The Hamilton Heir (11 page)

Pondering that conclusion she was struck with an even more disturbing thought. Suppose God didn’t separate them, either? She’d always believed that the Lord had found her this job in order to put
her in a position to help her family financially. If that were the case, how could she argue that life outside the office was all that really mattered?

Confused, Dawn shut her eyes and let the movement of the car coax her closer to sleep. She could have prayed silently but chose not to. If God had any more revelations in store for her she didn’t want to be enlightened just yet. One thunderbolt of divine wisdom per night was quite enough, thank you.

After he’d parked in front of Dawn’s apartment in Hickory Mills, Tim watched her sleeping for long seconds, then woke her with gentle words and a light touch on her shoulder. “Dawn? You’re home.”

She stirred. Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks like tiny butterflies. She opened her eyes, looked at him and began to smile. “Hi.”

Even in the dim reflection of the streetlight her smile was enough to warm him all the way to his soul. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

“Um-hum.” She stretched and yawned. “Sorry I conked out on you.”

“That’s okay. I figured it was safer to let you sleep than wake you and chance the female hysterics you’d warned me about.”

“Smart man.” Gathering up her purse and slipping a finger through the straps at the heels of her shoes she reached for the door handle.

Tim’s hand brushed her forearm, careful to keep his touch gentle and undemanding. “Wait. I’ll get the door and walk you up.”

“Are we back to that again? I can manage. Honest.”

“Humor me? I’m not doing it because I think it’s my duty, I’m doing it because I want to.”

Her eyes widened. “Okay.”

The fall night air was chilly when he got out. Tim slipped off his jacket as he rounded the car and held it ready to place around her shoulders.

He’d thought, from her body language as she stood, that she was going to resist the chivalrous gesture but she didn’t. He laid the jacket across her shoulders and held it there as they walked into the building. Then, she stepped ahead of him to climb the stairs.

He’d seen that her building was quiet and safe the last time he’d brought her there, so what had made him insist he walk her all the way to her door again? Manners dictated, of course, yet it was more than that. A lot more. It surprised him to realize he didn’t want their time together to end. Somehow, sometime during the evening, the focus had shifted from business to pleasure. He’d actually enjoyed every minute of his time with Dawn, so much so that he wanted to prolong it.

She paused at her door and quickly found her key ring in the small clutch. Tim took the keys from her and unlocked her door but made no move to push it open for fear of repeating his initial encounter with her dog.

“Well, I guess this is good-night,” she said quietly.

“Yes.” He took her hand, turned it over and placed the keys in her palm. Instead of letting go,
he continued to cradle her small hand as he said, “I had an amazing evening. Thank you for keeping me company.”

“It was my pleasure,” Dawn said. “And thank you for the dress.”

“You should thank Heather.”

Dawn was gazing into his eyes and smiling sweetly. “What Heather did, she did on your orders. And with your money. Lots of it. I’m just glad I was able to keep the costs down as much as I did.”

“It was worth every penny. That dress—you—are beautiful.”

She reclaimed her hand, used it to swing his jacket off her shoulders and handed the coat to him. “Thank you. You’re not so hard to look at, yourself…Tim.”

Stepping back, he hooked a finger in the collar of the tuxedo jacket and slung it casually over one shoulder. “See you Monday, then.”

“Yes, unless…” He watched her apparently struggle to decide whether or not to go on before she said, “We’re having a potluck after the evening church service at Northside tomorrow. Drop in if you’d like to taste some great, old-fashioned, home-cooked food. We’d love to have you.”

“No crawdads?”

Dawn shook her head and smiled more broadly. “Nope. Usually just ham and maybe fried chicken. If you want Cajun delicacies you’ll have to go a lot farther South.”

“Or wait till you make another pot of that soup. It really was good.”

“I’m glad you liked it. Well…”

“Right.” He took another tentative step backward. “Good night, Dawn.”

He watched her turn, enter her apartment and close the door behind her before he started back down the stairs. He hadn’t quite reached the second floor landing when he heard a shriek, followed by his name.

“Tim!”

Dawn!
Every instinct to protect her came to full alert. His nostrils flared. His heart pounded. Whirling, he raced back up the steps two at a time.

When he hit the third floor, there she was, waiting for him in the dimly lit hallway! And she appeared to be alone.
Thank God!

Tim grabbed her upper arms, held her fast. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Wide-eyed, she held out the velvet jewelry box. “Your mother’s necklace. I forgot to give it back to you.”

Tim felt as if a belligerent giant had punched him in the stomach and knocked all the air out of his lungs.

Still grasping her arms he leaned his head back, closed his eyes and took a deep, settling breath. “Is that all? I thought…”

“I’m so sorry,” Dawn said. “I panicked when I got inside and saw the empty box sitting there. Please, take the diamonds with you?”

