Read Online Lone Eagle by Danielle Steel - Free Book Online Page B

come at six in the morning if she'd told him to. He didn't know why, but he was anxious to see her. After years of emotional solitude, he was deaf, dumb, and blind to his own feelings. “Is it very formal?” he suddenly asked nervously. He didn't want to appear in a suit if everyone else would be wearing a tuxedo. And if he needed one, he would have to borrow one from Charles, and send it back to him.
    “No, my father usually wears a dark suit, but he's pretty stuffy. You can wear whatever you've brought with you.”
    “Great, I'll wear my flight suit,” he teased her, and she laughed.
    “I'd like to see that,” she said, and meant it.
    “Maybe we can arrange for a short flight for you and your father this weekend.”
    “Just don't tell my mother. She'll choke on her turkey, and make you leave halfway through dinner.”
    “I won't say a word. See you on Thursday.” He sounded remarkably relaxed as she said goodbye to him, but as they both hung up the phone, they each found that their palms were sweating. She still had to tell her mother he was coming for dinner.
    She broached the subject gingerly the following afternoon when she got home, and found her mother checking the china in the kitchen. She was well known for the beautiful table she set, and her elaborate flower arrangements. And she was distracted when Kate first walked into the kitchen, trying to assess her mother's mood.
    “Hi, Mom. Need a hand?” Her mother looked over her shoulder in surprise. Kate was always the first to escape when she thought her mother needed help in the kitchen. She always said that domestic duties bored her, and they were demeaning.
    “Did you flunk out of school?” her mother said with a look of amusement. “You must have done something really awful if you're offering to help me count china. How bad is it?”
    “Couldn't it be that I'm just more mature now that I'm in college?” Kate said with an imperious look, and her mother pretended to think about it for an instant.
    “That's possible, but very unlikely. You've only been there for three months, Kate. I think maturity starts tohappen junior year, and doesn't come full-blown until you're a senior.”
    “Great. Are you telling me that after I graduate, I'll actually want to count china?”
    “Absolutely. Particularly if you're doing it for your husband,” her mother said firmly.
    “Mom… okay, okay. I did something in the spirit of what you always tell me Thanksgiving is about.” Kate looked innocent as she faced her mother.
    “You killed a turkey?”
    “No, I invited a homeless friend for dinner. Not homeless, but family-less.” It sounded reasonable to both of them the way she said it.
    “That's sweet, darling. One of the girls in your house at Radcliffe?”
    “A friend from California,” she hedged, trying to soften up her mother before she told her.
    “It's perfectly understandable she can't go home. Of course you can invite her. We have eighteen people coming here for dinner, and there's plenty of room at the table.”
    “Thanks, Mom,” Kate said looking relieved, at least they had room for him. “By the way, it's not a girl.” Kate held her breath and waited.
    “It's a boy?” Her mother looked startled.
    “Sort of.”
    “From Harvard?” Her mother looked genuinely pleased. She loved the idea of Kate dating a boy from Harvard, and it was the first she'd heard of it. And only three months into the school year.
    “He's not from Harvard,” Kate dove into the icy water, “it's Joe Allbright.”
    There was a long pause as her mother looked at her with eyes full of questions. “The pilot? How did you happen to hear from him?”
    “He called me out of the blue yesterday. He's visiting the Lindberghs, and he had nothing to do on Thanksgiving.”
    “Isn't it a little odd that he would call you?” Her mother looked suspicious.
    “Maybe.” She didn't tell her about the letters, it was hard enough to explain why she had invited him for