Rekindled (7 page)

When Ross spoke long moments later, she was surprised to hear humor in his voice. “Not bad for a novice.”

“What?”

“That scream. For someone who says she doesn’t do that kind of thing, you sure let loose!”

She let out a breath and grinned, feeling oddly calm. “I guess I did. You have a way of doing the weirdest things to me.”

“I certainly hope so,” he drawled.

” Ross-“

“Shh. I’ve heard enough from you for a while. I want you to listen.”

“But-“

“Shh! I have something to say.”

“You-umph!” The breath was forced from her by a squeeze to her middle. She didn’t try to speak again.

“Better,” he said. “Now, listen. I realize that you need time, and I’ll give you that. But I’m not leaving. Not this time. I want to get to know you, and I want you to get to know me. We blew it on that score last time. But yesterday was one thing, today’s another, and they’re different, Chloe, they’re different.”

She liked the sound of that. Didn’t know if she believed it. But it was fine for the moment. Same thing with sitting against one another this way, looking out over the last of the sunset’s flaming rays. Ross provided support. And heat. She was acutely aware of his long legs, his strong arms, his broad chest, his warm breath. She might not have a right to do it, but she savored the peace of the moment.

So maybe today was different. Certainly they were eleven years older, maybe even worlds wiser. But Crystal had been an intrinsic part of her life. To forget her would be wrong. It was more a matter of acceptance. Could she accept the past and learn to live with it?

“Well?” Ross’s baritone hummed by her ear.

“Well, what?” She had reached her saturation point and couldn’t agonize anymore. He nudged her ribs. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself.?”

Her long pause was nearly as effective as the sigh that followed it. “I can speak now?”

“Speak.”

“That’s a beautiful sunset,” she mused aloud. “It’s a treat at this time of year, all warm and golden. Do you have any idea what would happen if the ozone layer were to be destroyed by the haphazard release of freon gas?”

“Chlo … eee.”

Before Ross could respond, a call of concern came from far down the beach.

“It’s Lee,” Chloe explained as her partner loped toward where she and Ross sat. Ross made no move to hold her back when she slid from his grip and jumped to her feet.

The timing couldn’t have been better. With those legs framing hers and the strength of that body a serious temptation, her diversion into envitonmental quandaries would have been temporary at best. Lee’s appearance was a godsend.

Aware that Ross had risen beside her, Chloe kept her eyes on the approaching figure. “You met Lee at the house, didn’t you?” she asked.

“No,” he said with something of a grunt. “Another character let me in and directed me to you. Is this some kind of commune you live in?”

Lee’s booming call spared Chloe from having to answer. “Is everything all right, Chloe?” He covered the last of the distance at a more cautious walk, making no effort to disguise his wariness of an equally wary Ross. “It’s getting dark. I was beginning to worry.”

Chloe absently clutched her left wrist, a habit dating back to the days when she wore a watch. Her fingers easily circled the bone. “Oh, my. I’m sorry. I lost track of the time. We were going to-” Suddenly aware that the two men were staring at each other, she interrupted the thought and said, “Lee, this is Ross Stephenson. We knew each other a long time ago. Ross heads the corporation responsible for the Rye Beach proposal.” She looked at Ross. “This is Lee Haight. Lee and I co-own ESE.”

For a brief instant, she pictured the two men squaring off, and there was that moment’s antagonism. She was relieved when Ross extended his hand. It was met by an equally large one of Lee’s.

Chloe was struck by those hands, but they were only the start. The physical similarities between the two men, each of whom had been instrumental in shaping her life, was amazing. Both were tall and lean; both had athletic builds. While Ross’s dark hair had faint wisps of gray at the sideburns, Lee’s highlights were more auburn, but both men were tanned and inordinately good-looking. Only their dress differentiated their approaches to life. Whereas Ross was the image of the casual male of the more traditional school, Lee was, in appearance, reminiscent of that earlier, more nonconformist phase through which the other had passed. While Ross wore slacks, Lee wore denim. While Ross wore a sports shirt, Lee wore a T-shirt emblazoned with an apt MAN. Ross wore well kept loafers, Lee had on a pair of battered running shoes. And then there was that neatly trimmed beard of Lee’s that stretched from ear to ear, much as Ross’s had on the night Chloe had met him.

