12
THAT MORNING in the studio, Beth didn’t even attempt to cut glass. The dentist’s window would have to wait until she’d made it through this crisis. Instead she concentrated on the more mechanical work of applying copper foil to the edges of each section that had already been cut. Unfortunately the repetitive job left her mind free to replay the events of the night before.
Perhaps she’d lost Mike forever because she’d been unwilling to tell him what she’d known for years, that she loved him in a way that allowed no other man to claim her heart. The problem was, so did Alana. In Beth’s mind, once she admitted her love to Mike, then she had chosen him over her sister. She wasn’t ready to do that yet. She might never be ready to do that.
Mike could be right when he said she hadn’t grown up. But he still had a father, while she had no one left in her family except Alana—the one who had taught her to tie her shoes and braid her hair, the one who had loaned her makeup before her father allowed her to have any, the one who had comforted her through her measles, strep throat and her first cramps. Mike was an only child who couldn’t be expected to understand the bond between her and Alana, even though he’d said more than once that he did.
When the bell tinkled announcing someone coming into the gift shop, she put down the piece of glass she was foiling and went to investigate with some trepidation. It couldn’t be Alana, who would have burst through the back door in a flurry of greetings. But it could be Mike. She didn’t feel like having another discussion right now. Hoping to find a customer in the shop, she walked out of the workroom.
Colby Huxford stood next to the counter, a malevolent look in his eyes to match the jagged scab on his cheek. “Hello, Beth.”
“Colby.” She nodded but didn’t offer her hand. “I hope your cheek hasn’t caused you any problems.” Belatedly she realized he might have been able to press charges, especially if the cut had required stitches.
“No, it hasn’t been a problem.” He set his briefcase on the counter and opened it. “But I do have something you might want to hear.” He laid a small portable tape recorder on the counter and pushed the Play button.
Beth’s first wild thought was that Colby had been sneaking around Mike’s house recording them making love so that he could blackmail her. Yet he knew nothing about the problem with Alana, so that didn’t make sense.
Colby’s voice came on first. “So you bought the Nightingale Glass Cutter for your son, Mrs. Eckstrom?”
As Mrs. Eckstrom said that she had, Beth remembered giving Colby that reference to check because the Sierra Vista woman had been so excited about her teenager taking an interest in something artistic.
“Has he had any injuries as a result of using it?”
Beth’s glance flicked up from the tape recorder to Colby’s face as an alarm bell sounded in her head.
“Well, he sliced his finger the other day, if that’s what you mean.
“With the cutter?” Colby asked.
“That’s what he said.”
“That’s impossible!” Beth cried. “You can’t cut yourself on that tool. On the glass, sure, but the tool? Never!”
“Did the injury cause any problems for your son?” Colby’s questioning continued.
“Well, he couldn’t pitch in the baseball tournament that day, and I heard there were scouts in the crowd, but they might not have been there. You never know.”
“So your son might have missed out on a possible scholarship opportunity Because of an injury caused by the Nightingale Cutter?”
“This is ridiculous!” Beth raged. “You’re convincing her that she has a complaint. I’m sure he cut himself on a piece of glass and just didn’t explain it right to his mother.”
Colby pushed another button to rewind the tape. “I think you’ve heard enough. I did convince her, Beth. She’s talking to a lawyer today and I’m sure he’ll be contacting you. I had to call every single one of the customers you so kindly gave me the numbers for until I found someone with a problem, but I finally found one.”
“You’re wasting your time. I can demonstrate that the cutter wasn’t responsible for his finger being cut. It scores glass. It doesn’t slice it.”
“Possibly. But you’ll run up a fair amount of legal fees in the meantime, and Mrs. Eckstrom’s lawyer may be able to get an injunction to prevent you from manufacturing any more until this is cleared up. Then there’s the bad publicity that may get out. Most people don’t know how a glass cutter works. They’ll assume it could cause injury.”
Beth glared at him as the implications of his behavior became obvious. Financially she and Ernie were stretched to the max. Even minor legal fees could run them into trouble, and an injunction plus bad publicity would be a disaster. “You lizard. You’d ruin me just for revenge.”
