Compromising Positions (An Erotic Romance Novel) (18 page)

And of course, she wasn’t home.

Parked in her driveway, he dialed her cell phone again. This time, he got her voice mail. “Hi, Fate. I can imagine what you’re thinking, but please listen. I did this all for you. Please. Believe me. Let me explain. I did it all for you. I love you. I want to marry you.” He punched the end button and drove home.

He’d lost her. The only person in the world that mattered. “Shit!”

Sometimes it’s easier to believe the worst about someone than the best.

Fate checked the recent calls on her cell. Gabe, again? Would he never give up? That was the last human being she wanted to talk to at the moment.

She punched the power button, got out of the car, and escorted her mother to the front door. “We shouldn’t be doing this. What if someone calls the police?”

“No one will, honey. I just have to get one last look. You understand, don’t you?” Standing on the front porch, her mother swept her arms in a wide arc. “This place was my life for over thirty years. I raised you kids here, two from birth. I lived a lot of life here.” She sighed, and her shoulders slumped forward. “I can’t believe it’s gone.”

“It will be very soon.” She drew her mother into her arms and fought back another river of tears. “I’m sorry. I tried, Mom.”

“I know you did.” Her mother smoothed her back. “Thanks for trying.”

Fate slid the key into the lock and opened the door. “Let’s get this over with. This day’s already been the worst. I don’t want to end it in a concrete-walled cell. I’m not supposed to have this key.”

“Okay.” Her mother stepped inside and drew a deep breath, and it was all Fate could do to keep from sitting on the ugly linoleum floor and bawling like a baby.

She’d failed her mother, again. How many times did that make? Hell, she couldn’t even begin to count.

“Do you remember when you were little, and you used to roller skate in the living room?”

“Yeah, Mom. I remember.”

Her mother walked through the dining room to the kitchen. “And you remember all the fun we had a Christmas? The family room was so full of presents you could hardly walk through it.” She chuckled, but Fate knew it was a bittersweet sound, that of a broken-hearted woman who had been beat down by life.

She wondered if someday she’d be doing the same thing: basically living in the past because the present was too painful to endure. She rubbed her mother’s shoulders. “Those were great times, Mom. And maybe sometime you’ll have those kinds of Christmases with your grandbabies.”

“Are you?” Her mother turned and gripped her hands. “Are you trying to tell me something?” Fate was tempted to lie, just to see that hint of hope on her mother’s face remain, if only for a little while. But it would be cruel. Unforgivable. Like the kind of lies someone else had told her recently.

She shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not.”

“Oh.” Her mother dropped her hands and turned away. “Like you said, maybe someday.” She meandered through the rest of the main floor, looking uneasy, sad, defeated, much like Fate felt. “They’ve painted. I hate white walls. Did they have to paint the walls white?”

“I know, Mom. But they like to make it look new. The people who buy the house will use colors, I’m sure.”

Her mother nodded then climbed the stairs. “I have to go up.”

“Please, just a minute more. I don’t want to get caught in here.”

“I know. Only a minute.” She opened the door at the top of the stairs and stepped into the master bedroom. “They took out my carpet. My beautiful wallpaper. My curtains. They’re all gone.” She slid to the floor like a wilting flower, awake, yet looking too weak to remain standing. And then she covered her face in her hands. Her shoulders quaked.

Fate watched her mother cry, not having a clue what to do. She’d tried, even endured long hours at that ridiculous tattoo place to keep the house in the family. But this was it. When the bank called her former employer to verify her income, they’d close their doors to her for good. No way in hell she could get another job by the auction. It was only a few days away.

“We’ll make a new life together. You can move in with me. It’ll be fun.”

Her mother dropped her hands, stood and hugged Fate’s waist. “Yes. We can do that.” She walked out of the room. “I’m ready. Let’s go now.”

“Okay.” More than ready to leave, she followed her mother down the stairs. But no sooner were they at the bottom than her mom was dashing back up them. “Where are you going?”

“I have to check something.”

Shaking her head, she followed the distraught woman. What was she doing now?

When she walked around the corner in the master bedroom, she caught her mother stacking boxes on top of one another in the closet. “What are you doing?”

