Once in a Lifetime (29 page)

Henry walked over to the table and sat down. “Come over here. Whatever in the world’s the matter?”

Telford sat on the edge of a chair and told Henry what he’d learned. From Henry’s gaping mouth and widened eyes, he had the answer to the question he’d intended to ask. Henry hadn’t known.

After a while, Henry leaned back in the chair, fingered his chin and shook his head. “Damned if that ain’t enough to send a righteous man to the nearest bar. You told Russ yet?”

“No. I thought I’d wait till Drake gets here and tell it once. I can’t get over this thing, but somehow, I don’t doubt it.”

“I’m sitting here thinking back a lot of years. Your daddy was so much taller than Sparkman, but… Well, I ’spect he took that from his mother’s side,” Henry said. He got up and went back to the counter where he’d been peeling asparagus. “Don’t git high and mighty and look that gift horse in the mouth. Your daddy suffered plenty at the hands of Sparkman, so you take that money. It rightfully belongs to the three of you.”

Telford spread his legs and rested his crossed forearms on
his thighs. He didn’t know when, if ever, he’d been so outdone. “Even if I wanted to tell Sparkman no, Russ wouldn’t let me. I disliked the man so intensely, spent such a chunk of my life driving myself in order to beat him at one thing or another and now—”

“He’s your uncle. If that ain’t something!”

Telford slapped his thighs and got up. Canceling his dinner date with Alexis didn’t sit well with him, but he couldn’t lay a bomb like that one on Russ and Drake and then calmly leave home.

He phoned Alexis. “Honey, I’m sorry I have to break our date, but you’ll understand when I explain. I want us to get together later and talk. Okay?”

“Of course. I hope your reason isn’t distressful.”

“Well, it doesn’t make me dance, but I’m dealing with it. I’ll tell you all about it.”

After dinner, he sat with Russ and Drake in his bedroom and told them what he’d learned. They stared at him, and neither said a word.

All of a sudden, Russ lunged to his feet. “I’ll be damned.” The words exploded from him as if they’d been shot from a cannon. “Under the heel of his boot all these years, and he’s got the nerve to…to… Oh, what the hell! It was Dad’s war.”

“Yeah,” Drake said. “I never felt the animosity toward him that you did, Telford, though that was probably because I wasn’t the one in direct conflict with him. Let it lie, brother.”

If they had seen that wasted old man, his black skin leatherlike against those white hospital sheets, they would have empathized with him as he did. “I can’t hate anybody in his position. In fact, I’ve only been sorry for him since we licked him with the school; he had to sit there and listen to the mayor say that was the finest building in Eagle Park, and Sparkman must have put up half a dozen buildings in the town. I’m over it.”

One issue could set him and his brothers at odds, but he wouldn’t act contrary to their wishes. It wasn’t worth it. “What about the inheritance? Do we accept it?”

As Telford had expected, a look of incredulity spread over Russ’s face. “If he said it’s rightfully my father’s, that means it’s rightfully mine. Period.”

He looked at Drake for his response. “I’m not in the habit of knowingly and deliberately doing stupid things,” Drake said. “He’s in Mercy Hospital? What’s his room number? The least I can do is go there and thank him.”

“I’ve been thinking of doing the same,” Russ said. “Let’s run over there tomorrow morning. I’m tied up Christmas Eve.”

Telford got up and started for the door. “Give him my regards. See you later.”

“While you’re with her, get a commitment,” Russ yelled after him.

“He’s got a commitment,” Drake said. “The problem is getting her to follow through.”

But those days will soon be over. I’m not starting the new year with my life screwed up like this. I need her as I need air, but if she’s not going my way, I’m going to know it.

He knocked on her door, and she opened it with a look of expectancy on her face, the face he loved, and extended both hands to him.

“You don’t look unhappy. What happened?”

“I suppose I’m getting used to the shock.”

He repeated what his uncle had told him. “You can imagine I felt as if a locomotive rolled over me.”

She moved her head up and down as if she were in deep thought. “Sounds like a true story. What do you think?”

“Oh, he’s telling the truth, all right.” He put an arm around her and felt her warmth as she moved to him, nestling close. She never failed to welcome him. Whenever he touched her, he could feel her melt into him, making him soar like an eagle.
She makes me feel ten feet tall and rising.

“I remembered what you said to me about hate being incompatible with love, and that’s why I went to see him. I’m glad I did. Not for the inheritance, but for the relief of not feeling that bitterness and ill will.”

