The Trouble with Andrew (19 page)

He frowned, moving away from her, staring into her eyes. “Andrea?” he said.

“Miss Hunnington.”

He smiled. Pleased. “You were jealous of Andrea?”

“Not jealous—merely aware.”

He shrugged. “Well, she's the last person you should be jealous of.”

“Why?”

“I don't like her. I never have.”

“But she's very attractive.”

“But I don't like her.”

Katie felt her lashes fall, and a little thrill she couldn't resist fluttered in her stomach. He was telling the truth.

Yet just when she was feeling that secret happiness, he rose, walked to the windows and looked out at the beautiful yard with its turquoise pool and private shrubbery.

Then he stepped into his briefs and jeans and pulled his shirt over his head.

He walked to the bed, stooped and kissed her forehead.

“Were you glad to see me?” he asked, a wicked tone in his voice.

“Perhaps,” she said warily.

“Good.”

“Perhaps not,” she warned.

He straightened, arching a brow. “Well, you'll have to decide on that. Because I really have to go. If you want more of this morning—of me, to be precise—you'll just have to come home.”

“Why, you—!” Katie gasped, inching up on the bed to stare at him incredulously. “Conceited butthead!” she charged him, borrowing one of Jordan's words since she couldn't seem to find her own.

He smiled, then sobered. “I never meant any ill to you, Katie. I never meant to use or betray you in any way. And if you were outraged that I might be angry with you, remember this. You didn't trust me. You didn't give me a chance.”

“Wait! You have no right—”

“I've got to go. It's a long ride back. When you can't stand it anymore, come home.”

He turned and left the room. He didn't intend to wait for her—he didn't intend to give her a chance to say anything to him.

“It will be a cold day in hell!” she yelled after him.

She was surprised when his head popped in the doorway.

“It might be, at that. The heat down there is murder. Electricity is starting to come back on. See you, Katie.”

And then he was gone. By the time she'd managed to tie her robe around her body, he had slipped out the front door, entered his Probe—and was driving down the street.

“Bastard!” Katie hissed beneath her breath, watching him go.

Then she was alone, and the air-conditioning seemed too cold.

She stepped out on the patio and sat down by the pool, trailing her feet in the water.

She believed in him, she knew. And she was in love with him. And if there was any way to let him know that she really did believe in him…

That way might be to find out who was behind the skimming of the profits at Hunnicunn Corporation.

Eliminate the impossible, her dad always told her, and what's left, whether improbable or not, has to be the truth.

All she had to do was find out what was impossible.

Maybe she had to find out more about Hunnicunn Corporation.

She was good at finding out about the past—it had always helped her with her photography. She'd always loved to pore through the microfilm at the library.

The day passed quietly. She drew charts with names of those involved, linking them all together. She'd have to find out a little something about them all. Andrea Hunnington. Her pencil kept circling that particular name. She reminded herself that she wanted to think of Andrea as evil, and maybe the woman was—Drew had said he didn't like her.

When she was hungry, she made herself a tuna sandwich and waited for her father, her son—and Drew's mother—to come home.

Her father's note had said that they'd be late—and he hadn't lied. Katie was convinced that her father had purposely left her alone with Drew as long as possible.

Even assuming Drew might have stayed for awhile, Katie thought with a certain warm amusement, they would never have needed this much time! But it was summer, and for the rest of untouched world, it was still vacation time, and the parks were open late.

Ron, Jordan and Tina came in just after midnight. Katie was sitting on the couch in the living room, still playing with her solve-the-mystery graphs when they trailed in. Jordan was yawning and her father and Tina Cunningham were smiling like a pair of kids themselves—and not appearing in the least bit tired.

“Katie!” her dad greeted her, leaning over to kiss her forehead. “Have a nice day? A good rest? Did you wake up before Drew had to leave?” he asked innocently.

“Yes, I did. But very briefly.” She smiled at Drew's mother and told her father, “He was really in a big hurry. I'm not sure he stayed more than fifteen minutes.”

