by Lyn Cote
“I wanted to ask you a question,” he said.
With his full attention on her, she waited. Finally, when he didn’t speak, she prompted, “What question?”
Jack looked away. “Would you take over Tom’s job?”
She gaped at him, open-mouthed.
“Well?” he coaxed, gripping her shoulders more firmly. “Would you?”
She jerked out of his hold and swept into the kitchen. She flung open the refrigerator door. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”
“No.” He trailed right behind her. “I’ve thought over what Tom said earlier. He said you could do part of his job—”
“Just running interference for you with customers.” Gracie felt more than the stifling heat from the day. She burned with irritation. “I don’t have a business degree in marketing and sales like Tom does.” She sloshed Jack a glass of lemonade and shoved it into his hand.
“Well, LIT has an established reputation now. Tom said that we didn’t need an office on Michigan Avenue anymore to impress customers. And I don’t need a marketing genius like Tom anymore. He was right. Word of mouth brings us most customers now. That’s why he must want to leave LIT. I get it now. Remember, Hope came to us.”
“But there was a family connection,” she snapped. “They knew that you were Cliff’s son.”
“That wasn’t why they hired me!” Jack raised his voice, too. “You’re good with people.” He tossed this compliment at her even in the midst of arguing with her. “You know the business as well as Tom does. You’re perfect for the position.”
Gracie’s heart thudded with dread. “I’m just your executive assistant. I can’t do Tom’s job.” She turned her back to him and folded her arms. Unfair, Jack!
“Well, you’re going to,” he said. “I don’t have time to look for another partner.” His tone became gritty. “This Hope project is going to consume me until I get the system cleaned up and secure again.”
“Jack—”
“Gracie, there’s no time.” He swung her around to face him.
“I’m not—”
“I’m not taking no for an answer.” Jack pulled her toward him.
“Then, I quit.” She pushed him away.
Mike opened the door and stepped into the kitchen. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.
Jack’s expression was stormy, almost belligerent. “I want Gracie to move up in LIT and take on more responsibility—”
“I can’t,” Gracie persisted. “Don’t ask me—!”
“Let Jack talk, Gracie. What are you offering her?”
Gracie clenched her fists at her sides. Jack’s nearness heightened her negative reaction to this preposterous suggestion.
Jack turned to Mike. “I want her to meet with customers, negotiate deals and help with customer relations.”
“Dad, Tom has quit—” Gracie started.
“That sounds like a job you’d be good at, Gracie,” her dad said. “Why don’t you want to take it?”
She brushed past Jack. His bare arm grazed her. Her pulse spiked. “Dad,” she said, appealing directly to him, “it takes a business degree in marketing and sales to do the job—”
“No, it doesn’t,” Jack said, his tone becoming urgent, “You think that’s why I took Tom on as a partner?”
“Wasn’t it?” Gracie looked up into his intense eyes.
“No, Tom and I went to high school and college together. We were friends, good ones.”
Jack’s tone implored her. “When we were seniors, I told him what I wanted to do and he said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ He found us a few backers and then went out and drummed up our first client.”
“I can’t…I couldn’t…” Gracie stammered.
“I don’t need you to do that starting-up stuff now,” Jack said. “LIT is a known business. You just need to represent LIT with people who seek us out. I can hire a publicist if I need one. Gracie, no one knows our business better than you. I need you. And you can do it.”
“He’s right,” Mike said, and left them, closing the door behind him.
After dark, Jack drove his mother to her house.
“That was quite an evening,” his mom commented, then sighed. “I’ve never seen Gracie so worked up. She could barely sit still.”
“Yeah.” But Gracie’s negative reaction didn’t claim Jack’s attention. He wanted to ask, So what’s with you turning up at Gracie’s house? But he couldn’t. He didn’t know what his mom would answer and he was afraid she’d say something he didn’t want to hear. His stomach clenched.
