Stranger in the Moonlight

  “You’re asking her permission to go?” Her surprise turned to shock.

  “Yes,” Travis said. “I can’t talk anymore. Joe wants me at work at seven A.M. tomorrow. I’m attaching steel shelves to brick walls. I can hardly wait.”

  “I, uh . . .” Penny didn’t know what to say so she murmured good night and hung up. “I think I like this Edilean,” she said as she got back into bed.

  Nine

  “So what’s it like living with him?” Carla asked Kim the next morning. “Great sex, huh? He looks like he’d be fabulous in bed. How’s his endurance? Does he—?”

  “Carla!” Kim snapped. “Could you please be a bit more professional?”

  “Not getting any, are you? Not with an attitude like that. Saving yourself for Dave? But if you change your mind, I know this perfume you could try that might help. It—”

  Kim went into her office and shut the door. She hadn’t seen Travis this morning, as he’d already gone to work at Joe’s new store. He’d left her a funny note on the kitchen counter about how he was looking forward to learning how to drill holes in brick. They should have turned the bricks on their sides. They already have holes in them, he’d written, making her smile.

  It was nice to start the day with a laugh, but she would have liked to have seen him.

  Her cell rang with a number she didn’t know.

  “Meet me for lunch?” Travis asked. “Please?”

  Instantly, her bad mood lifted. “Where?” She refrained from saying, When? How? Should I bring food? How about a few clarity three diamonds?

  “How about Delmonico’s circa 1899?”

  “Love it. I’ll get my corset out of storage.”

  “Can you put it on all by yourself?”

  “I may need help,” Kim said and felt her heart beating in her throat. She loved this teasing!

  “I would like to volunteer to help you, but at the present I am a conjoined twin. Joe has attached himself to me. Can you bear to have lunch with the two of us?”

  “I’d be honored,” Kim said. “If it’s Joe, he wants to go to Al’s Diner.”

  “I’ve seen that place and I’m not sure it’s right. Joe specifically said that he wants al dente pasta and steamed broccoli for lunch. And a tablecloth and—”

  “Limoges and Christofle,” Kim finished.

  “Exactly! See you at the greaseburger at noon?”

  “My arteries are looking forward to it,” Kim said and went back into the shop with a big smile.

  Carla looked up as she was putting a tray of bracelets away. “Whatever made you smile like that isn’t half as good as what just happened to me.”

  “Oh?” Kim asked as she glanced at the trays. The bracelet Travis had admired was gone and so was the ring with the big pink diamond. “Good sale?”

  “Tremendous! A man was buying for his mother. He had an eye and picked out the best in the store with hardly a glance. And . . .”

  “And what?”

  “He asked me to go out with him tonight.”

  “Don’t half the men who come in here ask you out?”

  “The sleazebags do. And the married losers,” Carla said. “The classy ones like him want you.”

  Kim was in such a good mood she was willing to listen to Carla, but the door opened and a very handsome man came in. Not as dark as Travis, and he didn’t have that world-weary look that Travis often had, but this man was gorgeous. And the suit he wore must have cost thousands.

  He glanced at Kim, gave a quick nod of greeting, then went straight to Carla.

  Standing to one side, Kim watched the two of them. They were an incongruous pair. Although Kim had had numerous talks with her about the way she dressed, Carla’s blouse was always opened one button too far, her skirt an inch or two too short, and she wore too much makeup. The man looked like he’d just left an exclusive club, while Carla . . . Well, there was a lot of discrepancy between their looks.

  “I think I’ll take the pearl earrings as well,” he said in a smooth, silky voice as he looked at Carla as though he wanted to devour her.

  “Sure, Mr. Pendergast,” Carla said.

  “I told you to call me Russell,” he said.

  “Will do,” Carla said but continued to stand there staring at him.

  Kim went to the far counter and got out her best pearl earrings. Since he’d bought two expensive items, she figured they were the earrings he wanted. A curve like a shell, the pearl embraced by it. She put them on the counter, then nudged them along between the two people, who were staring at each other.

