Leaving the letter on the dresser, he headed out to work. He’d continue scraping hulls. Soon he would have to tell Audrey about Jason’s letter. She would find a way to ask if he’d heard anything if he didn’t volunteer the information.
Sheldon smiled. He liked Audrey. She was real. He could tell the difference now. Laura had been real, too. But he and Laura had lived in a different world. A world that isolated them and distorted how they should treat other people. Meanwhile, Audrey had had few privileges and when her daughter died, she took in her grandson and she was doing everything she could to fill in as a parent. But what struck Sheldon most about them is they appeared happy. They truly loved and respected each other, he thought. That’s what made all the difference. That and sacrifice.
When Jason had come to stay at the Kendall after his mother died, they looked on him as a burden. How could they have been so cruel?
And how could he ever do or say anything to make up for his past actions? Maybe sending that letter had been a mistake. And the reply could be just as much a slap in the face as he deserved.
* * *
THE DOORBELL RANG as Kelly was headed to the kitchen for a second cup of coffee. She tried to limit herself to two cups a day, but in the past month she found herself wearing a path in the hall leading to the caffeine station.
Glancing at the grandfather clock sitting near the staircase, she reversed direction and went to the door. She wondered who could be seeking her out at this time. Through the heavy glass, Kelly saw the figure of a man. She opened the door to find Perry Streeter standing there. “I figured if I came in person you couldn’t refuse.”
“I don’t understand. What are you doing here?”
He was impeccably dressed. Even though the temperature in Maryland was several degrees higher than it was in New York, Perry would never allow a drop of sweat to stain his wardrobe or his personality. He was in control, managing everything, refusing to let anyone think he wasn’t the master of his fate.
Kelly knew it was a facade. He’d spent a lifetime hiding behind it. So she didn’t understand why he wanted to see her. She had X-ray vision where he was concerned. And he knew it.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in. I hear they do that in the South.”
Kelly stood back. “Of course, come in.”
She led him to her office. Just as she went through the door, she saw Jace enter the hall. Perry closed the door and turned to her.
“Why are you here?” she asked for the second time.
“No ulterior motive. I wanted to see you. It’s nearly lunchtime. I thought you’d go out with me.”
“Why?”
“You have to eat.”
“I mean why would I go anywhere with you? There’s nothing for you to gain by being with me. You told me that.”
He winched at her words. “I was wrong. Why don’t we run out to a local restaurant and have something to eat. You can spare an hour or two for an old friend, can’t you?”
He wasn’t a friend. That had ended when he told her he wanted to end their relationship, that he had found someone else.
Still, Kelly wanted to know his real reason for coming to see her and she wanted to hear about the agency. What was going on there now? She still had friends at the firm. She’d neglected them in the past few months due to the overwhelming changes she’d been working on at the Kendall.
And there was Jace. He’d taken up a lot of her thoughts.
“We don’t have New York–style restaurants here. The food is simple and good.”
He spread his hands as if accepting his fate.
Kelly grabbed her purse and they went back to the front door. Outside, in the circular driveway gleamed a Mercedes sports car, a two-seater, fire-engine red. It looked like Perry could have driven it off the showroom floor only moments ago.
He opened the door and helped her inside. The interior was plush with all the bells and whistles deserving of a mover and shaker in the advertising business.
“New?” she asked.
“Had it a month.” He accelerated around the circle and sped down the driveway toward the road.
Kelly directed him to the diner on the main street. It was the kind of place where you seat yourself. The tablecloths were white and covered with a solid piece of clear glass. In the center was a bud vase with a plastic flower in it. The menus were already on the table, being held up by the condiments collection. Perry led her to a table next to a big window. Outside sat his car. Kelly wondered if he trusted the citizens of Windsor Heights not to dent his doors.
She lifted the menu, although she knew what she was going to have.
“What’s good here?”
“Everything,” she said. She looked directly at him. “I can recommend the fried chicken. I know you don’t usually eat anything fried, but it’s to die for. Barring that, the liver and onions are good.
“I hate liver,” he said. “Do they have any fish?”
“This is Maryland,” Kelly said. “The crab cakes are excellent. They alone are reason enough to drive this far.”
Perry frowned.
“There’s the meatloaf. It’s not only good, it’ll sustain you for your trip back to New York. Or are you planning to visit the area?”
“I came only to see you. I’ll be leaving right after lunch.”
Kelly’s eyes opened wider.
“Why are you looking like that?” he asked.
“We’ve already said our last words. I find it surprising that you came all the way here to have lunch with me. You must want something. What is it?”
“I promise I only wanted to see you.”
The waitress came over and Kelly ordered the cheeseburger plate. Perry opted for the Maryland Crab Cakes.
“This is a surprising turn,” Perry said after the waitress left them.
“What do you mean?”
“I thought you lived on salads and bottled water.”
“I get more exercise here. I still love salads and water, but I get to have all my favorites now, too.”
“You really like living here?” Perry sounded as if he couldn’t fathom a person preferring the quiet farm life compared to the fast-paced, nonstop existence of a throbbing city.
