Читать книгу After That Night - Ann Evans - Страница 7

JENNA RAWLINS really disliked Atlanta’s Regent Street Grill. The restaurant, situated in the upscale suburb of Buckhead, was too sleek, too cold and too uncomfortable. The waiters thought they were doing you a favor by taking your order. And the prices!

Jenna swallowed as her eyes drifted down a dessert menu as thick as a Russian novel. Where did they get the nerve to charge so much?

Of course, she had to admit that Vic was right about one thing. This place was the latest trendy eatery in the city for that important business lunch. Already two of the magazine’s advertising clients had stopped by their table to say hello and buss everyone on the cheek. But honestly, with the small portions they served, what good did it do you to make contacts in the restaurant if you were too weak from hunger to remember their names?

She must have been scowling, because Victoria Estabrook, seated beside her, snatched the menu out of her hand and closed it with a snap.

“Stop that!” Vic commanded. “I don’t want to hear about how the company can’t afford this right now. This is a celebration, and we’re all having dessert.”

They were celebrating the anniversary of Fairy Tale Weddings, the specialty magazine she, Victoria and their friend Lauren Hoffman had founded three years ago. As a CPA and the person who kept the books for the magazine, Jenna knew perfectly well whether the company budget could stand the cost of an expensive lunch for its three partners. It could. Just not too many of them. Vic, however, had been in a contrary mood all through lunch, so it was probably pointless to argue.

“I didn’t say a word,” Jenna said.

“You didn’t have to. We can see it on your face. It’s always given you away.” Victoria looked at Lauren, seated across the table. “Am I right?”

Lauren offered an agreeable shrug and sent Jenna an apologetic glance. “She’s got you there, kiddo. How do you think we could always tell when things weren’t going well with Jack?”

Jenna didn’t want to talk about her ex-husband. More than five minutes, and she’d have a headache for certain. “Be nice, you two,” she warned. “I’m still trying to get over last night’s argument with Dad.”

Victoria tossed down her soiled napkin. “I’ll tell you how to get over it. Tell him that if he wants to continue to have you and his grandsons in his life, there are some opinions he needs to keep to himself. And anything involving Jack-ass Rawlins, no matter how true, is one of them.”

Lauren and Jenna exchanged knowing smiles. This was the kind of advice they could expect from Vic, who’d been born assertive and who resented anyone trying to tell her how to live. But Jenna wasn’t like that. She might be a fully grown woman of twenty-eight, but she couldn’t imagine talking to her father that way in a million years. He’d probably have a coronary right on the spot.

Still, it would have been nice to find a better way to handle the “men” in her life. Taking care of two rambunctious young sons, living back home with Dad since her divorce, having two protective older brothers offering more advice than Dear Abby…

The truth was, it could make you nuts. She knew they only wanted the best for her. She knew they all loved her. But… Was she the world’s worse mother/sister/daughter to sometimes wish she could just pack her bags, hop in the car and never look back? Probably.

Instead of commenting, she watched as Victoria motioned for their waiter, Dexter, who’d taken their lunch orders once a week for the past six months. He waltzed around several tables to get back to them.

“Tell us what’s good today, Dexter,” Victoria demanded.

“The mousse is very refreshing,” he suggested brightly. “And easy on the diet if you’re watching your calories this week.”

“Six dollars for pudding,” Jenna couldn’t resist muttering. “Ridiculous.”

Victoria shot her an evil look before smiling back up at Dexter. “We’ll all have the Chocolate Sin cake,” she told him. And probably because she felt pricked a little by that “watching your calories” remark, she added, “Make sure they put extra whipped cream on top of mine, darling.”

“Of course,” he said smoothly. He knew who to count on for a big tip.

Once Dexter left, Lauren leaned across the table. “What’s bothering you, Vic?”

“What makes you think anything’s bothering me?”

“Because besides dessert, you had a fried appetizer, a buttered roll, a salad without the dressing on the side and a dinner-size portion of the lamb. You only overeat when you’re worried or angry about something. So what is it?”

