by Leanne Banks
Katie bit her lip. Ever since she'd come back from Texas, she just couldn't make herself pin her hair back in that too-tight bun. She liked the way Michael looked at her. She liked it when he told her she was pretty. She liked looking in the mirror and feeling like herself. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I've always admired yours. It always looks perfect.”
Patricia preened.
Ivan guffawed. “It should with the truckload of hair spray she wears.”
Patricia's smile fell. “I'm going to rest for a while. Since we're back early, I think a cocktail party would be a good idea. I'll start planning right away. Ciao, darling,” she said with an air kiss for Ivan.
Ivan gave a long-suffering sigh, then turned to Katie. “I had a hard time reaching you while I was gone,” he said in a voice that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up.
“I didn't think you would have time since you were on your honeymoon trip.”
“I always make time for things that are important to me,” he said, giving Katie the feeling that she was being circled by a wild carnivorous animal.
She told herself not to panic. “I'm sorry a business emergency interrupted your trip.”
He made a face, and something told her there was no business emergency. That meant he had either come home because he couldn't stand any more time with Patricia or he was concerned about something at home.
“How is the project coming along with Wilhemina?”
She swallowed over another lump of nerves. “It's been challenging. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find the right person in the amount of time you designated.”
“She's that difficult.”
“I don't think Wilhemina is the problem,” she said, feeling defensive.
Ivan shot her a sideways glance. “What do you mean?”
“I think Wilhemina is a fine person. I think too many people have tried to make her over and she needs to be left alone. You have raised a lovely, lovely daughter.”
A naked longing deepened Ivan's beady eyes for an instant, then it was gone. “You're speaking of her heart.”
“Partly. She's not self-centered. She's considerate. Unfortunately, I'm not sure those qualities are appreciated in the circles she's been moving in.”
Ivan paused. “I have called my home every other day for the past week, but you, Michael, and Wilhemina have never been available. What's been going on?”
Katie's stomach wrenched. Ivan wore that too-calm expression just before someone got the axe. She bit her lip, searching her mind for what to say.
“We went to Texas,” Michael said from behind Katie.
Katie's knees nearly buckled with relief. At least she wasn't alone.
“Texas?” Ivan echoed with a deep frown. “Why the hell would you go to Texas?”
“Wilhemina needed to get away. She had a bad experience at a party. A young man led her to believe he was interested, then insulted her behind her back.”
“Who was it?” Ivan demanded.
“Jason Page,” Michael said, then chuckled. “But Katie pretty much verbally castrated him.”
Ivan looked at her in surprise, then nodded. “I still don't understand why in hell you went to Texas.”
Wilhemina swung into the room. “Hi, Daddy.” She gave her father a hug. “You're back early. How was the cruise?”
Ivan returned the hug, but waved his hand dismissingly at her question. “It was okay. What's this I hear about you going to Texas?”
Wilhemina's face froze and Katie immediately stepped beside her. “We were just catching your father up on how we all went down to Texas together because you needed a little diversion.”
Wilhemina slowly nodded. “Right. We-uh-visited rodeos.”
“Yes, and learned to two-step,” Katie said encouragingly.
“And ate barbecue,” Wilhemina said with a nervous smile.
“Right,” Michael said.
“Hm,” Ivan said, looking at the three of them. “Sounds harmless.” He gave a shrug. “Still don't understand why you would choose a hellhole like Texas.”
“It's so different,” Wilhemina said. “Compared to Philadelphia, it's almost like going to a foreign country.”
“Hmm,” he said again as if he didn't approve or disapprove. Yet. “Well, you're back now and you can get in the swing of attending some of these social events Katie finds for you.”
“Oh, I'm not going to any more social events here,” Wilhemina announced.
Katie froze and saw Michael's right eye twitching from the corner of her eye. Complete silence followed.
“Excuse me,” Ivan said in that scary too-quiet voice.
