MOST OF THE MOTOR HOME drivers had started pulling their RVs out of the infield shortly after the race began in order to get a head start on the traffic that would jam the roads for hours afterward. Race car drivers, their families and crews would leave later by car and plane, eager to get a start on their long winter vacations. Those who chose to hang around would put up at local hotels.
“Annie—” Beth addressed the little girl “—how would you like to come on home with me and the boys? Your dad can pick you up tomorrow.”
“Can I? Did Daddy say it was all right? I want to play with Ruckles.”
Ruckles was the Wagners’ young cocker spaniel. Because she and Aidan were on the move so much, Annie wasn’t able to have a pet of her own, but Beth’s parents lived right next door to the Wagners and were able to take care of their dog and goldfish when the family was away.
“I haven’t talked to him yet, but I bet he’ll say yes,” Beth said. Annie had stayed with the Wagners before.
“Yippee!”
Beth smiled at Ellie. “You might call a local hotel to see what’s available. With everyone leaving here you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding accommodations, but the sooner the better.”
“Uh, yeah,” Ellie responded. “Good idea.”
Two hours later Annie was in the van with Beth and the boys, headed for Charlotte.
“I was able to get us a suite at the Stanford,” Ellie told Aidan. “Their last one.”
“You mean we won’t have to sleep in the car?”
“Who said anything about sleeping?”
They dined in a quiet restaurant and were interrupted only once by someone seeking an autograph. Later they danced in the hotel lounge before going upstairs.
The next morning, Ellie announced she was returning to San Francisco.
“Why?”
“Thanksgiving,” she said.
“I was hoping you’d spend it with us.”
She brushed her hand along his cheek. “That’s sweet of you, and I wish I could, but Thanksgiving’s a big deal for my mom, bigger even than Christmas. My dad died between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so Thanksgiving was the last big family occasion they shared together. She doesn’t talk much about him, but I know how important this holiday is for her. She’ll be really upset if I’m not there.”
“I understand—” he wrapped his arms around her waist “—but I’m going to miss you.” He kissed her on the lips. “When will you be back?”
“The week of the Christmas party.”
“That’s not until the middle of next month.”
“Knowing my mother, she hasn’t opened a single business envelope since I left, and I have a couple of meetings I have to attend. Annie asked me to take her Christmas shopping, so I’ll be back in time to do that before the party.”
At his gloomy expression, she added, “It’s not like we’ll be incommunicado. There’s the telephone, e-mail, instant messaging. We’ll hardly know we’re apart.”
He grinned up at her under knitted brows. “I can’t kiss you over e-mail,” he said. “I can’t—”
She crossed his lips with her finger. “I’m going to miss you, too. More than you can imagine. But it’s only for a few weeks.”
“A few weeks,” he repeated. “Why does it sound like an eternity?”
She kissed him then, and time stood still.
ELLIE INVARIABLY FOUND San Francisco a beautiful, vibrant and friendly city, the place that in her mind was synonymous with home. But not this time. She felt like a visitor, a foreigner, someone out of place when she arrived there from Florida. She missed Aidan so much it hurt. She missed Annie, too. She’d always taken it for granted that she’d have children when she got married, but both had been abstract concepts somewhere off in a hazy future. Until now.
In an ironic way her mother contributed to her feeling of being an outsider. Not surprisingly, among the dozen guests Estelle had invited to share their holiday dinner was an eligible bachelor, Chaz Howard. He was a nice enough guy, three years Ellie’s senior and a junior associate in a large, prestigious law firm. Chaz was good-looking, athletic, well-mannered and well-read. He and Ellie got along fine and could probably become friends, but there was no spark between them, not the kind Estelle was undoubtedly hoping to kindle. At the end of the evening Chaz invited Ellie to dinner the following week, but she declined. Maybe another time, they agreed.
Fortunately there was plenty to keep Ellie busy while she was home. Her mother’s investments had done fairly well, but Estelle’s propensity for extravagant spending did more than keep up with her income.
Ellie was also beginning to receive offers for Satterfield Racing; Mitch Fulton’s standing offer trumped them all. She’d assured her mother she’d get them the best possible price for the racing team, and, she told herself, she had a fiduciary obligation to do so. That meant selling to Fulton.
There was a complication, however. One she had never anticipated. She’d fallen in love with Aidan O’Keefe. Fallen in love with the man and his daughter.
Business was one thing. In this regard the right thing to do was clear and unequivocal. It came down to two people bidding for controlling ownership of Satterfield Racing. One offer was indisputably the better.
