Hailey pushed through the swinging doors and met her sister halfway. She avoided Tyler’s eyes as she accepted Ellen’s enthusiastic embrace. He would be looking at Ellen with that assessing, hungry look with which all men looked at her. Hailey didn’t think she could take that.
Tonight she had worked at looking sexy. To Ellen it came naturally. Her tight designer jeans and western-cut shirt, left unbuttoned to the middle of her chest, made a mockery of Hailey’s slinky black ensemble. While Hailey had let her hair go natural, Ellen had chosen tonight to pull hers back into a sleek, sophisticated knot that only made Hailey look disheveled. She felt like a candle whose flame had been snuffed out.
“I’m glad to see you, Ellen,” she lied. “I didn’t expect you.”
“That’s obvious,” Ellen drawled suggestively, and turned her head to wink at Tyler. “And I promise not to stay more than a moment. I drove from Nashville on an impulse to see you and I have to go right back.”
“That’s a long trip. What about your job?” Hailey asked worriedly.
“I called in sick after lunch. That’s why I have to drive back tonight. I have to go in early in the morning to make up those hours.”
Tyler had come up to Hailey and placed an arm around her shoulders. Hastily she said, “I’m sorry. Did you two introduce yourselves?”
“No. I’m Tyler Scott, Miss Ashton.”
“Ellen,” she said, laughing and shaking his extended hand. “I hope I’ll be seeing you again.”
Tyler glanced down at Hailey, but her head was bowed. She didn’t see the warm look in his eyes. All she heard was his response, which was a promise. “You will.”
“Hailey,” Ellen said tentatively, “I really need to be getting on my way again. Could we—”
“I’ll see to the steaks,” Tyler said, taking Ellen’s hint. He squeezed Hailey’s shoulder before releasing it and going into the kitchen.
“Let’s go in your bedroom,” Ellen said in a stage whisper and grabbed Hailey’s hand, pulling her along after her.
She closed the door behind them and leaned against it, her eyes wide. “My God, Hailey, where have you been hiding him? How long has this been going on? Who is he? Where did you meet him? Tell me all.”
Hailey crossed the room to her dresser and automatically picked up her hairbrush. She began tearing it through her tumble of coppery curls. “There’s really not much to tell. I’ve only known him a few weeks. I actually met him through his daughter, who was stung by a bee on their outing to Serendipity.”
“He’s loaded. That car! And those designer clothes.”
Some perverse need to shock her sister made Hailey say offhandedly, “He owns Serendipity. That and a lot of other things.”
“Jeez, sis, when you score, you score big. I’ll bet he’s dynamite in bed.” The hairbrush remained poised over Hailey’s head for a frozen instant, but then came down to punish the tangled strands again. “Well?” Ellen demanded impatiently.
“Well, what?”
“How is he in bed?”
Hailey caught Ellen’s reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were gleaming with imagination run rampant. Again, Hailey wanted to flaunt the fact that a man like Tyler was spending the evening alone with her. “Just as you guessed,” she heard herself say. “He’s dynamite.” The hairbrush slipped from her fingers and clattered to the dresser top as if underlining her lie. Why did she want to let Ellen go on thinking she and Tyler had slept together? She twisted her hair into a tight knot and gouged her scalp as she viciously secured it with pins.
“Oh, sis, I’m glad you’re so happy.” Ellen’s sigh was theatrical and transparent. Hailey decided to wait her out. This time she wasn’t going to ask what was wrong. “I’m glad
one
of us is happy.”
With an inward sigh, Hailey took the bait. “You aren’t? I thought you liked your new job and new friends.”
“Friends! Huh! You know the girl I was telling you about, the one who was being so nice to me?” Ellen didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, she’s turned out to be a real bitch. I owe her a little money, which she practically
forced
me to borrow from her, and now she wants it all back at once. Honestly, don’t people trust each other anymore?”
Hailey turned around to face Ellen, who was now sitting Indian-fashion in the middle of the bed, looking younger than Faith. Tears were shining in her green eyes. “How much is a ‘little’?” Hailey asked unsympathetically.
“Five hundred dollars,” was the mumbled reply.
“What!” Hailey gasped, truly shocked. “Ellen, how could you? Five hundred dollars? For what?”
