Suddenly Last Summer (28 page)

Of course, he ignored her. “If you’re half as tired as I am you need to lie down. Let’s go inside.”

“You think I would lie down with you? After what you did? Because you save a life and behave like a hero and buy your grandmother flowers, you think you are this great big gift to women, no?” She was so angry she stumbled over the words, switching from English to French and back again. “You think you’re so irresistible.” He was just like Pascal. Exactly like Pascal.

“Wait a minute, just rewind—” he frowned “—a moment ago you called me a lying piece of— What did I lie about? And what does buying Grams flowers have to do with anything?”

“Go away!”

“Not until you tell me what you think I lied about.”

The fact that he needed to ask tipped her over the edge. “Why are you here, anyway? Did she kick you out? Or did the great Sean O’Neil break his own speed record for leaving a woman’s bed?”

“Did who kick me out?”

She curled her fingers into fists, the misery a solid lump in her throat. “You can’t even remember her name. You
disgust
me.”

“Honey, I’m so tired I can barely remember my own name.” But amusement had been replaced by irritation. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on here? Because I’m coming up blank.”

She’d backed along the lake path but still he kept coming, across the deck and down the steps until he was standing right in front of her. “I want you to leave. Now.”

“I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s made you so mad.”

“You broke a promise! You say—said—” she fell over the words in her temper “—you said things but you didn’t mean any of them. It was all lies.” Furious with him and with herself for believing him, she gave him a massive shove just as he stepped toward her and he lost his balance and toppled into the lake.

There was a huge splash and Élise was showered first with water droplets and then with male cursing.

“What the hell is
wrong
with you? I only put these clothes on half an hour ago. That’s two sets I’ve ruined today. I go through more clothes in Snow Crystal than I ever do in Boston.” Swearing, he hauled himself out of the water, dripping all over the path and a million miles from his usually sophisticated self.

“I want you to go away.”

“Yeah, I got that message.” He wiped the water from his eyes and glanced down at the shirt now plastered to his chest. “Before I do that you’re going to tell me what promise I supposedly broke.”

“You don’t even remember! You break promises so often you don’t even care.” She ran up the steps, picked up a glass candleholder that was on the table and hurled it at him. “You promised Sam you wouldn’t leave him.”

He ducked and there was a splash as the candleholder landed in the water. “That’s the promise?” He stared at her through eyelashes clumped together with water. “We’re talking about Sam?”

“Yes. He was terrified and you took his hand and you were so cool and calm and you
promised
him, Sean. You said those words as if you meant them and then you—then you—” Her normal fluency deserted her and she switched to French, abusing him with words that any taxi driver in Paris would have admired.

His bemused expression told her that his education hadn’t included listening to many French taxi drivers. “I’ve lost you. If you’re going to insult me, do it in English or at least textbook French.”

“You promised him, and then you left ’im to go and ’ave sex with that nurse with lascivious eyes and a too-red mouth that pouted like so—” She pushed her lips out in an exaggerated imitation of the other woman and saw his brows lift in astonishment.

“That’s what this is about? The nurse?” Water dripped down his face and he cursed again and wiped it away with his palm. “All this throwing and screaming and pushing me in the lake is because you’re jealous?”

“I am not jealous! This is not about me! It is about Sam.”

“Sam told you to drown me and hurl a candleholder at me? I don’t think so. This isn’t about Sam, it’s about you, sweetheart.”

“I am
not
your sweetheart.”

“You’re jealous.” He said it slowly, like a revelation, and his sudden smile made her want to push him straight back in the lake and hold his head under.

“Why would I be jealous? I do not
at all
care who you sleep with,
tu me comprends?
”

“I do understand you,” he said calmly, “but the correct sentence structure should be ‘I do not care at all.’ You split the infinitive, baby.”

“I am not your baby. And I will split as many infinitives as I want to split, right along with your skull! I am not jealous. I do not care that you slept with her. I do not care that you saved Sam’s life or that you bought flowers for your grandmother. I do not care about you at all!” She was yelling now. “I only care that you broke your promise to a child. You have no standards! Because of you he ’as learned never to trust people.”