Her slumberous gaze roamed from his eyes to his lips and back to his eyes, and then she dampened her lips, making his blood quicken and head for his loins. “I don’t think we’d better start that, honey. Tara’s in that room and likely to come in here any minute, and I’m not in the mood to torture myself. Besides, a couple of hours with you will only be a tease. I want more. A lot more. You think about that.” He brushed her lips quickly with his own and left.

And she wanted more, but how could she risk what he would certainly do, if he ever learned her maiden name? She could never forget the crushed, crestfallen expression, the pain on his face when, in her embarrassment, she had lied to him. She’d wanted to retract it, but it was too late. He’d closed up like a clam. “My mistake,” was all he said. After that, when he saw her on campus, it was as if she didn’t exist.

If he discovered that she’d kept one more thing from him, that would end it. On his own, he’d learned that her ex-husband was rich; circumstances forced her to tell him she had two university degrees, had taught in a university, that she knew Melanie Krenner and was the reason for her disappearance. And following the shock of learning that Fentress Sparkman, a man who’d nearly caused his ruin, was his uncle… She couldn’t subject him to yet more pain.

A thought occurred to her, and she telephoned her ex-husband.

“To what do I attribute this pleasant surprise?” he asked her, and she wondered why he didn’t ask if anything was wrong with Tara since she hadn’t telephoned him in the seven months since their custody settlement.

“Tomorrow is Christmas Eve,” she said without preliminaries, “and I want to know whether you’re planning to visit Tara.”

“Look, babe, don’t be so hard on a man. I was just headed out to see my folks. They’re getting old, you know.”

“And Tara is getting older, but don’t worry, she’ll have a
great Christmas. You’re missing an opportunity, Jack. Don’t blame her for loving the men who live here; they never forget her.”

“What do you want from me, Alexis? You demanded full responsibility for her, and I gave it to you.”

“Sure. And you gave it to me without a fuss in exchange for your money and property. My father was there for me, taking care of my material needs, but he seemed unaware of my emotional ones. I want more for my daughter, for her to love and respect her father. But we can forget about that, if you don’t change your style. It’s up to you.”

“I wanted to take the two of you out in my new car, but you refused.”

“I will not socialize with you. That’s over. As for the car ride, Tara would have to sit in the backseat and you’d spend the time talking to me. Oh, no.”

“Look, I’ll send her something by FedEx.”

“If that’s your solution, fine.”

Fighting a moroseness she hadn’t experienced since the day Jack walked out of their home, she dialed Loren Ingles Stevenson, Jack’s second wife.

“Hello, Loren, this is Alexis Stevenson. I hope you don’t mind my calling you.” She knew she’d stunned the woman, but she wanted to set one thing straight.

“Alexis? For goodness’ sake, this is a surprise. What’s up?”

She cut to the chase. “Loren, I asked Jack to introduce my daughter to her little brother, your son, and he gave me a thin excuse. What do you say? They ought to know and learn to care for each other.”

“I’ve thought that, too, Alexis, but I didn’t know how you’d feel about it, all things considered.”

“What’s done is past. As I look back, I’m the winner. I’ll call you right after New Year’s Day, and we’ll work it out. All right?”

“Good. Merry Christmas, Alexis.”

“Thanks, Loren. Merry Christmas to you.”

She prowled around her room, testing in her mind ways of telling Telford that she was the A. Brighton he knew at Howard University, but no matter how she phrased it to herself, in her mind’s eye she saw none of the warmth and beguiling sweetness that she loved in him, but eyes clouded with icy fury. Needing assurance as to the depth of his feeling, she phoned him, but for her trouble she got a busy signal. “Just as well,” she placated herself.

Minutes later her phone rang. “Hi. Telford. You called me?”

Why hadn’t she remembered caller ID? What could she say to him? “Yes, I did, but it was…uh…just a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

“Our parting earlier wasn’t satisfactory to me, either.” His voice, low, urgent and sexy, had the ability to make her heart do complete somersaults. “You want to talk awhile? It won’t be enough for me, but it’s as much as I’m willing to deal with right now.”

“Hmmm. You’re the one who set the limits.”

“One of us had to do it. As I recall, I’ve always been the one who puts on the brakes. When you get going, lady, you’ve got a one-track mind.”

“What
I
recall is that my mind never has a thing to do with it. If the music’s sweet, why should I stop dancing? If a player’s winning, he wouldn’t leave the gaming table if he starved.”

