Stranger in the Moonlight (21 page)

Kim set her jaw. “There are extenuating circumstances that you know nothing about.”

“So tell me.”

“I can’t. I promised Travis—”

“Are you insinuating that
I
wouldn’t keep a confidence? Do you have any idea how many lies and secrets and intrigues I know about in this town? I want to know why Travis Maxwell is here in Edilean. If he’s planning to buy some business for his father, I think we should tell people.”

“It’s not like that,” Kim said. “Travis only works for his father so he can protect his mother.”

“That makes no sense. Is that the crap he’s been feeding you?”

Kim’s hands made into fists. “His mother is Lucy Cooper, the woman who’s been hiding from me for four years. She was afraid I’d recognize her from when I was a kid.”

Reede took a breath to calm himself. He could see that he was making his sister angry, and an angry Kim didn’t listen to anyone. “Maybe that’s so,” Reede said. “Maybe this guy Maxwell came here because of his mother. But what does that have to do with
you
?”

“Nothing, I guess,” Kim said. “Except that I’m helping him. We’re making plans about what to do. We’re—”

“You think you’re helping him to make plans?” There was contempt in Reede’s voice. “Kim, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but Travis Maxwell is a notorious playboy. And now he’s using you.”

“For what?”

“For what all men want!” he said in exasperation. “He’s already manipulated you into giving him the guesthouse you promised to
me
.”

Kim looked at her brother in surprise for a moment, then couldn’t help laughing. “You’re talking about sex, aren’t you? You think Travis conned me into lending him the little guesthouse that you don’t want just so he can have sex with me.”

Reede glared at her in silence.

“You know what, Reede, I have never been so flattered in my life. That a man would go to so much trouble to get me into bed is the best thing I’ve heard this century. Men today don’t make any effort to get a woman. If they ask you on a date, they tell you when and where to meet them. That’s so if you don’t pass their every test for beauty and for making less money than they do, they can walk out and leave you. They don’t even have to drive you home because you have your own car.”

“Not all men are like that,” Reede said. “And they’re not the point. This man you’re playing around with isn’t like Paul the Caterer. Maxwell is—”

“Dave!” Kim said. “His name is Dave and I’ve been going out with him for six whole months and I’ve withstood the most boring sex imaginable. Someone should tell David Borman that there is more than one position.”

“I’d prefer not to hear—”

“Not to hear that your baby sister isn’t a virgin?”

“I never thought—” Reede began, then threw up his hands. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me. You never do. Kim, you’re my sister and I don’t want to see you hurt. Whatever reason Maxwell is here for, when he’s done, he’ll leave you.” He looked away for a moment. “Kim, I know what it’s like to have your heart ripped out. I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

Kim saw the pain in his eyes. When Reede was in high school and through most of college, he’d been in love with a hometown girl. He never looked at anyone else. Then suddenly, she dumped him, said she was marrying someone else. It had taken Reede years to get over the pain. “I know,” she said softly. “I understand why you’re so upset, but Reede, I know what I’m doing. I know that Travis is a long way from being someone from Edilean. He’s not here to get married, move into some three/two house, and have kids.”

“But that’s what
you
want,” Reede said. “I know it is. When Jecca and Tris got married you cried through the whole ceremony.”

“Yes,” Kim said gently. “It
is
what I want. With all my soul. Do you think I bought this big house because of the damned garage? I . . .” She had to hold back tears as she said what she knew to be true; it was going to hurt to say it out loud. “Sometimes I think I bought it as bait, to lure some nice guy here, to make it easy for him to move in, to—”

Reede put his arms around her, held her head to his chest, and stroked her hair. “Don’t say such things. Any man would be honored to have you. You’re smart and funny and caring and—”

“So where is he?” Kim said as she hugged her brother. “Where is this man who is going to see my good qualities and overlook my bad ones? I’ve spent six whole months with Dave the Caterer and I’ve never complained about how boring he is.” She pulled away from him and wiped her eyes. “At least Travis made an effort.”

“Yeah, but for what?” Reede asked as he handed Kim a tissue.

She blew her nose loudly. “I hope it’s because he wants wild, all-night sex with me.”

“Kim!” Reede said, sounding like a Victorian father.

“Look, I know Travis is going to leave. Once he fully believes that Joe Layton is a great guy who is mad about Lucy, Travis will leave as abruptly as he arrived. It’ll be like when we were kids and one day he just wasn’t there. No note, nothing. And he came back just as abruptly, with no warning. I know that he appears and disappears according to his own whims, without regard to other people.”

“I agree,” Reede said. “He’ll go back to his dad’s empire and . . . Someday, Kim, Travis Maxwell will be just like his father. You don’t want to be part of that, do you?”

“No,” Kim said, then looked at her brother over the tissue. “But right now while he’s here, I’ll take all the passionate sex I can get. Days of it. Weeks if I can get it. Months would be divine.”

“That’s—” Reede said sternly, then shook his head. “It’s difficult for me to think of my little sister doing—” He couldn’t seem to find words to express his feelings. Instead, he looked at his watch. “I have to go. I’m already late. I want you to promise me that you’ll do an Internet search on Travis Maxwell and see what you’re up against. He’s been dating some model named Leslie who is a truly beautiful woman.”

“Not like me, huh?”

Reede groaned as he knew he’d said that wrong. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. I just don’t want you to be hurt. Is that bad of me?”

“Of course not. You better go now. Your patients need you.”

“I’ll talk to you later,” he said, then kissed her on the cheek.

“I’ll walk you out,” she said and followed him outside.

Even after the door closed, Travis stood where he was, unable to move, just stood there, staring at the doorway into the living room. He hadn’t liked what he’d heard about himself.

