Roberts, Nora - Stanislaski 5 - Waiting for Nick

Waiting for Nick
================

Nora Roberts
============

Stanislaski - book 5
--------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contents
--------
    Chapter One
    Chapter Two
    Chapter Three
    Chapter Four
    Chapter Five
    Chapter Six
    Chapter Seven
    Chapter Eight
    Chapter Nine
    Chapter Ten
    Chapter Eleven
    Chapter Twelve
    Epilogue


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter One
-----------
Contents - Next

She was a woman with a mission. Her move from West Virginia to New York
had a series of purposes, outlined carefully in her mind. She would find
the perfect place to live, become a success in her chosen field, and get
her man.

Preferably, but not necessarily, in that order.

Frederica Kimball was, she liked to think, a flexible woman.

As she walked down the sidewalk on the East Side in the early-spring
twilight, she thought of home. The house in Shepherdstown, West
Virginia, with her parents and siblings, was, to Freddie's mind, the
perfect place to live. Rambling, noisy, full of music and voices.

She doubted that she could have left it if she hadn't known she would
always be welcomed back with open arms.

It was true that she had been to New York many times, and had ties
there, as well, but she already missed the familiar--her own room,
tucked into the second story of the old stone house, the love and
companionship of her siblings, her father's music, her mother's laugh.

But she wasn't a child any longer. She was twenty-four, and long past
the age to begin to make her own.

In any case, she reminded herself, she was very much at home in
Manhattan. After all, she'd spent the first few years of her life there.
And much of her life in the years after had included visits--but all
with family, she acknowledged.

Well, this time, she thought, straightening her shoulders, she was on
her own. And she had a job to do. The first order of business would be
to convince a certain Nicholas LeBeck that he needed a partner.

The success and reputation he'd accumulated as a composer over the past
few years would only increase with her beside him as his lyricist.
Already, just by closing her eyes and projecting, she could envision the
LeBeck-Kimball name in lights on the Great White Way. She had only to
let her imagination bloom to have the music they would write flow like a
river through her head.

Now all she had to do, she thought with a wry smile, was convince Nick
to see and hear the same thing.

She could, if necessary, use family loyalty to persuade him. They were,
in a roundabout way; semi-cousins.

Kissing cousins, she thought now, while her eyes lighted with a smile.
That was her final and most vital mission. Before she was done, Nick
would fall as desperately in love with her as she was, had always been,
with him.

She'd waited ten years for him, and that, to Freddie's mind, was quite
long enough.

It's past time, Nick, she decided, tugging on the hem of her royal blue
blazer, to face your fate.

Still, nerves warred with confidence as she stood outside the door of
Lower the Boom. The popular neighborhood bar belonged to Zack Muldoon,
Nick's brother. Stepbrother, technically, but Freddie's family had
always been more into affection than terminology. The fact that Zack had
married Freddie's stepmother's sister made the
Stanislaski-Muldoon-Kimball-LeBeck families one convoluted clan.

Freddie's longtime dream had been to forge another loop in that family
chain, linking her and Nick.

She took a deep breath, tugged on her blazer again, ran her hands over
the reddish-gold mop of curls she could never quite tame and wished
once, hopelessly, that she had just a dash of the Stanislaskis' exotic
good looks. Then she reached for the door.

She'd make do with what she had, and make damned sure it was enough.

The air in Lower the Boom carried the yeasty scent of beer, overlaid
with the rich, spicy scent of marinara. Freddie decided that Rio, Zack's
longtime cook, must have a pasta special going. On the juke, Dion was
warning his fellow man about the fickle heart of Runaround Sue.

Everything was there, everything in place, the cozy paneled walls, the
seafaring motif of brass bells and nautical gear, the long, scarred bar
and the gleaming glassware. But no Nick. Still, she smiled as she walked
to the bar and slid onto a padded stool.

"Buy me a drink, sailor?"

Distracted, Zack glanced up from drawing a draft. His easy smile widened
instantly into a grin. "Freddie--hey! I didn't think you were coming in
until the end of the week."

"I like surprises."

"I like this kind." Expertly Zack slid the mug of beer down the bar so
that it braked between the waiting hands of his patron. Then he leaned
over, caught Freddie's face in both of his big hands and gave her a
loud, smacking kiss. "Pretty as ever."

"You, too."

And he was, she thought. In the ten years since she'd met him, he'd only
improved, like good whiskey, with age. The dark hair was still thick and
curling, and the deep blue eyes were magnetic. And his face, she thought
with a sigh. Tanned, tough, with laugh lines only enhancing its
character and charm.

More than once in her life, Freddie had wondered how it was that she was
surrounded by physically stunning people. "How's Rachel?"

"Her Honor is terrific."

Freddie's lips curved at the use of the title, and the affection behind
it. Zack's wife--her aunt--was now a criminal court judge. "We're all so
proud of her. Did you see the trick gavel Mama sent her? The one that
makes this crashing-glass sound when you bop something with it?"

"Seen it?" His grin was quick and crooked. "She bops me with it
regularly. It's something, having a judge in the family." His eyes
twinkled. "And she looks fabulous in those black robes."

"I bet. How about the kids?"

"The terrible trio? They're great. Want a soda?"

Amused, Freddie tilted her head. "What, are you going to card me, Zack?
I'm twenty-four, remember?"

Rubbing his chin, he studied her. The small build and china-doll skin
would probably always be deceiving. If he hadn't known her age, as well
as the age of his own children, he would have asked for ID.

"I just can't take it in. Little Freddie, all grown up."

"Since I am--" she crossed her legs and settled in "--why don't you pour
me a white wine?"

"Coming up." Long experience had him reaching behind him for the proper
glass without looking. "How're your folks, the kids?"

"Everybody's good, and everyone sends their love." She took the glass
Zack handed her and lifted it in a toast. "To family."

Zack tapped a squat bottle of mineral water against her glass. "So what
are your plans, honey?"

"Oh, I've got a few of them." She smiled into her wine before she
sipped. And wondered what he would think if she mentioned that the
biggest plan of her life was to woo his younger brother. "The first is
to find an apartment."

"You know you can stay with us as long as you want."

"I know. Or with Grandma and Papa, or Mikhail and Sydney, or Alex and
Bess." She smiled again. It was a comfort to know she was surrounded by
people who loved her. But… "I really want a place of my own." She
propped her elbow on the bar. "It's time, I think, for a little
adventure." When he started to speak, she grinned and shook her head at
him. "You're not going to lecture, are you, Uncle Zack? Not you, the boy
who went to sea."

She had him there, he thought. He'd been a great deal younger than
twenty-four when he shipped out for the first time. "Okay, no lecture.
But I'm keeping my eye on you."

"I'm counting on it." Freddie sat back and rocked a little on the stool,
then asked--casually, she hoped--"So, what's Nick up to? I thought I
might run into him here."

"He's around. In the kitchen, I think, shoveling in some of Rio's pasta
special."

She sniffed the air for effect. "Smells great. I think I'll just wander
on back and say hi."

"Go ahead. And tell Nick we're waiting for him to play for his supper."

"I'll do that."

She carried her wine with her and firmly resisted the urge to fuss with
her hair or tug on her jacket again. Her attitude toward her looks was
one of resignation. 'Cute' was the best she'd ever been able to do with
her combination of small build and slight stature. Long ago she'd given
up on the fantasy that she would blossom into anything that could be
termed lush or glamorous.

Added to a petite figure was madly curling hair that was caught
somewhere between gold and red, a dusting of freckles over a pert nose,
wide gray eyes, and dimples. In her teenage years, she'd pined for sleek
and sophisticated. Or wild and wanton. Curvy and cunning. Freddie liked
to think that, with maturity, she'd accepted herself as she was.

But there were still moments when she mourned being a life-size Kewpie
doll in a family of Renaissance sculptures.

Then again, she reminded herself, if she wanted Nick to take her
seriously as a woman, she had to take herself seriously first.

With that in mind, she pushed open the kitchen door. And her heart
jolted straight into her throat.

There was nothing she could do about it. It had been the same every time
she saw him, from the first time she'd seen him to the last. Everything
she'd ever wanted, everything she'd ever dreamed of, was sitting at the
kitchen table, hunkered over a plate of fettuccine marinara.

Nicholas LeBeck, the bad boy her aunt Rachel had defended with passion
and conviction in the courts. The troubled youth who had been guided
away from the violence of street gangs and back alleys by love and care
and the discipline of family.

He was a man now, but he still carried some of the rebellion and
wildness of his youth. In his eyes, she thought, her pulse humming.
Those wonderful stormy green eyes. He still wore his hair long, pulled
back into a stubby ponytail of dark, bronzed blond. He had a poet's
mouth, a boxer's chin, and the hands of an artist.

She'd spent many nights fantasizing about those long-fingered,
wide-palmed hands. Once she got beyond the face, with its fascinating
hint of cheekbones and its slightly crooked nose--broken years ago by
her own sharp line drive, which he'd tried unsuccessfully to field--she
could, with pleasure, move on.

He was built like a runner, long, rangy, and wore old gray jeans, white
at the knees. His shirtsleeves were rolled up to the elbow and missing a
button.

As he ate, he carried on a running commentary with the huge black cook,
while Rio shook the grease out of a basket of french fries.

"I didn't say there was too much garlic. I said I like a lot of garlic."
Nick forked in another bite as if to back up his statement. "Getting
pretty damned temperamental in your old age, pal," Nick added, his voice
slightly muffled by the generous amount of pasta he'd just swallowed.

Rio's mild, good-natured oath carried the music of the islands. "Don't
tell me about old, skinny boy--I can still beat hell out of you."

"I'm shaking." Grinning, Nick broke off a hunk of garlic bread just as
Freddie let the door swing shut behind her. His eyes lighted with
pleasure as he dropped the bread again and pushed back from the table.
"Hey, Rio, look who's here. How's it going, Fred?"

He crossed over to give her a casual, brotherly hug. Then his brows drew
together as the body that pressed firmly against his reminded him,
uncomfortably, that little Fred was a woman.

"Ah…" He backed off, still smiling, but his hands dipped cautiously
into his pockets. "I thought you were coming in later in the week."

"I changed my mind." Her confidence lifted a full notch at his reaction.
"Hi, Rio." Freddie set her wineglass aside so that she could properly
return the bear hug she was enveloped in.

"Little doll. Sit down and eat."

"I think I will. I thought about your cooking, Rio, all the way up on
the train." She sat, smiled and held out a hand to Nick. "Come sit down,
your food's getting cold."

"Yeah." He took her hand, gave it a quick squeeze, then let it go as he
settled beside her. "So, how is everybody? Brandon still kicking butt on
the baseball diamond?"

"Batting .420, leading the high school league in home runs and RBIs."
She let out a long sigh as Rio set a large plate in front of her.
"Katie's last ballet recital was really lovely. Mama cried, of course,
but then she tears up when Brand hits a four-bagger. You know, her toy
store was just featured in the Washington Post. And Dad's just finishing
a new composition." She twirled pasta onto her fork. "So, how are things
with you?"

"They're fine."

"Working on anything?"

"I've got another Broadway thing coming up." He shrugged. It was still
hard for him to let people know when something mattered.

"You should have won the Tony for Last Stop."

"Being nominated was cool."

She shook her head. It wasn't enough for him--or for her. "It was a
fabulous score, Nick. Is a fabulous score," she corrected, since the
musical was still playing to full houses. "We're all so proud of you."

"Well. It's a living."

"Don't make his head bigger than it is," Rio warned from his stove.

"Hey, I caught you humming 'This Once,' " Nick noted with a grin.

Rio moved his massive shoulders in dismissal. "So, maybe one or two of
the tunes weren't bad. Eat."

"Are you working with anyone yet?" Freddie asked. "On the new score?"

"No. It's just in the preliminary stages. I've hardly gotten started
myself."

That was exactly what she'd wanted to hear. "I read somewhere that
Michael Lorrey was committed to another project. You'll need a new
lyricist."

"Yeah." Nick frowned as he scooped up more pasta. "It's too bad. I liked
working with him. There are too many people out there who don't hear the
music, just their own words."

"That would be a problem," Freddie agreed, clearing a path for herself.
"You need someone with a solid music background, who hears words in the
melody."

"Exactly." He picked up his beer and started to drink.

"What you need, Nick, is me." Freddie said firmly.

Nick swallowed hastily, set his beer down and looked at Freddie as
though she had suddenly stopped speaking English. "Huh?"

"I've been studying music all my life." It was a struggle, but she kept
the eagerness out of her voice and spoke matter-of-factly. "One of my
first memories is of sitting on my father's lap, with his hands over
mine on the piano keys. But, to his disappointment, composing isn't my
first love. Words are. I could write your words, Nick, better than
anyone else." Her eyes, gray and calm and smiling, met his. "Because I
not only understand your music, I understand you. So what do you think?"

He shifted in his chair, blew out a breath. "I don't know what to think,
Fred. This is kind of out of left field."

"I don't know why. You know I've written lyrics for some of Dad's
compositions. And a few others besides." She broke off a piece of bread,
chewed it thoughtfully. "It seems to me to be a very logical,
comfortable solution all around. I'm looking for work, you're looking
for a lyricist."

"Yeah." But it made him nervous, the idea of working with her. To be
honest, he'd have had to admit that in the past few years, she'd begun
to make him nervous.

"So you'll think about it." She smiled again, knowing, as the member of
a large family, the strategic value of an apparent retreat. "And if you
start to like the idea, you can run it by the producers."

"I could do that," Nick said slowly. "Sure, I could do that."

"Great. I'll be coming around here off and on, or you can reach me at
the Waldorf."

"The Waldorf? Why are you staying at a hotel?"

"Just temporarily, until I find an apartment. You don't know of anything
in the area, do you? I like this neighborhood."

"No, I--I didn't realize you were making this permanent." His brows knit
again. "I mean, a really permanent move."

"Well, I am. And no, before you start, I'm not going to stay with the
family. I'm going to find out what it's like to live alone. You're still
upstairs, right? In Zack's old place?"

"That's right."

"So, if you hear about anything in the neighborhood, you'll let me
know."

It surprised him that even for a moment he would worry about what her
moving to New York would change in his life. Of course, it wouldn't
change anything at all.

"I picture you more Park Avenue."

"I lived on Park Avenue once," she said, finishing up the last of her
fettuccine. "I'm looking for something else." And, she thought, wouldn't
it be handy if she found a place close to his? She pushed her hair out
of her face and tipped back in her chair. "Rio, that was sensational. If
I find a place close by, I'll be in here for dinner every night."

"Maybe we'll kick Nick out and you can move upstairs." He winked at her.
"I'd rather look at you than his ugly face."

"Well, in the meantime--" she rose and kissed Rio's scarred cheek
"--Zack wants you to come out when you're done Nick, and play."

"I'll be out in a minute."

"I'll tell him. Maybe I'll hang around for a little while and listen.
Bye, Rio."

"Bye, doll," Rio whistled a tune as he moved back to his stove. "Little
Freddie's all grown up. Pretty as a picture."

"Yeah, she's okay." Nick resented the fact that whatever spicy scent
she'd been wearing was tugging on his senses like a baited hook. "Still
wide-eyed, though. She doesn't have a clue what she's going to face in
this town, in this business."

"So, you'll look out for her," Rio thwacked a wooden spoon against his
huge palm. "Or I look out for you."

"Big talk." Nick snagged his bottle of beer and sauntered out.

One of Freddie's favorite things about New York was that she could walk
two blocks in any given direction and see something new. A dress in a
boutique, a face in the crowd, a hustler looking for marks. She was, she
knew, naive in some ways--in the ways a woman might be when she had been
raised with love and care in a small town. She could never claim to have
Nick's street smarts, but she felt she had a good solid dose of common
sense. She used it to plan her first full day in the city.

Nibbling on her breakfast croissant, she studied the view of the city
from her hotel window. There was a great deal she wanted to accomplish.
A visit to her uncle Mikhail at his art gallery would down two birds.
She could catch up with him and see if his wife, Sydney, might know of
any available apartments through her real estate connections.

And it wouldn't hurt to drop a bug in his ear--and the ears of other
family members--that she was hoping to work with Nick on his latest
score.

Not really fair, Fred, she told herself, and poured a second cup of
coffee. But love didn't always take fair into account. And she would
never have applied even this type of benign pressure if she wasn't
confident in her own talents. As far as her skill with music and lyrics
was concerned, Freddie was more than sure of herself. It was only when
it came to her ability to attract Nick that she faltered.

But surely, once they were working so closely together, he would stop
seeing her as his little cousin from West Virginia. She'd never be able
to compete head-on with the sultry, striking women he drew to him. So,
Freddie thought, nodding to herself, she'd be sneaky, and wind her way
into his heart through their shared love of music.

It was all for his own good, after all. She was the best thing in the
world for him. All she had to do was make him realize it.

Since there was no time like the present, she pushed away from the table
and hurried into the bedroom to dress.

An hour later, Freddie climbed out of a cab in front of a SoHo gallery.
It was a fifty-fifty shot as to whether she'd find her uncle in. He was
just as likely to be at his and Sydney's Connecticut home, sculpting or
playing with their children. It was every bit as likely he might be
helping his father with some carpentry job, anywhere in the city.

With a shrug, Freddie pulled open the beveled-glass door. If she missed
Mikhail here, she'd scoot over to Sydney's office, or try the courthouse
for Rachel. Failing that, she could look up Bess at the television
studio, or Alexi at his precinct. She could, she thought with a smile,
all but trip over family, any direction she took.

The first thing she noticed inside the small, sunny gallery was
Mikhail's work. Though the piece was new to her, she recognized his
touch, and the subject, immediately. He'd carved his wife in polished
mahogany. Madonna-like, Sydney held a baby in her arms. Their youngest,
Freddie knew, Laurel. At Sydney's feet, three children of various ages
and sizes sat. Walking closer, Freddie recognized her cousins, Griff,
Moira and Adam. Unable to resist, she trailed a finger over the baby's
cheek.

One day, she thought, she would hold her own child just that way. Hers
and Nick's.

"I don't wait for faxes!" Mikhail shouted as he entered the gallery from
a back room. "You wait for faxes! I have work!"

"But, Mik," came a plaintive voice from inside the room. "Washington
said--"

"Do I care what Washington says? I don't think so. Tell them they can
have three pieces, no more."

"But--"

"No more," he repeated, and closed the door behind him. He muttered to
himself in Ukrainian as he crossed the gallery. Words, Freddie noted
with a lifted brow, that she wasn't supposed to understand.

"Very artistic language, Uncle Mik."

He broke off in the middle of a very creative oath. "Freddie." With a
hoot of laughter, he hoisted her off the ground as if she weighed no
more than a favored rag doll. "Still just a peanut," he said, kissing
her on the way down. "How's my pretty girl?"

"Excited to be here, and to see you."

He was, like his swearing, wild and exotic, with the golden eyes and
raven hair of the Stanislaskis. Freddie had often thought that if she
could paint, she would paint each member of her Ukrainian family in bold
strokes and colors.

"I was just admiring your work," she told him. "It's incredibly
beautiful."

"It's easy to create something beautiful when you have something
beautiful to work with." He glanced toward the sculpture with love in
his eyes. For the wood, Freddie reflected, but more, much more for the
family he'd carved in it. "So, you've come to the big city to make your
splash."

"I have indeed." With a flutter of lashes, Freddie hooked an arm through
his and began to stroll, stopping here and there to admire a piece of
art. "I'm hoping to work with Nick on the score he's beginning."

"Oh?" Mikhail quirked a brow. A man with so many women in his life
understood their ways well, and appreciated them. "To write the words
for his music?"

"Exactly. We'd make a good team, don't you think?"

"Yes, but it's not what I think, is it?" He smiled when her lips moved
into a pout. "Our Nick, he can be stubborn, yes? And very hard of head.
I can knock him in that head, if you like."

Her lips curved again before she laughed. "I hope it won't come to that,
but I'll keep the offer in reserve." Her eyes changed, sharpened, and he
could see clearly that she wasn't so much the child any longer. "I'm
good, Uncle Mik. Music's in my blood, the way art's in yours."

"And when you see what you want…"

"I find a way to have it." Easily accepting her own arrogance, she
shrugged her shoulders. That, too, was in the blood. "I want to work
with Nick. I want to help him. And I'm going to."

"And from me you want…?"

"Family support for a chance to prove myself, if it becomes necessary,
though I have an idea I can convince him without it." She tossed her
hair back, in a gesture, Mikhail thought, very like his sister's. "What
I do want, and need, is some advice about an apartment. I was hoping
Aunt Sydney might have some ideas about a place near Lower the Boom."

"Maybe she does, but there's plenty of room with us. The children, you
know how they would love to have you with them, and Sydney--'' He caught
her expression and sighed. "I promised your mama I would try. Natasha,
she worries."

"She doesn't need to. She and Dad did a pretty good job of raising the
self-reliant type. Just a small place, Uncle Mik," she continued
quickly. "If you'd just ask Aunt Sydney to give me a call at the
Waldorf. Maybe she and I can have lunch one day soon, if she's got
time."

"She always has time for you. We all do."

"I know. And I intend to make a nuisance of myself. I want a place soon.
Before," she added with a gleam in her eyes, "Grandma starts conspiring
to have me move in with them in Brooklyn. I've got to go." She gave him
a quick parting kiss. "I have another couple of stops to make." She
darted for the door, paused. "Oh, and when you talk to Mama, tell her
you tried."

With a wave, she was out on the street, and hailing another cab.

Now that her next seed was planted, Freddie had the cab take her to
Lower the Boom, and wait as she went to the rear entrance to ring the
security bell. Moments later, Nick's very sleepy and irritated voice
barked through the intercom.

"Still in bed?" she said cheerfully. "You're getting too old for the
wild life, Nicholas."

"Freddie? What the hell time is it?"

"Ten, but who's counting? Just buzz me in, will you? I've got something
I want you to have. I'll just leave it on the table downstairs."

He swore, and she heard the sound of something crashing to the floor.
"I'll come down."

"No, don't bother." She didn't think her system could handle facing him
when he was half-awake and warm from bed. "I don't have time to visit,
anyway. Just buzz me in, and call me later after you've gone over what
I'm leaving for you."

"What is it?" he demanded as the buzzer sounded.

Instead of answering, Freddie hurried inside, dropped her music
portfolio on Rio's table and raced out again. "Sorry to wake you, Nick,"
she called into the intercom. "If you're free tonight, we'll have
dinner. See you."

"Wait a damn--"

But she was already dashing toward the front of the building and her
waiting cab. She sat back, let out a long breath and closed her eyes. If
he didn't want her--her talents, she corrected--after he went through
what she'd left for him, she was back to ground zero.

Think positive, she ordered herself. Straightening, she folded her arms.
"Take me to Saks," she told the driver.

When a woman had a potential date with the man she intended to marry,
the very least she deserved was a new dress.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Two
-----------
Contents - Prev | Next

By the time Nick found and dragged on a pair of jeans and stumbled
downstairs, Freddie was long gone. He had nothing to curse but the air
as he rapped his bare toe against the thick leg of the kitchen table.
Hopping, he scowled at the slim leather portfolio she'd left behind.

What the hell was the kid up to? he wondered. Waking him up at dawn,
leaving mystery packages in the kitchen. Still grumbling, he snatched up
the portfolio and headed back up to his apartment. He needed coffee.

To get into his own kitchen, he expertly stepped over and maneuvered
around discarded newspapers, clothing, abandoned sheets of music. He
tossed Freddie's portfolio on the cluttered counter and coaxed his brain
to remember the basic functions of his coffeemaker.

He wasn't a morning person.

Once the pot was making a hopeful hiss, he opened the refrigerator and
eyed the contents blearily. Breakfast was not on the menu at Lower the
Boom and was the only meal he couldn't con out of Rio, so his choices
were limited. The minute he sniffed the remains of a carton of milk and
gagged, he knew cold cereal was out. He opted for a candy bar instead.

Fortified with two sources of caffeine, he sat down, lighted a
cigarette, then unzipped the portfolio.

He was set to resent whatever it was that Freddie had considered
important enough to wake him up for. Even small-town rich kids should
know that bars didn't close until late. And since he'd taken over the
late shift from his brother, Nick rarely found his bed before three.

With a huge yawn, he dumped the contents of the portfolio out. Neatly
printed sheet music spilled onto the table.

Figures, he thought. The kid had the idea stuck in her head that they
were going to work together. And he knew Freddie well enough to
understand that when she had something lodged in her brain, it took a
major crowbar to pry it loose.

Sure, she had talent, he mused. He would hardly expect the daughter of
Spencer Kimball to be tone-deaf. But he didn't much care for
partnerships in the first place. True, he'd worked well enough with
Lorrey on Last Stop. But Lorrey wasn't a relative. And he didn't smell
like candy-coated sin.

Block that thought, LeBeck, he warned himself, and dragged back his
disordered hair before he picked up the first sheet that came to hand.
The least he could do for his little cousin was give her work a look.

And when he did, his brows drew together. The music was his own.
Something he'd half finished, fiddled with on one of the family visits
to West Virginia. He could remember now sitting at the piano in the
music room of the big stone house, Freddie on the bench beside him. Last
summer? he wondered. The summer before? Not so long ago he couldn't
recall that she'd been grown up, and that he'd had a little trouble
whenever she leaned into him, or shot him one of those looks with those
incredibly big gray eyes.

Nick shook his head, rubbed his face and concentrated on the music
again. She'd polished it up, he noted, and frowned a bit over the idea
of someone fooling with his work. And she'd added lyrics, romantic
love-story words that suited the mood of the music.

"It Was Ever You," she'd titled it. As the tune began to play in his
head, he gathered up all the sheets and left his half-finished breakfast
for the piano in the living room.

Ten minutes later, he was on the phone to the Waldorf and leaving the
first of several messages for Miss Frederica Kimball.

It was late afternoon before Freddie returned to her suite, flushed with
pleasure and laden with purchases. In her opinion, she'd spent the most
satisfying of days, shopping, lunching with Rachel and Bess, then
shopping some more. After dumping her bags in the parlor, she headed for
the phone. At this time of day, she thought, she could catch some, if
not all, of her family at home. The blinking message light caught her
eye, but before she could lift the receiver, the phone rang.

"Hello."

"Damn it, Fred, where have you been all day?"

Her lips curved at the sound of Nick's voice. "Hi there. Up and around,
are you?''

"Real cute, Fred. I've been trying to get hold of you all day. I was
about to call Alex and have him put out an APB." He'd pictured her
mugged, assaulted, kidnapped.

She balanced on one foot, toeing off her shoes. "Well, if you had, he'd
have told you I spent part of the day having lunch with his wife. Is
there a problem?"

"Problem? No, no, why would there be a problem?" Even through the phone,
sarcasm dripped. "You wake me up at the crack of dawn--"

"After ten," she corrected.

"And then you run off for hours," he continued, ignoring her. "I seem to
recall you yelling something about wanting me to call you."

"Yes." She braced herself, grateful he couldn't see her, or the hope in
her eyes. "Did you have a chance to look at the music I left for you?"

He opened his mouth, settled back again and played it cool. "I gave it a
look." He'd spent hours reading it, poring over it, playing it. "It's
not bad--especially the parts that are mine."

Even though he couldn't see her, her chin shot up. "It's a lot better
than not bad--especially the parts that I polished." The gleam in her
eyes was pure pride now. "How about the lyrics?"

They ranged from the poetic to the wickedly wry, and had impressed him
more than he wanted to admit to either of them. "You've got a nice
touch, Fred."

"Oh, be still my heart."

"They're good, okay?" He released a long breath. "I don't know what you
want me to do about it, but--"

"Why don't we talk about that? Are you free tonight?"

He contemplated the date he had lined up, thought of the music, and
dismissed everything else. "There's nothing I can't get out of."

Her brow lifted. Work, she wondered, or a woman? "Fine. I'll buy you
dinner. Come by the hotel about seven-thirty."

"Look, why don't we just--"

"We both have to eat, don't we? Wear a suit, and we'll make it an event.
Seven-thirty." With her bottom lip caught in her teeth, she hung up
before he could argue.

Jittery, she lowered herself to perch on the arm of the chair. It was
working, she assured herself, just as she'd planned. There was no reason
to be nervous. Right, she thought, rolling her eyes, no reason at all.

She was about to begin the courtship and seduction of the man she'd
loved nearly her entire life. And if it went wrong, she'd have a broken
heart, suffer total humiliation and have all her hopes and dreams
shattered.

No reason to panic.

To give herself a boost, she picked up the phone again and called West
Virginia. The familiar voice that answered smoothed out all the rough
edges and made her smile.

"Mama."

At seven-thirty, Nick was pacing the lobby of the Waldorf. He was not
happy to be there. He hated wearing a suit. He hated fancy restaurants
and the pretentious service they fostered. If Freddie had given him half
a chance, he would have insisted she come by the bar, where they could
talk in peace.

It was true that since he'd found success on Broadway, he was
occasionally called upon to socialize, even attend functions that
required formal wear. But he didn't have to like it. He still just
wanted what he'd always wanted--to be able to write and play his music
without hassles.

Nick outstared one of the uniformed bellmen, who obviously thought he
was a suspicious character.

Damn right I am, Nick thought with some humor. Zack and Rachel and the
rest of the Stanislaskis might have saved him from prison and the
prospect of a lifetime on the shady side of the law, but there was still
a core of the rebellious, lonely boy inside him.

His stepbrother, Zack, had bought him his first piano over a decade
before, and Nick could still remember the total shock and wonder he'd
felt that someone, anyone, had cared enough to understand and respond to
his unspoken dreams. No, he'd never forgotten, and to his mind, he'd
never fully paid back the debt he owed the brother who had stuck by him
through the very worst of times.

And he'd changed, sure. He no longer looked for trouble. It was vital to
him to do nothing to shame the family who had accepted him and welcomed
him into their midst. But he was still Nick LeBeck, former petty thief,
con artist and hustler, the kid who'd first met former public defender
Rachel Stanislaski on the wrong side of prison bars.

Wearing a suit only put a thin layer between then and now.

He tugged on his tie, detesting it. He didn't think back very often.
There was no need. Something about Freddie was making him switch back
and forth between past and present.

The first time he saw her, she'd been about thirteen, a little china
doll. Cute, sweet, harmless. And he loved her. Of course he did. In a
purely familial way. The fact that she'd grown into a woman didn't
change that. He was still six years older, her more experienced cousin.

But the woman who stepped out of the elevator didn't look like anyone's
cousin.

What the hell had she done to herself? Nick jammed his hands in his
pockets and scowled at her as she crossed the lobby in a short, snug
little dress the color of just-ripened apricots. She'd clipped up her
hair, and it showed entirely too much of slender neck and smooth
shoulders. Glittery colored gems swung from her ears, and one
tear-shaped sapphire nestled comfortably between the curve of her
breasts.

The kind of female trick, Nick knew, that drew a man's eyes to that
tempting point and made his fingers itch.

Not that his did, he assured himself, and kept them safely in his
pockets.

Her dimples flashed as she spotted him, and he concentrated on them,
rather than on her legs as she walked to him.

"Hi. I hope you haven't been waiting long." She rose on her toes to kiss
him at the left corner of his mouth. "You look wonderful."

"I don't see why we had to get all dressed up to eat."

"So I could wear the outfit I bought today." She turned a saucy circle,
laughing. "Like it?"

He was lucky his tongue wasn't hanging out. "It's fine. What there is of
it. You're going to get cold."

To her credit, she didn't snarl at the brotherly opinion of her
appearance. "I don't think so. The car's waiting just outside." She took
his hand, linking fingers with him as they walked out of the lobby
toward the sleek black limo at the curb.

"You got a limo? To go to dinner?"

"I felt like indulging myself." With the ease of long practice, she
flashed a smile at the driver before sliding smoothly into the car.
"You're my first date in New York."

It was said casually, as if she expected to have many more dates, with
many more men. Nick only grunted as he climbed in after her.

"I'll never understand rich people."

"You're not exactly on poverty row these days, Nick," she reminded him.
"A Broadway hit going into its second year, a Tony nomination, another
musical to be scored."

He moved his shoulders, still uncomfortable with the idea of true
monetary success. "I don't hang around in limos."

"So enjoy." She settled back, feeling a great deal like Cinderella on
her way to the ball. The big difference was, she was going there with
her Prince Charming. "Big Sunday dinner at Grandma's coming up," she
said.

"Yeah, I got the word on it."

"I can't wait to see them, and all the kids. I dropped by Uncle Mik's
gallery this morning. Have you seen the piece he did on Aunt Sydney and
the children?"

"Yeah." Nick's eyes softened. He almost forgot he was wearing a suit and
riding in a limo. "It's beautiful. The baby's terrific. She's got this
way of climbing up your leg and into your lap. Bess is having another
one, you know."

"So she told me at lunch. There's no stopping those Ukrainians. Papa's
going to have to start buying those gumdrops he likes to pass out by the
gross."

"You don't worry about teeth," Nick said in Yuri's thick accent. "All my
grandbabies have teeth like iron."

Freddie laughed, shifting so that her knee brushed his. "They have a
wedding anniversary coming up."

"Next month, right."

"We were kicking around ideas for a party at lunch. We thought about
hiring a hall, or a hotel ballroom, but we all thought it would be more
fun, and more true to them, if we kept it simpler. Would you and Zack
hold it in the bar?"

"Sure, that's no problem. Hell of a lot more fun there than at some
ritzy ballroom." And he wouldn't have to wear a damned suit. "Rio can
handle the food."

"You and I can handle the music."

He shot her a cautious look. "Yeah, we could do that."

"And we thought we could do a group present. Did you know Grandma's
always wanted to go to Paris?"

"Nadia, Paris?" He smiled at the thought. "No. How do you know?"

"It was something she said to Mama, not too long ago. She didn't say too
much--you know she wouldn't. Just how she'd always wondered if it was as
romantic as all the songs claimed. Oh, and a couple of other things. So
we were thinking, if we could give them a trip, fly them over there for
a couple of weeks, get them a suite at the Ritz or something."

"It's a great idea. Yuri and Nadia do Paris." He was still grinning over
it when the limo glided to the curb.

"Where have you always wanted to go?"

"Hmm?" Nick climbed out, automatically offering a hand to assist her.
"Oh, I don't know. The best place I've ever been is New Orleans.
Incredible music. You can stand on any street corner and be blown away
by it. The Caribbean's not bad either. Remember when Zack and Rachel and
I sailed down there? God, that was before any of the kids came along."

