Accidental Love (14 page)

When Ronnie entered Rose's room, she was pleased to see Karen was finishing up. "I'll be back tomorrow. Don't forget to do those exercises I showed you. You have to keep those muscles active as much as possible or it will only slow your recovery."

"I will, thank you," the young woman replied.

"Fine." The nurse turned her attention to Ronnie, correctly assuming she was the one in charge.

"I'll be back tomorrow around nine."

****************

Lunch was a simple fare of soup and sandwiches, eaten while listening to the feisty judge reprimand someone for thinking she would believe they had repaid a loan but just could not find their receipt. By the time the credits rolled, both women were looking at empty plates. "Maria can make anything taste good."

"Oh, she's a wonderful cook," Rose agreed. "Has she always worked for you and your family?"

"As long as I can remember. Her mother worked for us too, but she retired shortly after I was born. Maria's been everything from housekeeper to baby-sitter to referee ever since." The high pitched chirp of the phone interrupted her. "Probably another telemarketer," she grumbled.

"Aren't you going to answer it?"

"No. Maria screens my calls for me." As if on cue, Maria knocked on the door. "Okay," Ronnie called while reaching for the phone. "This is Veronica Cartwright."

"Um…yes, Miss Cartwright, this is Jonathan Barker from First Albany Savings and Trust. How are you today?" Recognizing the name of the bank's senior vice-president, Ronnie's posture stiffened and she pushed her chair over to the desk.

"Yes, Mister Barker. What can I do for you today?"

"Well…I don't mean to bother you at home but I felt this matter required your immediate attention." She did not miss the touch of nervousness in his voice. "Mister Cartwright hasn't returned any of my calls and I am afraid at this point I have to seek recourse somewhere else."

Ronnie rolled her eyes and picked up her pencil, lightly tapping it on the desk. "What's this about?"

"Well…as you know, when a loan is defaulted, we are obligated to go to the guarantor in order to recover our losses and since you are the cosigner on Mr. Cartwright's personal loan…."

"I cosigned a loan?" The pencil stopped moving. "When was this?"

"Oh, I um…" She heard papers shuffling about on Barker's desk. "Yes, here it is. I have your signature dated April fifth as a cosigner for Mr. Thomas Cartwright's personal loan." A touch of nervousness crept into his voice. "You did cosign a personal loan for him, didn't you, Miss Cartwright?"

The pencil began tapping rapidly. "I guess I must have forgotten about it, Mister Barker."

"Well, I'm sure it was just a simple oversight on Mister Cartwright's part but I am afraid that we haven't received a payment in over five months. I really can not let this go on much longer."

"No, of course not." The pencil moved with more force. "You can transfer the overdue amount from my personal savings account."

"Well, I appreciate that Miss Cartwright but I am afraid at this point the loan is considered to be in default and we have to ask for full repayment."

"Fine. You can take whatever is owed from my account." She nestled the phone between her ear and shoulder, freeing up her hand to grab a piece of paper. "Can you please tell me the exact repayment amount so I can mark my records?"

The pencil dropped to the desk and clattered onto the floor. "What?"

"I said the total with interest and late fees comes to seventeen thousand six hundred forty-two dollars and twenty three cents. I'll have that withdrawn from your account immediately."

"Mister Barker?"

"Yes?"

" In the future, make certain you check with me personally before approving any more loans for any member of my family."

"Certainly, Miss Cartwright."

There was a pause before Ronnie realized that he had said something else. "Excuse me, I'm afraid I didn't hear you."

"I asked if there was anything the bank could do for you today." the banker repeated.

"No. I think you've done enough, thank you."

"Have a good day, Miss Cartwright," he said, but she had already hung up.

From her seat only a few feet away, Rose heard every word of the executive's side of the conversation. It was not hard to piece together what happened. "Ronnie?" All she got was a view of the back of the brown leather chair and the furious clacking of the keyboard. "Ronnie?"

