Charles sat back, and turned toward her. “One of the ladies I slept with, Abigail Ridge, is pregnant, Jenay.”
There was a moment, after he said those words, when Jenay felt as if she had lost her hearing. She had to have misheard him. But she didn’t. Then she felt as if she had just been sucker-punched. “Pregnant?” she asked. She was requesting a clarification she didn’t need.
“She’s thirteen weeks or so. I saw the labs.”
Jenay frowned. “But we’ve been together for that long, Charles,” she said. “Haven’t we?”
“Not quite that long, no. We decided to give it a try the day I showed up at your house for your graduation. I was with her a week or so prior, yes, I was. But I haven’t been with Abby, or any other woman, since that graduation day. That was the day we agreed to give our relationship an all-out try. I’ve been with you, and only you, since.”
“But. . .,” Jenay started saying, and then shook her head.
Charles could see the anguish on her pretty face. He squeezed her hand. “But what, baby?”
“She’s pregnant? She’s going to have your child?” Jenay frowned. She still couldn’t resolve it in her head. She thought about all those years she tried to have a baby with Quince. She thought about all those years when she couldn’t. Now this woman, Charlie’s side bitch, was pregnant?
Charles hated to have to admit it himself. “Yes,” he said. “She’s going to have my child.”
“But how do you know for sure? I mean, how do you know she’s telling you the truth?”
“I saw the lab results,” Charles said. “And after she left my office, I phoned the doctor myself. He could not confirm or deny of course, but he knows me. Before he hung up, he commented on how Abby appears to be gaining a little weight, and how she will undoubtedly have to go shopping for bigger clothes soon.”
Jenay looked at him. “So he violated his patient’s confidence without violating it?”
“Right.”
“That’s still unethical, Charles.”
“That’s still Jericho, Jenay.”
Then a sadness came over Jenay. “Is she showing?”
“Oh, babe!”
“Charles?”
“No. I don’t know. I think she’s been able to conceal it.”
Then Jenay shook her head again. “A week before you came to my graduation, you had been with her?”
“A week-and-a half before, but yes.”
“But . . . I thought you were interested in me.”
Charles frowned. “I was interested in you. I am interested in you totally. Why would you question that?”
“Why do you think?” Jenay asked. But then she decided against even going there. Men and their libidos never ceased to amaze her. She, instead, thought about what it all meant, and how he would be duty bound to marry this Abby person, and she found herself fighting back the tears. She fought them with everything she had. She didn’t cry when Quince dumped her. She wasn’t crying when Charles let her go too. She stood up.
But Charles stood up too, and grabbed her by the hand. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to get back to work. Don’t make this any more difficult than it already is,” she added. Tears were welling up in her eyes. She was losing the battle fast. “I’ll find another position, I’m sure I will. But you’ve got to give me some time. That’s only fair.”
Charles frowned. “What are you talking about? What position? Give you time for what?”
Jenay looked at him. “I know how it works, Charles. You’ve told me repeatedly. Where you come from a man marries the woman he impregnates. That’s why Donnie married Susan, remember? That’s why you married your first wife.”
Charles couldn’t believe it. “You think I’m going to . . . You believe I’m going to leave you and marry Abby?”
Jenay didn’t understand why he would ask such an obvious question. “You said she was pregnant. You admitted you had been with her. You know you’re the father.”
Charles took her by the arms and looked her dead in the eyes. “I’m not marrying her,” he said.
“What do you mean? You have to. You said---”
“I know what I said! But that was before I met you. I’m not available anymore. I’m off the market. I’m not marrying her.”
Jenay had emotions all over the place. Was he telling her the truth, or what she wanted to hear? But Charles never told her or anybody else what they wanted to hear, unless it was the truth. “You’re not . . .I mean, we’re not breaking up?”
“Breaking up?” Charles could not believe she would even think such a thing. “Are you nuts? We’re just getting started! I’m not letting her or anybody else screw up what we have.”
“But she’s going to have your baby, Charles. What if she’s expecting you to follow the Jericho tradition? What if she’s expecting you to step up and do the right thing?”
“I am stepping up and doing the right thing. I’m being with you. That’s the right thing. I’ll take care of my child, and I’ll take care of my child’s mother. But she’ll never be my wife. She knew the terms of our relationship going in. She knew it would never be any more than what it was.”
“Booty calls,” Jenay said, to call a thing a thing.
Charles nodded his head. “Booty calls,” he agreed. Then a distressed look appeared in his eyes. He began to rub her arm. “I’m so sorry, Jenay,” he said.
She stared at him, and then touched the side of his face. “I can’t fault you for something that occurred before we decided to be in a committed relationship. I’m disappointed it happened too, but it’s something we’ve got to deal with now.”
Jenay thought about the ramifications, and she looked distressed too.
“What are you thinking about?”
“It’s going to be hard,” she admitted. “I’m sure she’s going to make a public display about it, and try to embarrass me by telling me and everybody else the so-called news. I’m sure she’s going to try to pull a page out of Paige’s playbook and make certain I know that she’s yours, and that she’ll forever be tied to you. But I’ll deal with it.”
