When You Dance With The Devil (Dafina Contemporary Romance) (20 page)

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Authors: Gwynne Forster

BOOK: When You Dance With The Devil (Dafina Contemporary Romance)
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“I got a lot to thank you for, Richard.” He fingered the few stubs of beard that had begun to emerge on his chin. “Say, I haven’t seen Francine anywhere around here for the last half hour.”
“Maybe she went to her room.”
“It ain’t like her to hide. The gal loves being around people,” Judd said. “Excuse me.” He went to the house telephone, which was, in effect, an intercom, and dialed the number for Francine’s room. No answer. “Where could she be at nine o’clock Saturday night?” he asked Richard minutes later.
“Maybe she has a date,” Richard said, although he didn’t believe it. It crossed his thoughts that Francine may have received a tip as to the whereabouts of Ronald Barnes, and he worked hard at slowing down his suddenly accelerated breathing.
“I wouldn’t worry too much, Richard. Francine strikes me as a woman more than able to look after herself.”
So he hadn’t managed to hide his anxiety from the shrewd old man. “She’ll miss the finale,” Richard said, pretending not to have caught the implications of Judd’s words. He looked around at his fellow boarders, who talked among themselves, and realized that Jolene and Francine were the only ones other than Judd who had spoken to him to thank him for the party.
A few minutes later, Fannie dimmed the lights, Marilyn and Rodger entered the room with a big chocolate cake lit with eighty-five candles, and Rodger lent his baritone voice to the words and tune of “Happy Birthday to You.” As Judd cut the cake, Richard was certain that he saw Francine’s red dress flash up the stairs, and he knew he’d been right when she returned to the party without the gray fishnet stockings she’d worn earlier and which he had admired on her long shapely legs.
“Just in time for cake,” he said when she walked up to him wearing an expression of innocence. But he wasn’t fooled, for the heaving of her chest meant either excitement or that she had been running. He suspected both.
“Thanks. I love chocolate.”
He maneuvered her into a corner. “Any luck?”
She shook her head. “He’s slick as a fish right out of water, but I’ll get him.”
“What happened to those great stockings you were wearing earlier? I liked them.”
Her left eyebrow shot up. “You don’t think I’d risk snagging my fifteen-dollar stockings, do you? It only took me a second to get them off.”
He laughed, as much from relief and from the humor of a police officer removing her stockings before going after a criminal. “You’re a perfect example of a feminine woman doing a man’s job and up to the task.”
“You definitely know how to make a woman feel good.”
“I can do a hell of a lot better than that.” Seeing that they were alone, he leaned down and kissed the side of her mouth. “But I warn you that if you give me a chance to show you, you won’t soon forget it. I’m a thorough man, and nothing pleases me more than to satisfy a woman.” Her lower lip dropped, her eyes blinked rapidly, and she backed away. He hadn’t meant to discombobulate her; he’d looked down at the alluring, feminine bundle so close to him and said exactly what was on his mind. He was in no mood to apologize.
She stared up at him, her face flushed. “How did you get from stockings to sex? I remember your telling me that you aren’t ready for a relationship, so why are you—”
He interrupted her. “You might say my self-control slipped a fraction. Let’s go over there and get some ice cream and cake.”
They walked to the dining room table where Marilyn held court, savoring the plaudits of the boarders who surrounded her, giving her the admiration she craved.
“You outdid yourself tonight, Marilyn,” Richard said. “My hat’s off to you.”
Her half smile and lowered head surprised him. He wouldn’t have thought her capable of diffidence. “I mean it,” he added. “The Waldorf Astoria couldn’t have produced better fare than you created. You’re a master chef.”
“You don’t know what that means to me coming from you, Richard. I did my level best, and I’m so glad you’re pleased.”
He resisted patting her on the shoulder, accepted the homemade ice cream, the best he’d ever had, and a slice of chocolate cake, and looked at Francine. “You can eat all that without worrying about gaining weight?”
“No, but opportunity doesn’t knock often, and this stuff is to die for. I’ll run an extra time around the block. You don’t seem worried about inflating your flat middle.”
“If anybody had told me a year ago that I’d have this conversation with a woman, I wouldn’t have believed it. I never got on a really personal level with women.” He paused as the knowledge struck him. “Not even with—”
“And yet, you loved her. I don’t understand that, and I think you’re in for a stunning surprise, Richard.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you finally fall in love, you will know that you have never truly loved before. Loves comes with intimacy. True intimacy.”
“If it’s more devastating than what I’ve already experienced, I want no part of it.”
Her wink took him back a bit. “Then resist kissing the side of my mouth. I might take a shine to you and, trust me, friend, I go after what I want.”
He straightened up from his slouch against the wall and stared down at her. “You and I have the same attitude toward challenges, so let’s pretend this conversation never took place. I don’t gamble and I don’t accept dares. Before I issue a challenge, I know how I am going to deal with the response. I value your friendship, Francine. Let’s stop this one-upmanship.”
“You’re right, Richard. It’s a substitute for a deeper intimacy, and whether we know it or not, we’re fanning the fire.”
He couldn’t help grinning. “Oh, I know that, but the idea of treating you like a baby sister boggles my mind.” When he looked around, he saw Gregory and Jolene seemingly in deep conversation in the hallway beside the stairs. “How do those two strike you?” He nodded in the other couple’s direction.
“I think they’re picking up where they left off last winter. He must be the one she told me about. Claimed she ruined what could have been a good relationship.”
 