"You sent me a postcard from Saint Martin," she murmured. She still had
it.

"It was the first time I'd been anywhere. Zack decided that as a crew
member my best contribution was as ballast, so I ended up doing mostly
kitchen duty. I bitched all the way and loved every minute of it."

They stepped inside, out of the slight spring chill and into the warmth
and muted light of the restaurant. "Kimball," Freddie told the maitre
d', and found herself well satisfied when they were led to a quiet
corner booth.

Very close to perfect, she thought, with candles flickering in silver
holders on the white linen tablecloth, the scent of good food, the gleam
of fine crystal. Nick might not realize he was being courted, but she
thought she was doing an excellent job of it.

"Should we have some wine?" she asked.

"Sure." He took the leather-bound list. His years of working a bar had
taught him something about choosing the right vintage. He skimmed the
list and shook his head over the ridiculous price markups. Well, it was
Fred's party.

"The Sancerre, '88," he told the hovering sommelier. It was a
profession, Nick had always thought, that made a guy look as though he
had an ashtray hanging around his neck.

"Yes, sir. Excellent choice."

"I figure it should be, since it's marked up about three hundred
percent." While Freddie struggled with a laugh and the sommelier
struggled with his dignity, Nick passed the list back and lighted a
cigarette. "So, any luck on finding an apartment?"

"I didn't do a lot about it today, but I think Sydney will come up with
something."

"Finding one in New York isn't a snap, kid. And you can get conned.
There are plenty of people out there just waiting for a chance to gobble
up fresh meat. You ought to think about moving in with one of the family
for the time being."

She arched a brow. "Want a roommate?"

He gaped at her, blinked, then blew out smoke. "That wasn't what I
meant."

"Actually, being roomies would be handy once we start working
together--"

"Hold it. You're getting ahead of yourself."

"Am I?" With a slight smile, she sat back as the sommelier presented the
wine label for Nick's inspection.

"Fine," he said with an impatient wave of his hand, but there was no
getting rid of the man until the ritual of the wine was completed. Nick
handed the cork to Freddie. Cork smelled like cork, and he'd be damned
if he'd sniff it. To speed the business up, he took a quick sip of the
sample that was poured into his glass. "Great, let's have it."

With strained dignity, the sommelier poured Freddie's wine, then topped
off Nick's, before nestling the bottle into the waiting silver bucket.

"Now listen--" Nick began.

"It was an excellent choice," Freddie mused as she savored the first
sip. Dry, and nicely light. "You know, I trust your taste in certain
areas, Nicholas, without reservation. This is one of them," she said,
lifting her glass. "And music's another. You may be reluctant to admit
that your little Freddie's as good as you are, but your musical
integrity won't let you do otherwise."

"Nobody's saying you're as good as I am, kid. But you're not bad."
Giving in, just a little, he tapped his glass against hers. For a
moment, he lost his train of thought. Something about the way the
candlelight played in those smoky eyes. And the look in them, as if she
had a secret she wasn't quite ready to share with him. "Anyhow." He
cleared his throat, brought himself back. "I liked your stuff."

"Oh, Mr. LeBeck." She lowered her lashes, fluttered them. "I don't know
what to say."

"You've always got plenty to say. The one number--'It Was Ever You'? It
may fit in with the score."

"I thought it would." She smiled at his narrowed eyes. "As the daughter
of Spencer Kimball, I do have certain connections. I've read the book,
Nick. It's wonderful. The story manages to be beautifully old-fashioned
and contemporary at the same time. It has a terrific central love story,
wit, comedy. And with Maddy O'Hurley in the lead--"

"How do you know that?"

She smiled again, and couldn't prevent it from leaning toward smug.
"Connections. My father's done quite a bit of work for her husband. Reed
Valentine's an old friend of the family."

"Connections," Nick muttered. "Why do you need me? You could go straight
to Valentine. He's backing the play."

"I could." Unconcerned with the tone of annoyance, Freddie pursed her
lips and studied her wine. "But that's not the way I want to do it." She
lifted her gaze, met his, held it. "I want you to want me, Nick. If you
don't, it wouldn't work between us." She waited a beat. Could he see
that she wasn't simply talking about music, but about her life, as well?
Their life. "I'll do everything I can to convince you that you do want
me. Then, if you can look at me and tell me you don't, I'll live with
it."

Something was stirring deep in his gut. Something skittish and dangerous
and unwanted. He had an urge, a shockingly strong one, to reach out and
run his fingers down that smooth ivory-and-rose cheek. Instead, he took
a careful breath and crushed out his cigarette.

"Okay, Fred, convince me."

The hideous tightness around her heart loosened. "I will," she said,
"but let's order dinner first."

She chose her meal almost at random. Her mind was too busy formulating
what she should say, and how she should say it, to worry about something
as insignificant as food. She sipped her wine, watching Nick as he
completed his part of the order. When he finished and looked back over
at her, she was smiling.

"What?"

"I was just thinking." Reaching over, she laid a hand over his. "About
the first time I saw you. You walked into that wonderful chaos at
Grandma's and looked as if you'd been hit by a brick."

He smiled back at her, on easy ground again. "I'd never seen anything
like it. I never believed people lived that way--all that yelling and
laughing, kids running around, food everywhere."

"And Katie marched right up to you and demanded you pick her up."

"Your little sister's always had her eye on me."

"So have I."

He started to laugh, then discovered it wasn't all that funny. "Come
on."

"Really. One look at you, and my in-the-middle-of-puberty-hell heart
started beating against my ribs. Your hair was a little longer than it
is now, a little lighter. You were wearing an earring."

With a half laugh, he rubbed his earlobe. "Haven't done that in a
while."

"I thought you were beautiful, exotic, just like the rest of them."

Initial embarrassment at her description turned to puzzlement. "The rest
of who?"

"The family. God, those wonderful Ukrainian Gypsy looks, my father's
aristocratic handsomeness, Sydney's impeccable glamor, Zack, the tough
weather-beaten hunk."

He'd like that one, Nick thought with a grin.

"Then you, somewhere between rock star and James Dean." She sighed,
exaggerating the sound. "I was a goner. Every girl's entitled to a
memorable first crush. And you were certainly mine."

"Well." He wasn't sure how to react. "I guess I'm flattered."

"You should be. I gave up Bobby MacAroy and Harrison Ford for you."

"Harrison Ford? Pretty impressive." He relaxed as their appetizers were
served. "But who the hell's Bobby MacAroy?"

"Only the cutest boy in my eighth-grade class. Of course, he was unaware
that I planned for us to get married and have five kids." She lifted her
shoulder, let it fall.

"His loss."

"You bet. Anyway, that day I just sort of looked at you, and worked on
working up the courage to actually speak. Little freckled Fred," she
mused. "Among all those exotic birds."

"You were like porcelain," he murmured. "A little blond doll with
enormous eyes. I remember saying something about how you didn't look
like your little brother and sister, and you explained that Natasha was
technically your stepmother. I felt sorry for you." He looked up again,
losing himself for a moment in those depthless eyes. "Because I felt
sorry for me--the out-of-step stepbrother. And you sat there, so
serious, and told me step was just a word. It hit me," he told her. "It
really hit for the first time. And it made a difference."

Her eyes had gone moist and soft. "I never knew that. You seemed so easy
with Zack."

"I tried to hate him for a long time. Never quite pulled it off, though
I worked pretty hard at making life miserable for both of us. And then,
I was hung up on Rachel."

"Hung up? But…" Diplomatically Freddie trailed off and took an avid
interest in her food.

He was easy with the memory now, had been for years. "Yeah, I was barely
nineteen. And because I figured she was a class act with a great figure
and incredible legs, I didn't see how she could resist me. You're
blushing, Fred.

"Hey, every boy's entitled to one memorable crush." He grinned at her.
"I was pretty ticked when I figured out Rachel and Zack had a thing
going, made an idiot out of myself. Then I got over it, because they had
something special. And because it finally occurred to me that I loved
her, but I wasn't in love with her. That's how crushes end, right?"

She eyed him levelly. "Sometimes. And in a roundabout way, what we've
been talking about right here proves my point about why we should work
together."

He waited while their appetizers were cleared and the second course was
served. Interested, he picked up the wineglass that had just been topped
off again. "How?"

To add emphasis to her pitch, Freddie leaned forward. And her perfume
drifted over him so that his mouth watered. "We're connected, Nick. On a
lot of levels. We have a history, and some similarities in that history
that go back to before we met."

"You're losing me."

She gave an impatient shake of her head. "We don't have to get into
that. I know you, Nicholas. Better than you may think. I know what your
music means to you. Salvation."

His eyes clouded, and he lost interest in his meal. "That's pretty
strong."

"It's absolutely accurate," she corrected. "Success is a by-product.
It's the music that matters. You'd write it for nothing, you'd play it
for nothing. It's what kept you from sinking without a trace, every bit
as much as the family did. You need it, and you need me to write the
words for it. Because I hear the words, Nick, when I hear your music. I
hear what you want it to say, because I understand you. And because I
love you."

He studied her, trying to separate emotion and practicality. But she was
right. He'd never been able to separate the two with his music. The
emotion came first, and she'd tapped into that with the words she'd
already written, and with the words she'd just spoken.

"You make a strong case for yourself, Fred."

"For us. We'll make a hell of a team, Nick. So much stronger and better
than either of us could be separately."

The music he'd played that morning wound through his head, her lyrics
humming with it. It was ever you, in my heart, in my mind. No one before
and no one after. For only one face have I always pined. You are the
tears and the laughter.

A lonely song, he thought, and an achingly hopeful one. She was right,
he decided--it was exactly what he'd intended.

"Let's play it like this, Freddie. We'll take some time, see how it
goes. If we can come up with two other solid songs for the libretto,
we'll take it to the producers."

Under the table, she tapped her nervous fingers on her knee. "And if
they approve the material?"

"If they approve the material, you've got yourself a partner." He lifted
his glass. "Deal?"

"Oh, yes." She tapped her glass against his, sounding a celebratory
note. "It's a deal."

It was far more than the wine that had her feeling giddy when Nick
walked her up to her hotel room after dinner. Laughing, she whirled,
pressing her back against the door and beaming at him. "We're going to
be fabulous together. I know it."

He tucked stray curls behind her ear, barely noticing that his fingertip
skimmed the lobe, lingered. "We'll see how it flies. Tomorrow, my place,
my piano. Bring food."

"All right. I'll be there first thing in the morning."

"You come before noon, I'll have to kill you. Where's your key, kid?"

"Right here." She waved it under his nose before sliding it into the
slot. "Want to come in?"

"I've got to finish off the late shift and close the bar. So…" His
words, and his thoughts, trailed off as she turned back and slipped her
arms around him. The quick flash of heat stunned him. "Get some sleep,"
he began, and lowered his head to give her a chaste peck on the cheek.

She wasn't that giddy--or perhaps she was just giddy enough. She
shifted, tilting her face so that their lips met. Only for two
heartbeats, two long, unsteady heartbeats.

She savored it, the taste of him, the firm, smooth texture of his mouth,
and the quick, instinctive tightening of his hands on her shoulders.

Then she drew away, a bright, determined smile on her lips that gave no
clue as to her own rocky pulse. "Good night, Nicholas."

He didn't move, not a single muscle, even after she shut the door in his
face. It was the sound of his own breath whooshing out that broke the
spell. He turned, walked slowly toward the elevators.

His cousin, he reminded himself. She was his cousin, not some sexy
little number he could enjoy temporarily. He lifted a hand to push the
button for the lobby, noticed it wasn't quite steady, and cursed under
his breath.

Cousins, he thought again. Who had a family history and a potential
working relationship. No way he was going to forget that. No way in
hell.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Three
-------------
Contents - Prev | Next

"Hi, Rio." Freddie balanced bag, purse and briefcase as she entered
through the kitchen of Lower the Boom.

"Hey, little doll." Busy with lunch preparations, Rio had both hands
occupied himself. "What's doing?"

"Nick and I are working together today," she told him as she headed for
the stairs.

"Be lucky if you don't have to pull him out of bed by his hair."

She only chuckled and kept going. "He said noon. It's noon." On the dot,
she added to herself, maneuvering up the narrow, curved staircase. She
gave the door at the top a sharp rap, waited. Tapped her foot. Shifted
her bags. Okay, Nicholas, she thought, up and at 'em. After fighting the
door open, she gave a warning shout.

In the silence that followed, she heard the faint sound of water
running. In the shower, she decided, and, satisfied, carried her bundles
into the kitchen.

She'd taken him seriously when he told her to bring food. Out of the bag
she took deli cartons of potato salad, pasta salad, pickles and
waxed-paper-wrapped sandwiches. After setting them out, she went on a
search for cold drinks.

It didn't take long for her to realize they had a choice between beer
and flat seltzer. And that Nick's kitchen was crying out for a large
dose of industrial-strength cleaner.

When he came in a few minutes later, the sleeves of her sweater were
pushed up and she was up to her elbows in steaming, soapy water.

"What's going on?"

"This place is a disgrace," she said without turning around. "You should
be ashamed of yourself, living like this. I wrapped the medical
experiments that were in the fridge in that plastic bag. I'd take them
out and bury them if I were you."

He grunted and headed for the coffeepot.

"When's the last time you took a mop to this floor?"

"I think it was September 1990." He yawned and, trying to adjust his
eyes to morning, measured out coffee. "Did you bring food?"

"On the table."

With a frown he studied the salads, the sandwiches. "Where's breakfast?"

"It's lunchtime," she said between her teeth.

"Time's relative, Fred." Experimentally, he bit into a pickle.

With a clatter, Freddie set the last of the dishes she'd found crusted
in the sink aside to drain. "The least you could do is go in and pick up
some of the mess in the living room. I don't know how you expect to work
in this place."

The tart taste of the pickle improved his spirits, so he took another
bite. "I pick it up the third Sunday of every month, whether it needs it
or not."

She turned, fisted her hands on her hips. "Well, pick it up now. I'm not
working in this pit, clothes everywhere, trash, dust an inch thick."

Leaning back on the table, he grinned at her. Her hair was pulled back,
in an attempt to tame it that failed beautifully. Her eyes were stormy,
her mouth was set. She looked, he thought, like an insulted fairy.

"God, you're cute, Fred."

Now those stormy eyes narrowed. "You know I hate that."

"Yeah." His grin only widened.

With dignity, she ripped off a paper towel from a roll on the counter to
dry her hands. "What are you staring at?"

"You. I'm waiting for you to pout. You're even cuter when you pout."

She would not, she promised herself, be amused. "You're really pushing
it, Nick."

"It stopped you from ordering me around, the way you do with Brandon."

"I do not order my brother around."

Nick scooted around her to get one of the coffee mugs she'd just washed.
"Sure you do. Face it, kid, you're bossy."

"I certainly am not."

"Bossy, spoiled, and cute as a little button."

To prove her own control, she took one long, deep breath. "I'm going to
hit you in a minute."

"That's a good one," Nick acknowledged as he poured coffee. "Sticking
your chin up. It's almost as good as a pout."

For lack of something better, she tossed the balled paper towel so that
it bounced off his head. "I came here to work, not to be insulted. If
this is the best you can do, I'll just go."

He was chuckling as she started to storm by him. For the first time
since she'd come to New York, he felt their relationship was back on the
level where it belonged. Big-brotherly cousin to pip-squeak. He was
chuckling still as he grabbed her arm and whirled her around.

"Ah, come on, Fred, don't go away mad."

"I'm not mad," she said, even as her elbow jabbed into his stomach.

His breath whooshed out on a laugh. "You can do better than that. You've
got to put your body behind it, if you want results."

Challenged, she attempted to, and the quick tussle threw them both off
balance. He was laughing as they fought for balance, as she ended up
with her back against the refrigerator, his hands at her hips, hers
gripping his forearms.

Then he stopped laughing, when he realized he was pressed against her.
And she was so soft and small. Her eyes fired up at him. And they were
so wide and deep. Her mouth, pouting now, drew his gaze down. And it was
so deliciously full.

She felt the change slowly, a melting of her body, a thrumming in her
blood. This was what she had been waiting for, yearning for--the
man-to-woman embrace, the awareness that was like light bursting in the
head. Following instinct, she slid her hands up his arms to his
shoulders.

He would have kissed her, he realized as he jerked back. And it would
have had nothing to do with family affection. In another instant, he
would have kissed her the way a hungry man kisses a willing woman--and
broken more than a decade of trust.

"Nick." She said it quietly, with the plea just a whisper in the word.

He'd scared her, he thought, berating himself, and lifted his hands,
palms out. "Sorry. I shouldn't have teased you like that." More
comfortable with distance, he backed up until he could reach the mug
he'd set on the table.

"It's all right." She managed a smile as the warmth that had shuddered
into her system drained out again. "I'm used to it. But I still want you
to pick up that mess."

His lips curved in response. It was going to be all right after all. "My
place, my mess, my piano. You'll have to get used to it."

She debated a moment, then nodded. "Fine. And when I get my place, and
my piano, we'll work there."

"Maybe." He got a fork and began to eat potato salad out of the carton.
"Why don't you get some coffee, and we'll talk about what I'm after with
the score?"

"What we're after," she corrected. She plucked a mug out of the drain.
"Partner."

They sat in the kitchen for an hour, discussing, dissecting and debating
the theme and heart of the score for First, Last and Always. The musical
was to span ten years, taking the leads from a youthful infatuation into
a hasty marriage and hastier divorce and ultimately to a mature,
fulfilled relationship.

Happy ever after, Freddie called it.

The perpetual rocky road, was Nick's opinion.

They both agreed that the two viewpoints would add zest to the work, and
punch to the music.

"She loves him," Freddie said as they settled at the piano. "The first
time she sees him."

"She's in love with love." Nick set up the tape recorder. "They both
are. They're young and stupid. That's one of the things that makes the
characters appealing, funny and real."

"Hmmm."

"Listen." He took his place on the piano bench beside her, hip to hip
with her. "It opens with the crowd scene. Lots of movement, lights,
speed. Everybody's in a hurry."

He flipped through his staff sheets and, with what

Freddie decided was some sort of inner radar, unerringly chose the one
he wanted.

"So I want to hit the audience with the confusion and rush." He adjusted
the synthesizer keyboard on the stand beside him. "And that energy of
youth in the opening number."

"When they run into each other, literally."

"Right. Here."

He started to play, a jarring opening note that would wake the senses.
Freddie closed her eyes and let the music flood over her.

Quick, full, sometimes clashing notes. Oh, yes, she could see what he
wanted. Impatience. Self-absorption. Hurry up, get out of my way. In
part of her mind, she could see the stage, packed with dancers,
convoluted choreography, the noise from traffic. Horns blaring.

"Needs more brass here," Nick muttered. He'd all but forgotten Freddie's
presence as he stopped to make notes and fiddle with the synthesizer.

"'Don't Stop Now.'"

"I just want to punch up the brass."

She only shook her head at him and placed her own hands on the piano
keys. With her eyes narrowed on the notes he'd scribbled on the staff
paper, she began, voice melding with music.

"'Don't stop now. I've got places to go, people to see. Don't know how
I'm supposed to put up with anybody but me.'"

Her voice was pure. Funny, he'd almost forgotten that. Low, smooth,
easily confident. Surprisingly sexy.

"You're quick," he murmured.

"I'm good." She continued to play while words and movement ran through
her head. "It should be a chorus number, lots of voices, point and
counterpoint, with an overlying duet between the principals. He's going
one way, she the other. The words should overlap and blend, overlap and
blend."

"Yeah." He picked up the fill on the synthesizer, playing with her.
"That's the idea."

She slanted him a look, a smug smile. "I know."

It took them more than three hours and two pots of coffee to hammer out
the basics of the opening. Not wanting to jar her system with any more
of the caffeine Nick seemed to thrive on, Freddie insisted he go down to
the bar and find her some club soda. Alone, she made a few minute
changes to both words and music on the staff sheet. Even as she began to
try them out, the phone interrupted her.

Humming the emerging song in her head, she rose to answer.

"Hello?"

"Why, hi. Is Nick around?"

The slow, sultry, southern female voice had Freddie lifting a brow.
"He'll be back in just a second. He had to run down to the bar."

"Oh, well, I'll just hang on then, if it's all right with you. I'm
Lorelie."

I bet you are, Freddie thought grimly. "Hello, Lorelie, I'm Fred."

"Not Nick's little cousin Fred?"

"That's me," she said between her teeth. "Little cousin Fred."

"Well, I'm just thrilled to talk to you, honey." Warmed, honeyed
molasses all but seeped through the phone line. "Nick told me he was
visiting with you last night. I didn't mind postponing our date, seeing
as it was family."

Damn it, she'd known it was a woman. "That's very understanding of you,
Lorelie."

"Oh, now, a young girl like you, alone in New York, needs the men in her
family to look out for her. I've been here myself five years, and I'm
still not used to all the people. And everybody just moves so fast."

"Some aren't as fast as others," Freddie muttered. "Where are you from,
Lorelie?" she asked, politely, she hoped.

"Atlanta, honey. Born and bred. But up here with these Yankees is where
the modeling and television work is."

"You're a model?" Didn't it just figure?

"That's right, but I've been doing a lot more television commercials
these days. It just wipes you out, if you know what I mean."

"I'm sure it does."

"That's how I met Nick. I just dropped into the bar one afternoon, after
the longest shoot. I asked him to fix me a long cool something. And he
said I looked like a long cool something to him." Lorelie's laugh was a
silver tinkle that set Freddie's teeth on edge. "Isn't Nick the sweetest
thing?"

Freddie glanced up as the sweetest thing came back in with an armload of
soda bottles. "Oh, he certainly is. We're always saying that about him."

"Well, I think it's just fine that Nick would tend to his little cousin
on her first trip alone to the big city. You're a southern girl, too,
aren't you, honey?"

"Well, south of the Mason-Dixon line, at least, Lorelie. We're
practically sisters. Here's our sweet Nick now."

Face dangerously bland, Freddie held out the receiver. "Your magnolia
blossom's on the phone."

He set the bottles down in the most convenient place, on the floor, then
took the phone. "Lorelie?" With one wary eye on Freddie, he listened.
"Yeah, she is. No, it's West Virginia. Yeah, close enough. Ah,
listen…" He turned his back, lowering his voice as Freddie began to
noodle softly at the piano. "I'm working right now. No, no, tonight's
fine. Come by the bar about seven." He cleared his throat, wondering why
he felt so uncomfortable. "I'm looking forward to that, too. Oh,
really?" He glanced cautiously over his shoulder at Freddie. "That
sounds… interesting. See you tonight."

After he hung up, he bent down to retrieve one of the bottles. As he
unscrewed the top and took it to Freddie, he wondered why it should feel
like a pathetic peace offering. "It's cold."

"Thanks."

And so, he noted, was her voice. Ice-cold.

She took the bottle, tipped it back for a long sip. "Should I apologize
for taking you away from Lorelie last night?"

"No. We're not--She's just--No."

"It's so flattering that you told her all about your little lost cousin
from West Virginia." Freddie set the bottle down and let her fingers
flow over the keys. Better there than curled around Nick's throat. "I
can't believe she bought such a pathetic cliché."

"I just told her the truth." He stood, scowling and feeling very
put-upon.

"That I needed to be looked after?"

"I didn't say that, exactly. Look, what's the big deal? You wanted to
have dinner, and I rearranged my plans."

"Next time, just tell me you have a date, Nick. I won't have any trouble
making plans of my own." Incensed, she pushed away from the piano and
began stuffing her papers into her briefcase. "And I am not your little
cousin, and I don't need to be looked after or tended to. Anybody but a
total jerk could see that I'm a grown woman, well able to take care of
herself."

"I never said you weren't--"

"You say it every time you look at me." She kicked a pile of clothes
away as she stormed across the room for her purse. "It so happens that
there are a few men around who would be more than happy to have dinner
with me without considering it a duty."

"Hold on."

"I will not hold on." She whirled back, curls flying around her face.
"You'd better take a good look, Nicholas LeBeck. I am not little Freddie
anymore, and I won't be treated like some family pet who needs a pat on
the head."

Baffled, he dragged his hands through his hair. "What the hell's gotten
into you?"

"Nothing!" She shouted it, frustrated beyond control. "Nothing, you
idiot. Go cuddle up with your southern comfort."

When she slammed the door, Nick leaned down to open a club soda for
himself. He could only shake his head. To think, he mused, she'd been
such a sweet-tempered kid.

Freddie worked off a great deal of her anger with a long walk. When she
felt she was calm enough to speak without spewing broken glass, she
stopped at a phone booth and checked in with Sydney. The conversation
did quite a bit to lift her spirits.

Afterward, armed with an address, she rushed off to view a vacant
one-bedroom apartment three blocks from Nick's.

It was perfect. While Freddie wandered from room to room, she envisioned
the furnishings she'd place here, the rugs she'd place there. Her own
home, she thought, with room enough for a piano under the window, space
enough for a pullout sofa so that her brother or sister could come and
stay for visits.

And best of all, close enough that she could keep an eye on Nick.

How do you like that, Nicholas? she wondered as she grinned at her view
of Manhattan. I'm going to be looking out for you. I love you so much,
you stupid jerk.

Sighing, she turned away from the window and walked into the kitchen. It
was small and needed some paint to perk it up, but she would see to
that. She'd enjoy choosing the right cookware, the pots and pans and
kitchen implements. She loved to cook, and even as a child had loved the
big kitchen in her home in West Virginia, the wonderfully crowded
kitchen at her grandmother's in Brooklyn.

She'd cook for Nick here, she thought, running a finger over the smooth
butcher-block countertop, if he played his cards right. No. She smiled
at herself, and at her own impatience. It was she who had to play the
cards, and play them right.

She'd been too hard on him, even if he had been a jerk. She'd spent more
than half her life in love with him, but he spent that same amount of
time thinking of her as a little cousin--if not by blood, then by
circumstance. It was going to take more than one romantic dinner and one
afternoon as colleagues to change that.

And change it she would. Hands on hips, she began another tour of the
apartment. Just as she would build a life here, one that reflected her
own taste and grew from the solid, loving background she'd been blessed
with. And before she was done, the world she created would be filled
with music and color and love.

And, by God, with Nick.

It was nearly seven when Nick came down to the bar. Zack lifted a brow
as he mixed a stinger. "Hot date?"

"Lorelie."

"Oh, yeah." Now Zack wiggled his brows. "Tall, willowy brunette with
rose petals in her voice."

"That's the one." Nick moved behind the bar to help fill orders. "We're
just going to catch some dinner. Then we'll come back here so I can
relieve you."

"I can cover for you."

"No, it's no problem. She likes hanging out here. After I close up,
we'll figure out something else to do."

"I bet you will. Table six needs two drafts and a bourbon and branch."

"Got it."

"Hey, did you hear about Freddie's apartment."

Nick's hand paused on the lever. "What apartment?"

"Found one just a couple blocks from here. She's already signed the
papers." Zack filled an empty bowl with beer nuts. "You just missed her.
She came in to celebrate."

"Did anybody look over the place for her? Mik?"

"She didn't say. Kid's got a good head on her shoulders."

"Yeah. I guess. She should have gotten Rachel to look over the lease,
though."

Chuckling, Zack laid a hand on Nick's shoulder as he was finishing
preparing the order. "Hey, the little birds have to leave the nest
sometime."

With a shrug, Nick placed the drinks on the end of the bar for the
waitress. "So, she went on back to the hotel?"

"Nope. Went out with Ben."

"Ben." Nick's fingers froze on the cloth he'd picked up to wipe the bar.
"What do you mean, she went out with Ben?" Now Nick twisted the cloth
into a semblance of a noose. His eyes went bright and hard as a dagger.
"You introduced Fred to Stipley?"

"Sure." With a nod to a waitress, Zack began to fill another order. "He
asked me who the pretty blonde was, so I introduced them. They hit it
off, too."

"Hit it off," Nick repeated. "And you just let her walk out of here with
a stranger."

"Come on, Nick, Ben's no stranger. We've known him for years."

"Yeah," Nick said grimly, imagining slipping the cloth noose around
Zack's neck. "He hangs around bars."

Surprised and amused, Zack glanced over. "So do we."

"That's not the point, and you know it." Nick rattled bottles and
resisted the urge to pour a stiff shot of whiskey for himself. "You
can't just hook her up with some guy and let her waltz off with him."

"I didn't hook them up. I introduced them, they talked for a while and
decided to catch a movie."

"Yeah, right." Movie, my ass, he thought. What man in his right mind
would want to waste time at the movies with a woman with big, liquid
gray eyes and a mouth like heaven? Oh, God, he thought, his stomach
clenching as he imagined Fred at Ben Slipley's mercy. "Ben just wanted a
little company at this week's box-office hit. Damn it, Zack, are you
crazy?"

"Okay, I'll give it to you straight. I sold her to him for five hundred
and season tickets to the Yankees. He should have her to the opium den
by this time."

Nick managed to get his vivid imagination under control, but didn't have
the same luck with his temper. "That's real funny, bro. Let's see how
funny you are if he hits on her."

After setting the drinks aside, Zack turned to study his brother. Fury,
he noted, which he'd seen plenty of times before on Nick's face. Since
it seemed so incredibly out of place under the circumstances, he kept
his tone mild.

"And if he does, she'll handle it or hit back. He's not a maniac."

"A lot you know about it," Nick muttered.

Baffled, Zack shook his head. "Nick, you like Ben. You've gone to
Yankees games with him. He lent you his car when you wanted to drive to
Long Island last month."

"Sure I like him." Incensed, Nick grabbed a beer mug from the shelf and
began to polish it. "Why shouldn't I like him? But that has nothing to
do with Fred picking up some strange guy in a bar and going off with him
to God knows where."

Zack leaned back, tapping a finger against the bar.

"You know, little brother, someone who didn't know you might think
you're jealous."

"Jealous?" Terrifying thought. "That's bull. Just bull." He slapped the
mug down and chose another at random. If he didn't keep busy, he was
afraid he might streak out of the bar and start searching every movie
theater in Manhattan.

But a strange idea was beginning to take root in Zack's mind. He eyed
Nick more cautiously now, toying with the thought of his brother falling
for little Freddie Kimball.

"Then why don't you tell me what's not bull? What's going on with you
and Freddie, Nick?"

"Nothing's going on." In defense, Nick concentrated on the glass he was
polishing, and attacked. "I'm just trying to look out for her, that's
all. Which is more than I can say for you."

"I guess I could have locked her up," Zack mused. "Or gone along with
them as chaperon. Next time I see she's having a conversation with a
friend of mine, I'll call the vice squad."

"Shut up, Zack."

"Cool off, Nick. Your Georgia peach just walked in."

"Great." Making an effort, Nick ordered himself to shift Freddie and her
idiotic behavior to the back of his mind. He had his own life, didn't
he? And, as Freddie had recently grown so fond of pointing out, she was
a grown woman.

Nick glanced over, working up a smile, as Lorelie sauntered toward the
bar. There she was, he thought.

Gorgeous, sexy, and if their last date was any indication, more than
ready to let nature take its course.

She slid fluidly onto a bar stool, flipped back her shiny stream of dark
hair and beamed sparkling blue eyes at him.

"Hello, Nick. I've been looking forward to tonight all day."

It was hard to keep the smile in place when it hit him--and it hit him
hard--that he wasn't the least bit interested in southern hospitality.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Four
------------
Contents - Prev | Next

Nick smelled coffee and bacon the minute he stepped out of the shower.
It should have put him in a better mood, but when a man hadn't slept
well, worrying over a woman, it took more than the possibility of a hot
meal to turn the tide.

She had a lot of explaining to do, he decided as he stalked into his
bedroom to dress. Out half the night with some guy she'd picked up at a
bar. She'd been raised better than that. He had firsthand knowledge.

It was one of the things he counted on, he thought as he met his own
annoyed eyes in the mirror over the dresser. Freddie's family, the care
and attention they devoted to each other. Every time he visited them,
he'd seen it, felt it, admired it.

And he was just a little envious of it.

He'd missed that kind of care and attention growing up. His mother had
been tired, and he supposed she'd been entitled to be, with the burden
of raising a kid on her own. When she hooked up with Zack's old man,
things had changed some. It had been good for a while, certainly better
than it had been. They'd had a decent place to live, he mused. He'd
never gone hungry again, or felt the terror of seeing despair in his
mother's eyes.

With hindsight, he even believed that his mother and Muldoon had loved
each other--maybe not passionately, maybe not romantically, but they'd
cared enough to try to make a life together.

The old man had tried, Nick supposed as he tugged on jeans. But he'd
been set in his ways, a tough old goat who never chose to see more than
one side of things--his own side.

Still, there'd been Zack. He'd been patient, Nick remembered, carelessly
kind, letting a kid trail along after him. Maybe it was the memory of
that, the way Zack had taught him to play ball or just let him dog his
heels, that had given Nick an affection and ease with children.

For he knew all too well what it was like, to be a kid and at the mercy
of adult whims. Zack had made him feel as if he belonged, as if there
were someone who would be there when you needed them to be there.

But it hadn't lasted. As soon as Zack was old enough to cut out, he had,
joining the navy and shipping off. And leaving, Nick acknowledged now, a
young stepbrother miserably alone.

When Nick's mother died, things had deteriorated fast. Nick's defense
against the loss and the loneliness had been defiance, rebellion, and a
replacement of family with the edgy loyalty of a gang.

So he'd been a Cobra, he reflected, cruising the streets and looking for
trouble. Finding it. Until the old man died, and Zack came back to try
to pull a bitter, hard-shelled kid out of the pit.

Nick hadn't made it easy on him. The memories of those days had a rueful
smile tugging at his lips. If he could have found a way to make it
harder back then, he would have. But Zack had stuck. Rachel had stuck.
The whole chaotic bunch of Stanislaskis had stuck. They had changed his
life. Maybe saved it.

It wasn't something Nick ever intended to forget.

Maybe it was his turn to do some paying back, he considered. Freddie
might have the solid base he'd missed in his formative years, but she
was flying free now. It seemed to him she needed someone to rein her in.

And since no one else was interested in overseeing Freddie's behavior,
it fell to him.

