Whirlwind (5 page)

“Of course not!”

He laughed expansively at that, not caring if his friends turned to look up from their own conversations. “You haven't learned to lie yet, have you, my girl? What's going on? Boyfriend problems?”

Liza sighed. “Nothing that easy.”

“Need money?”

“Granddad,” she said slowly, “would you mind if we didn't talk about me just yet? I'm...well, coming back to town will take some adjusting.”

“So,” he said, “you're going to stay this time?”

“No,” Liza replied quickly. “Well, I'm not sure. I'm at loose ends, I guess.”

He nodded, understanding. “Tyler is a good place to come when you're at loose ends. I don't suppose the town has changed much since you left. What can I do to help this time?”

“Nothing. Just be yourself, I guess. Boy, it's great to see you!”

The waitress returned with steaming coffee cups at that moment. Marge's Diner was famous for its coffee, and the waitress said, “Here you go, folks! This'll unclog your arteries, Mr. Ingalls.”

“Thanks, Betty.”

It was half a minute before she left, then Judson turned back to Liza and asked casually, “Have you seen your mother yet?”

“No, and I don't care to talk about that yet, either. Give me a chance to catch my breath, okay?”

He grinned and reached for his cup of coffee. “So far you've shot down every topic of conversation I can suggest. What's left?”

“Well,” said Liza, leaning forward and bracing her elbows on the table, “you could tell me about Cliff Forrester. Were you serious about him?”

Judson put his cup down, splashing coffee on the tabletop and frowning sternly. “He's bad news, Mary Elizabeth. I wish you hadn't met him.”

“What's so bad about him?”

“He's screwed up. Some business overseas. He must have been in the war, I guess, and when he returned—well, he came back abnormal.”

“But you hired him to take care of the lodge, right?”

“He was one of your mother's ideas,” Judson grumbled. “She's always looking for some poor soul to save. Well, she met Forrester when she was working for some charity—saving the boat people or whatever. You know how she is—always trying to help. She said he looked like a walking ghost, so she invited him to Tyler and he came.”

“Why? Doesn't he have any family?”

“Don't ask me questions like that,” Judson snapped. “How am I supposed to know? Once he was here, he stayed at the Kelsey boardinghouse for a while, but he gave
people the creeps. The boy never slept, I hear, and he hardly said a word to anybody, just walked the streets at all hours. Is that normal? Anyway, Alyssa jabbered at me until I gave him a job, so he moved out to the lodge. He's been there ever since—five or six years, maybe more.”

“Why did you hire him if he's unstable?”

“He can't hurt anybody up at Timberlake. He can be as crazy as he likes up there and nobody will mind.”

Liza drank some hot coffee and said softly, “The lodge looks terrible, Granddad. If he's supposed to be taking care of the place, he's doing a miserable job.”

“He's not supposed to be looking after the lodge,” Judson said gruffly. “Just the land and the lake. He's the gamekeeper and takes care of the guys from the Fish Commission for...things like that. We're trying to restock the bass population after a virus killed off most of 'em, so he's supposed to be keeping an eye on the fish. I didn't give Forrester permission to do a thing to the building.”

“Why not? Granddad, it's a mess! The whole place will come crashing down if you neglect it much longer.”

“I don't care,” Judson said with finality, reaching for his coffee once more.

“Don't—!” Amazed, Liza cried, “Granddad! How can you say such a thing! Your own father built Timberlake, and you—why, you and my grandmother added all those wonderful—”

“I don't give a damn about that lodge,” Judson said sharply. “The place holds a lot of bad memories for me. If it burned to the ground tomorrow, I wouldn't care.”

Liza was shocked into a brief silence. Then she said, “Good grief, why don't you sell it, then?”

“I've had offers,” he admitted, toying with the knife at his place. “One from a fellow your mother used to know way back when. He's in the hotel business now, I understand.”

“Well, rather than letting the building go to pot—”

“How bad is it?”

“You mean you haven't seen it?”

