Читать книгу Fortune's Woman / A Fortune Wedding - Kristin Hardy - Страница 12

Several others at the funeral stopped to watch the unfolding drama and Ross did his best to edge them over to a quieter corner of the chapel, away from the greedy eyes of the crowd.

“My nephew just lost his father,” he said calmly. “I’m here for him, Jillian. Surely you can understand that.”

She made a scoffing sort of sound. “Your nephew lost his father because of your sister! If not for her, none of us would be here. He would still be alive. You have no right to come here. No right whatsoever. This service is for family members. For those of us who…who loved Lloyd. You never even liked him. You probably conspired with your sister to kill him, didn’t you?”

It was such a ridiculous thing to say that Ross had no idea how to answer her grief-induced ravings.

“I’m here for Josh,” he repeated. “Whatever you might think about my sister right now, and whatever the circumstances of Lloyd’s death, Josh has lost his father. He asked me to come with him today and I couldn’t let him down.”

Though he had let him down, Ross thought. And he had let his sister down, over and over. He hadn’t been able to get Frannie out of her lousy marriage. He had tried, dozens of times, until he finally gave up. But maybe he hadn’t tried hard enough.

“I want you to leave. Right now.” Jillian’s features reddened and she looked on the verge of some apoplectic attack.

“We’re just leaving, Grandmother,” Josh assured her and Ross was proud of his nephew for his calm, sympathetic manner.

At that moment, Lloyd’s father stepped up and slipped a supporting arm around his wife’s shoulders. “That’s not necessary. You don’t have to leave, Joshua. Come along, Jillian. The Scofields were looking for you a moment ago.”

Cordell gave Ross a quick, apologetic look, then steered his distraught wife away from them. Ross watched after him, his brow furrowed. He hadn’t seen Lloyd’s father in a few months but the man looked as if he had aged a decade or more. His features were lined and worn and he looked utterly exhausted.

Was all that from Lloyd’s death? he wondered. He knew the Fredericks had always doted on their only son and of course his death was bound to hit them hard, but he hadn’t expected Cordell to look so devastated.

Maybe Lloyd’s death wasn’t the only reason the man seemed to have aged overnight. Ross had been hearing rumors even before Lloyd’s death that not all was rosy with the Fredericks’ financial picture. He had heard a few whispers around town that Cordell and Lloyd had been late on some payments and had completely stopped making others.

It wouldn’t have surprised him at all to learn that Lloyd had been the one keeping Fredericks Financial afloat. Maybe Cordell was terrified the whole leaky ship would sink now that his son was dead.

He made a mental note to add a little digging into their financial records to the parallel investigation he had started conducting into Lloyd’s death.

“Follow the money” had always been a pretty good creed when he’d been a cop and he saw no reason for this situation to be any different.

“Sorry about that, Uncle Ross,” Josh said when they finally stepped outside into the warm afternoon, along with others who seemed eager to escape the oppressive funeral chapel. “Grandmother is…distraught.”

Poor Josh had a bum deal when it came to grandparents. On the one side, he had Lloyd’s stiff society parents. On the other, he had Cindy. She was no better a grandmother than she’d been a mother, alternating between bouts of spoiling her grandson outrageously with flamboyant gifts she couldn’t afford, followed by long periods of time when she would ignore him completely.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ross assured him. “Jillian’s reaction is completely understandable.”

“It’s not. She knows my mom. She’s known her for eighteen years, since she married my dad. Grandmother has to know Mom would never kill him.”

“It’s a rough time right now for everyone, Josh.”

“I don’t care how upset she is. My mom is innocent! And then to imply that you were involved, as well. That’s just crazy.”

Ross sighed but before he could answer, he was surprised to see Julie Osterman slip outside through the doors of the chapel and head in their direction.

She wore a conservative blue jacket and skirt with a silky white shirt and had pulled her hair back into a loose updo, and she looked soft and lovely in the sunshine.