“We’d better leave,” Russell said softly. “It wouldn’t be good for her to know that you heard that.”

Travis’s mind seemed to race forward and to stand still at the same time. He couldn’t figure out what to do. Go to her? Run away? Stay and defend himself? Reassure her that he wasn’t what she’d been told?

Russell put his hand on Travis’s arm and turned him toward the back door.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Travis said. “I want love and
she
wants sex.”

Russell gave a bit of a laugh then pushed Travis to take a step toward the door. But they were too late.

“Stop right there,” Kim said from behind them.

Eleven

Russell dropped his
hand from Travis’s arm and stepped away.

“When were you going to tell me?” Kim asked, her eyes on Travis. If she thought about what she’d just said to her brother and that Travis had heard every word of it, she knew she’d die of embarrassment.

Travis took his time turning around, and when he did, he wished he’d made it outside without seeing her. He’d never seen any woman with such anger in her eyes. That’s the second person who has hated me, he thought. Russell this morning and now Kim looking at him like he was the devil’s spawn. “I came in here to tell you about me.”

“How convenient,” Kim said. “But why didn’t you tell me before? You told me about your mother hiding from your father, about her wanting to marry Joe Layton, but you didn’t happen to mention that you’re a lawyer and your name is Maxwell. Did you think I’d turn greedy and go after your family’s wealth?”

“Of course not,” Travis said. He didn’t know where to begin. “I just thought . . . I mean . . .”

“Excuse me, but I’m a bit peckish,” Russell said. “Do you mind if I . . . ?” He gestured toward the refrigerator.

“Help yourself,” Kim said, still looking at Travis.

“Kim, honey,” Travis said. When Kim’s eyes looked like they were about to emit fire, he backtracked. “I didn’t mean—”

“He was afraid you’d hate him because of the Maxwell reputation,” Russell said from behind the refrigerator door.

“Yes,” Travis said. “The Maxwell name brings out the bad in a lot of people.”

“Does in me,” Russell said. “Is there any mustard? Ah, here it is.”

Kim turned to look at him. “You’re the man in the shop. The one who was after Carla.”

“Russell Pendergast,” he said, smiling. “I’d shake your hand but . . .” He had his arms full of deli meat and bread. “Anyone else want a sandwich?”

“No!” Travis and Kim said in unison.

“He’s my secretary’s son,” Travis said. “I only met him this morning. I didn’t even know he existed until a couple of days ago when Penny said her son would help me. From the way she said it, she could have been talking about a six-year-old. But then she is his mother. You and I talked about how parents do that. Remember, Kim?”

She was still glaring at him. “What did your secretary’s son help you with that involved
my
shop and
my
employee?”

Travis drew in his breath. It looked like his attempt to distract her hadn’t worked.

Russell didn’t help matters by chuckling.

“You want to leave us alone?” Travis said to him, frowning.

“Actually, no,” Russell said. “No Broadway show has ever been this good, but I’ll leave if Miss Aldredge wants me to.”

“I never want to be alone with this man ever again. And please call me Kim.”

“Gladly,” he said as he gave her a look of appreciation.

“Russell!” Travis snapped. “So help me if you—”

“If he what?!” Kim said loudly. “Travis, I am waiting for an answer.”

Never in his life had Travis ever found himself in a situation that he couldn’t talk his way out of. But too much rested on this now for him to think coherently. “I . . .” He hesitated, not sure what to say, then he reached into his trousers pocket and withdrew the big sapphire ring that Borman had stolen.

“I got this back for you,” he said, his voice hopeful.

Kim didn’t take it, so he set it on the kitchen countertop. “I see. The missing ring.” She took a moment to think. “If you have the ring, that means that whatever you two have been up to involves my boyfriend, Dave. You must have met him.”

Travis’s face grew serious. “Yes we did and, Kim, you don’t know him. He’s not what you think he is. The truth is that he’s after—”

“He wants to take my jewelry business national and name it The Family Jewels. I treated it as the joke it was. Not the national part, but the name.”

Both men were so shocked at her words that Russell stopped eating and Travis stared at her.

Kim turned away. There was so much anger in her that she could hardly breathe. Her friend Gemma was a boxer. Right now, if Kim had the know-how, she’d hit Travis so hard his head would roll across the floor.

She looked back at him. “Why did you assume that I didn’t know what Dave was after? Did he seem subtle to you? Secretive?”

“No,” Travis said. “But if you knew the truth, why would you consider marrying him?”

Kim was almost sure that if Dave had asked her she would have said no. Before Travis had shown up she might have said yes, but she blamed that on her friend Jecca’s recent wedding. Of course, when she came to her senses, she wouldn’t have gone through with it. But she was damned well not going to tell Travis that! “Is there a man on earth who
doesn’t
have his own agenda for marriage? At least Dave was
honest
with me. He let me know that he was very interested in my business, and he had some good ideas.”

“But . . .” Travis said.

“But what? I should wait for a man like
you
? Compared to the amount of lying and manipulation
you
have done, Dave is up for sainthood.”

She wanted to get this back on track. This was about him, Travis, and what he had done, not David Borman. That was none of Travis’s business. “I want to see if I get your story straight. You’re a Maxwell, son of one of the richest men in the world.” When Travis just stood there, she looked at Russell and he nodded in verification.

“You came to Edilean when you were twelve, spent two weeks with me, then left without so much as a note.”

“Kim,” Travis said, “come on, I was twelve. I did what my mother told me to.”

“You could write,” Russell said, his mouth full.

Travis glared at him.

“Do you know that for eighteen years I searched for you? I used to sneak into my brother’s room to use his unblocked Internet service to try to find you.”

“But you couldn’t find him because you didn’t know his correct last name,” Russell said. “Mind if I get a beer?”