Safe Harbor: A Cold Creek Homecoming Read online

  “I’m the one who’s sorry, Mr. Landry. Please,” she said, holding the door open. “Come in.”

  She led him into the living room, which was the one room in the stately old house that she absolutely hated. It still had heavy, burgundy velvet drapes, dark Oriental carpets and solid antique furniture that was totally out of keeping with the airy, tropical Florida setting and the rambling, Spanish-style house. It had been Gerald’s favorite room, though, and, while he’d allowed her to do as she pleased with the rest of the house, he’d remained adamant about keeping this room the way it was. He’d told her once that it reminded him of his grandparents’ home in Boston. Because of that sentimental tie she hadn’t yet been able to bring herself to redecorate in a style more suited to her own informal taste.

  “What a charming room,” Drew said, his gaze lingering on the mahogany bookshelves lined with expensively bound volumes of the classics. Either he had borderline taste, Tina thought, or he had gone to finishing school and passed the elementary course in polite chitchat that she’d missed.

  “Isn’t it?” chimed in a whispery, disembodied feminine voice.

  “Aunt Juliet?” Tina said, instantly on guard. “Where are you?”

  “Over here,” the voice replied.

  “Over where?”

  “Behind the drapes.”

  Tina sighed. Apparently it was going to be another one of Aunt Juliet’s less than conventional nights. “Why?”

  Sparkling brown eyes, peering out from behind wire-rimmed glasses that had slipped to the end of a pert nose, appeared at the edge of the drapes. “I was watching for Mr. Kelly.”

  “Mr. Kelly is upstairs.”

  “Oh,” Aunt Juliet said, sighing in disappointment. “I was so hoping to see him tonight.”

  “You will see him, Aunt Juliet,” Tina said patiently, wondering just what Drew was going to make of this scene. She and the rest of the household had gotten used to Aunt Juliet’s whimsical departures from reality, but to an outsider already expecting the worst she must seem decidedly odd. “He’ll be down for dinner shortly.”

  “Oh, good,” Juliet said happily, slipping into the room and catching sight of Drew. She tilted her head at an inquisitive angle to get a better look at him and smoothed her sedate black dress down over her ample figure. Aunt Juliet had dressed in mourning since her own husband’s death thirty-five years earlier, and not even Tina’s gaily-colored Christmas and birthday offerings had been able to tempt her out of her somber attire. The gifts were still hanging in Juliet’s closet. Now she touched her fingers lightly to the wisps of fading brown hair that were escaping from the braided coil on top of her head.

  “And who is this?” she asked, staring at Drew with interest.

  “This is Mr. Landry, Aunt Juliet. You remember, we invited him for dinner.”

  “Well, of course I remember. I’m not senile yet,” she grumbled. “How do you do, Mr. Landry? Tina has told us so much about you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I’m sure you’ll be very happy together. Tina is such a lovely girl. We’re all quite fond of her.”

  Tina choked and tried to think of some urgent crisis that might require her immediate attention. Unfortunately, the only crisis seemed to be right here. She glanced sideways at Drew to see how he was taking the unexpected announcement of their betrothal. His gaze was sliding over her, an appreciative gleam building in his eyes, an amused quirk playing about his lips. He looked satisfied.

  “Yes, she is lovely,” he said, taking her hand and bringing it to those lips. They were just as soft, just as sensuously persuasive as she’d imagined. In fact, their touch was so disturbing that Tina wanted to jerk her hand away, but he was holding it with just enough pressure to prevent her from doing it. His mouth caressed the back of her hand, then the inside of her wrist, and currents of awareness ripped unexpectedly through her like an unexpected bolt of lightning. She had the oddest sensation that the storm between them was beginning and that it was destined to be a wildly passionate one.

  “A drink,” she mumbled, working her hand loose from his grasp as she caught the despicable, knowing laughter in his eyes. “Aunt Juliet, would you like some sherry?”

  “That would be lovely.”

  “Mr. Landry?”

