“Absolutely, sir,” Roman repeated, this time glancing at Jan. The concern on her face pained him. He held out a hand to her, relieved when she took it and her expression softened.
The General nodded briskly and opened his phone. “You guys call Tess and Madeline. I’ll update Pete. We’ve got three days before Sidney’s memorial, followed by Cliff’s. Lots to be done for both and too little time to do it, especially while we’re watching each others’ backs.”
Roman’s mind was a maelstrom of emotions. On the one hand, he wished the week were over, so Jan could be safe. But the end of the week also signaled the end of his time with her. He visualized his normal schedule, packed with short stints writing in Santa Barbara intermixed with longer stays in LA and New York where he prepared his scripts for television. Each new project brought extra complications into his life, but the bottom line was he’d lived out of a suitcase for the majority of his career.
When Jan tightened her grip on his hand, the gesture made his heart ache. It was true, he was a short timer, and for the first time he hated owning up to it.
****
“We stay together, dammit,” the General commanded from the rear seat of the Beemer, growling the words.
“But I don’t have a bed for you, Dad. Roman’s got his little blow-up bed and I’ve got the couch. I will not have you sleeping on the floor. Your back…”
“I could go bunk with Bella, if that would help,” Roman offered.
Jan huffed. “Dad can not sleep on your blow-up bed, Roman. Period.”
“Beds. Christ on a crutch,” the General muttered. “How did I raise a daughter with an aversion to beds? Might as well be a four letter word to you, girl.”
Roman chuckled, but turned his laughter to a throat clearing when Jan glared at him.
The last thing Jan had expected was for the two men to share a joke together. The idea pleased her even as she pretended irritation. “Today Bella and I planned furniture for all the major rooms. I’ve told her what I want for the bedrooms…” she fumbled for a time frame. “Uh…I’ll buy that furniture soon…after the living room, dining room, and study are finished.”
“Aversion to beds,” the General reiterated.
“Do they have therapists who specialize in bed issues?” Roman asked, keeping his eyes on the road.
The General guffawed.
“That’s enough, you two. I’ve got a plan. Dad, how about you watch over Bella for the next few nights, until my beds arrive. Roman said he slept okay on the blow-up bed. He’ll likely make it through a couple more nights,” she said, giving him a look that said he didn’t deserve better.
Roman laughed. The General mumbled, “If the beds arrive.”
Jan ignored him. “If Bella and her sister haven’t eaten, we’ll order in some food. You know how she likes a party.”
Roman reached over and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Bella will make us gin and tonics and we’ll drink to Sidney. After we eat, we’ll do a little work on the memorial to make her happy. Then we surprise Tess with a visit to her house.”
Mentally, Jan added one more evening event. Roman had promised “a talk” tonight, to finish the conversation about “them.” True, she wanted to hear what he had to say. Yet, after watching his smooth manipulation of people in interviews all day, she wondered if she’d ever be able to determine when he was sincere. Plus, it was differing opinions of what constituted a relationship that had spoiled what she had with Frank. She wasn’t even in a relationship with Roman. She barely knew the man. Couldn’t she enjoy their time together without strings? What if they indulged in a pleasant necking session instead?
But just that…a little harmless necking.
As they turned onto her street, Jan’s spirits lifted. What woman wouldn’t enjoy kissing Roman Keller? And she liked the idea of Roman and her father sharing a joke, even if she was the brunt of it this time. What’s more, she looked forward to making Bella happy by eating dinner with her and oohing and aahing over Bella’s “desecration” plans for Jan’s home.
A warning bell pulsed in her head. She might be getting too involved in these people’s lives when she’d promised herself she was leaving the event planning business. Now she was crafting ways to keep Bella happy. Making her own house a home. Nurturing Elwood. And Roman? At least she knew she’d be free of him in a week.
“There’s a car in front of your house, Jazz. Tess again?” Roman asked.
Jan peered through the windshield, trying to determine the make of the car. One person inside it. A man. “Drive by, Roman. Go straight to Bella’s. I’ll try to figure out who it is.”
