Ask Anyone

by Sherryl Woods

  Bobby took comfort in the heated promise in Jenna’s eyes as he reluctantly made his way over to Ann-Marie’s just after five that evening. He’d called earlier, and she’d assured him that Lonnie would be home and the three of them could sit down and talk.

  But when Bobby rang the doorbell, he noted that there was no sign of Lonnie’s truck in the driveway. Ann-Marie opened the door wearing the skimpiest pair of white shorts he’d ever seen and a tank top that stretched across her breasts in a very revealing manner. No bra. Once, that would have turned him on, but tonight it merely raised all sorts of red flags.

  “Where’s Lonnie?” he demanded, not setting foot across the threshold. “You said he’d be here.”

  “He got tied up at work. Come on in. I’ve got a bottle of wine open. It’s the fancy French stuff you like.”

  Bobby stayed right where he was. “What’s going on, Ann-Marie? This isn’t a social call, and you know it.”

  “There’s no reason you and I can’t talk without Lonnie, is there? I mean this is really between you and me.”

  “No,” he said firmly. “You put Lonnie right smack in the middle of it a long time ago. He needs to be here now. We’ll set up another time. In fact, maybe I should make the arrangements directly with him. Did he even know I was coming by tonight, Ann-Marie?”

  “What are you suggesting?” she asked, pouting. It wasn’t as attractive as when she’d done it to get her way years ago.

  “I’m out of here.”

  “Bobby, don’t go,” she pleaded. “There’s so much we have to talk about.”

  He regarded her with disgust. “Anything you and I had to say to each other should have been said before you ran off with my best friend. Any conversation we have now involves Lonnie—and maybe a couple of lawyers while we’re at it. I’ll be in touch.”

  The door slammed behind him as he walked away. For once in his miserable, meddling life, maybe King had gotten it exactly right, Bobby thought as he got into his car. Maybe his father had known all along the kind of woman Ann-Marie was, when Bobby had been too blinded by hormones to see it.

  Since his evening was already pretty much shot, he might as well go for broke and head out to Cedar Hill and get the confrontation with King over with.

  He found his father on the porch with a glass of bourbon in one hand and the portable phone in the other. He muttered something into the phone as Bobby approached, then cut it off and all but slammed it down on the table next to him.

  “Anything wrong?” Bobby asked.

  “That fool woman’s still not back from her trip.”

  Bobby bit back a grin. “You talking about Frances?”

  “Who else?”

  “Have you told her you miss her?”

  “How am I supposed to do that? I have no idea where she is.”

  “You were mumbling at her answering machine just now, weren’t you? Maybe if you said something nice, she’d take it to heart and come home.”

  “I’ll take advice from you when you get your own life straightened out,” King shot back.

  Bobby dropped into a rocker and set it into motion. “It’s getting there,” he said.

  “About time.” He glanced curiously at Bobby. “Jenna?”

  “She’s a wonderful woman,” Bobby conceded.

  “That’s been my impression,” King agreed. “That girl of hers is a real pistol, too.”

  “She is.”

  “It’s a darned shame, what happened to her.”

  Bobby sighed. “Which brings us to J.C.” He looked his father in the eye. “What were you thinking, Daddy?”

  “That there was nothing wrong with the status quo. Ann-Marie would have ruined your life,” he said bluntly, not even bothering to pretend not to understand what Bobby was asking. “Can you tell me I was wrong about that?”

  “Not after tonight, no,” Bobby said honestly. “But I had a right to decide things for myself.”

  “You were too young to think straight. I’d trust you with a decision like that now, but back then?” King shook his head. “Hormones and common sense just don’t mix at eighteen.”

  “And they do now that I’m almost thirty?” Bobby asked wryly. “Or is it just that now you have a different agenda? You want to see me married and settled down.”

  “There’s truth to that,” King said. “And Jenna’s a different sort of woman. She had a rebellious period, same as you, but she’s got some maturity on her now. She’s got a good level head on her shoulders. Anyone can see that.”

