Stranger in the Moonlight

  Kim knew that whatever happened she needed to keep her cool. She couldn’t go running to the two sons of Randall Maxwell and gush about what she’d just been told. Would they smile at her in an indulgent way and say they knew all that? That they’d figured it out long ago? Kim didn’t think she could bear that humiliation.

  She stopped outside the door to the diner and took a deep breath. She needed to keep a straight face and do what the Maxwell boys did and keep secrets to herself.

  There were few people in the diner, and Travis and Russell stood out. They were at a little round wooden table close to a wall, with their backs to her. There was a big bowl of popcorn between them and they were eating and drinking beer as they looked up at a TV screen. A soccer match was playing and both men seemed totally absorbed in it.

  Yet again, Kim marveled at how alike the two men were. If they changed clothes, and she saw them from the back, she wondered if she could tell them apart.

  Travis turned and saw her. For a moment he looked at her so hard she thought he knew where she’d been. But then his face relaxed, he smiled, and moved a chair out for her.

  “You didn’t buy anything?” he asked.

  “Buy . . . ?” She had to remember that she did go to a store. “I didn’t see anything I liked.”

  Russell was staring at her. “You look like something happened.”

  “Just looking forward to the company of two gorgeous men,” Kim said quickly. So much for keeping secrets, she thought. “So what’s good to eat here?” she asked.

  “We waited for you,” Travis said. He was still looking at her as though he was trying to read her mind. “Ol’ Russell here has something to show us, but he wanted to wait until you were here.”

  Kim refused to meet Travis’s eyes. She didn’t want him seeing more than she wanted him to know. “That sounds interesting. What is it?”

  Russell got up from the table and went to the side wall where there was a package, about two feet by three feet, wrapped in brown paper. As he picked it up and began to open it, he put his back to them so they couldn’t see what he had. When he turned around, he was holding what was obviously a picture and from the look of the back of the canvas, it was quite old. He held it facing him, concealing it from them.

  “Ever the showman,” Travis said.

  “You should talk, Maxwell,” Russell said as he looked at Kim. “I was curious about these Dr. Tristans so I did a search and some photos came up. Distinctive-looking man is your cousin.”

  Kim couldn’t help smiling. That was one way of putting it about her cousin’s extraordinary beauty.

  Still looking at Kim, Russell turned the picture around, and she gasped. The man in the portrait looked very much like her cousin Dr. Tristan Aldredge. “Is that him? The doctor who was killed in the mine?” she asked.

  Russell leaned the portrait against the wall and took his seat at the table. They were all three facing it. “That’s James Hanleigh, born 1880, died 1982.”

  “But . . .” Kim began. “He really does look like my cousin Tristan.”

  Travis looked back at the two of them. “Wrong side of the blanket?”

  “That’s my guess,” Russell said. He started to say more but the waitress came to take their orders. Kim ordered a club sandwich and Travis got crab cakes with a triple order of coleslaw and a beer. She wasn’t the least surprised when Russell said he’d have the same. She tried not to glance at him but she couldn’t help herself. As she knew he would be, Russell’s eyes were dancing with merriment. She wanted to kick him under the table.

  Their lunch conversation was about how the portrait had been found. It seemed that Russell’s uncle Bernie had discovered it.

  “I needed to give him something to do to work off all that food,” Russell said. “He told me that last night he’d run off some photos of the present Dr. Tristan Aldredge that he’d found online, passed them around to his mother’s relatives, and told them to see if anyone in town recognized him. Sometimes blood relatives look like each other,” Russell said—and again he looked at Kim with a smile.

  “And he found this portrait in one of the stores?” Travis asked.

  “No. That would be too easy. He found some old man who said he thought maybe he’d seen a picture of Dr. Aldredge but he couldn’t remember where. Uncle Bernie sent relatives out looking and asking and—”

  “This all happened while we were at the Old Mill?” Travis asked.

  “Every bit of it. I think my relatives were like a locust invasion on little Janes Creek.”

  “And where did they find it?” Kim asked.

  “In the home of a little old lady who bought it at a yard sale thirty years ago for fifty bucks.”

  “How much?” Travis asked.

  “Fifty—”

  “No, how much did I have to pay for it?”

  “Twelve grand.”

  “What?!” Kim said.

  “She drove a hard bargain,” Russell said, obviously enjoying himself, “and besides, she needed a new roof.”

  “I’ll reimburse—” Kim began but stopped at the look Travis gave her.

  “So how is he related and how does he fit in the family tree?” Travis asked.

  “I haven’t found that out yet. Give me the afternoon and at dinner I’ll tell you everything.”

  “So you don’t know if there are any Hanleighs still in town?” Travis’s tone was that of a challenge.

  “Not yet.” Russell was calm, amused even.

  Kim kept her attention on her food. Her mind was so full of all that Mrs. Pendergast had told her that she couldn’t think about finding the descendant of some young man who may or may not be her relative.

  When they finished eating, Travis asked if she was ready to go to the jewelry store.

  For a moment she had no idea what he was talking about and stared at him blankly.

