“No,” Walter snapped. “But I don’t trust the Carlton brother and sister. They’re here to make trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Knowing Sara and having met her brother, Cade couldn’t bring himself to take his father’s odd worries seriously.
“Their father…”
Again the odd hesitation, Cade noted.
“Jeremy Carlton and I were partners on a project long ago,” Walter said, his eyes narrowed as if he saw directly into the past. “Things were going bad for him, but I didn’t know he was in financial trouble. Anyway, there was a rumor about smuggled diamonds, but I never paid it much attention. When Jeremy drowned—”
“Aboard a yacht our company owned at the time,” Cade interrupted. “I was curious and checked into it after Sara moved in next door,” he said when his father gave him a questioning glare.
“Yes,” Walter said. “He drowned and that was the end of it. His family apparently lost everything. They moved to Colorado and I lost track of them after that.”
“I see,” Cade murmured. “What kind of project were you and Carlton working on?”
Walter’s strained features relaxed somewhat. “We were going to produce the most expensive diamond necklace in the world, using nothing but the rarest of flawless stones. That was to be our launch into the market for the ultrarich.”
“Celebrity chasing,” Cade murmured, a degree of scorn showing through.
“Not celebrities. The truly rich,” his father asserted, “are those who can afford a string of polo ponies, who have their own planes and seagoing yachts. Their net worth is over half a billion, and they take pains to stay out of the public eye.”
“A very small market base.”
“In that price range, we wouldn’t have needed many sales to ensure our fortune.”
A chill crept along Cade’s nape at his father’s smile. Cold, greedy and calculating wouldn’t begin to describe it. “The company has done just fine over the years.”
“We’re overextended,” Walter stated flatly.
“The economy has slowed down some, but the rich are with us always. And they always want something bigger and better than their neighbors.”
“In business, a man can never relax. I want you to have the Carlton girl fired.”
“What?” Cade wasn’t sure he’d heard right.
“You’re on the board of directors at the school. Get rid of her. Make sure she has to move, too. You have the phone number where the artist can be reached, don’t you? Tell him she’s throwing wild parties or something.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” Cade informed his father, his own anger building at his father’s scheming.
Walter placed both hands on his desk and leaned closer, his eyes boring into Cade’s. “You will if you want to keep that ranch you’re so crazy about. I got you your position with the law firm. I can take it away.”
Cade took a deep breath. Another one. It was no use. He headed for the door.
“Where the hell are you going? I’m not through talking to you,” his father said in a snarl.
“I’m leaving,” Cade said, keeping his own tone quiet and carefully controlled. “Before I punch you out. It’s never good form to beat up one’s father.”
He walked out without looking back. The secretary kept her gaze pinned to the papers on her desk as he swept past.
Cade was careful around her. He and his siblings had figured out long ago that anything they said to her would be repeated to their father.
In the hall, he nearly ran over Linda Mailer, his father’s accountant. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“It was my fault,” she said. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.” She gestured at the sheaf of papers in her hand. “Do you have a moment? I have some questions—”
“Later,” Cade said and forced a smile. “I have to be somewhere.”
Anywhere but in the vicinity of his father, Cade thought, going outside and breathing deeply.
The day was clear and warm, an invitation to be outside in the summer sun. Perusing the display of jewelry in the store window, he experienced an overpowering need to get away from everything that bore his father’s touch. The ranch was just the place for that.
“It’s no problem,” Sara assured Tai Monday afternoon. She’d agreed to take Stacy home and let the child stay with her until Cade arrived.
“Thanks, Sara. That’s a load off my mind,” Tai said, relief mingling with the worry in her eyes.
The young woman’s mother had undergone emergency surgery during the night for a ruptured appendix. Tai, an only child, needed to take care of her for a few days until the older woman was on her feet again.
“Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll explain what happened to Cade.” Sara walked the premed student to the classroom door and waved as Tai hurried from the school grounds.
It was lunch recess and the babble of conversation and laughter on the playground was reassuring to Sara. As long as there were children and laughter, then the world couldn’t be all bad.
But it could be harsh.
She thought of Tai’s concern for her mom, of the past winter and her own mother’s slow fading, those thin hands growing paler and colder each day as Marla’s heart failed in its effort to supply the vital link to life.
With the death of her mother, Sara had felt adrift in life, cut off from her roots and all the past generations that made her the person she was. The future had seemed dark and fuzzy, an endless road leading to a place she couldn’t see. Sensing Tai’s fear had revived her own.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. The children ran about in seeming disorder, but soon sorted themselves into lines in front of their classrooms, then marched in with their teachers.
Sara put the past out of her mind and finished her teaching duties. She ended the day by having the children dance around the classroom in time to a lively tune, then she and the twenty students straightened up the room in preparation for the next day.
“Stacy, you’ll walk home with me,” she told the youngster when the final bell rang. “Tai’s mom got sick and Tai will have to stay with her for a couple of weeks.”
Stacy smiled happily. “I like being with you. And Tai,” she added, loyal to her sitter.
“You’re a very likable person to be with, too,” Sara said. “Shall we plan dinner for your father tonight since Tai won’t be there to start it?”
“Let’s have spaghetti. That’s his favorite food.”
Sara gave a little skeptical snort. “I think I know whose favorite it is,” she said as Stacy skipped along beside her.
Stacy pressed a hand over her mouth and giggled.
At the town house, they worked together and soon the spicy sauce was bubbling in the pan. While it simmered, the two weeded the front flower beds, not that they needed much work. The mysterious Mr. Lee—Sara had never seen him—kept the grounds in tip-top shape.
That’s where Cade found them when he arrived at six o’clock.
After the usual hug, swing and nose-rubbing with his daughter, he turned to Sara. His stare was so intent, she became flustered and dropped the small bunch of grass sprouts they’d pulled from among the flowers.
“We cooked dinner,” Stacy told him.
“Where’s Tai?”