by Katie Dowe
She had just taken a shower in the delicate rose and peach bathroom and put on her pajamas when she heard a light knock on the door.
“Come in.”
Leesa came in wearing a champagne-colored silk nightgown and a matching robe, her beautiful face scrubbed of all makeup. “Brad said I should let you get some sleep but he knows I never really listen to him.” She handed a glass of wine to the younger woman and sat on one of the love seats in the room. “How did you enjoy yourself?”
“A lot,” Gina said with an amused expression on her face.
“Good,” she nodded. “I love people sleeping over but the girls you met this evening have their own lives and their own mansions, so it is kind of hard to get them to come over.” She added with a twinkle in her eyes. “My best friends before I got married are now married and living in different states and I miss that.”
“I am sure you are not short of friends.” Gina told her not really knowing what else to say. She liked the beautiful, vivacious woman who somehow reminded her of herself.
“I am not, darling, but I am very picky.” She settled back in the seat and sipped her wine contemplatively. “I was still in high school when I decided that I wanted to be a model and I was determined to be the best one there was. When I decided that I wanted to marry Brad, I concentrated on that. It was very frustrating to him.” She said with a shake of her head. “I spent my life working and traveling, chasing my dreams, but now I am contented to be a wife and a mother. I love my husband and children so much that I get breathless just thinking about them.”
“Is it enough?” Gina asked her fascinated.
“More than enough. I made a ton of money modeling, but it was not as satisfactory as getting up in the mornings and packing lunches and cleaning up dirty cheeks. We have household helpers but I insist on taking care of my children. There are times when I will go into the kitchen and make dinner for them, and we sit down to something prepared by me no matter how simple the fare.” She looked at Gina for a moment. “You remind me of myself, darling, and that is one of the reasons why I am so taken with you. I did not have a sister and I am hoping we can become fast friends or maybe more.”
Gina looked at the older woman in understanding. “I was never much on female companions and I agree with you in terms of money not being everything. I worked for a big accounting firm several years ago and missed out on spending time with my parents. I made the decision not to put something like that over the people I love anymore.”
“I have a feeling we are going to be inseparable.” Leesa told her with a smile.
Chapter 4
“It’s pounding out there!” Gina exclaimed as she took off the soaking wet rain cloak and hung it on the peg just inside the doorway. “Seriously Milton, if it was not the fact that you are my best friend I would go home and soak in a long hot bath and have some herbal tea.”
“But you love me so you make the sacrifice,” he said with a smile as he handed her a cup of hot chocolate. The weather had turned suddenly and with the rain came the chills that was typical for late October.
Gina passed a hand over her damp hair and went to the sofa to have a seat. She had spent the morning and afternoon at the rec center and had seen them getting the spa ready. “Where is the fire?”
“Several invoices outstanding and you know how I am with figures.” He indicated the piles of papers on the table in front of them.
“I have a feeling you are working the eight percent out of me.” She complained as she took up the papers and scanned them quickly.
“You are very astute for a pretty face.” He told her with a grin.
She made a face at him and sifted through the paper, looking at the figures again. “You need to add a little more to the tax figure Milton. The IRS does not joke when it comes to collecting their money.”
“That’s why I need you,” he said lightly. “I made a pot of beef stew, so when you are finished compiling figures we can eat.”
“That sounds good.” She said without looking up. She did not see the longing in his eyes or the way he looked at the blouse clinging to her curves. Milton hesitated a moment and then he quietly went away to do some work he had not finished with yet.
It was the next half an hour before she was finished and went find him. It was approaching six o’clock but she knew he hated to eat alone. She had called her dad and let him know she would not be home for dinner. Leesa had called her and they had chatted for a few minutes. She promised to meet her for lunch tomorrow afternoon. Mondays were her busiest days and she tended to give the people at the rec center her all.
“Can you come up for a breather?” she was bearing a tray with two bowls of steaming stew and glasses of juice.
“To eat?” he looked up and moved to the table in the corner of the room. He usually spent most of his time in his work area so he had set up a table for him to eat right there. “Of course.” He waited until she was seated before he started to eat and while they ate she told him about her visit to Leesa’s place.
“So you are now moving into the circles of the rich and famous?” his voice had a tinge of bitterness that he could not quite hide.
Gina looked at him with her brows raised and he looked down into his bowl after a moment. “That was uncalled for.”
“I guess soon I will not be seeing you.”
“Milton, quit it please! I am entitled to have more than one friend. I was invited by her and I went and actually spent the night in a lovely rose and peach room and we talked. I don’t have female friends as you well know but I happen to like these women and I am going to be seeing a lot of them, especially Leesa, so deal with it!”
They stared at each other for a moment and then he looked away. “I am sorry,” he muttered playing in his stew. “I guess I am a little jealous and possessive of what we have.”
