by Lori Ryan
“Excuse me, I need to go to lunch,” Jennie said, anxious to get away from Theresa.
“Oh, great, I’ll go with you. We can talk more,” Theresa said.
“No!” Jennie shot out before realizing how her response sounded. “I mean, I have a lunch meeting I have to get to.”
Just then Chad walked by. Jennie hoped Chad would understand her signal when she reached out and grabbed his bicep as he walked past.
“Chad, are you ready for our lunch meeting?” Jennie asked. She felt Chad’s arm tense under her hand, but he seemed to quickly catch on.
“You bet. If you’re ready now, that works for me,” Chad said. Chad put a protective hand on Jennie’s lower back and walked with her to the elevator.
***
Theresa seethed as she watched Chad and Jennie walk into the elevator together. Theresa had hoped Jennie would be able to tell her more about this bitch, Jill, the whore that had sunk her claws into Andrew. There could only be a few reasons for marrying so quickly. Either she was after Andrew’s money and he was falling for it… But no, Andrew wasn’t foolish. He wouldn’t fall for that. Even though he was a man and no doubt thought with his dick half the time, he wasn’t completely stupid.
Maybe his girlfriend was pregnant. Fucking whore probably trapped him on purpose.
Theresa focused on breathing. Breathe in and out. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Deep breaths from the abdomen not the chest. Just the way she had been taught. Breathe in. Breathe out.
Better.
Now. Think this through. Debbie has to be dealt with again. Didn’t expect that bitch to show up at work so soon. Then I need to find out what the hell this girlfriend did to sucker my Andrew into marrying her.
Theresa walked back to her desk. Calmly, quietly. One foot in front of the other. She placed her feet carefully. Precisely. These little exercises in calm precision helped Theresa maintain her outer facade. Helped show the world the view they needed to see.
Have to be careful now. Any more ‘accidents’ and people will suspect.
Theresa decided to leave Debbie in place for now. She’d figure out how to deal with her later. Right now she needed to lay low and do some reconnaissance on the girlfriend.
Just wait it out. Bide my time. Recoup and make a plan. Execute the plan. I can do that. I can do anything – for Andrew.
Chapter Twenty-seven
As soon the elevator doors closed, Chad turned to Jennie. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms as he studied her face.
“You okay?” Chad asked softly.
Jennie nodded, unable to speak.
“Gonna tell me what that was about?” Chad raised an eyebrow at Jennie and waited, his voice soft, reassuring.
“Something’s wrong with that woman, Chad. She’s scary. And really, really focused on Andrew.”
Now Chad was all business. “What woman?”
Jennie recounted the odd way Theresa talked about Andrew. The weird questions about Jill and his engagement. The creepy feeling she got whenever she was around Theresa. Jennie didn’t mention the way Theresa had grabbed her or the fact that she suspected her arm was already bruising. She kept her sleeves down and her mouth shut. If Chad heard that, he’d likely fire Theresa on the spot and Jennie knew that firing someone had to be well documented and done carefully to avoid repercussions. Jennie didn’t want her creepy feelings about Theresa to come back to haunt Sutton Capital if she said something to make Chad act too rashly.
“Are you going out on assignment this week, Jen?” Chad asked when she had finished telling him about Theresa.
“No. I’m in house for the rest of the month,” Jennie said.
“Good. Consider Theresa your assignment. See if you can get close to her. Let me know if you see or hear anything unusual. And document everything. I’ll fill Jack and the head of Human Resources in on your assignment but other than the four of us, let’s keep it quiet.”
Jennie nodded.
“Come to me with any concern. If she has you at all worried, if you don’t feel safe, you come to me. Got it?” Chad instructed.
“Got it, Boss,” Jennie said.
