McCloud's Woman (40 page)

Reporters hounded his every step. He had no desire to tell
them what had happened. Dodging them seemed the easier alternative. His
security guards blocked the press from the B&B while he picked up
his duffel bag. He’d slipped out the back way and locked himself in his
office before they discovered he’d escaped. Then he’d pried open the
back alley door to get to his car after he’d seen Roger Curtis parking
his carcass at the front.

TJ had all his notes on the dig site, but he’d have to write an inconclusive report.

He didn’t give a damn about his report.

Walking out of the hospital elevator onto Mara’s floor, TJ
heard the laughter and loud voices before he entered the corridor. At
the sight of Glynis Everett and Ian chuckling over something outside
Mara’s door, and a host of crew members laughing around them, TJ halted.
He could hear Constantina chattering excitedly in Italian from the
room, and more voices attempted to override her.

Mara didn’t need his company.

Feeling let down, TJ turned in the direction of the
waiting room. The nurse had said they would release her today. They had
no reason to keep her. It wasn’t as if doctors could do anything to
replace the baby.

He should be happy she was taking this so well. After her
pleas last night, he’d feared she would suffer another episode of
depression, but she seemed to be coming through this with flying colors.
He was the one wandering homeless and empty.

“Timid Tim, there you are!”

TJ rolled his eyes and didn’t bother looking to see who’d
just stepped off the elevator. He could hear the concern behind Jared’s
insult.

“You’re being mean, Superman. Shut up.” Cleo.

TJ almost smiled at the image of Cleo coming to his defense, sort of like a bantam rooster protecting a hawk.

“How’s Mara?” she demanded, confronting him with hands on hips and no preliminaries.

“Having a party.” TJ gestured in the direction of the noise. “I thought you were planning on staying in Miami longer.”

“Clay called last night. We figured if you didn’t need us,
the beach might. You did quite a job on it, Timothy Jerk.” Jared
slammed him on the back and sneaked in a squeeze of sympathy.

The beach. TJ hadn’t given it a second thought. He’d
simply checked the cottage after he’d returned from his second trip to
Charleston, verified he’d left everything where it belonged, and crept
out before dawn. He’d given up sleeping for the duration. Too many
nightmares. “They were going to bulldoze the dune anyway,” he replied
with a shrug.

Cleo watched him with curiosity before the noise down the
hall distracted her. “Looks like we’re not needed here. Let’s go home
and let Mara have her rest.”

Her dry tone didn’t escape TJ’s notice, but he didn’t call
her on it. No one knew about the baby, unless Mara told them. Cleo’s
and Jared’s baby would have had a cousin almost the same age...

He wouldn’t go there. “I was headed for the airport.
Reporters are still crawling all over the place, and I’m not inclined to
give them what they want. What did you do with the kids?”

“Left them with Cleo’s sister for a few days.” Jared
draped his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “We thought a second
honeymoon was called for before Junior becomes a problem.”

Cleo attempted to poke him in the ribs with her elbow, but Jared dodged the jab.

“They had to call off the bulldozer,” she said. “Water is
filling the hole at high tide, and they’ve declared it unsafe. It’s your
chance to see if you missed anything... ” Her voice trailed off, her
questioning gaze inquiring about his intentions.

TJ glanced down the hall at the crowd of movie stars, then
back to Jared and Cleo looking like the happiest couple in the world.
He preferred to run and hide, to take the next plane to parts unknown,
to drive people away before they did something inexplicably hurtful, or
he hurt them. Those were his usual tactics. They’d served him well in
the past.

Maybe not this time.

He doubted he could hurt himself or Mara much worse. Why
not go for broke and stay to see what developed? He could handle
newspaper reporters. The worst that could happen would be Mara going
back to her job and ignoring him, or calling him a jerk and breaking his
nose. That might even make him feel better.

“All right, let’s see what the tide’s washed in.” Turning on his heel, TJ stalked toward the elevator.

***

“You are covered in bruises.” Constantina clucked and
fluttered around the bedroom at the B&B, putting things away. “You
should be in bed, resting.”

