Leland nodded. “Yes. Well, manipulation of thought wave energy is probably much less effective than manipulation of actual reality, but a good scientist never rules out what they don’t understand. Applying this to your situation, I suggest if you’re ever asked about Jane in public, you need to make it clear to people that you adore her. Just play it close that you’re not in her good graces at the moment. Tell the world that she’s the one woman for you. I imagine it would be really hard for any woman to believe such a declaration when she is constantly confronted with so much empirical data indicating the potential opposite is true.”
Walter nodded. That sounded exactly right. “Okay. I’ll think about your suggestion and see if I can find a way to make it work.”
Leland started to the door. “If we’re done, I think I’ll pop next door and say hello to Dad before I go back. I scheduled a late return flight because I need to make a meeting tomorrow. By the way, your mother said the Jane woman was a bit older than you. Can I ask how much older?”
Walter sighed. “She’s thirty-eight, maybe thirty-nine. I don’t know for sure. I don’t care. She’s the angel that guards my path to heaven, as my friend Daniel would say. You’d like her, Dad. She’s incredibly smart. Mom won’t like her, but only because she’s older. She’s Morrison Fox’s daughter.”
“Wow. She probably is smart. Good then. I’ll work on adjusting your mother’s attitude. I have my ways,” Leland said, winking at Walter before he left.
After his father closed his door, Walter stayed where he was for a long time, thinking about whether or not he could pull off what his father suggested. He couldn’t imagine what Jane would think. . .or do to him publicly in return if he starting telling everyone that he loved her.
But really what choice did he have?
None, Walter decided.
Chapter 17
“Jane, you left a folded pile of clothes on the dryer. Want me to put them on your bed?” Eli asked, pulling a freshly dried shirt on. He was still adjusting to the luxury of having clean clothes to wear every day.
“No. Those are going into the temple’s garage sale. They’re just some old things from college. I should have gotten rid of them long ago,” Jane said. “Nathan constantly complained about them. I’ve decided he was probably right. They were just a sign that I hadn’t wanted to grow up.”
“Maybe growing up is overrated. Maybe you need to find some younger guy. Those suits you’re dating are boring,” Eli said.
“They’re not boring, Elijah. They’re mature,” Jane replied, refilling her coffee. “Believe me, I have a newfound appreciation for older men. But you don’t have to worry about the suits anymore. I won’t be dating for a while. I’ve given them up.”
Eli frowned. “Why?”
Jane lifted her gaze and blinked. “Because I don’t want to date right now. I need a break from men.”
“Oh,” Eli said. “Does this have anything to do with the blond giant who thought I was some other guy sharing your bed?”
“No,” Jane said, picking up her coffee to take it with her to the privacy of her room. “Walter was a mistake I won’t be repeating any time soon. I knew he was way too young when he was flirting with me. Our little fling was over before it even got started. I’m sorry if he embarrassed you.”
“I’m not embarrassed. In fact, I thought being a ‘cougar’ was a female fantasy,” Eli said irreverently, mouth twitching when he saw Jane’s jaw tighten.
“Maybe it is for some. Being a ‘cougar’ is not my fantasy,” Jane said. “Now I’m going upstairs to work. Lock the door behind you if you go out.”
Eli nodded absently. What the hell was Graham waiting on? He should have been over here knocking the door down.
He watched Jane walk up the stairs. He heard her close her bedroom door, thinking it was like all the life had been sucked out of his sister. Was she depressed?
Jane had been to see her regular doctor, and gotten medication for something judging by the pharmacy call that followed her visit. What she probably needed was a good talk with a therapist. His father had one.
Hell, maybe he should have gone for counseling instead of taking a dangerous job where he couldn’t even take a bath on a regular basis. Nothing he’d done had helped him to forget Shira anyway. Letting a woman into his bed again had been difficult, but he had managed that hurdle four months ago. Letting a woman back into his life though? Well that wasn’t going to be happening for a while obviously.
