“It is not, Charleigh. You’ll find out soon enough. Stop having a cow.”
“I’m not having a cow. You’re the ones who’s gonna feel like he’s having the cow when my foot is lodged up your butt.” The threat wasn’t as believable as Charleigh would have liked it to be.
She heard the sound of a door with squeaky hinges being opened. Nervously chewing on her bottom lip, Charleigh locked her knees, not wanting to go any further. With the blindfold over her eyes, there was no way of knowing what was on the other side of that threshold.
“Come on,” Gavin said, gently pulling on her hands. Charleigh only shook her head.
“Go.” Brad told her a little more forcefully. He let out a heavy sigh when she didn’t budge and scooped her up in his brawny arms. “God, girl. You’ve gotten fat.”
“Oh, ha, ha, ha!” Charleigh let out an exaggerated laugh. “I’m pregnant, but you’ve always been fat, Brad. So, what’s you’re excuse?”
He didn’t answer the question. Instead, he carried her several feet inside the room and sat her down in a chair. “Now, you have to promise not to scream when I take this thing off, okay?”
“Yeah, fat chance,” Charleigh answered, but Brad removed the blindfold anyway.
When she opened her eyes, Charleigh could see several blurry figures standing a few feet in front of her. It took a long moment for her vision to focus. At last, she could see clearly but was confused to find all of her friends and family were there. After another moment, Charleigh realized that they were all in the communion hall at the church.
“Surprise!” Everybody yelled at the same time.
“What in the world is going on here?” Charleigh asked nobody in particular. She looked from Gavin to Brad, who were still standing close by where she sat.
“It’s your baby shower,” Gavin explained, wearing a pleased look on his face.
“Oh, surprise, honey,” Madie exclaimed again. She came over and pulled Charleigh up into a hug.
“Wow, this is definitely a surprise,” the young woman said. Her chin rested on the old woman’s shoulder, but her eyes were still focused on Gavin’s face. She shot him an angry look, still fuming because of the way she‘d arrive to the party. In return, Gavin gave her an innocent smile. I told them that I didn’t want a baby shower. Obviously, some people need to have their hearing checked.
When Madie finally released her, Charleigh looked around the room at all of the people. Her granddad was there. Uncle Josh and Aunt Carrie. Even Aunt Denise was there, which was a surprise in itself. All of her cousins. Not to mention all of Jamie’s family was there, including Jenna and Kevin. Everyone who worked at the clinic.
Half the people who lived in Magnolia appeared to be present in the room.
The room was decorated with light blue, yellow, and green streamers and balloons. Some of the balloons were filled with helium and secured to chairs and tables with ribbon. Others were floating freely in the air. Even more were scattered around on the floor. There were teddy bears setting all over the place. A banner with the words ‘Congratulations, Charleigh!!!’ hung from the ceiling. Presents were piled high on a long, rectangular table, and even more were on the tiled floor.
At that moment, Charleigh felt a twinge of gratitude pull at her heart. The anger evaporated.
“You did all of this for me?” she asked, looking from Madie to Gavin, and then to the large crowd who still watched her every move. Tears caught in her throat.
“Well, of course we did,” Mellisande spoke up, stepping out from the middle of the group. “It’s because we love you so much, darling.”
“Oh, Nana,” Charleigh cried out, reaching out to hug her. “I didn’t think you could make it in for my birthday.”
“Well, Pop and I might’ve told a tiny fib,” her grandmother whispered against her hair. “We wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”
“Pop? Where’s he?”
“Right here, cowgirl.” Grant placed a large hand on her shoulder.
“Aw, I can’t believe you planned all this. Getting these guys to kidnap me and all. Never knew Gavin could keep a secret.”
“Do what?” Madie, Mellisande, and Grant asked in unison. They turned to look at the two young men.
“Well, I can think of one other secret Gavin kept besides this one,” Brad mumbled awkwardly. “Ooh, is that cake?” He turned and hurried away from the group.
