After the Loving (6 page)

“Is she…? How is she?”

“She’s fine, but we want her to rest a couple of hours before you take her home.”

“You’re sure? You’re sure she’s all right?” he asked her.

“Absolutely. You got her here in good time, so there won’t
be any permanent damage, but there certainly could have been. She said she thought she spit it out when she realized it wasn’t chocolate, but she swallowed enough of it to make her very sick. If you want something to eat or drink, there’s a cafeteria on the first level down. Take the elevator.”

“Can we go in and see her?” he asked. “Just for a second?”

“I’d rather not. It’s important that she rest. Are you Mr. Russ?”

“Yes. I’m Russ Harrington, and this is Velma Brighton, Tara’s aunt.”

“I’m glad to meet you. I’m Nurse Parker. She said to tell you she’s not sick. She’ll be out in two hours.”

“Two hours to…well, at least she’ll be all right,” he said to Velma. “Let’s go downstairs and get something to eat.” They got on the elevator and went to the cafeteria. He chose a hamburger, french fries and salad. He put it on the table and stared at it.

“What’s wrong?” Velma asked him.

He ran his fingers through his silky curls and then rubbed the back of his neck. “I must be losing it. I don’t eat junk like this.”

“This chicken fried steak is pretty good, want a sample?”

He tasted it. “Not bad.” He dumped his tray of food into the trash bin and returned with the steak, mashed potatoes and a container of milk.

“After we finish, I want to go upstairs and see my uncle. He’s terminally ill, and my brothers and I are his only visitors. I’d like you to come with me, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind. I’ll be glad to go with you.”

He found Fentress Sparkman propped up in bed reading the Bible that Russ had given him as a present the previous Christmas.

“How are you feeling, sir?”

“Some days, I feel pretty good, some not. I’m glad to see you. Telford sent me an invitation to his wedding. Did he marry a woman you like?”

“Yes, indeed, and he’s on his honeymoon right now. This is Velma Brighton. Velma, my uncle, Fentress Sparkman.”

Sparkman nodded his head. “Glad to meet you.” He patted the Bible. “It was good of you to give me this, Russ. I read it all the time. You and your brothers have made my last days happy ones.”

Russ grasped the frail hand that reached out to him. “It’s too bad we couldn’t have had a normal relationship all along, sir. I’ll be back to see you as soon as I can.”

“Don’t make it too long. Thanks for coming and bringing your friend.”

They told him goodbye and went back to the waiting room. Almost as soon as they sat down, he heard himself telling her the story of his uncle and his father. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” he said, “except maybe because it still surprises me, makes me wonder. That story had a strong effect on me—I pay careful attention to the way I treat people. A stranger, even an enemy, could be a close relative.”

He got up and walked toward the door leading to patient care. “What’s holding them?” He walked back to Velma. “All I have is that nurse’s word.”

Velma walked over to where he stood strung out with anxiety. “She’s a professional, Russ, and she deals with patients’ families all the time. She wouldn’t mislead us.”

He slapped his left fist in his right palm. “You’re right, I know, but it’s taking so long. How could she be so weak that she needs to rest for two whole hours?” He remembered
to call Henry who he knew was worried about Tara and anxious for her well-being.

“How is she?” Henry asked as he lifted the receiver.

He told Henry as much as he knew. “It appears that she’ll be as good as new. I just didn’t want you to worry more.”

“Worry more? I never been so upset in me life. Thanks for letting me know.”

As Russ hung up, the door swung open, and the nurse wheeled Tara through it in a wheelchair. “Mr. Russ! Aunt Velma! They put a tube down my throat, they gave me this big bunny and these balloons, and when I get big, I’m going to play the piano for them.”

He raced to the wheelchair, stopped and stared at the nurse. “Can’t she walk?”

“Yes, but we always release patients this way.”

“Do you have a clerk or someone who I can pay?” he asked her.

“Fill out this form, and we’ll send you a bill. After you do that, she may go.”

He thanked the nurse, filled out the forms and lifted Tara from the wheelchair. He looked the child in the eyes. “If you ever give me another scare like this one, I’m going to tweak your nose.” Her giggles filled his heart with such happiness that he couldn’t help hugging her as he walked to his car with her in his arms and Velma holding his hand.

