By Candlelight

by Janelle Taylor

  I fainted in front of your parents when I learned about your fiancée and suffered the embarrassment of having “Mom and Dad” drive me home. But you don’t know that, do you? And you wouldn’t care anyway…

  “Well, I’ll see you at the audition on Tuesday,” Jake said to April, throwing several bills on the table and abruptly standing up. It was as if he suddenly could no longer stand their company. “It was nice seeing you again, Katie. Nice meeting you, April.”

  He strode away before either of them could respond with more than a murmur of goodbye.

  “What the heck was that all about?” April demanded as soon as he was gone. “‘Katie.’ He called you ‘Katie.’ Were you friends?”

  “Acquaintances.”

  “You really made him uncomfortable!”

  “I did?”

  “Yeah, and you were white as a ghost. Something’s weird here.” April gave her mother a look that said, “You’d better come clean before I jump to my own conclusions.”

  “We—dated a little,” Kate admitted, giving April just enough of the truth to appease her.

  “Really?” She smiled hugely. “I get it. Still got a few feelings left, huh?”

  “Not a chance!”

  “I think she doth protest too much.”

  Kate rushed in, “It was over seventeen years ago. A few dates. Big deal. Don’t start with me.”

  “Okay, okay.” April lifted her palms in surrender. “It just looks like I’ve hit a hot button, that’s all.”

  “I’m just tired of being the speculation of everyone’s romantic thoughts,” Kate muttered grouchily.

  “Oh, my God!”

  Kate half rose from her chair, glancing around for whatever new calamity was coming their way. “What?”

  April held several bills in her hand. The money Jake had dropped on the table. “These are all fifties,” she whispered. “There’s over two hundred dollars here!”

  Kate stared at the money. Emotion fired through her, hurt and anger and humiliation. Damn him! He thought he could buy himself out of guilt even after all these years.

  I would rather chew off my leg than be beholden to a Talbot, she thought grimly.

  Snatching up her purse, Kate bit out, “Leave it for a tip,” then pushed back her chair and left before her astonished daughter could voice another thought.

  Chapter Three

  Jake stepped outside Geno’s and gulped air, clearing the light-headedness that had hit him like a hammer. Night had fallen in a soft, dark curtain without his even seeing it. A breeze lifted his hair and fanned his face as he crossed the slate path to the parking lot. A grape arbor, loaded with purple fruit, hung over the trellis that guarded the entrance. Jake’s shoulder brushed a clump of grapes, and they fell and rolled in front of his feet as he headed toward his black Bronco.

  He felt sick. Dragging more air into his lungs, he tried hard to get his bearings.

  Katie! My God. After all these years and with a gorgeous grown-up daughter!

  He wanted to die. It was all he could do to make it to the Bronco. Fiddling with his remote entry, he realized his hands were trembling. With a groan he slumped a hip against the fender. He felt empty and used up.

  Katie Tindel! No, Kate Rose. And April Rose.

  There was something achingly familiar about April. Kate, at a young age. Seventeen and in love. Jake’s memories were thorn sharp.

  He shook his head in bewilderment. After all these years and boom! There she was.

  Phillip had taken him completely by surprise. Jake, who had known of Rose Talent Agency because Katie had married the owner, had been bowled over when Phillip announced, “I’ve found the spokesperson for Talbot Industries. She’s the daughter of Kate Rose, you know, Ben Rose of Rose Talent Agency’s widow. She’s perfect. Absolutely. You need look no further, brother. April Rose is it.”

  “What?”

  Phillip was enthused. “I’m telling you, she’s the one. And I think the lady knows you. She said something like it. I don’t know. But wait till you see her daughter. Man, oh, man. If I were ten years younger!”

  “You mean twenty,” Jake said repressively, absorbing the information with alarm.

  “Yeah, I guess.” Phillip was unconcerned. His taste in women wasn’t limited to age, color or creed. He was an equal opportunity womanizer in Jake’s biased opinion. “Anyway, you just wait. She’s the one, I’m telling you.”

