From that moment on, it was going to be his husbandly duty to make sure Barbara was on top.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Maddi agreed to meet her father, only after Nick said he’d pick her up and take her to the diner. He promised to stay with her, and told her they’d leave if things were too uncomfortable. Well, she was already uncomfortable, and she wasn’t there yet.
She poured herself another cup of coffee, her third for the morning. Retrieving the cream from the fridge, she glimpsed the two postcards from Barbara and Bill she’d tacked on the door. They were in Italy enjoying a second honeymoon. She was so happy for them it made tears spring to her eyes. Sniffling, she got up for a tissue, and fingered the postcards as she passed.
She’d always wanted to go to Italy with David, but he’d been setting up his new practice, then later he couldn’t spare the time. She’d like to go there now with someone--someone handsome, romantic, exciting. Why, someone like Nick Chandler would be the perfect choice. The fact that he was even lonelier and more miserable than she was, well, just the thought cheered her up.
The phone rang and it was him. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Are you up to this?”
“Sure. It’ll be a cinch. I’ll just hear him out, tell him what I really think, then we can leave.”
“It might not be that bad, Maddi. He seems like a decent enough guy.”
“We will see.”
Her father was sitting by a window in a corner booth. He looked up from his coffee when she entered. She stopped short at the sight of him, and wouldn’t have, couldn’t have, gone a step further if Nick hadn’t taken hold of her arm. “It’ll be fine,” he whispered. “And I’m with you all the way.”
She wondered what that meant.
Lifting her chin and straightening her shoulders, she marched to the booth and offered her hand. “Hi. I’m Maddi. Your daughter.”
His skin was like crepe paper, loose and heavily wrinkled. His nose was red and bulbous, his eyes pale and watery. She didn’t feel sorry for him. Heavy drinking and a life full of debauchery can do that to a person, and he’d got what was coming.
“Hello, Maddi. You look beautiful, just the way I remember you.”
Damn it. Why’d he go and say that?
“I haven’t changed much in twenty-five years. Just got a little taller.”
He smiled, and she noticed his teeth were yellow with age and poor dental hygiene. “Not all that much,” he shot back.
She sat down across from him. “So you look a little worse for wear.” When he didn’t answer, she snapped, “How could you, Dad? How could you take off and leave us like that? You left Mom paying all the bills, you left me with nothing. Not even a good-bye.”
Nick put his hands over hers to stop them from shaking.
“I’m sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am, and how I wish I could go back and change the past. As bad as it was for you, it was ten times worse for me.”
“Oh, cry me a river.”
“I had no choice. I was taking money from the till and got a little too greedy. Why, I don’t know. Maybe, I wanted to provide for my family better than my salary allowed. But, I was hitting the bottle hard, and not thinking straight.”
“You were always drinking and yelling at Mom and me.”
“And I’m sorry for that too.”
“You’re sorry for a lot of things, but that doesn’t make it right.”
“Oh, Maddi.” He sighed. “You were always a hot-headed little thing. Stubborn as a mule.” He put out a hand as if to touch her, and she flinched. “And I see you haven’t changed.”
She stuck out her chin. “Is that why you left? Is that why you never came back?” She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t.
“No. Dear God in heaven. Don’t ever think that. I loved you, I always loved you. That was my punishment all these years. Not being able to see you, or hold you, or kiss you good-night.”
“As if you ever did!” she huffed. “Why did you never come back?” Maddi brushed the tears away angrily, swiping at them for daring to appear.
“I couldn’t, honey. I’d have gone to jail.” His eyes pleaded with hers. “When the owner caught me stealing, I whacked him over the head with a gun that he kept under the counter. I didn’t kill him, thank God, but I had to disappear.”
“Why didn’t you just tell the police? Since it was your first crime, you’d probably have escaped jail time.”
“Not staying and confessing was the biggest mistake of my life. By leaving you, I condemned myself to a lifetime term. I was in my own cell, and believe me when I say it was hell.”
