The Man She Left Behind (16 page)

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Authors: Janice Carter

BOOK: The Man She Left Behind
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“But you never gave it a chance. You acted as though you didn’t care at all that I was going.”
He gently touched her lower lip with the tip of his index finger. “Leigh, I cared so much I had this dull ache in my gut for months. I was afraid to talk about it in case—” he gave a small laugh “—I burst into tears.”
“If only you had—” she breathed out slowly “—things might have been so different.” She caught the look on his face and laughed. “Seriously, Spencer, we were such fools. Both of us. Then when you said you didn’t want to go to Portsmouth for the midnight picnic, I lost it.”
“You sure did. I was shocked at the names you called me,” he teased.
She sobered. “I was unbelievable, wasn’t I?”
He shook his head. “Just hurt.”
“And afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Of losing you,” she said. “So of course, I responded by pushing you away—right into Jen Logan’s arms, as it turned out.”
Spencer looked away. “That’s where
I
lost it,” he muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“I always knew she had a thing for me. At the end she wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it.”
“I guess I was the last to know.”
“You were preoccupied with—”
“—going away to college.”
“Yep. When you said you wouldn’t go to the prom with me, I got my dad’s truck and headed for the highway. Just drove—all the way to Nag’s Head and back. Jen was waiting at my place. You must have told her about the fight. She...she was very sweet.”
“I’ll bet.” The tone in her voice drew him back to her. “Why couldn’t you see through her?” Leigh asked.
“I don’t know. Guess I didn’t want to. When I heard you’d decided to go with Tony to the prom, I asked Jen. Later, after the accident, I tried to explain everything to you, but you weren’t listening.”
“I was such a self-absorbed fool,” Leigh murmured. “And you even gave me a second chance. At Chapel Hill,” she explained at the question in his face. “The night you drove up to see me. I was there, hiding in my room.”
Spencer shook his head. “We were a couple of fools, all right.” He pulled her to him, tucking her head into his chest and holding on as tightly as he could while her sobs tore at the calm night.
CHAPTER NINE
L
EIGH ROLLED OVER, blinking her eyes against the stream of sunshine filling her bedroom window. For a moment she was lost in the no-man’s-land between sleep and awakening. The dream hangover was so intense that reference points seemed only vaguely familiar.
Where am I?
quickly floated into
Home
. Leigh found the sensation oddly pleasant.
Home
.
Somehow the apartment in New York had never felt like home. She stretched out her legs and wiggled her toes under the white cotton sheet. The curtains at her open window fluttered weakly in the early-morning heat. Another perfect day in paradise, she thought.
So why the rush to leave?
Leigh smiled, ignoring the internal doomsayer.
Maybe I’m not in such a rush anymore,
she told the voice.
Not after last night
.
The return to Ocracoke in the indigo twilight had been slow and dreamy. She’d sat in Spencer’s seat, enveloped in his warm arms, while he’d stood behind her, steering the boat. She’d rested her head against his chest, feeling a comfort and safety she hadn’t felt since she was a child.
When they’d docked, neither spoke a word until Spencer pulled the pickup into her driveway. She’d glanced over at him and asked, “Will you come in?” And he’d replied, “If you want me to.”
“I do,” she’d said, extending her hand to touch the side of his cheek. They’d both known the invitation hadn’t been for coffee, and as soon as they were in the hallway, they wrapped their arms around each other and walked upstairs. Like an old married couple, she’d thought.
At the top landing he’d said, “Let’s go to your room. I had fantasies for two years about sneaking into your bedroom one night and making love to you.”
“While my parents slept down the .hall?” Leigh pretended shock.
“What can I say? I was a full-blooded teenage male, pumped with sexual longing.”
“Yet we waited almost two years before—”
“Yes,” he whispered. “And I remember everything about that first time.”
“We weren’t very original. The back seat of my dad’s Buick.”
“Where else could we have gone in Ocracoke? Not to a motel.”
“The dunes,” she reminded him.
“You never liked the dunes. The grass prickled.”
Leigh gave an embarrassed laugh and playfully pushed him away. They stood in her bedroom doorway, staring at the narrow single bed.
“Hmm,” he said. “Are any of the guest rooms made up?”
“No, but my parents’ bed is.”
“Really?”
She looked down, fiddling with the buttons on her sleeveless blouse. “It made me feel more at home. You know what I mean? As if they were just down the hall.”
Spencer drew her to his chest and buried his face in her hair. “You’re—”
“Don’t say ‘sweet,’” she warned.
He pulled back to look into her eyes. “Wonderful. Amazing. Irresistible.” He lowered his mouth to her brow and pressed a line of kisses across it. “Tempting.” He moved his mouth down the bridge of her nose to its tip, paused, then covered her lips with his. After a long moment he murmured, “Delicious.”
“Come on,” she said, escaping from his arms to pull him out the door and along the hall to the master bedroom.
“Seriously?”
“I think my folks would approve,” she replied, and once they were in the room began to unbutton her blouse.
“Wait,” he said. “I want to.” He undressed her slowly and, when she stood in front of him, ran the palms of his hands lightly over every part of her.
“You make me feel like you’re buying a new car or something,” she tittered, but the awe in his face silenced her.
“I’m remembering you—how you felt, what you looked like. Your skin, your beautiful breasts...”
Leigh extended her arms. “Come here. My turn.”
By the time she’d finished slipping the second pant leg off his foot, he was fully aroused. She took his hand and led him to the bed, drawing back the cotton coverlet and sheet with one strong flick of her wrist. Then she turned to him.
“You feel just like you did when you were nineteen,” she breathed into his ear as he lowered her onto the bed.
 
