Read Online Beloved by Antoinette Stockenberg - Free Book Online Page B

were dancing with interest. Or maybe it was just the wine. She couldn ' t tell; she was feeling a little pleasure-hazed herself. " Tomorrow, then, " she murmured, smiling.
    " Tomorrow ' s going to be foul. Plan on snow. "
    She ' d been so intent about Bing that she ' d forgotten about McKenzie, who was standing behind them.
    " Oh? " Jane said. She was still annoyed with him for snubbing everyone all evening long.
    McKenzie flipped up the collar of his heavy jacket and pulled down a floppy tweed hat over his brow; he had the look of a man battening down the hatches. " That ' s a nor ' easter brewing out there, " he said, as if it were her fault.
    " Is that something I should care about? " Jane asked coolly.
    McKenzie shrugged. " Only if you ' ll need to get your car out of your driveway. "
    " Mac ' s right! " Bing said. " Have you made arrangements to have your driveway plowed when it snows? "
    " Well, no, " Jane confessed. " I ' m from condo country. What do I know about snow plows? "
    " I ' ll take care of it, " Bing reassured her. " And think about getting a phone, would you? " he added in a plaintive voice. " How the heck do I reach you from New York ? Smoke signals? "
    Wine or not, Bing seemed to be coming on strong. Wine or not, she seemed to be liking it. Everyone said good-bye to everyone else, except that Bing took her hand and held it longer than anyone else, and then they were out in the cold, being swept along to their cars by a raw, scudding wind. She was surprised to see McKenzie set off on foot.
    " Mac! Want a lift? " Bing cried out.
    McKenzie waved him away with a " Thanks, I ' ll pass, " and was quickly swallowed up by darkness.
    No one lived all that far from anyone else, but in March, on a dark road, the distances were just enough to be awkward. Jane was glad she ' d accepted a lift from the Crates after all. The thought of ending up walking alongside a ditch with McKenzie was strangely unnerving.
    As for Mr. Crate, he drove the way he spoke and the way he ate: slowly. While they sat waiting for the car to warm up, Mrs. Crate said to her husband, as if Jane were not present, " Why does Phillip persist in treating that man as if they were equals? They ' re nothing of the sort. Phillip ' s an Andover man. I ' m not sure Mac even has a diploma, for God ' s sake. After all, he spent his high school years in reform school. "
    " He stole a car, dear, that ' s all, " said her husband mildly.
    " He stole a Porsche, is what he stole. And sank it! "
    " Some boys are wilder than others, especially when they ' re stuck on an island while their friends go off, as Phillip did, to grander things. "
    " And what about that other time, when he was called in for questioning? "
    " Nothing ever came of it. "
    " What Celeste saw in him, I will never know. That tells you something about summer romances. She was absolutely right to accept that position in Boston three years ago. Look at her now — a shoe-in for partner in a prestigious law firm. Where would she be if she ' d stayed behind to water his trees for him? Penniless! That ' s where. Mac McKenzie hasn ' t got two nickels to rub together. There ' s no money in nurseries. He should ' ve sold that land years ago, at peak. He could be a wealthy man now. "
    " There is the problem with access, dear, " Mr. Crate said, throwing the car into reverse and backing ever, ever so cautiously out of Phillip ' s driveway.
    " Don ' t be silly. Watch that tree. Do you think Bing wouldn ' t be willing to sell him the rights to a permanent easement across his land? That ' s what covenants are for. Or Sylvia Merchant ' s property; he could drive over that, if he had to. "
    " But as you say yourself, Mac has no money to buy the right — "
    " He would if he were selling the land; it ' s all in the timing — oh, never mind. I just don ' t like it when he shows up at these things. Nothing will ever change that. "
    Her voice became low and anxious. " You ' ve seen him with that ax. It looks