folded up the last of his laundry, packed his bag, put it in the trunk of his car and drove out of the neighborhood. Thirty minutes later he was parked at the curb of an elegant neighborhood with large, expensive homes and tall, mature trees. He looked at the house, remembering every room, especially the huge gourmet kitchen. It was nearly five.
Alex’s small silver sports car came down the street and turned into the drive. Even after traveling across town, Carlisle still wasn’t sure he intended to talk to Alex, but when Alex stepped out of the car, briefcase in hand, he looked directly across the street at his former partner. As if he could sense his presence.
“Oh, well,” Carlisle said to himself, getting out of the car. Hands in pockets, he slowly crossed the street.
Alex looked well. At five foot eight, he wasn’t a big man, but he was well built and distinguished-looking, with a salt-and-pepper beard that set off his deep, penetrating aqua eyes. Had Carlisle really been worried about the age difference? Alex was fifty-three and appeared to be robust, in the peak of health. He nodded once toward Carlisle, holding his briefcase against his chest with both hands.
“Hi, Alex. I’m sorry to just show up without calling first.”
Alex shrugged.
“I won’t stay or get in the way. I wanted to say I’m sorry. For what I did to you.”
Alex simply lifted his brows and cocked his head to one side, as if asking without asking.
“I realized before much time had passed what a terrible…no, tragic mistake I had made. But I couldn’t do anything about it by the time I knew.”
“Why not?” Alex asked.
Carlisle just shook his head in a helpless way. “I just couldn’t. But it has become important to me that you know I’m very sorry. Think you might ever forgive me?”
“It’s not a matter of—”
“Hey,” a voice called.
Both men turned. Standing in the doorway of the house was a slender young man with what appeared to be a dish towel in his hands. He was very young. Alex was robbing the cradle for sure this time. “Would you like me to open a bottle of wine and put out some cheese and crackers?” the young man asked.
“No—No, thank you,” Carlisle called over to him quickly. “I have to run.” And to Alex he said, “Take care, okay?”
“You, too. You don’t have to be a stranger, you know.”
“Thanks. That’s decent. You always were so…classy.” Carlisle went back to his car and drove to his own neighborhood, but instead of going to Dixie’s house, he went to the one he had shared with Robert for the past three years.
Accepting his fate.
The next evening when Dixie came home from her trip, Carlisle wasn’t there. She checked around for his belongings. And she knew.
She called Nikki. “He’s gone. Again.”
“Damn,” Nikki said. “You’d think one of us would escape bad love before total humiliation forced it.”
“He didn’t even leave a note.”
“He’s embarrassed. He’s right around the corner.”
“Well, too bad. If he can’t even tell me he’s going back to Robert, he can just kiss my—”
“Don’t be mad,” Nikki begged. “Give yourself a little time, then call him. See if he’s okay.”
“I don’t care if he’s okay.” Dixie sighed. “He’s given up. But I’m not going to. I don’t care if I have to be alone till I die, I’m not getting back to that mean old game.”
Summer peaked, and the heat drove everyone indoors. Nikki divided her time between her job at the airline, the paperwork for the property sale and, gratefully, full-time motherhood. Buck chauffeured the kids around so they could keep their connections with friends from school and the old neighborhood.
Nikki saw little of Carlisle and Dixie, and she hadn’t seen them together since the day they’d helped her sort through Drake’s things. Neither of them would admit they weren’t speaking, but they hadn’t spoken.
Meanwhile, life at Buck’s was crowded and complicated. There was a definite difference between having the kids there two to four days a week and having them all the time. While no one was given to anal-retentive housekeeping in their family, even Nikki was starting to get edgy because of the constant clutter. She knew it was time to start thinking about finding a place of her own for her and the kids. A place her father could visit. Although Buck didn’t complain too loudly, he was sixty-six and set in his ways. The only real advantage to living with him was that Opal didn’t visit.
She had just begun to tumble around ideas in her mind about what kind of fresh start they needed when a name floated up in front of her. “Do you remember Joe Riordan?” Dixie asked her.
“Yeah, of course. I know him real well. Why?”
“One of the captains I flew with a month or so ago said he’s starting a new airline, in Las Vegas of all places. Danny Adams is thinking of leaving Aries to join Joe.”
“Really?” Nikki asked. “Why would he do that? He’s got a lot of seniority here.”
“I know, but he says he hates all them bellyachin’ pilots, whining about money all the time and threatenin’ to go on strike. It’s makin’ him think fondly of those good old days when everyone was having a good time. Workin’ hard but having some fun. Like back when Joe Riordan was runnin’ it.”
“That’s when I was hired,” Nikki reflected. “They brought him in to expand the company. He’s a deal-maker, a closer. Aries was about six aircraft strong and losing money. Riordan came in and tripled the size of the company in a year, then did it again and again. I was hired in that first big expansion. Under him I got a chance to work in management, first in training and then in flight standards. Hmm. I agree with Danny. That’s when it was fun. But starting an airline now? He must be crazy.”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим
