At the mention of Joey, Hope’s knees went weak.
“Now why could that be, I wonder?” Russell continued smoothly. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with his not having a father, would it?”
“I don’t—”
“Cut the crap, Hope,” Russell said roughly. “I know when he was born. I know when we were together and I think I might just have a pretty interesting lawsuit to file. Custody cases always make such fascinating reading, don’t they? Especially ones that involve lots of money. Of course, if you could see your way clear to give me another loan of another hundred and fifty thou or so then maybe I wouldn’t be so determined to see a lawyer. Am I making myself clear?”
Very, Hope thought, feeling sick.
“Morning!” Chase’s cheerful voice sounded in the distance. He was wearing swim trunks and a calf-length terry robe; a towel was laced around his neck. He joined them. “I thought I heard voices out here.”
Hope stood stiffly. Bad enough Chase had discovered all the hurtful specifics surrounding her marriage to his father. She didn’t want him drawn into this, too.
The two men greeted one another. “Carmelita needs you in the kitchen, Hope. Some question about the menu.” Chase looked at Russell pointedly. “Sorry you can’t come in.”
Russell was livid, but controlled himself because of Chase. “Yes, well, I am, too. Hope, I’ll be seeing you around.”
“What was that all about?” Chase asked as he fell into step beside her. “What does he want from you?”
Hope was silent.
“Talk to me, dammit. Tell me what’s going on.” She looked unsteady as hell. He waited until they rounded the corner of the house, then stopped beside the nearest tree. She leaned against it weakly, but still said nothing. She just stood there looking as though she wanted to cry.
Chase stared at her in frustration, aware his heart was beating double time. He wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her until she was damn near ready to faint, and until she was ready to confess. But that was no solution.
Hope had to want to let him into her life, all the way. She had to want to open up to him or it wouldn’t work. Right now that wasn’t the case. He had vague guesses as to what was going on, but nothing concrete. He could help Hope, if she’d let him. But she wouldn’t. Hadn’t he promised himself he wouldn’t get close to people who had no intention of ever opening up to him? Wasn’t he through chasing lost causes? And yet here he was again, wanting so much. He was ready to give and yet he was being rejected.
“If you ever change your mind about talking,” he said, holding out absolutely no prospect she would, “you know where to find me.”
“HOPE, that’s the tenth message Russell Morris left for you today,” Steve Supack said. “I don’t think he’s going to give up until he sees you.”
I know he isn’t, Hope thought, depressed.
“And that’s not the worst of it,” Leigh Olney said, adding her two cents. “Scuttlebutt is that Rosemary Barrister is trying to get her son and everyone on the Board to vote you out of the presidency. She thinks the sales figures are all the proof she needs.”
“They weren’t that bad,” Steve said in Hope’s defense.
Leigh agreed. “I’m happy with them. But you know Cassandra Hayes. She wants profit with a capital P, and when she doesn’t get it—” Leigh made a slashing motion across her neck.
Hope smiled at her staff’s antics. She knew they were trying to be helpful. Unfortunately right now she had the feeling nothing could help. Except maybe Chase.
Why hadn’t she confided in him this morning when she’d had the chance? If anyone could scare off Russell Morris, it was Chase. But she had hesitated to tell him the depth of the trouble she was in. Why? It wasn’t as if he could think any worse of her. Thanks to Rosemary’s half-truths and accusations, he already had a very low opinion of her.
She could set him straight, of course. But he probably wouldn’t believe what Russell and his family had done to her, no more than he had believed her when she had told him the truth about his mother. As for Russell, she had no more money and no more jewelry to sell.
“Hey, don’t you have to get out of here?” Leigh asked.
“Doesn’t Joey have a game tonight?”
“Yes. He does. Thanks for reminding me.” Jerked back to the pressing demands of the present, Hope forced a wan smile. “I’ll see you two in the morning.”
Steve saluted. “We’ll keep our ears to the ground.”
