Splash

by Kristen Kelly

  “That’s her.”

  “Why you? What makes him think you have any pull?”

  “We’re kind of friends.”

  “I see. Well… After everything he’s done to you, why would…what is he holding over your head, Liz?”

  I bit my lip, not wanting to tell Jason about Damon and I. I knew he wouldn’t relent until he had the truth though. “He threatened to make public my past…digressions.”

  “To the old lady?”

  “No. To Damon.”

  “Damon? Damon Donovan? Why would you…” Understanding dawned on his face. “You’ve been seeing that fucker, haven’t you?”

  “Jason!”

  Looking flustered, Jason ran a hand over the back of his head. “All this time…All this time I thought we were friends. He actually helped me set you up with ole Tom there and now I find out… Christ, Liz! The guy’s a player. Don’t you see that?”

  “No. He’s not like that. Jason, listen to me. I love him. I’ve loved him from the moment I set eyes on him.”

  “Oh Christ!”

  “I do. I can’t explain it, but I do.”

  “Liz… Sweetheart, you may think you love him, but you don’t. You love the way he looks. You love the way he probably flirts with you. It makes you feel good. That’s all. I brought you here to get you away from guys like him. Maybe Tom wasn’t the right one, but Damon Donovan certainly isn’t. Damn, the guy does nothing all day but work on his tan and hone up his fucking six pack! I’m sure he’s poor as a damn church mouse too.”

  “You’re wrong on that account.”

  “You saying he’s loaded? Damon? Damon Donovan?”

  “Yup.”

  “Fucking great,” he said flippantly. “Same scenario as your Ex and nearly every guy before him. Liz, when are you going to stop going for guys simply because they look good and have tons of cash? I told you before, and I’ll tell you again, I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life so you can just stop…”

  “Jason, I love him. Damn it! Aren’t you listening to me? He’s different than all the rest. He’s sweet and he’s kind and he cares about all these little kids and…”

  Jason frowned. “Have you told him about your past? Has he told you anything about his?”

  “Sort of. Not about me actually, but I know about him.” I shrugged. “A bit anyway. I know he’s been married before and that he kind of owns this place.”

  “Kind of? There’s no kind of in real estate, Liz.”

  “I…”

  “We’re leaving tomorrow so get your head out of your... Whatever. I guarantee you that if you told Damon about your past, he’d split in a heartbeat. This isn’t going to work and you know it.”

  Tears filled my eyes. “So what’s the point if I’m leaving anyway. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

  He downed whatever clear liquid was in his glass. His face softened. “On second thought, I don’t want you humiliated either. I’ll be damned if I let him do that to you again.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and handed it to me. “I’m sorry, I yelled. Can’t blame a guy for trying to save his sister, can you?”

  “It’s okay,” I said sniffling and blowing my nose.

  “So that’s all Jake wants? Just for you to talk to the old woman and then he’ll be on his way?”

  “That’s what he said.”

  “What if you can’t convince her?”

  “I don’t know. We didn’t get that far.”

  “Okay, well just play along and maybe he’ll go away, but if he approaches you again for anything more, you call me. All right?”

  I sniffed. “Okay.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “Good.” He rubbed the side of his face and then took another drink. “So, did you have a good time here? I really hoped that you would be able to relax these few weeks. And I’m sorry Tom didn’t turn out to be the one, Liz. I honestly thought the two of you would hit it off. I guess I’m not as in-tuned to what women find attractive in a man. You did enjoy yourself here at the Club a little bit, didn’t you?”

  “Of course. Thanks to Damon.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I don’t even want to know.”

  Chapter EIGHTEEN

  Damon

  It was the only time I would remember Delia looking her age.

  It was cancer of the uterus, the doctors said, but now it was attacking her liver, kidneys, and bladder. If she had reported her symptoms earlier, had a hysterectomy to remove the offending organ—she may have had a fighting chance, but my grandmother didn’t like doctors. Said they made her feel old. We knew there was no way she would have gone for an operation. Especially something as life changing to her, as dissecting organs that made her female.

  As I looked at her, tears filled my eyes. The only thing keeping her alive now, was some sort of steroid dripped into her arm. A chance to live a little longer than the few hours, they’d said.

  There were flowers everywhere and a couple dozen balloons attached to the biggest teddy bear I’d ever seen seated in my life, seated on a chair by the window. Feeling useless, I sat beside her, stroking her pale withered hand with tubes coming out of it.

  I was in so much shock, I didn’t know what I was saying. “Delia. Delia, open your eyes and tell me what to do.” I didn’t really know what I was asking her. I just wanted her to open her eyes. I felt if she did, maybe she wouldn’t die. Wouldn’t leave me like my parents had.

  She groaned. Her pale eyes fluttered.

  “Grandmother? Delilah?” I didn’t know which name she would respond to, so I used them all. “Lucy!” I pulled closer to the bed, rubbing the bony top of her hand with my thumb. “Mrs. Delaney? Mrs. Delaney, wake up for me, please.”

