Chapter Eight #2
Trent crouched beside the fire where Fred snored on the bright red cushion in his new wicker dog bed.
He was going to miss the little devil, Trent realized.
Even if he had the time or inclination for a pet back in Boston, he didn’t have the heart to take Fred away from the children, or from the women, if it came to that.
He’d seen C.C. tossing the ball for the pup in the side yard that afternoon when she’d come home from work. It had been so good to hear her laugh, to see her wrestle with the dog and Suzanna’s children.
Oddly it reminded him of the image he’d had—daydream, he corrected. The daydream he’d had when his mind had wandered the night of the séance. Of him and C.C. sitting on a sunny porch, watching children play in the yard.
It was foolishness, of course, but something had tugged at him that afternoon when he’d stood at the door and looked at her tossing a ball to Fred. A good something, he remembered, until she’d turned and had seen him. Her laughter had died, and her eyes had gone cool.
He straightened, studying the flames in the fire. It was crazy, but he wished with his whole heart that she would flare up, just once more. Throw another punch at him. Call him names. The worst kind of punishment was her steady, passionless politeness.
The sound of the knock on the door had Fred yipping quietly in his sleep.
When Trent answered, finding C.C. on the other side of the threshold, twin twinges of delight and distress danced through his system.
He wouldn’t be able to turn her away this time.
It wouldn’t be possible to tell her, or himself, that it couldn’t be.
He had to... Then he looked into her eyes.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” He reached out to comfort, but she stepped stiffly away.
“We’d like you to come downstairs, if you don’t mind.”
“Catherine—” But she was already walking away, her stride lengthening in her hurry for distance.
He found them all gathered around the dining-room table, their faces composed. He was astute enough to understand that he was facing one combined will.
The Calhouns had closed ranks.
“Ladies?”
“Trent, sit down, please.” Coco gestured to the chair beside her. “I hope we didn’t disturb you?”
“Not at all.” He looked at C.C., but she was staring fixedly at the wall above his head. “Are we having another séance?”
“Not this time.” Lilah nodded toward Amanda. “Mandy?”
“All right.” She took a deep breath and was relieved when Suzanna’s hand gripped hers under the table. “Trent, we’ve discussed your offer for The Towers, and have decided to accept it.”
He gave her a blank look. “Accept it?”
“Yes.” Amanda pressed her free hand to her quivering stomach. “That is, if your offer still stands.”
“Yes, of course it does.” He scanned the room, his gaze lingering on C.C. “You’re certain you want to sell?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” C.C.’s voice was clipped. “Isn’t that what you came for?”
“Yes.” But he’d gotten a great deal more than he’d bargained for. “My firm will be delighted to purchase the property. But... I want to be certain that you’re all agreed. That this is what you want. All of you.”
“We’re all agreed.” C.C. went back to staring at the wall.
“The lawyers will handle the details,” Amanda began again. “But before we hand things over to them, I’d like to review the terms.”
“Of course.” He named the purchase price again. Hearing it had tears burning in C.C.’s eyes. “There’s no reason why we can’t be flexible on the timing,” he went on. “I realize you’ll want to do some kind of inventory before you—relocate.”
It was what they wanted, he reminded himself. It was business. It shouldn’t make him feel as if he’d just crawled out from under a rock.
“I think we’d like to make the move quickly.” Suzanna glanced around the table for confirmation. “As soon as we can find another house.”
“If there’s anything I can do to help you—”
“You’ve done enough,” C.C. interrupted coolly. “We can take care of ourselves.”
“I’d like to add a condition.” Lilah leaned forward. “You’re purchasing the house, and the land. Not the contents.”
“No. Naturally the furniture, heirlooms, personal possessions remain yours.”
“Including the necklace.” She inclined her head. “Whether it’s found before we leave, or after, the Calhoun necklace belongs to the Calhouns. I want that in writing, Trent. If anytime during your renovations, the necklace is recovered, it belongs to us.”
“All right.” The little clause would drive the lawyers crazy, he thought. But that was their problem. “I’ll see that it’s put in the contract.”
“Bianca’s tower.” She spoke slowly, afraid her voice would break. “Be careful what you do with it.”
“How about some wine?” Coco rose, hands fluttering. “We should have some wine.”
