by SUE FINEMAN
Hannah took charge of Mother as Andy and Julie came in with Aunt Gina. Alex thought the house would feel crowded with so many people milling about, but it didn’t. Their guests wandered through the house, and Alex heard her mother say, “It’s quite nice for a small house.”
Small? Alex shook her head in wonder. Charlie had doubled the size of the house, and he planned to add a big play room in the basement this winter.
After Julie walked through the house, she talked with Alex in the kitchen. “The house looks great. He’s more than doubled the value with the renovations, and when he gets the basement finished, he’ll add more value.”
Alex held out her left hand to show Julie her engagement ring. “Charlie asked me to marry him.”
Julie gave her a big hug. “That’s wonderful. When’s the wedding?”
“After I get my scars fixed. The surgery is scheduled for next week. Thursday. I’m scared to death about it, but—”
“Why are you scared?”
“I’m afraid they won’t be able to fix it and I’ll always look like this.”
“Oh, Alex. Honey, you’re a beautiful woman, with or without the scars. But I wouldn’t worry too much about the surgery. They can do wonders with plastic surgery these days.”
Andy walked up behind Julie and put his arms around her, hand on her bulging tummy. “Did Julie tell you what the doctor said?”
Alex felt a smile pull at her face. “You’re having twins?”
“A boy and a girl,” said Andy. “Just like Taylor said.”
So Taylor was right. Was she also right about Bobby? That little piece of news had blindsided Alex, but the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea of giving Charlie a son, a little boy to love as he loved Taylor.
While Charlie grilled hamburgers and corn, everyone admired Alex’s engagement ring. Mother cringed every time Wilma got near her, but Alex knew the good-natured collie wouldn’t hurt anyone. She’d never even heard the dog growl.
Charlie handed Taylor a hamburger. “Don’t feed any of this to Wilma.”
“Okay. Uncle Mario is coming.”
“Now, today?”
She shrugged.
He flipped the rest of the burgers on the grill and walked over to ask Alex, “Did you invite your brothers?”
“No. Why?”
“Taylor said Uncle Mario was coming.”
Alex groaned. “I don’t want him here. Did she tell you about Bobby?”
“What about him?”
“Remember when she asked if he could come back?”
He nodded.
“Apparently he’s coming back as her baby brother.”
For about five seconds, Charlie was stunned, then he started to laugh. He leaned down to kiss Alex, then laughed some more. He’d have an interesting life with this woman and their daughter. And Bobby.
Hours later, after everyone left, Charlie put the last dirty glass in the dishwasher and turned it on. “Mario didn’t come. Maybe Taylor was wrong.”
“Maybe.” Alex wiped off the counter. “Just because she saw him coming doesn’t mean he’s coming today. You know what he wants?”
Charlie turned to face her. “The off-shore account?”
She nodded. “This is why I can’t use any of that money for a few years.” She tossed the dishtowel on the counter. “If we don’t need it, maybe I’ll just leave it there for our kids.”
Charlie gazed deeply into her eyes, wondering if he could make enough money for them to live the way she wanted to live. Would a rich girl be satisfied living in a middle class house with a guy who worked two or three jobs?
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Very early Thursday morning, Alex lay in the hospital bed with Charlie by her side. A man wearing green and white came in to take her to the operating room. She slid onto the gurney, hands shaking, and Charlie helped her with the sheet.
The man pushed her to the operating room door and stopped. “Kiss her goodbye,” said the man. He pointed at the waiting room down the hall. “The doctor will be out to talk with you when he’s finished.”
Charlie kissed her. “You’re going to be okay, honey.”
Her eyes fogged with tears. “Will you still love me if he can’t fix it?”
“I’ll love you no matter what.” He squeezed her hand. “I’ll see you when it’s over.”
The doors closed behind her and she was wheeled into a cold, sterile room. A woman wearing green scrubs and a mask put a needle in her arm and Alex went to sleep.