Roman slowed the car and cruised past.
Jan blinked, unable to believe what she was seeing.
After parking the car in front of Bella’s, Roman turned off the motor and turned to Jan. “Know him?”
Her stomach felt hollow, like she hadn’t eaten for days. “Sure do,” she said, “It’s Frank.”
Chapter Fourteen
I’m a coward.
Jan climbed out of Roman’s car and walked toward Frank, when all she wanted to do was run the opposite direction. Roman and Bella were aware she wasn’t returning to Seattle, but had she told Frank? No.
Still, she was steamed about Frank showing up at the worst possible time. Why had he come without calling?
More to the point, what would she do with him now?
She turned back to Roman and her father and called, “Go ahead and get started on G & T’s. Order food. We’ll catch up.”
She resumed her walk toward Frank, while he stepped out of the car and ambled toward her. Jeans, neatly ironed camp shirt, Mariners baseball hat. He looked years younger with a hat hiding his baldness. Boyish, even.
What did she feel for him? After six months of separation with only weekly phone calls to keep in touch, how much had she missed him? How happy was she to see him? Was she eager to share what she’d learned about her father, Barker…and herself?
Damn. If she was asking herself such questions and the emotions weren’t forthcoming, wasn’t that a neon warning?
“Hello, Frank,” she said, giving him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. “What a surprise.”
Jan registered his perfunctory embrace. Frank Paul Thomas was not a man who showed affection in public.
Smiling with a hint of uncertainty, he leaned against the front of the car and said, “I was mean on the phone, Janny. Thought I’d better apologize in person. Plus, you criticized me for not visiting.” He pointed in the direction of the General. “Your father’s opinion of me and my work schedule were stupid excuses not to come.”
Jan was ready to handle an angry boyfriend, not a sympathetic, apologetic one. She glanced at her house, thinking she didn’t want Frank to see the inside with its paltry contents. He might not laugh at her, but he’d elbow in to help her furnish the place. Her place.
Would it be cruel to take him to Bella’s where the General would give him the cold shoulder and Roman the once over? Bella and her sister would be nice to him, wouldn’t they?
“Came at a bad time, did I?” Frank said, his eyebrow quirked, gesturing toward the car she’d just left. “I waved a greeting to your father. Is the other one your blow-up bed bodyguard?”
She nodded. “We’re deep into the Barker case. We’ve got stuff we have to do tonight and I—”
“I thought you dropped Barker after the kids’ threats. Why in the world…?” Frank squinted at her, seeming to measure her intentions. “Unless it’s your bodyguard.”
“He’s gone by Saturday,” she retorted with more force than she’d intended. “His interests are the big story on Barker, an exposé of Senator Johnson, and a memorial for his grandfather. I’m not on his list.”
Frank straightened. “Dammit, Janny. He’s involved with Barker, too? I told you, dead or alive, Barker is not a guy you want to be associated with.”
“Roman has his own reasons for plumbing the man’s life story. I’ve chosen to help T
ess Barker and her siblings get the right kind of closure out of their father’s death. Dad’s with me on this, Frank. We’ve made up our minds. If you know something more about Cliff Barker you want to tell us, now’s the time.”
Frank’s silence and rigid posture unnerved her. What would she do with him? She tried to read his eyes, but they were shaded by his baseball cap. Was he hurt, angry, confused? She couldn’t tell.
“Why did you come, Frank?”
He looked surprised at the question. “What do you mean? We’ve had a twelve-year partnership. Isn’t it worth a flight across the country?” Removing his cap, he rubbed his knuckles over his bald head. “I know you, Janny. This Barker thing has you wound up so tight, you aren’t thinking straight.”
“I am not wound up.”
“Your dad said you are. Some sort of mission to help this girl.”
She stared at him. “You talked to my dad?”
“I got worried after you told me about the threat. Your father assured me you were quitting the Barkers. Now I hear the two of you are at it again.”
