Texas Heat (31 page)

“You were the one who offered to stay.”

“That was before the temperature dropped. I'm afraid my car is never going to start.”

“So, I'll give you a jump. You should be wearing warmer clothes,” Cary said, eyeing the thin jersey material of Eileen's dress. “This trailer is like a wind tunnel. Wool slacks and a heavy sweater would be more practical.”

“Well, bring your chair around by me, then. We can at least huddle. An hour, Cary, that's it. I've got the bids all sorted. I have three proposals on hand. Sherman looked at them today and made comments in the margins. Let's get to it so we can get out of here.”

“You sound like you have a heavy date.”

“I do, but not with the man I'd like to have a date with. I've been wanting to ask you since Christmas if Rand is still here. Is he involved with anyone?”

“I really don't know. For sure, I mean,” Cary said truthfully.

“Maybe I'll give him a call tomorrow and see what his reaction is.” .

“By the way, that really was nice of you to get the carpet for me. I made six trips to Austin and made a dozen or so calls to Houston and Dallas looking for that damn thing. You really saved my hide and I appreciate it. How in the hell did you find it, anyway?”

“I started off with the yellow pages and went on from there. It was such an expensive item that all the shops I called were more than willing to help. Of course, when I told them who it was for, they were even more helpful. The Coleman name is very powerful in Texas.”

“So I've found out. I wouldn't be where I am now, nor would you, if it wasn't for Amelia's help.”

“You'd have found a way. You're a very talented man, Cary.”

Cary's eyes were only inches from Eileen's. “No, I wouldn't. I couldn't have done any of this without Amelia. She believed in me and made me believe in myself. The most you can say for me is that I know what a hammer is.” He paused, then said pointedly, “We're a team, Amelia and me.” Imperceptibly Eileen moved her swivel chair. Her eyes were the first to lower. She understood.

They worked for over an hour without a break. Cary smiled when he closed the folders. “Done! Tomorrow you can zero in on the other stuff, and from there it's smooth sailing. At least now I can see some daylight. Thanks for staying, Eileen. Get your things and I'll turn off all the heaters and get the lights and lock up. I'll wait to see if your car starts.”

Thirty minutes later Eileen's old Ford was still dead. “You probably need a new battery. Where the hell did you get this clunker anyway?”

“From a used car lot. I can't afford anything else.”

“Jesus Christ, with what we pay you, how can you stand there and tell me you can't afford anything better?”

“Would you like to see my rent receipts? You know, it isn't easy being single and living alone. I barely make ends meet. I like to take a vacation at least once a year, so I have to save for that. I'm not a Coleman,” she said coldly. “I'm just a working girl.”

“Okay, okay. Maybe we can find a way to get you a company car. I suppose we could lease it, or I could cosign a loan. Get in the car. I'll drive you home.”

“I can't afford the payments. I'll have to take a taxi tomorrow morning and that's going to cost me at least twenty dollars. I can't seem to win these days. Thanks for wanting to help, though.”

“It's going to take at least ten minutes for the heater to warm up the truck. Damn, I should have called Amelia to tell her I was going to be late.”

“I'll call her tomorrow and apologize. I'll tell her it's my fault and explain the situation.”

Cary's heart raced. “For Christ's sake, don't do that! I'll handle it.” He calculated the time it would take him to drop Eileen off and return to Sunbridge. He'd be lucky if he got in by ten-thirty. For the first time it occurred to him to wonder if Amelia was jealous of Eileen. He knew she had no cause, but even so....

“How bad are the roads?” Eileen shivered inside her cashmere coat.

“Icy. They'll be worse by morning. I'll pick you up. Have someone come to look at your car tomorrow. Tell them to bring a battery just in case. I'll talk to Sherman and Clara about you using one of their cars, at least until most of this bad weather is over. Then we'll see about getting you a loan. Maybe we can work something out with the company. But if it can't be written off, we can't do it. That's Sherman's rule of thumb.”

