Million-Dollar Marriage Merger

by Charlene Sands

  She looked peaceful tucked in her bed, her face scrubbed of makeup, her thick, dark hair falling freely onto her pillow. She made an enticing picture, one gorgeous leg extending out of the tousled sheets, her body glistening in the slight moonlight streaming in.

  Tony’s heart lurched seeing her alone in that bed. Certainly the night hadn’t ended on the happy note he’d planned. He wouldn’t join her tonight. She’d made it clear what she thought of him. She’d made it even clearer that she didn’t want him near her.

  As complex as their situation was, Tony believed that they belonged together. He hoped that the time they’d spend away from each other would help her see that. He wouldn’t even consider the possibility of not having Rena in his life.

  Right now, she was angry with him. She had a temper. And so did he. They were both passionate people, and that’s one of the things he loved most about Rena—her zest for life. She wasn’t a wilting flower. Not by a long shot.

  She’d been hurt many times by him and by his family, but she refused to let him make it up to her. It was as if she’d relished the rift they’d had so she wouldn’t have to face facts. She wouldn’t have to realize that she had strong feelings for him.

  Tony closed the door quietly and took up a place on the sofa with a bottle of Purple Fields’ award-winning merlot. He poured a glass and knew he wouldn’t be sleeping any time soon. The wine would lull his senses somewhat, but Tony couldn’t shake a bad feeling that had wedged its way into his gut.

  Before sunrise, Tony rose from the sofa. He stretched out the kinks in his shoulders, slanting his head from side to side and shaking out the rest of his body. With stealth, he moved through the house to peek in on Rena again. She slept.

  Tony cast her one long look before turning back around. He showered in the bathroom down the hall, and once he was dressed in the same clothes he’d worn the night before, he made himself a cup of coffee and walked outside. Sipping the steamy brew, he glanced toward the winery, glad to see Raymond’s car parked in front.

  He found him checking on the crusher. “Morning,” he said.

  Raymond glanced at him. “It’s a beautiful one.”

  Tony nodded, his mood not so bright. “Listen, I have a favor to ask. I have to go out of town for a while. Can I depend on you to check on Rena for me?”

  “Sure, you can count on me. And Solena will be around all week, too. Those women are like two peas in a pod.”

  “Yeah, Solena’s a good friend. Both of you are.”

  Raymond removed his latex gloves. “Is there any reason you’re asking? Is Rena feeling poorly?”

  “No, she’s fine. It’s just that,” Tony began, scratching the back of his head, hating to admit this, “I doubt she’ll take my calls when I’m gone. We had a disagreement, and she’s being stubborn.”

  Raymond laughed. “I hear you. I’ll keep an eye on her. You can call me anytime.”

  Relieved, Tony slapped him on the back. “Thanks. I appreciate it. Well, I’d better get going. I’ve got a plane to catch.”

  Tony drove to the Carlino estate and packed his clothes in a suitcase, hoping to find his brothers there. No one was around but the housekeeper and gardening crew. He’d been on his own, traveling from city to city for the better part of twelve years but had never felt the sense of desolation he felt now.

  Tony knew it was a short trip and that he’d be back, but leaving with Rena angry at him didn’t sit right. He was sure no amount of persuading would change her mind. He conceded that they needed time away from each other, yet as his driver dropped him off at the airport and he boarded the plane heading for his first on-screen interview in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the retired champion, a sense of foreboding clutched him.

  And as the plane landed and Tony was picked up by ESPN’s limo driver, he couldn’t shake the strange feeling in his gut.

  Rena deliberately waited until she heard Tony’s car pull away before she rose from bed and showered. Her anger had turned to sadness in the light of day, and her heart ached at the sense of loss she felt.

  She’d tried trusting Tony, and he’d once again disappointed her. The situation was so darn tangled up in her mind, the past and present mingling into a giant miserable heartache. She had every reason to feel the way she did. Tony would always put his career and his life ahead of hers. He looked out for numero uno.