His heart had no business jumping around in his chest just at the sight of her. Ross scowled. It didn’t seem right that she should be the single bright spot in what had been a dismal day.

How did she have such a calming presence about her? he wondered. Even some of Josh’s tension seemed to ease out of him when she slipped her arm through his and gave a comforting squeeze.

“Hi, Ms. O.”

She smiled at him, though it appeared rather solemn. “Hi, Josh. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you.”

“Oh?”

She studied him for a long moment. “I have a dilemma here. Maybe you can help me out. I promised myself I wasn’t going to ask you something clichéd like how you’re holding up. But then, if I don’t ask, how am I supposed to find out how you’re doing?”

Josh smiled, the first one Ross had seen on his features all day. “Go ahead and ask. I don’t mind.”

“All right. How are you doing, under the circumstances?”

He shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Under the circumstances.”

“It was a lovely memorial service, as far as these things go.”

“I guess.” Josh looked down at the asphalt of the parking lot.

“When do you go back to school?” she asked.

“Tomorrow. I’ve got finals next week and I can’t really miss any more school if I want to graduate with my class. Uncle Ross thinks I should study for finals at home.”

He and Ross had argued about it several times, in fact. It was just about the only point of contention between them over the last five days.

“I just think he should take as much time as he needs,” Ross said. “If he doesn’t feel ready, he can probably take a few more days, as long as he gets the assignments from his teachers. There’s also the scandal factor. Everybody’s going to be talking about a murder at the Spring Fling and I want to make sure he’s mentally prepared for that before he goes back to school.”

“What do you think, Ms. O.?” Josh asked.

Ross could tell she didn’t want to be dragged into the middle of things but Julie only smiled at both of them. “There are arguments to be made for both sides. But I think that you’re the only one who can truly know when you’re ready. As long as you feel prepared to handle whatever might come along, I’m sure returning to school tomorrow will be fine.”

“I think I am,” Josh answered. “But I won’t know until I’m there, will I?”

Julie opened her mouth to answer but one of Lloyd’s elderly aunts approached them before she could say anything.

“Joshua? I’ve been looking all over for you,” she said. “You’re not leaving already, are you?”

Josh slanted a look at Ross. “In a minute.”

“You can’t leave yet. Your great-grandmother is here. She specifically wanted to see you.”

Josh looked less than thrilled about being forced to talk with more Fredericks relatives but he nodded and allowed himself to be led away by the other woman, leaving Ross alone with Julie.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said after a moment.

He didn’t add that if he had seen her earlier, it might have made the whole thing a little easier to endure.

She made a face. “I decided I would probably regret it if I didn’t come to pay my respects. I know Jillian casually from some committees we’ve served on together and it seemed the polite thing to do, for her sake alone. But more than that, I wanted to come for Josh. It seemed…right, especially as I feel a little as if I were involved, since you and I were on the scene so quickly after it happened and I was with Josh for those few hours afterward.”

“Makes sense. It was nice of you to come.”

She studied him for a long moment. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I get the impression you’re not very thrilled to be here.”

His laugh was rough and humorless. “Is it that obvious? I can’t wait to leave. We were just on our way out. And just so you don’t think I’m rushing him away, Josh is as eager to get out of here as I am.”

She frowned. “How is he really doing?”

He gazed toward the door, where Josh was talking politely to an ancient-looking woman in a wheelchair. “Not as peachy as he wants everybody to think. He isn’t the same kid he was five days ago.”

“That’s normal and very much to be expected.”

“I get the grieving process. I mean, even though his relationship with his dad wasn’t the greatest, of course he’s going to be upset that he died a violent death. But something else is going on. I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

One of the things Ross liked best about Julie Osterman was the way she gazed intently at him when he was speaking. Some women looked like they had their minds on a hundred other things when he talked to them, everything from what they had for breakfast to what they were going to say next. It bugged the heck out of him. But somehow he was certain Julie was focused only on his words.

“I’m sure he’s also upset about his mother’s arrest.”

