Five Minutes Late: A Billionaire Romance (67 page)

I sniffled, pulled myself together, and tried to be strong in my own way. “Mom, whatever’s going on, I know Devon is nothing like Dad.”

“I know it too, baby.”

“So what do we do now?”

She chewed at her lip as her Amazing Mom Powers went to work on the problem. “Well, we know something is wrong, and we need to figure out what that something is – more to the point, he needs you to figure out what it is and fix it.”      

“I’ve been through every last thing I can think of, Mom, going back for months, and I’m still clueless – whatever it is, it’s staring me right in the face, but I’m just not smart enough to see it.”

“You’re a very smart girl, Ashley – your feelings are getting in the way, that’s all. Now, as to all those clues and signs from however many months ago up until now – I can’t do anything with all that, because I wasn’t there to experience it. But here I am now, so let’s look at the here and now – what, specifically, was supposed to happen today?”

I shrugged. “Well, like I said, he sent me here to get a head start on your legendary Saturday spread of food while he wrapped up one more thing at the office.”

“You believe that? It’s been more than two hours now, Ashley – where is he?”

“Well, you said it yourself, there’s a giant apocalypse of a snowstorm going on out there.”

“So why hasn’t he called?”

She had me there.

I stared down at the phone sitting on the table. I imagined the man on the other end of that phone, pictured him as I‘d last seen him, standing silhouetted against the window, his shoulders shaking, maybe … and I knew Mom was right. But how could she be?

“Mom, he wouldn’t lie. More than that, he couldn’t lie, he doesn’t have it in him. I know it sounds naïve of me and all, but he’s just not capable of looking me in the face and telling me a flat-out lie.”

She nodded. “You’re not naïve, you’re experienced – after having that clown Greg and the so-called men who came before him lie to you every time they opened their mouths, I think you’ve developed one finely tuned bullshit detector. So if you say this man isn’t lying, I believe you.”

She held my right hand in both of hers and sighed. “Besides, your dad taught me more than a little about men and their lies, and you know something?”

I tried to paste on a brave smile. “What’s that, Mom?”

“I trusted your guy from the moment I first laid eyes on him. I didn’t want to, but I did.”

Hugs were in order, so I got up, rounded the table, and hugged my mom as hard as I could. We held each other, and in a just and fair world, a hug like that one would have solved everything.

But it didn’t. I gave her one final squeeze for good measure, sure, but then I had to go back to my chair, sit down, and face the same problem: where was Devon? Why hadn’t he at least called?

Mom put logic to work. “He’s supposed to be on his way, so how is he getting here? We may not know what’s he’s doing or why he hasn’t called, but it should be straightforward to figure out how he intends to get from his giant corporate phallic symbol downtown to my dinner table – so we do that, and then we call whoever’s at the wheel. Sound good?”

“We already know how he’s getting here, remember? Like I said, he’s going to have that flying four-star hotel he calls a helicopter drop him off.”

She gave me the Mom Look. “Ashley, have you looked outside lately?”

“Yeah, I know it’s snowing like the end of the world, Mom, but – ”

“Ashley, go to the front door, open it, and look outside.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “Go on, I’ll wait.”

Since there is no resisting a Mom Command, I marched myself out of the kitchen, down the hall, and to the front door. I opened said door and looked out, as ordered.

Wind howled through the trees, bending the smaller ones sideways and shaking even the monstrous oaks and sycamores as if they were toothpicks. Snow blew with the wind, pouring down like a white waterfall from low grey clouds that hid even the idea that there had ever been a sun.

My breath froze in front of me, and I felt the cold sinking down into my bones. I could see down Mom’s rapidly disappearing front walk to the curb. The SUV waited there, and snow was already up to its hubcaps. I couldn’t see in through the tinted windows, but I just knew Jimmy was staring.

No helicopter was flying in this.

Back at the kitchen table, I called Devon’s helicopter pilot, Mr. Pulaski, just to check on his status and hear whatever updated plan might exist for ferrying Devon to our Saturday dinner.

As I tapped Mr. Pulaski’s name in my iPhone’s contacts list, I tried to reassure Mom and just ended up sounding every bit as uneasy as I felt. “This guy is nice, Mom, you’d like him – plus Devon says he was some kind of super hotshot combat pilot back in the day, so maybe he can fly through the Mother of All Snowstorms. I mean, it’s not like the snowflakes will be shooting bullets or missiles or anything at him, right?”

