Native Affairs (69 page)

“That isn’t true!” Ann protested. “Heath is talented and has lots of plans—”

“I am not going to discuss this with you any further, Ann!” her father said abruptly, interrupting her. “You are not to see that Bodine boy again. If I find out that you have disobeyed me, I promise you that the consequences for this young man will be dire.”

“What would you do?” Ann whispered, her fingers gripping the seat of her chair, her eyes huge.

“You would be wise not to push me to the point of finding out,” her father said crisply. “I trust we understand each other. You may go now.”

Ann rose like an automaton and walked out of his den to face her mother waiting in the hall.

Margaret Talbot put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder, but Ann shrugged it off miserably. She knew her mother would never disagree with her father about anything, no matter what her private feelings were on the matter.

Ann went into her bedroom, slammed the door, and flung herself down on her bed, rigid and dry eyed. She was too numb to cry.

What was she going to do?

Chapter 5

“I don’t think you understand the situation, Amy,” Ann sobbed, wiping her reddened nose with a tissue. “I’m forbidden to see Heath ever again. When I don’t show up to meet him at the inn tonight, he’s going to wonder what happened to me, and if I know him he’ll go right over to my house. Can you imagine the scene that will take place then?” She fell back on Amy’s bed, closing her eyes, which were so swollen from crying they felt tight and sore.

“Take it easy, I have an idea,” Amy said, glancing into the hall to make sure Delores, the Horton’s maid, was nowhere in earshot. Her parents were out at a party.

“I’ll listen to anything,” Ann said dully.

“I’ll go to the inn’s parking lot tonight and tell Heath what happened.”

Ann sat up. “Wonderful idea. He’ll drive his bike directly to my father’s door and then beat the man senseless.”

“Not if Heath knows he’ll be able to see you here,” Amy replied slyly.

“Amy, what are you talking about?” Ann asked wearily. “I told you, my father is having me followed. I can’t go anywhere without his knowing about it.”

“He’s not having my house watched, is he?” Amy asked rhetorically.

“I don’t know, maybe,” Ann said wildly. “He’s acting like an operative for the CIA. Amy, I’m desperate. The summer will be over in two weeks and then we have to go back to school. I’ll never be able to see Heath.”

“Will you calm down and listen to me?”

“Your parents will tell my father if I meet Heath here,” Ann said in exasperation, ignoring her. “They all stick together for this kind of thing, you know that!”

“They won’t tell your father if they’re not here to see it,” Amy said triumphantly.

Ann looked at her.

“They’re going to Michigan to stay with my Aunt Rita next week. They’ll be gone for ten days.”

Ann leaned forward, feeling the first glimmer of hope since the dismal interview with her father. “But Delores will be here,” she said, her mind already racing.

Amy shrugged. “When my parents aren’t home, she’s off all the time with her boyfriend. Remember when they went to St. Kitts? She showed up for a couple of hours in the morning to clean the house and then was gone the rest of the day. We have sort of a mutual pact of silence—she doesn’t ask me what I’m up to and I do the same thing for her.”

Delores was only a few years older than Ann and Amy and was probably sympathetic to their plight.

“When are they leaving?” Ann asked.

“Monday.”

“That’s a week away!” Ann wailed. “I can’t go without seeing Heath for a week!”

“You’ll have to. This plan is the best I can do.”

Ann thought about it. “Are you sure you can get to Heath tonight?” she asked.

“No problem. I’m supposed to go over to Murchison’s, anyway. I’ll just stop at the inn on the way.”

“And you’ll tell him to meet me here when your parents go away?”

“Right.”

“How are you going to get him into your house without my father’s spies seeing him?”

“I’ll talk to him and we’ll work something out, don’t worry about it. Maybe he can arrive early, hide his bike a few blocks away, then come in through the Cantrell yard. That place looks like a plant nursery—it will give him great cover. As far as you know nobody is following him, right?”

“As far as I know. There must be a limit to what even my father can do.”

Amy sat next to Ann on the bed and sighed. “I can’t believe the man put a tail on you.”

“He’s crazy. I always knew it. My mother knows it, too, but she’s trapped. She’s been married to him almost twenty years and she thinks it’s too late for her to start over with a new life.”

“How did he find out about Heath in the first place?”
 

“I don’t know. I didn’t even ask. Probably one of his cronies saw us someplace and ratted. I guess he was bound to find out sooner or later, I was living in a dreamworld to think otherwise.”

“You’ve been living in a dreamworld since you met Heath, Annie,” Amy replied. “You’re just realizing that now?”

Ann said nothing.

“What time were you supposed to meet Heath tonight?” Amy asked.

“Seven.”

“All right. I’ll be there.”

“And you’ll tell him he can meet me here next week?”

“I’ll tell him. Let’s hope one of my parents doesn’t break a leg in the meantime and cancel the trip.”

Ann looked stricken.

“Only kidding. My mother won’t miss the chance to get together with her sister and dissect the rest of the family. When the plane for Michigan departs, Mom and Pop Horton will be on it.”

“I’ll pray that they are.”

“Now, come with me and wash your face. Things are looking up, kiddo.”

Ann followed Amy out of the bedroom.

She hoped that her friend was right.

* * * *

The week of waiting passed with glacial speed; Ann hung around the house, staring into space with a book propped on her lap or staring at the television with sightless eyes. Margaret Talbot hated to see her daughter so miserable, but any suggestion she made to take Ann’s mind off Heath was met with a curt rebuff. Ann was not interested in shopping, tennis, a swim at the club or a picnic on Big Palm Island. She didn’t want to buy school clothes, take a drive to Key Largo, pick out tapes at Murchison’s or books at Frawley’s. In short, she wanted to be left alone, and finally both of her parents did just that. Her father was satisfied that he had nipped his daughter’s declassé relationship in the bud; her mother was not so sure about that but maintained an anxious, concerned silence.

