Mad About The Man (19 page)

After several seconds he slipped lower in the chair and stretched out his legs.
"
I won
'
t be
told
what to do, Gaby. I
'
m putting a lot of money into this. And my motives are goo
d, I assure you. The best. Some
times people are too emotional to see what
'
s advantageous for them.
"

"
But you never are?
"
She sat up and pushed her mug onto the bedside table.
"
I think you
'
re arrogant, Jacques. You decide what other people want and need then set about persuading them you
'
re right.
"

"
Calm down.
"

"
Calm
…
"
She seethed.
"
Would you mind leaving the room. I
'
d like to get dressed.
"

"
Women!
"
He looked at the ceiling.

Gaby could barely contain herself.
"
I
'
ll let that pass. Please do as I ask. I
'
ve got to get Vi back.
"

"
You called and said you
'
d be keeping her until this evening.
"

"
I
'
ve changed my mind.
"

He got to his feet, picked up her mug and pressed it back into her hands.
"
When does Mae get back?
"

"
Late tonight.
"

"
Char Brown is a sort of substitute grandmother, isn
'
t she?
"

Gaby glared at him.
"
Yes.
"

"
Good.
"

Furious that he could be so calm, she continued drinking her coffee.

"
Aren
'
t you going to ask me why it
'
s good?
"

She shook her head.

"
Because we
'
re going to need plenty of opportunities to be together.
"

"
You
…
You are so pig-headed
"

"
Are you saying you don
'
t want to make love on the grass again and against a tree and on a terrace and in my bed
…
and on a horse?
"

Gaby sputtered and coughed.
"
We
didn
'
t
make love on a horse.
"

"
Exactly. We
'
ve got something to look forward to.
"

Despite her ire, Gaby smiled into her cup.
"
What an impossible man.
"

"
What a maddening little hatter,
"
Jacques said quietly.
"
And I really do like you for exactly what you are. If you want me to speak with some of the residents, I
'
ll be happy to do that.
"

She turned a brilliant grin on him.
"
You will? Oh, thank you, Jacques. I know how much it will mean to them to discover you really care about their opinions.
"

"
I
do
care about their opinions. I always have. I care about
them.
That
'
s why I started all this in the first place.
"

The temptation was to say that he
'
d long ago stopped putting the needs and wants of the community first.
"
I
'
ll arrange a meeting.
"

"
Fine. We
'
ll get to it when we can.
"

Gaby
'
s eyes went to the pocket of his sweats where the folded fax was visible.
"
This is asking a lot. But could you hold off on starting anything major until after we
'
ve had the talk?
"

His eyes moved from hers.
"
We can try.
"

"
You won
'
t regret it, Jacques.
"
Thinking rapidly,
she passed her tongue over dry
li
ps.
"
Saturday nights are pretty quiet around here. People are usually available. I
'
ll set something up for next Saturday evening, if that
'
s okay with you?
"

"
Saturday?
"
He started to nod, then narrowed his eyes and rested a hand on his pocket.
"
No. Not Sat
urday.
"

She swallowed.
"
That
'
s too bad. Got to go back to civilization and see to business?
"

"
Yes
…
no.
"
Jacques cracked a tight smile.
"
I just remembered that
'
s
th
e night I promised my folks I
'
d talk to them. They live in the south of France and they
'
re always so busy I have to make an appointment to get on their schedule.
"

"
Will talking to them take all night?
"
Bit by bit she felt the intimacy they
'
d built dissolve.
"
We could make it later. Say nine?
"

"
I can
'
t be sure we
'
ll be through.
"

"
Ten.
"

"
We might not be finished.
"
He stood.
"
Look, why don
'
t we work this out later. For the following Saturday, perhaps?
"

By which time the command performance with Napoleon Paradise would have taken place and, quite possibly, the kind of contract signed that would be almost impossible to scuttle.

"
D
'
you think that would work out for your people?
"

Her
people. Not the people he was so concerned about that he was dragging them into his
"
progress
"
whether they liked it or not.

"
Gaby?
"

She looked into his eyes and read anxiety there.
"
That
'
ll probably be fine.
"
Did he think she couldn
'
t
figure out that they
'
d found something pretty rare, even if it was only
physical—at least on his side—
and that he didn
'
t want to jeopardize that?
"
Yes. I
'
ll see what I can do.
"

"
Great!
"
He set down his mug and took hers away.

