Reluctant Date (15 page)

“There are a few things I need to do before the stores
close, and I’d like to take a quick shower too, so I’ll meet you at Beth’s.”

Scott was so deep into his own work he barely grunted an
acknowledgement as she left the office.

* * *

Determined not to think about Daniel at all, Claire walked
briskly down Main Street until she reached the bookstore. Despite Beth’s
warning she had already braved the interior and found that although Tom Cook,
the proprietor, lived up to his talkative reputation, he was a nice man. And
once she had got past the obligatory conversation and told him what she wanted,
he had proved to be both interested and resourceful.

As the large and jangly bell over the door announced her
arrival he popped up from behind a pile of books. A small man with a shiny,
domed forehead and a neat spade beard, he looked like an oversized garden
gnome. He beamed at her, and then disappeared behind the counter again, only to
reappear a moment later flourishing a hardback book with a glossy cover.

“I believe this is what you wanted.”

Taking it from him, Claire glanced at the cover and
smiled.
 
“I hope the illustration is far
more racy than the contents actually are!”

With a laugh he retrieved it and slipped it into a paper
bag.
 
“I took the liberty of flicking
through it when it first arrived and I can assure you there is nothing exciting
in it at all.
 
In fact I’ll be surprised
if you actually manage to read it aloud to Mr Marchant without falling asleep.”

“I’m not even sure he’ll let me read it at all yet,” she
told him as she paid for the book. “But I’m going to try. It’s my first move
towards persuading him to start using the Talking Books Service.”

“I can’t imagine why you are going to so much trouble but
I’m very pleased you are.
 
Once upon a
time Gordon Marchant was one of my best customers; in fact he was close to
being a friend, and I enjoyed many a literary debate with him. Then there was
all that trouble with Carl, which happened at around the same time his eyes
began to let him down. The combination was too much for him. He became so bad
tempered that by the time he eventually stopped working he had alienated most
of his friends and all his employees.”

Uncomfortable talking about her employer’s family, even
though Tom Cook obviously knew them well, Claire thanked him for getting the
book she had ordered, made her excuses and left. As she hurried back to her
apartment for a quick shower she wondered about Carl, however.
 
First Scott and now Tom Cook had made
allusions to family problems. What had he done that had caused so much
trouble?
 
Was it stealing Beth from
Daniel, or was it something else, something that had happened when he was away
from Dolphin Key?

Chapter Thirteen

She arrived at the print shop at the same time as
Scott.
 
He opened the side door with a
familiarity that suggested he was a regular visitor and, calling out to Beth
and Carl, led her up a flight of stairs and into an open plan room with hardly
any furniture.
 
Instead of chairs there
were huge squashy cushions. Smaller cushions were piled onto the one couch as
well.
 
Jugs of dried flowers and sea
grass, and collections of shells and large pebbles decorated the windowsills
and shelves, while watercolors of all shapes and sizes covered the walls.

“So Claire,” the man who crossed the room to shake her hand
gave her a wry smile. He was as tall as Daniel but very thin, with the dark
hair and the sharp features of his father.
 
Where Daniel’s nose was short and straight, Carl’s was aquiline. And
although their eyes were the same warm brown, his were deep set under frowning
black brows, while Daniel’s were wide apart with long, gold tipped lashes.
 
The smile was the same though, and so was the
cleft in his chin. She took his proffered hand, at the same time handing him
the bottle of wine she had brought with her.

“Hello Carl!”

It was the closest they would ever get to acknowledging the
date he had tried to set up between her and Daniel.

* * *

The evening was one of the best Claire could remember
enjoying in a very long time.
 
Not only
did the food live up to Scott’s promise but Carl and Beth were such thoughtful
and entertaining hosts that, by the time the meal was over, Claire felt more at
ease than she would have believed possible.
 

Conversation had meandered across so many topics her head
was spinning.
 
She learned that Scott had
graduated in marine biology and then studied coastal ecosystems, that Beth had
come to Dolphin Key to paint and was the source of all the beautiful
watercolors adorning the walls of the small apartment, and that Carl, amongst
other things, was a talented musician.
 
She also noticed that although he poured the wine she had brought into
glasses for her and Scott, he filled his own glass with water. Beth drank water
too, but as she was pregnant her abstinence was understandable.

Later, replete, and totally seduced by the lifestyle of her
new friends, Claire leaned back amongst the cushions and listened dreamily as
Carl strummed his guitar. Maybe she, too, could learn to live like this instead
of using books as her window on the world.
 
Maybe she could live the dreams her parents had tried to instill in her
after all.

She was laughing at something Scott had said, and had half
turned towards him on the cushions when Daniel climbed the stairs, calling out
as he did so.

He stopped short on the top step and drank in the scene
before him.
 
Lit by a dozen flickering
candles, the room was a mix of deep colour and deeper shadow. And the sound of
the sea through the open windows was an added enchantment, a backdrop to the
soft notes of his brother’s guitar.
 
He
felt himself relax for the first time in days until his eyes adjusted to the
light and he saw who Carl and Beth’s visitors were.
 
At the sight of Claire, relaxed and smiling,
her head resting against a scarlet cushion next to Scott, her eyes pools of
darkness in the dim light, he tensed right up again.
  
He was too late.
 
It was obvious that Scott had beaten him to
it.

“This looks like a pretty good gig!” He was surprised at how
normal his voice sounded when he spoke.

“Hey Dan! When did you get back?” Carl abandoned his guitar
and got to his feet. Although he only touched Daniel’s shoulder, Claire saw the
affection in his gesture and wondered even more about the mysteries surrounding
the Marchant family. Then her eyes met Daniel’s and she stopped wondering about
his family and started worrying about him instead.