“Heavens, no. I have a deal for you. If you’ll sign over the rights to the patent under the terms I dictate, then Handmade will take care of this woman’s claim. We have lawyers on retainer who are trained to deal with such things. We may have to pay her a little to keep her happy, but considering what we’ll save on leasing the patent from you, it’ll be a wash.”
“I can prove that you provoked her into saying those things. It’s right on that tape.”
“I guess you didn’t notice I pushed the Erase button a little while ago. That tape no longer exists.”
“But Mrs. Eckstrom knows that you called her with leading questions! She—”
“She’d like some money to get her son started in college. And all I was doing was checking on the safety of me tool because my company is in the process of acquiring the patent. Nothing devious about that.” He tossed the recorder back into his briefcase and shut it. “I’m at the White House Bed and Breakfast in Warren when you feel like talking about a deal. I wouldn’t wait too long if I were you. When Mrs. Eckstrom’s lawyer calls, you’ll want to be able to refer the situation to Handmade’s legal counsel, I imagine.” He headed for the door.
“You know, I have an apology to make.”
He turned, his gaze expectant. “That’s more like it.”
“A minute ago I called you a lizard.”
He smirked at her. “And you’d like to apologize for that remark?”
“Yes. I’d like to apologize to every lizard in the world for the biggest insult I could have paid them! Now get out of my shop.”
His face twisted in anger. “You’ll regret your attitude, Beth, when it comes time to sign the contract. You’ll get no quarter from me.”
“I will never sign your blasted contract!” she called after him. But once he was gone, she wondered if she was just spitting in the wind. The scenario he’d outlined could mean the end of not only the cutter, but Nightingale-Tremayne, Inc. as well. She couldn’t risk that
The back door flew open with a bang. “Bethy, it’s me!” shouted a familiar voice from the back hall. “Kill the fatted calf, or whatever the hell you’re supposed to do at a time like this! Your big sister is in residence!”
MIKE FIGURED eventually he’d regret his outburst to Beth, and sure enough, by midmorning, as he was supervising the work of the two machinists from Sierra Vista, he began to feel like a jerk. He’d expected too much, too soon. Not so long ago he’d wondered if he’d even get a chance to make love to Beth at all, and within forty-eight hours he was demanding that she declare her feelings and broadcast their relationship to Alana.
His only excuse was his recent discovery that he was madly, passionately in love with Beth. That was a funny excuse for hurting the very person he claimed to love so much. Ernie had told him not to screw things up, but he was well on his way to doing just that with his impatience. He’d waited eight years to straighten out this mess. He could wait a little longer.
His instincts told him that it would be kinder to tell Alana immediately, but his instincts might be off. He’d rather get the bad news right away, but not everybody was the same. Beth knew Alana better than he did. Timing might be very important, and Beth wanted the freedom to choose the right time. Unless he wanted to alienate her completely, he’d better go along with that
With two employees working with him on the cutters, he soon had a stack of boxes that gave him a reasonable excuse to drive over to Beth’s studio. He thought of calling first, but decided he’d rather just appear and not give her time to think about things too much.
BETH WASN’T SURE it was a great idea to be drinking beer with Alana at eleven in the morning after getting practically no sleep the night before, but Alana was in a funky mood and had talked her into it After hugs and hauling Alana’s stuff upstairs, the two of them sat at the little table in the workroom while Beth filled Alana in on the Colby Huxford problem.
“What did you say the customer’s name was, again?” Alana asked. She was dressed in typical Alana style—khaki shorts, a sleeveless, scoop-neck white T-shirt and hiking boots. Her sun-bleached blond hair was caught back with a leather barrette, and after a summer of outdoor activities, she was lean, tanned and glowing with the energy that always characterized her.
“Eckstrom,” Beth said.
“From Sierra Vista, right?”
“Right”
Alana took a drink from her beer and then pointed the bottle at Beth. “It has to be the same family I took down to Havasu Falls last year. Remember how we decided to cross-pollinate our mailing lists for the two businesses?”
“Yeah, but so what if it is the same family? In fact, that might be bad, if they’re connected to both of us. If they’ve become lawsuit-happy, they might decide you let them get sunburned on that trip and now they should be compensated for a greater risk of skin cancer.”
