The Second Family. Janice Carter

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СКАЧАТЬ living room, “I will,” Tess had run out from behind his chair. Flinging her arms around his legs, she’d cried, “Don’t go, Daddy. Don’t leave.”

      Hands—she didn’t know whose—pulled her away. She threw herself on the carpet, sobbing. Her mother slipped upstairs. It seemed like hours later when Tess heard footsteps in the hall. She sat up and saw her father standing hesitantly at the front door. As if he didn’t know what to do next, she thought.

      A canvas duffel bag hung from his shoulder. He was holding his wooden box of paints in one hand and a large paper-wrapped frame in the other. One of his paintings.

      “Daddy—?”

      He stared at her a long time before saying in a husky voice, “Don’t forget me, Tess. I won’t forget you.” He opened the door and walked out.

      Tess jumped up and ran to the open door. Her father was climbing into a taxi.

      “Daddy!” she called again.

      He turned around and paused, a look of indecision in his face.

      Tess’s heart raced. He was changing his mind. He was coming back.

      But then he stiffened, waved a last goodbye and got into the taxi. Behind Tess, Hannah Wheaton snarled, “Let him go, Tess. He doesn’t want us anymore…and we don’t want him.”

      She closed the door as the taxi pulled away from the curb.

      Over the next few years Tess often wondered what might have happened if her mother hadn’t suddenly appeared behind her that day. Would her father have come back inside and tried to patch things up, as he’d done so many times before? Or would he have swept Tess up into his arms and taken her with him?

      That was the fantasy that carried her through into adolescence, until she reached the painful conclusion that her mother had been right after all. Richard Wheaton hadn’t wanted them anymore.

      Tess rolled over onto her side and sighed. She hadn’t relived that scene for many years. It had lost much of its power over her now, no longer producing the flow of tears it once could.

      So. Her father was dead. She knew she ought to be able to summon even a tiny bit of grief, but could not. Her memory of him was now relegated to that last day. Her love for him disappeared sometime in the years after his leaving. She was glad she’d impulsively thrown away the lawyer’s letter. The sooner she got over this latest memory surge, the better. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift through the years until sleep, at last, came.

      “COFFEE?”

      “Great,” said Tess, “but let me make it. Yours is always too weak.” She pushed her chair back from the kitchen table and went to the counter.

      Mavis shook her head. “I don’t know how you can get to sleep at night after drinking that stuff.”

      “I usually go to bed so late nothing can keep me awake.”

      “You’re working too hard, love. That’s why you fell asleep. An hour’s nap has done you some good, but it doesn’t make up for a real break. Tell me about this holiday cruise you’ve booked.”

      Tess finished measuring out the coffee, poured water into the machine and turned it on before responding. She’d known Mavis would get around to asking about the cruise eventually, but wished the question hadn’t arisen that night.

      “It’s kind of up in the air right now,” she said.

      Mavis raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean you’re flying instead?”

      Tess laughed. “Good one, Mavis.”

      “Seriously, don’t tell me you’re not taking that holiday. You’ve been talking about it for months.”

      Tess turned away. But not in the last few weeks I haven’t. She took her time, getting milk from the fridge, mugs from the cupboard. Anything to postpone the inevitable. She didn’t look Mavis in the eye until she sat down in her chair again. When she did, the expression in her guardian’s face told her she wasn’t going to be able to hide the truth any longer.

      “I’m having second thoughts,” Tess began.

      “About the cruise?”

      Tess got up and poured the coffee, then carefully sat down again. She wondered if an evasive strategy would work with Mavis. “There’s so much work at the office right now. A big merger coming up. It’s all hush-hush so I can’t give you any details but…”

      “Tess, love, I’m not going to be calling up my stockbroker in the morning. So get on with it.”

      Her blue eyes zoomed in on Tess. Scratch the evasive strategy. Tess laughed. “I can’t keep anything from you, Mavis.”

      “And why would you want to?” Mavis’s voice assumed a tone of mock hurt. Then, reading Tess’s mind, she added, “I know you want me to stop pestering you—and I will—but I’m curious. I thought you and Douglas had made all the arrangements.”

      “We had,” Tess said, her voice low. She stared down into her coffee.

      “And?”

      There was no putting her off, Tess thought. She sighed and set her coffee mug down on the table. “I haven’t seen him for almost two weeks.”

      The eyebrow arched again, but Mavis said nothing.

      “The last time I saw him we had an argument and I’m afraid…well, I guess I said some pretty blunt things.”

      Mavis nodded thoughtfully. “Then what happened?”

      Did the woman ever give up? “Nothing. He hasn’t called.”

      “So the cruise—?”

      “I canceled my half.” Tess picked some fluff off her skirt, avoiding Mavis’s face. When she glanced up, Mavis was staring at her as if she’d lost her mind. “I had cancellation insurance,” Tess murmured. “I got back most of my money.”

      “That’s not the point, dear. You need a holiday. You’ve been working ten- and twelve-hour days, six days a week, I’m sure, for the last six months.”

      “Comes with the promotion, Mavis. I explained that when they made me Vice President of Marketing.”

      “But Douglas? The lad dotes on you.”

      Tess glanced down again, this time to hide a grin. Douglas Reed—the company’s wheeling and dealing head lawyer—was no lad. Probably never had been, Tess thought, even when he was a kid. And the doting part certainly had applied a year ago, but not recently.

      How could she explain to Mavis what had happened when Tess scarcely knew herself? Douglas Reed’s aggressive, confident courting style had been exhilarating and flattering in the beginning. But over the past few months, Tess had suspected his feelings for her had more to do with image than true love. She knew from comments he’d made that dating an executive from Balfour International was important to his own career plans. His hints about a future together envisioned a team on a meteoric ascent—a couple who would earn СКАЧАТЬ