“Sit, mate.” Talib pressed a drink into his friend’s hand, then took note of the time on his wristwatch. “Have you eaten?”
“I left before…. We started fighting over a newspaper story about the party.”
“Well, that’s just foolish.” Talib took the armchair across from Asher. “They were all raving accounts.”
Asher sampled the drink. Savoring the burn, he tossed back a bit more. “One of ’em speculated on how long she’d stay in New York if a baby was really in the picture.”
“Ah.” Talib finished his drink in one gulp. “And I guess the answer she gave wasn’t the reply you wanted.”
“Tal, the answer she gave…I never saw it comin’.” Asher recapped the argument with his wife while Talib listened intently. “What?” Asher asked, not liking the look on his friend’s face.
“You won’t like it,” Talib said.
“Do I ever?” He tapped his glass on a jean-clad knee.
“She’s got a valid argument. It’s probably unfair to you, but based on the kind of life she’s had…All of us weren’t as lucky in our childhoods as you were.”
“So I should feel guilty about that?” Asher stood. “She should be thrilled that I know what a stable home is. That’s part of the reason a lot of men walk away. They’ve got no experience like that to draw from.” He sat back down. “They don’t know how important it is to stick around and give it their all.”
“You’re right, man.” Talib leaned forward. “But in Riley’s defense and speaking as a kid from a one-parent home…I know what it’s like to have your father walk out for good, and I know what it’s like to not know if there’s gonna be anything on the table for dinner, if there’ll be lights on to see how to eat or if there’s gonna be a place for the lights to burn.”
“Jesus…” Asher dropped his face in his hands.
“She probably never really had to face how all the fear and unease of that time affected her.” Talib leaned back. “Now she’s married and about to start her own family. She’s in the same position her mother was in.” He smiled when Asher’s jaw clenched. “She’s not in that position literally. But still, it’s got to be dealt with.”
“She doesn’t trust me. She doesn’t have trust in us—in me.” The anger was gone from his voice. In its place was the unmistakable tinge of hurt. “I thought I knew her—everything about her. All the times we talked, talked about things we wanted, and she never shared what was most important.”
“And have you shared everything with her, mate?”
Asher’s mouth tightened to a thin line. He wanted to argue that it wasn’t the same, but that would’ve been a lie. Perhaps it was time to move beyond his fears. Perhaps it was the only way to save his marriage.
Talib could see that Asher was thinking hard. Maybe admitting to himself that this entire situation had gone too far and for too long. Deciding they could both use breakfast, Talib rubbed a hand across his jeans and stood to dial room service.
Leaving his armchair as well, Asher began strolling around the living area of the suite as he contemplated.
“Yeah, yeah, a double order of coffee, orange juice, double order of eggs. Scrambled?” Talib voiced the question for Asher, who responded with a thumbs-up. “Scrambled eggs, steak strips…”
Asher continued to pace while Talib finished placing the order. Talking with his partner had relieved mounds of his stress and allowed him to think more clearly about the issue at hand. The issue at hand, and everything else for that matter, fled from his mind when he spied what lay on the edge of a table in the far corner of the room.
Talib was still on the phone when Asher helped himself to a lengthy perusal of the black-and-white photos. Photos featuring his wife and her colleague Bastian Grovers.
The ache of hurt feelings that he’d toted around since arguing with Riley merged with feelings of rage and disbelief. Smoothing a hand across his jaw, Asher forced himself to review every shot. He was finishing up with the last one when Talib ended the call and announced breakfast was on its way.
“There’s nothing to it, man,” Talib explained when Asher turned, with a photo clutched in a fist.
“Would you believe that?” Asher’s calm was frightening.
Talib shrugged. “I probably wouldn’t, since this is Riley, and she’s stupid in love with you. She’d never—”
“Would you believe that? Huh, mate?” Asher mocked his friend’s accent as a look of crazed anger drifted into his light eyes. “Did you believe that when you first saw them?” Talib’s expression told Asher all he needed to know, and he broke for the front door.