Victoria tossed back the last of her chardonnay, then poured herself another glass from the bottle they’d ordered. “It’s Cara,” she said morosely. “She wants to quit school and traipse off to Europe with that moron she’s dating. She’s not listening to me at all. I swear, if I could convince her to come home, I’d lock her in the attic and toss the key off the top of Stone Mountain.”

Jenna laughed. “And I thought I was the only one being tortured by overprotective older siblings. Poor Cara.”

“You know I’m not like that. But after Mom and Dad died, I worked hard to get her future settled. I won’t let her toss away law school just because this guy gives her multiple orgasms.”

Lauren’s brows arched. “Multiple? Wow. Sounds like someone I’d like to meet.”

“Well, he’s not. He’s crude and ill-mannered and unemployed. Last week he almost talked her into having a nipple pierced.”

“Ouch!” Lauren said with a grimace.

“I’m not a prude, but honestly, he’s…” Victoria made a low, annoyed sound and raked her fingers through her long hair. “Forget him. I refuse to let him spoil our celebration. Now where were we?”

Again Jenna exchanged a glance with Lauren. She was concerned for Vic, but they both knew her well. Vic wouldn’t elaborate further if she didn’t want to. There would be another time, another place to tackle the problem of free-spirited baby sister Cara who just wouldn’t listen to reason.

Lauren said calmly, “You were telling us about the one who bit the dust.”

Victoria turned her attention back to the file folder she’d set on the table in front of her. She opened it, and Jenna saw that it contained the guts of an article the magazine had run the year before—a fluff piece listing the Ten Most Eligible Bachelors in the South. Lauren had taken the pictures. Victoria had written and edited the text.

Jenna vaguely remembered that it had been well received. No reader really expected it to help them catch one of these paragons of manhood. But there wasn’t an unmarried woman in the world who wasn’t at least curious to know what kind of high-end matrimonial material was out there.

That was the heart of Fairy Tale Weddings’ appeal—dreams and fantasies. Besides the latest trends in catering and wedding attire, it specialized in the fantastic. Honeymoon locations that no one else had found and spoiled yet. Weddings that could be performed in mountaintop yurts or underwater on a sunken ship. And though the publication was a pretty small fish in the publishing pond, FTW, as they referred to it, had seemed to find its niche at last.

“So which one is getting married?” Jenna asked, leaning over to get a better look.

Truthfully, she wasn’t all that curious. She might be an equal partner in the magazine, but most of the time she was strictly back office: paying the bills, budgeting and because she was so savvy with a computer, helping with the layout of each bimonthly issue. Occasionally she helped out in other areas, but the content of FTW was generally left up to Vic.

And since her divorce last year, Jenna found that the idea of men and dating and all that matrimonial hype had about as much appeal as yesterday’s cold soup.

Victoria sorted through the stack of glossies with their attached profiles, then edged the photos apart. Lauren had done a great job with them. Ten gorgeous-looking men surrounded by boats, planes and polo ponies marched in a line toward Jenna’s side of the table.

“Number six,” Victoria said, rescuing one picture from the row. “Mark Bishop.”

Lauren moved her chair so she could see better. “I remember him. Ivy League college. Newspaper business. A very intense way of sizing you up. I’m surprised he’s the first to get married.”

“Why?” Jenna asked.

The picture of Mark Bishop revealed a good-looking, dark-haired man in a custom-made suit. Unlike most of the other subjects, he wasn’t surrounded by the playthings of the rich. He sat perched on the edge of a boardroom table, arms crossed, unsmiling. His eyes were locked with the camera in a way that made him seem dangerous, in spite of the tasteful civility of his clothing and surroundings.

Lauren pursed her lips as though searching her memory. “He wasn’t very cooperative about having his picture taken. He didn’t seem to care one way or the other whether women found him attractive. Wasn’t that your take, Vic?”

“I don’t think he believed our readers would find him interesting.”

“Too shy?” Jenna asked. The picture didn’t seem to indicate a guy who was at all reticent.

Lauren took a sip of wine. “Too arrogant, if you ask me.”