But not if Charles could help it. He took her by the hand. “Let’s go,” he said as he began walking them toward the parking lot.
“Go where?” Jenay asked, walking swiftly with him. “Where are we going?”
“To let her know.”
“To let who know?” Jenay asked, although she knew who. “To let her know what?”
“To let her know that there is no daylight between us. To let her know that she can put on public displays all she care to, but she’ll be the fool. Not you.”
Jenay looked at Charles as they headed for his Jaguar. She’d never met a man quite like him. Talk about nipping it in the bud! Talk about ending it before it got started. Talk about doing the right thing.
She’d never met a man quite like Charles.
“Big Daddy just drove up,” the maid said to Abby Ridge. “And he’s got a woman with him.”
Abby, dressed in jeans and an oversized blouse, was in the kitchen, preparing a salad, and she immediately began to think. “The woman that’s with him?” she asked her maid. “Does she happen to be black?”
The maid nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Abby frowned. So he wanted to play it that way, she thought. Then she immediately placed the top back on the salad dressing. “Invite them in,” she said to her maid, “and offer them drinks.” She began heading up the back stairs that led to the second floor. “Tell them I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the maid said, as Abby left. And then the maid she shook her head. “These women and their tricks,” she murmured, as she hurried to let Charles and the woman in.
But after she sat them down, and offered and then brought to them their drinks, it would be another ten minutes before Abby made her entrance. And an entrance it was.
“Charles!” she said gaily as she walked down the rounding staircase. Jenay and Charles
both looked up as she stepped down in her sweeping nightgown/robe peignoir set that ballooned around her with every step she took. She was gorgeous. Even Jenay had to admit how beautiful a sight she was to behold. And now she was carrying Charles’s baby. In that outfit, her baby bump was showing. She had the trump card, and had to know it. She wasn’t dressed this provocatively, Jenay knew, for her health.
“I didn’t expect to see you again today!” Abby went on. “I was about to take my afternoon nap.”
Charles ignored her lies and cheeriness and didn’t stand as she entered the living room. He was still convinced she had stopped taking the pill and had set this up. He had no proof, and would never know unless she told him so, but he would always believe it. Besides, it was his fault too. He was no innocent bystander here. He should have never stopped wearing a condom. The question for him wasn’t if she planned this, but why did she plan this now? They’d been sleeping together for a dozen years. Why did she wait until this late date to pull a trick like this?
She sat down. “Hi,” she said. “I’m afraid I don’t know you.”
“This is Jenay Franklin,” Charles said. “Jenay, Abby Ridge.”
Abby smiled. “Nice to meet you, Jenay.”
“You came to my office today and told me you were pregnant with my child,” Charles said.
Abby already knew he was a crude man who wouldn’t know how to be diplomatic if his life depended on it, but she didn’t expect him to be this blunt. And especially not in front of his new piece on the side. But two could play that game.
“Yes,” she said. “I believe in getting things out in the open. I believe in telling the truth and nothing but the truth. I believe--”
“You believe in bullshitting people day and night,” Charles interrupted her. “Yeah, I know what you believe. I just want to make sure you know what I believe. I believe that if you try to turn this pregnancy into the talk of the town, and try to make a mockery out of this good woman right here, then I believe you’re going to have some difficulties. I believe you’ll get on my bad side. And you don’t want to get on my bad side.”
Abby hesitated. “What are you talking about?”
“Go around town talking. Try to make it appear as if you have some upper hand on her relationship with me. Try to make her look bad. And you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.”
“I don’t know what you’re implying. I told you about the pregnancy, and I expect you to show honor and respect and do what any man of honor would do.”
“I’ll take care of my responsibility. I told you that. But that will not include marrying you.”
Abby’s heart pounded, but she refused to let her anguish show. She didn’t get pregnant because she wanted a baby! The last thing on the face of this earth she wanted was a baby. She got pregnant to force his hand. His marriage hand! Now he was talking as if he wasn’t going to go along. He was talking as if he wasn’t about to agree.
And the fact that he would bring that woman with him. That should have said it all to her. She could put her beauty on display, and try to get him to see what he would be missing if he gave her up, but it wasn’t going to do a damn bit of good. People were already talking about how different Charles treated his new bed warmer. People were beginning to suggest he might actually love the woman. Abby doubted if Charles knew the meaning of love, but one thing was for certain: she was on her way out, and this one, this new one, was in.
She decided, for her own self-respect, to reverse it. “Did you mention marriage?” she asked, as if she couldn’t believe he would suggest such a thing. “Who says I would ever want to marry you? I liked our relationship just the way it was. Now a child is involved. You do what’s right by this child, and you’ll have no problems from me.”
Charles expected far more fireworks from Abby. She’d been discreet throughout their long-term affair, but she seemed desperate in his office this morning. But now she was claiming marriage wasn’t on her radar screen. She was lying. He knew she was lying. But just as long as she knew that he was not.
He stood up, with Jenay rising too. “I’ll take care of my child,” he said. “But that’s as far as I’ll go.”
