The Scale (Martha's Way) (10 page)

Miserable, Minka rubbed her free hand over her face.

“You’re still with him, aren’t you?”

She glanced over at Jason. He was now leaning against the wall
in hallway with his arms crossed over his chest, the tattoos on his bicep giving
prominence to tight muscles. She looked away.

“Yes,” she responded. “I’m on my way to meet Keely.”

“From Jason’s,” Lily said on the other end of the phone. Her
voice filled with mischief. “Damn, Minka, I’m so proud of you.”

At the same time, Jason pushed himself from the wall and disappeared
down the hall.

“You needed to have a good time.”

Well, she had a good time, all right.

Minka glanced at her watch; she had twenty minutes to make
it to downtown into Oak Bluffs to meet her sister. “I’ll call you later
tonight.”

Lily let out a chuckle. “You bet. I want to hear all about
your wild night and don’t leave out any dirty details.”

“I promise.”

At that moment, Jason reappeared. To her relief he now had
on a pair of worn sweatpants. She caught a glimpse of his chest again, and her
stomach did a little dance of pleasure. “Lily, I have to go. I’ll call you
later and thank you for checking up on me.”

After she ended the call, Minka searched through her purse
for her keys. She needed to get out of the house and as far away from Jason as
possible. Her body froze as his hands covered hers to take the purse away from
her. She had no choice but to look up at him.

“What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

Beautiful.
The man was obviously
crazy. First he asked to see her again and now he was calling her beautiful.
Okay, he said she had a beautiful head, but that was close.

“I have to go.”

A small smile escaped his lips. “Yes, you keep saying that.”

That was true. She had said that several times, but the fact
that he pointed it out annoyed her so she turned on her heels and walked down
the hall to the front door, feeling his presence behind her the whole time.

She turned to face him. Her eyes filled with daggers. “Do
you have my keys?”

 
He reached into
his pocket, retrieved the keys and handed them to her along with a small card.
It took all of her good manners not to snatch them from him.

“I want to see you again,” he persisted.

The man was obviously crazy. “I can’t.”

“Don’t forget you and I will see plenty of each other for
the next two weeks.” He challenged while closing the space between them. “So
really how far
can you
run?” he whispered.

He stood way too close, and his lips were sinfully too close
as well. Her lips parted, ready for his kiss. Only he didn’t kiss her. Instead he
stepped back to give her enough space to leave.

As she stepped on the porch, she almost crashed into a large
man about Jason’s height with piercing blue eyes similar to his, only he had
sandy brown hair covered with flecks of gray. He looked to be in his mid to
late fifties. She glanced back at Jason. The two men stood staring at each
other. Neither looked particularly happy. Then the older man, whom she guessed
to be Jason’s father, turned his eyes on her. He examined her for a few
minutes.

“She’s not your type.”

“You’re not welcome here, Dad,” Jason said.

A nervous knot formed in the pit of her stomach. His father
was right. She wasn’t his type. Standing there with the two men, Minka knew she
was out of her league. She turned and walked past his father to her car. She
felt Jason watching her the whole time but she didn’t turn to look back.

Minka let out a deep breath once she was safe in her car.

What had gotten into her?

Going to bed with a man like Jason Montgomery could only
land her in trouble. For all she knew, he could have been a murderer and she
could have ended up in a body bag somewhere. She hadn’t been that lucky.
Instead he screwed her brains out.

Regaining her composure, she opened her hand to examine the
thin card where he had given her his home and cell numbers.

Had she been that good?

She thought about tearing the paper into tiny pieces to
eliminate any possibility of ever looking at it again. Instead, she tossed it
inside her Yves St Laurent bag, turned on the ignition of her black Audi
and drove away.

Chapter Seven

“What kind of scale compares the weight of two beauties, the
gravity of duties, or the ground of speed of joy?”

