Читать книгу The Summer Proposal - Judith McWilliams - Страница 10

“Julie, any chance of you having lunch with me?”

Julie looked up, smiling at the unexpected sight of her older sister, Darcie, standing in the classroom doorway.

“I’d love to. Miss Boulton signed off on my materials list ten minutes ago, so I’m free. And starved. Let’s get out of here before the woman finds something else for me to do.”

“Why are you covered with glitter?” Darcie asked. “Are you starting a new trend?”

“Only for being caught in embarrassing situations,” Julie said. “The stuff fell on me earlier while I had a visitor. I felt like a perfect fool.”

“Nobody’s perfect.” Darcie grinned at her. “Although I will admit, you’ve improved enormously since you were a pesky little kid.”

Julie grinned back. “I could say the same about you, but I’m much too polite. Although…”

She paused as it suddenly occurred to her that Darcie, with her active social life as well as her extensive contacts in the business world, might know Caleb Tarrington.

“What?” Darcie prompted as they left the classroom.

“What do you know about Caleb Tarrington?” Julie asked.

Darcie’s green eyes widened slightly. “I know he’s outside your league, Julie. Don’t try to cut your teeth on him. You’ll wind up breaking them.”

“I cut my teeth, as you so inelegantly put it, years ago. And I have a perfectly valid reason for asking that has nothing whatsoever to do with what you are obviously thinking. Now, tell me what you know.”

“Well, there’s the obvious. That he looks like the answer to every woman’s romantic fantasies.”

The memory of Caleb’s head tilted to one side, a lopsided smile softening his dark features, and his eyes gleaming with humor as he’d brushed the glitter from her hair popped into Julie’s mind. She shivered slightly as she savored the image. No doubt about it. Caleb Tarrington was most definitely qualified to star in a romantic fantasy. Just not hers. She had better sense.

“True, but looks can be deceptive,” Julie said. “Take me, for example. I may look like the proverbial girl-next-door, but beneath my prosaic exterior beats the heart of a dedicated career woman.”

“Where are you parked, dedicated career woman?” Darcie shoved open the building’s outside door, which led to the school’s parking lot.

“I’m not. My car wouldn’t start this morning, so I took the bus.”

“No problem. I’ll drive, and drop you off at home afterward.”

Darcie unlocked the door to her sleek black luxury car.

“So what else do you know about Caleb Tarrington?” Julie asked once Darcie had pulled onto the road.

“I know that he inherited more money than he could ever spend. That he’s an extremely successful architect. That he very quietly supports quite a few charities. But I don’t know much about his personal life.”

“Anything else?” Julie persisted.

Darcie grimaced. “I know blondes don’t turn him on. At least, this blonde didn’t.”

Julie blinked. “You tried to…”

“Attract his interest is as good a euphemism as any. And, of course, I did. Any normal, red-blooded woman is going to have a go at Caleb Tarrington. It was at a Christmas party last year we both attended. I gave him my best sultry look.”

“And?”

“And I could have been ninety years old for all the response I got.”

“I find it hard to believe that someone as beautiful as you didn’t get some reaction from him,” Julie said slowly.

“Actually, I was rather surprised, too,” Darcie agreed with her usual candor. “I guess it comes under the heading of you can’t win them all.

“So tell me why you want to know about Caleb Tarrington,” Darcie demanded.

“He came to see me today about his son,” Julie said.

“His son!” Darcie yelped, and the car suddenly shot forward as her foot inadvertently depressed the gas pedal. “I didn’t know he had a kid.”

“He’s six years old. Will has come to live with him, and Caleb wants to make sure the child has covered everything we teach in the first grade here,” Julie said, reluctant to tell even her sister the personal details Caleb had given her about his marriage.

“And Caleb wants you to tutor the kid this summer?” Darcie immediately made the connection.

“Got it in one.”

“Don’t do it,” Darcie said.

“Why not? Don’t you think I’m a match for Caleb Tarrington?” Julie demanded, her pride stung.

