This Magic Moment (Just a Little Magic Series)

by Cross, Daryn

  Shifting in his chair, Zack considered the possibilities. After all, he wasn’t playing Charades, but an elaborate game of poker here, and he didn’t really know what the shit was really after. Was it Crandall, her company, her company and her reputation? Or was this some wicked revenge of his for just being born the way he didn’t want to be?

  Zack cleared his throat. Here came the fake with the snippet of information he’d culled from Crandall. “I know what you’re holding over Crandall’s head, and you have no right to do that. She didn’t do anything to cause your anger or your retribution. In fact, she had nothing to do with it.”

  “Yeah, Crandall is always so innocent of everything.” He smirked. “I hate to differ with you, but I know her a lot better than you do. In fact, we’ve known each other our whole lives. Believe me, she hasn’t changed. She was always Susie Sweet Smile, acting like the innocent virgin, pretending like she was all about the grades and the American Way. We may have had our differences when we were in high school, but it happened because she had me under her spell. I was a man overcome with love for her, just waiting for one small acknowledgement, a crumb of affection, really. It was pathetic how vulnerable I was back then.”

  I bet. Zack clenched his jaw and refrained from speaking.

  “I was alive with love, and she was a dick tease. You see, Zack, no matter how she’s acted around you, she was and probably still is a sex-hungry little thing. You should’ve seen her in my senior year. She was a sophomore and followed me in the bathroom one time offering herself to me. That’s the way she works. Behind closed doors. Stripped off her panties and spread her legs. If it hadn’t been for someone coming in, I expect she’d have tried to unzip my pants.”

  It took all the strength in his body for Zack not to get up and jerk the man out of his seat, but he knew Washington would revel in that response. Instead, he raised an eyebrow and coldly surveyed the man, watching him blink and momentarily look away. Just as he thought, the creep was replaying an old scene the way he’d wished it had gone. Probably one-eighty from the truth. “That’s not the way I heard it.” At the man’s sudden reddening face, Zack knew he’d hit pay dirt.

  Washington stood and skirted the desk, strolling toward the windows with his arms behind him. “Crandall is full of half-truths, Graham. If you’re around her long enough, you’ll discover that.” He grinned. “This isn’t about former sexual escapades. What I’m doing now is simply trying to undo a wrong, set the record straight. After all, it was my mother who was violated. Everything she’s believed to be true about Ben Drake proved to be unfounded.”

  Zack blinked this time. What the hell was Washington talking about? He tried to keep his cool. Time for another fake. “Not according to Crandall.”

  “Crandall’s only hoping this whole thing isn’t true.” He strode over to the front of his desk and leaned back on it. “She wasn’t even born when her father and my mother were an item and planned to marry. In fact, for a long time I wondered if my real father wasn’t Ben Drake and Mom had been too embarrassed to tell me. I discovered after that I had the Washington nose.”

  He turned sideways to show Zack his profile.

  What a honker. If he looked like his biological father, he should have hit his old man and then gone and gotten plastic surgery. The man could classify as a bloodhound.

  “Still,” Washington said, “my mother almost married Ben Drake. Something happened for them to break up so suddenly. Mom never would tell me why.”

  Zack quickly tried to process this information because it was a long way from what he’d expected. This went back before Crandall. So, what about an old relationship made this man feel like he was king of the hill? He kept silent. After all, this man was too stupid to shut his mouth. He was too overcome with his own self-importance.

  “So when I found the formula, I knew immediately it was the real thing.” Washington crossed his arms. “Now that you know my side of the story, why don’t you go back to your little lover and tell her this isn’t my fabrication. It’s her father’s covert injustice. He hadn’t been proud of it or he would have told her about it, at least enough to try to lie his way out of it. Mark my words, I will be in charge of Pretzelicious before this year is over.”