***
After the party was over and Gavin had delivered Charleigh and her gifts home safely, she sat in the middle of the large living room, looking at all of the pictures. Madie and Lenore had had the pictures developed at Wal-Mart’s one-hour photo lab in Durant, and then Jenna and Kevin brought them out to her.
Do I really look that big? Charleigh smiled as she looked at one picture of herself unwrapping packages.
Setting the stack of pictures aside, Charleigh got up and went over to take two photo albums from the top of the television armoire. Opening the first one, she saw a picture of Jamie and herself at the engagement party in Madie’s backyard. His face had been black and blue from the run-in he’d had with Gavin a few days before. They were sitting together at the table with Lenore, Greg, Madie, and John. She had been looking up at him, laughing at something he’d said. Jamie was smiling at Jenna as she took the picture.
“I look like a retard in this one,” Charleigh had said a few days after the party as they had looked through the pictures together.
“I think you look amazing,” Jamie had told her and kissed her cheek.
In her mind, Charleigh could still remember what he’d said to make her crack up. It still made her laugh, thinking back. “Charleigh says they taste like burnt funnel cake,” Jamie had said after Lenore made a comment about how beautifully the centerpieces had turned out.
She continued flipping through the rest of the photographs until the end. After that, Charleigh started on the second one. The first half of the album was filled with pictures from the party Greg and Claudia had given for them at The Plaza. The other half was blank; where she planned to put the pictures from the baby shower.
A professional photographer had been hired to take pictures of that evening. Charleigh didn’t recognize eighty-five percent of the people in them, unless they happened to be famous or kin to her and Jamie. Most likely, she thought, they were somehow associated with Claudia.
Close to the back, there was one photo of Jamie and Charleigh together, out of more than one-hundred. Only one! It was taken of the two of them dancing as the orchestra played, You Had Me From Hello.
Charleigh’s cheek was leaned against Jamie’s shoulder as they swayed. A slight smile played at Jamie’s lips as his chin rested on the top of her head, with his eyes closed. How closely he held her body to his own.
The camera captured the thousands of twinkling rhinestones, without a bit of glare. It looked so magical.
The baby shower had been so much fun. For the first time in a really long time, she let herself enjoy the moment. It was a happy day, Charleigh thought, putting each picture into its own empty slot. Even though one important person was missing. Charleigh tried to remember that he was there in spirit, but it still wasn’t the same.
Jamie was supposed to be there for real. Not just in spirit. He was supposed to be there for every little detail. Everything from seeing that second pink line to the two announcements of ‘It’s a boy!’ and their very first cries. He’d been robbed of those moments. They both had. And so much more.
Feeling a faint flutter inside her belly, Charleigh wiped away a tear. A life has ended, but two more life will soon begin. Cherish them always. Someone had told her that not too long ago, and she agreed. Charleigh really, truly cherished the short time she’d had with Jamie, and also those two tiny lives living inside her own body, because they were the last connection she had to him. They were the proof of the love she had shared with Jamie. She just didn’t think it was fair.
No. No, she wasn’t going to torment herself anymore like that. Charleig
h had grieved for everything that she lost when Jamie died; she was still grieving. It would take some time before the agonizing pain in her heart lessened to a simple sting, but Charleigh knew that she couldn’t keep beating herself up over something that she had in no way been able to control from the start.
As she had told herself many times over the last few months, Charleigh would raise her baby boys as a single mother, using the lessons learned from her own father. Drawing on all her strength, she’d do a dang good job of it, too, and the little guys would grow into strong, confident men.
At that moment, Charleigh felt another quiver, as a tiny hand or foot or head moved inside her body. She touched a hand to her belly and then to her face to wipe away the moisture. This time, they were tears of happiness.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Waiting for her first board meeting as owner of Davidson and Associates to begin, Charleigh sat alone in what used to be Jamie’s office when he’d worked there. She found it more than just a little strange that the room was most likely still in the condition as when he had worked there. Among other things, there was a mini putt-putt green. Pinball machines. A Pac man arcade game in the corner next to a floor-to-ceiling plate-glass. She had to laugh. Was this a place of business for Jamie, or a fun park?