“No,” Darcie said succinctly. “Hell, I’m not a match for him, and I’m a hundred times more knowledgeable about men than you’ll ever be.”

“Not about six-year-old men,” Julie said smugly. “And it’s the six-year-old I’d be dealing with.”

Darcie took her eyes off the road long enough to give Julie a rueful grin.

“I hate to be the one to break it to you, but most men are six-year-olds at heart. Besides, I won’t be here to give you any sage advice if you do accidentally get in over your head.”

“Where are you going?”

“The firm is sending me off the backwoods of Vermont to buy a patent.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me doing anything stupid. I fully intend to turn the job down. I was only curious about him.”

“Just you remember that curiosity killed the cat!”

Julie chuckled. “Clichés yet. Where’s your sense of originality?”

“Originality be damned. It’s the truth, and don’t you forget it.”

Darcie’s advice was probably right, Julie told herself. And it was definitely prudent. She’d enjoy her lunch and then go home, have a piece of chocolate and figure out how she was going to tactfully decline Caleb’s plea.

Julie frowned slightly as she remembered the determined jut of Caleb’s square chin. Maybe she’d have two pieces of chocolate.

Despite eating most of an eight-ounce box of truffles, by the following morning Julie still hadn’t been able to think of a light, witty way to tell Caleb she wasn’t going to help him.

Probably because she wasn’t a light, witty person, she decided as her cab came to a tire-shrieking stop in front of the address Caleb had given her. At least, not when it came to kids who needed her help. But this time would be different. This time she would say no and make it stick.

“Hey, lady.” The cabdriver broke into her thoughts. “This is the address you gave me.”

“Sorry.” Julie paid the man and climbed out, barely managing to get the door closed before the cab tore off down the street.

But Julie barely noticed. She was too busy studying Caleb’s house as she slowly walked up the redbrick sidewalk that curved across the velvety, green lawn. Darcie had said that Caleb Tarrington was rich. Very rich. And Darcie had sounded very sure of her facts. Yet his house certainly wasn’t ostentatious. The bottom story was built of a soft-gray limestone and the second story was white clapboard. The roof was a dark-gray slate punctuated by six attic dormers. Dark-green shutters outlined each of the oversize windows. The house looked like the comfortable, well-kept home of a professional, not the estate of a wealthy man.

Julie had no trouble imagining a child’s bicycle lying on the grass or a baby stroller on the front steps. Maybe Darcie had her facts wrong for once, Julie thought, and then dismissed her speculation as irrelevant. Caleb Tarrington’s financial status had nothing to do with her.

Julie nervously straightened her cream linen jacket, brushed the front of her blue silk shirt and then swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in her mouth before she rang the doorbell.

The door was jerked open before the melodious sound of the chimes had died away, and Julie found herself staring at the harassed features of a middle-aged woman.

“Yes?” the woman asked. Her eyes slipped to the bulging briefcase Julie held. “I never buy from door-to-door salesmen.”

“A wise policy, I’m sure.” Julie slipped into her best schoolteacher mode. “However, I am not here to sell you anything. I—”

“There you are.” Caleb’s voice came from behind the woman. It was threaded with some emotion that sounded suspiciously like desperation. He grabbed her arm as if he expected her to make a run for it, and pulled her into the house.

She’d been right, Julie thought distractedly. Caleb Tarrington did look every bit as good in casual clothes as he did in a suit. Maybe better. Definitely sexier. She studied his khaki pants and worn denim shirt with approval.

“You said ten o’clock and…” Julie used the excuse of checking the time to remove her arm from his grasp. For some reason, physical contact with Caleb Tarrington played havoc with her thought processes, and she needed to keep her wits about her.

“It’s exactly ten now,” she said.

Caleb grimaced. “Strange, I feel like it’s been years since I got up this morning. This is my housekeeper, Miss Vincent. Miss Vincent, this is Miss Raffet. She’s going to help Will get ready for school next fall.”

