“Janae isn’t—”
“I’m looking for Allen Wilson,” he interrupted.
She looked him up and down, a slight curl to her lip. “He’s not here either.”
“Where is he?”
“Look, Mr. Foust, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t come barging in here acting all—”
He approached her desk, and she scooted her chair back until it hit the wall. Matt leaned on the desk with both hands flat. “I don’t know what you think you know about me and Janae, but suffice it to say it’s none of your business. So, you can tell me where to find Allen Wilson, and I’ll be on my way.”
She chewed her lip, debating to tell him anything. He waited because he wasn’t budging without a good answer. That morning he had gone to Janae’s house when she didn’t answer his call. He had dialed her dad and didn’t get an answer from him either.
Had her dad gone with her? He didn’t think so because the man seemed pretty passionate about his work from their conversation the last time they spoke. Then again, Matt knew he would abandon all if it meant he needed to keep Janae safe. Did her dad believe he needed to keep Janae safe from Matt? He had thought the older man liked him.
“He’s at a work site,” Monique said at last. She tore off a sheet from a small notebook on her desk and scratched down the address. When she handed it to him, she didn’t let go right away. He looked at her. “Don’t go over there starting trouble. They’ve had enough of it, and frankly I don’t want to lose my job because we had to shut down.”
Matt blinked at her. Was that why Janae asked for money? Because the company was in trouble? If so, why didn’t she come to him? He would have written her a check without question. Matt didn’t want to believe Janae was the opportunistic woman he heard on the recording. Every word she spoke ripped him apart and left him raw. He needed an explanation directly from her.
A short while later, Allen Wilson was the first person he spotted when he walked into the school. Matt raised a hand to his mouth as he strode across the dusty hall to the huge opening in the wall opposite the entrance. The overpowering scent of paint and sawdust tickled his nose, and the dust coated his throat with one breath.
“Allen, can I talk to you a minute?” Matt asked.
Janae’s dad turned toward him and frowned. He hesitated, glanced over at another man, and sighed. “George, take care of this, will you? I’m going to need a minute.”
“Sure thing, boss,” the Latino man said.
Allen walked over to Matt and gestured toward the door. “Let’s go outside.”
They didn’t get far beyond the door before Matt faced him. “Where’s Janae.”
“Now hold on, son. Don’t get all worked up.”
Matt’s eyebrows rose. “Don’t get all worked up? You know I was talking to her about marrying me. What am I supposed to feel when I come home and find her gone?”
“She left you a note.”
“A note.” Matt struggled to keep control of his anger. “It explained nothing. She said something like we’re not right for each other, the same old crap people have been telling each other for eons while they rip the other person apart.”
“I’m sorry, Matt.” He did seem truly distressed, but that didn’t calm Matt down.
“Where is she? Just tell me where, and I’ll go get her and bring her home. I assume you miss her, too.”
“Yes, I’m not used to being apart from my little girl, but I want to do what’s right by her.”
“What’s right?” Matt swore and paced. He clenched his hands at his sides. Right now, he wanted to go inside that building and rip out a wall. He wasn’t a violent person. Most of the time he never found a reason to get angry. That just wasn’t his nature. Janae’s leaving hurt so bad he couldn’t think straight.
“I need her,” he choked out, ashamed and pissed at himself.
“You think you do, but you’ll get over her.”
Matt looked at him. “You can’t convince me she doesn’t love me.”
Allen hesitated. “I…” He scratched his head. “I don’t want to hurt you, but it’s best this way. Janae wasn’t serious about you. Because of her mother running out years ago and abandoning her, she’ll never commit to a man. She’ll never get married.”
“I don’t want to hear about her background. I know about it. We shared the past with each other when we spent time together—when she told me how she feels about me.”
“Matt, I don’t know what to say.”
“You’re telling me your daughter used me, that she seduced me to get money?” Matt spoke each word through gritted teeth. “You’re going to stand there and tell me that? I thought you were a better father than to talk about your daughter that way.”
Allen tensed. He spun around so his back faced Matt. “It’s over. I don’t have anything else to say to you. Go away.”
Matt reached out, grabbed the older man, and jerked him backward. A fist came flying at his head, but Matt ducked it easily. He raised his own, and the horror of what he’d been about to do struck him. Stumbling back a step, he let go of Allen. Pain ricocheted all across his insides. Every breath hurt like hell to drag into his lungs.
“Tell me where she is. Please. I promise I won’t hurt her. I won’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to. I just need to talk to her.”
Allen sneered at him. “Look at you. You’re disgusting. Do you think Janae would want a bastard like you, crying over her like little boy?”
Matt wasn’t actually crying—not visibly anyway. The insult rankled, but he didn’t care what Allen thought of him if he could convince the man to tell him where Janae had gone. “My pride means nothing compared to her.”
For a long while Allen stared at him. “I would have loved to have you as a son-in-law. You’re honest and open, but maybe you’re not what she needs.”
“I won’t be convinced that she needs a man to use her and cheat on her.”
“Of course not!” He rubbed his jaw. “Maybe you should look at yourself, see where you missed it.”