It had never occurred to her to compare the two men before, but on all counts the likeness was astounding.

Apparently Ross saw it, too. He grinned slowly, almost slyly. “It looks like Chloe’s taste in men hasn’t changed all that much, after all,” he said, with such a lack of malice that Lee relaxed a little.

“I intend to take that statement at its most positive, friend. This little lady is very near and dear to me.” He threw a protective arm about Chloe’s shoulder, drawing her to him with his customary possessiveness. She had always liked that, and did even more so now. His presence made her feel less vulnerable. She chuckled when Lee added, “Are you friend or foe?”

“Friend, by all means,” Ross replied.

“Then I take it you’re not here on business,” Lee concluded. “And you can’t be passing through.”

Chloe laughed this time. “I’ve been through all that with him, Lee. He knows precisely where he is.”

Lee glanced her way. “Sounds ominous.” He looked at Ross. “How long are you in for?”

“I was hoping to spend the weekend here,” Ross answered with a calm that had the opposite effect on Chloe. Her stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies. They fluttered wildly when those amber eyes turned to her. “If Chloe is free.”

Chloe didn’t know whether Lee sensed her internal turmoil, but she was eternally grateful for the arm that tightened around her shoulders. “You’ll have a fight on your hands,” he said. “I have a prior claim on her. Your big corporation may be able to do without you for the weekend, but our small one isn’t so generous.” Looking down at her, he said, “There were several calls for you. Alabama called again on that toxic waste burning problem. I told them you’d have an answer for them by Monday.”

Chloe nodded, sighing her uncertainty on the Alabama matter. “And the other calls?”

“Derry Township called on the lecture series at the community college. They want to know when the printed material will be ready to be copied. Jay called from Pittsburgh to say that he should be back on Sunday, and Debbie will have the statistics on the sinkhole study for you to see tomorrow.”

“Whoa. She sure got that together fast.” She told Ross, “Debbie is the newest member of the firm. She just got her degree. Her working knowledge of computers is much better than Lee’s or mine.” She frowned. “Boy, would I like to take more courses.”

“Why don’t you?” Ross asked.

“No time. Lee and I have worked our butts off trying to make ESE a functioning enterprise.” She shot a look at her partner. “I think we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”

His grimace took her by surprise. Instead of agreement, she saw sudden doubt. “That’s another point of discussion for the weekend,” Lee informed her softly, squeezing her arm a final time before releasing her. “But, hey, it’s getting dark. Let’s carry on inside. Want to stay for dinner, Ross?”

Chloe bent to retie a shoelace that needed no retying. She didn’t want Ross staying for dinner. She wanted to return to her life, and that meant having him leave and stay gone. Naturally, he had other ideas.

“That would be fine,” he said with gratitude.

But Chloe sensed something in him. As the three of them walked back down the beach to her house, she saw the tension on Ross’s face. His eyes met hers, and she was again grateful for Lee’s presence.

Then Lee turned traitorous. With a grin, he said, “There’s some great wine in the cellar, Chloe. The steaks are already on the counter. Why don’t you take another one from the freezer? I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

And he loped off.

Before she could follow, Ross wrapped a hand around her long ponytail and held her in place.

“What was that all about?” he asked with a scowl. “You told me you lived alone.”

She stared straight ahead, looking after Lee. “I do.”

Ross moved closer. His head lowered to hers. “Then why is that fellow so damned at home in your house? He sounds like he’s the live-in chef-between the wine and the steaks. What other services does he perform?”

She didn’t like his implication. Still staring at the house, she said, “He’s good enough to bring the trash to the dump once a week and put They had reached the base of the field stone steps that led to Chloe’s back porch. Ross paused on the first step. “And those others I saw here this afternoon. Who were they?”

:”Workers on our various projects.”

“Partners in the firm?”

She shook her head. “We hire part-time people. They’re mostly students, master’s candidates from local schools like URI and Brown.”

The pale blue of dusk was quickly giving way to the darker purples of evening in a star-filled sky. Only the spill of pale gold light from the kitchen window lit Ross’s features now. It left his lines more clear-cut, his profile more distinct and dramatic. Chloe was intrigued.

