Читать книгу Baily's Irish Dream: Baily's Irish Dream / Czech Mate - Stephanie Doyle - Страница 12

“YELLOWSTONE! Yellowstone National Park? But we don’t have to go through the park to get to Jackson Hole. That’s south. We want to go east.” Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to stem the pain of his headache.

“And eventually we will. I just want to take a little detour. You certainly don’t want to miss Yellowstone, do you? Elk, bear, caribou, Old Faithful! It would be a travesty to be this close and not visit.” It made perfect sense to Baily. She was a traveler by nature. She needed to accumulate new sights and experiences to keep her senses fed. And the first time she’d driven across country Nick had been in charge. He didn’t allow for detours. This was a perfect opportunity.

“Did I mention that my sister’s life was at stake? I don’t have time for detours.”

“Maybe it’s about time that we talked about your sister. It would help if I knew exactly what kind of danger she was in. I can’t imagine that her life is truly in jeopardy or else you would have found a way to overcome your fear of flying.”

Daniel, with his severe features, intense hazel eyes, and broad shoulders, didn’t look like a man who feared much. It was hard to reconcile the man who overwhelmed the space inside her small car as someone who had fears like other normal people.

Sighing, Daniel patiently explained. “I told you, I’m not afraid to fly.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t fly.” Baily attempted not to roll her eyes. She didn’t succeed, which was fortunate because when she did succeed it always made her dizzy.

“That’s right. Like you, I made a promise, and I don’t intend to break it.” His voice changed somehow, and immediately Baily knew that she had touched a vulnerable spot inside the man.

“Who made you promise not to fly?” An important person in his life, that much Baily surmised. It made her wonder how many other important people were in this man’s life. She would bet her life savings there weren’t many. Although considering that her life savings was the sum of eight hundred dollars, it wasn’t much of a bet.

It was an area of his life he didn’t think he wanted to share. He’d known this woman less than a day. She didn’t have the right to know about his personal problems. He should probably tell her to go to hell. Then he remembered how vulnerable she’d looked when she told him about her purported fiancé. It had taken both trust and hope on her part that he would tread softly on her feelings. Would she do the same?

More than likely. She had a quality about her. “My sister made me promise not to fly. My parents were killed in a plane crash many years ago. And it was our misfortune to be there when it happened.”

Tears burned Baily’s eyes, appearing so quickly they stunned her. “I’m so sorry. How old were you?”

“I was seventeen, but Sarah was only ten. Obviously, she took it harder.”

It wasn’t so obvious to Baily. She bit her tongue, but she couldn’t stop herself from silently wondering why Daniel shouldn’t be just as hurt by the loss of his parents.

“She’s been fragile, even frightened, ever since,” Daniel continued. “The next year I went to college. That first Christmas I planned to fly home, but Sarah made me promise that I wouldn’t. Then she made me promise that I would never fly…ever. It was probably wrong of me to indulge her, but if you had heard her voice trembling on the other end of the phone. She was so scared I wanted to make that fear disappear.”

“Surely she’s overcome that fear or at least would understand if you flew occasionally. You live across the country for Pete’s sake. How do you ever get home?” Baily thought about how difficult it was for her to be separated from her family for so long. Even the plane trip was long and arduous. If she didn’t have the option of flight open to her, she never would have made it home for Christmas and other family occasions.

Not easily, and not often, Daniel wanted to answer. It was just as well, too. Home only brought with it uncomfortable memories of a time long gone. Those memories and the sense of loss they brought with them were what had goaded him into leaving in the first place. That first year he had taken a summer job in Alaska, cutting wood, and seen the need to standardize the cutting and replanting process. After college, a software company recruited him, and he’d honed his skills until he was ready to venture out on his own with software designed to track the lumber business. In the ten years since he’d lived in Seattle he’d made it home only once a year, every year. Both he and Sarah accepted the fact that neither one of them would step foot on a plane again.

“Sarah hasn’t overcome her fear and I don’t want her driving by herself. I get home about once a year. Sometimes I drive, other times I take the train. Either way I’m not home as often as I would like. But my business is in the northwest, so there’s nothing I can do about that.”

It was odd that even after living in Seattle for more than ten years, he still considered Philadelphia his home despite his intentional neglect. Daniel thought about the implications of that statement. When would Seattle be home?

