by Leanne Banks
The jingling of the bell at the door diverted her attention. Freddie swept in and handed her a package from the Barringer complex. “Thank you,” she called as he raced back out the door. Freddie had acted much more reserved around her since that incident with Trace over a month ago.
“Boring business stuff?” Gina asked, shifting her little burden to get a better look.
“I don’t know,” Talia murmured as she tore off the brown wrapping paper. “I’ve never gotten anything from them before.”
She opened the box. It took her a moment to identify the green stuffed animal, then she laughed out loud.
“What is it? Let me see,” Gina said.
Talia laughed again and held up the green creature.
“A Reptile Renegade,” Gina said, a baffled expression on her face. “Who in the world would send you a Reptile? And why?”
Talia saw the note at the bottom of the box and read it silently.
Hope you were still warm this morning. I was. Bill me for any mistakes you make on your orders today.
Trace
“He couldn’t afford it,” she murmured, smiling.
“Couldn’t afford what?” Gina asked. “Talia, you’re acting very strange.”
“He couldn’t afford all the mistakes I’ll make today.” She folded the note and tucked it into her pocket. When a customer came through the door, Gina got distracted with displaying her new little girl. Natalie soon began to fuss, though, forcing Gina to wave a harried goodbye while Talia waited on the customer.
Afterward, as she dropped The Marriage of Figaro into the cassette player, Talia’s happy mood faded when she thought of the dinner date that evening with Trace and some out-of-town business associates. Knowing she’d feel uncomfortable, she’d tried to beg off. It was difficult to refuse Trace, though. She wanted to make the right impression on his colleagues and friends, wanted to be an asset to him. Still, she had serious doubts about her ability.
Dinner conversation at the four-star restaurant that night went straight over her head. After Trace’s business associates Hal and David bemoaned the unstable stock market, their wives, Deirdre and Mary, chatted about trips to Europe. The closest Talia had been to Europe was a local European theme amusement park.
Her hands went clammy at the array of sterling silverware on the table. She saved herself from embarrassment by watching which fork the others used first. But with her concentration fixed on the silverware, she nearly knocked over her wineglass.
When talk turned to baseball, she relaxed marginally and even joined in. Having a brother obsessed with the Red Sox paid off. Trace squeezed her hand, and the gesture warmed her to her toes.
The warm feeling would have lasted the rest of the evening if she hadn’t overheard Deirdre and Mary in the powder room.
“Did you notice her nails?” Deirdre asked. “My mother always said the mark of a true lady lies in how she grooms her hands.”
Standing just outside the washroom area, Talia looked at her hands and saw fingernails cut to a neat, serviceable length and calluses on her palms.
“I didn’t notice her nails,” Mary said. “I was too busy admiring her hair.”
“Her dress is definitely off the rack,” Deirdre pointed out.
Talia stiffened, glancing down at the cream-colored dress she’d been so proud of. Deidre’s words hit her so hard, she wondered if she was going to be sick. Trace had probably never been with a woman who’d worn anything but designer originals, she realized. Distantly, she heard the sound of paper towels being torn from a dispenser.
“Yes,” Mary said. “But Trace sure looks happy.”
Blinking away sudden, angry tears, Talia fled back to the table, wishing she’d left the washroom earlier. The women’s comments left her feeling self-conscious and confused.
Trace noticed her subdued mood on the drive home and finally dragged the incident from her.
His mouth tightened. “Deirdre’s a bitch. We won’t see them again.”
“But they’re your friends. You can’t cut them off just because Deirdre made an idle comment about my dress.”
“I most certainly can. We don’t need those kind of people cluttering up our life.”
Talia sighed. She wondered how many more friends Trace would have to give up because of his relationship with her. The thought depressed her.
When she remained quiet, he glanced at her. “You’re not really going to let someone like Deirdre get to you, are you? Ignore her. I do.”
“But they’re your friends.”
“So are Mary and David. What did Mary say?”
“She said you sure looked happy,” Talia said in a small voice.
Trace relaxed. “That’s because I am happy.” He reached across the seat to capture her hand. “And I’m happy because of you. Remember that.”
She’d be hard-pressed to forget it, Talia thought later, after the lingering emotional kiss they shared. The way he looked at her when he reluctantly said good-night would stay with her for a long time. But try as she might, she couldn’t completely erase the doubts in the back of her mind.
The following evening Trace’s nanny took the night off for her weekly bridge game, so Talia fixed lasagna for the three of them at Trace’s house.
After the meal Trace leaned back in his chair and sighed in contentment. “I thought you said you couldn’t cook Italian food.”
“No,” she corrected him as she cleared the table. “I said Kevin was the lasagna cooker in our family. And he is. I can make Italian food. I just usually don’t feel like taking the time. Between my mother being sick and my cooking, Kevin got more than his share of sandwiches.” She chuckled. “I think desperation drove him to learn how to cook.”
Trace picked up Robby’s plate and followed her into the kitchen. “When do I get to meet him?”
She halted her scraping for a moment then continued. “He’ll probably be home in a week or so. Where did Robby go?”
Trace noticed the swift change in subject, but didn’t comment. “He’s watching a cartoon on TV. Does Kevin know about us?”
