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This wasn’t going according to plan.
***
Half an hour later, Mary could give herself up to dancing with Van. She’d found the Sky Die Roller Coaster exciting when she wrote a story on it. Bungee jumping off the Rainbow Bridge too. They were nothing in comparison with dancing with Van. He had the rare gift of making his partner feel as though she could dance her way to heaven, and without stomping on her partner’s toes along the way.
There he went again, giving her one more reason to love him madly.
Finally, though, her curiosity won out over the bliss of concentrating solely on dancing with Van. “What did you do with the professor after I got his nose to stop bleeding?”
“Settled him poolside. Told him to sit, stay, and shut up. I wish you had let me bloody his lip. That crashing bore still has no idea of when to be quiet or when a lady has politely said no.”
“Well, maybe Cyn wasn’t exactly clear, just going off to the ladies' room, and maybe I should have said something before I laid the door on him.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Van said. “If you hadn’t slammed the door, he would have trampled you in his haste to catch up with my aunt and continue to regale her with his exploits while she powdered her nose.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“IknowI’mright.That’sexactlywhathetriedtodo before I finally got him settled down beside the pool. I had to find an audience who’d listen to him.”
“Who could you possibly — ”
“The chairman of the museum board. He has to butter Breckenridge up because the man provides his services, such as they are, for free. I found a few docents of the more obnoxious variety. You know the ones. The culture clods who conduct museum tours because it’s so ‘high class.’ ”
“Mmm. I guess that helps explain why our reports on the professor are so different from the reality. I knew I shouldn’t let anyone hurry me into picking our first candidate. I know better than to believe what anyone says until I ask him or her the same question three different ways, and check the answer with three other people.” Mary paused to deliver her culminationonthethoughtwithfulleffect.“Asheis,” she said, “I guess our professor is perfect fodder for the culture clodder.”
Van winced. “Tell me you didn’t say that.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Good. Now let’s talk about kissing.”
That caught so much of Mary’s attention she fell over her own feet, but Van turned her tumble into a graceful dip straight out of the tango.
Right after she learned how to tango, she decided, she’d learn how to swoon gracefully. “Who taught you to do that?”
“Aunt Cynthia tried to teach me how to dance.” He grinned. “She was good at stomping on my feet and failing to keep her own on the ground. I had to learn to lead and rescue her, or we’d both have gone to the hospital after every dance lesson.”
“It’s always ‘Aunt Cynthia’ you talk about. You never talk about your mother.”
Van’s grin faded into grim. “She had as much trouble with the real world as Aunt Cynthia did with the dance floor.”
“Van, I’m so sorry. I read about what happened.”
“Yeah, I found her. At least she used pills. It could have been — messier. And if I hadn’t found her, my father probably would have. I’m glad that didn’t happen. He cracked as it was.”
“How old were you?” She knew the answer. She’d found out a lot about him, for all he tried to stay out of the public eye. But she was fairly sure he never talkedaboutthistragedy,ornexttonever.Itcouldn’t be good for him to stuff it all inside.
“I was six.”
“And you thought it was your fault.”
“Of course I did. Any kid would. You can’t understand something like this at that age. I thought if I hadn’t been such a bad little boy, Mama wouldn’t have gone away.”
MaryachedforVanthechild.Andnowhecouldsay he was glad he and not his father had found his dead mother, and mean it. Mary ached for the grown man too.
“Aunt Cynthia came to get me that same day, and after that, I spent a lot of time with her, every summer and a lot of the rest of the time.”
That Mary hadn’t known, and she was glad to hear it. She’d read Van’s father locked himself up in his house after he lost his wife. He didn’t go to the funeral Cyn arranged. His long-time partner ran the company for years, but after he died, Van Deventer Ventures toppled into financial free-fall. Until Van took over.