A TINGLE WORKED its way up her body again as Leigh lay under the sheets, recalling Spencer’s every caress. It had been a long time since she’d felt so alive and so desired. He was a different lover than he’d been at nineteen. Slower, more sure of himself and wanting to please. When he’d left hours later, Leigh was certain she’d been glowing in the dark.
She smiled and threw back the sheet. She had a feeling the day was going to be like no other since her return to Ocracoke.
Fresh from the shower half an hour later, Leigh was searching for coffee filters when the telephone rang. She’d taken the cell phone into the kitchen with her, hoping Spencer would call early as he’d promised. She had to hide the disappointment in her voice when Evan said hello.
“Sony to call you so early,” he began, “but I wanted to be sure to get you before you left for the day.”
Leigh tightened her grip on the phone. “Did you get an offer on the house?” she asked, crossing her fingers that he hadn’t.
“Well...” he drawled, “not an offer but a definite show of interest. My answering service got hold of me yesterday because the same person called several times. Seems this lady is mighty drawn to your house.”
“The lady who came to the open house?”
“That I don’t know. We didn’t exchange names on Saturday.”
“Didn’t you just ask her?”
“I did ask her if she came to the open house on Saturday, and all she said was that she’d seen the house.”
“That makes it pretty obvious, then. I mean, how else would she have seen it?”
“Yes, that’s what I figured. Anyway, she must have asked a million questions.”
“Even after seeing the house?”
“Strangely enough, most were about you.”
“About me?”
“And about why you were selling.”
“That’s weird.”
“Not really. Sometimes people think the reason might have to be connected with something about the house—you know, that it might be sinking into an old landfill site or whatever.”
“There’s nothing wrong with this house that—”
“—a can of paint won’t fix,” he finished.
“Yes.”
“That’s what I told her. But she was very interested in your family—how long you’d been there, when your folks died and so on.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Ms. Randall, there was very little I
could
tell her. Simply that your parents had died, you lived in New York and were only here long enough to sell the place. End of information.”
“Good,” Leigh murmured. “That’s creepy, don’t you think? Asking all those questions about me?”
“It’s odd, but it may have just been her way of making conversation.”
“Making conversation? She’s buying a house, isn’t she? Not attending a cocktail party.”
Evan laughed. “That’s good. I like that. Anyhow, not to worry. Only reason I called is that she said she’d get back to me about seeing the house again. Will you be in today?”
“Yes.” She thought of Spencer. “If I do go out, I’ll leave a key with the neighbors—the Jensens—the place down the road toward the village?”
“Right. That’s it for now, then. Thought any more about your return to New York?”
“I...I’m not sure. Perhaps I will stay here a bit longer. I’ve got a lot of holidays saved up,” she explained.
Idiot. You don’t have to make excuses to the real-estate agent!
“Then you’ll be available. Good. Did we agree on another open house?”
“This week, you suggested.”
“Okay. What about Friday? We’ll get the weekend traffic, too. And I’ll send out flyers to places up the coast. Mind if I write it up as a possible bed-and-breakfast?”
“Of course not. That’s what my folks used it for in the last seven or eight years of Dad’s life.”
“Fine. If I hear from that woman, I’ll call you. Do you have an answering machine?”
“No. I don’t even have a phone except this cell. Here in Ocracoke we leave messages on doors and with neighbors.”
“Pretty inconvenient if you’re calling from off the island.”
“That’s Ocracoke. Part of its charm.”
“If you say so. Hmm, well, if I don’t get hold of you and she wants to see the place, mind if we just drive out there?”
“Not at all. As I said, I’ll leave a key with the Jensens.”
When Leigh hung up, she decided to find an extra house key and leave it on the hall table so she wouldn’t forget it. If Spencer called with plans for the day, she’d be all ready. She paused in her rummage through her purse.
What if Spencer doesn’t call?
Silly girl. Of course he would.
What if he’s busy today?
A distinct possibility, given that he wasn’t on holiday as she was.
Still, be prepared.
For what? A royal summons? Leigh groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. She was behaving like a teenager. Worse. She had the feeling she’d have acted more cool—as Jamie would put it—at seventeen.
Leigh took the key and headed into the hallway. Coffee could wait. She placed it in the center of the table and hesitated. Something different here. What? There was the little brass dish her mother had bought years ago and used for spare change and oddments. The brass letter holder Dad had given Mom for Christmas one year. Her car keys.
Then the image of a folded red-and-black checked bandanna came to mind. Spencer’s handkerchief. Where was it? Leigh looked under the table, pulled open the drawer and searched every inch of hallway before deciding Spencer had noticed it himself and picked it up. She returned to the kitchen for coffee and to wait for Spencer’s call.
 
