Call Me Irresistible (43 page)

“I know.” Experience had taught them that a few families, no matter how well off, couldn’t support a town. They’d learned to pick their causes, and this year, the expansion of the free clinic had won out over the library repairs.

“It’s only money,” said the woman who’d once lived on a jar of peanut butter and slept on the couch of a five-hundred-watt radio station in the middle of nowhere. “I don’t really need a new winter wardrobe. What I need is to have our son back.”

“He hasn’t gone anywhere.”

“Don’t pretend not to understand. More than losing the golf resort is bothering Ted.”

“We don’t know that for sure, since he won’t talk to any of us about it. Even Lady Emma can’t get him to open up. And forget about Torie. He’s been dodging her for weeks.”

“He’s a private person.”

“Exactly. And when he discovers what you’ve done, you’re on your own, because I’m going to be conveniently out of town.”

“I’m willing to take that risk,” she said.

It wasn’t the first risk she’d taken for their son, and since it was easier to kiss her than argue, he gave up.

Francesca had an immediate problem. The committee had used the e-mail address Francesca had established in Meg’s name to notify her she’d won, which left Francesca with the job of locating her to deliver the news. But since Meg seemed to have disappeared, Francesca was forced to contact the Korandas.

She’d interviewed Jake twice in the past fifteen years, something of a record, given his obsession with privacy. His reticence made him a difficult interview subject, but off camera, he had a quick sense of humor and was easy to talk to. She didn’t know his wife as well, but Fleur Koranda had a reputation for being tough, smart, and completely ethical. Unfortunately, the Korandas’ brief, awkward visit to Wynette hadn’t given either Francesca or Dallie a chance to deepen their acquaintance.

Fleur was cordial, but guarded, when Francesca phoned her office. Francesca patched together a cobbled version of something approximating the truth, leaving out only a few inconvenient details, such as her part in all this. She spoke of her admiration for Meg and her conviction that Meg and Ted cared deeply about each other.

“I’m absolutely certain, Fleur, that spending a weekend together in San Francisco will give them the chance they need to reconnect and repair their relationship.”

Fleur was no fool, and she zeroed in on the obvious. “Meg doesn’t have nearly enough money to have placed that bid.”

“Which makes this situation all the more tantalizing, doesn’t it?”

A short pause followed. Finally, Fleur said, “You think Ted is responsible?”

Francesca wouldn’t lie, but neither did she intend to confess what she’d done. “There’s been a lot of speculation in town about that. You can’t imagine the theories I’ve heard.” She hurried on. “I won’t pressure you for Meg’s telephone number . . .” She paused, hoping Fleur would volunteer to hand it over. When she didn’t, she pressed on. “Let’s do this. I’ll make sure the itinerary for the weekend is sent directly to you, along with Meg’s round-trip plane ticket from L.A. to San Francisco. The committee had planned on using a private jet to fly them both from Wynette, but given the circumstances, this seems like a better solution. Do you agree?”

She held her breath, but instead of answering, Fleur said, “Tell me about your son.”

Francesca leaned back in her chair and gazed at the snapshot of Teddy she’d taken when he was nine. Head too big for his small, skinny body. Pants belted too high on his waist. The too-serious expression on his face at odds with his worn T-shirt, which announced born to raise hell.

She picked up the photo. “The day Meg left Wynette, she went to our local hangout and told everyone that Ted’s not perfect.” Her eyes filled with tears she didn’t try to blink away. “I disagree.”

Fleur sat at her desk replaying her conversation with Francesca Beaudine, but it was hard to think clearly when her only daughter was in so much pain. Not that Meg would admit anything was wrong. The time she’d spent in Texas had both toughened and matured her, leaving her with an unfamiliar reserve Fleur still hadn’t adjusted to. But even though Meg had made it clear that the subject of Ted Beaudine was off-limits, Fleur knew Meg had fallen in love with him and that she’d been deeply hurt. Every maternal instinct she possessed urged her to protect Meg from more pain.

