Lovers and Takers (17 page)

Aubrey bristled.
 
“Name one particular kid sister who, since she was a very little girl, loves to eavesdrop on grown folks’ conversations.”

“Oh, you,” Pam said and playfully pushed Aubrey, causing him to fall sideways with a smile.

“Okay, I take it back!” he declared when she kept hitting him.

Jake’s heart swelled with pride as he watched them horse around.
 
He knew they had each other’s back.
 
At least, he thought, he did that much right.

“Okay, guys, time to go,” he said as he reached for his carrying bag.
 
Aubrey grabbed his suit case and garment bag.
 
Pam grabbed his free arm and placed hers around it.
 
It was a scene all three of them were well accustomed to: Jake leaving on a business trip for weeks on end, and Aubrey and Pam seeing him off.

“Call us every day, Daddy,” Pam said as they headed downstairs.
 
“I know you won’t, but I’m asking you to.”

“Dad’s going to be super busy, Pammie,” Aubrey said.
 
“He won’t have time to be calling us unnecessarily.”

“He will have time, stop saying that,” Pam said.
 
“And I told you to stop calling me Pammie.
 
Argh.
 
I hate that name!”

“Okay, let me see,” Aubrey said.
 
“Pammie, Pammie, Pammie, and Pammie!”

“Nerd!”
Pam yelled.

“Slut!”
Aubrey yelled back.

“Daddy!”
Pam whined.

“All right, Snuggles, that’s enough,” Jake said, prompting Pam to laugh.

Aubrey, however, wasn’t amused.
 
“Very funny, Dad,” he said.

Jake smiled as they made their way downstairs.
 
He then said goodbye to Hudson and then he and his children walked out of the front door and up to the waiting limousine.

As the chauffeur placed the luggage into the trunk, Jake hugged both of his children.

“Take care of
yourselves
,” he said, as he kissed them both on their foreheads.

“Call us, Daddy,” Pam asked again.

“I will,” Jake assured her.

“And if Craig Halprin calls?” Aubrey asked.

“Talk to him, but if he’s talking compromise rather than surrender, tell him we’re not interested.”

“Understood,” Aubrey said, nodding his head.

Then Jake got into the limo’s backseat, his heart unsettled the way it always was when he had to leave his children.
 
“Love you guys,” he said to them.

“We love you too, Daddy,” Pam replied.

And then they both waved as the chauffeur closed the door, got in
himself
, and drove their father away.

Pam looked at her brother as they waved.
 
“Well?” she asked.
 
“Answer the question.
 
Why do you fool with Kara Wingate?”

“Why do you think?”

“Tell me.”

“Because she’s safe, Pammie.”

“Safe?
 
What’s so safe about her?”

“It’s an extremely safe bet that I’ll never fall for her and get my heart trampled over the way Dad fell for Mom and got his heart trampled,” he said.
 
“That’s how she’s safe.”
 
He said this and began heading back into the home.

“Why do you always say that?” Pam asked, following him back in.
 
“Just because they got divorced doesn’t mean it was all Mom’s fault.
 
I’m willing to bet the farm that Dad and his need to have some new woman in his bed every other week was far more to blame than Mom.”

But Aubrey ignored her.
 
She didn’t know what really caused their parents’ divorce and he and his father had decided, long ago, to keep it that way.

Later that night, Roni sat at her small kitchen table and ate a late supper.
 
She made it home from work after ten, and was too tired to cook, so she popped a Salisbury steak and potatoes TV dinner into the microwave.
 
That, she had decided, would have to do for tonight.

But as she ate her quiet supper and read over more witness statements, the cell phone she had lying on the table began to ring.
 
Figuring it was probably Griff with more bad
news,
she very slowly lifted it and looked at the Caller ID.
 
When she saw that it was actually Jake, not Griff, she quickly answered.

“Hello?” she answered, unable to quench her smile.

“Hello, there.
 
This is Jake.”

“No shit,” she said, and he laughed.
 
“We’ve only been together every single night for two straight weeks.
 
I should know your voice by now.”

“I knew you were going to say that.”

Roni smiled.
 
That was Jake.
 
Always one step ahead.
 
“So what’s up,
Jake
?”
 

“I was thinking about you.
 
Thought I’d give you a call.”

Even bigger smile from Roni.
 
“You’re in Moscow already?”

“No, no, I’m still on the plane,” he said, as he reclined in his company jet.
 
“We should be landing soon.
 
What are you up to?”

“Dinner.”

“At this hour?”

“Yep, ‘fraid so.
 
But I had to eat something before the day came to a close.”

“That’s not good, Veronica.”

“I know.”

“You can get yourself sick that way.”

Roni smiled.
 
“You sound awfully concerned.”

“I am concerned.
 
Who’s going to shower with me if you’re lying up in a hospital somewhere?”

Roni laughed.
 
“You’re so wrong for that!”

“Yes, I am,” Jake said, laughing too.
 
Then Roni could tell a slight change in tone.
 
“But I am concerned.”

