Stranger in the Moonlight (34 page)

“Isn’t he . . . ?”

“Right. A mega big shot in the world. But I think he may have—” Russell thought that the story of whether or not his father had sent him there to meet Clarissa was for another time. “My mother works for him. Or for my brother at the moment, but he’s about to move to Edilean, and my mother wants to live there too. Where’s your son?”

“In Sunday school. One of the women I work with takes him so I can spend a couple of hours here.” She glanced at the old place. “I think I need more than a couple of hours a week, don’t you?”

“This place needs months, lots of machinery and materials, and at least a dozen workmen.”

“Or women,” she said, and he smiled.

“Right. Where do you work?”

“Guess.”

“For a doctor? In a hospital? Something to do with medicine.”

“It looks like you’re not just a pretty face,” she said, then turned red. “I didn’t mean . . .”

Russell was smiling at her. “Is there someplace I can get a shirt? I don’t want to go back to the hotel. And breakfast. I’m afraid I left without eating and I’m famished.”

“I . . .” She hesitated. “In my attic I have a box of my father’s clothes. He was about as big as you. I could throw one in the washer while I make you a pile of bacon and eggs.”

“When does your son get home?”

“About eleven.”

“I’d like to meet him,” Russell said softly.

“And I’d like for him to meet you.”

For a moment they looked at each other and there seemed to be an understanding that this could be the beginning of something real, something permanent.

Russell was the first to break the silence. “Would you and Jamie like to go to a picnic with me today at one? I’m sure there’ll be lots of food, and I think I can arrange to have some entertainment for Jamie there.” His eyes told how much he wanted her to go with him.

“I think we’d both love that.”

“Great!” Russell said as he stood up. But that crinkled his back and he winced in pain.

Again, Clarissa put her arm around his waist to help him.

“I may stay injured forever,” he said as he put his arm around her shoulders. “So what does Jamie like? Balloons? Animals? Acrobats?”

“Fire engines,” she said. “The bigger, the redder, the better.”

“Fire engines it is,” Russell said.

“I’m going to go get my car and bring it around,” Clarissa said. “Stand here and don’t move your back.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Russell said and watched her hurry away.

As soon as she was out of sight, he typed out a text message to his mother.

I’M BRINGING A FIVE-YEAR-OLD BOY TO THE PICNIC. HE LOVES FIRE ENGINES. I’M GOING TO MARRY HIS MOTHER. R
.

Seventeen

When Travis drove
into the pretty, wooded area that had been set up for the picnic, he was hoping to see Russell’s Jeep, but it wasn’t there. Instead, he saw a brilliant red fire engine and what looked to be an entire fire department of men and women in full uniform. They were standing around talking, laughing, and helping themselves to what looked to be a lavish spread of food and drink.

“What’s this about?” Kim asked.

“I have no idea, but then for all I know, Dad’s planning a bonfire.”

She looked at the idyllic setting and let out her breath. It wasn’t what she now realized she’d been dreading. She thought maybe there would be white-gloved waiters serving champagne in crystal glasses, and there’d be a hundred people there.

Instead there was just a red-and-white-checked cloth spread on the ground under a huge black walnut tree, with half a dozen red coolers to the side. There wasn’t even a sign of a waiter.

The only oddity was the local fire department to the side.

“It’s not what I expected,” Kim said.

“Me neither,” Travis answered. As he spoke, Penny drove up, quickly got out of her rental car, and ran to them. “Is Russell here?” she asked through Travis’s open window.

“I haven’t seen him. What’s the—” He cut himself off as Penny hurried away toward the fire engines.

“Do you think something’s wrong?” Kim asked.

Travis was looking in his side-view mirror at Penny as she quickly moved from one person to another. “I’ve never seen her lose her cool before,” he said in wonder. “One time we had two sworn enemies in the office at the same time. Dad and I were worried there’d be gunplay, but Penny deftly moved the men in and around and they never saw each other. She saved a multi-million-dollar deal.”

