Another Summer (5 page)

“I wouldn’t tell Dad if I were you.” Donna studied the people on the beach as if she were looking for someone special.

“Why?”

“Wasn’t this his idea?”

She thought about the question before answering. “I see what you mean.”

“Give him a little encouragement and he’ll be trying to run your life full-time.” Donna reached for her hat and adjusted it to keep the sun off her face. She’d be thirty in a couple of months and had started paying attention to such things.

“He’s getting better.”

“I still think you were an idiot for joining Dad’s firm when you had all those other offers.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you could have seen how excited he was when I told him I was going to turn them down.”

“Actually, I shouldn’t complain. Having you at the office with him all the time has taken a lot of the pressure off me and Alexis. He’s down to only calling twice a day now.”

Kelly laughed. “He doesn’t do that.”

“Oh, yes he does.”

She gave her sister a mischievous look. “Well, he always did love you the best.”

Suddenly serious, Donna said, “You know the whole time we were growing up I never sensed he favored one of us over the other. Think how hard that must have been.”

“Especially when you were in high school and thought Brian McMurphy was the love of your life.” Kelly’s attention was drawn to an old man slowly coming toward them. Keeping to the hard sand near the water’s edge where the walking was easier, he paused every few steps to study the treasures brought in with the waves. The way he walked with his hands in his pockets reminded her of her grandfather. She watched him for several more seconds before picking up their conversation again.

“I hope I’m half as good a parent as Dad has been,” she said.

Donna shuddered. “Let’s not go there, okay?”

“Why not? You’d make a terrific mother.”

“I would make a terrible mother, and we both know it.” Turning, she sheltered her eyes from the sun with her hand and studied the people behind them.

They’d been down this road before, and Kelly was as confused by it now as she always was. Instead of pushing for an explanation, she picked up the book she’d brought with her and did what she always did with a new book, looked at the dedication, the copyright date, the reviews, and the acknowledgments–everything, including advertisements if there were any, before she turned to the main text.

Minutes later Donna came on point. “Hello … what do we have here?”

Kelly glanced up. “Where?”

She pointed. “That guy out there on the surfboard.”

Kelly squinted, trying to see what Donna was seeing. At a hundred yards away, all she could make out was someone wearing a wet suit, sitting on a board, waiting for a wave. “How do you even know it’s a guy?”

“Trust me.”

Kelly went back to her book. She wanted background on Matt Landry before she started his class on Wednesday, and reading his book seemed a logical way to get it. She agreed with her father’s philosophy–know thine enemy–and for any law firm that represented aggressively expanding businesses, Landry was considered the enemy.

Although there were more than a dozen marine biologists and environmental radicals in the San Diego area she could have approached for the same information, none of them testified in court as frequently or as successfully as Landry. The class was a unique chance for her to judge his effectiveness and look for signs of weakness. According to the background information her father had included in the file he’d had his assistant prepare on Landry, he was a frequent guest lecturer, but he rarely taught classes anymore. This one at the University of California Santa Cruz lasted four weeks. Then he was off to Brazil for a symposium on global warming.

It was an opportunity her father had insisted she take–for the sake of the firm. Those magic words never failed to bring her around.

If accolades mattered, there were enough in the first six pages of Landry’s book to impress anyone, even her. Of course she only recognized a couple of the names connected to the effusive praise. She was still too new to the field to know who counted and who didn’t, but the titles looked impressive.

Although she wasn’t going into the project kicking and screaming, if given a choice, environmental law wouldn’t have been on the top of her list. At least not from the position the firm’s clients would assume. Too often she found herself leaning in the wrong direction, and she still found it difficult to argue for something or someone she didn’t believe in, a flaw she hoped time and experience would overcome.

Despite her doubts, the opportunity to open a new division in her father’s law firm was simply too good to let pass, the implication obvious–she would prove herself to the other partners, letting them know that, on occasion, nepotism could be a good thing.

She glanced at Donna and saw that in between sips of Bloody Mary and surveys of the beach, her gaze returned to the surfer.