“I don't want to see the place. Not without your grandmother,” Judson declared, glaring at Liza as if daring her to argue further.

“Granddad, she's been gone forty years or more! You haven't ever been up to the lodge since then?”

“I have no reason to go,” Judson growled. “And you can just forget—”

“Sell it,” Liza commanded, cutting off his threat. “It was a beautiful place once and somebody should enjoy it.”

“Let Cliff Forrester enjoy it. He deserves something.”

“I thought you didn't like him.”

“I didn't say that! I just don't want him hanging around my granddaughter, that's all. He's done his duty for his country, and I know what that's like, so he can have the lodge to himself if he wants his life that way. I don't associate with him more than once or twice a year, and that's all you ought to do. He deserves a place to live out the rest of his days in peace.”

Liza couldn't help laughing. “You talk like he's an old plow horse who needs a pasture. He's a young man!”

Judson gave her a frosty glare. “What are you thinking, Mary Elizabeth? You haven't fallen in love with that boy, have you?”

“Don't be silly! I just met him an hour ago! It's just—well, he's not crazy. He seemed perfectly nice to me. A little peculiar, maybe. And he's not a boy! He's a grown man, and a very attractive one, if you ask me.”

“He's ten years older than you, at least!”

“So what?” Liza countered angrily. “When are you going to stop interfering in my life? I have a right to make friends with whoever—”

“Simmer down,” Judson said, finally allowing a weary grin. “I thought a few years in the city might tone down that temper of yours, but I can see it didn't. Your grand
mother could fly off the handle faster than anyone I knew—until you came along!”

“I'm sorry,” Liza said, wishing she hadn't flown off the handle quite so fast.

“No, you're not sorry. You like putting me in my place once in a while, don't you?” He laughed ruefully. “Are you going to stay in Tyler or not?”

“For a day or two maybe,” she said cautiously.

“All right, what do you want from me?”

Liza smiled. “How about loaning me twenty dollars so I can go buy some jeans at the dime store?”

“Done”, said Judson, reaching for his hip pocket. “That's a damn peculiar outfit you're wearing, I must say. Some jeans would be an improvement.”

“Shut up, Granddad.”

“Don't tell me to shut up when I've got twenty dollars in my hand. Here, take fifty.” Judson threw the bills on the table between them. “There's more where that came from. I've got charge accounts in every store in town, so you buy what you need.”

“But—”

“No buts about it! It's the least I can do for my favorite granddaughter. Now, what are you going to do once you buy your jeans?”

“I'm going back up to Timberlake.”

His face flushed at once. “Who gave you permission to go back to the lodge?”

Liza grinned. “You will.”

“Like hell! Tangling with Cliff Forrester is too dangerous—”

“Tangling with
me
has been known to be hazardous, too, you know!”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Judson exploded. “What would you do with yourself up there, anyway? Make that boy's life more miserable than it is already?”

She shrugged airily. “I don't know what I'll do. I'll see what happens, I guess.”

“Mary Elizabeth...”

“I can take care of myself, Granddad.”

He glared at her. “You have a plan, don't you?”

“I've got some ideas,” Liza admitted, laughing at the pained expression that grew on her grandfather's face.

“You're just like your grandmother,” he said with a sigh. “Headstrong and reckless. There's no talking sense to you. And no use warning you about Forrester, right?”

“No use at all.”

Marge arrived then with a plate loaded with blueberry pancakes, and made a fuss over Liza. In a few minutes she brought a side order of sausage and hash brown potatoes, too. Marge had been a part of Tyler since Liza's childhood. Her diner was the local meeting place and Marge made it her business to be friendly with everyone. She welcomed Liza back to town and traded jokes with Judson before heading over to another table to refill some coffee cups.

Liza ate her pancakes voraciously, listening to her grandfather tell her all the local gossip. The biggest news was that the school had hired a new football coach, which had set the town on its ear since the coach was a woman. Someone at the next table heard Judson mention the issue, and a friendly argument broke out.

