After the Loving (10 page)

Velma. He dialed her cell phone number. “What time are you getting back to Eagle Park?” he asked her.

“About four. Why?”

“Instead of going home, how about meeting me at Third and Elk?”

“What’s there?”

“The street corner, babe. I’ll park there and wait for you.”

“Okay, Mr. Smarty. Be there a few minutes before four.”

He’d been there less than ten minutes when she parked behind him. He started back to her car, and she got out and waited for him.

“I’m learning a lot about you, Russ.”

He couldn’t help grinning because he knew what she referred to. “Something new?”

“Only you would know how long you’ve been a smart mouth.”

“I try not to pass up opportunities, and you provided a good one. I want some ice cream other than black cherry. Let’s go to—”

“Now, Russ, you know I can’t—”

“I don’t know any such thing. This place has at least twenty varieties of no-fat ice cream and even more flavors made with pure cream. Come on.” He knew from the light in her eyes that she couldn’t wait to sample it.

“A big scoop each of no-fat peach, praline and strawberry,” she said, rubbing her hands together in anticipatory delight.

He put a hand on her arm. “Hold it. Don’t you think you’re overdoing it?”

She looked hard at him. “For dinner, I will have poached
chicken, broccoli and a salad with no dressing. I’m eating every bit of this ice cream.”

“We have a special,” the waiter said, “four scoops for seven fifty.”

She didn’t hesitate. “I’ll take the special.”

He shook his head. “When you hit that scale tomorrow morning, don’t come at me with one of your stiletto shoe heels.”

“Not to worry. I believe in taking my medicine.”

“I just visited my uncle at the hospital.”

“How is he?”

“He’s weak, but he has all his faculties, and I…I really enjoyed that time with him. He told me a lot of things I didn’t know, important things.”

The waiter arrived with their dishes of ice cream with which came assorted wafers. Her face relaxed into a smile, lights twinkled in her warm-brown eyes and she rimmed her lips with the tip of her tongue. He wanted to grab her and love her senseless. A sensual woman if he ever saw one.

“Hmmm,” she said, savoring a spoonful of praline. “This is decadent, plain sinful.”

“It doesn’t take a lot to make you happy, I see.”

She didn’t look at him, but focused on the ice cream. “In terms of quantity, no.” She stopped eating then and looked up at him. “What hooks me is quality.”

He decided to pick his way carefully. “Well, I admit this is first-class ice cream. I haven’t eaten better.”

She put the spoon down and looked him in the eye. “I’m not talking about ice cream, and you know it. Neither are you.”

On the verge of laughing, he said, “I am not going to laugh at your antics, Velma, so don’t try to push me into it. Got that?”

She savored the banana, the fourth flavor. “Russ, do you swim?”

“Do I…of course I swim. In midsummer, I live in that pool at home.”

“Good. The complex I’m about to move into—provided you find the house is sound—has an Olympic-size swimming pool, and I don’t swim.”

“Alexis swims like a fish. What happened to you?”

“She liked showing off in a bathing suit. I never had the nerve to put one on.”

“You have the nerve now?”

“No, but I will by the time the swimming season comes.”

He stopped eating and looked at her. After a moment, he decided to avoid an unpleasantness and keep peace with her. “I’ll be glad to teach you whenever you’re ready.”

After eating the ice cream, they walked out into the late-January afternoon with its bright sunlight, calm wind and biting cold.

“What’ll we do now?” she asked, and he had been wondering the same thing, unwilling as he was to end their first casual outing together. From the corner of his eye, he saw the streetlight change and the reflection of red in a window across the street.

“Do you ice-skate?” he asked her.

“I did, but I haven’t had on a pair of skates in, let’s see…thirteen years. I left the skates home when I went to college.”

“It’s been a couple of years longer than that since I skated,” he said, “but, hey, let’s try it. The worst that can happen is that we fall down.”

“That could hurt, if I remember.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got a hell of a lot nicer cushion to land
on than I have.” She laughed, then looked at him with eyes wide and a drooping lower lip.

“What is it?”

“In my whole life, that’s the first time I ever laughed about my size.”