Julie opened her mouth to remind Caleb that she had only agreed to see what Will needed to learn, not supply that knowledge herself, but before she could get out a word, a small boy got up off the sofa and walked toward her.

“My mom she says that school stifles creativity,” he said. “I don’t want my creativity stifled.”

“I’d like to stifle more than his creativity!” Miss Vincent muttered darkly.

Julie blinked. For a child who’d only been here a day, Will seemed to have made quite an impression on the housekeeper.

Stepping farther into the house, Julie took a good look at Will. His thin frame held not even the promise of someday developing the muscles that shaped his father’s body. Although his slightly oversize nose and his bright blue eyes had clearly been fished out of the same gene pool that had produced Caleb. But the expression of misery in the boy’s eyes made Julie’s heart contract with pity.

Poor little kid. How could his mother have just given him to a man the child had never even met? Caleb’s son deserved better. Any kid deserved better.

“Miss Raffet teaches first grade at the school you’ll be going to in the fall.” Caleb tossed the conversation gambit into the growing silence.

“And I promise our school tries to keep the stifling to an absolute minimum.” Julie smiled at Will.

“My mom says that public-school teachers is incompetent!” Will eyed her challengingly. “My mom says they only teach there ’cause they can’t do nothing else. My mom says I can learn everything I need to know at home all by myself!”

“Your precious mother—” the housekeeper began hotly, only to be quickly cut off by Caleb.

“We won’t keep you anymore, Miss Vincent,” he said firmly.

“Yes, sir,” the woman muttered, and with a final, frustrated glare at Will, stomped out of the room.

Julie felt a sneaking sympathy for the housekeeper. Clearly, Will wasn’t going to be easy to deal with.

Although, Julie studied Will’s forlorn face, she didn’t think he was being intentionally rude. Six-year-olds rarely understood the full impact of their words. Nor did they tend to think before they spoke. They just came right out with what they were thinking. Or with what they’d heard, and in Will’s case, he seemed to have heard more than he should have.

“How about if we go out on the patio, Will?” Caleb used the bright tone adults reserve for kids when they haven’t the vaguest idea how to talk to them.

“No,” Will replied promptly.

“No, what?” Caleb stared at his son in surprise.

“No, thank you?” Will tried again.

“First lesson on surviving in the adult world, Will,” Julie said, “is to learn about rhetorical questions.”

“What’s a re…ret…one of them?” Will asked curiously.

“It’s a question that doesn’t expect an answer. Like, don’t you think it’s time to go to bed? Or I’m sure you want to eat your spinach? Your father wasn’t asking your consent for us to go to the patio. He was politely telling you to do it.”

“And polite is getting to be in short supply around here this morning,” Caleb said.

Julie looked at Caleb, her eyes lingering on his face. There was a line between his dark eyebrows, and she could clearly see the muscles knotted along his jawline. The brilliant glitter of his eyes seemed dimmed. He looked as if he’d had a bad night, followed by a worse morning. Maybe what Caleb needed was a few minutes away from his son. And her away from him. The second thought followed on the heels of the first. It would give her a chance to totally regain her teacher persona, which being around Caleb had ruffled.

“Will and I can…” she began.

“No,” Caleb flatly rejected the idea before she could even formulate it. “Will is my son, and I want to find out firsthand what is going on.”

“As you wish, Mr. Tarrington.” Julie ignored the spurt of pleasure she felt as irrelevant.

“Caleb,” he corrected her. “And if I might call you Julie?”

The sound of her name on his lips did odd things to her equilibrium. Somehow, shaped by his deep voice, her name took on an allure that she knew it didn’t really have. It sounded mysterious and seductive, totally different from her normal practical self.

Mentally, Julie shook her head, trying to dislodge the fantasy. You are here to work, she reminded herself. Concentrate on the son. Him you can handle.

Julie’s gaze dropped to Will, noting the belligerent thrust of his lower lip. He looked confused and unhappy. She wanted to assure him that everything would be all right, but she refused to lie to him. She had no idea if everything would be all right in his world. Nor had she any way of making it so. She shot a quick glance at Caleb, who was watching his son with a hungry longing, and felt fractionally better. If human effort could fix Will’s world, then she didn’t have the slightest doubt that Caleb would do it.