Victoria seemed to mull over that comment. “No, not arrogant,” she said at last. “Just very self-assured. He only agreed to the interview as a favor to Debra Lee.”

“Debra Lee Goodson?” Jenna asked in surprise.

“How many Debra Lees do you know?” Vic asked with a smile. “When I first had the idea for the article, I called every woman I could think of who might know someone, and she suggested her boss. She didn’t want to ask him at first, but eventually she caved in.”

“That’s because she adores you,” Lauren pointed out. “If you asked her to take a swim in toxic waste, she’d dig out her snorkel and fins.”

That was certainly true. Back in high school, Debra Lee Goodson had idolized Vic, who had taken the gawky teenager on as her pet project and been the one to introduce her to her future husband.

Still, it didn’t sound as though Mark Bishop had wanted to do the original interview at all. Debra Lee, persuasive and extremely loyal, had probably been impossible to turn down.

Jenna flipped up the picture to scan the attached bio and Mark Bishop’s answers to the list of questions that had been posed to every one of the Ten Most Eligible. Thirty-two. A Leo. Educated at Princeton. No siblings.

Aloud she read, “‘My life’s passion is…my work’?” Jenna smiled at her friends. “Gosh, every woman’s dream. A workaholic.”

Lauren frowned. “Yes, and if I remember correctly, Debra Lee shared with him a few of our more embarrassing tales of adolescence. The nitwit.”

“He found them amusing,” Victoria said. She seemed determined to raise Mark Bishop’s profile. For my benefit? Jenna wondered.

Lauren shook her head. “Ha! He blew us off professionally. I got the distinct impression he thought we were goofy, naive teenagers who grew up to be goofy, naive adults.”

Jenna looked at Vic. “And you think he’ll make an interesting follow-up piece?”

A tiny frown marred Victoria’s brow. “He’s the first one to get engaged. I think it will be interesting to follow each of these guys as they come off the list. What made them choose the woman they’re going to marry? What made—” she checked the back of the profile, where she’d added a notation or two “—Shelby Elaine Winston the one for Mark Bishop? Why her?”

Lauren snorted. “Why should we care? So the rest of us can copy good old Shelby and hope that one day we’ll snag a Mr. Right for ourselves?” She shook her head in disgust, sending loose auburn curls over one shoulder. “God, sometimes I think we need to give up on that fantasy.”

“What makes you think some of us haven’t?” Jenna surprised herself by saying. Damn Jack Rawlins! He really had soured her on any notion of happily-ever-after, hadn’t he?

Victoria looked genuinely disconcerted. “What’s wrong with you two? We’re all firm believers in fairy-tale endings, remember?”

“Not lately,” Lauren said, playing with her wineglass.

Something in her tone made Jenna wonder just how much trouble there was in Lauren’s current relationship. Earlier she’d mentioned that Brad had begun to pressure her to make more of a commitment. She’d responded by taking an assignment for a travel magazine that would have her flying to New Zealand next week. Get some breathing distance between them, she’d said.

Vic cocked her head at Lauren. “Trouble in paradise?”

Lauren didn’t pretend not to understand. From the moment they’d met in grade school there’d been few secrets between the three friends. “Brad’s driving me crazy,” she admitted.

“In what way?” Jenna asked.

“In a dozen different ways. Everything he does lately gets on my nerves. Did you ever notice how many times he ends a sentence with ‘…and so on and so on and so forth’? He’ll be telling a story, and it’s as though he’s suddenly lost interest. Then I’m just supposed to guess how the rest of it goes. And if I say anything, he looks at me like I’m an imbecile.” Lauren narrowed her eyes at Jenna. “Why are you smiling?”

“I was just wishing I’d had that problem with Jack. He always finished his stories. And then he’d repeat them again and again. I could recite them in my sleep. He never shut up.” She caught sight of Lauren’s scowl. “Sorry. You were saying?”

Lauren played with her spoon, still frowning. “He attacks his spaghetti,” she said in a soft voice.

Vic sat forward. “I beg your pardon?”