"
Mmm. Great,
"
Gaby agreed.

And his arms and body, enfolding her once more, felt wonderful. Damn it, but she wanted him, would continue to want him and with a whole lot more than that part of her that caught fire when he touched her— looked at her, even.

Jacques pressed her back on the bed and settled his length beside her.

Gaby saw his eyes close. Holding him felt natural, peaceful. She
wanted him and he wanted her…
and those were the facts she
'
d have to use for another purpose, at least once.

Maddening hatter?
He didn
'
t know how maddening yet.

Jacques Ledan wouldn
'
t be meeting with Napoleon Paradise next Saturday evening.

13

"
T
alk
to him, Bart.
"

"
I have, sweetheart. You can see how far it
'
s gotten me.
"

Rita slung her purse on top of Jacques
'
s desk.
"
Try again. Pl-ea-se.
"

"
You try,
"
Bart said from the depths of the canvas director chair—complete with his name on the back— that he
'
d produced the previous week.
"
I
'
ve got too much on my mind with Napoleon coming.
"

"
If Jacques can
'
t get his head together, Napoleon might as well
not
come.
"

"
Shut— Be quiet,
"
Jacques said from his post overlooking Gaby
'
s skylight.
"
And give me the repect of not talking as if I weren
'
t present.
"

"
Thank God,
"
Rita said in breathy tones.
"
He
'
s returned to us. Jacques, we
'
ve got to go over everything before Napoleon Paradise descends—or skates
i
n,
or however he intends to arrive.
"

"
And we will go over everything,
"
Jacques told her, barely containing his irritation.
"
I don
'
t enjoy working with panicky people. You
'
re panicking, Rita.
Don
'
t.
"

"
Hey.
"
Bart shoved himself to his feet and draped
a
n
arm around Rita
'
s shoulders.
"
Rita
'
s been working very hard, Jacques, for a long time. We both have.
But this project hasn
'
t been easy on her. She
'
s not
a
country girl.
"

Interest sparked in Jacques. Bart was becoming quite the White Knight considering he and Rita were always fighting.

"
I think you take Rita entirely too much fo
r
granted.
"

"
Thank you,
"
Rita said, bestowing a tremblingly grateful smile on Bart.
"
But it
'
s you he really under
estimates.
"

Jacques saw what he
'
d waited all day to see: Gab
y
leaving the courtyard on her bicycle.

"
No, sweetheart,
"
Bart said to Rita.
"
You
'
re ver
y
generous, but—
"

"
But I underestimate you both. Why don
'
t the two of you stick around here and compare notes. I
'
ve go
t
some very important business to attend to. When it
'
s done, I
'
ll be back.
"
Jacques headed for the stairs.
"
Make yourselves at home. Anything you want you
'
ll
find in
the kitchen. If you get tired…
well, there
'
s bed. Please feel free to take a nap.
"

At his last backward glance he saw them continuing to gaze at each oth
er, apparently oblivious either
to him or his remarks.

This time he would judge everything exactly right, do everything perfe
ctly. The moment had come to be
up front with Gaby—as honest as he could be. He ought to be able to deal with small difficulties without lying.

At the side of the building, perched on ridiculously oversized wheels, stood a new, glossy red van, belonging to Ozzie Odle, the truculent son of the family whose farm Jacques had bought. Ozzie had no interest in farming and had seemed grateful to be relieved of the potential burden of trying to carry on for his father one day. With the money that had apparently been his portion of what Jacques had paid for the farm, Ozzie had started what he called a
"
convenience
"
business. This seemed to involve sitting around all day drinking beer whilst, with the aid of his silver-striped van, being prepared to accommodate the needs of others.
"
Here we go, Ozzie,
"
Jacques called.

The gangly young man levered himself from a perch on an upturned crate, burped and crushed his beer can.
"
I was thinking, Mr, Ledan,
"
he said, ambling toward Jacques, a puckish frown on his long face.
"
How would it be if I had GFTG painted on the doors of the van?
'
'

Jacques paused.
"
Why would you do that?
"

Ozzie shrugged inside a shrunken T-shirt that rode up over a pot belly.
"
Seems t
'
me there
'
ll be plenty of fetchin
'
and carryin
'
you
'
ll be needin
'
around here. Might as well advertise while I
'
m about it.
"

Jacques hid a grin.
"
We
'
ll see, Ozzie.
"
The more good will he could engender the better.
"
That might work. Right now we need to get to that little matter we discussed earlier. I want you to do what we planned. Follow me. Don
'
t get too close until I
'
m inside the house.
"

He jogged to the Jeep and set off. He had to stop once to remind Ozzie to fall back. After that the other vehicle remained at an acceptable distance.