“But is he cute?”

“Mom, he’s married.”

“Damn. Well, would you mind putting this possibly cute man on speaker? I think I’d like to hear this.”

Something in her voice said she didn’t expect to like hearing this at all.

So I tapped the speaker icon, I set the phone onto the kitchen table right next to a pan of cornbread stuffing, and we both heard Mr. Pulaski answer the call in his mellow, relaxed Midwestern voice that always managed to sound competent and soothing at the same time.

“Ms. Daniels, it’s a pleasure to hear from you – the boss doesn’t have you out running errands in this storm, does he?”

“No, I’m enjoying some actual downtime here at my mom’s house, Mr. Pulaski; but speaking of Mr. Killane – ”

“Ms. Daniels, I do my best to handle whatever Mr. Killane throws at me in terms of abrupt changes of plan, but I can’t help him this time – if you’re about to tell me he’s changed his mind from this morning, I’m afraid you’ll just have to work your magic and get him to change it back, because we absolutely cannot fly in this weather.”

This morning?

I looked at Mom, and she looked at me with her best poker face. In the background of the call, we heard the faint sound of a TV commentator shouting over the crowd at a football game.

“Um, Mr. Pulaski?”

“Yes, Ms. Daniels?”

“If you don’t mind my asking, where are you and the helicopter right now?”

“Well, the helicopter is in the boss’s private hangar at the airport, which is exactly where it belongs during the biggest storm of the year – as for me, I’m here at home watching the Buckeyes get their heads handed to them on a plate.”

Was there just the tiniest hint of forced cheer in the man’s voice?

“Sir, I’m a bit confused here … Mr. Killane seemed to think that just as soon as he finished one last bit of business at the office, he’d be heading out here to help us eat all this food – as in, heading out here in that helicopter you tell me is currently sitting in its hangar at the airport.”

“Just a second.”

The volume of the football game dropped to nothing.

“Ms. Daniels, when did the boss tell you that was the plan?”

“Just over two hours ago – so just what did he say this morning?”

“Ms. Daniels, all I can tell you is that before dawn this morning, Mr. Killane called and gave me some detailed and specific instructions – among them, that the helicopter was to stay put and the crew could stand down, because he would not under any circumstances whatsoever be flying today.”

A beat of silence. I could hear all kinds of things being left unsaid in that silence.

Then he added, “And as I said, if he’s changed his mind, it doesn’t really matter –it would be beyond unsafe to fly any distance under the conditions we have out there right now. The reports I’ve looked at say the winds will be dropping down to something a little more manageable soon and the snow is expected to tail off in another hour or so – but until that happens, Mr. Killane’s helicopter is staying in its hangar.”

Time to find out what he isn’t telling you, Ashley.

“Mr. Pulaski, what other instructions did the boss give you this morning?”

Seconds ticked away. I heard the wind whistling outside, I heard Mom’s gas furnace kick on, and I heard that weird burbling noise her refrigerator made when it was in a pensive mood.

Then the man sighed and he answered me, and it was like hearing a doctor deliver a terminal diagnosis.

“Ms. Daniels, I don’t know what’s up, but I do know Mr. Killane is a good man – and you’re good for him, we all know that. Anyway, he never specifically said I couldn’t tell you, so … well, after saying he wouldn’t be flying, he also said you might call later. I was told in no uncertain terms that if you did call, I was to refuse point-blank to fly you anywhere at all, no matter what you said.”

I grasped at the only straw I could see. “But that was going on the assumption that the storm was going to be hitting us with everything it had, and since you just said the wind and snow will be easing up soon – ”

“No, Ms. Daniels. I hope to God everything is all right with Mr. Killane, but the fact is he specifically said that even if the weather magically cleared up somehow, I was not allowed to take you anywhere today, even if you said it was an emergency.”

He paused. “And while I can’t help you today, he also said that starting tomorrow, I was to take my orders from you and fly you anywhere you wanted to go.”

Another pause. “He said that after today, you’d be in charge.”

I think I hung up. I don’t remember. I just seemed to notice that the call was over, and then I looked up at Mom.