  Kate Rose’s daughter. Katie’s daughter. Ben Rose’s daughter. Jealousy rose like a green monster, blinding Jake, reminding him of those heart-tearing moments following the truth about why Katie hadn’t written him while he was away.

  “She’s married,” his mother had baldly announced. “She married for money, just like she wanted to do with you.”

  “You’re lying!” he had gasped.

  “No.” Marilyn Talbot was positive, and the fact that she wasn’t reveling in the information was what convinced Jake she had spoken the truth. His mother had been clear that she had wanted Katie Tindel out of his life, yet she had enough motherly empathy to reveal the news without relish. She hadn’t enjoyed it because she had known it would hurt.

  And it had hurt. He had been unable to think. It was an effort to even breathe. He had come home from that blasted summer in Europe in a fury at his parents for lining up such an itinerary. What had started out as a three-week tour had turned into a lengthy stay with distant relatives and a “romance” with the daughter of some friends of his parents who lived on the east coast.

  But it had been too late. Katie was gone and all he had were memories of her and the frustration of his expected engagement to Celia Cummings to fall back on. He had met Celia once or twice when he was a kid; he hadn’t known she was part of the summer package. At first Celia was interested in the arrangement. Apparently she had been privy to the plans made by both sets of parents. But when she realized Jake’s heart wasn’t in it, she quickly became interested in a variety of suitors and turned to Jake as her surrogate big brother. He spent the entire time disentangling her from one rotten affair after another. He wrote Katie constantly, but it was as if he were sending messages in a bottle that bobbed endlessly and uselessly on the waves, never reaching a destination.

  Celia ended up falling for an Italian lothario who called her bella and promised passion and adoration and endless love. When she learned he was married, she threw herself in Jake’s arms and begged him to tell her parents that they were engaged since she suspected she was pregnant.

  Fed up with the whole thing Jake finally took charge and told Celia’s parents the truth. In fact, she wasn’t pregnant, and Jake’s interference was suddenly seen by Celia as a major betrayal! By the time Jake got back to the States, he was sick of the whole thing. Anxious, worried and about as eager as one human being can be to see another, he came home in search of Katie.

  And then his mother dropped the bomb.

  “I may have made a mistake,” Marilyn admitted, looking unusually contrite. “I should have given her your address.”

  “You didn’t give her my address?” Jake gaped at his mother, too stunned to feel real anger. That would come later. “You told me you did!”

  “Well, I meant to,” Marilyn excused herself, signaling to his father, who was staring into the cold ashes left over from the previous winter’s fires. “But, we knew she was wrong for you. Right, Phillip?”

  “That is correct,” Jake’s father said in his clipped diction.

  “You’re not serious! You didn’t make this decision for me! I’m eighteen years old, damn it! You can’t do this!”

  “Don’t swear at your mother.” Phillip was terse.

  Jake felt like running through every curse word he knew. He had to fight himself to stay in control. This was what had sent his brother spiraling into irresponsibility. He wasn’t about to do the same. “I don’t believe you did this. I love Kate, and I’m going to see her.”

  With that he headed for the door, with only a vague idea of how to
find her. Kate had made it clear she wasn’t living with her mom and dad a day later than she had to; the truth was, they were anxious to be rid of her as parental responsibility was way down the list of the Tindels’ priorities. He knew Kate had probably taken off directly after graduation, but the only way to find her was to check with them.

  “Wait!” his mother called as he headed for the door.

  “Jacob, get back here!” Phillip ordered.

  “You said you may have made a mistake,” he bit out over his shoulder. “You sure as hell did.”

  “Jacob, she’s married!” Marilyn cried.

  His steps slowed but didn’t stop. He ran onto the front porch, his ears ringing. With no clear idea of which way to go, he jumped into his convertible and raced into town, cruising the main streets, lost. Kate’s parents’ house was a rental several blocks away from the main street, yet he couldn’t make himself stop there.

  Eventually he pulled up to the curb a block away, gathering courage. He had never been a man who couldn’t face challenges; exactly the opposite! But thinking Kate was married was more than he could bear.

  He didn’t believe it. It couldn’t be true.

