Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “You’ve seen him?” Alice’s attention was caught. No. riveted. She looked as though I had just handed her the thrill of the century. “Oh my gosh! Weren’t the two of you engaged?”

  “Sure. But that all fell through.” I waved my hand. Surely people didn’t remember all the details after fifteen years had passed. Right? “I did hear, though, that Kevin’s sister, Thayla, is engaged to Brock Mortensen.”

  “No. Way!” Alice sucked in enough air to make the rest of us dizzy and lightheaded. “You’re kidding me! Tell me you’re kidding.”

  “Not kidding. Kevin told me himself.” I added that just to make Alice think this was legit. Unfortunately, her gaze turned sly and speculative.

  “And why would Kevin be telling you about it?” Alice wanted to know.

  I could not afford to miss a beat here. “Because we’re adults and we’re over whatever happened all those years ago. He asked if I knew anything about Brock because he was trying to be gracious and give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he might have changed.”

  “Yeah. Right,” Alice snorted so loudly that three other women turned to stare at us as though they were realizing our conversation was far more interesting than the bride-to-be’s. “That jerk hasn’t changed one bit. If anything, he’s worse. Can’t hold a job. He’s been sent to jail two or three times for domestic abuse. He dated Emmaline Potter for a while. The asshole broke her nose, Eleanor. Broke her nose! He got drunk one night and came home and punched her square in the face when she asked him where he’d been. Brock Mortensen is a powder keg.”

  I swallowed the lump. It wasn’t like I hadn’t suspected as much, but it was another thing to hear this out loud from someone who had obviously been fairly close to the situation. “How did Emmaline get him out of her place if he was living there?”

  “Her dad had to come and help her. It was ugly.” Alice was now talking so quickly that she was stumbling over her words. “Brock attacked Emmaline’s father. He put the guy in the hospital. Emmaline’s father was a dock worker back in the day! He’s no pixie. But Brock just lit into him like they were in a barroom brawl. The man has no conscience. It’s like he’s just looking for someone to pick up his meal ticket or something. He dates these women and they have to pay his bills and give him a place to live. He steals their paychecks and drinks the money away. And he’s violent so they’re afraid to say anything lest he decide to turn on them or something.”

  “That’s horrible,” I whispered. I lifted my hand to my lips. I could not imagine living in a situation like that. “And her father? Was he all right?”

  “Eventually.” Alice paused for a dramatic moment. “Brock Mortensen broke the guy’s jaw. It was horrible! He had to have his teeth wired closed and eat through a straw for months. Emmaline moved him into her place to take care of him. Thankfully there were too many restraining orders and charges filed and a jail sentence down at county lockup to keep Brock busy.” Alice seemed to think it over. “Now I’m thinking when he got out of jail he must have hooked up with Thayla Landau.”

  “Poor girl,” I murmured. Thayla had always been awkward and older. The boys hadn’t particularly liked her. She was dull and didn’t have much in the way of looks or conversation or even intelligence. But she didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserved this kind of treatment.

  “Eleanor?” Lena was suddenly standing right in front of me. “You didn’t even say hello!”

  “You were busy.” I stood up and hugged my sister. “You look good. Happy. Is everything going good with you and Damion?”

  “Yeah. Good for us.” Lena tilted her head. “What about you? Damion told me that your company got sold.”

  “It’s all going to go down the way these things always do.” I waved my hand and tried to make it sound blasé. “You know how it is. I’ve been told I have a job, but they’re likely to do a lot of layoffs just because the company was overstaffed to begin with.”

  “Uh huh.” Lena stared at me for one long moment and I wondered if she actually knew that Kevin was back in town and working this takeover. I felt like she did. I felt like she was probably dying to say something else about it. And probably really, really wanted to grill me for answers about what it was like to see Kevin again.

  Fortunately, Alice saved her the trouble by announcing it to the whole room. “Kevin Landau is back in town! Can you believe it? He’s back for work!”