It was the last place in the world that Charleigh wanted to be. She didn’t want to run the deadwood company. She didn’t want to own it, for that matter, either. No matter what these people said to her in this impromptu meeting called by Richard Sullivan, the interim CEO, but Charleigh wasn’t going to change her mind.
In fact, that was the reason Terry had come to New York with her. He was going to do everything possible to get her out of the deal her parents had made with Gerald Davidson all those years ago. To think that her parents would press such a heavy burden on her shoulders was unimaginable.
Maybe Mike and Amanda had believed Greg would turn things around once he became CEO. Instead, he’d stabbed them in the back with the same crooked tactics his father-in-law had used to get in trouble in the first place.
Charleigh got up from where she was sitting behind Jamie’s old desk, and went over to look out the window. The street below was crowded with cars and trucks, delivery trucks, and motorcycles and scooters. No, she was most definitely not going to take over this company. She just wouldn’t be able to stand living in this city. Too crowded. Too noisy.
Not to mention that she didn’t know the first thing about architecture.
“Miss Randall, they’re ready for you,” Richard Sullivan’s secretary called to her from the doorway.
Charleigh turned around and looked at her. She was a small woman, petite, with small impish features. At the most, she stood five feet tall. Charleigh judged her to be around fifty-one or fifty-two from the way she was dressed in a simple dark blue skirt and matching jacket. Her hair was brown, with red undertones, pulled halfway back.
Taking a deep breath, Charleigh finally nodded. She followed the woman down the hallway to a set of elevators. Once the doors opened, the two of them stepped inside, and the secretary pressed the button marked 45. The elevator came to life, whisking them up.
When the doors opened, she saw Kevin and Jenna were standing there, waiting for her. Charleigh stepped out of the elevator, looking at each of the three people around her.
“We can take her from here,” Jenna told the secretary, who nodded and pressed a button that would send her back down.
“Hey,” Kevin said, giving her a tight-lipped smile. “You ready for this?”
Charleigh shrugged. The three of them fell in step together as they walked toward the boardroom. She felt a funny feeling in her gut, and it wasn’t caused by the babies.
“No, wait,” Charleigh said and stopped just outside the closed door of the boardroom. “I can’t do this. I can’t go in there.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Jenna tried unsuccessfully to convince her.
“No, it’s not. I don’t want this company. I don’t want the responsibility. Can’t they just split and go their separate ways? There are four other branches to this company. Can’t they buy me out, or something?”
Charleigh felt like she needed to sit down. Somewhere other than in that boardroom. The nervousness that had settled in the pit of her stomach was just about enough to make her sick.
“Then go in there and tell them that,” Kevin told Charleigh, squeezing her shoulder.
“We’ll be right there with you,” Jenna confirmed and opened the door.
With that, Charleigh nodded once again and walked inside.
Richard Sullivan was standing at the far end of the large room. He nodded when he saw her walk in with Kevin and Jenna on her heels. Around the long, rectangular table sat twelve men and women. Charleigh recognized a few of them from the party at the Plaza.
Fredrick MacMillan was also in attendance. He nodded at Charleigh, sending a smile in her direction, and then turned back to Richard. There were three vacant seats at the nearest end.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Miss Charleigh Randall,” he introduced her. “All of you already know Kevin and Jenna Matthews. Please, have a seat.”
Terry was sitting by himself at the end. Charleigh took the chair closest to him. He gave her a confident look. That gave Charleigh the tiny boost she needed.
“Well, Charleigh... Do you mind if I call you Charleigh?” Richard began and put on his glasses as he sat down at the table.
“It’s fine,” Charleigh called. He nodded once more and then began to introduce the people who were sitting around the table.