As he drove home, the thought occurred to him time and again that he’d learned much about himself in the last five days, all of it important and some of it life-changing.

After supper, when they had finally tucked the excited little girl in bed, he sat with Velma and Henry in the den musing over what he considered his odd behavior.

“Henry, I had planned to work on a project we have in Philadelphia, but what happened with Tara suggests to me that I ought to work here at home until Telford gets
back. Drake can’t stay home. He has to leave for Barbados tomorrow.”

“Well, I ain’t what I used to be, and I haven’t driven a car in years, but Velma here can drive. You don’t have to change yer plans. We can manage.”

“I know I can count on you, Henry, and that you care as much for our home as I do. After all, it’s your home. But my mind tells me to stay here, and I don’t mind doing it. My computer and my brain are about all I need in order to work.”

Around ten in the morning, two days later, he looked up from his draft board and glanced at his bedroom window just as a silver-gray Lincoln Town Car turned into the circle that graced the front of Harrington House. A familiar car. He got up, went downstairs and opened the door at the first peal of the doorbell.

Jack Stevenson. “What can I do for you, man?” he asked Jack.

“I want to see Alexis.” He started past Russ, but didn’t get far before he felt the weight of Russ’s hand on his shoulder.

“What do you want with her?”

“It’s not your business.”

Same old Jack. “It may be her husband’s business. Would you like me to give him a message?”

“What husband? What the hell are you talking about?”

The pleasure he got from anticipating Jack’s reaction to his next words sent tremors through his body. “Didn’t anybody tell you? Alexis Harrington is on her honeymoon with Telford Harrington. As we speak, man.”

“You’re lying to me.”

“Sorry. It’s a matter of public record. Check it with the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Frederick, or
with me, since I was best man and legal witness. You want to check it with Velma? I think she’s playing checkers with your daughter.”

Jack stared at him. “The big guy. He got her after all.”

“Nobody in this house ever doubted that they would marry. Uh… You want me to call Tara?”

“Naah. I’m…I’m out of here.”

“Really? Yesterday, just before I took Tara to the emergency room in Frederick General Hospital, she asked me if she could call Telford ‘daddy,’ and I told her she had a daddy. She said she only has to call you daddy when she sees you, and she doesn’t see you often. What do you think she should call her stepfather?”

“Damned if I care.” Jack moved the few steps toward the front door, but Russ had one more rock to toss and put his hand on the doorknob, effectively imprisoning Jack.

“I got your daughter to the emergency room in time for the doctors to save her life, but since it didn’t occur to you to ask how she is, I won’t tell you.” He opened the door, and with a sweep of his hand, invited the man to leave.

“I see we won’t be bothered with you in the future, buddy, and good riddance,” he called after Jack.

He went into the kitchen and related the incident to Henry. “There’s no telling how he might have behaved if I hadn’t been here. Jack learned months ago not to cross me.”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “Oh, his type is nothing to worry about. Just put his five-year-old daughter in front of him, and he’s ready to go.” He stopped kneading dough. “Alexis sent him an invitation to the wedding, but I guess he didn’t open it, probably thinking it was something about his daughter. She don’t need him. Tel’s her daddy, and has been since the day she came here.”

Russ stuffed his hands in the back pockets of his jeans
and leaned against the kitchen counter as memories of his mother flooded his mind. “I’ve often thought that there ought to be some kind of test for parenthood, or at least mandatory classes for people who bring children into this world. My mother and Jack Stevenson would have been prime candidates.”

Henry oiled a bowl, put the bread down to rise and covered it with a sheet of plastic. “It ain’t good to think like that, Russ. Miss Lizzie was one of those people that needed freedom. She loved her children, but she didn’t like being married and having to answer to another person.”

“I’m glad she bothered to give birth to me and my brothers, but if she did that, she should have accepted her responsibility to take care of us. Instead, she took off without warning whenever she felt like it. I remember waking up one morning and going in my parents’ room and asking my father where she was. He wiped a tear, didn’t look at me and said, ‘I don’t know, Son. I don’t know where she went.’ That was the day before I started first grade. She came back, and she left again. When Dad died, she came back and stayed, but I didn’t give a damn. I was eight.”

