The Waterfall (22 page)

L
ucy ignored J.T.'s protests and made him go blueberry picking with her first thing in the morning. “Wild blueberries make the best muffins,” she told him. “They're just starting to ripen.”

“Why can't Madison go?”

“She's still asleep, and you're right here, bright-eyed and raring to go.”

He made a face and slumped his shoulders, dragging his heels. If she'd told him he could go play Nintendo or watch TV, she knew he'd perk up, which only made her more determined. She handed him a coffee can. “You can be miserable or you can be cheerful. Your choice.”

“I wish Georgie could come over.”

She'd called Rob and Patti last night and suggested they keep Georgie home today. Lucy slung an arm over her son's shoulder. “You're getting so big. Are your feet bigger than mine yet?”

He liked that idea, and they walked up along the western edge of the stone wall that bordered the field, finally climbing over it to a cluster of low-bush wild blueberries. They squatted down, the sun already warm on their backs. It was supposed to rain later on, but now the air was humid and so still that Lucy swore she'd be able to hear a spider move.

“They're still green,” J.T. said.

“Not all of them. We only need a cup for muffins. They'll be perfect when Grandpa's here next week. We can have him down for blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie, blueberry ice cream.”

“I hate blueberry pancakes.”

“J.T.”

He smiled at her over the blueberry bushes. He still thought his cute smile could get him out of trouble. Just like his father. Lucy noticed there wasn't the usual pang of regret, the ache of realizing that her son would never really know his father. It wasn't okay—she hated it. But they'd be all right.

“Look! Mom, look, I've got one, two, three—
five
blueberries! Look at this one, it's huge.” He plucked them fast, tossed them into his can as he reached for more. “Wow, I'm in the right spot.”

“Good for you, J.T. Just keep picking.”

He lost interest three handfuls of blueberries later, but Lucy decided they had enough for muffins. They clambered over the stone wall, her life, at that moment, back to normal.

She saw Sebastian walk out onto the back steps and sit down. He waved to her, and her heart skipped a beat, just as if she were a thirteen-year-old with a crush. Except this was different. She and Sebastian weren't kids. She was thirty-eight; he was thirty-nine or forty. Colin was the right man for the woman she'd been, but she wasn't that woman anymore. The past three years had changed her. She'd lost a husband, she was raising two children on her own, she'd started her own business and moved to the country.

J.T. skipped ahead of her. “Hey, Sebastian!”

“Hey, J.T. You're up with the roosters.”

“Mom and I picked blueberries.” He stuck his can under Sebastian's nose. “Look.”

Lucy followed at a slower pace, knowing push was coming to shove. She had a plan. She was tired of waiting for the next shoe to drop. But she knew Sebastian wouldn't like what she had in mind.

“We're making muffins,” J.T. said.

Sebastian eyed her as she got closer. It was as if he could sense she was up to something he wouldn't like. “Muffins, huh?”

“Yes,” Lucy said. “I thought we'd take some muffins up to Barbara and surprise her.”

His eyes darkened just slightly, but enough. She was right. He didn't approve. “J.T., you've got a few stems in your berries. Why don't you take your can into the kitchen and pick them out while your mother and I talk.”

“Don't argue with her,” J.T. warned. “She's not in the mood.”

He pounded up the steps, never one to make less noise when he could make more. Sebastian stood, his bruises and scrapes even less noticeable today. “You're going to take muffins to Barbara?”

“Yes, it's what I'd do if I didn't suspect her of being involved with a blackmail scheme and leaving me mean-spirited presents.”

“They were more than mean-spirited, and the point is, you do suspect her.”

“Well,
you
do. I don't know if I do. I'm not the one with twenty years of experience with creeps and desperadoes. I take people on adventures. Fun adventures. Nothing extreme, nothing scary. I mean, the unforeseen can happen and does.” She squinted at him against the morning sun. “But we have contingency plans.”

“Lucy, whoever left those flowers yesterday knew you were here with the kids. If it was Barbara, she knew I was here. She took a huge risk. When I see something like this escalate, I don't like it.”

“I didn't like it when it hadn't escalated. Sebastian, Barbara knows I know she's here. If I don't go up to see her, she's going to wonder why.”

“Let her wonder.”

“What if she's innocent? Then I'll have hurt her feelings for no good reason.”

“No, for a damn good reason. If she's innocent, she'll understand.”

“That I thought she was capable of leaving me flowers from my dead husband? I don't think so.”

“J.T. was right. You aren't in the mood to argue.”

Lucy pounded up the steps almost as hard as J.T. had and tore open the door. She looked back at Sebastian and caught her breath at how the sunlight struck his hair, brought out the hard lines in his face. Maybe she was jumping the gun to think she could have a relationship with him. It was one thing to fall in love, another thing to have a relationship that worked. “I'm bringing Barbara wild-blueberry muffins.”

“Plato will be here by noon.”

“Good. In the meantime, you can hover.”

The door slammed shut behind her.

And he laughed. In another minute, he was making coffee and picking stems out of the blueberries with J.T. as if he'd admitted defeat, which Lucy knew he hadn't. Maybe defeat had driven him out to the edges of his ranch and into a shack, but it hadn't driven him into her kitchen. The man had burrowed under her skin, and he meant to stay there.

 

She wrapped the muffins in aluminum foil and drove up the dirt road while they were still warm, because that was what she ordinarily would have done. She wouldn't have walked for fear of squishing the muffins, and she wouldn't have waited until they were cold, because they were no good cold.

The only difference was not taking Madison and J.T. with her. They stayed at the house with Rob.