“Touché. But before the place closes, he cashes in his chips. He knows he can’t
spend
chips. You get my message?”

Did she ever! “I’d better let you get to sleep,” she said, aware that they’d neared the danger zone, dangerous for her, at least.

The laugh that reached her ears contained no mirth. “Until I’m satisfied that you and I won’t go any further together, I will remind you constantly that I need order in my life, and you are a part of that order.”

C
hristmas Eve arrived with snowflakes and a plummeting temperature, and an aura of excitement engulfed Alexis as she went about her morning chores. She checked the guest room for tidiness and straightened up Russ’s room. For months, Telford had made his own bed, and she understood his reasons for it, just as he no longer signed her checks, but had his accountant do it. Bennie cleaned Drake’s room once a week; at other times he took care of it himself, insisting that that was the way he wanted it. So, by nine-thirty, she’d finished her upstairs chores and could help Henry with the extra holiday preparations.

She pulled back the curtains in the guest room to look out at the snow, saw Russ’s black Mercedes pull into the driveway and galloped down the stairs to open the door.

“Hey, girl,” Velma exclaimed, dropped the two shopping bags filled with wrapped packages and flung her arms around Alexis. “Honey, you sure are a sight for these eyes.”

Shivering in the gust of cold air, she hugged her sister, looked over Velma’s shoulder at Russ and wondered at his
expression, the look of one who’d been caught filching from the cash register. “Thanks for meeting Velma,” she said to him.

“My pleasure.” He closed the door and put Velma’s suitcase at the foot of the stairs. She’d have loved to ask him about the truth of that remark.

“Where’s Tara?” Velma asked.

“She went with Telford to find a Christmas tree. They ought to be back any minute.”

Russ took the two shopping bags, picked up the suitcase and started up the stairs. “I’ll take your things to your room, Velma.”

Velma looked in the direction of the stairs. “Thanks,” she called to him, “and thank you for braving this weather to make that trip into Baltimore.” She looked at Alexis. “How’d it happen that Russ came to meet me?”

Telford had cautioned her not to read anything into Russ’s behavior, so she shrugged in an offhand manner. “He volunteered, and I didn’t question him. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?”

“What did he say about the kitten I sent him for his birthday?”

“He must not have been displeased, because it sits on his night table. Imagine sending a man a kitten named Hugs. That didn’t leave a thing to his imagination.”

“I didn’t intend to,” Velma said in her best come-hither voice and drew a hoot from Alexis. “What’s going on with you and Telford?”

“Long story.”

“Well, you’re still here, so I guess that means the two of you didn’t split up. I’m going back there and say hi to Henry.”

Having completed her morning chores, Alexis went to her room and changed into a pair of beige woolen slacks and a burnt-orange sweater and went into the kitchen, where she found Henry rubbing herbs into the inside of a goose.

“Drake’s gonna bring some dame he ain’t interested in. With your sister, that’s a total of, let’s see, eight. I made three
pumpkin pies yesterday, but it sure would be nice if you could mix up one of your caramel cakes.”

They worked together on the meal, which the Harrington family traditionally ate on Christmas Eve, and she had her hands full of caramel icing when Henry looked at her with the phone in his hand.

“Tel wants to speak with you. She got her hands full of stuff,” he said into the receiver. “Why don’t you just come on in here if you want to talk to her? I won’t hear a thing.”

She’d been ready to wash her hands and meet him in the hallway where she’d at least get a quick kiss, but Henry had deprived her of that pleasure. Telford strode into the kitchen with Tara trailing behind him and didn’t stop until he reached her.

“You didn’t come to breakfast this morning. Anything wrong?”

She shook her head. He stood before her, quintessential man, strong and vibrant, his curly-lashed, hazel-brown eyes filling her head with ideas that had nothing to do with caramel cake. As if he knew that his aura curled around her and his masculine heat had begun to mate itself with the fire simmering in her, he let a grin form around his lips and winked. She swallowed her breath, and he grabbed her and let her feel his mouth and know once more the quick thrust of his tongue. As quickly, he set her away from him, leaving her to wonder if it had happened or if, stoned by the sight of him, she’d imagined it.

Remembering that they were not alone, she glanced down at Tara, whose gaze shifted from one of them to the other. “Do you like it when Mr. Telford kisses you, Mummy?”

When she didn’t answer, a grin spread over Telford’s face. “You can answer that, can’t you?”

“Do you, Mummy?”

“There are times when I’d like to sock him.”