As shocked as she was to hear Frank had called the General, Jan’s thoughts leaped to questions about her motivation. How committed to Tess’s cause was she? If Frank was this upset about Jan’s involvement with the family, what kind of mess had she persuaded her father to get into?
Jan decided to tell Frank everything. “We’ve had other threats, aimed at Dad and me. As a result, we’re watching over each other very carefully.”
As soon as she laid out the details of the General’s experience with the bikers as well as her own encounter with a lone biker, horror suffused Frank’s expression, “Christ, Jan. I told you Barker’s guys were nut cases.”
Frightened by the tension in his voice, Jan took his arm. She’d never imagined he could be so upset. “Calm down, Frank. We’re fine.”
He seemed to struggle with his emotions. After a deep breath, he shook his head. “Sorry. It’s just that you’re blundering into something way bigger than you can handle. Playing amateur detectives, pretending you know how to ‘watch each other’s backs—”’
“Now wait a minute,” she interrupted, jerking her hand away and drawing herself to her full height. “My friend Pete reported both events to the police and we’ve been careful ever since.”
He dropped his head. “Shit, the police are involved. God help us.”
“Us? What do you mean, ‘us’?”
Frank squinted at her. “I…whatever you’re involved in affects me. Simple as that.” He secured his hat on his head and said, “Funeral Planner. Thank God you’re quitting such a morbid business.”
Jan knew what he was going to demand next, but she held her breath and remained silent.
“We’re going home to Seattle,” he said.
His words left her cold. Instead, a picture of her newly furnished home popped into her head. Was Bella finished with her sketches? Had Elwood eaten? Wouldn’t a G & T taste good right now?
“Okaaay,” he said. “That went over like a lead balloon.” Frank stared at her. “You look good, Janny. Tanned and fit.” He focused on her legs. “I didn’t see you in shorts much in Seattle. Wish I had.” He removed a check out of his shirt pocket and handed it to her.
Jan gasped at the amount. “What in the world?”
“The condo. Your half of the rent for the last six months.
“Why?”
“A peace offering, Janny. As you pointed out, spending half a year in California was no vacation, yet you kept paying your share of the rent in Seattle. I’m showing you I agree. With this money, you can deck out your winter house and get home faster.”
She shook her head and held the check out to him. “That’s not fair to you, Frank.”
He waved it away. “Money and geography are not the issues between us. That’s why I had the title redrawn so we are co-owners of the condo.”
“You’re a thoughtful man,” she said, sliding the check into her pants pocket, embarrassed when her brain got busy calculating how nicely the money covered the cost of her new furniture.
“Determined, too. I’m here, Janny. This is about two people, not real estate.” He looked up and down the street, seeming to belie his point. “What’s our next step? I’m here, now what are you going to do with me?”
The enormity of the question gave her a headache. The rent check, the co-ownership papers, his surprise appearance and heartfelt apology, all made her feel like a rat lured by peanut butter into a spring-loaded trap. She understood men were supposed to pursue the women they loved, using any and all means to woo them, yet Frank’s efforts seemed more manipulative than courtly.
He expected her to welcome him back into her life, immediately. But Jan had set a benchmark and by God, she was going to stick with it. She’d furnish her house and finish with her last three clients as event planner. After that, her life was a blank slate.
She closed her eyes, conjuring her idea-juggling prowess, honed from years in marketing.
Solution: Leave the balls regarding her relationships with Frank and Roman flying in the air while she snatched the ball labeled Barker. She couldn’t help but smile. “You sure you want me to call your next play?”
“Absolutely. Anything.”
Jan nodded. “Good. Hold on to your baseball cap, Frank. Since you’ve decided to reach out to my father you get to stay with him.” She pinned an imaginary badge on Frank’s shirt pocket. “Consider yourself the General’s new bodyguard.”
****
Roman was prepared to dislike Frank.
A solidly built six-footer, a couple inches shorter than Roman, the man was fit and good-looking for his age. He was smart and affable, clearly unfazed by meeting strangers and sharing dinner with them. He’d greeted the General warmly and earned a vigorous handshake from the old man. Strange. Jan said the two didn’t get along.