“I want to see if they’ve cleared out the attic.”

“Here, let me. I don’t want you to fall.” Fate stood on the shaky boxes and pushed up the attic door. She carefully stood on tiptoes. “There are some boxes up here—“

“Thank God! Can you get them?”

“No. I need to get higher.”

Her mother gave her rump a shove, a strange feeling being goosed by her own mother. But it worked, and she was able to pull herself into the attic. She handed down four boxes then dropped to the floor and closed the opening. “Can we go now?”

Her mother, hugging one of the boxes to her chest, nodded her head. “Yes, we can go now.”

They carried the boxes out to Fate’s car, and her mother opened one after one. The sound of paper crinkled as she sifted through the contents, and her mother sighed. Fate looked over her shoulder.

All four boxes held yellowed paper smudged with faded poster paints, coloring book pictures scribbled with crayons. Lumps of baked clay resembling animals. Her mother blinked back a tear. “How could I go on without these?”

Fate simply nodded and urged her mother into the car. And after one final silent farewell, Fate drove away from her childhood home, down her childhood street, through her childhood subdivision. And away from childhood memories.

After dropping off her despondent mother, she went home, ignored the blinking answering machine and stared at the TV. And once she was so tired she couldn’t focus her eyes, she went to bed. The next morning, she felt no better. It was not a good feeling having no place to go on a Tuesday. She glanced at the clock, willing time to move faster, yet it continued to drag by. And as noon approached, she considered canceling her lunch date with John.

Why had she called him anyway? Hell if she could remember anymore…

But, after calling Tracy and enduring a stern lecture on the hazards of becoming a hermit and hiding from life, she pulled her hair back, slipped on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and headed for the restaurant.

Despite her best efforts to dillydally, she got there first. So she sat, alone, and watched neighboring diners chatter.

“I thought I might find you here.”

No way! That lying, scheming, asshole hadn’t hunted her down. She didn’t look, couldn’t stomach the thought of looking at him. “If that’s you, Gabe, you’d better leave now before I punch your lights out. I’m on a date.”

He stepped into her line of sight, and her stomach twisted into a tight ball. “Yeah? Funny, I don’t see anyone sitting next to you.”

Damn him! The cocky, annoying, obnoxious Gabe was back. In full force. In the flesh. In her face. “Get lost.”

“I tried to call you. Did you get my message?”

“No. I didn’t bother listening to it. I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”

“I wasn’t lying. Won’t you just give me a chance to explain?”

“Why? So you can get laid? Why don’t you flash that tongue around the restaurant, and I’d bet you’d get at least a few takers.” Someone cleared their throat, and she glanced over her shoulder to see who it was. John. “Hi. Thanks for coming.” She stood, purposely ignoring Gabe, and took John’s hand. She motioned toward Gabe. “Just ignore him. He’s leaving.”

Gabe stuck his hand out. “Gabe Ryan. I work with Fate.”

“Correction, worked. I don’t work there anymore,” Fate said.

John glanced at both of them then gave Gabe’s hand a shake. “Good to meet you. I’m John. And we’re on a date, if you don’t mind.”

Gabe pulled up a chair from the next table and took a seat—the nerve he had! “Actually, I do care.”

“Gabe, I swear, I’ll kill you.” She shoved his shoulder. “Get the hell out of here. No one invited you. Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because you haven’t given me the chance to explain. Give me that much, and I’ll leave you alone for good.”

That was tempting, if he’d keep his word. But the problem was she knew if he told her something that even remotely made sense, she’d buy it. And the last thing she wanted to do was fall for another one of his lies. She was simply too vulnerable. “Not now.”

Gabe leaned forward, and her nerve endings caught fire. “When?”

“Later. Call me later.”

“Fair enough.” He stood, gave John an obvious once-over—rude son of a bitch—and nodded his head. “I’ll call you later. Nice meeting you, John. Don’t touch her. She’s mine.”

She jumped to her feet. “In your dreams, you sick son—“

John caught her wrist and silently pleaded for her to stop. She sat.

“Want to tell me what that’s all about?” he asked.

“It’s a long story.”