“Don’t shout at me, Hailey,” Ellen sobbed. “I told you she practically forced me to borrow it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“She did! You’re being just as mean to me as she is.”
“Where did the money go?” Sickening thoughts of drugs, gambling, and extortion raced through Hailey’s mind. “What did you spend it on?”
“Clothes mostly. Some jewelry. Don’t look at me like that, Hailey,” Ellen cried, finally raising her eyes to her sister’s. “You know I can’t stand it if you’re mad at me. I love you so much.”
“Especially when you need money.”
“Oh, what a terrible thing to say.”
“But that is why you’re here, isn’t it? To get the money from me?”
“I’ll pay you back. I promise. Please, Hailey. She’s telling everyone in the office terrible things about me.”
Why was it, Hailey wondered, that when she herself cried, she looked like the very devil, with a red nose and blotched cheeks? Ellen looked absolutely gorgeous when she cried. Her eyes shimmered with tears, her lashes clung together wetly, her lips quivered with irresistible vulnerability.
Yet it wasn’t out of compassion that Hailey was going to give her the money. She didn’t feel sorry for her sister. She felt only a pity that bordered on disgust. By giving her the money, she would be rid of her, at least temporarily. Hailey didn’t want Ellen in her world.
Selfish to the point of neurosis, Ellen would take everything Hailey had to give—money, self-esteem, and, given the chance, Tyler. Scruples wouldn’t deter her from taking anything that suited her fancy.
“What’s the girl’s name?” Hailey asked. “I’ll write her a check.”
“You can make it out to me.”
“What’s her name?” Hailey asked sternly, taking her checkbook out of her purse.
Ellen didn’t argue, but sulkily supplied the name. Hailey extended the check to her without a word of admonition. Body language said what she was thinking most eloquently. Almost guiltily, Ellen said, “Thank you, Hailey. You’re the best sister—”
“I’m the
only
sister, Ellen. And that’s the only reason you’re here. Don’t pretend it’s anything else.”
“Why are you being so mean all of a sudden?” Ellen asked petulantly.
But Hailey didn’t answer her. She was already opening the door, making it clear that now Ellen had what she had come for, she should leave. Tyler was sitting on the living room sofa, one ankle propped on his opposite knee, as he leafed through a magazine.
“Do you realize what a treasure you have in my sister here?” Ellen asked with false affection, coming up to Hailey and hugging her tightly.
“I don’t think she realizes it,” Tyler said quietly, studying Hailey’s shattered face as he rose from the couch.
His words didn’t register. All Hailey saw was Ellen folding the check into a neat rectangle and sliding it into the breast pocket of her form-fitting shirt. It was a slow motion gesture, both deliberate and provocative.
“It’s been great fun meeting you, Tyler,” she said. She went to him, hooked one arm round his neck and drew him down to plant a sisterly kiss on his hard cheek. Hailey saw her sister’s lush breasts lightly skim his chest before she pulled away. “Good-bye, Hailey. Thanks.” Without another word, she went through the front door. Her footsteps fell like a death knell on Hailey’s ears.
She stared at the door for long moments until strong hands settled on her shoulders from behind her. “Hungry yet?”
She became aware of the delicious aroma of cooking steaks, but the thought of eating made her ill. “Yes, I guess so.”
“Good, because I’m starved.” Tyler kissed her briefly on the back of the neck before turning her and steering her toward the kitchen. “You get everything on the table—which looks lovely, incidentally—and I’ll pour the wine. It’s opened and breathing now.”
He was forcing lightheartedness, trying to pick up where they had left off, when Hailey knew he’d rather be following Ellen out the door. What man would want to be stuck with quartz when he could have a sparkling diamond?
Through dinner he forced conversation on her. He chatted about his plans for Serendipity, complimented her on the idea she had submitted that morning, raved about the food which he was eating with gusto and she was only picking at. She responded desultorily. Why was he carrying on this pretense? Why didn’t he just leave? Did he feel sorry for her?
That suspicion began to gnaw on her, and she grew angry and defensive. She didn’t need his pity or his sympathy. She didn’t want either. Her answers to his persistent questions became more clipped with each passing minute. When he had emptied his parfait glass of the last mouthful of chocolate mousse, she announced that she would clean the kitchen.