  He smiled at her, his eyes alight. “I agree,” he said in a voice that could only be described as seductive. Travis looked at Russell. “Kim and I are going to . . .”

  “Take a nap,” Russell said.

  “Well put,” Travis said as he backed his chair out, and held out his arm to Kim. “Thanks for lunch and we’ll see you at dinner.”

  Travis led her out of the diner and to the car. The ride back to the B&B was silent.

  Kim knew that Travis was hinting at sex. And why shouldn’t he? It was a romantic little town, a charming B&B. They were young and by all accounts in love, so they should be spending every waking moment together in bed. Isn’t that what she’d told her brother that she wanted? What had she said? “I’ll take all the passionate sex I can get. Days of it. Weeks if I can get it. Months would be divine.”

  So now she had it and what she really wanted was to call her friend Jecca and spend about four hours on the telephone. Right now what Kim needed more than anything else was the release that discussion would bring.

  So maybe I should find Red and ask him for advice, she thought. Ask the man who caused all the problems how to fix them? She gave a snort of laughter.

  “What was that about?” Travis asked as he parked the car.

  “Nothing,” she said as she got out.

  He held her hand as they went up the stairs to their connecting rooms. Once they were inside, he bent to kiss her, but Kim pushed back.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I have a . . . a headache and I think I should lie down for a while.”

  Travis stepped away from her. “Can I get you anything?”

  “No, nothing,” Kim said. “I just need some time . . . alone.”

  “Sure, of course,” he said. He walked to the door to his room, opened it, went through and shut it behind him.

  Kim looked at the bed. Maybe if she took a nap she’d feel better, but she knew she couldn’t sleep. Mrs. Pendergast’s words ran through her head. How much to tell? How much to hide? How much to—?

  “No!” Travis said from the open door. “This isn’t all right. None of it is. Something happened to you t
oday and I want to know what it is.”

  “I can’t—”

  “So help me, if you say you can’t tell me, I’ll—”

  “You’ll what?” she shot at him, her voice rising with every word. “Leave? Walk away when things get too much for you? Disappear like you did before? Leave me alone, without a word? Let me search for you for years and all the time you were sneaking around at my art shows? Is that what you’ll do?”

  “No,” he said softly. “I won’t do that ever again. But right now, what I am going to do is stay in this room with you until you tell me what’s tearing you up inside.”

  “I . . .” Her anger left her and she sat down on the side of the bed, her hands over her face.

  Travis sat down beside her and put his arm around her, drawing her head to his shoulder. “Does this have to do with Russell being my half brother?”

  Kim hesitated for only a second. “How did . . . ?”

  “I’ve not had a lot of experience with relatives, but I’m a good observer. Who else can look at you with the hatred Russ had for me that first day? It was like looking in a mirror, except that one reflection wanted to murder the other one.”

  Kim let out a deep sigh of relief that he knew. When her body relaxed, Travis turned her around on the bed so they stretched out together.

  “So what happened while I was on the phone to Penny? You were fine while we were shopping, but when you came into the diner you were so white you looked like a vampire had drained you of blood.”

  “That’s a more appropriate description than you know,” Kim said with a grimace.

  Travis kissed her forehead. “I want to hear every word of it. Don’t leave anything out.”

  “But—”

  He leaned over her and looked into her eyes. “No buts. No excuses. And most of all, no fear. Especially not of me. Did you murder anyone I love?”

  She knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but to Kim all this was very serious. “No,” she said, “but I’m considering running your father down with a lawn mower.”

  Travis’s face lost its look of amusement and she saw the man who appeared in courtrooms. He fell back on the bed and pulled her to him so close she could hardly breathe. If she’d had her way, she would have moved even closer.

  Where to begin? “Remember last night before dinner when I waited for you while you talked on the phone?”

  “To that idiot Forester? Sure. What happened?”

  “I met your father.” Travis’s hand tightened on Kim’s shoulder, but otherwise he said nothing.

  Once Kim started her story, Travis said little, and listened hard. She told him of her two encounters with the man who called himself Red, and she went over every word she could remember of their conversations. She told Travis of Red’s little homily about children eating lead paint but only remembering being forbidden from doing what they wanted to do.

  “That sounds like Dad. He thinks he can explain away every rotten thing he does.”

  She could tell that he wasn’t shocked that his father had shown up in Janes Creek. But Travis drew in his breath when she told of Mr. Maxwell fishing in Edilean.

  “I never asked Mom where she heard of Edilean in the first place. I never even thought about it, but Dad could have told her. It makes sense. Go on, please.”

  She told him of when she realized Russell was his brother. “They were giving me looks of pleading not to tell you.”

  “Penny was. Russ was enjoying every second of it.”

  “You knew?!”

  “One of the things I’ve learned in being a lawyer is to watch as well as listen. None of you were subtle.”

  “Do you think Russ knows you know?”

  “Of course. The kid is loving every minute of this.”

  “He’s not even two years younger than you are, so he’s not really a kid.”

  “Does your brother see you as an adult?”

  “Not at all,” Kim said.

  “So what happened today while I was in the diner?”

  “I met with your Mrs. Pendergast.”