Kim was looking out the back windshield. “Whatever is going on has upset her. She looks frantic.”

“Interesting,” Travis said as he turned back and smiled at Kim. “Are you ready to go to this thing? I’m sure Dad—Holy crap!”

Kim looked up to see another car pulling off the road and into the little parking area. “It’s . . .”

“Right. That is Joe Layton and my mother,” Travis said and his voice lowered. “Speaking of sworn enemies . . .”

“Your mother and Mrs. Pendergast,” Kim said as she collapsed back against the seat. “I have a suggestion. Just a little one, but I think you should consider it. How about if we leave here right now and go straight back to Edilean? Mrs. Pendergast can send our clothes to us. Or we can shop for new ones. What do you think?”

“I like the way you deal with a situation,” Travis said as he started the engine.

But Joe Layton put his big body in front of the car.

“How about some race driving techniques?” Kim asked. “You could go around him.”

“He’s too big; he’d hurt the car. Let’s get out on your side and make a run through the forest. Maybe we can escape.”

Joe was too fast for them. He was standing by Travis’s door, and his hand snaked inside to remove the keys from the ignition. “Come on, you two cowards. Get out and join the party.” He opened Travis’s door.

Travis squeezed Kim’s hand and rolled his eyes skyward. “Give me strength.”

Kim got out of her side of the car and stood back to look at Lucy, the pretty little woman who came to stand behind Joe. He was so big that she could disappear behind him.

Kim was curious to see this woman who’d so successfully hidden from her for four years. As Lucy came forward to stand on tiptoe to hug her son, Kim knew she would have done just that. Every minute of those weeks she’d spent with Travis when they were children was so burned in her mind that Lucy’s face was there also. If Kim had seen her in Edilean, she would have done what Lucy feared and told everyone she knew. Lucy was the connection to Travis, the way to find him, and Kim would have thought only of that, not of any consequences.

Lucy’s eyes met Kim’s and there was apology there—from both women.

“Kim,” Lucy began as she stood before her. “I never meant—”

“It’s okay,” Kim said. “I’m sure Mom told you I’d blab, and I would have. I so much wanted to find Travis that I would have sold my own mother into white slavery.”

“From what I’ve heard she could have handled it,” Lucy said, and the two women laughed together.

“It’s all right between you and Travis now?” Lucy asked softly. Travis and Joe were a few feet away.

“Very, very all right. And what about you and Mr. Layton?”

Lucy gave a sigh that came from her heart. “It’s nice to be loved, isn’t it?”

“Yes, wonderful,” Kim said. “Would it be impolite of me to ask what’s happening with the divorce?”

Lucy gave a quick look at Joe and Travis, and leaned forward, her voice a whisper as she took Kim’s hand in her own. “Randall has agreed to a peaceful divorce. No fighting. A fair deal. I told him I don’t want Travis to have to so much as appear in court. I want you two to have all the time together that you deserve.”

Kim couldn’t help the tears of joy that came to her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Lucy smiled, and the two women’s hands just seemed to cling to one another.

“Hey, you two!” Travis called. “I’m hungry. Let’s see what Dad sent us to eat.”

Penny was still with the firefighters, and in spite of his professed hunger, Travis went to her.

Travis greeted the firefighters, told them that if they needed anything to let him know. They all wanted to shake the hand of the son of the man who’d just bought them a new engine.

It took Travis a while before he could make his way to Penny. “What’s Dad up to now?” he asked. “It’s nice he’s contributing to the Janes Creek Fire Department but what’s in it for him?”

“I did it,” Penny said. Her eyes were on the road, not on Travis.

“You bought a fire engine?”

“I ordered it. Your dad paid for it,” she said and stopped, as though that was all the information she was going to give.

“Penny?” he asked.

When they could hear a car coming down the road, she seemed to stop breathing. The car drove past and Penny let out her breath.