Since it was evident that this wasn’t his yearly trip home, Baily was still left with questions concerning his sister. “You said Sarah’s life was at stake. She’s not sick, is she?” If that were the case Baily would be willing to drive twenty-four hours a day if necessary to reach her. A sister shouldn’t be sick and without her family to comfort her.

Baily remembered breaking her ankle in a game of tag football with some of her larger students. She’d been laid up in her apartment all by herself. Friends had come to help and visit, but it wasn’t the same. No one stayed with her. No one commiserated with her when her ankle itched so bad that she wanted to scream. No one brought her ice cream with extra chocolate syrup on top. That hurt more than the ankle.

“She’s not sick.” For that he should be grateful, he supposed.

Baily waited, but no other answer was forthcoming.

“Well, is she in danger?”

Daniel thought about that. He doubted that Pierce was the violent type. Sarah was most likely physically safe. It was Pierce who was about to suffer some serious pain in the near future, as soon as Daniel got his hands on the wretched fake. “No, Sarah’s not in danger.”

Again, Baily waited. “Is she about to be run down by a heard of buffalo, uprooted from a ranch in Montana and transplanted to a farm in Pennsylvania, that somehow got loose in the city of Philadelphia and is now on a tragic course headed directly for her?” Baily smiled mischievously thinking he might laugh.

He didn’t. “No, that isn’t the problem, either.”

Frankly, Baily was out of options.

“She’s in love,” Daniel muttered, as if that were far worse than any of the before-mentioned suggestions.

Confused, Baily prompted him to elaborate. “In love? That is why her life’s at stake? Because she’s in love?”

Daniel was again reluctant to share personal information with this woman. He had a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t going to approve of his tactics.

His reticence was clear. Baily watched as he struggled over whether or not to divulge the information. She decided that she would make it easier for him. “Hey, if I don’t have a good reason to head east immediately, I might take the opportunity to stop and see the Grand Canyon. And that’s south. I mean, really south.”

Gritting his teeth, he spilled the story. “She’s in love with a man who’s going to rob her blind and leave her shattered. That is what I’m referring to when I say that her life is at stake. Okay maybe not her life, but definitely her future. As her brother, it’s my job to protect her. So I’m on my way to Philadelphia where I will proceed to stop the wedding and save her future.” Both arms crossed over his chest, Daniel stared resolutely out the windshield at the road ahead. The discussion was over as far as he was concerned.

Baily, however, was not quite ready to let the matter drop. First things first. “How do you know this guy is going to steal all her money?”

Daniel struggled to put his thoughts into words.

“He’s…he’s…”

“Yes?”

“Slick,” Daniel finally said, as if that explained everything.

“And…”

“And?”

“Yes,” Baily reiterated. “And. And. As in, what else, or in addition to, or as well as. And.”

“What?” Daniel had lost her train of thought. Not to mention his.

Exasperated, Baily screamed, “Exactly! What? Surely you’ve got more to go on than the fact that he’s slick!”

“You don’t have to shout.” Typical woman, Daniel thought, always flying off the handle at the least little thing.

Question: a woman drives a car at sixty-five miles per hour on a highway and shoves a man who weighs one hundred and eighty pounds out of the speeding car. How many years does the woman serve in prison for justifiable manslaughter? Answer: zero. She was justified. It was a trick question.

In a calm and rational voice Baily asked, “What’s his name?”

“Pierce Larson. And doesn’t that just smack of a con man. I mean really, Pierce? Pierce Larson.” Daniel repeated in what Baily believed to be an English accent.

He sounded ridiculous. Giggling, Baily asked, “Is he English?”

“No,” Daniel replied, unsure of how to react to her laughter. As a rule, people didn’t laugh at Daniel Blake. Then again Daniel didn’t often say much that would be considered humorous.

“So he’s slick and you think his name is fake. And that is the reason, the only reason, you want to stop your sister’s wedding?”

“Yes.”

“We’re going to the Grand Canyon.”

“Come on. Seriously, Pierce? It sounds as if it comes from one of those silly romantic books about the English earl who falls in love with a chambermaid. Really, the name couldn’t be any sillier unless it were…”

“Baily,” Baily supplied with a mischievous grin. Somehow she knew that her name was on the tip of his tongue.

