Finders Keepers (19 page)

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Authors: Fern Michaels

BOOK: Finders Keepers
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Jessie's good mood shattered in an instant. “Good morning, Mrs. Kingsley.”
“When did you get back, Mother? How's Pop?”
“Late last night. I didn't see your father. In fact, I didn't get out of the airport at all. I called at least a dozen times, but there was no answer. I finally gave up. All I did was waste time. They're having a snowstorm up the whole East Coast. I was fortunate I got a flight back when I did. Did your father call while I was gone, Tanner?”
Tanner bit into a piece of toast. “Not to my knowledge. Jessie and I are going into town and won't be home for lunch or dinner. Everything here is taken care of. We had lunch with Resa yesterday. School's out for the holiday, so she's going shopping with us. Is there anything we can bring you from town?” Jessie flinched at his cool, polite voice.
“No. It's just as well. I'm redoing the house today, and you'd both be underfoot.”
“What does that mean, you're redoing the house?”
“I'm changing the holiday decorations. You should be happy, Tanner. For years you and Resa have complained about my themes. This year it will be a traditional Christmas.”
Jessie didn't think it was possible for Tanner's voice to get colder but it did. “It doesn't matter anymore, Mother. Resa and I are all grown-up now. It was important when we were kids. I won't be here anyway. I'm spending Christmas with Resa. In case you've forgotten, I've been doing that for the past five years. Jessie will be joining us this year. So, what that means is, don't go to the expense and time of doing it for us.”
Alexis sat tight-lipped, her eyes narrowed to mean slits. “I see.”
“I doubt it,” Tanner said. “Come on, Jessie, let's leave. We can catch something to eat in town. You'll see us when you see us. Have a nice day, Mother.”
Jessie rose from the chair. “Good-bye, Mrs. Kingsley.” Alexis's nostrils quivered. “Just a moment, Miss Roland. Were you in my bedroom sampling my perfume?”
Jessie stopped in her tracks. “I beg your pardon.”
Tanner turned, his face murderous. “What are you implying, Mother?”
“I want to know where this . . . this . . . secretary got perfume that sells for $400 a quarter ounce. Not very many people can afford expensive French perfume, especially on a secretary's salary.”
“Are you saying I went into your room and used your perfume, Mrs. Kingsley?” Jessie asked in a choked voice.
“That's exactly what I think unless you can come up with a better explanation.”
“No, no, Jessie. Let me be the one to explain,” Tanner said. His eyes were steely cold, his jaw jutting forward as he stared his mother down. “Jessie's best friend Sophie gave the perfume to her. As a matter of fact we were discussing it yesterday. Miss Sophie can probably buy a gallon of the stuff and splash it all over the house if she wants to. You owe Jessie an apology, Mother. Since you are so arrogant and merciless, I know you won't do it so I will do it for you
again.
Sometimes, Mother, you disgust me. Let's go, Jessie.”
“Will you wait for me one minute, Tanner?”
“All the minutes you want,” Tanner said.
Jessie flew up the stairs. She raced into her room and grabbed the small elegant gold-and-crystal perfume bottle. She flew back down the steps and plopped the bottle on the table in front of Tanner's mother. “Keep it!” she said in a choked voice as she ran from the room.
“Sometimes, Mother, I absolutely detest you. This is one of those times. Keep this up, and I'll be moving in with Resa. I hope you're ashamed of yourself.”
“Don't be ridiculous, Tanner. Anyone would have assumed what I assumed. No, I am not ashamed. Another thing, don't ever make the mistake of threatening me again. That was a threat, wasn't it?”
“You know what, Mother, it's whatever you want it to be.”
Outside, Tanner took great gulps of air. He knew Jessie was crying. Damn it to hell. Resa would know what to do and say. “Jessie, I am so sorry that happened. I spend too much time apologizing for her. I don't know why.” He wrapped his arms around her, murmuring words she couldn't hear.
“I can't stay here. I need to go back to Washington. Why doesn't she like me? Good Lord, she doesn't even know me.”
“Shhh, it's not important.”
“Yes, it is important. I'm starting to like you too much. It can't work.”
He kissed her then because he didn't want to hear what she was going to say next. A long time later he said, “I don't want you to go. You could stay with Resa.”
Jessie sighed. The kiss was her undoing. She felt like a wounded puppy. “No, I cannot stay with Resa. I will not infringe on her privacy. She's in love and wants to spend all her free time with Josh. I guess I could stay on and get a hotel room if you really want me to stay.”
“Give me Pop's phone number. Don't pretend you don't have it. This is too serious a matter to let go.”
“He'll be upset if I give it to you.”
“No, he won't. Not when he knows what Mother has been doing.”
“I'm sorry, Tanner, I can't do that. I gave your father my word. He asked me to call him when your mother returned. Can I do that from Resa's apartment?”
“Sure. Let's go. Are you okay?”
“I think so. That was some kiss. We should do it again.” Be bold and brassy when the occasion warrants, Sophie had said.
Tanner laughed. “Don't worry, we will.”
 
