Always Friday (4 page)

“Silliest thing I ever heard.” Tess gave a dismissive wave
of her hand as someone tapped on the door.

A head with a cap of white curls popped around the door.
Martha Craven, Dan’s short, slightly plump grandmother fluttered into the
hospital room and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “Why such a scowl, Danny? Aren’t
you feeling better? Dr. Ed said—”

His scowl deepened. “I’m feeling fine, Gram.”

“We were just discussing Dan’s staying in Galveston while he
recuperates,” Tess said. “I’ve told him we’d love to have him.”

Martha clapped her hands together. “Oh, that’s a wonderful
idea. There’s plenty of room and we can all take care of you. And when you’re
feeling better, we can buy the RV—I’ve had my eye on a Winnebago—and you can go
treasure hunting with us.”

Dan looked at her incredulously. “
Treasure hunting
?
Are you serious?”

“Oops.” A blue-veined hand went to her mouth. “I’m not
supposed to talk about it—Olivia says we have to keep it quiet or someone will
try to beat us to it—but since you’re family, I’m sure it’s all right.” Her
voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s part of Jean Laffite’s booty. He once lived
on this very island. We have a map and all sorts of directions from an old
journal. They really belong to Olivia and Tess, but since I found them when I
was working on the genealogy, they’re insisting that I get a share. If we find
the treasure, Tess can have her house and Olivia and I can have our racehorse.”
She clapped her hands together. “Isn’t it a gas?”

Daniel frowned. A
gas
? Had his very proper
grandmother said “a gas”? Had the entire world gone crazy? If she wasn’t
senile, then something very peculiar was going on in that household. Treasure
hunts and racehorses and convicts and bizarre little cars named Buttercup. The
whole bunch of them was strange. Even if he was mightily attracted to Tess
Cameron, he had to admit that she was odd too. He’d feel better if his
grandmother were somewhere else. “How about Hawaii?”

Martha looked puzzled. “What about Hawaii?”

“Would you like a condo in Hawaii?”

“Certainly not. I love Galveston. And you will too, Danny.”
She patted his hand. “You will too.”

Daniel shook his head. It had been a hell of a day.

Early the next afternoon, Tess and her passenger pulled away
from the hospital and headed toward the house on Broadway.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Daniel said.

“Of course it is. We have an empty guest cottage where you
can have all the privacy you want, and everybody is delighted to have someone
to fuss over. Aunt Olivia and your grandmother have dusted and plumped the
pillows three times already this morning. And Ivan, poor man, is convinced that
his shrimp puffs caused your attack, so he’s conferred with the hospital
dietitian and has been busy concocting gastronomic delights to tempt your
palate. How many people have an internationally-known chef prepare their ulcer
diets?”

“Very few, I suspect. But I don’t want to be any trouble.”

“Trouble? Are you kidding? You’re going to learn very soon
that the folks in this house only do what they enjoy. It’s the secret to a long
and happy life. ‘Kick back, relax, and enjoy life’ is our motto. We’re going to
teach you how. Hook already has the hammock up in the backyard.”

“Hook, the ex-con? I’d almost forgotten about him. He was
the last thing I remember seeing before I blacked out. Lord, he’s a big,
mean-looking customer. Are you sure he’s safe to have around?”

Grinning as she watched Dan’s discomfort, Tess said, “Positive.
Hook is unique and extremely talented. Forget about his prison time. He’s as
gentle as a lamb. He was the first one to volunteer to donate blood for you,
and since you matched, you now have a pint of him in you. You’re blood
brothers, so to speak.”

She almost giggled at the expression that flashed over Dan’s
face. “I’ll have to thank him,” he said. “And thank you for the clothes and
other things you brought to the hospital.”

“No problem. We figured you’d need a few items until Kathy
could get your own clothes shipped down here.”

When Tess had seen the knit pullover in the window of the
shop next to the Mermaid, she’d known it would be perfect for Dan. And it was.
Its soft blue-gray color was the exact shade of his eyes and showed off his
amazingly well-shaped shoulders and chest. She’d also bought several other
items; it had been fun outfitting Dan for a new, more relaxed lifestyle.

Thinking he might be the pajama type, she even bought pajamas.
But they were not striped cotton with a collar and buttons down the front. The
ones she bought were loden green silk with a deep V-necked top and easy-moving
baggy pants pegged at the ankle.