  Even if she were able to put the past behind her, how could she trust him to raise her child? She couldn’t bear the thought of him disappointing her child again and again. Scenarios played out in her head, and she envisioned Tony simply not being available when they needed him.

  Rena dressed in a pair of stretch jeans that accommodated her growing belly and a loose tank top. She pulled her hair up in a ponytail and secured it with a rubberband.

  She didn’t have to give any wine tours today, which she deemed a good thing. Her heart just wasn’t in it. She’d cried so hard last night that even now her breathing was less than even.

  Digging deep in her soul, she’d have to admit that the house seemed empty without Tony here. He had a presence about him. Life wasn’t dull when he was around. But Rena would have to get used to that. She’d be alone again. She’d come to the realization that maybe she wasn’t meant to have anyone in her life.

  She’d endured so many losses, and if it weren’t for the new life she nurtured, she wouldn’t know how to go on.

  But the baby above all else gave her hope.

  When a knock resounded at her door, her nerves jumped, and images of Tony returning home to her flashed instantly in her head.

  She opened the door wide and faced Raymond. Disappointment registered, surprising her. She’d analyze that feeling later. “Oh, Ray. I didn’t think you’d come to work today.”

  “I wanted to check in. Uh, I was checking the crusher and destemmer yesterday, and I didn’t like the way they sounded.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “No, not really. They’re just old. Don’t work like they once did. I fiddled with the crusher a bit. We sure could use a new one.”

  “Well, maybe we’ll be able to get one soon.” Rena hoped so. They’d be making a profit again, thanks to Tony. Purple Fields was due for some refurbishing. “There’s a few things I’d like to change around here.”

  “Sure would be nice.”

  “Want to come in? I was just going to have some orange juice and toast. You’re invited if you have time.”

  “No thanks, Rena. Solena fed me a big breakfast already.” He patted his flat stomach.

  She chuckled, shaking her head at the dark-haired man who’d become such a good friend. “I don’t know where you put it.” Raymond could eat like a truck driver, yet he remained lean and fit.

  “One day it will catch up with me,” he said, with a certain nod. “Well, I just wanted to say hello. Everything okay here?”

  “Just fine. I plan to have a quiet day. Maybe do some reading.”

  “We’re home today if you need anything.”

  “I won’t. But thank you. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

  Rena bid farewell to Raymond and finished her breakfast. She sat down on her sofa and read five chapters of her book on what to expect as a new parent, did a load of laundry and as she walked down the hallway to put the folded linens away, she passed the empty nursery filled with paint cans. Excitement stirred in her stomach. Distraction kept her loneliness at bay, and she’d run out of things she’d wanted to do. Except for one.

  “Why not?” she asked herself. “I have all the supplies I need.”

  You were going to paint the room with Tony.

  “Can’t wait around for something that might not happen,” she grumbled, answering aloud her innermost thoughts.

  Rena put on one of David’s old shirts, grabbed a ladder from the supply room behind the winery and set out the drop cloths on the floor of her baby’s room.

  Sunshine beamed into the undressed windows, and warmth flowed into the room. She imagined a
few months ahead, when her baby cooed with happiness in his crib, surrounded by all his things, the room a very light shade of sage-green.

  “That’s it,” Rena said with a smile. “Not yellow, but green.”

  She grabbed her father’s old boom box from the hall closet, dusted it off and plugged it in. She sang along with the pop music blaring from the radio, humming when she didn’t know the words. She opened the paint can with a screwdriver and stirred the lead-free paint feeling assured that the fumes wouldn’t hurt the baby.

  When the phone rang, Rena turned the radio down and listened to the voice speaking into her answering machine.

  “It’s Tony. Just wanted you to know that I’m here in North Carolina. Rena, we need to talk when I get back. I know you won’t believe me, but I miss you.”

  Rena squeezed her eyes shut. She nibbled on her lip, putting the paint roller down, wishing Tony wouldn’t say those things. Though he sounded sincere, his words always contradicted his actions.

