Read Breaking the Ties That Bind Online
Authors: Gwynne Forster
Breaking the Ties That Bind (22 page)
He leaned forward and looked her in the eye. “Why didn’t you tell me that Howell succeeded in shortening the time required for you to stay in Europe? Hell, you didn’t even tell me you’d chosen Italy and that you’d be leaving in January.”
“That is not the reason for your icy treatment today, and you know it. We’d been at your father’s house over an hour when I told that. I didn’t tell you earlier, because I’d planned to reveal that to you about now when we returned from dinner. In fact, I bought my first bottle of champagne for that purpose. It’s in the refrigerator,” she said, the finality of her voice saying that it would remain there. “If Papa hadn’t needed to preen,” she went on, “I wouldn’t have mentioned it in that group.” She folded her hands and waited for his explanation.
“I’ve been moving too fast, Kendra. And every time I tell myself to slow down, the advice only works for a short while. I don’t want to make a mistake with you, and I don’t want to create a problem for myself. You’re important to me. I know it and I feel it. But it came so easily and with such resounding power, that it stunned me.”
“I see. So you don’t believe in it. Well, if you want to go your own way, I don’t promise to wait for you to change your mind. I’ve learned from you the sweet contentment to be found in a loving companion, and I hope never to be without it.”
“Just like that, you’re willing to say, it’s been nice and so long?”
“Don’t misunderstand me, Sam. What I’ve been saying is that I refuse ever to beg any man to be with me, no matter who he is or how I feel about him. If he wants to go, he can walk. If I cry all night, he’ll never know it.”
“Well, I’m not ready to finish it. I don’t know that I’ll ever be. I told you the truth when I said you’re in here.” He pointed to his heart.
“Then what’s wrong? Something is not right. Is there someone else?”
“I haven’t looked at another woman since I met you. But you’re right; I’m having trouble giving my whole self to this. It—”
“You mean you’re having trouble giving your whole self to
me
. Let’s call a spade a spade.”
me
. Let’s call a spade a spade.”
“There’s something I have to resolve. I hadn’t thought it would have significance for my relationship with you, but in spite of myself, it does.”
“And if it wasn’t for that something, whatever it is, you would be able freely to express your feelings for me? Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Yes. You see, I still need your warmth and affection, your presence, your company. I . . . I still need you.”
She closed her eyes, tried to digest his words and to understand them. “You think you’re still capable of kissing me the way you did in that movie theater?”
“Of course. If I were guided by my feelings for you, I could kiss you with as much genuine passion as I ever did.”
“I see. So the change is in your head.” She didn’t think she could handle that. Standing, she picked up his coat and handed it to him. “In spite of this downer, I don’t remember having spent a more pleasant Thanksgiving.”
He stood, put on his coat, and walked with her to the door. “Please don’t make a date for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve that doesn’t include me.”
“Are you asking me for those dates?” From then on, she didn’t intend to assume anything in respect to Sam.
“Yes, and some between now and then.”
“Like what?”
“Like my frat dance. Don’t push me, Kendra. From the minute I met you, I vowed to be absolutely straight with you about everything. Please don’t reward me by being picayunish.”
She didn’t need to comment on that. “Is your fraternity dance black-tie or tails?”
“Black-tie, and please let me know the color of your dress so I won’t clash with it. If there’s time, I’ll have the cummerbund made to match it.”
“Then, I’ll decide what I’m wearing this weekend. Thank you for the gesture.”
“Don’t. I want every man there to know you’re with me.”
In spite of the dull feeling around her heart, she laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Sam, you’re a professor of psychology, so the word schizophrenic must occur to you with some frequency these days. Mind you, I’m not making a diagnosis, but your recent behavior is rather peculiar since I saw no evidence of it earlier.”
“I know. I’ve been inconsistent with you. Kiss me?” He’d phrased it as a question. He’d been honest, and she owed him the same, so she reached up and kissed his cheek.
He stared down at her. “Is that as much as you can give?”
“It’s as much as I feel right now.”
His gaze seared her, deep and penetrating as if he searched for something beyond his grasp. “I’ll be in touch.”
She didn’t watch him as he walked to the elevator, and that was just as well, for he didn’t look back.
It was his fault, and he’d better do something about it. If anybody should understand how a person’s behavior affected others, especially intimate friends, it was a professor of clinical psychology. Truth was admirable, but sometimes it was out of place. Kendra had just showed him how tough she could be when she hurt. And he didn’t doubt that she hurt. He got into his car, ignited the engine, turned it off, and took his cell phone out of the breast pocket of his jacket. He dialed Bert Richards’s number.
“Richards speaking.”
“Bert, this is Sam. I’ve just left Kendra. I need to talk with you. It’s early yet. Can you and I meet somewhere? It’s very important.” He knew he’d taken the man aback, but he also knew that Bert Richards loved his daughter and that the man would meet him halfway.
“Sure, Sam. It was clear to me at your father’s house that you and Kendra have lost something since we were together in Rock Creek Park. I live on Colorado between Kennedy and Longfellow. Most coffee houses are closed now. We can talk here, if it isn’t too far out of your way.” He gave Sam the address.
“Thanks. I appreciate this. See you in about fifteen minutes.”
He hadn’t thought about the kind of home Bert Richards would have; in fact, he tried not to judge a man by his possessions. Yet, when he entered the charming foyer of the sixstory building in which Bert lived, his eyebrows shot up. Blue and rose Persian carpets covered the hardwood floors; soft-white sconce lights against dusty-rose walls gave the area a soothing and inviting appearance.
“I’m Samuel Hayes. Mr. Richards, please,” he said to the uniformed man seated behind a horseshoe-shaped desk.