  “Don’t be so sure, Washington. What you’d like to happen and how things actually transpire are sometimes drastically divergent.” Zack stood and walked over to the creep and poked him in the chest with his finger. “I plan to help her prove this is a fraud. I don’t know if it’s one your mother fabricated or this is your own work to make you feel like a man. I don’t care which one it is. In either case, it’ll be fun watching you melt just like that witch in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Only with you, it’ll be from a mountain of lawsuits burying you alive.”

  Washington’s eyes narrowed. “Better be careful, Graham. It’s so sweet and gallant of you to try and defend the honor of your lady fair. However, in the process, don’t try to claim my libel or slander. If you cross the line and say or print anything false about me and my company, I’ll be hunting for controlling interest of Scrumbles as well.”

  ****

  “Where are you?” Mike asked. “No one here seemed to have any idea what happened to you, except one minute you were in the building and the next you were history.”

  “I took a detour across the country to check out a lying conniving piece of shit.”

  “Went to see Xavier Washington, huh?’ Mike laughed into the phone. “What’d you find out?”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Zack told him. “Right now, I want you to check for legal proceedings filed by Washington Enterprises against Pretzelicious. Something about a formula. I just landed in Briny Bay and I’m on my way to try to make amends with my mother and see my daughter.”

  “Where’s the jet?”

  “I’m sending it back to Charlotte,” he told him, speaking into his headset. “I’m driving right now, so I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Good luck.”

  “Right.” As Zack disconnected, he knew Mike’s wishes were what he needed. He had no idea if he could make things better at this point. But after the last few days of hearing about scrambled family loyalties, hidden secrets and the hidden hostilities a child can have not knowing everything he should, Zack decided he really had to make sure Meredyth not only knew he loved her but planned to spend more time with her on a regular basis.

  Minutes later, he rang his mother’s front doorbell and didn’t come charging in like normal. The woman still left the door open except when she went to bed or left; however, he’d repeatedly told her it wasn’t safe these days. Whatever the case, considering how they’d last parted, he wasn’t about to barge in until he tested the waters.

  Meredyth answered the door. He could see his mother back a few steps. “Hi honey,” he said, bending down to kiss her, and she stepped back.

  “Hello father,” she said in a polite and distant voice. “It’s so very nice of you to come and see me.”

  His heart sank. Obviously his mom had told her that’s what she needed to say. He remembered telling Mike the ad campaign needed resurrection. This relationship needed a crash cart. Zack bent down until he could look in his daughter’s eyes. “Meredyth, I’m so sorry if I haven’t been here much. But I’ve made a promise to myself, and now I make it to you, that I will see you a lot more and we’ll work out something so you know we’re a team and not strangers, okay?”

  She nodded. “How come I don’t live where you do? Nana says you live in a place far away.”

  He stared at his mother behind Meredyth. The woman had been talking to her, without a doubt. It seemed she’d only answered questions, not brought him up. “I tell you what,” he said, “I’ll start calling you a couple of times a week and we’ll decide what days and times you want. We can talk about anything. And then, I’ll come down here every two weeks for a weekend. Will that be okay with you?”

  She nodded. “I guess. What will we do, just sit around this stupid old house?”<
br />
  He shook his head. “We’ll go to the movies or to that big place with video games, or whatever you like.”

  For the first time, she smiled and he melted in a puddle. Tentatively, she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Okay father. That sounds skinky.”

  “Skinky?” His eyes narrowed. What the hell was that?

  She nodded. “That’s what my friend Lisa says.”

  He grinned. “Okay. Skinky it is. How about calling me Daddy?”

  She giggled. “Okay, I’ll try, Daddy.”

  As he leaned over one more time, his daughter ran into his arms and hugged him. He’d never felt anything that was as warm or as right or as cataclysmically wonderful. As he squatted there in a certain sort of paradise he decided only men who are fathers know, he suddenly realized there was only one other time he’d felt so totally beyond himself and at peace with everything surrounding him. That had been when he was with Crandall, spooned together on a silly old air mattress in the middle of mouse invader territory. What was it about both females that made him feel like he’d just gotten promoted to man of the year?

  As he continued to hug his daughter, he jolted, realizing that kind of feeling only came from deep, unconditional love.

