“I’m not driving him away, you daft fool. I’m trying to save him.”
“By denying him what he wants? Would you have listened to your father if he’d told you you couldn’t become a contractor?”
“He did tell me,” Shamus said, his voice slightly less belligerent, “but I knew it was my way out of poverty.”
“Then why should you expect your son to be any different?”
“Because I’ve done all of this for him. He won’t have to fight his way up the way I did.”
“I said something very much like that a few days ago. I didn’t understand when my daughter didn’t instantly throw her arms around my neck and thank me.”
“What did she do?” Shamus asked.
“Pretty much what Kerry just did. Those were my goals, my reasons—not hers. I never asked her what her goals were. I still don’t know. She doesn’t trust me enough to tell me.”
Shamus was quiet a moment. “Do you think she’ll tell you?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t exactly ignore her, but I saw what I wanted to see, and ignored all the warnings along the way. Now I find myself estranged from my daughter and my professional career in danger of collapsing. It strikes me you’re in pretty much the same situation.”
Shamus was quiet for another moment. “What are you going to do?”
“First I have to decide what is more important. Even if I manage to save both, everything I do in the future has to be guided by that decision, or I’ll find myself in the same predicament before long.”
“You trying to tell me something?”
“You’ve got to decide which is more important to you, your pride or your family. I think your wife and son have already made up their minds.” Mrs. O’Grady had joined her son. “I’ve got to circulate. Can’t have my guests saying the host didn’t make an effort to speak to everyone. Bad manners.”
“Like you care.”
“I’m discovering I care for quite a number of unexpected things.”
Like Kathryn Roper. He saw her talking to Julia Mingenmeer’s parents while Julia stood by looking uncomfortable. He wondered all over again what could have induced a young woman with Kathryn’s advantages to devote so much of her time and resources to these girls. He now knew it was Kathryn’s sister’s pregnancy, rather than her own, that was the reason Kathryn established her shelter, but there was something else that bothered Kathryn, something that caused her to divert all her maternal feelings to the daughters of other women. Ron was determined to find out what it was. Kathryn deserved the chance to have her own family.
Ron wanted more family. He hadn’t known it until he’d started talking to Kerry and the families of the girls. He and Erin—both only children—had wanted at least three children. Maybe more.
He wondered how Kathryn felt about large families.
Such thoughts were premature, but he already knew he wanted her to be part of his life after he and Cynthia were back home. He hadn’t dated much since Erin’s death. People constantly offered to fix him up with a perfect woman, but Ron preferred working late—even all weekend—to blind dates.
But his feelings for Kathryn had been different from the start. He always kept the parts of his life carefully separated. Physical attraction in one corner, business in another, family in still another. Kathryn had managed to spill over into all three. He hadn’t thought much of it at first. He was too busy dealing with the immediate problems facing him. When he did get a few moments to think about it, he realized how special Kathryn had been to him.
He’d been of two minds about her from the start. He hadn’t want to get involved with a woman who had abetted Cynthia in running away from home. He’d wanted to bring the whammy down on her good and proper, but a few hours’ consideration—maybe it had taken only a few minutes—had convinced him he was strongly attracted to Kathryn. No red-blooded man could be around her and not be attracted. She was just too pretty, too vital, too… He wasn’t sure what word to use, but it was impossible for him to be indifferent to her.
But it hadn’t taken him long to realize that behind that facade she was as unhappy as the rest of them. Every time they had come close to talking about her family, she changed the subject, a dead giveaway something was seriously wrong. He intended to fix it. That was the least he could do after what she’d done for Cynthia and the rest of these girls.
He looked around the room. Cynthia and Leigh were talking to Betsy’s family. It was a shame the girl was so shy and nervous…or just plain scared.
Maybe the boy had given her the feeling he understood her, that he would stand up for her. He could see how she would reach out to anyone who gave her the sense of importance her family didn’t. He’d have to have a long talk with them. Now that she’d gotten the courage to break away, Betsy wouldn’t go back unless things changed radically.
He couldn’t help but wonder if Cynthia had felt that way about him. He’d done everything he could to make sure she felt loved and cared for, but he was learning things that mattered to him didn’t necessarily matter the same way to other people.
He wondered what was at the bottom of Julia’s disaffection from her family. Her parents seemed exactly what you’d expect in professional and social circles, and genuinely interested in their children.
They said they would do anything that might bring Julia home, yet both parents were in earnest conversation with Kathryn while Julia shifted her weight from foot to foot looking bored and angry. They needed to learn to talk with their daughter rather than just about her.
Could the same be said of him? He thought he’d tried to talk to Cynthia during the last few years, but had he really talked to her, really listened to her, or had he just thought he had? Whatever the case, he’d have to do better. It was hard watching her be so animated, so open, talking to Betsy’s family, when she was so closed and withdrawn when he tried to talk to her. He would have to count on Leigh and Kathryn to help convince Cynthia he’d changed, that he really did love her and want to learn to make her happy.
