Pulling Home (10 page)

is she?”

“She went with your father to Dairy Queen,” Alice said, wondering why her voice

sounded so far away. “Kara loves the peanut butter cup blizzards and you know your father looks for any reason to sneak something he shouldn’t.” She squinted at her son.

Even with the haziness of the valium, she could make out the veins bulging in his neck.

“Jack?” She tried to stand but slipped back into her chair with a thud.

“I’m looking for her mother.”

Oh. Alice lifted a hand and pointed to the other room. “Packing.”

He tore through the living room and bound up the stairs, two at a time. She could tell he was skipping stairs as he went. Jack always had that habit of rushing into a disaster he thought he could fix, even when there was no solution. Like now.

Her only grandbaby was leaving. Alice slumped forward and buried her head in

her hands. She needed a few minutes to rest and then she’d make a fresh pot of coffee and slice the banana bread. She’d made four loaves last night and two pumpkin chocolate chip ones. Those were Kara’s favorites. She could take them on the plane with her and think of her grandmother as she nibbled on them...

“Poor thing. Maybe I should have started her with half a valium.” Joyce’s words

sifted through Alice’s stupor.

Marion
click clacked
her needles. “Maybe you shouldn’t play doctor. People have allergic reactions and die every day. Do you think we should tell Jack?”

“Let her rest. It’s probably the only sleep she’s gotten since this nightmare

started.” For once, they all agreed with Tilly.

***

among his childhood memories, her scent clinging to the bed, the walls, the carpet.

Dammit, she did not belong in here.

“Jack.”

Her lips parted just like they used to seconds before he buried his tongue in her mouth. “What the hell is going on?”

She took a step back and clutched the shirt she’d been folding to her chest. “I’m packing. Our flight leaves at two.”

Jack cursed and slammed the door shut. “You couldn’t give them a few more days

with their granddaughter?”

“I need to get Kara checked.”

“I told you she could be evaluated here.”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but no. I have work, too,” she mumbled.

“Right. And what work is that, again? Advertisements?”

“I write ads for medical supply companies.” When he didn’t respond she added,

“It’s a respectable job.”

He advanced on her, fists clenched. “And you’re all about respect, aren’t you? I mean, you would always do the respectable thing, wouldn’t you?”

She stared at him. “What are you getting at?”

Jack closed in on her. She wasn’t going anywhere until he had answers.

“Respect,” he sneered. “It’s all you’ve ever wanted, isn’t it?”

She tried to look away but he caught her chin between his fingers. “You thought

marrying my brother and moving two thousand miles away would get you respect. You took a job writing advertisements or whatever in the hell it is you do.” He paused. “To get respect. I’ll bet you live in a respectable house, drive a respectable car, have a respectable set of friends. Isn’t that what you’re chasing, Audra? What you’ve always been chasing and never quite found?”

“Go to hell.”

“Been there. From the moment I laid eyes on you.” His gaze settled on her lips.

She was too close, her eyes were too bright, her scent too intoxicating. Her lips parted and he spotted the pink tip of her tongue. Jack squeezed his eyes shut and tried to refocus.

This was the woman who had brought so much grief to his whole family, tore his heart from its center and made him curse ever knowing her. This was the woman he’d never been able to forget.

Years of pretending fell away as he stared at her lips, breathed in her scent.

Leave. Now!
his brain told him, but he ignored the warning. The room collapsed on him, heat suffocating what little common sense he had left. He tried to step back but his feet wouldn’t move.

Dear God, he was lost. Jack pulled her close, crushed his mouth to hers, thrust his tongue between her parted lips and tasted salvation. Heaven and hell, that’s where he was, but damned if he could save himself. She moaned, low and needy, locked her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his in a way that reminded him of the first time he’d taken her. Of all the women he’d had since, there’d never been one like her. That had been his punishment for sleeping with the woman who would become his brother’s wife.