“True enough. If you want the truth, he acts like Frannie’s arrest upsets him more than Lloyd’s death. He’s furious that his mother has been charged with the murder and that she’s being held without bail.”

“Have you talked to him about his feelings?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m a guy, in case it escaped your attention.”

“It hasn’t,” she murmured, an odd note in her voice that sent heat curling through him.

He cleared his throat. “I’m no good at the whole ‘let’s talk about our feelings’ thing. Not that I haven’t tried, though. Yesterday I took him out on my boat, thinking he might open up out on the water. Instead, we spent the entire afternoon without saying a word about his mom or about Lloyd or anything. Caught our limit between us, though.”

Why he shared that, he wasn’t sure and he regretted even opening his mouth. What kind of idiot thought a fishing trip might help a troubled teen? But Julie only gazed at him with admiration in the deep blue of her eyes.

“Brilliant idea. That was probably exactly what he needed, Ross. For things to be as normal as possible for a while. To do something he enjoys in a safe environment where he didn’t feel pressured to talk about anything.”

“I used to take my brothers when we were kids. I can’t say we solved all the world’s problems, but we always walked away from the river a little happier, anyway. Or at least we stopped fighting for a few minutes. And sometimes we even caught enough for a few nights’ dinners, too.”

She smiled at that, as he found he’d hoped she would. “You know, Ross, if you think it might help him cope with his grief, I would be happy to talk to Josh in a more formal capacity down at the Fortune Foundation.”

He mulled the offer for a long moment, then he shrugged. “I don’t know if he really needs all that.”

“I’m not talking long-term psychotherapy here. Just a session or two of grief counseling, maybe, if he wants someone to talk to.”

Ross thought of Josh’s behavior since Lloyd’s death. He had become much more secretive and he seemed to be bottling everything up deep inside. Every day since his father’s murder, Josh seemed to become more and more tense and troubled, until Ross worried he would implode.

He had seen good cops take a long, hard journey to nowhere when they tucked everything down inside them. He didn’t want to see the same thing happen to Josh.

His nephew wouldn’t share what he was going through with Ross, but maybe a few sessions with Julie would help him sort through the tangle of his emotions a little better. He supposed it couldn’t hurt.

“If he’s willing, I guess there’s a chance it might help him,” he answered. “You sure you don’t mind?”

“Not at all, Ross. I like Josh and I want to do anything I can to help him through this hard time in his life. I would say, from a professional standpoint, it’s probably better if he gets some counseling earlier rather than later. Things won’t become any easier for him the next few months, especially if the case against Frannie goes to trial.”

“It won’t,” he vowed. He was working like crazy on his own investigation, trying to make sure that didn’t happen. “I can’t believe such a miscarriage of justice would be allowed to proceed.”

“You were a police officer,” she said. “You know that innocence doesn’t always guarantee justice.”

“True. But I’m not going to let my baby sister go to prison for something she didn’t do. You can be damn sure of that.”

Her mouth tilted into a soft smile that did crazy things to his insides. “Frannie is lucky to have you,” she said softly.

He deliberately clamped down on the fierce urge to see if that mouth could possibly taste as sweet as his imagination conjured up.

“We’ll see,” he said, his voice a little rough. “If Josh is willing, when is a good time for me to bring him in?”

“I’ve got some time tomorrow afternoon, if that works. Around four, at my office?”

“I’ll talk to Josh and let you know. I don’t want to force him to do anything he’s uncomfortable about.”

“From the little I’ve learned about your nephew, I don’t think you could force him to do anything he didn’t want to do. I’m guessing it’s a family trait.”

He actually managed a smile, his first one in a long time. He was suddenly enormously grateful for her compassion and her insight. “True enough. Thank you for all your help. I’ve been baffled about what to do for him.”

He didn’t add that he felt as if was failing Josh, just as much as he had failed Frannie for the last eighteen years.

“You’re doing fine,” she answered. “Josh needs love most of all and it’s obvious you have plenty of that to give him.”

