Wise Folly (15 page)

She listened to the conversation as he explained the situation to his lawyer in a few clear, well-chosen words.

“Yes, the whole thing is a mess. We’ll bring Kitty back here before worrying about anything else.”

“No!” Dianna exclaimed but he ignored her.

Noah hung up the phone and stared at her, his face hard and uncompromising. “If I can get her out on bail, Catherine is coming here for the night, or what’s left of it
.
You won’t have to see her, if that’s what’s worrying
you." He
stood
, running a hand through his thick dark hair.
“I expect you to tolerate the situation, just as
I
wi
ll.
”

She wanted to cry. To scream. To stomp her foot. But most of all, she wanted to run as fast and as far as she could, never to be seen again.
“
D
o what you want! Just don’t expect me to be here to welcome you both.”

His gaze turned to steel.
“You’ll be here. The guard at the door
won't
allow you to leave. Make the best of it, Di. I don’t like the situation any better than you, but there’s no choice in the matter right now.”

Dianna continued as if she had never heard him, one part of her not believing she was saying such ugly things, while another port of her was too hurt to stop. “When you said you could offer us everything,
I
didn’t
realize
just what that encompassed.
” She sat up and her unpinned hair tumbled in wild disorder about her slim shoulders, making her look like a temptress and a vulnerable child at the same time. “You have all sorts of t
hings
you can teach Tabby, don’t you? Sex
scandals
, mistresses, drugs, excesses of money, rape—the list is endless!”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.” His voice was barely controlled.

She pushed anyway, unafraid of his response as long as the
dagger
hurt him as much as she felt hurt.
“You’re right, I don’t! But if I’m here long enough I’m sure I’ll find out”

"Right now you sound like a perfect bitch
.” Noah turned and opened the bedroom door. “I’ll be back later. I don’t have to tell you not to wait up for me. I can see wifely concern written all over your face.” He halted. “
Just a reminder.
Don’t try to leave.”

“I don’t have much choice, do I?”

“
Y
ou have
no
choice. Not if you want what’s best for Tabby.”

"
You’re ruthless, aren’t you, Noah? What if other people’s plans don’t coincide with yours? Are they always relegated to second place?”

Noah gave a heavy sigh
as he opened the bedroom door to leave
.
“You’re doing so w
ell
analyzing my character, why should I clutter your mind with facts?”

He was gone and Dianna sat in the darkened room alone. Her body still craved his hands, his touch, but her mind fought against her
want
for him. He was a heartless bully or a saint, and Dianna’s tired mind couldn’t distinguish which.
Instead, she curled into a ball and closed her eyes.

CHAPTER FIVE

When she awakened the next morning Catherine Sinclair was not in the apartment
.
Neither was Noah.
Apparently they were together somewhere else. That thought was the sharpest of daggers.  What had she gotten herself into by agreeing to this stupid relationship? What was wrong with her that she would allow herself to be so humiliated? But she knew the answer. She would do whatever was necessary to give Tabby a
chance at a
full
happy
life.

Mrs. Frank had grapefruit bacon, eggs, and pancakes waiting for her as she walked into the kitchen, and no amount of explaining about light breakfasts could convince the older woman that this was one meal Dianna could do without
.
She finally sat down and, with one eye on the clock, tried to do justice to Mrs. Frank’s cooking
.

June and David were bringing Tabby sometime
early
this afternoon and Dianna pushed everything but this single thought out of her mind
.
Tabby was all that mattered
.
It wasn’t important where Noah had spent the night or where he was at this moment
. It wasn't her job to take care of him...it was her job and joy to take care of Tabby. Good solid thoughts but they didn't settle well.
She put
her fork
down and sighed. There was no way she could eat right now—her stomach was churning too much.
Leaving the table, she entered the living area and picked up a magazine to draw her attention away from her problems.

She wished she
had a job to do. If she was working,
at least she would be kept too busy to think
of anything else.
Right now,
Noah wasn't far from each and every thought she had.
Without really wanting to, she relived those moments in Noah’s arms and her
heartbeat raced as
she remembered how she had told him she loved him
.
His
response was
only to say he wanted to make love to her. It wasn’t the same
.
Obviously, there was more to his relationship with the singer than was told. She refused to think of the emotional mess she'd walked into.  All she had to do was ignore it all, have her daughter's surgery completed and
then
disappear. Yes. That would do it.

She stared at an ad in the magazine she was leafing through, making no sense of the blurred type. She needed something sane and sensible to hang on to in her Alice in Wonderland wo
rld
. Soon Tabby would be
here
. ...

Once June, David, and Tabby arrived, the
evening
passed quickly. June was awed by
the
penthouse apartment and even David took a little time to become accustomed to sitting back in richly upholstered furniture and staring at original artwork on the walls. Tabby, however, took everything in stride, as children do.

