Читать книгу Drive Me Wild - Gwynne Forster - Страница 9

Gina Harkness watched the preacher sprinkle what looked to her like gravel over the coffin of her dear friend Heddy Lloyd. “A wonderful, loving and God-fearing woman,” he said. Common words from a minister, but they fit Heddy. At least the first two words did. Gina had no idea how God-fearing Heddy had been, but the old woman had certainly been kind and loving to Gina. The preacher said, “Amen,” and Gina rose slowly, softly said goodbye to her friend and walked slowly toward the door of the funeral home. It didn’t seem proper to stride away as she longed to do. She’d found the solemn, almost dreary, atmosphere inside the parlor depressing. Certainly, Heddy would have detested it.

Halfway to the door, an older man—the only other human present when the preacher said the last words over Heddy’s remains—joined her and walked with her to the door. “How do you happen to know Heddy?” he asked her. She didn’t question his right to ask her, for she knew he found it odd that a young black woman should be the old white woman’s only other mourner.

“I met her in the reading room of the public library about six years ago. I discovered that the library was her second home. I saw her whenever I went there. She told me she was a widow and that she had no children. She wanted to be friends, and I liked her, so we saw a lot of each other.”

“She had no close friends, mainly because she wanted her friends to be like her, generous, tolerant and liberal. My name is Miles Strags. I was her lawyer.”

“Gina Harkness. Glad to meet you, Mr. Strags. For years, I went to the movies, dinner, the theater and concerts with Heddy, saw her two or three times a week, called her just about every day, and visited her daily during her final days in the hospital, but I didn’t know she had a lawyer. She didn’t talk much about herself except to say jokingly that she’d outlived everybody close to her, that she didn’t reminisce and couldn’t stand complainers. I loved her deeply.”

“I expect a lot of people would have cared deeply for Heddy if she would have let them get to know her,” he said.

“I’m glad you came,” Gina said as they walked outside. “I was feeling very much alone in there until I saw you.”

“I’m executor of Heddy’s estate, Miss Harkness.” He handed Gina his card. “Would you please come to my office tomorrow morning for the reading of the will?”

“The…the will? She had a will? Uh, okay…Goodbye, Mr. Strags.”

“See you tomorrow,” he said, and she didn’t miss his bemused expression as he walked away.

Estate? What was Heddy doing with an estate, and why would she have a will? The woman had dressed as if she bought all of her clothes from a thrift-store bargain bin.

Gina took a deep breath and headed back to work. It perplexed her that Heddy could have left a will and she began to doubt the veracity of Miles Strags’s words. Perhaps he attended funerals in order to trap lone women. As soon as she sat down at her desk at the prestigious Hilliard and Noyes accounting firm, she opened her computer and located his Web site where she found enough information about him to convince her that the man was indeed an attorney.

The following morning at exactly nine-thirty, as agreed, a very curious Gina walked into Miles Strags’s office and sat down.

“I see you’re punctual,” he said. “Good. This won’t take long.”

Gina looked around for other beneficiaries, and saw none. “Isn’t anybody else coming?” she asked him.

“We’re all here,” he told her in an officious manner that her boss sometimes adopted and which she hated. He read:

“To Gina Harkness, my best and only friend, I leave all my worldly goods, including the building in which I lived, stocks, bonds, bank accounts, the furnishings of my apartment, jewelry and whatever I own that I’ve forgotten to mention here.”

When Gina gasped, he said, “There’s more.” He read on:

“If Gina accepts this bequest, for the first three years, she must live in the building that I owned and which she inherits, though not necessarily in my apartment, and she must have a car and chauffeur, participate in uplifting social functions and devote herself to the service of others. I am sure that Gina will find a way to help the neediest, for she is naturally a kind and giving person. Separate and apart from my bequest to Gina Harkness, I bequeath to my attorney, Miles Strags, a life pension from a trust that I have established for him. Heddy Lloyd.

“Well, that’s it,” Miles said. “You’ve just inherited about forty-three million dollars in addition to a building in the eight hundred block of Park Avenue. I don’t know what it’s worth.” He handed her a portfolio and several keys. “I’m here to assist you in any way I can.”