Matt frowned. “I was devoted to her.”
“See, that’s one place right there.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re arrogant. You think you were her everything, that she had nothing outside of you, but that just means you’re self-centered. Newsflash, rich kid, the world doesn’t revolve around you. Definitely not my daughter’s world.”
Could he be right? Had Matt been too caught up in his own wants and needs, his desire for Janae? Had he overlooked what she wanted? “Please, tell me honestly,” he begged. “Was she with me only for money?”
Allen answered without hesitation, looking Matt square in the eyes. “Yes.”
Matt staggered, and when he couldn’t find the strength or the will to speak again, Allen turned away and walked back inside the building.
Chapter Twelve
Three years later…
“Mommie!” An incessant banging of spoon to table followed this outburst, and Janae glanced over her shoulder at her daughter.
“Nerea, stop yelling. Mommie will have your breakfast ready in just a minute.”
While Janae set out the magdelenas, Maria, the maid, brought in the basket of fresh fruit she had gathered from the orchard.
“Quieres leche caliente?” Maria said.
“Si,” Janae answered. “Just a little milk. Un poco. I want her to eat her food.”
“Si!” Nerea shouted, and Janae rolled her eyes. Ever since her daughter had discovered her voice, she decided she needed to exercise her vocal cords at their highest level.
“Bebé,” the maid coaxed, “You want magdelena o pollo?”
Janae glared at the woman. “Don’t offer her that when she hasn’t eaten her eggs or fruit yet. Having you spoil her isn’t helping.”
“Cupcake!” Nerea yelled and threw her hands in the air. Janae groaned. She had hoped her daughter didn’t understand Maria’s quick speech or the offerings, but apparently the
intelligent little thing understood Spanish just as well as English. Janae shouldn’t have been surprised since she was born in Valencia.
Janae placed Nerea’s plate on the table. While the people of Spain seemed to love their sweets for breakfast, Janae couldn’t stand the thought of Nerea having nothing but sugar. She always insisted on some type of protein and fruit for her daughter. If Nerea had room in her little tummy afterward, she was allowed a sweet roll or a cupcake.
Nerea wouldn’t eat all of the food set before her, but she would eat enough so that Janae didn’t have to worry about her starving. A couple months ago, she had rushed Nerea to the doctor’s office, scared because she wasn’t eating enough. The doctor had reassured her it was natural for a toddler to be a picky eater, and they would still manage to get enough nutrition.
“Pollo,” Nerea said, pouting at the plate.
“No, pollo. Eat your food.”
The little pink lips poked out even farther, and Janae had trouble not laughing at that cute face. Nerea was much fairer than her cocoa skin, and her flyaway hair was honey gold. To the touch, it felt like rough silk—not quite the smoothness of white people’s hair, but much softer than Janae’s. When Janae looked at Nerea, all she saw was Matt, and it hurt so much even after all this time.
She sat down beside Nerea, whose booster seat was hooked onto the table, and handed her a slice of apple. Nerea took it and bit into the fruit. Janae stroked fingers through her hair. How long would they have to stay in Valencia? She loved it here, and the help from the maid was great, but she missed her home country.
Matt’s family owned a hotel in Madrid, and sometimes she sat outside on her patio to look over the lower part of the city. She would wonder whether somewhere far out there Matt was in Spain and thinking about her. On the other hand, it was better if he had forgotten. Then she could go home.
“If it looks like my brother has come to his senses in a few years—if it takes that long—maybe you can come back,” Kyler had said when he dropped her at the airport that last night. “We’d prefer though that you don’t live in Massachusetts.”
Janae had visited a few vineyards since living in Spain, and she thought if she ever moved back to the United States, she would want to live near one, somewhere in California maybe. Then she could see her dad. How she missed him.
She and her dad had hugged and cried together for a long time. He agreed to abide by her decision and to tell Matt if he came looking for her that she’d been with him for the money. A part of her hoped he wouldn’t fall for it, but she had to think of others and not just her selfish wants.
Needs, she corrected. I needed him, but I survived.
Tears filled her eyes. She was surprised that after so long, if she thought about Matt too much, she would cry. Blinking away the moisture, she forced him from her thoughts. Nerea offered her a piece of apple. Janae leaned over and took a bite. She knew why she’d been okay. This sweet little girl had carried her through. Nerea needed her mother more than Janae needed Matt. Nerea kept her getting up every morning and putting one foot in front of the other.
After Nerea finished her food, Janae unbuckled her from her chair and lifted her into her arms. Maria began cleaning up the mess, and Janae walked out of the kitchen to head to her bedroom. She changed Nerea’s clothes after washing her face and hands. After selecting a book from the collection she had bought online and had shipped, she carried Nerea and the book to the patio and sat down in her favorite chair to read.
“Is this a good one?” she asked Nerea.
Her daughter slapped the page. “Bien,” she said.
“What will I do with you when we go home, huh?”
Her daughter explained what they would do in her garbled language, and Janae laughed.
“Never mind. Shush, so we can read.” Nerea settled down and burrowed into the crook of Janae’s arm. Janae put her feet up on the chair across from her. How long could they live like this, she wondered. She didn’t own the land all around them.