“Mike’s almost ready to start on my addition.” Sandy released her seat belt, seeming oblivious to Jack’s agitation.
“Let me know the amount of the deposit he needs to get started,” Jack managed to say as he opened his door. He’d meant to discuss this with her, but he’d been inundated with other concerns.
“Oh, I won’t need any help from you, dear. I’ve been saving up for this for a long time and I’ve already applied for a home equity loan to make up the difference.”
Jack froze. Then why did I take the Hope job?
Chapter Six
The next morning at Annie’s college, Gracie eased inside the cool brick and marble building. Like a spy in a foreign land. Laughing, giggling and chatting, college kids in shorts, sandals, halter tops and T-shirts streamed around her, entering and leaving the student union building.
Inside the entrance she halted, feeling extremely out of place in her dark business suit. She scouted the area and found a directory. Then she headed downstairs to the cafeteria in the basement. According to their dad, Annie should be finishing up her part-time shift there about now.
Gracie waited in the cafeteria entrance, scanning the sparsely populated tables for her sister. The twin scents of bacon and cinnamon rolls filled the air.
Then Gracie’s eyes widened. Annie sauntered toward her. But her sister was not alone. Her face turned away from Gracie, she strolled beside a handsome young man. She was looking up at him and laughing. As though she didn’t have two little boys at home crying for their mother.
“Annie.” The name sounded and felt wrenched from Gracie.
Annie halted, antagonism replacing shock in her expression.
Plainly ill at ease, the young man hovered. He cleared his throat. “Anything wrong, Ann Marie?”
Annie smiled at him. “No, go on. I’ll see you in class.”
The young man loped off.
Annie closed the gap between them, stopping right in front of Gracie. “What are you doing here?”
To say the question sounded hostile was an understatement. Gracie stalled. What could she say to ease past her sister’s obvious annoyance?
“I miss you.” The words slipped off her tongue before she thought them through, but they were the right words. Gracie recalled one of her mother’s favorite verses: “A soft word turneth away wrath.”
Annie’s face softened. “I miss you, too, Gracie.”
The two sisters who’d lived under the same roof all their lives stared at one another, uncomfortable and uncertain. Gracie saw this in Annie’s eyes and felt it inside herself.
“How are you?” I can’t believe I’m saying this to Annie.
“I’m fine, Sis. How are you?”
Reeling with the unreality of this moment, Gracie shrugged. How was she? “Jack’s gone crazy. He wants me to take over Tom’s position at LIT.”
That’s not what I meant to say. The words seemed to have bubbled up without warning. She had come to talk some sense into her sister, not to talk about her own problems.
“Wow, that is some news.” Annie studied Grace. “Come on. Walk me to class.”
Gracie fell into step beside her sister.
“What happened to Tom?” Annie had changed her hair, which used to fall loose to her shoulders, into two spiky pigtails.
Gracie wondered where Annie had come up with her new outfit. She never wore hip-hugger shorts and flaunted a bare midriff. “Tom�
��s taking on the launch of another hi-tech company. And he’s leaving LIT.”
“When did that happen?” In her Birkenstock sandals, Annie set a brisk pace.
“Yesterday.” Too brisk a pace for Gracie. She wished she weren’t wearing a new pair of business heels.
“This is so cool, Sis. It’s about time you crawled out of your shell.” Annie grinned at her. “You’ll do great—”
“Annie, you know I’m not qualified for the position—” Gracie said with as much force as she could muster. I’m not brilliant like you and Jack.
“Why not take it?” Annie lifted her newly plucked eyebrows. “Jack must think you’re qualified.”
Annie was wearing eye makeup. Troy hated makeup.
“I don’t have the education I’d need to be Jack’s representative. I only have a piddly two-year associate degree.”
“So what? You’ve been with LIT from day one. You know more than you think you do!”
Annie’s praise and confidence in Gracie were unexpected and persuasive, but… “I couldn’t do it. Jack asked me because he just doesn’t want to take the time and energy to locate a replacement for Tom.”