With her hand in his, he started across the street. “You’re going to do a lot more of that, because I am not going to pussyfoot around the topic just because you’re hung up on it. You look good to me, and especially in those slacks and that sweater, so as far as I’m concerned that settles it.”

He rented the skates and a locker for her handbag, their coats and shoes, looked down at her and grinned. “Better let me take a lap, get the hang of it, so that if you fall, I’ll have enough balance to catch you.”

“No, sir. Who’s going to catch you while you’re getting the hang of it? If we go down, we go down together.”

They put on their skates, got on the ice and steadied themselves. He didn’t like feeling as if he had cloven hoofs, but it seemed that way at first. However, he soon got his bearings and looked around for Velma. After searching the crowd and not finding her, he was about to decide that she was sitting on the bench, when he saw her burnt-orange sweater breezing along ahead of him as skillfully as if she skated every day. He caught her as she turned to come back.

“Woman, did you lie to me about your skating prowess?”

She smiled the smile of a sated feline. “No. I just forgot how good at it I used to be.”

As they skated together, he realized that he didn’t allow himself time for fun and relaxation, that in the ten years since he received his masters degree in architectural design, he hadn’t done ten foolish things. He loved football, but
hadn’t been to more than a couple of games. Success had come at the price of his youth and his youthfulness.

He grasped Velma’s hand and guided them to the edge of the rink. “That was a lot more fun than I remembered, and I’d be willing to continue, but my sister-in-law frowns on straggling in to dinner after seven o’clock.”

“I know. I was having fun, too.” She looked up at him, her smile at once innocent and beguiling. “Can we do this again?”

The hell with convention. He hugged her and tweaked her nose. “Sure. Let’s buy our own skates.”

She reached up and brushed the side of his face with her left hand, and he had to dig into himself for control as he gazed at the tenderness that shone in her eyes.
If they were any place other than a public arena, any place that afforded a modicum of privacy, he would have wrapped her in his arms and betrayed himself.

She gasped when they walked out of the building into the darkness. “Oops! I promised Alexis I’d be home before dark, so she wouldn’t worry.”

“I’ll call them.” He took out his cell phone and dialed Telford’s home phone number.

“Say,” Telford said after greeting him. “We don’t know what happened to Velma. She was due back before dark, and she didn’t answer her cell phone.”

“That’s why I’m calling. She’s with me. We’re in Frederick and headed home. Tell Alexis not to worry.”

“Thanks for letting me know. See you shortly.”

As they walked to their cars, he told her, “Your sister managed to regiment me where everybody else who ever knew me failed.”

“I’d like to know how she did it.”

He checked the tires on the car and opened the driver’s door for her. “Gourmet meals. Along with her ‘you’re-in-
the-army-now’ house rules, she taught Henry how to cook, did a lot of it herself and always set a table that made your mouth water just looking at it. And she did it with such grace. She made that house a home.”

She got in the car, rolled down the window and ignited the engine. “So feeding you is the key to getting you to behave.”

He didn’t know what got into him, but he had a desire to see her back down, and he equated it with wickedness. “That depends on the woman and what I want, or need, from her. For some, good food would do it. For another…” He could feel his bottom lip curling into a grin. “Food, gourmet or not, wouldn’t cut it. But if she fired up like lightning every time I put my hands on her…” He let her imagine the rest.

She didn’t take him up on it. “Get into your car, Russ, and let’s go before you find yourself testing your theory.”

“That’s no theory, that’s fact. You tail me. If you have a problem, flash your lights.”

“I ought to pray more,” Velma said to herself as she rushed up the stairs to shower and change in the thirty-three minutes remaining before seven o’clock. “I need that guy. He’s such a sweet man. He may not want to be, but he is. I know he thinks I’m off-the-wall with this diet, but I’m not going to stop until I can buy my clothes in the misses section.” She chose a long-sleeved lavender dress, scoop necked and with a flounced hem, combed her hair down and increased her fire power with a dab of Hermès perfume behind her ears and at her cleavage.

She took her seat at the table with seconds to spare. They joined hands, and as soon as Telford said grace, Tara smiled. “Mummy, Mr. Henry forgot the candles when you were in the honeywell.”

“You mean when I was on my honeymoon.”

“I forgot that word,” Tara said, “but Mr. Henry put whipped cream on my apple pie. I love whipped cream. I love Mr. Henry, too.”

