AS SPENCE OBSERVED Alexis across the deck of the Maid of the Mist—the famous boat ride under Niagara Falls—he shook his head, hoping to dislodge the thought that had plagued him since yesterday. Was he in love with her? It was the damn poem that had done it. Put this stupid idea in his mind.
Clare had received a new book of love poems and he’d been reading it to her last night. “Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians” was included in the volume, and the ancient words had echoed through his brain all day like a mantra.
“Love is not irritable.”
“Hey, Keag, whatsamatter?” Jamie shouted. “You look like you lost your best friend.” She huddled with Jeff and Alexis beneath an overhang—all three wearing the silly yellow slickers that the guide had distributed to keep them dry. Her young voice cut through the wind and spray and sliced at his heart.
That isn’t true either. She isn’t your best friend. Stop panicking, Keag. Get a grip.
Casually crossing over to them, he grabbed the handrail and gave Jamie an exaggerated scowl. “I just can’t believe I let you and Jeff talk me into this crazy trip.” He jumped quickly back as a spray of water hit him in the face, dampening his jeans and Guardian T-shirt—as he’d refused to be outfitted like a kindergartner.
Jeff said, “Hey, Macho Man, lighten up.”
Genuinely amused, Spence leaned against a post. “You sound more like the kid here every day.”
But Jeff wasn’t paying attention. Instead, he studied the waterfall with a sense of wonder, and Spence’s heart turned over. He was reminded of the times they’d gone out on the lake when Jeff was a child. Though scrawny and not very tall, his son had taken to the water like the proverbial duck.
Peering up at Spence from under damp bangs, Alexis gave him a warm smile. “I’m glad you both came along. I’m not the daredevil Jamie needs as a tour guide.”
He winked at her. “You’re doin’ pretty well.” They steered under the Falls, preventing further discussion—for which Spence was grateful.
He’d been suspicious of the invitation from the first. Jeff and Jamie had approached him the day after the girl’s birthday, when Jeff had motored over with some papers for her boat. Alexis had been at Guardian, for one of her last visits. That she went during his absence annoyed him.
“Love is not resentful.”
Jeff had flanked Jamie like a general accompanying his colonel. “You have plans for this weekend, Dad?”
“No—” Spence had told him from the water where he was working on his boat engine “—but I’m lookin’ forward to Watkins Glen next weekend.”
On the dock, Jeff had shifted uncomfortably in his sneakered feet and glanced at Jamie. It was then that Spence had realized the two kids were up to something. “Jamie says she and Alexis are going to Niagara Falls on Saturday.”
With narrowed eyes, Spence gave him a father-knows-everything stare. “So? You’ve seen the Falls.”
“Not since I was little. Let’s go with them.”
The next thing Spence knew, the four of them had booked into the Honeymoon Haven Hotel in Canada, with adjoining boy-boy and girl-girl rooms, buying into the whole tourist trap. Yet it warmed Spence’s heart to see Jamie happy and Jeff eagerly playing her big brother.
Watch it, buddy. You’re not a family.
And you aren’t in love with her, either. It was too dangerous to give his heart to Alexis Castle.
But when she gazed with pleasure at the kids, then turned the same sappy grin on him, he felt as if he’d been kicked overboard and was going down for the third time.
After the boat ride, Jamie dragged them to the tourist shops across the road from the Falls. Begging off on going into yet another souvenir store, Spence sank onto a nearby bench, and observed the passersby. In a few minutes, Alexis exited the store and joined him. She was dressed in a soft, moss-green, long, linen shirt with wide-striped green and white shorts. Her hair fell around her shoulders in sexy disarray—thank you Portia for the new haircut—and she sported white, dangly, costume-jewelry earrings.
“I can’t keep up with Jamie,” she gasped, leaning back against the bench. He wanted to put his arm around her and tug her close. But of course, that wasn’t allowed.
“Love does not insist on its own way.”
“She’s got more energy than a toddler,” Alexis continued. “She always did.” Lowering her sunglasses she shot him a glance and gave his forearm a brief squeeze. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
With exaggerated ease, he spread his arms out along the back of the bench. His fingers hovered near her hair. “Yeah?”
A half-pivot brought her facing him; she removed her shades. The linen shirt deepened the green of her eyes to the color of spring grass in the morning; they were full of honest emotion. “Yeah. I find myself wanting to spend all my time with you.”
Well, hell, that made his day. Of its own accord, his hand sneaked to her nape and played with a few strands of hair. “I want to be with you, too,” he told her quietly.
Her smile was so warm, so intimate, that his heart somersaulted in his chest.
But he didn’t love her.
