She must have realized that her voice was beginning to crescendo, because abruptly she stopped. Glared. Took a good drink of beer, which looked so incongruous with thedelicate picture she presented with her soft skirt aswirl onthe bench and her hair dancing just a little with the whisperof air from the fan.
Tony tried not to notice. “I’m only here if you want totalk about it,” he assured her.
“Talk about it?” she retorted, new color in those terribly sallow cheeks. “I have talked about it. I talked until I was hoarse. I screamed and chased people and insulted total strangers. Did me a lot of good. It was, if you ask me,one of the most dramatically selfish things I ever did, and Idon’t plan to do it again.”
It took Tony a second to answer that one. “Selfish?” heasked.
She stared him down as if he were a prosecutor and shethe innocent defendant. Tony could see the pulse throb ather jaw, could hear the strident edge of control in her voice.He recognized the low flash point and wondered how long she’d functioned like this.
“Actually,” she said very carefully, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to stay. I don’t want to take up your vacation, and I can get a contractor to finish the work—”
Tony held up a hand. “I don’t think you know what I hadin mind,” he said, praying hard that his answer was the rightone. He was walking blind through the kind of minefield hewasn’t trained to defuse. “I’d spend most of my time overin the inn. I guarantee my work, and my behavior... whichI’m sure Peaches would be more than happy to supervise. Iknow that I set some... things in motion by coming backhere, and I thought if I could help in any way, I would.”
“I don’t need—”
“That could mean anything from talking to simply having company late at night when you can’t sleep. I know howhard that is to explain to people who haven’t lived a lifeworth having nightmares over.”
“You think I have nightmares?”
“You wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t.”
For just a second, he thought she’d break. He saw hereyes widen, her body go so rigid she should have shatteredlike stressed glass. The beer can creaked in her grasp, and her mouth opened just a little.
“Breathe,” Tony commanded.
She started like a slapped sleepwalker. “What?”
He smiled when he hadn’t felt less like smiling in years.“You weren’t breathing. Tough to make those hard decisions when you’re not getting any oxygen to the brain.”
She shook her head. “No.”
He held up both hands this time, the classic pose of acquiescence. “Okay. But could I wait to go untilafterI eat? I’ve been working on that sauce all afternoon.”
He actually got a smile out of her. Not a big one, but atleast an honest softening of her features. “I’ve never oncebeen accused of withholding nourishment from a starvingman. Besides, Jess would skewer me on the spot.”
Tony nodded and finished his beer. “In that case, I needto wash up. As soon as Peaches and your son show up, wecan eat.”
He didn’t walk out of the room. He escaped. He got hisbutt out of there before he ended up reaching over to finger her hair, to run his thumb along her cheek. To pull her intohis arms and let her be safe for just a minute.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to say thank-you to the woman who had saved him,to complete the task he’d set himself on Memorial Day, toleave. He was supposed to get back on with his life, just as he’d been planning to do all along.
Instead, he found himself wanting to stay. Not just because he felt obliged to this woman. Not because she’d held his hand and seen him through hell.
Because she was soft and gentle. Because she had eyes thecolor of rain. Because, somewhere deep in those unexpected places where a man leaves the tiniest part of his heartexposed, she’d pierced it through the moment she’d turned to him and smiled.
“Idiot,” he muttered to the reflection in the old beveledbathroom mirror. The reflection didn’t illuminate him any.It simply scowled, knowing perfectly well what he’d gotten himself into—even before he laid out the rest of his plan or called Gina to make sure it was all right with her.
“Idiot.”
He heard the raised voices before he even set foot out ofthe bathroom. He identified them the minute he opened thedoor.
Johnny was home.
Tony saw him poised against the door, as if caught between places. Pinned to the floor by his mother’s reaction,poised for flight by his own indignation. The only thingkeeping him in the house was the mass of humanity standing stolidly between him and escape.
Peaches. Scowling and silent as ever, his eyes turning withunerring instinct to the interloper who was approaching from the front rooms.
“But it’s an opportunity I can’t pass up!” Johnny protested. “You won’t let me go to any of the academies, andthis would get me into ROTC. With my license and hours,it would make me a shoo-in for OCS and wings.”
