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  “Allison is her granddaughter, yes. She’s an ice skater, was an ice skater. She won an Olympic gold medal in pairs skating. She’s come home, and she’s … well, she’s been hurt.”

  “Hurt?” King groaned. “Not another one. I think you should have studied medicine, brother, instead of horticulture.”

  “I might have,” Joker agreed wistfully, “if the dean of admissions in the school of medicine had taken an interest in me and put my feet to the fire the way Ellen did.”

  “Leave it to you to find a woman who would offer you free room and board for four years. As it turned out, horticulture was the perfect choice for you. And I suppose Ellen was good for you too, although I’ll never understand your relationship with her.”

  “I resent that, King Vandergriff. I cared for Ellen, more than you’ll ever know. She made me realize that I could be somebody. You may not believe it, but our arrangement was a fair exchange. If she hadn’t died, I might have … Forget it.” Joker’s voice didn’t hide the hurt he still felt about Ellen.

  “Sorry, I didn’t intend to open a can of worms, Joker. I wouldn’t dream of insulting anyone. I’m glad that Ellen was Dean of the Department of Horticulture. Once she took you in, you settled down and graduated, and I thank her for that. But,” King allowed a hint of amusement to color his voice, “one of these days I’m going to get to the bottom of those field trips to Vegas and every racetrack in the west.”

  “I’d never do anything illegal, King. Let’s just say I have a kind of understanding about certain things, and I’ve always believed in sharing. Sharing, brother, as in one family member stepping in and helping another when he asks.”

  “All right. We’ll manage. After all, you already have everything planned out and ordered. I’ll get Diamond to oversee the project. I trust you’ll be by now and again, for consultation purposes?”

  “Sure. I’ll check in with you every day. But, King, don’t come to the estate—not yet.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t think of ruining your little interlude.”

  “Allison Josey is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  King was frowning. “Allison Josey.… That name sounds familiar. I can’t remember the details, but it seems to me that there was some kind of publicity about her a few months ago. I remember seeing a picture on the cover of a magazine.” His forehead was furrowed by a mass of lines as he struggled to remember.

  “You could have,” Joker agreed. “She was very special. The whole world loved her. After the Olympics, she performed with an ice show, until she was injured again. Now she’s come back home. Because of her health, she wasn’t told about her grandmother’s stroke, and she doesn’t know about my buying the house. I don’t want her to know just yet.”

  King stood up, looked at his watch, and walked toward the door. “Well, bring her over to the springs and let her take the mineral baths with the nursing home patients. You sure won’t run into any traffic jams getting inside.”

  “Interest not picking up?”

  “Interest? What interest? If it weren’t for the home owners who love the golf and tennis facilities, the sports medicine center would be a total loss so far.”

  “Give it time, bro. Word will get around. Just wait until after the grand opening.”

  “Too bad we can’t get somebody like your girlfriend to pass the word, assuming the springs helped her.”

  “That was Harold’s idea too. I don’t want to use Allison, King. The kind of injury Allison has is different. We can’t be sure that the springs can help restore the use of her leg.” Joker followed his brother outside. “Besides, she’s still very self-conscious. I’m going to bring her down at night so that she won’t be seen.”

  “Well, it’s your decision. But it’s your pocketbook if we go bust.” King looked at his watch again. Joker could appreciate King’s impatience. He knew it was time for Kaylyn and the nursing home entourage to arrive for their free visits. King always tried to be there when the group arrived. If it were up to him, he’d spend every minute with the woman who was carrying his child.

  King was the first of the brothers to marry, and his joy had made Joker take a long look at his Casanova approach to life. After he’d discovered the Josey estate and the study wall plastered with pictures of a hauntingly beautiful dark-eyed woman, Joker had been content to stay in one place for the first time in his life. He’d made arrangements to buy the estate without realizing that the woman would be a part of the dream, the woman who was waiting for him to teach her how to heal.