"Do you need something, Rose?" Her tone sounded much harsher than she intended. The typing stopped. "You know, there are times when I wish I wasn't the oldest," she sighed, turning her chair around to face the young woman.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Ronnie's first reaction was to say no, that family problems are always settled privately, but then she looked up into soft green eyes and realized she did want to talk about it, she did want to share her frustrations and feelings with Rose. "Tommy took out a personal loan and forged my name on it as cosigner."

"Oh, that's terrible," the young woman gasped. "But, why did you pay it?"

"Because that's what I'm expected to do," she sighed. "If I didn't, Susan or Mother would have."

"But you're only making it easier for him to do it again."

"I know, but I don't have a choice." She pushed her chair closer to the bed. "Even though I'm considered the head of the family now, there are still some things I have to do whether I like them or not."

"It's a lot of pressure sometimes, isn't it?" Rose reached out and placed a gentle hand on the older woman's forearm. "It must be very stressful to have to keep everything inside."

Ronnie looked up in surprise. "Yeah." It was the first time anyone had ever expressed any understanding of her feelings when it came to being the family caretaker. "Tommy just soaked me for almost eighteen grand."

"Oh my God! Eighteen thousand dollars?"

"It's not even the money that bothers me," Ronnie continued, deliberately not focusing on the fact that the amount meant completely different things to each of them. To her, it was a fraction of her savings and would not really be missed. To Rose, well…she did not even want to think about what it meant to the young woman who spent less than twenty bucks a week on groceries.

"It's the fact that he used you," the blonde woman guessed.

"He forged my signature on a bank loan. I can't imagine why he would need a cosigner for that small amount anyway but I don't manage his finances. I just can't believe he had the balls to do that and then not bother to repay it." As she spoke, Ronnie's voice betrayed more of her anger and outrage. "He knew I'd take care of it. He knew the bank would never question my signature on a loan for him."

"He used you."

"He used me." She looked at her desk and the still unsolved problems that waited for her there. The enormity of the problem made her take a deep breath. "I'm going to have to call for an audit of the Real Estate division."

"Do you think he's embezzling?"

"If you asked me that yesterday, I would have said that I wasn't sure." She leaned over and picked up the manila folder. "Today? Now I know he's embezzling, I just can't prove it." She let the folder fall back on the desk with a thwap. Her body was a bundle of nervous energy and she needed to release it. "Rose, I need to go downstairs and work out for a while. Do you think you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine," the young woman assured her. "I know you have things to do. You don't have to keep me company all the time."

Ah, but Rose
, she thought to herself.
I like keeping you company
. She stood up and pushed her chair back over to the desk. "I'll be back in about a half-hour or so. If you're up to it we can go out into the living room and watch some more movies."

"That'd be nice."

Yes it would
, the executive thought.

********************

A grueling workout did nothing to improve Ronnie's mood, which only seemed to worsen the longer she thought about her brother and what he had done. The punching bag suffered an onslaught of blows, accented by a string of curses that would make even the most raucous sailor blush. Only when she was thoroughly exhausted did she remove the boxing gloves and head for the small refrigerator to get something to drink. As she removed the last bottle of Gatorade, Ronnie noticed the clock on the wall. It was after three, well past the half-hour that she had planned on being gone. "Dammit."

The door opened to the office fifteen minutes later with a freshly showered Ronnie holding a videotape. "Sorry, guess I got caught up in what I was doing. We still on for the movie?"

"Oh, yes. Of course," Rose smiled. She had heard the muffled sounds of Ronnie working out, or raging, depending on how one looked at it, and seriously doubted the executive would be up to spending time with her.

As she had done yesterday, Ronnie used her brute strength to carry the wheelchair and its occupant past the steps of the sunken living room and helped Rose onto the couch. "I thought a romantic comedy would be nice…unless you prefer something else?"

"No, I'm sure whatever you've picked will be fine," the young woman replied enthusiastically. And it was the truth. Rose would have been happy to watch a test pattern if that was what Ronnie wanted. The initial awkwardness was quickly fading, replaced with a sense of friendship and caring for the woman who befriended her. She was surprised when the executive did not lower the snack tray that had served as a barrier between them before and even more astonished when Ronnie sat down on the middle cushion, only scant inches away from her. "Don't you want your footrest?"

