They looked at each other and chuckled. “Well,” Carl drawled. “There was this church.”
Megan punched his arm. “Don’t tease her.” She turned to Eleanor. “No, we didn’t get married.”
Eleanor heard the unspoken “Yet.”
“What is it then?” she asked Carl.
“Megan and I have decided to take a vacation. Together. So I’m going to need some time off.”
Eleanor relaxed. “You know that’s no problem. You have enough vacation.”
“Well, I was thinking about taking a month.”
“A month? We can’t do without you for a month. Not on this short notice. Who would fill in for you?”
Megan leaned forward. “We’ve already thought about this. Jake can cover for him.”
“Jake?” Eleanor said, her voice high. She ignored Jake’s quick glance at her.
“Yes, Jake,” Carl said. “He took over sports. Now he can take over my assignments.”
“But,” she said, then stopped. She wanted to say “But sports was easy.” Looking at Jake, she decided to change her words. “Jake didn’t come to Lamar to be a reporter. He has other things to do.”
“You don’t think I can do it, Eleanor?” Jake asked and she knew she’d insulted him.
She looked at him. “Of course you can do it. That’s not the issue.”
“It sure does sound like the issue to me,” he said, his eyes focused on the road, his lips tight.
“Whoa, you two,” Carl said. “You’re beginning to sound like another couple I used to know. Now, if you don’t calm down, I’m going to put you out at the next exit.”
Megan giggled.
“Now be cool,” Carl continued. “We’ll talk about this when we get back to Lamar.”
Eleanor turned in her seat and looked at Jake. His jaw was set in a firm line and she knew he was upset. She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings. Why did she always say the wrong thing where he was concerned?
***
Megan collapsed on Carl’s chest. “I’ve never been this happy before,” she said when her breathing returned to normal.
“I know,” Carl said, lazily brushing her short curls with his hand. “Me either.”
Megan tightened her hold on Carl. She was so glad she’d found him. Now that she had, she couldn’t imagine her life without him. When she thought about the time she’d wasted arguing with him, fighting her feelings for him, she experienced a deep regret.
“I love you, Megan,” Carl said softly, his hand still in her hair. She loved his touch, whether it was in her hair like now or all over her body as they made love. “I suppose I’ve loved you since we were children, since you first moved to Lamar. I even suppose you’re the reason I never left Lamar.”
Overwhelming joy filled her entire being. Carl loved her. She buried her face in his chest and squeezed him even tighter, tears filling her eyes.
He lifted her head so he could see her face. “Don’t cry, cupcake. Tell me you love me, too.”
The tears flowed freely now. “I do. I do. I do,” she said, dotting his face with kisses with each pronouncement. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“I know,” he said, and she heard the smile in his voice.
She looked up at him. “Don’t get cocky with me.” She pushed her pelvis against his. “I have my ways of getting satisfaction.”
Carl groaned. “Don’t I know it.” He rolled over until she was under him, her beautiful face staring up at him. Everybody saw her beauty and he didn’t mind, but he was glad he saw the woman inside where she was even more beautiful. And if possible, more desirable. He wanted to love her again so he lowered his head to kiss her.
“Not yet,” she said, pushing at his chest with her arms. “I want to talk.”
Carl groaned again and rolled to her side. Maybe this was part of being in love. She wanted to talk and he didn’t mind. “Okay, cupcake, what do you want to talk about?”
Megan settled herself in Carl’s arms, loving the cherished feeling he gave her. “Eleanor and Jake.”
“Eleanor and Jake. Oh, no, I’m told the romance is over when your lady brings another couple to bed with you. That or she’s into kinky.” The smile was back in his voice.
“I’m serious,” she said. “Don’t you think they’re perfect for each other?”
“Hmm . . .”
“The way I see it,” Megan continued, “they’re never going to find each other without our help.”
“Oh, no,” Carl began, feeling obliged to put up some kind of resistance though he knew he’d go along with her plan. “I don’t think they need us meddling around in their affair.”
“I’m not talking about an affair. I’m talking about Eleanor and Jake finding what we’ve found.” She laced her hand with his and brought it to her lips for a kiss. “I want them to be as happy as we are.”
He couldn’t argue with that kind of logic. “What is it you propose we do?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll think of something.”
Carl rolled her over onto her back and poised himself above her. “Think about them later. Try thinking about me now.”
***
“At least this plan of ours is not a total failure,” Mathias mused. “What do you mean by that?”
Mathias snorted. “We got Carl and Megan together.”
“Damn,” Randolph said. “I don’t believe this. I really don’t believe it. This is your fault.”
“My fault?” Mathias raised his voice. “How is this my fault?”
“You were supposed to get Carl and Megan on that plane,” he accused. “Maybe if you had, Eleanor and Jake would be a couple by now.”
“Don’t go blaming me, Randolph Mason. Some things never change,” Mathias muttered. “It’s never your fault. You haven’t changed since we were kids.”
“Okay, okay,” Randolph gave in. “It’s nobody’s fault.”
“I know it’s not my fault,” Mathias stated adamantly.
