Seasons (27 page)

Finally,
she thought.
Maybe I can get this over with.

But when Jason entered his office, his brother Ron was close behind him. “Wow! Honey look what you’ve done!” Jason remarked,
crossing the room to hug and kiss her. “This is going to move me up on the ready list. You think you can stay long enough
to help me get my new office set up? I sure hope so.”

“I don’t know right now,” she said softly. “Jason, why didn’t you hire a moving company whose services include packing everything
as well as moving it? It would have made this so much easier.”

Jason and Ron looked at each other. “I made the mistake of delegating that responsibility to Uncle Stan, who said he had a
friend in the business who could do it all. To make a long story short, they showed up with four men, and no instructions
to pack anything.”

“I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen,” Ron said as he followed Jason across the room. Jaci was a little uneasy, not
knowing what to expect from Ron after their little scene on Thanksgiving Day. But surprisingly, he was cordial and friendly.
“Hey, Sis,” he said, engulfing her in a bear hug. “When you finish in here, can you come help me get set up?”

“Nope!” J.P. answered for her. “She’ll be too busy helping me. Go find your own help.”

“I was talking to Jaci!” Ron said pointedly.

“I was answering for Jaci,” J.P. replied.

“Just let me have the keys,” Ron said, agitatedly. He looked at Jaci, who had resumed her task of packing boxes with books
from the bookshelves. “Jaci, you wouldn’t know how to pick a lock on a file cabinet would you? Somebody locked it and I lost
the key to it years ago.”

“Sorry, no. If I had time, I could probably fiddle with it and get it open—I’ve had to do that before—but I gotta take care
of my baby now.”

Jason handed him a key ring filled with an assortment of keys. “Please bring my keys back. Don’t make me have to come looking
for you.”

Ron gave him a “get lost” look before strolling slowly out of the office.

“Okay, sweetheart,” Jason said when Ron left. “What did you need to talk to me about? Make it quick; they’re waiting for me
downstairs.”

“This isn’t something we can discuss quickly. I’ll just wait here until you have more time.”

As if on cue, his cell phone began ringing. When he looked at it, he sighed. “Gotta go.” He gave her a brief kiss and said,
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Jaci worked steadily for another hour, then decided to find a water fountain to quench her thirst. She picked her way around
the furniture and boxes cluttering the hallway, and walked toward the reception area, fervently hoping Linda was someplace
else. No such luck! Jaci saw her immediately after she turned the corner. She glanced around quickly to see if anyone else
was nearby. She didn’t relish being alone with this woman. As luck would have it, there seemed to be nobody in the near vicinity.
Linda seemed to realize this fact at the same time.

“Well, well,” Linda said nastily. “I guess you have a really thick skull. Or are you just plain stupid? Frankly, I don’t care
which one, because you have pushed me too far. I’ve warned you and tried to give you every opportunity to leave J.P. alone,
but you just won’t listen.”

“Lord, have mercy,” Jaci said. “So it is you calling and making threats against me and my family. I suspected as much, but
I asked Jason not to do anything until we knew for sure. I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“I don’t need you to do me any favors. What you need to do is get out of J.P.’s life. What do you think a little nobody like
you can do for a man like J.P.? He’s just stringing you along, honey—having fun. When he’s ready to settle down, he’s going
to do so with a high-class woman, and I’m sure that’s not going to be anyone but me.”

Jaci held up her hand and pointed to the ring on her finger. “Now, that’s a strange thing for you to be saying since I’m the
one with his ring on my finger. Why don’t you stop all this childish silliness? A truly high-class woman wouldn’t resort to
what you’re doing. Where’s the water fountain? I’m thirsty.” She turned to leave.

Linda crossed the room and grabbed Jaci’s arm, swinging her around. “Don’t you walk away from me! Who do you think you’re
talking to anyway? I’ll take that tasteless ring off your finger and jam it down your throat! And don’t think I can’t do it!”

“What the heck is going on here?” Ron asked from the doorway where he and some other people had gathered.

Now they show up,
Jaci thought as she looked down at Linda’s hand on her arm. “I know you better get your hands off of me.” She pulled away
from her and tried to walk off again.

“What’s going on, Jaci?” Ron asked again.

