CHAPTER FOURTEEN
As soon as the question left her lips, she knew she shouldn’t have asked it. Daniel didn’t answer. Mandy took another bite of her fish, which seemed to be composed of bones as she tried to swallow.
“Sorry, that was rude of me,” she squeaked out.
Daniel set his fork down. “No, you’re right. I’ve become jaded. And suspicious. As I have proven.” He gestured to the crutches. “I am sorry.”
“You don’t need to keep apologizing. Why did you think I was a land developer?” She ignored the flash of another camera.
“About a year ago I started looking at options. I have at least six offers on the land I have been sitting on, waiting for Grandfather’s stipulations to expire so I can sell. A couple of the buyers are getting desperate, sending surveyors, photographers, etc.”
“Why would you want to sell your home?”
“It never really was mine. I lived there until I was two, but I don’t remember it. Spent a few Christmases there as a child and one very memorable summer. After my mother died, my father and I only went back a few times. To me the mansion was my grandfather’s home, never mine.”
“Surely you don’t want to destroy it. Architecturally it is a perfect example of Victorian Gothic revival. I am surprised it isn’t on the National Registry.”
Daniel made a face. “Grandfather was adamant about that. Didn’t want some government park official telling him he couldn’t paint the place purple if he wanted to.”
“Purple? Like the house out on Spring Creek? If you did, I would trespass just to paint it period colors.”
“If you did, I wouldn’t yell or be rude.” Daniel’s voice took on a somber tone.
Mandy wanted to return to a lighter subject but she couldn’t figure out how. “Did you know they almost called in the bomb squad over the camera delivery?”
“Really? Why?”
“Your private carrier bypassed central receiving and delivered an anonymous box straight to the dean’s secretary. I am glad they didn’t try to detonate it.”
He flashed the same smile that graced every fangirl’s pin board. “Oh, I didn’t know it would cause trouble.”
“Don’t worry about it. Dr. Christensen, my adviser, is still laughing about everyone running around like Armageddon was in the box. Says it’s the most life that has been in the college all year. The dean is happy to have a replacement camera with little effort. And I’m glad to be able to graduate. Having an MFA gives me a few more options than teaching high school for the rest of my life.”
“Don’t you like teaching?”
Mandy swallowed her bite of asparagus. “I love teaching the students who want to learn, but many of my students are trying to get an easy A or just filling hours. They don’t want to be there and make no attempt to hide it. Then their parents call me when they get a C.”
The waiter approached. Daniel ordered a double batch of the scones to go.
After the waiter left, Mandy asked, “Why to-go?”
“We seem to have garnered more than the local cell-phone paparazzi. The photographer who just stuck his head into the lobby looks like a pro. We will be leaving through the kitchen if Geoff will let us.”
The waiter delivered their boxed scones, and Daniel handed him three bills with smiling Ben Franklins on them. After retrieving the crutches, he helped Mandy out of her chair and whispered, “Pretend you are going to the restroom, then slip into the kitchen. I’ll be there in a moment.”
The waiter held open the kitchen door and gave Mandy a little nod. Daniel entered before she needed to say anything. Without a word, he motioned her to follow. They passed a short man dressed in white, Daniel nodded and held up his box. Now Mandy understood Daniel’s choice of parking space —better than to have to walk around the building if a quick exit became necessary. As he opened the door and swept her into the cab, a man ran around the side of the building, a camera dangling from his neck, another from his hand. Before he got into position, Daniel had the truck out of the parking space.
Mandy held on to the door handle as the truck turned the corner faster than she liked.
After several minutes of driving, Daniel stopped looking in the rearview mirror as often as he looked forward. “Sorry about that. I had hoped they would leave me alone tonight. Usually when I am down this way I can get by relatively unnoticed. But this was the first time I have been on a date in the area, and I guess someone decided it would be newsworthy.”
“Usually when you’re down here? How often are you here?”
“I spend a week or so every few months here, but I keep a low profile. It has only been since that stupid magazine article that the locals have noticed me.”
“That explains how you know more about the area restaurants than I do.”
Daniel turned down a tiny lane, stopping at a familiar gate.
Mandy looked around in confusion, but she would recognize the old walnut tree anywhere. The Crawford Manson.
Mandy’s unasked question hung in the cab of the truck while Daniel unlocked the gate. He should have gone around to the gate with the automatic opener. He wouldn’t lie if she asked, but he wasn’t ready to show her where he was living just yet.
“I thought the pond would be a nice place to share our scones, no trespassers allowed you know.” He drove around the house toward the west side of the property where the fading sun cast a warm glow over the unkempt lawn. He stopped his truck as close to the pond as he could. They would still need to hike a few dozen yards. Her boot—how could he have forgotten?
“Do you think you and your boot can make the hike?”