HE WAS ABOUT TO HANG UP the phone when she answered. At the sound of his voice she gave a little intake of breath that made him smile. So, he told himself, he hadn’t had to try three times before gathering courage to call. Maybe she’d been waiting all morning.
Right. And maybe she was just running to the phone.
“Spence.”
She said his name as if she were savoring a piece of Belgian chocolate. Spencer felt a tingle zip up his spine. “I meant to call sooner,” he explained, “but I had some urgent phone messages to get to when I arrived at the office.”
“That’s okay.”
Her voice sounded husky and faraway. The cell phone. Instinctively he lowered his own. “Listen, I...I hope you had no regrets this morning.”
There was a pause long enough to raise the hairs on the back of his neck. Then she said, “No regrets,” and he ached to reach through the telephone and wrap his arms around her. For a moment he couldn’t think of anything else to say. His mind teemed with scents, touches and whispers in the night.
Leigh Randall at thirty-two was twice the woman she’d been at seventeen. He’d be hard-pressed to identify the exact nature of the difference. Her skin, amazingly as silken; curves more voluptuous, fitting the planes of his own body perfectly. The heat was there, as it had been fifteen years ago. But then it had been uncontrolled.
The real change, he decided, was in her responsiveness. The strong confident enjoyment she displayed at his touch. The lack of fear.
“Are you still there?”
“Huh?” Spencer shook himself.
Get a grip, fella.
Her throaty laugh sent another sizzle up his backbone. He wiped his face with his free hand.
Gawd, it’s going to be a long day.
“Yeah, sorry. Listen, something’s come up. Nothing bad, but important. A priority.” He was babbling and screwing up. “Sam’s specialist called and wants to see him right away. Thing is, I can’t take him in the pickup. He really needs to be lying down. So the clinic is sending an ambulance for him. Jamie’s with him now until the ambulance comes. The doc wants to run a few tests in Raleigh.... Sorry, what’s that?”
Damn. The house.
“So when is this woman supposed to come about the house? Oh, it’s not definite.” Relief swept through him. Time, he thought. All he needed was more time to sort everything out. “Leigh, the thing is... I may not get back to Ocracoke until tomorrow. I’ve canceled my charters for today and tomorrow morning just in case. But I’ll call you when I’m back. No, don’t be silly. It’s my turn for dinner. Tomorrow night? Great.”
He hesitated, wanting to find just the right words. But imagination failed him when he needed it most. “Look, I’ll be thinking of you all the way to Raleigh and back. Take care. Bye.”
He replaced the receiver on the cradle and wondered why he felt like such a jerk.
 
LEIGH STARED at the phone lying on the kitchen table. For a sophisticated piece of technology, it could be hopelessly inadequate at times. She’d stammered and stumbled her way through the conversation like some geeky adolescent taking her first call from a boy. She emptied the rest of the coffee into the sink. Obviously Spencer wouldn’t be popping round to share it. The day loomed disappointingly empty in front of her.

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