“Ask J.P. who went to L.A. with him last month,” Linda taunted, grabbing at Jaci’s arm again. She smiled confidently. She
was certain Jaci hadn’t gone with him because she had called her house several times while J.P. was gone and Jaci had answered
each time. And if Jaci was home, there was no way she would know who was in L.A. with J.P.

Jaci pulled away from her. “You’re crazy!” she said. “As a matter of fact, I went to L.A. with Jason. My daughter told me
somebody kept calling and hanging up. Now I know it was you.” Jaci shook her head sadly at this woman’s desperation. Randi
and her family had stayed at Jaci’s house a few days while having some work done on their house. And she and Randi sounded
almost identical over the phone.

“You’re lying!” Linda screamed. “I went with him on that trip. And we had a ball!”

She’d had enough. Jaci looked at the pitiful woman standing before her. “Listen, I’m not going to argue with you. You need
to go get yourself some help.” She turned to leave and Linda grabbed her again, this time trying to slap her but missing when
Jaci dodged out of the way.

“I told you before, you don’t run anything in this office, and you don’t tell me what to do,” said Linda. “Now get out!”

“And I told you to keep your hands off of me and I’m not going to tell you again,” Jaci said quietly. “Ron, this woman has
been calling and making threats against me and my family. She’s even said she was going to kill us. Now I’m tired of her and
her threats. Will you tell her to back off? I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Ha! You hurt me! Heifer, I’ll show you who’s going to get hurt!” Linda stood a head above Jaci and outweighed her significantly.
She rushed toward Jaci again, hand raised to attack.

Jaci acted on the instincts gained from her cousin Buddy’s coaching while growing up in Riverwood:
If it’s a man, knee below the waist as hard as you can, one fist in the stomach, other fist in the nose. If it’s a woman,
elbow in the chest, one fist in the stomach, other fist in the nose.

Before Linda realized what was happening, Jaci’s elbow hit the right spot on her chest. Linda yelped, letting go of her hold
on Jaci. Before Linda could recover, Jaci landed a blow to her stomach and another to her face. Linda went down. Jaci lifted
her foot, kicking her in the side with all the frustration of her sleepless nights going into the motion. She raised her foot
to kick again, but before she could land the blow, Ron grabbed her.

“Jaci! Hold up.”

Ron looked down at Linda struggling to get up from the floor. “Did you do that, Linda?” he asked.

Linda wiped at the blood running from her nose. “This woman’s not right for J.P.! Look at her! Fighting like a street woman.
He needs a woman with some class and culture. I was merely trying to get her to stop making a fool out of herself and leave
him alone.”

“I know you don’t think I’m going to walk away from the man I love, and who loves me, because of some perceived relationship
in the mind of a crazy woman,” Jaci said. “If so, you are sadly mistaken.”

Ron picked up the phone sitting on the corner of the desk and dialed a number, then spoke into the phone. “J.P., get up here
to your office quick. This is an emergency.”

Just as he was hanging up, J.P. and Herbert came hurrying around the corner. Someone watching the fight had already called
him.

“What’s happening?” he asked, looking around the room, then running to Jaci, still in the grasp of Ron. “What’s the matter,
baby?” The shock of what had just happened hit Jaci, and she started crying and hugging him as if she would never let go.
He cupped her chin in his hand, trying to get her to look at him. “What’s going on?”

When Jaci didn’t answer, he turned to Ron.

“Ron! Will you please tell me what’s going on?”

Ron pointed to Linda. “This woman’s been calling, tormenting Jaci. Making threats against her and her family. And if I heard
correctly, Linda told her she was going to kill her if she didn’t stay away from you. She just jumped on Jaci and tried to
throw her out of the office, and well, you see whose nose is bleeding. This woman is a screwball,” he said, pointing to Linda
with distaste.

J.P. looked at Linda and said coldly, “I should have fired you a long time ago. Get off my property before I do something
I’ll be sorry for. And count yourself lucky that I don’t knock you out of one of these windows.”

