The Escape Collection: (The Escape Collection) (32 page)

I watched while she moved, a little slower than I would have liked to see her, into the living room. Stan immediately stood up from the chair he was sitting in and greeted her. To her credit, she received him pleasantly, or at least wasn’t outwardly rude.
 

“Thanks, Kat.” I could feel her standing next to me. “I know you’re busy,” I said. “But thank you for bringing her.”

“I’m sorry I can’t stay.”

“Me, too,” I said. “I could probably use the help.”

“Nah. You got this.” She reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. “But I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? I need to talk to you about the demo Reid sent me.”
 

Taking my eyes off Grams, I spun to face Kat. “What are you talking about?”

She smiled an evil little grin and turned to leave. “We’ll talk tomorrow. You have enough going on tonight.”

I hated it when she did that, but she was right. I had to play referee, and I didn’t have time to deal with whatever scheme she was working on. It would have to wait.
 

Kat left and I took a deep breath before I headed into the lion’s den. The air was thick with tension, but at least Mom was talking to Grams. They seemed to be on the relatively safe subject of Blissful Orchards, which was good because Grams could talk forever about the endless crafts and games they played. Stan was perched, somewhat awkwardly, on the edge of the couch, but he gave me an encouraging smile when I walked in.

“Who needs a drink?” I asked. Besides me? I wanted to add, but didn’t.
 

Ignoring the question, Patty asked one of her own. “Darling, is your boyfriend coming tonight?”
 

“I’m not seeing William anymore,” I said with a shrug.

“Oh, no.” Grams put her hand to her chest in a flutter of concern, but her eyes betrayed her true feelings. “I’m so sorry, dear.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “It was never going to work.”

“No.” My mom shook her head. “Not him. The guy I met the other night…”

“Reid?”
 

“Yes,” Stan chimed in. “Reid was his name.”

“That’s it,” my mom agreed.
 

Grams looked confused, but there was a smile on her lips. “Reid,” she said. “I didn’t know the two of you were dating. When did this happen?” She looked between everyone in the room and then back to me for an answer.
 

But I couldn’t give her an answer because I didn’t know. Whatever it was with Reid was amazing. It was emotional and I felt like he knew me like no one else, but it was also really new. I stood frozen in the living room, totally unable to answer.
 

“Um…” I struggled to form a thought. “Reid is…he’s…”
 

“Standing right here.” Reid wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him. “You weren’t talking about me, were you?” He gave me a supportive smile and dropped a soft kiss on the top of my head.

“Just to say what a good cook you are,” I said. “Is dinner ready?”
 

I knew that everyone would have leapt to their own conclusion about Reid and me, but with his arm around my shoulders fortifying me, I no longer cared.
 

***

Reid couldn’t figure out what Whitney was so worried about. The dinner party was going pretty good, and everyone seemed to be getting along fairly well, even if there was some tension hanging in the air. Stan was on his second helping of roast beef, and had turned out to be a very interesting businessman. Reid couldn’t help but be impressed when Stan told him how he’d turned things around for the Lusty Lady and worked it into a profitable business.
 

“Well, it’s not really my type of entertainment,” Reid said with all due respect. “But you seem to be doing well with it.”

Stan smiled and took another bite of Yorkshire pudding. “I’ve been pretty lucky with investments over the years as well,” he said. “And Patty and I have been thinking of starting up a new business venture.”
 

“That’s right,” Whitney said. “Mom mentioned something about that. But would you really sell the Lady, Stan?”

He nodded and looked respectfully in Hazel’s direction. “Yes,” he said after a moment. “I think it’s time to move on. I just need to convince your mother that it’s the right thing to do.”
 

Patty took another big bite of roast to avoid saying anything, but Hazel, who’d been picking at her meal, chimed in. “It’s about time you got out of that…that industry.”

“Grams!” Whitney looked mortified, but Reid put his hand on her leg under the table. The subject couldn’t be avoided all night.
 

“What?” Hazel looked at her.
 

“It’s no secret that she’s never supported me, Whitney,” Patty said. “You can’t really be surprised.”