  “Is that right?” Lena murmured as she stared at me with those bright aqua eyes that looked so much like our mother’s. Ah. Mom. Great. That’s what I needed. A memory of our mother’s laser-like blue eyes. “How come you didn’t tell me?”

  “It’s only been a few days,” I said by way of explanation. “And the same day he showed up I got your wedding invitation.” There. Take that, nosy little sister. “Funny how you never mentioned you were getting married.”

  “You knew we were getting married.” Lena actually rolled her eyes. “Don’t pretend like this is a shock. We’re living together, for heaven’s sake!”

  “Yes. But that kind of means people have foregone the whole marriage thing or are putting it off. It just seems kind of rushed.” Where was this coming from? I didn’t actually care when or where my sister got married. That was her business. Was I just trying to push her into forgetting that Kevin was back? Why?

  “Seriously?” Lena’s eyebrows drew down into a frown. “Are you trying to go back to that whole Lena is a silly girl who makes bad romantic decisions thing?”

  “I don’t know. Did you invite Karl Kitson and Trinity Moberly?” For the love of God, why was I even going there?

  Lena drew back, but to my surprise she started laughing. “Oh my word, did you not hear?”

  “Hear what?” I demanded.

  Tansy cleared her throat and gave a discreet cough. “Trinity and Karl got married last week.”

  “No shit!” I couldn’t stop myself. I did cover my mouth with my hands though to keep the rest of it from popping out. Trinity Moberly was Damion Alvarez’s stalker ex-girlfriend. Karl Kitson was Lena’s stalker ex-boyfriend. “Are you telling me that those two got married when the only thing they actually had in common was a mutual hatred and jealousy of you and Damion?” It was absolutely shocking. “That is just sick!”

  Tansy was nodding emphatically. “Can you imagine what kind of demented person you would have to be to do that? Totally crazy.”

  “Crazy,” I agreed. Then I sighed. “So Trinity and Karl are out of the picture. Apparently, they have tried the ultimate ploy to make you and Damion jealous of their marital bliss. So you and Damion are getting married. Good for you.”

  “Do you really think that or are you just saying it?” Lena eyed me suspiciously. “That’s not like you. You always have some comment about how when you were going to get married…”

  “I wasn’t going to get married,” I told her drily. “That wedding was never going to take place.”

  I could feel everyone in the room staring. Apparently, they remembered far more than I had given them credit for. I really didn’t want to say more, but now I had backed myself into a corner. I had to give them something. Did it really matter after all these years? It wasn’t like I still held a grudge against Kevin for what he’d done. We’d been young, but he’d been considerably older than I was.

  “Why?” Lena asked me. “Why wouldn’t the wedding have taken place? You were in the freaking church, Lena!”

  “And then Mom came back and told me that Mrs. Landau had told her that she felt I needed to know that Kevin had fathered a baby with another woman and that this was probably something that we should discuss before we actually went through with the wedding.”

  Open mouths all around. It was pretty much like I had pulled the pin on a live conversational grenade and lobbed it into the middle of the room. Nobody knew what to say. Nobody probably knew what to do. They were all just staring and staring and then the head shaking started and the whispering and finally I saw my sister frown as though she couldn�
�t believe what I was telling her.

  “Mom told you that?” Lena finally asked as though she needed clarification. “Our mother?”

  What? Was I lying now? Is that what Lena thought? “Do you think I would have just walked away from my wedding and Kevin and everything I thought that I wanted on a whim?”

  “You said you weren’t sure,” Lena whispered. She seemed to be struggling with this new information. “Not sure. That’s what you said. You were young. You were scared. You decided you couldn’t handle it.”

  “I couldn’t handle that my boyfriend was older than I was, obviously more experienced, had a kid with another woman who would be in our lives for good, and had been lying to me for years,” I agreed. “Yeah. I freaked out because I wasn’t sure.”

  Chapter Nine

  Kevin

  “Look, I’m just going to be frank with you.” The name on the employment folder was Owen Phillipson. Owen was smiling at me as though he had just managed to pull a fast one and I hadn’t realized it yet. “My brother Ryan is the writer for the IT column over at Gateway Business Weekly.”

