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.Probably.She’s always been remarkably clear-eyed about people.Her affair with Nick—it lasted barely a summer—allowed her to be free and still stay in Cedar Springs.”Dani shook her head.“I don’t get it.”“Once her father and husband had disowned her, they also relinquished any control over her.By breaking their rules, Naomi could live on her own terms.She couldn’t have left the way Mattie did.She loved Cedar Springs, belonged there.”“Mattie’s never talked to me about her.And I mean never.”“Maybe she couldn’t,” Zeke said.He set down his wineglass.“Don’t judge her, Dani.Naomi never has.” He smiled warmly, sadly.“You should go to Cedar Springs one day.It’s a pretty town.Naomi will serve you peach pie, and you’ll never guess she ran off with a rake of a Hollywood director and her sister’s ex-husband while she was married to another man.”For all Zeke’s toughness and competence, Dani was struck by how thoughtful and perceptive a man he was.That comforted her.With all her confusion and anger—the mind-numbing mix of emotions brought on by the last few days—she appreciated that gentle side of his spirit.But she didn’t want to look to him for answers, for a cure for what she was feeling.And there were the questions about his brother and the gold key, questions about her mother.About her father lying in a Saratoga hospital.She needed to call him, find out how he was doing.Zeke pointed at her with his fork.“You’d better eat.”She looked at him, suddenly grateful for his solid presence.“Thank you.”He grinned, sexy, irreverent.“I can scramble an edible meal together on short order.”“I’m not thanking you for the cooking,” Dani said, “but for talking.”She didn’t think it was his long suit, but that was fine.These days, listening didn’t seem to be hers.After dinner Dani popped on Tiger’s Eye, the movie that had transformed her grandmother from an overnight sensation into a true star.When people thought of her, they tended to think of the woman in Tiger’s Eye, young and sexy and beautiful—so incredibly beautiful—and still a little vulnerable, a little awed.Dani and anyone else who’d come to know her grandmother in her “retirement” had had to reconcile the eccentric, independent, mature Mattie Witt with this glamorous movie star.Now Dani had another Mattie Witt to bring into her understanding of her grandmother, the young woman who’d freed herself from her strict, unbending father.She tried to imagine Mattie’s childhood in the stifling, repressive household of Jackson Witt, to imagine her leaving behind her eleven-year-old sister.Had that been an act of courage or selfishness—or simple desperation?Because Mattie had left Cedar Springs, Joe and Zeke Cutler had gone to Saratoga, and now, twenty-five years later, Zeke was back.Tucking her feet up under her on the big comfy chair, Dani lowered the volume with her remote.Zeke was standing at her living-room window, looking down at the courtyard.“There’s so much I didn’t know,” she said.He glanced back, his eyes reaching hers, but he said nothing.In trying to imagine Mattie’s life in Cedar Springs, Dani had also tried to imagine his.But she and Zeke were from two different worlds, brought together by the life of a woman Dani loved but no longer was sure she understood.And where did her mother fit in? Where did Zeke’s brother?She had to know.On the television screen, the Mattie Witt of fifty years ago smiled, the red ostrich plume in her hair.“Mattie never mentioned the book on your brother to me.It won a Pulitzer, but I’d never read it—I’d never even heard of it.”“You were just a kid when it came out.”“Fifteen.It didn’t seem so young then.I don’t know, I’ve always half believed my childhood ended when I was nine.After my mother disappeared, I thought I could take anything.I guess I thought that was what everyone else believed, too.But now I see there were those who tried to protect me.My Chandler grandfather, for one.And Mattie.” She pulled her gaze from her young, dazzling grandmother and turned it on Zeke.“Did Nick know you and your brother were in Saratoga?”“You should talk to him about that.”“It breaks one of your rules?”“More than one, I imagine.”She dropped her feet to the floor, her impatience instantly reignited.“Zeke, you know more than you’re telling me.”He didn’t even turn his head from the window.“I have a right to know—”He faced her.“It’s not a question of rights.”It was as if someone had wiped the humor and fatigue and gentleness from his face, the qualities she’d seen over dinner that drew her to this complex man more than the muscles in his shoulders—which were impressive—and the sexy figure he cut in a pair of jeans.Now he looked distant and professional.Her muscles tightened against another onslaught of shaking from anger and frustration—and fear.He didn’t react.“Dani, there are just some things you’ll have to discuss first with your family.”“Fine, then.”She jumped up, banged off the television, so aggravated she could have pulled books off the shelves and thrown them in handfuls at the too-controlled, too-appealing man who’d invaded her space.“I’ll find out the rest on my own.I don’t need your help or your cooperation.”She headed for the kitchenette and dumped dishes into the dishwasher, put the cap on the olive oil and tucked it back on the appropriate shelf.Zeke continued to stare out the living-room window.He wasn’t like Ira, who talked all the time, or Nick or her father, who’d try to sneak off when she was irritated [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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