by Diana Palmer
Sari peered around the door and burst out laughing. “And I was afraid I’d have to run for my life when I opened this door...”
Mikey and Bernie both laughed.
Mikey got up and drew her up beside him. “We were talking about the future,” he said, smiling. “It looks pretty sweet.”
“Pretty sweet, indeed,” Bernie said with a long sigh as she looked up at him.
“I’d better get her home,” Mikey said. “She has to work tomorrow.”
“I know. So do I,” Sari wailed.
“There, there,” Bernie comforted her. “But there’s always next weekend!”
They all laughed.
* * *
Mikey took her back to the boardinghouse and left her at her door with a discreet kiss on her forehead because Mrs. Brown was lurking.
“It was a lovely day. Thank you,” Bernie said.
“It was one of many to come,” he replied. He smiled at her with his heart in his eyes. “See you in the morning, kid. Sweet dreams.”
“Oh, they’ll be sweet, all right,” she whispered, and then flushed.
He wrinkled his nose at her and winked.
She watched him all the way down the hall before she went back into her room and closed the door.
* * *
Work was difficult. Bernie’s happiness lit her up like a Christmas tree, and it showed. Olivia teased her. But Jessie watched and smoldered. She was furious that a plain little country girl like Bernie, one who was likely to end up living on disability, had attracted a man who could buy half a county with pocket change. Mikey was sophisticated, handsome and loaded. Jessie wanted him, and she couldn’t get to first base. He avoided her like the plague when he was in town.
There had to be some way she could get him out of Bernie’s life so that she had a chance with him. Being rude and unpleasant didn’t do any good. But if she could play one of them against the other while pretending to turn over a new leaf... Well, that was a promising idea. She began to plot ways to accomplish it.
Her first step was to stop being abrasive to the other women in the office. She toned down her bad attitude and took on her share of the work instead of avoiding it. She offered to bring coffee to Olivia and Bernie when they were swamped with paperwork, and she even brought lunch back for them once.
Everyone was surprised, even Mr. Kemp, who actually praised Jessie for her changed attitude.
Nothing had changed at all except that Jessie was playing a new game. But she smiled and did her best to look humble. She even apologized for the way she’d behaved before. It was hard being a city girl in a small Texas town, she explained to the other women. She’d always had to fight to get ahead, where she’d come from, and it was difficult to stop. But she wanted to fit in. She was going to try harder. The other women in the office, suspecting nothing, warmed to her.
And Jessie just smiled to herself. So far so good, she thought. She even lost her fear of being fired, which she couldn’t afford just now. She had a job to do. So she smiled and answered the phone and stopped flirting with rich men.
Bernie mentioned the changed attitude to Mikey on one of their dates, and he laughed. Bernie, he commented, was rubbing off on the other woman. He was happy to see it. So the next time he came across Jessie in the courthouse, where he’d gone with Paul to talk to a judge, he smiled and was pleasant to her.
* * *
Several days later, there was a complication. Bernie was walking back to the boardinghouse from work, after refusing a ride from Glory, and a car ran off the road, up onto the curb, and missed her by a few feet.
It sped away while she was getting back onto her feet. She was badly shaken. She picked up her pocketbook and her cane, and stood shivering while she tried to catch her breath. Had it been a car that just lost control, or was it deliberate? She worried the question all the way home.
She’d have told Mikey, but he was out of town on business. He’d mentioned at the boardinghouse that he had to meet with one of the deputy marshals in San Antonio, but he’d be back in time for a date they’d arranged for Saturday. He and Bernie had planned a sightseeing trip to San Antonio because they had plenty of chaperones. Bernie had always wanted to go through the Alamo, but there had never been time since she’d been an adult. Now she looked forward to seeing that part of Texas history with the love of her life.
* * *
Mikey picked her up in the limo, with Santi at the wheel, just after she got off work at one o’clock on Saturday. She was wearing a beige sweater and skirt with flats and a cane that matched her outfit.
“Color coordination, huh?” Mikey teased as he helped her into the back seat and climbed in beside her.
“I like things to match,” she teased.
He indicated the beige suit he was wearing with a white shirt and a brown paisley tie. “And so we do,” he laughed.
She grinned. “We do, indeed.”
“I wanted to see the Alamo when I was here last time, when Merrie was in trouble. But I never had the time. You Texans are pretty proud of it, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “We really are.”
He sighed. “I don’t know much about history, even in Jersey,” he commented. “Well, maybe one sort of history, but it’s not told in polite company,” he chuckled.
“I won’t ask,” she returned, smiling up at him.
“You haven’t carried the cane lately, until today,” he pointed out. “Having a flare?”
“Well, not really. I had a fall the other day on my way home from work.”
He scowled. “A fall?”
She nodded. She bit her lower lip. She hadn’t wanted to mention it. “A driver lost control of his car and it came up on the curb where I was walking. It missed me by several feet,” she added.
“What sort of car?” he asked with barely concealed anger.