“Oh,” Ron Wheeler said. He sounded disappointed and puzzled.

Tina Cunningham seemed just as downcast.

“So—how was your day?” Katie asked.

“Jordan took us on Space Mountain. We were both nearly candidates for pacemakers,” her father told her.

Katie laughed.

“Tina is great!” Jordan said, coming to life to extol the woman's virtues. “She went on it with me a second time!”

“Brave woman,” Katie teased Tina.

“I've been dragged on worse before,” Tina assured her. Katie smiled again and wished she didn't like Drew's mother so much.

It would be nice not to like
something
about her.

But Tina was warm and fun and seemed as open and above board as the daylight sun. Katie couldn't help but like her.

And it was obvious that her father more than liked her.

“Want coffee or tea or anything?” Katie asked. “Tina, can I get you anything you might be missing? Toothpaste, toothbrush—I'm not sure what kind of accommodations Dad arranged for you…” She let her voice trail off. The older crowd here seemed to like to put her in awkward positions. It seemed only fair play that she taunt them a bit in return.

But neither of them blushed or fell for the bait. “I'm quite fine, dear,” Tina said.

Katie stood. “Well,” she said sternly, “you two senior delinquents are going to be on your own as of tomorrow. I'm going to take Jordan and fly home. The week has been great, Dad, but there's just too much I need to take care of in Miami.”

“Oh, you're going home?” her father said. He tried to sound disappointed, but there was that old light of mischief in his eyes. He wasn't sorry in the least. In fact, he seemed just as smug as the Cheshire cat.

“Yes, I'm going home. That okay with you, Jordan?” she asked her son.

“Hey. Sounds cool to me,” Jordan said with a shrug.

“Well, then, good night, you all,” Katie said, kissing Jordan's head and starting toward the hallway. “Jordan, we'll try to get a plane in the early afternoon, so you might want to get in bed soon. And Dad … well, you two behave.”

Katie was halfway down the hallway when she heard Drew's mother say to Ron Wheeler, “Think we ought to tell her that I've got a hotel room?”

“Heck, no! Let her wonder!” Ron said.

Grinning, Katie went into her bedroom. But she didn't fall asleep right away, and later she heard a soft tapping at her door.

“Come in,” she said.

Her father peeked in. “You up?”

She nodded and patted the side of her bed. He came in and sat beside her. “You really ready to go home?” he asked her. “Drew said most of the traffic lights are still out, though a lot of the roads have been cleared now. Things are getting better, but it will still be a while before they're good.”

Katie nodded. “I think I need to be home, Dad.”

“Drew have anything to do with that?”

“Maybe,” Katie admitted. “But I think you're the one with the hot and heavy romance.”

Ron chuckled. “Well, if so, I have you to thank for it.”

“You don't need to thank me just because you met at Drew's office.”

Ron shook his head. “I need to thank you for being stubborn and willful. See, Drew told Tina a little bit about you—enough for her to know something above the ordinary was going on. So I really got to know Tina when she very bluntly asked me if I'd persuade you to stay for lunch, but then that didn't work out so well. So I called her and suggested that maybe she could convince him that she was dying to come and see me, and then he might be willing to drive her up here. Then he'd have to see you.”

Katie gasped. Ron shrugged.

“Dad! What a meddling old matchmaker!” she accused him.

“Well, now, I didn't make the match.”

“Andrew made the match.”

“The man? Or the storm?”

“A little bit of both,” Katie said. And she frowned. “Dad, he didn't tell me right away that he was the architect and builder for my house. So when I found out…”

“You jumped straight to conclusions.”

“Maybe,” Katie admitted. “But, Dad, I'm going to try to find out what did happen. Maybe that can straighten everything out a little bit.”

Ron shook his head, then his finger, at her. “Leave it to Drew, Katie. Stay out of it. If someone has been skimming big profits, he or she isn't going to want anyone finding out about it.”

