“Yes. . .no!” She jumped up. “Aaron, I can’t.” Tears swarmed her eyes. “I like you, but. . .”
He stood up beside her. “I won’t force you, Renee. But something happened today. Something very important, and I think you should know.”
She raised her head and glanced at him. “What?”
“Please sit. I want to discuss this with you. I promise I won’t kiss you or try to hold your hand.”
She scanned the sofa and looked back at him. Somehow she knew to trust him. She shouldn’t, but she would. Renee sat down on the chair across from the sofa.
He chuckled. “Fair enough. At the cemetery today Adam and I said good-bye to Hannah. A real good-bye. For the first time since she passed away, I felt I had truly let her go. And it felt good; it felt right. I’ve been so afraid of forgetting Hannah, I’ve held on to her and her image. Can you understand what I mean?”
She nodded her head. She understood all too well. She’d been afraid to even talk about her parents after they died, fearing she’d remember something incorrectly.
“Tell me about your parents. You said they died when you were eight?”
“Yes. I don’t have too many memories. They were sweet, kind, Christian parents who had forgotten to write a will. I was sent to my aunt’s house. I always loved my fun aunt Ida when I was a child. But she divorced Uncle Pete when I was six, and well, she never went to church. Drinking, drugs, all sorts of male visitors passed through her apartment. I was her little slave. It wasn’t as bad as I make it sound; she loved me in her own way. And she tried, but the alcohol and drugs have a way of making a person less than aware of what they’re doing.”
“I’m sorry.” He leaned back on the sofa.
“Have you updated your will?”
“Yes. After Hannah died, it was necessary, of course. My parents will raise Adam if. . .if something should happen to me.”
She rested her head back on the chair. It was close to five o’clock. They were done. She should go home and get some much needed rest. “Aaron, I need to go.”
“All right, but what is it you’re not telling me?” he asked.
❧
Stupid, stupid, stupid, he chided himself. She’s got a secret, and I shouldn’t have pushed. Aaron cleared the coffee cups and napkins from the dining-room table. Placing them in the sink, he stretched his back. Dusk played on the windows. He groaned. Sleep—he needed a couple hours before the nine o’clock meeting.
He sat on the edge of the bed, slipped off his loafers, and pulled off his jersey. His eyes closed, his body fell. Soft, comforting, relaxed. He yawned.
The alarm blared in his ear. His hand patted the end table. One unfocused eye peered at the red digital lights. “Six.” He hit the snooze button.
Fifteen minutes later he fumbled for the snooze button and didn’t bother to check the time.
He waited for the next alarm. He didn’t want to get up but knew he had to. He listened for a moment longer. It should be ringing now. Aaron turned his head and peered over his pillow. The lights were out on the clock.
He bolted out of bed and scrabbled to his bureau for his watch. “Argh,” he groaned. Ten minutes to nine, and all was not well.
“Adam?” he called, running down the hall to his son’s back bedroom.
“Hi, Dad.” Adam sat cross-legged in front of the laptop, playing a computer game.
“Do you know what time it is?”
“No, the TV isn’t working either.”
Of course not, the power’s dead. Which is really odd since there wasn’t a storm last night. Must have been a traffic accident on a neighborhood pole, he reasoned. “Get dressed; it’s almost nine, and I have an appointment.” Which I’m not going to make.
He grabbed his cell phone. All the phones in the house were portable and needed electricity. “I should keep one stationary phone for occasions such as this.”
He tapped in his mother’s number. “Hi, Mom. I don’t have time to bring Adam over. Can you go to the office and pick him up?”
“Sure, what’s the matter, Aaron?”
“Power’s out. I overslept. I need to call a client. I’ll tell ya later.”
“Adios.” His mother’s voice calmed his excited nerves.
He tapped in the client’s number. “Hello, this is Aaron Chapin from Sunny Flo Designs. I have an appointment with you at nine. I’m going to be a couple minutes late.”
