Beale Street Blues (6 page)

Stunned by the entire conversation, Darling watched the woman storm from the bathroom. What in the hell did Barbara mean by,
all about you
?

CHAPTER FIVE

T
able linens fluttered and restaurant patrons stared, as Darling stormed across the restaurant. But, the woman heading toward him excited Jaxon, even if she made him nervous. And today wasn't the first time. From their first night together, she intimidated him, a little. No woman had ever been as direct, or as dismissive. He drank from the glass in front of him as he flashed back on the night she had him trailing through the hotel room behind her…butt naked.

Ridiculous.

What woman would want a man that didn't have the balls to stand his ground with her?

The beautiful features of her face were blank, except her eyes. Anger clear and distinct flashed from them. "You lied to me," she accused when she reached his table.

"Lied?" he questioned. "About what?"

She slammed an envelope down in front of him. "With everything that's going on, you've left me no other option."

He picked up the envelope. He didn't need to open it because the knot in his gut told him what it held. "I haven't lied to you about anything. Ever." He ripped the letter in half. "I don't need this, and you can't quit." She could, but he wouldn't allow it. He stuffed the torn pieces into his suit pocket, and forced himself to remain calm. "Sit down."

"I have to go." She stared at his pocket, while she bit at her bottom lip. "I did what I came to do."

Whatever would or wouldn't happen between them would be determined by them. No one would fill her head with lies. "Sit down, Darling."

She hesitated, but finally she nodded her head and lowered herself into the chair. "Why did you do this to me?"

"I haven't done anything to you." He reached for her hand, but she snatched it away. "Tell me what you think you know." He slid the glass of water near her hand.

"What I know is that I saw Barbara crying in the bathroom." She lifted her glass of water and sipped. "And she told me that Rodney told her that you're '…all about me.' That what happened to her is because of me. Us. You."

"Rodney told her that?" Rodney didn't know a damn thing. Jaxon felt certain of that much. If Barbara knew anything, she'd guessed it.

"Yes." She crunched ice from her glass of water. "I need this job, but I won't screw you or screw Barbara over to keep it."

He thought for a second. "Screw? Is that what we did?" It was beginning to feel like it was a hell of a lot more. Because he didn't know how to explain anything he'd done since that night. He'd even done an online search her
Darling, North Carolina
and found her bio from her old job. He was sure Rodney had hired her because she was beautiful, but she was probably more qualified than Rodney to run the damn division.

"Jaxon, please. Don't."

"Don't what, Darling? I'm only asking you a question." The plea in her eyes cut right through him because he knew exactly how she felt. Shit! For now, he would walk away from it. "Okay, Darling, for now," he continued, "Rodney doesn't know anything about me, you, or why I'm here." His anger and dislike for Rodney flared as he saw the hurt in her eyes. "I've had no conversations with Rodney outside of our meetings regarding the merger of your two workgroups." He waited. "Nothing. I promise you."

"Then, why would Rodney tell her that?"

He had one guess and he was sure he was right. "Rodney and Barbara have had a relationship for years."

"I know." She twisted her mouth in distaste.

"That relationship has secured a lot of opportunities for Barbara and a lot of sex for Rodney," he continued, "Rodney's covering his ass with her."

"And using me as a scapegoat."

The anger in her voice faded, but was quickly replaced with irritation. He hoped it was directed at Rodney and not at him. He kept his gaze on her face. "Sounds like it."

"Either way, I don't want to be caught in the middle of all of this." She took one last long drink of water.

Jaxon watched as her tongue darted out and pulled one of the ice cubes between her full sensuous lips. The droplets from the ice cubes moistened her lips distracting him from his thoughts.

The sound of the cubes of ice crunching stopped, and she spoke, "I'm only interested in my work, not being a part of stupid office politics." She pushed her chair back and stood.

"I'll take care of this." Hell, he had no idea how to get Darling either out of his mind, or into his bed. But, without knowing it, Rodney was fucking up his plans.

No matter how badly she needed this job or any job, Darling wasn't going to let it, or Jaxon, hold her hostage. He may not have accepted her resignation, but she still planned to start applying for jobs as soon as she got back to her parents' house. The minute she found something—anything, she would quit, and he wouldn't be able to stop her.

She gave herself kudos for saying what she had to say and getting it off her chest. But, her growling stomach didn't agree with her decision to do it before she ate. Sitting at the counter at The Arcade, a historic landmark, the oldest restaurant in Memphis, she ran through the scene again in her mind. She wanted desperately to forget the look of disappointment in Jaxon's beautiful green eyes as she stood to walk away.

He'd ripped the letter that she'd so painfully typed into pieces without even reading it. A small part of her tingled with happiness that he tore it up, but the part of her that was pissed at Rodney, Barbara and Jaxon didn't like it one bit.

While she waited on her food, she called the only friend she had. At least the only one she still had after the divorce. The others all seemed to disappear with Steve.

With the click of the line, she asked, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Trying to get out the door," Annette responded.

At least somebody had a life. She could live vicariously. "Where're you off to?"

"Going out with that guy I told you about the other day." There was a rustle of something in the background. "I don't even know why I'm even putting in so much effort."

"You don't sound too excited." She knew her friend was probably spinning in front of her mirror checking out her appearance. Maybe trying to determine which shoe worked better with her outfit. If nothing else, Annette was definitely fashion conscious. "Maybe you should stay home and go out on a different day when you feel more like it."

