Whirlwind. Nancy Martin
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He was filled with dread and anger. Throttling both emotions, Cliff managed to grind out, “Just what the hell are you doing?”
“Aren’t I making myself clear? I’m going to refurbish—”
“Why?”
“Why? Why not, for heaven’s sake? It’s beautiful up here!”
“The only way it’s going to stay beautiful is if people leave it alone! You can’t fix this place up. People will start coming here and tramping through the woods, running powerboats on the lake—”
“Of course they will! It’ll be lovely!”
“It’ll be horrible!”
She laughed at him. “You can’t keep the lodge a secret, Forrester. It’s been your private playground long enough. We’re going to make it look wonderful, and people from all over will come and—”
“We?” he snapped. “Who’s we?”
“You and me, of course. You could use some real work to do, I think, to snap you out of this hermit phase. With my creative ideas and your strong back—”
“Go to hell, Miss Baron!”
“What’s the matter?”
He threw himself into pacing up and down the porch, trying not to think about breaking her neck on the spot. “For one thing, I have not been placed on this earth to do your bidding, Miss High and Mighty! And secondly, I hate the whole idea and refuse to have any part of it! I have a deal with your grandfather, which says I can stay here alone in exchange for the job of taking care of—”
“We can discuss the quality of your fishy work some other time,” Liza said dryly. “Meanwhile, I think we should concentrate on the future and—”
“My future has nothing to do with your future,” Cliff snapped, standing over her. “So you can forget about me fixing up the lodge for any reason whatsoever.”
She began to tap her pencil, calmly and deliberately. “I’m sorry to hear you say that, Forrester,” she said. “It’s a good thing that blood is thicker than water, I guess.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That my granddad has the final say. And I know he’s going to tell me I can do whatever I like.”
Cliff balled up his fists and choked down a shout of complete fury.
Liza smiled demurely up at him from her chair. “Let me be honest, okay? I need a project, Forrester. I’ve arrived at a crossroads in my life, and this is the perfect thing for me. I’m going to do it.”
Seeing the gleam in her eye, Cliff had no doubt she was going to get exactly what she wanted. A project—that was what she called what would turn out to be a multimillion-dollar construction job involving hundreds of skilled professionals and months if not years of painstaking work. And Liza talked about it as if she could throw up a few new curtains and end up with a finished landmark.
Worst of all, she clearly had no idea how impossible the whole idea was.
With enormous difficulty, Cliff said, “You don’t understand.”
“About what?”
“About me. And this place.” He tried to dig into his brain to find the words, but it was hard. He’d never been able to verbalize his trouble—never had to. That was why he’d come here in the first place. So he wouldn’t have to talk. He said, “It’s...I need to be here.”
She waited expectantly, and when he couldn’t say more, she prompted, “Okay, so what’s the big deal?”
“I have to be alone.”
“Oh, nonsense!” She laughed again—beautiful and innocent and naive.
“It’s true,” Cliff argued, aware that he had started to sweat. “I can’t...I can’t be around people.”
“Why not? It’s not like you’re pug ugly or something. I mean, women would fall all over themselves in Chicago if you walked into town. Listen, Forrester—”
“No, you listen,” he retorted, his voice rising unevenly. “I can’t do it. You can’t bring more people. You can’t—”
“Oh, yes, I can,” said Liza, smiling like a naughty angel. “And you’re going to help me, Forrester.”
“Like hell!”
“Oh, come on. You’re not going to let a little inconvenient sexual attraction get in the way, are you?”
“What sexual attraction?”
She grinned. “Do you deny it?”
“My God—”
“’Fess up, Forrester! You think I’m the sexiest little tidbit who ever knocked your socks off, right? Take it easy. We’ll have a good time and still get the work done. You’ll see.”
Cliff escaped before he caved in and did some real damage. He stormed into the lodge and left the silly little bitch humming happily on the porch.
THOUGHTFULLY, Liza watched Cliff stride off the porch. What was he so churned up about? She couldn’t imagine.
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