* * *
At the sound of her voice, the two men turned quickly. Evidently she had walked into a spirited exchange, and it felt like a quarrel. “Tell me what?” she repeated.
“I’ve written some new pages,” Parker said. “They’re printing out now.”
“I’ll get them.” Mike gave Parker a look that was rife with meaning. But whatever the meaning was, Maris couldn’t decipher it. He went into the solarium, leaving them alone.
“He just made a fresh pot of coffee,” Parker remarked.
“Thanks, but I’ve passed my limit. If I drink any more this morning, I’ll be swinging from the chandelier along with your ghost friend.”
“I’d pay to see that.” His smile was forced and the attempted humor fell flat.
Maris couldn’t account for the mood in the house, mainly because she couldn’t define the mood. It had started last night when she and Parker returned from the beach. Mike, who had arrived in their absence, had been on the veranda watching for them, standing with his hands on his hips and looking perturbed. He’d admonished them for getting soaked to the skin. He said he expected that kind of nutty, irresponsible behavior from Parker, but Parker had no right to subject Maris to his zaniness.
He had then hustled Parker into his bedroom at the back of the house. Maris knew which room it was, but she’d never been invited to see it, not even when Mike had conducted her on a guided tour of the house, including his suite and the unfinished rooms on the second floor.
Feeling slightly downcast over the abrupt conclusion to the romantic evening, she had returned to the guest cottage. She sensed that it wasn’t their getting caught in the rain or even their unexplained absence from the house that had upset Mike. He was more than slightly annoyed, more concerned than the situation had warranted.
She couldn’t figure out what they had done or hadn’t done to provoke him.
If it were anyone else, she would guess that the personal valet was jealous of the newcomer. It stood to reason that someone in Mike’s position would resent an intruder into the comfortable life he had made for his charge. Their days had a rhythm that he wouldn’t want disturbed.
Understandably the interloper would be regarded as a threat. His first instinct would be to protect his position and importance. He would also want to shield the individual he cared for against any potential harm.
But Mike hadn’t behaved jealously toward her. He didn’t treat her as a danger who might damage Parker. On the contrary, he seemed genuinely pleased that she had entered their lives. He’d shown her every kindness, and, in even the most insignificant disputes, he took her side over Parker’s more often than not.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but feel that Mike had a general idea of what they’d been doing down at the beach and that he disapproved. Whatever else had factored in, this was the basis of his indignation. When she returned to the guest cottage, she’d discovered that she hadn’t buttoned her shirt correctly, that in her haste, she’d skipped a button. A dead giveaway to hanky-panky.
Still, she was more mystified than embarrassed. She and Parker were well beyond the age of accountability, and it should have been clear to Mike that whatever had transpired on the beach had been consensual. Could it be a moral issue with him? Not knowing the present state of her marriage, did Mike think Parker was romancing another man’s wife?
In any case, their return to the house had quelled any plans either she or Parker had for continuing what had been started on the beach. She prudently remained in the guest cottage until this morning, and although she’d lain awake for a long time half expecting Parker to come to her, he hadn’t. This morning at breakfast, he’d been testy and irritable. More so than usual. And he’d acted as though their time on the beach together had never happened.
All this was weighing heavily on her mind. She was trying desperately to stave off a bad case of the blues. Despite the tender lovemaking last night, her relationship with Parker was still unspecified and tenuous. At any moment, she feared a geocentric shift of emotions that would plunge her headlong into despair.
She’d been made a fool of by one man. She didn’t want to repeat that particular mistake. Ever. But certainly not within the same week.
Following that first lame attempt at conversation about caffeine, neither she nor Parker had said a word. Their eye contact had been haphazard and fleeting. Parker seemed to be making a concerted effort to avoid it altogether.
Feeling awkward, she asked if he was happy with what he’d written that morning.
“It’s all right, I guess,” he mumbled into his coffee mug, keeping his head down.
This was silly. They were grown-ups, not adolescents. Up till now, he had seized every opportunity to slip a blatant sexual innuendo into their conversation. He certainly hadn’t been shy about demonstrating his attraction to her, starting with the night they met. His sudden bashfulness made no sense.
“Did Mike lecture you?”
He looked over at her. “About the foreplay?”
“I… I was going to say about seducing a married woman.”
“Is that what I did?”
“Not without a lot of encouragement.”
“Then does it count as a bona fide seduction?”
“Parker, are we going to play a game of semantics, or are you going to answer my question?”
“Mike is concerned for you.”
“Why?”
“He thinks I’m rotten to the core.”
“He thinks the sun rises and sets in you.”
“He’s afraid I’ll hurt you.”
Looking at him intently, she asked, “Will you?”
“Yes.”
Startled by his blunt reply, she sat down at the kitchen table without breaking the eye contact they had finally established. “At least you’re honest.”