  “Well, I guess you’re not going to pick up the phone. I’ll call you tomorrow. Goodbye, Rena.”

  Rena sunk down to the floor and sat there for a long time, rehashing everything in her mind. But the bottom line, whether she deemed it rational thinking or not, was that Tony had once again left her. He hadn’t put her needs first.

  Rena’s mood shifted then. She’d been enjoying painting the baby’s room until Tony ruined it—like he seemed to ruin everything else in her life. She had a good mind to tell him not to call again, but that would warrant her picking up the phone and speaking to him. She couldn’t do that for fear of what she might say.

  In truth, she didn’t know how she’d react with him saying nice things to her from miles away.

  She had no faith in him.

  And yet she was deeply in love with him.

  Yes, she finally admitted that she’d fallen in love with him when she’d been a lovestruck teen, and those feelings just wouldn’t go away. Having him back in her life had rekindled that love, as much as she had fought it. As much as she didn’t want it to be true. As much as she thought herself a fool for allowing him back into her heart.

  “Why is it so complicated with you, Tony?” she whispered. “Why do you constantly torture me?”

  On a deep sigh, Rena stood and decided to fight those feelings. She wouldn’t allow Tony’s phone call to mar the joy she’d felt just moments ago. She picked up the paint roller and continued on until she’d finished painting two walls. After an hour, she stopped and stepped back to view her work.

  “Not bad,” she said, her mood lightening. The sage paint on the wall dried to the prettiest hue of green.

  She took a quick water break and peeled an orange she’d picked from her kitchen fruit basket. Sitting down at the table, she gobbled up orange wedges and rested for a while, flipping through a baby magazine, getting decorating ideas.

  Eager to finish, she headed back into the nursery and turned the radio volume up. Frank Sinatra crooned, “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” the disc jockey deeming the song ageless. Rena saw irony in the song’s lyrics as she hummed the melody.

  She positioned the ladder against the third wall where an opened window faced out toward acres of vineyards. Late afternoon air blew through the screen and cooled the room. “This is the best room for you,” she said, laying a loving hand over her tiny round belly. It gladdened her heart that her child would see Purple Fields at its finest, when the leaves grew strong and tiny beads of grapes flourished to plumpness.

  Rena filled the tray of paint atop the ladder and began rolling the uppermost part of the wall. When the news broadcast came on the radio, Rena tuned it out, too enthralled in baby thoughts to focus on anything the broadcaster had to say until she heard Tony’s name mentioned. She stopped to listen.

  “And in sports news, retired race car champion Tony Carlino is back on the scene. In an interview today in Charlotte, North Carolina, amid thousands of fans, Carlino admitted that he’d been contemplating a return to racing….”

  The paint roller dropped from Rena’s trembling hand. Sage-green paint splattered the walls in big drops as the roller hit the ground. Woozy, she swayed and grabbed for the top of the ladder, but her light-headedness won out. She lost her balance and fell backward, landing on the floor with a solid thud. Pain throbbed in her head just before the world went black.

  Tony removed the microphone from his shirt the second the interview with the jackass newscaster was over, the whole time wishing he were back in Napa instead of sitting in a press booth in North Carlolina, thousands of miles away from his wife. His mood had gone from resigned to irritated in two seconds flat, when the newscaster spun his words in a continual effort to press Tony about his nonexistent return to racing.

  After a heated off-air exchange between them, Tony left the press box fed up with all the hoops he’d had to jump through today just to meet the terms of his contract.

  He wasn’t looking forward to spending the next few days making a commercial either. He didn’t want to be here, not when he’d been making headway in his marriage to Rena. Day by day, in small increments, they were working through their problems. There seemed to be some light at the end of the tunnel. She’d started to trust in him again.

  Now, she wouldn’t return his calls.

  And he couldn’t blame her. He’d let her down, going back on promises he’d made to her.

  His agent followed him outside the press booth and they left the racing venue together. “Tony, what’s eating you? I’ve never seen you react that way to an interviewer.”

  “You heard him, Ben. He wouldn’t let up on me. How many times does he have to hear no?”

