Two years ago something had changed Frank, had made him even more remote, but Julian didn’t know what had caused it. And this broken arm seemed to have made him pull back even more. He’d been playing handball as fiercely as he worked at business and he’d slammed against the wall, pinning his right arm under him. It was a nasty break, and Frank had been in the operating room for two hours. The next day, Julian had been there, along with most of the Taggerts. They were a loud, happy family, exactly the opposite of Frank with his cool reticence. They’d teased him mercilessly about his injury proving that he was as human as other people.
As far as Julian knew, Frank had never so much as flinched from the pain, but that day something seemed to have happened inside him. Days later Frank canceled some very important meetings and announced that he was retreating to his cabin high in the Rockies and he was not to be disturbed. Julian didn’t dare ask Frank why, but one of his brothers did, and Frank had said he’d wanted to heal and to think.
Julian might not know what was wrong with his boss, but his intuition told him that Miranda Stowe was part of it. Whether she was a cure or part of what was wrong with him, he didn’t know—but he meant to find out. He grabbed a fishing rod and headed out the door.
4
The three of them spent a very pleasant day beside the lake high in the beautiful Rocky Mountains—and Frank was so different from the man Julian knew that he wondered who he was. Identical twins ran in the Taggert family and it crossed his mind that Frank secretly had one of them.
He and Miranda laughed and chatted and teased and shared inside jokes with such ease that a person would think they were long-term friends. There were no outward displays of affection but Julian was sure they were sleeping together. Glances, quick eye contact, lingering touches gave them away.
They talked about a gold miner’s cabin, of returning to it and combing the surrounding area in search of treasure. There was talk of almond oil. It didn’t take much for Julian to understand the sexual undertones to their words.
As the day wore on, Julian stepped back into the shadows—and they didn’t notice. But then, they only saw each other.
And the more they smiled, the more Julian frowned. He knew that what he was seeing wasn’t real. Frank Taggert in his denim and flannel wasn’t the man who did corporate mergers before breakfast. The man pulling fish off a hook wasn’t ruthless—as you needed to be in the real Frank Taggert’s world.
Most of all, Julian looked at Miranda. This pseudo-lumberjack was the only man she knew. He doubted if she’d even seen the real one.
Julian remembered the tears of the women Frank had sent him to. The questions! “I did everything he wanted,” they said. “I ran his entire social life. He needed me. So why is he dumping me like I’m some high school girl?”
Julian never had an answer for them because he didn’t know. He felt bad for them but at the same time he knew they’d land on their feet. They were all so perfectly beautiful, so educated, so competent, that they’d have another man in no time.
But Miranda was different. Standing away from them, he saw the looks she gave Frank. If she wasn’t in love with him, she would be soon. Then what? Some megabucks wedding that would be expected for Frank’s status? Julian couldn’t imagine Miranda in a wedding dress with a twelve-foot train walking down the aisle of some cathedral. And didn’t she say she had children? Would they be her attendants?
And after the honeymoon, would Frank go back to being . . . well, to being Frank?
Miranda made lunch for them, serving perfectly cooked fish and potatoes roasted over a campfire. As Julian watched the two of them, he saw that they were lost in the here and now, that the outside world didn’t exist for them.
But Julian was very aware of what awaited them. Their worlds could not be more different from each other. His fear was that Frank would survive at the expense of Miranda. She would go into a marriage expecting the man she’d spent time with in the glorious mountains, but she’d get the Frank Taggert that Julian knew.
It was almost sunset when they walked back to the cabin. Miranda served them a lovely dinner of fish and vegetables flavored with wild herbs, and Julian sat in near silence as he continued to watch them. He felt like he’d interrupted two people on their honeymoon. As the meal ended, he could see that they wished he weren’t there.
Miranda made up the couch for him, and as he lay there, he listened to the two of them whispering to each other from their separate beds that were so close together.
It was a long time before Julian could sleep.
In the morning, as Frank helped Miranda make bacon and eggs, Julian knew he had to talk to his boss. Even if it meant losing his job, he had to say his piece.
When Frank took his coffee outside, Julian went with him. On purpose, when they weren’t too far from a window, he began to talk. To give himself courage, he took a deep breath. “Have you told Miranda you want her in your life?”
Frank didn’t say anything.
“You might be able to fool the rest of the world but not me. When you look at her, it’s the same way you look at corporate papers.”
Frank took a while to answer. “When I first met her, she didn’t like me.”
“Frank, a lot of people don’t like you.”
He gave a one-sided smile. “They don’t like what I stand for or that I have money and they don’t. It’s not me they dislike.”
Julian snorted. “Don’t kid yourself, Frank, it’s you people don’t like. Freezers are warm compared to you.”
Frank smiled. “Women don’t think so.”
“True. Women do make fools of themselves over you when they first meet you. I’ve always wondered why.”
“Money and power equal sex.”