Talib didn’t bother to call for him to stop. Instead, he massaged his nose and muttered a vicious oath.
“What the hell did you do, Talib? Letting your own hurt feelings get in the way of common sense. Riley’d never—”
“Dammit, Misha, this isn’t about us. I didn’t tell Asher a thing. He came over here after he and Riley argued. He saw the photos…I didn’t have a chance to put them away.”
Misha rolled her eyes. She could hear the anxiety and remorse in his voice and knew he was telling the truth. Too bad he couldn’t believe in her as easily, she mused.
“What do you expect me to do?” she asked after shaking herself free of memories of an unfortunate past.
“I just want you to get Riley to leave the office and go home.”
“Oh please. Asher wouldn’t—”
“That’s not what I’m thinking, but he doesn’t need to see her now.” Talib paced around the suite, with quick barefoot steps. “He needs to cool off and realize that what he’s thinking is stupid.”
“I agree with you on that.” Misha was in her office and pacing as well. “All right. Um, I’ll talk to Riley. She looked like hell when she got here, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince her to go. So is that it, Talib? Anything else?”
“That’s it. Thanks.”
Misha cursed when the buzz sounded to signal that he’d ended the connection. She cursed a second time when she felt tears at the back of her eyes.
“Get it together, Mish.” She rounded her desk, intending to find Riley. Screams mingled with thunderous bumping sounds, and everything else fled from her mind.
Praying she wouldn’t take a tumble in her black heels, Misha quickened her steps en route to Riley’s office. The scene meeting her eyes was chaotic at best when she peered around the corner. The bulk of the chaos, however, was not centered around Riley’s door, but around Bastian Grovers’s.
Misha said a quick prayer and made her way toward the melee. There, she found several men pulling Asher Hudson off Bastian, who sat cupping a hand to a busted lip as his swollen left eye began to darken.
“Get him out of here—as quietly as possible,” Misha ordered the men gripping Asher. “Laylee? You and Rita get some help for Bastian.”
Riley had heard the noise and had left her office to investigate as well. Nothing prepared her to see her husband being led away by force.
“Asher,” she called, and the look he slanted stopped her heart. It was possibly not the best time for inquiries, she decided and was about to follow the men carting Asher away when Misha addressed her.
“That’s a bad idea, Rile.”
“What’s going on?” Riley switched directions and went to stand before Misha.
Sighing, Misha pulled a hand from her trouser pocket and waved Riley toward her office door. She gave her friend an abbreviated but no less shocking account of recent events. Riley’s legs weakened, and she was barely sitting on the edge of her seat before Misha was even halfway through the story.
“The only time I’ve seen Bastian alone is here, and he’s never kissed me.” She recalled the day outside the Shell. “Dammit…” She had her face in her hands and inhaled. “He was asking about getting the exclusive on Vic’s story. I was supposed to meet him at the Shell for lunch. I was late because of an appointment with Lettia. He asked me to walk out with him…God…he was so upbeat about
it, he hugged me.” She shrugged. “Kissed me a few times as well, and we laughed about it. But it was all innocent, Misha, I swear.”
“Everybody already knows that, honey.” Misha stooped to pat Riley’s knee. “But you know how the game is played, girl. An innocent picture can turn into scandal easy. Hey? Why don’t you just take off for the day?” she suggested when Riley groaned again.
Riley slumped back against the chair and toyed with the row of buttons on her coffee-colored blouse. “I don’t want to go home. The place is starting to close in on me.” She nodded at Misha’s surprised look. “It’s true. I’ve even been looking through real estate pubs.”
“Moving?” Misha folded her arms across her suit coat.
“Just need more space, I guess. But it’s on the back burner just now. Lots more I need to get done first.” She started to push herself out of the chair. “There’s that meeting next week with Gloria and the execs.”
“Precisely why you need to sit out today. Unwind from all this drama.”