“Stop.” Annie frowned and shook her head at Gracie. “If you start trying to find someone to replace you, I’ll bean you! You’ve got to start believing in yourself and just do it. I know. I speak from experience.”
“What experience?” Gracie asked in a cautious tone. Annie, tell me why you left.
Annie shut down before her eyes. “You don’t need to know,” she said through tight lips. “That’s between me and Troy.”
“What’s going on? You never said anything to me or Dad to warn us. Why did you have to leave?”
Annie sped up. “Don’t mother me, Gracie. I’m twenty-three now and an adult.”
Gracie kept up with her. The shoes chafed her heels the way Annie’s attitude chafed her heart. Of course Gracie had tried to mother Annie, who’d only been ten when their mother died. I did my best for you, Annie.
“This is between me and Troy,” Annie repeated.
“But what about the twins? It concerns them.” Gracie heard the pleading in her tone.
“Tell that to Troy,” Annie said, eyes blazing. “He tried to guilt me into dropping my classes and coming home. But it won’t work. He didn’t send you, did he?”
“No one had to send me. I’m concerned. About the twins and Troy and you. Why did you have to leave? Why couldn’t you just go to school this fall like you’d planned?” Why is all this happening! Can’t anything go right this summer?
“Because I couldn’t take it anymore!” Annie rounded on her. “Troy and I had a deal and he reneged. In fact, he reneged twice.”
“Twice?”
“Yes, you know—” Annie held the books in her arms like a shield “—he promised before we married that I’d go to college the fall after my high school graduation—”
“But he didn’t know you’d get…you’d be expecting the boys so soon,” Gracie pointed out.
“The heck he didn’t.”
“Annie, you’re not serious?”
“Yes, I am. I heard, overheard…something….” Annie fell silent. She started walking again, nearly marching.
Gracie clicked along, her heels raw. The hot sunshine caused a trickle of perspiration down the side of her face.
With a clenched jaw, Annie continued in a dark tone. “And ever since I knew I was pregnant, Troy has done everything he could to keep me home, and for what? I’ve sacrificed and sacrificed for the boys, while Troy thinks just bringing home a paycheck is all he has to do as their father.” Annie paused in front of an imposing limestone building. “My class is in here. I’m late.” She turned and raced up the steps.
“Annie,” Gracie called after her, “your sons need you. Won’t you come for supper tonight and see them?”
“Can’t.” Annie turned back and glared at her. “Troy says I shouldn’t visit until I’m ready to come home for good and be his obedient house-frau again. He says my visit would just upset Austin and Andy—” Annie’s voice broke with tears.
“He said that?” Gracie asked.
But Annie disappeared inside the heavy metal and glass double doors.
Gracie slowly walked toward an empty park bench a few feet away. She sank down onto it. Annie’s words whirled, revolved, spun in her mind—
“Are you okay, lady?”
Gracie looked up.
A student, arms filled with books, glanced down at her. His brow furrowed. “You look like you’re not feeling too good.”
“Thanks.” Gracie sat up straighter. “I’m fine. I just got some bad news and it shook me up a little.”
He nodded, still eyeing her. “Would you like me to walk you to the visitor parking, ma’am?”
Ma’am? I look like a ma’am? Must be the suit. “Thanks, no. I came on the bus.”
“Okay, but you should drink something. This heat can dehydrate you pretty fast.”
Nodding, Gracie rose.
Lord, what’s going on? Is Annie telling the truth—or just what she thinks is the truth?
“Troy, I don’t get why you don’t understand. How can I persuade you to try to get Annie to come back home?” Gracie couldn’t keep frustration out of her voice. On her way to LIT after getting off the final bus, she’d stopped at a pay phone and called Troy’s cell phone number.
What a waste of time! Why wouldn’t he pay attention to her?
“Listen, Gracie, I appreciate how you stepped in to help out with the twins. But this is between me and Annie.”
