An Unexpected Song (5 page)

“I guess I forget to mention Jason.”

“I’m devastated,” Jason said lightly as he held out his hand to Charlie. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Mr. Justine. You must be quite a man to earn a devotion like Daisy’s.”

Charlie shook Jason’s hand. “I’m a lucky man,” he said simply. “Where did you meet Daisy, Mr. Link?”

“Jason. We knew each other in Milan, and I joined the company two weeks ago.”

“You’re a singer?”

Jason grimaced. “You wouldn’t ask that if you heard me in the shower. I’m a pianist in the orchestra.”

Charlie’s sandy brows lifted in surprise. “I thought they already had a pianist.”

“It’s only a part-time job so far. I fill in on vacations and weekends.”

“I see.” Charlie’s gaze shifted again to Daisy. “I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Link. Daisy rarely brings anyone home. I’m afraid I’ve been selfish and kept her pretty much to myself for the past year or so.”

“Nonsense.” Daisy came into the room and closed the door. “I’m the one who has been selfish.”

“I like this room. “Jason’s gaze flicked from the faded beige and cream-colored chintz upholstery of the couch and matching easy chair to the colorful rugs scattered on the pine floor and then to
the breakfast bar separating the central living area from the adjoining kitchenette. “It’s cozy.”

Charlie smiled lopsidedly. “A euphemism for tiny.”

“No.” Jason met Charlie’s gaze. “I say what I mean. It’s a home.” He moved toward the ancient upright piano against the wall. “I used to have one of these in my apartment in Queens.”

“You’re a New Yorker?”

Jason nodded. “Born and bred.” Jason strolled over and examined the picture Charlie was working on. “Daisy.” He tilted his head. “I think you’ve caught her.”

Charlie’s blue eyes lit with eagerness. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

“No fair,” Daisy protested. “He won’t let me take even a peek at it.”

Jason smiled faintly, still staring at the painting. “I can see why.” He glanced at Charlie. “Don’t let me interrupt you.”

“I was only working on the background. I need Daisy to pose to work on the figure.” His gaze drifted wistfully back to the painting. “Perhaps when you come back from your walk …”

“Why not now?” Jason gestured for Daisy to mount the platform. “I’m not up to a mountain trek today. The two of you just go on and do what you’d ordinarily do and I’ll wander around the cottage and watch. I’ve never seen an artist at work.”

Charlie frowned doubtfully. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Jason’s smile was surprisingly gentle as he gazed at the older man. “Paint her. She’s evidently one hell of an inspiring subject.” He turned and headed for the kitchenette. “You don’t
mind if I make myself at home? I’ll make coffee for us while genius burns and then maybe play you some mood music.”

“Just as long as it’s not heavy metal.”

“I’ll make the coffee,” Daisy said.

He glanced at her over his shoulder. “And waste your father’s painting time? We’ll have to leave for the theater in a few hours.” He went into the kitchenette and began opening cabinets. “Let me make the coffee.”

Daisy gazed at him uncertainly. Jason had swept into the cottage, charmed Charlie, and insinuated himself into their household all in the space of a few moments.

“If you’d rather not …” Charlie said hesitantly. “I know it’s not what you planned.”

“No, it’s fine.” She mounted the platform and sat down in the chair, her gaze still on Jason moving about in the kitchenette. “I don’t mind.”

Jason’s behavior during the next few hours astonished Daisy. Somehow he managed to cloak that bigger-than-life aura clinging to him and became both appealing and unassuming. He made coffee and served it to them, sat down at the piano and played a few Chopin selections. Then he settled himself cross-legged on the floor before the platform and watched silently as the hours passed. Only when Charlie stopped work did he start a casual conversation that lasted until it was time for her to dress to go to the theater.

“I like him,” Charlie whispered to Daisy before she walked out the door. “Bring him back.”

“We’ll see.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and followed Jason from the cottage to the Mercedes at the curb.

“You’re frowning.” Jason held the passenger
door of the car open for her. “I thought I’d behaved rather well.”

“I don’t like deceiving Charlie.”

“It was your idea.”

