Can't Buy Me Love (5 page)

“And
you knew none of this?”

“No.
Which is actually less surprising than you’d think. I thought we ran in the
same social circles, and I guess to a point that’s true, but Charlene really
doesn’t have much to do with anything related to ‘society,’ apart from
attending charity events. With a wealthy man. And lately, that’s been me.”

“OK,
so why is that?”

“I’m
not completely sure,” Chase said as he grabbed a handful of peanuts from the
dish in front of him and poured them into his mouth. As he munched, he thought
about Gina’s question, and after swilling back a mouthful of beer to wash down the
peanuts, he replied. “Here’s the thing. A week ago, I would have said that
she’s like all the other women I’ve complained about lately – she’s after
money. But now I’m less convinced of that. Everything I saw today, and
everything I saw online, shows me someone different.”

“Different
how?”

“She
went to college at an Ivy League school, courtesy of Daddy. And when she was
done, she took a year off and traveled. But she didn’t go and hang out in the
art museums of Europe – she backpacked around Asia and Latin America and
volunteered at various organizations as she went. And when she got back, she
went to graduate school at a state school. And I think it was on her own dime,
though I can’t know that for sure.”

“Why
do you think that?”

“Because
her father doesn’t seem the type who would pay for her to go to a state
school,” Chase grinned. “But who knows. Maybe he was glad to get off cheap.”

“So
now what?” Gina asked.

What
do you mean, now what?”

“So
the woman you’ve been seeing for the past six months turns out to be someone
altogether more interesting than you’d thought. And you never saw it. So what
will you do now? Keep seeing her and pretend today never happened?”

Chase
looked up at Gina, and held her eyes with a steady gaze. “Well, she kind of
lied to me. So I’m not sure what to do with that.”

But
Gina leaned against the kitchen island and crossed her arms in front of her,
cocking her head to one side. “Did she? Chase, did you ever ask her what she
did for a living?”

He
looked uncomfortable. “I’m not sure,” he said at last.

“I’m
pretty sure you didn’t,” Gina said with some confidence. “A woman who works in
that kind of a position would tell you if you asked. Trust me. It has to be a
passion for her to do what she does.”

Chase
looked stern. “Couldn’t she have mentioned it from time to time?”

But
Gina shook her head. “It depends. But probably not, if you never showed any
interest. Did you?”

Chase
leaned back in his barstool, sipping his beer and thinking. Was Gina right? Had
he never asked, because he’d just assumed that she was supported by her father?
But why hadn’t she ever said something before? Why did she pass herself off as
something she wasn’t? And, perhaps most importantly, why had she gone out with
him for so long if she wasn’t interested in letting him know anything about her?

“What
are you thinking about?” Gina watched Chase’s facial expressions as Jared sat
watching the conversation with a half-smile.

“Other
than why in the hell she’s continued to see me when we obviously know nothing
about each other?” He sighed. “I liked her today. If I’d met her for the first
time, I’d be interested. But now? I’m just not sure. I don’t know who she is. Not
really.”

“You
probably have a better idea of who she is now than you did a few hours ago.”

“OK.
That’s true. So what do you think would happen if I pursued Lena as Ed. Sort
of. And simultaneously pursued Charlene as Chase?”

But
Gina rolled her eyes in disgust. “You’re an idiot.”

Jared
snorted as Chase grinned. “That’s what your husband keeps telling me.”

“Well
listen to him, you moron. Look. Are you interested in her?”

Chase
shook his head slowly. “I honestly don’t know,” he replied.

“Which
‘her’ are you more interested in?” Gina asked shrewdly.

“Lena,”
Chase responded firmly. “Definitely Lena.”

“Then
it sounds to me like you’ve got some talking to do. And you probably should
start out with an explanation of why you never asked about her before, and why
you just made some major assumptions that turned out to be very wrong. My guess
is that you were a jerk to her early on, even if you didn’t realize it at the
time.”

