Blind Love (7 page)

Catherine pulled a business card from her purse and wrote a number on the back. “This is the code to open the gate. Tony and I have to pick up the wallpaper and get to work. Are you staying here at the hospital?”

“Yes, I’ll stay with him today.”

“Then we’ll expect you for dinner.”

Catherine returned to her father’s room to tell him goodbye, but he looked around her for Megan. The only person he wanted with him was his ex-wife. It was touching and hurtful at the same time. If those two stubborn people had made up years ago, Catherine would have had a whole family instead of a grumpy father who was never home.

<>

Fawn drove to the hospital in Santa Barbara to visit Walt. Catherine wasn’t around, but the nurse stopped her from going into the room. “No visitors except family,” she said, pulling the door closed behind her.

“But he’ll want to see me.”

The nurse shook her head and motioned to a security guard. Fawn had no choice but to back away. Walt’s bitchy daughter was making sure she couldn’t get close.
Damn her!

As she walked out to her car, her cell phone rang. “Fawn, this is Mitzi, with Henry Wallace Productions. I see you applied to be on
The Bachelor
. Are you still interested in being on a reality show?”

“That depends on the show.”

“We’re looking for women to star in a new show featuring a handsome bachelor looking for a woman to love.”

“Interesting.” Fawn asked, “Who’s the bachelor?”

“A handsome guy from an Italian family. The show will be filmed at the Andrews Estate near San Francisco.”

Why not?
She’d always wanted to see the Andrews mansion, and there was no reason to stay in Santa Barbara now. She couldn’t get near Walt. “Sure, I’m interested.”

They set up a time to meet for an interview, and Fawn headed for LA. If the show didn’t work out, she could always come back to Santa Barbara and try to get past Walt’s guard dogs.

One of these days, she’d make Catherine Timmons sorry she’d thrown her out of that house.

<>

Tony sat on the floor and read the wallpapering instructions to Catherine. “This doesn’t sound too hard.”

They hung the wallpaper on the upper walls first. He stood on the ladder, and she slapped on the paste and handed the strips of wallpaper up to him.

“How come I have to do all the ladder work?”

“Because I look better with wallpaper paste smeared all over me.”

Tony chuckled and trimmed the top of the strip he’d been working on. “This looks good in here.”

“Of course it does,” she quipped. “I have excellent taste.”

“Hey, I’m supposed to be the one with the ego.”

“Not the only one.”

Was she flirting with him? “Smartass woman.”

“That’s Princess Smartass to you.”

Yep, she was definitely flirting. How in the hell was he supposed to behave himself with her coming on to him? “When I get finished with this...” He looked down. She had a smear of wallpaper paste on her cheek and another spot on her nose. It was in her hair, too. “...I’m going to dunk you in the pool.”

“Oh, yeah?” Her eyes sparkled.

“Yeah!” Three more strips and they’d be finished with the upper walls. Now that they knew what they were doing, the rest should go faster. They could finish it this evening.

He finished the last strip and stepped down off the ladder. “Hey, I like this. When I build my own house, will you come wallpaper it for me?”

She cocked her head. “Maybe, if you do all the ladder work.”

He tried to wipe the paste off her cheek, but it had dried. “Princess, you are a mess.”

“So are you.”

He looked down at the crusty paste on his T-shirt. “Only because you put too much goop on the first two strips.”

She took the brush and swiped it down the front of his shirt, so he threw her over his shoulder and carried her out to the pool and threw her in. The sound of her laughter filled the late afternoon air. He pulled off his shirt, toed off his shoes and socks, and jumped in after her.

Her wet T-shirt clung to her, and she stripped it off, leaving a lacy white bra. “Don’t gape, Donatelli. This covers more than my bathing suit top.”

“Does it?” Did she know the sheer fabric turned transparent in the water? No, probably not, and he wasn’t about to tell her.

He tossed her shirt to the lip of the pool and then grabbed Catherine’s foot and tossed a shoe over. The other one followed it. He touched her nose and rubbed the paste off her cheek. “Wouldn’t want to cover any of those freckles.”

Megan walked out toward the pool. “Angel dust, we used to call them. I’m starting dinner now.”

“You don’t have to cook tonight,” said Tony. “I was going to take you two out.”

“Nonsense. Stay in the pool and enjoy yourselves.” She put two big towels beside the ladder and walked back into the house.

“Nice lady.”

“I suppose.” Catherine stared after her. “I don’t see her very often.”

“Is that her fault?”

“No, it’s mine. Forget her. I’ll race you.”

“Honey, I’m wearing heavy jeans.”

Her eyes sparkled. “So take them off.” She stripped off her own jeans and tossed them out of the pool, so he did the same.

“What about your mom?”

“
Megan
. I haven’t called her Mom since I was twelve, and I don’t care what she thinks. We’re not naked.”

No, they weren’t, but they were close. If her mother wasn’t around, they would undoubtedly shuck off their underwear. He wasn’t shy by any means, but he didn’t want to get naked in front of anyone’s mother.

<>

After dinner, the two women worked on the wallpaper in the bedroom while Tony finished up the dressing area. The room was small, and the dark green wallpaper made it feel smaller, but it looked classy with the green granite countertops, new fixtures, and white trim.

When they finished, Catherine rolled up the leftover wallpaper while Tony cleaned the tools. Megan swept the floor so the carpet people could install the new carpet in the morning.