“What happens if I decide not to do those things and forget about all this?”

“Oh, you won’t entertain that idea for long. She wanted you to live as a wealthy woman should,” the lawyer said smugly.

“But why did she want me to live in that building?”

He walked over to the window and looked down on Lexington Avenue. “Heddy wasn’t happy living there after her husband died. While he lived, the tenants shunned her, but they couldn’t move against her because she and her husband owned the building. I guess you know her husband was African American. Made his money in shipping. He invested wisely, mostly in real estate, and died a very rich man. Her family disinherited her, and her neighbors never forgave her for marrying a black man. The codicil to her will specifies that if she outlives you, her wealth goes to support homeless and abused women and children.”

Gina shifted in her chair, feeling that a weight had come to rest on her shoulders. “You haven’t told me why she wanted me to live in that building.”

When he shrugged, she detected an air of impatience. “They’re intolerant, and she wanted to teach them a lesson. They love their apartments, and they won’t be able to force you to move.” He threw his pen up and caught it, as if he thought the conversation frivolous. “I once asked her why she wanted you to be uncomfortable there, but she never gave me an answer. Doesn’t make sense to me, but those are the terms of the will.”

Gina stared at him, trying to size him up. “What gives you the idea that I’ll be uncomfortable? Not on your life! Which one of these keys is the key to Heddy’s apartment?”

“They’re all labeled,” he said with raised eyebrows. “Remember that you must live as a wealthy woman for the first three years,” he added.

Gina remained seated and smiled inwardly when she noticed Miles staring at her swinging leg with what appeared to be a frown. The man didn’t like the thought of her with all that money. Too bad. She stood, slung her shoulder bag over her shoulder, walked toward the door and then reversed her tracks.

“Why for the first three years only?”

“I suppose she figured that’s more than enough time for you to get used to being rich. I suspect that once bitten, the disease will stick with you.” His plump fingers caressed his chin. giving the impression that he was deliberating about something. “You know where I am, and I’m here to assist you in whatever way you need me. It’s all taken care of.”

She walked into her apartment half a block from Broadway and 125th Street, closed the door, put the chain on it and dropped her body into the nearest chair. It was true. She was now a very wealthy woman. She opened the large manila envelope, looked through its contents and saw among the stock certificates and other papers a letter addressed to her in Heddy’s handwriting.

My dear Gina,

By now you are probably in shock. I loved you dearly, for you were the only person to befriend me in the nineteen years after my husband’s death. Most people thought me weird, laughable and treated me that way. But not you. Miles is a pompous ass; don’t let him upset you. He’s white, a man and a lawyer, and that seems to be all he needs from life. And I want you to teach my neighbors that all human beings are equal. You can do that just by being yourself. I lived for ninety-some years, and no matter what happens, I shall die happy.

Love, Heddy

Gina folded the letter and returned it to the envelope whose contents testified to her new status as a rich woman. She rested her elbows on her thighs, cupped her chin with both hands and closed her eyes. It occurred to her to give prayerful thanks, but as she did so, tears rolled down her cheeks. She’d been reasonably happy—well, at least content—earning forty-three thousand dollars a year, saving ten percent of it for her old age and living in a modest apartment. Now, she had a bundle of money and the responsibility that went with it.

What on earth was Gina thinking? She reached for the telephone and dialed her aunt Elsa. “I hope you’re sitting down, Auntie,” she said.

“I’m not, so wait till I get a chair.” She imagined that her aunt was somewhere near her sewing machine. Elsa Bowen’s wizardry as a designer-cum-seamstress had provided Gina and her aunt with a pleasant enough life, even if they hadn’t been able to move more than three blocks from the projects in D.C.

Gina told her aunt first about Heddy and Heddy’s death. “But that’s not really why I called you, Auntie. I just learned that Heddy wasn’t poor. She was very rich, and she left everything to me.”

“What? Child, you go ’way from here,” Elsa said in awe.

“It’s true. I just left the lawyer’s office, and he turned over everything to me. Auntie, she owned an apartment building on Park Avenue and had a lot of money. You can stop sewing, and you can—”

“Now, you wait a minute, Gina. I know you mean well, but I sew because I love it. Anyhow, I don’t know anybody named Heddy.”

