Attraction Page 11

  her.

  “Mr. Wait…”

  “I think you better start calling me by my name, Ms. Calderon, as I should start calling

  you by yours. Riley.”

  “I’m not quite sure I can do that. You’re so imposing of a man, both in personality and

  physically, that something about you demands a formal address. You know, the way one will always address the American president, even when he is not the president, or as one always

  addresses an agent of the church.”

  “I’m afraid you will have no choice in this matter, Ms…Riley.”

  “You’re right. Heron. As I was saying, Heron, I hope that whatever and however

  numerous faults that you find in me, I hope they do not affect how you feel for my sister.” “I think I can safely say that I’m not that much of a moral prig. For one thing, you and

  Roberta are so unalike, almost the opposites. And, yet, it puzzles me that you and she are so

  close.”

  “We’re not as far apart as you think. We both believe in family, relationships. We’re both

  pretty loyal to people we love. We have similar values, similar views. It’s just our two natures

  are very different. I’m pretty critical of the world, and she wants to think the very best of it.

  Where I can be pretty reserved and offputting, she has a sunny nature, is very loving, readily

  accepting of others, overlooks the faults of others and only sees their positive side, even in

  pitbulls, is very warm, kind, gentle, generous, extremely patient, would never wantonly hurt

  another. And I’m…Well, I’m me. Now, I’ve not been around your family much, but I get the

  impression that if you’re close to anyone, it would be your brother. And I’d say you and he are

  like water and oil.”

  “Like you said, family ties are very strong. When you live and grow up with someone for

  so long, what is there to do but to love them.”

  Riley looked at him in surprise. “Wow! I believe that’s the first human thing I’ve heard

  you say since I met you. But I might ask you the same question. You and my sister aren’t exactly

  two peas in a pod. You’re…intense, very ambitious, very strong both mentally and emotionally,

  and you don’t suffer fools very easily. I would think someone like Robbie would seem like milk

  sop to you. I find it rather difficult to figure out what it is you see in her that makes you think

  that she is the one for you.”

  Heron’s mouth with its full, sensuous lower lip twisted wryly, almost self-deprecatingly.

  “I’m no different than other men, Ms. Calderon. Why shouldn’t I want some of that warmth and

  generosity that is Roberta for myself, just as the next guy?”

  Heron drained his glass, set it down and walked out of the bar, leaving Riley to stare after

  him.

  “Huh. Score one for him,” she said softly.

  CHAPTER SIX

  A few days later, a week before the wedding, on a Sunday afternoon, Riley was going

  over her books at her club late afternoon, sitting at the bar, her fingers rapidly ten-keying the

  calculator. Joe was cleaning down the bar, going over his inventory. Wafting from the kitchen

  were smells of garlic and spices as the chef prepared meals for tonight’s small crowd. Neither

  did Riley nor Joe flinch when the chef would every once in awhile rain his displeasure at an

  under chef.

  The phone rang and Joe automatically answered it. He then held the phone out to Riley.

  “It’s your sister, Riles.”

  “Hey, Robbie,” Riley said, continuing her calculations. “What’s up?”

  “Oh, nothing much,” Roberta said offhandedly.

  “Nothing? That doesn’t sound right. I would think you’d be in the middle of a storm of

  preparations.”

  “I’m taking a break, right now. And I thought I’d call you.”

  “I hope you’re not calling me to discuss baby breaths versus green fronds.” “No, no, nothing like that.”

  There was silence from Roberta. Riley stopped her ten-keying. “Robbie, is everything

  alright?”

  “Yes, it is. The reason why I called…Well, I wanted to ask you a question.” “Yes,” Riley prompted when her sister didn’t continue.

  “Well, you know how I’ve always known what I wanted in life. Right? I mean, I knew

  what degree I wanted to get in college, I knew what I wanted to do as a career, which company I

  wanted to work for. I mean, you and I are both that way, aren’t we? And we both have been

  successful in getting what we want. We set a goal, we focus our energy on that goal, and we

  work to get where we want to. Right?”

  “Robbie, what are you getting at?”

  “Have you ever gotten to a point where you stop, and look back at everything you’ve

  done, and suddenly, you don’t quite know what it is that you’ve done? You don’t know where

  you are? And, suddenly, you’re not too sure what it was that you were working for?” Riley frowned for a moment. “Robbie, what are you talking about? Is there something

  that you did that you’re not too sure about?”

  “No. It’s just…I don’t know, Riley. This is all getting so complicated. This wedding is

  getting so much bigger than I had ever imagined. Did you know that I have no idea what the

  flowers are going to look like at the church? Or what meals we’re serving at the reception? I

  don’t even know if Hildegaard did pick the polka band.”

  “Well, then fire her, and tell her you’ll take over.”

  “I can’t. It’s too far along for me to let her go. I wouldn’t even know where to pick up if

  she left.”

  “Well, you only have one more week of this nightmare. After next Saturday, you can hire

  an assassin and dispatch him, or her, on the wedding nazi while you’re on your honeymoon in

  the Riviera.”

