Balancing Act (21 page)

He missed her with an empty, gnawing ache that had surprised him with its force. He’d come to rely on her cool level-headedness in response to his moods while they worked, and the number of secretaries he’d been through since she had left had grown to the point where personnel threatened to install a revolving door and send him up a different temp each week.

He no longer spoke to his father unless he could not avoid it. In the last month, he had made it clear to the elder Barrett that Brandon needed to be brought up to scratch because at the end of the year, Seth was leaving for good. His father had accused him of allowing his dick to do his thinking for him. It was at that point that Seth left the office without another word.

* * * *

He continued to think of Tessa at odd moments during the next week. Each time, he kept coming back to one thing that troubled him. He just couldn’t believe his father’s story that Tessa had admitted moving money from Seth’s travel account into her own personal account. It didn’t make sense. If she had done it, they would most likely still be in ignorance. She knew her way around Barrett’s computer system almost better than its programmers. If they could talk, maybe he could clear everything up.

Friday, he sat in his office drinking his third cup of bad coffee that morning, when the latest no-name assistant buzzed him on the intercom.

“M-Mr. Barrett? There’s a Mr. Mallory here to see you.”

“Who?” Seth barked back, irritated by the woman’s tentative manner.

“A Mr. Z-Zachary Mallory. He’s a-a boy.”

“I’m well aware he’s a boy,” he snapped. “Send him in.” Seth sat back for a moment and looked at his watch. Shouldn’t Zach be in school at this hour? Was something wrong? Had something happened to Tessa? He punched the intercom again. “Send him in, for God’s sake!”

Seth was getting up from behind his desk when the door opened and Zach sidled into his office. The boy was dressed in his school uniform and carrying his backpack with him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school, Zach?” Seth asked, keeping his voice gentle in the face of the boy’s obvious nervousness.

Zach looked down at his shoes. “Yes, sir, but I needed to talk to you about something. It’s been bothering me.”

Seth pointed to a pair of chairs near the big windows. “Come on over here, buddy, and have a seat. You want a soft drink or something?”

Zach set his book bag down and stared at Seth with somber blue eyes. “No, sir.”

Seth sat and the boy followed suit, perching on the edge of his chair as though he were intent on being able to make a quick getaway.

“It’s about the money,” Zach said.

Seth stared at the boy, a sudden coldness slinking through his veins. “Do you and Tessa need money? Is that why you’re here, Zach?” His tone was harsher than he’d intended, and he grimaced as the boy flinched. Surely she wouldn’t have sent her brother to ask for money. Seth felt his last illusions crumbling, and he knew when they were gone there would be nothing left inside him anymore. For once he’d taken a chance and put his feelings on the line, then Tessa had thrown them back at his feet.

“No! No, sir. That’s not it. I mean about the money that was missing. You know, the reason your dad fired Tessa.”

Seth gazed at Zach. A sudden memory flashed of Tessa saying Zach was even better with computers than she was. “What would you know about that, Zach?”

To Seth’s consternation, the boy’s brave expression started to crack, his lower lip trembled, and he looked down for a moment. Zach’s hands clenched and unclenched on his pantlegs. At last, he looked back up and stared Seth square in the eye.

“I’m the one who transferred the money, not Tessa.”

Seth couldn’t help the look of disbelief that must have crossed his face.

“It’s true,” Zach protested. “It was the night you came back from Chicago. You made Tessa cry, and I was mad at you. I carried the laptop inside the apartment. Tessa was in her room. I opened it up and logged on.”

“It’s password protected,” Seth said.

Zach gave him a supercilious look and said dismissively, “She only ever uses a couple different passwords and usernames, so that was no problem.”

“How did you access the account?” Seth inquired, still not quite believing what he was hearing.

“I was going through the mail while you and Tessa were gone and came across a number she’d scribbled on an envelope. It reminded me of my savings account number.”

“And you just happened to remember it?” Seth asked, unable to keep the doubt from his voice. Could Tessa have put him up to this? He didn’t want to believe that. She loved her brother and had appeared to be doing everything she could to make sure he had the best home life she could provide. Was that it? Had she needed more money…

“Yes,” Zach replied as if it was the most logical thing in the world. “I remember a lot of numbers. I like numbers.”

“Go on,” Seth prompted the boy.

Zach was beginning to warm to his task. “I clicked on stuff and looked for places to try the number…you know the number, 023021318991…until it opened something up.”

Seth sat stunned as Zach rattled off the travel account number as if he used it every day.

“After I got the account opened up, then it was simple to work the transfer, but I kept getting error messages from Tessa’s bank, so I figured nothing had happened, and besides that I’d kinda cooled down by then. And Tessa seemed to be fine in a few days and I forgot all about it.”

“So why are you here now?”

Zach looked down at his feet and back up at Seth. “That day at the dock. Tessa started crying again, and she finally asked me if I had fiddled with the account.” Zach’s blue eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t know that was why she got fired. She never said anything about it. Not anything at all. I got back from camp, and she just said she didn’t work for you anymore.

“I wanted to tell you about learning to sail an’ everything an’ Tessa said I couldn’t ‘cause we wouldn’t see you anymore. I was kind of mad at her for a while. She had this new job already, and she’s gone in the evenings. I never see her. I mean really see her. And she’s tired all the time, Seth, and she’s been sick a whole lot. She thinks I don’t know, but I hear her, and I’m afraid she might die or something.”

“Where does she work, Zach?” Seth asked.

Zach shrugged. “Some restaurant. She won’t tell me where. She says Mrs. Flores knows how to reach her if there’s a problem. She’s the lady who stays with me.”

Zach trailed off and stared out the window. Seth watched the boy, his own emotions confused. At last Zach turned toward him.