He pulled his still-damp hair back and tugged a shirt over his head.
Maybe she was just too naive to know better. He paused, considering the
thought. After all, she'd spent most of her life snuggled up with her
family in a little town where having clothes stolen off the line still
made the papers. But if she was determined to live in New York, she had
to learn the ropes fast. And he was just the man to teach her.

Feeling righteous, Nick strolled into the kitchen to begin the first
lesson.

Freddie was standing at the stove, sautéing onions, mushrooms and
peppers in preparation for the omelet she'd decided to cook as an
opening apology. After a bit of reflection, she'd decided she'd been
entirely too hard on Nick the day before.

It had been jealousy, she was forced to admit. Plain and simple.

Jealousy was a small, greedy emotion, she acknowledged to herself, and
had no place in her relationship with Nick. He was free to see other
women… for the time being.

Temper tantrums weren't going to advance her cause and win his heart,
she reminded herself. She had to be open, understanding, supportive.
Even if it killed her.

Catching the movement out of the corner of her eye, she turned to the
doorway with a big, bright smile.

"Good morning. I thought you might want to start the day with a
traditional breakfast for a change. Coffee's ready. Why don't you sit
down, and I'll pour you some?"

He eyed her the way a man might a favored pet who tended to bite.
"What's the deal, Fred?"

"Just breakfast." Still smiling, she poured coffee, then set the platter
of toast and bacon on the table she'd already set. "I figured I owed
you, after the way I acted yesterday."

She'd given him his opening. "Yeah, about that. I wanted to--"

"I was completely out of line," she continued, pouring already-beaten
eggs into the sizzling pan. "I don't know what got into me. Nerves, I
guess. I suppose I didn't realize how big a change I was making in my
life, coming here."

"Well, yeah." Somewhat soothed, Nick sat and picked up a strip of bacon.
"I can see that. But you've got to be careful, Fred. The consequences
don't take nerves into account."

"Consequences?" Puzzled, she gave the fluffy eggs an expert flip. "Oh…
I guess you could have booted me out, but that's a little excessive for
one spat."

"Spat?" Now it was his turn to be puzzled, as she slid the omelet out of
the pan. "You had a fight with Ben?"

"Ben?" She transferred the omelet to Nick's plate then stood holding the
spatula. "Oh, Ben. No, why would I? Why would you think so?"

"You just said--What the hell are you talking about?"

"About yesterday. Giving you a hard time after Lorelie called." She
tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you letting some strange guy pick you up in a bar.
That's what I'm talking about." Nick studied her as he forked in the
first bite of his omelet. God, the kid could cook. "Are you crazy, or
just stupid?"

"Excuse me?" All her good intentions began a slow slide into oblivion.
"Are you talking about my going to the movies with a friend of Zack's?"

"Movies, hell." Nick fueled up on breakfast as he prepared to lecture.
"You didn't get home until after one."

Her hands were on her hips now, and her fingers were tight around the
handle of the spatula. "How would you know when I got home?"

"I happened to be in the neighborhood," he said loftily. "Saw you get
out of a cab at the hotel. One-fifteen." The memory of standing on the
street corner, watching her flit into the hotel in the middle of the
night, soured his mood again, though it didn't diminish his appetite.
"Are you going to try to tell me you caught a double feature?"

He reached for the jam for his toast just as Freddie brought the spatula
down smartly on the top of his head. "Hey!"

"Spying on me. You've got a lot of nerve, Nicholas LeBeck."

"I wasn't spying on you. I was looking out for you, since you don't have
the sense to look out for yourself." With well-conditioned reflexes, he
ducked the second swipe, pushed back from the table. His body moved on
automatic, tensed for a fight. "Put that damn thing down."

"I will not. And to think I felt guilty because I'd yelled at you."

"You should have felt guilty. And you sure as hell should have known
better than to go off with some guy you know nothing about."

"Uncle Zack introduced us," she began, fury making her voice low and
icy. "I'm not going to justify my social life to you."

That's what she thinks, Nick countered silently. No way in hell was he
going to allow her to go dancing off with any bar bum who happened
along, and he needed to make that clear. "You're going to have to
justify it to somebody, and I'm the only one here. Where the hell did
you go?"

"You want to know where I went? Fine. We left the bar and raced over to
his place, where we spent the next several hours engaged in wild,
violent sex--several acts of which are still, I believe, illegal in some
states."

His eyes went hard enough to glitter. It wasn't just her words, it
wasn't just her attitude. It was worse, because he could imagine--with
no trouble at all--a scenario just like the one she'd described. Only it
wasn't Ben she was breaking the law with. It was Nick LeBeck.

"That's not funny, Fred."

Much too wound up to note or care about the dangerous edge to his voice,
she snarled at him. "It's none of your business where I went or how I
spent my evening, any more than it's mine how you spent yours with
Scarlett O'Hara."

"Lorelie," he corrected, between his teeth. It didn't do his disposition
any good to remember that he hadn't spent the evening with Lorelie, or
anyone else. "And it is my business. I'm responsible for--"

"Nothing," Freddie snapped back, jabbing the spatula into his chest.
"For nothing, get it? I'm above the age of consent, and if I want to
pick up six guys at a bar, you have nothing to say about it.

You're not my father, and it's about time you stopped trying to act like
it."

"I'm not your father," Nick agreed. A slow, vicious buzz was sounding in
his ears, warning him that his temper was about to careen out of
control. "Your father might not be able to tell you what happens to
careless women. He sure as hell wouldn't be able to show you what
happens when a woman like you takes chances with the wrong man."

"And you can."

"Damn right I can." In a move too quick and unexpected for her to evade,
he snatched the spatula out of her hand and threw it aside. Even as it
crashed against the wall, her eyes were going wide.

"Stop it."

"What are you going to do to make me?" Nick's movements were smooth,
predatory, as he stalked her, backing her into a corner. "You going to
call for help? You think anybody's going to pay attention to you?"

He'd never looked at her like that before. No one had, with all that
lust and fury simmering. Fear lapped through her until her pulse was
scrambling like a rabbit's.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, trying for dignity and failing
miserably as he slapped his palms on either side of the wall, caging
her. "I said stop it, Nick."

"What if he doesn't listen to you?" He stepped closer, until his body
was pressed hard against hers, until she could feel the wiry strength in
it, just on the edge of control. "Maybe he wants a sample--more than a
sample. All that pretty skin." His eyes stayed on hers as he ran his
hands up her arms, down again. "He's going to take what he wants." Now
his hands were at her hips, kneading. "How are you going to stop him?
What are you going to do about it?"

She didn't think, didn't question. Riding on fear jumbled with
excitement, Freddie threw her arms around his neck. For an instant, the
gleam in his eyes changed, darkened, and then her mouth was on his.

All her pent-up needs and fantasies poured into the kiss. She clung to
him, wrapped herself around him and reveled in the wild flash of heat.

He was holding her as she'd always wanted to be held by him. Hard,
possessively hard. His mouth was frantic as it took from hers. A scrape
of teeth that made her head spin, a plunge of tongue that staggered her
soul.

Desire. She could taste it on him. The full, ripe and ready-to-explode
desire of a man for a woman. They might have been strangers, so new was
this burst of passion and need. They might have been lovers for a
lifetime, so seamlessly choreographed were the fast, frenetic movements
of hands, of mouths and bodies.

He lost his head. Lost himself. Her mouth was a banquet of flavors--the
tart, the sweet, the spicy--and he was ravenous. There was so much
there--the scent and taste and texture of her, so much more than the
expected, so much richer than dreams. All of it opened for him, invited
him to feast.

He didn't think of who they were, or who they had been. There was no
thought at all, only a desperate leap of emotion that consumed him, even
as he avidly consumed her.

More. The need for more slashed through him like a whip. He pressed her
hips into the edge of the counter, then lifted her up onto it so that
his hands were free to touch and take.

He heard her raspy indrawn breath when his fingers streaked under her
sweater and closed over her. Then his own moan--part pain, part
pleasure--when he found her, firm and soft, her nipples hard with desire
against his thumbs, her heart pounding out an erotic rhythm against his
palms.

She began to tremble. One quick shudder that grew and quickened until
she was vibrating like a plucked string.

Shame washed over him, a cold gray mist over red-hot lust. Staggered by
what he'd done, by what he'd wanted to do, he dropped his hands and
slowly stepped back.

Her breath sounded more like sobbing, and her eyes, he noted, furious
with himself, were glazed. As he watched, she gripped the edge of the
counter for balance, and her knuckles went white.

"I'm sorry, Fred. Are you all right?" When she said nothing, nothing at
all, he used his temper to combat the shame. "If you're not, you've
nobody to blame but yourself. That's the kind of treatment you're
opening yourself up to," he shot at her. "If it had been anybody but me,
things would have been worse. I'm sorry I scared you, but I wanted to
teach you a lesson."

"You did?" Though her heart was still thudding, Freddie was recovering,
slowly. Nothing she ever imagined had come close to being as wonderful,
as exhilarating, as the reality of Nick. Now he was going to spoil it
with apologies and lectures. "I wonder--" hoping she could trust her
legs, she slid slowly from the counter to the floor ''--who taught whom.
I kissed you, Nicholas. I kissed you and knocked you on your butt. You
wanted me."

His blood was still humming. He couldn't quite silence the tune. "Let's
not confuse things, Fred."

"Oh, I agree, let's not. You weren't kissing your little cousin just
now, Nick. You were kissing me." Now it was she who stepped forward, and
he back, in a reversal of the dance. "And I was kissing you."

His throat had gone unbearably dry. Who was this woman? he wondered. Who
was this devilish sprite with eyes full of awareness and knowledge, who
was turning him inside out with a look? "Maybe things got out of hand
for a minute."

"No, they didn't."

The smile was entirely too smug and female. It was a look he recognized,
and on another woman he might even have appreciated. "It isn't right,
Fred."

"Why?"

"Because." He found himself fumbling over reasons he knew only too well.
"I don't have to spell it out for you." He picked up his neglected
coffee and drank it down stone-cold.

"I think you're having a hard time spelling it out for yourself."
Empowered, Freddie tilted her head again. "I wonder, Nick, what you
would do if I were to kiss you, right now."

Take her, he was certain, without thought or conscience, on the floor.
"Cut it out, Fred. We both need to cool off."

"You may be right." Her lips curved again, sweetly. "I'd say you need
some time to get used to the idea that you're attracted to me."

"I never said that." He set down his cup again.

"It isn't always easy to accept changes in people we think we know. But
I've got plenty of time."

She was standing perfectly still, but he could feel her circling him.
"Fred." He let out a long breath. "I'm trying to be reasonable here, and
I'm not sure it's going to work." He frowned down at her. "I'm not sure
any of this is going to work. Maybe some things have changed, and
whatever those changes are, we don't seem to get along as smoothly as we
once did. If working together means risking our friendship--"

"You're nervous about working with me?"

No button she could have chosen could have been more effective. Whatever
he had made of himself through the years, there was still a remnant of
the rebellious young man whose pride was a point of honor.

"Of course I'm not afraid of working with you, or anyone."

"If that's true, then we don't have a problem. Of course, if you're
thinking you might not be able to stop yourself from--How did you so
poetically put it? Oh, yes, sampling me--"

"I'm not going to touch you again." The gritty fury in his voice only
made her smile sweeten. "Well, then. I suggest you make the best of the
breakfast you've let get cold. Then we'll get to work."

He was true to his word. They worked together for hours, and he never
made any physical contact. It cost him. She had a way, he discovered, of
shifting her body, tilting her head, looking up under her lashes--all of
which seemed designed to make a sane man beg.

By the end of the day, Nick was no longer sure he was sane.

"That's good, good," Freddie murmured, scanning notes even as Nick
played them. "Someone with Maddy O'Hurley's range is going to really
kick on that."

"I didn't say this was Maddy's solo," Nick snapped. But that wasn't the
point, he thought. The point was that Freddie was reading his mind, and
his music, much too clearly. He had an odd and uncomfortable vision of
himself as a fish nibbling at the bait. And it was Freddie holding the
rod.

"Maybe I was thinking of using it for the second leads. A duet."

"No, you weren't," she said, calmly enough. "But fine, if you want to
play it that way. I've got some ideas for lyrics for their number." She
slid him a sidelong look. "They don't really fit this music, but I can
adjust. Maybe if you pick up the tempo."

"I don't want to pick up the tempo. It's fine as it is."

"Not for the second leads' duet. Now, for Maddy's solo, it should go
something like… 'You made me forget, today and tomorrow, if you--'"

Nick interrupted her. "Are you trying to tick me off?"

"No, I'm trying to work with you." She made a quick note on one of the
sheets of paper propped up on the piano, then shifted enough to smile at
him. "I think you need a break."

"I know when I need a break." He snatched a pack of cigarettes off the
top of the piano, lighted one. "Just shut up a minute, and let me work
on this."

"Sure." With her tongue in her cheek, Freddie slid off the bench. She
rolled her shoulders, stretched as he fiddled with the notes. Changing
them, she noted, when they both knew they needed no changing.

He was fighting her, she noted, and realized nothing could have pleased
her more. If he was fighting, that meant there was something there he
had to defend against. Testing, she laid her hands on his shoulders and
rubbed.

His system shot immediately into overdrive. "Cut it out, Fred."

"You're all stiff and tight."

His hands crashed down on the keys. "I said cut it out."

"Touchy," she murmured, but backed off. "I'm going to get something
cold. Want anything?"

"Bring me a beer."

She lifted a brow, well aware that he rarely drank anything but coffee
when he worked. As she stood in the kitchen opening a beer and a soft
drink, she heard the quick rap on the door, the shout of greeting.

"You're busted," Alex Stanislaski called out from the other room. "For
keeping my niece chained to a piano all afternoon."

"Where's your warrant, cop?"

Alex only grinned and caught Nick in a headlock. "I don't need no
stinking warrant. Where is she, LeBeck?"

"Uncle Alex! Thank God you've come!" Freddie dashed into the living room
and jumped into his arms. "It's been horrible. All day long, half notes,
sharps, diminished ninths."

"There, there, baby, I'm here now." He gave her a quick kiss before
holding her at arm's length. "Bess said you were prettier than ever.
This guy been giving you a hard time?"

"Yes." She slipped an arm around her uncle's waist and smiled smugly at
Nick. "I think you should haul him in for impersonating a human being."

"That bad, huh? Well, I'm here to take you away from all this. How about
dinner?''

"I'd love it. Then you can tell me all about the promotion Bess was
bragging about."

"It's nothing," Alex muttered, causing Nick to stop playing long enough
to look over his shoulder.

"That's not what I heard." The sneer was automatic and friendly.
"Captain."

"It's not official." Alex gave Nick a punch on the shoulder.

"Police brutality." Since Freddie hadn't brought it out, Nick rose to
get his beer, and one for Alex from the kitchen. "He's always had it in
for me."

"Should have tossed away the key the night I caught you climbing out of
the window of that electronics shop."

"Cops have memories like elephants."

"When it comes to punks." Comfortable, Alex leaned against the piano.
"That was a nice sound you were making. You two really collaborating on
this musical thing?"

"That's the rumor," Freddie answered. "Only Nick's having a hard time
splitting his energy between being my partner and my surrogate father."

"Oh?"

"He trailed me on a date last night."

"I did not." Disgusted, Nick took a swallow of beer. "She has delusions
of adulthood."

A little wary of the vibes scooting around in the air, Alex cleared his
throat. "She looks pretty grown up to me."

"Why, thank you. Same time tomorrow, Nick?"

"Yeah, fine."

"You can come on to dinner too, you know. The invitation was general,"
Alex said. "Bess is calling in Italian."

"No, thanks." Nick set aside his beer and ran his fingers over the keys.
"I've got stuff to do."

I

"Suit yourself. Come on, Fred, I'm starved. I spent a hard day catching
bad guys."

"I'm out the door." Deliberately she leaned over and kissed Nick's
cheek. "See you tomorrow."

Alex waited until they'd gotten outside before he went for the subject.
"So, what's going on?"

"On where?"

"Between you and Nick?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Freddie said without any preamble, and, since
Alex merely stood there, stepped to the curb to hail a cab herself.

"Ah, are you speaking professionally, or personally?"

"Oh, professionally, we're clicking right along. He should have
something to take the producers early next week. Why don't we take the
subway?" she suggested after scanning the street. "It's going to be hell
catching a cab this time of day."

He walked along with her toward the subway station. "You're talking…
personally, then?"

"Hmm? That's right." She smiled approvingly over at him. The dimming
sunlight haloed around his dark hair, making him look, to her, like a
knight just out of battle. "It's so good to be here with all of you,
Uncle Alex."

"It's good to have you. What kind of personally?" he asked, not allowing
himself to be sidetracked for an instant from the subject at hand.

She sighed, but there was humor in it. "Exactly what you're worried
about. I love you, Uncle Alex."

"I love you, too, Fred." He hurried after her as she started down the
steps to the station. "Look, I know you had a crush on Nick when you
were a kid."

"Do you?" Only more amused, she dug around in her bag for change.

"Sure, it was kind of cute. We all noticed."

"Nick didn't." She let her change fall back into the bag when Alex
pulled out tokens for both of them.

"So, he's slow. My point is, you're not a kid anymore."

She stopped on the other side of the turnstile, put both hands on his
face and kissed him full on the mouth. "I can't tell you what it means
to hear someone else say that. I really love you, Alexi."

"I think you're missing my point here." Taking her elbow, he guided her
through the crowd waiting for the next train uptown.

"No, I'm not. You're worried that I'm going to do something that I'll
regret, or that Nick will regret."

"If I thought he'd have anything to regret, he wouldn't be able to play
a tune for a month."

She only laughed. "Big talk. You love him like a brother."

His golden eyes went dark. "It wouldn't stop me from breaking all the
bones in his hands if he used them the wrong way."

She thought it best not to mention just where Nick's hands had been a
few hours before. "I'm in love with him, Uncle Alex." She laughed,
shaking back her hair. "Oh, that felt wonderful. You're the first one
I've told. Dad and Mama don't even know." Her laugh leveled off to a
chuckle when she saw that he was simply gaping at her. "Is it really
that much of a surprise?"

He found his voice with an oath, then pulled her onto the train that had
stopped at the station. "Now listen to me, Freddie--"

"No, listen to me first." Since the car was full, she snagged a pole and
held on as the train jostled out of the station. "I know you're thinking
I might not know the difference between puppy love and the real thing,
but I do. I do," she repeated, with such quiet conviction that he
remained silent. "I don't just love the boy I met all those years ago,
Uncle Alex, or the one I came to know. It's the man he's become I'm
speaking of. With all his faults, and his virtues, his impatience, his
kindness, and even his streak of mean. I love the whole person, and he
might not know it yet, he may not accept it, or love me back, but that
doesn't change what's inside me for him."

Alex let out a long breath. "You have grown up."

"Yes, I have. And I've had the very best examples ahead of me. Not just
Mama and Dad, but you and Bess and all the rest of you. So I know when
you love deep enough, and true enough, it lasts."

He couldn't argue with that. What he'd found with Bess only became more
precious and more vital every day. "Nick's as important to me as anyone
in the family," Alex said carefully. "Even you. So I can tell you that
he's not an easy man, Freddie. He's got baggage he hasn't tossed out."

"I know that. I can't say I understand it all, but

I know it. Just don't worry too much," she asked, and took one hand off
the pole to touch his cheek. "And I'd appreciate it if you'd keep this
between us for now. I'd like some time before the rest of the family
starts looking over my shoulder."

When Freddie returned to the hotel that evening, there was a message
waiting for her at the desk. Intrigued, she tore open the envelope as
she took the elevator up to her floor.

Inside, Nick's handwriting was scrawled across a sheet of staff paper.

Okay, you're right. It's Maddy's solo. I want lyrics by tomorrow. Good
ones. I've scheduled a meeting with Valentine and the rest of the suits.
Don't mess up. Nick.

She all but danced to her room.

Two hours later, she was racing up the steps to Nick's apartment. She
knew he was working the bar, and she couldn't be bothered with him.
Instead, she sat at his piano and switched on the tape recorder.

"I've got your lyrics, Nicholas, and they're better than good. Just
listen."

Primed by her own excitement, she sang to him as she played his melody.
The words had been swimming in her head since she'd first heard the
music. Refined now, polished, they melded with the notes as if they'd
been born together.

After the last note died away, she closed her eyes.

"What are you doing here?"

She jolted, turning quickly toward the doorway, where Nick stood. He
didn't look friendly, she noted.

"Leaving you a message. You wanted the song done before your meeting.
It's done."

"I heard." And he'd suffered, listening to it, watching her as she sang
for him. "Do you know what time it is?"

"About midnight, I guess. I thought you'd be busy downstairs."

"We are busy downstairs. Rio told me you were up here."

"You didn't have to come up. I just didn't want to wait until tomorrow."
Her nerves came rushing back. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough."

"Well?" Impatient, she swung her legs over the bench so that she could
face him. "What did you think?"

"I think they'll go for it."

"That's it. That's all you can say?"

"What do you want me to say?"

It was like pulling teeth, she thought, always. "What you feel."

He didn't know what he felt. She was somehow drawing him into areas he'd
never explored. Never wanted to explore. "I think," he said carefully,
"it's a stunning lyric, one that goes for the heart and the gut. And I
think when people walk out of the theater, it'll be playing in their
heads."

She couldn't speak. She was embarrassed when she realized that her eyes
had filled. Lowering them, she stared at her linked hands. "That's a
curve I didn't expect from you."

"You know the gift you have, Fred."

"Yes, I tell myself I do." Calmer, she looked up again. Her heart did
one slow roll in her breast as she watched him. "I tell myself a lot of
things, Nick. Things that don't always hold up when I'm alone in the
middle of the night. But what you said will, whatever happens."

He couldn't take his eyes off her, hardly realized he was walking to
her. "I'm going to take what we worked on so far to Valentine tomorrow.
Take the day off."

"I can start on the new apartment while I'm trying not to go insane from
nerves."

"Fine." As if it belonged to someone else, his hand reached down for
hers, drew her to her feet. The only light in the room came from the
gooseneck lamp atop the piano. Its glow fell short of them, leaving them
in soft shadow. "You shouldn't have come back here tonight."

"Why?"

"I'm thinking about you too much. It's not the way I used to think about
you."

"Times change," she said unsteadily. "So do people."

"You don't always want them to, and it's not always for the best. This
isn't for the best," he murmured as he lowered his mouth to hers.

It wasn't frantic this time. She'd been prepared for that, but this time
it was slow, and deep, and quietly desperate. Instead of revving for the
storm, her body simply went limp, melting into his like candle wax left
too long at the flame.

It was the innocence he felt, her innocence, fluttering helplessly
against his own driving needs. The images that spun through his brain
aroused him, amazed him, appalled him.

"I lied," he murmured, and pulled back with difficulty. "I said I
wouldn't touch you again."

"I want you to touch me."

"I know." He kept his hands firm on her shoulders when she would have
swayed toward him. "What I want is for you to go home, back to your
hotel, now. I'll get in touch with you after I've seen Valentine."

"You want me to stay," she whispered. "You want to be with me."

"No, I don't." That, at least, was the truth. He didn't want it, even if
he seemed so violently to need it. "We're family, Fred, and it looks as
though we may be collaborators. I'm not going to ruin that. Neither are
you." He set her aside, stepped away. "Now, I want you to go down and
have Rio flag you a cab."

Every nerve ending in her body was on full alert. But while she might
have preferred to scream in frustration, she could see that his eyes
were troubled. "All right, Nick, I'll wait to hear from you."

She started for the door, then stopped and turned. "But you're still
going to think about me, Nick. Too much. And it's never going to be the
way it used to be again."

When the door closed behind her, he lowered himself to the piano stool.
She was right, he acknowledged as he rubbed his hands over his face.
Nothing was going to be quite the same again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Five
------------
Contents - Prev | Next

Sunday dinner at the Stanislaski household was never a quiet, dignified
affair. It began in the early afternoon, with the sounds of children
shouting, adults arguing and dogs barking. Then there were always the
scents of something wonderful streaming through the kitchen doorway.

As the family grew, the house in Brooklyn seemed to stretch at its
joints to accommodate them all. Children tumbled over the floor or were
welcomed into laps, and there were board games and toys scattered over
the well-worn rugs. When it came time for the meal, leaves were added to
the table and everyone sat elbow-to-elbow with everyone else in the
chaos of conversation, bowls and platters being passed around.

Mikhail's and Sydney's home in Connecticut was much larger, Rachel's and
Zack's apartment more accommodating, and Alex's and Bess's airy loft
more spacious. No one ever considered changing the tradition from Yuri's
and Nadia's overflowing home.

Because this was where the family began, Freddie mused as she squeezed
between Sydney and Zack on the ancient sofa. This, no matter where any
of them lived or worked or moved to, was home.

"Up," Laurel demanded, and began the climb into Freddie's lap. She had
the flashing sunburst smile of her father and her mother's cool,
discerning eye.

"And up you go." Freddie bounced Laurel as the toddler entertained
herself with the glint of colored stones on Freddie's necklace.

"You're pleased with the apartment, then?" Sydney reached out to run a
hand over her son's hair as he darted past in pursuit of a cousin.

"More than pleased. I really appreciate you helping me out. It's exactly
what I was looking for--size, location."

"Good." With a mother's instinct, Sydney kept a wary eye on her oldest.
Just lately, he'd taken to torturing his sister. Not that she worried
about Moira overmuch. The girl had a fast and wicked left jab. "Griff"
she called out, and it took no more than that along with a steely
maternal look, to have the boy reconsider yanking his sister's curling
ponytail, just to see what would happen.

"Are you looking for furniture?" Sydney asked as Laurel climbed
determinedly from Freddie's lap to hers.

"Halfheartedly," Freddie admitted. There was a bloodcurdling war whoop
from upstairs, followed by a loud thump. No one so much as blinked. "I
picked up a few things over the last couple of days. I think I'll get
more in the swing when I move in next week."

"Well, there's a shop downtown with good prices on rugs. I'll give you
the name. Ah, Zack?"

"Hmm?" He tore his eyes from the ball game currently on the television
and glanced in the direction Sydney indicated. His youngest had dragged
a chair over to Nadia's breakfront and had both greedy eyes on a bag of
Yuri's gumdrops, on the top shelf. "Forget it, Gideon."

Gideon beamed, all innocence. "Just one, Daddy. Papa said."

"I'll just bet he did." Zack rose, caught his son around the waist and
tossed him in the air to distract him. "Hey, Mom. Catch."

Experience and reflex had Rachel scooping her son out of the air on the
fly. The new criminal court judge held her giggling child upside down as
she turned to Freddie. "So, where's our temperamental Nick?"

Exactly the question Freddie had been asking herself. "I'm sure he'll be
here shortly. He'd never miss a meal. I talked to him yesterday."

And he hadn't been able, or hadn't been willing, to give her an opinion
on the producers' reaction to their collaboration. The wait, Freddie
thought, was like sitting on one of Nadia's pin cushions.

Waiting was something she should excel at by now, she thought with a
little sigh. She'd been waiting for Nick for ten years.

She let the conversation and noise flow around her before rising.
Maneuvering with practiced skill around the various sprawled bodies and
abandoned toys, she wandered into the kitchen.

Bess sat contentedly at the kitchen table, putting the finishing touches
on an enormous salad while Nadia guarded the stove.

It was a good room, Freddie mused, looking around. A nurturing room,
with its cluttered counters and its refrigerator door totally covered
with wildly colorful drawings, courtesy of the grandchildren. Always
there was something simmering on the stove, and the cookie jar was never
empty.

Such things, she thought, such small things, made a home. One day, she
promised herself, she would make such a room.

"Grandma." Freddie pressed a kiss to Nadia's warm cheek. She caught the
scent of lavender weaving through the aromas of roasting meat. "Can I
help?"

"No. You sit, have some wine. Too many cooks in my kitchen these days."

Bess winked at Freddie. "I'm only allowed because I'm getting lessons.
Nadia thinks I should stop doing all my meals with the phone as my only
cooking utensil."

"All my children cook," Nadia said with some pride.

"Nick doesn't," Freddie pointed out, and snatched a radish while Nadia's
back was turned.

"I did not say they all cooked well." Nadia continued to mix the dough
for her biscuits. She was a small, sturdy woman, her hair now iron gray,
around a serene and timelessly lovely face. The smoothness, Freddie
realized now, came from happiness. Age had scored a few lines, to be
sure, but none came from discontent.

"When you learn," Nadia said, turning to wag a wooden spoon in Bess's
direction, "you teach your children."

Bess gave a mock shudder. "Horrible thought. Just last week Carmen
emptied an entire bag of flour over her head, then added eggs."

"You teach her right." Nadia smiled. "Your sons, too. I give you recipes
my mama gave to me. Freddie, you make the chicken Kiev like I taught
you?"

"Yes, Grandma." Unable to resist, Freddie gave Bess a smug smile. "When
I'm settled in my new apartment, I'll cook it for you and Papa."

"Show-off," Bess muttered.

There were shouts from the other room, of greeting, of demands, of
questions. As the noise level rose dramatically, Nadia opened her oven
to check her roast.

"Nick is here," she announced. "Soon we eat."

In a move she hoped was casual, Freddie rose and reached for the jug
wine on the counter. "Want something cold, Aunt Bess?"

"I wouldn't mind some juice." With her tongue caught between her teeth,
Bess sliced cucumbers with concentration and intensity. "How's the game
going?"

"I was wondering about the same myself," Freddie murmured as the door of
the kitchen swung open.

And there was Nick, a huge bouquet of daisies in one hand, a toddler in
his other arm, and another child clinging to his leg.

"Sorry I'm late." He presented the bouquet to Nadia with a kiss.

"You bring me flowers so I don't scold you."

He grinned at her. "Did they work?"

She only laughed. "You're a bad boy, Nicholas. Put these in water. Use
the good vase."

Unhampered by the children hanging on him, Nick opened a cabinet. "Pot
roast," he said, and turned his head to nip at Laurel, on his hip.
"Almost as tasty as little girls."

Laurel squealed happily and snuggled closer.

"Pick me up, Nick. Pick me up, too."

Nick looked down at the boy tugging on his jeans. "Wait until I have a
hand free, Kyle."

"Kyle, let Nick finish what he's doing." Bess took the glass of juice
Freddie offered.

"But, Mom, he picked Laurel up."

"Wait your turn." Nick dumped daisies into the vase, then bent to scoop
the boy up. With his arms full again, he turned to look at Freddie. "Hi,
kid. How's it going?"

"You tell me." She eyed him over the rim of her glass. And damned him
for looking so casually beautiful, his hands full of children, his eyes
impersonally friendly as they studied her. "Have you heard back from
Reed?"

"It's Sunday," Nick reminded her. "He and his family are at the
Hamptons, or Bar Harbor, or someplace. We'll hear something in a few
days."

In a few days she would explode. "He must have had a reaction."

"Not really."

"Did he listen to the tape?"

Nick accommodated Kyle, who was squirming for attention, by tickling the
boy's ribs. "Sure he listened."

In a lightning mood swing, Kyle shifted his affections and held out his
arms and wailed for Freddie. The pass was completed with the fluidity of
long practice, and she set him on her hip. "Well, then, what did he say
when he heard it?"

"Not a lot."

She hissed through her teeth. "He must have said something. Indicated
something."

Nick merely shrugged. He reached down, aiming for a slice of carrot from
Bess's salad and got his hand slapped. "Jeez, Bess, who's going to
notice?"

"I am. I'm working on presentation here. Color, texture, shape. Take
this instead." She held out a carrot she had yet to slice.

"Thanks. Anyway, Fred, why don't you just play house for a couple days?"
He bit into the carrot and chewed thoughtfully. He liked watching the
way her eyes went from lake calm to stormy and the way her bottom lip
seemed to grow fuller as temper took hold. "Buy your knickknacks and
whatever for the new place. I'll be in touch when I hear anything."

"You just want me to wait?"

As if in sympathy, Kyle rested his head on Freddie's shoulder and
scowled at Nick. "You just want me to wait?" he mimicked, and had Nick
grinning.

"That's the idea. And don't get that devious brain of yours working on
the idea of calling Valentine yourself. Old family friend or not, that's
not how I work."

She could only steam in silence, as that was exactly what she'd been
considering. "I don't see how it would hurt--''

"No," he said simply, and, handing her what was left of his carrot,
walked out with Laurel.

"Stubborn, hardheaded know-it-all," Freddie grumbled.

"Know-it-all," Kyle echoed gleefully.

"Aunt Bess, when you have connections, you use them, don't you?"

Bess took a sudden, intense interest in the proper way to slice a
mushroom. "You know, I think I'm getting the hang of this. It's all in
the wrist."

"Temperamental jerk," Freddie said under her breath.

"Jerk," Kyle agreed, as she strode out with him on her hip.

"They are children one minute, men and women the next," Nadia commented.

"It's rough, being a grown-up."

Thoughtfully, Nadia rolled out her biscuit dough. "He looks at her."

Bess raised her head. She hadn't been certain Nadia would notice what
she had. Of course, Bess mused, she should have known better. When it
came to family, Nadia missed nothing.

"She looks back," Bess said, and the two women were suddenly grinning at
each other.

"She would push him to be his best."

Bess nodded. "And he'd keep her from being too driven."

"He has such kindness in him. Such a need for family."

"They both do."

"It's good."

With a chuckle, Bess lifted her glass of juice. "It's great."

That was just the first of a number of conversations that night that
both Freddie and Nick would have been stupefied to hear.

In their loft, Bess cuddled against Alex, sleepy-eyed and yawning. The
first trimester of her pregnancies always left her as lazy as a cat in a
moonbeam at night.

"Alexi."

"Hmmm?" He stroked her hair, half listening to the news on the bedroom
television, half musing about his caseload. "Need something?"

It amused them both that she was the clichéd expectant mother in her
early weeks, with all the accompanying strange cravings. "I think there
are still some strawberries and peanut butter in the fridge."

"Well…" She thought it over, then shook her head. "No, we seem to be
holding our own tonight." She smiled as his hand skimmed lightly over
her still-flat belly. "Actually, I was thinking about Freddie and Nick."

Cautious, his promise to his niece weighing heavily on him, Alex
shifted. "What about them?"

"Do you think they know they're crazy about each other, or are they
still at that 'I don't know what's going on around here' stage?"

"What?" He sat straight up in bed, gaping down at his sleepy-eyed,
tousled-haired wife. "What?"