  “Then you’d approve if something happened between Jenna and me?”

  King’s chuckle was deep. “The way things looked this morning, I’d have bet it already has.”

  Bobby glowered at his father. “I am not discussing that with you.” He stood up. “I’ve got to go.”

  “Just one thing before you do,” King said. “You gonna leave the past in the past?”

  “When it comes to Ann-Marie or to you?”

  “Both, for that matter.”

  Bobby heard the real worry in King’s voice, saw the hint of fear in his eyes. He reached down and gave his father’s hand a squeeze. “You’re forgiven, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  King nodded. “I only did it for your own good.”

  “I know that now. A few hours ago, I might not have been so generous.”

  “Then I’m grateful to whoever changed your mind.”

  “It was Ann-Marie, actually.” He chuckled at his father’s startled, dismayed expression. “Not the way you think. I just saw what you saw.”

  “That’s good then. What do you intend to do about J.C.?”

  “I’m working on that. I’ll keep you posted,” he said as he started off the porch. He turned back. “And whatever payments I suspect you’ve been making all these years can stop. I’m taking over now.”

  “Your call,” King said.

  “Yeah, right,” Bobby retorted with a snort of disbelief.

  Two uncomfortable meetings down, Bobby thought as he drove to the marina. Just one to go. When he reached his office, he picked up the phone and dialed the number for Randall Pennington. As long as he was going to spend the evening mending fences, he might as well get to work on the one between Jenna and her father, though something told him she wouldn’t thank him for it.

  Jenna sat in Bobby’s office and stared at him as if he’d turned into a freak in a circus sideshow. “You did what?” she demanded.

  “I called your father. He’ll be here in time for dinner tonight.”

  Jenna’s stomach rolled over. She couldn’t decide if she was more furious with Bobby or more terrified of facing her father. Mostly the former, she concluded, scowling at the man sitting smugly behind his desk.

  “What right did you have to do that?”

  “Jenna, you’re representing Pennington and Sons. It makes sense that I’d want to meet the head of the company,” he said reasonably. “He needs to be on board for this.”

  “Because you don’t trust me,” she said, trying not to sound defeated. How could he do this to her after everything she’d told him? It was her proposal he was buying, not her father’s. Her father didn’t even want this job.

  “I do trust you,” Bobby said emphatically. “If I didn’t, I would never have made that call. Maybe it’s about time you learned to trust yourself.”

  She frowned at that. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “That the only way to win your father’s confidence and approval is to face him and prove to him that you’re good at this job.”

  “So you’re doing me some huge favor by giving me that chance?” she asked skeptically.

  “Exactly.”

  “Hogwash! You don’t know what you’re talking about, Bobby. My father will see this as proof that I’m not doing a good enough job. He’ll be convinced that you called him down here to rescue me. He’ll think it’s because you want his assurances that he’ll back me up. In other words, he’s going to snatch this chance
away from me because he’ll be absolutely certain that I’m going to mess it up the way I have every other important thing in my life.”

  Filled with frustration, she stood up and began to pace. Eventually she paused, leaned down and stared straight into Bobby’s eyes. “I’m telling you, the next thing you know, my brothers will be crawling all over Trinity Harbor, checking everything I’ve already done and probably doubling the costs in the process. By the time they’re finished, your mayor will have those condos he wants so badly.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Bobby said calmly.

  “You haven’t seen Pennington and Sons in action. I have,” she said fiercely. “They’re my family and I love them, but those three can rob a person blind and make him like it.”

  “You’re saying I’m no match for them?” he said. “Do you think I’m just some small-town hick who can’t play in the same pool as the big-city sharks?”

  Jenna hesitated at the cold note in his voice. “No, not exactly.”

  “Are you or aren’t you?”

  “I just mean that you don’t know them like I do,” she said.

  “How well do you know me, Jenna?”