“Well, Auntie, I hope you’ll at least let me buy you a nice house on Sixteenth Street. I can’t live on Park Avenue like the will says I have to do if you’re living next to the slums. As soon as I get things organized, you can find a house you like and you can keep on sewing.”

Elsa’s laugh rang out loud and clear over the wires. “God bless you child. You be careful now. If you act the fool, you could be broke in less than a year.”

“Don’t worry, Auntie. You’re the only person I’m telling about this money. I’m just taking care of it for Heddy. ’Bye for now.”

“Well, I’d better get started. I suspect Miles would give anything to deprive me of this blessing,” Gina said to herself. She phoned the Daily News and placed ads for a chauffeur, wrote a letter of resignation from her job, mailed it and took a taxi to the building on Park Avenue that, according to Heddy’s will, belonged to Gina Harkness. One look at Heddy’s mammoth three-bedroom apartment, and Gina threw up her hands. She definitely would not live in that cheerless place, even if it did overlook some of the most expensive real estate in the world. She phoned Miles.

“I have no use for most of this stuff. I’ll get somebody to catalog it and put it on e-Bay for sale,” she said.

“You can’t do that, Gina,” he said. “No woman in your position would consider such a thing. She would choose what she wants to keep, and give the rest to a charity. A charitable organization will go there and collect whatever you don’t want.”

“Thanks, Miles. I suppose you’ve counseled a lot of heirs about the disposition of unwanted items. What charity do you suggest?”

The lawyer offered a couple of suggestions and she thanked him, hung up and called Harlem Children’s Zone. With considerable difficulty, she dismissed her suspicion that Miles enjoyed letting her know he thought she was out of her class. Still, she needed Miles. And, until she got a firm footing in her new life, she would call upon him. She didn’t know the value of Heddy’s belongings and couldn’t decide what to keep and what to give away, so she asked Miles to help her.

Immediately, she realized that she could and should have engaged an expert, for Miles delighted in providing her with advice that she didn’t need and that didn’t interest her in the least. Furthermore, she suspected that his knowledge was less broad than he led her to think.

Even so, she stopped by Miles’s office one Tuesday morning at the end of March to show him her lease for the Park Avenue apartment, evidence that she had fulfilled that term of the will.

“So you have chosen an apartment for yourself,” Miles said, aware that she had closed Heddy’s apartment and had the managing agent list it for rent.

She told him she had and enjoyed letting him know that she had engaged a decorator without any advice or assistance from him. She had begun to suspect that not only her status but her five foot nine inch height, that placed her well above him when she wore three-inch heels irritated Miles. The man was a shade under five-eight. Gina suspected that her height wasn’t the only thing that irritated Miles. He probably wished that Heddy had left her money to almost anybody, as long as the person was white.

“What’s the proper salary for a chauffeur?” she asked him.

“Hmm. I’d say around forty grand,” he said.

Gina had interviewed several men for the job, but none of them suited her. Heck, she didn’t even need a car in New York, much less a chauffeur, but she was determined to abide by the terms of the will.

“Haven’t you found a chauffeur yet?” Miles asked her one afternoon when she visited his office to get a paper notarized. “You’ll soon be moving into that apartment, and you want to make a good impression. You’ll need that driver,” he said.

“I don’t need any such thing.” She flung the words at him, angry that he thought she needed the trappings of wealth to meet the expectations of her narrow-minded neighbors. “Incidentally, I fired my decorator, and I’m going to furnish my apartment according to my own taste, so it’ll be a while before I move in. That decorator’s taste would send me to an asylum.”

His left eyebrow lifted slowly and remained up. “Gina, a woman in your position does not run from store to store looking for furniture and vases.”

“I don’t give a damn,” she said in exasperation. “Maybe women in my position don’t have my level of competence. By the way, I’ve rented office space on Madison Avenue, and the name on the door reads, Heddy Lloyd Foundation For Homeless And Abused Children And Women, Inc.” She handed him a card that identified her as president of the charity.

“Well,” he said through pursed lips, “you don’t seem to need me.”

She refused to dispute him and remained silent.