“I admire you for your dedication,” he said.

She continued to study him. “Do I hear wistfulness?”

His chuckle was suspiciously poignant. “Maybe. There are times-at which, that’s a whole other thing.”

When she would have pursued it, Lee’s shout jarred her. “Chloe!” Her head whipped around. “Where are the matches? The pilot light is out on the broiler. I can’t get it lit.”

Ross leaned close and murmured, “And here I thought he was the one who always came to your rescue.”

She turned to defend Lee, only to find Ross’s lips a breath from hers. His eyes were glowing, his body warm though the heat of the day was gone, and her mouth was suddenly dry. “I think I’d better give him a hand. Pray we’re not out of matches.”

Her response was meant as humor, because she wasn’t telling Ross the truth. Oh, yes, Lee was a willing handyman, able in nine cases out of ten. But they had a running gag over that tenth. Chloe was convinced, and had told Lee as much, that his occasional flub was intentional, his way of reminding her that he needed her, too. He never denied it. And Chloe always indulged him. Emotionally, he gave her so much. She liked giving a little some of that back.

Without further pause, she ran up the steps. It was only when she reached the top and started for the door that Ross caught her hand. He pressed something into it. She looked down at a book of matches.

“You smoke?”

“Actually,” he said with a wry twist of his lips, “I carry matches around with me just in case a pilot light goes out.”

:,Do you smoke?”

“Through my eyes, when I’m angry.”

“Ross, do you?”

“Smoke? No.”

She sighed. “That’s good. This is a nonsmoking house. If you wanted to smoke you’d have to sneak one in the john, or stay out here with the chipmunks.”

“That’s some choice. Good thing I don’t have to make it. As it happens,” he informed her, “my only vice is sex. Do we have to sneak that in the john, too?”

She might have choked if she’d been eating. But she recovered quickly, shook her head, and muttered a soft “Incorrigible…” as she pulled the screen open. She took refuge in the kitchen, where her loyal protector, Lee, was waiting.

And he filled that role repeatedly throughout the evening, taking over for her when she was distracted. He was an able conversationalist, a gracious host. She trembled to think what would have happened had she and Ross been alone in the house. She was too vulnerable, too susceptible where Ross was concerned. If she hadn’t known it before, she learned it that evening.

It started before dinner, when she left the two men and went off to shower. She put on a pair of jeans and a western-style blouse that had breast pockets and a decoratively stitched yoke. Her intent was to be cool and at ease. The finished product, though, spoke of homespun femininity. Had it been the pale pink of the blouse, she later asked herself.? Or the way the seasoned denims outlined her hips? Whatever, she caught Ross’s attention. Her first step into the living room, where the men were nursing drinks while the steaks grilled, brought Ross’s eyes her way for a perusal that set her pulse hammering. Where Chloe’s peace of mind was concerned, it was downhill from there. She wanted to tune him out, but she couldn’t.

The talk centered on business matters. Sitting quietly in a peacock chair, Chloe learned that Ross’s headquarters were indeed in New York, but that there were corporate branches in the South and in the West.

She tried to imagine it. “You must live out of a suitcase a good deal of your time.”

“I’m used to it. Don’t forget, when I was a kid my family was shuttled around by the Army.” At Lee’s prodding, Ross elaborated on his background. Chloe found herself wondering if he had ever settled down, even for a short time, or if he ever would. She found herself wondering how as compelling and attractive a man had avoided the lure of a wife, a home, a family. When she was caught in the act of admiring him, Ross smiled in what she swore was a knowing way.

And so went the evening. Lee talked with Ross, and Ross talked with Lee. Chloe listened, joining in from time to time, trying to fight admiration without much success.

Why Ross? she asked herself at one point. Why not Lee? The two were as physically alike as brothers. But then, why had Ross been attracted to Chloe rather than Crystal? Or had he? Had Crystal been right? Had it been a case of his taking what was offered by whichever sister came forward?

That question nagged. Had her being with Ross been pure chance? A simple turn of fate? But what about that coin? There was nothing coincidental about Chloe winning the toss. And Ross-had he been looking at Chloe rather than at her identical twin sister? Had it all been by design, or had it been by pure chance?