“Sure.”

Reluctant to let her go he turned her, then forced
himself to relax his hold. “Lift your hair so I can see the clasp.”

As she did so, her silky tresses brushed his cheek and sent a shiver down his spine.

He made short work of the necklace and swung it free so he could distance himself before he gave in to the growing urge to really embrace her. He didn’t know when he’d been that frightened and all he wanted to do was celebrate his relief by holding her tight and kissing her senseless.

Instead, he got control of his emotions and stepped away. “There. Can you handle the earrings?”

“Yes.”

Dawn passed him the velvet box to hold while she fumbled with the screw-back posts. When she’d removed both earrings she secured the backs and laid them carefully in the box with the necklace.

Watching her, Tim was getting the impression she hated the jewelry, was loathe to even touch it. He snapped the box closed and slid it into his pocket. There was enough extra adrenaline coursing through his veins to keep him up half the night. That, coupled with his frustration, wasn’t helping his mood.

“If you’re done screaming and scaring me to death, go lock yourself in your apartment with your watchdog, where it’s safe,” Tim said, physically turning her once more so she faced her door. “I’m going home.”

He gave her a nudge, watched her go inside, then waited till he heard the latch click into place. He
didn’t know when he’d been more frightened. Probably never. The idea that something terrible might have happened to Dawn churned in his gut and rose like bile in his throat.

“Women,” he grumbled. If they weren’t driving you crazy they were scaring you to death.

D
awn would have phoned Gabi for a session of serious girl-talk right after Tim left if it hadn’t been so late. Although she overslept the following morning and had to drag herself to church she still managed to arrive on time to teach Sunday school, as usual.

Gabi met her in the hallway outside their respective classrooms and greeted her enthusiastically. “Well? How did it go?”

“Fine. I had a great time.”

“That’s it? That’s all? No way, Jose. Come on. Spill it. I want all the details.”

“Well, let’s see.” Dawn struck a pose, index finger lying beside her cheek. “I didn’t fall off my shoes. I didn’t barf when I accidentally swallowed a squid tentacle. I didn’t lose the borrowed diamond jewelry, but I did scare Tim silly when I hollered at him to come back and get it. I ate real cheesecake
and loved every bite.” She paused. “Oh, and I decided I was in love with my boss.”

“What?” Gabi’s jaw dropped and she stared, openmouthed.

“Yup.” Dawn gave a little shrug. “You heard me. I think I love Tim Hamilton. Ain’t that the pits?”

“You just got swept off your feet by the romantic mood last night,” Gabi argued. “Did he make a move on you? Try to kiss you?”

“No. He was a perfect gentleman. That’s part of the problem. He was so polite it made me wonder if I had spinach stuck to my teeth or something.”

“Did you?”

“We didn’t even eat spinach. I was making a joke.”

Gabi frowned and shook her head. “The joke is how you could think you were in love
already.
You’ve only had one real date with the guy.”

“Yes, but I’ve seen him every weekday for nearly a year. I just never viewed him as anything but my boss until he murdered my car and drove me around with the meals-on-wheels deliveries.”

“One good deed does not make Tim Hamilton a hero.”

“It’s a lot more than that,” Dawn said. “If you take the time to look beneath his polished exterior there’s a heart of gold. Remember how he befriended Stuart?”

“Lots of people at Northside take care of others. It’s what this church does. That’s not special, it’s normal.”

“For us it is. For somebody like Tim, it isn’t. He’s
usually all business. Altruism is a big change for him. You said so yourself. There was no profit in it and he was still nice to a lonely old man.”

“Fine. Give him a medal. Just don’t throw your heart away because of one or two glimmers of decency.”

“I haven’t thrown anything away,” Dawn said seriously. “Tim doesn’t have a clue how I feel. Nobody knows but you and me, and that’s the way I plan to keep it. The last thing I need is for him to suspect I care about him—at least until he shows me he may share those feelings.”

“Sounds like the kind of crush a teenager gets,” Gabi said. “If we were still in high school, you could always wait till Tim offers to carry your books between classes and then you’d know he was interested in you.”

“Very funny.”

“Actually, no, it isn’t.” Her friend sighed. “Maybe you ought to have a talk with Pastor Abernathy.”

“Charles David Abernathy has plenty to do without my bothering him about my feelings for my boss.”

“Oh? And what do you suppose he feels is more important than the welfare of his flock?”

“I don’t know.” The six-and-seven-year-olds in her class had started to arrive so Dawn lowered her voice to continue their adult discussion. “I feel the same way about bothering God with trivial stuff. Know what I mean?”

“Sure,” Gabi said wisely. “Would you care to tell
me what you think is important to Him? He made the universe, Dawn. He created the cosmos. Nothing is too big or too small for God.”