Gina didn’t enjoy the trip from her apartment on Broadway at 125th Street to her office on Madison Avenue at Thirty-eighth Street. It was either a long bus ride that included a transfer, or she could take the subway plus two buses. “My Lord,” she said to herself one morning as she walked to the subway in a heavy downpour, “I can afford to take a taxi to and from my office. What have I been thinking?”

Before the end of the day, however, the taxi was a moot point. At 5:00 p.m. her destiny walked into her office. One look at the man—tall, smartly dressed and drop-dead handsome—and her heart turned somersaults.

“I’m Justin Whitehead,” he said, offering to shake hands. “You advertised for a chauffeur, and I want the job.”

Gina simply stared at him.

“Mind if I sit?” She nodded toward the chair. “Before you say no, please check my references. I need this job. I’m a good driver, I only drink when I’m off duty, I don’t smoke and I’m punctual. I was raised to be respectful to all human beings and I am loyal.” He leaned forward. “Ms. Harkness, I promise you will not regret hiring me. I’ll always support you in every way that I can. You can depend on me.”

She opened the portfolio, read his letters of reference, put them back into the envelope and looked at him. She had no basis for turning him down, and especially not in view of the other seven applicants she’d interviewed. But why would this gentleman take a job as a chauffeur? She had a feeling that she was about to make her first big mistake as an heiress. He might be a gentleman and a good driver, but he was also a sexual tornado. Considering her limited experience with smooth-talking, knock-out-your-eyeballs men, she didn’t think it wise to hire him.

She started to tell him that he was overqualified for the job, but his hopeful expression stopped her. She knew what it was like to look for a job and have door after door closed to her. He wasn’t the potential problem—she was.

“All right. The job involves irregular hours. The pay is forty-thousand dollars a year and you don’t have to wear a uniform, although I expect you to wear a jacket and tie. Get the picture? Does that suit you?”

His eyes lit up with a brilliant twinkle, and his wide grin exposed a set of perfect, sparkling white teeth. “It’s more than I hoped for. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

His happiness touched her charitable heart, and she couldn’t help smiling in return, for nothing pleased her more than to have been able to brighten someone’s day. He raised himself to his full height, which she guessed to be around six foot four, and walked over to her desk. She wouldn’t swear that she didn’t shiver at the thought of touching his hand. When he extended it, she hesitated, though only briefly. Gina felt rush a of excitement when he grasped her hand in a strong and reassuring handshake.

Still smiling, he turned to leave, but stopped. “When do you want me to report for work, Ms. Harkness?” She could get used to his deep, mellifluous voice, she thought. When he spoke, it seemed to caress her.

“Monday will be fine,” she said, assuming an officious manner.

He frowned. “Monday? That’s April Fools’ Day. If you don’t mind, I’d rather start Tuesday. No point in jinxing my chances for success.”

“Tuesday it is,” she said.

He smiled again. “Thanks a lot. I’ll see you Tuesday morning at seven-thirty.”

“Eight-thirty will be fine. See you then,” Gina said, and closed the door behind her new driver.

Justin Lyle Whitehead braced his lithe frame against the March wind and headed up Madison Avenue on the short walk to the Yale Club to keep a luncheon date with his editor-in-chief.

“Well, how’d it go?” Mel Scott asked him when they met at the elevator.

“Great. She’s a down-to-earth, intelligent woman, and her inheritance won’t change that.”

Mel bunched his thick shoulders and leaned against the wall of the elevator. “I see she impressed you.”

“She did, but mainly with her honesty and her desire to be fair and accommodating.”

“Just don’t let your sympathy for her get in the way of your story,” Mel said.

Justin stared down at the little man, his face devoid of even a hint of friendliness. “I’m a reporter. Remember?”

“Sorry man. I didn’t mean to ring your bell. Is she the old lady’s illegitimate child?”

Mel Scott was a good editor, but there were times—like right now—when he’d like to wipe the floor with the man. “Mel, you’re way off. You only have to look at Gina Harkness to know that neither of her parents is white.”

Mel shrugged as they seated themselves in the dining room. Mel loved to dine at the Yale Club, because it made him feel important. Justin perused the menu, certain that his companion would order the most expensive entrée, and he did.

