Blackjack and Moonlight: A Contemporary Romance (31 page)

At the hospital the next morning, Peggy arched her eyebrows when they walked in. She didn’t say anything, though. Jack could tell that Peggy was curious about him and equally determined not to ask any direct questions. Elise behaved as though Jack was an established part of her life Peggy already knew about, so there was no need to say any more.

He felt like a wishbone each woman wanted to break her way. Not a pleasant sensation.

What was his best move? Did Peggy guess that he loved Elise and wanted to marry her? She had to wonder—why else would he fly to Oregon? She wanted answers. Clearly Elise had given Peggy none of their history, not even as a funny story.
And then he announced that he had to recuse himself because he was in love with counsel for the defendant. Can you picture it? Poor schmuck.

“So, Jack, are you from Philadelphia originally?” Peggy asked. She ignored Elise, who was standing at the window, looking out over the neighborhood.

“Born and raised,” he told her with a smile. He didn’t want to oversell the charm. Peggy Carroll wasn’t much older than his sister Stacy. They weren’t at all alike, but that mama bear “don’t mess with my cub” vibe was pronounced in both women.

“His great-uncle was Dorian Fitzgerald,” Elise volunteered without turning from her inspection of the parking lot. From her tone of voice, Jack gathered Elise thought this detail would not accrue to his credit.

Peggy gave her daughter a long, sour look before responding. Then Peggy smoothed the sheet folded over the hospital’s blanket, as though it was vital that the bedding be as undisturbed by her body as possible. A hand lifted to check her hair before dropping back to the bed. “Well, that must have made family events more interesting. Were his various ex-wives invited?” The question was directed at Jack, but Peggy was still looking at Elise’s back.

“I was four when he died, so I have no first-hand memory. My sister told me of a family party at Eagles Mere when she was about ten. Dorian made a huge entrance, I gather, and proceeded to delight all the children. Stacy remembers him telling stories about the movie he had made the winter before. Natalie Wood was in it but that’s all I remember. There were rumors later that they’d had an affair on the set, but Stacy says no one talked about that, even after Dorian left.”

“I remember that movie.” Peggy grinned at him, distracted finally from the knife’s edge atmosphere between her and Elise. Hey, if a rather banal story about Great-Uncle Dorian broke the tension, Jack would go with it. He pulled up a chair and proceeded to amuse Peggy with what little Hollywood gossip he could remember from his grandparents.

She interrupted him after a few minutes. “Elise, why don’t you sit with us? You’re being rude to your own guest.”

“That’s okay.” Elise didn’t turn from the window. “You and Jack should get to know each other.” Her tone was mild.

Peggy’s mouth compressed into a lipless line. Then she relaxed her frown and smiled at Jack. She might be annoyed at her daughter, but she was determined to be nice to him.

Was he supposed to do something in this situation? He had no experience to draw on here. He couldn’t remember Stacy having issues with their mother, and certainly nothing like the drama being acted out in front of him—maybe even for his benefit. He tried to imagine the twins copping an attitude with Stacy. Right, like that would work. His sister didn’t put up with much. He laughed at the idea.

“What’s so funny?” Elise demanded.

“I was thinking of my nieces.” He turned to Peggy. “They’re twenty-five. My sister is fifteen years older than I am. Elise met them when Libby graduated from Franklin Law a couple weeks ago.”

Peggy turned to look at her daughter, who’d gone back to staring out the window. Peggy’s lips parted, forming a word that she didn’t utter. Jack waited for Peggy—or Elise—to say something.

Finally, he continued as though the atmosphere wasn’t rich with simmering resentments. “My family loves Elise, by the way. She’s the first woman I’ve introduced to them, and I was worried they’d descend on her like locusts, but they thought she was delightful. I half expected them to insist she could do better.”

“Jack’s being modest, Peggy,” Elise said. “He normally dates very glamorous women. I’m just a palate cleanser between a local news anchor and, oh, the principal dancer in the Philadelphia Ballet, I would expect.”

Peggy scowled at her daughter. If he hadn’t been there, she would have chastised her, probably on the subject of how to hold on to a man. He grinned at Peggy, but he was beginning to see how difficult she might be to deal with, up close.

He kept his voice light, his tone dry and sardonic. “Really, Elise? You’d hand me off to some anorexic overachiever with gnarly toes? That seems harsh. What did I do to deserve that fate?”

He could hear her quick laugh, cut off just too late to deny. Then, “You know I hate it when you make me laugh, Judge.”

This. This was why he loved Elise Carroll. Quick-witted and droll, she never bored him. He conspicuously inspected his fingernails while Peggy relaxed against the pillows, clearly relieved that Elise wasn’t blowing some perceived chance at happiness. Then Peggy coughed, a little too theatrically, and reached for the water.

“You kids should go to the Saturday Market for lunch. Show Jack Eugene at its most colorful. I need my rest,” Peggy said, her voice dying away at the end. To add verisimilitude to this unconvincing portrayal of an old woman in decline, she let her head loll to one side, as though she couldn’t keep her head upright a moment longer. She even let her mouth go slack, just a bit. Jack was pretty sure it was all an act.

“Oh, all right, Peggy, we’ll go,” Elise conceded.

On the elevator down, Jack considered his conversational options. Should he say something about the mother-daughter dynamic? He liked Peggy and he wanted her as his mother-in-law. He didn’t like the way she treated Elise, though, and that was his first and only loyalty in this family. But did Elise want an ally? Probably not.