“I know what I did was a crime, and if you want to put me in jail, that’s okay. Only could you please have Tessa work for you again so she won’t be so tired and sick all the time? She was really happy with you, Seth. I’d even go to Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Edwin if it would make her okay.”

As Seth watched, the little boy could hold it together no longer. Zach’s expression crumbled and the tears he’d managed to hold off trickled down his freckled cheeks.

“Ah, Zach,” Seth said. “Come here, buddy. It’s okay.”

The boy came over and curled up on Seth’s lap, his red head resting against Seth’s broad chest–right where the ache was that hadn’t eased since his father’s phone call about Tessa.

He had to clear his throat so he could reassure the kid. “It’ll be okay. We’ll find a way to make it okay, and I promise you won’t have to go to jail.”

He pulled out a large linen handkerchief and gave it to Zach so the boy could wipe his face and blow his nose. As Zach started to give it back to him, Seth said with a slight smile, “Keep it, bud. Now, can you explain to me how you got here and why you’re not in school?”

Zach blushed. “I waited ‘til Tess left after dropping me off and then I hopped the train into town.”

“Well how about if I take you to school?”

“They won’t tell her, will they? She’d be mad if she knew I skipped school and came here.”

“I’ll make sure it’s not a problem this time, but don’t do it again,” Seth warned. “You’re way too smart to be missing school.”

Chapter 12

Tessa stared off into space, so stunned she wasn’t even really seeing the sage green walls of the doctor’s office. She had come in because she feared she’d picked up some sort of flu she couldn’t shake. But the reality was so much more shocking.

“Are you sure?” she asked at last. “Couldn’t there be some mistake?”

The physician shook her head, a slight smile on her lips. “We get some false negatives now and then, but a false positive is rare. I take it this was not planned?”

Still trying to grasp the reality of what the doctor had told her, Tessa said, “No, not at all.”

She leaned back in her chair. “You still have some options open if you don’t want to carry this pregnancy to term.”

Tessa’s eyes jerked up to meet the doctor’s steady gaze. “I would never consider an abortion.”

Dr. Michaels nodded. “Well, then we need to make sure you do everything you can to help this baby along. Let’s get you started on some vitamins. I’ve included information in here on nutrition, physical activity, and some of the symptoms you will experience. I know you’ve had some problems with nausea. That should pass, but if it doesn’t or it gets worse, you’ll need to contact the office.”

The middle-aged physician looked at the chart again. “You’ve lost some weight since your check up last year. That’s not something I’d like to see continue. You need to pick up a few pounds, but not too much. Make sure you’re eating quality food…not junk.”

Tessa nodded, still trying to take in everything Dr. Michaels told her. She gathered up the bag full of vitamins and product coupons and samples, paid her bill and headed out to her car. As she drove home, some of the reality of her situation began to sink in. She looked down at her flat stomach in the sudden realization that it wouldn’t be flat much longer…and she had no idea what it might mean for her job.

It was after noon when she arrived at the house. Tessa entered her apartment and took the bag of supplies from the doctor back to her bedroom where Zach wouldn’t see them. Zach! Oh my God! How was she going to tell him? How could she explain? On the heels of that thought came another. How could she tell Seth? Would he even believe her?

It didn’t matter. With her hand resting on her belly, she entered the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator. There must be something she could tolerate. She settled on a choice that would have left her gagging a few months ago.

Tessa was lost in thought, munching on the jar of pimento-stuffed olives she’d unearthed when a firm knock sounded on her door. She opened it, figuring it was Mrs. Flores, and almost dropped the olives when she saw Seth standing on her doorstep.

“Tessa,” he greeted her. “We need to talk. May I come in?”

She wasn’t ready for this. A sudden vision of the blond woman he’d introduced as his fiancee intruded and Tessa started to shut the door in his face. Seth stuck his foot in and curled his hand around the edge of the heavy wood.

“Go away. Please! Now is not a good time for this,” she finished very nearly on a hysterical sob. My God, she was still trying to comprehend the fact she was pregnant, she didn’t need the cause of it confronting her.

“Tessa,” he growled, keeping his voice low. “Talk to me.”

She looked over his shoulder, searching for the tall blonde from the marina. “Did you want to have your fiancee here for our conversation? Tell me, were you giving her a workout in bed at the same time you were breaking me in?”

“Stacey is not my fiancee,” Seth bit out. “It was a bad coverup. I was shocked to see you and I said it to hurt you.”

Tessa glared at him, “Well she sure as hell wore a big, flashy ring.”

Seth looked around and hissed, “Come on, Tessa, let me in so we can talk. I just finished taking Zach to school.”

Tessa’s hold on the door relaxed and she stepped back in confusion. “What do you mean? I dropped him off at school this morning.”

Seth took advantage of her lapse and slipped inside the apartment before closing the door behind him. His size dwarfed everything, including her. Tessa pictured the bag sitting back in her bedroom and knew she had to get him out of there fast.

Seth took the jar of olives from Tessa’s shaking hands and gave them an odd look before he set them down. He tried to lead her to the couch, but Tessa shook off his arm and sat in the window seat. Seth continued standing, his hands dug into the pockets of his dress slacks.

“He showed up at my office this morning with some very interesting things to say.”

She should have anticipated he’d do something. Zach would want to make things right. It would have been so simple in his mind. He could tell Seth what had happened, and his hero would make it right. But there was so much more to it now. The lack of trust, the betrayal.
Her pregnancy.

“He’s just a boy, Seth. He would say anything if he thought it would fix things between us.”

“Including that he was the one who transferred that money from the travel account into your account?”

Tessa lifted her chin and stared at him before she laughed without any humor. “Yes,” she lied. “Including that. How could you believe that? He’s an eleven-year-old, for heaven’s sake.”