Dawn in Eclipse Bay (7 page)

“We've got no choice but to move out for at least three weeks,” Hannah said an hour later. She passed a large ceramic bowl across the table to Lillian. “The Willis brothers have sent us straight into remodel hell. It was bad enough when they were doing the plumbing.”

“They kept shutting off the water without warning and we had to cope with a stack of bathroom fixtures in the front hall for ages,” Rafe said. “I started having nightmares featuring endless mazes of gleaming porcelain commodes.”

“We keep assuring each other that we're lucky to have the full attention of the Willis brothers,” Hannah said.

“There's a new wing being built up at the institute and we were worried for a while that the folks up there would lure Torrance and Walter away. Fortunately they called in outside contractors.”

“We made it through the endless commodes phase,” Rafe concluded, “but there's no way we can live here while they refinish the wood floors and paint the rooms.”

“I can see the problem.” Lillian gripped the bowl in one hand and served herself a large helping of Rafe's dill-and-yogurt-laced cucumber salad. “The dust and fumes would be bad for Winston.”

“Wouldn't do us much good, either,” Rafe said dryly. “Besides, we need a vacation before we open for business. We're going down to California to tour some wineries in the Napa Valley. It will be a good opportunity to finalize my selections for the wine list that we'll be using in the restaurant.”

“Another astounding coincidence.” Gabe dipped the edge of a wedge of sourdough bread into the fragrant curried potato stew on his plate. “I've decided to take some time off, myself.”

Rafe raised a brow. “Good idea. About time you grabbed a few days off. It's been a while since you got out of your office.”

“So they tell me,” Gabe said noncommittally.

Lillian stilled. “You're going to be here in Eclipse Bay for three or four days? That's all?”

Rafe chuckled. “Don't worry, Lillian, he won't loiter long in the vicinity, if that's what's worrying you. He can stay at Mitchell's place for a couple of days, at least until Mitchell gets back from Hawaii. But after that he'll be on borrowed time. I can safely predict that after forty-eight hours the two of them will be at each other's throat.”

“Really? Just two days?”

“Sure. Take it from me. Mitchell will start in with his usual lectures, telling Gabe how he's become too obsessed with M.C. Gabe will tell him where to get off. Next thing you know, Gabe will be packing his bags.”

Lillian allowed herself to relax. Rafe had a point. Everyone knew that the three Madison men were notoriously stubborn and hardheaded. The trait no doubt made it next to impossible for any two or more of them to share a house for an extended period of time.

“You're right.” Gabe raised one shoulder in easy acquiescence to Rafe's prediction. “A day or two of sharing a house with Mitchell would be about all I could take.”

Rafe winked at Lillian. “Told you so.”

“Lately he's been getting worse with the lectures, if you can believe it,” Gabe continued. He shook his head sadly. “In hindsight, giving him a computer was a major mistake.”

“Are you kidding?” Rafe chuckled. “He loves that thing. Took to it like a duck to water.”

“He's got an aptitude for it, all right,” Gabe said. “But he's not using it the way I thought he would.”

Lillian paused, her fork in midair. “How did you expect him to use it?”

“For good, wholesome, educational purposes. I figured he'd wile away many happy hours checking out senior porn sites. Instead, he's gotten into the habit of e-mailing me every day.”

Rafe grinned. “Bet I can guess the content of those e-mail notes.”

“They cover a variety of topics but they all come down to his opinion of how I'm running my business and my personal life.”

Lillian cleared her throat. “I take it he doesn't approve of how you're handling either one?”

The strong emotion in Gabe's voice startled her. Whatever was going on between Gabe and his grandfather was more than just annoying to Gabe. It was generating some real pain.

“No,” he said quietly. “He doesn't approve.”

“I'm sorry if you were planning to stay with us,” Hannah said gently. “As you can see, things are a mess. No one can be in here while the floors are being redone.”

“I know.” Gabe added some of Rafe's homemade tomato chutney to his curry.

Rafe watched him expectantly. “So, how long, exactly, do you think you'll stay with Mitchell?”

“I won't be staying with him at all.” Gabe waited a beat. “I rented the old Buckley place.”

“For how long?” Lillian asked warily.

“A month.”

There was a moment of acute shock.

“You're actually going to take off an entire month?” Hannah asked in disbelief.

“I'll have to make a couple of trips back to town for some events that I couldn't scrub from my calendar,” Gabe said. “I'm scheduled to deliver the introduction at a banquet to honor one of my former college professors, for instance. But otherwise I don't see any reason why I can't handle anything that might come up at Madison Commercial from here. I brought my computer and my fax machine and there's always the phone.”

“I don't believe it,” Lillian said flatly. “Something weird is going on here.”

“She's right,” Rafe said. “This is weird. I don't care how good you are at telecommuting. You'll have withdrawal symptoms, probably get the shakes or something if you try to stay away from your office for a whole month.”

Gabe said nothing, just kept eating curry.

“Damn.” Rafe looked intrigued now. “You're serious about this, aren't you?”

A sardonic look gleamed in Gabe's eyes. “You've known me all of your life. Ever known me when I wasn't serious?”

“No, can't say that I have.”

An ominous sensation drifted through Lillian. She stud ied Gabe more closely. Something dangerous moved beneath the cool, controlled surface he presented to the world.

“This isn't about getting your sixth date out of Private Arrangements, is it?” she asked. “You were just teasing me with that nonsense. You're here because you really do want to get away for a while.”