  The man turned to her, his almost black eyes looking at her with a remarkable intensity, as though he was studying her. If Travis weren’t here now, she thought, she’d look back at this man. But she just smiled at him in a professional way.

  “You’re the designer? Kimberly Aldredge?”

  “Yes I am.”

  “I’m Russell Pendergast. I’m just passing through town and I had no idea there would be a store of such quality here. Your designs are exquisite.”

  His voice and pronunciation spoke of a very good education. Like Travis, she thought.

  Behind him, Carla was glaring, her eyes threatening that if Kim made a play for the man, blood might be shed.

  “Where could I get lunch in the area?” he asked.

  “I know some places,” Carla said from behind him. “I get off at one.”

  “And what about you, Miss Aldredge? When do you have lunch?”

  Kim took a step away from him. As enticing as he was, she wasn’t interested. “I’m meeting friends at the local greasy spoon. I wouldn’t recommend it to an outsider. Excuse me.” She went back into her office.

  Interesting, she thought as she picked up her sketchbook and put her mind back on work. Maybe she should make some more designs based on shells. She had to come up with a theme for Neimans, so maybe she’d do something about the sea.

  An hour later she left for lunch. Mr. Layton and Travis were already in a booth with their drinks. As soon as he saw her, Travis’s dark eyes lit up in a way that made Kim smile. He stood up, kissed her on the cheek, then let her in first.

  “Have any idea what you want for lunch?” Travis asked as he nodded toward Joe. “The old man couldn’t wait so we ordered.”

  “Al knows,” she said and waved to the big man they could see in the kitchen. It looked like Travis and Mr. Layton were getting to know each other well.

  “No kisses for me?” Mr. Layton asked. “You just pass them out to the young bucks now?”

  “Sorry,” Kim said as she stretched across the table to kiss his cheek. She didn’t see Travis as he admired the view of her body. And she didn’t see Mr. Layton give him a look that said Travis owed him one.

  “What have you two been doing?” she asked.

  “Him nothing; me everything,” Travis said.

  She looked at him. His shirt was dirty and there was sawdust on his temple. Reaching up, she brushed it away, then was aware of the way Mr. Layton was staring at them.

  Kim moved a bit farther down on the seat. “We had an exciting morning.”

  “Better than cutting pieces of lumber to make sawponies?” Travis asked in sarcasm.

  “Sawhorses,” Kim corrected. Mr. Layton’s eyes were twinkling. “You’re being wicked and I’m going to tell Jecca on you.” She looked back at Travis. “A young man came in this morning and bought my three most expensive pieces.”

  “Did he?” Travis asked.

  “He told Carla they were for his mother. He had on a suit that looks like the one you were wearing when I first saw you.”

  “Before I discovered the joys of T-shirts with trucking logos on them?” Travis asked.

  Mr. Layton didn’t smile. “What’s his name?”

  “Russell Pendergast and he asked Carla out on a date tonight.”

  Travis choked on his drink. “Pendergast?”

  “Yes, do you know him?”

  “Never met the guy,” Travis said and could fe
el Joe Layton’s eyes boring into him. “What’s he like?”

  “Gorgeous,” Kim said. “Smooth. He exudes education and wealth.”

  “Does he?” Travis asked in curiosity. “And he bought your most expensive pieces for his mother? Interesting. Where’d he go to school? Maybe I know him.”

  “I have no idea. But after his date with Carla I’m sure I’ll hear everything. I can’t really see the two of them together. He—”

  “Did he come on to you?” Travis asked, his dark brows in a scowl.

  “I don’t think that’s any of your—” Kim began and could feel her temper rising.

  “Ah, good!” Joe said loudly. “Our food is here. If you two’d rather fight than eat, let me know so I can sell tickets.”

  “There will be no argument,” Kim said. “Russell and I are going out Saturday night.”

  “On Saturday you’re going to be in a B&B with your almost fiancé,” Travis said grimly.

  “That’s right,” Kim said, smiling at Mr. Layton. “I can’t keep all my men straight.”