"I can't decide myself." With ease, she slithered, accommodating herself
to his new position. "It's probably a little weird for both of them,
under the circumstances."

Alex let out a long breath. Why did he continue to delude himself that
Bess's freewheeling manner made her oblivious of nuances?

"Weird," he muttered. "How do you know they're crazy about each other?"

She drummed up the energy to open one eye. "How many times do I have to
tell you, writers are every bit as observant as cops? You noticed it,
didn't you? The way they've started to look at each other, circle
around?"

"Maybe." He wasn't certain he was entirely comfortable with the idea
yet. "Somebody ought to clue Natasha in."

Bess gave a lazy snort. "Alexi, compared to a mother, cops and writers
are deaf, dumb and blind." She snuggled closer. "Strawberries, huh?"

Across town, Rachel and Zack made a final check on their kids. Rachel
eased the headset off her daughter's ears while Zack tucked a stuffed
rabbit more securely under her limp arm--a tribute, Rachel often
thought, to the contrasts of a growing girl.

"She looks more like you every day," Zack murmured as they stood for a
moment, watching their firstborn sleep.

"Except for that Muldoon chin," Rachel agreed. "Stubborn as stone."

Arm in arm, they walked out and across the hall, into the room shared by
their sons. They both let out a long, helpless sigh. You could, if you
were a parent and had particularly sharp eyes, just make out the two
sprawled bodies amid the debris. Clothes, toys, models, sports
equipment, were scattered, piled or precariously perched on nearly every
surface on the top bunk, Jake's arm and leg draped over the mattress. A
devoted guardian angel or pure good luck kept him from rolling over and
falling into a heap on a tumble of possessions. Below, Gideon was no
more than a lump beneath the tangled sheets.

"Are you sure they're ours?" Rachel wondered as she gave her older son a
nudge that had him muttering in his sleep and rolling to safety.

"I ask myself that same question every day. I caught Gideon telling one
of Mik's kids that if they tied on bed sheets like a cape, then jumped
off Yuri's roof, they'd fly back to Manhattan."

Rachel closed her eyes and shuddered. "Don't tell me. Some things I'm
better off not knowing." She uncovered Gideon's head on the pillow,
discovered it was his feet, and tried the other side.

"I meant to ask you, how do you feel about Nick and Fred?"

"Working together? I think it's great" Zack swore as his stockinged foot
stepped hard on an airplane propeller. "Damn it."

"I've told you to wear hip boots in here. And that's not what I meant. I
meant how do you feel about the romance."

One hand massaging his wounded instep, Zack stopped dead. "What romance?
Whose romance?"

"Nick and Fred. Keep up with the tour, Muldoon."

He straightened, very slowly. "What are you talking about?"

"About the fact that Freddie is head over heels in love with Nick. And
the fact that he keeps shoving his hands into his pockets whenever she
gets within arm's reach. Like he's afraid if he touches her he'll--"

"Hold on. Just hold on." Because his voice rose, she shushed him, and he
grabbed her arm to pull her into the hall. "Are you telling me that the
two of them are interested in--"

"I'd say they're way beyond interested."

Amused, Rachel tilted her head. "What's the matter, Muldoon? Worried
about your baby brother?"

"No. Yes. No." Frustrated, he dragged a hand through his hair. "Are you
sure about this?"

"Of course I am, and if you weren't so used to looking at Nick as if he
were still a teenager with delinquent tendencies, you'd have seen it
too."

Zack let his shoulders sag against the wall behind him. "Maybe I did see
it. Something about the way he acted when she went out with this friend
of ours."

Rachel's sense of fun kicked into high gear. "Uh-oh--jealous, was he?
Sorry I missed it."

"He was ready to strangle me for introducing them." Slowly, Zack's lips
curved. Then a laugh rumbled up. "Son of a gun. Freddie and Nick. Who'd
have thought?"

"Anybody with eyes. She's been mooning over him for years."

"You're right. And she may be a sweetheart, but she's no pushover. I'd
say my little brother has trouble on his hands." He looked back at his
wife. Her hair was loose and tumbled. She was wearing only a thin robe
that tended to slip, just a little bit, off her right shoulder. His grin
widened. "And speaking of romance, Your Honor, I just had a thought, may
it please the court."

Leaning forward, he whispered something in her ear that had her brows
shooting up and her own mouth bowing. "Well, well, that's a very
interesting suggestion, Muldoon. Why don't we discuss it--in my
chambers?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

In their rambling house in the Connecticut countryside, Sydney lay
sprawled over her husband. Her heart was still pounding like a jungle
drum, her blood singing in harmony.

Amazing, she thought. After all these years, she never quite got used to
just what the man could do to her body. She hoped she never would.

"Cold?" he murmured, skimming a hand over her naked back.

"Are you kidding?" She lifted her still-glowing face to his, meeting his
eyes in the flickering glow of candlelight. "You're so beautiful,
Mikhail."

"Don't start that."

She chuckled and trailed a line of kisses up his chest. "I love you,
Mikhail."

"That you can start." He let out a contented sigh as she settled into
the curve of his shoulder. For a time, they lay in blissful silence,
watching the shadows dance.

"Do you think we will plan a wedding soon?" he asked.

Sydney didn't ask what wedding. Though they hadn't yet discussed it, she
understood what he meant. And who. "Nick's not sure of his moves, or his
needs. I think Freddie's sure of the latter for herself, but far from
sure of the former. It's sweet, watching them watch each other."

"Reminds me of another time," he mused. "Another couple."

She shifted to smile at him. "Oh, does it?"

"You were very stubborn, milaya."

"You were very arrogant."

"Yes." It didn't offend him in the least. "And if I had been less, you'd
have been an old maid, married to your business." He barely registered
the punch in the stomach. "But I saved you from that."

"Now who's going to save you?" She rolled on top of him.

Blissfully unaware of her family's interest, Freddie grabbed her
just-hooked-up cordless phone in her new apartment. Almost dancing with
excitement, she punched out the number quickly. Her father, she knew,
would be in class, but her mother would be at the toy store.

"Mama." Clutching the receiver, she turned three circles, making her way
across the living room toward the kitchen. "Guess where I am. Yes." Her
laughter echoed through the nearly empty rooms. "It's wonderful. I can't
wait for all of you to see it. Yes, I know, at the anniversary party.
Everything's fabulous." She did a quick boogie over the antique Oriental
she'd picked up in the shop Sydney had recommended. "I saw them all on
Sunday. Grandma made pot roast. A present?" she stopped her improvised
jitterbug to listen. "From Dad? Yes, I'll be here all day. What is it?"

She rolled her eyes and began a new dance. "All right, I'll be patient.
Yes, I got the dishes you sent. Thank you. I even lined the kitchen
cupboards to honor them. I've picked up some essentials."

She snagged a cookie from the bag on the kitchen counter and two-stepped
back into the living room. "No, I'm going to buy a bed here. I really
hoped you'd keep mine in my room. It makes me feel like I'm still sort
of there. Oh, and tell Brandon I haven't had a chance to get to Yankee
Stadium yet, but I'm hoping to take in a game next week. And I've
already got tickets for the ballet."

Two tickets, she thought. She'd get Nick there, come hell or high water.

"Tell Katie I'll commit every movement, every plié and fouettee turn to
memory. Oh, and tell Dad--Oh, there's too much to tell everyone. I'll
talk you all senseless when you come up, and--Hold on, someone's buzzing
me. Yes, Mama," she said with a smile. "I'll make sure I know who it is
first. Just wait. Yes?" she called into her intercom.

"Miss Frederica Kimball? Delivery for you."

"Papa?"

"Who you think?" came the strongly accented voice. "Frank Sinatra?"

"Come on up, Frankie. I'm in 5D."

"I know where you are, little girl."

"Yes, it's Papa," Freddie said into the phone. "He'll want to say hello,
if you've got time." She was already unlocking her door and swinging it
open. "You should see, Mama--I've got this great elevator, iron grates
and everything. And my neighbor across the hall's a struggling poet who
wears nothing but black and speaks in this tony British accent with just
a hint of the Bronx underneath. I don't think she ever wears shoes. Oh,
here's the elevator. Papa!"

It wasn't only Yuri. Behind him, Mikhail came, bearing an enormous box.

"Pots and pans," Mikhail told her when he set the box down with a
dangerous-sounding thud. "Your grandma is afraid you don't have anything
to cook with."

"Thanks. Mama's on the phone."

"Let me have it." Mikhail snatched the receiver even as her grandfather
gathered Freddie into a bear hug.

Yuri was a big, broadly built man who squeezed her as if it had been
years, rather than days, since he'd seen her.

"How is my baby?"

"Wonderful." He smelled of peppermint, tobacco and sweat, a combination
she associated with love and perfect safety. "Let me give you the grand
tour."

Yuri adjusted his belt, took one long, pursed-lipped look at her living
room. "You need shelves."

"Well." She snuck her arm around his waist and fluttered her lashes.
"Actually, I was thinking that if I just knew a carpenter who had some
time…"

"I build you shelves. Where is furniture?"

"I'm picking it up, a little at a time."

"I have table in my shop. Goes well right here."

He stalked over to the windows, checked to see that they had adequate
locks and moved smoothly up and down.

"Good," he pronounced. He was checking the baseboards and the level of
the counters in the kitchen when Nick strolled in. "So," Yuri said, "you
come to unload boxes?"

"No." Nick shoved a large, blooming white African violet at Freddie.
"Housewarming present."

She couldn't have been more thrilled if he'd come in on one knee, with a
diamond ring the size of a spotlight in his hands. "It's beautiful."

"I remembered you liked plants. Figured you'd want one." With his hands
already seeking the safety of his pockets, he scanned the room. "I
thought you said it was just a little place."

It would fit two of his apartment, he noted, and shook his head. So went
the perceptions of the rich and privileged. "You shouldn't leave your
door open."

She lifted her brows. "I'm not exactly alone."

"Papa. Tash wants to talk to you. Fred, you got something to drink in
here?"

"In the fridge," she told Mikhail, watching Nick. "So, did you come by
to look the place over, give it the LeBeck seal of approval?"

"More or less." He wandered out of the living room, into the bedroom
that held nothing more than a closet, which was already full of clothes,
a few boxes and a rug that he figured probably cost the equivalent of a
year's rent for him. "Where are you going to sleep?"

"I'm expecting a sofa bed to be delivered today. I want to take my time
picking out a real bed."

"Hmmm." He wandered out again. Dangerous area, he realized. Thinking of
her in bed. Her bed. His bed. Any bed. "You want to keep these windows
locked," he said as he strolled through. "That fire escape's an
invitation."

"I'm not an idiot, Nicholas."

"No, you're just green." He glanced up in time to catch the can of soda
Mikhail tossed at him. "You need a dead bolt on that door."

"I have a locksmith coming at two. Anything else, Daddy?"

He only scowled at her. He was mulling over the proper retort when her
buzzer sounded again. It seemed there was another delivery for Miss
Kimball.

"Probably the sofa," Freddie mused, as Nick lighted a cigarette and
looked around for an ashtray. She found him a porcelain soapdish shaped
like a swan.

But it wasn't a sofa. Her mouth fell open and stayed open as three
broad-shouldered men muscled in the base of a grand piano.

"Where you want it, lady?"

"Oh, God. Oh, my God. Dad." Her eyes filled to overflowing instantly.

"Put it over there," Nick told them as Freddie sniffled and wiped her
cheeks. "A Steinway," he noted, thrilled for her. "Figures. Nothing but
the best for our little Fred."

"Shut up, Nick." Still sniffling, she took the phone from Yuri. "Mama.
Oh, Mama."

The men went about their business as she wept into the phone.

He should have left with the rest of them, Nick told himself when he
found himself alone with Freddie thirty minutes later. She was busy
tuning the glorious, gleaming instrument, between bouts of weeping.

"Cut it out, will you?" Shifting uncomfortably on the new bench, Nick
hit middle C.

"Some of us have emotions and aren't ashamed to express them. Give me an
A."

"God, what a piece," he murmured. "Makes my little spinet sound like a
tin can."

She glanced over as she hit a chord. They both knew he could have
replaced the spinet with an instrument every bit as magnificent as this.
But he was attached to it.

"Looks like we'll be able to work here, too, if we want to." She waited
a beat, flexed her fingers, tried out an arpeggio. "If we have anything
to work on."

"Yeah, about that." Entranced with the piano, Nick began improvising a
blues. "Listen to that tone."

"I am." As delighted as he, she picked up his rhythm and filled in on
the bass. "About that?" she prompted.

"Hmm. Oh. You've got yourself a gig, Fred. You'll have contracts by the
end of the week. You've lost the tempo," he complained when her hands
faltered. "Pick it up."

She only sat, her hands still on the keys, staring straight ahead. "I
can't breathe."

"Try sucking air in, blowing it out."

"I can't." Giving in, she swiveled, let her head fall between her knees.
"They liked it," she managed as Nick awkwardly patted her back.

"They loved it. All of it. Valentine told me Maddy O'Hurley said it was
the best opening number of her career, and she wanted more. She dug the
love song, too. Of course, it was my melody that caught her."

"Cram it, LeBeck." But despite her sharp tone, her eyes were wet when
she lifted her head.

"Don't start leaking again. You're a professional."

"I'm a songwriter." Jittery with success, she threw her arms around him
and clung. "We're a team."

"Looks that way." He found his face buried in her hair. "You've got to
stop wearing this stuff."

"What stuff?"

"That perfume. It's distracting."

She was too overwhelmed by possibilities to worry about taking careful
steps. "I like distracting you." Heedlessly, she slid her lips up his
throat until she found the vulnerable lobe of his ear and nipped.

He nearly gave in to the compelling need to turn his suddenly hungry
mouth to hers, and swore. "Cut that out." Taking her firmly by the
shoulders, he pushed her back. "We've got a professional relationship
here. I don't want things clouded up with…"

"With what?"

"Hormones," he decided. "I'm past the age where I think with my glands,
Fred, and you should be, too."

She ran her tongue over her lips. "Am I bothering your glands,
Nicholas?"

"Shut up." He rose, knowing he was safer with some distance. "What we
need is some ground rules."

"Fine." She couldn't stop the wide smile or the sparkle in her eyes.
"What are they?"

"I'll let you know. Meanwhile, we're partners. Business partners." He
decided it wasn't wise to seal the arrangement with a handshake. Not
when she had those soft, narrow, incredibly sensitive hands.
"Professionals."

"Professionals," she agreed. She tilted her head and crossed her legs in
a slow, fluid way that had him staring carefully at a spot above her
head. "So, when do we start… partner?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Six
-----------
Contents - Prev | Next

Nick knew Freddie's mind wasn't focused on her work. They'd cruised
along smoothly enough for two weeks, but as the time approached for her
family to come to New York for Nadia's and Yuri's anniversary party, her
work came more in fits and starts than in a flow.

He hadn't meant to snap at her, really, but the way her mind was darting
from subject to subject--a new recipe for canapés she just had to give
to Rio, the art deco lamp she'd bought for her living room, the jumpy,
tongue-twisting lyrics she'd come up with for a number in the second
act--they weren't getting any real work done.

"Why don't you just go shopping, get your nails done, do something
really important."

Freddie sent him a bland look and forced herself not to look at her
watch again. Her family was scheduled to arrive in less than three
hours.

"I bet Stephen Sondheim's taking an afternoon off wouldn't have sent
Broadway into a crisis."

He knew that. And if she hadn't assumed they were taking the rest of the
day off, he'd have suggested it himself. "We've got an obligation. I
take obligations seriously."

"So do I. I'm only talking about a few hours."

"A few hours here, a few hours there." He refused to look at her as he
reached up to change a note on the sheet of music. "You've already had
plenty of those the last few days." He picked up the cigarette he'd left
burning and drew deep. "It must play hell, having your social life get
in the way of your hobby."

She took a careful breath, hoping it would help. It didn't. "It must
play hell, having your creativity always at war with your sanctimonious
streak."

That little barb stung, as she'd meant it to. "Why don't you try doing
your job? I can't keep carrying you."

Now her breath hissed out. "Nobody has to carry me. I'm here, aren't I?"

"For a change." He tossed the cigarette back in the ashtray to smolder.
"Now why don't you try contributing something, so we can earn our keep?
Some of us don't have Daddy's money behind us, and have to work for a
living."

"That's not fair."

"That's the fact, kid. And I don't want a partner who only wants to play
at songwriting when it suits her busy schedule."

Freddie pushed back on the stool, swiveled--the better to glare at him.
"I've been working every bit as hard as you, seven days a week for
nearly three weeks now."

"Except when you had to go buy sheets, or a lamp, or wait for your bed
to be delivered."

He was baiting her, and even knowing it, she swallowed the lure whole.
"I wouldn't have had to take time off if you'd agreed to work at my
place."

"Yeah, great. Working with all the sawdust and noise, while Yuri builds
you shelves."

"I need shelves." She did her best to rein in the temper he seemed
hell-bent on driving to a gallop. "And it was hardly my fault that the
delivery was three hours late. I finished the chorus from the first solo
in the second act while I was there."

"I told you that needs work." Ignoring her, Nick started to play again.

"It's fine."

"It needs work."

She let out a huff of breath, but she refused to lower herself to the
childish level of arguing back and forth. "All right, I'll work on it.
It would help if the melody wasn't flat."

That tore it. "Don't tell me the melody's flat. If you can't figure out
how to write for it, I'll do it myself."

"Oh, really? And you've got such a way with words, too." Sarcasm dripped
as she rose from the bench. "Go ahead, then, Lord Byron, write us some
poetry."

When his eyes snapped to hers, they were dangerously sharp and ready to
slice. "Don't throw your fancy education in my face, Fred. Going to
college doesn't make you a songwriter, and neither do connections. I'm
giving you a break here, and the least you can do is put in the time it
takes."

"You're giving me a break." There was a growl in her voice, feral and
furious. "You conceited, self-important idiot. All you've given me is
grief. I make my own breaks. I don't need you for this. And if you're
not satisfied with my work habits, or the results, take it to the
producers."

She stormed across the room, snatching up her bag en route.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"To get my nails done," she tossed back, and made it to the door before
he caught her.

"We're not done here. Now sit down and do what you're getting paid to
do."

She would have shaken him off, but after one attempt, she decided she
preferred dignity to freedom. "Let's get something straight here. We're
partners. Partners, Nicholas, which means you are not my boss. Don't
confuse the fact that I've let you call the shots so far with
subservience."

"You've let me call the shots," Nick repeated, enunciating each word.

"That's exactly right. And I've tolerated your mercurial moods, your
sloppiness, and your indulgent habit of sleeping until after noon.
Tolerated them because I chose to attribute them to creativity. I'll
work in this sty you live in, arrange my schedule to accommodate yours,
even struggle to make something worthwhile out of second-rate melodies.
But I won't tolerate nasty remarks, insults or threats."

His eyes were glittering now. Another time, she might have admired the
golden lights among the green. "Nobody's threatened you. Yet. Now, if
you've got your little tantrum out of your system, let's get back to
work."

She jabbed her elbow into his ribs, remembering his advice about putting
her body behind it. He was still swearing when she yanked the door open.

"You go to hell," she suggested, and slammed the door hard in his face.

He nearly, very nearly, went after her. But he wasn't entirely sure
whether he would strangle her or drag her off to bed. Either way, it
would be a mistake.

What had gotten into her? he wondered as he nursed his sore ribs on the
way back to the piano. The girl he'd known had always been agreeable, a
little shy, and as sweet-natured as a sunrise.

Showed what happened, he supposed, when little girls became women. A
little constructive criticism, and they turned into shrews.

Damn it, the chorus did need work. The lyrics weren't up to her usual
standard. And, as he would be the first to admit, her usual standard was
stunning.

Thoughtfully, he ran a hand along the edge of the piano. Well, maybe he
hadn't admitted it. Not exactly. But she knew how he felt. She was
supposed to know how he felt.

Disgusted, he rubbed at a headache brewing dead center in his forehead.
Maybe he'd been a little hard on her, but she needed somebody to crack
the whip now and then. She'd been pampered and indulged all of her life,
hadn't she? It showed in the way she would carelessly shift priorities
from work to social issues.

How long did it take for anyone to set up housekeeping? After Rachel and
Zack moved out, he'd been settled in fine in a couple of hours.

Frowning now, Nick turned on the bench to face the room. So it was a
little messy--it was lived-in, homey.

No, the place was a sty. He'd meant to pick it up, but since it never
stayed that way, what was the point? And he'd planned to paint, and
maybe get rid of that chair with the broken leg at some point.

It was no big deal; he could take care of it in a weekend. He didn't
need the kind of palace Freddie was setting up a few blocks away. He
could work anywhere.

It was irritating that the more time she spent in these rooms, the more
drab and unkempt they seemed to him. But it was his business, and he
didn't need her making snide comments about the way he chose to live.

Determined to push her out of his mind, he set his fingers on the keys,
began to play. After two bars, his face was grim.

Damn it, the melody was flat.

In her apartment, Freddie put the finishing touches on the welcome snack
she was preparing for her family. Already she was regretting not holding
out for a larger place. If she had rented a two-bedroom, everyone could
have stayed with her instead of bunking in with Alex and Bess.

Still, they'd all have some time together at her place before the party,
and she wanted it to be perfect.

Your problem exactly, she mused, and her shoulders slumped as she
arranged fruit and cheese. Everything always has to be perfect to
satisfy Fred. Good isn't enough. Wonderful isn't enough. Perfection
only, or toss it out.

She'd swiped at Nick because he wasn't perfect.

He'd deserved it, though, she assured herself. Making her sound like
some spoiled child who was only playing at a career. That had hurt, hurt
more because she wanted his respect every bit as much as she wanted his
love. The hurt continued to ache because he hadn't understood, didn't
understand how very much it all meant to her.

Coming to New York was a thrill, true, but it had also been a wrench to
her heart. Writing the score for the musical was a dream come true, but
it was also grueling work, with the sharp terror of failure always
balanced over her head like an ax.

Didn't he know that if she failed as his partner, she would have failed
at everything she'd ever wanted? It wasn't just a job to her, and it
certainly wasn't the hobby he'd made it sound like. It was, very simply,
her life.

Because thinking of it made her eyes sting, she fought to put it out of
her mind and concentrate on the evening ahead.

It would be perfect--Catching herself, she swore, and then nearly sliced
her finger instead of the stalk of celery. It would be wonderful, she
corrected, having the whole family in one place, celebrating the
endurance and beauty of marriage. Because it was important to her, she'd
taken on a great deal of the responsibility for planning Yuri's and
Nadia's anniversary celebration herself. She'd chosen and ordered the
flowers, helped Rio select the menu, and worked out countless other
details.

While Nick was sleeping that morning, she'd already been at Lower the
Boom, decorating the bar. She and Rachel and Zack had scrubbed the place
down first, so that every inch would shine. Bess had helped her with the
balloons, and Alex had taken an hour's personal time to pitch in. Sydney
and Mikhail had swung by to help Rio with kitchen duty.

Everyone had helped, she thought now. Except for Nick.

No, she wasn't going to think about him, she promised herself. She was
only going to think about how they would all make the evening as special
for her grandparents as it could possibly be.

When her buzzer sounded, she raced to it, her eyes darting everywhere,
to make sure all was in place.

"Yes?"

"The Kimball crew, all present and accounted for."

"Dad! You're early. Come up, come on up. Fifth floor."

"On our way."

Freddie hurried to the door, dragging at locks, pulling at the safety
chain. Unable to wait, she raced out to the elevator, fidgeting as she
heard its mechanical whine.

She saw them behind the grate first, when the car came to a stop--her
father's gold hair, with its gleaming threads of silver, her mother's
dark, dancing eyes. Brandon with a Yankees cap on backward and Katie
already tugging at the grate.

"Fred, what a great place." Already as tall as her sister, Katie threw
her long, graceful arms around Freddie's neck. "There's a dance studio
across the street. I could see them rehearsing through the window."

"Big deal," Brandon said. "Where's the food?"

"Ready and waiting," she assured him. Brandon was, she thought, a
spectacular melding of their parents, gold and exotic. "Door's open."
She accepted his quick, offhand kiss as he brushed by her.

"Dad." She giggled, as she always had, when he scooped her off her feet
for a hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you. I've missed you." She blinked
back tears she hadn't expected as she reached out for Natasha. "I've
missed you both so much."

"The house isn't the same without you." Natasha rocked in the tight
embrace, then eased back. "But look at you! So sleek and polished.
Spence, where's our little girl?"

"She's still in there." He bent to kiss Freddie again. "We brought you
something."

"More presents?" She laughed and slipped her arms around their waists to
lead them to the apartment. "I haven't gotten over the piano yet. Dad,
it's beautiful."

He nodded as he stood in the doorway and studied it. The dark wood
gleamed in the sunlight from the window. "You chose the right spot for
it."

She started to tell him that Nick had chosen the spot, then shook her
head instead. "There couldn't be a wrong one."

"You got anything but rabbit food?" Brandon demanded as he strolled out
of the kitchen gnawing on a celery stick.

"That's all you're getting here. You can stuff yourself at the party."

"Mama, Dad," Katie called out from the bedroom. "Come here. You've got
to get a load of this!"

"My bed," Freddie explained to her puzzled parents. "It just came
yesterday."

It was, if she said so herself, utterly fabulous. The spacious room had
allowed her to indulge in king-size, and she'd chosen a head and
footboard of iron, painted a soft green, like copper patinated over
time. The rods curved in a graceful semicircle, and were accented by
metal flowers and small exotic birds in flight.

"Wow" was all Brandon could say with his mouth full of the scorned
rabbit food.

"Great, isn't it?" Lovingly Freddie ran her fingers over the bars, and
along the ivory-toned lace of the spread she'd chosen.

"Like sleeping in a fairy tale," Natasha murmured.

"Exactly." Freddie beamed. If anyone would understand and appreciate the
sentiment, she knew it would be her mother. "And Papa built the shelves
here for the carvings Uncle Mik made me over the years. I picked up this
mirror at an antique shop downtown." She glanced at the ornately framed
glass, its long oval shape accented by twisting brass-and-copper calla
lilies, then grimaced at the cardboard boxes beneath.

"I haven't found the right bureau yet."

"You've accomplished a lot in less than a month," Spence pointed out.
There was a little ache, just under his heart. He expected it would
always be there when he thought of his baby living away from him. But
there was pride, as well, and that was what showed in his eyes as he
draped an arm around her shoulders. "I hear you and Nick are making
progress on the score."

"It comes and goes." Forcing a smile, she walked back to the living
room, where Brandon was already sprawled on the sofa and Katie was
darting from window to window, hoping for another glimpse of the dance
rehearsal.

"I still need to change for the party," Freddie said a little later,
after they made a thorough inspection and caught each other up on their
current events. "We'll need to get there early. You have the tickets,
Dad?"

"Right here." He patted the breast of his jacket. "Two to Paris,
open-dated, with a certificate for a stay at the honeymoon suite at the
Ritz."

"Mama and Papa in Paris," Natasha murmured. "After all these years, for
them to go back to Europe like this."

Gently Spence brushed a hand over her dark corkscrew curls. "Not quite
as exciting as traveling through the mountains in a wagon."

"No." She smiled. The memory of their escape from the Ukraine, the fear
and the bitter, bitter cold, had never faded. "But I think they'll
prefer it." She noted, as she had several times over the past hour, the
trouble lurking in Freddie's eyes. "I think you and the kids should go
over now, Spence, see if Zack and Nick need any help." She smiled again,
sending a silent message to her husband. "I'll stay here and primp with
Freddie."

Curiosity came and went in his eyes before he nodded. "Sounds like a
plan. Save the first dance for me," he added, kissing his wife.

"Always." Natasha waited, nudging her younger children along, then
accepting Freddie's offer of a glass of wine. "Show me what you'll wear
tonight."

"When I bought it I figured wearing it tonight would make me the sexiest
woman there." Pride glowed on her face as she studied her mother, exotic
as a Gypsy in flowing carmine silk. "After seeing you, I guess I'll have
to settle for the second sexiest."

With a quick, throaty laugh, Natasha led the way into the bedroom.
"Don't mention looking sexy around your father. He isn't quite ready for
it."

"But he's all right, isn't he? About the move?"

"He misses you, and sometimes he looks in your room as if he still
expects to see you there--in pigtails. So do I," Natasha admitted, and
sat on the edge of the bed. "But yes, he's all right with it. More than.
He--both of us are so proud of you. Not just because of the music, but
because of who you are."

No one was more surprised than Natasha when Freddie dropped on the bed
beside her and burst into tears.

"Oh, my love, my baby, what is it?" Drawing Freddie close, Natasha
stroked and soothed. "There, sweetheart, tell Mama."

"I'm sorry." Giving up, Freddie pressed her face into Natasha's soft,
welcoming shoulder and wept. "I guess this has been building up all
day--all week. All my life. Maybe I am spoiled and indulged."

Instantly insulted, Natasha leaned back to look at Freddie. "Spoiled?
You're not spoiled, and not indulged! What would put such nonsense in
your head?"

"Not what, who." Disgusted with herself, Freddie dug around in her
pocket for a tissue. "Oh, Mama, I had such an awful fight with Nick
today."

Of course, Natasha thought with a little inward sigh. She should have
suspected it. "We often fight with those we care about, Freddie. You
shouldn't take it so hard."

"It wasn't just a spat, not like we've had before. We said awful things
to each other. He doesn't have any respect for who I am, or what I'm
trying to do. As far as he's concerned, I'm just here to kick up my
heels, knowing if I trip, you and Dad will be there to catch me."

"And so we would, if you needed us. That's what family is for. It
doesn't mean you're not strong and self-reliant, just because you have
someone who would reach out if you needed help."

"I know. I know that." But it helped enormously to hear it, all the
same. "He just thinks--Oh, I wish I didn't care what he thought,"
Freddie added bitterly. "But I love him. I love him so much."

"I know," Natasha said gently.

"No, Mama." Taking a steadying breath, Freddie shifted so that her eyes
were level with Natasha's. "It's not like with Brandon and Katie, or the
rest of the cousins. I love him."

"I know." The ache in Natasha's own heart swelled as she smoothed back
Freddie's tumbled hair. "Did you think I wouldn't see it? You stopped
loving him as a child loves years ago. And it hurts."

Comforted, Freddie rested her head on Natasha's shoulder again. "I
didn't think it was supposed to. It was always so easy to love him
before." She sniffled. "Now look at me, crying like a baby."

"You have emotions, don't you? You have a right to express them."

She had to smile, as her mother's words so closely echoed the ones she
herself had thrown at Nick days before. "I certainly expressed them this
afternoon. I told him he was sloppy and self-important."

"Well, he is."

With a watery chuckle, Freddie got up to pace. "Damn right he is. He's
also kind and generous and loving. It's just hard to see it sometimes,
through that shell he's still got covering him."

"His life hasn't been simple, Freddie."

"And mine has." She reached out to trace the carving of a sleeping
princess Mikhail had made her with her finger. "Dad worked hard to give
me the kind of home every child should have. And then you came and
completed the circle. You and the whole family. I know Nick was already
a man when we came into his life, and that the years before left scars.
It's the whole person I'm in love with, Mama."

"Then you'll have to learn to accept and deal with the whole person."

"I'm beginning to understand that I had it all worked out," she said,
turning with a wry smile on her face. "I had a carefully outlined plan.
But it's not a simple thing, convincing a man to fall in love with you."

"Do you really want it to be simple?"

"I thought I did. Now I don't know what I want or what to do about it."

"You can make one part simple." Rising, Natasha took the tattered tissue
from Freddie's hand and dried her daughter's tears herself. "Be
yourself. Be true to that, to your heart. Patience." She laughed when
Freddie rolled her eyes. "I know that's difficult for you. But patience,
Freddie. See what happens if you step back instead of bounding forward.
If he comes to you, you'll have what you want."

"Patience." More settled, Freddie heaved an exaggerated sigh. "I guess I
could try it." She cocked her head. "Mama, am I bossy?"

"Perhaps a little."

"Stubborn?"

Natasha tucked her tongue in her cheek. "Perhaps more than a little."

Amused at herself, Freddie smiled. "Flaws or virtues?"

"Both." Natasha kissed Freddie's nose. "I wouldn't change either trait.
A woman in love needs to be a little bossy, and more than a little
stubborn. Now go wash your face. You're going to make yourself
beautiful--and make him suffer."

"Good idea."

Nick decided he wouldn't hold a grudge. Since it was Yuri's and Nadia's
night, he wouldn't spoil it by sniping at Fred. However much she
deserved it.

And maybe, just maybe, he felt a little guilty. Especially after coming
downstairs and seeing firsthand how much time and effort she'd put into
making the place festive. If someone had bothered to wake him up, he'd
have given her a hand. With a flick of his finger, he sent the lacy
white wedding bells over the bar spinning.

He wouldn't have thought of wedding bells, he admitted. Or of the
baskets and buckets of flowers that filled the room with color and
scent. He wouldn't have come up with the feathery doves hanging from the
ceiling or the elegant candles in silver holders at the tables.

It would have taken her a lot of time to track down the decorations, he
supposed. So maybe he should have been a little more patient with her
dashing out on him, or dashing in with her mind so obviously elsewhere.

He'd forgive her, and let bygones be bygones.

"Hey, Nick, did you try those meatballs?"

He turned, cocked a smile at Brandon. "I saw them, and nearly got my
hand chopped off reaching for a sample."

"Rio likes me better." Smug, Brandon slid a meatball from a toothpick
into his mouth. "Hey, did you get a load of Freddie's bed?"

"Her bed?" Guilt, fear and secret lust sharpened his voice. "Of course
not. Why would I?"

"It's a real piece of work, big as a lake." Brandon slid onto a stool
and tried his most charming smile. "So, Nick, how about a beer?"

"Don't mind if I do."

"I meant for me," Brandon complained when Nick helped himself.

"Sure, kid. In your dreams." He glanced over as the door opened. And was
very grateful he'd already swallowed.

Natasha was striking, an elegant Gypsy in swirling red silk, but Nick's
gaze was riveted to Freddie.

She looked as though she'd draped herself in moonlight. He tried to tell
himself the dress was gray, but it glinted and danced with silver
lights. And she was poured into it. The simple scooped neckline and
snugly cinched waist enhanced her slim, fragile build. And the way her
hair was left loose and tousled made it appear she'd just gotten out of
that lake-size bed Brandon had just told him about.

