Accidental Love (15 page)

The worst part about having the corporate offices on the top floors of a large high-rise in downtown Albany was she had to share the elevator with everyone who worked on the lower floors. Ronnie found herself squashed into the corner as more and more people convinced themselves they could fit into the small transport. She clutched her attaché tightly against her body and waited an interminable amount of time for the elevator doors to finally close and begin the slow ride upward. The multitudes of colognes and perfumes assaulted her senses, lingering behind after their owners departed on their assigned floors. When the elevator finally reached the twenty-eighth floor, a grateful Ronnie stepped out to face the double glass doors that led to the Cartwright corporate offices.

"Morning, Laura. Anything important I need to know about?" Veronica asked, pulling the pile of pink phone messages out of their slot. More than half found themselves crumpled up and tossed into the blue recycle can next to the young secretary's desk.

"The reports are on your desk." The brown haired petite woman glanced over the schedule book.

"You have a meeting at ten with the investors from Houston and your sister has left word for you to call her as soon as you arrive." She took her boss' coat and crossed the room to hang it up in the closet. "She says it's important."

"It's always important to Susan," Veronica responded, unimpressed. Reaching for the handle to her office she instructed, "Call my house and get Maria on the phone for me."

Once inside the privacy of her corner office, Ronnie set her pumps under the desk and padded around in her stockinged feet, fetching a fresh cup of coffee from the private pot kept in her office. A few minutes later she was sitting at her desk, the computer humming to life. A polite buzz and the flashing light on her phone told her that Laura's task was accomplished. She picked up the black receiver and pressed the button for line two. "Maria."

"Is something wrong?" the housekeeper asked. It was rare for Ronnie to call home.

"I just wanted to see how things were going with our guest."

"Rose is still sleeping. Do you want me to wake her up?"

"No." She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "Listen, when she wakes up, give her my office number and have her give me a call, okay?" The sound of the door to her office opening brought Ronnie's head up. Susan stood there, her body language indicating that something was life-or-death. "I've got to go. Have her call me." She set the receiver down.

"What?"

"You know that 'new hire' of yours? Rose Grayson?"

"Yeah? What about her?"

"She's never shown up for work. The termination papers just hit my desk."

"Termination papers? Who authorized that?"

"Grace did. Accounting is her department. She said she had never heard of this woman and that she never showed up for work."

Ronnie picked up the phone and pressed the digits for Laura's phone. "Get Grace on the phone." She turned her attention back to her sister. "Anything involving Rose comes to my desk immediately. You are to do nothing involving her without my consent."

"Ronnie, what's going on? You hire someone for an entry level, give them full benefits immediately and they never even show up to work?"

"Don't worry about it, Susan. I'll handle it."

"Grace on line three," Laura's voice cracked through the intercom. Ronnie picked up the receiver.

"Grace, there's a problem with a new hire, Rose Grayson?"

"Yeah, like she never showed up for work." the cousin replied.

"Don't worry about it. She's on extended medical leave. Just process her paperwork every week. Under no circumstances are you to terminate her."

"What? Ronnie, she never showed up. I've never even met this Grayson woman. All I have is a few forms faxed over from Susan last week."

"I know all about it." There was a pause and she thought her cousin was going to argue with her some more about it. "Grace, there is no discussion on this."

"Fine. You're the boss." There was a click followed by the dial tone. Ronnie hung the phone up and glanced at the computer screen. "Is there anything else, Sis?"

"Of course there is." Susan replied, moving around the desk until she was standing next to her older sister. "Ronnie, come on, what's going on?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. I'm sure you have more important things to do than to worry about one little employee."

"One little employee that you mysteriously hired." The redhead leaned casually against the mahogany desk. "Ronnie, you have never directly hired anyone for a position except Laura." A thought occurred to her. "This isn't like when you were at Stanford, is it?"

The mention of her great personal failure brought the executive's attention away from the computer. "Susan, can't you let anything die? That was ten years ago!" There was no mistaking her angry tone.