He looked dreadful. He was tired and drawn, and there was a
tracery of fine lines about his eyes that she was sure hadn’t been there when
she last saw him. Beth appeared to notice the same thing because she quickly
went into the kitchen and reappeared with a can of beer and a beef sandwich.

“Sorry, you’re too late for the good stuff,” she told him as
she handed him the plate.

He smiled his thanks as he sank down onto the couch.
 
Carl sat next to him and asked about his
trip. Soon the two of them were deep in conversation about the Marchant
property development business. Beth gave them a look of disgust as she took up
the threads of the conversation that Daniel’s arrival had interrupted.

“Ignore them Claire. They have no manners. Tell us more
about your work as a librarian. I want to know more about the stuff you did
with children.”

Doing her best not to eavesdrop on the two men sitting
across from her, Claire tried to oblige.
 
She told Beth and Scott about the schools’ programme she had introduced,
and about the very popular weekly story time for toddlers. She described some
of the special events and the competitions she had organised, and then answered
the questions they threw at her.
 
At any
other time she would have been enthusiastic because she was excited about this
part of her job, knowing how important it was for the company to reach out to
children and teenagers and teach them all about conservation. Up until now she
had been glad she had all the experience needed to get an educational programme
up and running.
 
Up until now it had been
one of her main enthusiasms, the thing that had her bouncing out of bed before
sun up, the thing that stayed in her mind throughout the day even when she was
busy doing something else.

She couldn’t maintain her enthusiasm now, however. Daniel’s
proximity, his weary face, the fact he had only looked at her once when he
first arrived and had more or less ignored her after that, was all proving too
much for her.
 
Needing an escape she
glanced at her watch and was relieved to see it was late enough for her to
leave without appearing rude.
 
She sat
forward on her cushion.

“Beth, it’s been a lovely evening but now I’m totally bushed
and bed is calling.”

“Me too,” Scott got to his feet and reached out his hand to
pull her up.

Daniel, who despite all outward appearances, had been
acutely aware of Claire the whole time he had been talking to Carl, rose to his
feet at the same time.

“Please don’t go on my account. I’m sorry I intruded on your
peaceful evening but I had to discuss a few things with Carl before tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry.
 
We need
to call it a day anyway because we’ve got an early start tomorrow.
 
I’m going to introduce Claire to the
Suwannee.” Scott spoke for both of them as he handed Claire her sweater.

Daniel, who had had every intention of showing Claire the
wide sweep of the Suwannee River himself, preferably from a small boat and with
a picnic for two, quashed the protest that leapt to his throat.
 
Instead he smiled, and in the soft
candlelight it looked like a genuine smile.

“Lucky you.
 
Enjoy
yourselves.”

“Oh we will, be sure of that!” Scott grinned at him, hugged
Beth, slapped Carl on the shoulder and then stood back for Claire to precede
him down the stairs.

She managed to thank Beth and Carl for a lovely evening,
promise to invite them to a meal at her own apartment as soon as Scott gave her
the time to properly settle in, agree that she was looking forward to seeing
the Suwannee River, and wish them goodnight, without once giving away her real
feelings.
 
Her eyes, when they met
Daniel’s, conveyed nothing more than a polite friendliness.
 
Then she was gone, down the stairs and
outside.

Only Scott, following slowly behind her, frowned.
 
He had been sitting close enough to her to
see the sudden tension in her face when Daniel first arrived. And because it
was so uncharacteristic, he had been surprised, too, by her faltering
enthusiasm when she talked about the youth programme they wanted to introduce.
Then he had noticed how often she flicked the tiniest glance across to where
Daniel sat talking to Carl and he suddenly wondered if there was more going on
than he realized. After all she had moved continents to come to Dolphin Key,
and Daniel had pulled out all the stops to make it possible. Now he came to
think about it, Daniel’s behaviour had been a bit over the top for a new
employee.
 
He had organised her work
permit and visa, arranged for her to stay in one of his best apartments, and
then had driven to the airport to meet her himself despite his huge workload.
And although she was good it was not even as if her skills were so exceptional
that he couldn’t have found someone similar in Florida. Maybe if he asked her
about her interview with Daniel everything would become clear.
 
It was not until they reached the sidewalk and
he saw the frozen expression on her face that he decided not to. After all it
was nothing to do with him. He didn’t pay the wages.
 
Besides, he had enough emotional problems of
his own to deal with; problems that he usually buried in work.
 
And judging by Claire’s performance so far,
that was exactly what she was doing as well.

* * *

Daniel, meanwhile, was having trouble concentrating on what
his brother was saying. It didn’t have anything to do with the subject matter
either. Instead it had everything to do with Beth’s throwaway remark as she
walked through to the small kitchen to make more coffee.

“Well that looks like a marriage made in heaven,” she
said.
 
“Same interests, same stunning
looks, same enthusiasms.
 
Looks like
Claire’s going to be a real asset to the organization in more ways than one.”

* * *

Later, on his solitary journey home, while Claire was lying
sleepless in bed, Daniel reflected bitterly on his sister-in-law’s words. Was
Scott really making a play for Claire, and if he was, was he serious, or was he
just indulging in one of his occasional flirtations? The thought made him want
to punch something, hard. It was bad enough that the Marchant family’s
increasingly complicated property portfolio meant that he had to leave Scott
running his conservation business more or less singlehanded. If, while he was
away, Scott also took over Claire on no more than a whim, then life was going
to become even more unbearable.