Stranger in the Moonlight (5 page)

He had a vision of the two of them sitting in a corner holding hands and whispering sweet words to each other. It might be a nice thing to see.

And maybe Kim would be there—if she wasn’t the bride, that is. Not that he could introduce himself to her again. Not that he hadn’t seen her as an adult, but it had been a while. She’d been a very pretty little girl and she’d grown into an even prettier woman. The vision of her riding down the hill, her auburn hair flying out behind her, would stay with him forever.

Maybe he could change into some more appropriate clothes and maybe he could go and see the wedding. Not stay. Just look, then leave.

He opened the trunk of the car.

Two

“So how are
you and the new boyfriend—Dave, is it?—getting along?” Sara Newland asked as she sat down across from Kim. Each table had a different color cloth on it, what the bride called “Easter colors.” The band was taking a break, and the big dance floor was empty. Overhead, the tent was strung with tiny silver lights that cast pretty shadows everywhere.

Sara’s twin boys were now a year old and were at home with a babysitter. The wedding was a rare night out for her and her husband, Mike.

“We’re doing great,” Kim said. She had on her bluish purple bridesmaid dress, with its low, square neckline and swishy skirt. Jecca, who was the bride as well as Kim’s best friend, had designed it for her, and Lucy Cooper had made it.

“Think it’s permanent between you two?” Sara asked.

“It’s too early to tell, but I have hope. How are you and Mike doing?”

“Perfectly. But I’m not making much progress in taming him into a domestic life. I wanted him to help with the garden. Know what he did?”

“With Mike, I can’t imagine.”

“He chased off the guy who runs the backhoe, taught himself how to use the big machine, and he’s cleared a strip about two acres long for the new fence. You should have heard him and the owner of the backhoe yelling at each other!”

Kim smiled. “I would have liked to have been there. I spend most of my life with salesmen. Every word they utter leads back to me buying more from them.”

Sara learned forward and lowered her voice. “So how was Lucy Cooper with your dress?”

“I never saw her,” Kim said. “Jecca did the one and only fitting.”

“But you saw her dancing with Jecca’s dad a few minutes ago, didn’t you?”

Sara and Kim were cousins, the same age, and they’d played together since they were babies. For the last four years they’d talked about how odd it was that Lucy Cooper, an older woman staying at Mrs. Wingate’s house, ran away whenever Kim appeared. Other people saw her at the grocery, the pharmacy, even in Mrs. Wingate’s shop downtown, but when Kim showed up, Lucy hid. One of her cousins had snapped a photo of Ms. Cooper and shown it to Kim, but she saw nothing familiar in the face. She couldn’t imagine why the woman avoided her.

“I couldn’t miss something like that, could I?” Kim said. “Down and dirty. Raunchy. More than a little embarrassing at their age.”

“But did you see Lucy’s face?”

“Yes and no. She had it buried in Jecca’s dad’s body parts, so I’d see an eye here, and an ear there. I’d have to get one of those police artists to draw a full face for me.”

Sara laughed. “When I saw her, she looked like the happiest woman alive.”

“No, that would be Jecca.”

“It was a beautiful wedding. And her dress was divine! She and Tris are a stunning couple, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Kim said with pride. She and Jecca had been roommates all through college and had remained BFF, even though Jecca lived in New York City and Kim in Edilean. A few months ago Jecca had come to Edilean to spend the summer painting, had met the local doctor, Kim’s cousin Tristan, fallen in love, and had married him today.

“How’s Reede doing?” Sara asked, referring to Kim’s brother. Reede had volunteered to help Tris while he recovered from a broken arm, but now it looked like he was going to have the responsibility of Tris’s medical practice for the next three years.

“Reede is not a happy camper,” Kim said. “I didn’t know a person could complain as much as he does. He’s threatening to jump a freighter and leave town.”

“He wouldn’t do that, would he? We
need
a doctor on call here in Edilean.”

“No,” Kim said. “Reede has too much of a sense of duty to do that. But it would be nice if he didn’t look at this as a three-year prison sentence.”

“Everyone will be glad for Tris to come back and be our doctor again.”

“Especially the women,” Kim said, and they laughed. Dr. Tristan Aldredge was a truly beautiful man, with a sweet temperament, and he genuinely cared about people.

“Who’s that man who keeps staring at you?” Sara asked, looking behind Kim.

She turned but saw no one she didn’t recognize.

“He stepped outside just as you turned around,” Sara said.

“What’s he look like?”

“Your typical tall, dark, and handsome,” Sara said, smiling. “It looks like his nose has been broken a few times—or maybe I see that in all men since I met Mike.” Her husband was a master of several forms of martial arts.

“My secret admirer, I guess,” Kim said as she stood up.

“Is Dave here tonight?”

“No. He had to cater a wedding in Williamsburg.”

“That must be difficult for you,” Sara said. “He’s gone every weekend.”

“But home during the week,” Kim said. “His home, not mine.”

“Speaking of which, how’s your new house?” Sara asked as she also stood. It hadn’t been easy, but she’d managed to lose the baby weight and now had her slim figure back.

“Wonderful,” Kim said, and her eyes lit up. “I turned the big garage into a workroom, and Jecca helped me decorate the inside. Lots of color.”

“Does Dave like it?”

“He likes my kitchen,” Kim said. “When I get more settled, we’ll have you and your three kids over. But tell Mike he can’t bring his new toy, the backhoe, with him.”

“I’ll do that.” Smiling, Sara said good-bye and left. The band was returning, and she wanted to get away where she could talk.