“Are you sure you feel up to playing tonight?” Hope asked Joey when she got home. Clad in his uniform, he was seated on his bed. Mitt on, he was pounding a ball into the center of it with forceful regularity.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”
“Well, the Bateman twins, for one thing.”
“Oh. Well, they’re always going to be around,” he offered philosophically, tossing down his glove and adjusting the brim of his hat.
“Yes, but not on your team,” Hope pointed out reasonably.
“You don’t have to go, you know. You could sit the rest of the season out or you could be put on a different team.” With a coach who knows how to control his players, Hope added silently.
“Aw, Mom,” Joey said, visibly affronted by the suggestion.
“Don’t coddle me.”
Hope hesitated, wanting to do what was best for her son, but uncertain what that was. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“Yeah, I do. I don’t mean to insult you or anything but, like Chase says, I gotta learn to be tough and stand up for myself.”
Hope sighed. Chase, after all, was probably right. “He’s talked to you about this?”
“Mmm-hmm. Lots,” Joey responded enthusiastically. “When you’re not home. He says there are always going to be bullies and that I need to learn to deal with them.” Joey shrugged. “As hard as it is, I gotta do it.”
Wise advice, Hope thought. If only she could apply it to herself.
“Now can we go?” Joey jumped up, anxious to get a move on. “Hurry and change, Mom. If we don’t hustle, we’re going to be late.”
HOPE CLIMBED UP the bleachers, taking a place near a group of other mothers. As usual, she joined in the small talk, but thinking about the game ahead, her stomach was in a knot of apprehension. On the field, warming up with his team, Joey looked tense, too.
Let him handle it, Chase had said. Asthma or not, you can’t fight his battles for the rest of his life. But he’s so young, a part of her protested. He’s also getting older every day, the more pragmatic part of her answered, and the lessons he learns now will serve him the rest of his life. She sighed. Why was the hardest part of mothering learning to let go?
The game started. Joey’s team was first to bat. Because the Batemans were undoubtedly the strongest players on the team, they headed the hitting lineup. The first got a double, the second a triple. Between them, they scored the first two runs of the game. By the time Joey got to bat, the bases were loaded. His team had two outs. It was all up to him. Knowing it, the Batemans were unable to resist. “Hey Barrister,” one of them yelled from the bench, “don’t blow it for us, okay?”
Listening to the verbal bullying, Hope felt her temper begin to rise.
“Yeah, get us a hit,” the other twin yelled. “If you can.”
Joey turned toward the dugout and dropped his bat. Oblivious to everyone else, he stared at his teammates until they began to squirm and their coach said something in a reprimand to both boys.
Watching how well her son had handled the heckling, Hope felt a swell of pride.
Satisfied, Joey turned back to the pitcher and leveled the bat over his shoulder. The pitch came. Confident, he swung. The bat contacted the ball with a solid smack, and he was off, knocking in another run before the inning ended.
As the teams exchanged places, Hope looked up to see Chase slipping into a seat at the other side of the bleachers. Evidently he’d seen Joey get his hit, for he gave her a thumbs-up sign. She smi
led back, then turned away, both glad and disturbed he didn’t fight the crowd of parents to take a seat right next to her.
The game resumed. Hope was relieved to see Joey do as well as he had the first inning, but her happiness over that faded when she saw yet another person join the crowd. And this one didn’t mind threading his way through the people so he could sit right next to her.
“Hello, Hope,” Russell Morris said.
Hope felt her stomach twist miserably. Aware of all the people around her, within earshot, she said as calmly as she could, “Russell.”
“That your son playing left field?”
Again, it took all her strength to answer calmly. “Yes.”
“Nice looking kid.”
A faint pounding began in Hope’s temples. “If you’ll excuse me, I need a drink.” Not waiting for a response from Russell, she climbed down from the bleachers and made her way blindly to the concession stand. She was going to have to take her migraine medicine right now if she wanted to avoid a blinding headache.
By the time she’d ordered a cola, Russell had caught up with her. “You don’t look too well,” he observed smoothly.
You’re making me ill, Hope thought.