“Mr. Reynolds is a busy man, Mr. Chapin.”
“I understand that, but there was a power failure at my house, and I’m running late.”
“I can’t promise, but I’ll let him know of your delay.”
“Thank you.” Herbert J. Reynolds was not one to put off. Aaron would be lucky to even get in the door at this rate. “So much for last night’s effort.”
Dressed, packed, and in the car by nine wasn’t too bad, Aaron mused.
“Daddy, why are we going so fast?”
Aaron glanced at the speedometer and eased his foot off the accelerator. “I’m sorry. I’m behind schedule.”
“Daddy, you know you’re not ’pose to go fast,” Adam corrected.
“Yes, Son.” Aaron tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs. He didn’t need a four year old reminding him of what he should or should not do.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, Son.” He also wasn’t in the mood for twenty questions.
“Do you like Ms. Renee?”
“Yes.” He took a sideways glance over to his son.
“I like her too. Did you know her mommy died when she was little?”
“Yes,” he said cautiously.
“Me too.” Adam crossed his feet at his ankles. “Daddy?”
“Yes, Son.” Aaron took in a deep breath.
“We didn’t pray or eat breakfast this morning.”
“No, we didn’t. I’ll correct that at the office, okay?”
“Okay. Daddy?”
Aaron chuckled. “Yes, Son.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Buddy.”
Aaron had to wait for his mother to arrive at the office. Renee hadn’t shown up yet. Not that he could blame her. But he hoped it wasn’t because of their discussion last night—this morning—whenever. He moaned. He’d been honest about his feelings. The fear in her eyes when he told her. . .
Aaron shook his head. Back in the car, he looked at the now green light.
A horn blared. He eased the gas and worked his way through the intersection. Three more blocks and he’d be there. He parked the car at the first available slot and pulled out the proposal. He didn’t have the storyboard, but he did have the laptop. At least he could provide a visual.
Over the next ten minutes, Aaron found himself at the end of a lecture about promptness as a sign of professionalism.
“Mr. Reynolds, I apologize for wasting your time. I happen to have the best proposal you’ve ever received, but I won’t take up your time any longer.” Aaron turned to exit the room.
“Mr. Chapin, Aaron, show me what you have. Why was it you were late?”
Aaron gave a brief description of the morning and his need to take care of Adam first.
“Right, you lost your wife a couple years back.”
“Yes. Mr. Reynolds, I’d be happy to show you the proposal.”
“Go for it.” The fifty-something man with white hair and a bulging waistline slipped into the chair behind his desk.
Five
Renee worked the stiffness out of her neck. She’d overslept. The office smelled of stale coffee. She turned on the computers and got to work changing the security passwords for every account. Someone had to be getting in, but how? She clicked through the company’s Internet page and found it was vulnerable. In the original coding one could actually get the directories of all the files. So even the files they had protected were visible.
The bell above the door jingled.
“Where’s Aaron?” a large-framed, potbellied Hispanic man ordered.
His gaze scrutinized every part of her body. Renee felt like running for additional cover. “You’re pretty enough, but I’m looking for Aaron.”
“Can I give him a message for you?”
Renee clutched the end of the counter in front of the door and was glad for the blockage.
“Tell him to keep his hands off my kids.”
“What?” The word slipped out before she had a moment to check herself.
“He’ll know what I mean.” He turned and, slamming the door open, left.
Renee watched his lopsided gait. He appeared drunk. She sniffed the air. The scent of stale beer wafted past her nose. Releasing the counter, she slipped down behind it. Clenching her sides, she rocked back and forth. “It’s been years, Lord. Why now?”
The bell over the door rang again.
“No, God, no,” she silently prayed.
“Renee?” Aaron called out. She rolled onto her hands and knees and pretended to be searching for something.
“Hi, Aaron.” She forced a grin and stood up.
“We did it, Renee. We did it.” He captured her in his arms and twirled her around.
