“I’m sorry. I can’t. Fuck, I’m so scared.”
“It’s okay,” Leslie soothed, stroking Dev’s head. “It’s okay, love.
I promise.” She wasn’t sure how she would make it all right, but she knew she
had to. “Will you just do one thing for me?”
Sitting up, Dev took a shuddering breath and rubbed her forearm across her
face. “Anything.”
“Let tonight be beautiful, because it is.” She kissed Dev tenderly.
“We both know what we had. Let’s see what we can have. Don’t give up, Dev.
Please.”
Dev closed her eyes and rested her forehead against Leslie’s. “Will you call
me?”
“Of course.” Leslie knew then that Dev didn’t trust her not to disappear. And
why should she? She’d done it before. More than
once. “I’m coming back up to the lake in a month. If I can get back sooner—”
“No, a month is good.” Dev raised her head, a smile ? ickering valiantly. “I
probably need a little time to get my heart rate back to normal. And tell me
you’re not busy here.”
Leslie sighed. “I’m swamped. But I can handle it—”
“Oh, yeah. You can handle it. That’s why you collapsed—what—
six weeks ago, from stress and overwork?”
“I’m ? ne now,” Leslie said ? rmly. “I am. Really. I’m taking the goddamn
pills.”
“No symptoms at all?”
“Dev, love, if I was going to have an episode, I would’ve had it sometime
tonight.” Leslie kissed Dev swiftly. “My heart’s had quite a workout.”
Dev couldn’t hide a pleased grin. “All the same, you just got back.
I’ll see you in a few weeks and…we’ll see.”
“You’ll be there when I come up, right?”
Dev nodded.
“Promise?”
Dev held Leslie tightly and tried not to think it might be one of the last times. “I
promise.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Mom?” Leslie called as she walked into the dining room at Lakeview and
dropped her suitcase on the ? oor. “Anybody here?”
“Leslie?” Eileen called from the top of the second-? oor staircase.
Leslie stopped and craned her neck, smiling when she saw her mother. “Hi.”
“You’re early,” Eileen said, her pleasure obvious as she descended to the
ground ? oor. “I didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”
“I got things wrapped up early this week and decided to come up today.” She
tried to sound casual and not like she couldn’t wait one more day to see Dev,
which was the real reason she’d left Manhattan at noon on Thursday instead of
waiting until Friday as planned. She and Dev had talked on the phone a few
times in the last month, but their schedules rarely meshed and the conversations
always seemed rushed and super? cial. At least, she hoped it was because they
hadn’t had much time to connect. Dev had sounded distant, and there had been
no mention of the night they’d spent together. Or whether there would be any
more.
“Well, I hope you intend to actually rest this weekend. I’m not going to let you
work the whole time.”
“I’m still going to help close up. But,” Leslie hastened to add when she saw her
mother frown, “I promise to relax too.”
After giving Leslie a hug, Eileen pointed to Leslie’s luggage. “Do you want a
room upstairs since you’re only going to be here a few days?”
“Uh,” Leslie said, feeling her face color, “I’d rather have the same cabin I had
last time, if it’s available.”
“It’s quiet this weekend—all the kids have gone back to school—
so it’s empty.”
“Great.”
“Hungry?”
Leslie laughed. “As a matter of fact, I’m starved. Let me get settled and I’ll
come back and get a sandwich or something. Where’s Daddy?” She scanned
the great room where a few guests were seated, but didn’t see him.
“He’s down at the dock with Dev.”
“With Dev?” Leslie’s breath caught in her throat and she knew her mother
noticed. “I mean, I thought at this time of day, she’d be at the lab.”
“Does she know you’re coming?”
Leslie shook her head. “Not today.”
“She happened to be around when they were pulling one of the boats out, and
she and your father got talking about something to do with ? shing.” Eileen
smiled. “Apparently Dev doesn’t ? sh, but she appreciates that the ? shermen
know more about ? nding ? sh in the lake than anyone else. I think your father’s
been regaling her with stories for the last hour.”
As her mother talked, Leslie drifted toward the front windows. She pushed the
lace curtain aside and scanned the dock below the house.
Her father sat in a deck chair in front of the boathouse talking to Dev, who
leaned with a shoulder against the dark green clapboards, her legs casually
crossed at the ankles and her hands in her pockets. She wore jeans and a red ?
annel shirt and even from this distance, she looked so sexy Leslie ached to get
her hands on her.
“How’s Natalie?” Leslie asked.
Eileen joined her at the window and answered as if the question hadn’t come
out of nowhere. “Well, she always seems to be in great spirits. It’s been busy
this summer, so I take it between supervising the campgrounds and keeping an
eye on shenanigans out on the lake, she’s been pretty busy.”
“So I guess you don’t see her too much.”
“Sweetie,” Eileen said gently, “why don’t you just ask Dev if she’s seeing
Natalie?”
Leslie hesitated. “Because I’m afraid of what she might say.”
“Would it be prying if I asked you about Rachel?”
“No,” Leslie said softly, still watching Dev. “We’re not seeing each other any
longer. I broke it off right after the Fourth of July.”
“Are you okay?”
“I think so. We ran into each other at a fundraiser a week ago and spoke for a
few minutes. She seemed…like Rachel.” The conversation had been what she