“Spence, I—”
“Hey, there you are.” Jamie raced over, looking young in her one-piece tan overall shorts, with a bright-pink tank top underneath to match the sneakers on her feet. “See this neat souvenir I found? Think Max’ll like it?”
Spence studied the ceramic replica of the Falls, complete with cheap paint and sparkles. “It’s pretty cheesy, Jame.”
“I told you so,” Jeff said, playfully punching her arm. Dressed in black Dockers and a gray T-shirt, his son appeared younger than usual, too.
Alexis opened her purse. “Here, Jeff, let me give you money for it.”
“Nah, Daddy Warbucks slipped us some cash while you were in the ladies’ room.” Jamie grinned up at Spence.
Spence’s heart cartwheeled this time. Daddy. Stupid, Keagan. It was just her habit of nicknaming. He stood. “Who wants lemonade?”
“I do.” Jamie took long strides to keep up with him; Alexis and Jeff straggled behind. As Jamie traipsed alongside him, she raised her eyes to the sky. “Hey, Keag, look.”
He glanced up. “Wow.”
From behind them, Jeff rolled his eyes and said, “What’s up there, now?”
“Geez, Boy Wonder of the boating industry, can’t you see it?”
Jeff’s snort of disbelief was followed by a groan from Alexis. “Here we go again,” she said, in a stage whisper.
“You should be able to get this one, Jeff. Right there—” Jamie pointed to the left “—is a big ocean liner.” She examined the clouds carefully. “How many levels, Keag?”
“Four, I think. Look at that hull—it’s huge!”
From behind they heard another groan. “We’re hopeless.” Although Alexis’s voice was light, Spence heard an underlying sadness in it.
Jamie must have heard it too, because she pivoted suddenly and grabbed Alexis’s arm. “Come up here, Mom. Let Keag show you where it is and I’ll point it out for Jeff.”
She practically shoved Alexis into Spence. He grasped her shoulders gently. Hell, he never looked a gift horse in the mouth. Sliding one hand down her right arm, he held her close and pointed to the sky. “See— right there—that’s the prow. Now follow my finger.” As she did, she leaned in closer. He got a whiff of her shampoo and breathed it in like a beggar in a bakery.
“Um, maybe.” Surreptitiously, she inched closer. “But I’m not sure. Show me more.”
He battled back a grin, bumped her hip with his and snuck an arm around her waist. And took his grand old time outlining the boat in the clouds.
o0o
TWO HOURS LATER, Jamie tugged on Jeff’s T-shirt. “Did you see ‘em cuddlin’, lookin’ for the boat, Baywatch guy?”
Jeff paid for the ice cream and handed her a waffle cone with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sprinkles. “Yeah, I saw ‘em.” They left the outdoor shack and plopped down in the shade of a nearby grassy knoll under a tree.
Her mother and Keag had disappeared into an art store, she and Jeff had slapped each other high fives, then headed for the ice-cream shop. “This trip was a brilliant idea, wasn’t it?”
“Maybe.”
“Just call me Yente, the matchmaker.” She’d seen Fiddler on the Roof on TV last week.
Digging a pistachio nut out of his waffle cone with a spoon, Jeff scanned the shops . “Don’t get your hopes up, squirt.”
“I’m sure there’s something goin’ on between them.” She stopped eating and frowned. “Don’t you see it, Jeff?”
“Yeah, I see it. But that doesn’t mean they’ll stay together. My dad has a poor track record in the romance department.”
“So does my mom.”
After a pause, Jeff swiveled to face her. “What happened with your father, Jame?”
Jamie sighed. She hated talking about him, but Jeff wasn’t just anybody. Every day he became more and more like a brother. She shoved to the back of her mind the knowledge that she’d lose both him and Max in a few weeks when she went back to Rochester.
Quickly, so it wouldn’t hurt as much, she poured out the whole rotten story in-between licks of ice cream and a lump in her throat.
He slid his arm around her when she finished. “Sorry, Jame. That sucks.”
“Yeah.” She hung her head and sighed. “But Mom’s pretty, don’t you think? And your dad’s not bad for an old guy. There’s a chance, Jeff. I know it.”
Jeff’s sky-blue eyes were wary when he peered down at her. “Maybe. But I don’t want you to be disappointed.”
“I won’t be,” she said, around a mouthful of ice cream. “Now, let’s talk about tonight.”
Jeff couldn’t help being drawn into her pie-in-the-sky machinations to bring their parents together. Hell, it might work. “Wait a minute, how we gonna do this without getting them suspicious?”
“Geez, for a Yale guy, you’re pretty dumb sometimes.”
“Okay, Einstein, you tell me.”
