Dangerous Pleasures (3 page)

“Hey, Lizzie, thought that was you,” the patrolman said as he walked up to the driver’s side of the car.

“Hey, Glenn, you going to give me a ticket?” Lizzie wanted to know.

“Nope, just wanted to say hello. We don’t see you a whole lot around here these days. You weren’t home last Christmas,” Glenn said.

“Got invited to go skiing in Aspen with some clients,” Lizzie answered him.

“Married yet?” Glenn drawled, smiling down at her.

“No time,” Lizzie responded candidly.

“Hey, Glenn!”

“Hey, Annie. Didn’t see you sitting there.”

Annie laughed. Glenn never saw anyone or anything when Lizzie was about.

“You married yet?” Lizzie asked the policeman.

“Waiting for you, honeybunch,” he told her.

Lizzie colored. “We’ve got a reservation,” she said.

“Enjoy your lunch,” Glenn replied, and walked back to his patrol car.

“He’s been sweet on you since high school,” Annie said as they once again headed toward the country club. “He’s a good man.”

“I know,” Lizzie answered. “I’m just not ready.”

“You were forty-one in February,” Annie noted.

“And you’ll be forty-three in December,” Lizzie remarked. “You’re a widow with five kids and a modest—no, meager—income. I’m a lawyer with a seven-figure income, a Porsche, and a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath co-op, all paid for in full. I win!”

“But I’ve been loved and cherished, while you live a cold corporate existence,” Annie countered. “I think I win.”

They were both laughing when Lizzie pulled into the country club parking lot.

“Not so cold,” Lizzie said. “My nights can get pretty hot sometimes.”

“Too much information!” Annie said with a grin. “But I’m surprised that you would risk your reputation, when in your business reputation is everything. There aren’t too many good women litigators, sis.”

“Not to worry. I have the Channel to satisfy my wicked desires and keep me sane. As far as the wide world knows, I’m celibate: a prim, no-nonsense attorney with a killer instinct,” Lizzie replied. “The other partners love me,” she said smugly.

The club dining room was practically empty. They sat at a table overlooking the golf course. Lizzie ordered a salad plate, and Annie a club sandwich. Their lunch and their iced teas came quickly. When they were alone again Lizzie spoke.

“You know, now that Nat has been gone two years, you ought to get the Channel. It can be anything you want. It doesn’t just have to be mindless and guilt-free sex. You devote yourself to the kids, Annie, and I know from Mom that you don’t have any social life outside of school events. You need something for yourself.”

“Basic cable is all I can afford,” her sibling answered. “And it’s all I can do to keep up with that. They keep raising their rates all the time. If I could afford something special I’d get the Disney Channel for Whoops. And don’t go offering to give it to me for my birthday,” Annie cautioned her younger sister. “I see that look in your eye. I’m too tired to watch much television these days anyway.”

“If I do something for the kids, will you let me help?” Lizzie asked.

“Like what?”

“Remember Stoneledge Lake?” Lizzie said.

“Our old camp in Vermont? Is it still in existence?” Annie smiled, remembering the summers she and Lizzie had spent there.

“It’s still there. It’s better than ever, and I would love to send the girls this summer,” Lizzie said. “Amy is almost too old, but she won’t be fifteen until the fall, and if she likes it next year she could be a counselor in training. But the twins are the perfect age for Stoneledge Lake. I’m going to Tuscany for a month in August. I’ve rented a villa that’s staffed. I’m taking Mom, and I’d love to take Nathaniel as a graduation gift. If he needs to come back before we do for college that’s fine, but he’s been the man of the family since he was sixteen. I think he could use a break, too.”

“Oh, Lizzie, that is so generous of you!” Annie said, and she felt her eyes beginning to tear. “But it’s too much, really!”

“Oh, pooh! I can afford it, and who else have I got to spend my money on except my nieces and nephews? Look, I’m getting Mom off Dad’s neck so he can golf to his heart’s content. If the girls go to Stoneledge Lake and Nathaniel goes to Italy with us, you are left with only one little boy to look after. It will be like a vacation for you.” She scooped up the last bit of coleslaw from her lettuce.

“I don’t know how Amy is going to feel about camp,” Annie began.

“She’ll hate the idea. Remember how we bitched and complained to Mom and Dad the first year we went? But Amy’s at that age where you and she are going to be at sword point more often than not,” Lizzie remarked. “You need a little bit of a break from her, sis. Let me tell the kids of
our
summer plans, okay? Amy will take it better coming from me than coming from you. I told Mom I’d stay the night, so I don’t have to go into the city until the morning.”