“If you’re looking for an intelligent solution to the wall my sister is building around herself, I don’t think you’re going to find one, Graham. So bring your giant blond ass over here and man up,” Eli said under his breath.
He hoped saying the words aloud instead of thinking them would somehow manage to reach the invisible man who should have been there.
***
“Tell me that was the last patient for the day,” Regina begged, passing the file and her notes for it to her very pregnant office manager, who was due to give birth in a couple of months. She truly hoped Anne would want to return to work after the baby came. Training someone new was not a job she looked forward to.
“There are no more patients, but Mrs. Fox is in your office waiting for you. There’s a tall good-looking man with her instead of her husband. He looked very familiar to me, but I couldn’t place him. I think he drove her here today. Maybe it’s her grandson,” Anne said.
Regina laughed. “Not unless JD had a growth spurt of science fiction proportions since I saw him last. He’s only two.”
She sighed and looked down the hall to her office. “Okay. Let’s see what Lydia wants. Will you call Ben and tell him I’m going to be a half hour later than I planned? It will save me trying to text him. I’m still adjusting to my new phone.”
“Certainly,” Anne said, easing her body back down into her chair and wedging her belly under the edge of the desk.
Regina sighed, wondering what it meant about her character that she was incredibly happy to have missed all that physical struggle. Lauren wasn’t too far from being in that condition again herself. She had never once suffered even the tiniest bit of baby envy.
She opened her office door with a smile that faded slightly when she saw the man now dwarfing one of the chairs she kept in front of her desk. Lydia sat primly in the other one, but smiled warmly when she saw her.
“This is an unexpected pleasure, Lydia. Hello, Walter. How have you been?” Regina asked politely.
Lydia waved a hand. “We don’t have time for a lot of chit-chat, Regina. Walter has to get back to take Harrison to water therapy tonight. Tell Walter what happened when Ben went on Stephanie Sawyer’s TV show.”
Regina eased herself down in the chair. “You two came all the way to my office for that?”
“It’s important or we wouldn’t be here, Regina,” Lydia said.
Regina turned her gaze on Walter. “Do you want to tell me anything about what happened between you and Jane?”
Walter shook his head. “Not really—no. I messed up. I’m trying to fix it.”
“And you think Stephanie Sawyer can help you?” Regina asked, unable to prevent her snort.
Walter shrugged both shoulders. “I need the most controllable public venue I can find to launch my ‘win Jane back’ campaign.”
Now it was starting to make sense, Regina thought. “Are you wondering how sharp Stephanie Sawyer really is as a media person?”
“Yes.” Walter let out a breath. “Do you think that makes me a bad person? I’m not trying to use the woman—not really. She’ll get a good show out of the deal.”
“Relax, Walter. You can speak frankly. It’s impossible for me to judge people by their wicked intentions when I have so many myself,” Regina said, smiling at the earnest younger man. His goodness almost beamed out of his pores. He reminded her of Jim.
“So what should I know before I contact Stephanie Sawyer?” Walter asked.
“Stephanie’s a press whore,” Re
gina said bluntly, laughing again when Lydia hissed.
“Regina, watch your language please,” Lydia said sternly.
“Well, he asked,” Regina declared. Laughing at Lydia’s frown, she turned her unrepentant gaze toward a totally unembarrassed Walter. “Don’t get me wrong, Walter. Stephanie is very good at her job. She knows how to ask the right questions, but she also knows how to trip up her guests. Stephanie likes making them admit things they don’t want people knowing. My husband was on her show. He got very, very lucky. Ben is sexy and distracting and Stephanie was having an off day. ”
Walter nodded. “Harrison taught me a lot about maintaining poise under pressure. I’m not overly worried about dealing with her. I just wanted to get a sense of what I was getting into and the kind of trouble she was likely to try to cause.”
“Makes sense. Now I get to ask you a question. Why did Jane refuse to come to dinner with us last Thursday? Alexa said Jane happily confessed to being an official member of the cougar-cub dating scene in Falls Church. Then suddenly Jane’s phone is disconnected. None of us can reach her. Can you help me understand this sudden change of climate, Walter?”