Gabe shrugged again but he did not argue the point.

Hannah turned to Gabe. “Is everything okay at Madison Commercial?” she asked hesitantly.

Lillian was startled by her question. She understood Hannah's concern. Anyone who knew anything about Gabe, even indirectly, was aware of how much the company meant to him. Impending trouble at Madison Commercial would certainly account for odd behavior on his part.

But she was very sure that if there were a problem with his business he would be living at his office twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week while he worked to fix it. He would not take a month off and head for the coast in the face of impending disaster.

“Things are fine at M.C.” Gabe ate more curry.

“But?” Rafe prompted.

Gabe swallowed, put down his fork and leaned back in his chair.

“But, nothing,” he said. “I need a little time to concentrate on something else, that's all. I hate to admit it, but Mitchell might have a point. Maybe I have been a little too focused on business for the past few years.”

“Burnout,” Lillian said quietly.

They all looked at her. Gabe and Rafe had the baffled, blank expressions that were common to the male of the species when psychological explanations for behavior were offered. But Hannah nodded in immediate agreement.

“Yes, of course,” she said. “Makes sense. Lil's right. Sounds like burnout.”

“Sounds like psychobabble to me,” Gabe said. “What's this about burnout?”

“Think about it,” Lillian said patiently. “You've expended an enormous amount of physical and mental energy on Madison Commercial for years. It's no secret that you've driven yourself very hard to make your company successful. That kind of intense focus over a long period of time takes its toll.”

“How would you know?” he asked. The words were spoken in deceptively silky tones. “From what you've told me about your checkered job history, you haven't stuck with anything long enough to burn out on it.”

The blatant rudeness crackled in the solarium like sheet lightning. To Hannah and Rafe, the sharp retort must have appeared to come out of nowhere.

Afraid that Rafe was going to say something to his brother that was probably better left unsaid, Lillian moved to defuse the situation.

“You're right about my job history,” she said to Gabe. “Guess some of us are just born to be free spirits. Funny, isn't it?”

“What's funny about it?” Gabe asked.

“Most people would have assumed that you would have been the one who wound up with the spotty employment record.”

“Because I'm a Madison?”

“Yes.” She gave him a steely smile. “Whereas I am a stable, steady, long-range planning Harte.” She turned to the others. “I suggested to Gabe that he might want to hire me into an executive position at Madison Commercial, but he declined on the basis of my erratic résumé.”

Gabe rested an arm along the back of his chair. He did not take his eyes off Lillian. “That wasn't the reason I said I wouldn't hire you.”

“What was the reason?” Hannah asked curiously.

“She pointed out that within a very short time she would probably be trying to tell me how to run my company. I said if that happened, I'd have to fire her. We both agreed there was no point even starting down that road, given the foregone conclusion.”

“As you can see,” Lillian said, “the decision not to hire me at M.C. was mutual. The last thing I need is another short-term position on my résumé.”

The tension that had cloaked the dining room lightened, as she had hoped. Hannah took her cue and shifted deftly to the new topic.

“But you are looking for a new job, I take it, now that you've closed Private Arrangements?” she asked.

“Well, no,” Lillian said.

“You're going to apply for unemployment? That'd be a first for a Harte,” Gabe mused.

“I'm not going on unemployment.”

Rafe raised one brow. “Accepting a position with Harte Investments?”

“Never in a million years. It's not just that I can't work for my father. The main problem is that I'm not the corporate type.”

Gabe sat forward and folded his arms on the table. “Okay, I'll bite. What are you going to do next?”

“Paint.”

“You've always painted,” Hannah replied.

“I'm going to do it full time now. I'm turning pro.”

All three of them contemplated her as if she had just announced that she intended to go to work in a carnival sideshow.

Hannah groaned. “Please don't tell me that you've closed Private Arrangements so that you can devote yourself to art.”

“I've closed Private Arrangements so that I can devote myself to art.”

“Mom and Dad are going to have a fit.” Hannah flopped back in her chair. “To say nothing of Granddad.”

“I know,” Lillian said.

Rafe reached for the coffeepot. “Got any reason to think you can make a living painting?”

“I'll find out soon enough whether it will work. Octavia Brightwell is going to put on a show of my work in her Portland gallery in a few weeks.”

Rafe smiled wryly. “I'd give you the standard advice about not quitting your day job. But I guess it's too late.”

“Much too late,” she agreed.

Gabe stood at the rail of the inn's broad front porch and watched the taillights of Lillian's car disappear down the drive. Rafe leaned against a nearby post. Winston was stretched out at the top of the steps, his paws dangling over the edge, ears and nose angled to take in the sounds and scents of the night. Hannah had disappeared back into the warmth of the kitchen.

“If you're going to be here in Eclipse Bay for a whole month, maybe I'd better fill you in on some of the local news,” Rafe said after a while.

“Save your breath. I'm not real interested in gossip.”

“This concerns Marilyn Thornley.”

Gabe took a moment to rummage around in his memory for some images of the woman he had dated for a time in those first years after college. She had been Marilyn Caldwell in those days, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the region. The Caldwells' home was in Portland but, like the Hartes, they had always kept a second home in Eclipse Bay. They also had a third in Palm Springs.

Marilyn had excellent instincts when it came to selecting winners. Gabe knew that while she had viewed him as having long-term potential, Trevor Thornley had looked like more of a sure thing. She had taken a long, hard look at the two men and chosen to cast her lot with Thornley.