“I don’t think that’ll happen, and I’ll tell you why. That kid of theirs, the one they’re now claiming missed his chance to try out for the big leagues, or however it’s now being exaggerated, was into drugs last year.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Small stuff, like pot, but he was definitely hanging out with the wrong crowd and giving his parents fits. That hike into the canyon with his folks and his little brother turned him around.” Alana drained her beer. “Not to be immodest, but I turned him around. I told him if he stayed clean I’d make room for him on my first expedition down the Amazon.”
The Amazon. Beth felt queasy with guilt as thoughts of Mike and their secret washed over her.
“Hey, are you okay?” Alana leaned forward and put her hand on Beth’s. “Maybe you shouldn’t be drinking beer, after all.”
Beth straightened in her chair and squeezed her sister’s hand. “I’m fine. And congratulations for getting that kid on the right track. I had no idea that those trips could accomplish that kind of thing.” The beer was definitely having an effect, Beth noticed. She remembered she hadn’t eaten anything since dinner the night before, either, and she was becoming more light-headed by the minute.
“Get people outdoors, take away the normal distractions, force them to work together and all sorts of dynamics change. I could almost hire myself out as a family counselor. Anyway, I think we can use this kid’s hopes for the Amazon to our advantage, don’t you?”
Beth was having trouble following the discussion with the slight buzzing in her head. “I think we need a bag of chips.” She stood up. Not a good move. But she needed food of some description, so she forced herself to start toward the hall and the stairs leading up to the apartment.
Alana leaped to her feet and put an arm around Beth’s shoulders. “I’ll get the chips,” she said, guiding her back to her chair. “I’ll bet you’ve been up all night cutting glass. You work too hard, Beth.”
“Not really.” Beth sank onto the chair with a little sigh of relief. She wondered how much more of this she could take. Every remark of Alana’s stabbed her with guilt, yet she couldn’t imagine how to broach the subject of Mike, especially while Alana was trying so hard to help her with Colby Huxford.
“Do you have any of that cheese dip, the kind with the picante sauce in it?” Alana called over her shoulder.
“I think there’s some in the refrigerator.”
“Great. This is fun, just like old times, the two of us brainstorming a problem and eating junk.” She took the stairs at a rapid clip.
Beth rested her head in her hands and tried to think, but her brain wasn’t working worth a darn. When the bell on the front door of the gift shop jangled, she considered hiding in the back and not acknowledging the summons. Whoever had come in would eventually leave. Of course they might leave with some of the merchandise, which she could ill afford if she was about to be sued.
With an effort she got up and walked out into the shop where Mike was just depositing a stack of boxed cutters on the counter. She’d forgotten he might show up. “Oh, Mike. I—”
“Don’t say it” He crossed quickly to her and took her by the shoulders. “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have pressured you. Can you forgive me for being a total idiot?”
She stepped away from him. “Listen—”
“Please don’t push me away. I need you, Beth.”
“Is that Mike Tremayne’s voice I hear?” Alana skipped through the double doors of the workroom holding a bag of chips and a jar of cheese dip.
Mike spun away from Beth. “Well, hello there, Alana.”
Alana plopped the chips and cheese dip on the counter next to the cutter boxes. “Hello there, Mike.” She gave him a wide smile. “My goodness, you sure have turned into a gorgeous hunk of man.”
“And you’re even prettier than I remembered,” Mike said, returning her smile.
“I like the way this conversation is starting out,” Alana said. “Tell you what, I’m ready to forget the past if you are, and after all these years, I think I deserve at least a big hug.” She came forward, arms outstretched.
Mike enfolded her in his arms. “You deserve a long overdue apology from me, for one thing. I was a rotten son of a bitch, Alana.”
“I don’t even want to discuss that business again. It’s over and done. Welcome back, big guy.”
Beth clenched her hands into fists and willed herself to stay calm when she wanted to forcibly pull her sister away from the man she loved. But of course Alana loved him, too. That much was obvious from the lingering way she hugged him. The trouble was, Mike didn’t seem in a big hurry to let go of Alana, either.
At last Alana stepped back and turned to include Beth. “So. Here we all are again. Older, and let’s hope, wiser. Come on back, Mike. We’re having a beer and figuring out how to take care of this sleaze Huxford.”
Mike glanced quickly at Beth. “What about Huxford?”
“Oh, he’s talked one of Beth’s cutter customers into filing a lawsuit,” Alana said without waiting for Beth to answer. “But I think we can outfox him. Come and have a beer with us, and we’ll tell you all about it.”