  “Scotch, please.”

  “With water? Soda?”

  “No. Straight, on the rocks.”

  Naturally he’d want it straight, she thought as she went to the bar. Frankly, she wouldn’t mind a straight swallow of the stuff herself, she thought, noting that if today had been any indication, the man definitely seemed to have the potential to drive her to drink. The thought held a definite appeal. Maybe then, with a strong drink under her belt, she wouldn’t notice that her hand was still shaking or that there was an intense, white-hot sensation settling low in her abdomen.

  Martin, damn him, had never stirred such feelings in her, she thought with an irrational surge of fury. Come to think of it, Martin had never kissed her hand. He’d settled for ending each date with a chaste peck on the cheek.

  Much as she hated to admit it, Grandmother Sarah was probably right about Martin. He wasn’t the right man for her. Not after Gerald. They might share the same social circle and the same interests, but her evenings with him were less exciting than the ones she spent playing cutthroat Scrabble with Mr. Kelly and Aunt Juliet.

  Already she knew that Drew Landry was definitely more exciting than a Scrabble game. He would never settle for a chaste peck on the cheek. The man was as bold and greedy as a pirate. His lips would maraud hers, his tongue plundering her mouth for every wildly stirring sensation.

  As she handed him his drink and caught the predatory gleam in his eye once again, she knew that he would accept nothing less than total possession. The thought, complete with more of those enticingly sensual images, sent a shudder through her. Her brain obviously had not been speaking to her body lately. Otherwise her hormones would not be reacting with such ridiculous abandon to a man that she’d already ascertained was a domineering, class-conscious jerk, out to ruin her life and send her dearest friends packing.

  Dinner, she decided, was going to be very interesting. The whole evening was potentially explosive. If the first few minutes were anything to go by, it was also going to seem interminably long.

  She decided to leave Drew alone with Aunt Juliet and try to hurry dinner along. Excusing herself, she raced back to the kitchen.

  “Is it ready yet?”

  “Another few minutes,” Sarah said. “How is it going?”

  “Aunt Juliet is entertaining him.”

  Sarah’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh, my. Perhaps you should get back.”

  “Don’t worry. She can’t do much more harm. She’s already informed him that she thinks we’ll be very happy together.”

  Sarah brightened. “That’s wonderful. I must admit the thought had crossed my mind, too.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sakes. You don’t even know the man,” Tina grumbled. “Will you stop matchmaking and get dinner on the table. I want him out of here.”

  “Dear, he just arrived, and the whole point of this evening is to show him that he doesn’t have to worry about having us for neighbors.”

  “I think we’ve already lost that argument. Aunt Juliet was hiding behind the drapes when he arrived.”

  Sarah shrugged. “He can’t possibly make too much out of that. Now if she’d been running through the neighborhood naked...”

  Tina shuddered. “Don’t even say it.”

  “Christina, you know perfectly well I was only trying to make a point. Juliet is a lady. She would never do that,” Sarah huffed indignantly. She paused thoughtfully. “And I don’t think Mr. Kelly is likely to do it anymore, either. He loves those new pajamas you gave him after the first time he went for a midnight stroll in
the altogether.”

  “Thank goodness we stopped him from sleepwalking before he got off the estate.”

  “No,” Sarah chided. “Thank goodness we caught him before he caught his death of cold running around in the middle of the night.”

  She dished up a bowl of Mr. Kelly’s fresh green beans and handed them to Tina. “Put these on the table, dear, and then call everyone. Dinner’s ready.”

  Tina got Billy and Mr. Kelly first, then went back to the living room for Drew and Aunt Juliet. She found them bent over the Scrabble board.

  “There is no such word, Mr. Landry,” Aunt Juliet was protesting vehemently.

  “Of course, there is. You’re just mad because I got to use my q and my x in the same word with double points,” he teased.

  “Mr. Landry, don’t you try to cheat an old lady. Quick does not have an x in it.”