“But
seriously, why did she keep seeing me if I was such a jerk? Maybe she
is
just like all the other women I know – interested in the money, but not me.”

Gina
raised her beer to Chase. “She’s not. I’ve never met her. I’ve never even laid
eyes on her. But I’ll be willing to bet you a hundred bucks that she’s got
another reason for her behavior. And it’s not because she wants to marry you
for your money. You moron,” she added affectionately.

“Don’t
take the bet,” Jared warned, speaking up at last. “Trust me on this.”

Gina
just grinned wickedly over at him. “Who’s ready for a burger?”

Six

On
Sunday morning, after spending the morning with Winston recovering from a
way-too-late night out with her friends, Lena showed up at her parent’s home at
11:00. She was dressed casually but nicely in a summer skirt, a light
sleeveless blouse, and a pair of teal-colored kitten heels that matched the
pattern in her skirt. Letting herself in, she found them on the back patio.

“Good
morning,” she said, leaning down to kiss her stepmother on the cheek before
doing the same to her father. She noted with concern the empty champagne glass
in front of Jeanette and the slightly glassy look in her too-wide eyes.

“Are
you still planning to go to the lunch at the country club this morning?” she
asked her father as she slid into a chair next to him and reached for the
carafe of coffee.

“Of
course. Jeanette has been looking forward to it all week, haven’t you dear?”

Her
stepmother nodded and smiled, but Lena could tell that she wasn’t fully focused
on the conversation. She sighed silently, then turned back to her father. “I’m
going to drive separately, Dad. I’m going to meet a friend after the luncheon
over on that side of town, so there’s no point in coming back here and then
driving back over there again.”

Her
father looked sternly over at her. “This isn’t a new excuse to leave early, I
hope. You usually use your dog as a reason to leave after a couple of hours.”

Lena
shook her head, biting her tongue at the same time. She was tired. She didn’t
feel like picking a fight with her father. “No. Winston and I went for a long
run this morning, so he’s tired. He’ll sleep for most of the afternoon. I’m
going to go meet Kat in Cherry Creek. She wants to go to the new cooking store
that just opened up there, and I have to admit that I’m anxious to take a look
too.”

“Cooking,
Lena? Really?” her stepmother spoke up, disapproval in her voice. “And who is Winston?
Is he a new beau?”

Lena
glanced at her father before replying, “I love to cook, Jeanette. And Winston
is my dog. Remember I told you about him?”

“A
dog? Really!”

“And
Lena is dating Chase Hamilton,” her father reminded her stepmother with pride. “They’ve
been seeing each other for over six months now.”

“Six
months! Has it been that long?” Jeanette asked with surprise. “I assume we’ll
see an announcement soon, Charlene?”

Lena
forced herself to sip her coffee quietly, when she really wanted to roll her
eyes, drop the cup back to the table, and walk out. But she just said calmly, “We
should go soon. We don’t want to be the last ones there. They’ll seat us near
the kitchen,” she warned.

“Well
they wouldn’t dare," Jeanette said in a huff, standing up and wavering
slightly as she did so.

Lena
took advantage of the momentum and helped her stepmother to gather her things,
carefully leading her to the passenger side of her father’s car before heading
back to her own car. As she slid into the driver’s seat, she glanced at herself
in the rearview mirror. She looked tired, she thought. And no wonder. It had
been a rough few weeks at work, and she had been putting in a lot of late
nights. But the tired look was due to more than a few extra hours – she was
concerned about her parents.

Lena
was fond of her stepmother, who had come into their lives about five years after
her mother had died. Lena had been young, and had loved having a woman in the
house again, particularly one who was as young and pretty as Jeanette. And Jeanette
had been kind to Lena, even though the time she’d spent with her had been
limited to occasional shopping trips and a few ‘girl’s days,’ when they went
for pedicures at the local spa.

