“When?” Ben held on to Carlie’s arm while her mother impatiently pressed the door open button and waited.
“Call me.”
Ben let her go and Carlie slipped into the waiting car. The doors began to close and Carlie watched as Ben walked toward the stairs only to be caught in midstride by Tracy Niday. The doors closed, blocking her view.
Carlie’s heart squeezed.
“I saw him with her earlier,” Thelma said as the elevator began moving upward.
Weldon agreed. “So did I. She’ll always be a part of his life, honey.” He reached for his daughter’s hand. “Because of that boy of hers.”
The elevator stopped on the main floor and Carlie was left with the sinking sensation that her father was right. As long as Randy needed a father, Tracy’s sights would be set on Ben.
Chapter Eleven
BEN WATCHED THE backhoe gouging out huge chunks of mud from the excavation site. He’d been lucky. The weather had broken and it looked as if the concrete foundation for Nadine’s cabin could be poured in the next couple of weeks.
All in all, things were going well. Work on the Hunter apartment house would be finished by the middle of March, this cabin would take him through part of the summer and the projects at the logging company would keep his subcontractors busy throughout the spring.
So why was he so restless? The answer was obvious. Carlie. The woman he didn’t know whether to love or hate. When she’d first returned to Gold Creek, he’d been certain that she was a user, a gold digger, a callous woman who stepped on men’s souls. Then, as the weeks had passed and they argued about the past he’d seen a new side to Carlie—a side that beguiled him and told him that he’d made a mistake about her in the past. Then he’d made love to her and that lovemaking had been as soul-wrenching and earth-shattering as it had been eleven years ago. He’d thought he’d lost his ability to become so involved in a woman, but he’d been wrong. He could feel that same exhilaration. But only with Carlie.
Damn it all anyway! He kicked a stone with the toe of his work boot and wondered what the hell he was going to do about her.
He should trust her, get over the past, start fresh. That’s what he wanted to do, and last night, when he held her in his arms and kissed her on the veranda of the country club, it had been all he could do not to pull her into the shadows beyond the interior lights and make love to her over and over again. She was in his blood, in his mind, and...it seemed, in his heart.
He was about to make the same mistake with her as he had in the past. His destiny, it seemed.
So why was she having dinner with Thomas Fitzpatrick?
Because Fitzpatrick was interested in her, and had been from the moment she set foot back in Gold Creek. Ben had noticed the way Fitzpatrick had watched Carlie on the dance floor, his old eyes following her every move as he’d pretended interest in another conversation.
He clenched his jaw so hard that it began to ache. “Son of a bitch!”
“Ben! Hey, Ben!” Ralph Katcher slogged through the mud. “Lookin’ good here, eh?” He stopped to stuff some tobacco behind his gum.
“Better,” Ben allowed.
“Hell, yes, better. A damned sight better. You know, I think you might just end up a solid citizen of Gold Creek. End up on the board of the chamber of commerce. You and Thomas Fitzpatrick!”
“That’ll be the day,” he said. They shared a cup of coffee from his thermos, then Ben drove off to check the other jobs he’d contracted.
All the work looked good at the Hunter house. He hung out for a while, spending more time than necessary checking the finishing touches, hoping that Carlie would show up. When she didn’t arrive, he headed out to the logging company offices and told himself over and over that Thomas Fitzpatrick’s money was the same color as anyone else’s. However, dealing with Fitzpatrick burned a hole in his gut. He’d never forgiven him for being part of the scheme that had fleeced his father out of his life savings—and he didn’t trust him now. With Carlie.
It was probably just his imagination, but he’d seen how Thomas had looked at her at Nadine’s wedding, read the unspoken messages in his eyes. Again, last night, in front of his family and all the guests at the engagement party, Thomas had made a beeline to Carlie and hovered around her. Later, as she and Ben had danced, Fitzpatrick had eyed them. Then there was the sudden interest in the apartment house where Carlie lived. Why would Fitzpatrick want the old building?
Fitzpatrick was also throwing a lot of work Carlie’s way, which wasn’t a big deal in and of itself, but the fact that there were so many other strings that tied Carlie to him made Ben sweat. There was also the business with her dad. Fitzpatrick was playing God on that one, teasing a sick old man with his pension and retirement benefits.
Ben didn’t like it. It smelled bad. But his hands were tied. Carlie, damn her, insisted upon being her own woman and she’d have to learn about Fitzpatrick on her own.
His teeth gritted and he told himself to forget it, but a black mood settled over him.
He drove home, changed quickly and after feeding Attila and skimming a Frisbee through the air for fifteen minutes, he left the dog in the yard and climbed into his truck again. But he hesitated before switching on the ignition. He wasn’t looking forward to the evening in front of him. Tracy had called him on the car phone and invited him over and Ben hadn’t found the spite in him to refuse. She’d wheedled and explained that Randy would really like to see him again after the disaster of Little League tryouts, so Ben had bowed to his own guilt and agreed to take them both to a restaurant and a movie. Tracy hadn’t been able to hide the smile in her voice and Ben felt trapped.
He picked them up at six and they drove to the outskirts of town where they stopped at the Burger Den for triple-decker cheeseburgers and spicy fries. Randy ordered a large root beer milk shake and though his mother teased him about breaking training, she let him have the drink anyway and Ben was relieved. He didn’t want to get into another discussion about child
rearing. Randy was her kid and she had the right to raise him as she saw fit, as long as she didn’t harm the boy.
They laughed and talked and Ben wondered why he’d felt so ill at ease earlier. Tracy was her most charming and she smiled at him often, her brown eyes twinkling, her full lips stretching into a sexy grin.