Whirlwind

“No, thanks.”

“For Pete’s sake, Forrester, what’s the big deal?”

He turned to Liza and put his hand out, but didn’t meet her eye. “It’s been an education meeting you, Miss Baron.”

“You could call me Liza, at least,” she said dryly, not accepting his handshake, but impudently folding her arms over her chest instead. “I think we got to know each other well enough for that, don’t you? I mean, that was one hell of a kiss you gave me.”

“I’m sorry about that,” he said, turning back to determinedly stare out the windshield. “I was annoyed and took it out on you. Let’s forget it.”

Liza couldn’t believe her ears. “That’s it? You’re throwing me out of the truck and saying goodbye?”

“It’s nothing personal—”

“Nothing personal! I like that! Fifteen minutes ago you were kissing the stuffing out of me, and I’ve caught you looking at my legs—don’t deny it! So you can’t just say goodbye like this.”

“Miss Baron—”

“Liza!”

“All right, Liza!” he said, temper snapping. “I’m not hungry, get it? And I’ve got things to do, dammit!”

“Like what?”

“Just get the hell out of my truck, will you?”

“It’s not your truck—”

“I’ve got more right to it than you do, so get out!”

Furious, Liza shoved open the passenger door. “You can’t get rid of me so easily, you know! I’ve got to go back to the lodge to get my car. And don’t try hiding in the trees when I come, Forrester! You won’t get away with that!”

“Goodbye!” he barked as she got out of the truck.

“Good riddance!”

Liza slammed the door of the truck and stood breathing hard on the sidewalk while he pulled out and and drove back down Main Street without even waving in the rearview mirror.

“Jerk!” Liza shouted after him.

The door of Marge’s Diner opened behind her, and a man stepped out onto the sidewalk. He was tall and white-haired, and he squinted in the bright sunlight. “Mary Elizabeth?” he demanded.

She spun around. “Granddad!”

Judson Ingalls stood under the canvas awning of the diner, fingering a toothpick and glaring up the street after the departing truck. Without further greeting, he said, “Was that Cliff Forrester?”

“Yes.” Liza strode to his side, absurdly happy to see her grandfather in the same old jeans and flannel shirt he had always worn despite his position of respect in the community. He looked just the same as ever—a gnarled but strong oak of a man with a sun-bronzed face, commanding Ingalls eyes and the firm Swedish jaw of his ancestors. “Oh, Granddad, I can’t believe how wonderful it is to see you!”

Judson said, “You shouldn’t be hanging around with a man like that, Mary Elizabeth.”

She laughed and reached for her grandfather with both hands. “I’m back in town for the first time in three years and already you’re criticizing the men I see? Granddad, how about a hug?”

Avoiding the hug with a firm grip on Liza’s shoulder, Judson met her eye at last and said abruptly, “That Forrester fellow is dangerous, Mary Elizabeth. You shouldn’t be with him.”

Liza faltered. “Dangerous?”

Judson’s brow was thunderous. “The man’s violent—a crazy Vietnam vet who’s still screwed up. Why, I’m surprised he even spoke to you. Usually he avoids people completely.”

“He was in Vietnam?”

“Vietnam or Cambodia or some such place. You stay away from him, my girl. I don’t want you getting hurt by some fanatic! Keep away from Cliff Forrester, you understand?”

Liza blinked in confusion, hardly able to digest the information. But in the next second her grandfather gave Liza a big bear hug and turned hearty.

“What are you doing in town?” he demanded, laughing as he kissed her cheek and tweaked her chin. “You’re looking prettier than ever.”

Liza gave him a shaky smile and allowed herself to be drawn into the diner for some breakfast. All hopes of slipping out of town without meeting anyone from her past evaporated as Liza was greeted by half a dozen of her grandfather’s cronies. She should have known they’d all be having breakfast in the diner. Some things never changed.

Liza also recognized several familiar faces from her youth. Rose Atkins, the elderly lady known for riding her oversize blue tricycle all over town when Liza was still in high school, gave a cheery wave from a corner booth where she sat having breakfast with Tisha Olsen, the longtime owner of her own beauty salon, the Hair Affair.

“Why, it’s Liza!” cried several voices.

“Judson, who’s that darling little girl with you?” demanded one old gentleman. “That’s not Alyssa’s youngest, is it?”

