Once in a Lifetime by Gwynne Forster Page B

feelings. Every time he contemplated it, he could see in his mind’s eye his father groveling for the crumbs of his mother’s affection, which she doled out like a boy holding up scraps to make his puppy jump.
    The one time he’d dropped his fences and gone to a girl he liked and who he thought wanted him, she’d smiled coolly and told him he’d made a mistake. After all these years, the pain of that rejection still hurt. There’d been women since then, but he’d been able to take or leave them. Alexis Stevenson, though, had settled inside him, deep down where he lived. And Tara. He looked forward to her smiling face when hecame home every evening, her arms outstretched for his hug and the kisses she planted on his cheek. He’d never thought a child’s love could touch him so deeply and make him feel as if he owned the world.
    His heart and his body pointed him back downstairs to the other end of the house where he knew he’d find pure heaven, but his head ruled, and he prepared to take a cold shower.
     
    Alexis read Tara to sleep, stepped out into the garden and sat on the stone bench facing the cluster of rosebushes that she loved. Going to sleep right then was out of the question, for she still throbbed with desire for Telford. If only she knew how to deal with it, what to expect of herself and him. Her years of marriage to Jack Stevenson had left her unprepared for the fire that raged in her. Thank God I don’t drink. If I did, I’d finish off a gallon. Telford hadn’t come to her. Maybe she was glad and maybe she wasn’t. She only knew that if he walked into her room that night, he would be hers before he left. She jumped up. The mere thought was self-destructive. She went inside and closed the door.
    “I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life crying because I ignored my common sense.” She went to bed.
     
    Telford heard the piano before he put his key in the front-door lock. She takes to that piano like a fish to water, he thought with pride. After changing into a pair of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he followed the sound to Tara’s room. When his knock brought no answer, he went to the kitchen.
    “It’s after five, Henry, hasn’t Alexis come back from Frederick?”
    “If she is, I ain’t seen her. I didn’t think she meant to stay off all day long. Said she’d be back around three or so.”
    He shrugged, affecting a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “Maybe something came up, or she went to a movie. We know she’ll be here by seven, because she risks dealing with Russ if she’s late.”
    “Yeah. Russ don’t like having to live normal, picking upafter himself, wearing clothes in the house and eating at special hours, but it sure suits me.” He passed the bucket of string beans to Telford. “Here, Tel, don’t just stand there. String these beans.”
    “How much did that console piano set you back?”
    “Ain’t none of your business. I bought it ’cause I wanted to. I don’t have to spend a penny of my salary.” He stopped stringing beans and smiled. “Don’t she just love it? Never seen such a happy little girl as she was when that piano come in here the other day. She plain jumped nigh to the ceiling.”
    “She’s been here less than three months, and I can’t imagine this house without her.”
    “Me neither. Ain’t that somebody at the door?”
    He put the handful of bean ends on the counter. “I’ll get it.” He couldn’t believe his eyes. There at his back door stood Biff Jackson.
    He didn’t like it, and he wasn’t about to behave as if he did. “Need me for something, Biff?”
    The man was clearly put off. “Well…I, uh…I didn’t know you’d be home.”
    “You came to see Henry? I thought the two of you couldn’t stand each other.”
    “Well, I was, uh, hoping to get a glimpse of your housekeeper.”
    Telford folded his arms and leaned against the doorjamb. “That’s what I figured. Did she tell you to come looking for her?”
    “Well…no, but a