“One kid,” Annie mused. “The girls will be away for eight weeks, right?”

Lizzie chuckled. “Eight glorious weeks!” she answered. “I’ve got plane tickets for three the night of July thirty-first.”

“I’d have Nathaniel for a month before you took off,” Annie said. “He’s got a summer job lined up, but only for a month. I thought he would need August to get ready.” She smiled almost to herself. “Just me and my boys. And then a month with just one. Lizzie, I don’t know how to thank you!”

“The look on your face just has,” her sister responded.

“The twins are going to be over the moon, but I know Amy had a summer of hanging out with all her friends planned,” Annie said slowly. “Oh, the fights we would have had. Thank you for saving me, Lizzie!”

Throwing caution to the wind, they ordered dessert, sharing a tartufo between them before leaving the club to drive to their parents’ house. They found their mother feeding her youngest grandson ice cream. Whoops was looking extremely pleased with himself as he mongreled down the dessert.

“Thank heavens you’re here!” Phyllis said. “Doesn’t this child take a nap anymore?” she demanded to know, her gaze fixing itself on Annie.

“He does if you put him down and tell him that’s it,” Annie replied.

“Well, I asked him if he took a nap, and he said no. I am utterly exhausted chasing after him! Take the little barbarian home.” She sagged against the counter.

“Thanks, Mom, for picking him up,” Annie said, giving her parent a kiss on her cheek. “It was nice to be out for lunch with Lizzie.”

“Are you going to accept your sister’s help for the summer?” Phyllis wanted to know. “Isn’t she just the most generous woman?”

“I am going to accept her help, Mom, and you are one hundred percent right. She is the best sister anyone could have! Hey, isn’t this a first? You and I agreeing on something,” Annie teased her mother.

“Go home!” Phyllis said with a fond swat at her elder daughter. Then she turned to Lizzie. “I serve supper at six o’clock sharp. Your father likes to see the world news.”

“I’ll be back in time,” Lizzie said. “I just want to see the kids and tell them our plans. I thought it might go down easier if I told them.”

“Yes,” Phyllis agreed. “Especially with Amy.”

“Amy’s just like you, Mom,” Lizzie said with a laugh. “See you later.”

As they returned to Parkway Drive, Annie said, “You know, you’re right. Amy is like Mom. I never realized it, but now I know why we don’t get on easily.”

“But I’ll bet Mom never went to school in a short skirt without her drawers,” Lizzie said, laughing. “Did you tell her about Amy?”

“I did not!” Annie said. “She would have said it was all my fault.”

The twins were already home, and greeted their aunt enthusiastically. Nathaniel and Amy came off the high school bus a few minutes later.

“I have exciting news,” Lizzie said. “Come into the den and let me tell you.”

“You’ve found a man, are getting married, and I’m going to be your bridesmaid,” Amy guessed, looking hopeful.

“What do I need a man for?” Lizzie demanded of her eldest niece. “No. It’s even better. I’m sending you, Lily, and Rose to Stoneledge Lake Camp for Girls this summer. Remember? Your Mom and I went there for five summers. It is such a cool place. Tennis, field hockey, soccer, riding, swimming, trips. You know, the whole camp experience! You leave June twenty-eighth!” She smiled broadly.

The twins began to whoop delightedly. They flung themselves at Lizzie, thanking her, hugging her. Amy, however, was obviously confused by her good fortune.

“Why are you sending us away?” she asked. “Is someone dying? Is that it? You don’t want us to be here when they die?”

“Good grief, Amy, you are such a drama queen,” Lizzie replied. “No one is dying. I just thought it would be a cool thing for my nieces to follow in their mother’s and aunt’s footsteps.”

“You aren’t sending Nathaniel to camp,” Amy noted.

“Nope, he’s coming with me and your grandmother to Italy,” Lizzie said.

“Italy?” Amy said.

“Yep, museums, ancient ruins, history,” Lizzie murmured, winking at Nathaniel.

“Ewww,” Amy groaned. “I’d rather go to camp.”

“That’s just what I thought!” Lizzie said. “You see how alike we are, kiddo? Oh, there’s a box in the backseat of the Porsche for you. Go get it, and give us a fashion show. Rose, Lily, you and I will be going camp shopping one Saturday soon, okay?”

“You don’t have to bribe us,” Lily said.

“Yeah,” Rose agreed. “We think camp will be great. Thanks, Aunt Lizzie!”

“Museums? Ruins? History?” Nathaniel said, grinning at his aunt.