“Sure is,” Judson called back, casting his arm across Liza’s shoulder. “She’s grown up taller than her daddy, don’t you think? Take a seat here, Mary Elizabeth. We’ll get Marge to get you some fresh orange juice.”

Quiet herself, Liza let everyone make a fuss over her. She was glad nobody forced her to talk just yet. She found she couldn’t clear Cliff Forrester out of her mind right away. His peculiar refusal of breakfast made sense now, if her grandfather’s words were to be believed.

But Cliff a wild-eyed maniac? It hardly seemed likely. He appeared completely sane to her—saner than most of the men she met these days, in fact. Just a little erratic. Angry one minute, and kind of shaken up the next. His temper had exploded in the truck, but Liza had provoked that. Why did he have such a reputation around town?

Judson guided Liza to the most central table in the diner and made a show of pulling out her chair. When he’d sat down opposite her and ordered a large breakfast for her without benefit of a menu, he finally looked at her with a growing, indulgent smile and said, “All right, you can tell me what this is all about now. How come you just waltzed into town without warning?”

“Do I need to warn my family when I come to visit?”

He cocked a grandfatherly eye at her and said, “You know what I mean. Are you in trouble?”

“Of course not!”

He laughed expansively at that, not caring if his friends turned to look up from their own conversations. “You haven’t learned to lie yet, have you, my girl? What’s going on? Boyfriend problems?”

Liza sighed. “Nothing that easy.”

“Need money?”

“Granddad,” she said slowly, “would you mind if we didn’t talk about me just yet? I’m...well, coming back to town will take some adjusting.”

“So,” he said, “you’re going to stay this time?”

“No,” Liza replied quickly. “Well, I’m not sure. I’m at loose ends, I guess.”

He nodded, understanding. “Tyler is a good place to come when you’re at loose ends. I don’t suppose the town has changed much since you left. What can I do to help this time?”

“Nothing. Just be yourself, I guess. Boy, it’s great to see you!”

The waitress returned with steaming coffee cups at that moment. Marge’s Diner was famous for its coffee, and the waitress said, “Here you go, folks! This’ll unclog your arteries, Mr. Ingalls.”

“Thanks, Betty.”

It was half a minute before she left, then Judson turned back to Liza and asked casually, “Have you seen your mother yet?”

“No, and I don’t care to talk about that yet, either. Give me a chance to catch my breath, okay?”

He grinned and reached for his cup of coffee. “So far you’ve shot down every topic of conversation I can suggest. What’s left?”

“Well,” said Liza, leaning forward and bracing her elbows on the table, “you could tell me about Cliff Forrester. Were you serious about him?”

Judson put his cup down, splashing coffee on the tabletop and frowning sternly. “He’s bad news, Mary Elizabeth. I wish you hadn’t met him.”

“What’s so bad about him?”

“He’s screwed up. Some business overseas. He must have been in the war, I guess, and when he returned—well, he came back abnormal.”

“But you hired him to take care of the lodge, right?”

“He was one of your mother’s ideas,” Judson grumbled. “She’s always looking for some poor soul to save. Well, she met Forrester when she was working for some charity—saving the boat people or whatever. You know how she is—always trying to help. She said he looked like a walking ghost, so she invited him to Tyler and he came.”

“Why? Doesn’t he have any family?”

“Don’t ask me questions like that,” Judson snapped. “How am I supposed to know? Once he was here, he stayed at the Kelsey boardinghouse for a while, but he gave people the creeps. The boy never slept, I hear, and he hardly said a word to anybody, just walked the streets at all hours. Is that normal? Anyway, Alyssa jabbered at me until I gave him a job, so he moved out to the lodge. He’s been there ever since—five or six years, maybe more.”

“Why did you hire him if he’s unstable?”

“He can’t hurt anybody up at Timberlake. He can be as crazy as he likes up there and nobody will mind.”

Liza drank some hot coffee and said softly, “The lodge looks terrible, Granddad. If he’s supposed to be taking care of the place, he’s doing a miserable job.”

“He’s not supposed to be looking after the lodge,” Judson said gruffly. “Just the land and the lake. He’s the gamekeeper and takes care of the guys from the Fish Commission for...things like that. We’re trying to restock the bass population after a virus killed off most of ’em, so he’s supposed to be keeping an eye on the fish. I didn’t give Forrester permission to do a thing to the building.”