There was only need left as he ran his hands over her body, lifted her with one

jerk and carried her to the bed. She didn’t stop him when he fell on top of her, hips grinding against her like a high school boy, tongue buried deep in her mouth. She groaned and sucked and squirmed. Just like he remembered. Jack cupped her breast, stroked a nipple through the thin cotton of her shirt. His entire body pulsed with memories of those perfect breasts. Flesh in his hands, that’s what he needed. He flipped open the first button on her shirt, then another, and another, felt for the front clasp of her bra— His cell went off just as the clasp sprung free.

Audra broke the kiss and pushed at his chest. “Get off!”

Jack darted off the bed, stunned by what they’d been doing seconds ago. He

turned while she adjusted her clothing but not before he caught a peek of creamy breast.

One second he was cursing her and the next, hell, he was feeling her up, getting ready to pump into her. The phone rang again and he glanced at the caller I.D. Guilt surged through him as Leslie’s name flashed on the screen.

He swung around, tucked the back of his shirt in his pants and glared at Audra.

She stood near the window, as far from him and the bed as possible without jumping on the ledge. So, she regretted what they’d done. Good, so did he. No decent human being went after his dead brother’s wife, especially when he was almost engaged. Not that it hadn’t felt incredible, but that wasn’t the point.

“I’d like you to leave.”

How could she scrape and claw at him with lust one second and look down her

nose at him the next? This was Audra Valentine he reminded himself—a woman capable of anything. Jack closed the distance between them in three strides, enjoying the way she shrank toward the wall. When he was close enough to smell her honeysuckle scent, he stopped. “You enjoyed it.”
As much as I did
. “Don’t even try to deny it
.” I’ll spend the
rest of my life trying.

“Get out.”

He grabbed a lock of hair and sifted it between his fingers. “Good-bye, Audra.

Keep looking for that respect.”

“People love a good intrigue.”—Howard Krozer

“Just try to lay still, Doris, and let the oxygen and valium do their work.” Leslie Richot adjusted the strap on the nasal cannula and squeezed Doris O’Brien’s hand.

“I don’t need oxygen or another pill,” Doris gasped. “What I need is a cigarette.”

“That’s what landed you in here with pneumonia.” Pastor Richot’s daughter

smiled. “Please, just try and take a deep breath.”

Doris relaxed her grip on Leslie’s hand and let her eyes drift shut. “Is your father coming soon?”

“He’s on his way.”

“Good.” August Richot was one of the only inhabitants of Holly Springs who had

never passed judgment on her. Not when she ran off to the convent at seventeen after her father forced jail on the boy who stole her virginity—though stealing was an incorrect term—willfully accepted was more appropriate. August hadn’t shunned her when she returned sixteen years later with a swollen belly and tales of an excommunicated priest.

Not even when she turned to street drugs and men to pay for them after her baby girl drowned in five inches of water. Pastor Richot visited her in Syracuse State Mental institution every Monday for five years, listening to her delusional rantings, until her most recent discharge, three months ago.

Now here she was, trapped in room 329, with oxygen, valium, and no cigarettes.

Not a good situation, especially for someone who believed nicotine kept her alive. “I have to tell him.” Her eyes flew open and she grabbed at Leslie. “I must tell him about the girl. She looks just like her mother.”

“What girl?”

Doris pointed at the ceiling and smiled. “Eyes like a cat, tilted at the corners. Full lips, same arch to the brow. There they are. Can’t you see them?”

***

back of his silver Jaguar. He had no qualms about carrying diaper bags or picking up apple juice from the grocery store. The sight of such a handsome, well-dressed man carrying a child and not wearing a wedding band, made him irresistible– not that a man who could have been Warren Beatty’s much younger brother, needed any help, but the appeal quadrupled. Peter merely laughed, saying the women were looking at the blueness of Kara’s eyes.

He might shrug off the overt attention, but Audra knew women were entranced by

him, had been even before he became a television celebrity. Hadn’t eight women stopped him for autographs in baggage claim? And wasn’t another approaching him like a

racehorse in stilettos?

“Dr. Andellieu? May I have a moment?” A slender redhead with stunning blue

eyes blocked his path. “I just want to tell you that what you’re doing is amazing. Truly amazing,” she gushed. “I watch your show every week and I just burst into tears.”