Sebastian, she knew, was on the prowl in the woods. Hovering. She could almost feel his presence when she got out of her car at the rented house. There still was no breeze, the air warm and humid even up on the ridge. She followed a shaded gravel path and took the stairs to the deck. Sebastian had suggested she not go inside. Made sense to her.

“Barbara? Hello, it's me, Lucy!”

“I'm here,” Barbara said from the screened porch.

“Oh, I didn't see you. J.T. and I made muffins this morning, and I brought you some. We picked wild blueberries bright and early.”

“Sounds lovely.”

Barbara pushed open the screen door, smiling as she came out onto the deck. She looked perfectly normal to Lucy. A bit formally dressed for Vermont, perhaps, but that wasn't out of the ordinary for Jack Swift's assistant. Lucy tried to place when they'd first met. It was when she and Colin were dating, for sure—not long after the assassination attempt. Barbara Allen had been a fixture in Jack's office for as long as Lucy could remember. Could she feel taken for granted and resent it?

But when Barbara smelled the muffins and seemed so genuinely delighted, Lucy couldn't imagine her stalking and harassing anyone, much less her boss's daughter-in-law. If nothing else, it would be dumb, and Barbara wasn't dumb. “Thank you so much,” she said. “I love wild blueberries.”

“There might be a few bushes up here.” Lucy noticed blueberry and flour stains on her T-shirt and wished she'd changed. “You could probably get enough at least for a batch of pancakes.”

Barbara laughed. “I'm afraid I'm not that domestic.”

“I don't know, just about anyone can manage Bisquick and a handful of blueberries. Well, I hope you enjoy the muffins. Are you here long?”

“Just another day or two, I imagine. Thank God for cell phones. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to spare so much time away from the office.”

“Yes, I know what you mean.”

But Lucy regretted her words, irritated at herself for being defensive. She enjoyed making muffins and pancakes, picking berries, puttering in her garden, hanging out with her children; she had a business, she worked, she knew her way around Washington. She had nothing to prove. So what if Barbara had to make sure Lucy knew how important and indispensable she was? Why get defensive?

“I hope I didn't get Madison into trouble,” Barbara said.

“You didn't.” Madison, Lucy thought, got herself into trouble. “She's looking forward to her visit to Washington this fall. We all are, actually.”

“Fall's my favorite time of year in Washington. It's so vibrant, so alive. I love the country, but—” She looked around at the still, quiet woods, and smiled. “I guess all this peacefulness would get on my nerves after a while.”

“My first few months here, I was so restless, I didn't know if I'd stay. Then, I don't know, I started to enjoy the pace of life. Vermont isn't as isolated as it sometimes seems. There's so much to do.”

“With so many tourists and second-home owners from the city, I imagine so. Your adventure-travel business is going well?”

Lucy nodded. This woman was driving her nuts. Maybe Sebastian's suspicions had colored her perceptions, made her hypersensitive to what she might ordinarily have treated as a normal conversation. “It's going very well, thanks. I have a great staff, and we have so many ideas. Did Madison tell you we're putting together a Costa Rica trip?”

“No, actually, we didn't really get a chance to talk about you.”

It was as if Lucy had just been stuck with a thousand poison needles. This woman did not like her. “My parents retired there, you know.”

“Jack told me. An odd thing to do, don't you think?”

So, now not only was she selfish and inferior, but her family was odd, too. She shrugged and made herself smile. “A natural thing for them, considering their background. I'm trying to get Jack to go with us on the dry run. Wouldn't that be fun? Maybe Sidney Greenburg can go, too. She and my parents are friends—”

“Yes, I know.” Barbara set the muffins on an Adirondack chair and took in a long breath, staring out at the woods. For a moment, she seemed to forget Lucy was there, but she caught herself. “I'll check Jack's schedule. I don't know if he can spare any time for Costa Rica.”

For frivolities, her tone said. Lucy pretended not to notice. “I hope he can, although I understand. Life as a senator must be awfully hectic and demanding.”

“Well, one must prioritize. Jack would spend all his time with you and his grandchildren if he could. You know that. Unfortunately, I have to rein him in, help him stay on track. There's very little thanks in telling someone no all the time, but he understands.”

“You don't think he should spend August up here?”

“Not the entire month, frankly, no. Personally, I can understand. You're his only family. Professionally—he's a Rhode Island senator, not a Vermont senator.” Barbara smiled sweetly. “If you'd moved to Providence or Newport, it would be a different story.”

If she'd been a good daughter-in-law, in other words. Lucy gave a lighthearted laugh. “No one offered me a house on the cheap in Providence or Newport. Well, I should be going. We're pulling together the last details for a father-son backpacking trip.”

“It must be nice to have such a flexible schedule,” Barbara said. “I'm so used to my dawn-to-dusk hours!”

“Nice seeing you, Barbara.”

“You, too.” When Lucy was halfway down the steps, Barbara added, “Oh, and I'd keep my eyes wide open around Sebastian Redwing.”

Lucy turned. “Sebastian? Why?”

“I think he has another agenda aside from seeing his childhood home again.”

Yeah, Lucy thought. The blackmail of a United States senator. “I'm not worried. I've known Sebastian for the better part of twenty years.”

Barbara walked to the top of the steps. She was a handsome woman, Lucy thought, but annoying. “It's obvious, Lucy. You're his hidden agenda.”

“What?”

“He's been in love with you for years. Everyone knows but you.”

“Washington.” Lucy laughed off her uneasiness. “I sure don't miss the gossip. See you, Barbara. Enjoy the muffins.”

When she got back to her car, Lucy got in behind the wheel. She was furious with herself, furious with Barbara, and sickened by the idea of what this woman had done to her. “I wish I had proof. I'd drag the bitch by the hair down to the police,” she said aloud.