by Mary Andrews
inside!” Hugh yelled from the back door. “It’s too cold to be out there for long. They’re saying it’s going to snow tonight!” Stephanie stopped her pacing. She loved snow, and she usually knew when it was supposed to snow. Since the suspension the day before, everything was out of whack. Stephanie felt tears forming, and tried to regain control of her emotions. She forced herself to walk back toward the house.
“What’s going on?” Jack appeared behind Hugh in the doorway.
“Holly has upset Stephanie, and she escaped outside,” Hugh replied. “But it’s getting really cold.”
“Man, is it too cold to walk home? We didn’t drive, but I’m not sure Mother is ready to go home yet.”
“I can give you a ride home,” Stephanie said as she reached the two men. “We can go whenever your mother is ready. There’s no hurry, snow or no snow. Let her enjoy the visit.” She glanced at Jack, and quickly looked away from his intense gaze.
“Are you sure?” Jack asked. “Someone else can drive us. It’s not far. Maybe you should stay here until after the snowstorm, and go home tomorrow.”
Hugh took Stephanie by the hand and closed the door behind her. “Jack is right. You can stay in the guest room tonight.” Hugh rubbed her hands, and offered Stephanie hot tea to warm up. “Let me take care of you,” he said. “That sister of mine is not thinking clearly, and she should not have upset you further on Thanksgiving! Come sit by the fire and I’ll bring you the tea.”
“I’m fine, Hugh, really,” Stephanie tried to object. “We just deal with problems differently, that’s all. I should know this by now, and not let it get to me.” The three of them walked back to the living room, where a robust fire was burning in the fireplace.
“I’ll let my parents know you are staying the night,” Hugh said as he left to get tea from the kitchen. Stephanie stood in front of the fire, letting it warm her hands. She felt more like herself again, vowing to push Holly and her decisions to the back of her mind. She felt Jack behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Are you really okay?” he asked quietly. “Do you want to tell me about the accusation at work? I know in general what happened, but I’d like to hear it from you. I may be able to help, since I’m involved in investigations for a living.” Stephanie liked the feel of his strong hands, and stood still. Jack was a compact man with large hands, and he exuded strength as well as confidence.
“I thought you worked in insurance,” Stephanie replied.
“Insurance investigations, mostly, but we do other types, too.” Stephanie turned around and looked at him. Jack’s hands dropped. In her heels, Stephanie was almost as tall as him. She looked straight at him now, and his eyes held concern. ”I want to help, if you’ll let me. We could meet with your supervisor on Monday, and if you decide I could be of help, you could hire me to work on your behalf.”
“Are you serious? Do you think you could find out who actually sent the wire?”
“If I was given access to the bank’s servers, I believe I can find out everything.”
“I don’t know what to say, Jack,” Stephanie felt a wave of relief. Someone was on her side. She was close to him, almost leaning toward him, and Jack placed his hands at her waist. “Thank you for the offer! I just don’t know if my employer would allow anyone outside the bank access. And, I don’t even know if I could afford your services.”
“Your employer may have to allow it, but we’ll find out. And I can do it pro bono, for nothing. Consider it a favor, since you’re my mother’s friend, and my neighbors’ friend, and maybe my friend?” There seemed to be a question there, and somehow Stephanie’s hands were now on Jack’s chest, fingering the lapels of his suit jacket.
“I can see us being friends, especially if you’re anything like your mother. I’ll text my supervisor Laticia tomorrow about setting up a meeting.”
“Just friends?” Jack looked at her boldly. “This after I confessed there’s no girlfriend in the picture. I suppose you have something going on with Hugh?”
“What exactly are you asking me, Jack?”
“Alright, are you seeing someone? I want to help you with the investigation, but I was also hoping to take you out after it’s over.”
“I’m not dating anyone,” Stephanie answered, “but I am surprised, since you didn’t even notice me at Olive Garden.”
“Stephanie, I’ve wanted to ask you since last Thanksgiving, and you are the only reason I came again this year. Simply put, I was too embarrassed to get your number from my mother, so I just hoped you’d show up today.”