Natasha immediately walked over to hug him, and Freddie offered him a
quick, distant smile but avoided meeting his eyes.

"New suit?" Freddie asked at random, realizing she had to say something
and she'd been staring at his lapel for several seconds. She approved of
the tailored lines of the black jacket, but certainly wasn't going to
say anything about it.

"I figured the occasion called for it."

But not for a tie, she noted. The open collar of the black shirt suited
him--as did the beer in his hand and the challenging glint in his eyes
when she finally looked up. She hoped her careless shrug masked her
thoughts of just how dangerous--and exciting--he looked. The man didn't
deserve her compliments, after his behavior that day.

"You look very handsome," Natasha put in.

"Thanks."

"Everything looks perfect. I had a wonderful time arranging it all,"
Freddie said, turning a slow circle to be certain everything was in
place.

"You did a good job in here." It was, Nick thought, a suitable white
flag. But she only tossed him a carefully bland look over her shoulder.
"It looks great," he continued, wishing he'd kept his mouth shut in the
first place. "Must have taken a lot of time."

"I've got nothing but time, according to some people. Brandon, how about
giving me a hand? Uncle Mik will be bringing Papa and Grandma along any
time."

"He's not bringing them," Nick muttered into his beer.

"What do you mean, he's not bringing them? Of course he is. I arranged
it."

"I unarranged it," Nick shot back, then added, "they're coming in a
limo."

She blinked. "A limo?"

"I got the idea from someone," he said, and sent her a sneer. "It's
their anniversary, after all. It's not like they're just going out to
dinner."

Freddie made a sound in her throat that had Brandon wiggling his
eyebrows at his mother.

"Battle stations," he murmured, and leaned forward to enjoy the fray.

"That was very considerate of you, Nicholas." Freddie's voice was cool
and controlled again, causing her brother to sigh in disappointment.
"I'm sure they'll appreciate it. And, of course, it takes hardly any
time and effort at all to pick up the phone and order a car. I'm going
to help Rio."

She sashayed out. Or so Nick described it to himself. Muttering, he
pushed aside his beer. It looked as though it were going to be a very
long night.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Seven
-------------
Contents - Prev | Next

Freddie hated the fact that she couldn't stay mad at Nick. Aloof, maybe.
The bar was crowded with so many bodies, the room filled with so much
noise, that it wasn't difficult to stay aloof from one man.

But she just couldn't hold on to her temper, not after what Nick had
done for her grandparents.

In any case, there wasn't time to brood over it, or over him. There were
toasts to be drunk, food to be eaten, dances to be danced.

Not that Nick asked her to dance. He partnered her aunts, her mother,
Nadia, family friends and relations. And, of course, the stupendously
sexy Lorelie.

Well, if he was playing the aloof game, she would play harder.

"Great party!" Ben shouted near her ear.

"It is." She managed to work up a smile for him as he awkwardly led her
around the crowded dance floor. "I'm glad you could make it."

"Wouldn't have missed it. I've known Zack's in-laws for years. Terrific
people."

"The best." Her smile bloomed a bit when she spotted Alex twirling his
mother. "The very best."

"I was thinking…" Ben missed a step, and barely missed her toes.
"Sorry. Failed my dance class."

"You're doing fine." Though he was in danger of breaking her wrist as he
pumped her arm like a well handle to keep his time. She grabbed the
first distraction she could think of to save herself. "Have you tried
the food? Rio's really outdone himself."

"Then let's get some plates."

Look at her, Nick thought darkly, scowling at Freddie as Lorelie draped
herself over him. Flirting with Ben. Anyone--even Ben--should have the
sense to see that she wasn't interested. Just leading him on. Typical
female.

"Nick, honey." Lorelie's creamy voice invaded his thoughts. She sent him
a melting look. "You're not paying attention. I feel like I'm dancing by
myself."

He sent her a quick, charming smile that made even the savvy Lorelie
almost believe he thought of no one but her. "I was just wondering if I
should check the bar."

"You checked it five minutes ago." Lorelie pouted prettily. She knew
when she didn't have a man's full attention--and how to take it
philosophically. As attractive as Nick was, there were always other fish
to fry. "Well, why don't you get me a glass of champagne, then?"

"Sure, coming right up." Relieved, he left her. She'd been clinging to
him all night, like poison ivy on an oak, Nick thought. That kind of
possessiveness always made him determined to shake loose.

The truth was, they just weren't clicking. He didn't think he was going
to break her heart or anything quite so melodramatic, but Nick had
learned through sad experience that women didn't always take even the
most compassionate breakup well.

He'd have to let her down gently. No doubt, the sooner he backed off,
the better it would be. For her.

The idea made him feel so altruistic, and relieved, that he opened a
fresh bottle of champagne with a celebratory pop.

"How come we get music only from that box?" Yuri caught Nick in a
headlock that would have felled a grizzly. "Are you a piano player or
not?"

"Sure, but I'm kind of tied up here."

"I want music from my family. It's my party, yes?"

The man who could deny a request from Yuri was a tougher man than Nick
LeBeck.

"You bet, Papa. I'll get right on it. Here take this." He handed Yuri
the glass of champagne. "No, don't drink it." With a quick laugh, Nick
gestured across the room. "See the brunette over there? The one with the
big… personality?"

Yuri grinned lavishly. "Who could miss?"

"Take it to her, will you? Explain I'll be playing for a while. And
don't lay on too much charm."

"I'm very controlled." Then he rhumbaed over to Lorelie.

Prepared to enjoy himself, Nick made his way through the crowd to the
piano. His smile dimmed considerably when he spotted Freddie already
sitting on the bench.

"You're in my spot."

She shot him a look that said in no uncertain terms that she was no more
pleased with the arrangement than he. "They want both of us."

"It only takes one."

"It's Papa's party, yes?"

He caught himself struggling with a grin at her imitation. "Looks that
way. Move over."

He sat, deliberately shifting to avoid touching her tempting, creamy
shoulder and angled toward the keyboard beside the piano.

"What do they want?"

"Cole Porter, maybe, or Gershwin."

With a grunt, Nick began the opening bars of "Embraceable You."

Freddie shrugged and flowed with him into the tune.

Twenty minutes later, she was too pleased with the partnership to
attempt to be aloof. "Not too shabby."

"I can hold my own with forties stuff."

"Hmm." Automatically she picked up on the boogie-woogie he'd slid into.

He was enjoying, too much, the way she always seemed to anticipate him
in any improvisation.

And her perfume was driving him insane.

"You can take five if you want. I can handle this. Ben's probably
getting lonely."

"Ben?" Blank, she glanced up again. "Oh, Ben. I think he can survive
without me. But you go ahead and take a break. I'm sure Lorelie misses
you."

"She's not the possessive type." To cover the lie, he switched tempos,
trying to catch her. But she kept pace with him easily.

"Really? Couldn't prove that by me, the way she was hanging all over
you. Of course, some men--" She broke off as applause erupted. "Look at
them." She laughed, everything inside her warming as she watched Yuri
and Nadia jitterbugging. "Aren't they great?"

"The best. Why don't we--Son of a bitch."

"What?" She bunked, then refocused. It appeared the lonely Ben and
Lorelie were finding solace with each other. If solace was quite the
word, Freddie mused, for the way they were nuzzling in the corner.
"She's sitting in his lap."

"I see where she's sitting."

"So much for letting him down easy," Freddie muttered, just as Nick
echoed the same sentiments, applied to Lorelie.

He snapped back first. "What? What did you say?"

"Nothing. I didn't say anything. What did you say?"

"Nothing."

Suddenly they were grinning at each other.

"Well…" Freddie let out a quick breath as her fingers continued to
move over the keys. "Don't they make a cute couple?"

"Adorable. Now they're going to dance."

"Too bad for her," Freddie said, with feeling. "Ben's a nice guy, but he
dances like he's drilling for oil. I think he dislocated my shoulder."

"She can handle it. But let's slow this down before Yuri kills himself."

He segued into "Someone To Watch Over Me."

Freddie sighed, yearned. Romantic tunes always tugged at her heart.
Flowing with it, she looked over at Nick. Maybe, while she was feeling
so in tune with him, the taste of crow wouldn't stick in her throat.

"It was lovely, what you did for Grandma and Papa."

"No big deal. I just made a phone call, like you said."

"Truce," she murmured, and touched a hand to his for a moment. "It
wasn't just the limo, Nick, though that was wonderful. Stocking it with
all those white roses, caviar, iced vodka. It was very thoughtful."

"I figured they'd get a kick out of it." As usual, her simple sweetness
layered guilt over his black mood.

Pass the crow.

"I came down pretty hard on you earlier. I should have taken into
consideration all the time and effort you put into getting things ready
for tonight and setting up your apartment. Though why it took you so
long to look for a lamp is beyond me."

Her art deco lamp was her current pride and joy. "Why don't you stick
with the apology?"

"You did a nice job on the party."

"Thanks." Pleased with the small victory, she signaled to her father to
take over for her. "And since you talk so sweet," she added, leaning
over to give him a kiss, "I forgive you."

"I wasn't asking you--" But she was already up and gone. Nick scowled
when Spence took his daughter's place. "Women."

"Couldn't have put it better myself. She's certainly grown into an
attractive, independent one."

"She was a nice kid," Nick mused. "You shouldn't have let her grow up."

Spence noted, with a glance at Nick's face, that Natasha's theory on
romance probably was on the mark. There was an ache around his heart.
Spence supposed there always would be, at the idea of his little girl
moving into her own separate life. But there was pride, as well.

Seamlessly he meshed with Nick on a Ray Charles classic.

"You know," he continued, "boys are already coming by the house,
flirting with Katie."

"No way." Shock raced into Nick's eyes first, then the uncomfortable
feeling of, at thirty, actually beginning to feel old. "No way. If I had
a daughter, no way I'd let that happen."

"Reality's tough," Spence agreed, then let the devil take over. "You
know, Nick, it certainly eases my mind to know that you're around to
look after

Freddie. I'd worry a lot more if I didn't have someone I trusted keeping
an eye out."

"Yeah." Nick cleared his throat. "Right. Listen, I'd better take over at
the bar for a while."

Spence grinned to himself and added a flourish to the notes.

"You shouldn't tease him," Natasha said from behind him, laying a hand
on her husband's shoulder.

"It's my job, as a father, to make his life a living hell. And just
think, with the practice I have, how good I'll be at it when it's
Katie's turn."

"I shudder to think."

It was after two before the party broke. Now only Nick and Freddie and a
few straggling family members remained. With a satisfied look, Freddie
glanced around the bar.

It looked as though an invading army had suddenly pulled up stakes and
gone off to another battle.

Tattered crepe paper hung drunkenly, so that white doves flew at
half-mast. The tables that had been loaded with food had been thoroughly
decimated, and all that was left of Rio's piece de resistance, the
five-tiered wedding cake, were crumbs and a few smears of silvery icing.

There were glasses everywhere. Some enterprising soul had built a fairly
impressive pyramid of lowball glasses in the corner. She saw a forest of
crumpled napkins littering the floor, and, oddly, a single gold shoe
with a stiletto heel.

She wondered how its owner had managed to walk out without lurching.

Leaning against the bar, Zack took his own survey and grinned. "Looks
like everybody had a good time."

"I'll say." Rachel picked up a cloth and gave the bar a halfhearted
swipe. "Papa was still dancing on his way out, and my ears are ringing
from Ukrainian folk songs."

"You belted out a few yourself," Zack reminded her.

"Vodka does that to me. Wasn't it wonderful, seeing their faces when we
gave them their gift?"

"Grandma just cried," Freddie murmured.

"And Papa stood there telling her not to," Nick put in. "While he was
crying himself."

"It was a wonderful idea, Freddie." Rachel's eyes filled again as she
thought of it. "Lovely, romantic. Perfect."

"I knew we wanted to give them something special. I'd never have thought
of it if Mama hadn't mentioned it."

"You couldn't have come up with better." Rolling her weary shoulders,
Rachel took another look around. "Look, I vote we leave this mess and
tackle it in the morning."

"I'm with you." More than willing to turn his back on the destruction,
Zack took her hand and drew her around the bar. "Abandon ship."

"You two go ahead," Freddie said casually. She didn't want the night to
end. And if prolonging it meant dealing with dirty dishes, so be it. "I
just want to make a dent."

Guilt had Rachel hesitating. "I suppose we could--"

"No." Freddie aimed a quiet, meaningful look. "Go home. You've got a
baby-sitter to deal with. I don't."

"Another hour won't matter," Zack said, squaring his shoulders.

"But we'll leave it to you," Rachel said, stepping hard on her husband's
foot.

"But--"

Zack finally caught the drift, and the ensuing kick in the shin. "Oh,
right. You kids get a start on it. I'm exhausted. Can hardly keep my
eyes open." To add emphasis, he tried an exaggerated yawn. "We'll finish
up what you don't tomorrow. Night, Freddie." Not sure if he should wink
or issue a sharp warning in Nick's direction, Zack merely stared.
"Nick."

"Yeah, see you." After the door closed, Nick shook his head. "He was
acting weird."

"He was just tired," Freddie said as she loaded glasses onto a tray.

"No, there's tired and there's weird. That was weird." Which, Nick
realized, was pretty much how he felt, now that he and Freddie were
alone. "Listen, they've got the right idea. It's late. Why don't we
pretend this is done, and go away? It'll still be here tomorrow."

"Go on up if you're tired." Freddie marched toward the kitchen with her
loaded tray. "I couldn't sleep knowing I'd left all this. Not that it
would bother you," she said over her shoulder as the door swung behind
her.

"It's not like I made this mess myself," Nick muttered, loading another
tray. "I think I spotted one or two other people using glasses around
here tonight."

"Did you say something?" Freddie called out.

"No. Nothing."

He carted his tray into the kitchen, where she was already filling the
dishwasher, and set it down with a clatter.

"You don't go to hell for leaving dishes in the sink."

"You don't win any prizes, either. I said go on up to bed. I can handle
it."

"I can handle it," he mimicked in a mumble as he dragged out a pail. He
stuck it in the sink, added a hefty dose of cleaner and a hard spray of
hot water.

When he stalked out moments later, she was grinning.

For the next twenty minutes, they worked in silence that became more and
more companionable. It pleased her to see the food cleared away, the bar
gleaming again. And, she thought, while Nick wasn't exactly whistling
while he worked, his mood was definitely clearing up.

"I noticed that Ben and Lorelie left together," Freddie began.

"You don't miss much." But his lips twitched. "They had a fine old time.
Everybody did."

"You're not upset."

He shrugged. "It wasn't serious. Lorelie and I never…" Whoops, watch
your step. "We just didn't click."

She couldn't prevent the overwhelming sense of glee, but she did manage
to conceal it. Humming a little, she picked up a chair, upended it onto
a table in the area Nick had already mopped.

He swabbed a bit closer. Since she was being so easy about things, he
thought it was time to clear the decks.

"Fred, I wanted to talk to you about this afternoon."

"All right. You know, if we clean up any more, Zack will think we don't
need him. I don't want to hurt his feelings."

But she wandered over to the jukebox, loitered over the choices.
Inspired, she pushed buttons, turned. "You didn't dance with me tonight,
Nick."

"Didn't I?" He knew very well he hadn't, and why.

"No." She walked to him as the slow, shuffling notes seeped out. "If I
Didn't Care," she thought. The Platters.

Perfect.

"You don't want to hurt my feelings, do you, Nicholas?"

"No, but--"

But she was already slipping her arms around him. He laid his hand on
the small of her back and led her into the dance.

His movements were smooth and surprisingly stylish. Always had been, she
remembered as she rested her head on his shoulder. The first time she
danced with him, she'd thrilled to them.

But there was a different kind of thrill now, for the woman, rather than
the adolescent girl.

She fit so well, he thought. Always had, he remembered as he drew her
closer. But she'd never smelled like this before, and he couldn't
remember her hair teasing him into brushing his lips over it.

They were alone, and the music was right. He'd always been susceptible
to music. It tempted him now to rub his lips over her temple, nibble
lightly at her ear.

Catching himself, he swung her out in a slow spin that made her laugh.
Her eyes were glowing when she turned back into his arms.

She followed his every move as though she'd been born in his arms.
Seemed to anticipate him as he walked her, circled her, twirled her
again. In a move as gracefully choreographed as the dance, she lifted
her head.

And his mouth was waiting.

He simply slid into her. Into the kiss, the warmth, the simplicity of
it. Her arms came up, encircled his neck, her fingers skimming up
threading into his hair.

He didn't hear the music end, for it was playing in his head. Their own
intimate symphony. He thought he could absorb her if she would let him.
Her skin, her scent, that wonderfully generous mouth.

As the kiss deepened, lengthened, he imagined how perfectly simple it
would be to pick her up, carry her upstairs. To his bed.

The clarity of the vision shocked him enough to have him pulling her
back. "Fred--"

"No, don't talk." Her eyes were clouded, dreamily. "Just kiss me, Nick.
Just kiss me."

Her mouth was on his again, making him long to forget all the reasons
why it shouldn't be. However confused those reasons were becoming, he
put his hands firmly on her shoulders and stepped back.

"We're not doing this."

"Why?"

"You're on dangerous ground here," he warned her. "Now get your things,
your purse, whatever. I'm taking you home."

"I want to stay here, with you." Her voice was calm, even if her pulse
rate wasn't. "I want to go upstairs with you, to bed."

The knot in his stomach tightened like a noose. "I said get your purse.
It's late."

Her experience might be limited, but she thought she knew when to
advance and when to retreat. On legs that weren't quite steady, she
walked behind the bar to get her purse.

"Fine. We'll play it your way. But you don't know what you're missing."

Afraid he did, he dragged a hand through his hair. "Where did you learn
this stuff?"

"I pick it up as I go along," she said over her shoulder as she yanked
open the door. "Coming?"

It had just occurred to him that it might be a better--safer--idea to
get her a cab. But she was already outside.

"Just hold on." He slammed the bar door behind him and locked it.

Freddie began to stroll down the street. "Beautiful night."

Nick muffled his muttering and methodical cursing. "Yeah, just dandy.
Give me your purse."

"What?"

"Just give it to me." He snatched the glittery fancy and shoved it into
his jacket pocket. For the first time, he noticed her earrings. "I bet
those rocks are real."

"These?" Automatically she lifted a hand to the sapphire-and-diamond
clusters. "Yes, why?"

"You should know better than to walk around with a year's rent on your
earlobes."

"It's no use having them if I'm not going to wear them," she pointed out
with perfect logic.

"There's a time and a place. And walking on the Lower East Side at 3:00
a.m. doesn't qualify for either."

"Want to put them in your pocket, too?" Freddie said dryly.

Before he could tell her it was just what he had in mind, someone called
his name.

"Yo, Nick!"

Glancing across the deserted street, Nick saw the shadow, recognized it.
"Just keep walking," he told Freddie, automatically shifting her to his
far side. "And don't say anything."

Breathless from the short jog, a thin-faced man in baggy pants fell into
step beside them. "So, Nick, how's it hanging?"

"Can't complain, Jack."

Freddie opened her mouth, but only a muffled squeak came out when Nick
crushed all the major bones of her hand.

"Fancy stuff." Jack winked at Nick and gave him an elbow dig. "You
always had the luck."

The man was too pitiful to bother decking. "Yeah, I'm loaded with it.
We've got places to go, Jack."

"Bet. Thing is, Nick, I'm short until payday."

When wasn't he? Nick thought. "Come by the bar tomorrow, I'll float
you."

"Appreciate it. Thing is, I'm short now."

Still walking, Nick dug into his pocket, pulled out a twenty. He knew
exactly where it would go, if Jack could link up with his dealer at this
hour.

"Thanks, bro." The bill disappeared into the baggy pants. "I'll get it
back to you."

"Sure." When icicles drip in hell. "See you around, Jack."

"Bet. Once a Cobra, always a Cobra."

Not, Nick thought, if he could help it. Furious at being forced into the
encounter, and that Freddie had been touched by the slimy edge of his
past, he quickened his pace.

"You know him from the gang you used to belong to," Freddie said
quietly.

"That's right. Now he's a junkie."

"Nick--"

"He hangs around the neighborhood, sometimes during the day. Odds are he
won't remember you, he was already buzzed, but if you run into him, just
keep running. He's bad news."

"All right." She would have reached for him, tried to comfort him
somehow, drive away the misery lurking just behind his eyes. But they
had reached her building, and he was pulling her purse out of his
pocket.

Nick took out her keys himself and unlocked the front door, then stepped
inside and pressed the button for the elevator. "Go upstairs. Lock your
door."

"Come up with me. Stay with me."

He wanted to touch her, just once more. But his fingers still felt
soiled where they had brushed Jack's over a crumpled twenty-dollar bill.

"Do you have any idea what happened just now?" Nick demanded. "We just
ran into part of my life, and if I hadn't been along, he would have
taken more from you than your pretty earrings."

"He isn't part of your life," she said calmly. "He isn't your friend.
But you gave him money."

"So maybe he won't mug the next person he sees."

"You're not one of them anymore, Nick. I doubt you ever really were."

He was suddenly so weary, so horribly tired. Giving in, he rested his
brow against hers. "You don't know what I was, what I still might be.
Now go upstairs, Fred."

"Nick--"

To silence her, he gripped her shoulders and brought his mouth down hard
on hers. When she could breathe again, she would have staggered, but his
hands steadied her as he pushed her into the elevator. She could only
stare, system sizzling, as he snapped the grate closed.

"Lock your door," he said again, and walked out.

He took a careful look up the street, down, then turned and waited until
he saw her light flash on.

He took the long way home.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Eight
-------------
Contents - Prev | Next

She'd had incredible dreams. True, she'd gotten only a few hours' sleep,
but she saw no reason to complain. In fact, Freddie had awakened early,
feeling wonderful. Since she had time to spare, she walked over to the
Village and spent the morning haunting some of the more interesting
shops, picking up what Nick liked to call her knickknacks.

By the time she'd cabbed home, dropped off her newest treasures and
walked out again, she was running a little behind.

But the day was too gorgeous for her to worry about it.

Spring was in full swing now, with just a hint of the summer to come
teasing the edges. It made the day balmy and bright, with none of the
horrendous heat that could plague the city during the dog days.

She was, Freddie decided, one of the luckiest women in the world. She
lived in an exciting city, was embarking on a new, equally exciting
career. She was young and in love. And, unless her female intuition was
faulty, she was very close to convincing the man she loved that he loved
her right back.

Every step of her plan was falling into place.

Since she was feeling generous, she stopped by a sidewalk vendor to buy
both herself and Nick a jumbo pretzel.

As she was slipping her change back into her pocket, she spotted the man
leaning on the front of the building across the street.

The thin face, the baggy clothes. With a little inward shiver, she
recognized the man Nick had called Jack from the night before. He was
smoking, bringing a cigarette to his lips in quick, greedy puffs as his
eyes darted right and left like wary birds.

Even though those eyes lingered a moment on her before passing on, she
saw no recognition in them. Relieved, she turned away. Not that she
would have spoken to him unless it was unavoidable, Freddie thought.
Still, she wouldn't have cared to explain to Nick about any interaction
she had with one of his old gang comrades.

She quickened her pace, heading toward the bar without looking back.
Though the back of her neck prickled.

She pushed Jack out of her mind as she stepped into the kitchen, and
loitered there a few moments to praise Rio for his success with last
night's food.

Nibbling on her pretzel, she started upstairs. Her sunny mood didn't
cloud over, even when Nick yanked open the door and scowled at her.

"You're late."

So much, she thought, for loverlike greetings.

"I wasn't even sure you'd be up yet. We had a late night."

He didn't care to be reminded of it. "I'm up, and I'm working, which is
more than I can say for you."

He'd had much worse than a late night. He hadn't slept more than an
hour, and even that had been restless and sweaty. Old dreams and new
ones had plagued him.

He'd been raw then, and he was raw now, suffering from a combination of
emotional and physical frustration he'd never experienced before.

And he knew just where to lay the blame for it.

She was standing right in front of him, looking as bright and golden as
a sunbeam.

Though she was well aware of his foul mood, Freddie smiled at him,
tilted her head. He hadn't bothered to shave, she noted, but she didn't
object to the look. The angry eyes and stubbled chin gave him a sort of
reckless and dangerous edge that was appealing, in its way.

She had a feeling he'd had trouble sleeping, and couldn't have been
happier.

"Rough night, Nick? Have a pretzel."

Since she all but shoved it into his mouth, he had little choice but to
take a bite. But he didn't have to like it.

"Where's the mustard?"

"Get your own." She crossed to the piano and sat. "Ready to work?"

"I've been working." What else was there to do, when you couldn't sleep?
"What have you been doing?"

"Shopping."

"Figures."

"And before you start hammering me, I happened to have finished the
lyrics to 'You're Not Here.'" Pleased to be able to put him in his
place, she opened her briefcase and pulled them out. "I polished them up
before the shops opened."

He muttered something, but joined her on the bench. In spite of himself,
his mood began to lift as he read them. He should have known they'd be
perfect.

Still, there was no use indulging her vanity. "They're not too bad."

She rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Richard Rodgers."

His mouth quirked. "You're welcome, Stephen Sondheim."

Now that he looked at her, really looked, his gaze narrowed. "What did
you do to your hair?"

Instinctively she reached up to pat it. "I pulled it back and put it up.
It gets in the way."

"I like it in the way." To prove it, he started yanking out pins.

"Stop it." Flustered, she batted at his hands. He simply caught her
wrists, bracketing them with one hand while he used the other to pull
her careful hairdo apart.

By the time the damage was to his liking, he was laughing and she was
swearing at him. "There," he decided. "Much better."

"Now you're a fashion consultant."

"You look cute when it sort of sproings all over the place."

She blew it out of her face. "Sproings. Thanks." Now her eyes gleamed.
"Maybe I'll do some rearranging on yours."

She made her dive, but he was quicker. It had always been a
disappointment to her that she couldn't quite outmaneuver him. He just
wrestled her backward until she was breathless and giggling.

It took her a moment to realize he wasn't smiling anymore, but was
staring at her. Staring with a sharp, focused intensity that had her
pulse stuttering and her throat going dry. Her legs had gotten tangled
with his, so that she was all but sitting on his lap.

A tug, a sweet, gradual pull, stretched from her heart down to her
center.

"Nick."

"We're wasting time." He let his hands fall away, untangled himself. He
just had to get on the right track, he was sure of it, and he'd stop
having these sudden, voracious cravings for her. "We'll run through the
number you just finished, see how it plays."

Patience, she reminded herself, and wiped her damp palms on her
trousers. "Fine. Whenever you're ready."

After a rocky start, the work smoothed out. Both of them became focused
on the music, so that they could sit hip to hip as collaborators, as
friends.

One hour passed into two, and two into three, and more. At one point,
Rio brought up some leftovers from the party, and stayed awhile to
listen, with a smile on his wide face.

They nibbled at food, polished, argued over small points and nearly
always agreed on the big ones.

Nearly.

"It should be romantic."

"Comedic," Nick disagreed.

"It's their wedding night."

"Exactly." He took time out for a cigarette, secretly pleased that he
was cutting down on his tobacco intake daily. "They've rushed headlong
into marriage. They've known each other three days."

"They're in love."

"They don't know what they are." Thoughtfully, he took a slow drag,
setting the scene in his head. "They've just rushed off to a JP for a
ridiculous ceremony, now they're in a broken-down hotel room, wondering
what they've gotten into. And what the hell they're going to do about
it."

"That may be, but it's still their wedding night. You're writing a
dirge."

He only grinned. "Ever really listened to the Wedding March, Fred?" To
prove his point, he crushed the cigarette out and began to play it.

Freddie had to admit it was solemn, serious, and a little scary. "Okay,
you've got a point. Play it again and let me think."

She got up to pace, letting Nick's music run through her. And she
watched him, and wondered.

What was it about him that pulled her so? His looks? Perhaps that had
been true years ago, when a young girl first saw those restless green
eyes. But she looked deeper now.

His manner? That made her smile. Hardly that. However kind and loving
Nick could be, he could be equally brusque and careless of feelings. Not
that he meant to hurt others' feelings, she thought. He simply forgot
about them.

It was his heart, she decided, that had always called to hers, and
always would.

But what if she had met him only yesterday? What if they had come
together as strangers and she had simply, irrevocably lost that heart to
him?

Would she be frightened, unsure? Excited?

"Who is this man," she murmured, "who calls me his wife? It takes more
than a gold ring to change a girl's life."

She wrinkled her nose when Nick glanced back. "Needs to be sharper," she
said.

Thinking, she took another turn around the room. "Till death do us part?
That's a deal with no heart. Love, honor and cherish, from now till I
perish?"

He turned and grinned. "I like it. Marriage and death. Quite a pair."

"I can do better. Who is this man, waiting outside the door? What's he
want me to be? A wife, a lover, a whore? He's going to see me naked.
There's no way I can fake it…"

She stopped, laughed, rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm getting punchy."

"It's the right theme," he told her. "Panic."

"Maybe… maybe." She walked back to him. "What if we started out the
way you have it, slow, funereal--a cello-and-organ thing. Then we pick
up the tempo, faster, then faster. Panic building."

"With a key change."

"Good. Try here." To demonstrate, she leaned over his shoulder, putting
her hands over his on the keys.

"Yeah, I got the picture." He wished to God her breasts weren't pressing
into his back. "You're crowding me, Fred."

The strain in his voice alerted her. "Am I? Sorry." But she wasn't, not
a bit. She eased back a little, listening to him work. "I think we've
got it." Gently she laid her hands on his shoulders and began to rub.
"You're tight."

His fingers fumbled, infuriated him. "You're still crowding me."

"I know."

Her hair brushed his cheek, and that damned perfume she wore shot
straight to his loins. Intending on snarling at her, he turned his
head--his first mistake--and ended up staring into those wide gray eyes.

"Am I making you nervous, Nicholas?" she murmured, as she slid onto the
stool beside him.

The simple truth came out before he could stop it. "You're making me
crazy."

"Good." She leaned forward, and pressed a soft, lascivious kiss with
just a hint of tongue full on his lips before he could evade. "You've
been making me crazy for years. It's about time I had a turn."

His breath was backing up in his lungs. He thought he understood exactly
how a man feels when he goes down for the third time. Choking,
floundering. And fighting a losing battle with fate.

His voice hardened in defense. "This isn't a game, Fred, and you don't
know the rules."

She slid her hands up his forearms, rested them on his shoulders, then
moved in slowly, until her mouth was nearly on his. "I imagine you could
teach me."

He was holding on to control by a thread, a slippery, frayed thread that
kept dancing out of his hands. "If you knew what I'd like to teach you,
you'd run, and run fast, all the way home to Daddy."

That statement had pride kicking in. Her chin shot up, and her eyes
dared him. "Try me."

It was insane, he knew it was insane, to drag her against him, to
plunder that teasing, tormenting mouth with his. He told himself he'd
wanted to frighten her, to make her leap up and race for the door, for
her own good.

But it was a lie.

When her body quivered against his, then strained, then melted, that
thin thread snapped and sent him tumbling.

"Damn it. Damn both of us." He dragged her off the stool, caught her up
in his arms in a gesture every woman dreams of. "You're not walking away
this time."

Her breath might have come in shallow gasps, but she met his eyes
levelly. "I'm not the one that's been walking away, Nick. And you're not
going to get me to run, either."

"Then God help you. God help us both."

His mouth was on hers again, wild and free, as he whirled her into the
bedroom.

The sheets were in tangles on the unmade bed, a testament to his
restless night. The late-afternoon sun beat on the windows so that the
light was harsh and unforgiving. Another time, he might have given some
thought to ambience, to the romantic trappings she might have hoped for.

But now he simply fell with her onto the bed, and plundered.

His hands were already dragging at her blouse, and his lips were
everywhere. She didn't protest the speed, or the urgency, but met it,
beat for beat. After waiting for him for so long, it seemed right to
hurry. Perhaps there was a small seed of panic lodged inside her. The
fear that she would fumble when it counted most.

Would there be pain? she wondered. Humiliation?

Then his mouth was hot on hers again, and the seed died, withered by the
heat, before it had the chance to grow.

She'd never imagined it could be like this. So violent and intense a
need. So exciting. All her fantasies, her long-held dreams and quiet
hopes, paled against the brilliance of reality.

He couldn't get enough of her. It seemed as if he'd waited all his life
for this one moment. She was a banquet of flavors, tart, sweet, tangy,
and he a starving man.

Her skin was ivory-pale, with a fire just underneath that seduced and
enraptured. Each small movement she made, as fluid as the dance they'd
shared the night before, aroused him beyond belief.

Part of his brain understood that she was innocent. He knew she was
small, delicate. He could feel that fragile skin, those subtle curves,
under his hands. So without even realizing it, he slowed his pace. And
began to savor.

There was sweetness in her. The shape of her mouth, the curve of her
shoulder. Gently he skimmed his lips down her throat, calling on
patience now to allow her to adjust to each new level of pleasure. So he
played her with care, with skill. Adding notes and small flourishes,
letting them linger, sustain. And as he felt each response shiver
through her, saw it mirrored on her face, he found there was no need to
hurry after all.

She couldn't keep her eyes open. They were too heavy. Odd, how light the
rest of her felt. Like thin, fragile glass. And he stroked and cupped
her in those wonderful artist's hands, as if he knew she might break.

Then his mouth moved down, circling, teasing, then capturing, her
breast. The pleasure arrowed into her and quivered there.

To touch him, she thought hazily. At last to touch him. To feel that
wiry strength, those muscles covered by taut skin. Murmuring her
approval, she ran her hands over him freely, delighted with each new
discovery.

Those soft, testing caresses had the blood pounding in his head. When
his mouth came back to hers again, he demanded just a little more---just
a little deeper, a little longer.

He thought she looked like a princess under glass, with her eyes closed,
her skin glowing and her hair like a sunburst over his pillow.

But she was trembling beneath him, her lips were full and swollen from
his patient, relentless assault, and her breath was quickening. Focused
on her, only her, he eased her gently toward the next level.

When he cupped her, she was hot and wet and irresistible.

Her eyes flew open at the new intimacy. And the pressure, the unbearable
pressure that seemed to press outward through her body, threatening to
shatter her, promising to overwhelm. Even as she shook her head in
denial, she arched against him.

