Her mother had done so much for her over the years….
The vows Peggy and John took resonated with Leigh, and she could imagine saying them with Adam. She could actually see herself doing that. But as soon as the scene played in her mind, she switched it off. That wasn’t where she and Adam were headed. His life was here in Portland, where he had grown a business, where he now had a family that seemed to become larger each day. She would be in Ohio. Long-distance relationships didn’t work. She knew that. She also knew her hours would be long and not leave free time for even letter writing, let alone commutes home.
The ceremony ended and Mr. and Mrs. Wagner bestowed on the couple all of their good wishes. Leigh watched as Adam congratulated John and his mother. It seemed there had been some healing there. At least, they all seemed at peace with the past.
Except for Sharon.
She was wearing tan slacks and an off-white blouse, and Leigh wanted to tell her she’d look so much more attractive in colors. Yet she knew the woman probably wouldn’t listen or want anyone else’s advice.
Adam made it clear that lunch after the ceremony was on him. He’d made reservations at one of Portland’s finest restaurants, and Peggy’s eyes glistened when he told her. “You didn’t have to do that,” she mumbled.
“I wanted to do that,” Adam assured her.
A half hour later they were seated at a round table covered with a pale gray tablecloth. The silverware shone and the crystal sparkled.
They were eating their salads when Peggy asked Leigh, “Where do you work?”
“At Portland General. That’s how Adam and I reconnected again…when he became the donor for Mark Cambry’s transplant.”
“There was an article in the paper about that yesterday,” John reminded Peggy.
“Yes,” she agreed. “Did you see it?”
Adam exchanged a glance with Leigh. With everything that was happening in their lives, she didn’t think he’d even opened the paper in the past few days.
“I didn’t see it,” Adam admitted, and Leigh shook her head, indicating she hadn’t, either. “Why would an article about that be in the paper?” he asked.
“Mr. Cambry is important in this community. And so are you. They talked about how Mr. Cambry’s family wasn’t a match. Then they wrote about you being his son. They quoted his daughter, Shawna, several times.”
“Maybe she picked up the phone when the reporter called,” Leigh suggested, knowing how open Shawna was. “I can’t imagine Jared and Danielle giving out that information.” She knew how Adam hated publicity, but this shouldn’t affect him. His receptionist could always field calls he didn’t want to handle.
“What work do you do at the hospital?” Peggy asked, going back to her original question.
“I’m a nurse in the oncology unit. But that will be changing in June. I’ll be attending med school.”
“Here?” Peggy asked.
“No,” Adam answered for her. “In Ohio. She has a full scholarship. She has always dreamed of being a doctor, and now that dream is going to come true.”
He said it matter-of-factly, as if he were reminding himself of all of those facts. Although last night had been wonderful, although they’d talked about grabbing the moment and living in the present, she knew Adam. At some point he’d want to protect himself against the pain of her leaving. He’d shut down and close her out. She was sure of it.
“I’m going to be changing a few things in my life, too.” Sharon had been quiet during lunch and it was the first time she had spoken.
“What kind of things?” Adam asked, giving her his full attention.
“I applied for a promotion to manage the back claims department. I’ve been thinking about it for some time. I didn’t really want to leave the group of people I’m working with in the intake division, but the salary’s better. I’d also have another week’s vacation.”
“Those are advantages,” Adam agreed. “Would you like the work as well as what you’re doing now?”
“I think so. It would be less customer service, more of a supervisory position.”
“When will you know if you got it?” Adam asked.
“I should know by the end of next week. But in the meantime—” she exchanged a glance with her mother “—I’m going to be looking at apartments.”
“I told her she doesn’t have to move out,” Peggy said quietly.
“We’ve both told her that,” John agreed, letting Adam know this wasn’t his doing.
“Yes, you’ve both told me that,” Sharon admitted. “But you two need your privacy. And I think it’s time I…try living on my own.” Then she gave Adam a glance that was a bit defiant but filled with pride, too.
After that, no controversial subjects arose. It was a pleasant lunch, and when Leigh and Adam drove back to the ranch, she thought he looked relieved.
“Your mom and John seemed pleased with the way the day went,” Leigh commented. “They seem happy together.”
“I wonder if they got married because it was practical for both of them. Mom is getting older and needs a man around the house. John… Well, he’ll have the obvious advantages. Sex. Home-cooked meals.”
“I think it’s more than a practical marriage,” Leigh protested. “I saw the way he looked at her, and the way she looked at him. I think they’re really in love. When John took her hands so gently in his, when he said his vows so fervently, it seemed he’d found someone he’d needed all his life. It’s more than a practical arrangement,” she said with certainty this time.
“You’re a romantic,” Adam said with a slight smile.
She’d never thought of herself in that way, but maybe she was.
As Adam drove up Cedar Run’s lane to the house, they both spotted the silver sedan parked in the driveway.
“Are you expecting anyone?” Leigh asked.
“No. I don’t think it would be Lissa and Sullivan. They’d call before they drove up here.”
“Unless they wanted to surprise you.”
However, when Adam pulled up beside the car, they could see a man, a stranger, sitting inside.