“A villa in Tuscany. Wine. Italian girls as ripe as the grapes, a hot little car,” Lizzie murmured seductively with a twinkle.

“Better,” Nathaniel said. “Thanks, Auntie. Oh, Mom, I got accepted at State, wait-listed at Yale,
and
I got accepted to Princeton! I’m going to Princeton!” He looked so happy and hopeful.

“That’s wonderful,” Annie said slowly, “but, Nathaniel, going to Princeton depends on the kind of aid or scholarships you get. You know that, honey.” She felt terrible. She felt awful. Her beautiful son deserved to go to Princeton if that was where he wanted to go.

“I’m being given an alumni scholarship, Mom, for ten thousand dollars. I have to keep my grades up, of course, but if I do it’s good for the four years.”

“Is it ten thousand for the four years, or every year?” Lizzie asked.

“Ten thousand a year for the four years,” he answered her.

“That’s very good,” Lizzie said, looking to her sister.

“Princeton is thirty-three thousand a year,” Annie said.

“He should be able to get almost enough aid to cover it,” Lizzie said, looking meaningfully at her older sister.

“We can’t make any decision, Nathaniel, until we work out the logistics of the financing,” Annie responded quietly. “Lizzie, you had better get going. You know Mom and her six-on-the-dot supper hour.”

Lizzie took the hint. “Walk me to the car,” she said, taking her sister’s arm.

“Don’t even offer,” Annie said softly as they finally stood by the Porsche.

“Let me make up the difference between the aid and the scholarship,” Lizzie said. “We can wait till he has all the aid packages.”

“I can ante up five thousand a year, but no more,” Annie told her sister. “If he gets ten more in aid it’s still not enough. And he’s going to need pocket money.”

“He’ll get an on-campus job,” Lizzie said. “Look, my firm gives scholarship aid to partners’ and employees’ kids with good grades. Nathaniel has very good grades, and helping a kid at Princeton is just up our corporate alley. Don’t be so proud, Annie, that you deny your oldest son his dream school. You know damned well that if Nat were alive he would move heaven and earth to make it happen for his oldest son.”

Annie was silent, and then she finally said, “Okay, but only because I don’t think Amy will go anyplace expensive. God, Lizzie, I really owe you big-time.”

Lizzie Bradford hugged Annie. “Family is everything,” she said. “Even a cold-ass corporate bitch like me knows that.” She slid into the driver’s seat of her car. “I’ll call you in a few days.” And then she was gone.

And suddenly life was smooth for Annie and her family. Her sister’s firm came up with ten thousand dollars in scholarship money for Nathaniel’s first year at Princeton, renewable as long as he kept his grades up. And the guidance counselor at the high school worked with her son so that when graduation day arrived, Nathaniel’s first year’s tuition at college was taken care of, and Annie’s small fund could be kept for any shortfall in the following years. Her son graduated as his class’s valedictorian. School was over until September. Summer had begun in earnest.

The morning of June twenty-eighth came, and Annie drove her three daughters to a central meeting point some forty miles from Egret Pointe, where the camp bus had come to pick up the girls going to Stoneledge Lake Camp. Lily and Rose were still wildly enthusiastic. Amy, however, was having serious second thoughts until she heard her name called. She turned to find herself face-to-face with the most popular girl in her class, Brittany Cowles.

“Hi, Amy! You’re going to Stoneledge? It’s my third summer.”

“My first, but then, duh, of course you know that. My mom and aunt went for five summers,” Amy responded nervously.

“You’re a legacy? That is so cool! Come sit with me on the bus. Maybe we’ll be in the same cabin,” Brittany said. “Hi, twins!”

Amy turned. “Well, Mom, I gotta go.” She gave her mother a quick kiss and hurried to join Brittany.

“Brittany Cowles is one of the most popular girls in high school,” Rose informed her mother. “I hope Amy doesn’t act all slobbery and dorky around her.”

“We’re waiting to see how she behaves before we admit she’s our sister,” Lily told Annie. “Listen, thank Aunt Lizzie for us again.”

“I will,” Annie said. “Have a great time. We sure did.”

The twins hugged their mother and climbed onto the bus. Annie watched it pull out of the IGA parking lot, and then, getting into her own car, drove home.

The house was so quiet with the girls away. She got letters, and to her relief all three of her daughters were having a marvelous time. The twins were doing everything the camp offered. Amy’s letters were full of
Brit this
and
Brit that
. But she was having a good time. July seemed to speed by, and in a few days Nathaniel would be on his way to Italy with his aunt and his grandmother. It would be just Annie and Wills.