She considered the gaping holes in the story she’d just heard. Francesca’s glamorous exterior concealed a razor-sharp mind, and she’d revealed only as much as she wanted to. Fleur had no reason to trust her, especially when it was clear that her son was her priority. The same son who’d put the new sadness in Meg’s eyes. But Meg wasn’t a child, and Fleur had no right to make a decision like this for her.

She reached for the phone and called her daughter.

The chair Ted had commandeered in the lobby of San Francisco’s Four Seasons Hotel gave him a clear view of the entrance without making him immediately visible to whoever walked in. Each time the doors swung open, something twisted in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t believe he’d been thrown off stride so badly. He liked taking life easy, with everybody having a good time and appreciating one another’s company. But nothing had been easy since the night of his wedding rehearsal when he’d met Meg Koranda.

She’d been wrapped in a few twists of silky fabric that left one shoulder bare and hugged the curve of her hip. Her hair was a belligerent tangle around her head, and silver coins swung like nunchucks from her ears. The way she’d challenged him had been annoying, but he hadn’t taken her nearly as seriously as he should have. From that very first meeting, as he’d watched her eyes change from clear blue to the green of a tornado sky, he should have taken everything about her seriously.

When Lady E. had told him Meg was the winning bidder in the stupid-ass contest, he’d experienced a surge of elation followed almost immediately by a crashing return to reality. Neither Meg’s pride nor her bank account would have allowed her to place that bid, and it didn’t take him long to figure out who’d done it. Parents had always liked him, and the Korandas were no different. Even though he and Meg’s father hadn’t done more than exchange a few glances, they’d communicated perfectly.

The doorman helped an elderly guest into the lobby. Ted made himself ease back into the chair. Meg’s plane had landed well over an hour ago, so she should be walking in any minute. He still didn’t know exactly what he’d say to her, but he’d be damned if he let her see even a hint of the anger that still simmered inside him. Anger was a counterproductive emotion, and he needed a cool head to deal with Meg. His cool to her hot. His orderly to her messy.

But he didn’t feel either cool or orderly, and the longer he waited, the more anxious he got. He could barely sort out all the crap she’d thrown in his face. First she’d dumped on him about what had happened at the luncheon. So what if he’d known the women wouldn’t say anything? He’d still made a public declaration, hadn’t he? Then she’d announced she’d fallen in love with him, but when he’d tried to tell her how much he cared, she’d discounted it, right along with refusing to attach any importance to the fact that he’d stood at the altar three months earlier, ready to marry another woman. Instead, she wanted some kind of everlasting promise, and wasn’t that just like her—jumping into something without putting the situation in any kind of context?

His head shot up as the lobby doors once again swung open, this time admitting an older man and a much younger woman. Even though the lobby was cool, Ted’s shirt was damp. So much for her accusation that he stood on the sidelines where he didn’t have to sweat too much.

He checked his watch again, then pulled out his phone to see if she’d sent him a text, just as he’d done so many times since she’d disappeared, but none of the messages were from her. He shoved the phone back in his pocket as the other memory crowded in. The one he didn’t want to deal with. What he’d done to her that day at the landfill . . .

He couldn’t believe he’d lost control like that. She’d tried to brush it off, but he’d never forgive himself.

He tried to think about something else, only to end up stewing over the mess in Wynette. The town refused to accept his resignation, so his desk at City Hall sat empty, but he’d be damned if he was jumping back into that disaster. The truth was, he’d let everybody down, and no matter how understanding they all tried to be, there wasn’t a person in town who didn’t know he’d failed them.

The lobby doors opened and closed. In the course of one summer, his comfortable life had been destroyed.

“I’m messy and wild and disruptive, and you have broken my heart.”

The unbearable hurt in those green-blue eyes had cut right through him. But what about his heart? His hurt? How did she think he felt when the person he’d grown to count on the most left him in the lurch right when he needed her?

“My stupid heart . . . ,”
she’d said.
“It was singing
.”