  Travis was silent for a moment. “Now you’re shocking me. What did Penny have to say?”

  “She doesn’t know your father is here. She—”

  “No, wait. Tell me from the beginning. How she contacted you, what she said, you did, every word of it and don’t leave anything out.”

  Slowly, Kim began to go over what happened. She started with the chairs and how she moved hers.

  Chuckling, Travis hugged her and gave her a hard kiss on the mouth. “Good girl! I’m proud of you.”

  Kim liked his kiss so much that she returned it, but both of them wanted—needed—to talk about what she’d been told.

  She started on the easier things, what she thought was least likely to upset Travis. She told him of how Russell was conceived. When Travis didn’t reply, she said, “You don’t seem surprised.”

  “I am, actually, but in an opposite way from what you mean. The scuttlebutt around the office is that Dad and Penny were lovers for years. The surprise is that it was just once.”

  “A one time that produced a child.”

  “Big, ugly kid at that,” Travis said, and Kim heard affection in his voice. “What else? And what are you holding back?”

  “Will you let me tell the story in my own time?”

  “I think I have, haven’t I?” he said softly.

  Turning, she looked at him, her eyes asking what he meant.

  “I didn’t take over.”

  “You mean like you did with Dave?” she asked.

  “I . . .” He hesitated, as what he had to say was difficult for him. “I’m afraid I have more of my father in me than I want. When I took over Borman Catering, I was high-handed, and as you told me, I didn’t believe that you could handle something like that on your own. I apologize. I’m not going to do that again. I’m not going to step in and take over your life, but I do think that if we’re going to make this work that we need to do things together. As a pair, a team. I’m here and I can listen. Maybe if you tell me what is bothering you, together the two of us, can find a solution.” He grinned. “That said . . . I admit that I have never been told off by anyone as you did. I had to check my eyebrows to make sure you hadn’t singed them off.”

  “I wasn’t that bad.”

  “Yes you were and I deserved it.”

  She snuggled back into his arms. “So this time . . .”

  “This time I sat back and let you handle it on your own, and that wasn’t easy for me. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to let Russell know what I thought of the way he was smirking at you.”

  “Your brother.”

  “Yeah,” Travis said with a little catch in his voice. “Odd thought, that one. Okay, so tell me more.”

  Kim took a breath. “You’re not going to like this part.”

  “That means it’s about Dad.”

  “Yes, it is,” Kim said and began telling him Randall Maxwell’s point of view of Travis’s childhood. He didn’t speak during the whole time and when she finished, Kim looked at him.

  “I’d guessed some of it,” he said. “Not that Dad would ever admit to me that he was bullied by anyone. My guess is that his mouth got him in trouble. He tends to order everyone around, and he was probably the same as a kid.”

  “You’re not upset by this?”

  “I . . .” Travis began, and smiled. “No, I’m not. This is hard to admit, but maybe I went to work for him because I wanted to know if I could cut it with my old man. It’s not easy being the son of Randall Maxwell. Sometimes when I was doing stunt work the guys would ask me why I was risking my neck every day. They liked to tell me that if they were me, they’d be on a private jet sipping champagne.”

  “But not you,” Kim said. “At least not then. I think you did come to like those things.”

  “I did. I had lots of champagne. Lots of—well, other things.”

  “Must have been nice,” Kim said quietly.

  “N
ot really. You know something? I received more actual caring from Joe Layton than I did from . . . well, from most anyone I ever met. Can I tell you a secret?”

  “Please do,” she said. She was smiling at his words about Joe, the man who was going to be his stepfather. Joe lived in Edilean, so maybe Travis would too.

  “I want to open a camp.”

  “What kind of camp?”

  “A free one,” Travis said. “It’s been in my mind for years and I thought I’d try it in California, but ever since I saw the preserve around Edilean, it’s stayed with me. Joe could build it, Penny could manage it, and—”

  “She wants to retire.”

  “After years with my father this would be a retirement.”

  “Your mom could decorate the place.”

  He pulled her up to face him. “How do you think you’d be at teaching kids how to make macaroni necklaces?”

  “I taught you how to make a house for a doll, so I can teach anyone anything.”

  “Taught me? Ha! You ordered me around.” He was unbuttoning her shirt.

  “Please tell me you aren’t going to ask me to shut down my business and work for you.”

  “I’d never dream of it,” he said as his lips touched her neck. “But I can tell you that my secret plan is to take over managing your finances.”

  “Would you please?” she whispered as his mouth took her breast.

  “Think I can get you to give me a recommendation to your local law firm?”

  She drew back from her mouth on his ear. “Our very own McDowell, Aldredge, and Welsch? You have to be born into that law firm.”

  “Marriage not good enough?” he asked, but then his mouth was on hers.

  An hour before, the last thing Kim wanted was sex, but now all she wanted was release.

  “I think we have a future,” she whispered.

  Travis drew back from her. “What?”

  “I think we have a future,” she repeated.

  “You . . .” He began, but stopped. “You really did think I was going to leave you?”

  “Yes. I mean no. I just couldn’t figure out where we were going to live.”

  “Your house, if I can get you to move your stuff out of the garage. Joe said—”