“What’s you going to do?” Will demanded.

“Just read a little with you, ask you a few questions and play a few games,” Julie said.

“I ain’t ath…a…letical.” Will stumbled over the word. “Sports is dumb.”

“Tell me, what are your feelings on the English language?” Caleb asked dryly.

“Huh?” Will gave his father a blank look.

Julie cleared her throat, and gave Caleb a repressive look. This was no time to be worrying about Will’s command of English. Or lack, thereof. Trying to focus on too many things at once would only confuse the child. And probably make him more uncooperative than he already was.

“If we could get started?” Julie said.

“This way,” Caleb said as he headed toward the open French doors on the far side of the large recreation room.

“Is that one of them ret…things?” Will whispered to Julie.

“Yup,” Julie whispered back.

They followed Caleb through the French doors onto a brick-paved terrace. There were large terra-cotta pots filled with multicolored flowers scattered around, and beneath the shade of a huge sugar maple tree was a glass-topped table with four wrought-iron chairs circling it. To the left of the French doors were several loungers with brightly flowered cushions. The whole scene radiated a sense of peace and tranquillity. It would be the perfect place to relax after a busy day.

“How lovely this is,” Julie voiced her appreciation.

“He ain’t got no swimming pool,” Will pointed out. “At home, everybody’s got a swimming pool.”

“Everybody?” Julie set her briefcase down on the table and pulled out a pack of cards.

“Well, everybody who ain’t poor,” Will claimed. “Is you poor?” He shot the question at his father.

“Don’t worry. I have enough money to pay the bills,” Caleb said.

“Mom says that no one never has enough money. I have lots though. I gots me a trust fund from Mom’s dad who died afor I was ever born. I don’t mind sharing with you,” Will offered.

“I appreciate the thought—” Caleb smiled at his son “—but you can’t spend your money until you are of age.”

“I got age, six years of age,” Will insisted. “And Mom said I can spend my money just as I please.”

“I am not your mother,” Caleb said.

Not hardly, Julie thought with an appreciative glance at Caleb’s very masculine body, her eyes lingering on his muscular forearms beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his pale blue denim shirt.

“But—” Will began.

“Shall we get started,” Julie interrupted before the argument could escalate.

“Will, you sit there.” She pointed to a chair.

Reluctantly Will sat down. “I hate tests.”

“Really?” She sounded mildly curious. “If you haven’t been to school, how do you know about tests?”

Will opened his mouth, closed it again and scowled at her.

“Please sit down there, Caleb,” Julie said, hoping that having the distance of the table between them would help her to ignore him. It was a tactical error. Across from her, he was directly in her line of sight, and her eyes kept straying to him.

You are a teacher, she reprimanded herself. You are here to evaluate a child, not fantasize about the child’s father.

“What’s them?” Will pointed to the deck of cards she was holding.

“These are to test your ESP, because if you really are an alien in disguise then I can’t teach you. Aliens are outside my area of expertise,” Julie said seriously as she dealt ten of the cards facedown in front of him.

“Cool! Just like on X-Files!” Will scooted around on the chair in excitement. “Do you find many aliens?”

“Nary a one,” Julie said.

“Aw, sh—”

“William Alister Tarrington!” Caleb bit out.

“What?” Will gave his father a confused look.

Julie looked from Caleb’s furious features to Will’s confused ones and stifled a sigh. From the look on Will’s face, she had the discouraging feeling that the boy had no clue as to why his father was so mad. It would appear there was a cultural gap a mile wide between father and son.

“I absolutely forbid—” Caleb began.

Julie hastily reached across the small table and touched Caleb’s shoulder, intent only on stopping him before the whole situation exploded into anger on Caleb’s part and tears on Will’s, which would ruin any chance for her to evaluate the child today. Her fingers involuntarily twitched as she felt the warmth of his body beneath the soft cotton of his shirt.