He took her flying toward the first peak so that she cried out, shocked,
staggered by the impact. Her nails bit heedlessly into his back in
response to the violence that gripped her, held her helpless. And made
her crave.

Then the tension spurted out of her, leaving her limp. She thought she
heard him groan, felt him shudder even as she shuddered. But he was
taking her high again, so quickly, so skillfully, that she could only
cling and let him lead.

His hands were balled into fists as he eased himself into her, slowly,
so slowly that sweat sprang to his skin and his body seemed to scream
out for release.

He knew he would hurt her. Damage her. Invade her.

But she opened for him fluidly, as if she'd been waiting all along.

He would burn in hell for what he'd done. Nick cursed himself over and
over, but he couldn't find the strength to move. He was still sprawled
over her, still inside her, trying to recover from the climax of his
life.

He'd had no right to take her. Less to find any pleasure in it.

He wished she would say something, anything, so that he would have some
clue to how to handle the situation. But she only lay there, limply,
with one hand resting lightly on his back.

His responsibility, he reminded himself. And it was time to face the
music.

As gently as possible, he shifted, rolled off her. She made some sound,
vaguely feline, as he moved, then simply curled to him.

He would certainly bum in hell, he thought, for wanting her all over
again.

"There's nothing I can do to make up for this."

"Nothing," she said with a sigh, and rested her hand on the old scar
above his heart.

He stared fiercely at a spot on the ceiling. "Can I get you something?
Brandy, maybe?"

"Brandy?" Puzzled, she drummed up enough energy to move her head and
look at him. "I haven't been in an accident or been caught in an
avalanche. Why would I need brandy?"

"For the… shock," he supposed. "Water, then," he said, disgusted with
himself. "Something."

The lovely pink mists were clearing from her brain. Clearing enough that
she could see the regret and self-condemnation in his eyes. "You're not
going to tell me you're sorry this happened."

"Damned right I'm sorry, for whatever good it does. I should never have
touched you. Never have let things get this far. I knew it was your
first time."

Pride wobbled. "How?"

He finally shot her a look. "Let's just say it was obvious."

"I see." Perhaps, after such stunning pleasure, there could be
humiliation. "Was I inadequate?"

"In--" He let out a breath, then a curse. The woman had turned him
inside out, now she wanted to know if she was inadequate. "No, you
weren't inadequate. You were amazing."

"I was?" Her lips began to curve. "Amazing?"

He recognized that smug tone and wondered how, at such a time, it could
amuse him. "That's not the point."

"I think it's a good one, though." Understanding, and sorry for the
torment she heard in his voice, she shifted until she could look down at
his face. "I always knew you'd be my first, Nicholas. I always wanted
you to be."

He wondered why the thrill that sent through him didn't shame him. "I
took advantage--"

She cut him off with a delighted laugh. "No way.

Maybe you want to delude yourself that you ravished the virgin,
Nicholas, but I seduced you, and I worked damned hard at it."

"I'm trying to take responsibility here," he said patiently. "You're
making it tough."

"You made me happy," she murmured, and lowered her mouth lightly to his.
"I hope we made each other happy. Why should knowing that make you sad?"

It didn't seem to make much sense, but he found himself smiling at her.
"You're supposed to be weepy and trembling and shocked."

"Oh." She pursed her lips. "Well, maybe if we take it from the top--so
to speak--I'll get it right the next time."

Later, he left her in his bed and went down to the bar for his shift.
For the first time in years, he caught himself watching the clock.
Though he drew drafts and mixed drinks with the ease of experience, he
nearly snarled at the few customers who lingered through last call.

The minute the last one was out the door, he locked up. He gave the bar
no more than a cursory cleanup before rushing back upstairs.

She was sleeping, her head nestled in his pillow, her arm thrown out
over the space where he would soon be. He found himself grinning,
delighted just to watch her, to listen to the slow, even sound of her
breathing, the little catch in it when she shifted in sleep and rustled
the sheet.

Then an idea began to form in his brain that had him grinning and
unbuttoning his shirt.

He left his clothes in a heap on the floor, then eased down at the edge
of the bed. He tugged the sheet aside and picked up her foot.

Freddie drifted awake on a tingle of pleasure. It seemed to creep along
her skin, seep into her blood. She heard herself sigh with it, a lovely
dream. Then she shot fully awake and into a sitting position when Nick
scraped his teeth along her instep.

"Nick?" Disoriented, pulse pumping, she pushed the hair out of her eyes
and blinked at the shadow at the bottom of the bed. "What are you
doing?"

"Waking you up."

His eyes, well adjusted to the dark, gleamed like a cat's. A wolfs. He
found it endearing, arousing, that when she discovered she had no sheet
to cover herself, she crossed an arm over her breasts and looked
flustered.

"Too late," he murmured. "I've already seen you naked."

Feeling foolish, she lowered her arm. A little.

"I had this interesting fantasy, about nibbling on your toes and working
my way up. I'm indulging myself."

"Oh." The idea had heat rushing through her. "Come to bed."

"Eventually."

"I want to…" She trailed off, sliding bonelessly back down as his
tongue did amazing and wicked things to her ankle.

"I figured since you seduced me--" he progressed, inch by devastating
inch, up her calf "--it was only right that I return the favor."

Who would have thought, she wondered, that the back of a knee could be
so wonderfully sensitive? "Well…" Her voice was weak. "Fair's fair."

When Freddie let herself into her apartment the next morning, she was
singing. Not only was she in love, she thought, but Nick LeBeck was her
lover. And she was his.

She did three quick pirouettes across her living room, buried her face
in the tiny white blooms of the violet he'd given her, then spun away
again.

Everything in her life was suddenly and absolutely perfect.

She would have deserted her beautiful new apartment and moved into the
pigsty he lived in in an instant, bag and baggage. But she could easily
imagine Nick's face if she brought up the idea.

Total shock, she acknowledged. And a good dose of fear.

Well, there was no need to rush, she reminded herself. Not now.

But if he didn't make a move before too much longer, she would have to
take the initiative herself. And propose.

Still, at the moment, she was more than content. All she wanted was a
shower--the one she'd taken with Nick that morning didn't count--and a
change of clothes. She was due back at Nick's in an hour.

They still had a score to finish.

She was just stepping, dripping, out of the shower when her buzzer
sounded.

"Coming, coming, coming." Tugging on a robe as she ran, she rushed to
the intercom. "Yes?"

"Fred, open up."

The sound of his voice still had the power to thrill her. "Nick, you've
got to stop following me."

"Ha-ha. Now open up. I wouldn't have had to run all the way over here if
you'd answered your phone."

"I was in the shower." She pressed the buzzer to admit him, then undid
her locks before dashing back to the bathroom. She managed to tuck her
hair into a towel, and slather on some moisturizer before he walked in.

"Don't ever leave your door unlocked like that."

Always the sweet-talker, she thought. "You were on your way up."

"Ever," he repeated, then eyed her. "Didn't you just take a shower an
hour ago?"

She tilted her head, then shoved the towel back into place as it tipped.
"I put that more in the class of water games than grooming. What are
you, the water police?"

Distracted, he reached out to toy with her lapel. "What do you call this
thing?"

She glanced down at her short plum-colored silk robe. "A robe. What do
you call it?"

"An invitation, but we haven't got time. Get packed."

Her brows shot up. "I'm leaving?"

"We're leaving. Maddy O'Hurley called five minutes after you left. She
wants us to come to her house for a few days up at the Hamptons. In the
Hamptons. Whatever."

Since the towel refused to stay in place, Freddie pulled it off. "Now?"

"That's the idea. Her weekend home's there, and she's got the family
with her." Idly he reached out and tugged one of her wet curls. "She
thought it would be an opportunity for us to work together, and have a
little R and R while we're at it."

"Sounds like a plan."

"So hurry up, will you?" Impatience was shimmering around him now. "I've
got to get back and do my own packing, rent a car and arrange for
someone to take over my shift at the bar."

"Okay, go get busy. I'll be ready when you are."

"You wouldn't want to put any money on it, would you? Holy hell!" He'd
backed into the bedroom as he spoke, and now stood gaping. "What is
that?"

"A bed," she told him, stepping forward to run a loving hand over the
curved footboard. "My bed. Fabulous, isn't it?"

He grinned. "Arabian Nights or Sleeping Beauty. I can't decide which."

"Something in between." She arched a brow. "It's bigger than yours."

"It would make three of mine." He fingered the lace of the spread. He
would have banked on her choosing lace. Slowly, he turned his head,
looked back at her with a gleam in his eyes, and lust in his heart. "So,
Fred, just how fast can you pack?"

"Fast enough," she promised, and leaped onto the bed with him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Nine
------------
Contents - Prev | Next

Freddie didn't see why she couldn't drive. The snappy convertible Nick
had rented for the trip was a pleasure, and she enjoyed having the wind
rush through her hair, the blast of the radio. But she'd have preferred
being behind the wheel.

"How come you get to drive?" she demanded. "Because I've driven with
you, Fred. You poke."

"I do not poke. I simply obey the law."

"Poke." Enjoying himself, he increased the pressure on the gas pedal.
There was nothing like driving full-out with Ray Charles pumping out of
the stereo. "If you were driving, we wouldn't get there until next
week."

"You've already managed to get one ticket," she reminded him primly. Ten
miles out of the city, Nick thought in disgust, and he'd been busted.
"Traffic cops have no sense of adventure." But Nick did, and proved it
by taking a turn fast. "This baby handles," he murmured. "Okay,
navigator, check when our next turn's coming. I think we're almost on
it."

Freddie glanced down at the directions, snickered. "You passed it,
hotshot, about a half a mile back."

"No problem." He zipped the car into a tight U-turn that had Freddie
caught between a scream and laughter.

"The general population can sleep easy, knowing you live in Manhattan
and don't own a car. Make a left," she instructed. "And slow down. I'd
like to get there in one piece."

He eased back--a little--and scanned the big, rambling houses they
passed. Lots of lawn, he mused, lots of glass. Lots of money.

Big rooms, he imagined, filled with Oriental rugs and pricey antiques.
Or glossy floors and stunning modern furnishings. Swimming pools with
sparkling water and cushy lounge chairs set around them.

Though, of course, those would be sheltered by trimmed shrubbery and
grand old trees.

Just the sort of neighborhood he would have been barred from a decade or
so before. Now, he was here by invitation.

"It's that one." Freddie leaned forward. "The cedar with the weeping
cherries in the front. Oh, aren't they beautiful?"

The blossoms were just past their peak, already littering the ground
with fragile pink petals, but they did make a show. Nick couldn't claim
to know a lot about horticulture, but he thought the scent tickling his
senses was lilac.

When he turned into the sloping driveway, he was rewarded by the sight
of a majestic bush loaded with lavender-hued spikes.

"Not bad for a weekend getaway," he murmured, studying the multileveled
structure of glass and wood. "It must have twenty rooms."

"Probably. I wonder if--" Freddie broke off as a horde of children raced
around from the far side of the house. Though of varying sizes and
shapes, they appeared as a mass.

Until a slim, dark-haired boy took another child out with a flying
tackle that was likely to jar internal organs.

Taking the cue, the rest of them piled on, shouting and wrestling.

"I see Maddy meant it literally when she told you the family would be
here. The whole family, from the looks of it," Freddie observed. "That's
Maddy's oldest boy trying to murder one of Trace's kids. I think."

She smiled as a pixie-size girl with wild red curls and an
unidentifiable smear on her cheek spotted them, and waved.

"Mom!" the girl shouted. "Hey, Mom, company." As an afterthought, she
gave the cousin she held in a headlock one last jab in the ribs, then
scrambled up and raced to the car. "Hi, I'm Julia. Remember me?"

"Of course I do." After she'd climbed out of the car, Freddie gave
Maddy's youngest daughter a welcoming kiss. "Nick, this is Julia
Valentine. I won't try to sort the others out for you quite yet."

"Hi, Julia." She had the look of her mother, he thought. If Maddy
O'Hurley really looked like the woman he'd seen on stage and on
billboards. "You've got quite a war going on."

"Hi." Julia beamed a smile at him. "We like to fight. We're Irish."

Nick had to grin. "That accounts for it."

"There's a lot of us, 'cause most everybody had twins. Trace had two
sets of twins. But Aunt Chantel had triplets." She wrinkled her nose.
"All boys. Come in. I'll take you inside."

Being female, if only seven, Julia focused on Nick. "I'm going to be a
dancer on Broadway. Like Mom. You can write my music."

"Thanks."

As Julia opened the door, they were greeted by a small, towheaded boy
with a maniacal gleam in his eye and a croaking frog in his hands.

"Put Chauncy back, Aaron," Julia ordered, with the perfect disdain of
older sibling for younger. "He doesn't scare anybody."

"He will when he gets teeth," Aaron said darkly, and scrambled out.

"That's my little brother. He's a pain."

Before anyone could comment, a red-haired rocket fired down the stairs.
She was wearing ragged cutoff shorts, no shoes, and an oversize, faded
T-shirt that claimed she loved New York.

Maddy O'Hurley, Broadway's baby, made her entrance with style.

"Aaron, you little beast. Where are you? Didn't I tell you to keep this
lizard in the aquarium?"

Spotting her visitors, she screeched to a halt, holding a very
annoyed-looking silvery reptile by the middle.

"Oh." She blew the hair out of her eyes. "So much for elegant entrances.
Freddie." She started to leap forward for a hug, remembered, and held
the lizard out to her daughter.

"Julia, do me a favor and put this thing back where it belongs." That
disposed of, she caught Freddie in a hard embrace. "It's so good to see
you. I'm glad you could come."

"So am I." ,

"And you're Nick." With an arm still around Freddie's shoulders, she
held out a hand. "It's great to meet you, at last. I've admired your
work for a long time."

Nick knew he was staring, and didn't care. She did look like the woman
he'd seen on the stage, on billboards. Porcelain skin, expressive face.
And despite being the mother of four, a dancer's gracefully athletic
build.

"My first Broadway show," he said. "Ten, eleven years ago. You were
headlining. I've never seen anything like you before, or since."

"Well." Maddy decided a handshake wasn't enough, and kissed him instead.
"I'm going to like you. Let's go see who else is around. We can take
your stuff upstairs later."

The house wandered and was full of light, from wide glass doors, bow
windows, skylights. There were occasional obstacles--toy trucks, a
baseball mitt, someone's disreputable sneakers. Those touches of home
melded easily with the elegance of the architecture.

In a spacious sun room, decked with exotic flowers and lacy ferns, a
Hollywood legend lounged.

Chantel O'Hurley had her feet up, and her eyes closed. Nearby stood a
man whose tough build and stance shouted cop to Nick's well-schooled
brain.

"Brent's holding his own," Quinn Doran said, watching the children
through the glass. "He may be the runt of our litter, angel, but he's
game."

"Monsters," Chantel murmured, but there was a mother's indulgence in the
word. "Why, if I was going to have triplets, couldn't they have been
nice, well-mannered little girls?"

"They'd have bored you to death. Besides, who showed them how to use a
slingshot?"

She smiled to herself. Of course, she had. Her boys, she thought. Hers.
After years of longing, being afraid to hope, she'd netted three at one
time.

Lazily she held out a hand, the way a woman does when she knows it will
always be taken. "Come over here, Quinn, before someone finds us."

"Too late," Maddy announced. "Company. Nick, my sister Chantel, doing
her Cleopatra impression, and her husband, Quinn Doran."

"Freddie." Chantel shifted fluidly to kiss Freddie's cheek, but her gaze
lifted to Nick. "What excellent taste you have, darling."

"I think so."

Now Nick wasn't just staring. He was goggling.

The blond goddess aimed her sizzling blue eyes at him and smiled. Every
nerve ending in his body went on full alert.

"You're writing the score for Maddy's new musical. From what I'm told,
you've enough talent to make her sound professional."

Maddy simply sniffed. "She's just jealous because I have two Tonys and
she only has one measly Oscar." Satisfied, Maddy signaled. "Come on,
we'll see who else we can find."

"Just a minute," Freddie murmured as she and Nick passed out of the room
through the doorway. She dabbed lightly at the corner of his mouth.

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a little drool."

"Funny." But he didn't resist one last look over his shoulder at the
vision lounging on the floral chaise. "She's even better in person."

"Pull yourself together, Nicholas. I'd hate to have Quinn kill you in
your sleep. Rumor is he'd know how to do it, quickly and quietly."
Before he could comment, Freddie let out a shout. "Trace!"

While Nick watched, narrow-eyed, she launched herself into the
well-muscled arms of a tawny man with a boxer's build.

"Freddie." Trace kissed her lavishly. "How's my pretty girl?"

"I'm fine." Slinging an arm around Trace's neck, she beamed back at
Nick. "Trace O'Hurley, Nick LeBeck."

"Nice to meet you."

Though he was friendly enough, his eyes skimmed over Nick in a way that
shouted cop again. Odd, Nick mused, he'd thought the guy was a musician.
He'd even admired his work. But a cop's eyes were a cop's eyes.

"Most everybody else is in the kitchen," Trace continued. "Abby's
cooking."

"Thank God," Maddy put in. "She's the only one we can trust. Are you
hungry?"

"Well, I--"

"You must be hungry." She linked an arm through Nick's and barreled on,
before he could finish the thought. "I'm always frantic to eat after a
trip."

She led the way down a zigzagging hall. Nick noted that Trace didn't
bother to set Freddie back on her feet, but carried her along, like some
kind of white knight with a damsel.

The noise reached them first, and then Maddy swung open a door.

The kitchen was huge, but so crowded with bodies and motion that it
seemed cozy. Only the blond woman stirring something at the stove
appeared at rest.

A scrawny man with thinning hair was whirling a middle-aged woman around
the room. Their steps meshed almost magically, and they miraculously
avoided--through some internal radar, Nick supposed--collisions with
chairs, counters and onlookers.

"Then when we went into the last number," Frank announced as he spun
Molly in three tight circles, "we brought the house down."

With impressive grace, he whipped his wife into the arms of the man
leaning against the kitchen counter, then picked himself up a redhead.

"Molly knows I've got two left feet." Dylan Crosby chuckled and passed
his mother-in-law to his oldest son. "Here, Ben, dance with your
grandmother before I damage her."

Spotting Trace, Frank grinned widely. "I've got your wife, Tracey! The
girl would have a career on the boards if she'd just give up science."
He dipped Gillian fluidly, then spun her back. "Hi, there, Freddie
girl."

Seamlessly Trace passed Freddie to Frank, so that she was caught up in
surprisingly ropey arms and became part of the dance. "You dance, boy?"
he shouted at Nick.

"Actually, I--"

"Dad, let them catch their breath." Chuckling, Abby turned from the
stove and moved to Nick. "Welcome to bedlam. I'm Abby Crosby."

"You were an O'Hurley first," her father reminded her.

"Abby O'Hurley Crosby," she corrected. "And if you sit down quickly
enough, Dad won't be able to make you learn to do a time step."

They were quite a crew, Nick discovered. Before he fell into his own
extended family, he hadn't really believed people lived this way. But,
like the Stanislaskis, this confusing, noisy group was a family.

And Nick had learned that such families often talked over each other,
around each other, and very often through each other. They picked petty
fights, argued over nothing, chose sides. And united like steel against
any outside foe.

He knew he was going to enjoy them, could already tell some of the kids
apart by the time the chaotic meal they shared was over. Twins and
triplets abounded, just to confuse things. But it was no surprise, he
supposed, as Maddy and her sisters were triplets themselves.

After the kitchen was cleared, both Freddie and Nick had agreed
willingly with Maddy's suggestion that they run through a few numbers.

It didn't take long for Nick to adjust himself to the household's jumpy
rhythm. They even managed to get a little work done between
distractions.

"Mom." Maddy's oldest girl came to the music room doorway. "Douglas is
being a jerk again." Cassandra's gaze was dark as she complained about
her twin.

"He's just a male, honey," Maddy told her. "You have to be patient."

Reed shot his wife a bland look over her opinion of his species.
"Cassie, your mother's working, remember?"

"I remember." Cassie heaved a sigh. "No interruptions unless there's
blood. Maybe there will be," she muttered before moving off.

"Why don't we take it from the second verse?" Maddy suggested, obviously
unconcerned about the possibility of fratricide. "Don't stop now. I've
got places to go, people to see."

"From the diaphragm, Maddy," Frank instructed as he strolled in three
measures later. "You won't reach the back row that way. It's a nice
tune," he told Nick and Freddie. "Had me whistling. In fact, I was
thinking about the movements. You know, if we--"

"Dad, we really need to get the vocals before we worry about
choreography. Where's Mom?" Maddy asked, before he could tell her why
she was wrong.

"Oh, off with some of the kids. Now, I was thinking--"

"Probably went for ice cream." If her mother wasn't around to jerk his
chain, Maddy knew, she had to resort to dirty tactics. "I heard a rumor
about fudge ripple."

"Oh?" Frank's eyes glazed, then gleamed. "Well, then I'd better go find
them. Can't have the children overindulging. Dentist's bills, you know."

"Sorry." Maddy lifted a hand as her father scooted out. "My family."

"No problem." Nick tried a new chord. "I've got one of my own. Second
verse," he said, then lost every thought in his head as Chantel
sauntered in.

"Oh, don't mind me," she purred. "I'll just sit over in the corner,
quiet as a mouse."

"A rat," Maddy muttered. "Go away, Chantel, you're distracting my
composer."

Amused that it was no less than the truth, Chantel shrugged her creamy
shoulders. "Well, if you're going to be temperamental, I'll go out by
the pool. Maybe some of the kids want to take a dip." She aimed a last
melting smile at Nick, and glided away.

"Don't worry." Maddy patted Nick's shoulder as he stared blankly at the
keys. "She affects men that way. Testosterone poisoning."

"Second verse, Nick." Freddie helped the reminder along with an elbow to
his ribs.

"Right, I was just… thinking."

He made the effort, managed to complete the verse, move into the chorus,
but then Abby raced by the music room window, screaming with laughter as
she was pursued by her husband with a very large water gun.

"The children," Reed said, and shook his head. "Why don't we consider
this a successful day's work and take a break? A swim sounds like a good
idea."

"A brilliant one," Maddy agreed.

"You go ahead." Freddie picked up a sheet of music. "I'd like to fiddle
with this for a few minutes."

"Come out when you're done, then." Maddy reached for Reed's hand. "If
you can face it."

Nick craned his neck to try to get a glimpse of the pool. "Do you think
she'll wear a bikini?"

Freddie lifted a brow. "Maddy?"

They both knew who he'd meant, but the alternative wasn't an image a man
would sneeze at, either. Seeing that Nick was lost in consideration of
numerous bikini-clad O'Hurleys, Freddie laughed.

"Animal."

He ran his tongue over his teeth. "You think Abby's going swimming,
too?"

"I think you can get in trouble ogling married women. Now, if you can
get your hormones under control, I'd like to run through 'You're Not
Here.' Maddy might like to work on it later."

"It's rough yet."

"I know, but the core's there."

True enough, he thought. And it might smooth out the edges if they could
work on it with Maddy, face-to-face. "Okay. I was thinking, if we tried
it this way…"

Freddie closed her eyes, listened as the first notes drifted out.
Nodding to herself, she added her voice to his music.

On the patio, Maddy held up a hand, then laid it on Abby's shoulder.
"Listen."

"It's lovely," Abby murmured as her eyes misted. "Sad and lovely. She
doesn't hide it very well when she sings. Being in love with him."

"No." Chantel slipped an arm around Abby's waist, so that the three of
them stood together. "I guess they'll muddle through it."

"We did." With the music floating over them, Maddy gazed out over the
lawn, toward the pool.

There was Dylan, coaching one of Trace's girls in a back flip. And
Chantel's triplets, in a heated lap race, with Gillian and Cassie
playing referee. Douglas was being the jerk his twin considered him,
splashing Trace's other daughter.

Her father sat, eating fudge ripple ice cream with Trace's twin boys on
either knee.

Ben and Chris, the boys Abby had raised alone for a time, were tall,
handsome young men, arguing about which cassette to put into the
portable stereo.

Quinn and Trace sat in the shade, sharing a beer and war stories, while
Molly applauded Abby's only daughter, Eva, on her underwater
somersaults.

Aaron and Abby's youngest boy searched the grass for anything with more
than two legs. Julia turned cartwheels to annoy them.

My family, she thought as she lifted a hand to wave to Reed. All present
and accounted for.

"I feel good." Maddy drew in a deep breath, threw her face back to the
sun. "And I have a strong feeling that those two at the piano are going
to help me cop another Tony."

Unable to resist, Chantel slid her gaze toward her sister. "Oh, darling,
do you have one already?"

With a rollicking laugh, Chantel ran, with Maddy inches behind.

Late, late at night, when the house was finally quiet, Nick drew Freddie
to him, so that her head rested on his shoulder. Since Maddy had been
considerate enough to give them adjoining rooms, he'd felt no guilt
about sneaking into Freddie's bed.

It was good to simply lie there, with his heartbeat leveling toward
normal, and his body sated from the slow, quiet love they'd made. She
felt so natural curled up against him, he wondered how he'd ever slept
without her.

"Tired?" he asked her.

"Hmm. Relaxed. It's been a terrific day. I loved seeing all of them
again, how much the kids have grown. Everything."

"They're quite a group."

"They are that. I think it's great the way they all juggle their
schedules so they can have a week or two each year with everyone in the
same place. Sometimes they go to Dylan and Abby's farm in Virginia." She
sighed sleepily and cuddled closer when his fingers began to stroke
along her shoulder. "We visited there once. It's beautiful, all rolling
hills, horses grazing. Space."

"You'd need a lot of room with all these kids. Abby has the twin girls,
right?"

"No, that's Trace and Gillian. Abby has four--Ben, Chris, Eva and Jed.
And she had them one at a time."

"Four." He shuddered.

"You love kids." She shifted, turning her head so that she could study
his face. It was beautiful in the splash of moonlight, dreamy and
heroic, like something out of an Arthurian legend.

"Sure I do. But it always amazes me that some people can handle so many,
want to handle so many."

She was caught up in the way he looked, that cool, sculpted face, the
sea-green eyes. The way it felt to press against him, warm, exciting and
right.

"I like big families. I was an only child for a few years. I wasn't
lonely, because Dad was always there. But everything just clicked into
place when Natasha came into our lives. I wanted a baby sister," she
remembered. "But Brandon came first, and that suited me fine."

Nick had been an only child himself. But he'd had no father to be there.
"I used to wish for a brother. Then I had Zack." He shrugged. "He went
to sea, and I didn't"

Her generous heart ached for the boy he'd been. "It was hard on you, his
leaving."

"He did what he had to do. At the time, it seemed like he was leaving
me. Just me. I got over it."

The wave of love rolled over her, making her careless with words. "So
now you have a brother again, and an enormous family. You never have to
be alone, unless you want to. That's why I'd like at least three
children myself."

A little warning blip sounded in his brain. He glanced down at her, then
focused carefully on the ceiling. "Well."

Succinctly put, Freddie thought, but she didn't allow herself to sigh.
It was much too soon to think about children. Their children.

It was a good time, as Nick saw it, to change the subject. "Chantel
doesn't look like anyone's mother."

Now Freddie lifted a brow. "Well, she is. And, if you don't mind a
little friendly advice, you really should try to keep your tongue from
hanging out every time she walks into the room."

He looked at her again, leered. "Jealous?"

She surprised, and insulted, him by bursting into delighted laughter. It
rocked her hard enough that she was forced to sit up and try,
unsuccessfully, to catch her breath.

Looking down at his scowling face only started her up again.

"You're overdoing it," he complained.

"Jealous." Gasping for air, she pressed a hand to her stomach. "Oh,
right, Nicholas. I'm green. No doubt she'd toss Quinn aside in a
heartbeat to run off with you. Anyone can see they only tolerate each
other. That's why the air starts to sizzle when they're in the same room
together."

His pride was injured, a little. "So she's stuck on her husband. Anyway,
how do you figure he handles those steamy love scenes she plays on the
screen?"

"By knowing she's not playing a scene when she's with him, I imagine."
Unable to resist, she brushed her fingers through his hair. "That's what
marriage is all about, isn't it? Trust and respect, as well as love and
passion?"

Another warning blip. "I suppose," he said, and let it stop there.
"Zack's going to drop his teeth when I get back and tell him about
meeting her. He's seen some of her movies enough times to recite the
dialogue."

"So, you'll gloat."

"Damn right."

Relaxed again, he glanced down at her. She looked so pretty, so…
magical, he supposed, in the streams of moonlight that poured through
the skylight. Her hair was a mess, the way he liked it best, and her
lips were barely curved, as if she were thinking of something that
pleased her.

"Not tired, huh?"

More than interested, she walked her fingers up his chest. She had been
thinking of something that pleased her. She'd been thinking of him.

"I wondered if you'd get back to that."

"Just building up my strength."

"Good." Laughing, she rolled on top of him. " 'Cause you're going to
need it."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Ten
-----------
Contents - Prev | Next

"You're telling me you met Chantel O'Hurley.

The Chantel O'Hurley."

"That's what I said." It was a big charge for Nick to pull one off on
Zack. It was no secret that the blond goddess was one of "Zack's little
fantasies," as Rachel dryly put it. "The same Chantel O'Hurley whose
movies you buy on video the minute they hit the stands." He hefted
another crate of club soda into the storeroom.

"Wait a minute. Just a minute." Going in behind Nick empty-handed, Zack
tugged on his sleeve. "You mean you met her, in the flesh?"

"She's got some terrific flesh, too, let me tell you." It didn't hurt to
gloat. "I had dinner with her, a couple of times." Nick made sure it
sounded offhand, added a shrug for good measure. "Of course, her sisters
aren't chopped liver, either. They're both--"

"Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about her sisters later. You had dinner, I mean,
like dinner? With her?" Zack found he had to clear his throat.
"Together. With her."

"That's right." Of course, the meal had been shared by an entire
household, kids included, but there was no need to mention those small
details. "I told you I was going to spend a couple of days with Maddy
and Reed."

"I wasn't thinking," Zack muttered. "Didn't put it together. If you
really met her, had dinner with her, what's she like?"

Nick turned, pursed his lips in an exaggerated kiss.

"Come on, you're killing me." A victim of his own fantasies, Zack
hurried out after Nick. "I mean, how does she look, just hanging
around?"

"She filled out her bikini just fine."

"Bikini." Overcome, Zack pressed a hand to his heart. "You saw her in a
bikini."

"We took a couple swims together, sure." Actually, he and Freddie had
been entertaining her triplets with water polo. But why get technical?

"Swam with her." Zack swallowed hard. "Got… wet."

"Usually do, swimming."

Mindful of his blood pressure, Zack decided to ease back from that
particular image. He'd save it for later. "And you talked to her. Had
conversations?"

"All the time. She's got a sharp brain. That sort of adds to the appeal,
I think. After all, I'm not an animal."

"I'm just asking." It was a harmless diversion, Zack thought, for a
happily married man who adored and lusted after his own wife. "You
really met her." He sighed, lifted a crate of soft drinks.

"I not only met her. I kissed her."

"Get out of town."

"No, you're right, I didn't kiss her."

Zack snorted. "No kidding."

"She kissed me." Nick leaned on a dolly of crates, tapping his finger to
his lips. "She planted one on me. Right here."

"You're standing there telling me Chantel O'Hurley kissed you--on the
mouth."

"Hey, would I lie to you?"

Zack thought about it. "No," he decided. "You wouldn't." Before Nick had
a clue of his intention, Zack grabbed him, jerked him forward and kissed
him--as Chantel had--full on the mouth.

"Damn it, Zack!" Another flurry of oaths followed as Nick grimaced and
rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. "Are you crazy?"

"Hey, I figure it's as close as I'll ever get." Satisfied, Zack carried
in the next case. "A man has his dreams, pal."

"Well, keep your dreams away from me." Nick gave his mouth another swipe
for good measure. "Man, what if somebody saw you do that?"

"Just us here, bro. And I do appreciate you coming in to give me a hand
so soon after you got back in town."

"Don't mention it. And I mean don't mention it."

"So, how did Freddie like her trip to the rich and famous?"

"She's used to it." Nick scratched his neck as a line of sweat began to
dribble. "It's her kind of background."

"I guess you're right. It's hard to tell. She's just Freddie around
here."

They finished unloading the cases, and finished off by having tall
glasses of the iced tea Rio had stored in the refrigerator. "Hot for
June," Zack commented. "You're going to have to hook the air conditioner
up in the apartment."

"Before long."

It seemed a good opening, Zack mused, for something that had been
preying on his mind. "I was thinking, with the way your career's moving,
and everything…" Everything was Freddie, but it didn't seem quite the
time to bring that up. "You might not want to stay on here."

"Upstairs?"

"Yeah, that, and here. Working at the bar."

Puzzled, Nick set down his glass. "Are you firing me?"

"Hell, no. The truth is, I don't know what I'd do without you right now.
But I was beginning to worry that you're feeling obligated. Bartending
wasn't your dream for your future."

"It wasn't yours, either," Nick said quietly.

"That's different," Zack began, then shook his head when he caught
Nick's look. "Okay, maybe it wasn't. I had my shot, made my choice. And
the fact is, I love this place. It makes me happy now. I don't want
either one of us to lose sight of the fact that you've got something
else going."

"Still looking out for me?"

"Habit."

Nick's lips curved. "Well, let's put it this way. Sooner or later you're
going to have to find yourself another bartender and part-time piano
player. But for the present, working the night shift doesn't interfere
with my composing. And if the play's a bomb, I need a backup."

"It won't be a bomb."

"You're right, it won't. But let's just let things float the way they
are for a while." He glanced at the clock, swore. "Damn, I'm late. I
told Freddie we'd start a half hour ago. See you later."

Alone, Zack wandered back into the bar. No, he thought, it wasn't the
deck of a ship, and he wasn't at the helm. And Rachel wasn't a blond
movie queen.

He grinned and gulped down the rest of his iced tea. And he was a very,
very happy man.

For another change of scenery, Nick had decided it was time they gave
Freddie's piano a try. Despite the distractions, the noise and the
temptation to spend their time playing, instead of working, while
visiting the O'Hurleys, they had managed to buckle down long enough to
make some real progress.

Nick's tendency might have been to float on that for a day or two, but
Freddie couldn't wait to get back to it.