Not in least perturbed, Daniel replied, “Exactly. Baily is a silly name. So much so, I think I’m going to have to refuse to call you by such an appellation.”

“It’s going to be a while before we get to Jackson Hole. What do you plan to call me for all that time? ‘Hey, you’ might not work if we find ourselves in a crowd at the next pit stop.”

“I’ll make sure I poke your shoulder when I say, ‘Hey, you.’”

“It’s funny because you look like a rational man, but it’s becoming clear to me that you rarely make sense.”

“I don’t make sense? Miss I’m-going-home-to-marry-aman-I-haven’t-seen-in-seven-years, and I’m bringing my cat who, by the way, thinks she’s the president of the United States, is telling me I don’t make sense.”

With an affirmative nod, Baily confirmed, “Yes, you don’t make any sense.”

Maybe she did have a slight point, but Daniel certainly wasn’t about to admit that to her. “It’s more than that. He knows exactly what to say, yet he says nothing. I’ve asked him several times what he does for a living. He tells a fine story and goes into great detail, but after a fifteen-minute dissertation I still don’t know what he does. He says nothing about his family or his background. As far as I can tell, he comes from nowhere. He’s nothing more than a leech. In addition to all that, he doesn’t look at her like…”

“Like what?” Baily asked genuinely curious.

“Never mind,” Daniel said, shaking off that thought. He was going to say that he doesn’t look at his sister like a man in love. But that would have been preposterous since Daniel himself didn’t believe in love. Neither did Red, he reminded himself.

“No, tell me.” Baily didn’t know why it was important for her to know, but she couldn’t seem to stem her curiosity about the drama in which she had embroiled herself.

“When Sarah looks at him, he’s all smiles and kisses. When she turns her head, it’s as if he takes off a mask and underneath is another person. I’m convinced he’s conning her.”

Baily believed him. Although she had no doubt that Daniel was too protective for his own good, he didn’t seem the type to interfere unless he thought it was necessary. “Perhaps you don’t want to let your little sister go,” Baily suggested. She had been on the receiving end of her brothers’ protectiveness and knew from firsthand experience that it stemmed from them not wanting to let her grow up.

It was Daniel’s turn to laugh, but he wasn’t amused. “Believe me, I would be more than willing to give Sarah away to the first decent man that would have her. She needs someone to watch over her and protect her, and I am simply not there enough. Pierce Larson, however, is not a decent man. I’m sure of it.”

Daniel wanted nothing more than to relinquish his role as Sarah’s guardian. Mostly because he knew he hadn’t done the job to his own satisfaction. If she were married to a good man, a strong man, Daniel could absolve himself of the guilt that plagued him.

“Why didn’t you try to run him off the last time you saw him?” Baily wondered. For the time being she decided to believe that Daniel was probably correct in his assumptions, which meant she might as well lend her hand to the cause of ousting Pierce from Sarah’s life.

“I tried,” Daniel explained, seeing that Red was with him in his efforts. Great, now he had a partner. A female partner. In the next few hours they were sure to come up with some idea of how to get rid of Pierce without sending Sarah straight into his arms. “I thought he had gotten the message. I was mistaken.”

“Let’s rule out the obvious. Number one, you can’t bribe him. That would be the worst mistake.”

Cautiously, Daniel asked, “Why do you say that?”

Baily sighed as she realized she was dealing with an amateur in these matters. “Don’t you ever watch TV? When the rich father—or brother, as the case may be—” Baily used her hand as a pointer to indicate Daniel without actually looking at him “—offers the sleazy boyfriend money to stay away from his daughter, or sister, as the case may be, the sleazy boyfriend always tells his girlfriend. The girlfriend becomes so enraged with her father, or her brother—”

“As the case may be,” Daniel supplied. “I get the picture.”

Baily continued. “…for insulting her boyfriend and trying to interfere with her happiness, which she is convinced rests with the sleazy boyfriend that she immediately elopes with him. Simple.”

“Ha!” Daniel shouted, his finger in the air with triumph.

“What do you mean, ‘ha’?”

Wiggling his eyebrows, Daniel told her smugly, “I did offer him a bribe. That was months ago and they haven’t eloped.”

