DAC_II_GenVers_Sept2013 (25 page)

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?”

“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.

“Invite some of the guys to a grand opening ceremony celebrating the geo thermal pools. Joke around. Let the press take some pictures. Make sure the geo thermal pools are in the background of most of the shots. If Jane comes, maybe they won’t have to make up a bogus headline for the next run in the local paper,” Harrison said. “Better still, invite the public and sell photos with the guys. It will be a hit and you’ll be famous.”

Walter stared into the fire burning low in the fireplace. There was a nip in the air tonight, but he was cold on the inside too. And lonely. He was incredibly lonely. He missed Jane fiercely. Every day since Elijah Fox had tracked him down, his suffering had grown worse.

Unable to return to the scene of his crime yet, he’d finally sent the contract signoff to her house by courier with a note about why her signature was needed. It had been delivered yesterday. He had yet to hear a word back. He supposed the ‘sorry for our misunderstanding’ message at the end of it was lame and way too little for what he’d done to her. It was hard to blame Jane for ignoring him totally when he was too embarrassed to face her and apologize for what he had said and done.

“Walter? Where are your thoughts tonight?” Harrison asked, as if he didn’t know.

“What if Jane never forgives me, Harrison?” Walter asked.

“When you’ve done all you can to make amends, all that’s left is to let the mistake you made build your character. It was a hard lesson you learned, but I don’t think you’ll let your emotions override your logic next time you’re in that kind of situation,” Harrison said.

“Dad said pretty much the same thing,” Walter replied. “I think I need to go home now. My wine is gone anyway.”

Harrison waved his hand at the door. “Take care of yourself, Walter. My money is still on you.”

“Well I know how tight you are, so you must think my cause isn’t lost,” he said as he bent to brush his lips over Harrison’s cheek. His grandfather seemed to be getting more frail with each passing day. It worried him, but also made him glad to be next door.

“Goodnight, Harrison.”

“Goodnight, Walter.”

Walter closed and checked Harrison’s door before turning to go home, stumbling when he saw Jane leaning against his door. “Hi. What are you doing here this time of night?”

In answer, she held up the contract. “It wouldn’t fit under the office door. It wouldn’t fit under your apartment door either. I started to knock, but then I heard you and Harrison saying goodnight. I’ve only been waiting for a couple of minutes.”

Walter nodded. “Want to come in?”

Jane nodded back. “Yes. I would. We need to talk, Walter. And I wanted to return the contract this evening. Get Brenner back to work on the project tomorrow. Don’t let him delay for any reason.”

Walter nodded. “I’ll send him a text later and let him know the contract is signed.”

He pushed open his door, walked inside, and paused to wait on Jane to clear his doorway. Then he closed and locked it behind her, breathing a sigh of relief just before noticing that Jane was rubbing her arms. It was chilly in his space. He usually didn’t keep it very warm.

“Let me light the fireplace for you,” he said, retrieving the electronic remote. Gas jumped to life around the logs, lighting the space with dancing flames. Walter turned on a couple of table lamps too, their soft glow warming his living area more.

“Can I get you something to drink?” he asked, hating the polite awkwardness between them as Jane walked to a chair and took a seat on the edge of the cushion. Her body language was telling a story she wasn’t allowing her expression to reveal yet. It said she didn’t really want to be there with him. She was there only to give him a message that for some reason she chose to deliver in person.

“I’m fine, Walter. Why don’t you sit down for a minute? We need to clear the air between us,” Jane said, motioning to the seats around her. “I’ve done a lot of thinking in the last couple of weeks. In fact, I wanted to come tell you my plans before I even told Dad and Eli.”

Walter walked to his couch, taking the seat closest to Jane. When she held out the signed contract, he took it, but had to fight the urge to toss it on the floor. It was so much less important than just having Jane close again. Practicing patience, he made himself slide the signed contract gently onto the glass and metal surface of his coffee table.

“Jane, I’m so very sorry for what I said and how I acted at the fire station. I should have listened, or at least asked what you had to tell me. I was just. . .jealous. It may be hard for you to believe, but I don’t remember ever even feeling that way about a woman before you,” Walter said, spreading his hands as he tried to explain. “And I know now that it was just your brother at your house. He wasn’t pleasant when he answered the door, but that’s no excuse for what I assumed.”

Jane nodded, not really wanting to keep reliving it. “Based on our discussions, you would have instantly recognized a pious Jewish man in a yarmulka, but you found a gruff tattooed hellion instead. Turns out Eli wasn’t at seminary after all. He was undercover for a journalist assignment in New York. Now he even sounds like the hooligan he was impersonating to get his story,” Jane said. “But that still doesn’t explain why you immediately concluded that I’d been unfaithful. I was washing the dirt from the pool house floor out of my hair while you were playing caveman with my rude brother.”