“Oh, Jack, that’s hard to believe. Your mother says you are in constant demand by various women, and although I like you, I don’t want to be added to your list.”
“Don’t listen to what my mother says or thinks. She doesn’t know everything.” They heard Hugh approaching, and Jack pulled away from her.
“So asking me out is not just because I’m upset, and you believe you can make any woman feel better? “
“No, I like you, too. Maybe there’s a little wanting to make you feel better, since I am good at that.”
“Yes, he’s always wanting to rescue the maidens, our Jack,” Hugh commented as he entered with the tea tray, “but he has a good heart.” Hugh smiled at both of them. “Sit, have some tea, and then come join us.”
“Thank you, Hugh,” Stephanie said as Hugh left again. He waved off her thanks. As soon as Hugh was out of the room, Jack pulled Stephanie back into his arms.
“What about the tea?” she asked. “You realize I’m still in a fragile emotional state and need my tea.”
“Are you making fun of me?” Jack’s eyes narrowed at her. “Rescued maidens, fragile emotions, I can’t tell if you’re laughing at me.”
“Maybe a little,” she replied, and felt him pulling her closer. “We have to be able to laugh at ourselves, don’t we?” Jack’s lips touched Stephanie below her ear, and she involuntarily reacted.
“Oh, this could be our payment arrangement for my services,” Jack’s eyes were disappearing again as he smiled widely at her. “It seems you liked that.” He placed his mouth back below her ear, and then moved it along her jaw line toward her chin.
“Now you are taking advantage of my fragile emotional state.”
“You bet I am. I don’t deny it,” Jack continued to kiss her throat. Stephanie’s heart skipped a beat, but she tried to break the embrace. Jack wrapped his arms tighter around her. “The tea can wait,” he murmured.
In an instant, his mouth found hers. Jack kissed her with surprising tenderness, moving from one side of her mouth to the other, and gently pulling at her lower lip. Stephanie didn’t want the kiss to end, and was almost mad at herself for this reaction. It seemed too fast for such intense kissing. She pulled away from Jack and went to pour the tea.
2.
The meeting on Monday was scheduled for 2:00 pm, but Jack and Stephanie had to wait another half hour for the others to assemble in the conference room. Stephanie found it surreal to be in the same office that had been her second home for the past seven years, under circumstances she had never encountered before.
The VP for her division, Robert Clifford, laid out the facts surrounding the wire in stark detail. Stephanie felt her anger rise. She’d been put in a position to defend herself against unjust accusations. She was starting to understand why Holly did not want to return to work at all. Whenever the anger would rise in her, Stephanie felt Jack place his hand on her back to calm her. He had told her before the meeting that they needed to listen more than talk. The point was to gather all available information, and then they’d come up with a plan of attack afterward.
“The board voted this morning not to take this matter to the outside authorities at this time,” Mr. Clifford said. “Since the amount of the wire is less than a million dollars, we’ve decided to handle the matter internally. We will find out who s
ent the wire and where the funds ended up, and then we’ll decide whether to bring charges. Some of that depends on whether we can recoup the loss.”
Robert Clifford was slightly red in the face and kept looking at Laticia Jackson, Stephanie’s supervisor. His voice rose in volume, “Our compliance division will work with Ms. Bell’s investigator to get to the bottom of what happened. And believe me when I tell you, we will find out exactly what happened. We must revise our procedures if there was some defect that allowed this fraudulent activity to take place. I expect full cooperation by all involved parties!” Mr. Clifford looked straight at Stephanie, and then returned to Laticia. “Ms. Jackson, I will speak with you privately now.” Everyone else filed out of the room.
“I need to ask you and Laticia some more questions to understand everything,” Jack said to Stephanie as they waited for Laticia in her office. “The steps are not quite clear to me yet, or who is responsible for which steps of the process.”
“One thing is for certain,” Laticia spoke as she entered her office and sat facing Jack and Stephanie, “the reason for no authorities now is nothing else but to avoid bad publicity. The amount of the wire has very little to do with it. They are willing to eat this loss as long as no one in the media finds out someone stole half a million dollars from this office.”
“I can imagine customers