by Hannah Ford
Kallie glanced at Hunter to see what was the matter, because she sensed instantly that something was wrong. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were flat and motionless as he stared straight ahead. She saw that his knuckles were totally white on the steering wheel.
She wanted to ask what was wrong, but knew better. No personal questions allowed, especially nothing about his psychological state of mind.
It took the woman some time to get the old man in the wheelchair across to the other side of the street, but finally she did. There were now a few cars waiting behind them and someone honked two short, blaring bursts.
Hunter turned around in his seat and glared out the back window. The honk came again, louder and longer this time. And then another. This time the driver practically laid on the horn.
“Oh, is that a problem?” Hunter shouted, pulling off his seatbelt in an instant and opening the driver’s side door faster than Kallie would have thought possible.
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Hunter was out of the car and staring at the impatient driver, a younger man in a hoodie who looked like a deer in the headlights.
The guy in the car shrank in his seat and refused to even look at Hunter, while Hunter continued to stand and look at him, as if daring him to do something.
Kallie was shocked and horrified, worried that the police would be called—worried that Hunter had lost his mind.
A moment later, he was back in the car, slamming the door, and driving again.
Kallie didn’t dare say a word.
After a minute or two went by, Hunter seemed to relax just a little. “People have no sense of decency.” He breathed hard through his nostrils, shifting in his seat as he drove. “There was a disabled person crossing the street. That guy couldn’t even walk. Someone had to push him in his wheelchair, Kallie.”
She looked at Hunter, seeing the pain in his eyes. Her mind flashed back to the picture she’d found in his old copy of Blue Horizon. The picture had been of an older man in a wheelchair.
“I understand,” she said, not really understanding anything, but knowing that there must be some connection.
Hunter nodded, his shoulders coming down even more, as if her words had soothed him somehow. “Can’t even fucking walk. Probably needs twenty-four hour care, and some people…” He shook his head slowly. “Some people just don’t get it.”
The rest of the drive was quiet, and of course some of the magic had gone out of the day. When he pulled up to the end of the private road to let Kallie out, Hunter suddenly reached over and took her hand.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he told her.
She looked at him. His eyes were sad, deeply sad, she thought. “It’s okay.”
He smiled at her. “I’ll be in touch soon.”
Kallie nodded, and then opened her door and got out. Hunter gave her a quick wave, turned the car around and left.
***
Kallie wasn’t prepared for what she found when she went inside the house.
There was a loud argument going on in the foyer, and at first she was almost wondering if she’d been dropped off at the wrong mansion.
There was an older woman dressed in a lovely olive overcoat, wearing a jaunty hat and standing beside a small rolling suitcase. And this woman was screaming at Nicole, and Nicole was screaming back at her.
“I don’t know how you got past the front gate,” Nicole was saying to the older woman, her arms crossed, her face redder than Kallie had ever seen it.
Instantly, Kallie thought about Nicole’s blood pressure. “Nicole, is everything—“
The old woman ignored Kallie completely. “I’ll tell you how I got through the front gate. I told them who I was. I’m Red Jameson’s mother, and I’ve known him a lot longer than you have. I raised him from when he was in diapers. Do you know what that means? No, you haven’t a clue.”
“What I know or don’t know about raising a child has nothing to do with this,” Nicole told her. “Red does not want to see you right now. I’ve tried my best—“
“You’ve tried your best?” his mother laughed. Actually, she cackled, Kallie thought. The woman’s eyes were like two little black marbles, rolling in her head. She looked totally unhinged.
“I did,” Kallie said. “I tried to make peace, I tried to be a buffer. But you make it impossible, Erica. If you’d waited until we were ready to invite you…”
Erica stepped forward, pointing. “I want to see my son and I want to see my granddaughter. I will not be treated like this, Nicole.”
Kallie was completely caught off guard. She had no idea what was happening or what had caused the situation, but she was more than aware of Nicole’s health concerns.
But Nicole wasn’t backing down. She stepped forward too, and she was taller than Erica, and her eyes were suddenly just as fierce. “You listen to me,” she said. “This is my house. I want you out of here, or I will have you removed.”
Kallie saw a strange look of fear—or maybe it was hatred—pass across the older woman’s face. But then she simply turned around, grabbed the handle of her suitcase, and started to walk to the front door.
Kallie was standing in her way and she stepped aside.
Erica gave her a nasty up and down look. “Is this who was going to remove me from the premises? I’d like to see her try it.”
“Just get out or I’ll throw you out myself,” Nicole said, tiredly.
Erica looked back at Nicole with a sneering, puling expression. “There are some things you might rather not know about your amazing, wonderful husband, Nicole. I’m warning you. You’re going to regret treating me this way. Maybe it’s time you realized who it is you really married.”
And with that, Erica opened the door and left. Kallie closed and locked it behind her.
Nicole sighed with relief, but then walked quickly to the phone on the wall. “Hello, my mother-in-law was somehow let through the front gate without our permission….yes….I understand. She’s leaving now. Please see to it that she exits our property immediately.” Nicole hung up the phone, and then turned, putting her hands on her hips.