It took all of ten minutes to bring Resa up to date on her mother's behavior.
“Jessie, how awful for you. She does things like that all the time. Sometimes I don't think she realizes what she does. I don't want to believe my own mother would deliberately hurt someone the way she hurt you. But then she's done the same thing to me so many times over the years. Sometimes I think she hates me.”
“She does not hate you, Resa. I think she hates herself.”
“And Pop,” Resa said.
“Can Jessie use the phone in the bedroom?” Tanner asked.
“Of course. Look, Tanner, this package came from Pop this morning. It's my Christmas present. I wonder why he sent it here?”
“Sometimes you are so dumb, Resa. He sent it here because he knew you wouldn't be going to the ranch. Jessie hand-delivered mine and Mother's,” he said smugly. “Don't forget, I want to talk to Pop before you hang up.”
Jessie looked around the small bedroom as she dialed the senator's number.
Now this
, she thought,
is a
sanctuary
. The spread on the double bed was full of bright red tulips and so cheerful, Jessie blinked. The same color red was used in corduroy to cover the cushions on what looked like an antique white rocking chair. Crisp white Priscilla curtains covered the windows. Cozy. Feminine without being girlish. Bright red rugs dotted the shiny hardwood floors. Children's artwork adorned the walls, each drawing signed with a hand print. “Yes, Senator, it's me. Mrs. Kingsley returned late last night. She said she didn't get out of the airport because of a snowstorm moving up the East Coast and was lucky to get a flight back to Texas. I'm at Resa's, Senator. We're going shopping, and then we're going to bake Christmas cookies. I'm having a wonderful time. I love your daughter. Yes, I like your son, too. Tanner wants to talk to you. I wouldn't give him the phone number because I gave you my word. If you hold on, I'll call him. If you're driving back to town, Senator, be careful.”
In the small living room, Jessie accepted a mug of hot coffee. “I have some sticky buns warming in the oven,” Resa said. “It will be just a few minutes. Listen, don't let my mother get you down. After a while you learn to tune her out.”
Jessie gulped at the hot coffee. From smothering love to deep hatred. Where was the happy medium?
Tanner returned to the kitchen just as Resa was taking the sticky buns out of the oven. “Drip butter over them, Sis. Be sure you turn on your answering machine when we leave. I told Pop to call when he gets back to Irene's house. He hates driving in snow, but Irene wants to go home. So do the twins.”
“It's on. I screen my calls. If I don't want to talk, I don't pick up the phone. The only person I dodge is my mother,” Resa explained for Jessie's benefit.
“Nobody ever calls me, so I don't have to worry,” Jessie said.
“I'll be calling you, so you better pick up,” Tanner said. Jessie's face turned rosy pink. Resa smiled.
“Aren't you going to tell us what Pop said?”
“He said he'll take care of it. He will, in his own way.”
“I say we leave the dishes and get on with our shopping. I want to buy something absolutely wonderful for Josh. Something he would never buy for himself. Something totally outrageous so when he looks at it he says, Resa got this for me.”
“Then let's go, ladies. I have a few gifts to buy myself.”
“Me too,” Jessie chirped.
 
This is so nice
, Jessie thought as she gathered up her packages from the trunk of Tanner's car.
I feel like I've known these two people forever and ever. For the first time in my life I feel like I'm part of something. The best part is it's happening at the most wonderful time of the year. I will not let Alexis Kingsley spoil this for me. I will weather this the way I've weathered everything else in my life.
“You look pensive,” Resa said, her arms full of packages.
“Do I? I was just thinking how happy I am. Until this year I spent Christmas and Thanksgiving with Sophie. I cannot tell you how I dreaded the holiday.”
“Then you made the decision to bite the bullet and stay at the ranch?” Jessie nodded. “Trust me, Jessie, when I tell you Tanner will not let Mother get another crack at you. Oh, oh, the red light is on. I have a message. Either it's Josh or Pop. Maybe both.”
“How long are you going to stare at the blinking light, Sis? Oh, I get it. Come on, Jessie, it might be Josh whispering sweet nothings that are meant only for her ears. I'm going to make some coffee, okay?”
“Grind the beans twice, Tanner,” Resa said.
“Sometimes she can be so damn bossy. Like I don't know I'm supposed to grind the beans twice. She tells me that at least once a week, maybe twice,” Tanner grumbled.
Jessie smiled. “For some reason I don't think of you as a person who cooks or makes coffee.”
“Jack and I had an apartment together for two and a half years. He couldn't afford to eat out, and he knew how to cook. He taught me everything he knew, which wasn't a whole hell of a lot. We didn't starve, though. He made the best damn pepper steak I ever ate. Jesus, I'd give anything if he was here. You would have liked him, Jessie. See, I told you I get like this over the holidays. I think about that guy all the time.”
“I never really knew anyone who died except Agnes Prentis. I didn't know her that well. It must be awful.”
“It's the realization that it's final. You are never, ever going to see that person again. You'll never hear them laugh, never hear them call your name. You'll never be able to say,
Hey, Jack, what did you think of that home run?' Shit! How did I get on this subject anyway?”
“I think it had something to do with grinding beans. Resa, what's wrong?”
“Pop wants you to call him, Tanner. Something happened, but he wouldn't tell me what it is. Here's the number.”
“Jesus! Is it Irene?”
“I don't think so. I could hear her in the background. The twins were jabbering, too. Whatever it is, it must be serious. I never heard Pop sound like that. They all made it back okay, so there wasn't a car accident or anything like that. Use the kitchen phone. I want to hear.”
Jessie got up to go into the living room.

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