“Are you about done yelling?” Sean swiped his fingers through his sleek dark hair, sending more droplets showering his shirt. “Because if so, I’d like to say something.”

“I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to hear that she was pretty, that it didn’t mean anything or that you slipped and fell on her or any of that shit men say when they’re making excuses for bad behavior.”

“How about the fact that I didn’t sleep with her. Do you want to hear that?”

“I am not listening to your lies!” She clamped her hands over her ears. “And I don’t care, anyway.”

“Sure you care, but you’re so damned scared you won’t let yourself listen. And after what you told me last night I understand that. But I’m not him, Élise. I won’t let you transfer your feelings for him onto me.”

She paused, her breathing shallow.

Remembering just how much she’d told him made her squirm. “It is not for myself that I care. We have no relationship. We are not together and you don’t owe me anything. It is not at all the same thing as with Pascal because my feelings, they are not engaged.” She stumbled, groping for words, frustrated when they poured out in the wrong order. “I am angry only for little Sam. I don’t care what you do.”

“You don’t care?” Sending her a meaningful look, he squeezed water from his shirt. “Are you sure? You seem pretty wound up for someone who doesn’t care. And because I can see you’re very upset, I’ll say it one more time. I didn’t touch her. I wasn’t with her.”

“I was there, Sean. I was there when she made you that offer and gave you that smile.
Merde,
I’m surprised she didn’t just drag you into Sam’s bed to save time!
I was there.
”

“But judging from the fact you just pushed me in the lake and almost dented my skull with a candleholder, you weren’t there when I turned her down.”

“I—”
Turned her down?

Her temper, unleashed on full throttle, suddenly screeched to a halt like his sports car at a stop sign. “You turned her down?”

“Yes. And next time you’re wondering where I am, you could pick up the phone or just send me a text. I gave you my number, remember?”

“I would never call you. Or text you. You—you—” Relief mingled with the realization that she’d made a giant fool of herself and Élise subsided. The relief terrified her most of all. She shouldn’t care, should she?
She shouldn’t care this much who he kissed or what he did?
She shouldn’t care that he hadn’t stayed with Sam. He’d said it to reassure Sam and reassurance was important in a situation like that.

As usual she’d overreacted.

She was tired, that was all.

Stressed after the terrible events of the day and the outpouring of emotions the night before.

“
Je suis desolée.
I have this terrible temper and I thought, I thought—” her breath caught “—please could you go now.”

He frowned. “Élise—”

“Go. You are right. I am very tired. I need to lie down.”

“We should—”

“No, we shouldn’t.” Even if he hadn’t gone off with the nurse, it didn’t change the fact that he’d broken his promise to Sam. It was the wake-up call she needed. Exactly the wake-up call she needed. “Go. Please. Go right now.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“I
SAW
AN
interesting sight last night on my way back from town.” Tyler was crouched in the dirt with Jackson, fixing a new wheel onto Sam’s bike. “Nothing wrong with this as far as I can see. Kid was just unlucky. And unstable. He shouldn’t have been on that trail. It’s clearly marked, so stop beating yourself up and blaming yourself. Hand me that wheel, will you? This is going to be good as new when I’m done.”

The buckled wheel lay on the ground, a distorted reminder of the horror of the day before.

“So this interesting sight—” Jackson focused on the conversation, grateful for anything that stopped him thinking about blood and hospitals. “Blonde or brunette?” He hoped it wasn’t a redhead.

He hoped it wasn’t Janet Carpenter.

“It wasn’t a woman.”

Jackson breathed again. “You notice stuff that isn’t female?”

“I noticed this.” Tyler pushed the new wheel down into the frame. “This was our brother. Dr. Cool. He was walking along the lake trail from Heron Lodge.”

Absorbing the implications, Jackson straightened, Janet Carpenter forgotten. “I’ll kill him.”

“Judging from his somewhat rumpled appearance, I’d say someone already tried to do that. He’d taken a swim in the lake and I’m guessing it wasn’t voluntary.” Tyler caught his finger in the spokes and cursed.

“He is spending far too much time with Élise. Shit, you’re bleeding. After yesterday, I never want to see blood again. Clean it up.”