Lauren looked at her friends impatiently, then made quick slicing motions with her silverware. “He attacks it. Like it’s a plate of snakes. It doesn’t matter that he’s got a pasta spoon right beside his plate. He just starts whacking at it with a knife and fork until every piece is no more than an inch long. It’s disgusting to watch.”

“Sounds serious,” Vic said, barely suppressing a grin.

“Wait till Chef Boyardee hears about this,” Jenna added.

Lauren gave them both a stern look. “I know what you’re thinking. But little irritations like that can really kill a relationship, you know?”

Jenna nodded sympathetically. “Mom used to say you could sit on a mountain, but you couldn’t sit on a tack.”

Although, she had the sudden, wry memory that little transgressions hadn’t been the death of her own marriage. Forget how Jack had repeated stories or treated his spaghetti or neglected to cap the toothpaste. That long-term affair with his secretary had pretty much distracted her from small annoyances.

She pushed thoughts of Jack to the back of her mind and tried to concentrate on Lauren’s dilemma. Both Jenna and Vic had heard this same sort of complaint from their friend before.

Lauren claimed to love her independence so much that the idea of settling down with one man horrified her. Her career as a freelance photographer had really taken off in the past few years, and she now made a comfortable living regularly contributing to several different publications. While photo assignments for FTW were still a top priority, she loved flying out of the country on a moment’s notice, marching through steamy jungles and climbing steep mountains in search of just the right shot. Where would a husband and kids and a picket fence fit into that kind of life? she’d once asked her two best friends.

It was Jenna’s private theory, however, that a loss of independence wasn’t Lauren’s real fear at all. Jenna would have bet money that Lauren was more afraid of duplicating her parents’ disastrous marriage.

Her mother was on her fourth husband. And Lauren’s father, husband number one, was still referred to in their old neighborhood as Womanizing Walter. He’d been the first guy in Bear Hollow to greet any new neighbor with an armload of lawn-care products for the men—and eventually, a key to the nearest motel for young and willing wives. The scandalous details of the Hoffmans’ divorce had set the neighborhood on its ear for months.

“Has Brad asked you to marry him?” Jenna inquired.

Lauren stiffened and rolled her eyes. “No. But I think he’s going to soon. Hell, I think he’s in love with me.”

Vic placed her hand over Lauren’s. “Lauren, you know what you’re doing, don’t you? Every time a guy gets too close you start running.”

Jenna sat back in her chair, a little unnerved. “What’s wrong with us?” she asked. “Vic’s right. I can remember a time when we would have been dancing on this table at the thought of someone being in love with us. We’re only twenty-eight. This can’t be it for romance.”

Vic, who had recently broken off with her boyfriend of six months, shook her head vehemently. “Of course it isn’t. Let’s just acknowledge that we’re all going through a bad patch right now. But that doesn’t mean we’ve given up on finding true love. Or it finding us. Haven’t we built a business on the idea of romance and grand passion?”

They fell silent for a few moments, each of them caught in her own thoughts. Dexter approached the table with the dessert tray and placed a dish of sinful-looking chocolate cake in front of Jenna. She smiled her thanks. She had to admit, expensive and as calorie-laden as it was, it looked wonderful.

Vic pushed her fork into the moist slice of cake before her. “I’m not going to spoil a perfectly divine dessert with talk about how pathetic our love lives are.” She tapped a finger against the nearest photograph on the table. “I still think the women who read FTW want to believe there’s a Ten Most Eligible out there for them. Wouldn’t you like a few hints that might allow you to snag one of these guys?”

“I suppose that would depend on how much of myself I’d have to give up in order to get him,” Jenna said.

Catching sight of the picture of Mark Bishop, Dexter’s eyes lit up. “Oh, honey, I wouldn’t let him get away. Do whatever it takes. Get a complete makeover if you have to. He’s a hottie.”

They all laughed and the mood at the table lightened. After Dexter sashayed off, Jenna said, “Well, whatever secrets the happy couple want to share, I’m sure you’ll put a great spin on it, Vic.”

A short silence fell as the three women took their first bites of dessert, sighs of appreciation escaping their lips. As she slipped her fork into the cake for a second mouthful, Victoria looked at Jenna and said, “Actually I’m not going to do the article. You are.”