Adam motioned to the man that he was going to pull into the garage and go around to the door. Then he pressed the remote.
A few minutes later Adam opened his front door. “Can I help you?” he asked the stranger.
Waiting near the sofa in the living room, Leigh wondered if this visitor could possibly be here for her. Not that she was expecting anyone, either.
The man was dressed in a button-down shirt and casual slacks. He was about five-eight, looked to be in his mid-thirties and kept pushing his glasses up higher on his nose. “Adam Bartlett?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“My name’s Randy Seneft. I’m with Breaking News on the PQF network. Could we talk?”
After only a moment’s hesitation, Adam stepped back and let the man inside.
Seneft glanced over at Leigh and then smiled at Adam. “One of our producers saw the article in the paper yesterday…about you and Jared Cambry and the bone marrow transplant. We think it’s a wonderful story and want to do a live interview as soon as possible. What do you say? Will you do the show live with us for millions of people to see?”
Chapter Thirteen
“I’m not doing a live interview. I’m not doing any kind of interview.”
Leigh watched Adam’s face harden as he realized exactly what the associate producer wanted.
On one hand, she knew Adam hated the idea of his life being opened for all to see. On the other, she knew the donor registry always needed publicity. The more people who signed up, the more lives could be saved. “You know, maybe you should hear him out,” she suggested softly.
The bond that had been established between them last night seemed fragile now as his gaze met hers and she knew he wondered why she was even suggesting it.
“Yes, Mr. Bartlett, maybe you should hear me out. Or at least hear what I’m proposing.” The producer hurried on so Adam didn
’t have a chance to stop him. “We’d like to do the interview at the hospital. I’ve already gotten Dr. Chambers’s okay. We’ll show a videotape of Mark—or run a local station’s coverage of his soccer games, explaining his condition and what he’s gone through. But the other aspect of this we’d like to explore is how Mr. Cambry found you, and of course your part in all this. I understand there was also a reunion with a twin sister, Lissa Cartright Grayson.”
“That’s exactly what I don’t want,” Adam snapped. “Being put on display for the public to see. Forget it, Mr. Seneft, I’m not interested.” Adam opened the door wide so the man would leave.
As if he was playing his trump card, the producer stated, “Mr. Cambry has already agreed to this interview and so has his family. They want to tell other parents that there’s hope.”
“We don’t even know if the transplant took yet,” Adam said, clearly angry now.
“I understand that. But that’s what makes this a good story. The public will follow it—follow Mark’s progress.”
“And you don’t give a hoot if everything turns out all right or not. You don’t care if Mark lives or dies, as long as you get ratings.”
The producer shook his head. “Ah, Mr. Bartlett. You want to think the media is made up of heartless souls who are only interested in the story and the public’s response to it. That’s simply not true. Of course we care. We want Mark to make it. And think of all the people he’ll have praying for him.”
“That’s low,” Adam growled. “If you and the Cambrys want to do the story, that’s fine. But I won’t have any part of it.”
Quickly, before Adam could push him out the door, Mr. Seneft took a card from his pocket and shoved it into Adam’s hand. “I realize the idea of an interview has all come as a surprise to you, but I want you to think this over. We’re planning the taping for Tuesday night. All you have to do is give me a call to tell me if you want to join us.”
Adam remained stonily silent.
“Mr. Bartlett, I really think this would just make a heartwarming story. You trying to save a little boy’s life. A family reunited. Please think about it.”
After a last look at Adam’s set expression, the producer turned and left.
As Leigh sat down on the sofa, she could hear the producer drive away. There was so much she wanted to say, yet this was Adam’s decision. He had his reasons for wanting to keep his life private. Still…
He was studying her now. After a last look to make sure Seneft was gone, he crossed the room. “Say what you have to say, Leigh. I know there’s something on your mind.”
Ever since they first met, Adam could read her. Sometimes that was unsettling. When she searched for the right words to use, he shook his head. “Just say it, Leigh. You’re talking to me, not one of your patients.”
Tact was a part of her profession, and she realized now he didn’t want that. He wanted honesty. “All right. I think this is your chance to foster the donor transplant registry. To get the word out. To bring people in. You’re giving up the opportunity before you even look at what it could do.”
As he shook his head, he lowered himself to the sofa on the cushion beside her. “I don’t want my life laid out for everybody to see. I don’t want to have to relive it. I know exactly what will happen if I agree to this. It won’t be the cut-and-dried human interest story that producer says it will be. They’ll sensationalize everything. They’ll cut and paste and edit until it looks exactly like they want it to look.”
“Do you watch Breaking News?”
“No. I’ve never seen it. I don’t have much time or taste for network TV, for the reasons I just told you.”
“Breaking News isn’t like some of the other news segment programs. It’s in very good taste. I read an article in the Sunday paper on how they put the show together. They look for good, human-interest stories that don’t make national news, but yet carry a load of impact for the viewing public. They focus on the lives of whomever’s involved, and how the event or the situation has impacted them. It’s about people more than about the story. I’m sure both you and Jared would have a say in where you want the focus.”
