since she’d heard thunder or seen lightning, and telephoned Sloan.
“McNeil.”
“Hello, Sloan, this is Lynne.” She imagined that her call surprised him since seconds passed before he responded.
“Hello, Lynne.”
The ball was in her court, and she knew he’d let it stay there, so she didn’t waste time. “I called to congratulate you on your nomination for an NAACP image award and on the opening of your second service center. You have a lot to be proud of.”
“Thank you.”
“I had no idea that you mentored young boys. That article in the Houston Defender would have impressed anyone. I’m sure your parents must be very proud.”
“I imagine they are, at least that’s what they said. I wouldn’t have thought that anything in that article would surprise you because I told you about the service center in Castle Hills and about my work with teenage boys. And even if I hadn’t, I’d like to know why all that you knew about me from my own mouth wasn’t sufficient. Why didn’t you believe what I’ve told you, and why did you think it necessary to have a private investigator dig into my background and my affairs?”
“What? Are you out of your mind? I haven’t done any such thing.”
“According to the man who was prying into my life, Thurston was paying him a thousand dollars for the job.”
She jumped up from the chair, startling Caesar. “Get outta here! Nothing like that has even crossed my mind. Is that what this is all about? Dammit, you wait until I see Brad. How could h
e do such a thing? And you put me through pure hell for something I haven’t even contemplated doing. If you had asked me... Oh, what the hell!” She hung up and telephoned her brother.
“Thurston speaking.”
“Let me tell you something, Brad. I’m mad enough with you to stop using my maiden name. How could you do such a thing? You wanted to break Sloan and me up? Well, you managed to do that, and I’ve finished with you.”
“The guy’s as clean as falling snow, and at least you can thank me for verifying that.”
“I already knew it. I’ve got sense. If you think I’m going to forgive you for this, you’re mistaken. Goodbye.” She dropped the receiver into its cradle and closed her eyes. She was damned if she’d cry.
The telephone rang persistently, but she refused to answer it. She’d had enough pain for one evening, and neither Brad nor Sloan deserved her courtesy. Thinking that Thelma might need her, she used her cellular phone to call the woman.
“I’m calling to find out whether you had any storm damage. That one was pretty rough.”
“Thanks. I think the garage door blew off the hinges, but I don’t care about that. There hasn’t been a car in the place in thirty-five years, and nothing’s stored in there except the garden things. You’re a dear, and I love you.”
“I love you, too, Thelma.”
Lynne flipped on the television and watched Tavis Smiley on PBS. She had always admired Tavis’s ability to be equally at ease with rappers and opera singers, rabble rousers and major politicians. Somehow, he managed to get something of relevance, as well as newsworthy, out of all of them.
Caesar sat up and thumped his tail, but didn’t growl. Now what? she thought. I’m not walking the dog this time of night, and after a big storm, too. She decided to take him out to the garden, but Caesar jumped up and ran to the front door, getting there at about the time the doorbell rang.
A prickling sensation irritated the back of her neck, and when Caesar whimpered in a show of delight, her heart seemed to somersault, and she quickened her steps. She didn’t peep through the side window, but asked, “Who is it?”
“Sloan.”
Caesar’s behavior had already communicated that to her, but at the sound of his voice, confirming his presence, her blood raced. Her fingers shook so badly that she could hardly release the chain on the door. At last, she could open it. Caesar greeted him with a wagging tail, and he bent down, rubbed the dog’s head and patted his shoulder, barely removing his gaze from her face.
“May I come in?” he asked her, and she stepped back and closed the door behind him. “I suppose you knew I’d come here if it was humanly possible.”
“No, Sloan, I didn’t know that. This is the second time that you’ve convicted me without allowing me to defend myself. I’ve been through hell. What had I done? Had I made a mistake the night before when I opened my heart and showed you how I love you, giving you all that I had to give? Sloan, did it occur to you that you hurt me?” She sat in her favorite chair, and motioned for Sloan to take the chair opposite her. It didn’t escape her that the dog placed himself on the floor between them. “I’m not in a conciliatory mood.”
“I imagine you aren’t. If I had remembered that you have a brother who thinks I’m not good enough for you, I’d have saved us both some pain. Lynne, I’m sure that I hurt you, and God knows I’m sorry. But I, too, have been living in pure hell. And even though I let myself believe that you did that, I didn’t love you any less. I couldn’t have if I’d tried.” He leaned toward her. “Can you forgive me?”
“I don’t control that, Sloan. You’re as much a part of me as my arms and legs, but I’ve proved to myself these past two weeks that no matter how much I miss you, I can get on with my life. Not as successfully as I’d like, perhaps, but I can do it. You have to decide whether you have faith in me. Excuse me.”
