David and Jennette were talking happily about their plans for Anna and the baby when, watching from the corner of her eye, Jen saw Adelia smiling contentedly. They were going to be all right.
Jennette looked at Jen. “I took your advice and told David about the tickets to Tahiti.”
“I think it’s a marvelous idea,” he smiled down at her. “We’ve changed the flight to this Sunday. We’ll only be gone for a week, not long enough for Anna to miss us, and it will be wonderful to get away just the two of us.”
“What about the screenplay?” asked Jen. “Are you still going to do Exit Laughing?
“Absolutely. I’ve given the part to Nikki. She was over the moon when I told her, and she’ll do a good job.”
“If she does a good enough job, perhaps you can find another lead role for her. On location.”
“In deepest Africa, maybe?”
“I was thinking Siberia,” said Jen with a chuckle.
“I’ll work hard to help her succeed because the screenplay is excellent, but I’m not making any commitments for myself until after the baby is born. David’s going to hand off as much as he can to his vice-presidents and I’m going to do the same with Aaron.”
“I’m glad.”
“Well, Jennifer,” Adelia was reaching for her cane, “I’ve enjoyed getting to know you all over again and I look forward to seeing you soon but now I’m tired. David, will you take me to my room?”
He helped her out of her chair, and Jen tucked her hair up into her floppy hat as they all walked together into the hall.
Adelia patted Jen’s hand and David kissed her cheek. “Goodbye, best of my sisters-in-law,” he said with a twinkle. Jen stood smiling as they moved slowly around the corner to the elevator.
The sisters walked out into the sunshine, standing together for a while to watch Anna and the puppy playing by the pond. Then Jennette turned. “Jen …” she said, but Jen interrupted her.
“I’d like to paint Anna’s portrait if you think she can sit still long enough. When you and David get back, we can talk about it.”
“Jen …” she tried again.
“Maybe Anna and Mugsy together in the garden? It would look nice hanging in the library.”
Jennette put an arm around her shoulders. “Jen,” she asked softly, “what about Rick?”
Jen looked off into the distance, remembering, as the now familiar ache closed in around her heart. “He loves you, Jennette, he always has. I’m just some stranger who lied to him and used him ruthlessly, then pushed him away. I was awful to him.” Head down, she slipped on her sunglasses so her sister wouldn’t see the tears that filled her eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sunlight shone; the garden was brilliant with color; a warm breeze brought summer’s heady fragrances through the open French doors. Stepping back from the easel to study her work, she heard the hall door behind her.
“Thanks, Tillie,” she said as she reached out with her brush to lightly stroke the canvas. “Just put the sandwich on the table. I’ll eat it later.”
“Jen …” he called softly, and the brush jerked out of her hand, smearing paint in a long blue line as it fell. She felt her pulse beating in her throat as she turned.
“You’re here,” she whispered.
He was standing by the door, the sun glinting on the golden highlights of his tousled brown hair, but his face was serious. His eyes had a shuttered look. “You are one of the most convincing liars I have ever known, maybe the best. Jennette called me from Tahiti …” He paused, and then said quietly, “The truth, Jen. Do you love me?”
Walking slowly across the room, scarcely breathing, anxiously trying to read his expression … it was time, and she could say it openly, honestly. She’d been sure that she’d lost her chance to tell him. If he can forgive me? She lifted her eyes to his. “I love you with all my heart.”
His radiant smile was her whole world. She was in his arms and he was kissing her and her heart was singing. It was a long, loving kiss. When it ended, he smiled down into her shining eyes as they both softly said, “Wow.” Time stood still as he kissed her again, holding her safe within the circle of his arms. “I’ve fallen in love three times, in different ways, with this same face.” He caressed her cheek and grinned. “You little liar.”
“Oh, Rick, I wanted to tell you so many times, but I couldn’t.” She shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry.”
He started to pull her close. “Then tell me now.”
But she stepped back, surprising him by shaking his hand. “How do you do, Mr. Jameson,” she curtsied, “my name is Jennifer Colby and I’m madly in love with you.”
He threw back his head with a laugh, then gave her an exaggerated bow. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Colby. Likewise, I’m sure.” With a smile, he held out his arms and she walked into his embrace. “Jen,” he murmured as he kissed her hair, her cheeks, her lips, “I love you so much.” She wanted to stay there kissing him forever … and they would have forever.
“Enough,” she leaned back at last, “you’ve left me no breath to talk.” They sat together in the garden while she told him everything, all of the truth finally.
“So,” he said, when she had finished, “there never was any amnesia.”
“No. The only thing I couldn’t remember at first was the car accident itself. The ironic thing is that we had decided that I would stage a small crash with the Jaguar close to the house. I was going to run it into a tree, leave Jennette’s purse on the seat and ride away with Jake on the bike. They’d organize a search for her, of course, but they wouldn’t find her.” Jen shook her head. “She was very sick, and we really did need to buy some time. When I woke up in the hospital, I knew immediately that pretending to be Jennette would be a good way to protect her and the baby. It was a chance and I took it.”