She blinked. “That’s the thing, I really didn’t have time to notice. I fell and, while I was getting up, it sped away.”
“Big car, small?”
She frowned. “Medium.”
“What color?”
She tried to remember what it had looked like. “I think it was dark. Not black, but not a colored car, like blue or red or anything.”
He looked troubled. He pulled out his cell phone and texted a message to someone. She couldn’t tell who.
“I don’t think it was deliberate, Mikey,” she added softly. “I mean, it didn’t come right at me.”
“Warnings don’t,” he said curtly. He typed some more.
Her heart jumped. He was thinking it might be his enemy. But she was thinking it might be an enemy of her family, someone who’d tracked down the one surviving member and tried to avenge a loved one. It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened. That worried her.
He put down the phone. “I wish you’d told me sooner,” he said. His big hand reached out and touched her long hair lightly. “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, Bernie.”
She beamed.
He caught her hand in his and held it tight. He leaned back against the seat, clearly concerned. “I sent a text to Paulie. Did you tell Sari about it?”
“No,” she said. “She’s been in court all week and then she had to go and depose a witness in an assault case she’s prosecuting. And honestly, we’ve been pretty busy at work all week, too.”
He was weighing it in his mind. He knew Cotillo was after him, that the man could also target Bernie. But it wasn’t the way Cotillo did business. He’d already sent a cleaner after Mikey. That was how he handled threats. Aiming a car at a woman and missing her by several feet, that wasn’t the way a man used to violence did business.
Bernie’s hand in his tightened. “Maybe it was just an accident,” she said. “People do lose control of their cars for all sorts of reasons.”
“Yeah. They do. But i
t’s suspicious.”
She leaned her head on his shoulder and laughed. “That’s you. Suspicious.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I’ve spent my whole life being suspicious. It’s why I’m still alive, kid,” he teased.
“I suppose so.” She looked up into his eyes. “It could be somebody from my own past, from my family’s past, still hunting vengeance, you know. Daddy was almost killed once for it.”
“How many years ago was that?” he asked.
“Well, quite a few,” she recalled.
“It’s more likely that it’s somebody connected to me,” he said. “But in any case, the feds will hash it out.” He slid an arm around her shoulders. “Your coworker Jessie has changed,” he commented. “Even Paulie said Sari’s talking about it.” He glanced down at her. “Is she pretending?”
She laughed. “You really are suspicious. She said that it was hard to come from the city and get used to a small town, that she was used to having to be on her guard with people.”
“Did she say what city?”
She shook her head. “She came down here from San Antonio. But she’s originally from somewhere up north, I think, like her friend Billie who works at the courthouse. They room together.”
He frowned. He hadn’t considered that the two of them were both from up north. “Have they been here a long time?”
“Not really. Jessie’s only been here a few weeks. I believe she and her friend moved from San Antonio together. Billie knew somebody at the courthouse who wanted a temporary secretary after his got sick. They know the cook at Barbara’s, too—he’s from New Jersey.”
Mikey felt his heart stop and start again. He hadn’t been asking the right questions. Neither had Paulie. What if the two women and the cook were part of Cotillo’s bunch? If nothing else, the timing was right. He was going to suggest to Paulie that they get somebody to keep an eye on those three as well. It was too convenient to be a coincidence.
“You’re worried,” she said, breaking into his thoughts.
He smiled at her. “Nothing major,” he said. “Just thinking. We’re going to see the Alamo. No worries for today, at least. Okay?”
She grinned. “Okay!”
* * *
They walked around the old fort like tourists, holding hands and watching leaves drift down out of the trees.
“It’s going to be Halloween next week,” he pointed out.
She grinned at him. “Are we going trick-or-treating, then?”
He burst out laughing. “Oh, that would be one for the books, wouldn’t it?”
“I used to go when I was a little girl,” she recalled. “Mom and Dad would drive me up to some of the nice neighborhoods in San Antonio door-to-door so that I could get candy. We had only a couple of close neighbors, and they didn’t celebrate it at all.”
“Paulie and I went with a bunch of the guys from our neighborhood,” Mikey recalled. “This one house, a little old lady always invited us in for hot chocolate. It was a hoot. She’d been a Hollywood agent in her younger days. She could tell some stories!”
“I’ll bet!”
“I imagine kids in Jacobsville have a great time at Halloween. And the other holidays.”
“They do. Christmas is the best time, though. They stretch garlands of holly and lights all over the streets and across them. There are Christmas trees everywhere, and the local toy store has trains running in the window.” She sighed. “It’s just magic.”
He chuckled. His hand tightened on hers. “Grandma always made Christmas special for me and Paulie,” he said. “Of course, we had to go with her to midnight mass every Christmas Eve and it went on for a couple of hours. You know how kids are. We squirmed and suffered, but we didn’t dare complain. She was scary for a tiny little old lady,” he added.