Tara’s eyes widened, and then her face wrinkled into a frown. Telford knelt beside her, and she looked at him for an explanation.

“When you’re a grown-up beauty like your mother, you will
understand that women keep these things secrets. She loves kissing me, but she doesn’t want me to know it.”

“But, Mr. Telford, I was looking at it. I know when you kiss
me.
”

Laughter poured out of him. “Tara, we are wasting time. We have to decorate the tree.”

He left, holding Tara’s hand, and the child looked backward at her mother as though uncertain as to what had just transpired.

“He shouldn’t have done that in Tara’s presence,” she said aloud.

“Why not?” Henry asked her. “It’s good for the child to see the love between you two and accept it. You should’ve told her you like it, ’cause you do. You ain’t supposed to let a man kiss you if you don’t like it.”

“This is true, but after an encounter like that one—”

“I know. You wasn’t thinkin’ straight. A man will stay in a relationship with you forever if you don’t shake him up. You and Tel needs to get married.”

She put her hands on her hips and glared at Henry. “What makes you think Telford’s the one who can’t make up his mind? If I said yes, he’d get married tomorrow.” She clapped her hand over her mouth.

Henry stared at her. “You telling me you’re stupid?” He looked to the ceiling. “You the last woman I would’ve accused of that. Keep it up. Dig a hole for yourself. If he shuts the door, you believe me, he ain’t opening it. Never.”

Alexis set the table for their Christmas dinner with festive arrangements of mistletoe, holly and red celosia and placed large vases of the arrangements in the den, living room and foyer. The fireplaces in the living and dining rooms crackled with roaring flames, and the scent of bayberry perfumed the air.

Alexis paused as she passed the den, and tears pooled in her eyes when she saw Telford lift Tara above his head so that she could place the star at the top of the tree. As he lowered her, she wrapped her little arms around his neck and kissed him.
Velma, Russ and Drake helped them decorate the eight-foot Douglas fir.

For lunch, Henry set platters of assorted fruits, cheese and bread on the breakfast-room table, and they stood around it helping themselves. Alexis thought Henry appeared tired and was certain of it when he sat down, and Tara asked him if he wanted her to bring him some milk.

Henry patted Tara’s shoulder as she leaned against him, her forearms resting on his thigh. “No, but I’d love some tomato juice.” She ran off to get it.

“She’s a little angel,” he said, “and this is the happiest Christmas this house ever seen.”

Alexis looked up to find Telford’s gaze locked on her, his soul shimmering in his eyes, all he felt for her exposed to anyone who cared to look. Without giving what she did a thought, she walked around the table to where he stood and wrapped an arm around his waist. She wanted to tell him that her heart was full of him, but she couldn’t say what she knew he wanted to hear, and the words stuck in her throat. Yet, she couldn’t stop looking at his eyes, eyes dark with love and smoldering with passion. He gazed down at her, his face solemn, and locked her in his arms.

“I brought you the juice, Mr. Henry. Did I do good?”

Alexis didn’t hear Henry answer, and when neither Russ, Drake nor Velma complimented the child, she knew their eyes were focused on Telford and her.

Tara confirmed it. “Is he going to kiss you again, Mummy?”

She didn’t answer Tara and played down the remark. “Are you?” she asked Telford.

But he remained serious. “Not with all these people gaping at me, I’m not.” That told her he wasn’t in a playful mood, and his brothers recognized it because they didn’t tease him.

“Let’s finish this good stuff and get back to the tree,” Drake said. “Pretty soon, I’ll have to go for my date.”

Henry cast Drake an anxious look. “Mind you don’t get stuck somewhere.”

“Come on, Mr. Henry, and dress the tree with us. Please.” Tara tugged at his hand.

“I ain’t never… Oh, all right.”

Tara took his hand, walked with him into the den and handed him ornaments. “It’s fun. Mr. Telford showed me how.”

If Harrington House hadn’t been the scene of such a joyous Christmas Eve, Alexis hadn’t witnessed one such either, and when they were left alone in the breakfast room, she said as much to Telford.

“For us, you and Tara are the difference,” he said. “We are all precious to her, and she shows us in so many ways that we make her happy.” He looked toward the doorway, sheltering his feelings. “I don’t know what I’ll do if you take her away from me.”

She didn’t want to deal with her fears right then. Lord, just let her enjoy this Christmas with him, maybe the only one. “I don’t have an answer right now,” she fudged. “Can you be patient a little longer?” Until she got the strength to do what she could no longer postpone.