"Hey, you should have known better than to trust some poor white trash."

"Christine was not poor white trash. She was there on an academic scholarship."

"And what subject were you two studying at night in your room?" Susan jibed. "You weren't there when Dad answered the phone the night she called. You didn't hear the things she told him. The way she threatened to make it public knowledge."

"Drop it, Susan," she warned with a low growl. "I could have handled it."

"How? Would you have preferred that everyone knew that the heir apparent to Cartwright Corporation was queer?" She flinched at the blazing look in Ronnie's eyes. "Look, you're my sister and I love you. I can understand that you made a mistake. You were young, you didn't know better. I just don't want you to have to suffer through that again."

"That is not what's going on." Ronnie picked up a pencil and began tapping it on the desk.

"You promised Dad that it wouldn't happen again."

"And it hasn't!" The pencil was thrown angrily, causing it to bounce off the desk and onto the floor. Ronnie stood up and looked out the window at the Albany skyline, seething inside at the reminder of her great humiliation. The vision of the blue eyed blonde who had once filled her with happiness only to turn around and become a blood-sucking blackmailer flashed before her eyes. "I've never…I mean…since…." She gave up and continued to stare out the window.

"Ronnie…" Susan stood next to her taller sibling and put her hand on the forearm. "I felt so bad for you when Mom and Dad went to pick you up at the airport that night." The call from Christine demanding money in exchange for keeping quiet about her affair came less than two hours before Ronnie arrived at the Albany County Airport to spend the Christmas break at home with the family. "That was the worst holiday I can remember. All the yelling and screaming."

It had been a subject the two sisters never spoke of, not even at the time. Ronnie had never known Susan's true feelings on the matter of either her sexuality or the whole blackmail incident. Without turning around, the older woman spoke. "I had been looking forward to coming home. I missed Thanksgiving and after Chris and I broke up…." She shook her head. "Was what I did so horribly wrong?" she asked quietly.

"Trusting her or having sex with a woman?" Susan queried, turning and leaning against the ledge of the window.

Ronnie shrugged. "Either…both…ah, never mind." She turned from the window and sat in her chair. "We both have work to do."

"No, it's okay." The redhead said, pulling a chair around to sit on the same side of the desk as her sister. "Look, what I said earlier about being queer, I didn't mean…"

"Forget it."

"No. It's your life. I have no right to judge you. Lord knows, I've done things that I'm ashamed of."

"No judgment in that statement, is there?" Ronnie said sarcastically, turning her chair slightly and pulling out the keyboard tray. "I guess it's okay to have an affair with your personal trainer but not with someone of the same sex, right?"

"I didn't think you knew about André," Susan said hesitantly, wondering just how much her older sister knew.

"Not much escapes me." She tapped her password in, changing the screen from the corporate logo to her personal desktop. "Look, I've learned my lesson, okay? I don't hang out in gay bars, cruise the softball fields, or have a parade of women going in and out of my bed."

"You're also thirty three and not married, Ronnie. This is a business. We have to maintain a certain image."

"And I do!" She rose and began pacing. "I always attend all the charitable functions with a good looking male escort. Don’t I? I've done nothing to upset the family's precious
image
."

"What is it about a woman?" Susan stood to face her sister. "What is it? Really. Help me understand this, Sis. We grew up together. What happened?"

"Susan, we're at work. Let's drop this, okay?"

"Fine. The mysterious Rose Grayson stays on the payroll and insurance because you say so." The redhead was obviously miffed at the brusque tone. "Are there any other problems you're interested in or is she it?"

"I am President, aren't I?" Ronnie scowled. "The whole Grayson thing isn't a big deal, Susan. You don't have to worry about seeing me leading the next gay pride parade either. Now can we talk about something else?" She stalked over to her desk and sat down. "Did you cosign any loans for Tommy?"

"Why would Tommy need a cosigner? He's got plenty of money. He doesn't even own a home except for that cabin in the Adirondacks."

"He defaulted on a loan that had my name forged on it as a cosigner."