Her touch felt like a live wire had been laid on Caleb’s bare skin. It scorched his flesh and raced over his nerve endings, speeding up his heartbeat. He took a deep breath, hoping to regain control of his senses. It didn’t work. The faint scent of the perfume she was wearing drifted into his lungs, deepening his sexual awareness of her.

Damn! Caleb thought with black humor. Of all times for his body to indulge in a sexual fantasy. When he was lecturing his son about inappropriate social behavior!

“Why can’t I say sh—that word?” Will substituted at Caleb’s glare. “Everybody says it. Mom does and all Mom’s friends, and in the movies and—”

“What kind of movies do you see?” Caleb demanded.

“We seem to have wandered from the purpose of my visit,” Julie interrupted, despite her sympathy for Caleb. He was really going to have his work cut out for him. Not only was the poor man going to have to try to forge some kind of relationship with a child he had never laid eyes on before two days ago, but he was also going to have to teach that child what was and wasn’t allowed in normal society. A task that was bound to initially earn Will’s resentment.

To Julie’s relief, Caleb subsided without another word. Almost as if he was relieved to have her deal with the present problem.

Julie turned to Will. “I want you to close your eyes and concentrate on the number that is hidden on each of the ten cards. Tell me what you think each one is.”

Will, with a cautious look at his father, obediently squeezed his eyes shut and caught his lower lip between his small teeth in concentration.

“The first one is six,” Will decided.

“Am I right?” He opened one eye and peered hopefully at her.

“I’ll tell you at the end,” Julie said. “Guess the rest.”

Will quickly guessed the remaining cards and then she flipped over the cards. “Aw, sh—damn!” he quickly amended.

“God give me strength,” Caleb groaned.

“I guess I ain’t no alien,” Will lamented. “I only got two of the ten right.”

“Oh, well, not everybody is lucky enough to be an alien,” Julie sympathized.

“Yeah.” Will looked morose for a second and then suddenly brightened. “Maybe I can get possessed.”

Caleb grimaced. “Maybe you already—”

“Since you’re a human, let’s test some human skills,” Julie hurriedly said. She didn’t want Caleb giving Will ideas. The kid had enough already.

Handing Will a small beginning reader, she said, “Would you see if any of that looks familiar?”

Will opened the book and flipped through the pages.

“Nope,” he finally said.

“No, what?” Julie, wise in the ways of kids, sought clarification.

“No, it don’t look familiar. Ain’t never seen it before,” Will said.

“A literalist yet,” Caleb said. “He sounds for all the world like his great-grandfather.”

Will peered uncertainly at him. “I gots me a great-grandfather?”

“You had,” Caleb said. “He died when I was a teenager. He was a judge, and you had to be really careful what you said to him because he took everything literally.”

“A judge?” Will looked intrigued. “Did he hang anyone?”

Caleb chuckled, and the sound slipped through Julie’s mind, soothing her sense of frustration at the way this session kept going off on tangents. Caleb had the most attractive chuckle. It made her feel warm and excited. As if something exhilarating was about to happen.

“Not that I know of,” Caleb said. “Although he did threaten to horsewhip me the time I drove his car without permission.”

“Really?” Will’s eyes widened as he tried to imagine the scene.

“Can you read the book, Will?” Julie broke in.

“’Course I can,” Will scoffed. “But I don’t wanna. It’s dumb.”

“What do you like to read?” Julie asked.

“Star Trek books and Goosebumps and lots a’others.”

“I see,” Julie said slowly. “Unfortunately, I didn’t bring anything like those with me.”

“I gots a great book in my room. That guy that brought me here, he bought it for me in the airport to read on the plane,” Will said. “Wanna see it?”

“Sure,” Julie said.

Will jumped up and raced toward the house.

“What are those books he mentioned?” Caleb watched his son disappear through the French doors.

“Upper elementary level,” Julie said slowly.

“Do you think he really can read them? I mean, he’s never been to school.”

“Did you notice the cards?” she asked.