“Well, now that that’s settled. What are we going to do about Jake and Eleanor?”
***
“Okay, Eleanor.” Jake opened round two of their negotiations Monday morning when they returned to work. He hoped it wouldn’t go the full fifteen. “Let’s try this again. When I look at the list of projects you want Mason Publishing to fund, they fall into three categories: community support, infrastructure, and growth. Do you agree?”
He waited for her nod.
“Now, of those three items, only growth interests me.”
“I sorta figured that,” she muttered.
“But do you agree with me?”
Eleanor leaned forward and he thought again how attractive she looked with her hair down. He didn’t trust himself to even think about her gorgeous legs in that hot pink mini-skirt suit. ‘To a degree,” she said, “but the other items deserve discussion.”
“In due time. Let’s talk about the idea you have for this African-American family magazine.” The more Jake dug into this project, the more apparent it became that his best angle was this magazine. The progressive concept filled a large void in the marketplace.
Eleanor stood up and framed an imaginary picture with her hands. “Picture this. The cover has a black-and-white silhouette of a man and woman in the foreground, and three children and two sets of grandparents in the background. The title, Our Family, is in bold black-and-gold letters across the top.” She looked at Jake. “Are you with me so far?”
“So far. So good. I’ve got the cover. Now what’s inside?”
“The purpose of the magazine is to foster and support the black family. So each issue would have that as its theme. With twelve issues each year, we could do three issues featuring kids; three on parenting; three on marital relationships; and three issues on dating relationships. Of course, there’d be something each month for all the groups.”
“Where would issues related to elder car
e fall?” he asked, and her smile told him she was pleased with the question.
“I’ve thought about that and it can fall into one of the parenting issues or maybe kids or maybe even both. It’s something we could work with. What’s your first thought?”
He tapped his pencil on the table. “I like the idea of putting it in the kids issue. That way the focus won’t be on age, but on the different roles we play in our lifetimes. From kid, to parent, to lover, to spouse. I like it.”
“You do?” Eleanor asked, clearly pleased with his answer. “Oh, Jake, I’ve been thinking about this for so long and I couldn’t see how we could make it work. We just didn’t have the funds.”
“Until Mason Publishing came along,” he finished for her.
She nodded.
“Why didn’t you take this idea to some venture capitalists? I’m sure you would have gotten financing.”
Eleanor shook her head. “That’s not the way we do business. We use our own money or money we can borrow on our own terms.”
“We’re back to the control issue.”
She nodded. “Right. That’s one of the first lessons my father taught me.”
“You learned it well.”
That sounded like an insult to Eleanor. Before she could comment on it, he asked another question. “How do you expect this magazine to pay for itself?”
Eleanor sat on the edge of the table and it took all of his willpower to keep from staring at her legs. “As with most publications, we’ll only expect circulation to pay for paper and staff. Ads will pay for everything else.”
“And you expect national circulation and thus national advertising?”
“Exactly. I figure we’ll start small and branch out. Thus, the need for outside capital. It’s probably too risky to go national immediately. By starting locally, expanding regionally, then nationally, I think we’ll have the best chance for success.”
“You’ve got this all planned out, haven’t you?”
She nodded again.
“And how much cash do you think you’ll need to get started?” Jake whistled at the number she threw out.
“It’s not that much, Jake,” she argued. “At least, not for what we want to do. Once the magazine hits the marketplace, we’ll have more advertisers coming to us than we can handle.”
Jake showed no emotion, but he agreed wholeheartedly with her assessment. As the first magazine in its market, Our Family would be guaranteed a strong showing. It would take any copycat publication a while to match their numbers. “Are any infrastructure improvements included in that number?”
She didn’t cower. “A few.”
“I bet. I’m sure you have all this documented.” Again, he waited for her nod. “I’d like to get a copy. I think we may be able to hinge the deal on this magazine idea.”
She beamed. “That’s great, Jake. Now what about the community projects and infrastructure? You’ve experienced our computer system. You’ve seen the press and the photo shop. You know we need updating. The plans will also mean more work from our existing pool of employees.”
“That brings up another issue,” he said, ignoring her concerns. “What about staffing the new magazine?”
“That’s another place we have to spend money. We need journalists, but we also need recognized authorities to discuss key issues and provide alternatives. We also need staff to manage the day-to-day operations of the magazine.”
Jake had already considered those factors. “What role will you play in Our Family ?”
“I’d love to be managing editor,” she said immediately.
“What about your role as managing editor of the Lamar Daily? You’d do both?”
That’s where Eleanor was torn. In her wildest dreams, she kept her role as managing editor of the Lamar Daily in addition to being managing editor of Our Family. “I’d have to make a choice, I guess.”
“Carl could probably take over as managing editor of the Lamar Daily,” he offered.
“No,” she said quickly. “I want the paper to stay in the hands of the family. Not that Carl isn’t a good man. If we have to use a nonfamily member, I’d rather that person be managing editor of Our Family. The Lamar Daily is family.”
“You could really let someone else take over Our Family, your baby?”