  His brow creased in a frown, and he gazed at her uncertainly. Only Tina caught the gently teasing laughter in his eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “It’s a good thing you’re an executive,” Juliet consoled.

  “Oh? Why is that?”

  “So you can hire an assistant to spell for you.”

  Drew laughed heartily at the sharp retort. To Tina’s amazement, he actually seemed to be having a good time. In fact, he didn’t seem the least bit stuffy, which was more than a little disconcerting. She could fight an attraction to a man who disapproved of her friends. She wasn’t at all sure she could do battle with a man who was fitting in like one of the family.

  “I must have been thinking of quixotic,” he said, casting a significant glance at Tina, who scowled back at him.

  “I may be a bit idealistic, but I am also very practical, Mr. Landry,” Tina said. “That’s why I’d like to invite you to come to dinner before it gets cold.”

  “Is Mr. Kelly there?” Aunt Juliet inquired in a whisper to Tina.

  Tina grinned at her. From the moment that Jacob Kelly had moved in, Aunt Juliet had been smitten. So far, though, her love had gone unrequited. “He’s there.”

  “Do I look okay?”

  “You look positively lovely,” Drew chimed in, gallantly offering her his arm. “Let’s go make this Mr. Kelly of yours insanely jealous. Perhaps we should tell him that I’ve made you a proposal of marriage and that you’re seriously considering it.”

  Aunt Juliet giggled like a schoolgirl and blushed becomingly. “Why, Mr. Landry, you devil. You know perfectly well you’re much too young for an old woman like me. Besides, whatever would Tina think?”

  He gazed over at Tina, his blue eyes warmly appraising, and her heart turned another somersault.

  “Oh, I don’t think she’d mind loaning me out to a friend just this once. Would you, dear?”

  “Of course not, dear,” she retorted sweetly, then wondered if she’d feel quite so charitable if the friend were thirty and gorgeous, instead of a slightly faded, if charming seventy-two. It was probably a question best left unanswered.

  In the dining room, Tina performed the introductions and tried to ignore the way Grandmother Sarah was openly assessing Drew and nodding approvingly. Clearly, if things were to be left up to her, Tina’s fate would be sealed. Aunt Juliet might have made a slightly dazed miscalculation about the relationship between Tina and her guest, but Sarah was sound of mind and very quick. She was perfectly capable of launching a series of romantic maneuvers that would land Tina and Drew in front of a minister before brunch next Sunday. Since Drew had no way of knowing what he was up against, it was up to Tina to dodge Sarah’s carefully planned snares.

  She missed the first one.

  No sooner had she been seated in her usual place than Sarah was nudging Billy away from his regular chair on her left and urging Drew toward it. The quickly executed maneuver put Drew’s long legs within mere inches of Tina’s. In fact, if she shifted only slightly toward the radiating heat of his flesh, their knees would be touching. She had the darnedest urge to slip her foot out of its sandal and run it up the hard muscle of his calf. Instead, she picked up her crystal water glass with trembling fingers and took a deep swallow, wondering if it might not be far wiser to douse herself with the icy water.

  Drew suddenly gasped and jerked backward so quickly his chair almost toppled over. “What was that?”

  For a horrifying instant, Tina wondered if her foot had followed her instincts after all. Then she glanced under the table and, with a sigh of relief, saw that her shoe was still on her foot where it belonged. A further survey caught Aster slinking away.

  “It was the cat,” she said.

  “Which one?” Billy wanted to know, before Tina could shut him up.

  “How many do you have?” Drew asked.

  “Let’s see,” Billy began. “There’s Jake and Lucifer and Marian and...”

  “It was Aster,” Tina said quickly, but not quickly enough.

  “There are eight altogether,” Billy said cheerfully.

  “Eight?” Drew gulped, then sneezed. And sneezed again. His eyes started watering.

  “Bless you,” Sarah and Juliet said in unison.

  “Thank you.”

  “Wait,” Billy said. “There are nine now, aren’t there, Tina? I’d forgotten about the one that Tiger brought home yesterday.”