Renee couldn’t help but smile. “What?”
“We landed the account. Thank you, thank you so much.” He placed her back down. She stepped back and looked down at her feet. She liked being in his arms. Her heart raced. Why, was it Aaron or, or. . .
“Aaron, you had a visitor. If you can call him a visitor.”
“Who?”
“Don’t know; he didn’t leave a name. Just a message.” She paused.
“And?” He placed his hands on his waist.
“He said to tell you to keep away from his kids.”
“Ahh, was he in his late thirties, Hispanic, with a crooked nose?”
Renee thought back on the man’s features. “Yes, do you know him?”
“Unfortunately yes. He’s my brother-in-law, Manuel. Don’t you worry about him. I’ll make sure he doesn’t come by here again. He probably had a few too many to get up the nerve to speak to me.”
“He did smell of alcohol.”
“Yeah, that’s Manuel. I’m sorry you had to deal with him alone.” Aaron headed back to his desk, placing his brown leather briefcase on top of it.
“I changed all the passwords,” Renee reported, “and I found a way that someone could have gotten to our files.”
“How?”
“Our index page coding wasn’t set properly, and if someone typed in the right address or rather the right missing word of our address, they could pull up the entire directory.”
“No way. I programmed that page myself. I know I took care of that problem.”
“Well, I checked the last date that file had been updated. It was about two months ago.”
“I’m certain I didn’t touch it.” Aaron sat in front of his computer and pulled up his daily planner. What was the date and time?”
“August eighteenth, 10:30 p.m.”
“That’s a Sunday, Renee. I wasn’t working here or at home. In fact, I was at my parents’ all that evening.”
“I don’t know what to say, other than I fixed the code and changed the passwords again.”
Aaron rubbed the back of his neck. “Thank you. I know it’s not your fault.”
“No, and I’d say someone’s been messing with your work. Thankfully we’ve caught it in time.”
Aaron pulled in a deep breath, causing his shoulders to rise. She could see his neck and shoulder muscles taut. She took a step forward, instinctively raising her hands to massage him. What am I doing? She stopped in place and stared at her betraying members. Thank You, Lord, for bringing me to my senses before I touched him.
Aaron spun around in his chair and faced her. “Renee, are you all right?”
“Yes. . .no,” she stammered. “Aaron, if you don’t mind, I think I better go home and get some rest. I don’t think I can be productive the rest of the day.”
“No problem. You worked plenty of hours last night. Thanks again, Renee. I wouldn’t have made the sale without you.”
“You’re welcome.” She fetched her purse and practically ran out the door.
I shouldn’t have picked her up, he chastised himself.
The door jingled. “Hey, Aaron, how’d it go this morning?”
John ambled over to his desk and plopped his book bag at the foot of his stool.
“Went great; we got the account.”
“All right, way to go, Man! How’d they like the logo I came up with?”
John’s logo had been put to the side when they discovered their files had been tampered with. But how much should he tell him? Was John the one getting into their system and selling to the competition? But that didn’t make sense. He wouldn’t need to change the codes because he knew them all. “No, I’m afraid we couldn’t use it.”
“Huh?” John dropped his pencil.
“Renee and I discovered someone has broken into our files. So we had to come up with a totally new campaign.”
“No way, Man. When’d you discover this?”
“Last night.”
John whistled through his teeth. “And you redid the entire campaign in one night?”
“Yeah, with Renee’s help.” Aaron couldn’t help but beam.
“You better treat that lady good, Boss. She’s a dynamo. I’d hate to see you lose her.”
“Yeah, I know.” Aaron stepped toward the back room. “Wanna soda? I’m buying.”
“Sure, thanks.” John leaned over the drafting table and went back to work. He was a blessing, but he didn’t have the expertise and developed skills that would come with time and experience. John’s raw energy helped keep a project alive, but Renee added to even Aaron’s own creative thinking.