 
Francine couldn’t have been closer to the truth. “Could we spend some time together tomorrow afternoon?” Gregory was asking Jolene about that time. “I’ve never been satisfied with the way we split up. You should have been more considerate, and I should have refused to do anything I didn’t want to do. Why did you stand me up?”
“You were the first man I ever went anywhere with, and I didn’t have the slightest notion how to treat a man. I was loaded down with my mother’s prejudices.”
“I understand that. Can we be together tomorrow afternoon after church?”
She had promised herself that she would visit Harper, and she didn’t intend to change her plan; he was in the hospital because of her self-centeredness. “Maybe. I have to visit a friend at the hospital first.”
“A man or a woman?”
“A man, but I won’t stay more than ten or fifteen minutes, if that long. He may not want to see me.” When Gregory raised an eyebrow, she added, “You’re not the only person I’ve mistreated.”
“May I drive you to the hospital and wait while you visit your friend?”
“Uh . . . all right. I’d like that.”
Jolene walked into Harper’s hospital room at three-fifteen Sunday afternoon carrying a basket of grapes, strawberries, apples, dates, and tangerines, fruits she knew the hospital wouldn’t serve. He sat beside the window in a wheelchair, looking out at the gardens now bare of flowers and foliage.
“Hello, Harper.” He swung the wheelchair around with such energy that she knew he recognized her voice.
“To what do I owe this . . . this visit?”
She put the basket of fruit on the table beside his bed and walked over to him. “Regardless of what you think of me, I’m not all bad, Harper.” When he winced, she added quickly, “Please give me ten minutes. That’s all I’m asking. And listen carefully to every word I say. It won’t undo a thing, but you will understand.” He motioned toward the only chair in the room. She closed his door and sat down. Ten minutes later, he knew the story of her life up to that minute with nothing significant omitted. He gazed out of the window, motionless as if hypnotized.
“Why couldn’t you have told me what your life was like instead of pretending to be sophisticated? Woman, I fell in love with you, and you hurt me. You will never know how I hurt. I made love with you to get even, but you were so loving and so giving. Not even a prostitute gives the way you did. After that, I never wanted to see you again. I was afraid I might make a complete fool of myself over you. I don’t remember taking Beaver Road on the drive home. I’m told they had to cut through the wreckage of my car in order to get me out of it.”
“I won’t say that I’m sorry, because you know I am. What does the doctor say?”
“That I’ll be as good as ever, but the therapy is pure hell. Still, I’m blessed to be alive.” He was silent for a moment, and she stood to leave. “Thank you for coming and for bringing the fruit. You think you and Gregory will get back together?”
“I really don’t know whether he can accept the truth when I finally tell him all that I just told you, including about you.”
“You don’t have to tell him all that, just the essence of it. Trust me, he won’t want to know.” She offered to shake hands, but he reached up for a hug. She made it brief, for she no longer teased or played with men.
“I’ll be back,” she said. “Thanks for being so kind.”
 
 
When she got back to Gregory’s car, he reached across the passenger’s seat and opened the door for her, locked her seatbelt and started moving away from the curb. “What would you like to do?”
“I’m leaving that up to you,” she said. “Maybe I’ll get an understanding of what you like. Before, we only did what I suggested.”
“How was the visit?”
“Better than I had hoped for. At least we can be friends.”
“You feel like explaining that?”
“I will, but I’m going to start at the beginning and tell you everything about myself. He, that is, the friend I visited today, said I shouldn’t do that, but I want a clean slate, and if you can’t handle it, I’ll understand. To begin with, my mother hated men, and she did everything she could to make me as wretched a woman as she was.”
“You told me some of that.”
“Right, but a lot has happened since then, and I’m not going to spare myself. Let’s go some place that’s not public.”
“The only place I can think of that’s not public is my apartment. You want to go
there
?”
“Definitely not. How about a place where we can just drink coffee?”
He stopped at a small roadside coffee house near Ocean Pines. “I hope this is all right.”
Her hands shook so badly that she put them in her lap, and when she began to talk, the chattering of her teeth made her words barely understandable.
“If this makes you so nervous, let’s forget it, Jolene.”
“No. I’ve thought of you every day for weeks, and I want a chance with you. But I want it honestly, because you know who I am and still want me.”
He ordered coffee for them, and while she spoke, beginning with her mother’s funeral—almost in whispers at first—she sipped her coffee cold without realizing she tasted it. By the time she finished the story of her life, tears streamed down her face, though she was unaware of that until Gregory’s handkerchief wiped them away.
“You don’t have to comment, Gregory. I’ll know how you feel about this by the way you act.”
“How do you feel about Harper Masterson?”
“Sympathy, I think. I know I’m grateful to him that because of what he suffered, I finally took a good look at myself, and I hated what I saw. I know I’m responsible for his accident, and that is very difficult to live with.”
“But you don’t love him.”
“That’s the awful part, Gregory; I never once thought I did.”
“If I had known you were so naïve, not the sophisticate you made yourself out to be, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Come on. I want to show you something.” He glanced down at her feet. “Thank goodness you’re wearing comfortable shoes. I don’t see how anyone could walk in those things you had on last night.”
She wanted to scream with laughter, to jump and shout. So far, he hadn’t said one censorial word about the awful things she’d told him. She knew he might later, but at least he planned to let them enjoy the afternoon. “Where is this place?” she asked him as he drove down to the water’s edge on the outskirts of Ocean Pines.
He parked, went around and opened her door. Pointing to a low, one-story building, he said, “That used to be a marina, but it hasn’t been used as one for a couple of years. I bought it three months ago, and I’ve started my business making sails for small ships. I also mend them, and so far, most of my business is in mending, but I recently got a nice order to make sails for a racing boat.”
“Congratulations, Gregory. I’m so happy for you. I remember your telling me you wanted to do this. So you left the telephone company?”

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