“No, they didn’t elope. They just decided to get married and only gave you…how many days’ notice was that?”

“Seven. Now I have only five days left to get there.”

“Seven,” she repeated. “Enough time for you to make it home and walk your sister down the aisle. The bribe obviously didn’t work.” If smug was a woman, she would look like Baily.

“Maybe I didn’t offer him enough,” Daniel muttered, not willing to concede total defeat.

“If this guy is as slick as you say he is, then we’re going to have to do better than a bribe.” The sound of her brain clicking into devious action seemed to emanate throughout the tiny car. Even Miss Roosevelt looked up from her pillow in the back seat.

“‘We’?” Daniel asked. When she said the word, it made it sound as if they were going to be together longer than they were. For whatever reason, the idea of them together for longer than a day didn’t sound as horrible to Daniel as it had that morning.

“Lord knows you’re going to need the help. A bribe! How cliché.” Baily ignored his mention of the word “we,” but she couldn’t help but be affected by the significance of it. We. Frightening thought.

Daniel chuckled and let his head fall back against the seat. He was content now to forget his worries and to let Red try to wrestle with the problem of how to separate Pierce from his sister. He was also long overdue for that nap he’d planned to take. “Wake me when you need a break.”

“I’ll wake you when we get to Yellowstone. You can’t miss Yellowstone,” Baily informed him, her voice as serious as stone.

“I wouldn’t think of missing Yellowstone.”

In minutes Daniel was asleep and the occasional snore filled the car. As much as she could, Baily took her eyes off the road to peek at her passenger. It was odd, but he reminded her of a new toy that was fun to play with. He challenged her, made her laugh, and also made her feel comfortable in his presence. They barely knew each other yet they had basically spilled their life stories to one another.

As a child Baily had received many toys. She would play with them nonstop, for hours on end. After a time, though, she would get bored and move on to her other toys. But every so often there came a special toy. Those toys became her best friends forever. Those toys she took to bed with her and snuggled with them under the covers to pass away the hours of the long, dark, lonely night. Those toys had become part of her life and she felt less than whole when she was without them.

In a slight whisper Baily asked, “What do you think, Miss Roosevelt? Should we keep him?”

“Meow.”

“I agree,” Baily replied.

Daniel, who woke at the sound of Baily’s voice, spent the next few hours trying to decipher what the cat had said.

“WE’RE HERE!”

Daniel felt the car jolt to a stop. Surprised that he had actually dozed off, he took a few minutes to get his bearings. There were cars in front of him, in back of him, to his right, and to his left. Either they were stuck in a really bad traffic jam or they were in a parking lot.

“Come on, sleepyhead. I let you sleep through the elk sighting, but this is Old Faithful,” Baily informed him. She pulled Miss Roosevelt from her spot with difficulty, as Theodora was also unwilling to relinquish her nap time. “I swear between the two of you you’re like a bunch of babies. There will be time to sleep later. Right now we have a national treasure to see.”

“Meow,” Theodora complained.

“I agree with the cat. Wake us when you get back,” Daniel groaned. He’d been in the middle of a wonderful sexy dream, and he wanted to return to it. A vision of Red flashed in front of his eyes, and he suddenly realized that she’d been the focal point of his dream. Since that kind of thinking had been outlawed this morning, Daniel forced himself to wake up, but his eyes wouldn’t cooperate.

Baily decided to encourage him.

The loud blaring noise of a horn rang throughout the car, and Daniel wondered whether or not they were in a state that permitted spanking. Her point made, he opened his door and left the car.

Satisfied, Baily removed her hand from the horn and scooped up Theodora in her arms. She moved around the car and began to follow Daniel as he headed in the direction of all the other tourists.

“Sorry about the guerrilla tactics to wake you up, but I’m convinced you would have been devastated if you had missed this,” Baily apologized.

“Devastated,” he assured her insincerely.

In front of a large clearing where the hot springs were located, Daniel could see a huge clock on the side of the recreation center. It was eight minutes to countdown until the ever-faithful gusher blew.

The two moved up to the barrier that kept the tourists at a safe distance from the hot water. Daniel turned to see that Baily was practically jumping out of her skin with excitement over what was about to happen. He was about to tease her, after all it was just some bubbling water, but somehow her excitement became infectious. Even Miss Roosevelt’s ears had perked up.

