Men Times Three (25 page)

“Yeah, that's what she says. Except—”

“She doesn't want it to stay a dance club.”

“Right.”

“She's into the lifestyle, as you call it.”

“Riiiight.” He looked pleased that she'd caught on so easily.

“Then good luck.” Her first sip of tea was always the best and she savored this one.

Dennis dropped his feet with a heavy thud. “You're shittin' me.”

“Good luck with Tisha and your new fantasy club. If she's got enough to buy me out of our partnership, then more power to you.”

“What?”

“You look surprised.” More, he looked thunderstruck, then he blustered and a whine built in his throat.

“But I can't do it without you. I'm no good at the day-today shit and you know it.” He stood and paced, much the way she had countless times when money was tight and they could barely pay wages.

Keeping Dennis under control had become a full-time job. He had as much personal restraint as a boy with a girly magazine when it came to spending money. He could blow through a weekend's profit in no time. To see him on edge and actually worried felt oddly satisfying.

“Careful, Dennis, those frown lines might stay on your face.” He was already coloring his hair. He thought she didn't know, but three months ago he'd lost the silver at his temples. Overnight. “I'm sure Tisha can pick up the slack, just the way I always did.”

“You have to stay,” he blurted. “Everything you have, everything you ever wanted is here!”

“Everything I've ever wanted is”—the realization came softly and fell with the light tinkling sound of a fairy's laugh—“is in a tree museum.” Starting with TJ O'Banion.

 

Late Saturday afternoon Kylie and Holly dragged and pushed their grandfather's furniture into the middle of his bedroom. They could have asked the men for help, but they were busy setting the remaining logs on the first cabin. The walls were expected to be done by dinnertime.

“It'll be brighter in here once we've cleaned.” The exterior wall was the only one with exposed logs. Like the log walls in the living room, dust had settled, turning the light-colored cedar gray with dust.

The interior walls were smooth drywall and easier to wash. Still, when Kylie had run her hand down the wall, she'd seen streaks of dirt on her fingers and palm.

Holly grunted over the nightstand and shoved it toward the pile of other furniture. The foot of the stand caught on a raised nail in a floorboard and nearly toppled. A drawer flew open and she swore. “Catch that stuff, Kylie. It could be important.”

She picked up a book of crosswords, never started. A sheaf of sketches of furniture pieces. “The old man had a talent for this.” She held up a sheet of graph paper with a sketch of the coffee table.

Holly took it and gave it a long look. “I didn't know. This is exactly how the table turned out.”

“The rest just looks like letters and notes.” She set them aside on the floor by the door. “We'll recycle everything later.” But a name caught her eye and she crouched to read more. “This is a letter…”

“Yes, so?”

“To my mother,” she said, only half-hearing her own voice. She shuffled the top sheet to the side and looked at the next page. “And another. ‘Dear Trudy,'” she read aloud. “On the next one he starts with ‘My darling daughter,'” she looked up from her crouch at her cousin's stricken face.

“He wrote to her?”

Kylie nodded. “For years. Look at the dates.” She fanned the letters out. “But he never mailed them. A lot of the letters are unfinished.”

“Oh, Kylie, he never found the words, but at least he tried.”

Kylie hardened her heart. “No, he could have phoned. He could have got her a message through her brothers. He didn't care to, that's all.” But she knew the truth now because she'd seen the hatred in his eyes. He'd never been in touch because of Kylie. Because of who her father may have been. She could hardly stand to be in there with his sorrow and loss.

Not for her. Never for her.

“Stupid old man, he was stubborn to a fault,” Holly declared.

“I guess he kept his thoughts to himself. He probably figured there was time to set things right with my mother.” But her car accident had ended any hope of reconciliation.

Holly made a doubtful face. “Maybe he hoped she'd show up at this bedside for a deathbed father-daughter lovefest. Reunions like that are rumored to happen.”

“Well, it sure wasn't going to happen with
me
!”

“I'm sorry he behaved so badly when you came to meet him.”

“Me, too.”