“Mom,” Whitney said. “Please don’t.”

Patty looked like she was about to say something more. Instead, she picked up her water glass and took a deep drink.

Whitney took a moment and took a sip of wine before she turned to Stan. “What would the new business venture be, Stan?”
 

Reid was pretty sure she was silently praying that his new business didn’t involve anybody taking their clothes off, and he couldn’t be sure, but it looked like Whitney was holding her breath.
 

“It was actually Patty’s idea,” Stan said. “The idea would be to start up fitness classes, teaching the techniques your mother has mastered over the years, to women looking to get fit.”
 

It looked for a minute that Whitney had stopped breathing, but then she broke out into a smile, a beautiful, warm smile and said, “That’s brilliant.”

“You think so?” Patty asked. “I wasn’t sure. I mean, I’d heard of some big gyms that offer pole classes but the people who teach them can’t really know what they’re doing. They’re just skinny little gym rats. But maybe I…”

“You’d be fantastic,” Whitney said. “You look amazing and you’d be a great teacher, Mom. And you’re right. I’m always hearing about classes like that. I think it’s a great idea. Is that why you’ve been trying to save money?”
 

Patty nodded, but it was Stan who said, “I told her I’d provide all the start up capital and we’ll have more than enough once I sell the Lady, but—"

“But,” Patty interrupted. “I want to be an equal partner. It’s important to do this. And unfortunately I haven’t saved very much over the years.”
 

Reid watched something transform on Whitney’s face and thought for a minute she might cry. “I think it’s great, Mom,” she said. “Really.”
 

The same look crossed Patty’s face as she smiled at her daughter. “I was afraid to tell you,” she said. “For so long I’ve wanted to do something, anything that would make you proud of me. I thought it might be too late, but now I really think this could be a good thing.”
 

They smiled at each other, sharing a common link that Reid could tell was long overdue.
 

“I have a question.” Hazel spoke up from the end of the table and all heads turned to face her. She waited until she had everyone’s attention. “Will you be taking your clothes off?”
 

No one said anything for a minute.

Finally, Patty said, “No, Mom.”
 

Her voice still stern, Hazel asked, “So, you’re done with all that then?”

There was an unasked question in the air, a deeper meaning, but everyone held their collective breath. A tear slipped from Patty’s eye and slid down her cheek. She nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “But not because I’m ashamed. I’ve never been ashamed of dancing.
 
No matter how much you hated it, Mom.”

“I didn’t—"

“You did.”

Hazel’s mouth opened and closed but she didn’t say anything.

“I’m done dancing,” Patty continued. “Because it’s time. I’m ready now.”
 

Stan wrapped his arm around Patty’s shoulder and beamed pride at her, but still, no one else said anything.
 

“Well,” Hazel said, never taking her eyes off Patty, “I think it sounds like a great idea. In my day, if we wanted exercise, we went for a walk. But Lord knows the girls these days like all kinds of weird things. I’m sure it will do very well.” She put a tiny piece of carrot in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully but Reid didn’t miss the unshed tears that glistened in her eyes.

Reid watched Whitney, who looked all at once relieved and ecstatically happy. She caught him looking at her and then the smile on her face was all for him.
 
He leaned in and took Whitney’s face in his hands. “I told you there was nothing to worry about.”
 

In reply, her lips met his for a brief, but perfect kiss.
 

“A toast,” Reid announced, when they pulled apart. “To Patty and Stan, and their new venture.”

Whitney caught his eye, and a flicker of worry crossed her face again. The night was going well, but Grams’ illness still hadn’t been brought up.
 

He knew it was still heavy on her mind, but she raised her glass with the rest of them, and then froze when a familiar voice said, “I didn’t realize I would be interrupting anything.”

***

My glass, halfway to my mouth, hung in the air and I turned to look at William.

“What—”

“I let myself in,” he said. “I knocked, but I guess you were all too busy to hear me.” He glared at Reid, and I was suddenly very aware of how things must look. “I’m sorry I interrupted,” he said. “But I had a few things to discuss with Whitney.”