So they settled in her apartment for the afternoon, putting the
finishing touches on act 1's closing chorus number.

"It pops," Nick decided. "It's a good thing we didn't finish this when
Frank was around. He'd already be working on the choreography."

"Well, I like it. But I think--"

"Nope, time to stop thinking." He snagged her, pulling her into his arms
as he rose.

"Put me down. We haven't even started on the opening for act 2."

"Tomorrow."

"Today," she said, laughing as she tried to wiggle free. "Nick, it's the
middle of the day."

"Even better."

"You're the one who always says we have work to do."

"That was when I was trying to avoid doing just what I'm going to do
right now." He dropped her onto the bed, from a height designed to make
her bounce.

"We haven't finished our quota for the day." When he grinned at her and
began to unbutton his shirt, she pushed herself up. "That's not the
quota I meant."

"Going to make me seduce you, huh?"

"No." Instantly, she thought better of it. Tilting her head, she gave
him a long, considering look. "Well, maybe… if you think you can."

He'd already unbuttoned his shirt. The idea of a challenge put a new
spin on the easy pleasure he'd anticipated. She slid her gaze away, then
back to him when he sat on the side of the bed.

"Just looking at me isn't very seductive."

"I like looking at you, now and again."

Her brows lowered even as he smiled. "That's very smooth, Mr. Romance."

"You have to remember, you're not really my type--according to an
unimpeachable source." He merely caught her around the waist and pinned
her when she started to spring off the bed in a huff.

"I'm not interested," she said coolly. "Let me up."

"Oh, you're interested. This little pulse in your throat…" He lowered
his lips to it, grazed over. "It's hammering."

"That's annoyance."

"No. When you're really annoyed, you get this line right here." With a
fingertip, he traced between her brows, smiling when the line formed.
"Yeah, like that." He kissed her forehead, as well, satisfied when it
smoothed.

"I don't want you to--" Her words slipped down her throat when his mouth
cruised teasingly over hers.

"What?"

"To…mmmm."

"That's what I thought."

How could any man resist that slow melt she did? That quiet purr in the
back of her throat when a kiss drew out, long and lazy?

And it was that way he wanted to make love with her now. Lazily, so that
his system could absorb every small and subtle change in hers. A touch,
and she shifted to him. A murmur, and she sighed out her pleasure.

It seemed there was nothing he could do, or ask, that she didn't respond
to willingly.

He wanted to see her, all of her, while the sun streamed in the windows
and the spurting sound of midday traffic rattled against the panes. His
hands were patient and slow as he flicked open the buttons of her
blouse, one by one.

Beneath, she wore clinging cotton, with a fuss of lace at the bodice. He
traced a fingertip along the edge, dipped under it, while her breath
caught and quickened.

It was always this way, she thought hazily. Effortless and lovely.
Whether they came together frantic or teasing, quiet or with shock
waves, it was always so simple.

So perfect.

She could feel her own arousal blossom inside her, like a rose, petal by
petal. It was just that easy to open for him, to bring him to her so
that their mouths met and their bodies fit.

The faint breeze from the open windows drifted over her, as lazily as
his hands, so that her skin was warmed, then cooled, warmed, then
cooled. Dreamlike, the sounds from the street below, the streak of
sunlight, all faded into a background, a kind of stage set for the
fantasy.

She arched to help him when he drew the cotton away, when he loosened
her trousers. In concert, she slipped his open shirt from his shoulders,
letting her hands glide along the wiry strength of his arms.

She wasn't sure when the pace began to quicken, or the heat to build.
The underlying urgency seeped into her like a drag, then shot straight
through her bloodstream.

Now she was clinging to him, moving frantically beneath him.

"I want you now, Nick." The explosive spurt of energy had her rolling
over the bed, straggling, even as he straggled to possess.

The pleasure was suddenly dark, dangerous, careening from misty dreams
into a rage of greed. The hunger stabbed, so sharp, so voracious, that
both of them shuddered.

No one had ever given him this.

"Now," she said, gasping out the word as she mounted him, crying out in
triumph as she enclosed him.

Stunned by the lightning change in her, staggered by the force of his
own appetite, he gripped her hips hard and let her ride him.

It was later when he thought of it. Later when they lay together,
exhausted as children after a romp. He'd never given her the slightest
hint of romance. None of the pretty trappings--the candles and wine, the
quiet corners and long walks.

She deserved better. Then again, he'd tried to convince her right from
the start that she deserved better than what he had to offer. Since she
hadn't listened, the least he could do was give her something back.

He wished he could give her everything.

Where had that thought come from? he wondered, and let out a quiet,
careful breath. Emotion whirled through him, buffeting him like a storm,
he thought. Warming him like light. Calling to him like music.

When had he gone from enjoying her to craving her? To loving her?

Back up, back up, he warned himself. It would be disastrous for both of
them if he let whatever was bubbling inside him get out of control.

Better to move on the initial idea, he decided, and pretend he'd never
thought any farther than giving her a special evening.

"You've got a lot of fancy duds in that closet."

It amused her that he would have taken notice of her wardrobe. "Even in
West Virginia, we manage to shop, and wear something other than overalls
occasionally."

"Don't get testy--I like West Virginia."

It was where she'd grown up, in a big house, with antique furniture and
a live-in housekeeper. And he'd grown up over a bar, and on the streets,
with a stepfather who liked his whiskey just a little too much. Best to
remember that, LeBeck, before you get any crazy ideas.

"I was just thinking you could pick out something jazzy, and we'd go
out."

"Go out?" Intrigued now, she sat up, blinking sleepily. "Where?"

"Wherever you like." He wished she wouldn't look at him as if he'd just
conked her on the head with a bat. They'd gone out before. More or less.

"I've got some connections, I could get tickets for a show. Not mine,"
he added before she could speak. "I don't want my own tunes competing
inside my head."

She shifted again, foolishly delighted by the idea of a date. "It's kind
of late in the day to snag tickets for anything."

"Not if you know who to call." He trailed a finger lightly down her arm
in a way that made her want to sigh. She wondered if he knew he touched
her just like that now and again, without thinking about it. "We could
have a late supper afterward. At that French place you like."

Not just a date, she thought, dazed. A power date. "That would be nice."
She wasn't sure how to react, and before she could, he was up and
tugging on his clothes. "Get spruced up, then. I'll go make some calls
and meet you at my place. An hour."

He leaned over to give her a quick kiss, then was gone, leaving her
staring after him.

Maybe he wasn't Sir Lancelot, she thought with a shake of her head. But,
tarnished armor or not, he had his moments.

It took her every bit of an hour to pull herself together. She hoped
Nick would consider the off-the-shoulder plum silk jazzy enough. She did
wish they'd arranged to meet at her place, however, when she narrowly
avoided getting her heel caught in the sidewalk.

She breezed past Rio with a wave, and a quick pirouette when he whistled
at her. A quick knock at the top of the stairs, and she walked in.

"This time you're late," she called out.

"Had to help Zack with a delivery."

"Oh." She nibbled on her lip. "I didn't even think about your shift."

"It's my night off." He strolled out of the bedroom, still tugging on
his jacket. He gave her a long look and a nod of approval. "Very nice."

"You've got such a way with compliments, Nicholas."

"How about this?" He grabbed her, lifted her to her toes and kissed her
until her head threatened to blow off her shoulders.

"Okay," she said when she could breathe again. "That's pretty good."

Abruptly nervous, he let her go again. "We've got enough time before
curtain for a drink. Why don't I play your personal bartender?"

"Why don't you, then? A little white wine--bartender's choice."

"I think I've got something you'll approve of." He'd snagged the bottle
of Cristal from Zack's stash.

"Well." Freddie's eyes widened. "This is certainly turning into a night
to remember."

"That's the idea." He decided he liked surprising her. Doing something
out of the ordinary for her. He popped the cork with an expert's
flourish, and poured it into two flutes he'd commandeered from the bar.
"To family ties," he said, and touched his glass to hers.

She smiled as she lifted her own glass. "What kind of a mood are you in?
I can't quite pin it down."

That stirring was going on again, needs and longings tangling together
in his stomach, just around his heart. "I'm not so sure myself."

And the fact that he wasn't didn't make him as nervous as it should
have. Because he was happy. Incredibly, completely happy. And he only
got happier every time he looked at her.

He was certain he could go on looking at her for a lifetime.

And when that unexpected curve rounded like a fastball in his stomach,
his breath caught and wheezed out slowly.

"Are you all right?" Solicitous, Freddie thumped him on the back.

"I'm fine." Love. A lifetime. "I'm… fine."

Now it was her turn for nerves, so she took a small step back. "Why are
you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you've never seen me before."

"I don't know." But that was a lie. He hadn't seen her before, not
through the eyes of a man flustered by love.

He had, he realized, done the most amazing thing. He'd fallen head over
heels in love with his closest friend.

"Let's sit down." He needed to.

"All right." Cautious, she settled on the sofa. "Nick, if you're not
feeling well, we can take a rain check on the show."

"No, I'm fine. Didn't I say I was fine?"

"You don't look fine. You're pale."

He supposed he was. He'd never been in love before. He'd danced around
it, toyed with it, teased the edges of it. But now it looked as though
he'd fallen headfirst into the pit.

With Fred.

He was just getting used to the fact that he could make love to her. But
being in love was going to take a lot more thought. It was a pity he
couldn't wrap his brain around anything that wasn't sheer emotion.

"Fred… things have moved pretty fast between us."

She lifted a brow. "Do you call a decade-plus fast?"

He waved that away. "You know what I mean. I was thinking that I might
be hemming you in, between the work and everything else."

The shiver that ran up her spine was icy and full of fear. But her voice
was calm enough. "Are you trying to let me down gently, Nick?''

"No." The very thought appalled him. Losing her now--it was unthinkable.
"No," he repeated, and gripped her hand so tightly she jolted. "I want
you, Fred. I'm just beginning to realize how much."

Her heart turned slowly over in her breast, and swelled. "You have me,
Nick," she said quietly. "You always have."

"Things have changed." He wasn't sure how to phrase it, not in a way
that would satisfy them both. But he had to let her know something of
what he was feeling. "Not just because we've gone to bed together. Not
just because what I have with you there is different, stronger than
anything I've ever had before."

"Nick." Swamped with love, she lifted their joined hands to her cheek.
"You've never said anything like that to me before. I never thought you
would."

Neither had he. Now, all at once, he was afraid he wouldn't get the
words, the right ones, out fast enough. "I don't want to push things,
Fred, for either of us, but I think you should know--"

The thud of heavy footsteps on the stairs had Nick swearing and Freddie
cursing fate. Neither of them moved when Rio opened the door, looking
grim.

"Nick, you'd better come downstairs."

A hard fist of fear rammed into his throat. "Zack?"

"No, it's not Zack." Rio glanced apologetically at Fred. "But you'd
better come."

"Stay here," Nick ordered Fred, but Rio countermanded him.

"No, she should come, too. She can help." As Nick passed him, Rio
clamped a hand on his shoulder. "It's Maria."

Nick hesitated, looked back at Freddie. There was no way to keep her out
of it. "How bad is she?"

Rio only shook his head and waited for Nick and Freddie to precede him.

The name meant nothing to Freddie. She thought it might be some old
flame who'd stormed into the bar in a jealous or, worse, drunken rage.

But the tableau that greeted her in the kitchen wiped that image out of
her head.

The woman was dark, thin, and had probably been pretty once, before
trouble and fatigue dug lines into her face. But it was hard to tell
much of anything, because of the bruises.

She sat absolutely still, a young, hollow-eyed boy gripping the back of
her chair, a smaller girl sitting at her feet, with her thumb in her
mouth. In the woman's lap, a baby of perhaps three months cried thinly.

Nick wanted to shout at her, to rage. He wanted to shake this woman,
this girl he had once known and nearly loved, until she lost that empty,
hopelessly beaten look. Instead, he went to her, gentry lifted her chin.
The first tear spilled over onto her cheek as she looked at him.

"I'm sorry, Nick. I'm so sorry. I didn't know where else to go."

"You never have to be sorry for coming here. Hey, Carlo." He tried a
smile on the boy. Though he laid a hand very lightly on the boy's
shoulders, Carlo still stiffened and drew inward.

Big hands, the child knew, were never to be trusted.

"And who's this big girl. Is this Jenny?" Nick picked the girl up, set
her on his hip. With her thumb still in her mouth, she rested her head
on his shoulder.

"Rio, why don't you grill up some burgers for the kids?"

"Already on."

"Jenny, want to sit on the counter and watch Rio cook?" When she nodded,
Nick settled her there. It only took a look to have Carlo creeping over,
and out of the way.

"I don't want to be any trouble to you, Nick," Maria began, rousing
herself to rock the baby.

"Want some coffee?" Without waiting for her assent, he walked to the
pot. "The baby's hungry, Maria."

"I know." With what seemed like a terrible effort, she shifted, reaching
for the paper bag at her feet. "I can't nurse her. I'm dried up. But I
got some formula."

"Why don't I fix it?" With a bolstering smile, Freddie held out her
arms. "Is it all right if I hold her?"

"Sure. She's a good baby, really. It's just that…" She trailed off and
began to weep without a sound.

"You're going to be all right now," Freddie murmured as she slipped the
baby out of Maria's hold. "Everything's going to be all right now."

"I'm so tired," Maria managed. "It's just that I'm tired."

"Don't." The order was quick and harsh as Nick set the coffee in front
of her. "He knocked you around again, didn't he?"

"Nick." Freddie sent a warning glance at the children.

"You think they don't know what's going on?" But he lowered his voice.
"Welcome to reality." He sat beside Maria, took her hands and set them
around the cup. "Are you going to call the cops this time?"

"I can't, Nick." His snort of disgust seemed to shrink her. "I don't
know what he'd do if I did. He gets crazy, Nick. You know how crazy
Reece gets when he's drinking."

"Yeah." Absently he rubbed a hand over his chest. He had the scars to
remind him. "You told me you were going to leave him, Maria."

"I did. I swear I did. I wouldn't lie to you, Nick. I've been in that
apartment you helped me get before the baby was born. I wouldn't take
him back, not after the last time."

The last time, Nick recalled, Reece had knocked her down the stairs.
She'd been six months pregnant.

"So how'd you get the split lip, the black eye?"

She looked wearily down at her coffee, lifted it mechanically to drink.
Rio set a plate in front of her.

"I'm going to take the kids inside to eat."

"Thanks." She swiped at another tear. "You two be good, you hear? Don't
make any trouble for Mr. Rio." She nearly smiled as Freddie sat down to
feed the baby. "Her name's Dorothy--like in The Wizard of Oz. The kids
picked it out."

"She's a lovely baby."

"Good as gold. Hardly ever cries, and sleeps right through the night."

Nick interrupted her, patience straining. "Maria."

In response, Maria took one shuddering breath. "He's been calling me,
wanting to see the kids, he said."

"He doesn't give a damn about those kids."

"I know it." Maria's lip trembled, but she managed to firm it "So do
they. But he sounded so sad on the phone, and he came by once and bought
them ice cream. So I hoped, maybe, this time…"

She trailed off, knowing that hope was more than foolish. It was deadly.

"I wasn't going to take him back, or anything. It just seemed as if I
should let him see the kids now and again. As long as I was right there
to make sure he didn't drink or get mean. But tonight, when he came
around, I was in the bedroom with the baby, and Jenny let him in. It was
too late, Nick. I could see right away he was drunk, and I told him to
get out. But it was too late."

"Okay. Take it slow." He rose to wrap some ice for her swollen lip.

But she couldn't take it slow, not now that it was pouring out of her.
Like poison she'd been forced to drink. "He just started smashing things
and screaming. I got the kids into the bedroom, got them away so he
wouldn't hurt them. That only made him madder. So he went after me. I
don't know how I got away from him, but I got into the bedroom with the
kids, locked the doors. We got out by the fire escape. And we ran."

"Nick," Freddie murmured. "Take the baby." She rose, passing him the
dozing infant. "Let's clean you up," she said briskly, and ran water on
a cloth. With gentle hands, she smoothed it over Maria's face.

As she tried to soothe the bruises, clean the cuts, she talked softly.
About Maria's children, caring for a new baby. When she felt Maria begin
to respond, she sat again, took the woman's hand.

"There are places you can go. Safe places, for you and your children."

"She needs to call the cops." However fierce his voice, Nick cradled the
sleeping baby tenderly on his shoulder.

"I don't disagree with him." Freddie picked up the wrapped ice, offered
it to Maria. "But I think I understand being afraid. They'd help you at
a women's shelter. Help your children."

"Nick said I should go before, but I thought it was better to handle it
on my own."

"Everybody needs help sometime."

Maria closed her eyes and tried to find some tattered rag of courage. "I
can't let him hurt my kids, not anymore. I'll go if you say it's right
to, Nick."

It was more than he'd expected. He knew he owed part of the win to
Freddie's quiet support. "Fred, upstairs, in the drawer under the
kitchen phone, there's a number. It says Karen over it. Call it, ask for
her, and explain the situation."

"All right." As she walked away, she heard Maria begin weeping again.

She'd hardly completed the arrangements when Nick came in.

He took a moment to study her--the slim woman in the elegant dress. "I'm
going to dump on you, Fred. I'm sorry our whole evening is shot, and
it's not over yet."

"It's all right, but I don't know what you mean. Oh, Nick, that poor
woman."

His eyes only darkened. "I want you to take her and the kids to the
shelter. They're not too happy having a man come around there in the
first place. Small wonder. I'd feel better knowing you were with her,
saw her settled in."

"Of course, I'd be glad to. I'll come back as soon as--"

"No, go home." The order snapped out. "Just go home when you're done.
I've got something to do."

"But, Nick…"

"I don't have time to argue with you." He strode out, slamming the door
behind him.

He had something to do, all right. And Nick figured it would take very
little legwork to locate his old gang captain. Reece still ran in the
same circles they had when they were teenagers. He still haunted the
same streets and the same dingy rooms where a few dollars would buy
anyone of any age drugs, liquor or a woman.

He found Reece huddled over a whiskey in a dive less than fifteen blocks
from Lower the Boom.

The atmosphere wasn't designed to draw a discerning clientele. The air
was choked with smoke and grease, the floors littered with butts and
peanut shells. And the drinks were as cheap as the single hooker at the
end of the bar, staring glassily into her gin.

"Reece."

He'd put on weight over the years. Not the muscle of maturity, but the
heaviness of the drunk. He turned slowly on the stool, the sneer already
in his eyes before it twisted his mouth.

"Well, well, if it isn't the upstanding LeBeck. Bring my friend a
gentleman's drink, Gus, and hit me again. Put 'em both on his tab." The
thought struck Reece so funny, he nearly rolled off the stool.

"Save it," Nick told the bartender.

"Too good to have a drink with an old friend, LeBeck?"

"I don't drink with people who shoot me, Reece."

"Hey, I wasn't aiming at you." Reece tossed back his whiskey and slapped
the empty glass on the bar as a signal for another. "And I served my
time, remember? Five years, three months, ten days." He took out a
crumpled pack of cigarettes and pulled one out with his teeth. "You're
not still sore I hooked up with Maria, are you? She always had a thing
for me, old buddy. Hell, I was doing her back when you thought she was
your one and only."

"A smart man learns to forget about yesterday, Reece. But you were never
too smart. But it's Maria we're going to deal with. Here and now."

"My old lady's my business. So are the brats."

"Was, maybe." The wolf was in Nick's eyes now, as he leaned closer to
Reece. And the wolf had fangs. "You're not going near them again. Ever.
If you do, I'll have to kill you." It was said quietly, with a
casualness that made the bartender check for his Louisville Slugger,
just under the cash register.

Reece only snorted. He remembered Nick from the old days. He'd never had
the guts to follow through on a threat with any real meat. "The bitch
come running to you again?"

"I guess you figure she got off easy--a split lip, a few bruises. She
didn't have to go into the hospital this time."

"A man's got a right to show his wife who's in charge." Brooding over
it, Reece swirled his liquor. "She's always asking for it. She knew I
didn't want that last brat. Hell, the first one ain't even mine, but I
took her on, didn't I? Her and that damn little bastard. So don't you
come around telling me I can't teach my own woman what's what."

"I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to show you." Nick rose. "Stand
up, Reece."

Reece's reddened eyes began to gleam at the possibility of spilling
blood. "Going to take me on, bro?"

"Stand up," Nick repeated. Seeing the bartender make a move out of the
corner of his eye, Nick reached for his wallet. He pulled out bills,
tossed them on the bar. "That should cover the damages."

The bartender scooped up the money, counted it and nodded. "I got no
problem with that."

"You've been needing the high-and-mighty beat out of you, LeBeck." Reece
slid off his stool, crouched. "I'm just the one to do it."

It wasn't pretty. At first blood, the hooker deserted her gin and crept
out the door. The few others who inhabited the bar stood back and
prepared to enjoy.

Drunk he might be, but the whiskey only made Reece more vicious. His
meaty fist caught Nick at the temple, shooting jagged lights behind his
eyes, and then another fist plowed into his gut. Nick doubled over, but
as he came up again, his fist drove hard into Reece's jaw.

He followed through methodically, cold-bloodedly, concentrating on the
face. Blood spurted out of Reece's nose as he tumbled back against a
table. Wood splintered under his weight.

With a roar of outrage, Reece charged Nick like a bull, head lowered,
fists pumping. Nick evaded the first rush, landed a fresh blow. But in
the narrow confines of the bar, there was little room to maneuver.
Outweighed, he went down hard under Reece's lunge.

He felt Reece's hands around his neck, choking off air. Ears buzzing, he
pried at them, sucking in air and gathering strength to drive a
short-armed punch. Reece's teeth tore his knuckles, but he continued to
hammer, almost blindly now, until the stranglehold loosened.

There was an animal in him. It eyed Reece ferally, wrestled the bigger
man over the floor. There was the sound of smashed glass, the sting of
it pricking and biting at skin. Hate made him strong and wild and
merciless.

He could smell the blood, and taste it. Even as Reece's eyes rolled back
and his body sagged, Nick continued to pound.

"Enough." It took the bartenders and two others to drag Nick up. "I
don't want nobody beat to death in my place. You done what you come to
do, now get out."

Nick staggered once, wiped the blood off his mouth with the back of his
hand. "You tell him when he comes to, if he raises his hand to a woman
again, I'll finish the job."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Eleven
--------------
Contents - Prev | Next

Freddie considered going home after delivering Maria and her family to
the abuse shelter. God knew she was drained, as emotionally and
physically exhausted as she'd ever been in her life. She'd gone no
farther than the entryway of the shelter herself, but she'd been
relieved that it didn't seem like an institution.

Nick had done his research well.

There'd been children's drawings tacked up on the wall, and a small
sitting room off to the side, where the furnishings were spare, but
comforting.

The woman who greeted them had seemed weary, yet her voice had been
soothing. Freddie's last glimpse of Maria had been watching her being
led up the stairs, with the woman murmuring to her.

So she didn't go home, despite Nick's insistence, but went back to wait
for him.

"Figured you'd be back," Rio said when she stepped into the kitchen.
"You got Maria and the kids away okay?"

"Yes." She sat, let her shoulders sag against the chair. "It seemed like
a good place. A safe one. I don't think she even realized where she was.
She just followed along, like the children."

"You've done all you can do." Rio set a plate in front of her. "You eat
something now. No arguments."

"I won't give you any." Freddie picked up her fork and dipped into the
chicken and rice. "Who is she, Rio?"

"A girl Nick used to know. He didn't see much of her for a while, after
he got settled down here with Zack and Rachel. When she got pregnant
with the boy, Carlo, her family booted her out."

"Heartless," Freddie murmured. "How can people be so heartless? What
about the father?"

"Wasn't interested, I guess." Rio shrugged, caught himself and turned to
her. "The boy isn't Nick's."

"You don't have to tell me that, Rio. He'd never have left them to fend
for themselves." Setting her fork aside, she rubbed her hands over her
face. "This man, the one who did this to her. He isn't Carlo's father?"

"Nope. She didn't get tangled up with him until about four years ago. He
was doing time when the boy was born."

"A real prince."

"Oh, Reece is a royal bastard, all right." Rather than the coffee she'd
expected, Rio set a cup of herbal tea in front of her. "I guess the name
isn't ringing any bells with you."

"No." She frowned, sniffed the tea. Chamomile. It almost made her smile.
"Should it?"

"He nearly killed Nick." Rio's dark eyes went grim. "A little over ten
years ago, he broke in here with a couple of his Cobra slime buddies,
juiced up and armed to the teeth. Figured on robbing the place. He was
going to shoot Zack."

The blood drained out of her face. "I remember. Oh, God, I remember.
Nick pushed Zack away."

"And took the bullet," Rio finished. "I thought we were going to lose
him. But he's tough. Nick's always been tough."

Very slowly, as if her bones might shatter from the movement, she rose.
"Where is he, Rio? Where's Nick?"

He could have lied to her. But he chose to tell her straight. "I gotta
figure he went looking for Reece. And I gotta figure he found him."

She had to fight to get the air out of her lungs, to pull it back again.
"We have to tell Zack. We have to--"

"Zack's out looking right now. So's Alex." He set a huge and gentle hand
on her shoulder. "There's nothing to do but wait, honey."

So she waited, eventually going upstairs to pace Nick's apartment. Every
sound on the street, from the bar below, had her holding her breath.
Every wail of a siren had her trembling.

He's tough. Nick's always been tough.

She didn't give a damn how tough he was. She wanted him home, whole and
safe.

Tormented by the images rolling through her brain, she kept her hands
busy. She began to tidy the room, then to dust, then to scrub.

When she heard footsteps on the stairs, she was down on her knees
washing the kitchen floor. She scrambled up, raced toward the door.

"Nick. Oh, God, Nick." All but shattered with relief, she threw her arms
around him.

He let her cling for a moment, though the pressure had the aches in his
body singing. When he found the energy, he peeled her away.

"I told you to go home, Fred."

"I don't care what you told me, I was--Oh, you're hurt."

Her eyes went huge as relief jerked into shock. His face was bloody, one
eye nearly swollen shut. His clothes were torn and stained with more
blood.

"You need to go to the hospital."

"I don't need a damn hospital." He lurched away from her, gave in to his
weakened legs and sank into a chair. And prayed to any god that might be
listening that he wouldn't be sick. "Don't start on me. I've already
been through this with Zack. Go away, Fred."

Instead, she said nothing, walked into the bathroom and gathered up
every first aid supply she could find. Armed with antiseptic, bandages
and dampened cloths, she came back to find him sitting as she'd left
him.

He took one look, would have scowled if his face hadn't felt as though
it would crack open at the movement. "I don't want you nursing me."

"Just be quiet." Her hands were a great deal steadier than her voice
when she dabbed at the blood. "I imagine I'm supposed to ask how the
other guy looks. You had no business going after him."

"It is my business. She meant something to me once." He hissed, then
settled, when she pressed the cool cloth to his swollen eye. "And even
if I'd never seen her before, any man who knocks a woman around, tosses
kids around, deserves a beating."

"I don't disagree with the sentiment," she murmured. "Only with your
method. This is going to sting some."

More than some, he discovered, and swore ripely. "I wish to hell you'd
go away."

"Well, I'm not." She tried to comfort herself with the thought that the
cuts on his face weren't deep enough for stitches. Then she saw his
hands. White-hot fury erupted inside her. "Your hands. Look what you've
done to your hands. You idiot. Why can't you use your head instead of
your glands?"

She could have wept with grief. His beautiful, talented artist's hands
were torn and bleeding. Dark, ugly bruises had already formed, marring
them, swelling them.

"They ran into his teeth a few times."

"Isn't that just like you? Isn't that just typical? Nicholas LeBeck's
first rule of order. If you can't solve the problem, batter it down."
She was wrapping cold cloths around his hands as she spoke. "You could
have called Alex."

"Don't hassle me, Fred. You heard her. She isn't going to file charges."

"She's in the shelter, isn't she? She and the children?"

"And he just walks? Not this time." Experimentally Nick flexed his
fingers. They were stiff and painful, but it was the torso Freddie had
yet to see that was agonizing. "He tried to kill my brother once, and
did less than six years for it. The system says he's rehabilitated, so
he gets out and starts hammering on Maria. So, screw the system. My way
works."

"He nearly killed you before." Her lips trembled as she rose. "He could
have done it again."

"He didn't, did he? Now back off."

He dragged himself to his feet and limped into the kitchen. He managed
to locate the aspirin quickly enough, but with his injured hands he
found he couldn't pry off the lid.

Her own movements stiff from a different kind of pain, Freddie took the
bottle from him. She opened it, set it on the counter for him, then
poured him a glass of water.

"How far, Nick?" Her voice was controlled, too controlled. "How far do
you want me to back off?"

He didn't turn, only stayed where he was, his hands braced on the
counter, his body throbbing with a thousand hurts. "I can't talk about
this now. If you want to do something for me, you'll go home. Leave me
alone. I don't want you here."

"Fine. I should have remembered, the lone wolf prefers to slink off on
his own to lick his wounds. I'll just leave you to it." As wounded as he
now, she spun on her heel. She was halfway across the living room when
Zack came in. Brushing an impatient hand over her damp cheek, she kept
walking. "Be careful," she warned. "I think he's rabid."

"Freddie--" But she was moving fast, her heels already clattering on the
stairs. Zack marched into the kitchen. "What did you do to make her
cry?"

Nick only swore and dumped four aspirin on the counter. "Stay out of
it." He winced as the water he swallowed burned his abused throat. "I'm
not in the mood for company, Zack."

"You aren't getting company. Sit down, damn it, before you keel over."

That, at least, seemed like a reasonable idea. With careful movements,
Nick lowered himself into a kitchen chair.

Standing back, Zack took a survey. Freddie had done some good, he
supposed, but his brother still looked like the wrong end of a punching
bag. "Did a number on you, didn't he?"

"He got in a few."

"Let's get what's left of that shirt off and take a look."

"I'm not much interested in seeing." But he couldn't drum up the energy
to object as Zack began removing the torn material. Zack's slow, vicious
oaths confirmed the worst. "That bad?"

"He got in more than a few. Damn it, Nick, did you have to go looking
for trouble?"

"I didn't have to look far, did I?" He looked up then, met Zack's eyes
coolly. "It was a long time coming. Now it's done."

Zack merely nodded, began to open cupboards. "Is that liniment still
around here?"

"Someplace. Under the sink, maybe."

Once he located it, Zack came back to finish what Freddie had started.
"You're going to feel worse tomorrow."

"Thanks, just what I needed to hear. Got a cigarette on you? I lost
mine."

Zack took one out, lighted it, placed it between Nick's swollen fingers.
"I hope he looks as bad as you."

"Oh, worse." The sour grin hurt. "A lot worse."

"That's something, then. I'm surprised you had the energy left to fight
with Freddie."

"I wasn't fighting with her. I just wanted her out. She shouldn't have
been around this. Any of it."

"Maybe not. But I'd say she can handle herself."

She was sure of it. It seemed clear after two days that Nick was
determined to avoid her. Still licking his wounds, she imagined as she
walked back from Nick's apartment yet again.

Still, she hadn't expected the locked door. Her only consolation was
that Zack had assured her Nick was healing.

She was tired of worrying about him, she decided. And since work wasn't
an option until his hands were better, she'd found other ways to fill
her time.

She'd enjoyed taking toys over to the shelter more than anything else.
Maria still seemed nervous and strained, but the children were already
relaxing. The highlight of Freddie's day had been when the solemn-eyed
Carlo smiled at her.

Time, she thought. They only needed time and care.

And what, she wondered, did Nick need? Apparently he didn't think it was
Freddie Kimball. At least not at the moment. So she'd give him the
distance he wanted right now. But sooner or later, she was going to get
sick of standing back and waiting.

Love shouldn't be so complicated. She brooded, looking down at the
sidewalk. It all had seemed so simple when she left home to come to New
York. Everything she'd planned and hoped for had slowly come to be.

Now, because of some blip from his past, it was falling apart on her.

With a sigh, she opened the security door of her building. The sudden
jab from behind had her stumbling. She would have fallen, if an arm
hadn't come around her, jerking her back.

"Keep walking," the voice ordered. "And keep quiet. Feel that? It's a
knife. You don't want me to use it."

Calm, she ordered herself. Don't panic. It was broad daylight. "There's
money in my purse. You can have it."

"We'll talk about that. Open the elevator."

The idea of being closed in with him, with the knife, had her
struggling. She bit back a cry when the blade pierced.

"Open the elevator or I'll cut you open right here."

Fighting to keep part of her mind cool, free from the panic that had her
body shuddering, she obeyed. Once they were inside and moving, he
shifted her, and she could see him.

The thin face, the glazed eyes. It was the man Nick had called Jack.

"You're a friend of Nick's." She managed to keep her voice level. "I was
with him the night he gave you money. If you need more, I'll give it to
you."

"You're going to give me more than money." Jack lifted the knife,
running the flat of the blade over her cheek. "It's a matter of honor,
baby."

"I don't understand." Her wild hope of rushing out ahead of him,
screaming, when they reached her floor was smashed when he twisted her
arm behind her back.

"Not a peep," he warned. "We're going to walk straight to your place,
and I know which one it is. I've seen your light come on. Then you're
going to unlock the door, and we'll go inside."

"Nick wouldn't want you to hurt me."

"Too bad about Nick. You pull anything out of that bag but your keys,
baby, and you'll be bleeding."

She took out her keys, her movements deliberately sluggish. If she
stalled long enough, someone would see. Someone would help.

"Move it." Jack yanked her arm higher, so that she whimpered when the
last lock opened. He was sweating when he shoved her inside. "Now then,
it's just you and me." He pushed her into a chair. "Nick shouldn't have
gone after Reece. Once a Cobra, always a Cobra."

"Reece put you up to this." A new glimmer of hope tormented her. "Jack,
you don't have to do this. Reece is just using you."

"Reece is my friend, my bro." His eyes began to glitter. "Lots of the
others, they forgot what it was like in the old days. But not Reece. He
keeps the faith."

Freddie might have felt pity--for surely the man was pitiful--if fear
hadn't had its bony fingers clutched around her throat. "If you hurt me,
you'll be the one to pay. Not Reece."

"Let me worry about that. Now take off your clothes."

Now the fear screamed in her eyes. Seeing it, Jack grinned. He was
flying now. He'd used the money Reece had given him for a nice solid hit
of coke.