“Come on, you need to go sit down and have a drink of water,” Kallie told her.
“I’m fine.”
“Nicole, it’s doctor’s orders. Come on.” Kallie escorted her into the living room, to one of the comfy chairs. She got her a footstool so she could put her feet up, and a glass of water.
“That woman is certifiable,” Nicole said, when Kallie brought her the drink. She held it to her forehead and sighed again. “Certifiable.”
“What happened? What’s her story?” Kallie asked, sitting down nearby.
“It’s a long story,” Nicole said. “The bottom line is that she’s not a very nice woman, and Red isn’t interested in having her in his life right now. Despite that fact, I tried to include her a little bit where I could, tried to build a relationship with her myself. But she’s just a nasty piece of work, as you can see.”
Kallie nodded. “She scared me.”
“She scares me too.” Nicole shook her head as if trying to clear the memory of Red’s mother from her mind. “And now I’m worried that she’s going to continue harassing us. Did you hear what she said at the end?”
Kallie nodded. “It was probably just idle threats, though,” she said, not really believing it. That woman didn’t strike her as the type who made idle threats. She seemed like the kind of woman who enjoyed exacting a painful revenge.
“I can’t do anything about her,” Nicole said, finally. “I’m just going to focus on the amazing things I have. My daughter, my husband. Good friends.” She gave Kallie a quick wink.
“Good idea,” Kallie said. “Are you going to tell Red about what happened today with his mother?”
Nicole thought about it. “I suppose I should, although it’s anyone’s guess how he’ll handle it. He might try and have her arrested and imprisoned,” she said laughing, showing that she wasn’t serious. “Or he might com
pletely shrug the whole thing off.”
“It’s too bad there are people like that in the world,” Kallie said.
Nicole nodded, taking a drink of her water. “But then again, there are some equally amazing people too. And that makes it all worth it.”
Kallie thought about Hunter, then, and wondered if she was wrong in believing that he was one of those amazing people that made life “worth it,” as Nicole would say.
If only she could understand more about why he did the things he did—if only he would let his walls down just a little bit. If she could get through some of his defenses, maybe she’d know for sure if it was more than just a crazy game they were playing with one another.
Perhaps I just need to try harder to learn the truth, she thought suddenly. And then she realized that she would try harder, even if it meant risking everything.
***
Kallie had not heard from Hunter since their last encounter. She tried not to think about it, because she knew that he was a busy person and he’d even mentioned needing to return to his work after spending so much time together.
I have my own work to do, she thought, even though her schedule was fairly light until Riley came home from the hospital, which would be just about any day now. The baby’s health was good and everyone seemed confident that she would be home within the next week to ten days.
However, Kallie did find something to occupy her time when Danielle and Kane made their way to the house for dinner with Nicole and Red one night.
Chef Roland prepared the meal (duck confit with risotto and mixed vegetables) and everyone drank wine and talked and laughed.
Kallie was sort of invisible during the meal. She enjoyed watching everyone’s interactions, since the foursome had a unique chemistry. Red and Kane were constantly sparring with one another verbally, making jokes about how one of them had trumped the other in business or some such nonsense. Neither of them seemed to take it very seriously, and she sensed that the two of them held one another in particularly high regard.
Nicole and Danielle were obviously quite close. Kallie found herself a little jealous of their friendship, but she knew that it was silly to be competitive about something like that. Nicole and Danielle had known each other longer, and they shared some very unique circumstances in both having married such rich and powerful men.
The most interesting thing was watching Danielle and Kane, though. Danielle was always pecking at him, nagging him, touching and adjusting his clothes, making comments about his hair, or talking about how she wanted him to go with her somewhere that he didn’t want to go.
It was also obvious that Red and Nicole thought their friends were ridiculous. They would frequently exchange bemused smiles when Kane and Danielle were arguing about why he needed to let her go through his cell phone call log at the end of each night.
Danielle said that it had been Kane’s idea for her to do it, as a way of establishing trust. Whereas Kane claimed that Danielle had thrown a tantrum until he’d agreed to give her full access to everything—his phone, computer, email accounts, and all of his passwords.
Personally, Kallie thought that Danielle was kind of nuts, and that their relationship was bordering on something from junior high school, but she also sort of admired Danielle’s tenacity.
So it was, that after dinner when everyone was milling about and talking before people left for the evening, Kallie decided to pull Danielle aside and pick her brain.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” Kallie asked, beckoning her toward the veranda.
“Sure,” Danielle said, checking on everyone else.
Kane and Red were looking at Red’s humidor and discussing cigars, while Nicole went to the bathroom.
They moved to the veranda and got some privacy. “I know this probably seems strange,” Kallie said, “but I actually wanted to ask you for some relationship advice.”
Danielle’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “I figured I’d be the last person anyone would ask for advice. Especially after the way Kane made me sound tonight.”
Kallie laughed. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“I only went through his call logs a couple of times, in the beginning.”