  “Can she hear me?” I asked the nurse, who was busy doing something with the intravenous pole.

  “Yes, but she’s a bit dehydrated. It’s draining all her reserves. If you wait a few hours… Maybe leave and come back? She may wake up and have a conversation with you. There’s a coffee shop downstairs. A good one, actually. They serve a decent breakfast too.”

  “What if she doesn’t wake up and I miss…” I didn’t want to think about the ‘what if’ but I had to ask.

  “Don’t worry. Her vital signs are stable. I think you’ll have an opportunity to talk to her before that.”

  “Promise?” I knew it was wrong, begging the nurse to guarantee me a few more hours with my grandmother, but I felt so hopeless. I wanted someone to tell me she was all right. Even for just a few hours.

  The nurse nodded her blonde head. “I promise,” she said with a smile. “If you leave me your number, I’ll text you when she wakes up. How’s that?” She wrote her number on a piece of paper, and handed it to me.

  “Great.” I keyed in her number and rang her cell, putting her number into my phone list when she called me back. “I’ll just…” I stared at the old woman in the bed, willing her to wake. I was loath to leave her. She was everything to me and I felt guilty. Once, when I was thirteen and had pneumonia, she stayed by my side day and night, only leaving me to go to the bathroom until my fever had broken. She’d never left me alone. Not when I needed her most. I needed her now, too.

  How had I let this happen? Why hadn’t I noticed that she seldom had medical care? Why hadn’t I insisted upon it?

  “It’s okay. I’ll call you when she wakes,” the nurse repeated.

  I nodded, kissed my grandmother’s hand, and then went out the door.

  Chapter NINETEEN

  Eizabeth

  My last day at the Club had turned out to be the worst day of my life. I hadn’t seen Damon all day, which nearly broke my heart thinking I probably wouldn’t, before I left to go home. Had I known yesterday it would have been our last night together, I would have told him how I felt, asked if he felt the same. But I hadn’t. And now, with his grandmother dying… Well, it just wasn’t the right time. I felt terrible and my heart was paying the pric
e

  To make matters worse, Jake, cold-hearted bastard that he was, threatened me on the phone. Again! He said he had pictures, and if I didn’t want them spread all around town, I’d do as he damn well said. Jason assured me he was bluffing, and offered to call in some favors to get rid of him. I wouldn’t let him. It could have made things worse.

  Then there was Delilah.

  I couldn’t stop crying.

  I felt like I was losing my best friend.

  Even though I barely knew the sassy spit-fire of a woman, it had been enough. In that time I’d come to love her. Her zest for life. Her openness. Her vibrant tenacity to make every day count. We’d… connected on some level, and in a way I’d not connected with anyone else in my life. She was like no one I’d ever met. A true jewel of a lady, she’d accomplished so much, while raising two children who weren’t even her own. For some reason she felt a connection with me too, because before she died, she’d confided her deepest secret to me. Something no one else knew. Damon and Tabitha were not actually her grandchildren. She didn’t even know their identity. She’d found the two abandoned by some drug addict mother on the steps of a hotel in downtown LA one day while on vacation with husband number two. Damon was three at the time, Tabitha just a baby. With no children of her own, she’d taken then in, forged the necessary documents and gave them the name of her husband at the time, Nathaniel Donovan. I shuddered to think about what would have happened to those poor frightened children had they not been found.

  I took out the small folded sketching I’d done two weeks ago and stared at the image, tears flooding my eyes. Delilah Delaney, Queen to the Delaney fortune and owner of the richest most exclusive Businessmen’s Club in all of Washington DC had been rushed by ambulance to the hospital, adding to my misery.

  I hated to think of her in that cold sterile room. Delilah hated blandness. She said it covered all the sensory of the world. She said color was what made life worth living. Would she die in that room hooked up by machines hissing into the night? It made my heart ache.

  A sense of guilt skittered across my heart, leaving me nauseous and lonely. I wanted to see Delilah, but I was scared. Scared it would be the last time. Scared she would die before my eyes. Just…scared. I didn’t know what to do.

  So I ran myself a bubble bath. The last one I’d ever have in this hotel, because our flight left at eight o’clock the next morning. My intention was to finish off the book Damon gave me, throw myself into a spin of unreality with the characters, and then doze off into sleep. I regretted not saying goodbye to Damon, but he’d been at the hospital all day. If Delilah was truly at death’s door, he wouldn’t leave her. Christ, how had I misjudged him in the first place. In the beginning I’d simply written him off as a pretty boy too interested in his own muscles. Maybe it was better I didn’t see him. I wasn’t sure I could keep my emotions under control, and that would just make it worse for both of us.

  Right when I was about to change out of my robe and sink into the tub, there was a knock at my door. I wrapped the chenille bathrobe around my naked body and let Jason into the room.

  “You’re not dressed, Liz.”