“That’s okay.” He flagged the waitress. “Tuesdays are slow. I have at least a couple of hours.”

To his credit, John was a good listener. He spent the next two hours bobbing his head up and down as she poured out all the ugly details from the past couple of weeks. Then he wished her luck, shook her hand, and left.

She wouldn’t be seeing him anytime soon.

With nowhere else to go, she headed home and busied herself cleaning closets, figuring she’d give herself the rest of the week to clear her head before hitting the pavement and looking for another job. A full week off would be nice, give her a chance to do things she normally didn’t have the time to do, like go to museums, do grocery shopping without the weekend crowds, think.

Her phone rang, and expecting it was either Tracy or Gabe, she read the caller ID display.

Work. Probably Gabe.

The machine beeped and clicked and she waited for his voice.

“Hello, this is Curtis Duncan. I’m calling for Fate Doherty. If she would—“

She picked up the phone to take the call. “Hello?”

“Ms. Doherty?”

“Yes.”

“I’m calling because I need to meet with you. Can you come to the office?”

“No offense, but if this is just a formality to my being fired, I can live without it.”

“Not at all. You’re still very much an employee here. Whatever gave you that idea?”

“What? But…wait a minute. Did Gabe put you up to something?”

“I have no idea what you mean. How does three o’clock sound?”

She glanced up at the clock. “I can do that.”

“Good. See you then. Goodbye, Ms. Doherty.”

She changed her clothes and retamed her hair with the help of her trusty scrunchy then drove to Single Temptation—she’d never get used to that name. She stepped up to his door at exactly three o’clock.

“Ms. Doherty.” He motioned her inside, and she took a seat.

Curiosity was eating her alive, but she didn’t speak.

“A lot of crazy things have been happening around here lately, and I felt, after Monday morning’s confusion, that I should get the explanations taken care of before any assumptions were made.”

She shifted in her chair. “I think it’s a little too late for that.”

He nodded. “I should have talked to you sooner, but you left so abruptly, and I haven’t been able to reach you.”

“You’ve been trying?”

He nodded. “Anyway, that’s not the issue I called you in here to discuss.”

She silently prepared herself for a surprise, figured it had to be something she’d least expect for him to have called her in like he had.

“Mr. Ryan has left the company.”

The words kind of soaked into her consciousness. “What? Left?” That made no sense! Why would he lie to her, scheme, backstab and then leave? “I thought—“

“Like I said, I figured we’d best clear the air before any assumptions were made.”

“But what about the meeting? Why wasn’t I a part of it?”

“Mr. Ryan was covering for you. He thought you were going to be out for the day.”

Had she been that foolish? Been willing—hell, more than willing—to believe the worst when all along she’d been wrong? Gabe had wanted to explain, but she hadn’t given him the chance… “Covering for me?”

“That’s what a good assistant does for their boss, isn’t it, Ms. Doherty?”

“Assistant?” What? She was confused.

“He took a demotion over a week ago.”

Those words landed on her head like a load of concrete. He took a demotion. He left the company. He had covered for her.

And she’d called him every ugly name in the book. All because she assumed—God, she hated that word!—he was lying to her. He hadn’t wanted her job. Could she be any stupider? Any meaner? After everything he’d done to help her. She had to make it right. She couldn’t live with herself until she did. “Do you know where he’s gone?”

“No.”

“Why did he quit?”

“For legal reasons I can’t tell you that. Maybe you should find him and ask him yourself.” He lifted a manila folder from his desktop. “Now, I reviewed your personnel file this morning, and I see you have some vacation time carried over from last year. I’d like to see you take that now, before the new company gets fully underway. Would you like to take the next week off?”

Her head was swimming. What had he said? “Sure.”

“Okay. Then we’ll see you bright and early next Monday morning.” He stood.

She stood, too. “Okay. Monday.”

This wasn’t happening. She’d made such a fool out of herself, all because she hadn’t—even after sleeping with Gabe , even after hours of talking, sharing, laughing—been able to believe anything but the worst about him.

She didn’t deserve his love or forgiveness.

After all, what had she done for him? Absolutely nothing.

She reached for the doorknob and gripped it in her hand. “Oh God.”