“Good.” Chad grinned as they stepped out into the lobby. “Now let’s get that lunch.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
The next few weeks passed in a whirlwind for Jill. Andrew surprised her with a stunning ring. The thin band was inlaid with diamonds and a large round yellow diamond was set in the center and surrounded by more white diamonds. Jill didn’t think she would have been able to pick a ring more suited to her sense of style if she had tried. The fact that Andrew chose something so perfect for her took her breath away.
Andrew’s attorney had, in fact, written up a prenuptial agreement with Andrew’s ‘penalty clause’ written in. It had taken quite a bit of insistence on Andrew’s part to get his lawyer not only to do it, but also make it ironclad, but in the end Andrew had gotten what he wanted. He also asked Jill to have her lawyer look over it to be sure it was done right.
Andrew and Jill announced their engagement to friends and family. Nora wanted to host an engagement party but Jill and Andrew convinced her they wanted the affair to be more quiet and private. For once, Nora backed down.
They set the date for spring. Since it was nearly Thanksgiving now, that gave Jill plenty of time to plan things. She wanted a small wedding, with both the ceremony and the reception at Nora’s house. Andrew still needed to sell his downtown condo and find a house they both liked, but there was time for that, too. And, with the way their tastes so often meshed, Jill had no concerns on that front – she was certain she and Andrew would find something easily.
Andrew and Jill began to spend their weekends at the ski cabin that Andrew, Jack, Chad and some of their other friends from grad school all owned together in Vermont. The group had bought the cabin back when they were still in school. Even though most of the group had plenty of family money and easily could have bought the cabin through their families, the friends had insisted on using their own money on it and sharing the expense.
At the time, they didn’t have much money of their own, so there were a total of six of them that each owned a share.
Now that many of the owners were getting married and starting to think about children – or already had children on the way – they had plans for each of the owners to build their own ski cabin on the property in the next few years. They’d leave the original cabin as a place for guests to stay. To that end, they had bought up additional property on the mountain and now owned the upper two thirds and one of the group, an architect, had begun to work on plans for the new cabins.
Most weekends in the winter months, all or some of the six and their significant others could be found there. Jill loved the weekends at the cabin. She trekked through the woods on snowshoes with her cameras while Andrew skied. Jill spent the evenings with Andrew, surrounded by good friends and laughter. She felt wonderful enveloped by so much love and couldn’t believe the way Andrew’s friends all opened up to her instantly. She felt content and happy there.
In fact, Jill felt content and happy all the time now. When she was with Andrew, things just felt right. She felt cherished and appreciated and valued in a way she hadn’t in her marriage. Jill also felt good because Andrew seemed happy and content too – and how Andrew felt mattered to Jill. She felt as though she and Andrew were more in sync with their goals and what they wanted from each other, what they wanted in life than she and Jake had ever been. There was a unique synchronicity to Andrew and Jill.
During her marriage, Jill had told herself it was okay when her husband didn’t want to try to have another baby. Now Jill realized it wasn’t okay with her. She’d been fooling herself to try to make their marriage work. Jill wanted to have a baby. More than one, in fact, and Andrew wanted that too. She wanted to be able to give that to Andrew, to share that with him.
Today, Jill and Kelly planned to spend the day shopping for wedding dresses before Jill met up with A
ndrew to make the drive to the ski cabin after work.
She heard Kelly honk her horn outside and grabbed her purse and her bag for the weekend before heading out the front door and climbing into Kelly’s car. Since Jill and Andrew were leaving right from the appointment at the dress boutique, Kelly and Jack were going to grab Rev later. They would keep Rev overnight then bring him up when they came to the cabin tomorrow.
“Hi, Kels,” Jill said as she climbed into the passenger seat of Kelly’s little red BMW.
“Hi! I can’t wait to get to the store and start shopping. It’s so exciting to be looking for a wedding dress,” Kelly gushed as she pulled out of the drive.
“I know. I’m more excited than I thought I’d be. I kind of thought it wouldn’t be a big deal since it’s my second time around. Jake and I did the whole giant wedding thing the first time, so I don’t want anything big this time, but I really can’t wait to find the perfect dress.”