Wilhemina didn't appear to give a flying fig. “I'm not going to any more parties. Those people are assholes and jerks and they're just not worth my time,” she said; and flounced out of the room, leaving Katie and Michael with the rare sight of Ivan with his mouth hanging open, speechless.
“For some men b-a-b-y is the most terrifying four-letter word in the English language,”
—SUNNY COLLINS'S WISDOM
Chapter 21
Ivan Rasmussen always got his money's worth.
Although it made little sense to Katie, Ivan decided he wanted her and Michael to stay at the house until the date he had originally planned to return. Michael fought it, but Katie just figured she was saving a few pennies on her electric and food bill since there was no chance of her persuading Wilhemina to attend a social function let alone interest her in a man.
Katie walked around with the unsettling feeling that the sky was getting ready to fall on her. She felt Michael's gaze on her whenever he was around and when she turned in at night, he invariably greeted her just inside her room and kissed her until she turned to butter. Then, because he didn't want her to worry about talking walls, he left.
She was getting close to the time that would tell whether or not she was pregnant, and with each passing day, she grew more jumpy. One afternoon, Wilhemina breezed in to see her father. Her eyes were a little too bright, her cheeks flushed with excitement. For a second Katie wondered if she had seen Douglas. Her stomach tightened. “I have something I need to tell you, Daddy,” Wilhemina said, her voice trembling with emotion as she stood in front of Ivan's desk.
Sensing Wilhemina was going to say something important, Katie eyed the door. “Let me leave to give you some privacy.”
“Oh, no,” Wilhemina said, pleading and desperation in her eyes. “I want you to stay.”
Katie's sense of unease jumped two notches. “Okay.” She spotted Michael approaching the outer office and gave a minute shake of her head. He paused, frowning, and stood just outside the door.
“Daddy, this isn't easy, and you might feel upset in the beginning, but I know you'll be happy later.”
Ivan took off his reading glasses and studied his daughter. “What are you talking about?”
Wilhemina twined and untwined her fingers. “I-uh-I want you to promise that you won't yell.”
Ivan stretched his neck against his shirt collar, a sign of discomfort. “Why would I yell?” he asked in the scary quiet voice.
Wilhemina swallowed audibly. “Well, I told you that you might be upset at first. But you won't stay that way,” she hastened to reassure him. “You're going to be overwhelmed with joy just like me.”
He tented his fingers in front of him and nodded. “Okay. Go ahead and tell me.”
“You promise you won't yell at me?”
Ivan paused. “I promise.”
Katie wondered what in the world…
“I'm-going-to-have-a-baby!” she said in a rush, nearly bursting with excitement and joy.
Katie stared in shock.
Ivan furrowed his brow in confusion, still nodding as if he hadn't heard her. “Excuse me. Could you repeat that?”
“I said I'm going to have a baby,” Wilhemina said.
Katie felt light-headed. She swung her gaze to Michael. He looked as frozen as she felt.
Ivan began
to shake his head. “You can't be. You can't be. You said you didn't like anyone you've met at the parties.”
Wilhemina began to worry her fingers again. “I didn't meet this man here. I met him in Texas.”
“Texas?” he said with distaste, rising to his feet. “You went down to Texas and carried on with some cowboy—”
“Well, he's not exactly a cowboy. He's a hog farmer, but—”
“Hog farmer!”
“Daddy, you're yelling.”
Katie felt as if she were watching a train wreck.
Ivan turned his furious gaze on her. “Katie, you'd better have an explanation for this.”
Me? Panicked, Katie tried to make her mind work. “Wilhemina met a man in Texas and she felt very strongly about him and she, uh—”
“Breeded with him,” Ivan said with distaste.
Katie winced, thinking of Chantal's delicate condition.
“Katie had nothing to do with Wilhemina's decision to go to Texas and get involved with this man,” Michael said, calmly walking into the room.
Ivan turned on him like a snake. “Did you? Why weren't you protecting my daughter?”