“What’s the Saturday Market?” he asked as they walked through the lobby.

“An open-air market with crafts, musicians, and food. I like the pad thai, but there’s usually a long line.”

“Sounds good to me.” More time for Elise to shake off the mood Peggy had generated and go back to being the whip-smart lawyer and sexy companion he loved.

That night the sex was so slow and deliberate, it felt like an erotic game of chess with each move calculated to make the other person lose control. Jack wasn’t sure who won, but he knew he hadn’t lost.

Afterward, when Elise was winded and glowing with sweat, Jack took his best shot at finding out what was going on with her mother.

“Why does she drive you so crazy?” he asked.

Elise was lying half on top of him, one leg still draped over his thighs. He loved her like that, her breasts delicious weights against his chest, her hair tickling his nose. She didn’t move, precisely, as she considered the question, but her body tensed just a bit. Then she relaxed just as imperceptibly.

“I don’t know. Crisis mode, maybe. We’re like those old movies from the sixties where the two prisoners break out while still chained together. Only I’m free to fly back to Philadelphia long before the third reel when Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier finally learn to trust each other.”

Jack let the cinematic mash-up go by. “So what’s happened this week—you’ve been chained to her too long?”

Elise sighed. He stroked her hair, damp still from the exertion of sex.

“I don’t know. I was doing okay and then you arrived—” She must have felt him tense up. “No, you aren’t the problem. I mean, sure, you’re the answer to every prayer she’s ever had about me getting…you know, me hooking up with some nice guy.”

Jack suspected that Peggy would love for him to marry her daughter—and Elise would hate it if she thought he was conspiring with her mother.

She went on, “I can see the problem is me. Maybe it’s Peggy too. Maybe she makes the situation worse. I’m pretty sure a jury would acquit her, though, if only for humanitarian reasons due to her health. I just know I’m cranky when I’m with her, and it’s that much harder with you in the room.”

He continued to stroke Elise’s hair, using both hands now, hand over hand. He wanted to take her pain away, help her figure out whatever the issue was with her mother.

“I love you,” he murmured, but she was snoring. That seemed to be his big contribution—a safe place for her to fall asleep.

Jack’s flight back to Philadelphia was early enough on Sunday that they just stayed at the condo in the morning. Elise had told Peggy she’d stop by the hospital after taking Jack to the airport. If she was being honest with herself, Elise knew she didn’t want to see her mother again. What she really craved was to get on the plane with Jack and go back to her own home.

“When do you think Peggy will be released?” Jack asked as they pulled out of the condo’s garage.

“The doctors aren’t saying, but I get the impression it’s pretty soon. I’ve got a meeting with the aftercare coordinators tomorrow.” Elise made a tricky turn before continuing. “I want to get everything lined up so that as soon as she’s settled at home, I can fly east.”

“Let me guess, you miss your job,” he teased.

“Of course. And my house. I miss my house.”

“Of course.”

She could hear the smile in his voice. She grinned in response.

Happiness. That was what she was feeling. Sad that Jack was leaving, but happy he’d come. They’d actually spent more time together this weekend than they ever had in Philadelphia. Almost like another mini-vacation, like the trip to Eagles Mere.

She got him talking about chambers, how his law clerks felt about the final months of their yearlong clerkships, how his secretary’s son was doing, and any courthouse gossip she could pry out of him. She just let his voice flow over her like hot fudge, soothing and yummy. When they got to the departures terminal, Elise pulled the car into a convenient slot and turned toward him.

“I still don’t know why you came,” she began.

He didn’t say anything.

“I gather it was because you—you wanted to make sure I was okay,” she said awkwardly.

He still didn’t say anything.

“You were right. I wasn’t okay. I wasn’t okay until you got here, and then I was.” She swiveled her torso as far to the right as she could. “Thank you, Jack. It’s meant a lot to me.”

He put a hand over hers, resting on the cubby between the seats. “I wanted to be with you. That’s no surprise.”

Elise considered that. “No, I guess not. The surprise was that you wanted to be with my mother as well.”

Jack looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. “I did. I was worried about her. I didn’t want you to face it alone.”

She remembered suddenly. Jack’s mother had died when he was still young—high school or something. As rocky as her relationship was with Peggy, it would have been a lot worse if she’d died.

“I’m sorry you didn’t have more time with your mother,” she muttered inadequately, looking at his knees and the perfect creases on his trousers.

Silence. Then he said, “Thanks.”

Elise caught sight of the airport official coming over to suggest they were nearing their three-minute limit. “We’d better move.” What she really wanted was to drive away with Jack still safely buckled in his seat, but kidnapping a federal judge probably carried a hefty penalty.

When they were standing on the curb, she resisted the urge to throw herself into his arms. “Jack.” She hesitated.

He smiled at her. He looked so good. All handsome and loving and familiar. She couldn’t quite get over the idea that he wanted to be with her. Yet here he was, on the wrong side of the country, battling jet lag just so that she wouldn’t be alone.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.”

“Jack,” she began again. “It’s meant the world to have you here. I’m so grateful, I don’t know how to tell you—”

“You’re doing a great job telling me.” His voice was gentle.

She couldn’t resist any longer. She threw herself at him, knowing his arms would come around her and make her feel good.