Misconception

by Christy Hayes

  “This is a nice surprise.” Tori stood up to greet Pace after she’d gotten off the phone. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “I know.” Pace stopped and stared at her blankly. Tori had just started not worrying about her daughter, but she looked awful. Her mascara was smeared and she had bags under her eyes. “I—”

  Colin walked into the room and stopped Pace cold. Tori had never seen her look at her father like she did then, her eyes narrowed, her glare accusing. She glanced at her husband to see what could have caused such a reaction. He wore an affable grin, his usual suit and tie, and he carried an overnight bag. She struggled not to cringe at the sight of it. He’d mentioned his trip to Washington in passing. She hoped he had real business to do because it didn’t matter whether he met his mistress at home or in D.C.

  “Pace, darling.” He kissed her cheek and she visibly flinched. What in the world? “Did you come to see me off?”

  “See you off?” She scooted around the couch and out of his reach.

  “I’m heading to Washington for a few days. Seems my challenger is stumping for support inside the beltway.” He was oblivious to her reaction, tugging the cuffs out from his coat and playing with his tie. “There’s always something.”

  “Anyone going with you?” Pace asked.

  Colin seemed taken aback. She never asked about his job. “Noooo.” He shook his head and chuckled at her as if she were a child.

  The words, She’s older than your lover, were on the tip of Tori’s tongue, but she held them back as he approached. When he leaned in to kiss her, she stiffened her spine and offered him her cheek. She’d avoided all physical contact since her run-in with Deidre. He hadn’t noticed her cold shoulder either. “I’ll call you when we land.”

  Tori stole a glance at Pace, who stood watching them raptly. As soon as Colin had gone, Pace wandered out from behind the couch. “He seems awfully chipper to be heading out-of-town right before Christmas and to be dealing with opposition.”

  Tori jotted a note in her appointment book and closed it forcefully. Too forcefully, she could tell when she looked up and realized Pace studied her suspiciously. She forced a smile and tried to distract her. “He thrives on competition and I’m sure he’s grateful to be out of the house while I work on the details for the tea.” Tori sat on the sofa and was pleased when Pace followed. “So, why the visit? Were you in the neighborhood?”

  Pace stared at lap and said, “I was worried about you.”

  If her earlier behavior hadn’t already peaked Tori’s interest, Pace’s statement would have put her on alert. She’d always been the least of Pace’s worries. “Worried about me? Why?”

  When Pace only shrugged, Tori wondered if what she said next would be the truth or something to throw her off. The whole situation felt like a trap.

  “I was just wondering how you’re doing,” Pace said. “You’ve been so busy with stuff, all the luncheons and dinners. I can’t remember you throwing yourself into a campaign like this before, especially so early in the game, and I just wanted to check on you.”

  Tori felt ridiculously close to tears. It was the most care Pace had shown her…ever.

  “I mean, when you came by the house the other day, it seemed like you wanted to talk about something. Something important.”

  Tori’s breath hitched in her throat. It felt like Pace was trying to lead her somewhere, but she didn’t know where or if she wanted to go. Pace sat on the edge of the cushion, her hands clasped tightly together, her eyes intent. “I was worried about you,” Tori explained. “I wondered how you were doing. There was no nefarious intent, I assure you.”

  Pace blinked her eyes quickly, tapped her fingers on her legs. She was nervous. How very interesting. “You know you can talk to me, Mom, about anything that’s bothering you.” Pace reached over and grabbed her hand. Tori felt a spurt of anger toward Jason for the calluses on her palm. “I’ll listen if you just need to talk.”

  What in the hell was going on here? Did she know about her father’s affair? “The way you open up with me?” Her reply was born of panicked fear instead of compassion for her daughter’s kindness. She pulled her hand from Pace’s and flicked the hair from her face. Tori wondered what was wrong with her? Why did she take her anger out on Pace? “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so disingenuous.” She had to get away from Pace’s stare, the concern on her face, the seeking glare in her eyes. She walked to the window, tried to get a grip on her emotions. She took a deep breath and, when she thought she could disguise her feelings, turned to face her daughter. “What’s gotten into you lately? Why so serious?”

  Pace looked so sad sitting there on the big leather couch. It seemed like just yesterday when her feet barely touched the ground.

  “No reason.” She shrugged and kept tapping away on her pants. “It’s just that we’re both adults, both married women with children. I’d like us to be closer than we are.”

  Tori’s mind was reeling. Where the hell was this coming from?

  “I’d like us to be friends.”

  Her mouth was dry as cotton. “Friends?”

  “Why not?” She popped up and approached Tori’s spot by the window. She was afraid if her daughter came any closer, she’d smell her fear. “We’re both married to very demanding men, men who travel a lot, men who expect us to handle the details of life while they’re gone.”

  “That’s certainly true.” Tori felt like they were dancing to music only one of them could hear.

  They stared at each other for a long time and in Pace’s expression, it seemed as if she was wrestling with something. “We have to trust our husbands to be faithful when they’re gone, when they’re free to act on certain desires.”