When she’d started to select underwear, Tess had passed up
the conservative styles and had chosen a half dozen pair of colorful briefs:
everything from electric blue silk briefs to Italian mesh to a jersey
camouflage. She’d tossed them all into the bag she’d packed to take to the
hospital. She couldn’t resist asking, “Did you like the underwear?”

“Who picked it out? I can’t imagine Gram buying commando
briefs.”

“She didn’t. I did.” Tess stole a glance at him in time to
see his lips slowly curl up in amusement.

“I see.”

She turned her attention back to her driving and nibbled at
her lip. For the first time, she was having second thoughts about all the stuff
she’d bought that was now hanging in the closet and neatly stacked in chest
drawers in the guest cottage. What if he didn’t like it? What if he resented
her selecting clothes for him?

“I’m sorry if you don’t like the camouflage skivvies. I
bought them, and all the others, as kind of a joke to cheer you up. Aunt Olivia
says that drinking the water in Galveston always makes everybody crazy, and I
drink eight glasses every day. If you’d prefer boxer shorts or plain old Fruit
of the Loom cotton knit, I’ll be happy to run down to—”

“Tess.” He interrupted her babbling with a hand on the
shoulder of her chartreuse jumpsuit. “The ones you bought are fine. Thanks.” He
squeezed her shoulder for emphasis. “Maybe I’ll even model them for you
sometime.”

Was he only teasing or did he mean it? She’d never been the
type to fantasize about seductively clad men, but a sudden image of Dan in
nothing but a strip of pink Italian mesh with a bit of strategically placed
nylon did peculiar things to her heartbeat.

Of course he was teasing.

Wasn’t he?

She swallowed and looked at him out of the corner of her
eye. He was frowning and staring out the window.

Feigning a seductive tone and wiggling her eyebrows, Tess
said, “I’ll hold you to that, big guy.” She managed to make him laugh as she
pulled into the driveway of the redbrick mansion and tooted the horn.

The next few minutes passed in happy chaos as everybody in
the house poured out to welcome Dan home from the hospital.

Daniel thought the bunch of them looked like the cast of an
off-Broadway farce. Both older women, one tall, one nearly a head shorter, were
dressed in sweat suits and Reeboks. Martha wore a lavender outfit with her
pearls, while Olivia was clad in bold black and white stripes. When she’d
visited him briefly at the hospital, Olivia’s hair had been tucked under some
kind of a turban. He stared at it now. Held back with a black sweatband, it was
flaming red and hung halfway down her back. Her eyelashes were at least an inch
long and obviously fake. Both octogenarians beamed at him.

Dan’s grandmother, her snow-white crop of curls tickling his
chin, hugged him as if she hadn’t seen him in years when, in fact, she’d spent
several hours at his bedside only the day before.

“Oh, Danny, it’s wonderful to have you home from that
dreadful, sterile place.” Martha Craven dabbed at her eyes with a lace-edged
handkerchief she pulled from a pocket. “And all you’ve had to endure!” She
hugged him again with a new rush of tears.

“Martha, don’t carry on so or you’ll get the hiccups again.”
Olivia Gates, who had turned eighty-one in January and was almost as slim and
fully as tall as Tess, patted Dan’s back. “Now, Daniel, you’re welcome here for
as long as we can persuade you to stay. You must think of this as your home.
Our digs are your digs, so to speak. And you must call me Aunt Olivia, just as
my Tess does.” She patted his back again. “We’re going to have you mellowed out
and coasting in nothing flat.”

His grandmother on one side and Olivia on the other ushered
him toward the front porch, where Hook and Ivan stood waiting. Dan glanced back
at Tess as if to say, “Save me from all this,” but Tess only grinned and
shrugged.

“I believe you already know Ivan,” Olivia said to Daniel, “but
you conked out the other night before you met Julius.” She introduced him to
the menacing black giant with the scar and the bald head. “Julius runs the
household. Anything you need, let him know.”

“Hook,” the big man said in a bass voice, taking the hand
that Daniel offered. “Call me Hook. Nobody but Miss Olivia calls me Julius.”

His grin was so broad that it showed not only his gold front
tooth but the star cutout decorating its surface. Daniel forced a smile and
thanked him for the blood donation, but he wasn’t convinced that anyone with
Hook’s history could be trusted with the family silver. Or with his
grandmother.