Ani
Difranco

Jason stood by the door until the sleek black Audi made a
left turn at the corner and disappeared from view. An odd emptiness rose inside
him. He was aware of his father watching him but chose to ignore the older man.
It had been five years since he’d stood in the same room with his father and
wished the man would go back to his big mansion on the island of
Chappaquiddick.

He knew the reason for this visit. Although the two men were
not active in each other’s lives, he kept tabs on his father. Not by choice,
but that happened when you lived on an island with a population of barely
fifteen-thousand people. The locals’ ideal pastime was to keep track of who was
sleeping with whom, which celebrity was building a new mansion and what the
Montgomery boys, as they were referred, were up to. Martha’s Vineyard was home
of the Kennedys and Charles Montgomery. Jason considered himself guilty by
association. Fate was a bitch.

“Why are you wasting your time remodeling this place? It’s
an abandoned house.” Charles’ voice echoed in the empty hallway.

Jason walked past his father into the kitchen. Footsteps
echoed close behind. He turned to check out what the old man was up to and
caught his father staring at the picture of his deceased wife.

“This house belonged to my mother. I decided to expand it,”
Jason answered. He didn’t need to explain but what the hell.

“Waste of money.”

Jason shrugged. “Since whatever I spend I’ve earned, I guess
it’s none of your business how I choose to spend it.”

“How long do you intend to keep this up?”

The old man would never get the picture. “Keep what up?”

Charles waved his hands in the room. “This need to prove you
are independent and I can’t tell you what to do.”

“What do you want?” he asked, grabbing
a
bottled
water out of the fridge. He twisted off the cap and gulped down
a swallow.

Charles walked to the large French doors leading to the
wrap-around porch. He stood there for a moment with his back to the room,
exuding supreme confidence.

Leaning against the kitchen counter, Jason watched his
father. Charles Montgomery had an aura about him. He was fifty-eight with very
little gray hair. The two men were the same height, while his father was not as
lean as he once was; the years had added a few pounds on his frame. It was not
to his detriment, however. If possible, the bulk made him look more daunting
and even more charismatic.

“I’m divorcing Agnes.”

Jason waited. This fact he already knew.

“She’s coming after you,” his father announced. He turned and
their gazes collided.

“I assume you mean for money.” It made sense for Agnes to
try to come after him for more financial gain. He’d worked closely with his
father in his firm. The woman probably thought his father was using him to
stash some cash away from her. Ha! The thought almost made him laugh.

Charles nodded, confirming his statement.

Jason processed the information. He didn’t want to be
dragged into their mess but he would deal with it if it ever came to that. “The
last time I saw Agnes, you had your pants down and her legs were up in the
air…on your desk.”

The words hung in the air. Father and son stared at each
other, neither willing to back down. Jason’s cell phone rang in his pocket. He
reached and glanced at Rita’s number. Pressing decline, he placed the phone on
the counter.

“Is she your new toy?”

For a moment Jason was confused,
then
he realized his father thought the call was from Minka. “I don’t have toys,
Dad. I have sex with women. I promise them nothing. I don’t take vows and break
them.” He glared at his father. “Or murder them for that matter.”

“Your mother made a mistake. It’s unfortunate she died.”

To Jason’s ears, his father’s words sounded mechanical and
unfeeling. In the world of lawyers, business negotiations, he was known as
shrewd and callous, but the indifference in his father’s attitude toward his
mother made him want to heave, fueling the anger he’d been carrying for the
last five years.

“You killed her spirit the day you decided you needed a
fresher, younger woman in your bed,” he spat out.
“For a
whore.”
He paused and sneered.
“Just the same, Dad.”

A bitter silence fell over the room. Five years of tension
hung in the air.

“I appreciate you came all the way here to warn me of Agnes’
intent. I’ll be sure to get a lawyer.” His father was smart. He knew when he
was being dismissed. Jason guessed any minute he would march out of the room
and out of his life once more.

“Son, I need a favor.”

