Tempting Taylor. Joan Elizabeth Lloyd
Читать онлайн книгу.
get its green spring haze, and on the sides of the yard privacy was insured by an eight-foot fence covered with canes of the dozens of rose bushes planted there. In another month or two the yard would be filled with the scent of wild roses. Two dogwood trees stood in the center of the back lawn, flanking the heated pool, which had tendrils of steam wafting above it. “I’m really bad. I keep the heater on all the time and I swim almost every day when I’m here. God,” she said with a long sigh, “I’ll miss that. In the wilds of China I don’t know whether I’ll even get a shower.”
To the left, out of sight behind the side of the house, was the dog run, and to the right, at the rear of the property, was the guesthouse, a one-story replica of the main building. Tay had stayed there on one visit and knew that it contained a small bedroom, living room, bath and a tiny kitchen area. It was small but comfortable and Dave often had friends stay over there for weekends.
Since it was late in the afternoon, the air had chilled, so the two women changed their clothes in one of the cabanas and, now dressed in two of the bathing suits that were kept there for guests, dashed across the putting green–like lawn and jumped into the warm water. “Laps?” Lissa said as she surfaced. They each did fifty laps, starting slowly and building to a blistering pace, each trying to outrace the other, and ended, laughing, barely winded. They splashed each other and played like kids.
After half an hour of that, they climbed out, rushed over to the hot tub and climbed in. “That was awesome,” Lissa said.
“It will be great to be able to swim every day, without having to go anywhere.”
“Don’t rub it in,” Lissa said, splashing her friend with hot water. “I still can’t believe it’s all working out. Plane tickets are booked, first class, mind you. Daddy won’t have it any other way.”
“I’ll miss you,” Tay said, getting slightly teary. She was becoming overwhelmed with the tasks she figured she’d have to do to keep up the house. Take out the garbage, laundry, the dogs, cats, rabbit, ferrets…. She’d be able to stay in touchwith Lissa and her father by e-mail if she had questions or problems, of course, but it was quite a responsibility and Tay had always taken her responsibilities very seriously. This one was a doozie.
“You’ll be fine, Tay,” Lissa said. “I know you well enough to know you’re in a bit of a panic right now, trying to figure it all out in advance. Just relax and roll with it. I promise it will all work out.”
“I know you’re right.” Tay sat back, her head resting on the edge of the spa. She would overlay her anxiety with pleasure for her friend. “How are you dealing with being away for all that time? Excited?”
“Delirious. I can’t wait. Daddy helped me pick out the most souped-up laptop we could find and I’ve been putting editing software on it so I won’t have to disturb him. If we can get an Internet connection we’ll be logging in to the setup here. By the way, don’t turn the downstairs computer off, just leave it on all the time. And please feel free to use it and the network for whatever. There are some fantastic games and I’ve got lots of puzzle and game sites bookmarked. And, of course, there’ll be e-mail. Write to me lots and I’ll write to you from wherever whenever I can.”
“You can really log in to to your computer system from wherever you’ll be?” Lissa was a computer sophisticate, but from some remote outpost in China?
“Daddy says we probably can.”
Later Tay dried off and changed upstairs. She did love the whole Bonner house, but as she pulled on a T-shirt, she thought about the things she particularly looked forward to having to herself.
There was the pool, of course, and the master bath. Once she was by herself she’d use that one exclusively. She remembered when Dave had had it redone. He’d just returned from a photo shoot in some South American country or other and had fallen in love with the tile bathrooms there. He’d had the walls of his bathroom covered with Spanish-style light brown tiles with hand-painted lizards embedded here and there, making it look like a jungle watering hole. The shower had been redone with jungle plants everywhere, kept green with recessed grow-lights, and the shower sprayed from three different angles. The floor was some kind of warm cork, and the sink was lined with more hand-painted tiles—florals, done in orange, red and green. Heat lamps and fans could be turned on to dry you without ever having to use a towel.
The other thing she loved was the fireplace. The wall dividing the living room from the den was constructed with a two-sided gas-log fireplace with glass doors that could be opened from either side and floor-level hearths fronted with fluffy rugs. Although she would be there during the summer, she knew she could, if she wanted, turn up the air conditioner and have a fire. Lying on the rug with a book, or better still a guy, if she could find one, was definitely in her future.
Dave Bonner arrived home on Sunday afternoon and they spent a wonderful dinner listening to him tell fabulous tales about his travels. At almost fifty, Dave was charming and good looking with a deeply tanned face that sported white laugh wrinkles around his surprisingly deep blue eyes. As she climbed into bed that night, Tay thought about how different he was from Steve. Maybe I need to get acquainted with some older men. Steve was such a baby. Then she shook her head as she listened to herself thinking, and almost laughed out loud. Tay, you sound like such an age-snob. Face it, girl. You miss having a man in your life.
She had taken the day off from work on Monday so she could finish unpacking, but Tuesday morning she said goodbye to Dave and Lissa over a quick breakfast and drove to the train station in Chappaqua. She had already gotten a train schedule from the Internet, so she arrived with just enough time to park and purchase a ten-trip ticket in the station. Since she would be using the railroad only three times a week, she’d calculated that this would be cheaper than a monthly commuter pass.
As she gazed out the window of the train, Tay realized that in the middle of the afternoon father and daughter would be off from Newark Airport for the beginning of an adventure the likes of which she’d never even imagined.
The train to Chappaqua that evening was relatively painless and as she drove back to Maple Court she realized that the entire routine really wasn’t bad. Since there was no subway hassle involved, the whole thing added less than an hour to her workday.
As she parked in the driveway and let herself into the empty house, she felt a twinge of loneliness, so she microwaved a can of beef ravioli, did twenty-five laps in the pool, watched a little television and went to bed. “Have a great trip, guys,” she said out loud as she turned out the bedroom light.
Chapter
4
After a month on Maple Court, Tay was bored to death. The commute had turned out to be less of a problem than she’d expected and the telecommuting was working out well. However, she found herself going into the office most days. There was little to do in suburbia. When she worked in the city she’d often stay in town for drinks with a few folks from the office and frequently remain for dinner with an acquaintance.
Westchester County, at least the part of it she’d visited so far, was a drag. The scenery was gorgeous and there were plenty of cultural sights to visit, but she couldn’t spent all her days at museums and she wasn’t the concert type. She’d seen most of the movies around and stopped at a few friendly neighborhood watering holes, but she hadn’t met anyone worth the effort of dating, and there didn’t seem to be anything else to do on the weekends.
What had she done when she lived in Brooklyn Heights? she wondered. Of course, she’d had Steve. As difficult as he’d become, he was company. It wasn’t as if they had a date every night, but they’d gone to clubs, had a few beers and listened to whatever music was being performed and, of course, joined in from time to time.
So here she was, in suburbia, and again it was Saturday and she had nothing to do all weekend. She’d played with the dogs, fed the cats, rabbit and ferrets, tidied their cages and done a load of laundry. She’d stopped at the cleaners to pick up a few things she’d dropped off earlier in the week, then gone to the local library and found several books she’d been wanting to read. So, with little