“Good.”
He smiled gently, and his face lost some of its ugliness, she thought.
Nick spoke up. “Glad to see you’re both getting along.”
They both laughed, and the ice was not exactly broken, but melting.
Maddi signaled to a waitress. “Let’s order some lunch, then you can tell you what you’ve been doing for twenty-five years.”
He told her how he’d gone to work that last day with no thought of not returning for their evening meal. “I usually only took a ten, here and there. Nothing big, nothing that would get noticed. But we had had a really big night at the bar, and I was counting up, ready to put it in the vault, and instead I started stuffing my pockets. The owner came in and caught me.”
He sipped on his iced tea, and patted his lips. “After I whacked the poor guy, I emptied the vault and took off. The vault had a week’s worth of cash in it. I didn’t count it, I just ran.”
“Nice story.” Maddi took a bite of her tuna wrap then put it down. “A real heart-breaker.”
“I don’t blame you, hon, for feeling this way. I don’t deserve any less from you.”
“That’s right. You don’t.”
Nick stepped in. “Maddi, why don’t you let him try to explain? Find out what his life was like after? We all make mistakes, and we all have to live with them. It’s what we learn from them that make a difference.”
“Yes, but some are just a hell of a lot bigger than others.” She gave her dad a disgusted look. “Please continue. Make me proud.”
“I don’t think I can do that. But maybe I can make you a little less ashamed.” He finished his cup of soup and reached for his turkey on rye. “I took a taxi to Newark, and caught the first flight to the Honduras. I didn’t have a plan, no place to live, no idea why I was there. I got drunk and stayed drunk for a week. When I sobered up my money was gone, my passport stolen, and I had no way home.”
She swallowed hard. “Did you want to come home?”
“More than anything, but I was a bum. A drunken bum, who’d stolen money and lost it, deserted his wife and daughter, had no job, no self-respect, and a shit-load of guilt.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “I stayed and tried to drink myself to death. Unfortunately, someone found me in a gutter and took me in. They nursed me back to health. That was fifteen years ago, and I haven’t had a drop since.”
Her eyes met his for the first time. “Who was this person? Who took care of you?”
“A Jesuit Priest.” He gave a wry smile. “Turned me into an alter boy.”
“Right,” she scoffed.
“Laugh all you like, but for the past decade I’ve been from Guatemala to El Salvador, helping the poor.”
“You’re not the type.”
“I wasn’t. I am now.” His voice trembled. “It was at an Aid’s Hospice in San Salvador that I picked up the disease.”
“You have Aids?”
“I have, perhaps, a year to live.”
“Oh, Dad.” Tears filled her eyes.
He touched her cheek. “That’s the sweetest word I’ve heard in twenty-five years. I love you, daughter.”
***
A couple of days later Autumn called to say their father was in trouble, and Tami and her mother refused to help. Maddi didn’t feel all that inclined either, but Autumn’s hysterical pleas persuaded her to come to his rescue. She’d do it, bu
t she would need Nick’s assistance and expertise.
She drove straight to his office, located in a two-story apartment block on Witherspoon Street in the center of town. His name and credentials were on a copper plaque attached to a wooden door. She tried the handle, only to find the door was locked.
Locating the buzzer, she leaned on it for longer than necessary. Nick spoke over the intercom. “If you’re my ex-wife, go to hell. If you’re a client, come right in.”
She heard the lock on the door click. Pushing the door open, she entered his office/apartment. He had his seat tilted back and his feet on the desk, obviously not out to impress future clients.
“Hello, Nick.”
“Hey, Maddi. What a nice surprise.” His large feet quickly cleared the desk, as he jumped up to greet her. “What brings you here?”
She grinned. “Do you always greet potential clients over the intercom so politely? If so, I can see why you’re not exactly busy.”