Jenna frowned. “Me? What are you talking about?”

“I want you to do the piece.”

Jenna shook her head. She reached over and pushed Victoria’s wineglass to the opposite side of the table. “No more wine for you.”

“I’m serious.”

The cake in Jenna’s mouth suddenly became flavorless. She gave Victoria an incredulous look, though she noticed that Lauren didn’t seem completely surprised. “Why aren’t you going?” And then, because she realized that Vic was serious, she added, “I can’t go in your place.”

“Why not? You have perfectly acceptable skills. You did that article last Christmas about gift suggestions.”

“You know very well that was a last-minute filler, and it amounted to no more than three paragraphs. That doesn’t make me a journalist.”

“It still required a way with words. Which you have.”

Jenna set down her fork, her dessert forgotten. “Yeah, and I’m thinking of a few choice ones right now.”

She looked across the table at Lauren for support. The redhead was mysteriously quiet. No help from that quarter evidently.

“Absolutely not,” Jenna said firmly. “No.”

Victoria lifted her head, all haughty tyranny. “Technically, I’m your boss. I order you to do it for the sake of the magazine.”

Lauren and Jenna burst out laughing, and even Victoria cracked a smile.

“I might let you order my dessert,” Jenna said, “but I’m an equal partner of FTW, and you can’t send me off to—” she flipped back to Mark Bishop’s bio to see where he lived “—to Orlando just because you don’t want to do it.”

“You don’t have to go to Orlando,” Victoria said.

“Good.”

“He and Shelby will be in New York.”

“What?”

“They’ve agreed to squeeze in a joint interview while they’re in New York this week. He’s there on business, and she’s picking out her trousseau. It’ll be easy. They’ll be in a lovey-dovey mood. Flush with the glamour and glitz of New York, the city of love…”

“I thought Paris was the city of love,” Lauren cut in.

Victoria shot her a sour look. “Thanks for your support.”

Jenna crossed her arms, annoyance tinged with the tiniest bit of fear beginning to take hold of her. Searching for the right argument, she looked down, straight into the steely, hooded eyes of Mark Bishop. The guy was in the newspaper business, for heaven’s sake. He’d certainly recognize that she was completely out of her element. He’d chew her up and spit out the pieces.

She cleared her throat. Loudly. “I can’t just drop everything and go to New York. I have two children who—”

“Don’t play the little-homemaker card with me,” Victoria said in exasperation. “You have a father and two older brothers who dote on those boys, and they’d be quite willing to baby-sit if you asked them. God knows, you do everything for them.”

“Send Lauren.”

Lauren gave her a small smile of commiseration. “I’m already going. To take the pictures.”

“She can’t do the article,” Victoria said. “She might be a genius with her camera, but you know her thought processes can be hopelessly disorganized. Doesn’t allow for good writing.”

Making a face at Victoria, Lauren replied, “Keep it up, and you’ll be looking for a photographer, as well as a journalist.”

Vic reached across the table and squeezed Lauren’s arm. “You know I love you, darling. Desperation always makes me cruel.”

“What about one of the freelancers?” Jenna suggested.

“Aren’t you always telling me we need to watch costs where we can? Why should we pay a freelancer when there’s a perfectly good writer in-house?” Victoria developed an interest in scraping crumbs from her plate. “Besides, there’s no time. You and Lauren have to show up at his penthouse suite tomorrow afternoon.”

“Tomorrow!”

Seeing Jenna’s consternation, Lauren decided to speak up. “Come on, Jen. We can do it. Then we can go shopping. Or take in a show. We can have a ‘wild woman weekend’ just like in the old days.”

“The last time I acted like a wild woman, I ended up married to the most inappropriate man in the world.”

“Well, you certainly don’t have to worry about that this time,” Victoria said. “Shelby Elaine isn’t going to turn number six loose without a fight.”

Jenna tried again. “I can’t go anywhere tomorrow. I have an appointment.”

“With whom?” Vic asked suspiciously.