“Brutally so. It puts most people off.”
“Noted. But I’m not most people.”
The hard line of his lips softened. Something sparked in his eyes, which had been so remote only seconds ago. They moved over her, alighting for a time on her mouth, her breasts, her lap. Those spots that had experienced his intimate touch began to tingle with sensual recollection.
When his gaze reconnected with hers, he said gruffly, “Noted.”
They lapsed into a long stare that went unbroken until Mike reentered the kitchen, bringing with him several pages of text. “The print was getting dim, so I had to replace the cartridge.” He handed the pages of manuscript to Maris.
“I need to get back to it,” Parker said, wheeling his chair toward the solarium. “Don’t talk about me while I’m gone.”
“We’ve got better things to talk about,” Mike retorted.
Parker slammed the door shut behind him.
Maris laughed. “You two are like quarreling siblings. Or an old married couple.”
“God forbid.”
“Were you ever married, Mike?”
“A confirmed bachelor. How does crab au gratin sound for dinner?”
“Delicious. Was Parker?”
“Married? No.”
“Women?”
He removed a package of frozen crabmeat from the freezer and set it on the countertop before turning to her. “What do you think?”
She lowered her eyes and traced the wood grain in the tabletop with her fingertip. “Of course there have been women.”
“More than a few, fewer than many. Nothing lasting. Never serious.”
She nodded. He went back to assembling the ingredients for his recipe.
“Parker shared with me how you rescued him from the pit, so to speak.”
When he turned back to her, she saw that this revelation had surprised him. But he recovered and said, “He gives me more credit than I deserve. All I did was tell him things he already knew.”
“Like?”
“I told him that he was on a sure path of self-destruction. However, I pointed out to him what a slow path he’d taken. I asked why he was dilly-dallying. I told him that if he truly wanted to be dead, he could have found a way to take himself out.”
“Good psychology.”
He shrugged modestly. “The main thing is, it worked.” He indicated the manuscript pages she had carried in with her from the guest house. “Do you like the latest installment?”
“I’ve been rereading the chapter about Mary Catherine’s miscarriage. Todd is beginning to reveal himself as the villain.”
“Interesting,” Mike murmured. “That you think of him as the villain.”
“Aren’t I supposed to?”
“I believe that’s Parker’s intention, yes.”
“Do you read everything he writes?”
“Only what he asks me to.”
“Which is?”
He grinned at her as he reached into the cabinet for a casserole dish. “Everything he writes.”
“I’m sure he values your opinion.”
Mike scoffed at that. “He thinks the only opinion that counts is his.”
“It’s more the feedback than the opinion that he wants. I’ve learned by working with writers that they like having a sounding board. Even if the sounding board never talks back, they need someone to listen to them as they process thoughts and ideas. You perform a valuable service to Parker—beyond the obvious.”
He didn’t carry the conversation toward the “obvious” services he performed for Parker. Instead he asked if any of her associates at Matherly Press had read the manuscript.
“To honor Parker’s request for anonymity, I’m keeping it under wraps. I did share it with my father, though. He’s as positive about it as I am.”
“Nobody else?”
“No.”
Several times she had urged Noah to read it. Each time he had shown little interest, but in a rushed and absentminded way had promised that he would get to it as soon as his schedule permitted. Now she knew why his schedule was so tight. Much of his time had been allocated to his mistress.
Switching gears, she said, “Speaking of Dad…” It was unlikely that her cell phone had rung without her hearing it, but she took it from her skirt pocket and checked the lighted readout. No missed calls. “I should go call him again. I haven’t been able to get an answer at his house this morning, and that’s unusual.”
She wasn’t worried yet, just a little curious as to why Maxine was out so long. Ordinarily she had supplies delivered so she wouldn’t have to leave the house and Daniel unattended for extended periods of time. Her errands were usually quickly dispatched.
Daniel hadn’t gone to the office today; Maris had checked.
So apparently he and Maxine were out somewhere together. Maybe they’d gone for a walk in Central Park, or to a museum, or to a movie. Daniel enjoyed all those things, and Maxine sometimes accompanied him, welcoming the break from her routine.
But Maris had been trying to reach them for hours. She had left voice-mail messages for them to call her as soon as they returned. Either they hadn’t checked for messages or they had been out for a very long time, and one was as uncustomary as the other.
“You’re welcome to use our phone,” Mike told her.
“Thanks, but I’ll use my cell.” Before leaving she asked Mike if there was anything she could do to help him with dinner. “I’m a working woman, but not a total stranger to the kitchen.”
“I’ll let you pour the wine when the time comes.”
She had known he would refuse her offer, as Maxine always did, but she wanted to offer anyway. “Then will you excuse me?” Collecting the new pages of manuscript, she headed for the back door. “I’m eager to curl up with the next chapter.”