“Mark my word, Kelly, this guy is something special.”

“Uh-huh.” Kelly closed the book and flipped it over to see if Matt Landry’s picture was on the back. “Whoa,” she said softly. “Now here’s an example of what a great photographer can do with ordinary material.”

Dressed in khaki pants and a black shirt, Landry was posed with his back to the ocean, the waves colored a deep bronze from the setting sun, the sand a soft, glistening tan. He was settled on his haunches, a baby seal’s nose barely a foot from his outstretched hand. His black hair windblown, his shirt pulled tight across well-defined muscles, he looked more like a
GQ
model than a respected scientist. “I wonder how old this picture is.”

Donna leaned forward. “Let me see.”

Kelly handed her the book.

“Nice,” she said appreciatively. “What makes you think it’s doctored?”

“Oh, please. People who run around like Chicken Little shouting the sky is falling don’t look like that. If they did, they wouldn’t have to use scare tactics to get attention; they’d be regulars on all the morning shows.”

“Now the sky is falling?” She dropped the book in Kelly’s lap. “Last I heard it was some ozone layer thing they were upset about.”

“Do you ever read anything except the
Wall Street Journal?”

“People
–once in a while, at the doctor’s office or when I’m getting my hair done.” She put her drink aside and sat up. “Now pay attention,” she told Kelly. “My surfer guy is about to catch a wave.”

With seemingly effortless grace, he lifted himself onto the board, shifted position, and stood with his knees slightly bent. He ran the face of the wave, cutting sideways as it began to break. The ride was clean, but not spectacular. Instead of heading out again, he sat on the board and rode it toward shore, jumping off at the last minute and reaching down to unsnap the safety line from his ankle. He unzipped the top of his wet suit and let it fall to his waist before he tucked the board under his arm and started their way.

Kelly’s eyes grew wide with appreciation and then alarm as she watched him approach. “My, God, it’s him.”

“Who?”

“Matt Landry.”

Donna retrieved the book from Kelly’s lap. “So it is,” she said with suspicious confidence.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Who cares?” As he was about to pass, Donna held up the book. “Excuse me, Mr. Landry.”

He didn’t seem surprised to hear someone calling his name. “Yes?”

“I don’t mean to impose, but do you have a minute to sign your book for my sister? She’s a real fan, but she’s too shy to ask herself.”

Kelly could have killed Donna, easily, happily, right there, right then. It was the how she wasn’t sure of, only knowing whatever it was had to be slow and excruciatingly painful.

Matt glanced longingly at the stairs behind them that led from the beach to the houses. With a resigned look, he came over. “I have to make it fast. I have an appointment in ten minutes.”

“Please, don’t let us keep you,” Kelly said. “This can wait.” She reached for the book, but Donna was quicker and moved it out of range. Even through the haze of mortification she could see the photographer hadn’t made him look better–he hadn’t done him justice.

Matt laid the board on the sand and waited while Donna dug for a pen.

“Really,” Kelly insisted. “You don’t have to do this now. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again.” And when they did, she would do everything possible to keep him from remembering, including wearing a disguise if necessary.

“Here it is,” Donna announced cheerfully. She handed him the book and pen.

“And who should I make this out to?” Matt asked.

“Kelly–with a ‘y,’ “ Donna said. “And just say something about how you’re looking forward to having her in your class.”

He stopped to glance at Kelly and offer her a quick smile. “Easy enough.” When he finished he handed the pen and book back to Donna. To Kelly he said, “I’ll see you Wednesday.”

Kelly summoned a smile. As soon as he was out of hearing, she turned on Donna. “Why did you do that? You know you just made it impossible for me to get through his class with any kind of anonymity.”

“Is he or is he not one of the best-looking men you’ve ever seen in your entire twenty-seven years?”

“I don’t care. That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point?”

“I’m here to learn how to tear him apart in a courtroom. How am I going to do that after my sister practically threw me at him?”