It was hard to stand back and wait for someone else to do the work for him. All his life he’d taken the initiative, sometimes despite active opposition from people who should have been helping him. He was aggressive, decisive, hardheaded, confident, consistent and knew exactly what he wanted. He’d have to learn to make these attributes appear positive in Cynthia’s eyes.
In Kathryn’s, too.
In the meantime he’d better make sure his brilliant idea of a weekend retreat was a success. Lisette’s family was next. Lisette was a pretty girl with a very engaging personality, but he didn’t understand how a boy like Kerry could have fallen so desperately in love with her. He would have thought they’d drive each other nuts. He was relieved to see the Saunders family actually appeared to welcome his approach.
“This is an absolutely beautiful place,” Mrs. Saunders said when he reached the group. “Thank you for inviting us.” She looked uneasily at Lisette, who was snuggled up against Kerry. She appeared to be using him as a barrier against her parents. “It’s been good to be able to spend a few minutes with Lisette.”
“I hope you’ll have more than a few minutes together before the weekend is over.” He’d have to remember to tell Kerry not to monopolize Lisette.
“It’s important we find out something about the boy,” Mr. Saunders said, casting a harsh look in the direction of Shamus O’Grady who stood by himself across the room. “I hope he’s nothing like his father.”
“Paul, don’t talk like that in front of his wife,” Mrs. Saunders said.
“Shamus has a lot of good qualities,” Ron said.
“Then he’s kept them hidden,” Paul replied, not intimidated by his wife’s strictures.
“You’re both right,” Mrs. O’Grady said. “Shamus is a good man, even a wonderful man sometimes, but he came up so hard he can’t understand not everybody else is like him.”
“We did everything parents are supposed to do,” Mr. Saunders said, “but she runs to Kerry ever
y chance she gets. Everything he says is right. Everything we say is wrong.”
Ron wasn’t sure what had gone wrong here, but it was clear Lisette had put her future in Kerry’s hands.
“She’s only sixteen,” Mr. Saunders said. “How’s she going to go to college and take care of a baby?”
“We had such plans for her,” Mrs. Saunders said. “I know she’s my daughter and I’m prejudiced, but she’s so smart and talented. You should see her dance. Classical ballet. There there’s her music. She’s taken piano since she was four. She plays Chopin beautifully. Just last year we discovered she has a remarkable voice.” She sighed in disappointment. “Her grandmother is convinced that with all her talents she could become Miss America.”
Ron was getting the picture of a young woman who likely saw herself not as a person but as a collection of talents and attributes to win honors and bring glory to the family. She probably didn’t think anybody could love her unless she was winning some kind of trophy.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve been telling myself and everyone here this weekend,” Ron said. “Ask Lisette what she wants for herself. Don’t take her first answer because she’s going to tell you what she thinks you want to hear. Keep after her until she tells you the truth.”
“We know what she wants,” Mrs. Saunders said. “She has wanted the same things all her life.”
“At least one thing has changed,” Mrs. O’Grady said. “She wants to marry my son and have his baby.”
“And ruin her life,” the Saunders said in unison.
“It won’t ruin my life,” Lisette said. “It’s what I want more than anything.”
“There’s nothing wrong with a husband and a baby,” her mother said in a wheedling tone of voice. “I’d love to be a grandmother, but there’s so much you had hoped to accomplish.”
For the first time since Ron had known her, Lisette looked miserable rather than confident and cheerful.
“I thought I wanted all those things, but I want Kerry and the baby more.”
“But you’ve worked so hard for so long,” her father said.
“Right now we need to focus on Lisette, Kerry and the baby,” Ron said. “It’ll be here in less than six months. It would be best if you’d figured out what you want to do before then.”
“We know what we want to do,” Kerry said. “We want to get married.”
“That’s crazy,” Mr. Saunders said. “You’re too young.”
“They’re obviously not too young to become parents,” Mrs. O’Grady said. “I think that makes them old enough to be married.”
“I don’t know what you can hope to get out of this,” Mr. Saunders said to Mrs. O’Grady. “We don’t have any money. Not the kind you have.”
“This has nothing to do with money,” Mrs. O’Grady said.
“It has to do with wasted opportunity,” Mr. Saunders said.
“There are a couple of facts you can’t ignore,” Ron said, hoping to keep the argument from escalating. “Lisette is pregnant, and she and Kerry want to get married.”
“We’re going to get married,” Kerry said.
“You have to start from there,” Ron said to the three angry parents. “Your old plans won’t work anymore. And I think you ought to include Mr. O’Grady in that discussion,” Ron said. “He’s just as concerned about Kerry’s future as you are about Lisette’s.”
“Then what’s he doing standing across the room by himself?”
“Trying, just as you are, to come to grips with the new reality.”
A waiter came in to announce dinner. Ron was relieved. He hoped it was too soon to tell, but so far he hadn’t been very successful. He not only hadn’t brought about any kind of reconciliation or understanding, only dinner had prevented what threatened to be a heated, probably rancorous, fight. He had to find a way to get these two families over the disappointment in the failure of their plans for their children and move on to coming up with new plans that took into account the present situation and their children’s needs and wishes.