“He’s expecting you, Mr. Hayes.”
Bert waited for him at his door, which stood slightly ajar, a gesture that assured Sam of the man’s cordiality. “Come in, Sam. You look oppressed,” Bert said. “I gather this has to do with Kendra. Otherwise you would have talked it over with Jethro.”
“You’re right.”
Bert took Sam’s coat, hung it in a nearby closet, and walked with him into the living room. “I can’t decide how best to handle this,” he continued.
“I made us some coffee, and that’s about all I can offer. I don’t drink except for wine in a restaurant or as a dinner guest at someone’s home.” He poured coffee for each of them. “What’s eating you?”
Sam sipped the coffee and nodded appreciatively. “When Kendra first told me about her mother’s antics, her selfishness and self-centered behavior at her own daughter’s expense, I figured it made no difference to my relationship with Kendra.
“But when she attempted to steal Kendra’s pocketbook, it shook me up, and I still told myself that I could deal with it.”
“And now?”
Bert asked him, leaning forward with his hands gripped tightly in front of him.
Bert asked him, leaning forward with his hands gripped tightly in front of him.
“You remember that second heavy snow storm?” Bert nodded. “I went to class that day, and a professor with whom I talk from time to time asked me if we could discuss one of our students. He lives in my direction and suggested that we stop at Rooter’s Bar and Grill, after which he’d drive me on home in his jeep. I saw a woman sitting at the bar and asked the bartender her name, because she looked so much like Kendra. That nearly got me in trouble with the bartender; the woman was Ginny Hunter and the bartender was her man. She’d been ignoring him and casing me over.
“I explained to him that she looked like my girlfriend, and after I confirmed her identity, the guy asked my girlfriend’s age. I told him. He went back to Ginny, and they had a row, during which she used some street language and stalked out. When she passed me, she invited me and my colleague to come home with her.
“Bert, I can’t seem to get over that. I know it has nothing to do with Kendra, but she’s Kendra’s mother, and she invited me and my colleague to a sexual romp with her. If I tell Kendra about this, it will hurt her terribly, but if I don’t tell her and keep this disgust inside of me, I may hurt her even more. Right now, we’re in partial limbo. Kendra wouldn’t even kiss me good night. I didn’t level with her, but she questioned my behavior, and I told her I had to resolve something.
“You can understand why you are the only person with whom I could share this.”
“I know Ginny is reckless, but I didn’t realize that she had developed such loose morals. She loves money, but she does not like to work and avoids it to the extent possible. The money I gave her to pay our mortgage, she spent on designer perfumes and clothes. The bank foreclosed, and she did little more than shrug. It took me almost thirty years to get out of the rut she left me in. I opened a butcher shop because I couldn’t pay those bills working for a salary, and I’d worked in a butcher shop while in college. It was the only trade I knew.
“If you’ll trust me, I’ll try to talk with Kendra about this. She can be hardheaded, but she’ll listen to me. It will take time, because I imagine that every time you put your arm around Kendra, you see Ginny. Kendra is the image of her mother at that age.”
“I know it’s best you talk with her, but I feel as if I’m shirking my responsibility. She may think that I don’t trust her.”
Bert looked to the ceiling, shaking his head. “It’s as if fate had ordained that Ginny destroy Kendra. Thwart her at one trick and she pulls off another one. Kendra wants Ginny to love her, but the woman is incapable of love. Kendra refused to appear in court against her for attempting to steal that pocketbook, explaining that Ginny didn’t actually steal it. I’ll think about it, Sam. Maybe I should prepare her for what you have to say, and you tell her yourself. But I agree with you that if you don’t tell her, your relationship will suffer irreparable damage.”
“Bert, I’m indebted to you for your help and understanding. I don’t want to hurt Kendra. I want to protect her from hurt and pain, but this news will hurt Kendra no matter how she gets it.”
“And if she isn’t told, she will hurt far worse,” Bert said. He shook his head slowly as if perplexed, and his next words held a tinge of sadness. “I’d hate to see the two of you lose that magical spark that you had—and which I’ve never experienced—but man proposes and God disposes. It’s the way of life.”
“One problem is that a relationship between a woman and a man either goes up or down; it never stands still.”
“I know, so it’s best we get to this as soon as we can.”
They said good night, and Sam headed home, in one sense relieved, but in another, more heavily burdened. He cared deeply for Kendra, and as he talked with her father, reflecting on what her life had been like, he remembered telling her that he’d always be there for her. Perspiration beaded his forehead, dampened his shirt, and made him want to pull over and take off his jacket. He kept driving. He’d gotten out of some tough spots and done it without compromising his honor and integrity. And he’d deal honorably with this.
Sam couldn’t know of Kendra’s decision to take her cues from him. If he called, they would talk; if he didn’t, they wouldn’t. She had been rejected by her mother more times than she could count, and it had yet to kill her. “That’s not a good comparison,” she said aloud. “I don’t really know what having a mother is like.”
Figuring that she could get in two or three hours of study before bedtime, she opened her notes from a class in public speaking, but as she began to review them, the telephone rang.
The caller ID didn’t appear on the screen, so she hesitated to answer. Well, it could be Sam, she thought.
Other books
Designs on Life by Elizabeth Ferrars
Taming the Country Star: A Hometown Heroes Novella (Entangled Bliss) by Margo Bond Collins
The Family Business by Pete, Eric, Weber, Carl
Underground Secrets (The Underground #1) by S.A. Sproston
The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald
The Case of Naomi Clynes by Basil Thomson
Monster Republic by Ben Horton
A Tree of Bones by Gemma Files
Murder of the Cat's Meow: A Scumble River Mystery by Denise Swanson
Make Me Desperate by Beth Kery