Her back stiffened. She turned the water on full force. “I haven’t really talked to him that much lately. I think he was going to stop off at some friends in New York after camping. I’m just about finished here. Would you like some coffee?”
She looked like a high-speed windup doll, Trace mused, as she slid the dishes into the dishwasher. He didn’t want the tension between them, not yet, so he let it pass and poured the coffee.
She glanced up. “I would have gotten it.”
“It’s okay,” he said, and handed her a cup. “You’ve done everything else. Let’s go into the den.”
They walked through the hall to the comfortable room. She heard the sound of the TV from the living room farther down the hall. Green loungers and a striped sofa stocked with plump pillows were arranged in a cozy formation on the plush beige carpet. Walnut end tables coordinated with the paneling.
“I love this room,” she murmured, taking a seat on the sofa.
Trace sat beside her and touched the sleeve of her lightweight sweater. “Tomato sauce.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s the second reason I hardly ever make lasagna.” She plucked at the red spot, then gave up. “I’m as bad as Robby.”
Trace remembered his orange-faced son and shook his head. “Not quite as bad. But it reminds me of when you ran your bike into that guy who was about to smash my head. What happened to you? It seemed like you were there one second and gone the next.”
“I didn’t want anyone to recognize me.” When she saw his frown of confusion, she set her coffee aside and explained. “I wasn’t supposed to be riding my bike at night. I wasn’t supposed to be riding through town, either, but since I was late for my curfew, I took a shortcut from the lake.”
“I remember your hair was wet.”
She nodded. “I stayed at the lake too long. It was the only place I really felt free back then. I was hoping I coul
d get out of being grounded. My mother took one look at my knees and silently cleaned them up. She was so quiet, I wished she’d yell.” Her mouth quirked into a half smile. “I got my wish a minute later. Half of it was in Italian, so I didn’t understand a lot. But she converted to English long enough to tell me I was grounded for a month.”
Trace squeezed her shoulder. “I didn’t get grounded. I just got a lecture from my mother about how intelligent people use their brains and not their fists. Then she looked at my swollen eye, burst into tears, gave me a steak and turned me over to my father.” Trace chuckled. “He wanted a blow-by-blow description. Then he said he agreed with my mother, but that there are times when a man has to fight. He said he was proud of me and warned me that the eye was going to hurt like hell.” He looked at Talia. “He was right.”
She laughed. “Kevin very generously offered to ride my bike for me while my knees were recovering. He said he wouldn’t want the bike to get rusty from lack of use.”
Trace grinned. “The next morning at breakfast, Valerie said I looked like I belonged in a horror movie. She offered to take my picture and send it to Hollywood.”
They both laughed. Talia thought of the shy blonde teenage girl she’d met only a few times. “What is she doing now?”
“She lives in England,” Trace said. “She went to a finishing school about—”
“Six years ago,” Talia said.
He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. Valerie lived with our aunt Patrice until Patrice died. We all thought she would move back then, but she didn’t. She’s only been home two or three times in the last six years.” And she had treated the whole family distantly, he thought, frowning.
“I’d chase Kevin down and visit him myself if he pulled something like that. We’re too close.”
“I tried,” Trace said. “But every time I called her, she said she was busy. I thought she needed some space.”
It was on the tip of Talia’s tongue to say that something monumental must have happened for Valerie to leave, but she kept her mouth shut.
The truth will out, she told herself. But she wondered what would happen when it did. Trace loved his family too much to take this kind of thing lightly. And even though she understood family loyalty, it grated on her that he was still confident there’d been a terrible misunderstanding.
The ticking of the clock made her think of how soon Kevin would come home. Things could blow up in her face then. Apprehension and a touch of panic raced through her. She wasn’t ready to let Trace go. Even for Kevin. But she wouldn’t want to hurt Kevin.
She slammed the door on her unwelcome thoughts, and remembered how delighted she’d been with the gift she’d received from Trace the day before. “You know, I never thanked you.”
His face lost the hard edge of concentration. He looked at her and smiled. “For what?”
She could tell by his eyes that he knew what. And he looked entirely too self-satisfied for her taste. “For the dozen red roses you sent me,” she said with wide-eyed innocence. “There was no card, but I knew they were from you.”
She reached over and placed a kiss on his suddenly tight jaw. “It was so thoughtful, Trace,” she gushed, “even if it wasn’t very imaginative.”
“Imaginative! I didn’t send you roses. I sent you—” He broke off when he saw the gleam in her eye. “You witch. I was sitting here trying to figure out who was moving in on you.”
He hauled her onto his lap. “That wasn’t very nice, Talia,” he said in a low, threatening voice.
A chill ran down her spine, but she laughed anyway. “Oh no. This doesn’t mean I’m going to have trouble getting you to pay your bill, does it?”
“Bill?” he asked, trying desperately to keep up with her.
“I messed up twenty-six dollars and fourteen cents’ worth of subs yesterday because of you.”
He gave her that devastating smile that always took her breath. “Twenty-six fourteen,” he said, playing with the hoop earring in her ear. “How do you want your payment?”