“I know, but you didn’t have to—”

“Look.” He gazed directly at her. “I like your stepfather. The only phony baloney I handed out back there was the story you wanted me to tell him. The rest was strictly on the up and up.”

“Really?”

He smiled and nodded. “He reminded me of my first piano teacher. A little gentler, maybe. I don’t think he’d hit my knuckles with a ruler if I struck a wrong key.”

“No, Charlie wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“And neither would you.” His face softened as he resignedly shook his head. “What a pair.”

She felt a strange sudden warmth deep inside her as she watched him go around the car and get in the driver’s seat. “I don’t think you’re as cynical as you’d like me to believe.”

He shrugged. “Maybe it’s infectious. I assure you I’m not like this with anyone else.” He started the car and edged away from the curb. “But since you evidently think I’m not completely beyond redemption, perhaps you’ll relax the next time I’m in the same room with Charlie. You were on edge the entire time I was there. You told me once you thought I could be trusted. I don’t think I’ve done anything today to change that, have I?”

She gazed at him silently for a moment and again felt that curiously sweet warmth flowering within her. “No,” she said softly. “You haven’t done anything today to change that.”

“This is my favorite place.” Daisy sighed contentedly as she sat down on the grass and looked out over snowcapped mountains and then to the village in the valley below. “Isn’t the view spectacular?”

“Wait a minute until I stop wheezing and I’ll tell you.” Jason dropped down beside her and leaned back against the boulder. “You didn’t warn me when we started out that I’d have to climb a mountain to get to this view.”

“Only a small mountain. It’s scarcely more than a hill.” She glanced at him anxiously and then relaxed when she saw he wasn’t even out of breath. “You’re joking?”

He smiled faintly his gaze on her face. “Very perceptive.”

“But isn’t it worth the climb?” She threw her arm out in an expansive gesture. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Radiant.” His stare was still fixed on her face. He shifted his gaze to the valley below. “The view’s good too.”

She flushed and felt a moment of awkwardness. It was the first time in the past week Jason had said anything that could be termed personal. She had been conscious of the undercurrent of sexuality, but it had been like music played far away that she could catch a chord of only now and then.

“Don’t draw away from me.” He was still looking at the valley. “I thought we were good enough friends for me not to have to watch every word.”

She was being foolish. They
were
friends. She would never have believed she could become friends with Jason Hayes after their tumultuous start, but somehow it had happened. During the past days she had found him to be amusing and clever with a wry sense of humor that was often directed at himself. He had practically moved into the cottage, and he and Charlie were drawing closer every day. A few evenings he had even driven back to the cottage to spend the evening with her father after he had dropped her off at the theater.

“Sorry.” She smiled and relaxed. “I had a flashback to that first night you came backstage. You intimidated me.”

“But I don’t now?”

She shook her head. “That wasn’t really you. Actually, you’re very kind.”

He raised his brows. “I don’t know if I feel flattered or insulted. I rather like being intimidating.”

She chuckled. “Well, you blew it.”

His smile disappeared and his eyes glinted ice-green as he asked softly, “Is that a challenge?”

She felt a sudden heat, a fluttering along her nerve endings. “No.”

“It’s still there, you know,” he said quietly.
“Just as strong, just as fierce. Except I’m keeping it under wraps for a while.” He paused. “Only a warning—between friends.”

She was suddenly acutely conscious of the physical presence of the man sitting beside her. The wind lifting Jason’s dark hair away from his face, the sunlight on his tanned skin, the way the soft fabric of his faded jeans molded the brawny muscles of his thighs, the power and strength of his hands.

She swallowed and quickly glanced out at the valley again. She sought wildly for a change of subject. “I liked your brother. The two of you aren’t very much alike.”

He was silent an instant, as if deciding whether or not to accept the sidestep, and finally said, “I know. Eric says I’m a throwback to an Apache great-grandfather,” Jason said. “My brother got all the charm and business sense and all I got was a muse whispering in my ear and tormenting the hell out of me.”

“But you wouldn’t change places?”

“No, my music’s everything,” For a moment his voice was bitter. “It has to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said.” He changed the subject. “It’s no wonder your projection is so good, that your voice completely fills the theater. All this climbing must give you great lungs.”