She smiled. “I know what you mean.” Her eyes were sad. “My grandmother was so sweet. She was always baking for people who had family die and sitting with sick people. She was wonderful. My grandfather was violent and dangerous. Daddy said he’d been in trouble with the law a lot when he was a young man. But I never thought he’d do something so terrible.”
“Listen, kid, lots of people do terrible things they never planned. Kids get on drugs and kill people. Old people get dementia and kill people. Alcoholics get behind the wheels of cars and kill people. I don’t think most of them go out with the idea that they’ll do harm. It just happens.”
“I’ve never used drugs,” she said.
He laughed softly. “Why am I not surprised?”
She leaned her head against his arm. “I’m predictable.”
“Very. I love it,” he whispered.
She drew in a long breath. “I’ve never been so happy in my whole life.”
“Neither have I, baby,” he said gently.
She looked up at him and he looked back, and the world vanished.
It took a car horn out in the street to snap them back to reality, and they both laughed.
* * *
They walked through the dark halls of the Alamo, paused at the door to the Long Barracks, looked at the graffiti on the walls where the last stand had been held. They were solemn as they filed into the gift shop for souvenirs.
“It’s a sad history,” she commented.
“Most history’s sad,” he returned. “Life is violent.”
“I suppose it is.”
“What would you like?” he teased, indicating the gifts in the glass display case. “Come on. Be daring. Pick out something outrageous.”
She looked up at him, searching his dark eyes. She looked down into the shelves and when the saleslady came over, she indicated a pretty inlaid turquoise ring.”
Mikey’s hand tightened on hers. “Yes,” he said under his breath.
The saleslady handed it to her and she started to try it on her right hand, but Mikey stopped her and slid it onto her left ring finger, his eyes holding hers. It was a perfect fit.
“We’ll take it,” Mikey said.
The saleslady took the credit card he handed her while Bernie touched the pretty ring.
“You can think of it as an engagement ring until we can do the thing right,” he whispered at her forehead.
She caught her breath and fought tears as she looked up into hungry dark eyes.
“An engagement ring?” she asked.
“I can’t let you go,” he said quietly. “I’d have no life left. Whatever happens.”
She bit her lower lip. “Whatever happens, Mikey,” she whispered huskily.
And just that simply, they were engaged.
* * *
Mrs. Brown cried when she saw the ring and heard the story. “It’s a lovely ring!” she said.
“Not a diamond just yet,” Mikey chuckled, “but it’s standing in for one. I have to text Paulie and tell him.” He bent and kissed Bernie’s cheek. “I have to go up to San Antonio tomorrow, but we’ll do this again next weekend, okay?”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“I’ll see you at breakfast in the morning, honey. You sleep well.”
She reached up and kissed his own cheek. “You, too.”
He laughed. “I doubt I’ll sleep a wink.” He grinned, smiled at Mrs. Brown, and went along to his room.
“Congratulations,” Mrs. Brown said.
Bernie hugged her. “I’m so happy!” she exclaimed. And then the tears did, finally, fall.
* * *
Bernie showed her ring off at work. Olivia was overjoyed, so was Glory. And when Sari saw it, she just hugged Bernie.
“He’s never been the sort of man who wanted to settle down and get serious about anyone,” Sari told Bernie. “But I can see why he wants that with you.”
“Me and my limitations,” Bernie said with a sigh. “He could have any woman he wanted, you know. Somebody young and
beautiful and, well, whole.”
“Oh, you’ll be fine,” Jessie said, and she even smiled. “Men don’t think about obstacles, you know. They just plow right ahead when they want something. Congrats,” she added.
“Thanks,” Bernie replied.
Jessie noticed that nobody thought she was the least bit insincere. Which worked to her advantage.
Later in the day, Billie alerted her to the fact that Mikey was at the courthouse with his cousin Paul, talking to a man in a black suit.
“I’m going to lunch early so I’ll be here when all of you leave, is that all right?” Jessie asked them.
“Sure,” Glory said.
“I won’t be long,” she added, and smiled again. They were so gullible, she thought smugly as she left. Nobody suspected a thing.
* * *
Mikey was by himself while Paul and the man in the suit went into an office nearby. Jessie walked up to him.
“Hi,” she said breezily. “How’s it going? We heard about the engagement. Congratulations!”
He grinned. “Thanks.”
She sighed. “I know you’ll be happy with her.” She made a face. “It’s just, she was talking about your past, you know? I couldn’t help but overhear.”
He felt his face go taut. “About my past?”
“She’s such a straight arrow,” she continued. “It’s not surprising that she’d be upset when she knew your family had ties to organized crime. She said she gave her word and she’d keep it, but she didn’t know how she was going to live with a man who was accused of murder, a man who lived with other men who killed people without guilt.” She smiled sadly. “I’m really sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned it...”
“No, it’s okay,” he said. “Really.”
“She’d never tell you herself,” Jessie added. “She’s so sweet.” She grimaced. “It will be hard for her to get used to another way of life. But, hey, she’s young. She’ll adjust, right?”
“Right,” he said, but he didn’t look convinced.