“What do you mean? I let you in, didn’t I?” He came around the desk, and pecked her cheek. “How’s the old man?”
“Dad’s doing great. He’s getting the best of medical care.” She touched his hand. “How can I ever tell you how grateful I am for bringing him back to me?”
“You can show me sometime.” He perched on the edge of his desk, and grinned. It was a killer smile, that bad-to-the-bone kind no girl with an ounce of passion or curiosity could resist.
Nick waved Maddi to the couch, and took his own chair by his blinking computer monitor. He’d obviously been working on something before she showed up. What kind of cases, she wondered, did small town PI’s get, other than the cheating spouses kind?
“So why won’t you speak with your ex-wife?”
“Oh, Jesus. Don’t even go there.” He ran a hand through his long sandy hair.
“That bad, huh?”
“And then some. Now, tell me what brought you here? My charm, my wit, my boyish good looks? No, none of that?” Nick eyed her curiously. “Something tells me it’s not for a free lunch.”
“No, it’s a little more complicated than that.”
“I’m listening.”
“David’s daughter called this morning, worried about her father.” Maddi sighed. “Seems he got arrested and thrown into a Mexican jail.”
She truly didn’t want anything bad to happen to David for the girls’ sake, and for hers too. He’d been her husband too long to erase all feeling from her heart.
“Tami is the woman David ran off with, and they had a baby. He didn’t want the baby, so he left her too. Anyway, the point is, Tami called Autumn a couple of weeks ago to see if she’d heard from her father. He neglected to send the required child support.”
“Nice guy. You are well rid of him.”
“You bet.” She continued, “He called Autumn this morning, told her he was in a Mexican jail, and asked if she’d bail him out. He’d already called Tami, who told him he could rot there for all she cared.”
“What was he arrested for?” Nick asked.
“You won’t believe this.” She could feel her cheeks turn pink. “He was arrested for beating up a prostitute, but the prostitute turned out to be a transvestite, or a guy in drag, or some such thing. David got the surprise of his life apparently, and threw her off him, and she hit her head on the concrete floor. She had to go into the hospital and get thirty-two stitches. Then she called the cops on him.”
“David told his daughter this?”
“No, Tami gave Autumn the unedited version of the story.” She grimaced. “I can’t imagine a Mexican jail is very pleasant. He might not be my most favorite person in the world, but I guess I should help him out. Wife number one refuses to have anything to do with him. Tami won’t either.”
Nick moved a model airplane around his desk, like a kid would a tinker toy. He lifted it for take-off, then dropped it suddenly. Crashed and burned.
He raised an eye-brow. “You want me to go with you and bail him out?”
“Would you? I’m not sure how to obtain his release, and you being an ex-cop and all, I’m sure you could ease the way.”
“I’d be delighted.” He grinned. “Don’t worry. We’ll get him out, and it won’t cost you the farm.”
“I was wondering about that. How do bribes work down there? And how much do you think it’ll take?”
“It’s guess work. They’ll start high, and we’ll just have to negotiate our way down until we arrive at a mutual meeting place.”
A little smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I suppose if we had to, we could always sell his new Jaguar to bail him out.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed as if he knew what she was thinking. “That would kill him, right?”
“It’s his pride and joy.”
“Okay, that’s what we’ll bargain for. The cost of a new Jag is about eighty to a hundred thou, so we’ll try to keep it under that.”
“Perfect.” Her eyes gleamed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Maddi and Nick flew out the following day, arriving mid-morning in Cancun. The sweltering heat hit them full blast as they stepped off the plane.
Maddi suggested they stop off at Carlos and Charlie’s for lunch and a beer before going to the cell. They’d left Newark at six in the morning, and had had nothing but pretzels on the crowded flight over. Another hour or two in the can wouldn’t hurt, Maddi figured. David had been there for several days already.
They ate chicken tamales and beef burritos, and drank their icy cold Coronas straight from the bottle, with a slither of lime. Maddi eventually pushed her still heaping plate away, turning to Nick with a satisfied sigh.
