Twenty-Three
Eddi was so busy watching Cheri talk to Conner, she barely remembered Sean O’Reilly measuring her. From the time she stepped on stage, Eddi was flabbergasted with Cheri. After their bathroom conversation, Cheri retrieved her purse and reentered the bathroom. Within fifteen minutes she strode back into the drama room. She had twisted her hair atop her head with a plastic clip and applied a light application of makeup. While Cheri still wouldn’t win any beauty contest, she looked ten times better. At least, Conner appreciated the improvement. Somehow, Cheri had managed to monopolize him from the minute Eddi stepped onstage.
With her measurements finished, Eddi scurried toward the table where she deposited her purse. She noticed Calvin appraising her from across the room and realized he was about to approach her. Pretending she hadn’t noticed, Eddi retrieved her bag and slipped toward the French doors.
Another glance over her shoulder validated that Calvin was no longer pursuing her. Instead, he was chatting with the master of the manor. Eddi twisted the knob, slipped into the backyard, and clicked the door behind her. The horizon had swallowed the sun. The velvet sky now sparkled with a myriad of stars. The faint whiff of chlorine verified the presence of Dave’s pool, only twenty yards away.
In front of Eddi stood the building that nagged her since their first practice. She cast a cautious glance back toward the house but could no longer spot Dave or Calvin. While she exited the house with the intent to avoid Conner, her previous goal to investigate the building erected itself. Stepping into the home’s shadow, Eddi rummaged through her purse and pulled out her keys. She fingered the cylindrical penlight attached to her key ring. Feeling like a CIA agent, Eddi glanced around the yard. Shrieking crickets and a lonesome cow’s moo were the only evidence of other life.
Eddi dashed forward and hoped the building remained unlocked. She paused at the door, looked over her shoulder, and then gripped the knob. Pinching her face into an expectant mask, she turned the knob. It offered no resistance. Eddi released her pent-up breath. She slipped into the room and closed the door. With the smell of paper and ink and stale coffee welcoming her, Eddi debated whether she should forgo the penlight and flip a switch.
She shook her head and clicked on her penlight. If Dave happened to look out and see the light glowing past the blinds, he would become suspicious. In her light’s limited beam, the room appeared to be spacious. A computer, piled with clutter, claimed the right wall. Across the room, a large table sat beneath an expansive drawing. Eddi neared the table and directed her beam upon the wall. The drawing appeared to be the work of an architect and featured a sleek building that resembled a dormitory.
Frowning, Eddi allowed her light to trail across the table. A model of the drawing claimed the table’s center. Various brochures and a scattering of paper cluttered the table’s outer sphere. A royal blue brochure with a picturesque version of the dormitory grabbed her attention. Eddi picked it up, placed the penlight in her teeth, and prepared to peruse it.
The doorknob rattled. Eddi went rigid. She barely had time to click off her penlight and shove the brochure into her purse before the door opened. The light flickered on. Dave looked straight at Eddi as if he fully expected her.
“Hi, Eddi,” he said with a knowing grin. “Curious about my little building?”
Eddi turned from the table and backed into it. She gripped the table’s edge and lost all abilities to think. “I, uh . . .”
“I saw you duck out of the house.” He closed the door. “By the time I was able to follow you out, I saw this door closing. If you’d told me you wanted to know about this, I would have given you the grand tour.” He glanced around the room.
Now with the light on, Eddi soaked up the full ambiance of the building. The wall over the computer held several poster-sized pictures of a young man who favored Dave, all in different poses. For some reason, the black-and-white images dominated the whole room with a melancholic allure. Like a mouse trapped in a corner, her gaze darted around the room, taking in images she’d encountered in offices everywhere . . . file cabinets . . . a bookcase . . . water cooler . . . a counter with a coffeemaker sitting on it.
An anticlimactic droop deflated the curiosity that had plagued Eddi for weeks. The building looked to be nothing but a normal office. There were no signs of money laundering or illegal weapons or drug trafficking. She eyed the computer. Even though such a machine could hold a wealth of incriminating files, Eddi sensed that whatever was happening in this building was far from illegal. Suddenly her suspicions seemed silly.