  “I just wish…I have to admit, Riles, I kind of wish I could postpone the wedding a bit.” Riley tried to get her mind around what she just heard. “Robbie, are you by any chance

  having second thoughts?”

  “No, no, no,” Roberta said in a rush. “That’s not it at all. It’s just this all happened so

  fast, and I…No, Riles, I’m not having second thoughts, at all. Listen, can you just forget that we

  ever had this conversation.”

  Riley laughed. “What conversation?”

  “Exactly. I’m just having pre-wedding nerves, that’s all. I’ll see you at the dinner on

  Friday.”

  Before Riley could say anything, the line went dead. She stared at the phone then

  shrugged and went back to her figures.

  On Wednesday, just after noon, Riley was deep asleep when she was slowly dragged to

  consciousness by a distant thumping sound. Still half drugged with sleep, she lifted her head

  trying to locate the sound. Then she realized that someone was pounding on her door downstairs.

  Groggily, she pulled herself out of bed, grabbed her robe, slid her feet into her slippers, and

  made her way down the stairs.

  The pounding was incessant and very aggressive, and a deep male voice on the other side

  of the door was demanding, “Open up, damn it! I know you’re in there. Open up! Open up!” “Christ, hold your horses, will you,” Riley snapped back as she struggled with the dead

  bolt lock.

  As soon as she twisted the door knob, it was shoved back and Heron pushed his way into

  the house, making Riley stumble and bump against the wall. She almost cringed when he loomed

  over her like a some avenging g
od-like figure. She did press back against the wall when he took

  a threatening step closer to her and shoved his face closer to hers. There was a wild look in his

  dark eyes, his hair tousled. His whole body quivered with barely suppressed violence. “Where is she?” he demanded, his jaw hard and set.

  “Look, here, how dare you…”

  Riley’s words were cut off when Heron grabbed her under her arms and pulled her up so

  that they were face to face, her feet dangling from the floor. He gave her a shake. “Damn you, tell me, where she is. So, help me, God, Riley, if you don’t tell me, I’m

  going to force it out of you.”

  “Heron, don’t,” Caroline pleaded. Behind her was Lawrence. Both their faces were very

  pale.

  Heron looked at Riley’s parents, his frustration and rage clear in every feature of his face,

  and looked as if he was about to give the small woman he was holding in the air another shake.

  Then he dropped his hands away from Riley, not bothering to set her down, so that she fell to the

  floor, and turned away.

  Slowly, Riley got to her feet. “Mom, Dad, what is this all about?”

  Heron spun around and pointed an accusatory finger at her. “You know damn well what

  this is about.”

  “Look, mister, I’m one second away from calling the police on you…” “Riley, it’s about Robbie,” Caroline said quickly.

  Riley stared at her parents and saw their desperation and how white their faces were. Fear

  clutched at her heart for a moment. “Oh, my God! Is she okay?”

  “Yes, yes, it’s nothing like that. It’s just she’s gone.”

  “Gone? What do you mean she’s gone?”

  Heron took a step towards her. “Don’t play this game, Riley. You know exactly where

  she went to, and we want you to you tell us now where that is.”

  Lawrence put a restraining hand on Heron’s shoulder and said gently, “Heron, please.

  This isn’t improving the situation.” He turned to his daughter. “Riley, if you don’t know already,

  your sister has run away.”

  “She’s eloped,” Caroline corrected, then turned away, almost in tears.

  Riley shook her head, trying to clear away the cobwebs that had developed inside her

  head by the onset of one confusion after another. “Eloped? What do you mean she eloped? How

  could she elope when Heron’s right here? Who could she have eloped with?”

  Lawrence looked at Heron, whose back was faced to them. “Roberta has run away with

  Tanner.”

  Riley gaped at her parents. “Tanner? You mean his brother?” She pointed at Heron. Heron came back to her. “Yes, yes, yes. My brother, Tanner, has eloped with my

  fiancée.”

  “But…how…I didn’t even know…”

  “You want to know how? Here, you may as well read what she wrote me. She had this

  delivered to my home early this morning.” Heron tossed a ball of crumpled paper at Riley, which

  fell to the floor when she failed to catch it.

  Riley bent and picked up the paper and slowly opened it. She instantly recognized the

  graceful writing of her sister’s hand.

  “Dear, Heron, I’m not quite sure how to put this,” she wrote. “I’m afraid I’ve made a

  dreadful mistake when I first agreed to this engagement, and have continually made one mistake

  after another by letting it continue. And the worst of this mistake is that it is you who will bear

  much of the cost.

  “I didn’t realize how mistaken I was about our engagement until I realized how I felt

  about your brother, Tanner, and that it is he who I love, and he with whom I want to spend the

  rest of my life. I didn’t know how he felt about me until he revealed them to me two days ago.

  We tried to deny what we felt for each other. Neither of us wanted to hurt you, and so, at first,

  both of us agreed that we would let things continue as they have been. But, yesterday, we

  realized we just couldn’t. And we began to feel desperate. We both knew that if I did go through

  with the marriage to you, while Tanner and I denied what we felt for each other, we would be

  hurting all three of us immeasurably in the end.