  It hit Tori all at once that it wasn’t Colin she was talking about, but Jason. “What’s going on, Pace?” Tori gripped her shoulders, felt the taut muscle beneath. “Has Jason…”

  “No, no, I don’t think so.” Pace wrapped her arms tightly around her chest and closed her eyes as if to gather strength. When she opened them, Tori knew she was about to tell her the truth. “He’s been getting some emails from a client. Some suggestive emails. He says they’re harmless, that he’d never do anything, but…it bothers me.”

  Tori was shocked that Pace would come to her with a crisis and tried to guide her as best she could. Lord knew she’d had some experience with this kind of thing. It was one thing for Tori to put up with infidelity, but she wouldn’t stand by and watch her baby be treated that way. “You asked him about the emails?”

  “Yes. I tried to sit on them, pretend they didn’t mean what I thought they did, but I just couldn’t do it. I needed to hear him tell me there wasn’t anything going on.”

  Tori was so proud of Pace for being stronger than she was at her age. When she’d first suspected. “And you believe him?”

  “Yes, I believe him.” Tori didn’t say anything for minute, tried to get her thoughts in order. She didn’t want Pace following blindly down the path she’d forged. Pace waited expectantly for a response, her eyes wide with alarm. “You don’t think I should believe him?”

  “I think you should be careful. I think you should protect yourself.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Protect myself how?”

  How did Tori warn her about the danger to her soul if she didn’t put her needs before his and take nothing for granted? “Don’t let up about what’s going on. Let him know if he cheats on you, it’s over. I mean it, Pace. Don’t stand by and let him walk all over you. You deserve better than that.”

  She looked like a scared teenager; not quite a child, not quite a woman. Those had been the hardest years between them. “Okay, okay, I’ll make sure he knows how I feel.”

  “Do it, Pace.” Tori gripped Pace’s arms tight and had to stop herself from shaking her senseless. “Because once you let your guard down, once you let him get away with something, there isn’t any turning back.”

  * * *

  Pace stared at her mother, pan
ting and lightheaded like she was going to pass out. She felt as though she might actually pass out. Or throw up. Or both. Did her mother just admit her father had had an affair? “Mom, you’re making it sound like you’ve been through this before.”

  Tori dropped her arms and swirled away. Pace was frantic to see her face, read what she could from her mother’s expression, but her back stayed turned and all she could hear was the slight tremble of her mother’s voice when she said, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  She still wouldn’t turn around, but stood facing the window. The shifting clouds made strange shadows drift across the room. “Mom?”

  Pace placed her hand on Tori’s arm and turned her just as the sun slipped out from behind a cloud and shot a glare into her eyes. All she could see was her mother’s silhouette. “Your father is a politician, honey. Politicians are notorious for having affairs and the rumors run rampant even when they’re not true. Of course I’ve suffered with doubt and insecurity. Every woman has.”

  Oh, it sounded nice, her very politically correct answer. Her very vague, admit-nothing answer. Pace could hear Dr. Falcon’s warning in her head, but forged ahead anyway. She may never get this chance again. “I’m not talking about every woman, Mom. I’m talking about you. You and Daddy.”

  “Pace.” Tori led her to the couch and they both sat. She could see her mother clearly now and the look she gave her was the same as when Pace was a teenager about to get a lecture. “Your father and I have been married a very long time. He’s handsome, successful, and in a powerful position. Women are drawn to him and I’ve learned to deal with their admiring glances and…sometimes more. If you make it clear to your husband that you won’t stand by while he uses you as a doormat, he won’t.”

  Pace nodded her head and hoped she would go on, expound a little on her theories like she always had in the past, but her mother slapped her hands on her knees and stood up.

  “I’ve got a thousand things to do for this tea. Is there anything else you needed?”

  Pace rose onto unsteady legs. A straight answer, she wanted to shout as her mother flipped open her appointment book and lifted the phone from its cradle. But as Tori began to dial and sat behind her desk, Pace knew she’d been dismissed and that she wasn’t going to get one.

  Chapter 26

  By the time Jason got home, his jaw was swollen, a little pink, and, as much as he hated to admit it, hurt like hell. He wondered if Pace would notice, if she’d even care, or if she already knew he’d attacked her old boyfriend. He should regret it, punching him without any thought to the consequences from his father-in-law and his wife, but he couldn’t. He’d had nearly two decades’ worth of anger building and finally letting it out felt too damn good to regret.

  They sat through a painfully normal dinner, the kids scarfing down their food and talking about some kid getting in trouble on the bus for cussing. Normally Jason would’ve been concerned, but he couldn’t seem to work up much enthusiasm. The kid cussed, he got in trouble, drama over. Pace watched him while they ate, her brown eyes suspicious as he tenderly spooned food into his mouth and tried to chew without biting his swollen cheek.

  After dinner, he whipped the kids at video games while she did the dishes. The boys didn’t seem to know something was going on with them because he and Pace were working double time to act like things were normal. Their problems had taken an enormous toll on the boys last time and he knew if they sensed a crack between them, they’d crumble. When they’d gotten them bathed and put to bed, Jason followed Pace into the den and prepared to interrogate her about Trey.

  “What happened to your face?” She stood in the middle of the room, her arms crossed, her expression grim.