“Of course.”
“And once more last week, but that was…that was different,” Danielle said, waving it off as if swatting away an annoying mosquito. “So what did you want my advice about?”
Kallie bit her lower lip nervously. “Well, you know I’m seeing Hunter.”
Danielle nodded. “Yes.” Her terse response told Kallie exactly what she thought of that situation.
“And, the thing is…he’s not very forthcoming about his personal life.”
Danielle began to smile, slowly at first, but then it was a huge grin. “I get it, now. You want to know how I do it. You want me to tell you how I broke Kane down so that I know all of his private business.”
“Sort of. I just want to know more about Hunter.” The truth was, she hadn’t wanted tips about relationships, as much as she’d wanted to find out how much Danielle knew about Hunter’s “real” life.
And maybe Danielle made that connection too, because suddenly her expression grew thoughtful. “The thing is, Kane’s always been more of an open book. I mean, sure he has secrets—all men do—but he wasn’t the type who built his entire life around them.”
“Do you think Hunter’s built his life around secrets?”
“I don’t know Hunter that well, Kallie,” she replied, shaking her head. “I know you’re struggling to figure it out…”
“I saw him talking with a woman the other night. And I thought—”
“Of course he’s talking to women,” Danielle laughed. “I told you already. Hunter is a womanizer. He’s always going to be talking to somebody. Always. I wouldn’t waste my time trying to figure out who and where and when. Just know they’re always around, like fast food restaurants. You don’t ask which McDonald’s your friend is going to pick up a burger at—they’re everywhere.”
Kallie sighed. This conversation wasn’t going as planned. Danielle just hated Hunter, plain and simple. And maybe she was right to hate him, maybe he was as big a player as she was making him out to be.
She decided to try another tactic.
“There are other things, too,” Kallie said. “Things that have nothing to do with women.”
“Like what kind of things?”
So Kallie told her about the picture she’d found in Hunter’s bedroom—the one of the old man in the wheelchair—and the way Hunter had reacted to the man being pushed across the street in a wheelchair the other morning. “I imagine that there’s something from his past,” Kallie said, “something painful.”
For the first time, maybe ever, Danielle was quiet. She looked thoughtful and unsure. “Wow. I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, do you know something about it?”
Danielle looked through the door into the house, and she lowered her voice to nearly a whisper. “It’s not really my place to say. Obviously he’s not comfortable telling you this himself.”
“Please,” Kallie said. “I’m not going to do anything with this information. I’ll never tell him you told me. I just want to understand him.”
Danielle sighed. “Well, I just happened to have been reading some of Kane’s old emails awhile back. It’s not important why,” she said, waving at that pesky mosquito again. “But I happened across an email exchange between Hunter and Kane where they talked about Hunter’s father. Apparently he was paralyzed from the neck down.”
Kallie put a hand to her mouth. “Oh no.”
Danielle nodded. “I guess Hunter took care of him for a long time—maybe five years? I don’t exactly know the details.”
Kallie’s eyes started to fill up. No wonder, she thought. No wonder…
“His father’s dead now,” Danielle said. “He passed away a few years ago, I think. I don’t know much else about it, and I probably shouldn’t have even told you this much. Kane has
no idea that I read those emails.”
Kallie looked down, struck by how much emotion she felt upon hearing this bit of information. “I won’t tell anybody,” she said. “I appreciate you trusting me enough to—“
“I don’t really trust you,” Danielle said. “I’m just kind of a bigmouth sometimes. I probably should have kept my lip zipped.”
Kallie laughed. “Well, that’s an honest assessment.”
Danielle shrugged. “Look, you know what I think about Hunter. Just because he’s had some tough times doesn’t give him the right to treat women like they’re disposable cameras. He just uses people and tosses them aside when he doesn’t need them anymore. I think you should stay away from him. That’s my advice, since you asked.”
I won’t make that mistake again, Kallie thought. But she didn’t say it. “I appreciate what you’re saying, and I’ll keep it in mind,” she told her.
Danielle smiled. “I know what that means.” She turned to leave the veranda. “Best of luck with all of that.”
A few minutes later, Kane and Danielle had left and Kallie was alone with her thoughts. She went to her room and laid on her bed, staring into space and trying to make sense of it everything she’d been told tonight.
Hunter was clearly damaged by what he’d gone through with his father, but it didn’t really tell her anything about why he needed to have this kind of relationship with women. In the end, she still couldn’t get any closer to him if he wouldn’t let her into his life.
***
Hunter finally contacted her again the following evening, around midnight.
He sent her one brief text.
Meet me tomorrow at my house @ 3pm.
She sent him a reply that said she would be there, and he never responded to it. Par for the course, she thought.
But still, she was excited.
Her mind raced as she tried to fall asleep that night, wondering what he would do the next day when they saw each other. Would he want to bring her to the basement and try out one of his machines? Or would it be one of the nights where he made love to her in his bedroom, passionately kissing her, looking in her eyes, making her feel real and seen and understood?