"Since when did you start giving orders?" he retorted. "You're sounding like a real bitch, you know that?"

Perhaps it was the effect of the heat, or the ache in her muscles, but her customary patience deserted her. A surge of righteous anger swept through her, and she slapped the flat of her hand down on the table. The sound reverberated through the garage, startling her as much as it did Sam. For a few seconds she stared down at her hand as if it belonged to someone else, and then, incredibly, she found herself slapping it down again.

"You're the one who made the mistake, Sam. Don't you dare attack me. You're the one who messed up! Not me."

He looked at her for a moment and then wiped the back of his forearm over his sweat band. "Yeah, you're right. Okay."

She stared at him. Was that all there was to it? Had she actually won an argument with him?

He grinned at the expression of surprise on her face and began to amble toward her, running deliberately lecherous eyes over her body. Susannah experienced a moment of deep pleasure, a sense of the strength of her own womanhood that was new and wonderful. Without thinking about what she was doing, she hooked her index finger over the snap on his jeans and tugged. When he came up against her, she gave him a trashy kiss, open-mouthed and deep.

"Would you be a doll baby and do a shampoo for me? I hate to interrupt, but I'm really backed up."

Susannah pulled abruptly away as Angela came through the beauty shop door. Sam whirled around. "She's not your shampoo girl, for chrissake!"

Susannah interceded. "My back hurts and I need to stretch for a few minutes. I don't mind. Yank will be here before long, and Roberta's coming over this evening to help."

Sam's lips tightened at the mention of Roberta, but since he was the one who had called her and told her she had to help assemble the boards, he couldn't really protest. Susannah suspected he would have made the elderly women in Angela's beauty shop stuff boards if they had better eyesight.

A blast of cool air from the window air conditioner hit her as she stepped through the door of the beauty parlor. One elderly woman was under a hair dryer, and Angela was giving another a perm. Susannah ushered the third to the shampoo bowl and supported her as she leaned back. She didn't mind helping Angela. Sam's mother was so good-natured it was impossible not to like her. Besides, when Susannah was helping out, she felt less guilty about the fact that she wasn't contributing anything toward her room and board.

As she gently worked the lather through the elderly woman's thin hair, she thought about how badly she needed money. All her life she had been dependent on her father, and now she was dependent on Sam and Angela. She had even been forced to ask Sam for money to buy a box of Tampax. He had given it to her without comment, but she still found the experience demeaning.

"Well, h-e-l-l-o there." Angela's voice, flirtatious and sassy, rose over the sound of the water running in the shampoo basin. Susannah glanced up, then sucked in her breath as the walls of the small shop seemed to tilt in crazy directions.

Joel Faulconer stood in the doorway, aloof and out of place in a hunter-green polo shirt and crisply creased khaki slacks. He had put on some unneeded weight since she had last seen him, and his golfer's tan had faded. It was probably only her imagination, but he seemed older than she remembered.

He gazed around him without saying anything. In the past few weeks, Susannah had grown accustomed to her surroundings, but now she saw it all again through his eyes-the garish mirrored tiles, the plastic plants and ugly photographs of overly elaborate hairstyles. She saw herself-cheap and common in a man's T-shirt and a pair of threadbare slacks she had once worn for gardening. She could almost read his mind as he watched her shampoo the hair of a woman who was wearing blue bedroom slippers with slits cut in the sides to accommodate her bunions.

Susannah heard a cry of pain and realized she had dug her fingers into the poor woman's scalp. "I'm sorry," she apologized, releasing her. Her hands shaking, she finished rinsing out the woman and wrapped her head in a towel. Then she went over to her father. Angela looked on, making no attempt to hide her curiosity.

"I-I tried to call you," Susannah said.

"So I understand." Joel's eyes flicked over her clothing, revealing nothing except distaste.

Angela's charm bracelets had stilled, and Susannah could feel the curious eyes of her customers. Making an awkward gesture with her hand, she indicated that Joel should follow her into the workshop. It was empty. Sam must have gone to see someone about the cases to house the computer boards.

The burn-in box gave off a warm plastic smell that mingled with the sharp scent of perm solution. The garage seemed unbearably hot and airless. She hugged herself. "Would you like me to get you some iced tea? There's a pitcher in the kitchen. It'll only take a moment."

Ignoring her, he wandered over to the workbench and looked at the board that was sitting on it. He snorted contemptuously.

"I can fix you a drink if you'd rather," she said quickly.

He turned and stared at her so coldly, she couldn't believe that he had ever regarded her with tenderness. She couldn't bear it. Her throat tightened as she gazed at the man she had loved for nearly as long as she could remember, the golden prince of her childhood who had slain her dragons and loved her when no one else would. "Don't hate me," she whispered. "Please."

"Surely you didn't expect me to forget all the pain you've caused."

"Let me try to explain. Let me explain how I felt."

"Now you want to tell me how you felt," he scoffed. "Fascinating. Now that it's all over, and hideous damage has been done, you decide you want to settle in for a cozy father-daughter chat."

He was so cold, so accusing. "I just want you to understand that I never meant to hurt you."

"I'm afraid the time for confidences has long passed. Why didn't you talk to me before that debacle of a wedding? Tell me, Susannah, when did I turn into such a monster? Did I beat you when you were a child and you came to me with your troubles?"

"No," she said miserably. "No, of course not."

"Did I lock you in a closet every time you did something wrong?"

"No, it's not-"

"When you wanted to confide in me, did I push you aside and tell you I couldn't spare the time?"