Kim stood there for a moment, looking at the friends and relatives around her. There were also some newcomers in attendance, meaning people who weren’t descended from the seven founding families, and they’d come to see Dr. Tris get married. He was beloved by everyone, and she wondered how many people were there uninvited because they wanted to see Tristan again. He had saved many lives in their small town.

It had been Kim’s hope that Jecca would marry her brother, Reede, but she’d fallen for Tris almost the day she met him. Because of job changes, Kim’s dream of having her best friend live in the small town of Edilean had been postponed for another few years.

Kim couldn’t help thinking that by that time she would be almost thirty. I’ll be a statistic, she’d often thought but had said to no one. She was successful in business, but her personal life didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

The bridal couple had left some time ago—Kim hadn’t caught the bouquet—but some of the guests were hanging around to dance as long as the band played.

As she walked toward the side of the tent, she again thought how much she wished she could have had a date tonight. She’d met Dave six months before, when she’d gone into Williamsburg to talk to a nervous bride about the rings she and her fiancé wanted. The girl had been maddeningly indecisive and her groom was even worse. Kim had wanted to start giving them orders, but she could do nothing but make strong suggestions.

After an hour, and still no decisions, the girl’s father had come in, instantly sized up the situation, and told his daughter which rings to get. Kim had looked at him in gratitude.

When she went out to her car, her way was blocked by a big white truck with
BORMAN CATERING
written on the side. A good-looking young man came running toward her.

“Sorry,” he said as he pulled out his keys, but then he saw that the bride’s father had blocked him in. Since the father was locked inside his study on a conference call, Kim and the man had introduced themselves. The first few minutes they’d exchanged complaints about the bride’s inability to make a decision.

“And her mother is just like her,” Dave said. He was David Borman and he owned the elegant little catering company.

By the time the father got off the phone and moved his car, she and Dave had a date. Since then, they’d gone out twice a week, and it had been quite pleasant. There were no fireworks, but it had been nice. The sex was good, nothing outrageous, but sweet. Dave was always respectful of her, always courteous.

“So where are the bad boys when you need them?” Kim mumbled as she took a flute of champagne off a tray and went outside.

She knew Tristan’s house and grounds as well as her own, so she headed toward the path that led to Mrs. Wingate’s house. To her left was the old playhouse. She’d spent a lot of time there when she was a child. Her mother and Tris’s were good friends, and when they got together, Kim would go to the playhouse. It was in bad shape now but Jecca had plans to restore it.

Kim sat down on a bench at the head of the path. The moon was bright, the lights from the big tent twinkled, and the air was moist and warm. She closed her eyes and let it all seep into her. Was there a way to make jewelry that looked and felt like moonlight on your skin? she wondered.

“Do you still teach people how to have fun?” asked a man’s voice.

Abruptly, she opened her eyes. A tall man was standing in front of her, looming over her. She couldn’t see his face, as the moon formed a circle behind his head. His question was so suggestive, so provocative, that she couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable. There was no one else around them, just this stranger and his creepy question.

“I think I should go,” she said as she got up and headed toward the tent with its light and people.

“How long did the house I built for your doll last?”

Kim halted, then slowly turned back to him.

He was taller now, and from what she could see of his face in the low light, he was no longer choirboy-pretty as he had been when he was twelve. There were lines at his eyes and, as Sara’d said, his nose looked as though it had been hit a few times. But he was very handsome, with dark eyes as intense as the night around them.

“Travis,” she whispered.

“I told you I’d come back and I have.”

His voice was deep and strong, and she liked the sound of it. As she took a couple of steps toward him, she felt as though she were looking at a ghost.

“I thought maybe you wouldn’t remember me,” he said softly. “You were so very young then.”

She was reluctant to tell him the truth, of the depth of her despair after he left. She’d cried herself to sleep many nights. The photo of the two of them was still her most prized possession, the thing she’d grab if the building caught on fire.

No, she thought. It was better to keep it light. “Of course I remember you,” she said. “You were a great friend to me. I thought I was going to lose my mind from boredom, but you came along and saved me.”

“Saved you by being someone who knew nothing. You were a good teacher.”

“You on that bike!” she said. “I’ve never seen anyone learn as fast as you did.”

Travis had an image of the things he’d done on a bicycle since then, of leaps and jumps, and turns in the air. He wondered if Kim had any idea how good she looked. The moonlight on her hair, still with a hint of red in it, and the color of that dress in the silvery light—it made a beautiful picture. Had she been any other female in the world, he would be making a pass at her right now. It had never mattered to him if the woman was the wife of a diplomat or a barmaid, if Travis was attracted to her, he let her know.

But Kim had lived all her life in a small town where everyone knew her. She wasn’t the type of woman he could make a move on five minutes after seeing her.

Kim felt the awkward silence between them and thought that he hadn’t changed. When he was twelve, he hadn’t said much, just watched and listened and learned.

“Would you like to go back to the wedding?” she asked. She was still holding her champagne flute. “Get something to drink?”

“I . . .” Travis began, then seemed to hear himself say, “I need help.” He doubted if he’d ever before said those words. His life had made him fiercely independent.

Immediately, Kim went to him. “Are you hurt? Should I call a doctor? My brother, Reede, is here and—”

“No,” he said, smiling down at her. She was even prettier up close. “I’m not hurt. I came to Edilean for a reason, to do something. But now that I’m here I don’t know how to go about it.”

Reaching out, Kim took his hand in hers. It was a large hand, and she could feel calluses on it. It looked like he did something in his life that required physical labor. She led him over to the bench and had him sit down beside her. The light from the wedding celebration was behind her and she could see him better. He had on a dark suit that looked as though it had been tailored for him. His cheekbones reflected the moonlight, and she saw lines between his eyes. He looked worried. She bent toward him in concern.