When the day finally arrived for her meeting with Heath, Ann tried not to show her changed mood, moping around as usual and mentioning casually at dinner that she was driving over to Amy’s that evening.

“Are you girls going out?” Margaret said brightly, pleased that Ann was demonstrating an interest in leaving the house at last.

“I don’t think so. We’ll probably just stay in and watch TV, get a pizza. Amy has some new tapes, too.”

“That sounds like fun,” Margaret chirped, and Ann felt a sharp stab of pity for her mother, who obviously loved her child and wanted her to be happy but could not reverse two decades of deferring to Henry Talbot. Ann hated lying to her mother but saw no other way to handle her present dilemma.

Ann helped Luisa clear the dinner dishes and then went immediately to her room, where she stared out her window at the swimming pool until it was time to leave.

If she left too early, her father might get suspicious, and the last thing she needed was to have him on the trail again.

Ann breezed past her parents, car keys in hand, at a quarter to seven.

“Have a good time, dear,” her mother said, looking up from making a list for round-robin tennis on a yellow legal pad.

Her father lowered his newspaper, glanced at her, then raised it again.

Ann had to exercise extreme self restraint to drive within the speed limit on her way to Amy’s house. When she pulled into the Horton’s drive the house looked dark and her heart sank. Had something happened? It looked like nobody was home.

Ann went to the back door and saw Amy standing just inside the screen.

“Is he here?” Ann demanded.

“In my bedroom,” Amy replied, opening the door and standing aside.

Ann charged past her and ran down the hall to the bedroom wing, where Heath stood in Amy’s doorway. He grinned and Ann flew the last few feet, flinging herself on him.

“Hey,” he said, laughing, “slow down.” He hugged her tightly and caught Amy’s eye over Ann’s shoulder. He winked and nodded.

Ann clung to him as if he might vanish.

“Where’s your maid?” Heath asked Amy.

“Gone for the night.”

He nodded again. There was a long silence and then Amy cleared her throat ostentatiously, saying, “Well, I guess I’ll just leave you two kids alone.”

“Where are you going?” Ann asked, her voice muffled by Heath’s shirt.

“Over to Carol’s, she’s back from North Carolina.”

“Okay to give us till around midnight?” Heath asked.

“Fine. See you then.”

Amy slipped out through the patio doors and Heath held Ann off to look at her.

“You’ve lost weight,” he said sternly.

“Just a couple of pounds. What did you expect, Heath? It was hell not being able to see you or even talk to you.” She flung her arms around his neck again and he kissed her forehead.

“How did you get in here?” Ann asked him. “Are you sure nobody saw you?”

“Princess, knock off the KGB stuff, will you, please? Your dad is not Big Brother, he can’t be watching everybody.”

“He was watching me. How do you think he found out about us?” Ann countered.

“I know, Amy told me, but I refuse to sneak around like a burglar just because your father has gone nuts.”

“Don’t underestimate him, Heath, he can hurt us if he wants to—he already has. We haven’t seen each other for a week!”

“Yeah, well I’m planning to do something about that,” Heath said grimly.

“What do you mean, Heath?” Ann asked, alarm in her tone. “You’re not going to do something stupid, are you?”

“Never mind. We’re together now, let’s enjoy it. Come on over here and sit down with me.” He took her by the hand and led her out to the ornate living room, where he sat on the sofa and Ann curled up in his lap.

“Spiffy place,” he said, looking around curiously. “Must be nice to have the bucks. Does your house look like this?”
 

“I guess so. Not quite. My mother’s taste is not as... well, gaudy.”

“What, no gold-fringed lampshades?”

“No.” Ann buried her nose under his collarbone and inhaled deeply of his scent. “I missed you so much,” she said as his arms came around her again. “Heath, what are we going to do? When will we see each other again?”

“Come on, Princess. We just got here and you’re worrying about that already?”

“Yes, I’m worrying about that already. I can’t think about anything else. I’m going back to school in ten days or so. What will happen then?”

“I’ll come and visit you at school.”

“Heath, don’t be ridiculous, that place is like Fort Knox. You practically have to take a blood test to show you’re a relative to get on the visitors list. I won’t be able to see you there.”

“Can’t you sneak off campus or something?”

“I can try. But if my father warns them, as he surely will, they’ll be watching me, supervising my every move. Oh, it’s all so complicated I can’t stand it.”

“We’ll work it out.”

“How? I don’t know what to do, and I’m afraid—” She stopped suddenly.

“What?” Heath said, stroking her hair.

“I’m afraid that you’ll get tired of this cloak-and-dagger routine, decide that I’m not worth it. After all, there are plenty of willing girls around and none of them have Henry Talbot for a father.”

“Oh, baby, no. Don’t think that. You’ll always be worth it, and your father isn’t going to keep us apart. I promise you that.” He turned her face up for his kiss, and it wasn’t long before they were prone on the sofa, the deprivation of the past week escalating into a hunger that neither one of than seemed able to control. Finally Heath tore himself away and sat up, pulling Ann’s clinging arms from his neck.

“Baby, we can’t do this,” he said breathlessly. “It’s not right, you’re just a kid...”

“Oh, and you’re Methuselah?”

“I know a lot more about life than you do, and I know you’re not ready for this.”

“Why?” Ann said, crawling into his lap again. “Am I such a baby? Do I feel like a baby?” She took his hand and placed it on her breast, leaning forward to kiss his neck inside the collar of his shirt.

He groaned and closed his eyes.

“Love me,” Ann whispered. “I need you so much. Love me now, please.”