Jennifer Crusie - Manhunting

“Oh, yes.” Penny sighed.

Kate watched her for a moment. “Penny, what’s wrong with Allan?”

Penny hesitated and then put down her fork and leaned forward. “He’s boring. Sometimes he’ll be talking to me, and I’ll just drift off and start thinking about clothes or babies or a movie I’ve seen. And then I’ll remember he’s talking, and I try to listen again.” Penny came as close as she could to looking depressed. For Penny, this meant slightly less radiant. “It doesn’t really matter because he never notices, but…”

Kate winced, thinking of all the long silences in her own engagements. “I was engaged to men like that. Three of them. So caught up in their own careers and their own ideas that they never even saw me. Don’t marry him.”

“I have to marry somebody if I want kids. And I’ve known Allan since he moved next door when I was in the sixth grade and he was a senior.” Penny sighed at the memory. “He’s smart. He’s successful. He has a lot of money, and he’ll take care of me and our children. No man is perfect, but Allan comes pretty close.” She picked up her fork again. “I’m not stupid. I know I’m not in love with him and that we won’t have one of those happily-ever-after marriages. But I’m not like you. I don’t want a career. I want to get married and have a lot of kids and stay home with them all the time.” She took a bite of salad and chewed while she thought about what she wanted to say next “See, what I really want is to be a full-time mom. But if I marry somebody with not much money, I can’t I’ll have to work. I mean, most husbands can’t afford to have their wives not work. And Allan can. In fact, he wants me to stay home.”

“Oh,” Kate said. “Well…”

“I know. You think that’s awful,” Penny said.

“No,” Kate lied. “Not if it’s what you really want.”

“I do.” Penny bit her lip. “I have this all planned out and it will work. And I’ll be fair to Allan. I do sort of love him and I’ll take care of him, too, and I’ll be a good wife. I just deserve these next two weeks. That’s all.” She looked at Kate. “I suppose you think that’s stupid.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Kate said, surprised to find she didn’t. “I’m just not as honest as you are. But if you can be, I can be. I want that kind of marriage, too. The planned-out, practical kind. The only difference between the two of us is that I haven’t found my Allan yet.”

“So that’s why you’re here,” Penny said. She looked around and leaned forward. “Well, this place is crawling with secure guys. You shouldn’t have any problem finding one.”

“So far, crawling is the right word for the men I’ve met,” Kate said. “But I’m not giving up. I’m going to find a dependable, successful man if it kills me.”

“I wish that didn’t sound so boring,” Penny said. “Why is security always boring?”

“Because if it were exciting, it wouldn’t be safe,” Kate said.

“So you’re looking for a rich guy?”

“Well,” Kate said, frowning. “Not rich. I don’t care about money. I have money. But he has to be successful.”

“Rich,” Penny said, and ate some more salad.

“I guess so,” Kate said. “You know, I really hate this. It seems so scheming. It is so scheming.”

“I know,” Penny said. “But you’re not getting any younger. You’re really good-looking for your age, but still, you’d better get somebody while you can.”

“Thank you,” Kate said.

Greg brought her lunch. Chicken salad.

“Can I get you anything else?” he asked, looking at Penny.

“No, thank you.” Kate waited until he was gone and turned back to Penny. “From now on, don’t come to the table until I’ve ordered, all right?”

Penny giggled.

“Is everything all right here?”

Kate looked up to find Valerie lurking near their table, looking cool, trim and professional in green linen.

“Fine,” Kate said. “Everything’s lovely.”

“Good,” Valerie said. “That’s exactly how Will and I want you to feel.”

“Will?”

“Will Templeton. My boss.” Valerie smiled smugly. “And my fiance.”

“Congratulations,” Kate said.

“Oh, sit down and tell us all about it,” Penny said. “Will is really dishy. I didn’t know you were engaged to him.”

“Nobody knows,” Valerie said, sliding into an empty chair. “Sometimes I don’t think Will knows.” She laughed shortly.

“Men,” Penny said sympathetically. “They just don’t know how to have a relationship.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” Valerie said. “We’re actually quite well matched. In three years, we haven’t had one argument.”

“Gee,” Penny said. “Three years.”

Valerie smiled at her smugly. “Will understands that I generally know what’s best.”

“I can’t imagine being engaged for three years,” Penny went on. “Why are you waiting so long to get married?”

Valerie glared at her.

“I was engaged for three years,” Kate said. “Of course, I was engaged to three different men during that time. But that’s a long time.”

“A really long time,” Penny said.

“Will and I have worked very hard to make this place a success,” Valerie snapped. “We haven’t had time to consider anything else.”

“Working together,” Kate said, conjuring up her own plan and seeing it made flesh in Will and Valerie. “That’s wonderful. That’s the kind of marriage I want- partners, working together to make a business grow.” She looked over at Valerie. “That must be wonderful.”

Valerie relaxed under Kate’s blatant envy. “Well, it is, of course, but mere are drawbacks. I mean, I am stuck here, after all, with nobody to talk to except the help, and they’re hardly…well, you know.”

Kate and Penny looked at each other and men at Valerie. “What?” Kate asked.

“Well, they’re country people.” Valerie wrinkled her nose. “They don’t understand career women. Like us.”

“Like us,” Kate echoed, feeling vaguely insulted.

“Us?” Penny echoed too.

Valerie ignored her and stayed focused on Kate.

“I wanted to talk to you because I knew you’d understand.”

“Understand?” How much did I have to drink this morning? Kate wondered. How long is it going to take me to sober up? Why can’t I comprehend what this woman is driving at?