“Your daughter was never seriously in danger.”
“That's right. Douglas rescued me after I drove into the ditch,” Wilhemina said.
Katie bit back a groan.
“Ditch,” Ivan echoed. “You two were supposed to watch over my daughter during my absence.”
“She ran away after the incident with Jason Page,” Michael said. “Nothing in our contract stipulates that I was responsible for her safety if she should sneak out of town.”
“Contract, shmontract,” Ivan said. “It was your job to make sure she was kept safe.”
“I did run away, Daddy,” Wilhemina confessed. “Katie and Michael had nothing to do with it. The only reason I went to Texas was because of the story Katie told me.”
Katie saw Michael grimace and wanted to sink into the floor.
“What story?”
“This wonderful story about a cowboy knight. I was upset and I decided I needed to go seek my future.”
“And now you're knocked up with a hog farmer's baby,” Ivan said viciously. “He wasn't very careful, was he?”
Wilhemina's head dipped. “You don't understand.” I wanted to get pregnant. I wanted a baby, but then I didn't feel it would be right to trick Douglas. He used a condom every time we made love. And trust me, Daddy, it was a lot of times.”
Ivan's face turned red. “Oh, God. Spare me the details. This hog farmer probably has an IQ of ten.”
“He actually graduated from high school with a 3.5 average,” Michael said. “He could have easily gone to college, but he worked in the family business. He's not wealthy. His debts are related to the farm. No criminal record. Regarded locally as an upstanding member of the community.”
“With a gun rack on his truck,” Ivan said and swore.
“That too,” Michael admitted. “But I didn't see any chewing tobacco or snuff.”
“This is your fault,” Ivan said, growing more visibly enraged with each passing moment. “I told you I didn't want Wilhemina hooking up with a damn hick.”
“It's not their fault! And Douglas isn't just a hick. He's—”
“Go to your room,” Ivan roared. “You've embarrassed me beyond belief.”
Wilhemina burst into tears. “You promised not to shout.”
“Go to your room,” he shouted, the veins in his neck bulging.
Crushed, Wilhemina fled from the office. Ivan immediately turned his attention to Katie and Michael. “You ingrates. I hired you, paid you well, and look what you did to me. Katie, I can't believe you allowed this.”
Katie knew she should keep her mouth shut, but she couldn't. “She's twenty-four. She's not a child. It's time for her to make choices, good or bad. When are you going to understand that she's the best thing in your life?”
Ivan's face turned a mottled purple. “Get out of here. You're fired You're both fired.”
His words hit her like a blast from a furnace. Katie stood with her knees locked for a full moment.
“Get out! Both of you.”
As if she were a robot her feet started to move. She heard Michael's voice as she collected the personal items from her office in a paper bag.
“Pregnancy isn't a valid basis for breaking my contractor Katie's,” Michael said.
“You didn't fulfill anything. She was traipsing all over Texas getting pregnant when you should have—”
“It was not a condition of my contract to be in her presence every minute…”
Katie climbed the stairs, packed her suitcase in three minutes, and heard Michael and Ivan still screaming when she walked past them. Although she felt as if she were in a dark tunnel, some part of her absorbed the voices. She hoped they didn't have a stroke.
Well, she amended, as she walked out the front door and headed for the train station, she hoped Michael didn't have a stroke. She hoped a lot of things. She hoped pregnancy wasn't contagious. First Chantal, then Wilhemina. Katie felt her first spurt of panic. She hoped she wasn't going to turn out like her mother. Like her unwed mother.
And if she was very fortunate and she wasn't pregnant, she also hoped she would find a new job. Quickly.
Michael called later that night. “Are you okay?”
“I'm not dead.” Surprised at how glad she was to hear his voice, she sank onto her bed. “How did you get my number?”
“I'm a security expert. I can find out anything.” He paused. “Ivan will change his mind.”
