“Yes, I do, and so do you.” Her head fell to the side. “I may be what the kids need, but I’m sure not what the parents want. I knew that the first day. It’s only a matter of time now… even if they don’t fire me outright tomorrow.”
The thought of her leaving, driving away, never coming back stabbed through him like a twin-edged sword. “I’m sorry. I really am.”
“Yeah, well. It was an impressive show while it lasted. That whole working out at the stables thing. You sure had me fooled.”
He felt like he’d gone sixteen rounds with the heavy weight champion of the world. Even his breath was gone. “That wasn’t a show. I really do work out there.”
“Yeah. I’m sure. And it’s such hard work, too.”
Her sarcasm bit through him, taking his knees out from under him. He slid down the wall, hearing in her voice exactly what every other person he’d ever met believed about him.
She stood there, over him, arms intertwined, ready to kick him once more with her words if she hadn’t finished him off already. He could feel her gaze, but the numbness of hurt gripping him wouldn’t let him look at her. She hated him, and he didn’t blame her.
“I really do work,” he said softly to the air in front of him. “I know. That’s hard to believe.” He shook his head and let it fall back onto the wall so he was looking at the top corner of the opposite side of the hall. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s not even really true. You’re probably right. I’m just a spoiled little rich kid who wouldn’t know what hard work was if it bit him in the butt.” The inescapable truth of his lousy excuse for an existence cracked over him, and his spirit plummeted.
He’d tried so hard to prove to everyone that he wasn’t just Daddy’s little puppet, that he was his own man, that he could make it on his own. What a joke. She saw through that sham as surely as everyone else did. The feelings of worthlessness clogged the top of his chest, and for the first time in his life, he let them come. She hated him almost as much as he hated himself, and that was saying something.
Then, slowly, gently, he felt her not leave but bend down next to him, and this time her gaze was soft. “I’m sorry. That really was uncalled for. I shouldn’t have said that.”
A smile of sad acceptance slipped through him. “No, you just said what everyone else is thinking… except they don’t have the guts to say it to my face.”
Her gaze surveyed him as she searched for some way to take back her words and ease the hurt she’d caused.
He let his head fall to the side so he could look at her. It was over. He might as well finish it off. “I’m engaged.”
“En…?” The word snaked through her face slowly, and her hand dropped from his shoulder. “What?”
Their friendship was completely trashed now. There was no reason not to burn it all the way to the ground. Besides, Keith knew it would be better to kill whatever was left of them now, get it over with in one, gut-crashing whack than to drag it out. That was cruel and would hurt her more in the end anyway. This way she didn’t have the stupid idea that he was worth getting to know. She would see what a jerk he was and get out while the getting was good.
He twisted his lips into a half-smile, half-frown, fighting not to let the words dig into him. His gaze fell to his knuckles, which were sliding back and forth through his palm. “Yeah. June third.” He nodded without feeling it. “Dallas Henderson, Lowell Henderson’s daughter.”
Her eyes widened. “Lowell Henderson—the senator?”
“That’s the one.” Keith exhaled hard. “She’ll be here Saturday. Big, huge bash to celebrate the engagement. All the most powerful people in Texas, that kind of thing. It’s the wedding of the decade or so I’m told.”
Carefully Maggie let herself down onto the carpet next to him and leaned her back on her bedroom door. It took more than a minute for her to respond. “And this is a good thing, right?” As strange as that sounded, she actually sounded concerned, as if she cared one way or the other.
“Of course it’s a good thing.” The words came with firmness, and he was glad for that. “It’s just… I should’ve told you… sooner.”
Her gaze did a little circle dance until she let her head crack back on the door. “Well, I wish you would have, but I understand why you didn’t.” She didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then she let her gaze fall over to his. “Is she nice?”
He nodded slowly but never looked at her.
“Good,” she said, and he heard the feelings lacing the sides of that single word. “You deserve nice.”