  “I’m taking a bath. Why?”

  “I’m here to drive us to the hospital.”

  “I’m… I’m not going to the hospital.”

  “Yes you are. She’s your friend, right? Don’t you want to see her before….you know. Besides, he will be there, won’t he? Don’t you want to say goodbye to him?” He shrugged.

  I sighed, willing back the tears. “Listen, Jason…I don’t really give a shit whether Jake buys the Club or not, and as for Damon... It’s over. We’re leaving, so what’s the point?”

  “Hmmmph. I would never have bet my sister…the sister who threw her ex-husband out a window was a coward…or… a selfish bitch.”

  “Selfish!” Jason had never talked that way to me before. Not ever. “So what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, forget asshole, Jake. Just get dressed. We’re going to see Mrs. Delaney before we leave. At least you won’t feel guilty for the rest of your life. I take it you’re one of the few friends that actually cares about her?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “So get dressed, girlfriend! I’ll call the limo to pick us up.”

  “All right.”

  Forty-five minutes later, and after braving terrible traffic that should have taken us ten minutes to drive through, we arrived at George Washington University Hospital. As I looked at the neon sign and all those windows, I started to shake, and my blood ran cold. Not because I was afraid for Delilah. Well, partly because I was afraid, but more because I was going to tell Damon I loved him. I’d always waited for the guy to tell me first, but this time… Well, this time, I we had no time to wait.

  “After you,” said Jason opening my door of the limo. He made a sweeping motion. I got out of the car, my legs shaking, and took a few steps. Then I turned when I noticed he wasn’t following me. “Aren’t you coming?”

  “Nope. She’s not my friend. In fact, I’ve never met the woman. Driver, take me back to the Delaney Club.” And he got in the back seat. He rolled the window down. “Just call us to pick you up when you’re ready. And Liz...”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t be a coward.”

  I just stood there. In shock. Heart racing. Staring at the shiny black car as it zoomed out of sight. What the hell was Jason thinking? Didn’t he know how hard this was for me? What kind of a brother does that?

  I took a deep breath, pushed through the circular revolving doors, and into the hospital. I was not a coward. Whether Damon loved me or not, I’d tell him and be done with it. I wouldn’t rush it though. Maybe I’d wait until the last possible minute. I needed to be there for Delilah. Or so I told myself.

  After getting hopelessly lost and then asking for directions, I found Delilah’s room. Or the waiting room outside it, to be precise. I wasn’t the only one who’d come to see her. Five different men and a few couples were milling around outside her bedroom door of the Intensive Care Unit.

  A nurse in green scrubs with shamrocks all over it, approached. “I’m sorry, but no one can see Mrs. Delaney right now.”

  “Oh my god. She isn’t…” Tears that had been harboring in the corners of my eyes spilled down my cheeks. I wiped them away with the back of my hand.

  “No, no. I’m sorry. I should have been more specific. I can only allow one or two of you in the room at a time, and right now her granddaughter is with her.”

  I glanced toward the half open door and saw Tabitha seated beside the bed, her head buried in Delilah’s hand.

  “Oh,” I choked out. “I understand. Of course.”

  “If you would just have a seat over there with the others?” She was tall and thin, looking like a ghost in her bright white uniform.

  I stood there, staring at the walls and a wreck, wondering if I should leave, use the excuse she had plenty of visitors anyway. Something told me to stay though. A niggling sense of doubt? Or was it something else? “I’ll wait,” I finally said and I took a seat.

  The place was packed an wit only one seat not taken by men in business suits, one Indian woman in traditional dress, and several casually dressed men. It reminded me of a damn airport with flat uncomfortable seats, each one attached the seat beside it. Swallowing, I plopped myself down in one, smiling for no reason but just to do something other than cry

  Someone opened a candy wrapper, and my stomach growled. I remembered I hadn’t eaten. I debated about going to the coffee shop to grab coffee and a danish, but I didn’t want to miss my last opportunity to talk with Delilah? I didn’t know how much time she had. Since I had nothing to lose, I’d decided I would mention my father’s bid for the club. No matter how ridiculous it was that a recovering drug addict should purchase it, I didn’t see how there was any harm. Besides, I fully expected a rejection. Once we were home, I planned on hiring someone to discover how Jake found us. If I was going to start a new life, I
needed those files sealed. At least where Jake was concerned.

  I walked over to the vending machine, placed one hand on the glass, and viewed the assortment of snacks. The ticking clock sounded throughout the room, a reminder I didn’t have time.

  I dug in my purse for some change, threw it in the vending machine and pushed what I thought were the right buttons to get a Hershey’s chocolate bar. What I got was a granola bar instead.

  “Fucking figures,” I muttered as I reached down to grab the offending snack. Even in the most mundane of situations, Damon’s face popped into my brain.

  Damon and his no-sugar, no-alcohol, no-anything unhealthy rules, whispering in that sultry male voice of his, do you really want that kind of crap in your system, Liz?