Lukas laughed. What Danny said wasn’t so far-fetched. Lukas had been rescuing things all his life. As recently as last month he’d coaxed a wounded squirrel with macadamia nuts filched from the larder at Sweet Buns that, Molly never stopped reminding him, weren’t exactly cheap. He regularly climbed trees to fetch cats and helped old ladies cross the street. Heck, he’d even rescued Danny from a bunch of bullies back in grade school. They’d been best buddies ever since. Lukas had a reputation of being an all-around good guy. So how come he’d acted the way he had with Gillian Caine?
“You know, buddy, I did a really stupid thing the other night,” Lukas said to Danny.
“Stupider than feeding a stray cat a three-dollar sandwich?”
“Afraid so. I was down in the hotel’s wine cellar measuring for the new fittings, when I thought I heard a cat yowling in the tunnel. I checked it out and, sure enough, Tiger here was trapped down there. He was kind of spooked—clawing the hell out of me—and I remembered how when you and Hannah were trapped down there you got out through a manhole onto Sheridan Road. So Tiger and I took the same shortcut.”
Danny shrugged. “What’s so stupid about that? Don’t tell me you had trouble pushing that cover aside. If Hannah could do it—”
“Oh, I could push it out of the way all right, no problem. Trouble is, I sort of pushed more than the manhole cover out of the way.”
Danny wrinkled his brow. “What else did you push?”
“Gillian Caine. She was standing on the cover and she sort of went airborne.”
Danny started to laugh.
“It’s not funny, Danny. She sprained her arm. I had to take her to the E.R. and she’s got to wear a sling and I didn’t even say I was sorry.”
“Well, that’s not like you, pal. You’re the polite type. You even manage to be nice to Dragon Lady Sheridan.”
“Danny, I gotta tell you, I feel really lousy about this. She looked so little and helpless laying there in the street—”
“Gillian Caine helpless?”
“Maybe I should send her some flowers or something. What do you think?” Lukas asked earnestly.
Before Danny could answer, Tiger gave a growl worthy of a canine and both Danny and Lukas turned to see what he was tracking with his yellow stare. A man in a suit was standing in the open French doors.
“Which one of you is Lukas McCoy?”
Tiger bolted back into the mums as Lukas wiped his fingers on a paper napkin and stood up. “I’m McCoy,” he said.
“Then this is for you.” The man handed Lukas some papers and rapidly retreated.
“Hey, wait!” Lukas called to his back, but the guy just kept going.
“What’s with the papers?” Danny asked.
Lukas looked down at them. It took him a few moments to comprehend what he was reading. “Unbelieeeeevable!” He thrust a hand into his hair and started to pace the terrace while he read it again just to be sure. “Un-damn-believable.”
“What is it?” Danny asked.
Lukas looked up. “Gillian Caine is suing me.”
Danny whistled, long and low. “I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t order those flowers yet, huh, pal?”
“I do hope,” said a familiar voice from just inside the French doors, “that this doesn’t mean that my grandson was right about the two of you.”
“Mrs. Sheridan,” Lukas said with surprise. “Did we have an appointment? How long have you—um—”
“Been standing here?” the old lady finished for him. “Long enough to know that someone is suing you. Long enough to make me wonder if I’ve made a mistake.”
Danny hopped to his feet. “You know nothing about what’s going on, so if I were you—”
Lukas stepped in front of Danny, cutting him off both literally and figuratively. “What you just heard, Mrs. Sheridan, had nothing to do with Timber Bay Building and Restoration. It’s me getting sued. Not the company.”
Danny poked his head around Lukas. “Not that it’d be any of Gavin’s business either way.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Agnes Sheridan said with a haughty thrust of her head. “Gavin is coming back to Timber Bay.”
Behind him, Danny swore and Lukas tried to cover it up with a cough. “That’s—um—swell, Mrs. Sheridan,” he said after he’d cleared the imaginary frog in his throat.
The old lady’s black eyes glittered and her thin, usually stubbornly set mouth, actually smiled. “It’s what I had hoped. That once work started on the hotel, Gavin would take an interest and reclaim his life in Timber Bay.”
“Don’t tell me he’s coming home for good?” Danny asked. “One can hope, Mr. Walker.”
“Yes,” Danny agreed. “One can.”
Lukas was pretty sure that Danny and Agnes Sheridan weren’t hoping the same thing. He’d feel safer if he separated the two of them.
“Mrs. Sheridan, why don’t you let me show you the progress I’m making in the lobby. I think you’ll be pleased with the way the staircase looks.”
“Lead on, young man,” she said. But before she went through the French doors she turned and gave Danny a poke in the leg with her cane. “I suggest you get on with your lunch, Walker. I assure you that Gavin won’t take this sitting about on the job any better than I do.”
Danny opened his mouth but before anything could come out, Lukas took the Dragon Lady by the arm and ushered her into the ballroom, closing the French doors behind them.
Danny and the Dragon Lady had been enemies for years. Things had gotten better since Hannah, who Agnes Sheridan totally approved of, had hit town. But now that Gavin was coming back, Lukas was going to have his hands full as a peacemaker. The last thing he needed right now was to have some big-city brat take him to court.
He’d been right. Nothing good was coming from Gillian Caine being back in Timber Bay.
“THE HEARING IS TOMORROW, Mom,” Gillian said into the phone receiver.
“Justice moves swiftly in the Midwest.”
“They’ve got this judge who takes care of several counties and he’s only in town once a month. How primitive is that? My lawyer—who, by the way, I had to go to the next town to get—said that if we didn’t get on the docket this time, we’d have to wait a whole month.”
“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing, Gilly?”
Gillian sighed. “What are you trying to say, Mom?”
“Well, as I remember it, the McCoys were well liked in Timber Bay. The town might not take too kindly to an outsider taking one of their own to court. Have you thought of what it might do to business?”
“Mom, I’m not planning on taking him to the cleaners. I just want enough to hire someone to help me for the next couple of weeks.”
“But, honey, I already offered to come out and—”
“Forget it, Mom. We’ve been through all this already. I need to do this on my own. I need to be totally independent.”
“You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, Gilly.”
Her mother was wrong. Gillian had to prove something to herself. She had to prove that she could be her own person and not have to count on anyone coming through for her ever again. If she failed, she’d have no one to blame but herself.