As the seconds passed, Eddi wished she could beam herself out of this awkward situation. The last thing she ever wanted to do was make Dave Davidson believe that anything he was involved in interested her.
“I . . . guess I should go,” Eddi said. She walked toward the door, fully expecting Dave to step aside and let her pass. She stopped a few feet in front of him. Dave didn’t move. Eddi fidgeted with her purse strap and mumbled, “Excuse me.”
“Eddi,” Dave started, “there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while now. I guess now is as good a time as any.”
Her feminine warning system told Eddi not to make eye contact. She did anyway.
He lifted his chin in the way that made his nose look all the longer and made Eddi feel all the smaller. She was transported back to that day when Mrs. DeBloom arrived at her home and told her she wasn’t valuable enough for her wealthy nephew. That reminded her that Dave didn’t think Jenny was good enough for Calvin. Eddi’s fingers tightened around the purse strap until it bit into her palm.
Dave stepped forward. Eddi retreated and bumped into the table. All sorts of possibilities bombarded her—including the fact that she was alone with a man who stirred her pulse, despite her better judgment. Eddi gulped.
“I’ve been silent all I can, Eddi,” Dave began. “I think the time has come for me to tell you how much I . . . how much I’ve grown to admire you.”
Eddi’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t catch her breath.
“The Lord knows I’ve fought it,” he continued. Dave walked toward the computer. He stroked the top of the high-backed office chair. “I’ve told myself you weren’t suited for me.”
She began to relive that conversation with Mrs. DeBloom all over again. “Yes, I can imagine you have,” she whispered and wondered if he heard her.
“I, I–I’m not really even sure your family would gel with mine.” Dave turned to face her, his eyes a mask of guarded vulnerability.
In a breath, Eddi was tempted to believe the man had really grown to care about her. Then she remembered his true character. His next words validated that memory.
“There are other reasons I won’t get into, as well.” His voice held a cold edge.
Of course, Eddi thought. You’re smart enough not to mention your superiority to me. How kind! Her pulse hammered in her temple.
“But the bottom line is, I’d like us to try to get to know each other better, and I don’t mean a light flirtation.” He inserted his thumb into his jeans pocket. “I mean something we’d both enter into, hoping to play for keeps.”
“For keeps?” Eddi squeaked.
“Well, yes.” Dave shrugged. “I think we’re both a little old to be playing games here,” he said as if he were reading a documentary.
“Are you proposing?” she asked incredulously.
“Not exactly,” Dave admitted. “I think you’d agree it’s a little soon for that, but—”
“There’s never going to be a good time for that,” Eddi blurted.
Dave’s face tensed. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying no!” Eddi hugged her purse as if it offered some protection. “Have you lost your mind?” she bleated.
His right eye narrowed.
“I’m the woman two months ago you said was too short, too prissy, and classless. Remember?”
“I thought you understood by now I didn’t mean a word of that,” he said, his words flat.
“Then why did you say it?” Eddi asked as if she were interrogating a witness in court.
He opened his mouth as if to defend himself.
“I’ll tell you why you said it,” she injected. “It’s because you are just like your aunt! You are both about the rudest people I’ve ever met.”
“Leave Aunt Maddy out of this, will you?” he barked.
“I’ll leave her out of it when she leaves me out of it. She came over a month ago and told me there’s no way you and I could ever marry because you’re waaaay wealthier than I am and therefore waaaay better.” Eddi lifted her arm in theatrical imitation of Mrs. DeBloom. Her fury from weeks ago exploded anew.
“What was Aunt Maddy thinking?” Dave gasped as a crease formed between his brows.
“Apparently, what you’re thinking about me and my family.”
“Not about you, Eddi!” He stepped toward her.
“Oh, but my family is a different matter! Is that it?”
“That’s not what I—”
“Isn’t that what you just said? Your family wouldn’t gel with mine?” She lifted her chin at exactly the same angle he did and peered down her nose.
“It looks like I’ve misjudged the situation,” he said. “I thought—” Dave shook his head. The vulnerability disappeared. Only a stony-faced stranger remained. “It doesn’t matter. I think I’ve just made a fool of myself.”
“Well, it’s high time you made a fool of yourself,” she snarled. “You’ve spent enough time making a fool of others.”