“I called this meeting because it was necessary for all members of this company to meet our new owner. Greg brought the issue of your ownership to my attention just before his death, and I in turned shared it with our board members a short time ago.” Richard began to shuffle through a stack of papers in front of him.
“Did Greg also fill you in on how he committed fraud?” Charleigh looked around at the people who occupied the table. “And pardon me for asking a stupid question, but why is there a board went I maintain majority ownership of this company, with ninety-four percent? A board usually consists of stockowners. I only see three here. Jenna, Kevin, and myself.”
One of the women who’d been introduced as Corrine Dunne raised her hand. She was sitting halfway down the table on the same side as Terry. She spoke up, “I’m the President of King Development in London. I was appointed by your parents to this board in 1982. We were brought in as an advisory board, because we oversee operations of our specific unit, to work together to make sure the company is successful as a whole. ” Her voice sounded somewhat timid.
Charleigh smirked with indifference. “Were all of you appointed by my parents?”
All of them seemed to nod and speak up at once. It was apparent now to her that they had. Shaking her head, Charleigh stood up and looked around the table at everyone. From Richard to Terry, Kevin and Jenna, and then back to Corrine. She held up and hand, and the noise stopped.
“All I have to say is you did a pretty bad job, as a whole,” Charleigh remarked snidely and sat back down. She looked over at Terry and whispered, “What did they say about buying me out?”
“Yeah, about that,” he began.
“Well, I apologize if you think so,” a man who Richard had introduced as Mark Wan replied with a snort, interrupting the conservation, “but Davidson and Associates happens to be the most successful development company in the world, as a whole.”
“Yeah, you always seem to come out on top when you’re bribing city officials to approve buildings that aren’t exactly up to code,” Charleigh shot back, “Nobody ever notices anything like that until there’s a fire or an earthquake, and the whole thing crumbles. People get hurt and killed that way, you know. But if the price is right.”
Mark sat back in his leather executive chair but didn’t say a word.
“I take it you participated at least a time or two, Mister Wan. That money Greg Matthews w
as giving you people to hand out like Halloween candy belonged to me. More than a billion dollars.” She stood up again and began to walk away from the table. From the doorway, she looked back at Terry, “Let them separate for free. I don’t want anything to do with this company, or its subsidiaries. Do whatever you have to do.”
Then Charleigh walked out.
***
Relaxing on the bed of her hotel suite, Charleigh watched a rerun of CSI. She wore a plush blue bath robe, and her hair was pulled back in a loose bun on top of her head. After a long soak in the bath tub, the worries of the day seemed to have evaporated. She just let her mind float along with the storyline.
Just as Charleigh had started to drift off, there was a knock on the door. For a single moment, she thought about keeping her eyes closed, stay in bed and whoever was at the door would eventually go away. There was nothing so important that it couldn’t wait until the next morning. At least this was Charleigh’s opinion.
“Charleigh, it’s Jen,” she heard a muffled voice call out to her from outside the door. “Kevin’s with me. Will you let us in?”
“Oh, brother,” Charleigh said to herself, scooting off the bed. She stopped a few feet short to yawn and stretch. “What?” she asked, finally opening the door to Jenna and Kevin, who were accompanied by Terry and Fredrick MacMillan.
Finding that the two were not alone, Charleigh kept the door open just enough to look out. She wasn’t displeased to see Mister Marcum with them as he was on her side of the matter. Seeing Mister MacMillan there was what Charleigh found so disrupting. She just couldn’t be sure of his motives, since he was connected to Davidson and Associates.
“Can we come in? We’d like to discuss a proposal we have come up with,” Fredrick spoke up.
“I thought I had left the discussion when I walked out of that room. I’m not going to debate it anymore.” Charleigh went to close her door, but Kevin stuck his foot in the gap before she could.
“Charleigh, please?” He asked her.
“Five minutes. Maybe even less, if I don’t like what I hear,” she told him and moved to open the door wider to allow the visitors access.
You're Gone (Finding Solid Ground) Page 30