“It helps and the exercise keeps me from getting stressed out.” She wrinkled her nose. “Fantine’s never been an easy role for me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve been so lucky,” she said simply. “Fantine suffered disillusion, desertion by her lover, separation from her child, loss of everything
that made life worth living. It’s hard for me to identify with her.” She picked up a blade of grass and chewed it thoughtfully. “God gave me my voice, and that was a special joy, and then he topped it off by giving me loving parents. I haven’t suffered enough to play Fantine well.”

“You lost your mother.”

“But Charlie was right there bolstering me, supporting me.” She added softly, “Loving me.” She gazed absently down into the valley. “Do you know that line from Fantine’s song. ‘But the tigers came at night?’ ”

“Yes.”

“Well, the tigers have never come to me.” She laughed shakily. “Yet.” She glanced curiously at him. “Have they come to you, Jason?”

“Oh, yes.” He drew up his knees and looped his arms around them. “By night and by day.”

“I’m sorry.”

He nodded. “I know you are.” His gaze lifted to her face. “I wish I could tell you that they will never come to you, but they come to all of us eventually.”

“I’m not so naive I don’t realize that.” She closed her eyes and shivered as she whispered, “Lord, sometimes I get so scared.”

He went still. “What’s wrong, Daisy?”

For an instant she was desperately tempted to tell him. They had become very close in many ways during these past few days, and sometimes she felt so alone in her waiting that it would have been an enormous comfort to confide in someone. But she couldn’t take the easy way. She had promised Charlie, and it might be the last promise he would ever ask of her. Her eyes flicked open
and she smiled with an effort. “Nothing. I was only telling you why Fantine was difficult for me.”

His gaze narrowed on her face. “No, it’s more than that.”

She scrambled to her feet. “It’s time we went back to the cottage. Since I don’t have a performance tonight, I promised I’d spend the evening posing for Charlie.” She dusted the seat of her jeans and started down the path. “Don’t worry, it’s much easier going down.”

“Why won’t you talk to me?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” She met his gaze directly. “You never really talk about yourself. The tabloids are right. You’re the original mystery man.”

His expression became guarded. “There’s not much to tell.”

“You can’t expect confidences if you don’t return them.”

He smiled crookedly. “And what if I opened my jaded soul to you?”

She hesitated, her gaze on his face. He was one of the most complicated and fascinating men she had ever met, and she suddenly realized she desperately wanted to know what circumstances had molded the man who was Jason Hayes.

But not if it mean betraying her word to Charlie.

He read her answer in her expression. “I didn’t think you were in the market for a trade.” He shrugged. “All right, fair is fair. We’ll consider this a hiatus. No questions asked.”

She started to turn away.

“Daisy.”

She glanced back to see him still sitting where she had left him.

“Let me know when your tigers come and I’ll help you fight them.”

She shook her head. “When they come, I’ll have to fight them myself.” She smiled. “Just as you did.”

He rose to his feet. “Let me know anyway.”

“Maybe.” A sudden hollowness echoed through her as she remembered that their time together was almost over. “If you’re around.”

“I’ll be arou—” He broke off and was silent for a long moment. “I’ll find a way to reach you.” He started down the path after her. “Call me.”

“It’s no good!” Charlie threw down the brush and turned away from the easel. “I don’t know why I try. It’s no damn good.”

Daisy stood up and jumped down from the platform. “What’s wrong? You were so pleased with it.”

“Because I’m a fool.” Charlie’s face was tormented. “Because I lie to myself.”

“I like it, Charlie.” Jason stood up from the piano he had been softly playing for the last hour. “And I don’t consider myself a fool.”

“You like it because it’s Daisy,” Charlie said harshly. “Do you think I don’t know that? I’m as tired of your lies as I am of my own.” He strode across the room and slammed out of the cottage.

“Shall I go after him?” Jason asked.

“No, leave him alone. He doesn’t like company when he’s like this.” Daisy folded her arms across her chest to stop the trembling. She felt as raw and broken as if Charlie’s torment were her own. “He explodes now and then. It’s artistic temperament. He’ll go for a long walk, stop at a bar and
have a few drinks, and then come home. He’ll be okay by the time he gets back. He’s going through a bad time now.”