  Chapter Twelve

  “What’s wrong with you?” Gretta asked across the kitchen table. “You haven’t seemed like you’re with it since you got back from Oklahoma.”

  Crandall nodded. “I know. There’s so much going on my mind. You know during the week I only sleep about six hours a night as it is. Since I got back, that’s shrunk to about four.”

  Gretta nodded. “I know. Nothing like waking up to lights on in the house and you staring zombie-eyed at a repeat on some thirty-year old sitcom.”

  She groaned and rubbed her face. Gretta checked on her better than her father ever had. The woman was a regular Florence Nightingale. “Some of the sit-coms were older than that. The last one was in black and white. Pretty soon I’ll be watching old Tyrannosaurus flicks. Right now, the words on the storyboard are blurring on me.”

  Sighing, Gretta picked up her purse and opened it. “What do you need, pain killer, sinus med or sleeping pill?”

  Crandall inhaled and stared at her friend, aghast. “You’re popping pills?”

  “No silly.” Gretta chuckled. “I just have sample sizes of OTC just in case. Except the sleeping pills. But even those I only took two. Couldn’t wake up the next morning. Most of this stuff’s been in here untouched for a year, maybe more. What can I say? My sister’s a nurse. She believes in being prepared, and it rubbed off.”

  “Well, nothing for me that makes me feel hung over in the morning. In fact, forget the whole thing. I hate chemicals and meds.”

  Gretta patted her arm. “Tell Aunt Gretta what’s bugging you so bad.”

  Crandall sighed. “Xavier’s threat is making all my blood vessels constrict, and Zack, well he makes my heart flutter. Pretty soon I’m going to have a heart attack.”

  Gretta touched her arm. “You haven’t said a word about what happened in Oklahoma, you know.”

  Crandall nodded. “Yeah. Well, all I can say is that man has a way of sneaking up and robbing me of all my senses. I just sit there dumbfounded, floundering like it’s my first day on Earth, and wonder what kind of spell he puts on me.”

  “Xavier?”

  Crandall shook her head leaned on her elbow. “No. Zack.” At Gretta’s big grin, she groaned. “Forget it, Gretta, that situation’s hopeless. Right now, I’m really in trouble and I have to think of a way to plan for potential damage control. Our next two stops on the tour are to Zack’s and my hometowns. The next stop is the place I grew up, Sierra Landing, California. Everybody there remembers Xavier’s crush on me and to this day some for the hometown women tell me I made a mistake when I didn’t entertain his attention. Which is part of the reason I rarely go back home.”

  “Crandall, you’re not that old, but, honestly, that what happened in high school more than a decade ago is ancient history.” Gretta grabbed the storyboard out of Crandall’s hands and set it down on the table. “This can wait for a minute. Can you please explain to me how everyone in Sierra Landing loves Washington when he’s a cutthroat businessman who would’ve sold his own mother for the rights to a fat deal?”

  Crandall slapped her hand down on the table. “That’s just it. The shit doesn’t own anything in Sierra Landing. All they know about him is he donates money to the library fund and the school for a new building campaign. He even offers a scholarship in his name, all gestures so he can feel like a big man. I guarantee it’s not from his heart.”

  Crandall stood, and strode away the table pacing back in forth, her hands wringing together. Wincing as she realized she was once again biting on her lip, she glanced up at Gretta. “See, the farther the company is from home base the better. He doesn’t supervise any of their operations anyway, just sets up the snare to rope the companies and buy at ten cents on the dollar. It doesn’t matter what kind of business it is, either.”

  She gestured in the air with her hand. “Perfume, cereal, petroleum oil, whatever. He checks them out to see what could potentially be lucrative, you know, a plant here, an expensive piece of real estate there, maybe a business is in the wrong place but would fare better in another one. I know for a fact he has some of them overseas, because early on he bragged he had to go to Paris to check on the establishment of something-or-other. That was when he was only twenty-one. I remember because he cornered me when I came home when I graduated from college.”