“The pressure from the heat of the spring builds up until finally it must be released,” the tour guide lectured to the group standing around the barrier. She continued with a complete explanation of how the spring worked.

Baily hung on every word. Then water suddenly began to spout from the opening in the ground. It wasn’t exploding yet, just a bubbling of water that indicated the time was at hand.

“Isn’t this thrilling?” Baily turned and with her free hand she clasped Daniel’s, squeezing it tightly as the water began to shoot up higher and higher.

Daniel looked down at their joined hands. He didn’t feel any spark of electricity. He didn’t see fireworks in the distance or hear the clamor of bells in his ears. Instead he felt the crush of people around him, smelled the stale steam that emanated from the water, and saw two hands joined. His and hers linked together. He sensed a swirling in his stomach and decided that he must be hungry.

“Wow!” The water was twenty feet high now, exploding from the ground like a rocket headed for space. Baily jumped up and down, subconsciously imitating the water. Theodora whined at the treatment, but Baily was heedless of her irritation. She didn’t just witness Old Faithful—she experienced it as no one else around them was doing.

All too soon it ended. The water subsided, as did Baily’s jumping. She turned to Daniel who seemed to be more enthralled with her than he was with the spectacle. “Wasn’t it wonderful?”

“Yes it was,” he answered truthfully.

Baily thought that he sounded a bit cryptic, but she didn’t pursue it. “Well, let’s make tracks. We want to make Jackson Hole by nightfall. There will be a place where you can rent a car. Then tomorrow you can head east.” For what ever reason the words turned sour in her mouth.

And the words sounded sour to his ears. But it made sense for him to get his own car. Didn’t it? Of course it did. This woman was trouble. And he was too damned attracted to her. He couldn’t deal with that attraction and save his sister at the same time. Besides, any attraction he might feel for Baily would be a lesson in futility. They might be driving in the same direction, but emotionally they were headed their separate ways: one toward a home and family, the other as far away from a home and family as he could possibly get. The only thing to do was to separate.

Without argument, Daniel followed Baily back to the car. Purposely, he moved to stand by the driver’s side door. Now that he had decided to leave her, he wanted to get the leaving over with as soon as possible before he did something stupid such as reconsider his options.

Baily looked at him suspiciously.

“If you want to make Jackson Hole by nightfall, trust me—this is the only way,” Daniel reasoned, and stuck out his hand for the keys. Baily acquiesced and handed him the keys. As soon as he had them in hand, Daniel completed his thought. “You drive like an old lady.”

Affronted, but not really because it was more or less the truth, Baily made herself comfortable in the passenger’s seat, snuggling Theodora into her lap. Her legs bumped into her cooler, and she remembered that she had put another six-pack of Diet Pepsi on ice this morning. A cold soda sounded delicious to her while she still felt the residual heat from all that steam at Old Faithful.

“Do you want a soda?” she asked, her hand remaining in the cooler in case he answered in the affirmative.

“Diet?” Daniel questioned. Baily’s nod prompted his answer. “No, thank you.”

With a shrug Baily pulled out a can for herself and cracked it open. She took long, audible gulps and sighed after she pulled the can away from her lips. She was like a commercial; she compelled Daniel to watch. Once again her actions were bolder than Daniel thought they should be, bolder than anybody else’s actions would have been. She didn’t just drink the soda, she consumed it. He couldn’t help but be distracted by the sizzle of the soda, the sound of her sigh, the sight of her neck arched back and her throat as she swallowed. Then to really drive him nuts she placed the perspiring can against her neck, her cheeks and her forehead to cool herself.

Catching his gaze, Baily asked, “Are you sure you don’t want one?”

“I don’t like diet soda,” he explained. “Besides, what do you need diet soda for anyway? You have a perfect figure.”

Smiling at the compliment and blushing slightly, too, Baily replied, “I hardly have a perfect figure, but what I do have I owe to diet soda. It’s not so bad once you get used to it.”

Another gulp oozed down her throat and Daniel crumbled. “Okay, give me a sip.”

“Why don’t I just get you your own?”

“I don’t know if I’ll like it, and I don’t want you to waste a whole can on me.” I want that one, he thought. I want to put my lips where yours have been and taste the sweetness of your mouth, which I’m sure, is far sweeter than any soda could ever be. He kept that opinion to himself.