“It was a crazy thing to do.”
“I know, but it never occurred to me that the whole thing would last so long. I tried to be so careful, but that day on the cliff? I had no idea that you were there listening to the end of Jake’s and my conversation.”
“And now, for the third time, what were you really talking about up there?” She smiled across the garden, straightened the collar of her shirt and twiddled her thumbs. “Would you just tell me,” he murmured, lifting her hands to kiss first one, then the other, “and be done with it?”
“Since you ask so nicely –” she freed one hand to reach up and gently push his hair off his forehead, “– I will, and it was true that I’d written out a statement for the police in case something happened to me, but that afternoon Danni mentioned that you have Rob’s power-of-attorney and I realized that that was exactly what I needed from Jennette. I had to know that other people would be protected whenever I signed her name to an important document. But if you’d overheard that part of my talk with Jake, I never would have been able to fool you.”
“Well, you did, completely.”
She nodded. “I had the basic story of Jenet ready in case anyone caught me saying or doing something I couldn’t explain away. But,” she turned to him, “the more time I spent with you as Jenet, the more I drew on my own life to fill in the details. Some lies, but a lot of truth. They were the only times in weeks that I came close to feeling comfortable in my own skin.”
“Such lovely skin.” He ran his hand up her arm, gently massaging her shoulder, then frowned. “That night in Anna’s bedroom, I was certain that you were Jennette. How did you know about that silly little rhyme?”
“She told me, of course. I needed a way to completely convince you that there wasn’t any Jenet Croft, actress wannabe, and Jennette remembered that it had only been the night before the explosion that you’d made up the rhyme. The three of you were there in Anna’s sitting room, but Anna had fallen asleep in your lap. No one but you and Jennette could possibly have known about it. I’m sorry, Rick, but when I realized that you were standing behind me, I used it.”
“Why? I don’t understand.”
“Because I had fallen in love with you,” she said simply. “I couldn’t trust myself and I had to think of David. But, also, because I couldn’t trust you, not completely. As long as you thought I was Jenet, you weren’t dangerous. But if it was you trying to kill Jennette, the only way I could know for sure was to let you think that she’d been there under your nose the whole time. If you were the killer, you’d be furious, and you’d try again.”
“I might just have picked you up and thrown you out the window!”
“You might have, at that,” she agreed, “but I was almost certain that my death – her death – had to look like an accident. There couldn’t even be a hint of suicide about it.”
“I could strangle you right now, but such a pretty neck,” he murmured as he kissed her. She felt the earth turn under them, then steady. As long as they were together, wherever they were in the world, she’d be home.
He was grinning at her. “You have blue paint on the end of that lovely new nose.”
“You beast, why didn’t you tell me before?” She laughed as she scrubbed at it. “David did offer to have it fixed back if Dr. Smith could do it, but I’m not going through that again. Besides, I’ve kind of gotten used to this one.” She dug a barrette out of her pocket. “At least my hair will be long again soon.” She pulled it up off the side of her face clipping it back. “I was beginning to get bored with Jennette’s signature pageboy.”
He took her chin and turned her face to the left and right. “Your ears are different!”
“Yes,” she nodded. “They’re set differently on my head and my lobes are smaller. From the moment I heard you talking about sculpting ears and about how distinctive they are, I was careful to keep mine covered up with hair and hats and huge earrings.”
“I never guessed.”
She chuckled. “I did everything I could think of to keep you from guessing.”
He helped her to her feet and stepped back to look at her. “Even with all the differences, the two of you will still look remarkably alike.”
She did a little turn and struck a pose. “If anyone mistakes me for Jennette, I’ll tell them that I’m just her sister,” with an impish smile, she fluffed her hair, “and that there’s only one actress in our family.”
Laughing, Rick swept her up and into his arms. “You are a liar,” he grinned, kissing her nose, “but you’re my liar. My own Jen.”
(End Page)
A Dizzying Balance
Published 2019 by:
Grey Raven Books, a division of –
Grey Raven Enterprises, S de RL de CV
Valladolid, Yucatán, México
[email protected]
Other books by this author Be Not Blind to Its Touch
Other books by this Publishing House
Snout & Blackie (A children's illustrated story)
Snout & Blackie - Edición en español
Restauración de la Estación de Trenes de Valladolid (bilingual in Spanish & English)
Books By This Author
Be Not Blind to Its Touch
A contemporary novella for older teens.
Whereas most books set in our real world are slanted for girls, this story centers on a boy – his issues, his anger – a youth on the threshold of manhood, unprepared to deal with a rage that threatens to consume him.
Pete is a seventeen-year-old caught in a life of anger at his father who was convicted and sent to the penitentiary when Pete was eight. The past nine years have been filled with resentment at the town that has taunted him as the son of a jailbird. The words 'you’re not welcome here’ echo in his ears.
But there are those who do care about him – who move in the shadows. And when Pete crosses the line, they fight desperately in a race against time to try to save him from the very real consequences of his lawless actions.
A Dizzying Balance Page 30