  With lead weights seeming to anchor his feet, Jake crossed the weed-choked walk that led to Kate’s parents’ front door. He knocked loudly, over and over again. When a bleary-eyed man with three-days’ growth of beard appeared, yawning and squinting against the daylight, Jake swallowed and asked, “Are you Mr. Tindel?”

  “Who’s asking?”

  “I’m Jacob Talbot. I graduated with your daughter.”

  He snorted and gave Jake the once-over. Jake was used to people in Lakehaven reacting to the Talbot name, but Katie’s dad didn’t seem to care. In fact, that appeared to be his defining characteristic: he didn’t care about anything.

  “Kate’s gone. Got married off to some guy with money. Hell, he’s damn near as old as I am!” That choked a laugh out of him. “She always was ambitious, our Katie.”

  “Do you know the man’s name?” Jake asked, feeling as if he were being pulled out of the picture, far, far away. Everything was distant and unreal.

  “Rose. Uh…Mr. Rose. Don’t know his first name. Owns a business in Portland with models.” He barked another laugh. “Kate worked for him and now they’re married. Got herself knocked up by him, and I guess he had to do the duty!”

  This was more information than Jake needed. Reeling, he left without saying goodbye. He couldn’t remember the drive home, but when he saw his parents waiting for him in the living room, he staggered down a different hall, ending in the laundry room where Darcy, the daily help, looked on in dismay as he lost his breakfast in the sink.

  That was the last foolish thing he did over Kate Tindel Rose.

  Oh, he had done other foolish things, he reminded himself a bit harshly as he straightened from the fender. Lots of foolish things. Leaning his head back, he stared up at the black heavens pinpointed with billions of stars. After all, he had married Celia, hadn’t he? Married and divorced her within eighteen months.

  Now there was something to celebrate.

  Climbing behind the wheel, Jake snorted in derision at the mistakes of his youth. He had headed for college after that dismal summer. Harvard, like his father and mother wanted. Majored in business. Took to school as if it were a battle to not only be won, but won at all costs. No mercy. No thought for anything else. His determined study habits decimated the curve in classes that relied on it. He provoked instructors to challenge him, then met the challenge. College wasn’t an education; it was a test, a war. And he wanted to annihilate the opponent.

  He burned through women, too. Relationships were quick and even more quickly forgotten. His brother’s reputation as a womanizer was undeserved when you took into account Jake’s ruthless pursuit of the ladies. He didn’t care. Not at all. And in his second year of graduate school Celia came to rescue him and breathe a bit of humanity into his empty soul.

  And Jake was starving for love; he could admit that now. He buried his head in the comfort of Celia’s soft breasts and let her caress and embrace him. She was already through two marriages, but that didn’t stop him. He married her, though his parents were now less than thrilled at his choice; our Celia hadn’t performed with decorum over the years.

  But that made Jake happy. Screw them all. He didn’t give a damn. He actually toyed with the idea, in those heady days, of chucking the whole Talbot Industries job ladder and running off in his brother’s reckless footsteps.

  But Jake was too practical, deep inside, and once he was finished with his Master’s and actually looking for employment, saddled with a wife whom he didn’t really love who was interested in starting a dynasty of children, he woke up from his deep coma of misery and took a long look.

  He didn’t like what he saw.

  Telling Celia he wasn’t interested in having children sent her screaming into the arms of a younger man—a twenty-year-old with shoulder-length hair, soulful brown eyes and pectorals that made even Jake take a second look. Celia’s “boy toy” promptly got her pregnant. She divorced Jake, married him, had a baby girl and lived off her family’s money till Boy-Toy headed for greener pastures.

  Jake bought himself a high-rise condominium in downtown Portland, started in the family business and discovered, to his amazement, that he had an aptitude and interest in it. His parents breathed a collective sigh of relief that their younger son was back on track, and Jacob Talbot skyrocketed through the ranks to take over the helm when his father bowed out in early May of this year.

  So, here he was, running a mini-empire, seeking to keep his brother gainfully employed and his parents happy, and that was all he really asked. Everything had been going fine, too. He had even started dating a woman recently who worked for a local advertising agency which handled Talbot Industries’ commercials.