“I’ll have a hamburger on a whole-wheat bun,” Justin told the waiter.

“Man, you can’t order a hamburger in the Yale Club,” Mel said.

Justin leaned back and eyed the other man with amusement. “I can order anything that they serve here,” he said pointedly. “I do not eat a big lunch, and I do not drink midday, because I have to work after I eat.” The hamburger arrived, and he realized he’d forgotten to order French fries.

Mel regarded Justin with slightly narrowed eyes. “If you weren’t such a good journalist, you’d be somewhere eating dirt.” He savored the lobster bisque. “You coulda had this, and it wouldna cost you a cent. As I was saying, your attitude could use some fixing.”

“Probably could, depending on whose company I’m in. What about the six months’ leave? Do I get it or not? I promise to send you an occasional piece, but this job and this story will take up most of my time.”

“All right. I’ll expect you back full-time October first.”

“Thanks,” Justin said, and handed Mel a statement authorizing his leave of absence. “Would you sign this, please? I’ve learned to have anything important in writing.”

“Yeah. I see you typed it on the paper’s letterhead.” Mel signed and dated the document and handed it back to Justin. “If you let any other reporter on the staff know about this, I’m through with you. Get it?”

Justin folded the paper and put it in his shirt pocket. “Fair enough. I’ll keep in touch.”

Justin said goodbye to Mel Scott and walked to his apartment on West End Avenue. He wondered if Gina Harkness had noticed his upscale address. Would she have hired him for the job if she had? Was she familiar enough with New York neighborhoods?

What a woman! He had expected an older woman and not one so solidly in control of her life. And he certainly had not expected to see a woman who took his breath away. She wasn’t as beautiful as she was perfect. When she smiled and stood to greet him, tremors had streaked through him. He knew he was looking at a warm, loving woman who liked what she saw when she looked at him.

Justin was used to having women take a second and then a third look at him, not that it fazed him one bit. He considered female admiration as much a nuisance as anything.

He flagged a taxi and got in it seconds before a heavy rain shower would have drenched him. When the car reached the building in which he lived, he paid the driver. Although he sprinted to the door, he still got soaked. Upstairs in his apartment, he stripped, hung up his wet clothing, sat on the side of his bed and phoned a close friend in the Department of Transportation.

“Hi, Jake, this is Justin. I have a difficult assignment, and I need a chauffeur’s license today. Can you manage it?”

“Sure thing, man. E-mail me a photo and fax me a copy of your driver’s license. It’ll be ready in an hour. You’ll have to come for it because you have to sign it.”

“Thanks, buddy. I owe you one.”

“Gotcha.”

Gina answered her office phone that Friday morning hoping the caller wasn’t Miles. She did not plan to give him a daily accounting of her activities, though she suspected that he would like that. “Hello. This is Gina Harkness. How may I help you?”

“Miss Harkness, this is Justin. Where do I come for you Tuesday morning?”

She gave him her address on Broadway. “It’s very temporary, Justin, because I’ll be moving in a few days. Actually, I probably don’t need you until after I move.” She listened to the silence. “Are you still there?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m here. I was just thinking maybe I could help you move. I want to earn my pay. Besides, you have to get to work, don’t you?”

She thought for a moment. Maybe he needed the money. “Justin, I was hoping that you’d be willing to check out suitable cars for me and help me choose the best one for my purposes. We’ll have to take some long-distance trips occasionally. I’m not interested in prestige, I want comfort,” she said.

“Fortunately, you don’t have to choose between comfort and status in this case, ma’am. The cars with the most prestige usually offer the most comfort. I take it you don’t want a limo,” he said.

“Nope. Not my style,” she said. She wouldn’t know how to sit in one of those things, she thought. “Definitely not, but I want a car that was made here. Seems as if we import everything, and if that weren’t enough, we ship the rest overseas wholesale.”

She thought she heard him clear his throat. “My sentiments, precisely, ma’am. That leaves us with a choice between a Lincoln and a Cadillac.”

“Is there a big difference?” she asked him.

“To me, yes, ma’am, but you have to be satisfied. Why don’t we meet tomorrow and shop around? We can even test drive a few models.”