Adam stared at the dark screen of the television, as if he was imagining all of it on there, and he didn’t like any of what he saw. “Publicity can so easily get out of hand. It’s the last thing I want. Even when Novel Programs, Unlimited’s, stock went public, I stayed in the background and let Dylan lead the parade. I did it for a very good reason. I didn’t want reporters poking into my life. They’ll bother Mom and John. They might even dig up something on Owen. No one wants to be exposed. I just don’t like the whole idea of it. You’re the one who wants to save lives. Sometimes I just want to go back to the way my life was before all of this started.”
There was an underlying message in Adam’s tone. The past month had caused nothing but upheaval in his life, and he didn’t like it. Although he might be grateful Shawna and Mark were in his life now, and Lissa too, he didn’t know where any of it was going to lead. Jared hadn’t welcomed him as a son into his family with open arms, and since the transplant was over and done, Adam might feel as if he were no longer necessary.
Resurrecting the relationship she and Adam once had and getting involved again hadn’t been wise on either of their parts, and yet she didn’t regret it. Maybe he did.
“Are you sorry I became your liaison? Are you sorry last night happened?”
“Last night happened because we decided to give in to the chemistry between us, and later be damned. But later’s going to come, Leigh. I know it, and you know it. If you thought writing me that note was tough, imagine how you’re going to feel when you take off for Cleveland.”
Pushing himself up from the sofa, he added, “Or maybe it won’t be any more difficult than the last time. Maybe you let last night happen because you knew that.”
Her heart ached because he was implying she didn’t care as much as he did. He was implying that an affair was easy for her, that it wasn’t going to tear her apart when they had to say goodbye. She couldn’t even find the words to respond. She found all of her feelings were clogging her throat, and she couldn’t get even one of them out.
When he rose to his feet, he avoided her gaze. “I’m going to change and then take Thunder for a ride. Rain is rolling in again tonight and I want to take him for a good workout.”
She just nodded, overwhelmed with the enormity of leaving Adam again…overwhelmed with the enormity of chasing a dream that she wasn’t sure was hers anymore.
The guard in the lobby of the building where Novel Programs, Unlimited, was located nodded to Adam as he let the glass doors shut behind him on the following afternoon. The overcast, gray sky outside fit Adam’s mood. Ever since that producer had turned up on his doorstep last night…
Tony Pasqual, sitting behind his desk in his security uniform, gave Adam a wide-toothed grin. “This is a busy place for a Sunday.”
That wasn’t what Adam wanted to hear. The tension between him and Leigh since their discussion last night hadn’t abated. She’d slept in the guest room. That wasn’t what he’d wanted. But after their conversation last evening, his pride had kept him silent when she’d told him that’s what she was going to do. Their night in bed together had been a denial of reality. Grabbing the moment in the dark of night had seemed like a good philosophy…until they’d looked at it in the light of day.
Do you really want to go back to life as you knew it before Jared’s visit? he asked himself.
He’d meant every word he’d said to her last night. Looking at Leigh, the twist of the knife in his gut when he thought about her leaving, had pushed him to answer her as he had. This morning after a ride on Thunder that hadn’t helped at all, after Leigh had made brunch and they’d forced conversation, after thinking about Mark isolated in that sterile hospital atmosphere, Adam had decided work would be his salvation today.
But he’d wanted to work alone, and he hoped anybody else Tony had signed in was workin
g on another floor.
The guard turned the log book to face Adam.
Picking up the pen, Adam scrawled his name, the date and the time, seeing that Dylan and Darlene were signed in before him. Terrific.
“So you’ve had traffic already today?” he asked.
“You could say that. On your floor, anyway. Mr. Montgomery and Miss Allen said that they had correspondence to catch up on that had backed up last week.”
Dylan had flown to Chicago earlier in the week and had been tied up in meetings at the end of it. Apparently, he’d enlisted Darlene’s help in catching up.
As Adam took the elevator to the fifteenth floor, he realized he hadn’t helped Dylan with his problem with Darlene. On the other hand, Adam didn’t know what he could do. He wasn’t having a problem with his secretary, Dylan was. It had been more than three weeks since his partner had voiced his concerns. Maybe the whole thing had blown over, or Dylan had brought it out into the open.
Bringing everything out into the open wasn’t always the best idea, either. Look at what happened when he and Leigh had finally admitted and acted on what was going on between them. Last night Adam’s bed had never felt more empty. Last night he’d wished the past had stayed in the past—along with his desire for Leigh.
Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, shedding their white glow into the hall as Adam stepped from the elevator. The sky looked even grayer out of the windows up here. He wished he’d put Thunder into his stall instead of leaving him in the corral.
Adam stopped for a moment before the glass doors stenciled with Novel Programs, Unlimited’s, bold lettering and logo. He had made his work his life until the past few weeks. Hadn’t his course been a lot less bumpy that way?
When he stepped into the wine, cream and black reception area, he wasn’t surprised not to find Darlene at her desk. If she and Dylan were going over the minutes of last week’s meetings and connected paperwork, they’d be in Dylan’s office. Better to stop in and make conversation now, rather than to get interrupted later. Once he closed his office door, he didn’t want to be disturbed.
Take A Chance On Me (Logan's Legacy) Page 17