“Boy, I needed that. Why do you think the airlines stopped serving food?”
“Guilt. It wasn’t right to poison their paying passengers.”
“Think so?” She slugged down the rest of her beer, and patted her lips with a greasy napkin.
He pushed back his chair, and rubbed his expanded waistline. “Shall we go rescue that ex-husband of yours?”
“Aw shucks, do we have to?” Checking her appearance in a compact mirror, she wiped a smudge of lipstick from her teeth. “Let’s just have another drink or two, and pick him up later.”
“I can see you have that warm, fuzzy feeling for the man.” Nick withdrew his wallet, and pulled out a couple of twenties. “Come on, babe. It’s time to face the music.”
She picked up his twenties. “I’m covering expenses. Put your money away.”
“Okay, but I’m warning you, I’m not cheap.”
Maddi smiled and stood up. “I’m going to clean up in the washroom and meet you out front. Okay?” She felt him watching her little behind as she sashayed off to the ladies room.
***
Nick waited for her on the sidewalk, and after several minutes passed, he decided to go back inside. He pushed open the door and ran smack into Maddi.
“What took you so long?” Nick snapped, putting his hands on her shoulders to steady her. “I was beginning to worry about you.”
“I was only a minute. I had to floss and brush my teeth.” She flicked his hands away. “You nearly flattened me, coming in like that.”
“Sorry.” He stepped back, and held the door so she could walk through.
She rubbed her forehead, and grumbled under her breath. “Just what I need--to show up bruised.” She tossed her head and lifted her chin. “Not that it matters. He’s a jerk and I don’t care about him, so what difference does it make how I look?”
“You look fine.”
“No, I don’t.”
Nick studied her for a moment, finally getting it. “Oh, so that’s it.” His tone became cynical. “It doesn’t matter what the creep did to you, you still want to dazzle him. You’d probably take him back if he begged just right.”
“Not on your life. But when he sees me, I want him to feel a smidgen of regret.” She tossed him a look. “It was over between us the day he left.”
“If that’s the c
ase, what does it matter how you look?”
“Forget it,” she snapped. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s a woman thing.”
“Hell, if the man has any sense at all, he’s already black and blue from kicking himself in the butt.”
She squinted up at him. “Really? You think so?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Still carrying a torch?”
“No, but I don’t want to appear with a black eye.”
He clasped her face and raised it gently, checking it closely. Her eyes fluttered and closed.
“No bruises, just a little darkness under your eyes.” His thumb lightly stroked her upper cheek. “You don’t sleep enough. You worry too much.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I watched you, remember?”
“Oh.” The thought of him watching her made her pulse race. Had he wanted to touch her, make love to her? Had he watched her undress; had he been hard for her?
She looked at him and this time her eyes didn’t shy away. They searched for the truth in the gold-flecked depths of his, and found it. She felt a pull very low in her abdomen and recognized it as sexual desire.
“Did you enjoy spying on me?” she asked in a sultry voice.
“Very much,” he admitted. “I spotted you in the restaurant laughing with the others, and your smile was so bright that I couldn’t take my eyes off you. Every day after that, I found myself waiting for that smile.” His grin was self-abasing. “Didn’t matter if your dad paid me or not. I’m sure I’d have continued the surveillance.”
Her voice was soft. “You would have?”
“Yes, I couldn’t have stopped.”
“Hmm.” Quietly thrilled, she turned and walked off, then flashed him her prettiest smile. “Coming?”
In two strides he was at her side, spinning her around and into his arms.
She didn’t have time to defend herself. His lips closed on hers, robbing her of breath. Her arms found themselves linked around his neck. The gentle kiss deepened into a full-blown one that continued for much too long, but not nearly long enough. Her heart felt as though it would explode inside her chest, and her mind went numb, until he moved his lips away.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE TRILOGY Page 68