  “You ought to take young Travis here with you.”

  “With me where?” Kim asked.

  “Over the weekend,” Joe said.

  “Take Travis on my weekend with my boyfriend?” Kim asked. Truthfully, she liked the idea but she wasn’t going to say so. If Dave did propose, Travis’s presence would give her time to think about an answer. And if Dave got too . . . insistent, too whatever, Travis would be there. But she’d eat one of Al’s ’57 burgers and have an immediate coronary before she told him so.

  “Yeah,” Joe said as he bit into a pound of meat that dripped juice—a.k.a. grease—down to his wrists. “Travis here said you were going to do some work. How can you do that if you’re fooling around with your boyfriend? Take Travis and he can do all the work.”

  Travis gave Joe a look that was half thanks, half murder.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Kim said as she used her fork to move around what was Al’s idea of a salad. Lots of fried chicken, not much lettuce. “I’ll think about it,” she said and didn’t dare look at Travis. She had an idea he was smiling much too broadly.

  As the morning sunlight came through the windows, Travis was sitting in Kim’s living room and trying to concentrate on the newspaper, but he couldn’t. She’d left for work an hour ago, and since then he’d been waiting for Penny’s son to show up.

  Yesterday after lunch at Al’s with Kim and Joe, Travis had gone to see his mother. As he entered Mrs. Wingate’s house, the hum of his mother’s sewing machine reached him, and the familiarity of the sound felt good. When he got upstairs, it was easy for him to fall into place with her and begin cutting out a pattern. Sewing was something they’d done together when he was a child. They never talked about it, but it reminded them of their time in Edilean, a time of peace for both of them. Those two weeks had changed both their lives.

  Travis had been a bit concerned about what his mother knew about him and Joe, but she soon made him relax. They’d always been close and nearly always in agreement. At first he’d been afraid she’d again lecture him about Kim, but the anger she’d displayed on their first meeting was no longer there.

  Instead they easily fell into talking about Joe. Travis told her everything—except that Joe knew Travis was Lucy’s son. But all the rest of it, from unpacking to being told sawponies were sawhorses, to having to attach steel shelves to a brick wall, was there.

  When Lucy began laughing at Travis’s stories, he got her away from the machines—she worked too much—and down to the kitchen. As they’d done when he was growing up, Travis made tea while she made the sandwiches. When they were ready, Lucy led him into the conservatory. For a while he walked around, admiring the orchids that filled the room. When he sat down, Lucy asked him about Kim.

  Travis hesitated.

  “You can tell me,” she said softly. “Are you still in love with her?”

  “Yes,” he said, then looked at his mother with eyes that showed the depth of his feeling. “More than ever. More than I thought possible.”

  For a moment tears gathered in Lucy’s eyes. She was a mother who hoped her child would find love.

  “She’s funny and perceptive,” Travis said as he picked up a sandwich wedge. When he was little his mother had cut off the crusts and sliced the bread diagonally into four pieces. As he grew up, she’d continued. “And very smart. And you should see the jewelry in her store. It’s all beautiful!”

  “I have seen it,” Lucy said. “Whenever I heard that Kim was out of town, I visited her shop. I like the olive leaves.”

  “So do I,” Travis said. He stood up and fiddled with a long orchid leaf for a moment before turning back. “I feel comfortable with her. I don’t feel like I have to impress her. Although I do work at that.”

  “Joe said you drove down the back road and he couldn’t see how you’d done it.”

  Travis shrugged. “Stunt work. It wasn’t difficult.”

  “And something about a balloon?” Lucy asked.

  “I couldn’t stand to hear the kid cry, so I climbed up a tree and got it down for him.”

  “You always have had a soft heart.”

  “No one in New York would say that,” Travis said.

  “No, I guess not. You have both your father and me inside you. What are you going to do now?”

  Travis sat back down. “Joe fixed it so I’m going to spend the weekend with Kim. I’ll be in a connecting room, and she might be with her boyfriend. But still . . . I’ll be near her.”

