Scarlet Nights p.18 Read online

  It went against Mike’s grain to throw any sports match, but he didn’t want to make Sara’s father look bad. At the first tee, Mike didn’t make his best effort and the ball fell far short of the hole.

  Dr. Henry Shaw looked at Mike in speculation. “The lower your score, the better I’ll speak about you to my youngest daughter.”

  Mike looked at the man for a moment, mumbled “another matchmaker,” then made a hole in one.

  By the time they got back to the clubhouse, half a dozen men were asking for games with him.

  “What they need are lessons,” Dr. Shaw said under his breath and slapped Mike on the shoulder.

  “So what about our deal?” Mike asked.

  “I would have done that anyway. Luke said you were a natural athlete, and I wanted to see if it was true.”

  “Now I see where Sara got her love of conniving.”

  Dr. Shaw laughed heartily. “Don’t tell her mother that. Ellie thinks Sara is the ‘weak’ one.”

  The two men had lunch together, and Mike was introduced to everyone as “Sara’s friend.” Not one person mentioned that Sara’s wedding date—to another man—was soon approaching.

  That night, Mike was to go on his date with Ariel Frazier.

  “I’ll cancel it if you want,” he told Sara when he got back to the apartment.

  “Why would I want that? Ariel is intelligent, well traveled, and she’s beautiful. I’m sure you’ll have a great time.”

  It was, of course, absurd, but Mike was disappointed when Sara didn’t mind that he had a date with another woman. During the last few days, they’d come to … well, almost live together. They shared most meals, went nearly everywhere together, and people in Edilean seemed to consider them a couple.

  “Are you sure?” Mike asked.

  “Go on. Have a good time. I’ll see what Joce is doing. Luke said he’d be busy writing, so Joce will be alone.”

  “If you’re sure it’s all right …”

  “Go! Enjoy yourself.”

  As soon as Mike was out the door, Sara texted Joce:

  DID I EVER MENTION THAT I HATE ARIEL FRAZIER?

  Jocelyn replied with

  MIKE WON’T LIKE HER. COME OVER AND WE’LL TALK ABOUT IT.

  As Sara clicked off her phone, she tried to remember Greg’s face. She could, but not clearly. And she had no pictures of him to remind her. One of Greg’s former girlfriends had been a professional photographer, and he said she’d been so horrible to him that she’d turned him against ever again having his picture taken. When Sara thought of that now, she wondered if it was a true story.

  Over the last few days not only Greg’s face had faded from her mind but also the … well, the essence of him. All she seemed able to remember now was the work he piled on her and how he made her feel confused and inadequate.

  Where was he? she wondered. And what was he doing? She still sent him messages now and then, but they no longer had the urgency they once did.

  She knew it was all Mike’s fault. He was easy, pleasant to be with—and when they weren’t together, like tonight, she missed him.

  She didn’t want to think about it, but she did not miss Greg.

  Sara left the apartment and went to see Joce to talk about the man who’d taken over her life.

  From the first moment Mike had seen Ariel Frazier in her car at Edilean Manor, he knew he wasn’t interested in her. Her diamond earrings and three gold bracelets had reminded him too much of the women in his past. Besides, in that first glance, he’d recognized Ariel’s aggression and her self-sufficiency.

  Now, she was sitting at the bar of what posed for a country club in Edilean, wearing black trousers, a green top, and high heels that probably cost as much as his last month’s salary. There were at least four men eyeing her and trying to decide when to make a move.

  In other circumstances, meaning before he’d met Sara, Mike would have been pleased to see such a woman waiting for him. But now, he thought she looked gaudy and overly made up.

  When he looked at her eyes, he saw amusement in them and understood that she knew what he was thinking. He went to stand beside her at the bar and gave two of the men watching her looks to get lost. Only then did he turn back to Ariel. She really was quite beautiful. There was no need to introduce themselves, so they didn’t.

  When the maître d’ told them their table was waiting, Mike stepped back to allow Ariel to go ahead of him. When they were seated, she didn’t open her menu. “I’ll have the ceviche, then the trout,” she told the waiter.

  “Same here,” Mike said, and their menus were taken away.

  As soon as they were alone, Ariel said, “You’ve fallen under Sara’s spell, haven’t you?”

  “I’m not sure what that means, but, yes, I do like her.”

  The waiter poured white wine into Mike’s glass. After he’d tasted it and nodded, the waiter filled Ariel’s glass.

  When they were alone, Mike said, “So you’re about to become a doctor?”

  “Now why is it that I think you have no interest in what I do? My guess is that you accepted this date so you could find out more about Sara. Am I right?”

  She was correct; Mike did want to know what she knew, but he said nothing. It was his experience that people always filled up silence.

  “Everyone in town knows what you’re doing,” Ariel said, then paused to take a sip of wine. “You’re trying to win Sara away from her fiancé.”

  Mike didn’t show it when he let out a breath of relief. For a moment he’d thought she—and maybe the entire town—knew about the case.

  “Did Sara tell you that in school she and I were rivals?” Ariel didn’t wait for him to answer. “She was always surrounded by boys asking her out, wanting to study with her, whatever, but she wouldn’t let them get near. It drove the boys mad. As for me, it was always ‘Hey, Ariel, wanta play baseball?’ or ‘Ariel, grab the other end of the picnic table and help me carry it.’

  “I couldn’t wait to get out of this town and away from my overprotective father and brothers. I wanted to go someplace where men saw me as female, not as ‘one of the Fraziers.’”

  Mike felt a sense of déjà vu, that he was back on one of his cases. Ariel Frazier had everything going for her, but she was still whining about what had happened to her in high school.

  “It’s not working, is it?”

  “And what’s that?” Mike’s voice was cool.

  “The ‘poor little me’ act.”

  “Not at all.”

  “Well, good,” she said as she reached into the bread basket. “If I can’t impress you, then we’ll have to be friends. And that means I don’t have to play the dainty lady. How about some butter?”

  Mike’s smile was genuine. “Good idea.”

  “So what do you want to know about dear little Sara?”

  Mike gave her a look that said “cut it out” and Ariel laughed.

  “Tell me about her first boyfriend,” Mike said as their food was served. “Brian something.”

  “Never met him.” Ariel bit into a piece of heavily buttered bread.

  “It’s my guess that you remember every word you’ve ever heard about Sara. Right?”

  Ariel smiled. “You got me there. His name is Brian Tolworthy, and he’s an archaeologist. Just like in some fairy tale, Sara went to Williamsburg and came home with a gorgeous Englishman. And of course he was to inherit the obligatory Big House and a fortune with it. Sara would have been Lady Tolworthy. I remember the name because when I came home at Christmas it’s all my mother could talk about. I was entering med school, but all she wanted was for me to get married and have babies like perfect little Sara was going to do. Sorry. Sara Shaw is a sore point with me.”

  “So why didn’t she marry him?”

  “This town is saying that Tess and Luke conspired to get you and Sara together. Is that true?”

  “This town talks too much. Why didn’t Sara marry the English guy?”

  Ariel’s face cha