  “And?” I prompted. I was still waiting to hear how this had anything to do with Owen’s employment status, which I’m pretty sure was unemployed. He was the one who had attempted to get Eleanor to somehow intercede for him that first day I’d come to the office. “I fail to see how this has anything to do with your continued employment.”

  “My brother is the one responsible for keeping St. Louis Software Staffing Solutions at the head of the market here in St. Louis,” Owen assured me.

  Wow. I was actually stunned. It was like getting a peek into the mind of a man who still has the mentality of a child. “Funny, but St. Louis Software Staffing Solutions has gone out of business. Haven’t you heard? Mr. Moss sold out to Midwest IT. And I can assure you that Midwest IT already knows that the company at the top of the St. Louis IT staffing market is Gateway IT Staffing. As I recall, your brother Ryan was forced by their CEO to print a retraction recently for some of the false facts he printed up about that company. So pardon me if I’m not all that impressed by your brother.”

  “You have to give me my job back!” Owen suddenly changed tactics. He’d gone from threats to desperate begging in only a few moments. That was not only pathetic, it was a bit frightening. Was this some kind of signal that Owen was going off the deep end? “You don’t understand! I have to have my job back. My wife is pregnant. She’s going to give birth in a few weeks! We need the insurance! I need my salary.”

  What was that horrible sensation down in my gut? Empathy? Surely not. I should have been ready to tell this jerk that if his job was so important, he should have made more of an effort. I should have told him that he was fortunate enough to be offered COBRA benefits and that should cover his wife’s delivery. I should have told him that. I didn’t.

  I felt this horrible urge to help the idiot. But I didn’t want to do it overtly. I wanted to find a way to help him actually better himself. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t really my department. So I cleared my throat and pointed to the door. “Leave. Now. I’ll think about it. I have your phone number. If I find a way to somehow extend you a bit of grace, you’ll be notified. But you should know, you’re going to have to make a hell of a lot more effort at your job than you have been.”

  “Sir?”

  “You’re a lazy ass like pretty much every other person working for this company.” I didn’t pull my punches here. I needed to be honest. Pretending that the lackluster level of work this idiot had been performing was in any way going to help keep him employed wasn’t going to do him any favors. “So if you want to stay employed, you’re going to have to do better than everyone else.”

  It was quite possible that Owen Phillipson’s eyes bulged out at that point. I didn’t know. I waved my hand to send him on his merry way. I didn’t know or care whether or not he was serious about upping his game. I was more concerned with the first item on my list. Was he lying to me? Did the guy actually have a family to support and a pregnant wife? Maybe these administrative assistants who were so incredibly proud of their part of keeping this company running could shed some light on things.

  “Ruth!” I said it loudly, but I probably could have whispered and she would have heard me. She was standing right outside my office door and had probably been listening to the entire conversation in order to relay it to the rest of her coworkers in the break room later today. “Bring me the employment file on Owen Phillipson.”

  “Sir?”

  “Please just get the file,” I groused. It was stupid. These things should have been electronic. Every single thing I needed should have been just one click away. But my desk didn’t even have a computer! Mr. Moss had been a little too old school for that.

  Ruth bustled back to the huge bank of file cabinets sitting between her desk and mine. Moments later she came plowing into my office as though her butt were on fire. Maybe it was. It might have gone a long way toward explaining the fire engine red dress she was wearing today. Honestly. Why did women do this? They dressed as though they were pinups from a bygone era and expected men to think that was incredibly attractive. Ruth looked like she could be working in an office back in the fifties. If women had done such a thing back then.

  “Here you go, sir. Can I help you find something?” Ruth hastily placed the file on my desktop and looked poised ready to leap into action once again.

  “Your administrative staff is responsible for benefits right?”

  Ruth was practically falling all over herself to answer. “Yes, sir!”

  “So get me the benefits statements or something for Owen Phillipson. I want to know if his wife is being treated for pregnancy. I want to know when she’s due. And I want to know what it will cost him to pay for COBRA benefits since he was terminated, at least until his wife has delivered.”