“He wouldn’t lie, Mom. He couldn’t. And why would he, even if he had it in him, which he doesn’t?”

She took my hands in hers again.

“We know he doesn’t lie, baby. But that means we have to look at exactly what he did say, because when somebody’s trying not to tell you something, they’ll choose their words very carefully. Now, what did he say about coming over here? What were his exact words?”

“Well, he said that getting places under tough conditions was the reason he had a helicopter, or something close to that – and he said to imagine how exciting it would be as he touched down in the middle of the street, making a grand entrance through a big cloud of blowing snow kicked up by the rotors … and he seemed to think after a splashy scene like that, a certain mom would be unable to resist jumping his bones right then and there.”

 She shrugged away the prospect of passionate middle-of-the-street sex with my boyfriend. “So he did not in fact say ‘Ashley, I will fly to your mother’s house in my helicopter,’ did he? It would have been so easy to say it directly, but he didn’t – he implied it, he drew a nifty mental picture of what it would be like when he arrived, but he did not actually say he was coming here – is that correct?”

“Yes, Mom.”

My voice hadn’t sounded that small since I was five years old.

I thought of something else, and my voice shot up the scale from small into loud and louder.

“Mr. Pulaski said he was given ‘detailed and specific instructions’ on what to do if I called, and when Devon called Jimmy earlier to let him know I was on my way down to the car, he said his instructions still held and Jimmy was to follow them to the letter – what is with all these instructions about me?”

“I can’t say, sweetheart, although … well, I get the feeling that your guy’s trying to tell you something, in his own way.”

“So why doesn’t he just call me?”

And right on cue, “Sharp Dressed Man” echoed from my iPhone’s speaker.

We both stared at the phone for maybe two seconds. We watched it sitting there next to the cornbread stuffing, serenading us with the finest in classic ‘80s rock, and then it was in my hand and I was across the room before I realized how all that had happened – I just knew that suddenly I was standing by myself in the front hallway, leaning into the wall with one shoulder, my back to the kitchen.

I took the call and stabbed the speaker off just in time – whatever else this was, I knew it was something I didn’t want Mom to hear.

“Hey, it’s about time, big guy – Mom says if you don’t get over here soon and help us eat all this food, she will never, ever have any variety of sex with you.” I was going for ‘relaxed and witty,’ but my shaking voice gave the words more of a ‘trying to hide mortal terror’ effect.

“I can barely contain myself at the thought of enjoying such delicious food and even more delicious three-way sexual gymnastics –”

“Hey, I never said I was joining in, fella – my plan was to hide in the living room and turn the TV way up to cover the sound of all that passionate moaning. But, Devon, what –”

“Oh, I’m sure I could persuade you to join us, sweet Ashley – but smart girl that you are, I’m sure you’ve already figured out that I am not coming to your lovely  mother’s home. It’s a terrible pity, really.”

My voice skated into a whole new high-pitched world of shaking. “Devon, please, what’s going on? Are you all right?”

“Oh, I haven’t been all right for years, you know that. Now, to business – Ashley, do you recall the promise I made to you on the bridge in San Francisco?”

I remembered San Francisco, all right. I remembered standing on the bridge, wrapped in the powerful arms of a man I barely knew at the time. I remembered how he loomed over me, holding my soft curves against the hard planes of his body. I remembered his warmth, his tuneless humming, his breath stirring my hair as we looked down at the churning grey waters so far below …

I remembered he started spouting bridge-jumping statistics. I remembered getting him to pinky swear that he wouldn’t take a dive over the railing – and it was all what I came to know as classic Devon, weird but light-hearted and harmless,  and he did readily promise to not jump off the bridge …

But he made another promise that day, didn’t he?

Fear sank its claws into me, but before I could think or breathe, Devon spoke in the professional, routine manner of someone reading out the minutes of a city council meeting.

“I’m sure you do in fact remember, but for the record, let’s review. I promised, using these exact words, to ‘make a phone call to Ms. Ashley Daniels the next time I find myself in a high place while entertaining dark thoughts of a sudden descent to a much lower place.’ And as it happens, at this moment I find myself in quite a high place, entertaining dark thoughts about a sudden descent to a very much lower place, and so I am making a phone call to you, Ms. Ashley Daniels – though my character flaws are endless, I can at least cherish the one small truth that I always keep my promises.”