“I shouldn’t be there with you,” Kathryn said to Cynthia. “Your father wants to talk to you alone.”
“I don’t want to be alone with him.”
They were leaning against a railing on the flagstone patio between the two meeting buildings. The mountain fell away abruptly in front them. It had turned cool enough to need a sweater for bare arms, but the half moon was brilliant and the night air crisp and dry. Kathryn had always preferred the mountains to the beach in the summer, something else the men she dated didn’t understand.
“Are you afraid?”
“No.”
“Then what’s the problem? He wants to talk about the things he doesn’t understand.”
“No, he doesn’t. He wants to tell me what to think. He gets paid millions to do that with people who’re just as strong-minded as he is. I haven’t got a chance.”
“Of course you do. You decided to come to my shelter, didn’t you?”
“I did that while he was away. If he’d been here, he’d have found a way to talk me out of it. He always does.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re always having these discussions where I tell him what I think. Then he tells me what I ought to think. I tell him again what I think, and he begins to dismantle my argument piece by piece. When he’s done, I have no choice but to agree with him even though I know I don’t agree with him.”
“Have you told him that?”
“No.”
“Then I think you should. Say it very nicely, but make it clear you won’t be argued out of your position.”
Cynthia turned away and looked out over the mountain. “It won’t work.”
“You have to try. Otherwise, this whole weekend will be a waste. Your father has worked very hard to make it a success.”
“Of course he has. This is what he does. He couldn’t stop himself. It’s how he thinks.” She wrapped her arms around herself and turned back to Kathryn. “Ron Egan never fails. He can’t afford to. It could ruin his reputation.”
“That may be true in his business, but this is very different. He wants to help the others, but his real objective is to make things right with you.”
“Then why did he stay away from me all evening then spend most of dinner talking to you?”
“Probably because you were sullen and refused to speak to him. Leigh told you as much.” Kathryn reached out, took Cynthia’s hand. “I know you’re angry with your father, but I’m sure he’s genuine in his desire to try to understand what you want. You know how helpful he’s been to Kerry.”
Kathryn’s sympathy had gone out to Ron. She didn’t know what it was like to face powerful men across the board table, but it couldn’t be any worse than facing four sets of angry, resentful, bullheaded parents who’d already alienated their children and weren’t the least bit reluctant to turn their anger on Ron.
She had tried to warn Ron he had set himself an impossible task, but she had to admit it was better to try and fail than not try at all. If nothing else, Cynthia would have a better notion of how difficult her father’s work could be. It would be good for Cynthia to think of someone else besides herself.
Maybe he had used strong-arm tactics to get everybody here, but she was proud of him for having the courage to tackle a nearly impossible task. He kept up a brave front, but he couldn’t hide his disappointment from her. She wanted to put her arms around him and tell him not to try so hard, that nobody could make people listen when they didn’t want to.
That last thought showed Kathryn just how far her mind had changed with respect to Ron. She still believed he valued his career too much and his daughter too little, but he was proving he could learn from his mistakes.
“Your father thought if he gave you some space, maybe you’d lighten up and cut him a little slack.”
Cynthia pulled away from Kathryn. “Daddy would never use a phrase like lighten up and cut him a little slack.”
“Okay, so I
paraphrased it. Another reason he stayed away was to help the other girls. He’d committed himself to coming up with solutions for everyone this weekend. He was just doing his best to make that happen.”
“But don’t you see, that’s exactly what he’s always doing, putting everybody ahead of me. Just once I want to come first.”
Kathryn supposed it came from being young, of having no perspective, of being frightened, but it was obvious Cynthia couldn’t understand that nearly everything Ron had done since he appeared out of the night that first evening had proved she was very much in the forefront of what mattered to him. Ron would have to handle the rapprochement with his daughter himself, but it would be up to Kathryn to help Cynthia see that though her father might be employing old skills and using old ways, he was using them to achieve new ends. He was attempting to win his daughter back.
“I don’t think you understand exactly what your father is doing and why, but that can wait,” Kathryn said. “The important thing right now is to go in there and listen to him, to give him the benefit of the doubt, to trust him.”
“Maybe I should lick his hand like an old dog.”
Kathryn’s optimism flagged. “It’s time to see if you’ve inherited your father’s skills of negotiation. If so, this ought to be an interesting evening.”
Chapter Eight
Ron knew what he said during the next half hour would probably be the most important words of his life. But for a man who made his living by choosing the right words and knowing when to use them, he was at a loss for where to begin. It was only the first night, but so far his idea of a weekend retreat hadn’t worked out very well. The O’Gradys and Saunders were barely civil to each other while Lisette and Kerry wouldn’t listen to either set of their parents. Betsy and Julia didn’t appear to have made any more progress with their families than he had with Cynthia.
He set the empty cola can on the bar and walked over to a window that looked out over the courtyard below. He swirled the ice in his glass. He’d stood here and watched Kathryn and Cynthia talk, wondering what they were saying, wondering what he should say. Now Cynthia was coming to talk with him. The suite, so big and impersonal, seemed to say nothing warm and comforting could happen here.
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