Waves of heat washed over her when his fingers grasped both of her shoulders. And he knew it, for an answering fire burned in his eyes.

“Do you see how you react to my touch? I wasn’t trying to seduce you, but I get to you without trying. You do the same to me, and I want the right to hold you, touch you, take care of you, kiss you in front of a priest if I feel like it.”

His hand went to the back of his neck as if he battled frustration. “Don’t expect me to continue this way. It’ll never happen. Never.”

“I know. Oh, Telford, I know.”

After the brothers cleared the snow from the front of the house that afternoon, Telford phoned her. “How about dressing Tara and yourself warmly and let’s go outside?”

They helped Tara build a snow girl, frolicked in the white winter mist, among the snow-covered trees from which icicles
dangled like Southern summer moss, threw snowballs and pulled Tara on the sled the brothers enjoyed as children.

“I just love the snow,” Tara told them and looked up at her mother, her expression plaintive. “Mummy, why can’t Mr. Telford come stay with us?”

What could she answer when the same question tortured her own mind?

Telford dusted the snow from Tara’s woolen cap. “We’ll be together, sweetheart. I promise, but—”

“You said you had to work it up.”

“I said we would work it out.”

“Did you?” Tara asked.

Alexis could hardly bear the pain she felt at the sadness in her child’s voice.

“We’re doing that right now,” he said, sending Alexis an accusing look. “Nobody wants us to be together more than I do.” He spoke to Tara, but he fixed his gaze on her. “So, don’t worry, sweetheart.”

“Okay.” A child’s faith was a thing of wonder. “Let’s sled some more.”

When the cold seemed to have seeped all the way to her bones, she suggested that they go inside, and they walked back with Tara dancing between them and guilt weighing on her like wet cement.

Russ stopped her as she was hanging her ski jacket in the foyer closet. “Can I speak with you a minute?” She nodded. “I didn’t want to bring this up in front of Tara. Is Jack coming here today or tomorrow?”

She refused to cover for Jack. “He said he had to visit his parents in Philadelphia, so he’s not coming.”

She didn’t imagine the distaste expressed on his face. “I see. Did he send Tara a gift?”

“It hasn’t arrived yet. The snow—”

He waved a hand, dismissing the excuse. “The snow didn’t start till after midnight. I take it he lives in Philadelphia. What’s his address?” She gave him that and Jack’s phone number.

“Thanks. That guy doesn’t add up.” He unhooked the cell
phone from his belt and dialed a number as he walked away. “Jamal, this is Russ,” she heard him say. “Check out this guy for me.”

She went in the kitchen to find out whether Henry needed help with the dinner. “Think we can eat a little before seven?”

He bent to look in the oven. “I ain’t serving nothin’ till Drake gets back here.”

She pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. “Is Drake your favorite?” She hadn’t thought that Henry had a preference among the brothers, but it was possible.

“I ain’t got no favorite. Drake, Telford and me, we always worried ’bout Russ, ’cause he kept to himself, wouldn’t open up to none of us. He’s still a loner, which is why I was glad to see your sister come back.”

He poured a cup of cold coffee for himself and sat in the chair facing her. “Tel was shy and couldn’t reach out to people right up till he was in his mid-twenties. Unlike Russ, he was always glad to be with the kids when they took him in. Now, Drake, he’s got an angel sitting on his shoulder. He loves people, and everybody loves him.”

Her mind remained on what he’d said about Telford. How terribly she must have hurt him because she, too, was scared and shy!

“But the brothers seem so close,” she said.

“Oh, they’re thick as thieves. You want trouble, just mess with one of ’em, and you have to deal with all three. Plenty love there. They’re just different from one another.”

With Tara practicing her music lesson, Alexis took the opportunity to get their presents and place them beneath the Christmas tree. “I had a lot of nerve doing this,” she said of the contents of a large box. “I hope they like it.”

Telford dressed for Christmas Eve dinner and looked at his watch. Just five-thirty, so why was he rushing the time? He prowled around his room, fingering objects, picking up his wire
sculptures and books and putting them down. Exasperated, he dialed her number.

He skipped the preliminaries. “Whatever your reason for not committing to me, tell me flat-out, and don’t coat it. I can take it.” Restless and on edge, he plowed his fingers through his hair. “By now, you know what you don’t like about me and what you’re not willing to settle for. Lay it out for me. If you can’t tell me, write it down and let me read it.”