Lena
had been too young to recognize her father’s new marriage for what it was – a wealthy
older man marrying a young beautiful woman. The relationship wasn’t built on
love, but it wasn’t until Lena herself was in college that she realized that
her father and stepmother had a very different marriage than what she hoped to
eventually have. She still cared for Jeanette, and still loved her father, but
she watched their relationship with a combination of indifference and
amusement. Lately, though, Jeanette was drinking far more than she used to, and
Lena’s indifference was turning to concern. She knew that her stepmother was
bothered by signs of aging, and that her father was increasingly spending time
in the office rather than at home, and Lena wondered how much of Jeanette’s
alcohol consumption was an attempt to escape the life she found herself in.

Arriving
at the country club, Lena quickly parked her car in one of the lots that
bordered the club, then walked the short distance to meet her parents, who had
taken advantage of the valet parking offered at the entrance to the facility.

“Charlene?”

Hearing
her name as she neared the entrance, she turned, and started with surprise.

“Chase!
What are you doing here? I thought you were out of town today.”

He
strolled up to her, hands in his pockets, looking far more handsome than she
ever remembered. It must be the way he filled out his blue jeans, Lena thought.
Now she’d never be able to get that image out of her mind. Stopping a couple of
feet away from her, he leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

“Nice
to see you,” he said, rather perfunctorily. “You’re right. I was supposed to be
away, but I managed to accomplish everything I needed to by e-mail and Skype.”

She
looked at him skeptically. “And you came here instead of... well... almost anywhere
else?”

He
smiled. “There are a couple of people I need to meet with. I was hoping they’d
be here, and that I might be able to kill a few birds with one stone. Anything
I do today will free me up a bit this week, and I’m going to need all the help
I can get over the next few days.”

Lena
might have been wrong, she thought, but this seemed the most information that
Chase had ever volunteered to her at any of these events. Last week, she would
have been frostily polite, telling him not to let her hold him back. But to
hell with it. He’d met the real her yesterday, and she was kind of sick of
faking it anyway. So she just grinned. “Well, then. Go. Circulate. Deal big
deals. If you need rescuing, just give me a sign and I’ll come save you.”

Chase
looked down on her, his eyes narrowing as they took in Lena’s appearance and
her wide smile. “You seem to be very different from the woman you’ve been
showing me, Charlene. At some point, I’d very much like an explanation.”

But
Lena took a step back and shook her head. “You made a lot of assumptions early
on. I just never corrected them.”

“Why
not?”

“Now
that’s
a longer story.”

He
nodded. “And one we probably don’t have time for right now, I assume. Shall we
go inside?”

Swallowing
hard, Lena nodded. He was intimidating her, damnit. For the first time since
they’d met, she was finding herself on unsure footing. So she backed up another
step, and turned for the walk leading to the front door. Chase’s hand on her
arm stopped her.

“You
look nice, Charlene. Beautiful, really.”

Lena
blushed. For some reason, his compliment today meant more than it had before,
and she didn’t want to consider why. She recovered quickly. “Thank you. But
please. I really do prefer Lena. I know most people here know me as Charlene,
but...”

He
nodded. “Lena it is. Come on. I’ll escort you in before I leave you to go talk
business.”

Lena
took the arm he offered. “Thank you. Particularly for leaving me before you
talk business,” she added. “If I have to listen to one more discussion of the
legal constraints of Lord knows what...”

He
looked at her in surprise. “I can’t say you always looked fascinated, but you
never complained before.”

“This
is the real me,” she smiled. “And this is what happens when you show up at my
workplace. You get to know a completely different side of my personality. OK,
go. I’ve got to find my stepmother. And I need food. Come find me if you need a
reason to leave.”

With
a wave, she turned into the room, and went in search of her Jeanette, preferably
before she located the open bar. Chase looked after her in amazement. It was
like dating a whole new woman. And he wasn’t sure what that meant. Because
Charlene Magill fit into these events perfectly. But he’d never been out with
‘Lena’ before. And he had no idea what to expect.