When he drove up to Gaby
'
s house he checked his watch. Three. Should be enough time before the
child
arrived.

Gaby took a long time to open the door.

He bent to kiss her.

She stepped back, left the door open and walked away through the house. ,

With raised brows, Jacques followed.
"
Hello, Gaby. I
'
ve missed you. How are you? Have you had a nice day? Did work go well?
"

She went into a small sitting room. Through French windows he could see a vegetable garden.

Jacques tried again.
"
Now you
'
re supposed to be nice to me.
"

"
Am I?
"

"
Okay, I give up. What did I do wrong?
"
He wished he didn
'
t feel so damned guilty. At least he could be certain she didn
'
t know he
'
d lied through his teeth to her, so why feel bad?

Gaby sighed.
"
You didn
'
t do anything. I
'
m a very unpredictable person, is all. You just don
'
t know me well enough to recognize one of my mood swings.
"

"
I know you
very
well.
"
Approaching, he held out his arms.

She dodged away and sat in an overstuffed chintz chair.
"
No you don
'
t. If you did, you wouldn
'
t like me."

Postcoital remorse?
"
Probably not. I
'
ll take my chances.
"
From his pocket he pulled a red velvet bag.
"
Here. You undoubtedly won
'
t like it. Take it, anyway.
"

Gaby watched him drop it into her lap, and he took pleasure in the spark of anticipation she wasn
'
t quick enough to hide.

"
Open it.
"

"
What is it?
"

"
Gaby.
"

Scowling afresh, she loosened the drawstring that closed the top and removed the bag
'
s contents.

"
It
'
s nothing,
"
Jacques said. He strolled to a bookcase and ran a forefinger along titles. A hodgepodge of everything including ten-year-old tax preparation tables.
"
Give it to Mae to dress up in.
"

"
Jacques.
"
She whispered his name with satisfactory awe and he smiled.

"
How would you describe your taste in literature?
"

"
Where on earth did you get this? Bananas
and cherries and strawberries…
"

"
And bunches of grapes. I called a friend in LA last night. He rounded the necklace up and had it brought in by chopper early this morning.
"
He eased out a leatherbound copy of Homer
'
s
Iliad
and turned to Gaby.
"
This is pretty heavy stuff for someone with
…
eclectic taste? You
'
ve kept it in great condition.
"

Squintin
g at the book, Gaby pushed her li
ps out in a pout, then her expression cleared.
"
I
'
ve never opened it, that
'
s why it
'
s in great condition. Jacques, stop behaving as if a beautiful gold necklace studded with what appear to be emeralds, sapphires and rubies—and designed to echo my fruit theme for the year—were nothing.
"

"
They are emeralds, sapphires and rubies. The sapphires and rubies are incidental. The emeralds are a stone you should wear all the time. They are exactly the color of your eyes.
"

She made an unintelligible noise.

"
Don
'
t mumble. May I put it on you? It
'
ll look great with the green silk dress.
"

"
I can
'
t take it.
"

He
'
d anticipated this.
"
No, I didn
'
t think so. Ah, well. How do you think emeralds look on blonds?
"

"
Blonds?
"

"
It was modified to my specification. In a few hours. It isn
'
t on approval so I can
'
t send it back.
"

"
Oh.
"

He averted his eyes, but not before he saw her frown.
"
Don
'
t worry, Gaby. Rita tells me Camilla Roberts is still in town. I suppose—
"

"
Put it on me—just so we can see what it looks like.
"

"
Of course.
"

Gaby turned her back to him and he arranged the necklace, a heavy collar formed of links shaped like fruits and discreetly studded with gems, about her throat.

He rested his hands on her shoulders.

She remained where she was, head bent forward.

"
I don
'
t think this would look at all good on a blond,
"
Jacques said. Just touching her made his body tighten.
"
It needs black silk, like your hair, to show it off.
"