She touched his arm again, as he realized was her habit, and Ross felt the heat of it sing through his system.

He wanted to stay right here all afternoon, to just let her gentle touch soothe away all his ragged edges, all the tangles and turmoil he had been dealing with since Lloyd’s murder and Frannie’s arrest.

What was it about her that had such a powerful impact on him? She was lovely, yes. He had known lovely women before, though, and none of them exuded the same soft serenity that called to him with such seductive invitation.

“Sorry that took so long. We can leave anytime.”

At Josh’s approach, Julie quickly dropped her hand from his arm and Ross realized they had been standing there staring at each other for who knows how long.

Josh shifted his gaze between the two of them, as if trying to filter through the currents that must be zinging around.

“Um, no problem,” Ross mumbled. “I guess we should go, then.”

They said their goodbyes to Julie, and he couldn’t help noticing that she looked as rattled as he felt, something that probably shouldn’t suddenly make him feel so cheerful.

Julie studied the boy sprawled in the easy chair in her office.

For the past half hour, Josh had been telling her all the reasons he wasn’t grieving for his father. He talked about Lloyd Fredericks as if he despised him, but then Julie would see flashes of pain appear out of nowhere in his eyes and she knew the truth of Josh’s relationship with his father wasn’t so easily defined.

“I’m not glad he’s dead. I know I said that right after he was killed, but it’s not true. I guess I didn’t really want him dead, I just wanted him out of my life and my mom’s life. It’s weird that he’s gone, you know? I keep expecting him to come slamming into the house and start picking on my mom for whatever thing bugged him most that day. Instead, it’s only Ross there and he never says much of anything.”

“It’s natural for you to be conflicted, Josh. You’re grieving for your father, or at least for the relationship you might have wanted to share with your father.”

Josh shrugged. “I guess.”

“Nobody can make that process any easier. We each have to walk our own path when it comes to learning to live with the things we can’t have anymore. But one thing I’ve found that helps me when I’m sad is to focus not on the things that are missing in my life but instead on the many things I’m grateful to have.”

“Glass-half-full kind of stuff, huh?”

“Exactly. You’re in the middle of a crisis right now and many times it’s hard to see beyond that. That’s perfectly normal, Josh. But it can help ease a little of that turmoil to remember you’ve still got your uncle standing by your side. You’ve still got good friends who can help you through.”

“I’ve got Lyndsey.”

Josh had mentioned his girlfriend at least five or six times in their session. Julie hadn’t met the girl but it was obvious Josh was enamored of her.

“You’ve got Lyndsey. Many people in your life care about you and are here to help you get through this.”

“I know what I have. Just like I know what I have to protect.”

Julie mulled over his statement, finding his choice of words a little unsettling.

“What do you need to protect? And from whom? Your mother? Lyndsey?”

He became inordinately fascinated with the upholstered buttons on the arm of the easy chair, tugging at the closest one. “The people I love. I should have acted sooner. I should have protected my mom from Lloyd a long time ago.”

“How would you have done that? Your mother was a grown woman, making her own choices. What could you have done?”

After a long moment, he lifted his shoulders. “I don’t know. I should have figured something out.”

She pressed him on the point as much as she could before it became obvious he didn’t want to talk anymore. He became more closed-mouthed and distant. Though they technically still had five minutes, she opted to end the session a little earlier.

“Thanks for…this,” Josh said. “The talk and stuff. It helped a lot.”

She had no idea what she had possibly been able to offer, but she smiled. “I’m glad. Will you come again?”

He hesitated just long enough to make the moment awkward. “I guess,” he finally said. “I don’t think I really need therapy or anything but I don’t mind talking to you.”

“Great.”

She quickly wrote her cell number on a memo sheet from a dispenser on her desk. “I’m going to give you my mobile number. If you want to talk, I’m here, okay? Anytime.”

“Even if I called you at three in the morning?”