“Dad, I can be careful—”

“I won't let you go, Katie, if that's what you've got up your sleeve.”

“Dad! I'm over thirty, remember?”

“Katie, promise me—”

“Dad, don't worry about me. I'm just planning on reading some newspaper files, nothing else. I'll give anything I can find to Drew, I promise.”

“Be careful, Katie.”

“I will be,” she said.

“In every way,” he warned her. “You know, you're like a babe in the woods now—”

“Mmm, and that's why you were throwing me to the wolf, you sly fox!” Katie said.

“I was just giving you a nudge. You've got to be careful.”

“I will be, Dad.”

“I'll keep in touch, and I'll be here whenever you need me.”

“I know you will, and that's great.” She hesitated, but he took her into his arms.

“Love you, baby,” he told her.

“I love you, too, Dad. I love you, too. Maybe that's why it took me so long to think I needed anyone else again. I had a wonderful marriage, and I had you.”

“Well, I'm trying to get a new woman in my life,” he teased lightly, “so you go and see if you can get your man. He's a darned good one, too, I think.”

“Why was I the only one without any faith?” Katie asked him.

“You were the one with the most to lose,” he said. He stood. “Night, Katie,” he told her.

She smiled. He left her room.

She slept amazingly well that night.

By one o'clock the following afternoon she and Jordan were boarding a plane that would take them to Miami International Airport.

The flight was smooth. Jordan seemed exceptionally lively and very anxious to get back.

“Aren't you going to miss Mickey Mouse?” she teased him.

“Sure, Disney is great. But so is home.”

“We're not really going
home,
” she reminded him. “We don't actually have a home anymore.”

“It's still home,” Jordan said determinedly.

He sat back, and they both enjoyed the flight. The weather was beautiful; the sky was an almost uncanny blue.

Katie got a cab from the airport. She had it take her and Jordan to Drew's house.

He didn't answer when she knocked. She tried the door and found it open.

“Think we should just go in?” Jordan said doubtfully.

Katie hesitated. “Yes,” she said firmly. She brought in their luggage and set it in the hallway.

“Mom!” Jordan said suddenly. “There's electricity in here now!” And he was right. The air-conditioner was humming. A light was burning in the kitchen.

“I guess things are starting to get back to normal,” Katie said. “Umm—bring your things up to the room you were using—”

“And I can use the Nintendo?”

“I guess. Just—”

“Keep things picked up, I know, it isn't our house, it's Drew's.”

“Right. I'm going to get my bag out of the hallway, too, smarty pants,” she told him.

They started up the stairs, Jordan to his room and she to hers.

When she went in, the room seemed cast in shadows. She didn't know what she had been expecting. Yes, she did. She had thought he might be waiting for her. She was certain he had come home. She hoped fervently that she hadn't misread his message in Orlando…

No. He wanted her back. Things had to be said between them. She hadn't misunderstood him.

How could she have misread such a message?

She set her luggage on the bed, and it was only then that she noticed a note on the pillow.

She picked it up, read it and smiled.

“Welcome home, Katie,” was all that it said.

It was enough.

Maybe she was home, after all.

She tried to wait up; it was easier with the electricity on and the house dark. But he hadn't come home by midnight, and she gave up trying to watch the late show.

She went up to her room to lie down, and despite her best efforts, she dozed.

She didn't know what awakened her, but she opened her eyes, blinking. He was there, in the doorway, a dark, still silhouette.

“Katie?” he said softly.

She ran across the room and was quickly wrapped in his arms.

“You came back,” he said softly. “And—quickly.”

“I had some really great memories of the place,” she told him.

He laughed softly and swept her up.

And it was just like coming home.

Chapter 10

“L
isten, it's my company, and I'll deal with it!” Drew said emphatically, slipping a knot into his tie.

Katie, her fingers curled around a mug at the breakfast table, clenched her teeth.