“Why not? Granddad, it’s a mess! The whole place will come crashing down if you neglect it much longer.”

“I don’t care,” Judson said with finality, reaching for his coffee once more.

“Don’t—!” Amazed, Liza cried, “Granddad! How can you say such a thing! Your own father built Timberlake, and you—why, you and my grandmother added all those wonderful—”

“I don’t give a damn about that lodge,” Judson said sharply. “The place holds a lot of bad memories for me. If it burned to the ground tomorrow, I wouldn’t care.”

Liza was shocked into a brief silence. Then she said, “Good grief, why don’t you sell it, then?”

“I’ve had offers,” he admitted, toying with the knife at his place. “One from a fellow your mother used to know way back when. He’s in the hotel business now, I understand.”

“Well, rather than letting the building go to pot—”

“How bad is it?”

“You mean you haven’t seen it?”

“I don’t want to see the place. Not without your grandmother,” Judson declared, glaring at Liza as if daring her to argue further.

“Granddad, she’s been gone forty years or more! You haven’t ever been up to the lodge since then?”

“I have no reason to go,” Judson growled. “And you can just forget—”

“Sell it,” Liza commanded, cutting off his threat. “It was a beautiful place once and somebody should enjoy it.”

“Let Cliff Forrester enjoy it. He deserves something.”

“I thought you didn’t like him.”

“I didn’t say that! I just don’t want him hanging around my granddaughter, that’s all. He’s done his duty for his country, and I know what that’s like, so he can have the lodge to himself if he wants his life that way. I don’t associate with him more than once or twice a year, and that’s all you ought to do. He deserves a place to live out the rest of his days in peace.”

Liza couldn’t help laughing. “You talk like he’s an old plow horse who needs a pasture. He’s a young man!”

Judson gave her a frosty glare. “What are you thinking, Mary Elizabeth? You haven’t fallen in love with that boy, have you?”

“Don’t be silly! I just met him an hour ago! It’s just—well, he’s not crazy. He seemed perfectly nice to me. A little peculiar, maybe. And he’s not a boy! He’s a grown man, and a very attractive one, if you ask me.”

“He’s ten years older than you, at least!”

“So what?” Liza countered angrily. “When are you going to stop interfering in my life? I have a right to make friends with whoever—”

“Simmer down,” Judson said, finally allowing a weary grin. “I thought a few years in the city might tone down that temper of yours, but I can see it didn’t. Your grandmother could fly off the handle faster than anyone I knew—until you came along!”

“I’m sorry,” Liza said, wishing she hadn’t flown off the handle quite so fast.

“No, you’re not sorry. You like putting me in my place once in a while, don’t you?” He laughed ruefully. “Are you going to stay in Tyler or not?”

“For a day or two maybe,” she said cautiously.

“All right, what do you want from me?”

Liza smiled. “How about loaning me twenty dollars so I can go buy some jeans at the dime store?”

“Done”, said Judson, reaching for his hip pocket. “That’s a damn peculiar outfit you’re wearing, I must say. Some jeans would be an improvement.”

“Shut up, Granddad.”

“Don’t tell me to shut up when I’ve got twenty dollars in my hand. Here, take fifty.” Judson threw the bills on the table between them. “There’s more where that came from. I’ve got charge accounts in every store in town, so you buy what you need.”

“But—”

“No buts about it! It’s the least I can do for my favorite granddaughter. Now, what are you going to do once you buy your jeans?”

“I’m going back up to Timberlake.”

His face flushed at once. “Who gave you permission to go back to the lodge?”

Liza grinned. “You will.”

“Like hell! Tangling with Cliff Forrester is too dangerous—”

“Tangling with me has been known to be hazardous, too, you know!”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Judson exploded. “What would you do with yourself up there, anyway? Make that boy’s life more miserable than it is already?”

She shrugged airily. “I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll see what happens, I guess.”

“Mary Elizabeth...”

“I can take care of myself, Granddad.”

He glared at her. “You have a plan, don’t you?”

“I’ve got some ideas,” Liza admitted, laughing at the pained expression that grew on her grandfather’s face.

“You’re just like your grandmother,” he said with a sigh. “Headstrong and reckless. There’s no talking sense to you. And no use warning you about Forrester, right?”

“No use at all.”

