by Woods, Karen
Josh interjected, “Her home was destroyed by fire earlier this evening. We’ve stopped off and gotten her a few replacement clothes, and a few more will be delivered tomorrow. The bodyguards will bring the bags in.”
“Oh, you poor girl,” Betty Henderson said with deep and sincere sympathy. “You take her on up, Josh, and I’ll brew up a tisane to settle her shattered nerves and help her sleep.”
“Bring up my brandy as well, Betty, please,” Josh instructed. “I’ll sit with her for a while. It’s been a traumatic evening for her.”
“Of course it has,” the housekeeper replied. “Take her on up and get her settled in. I’ll be up presently.”
They walked up the marble stairway to the second floor. He opened a door and turned on the light. “This is your room.”
She looked around the room. The walls were covered in a light blue corded silk. The floor was a highly polished light oak, covered in a plush and very expensive wool area rug. The furniture was all oak, including a large canopy bed with bed curtains. There was a large window with a window seat. She crossed the room. The view overlooked his swimming pool and she could see the tennis courts from here. “It’s a very nice room. Thank you.”
A couple of his bodyguards brought in the clothes, before handing her the bags. They left as unobtrusively as they’d come.
“The bathroom is through there. You need a long soak in the hot tub to relax your muscles,” Josh said.
After putting down the shop bags on the dresser along with her purse, she walked over to the bathroom. The bathroom was larger than her old apartment. A huge raised hot tub was accented with colorful Mexican tiles. The tub was easily big enough for several adults. Steaming water filled the tub. At the other end of the room was an equally beautifully tiled shower, a shower larger than her bathroom in the efficiency apartment.
He stood just behind her. Geri didn’t need to turn about to be aware of him.
“There are new toothbrushes and probably some combs in the center drawer of the cabinet. Help yourself to the shampoo and toothpaste. Neither of them is probably your brand. I’m sorry about that. Towels are in this closet. When you’re done with the towels, just toss them down the laundry chute here. Betty will see your personal laundry done as well.”
“This is your bathroom?”
“This is the master bathroom. My room is just through that door. If you need anything, just sing out. I’ll be right in.”
“And the room you’ve given to me?”
“Was originally intended as the nursery. But, since Mandy and I never had children…”
Is that how he sees me, as the child he never had? Geri wondered. The thought of being seen that way by this man whom she loved with all her heart made her stomach hurt.
“I don’t want to intrude,” she rushed into words, covering up her hurt.
“Trust me, this place is so empty at times I dread coming come to it. I’ll enjoy having someone else around.”
“If you dread it so much, then why do you stay?”
“Out of habit more than anything else, I suppose. The ranch is home. Besides, it makes a statement for business dinners.”
“The statement being, ‘This guy is rich enough he doesn’t need our business, but maybe if we hang around him some of this will rub off on us’?”
He laughed. His laugh had always touched her heart. Tonight was no different. “Close enough.”
“Appearances can often be much of what swings a deal,” she said, leaving the bathroom. “Thank you, for everything. I can never repay you for your kindness to me.”
“I haven’t done anything,” Josh denied.
“I think you’re wrong there. You’re putting yourself on the line for me. I appreciate it, even if I don’t fully understand why,” she said, taking a seat in one of the pair of overstuffed leather armchairs in the room. A small table with a lamp on it stood between the chairs.
“I take care of my people, Geri… You look like you are about ready to drop.” He sat down in the other chair.
“I’m terribly tired.” She yawned.
“I don’t doubt it, at all. The hour is well after oh two hundred. I know you in the office early this morning, even before I arrived. Have you had a decent night’s sleep since this harassment began?”
“No. Not really.”
“No wonder you’re tired. Go ahead. Take a hot shower, then soak for a while in the tub. If you can force Betty’s tissane down, it will help you sleep. Mandy used to swear by it.”
“Why are you doing this for me?”
“I told you, I take care of my people.”
“No, business is important. However, it doesn’t warrant risking one’s life over. Giving me shelter right now is doing precisely that. Why have you put yourself on the line for me?”
“Do you remember the day you first came to the offices?”
“Of course. There was a whole reception room full of applicants for three engineering jobs you had open.”
“My nephew, Davy, was playing in the room. Elaine was keeping an eye on him. Sis hadn’t been able to get a sitter and had dropped him off at the offices while she had to go to her doctor’s appointment. He was supposed to be in the employee’s day care, but he had managed to sneak away. He’d broken the launcher on his toy helicopter.”
“He was so upset over something that could really be fixed rather easily,” Geri recalled, shaking her head.
“You went over to him, sat down on the floor, letting him sit in your lap at the coffee table there, and fixed the toy for him, letting him ‘help’. You were so involved with that repair you ended up asking Elaine to call you later, because you were busy at the moment.”
“I couldn’t have left the little fellow in the lurch. When Elaine called me for the interview, the launcher was in pieces on the table. It really was a simple fix. Yet, it was in process. Davy would have been utterly broken hearted if I had left it in that state. I’d promised him I would fix the toy, and that was exactly what I intended to do.”