“I don't think so,” Katie said, remembering the complete rage she'd seen in his eyes. “He was a little ticked. And you're forgetting the fact that he doesn't know about Chantal. What happened with you?”
“I'm still here in the Rasmussen horror hotel.”
Katie sat up. “You're joking. Aren't you afraid of being murdered in your sleep? Oh, wait, I forgot. You're a security expert, so you should be able to prevent that.”
“Very cute, Katie. I'm here for the duration. I'm not breaching anything in the contract. If he wants to welsh on this deal, then he'll pay for it. I'm not knuckling under to Ivan. I'm not giving him an excuse to welsh on the deal.”
Katie made a face. “It wasn't fun being fired and it's probably not going to be fun looking for a job, but I'm glad I'm not in that house at the moment.”
“Lucky you in your own apartment.”
“Very small, but safe apartment.” She sank back onto her bed.
“One bedroom?”
“Yep.”
“Where are you right now?”
She paused, and almost didn't tell him. What the heck. “My bedroom.”
He groaned. “You just ruined my sleep.”
She laughed and rolled her eyes, “Why? It's a very small, very modest bedroom. I'm not wearing crotchless panties and a see-thru bra.”
“Thanks for the visual.”
“You're not missing anything. I promise.”
“Oh, but I am. When are you going to admit that you are too?”
Her stomach twisted at the truth of his statement. “Sleep with one eye open.”
“Probably both. I'm burning the midnight oil. I'll come see you when I get out of the big house.”
She smiled.
“How are you really?” he asked, his voice deepening in a way that made her heart hammer.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, uh, health. How is your health?”
She tensed at the same time that something inside her turned oddly mushy. He was nervous about asking if she was pregnant. “Nothing yet. I should know soon.”
“You'll tell me.”
“Yeah,” she said, wanting to get away from the scary subject. “Take care of you.”
“You too, and by the way, Katie, I told Ivan he was an asshole for you.”
She shook her head. “You might want to focus on watching out for you. I'm a liability right now.”
&n
bsp; “That's a matter of opinion.”
“Go to bed.”
“I'm waiting for you to bring me the condom.”
Not anytime soon, even if she burned to cinders from her lust. “G’ night.” His deep chuckle rippled under her skin as she hung up.
The following morning, she jogged to the apartment office to buy a paper, then returned to peruse it while she drank coffee and ate stale cereal minus the milk. She'd been too disoriented to buy food on her way home after being fired. She was busy circling every job possibility when her doorbell buzzed. It was an annoying sound that she rarely heard, thank goodness.
Rising from the table, she peeked through the privacy hole to see Wilhemina toting the cat carrier. Katie quickly opened the door.
“Can I stay with you?” she asked, her face splotchy from tears. “My father wants both Chantal and me to have abortions.”
Katie blinked in shock and stood aside. “You're welcome to, but this is a very small apartment Wilhemina. I'm sure you're not used to—”
“What a cute, sunny, little kitchen,” Wilhemina said quickly entering. She was twirling her fingers, a sure sign of nerves.
“Wilhemina, are you sure you don't want to try to talk things out with your father?”
Wilhemina nodded. “I already talked. I told him to go fuck himself.”
Katie blinked again. She couldn't have heard correctly. “You told your father—”
“To fuck himself,” Wilhemina finished for her. “He told me he's disinheriting me. I'll try not to be a lot of trouble. Chantal is a bigger pain than I am. I'll learn to cook and help out with the rent.”
“How can you help with the rent if he disinherits you?”
Wilhemina smiled sweetly. “I took a cash advance on my credit card on the way over here.” She turned serious. “I don't want my baby affected by his negativity and anger.”
Despite the insanity of the situation, Katie couldn't disagree. “Have you thought about what you'll do after you have the baby?”
Wilhemina shook her head. “No, but I have nine months to figure that out. Well, make that eight. I'll eventually have to get a job. I have a college degree. It should be good for something.”