She smiled a little at his cynicism, the natural adolescent desire to stretch every boundary to the limit. “Of course. I might be half asleep for a moment at first, but after I wake up a little, I’ll be very happy you felt you could bother me at 3:00 a.m.”

She wasn’t sure he believed her, but at least he didn’t openly argue.

Ross was thumbing through a magazine in the reception area when they opened Julie’s office door. He rose to his feet and she was struck again by his height and the sheer solid strength of him.

With that tumble of dark hair brushing his collar and those deep brown eyes, he looked brooding and dark and dangerous, though she had come to see that was mostly illusion.

Mostly.

Her insides gave that funny little jolt they seemed to do whenever she saw him and she fought down a shiver. She had to get control of herself. Every time she was around the man, she forgot all the many reasons she shouldn’t be attracted to him.

“Hey, Uncle Ross. I’m going to go see if Ricky is still shooting hoops out back,” Josh said.

“Okay. I’ll be out in a minute. I’d like to talk to Ms. Osterman.”

Josh nodded, picked up his backpack and headed out the door. Josh had been her last appointment of the day and this was Susan’s half day, so no other patients waited in the reception area.

She was suddenly acutely aware that she and Ross were alone and she ordered her nerves to settle.

“How did things go in there?” Ross asked.

She sent him a sidelong look as she closed and locked her office door. “Just fine. And that’s all I can or will tell you.”

“Did he tell you he insisted on going back to school today, over all my well-reasoned objections?”

“He did.”

“Am I wrong in thinking he should take more time?”

She studied him, charmed despite all the warnings to herself by his earnest concern for his nephew’s well-being. She knew Ross was trying to do the right thing for Josh and she could also tell by the note of uncertainty in his voice that he didn’t feel up to the task.

She chose her words carefully, loath to give him any more reason to doubt himself. “I think Josh needs to set his own pace. He’s supposed to graduate in two weeks. Right now it’s important for him to go through the motions of regaining his life.”

“He didn’t say much about school today on the way over here, but I know it couldn’t have been easy.” His features seemed hard and tight for a moment. “I know how cruel kids can be, how they can talk, especially in small towns.”

He spoke as if he had firsthand experience in such things and she had to wonder what cruelty he might have faced as a child. She wanted to ask, but she was quite certain he would brush off the question.

“Josh can handle the whispers around school,” she answered. “He’s a very strong young man.”

“He shouldn’t have to go through any of this,” he muttered.

“But he does, unfortunately. Whether he should or shouldn’t have to face it, this is his reality now.”

“I wish I could make it easier for him.”

“You are. Just by being there with him, caring for him, you’re providing exactly what he needs right now.”

He studied her for a long moment, a warm light in his brown eyes that sent those nerves ricocheting around her insides again. She wanted to stay right here in her reception area and just soak up that heat, but she knew it was far too dangerous. Her defenses were entirely too flimsy around Ross Fortune.

“Shall we go find Josh and Ricky?”

Could he hear that slight tremble in her voice? she wondered. Oh, she dearly hoped not.

“Right,” he only said, and followed her outside into the warm May sunlight, where Josh was shooting baskets by himself on the hoop hanging in one corner of the parking lot of the Foundation.

“No Ricky?” Ross asked.

“Nope. He must have gone home while I was talking to Ms. O. Left the ball out here, though.”

Josh shot a fifteen-foot jumper that swished cleanly through the basket.

“Wow. Great shot,” Julie said.

“My turn,” Ross said and Josh obliged by passing the ball to him. Ross dribbled a few times and went to the same spot on the half-court painted on the parking lot. He repeated Josh’s shot, but his bounced off the rim.

Josh managed what was almost a smile. “Ha. You can never beat me at H-O-R-S-E. At least you haven’t been able to in years.”

“Never say never, kid.” Heedless of his cowboy boots that weren’t exactly intended for basketball, Ross rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. “Julie, you in?”

She laughed at the pair of them and the suddenly intent expression in two sets of eyes. “Do I look crazy? This appears to be a grudge match to me.”