  They left the office together. King turned toward the springs, and Joker jogged out the door and over to his motorcycle. He fastened the red helmet beneath his chin and began to grin. Red. The sales clerk hadn’t smiled when he selected the smaller one, but when Joker took the large one and put it on his own head, the clerk had grunted in disbelief. Eric the Red, Allison had called him. Hell, why not? The helmet had made Allison smile and that smile had been worth it all.

  “Hey, Joker!” Kaylyn called out as she drove by in the nursing home van filled with patients. “Love your helmet. Come to dinner Saturday night. I’m inviting a friend over for Jack. I’ll ask someone for you, too, if you like.”

  A friend for Jack? Kaylyn never gave up. His lone-wolf brother probably wouldn’t even show up, and if he did, it was doubtful that he’d unbend enough to learn the woman’s name.

  “Maybe,” Joker answered. “I’ll have to let you know. It depends on … well, it depends on the crocs in the moat.”

  Kaylyn looked startled, but didn’t comment. Joker knew that she took his joking in stride just as she did everything else in life. She’d like Allison, and Allison would like Kaylyn if they ever had a chance to get to know each other. Jack? Well, he’d just have to find his own damsel in distress.

  Joker revved the engine and the motorcycle roared out of the parking area. He waved to one of the country’s most famous football players, who was leaving his house and walking toward the golf course. The housing community was almost filled with celebrities and ordinary people living side by side playing tennis and golf. The Sports Medicine Center would eventually bring in world-class athletes of every sport. They hadn’t had a skater at the center yet. But they would have—soon. Allison Josey just didn’t know it yet, and the world would never know. Joker would see to it that Allison’s privacy was protected. He wouldn’t let her be used. There had to be another answer for calling attention to the healing power of the springs. He’d find it—somehow.

  His bags were sitting by the front door.

  Allison was lounging on the sun porch, eyes closed, arms folded tightly across her chest as though she were some pharaoh’s daughter laid out in her tomb. Joker shuddered. He did not have a good feeling about this.

  “Going someplace?” Joker slid down into a wicker chair, as close to Allison as he dared, yet far enough away not to be a threat.

  She didn’t open her eyes. “Not me, you.”

  “Why?”

  “I called the nursing home. The business office explained exactly how much Gran’s nursing care is costing. They also explained that her income barely covers her care. There isn’t anything left over to keep up the estate. You’ll have to go.”

  “Why?”

  “I appreciate what you’ve done here in the house, Joker, but we’re probably going to have to find some alternative. I simply can’t afford … I mean I’ll have to delay any repairs to the house until I’m able to skate again. Letting you pay for your board by gardening is one thing, but incurring any expense in refurbishing the estate is out of the question.”

  Joker considered his arguments. She needed him, but she was proud. She’d never accept his help without a good reason. He knew that the last thing she expected to hear was that legally he already owned the estate. Yet there didn’t seem to be any other answer. If he didn’t tell her the truth, she’d find out some other way. And what was worse, if he couldn’t figure out a way to be close to her, he couldn’t help her walk
again.

  “I really need to go on living in the carriage house,” he began carefully. “And you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to pay me. Bringing Elysium back to life is a labor of love.”

  “Why, Joker? Why have you been so good to Gran?”

  “I could tell you about a small boy who dreamed about having a real home and a grandmother who told him stories and made chocolate chip cookies, but I don’t suppose that would make much sense to you. Let’s just say that Mrs. Josey was lonely, and I was lonely. We filled each other’s needs.”

  “I’m sorry, Joker. I know you’ve been good to Gran, and I don’t really object to your living in the carriage house, but the truth is Gran and I need a tenant who can pay rent,” Allison said quietly.

  She was trembling, holding herself tightly to maintain her fragile control. The sound of loneliness in his words reached out to her. She understood, and she was ashamed that a stranger had been there for her grandmother when she hadn’t. But she was there now, and she’d find a way.