Mara hugged Patty Bear and shrugged. “Bruises don’t hurt
any worse standing up.” The hollowness inside her did, but she wasn’t
revealing a memory that belonged to her and TJ alone.

She’d hoped TJ would come to see her, or be here waiting
when she arrived, but given the crowds hovering solicitously, she
couldn’t blame him for disappearing. As much as she’d worked to gain
this kind of attention, she’d learned it didn’t provide the fulfillment
she sought. Hordes of people did not equate hordes of friends.

Patty Bear told her she was loved.

It was just a stupid bear. She shouldn’t place that much
hope on it, but she let optimism rule. Even if he didn’t realize it, TJ
loved her. All the glamour in the world couldn’t replace the
satisfaction of that insight. Instead of distrusting her feelings as she
had the last time he’d turned his back and walked away, this time she
had to act on them.

She just wished she knew how. Looks had been her fallback
position for years, but TJ knew her too well for disguises to work.
Beauty might be power in some circles, but power would never make her
happy. She needed love for that. She needed TJ.

She couldn’t ask Irving or Sid or Aunt Miriam or any of
the consultants and staff she had at her beck and call to intervene and
bring TJ to her. This was her life, her decision, and for once, she must
be brave and do it all on her own.

The idea of relying solely on herself for something so
important as pinning down TJ terrified her. She’d prefer to have a
consensus of opinion that she was doing the right thing. But she was
learning everyone had their own agenda, and those agendas weren’t always
what was best for her.

She’d married Irving because her family advised it. She’d
married Sid because all her so-called friends had told her it was a good
idea—so she could help them get jobs. Only she could judge what
she
really needed, and it was high time she had confidence enough to put herself first.

TJ trusted her judgment. He hadn’t told her she was better
off marrying him. He hadn’t ordered her to give up her career or to
keep the baby. He hadn’t even blamed her for staying when she should
have fled—at the cost of their child.

Maybe he didn’t trust her judgment so much anymore, but she had to find out.

“Tell Jim to bring the car around.” Mara instructed Constantina.

Hugging Patty Bear for reassurance, Mara inched gingerly
down the stairs. She ached in places she didn’t know she could ache. She
wasn’t at all certain she was doing the right thing. What if TJ had
acted on guilt and not real love? Was she fantasizing again?

The bugaboo of insecurity would never leave her, but if
she thought too hard, she’d never act, never accomplish anything at all.
Better to be a fool who tried rather than one who didn’t. Had she gone
to TJ after Brad’s funeral, her entire life might have been different.
And his.

“To the island, Jim,” she ordered, easing onto the back
seat as her driver held the door. She waited until he’d taken his seat
before adding, “And thank you for every thing you did the other night.
It was above and beyond the call of duty to take Colonel Martin to the
hospital and watch over him until the police arrived.”

“The man had his fingers broke. Had to take him to the
hospital,” Jim scoffed. “It was Dr. McCloud who got you into town. I
thought this old car would go airborne the way he drove it. Nearly ran
over his brother.”

“Clay? He was there too?” Gee, she’d missed all the excitement.

“Stole someone’s motorcycle. Guess he got worried when we
tore out of town like that. He wanted to fly you to Charleston in his
helicopter, but it only has one seat, and Dr. McCloud insisted he could
get you to town faster.”

Thank goodness at least one McCloud brother had sense. If
she’d woken up lying on the floor of a vibrating helicopter, she’d
probably have leapt out in terror.

The image of TJ driving recklessly into town while she lay
bleeding and unconscious beside him brought more tears to her eyes.
She’d put that poor man through hell.

“You still deserve a bonus,” she asserted. “I told the
reporters you were the one who brought the colonel in.” Which helped
keep TJ’s part in the drama quiet. The colonel’s family didn’t need to
hear the details of that night. “I know this car has some miles on it,
but the company doesn’t have enough cash for anything else. I’ll have
the title transferred as soon as I can reach the lawyers.”

Jim slammed the brake, gaped at her in the rearview
mirror, shook his head, and eased back to speed again. “I’ve never owned
a car like this. I could start my own business with this baby. You’re a
crazy woman, for certain, but I thank you.”