  “Fairly well,” she responded cautiously, not sure where he was heading.

  “Have you ever known me to bow to pressure or to go back on my word?”

  “No, but—”

  He frowned. “If you say that I haven’t met your brothers or your father yet, I’m going to toss you out of here.”

  He sounded so serious that she sank back down in the chair opposite him. “I’m sorry.”

  “You should be. I did not do this to hurt you. I did it for you.”

  “Well, excuse me for not being grateful,” she retorted.

  Bobby sighed. “Will you be here for dinner or not?”

  “Oh, I’ll be here,” Jenna said. “Heaven help us all.”

  After only five minutes with Randall Pennington, every protective instinct in Bobby went on full alert. He’d thought Jenna was exaggerating her father’s attitude toward her, but she hadn’t been. Not even a little.

  Unlike King, who nagged his offspring to death and tried to manipulate them into doing his bidding, Pennington was an unmistakable bully. It made Bobby’s heart ache when he saw the hoops Jenna was willing to jump through to try to get so much as a hint of love, instead of all the harsh words and criticism the man doled out. For all of his faults, King’s love had always been freely given.

  “I apologize to you for not sending one of my sons down here to handle this,” Pennington said right off, after casting a sour look at his daughter. There hadn’t been one iota of warmth in the greeting he’d given her, either. “Jenna gets these crazy notions into her head sometimes. I understand that your father raised three of you without a mother in the house. I’m sure he would agree that it’s no easy task, especially with a daughter, when there’s no female influence around. I’m afraid Jenna has never understood the proper place for a woman.”

  Jenna all but rose out of her seat at his patronizing words, but a warning look from Bobby settled her down.

  “And what place would that be?” he inquired, his own mood turning dangerous.

  Clearly, Pennington missed the warning signs, because he said without the slightest hint of embarrassment, “At home, minding her children.”

  “Not all women have the luxury of staying at home to care for their children. Some, like Jenna, are single mothers who need to make their own way in life. Some, like my sister, need the challenge of a career for their own fulfillment. Actually, my father is proud of the way all of us turned out,” Bobby said, making a mental plea for forgiveness for the flagrant lie. “Especially my sister. She’s a lot like Jenna. Strong and independent and smart as a whip.”

  Pennington seemed taken aback by the praise for his daughter. So, Bobby noticed, did Jenna.

  “What does your sister do?” the man asked.

  “She’s a teacher,” Bobby said.

  Pennington beamed. “Now there’s a nice, respectable career for a woman. That, and nursing.”

  Jenna started to bristle, then backed down. That left it to Bobby to say what had clearly been on the tip of her tongue.

  “Are you saying that working for you is not respectable?” he asked Pennington, keeping his tone mild.

  “Well, of course it is, as long as she stays in the office where she belongs. She shouldn’t be out here in the field, though. Not only does she not have the experience for it, but men don’t respect women who try to step into an authority role.”

  “Is that so?” Bobby asked. “Why not?”

  Pennington apparently sensed that he was treading on very thin ice, because he backed off at once. “They just don’t. You’re a man of the world. I’m sure you’ve seen it.”

  “Not really. Of course, I cook for a living, so maybe I have some gender issues of my own.”

  Jenna choked, then quickly covered her mouth. When her gaze met Bobby’s, her eyes were twinkling with amusement though. He concluded that she was finally prepared to admit that he could hold his own with this particular shark.

  Not that Pennington gave up the fight easily. He spent the entire evening going on and on about what a screwup Jenna was. It took everything in Bobby not to grab him up by his shirtfront, drag him outside and pummel some sense into him.

  Finally it was Jenna who brought the dinner to a close. “Dad, I’m sure you’ve given Bobby a lot to think about. We’ll be lucky if he lets us erect a playground swing set after this.”

  Her father stared at her with a shocked expression, while Bobby silently applauded.

  “Let’s go,” she said. “Before you do any more damage to our chances to get this job.”