"We might as well have a little fun first. Strip, baby. I've got a
feeling Nick's picked himself another winner."

He would rape her, she thought, and as hideous as that was, she felt she
could survive it. But she knew, in some cold corner of her brain, that
he couldn't intend for her to survive. He would rape her, then he would
kill her.

And he'd enjoy both.

"Please, don't hurt me." She let the terror ring in her voice. She would
use it, to fight back.

"You do what I tell you, you're nice to me, nobody has to get hurt." He
licked his lips. "Stand up and strip, or I'll have to start cutting
you."

"Don't hurt me," she said again. She braced herself. She would need
momentum, and a great deal of luck. If she didn't follow through, she
wouldn't get a second chance. "I'll do anything you want. Anything."

"Bet. Now get up."

He gestured with the knife, grinned. She let her eyes slide toward the
bedroom door, go wide. Jack was just stupid enough to follow her glance.

And she sprang.

The keys he hadn't bothered to take away from her were clamped between
her tensed knuckles like daggers. Without a moment's hesitation or
regret, she went straight for the eyes.

He screamed. She'd never heard a man scream like that, high and wild.
With one hand clutching his eyes, he swung out blindly with the knife.
With every ounce of her strength, Freddie struck him over the head with
her prized art deco lamp.

The blade clattered to the floor as he crumpled. Breathing hard, she
stared down at him for several seconds. As if in a dream, she walked to
the phone.

"Uncle Alex? I need help."

She didn't faint. She'd been terrified she would, but she managed to
follow Alex's instructions and leave the apartment. She was outside,
swaying at the curb, when the first cop car pulled up.

Alex was thirty seconds behind it.

"You're all right? You're okay?" His arms came around her hard, and the
veteran cop buried his face in her hair. "Did he hurt you, baby?"

"No. I don't think. I'm dizzy."

"Sit down, honey. Sit right here." He helped her to the building's
stoop. "Head between the knees, that's a girl. Take it slow. Get
upstairs," he ordered the uniform. "Get that lowlife out of my niece's
apartment. Book him on assault with a deadly, attempted rape. I want the
knife measured. If it's over the legal limit, slap him with that, too."

"He said Reece told him to," Freddie said dully.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it. I'll take you to the hospital. I
won't leave you alone there."

"I don't need the hospital." She lifted her head again. The wavering
dizziness had passed, but she still felt oddly light-headed. "He cut me
a little, I think." Testing, she brushed her fingers over her side,
stared dumbly at the smear of red.

In a flash, she was cradled in Alex's arms. "The hospital," he said
again.

"No, please. It's not deep. It stings some, but it's almost stopped
bleeding. It just needs a bandage."

At the moment, he would have indulged her in anything. Still holding
her, he looked up as two of his men carried out a limp and bleeding
Jack.

He couldn't take her back upstairs, Alex thought. And he wanted her away
from the perp and the crime scene. "Okay, honey. The bar's close by.
I'll take you there, and we'll have a look. If I don't like what I see,
your next stop's the ER."

"All right." She let her head rest on his shoulder, discovering that all
she really wanted to do was sleep.

"This creep needs a doctor," one of the officers told Alex. "He needs
one bad."

"Take him in, then, see that he gets fixed up. I want him in shape when
I lock him in a cell."

All Freddie remembered from the short trip to Lower the Boom was Alex's
soothing voice. It reminded her of being rocked when she was a child and
had the chicken pox.

"I didn't let him hurt me, Uncle Alex."

"No, baby, you took care of yourself. Just let me take over now."

Rio let out a shout of alarm when Alex pushed the kitchen door open.
"Sit her down, sit her down right here! Who hurt my baby? Who hurt my
sweetheart? Nick!" He bellowed it out before either Alex or Freddie
could answer. "Get your ass down here, now!" Moving like a bulldozer, he
shoved open the door between the kitchen and bar. "Muldoon, I want the
good brandy in here, pronto. You just sit easy, honey," he continued, in
a voice that had lowered by several decibels and softened like silk.

"I'm all right, Rio. Really." Already soothed, she turned her face into
the wide paw he'd laid on her cheek.

"Looks shallow." Alex sighed with relief. He'd expected the worst when
he tugged Freddie's blouse out of her waistband to examine the cut.
"We'll patch it up for you."

"What the hell's all the commotion?" Obviously annoyed by the shouted
orders, Zack came in, holding a bottle of brandy. One look at Freddie
had him darting over and crouching in a position that mirrored Alex's.

"Give her room to breathe." Though shaken, Rio snatched the bottle and
poured a hefty two fingers into a tumbler. "Drink it down, Freddie."

She would have obeyed, if Nick hadn't come stalking down the stairs. His
injured eye was more open than closed now, but a rainbow of bruises and
scrapes had bloomed on his face.

When he saw her, the blood drained out of it.

"What happened? Were you in an accident? Fred, are you hurt?"

He snagged her free hand, nearly crushing the bones.

"Give her a minute," Alex ordered. "Drink the brandy, Freddie. Take your
time."

"I'm okay." But the jolt of brandy as it hit her system cleared the fog
and brought on the trembling.

"Is that blood?" Nick stared, horrified, at the stain on her blouse.
"For God's sake, she's bleeding!"

"We're taking care of it." Alex took the antiseptic Rio passed him and
dabbed it on gently. "I want you to come home with me, Freddie. When
you're feeling better, I'll take your statement."

"I can do it now. I'd rather do it now."

"What do you mean, statement? Were you mugged?" Nick demanded. "Damn it,
Fred, how many times have I told you to be careful?"

"She wasn't mugged," Alex snapped out. "Your old pal, Jack, wasn't
interested in her money."

As soon as he said it, Alex cursed himself. Pale as death, Nick dropped
Freddie's hand and stepped back.

"Jack." As fury filled the hole shock had dug, his eyes turned to hard
green slits. "Where is he?"

"In custody. What's left of him." Alex stroked a hand over Freddie's
hair before taking out a pad and switching into cop mode. "Tell me from
the beginning, everything you remember."

"I was going home," she began.

Nick listened, the bitterness burning his throat, the impotence dragging
at him.

Because of him, he thought. All of it. Every instant of terror she'd
been through was because of him. His need to settle debts, to handle a
problem his own way, could have cost Freddie her life.

"Then I called you," Freddie finished. "I could see he was bleeding. His
eyes…" She had to swallow.

"Let me worry about him," Alex told her. "I want you to put it all out
of your mind for now. I'll go back to your place and get some things for
you. You can stay with us as long as you like."

"I appreciate that, really I do, but I need to go home." She took his
hand before he could protest. "I can't be afraid to stay in my own home,
Uncle Alex. He'd have gotten to me then, don't you see? I'm not going to
let that happen."

"Hardhead." He kissed her gently. "If you change your mind, it only
takes a call." He rose then, skimmed his gaze over the three men
standing by. "You look after her. I've got to get to the station and
take care of this." In a mute apology, he laid a hand on Nick's
shoulder. "Make her rest. She'll listen to you."

When he left, Freddie felt three pairs of eyes on her. "I'm not going to
fall apart," she said.

Nick said nothing, simply stepped to her, scooped her off the chair.

"I don't need to be carried."

"Shut up. Just shut up. I'm taking her upstairs. She's going to lie
down."

"I can lie down at home."

Ignoring her, he started up the steps.

"You don't want me here." As if to complete the day, tears began to burn
her eyes. "Do you think I can't tell you don't want me here?"

"Here's where you're staying." He carried her inside and straight to the
bedroom. "You're going to rest until you get some color back in your
face."

"I don't want to be with you."

A quick stab in the heart made him wince. But he couldn't blame her.
"I'm going to leave you alone, don't worry." His voice was quiet,
distant. "Don't fight me on this, Fred. Please."

He drew the rumpled spread over her, neglecting to take off her shoes.
"I'm going downstairs." He stepped back, dipped his hands into his
pockets. "Do you want anything? Want me to call Rachel, or one of me
others?''

"No." She closed her eyes. Now that she was horizontal, she wasn't sure
she could get up again. "I don't want anything."

"Try to sleep for a while." He moved over to tug down the shades on the
window and plunged the room into soft gloom. "If you need anything, just
call down to the bar."

She kept her eyes closed, wishing him to leave, willing it. Even when
she heard the soft click of the door closing, she didn't open them
again.

He hadn't offered the loving compassion Alex had, or the quick, forceful
concern of Rio or Zack. Oh, he'd been angry, she thought, furious over
what had nearly happened to her. She knew he cared. They'd been part of
each other's lives for too long for him not to.

But he hadn't held her. Not the way she so desperately needed him to.

She wondered if he ever would.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twelve
--------------
Contents - Prev | Next

She hadn't thought she would sleep. It was a surprise to wake, groggy,
in the half-light. Freddie wasn't certain if it was a good sign or a bad
one that she remembered immediately, and clearly, what had happened and
why she was alone in Nick's bed in the middle of the day.

Wincing a little as the bandage on her side pulled, she tossed the
spread aside. She was unbearably thirsty, and the brandy she was only
vaguely aware of having drunk had left her a head full of cotton.

At the kitchen sink, she filled a glass of water to the rim and drank it
down. It was odd, and annoying, she thought, that she still felt so
shaky. Then it occurred to her that she hadn't eaten since breakfast,
and that hadn't been much of a meal.

Without much hope, she opened Nick's refrigerator. She had her choice of
a chocolate bar and an apple. Feeling greedy, she took them both. She
was just pouring another glass of water when Nick walked in, carrying a
tray.

His heart lurched when he saw her standing there, so small, so delicate.
And when he thought of what might have happened to her. In defense, he
kept his voice neutral. "So, you're up."

"It appears so," she said in the same distant tone.

"Rio thought you might want to eat something." He set the tray on the
table. "Your color's back."

"I'm fine."

"Like hell."

"I said I'm fine. You're the one who looks like he's been run over by a
truck."

"I went looking for my fight," he said evenly. "You didn't. And we both
know where the blame lands in this one."

"With Reece."

In an attempt to keep himself calm, he took out a cigarette. "Reece
wouldn't have given two damns about you if it hadn't been for me. And if
you hadn't been with me in the first place, Jack wouldn't have known
where to find you."

She took a moment to steady herself. "So, I see, this is all about you.
In your twisted logic, I was threatened with a knife and rape because I
happened to have walked down the street with you one night."

The knife. Rape. It froze his blood. "There's nothing twisted about the
logic. Reece wanted to pay me back, and he found a way. I can't do much
about it, since Alex--"

"Do?" she repeated, interrupting him. "What would you do, Nick? Go beat
Reece up again, pound on Jack? Is that supposed to make it come out
right?"

"No. I can't make it come out right." And that was the worst of it.
There was nothing he could do to change what had happened. Only what
might happen next. He crushed out the cigarette he found he didn't want.
"You and I have to settle things, though. I think you should work at
home, when you feel up to it again. I can send the music over to you."

"What exactly does that mean?"

"Just what I said. I figure we've reached a point in the score where
it's just as constructive, maybe more so, to work separately." His eyes
shot to hers, hardened. "And I don't want you around here."

"I see." She needed her pride now, every ounce of it. "I take that to
mean on both professional and personal levels."

"That's the idea. I'm sorry."

"Are you? Isn't that nice. 'Sorry, Fred, time's up.' " She whirled on
him. "I've loved you all my life."

"I love you, too, and this is the best for both of us."

"I love you, too," she repeated, snagging him by the shirtfront. "How
dare you come back with some watered-down pat-on-the-head response when
I tell you that!"

Very slowly, very firmly, he pried her fingers from his shirt. "I made a
mistake." He'd convinced himself of it. "And now I'm trying to fix it. I
understand that you might get emotions confused with sex."

She shocked them both by slapping him, and putting her weight behind it.
For a motionless moment, there was only the sound of her unsteady
breathing. Then she exploded. "Do you think it was just sex? That what
happened between us was just heat and flash? Damn you, it wasn't. You
know it wasn't. Maybe it was the only way I could get to you, the only
way I could think of. But it mattered, it all mattered. I worked every
step of the way to make you see it, see me. I planned it out, step by
step, until--"

"Planned?" He cut her off with one searing look. "You planned it? You
came to New York, convinced me to work with you, had me take you to bed?
And it was all part of some grand scheme?"

She opened her mouth, closed it again. It sounded so cold, so
calculated, that way. It hadn't been, hadn't been meant to be. Not when
you added love.

"I thought it through," she began.

"Oh, I bet you did." The slip had given him the outlet he needed for his
rage and distance. "I bet you figured it all out in that sharp little
head of yours. You wanted something, and did whatever it took to get
it."

"Yes." She sat down now, weakened by shame. "I wanted you to love me."

"And what's the rest of the plan, Fred? Tricking me into marriage,
family, white picket fences?"

"No. I wouldn't trick you."

"You wouldn't think of it that way, but that was the goal, wasn't it?"

"Close enough," she murmured.

"I can see it," he snarled out as he stormed around the kitchen.
"Freddie's list of goals. Move to New York. Work with Nick. Sleep with
Nick. Marry Nick. Raise a family. The perfect family," he added, in a
tone that made her wince. "It would have to be perfect, right? You
always want everything neat and tidy. Sorry to disappoint you. Not
interested."

"That's clear enough." She started to rise, but he pressed a hand to her
shoulder and held her down.

"You think it's that easy? I want you to take a look, a good long one,
at what you were fishing for. I'm two steps away from the guy who held a
knife on you. I know it. The family knows it--the family you're basing
all these half-baked fantasies on. Isn't that the way you saw it, Fred?
Like the Stanislaskis?"

"Why wouldn't I?" she tossed back, humiliated that she was close to
tears. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Because I've been around, and you haven't. How many people do you think
there are out there like them? You're using top-grade for your
yardstick."

"There's nothing wrong with that. It works. It can work."

"For them. A few others. Is that what started cooking in your head when
we were with the O'Hurleys? Another big, happy family?"

She lifted her chin. "It should prove my point. It can work."

"For them." He slapped his palms on the table, forcing her to stare into
his face. "Take another look here. What's happened in the last few days
is my world, Fred. Battered women, frightened kids, drunks who brawl in
bars. Men who think rape is an entertaining pastime. And you want to
start a family on that? You need to be committed."

"You're not responsible for what happened to Maria. Or to me."

"No?" His lip curled. "Look at the thread. I'm the thread. Maybe I've
been pulled out of that whole world," he said. "But it only happened
because of the family. What do you think they'd say if they knew I've
been sleeping with you?"

"Don't be ridiculous. They love you."

"Yeah, they do. And I owe them, plenty. Do you think I'm going to pay
them back by shacking up with you over a bar? Do you think I'm crazy
enough to think about marriage and kids. Kids, for God's sake, where I
come from? I don't even know who my father was. But I know who I am, and
I'm not passing it on. I care about you, sure I do--enough to get you
the hell out."

"You care," she said slowly, "so you're breaking it off."

"That's exactly right. I was out of my mind to let it get this far, and
I nearly--" Now he broke off, remembering how close he'd come, only a
few days before, to declaring himself. "What matters is, you worked on
me, and I let things get temporarily out of hand. It ends here. For the
sake of the family, we'll try to forget any of it happened."

"Forget?"

"All of it. I'm not going to risk hurting you any more, and I sure as
hell don't want to hurt the rest of the family. They're all I've
got--the only people who ever wanted me or cared about me."

"Poor, poor Nick," she said, with ice. "Poor lost, unwanted Nick. You
really think you're the only one who's faced that kind of rejection, or
wondered just what lack might have been passed onto him. Well, it's time
you learned to live with it. I have."

"You don't know anything about it."

"My mother never wanted me."

"That's bull. Natasha's--"

"Not Mama," she said coldly. "My biological mother."

That stopped him. It was so easy to forget Spence had been married
before. "She died when you were a kid, a baby. You don't know how she
felt."

"I know exactly." There was no bitterness in her voice. That was what
tugged at him. There was no emotion at all. "Dad would have kept it from
me. I doubt he has a clue I ever overheard him talking to his sister. Or
with Mama. I was nothing more than a mistake she'd made, then decided to
forget. She left me when I was an infant, without a second thought. And
her blood's in me. That coldness, that callousness. But I've learned to
live with it, and to overcome it."

He couldn't imagine her harboring that kind of pain, that kind of doubt.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know.

No one's ever talked about her." He wished he could have held her then,
offered comfort, until her body lost that uncharacteristic rigidness. He
didn't dare offer her anything. "But that doesn't change what's here."

"No, it doesn't. You won't let anything change." Freddie was crying now,
but the tears were hot, more of anger than of grief. "You knew I was in
love with you. And you knew, in the end, I would have made any
compromise, any adjustment, to make you happy. But you don't make
compromises, Nick LeBeck."

"You're too upset to handle this now. I'm going to get you a cab."

"You're not going to get me a cab." She shoved at him. "You're not going
to send me anywhere. I'll go when I'm ready to go, and I can take care
of myself. I proved that today, didn't I? I don't need you."

She let the words hang, closed her eyes on them a moment. When she
opened them again, they were fierce. "I don't need you. What a concept
in my life. I can live without you, Nicholas, so you needn't worry that
I'll come around mooning over you. I thought you could love me."

Her breath came out steady, strengthening her. "My mistake. You aren't
capable of loving that way. I wanted so pitifully little from you. So
pitifully little, I'm ashamed."

He couldn't stop himself from reaching out. "Fred."

"No, damn you, I'll finish this. Not once did you ever tell me you loved
me. Not the way a man tells a woman. And not once did you try to show
me, except in bed. And that's not enough. Not one soft word. Not one.
You couldn't even drum up the effort to pretend and tell me, even once,
that you thought I was beautiful. No flowers, no music unless we made it
for someone else. No candlelight dinners, except when I arranged them
myself. I did all the courting, and that makes me pathetic. I was
willing to settle for crumbs from you, and that's exactly what I got."

"It wasn't like that." It appalled him that she should think so. "Of
course I think you're beautiful."

"Now who's pathetic?" she snapped back.

"If I didn't think about romance, it was because things got confused so
fast." That was a lie, and he knew it. Yet he wondered why he was
defending himself, why he felt such panic at the steely, disinterested
look she sent him, when he'd been so hellbent on pushing her away. "I
can't give you what you need."

"That's very clear. I'm better off without you. That's very clear, too.
So, we'll do just as you suggested. We'll forget it."

He put a hand on her arm as she started to walk out. "Fred, wait a
minute."

"Don't touch me," she said, in such a low, furious voice that his
fingers dropped. "We'll finish our commitment to the musical. And we'll
make polite conversation around the family. Other than that, I don't
want to see you."

"You live three damn blocks away," he called after her.

"That can be changed."

"Running home after all?"

She shot one frigid look over her shoulder. "Not on your life."

He thought about getting drunk. It was an easy escape, and would hurt no
one but him. But he just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for it.

He got through the night, though he didn't sleep. The music he tried to
write in the dawn hours was flat and empty.

He'd done what he needed to do, he told himself. So why was he so
miserable?

She'd had no right to attack him. Not after she told him that everything
that had happened since she'd come to New York was part of some plot. He
was the victim here, and still he'd done his best to protect her in the
end.

Imagine him, married, trying to raise kids. He snorted, then dropped
into a chair, because the whole picture was suddenly so appealing.

Insane maybe, he mused, but appealing. A family of his own, a woman who
loved him. Surely that was insane.

Insane or not, it was hopeless now. The woman who had walked out the day
before didn't love him. All she felt for him was disdain.

Saw to that, didn't you, LeBeck? You idiot.

He'd had a shot. It was all so clear, now that it was over. He'd had a
chance to love and be loved, to make a life with the only woman who had
ever really meant anything to him.

How could he have been so stupid, so blind? It had always been her. If
he had good news, she was the first one he wanted to share it with. If
he was down, he knew it would only take her voice over the phone to
bring him up again.

Friends. He supposed that was what had thrown him all along. They'd been
friends. And when he felt more than friendship for her, he'd tried to
block it, ignore it, deny it. He'd used every excuse available to hide
the real one.

He hadn't believed he deserved her.

Even when their relationship changed, he'd held part of himself back.
She'd been right. He'd never given her soft words. He'd never shared the
reins of courtship.

Now he'd lost her.

He let his head fall back, closed his eyes. She was better off without
him. He was sure of that. Had been sure.

The knock on the door had him springing up. She'd come back, was all he
could think.

All the pleasure died from his face when he saw Rachel.

"Well, that's quite a greeting."

"Sorry." Dutifully he pecked her cheek. "I was… Nothing. What you are
doing here?"

"Paying you a visit. I don't have to be in court for another couple of
hours." She walked over to a chair, sat, gestured to another. "Sit down,
Nick. I want to talk to you."

It was her lawyer's voice that put him on guard. "What's the problem?"

"You are, I believe. Sit." When he did, she laid a hand on his. "I love
you."

"Yeah, I know. So?"

"I just wanted to get that out of the way, so I can tell you what an
absolute jerk you are." The hand that had rested so gently over his
balled into a fist and rapped his shoulder. "What a stupid, idiotic,
inconsiderate, blind male boob you are."

"What's the deal?" he said between clenched teeth, as she'd squarely hit
a spot that was still raw from Reece. He supposed he deserved the pain.

"I stayed with Freddie last night. She didn't want me to, but we ganged
up on her."

"Oh." He let out a careful breath. "So how is she?"

"As far as the attack on her, she's holding up. As far as your attack,
she's pretty hurt."

"Hold on. I didn't attack her."

"Objection overruled. I pried most of what happened out of her. It's bad
enough that you've broken her heart, Nick, but to mess up your own life
while you were at it takes real skill."

His defense mechanism clicked in before he could stop it. "Look, we
slept together a few times. I realized it was a mistake and put the
brakes on."

"Don't insult me, Nick," she said coolly. "Or Freddie. Or yourself."

He let his eyes close with an oath. The hell with it, he thought. The
hell with defending himself, with pride, with anything else that blocked
the way. "I love her, Rachel. I didn't realize how much, how bad it was,
until she walked out the door."

It was hard, but Rachel restrained herself from offering the comfort,
the sympathy, that stirred inside her. "Have you bothered to tell her
you love her?"

"Not the way she needed. It's one of the things I neglected."

"So I gathered."

"I wasn't prepared for it." He pushed himself up to prowl the room. "She
had it all worked out in her head. One of her step-by-steps."

"And you found that insulting," Rachel put in. "Which proves you're a
fool. Some more intelligent men might have found being found attractive
and desirable by an attractive, desirable woman a compliment."

"It threw me, okay? It all threw me. Everything I was feeling for her
hit me like a wall. I didn't know it could be like this."

"So to fix it, you tossed her out."

"She walked."

"Do you want her to keep on walking? She will. And if you dare tell me
that you're not good enough, that you haven't got what it takes to make
her happy, I'll really hit you next time. There's only part of the boy I
got stuck with all those years ago left in you, Nick. And it's the best
part."

He wanted to believe it. He'd tried for more than a decade to make it
true. "I don't know if I can give her what she wants."

"Then you won't," Rachel snapped back, without sympathy. "And she'll
survive. She's cried herself dry, and she's purged most of the rage. The
woman I left a little while ago was very controlled, and determined to
forget you."

"I want her back." The thought wasn't as frightening as he'd assumed it
would be. In fact, it felt incredibly right. "I want it all back."

"Then you'd better get to work, pal." She rose, took him by the
shoulders and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "My money's on you,
LeBeck."

Nick wasn't sure he'd take the bet himself. The odds were long, he
decided as he carted his bags toward Freddie's building. It was going to
take some pretty fancy footwork to squeeze an entire courtship into one
crowded balcony scene.

Nick glanced up to the fifth floor of Freddie's apartment building, and
headed for the fire escape.

"And where do you think you're going, LeBeck?"

The beat cop Nick had known half his life strolled up, tapping his
baton.

"How's it going, Officer Mooney?"

But the wily veteran eyed Nick's bags suspiciously. "My question was,
where are you going?"

"I need a break here, Mooney."

"Do you now? Well, why don't you tell me about it?"

"See that window?" Nick pointed, waited until Mooney's eyes lifted and
focused. "The woman I love lives up there."

"Captain Stanislaski's niece lives up there. And the girl's had a spot
of trouble."

"I know. She's the one I'm in love with. She's a little annoyed with me
at the moment."

"Do tell."

"I messed up, and I want to fix it. Look, she's not going to let me in
the front."

"You think I'm going to let you climb up to the lady's window?"

Nick shifted his bags. "Mooney, how long have you known me?"

"Too long." But he smiled a little. "What have you got in mind?"

By the time Nick finished telling him, Mooney was grinning. "Tell you
what I'm going to do, since I've watched you grow from a snot-nosed punk
into an upstanding citizen. I'm going to stand right down here and let
you give it your best shot. If the lady isn't receptive, you're coming
right back down."

"Deal. Listen, it could take a little time. She's pretty stubborn."

"Aren't they all? I'll give you a leg up, boy." With Mooney's help, Nick
managed to yank down the ladder. After a climb that reminded him that
his bruises were still very much around, he tapped on Freddie's window.

Moments later, she jerked it open. Her eyes were a little swollen, and
that cheered him. Even if the expression in them wasn't welcoming.

"Fred, I want to--"

She slammed the window down and flipped the lock.

"Strike one, Nick!" Mooney called up. A man came out of the bakery
behind him and paused next to the cop.

"What's going on?"

"The boy up there's trying to charm the lady."

Nick prayed it was just temper. If she'd finally written him off, he'd
lose everything that mattered. He only had to get her attention, he
assured himself, and wiped a damp, nervous hand on his jeans. He pulled
the flowers out first. They'd gotten a little crushed, but he didn't
think she'd notice.

He rapped again, harder. "Open up, Fred. I brought you flowers. Look."
More than a little desperate, he waved the bouquet when her face
appeared on the other side of the glass. "Yellow roses, your favorite."

Her answer was to yank the drapes smartly shut.

"Strike two, Nick!"

"Shut up, Mooney," he muttered.

He was drawing a crowd now, but he ignored it as he pulled out his next
weapon. After arranging the candles in their holders, he lighted them.
He turned to the blank window and tried to pitch his voice loud enough
so Fred would have to hear him, but not so loud that he'd get commentary
from below.

"Hey, I've got candlelight out here, Fred… Did I ever tell you how
beautiful you look in candlelight? The way your eyes sparkle and your
skin kind of glows? You look beautiful in any light, really, sunlight or
moonlight. I should have told you that. I should have told you a lot of
things."

Nick shut his eyes a moment, took a breath. "I was afraid I'd mess up
and ruin your life, Fred, so I messed up anyway and nearly ruined both
our lives." His hands were pressed against the window glass now, as if
he could will her to open it. "Let me fix it. I've got to fix it. Just
let me tell you everything I should have told you. Like the way the
smell of you haunts me. I breathe you for hours, even when you're not
there, like you're inside me."

"That's pretty good," Mooney noted to several people who'd stopped to
watch. They all agreed with him.

"Open the window, Fred. I need to touch you."

He wasn't even sure if she was listening. All he could see was the
insulated barrier of draperies. He set up the portable keyboard, to the
hoots and calls of encouragement of the crowd below.

"We wrote this song for each other, Fred, and I didn't even know it."

He played the opening chord from "It Was Ever You" and, tossing pride
away, sang.

He was into the second verse before she snapped the drapes aside and
tossed up the window.

"Stop it," she demanded. "You're making a fool out of yourself and
embarrassing me. Now I want you to--"

"I love you."

That stopped her. He saw tears swim into her eyes before she fought them
back. "I'm not putting myself through this again. Now go away."

"I've always loved you, Freddie," he said quietly. "That's why there was
never anyone else who meant anything, or could. I was wrong, stupid, to
think I had to let you go. I need you to forgive me, Fred, to give me
another chance, because there's nothing without you."

The first tear fell. "Oh, why are you doing this? I'd made up my mind."

"I should have done it a long time ago. Don't leave me, Fred. Give me a
chance." Nick picked up the flowers again and offered them.

After a moment's hesitation, she took them. "It isn't just flowers,
Nick. I was angry then. It's--"

"I was afraid to love you," he murmured. "Because it was so big, so
huge, I thought it might swallow me whole. And I was afraid to show
you."

Her gaze lifted from the flowers, held his. She'd once dreamed about
seeing that look in his eyes. The tenderness, the strength, and the
love. "I never wanted you to be anything but what you are, Nick."

"Come on out." His eyes never left hers when he held out his hand.
"Welcome to my world."

She sniffled, then shook her head with a laugh. "All right, but we'll
probably be arrested for arson."

"No problem. I've got a cop watching."

Even as she stepped out on the crowded platform, she looked down.
Besides the uniform, there were several others in the audience. Someone
waved at her.

"Nick, this is ridiculous. We can talk this through inside."

"I like it out here." She'd wanted romance. By God, he was going to give
it to her. "And there's not much to talk about--just tell me you still
love me."

"I do." Swamped with it, she lifted a hand to his cheek. "I do love
you."

"Forgive me?"

"I wasn't going to. Ever. I was going to live without you, Nick."

"That's what I was afraid of." He laid a hand over the one resting on
his cheek. "And now?"

"You haven't left me much choice." She brushed a tear away. "What were
you thinking of, candles and music before noon?"

She'd already forgiven him, he realized, humbled. "I thought it was time
I did the courting. Do you want me to go to the next step in my master
plan?"

"I want to apologize about that."

"I hope you won't." He lifted her hand and kissed it, in a gesture that
made her blink. "I intend to remind you, for the rest of your life, that
you came gunning for me. I'm glad you did." He kissed her hand again.
"I'm going to need a long time to show my gratitude." Watching her, he
shifted and took a small box out of his pocket. "I'm hoping you'll give
it to me. Marry me, Fred." He flipped the top on the box to reveal an
elegantly simple, traditional diamond. "No one's ever loved you the way
I do. No one ever will."

"Nick." She pressed her hand to her mouth. This wasn't a dream, she
realized. Not a fantasy, not a stage in some careful plan. It was real
and wrenching.

And perfect.

"Yes. Oh, yes." On a watery laugh, she threw herself into his arms.

"Looks like the boy hit a home run after all," Mooney observed. He gave
himself the pleasure of watching the couple five stories up kiss as if
they'd go on that way through eternity.

Then he tapped his stick. "Okay, let's move along. Give them some
privacy."

Whistling, Mooney sauntered away. He glanced back once, smiled as he saw
the pretty woman toss her bouquet high in the air.

Nick LeBeck, Mooney thought. The boy had come a long way.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue
--------
Contents - Prev

BROADWAY RHYTHM

By Angela Browning

After last night's wildly successful opening of First, Last and Always,
starring the luminous Maddy O'Hurley and the delicious Jason Craig,
there's no doubt about these two stellar performers' niche on the Great
White Way. The audience, including yours truly, adored them from the
dynamic, colorful opening scene to the wryly romantic closing number.
Miss O'Hurley in particular proved her range and scope in her
captivating portrayal of Caroline from quirky ingenue to mature woman.

While these two stars and the inspired supporting cast lit up the stage,
it was the music that drove the production. Take it from me--as of last
night, Broadway has two new darlings. The team of Nicholas LeBeck and
Frederica Kimball have created a score that soared and dipped, that
raised the roof and touched the heart. Believe me, there were few dry
eyes in the house last night when the two leads reprised the haunting
"It Was Ever You." Notes and lyrics are certainly the heartbeat of any
musical, and this heart pumped with fresh energy and spirit. Mr.
LeBeck's debut score for Last Stop earned him rave reviews, and sang
with potential. With First, Last and Always he's proven himself.

His partner is every bit his match. Miss Kimball's lyrics range from the
gently poetic to the smugly cynical to the brashly funny, slipping so
truly into LeBeck's notes that it's not possible to tell which came
first. Like all great collaborations, this one appears seamless.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that the team of LeBeck and Kimball are
not only musical partners, but newlyweds. Married only three months, the
bride and groom had plenty of reason to smile after last night's smash
opening. I, for one, wish them a long, happy and productive partnership.

"How many times are you going to read that?"

Freddie sighed. She sat cross-legged in the middle of the rumpled bed,
copies of all the early reviews spread around her. And over Nick. Her
hair had long since fallen out of the sophisticated twist she'd worn to
the opening. The sleek black gown she'd spent days shopping for was
tossed carelessly on the floor--where it had landed when Nick peeled it
off of her.

They'd come in giggling sometime past dawn, high on celebratory
champagne, success and healthy lust.

"It was wonderful."

He grinned. "Thanks."

With a laugh, she swatted him with the newspaper and watched her wedding
ring glint in the sunlight that streamed through the window. It still
gave her a wonderful jolt to see it on her finger. "Not that--but that
wasn't bad, either. The night," she said, closing her eyes to bring it
all back. "The crowds, the people, the lights and music. The applause.
God, I loved the applause. Remember how people stood up and cheered at
the end of 'I'm Leaving You First'?"

He folded his arms behind his head and continued to grin. She looked so
cute, so pretty, sitting there in one of his T-shirts, her hair curling
everywhere, her eyes glowing.

She looked so… his.

"Did they? I didn't notice."

"Sure. That's why you broke all the fingers in my hand squeezing it."

"I was just trying to keep you from leaping on stage and taking a bow."

"I felt like it," Freddie admitted. "I wanted to jump up and dance. They
loved it, Nick. They loved what we made together."

"So did I. I loved sitting front-row center and hearing what we created
over the bar on my old piano. And remembering what happened to us while
we wrote the words and music."

She laid a hand over his, linked fingers. "It was the most exciting time
of my life. And last night just made it all the more special. Everyone
looked so wonderful. All the family. It was almost like our wedding day,
with everyone dressed up and beaming. And you were almost as nervous."

"You were every bit as beautiful." Nick watched her color come up, her
smile spread. She wasn't used to him remembering to tell her, he knew,
or being able to say it so easily. "Mrs. LeBeck." He sat up to comb his
fingers through her hair, to meet her mouth with his. "I love you."

"Nick." She pressed her cheek to his and held tight. "It's all so
perfect. I knew it would be if I waited long enough. And somehow I know
it's only going to get better. We're a team."

"And we're a hit. LeBeck and Kimball. Broadway's new darlings."

She chuckled, then nuzzled his neck. "You read it this time."

His hands had already slipped under the T-shirt. "Now?"

"After," she murmured, then with a laugh, rolled over the rave reviews
with him.