She wasn’t sure. She wanted them both. A part of her would willingly give up her role at the Lamar Daily, but another part, a stronger part, wanted to keep it. She didn’t think too closely about why. She shrugged. “We do what we have to do. It would be a lot of fun, and not to mention challenging, to birth and nurture Our Family on a day-to-day basis, but I’ll be happy to see it get done. I don’t have to do it.”
“I hear your words, Eleanor, but your heart’s not in them.”
“Maybe I’m getting like you, Jake. It’s not about my heart. It’s about business.”
She knew he didn’t buy it, but she was thankful he didn’t pursue it.
“I don’t think we can commit to the community projects you’ve talked about yet. We should focus on the magazine and the infrastructure needed to support it. We’ll consider the community projects later.”
Eleanor extended her hand. “Seems like we’re working from the same page, Jake. We may be able to come up with a deal I can live with, after all.”
Jake took her hand in his, and instead of shaking it, he caressed it. “We work well together.”
She felt the sexual connotation of the statement all the way to her toes. She was as attracted to Jake as she’d always been. And if today’s meeting was any indication, she had no reason to fear his plans for the paper. The roadblocks keeping them apart seemed to be disappearing. “The jury’s still out on that, but it’s looking pretty good.”
“May I take that as a word of encouragement?”
She eased her hand out of his and strolled to the door. “You may,” she said, opening the door of the conference room. “But just a little.” She heard him chuckle as she closed the door.
Fourteen
“He’ll be back,” Eleanor said, tugging on Megan’s arm to get her attention.
Megan reluctantly turned to her. “I miss him already.”
“You’ve got it bad, don’t you?”
Megan put her hands to her chest and whirled around. “I’m in love,” she sang. “I’m in love.”
Megan extended her hands to Eleanor. Eleanor took them and joined in her dance, a dance they had made up when they were kids. “Me-gan’s in lo-ove,” Eleanor joined in. “Me-gan’s in lo-ove.” Pretty soon they collapsed on Eleanor’s bed in a fit of giggles.
“Remind you of one of our slumber parties?”
Eleanor nodded. “We always ended up laughing ourselves silly and Dad telling us to get some sleep.”
Megan chuckled. “We almost drove Mr. S. crazy.”
“That’s why we had to alternate our sleepovers between your house and my house.”
Megan rolled over on her stomach and propped her head on her hands. “You know, for a while I wished your dad and my mom would get together. Then we’d have been real sisters.”
“We are real sisters,” Eleanor said.
“You know what I mean.”
Eleanor nodded. “I never thought about my dad getting married again until I was much older. Maybe senior year. I know I thought about it a lot when I was in college.”
“When you were dating Frank-lin?” Megan always exaggerated the syllables of his name.
“Why didn’t you like him?”
“I did like him.”
“You certainly didn’t act like it.”
“It could have been that he reminded me of Carl. They’re a lot alike,” she said, then added, “on the surface.”
Eleanor considered Megan’s observation. The only similarity between the two men was that they both were of the glasses and pen protector set. First-class nerds. Franklin had changed a lot—become cosmopolitan—since she’d first
known him. “At this point, Megan, everybody reminds you of Carl.”
Megan rolled over on her back and pulled a pillow to her chest. “He’s wonderful.”
Eleanor shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You’re beginning to repeat yourself.”
Megan threw the pillow aside and faced Eleanor. “I want you to have what I have with Carl.”
Eleanor wanted it, too. “One day. Maybe.”
“Was it like this with Franklin?”
“What do you think?”
Megan pondered the question. “I don’t think it was. At this point, I’d follow Carl anywhere if he married me. You wouldn’t follow Franklin.”
Eleanor nodded. “I loved Franklin, but I think it was more a puppy love. He was the first guy who loved me and that by itself was intoxicating.”
“I can’t remember anyone before Carl,” Megan said dreamily.
Eleanor threw a pillow at her. “Now I know you’re exaggerating.”
Megan retaliated with a pillow missile to Eleanor. “I’m not, and if you’d ever been in love, you wouldn’t say that.”
Eleanor took the pillow and held it in her lap. “If you say so.”
“Come on, Eleanor. Loosen up. You and Jake seem to be getting a little closer. What do you think?”
Eleanor folded her hands and rested them on the pillow. “I have a confession to make,” she said softly.
Megan raised up on her knees. “What is it? Are you pregnant?”
Eleanor’s eyes shot up, but a burst of something akin to pleasure settled in her bosom at the thought of having Jake’s baby. “Of course not. Are you crazy?”
“So what is it?” Megan asked as she sat back on her thighs.
“Jake and I were never a couple. We only pretended to be one to help get you and Carl together.”
“What?” Megan asked, eyes wide.
“You heard me. We faked our relationship for you and Carl.”
Megan’s eyes filled with tears as Eleanor explained the plans she and Jake had made. “You did that for us?”
Eleanor nodded and Megan pulled her into her arms. “You’re my best friend and my sister, all right. I’m so grateful for what you and Jake tried to do for me and Carl.”
Between the Lines Page 14