Baily seemed almost reluctant to give him the can. She, too, was thinking about where her mouth had been, and where his would be, and where hers would be after his had been there. It was practically kissing!

Reaching his hand around the can, Daniel actually had to tug it away from her. “I don’t have cooties.”

With a laugh that gave no hint of humor, Baily relinquished her soda. She watched him as he put his lips over the rim and craned his neck to take in the sweet, carbonated fluid. His bottom lip was fuller than his top lip and it flattened against the can, leaving a trace of moisture where his hot breath had formed dew against the cold can.

Gulp. Baily swallowed. And she wasn’t the one drinking. Daniel handed the can back to her with a satisfied, “Ah.”

Then he waited.

Baily looked down at the can. She saw where his lips had been and felt him stare at her between the glimpses he shot at the road. All she had to do was wipe his presence from the can with her fingers. It would have been a clear signal to him that she meant to keep her distance from this stranger who had so suddenly entered her life.

Instead she lifted the can to her lips and took a deep swig. What the hell, she thought. Maybe it was time to start living a little more dangerously. After all, she was headed home to Harry. Life couldn’t get any less dangerous than Harry.

For some reason Daniel was inordinately pleased. “So are you one of those diet fanatics who always watches their fat content?” he asked, turning the conversation back to the mundane to ease the sensual tension they had just created.

“Yes,” Baily sighed. “Sad to say I am. But I do have the occasional lapse. Actually it’s more than occasional, as you might have noticed by the way my shorts snug my rump a bit to…snugly.”

He had noticed. But he had liked the result.

“I have this awful craving for chocolate-chip cookies,” she admitted. “It’s like an addiction.”

“You mean the soft gooey kind with big chunks of chocolate,” Daniel elaborated. He often suffered from similar cravings.

Baily closed her eyes with desire. “Oh, yeah! You pull it apart and the chocolate drips from one end of the cookie to the other. Yum-mm.”

“And walnuts,” Daniel added. “I love it when they add the walnuts.”

Baily’s mouth popped open and she sat up a bit straighter, her expression incredulous. “You don’t really like the walnuts.”

Taken back by her fervor, Daniel corrected her. “I love the walnuts.”

“Nobody loves the walnuts.”

“I love the walnuts,” Daniel insisted.

Baily simply couldn’t believe it. “But that’s impossible. Everybody knows that the easiest way to ruin a perfectly good chocolate-chip cookie is to throw in walnuts. It’s a myth. Everybody really hates the walnuts.”

“Not me!” Daniel retorted, irritated at her suggestion that he was a freak just for liking walnuts in his damn cookies. “I adore the walnuts. I worship the walnuts. A cookie isn’t a cookie without the walnuts!”

“You know it’s people like you who ruin it for the rest of us. I can’t go to a bakery these days without having to specifically ask for cookies without walnuts. It should be the other way around. You freaks should simply do your walnut eating at home and let the majority enjoy their cookies the way they want them.” Baily was incensed. Just the other day she had bought a cookie only to find that it had walnuts in it. Yuck.

Daniel wasn’t about to let up so quickly. “Ha!”

“Again with the ‘ha.’”

Undaunted, he continued. “Did you ever think that maybe us walnut-eating people were the majority, and that’s why all the bakeries make their cookies that way?”

“No.”

It lasted for hours. The great walnut debate continued long into the afternoon and into early evening. Textures, taste, fullness, richness, all were debated with one being pro walnut, the other con walnut. It wasn’t until they reached Jackson Hole and found a motel that they both realized that they had spent an entire afternoon arguing about a nut.

Getting out of the car and stretching, they looked at each other.

“We’re nuts, no pun intended. You do realize that? We’ve spent hours talking about cookies.”

“Well, if you hadn’t been so insistent….”

“I was insistent? What the hell were you?” Daniel asked as he started toward the hotel lobby to check in.

“I wasn’t insistent. I was right,” Baily shouted over her shoulder. “And wait a minute, wait a minute! Let’s first find a place where you can rent a car, then we’ll check in.”

“Fine,” Daniel said huffily. “Once that’s done I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

Forever, Baily thought.

Forever, Daniel thought.