  Jason reached for the remote and turned off an annoyingly loud sitcom that had come on while they’d been upstairs. It seemed like just a few years ago they would race to get the kids in bed so they could sit in front of their favorite shows. “You don’t know?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I went to see Trey.”

  She dropped her arms and her whole body seemed to deflate. “You got into a fight with Trey?”

  “He sent those pictures. He dared me to prove it.” He didn’t know what he expected her to do, how he expected her to react, but the non-reaction seemed strange and only added fuel to his fire. “Damn it, Pace. The man’s obsessed with you.”

  “You’re the one obsessed.” She rubbed her temples with her hands. “I already told you I don’t care about Trey.”

  “He’s trying to break up our marriage. Don’t you care about that?”

  “Trey can’t break up our marriage, Jason. Only we can do that.”

  She couldn’t have delivered a better knock-out punch in her quiet, measured tone. Right between the eyes. “Is that what you want?” Jason asked.

  “No, that’s not what I want.” She walked over to where he stood, placed a hand on his puffy cheek. “Does it hurt?”

  Jason nodded, staring into her eyes. It felt more like a bee sting, but he’d milk it for all it was worth if it made Pace feel sorry for him—feel anything for him. She was everything he’d ever wanted. Just as he leaned down to kiss her, to tell her he needed her, she turned and walked toward the kitchen. “Where are you going?”

  She didn’t answer, but he heard her rustling around in the freezer. She was back a moment later with an ice bag. “Frozen peas would work better, but this is the best I can do.”

  “Pace.” He grabbed her hand before she could pull away. “I love you. I’ve always loved you and I’ll never stop loving you. I want us to get back to the way things were.”

  She sat on the couch and stared up at him. “You used to trust me.”

  “I still trust you. It’s Trey I don’t trust.”

  “That’s not true, Jason.” She leaned back against the couch and sighed. She looked exhausted and way too thin. “When the nurse called with those test results, you didn’t think twice about me cheating on you. You knew I wouldn’t do it. And I understand how you must have felt after your test and the doctor’s email, but instead of thinking about us and me and figuring out I would never cheat on you, you went out and hired a private detective—”

  “I said I was sorry, Pace. Please, if I could undo what I did, I would. If it hadn’t been for Trey, the whole thing would have blown over, but when he had his hands on you I saw red.”

  “I know that. I believe that. But you still did it.” She sat up and braced her hands on her knees. She wore jeans and a sweater and they were gaping where they used to cling. How had he not noticed how much weight she’d lost? “It’s more than the detective. The emails, Jason. I just can’t get the emails out of my head.”

  He was on his knees in front of her, threw the ice pack on the coffee table, and took her hands in his. “I told you there’s nothing going on. She’s an infatuated young girl. I haven’t done anything to encourage her.” Shit. He needed to tell her about his trip. He leaned back on his heels. “I have to go back to New York. I leave the day after tomorrow.”

  “What?” She pulled her hands out of his grasp. “Why now? It’s almost Christmas.”

  “Tarks says he’s nominating me for partner.”

  She eyed Jason skeptically. “Why do you sound so upset and what does this have to do with you going to New York?”

  “If Tarks caught wind of my plans to leave, this could be a tactical maneuver to keep me.”

  “From everything you’ve said, making partner is too big a deal for him to use it to keep you. He’s probably worried because you’re too good to keep without making partner. It seems flattering to me and about time. What’s the problem?”

  He couldn’t help but smile at her die-hard support, even in the face of their issues. “If I make partner and turn it down, I’m going to have to leave…I mean, I’m leaving anyway, but now I have to leave before they announce who made partner or else I risk them taking my projects from me—which they may do anyway.”

  “So you can’
t wait until spring like you’d planned?”

  “No, I’ve got a month, tops.” The stress of it, on top of everything else, felt like a boulder on his spine. He had to find an office to lease, get incorporated, hire a support staff, figure out insurance… “I think I can convince my New York account to come with me. I need them to, Pace. This is too big a deal to let slip away.”

  She fell back against the cushions and looked up at the ceiling. “Then I guess you have to go.”

  Her face looked pale and completely blank. He knew he had to do this, for him, for their family, but leaving her when she seemed so fragile felt like a betrayal. “You can trust me, Pace.” He reached out and cupped her cheek in his palm. “I love you. I don’t want to leave you now. I admit it was flattering to have someone interested in me, especially when everything here was such a mess, but I never did anything to provoke it.”

  She leveled him with her honest brown eyes. “You didn’t do anything to stop it, either.”

  “Honestly, I didn’t know how. I thought ignoring it would be best. It seemed too risky to make a big deal of it before I had a commitment from them.”

  Her mouth quirked in annoyance. “So you’d rather risk losing me than risk losing them as a client?”

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and tried to start over. It wouldn’t do any good to get pissed. “I won’t go if you tell me not to.”

  She snorted sarcastically. “I won’t tell you not to go. Don’t put that on me.”

  “I mean it, Pace. If you don’t want me to go to New York, I won’t.”

  “Where does that get me? If I tell you to stay, you’ll resent me and if I tell you to go, it’s like I’m giving you permission.”