“And waste an entire day? No, Misha, I don’t think—”
“I could always call Lett, see what she thinks about it.”
Threatened that her doctor would be brought into the situation, Riley stood and fixed Misha with a resigned smile. “Guess I should go talk to Bastian first, try to explain, apologize. Hope he doesn’t press charges against my baby’s daddy.”
Misha smirked. “Forget it. I’ll look in on him and see what’s up. You go get your stuff together. When you’re done, we’re out of here.”
Asher drove around for about forty minutes. Surprisingly, the rage had left the second he stumbled, er, was pushed, out onto the pavement outside the paper. He’d called himself stupid about ten times and then got the hell out of there before someone called the cops. He didn’t know what led him to Virginia Stamper’s gorgeous penthouse condo but celebrated the workings of his subconscious. He could certainly use a wiser ear to vent to just then.
He pressed his forehead against the steering wheel and squeezed his eyes shut tight. All he could see was Riley. The way she’d looked at him as her colleagues ushered him off the premises. She’d watched as though he were a stranger—some fool who’d bounded in to bring harm to the innocent souls inside.
God, what was happening to him? he asked himself. Quick, sharp laughter livened the interior of the SUV then. He knew it was the dramatic episode from his past that was coming back to haunt him. He also knew he needed to share it with his wife. But would sharing it cause him to think or feel differently? What was the answer here? He’d give anything to find someone who could tell him how to handle this. Looking up at the skyscraper he’d parked next to, he prayed he’d find that someone inside.
Virginia Stamper had been toiling away in her rooftop garden, as usual. She did a double take when she noticed her son-in-law knocking on the glass door of the enclosed rooftop entrance. Without hesitation, she set aside her pruning shears and went to let him in.
Asher marveled in silence as his mother-in-law drew closer. He was awed by the way a woman dressed in oversize gardening clothes, a hat and gloves, all powdered with dirt, could look so lovely. Shrugging, he accepted the fact that the effect was just one of the many things he’d come to adore about his wife’s mother.
“Look at you!” Virginia raved, reaching out to pull him close and then changing her mind. “I don’t want to get you all dusty,” she explained.
“Please.” Asher rolled his eyes and tugged her close. “No way am I missing out on a hug from a beauty like you.”
Virginia’s melodic laughter filled the glass greenhouse, and thoroughly charmed, she hugged Asher tight. When they pulled apart, it didn’t take long for Virginia to surmise that there was something wrong. Still, she decided to approach questioning her son-in-law very carefully.
“Can I get you a drink?” she offered while removing her hat and gloves. “How’s that daughter of mine? I haven’t seen her in a week or two.” Virginia reached into the mini-fridge, which claimed the far corner of the greenhouse. She grabbed two bottles of chilled orange juice. “Tell me, love, how’s a concerned mother supposed to assist a daughter as independent as my Riley?”
Asher took the juice and grinned. “I think she’ll be happy with whatever you do, Miss Ginny.”
“Lord,” Virginia breathed, her features contorted into an expression of horror and curiosity. She’d glimpsed the vicious bruises on Asher’s knuckles when she handed him the juice. “What’s happened?” She wasted no time questioning him then. Pushing him onto the wrought-iron lawn chair, she listened intently while he explained the scene that had just transpired.
“I suppose I don’t have to tell you that you behaved like an idiot.” Virginia leaned back and sipped her juice.
Asher followed suit. “I’ve been telling myself that since they threw me off the premises.”
“How’s Riley?”
Asher grimaced and smoothed the back of his unbruised hand across the scar he carried. “The way she looked at me…I know she’s as disappointed in me as I am in myself.”
Virginia set aside her juice and then leaned forward to brace her elbows on her knees. “How’d all this happen, honey?”
“Well, the pictures—”
“No, this isn’t just about that. Whatever’s going on started way before that.” She looked back at him. “How much of this has to do with that ultimatum of yours?”