“It's a good rule. Companies like yours need tax breaks. If getting me a car helps, I'm all for it.”

It was half an hour's ride into the city of Austin. Eileen and Cary kept up a cheerful banter of office gossip and business all the way.

“Thanks, Cary.”

“No problem. Spiffy building,” Cary said, eyeing the doorman.

“A girl has to be safe. We have an elevator operator, too. It's a good security building. That's why I moved here. Most of my salary goes to pay for rent.”

“How much?”

“Thirteen hundred a month. It's going co-op in six months. I'll have to move, since I can't afford to buy. Drive carefully.”

“I'll pick you up at seven-thirty,” he called before driving off.

Eileen let herself into the luxury apartment. It was like a layout in Bloomingdale's catalogue. Right down to the porcelain figurines. Soft gray and peach, easy on the eye and elegant. Amelia Assante would be hard-pressed to find anything wrong with this apartment.

Borrowing that old clunker of a car from a friend was going to pay off. Everything would pay off, sooner than she'd hoped. The company car would lead to a BMW, and soon the apartment would be picked up, too, as a corporation property. But she'd hold the title, of course. They needed her. That was the bottom line. Just like she needed their money. A trade-off. She'd certainly learned a lot since she'd started to work for the company.

Eileen's slender fingers plucked at the row of cassettes. She selected a Lionel Richie tape and popped it into the stereo. She stripped down and headed for the shower. She'd order dinner to be catered. One way or another she would find a way to put it on one of the men's expense accounts. She might have to put out a little tonight, but she'd get it back when it came time to buy the BMW. The man she was seeing tonight was a BMW dealer. Cost? Perhaps below cost.

You scratch my hand and I'll tickle yours. She giggled.

It was almost midnight before the duty station nurse would
allow Adam into Sawyer's room. She seemed to be sleeping, but the squeak of the door alerted her to a presence in the dimly lit room. “Adam, is that you?” she asked wanly.

“Who else? I've been sitting outside for hours. Look at me; I'm a wreck—and you're the one who's in bed. How do you feel?” he asked anxiously.

“That holding pattern I'm in seems to have shifted a little, dropping me closer over the hellhole. Exhaustion, I guess. Don't worry, Adam. I'll be fine in a day or so. I can't believe they brought me to the hospital. All I need is a couple of days of rest and some of your greasy cooking.”

Adam tried for a smile but failed. “The nurse said something about tests.”

“I don't know. Standard hospital procedure, I'm sure. There's nothing wrong with me. I'm planning on leaving here tomorrow. They already did some tests.”

“What kind of tests? For what?”

“Blood tests. They X-rayed my shoulder, my neck, and my head. Seems I hit it when I fell. My mouth is so dry. Could you get me a drink?”

“Sure.” Adam poured from a carafe and handed the glass to Sawyer, then watched as she reached out for the glass and missed, spilling the water over the sheet. “It was my fault. I'm sorry,” he said soothingly.

“I guess I'm still groggy. They gave me a shot of something. It seems to be wearing off now a little. What time is it?”

“After midnight. I didn't want to leave until I was sure you were all right.”

“What time did they bring me here?”

“This afternoon. Late, I think. I'm glad they did. Now they can check you out and put you on some good vitamins. I'll be back in the morning.”

“You don't have to do that, Adam,” Sawyer said sleepily. “I'll be leaving and can take a taxi back to the apartment.”

“I'll call you, then. How's that?”

“That's fine ...” Sawyer's voice trailed off. Adam stayed for a long time watching her. Her breathing was easy and she seemed to be in a deep sleep. A drugged sleep. He knew she'd sleep through the night, but still he didn't leave. It wasn't until the night nurse poked her head in the door and suggested he go home that he moved. She was right, of course. He couldn't do anything here.

At the nurse's station he stopped to talk. “Miss Coleman told me that she was scheduled for more tests tomorrow. What kind of tests?”

“Are you a member of the family?”