“With a real-estate agent. I wasn’t kidding before. I’ve got to find a place of my own. The boys need it. I need it. Independence Day is long past due.”

How irksome it was to see the open skepticism on both her friends’ faces! Vic, of course, was the first to weigh in with her opinion. “I don’t know why you think you can fool us with all this nonsense about buying a house. You’re not going to move out of your father’s place—at least not until you get married again. You claim to be eager to get back out on your own, but there’s still a part of you that wants to stay there.”

“Why would I want to stay there? It’s too small for all of us. Dad can drive a person nuts. It’s too far from—”

“Because it’s safe.” Vic cut across the conversation.

Jenna stared down at her abandoned dessert. She wanted to refute Vic’s words, but she had no grounds.

She longed for independence, longed to make a home for herself and the boys, but at the same time she was scared to death. Afraid to fail. Afraid to find out she couldn’t manage on her own. It was horrible to be this age, have come this far, and still suspect that deep within, the same old insecure Jenna was sabotaging every move.

She could feel Vic and Lauren’s eyes on her and felt a surge of rebellion. “Why can’t you go, Vic?” she asked, determined to keep the conversation on the problem at hand. “And I want the truth.”

Victoria looked down for a moment, running her fingers through her blond hair in a familiar gesture that told her friends the teasing time was over. When she lifted her eyes, Jenna saw the uneasiness there, tinged with an un-characteristic fear.

“I’m flying out to California tomorrow morning,” Victoria said, the lightness gone from her voice. “I’m not going to let Cara flit off to Europe to ride around on the back of a motorcycle without trying to make her see reason. That guy is no good for her, and maybe face-to-face I can convince her of that.”

During Victoria’s last year in college, her parents had been killed in a car accident. Cara, six years her junior, had been seriously injured. Vic had dropped out of school and come home to take care of her sister. She’d nursed her back to health, settled their parents’ estate and over-seen the sale of the family business. The sisters loved each other dearly. But that didn’t mean Cara would let Vic tell her how to run her love life.

Jenna knew firsthand how such interference could sometimes produce a result just the opposite of the one desired. She leaned closer to her friend. “Vic…are you sure this is the best way to handle the problem? Don’t you remember when everyone in my family tried to persuade me not to marry Jack? We couldn’t get to the justice of the peace fast enough.”

“It won’t be like that,” Victoria replied. She pressed her lips together tightly, as though her anxiety had leaked out before she could catch it. “My mind’s made up, the tickets are bought, so don’t try to talk me out of it.”

They all subsided into thoughtful silence. The rest of their desserts remained uneaten. Jenna stared down at the picture of Mark Bishop, seeing nothing but the potential for disaster. She would do anything to help the magazine and her friend. But this? How could she hope to succeed?

Eventually the silence became charged and uncomfortable. Jenna picked up the picture again, releasing a huge sigh. “Lord, he looks so intimidating.”

“Debra Lee says he’s a prince to work for. And he’s fallen in love since that picture was taken,” Victoria said. “He’ll be a pussycat.”

Jenna opened her mouth to refute that, but Lauren touched Victoria’s sleeve and said, “Give her some time to think about it, Vic. You know Jenna. She likes to weigh everything very carefully. I’m not surprised she’s hesitant, the way you’ve sprung this on her.”

Victoria looked back at Jenna. “All right. I’ll give you until tonight to make up your mind.”

“And then what happens?” Jenna asked.

“And then I start begging.”

Lauren laughed, but Jenna frowned. She wouldn’t go. She just couldn’t. No more thought on the matter would make a difference.

And she wasn’t going to let this foolishness keep her from enjoying a dessert the company was paying good money for. She picked up her fork again and deliberately placed a sizable bite of Chocolate Sin into her mouth.

The icing was thick, cloying. She tried to savor its richness, but all she could see were Mark Bishop’s dark eyes staring up at her from his picture beside her plate.

“Don’t look like that,” Vic commanded. “You’re not being sent to the executioner’s block.”

Maybe not, Jenna thought. But the cake sure tasted like part of a condemned man’s last meal.