Jill and Kelly would need to look for bridesmaids’ dresses as well. Jill’s best friend from college, Amy, would be her maid of honor and Kelly would be her bridesmaid. She and Andrew had decided to keep the number of attendants small, with Jack and Chad standing with Andrew.
Kelly pulled into the parking lot of the small bridal boutique where she had found her dress and she and Jill went inside. Kelly spent a few minutes catching up with Bria, the owner of the shop, before they got down to business.
“Now then, Jill, I have a bit of a different process than most bridal boutiques. I like to get to know a bit about you and the groom so I can help steer you toward the right dress for your connection. Most people think that the wedding gown should only be about what the bride likes, what looks good on her, what will fit well. It should be so much more than that, don’t you think?” Bria asked, expecting Jill to agree with her.
“Uh, I…” started Jill, but Bria just continued on and Kelly sat nodding encouragement.
“So, tell me about Andrew. Tell me why you love him,” Bria ordered.
Jill swallowed. How could she tell them that this marriage wasn’t about love. It was about safety, security, and never having to wonder if one day love would fade or passion would fizzle. Jill couldn’t tell them that. She would be mortified. She would just tell them the things about Andrew that she loved. There were many of those, even though she couldn’t ever let herself fall in love with the whole.
“Um, I love the way he thinks of my needs first, I guess?” she started, a little weakly.
Kelly and Bria both nodded and looked as though they were waiting for more.
“Um, I uh, I love the way he cares about my opinions and feelings.” It was getting easier now. She was on a roll. “I love the way he calls or texts me throughout the day to see how I am. And, I love the way he sometimes just knows when I’m in a bad mood and then knows how to get me out of it before I even realize what he’s doing. I love his kisses and the way it feels when he holds me.”
Jill was blushing now so she stopped and stared at Bria, hoping that would be enough. Bria smiled and jumped to her feet. “Strong and steady. I know the perfect dress for such strong, steady love!” she said.
Bria ran to the back of the room, leaving Jill with only one thought. Yes, strong and steady, that’s what Andrew is.
***
Jill had never seen such a crazy method for choosing a wedding dress but, the dress had been perfect. A floor-length, simple sheath with tiny pearls sewn around the bodice. It was classic, abiding and endless, in a style that would never fade. It draped beautifully on Jill, accentuating her tall, slim build but still showing the curve of her hips and breasts. It was simple enough to be just right for a second marriage, but it was elegant with enough flair to make Jill feel beautiful and desirable.
As Jill and Kelly left the bridal shop, Jill continued to fight the nagging feeling that she was falling much further than she should allow herself to fall for Andrew. In fact, fighting that feeling was becoming an exhausting and hopeless endeavor.
***
The weekend at the cabin was a particularly fun one because all the owners were up at the same time. In addition to Chad, Jack, Kelly, Andrew and Jill, the three other men who co-owned the cabin arrived over the course of Friday evening and Saturday morning. Cade Jeffers arrived with his girlfriend, Sylvia. Those two had arrived first and got the heat turned up and a fire burning. Cade was an architect in New York City and Sylvia was an interior designer.
Greg Burton and his wife Liz came up from Hamden. Greg owned a consulting firm in New Haven and Liz owned a catering business. Since Liz couldn’t help but cook when she was with a big crowd, she had soup simmering and dough rising for loaves of homemade bread within an hour of her arrival.
The last of the group was Trent Lang and his fiancée Deidre. They had recently relocated to Boston, where they both worked in finance.
Jill had become friends with the group in the short time she had known them. Even though she was a bit of an outsider since they’d all known each other for so much longer, they were all such warm and welcoming people that she felt relaxed with them.
Jack and Kelly brought Rev up when they arrived Saturday. Jill loved to see how happy Rev was wrestling with Zoe, running in the snow, and letting everyone spoil him with tummy rubs and ear scratches. He got a few too many table scraps and treats over the weekend but it made Jill happy to see him so content. It also tugged at her heart to see how happy Rev and Andrew were to see one another. Andrew seemed to have adopted Rev in his heart and Rev didn’t object to that at all.