Her heart warmed when Josh grinned at her, looking very different from the troubled teen she knew him to be. “There’s always room for one more.”

“You’ll wipe the parking lot with me, I’m sure. But why not?”

She decided not to tell them she was the youngest girl in a family of five with four fiercely competitive older brothers. Sometimes the only time she could get any of them to notice her was out on the driveway with the basketball standard her father had nailed above the garage door.

H-O-R-S-E had always been her favorite game and she loved outshooting her brothers, finding innovative shots they couldn’t match in the game of elimination.

It had been years since she played basketball with any real intent, though, and she knew she would be more than a little rusty.

The next half hour would live forever in her memory, especially the deepening shock on both Ross’s and Josh’s features when she was able to keep up with them, shot for shot, in the first five rounds of play.

After five more rounds, Josh and Ross each had earned H and O by missing two shots apiece, while she was still hitting all her shots, despite the handicap of her three-inch heels.

“Just who’s wiping the parking lot with whom here?” Ross grumbled. “I’m beginning to think we’ve been hustled.”

“I never said I couldn’t play,” Julie said with a grin, hitting a one-handed layup. “There was no deception involved whatsoever.”

She had to admit, she was having the time of her life. And Josh seemed much lighter of heart than he had been during their session. She still sensed secrets in him, but for a few moments he seemed to be able to set them aside to enjoy the game, which she considered a good sign.

After another half hour, things had evened out a little. She had missed an easy free throw and then a left hook shot that she secretly blamed on Ross for standing too close to her and blasting away all her powers of concentration. But she was still ahead after she pulled off a trick bounce shot that neither Josh nor Ross could emulate.

“I’m starving,” Ross said. “What do you say we finish this another night?”

“You’re just saying that because you know I’m going to win,” Julie said with a taunting smile.

Ross returned it and she considered the game a victory all the way around, especially if it could help him be more lighthearted than she had seen him since they had found his brother-in-law’s body.

“Hey, Julie, why don’t you come to the house and have dinner with us?” Josh asked suddenly. “We could finish the game there after we eat.”

“Dinner?” She glanced at Ross and saw he didn’t look exactly thrilled at the invitation. “I don’t know,” she said slowly.

“Please, Julie. We’d love you to come,” Josh pressed her. “You don’t have other plans, do you?”

“Not tonight, no,” she had to admit.

“Then why not come for dinner? Uncle Ross said he was going to barbecue steaks and there’s always an extra we can throw on the grill.”

“Well, that’s a bit of a problem,” she answered. “I’m afraid I’m not really much of a meat eater.”

“Really?” Josh said with interest. “Lyndsey is a vegetarian.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m a vegetarian. I just don’t eat a lot of red meat.”

“Those are fighting words here in cattle country,” Ross drawled.

She laughed. “I know. That’s why you won’t hear me saying them very loudly. I would prefer if the two of you would just keep it to yourselves.”

“Okay, we won’t blab your horrible dark secret to everyone—” Josh gave her a mischievous smile “—as long as you have dinner with us.”

She was delighted that he felt comfortable enough to tease her. “That sounds suspiciously like blackmail, young man.”

“Whatever it takes.”

She returned his smile, then shifted her gaze to see Ross watching both of them out of those brown eyes of his that sometimes revealed nothing.

“I suppose we could throw something else on the grill for you,” Ross said. “You eat much fish? We’ve still got bass from the other day.”

If she were wise, she would tell Josh ‘thanks but no thanks’ for his kind invitation. She already felt too tightly entangled with Ross and his nephew. But the boy was reaching out to her. She couldn’t just slap him down, especially if it might help her reach him better and help him through this grief.

“In that case, I would love to have dinner with you, as long as you let me pick up a salad and dessert from the deli on the way over.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Ross said.

She smiled and tossed the basketball at him. “I don’t mind. It’s a weird rule in my family. The winner always buys the loser’s dessert. You can consider the salad just a bonus.”

He was still laughing as she climbed into her car and drove away.