She was a crazy woman. There was that, she supposed. Now
that TJ wasn’t tied to her by the baby, maybe he wouldn’t want a
mentally ill woman who shouldn’t have kids. She really ought to think
these things through better, but she couldn’t. She had to know what TJ
felt. She needed it spelled out in clear terms before she could proceed
further.

“Well, if this film doesn’t get made under budget, you may
have to use the car to earn a living. I want to make certain everyone
lands on their feet if that happens.”

“You’ll do it, Miss Simon,” Jim said with assurance. “Crazy people get things done.”

She smiled at that. Maybe it did take a crazy person to do what she had done. What she wanted to do.

She knew what she wanted to do. For the first time in her
life, she had a goal, and it was all hers and no one else’s. Her heart
raced excitedly at the endless possibilities. If TJ didn’t want her...
She’d figure it out.

Now that she’d found herself, she would desperately try
not to lose sight of who she was again. She didn’t need TJ to tell her
what to do. She just needed him in her life. Friends were too precious
to throw away.

When they arrived at the place where the dune had been,
they discovered a dozen cars and trucks parked in the sand. The remnants
of the giant sand mound lingered in the rough terrain, spilling across
bushes and palmettos. A peacock surveyed the company from the branches
of a wax myrtle sticking out of the sand, occasionally squawking and
spreading his tailfeathers.

“Wonder what they taste like roasted?” Jim mused, opening
the car door for Mara and helping her as if she were a fragile piece of
porcelain.

“I’d only try if I wanted to find out what
I
tasted like roasted. Cleo doesn’t take lightly to people messing with her pets.”

Jim snorted and followed her across the rough path
trampled in the sand. Beneath the shade of an oak twisted by ocean
winds, she shook off his helping hand and gazed into the glare off the
water. The tide was out, the sun was behind her at this hour, but the
blue sky and waves were dazzling.

Despite the glare, she could clearly see the crowd on the
beach. TJ wasn’t among them. Disappointment flooded through her. Had he
left then? As he had before, as he always did?

She couldn’t bear it if he had. All the confidence she’d
been feeling drained away. She’d revealed her innermost secrets, and
he’d chosen to reject her. Or the dork had decided she was better off
without him. Or...

Sand flew up out of the hole the crowd stood around.

She recognized the muscled arms wielding that shovel.

With determination, and Patty Bear in her arms, Mara
slipped and slid down the remains of the dune to greet the crowd turning
their attention to her.

She didn’t even know if they recognized her without her sunglasses, hairpiece, and heels, and she didn’t care.

TJ was down in that hole, and she wanted him out here where he could see her.

“Company, Tim,” Cleo called softly from above.

With sweat pouring through the grime covering his bare
chest and arms, TJ wiped his forehead and glanced upward, but he
couldn’t see anyone. He’d warned people to stand back. He wasn’t having
any one else harmed by dangerous excavations.

Carting a bucket of artifacts, he crawled up the ladder
he’d laid on the gradual slope carved from the blast area. There had
damned well better not be any more reporters hanging around, or he was
likely to stuff them down the hole and bury them.

The instant he stood on the beach, TJ saw Mara, and his
heart performed a leap that would have done credit to an Olympic ski
jumper.

She wore a wide-brimmed, swooping hat to shade her face,
but he could still see the bruise on her cheek from the fall she’d
taken. She hadn’t covered it with makeup. Her hair fell in a long braid
down her back. A gauzy, ankle-length dress floated around her legs and
clung to her curves, and he would have thought her an angel except for
the red and blue bear in her arms. She hugged it as if she would never
let it go.

She was more beautiful than any woman he knew, and a
dangerous combination of fragility and strength he didn’t know how to
cope with. He stood there gaping like a horse’s ass, aware of his filth
and stink and wishing he could run straight into the ocean before
greeting her.

“Hercules instead of the Hulk?” she suggested, sauntering closer, blatantly appraising his bare chest.

A corner of TJ’s mouth cocked as he returned her stare. “Anne of Green Gables? Or Scarlett O’Hara?”