Chapter Eight
Maggie had the distinct feeling that the sunrise would find her heart no longer beating. It had withstood so many blows the day before, there was no way it would make it to morning. They had talked a bit longer, but Keith looked beat with a whip, and she didn’t feel much better. So with a simple good night, they had left whatever they were, whatever they might have been at the threshold of her door.
It was hard to get herself going, but she knew there really wasn’t a choice. Yes, Keith had been a nice addition to life at the mansion, but that was a dream. Today was back to reality. Quickly she pulled the red top and blue blazer on. She might not fit here, but at least she could pretend to look like she did.
When the limousine pulled up at the front of the mansion, Keith pulled up right behind it in the red Dodge. He wanted the first shot at his dad if at all possible.
“Here, let me get that,” he said, taking three bags from the driver who was piling them on the driveway. “How was your trip?”
“Wonderful,” Vivian said.
“Great until the flight home,” his father said with characteristic blustering.
“Oh, now, Conrad. It was not that bad. Besides, we got it ironed out.”
“Hrmpt.” It was his father’s standard comeback in any disagreement with Vivian.
“Well, we’re glad you’re back. We’re all still in one piece.” Keith opened the front door and stepped back for them to enter. However, even he wasn’t prepared for the welcome on the other side. There standing on the bottom step stood Maggie, looking like a CEO, a look of sheer determination etched on her face and both children firmly in hand.
“Good morning, Mr. Ayer, Mrs. Ayer. It’s great to have you back.” With a slight push, she nudged Peter forward to greet them.
“Well, aren’t you precious this morning,” Vivian said, and she actually bent down to Peter’s level.
Keith’s gaze went from them to Maggie as she descended the last step and leaned toward Vivian so Isabella could go to her mother. Never before had Keith been so awestruck. Her hair was pulled back so that it was a slim cascade down her back rather than in unruly waves around her head.
“Oh, and little Isabella. Look at you. You grew so much while we were gone.” Vivian’s arms were around the child, and Isabella squealed in delight.
Both Vivian and his father laughed.
“Good morning,” Patty Ann said staidly as she descended the stairs behind them.
All gazes snapped up to her, and the levity evaporated in one whoosh. Vivian gave Isabella back to Maggie and straightened, pulling on her suit jacket. “Hello, Patty Ann. I’m glad to see everything’s still in place.”
“Yes, Ma’am, it is.” The look of disapproval she shot Maggie hit Keith on the ricochet.
Maggie was right. Patty Ann was out for her, and unless he did something quick, She-Wolf #1 would rip apart all of Maggie’s hard work and leave it in shambles.
“Dad, I hate to take you away like this, but we had an issue with the feed again. Do you mind…?”
His father let out a long exhale. “Five minutes back and already there are problems.”
“Hey, they didn’t take a vacation like you did,” Keith said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Ma’am,” Patty Ann said, “we need to go over this week’s schedule.”
“Of course, Patty Ann,” Vivian said, “but let me get settled in first. I smell like airplane.”
With one more haughty glance at those assembled in the foyer, Patty Ann turned on her heel and marched up the steps. Keith noticed the visible although only barely sigh that went through Maggie. She looked over at him, and there was only the slightest of smiles. Then she took Peter’s hand. “Come on, Peter, Heshiki will be here for your karate lesson in fifteen minutes.”
The child followed Maggie up the stairs, and Keith felt the weight of his current undertaking fall on his shoulders.
“Are we going to do this or not?” his father asked harshly.
Pulling every bit of divine guidance to him, Keith turned to follow his father. “Guide me and protect me, Father,” he prayed softly. “And Mom, if you’re listening up there, I could use all the help I can get here.”
As he stepped into his father’s office, courage came into Keith. He shut the door behind him. “We need to talk, Dad.”
“That’s what you said. What’s up with the feed situation?”
Keith shook his head, sat down, and pulled his hat then his bandana off his head. “That can wait. This is more important.”