“You do have a point. I’ll think about it, okay?”

Gabi paused to give her a quick hug. “Okay. And I’ll go ahead and pray you come to your senses, if you don’t mind.”

Dawn smiled. “Pray away, sister. I need all the divine guidance I can get.”

“Now
that
we agree on.”

Tim had an early tee time Sunday morning. His game was off but he blamed it on the stresses of the previous evening. Images of Dawn kept popping into his head and refused to go away, even when he was trying to sink a difficult putt. He finished the back nine but his score was dismal. He hadn’t ended up that many strokes over par in years and took an awful teasing from his partners, Richard McNeil among them.

“Hey, nobody’s perfect,” Tim countered as they headed for their cars in the clubhouse parking lot. “Not even me, although I do have my moments of greatness.”

“Yeah,” McNeil said. “Like last night. You were sure in your element presiding over that bunch of investors.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course, you also had the best-looking woman in Tennessee keeping you company, so you should have been riding high. Smooth,
buddy. Real smooth. Too bad you don’t play golf that well.”

“Yeah.” His companions laughed and Tim joined them rather than express his disappointment in his apparent loss of skill. Another morning like this one and he’d be ready to sell his clubs and take up a game he could win.

Winning was what mattered most, he told himself. Unlike hobbyists such as Stuart Meyers, he didn’t keep refighting the same battles. If he lost, as he had this morning, then he accepted it, put it behind him and moved on. There was nothing to be gained by rehashing failures until they drove you crazy.

Thoughts of failing made him clench his teeth and focus on his family. He waved goodbye to Richard, tossed his golf bag into the trunk of his car and slammed the lid closed. Maybe he’d swing by the hospital and say hello to his father before he went home, instead of coming back later during visiting hours.

The vision of Wallace’s deteriorating condition made his stomach clench. Every time Tim saw the once-virile man in that hospital bed it was harder to take. After the experiences of the past few months, just walking in the door of Community General and smelling the antiseptic air made him ill.

Tim took a deep breath and steeled himself. There were many things he didn’t relish doing, yet duty forced him to face them head-on. This wasn’t
a game like golf, it was a real life-or-death battle. Tim knew no one lived forever but he couldn’t get his mind around the concept of his father’s eventual death. It was simply unacceptable.

Driving away from the golf course, Tim dialed his mother’s cell phone number. She answered on the first ring.

“Are you at the hospital?”

“Yes. I’ve been here since right after church. Heather and Amy were, too, but they left.”

“I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. How’s Dad doing?”

He could tell by the muted sound that Nora had cupped her hand around the receiver’s mouthpiece. “Better, I think. Dr. Strickland gave him something to help him sleep. He’s so weak, but he won’t quit fighting to stay awake.”

“Do you think it would be better if I visited later?”

“Probably.”

Tim’s conscience knotted, arguing that it was wrong to be glad of the reprieve. “Okay,” he said. “How about you? Are you going home soon? Can I take you out for Sunday dinner?”

“Not today, honey,” Nora said. “I’m just going to rest here until your father wakes up.”

Tim had assumed those would be her plans but had felt compelled to ask. “Call me when he’s up to having company, will you? I want to tell him how well the get-together at Opryland went last night.”

“Good news only, I hope. It would be hard on him to hear otherwise.”

“Very good. Everything’s fine. He’ll be pleased.”

“What about your date? Did that go well, too?”

“It wasn’t a date,” Tim argued. “I simply took my executive assistant with me to help her get acquainted with some of the board members and important stockholders.”

“Of course you did, dear. Heather tells me the dress she and Dawn picked out was sort of silvery.”

“Heather must be color-blind. It was blue, the same as Dawn’s eyes.” He thought he heard his mother snicker. “What’s so funny?”

“You are,” Nora said. “You’re so busy trying to fill your father’s shoes, you’re overlooking the part of him I love the most—his zest for living. If he were really the consummate business tycoon you seem to think he was, he’d have had a booming media company and that’s all.”

“Meaning?” Tim swung his car onto Highway 24, headed north.

“Meaning, where do you think you children came from, baskets on our doorstep?”

Tim refrained from mentioning Jeremy’s origins even though that was the first thought that popped into his head. Instead, he turned the erstwhile maternal lecture into a joking exchange by saying, “I don’t know about myself, Mom, but I’ve often wondered if you got Melissa from some passing vagabonds. She sure has the wanderlust.”

“Melissa will be fine. She was raised right and she’ll remember that eventually,” Nora said. “I’m proud of all my children. You’re individuals but
you’re still a family. I’d admire you kids even if we weren’t related.”

Even the black sheep among us?
Tim wondered.
Undoubtedly.
Nora was a better person than he was. That notion made him smile. Of course she was. Mothers were supposed to be models of proper behavior, even if they slipped now and then.