“I had to see this for myself, so I came out into the reception room. There you were, your tool kit spread out on the table. I stood there for a couple of minutes watching you.”
I remember being watched. But I hadn’t dared turn around.
“I liked your take charge attitude, your having carried a useable, and obviously well used, tool kit with you, and your willingness to carry through with a commitment even when it could have possibly meant losing the job. That was a major factor contributing to why I hired you in the first place.”
“I thought it was my resume and transcripts.”
“Your resume was impressive. It was obvious you were not only brilliant, but also well acquainted with painstaking work. You had several years working summers and part time during the school year for a demolition company as a blaster. That said you had a profoundly calm disposition, and you were capable of doing work of careful detail under pressure. You were number one on the short list of candidates just based on your resume and credential file. But, that willingness to stand by your promise even when it could have cost you the job was the deciding factor in why I actually hired you.”
“I really like my job.”
He smiled at her. “You do your job and you do it very well. Hiring you was one of the best business decisions I ever made.”
Geri sighed. First a child and then a business decision. Not exactly a promising chain of developments. She resolved not to spend more time under this roof than was absolutely necessary. It would be far better to leave on good terms than to ever let him know how deeply she felt about him when it was clear he didn’t feel anything more than friendship for her. She couldn’t bear it if she ever saw pity in his eyes.
A knock came at the door before she could say anything. Betty Henderson came in carrying a silver tray containing a teacup and saucer, a bottle of brandy and a crystal brandy snifter, and a teapot. The tray also contained a plate of assorted sandwiches and another plate containing an
assortment of homemade cookies. Placing the tray on the table between the chairs, the housekeeper began, “Miss Erikson.”
“Please, call me Geri.”
The housekeeper smiled. “Miss Geri,” the housekeeper continued, “I thought you might be hungry.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Henderson. That was considerate of you.”
“I’m Betty. I’ll send your suit out to be cleaned and pressed, if you will leave it outside your door.”
“Thank you, Betty.”
“Good night, then,” the housekeeper said.
“She’s something else,” Geri said after Betty had gone.
“That’s an understatement. I’m going to miss her when she retires in a week,” he answered. “Take one of the sandwiches. You have to be hungry.”
“Actually, I’m not in the least hungry.”
“Well,” he said as he picked up half a roast beef sandwich, “I am.”
“Help yourself.” Geri poured brandy in the glass and handed it to Josh before pouring herself a cup of the tissane.
“You might want this instead,” he warned.
* * *
She took a sip of the tea. He watched her reaction to the brew. She looked at the cup as though she had just sipped liquid manure. Personally, he’d always thought the brew smelled rank.
“Terrible stuff isn’t it?” he asked.
He’d never understood how anyone could choke that brew down. But Mandy had sworn by it.
“Not the world’s best,” Geri agreed easily as she carefully set the cup back down. He dumped the cup of tea back into the pot. He went into the bathroom and rinsed out both the cup and the pot. When he returned, he poured a little brandy into the teacup.
She sipped the brandy. “Makes me feel like a Victorian dipsomaniac, hiding her drinking by using a teacup.”
He chuckled before he sipped some of the brandy as well. “You need to put some food on your stomach if you’re going to drink. Otherwise, the alcohol will hit you way too fast.”
She took a half of sandwich and bit into it. “This is good.”
“Betty spoils me. Have a cookie.”
“I can’t afford the calories.”
“Enjoy life while it lasts, Gerianne,” Josh urged her. “A sandwich and one cookie isn’t going to hurt you.”
“Enjoy life while it lasts because it could end tomorrow?”
“I didn’t mean it that way, but it’s appropriate, given the circumstances,” he allowed.
He watched her take a larger drink of the liquor. “Why are you putting yourself in the line of fire now, for me?”
“After Mandy died, you covered for me, kept the corporation running smoothly, and gave me the several kicks in the pants I needed to get my act back together. You weren’t afraid of me, even though my mood was as black and dangerous as midnight. You didn’t tiptoe around me. You were virtually the only one from management whom I didn’t intimidate.”
“I don’t intimidate easily,” she replied.
“Obviously. You stood your ground and made me take a long look at what I was doing to myself. All the while you were pulling me through my crisis, you were dealing quietly with your own far more serious crisis. You never once let on to me or anyone else around work that you were having any kind of trouble. I will never forget that. I owe you more than I can tell you.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Josh. You would have pulled yourself up by the bootstraps sooner or later,” she dismissed as she finished the cup of brandy. “You’re too driven to have done anything else.”
“You’re a fine one to talk about being driven, Woman,” he replied, putting a little more brandy in her cup.
“Aren’t I, though?” she answered before she sipped more of the brandy. She could feel the effects of the alcohol.
“You’ve never been afraid of doing whatever it was that you needed to do. And you’ve never complained, or even talked about how hard it was. You’ve simply seen what had to be accomplished, rolled up your sleeves, and gotten the job done. I admire that in a person.”
“I’ve been afraid far more often than you might think. There are times I feel positively like a gutless wonder,” she admitted after finishing her half sandwich.