A minute later it seemed, she woke with a nurse rubbing her arm. Alex felt the bandage on her face. It covered her left eye. “Your surgery is over,” said the nurse, “and you’re doing just fine. The doctor is quite pleased with the outcome.”
Alex breathed a sigh of relief and fell asleep.
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Charlie paced in the surgical waiting room, waiting for the doctor to come out and talk with him. Finally, the doctor appeared.
“I removed most of the scarring,” he said. “When she heals, her appearance should be significantly improved.”
“She’s been so depressed about the scarring.”
“Understandable for someone so young and pretty. I’d like to keep her in the hospital overnight. If everything looks good in the morning, we’ll release her then.”
Charlie shook his hand and thanked him, then went up to Alex’s hospital room to wait for her to be brought upstairs from Recovery. The last time Alex was here, she was recovering from a vicious attack. Seeing those scars in the mirror every day was a constant reminder of what she’d gone through. Every time she heard someone whispering about her, she withdrew, until he couldn’t get her to leave the house. One of the local television stations called her for an interview last week, but she turned them down because she didn’t want to see herself on camera.
An hour later, Alex was wheeled into the hospital room and slid from the gurney onto the bed. The whole side of her face was bandaged, including her eye.
As soon as the nurse left the room, Charlie sat beside Alex and took her hand. “You’re going to be beautiful in our wedding pictures.”
She squeezed his hand and a single tear rolled from her right eye. He wiped it away. “Don’t cry, honey. You don’t want to mess up the doctor’s work.”
She dozed off, and a few minutes later, Charlie’s parents appeared with Gina. Mom asked, “Is she okay?”
Charlie gazed at Alex sleeping in the bed. “The doctor said her ‘appearance should be significantly improved.’ She wouldn’t plan a wedding until she had the scars fixed.”
“Poor baby,” said Gina. “She used to be so pretty.”
“Scars or no scars, she’s still pretty,” said Dad. “Vinnie didn’t need to offer any man a bribe to marry her.”
Gina pushed the thought away with her hand. “He wouldn’t do that.”
Charlie exchanged a look with his father and shook his head slightly. This wasn’t the time or place to have this discussion. Alex might hear them, and he didn’t want her to know what Vinnie had done. It would only upset her.
Alex lay quietly with sleep tugging at her, until most of her visitors left the room. Only Charlie remained, touching her, kissing her cheek, and straightening her covers. Did she hear right? Had Papa offered Charlie a bribe to marry her? He didn’t pay him off or Charlie’s bank account would have more in it. But Papa gave him Porcini Trucking.
She felt like crying. First Papa didn’t think Charlie was good enough, then he seemed to come around. Papa must have thought she was too ugly for anyone but a Kane to want her.
Did Charlie propose because Papa gave him the business?
She opened her eye and gazed into the face of the man she loved, and her heart shattered. Why would Charlie take the business from Papa unless they made a deal? “Was it worth it?”
“What, honey?”
“Trading your freedom for Porcini Trucking.”
Charlie sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. “You heard?”
“Why did
you take the deal?”
“I didn’t. Remember when I moved out of the house?”
“Yes.”
“Vinnie tried to bribe me to marry you, and I was so pissed I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I told him I didn’t want his damn business. I said if and when I married you, it would be because we loved each other, not because he bought me.”
“But he gave you the business anyway.”
“Not because I asked for it, and not because we made any kind of deal. I didn’t know what he was doing, honey. Remember when Bernie said ‘no strings’ that day in his office?”
“Yes. Did he mean you didn’t have to marry me?”
“That’s exactly what he meant. But I love you, and I want to marry you. Don’t you want me, honey?”
“I don’t want a man who’d take a bribe from my father.”
“I didn’t take his damn bribe.” He jumped to his feet and paced to the door and back. “Look, if you want me to sell the business and give you the money, I will. Would that make everything all right? Because I’ll do it if that’s what you want.”
The nurse walked into the room. “Ah, ah, ah, no crying. You’ll contaminate your incision.” She looked over at Charlie. “Get out of here. Right now.”