“That’s as far as I want you to go,” Abby responded with umbrage. “You need to stop suggesting otherwise. You’re telling me not to make a mockery out of her. Then stop making a mockery out of me!”
Charles looked at her. A lesser man would have been touched by her bravery, by her independence, and would never think of it as what it was: an act. An Academy Award-winning performance. Charles and Jenay left. He felt he had gotten his point across.
But as soon as he left out of her house, and drove off of her property, Abby went ballistic. She threw things and trashed the room. She cursed from the top of her lungs. By the time Reeva and the maid made it into the living room, she had slumped down on the floor, and was sobbing.
They both looked at each other, wondering more about the future of their employment than the future of their hateful employer, and then hurried to her side.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Norm told horror story after horror story about his new job as a chef on a cruise ship, and Jenay couldn’t stop laughing at his funny spin on every episode. She had her computer’s webcam on, and had been videoconferencing with her two old friends from hospitality school, Norm and Denise, for nearly half an hour. This was their Saturday ritual. They always took time from their busy schedules, to stay in touch.
“The Three Oddateers,” Norm said. “One day we’ll be together.”
“Yes, we will,” Jenay agreed. “But you have got to get off of that cruise ship gig first.”
Norm laughed. “Isn’t it crazy? Me on a cruise ship? And it’s not like it’s a luxury liner. It stays in port and take old ladies up and down the bay from six at night to midnight.” They laughed. “I always dreamed of owning my own restaurant, or working in the best of the best of five-star places. And this is what I do for a living.”
“Well, I’m happy,” Denise declared. She was seated behind her desk at her home office, and was rubbing the bottom tip of her long hair.
“You have no job,” Norm said, “but you’re happy?”
“I have a good man. He’s taking care of me.”
Norm shook his head. “Talk to your girl, Nay. Talk to your girl. Relying on a man is not the way to go. I should know. So should you.”
Jenay smiled. She was cutting up potatoes at her kitchen countertop. “I talked to her,” she said. “Repeatedly. I told her about the mistakes we made. But she seems to think our fate won’t become hers.”
“It won’t,” Denise said. “Mark is really good to me. He loves me.”
“Peter loved me too,” Norm said. “Until he didn’t.”
“Quince loved me too,” Jenay said. “Until he didn’t.”
“Whatever,” Denise said. “All I can speak for is Mark. And he loves me. He takes care of me. I’m happy.”
“What can you say?” Norm asked Jenay. “And speaking of men, how’s yours?”
Jenay hesitated. She hated that she told them about Charles. But she needed somebody to talk to about it! “He’s okay.”
“He’s still gorgeous?” Norm asked.
Jenay smiled. “He would say yes.”
“He seem mean to me,” Denise said. “I don’t like him.”
“You don’t have to like him,” Norm said “Jenay does. And she’s head over heels.”
“I don’t know about that,” Jenay said as she tossed a peeled potato in her bowl of water.
“I know about it,” Norm said. “You didn’t pack up and move all the way to boring-ass Maine for your health. And you certainly didn’t move there to run some small town B & B, I don’t care how luxurious you claim it is. You went to Maine for that man. Period. Full stop. End of discussion.”
“You are so judgmental, Norman,” Denise said. “You think you know everything.”
“Not everything,” he admitted. “But I know Jenay Fran
klin.”
The doorbell rang just as Denise was about to lash back at Norm. “Got to go, guys,” Jenay said, feeling as if she was saved by the bell. “We’ll talk later.”
“Bye girl,” Norm said.
“Be good,” Denise said.
Jenay clicked off. And then she wiped her hands on a dish cloth and, with cloth still in her hand, she hurried for her front door.
She looked out of her peephole, saw that it was Brent, and gladly opened up. Donnie was a bust, in terms of her relationship with Charles’s children, but Brent and Tony had been wonderful. She rarely ever saw Robert.
“Hello, Brent, come on in!” she said.
Brent hugged her lightly and then entered her small home. “Cooking something?”
“I haven’t started yet. I was peeling some potatoes.”
“Oh, okay. Dad here? I saw his car out front.”
“He’s in the back. In the bedroom.”
“He’s still in bed, isn’t he?”
Jenay laughed. “Almost,” she said. “I heard the shower running, so I think he’s up now. But that father of yours? He is not a morning person.”
“And he never will be,” Brent said as he made his way down the hall that led to the master bedroom. When he walked in, his father, standing in his boxer’s, was just putting on his shirt.
“Good morning,” Brent said. “Or should I say good afternoon?”
Charles began buttoning his shirt. “How did you know I was here?”
“Come on, Dad. Since you met Miss Jenay you haven’t been exactly unpredictable. If you’re not home, or at your office, you’re either here or at the Inn. I took my chances and came here first.”
Charles looked at him. He wasn’t buying it.
“Okay,” Brent said. “Tony told me you spent the night here. Satisfied? So I came on over.”
“Why? And please don’t tell me Kerstin’s father needs a loan or some other friend of yours need my help. I’m not in the helping mood this morning.”
Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) Page 20