Walter groaned in embarrassment and covered his face with his hands. “Oh God, I’m so, so sorry.”

“Yes, you should be, but I don’t care about the misunderstanding anymore. Eli said he’s moved past it. You should too. In fact, we all should.”

“So you’re not still mad at me?” Walter asked, perplexed. Something was off in Jane’s capitulation, but he couldn’t tell yet what it was.

“No, I’m not still mad,” Jane said. “I came to tell you that I’m going away shortly. There’s an upscale bed and breakfast in Cape Cod that I’m looking at buying. It seems like an interesting deal. A B&B doesn’t have to show a profit for several years, so I’ll have plenty of time to get things right before I come home. Eli can use my place while I’m gone. I’m letting you know first because it means I won’t be around to see the North Winds projects get done—even though we’ve resolved our differences.”

Holding Walter’s shocked stare, Jane scooted forward.

“Look, I saw your article in the paper. Despite the crazy headline, it was very nice. I just wanted you to know that I admire you too. You’re a great businessperson, even as young as you are. One day you’ll be considered brilliant. I really believe that. You have a special kind of attraction that I believe will draw great opportunities to you.”

“Thanks for the business vote of confidence I guess, but what about us?” Walter asked. His ears were taking in all her words, but all he actually heard was that Jane was leaving.

Jane shook her head. “Walter, there is no
us
. You don’t even know who I am. You accused me of doing the same thing to you that my ex did to me. If I had been under twenty-five like that date I saw you with, I’d have stomped around in my three inch spiked heels and clawed at you to listen to me. But I’m not that young anymore, and I was never dramatic enough to get by with that sort of behavior.”

“She was nothing. Just some woman Amanda fixed me up,” Walter said.

Jane shook her head. “It’s not just about age. I’m the most monogamous woman you’ll probably ever meet. And I’m always calm and rational, even when I confront emotionally horrible things, like my husband in bed with another woman. You hurt me deeply that day with your insults. The amount of emotional pain caught me off guard, otherwise I would have made you listen to me just on principle. It became obvious to me after I had calmed down that I come with too much baggage, and that you don’t have enough experience not to push my buttons. So let’s call ‘no harm and no foul’ in this situation and move on to just being friends. We had some fun together. I would like to remember it that way.”

Seeing how serious Jane was started a throbbing in his head. Snippets from her break-up speech grew louder and louder until the part about being friends rose to bass drum level. Walter stood and walked to the fireplace, putting his hurting head on his fists just like the day he had when he’d begged his dad for help. How was he supposed to believe in a future for them when Jane had so clearly put all they had into the past already?

He raised his head after a while, surprised to find Jane standing right next to him.

“For the sake of my sanity, I’m going to have to reject that reality of yours for now, Jane. I can’t imagine not working this out with you. I made a mistake, but you have to believe me when I say I won’t ever make the same one with you again.”

“Don’t keep apologizing. That’s over. I know it’s a little sad now. Endings always are, but it will be better later. One day, Mr. March will be married to some long-legged Ms. November. She’ll be someone young like Amanda with her text phone, her love of drama, and her ability to sort out the bullshit. I’ll be nothing more than a pleasant memory for you,” Jane said.

“Okay. Give me a hug and kiss me goodbye then,” Walter ordered, keeping his face turned to her.

Jane looked at Walter’s folded arms in confusion.
Kiss him goodbye?

“Want me to stand up?” he asked, hoping like hell the gamble he was getting ready to take would pay off. Otherwise, he’d probably never see her again.

“Yes. Please stand up,” Jane said. “I don’t think you realize how big you are.”

Walter straightened and then stepped closer. His arms slipped around Jane gently but firmly, his body hardening to steel as it came into contact with hers. “If your reality is that our relationship is over, then why am I feeling like we’re still just beginning?”

He dipped his head, tucking his face into her neck, giving her enough space to pull back if she wanted to. Jane quivered in his arms, but still didn’t touch him back.

“Hug me, Jane Fox. Put your arms around me,” Walter ordered, stepping all the way into her heat as their bodies touched. “I regret every single moment I spent not kissing you when I had the chance. I played it too cool. I will never do that again either. I dated three women in the last two weeks. I only kissed one. I never got hard, not even for a second. I only get hard with you and that’s how it is. I’m not interested in changing it.”