I put my glass down and everyone took their cues from me, following suit. I wished I knew what to say.
 

“We’re in the middle of dinner here, man,” Reid said.
 

“I see that.” William’s fists clenched at his side and he took a step into the room. “I need to talk to Whitney.”
 

Reid pushed back from the table and stood. “I don’t think—”

Standing, I put my hand on Reid’s arm. “It’s fine.” He looked at me and I did my best to reassure him with my eyes. I turned to William and said, “Maybe we can talk tomorrow? We’re kind of in the middle of—”

“Tomorrow?” The hurt in his voice wasn’t lost on me, and I cringed to hear it. “Whitney, I don’t understand. I asked you to marry me, you said yes and then, a voicemail telling me it’s over? I don’t understand.”

A sound of recognition came from my mother’s direction as she likely just realized who had interrupted our dinner.
 

I couldn’t look at her. And I didn’t dare look at Reid, who I could feel tensing next to me. “I didn’t say yes, William. I was confused. You surprised me and I didn’t know what to say. I know I should have talked it over with you, but—”

“Wait,” Reid interrupted. “He asked you to marry him?” I turned to look at him. His eyes were clouded with confusion and he ran a hand through his hair as he tried to make sense of what was happening. “You told me it was over between you two.”

“It is,” I said quickly. I put a hand on Reid’s arm and squeezed, forcing him to look at me. “It is over,” I said again. “I’ve known for a long time, but I was scared.” Not breaking my connection with Reid, I looked to William. “I’m sorry, it wasn’t fair of me, I—”

“You left me a voicemail,” William repeated, and for one terrifying moment I thought he might cry.

“Whitney Monroe!” Grams spoke up from the end of the table. “I taught you better than that.”
 

“Grams.” I looked over to her, but before I could say anything more, Reid took a step away from me, breaking our connection and drawing my attention back to him.

“Reid?”
 

He shook his head. “No, Whit. You told me things were finished between you two but clearly you both have a lot to talk about.”

“Reid, I—”

“No.” He held up his hand. “Not right now. I’m sorry.”
 

Tears swimming in my eyes, I watched him walk out of the room. I longed to go after him, but my mother’s voice stopped me.

“Let him go, darling.”
 

For a moment, I’d forgotten they were all still sitting there. I turned, looking at everyone watching me with various expressions on their faces, until finally my gaze landed on William, who looked between my mother and me, confusion lining his face as he tried to make the connection.

I swallowed hard. “William, this is my mother,” I said.
 

There was a beat of silence before he said, “What? I thought your mother was dead?”
 

A gasp and, “Oh, Whitney. No,” came from Grams but I didn’t move.

I stood frozen, staring at William but not seeing him. I didn’t want to look at my mother. I knew what I was going to see and after a moment when I finally worked up the courage to face her, it was confirmed. She was crushed. Tears slid down her face, taking with them dark streaks of mascara.
 

“You told him I was dead?” she asked in a whisper.
 

I nodded.
 

“You said she died when you were a little girl,” William continued to fill in the gaps.

“Why?” The question came out of my mother like a breath.

The silence in the room was too much but nobody said anything, waiting for my explanation. “I didn’t…” I started. “I didn’t want to tell him the truth.”
 

“The truth?” William asked.
 

I looked my mother in the eye, witnessing her pain as I spoke to William. “I didn’t want you to know that my mother’s a stripper. I didn’t think you’d be okay with it and…I was ashamed.” The last word came out as a whisper.
 

“Ashamed?” My mother fluttered her hand to her chest as if it physically hurt. It probably did. “Whitney, all this time…I thought you were okay with what I did?”
 

“I thought so, too,” I said.
 

“You lied?” Grams asked, her voice laced with disappointment. “I taught you better than that, Whitney.”

I swung so I was looking straight at Grams. “That’s not fair. You never liked what Mom did, either,” I pleaded. “You’ve always hated the fact that she’s a stripper. That’s not a secret.”