“I know. It affected you more than it did Telford and Drake. Since Mr. Josh died, your brothers and me are the only people you let get close to you. Best thing that could have happened to you, Son, was finding out how much Alexis loves her child. She come here that day, she told me later, with a total of thirty-eight dollars to her name right after she signed away twelve million in exchange for full custody of Tara.”

He released a sharp whistle. “I didn’t know it was that much. Jack Stevenson is a jerk. I don’t see how any human being could fail to love Tara. Well, if I’m going to stay home, I’d better get to work.” And he’d have to find a way to avoid Velma except at breakfast and supper when it would
be impossible. As it was, thoughts of her interfered with his concentration, and that was a first.

His mind made up, he told Henry, “I think I’ll work in the office at the warehouse. Less distraction.”

“Yeah,” Henry said. “She ain’t likely to go down there. If I need you for anything, I’ll call you on your cell phone.”

He didn’t bother to answer. As long as Henry could breathe, he’d say whatever came to his mind. “See you at supper. I’ll get a sandwich out of the vending machine in the basement at the warehouse.”

“Won’t taste like nothing.”

“Right, but it will serve the purpose.”

At the same time, Velma was considering ways to avoid encountering Russ. She knew that it was mandatory that they all eat supper together, for Alexis had made that a house rule. However, nothing prevented her from leaving before breakfast. That evening after supper, she laid out Tara’s clothes for school, read stories to her niece and went to her room early. She heard Russ’s steps as he mounted the stairs and her breathing stopped until she heard his bedroom door close. She had known that he wouldn’t knock on her door, and she hadn’t wanted him to, but in her heart she longed for him to come to her.

She slept fitfully, rose early and got Tara ready for school. She’d never been efficient at braiding hair, and Tara didn’t like the result. “Aunt Velma, I’m going to learn how to braid my hair,” she said after looking in the mirror.

“I don’t blame you. The school bus will be here in ten minutes, so let’s hurry.” At the front door, to her surprise, Russ was waiting for them.

“Hi,” he said. “I’ll walk with her out to the bus. It stops almost directly in front of the house, but the walkway may be a little slippery.”

She stood in the foyer beside the big oval window watching as Russ lifted Tara, hugged and kissed her and set her on the bus. She hadn’t known him to be so affectionate with the child and wondered again at the reason. He seemed surprised to find her still standing there when he returned.

“I had planned to work in Philadelphia for a few days, but with both Telford and Drake away, I think I’d better stay close to home.” He told her about Jack’s visit the previous afternoon. “I wouldn’t put it past him to do something to upset Telford, who he detests. I told the bus driver not to release her to any man but me, and I’ve just this second decided to go to the school and warn the principal.”

“Surely, he wouldn’t—”

“A principled man wouldn’t treat his daughter as Jack treats Tara. He didn’t want Alexis when she was his wife, but as soon as she divorced him for philandering, he wanted her back. Telford got in his way. I’d better get moving.”

“I’m driving to Baltimore today. I hope to be back before supper time.” It was on the tip of her tongue to add: so you won’t need to work in the warehouse.

As if making the connection himself, his left eyebrow shot up. “Driving Alexis’s car?” She nodded. “Better let me check it out.”

He opened the closet beside the door leading to the downstairs game room and got a bunch of keys. “Be back in a few minutes.”

She sat on a stair step, waiting for him and ruminating about his protectiveness. He was responsible for the house and the family in Telford’s absence. Maybe that accounted for it.

“It’s okay. Be sure and take my cell phone number in case you need me for something.”

“Thanks.”

He stood at the bottom of the stairs, and she sat on the third step, but he still towered over her. She looked up at him, seeing his long-lashed and slumberous dark eyes, full bottom lip and square but dimpled chin; the muscled chest that emphasized his six-foot-three-and-a half-inch height, his long legs, flat belly and the aura of power that he exuded. She sucked in her breath and knew he saw and heard her.

His breathing accelerated, and she could see his Adam’s apple bobbing furiously. Her tongue rimmed her bottom lip, and he seemed to gulp air. He wanted her, and she wanted him inside of her. Disgusted with herself for having started it and for her inability to control her passion for him, she jumped up and raced up the stairs. But he reached the landing when she did, pulled her into his arms and lifted her hungry body to his, chest to chest and loins to loins.