  “But we haven’t even discussed the details yet,” Pennington protested.

  “Bobby and I have covered all of that,” she said firmly, tucking a hand under his elbow and practically lifting him out of his chair.

  “Without my input?” he asked incredulously.

  “Believe it or not,” she said, “I didn’t need it.”

  “But—”

  “Dad, let’s go. We’ve taken up more than enough of Bobby’s time. Where are you staying?”

  “Some dump over by the river.” He glanced at Bobby. “That’s one of the first things we’ll need to address. This town needs a first-class hotel, something big enough for all the conventions you’ll be drawing once we put this place on the map.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes at Bobby. “No conventions, Dad. Maybe you and I had better go over the plans Bobby has tentatively approved before our next meeting. You wouldn’t want him to think we were squabbling over the proposal, would you?”

  Pennington was still protesting as she steered him away. Bobby stared after them and shook his head. If it weren’t for Jenna, there was no way in hell he’d deal with that man. In fact, he didn’t intend to deal with him now—only Jenna. Wasn’t that going to be a rude awakening for the pompous idiot?

  Bobby marched into his office the next morning and asked Maggie to find the Pennington paperwork for the boardwalk project.

  “You’re giving Pennington the contract?” she asked hopefully.

  “In a way,” he said, tossing the papers into his briefcase, then heading straight for the breakfast meeting he’d arranged during a phone call to Jenna late the night before.

  Jenna watched him anxiously as he joined her and her father. He gave her a reassuring wink.

  “Here’s the deal,” he said to her father, holding his pen in hand. “I will sign this on one condition.”

  Pennington’s gaze narrowed. “Which is?”

  “That I deal exclusively with Jenna. She stays here to oversee it from start to finish.”

  Both of them stared at him with openmouthed astonishment.

  “You still want me?” Jenna asked, looking far more stunned than any confident, talented woman should have.

  He grinned at her. “Oh, yeah, but that’s another issue entirely.�
�

  “You’re making a mistake,” Pennington said. “Either one of my sons—”

  “Jenna,” Bobby said flatly.

  “But—”

  “Do we have a deal?” Bobby asked.

  Her father shrugged. “It’s your money you’re throwing away.”

  “Yes,” Bobby agreed, “it is my money I’m investing.” His gaze narrowed. “And one more thing for the record. Your daughter is an extremely talented waterfront planner. If I ever hear you make another remark like that disparaging Jenna’s ability, I will strongly suggest to her that she open her own company and whip your sorry butt right into the ground.”

  21

  Jenna was still reeling from the scene with her father. Never before in her entire life had anyone stood up for her like that. In that single instant, she had fallen head over heels in love with Bobby Spencer. Oh, she’d been well on her way weeks ago, but that moment had crystalized everything she was feeling.

  Unfortunately, for the past few days, he had been giving her such a wide berth that they might as well have been living in different states. He was acting as if that admission he’d made that he wanted her had been a slip of the tongue or that it referred to something else entirely. It was as if their near-tumble into bed had never happened, either.

  The day after the breakfast with her father, Jenna had ducked into Bobby’s office, hoping to catch him alone so that she could thank him properly for coming to her rescue, to say nothing of the favor he’d done her by giving her the job. He’d waved off her thanks and scurried out of the office so fast that even Maggie was left shaking her head.

  That evening Jenna had gone to the restaurant for dinner, but she hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of Bobby. When she’d finally gathered her courage and poked her head into the kitchen, she’d discovered that he’d left not fifteen minutes earlier after making a lame excuse that no one had bought. She had endured the pitying looks of his staff for a few more minutes, then took off herself.

  And so it had gone, day after day, until she was ready to scream in frustration. She refused to be discouraged, though. She knew exactly what Bobby had meant that evening at dinner, knew from solid evidence—so to speak—just how badly he wanted her, and all the denials in the world weren’t going to change it. She just had to be patient.