“Night of the Living Dead’s on at nine on that pay-per-view TV thing. It’s my absolute fave movie. Mom’ll know I gotta see it.”
“So, you can’t go to the casino anyway—you’re too young.”
“Bingo. And I’m also too young to watch Tom Savini’s most-gruesome-special-effects-ever-made-in-a movie all by myself. But, if I pitch a fit when they don’t want to leave me alone, you can get brownie points by volunteering to stay with the sweet little girl who might get scared out of her gourd without a big boy around to protect her.”
Laughing, Jeff shook his head and tossed the remains of his cone in the trash. Jamie had finished hers. “You’re a genius.” He headlocked her. “Maybe havin’ you in the family isn’t such a hot idea after all.”
She wiggled her brows. “Afraid I’ll meddle in your love life, Jeffy boy?”
“Nothing to meddle in.” He let her go.
Jamie sobered. “You oughtta have a girlfriend, Jeff. You’re almost over the hill.”
He rolled his eyes. When he scanned the street, he saw his father and Alexis exit The Art Arena. Though they weren’t overtly touching, they walked with the casual intimacy of a man and a woman who were sleeping together. Their hips brushed. When Alexis turned, her breast grazed Spence’s bicep yet neither revealed any embarrassment.
All of which was fine with Jeff. Especially today. He’d agreed to this scheme of Jamie’s not so much to throw their parents together—Jeff would bet his new Mazda Miata they didn’t need help—but to soften his father for what he had to tell him
Jeff still couldn’t believe he’d made such a stupid mistake. As his father motioned Jamie over to a storefront window, Jeff recalled the stunned look on his grandfather’s face when he’d learned about the trip to Watkins Glen. Wary of having had to balance his affection for his grandfather and his love for his father, Jeff had waited to break the news to Judd. But he was the one who’d gotten a hell of a surprise.
“A weekend at the Glen sounds like fun, Jeff. It will do you and your father good. But you can’t go on those dates you just mentioned. You’ve got the boat show in Palm Beach.”
“No, Grandpa, that boat show is the week after. I checked my calendar before I got the tickets.”
“You must have written it down wrong. I just met with some reps about the party we’re giving Friday night at the Yacht Club.”
Jeff remembered panicking. His father was looking forward to this Watkins Glen trip like a little kid planning his first visit to Yankee Stadium. And Jeff’s relationship with Spence was still shaky. Jeff lived in fear that any kind of crosscurrent could make them drift apart again. For a minute, he resented that. Damn, relatives in normal families disappointed each other, canceled plans or made mistakes. But his was not a normal family—never had been.
“You all right, Jeff?”
Jeff glanced up at Alexis Castle. She smiled down at him and sank onto the grass. For a minute, he had the almost irresistible urge to confide in her—to ask for help in cushioning the blow he was about to deliver to his dad. Women were good buffers for men.
But he didn’t tell her. She and his father were keeping their relationship to themselves and Jeff could guess why. The Guardian grant. Her position at Castle Enterprises had to remain unimpeachable. She couldn’t allow others to question her loyalty and judgment. Jeff understood—and supported—her business decision completely.
But as he watched Spence across the street, pointing to a window and explaining something to Jamie, he wondered how Alexis had managed to get Spence to agree.
His father didn’t like secrecy any more than he liked playing second fiddle to a corporation like KeagCrafts.
o0o
CASINO NIAGARA IN Canada was a sprawling monster of a building. Alexis leaned against a half-wall, sipping an after-dinner liqueur and studying the row of slot machines directly across from her. She didn’t intend to be the next victim.
“What are you doin’?” Spence ambled to her side. She glanced up and saw he was movie-star handsome in his light-blue silk T-shirt and navy sports coat, both of which had turned his eyes a Caribbean blue. His hair had been trimmed and was slicked back off his face.
“Oh, nothing”
Around them, people hovered near slot machines as bright lights sparkled and a current of excitement filled the cavernous space.
“Tell me another fish story.” Dropping down next to her, Spence reached out and squeezed her neck. She leaned into his hand, turned her face into his shoulder and nuzzled for a moment. It felt so good to be free to touch in public.
“I’m not the master at fish stories. Our kids told us a whooper about this trip.”
A shadow flickered across Spence’s face. Alexis guessed that keeping their relationship from their children didn’t sit well with him. “They know, Lex.”
“Maybe.” She hooked her arm through his. The soft material of his jacket caressed her bare skin. She’d also gotten “all dolled up,” as Spence had said, for dinner and an evening at the Casino. She wore a black lacy dress that came to her knees, with a low scooped neck and two minuscule straps that left her shoulders bare. High, summery sandals made her taller, so that she came past his chin. “It’s only two more weeks until everybody knows, anyway. If the kids suspect, they won’t say anything.” At his long silence, she said, “We could tell them tonight, if you want.”