  Gretta let out a cackle. “You mean he was still putting moves on you up ‘til then?”

  “To this day, I wouldn’t be caught dead alone with him in the same room.” At Gretta’s amused look, she shook her finger at her. “I’m not kidding friend, he’d still like to throw me over a table and strip me. The man is in serious need of counseling. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a harassment lawsuit at Washington Enterprises.”

  “Maybe there has been, but I bet he could silence it with enough money.” Gretta held her hand over her heart. “Or maybe it’s because he’s still pining over you, sweetheart. To think you don’t have pity on him. What harm would one good roll in the sack with him do?”

  Crandall gagged. “Don’t even say that when you’re kidding. You could give me nightmares for a week. Look, I have five days before I officially have to be in Sierra Landing. I say we beat all bushes and see what we can discover about Xavier. He’s got to be hiding something somewhere that will prove or give credence to the fact he’s a thief and a liar. I suppose I’m best equipped to check on the west coast since I have to be in Sierra Landing on Saturday and I already live over that way.”

  “Does that mean I get to check overseas?” Gretta asked, slapping her hands together like she was praying.

  Crandall nodded. “I suppose so. Make sure you take a coat with you. Paris can be chilly in late March. While you’re gone, get Jenny at the company to do some more background work on Xavier, too. We can’t be too careful.” She grinned at her friend. “Maybe you can get your beau to skip work and go with you.”

  Laughing, Gretta pulled out her cell phone. “I have a sneaking suspicion I might be able to pull that off.”

  ****

  Tom walked sideways through the crowd to the seats inside the packed basketball coliseum. He spotted the old geezer without really trying. In a light blue tee shirt, three sizes too big, white sweat pants, Ed Hardy tennis shoes and neon yellow cap he looked like an escapee from the funny farm. Sitting down beside him, Tom hoped the students wouldn’t think he was just another patient.

  “Okay I’m here, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why you insisted we meet at the game.”

  “March Madness.” Magic held up a big hand with a pointing finger. Carolina’s Number One was printed across it. “Been a Tarheel fan for a long time, used to know Dean Smith. He and I used to shoot baskets. We used to give Vic Bubas a hard time about their rivalry. But yo
u probably don’t know he was the Duke coach.”

  Tom chuckled. “Right. I knew all about it. After all, Bobby Knight and I used to be best buds too.”

  Magic shook the big finger at him. “Nobody likes a wisenheimer. You shouldn’t question where I’ve been son. Instead you should be soaking up information. How else in the world am I going to knock you into shape? Next year’s challenge is going to be pivotal.”

  Shrugging, Tom chuckled. “How do you know what it is already?” He held up his hand. “Never mind. I know. Magic knows everything.”

  The old man smiled. “You’re slow but you get there. How is everything going?”

  “If you know everything, then…” Tom saw the man’s head shake and then the finger waved through the air.

  “Okay.” He took a deep breath. “From what Gretta said on the phone, I think the intended couple has already had sex.”

  “Excellent!” He clapped his hands. “And to think it was before they ever got off my island. Better than normal.”

  “I didn’t say that’s when they did it,” Tom said, his eyes narrowing. What game was the man playing with him? Half seer and half jokester, he was always hard to read.

  “It’s not the act,” Magic said, “It’s the effect. Obviously it had one if other people can see it. For I know these two hold information close to the vest.” As the crowd roared, Tom turned to see points added to the Carolina score.

  Magic jumped up and began to go through the motions for the wave. Tom sat there. After it was all over his crackpot boss sat down and stared at him. “Don’t you have any team spirit?”

  He cocked his head sideways. “Guess not. I’m more into racing. NASCAR.”

  The man’s eyes crinkled. “I’ll file that away. So what are the two lovers doing now?”

  Chuckling, Tom leaned back against the bleachers. “It seems Zack has already made a trip out West to check on Xavier Washington and Crandall is getting ready to do the same. Meanwhile, Gretta and Mike are going to Paris. Crandall’s sending her to check on a business Washington has there.”