“Excuse me.” C.C. made herself stand slowly, fighting the impulse to race from the room. “If we’re all through, I think I’ll go up. I’m tired.”
Trent started after her, but Suzanna stopped him. “I don’t think she’d be receptive right now. I’ll go.”
C.C. went to the terrace to lean out over the wall and let the cold wind dry the tears. There should be a storm, she thought. She wished there was a storm, something as angry and as passionate as her own heart.
Pounding a fist on the wall, she cursed the day she’d ever met Trent. He wouldn’t take her love, but he would take her home. Of course, if he had accepted the first and returned it, he could never have taken the house.
“C.C.” Suzanna stepped out to slip an arm around her shoulders. “It’s cold. Why don’t we go inside?”
“It’s not right.”
“No.” She gathered her sister closer. “It’s not.”
“He doesn’t even know what it means.” She dashed the angry tears away. “He can’t understand. He wouldn’t want to.”
“Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe no one can but us.
But it’s not his fault, C.C. We can’t blame him because we couldn’t hang on.
” She looked away from the gardens she loved, toward the cliffs that always drew her.
“I left here once before—it seems like a lifetime ago, but it was only seven years. Nearly eight now.” She sighed.
“I thought it was the happiest day of my life, leaving the island for my new home in Boston.”
“You don’t have to talk about that. I know it hurts you.”
“Not as much as it once did. I was in love, C.C., a new bride with the future in the palm of my hand. And when I turned around and saw The Towers disappearing behind me, I cried like a baby. I thought it would be easier this time.” As tears threatened, she closed her eyes.
“I wish it were. What is it about this place that pulls us so?” she wondered.
“I know we can find another house.” C.C. linked fingers with her sister. “I know we’ll be all right, even happy. But it hurts. And you’re right, it’s not Trent’s fault. But...”
“You have to blame someone.” Suzanna smiled.
“He hurt me. I really hate to admit that, but he hurt me. I want to be able to say that he made me fall in love with him. Even that he let me fall in love with him. But I did it all by myself.”
“And Trent?”
“He isn’t interested.”
“From the way he looks at you, I’d say you’re wrong.”
“Oh, he’s interested,” C.C. said grimly. “But love has nothing to do with it. He very politely refused to take advantage of my—my lack of experience, as he called it.”
“Oh.” Suzanna looked out toward the cliffs again. Rejection, she knew, was the sharpest blade of all. “It doesn’t help much, but it might have been more difficult for you if he hadn’t been—sensible.”
“He’s sensible, all right,” C.C. said through her teeth. “And being a sensible and a civilized man, he’d like us to be friends. He’s even taking me to dinner tomorrow so he can be certain I’m not pining away for him, and he can go back to Boston guilt free.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Oh, I’ll go to dinner with him. I can be just as damned civilized as he can.” She set her chin. “And when I’m finished, he’s going to be sorry he ever set eyes on Catherine Calhoun.” She whirled toward her sister. “Do you still have that red dress? The beaded one that’s cut down to sin?”
Suzanna’s grin spread. “You bet I do.”
“Let’s go take a look at it.”
Well, well, well, C.C. thought. What a difference a day and a tight silk dress could make.
Lips pursed, she turned in front of the cracked cheval glass in the corner of her room.
The dress was just a smidgen too small for her—even with the frantic alterations Suzanna had made. It only made more of a statement.
Don’t you wish you had me , it said quite clearly. C.C. ran her hands over her hips. And he could wish until his head exploded.
The dress was a form-fitting glitter of flame that licked down from its plunging neckline to the abbreviated hem.
Suzanna had ruthlessly slashed it off so that it hit C.C.
midthigh. The long sleeves ended in points over her wrists.
And she’d added Coco’s rhinestone ear clips, with their wicked sparkle.
The thirty minutes she’d spent on makeup seemed to have paid off. Her lips were as red as the dress, thanks to Amanda’s contribution. Her eyes were shadowed with copper and emerald, thanks to Lilah. Her hair was as glossy as a raven’s wing and slicked back a bit at the temples.
All in all, C.C. thought as she turned, Trenton St. James III was in for a surprise.
“Suzanna said you needed some shoes.” Lilah walked in and stopped in midyawn. The shoes dangled from her fingertips as she stared. “I must have passed through a parallel universe.”
C.C. grinned and spun a circle. “What do you think?”