He shook his head. And stepped away. “No, let’s keep everybody in the dark.” Visibly, he shook off the thought. “Now, tell me why you’re studyin’ those slots like they were quarterly reports.”
Alexis let him change the subject because that was the easiest thing to do. And because she felt guilty. When a man abandoned one of the machines, she darted to the stool he’d vacated.
Spence slid into the empty stool next to her at a twin slot machine. ‘Fess up. You got that Miss Alexis look on your face.”
“Well, the bet is that if I win more than you do with this ticket—” she slipped it into the machine “—I get to choose my pleasure. If you win, you get to choose yours.”
“Yeah, so what were you watchin’ for?”
Grinning mischievously, she tossed back her hair and patted the gaudy silver machine. “This little guy hasn’t paid off in a quarter of an hour. The percentage goes up for every minute he’s stingy.”
Rolling his eyes, Spence faced his machine. “Jeez, this isn’t a corporate merger. I can’t believe you’d study the odds.”
“You’ll eat your words, Keagan. Wait and see.”
“All right Nathan Detroit,” he said, referring to the odds-obsessed character in Guys and Dolls. “It’s ten-fifteen.” He shot her a searing look. “To the victor belongs the spoils.”
Alexis pressed the spin button. Bells ranga whistle shrilled and the ping of machines starting echoed in the air. She checked her board. “Fifty big ones, buster. I just doubled my stake.”
Spence didn’t even react. Cool as the fighter pilot he’d been in Iraq, he studied his machine and smoothly drew down the handle.
She loved breaching his cool and decided to make an attempt now. Pivoting about sixty degrees, she leaned over so her breasts grazed his arm, ensuring that the quick glance he gave her provided him with an ample show of cleavage. He focused straight ahead, again, the only sign he’d been affected was the leap of a muscle in his jaw.
“If I win—” she whispered softly, “I think I’m gonna make you get on your knees...” She inched even closer and whispered in his ear. When she finished describing the sensual scenario, his face was flushed a marked shade of red. Her sultry laugh made him grip the machine; satisfied, she returned to her own one-armed bandit.
He was absolutely silent as he pressed the spin button. Five tries later, bells and whistles blared from his machine. A quick glance told Alexis he’d hit a one hundred credit payoff. Again, Spence played Mr. Stoneface. Which was why she was shocked to hear him speak in a conversational tone, as if he were discussing the weather with Teddy. “Remember that morning Clare asked Jamie to go with her for her appointment at ShyLocks?”
Alexis swallowed hard. Like two lovesick teenagers with an hour alone in an empty house, they’d spent an...interesting...fifty-five minutes in Spence’s bedroom. “Yes,” she breathed.
“If I win, I wanna do that again. Only this time, I might use ropes.”
Her breath hitched. Alexis felt her body flush. She reached for her drink with a shaky hand. And went back to her machine.
By midnight, Alexis could have cared less about the slots. Their accidental touches had grown more frequent, their teasing sexual banter more explicit. It wasn’t that she was just sexually aroused, though she was—gloriously so. It was that their repartee had been fun and incredibly intimate; she’d never felt closer to a man in her life. She wanted to weep for the wellspring of feelings inside her for Spence.
“That’s it, I’m out.”
“Huh?”
“You won, sweetheart. No money on the screen.”
She stared at her credits. There were a lot. “Tough luck.”
Beneath his breath he mumbled, “I don’t think so.”
Her gaze sharpened on him “Did you lose on purpose, Spencer Keagan?”
He shrugged and gave her a sexy grin. “I didn’t lose at all, darlin’.” He stood and grasped her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”
o0o
THE CORRIDOR LIGHT glowed dimly at the door to her room. Alexis leaned against the wall and stared up at him. “It was a magical night, Spence.”
Careful not to touch her, he smiled down at her. “I know.” His gaze consumed her face—the flush brought on, no doubt, by two glasses of wine and sexual promises that they both knew they couldn’t keep. Tonight.
“I’m going to write down every single thing you threatened me with while you were winning,” he promised.
Her smile was intimate.
“Love is not arrogant...it bears all things...endures all things.”
Aw, hell, he thought. Who was he kidding? He tipped up her chin. “Tonight was the most special night of my life.” He tucked back a strand of her hair. “So far.” She tilted her head in question. “I’m okay with everything, Lex.” He nodded to the doors. “Even with the kids’ suspicions. I can wait two more weeks.” Her gratitude was worth the sacrifice that still cut deep. “But after that, we have to do some serious talkin’.”