Frank complimented Bella’s home decorating skills, making an immediate conquest of Bella and her sister. When Bella showed the group her drawings of Jan’s living and dining rooms, Frank seemed to make the right comments to please both Bella and Jan.
Throughout drinks and dinner, Roman watched how Jan interacted with Frank, looking for signs of trouble. He didn’t observe a glimmer of conflict. They seemed like good friends, trading inside information about Frank’s job, mutual buddies in Seattle and Northwest weather, as well as water pressure and landlord problems in the condo. She laughed when he made jokes. Frank touched her shoulder once in a chummy way.
Chummy enough that Roman wanted to break Frank’s hand. The only plus for the evening—the Scottie wouldn’t go near Frank. Instead of growling or barking at the guy, Elwood simply chose to track the man all evening instead of shadows.
By the time they finished eating, Roman was so angry at his juvenile feelings of ill will against Frank, that he was silent for much of his drive with Jan to Tess’s house. She was mired in her own funk, probably still confused by Frank’s surprise visit.
Roman broke the silence. “Seems like a good guy, Jazz.”
She gave him a sad smile. “Yes, he is. He’s kind, steady, and loyal.”
“Boy Scout.”
With a chuckle, she said, “Yes. Dependable.”
Although he wanted to bring up Frank’s age as well as the rocky start to their relationship he’d discovered in his Internet search, Roman kept his mouth shut. “And?”
Jan looked out the window. “But.”
“But, what?”
“I could have agreed to marry him after year one or two or ten. But I didn’t. I knew he wanted marriage, yet I wasn’t willing to commit.” She sighed. “He deserves better.”
As much as he wanted to agree with her notion to order Frank out of the picture, he took the high road. “You’re a catch, Jazz. Beautiful, talented, and smart. And compassionate. I won’t let you sell yourself short.”
She smiled thinly at his words but shook them off, gazing out at the passing scenery. “I’d stay with Frank out of
duty and guilt. Cowardice. He deserves much, much more than that.”
Roman laid his hand on her thigh, unable to think of a verbal response. His heart ached for her sadness. She’d lived with a good man for twelve years; he’d had Maura for three. Neither fit the role of lifetime mates. Why?
Jan put her hand over his, seeming lost in thought. Or grieving. Or berating herself.
“Would you rather put off visiting Tess?” he asked. “You’re good at juggling, but this is one heavy ball to heft along with the others. Plus it’s so late, Tess might already be in bed.”
She squeezed his hand. “We have to confront her. And it’s time I faced the business with Frank. Heavy or not.” Taking a deep breath, she added, “Tess first. Sleep next. Tomorrow I talk with Frank. Sorry to say this puts our own discussion on hold. I only want to deal with one relationship at a time.”
“Understood,” he said, worried that by grouping him with Frank, she intended to push both men out of her life. The idea made his stomach hurt.
He parked the car at the curb in front of Tess’s house. “What can I do? How can I help?” And what a phony he was, offering his services even as he cranked on the Barker case, creating more turmoil for her.
“I lack the gene for staying power, Roman. Unless you’re a geneticist, you can’t help me. Worse, I could get you into trouble.”
Roman opened the door and offered his hand. “You’ve donned the hair shirt again, Jazz. Plus you’re worried about me, the most resilient man you’ve ever met.” He waited for her to roll her eyes. Letting out a breath of relief when she did, he went on. “We’ve got Tess, Cliff Barker, Senator Johnson, and Sidney Keller to think about right now. How about we delve into their lives and leave ours alone for a bit?”
She gave him a half-smile. “By all means.”
Roman held on tight to her hand, uncomfortable, for the first time, that his need to mine for truth might hurt a person he cared about.
Chapter Fifteen
“Don’t open the door,” Tess reminded herself as she peeked through the peephole. She’d seen them drive up and walk to her porch. They’d knocked and called out to her, guessing she was home because her car was parked in the driveway. Why hadn’t she put the damn thing in the garage?
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