Stranger in the Moonlight Read online

  “I’ve known Jecca for many years,” Kim said tersely, “and I can assure you that her father is not after your mother’s money.” She really and truly did not like what he was insinuating. She stood up. “I think I’ll go back to the reception now.”

  Travis didn’t say a word. Just as he’d known he would, he’d blown it with Kim. But then, he always messed up when it came to good girls. He didn’t call when he was supposed to, forgot birthdays, didn’t send a gift that she’d expected. Whatever he did seemed to be wrong—which is why he tended toward women like Leslie. Give her something shiny and she was happy.

  Kim got to the end of the path before a strong sense of déjà vu hit her. She was eight years old again, she’d just let her temper override her and thrown a clod of dirt at a boy. She then ran away and hid, waiting for him to come after her. But that boy hadn’t come. She’d had to go after him. In the weeks that followed she’d found out that the boy didn’t know how to do much of anything. Couldn’t skip rocks, couldn’t ride a bike. He knew lots about science but couldn’t put a blade of grass between his thumbs and make a whistle. He didn’t know anything about the really important stuff in life.

  She turned back to Travis. Just as he’d done so long ago, he was sitting there, not moving. She didn’t know what was in his head now—probably something he’d learned in a book—but it was obvious that he was as socially awkward now as he was then.

  Slowly, she walked back to the bench and sat down beside him, her eyes straight ahead. “Sorry,” she said. “My temper sometimes gets the better of me.”

  “Then you haven’t changed.”

  “And you just sat there, so neither have you.”

  “Maybe as children we’re the purest forms of ourselves.”

  “In our case, I think so.” She took a breath. “Joe Layton isn’t after your mother’s money. As far as I know, no one knows she has any or will receive any. I don’t mean to reveal a confidence, but Jecca said that her dad knows little about Lucy, whether she has kids or not, anything. Whenever he asks about her personal life, Lucy starts kissing him and—I guess you don’t want to hear the rest of that.”

  “I would prefer your descriptions to be less graphic.”

  She smiled at the way he spoke. His extensive schooling was in every syllable. “I understand. I think you can rest easy that they are together for love, not money.”

  When he said nothing, she put her hand on his arm—and Travis put his hand over hers. He had almost forgotten how caring she was. When they were kids she was appalled at the things he didn’t know. She seemed to have a checklist of what each and every kid in the world must know and she’d set about teaching him.

  Right now there were a few things he’d like to teach her. She looked so good in that dress in the moonlight that it was difficult to keep his hands off her. But she was looking at him as though he were a stray dog that she needed to rescue. He had to work to keep desire out of his eyes, but she seemed to want to give him a bandage.

  He knew he should let go of her hand, but her long fingers were—He lifted her hand. “Is this a scar?”

  She pulled out of his grasp. “Very unfeminine, I know. But it’s a hazard of my trade.”

  “Your trade?” Thanks to the Internet, he knew all about her jewelry shop. He’d followed her all through school, then back to Edilean, where she’d opened her own business. Kim never knew it, but Travis attended every one of her one-man shows while she was at school. One time, he’d barely escaped being seen. She’d come in with two other girls, a tall, slim, dark-haired one, and a short blonde girl with a figure that had every male in the room staring.

  But Travis only had eyes for Kim. She’d grown up to be as pretty as she’d been when they were children. And he liked the way she laughed and seemed to be so happy. Travis didn’t think he’d ever been that happy in his life—at least not since he’d left Edilean and Kim so many years before.

  “I make jewelry,” she said.

  He turned on the bench to look at her. “The jewelry kit!”

  She smiled. “You remember that?”

  “You had me open it. You got it . . . ?”

  “My aunt and uncle had given it to me for Christmas, but I wasn’t interested enough to even open it. I was an ungrateful child! It was in that box Uncle Ben brought to us.”

  “With my bicycle,” Travis said, his voice softening with the memory. “You were very creative with everything in that kit. I was amazed.”

  “And you were an excellent model,” she said. “No boy I knew would have let me put a necklace of beads around him.” She didn’t tell him that the pleasure of those two weeks and the jewelry kit were all tied together. Travis and jewelry and happiness were synonymous to her.

  “I still have that necklace,” he said.

  “Do you?” she asked.

  “Yes. Kim, that was the best two weeks of my childhood.”

  She started to say it was for her too, but she didn’t. “What are your plans about your mother?”

  “I don’t really have a plan. I just heard of this yesterday. She called . . .” He thought it best not to say “my secretary.” “And left a message saying she wanted to get married, so she needed a divorce. That’s all she said. It was a total shock to me. I thought she was living in an apartment in a house owned by a respectable older widow and they were sewing children’s clothes. Now I find out that Mom is doing back bends in front of the whole town.” He looked at Kim. “So, no, I haven’t come up with a plan. Mainly, I want—”

  “What?”

  “I want to know if this man Joe Layton is good for my mother. Forget love—she thought she was in love with my father. I want to know if he’s a good person and that he’s not going to browbeat my little mother.”

  Kim drew her breath in sharply. Jecca’s mother had died when she was young, and she’d been raised by her father. Joe Layton was a very strong-willed man who liked things done his way. All through college, there had been hundreds of girlfriend sessions where Jecca was tearing her hair out about some maddening thing her father had said or done. While the man could be very sweet, he could also be a serious pain in the neck. And he was very possessive! When Jecca fell in love with a man in Edilean, Virginia, Joe Layton had moved there to be with her—and his stunt had almost caused Jecca and Tris to break up.

  “What is it?” Travis asked.

  “I, uh . . .” She didn’t know exactly what to say. She was saved from replying by the sound of voices coming their way.

  Kim could tell from Travis’s expression that he didn’t want to be seen. At least not yet, before he saw his mother. “Follow me,” she said as she stood and lifted her long skirt to start running down a narrow path through the woods.

  “Gladly,” Travis murmured as he followed her. It was dark in the heavily wooded area, but there was enough moonlight to see Kim’s pale skin and the silvery blue of her dress. He loved watching her run.

  His eyes were so focused on her that he almost collided with what looked to be an old playhouse. The tall turret, shadowed in the moonlight, looked like where the evil witch in a fairy tale would live.

  “In here,” Kim said as she opened the door, then locked it behind them.

  Travis started searching for a light switch, but Kim caught his wrist and put her finger to her lips indicating he should say nothing. She motioned for him to get out from in front of the window.

  He leaned back against the door, close beside Kim.

  Outside they heard the voices of what sounded like teenagers.

  “Come on. I’m over here,” came a loud male whisper.

  “We’ll get caught.” It was a girl’s voice.

  “By who? Dr. Tris? He’s already on his honeymoon.” There was the sound of kissing. “I’ll bet that right now he’s doing what we want to do.”

  “I’d trade places with her,” the girl said in a dreamy voice.

  Kim looked at Travis, and they grimaced. The girl had said the wrong thing.

&n