“Do you think so little of me that you believe that I am going to throw you away for some rich female?” she asked him softly reaching out to touch his hand briefly.
He looked at her and his heart ached for something more than what she was offering. “I guess not.” He told her lightly. “So tell me about the showpiece I have read about in the papers.”
******
Paul went through her stuff. He had given away most of her things that had been at the manor but he had kept a few mementos that he had taken to the apartment with him. He opened the white cardboard box and sat on the edge of the bed and sifted through them. He had not done so in a long time because frankly he had not felt the need, but he had come back from the party at Leesa’s place and he kept seeing Gina Philips before him. He had come back late the night and had had a very hard time going to sleep because he kept seeing her. He had watched her when she was not looking and seen her quick laugh that lit up an already exquisite face and the way she seemed to get along with everyone. She had not gone into the pool like the rest but had played ball with the kids and they all crowded around her. She would make a great mother; the thought had come unbidden at the time. He had watched her as she ate, and at one point their eyes had met and held and he had forgotten what he was saying to Jeremy. Now he felt as if he was betraying the memory of his dead wife, so he was trying to remind himself what it had been like with her. He picked up a cameo brooch that had been a favorite of hers that she had inherited from an aunt and closed his eyes trying to bring back her scent and her face to mind but he kept smelling the elusive exotic scent he had smelled on Gina and kept seeing how her thick natural hair made such a striking contrast against her coffee and cream complexion. “Linda,” he called her name out loud as if doing that could erase Gina from his sub consciousness. He burrowed through the box and took out a scarf that she had loved to wear. It was silk with two shades of blue and he had brought it for her when they had gone to Paris one weekend. He remembered telling her that he could afford to buy her more than just a scarf, but she had refused saying that she did not need a lot of things. “I just need you.” She had told him quietly. H
e had been ashamed that he could not have said the same to her but he needed more. He put back the things and went to his office, intending to use work to get the things he was thinking off his mind.
*****
“Lobster quiche for me Leon,” Leesa told the Maître D’ with a smile.
“And for you miss?” he asked Gina politely. Gina scanned the menu quickly and decided on the shrimp. The place was discreetly exclusive and she caught a glimpse of several faces she had seen in the papers.
“So darling, I know that you used to work in the big city as an account executive and you came back home to take care of your mother and be with her. Is it not a big switch from what you were used to?” Leesa asked her speculatively.
Gina sipped her Perrier appreciatively and savored the taste of it. “Sometimes,” she told her honestly. “I look around at restaurants like this and remembered wining and dining potential clients and having the firm foot the bill, but as I told you before I am at peace and that is what I need most right now.”
Leesa nodded eyeing the girl speculatively. “You are quite an enigma. I have noticed you both times when you were at functions and I have a thing about clothes. Brad threatened me that if he sees another new outfit he is going to throw me out of our suite,” she said with a tinkling laugh. “As I said I have a love affair with fashion and that outfit you were wearing was obviously a Dior, and the combination was quite extraordinary! The suit you wore to the garden party last Saturday was by a hot new designer and now you are wearing this old washed out denims and faded blouse. What’s the story?”
Gina looked down at her outfit in surprise. She had grabbed the first thing she had laid her hands on, totally forgetting that she was having lunch with Leesa. “Oops!” she exclaimed with an unrepentant laugh. “I had a lot of clothes when I was on my own. I had to dress the part for the position I held and I bought clothes like crazy! I gave away some of them when I decided to leave and kept some with me. I do not go out much, but when I do I like to look fine. I am a single black woman and I like to look good when I am going out. Not necessarily to catch some man’s eyes but just to look good for the sake of looking good. Besides, I work with the elderly and as much as George, a ninety-year-old man, told me he wanted to marry me last week, I know they can hardly see what’s in front of them.”
Leesa laughed in delight, absolutely liking the girl even more. “My kids think you are as beautiful as I am and that is saying a lot. They happen to think that their mother is the most beautiful woman in the world.”
“Of course,” It was Gina’s time to laugh.
“So what about love?”
“What about it?”
“If you come in contact with anyone who knows me they will tell you I am a romantic at heart and I love it when people are matched correctly. No man you are interested in?”
For a moment, Gina thought about telling her what she felt when Paul Brady looked at her but that he shrugged it off. She had no idea what it was herself, so she had no intention of sharing it with whom was still a stranger. “Not right now. I am afraid I am looking for something extraordinary, like what I see you and the other girls have.”
“Keep holding out for that darling. It is something worth waiting for.”