“Since practically everyone else knows, why shouldn’t I tell you too? I thought Jane was sleeping with her brother,” Walter said.
His voice was flat as he confessed to the worst person he could think of outside of his mother. . .and maybe Lydia. Telling the older woman at his side had been pretty awful, plus he figured news of his mistake had gone straight into Morrison Fox’s ears.
Regina straightened at Walter’s statement. “Well, I can see how potential incest would be very off-putting if you were really interested in her. Did Jane actually confess that to you?”
Walter choked out a groan when he realized Dr. Logan had taken his words literally. “No. . .not. . .I’d never met her brother until that day. He answered Jane’s door and I thought he was another slightly older version of me. He said Jane was in the shower. To keep from decking him, I got in my SUV and left.”
Regina sat for a moment, then wrinkled her face up. “Her brother’s mere presence had you thinking he was her lover?”
Walter shook his head. “No.”
“He wasn’t wearing a shirt,” Lydia supplied, trying to spare him. “Walter thought her brother was naked.”
Walter huffed out a breath. No one was getting the story straight. “I could see he wasn’t naked, but I. . .” He looked from Lydia to stare into Regina’s laughing gaze. “My best friend called me a jealous asshole. Got any more questions? Want to know how I feel about my mother?”
“No, of course not,” Regina said on a wicked giggle. “You being an asshole explains everything.”
“Good,” Walter said, fighting not to sigh in relief. “Now all I have to do is figure out a ruse to get on Stephanie’s show. My plan is tell all the women chasing me that it’s Jane I want.”
“Ruse?” Regina said, wiggling her eyebrows. “You came to the right person. Now that I can help you with today.”
She picked up her phone and punched a button, smiling as the phone dialed and rang through.
“Ben? Yes, hi darling. I miss you too. I need you to do a little favor for me. Can you put a bug into Stephanie Sawyer’s ear about having our young friend Walter Graham on her show? What to tell her? Hold on a minute.”
Regina looked at Walter. “Done anything really wicked lately? Besides seducing an older woman. That’s relatively mild these days. I don’t think that will count with Stephanie.”
Walter snorted and shook his head, laughing when Lydia elbowed him.
“Come on, Mr. March. Think of something. These people are trying to help you,” Lydia ordered.
“Oh. I got it. That’s perfect.” Regina’s laughter filled the office. “Ben? Tell Stephanie that Mr. March has fallen for an older woman. I don’t know. Not good enough? Fine. Tell Stephanie the woman might be pregnant. Walter can deny that after she schedules him to be on the show. Oh, and mention his renovations at the North Winds and his famous family. Thank you, darling. See you shortly.”
After clicking to end the call, Regina beamed at Walter. “Okay. You’ll probably get contacted in the next couple of days. Stephanie will do anything for Ben. She’s hoping he’ll kick me to the curb one day and come after her.”
“Would your husband ever do that?” Walter asked.
“Why are you going to such great lengths to convince Jane to give you another chance?” Regina asked.
“Because I love her,” Walter said.
Regina smiled. “You’ve made my week, Walter.”
“Thank you for helping, Regina. I knew you could,” Lydia said.
Regina smiled as they walked out the door. Then she picked up her phone again.
Chapter 18
When Eli opened the front door, he thought he caught a camera flash, but decided it was his imagination. He bent to pick up the newspaper, and when he straightened a flicker of light caught his eyes. It had to be a flash.
“Hey, I saw that,” he yelled, feeling a bit nuts.
He closed the door with a bang, the force of his irritation making it echo in the foyer.
“What is wrong with you, Elijah? You don’t have to slam the door closed. It’s well maintained and closes easily,” Jane said, coming out of the kitchen with tea this morning. She was trying to cut back on coffee.
“I could swear I saw some nutcase outside taking pictures,” he grumbled.