  “So, yesterday morning, we decided to go Las Vegas. By the time you get this letter, we

  will have been married. Please forgive us, Heron. But, please believe me, when I say, in the end,

  this is the best for all of us.”

  “Oh, my God,” Riley whispered.

  “You knew about this,” Heron accused, his face dark and hard, once again, with anger.

  “You knew what those two traitors were up to.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “Are you sure, Riley,” Caroline asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure. Why don’t you believe me?”

  Heron said harshly,“Because you’re closest to Roberta. She tells you everything. So, it’s

  hard for me to believe that she wouldn’t have told her sister about my brother.” “No, she didn’t tell me anything. She never gave me an inkling about it.” Heron stepped closer to Riley and pushed his face closer to hers again. “I don’t believe

  you,” he spat out. “I don’t believe that you didn’t have a hand in this elopement.” Although she was shaking, she stood her ground, tilting her head so that her pale grayhazel eyes looked at him fully. “Well, you can believe what you want. You do, anyway. You’re

  too arrogant to think that any woman could do this on her own to you.”

  He bent his head so that he could shove his face closer to her hers, making Riley tilt her

  head back even more. Dark angry eyes locked with pale hazel defiant ones.

  Heron accused in a low voice, “And you’re nothing more than a deceitful, immoral tart

  who wantonly disregards the rules of society to seek her own depraved pleasure.” “And you’re an uptight prick who likes to throw his weight around, especially your

  fiancée,” Riley returned.

  “I wouldn’t have had to have been so heavy handed with Roberta if you’d kept out of our

  affair.”

  “I did nothing of the kind, and you know it…”

  “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it,” Caroline shouted in near hysterics. “Stop it, both of you. Please

  don’t let us fight like this. It only makes things worse.”

  Lawrence said, his voice shaky as well, “Your mother’s right. Please, Heron, you must

  calm down. You, too, Riley.”

  Riley gave Heron as scathing look. “Well, then, tell this pit bull to back off.” Lawrence took Heron by the arm and gently pulled him away. “Heron, if you’ll please.” Heron gave Riley a look of cold warning then jerked his arm from Lawrence’s hand and

  turned his back to them.

  Lawrence said to his daughter, “Now, Riley, are you sure you knew nothing about your

  sister and Tanner?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Caroline said, “But Roberta tells you everything, Riley.”

  “She didn’t tell me about this.”

  “Or that she and Tanner were planning to run away to Las Vegas?”

  “No, not at all. I never even knew that she was considering backing out of the

  engagement…” Riley broke off, then said softly. “Oh, my God!”

  All the others watched her as her face slowly cleared as understanding dawned on her. “What is it,” Caroline said urgently. “She did tell you something, then.” “No, she didn’t really tell me anything. But she called me on Sunday. She was asking me

  all these questions that didn’t really make sense then. Something about being so sure of what she

  was going for in life, and then when looking back, not being r
eally sure that it was what she

  wanted. And then she was telling me that she had no idea what her wedding was going to be like

  because Hildegaard had taken over everything. And then she hung up. I didn’t really think

  anything of it, because I thought it was just pre-wedding jitters.”

  “So, you had no idea what she was planning to do?” Lawrence concluded wearily. “No. But I think she was trying to tell me. But I didn’t hear it, because I just couldn’t

  believe that she would want to back out of this marriage. And I don’t really think she knew what

  she was going to do either when she called me.”

  A silence fell amongst them, each caught up in their own questions and anguish. Then Heron lifted his head, and his eyes were filled with accusing anger as he directed

  them at Riley. “I blame you for this.”

  “Me! How am I at fault? I had no idea that this was going to happen.”

  He stepped towards her again. This time, because his fury was so palpable, Riley stepped

  back.

  Heron said, “No, but you put the idea into her head. You told Roberta that you didn’t

  think I was good enough for her.”

  “Riley, how could you,” Caroline exclaimed, shocked.

  “I said no such thing to Robbie.”

  “You said it to me,” Heron reminded.

  Lawrence looked from him to Riley uneasily, the two facing off at one another again. “Is

  that true, Riley? You told him that?”

  Riley lifted her chin at Heron. “Yes, I did, but only because he was being such a pompous

  ass.”

  Caroline put a hand to her head, as if it were aching. “Oh, Riley, when are you going to

  learn to control that wicked tongue of yours.”

  “You can’t lay this at my door. I never revealed to Robbie my opinion of her engagement

  to him..” Riley shook her head. “Oh, no, Heron, you can’t put this one on me. If Robbie ran away

  from you, you have only yourself to blame.”

  Heron’s eyes narrowed and he took step towards her. “How do you figure that?” “You pushed her into your brother’s arms with this stupid wedding and sicking that

  rotteweiler on her. That time she almost had a nervous breakdown should have given you an

  indication that you were going about this all wrong. But, no, not you. Not the high and mighty

  Heron Wait. Because what Heron Wait wants is what Heron Wait gets. Never mind the wishes