"Um, I don't know. I guess it's more about men not putting in much effort. Like this guy. Can you tell me why he prefers to text vs. talk?" Annette sighed. "He has my number why doesn't he use it?"

"Are you really asking the divorcee with no prospects about men?" It was almost too pathetic. She inhaled the plate of food placed in front of her. "You may not like the choices in front of you, but at least you have options."

"I guess that's one way to look at it," Annette continued, "I'm about to hop on the elevator. If I lose you, I'll call you right back. But, anyway, what's up?"

"Not much." She loaded her fork with fried okra. "I thought I'd call and let you know that you were right."

"About what?" The elevator dinged softly in the background.

"Jaxon ripped up my resignation letter."

Annette laughed. "Anybody could've told you that would happen."

"What am I supposed to do? Sit around and wait for him or his lackey to fire me because I won't screw the boss?"

The woman sitting further down the counter looked up from her magazine at Darling.

"Why do you think that'll happen?" Annette asked.

Embarrassment made her lower her voice, "I don't know." She could admit she might have a few issues with men. "Isn't that how these things always go? They get tired of you and trade you in?" Her relationship with Steve had been her longest. She knew he had his ways, but she didn't think he would leave her.

"Sounds like you're talking about Steve, not Jaxon," Annette said. "Look, you need the job and until you find another one, quitting isn't an option."

How different were the two men?

No matter how much she didn't like hearing what Annette said, she was right. Quitting wasn't an option because she was too old to live with her parents. She needed her job, or another one. Her credit was crap. It would take her even longer to get back on her feet if she had to start all over again. "Well, when everything finalizes from my divorce, I'll have some money. That'll help a lot."

Why did divorcing a lying cheating jerk take so long?
The judge should just say cheaters give the one cheated on everything they want. Done. Finished.

"Yeah, but you don't have it now. And right now, you have to eat."

It didn't matter how much she wanted Annette to be wrong, she was right. Even her fifteen dollar meal was a splurge she really couldn't afford, but she didn't feel like going back to work. And she didn't want to deal with her parents' curious looks and unasked questions if she came home early. They meant well, but sometimes, they still treated her like a little girl. "Eating is overrated." She loaded up another forkful of food.

"Is this really about the job?" Annette asked, laughing softly. "Or about the fact that the man is gorgeous and you can't stop thinking about him?"

"What do you know? Who said I can't stop?" If Annette knew about her dreams, she'd have absolutely no leverage what-so-ever.

"You did." She laughed, again. "I'll call you back later. I'm about to hop on the train."

Darling popped the trunk of her car, carefully reached in and pulled out the wedding dress that for some reason, she hadn't been able to part with. The lace and beads were hand-stitched. Back then, she weighed about twenty pounds less. She remembered with pain the day she saw the dress. She'd been out lunching with her mother and Annette. After lunch, they did some window shopping. When they passed the bridal shop, they all looked at each other with one thought. What the heck, why not take a look? Who knew they'd actually find something. The moment they saw it, they knew it was
the one
. The thing was she'd bought it before Steve had proposed.

Annette stored the dress at her house for months until Steve actually asked her to marry him. Now the thought made her laugh. Maybe that should've been her first clue that there was something crazy going on with her. She had been absolutely obsessed with him since they first met. No one could ever live up to the type of fantasy she'd created.

She put the dress back into her trunk. As soon as she could, she'd put it back in storage. Instead, she grabbed the other bags of clothes she no longer had a need for: evening gowns, shoes and extravagant purses, then walked into the consignment store to make her monthly drop off. Plus, she could use a few more reasonably priced suits. They always had a great selection.

An hour later, with cash and new suits in hand, Darling drove the streets of Memphis with no place to go. The city seemed strange and different, now. Her high school friends were just that. They were so far apart in who they were now that it made it difficult for them to relate. And her family, her parents, she didn't want them to know how far she'd fallen, because she and Steve couldn't agree on anything. Every extra dollar went to her lawyers and her part of the mortgage until things were finalized.

Just how had that happened? He left her! Why did she have to continue to pay the mortgage?

For some reason, she ended up in front of her high school.

Her high school had been a big deal when she was a kid with both a junior high and high school on the same campus. They provided more college preparatory classes than any other public school back then. Now, the junior high was some type of weird annex and the grounds didn't look as beautiful as she'd remembered. Through the eyes of a child, she'd thought the place was huge. Because she'd taken the bus to school, it seemed like it was on the other side of the world. But, it was only about fifteen minutes from her parents' house. And now, it seemed small and old. Falling apart.

Just like me

She looked over at the bags resting on the seat beside her and cried.

CHAPTER SIX

T
he stench of the weight room at the hotel—an odd mix of sweat and rubber—didn't bother Jaxon as he loaded more weight onto the bar. A weird sense of relief flowed through him as he laid across the bench and braced himself for what was to come. He gripped the warm metal and forced the bar to move with his will as much as his strength. The ache in his muscles increased with each pump and he welcomed it every time. Sweat rolled down his arms dripping onto his face. Into his eyes.

He rested the weights and grabbed his towel to wipe away his perspiration. As soon as he dropped the towel back to its resting place, images of Darling flooded him again. Nothing he did allowed him to push thoughts of her out of his mind.
Damn!
The metallic ringing and the grunting sounds of the men and women tackling the weights around him alerted him. He sat, doing nothing. The mirror across the way reflected what he already knew. This woman knocked him off his game and he needed to figure out why.