“I'm more sorry for him because he missed out on knowing what a great person you are. You're talented, smart, funny and so gorgeous it would be easy to hate you if you weren't so warm.”

Kylie squeezed her eyes shut so tears wouldn't leak down her cheeks. “That's so sweet, Holly. I appreciate it.”

Holly moved in close for a hug. “You'll always be family, Kylie. No matter what happens with the inn, we'll never lose touch.”

“Have you heard anything from Marnie?”

“Not a word. I've called but her phone's shut off. It's not like her, but she's deep into negotiations with her partner, so she may want time to think.”

“About TJ?”

She nodded. “I just hope she's thinking clearly. Sometimes we Dawsons are too stubborn for our own good.” She sighed and collected the rest of the papers that had fallen out of the drawer. “Like me. I should have been more open with my family about Jack, starting with my marriage going sour. I kept my problems to myself and didn't ask for advice or help. Look what happened. I allowed him to manipulate me into sleeping with him again. If I'd only shared my troubles I might not have made that mistake.”

“Don't blame yourself. Sometimes it's easier not to share the bad stuff in our lives. Besides, Jack's behind you now. And Deke's a great guy,” she assured. “Much easier to get along with than Eli.”

Holly hooted with laughter. “I have no problem getting along with Eli. I think he scares you.”

Kylie grinned. “Maybe a little. He arouses me in ways I can't describe.” She put up her hand to stop Holly's next comment. “He brings out the worst in me.” Her reaction to Eli wasn't all about sex. “Arouses my inner bitch, so to speak.”

“No kidding.” Holly's dry comment hit home.

“Do you think I'm afraid of him?”

“Maybe he's the kind of man you imagine your father to be. A rolling stone, a ramblin' man, for want of a better term. But Eli has deep roots here and he's strongly connected to his brothers. Sooner or later, he'll settle into a more normal life. Do you want to offer that to him now or let him find it with another woman?”

“I do like the sparks we strike.” She hated the idea of Eli finding another woman on his travels. “We've reached an impasse. No conversation but great sex. The less we speak to each other, the less likely we are to argue. Even if I do miss those conversational sparks…” She leaned in. “Make-up sex is the hottest.”

“It sounds to me as if neither of you wants to say anything to ruin a good thing.”

She shook her head. “Everything I want is here on the Olympic Peninsula. My new family, my new home, a business—okay, I can dream, can't I?—if Marnie does the sensible thing and gives the inn a chance, then yes, everything I want is here.”

“Including Eli?”

“He's leaving at the end of the summer. He let it slip out about the Himalayas.” She shrugged. “It's not as if we've really connected.” It pained her to say it, because she felt Eli down to her soul, while he, typically male, felt next to nothing. But maybe Holly was right. Maybe Eli felt happy to travel because he had deep roots. No matter where he went, he always had his home and family to come back to.

Holly watched her closely. “But you feel more than casual,” she guessed.

“I do.” It felt great to release the truth. At least to her cousin.

“It can happen faster than we'd ever think possible. With Deke, I went into overdrive at first sight. My mouth watered, my knees went weak and when he walked across the back lot toward me, I didn't even register that TJ walked with him. Imagine not noticing TJ!”

“I had a lot of that, too, when Eli showed up. I reacted badly and insulted him. I felt like such a fool when you told me about how he teaches in orphanages.”

Holly shrugged. “The whole thing's physiological and, in a lot of ways, beyond our control.”

“Being out of control with men is one of my worst fears. My mother spent a lot of time warning me off them.”

“Are you afraid of men?”

“Not men specifically, just the damage they cause.” Eli was hurricane force. “Some women bend, but others can be broken like twigs.”

“Was Aunt Trudy broken? She had men disappoint her at her most vulnerable point.”

“It's not right to talk about my mom. She had a lot of guilt over how I was conceived. She says she knew what would happen at the frat house, but she went anyway, got loaded and high and went into the bedroom willingly.”

“She told you that?”