Marge arrived then with a plate loaded with blueberry pancakes, and made a fuss over Liza. In a few minutes she brought a side order of sausage and hash brown potatoes, too. Marge had been a part of Tyler since Liza’s childhood. Her diner was the local meeting place and Marge made it her business to be friendly with everyone. She welcomed Liza back to town and traded jokes with Judson before heading over to another table to refill some coffee cups.

Liza ate her pancakes voraciously, listening to her grandfather tell her all the local gossip. The biggest news was that the school had hired a new football coach, which had set the town on its ear since the coach was a woman. Someone at the next table heard Judson mention the issue, and a friendly argument broke out.

“Hiring a woman football coach is like electing a monkey to the Senate,” one man bellowed. “Sure, he can do the same job as all the other senators, but he sure looks silly doing it!”

Liza listened to the townsfolk argue, feeling suddenly quite invigorated as she was swept up in Tyler’s latest controversy. It felt a lot better than being swept downstream by her own troubles. Life wasn’t so terrible after all.

An hour later at the dime store, she bought some jeans, a couple of T-shirts, a few pairs of panties and some cheap sneakers. The clerk was one of her high school classmates, and they chatted for twenty minutes before Liza left the store.

She added cigarettes from the market and then walked across the street to cajole Carl into driving her up to the lodge to look at her disabled Thunderbird. The mechanic agreed, and while riding in the tow truck, Liza planned what she was going to say to Cliff Forrester when she moved into the lodge.

CHAPTER THREE

CLIFF HAD BEEN under siege before. In Cambodia, he’d experienced some of the most frightening barrages of gunfire known to man. He’d been scared then.

When Liza Baron descended on Timberlake, she did it with just as much noise as incoming artillery. But Cliff wasn’t scared this time. He was furious.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, confronting her in the kitchen while the mechanic from town tinkered with her convertible outside.

She dumped a huge plastic bag full of clothing on the stainless steel kitchen counter, bestowing on Cliff a wide, self-satisfied smile. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“Like you’re moving in.”

“Give the man a cigar!” Liza crowed, prancing happily around the counter and ripping open the plastic bag. “That’s exactly what I’m up to!”

Cliff throttled back the surge of anger that rose from inside him. “You’re not moving into the lodge.”

“Oh, yes, I am. In fact, Granddad gave me permission to do whatever I please while I’m here.” She rummaged around in the plastic bag and came up with a new package of cigarettes.

Cliff struggled to keep his temper and growled, “That wasn’t the arrangement he made with me. I’m supposed to be the sole tenant.”

Nonchalantly, Liza leaned against the counter and proceeded to unwrap the cellophane from her cigarettes. Looking very pleased with herself, she said, “I guess he changed his mind. I have been known to have that effect on people, you know. Have you got a match?”

Seething, Cliff said, “I’m not sharing this place with you, Miss Baron.”

“Heavens, Forrester, my great-grandfather used to hold hunting parties up here and invite a hundred guests. It’s a big lodge.” She blinked prettily, then gave him a taunting smile. “I’m sure we’ll manage to stay out of each other’s beds if we try, don’t you?”

“Dammit, you can’t barge in here like this!”

“I already have,” she replied, cool and amused as she flipped a cigarette out of the pack and expertly waved it between two fingers. “Are you scared of me, Forrester?”

There were limits to human suffering, Cliff thought savagely. Without warning, he snatched the cigarette from Liza’s grasp and managed to grab the pack out of her other hand before she could react.

“Hey!” she cried, affronted.

“I may be forced to tolerate you,” he snapped, “but I won’t have you stinking up the place with cigarette smoke!” He squashed the pack in one hand and threw the crumpled remains on the counter between them.

Liza glared at him as she stood squarely in the middle of the lodge kitchen, still wearing his sweater over that ridiculously short skirt. Her high-heeled shoes were gone, however, and in their place was a pair of brand-new sneakers. She looked young and fit and breathtakingly lovely.

And very angry, too. Her eyes were throwing blue sparks as she glared at Cliff.

“I don’t take orders from anyone,” she said. “I’ll smoke if I want to smoke.”

“It’s a stupid habit. You probably do it only because you think it makes you look sophisticated.”

“That’s not it at all. I—”

“You’re a silly, shallow, spoiled girl, Miss Baron, and you’re probably used to inflicting yourself on people all the time. Well, I won’t put up with it. If you want to smoke, go back to Chicago.”