“I think Trent’s going to need oxygen.” Approving, she passed C.C. a pair of spiked snakeskin heels. “Kiddo, you look dangerous.”
“Good.” She pulled on the shoes. “Now if I can just walk in these without falling on my face.”
“Practice. I’ve got to get Mandy.”
A few moments later, all three sisters supervised C.C.’s walk. “You’ll be having dinner,” Amanda put in, wincing at each wobble. “So you’ll be sitting down most of the time.”
“I’m getting it,” C.C. muttered. “I’m just not used to heels. How do you work in these things all day?”
“Talent.”
“Walk slower,” Lilah suggested. “More deliberately. As if you have all the time in the world.”
“Take if from her,” Amanda agreed. “She’s an expert at slow.”
“In this case—” Lilah gave Amanda an arched look “—slow is sexy. See?”
Taking her sister’s advice, C.C. walked with a cautious deliberation that came off as slinky. Amanda held out her hands. “I stand corrected. What coat are you wearing?”
“I haven’t thought of it.”
“You can wear my black silk cape,” Amanda decided. “You’ll freeze but you’ll look great doing it. Perfume. Aunt Coco’s got some of that smoldering French stuff left from Christmas.”
“No.” Suzanna shook her head. “She should stick with her usual scent.” Tilting her head, she studied her sister and smiled. “The contrast will drive him crazy.”
Unaware of what was in store for him, Trent sat in the parlor with Coco. His bags were packed. His calls were made. He wished he could come up with a reasonable excuse to stay another few days.
“We’ve enjoyed having you,” Coco told him when he’d expressed his appreciation for her hospitality. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again soon.”
Her crystal ball didn’t lie, she reminded herself. It still linked Trent up with one of her nieces, and she wasn’t ready to wave surrender.
“I certainly hope so. I have to say, Coco, how much I admire you for raising four such lovely women.”
“Sometimes I think we raised each other.” She smiled mistily around the room.
“I’m going to miss this place. To be honest I didn’t think it mattered to me until.
.. well, until now. I didn’t grow up here as the girls did.
We traveled quite a bit, you see, and my father only came back sporadically.
I always thought it was the fact that his mother had died here that put him off.
Then, of course, I spent my married life and the first few years of my widowhood in Philadelphia.
Then when Judson and Deliah were killed, I came here for the girls.
” She sent him a sad, apologetic smile. “I’m sorry to get sentimental on you, Trenton. ”
“Don’t apologize.” He sipped thoughtfully at his aperitif. “My family has never been close, and as a result, there was never a home like this in my life. I think that’s why I’ve begun to understand what it could mean.”
“You should settle down,” she said, cagily, she thought. “Find a nice girl, make a home and family of your own. Why, I can’t think of anything lonelier than not having anyone to go home to.”
Wanting to avoid that line of thought, he reached down to throw the ball for Fred. They both watched as the dog bounded after it, tripped himself up and went sprawling.
“Not particularly graceful,” Trent mused.
He rose and went over to retrieve the ball himself.
Scratching the dog’s belly, he glanced over.
The first thing he saw was a pair of very slim black heels.
Slowly his gaze traveled up a long, shapely pair of legs.
With the breath backing up in his lungs, he sat back on his heels.
There was a sparkle of scarlet, snug and sleek over a curvy feminine form.
“Lose something?” C.C. asked as his eyes fixed on her face.
Her lips were curved and red and slick. Trent ran his tongue over his teeth to be certain he hadn’t swallowed it. On unsteady legs, he rose.
“C.C.?”
“We were having dinner tonight, weren’t we?”
“We... yes. You look wonderful.”
“Do you like it?” She turned a circle so that he could see the back of the dress dipped even lower than the front. “I think red’s a cheerful color.” And powerful, she thought, still smiling.
“It suits you. I’ve never seen you in a dress before.”
“Impractical when it comes to changing fuel pumps. Are you ready to go?”
“Go where?”
Oh, she was going to enjoy this. “To dinner.”
“Right. Yes.”
She inclined her head the way Suzanna had showed her and handed him her cape. It was a service he’d performed hundreds of times for dozens of women. But his hands fumbled.
“Don’t wait up, Aunt Coco.”
“No, dear.” Behind their retreating backs, she grinned and raised her fists in the air. The moment the front door shut, the three remaining Calhouns exchanged high fives.