He waited in the lobby all afternoon, but Meg never appeared.

That night, he wandered through Chinatown and got drunk in a Mission District bar. The next day he pulled up the collar of his jacket and walked the city in the rain. He rode a cable car, drifted through the tea garden in Golden Gate Park, poked into a couple of souvenir shops on Fisherman’s Wharf. He tried to eat a bowl of clam chowder at the Cliff House to warm up but set it aside after a few bites.

“Just the sight of you made me feel like dancing.”

He woke up too early the next morning, hungover and miserable. A cold, thick fog had settled in, but he hit the empty streets anyway and climbed to the top of Telegraph Hill.

Coit Tower wasn’t open yet, so he walked the grounds, gazing out across the city and the bay as the fog began to lift. He wished he could talk this whole mess over with Lucy, but he could hardly call her up after all this time and tell her that her best friend was an immature, demanding, overly emotional, unreasonable nutcase, and what the hell was he supposed to do about that?

He missed Lucy. Everything had been so easy with her.

He missed her . . . but he didn’t want to wring her neck like he wanted to wring Meg’s. He didn’t want to make love with her until her eyes turned to smoke. He didn’t yearn for the sound of her voice, the joy of her laughter.

He didn’t ache for Lucy. Dream about her. Long for her.

He didn’t love her.

With a rustle of leaves and a chilly gust, the wind carried the fog out to sea.

A
few hours later, Ted was headed south on I-5 in a rented Chevy Trailblazer. He drove too fast and stopped just once to grab a mug of bitter coffee. He prayed Meg had gone to L.A. with her parents when she’d left Wynette instead of heading off to Jaipur or Ulan Bator or some other place where he couldn’t get to her and tell her how much he loved her. The wind that had carried away the San Francisco fog had also swept away the last of his confusion. He’d been left with a blinding clarity that cut through all the turmoil of old fiancées and aborted weddings, a clarity that let him see how skillfully he’d used logic to hide his fear of having his easy life disturbed by chaotic emotions.

He, of all people, should have known love wasn’t orderly or rational. Hadn’t his own parents’ passionate, illogical love affair overcome deception, separation, and pigheadedness to last more than three decades? That kind of soul-deep love was what he felt for Meg—the complicated, disruptive, overpowering love he’d refused to admit was missing in his relationship with Lucy. He and Lucy had fit together so perfectly in his mind. His mind . . . but not his heart. It should never have taken him so long to figure that out.

He ground his teeth in frustration when he hit L.A. traffic. Meg was a creature of passion and impulse, and he hadn’t seen her in over a month. What if time and distance had convinced her she deserved something better than a boneheaded Texan who didn’t know his own mind?

He couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t let himself contemplate what he’d do if she’d gotten fed up with the whole idea of ever having fallen in love with him. If only she hadn’t cut off her phone. And what about her history of hopping on planes and flying off to the farthest reaches of the planet? He wanted her to stay put, but Meg wasn’t like that.

It was early evening by the time he reached the Korandas’ Brentwood estate. He wondered if they knew Meg hadn’t shown up in San Francisco. Although he couldn’t be certain they were the ones who’d put up the winning bid, who else would have done it? The irony didn’t escape him. What the parents of daughters most liked about him was his stability, but he’d never felt less stable in his life.

He identified himself over the intercom. As the gates swung open, he remembered he hadn’t shaved for two days. He should have stopped at a hotel first to clean up. His clothes were wrinkled, his eyes bloodshot, and he had a bad case of flop sweat, but he wasn’t going to turn back now.

He parked his car at the side of the English Tudor that was the Korandas’ primary California home. Best-case scenario, Meg would be here. Worst-case scenario . . . He wouldn’t think about worst-case scenarios. The Korandas were his allies, not his enemies. If she weren’t here, they’d help him find her.

But the cool hostility Fleur Koranda exhibited when she opened the front door did nothing to bolster his shaken confidence. “Yes?”