She got a pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator and two glasses and went back into the living room. “Oh, I forgot something.” She grabbed a handful of the pecan and raisin cookies that she bought in the airport and put a small plate of them on the coffee table. “Lemonade always needs something sweet,” she said. “Have some.”
“You’re right. I have to forget past relations with women. You aren’t like any woman I’ve known, and I’m grateful for that. But, Lynne, I’ve had my heart broken in more ways than one, and women have used me to escort them places because I looked decent in a suit, but a grease monkey wasn’t good enough to take home to their parents or to get serious about.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, yes. I think I told you that was the favorite nickname one of them had for me. Up to the time I found out, she was very dear to me, and she let me believe that it was mutual. That doesn’t justify my breaking off our relationship summarily and without hearing your side of it.”
“That’s water under the bridge, but I don’t know how long it will take me to forget about that awful pain.”
“You did well in Seoul,” he said in what she surmised was an attempt to soften their conversation.
“I thought I should have done better, and in Tashkent, I was way off. I struggled for every point and against lesser players. I couldn’t wait for that last match to be over.”
He walked over to her and knelt before her. “I know. I saw it in your demeanor, and you are right—she was a lesser player. I knew that your mind was elsewhere, and I prayed that it wasn’t on me.”
“But it was, and it had been every waking minute since I last saw you.” For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why her left hand strayed to his head, sending her fingers through his hair and letting them linger at the back of his head.
“Don’t tell me. You could have won that match. If not, you would at least have been in the finals.”
“Who knows? I’m going to work hard, and I’m going to be number one if only for one day.”
“I don’t doubt that you’ll get there, Lynne, and I want to be with you when you do. Will you go with me to visit my parents Thanksgiving? I told them I was bringing you and Thelma, and I didn’t have the heart to let them know you and I were no longer together.”
“You told them about me?”
His face creased in a frown. “Of course I did. I can’t keep anything important from my mother—she practically reads my mind. ‘Who’s the girl?’ she asked when I was out there last. So I told her. I was happy to tell her, because she’s always worrying about my being alone and spending so much time working.”
She rubbed her right hand over her face and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. “Do you mind telling me what you told your mother?”
“Not at all. I told her that you’re very important to me, but we’re still getting to know each other. I believe she said, ‘In other words, don’t expect anything yet.’ Will you go with me? Lynne, give me a chance to make amends.”
“Amends? I’m not thinking in those terms. You were hurt, and you put as much distance between yourself and the source of your discomfort as you could.”
He shook his head. “It was far more than that. I couldn’t get you to say you’d postpone buying this house, and I linked that to the investigation. The thought that you would have me investigated before accepting me made me physically ill. I couldn’t eat and keep food down for two days straight.” He braced his hands on her knees and looked into her eyes. “I’m deeply in love with you. As you say, I’ve learned that being without you won’t kill me, but it will guarantee me unhappiness.”
She didn’t want him to ask her a third time to go with him to his parents home, so she tilted his chin up with her right index finger and forced him to smile. “I’d love to have Thanksgiving dinner with you, your parents and Thelma.”
He reached toward her with his arms open and an expression of hope on his face. She slid into his arms and oh, the sweet joy of holding him close to her body and of being locked tightly
in his arms. They didn’t kiss but merely held each other as if enjoying a narrow escape. After some minutes, he heaved himself up while holding her in his arms.
“Do you love me?” he asked her.
“Yes. I love you. But right now, I can’t go farther than that.”
He tightened his arms around her and released her. “Can we see each other on a regular basis?”
If she punished him, she’d do the same to herself. “Yes. I want that. I’m straight with you, Sloan, and I want you to be sure of it.”
“I’ve always been, and I expect that accounts for my reaction. The man not only questioned my employees here in San Antonio, but at the Castle Hills center as well.”
“I’m sorry for that, and I’ve given my brother a piece of my mind for doing it, not that I made a dent. He said I should be glad to know that you’re as clean as...I forget what he said, but he meant that his investigator didn’t find out anything negative about you. I told him I had a good mind to drop my maiden name and change it to Marsh.”
“Are you still planning to spend Christmas with him? I don’t think I want to put a foot across his threshold ever.”
She tried to imagine what her facial expression communicated to him when he said, “There isn’t much that I wouldn’t do for you, and if it would make you happy, I’d control my temper and my attitude and go there.”
“Thanks. I’ve recently come to understand that Brad is frequently wrong, but he’s my brother, and the only close blood relative that I have.”
“I’d better leave, because it’s getting late, and I want to stop by Thelma’s and remind her that she promised to go with us to Galveston.” He took her hand and walked to the door with Caesar tagging behind them.
McNeil's Match Page 21