The only niggling seeds of doubt came at the end of the weekend when Cade pulled out the plans he was working on to build each of the partners their own cabins. As Jill listened to him outline the plan for the property, she began to feel uncomfortable with the idea that this special place of Andrew’s – a place he shared with such close friends – would now be tied up in their penalty clause. She didn’t think she could stomach the idea of taking anything so close to his heart and using it to tie him to her forever…wrong.
Andrew met Jill’s eyes across the room and, as always, seemed to read her mind. Crossing the room, Andrew wrapped his arms around Jill and looked into her eyes.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Andrew whispered softly.
Jill frowned as she tried to find words to explain. “It just seems wrong. I can’t take this from you. We can’t put this in the penalty clause.”
Andrew looked over his shoulder at the others in the room and then pulled Jill down the hall and into their bedroom and shut the door.
***
Andrew looked at Jill and tried to read the emotions on her face. She looked agitated. Sad. Guilty. There were too many emotions playing over her beautiful features.
“What do you mean? Everything goes in the clause.” Andrew stood in front of Jill with his arms crossed as if immovable.
Jill shook her head. “No, Andrew. This place is too special to you. It’s for you and your friends. I don’t want it in the clause.”
Jill looked like she was close to tears and Andrew struggled to reassure her. He knew the truth. He knew that he loved her. That his love was the reason he would never leave, not some clause in a contract, not the material things he had picked up along the way in life. The material things meant nothing next to her.
But Andrew couldn’t risk losing Jill by telling her how he felt. If he said the words and she got spooked and ran, he might not get her back.
With his hands on her upper arms, he gave a firm squeeze. “No, Jill. It’s all or nothing. Everything goes in the clause. I’m not worried about losing it. Don’t you see? I’m never leaving. I’ll never walk away. That’s the point. You can believe in that with all your heart.”
“But––” Jill began.
“No. No buts, Jill. That clause will never come into play. I’m here forever.”
Jill nodded and let him kiss her, wrap her in his arms. But Andrew wasn’t sure she truly believed him. If Andrew could ensure that ever
ything went into the clause, maybe she would begin to believe. Maybe someday she would relax again.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Jill kept an eye on Rev as she refilled the bird feeders in her front yard. As usual, the dog was racing around the yard without a care in the world. If she hoped to spot any birds later today, she’d need to keep Rev in the house long enough for the birds to come out of hiding.
Jill almost dropped the bag of birdseed a minute later when she heard Rev’s deep barking. His happy barks were higher pitched, but once in a blue moon, Rev found something that needed to be warned off and then his deep, growling bark came out with threatening force. Like now.
Jill looked up at the unusual sight of Rev standing at the front of the yard. His whole body was launched, hackles up, teeth bared as he barked at someone in a car.
“Rev, come!” Jill called out as she started jogging toward him. The yard was deep, the house set back from the road, and that made it hard for Jill to make out the person in the car. A woman? The car started and drove off, leaving Rev barking behind it. As the car pulled away, Rev circled back to Jill, but he didn’t calm down. He stood with one back foot on her foot, body still coiled and ready as he watched the spot where the car had been.
“What was that all about, big guy?” Jill crouched and stroked his chest. His whole body was still tense.
Andrew came up behind her.
“What was that about? I heard him from up in the bedroom.” Andrew had been sleeping in while Jill and Rev filled the bird feeders.
“I don’t know. He gets protective on very rare occasions but never anything like that. He’s a Labradoodle, for heaven’s sake, not a guard dog. I don’t know what brought that on.” Jill gazed up at Andrew, confused.
“Did you see who it was?” Andrew asked.
“A woman? Maybe? I couldn’t see much. I didn’t notice the car at all until Rev started barking. Probably nothing. Someone visiting a neighbor or something.”