Donna had the grace to look chagrined. “You never said anything about facing him in court.”

As frustrated as she was furious, Kelly sat up and grabbed the sunscreen, squirting a thick, long line along her leg. “I can’t believe this happened.”

“What?”

“With all the beaches in Santa Cruz, we wound up on the same one at the same time as Matt Landry.”

“Coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“If it never happened, there wouldn’t be a word for it.”

Something in the way she answered made Kelly ask, “You arranged this, didn’t you?”

Donna gave her a sheepish smile. “Now what makes you think that?”

“How
–why
would you do this to me?”

“The how is easy. The real coincidence happened when I was leaving this morning and saw Andrew and Landry coming out of Andrew’s house. Landry was wearing a wet suit, and there was a surfboard leaning against the house. It wasn’t too hard to figure out where he was headed. In my defense, if I’d known who he was or how you would feel about meeting him, I wouldn’t have set it up. But, my God, Kelly, would you really have wanted to miss seeing that body stuffed into that wet suit?”

She ignored the question. “Why are you throwing me at every guy you see when you know I’m not interested? Ray and I are almost engaged.”

Without saying anything, Donna held out her hand for the lotion.

“Well?” Kelly demanded.

“If I tell you, you’ll just get mad.”

“Get
mad?”

“All right, madder.”

“Right now, I don’t think that’s possible.”

Still Donna hesitated. She stopped rubbing in the lotion long enough to give Kelly a sideways glance. “All right. Just remember that this was your idea. I don’t think Ray’s the right guy for you.”

Kelly wasn’t surprised. Donna had dropped hints over the past year that she had doubts about Ray. “In what way?”

“I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it.”

“You started this, now finish it.”

“Have you ever noticed how Ray stares at me when we’re together, like I’m candy and he’s a diabetic?”

“You’re a beautiful woman, and Ray likes beautiful women. What’s wrong with that?”

“I’m your
sister,
Kelly. He has no business looking at me that way. Even Alexis noticed.”

Kelly didn’t know what to say. She took the lotion from Donna and laid a narrower line on her other leg. “Has he ever said anything to you?”

“No.”

“Done anything?”

“No–it’s just a feeling I get. One I really don’t like. Besides … never mind. It isn’t important.”

“Don’t stop now. I want this out and over with.”

“There’s something inherently wrong in a relationship where the woman acts like a wife and the man acts like a boyfriend.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she did; she just didn’t want to admit something had been bothering her, too. She’d even tried talking to Ray about it, but he’d refused to listen.

“You cook and clean and do laundry and make his life a hundred times easier than it would be if he were alone. He reciprocates by demonstrating his independence with his regularly scheduled, sacrosanct nights out with the boys. I’ve seen him in the bars with these guys, Kelly. Nothing slows them down, not even a hint of a conscience.”

“That’s not fair.”

She let out a sigh, obviously pleased that Kelly finally understood what she’d been trying to tell her. “You’re damn right it’s not.”

“That’s not what I meant.” She only wanted to deal with one issue at a time. “Ray does his share of the cooking and cleaning.”

“And that share is what? Ten percent? Fifteen?”

“It’s my apartment. I can hardly expect him to come over to clean it when he has his own place to take care of.”

“But does he? Be honest, Kelly. When you’re over there don’t you do most of the work?”

“We have an open relationship, no strings, no long-term commitment. It’s what I told him I wanted, and he agreed.” She would never admit the real reason she’d laid the ground rules she had–she’d known they were the ones Ray wanted.

“Do you love him?”

“Yes.” At least that was what she told herself.

“An over-the-moon kind of love?”

“Is there such a thing?” There had been for her mother and father, but they were the exception.

She was afraid if she lived her life looking for something even her father knew he would never find again, she would wake up one morning and realize she had nothing.

Donna thought about the question. “For you there should be. You’re special. You deserve someone who’s special, too.” She paused. “I’ll tell you something I do know. There’s no way I’m going to wash any man’s dirty underwear for anything less than that kind of love.”