  “I can’t leave,” he said softly, making his words a plea as he searched desperately for an answer that would satisfy her. “I have to stay here. There’s a debt involved.” That much was certainly true.

  “What kind of debt? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  He didn’t want to tell her. He’d tried to protect her, shield her from more hurt until she was stronger. But she wasn’t going to let him do it. Suppose she couldn’t take the truth. He sprang to his feet and began to pace back and forth. There was no other way, no other answer.

  “The truth, Allison, is that the house isn’t yours to rent any more.”

  Allison went absolutely still for a moment. Her eyes widened as a sudden chill of fear washed over her. What was he saying, not hers to rent? What was happening? “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, darling, I’d rather have my arm cut off than have to tell you this.”

  “Tell me what?” Her voice was a whisper. She curled her fingers into tight little fists, willing herself not to shake. Of course Elysium was hers, or rather it belonged to Gran. Why would he make such a bizarre statement? She shook off the thought that the pain in Joker’s face was real.

  “Miss Lenice’s hospital bills exhausted her funds. Taxes, repair, upkeep on the house had eaten steadily into her savings for the last few years, until there was virtually nothing left. She needed care.”

  “And?”

  “We moved her from the hospital into the nursing home. Once she’s recovered a bit more, she’ll go into the retirement wing of the center where she’ll have her own apartment and there will be someone to check on her. It was what she wanted.”

  “No.”

  “The house had to be sold, Allison. Your grandmother’s attorney arranged the sale. We signed the papers three months ago, just before she moved into the nursing home.”

  “No,” she repeated, “that can’t be true. She would have told me.” Allison tightened her lips until they quivered from the strain. She felt as if she’d wiped out in the finals of an important skating competition, crashed with such pain that she couldn’t function. She’d never thought much about Elysium, but deep in her mind she’d known it was there. Now it had been swept away. And poor Gran had faced the loss all alone. Allison had been so wrapped up in her own trouble that she hadn’t even known.

  “Yes, Miss Lenice would have told you. But she didn’t want to worry you while you were having a bad time. She wanted to tell you the truth herself, when you were well.”

  “I see. And the buyer sent you here as caretaker?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then exactly what is your position here? Is Gran paying you to be my keeper too?”

  Joker looked at Allison. Reality had hit him in the heart. The one time he really wanted to make things right, he couldn’t. He had only one answer—the truth.

  “You’re my guest, Allison. Your grandmother sold the house and gardens to me.”

  Four

  “I’m your guest?” She looked at him incredulously.

  “Please try to understand, Allison. I had to do it. If I hadn’t, some developer would have snatched it up.”

  He was a con artist, a smooth-talking crook. There was no other explanation. Gran wouldn’t sell Elysium. Allison wanted to fling herself at the man, scratch the compassion from his concerned gaze.

  “He’d have paid more than you, I bet,” she said bitterly, knowing all the time that he was telling the truth.

  “Possibly, but the estate would have been destroyed,” Joker replied, considering whether or not he ought to tell her that the down payment he’d made was part of the creative financing Miss Lenice’s lawyer and he had agreed on. It had been precisely figured so that the hospital bill would be paid, leaving monthly payments large enough to supplement Miss Lenice’s income later.

  “I paid your grandmother a fair price,” he said quietly.

  “I don’t believe you, and I won’t let you take advantage of her. I’ll sue you!” Allison threatened. She felt a great stab of disappointment. In spite of what she’d been prepared to do to rid herself of the man, she’d honestly trusted him.

  Joker inhaled sharply. Eyes blazing with anger, Allison Josey was beautiful, filled with the kind of passion he’d known was hovering beneath the surface. She was hurting—not for herself but for her grandmother. Now if he could just make her turn that passion inward, she’d be well on the road to recovery.

  “I can understand what you’re feeling,” he agreed softly, “but you don’t understand. It wasn’t even my idea. Simon Cassidy, your grandmother’s attorney, came up with the plan.”

