Paradise (12 page)

“And they’re not endangered, either. They were taken off the list in 1977. There’re so many of them now that the different states have controlled hunts for them. I do apologize about the mascot thing. When Nick and Fran set the menu for the week, I’m sure they had no idea.”

She caught the gleam in his eye. “However, I do promise you I will not be serving up the mascot of my alma mater. I went to the
University
of
Georgia
, you know, but I have no taste for bulldogs.”

“I wouldn’t mind trying it,” she grumbled. “Probably tastes like chicken.”

He gather up the utensils, bowls and cookware and placed them outside the tent.

“Isn’t that going to attract unwanted guests?” Somewhere in all his lectures, she recalled his firm admonishment to never leave food around. Some tour guide. Couldn’t even follow his own rules.

“Normally, yes, but it’s raining so hard it will wash them out, and I’ll bring them back in before we go to bed.”

Chapter Six

Robbie gulped at his phrasing, not sure it was an accident this time. Too bad you couldn’t turn off a blush like you could a smile. It started at her throat and burned its way up to her forehead until she was sure her hair would catch fire.

The corners of his lips twitched. He’d done it on purpose to embarrass her. The creep.

“So, here we are again. I’m assuming you still aren’t up to touring the swamp at night in the rain?” The hopeful look on his face astonished her. This guy needed a reality check if he thought she would actually jump into a dinky canoe and set sail in alligator-infested waters while it was pitch dark. Who does that?

She shook her head. “I’m going to pass for tonight.”
And the rest of my life.
“But I do want my Twinkie. I was a good little camper and ate all my dinner, disgusting as it was.”

“Ahh, don’t be a poor sport.” He rummaged in the cooler and tossed her a package before grabbing one for himself. “Then, if you don’t want to commune with nature, I guess we’re back to talking. Are you seeing anyone?” he blurted out.

Robbie looked up, a warm feeling spreading between her legs. “Why do you want to know that?”

He shrugged, but it didn’t quite come off as casual. “Just curious. Nick mentioned you’d wanted to win this trip for your boyfriend. I was wondering where your man was, is all.”

She could brush him off, make some flippant remark. Rick wasn’t any of his business. She took a bite of her Twinkie. Her tongue searched out the sugary cream from the middle of the sponge cake. Nothing on earth like Twinkie cream.

She glanced at him. He hadn’t moved. He just sat there, waiting for an answer.

She caved under his scrutiny. “I broke it off with him.”

His expression didn’t change, but she felt a wave of heat rush from his eyes and spear her. He seemed to catch himself and closed his eyes as if he were fighting some internal battle. When he looked up again, he smirked.

“Figures. A man would have to be crazy to leave you. So, how did you dump the poor sucker? Weren’t his goals high enough? Not
Manhattan
material? Didn’t he wear a pinstriped suit?”

“Actually,” she said, wounded more by his withdrawal than his uncalled for accusations, “his pinstripes were quite intact. I had this little problem with intimacy. He wanted to be intimate with every female south of
Virginia
and I had a problem with that.”

She looked down at the Twinkie wrapper in her hand. “Every girl should have the chance to catch her boyfriend in bed with another woman,” she whispered. “Better yet, with two women. You find out if your acting is Oscar worthy. I like to think mine was.”

“Shit.”

She smiled wanly. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. It gets even better. I walked in after the TV Ten awards. And here I thought I’d already won the booby prize.”

She dropped her head back and laughed. It was the only sensible thing to do. Saying it out loud brought it vividly back as if it happened five minutes ago. “Jeez, I felt like an idiot. I guess that explains why he was out of town on business so much. I was such a maroon, I never once went by his apartment when he said he was gone. I trusted him. See where that got me.”

“Yeah, there was an idiot, but it wasn’t you. The bastard had to be insane.”

Her head shot back at his harsh tone. His eyes speared her. “Any man who would cheat on you would have to be out of his mind.” He held her gaze, unwavering until a slight tremor, imperceptible if she hadn’t been watching so closely, traversed the length of his body.

His lips twisted into a crooked smile. “You can always look at it this way. It took two women to replace one of you.”

“Oh, please. That’s exactly what my best friend said. Here’s a clue. It really doesn’t make me feel better. So tell me. That waitress at Maisie’s? You know, Betty Boop? Are you two a couple?” If he wanted to know about her relationships, he was going to have to give up a little on himself. How serious was it with Betty Boop? Was he deeply committed or would he consider a short fling?

Eddie’s golden eyes crinkled. “Lou Ann? You think I’m going with Lou Ann?” He said it like she’d just asked if he was dating Attila the Hun. “She’s just a friend.”

“Right, cowboy, and as they say, ‘Denial is a river in
Egypt
.’” She wagged a finger at him. Friend? He could not be that oblivious. “You better watch yourself,” she teased, “cause Betty Boop has her brand all over you. She already considers you her personal property.”

“Where did you get that ridiculous idea?”

“Men are so blind.” She chuckled, sitting up and crossing her legs. “You’ll have a ring in your nose, two-point-five kids and a thirty year mortgage before you know what hit you.”