“I didn’t pay much attention. I assumed they were simply to break the ice. As far as I was concerned, he’d already melted it with his vocabulary,” he said dryly.

“It does seem to be a bit on the X-rated side,” she conceded. “But about those cards, Will remembered what he had guessed on all the cards. He didn’t have to ask. Or even stop and think. And he didn’t make a mistake.”

“There were only ten cards,” Caleb said.

“The average kid would be lucky to remember four of them.”

Caleb frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning he has a good memory. A very good memory.”

“I already knew that! He’s apparently remembered every vulgarity he’s ever heard.”

“Here it is.” Will burst through the French doors waving a ragged paperback. “It’s a great book, all about a Jewish boy whose parents come to live in the United States from Russia a long time ago. You wanna borrow it?” he offered.

“Thanks.” Julie accepted the book and tucked it into her briefcase.

“Have you ever tried writing a book yourself, Will?” she asked.

“Nah,” Will rejected the idea. “Printing’s too hard. Them squiggly letters don’t never come out right.”

“I see. How about math?” Julie asked. “What are six and eight?”

Will shrugged. “Don’t know. Ain’t got my calculator.”

“Which would seem to be a powerful argument for learning to do sums in your head,” Caleb observed.

“No, it ain’t,” Will said. “’Cause I ain’t the one what wants to know. She does.” He pointed a grubby finger at Julie. “She’s the one what should learn to add.”

“Definitely the judge’s offspring,” Caleb muttered.

“But—” Will started.

“Never mind,” Julie cut him off. “I think I have a fair idea of what I wanted to know. Thanks for your help, Will.”

“You all done?” Will looked surprised. “No more questions?”

“Nope. No more.”

“You coming back?” Will eyed her hopefully. “Maybe we could try them cards again. Maybe I gots that ESP, but it’s hidden deep.”

“Let’s hope it stays hidden,” Caleb muttered. “Will, I’m going to talk to Julie for a while. You go amuse yourself.”

Will obediently got to his feet and stood there looking at him.

“What is it?” Caleb asked.

“Where’s my ten bucks?”

Caleb frowned. “What ten bu…dollars?”

“Mom always gives me ten bucks to go outside and amuse myself when she wants to talk to her dates.”

Julie closed her eyes, praying the scorching heat she could feel burning its way over her cheekbones wasn’t as visible as it felt. She had no doubt why his mother had given him the money to disappear. And it sure wasn’t so she and her dates could talk.

She stole a quick glance at Caleb, but he looked more taken aback than angry at Will’s inadvertent disclosure.

“I don’t give bribes,” Caleb finally said. “And I expect to be obeyed.”

Will wrinkled his nose as he considered the situation. “But I expects my ten bucks, and I ain’t seeming to get it.”

“There is a difference,” Caleb said sternly. “I am the adult.”

“All that means is that you done lived longer,” Will retorted. “Someday I’ll be as old as you.”

“Not if you don’t get out of here right this moment!” Caleb snapped.

“Grown-ups!” Will grumbled as he stalked back into the house.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Caleb muttered.

Julie studied Caleb’s tense, frustrated features, not sure even in her own mind what to say to him. She liked Will and wanted to help him. But the trouble was, she also liked his father and that worried her.

“Caleb,” she began slowly.

“Not here,” Caleb cut her off. “He’s probably eavesdropping.”

“No, I ain’t!” Will yelled from just inside the French doors.

Julie hastily swallowed the giggle threatening to escape. She had the distinct feeling from Caleb’s harassed expression that he was not seeing the humor in the situation at the moment.

“Come on.” Caleb got to his feet. “We’ll go out for a cup of coffee. Away from little pitchers.”

“Okay, but you’ll have to drive. My car won’t start, and I haven’t had time to take it to the garage,” Julie said, trying to tell herself that the pleasure she felt at his suggestion they go out for coffee was only because she could use the extra time to figure out how to phrase her refusal and not because she wanted to be alone with him. The problem was, she had never been very good at self-deception.