  Drew appeared stunned. “My Lord!”

  “Mr. Landry!” Grandmother Sarah protested.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” he said, and Tina had to restrain a chuckle. She wondered if Drew had been chastised that effectively since he’d left the cradle. Considering the fierce scowls of which he was capable, she doubted it.

  “Don’t you like cats, Mr. Landry?” Aunt Juliet said. “That could be a bit of a problem. Tina loves them so.”

  “It’s not that I don’t like them. I’m allergic to them.” He sneezed again, as if to emphasize the point.

  Tina briefly considered rounding every one of them up and bringing them into the dining room, but Drew’s earlier assessment of her manners kept her from fueling his criticism.

  “Billy, get Aster out of here, please,” she requested. “And make sure the others are in one of the back rooms or upstairs someplace.”

  “What about Panther?”

  Drew’s eyes widened considerably. “You have a panther here?”

  “Of course not,” Billy said disgustedly. “Panther is a dog.”

  There was a sudden twinkle in Drew’s eyes, and his lips curved into a grin. “Obviously. How foolish of me. I hesitate to ask, but is Panther the only dog?”

  Tina shrugged. “He was yesterday. It’s hard to say today. Sometimes he brings home friends.”

  “Naturally,” Drew said dryly.

  Once the animals had been hidden away, dinner went relatively smoothly. To Grandmother Sarah’s smug satisfaction, Drew ate two helpings of everything, including the cherry pie, and exclaimed over the fresh vegetables from Mr. Kelly’s garden.

  “Compost,” Mr. Kelly informed him. “You have to have good compost.”

  “I’m sure Mr. Landry isn’t interested in how you fertilize the garden,” Tina interrupted.

  “What’s that?” Mr. Kelly asked loudly, and Tina realized he’d left his hearing aid upstairs again.

  “I said that Mr. Landry probably doesn’t care about fertilizer.”

  “Course he does,” Mr. Kelly retorted, scowling at her. “A man can never know too much about fertilizer. How else do you expect him to grow decent vegetables?”

  “I’m sure Mr. Landry doesn’t grow his own vegetables. He probably has them shipped in seasonally.”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” Drew said, his gaze challenging hers. Cool blue ice taunting amber fire. “From my farm in Iowa.”

  Tina’s mouth dropped open. “You own a farm?”

  “I was born on o
ne. My father still lives there.”

  “Why, that’s wonderful,” Grandmother Sarah said, when Tina couldn’t seem to think of a single thing to utter to a man who’d just destroyed every preconceived notion she had about him.

  She had figured that Drew Landry had grown up attending the best schools in Europe, playing squash or polo with princes and spending his summers on the Riviera courting beautiful young heiresses. That was the lifestyle of most of her neighbors. From the late 1800s when Henry Morrison Flagler had built the first railroad into South Florida, the city had been the resort of the wealthy. Even in the early days hotel suites at the Royal Poinciana had gone for one hundred dollars a night at the height of the season. She’d figured Drew for one of those whose families had been ensconced here for generations. Instead, he was a farmer. Astonishing!

  “I’ve always thought a man who understands the earth is much wiser than those fellows who spend all their time tinkering around with computers and that kind of nonsense,” Sarah continued, ignoring Tina’s increasingly stunned expression. Harrington Industries had been built on the fortunes of the tech boom, Tina groused mentally. You’d think Sarah would at least feign approval of the company that kept food on their table.

  “The earth will be here long after all these mechanical gizmos break down,” Sarah said, returning Tina’s scowl with a defiant look of her own.

  “That’s just what my father used to say,” Drew agreed, still staring into Tina’s flashing eyes with an amused, penetrating look that said volumes about what he was reading in her mind.

  Grandmother Sarah obviously caught the flare of sparks arcing between the two, because she hopped out of her chair and began bustling around. “Come on, Juliet, let’s clean up these dishes.”

  “I’ll clean up,” Tina said. “That’s my job.”