Those were words he didn’t expect. Jason crossed his arms
over his chest and waited.

“I need you to represent me.”

 
“I’m not a
lawyer.”

“Your license is in good standing,” Charles pointed out.

“For personal satisfaction.”

“Come to my office tomorrow at nine,” his father ordered in
typical Charles Montgomery fashion.

Not one to take commands from anyone, Jason asked, “Why? I
don’t work there anymore.”

Blue eyes identical to Jason’s stayed on him. “You’ll
represent me through this divorce. We’ll talk more tomorrow.” His father walked
past him, stopped by the door and looked back.
“The woman who
just left.”

“She’s none of your business.”

His father continued to look at him. Then he smiled, almost
a victorious smile. “Be careful with her, son. She has that vibe that men fall
for. I will see you tomorrow at nine.”

Ordinarily, he’d fight the older man till he turned blue,
but Jason wasn’t in the mood. So he nodded. He’d entertain his father,
then
tell him what he had been telling him for the last five
years. He was done with working with him, or for him.

Once his father closed the door, Jason went back to his
bedroom. His gaze automatically came to rest on the empty bed, making him relive
what had transpired between him and Minka. His body ached for her, which
surprised him, considering she had just left his house after a night of very
little sleep. Normally Jason would be content and go about his business, but
for some odd reason he wished she had chosen to stay in bed with him for the
day. He shook the images out of his head. This was nonsense. He needed a good
run to clear his mind.

He glanced at the sweatpants he slipped into earlier.
 
He’d be too warm in those. Opening the dresser,
he pulled out his Alma Mater Harvard basketball shorts and his favorite Rolling
Stones tee. Downstairs he found his sneakers in the empty hallway closet. As he
slipped into the worn running shoes, his phone rang from the kitchen counter
where he’d left it earlier.

He immediately thought of Minka. He gave her his cell phone
number and all other numbers where she could reach him before she left. He
hoped it was her calling, but he knew better. Nonetheless he walked into the
kitchen to retrieve the phone then glanced at the text message.

Hello,
want to meet for…brunch?

He studied the words. The hidden message in the text was
evident. Rita had either redefined her meaning of a relationship or perhaps she
was going to settle with the way they had been. Neither option sat well with
him. Funny, he thought, last night when he visited her, his intention was to
lose
himself
in her then go home physically exhausted.
Instead, he was blindsided by a reluctant beauty that blew his mind and left
him yearning for more.

Picking up the small iPhone, Jason keyed in his password to
respond to the text.

Hey
there, thought about what you said. You were right in voicing what you want.
Unfortunately, I can’t provide that. Take care of yourself, Rita. Jay.

And just like that, he closed the door to any distraction
Rita had provided in the past. He continued to stare at the cell phone. He knew
Minka wouldn’t call him. Something or someone had driven her into his arms last
night. However, as good as the night had been, his instincts told him to accept
it for what it was and move on.

Since discovering the joys of the opposite sex at the tender
age of fifteen, he’d never had to chase a woman and had no intention of
starting now. But his body betrayed him. He wanted her still.

During the next two weeks, they would see plenty of each
other. Her sister was marrying one of his closest friends, spending time
together was inevitable. Somehow he had to convince her to sleep with him at
least once more—just to get her out of his system.

* * * *

For a split second, Minka took her eyes off the road to
glance at the famous beach known as The Inkwell. State Road, the main road in
Oak Bluffs, was busy with beachgoers, cyclists, joggers, and newcomers arriving
on The Vineyard. Her sister had warned her parking in the area was sparse. She
allowed the car to slow down, circling around Waban Park until she found a
parking space.

Before stepping out of the car, she took one quick glance at
her reflection in the rear view mirror. She looked like a wet poodle. Wild,
frizzy curls splattered across her forehead, streaks of overnight makeup
creased over her eyelids, her lips appeared pale and swollen. She ran long
fingers over her lips. She looked exhausted, battered, and erotic all at once.