“Your last job made you very weird. Go. Make coffee. You obviously need it,” Jane said, starting her trek up the stairs.
“Uh. . .Janey. You need to see what’s in the paper this morning,” Eli said. “Your former boy toy made the front page.”
“Boy toy? Who called him that?” Jane demanded, walking back down to rip the paper from his hands.
Sure enough. On the front page was Walter.
The headline read “Mr. March’s Secret Love.”
“That’s just some woman playing media hard ball. She’s probably upset because Walter didn’t pick her underwear for this week’s grand prize of getting to spend time with him. She needs to be more patient. He’s got a lot of skanky women standing in line,” Jane said, handing the paper back.
Eli shook his head. “Read the first paragraph. He names you, Janey.”
“Names me?” Jane said, turning the paper until she could read what it said. “It just says we were working on the project at North Winds. Walter says he’s always had a great admiration of my work.”
Her gaze rose to her brother’s. “So? This is not so bad. It’s probably true. I’m not on the project any longer, but Walter never had anything bad to say about my work.”
“Jane—stop with the denials. I’m very familiar with the media game this article writer is playing. You’re the only woman mentioned in the article, ergo it is about you,” Eli said.
“Don’t exaggerate,” Jane said.
“What woman do you think people are going to think the headline is about then? Why would someone run a headline like that over a simple article about what Walter Graham is doing at North Winds? Never mind that you’re doubting my ten year career here. Use your head about Walter Graham for once,” Eli ordered.
Jane rolled her eyes, forcing the paper into her brother’s hand as she headed upstairs. “It was only a matter of time before Walter’s notoriety hit the press’s radar. Hopefully he’ll plug the North Winds project and use his fame wisely. Not that I care anymore, but I’m just saying it would be good if he did that.”
She stopped halfway up the stairs and turned back to her brother. She wanted as few secrets between them as she could handle.
“I don’t know if I ever told you, but Walter and I were dating for a bit. It ended badly. No big surprise. He’s a lot younger than me. Now you know why the article would link us. But he was never my anything. Case closed.”
“How did it end with the other guys you’ve stopped dating?”
“What other guys?”
&nbs
p; “Are you listening to yourself? You were going out with three different guys just last week,” Eli declared.
“Leave me alone, Elijah. There are no more guys. I’m done with guys. Especially younger guys,” Jane said.
Eli smiled. “I think you should talk to him, Jane. Find out why Walter Graham is mentioning you in the paper. What could it hurt?”
“You don’t know him, Eli. Remember the blond delivery guy with the bad attitude? That was a side of Walter I never want to see again,” Jane said, walking on up. “He thought you were some guy I was sleeping with. That was why he treated you like that.”
“Well, I thought he was a delivery guy. That probably makes me as bad as him at jumping to wrong conclusions. I’m totally past that screw-up. You should be too.”
Eli called out the last even louder, but Jane’s bedroom door closing cut off the rest of his words.
***
“Didn’t you read the paper? I’m trying to get back into Jane’s good graces, not throw the stupid calendar stuff in her face more,” Walter said, rubbing his chin. He needed a shave, but his first photo shoot had required a ‘slight growth of beard’.
Bending his massive body into weird positions while wearing a suit had made him feel like he was doing yuppie aerobics. They had him check his watch while his wrist was wrapped across his shoe. Talk about strange. But the advance from the photographer had already been deposited. Work on the new resident swimming pool would start in the next day or so. It was too late for swimming this season, but the steam room and sauna could still be used for a while.
“Which is why I’m suggesting you use this situation for your benefit,” Harrison replied calmly, sipping his cognac.
“One ruse at a time is about all I handle,” Walter said. “I wouldn’t know where to start at getting that level of attention on North Winds.”
Walter talking to Leland hadn’t done as much as Harrison had hoped, but their father-son chat had seemed to increase the affection between the two men. He’d badly needed to believe Leland would step up to parent Walter more after he was gone. The boy was doing well, but until a man cleared thirty, there tended to be some rough emotional spots.
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