Her expression turned shrewd. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? You want to get rid of me.”

“Damn right!”

“Well, you can’t chase me out of here that easily, Forrester. You want me to give up smoking? Fine, I will. But I’m not leaving Timberlake, so forget it!”

Cliff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “A couple of hours ago you said you were passing through, and now suddenly you’re the prodigal daughter! Why in heaven’s name have you taken it into your head to barge in here—”

“I need a place to crash for a while,” she cut in. “To revitalize my creativity. To open my consciousness to new experiences. To—”

“Oh, for crying out loud!”

“I’m not here because of you, Forrester, so stop thinking I’m hot for your body or something, because I’m not—even if you’re hot for mine!”

“I am not hot for your body!”

“I’ve seen how you look at me, Forrester.”

“Miss Baron—”

“My name is Liza.”

“I know your damned name! My God, you’re the most exasperating woman—”

“Oh, cool down,” she said with am impish laugh, folding her arms over her chest and clearly enjoying his pique. “I think you could use some exasperation. You’ve gotten too comfortable up here all by yourself.” She tossed her head pertly. “I’ve heard about you, Forrester.”

He quelled the urge to strangle her and ground out, “Exactly what have you heard?”

“You have quite a reputation around town. You’re a hermit or a lone wolf—one or the other. Some people even think you’re dangerous.”

A few things began to clear up in Cliff’s mind. “That’s why you’ve come dancing in here this way, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“You get your kicks out of dangerous men.”

“Where I get my kicks is none of your business,” she replied, standing straight again and repacking the items in her plastic bag. “I’m curious about you, that’s all. You’re a mystery man, Forrester, and I just love a mystery.”

“I’ll tell you all my secrets,” Cliff said at once, “if you’ll pack up and leave in the next ten minutes.”

She laughed and gathered up her bag. “I’m here to stay, Forrester—at least until I feel like leaving. Which bedroom is mine?”

Cliff felt perilously close to boiling over and found himself clenching his fists. “Damn you—”

“I’ll take the little pink room at the back of the second floor, okay? You haven’t set up housekeeping in that one, I’ll bet. Pink isn’t your color. I’ll use the bathroom near the back stairs, okay? It’s working?”

“If you don’t take showers by the hour.”

She grinned. “Don’t get your hopes up. Were you planning to watch me through the peephole while I’m in the shower?”

“What peephole?”

“The one my cousin drilled so he could watch me in the bathroom. He was very immature, but I didn’t mind. I kind of liked the idea, you know?”

She was outrageous. At least, she tried to be outrageous. Cliff doubted such a peephole had ever existed. He knew exactly what she was doing. Liza Baron liked to make up lies just to watch people’s reactions.

“Oh, one more thing,” she said, turning on the bottom stair. “Will you check with Carl about my car? Tell him I’d like to have it fixed by tomorrow morning, okay? And maybe you’d get some of my stuff out of the trunk? It’s all the junk from my office. Thanks.”

She trotted up the stairs then, humming a cheery tune and laughing aloud when she reached the second floor.

Cliff balled up his fists and struggled with the urge to shout after her. He wasn’t going to play the butler to her lady of the manor!

“Get your own junk,” he muttered, and went out the back door of the lodge to the terrace.

He plunged into the woods, growling to himself. To have his privacy plundered this way was unacceptable. Enraging, even! Who did she think she was? And what was her plan, for God’s sake? The tigress came barging in and started ordering him around like he was her hired hand!

“What does she think she’s going to do?”

A girl like Liza got her kicks out of disrupting people, making them miserable. It was her entertainment, a sport.

“Damn her!”

Suddenly Cliff stopped short under the oaks, struck by a thought. For the first time in recent memory, he was fuming over the actions of another person.

It was weird.

Of course, he’d been alone for years. He’d wanted it that way. Staying out of the mainstream had been a distinct choice for him—a way of avoiding the kind of emotional turmoil he hated. Life at Timberlake had been peaceful, and he’d needed peace. The silence of the forest and the tranquil lake had worked together to mend his spirit. He hadn’t needed other people. He’d avoided them for lots of reasons.

Now that bewitching Baron girl came bursting into the lodge as if she owned the place! It was a cataclysmic event, Cliff realized. She was the first to break in on his private world. The only person who’d dared.