“She lives with me.” At the nurse's blank look, Adam explained, “We cohabit. As in live together. I am the closest thing to a relative she has here in New York.”

“We don't give out information to anyone but family. You aren't family,” the charge nurse said in a no-nonsense voice.

“Look,” he said, deciding to try another tack, “I'm the one who is going to be paying the bill. That makes me responsible. So, if I'm responsible, you can tell me what I want to know.” He leaned over the desk and lowered his voice. “My mother doesn't approve of us living together, either, but it's the only thing I could think of to get her to marry me. I'm monogamous. But she's afraid because her parents didn't have a happy marriage.” The nurse seemed to be relenting, so Adam drove home his advantage. “You look like you have a good head on your shoulders. Wouldn't you do the same thing if you were me? I'm in love with her. I can't lose her.”

The nurse's stiffly starched uniform crackled as she moved back a step, closer to the rack that held the patients' charts. Adam watched in relief as she flipped through the charts arranged according to room number.

“Neurological testing,” she said through tight lips. “Another urinalysis and additional blood tests.”

“She already had a blood test. What are they looking for?”

“This is not a question-and-answer period, young man. I shouldn't have told you what I did. Now, if you want more information, you'll have to speak to doctor. I'm simply not at liberty to say anything else. It's late and your voice carries. We can't have you waking our patients, Call doctor tomorrow.”

Adam looked at the plump starched nurse. Her iron-gray hair was like tiny corkscrews sticking out every which way from her white cap. Her eyes were round and serious, but oh, so wary. She was on the defensive now that she'd done something she knew was wrong. Probably she had never broken a rule in her life, until now. “You take good care of her, for me. I'll be back in the morning.”

“I won't be here,” the woman blurted.

“I'll be back in the evening, too. Thank you.”

“Young man . . .”

“Yes?”

“It's routine when a patient has a blow to the head. Get a good night's sleep.”

Marble hissed nastily when Adam sat down on the sofa and pulled the phone to his lap. She continued to hiss and spit, her claws digging at the sofa cushions. Adam swatted her on the rump and pushed her off the couch. “The other lady in my life is first right now. Eat that popcorn if you're so hungry,” Adam muttered as he tossed fat fluffies on the carpet. Marble hissed again and walked away, her plumed tail straight in the air.

“Nick, it's Adam. Sorry about the late hour, but I have to talk to you.”

“Late, early, what difference does it make when you're, here to serve the masses? My time is yours as long as you pay for it. What's wrong?”

“Sawyer's in the hospital. She fainted and they're scheduling neurological tests for tomorrow. They took a blood test today and more are scheduled for tomorrow. I...That's all I know.”

Nick's voice was suddenly professional, clipped and cool. “Was she hurt when she passed out? Did they take any X-rays?”

“Shoulder, neck, skull. She gets these blinding headaches. I thought it was because of the stress and strain. Remember how I used to tell you she had the eye of an eagle? Well, she just got glasses. She really has to wear them. She complained one day that her vision blurs every so often. Put the migraine headaches, the glasses, and the fainting spell together, and there's room for worry.”

“It's possible they found some abnormality and are doing more testing to be sure. On the other hand, it could be nothing. Both of us could speculate all night, but I'm not the attending physician. Be glad she's in the hospital where they can take care of her. If you like, I can stop in and see her tomorrow.”

“Do that. Call me and let me know what you think, okay?”

“Will do. Take two aspirins and go to bed.”

Sawyer didn't leave the hospital that day or the next. She made threatening noises to the doctor but in the end realized she was too weak and drained to do more than make a token effort. The results of her tests would take another day.

 

“I hate airports, Thad. They have such bad connotations for me. I have this feeling that something is terribly wrong. Adam didn't know anything really. I guess that's what's worrying me more than anything. Young girls don't land in the hospital for four days for a fainting spell. Sawyer is going to be angry with Adam for calling me, and she's going to be angry with me for calling Maggie.”