“What are you talking about now?” Dave put his hands on his hips and looked like he was ready to charge.
Eddi, tempted to step back, held her ground. “What about what you did to Rick Wallace?” she demanded.
“I don’t know what Rick has told you, but he’s a—”
“And what about how you broke up Calvin and Jenny?”
“Who told you—”
“Your aunt let it slip the day she came over to tell me I wasn’t good enough for you,” Eddi declared. “She seems to think Jenny isn’t quite good enough for Calvin, either!” She marched toward the door, placed her hand on the knob, and faced him. “I’ve lived in the big city my whole life,” Eddi fumed. “Believe me, I’ve met my share of materialistic snobs. But I don’t think any of them compares to what I’ve found in this tiny town!”
A red veil crept beneath Dave’s tan. “And I’ve never encountered such acid judgment,” he snarled. “You haven’t even started to get to know me. How could you—”
“Because I’ve got good instincts when it comes to people,” she claimed. “My first impressions are usually right.”
“Now who’s arrogant?” he growled.
A primieval force urged her to hurl her purse at the jerk. I should’ve put rocks in it, she thought as a wicked chuckle tumbled forth.
“You can laugh all you want,” he growled, “but—”
“You’re absolutely right! I can laugh all I want. I don’t have to ask your or your aunt’s permission. Believe it or not, there are some people in this town the two of you can’t manipulate!” She slung open the door and stomped into the balmy night.
“Eddi!” Dave yelled before the door’s slam ricocheted across the yard.
His breathing rapid, Dave strode to the door. A second before he swung it open and chased Eddi down, he stopped and forced himself to count to twenty aloud. For some situations, counting to ten wasn’t sufficient. By the time Dave reached twelve, his pulse slowed. When he hit eighteen, his breathing was less intensive. When he said twenty, Dave propped his head against the door.
“So let’s say I chase her down and let her have it. What good will it do?” he reasoned. “It would just turn into a screaming contest.”
Dave pounded his forehead against the door until he could no longer bear the pain. Calvin’s prediction that he would be begging Eddi’s attention by summer’s end taunted him. He thought of the women in his past whom he’d either brushed off or ignored . . . of those years when he assumed every single female was his if he expressed an interest.
The memories mocked him, and Dave wondered if this was divine recompense for his own youthful heartlessness. Eddi had certainly given him more than a dose of his own medicine.
Right now all Dave wanted was to crawl into a hole and lick his wounds in solitude. He wondered if Aunt Maddy might be missing him and switched off the lights.
As the darkness wrapped around him, Dave reflected upon his aunt’s part in Eddi’s anger. If Aunt Maddy had insinuated the things Eddi mentioned, no wonder she was incensed. Sometimes his doting aunt could be a royal pain.
The moonbeams and yard lights provided enough illumination for him to find the computer desk again. Dave collapsed into the chair and blankly stared into the darkness streaked with slashes of pale gold light. He placed his elbows on the chair’s arms, made a tent of his fingers, and rested his chin on them.
The last few months gyrated through his mind, and Dave thought of all that had passed between him and Eddi. Not only had Dave insulted her to Calvin, he’d told her not to get her hopes up about a relationship. At their first practice, Dave tried to bully her into resigning her part as Elizabeth. In the dugout, he insinuated Eddi might chase him for his money.
“Okay, so Aunt Maddy isn’t the only one who can be a pain.” Dave tapped the computer keyboard with his index finger and slumped lower into the chair. It’s no wonder she believed whatever Rick Wallace told her.
Dave eyed the computer. The only thing he didn’t regret was warning Calvin off of Jenny. The longer he stewed about an engaged woman teasing his friend, the more convinced he was of his stance. Eddi seemed like such a logical person. He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t agree that an engaged woman had no business flirting with another man—even if that woman was her sister.
At last, the need to defend himself wouldn’t be denied. A rousing case of renewed irritation overtook the gloom. Eddi Boswick had done what she would never allow to happen to a client in court. She hurled accusations at him and stormed out before giving him the chance to state his side.
He rolled the chair forward. The wheels squeaked to a stop as Dave booted up his computer. The log-on page announced the project that consumed his heart and much of his money. He signed into his computer, accessed his email, inserted Eddi’s address, and began a systematic self-defense.