"It must be some kind of mistake."

"No mistake. I'm going to have copies of the application sent over so I can compare it to my signature."

"Maybe someone forged Tommy's name too."

"Yeah, maybe. I'll find out after I get the papers. In the meantime I suggest you take a look at your bank records." She reached for the mouse and clicked open her link to the bank. "Oh, one more thing. I'm ordering an audit of Real Estate."

"What? You're auditing Tommy's books?" Susan all but shrieked. "Do you know how that will look to him?"

"Like I don't trust him. I don't." A quick typing of her account number and password and Ronnie was glancing at her recent transactions. The debit card that looked just like a Visa Platinum card was handy. All purchases were posted to her checking account within two days, making it easy for her to verify that her card was not compromised. She looked over the list, noting the familiar items like Tabitha's toys and Rose's bed. "You said yourself that you think something is wrong. Do you want me to find out what it is now, or do you want to wait until it blows up in the press?

I thought you were worried about our
image
?"

Susan bristled at the comment but reluctantly conceded that her sister was right. Trust was a big deal with the public image. The public remembered names and if they did not the nightly news would be more than happy to remind them. It was how scandals lasted so long in Albany. Thus far the Cartwrights had been lucky enough not to be involved in any publicly, no matter what it cost them privately. "All right," the younger sibling sighed. "I can't see where it would hurt anything if he's innocent." She headed for the door. "Ronnie?"

"What?"

"If he is, you had better give him an apology. And you'd better make sure Mother doesn't find out about it." The intercom buzzed, followed quickly by Laura's voice.

"Rose on line one for you."

Ronnie looked up to see her sister's eyes light up at the name. "Is this the mysterious Rose Grayson?"

"Goodbye Susan." She picked up the receiver and pressed the button. "Hi…" There was no mistaking the change in Ronnie's voice. It became softer…gentler. There was a tenderness in it that was in direct contrast to her earlier tone. "Can you hang on for a minute?"

"I'm going, I'm going. But this isn't the end of this conversation."

"Susan!" she looked pointedly at the door. The redhead left, determined more than ever to solve the puzzle of her sister and Rose Grayson.

"Hi. Sorry about that. Did you sleep well?" Ronnie said, settling down in her chair and resting her stockinged calves on the desk.

"Very well. Maria said you wanted me to call."

"Yeah…um…I guess I just wanted you to know that if you needed anything, let Maria know. She's going to stay there until I get home. She'll make you anything you want for breakfast, just ask her. Oh, and if there's anything you want her to pick up at the supermarket, just let her know that too."

"I'm fine, but thanks. How's work going?"

"Oh, just a typical day," Ronnie replied sarcastically. "It's a wonder I don't have an ulcer sometimes."

"I wish there was something I could do to make it better for you," Rose said sincerely.

You already do
, the dark-haired woman thought to herself. "I'm fine. Tell you what. You up for seafood tonight?"

"Sounds great."

"Good. I'll have Maria whip us up something nice." The light on line two began flashing. "I think I'd better get back to work, I just wanted to check up on you."

"Okay, I'm glad you did."

"Um…you know if you want to you can call later."

"Oh. Okay, well maybe after lunch? I don't want to bother you."

"Sure. After lunch would be fine. I don't think I'm going to stay all day anyway."

"All right…well…I guess I'll talk to you later then?"

"Okay Rose. You relax and do what the nurse tells you."

"Bye."

"Bye." Ronnie listened to the click and then the dial tone for a few seconds before pressing line two. "This is Veronica Cartwright." Her voice, once again, pure business.

************************

Ronnie was surprised to see the kitchen light on when she returned home, until she remembered she had asked Maria to stay until she got there. She and Rose had spoken briefly in the early afternoon but a meeting had cut that call short. Now, finally home, she was looking forward to spending the rest of the evening with the blonde woman. She hung her coat up in the closet and kicked her shoes off before walking into the office.

"Hi!" Rose greeted enthusiastically, a huge smile coming over her face.