Mandy pulled her gaze from the window. “Just you try to stop me.” She opened her door and moved to slide out, but Daniel caught her wrist. “Please wait.” Mandy leaned back against the seat.
Before going around to get her, he pulled a flashlight and blanket from behind the seat, then set them on the hood. He should have driven the Lexus because it would be easier for her to get in and out, but that would mean losing the few moments of contact helping her out of the truck permitted.
Mandy cleared her throat once he’d lifted her down, and Daniel relinquished his hold and handed her the crutches. He gathered the blanket and flashlight in one arm.
They had only gone a few steps when Mandy stopped. “The scones!”
Daniel turned back to the truck.
By the time he returned to her side, she had moved several yards down the path. He started to reach for her hand but pulled back. Crutches were not ideal for romance. The last rays of sunshine sparkled off the water. The ducks honked their protests at the invaders, but no doubt they would search for handouts later.
Mandy stopped. “It hasn’t changed much, has it? I used to come here every summer hoping you would come back, but you never did.”
“Every summer?”
“Until I was thirteen or so. I stopped after I saw you in the news—in the procession at your father and grandfather’s funeral. I knew even if you came back, you wouldn’t want to fly kites, so I stopped looking.”
“So, Miss I-Wasn’t-Trespassing, you are telling me you trespassed every summer for the next six—”
“Seven.”
“—seven years?” They’d reached the edge of the pond, and Daniel spread out the blanket.
“I wasn’t exactly trespassing. The old gardener would wave to me. And one year I was sure he took the pole out of the fence so I could get in.”
“Just how often did you come?”
“The first year, I came every day for weeks until I believed Grandma Mae that you were not living here.”
“I was in Tokyo with my father.” Daniel offered Mandy a hand to help her sit down on the blanket. It took her a couple of tries to find a way to sit gracefully in her tight skirt. More evidence this was not one of his well-thought-out plans. “Sorry. I should have thought ahead better. But I love this spot. It’s the reason I am having such a hard time deciding on a buyer. Most of the options will end up destroying this section.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t sell.” Mandy smiled up at him and patted the blanket next to her. “I want to try one of those scones before the ducks realize we have them.”
“Are you still scared of ducks?” He recalled her six-year-old self, sopping wet and screaming for help. “They are going to kill me! Save me! Save me!” Of course he had. He didn’t need to be Hulk to scare them off, but he had carried her away from the pond with superhero-like strength.
Mandy interrupted his musings. “No, but I don’t want them to eat what is mine, either.”
He watched as she took her first bite. Her eyes closed like they did whenever she had eaten one of Cook’s special peanut-butter cookies.
“Oh, these are good. Had I known, I would have skipped the salmon entirely.” She held her hand in front of her mouth to hide the fact that she was still eating.
They ate the scones and shooed the ducks away when they came too close.
Mandy finished the last of her scones. “You would think after all these years they would get weary of humans. They can’t be the same ducks, can they?”
Daniel shook his head. “The average wild mallard only lives five to ten years. So these are grandchildren or great-grandchildren.”
“Good. I would hate it if Hank recognized me.”
“You never know—he might have passed on the story of the girl who tried to steal his sandwich.”
“You have that backward. He stole my sandwich. Do you still speak duck?”
Daniel laughed. “Not a single quack.” He’d felt silly lecturing the ducks in their language, but his act had made Mandy laugh and the frightened tears go away before she’d hugged him and given him a kiss on the cheek for saving her life. He hadn’t appreciated a kiss then.
“Too bad. I would ask you to tell them there are no more scones.” Her eyes grew wide, and she leaned toward him and plucked something off the front of his shirt. “Except for this one.” She popped the large crumb into her mouth before he could get it back.
“Hey, that isn’t fair!”
Mandy shook her head. “Finders keepers.”
“Really?”
Mandy nodded.
“If I find a crumb?” He gave a crooked smile.
Mandy studied her clothing before answering. “All yours.”
Mandy stilled when he reached out and cupped her jaw. “There is one on the corner of your mouth.” He could have easily wiped it off with his thumb, and he had meant to at first, but Mandy’s eyes fluttered closed, so he kissed her—a soft brush to dislodge the crumb and let her protest. A second brush to be sure she wouldn’t pull back, then a kiss. It was evident she wasn’t as experienced as the women he’d kissed these last several years. He deepened the kiss when she responded like a butterfly—soft, fragile, beautiful. Her hand on his chest rested lightly, not pulling him in but not pushing him away either. Not wanting to push her too far, he pulled back.
Mandy blinked at him. “Is it gone?”
Daniel studied her face in the dimming light. The weariness in her eyes told him she had yet to decide if she needed her fight or flight response. The crumb rested near her chin, he lied. “No more crumbs.”
“Good, I would hate for Hank’s great-grandson to see a crumb there.”
I would too, darling. “Don’t worry. I would save you.”
Mandy leaned against his shoulder and watched the pond.