Heat rushed through her at the possessive expression in his gaze. She said the only thing that came to her mind and felt a little shocked at her brazenness. “Any way you want to give it.”
His eyes turned dark emerald, and he brought her face closer with commanding hands. She instinctively clung to his shoulders, needing the anchor. She knew without a doubt who was in control of this situation, because it sure wasn’t her. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and the cloudiness in her mind increased with each idle stroke of his finger against her ear.
He brought her lips to his and turned her head to the side. When he lightly flicked his tongue against her lips, she sighed. He caught the puff of breath and slid his tongue inside her mouth, along the edge of her teeth. His hands remained curled around her head, caressing and stroking her hair.
She fell against him and moaned at the sensation of her aching breasts against his solid chest. His scent wove its way around her, drawing her deeper, deeper…
“Does this mean you’re getting married?” a young voice asked.
Talia ripped her mouth from Trace’s and looked around with dazed eyes. One of Trace’s hands was still in her hair, and when she turned her head, he accidentally pulled her hair.
“Ouch!” The unexpected pain brought tears to her eyes.
“Just a minute,” he muttered, and concentrated on the task of untangling her hair from his fingers.
Under Robby’s watchful gaze, she felt like a teenager caught necking. Without forethought, she shifted.
Trace ground his teeth and said under his breath, “If you have one ounce of mercy, you’ll be still.”
When she realized what he was referring to, her face flamed. She knew it, because Robby said with childish candor, “Your face is red.”
Trace chuckled.
Talia scrambled off his lap. Her hair could grow back, she told herself, and took a deep breath. “Tell me about the cartoon you watched, Robby.”
Robby looked puzzled, then shrugged as if he was accustomed to adults acting strangely. “It was about a dog,” he began.
Dodging meaningful glances from Trace, Talia listened and asked a few questions, then said it was time for her to go. Robby gave her a hug and kiss.
Trace followed her out to her car and took her hand. She felt sheepish. “Sorry I overreacted.”
He smiled and shook his head. “That’s okay. For a moment there, I forgot where I was too.” He kissed her and squeezed her hand. “See you tomorrow?”
She felt soothed by the fondness in his eyes and the touch of his hand. The fire was always there, but he could control it. The knowledge made her feel secure. “Tomorrow,” she promised, and got into her car.
But Kevin arrived the next day with Professor David Shelton in tow. Talia concealed her disappointment, though not her surprise. Then she felt so guilty over feeling disappointed, she agreed to attend Lung Awareness Night with David and Kevin at Gus’s Bar the next night.
Trace called just as the three of them were finishing dinner. “Do you want me to come over to your house,” he asked, “or do you want to come over here?”
“Umm,” she began, looking at Kevin and David.
Trace’s low laugh brought a flutter to her stomach. “After last night, I thought it might be a good idea if we had some time alone.”
“I—I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it tonight. You see, Kevin came home.”
“Oh.” Trace quickly rearranged his plans. “I’ve been wanting to meet him. I could come over and leave early.”
“Well,” she said, and he heard the nervousness in her voice, “Kevin kind of brought someone with him for the weekend.”
Trace frowned. He knew Talia was uneasy about him meeting Kevin, but she sounded downright panicky now. “You don’t want me to meet him,” he said.
“It’s not that. At least not totally.” She breathed a sigh of relief as her brother and David headed for the den.
The
silence drew out for Trace. He could practically see her twisting the telephone cord. “Talia,” he prompted.
“They left for a minute. Kevin did this one other time a couple of years ago. He’s got this crazy idea that he needs to provide me with…men.” Her words came out in a jerky rush. “I don’t know why. Anyway, he brought home this calculus professor—his name’s David—for the weekend, and they want me to take them to Gus’s tomorrow night.”
Trace was trying to absorb it with a cool, logical mind. But he got hung up about halfway through on the word men. “Men?” he repeated, his voice tight. “Exactly what does Kevin want this David—” he said the name with distaste “—man to do with you?”
“Well, Kevin doesn’t think small. He’s probably hoping for a marriage proposal within three months.” Her choked laugh didn’t help Trace one bit. “I think my little brother fantasizes about me selling the sub shop and leaving Barringer for good. Then he wouldn’t ever have to come back.”
Trace could have sworn his heart stopped. “Talia—”
“Listen, I gotta go,” she said quickly, and he heard male voices in the background. “I’ll talk to you in a few days, Trace. Sorry,” she whispered, and hung up.
He hesitated for a second, then replaced the receiver. Trace prided himself on being a rational, intelligent man, not given to displays of nerves.
So why were his hands sweating?
The next evening as Talia was getting ready for their outing, Kevin came into her bedroom and leaned against the doorjamb. She glanced at him in the mirror and felt her heart swell with pride. He’d turned out well, resembling their big Irish father. With his dark hair, vivid blue eyes and broad shoulders, he turned many female heads. But Kevin’s interest wasn’t easily captured. And his heart… Well, his heart might never trust again. She despaired over that and sighed.
“Heavy thoughts?” he asked.
“Not really,” she said. “I was just thinking how much you look like Daddy.”
Kevin shrugged. It was a common enough comment, but he barely remembered his father. “What do you think of David?”