So how was Ellie going to solve this dilemma? If she sold to anyone but Mitch Fulton, she would be selling for less than she could get for the team. And if she did sell to him she would be effectively betraying the man who had helped build the team and made it valuable. The man she loved.
AIDAN AND ANNIE SPENT Thanksgiving with the Wagners at their house. Beth’s parents were there, along with some other friends and their kids, one of whom was a seven-year-old girl who bonded instantly with Annie, so the house was filled with noise and laughter. The family atmosphere was as warm as Aidan could ever hope for.
Except, of course, it was someone else’s family, and Ellie wasn’t there.
Recalling what he could of Walter’s comments about his sister-in-law, Aidan doubted Estelle would ever be the cuddly grandmother, so even if he and Ellie were to get married, Annie would not be blessed with grandparents like the Wagner boys were.
That he was actively thinking of marriage both excited and worried him. Was he in love with Ellie? He’d experienced love once. With Jenny. And he’d expected it to last a lifetime. Ellie was nothing like Jenny. She wasn’t a cookie-baking homebody as Jenny had been. Ellie admitted she didn’t even know how to cook. Was it simply the allure of long-denied female companionship?
Certainly that was an attraction. But what he felt about Ellie was more than physical.
He thought about her constantly. Reminded himself a dozen times a day to tell her things, recount events past and present, ask her opinion about various matters, seek her advice. When he daydreamed about being with her it wasn’t just in the bedroom…well, not exclusively, anyway. He thought about the gold that glittered in her pale amber eyes when he touched her. The feel of her skin as his fingers explored her planes and curves. The surge of vitality that rocketed through him when he was in her company. The sweet sound of her voice. Even the way Annie looked up at her.
Just because she couldn’t cook…
They could still be a family, and who knows, maybe if she tried, she could learn to bake cookies.
ELLIE WAS FEELING GOOD. She’d worked out a solution to the dilemma of Fulton’s offer. It wasn’t all that complicated and she wondered why it had taken her so long to figure it out. Have Aidan buy Estelle out first. There would still be a few kinks to iron out, like the size of his down payment, but that was negotiable.
Ellie was sure she had a smile on her face the entire trip from San Francisco to Charlotte. It was a toss-up whether it was because of her brilliant strategy or anticipation of seeing Aidan and Annie again. Either were good reasons, and combined she felt just plain happy.
She’d hoped Aidan would be able to meet her at the airport, maybe even wearing a black T-shirt and the tight-fitting jeans that molded to his very sexy body, but he was at a promotional event all day. He’d offered to have someone else pick her up, but she’d rejected the idea. She was perfectly capable of getting to where she was going on her own. She also didn’t have nearly as much luggage with her this trip.
It was a little lonely in the terminal this time. No great milling crowds, no Aidan, no bright orange Corvette. But the porters were friendly and helpful. She got her rental car, had her luggage loaded and took off for Satterfield Racing.
She parked in the nearly empty parking lot behind the building and, coming around the corner of the garage, heard voices. She was about to call out a greeting when one of them mentioned her name.
In spite of herself, Ellie stopped and listened.
“I heard she’s coming back for the Christmas party.” Ellie recognized the voice as that of Nell, the lobby receptionist. “You think she’s going to announce she’s selling to Fulton?”
“I sure hope not. If she does we might as well all start looking for new jobs.” It took a moment for Ellie to realize the second woman was Shirley, Walter’s secretary. “Fulton will probably fire half of us, and the other half will quit. No way am I going to work for the jerk, I promise you that.”
“When she left here she had it pretty bad for Aidan, so maybe she won’t.”
Shirley chuckled. “Yeah, he did a good job on her.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Come on. You can tell me,” Nell insisted.
“Well…” Shirley hesitated. “What I heard… Mace suggested he put the make on her, woo her, so she wouldn’t sell to Fulton.”
“Aidan wouldn’t do that,” Nell objected. “He’s not that kind of guy.”
“You ever seen him act around other women the way he was around her? You don’t really think he’s interested in a stuck-up California girl, do you? She’s not his type.”
“You have a point there, but I just can’t see Aidan—”
“Hey, he loves this team. He and Walter put a lot of time, energy and money into it. You think he’ll let this sweet young thing, who doesn’t know the difference between a spoiler and a sway bar, sell it out from under him without a fight? He knows he can’t outbid Fulton, so the only alternative is to make the prim Ms. Satterfield refuse to sell to him.”
“He does have team loyalty, but still… You don’t think Aidan’s really interested in her?”
“He’s a man, so I’m sure there’s a certain attraction, if you know what I mean, but he’s not about to take her home to play mommy with his little girl. He’s got better tastes and higher standards.”