“Your sympathy overwhelms me.” Tyler dealt with the blood and then reattached the brakes, his fingers swift and skillful. “That’s what I find interesting. Every time I turn around, he’s right there panting over her. When has he ever spent time with one woman before?”

“I don’t care who he pants over as long as it isn’t Élise. You know what Sean is like. When it comes to women, he’s trouble.”

“Maybe. Maybe that’s why she pushed him in the lake.” Tyler wiped his brow with his forearm. “But looking at his face, I’d say he was the one in trouble this time. Knowing the way Élise feels about relationships, he might be about to be served a spoonful of his own medicine.”

Jackson frowned. “You really think it’s serious?”

“No idea.” Tyler spun the wheel, checking it. “But he’s spent more time here in the last few weeks than he has in the last few years. Of course, that could be because of Gramps, but seeing as Gramps is looking healthier than you, I doubt it.”

Jackson muttered under his breath. “You’re still bleeding.”

“I’m done here.” Tyler turned the bike the right way up, spun the wheel and nodded with satisfaction. Then he swung his leg over the bike and rode it in a circle, testing the brakes.

“You are four times too tall for that bike. You look like something out of a circus.”

“Not letting the kid back on it until I’m sure everything works.” Tyler gave the brakes a final squeeze and sprang off. “Good as new.”

“I wish the same could be said for Sam. Every time I think of it I break out in a sweat.”

“He’ll be all right thanks to Dr. Cool.”

“Yeah. Shit. How the hell can I be angry when he does something like that?” Jackson rubbed his hand over his face, thinking of the alternatives. “If Sean hadn’t been passing—”

“He was and that’s the end of it. And he does stuff like that because he’s trained to do it. Don’t look impressed or he’ll be unbearable and then I’ll be forced to dunk him in the lake. We don’t want to be accused of pollution. You know what an eco warrior Gramps is. Come to think of it, you’re the same.”

Jackson stared at the mountains, remembering how calm Sean had always been in every crisis they’d had growing up. “Maybe he is trained, but he’s still damned good at it.”

“I’m not arguing with that. I’m going to wash this bike and then deliver it back to Sam’s family. Not that Sam will be riding it for a while from what I’ve heard. Weren’t they due to go home tomorrow?”

“We’ve given them the cabin for another week. Sam isn’t well enough to travel. First time I’ve been grateful we’re half-empty.”

“When he’s up and about I might give him a few lessons,” Tyler said casually and Jackson stared at him.

“You? Teach kids mountain biking? You’d die of boredom before you left the resort.”

His brother shrugged. “Exceptions can be made. It would be a shame if the fall put him off mountain biking.”

Jackson thought about what it would mean to Sam to get a chance to go mountain biking with his gold-medal-winning brother. “That’s good of you.”

Tyler looked alarmed. “Maybe don’t mention it to anyone. It’s not going to be a habit.”

“Fine.” Hiding a smile, Jackson stooped and cleared up the tools. He glanced at the bike, which looked as good as new. “And Tyler, thanks.”

“No problem. I can’t fix the kid, but I can fix the bike and one out of two isn’t so bad.”

* * *

É
LISE
BARELY
SLEPT
. Instead, she lay awake, reliving the events of the day before, blood merging with red lipstick in her aching head until dawn sent beams of light through her bedroom.

To take her mind off Sean, she busied herself making a large chocolate cake, icing it and then carrying it over to Sam’s family’s lodge.

The door was answered by Sam’s father. Judging from his white face he was suffering the same what-if flashbacks that tormented her.

“Hi.” The buttons on his shirt were unevenly fastened, as if he’d dressed in a hurry and hadn’t bothered looking in the mirror. He opened the door wider. “I was going to find you later to thank you.”

“Is that Élise?” Sam’s voice came from the living room. “Can I see her?”

Receiving a nod from the boy’s father, Élise stepped over a pile of toys in the hallway and found Sam tucked up on the sofa with a blanket over him watching cartoons. He was pale, but smiling.

“How are you doing,
mon petit chou?
” She bent down to kiss him on the forehead. “I brought you a cake. It’s chocolate. Your favorite. I made it myself.”