  Allison let his words sink in. Somehow she recognized the truth in Joker’s face. He owned Elysium, her home, the very house she was trying to evict him from. “I guess I don’t want to understand.”

  “Ah, Beauty, I’m sorry. I promised your grandmother I wouldn’t tell you, but I had no choice. I can’t leave. And neither can you.”

  He’d been standing in the doorway during their tense exchange. Now he walked back out onto the sun porch, dragged a wicker chair closer to Allison, and sat down. She needed comforting, and he wanted to hold her and tell her that everything would be all right. He wanted to, until she gritted her teeth and glared at him furiously.

  “So, how did you manage it?”

  “I’d rather Simon explain it to you.”

  “I’d rather you explain it to me.”

  She wasn’t going to make it easy. But then he hadn’t expected it to be. He’d hoped he could at least take her hand. Touching her would have cushioned the blow. But it wasn’t to be. He sighed and stood up, turning his back as he walked toward the window. Maybe if he gave her the space she needed, she’d listen.

  “When I found Miss Lenice collapsed on the kitchen floor, I took her to the hospital. She’d had a stroke. For weeks she couldn’t move her right side or speak, but her mind was clear, clear enough to know that she wasn’t going to be able to stay here alone.”

  “I would have come home,” Allison interrupted.

  “She didn’t want to ask you. She thought there was someone you were committed to, and she knew you were dedicated to your career.”

  “But I should have been told,” Allison argued.

  “Her doctor tried to contact you, and found out you’d just undergone surgery on your knee. Miss Lenice hadn’t known, and they didn’t want to tell her how serious it was. You weren’t in any position to come then. She thought you’d recover and continue skating, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. It was your grandmother’s decision.”

  Allison knew he was right. There was no reason for Gran to believe that she’d ever want to come back home to stay. She’d certainly never given her any indication of how she felt about the place. She hadn’t known herself, until recently.

  “They told me that she’d fallen, but I didn’t know she’d had a stroke.”

  “You’re two stubborn ladies, neither wanting the other to wor
ry. At any rate, the only answer was to move Miss Lenice into the nursing home, where she could recover, and later when she was able to care for herself, move her into an apartment in the retirement section.”

  “But I still don’t understand. Why did she have to sell Elysium in order to do that?”

  “You’ve just been through an operation and a long siege in the hospital. You must know how much things cost. Your grandmother had used up her savings and there wasn’t enough coming in to cover her expenses. She’s a proud lady. She didn’t want to be a burden to you.”

  “But what about Medicaid?”

  “As I understand it, they make all kinds of crazy rules about eligibility. Owning Elysium kept her from qualifying. She’s a lady who’s always made her own way, so she made the decision to sell. Simon approached me. He knew how much I cared about the estate. If I bought it, it wouldn’t be destroyed. Miss Lenice was very grateful, and he drew up the papers.”

  Allison stared at Joker’s stiff back. The reality of his words came crashing over her. All the time she’d been worrying about skating again, about her own crippled body, her grandmother had faced the worst time of her life—alone. What kind of granddaughter had she been?

  “I see.”

  Her sorrow came through in her voice. Joker turned and came back toward her. He cared very much what her opinion of him was. He’d bought the house because there hadn’t been any other solution. He’d thought he could find a way to make it right with Allison.

  “Ah, Beauty, I’m very sorry. I told you I’d protect you, and all I’ve done is hurt you. What I did at the time seemed the right thing for your grandmother.” He gazed at her for a long while, his expression a reflection of the pain he saw in Allison’s eyes. He reached out and touched her cheek with one finger.

  “Don’t. I know I should thank you. But I can’t—not yet. I have to go and pack.” Allison swept his hand from her face and struggled to her feet, a tight grimace twisting her face.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Joker reached down and steadied her, sliding his hand around her waist.