Mike sent another questioning look in Beth’s direction.
She shrugged.
“Come on, Mikey. I have a cold one back here with your name on it.” Alana linked her arm through his and started back toward the workroom. “You’re looking so damned fit. I’ll bet you drove those Brazilian girls crazy.”
“The women of Brazil don’t hold a candle to the women of Bisbee,” Mike said.
Alana laughed. “That’s my Mike.”
Beth wanted to scream. She’d had no idea that Alana’s behavior with Mike would rub her nerves raw, or that Mike would fall right back into the old pattern of flirting with Alana. She’d been so worried about Alana’s reaction to her relationship with Mike that she’d ignored the price she’d pay for keeping silent. But if she was in pain, she had no one to blame but herself. She’d been the one who’d insisted that Alana shouldn’t be told right away. Shy, careful Beth. She probably didn’t deserve a guy like Mike.
Because there were only two chairs in the room, Mike leaned against Beth’s workbench. He drank the beer that Alana opened for him while she told him the story of Colby’s attempt to blackmail Beth into signing away the rights to the patent. Like the quiet, unobtrusive member of the trio she’d always been, Beth listened while Alana and Mike got into a spirited debate about how to handle the problem.
Then Mike broke the pattern by turning to Beth. “What do you want to do?” he asked.
Alana answered. “Of course she wants to—”
“I asked Beth,” Mike interrupted. “This is her baby, after all.”
Alana’s glance flicked from Mike to Beth. “Well, excuse me.”
“I’d rather scrap the whole damned project than turn it over to Colby Huxford,” Beth said with a little more vehemence than she’d intended.
“Whoa, stand back!” Alana said. “I think little Bethy’s mad!”
“Good for you,” Mike said with an approving look.
“And if Alana’s willing to use her influence with the Eckstroms, that’s fine with me,” Beth added.
“That’s all I needed to hear.” Alana popped up from her chair. “I’ll just get in my little Jeep and take me a drive to Sierra Vista.”
“I’ll close the shop and come with you,” Beth said.
“Then why don’t we all go?” Alana asked, glancing at Mike. “We can leave from there and go on to Tucson to see Ernie.”
“I think the two of you will do just fine without me along,” Mike said. “Besides, I have a few loose ends to tie up here before I drive up to Tucson. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
Alana shrugged. “Suit yourself. I can’t imagine a man turning down a chance to take a drive with two such bodacious babes, but you do what you have to do, I guess.”
Mike grinned. “Sacrifice builds character.”
Beth glanced at him and at first saw only the bantering tease he’d always been when the three of them got together. But her senses were more finely tuned to his moods now, and a closer look revealed the faint line of tension between his eyebrows and the uncompromising set of his jaw. Something was on his mind, and it probably had to do with the “loose ends” he’d talked about taking care of. She would bet Colby was one of those ends.
“Don’t do anything crazy,” she said to him.
His grin flashed again. “I’m sitting with two women who started drinking beer at eleven in the morning, and one of them is warning me not to do anything crazy?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I don’t,” Alana said, “and I hate it when I don’t know what’s going on.”
Mike shot one look at Beth, but one look was more than enough. Alana had just said she hated not knowing what was going on. It was an opening anyone could drive a truck through—but Beth chose not to take it. When she told Alana about her involvement with Mike she wanted to be alone with her sister. Alana deserved at least that much consideration, that much respect for her pride.
“Okay, enough of the significant looks,” Alana said to Beth, her tone impatient. “Tell me what you think Mike might do while we’re in Sierra Vista.”
“I think he might go beat the hell out of Colby Huxford,” Beth said. “Then Colby will have him arrested for assault, and I...won’t have anyone to run the machine shop and make the cutters,” she concluded, putting everything on a business footing.
“I promise not to beat the hell out of Huxford,” Mike said. “Although the idea is tempting.”
“Will you promise to stay away from him?”
Mike gazed at her. “Nope.”
“Mike, Alana’s plan might very well work. Once we eliminate the blackmail element, Colby will just have to pack his bags and go home.”
“I don’t read him as the type to do that, unless he has some extra prodding.”
“Like what? You promised not to lay a hand on him just now.”
“And I’ll keep that promise. We’ll just talk.”