“You don’t think there’s much going on out here, right?”
He glanced around. The restaurant had several tables with people at them. Most were dressed as if they worked on farms.
“Is there?”
“This is horse country,” she defended.
The waitress returned and set their plates in front of them. She smiled and left.
“Service is fast,” Perry said.
Kelly knew he was thinking the food couldn’t be good if it didn’t take a long period of time to prepare. Her plate held a thick cheeseburger that was high with lettuce, tomato and fried onions. The rest of the plate was covered with curly French fries. Kelly dug into it as if she hadn’t had anything to eat in years. Perry took a tentative bite of his crab cakes. Kelly watched him close his eyes and savor the deliciousness of the food.
“Like them?” she asked.
“They’re wonderful. Who would have thought food like this would come out of a place like this.”
“Careful, Perry. Your snobbery is showing.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
Kelly let his apology go. She was more interested in what else he surely wanted to say.
“Okay, Perry, I have my food now. I want to know what you want.” He started to speak, but Kelly interrupted him. “Don’t say you only came for lunch, because we both know you’d rather go to a four-star restaurant where people recognize you, than be in a homespun town where horseflesh is the stock in trade.”
He set his fork down and folded his arms in front of him. Kelly hated this gesture. He was either gathering courage to dictate something or buying time. To her it seemed cowardly.
“I want you to give up this farm business and come back to work.”
“I already have a job,” she told him.
“You can’t want to continue here. You’re too good. And what happens when you finish the place? There’ll be no job waiting for you. You’ll fail.”
“Fail,” she said. “You think I’m going to fail?”
“Of course not. I think you’d be so much better at what you do best.”
“Perry, you have no comparison for what I do best. How do you know my work at the Kendall isn’t better than me selling toothpaste or cupcakes or the newest shade of lipstick?”
“Because I know you.”
“Even if that’s true, I get more satisfaction from working at the Kendall than I ever got working on the Crawford or Grissom accounts.” The Crawford account brought in ten million dollars. It was her job to get consumers to buy their food products, specifically peanut butter and a variety of canned goods.
“What about us?” he asked.
Kelly nearly dropped her cheeseburger. “What us?”
“You know we were the best team at the agency.”
Kelly understood what was happening. They weren’t a team. Perry was a user. He’d used her, but she had been too blind to see what he was doing until he’d dumped her. He’d thought he could do it on his own, and when the time came for him to produce something new that the client would like, he couldn’t do it. And that’s why he was trying to get Kelly to change her mind.
“I have my own team here,” she said. “We work well together and we get the job done.”
“But think about it, Kelly. We were phenomenal. Between the two of us together, we could open our own agency.”
“Perry, you don’t seem to understand that I’m happy here.”
He looked out the window. Kelly glanced out, too. Jace drove into the lot and parked next to the red sports car. She watched as he slid out of the cab and headed for the front door. What now? She couldn’t see Jace and Perry becoming fast friends.
“If you come back, you can have your own team. It would be so much easier for you and you wouldn’t have to handle every detail yourself,” Perry said.
“I don’t handle every detail here,” she said. “All changes require my approval, but I don’t have do them myself. I like doing them. If I don’t do it or can’t, I hire someone.”
“What about that guy?”
“What guy?”
“The one who’s shown up out of the blue.”
The door opened and Jace walked in. “You mean that guy?” She indicated Jace. “He’s helped me out a lot and he’s a friend. Now you can return to New York and put your own team together. Thanks for lunch, but I see I have a ride back to the farm.” She intentionally used the word farm.
“I’ll give you a call in a few days. Think it over. It’s a good offer.”
Kelly didn’t need to think about his offer. “Is everything all right here,” Jace asked as he came to the table where the two of them sat.
“Yes,” Kelly said. “Everything is fine.” She got up and looked at Perry. “Thank you for lunch. Have a good trip back to the city.” Then she looked at Jace. “Do you think I can hitch a ride back to the Kendall?”
* * *
JACE OPENED THE cab door and helped her inside. Fastening her seat belt she wondered why he’d come to find her.
“What was that all about?” Jace asked. They were on the highway, heading to the house when he spoke.
“He asked me to return to New York.”
“Why?”
“I’m not really sure. I have the impression they got some new accounts and need people who can step in and work immediately.”
“I get the impression that work had nothing to do with what he wants,” Jace said.
Kelly winced. She had gotten the same impression.
“You two were more than colleagues, right?”
She waited a long moment before answering. “Yes. We worked together and we were a couple. I thought we believed in the same things, wanted the same things.”
“But...” he prompted.
“But he apparently he had other ideas,” she said.
Jace reached the Kendall’s circular drive and stopped the truck. Neither of them got out.
“What happened?” he asked.
Kelly released her seat belt and shifted in the spot to look at him. He leaned over the steering wheel, giving her his full attention.