“I could help you, you know.”
“I don’t think so.” She moved away from him stiffly. She wished she could just get in her car and leave, but she knew she couldn’t, not as long as Joey was still playing his game.
He paused. “Have you given any more thought to what we discussed?”
Out of her peripheral vision, Hope saw Chase standing in the distance, at the edge of the bleachers. Hands thrust into the pockets of his jeans, he was watching her. She knew all she had to do was give him the signal and he would rush in to rescue her, for the moment anyway. But she would also have to tell him everything. He wouldn’t keep on operating in the dark. Nor could she blame him.
Hope turned back to Russell. Just knowing Chase was there if she needed him made her feel stronger. “I’ve already given you all I can,” she returned calmly.
Russell shrugged, looking not the least bit dissuaded. “Custody suits are such nasty affairs, don’t you think,” he pointed out. “Especially when the mother hasn’t ever told the father of the child’s existence.” He waited a moment, for his words to sink in. “Think about it, Hope,” he said heavily, “then get back to me. Tomorrow, noon at Maxim’s. I’ll be waiting.”
Hands still in his pockets, he sauntered off.
Hope took her paper cup of cola and headed straight for the ladies rest room. It was deserted. With trembling hands, she pried open the cap on her medicine bottle and downed a tablet. Glancing into the mirror above the sink, she saw her skin was ashen. A fine sheen of perspiration dusted her face. She mopped it dry with a tissue.
I never should have given Russell that first payment, she realized with sickening clarity. I knew better. Blackmailers are never satisfied with just one payment. This would go on and on until she was penniless unless she put a stop to it right now. But how? She had no doubt that Russell was every bit as cold-blooded as he said. He wouldn’t hesitate to make their past a current public scandal if she didn’t cooperate with him. She couldn’t have cared less about herself at this point, but she didn’t want Joey hurt.
Her mind awhirl, she walked back out of the rest room. Chase was standing fifteen feet away, a curious, concerned look on his face. She knew he wanted to help, but he wouldn’t interfere. It was all up to her now, just like it had all been up to Joey in the first inning.
It was her choice. She had let Chase down once, by withholding the truth from him. She didn’t have to do it again. Did she have the courage to tell him everything?
Chapter Fifteen
Rosemary was waiting for Chase when he returned to the guest house after the game. He heard her out impatiently. “Forget it, I’m not voting to have Hope ousted as store president.”
Rosemary stared at him incredulously. Impeccably coiffed and attired in an ice-blue Chanel suit, she looked as imperious and controlled as ever. Chase couldn’t help comparing her to Hope. He couldn’t help wishing that Rosemary had but a fraction of Hope’s warmth.
“You saw what she’s done,” Rosemary continued persuasively.
“Sales aren’t half what we needed to get the store on a firm footing again.” To her, the solution was obvious.
Fortunately for Hope, Chase didn’t agree. “They’re not as bad as they were, either,” he countered reasonably. “I vote we give her another six months, minimum.”
His mother’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “What’s gotten into you?” When he didn’t answer right away, she continued, “Are you involved with her?”
To be involved with her, Chase thought, I’d have to be close to her, and there’s no way Hope will ever let that happen. If he’d had any doubts, it had been hammered home to him during the game when he’d seen her sitting with that creep Russell Morris. Judging from the tense, ill look on Hope’s face as she’d fled the bleachers, she’d been about to get another migraine. Chase had wanted to grab Russell Morris by the collar and toss him out of the park, but he’d also known what a hopelessly pointless act of violence that would have been. Hope would have just let Russell Morris get to her again when he wasn’t around.
He had to face it. He couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to be helped. And Hope had demonstrated more than once she wasn’t about to confide in him or anyone else. She just wasn’t the sort of woman who could open up to a man, really let him into her heart and her life. He wasn’t interested in cursory, superficial relationships. He’d had enough of those growing up. No, when he became involved with a woman again it was going to be because it was the real thing. Because she loved and trusted him with all her heart and soul. Because she felt she could tell him anything and count on him to understand. And though it hurt him to admit it, Hope couldn’t give him that. Wouldn’t give him that, he corrected.