Charlie stormed out of the room, and Alex wondered if he’d ever come back. The nurse changed her bandage, muttering about men upsetting her patients.
Alex was definitely upset. Did Papa think she was so ugly he had to buy her a husband?
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Charlie wandered down the hallway, upset and angry at Vinnie for messing things up between him and Alex. Vinnie had broken them apart seven years ago, and now he was doing it again, from the grave.
Damn it, he couldn’t lose her again.
He didn’t want to lose the business either, but he’d rather lose the business than Alex. Had he done enough to get the business back on its feet? Would someone buy it now? Could he support a family without the trucking business?
His life had changed so much in the past few months. The single lifestyle satisfied him until he discovered he had a child. When he gazed into Taylor’s eyes and held her small hand in his, everything changed. How could he continue going out with different women when he had a little girl at home? How could he love another woman with Alex back in his life?
He’d always been a self-confident man, a man with high principles, but Alex thought he’d taken a bribe from that blustery old man who called himself a father. Some father, trying to bribe a man to marry his daughter, as if Alex wasn’t a prize all by herself.
She wouldn’t marry him now. She probably wouldn’t even stay in the house with him.
All because her father offered him a damn bribe.
Charlie walked outside and down to the parking lot. He sat in his car for several minutes, trying to calm down enough to go back inside. He couldn’t leave her alone, yet he couldn’t face her now. They needed to talk, but when they did, she’d be upset again, and he didn’t want to make her cry. Not now. Especially now, when she’d just had surgery on her face.
Damn it! Didn’t she know he wasn’t the kind of man to take a bribe?
Didn’t she know how much he loved her?
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Donovan walked into Alex’s room with Hannah. Charlie wasn’t there, and all the light had gone out of Alex’s eye. “Where’s Charlie?”
“Gone. What did my father offer him to marry me? The business?”
“Doesn’t matter, because Charlie turned him down.”
“But Papa gave him the business anyway.”
“He didn’t ask for it, Alex,” Donovan said quietly, hoping to calm down an obviously upset woman. “Charlie didn’t take what was offered.”
“Yes, he did. He might not have taken it when it was offered, but in the end, he took it. He took the business Papa gave him, and then he felt so bad about taking it, he asked me to marry him.”
Hannah rubbed Alex’s arm. “No, it wasn’t like that, Alex.”
“I thought he loved me, but I was wrong.” Her eyes filled with tears and she tried to blink them back.
The nurse came in, fussing the instant she saw the tears. “No crying.” She pulled the bandage back and dabbed at Alex’s left eye. “If you cry, you’ll contaminate your incisions and the doctor will have my hide. And yours,” she added.
The nurse glanced at Donovan and Hannah. “No more visitors, Mr. Mayor, not you or your son. All you do is make her cry, and we can’t have that.”
“But we didn’t—”
“Get out. Visit her at home, after she heals.”
“But—”
“Out!”
Donovan took Hannah’s arm and left the room.
“Alex must have heard us talking with Charlie and Gina,” said Hannah.
“I thought Charlie told her about the bribe. If I’d known—”
Hannah draped her arm around his waist. “It’s all right. Everything will be all right. She’s upset right now, but she loves Charlie. She’ll come around.”
“I hope so,” he said mostly to himself. Charlie had drifted for years, jumping from one woman to another. Now that he’d finally allowed himself to love one woman, Donovan didn’t want to see him lose her.
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After the doctor came in to see her, Alex lay in the bed wallowing in self pity. The surgeon was pleased with the outcome of the surgery. She should be happy about it coming out so well, and she was, but it wasn’t enough to look pretty again. She wanted more.
She wanted Charlie, but she didn’t want him because Papa gave him something in exchange for marrying her. She wanted him because he loved her.
He said he loved her, but how could she be sure he hadn’t proposed because his conscience was bothering him. Papa wanted something in exchange for the trucking business. He wanted a husband for his daughter, so she wouldn’t have to shack up with someone.