“I don’t like the sound of it.”
“I do,” Alana interjected. “Let Mike talk to him.” She gazed up at him with an expression of frank admiration. “I’m sure he can be very convincing when he wants to be, right, Mike?”
Mike winked at her. “Absolutely. I’ll see you two at the hospital around six-thirty.”
ALANA ZIPPED UP her Jeep’s windows and turned on the air-conditioning, although Beth suspected she’d have ridden to Sierra Vista with the Jeep open despite the summer heat if Beth weren’t along.
“We’ll stop before we go to the Eckstrom’s, get a Big Mac or something and call to make sure somebody’s there,” Alana said, taking charge as she always had. “I think the mother, Sarah, will be around. She types medical transcripts at home to bring in extra money.”
“I know she really wants her son to go to college, too,” Beth said. “That’s probably why she fell for this line of Colby’s. You know, the idea that someone would hurt themselves on the glass and sue the manufacturer of the cutter never even occurred to me, Alana. I suppose it should have.”
Alana reached over and patted her knee. “Not really. You just ran into a skunk. The cutter’s perfectly safe, and you know it. In my case, I’ve been concerned about lawsuits ever since I started Vacation Adventures, Inc. You should see the premium on the insurance I have to pay to protect me in my business. Even so, I’m not sure I’d be covered if somebody died while I had them out on a trip.”
“What a thought! Have you ever been afraid that might happen?”
“Oh, yeah! You can’t predict exactly how things will go when you’re hiking up and down mountains, or rafting down rapids. Accidents happen, although I try to take every precaution. And then there’s the off chance that somebody will decide to have a heart attack out in the middle of nowhere.”
“Ugh. It’s bad enough when you can call the paramedics right away, like we did for Ernie.”
“Is he really okay, Bethy? I know what the doctor said, but I never know if they’re feeding me a line of bull or not. I’ve been so worried. I’m worried for Mike, too.”
“Yeah, I know.” Beth sighed. “It was pretty scary, but I think he’s okay, now. We’ll be sure in a couple more days.”
“When did Mike show up?”
The question popped up as if it were a hand grenade in a bushel of apples. “A few days ago.”
“Was he here when I called the other day?”
Beth refused to tell an outright lie. “Yeah. He’d just arrived.”
“How come you didn’t tell me about it?”
“I was afraid you’d come rushing back to see him. I thought your trip with the family was more important. But I realize now I should have told you and let you make that decision.”
Alana glanced at her, but her eyes were hidden by the sunglasses she wore. “You’re right. I probably would have come back. I’m tired of being alone, Beth. I’m thirty-two years old, and I’m ready to settle down with a guy. Not just any guy, either. I’ve been thinking about Mike a lot, lately, and he’s still the one for me. I’ve loved him ever since we were six, and I still do. The timing was off eight years ago, but did you see the way he looked at me? I think we can start over.”
Pain surged through Beth. “Alana, I—”
“I know what you’re going to say. He still wants to spend his time traveling, and he’ll never want a house with a white picket fence around it. That’s okay, because neither do I. That’s why I’m going to make him a proposition. I want him to go into business with me. That way he can satisfy his wanderlust and be part of a growing enterprise at the same time. Think he’ll consider it?”
“I guess you’ll have to ask him.” Truth be told, Beth was no longer positive that he’d reject the offer. It seemed tailor-made for him, as opposed to running a Brazilian glass studio. When she saw how easily he interacted with Alana, and she with him, they still seemed to be the perfect couple. Maybe they were the perfect couple, and Mike had clung to her because he was in the midst of an emotional time in his life. She pictured the humiliation of announcing to Alana that Mike was interested in her, now, and then discovering that he’d changed his mind.
She tried to tell herself such a thing would never happen. Mike loved her. He’d said so not very many hours ago. He’d made love to her all through the night. He wouldn’t turn to Alana, now, would he?
Except that she hadn’t returned his vows of love. She’d insisted on waiting, as if she were some little kid, until Alana came home. No wonder he’d accused her of not being grown up. And it would serve her right if he decided Alana was the woman she didn’t have the guts to be. As Beth glanced at Alana driving the Jeep so confidently with one hand, her body lithe and fit in a way Beth had never aspired to, she wondered if the past few days had been a fantasy, after all.