"Naw, I feel like sitting up for a while," she replied, tucking her feet underneath her Indian-style.

"You comfortable?"

"Very."

"Good." She pressed the play button on the remote and fast-forwarded through the trailers until she saw the Feature Presentation logo. "Here we go."

The opening scene was almost over when Rose's nose picked up a most delicious scent.

"Popcorn?" As if on cue, Maria appeared from the kitchen with a large bowl of the treat in hand as well as several napkins.

"If you don't need anything else, I do need to be going," Maria said as she handed the bowl to Ronnie. "Dinners are in the refrigerator, microwave on medium for three minutes to heat them up."

"I think we're all set, Maria. Drive carefully."

"I'm only going home, Ronnie. You'd think I lived ten miles away," the older woman said. "I could walk if it weren't so darn cold outside."

"I know, but I'm still allowed to worry about you. After all, who'd do all the cooking and cleaning if you weren't around?" The twinkling in her blue eyes was the only sign that the blackhaired woman was joking.

"Ronnie!" Rose yelped. Maria chuckled.

"Keep it up, Veronica Louise, and you'll find out." She turned to Rose. "You keep an eye on her."

"I will," the young woman promised with a smile.

Once Maria left, Ronnie backed the tape up to the beginning and the two women settled in to watch Richard Dreyfuss try to win Marsha Mason's heart. The popcorn bowl rested between them and both women were busily stuffing the buttered snack into their mouths. As was bound to happen, the large and small hands reached in at the same time and the greased fingers intertwined. "Oops," came the simultaneous apology as their digits were disengaged from one another.

"Good popcorn," Rose said as she reached back in, this time making sure to stay on her own side of the bowl.

"Yeah, really good."

As the movie wore on and the popcorn supply dwindled, their hands continued to brush against each other in pursuit of the tasty kernels. After the fourth or fifth time, both gave up apologizing and just let it happen without comment. Rose still did her best to avoid touching Ronnie's hand, but it seemed to always be on her side of the bowl. When only the tiniest pieces were left along with unpopped kernels, the older woman moved the bowl over to the unoccupied cushion. "You want something to drink?"

"Sure, thanks."

"What do you want?"

"Anything would be fine. Water is good."

"Uh huh." Ronnie rose gracefully from the couch and wandered out to the kitchen, returning a minute later with soda for each of them.

"Thanks," Rose said, taking the glass. "Do you want to back it up so you can see what you missed?"

"Naw, I've seen this one several times." She sat back down and tucked her legs underneath herself. "I'm a sucker for a good romance story."

Tabitha wandered out to see what was going on. "Mrrow?"

"No, we're up here right now. You go play," Ronnie said. Apparently the orange and white cat thought she said 'come on up' because she did exactly that, crossing over the executive's lap and settling down between the two women.

"Do you want her down?" Rose put her hand under the feline's stomach, ready to shoo her.

Ronnie looked at the purring cat. Two weeks ago she never would have let an animal take control of her house. "I guess she's not hurting anything." The truth was that it made the executive smile inside to see Rose happy and obviously being around Tabitha did that. She reached out and let her long fingers join the smaller ones in petting the happily purring feline.

********************

Tuesday brought with it the realization that the matters at Cartwright Corporation could not be ignored any longer. Ronnie bid goodbye to the still sleeping Rose and headed for the Jeep.

The morning disc jockeys were busy making fun of recent political activities, leaving the executive with no choice but to pop in a CD. She guided the bright blue Jeep through the neverending series of traffic lights and one-way streets until she reached the Hudson Avenue parking garage. She drove up ramp after ramp until she reached the row of spaces reserved for Cartwright executives. Ronnie pulled into the spot reserved for her and shut the engine off. She took a few minutes to put her head in the work mode after being in the caretaker mode for so many days. Feeling ready to face whatever awaited her, Veronica Cartwright stepped out of her vehicle and headed for the elevator that would take her down to the ground floor. From there it was a short walk to State Street and the Cartwright Building.