For
her part, Lena was trying hard not to hyperventilate in the ladies’ room.
Seeing Chase again, so soon after their encounter at the shelter yesterday, had
stirred up all sorts of things that she’d really rather not be feeling.
For
heaven’s sake
, she thought. The man had never stirred up anything other
than a vague resentment in her before, and now she was feeling tingly all over,
just from the light kiss he’d given her.

Taking
a deep breath and looking at her reflection in the mirror, she realized that
she really needed to break things off with Chase. She had promised herself that
as long as she felt that he had no heart, it made no difference if they saw
each other or not. If they each used each other to suit their respective
purposes, that was fine. But now, knowing that Chase might actually be a decent
person under his designer suits, Lena was feeling a bit guilty for having let
things go on for as long as they had. She sighed.

She
had spent enough time with Chase to know that she owed him an ending, as well
as the explanation that he was demanding. She wasn’t worried about breaking his
heart – he could, and probably
would
, find someone else by the weekend
anyway. And she’d waited too long to do this. Now that he was showing up as a
volunteer at the shelter, this ‘relationship’ of theirs needed to end.

She
spent an excruciating two hours, circulating among her parents’ friends, checking
on Jeanette, and occasionally running into Chase, who was in full-on business
mode whenever she saw him. She thought about it a bit as she chatted lightly
with one of her father’s colleagues, and realized that Chase’s complete
attention to business gave her even more incentive to break things off with
him. She liked him a little better, now that she’d seen a different side of him
at the shelter. And she definitely found him attractive,
especially
in
jeans, but she needed a lot more than this from any man she settled down with. She
needed a man who would rather be with her than talking business with a bunch of
other men in suits. She needed someone who would check to see if she was OK, bring
her a glass of wine, or ask her opinion about random things. Someone who made
her feel like she was special to him, not just someone to adorn his arm and
look pretty. And that, she told herself, was not Chase.

Glancing
at her watch, Lena realized that she had to leave the country club in about an
hour to go meet Kat. They wanted time to leisurely look around and shop before
the store closed, and she had promised Kat that she’d leave the luncheon by
3:00. Looking around, she saw that Chase was unoccupied for the moment, and she
quickly headed over to waylay him before he could get involved in another
business conversation.

Walking
up to him, she laid her hand gently on his arm to get his attention.

“Chase,
I need to leave soon, but before I do, can we talk for a few minutes?” she
asked, smiling up at him politely, aware that anyone in the room could be
watching.

He
looked down at her in concern. “Of course,” he said, depositing his glass on a
small collection table and giving her his attention. “Are you all right?” he
asked.

Lena
nodded her head. “I’m fine. Can we just...?” she motioned to one of the side
doors that led out to the balcony, which overlooked the city. He took her arm
and led her outside, strolling to one end of the balcony where it was private. It
was a beautiful afternoon, and Lena could see the glimmers of sunlight reflecting
off the snow on the top of the mountains to the west. Snow, even in August. She
sighed. She really did love it here.

“Is
something wrong, Charlene? Lena?” he corrected himself quickly.

She
turned her face away from the view and looked up into the troubled eyes of her
companion. For a moment, just for a moment, she again felt a spark – a tingle
that ran straight down her spine.
No. No, not that
, she thought. That
would lead to nothing but heartache and frustration, she thought, thinking of
her own parents’ marriage, and how similar Chase’s treatment of her was to her
father’s treatment of her stepmother. She needed to end this and end it now,
she thought.

She
took a deep breath, then let it out in a rush. “Look. We both know that
this...” she waved her hand between them, “...isn’t going anywhere. Right? You
don’t feel anything for me, and I’m...”

Chase
was looking down at her, his eyes serious. “What do you mean that I don’t feel
anything for you?” he interrupted.

Lena
looked up at him in total shock. “But... you can’t. I mean...” she sputtered,
her entire being astounded that he could feel anything at all. Or that he
did
feel anything at all.
If
he did.
Oh hell
, she thought again.