“Oh?”
“It’s about Maggie. Uh, Ms. Montgomery.”
His dad sat down with a thump. “Uh-oh.”
It took everything he had not to drop his gaze, but he stayed steady. “You need to know that while you were gone she and I got to talking, and well, there are some things you need to know about her.”
His father waved him off. “We already know about her background. Vivian and I have talked about it, and we know that her kind are not suitable for employment here…”
That comment slammed into Keith like a wrecking ball. “Her kind? What kind is she, Dad?”
The scowl of disapproval dropped through his father’s features. “Oh, you know.”
“You mean that she was a foster kid? That she was bounced around all over the state because every place she went sucked? Is that what you mean by her kind?”
“Look, Keith, I’m sure…”
“No.” He held up his index finger. “Dad. For once you’re going to listen to me.” Hard determination solidified in his chest. “Now, she’s been through hell and back through no fault of her own. Do you know why she was in the foster care system? Do you?”
There was a grunt but no real reply.
“I’ll tell you why because her parents were killed in a car accident. That’s why. A car accident, Dad. She was eight years old, and she was thrown out of the only world she’d ever known and sent first to one house and then to another. Then to another… not because she was a bad kid but because they were temporary solutions to a permanent problem.”
“Look, that’s really tragic, Keith…”
“Tragic?” Sanity began to tilt sideways. “Dad, she didn’t lose one parent. She lost both of them. Zap they were gone. Just like that.”
“Like I said, it’s tragic…”
Frustration catapulted him from the chair. “Cripes, Dad! You don’t get it, do you?” He paced over to the wall, and his hand raked across his head. “You don’t get what something like that does to a kid. And you never have.” He spun on the emotions. “It changes you. Way down inside. It changes you in ways you can’t even explain, but it’s deep, and it’s forever.”
“Keith…”
“And it doesn’t go away even if you want it to, even if you wish it to, even if you pray to God to take it away. It doesn’t go away. Even if you work hard, if you go to college and get a degree, it’s still there. It’s there even if you get successful and make a b-zillion dollars… It still doesn’t go away. It’s right here.” He put his hand, little finger edged in to the center of his chest. The breaths were coming in hard fast gulps of air. “Every time you dare to look. It’s right there. I know because I’ve lived with that pain for the last 17 years. Not that you’ve noticed.”
His father’s gaze dropped to the desk.
“And now, you’re going to fire her and tell her she’s no good, that she’s not worthy of this job—just like she hasn’t been worth keeping at any place she’s been ‘til now? Is that what you would want someone to do to me, Dad? Huh? Is it? Well, let me tell you something, you do that to her, and you are doing it to me.”
He let his eyes fall closed to corral the emotions because they were starting to jab into him with such force he couldn’t control them. When he opened his eyes, it was not her pain but her caring that he saw. “Besides Dad, you should see her with Pete and Izzy. They love her. They really do. I’ve seen it. They trust her, and even you have to admit there hasn’t been a single other one they’ve trusted so far… not to even mention loved.”
He took a long, calming breath. “So if you have the nerve to fire her, the minute she walks out that door, you’ve just trashed whatever family you have left. Those two kids will never be the same, and I’ll never be able to have any respect for you again.”
The words hung in the air, and finally, Keith knew he could do no more. “Well, I’ve said what I came to say.” He swiped his hat and bandana off the little table and turned to walk out. The door was open before his father said anything.
“Keith, wait.”
He stopped, but he didn’t turn.
“Look, I know I made some mistakes with you. I know that. I admit that. I should’ve been there when… Your mom… Well, she was a wonderful woman. When I lost her…” The words stopped. “I’ll talk to Vivian. We should at least give Ms. Montgomery a chance.”
He wanted more, so, so much more, but at this point skirting an outright firing was a step in the right direction. Slowly he turned, and the thought went through him that he had never seen that look on his father’s face. “She deserves that much.”