“Oh, dear. I was going to pack, but—”

“Miss Harkness, excuse me for making a suggestion, but why don’t you hire a good moving company and let the movers do the packing.”

“Good gracious, I hadn’t thought of that. Great idea. Would you say four hours is all we need to shop for a car tomorrow?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good. Call a car service and make arrangements for them to pick you up, then get me, and we’ll go shopping?”

“Works for…Yes, ma’am. I’ll be at your place at ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”

She called a moving company, agreed to an estimate and rubbed her hands together, symbolic of freeing herself from the packing chores. “Maybe I’ll eventually learn how to live like someone who doesn’t have to count pennies.”

What did a woman wear when she was going shopping with a gorgeous chauffeur to pick out a car that cost as much as her previous year’s salary as an accountant? Gina stepped out of the shower, sat on the little stool in the corner and began drying her feet. “This is stupid,” she said to herself as she got up and toweled her body. I’ve never been so discombobulated. Maybe poor is better. You just go to a used car lot and get the cheapest model they have. No fuss. No choices and no wasted time.

Gina enjoyed a good laugh at her silliness and then decided to wear whatever she liked. After all, it was none of Justin Whitehead’s business how she dressed. In a green silk suit, black accessories and with her hair down, she told herself she’d dressed for a casual day of shopping. However, when she put gold loops in her ears, she knew she’d lied to herself. She wanted to make an impression on the man she’d hired to be her chauffeur? “I was never stupid,” she said aloud in an effort to console herself.

Butterflies seemed to have found a home in her stomach, so she made coffee and managed to drink half a cup before the building guard—the building in which she lived didn’t have a doorman, but an armed guard—rang her buzzer.

“A gentleman here to see you, Miss Harkness.”

“Thanks, Arthur, I’ll be right down.”

She managed one more swallow of coffee, locked her door and headed for the elevator. She hated to keep anyone waiting, and it seemed as if the elevator would never come. When she stepped into the lobby, she saw him leaning against the guard’s desk.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said, and suspected from Justin’s raised eyebrows that she’d said the wrong thing.

“My time is your time,” he said with a half bow, and she knew she’d made a mistake. She could only thank God that Miles hadn’t been there to witness it. Her feeling of discomfort at his appreciative appraisal was immediately overlaid with feminine pride that such a stunning man found her attractive.

He opened the back door of the hired car for her, closed it and then sat beside the driver.

Had she actually expected him to sit in the back with her?

Justin sat with his back to the door and spoke to her. “We’re going to Eleventh Avenue to look first at Cadillacs and then at Lincolns. I made an appointment with a salesman at each dealership.”

“Thank you, Justin. I didn’t think to make an appointment.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to, ma’am. If you tell me to do something, I’ll try my best to do it right.”

She didn’t doubt that. She also knew that the shopping trip wasn’t her idea, but his. “I see from the logo that this is a Lincoln, Justin. Which Lincoln is it?”

“A Town Car, ma’am.”

“It’s very comfortable,” she said.

Justin turned face forward and spoke softly to the driver. She locked her gaze on the back of his head, noticed that his hair was perfectly trimmed. She recalled that when she’d seen him lounging against the guard’s desk, she’d noticed her new driver’s grooming was impeccable.

The car stopped, and Justin turned so that he could look at her. “This is the Cadillac dealer, ma’am. We’re right on time.” He got out, walked back and opened her door just as she reached for the handle. If he noticed that, he didn’t let on.

“Will he wait for us?” she asked Justin as they entered the dealer’s office.

“Yes, ma’am. We’ve hired him for four hours. I think that’s all we need.” A salesman approached them and spoke to Justin.

“Mr. Whitehead? Glad to meet you.” He shook hands with Justin and then with her. “Thank you for your patronage, Ms. Harkness.” He smiled at Justin. “May I see your driver’s license?” Justin showed him the license. “This way, please. I suggest you take it up the Major Deegan, Mr. Whitehead,” the man said with such pride that one would have thought he engineered the automobile.

Justin opened the back door for Gina, then seated himself behind the wheel. “Relax, and let’s see how comfortable this thing is. Wait a minute.” He got out, opened the door beside her and reached across her to fasten her seat belt.