  “He told me,” she said as she smiled at her son. She’d never seen him this way, and it did her heart good.

  “Did he? What other of my secrets did that nosy old man blab to you?”

  Lucy smiled. Since the two of them had met, all she’d heard from Joe was “Travis.” What Travis said, did, his worries, his deep love for Kim, Travis’s suggestions about the hardware store. Every word of it, Joe repeated to Lucy.

  “You should have seen him with Kim,” Joe’d said when he’d called her after their lunch at Al’s. “The poor guy can’t take his eyes off her.”

  “What about her?” Lucy’d asked. “What does Kim think of my . . . of Travis?” If Joe heard her slip, he didn’t seem to register it.

  “She acts like she pays no attention to him, that he’s just another guy, but if he moves, she sees it. When I suggested that she take young Travis with her to Maryland, her face lit up like a New Year’s spotlight.”

  Lucy looked at her son. “Joe likes you a lot.”

  “You’d never know it from what he says,” Travis said, but he was smiling. “According to Joe Layton, any man who can’t use a handsaw properly isn’t worth much. I told him I was a lawyer and you know what he said?”

  Lucy had heard the story from Joe but she wanted to hear it again from Travis. “I can’t imagine.”

  “He said . . .”

  Now, with the newspaper in front of him, Travis couldn’t help smiling. Last night had been the way he remembered with his mother, her kindness, her humor, her sweetness. He was glad he hadn’t had to endure another session where she bawled him out.

  On the other hand, that woman might be able to handle Randall Maxwell in a courtroom.

  That evening when Travis had returned home—as he’d begun to think of wherever Kim was—she’d been about to throw a couple of frozen dinners into the microwave. When Travis was going through school he’d spent more than one summer crewing on private yachts. One year, to his horror, he was assigned the position of “chef.” He didn’t know how to boil water.

  He put the dinners back in the freezer and looked to see what else was in there as he told Kim the story. “So there I was, not knowing an egg from a watermelon, and I was supposed to spend six weeks cooking three meals a day for the rich old man and his young wife.”

  Kim crunched on the carrot stick he’d cut for her. “So what did you do?”

  “I put on my most helpless look”—he demonstrated—
“and asked the wife to help out.”

  “Did she?”

  “Oh yes,” Travis said as he put chicken breasts in the microwave to thaw. He was glad his back was to Kim as he thought about that trip. He didn’t want her to see his face.

  But she’d understood. “What else did she teach you?”

  Travis started laughing. “A little bit here and there.” Moonlight, stars, the old man snoring below. He’d been nineteen years old and innocent. Not so innocent when they got back to the U.S.

  He and Kim had a dinner that he’d never wanted to end. She told him more about her jewelry and what she hoped to do. “I have a big commission coming up and I need some new inspiration.”

  “This trip to Maryland will be good for you.”

  “That was my idea when I let Joce talk me into going.”

  “You didn’t originally plan to go with this guy, did you?”

  “Dave? No, I didn’t.”

  “He invited himself?” Travis asked.

  “More or less,” Kim said, “but I do think he has something important to say to me. Between him and Carla I’ve been given enough hints.”

  A lot of things came into Travis’s mind that he wanted to say, but he thought he’d better keep his opinions to himself. Penny’s son, Russell, was on a date with Carla and the plan was for him to meet Travis in the morning and report on what he found out.

  But it was now midmorning and Russell still hadn’t shown up. At that thought, Travis had to smile. The small town mind-set was getting to him. In New York he often didn’t get up until this time. But then he’d usually been out late the night before. Clients loved to be entertained and shown New York nightlife.

  When the doorbell rang, Travis put down the paper and went to the door in a few long strides. He was curious to see this man Kim had described as “gorgeous,” and he wanted to meet the son of the woman who his father had described as his “most trusted employee.” She’d worked for Randall Maxwell since she was young, and when Travis had been coerced into working for him, Randall had released Penny to Travis to “take care of him.”

  Travis opened the door to find himself staring into the angriest eyes he’d ever looked into. Considering all the things his father had had him do, that was a lot.