  “You made your point.” Ben, always the diplomat, tried to appease him, but Tony wasn’t ready to let it drop.

  “He misconstrued my words and circled around the truth. Make a note, I never want to do another interview with him.” Hell, he didn’t want to do another interview with anyone. It was becoming more and more clear where Tony’s place was.

  “Well, it’s over and done with now. Forget about it.” Ben slapped him on the back. “Come on, let me take you to dinner.”

  Tony shook his head. “No thanks. I’m beat. I’m going to head back to the hotel.”

  “Okay, get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning for the commercial shoot.”

  Tony bid his agent farewell and took a limo back to his hotel. When he arrived at the Hyatt, instead of going to his room, he headed straight for the cocktail bar and ordered a double whiskey.

  He sat there, thinking about his life and all he’d accomplished. He wasn’t one to ever give up when he wanted something. He’d had obstacles in his way, but he’d never had much trouble overcoming them. At least, not until now, with Rena.

  He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find a beautiful young blond woman taking a seat beside him. “You’re Tony Carlino, the racecar driver, aren’t you?”

  “That would be me.” He sipped his drink.

  “Would you like to buy me a drink?”

  Tony stared at her and saw the bold, provocative look in her eyes. She made no bones about what she wanted; she had “groupie” written all over her meticulously salon-tanned body. At one time, he might have indulged her and welcomed the fringe benefits that would’ve come afterward. Now, his thoughts were of his pregnant wife and the miles between them.

  He finished off his drink and set a fifty on the bar. “Sure, have whatever you want on me. I’m going home to my wife.”

  And hours later, Tony put the key in the lock and turned the doorknob to Rena’s house. The three-hour time difference from the East Coast put him back in Napa in the late afternoon, and he was grateful for regaining those hours. He’d spent more time in the air today than he’d spent on the ground in North Carolina. Wondering about Rena’s reaction when she saw him, Tony opened the door slowly.

  “I’m the last one to give advice on romance, Tony. But it seems to me from a logical standpoint, you need a gestu
re of some sort. Some way to show her how much she means to you.”

  Joe’s words had stayed with him, and grand gesture or not, Tony knew in his gut that he had to return home to Rena tonight—it had to be tonight.

  There were things he had to say. He needed to clear the air between them. Especially after what had happened in North Carolina earlier today.

  “Rena?” he called out, noting how quiet the house seemed. Again, he called her name and was met with silence. He hadn’t seen her in the fields when he’d driven up, but then he wasn’t really on the lookout at that time. He strode down the hallway and heard static coming from a radio. “Rena, are you here?”

  He followed the sound to the room across from their bedroom. One look inside made his skin crawl. “Oh my God.” A pool of green paint oozed from an overturned paint tray, the drop cloth doing its best to contain the puddle. Near the radio on the floor, Tony spotted something red. Initially, he froze and prayed that it wasn’t what he’d thought. He moved quickly and bent to touch the crimson liquid and bring it to his nose. It wasn’t wine or paint.

  It was blood.

  “Rena’s blood,” he breathed out. Plaguing thoughts of her being injured and bloody raced through his mind. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Please, God.”

  His cell phone rang.

  Tony answered it immediately. “Tony? It’s Solena. I’ve got some news—”

  “Where’s Rena?” he bellowed into the phone.

  “We just arrived at Napa Hospital. I’m in the ambulance. She took a fall—”

  “I’m coming. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  “Ten minutes? Where are you and how—”

  “I’ll explain later.” Tony shut off the phone and ran out of the house. His main concern was to see Rena. He climbed into his car and hit the road, driving twenty miles an hour above the speed limit. Luckily, the roads were nearly empty, but even if they hadn’t been, it wouldn’t deter him. Nothing was going to stop him from getting to Rena.

  He arrived at the hospital in eight minutes and strode with purpose to the emergency room desk. The clerk questioned his relationship to Rena Montgomery. “Damn it, she’s my wife.” He clenched his fists.