“I want that.”
“Good.” He stepped back. “Now, before I lose my control, hustle into that room and go to sleep next to your daughter.”
“Kiss me.”
“No. I won’t be able to stop if I do.”
“All right.” She turned to open the door.
“Alexis?”
Pivoting, she peered up at him questioningly.
I love you. “Good night.”
“Good night, Spence.”
He breathed deeply as he unlocked the door to his own room. Expecting to find Jeff asleep, he was surprised to see his son propped up on pillows, reading in bed with a briefcase beside him. “Hi.”
“Hi, Dad.”
Closing and bolting the door, Spence asked, “You brought work?”
Jeff nodded.
“Isn’t it a little late?”
“I couldn’t sleep.” He indicated the adjoining door. “Did you have a good time?”
“Yep.” Spence tried not to grin too broadly, though he suddenly longed to tell his son about Alexis. And once more was irked by the stupid secrecy.
“Love is patient.”
“Good.” Jeff’s gaze skittered away and focused on the papers he held.
“Is something wrong?”
Jeff heaved a heavy sigh. “Yeah, Dad, there is. I’ve got something to tell you that you aren’t going to like.” Again, he glanced at the adjoining doors. “I didn’t want to spoil your evening, but I’ve got to leave town at eleven tomorrow so I have to tell you tonight.”
Shrugging out of his sports coat, Spence tossed it on the chair and sat down on his bed. “I didn’t know you were going out of town. You’ll have to fly back for the weekend.” Overflowing with emotion, he decided to take a risk. “This trip means a lot to me, Jeff.” His son simply stared at him. “I’m hopin’ it’s a turning point in our relationship.”
“So was I, Dad, but I can’t go.”
Spence stilled in the process of removing a shoe. “I don’t understand. You got the tickets to Watkins Glen yourself.”
Eyes bleak, Jeff held up the brochure he’d been reading. “I goofed up. I had the wrong dates on the calendar. This week, including the weekend, is the Palm Beach Boat Show. KeagCrafts has invested megabucks in our displays, and scheduled parties and dinners throughout the ten days.”
Spence felt the old, familiar resentment toward his father’s company rise in his throat like bile. It tasted just as bitter now as it had before. “I see,” he said, coldly.
Like a little boy, Jeff tossed down the brochure and crawled to the edge of the bed. “Look, I checked, and there’s another race at the end of September. I’ll buy new tickets, make new arrangements.”
Disbelieving, Spence stared at his son. He’d never realized how much Jeff looked like Judd—same color of eyes, same shape of the face. But some fatherly instinct made him try—one more time. “Maybe you could come back early for the race?”
“I can’t.” Jeff’s shoulders sagged. “Grandpa’s too old to handle all the closing details.”
Spence felt his body tense, his hands fist. “Grandpa employs a horde of gofers who’re at his beck and call.”
“It’s not the same thing.”
Spence swallowed hard. Voices murmured in the hall and a phone rang in another room. Poisonous feelings threatened to erupt inside of him. Mercilessly, he stifled them and made his voice neutral. “I suppose not.”
“Please, Dad, try to understand.”
Oh, I understand. Only too well. And, like the soldier he’d once been, Spence knew how to protect himself. Running for cover was always choice number one. He kicked off his other shoe, and stood. “I do. Forget about it.” Crossing to the closet, he slid the door open and removed a hanger, his back to his son. “Hell, Teddy’s off this weekend—I’ll see the races with him”
Jeff said, “Dad, please, don’t do this.”
Spence heard the plea in his son’s voice. His heart ached for the little boy Jeff had been and the man he’d become. He opened his mouth to respond when a loud knock on the adjoining door cut off his reply. Another one followed, pounding this time.
On a pilot’s red alert, Spence dashed to the door. Pulling his side open, he found Alexis on the other, still in her dress. In pj’s, Jamie hovered behind her.
“Alexis, what is it?”
“P-Portia just called. It’s my...it’s my father. He’s been rushed to City Hospital.”
The rescuer in him surfaced. “What’s wrong?”
“He got hurt somehow, early in the evening. He’d been trying to reach me all night, and when he couldn’t, he left a message on Portia’s machine, thinking I might be out with her. She came in at midnight and got it.”
“How seriously is he hurt?”
“Portia didn’t know. Apparently, Dad hadn’t seen a doctor yet when he called.” Alexis’s face crumpled. “I wish I knew more. After Brody...this kind of thing scares me.”
He tugged her to him for a brief hug. “We’ll get you there right away and find out, sweetheart. Don’t worry.”