“Hiring a woman football coach is like electing a monkey to the Senate,” one man bellowed. “Sure, he can do the same job as all the other senators, but he sure looks silly doing it!”

Liza listened to the townsfolk argue, feeling suddenly quite invigorated as she was swept up in Tyler's latest controversy. It felt a lot better than being swept downstream by her own troubles. Life wasn't so terrible after all.

An hour later at the dime store, she bought some jeans, a couple of T-shirts, a few pairs of panties and some cheap sneakers. The clerk was one of her high school classmates,
and they chatted for twenty minutes before Liza left the store.

She added cigarettes from the market and then walked across the street to cajole Carl into driving her up to the lodge to look at her disabled Thunderbird. The mechanic agreed, and while riding in the tow truck, Liza planned what she was going to say to Cliff Forrester when she moved into the lodge.

C
LIFF HAD BEEN
under siege before. In Cambodia, he'd experienced some of the most frightening barrages of gunfire known to man. He'd been scared then.

When Liza Baron descended on Timberlake, she did it with just as much noise as incoming artillery. But Cliff wasn't scared this time. He was furious.

“Just what the hell do you think you're doing?” he demanded, confronting her in the kitchen while the mechanic from town tinkered with her convertible outside.

She dumped a huge plastic bag full of clothing on the stainless steel kitchen counter, bestowing on Cliff a wide, self-satisfied smile. “What does it look like I'm doing?”

“Like you're moving in.”

“Give the man a cigar!” Liza crowed, prancing happily around the counter and ripping open the plastic bag. “That's exactly what I'm up to!”

Cliff throttled back the surge of anger that rose from inside him. “You're
not
moving into the lodge.”

“Oh, yes, I am. In fact, Granddad gave me permission to do whatever I please while I'm here.” She rummaged around in the plastic bag and came up with a new package of cigarettes.

Cliff struggled to keep his temper and growled, “That wasn't the arrangement he made with me. I'm supposed to be the sole tenant.”

Nonchalantly, Liza leaned against the counter and proceeded to unwrap the cellophane from her cigarettes. Look
ing very pleased with herself, she said, “I guess he changed his mind. I have been known to have that effect on people, you know. Have you got a match?”

Seething, Cliff said, “I'm not sharing this place with you, Miss Baron.”

“Heavens, Forrester, my great-grandfather used to hold hunting parties up here and invite a hundred guests. It's a big lodge.” She blinked prettily, then gave him a taunting smile. “I'm sure we'll manage to stay out of each other's beds if we try, don't you?”

“Dammit, you can't barge in here like this!”

“I already have,” she replied, cool and amused as she flipped a cigarette out of the pack and expertly waved it between two fingers. “Are you scared of me, Forrester?”

There were limits to human suffering, Cliff thought savagely. Without warning, he snatched the cigarette from Liza's grasp and managed to grab the pack out of her other hand before she could react.

“Hey!” she cried, affronted.

“I may be forced to tolerate you,” he snapped, “but I won't have you stinking up the place with cigarette smoke!” He squashed the pack in one hand and threw the crumpled remains on the counter between them.

Liza glared at him as she stood squarely in the middle of the lodge kitchen, still wearing his sweater over that ridiculously short skirt. Her high-heeled shoes were gone, however, and in their place was a pair of brand-new sneakers. She looked young and fit and breathtakingly lovely.

And very angry, too. Her eyes were throwing blue sparks as she glared at Cliff.

“I don't take orders from anyone,” she said. “I'll smoke if I want to smoke.”

“It's a stupid habit. You probably do it only because you think it makes you look sophisticated.”

“That's not it at all. I—”

“You're a silly, shallow, spoiled girl, Miss Baron, and
you're probably used to inflicting yourself on people all the time. Well, I won't put up with it. If you want to smoke, go back to Chicago.”

Her expression turned shrewd. “That's what you want, isn't it? You want to get rid of me.”

“Damn right!”

“Well, you can't chase me out of here that easily, Forrester. You want me to give up smoking? Fine, I will. But I'm not leaving Timberlake, so forget it!”