“Chase,” Rosemary demanded impatiently, breaking into his thoughts. “Stop woolgathering and answer me. Are you romantically involved with Hope?”
Resignation twisted the corners of his mouth down. He looked his mother straight in the eye and said calmly, “No, I’m not. Not the way you mean, anyway.” He amended silently, I would be if I could. “I am her friend, however.”
His mother uttered a short, repudiating laugh. “You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t care what you believe,” Chase said shortly. Then, on impulse, he decided to go for broke and really speak his mind.
“Frankly, Mother, it’s none of your business.”
Rosemary’s mouth opened in a round “oh” of surprise. Her porcelain-perfect skin reddened with outrage. “I can see I’m going to have to talk to you another time, when you’re in a more reasonable frame of mind.” She stormed out.
Hope stood in the shadows, watching Rosemary stalk to her car. Judging from the wrathful look on his mother’s face, perhaps now wasn’t the best time to approach Chase. But then what choice did she have? She knew if she didn’t talk to him soon, she would lose her nerve. For Joey’s sake, and her own, she couldn’t afford to let that happen. She needed him. He was the only person who could help her, the only person she trusted enough to even approach.
He flung open the door on the first knock. “Look, Mom, I told you I wouldn’t—Hope.” He stopped, chastened. “Sorry,” he amended gruffly. “I thought you were someone else.”
Hope swallowed and said, “May I come in?”
He gave her a steady look, then as if recalling all that had happened between them, he shrugged indifferently and gestured her in.
Knowing she’d hurt him, she hoped with all her heart it wasn’t too late. Lifting her eyes to his, she said in a trembling voice, “I need your help, Chase,” and then everything came tumbling out.
He listened to the details of Russell’s blackmail and her complicity as if he had known all along. And maybe he had, Hope thought. Or at least suspected.
“W
hat does he have on you?” Chase demanded frankly at last. He was filled with helpless anger. It was so damn senseless, he raged inwardly. All she would have had to do was ask for his help and he would have given it. But she was here now. And he had to concentrate on that.
For Hope, this was the worst. She knew Chase might not believe her about what had happened that fateful night any more than anyone else had. And the thought he might not was devastating to her. Swallowing hard, she said in a trembling voice, “You remember I told you I dated Russell a couple of times?”
Chase nodded, looking every bit as grim and apprehensive as she felt.
Struggling to remain calm, she took a deep, steadying breath and plunged on. “The first date everything was as I expected it to be. We went out for a pizza and saw a late movie. He was a gentleman. But on the second, it was a completely different story.” She shuddered violently at the memory and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, to warm herself. “We were supposed to go to dinner.” She lowered her eyes briefly, feeling pathetic in her naiveté. To her relief, Chase remained calm and empathetic. That, in turn, enabled her to go on, to tell him things she had never even told his father.
“Instead Russell took me to a popular bar in Lubbock. He said we were going to wait there and meet up with some friends of his before dinner. It soon became apparent they weren’t going to show. Meanwhile, he proceeded to get very drunk, very fast.” She shuddered again, reliving the awful tension she’d felt that night. Swallowing hard, she said, “He ordered drinks for me, tequila sunrises, and when I refused to drink anything, or to even take a sip, he drained the glasses for me and ordered another round.” She lifted her eyes to his. They were dark with the pain she felt.
“I was really scared.” She shook her head in abject misery. “I knew I was in trouble and if I’d been smart I would have called my parents then and there and asked them to come and get me. But it was a fifty-mile drive one way, and I knew they’d be furious, that they wouldn’t understand, so I decided to drive him home, and walk back to my place from his house.” Her face flamed as she heaved a derisive sigh and admitted to him that giant mistake in her judgment, one that had been motivated by pride more than anything else. “I figured that way no one would ever have to know what a fool I’d been.”
Tangled Web Page 23