Eddie threw back his head and howled. He’d laughed a lot since she met him, but this was his first all out belly laugh, and she liked the sound of it.

“Oh darlin,” he wheezed between bouts of laughter, “where do you get these ideas? Me and Lou Ann? That’s priceless. I’ve known her most of my life, and she’s got better sense than to get hooked up with the likes of me.”

She cast him a bewildered look. She’d seen the way Betty Boop sidled up to him in the diner. Any woman who saw him immediately had the hots for him. The man really was clueless. Maybe that’s what made him so charming. She couldn’t help but laugh with him.

“Well, if it’s not Betty Boop, who are you going with? I can’t believe a guy like you isn’t going with someone.”

“No, not since my fiancée dumped me.”

“Oh?” She tried to stifle her laughing. This sounded interesting. Eddie. Dumped? Impossible. “But since you brought it up, why did she dump you?”

“I think it had something to do with quitting my job in the city and moving to the sticks. She was more into pinstriped suits and sushi at the latest ‘in’ restaurant than she was into me.”

Leaning back on one elbow, she stuck out her legs and munched on the Twinkie.

“Well, I understand they do have some pretty good sushi restaurants in
New York
.” She smiled when he gave her a dark look. “Despite what you say, it must be exciting living there. Did she have a life outside of you?”

“A life? What do you mean?” His jovial mood disappeared.

“For goodness sake’s, did the woman have a job or was she a leech?”

“Yeah, she had a job. Nikki worked at the Met and had a lot of artsy friends.” He lounged on his side, propping his head in his palm. When he looked like that it took every bit of fortitude not to jump on him and have her way with him.

“She worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? My gosh, that’s one of the premier museums in the world. I love that place. She sure did have a life. A very exciting one, it seems. Did you decide together to leave?”

“Well, it’s not like I never let on that I wanted to get out.”

His grudging attitude spoke louder than his surly words, making it easy to determine what had really happened. “Oh, so you assumed Nikki would ditch her prestigious job and run off to the wilds of
Tiny Town
,
Georgia
because you told her to?” She waved her half eaten Twinkie at him.

“Are you for real? What kind of a future did you promise her? Did you discuss the pros and cons? Was there any give and take? I’m no Doctor Phil, but she made the right -- no, I take that back -- she made the only decision possible.” He gave her a dark look and took a vicious bite of his Twinkie.

She couldn’t take her eyes from his mouth where a bit of whipped cream glistened on his upper lip. When the tip of his tongue slipped out to lick it off, a little spasm hit low in her stomach.

“How do you know? What makes you the big authority on relationships?” His tone was harsh, defensive. “If she loved me, she would have come with me. Fran gave up her decorating business when she married Nick.”

She was sorry now that she’d brought up the subject. They were better off discussing gator versus chicken.

“Hey, Conan the Barbarian, welcome to the twenty-first century. All I’m asking is what did you offer so she’d want to give it all up? Besides your luscious self, and I’m saying that facetiously, by the way.”

He stared blankly at her.

“Ha! Just as I thought. I can just picture it. You presented the lovely Nikki with an ultimatum and ‘Surprise, Surprise,’ she said ‘well maybe next time, pal, but I’m not ready to give up everything I’ve worked for all my life to spend the rest of it in
Tiny
Town
.’” Robbie finished her Twinkie and licked her fingers. “So, did Nikki stay in
New York
? Do you keep in touch? What happened to her?”

Eddie shoved the remaining bite of cake into his mouth and chewed, staring at her through half closed eyes. His gaze locked to hers.

“I killed her.”

* * * * *

“Say what?”

“I said I killed her.”

Blood pumped and adrenalin shot through her veins. Now she knew what could make this nightmare trip worse. My God, she was stuck in the middle of nowhere alone with a murderer.

“Look,” Eddie’s expression changed to one of concern, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just realized how that sounded. I’m not on anyone’s Ten Most Wanted list if that’s what you’re thinking.”

He sat up and leaned toward her. She swayed back, out of his reach.

“She’s…she’s dead? H-how?”

“Let me re-phrase. Nikki died because of my carelessness, my bullheadedness.” He moved directly opposite her, crossing his long legs and resting his elbows on his knees. “I guess I’d better explain. She called and we met for dinner the night before I left. Some new Thai place she wanted to try. I probably shouldn’t have gone. I knew she’d make a pitch for me to stay, but it was over.”

He stared down at this hands and Robbie wondered what right she had to make him recount his departure from his fiancée. But she couldn’t bring herself to tell him to stop.

“When I wouldn’t change my mind, she stormed out of the place, leaving me holding the spring rolls. That was the last I saw of her. I’d already shipped my stuff south so the next day I climbed into my truck, drove through the Lincoln Tunnel and never looked back.”

When he glanced up, she spread her hands. “So how does that make you a killer?”

“Evidently, she decided to walk off some of her anger. I should have followed her, made sure she was all right. But I was so tired of the arguments, and I knew nothing would change, so I let her go.” He looked up at the lantern swaying gracefully from the crossbars. Shadows played across the sharp planes of his face. The look of anguish, pain, guilt that washed across his face about broke her heart.