She could hear the sounds of a construction crew behind his voice—hammering, the roar of a distant engine. “I know that. But Annie said some things to me this morning and, meddling or not, I need to know if they’re true.”
“All right,” Troy barked. “What things?”
“Did you really get her pregnant on purpose?”
“No! It just happened. Is that what Annie told you?”
“I think that’s what she thinks.” The day was suffocating her. Gracie fluffed her hair away from the perspiration on her face.
“Well, she’s wrong. And I don’t know how she could have gotten that idea.”
Gracie didn’t know what she should say. What had Annie said—that she’d “overheard” something? These were deep waters and Gracie needed to wade back to firm ground.
“Troy, if you want to get Annie home, you’re going to have to convince her that you want her to go ahead and get her education—”
“I’ve already heard that,” he snapped. “From Annie. But I won’t be blackmailed into changing what I think just because she’s left me. If we have a difference of opinion, she should stay and fight it out.”
Gracie couldn’t help but agree.
“Things change.” A different tone came into Troy’s voice. “And people change.”
What was it? Was he departing from the truth or did he sense that this was the weak point of his argument? Gracie listened for his next words and their intonation.
“I still think it will be better in the long run if Annie postpones college until she finishes our family by having one more child. And right now—” Troy’s voice picked up speed “—she belongs at home with our kids. When they’re in school all day, then she can go to school.”
Gracie listened to Troy, but this time, as her sister might hear these words. And things change. If her sister came home today and had another child, would Troy change his mind in a few years and come up with another excuse to keep her home?
“Annie has a lot of anger toward you, Troy,” Gracie said, choosing her own words with care. “I think she feels you have been taking her for granted and not really hearing her.”
“Well, I have a lot of anger toward her now! She left me. How do you think that makes me feel?”
Click. Troy had hung up on her.
Gracie hung up, too, and then plodded down the block toward LIT. Well, Lord, that accomplished exactly nothing. What�
�s wrong with them? Don’t they see that this doesn’t have to be like this?
When she could put it off no longer, Gracie walked into the LIT office and looked around for signs of life. The digital wall clock read 11:57. Hearing the tapping of keys from Jack’s inner office, she eyed her desk and the flashing red light on the answering machine.
Instead of checking them, she walked to Jack’s doorway and leaned against the doorjamb.
As usual, Jack was bent over his computer keyboard. She studied his profile, his intense pose. She recalled how being with the twins had transformed him. It was obvious that he had effortlessly become one of their favorites. She’d never guessed he would be good with children.
“Hi,” she said in a quiet voice. Would he ever know that she’d wanted him to be the father of her children?
He went on working.
That was Jack—head stuck in a computer. Brilliant, but clueless. She tried to go back to her desk but she couldn’t. They had to talk to one another and make sense of the shifting sands under their feet, the loss of Tom and what that meant.
“Jack?”
He looked up. “Gracie, you didn’t come in this morning.” He didn’t say this as an accusation. Merely as an interesting observation.
She walked over and sat down in the chair beside his desk, stifling the urge to switch off the computer so he could concentrate on her, for a change. “I went to see Annie on campus,” she explained.
“Your sister?” His hands left the keys.
She nodded, aware of the attraction she always felt for him. “I wanted to try to persuade her to come home, at least for supper tonight and to visit the twins.”
“Did it work?”
His concern for her nephews showed in his eyes. Gracie buried her face in one hand. This is the way it is and always will be. Troy wouldn’t listen to Annie, and Jack didn’t know Gracie was alive.
“Don’t cry,” Jack said in alarm.
She slid back in her chair and rested her elbows on the arms. “I’m not going to cry. Annie told me that Troy was trying to renege on their agreement that she would go to school this fall.”
“I remember he reneged on their original agreement.” Jack leaned forward on his elbows. His thick reddish hair was tousled, tempting her to smooth it back.