Ivan Petkov bowed, his expression contrite. “Please accept
my profuse apologies for the shrimp puffs. My heart is overwhelmed with grief
for the pain they caused your stomach.”

“Ivan—” Dan began.

“No, no.” Ivan held up both beefy hands. “Tess explains, but
still I feel remorse for my idiocy. You must let me make amends. I work my
fingers to the bone to devise tempting dishes for your diet. Not one iota will
I deviate from the hospital’s list. Come into my kitchen and taste the healthy
drink I have created for you. Ah, fantastic! I think I shall write a new
cookbook. I shall dedicate it to you.”

Ivan would not be satisfied until the entire assemblage
followed him back to the large kitchen and tasted his Tropical Smoothie Friday.
Daniel even took a tentative sip to humor the Bulgarian, but despite the
welcome—and Tess—he was trying to figure out a way to extract his grandmother
from this loony bin.

“The touch of almond extract is the secret.” Ivan slapped
Daniel’s back. “Delicious, is it not?” When Daniel agreed, the blustery chef
said, “I leave a pitcher in the refrigerator here in the kitchen and another in
the small one in your cottage. You must drink a small glass every two hours for
the good of your stomach. And we have dinner early. Not that hospital food.
Bah! I fix—”

“Ivan, cool it.” Olivia shot him a quelling glance. “Daniel
needs rest, a little peace and quiet, not a recitation of your concoctions.”
When Ivan hung his head, she patted him on the shoulder. “You know we’re all
appreciative of your very great talents.”

Ivan smiled and kissed her hand. Three times.

Olivia sighed and turned to Daniel. “You’ll have to forgive
us if we all seem a little overzealous. Things will quiet down in a few
minutes. Martha, Hook, Ivan, and I are going to check out a new art exhibit
this afternoon. We’ll leave Tess to get you settled in.”

Martha looked startled. “But Olivia—”

“You’ll see Daniel at dinner,” Olivia said to her friend,
and she herded the others out of the kitchen, leaving only Daniel and Tess
behind.

As the four trooped out, Daniel leaned against the big
butcher block, sipping his smoothie and shaking his head. “You know,” he said
when he noticed Tess watching him, “this stuff is good.”

Tess burst out laughing. “I should hope so. Ivan could name
his own salary at any one of the top-rated hotels or restaurants in the
country.”

“Then why is he here?”

“Because he adores my aunt. He was distraught when she fell
and broke her hip. I doubt he’ll ever leave again. She saved his life after he
fled from Bulgaria forty something years ago. Ivan’s been begging her to marry
him ever since.”

“Why doesn’t she?”

“She says it’s because he’s twenty years younger than she
is, but I suspect there’s another reason as well.”

Daniel drank the last of his special concoction and set the
glass down. “Which is?”

“She was very much in love with a man when she was in her
twenties. They were engaged and planned to be married in a double wedding
ceremony with her twin sister, my grandmother. Unfortunately, he was killed.”

“And she never married?”

Tess shook her head. “My family has an unusual history. If a
woman finds love, it’s only once and it’s fierce. If that’s lost . . .” She
shrugged. “Enough of that. You must be tired. Come on, I’ll show you to the
cottage.”

Daniel followed her to the hallway, glancing at the
portraits as he went. He stopped in front of one, obviously very old, and
stepped back to get a better look at it. “Who is this imposing fellow? One of
your ancestors?”

Tess laughed. “Yes. He was my great-great grandfather, Marsh
Prophet, Captain Marsh Prophet of the Texas Rangers before he met and married
my great-great grandmother Acasia. Casey, she was called. This is her portrait.”
Tess pointed to the painting next to the first.

“Very beautiful,” Dan said glancing back and forth between Tess
and the painting of her ancestor. “You look a little like her–except for the
red hair.”

Tess was warmed by his words. Did he think she was
beautiful? She’d never considered herself so, but all of a sudden it became
important that Dan find her attractive. “Do you really think so?”

His eyes locked with hers. “I do. You’re a lovely woman, Tess.”
He touched her cheek with the back of his fingers. “Warm, alive, alluring. Very
alluring.” His knuckles slid along the side of her face, barely grazing the
skin. The tip of his index finger traced the contour of her lips. “And like the
siren’s song, you tempt me. I think you may be a little dangerous.”