Asher grinned in spite of himself. “Stupidest thing I’ve ever done. We had an argument about it, and then…she tells me that she could’ve done without being married, but I wanted it so….” He drank deeply of the juice in an attempt to scorch the heat rising at his neck. “Miss Ginny, she told me she didn’t think I’d stick around.”
Virginia clutched his forearm, bared by the rolled sleeve of his shirt. “Did she really say that, Asher?”
He was already nodding. “Close enough to it. I don’t think she knew what hearing that did to me.” He met Virginia’s probing gaze for barely a moment. “I know she had a rough childhood, and that messed with her head as an adult, but I at least thought she trusted me.”
“She does.” Virginia gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. “She trusts in you and your love for her, but probably…not in all the unforeseen elements that can bring havoc to any marriage.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Asher closed his eyes. “Sorry, Miss Ginny.”
She rubbed his back in understanding. “Try to envision your own childhood, and then picture it the exact opposite of that. That was your wife’s childhood, and I…” A look of weariness settled on her usually glowing face. “I’m afraid I didn’t handle it well, either. I think she’s afraid she may put her own child through the same thing.”
Asher’s expression brought a lost quality to his handsome face. “How do I fight that?”
“You can’t, baby. Not now, anyway. You and Riley have to realize that it’s not about the two of you anymore. It’s about that life inside her, and it’s about doing what’s necessary to ensure that it enters the world healthy.” Virginia stood and relieved Asher of his empty bottle. “The two of you are at odds over the past, your fears, her anxieties…You have to set that all in the back of the bus now.”
“You’re right. God, you’re right.” Asher spoke as though he was just grasping something that had been staring him in the face all along.
“This is a happy time.” Virginia studied him from the makeshift kitchenette in the greenhouse. “It should be a happy time for many reasons, but most importantly, because it’s good for the baby. Riley needs to be as relaxed as possible. She needs to put the unrest between you aside for now, and that’s where you come in.” She watched Asher staring off into the distance, as though he was weighing her arguments. Satisfied that she’d given him enough to think on, she clapped her hands suddenly. “Can I interest you in a salad, courtesy of my garden?”
In spite of his woes, Asher had a bright smile when he stood.
“So a
re you sure he won’t press charges?”
“Mmm-hmm…” Misha’s tone was absent while she deleted messages from her i-Phone. “Once I explained why Asher went off, he was cool. Well…” She smirked. “About as cool as you can be with a black eye and busted lip.”
“Damn.” Riley grumbled the curse while tossing her house keys on the message table.
Misha followed, kicking the front door shut and locking it behind her.
“I should thank him.”
“Send him an e-mail.” Misha’s stare was locked on her phone again. “We don’t need you two getting caught on camera again.”
Again, Riley cursed and dragged a hand through her hair in silent rage over everything that had happened.
“Why don’t you just calm down?” Misha set aside the phone and then ushered her friend into the bedroom. “Get out of that suit while I fix us some snacks.”
Riley tugged on the cuff of Misha’s suit coat. “Thanks, girl.”
Misha replied with a wave. “You just grab me a T-shirt and some shorts to change into.”
“You don’t have to babysit me.” Riley bristled.
“Well, I’m figuring Asher’s gonna want to stay as far away from here as possible tonight, and you don’t need to be alone. Besides, I figure I’m due for babysitting practice. Gotta be ready for my nephew.”
“And just how do you know it’s a boy?”
Tapping a finger on the baby hair on her temple, Misha winked. “Men are drawn to me, so it’s inevitable. Now get comfortable. That’s an order.”
While Riley did as she was told, Misha kicked off her pumps and headed for the kitchen to prepare much-needed snacks for a girls’ night in. Her head was in the fridge when she heard the vibration of her phone against the counter.
“What the hell?” She spotted Talib’s name on the faceplate. After a moment’s hesitation, she answered. “How the hell did you get my number?”
“My secret.”
“Talib—”
“I want to apologize.”
Hudsons Crossing Page 18