“What is going on?!” Travis demanded.

Penny, her eyes never leaving the road, handed him her cell phone. “Look at my text from Russell.”

“Oh,” Travis said as he read it. “He asked his girlfriend to marry him? Must be catching. I hope he used one of those rings I offered Kim. He—”

“Russell doesn’t have a steady girlfriend.”

“But he said he’s going to marry the mother of a kid who likes fire engines. Who is she?”

Penny turned to look at Travis in silence.

It took him a few moments to get what she wasn’t saying. “He just
met
this woman?”

“I think so,” Penny said as she rubbed her hands together in nervous agitation. “Oh, Russell,” she said under her breath, “what have you done?”

For the first time ever, Travis put his arm around Penny’s shoulders. She had always been the one who remained calm through everything. When Travis and his father were at each other’s throats, it was Penny’s sensible comments, her refusal to let any crisis perturb her, that quieted everyone.

But now she was the one who needed a calm presence.

“Your mother will hate me even more,” Penny said, her old self showing, but she leaned her head against Travis’s chest for a moment.

He glanced over her head to see Joe and Kim and his mother sitting on the checkered cloth. They’d opened the cooler and taken out lemonade and glasses, and lots of cheese and crackers. Maybe the waiters were missing, but the food looked to be top-notch.

“My mother has eyes only for Joe, and when she sees Russell I think she’ll like him.”

Penny stepped out of Travis’s embrace. “I hope so, but then he does look a lot like you. If there’s one thing your mother loves, it’s you.”

Travis smiled. “Joe said Dad was going to give the divorce without a big court battle. Do you think he will?”

“I know he was quite taken with young Kim.”

Travis couldn’t help a grimace. “Bastard! Sneaking around like that! He knew where Mom was all these years. When I think of the trouble I went to in hiding from him I could—” He looked at Penny. “How do you know he liked Kim?”

“I talked to him. I showed her a photo of your father and she turned white. I knew she’d seen him somewhere.”

Travis nodded. “She came into the diner looking like she’d seen a ghost.”

“But she told you the story of how he pretended to be a caretaker?”

“Only after some persuasion.”

“Good,” Penny said. “Don’t keep secrets from each other. Your father and I never—I mean . . .”

“I know what you mean. His life has always been more with you than with my mother.”

Penny turned to look at Lucy and Joe sitting so close together on the cloth. “I’ve always disliked your mother. Not from something based on fact, but from what I assumed I knew about her. The old Travis family name made me think she lived in a world of garden parties and teacups. And I thought she’d like gentlemen who carried lace hankies.”

Joe Layton was as far from being a stereotypical “gentleman” as was possible.

“I’m sure Russ will be here soon, so maybe now’s a good time to brave it out with a face-to-face with my mother.”

“Did she bring any weapons?” Penny asked.

“Only a couple of machetes,” Travis joked, but when Penny took a step back, he laughed. “Come on, Kim and I will protect you.”

Travis stayed close to Penny as they walked toward the picnic area and his eyes begged his mother not to attack. But then, he realized that wasn’t fair. After all, Penny had had a child by Lucy’s husband. On the other hand, it wasn’t as though a happy marriage had been broken up. The truth was that Travis was so glad to have a brother that he didn’t really care about anything else.

As Travis sat down between his mother and Kim, he looked at Joe for moral support. Joe took Lucy’s hand and his eyes seemed to say that it would be all right.

“Is there any beer in there?” Travis asked as he watched his mother. She was refusing to look at Penny. “Mom,” he said as Kim handed him a beer. “Kim told me you have a couple of brothers. Is that true?”

“Howard and Arthur,” she said. “I haven’t seen them, well, since I got married. There were harsh words spoken.”

Everyone was still, wondering if Lucy was going to say more, but she didn’t.

“So what are they like?” Travis asked. He would say anything to break the awkward silence. “I’d like to meet—”