  “Sir?” Ruth squawked the word as if I had just asked her to somehow go to the moon, get me some cheese, and return before lunchtime. “I can’t do that!”

  “Why not?”

  “Benefits are an outside thing. It’s private. I’d have to call the carrier and—” Ruth stopped talking.

  Eleanor Schulte was standing in the doorway behind her. Eleanor’s smirk did not suggest she thought much of Ruth’s abilities, behavior, or general presence in my office. I nodded to Eleanor. She nodded back. We had been cordial since our impromptu lunch. She was an efficient woman. I had to give her credit there. She was handling a lot of things without being told to do anything at all and all of them were helpful.

  “Eleanor,” I said suddenly. “Thank you for contacting the potential new candidates and letting them know that the company is going through a brief period of reorganization. That was good thinking.”

  “I didn’t want to lose them all,” Eleanor murmured with a shrug. “Seems like a bad idea.”

  “Right.” I couldn’t stop staring at her.

  There was something different about Eleanor this morning. It took me a full minute or two to realize that she had left her hair down. It was shoulder length and soft. I remembered that hair very well. The feel of it sifting through my fingers, the scent of it when I lifted a lock to my nose. I remembered a lot of things and right now my chest was getting tight as I wondered why I had been so easily able to put them out of my mind before. It was as if I could not stop thinking about Eleanor when she was here to remind me every second of every day that she was the one who had gotten away.

  “What’s up with your hair?” Ruth asked suddenly.

  I realized that Ruth was staring at Eleanor as though she had two heads. Was it such a big deal? Hair was hair. Right? Was this some strange girl thing that I was unaware of? There was a strange smile on Ruth’s face. She looked as though she had just caught Eleanor with her pants down or something.

  Eleanor only shrugged at Ruth. “I didn’t have enough time this morning to put it up. I was at my sister’s bridal shower last night. It lasted forever.”

  “
Your sister’s bridal shower?” Ruth seemed far more interested in this than she was in the hair. I had to give Eleanor credit for a well played distraction. “Your sister? Isn’t she marrying Damion Alvarez?” Ruth held her breath as though this were a huge revealing moment. “You know, the guy who owns Gateway IT Staffing?”

  To her credit, Eleanor did not outwardly react. She simply stared at Ruth for a moment and then gestured to me. “He already knows that, Ruth. He knows my sister. I have nothing to hide and I cannot imagine why my sister’s marital status or the identity of her fiancé would have anything to do with my job here at Midwest IT.”

  Ruth was actually sputtering. I almost laughed out loud. It was one thing to watch two women get into the proverbial cat fight. It was another thing to watch one woman enter the cat fight with what amounted to a samurai sword. I winked at Eleanor. It was probably highly inappropriate, but I wanted her to know that I saluted her casual and very skillful deflections.

  “And about your questions,” Eleanor continued. She folded her arms over her chest. She was wearing color today. Actual color. The pale pink blouse was very flattering to her delicate skin tone. “I do know that Owen’s wife is pregnant. She’s due in December. Near Christmas. He had already asked me for some comp time to help out at home over the holidays. I would also think that the question about how much COBRA costs would be in the benefits folders that we give out to the new hires. It’s part of the disclosure statement.”

  I snapped my fingers at Ruth. “I want you to go and find one of those disclosures and research that for me until you get an answer.”

  “Yes, sir!” Ruth spun about like a big red top and bolted back out to her desk.

  Eleanor watched her go. “I think you scared her.”

  “No. I think you scared her,” I argued. “You pretty much pelted her pot shots right back at her without batting an eyelash.”

  “She’s a petty gossip. That’s always been the case,” Eleanor told me baldly. “And I don’t like that sort of behavior. Mr. Moss encouraged her. He loved it when she would sit up here and tell tales on the rest of us. Ask her why she never gets invited to the office parties, happy hours, or other events. It’s because she’s the one who will take your picture at the most awkward moment and then show it to the boss.”