“What I can't understand,” Thad said as he packed down the tobacco in his pipe, “is why Maggie won't go to New York and meet you. She is Sawyer's mother, after all. I'm sorry, Billie, but that's something I will never understand if I live to be a hundred. Maggie has come so far, made so many changes in her life. Why can't she and Sawyer come to some kind of terms?”

“Who are we to say Maggie must do this and Maggie mustn't do that? Maggie and Sawyer have to work things out themselves. From what Amelia has told me, Christmas was a total disaster. Now I'm really glad we were snowbound.”

“They're calling your flight, darling. Call me when you land and again after you see Sawyer. If you need me, call, any time of the day or night. Promise now.”

“I promise.” Billie kissed him soundly. “Say a little prayer on the way home that Sawyer is all right.”

“I will, darling. Have a safe trip.”

Billie was uneasy during the plane trip. The feeling stayed with her while she claimed her luggage and called Thad. It was still with her on the cab ride to Adam's loft. When there was no answer to her repeated ringing, she left her suitcase beside the door and hailed a cab for the hospital.

Billie's stomach churned as she made her way down the corridor to Sawyer's room.

Outside the door, she stood quietly for a moment trying to compose herself. Sawyer was going to be upset that she'd made the trip, but she could talk her way out of that easily enough. What was going to be hard to explain was Adam's frantic phone call to her. And if Sawyer should ask, she would' have to admit that she'd called Maggie. Of course, she wouldn't have to tell her how Maggie had reacted. Billie suspected there was more to the situation than met the eye. With a smile on her face, she pushed open the door to Sawyer's room.

“Grand, what are you doing here? ... Adam called you, didn't he? I can see it in his face. He worries too much. We're waiting for the doctor to come in and discharge me; he's supposed to have all the reports from my tests. I've been burning the candle at both ends, and it finally caught up with me. I'm run-down, anemic probably. They'll give me megavitamins and send me home. You shouldn't have made the trip.”

“I wanted to. It's nice to see you again, Adam. You haven't changed at all.”

“Still as good-looking as ever, right?”

“I said you haven't changed.” Billie forced a laugh. Something
was
wrong here; she could feel it.

“Perhaps I should go on to the loft. I did go there first and left my bag. You'll want privacy with the doctor.”

“That's silly, Grand. Wait. You can certainly hear what the doctor has to say. We'll all go back to the loft together.”

“Makes sense to me. I always said this chick had a head on her shoulders,” Adam quipped.

“Beautiful head.” Sawyer grinned. “Oh, here's the doctor.” Sawyer made the necessary introductions. “Now tell me, Dr. Finley, how many vitamins do I have to take a day? I'm anemic, aren't I? Do I need B-twelve shots? ... You look so serious. Don't tell me I have an inner ear problem; I used to get that when I was little.”

Billie hadn't realized she was holding her breath until it escaped in a tortured sigh. Adam was squeezing and releasing his fists. He could feel it, too.

There was little in Susan's imagination that could compare with the dreariness of early January in Texas. All the life seemed to drain out of the land, leaving a poor imitation painted in indistinguishable shades of gray upon gray. And she fit perfectly into the landscape, gray and lifeless like an aging slug whose middle is too swollen for movement. She longed for a warm climate, blue skies, sunshine.

For as long as she could remember, she'd never been this lonely. First, it had been Mam and Pap and the rest of the family here at Sunbridge, and then Amelia and Rand, and finally Jerome. She'd never lived on her own or had the responsibility of making a life for herself. Even now she was under the protective umbrella of Sunbridge and the family. But it didn't relieve the loneliness.

Every day she wondered where Jerome was and what he was doing. She'd sent letters to the flat and to their agent, Theodore Lewis. All of them had been returned unopened. It was as though Jerome had dropped off the face of the earth. When she'd called Theodore, he'd been unwilling to give any information, although he'd expressed confidence that Jerome would soon come to his senses. “He'll turn up,” Theodore had said. “Perhaps he just needs a little time to get accustomed to being a father.” Eight months wasn't enough time?