“I recognized you yesterday at the luau. I thought you looked familiar when you checked in. Then it hit me. Your picture was in Business Week last month. I pulled out my back copy and there you were.” Valerie raised her eyebrows. “I’m very impressed.”

“Don’t be,” Kate said. “I was in Business Week because I was standing next to my father when they took the picture.”

“The caption said you were his successor. It must be wonderful, working with a powerful man like that.”

“Oh, yes,” Kate said. “Particularly when magazines start mentioning you as his successor. He loves that.”

“I envy you. Living in the city. On the cutting edge. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to lose my mind, being stuck down here,” Valerie said.

“Why do you stay?” Kate said.

Valerie shrugged. “This is where Will wants to be. And we’re making this resort really take off. It’s something we’re doing together.”

“Together,” Kate said.

“Oh, yes,” Valerie said. “And we’ve got so many ideas. Don’t tell anyone,” she added, dropping her voice, “but our next project is a real country bar. With jukeboxes and everything.”

“Well, that sounds like fun,” Kate said, trying to figure out why a country bar should be top secret.

“Isn’t there a country bar in town?” Penny said.

“That’s Nancy ’s,” Valerie said. “She doesn’t count. She doesn’t have any idea how to run a business. She just opens the door and people come in and buy beer.”

“Isn’t that pretty much the idea behind running a bar?” Kate asked.

“Listen, that place could be a gold mine if she’d get her act together. Since she isn’t,” Valerie said, sitting back and smiling, “Will and I are going to open our own gold mine.”

“What’ll happen to Nancy?” Penny asked.

Valerie shrugged. “That’s business.”

“My father would like you,” Kate said, drawing away from Valerie.

“Thank you,” Valerie said.

“So when are you and Will getting married?” Penny asked.

“Soon,” Valerie said. “I’m being recruited by a big East Coast chain. When they make me an offer, I’ll just tell Will. He’s a very fair man. He couldn’t possibly expect me to stay here indefinitely without some kind of commitment. And he can hardly run this place without me.”

Kate and Penny looked at each other again.

“Are you actually a partner here?” Kate asked, confused. “I’m not following you.”

Valerie frowned, annoyed at being pinned down. “Will started this place over ten years ago. Five years ago, he expanded it with a silent partner who does absolutely nothing to help him run it I came here three years ago when Will was about at his wits’ end and saved him and the hotel by planning something besides golf for the guests. Remember the luau last night?”

Kate winced, remembering the luau, and nodded.

“Well, that was my idea. I have a lot of ideas like that. They bring a lot of people to this resort I’m indispensable.”

“Lucky you,” Kate said uneasily. She felt a sudden need to get far away from Valerie, as if she had something contagious that she might catch. Like maybe rum-less ambition and a total lack of humanity. She smiled brightly at Valerie and pushed back her chair. “Well, I’ve got to run. I’m late to play golf.”

“Who are you playing with?” Penny asked.

“Peter somebody.”

“Oh, he looks rich,” Penny said. “Good luck.”

“Good luck?” Valerie raised her eyebrows at Kate.

“On my golf game,” Kate said. “I’m going to need all the luck I can get.”

“Well, then, I’ll wish you good luck, too,” Valerie said. “Let’s get together again later and talk. We’ve got so much in common.”

“That would be wonderful,” Kate said, trying not to look appalled. “Really.”

“Really,” Valerie said. “I consider you as a role model.”

“Wonderful,” Kate said as she backed away. “I can’t tell you how that makes me feel.”

I do not have anything in common with that woman, Kate told herself as she crossed the lobby. And I am not her role model or anything else. Then she caught sight of Peter waiting for her and stopped, startled by how familiar he looked as he came toward her. Who did he look like? Derek? Terence? Paul? All of them, she decided. Tall, distinguished, graying at the temples, determined, aggressive. He reached her with the same long strides her father always took and put his arm around her and looked down at her, smiling. She hated it when men did that. She always felt small.

“You look fantastic. I’ll have to show you off to everyone,” Peter said, and she stared up at him for a moment, speechless with dismay. Now that he was close, he didn’t really look all that much like any of the men she’d been engaged to. It was more the way he moved, looming over her, beaming at her. As if she was something he’d achieved.

“Um, wait a minute,” she said, and automatically backed off toward the lobby desk to get away from him. When she backed into the desk with a bump, she realized she’d left him standing in the middle of the lobby, confused and annoyed. Snap out of it, she told herself. You‘re acting like a fool There is nothing wrong with this man. What’s wrong with you?

He cheats, Jake had said. And for some reason, she suddenly trusted Jake in his dumb cowboy hat and ratty shorts more than she trusted this man in tailored flannels.

On an impulse, she called Will over to the desk.

“Do you have any field glasses?”

“Just small ones.” Will reached under the counter for a pair of miniature folding binoculars. “They’re no good for bird-watching. I can hunt up some bigger ones for you if you’re not in a hurry.” He gave her an open, friendly smile that confused Kate. What was a nice man like this doing destroying neighborhood bars with a barracuda like Valerie?

“Kate?” Will said as she stared at him.

“These will be fine,” she said. “The bird I’m watching is pretty big.” She slipped them in her pocket and went back to Peter, who was pointedly looking at his watch.

They walked toward the course, Peter nodding right and left to acquaintances, always keeping a proprietary hand on her back as if she were his entry in a particularly prestigious pet show. He’s in public relations, Kate remembered. Maybe he considers me good for his image.