“Okay, Lord, I got the message. Hands off,” Aaron mumbled and took out a soda and bottled water for himself.
❧
The next week passed uneventfully. Sales were made. Aaron and Renee seemed to work comfortably together, and he’d not touched her in seven days, not even a simple handshake.
“Daddy!” Adam barreled in through the office door followed by Aaron’s mother.
“Hey, Buddy.” Aaron scooped up and hugged his son.
“Can I stay at Ricky’s house tonight?”
Aaron glanced over to his mother.
“Ricky’s mother invited him,” she explained. Ricky was a year older and lived next door to Aaron’s parents.
“A real sleepover, I don’t know. Are you old enough?” Aaron teased.
“Dad–dy,” Adam emphasized.
“Well? It’s a big deal, you know.”
“Please, Daddy, please.” Adam hugged him again.
“Sure, Buddy.” He glanced back at his mother. “Do you need anything from my house?”
“No, Adam and I already packed his bag.” She winked.
“Oh, really? Pretty sure I’d say yes, huh?” He tickled Adam on his side.
Adam laughed wildly.
Renee walked in from the back room. “Hey, Adam. Hi, Mrs. Chapin. How are you?”
“Bien.” Gladys Chapin smiled.
Aaron followed Renee’s movements a moment too long. His mother’s eyebrows were raised when he glanced back at her. “Aaron, your father and I are waiting on your decision about us taking Adam to Orlando.”
“I see, so that’s why you agreed to this sleepover.”
“Possibly.”
He’d been hoping to put off his parents a little bit longer. Adam left for occasional visits with Hannah’s parents, but each and every time, Aaron had gotten little or no sleep. The fear of losing his son was so great, he couldn’t rest. Hannah’s parents had been asking to take Adam for several days, not just an overnight, so that they could bring him to visit some of Hannah’s relatives. Aaron knew it was right. He just found it too difficult to be alone and calm.
“All right, all right, you win. You can take him to Orla
ndo.”
“Gracias.” His mother enveloped him in her arms.
“Yippee, I’m going to see Sam!”
“Sam?” Aaron, his mother, and Renee asked at the same time.
“Who’s Sam?” Aaron pushed further.
“The seal.”
Okay, I’m clueless, Aaron admitted to himself. And by the blank expressions on Renee’s and his mother’s faces, they were as confused as he.
“Grandma, can we go tomorrow?”
“It’s up to your dad.”
“Daddy, please?” Adam looked up to him with his big brown eyes and gave him a bright, toothy smile.
Aaron chuckled. “Sure.”
“Grandma,” Adam said, taking her hand, “we gotta go pack more clothes.” He pulled her toward the door.
“Hey, don’t I get a kiss good-bye?”
Adam dropped his grandmother’s hand and came running back. “I love you, Daddy, thanks.”
“I love you too, Son. You mind your grandma and grandpa, all right?”
“Yes, Sir.” Adam wiggled free from his embrace and jumped over to Renee.
“Renee, did you hear I’m going to Orlando?”
“I sure did. That’s great.”
“You wanna come?”
Renee’s laughter licked Aaron’s ears. “No, I’m afraid I have to stay and work with your dad.”
“Okay. Bye, Renee.” Adam jumped up and hugged her around the neck. She wrapped her arms around Adam and closed her eyes.
She loves him. Oh, Father, what’s going on here? Why can’t we be honest about our feelings? And what are my feelings?
❧
Renee turned and wiped the tears from her eyes. She loved Adam so much, yet she didn’t have a right to feel this way, did she?
Gladys Chapin spoke softly to her son in Spanish. Aaron turned toward her, then looked back at his mother. “Si,” Renee understood. The rest of their conversation was a blur.
Gladys kissed Aaron gently on the cheek and tapped it with her hand. Lord, I miss my mother. How’s Adam going to do without his?
Bringing her attention back to her work, she fiddled with the keys, then went over to John’s drafting table.
Cords Of Love Page 4