An older couple owned it all. Janae had rented the small house on their property, which might have at one time been used by workman on the land. Janae was able to afford the rent and the small salary of keeping a maid.
She figured eventually she might have to work, but living frugally, she was able stay with Nerea while her daughter was small. The rest of the money Margaret had given her could stay in the bank gathering interest. She drew only the bare minimum from it. If she really was a gold digger, this wouldn’t have been a bad deal. Except a gold digger might not want to live such a simple life in the Spanish countryside.
“Señorita, hay una llamada para usted,” Maria said from the doorway.
Janae took a few seconds to translate in her head and frowned. “A call for me? No one ever calls me.”
She put the book aside and stood. When she reached Maria, she handed over Nerea and entered the house. There was only one phone, and someone had decided the best room for it was the den, a tiny room off the living room. Janae didn’t keep a cell phone because it was too much of an expense. She didn’t know anyone in Spain, and calling the U.S. was out of the question because of her agreement. At first she had felt like she had chopped off her hand, and then she grew used to not checking her emails and texts every second of the day.
She sat down at the scratched wooden desk and picked up the receiver. “Hola, este es Janae.”
“Janae?”
Her stomach dropped. She hadn’t expected to hear that voice ever again. “K-Kyler. Why are you calling me? I haven’t broken our agreement.”
She squeezed a hand shut and tried to quell the shaking that had come over her.
“I know.” He hesitated, and fear gripped her.
“Is something wrong?”
“I would like to meet with you.”
“We don’t have anything to say to each other. If you were calling to tell me I can come back to the United States, you would have said so right off the bat. Is that why you’re calling?”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
Fear changed to irritation. “Look, just say what you have to say. I hoped to never talk to you or your grandmother again. You’re ruining my day. Oh wait, y’all don’t give a shit about how I feel.”
“Please, meet with me. I think you’re going to want to hear me out. I’m in Spain, not far from Valencia. I can drive to a restaurant in your area if that’s convenient for you.”
“Calling me out of the blue, wanting me to meet you today and without notice, and you’re asking if a restaurant is convenient. Whatever, I’ll come.”
“Thank you.” He named the place he had in mind and gave her the address. “I’ll meet you at, let’s say eleven o’clock.”
“Fine.”
She hung up the phone. What could he possibly want? He could have just said if he was inviting her to come back home. Wait, was Matt closing in on finding her, and he was going to tell her she had to move? If so, he could forget it. She wasn’t running all over creation as if she was some wanted criminal. That’s for damn sure.
“Maria?” she called, and the woman appeared in the doorway. “Can you watch, Nerea for me? Te necesito para cuidar niños, por favor.”
“Si.” She nodded. “Nerea, she sleep.”
“Okay. I won’t be too long.”
After changing into something more presentable than the faded casual clothes she wore around the house, Janae arranged for a car to pick her up. One of the men who worked part-time for her landlords also ran a car service. He had given her his card the day she arrived in Valencia, and Janae used his services whenever she went anywhere she couldn’t reach by walking.
Soon she arrived at the restaurant and walked inside. She was about to speak with the host, but Kyler appeared from behind a wall and approached her.
She started at sight of him because he looked so much like Matt. His name rose to her lips, and she almost blurted it out before getting a hold of herself. When Kyler passed into a patch of sun
light from a window, she saw his face more clearly. This wasn’t her Matt. Kyler was older, and after three years, a set of crow’s feet appeared at the corners of his eyes. A sprinkling of gray mixed into his dark hair, and she wondered what he had had to worry about over the last few years.
“Thank you for coming,” he said and gestured for her to walk ahead of him. When they approached the host, Kyler spoke in perfect Spanish, and they were seated right away.
“What’s this about?” she demanded.
“Perhaps you’d like a drink?”
She gritted her teeth and ordered a margarita.
“You’re free to order food as well. I’ll be glad to pick up the tab.”
“You bet you will,” she snapped. “But no, I’m not hungry. What’s this about, Kyler? Did Margaret send you?”
“My grandmother doesn’t fully agree with my decision to meet with you, but I happen to think it’s our only choice.”
That surprised her. “You’re being cryptic, and it’s pissing me off. Get to it.”
For an instant, she saw such intense pain in his expression it threw her off. Then it was gone, and she wasn’t sure it appeared in the first place. Stubborn as hell, Kyler didn’t speak until their drinks arrived. When he took a huge swig of his, she realized he had waited to fortify his own resolve. Nothing could have made her more nervous.
“For the last three years my brother has lived life recklessly. He’s been all about fun and partying.”
“If you came here to gloat about how great he’s doing without me, stuff it up your ass.” She started to rise, but he caught her wrist. She glared until he removed his hand.
“Please, sit down. I’m getting to the point, and it’s not to rub your nose in anything.”
She dropped into her seat and sipped her drink.
“As I said, he’s been living recklessly, heedless of his safety.”
Janae began to get it. Her throat dried. “You don’t mean… He…” She faltered, tears in her eyes.
Give Up On Me Page 9