She noticed that he avoided looking at her when his hand brushed her thigh. At first, she expected him to apologize, but he didn’t, and it dawned on her that he didn’t want to call attention to what was evidently an accident. He seated himself behind the wheel and pulled out of the lot to the sound of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp.

“I take it you like Mozart’s music.”

She opened her eyes and sat forward. “What did you say?” He repeated the question. “I love chamber music. It’s so peaceful.” She looked out of the window at the river beside them. Did you or the dealer choose that radio station?”

“I did. Why?”

“I thought for a minute that it was part of the dealer’s sales pitch. Thanks for selecting it.”

“My pleasure, ma’am. What do you think so far?”

“I can’t see the difference between this and the one you rented for us, but I’d like to test the other one.”

“Then, we’ll take this one back. The Town Car dealer is also on Eleventh Avenue around Fifty-fifth Street.”

“Well, what do you think?” the salesman asked when they returned the car.

Justin made the thumbs-up sign. “As I told you, she wants to check out another model. You’ll know one way or the other this morning.” They thanked the man and left.

“Gee, there’re three couples ahead of us,” she said as they entered the second dealership.

“Not to worry, ma’am. They didn’t make an appointment, I did.” He showed the salesman his driver’s license, and they were soon once again driving north on the Major Deegan Expressway. “I thought we’d take the same route as we did in the Cadillac, go over the same bumps and around the same curves so you can make a proper comparison,” he said.

“Smart thinking. If the service and the performance histories are the same or approximately the same, I think I’d like this one, but before I choose, I’d like your opinion,” she said.

“Thank you, ma’am. If all things were equal, I’d take this one, but I’d like to check the ratings.”

“Then, can we get some information on the performance and the ratings of these cars?”

“I have it right here.”

“Wonderful. Let’s stop somewhere and go over it.”

“Good idea, ma’am. I suggest we return the car, get our driver and find a quiet coffee shop somewhere.”

I wish he’d quit calling me ma’am. He could only be a few years older than me. Now, where did that thought come from?

Twenty minutes later, the driver of the rented limousine stopped in front of a small, yet elegant café. Justin got out and opened the back door for Gina. He stood beside the door trying not to notice her long shapely legs as she maneuvered herself out of the car. Then she looked up at him and smiled. This is definitely not going to work. And as if she read his thoughts, she lowered her lashes and moved away.

He held the chair for her, all the while wondering how he was going to get used to her paying the bill on the occasions when they had to eat together in restaurants.

“I didn’t have any breakfast,” she said, “and I’ll bet you didn’t, either. I’d had about two swallows of coffee when the guard buzzed me. I’m going to have waffles and sausage with maple syrup, lots of it.”

He stared at her. “You mean, you’re not worried about gaining weight?”

She shook her head. “I get plenty of exercise. Order whatever you want. I’m starving.” She gave the waitress her order. “Could you bring some coffee now, please?”

He ordered waffles with bacon fried to a crisp and coffee. “I don’t usually allow myself all these calories,” he told her, “but if you’ve got the nerve to do it, so have I.” She smiled when he said that, and her eyes shone with what he could only describe as merriment. He told himself to remember that he was a journalist working on a story, and that he couldn’t afford to let himself succumb to the spell she had begun to weave. If she were less considerate, he could at least manage not to like her. But she took great care not to treat him as a chauffeur in the presence of others. He corrected himself; she hadn’t treated him as an employee.

Their waitress poured each of them a cup of hot coffee, and it didn’t escape him that she said “please” and “thank you” to the waitress. He’d give this woman high marks for good manners. She sipped the coffee, closed her eyes, and inhaled its aroma and sighed.

He squirmed. Good Lord, this woman was sensuous. Suddenly, he wanted to know everything about her, everything she’d done and who she did it with. He wanted to reach out and touch her smooth brown face.

“Damn,” he said to himself. “I’m way off.” He gulped down a swallow of coffee and wished he’d been more prudent when the liquid burned his throat. He opened the envelope that he’d placed in the chair beside him and put his mind on the business at hand.

“Let’s eat first,” she said. “We’ve got time for that.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said as the waitress placed his food in front of him.