“That’s the last phrase I would attribute to you,” he asserted. “You are a strong, capable, intelligent, and beautiful woman whom I would trust to do anything you would set your mind to accomplishing. Have some more food.”
“With that description, you’ll have me looking for a red S painted on my undies. I’m not superwoman,” she protested, feeling the effect of the liquor on her nearly empty stomach.
She didn’t normally drink. Oh, there would be the occasional half-glass of wine with dinner. She would nurse a single white wine spritzer or glass of champagne throughout a business cocktail party. That was about the extent of her social drinking. Tonight, she didn’t care. Any avenue of escape, however temporary, was welcome.
If she had been alone tonight, she wouldn’t have been drinking. Yet, Josh was here, and he would keep her safe. She knew that as well as she knew her own name. She wouldn’t ever be in danger as long as he was around. At least, she wouldn’t be in danger from outside sources. She could well be in danger of making a complete fool of herself with him. But, at the moment, she really didn’t care. Many things could be later dismissed as drunken ramblings or as the aftermath of a danger induced adrenaline rush.
* * *
He shook his head. “No, you’re not superwoman. Every once in a while, we all need help. When I needed you, you were there for me. I want to be here for you now.”
“I won’t stay here longer than necessary.”
“I always thought you’d have married and have had children by now,” he said. Smooth move, Joshua. She’s looking at you like you’ve sprouted horns and a tail. Well, in for a penny… “You’ve always been so good with kids. I thought you’d have started raising some of your own by this point in your life.”
“There’s nothing in the world I’d like more than a family of my own. But for me, children have a prerequisite of marriage. And marriage proposals have been non-existent in my life. It seems I intimidate a lot of men.”
“Boys. You’d intimidate boys,” he corrected. “A real man isn’t afraid of a strong woman. There’s nothing more amazing than the partnership between a man and a woman who is his equal. Only an insecure boy would be intimidated by a real woman.”
“Then there are an awfully lot of thirty, forty, and fifty something year old boys in the world who falsely believe that they are men. I believe I’ve run into more than my fair share of them,” she said before she finished her second cup of brandy. “Could I have some more please?”
Josh poured her another quarter cup of brandy. “You might want to go easy on that,” he advised. “You aren’t exactly used to spirits.”
“Tonight, I need it,” she replied as she took another sip. “I need it, rather badly.”
“You’ll pay for it in the morning,” he warned.
“Tomorrow can take care of itself. I’m just concerned about making it through the remaining dark hours tonight.”
“Speaking of your intimidating boys, that lawyer you hang out with doesn’t seem too intimidated by you,” Josh stated, changing the subject. He could have easily suggested several pleasurable ways they both could get through the night, together. Yet, she was under his protection and under the influence of alcohol. He wouldn’t take advantage of her while she was so vulnerable. It wouldn’t be right.
“Brad?” she asked in clear disbelief.
“Bennet. You’ve brought him out here several times as your escort for company events. He hardly seems intimidated by you.”
She giggled. It was a thoroughly inebriated sounding giggle.
He smiled at her. She had just drank more alcohol in a short period of time than he had ever seen her drink at one sitting, anytime during the ten plus years she had worked for him. She was drinking on a relatively empty stomach. At l
east, she would be able to sleep. That was more than he would be able to do knowing she was just here in the next room. Lord, of all the women in the world, why was it Geri who managed to bring me back to life? And why now?
“I can’t even begin to imagine what it would take to intimidate Brad. Maybe the entire third fleet, with their guns turned on him. Maybe. But, he’s always been absolutely unflappable. He’s a rock. An absolute rock. His name should have been Peter, as much of a rock as he is. I’ve often envied him that soul deep confidence of his. That’s part of what made him a good Naval officer and what makes him such a terribly effective lawyer.”
“You’ve known him for a long time, then?”
“Yeah, I’ve known him forever,” she replied as she poured herself another partial cup of brandy. “I have,” her voice broke, “I guess I now have to say I had, a picture of him at my Christening. My prints are all gone now.”
“I’m sorry. Losing everything has to be a terrible feeling,” he said as he watched her drink down yet more brandy.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, too. But, I’ll handle this.”
“I know that you will. If there is a woman on the face of the earth who can handle this, it’s you,” he said in a reassuring voice. “You just don’t have to handle it alone.”
“Thanks. I do appreciate it. I’d scanned most of my photos and saved them to a remote server. So, I should be able to have them reprinted with no problem.”
“Tell me about this photo of Bennet at your Christening.”
She smiled softly and yawned. “He was barely tall enough to see over the baptismal font. He was missing his two bottom front teeth. He would have been just six at the time. Typical Bennet, he was right in the middle of things, hogging the spotlight. He hasn’t changed much since then, not really. He’s always been very much the same person.”
“What secrets of yours I’m learning.”
She shrugged. “There aren’t a whole lot of secrets in my life, one or two. One could argue that a film made of my life would put people to sleep,” she confided as she poured herself yet another cup of brandy.
“I wouldn’t call your life boring,” he replied with feeling. “Especially at the moment.”