It was a heady admission for Jake, who never admitted any such thing to anyone outside of his children.
 
He waited for her to respond.

But Roni didn’t know what to say, either.
 
She appreciated his concern, but she didn’t think it was wise to let him know that.
 
Not this early.
 
And especially not when the
nature
of their relationship was still, well, only sexual in nature.

“Anyway,” Jake said when it was clear she didn’t know how to take his little affirmation of affection, either.
 
“I’d better get off of this phone.
 
I’ve got a ton of briefing books to review.”

“I hear that,” Roni said, already regretting that she didn’t carry his affirmation further.
 
“I’ll see you when you get back.”

That could be a whole month, Jake thought miserably, if those negotiations remained contentious.
 
And the idea of not being able to sit next to, talk to, make love to Roni for weeks on end was a depressing thought.

“Good night,” he said, a sense of loneliness creeping over him.

“Good night, Jake,” Roni said, and then killed the call.
 
She held her cell phone in her hand staring at it, as she thought about how insanely happy she could be to have a man like Jake truly care for her, rather than only care about what she could do for him in the bedroom.

“Ah, fairytales!” she said out loud, and tossed her phone back onto the table.

Over the next several days, Jake was in those contentious negotiations, with hourly charges and countercharges that only heightened the contentions.
 
It was so draining that he often couldn’t phone his children until late at night.
 
Every day he was up by six and back in bed, alone and lonely, well after midnight.
 
His CEO counterpart at Berkshire had offered to provide him female companionship of the most discreet kind, and normally on these longwinded trips Jake would take him up on the offer.
 

But Jake thought about Roni, and how inferior those women would be to her companionship, and he declined.
 

He, instead, would phone his children.
 
And then, thereafter, phone Roni.
 

And he and Roni would talk for hours at a time.
 
Although it would be one a.m., Moscow time, it would be right at five p.m. Miami time.
 
At first they could only speak for a few minutes because he didn’t want to keep her from her work.
 
But Roni now found the time to speak as long as he wanted to speak by phone.
 

They talked about his day and her day and both were careful not to give too much away about the monumental challenges their respective businesses posed.
 
So they spoke, and spoke daily, but kept it personal and light.

By day twelve, however, when Jake found himself sitting in a late afternoon meeting thinking more about Roni than the crucial cost containment estimates they were discussing, he had had enough.

“Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said, and left the room.

Back in the States, Roni was conducting interviews with investigators on yet another hopeless case when her cell phone began chirping.
 
When she saw that it was Jake, she excitedly excused herself and hurried out into the hall.
 

Over the last couple of weeks they spoke on the phone almost daily.
 
Those phone calls, Roni would be ashamed to admit, had fast become the highlight of her days.
 
And the one day when he didn’t phone at all, she fell into a kind of depression that stunned her.
 

“Well, hello there,” she said as she closed the board room door.

“Hello, babe,” Jake said on the phone.
 
“What were you up to?”

“Getting briefed by my investigators.
 
What about you?
 
It’s two p.m. here, so it must be what, ten at night there?
 
Let me guess: you’re either leaving or going to a meeting?”

Jake laughed.
 
“Already in a meeting, smarty,” he said.
 
“We’re staying longer and longer, and it’s only making the negotiations even more bitter and contentious.”

“Gosh.”

“So you’re getting briefed by your investigators?”

“One after the other, that’s right.”

“A promising case then?”

Roni wished.
 
“No,” she admitted.
 
“Less promising the more we hear, in fact.”

“Ah, tough luck.”

Tough career choice all around, Roni thought.
 
It was days like this when she wondered why she even bothered.

“But listen,” Jake said, prompting Roni to listen closely.
 
“The reason I’m phoning right now is because I need to ask a favor.”

Roni listened even more intensely.
 
What in the world could she do for him?

“I know this is probably the worst possible time for you, but . . .” There was a pause.
 
Roni waited.
 
But what?
 
Get on with it, Jake, she wanted to yell.

“I was wondering,” he said, getting on with it, “if you would consider coming to Europe and spending a few days with me.”

Roni could hardly believe it.
 
Did this man just ask her to drop everything and come and be with him?
 
“Come to Europe?” she asked, to be certain she heard him correctly.

“Yes,” Jake said.
 
Then hesitated, a frown enveloping his face.
 
“Please.”

Please
? Roni thought.
 
He was begging her to come?

“I wouldn’t impose like this,” he added, “if I didn’t miss you so much.”

That did it for Roni.
 
She already would have dropped everything anyway, and gone to be with him.
 
But the fact that he missed her was certainly helpful.
 
But she had to be clear.
 

“Do you miss me,” she asked, “or my body?”

“You,” Jake said without hesitation, “
and
your body.”

Roni smiled.
 
She liked that answer.
 
But she’d never been out of the country a day in her life.
 
How much did a ticket to Russia even cost?

But she said okay, she’d come, before she even bothered to find out.

Jake was elated.
 
He even let out a relieved exhale.
 
“When do you think you can get away?” he asked.