Peter cleared his throat and smiled at her. Audra knew it was his ‘on screen’ smile because it stretched over his gums a bit too fiercely to be natural. “Thank you. I’m glad you enjoy the show,” he said in that soft, sexy drawl that made women weak-kneed.

“It’s amazing,” she repeated, words bubbling from her like a science project gone wrong. “I mean, the way you transform people. It must give you tremendous satisfaction to know how much you’ve touched their lives.”

“Mom, I’m hungry. Can we get an In and Out burger?”

The woman swiped an assessing gaze over Kara and Audra. “Oh. Is this your

child?” She swept her stunning clear-water eyes over Audra again. “Your bio said you were divorced.” Her lips tightened with obvious disappointment.

“Actually—”

“Uncle Peter, I’m hungry and my head hurts.” Kara tugged at his hand and rubbed

her temple.

“Okay, sweetheart, we’ll get your burger.”

“Ahh. Your sister.” The lips morphed into a wide smile that spoke of sexual

promise. Taking a step closer, she thrust a card into his hand and leaned up on stiletto tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “Call me. Anytime.”

Peter didn’t smile this time as he stuffed her card in his trousers’ pocket without looking at it. “We’ve really got to go. Starving children don’t like to wait.”

The redhead tittered and waved. “Bye.” She wet her lips and slid her blue gaze to his crotch.

Peter turned away and guided Audra and Kara toward the exit doors. “Don’t even

say it,” he muttered once they were standing in the warm night breeze. “Not a single word.”

Audra stifled a laugh but it was Kara who yanked his hand and said, “Uncle Peter, that lady liked you. Did you see the way her eyes twitched when she looked at you? Why did she whisper in your ear? Whispering in front of other people is rude.”

Peter squeezed Kara’s hand and said, “She was a rude lady, sweetheart. And she

didn’t like me. She doesn’t even know me.”

The outside world only knew the handsome, sophisticated Peter Andellieu as the

television doctor who stripped women’s insecurities and gave them a new life with a perfect body part. Some women craved smaller noses. Others, larger breasts. Still others, tummy tucks. But Dr. Perfection provided more than just a look good, feel great mentality. He engaged therapists, trainers, and nutritionists to help these women gain the self-esteem and joy of living that had nothing to do with body shape or critical mass. By the time they completed his ten-week program, they’d fallen in love with themselves and their lives. Unfortunately, most of them had fallen in love with Dr. Perfection, too.

They reached Peter’s car and loaded their luggage into the trunk. Kara climbed in back, belted herself in, and clutched her head. “My head kills.”

Audra turned around and stroked her daughter’s hair. “It’s been a long day. Let’s get something in your stomach and you’ll feel better. Are you sure you want an In and Out burger?”

“Uh-huh. And fries.”

Peter sighed and pulled out of the parking lot. “How am I supposed to teach my

audience about healthy eating when my two best girls are stuffing themselves with burgers and fries?”

“Does that mean you’ll be abstaining tonight?”

He threw her a long glance. “Oh no. I want it all.”

Audra squeezed his hand and settled back in her seat. It was good to be home,

back to a place she understood and where she belonged. It would be hard enough to get through her days without Christian, but at least she had Kara and Peter. Christian would have wanted it this way. He would not have wanted her to submit to the demands of the irascible Wheytons, like blackmailers forcing her to surrender her child.

Bad enough she had to bury her husband, but to walk into a town that refused to

forget and certainly would never forgive her for being a Valentine? She’d been right to avoid Holly Springs all these years. The place and its people harbored nothing but bad memories and ill will. She didn’t need it. Not Alice Wheyton and her sorrowful eyes begging her to let Kara stay. Not Joe Wheyton and his gruff persona trying to strong-arm her to reconsider for duty’s sake. Not those old biddies who hunched around Alice Wheyton’s table spreading gossip faster than a California brushfire. Not a half crazy woman vowing Audra’s mother was not the tramp people claimed she was. And worst of all, certainly not Jack Wheyton, who reminded her with every look, every gesture, every venomous word, that she did not belong, would never belong.