Papa had always been an expert manipulator, but he must have been desperate to try to buy Charlie Kane. His enemy’s son.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Alex didn’t see Charlie again until he came the next morning to drive her home. He didn’t say much, and she didn’t either. He kissed her, but it was a friendly little peck, not an I-love-you-and-missed-you kind of kiss.
Already dressed and ready to go, she couldn’t wait to get out of the hospital. “Is Taylor all right?”
“She’s fine,” said Charlie. “She spent the night with Billy and Kayla and the boys. Are you still upset with me?”
“We’ll talk about it when we get home.” Maybe she wouldn’t stay. Or maybe she’d move into the guest room. Aunt Gina would let her move back to her apartment at Papa’s house, but she didn’t want to leave her daughter. Taylor would want to stay with Charlie and Wilma.
Alex felt like all the starch had gone out of her. The surgery had left her groggy and her face numb, but it hadn’t affected her as much as learning Papa offered Charlie a bribe to marry her. She wasn’t sure she could ever get past that. That they could get past it.
The nurse rolled her downstairs in a wheelchair while Charlie brought the car around. She slid into the front seat beside him and strapped herself in, and they rode home in a silence so thick she could almost taste it.
As soon as she got inside the house, the words slipped from her mouth as if they had a life of their own. “Why didn’t you tell me Papa offered you a bribe?”
“Because he was dying, and I didn’t want to ruin the last few days you had with him. Would you have believed me?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” She might have believed him then, because it was exactly the kind of thing Papa would have done. He manipulated people, made them do what he wanted, but he did it in a way that made them think it was what they wanted, too.
“I couldn’t tell you then, Alex. I was in love with you, and I wanted to marry you, but after Vinnie’s offer, I had to back away. You were so concerned about your father you weren’t thinking about me anyway.”
&
nbsp; “Yes, I was. I was heartbroken when you left the house, but I knew something had happened between you and Papa.” She walked back to the family room and sank into the soft leather of the sectional she’d bought for that room.
Charlie followed her. “I didn’t want him jerking me around. First he hated me, then he tolerated me, then he wanted me to marry you. I didn’t want to do anything he wanted me to do, but that didn’t stop me from loving you, honey. I’ve been with a lot of women, but I’ve never loved any of them the way I love you.”
She gazed up at him, wanting so much to believe him.
A soft woof sounded at the back door, and Charlie let Wilma in. She came right to Alex, wagging her tail. “Do you miss Taylor?”
Wilma whined her answer. Of course she missed Taylor.
“She’ll be back tonight,” said Charlie. “I thought about leaving her with Billy and Kayla for another night, but she needs to see her mommy.”
Alex leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Charlie seemed contrite. Was it because he felt guilty about taking the business from Papa, or did he really love her?
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Ten days later, Charlie was at work in his new office when Alex called. “We’re at the grocery store, and Taylor is upset. She said she needs to talk to her daddy right now.”
“Okay.”
Taylor came on the line. “Daddy?”
“What’s wrong, Punkin?”
“Uncle Mario is coming to see Mommy.”
“Coming where? Coming here?”
“No, to our house. He’s got a gun.”
Oh, no! “I’m on my way home right now, Punkin.”
“No, he’ll hurt you.”
“Okay, it’s okay. I’ll call the police. We won’t let him hurt anyone.”
The phone clicked off, and Charlie immediately called Dad. “Taylor says Mario is coming to see Mommy, and he’s got a gun. I think he’s looking for the numbers to Vinnie’s off-shore account.”
“What off-shore account?”
“Doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have the numbers, and he’s not getting the numbers. I sure as hell don’t want him in my house. I’m leaving work now, and if I find that son-of-a-bitch in my house, I’ll kill him.”
Charlie raced home, praying he didn’t get stopped for speeding on the way. When he pulled up in front of the house, he saw Dad parked down the street, waiting for him. Or maybe he was waiting for the police. Knowing Dad, he’d already called them.