"No. You were wonderful. You never did any of those things. It's just-" She struggled to find the words. "When I displeased you, you were always so cold to me."

His eyebrows shot up. "I was cold to you. Well, of course. Why didn't I think of that? In the face of such terrible parental abuse, who in the world could fault you for what you've done."

She bit her lip. "Please. I didn't mean to hurt you." The words seemed to be squeezing through a microscopically tiny passageway in her throat. "I didn't mean to hurt Cal. I just couldn't stand-I just couldn't stand being perfect any longer."

"Is that what this is about?" he said scathingly. "Your perfection? I wish you'd told me, so I could have disabused you of the notion long ago. You were never perfect, Susannah."

"I know that. It's just-I felt as if I had to be perfect or you wouldn't love me. I felt as if I always had to do what everyone expected of me."

"You certainly chose a dramatic way to prove otherwise, didn't you?" he said contemptuously. Walking over to the assembly table, he gazed down at the assorted parts with distaste. When he looked back up at her, his features were rigid. "Now that you've had a taste of real life, I suppose you're going to beg me to let you come back to Falcon Hill?"

His statement caught her unaware. "You're my father. I-I don't want to be cut off from you."

"I'm supposed to forget everything that has happened and take you back? It's not going to be that easy, Susannah. You've hurt too many people. You can't just return to your old life and expect everything to be the way it was."

"I don't want my old life back," she whispered.

"If you expect Cal to be waiting with open arms, you'll be sadly disappointed," he went on, not hearing her. "He'll never forgive you."

Cold was seeping through her skin into her bones. "Daddy, I don't want Cal. I want to help Sam build his computer. I want to stay here."

Joel's entire body stiffened and his face grew ashen. For a moment he seemed to be fighting to catch his breath, and when he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse. "Are you telling me that you would rather live in this sordid place with that hooligan than come back to your family?"

"Why does it have to be one or the other?" she cried. "Daddy, I love you! But I love Sam, too."

"I don't think this is about love," he retorted. "Your relationship with that man-it's about sex."

"No, it's not-"

"Cal was a decent man, but apparently he wasn't hot enough for you."

Susannah wanted to cover her ears against Joel's venom. "Don't talk to me like this. I won't listen."

"I can only guess what your particular fetish is," he lashed out. "Leather? Motorcycles?"

His expression had grown so ugly, she hardly recognized it. Was this vindictive, hateful man really her father? In the background she heard the hum of a hair dryer and Angela's chatter. She clasped her arms around her body and tried to hold herself together.

Joel's complexion looked gray and unhealthy beneath his fading tan. "What do you get from your stud? Does he beat you? Are you that sort of woman?"

A sneering voice came from the outside doorway. "Naw, Faulconer, you got it all wrong, man. She's the one who beats me. Don't you, Suzie?"

Sam swaggered forward, every step insolent. One thumb was tucked in the waistband of his jeans, the other in his pocket. His blade-straight hair fell from beneath his sweat-band and pooled on his shoulders. The silver earring glimmered through the black strands.

He stopped just behind her and slipped his hand possessively around her waist. "Your little girl is a wild cat with a whip."

Joel made a choked exclamation and took a menacing step forward. "You insolent-"

"That's right," Sam drawled. "I'm insolent, I'm crude, I'm stupid. I'm so stupid that I stole your precious daughter from right under your nose." He pulled Susannah tighter against his body, her back to his chest. Then he deliberately slid his thumb up onto her breast. "Does this give you any idea what I plan to do to your company?"

"Stop it, Sam!" Susannah couldn't bear it. He had no sense of caution. No sense at all. She pulled away from him and stepped toward her father. "I didn't mean to hurt anybody. I'm sorry for that. I just-I just couldn't help it."

Joel turned away as if he could no longer bear looking at her. His eyes returned to the workbench and the cluttered assembly table. When he spoke, his voice was frigid. "You've made a poor bargain, Susannah. You've tied your future to a hoodlum and a toy that no one will ever want. If you hadn't betrayed me, I could almost feel sorry for you."

"I didn't betray you. I-I love you."

"You've turned into a tramp. An ungrateful, cheap little tramp."

His words struck her like small, deadly pellets. She wanted to protect herself against them, but she had no defenses left. A deafening silence filled the small garage.

They all stood without moving, as if they had nowhere else to go.

"Don't you think you might be getting a little carried away here, Mr. Faulconer?" The jingle-jangle of charm bracelets came from the doorway of the Pretty Please Salon.

As Angela came into the garage, Joel gave her a look so malevolent that most women would have retreated. But Angela was a sucker for great-looking men, no matter how foul their dispositions, and Joel Faulconer was great-looking, even if he was a son of a bitch-a fact she intended to point out.

"Your daughter is one of the finest young ladies it's ever been my pleasure to meet. And as for what you said about my son-calling him a hoodlum-I want you to know that I don't appreciate that one bit."

Sam took a step toward his mother. "Stay out of this. This doesn't have anything to do with you."

Angela held out her hand. "Just one minute, Sammy. I haven't had my say yet."

Joel stared at Angela as if she were a particularly loathsome reptile, and then his eyes made a path from her swaying plastic earrings to her gold-lamй sandals. "By all means let your mother speak. She's obviously a woman whose opinion deserves to be heard."

Sam's arm shot back and his breath released in a hiss. Susannah leaped forward to put herself between him and her father. "No, Sam! You're only going to make it worse." She spun on Joel. "The problems between us don't have anything to do with Mrs. Gamble."