All day Maggie expected that at any moment someone would walk in the room and expel her permanently. However, karate came and went, lunch came and went, naps, playtime. Each slid by as if the guillotine wasn’t hanging over her neck.
By dinner, she was careful to have both children in their best clothes standing in the anteroom to the dining room at ten until six. It would’ve been far less intimidating if she had thought that maybe Keith would be by to eat with them. Of course, that was completely impossible. For reasons she couldn’t adequately explain, he did his best to remain as scarce as possible when the others were around. It was only at that moment that she wondered about that.
She hadn’t seen him all day, save for the few minutes welcoming the Ayers back. Of course, it was for the best. He was engaged, not to mention everything else. It was better if he went on with his life, and she went on with hers. All she had to do now was convince her heart of that.
“Well, well, this is a surprise,” Patty Ann said as she strode over to them to inspect the children. “Did you reset your watch to on time?”
Maggie absorbed the barb. “No, Ma’am. We just had a little practice at getting it right while you were gone. Trust me, it’s well in hand now.”
“Well.” The word was more a grunt of disapproval.
The inspection grated across Maggie’s nerves. They didn’t deserve to be treated like show animals. “May we go in now before you make us late?”
Patty Ann’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Don’t patronize me, Ms. Montgomery. I could have you fired like that if I so choose.”
“Really? It must be nice to have so much power. Too bad you don’t know how to use it to make life better for anyone.”
“Patty Ann, are the children here yet?” Mrs. Ayer called from inside the dining room.
Without waiting for the secretary to make her customary premier entrance, Maggie pushed the door open and guided the children in. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Ayer. Patty Ann was a little late getting down to make her inspections. I’m sure it won’t happen again. Right Patty Ann?”
The two gazes at the table went to the secretary.
“No, Ma’am,” Patty Ann said, with hate dripping from the statement. “It won’t happen again.”
“Here Peter. Give your mommy a kiss,” Maggie said, tram
ping through all the other emotions to get to genuine love for the children. Peter gave Vivian a kiss and then reached his little hands out to the sides for a hug. Taken aback, Vivian glanced up at Maggie. Then she bent and gave him a hug. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
“You been back up to the mansion?” Ike asked Friday afternoon when Keith was in the stable office filling out the feeding schedules.
“No. Why?” It killed him to say it. In fact, there wasn’t a single moment since he’d walked away that he hadn’t thought about her, wondered about her, wanted to talk to her to see how things were going. He had stopped Jeffrey for the 411 the day before when the gardener was working on the guesthouse lawn, Keith’s lawn from now until June third.
From Jeffrey’s account nothing had changed, no major firings or personnel confrontations, and Keith was pretty sure Jeffrey was tapped into the Inez connection, so he would’ve known if something major had gone down.
Head down Keith wrote as if nothing in life was more important.
“I guess you’ll be off this weekend?” Ike asked although there was more to the question than he let on.
“Yeah. I told you that six weeks ago, remember? Tanner’s coming up early. He’ll fill in. If you need more help, you could always call John.”
“So everything’s cool in paradise then?” Ike asked, digging still.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Ike’s gaze borrowed into Keith, trying to discern if there was more he wasn’t saying.
“Oh,” Keith said as if he’d just remembered something, “and I won’t be here at all tomorrow. I’m picking Dallas and her folks up at the airport.” How he could get all the way to nonchalance, Keith couldn’t tell, but he was doing a pretty good job of sounding nearly together about the whole situation.
“Well, I’m glad.” Ike crossed his arms and leaned on the filing cabinet. “Dallas is a wonderful girl.”
“Hey.” Keith looked up with a smile. “You don’t have to sell me on Dallas. I’m marrying her, remember?”
Coming Home: (Contemporary Christian Romance Boxed Set): Three Stories of Love, Faith, Struggle & Hope Page 30