  How ironic that Phillip, in a quest to act responsibly, had taken on the duty of finding the perfect spokesperson for the company’s latest series of commercials. This was normally the ad agency’s job, but Phillip had, for no apparent reason, taken an instant dislike to Jake’s new date, Sandra, and suggested he himself search out some talent for the shoot. And then he had found April Rose, Katie’s daughter!

  Life was an endless circle.

  As soon as Jake had made the connection, he had driven like a maniac to Geno’s to confront Katie Tindel Rose himself. He’d had visions of storming in and telling her to get her conniving hooks out of his business. She might have succeeded in bamboozling old Benjamin Rose, but her tricks wouldn’t work on him anymore. No, sir.

  But then he had seen her and memory did a number on him. Suddenly he was a tongue-tied, lovestruck, moronic teenager with big, hang-dog eyes and a wagging tail. He could scarcely move, and now he wasn’t certain if he had made a whole lot of sense. He’d had to concentrate on Katie’s daughter to keep any degree of balance at all!

  And what a beauty she had been. Fresh, insouciant, yet sweet and intelligent. Man, oh, man. Kate might be a gold digger with ambitions, but she had turned out one pretty nice daughter, Jake reluctantly conceded. April Rose was instantly likeable and memorable, and he understood completely why Phillip had chosen her.

  So, now what? he asked himself as he drove to his condo, the lazy Willamette flowing by, glimpsed through stands of firs and houses crouched on the cliffs above the river. What was he going to do about Kate’s lovely daughter? And where did that leave him with Kate herself?

  Growling in frustration Jake turned into the underground lot, strode to the elevator, punched the up button and waited impatiently for the lift to come down to his level.

  What he really needed was a stiff drink, he decided as the elevator sped upward, the doors opening with a soft ding as he reached the eleventh floor.

  “Should I be upset that I was forgotten?” a voice greeted him as he stepped into the plush, gray-carpeted hallway.

  Sandra Galloway stood outside Jake’s door. With an inner groan, Jak
e remembered they’d had a date. “I’m sorry. Something happened…,” he apologized lamely.

  “I was just about ready to give up.”

  “You haven’t been standing out here the whole time, have you?” Jake felt terrible. He was over an hour late, at least.

  “No, this is my first trip. I called a few times, but your answering machine isn’t working. I just slipped a note under the door and was heading over to Piper’s Landing.”

  “Give me ten minutes,” Jake said with forced heartiness. The last thing he wanted was to see Sandra right now.

  She followed him inside the condo, perching on the edge of a smooth black chair while he headed for the bedroom. He carried her image with him as he stripped off his jacket. Dark, petite and carefully groomed, Sandra projected the perfect image of a ‘90s businesswoman, at least to Jake’s mind. Her brown eyes were watchful, her makeup so understated that only if you were “up close and personal,” as Jake had been a few times, could you tell how beautifully and precisely it was applied. Her features were small, her body so trim it was almost sharp. Her quick wit was what had first interested him, but now, with the memory of Kate’s smooth, softer curves and girl-nextdoor appeal still fresh, he couldn’t find anything about her that he wanted to see again.

  You’re a bastard, he told himself, shocked that he could be so fickle. Things had just started getting interesting with Sandra. It bugged him that one quick collision with Kate Rose could destroy what he had with Sandra so quickly.

  Maybe those days of his college affairs weren’t quite past after all.

  Piper’s Landing was the seafood restaurant a parking lot away from his condominium complex, and Jake squired Sandra inside while he continually berated himself. Almost because he was losing interest he tried harder, hanging on Sandra’s every word as she sat across a small table in front of the window. Blue-and-white-striped awnings hovered over the windows as the Willamette River sailed by slowly in the darkness beyond.

  “So, I told them they’d have to come up with something better than ‘It’s where to go.’ I mean, come on. What kind of advertisement is that?” Sandra complained. “It could be anything! I wouldn’t want to go to a restaurant with that motto.”