“I spoke with Walt’s doctor today,” Megan said. “He may never be able to climb stairs again, and he’ll need a wheelchair or a walker for at least two months and a cane after that. No golf. It won’t be the life he’s been living.”

“That’s what he gets for bring home strange women,” said Catherine. She probably should have called the police and pressed charges against Fawn, but if she had, it would have gotten into the newspaper, and Father would have been livid.

He should be livid at the woman who did this to him. Thank God for Megan. If she hadn’t agreed to stay, Catherine would have been stuck here forever.

<>

The new carpet was installed the next morning. Catherine had chosen a classy berber carpet for her father’s new bedroom, light tan with little slubs of dark green and white. She wanted something a wheelchair could glide over easily. It looked good with the dark green wallpaper and white trim. Father preferred wood floors with area rugs, but she didn’t want his wheelchair to get tangled in a rug.

After the carpet people left, Tony installed plantation shutters on the two bedroom windows. Catherine couldn’t believe he’d gotten all the work done so quickly. The room looked great. Father would have to look closely to find something to complain about in here.

As she ran the vacuum cleaner over the new carpet, Catherine tried to think of something else Tony could do, a reason to keep him around longer. If not for Megan’s presence in the house, Catherine might have seduced him, but that would complicate things on the show.
If
he agreed to do the show. Having sex with Tony and then watching him flirt with other women wouldn’t sit well, and they might not get the reactions they needed on camera if he knew she was watching.

<>

Megan was still at the hospital, so Tony made lasagna while Catherine made a salad for dinner. He’d finished the job he came here to do, and although he hated to leave Catherine, if he didn’t go soon, he’d end up in her bed. That was okay with him, but she wasn’t willing, at least not yet. If and when they made love, she’d have to want it as much as he did.

He had other things he could do before he returned to Cara’s estate. Nick had asked him to check out some of that land for the development company, and one of the parcels they’d bought was within a couple hours of Santa Barbara. Might as well check it out before he left.

Megan came home and they ate dinner in the breakfast room, which overlooked the pool and gardens. While they ate, Tony asked, “How did the Timmons Hotel empire begin?”

“It started right here in Santa Barbara,” said Megan. “Walt’s grandfather built a small hotel down on the waterfront. He and his family lived there until they built this house, or the core of this house.”

Tony cocked his head. “What happened to the hotel on the waterfront? Is it still there?”

“No, it’s gone. As soon as this house was completed, he turned it into a hotel. It did so well, he added the two wings and then built another hotel in Monterey and another one in San Francisco. The original San Francisco hotel burned down a few years later, but he rebuilt it.”

Catherine put her fork down. “Father sold the hotel business three years ago. I thought he’d keep it for me, but he apparently didn’t think I was capable of running a business.”

“You worked for him?” asked Tony.

She nodded. “For four years. I grew up thinking I’d be running a hotel somewhere. I didn’t know he was selling the business until it was done.”

Megan sipped her wine. “Do you like what you do now, Cathy?”

“Yes and no. I work long hours and some of the people really rub me the wrong way. They don’t know me as Catherine Timmons. At work, I’m Cat.”

Tony scooped another piece of lasagna from the dish. “Maybe he had a reason for selling.”

“Sure he did. He didn’t want me running the business.”

“But he gave you a job,” said Megan.

“Only because I insisted. The week after I graduated from college, I walked into his office and asked where he wanted me to start. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he put me to work as an assistant in Public Relations. Two years later, I took over Public Relations.”

She blotted her lips with her napkin. “I also acted as his hostess at business dinners and hotel openings. I thought things were going fine, until he sold the business. I didn’t even find out from him. The deal was announced on the national news before the employees were told. I was humiliated and angry, and I was gone before he got home. I haven’t been home a half-dozen times since then.”

The room settled into a silence so deep, Tony could hear himself swallowing the last bite of his lasagna. The old man made a big blunder. By not telling Catherine, he’d hurt her feelings and alienated her. Hearing about the sale on the news must have been like a slap in the face.

After several seconds of silence, Megan said, “Someday you’ll own this house. You could start your own hotel right here.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“Honey, nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

Tony wondered if Walt realized he’d made Catherine feel like a failure, both as a daughter and as an employee. That was why this television show was so important to her. It wasn’t about building a career in television production. To restore her pride in herself, she needed to be successful at something.

He and Catherine cleaned up the dishes. Tony leaned in close and asked, “Do you still want me for your television show?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You don’t expect me to propose or express my undying love to the winner at the end of the show?”

“I expect you to do what feels right, Tony. If you find the woman of your dreams and decide to make it permanent, that’s fine, and if you want to walk away alone, that’s okay, too. It’s entirely up to you.”

“Then I’ll do it.”

He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.

<>

After dinner, Catherine took about fifty pictures of Tony. Her father’s tux didn’t quite fit him, but it was good enough to get a few shots of him wearing formal clothes. They’d have one custom tailored for him to wear on the show.

In one shot, he sat at the baby grand in the living room. In another, he leaned over the pool table in the basement, cue stick in his hand. She shot him standing beside Father’s sculptures, in the kitchen, by the pool, and in the pool. It wasn’t necessary to pose him, because this guy instinctively knew what to do. Or maybe he’d been practicing in front of a mirror. His eyes sparkled, and his slightly lopsided smile showed his playful personality.