“You can’t do that!” Linda yelled at him. “J.P., don’t you understand? I’m trying to help you and protect you from this conniving
little tramp. You need a woman like me at your side. I can help you advance socially and in other ways. Please, J.P., you’ll
be sorry if you don’t get rid of this heifer. And I’m filing charges against her for attacking me.” Linda limped to the desk
and grabbed her purse out of the drawer. She pointed toward Jaci. “I’m going to get you for this. Just wait.” She started
toward the door.

“Wait a minute! We can’t just let her walk out of here!” Ron said. “I told you, this woman is screwy. We need to call the
cops and get her locked up. You think you telling her to get off this property is going to stop her? Not from what I just
heard. She’s a nut case. She’ll keep coming after Jaci.”

“No, she won’t!” Herbert spoke up for the first time. “Will you, Linda?” he asked hopefully. “If we let you go, you’ll go
on about your business and leave Jaci alone, won’t you?”

“Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t,” answered Linda. “It depends on whether J.P. wakes up and gets rid of her.”

“Lady, I don’t want you!” J.P. almost screamed, looking at Linda with a deep scowl. “If I did, I could have had you long before
Jaci ever came into the picture. In fact, I despise you. You’re nothing but a gold-digging, status-seeking, lowlife. What
would I want with the likes of you. I know a woman of class when I see one, and you’re definitely not one.”

Linda continued to plead. “I know this woman has your mind all messed up, J.P., so I’ll forgive you for that. If you would
just think about it, you would see what I’m talking about and give us a chance.”

“Oh no, honey. It doesn’t work that way!” Jason’s mother shouldered her way through the crowd gathered in the area. “My son
has chosen the woman he wants, and it’s not you. Evidently you’re too crazy to get the message, so your butt is going to jail.”
She picked up the phone and dialed the operator. “I need the police but it’s not exactly an emergency. What num—? Okay, thank
you. Hello? We have a crazy woman in our office making threats against us. Can you send someone quickly? She’s saying she’s
going to kill somebody.” She rattled off the address of the building. “We’re on the fourteenth floor. All right, thanks.”

“You can send me to jail, but I won’t be there long,” Linda said smugly. She had been through this before.

“Well, let me tell you something, you crazy witch.” Ron walked over to her, pointing a finger in her face. “You better get
out of there running. ’Cause we take care of our own. You think we’re just going to let you hurt someone in our family? Now,
my brother don’t want your crazy tail. Ain’t never wanted you! I don’t think you’re nearly as crazy as you’re acting. So,
let me say this before the cops get here. You hurt Jaci, we hurt you! Got that? Whatever you do to her, you better get ready;
the same thing is coming your way. Now, I suggest you heed this warning, ’cause, lady, I mean every word I’m saying. Don’t
make me regret stopping Jaci from kicking your behind.”

“And if you don’t believe him, believe me,” Jason said. “I’m not going to be nothing nice if you come near my fiancée again.
Your problem is with me, not her. I’m the one who chose her. Not the other way around. You want to come after somebody, come
after the right person.”

Cecelia looked around and noticed the people crowded around the door, watching. “Okay, people, let’s break it up. The show
is over and we’ve got work to do.” Everyone left except Ron, Herbert, and Cecelia, who decided to watch Linda until the police
arrived. J.P. and Jaci walked slowly down the hallway to his office.

“Jason, I’m so sorry. I never meant for something like this to happen when I came over here today.” Jaci cried brokenly.

“I know that. You didn’t know that woman was going off the deep end. But I am upset with you. Why didn’t you tell me about
Linda continuing to harass you like that? I’ve asked you countless times to share things with me. Why do you continue to try
to handle everything by yourself?”

“It wasn’t a case of my trying to handle it on my own. You’ve been out of town and so busy that we’ve hardly had a chance
to talk. But after days and nights of her calls and harassment, I’d had enough and that’s why I came on over here today. I
knew I had to tell you what was going on.”

“You should have done that already, like I asked you to,” he told her impatiently. “As crazy as that woman out there is, she
could have hurt you at any time, and I wouldn’t have even known it had gotten to that point. What is your problem, Jaci? I’m
about sick and tired of having this conversation with you!”

Jaci decided she didn’t need this on top of everything else. “You’re tired? You don’t know what tired is.” She looked around
for her purse, grabbed it, and started out of the office. “I’m not staying around here for any more abuse. I’m out of here!”