******
“What can I do for you Brenda?” Paul asked her politely as he indicated that she took a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Brenda Whyte was his wife’s sister and had been married twice, the last time to a drunken loser who did not want to work. She was as different to Linda as night to day. Linda had been fair with blue eyes and she had dark hair and brown eyes. Not only that, but whereas Linda had been gentle and giving, Brenda was selfish and grasping. Paul had only tolerated her because he had been married to her sister. She had tried to come on to him one time when they had just gotten married but he had told her that he was not interested.
“I need money,” she saw the look on his face and hastened to say. “It is not for me; it is for the children. Rohan is laid up in bed with a bad back and the children need to go to school. You know how Linda always takes care of her niece and nephew when she was alive.”
He opened his mouth to tell her that he was not obligated to give her anything because the obligation died when Linda died, but for some reason he did not say it. Linda had been a pushover for her sister and the entire family had taken her for a meal ticket because she had married a man with money.
“How much?” he asked her tightly.
Brenda clasped her hands together and peered at him beneath her lashes. She had often wondered what a man like Paul Brady saw in her pale, washed-out sister and had bemoaned the fact that she had ended up with a man who was not worth the shirt he had on his back, while her sister ended up with a handsome billionaire!
“I was thinking about ten thousand,” she saw the tightening of his lips and the forbidding expression on his face. “Or it could be less.”
“I am giving you the ten thousand dollars and I do not expect you to come back here looking for more. Both you and your husband should go find something to do in order to take care of the children you have.” He wrote the amount on the check quickly and came over and handed it to her. “You need to set better examples for your children.”
“We are family–” she began as she took the check from him.
“We are not,” he interrupted her. “I was married to your sister not to you and that relationship ended when she died.”
Brenda stood there looking at him for a moment and then without a word she turned and left his office. Paul pushed weary fingers through his blue black hair and slumped against his desk. He was tired, both emotionally and physically and he needed a break. He had been pulling his emotions in for too long and now he was at a breaking point. And besides that he had been thinking about Gina Phillips quite a lot. He kept seeing her when he closed his eyes and he had no idea what that meant.
“Paul, I have Gina Phillips on the line.” His secretary Doreen’s voice came over the intercom. He stared at the instrument in amazement as if he expected to see her coming through it.
“Paul?”
“Put her through.”
“Ms. Phillips?”
“I hope I have not caught you at a bad time.” Her voice was husky and he had noticed that at the beginning when he had first met her. “The rec center is having a function to commemorate the additions to the place on Friday afternoon and since we have you to thank for the center still being there I figure it was only right to invite you. It will be just some hors d’oeuvres and lively music, but I can assure you it will be fun.”
“What time?” he heard himself saying.
“Around four. These people are elderly so they like to go home early.”
“I will try and make it.”
“Looking forward to seeing you.”
“Thank you.” He said before hanging up.
Of course he could not go! He thought agitatedly. It would mean being up close and personal with her and he could not have that! He pressed the intercom. “Doreen, what do I have on for Friday?”
“You have the building commission to meet with and the contractors. After that you are free.”
“Thank you.” He went to look out his window. He was free but was he? Was he free to love again? Or was it too soon for him? Why did he feel this way about her when he had just met her briefly? With a sigh, he went back to work and tried to block her out of his mind.
*****
Gina had just finished putting the punch bowl onto the table and was about to change the tone of the music when she saw him standing hesitantly in the doorway. She had looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was four-thirty and had decided he was not going to show. With a smile lighting up her face, she hurried towards him. “You came,” she murmured as she stood in front of him.
“Yes,” his slate grey eyes wandered over her face and he felt the familiar stirrings inside him. She was wearing faded denims and a light green cashmere sweater.
Her hair was braided and twisted on top of her head and she had on some ridiculously dangling green earrings in her lobes. She was exquisite and he wanted her! He felt the punch in his stomach at the thought in his head and almost ran from the room. “I see you have already started,” he forced himself to look away from her and around the room.
“I told you with these people it’s early start and on time finish. We promise them we would let them get out of here by six at the latest.” She took his hand. “Come on, let me introduce you.”
He was introduced to all of them who thanked him effusively and told him that he was a saint. Miriam Brightly, the owner, insisted on showing him the newly made spa and the various renovations that his contribution had made possible. After that, he watched as she danced with some of the old men and saw as she laughed at some things they said to her. They loved her and that much he could see!
He was drinking some punch when she came over and flopped down beside him. “I think I am officially all danced out.” She said fanning her face. “I think Gladys over there would like to dance with you.” She told him with a teasing smile. He looked over to where a white haired woman with pale blue eyes sat looking over at them. “She says you look hot. I swear those were her exact words.”
“I believe you,” he said laughing with her.
“This is the first time I have seen you laugh,” she said in wonder as she stared at his beautiful white teeth against his dark face. “You should do it more often.”
Before he could say anything, she pulled him up and onto the dance floor. “I am taking the first dance and then you can go ahead and make Gladys’ night.”