“Just imagine! I've
passed this building often, but I never knew anything like this existed on the top!” June twisted sideways on the couch to stare out the large expanse of glass to the patio, where redwood pla
nters stood filled with shrubs and
shiny-leafed foliage
.
Soft gray
enameled lounge furniture
with soft yellow cushions
invited one to sit and relax. At the edge of the balcony was a large waterfall that tinkled with soft rushing water over moss-covered stones. It was artificial but looked as if it had been placed there by nature.

“Yes, it is beautiful, isn’t it?” Most of Dianna’s attention was on Tabby and her reaction to the surroundings, but the small girl seemed almost oblivious to the unaccustomed luxury around her. It puzzled Dianna. Her daughter seemed to be waiting for something.

“I always said you should have contacted Noah before now, and I was right! What a Cinderella story. I just don’t understand why you didn’t do
it
seven years ago!”

June’s sly glance irritated Dianna, but she brushed the feeling aside
, recognizing
just how hard her
so-called
independence had been on June and David. They had helped her buy her little house
and
acted as a buffer between Dianna and her parents before Tabby’s birth
and their death
. They had
even babysat
at times, just like this past week.
The extra responsibility must have been a strain, but surprisingly, Dianna had never been conscious of that fact before.

“And you have to a
dmit, Dianna, Noah is one good-catch
. If it weren’t for the fact that I'm madly in love with my own husband
."
She
grinned and winked
at David, who made a face at her.

“You’d better say that,” he growled in mock severity.

Tabby sat next to her mother on the couch, glancing through a magazine with the expression of a patient adult “
My toys are moving too, right
Mommy?”

“
Y
es, darling.” She took a deep breath of air, her voice becoming more resolute. “Tabby, you know that Noah
wants us to live here,
right?” She gave her a hug. “I want to talk to you about
our new life
, now that we’ll all be together.”

“Have you
pi
cked out a place for my new garden?” Tabby’s face flushed with excitement “Noah says it can be as big as I want it”

Dianna's mind spun.
“
Noah
says?”

“We, well, I. . .” June stammered as she glanced at David for support.

“Hi, Monkey.” Noah lounged in the doorway, his
gray
suit jacket slung over his shoulder and hooked by lean fingers. His
white
shirt and gold striped tie were loosened to expose the muscled column of his throat He looked tired, but his eyes held an amused glint that bordered on mockery.

“Hi, Noah.” Tabby grinned. “Mom doesn’t know about my garden.”

Noah draped his
jacket
over the back of a chair and stepped into the room. “Not yet, sweetheart I haven’t had a chance to tell her.” He glanced at Dianna. “It’s been a little busy around here, so you’ll have to fill her in for me, okay?”

He turned and shook hands with David and greeted June with a warm smile. Dianna listened to Tabby discuss her weekend with her cousins, which had been a rare treat but her eyes followed Noah to
the
bar, where he was mixing drinks while carrying on a casual conversation with David. She didn’t notice June’s frown. She wasn’t aware of anything but Noah. He stood, drink in hand, and chatted as if with an old friend, occasionally glancing down to give Tabby a wink.

“Can
we
tell Mommy our secret now?” Tabby walked up to Noah, stopping at the toes of his shoes and tilting her head back to look up. Her eyes were twinkling as she gave his hand a squeeze and his smile warmed at her childish expression of exuberance.

“I think the time is right don’t you? This way if your mother is mad at me she won’t be able to
spank
me in front of your aunt and uncle.” He bent down and said in a stage whisper, “She won’t want to make a scene.” Tabby placed her hand on his taut stomach and pushed playfully, batting her lashes and flirting with the innocence of a child. “Oh, you!” she laughed. “Mommy couldn’t be mad at you—you’re too nice.” She smiled disarmingly at her mother. “Isn’t he, Mommy?”

Dianna
smiled. "A spanking might be a good idea if he's not a good boy," she said softly, but he got the message and barely kept his grin from showing.
Thoughts that tumbled over each other in her head would not come out in words.

“Aren’t you going to tell your mom the secret, Tabby?” June asked brightly, stepping into the breach of silence.

“Well,” Tabby began. “Noah is my daddy now and he fixed it so
I'm
visiting the hospital tomorrow
and
I'm
not to be scared ’cause afterwards
.
I'm
gonna visit his ranch, and have a garden as big as I want, and even
have
a pony!” she exclaimed, lost in the rapture of her new life. “
I'm gonna
do all
the stuff
I couldn’t do before ’cause I needed my heart fixed.” She looked up at Noah. “Right?”

His smile was genuine.
“Right, sweetheart
.
”

“You discussed all this with Tabby?” Dianna’s temper suddenly came alive. “You had no right! Tabby is m
y child and you have no right to
interfere in raising her!”

Noah’s voice was slow and drawling, but his eyes flashed a message she could not dismiss. “What matters is that Tabby’s looking forward to
her surgery and
getting better.”

June's gaze
twisted
from one to the other and back again. H
er hands in her lap, silently watching the struggle between two of the most stubborn people
she
had ever met

Dianna stared at her sister. "
And you, June. You knew all about this
conversation
when I called and you never said a word?”