Velma couldn’t help glancing toward Russ, whose face bore a smile not unlike parental indulgence. He loved Tara so much. Surely he would want children of his own to love and care for.

“Did you forget Tel’s breakfast?” Henry asked her.

“No. Thanks for reminding me. It’s in a cool bag in the trunk of Alexis’s car.”

“I’ll get it later,” Russ said, and when she saw the quick, sharp incline of Telford’s eyebrows, she knew that speculation was rife about Russ and her and decided to fuel it.

“Can you ice-skate?” she asked Tara.

“A little bit. My school took us to skate three times. I loved it.”

“Velma skates very well,” Russ added. “I mean, she’s good. At first, I was hard-pressed to keep up with her.”

Telford placed his fork on the edge of his plate, finished chewing his mouthful of food and leaned back in his chair. “You’re telling me, Russ, that you went ice-skating this afternoon?”

“Yeah. We filled up on ice cream, looked around for something else to do, and my gaze caught that red neon sign over the skating arena, so we went skating.”

Henry cleared his throat. “Yer takin’ to laughing like a hyena, now yer ice-skating on a weekday afternoon. Next, somebody’ll tell me you been skydiving. There’s hope for ya yet.”

“Thanks, Henry. Your approval means a lot to me.”

“If I didn’t know you meant that, I’d think you were being sarcastic.”

She looked at Russ for a gauge as to the seriousness of the exchange, saw a smile on his face and relaxed as he said, “Of course I meant it. And if I prove to be a rascal, give yourself the credit for that as well. By the way, I dropped by to see Uncle Fentress today. He was jovial and clear-headed, and we talked for a couple of hours, but I can’t see him lingering indefinitely.”

“Alexis and I are going to see him day after tomorrow, when the pictures are ready. I’m going to call the hospital to find out whether Tara can go with us. Ten minutes with her would brighten his life.”

“What’s the matter with him, Dad?”

“He’s sick. He’s in the same hospital that Russ took you to.”

“Oh. Everybody will be nice to him and give him a teddy bear.”

“Give the old fellah me regards,” Henry said.

Telford nodded. “I will. Takes me back nineteen years every time I visit him. It’s almost like reliving those last days with my father.” He looked at his wife. “You preached to me about the burden of hatred, and you were right. Caring about him gives me a lot of pleasure—hating him was a source of unhappiness.”

Alexis walked with Velma to the kitchen, carrying plates and glasses. “If I had known you planned to spend the afternoon with Russ, I wouldn’t have worried,” she said to Velma. “From the looks of you both, I think you had a good time.”

“We did, and we decided to do it again.” She heard the note of pride in her voice and decided not to care about the message sent to her sister.

However, Alexis interpreted the remark and her sister’s tone when she spoke as evidence of Velma’s deepening involvement with Russ.

“I want you to be happy, hon,” Alexis said, “but for all the time I’ve known Russ, seen him in this house day after day, he remains an enigma to me. Nobody would have made me believe that Russ Harrington would spend a Tuesday afternoon ice-skating. He has always seemed driven to work, to succeed. Something’s going on inside of him, and it’s important. Be aware.”

They joined the others in the den for after-dinner drinks, coffee and sweets, as was the custom in the Harrington family. She sat on the sofa, avoiding the chair she knew Alexis preferred. To her astonishment, Russ sat on the floor beside her, his shoulder rubbing her thigh.

“I’ll be in Baltimore tomorrow,” he said. “I’m going to inspect the house Velma wants, after which I’ll want to look at an apartment for myself.” She thought the silence unusually loud, for there was no response except the glances that Henry, Telford and Alexis exchanged. She had never witnessed such a morose moment in that house.

Finally, Telford said, “If you want to move anything, I’ll be glad to help you.”

Half leaning against her thigh, Russ told him, “What is here belongs here and will remain here. I’ll be here most weekends, and I’d rather not sleep in an empty room.” He looked up at Velma. “Excuse me for a minute.” A minute later, she heard the kitchen door open, and remembered that he said he would get the cool box out of the trunk of Alexis’s car. She had forgotten it.

“Tara,” he called from the hall. She raced to him and immediately, her squeals filled the house.