“My mother was brutally honest about that night. Her behavior appalled her later, but by then, all she could do was hope for the best and get tested for STDs. She was clean, but also pregnant. When I was born, she figured it was likely the Hawaiian guy, but there were others that night. She made no bones about behaving stupidly, but she did go speak to him and he blew her off.” She sniffed and blew out a deep breath. “My mother loved me and I loved her. If you'd been raised with only one parent and no other family, you'd understand.”

“You mean she was raped while she was passed out?”

“Actually, no. She made it plain she'd partied hard several times when she got to college. She was an easy drunk and an easy lay when she drank. She was acting out after a strict up-bringing. Grandad watched her like a hawk in her teens.”

“She was very brave to confess all that to him. I can see how she would feel that it was just the two of you against the world.”

Kylie nodded. Her mom had done her best under rotten circumstances. “Sometimes I wonder if instead of protecting me from bad choices, she gave me no choices at all. I grew up afraid of losing control, and with Eli I have no control whatsoever.” Oh, God. She'd said it. A look, a sexy move, an unintentional innuendo and she wanted him.

“Oh, Kylie. Don't be afraid.” Holly dragged her into a fierce hug that Kylie gratefully accepted. “Your mom didn't want you to make mistakes or be foolish, but I doubt she wanted you to live like a nun. My dad always said Aunt Trudy had a backbone of steel and as much pride as Granddad.”

Kylie sniffed again. “He was horrible to me when I came here. He hated me on sight and I understand why she stayed away. I'm sorry about her brothers, though. She never gave them a chance.” Maybe Trudy thought they'd reject her as well, so she did it first.

“She never talked about them?”

“No. I knew she had family because I found an old photo album, but that's all. When I asked, she said the people in the photos were from a previous life and weren't connected to our lives now.”

They pulled apart. “She was right. We weren't connected. You know now that the estrangement was her choice. We've already put that behind us.”

“A fresh start,” Holly agreed with a nod. “It helps to know her father missed her. Maybe he did design his will to take one last stab at fixing his mistakes.” And Trudy's.

“He brought us together. And we'll stay together.”

Kylie gathered her nerve. “I want more than the summer. I guess that's obvious.” She grinned. “Do you think Marnie will see the potential in the inn by then? The three of us make a good team.” Kylie didn't know Marnie as well as she'd hoped to by now, but she admired her tremendously. “Or is she so committed to her dance club that she can't see what she's got here?”

The distant sound of a vehicle in the parking area of the inn broke through Kylie's musing. “Maybe she's back,” she said and headed for the sound. Holly followed and dashed to the living room window. “Is Eli in the doghouse?”

“Not at the moment. But wait a minute, that'll change,” she quipped. She
did
miss the sparks. Maybe he did, too.

“We've got a flower delivery coming in,” Holly said. “Maybe it's for Marnie from TJ. I'm sure it's not from Deke.” Her voice thrummed with excitement.

Kylie opened the front door as Holly slid to a stop beside her, excitement making her bounce on the balls of her feet. Holly accepted the heavy vase while Kylie signed the delivery slip. “Wow, these are all incredible.” Tall and full, the bouquet would span the entire coffee table. Lilies, roses, orchids and more exotic flowers than Kylie could identify filled out the bouquet.

“These are perfect,” she said as Holly slid the vase to the center of the coffee table that TJ had returned to the inn just this morning. “We'll have to get more for the registration desk when we open for business.”

“I love fresh flowers!” Holly confessed. “I know some people have allergies but I'm always drawn to the fresh scents. And the colors brighten my day.”

Holly fussed over the blooms as she unwrapped the cellophane wrap and spread the stems to show off the flowers to their best advantage. “In the winter, we'll lay pine boughs across the mantel on the fireplace. The woodsy pine scent will make the whole inn smell fresh and cozy at the same time.” Her eyes glowed. “I found a card!”

“Open it,” Kylie urged.

Holly hesitated. Her fingernail flicked the corner of a small square. “There's no name on the envelope. Maybe it's for all of us.” Still, she hesitated while Kylie balled up the cellophane and stuffed it into the cardboard carrier the florist had used for the base of the vase.