He said, “Thanks, Mom. I’m passing the off-ramp to the hospital. You sure you don’t want to go grab a bite with me while Dad’s sleeping?”

“No, thanks. I’m fine. I may stop off at Northside on my way home tonight. They’re having a potluck.”

“So Dawn said.”

“Oh? Are you going?”

“I hadn’t planned on it.”

“Why don’t you come? You can pick me up so I won’t have to drive.”

“You’re a better driver than I am,” Tim countered.

“True. I haven’t damaged any cars lately. I just thought, if I could count on you to take me over there, I wouldn’t have to worry about dozing off at the wheel. I really am beat.”

“I know you are.” Tim was penitent. “All right. What time do you want me to come and get you?”

“A little before six will be fine. At the house. And Tim? Stop off at the grocery store and pick up some bags of chips or something like that, will you? Vera Mae has the day off so I can’t ask her to fix anything and we don’t want to show up empty-handed.”

“Okay.” He sighed noisily. “I need to give back
your necklace, anyway. I’ll see you around five-thirty, quarter to six.”

“Fine. After church we can come visit your father together.”

“Church?” His brow knit. “I thought you said we were going there for a meal.”

“We are. There’ll just be a short service first. It won’t kill you.”

“It might,” he grumbled. “If the roof caves in because I’m there, I won’t be responsible.”

His mother laughed warmly. “I’ll take my chances.”

Dawn had volunteered to help in the kitchen so she wasn’t in the sanctuary to see Tim arrive. The first she heard of it was when Gabi rushed up to her and announced the surprising news.

“He’s here!” Gabi shouted, crossing the fellowship hall at a trot and pointing. “Right out there, big as life.”

Dawn frowned. “Who is?”

“Tim Hamilton, that’s who.”

“You’re kidding!”

Gabi pressed her hand to her throat and struck a pose of innocence. “I do not kid about things like that. He just walked in.”

“I’d better go welcome him, then.” She started to untie her apron.

“He’s not alone. He’s with his mother,” Gabi said, handing two bulging plastic grocery sacks to one of the other workers. “They gave me these.”

“Oh.” Dawn felt deflated. “I thought maybe he came because I invited him.”

“Maybe he did. Who knows? At least he’s here.”

“That’s true.” She eyed the sacks. “One thing is for sure. Tim bought that stuff. He’s big on over-supply. Which reminds me. I have new hairbrushes for the girls and you. Lots of them. I left them in Tim’s car but I’m sure he’ll return them to me.”

“Hairbrushes?”

Dawn was sorry she’d mentioned the brushes because that meant she’d have to confess what had happened to her fancy hairdo. “It’s a long story. I felt funny with my hair up so I decided to take it down—sorry—only I didn’t have a brush with me. Tim went into a store to buy me one and came out with dozens of them.” She smiled. “It was kind of sweet, actually. He said he wanted me to have a choice.”

“Sounds like a guy who can’t make up his mind to me.”

“Cynic.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Look at all the chips he bought.”

“They’ll be put to good use. What we don’t eat tonight we can serve to the youth group as snacks when they meet. See? God provided.”

“No, Tim Hamilton provided. I refuse to believe that God has any influence over that man.”

Sobering, Dawn sighed before she said, “I sure hope you’re wrong about that. I truly do.”

Dawn fidgeted for the entire twenty-five minutes it took for Pastor Abernathy to address the
congregation, ask the blessing on the food and dismiss everyone to eat. Although she’d assured herself she’d play it cool when she saw Tim, she broke into a silly, elated grin the moment she spotted him.

“Down, girl,” Gabi warned.

“Oh, hush. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

“Don’t count on it. I doubt most folks would look that pleased if the President of the United States walked in and grabbed a plate.”

Dawn had to agree. This was the first time she’d seen Tim dressed casually. Even during his visit to Stuart’s, when he’d removed his jacket and tie to make it easier to stage the war, he’d still started out looking like a high-powered executive.

Tonight, however, in keeping with the more relaxed atmosphere of the evening service, he was wearing khaki slacks and a polo shirt. Dawn assumed that Nora must have told him about the unwritten dress code for the evening service because she couldn’t imagine Tim going anywhere without a necktie.

Wearing a tie had always looked uncomfortable and seemed silly to her, especially in hot weather. In that respect, women were far more liberated than men, weren’t they? If they didn’t want to wear a stiff collar and knot a piece of fabric around their necks like a noose, they simply didn’t do it.

The parishioners formed a line and slowly filed past the buffet-style arrangement of food. Dawn, Gabi and three others waited aside, ready to remove
an empty dish and replace it with another that hadn’t fit on the crammed serving tables initially.