this. I’m afraid I’ve jeopardized our friendship.” It was more question than statement.
“You didn’t ax-murder any little old ladies, did you?”
“Not that I recall.”
“I think we’re okay, then. Tonight...with Tawny... We didn’t mean for it to happen. And if it hurt you...well, I’m sorry for that.”
Elliott rested his head in his hands. He shook his head, as if to clear it. He looked at Simon in evident remorse.
“Simon, I don’t deserve a friend like you.”
“True enough.”
“Would you let me self-flagellate without interrupting?”
“I’ll try.”
“I was being a jealous bitch. I knew once Tawny found out about Richard it would be over between us. I know her well enough to know that. But when I walked in and your arm was around her and...well, I know for a fact she never looked at me the way she looks at you.”
Simon shook his head. It was late—everyone was tired and edgy. “That was for my mother’s benefit. She and my father leaped to the wrong conclusion and I thought under the circumstances it was best to let Mum think what she wanted.”
“How’d you know she was at the hospital?”
“Dad called.”
The surprise on Elliott’s face said it all. Simon laughed. “I know.”
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. Sort of.” He shook his head. “Tawny told them they ought to spend some time getting to know me.”
“No kidding? What’d your father do?”
“I thought he’d go off, but he and Mum said they thought she was right or some other bit of rubbish.”
“Maybe they’re changing, Simon. It’s about damn time.”
“Well, it doesn’t make any sense. I’m still the same person I’ve always been.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong, where you’ve always been wrong. I’ve been telling you for years...you think you’ve been the problem. Whether you’re the same person or not is immaterial, because it’s always been about them. They were the ones with the problem, not you. Tawny read them the riot act.” Elliott laughed. “I’m sorry I missed that part. I told you, Tawny’s a steel magnolia.”
“She is a bit relentless. She said her nickname growing up was Bulldog.”
“I can believe it. There’s another thing you’ve got wrong, Simon. I know Tawny. She’s not an actress. She wears her feelings on her sleeve. The way she was looking at you wasn’t for your mother’s benefit.”
Elliott himself had said his judgment was skewed tonight. “You’re wrong.”
“Simon, we’ve known each other for a long time and you don’t know how relieved I am that I haven’t totally botched our friendship.”
“I feel a but coming and I’ve got an inkling I’m not going to particularly like it.”
“Probably not. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why you’re so damned scared of being happy.”
11
TAWNY NURSED AN ICED coffee that tasted like chilled sewer water—at least, what she thought sewer water would taste like—and ignored Richard two tables over. She wasn’t pining over Elliott, but she wasn’t quite prepared to embrace the new object of his desire. She was glad Elliott and Simon had stayed outside the café to talk. She needed a few minutes alone to sort out her head.
She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. She was in love with Simon. Somewhere between “Elliott’s seeing someone else” and “It’s that way between them” she’d fallen head over heels in love with him.
Damn if she hadn’t gotten exactly what she’d wanted—a stiletto kind of love. There was nothing old-shoe comfortable about Simon. He was alternately caustic and tender and brave and vulnerable. She knew with a certainty that almost frightened her in its intensity that whether it was a year from now or twenty years from now or fifty, she’d still feel the same.
Maybe this had started when they’d spent the day together shooting the pictures for Elliott, and her erotic dreams had been trying to tell her what her head and heart weren’t ready to hear.
Lost in thought, Elliott startled her when he dropped into the chair next to her. “Simon says we need to talk.”
She had it bad, in a major kind of way. A thrill coursed through her at the mere mention of his name. Elliott, however, remained at the top of her jerk list. “So talk.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
He should be. “I agree. You’re a sorry excuse for a human being. You not only cheated on me but you lied to me tonight when I called you about Simon’s mother. You deliberately let me think you were still locked in at the gallery.”
“I know. It was wrong. You can’t call me anything I haven’t already