He conceded without an argument, but insisted on clearing the table and bringing the dishes to her. It was a wonder any of her china survived. He had left her alone to vent her temper, but she let him know with each slam of a cupboard door, with each rattle of silver, with each ring of clashing china, that she’d just as soon spend the remainder of the evening in solitude.
Snapping out the light in the kitchen, she shoved through the barroom door. Her tantrum was squelched when she saw the scene he had set. A fire was burning in the fireplace. A wine cooler and two clean glasses awaited them on the coffee table in front of the low sofa. The lamps had been drastically dimmed. The drapes on the wide windows had been opened to the jewel-like view of Gatlinburg by night. Tyler was crouched in front of her record collection, selecting a record for the stereo.
“All done?” he asked her over his shoulder when he heard her approach.
“Why did you build a fire?”
“I thought it would be nice, and the evening is cool enough.”
“No, I mean why did you bother?”
“No bother.”
“Dammit, Tyler, why did you go to the trouble when … when …”
“When I’m going to be leaving soon?”
She dropped her head and said, “Yes.”
“I went to all this trouble because your bad manners and rude behavior aren’t going to drive me off, Hailey.”
She snapped to attention. Her head came up with a jerk. “Rude—”
“Yes, rude. All through dinner I tried pulling conversation out of you, but you refused to be congenial. And I suppose you always sling things around in your kitchen like a vandal and make a big angry racket while you do the dishes.”
“I only assumed—”
“You
assume
a lot of things. In fact that’s one of the things you do best—make ridiculous, erroneous assumptions. The latest being that I was going to prefer your big-eyed, big-chested sister to you.”
That he had struck on the truth only made her angrier. “You conceited oaf. Do you think I’d care if you did?”
“Yes,” he replied calmly. “I think you would, though you certainly never would admit it. The moment she came in this room, you began to chill.”
“I was surprised to see her, that’s all,” Hailey said, flopping down on the couch with studied indifference.
“Uh-huh. You got mad because she came in hanging on to my arm and because we were laughing together. I didn’t offer her my arm, she took it. And I was too polite to shake her off. She was laughing because she didn’t have anything smarter to do and probably because she knew it would provoke you. And I was laughing because she actually expected me to make a big play for her.”
“And you were too polite to do that, too.”
He smiled and sank down onto the sofa next to her. “No. I was disinclined. I had the girl I wanted.” He reached for her hand and held it snugly. His thumb began stroking lazy circles onto her palm. “Why did you give her the money, Hailey?”
Her eyes went wide. “How did you … You listened!?”
“To every word. Why didn’t you send her packing? I take it this is not the first time she’s hit you for money, or anything she happened to need at the time.”
She yanked her hand from him and stood up, going to stand before the hearth. “I can’t believe you deliberately invaded my privacy. What gave you the right to eavesdrop on our conversation?” She spun around to face him.
He wasn’t in the least perturbed. “I wanted to know what made you change so drastically the minute your sister put in her untimely appearance. Do you always give in to her tears and give her what she wants?”
“Tears aren’t the reason—” She broke off abruptly when she realized that she was about to reveal more of herself than was judicious.
“Go on,” he said quietly.
“I’m not affected by her tears,” Hailey said after a brief pause. “I suppose I give in to her out of habit more than anything else.”
“That’s a habit you should break, for both your sakes.”
“Patterns that are begun during childhood are hard to alter.”
“She’s always taken advantage of you like that?” Hailey wanted to deny it, but she nodded her head. “That’s because she’s jealous of you,” he said sagely.
She looked at him with incredulity.
“Ellen,
jealous of
me?”
she asked on a high note, then laughed bitterly. “Oh, that’s funny. Ellen—beautiful, bouncy Ellen—whom everyone adores, jealous of her stodgy sister.”
Tyler leaned far enough forward to take possession of her hand and draw her back onto the sofa, nearer to him this time. He draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
“Yes. She realized a long time ago that you’re clever, that she couldn’t pull the wool over your eyes the way she could with everyone else. You see her for what she is—a silly, selfish creature—and she can’t bear that you know the truth about her. So she hurts you.”
“And where did you get your diploma, Sigmund?” she asked sarcastically.
He laughed. “You think about it. Sooner or later you’ll put your inferiority complex aside and admit that I’m right.” Something about the way his fingers were stroking her neck made her want to believe him. Was he telling the truth? Would he rather be with her than Ellen?