To his amazement, she said grace. She continued to look at her plate and then, clearly having come to a decision, she said, “Justin, how old are you, if I may ask?”

His eyebrows shot up, and he didn’t try to control his reaction. “I’m thirty-seven. Why do you ask?”

This time, her eyebrows went up. “I’m thirty-four, which makes me too young to be your mother. So, would you please stop calling me ma’am. It’s getting on my nerves.”

He didn’t laugh, although he’d have given anything for the right to let it out. Instead, he savored his meal for a minute, glanced up and saw that she hadn’t begun to eat.

“Age doesn’t have anything to do with it,” he said. “It’s a matter of respect, and ma’am is shorter than saying Ms. Harkness all the time.”

She sucked her teeth so loudly that he stopped chewing. “Is the sky going to fall if you call me Gina?”

He wanted to tell her that calling her ma’am was a hell of a lot safer for both of them than calling her by her first name. He needed all the help he could get if he was going to keep his mind on his two jobs—his work as a journalist and his job as her chauffeur.

“Maybe not,” he said to himself, “but if I don’t watch it, we’ll both think it fell.”

“What? What did you say?”

“Nothing. Looks like I was thinking out loud, ma’am. Did you make arrangements for a mover to pack your things?”

“Yes, and I thank you for the suggestion. How long do you think I’ll have to wait for my car?”

“Not long. I’ll speak with the dealer and let him know this is an emergency.” He finished eating, pushed his plate aside and showed her the chart he’d made comparing the ratings of the two cars. “There’s not much of a basis for choosing between them. On the matters that count, they’re both boss cars.” He handed her the chart.

She studied it for a few minutes, waved the waitress over and said, “Miss, could we please have some more coffee? You’re right. They’re fairly equal, and that’s comforting. Which do you like to drive?”

“I like the Town Car. I’ve driven it a lot, and I enjoy riding in it.” She didn’t have to know that his parents always drove one. “If you do much traveling, you’ll appreciate its roomy trunk, too,” he added.

She sipped coffee, thoughtfully it seemed to him. “Okay. We’ll get the Lincoln.” She folded the papers and handed them to him. After he drained his cup, she rose. “Ready to go?”

He stood at once. Didn’t she know that a rich New York woman wouldn’t ask her chauffeur if he was ready to do anything, and she certainly wouldn’t have waited while he took his time drinking coffee.

He stood. “After you, ma’am.”

She gave him an outraged look, and he couldn’t help laughing as he walked behind her. But his mood immediately switched to serious as the view of her perfectly shaped tush wiggling in front of him heated his groin. He’d never been so relieved as when he stepped outside into the cool of April, and his gaze could fix itself on something other than her mobile behind.

She looked up at him. “Do you think we should have brought our driver a cup of coffee?”

He needed no more evidence of her humble background than that question. “I’m sure he’d appreciate it,” he said, mainly to avoid making her feel bad, “but his company probably has rules against his drinking or eating anything while on the job.”

They returned to the dealer where she wrote the salesman a check for half the price of the Town Car. “I want a silver-gray one,” she said. “These big black cars make me think of funerals.” She looked at him with what he thought was a silent appeal for approval.

“Ladies tend not to like black cars,” he said, based on his experience with his mother and sister. “Silver-gray is elegant.”

“When will I get it?” she asked the manager of the dealership who had joined his salesman.

“I can have it here for you Wednesday afternoon.”

“How’ll he manage that?” she asked him as they headed for her apartment. “It usually takes weeks to get a new car.”

“You didn’t ask him to give up any of his commission. If you had, you’d have had to wait at least six weeks. He’ll call around, find out which dealer has a gray car coming in, give him a few hundred bucks, and you’ll get your car.”

“Are you serious?”

“In deals this big, Gina, money talks.”

“I thought it always talked,” she said.

“There are some mountains that money won’t move, and I’m sure you’ve encountered one or two of them.” The car stopped, and he got out and opened the door for her.

She stood between him and the open car door. “Yes, Justin, and that’s a good thing.” She stared up at him as if searching for something, then shook her head from side to side. “Life is strange,” she murmured, almost inaudibly. “You never know what will happen next.”