“Working in the kind of New York agency that I did is a twenty-four hour a day job. In advertising the client always wants something new, something that will skyrocket their product to the top of the market share pyramid. And they wanted it a week ago. If that doesn’t happen and the client jumps ship, the project executive and staff are usually fired.”
“Is that what happened to you?” Jace asked. His voice was low and tender.
“Sort of. We were good. Perry and I came up with client after client. And they were satisfied for the most part.”
“Which part weren’t they happy with?”
“It wasn’t anything monumental. One of our clients didn’t like a strategy that we put in place. The product didn’t sell at the expected levels they wanted.”
“So they pulled up stakes?”
She nodded.
“And you got canned?”
“No, I’d already decided to leave. But Perry put the blame on me. He got the promotion that should have been mine.”
“So why does he want you to come back?”
“According to some of my friends who still work there, his idea factory has dried up.”
“You were the one with all the innovative ideas. And he took credit for them?”
“That sounds a little egotistical,” she said, frowning.
“But it’s true, right?”
“Mainly. Perry had some good ideas, but clients want great. They want buzz. They want...”
“Let me help you out here. Even for a guy who spent a lot of time in foreign countries and rarely worked inside an office, Perry or anyone for that matter is only as good as those supporting them and Perry’s running scared. He’s afraid the powers that be will discover that he really wasn’t the driving force behind the campaigns he worked on with you. And now that you’re not there his work is not as good.”
“That’s not totally true.”
“Kelly, I’ve seen the changes you’ve made here at the Kendall. You have a good eye for both detail and the big picture. You can imagine what a room will look like before it’s changed. Your ideas for marketing have changed the Kendall from a has-been to a place that people stand in line to get into. I’ll bet from what you told me about the racetrack, that you already know exactly what it will look like down to the last electrical socket and light switch. You’re amazing.”
Pleasure washed over her. She hadn’t been complimented for her efforts by him and she was proud that he’d seen her efforts as valuable.
“Well, I don’t have to worry about Perry anymore.”
She opened the door and got out of the truck. The air seemed just as tense as it was inside the cab. Kelly looked up at the gleaming white house. Jace joined her.
“I have the Kendall.” She turned to face him. “And the last electrical socket and light switch are in the Tidal Box, third level up, far wall, next to the private elevator.”
* * *
AS SOON AS Jace entered Doug’s office his receptionist sent him straight in. Doug stood and they shook hands.
“You’ve confirmed what you told me the other day?” Jace asked, getting right to the point.
“Yes. It’s a technicality, but a big one. Given the number of people who read these contracts before they were signed, someone should have brought this error to light.”
“Error?” Jace frowned.
“I’m sure it was, but it’s binding.”
“What is it?” Jace was getting antsy. He wanted to know the details of any chance he had to take possession of the Kendall. Although, of late, watching Kelly, seeing the amount of effort she put into the place was piquing his conscienc
e. He didn’t want to hurt her.
“Usually a contract in this state gives the signers three months to rescind it, back out of it. In other words they can change their minds without any consequences. It’s called a Buyer’s Remorse Clause.”
Jace nodded. He was aware of this rule.
“In this contract—” Doug turned the paperwork around and handed it across the desk to Jace “—it says three years, not three months. To tell you the truth, I didn’t see it the first time, either. I’m so used to seeing three months that I read what I expected to see.”
Jace looked down at the papers. The words three years had been underlined in red.
“As Ms. Ashton has only owned the house for two years, you can challenge the contract—the sale.”
Jace looked up. Kelly’s face, framed with her brilliant red hair, flashed before his eyes. She’d worked so hard in the past two years. And she was only seeing the value of that now. An image of her running around, taking care of the details of the open house assaulted him as clearly as if he’d been hit.
“It would be a long road,” Doug said.
Jace focused on him. “How so?”
“You’d have to pay whatever the outstanding taxes were, which would be substantial at this point. After that you’d have to invoke your father’s will.”
“Challenge the will?” Jace said.
“By arguing that you should have inherited it in the first place.”
“My father didn’t recognize me in the will. He left the property solely to my brother Sheldon.”
“Where is Sheldon?”
Jace shrugged. “He’s in North Carolina.”
“Have you had any contact with him in the past two years?”
“Only just recently, but we were never really friends even though we were half brothers.”
Doug leaned back in his chair and whistled. “This whole business could bankrupt you and in the end you might still lose.” He paused, letting Jace take it all in. Then he asked. “What do you want to do?”
Jace stared at the papers, the red underlining reminding him of the bloodline he expected to secure for Ari. When he looked up, Doug was staring intently at him.
“Let me think about it for a few days. I’ll get back to you.”
Jace left the lawyer’s office then. He tucked the contract in his pocket, but didn’t go to the truck and start for the Kendall. He walked. He needed time to think about things. He was growing closer and closer to Kelly. She’d taken him and his son in when they showed up out of the blue, and she gave him a job. In essence, she provided him with the insurance Ari needed and a place for him to grow and thrive. Now Jace was going behind her back and trying to take away what she’d worked so hard for.
Summer on Kendall Farm Page 13