Almost Home (12 page)

"Hello, Leeanne," Shirley said, one eyebrow
raised in surprise. "I didn't know you and Jimmy were having lunch
together. He told me to get him a sandwich."

"Oh, we're not having lunch. I just stopped by to
speak to him for a minute."

Shirley sent Leeanne's trench coat a curious look. "Is
it raining outside? It was sunny when I came in this morning."

"You know April weather. It's so unpredictable."
Shirley didn't appear convinced, but like any good secretary, she knew when to
keep her mouth shut. "Would you like me to get you a sandwich, too?"

"No, I'm fine, thanks."

"Well, tell Jimmy I'll be back in about fifteen
minutes. I have to drop off a shirt at the cleaners."

"I'll tell him," Leeanne said, her
anticipation growing keener with the thought of Shirley's return in fifteen
minutes. If they didn't do it fast, if they were caught
…
Oh, she felt so wicked, as if she were seventeen
again, sneaking out the window at night, crawling down the trellis into Jimmy's
old Chrysler.

She didn't bother to knock on Jimmy's office door. She
simply walked in.

Jimmy didn't look up. "Tuna on white, Shirley,
like always."

God, he was so predictable.

"Would you like some spicy mustard with that?"
Leeanne said, her fingers drifting to the knot of her belt.

"Leeanne." Jimmy took off his reading
glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. "What are you doing here?"

Jimmy had been better-looking when they'd married,
losing half his blond hair to age and most of his tan to long days in the bank.
But his eyes were still a clear hazel, his hands big, his fingers long. Leeanne's
body tingled at the thought of those hands. She knew exactly what he would do
if they were at home, in bed, in the dark. But today, in his office, under the
bright fluorescent lights
…
she could only imagine. She should
have done this years ago. But Jimmy was always so uptight about being disturbed
at work that she'd never tried anything so daring.

But disturbed be damned. She was disturbed—disturbed
at their lack of a sex life. Afraid she was going to grow old without a lover
to take care of her. Terrified the man she'd married no longer wanted her the
way he once had.

"I didn't know you were coming into town today,"
Jimmy said.

"I thought I'd surprise you." She walked
over to the desk and leaned forward to kiss him on the mouth.

His mouth was cool and he pulled away far too quickly.
"Leeanne, this isn't the place for that."

"Can't a wife kiss her husband hello?" Her
fingers tugged at the knot of her raincoat's belt.

"Shirley will be back any minute with my
sandwich. And I've got work to do." He looked down at the ledger in front
of him and began pressing numbers on his calculator.

Leeanne frowned as a minute ticked by. "Jimmy.
Aren't you going to talk to me?"

"I'm still off by twenty-seven dollars and
fifty-two cents. It doesn't make sense."

"What's twenty bucks?"

"It's wrong. That's what it is," he replied
without looking up.

She sighed. Any red-blooded American male should be
happy to see his wife on his lunch hour. But she had to be married to the only
man in the world who probably liked money more than sex. She felt intensely
lonely—again.

Now that the children were gone, she wanted to focus
in on her relationship with Jimmy. She wanted them to be the way they'd once
been before work and children and mortgage payments had gotten in the way. But
Jimmy wasn't helping. In fact, he didn't seem to notice there was anything
wrong with their love life.

Squaring her shoulders, she decided it was time for a
wake-up call. She walked around the desk, grabbed the arm of his chair, and
spun the chair around so he was facing her. It wasn't an easy task, because he
was a big man, but determination gave her added strength.

Jimmy looked at her with annoyance. "Leeanne, I'm
busy."

She dropped her hand to his belt. "I'm sure you
can find a few minutes."

He looked horrified and pushed her hand away. "No!"

"Oh, come on."

"Absolutely not. What's gotten into you? Have you
been watching those talk shows again?"

"Nothing's gotten into me—yet."

He turned a bright beet red. "Leeanne!"

She untied the knot holding her coat in place. She
opened up the edges, slowly, with tantalizing, teasing fingers, allowing him a
peek at her naked body.

"Good Lord! You're not wearing a stitch." He
darted a quick, panicked look at the closed door.

"I want to be wearing you." Leeanne shrugged
out of the coat and let it drop to the floor. She was proud of her body, proud
of the sleek muscles that she honed to perfection each day at the gym. She
might be nearing fifty, but she didn't look it.

Jimmy didn't seem at all interested. In fact, he bent
over and grabbed her coat off the floor. He stood up and tried to pull it
around her. "Are you crazy? I work here. Shirley will be back any minute."

Leeanne took the coat out of his hands and tossed it
across the desk. "That's why we have to hurry." She pressed her
breasts against his chest. "Tell me you don't want me." She felt him
through the crotch of his finely pressed trousers and was pleased by the
response. "See, you can't lie."

"We'll do this tonight, at home," he said
firmly, setting her aside.

"Come on, Jimmy. Let me loosen your pants. It
will just take a few minutes. You know that," she added with a touch of
irony.

"No. Forget it." He pushed her away from him
with more force than he'd ever used on her. "I'm the president of this
bank. I can't do this. I won't do it. And your father would have a heart attack
if he knew you'd come into town dressed like that. Imagine what people are
saying."

She was too hurt to imagine anything, too pained to
care. She felt rejected and alone and angry that she'd tied herself to the most
boring man on the planet.

"Don't you ever have a fantasy?" she asked
with despair ringing through her voice. "Don't you ever want to do it
somewhere different, somewhere exciting? Don't you ever want it to be so
passionate you feel like you could die?"

He walked around the desk and grabbed her coat off
the floor. "There's a time for
everything. This isn't it."

"It's not illegal to
make love to your wife at work."

"It should be. Get
dressed."

She took the coat from his
hand, but didn't put it on. "Don't you want me?"

His expression softened
slightly. "You know I do. But this isn't me, Leeanne. I can't do it here.
Someone could walk in." He glanced back at the door. "I don't even
have a lock."

"That makes it more
exciting."

"I've never understood
your need for so much excitement," he said with a bewildered expression in
his eyes.

"And I've never
understood why you don't want any excitement. At least not anymore. My big
brother, Tom, used to say you were the wildest kid in his class. But you
changed when you got older. When you graduated from college and came back, you
were different. Something happened there, didn't it?"

He threw up his hands in
amazement. "What are you talking about? College was a hundred years ago."

"Did some girl break
your heart, Jimmy?" She searched his face for the answer. It was a
question that had teased her for twenty something years, because there'd always
been a part of Jimmy that she couldn't quite get to. "Do you still think
about her?"

"There is no 'her.'
For God's sake, Leeanne, you and I have been married for twenty-six years. Why
on earth would you bring up some girl from college now?"

"Because I keep
wondering why you don't want
me. Why we've grown
apart. You don't talk to me, Jimmy. I don't have a clue what's going on in your
head. And you never discuss anything personal. Looking back, I think I always
did the talking. Maybe now I should listen—"

"Yes, you should listen. Go home, Leeanne. Stop
imagining problems where there aren't any."

"Did you ever love anyone before me?"

"No."

"You answered too quickly."

"There's no pleasing you. What do you want me to
say?"

"I want you to say something, anything, dammit. I
feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall, and it's driving me crazy."

A knock came at the door.

"Oh, shit." Jimmy looked frantically from
the door to her. "Get dressed, Leeanne." He reached for the doorknob
so no one could turn it. "I'll be right with you," he called out. "I
knew this was going to happen," he hissed under his breath as Leeanne
slipped her arms into her coat and covered herself.

"Mr. Callaway?" a female voice said as the
knock came again.

"Just a minute." He waited until Leeanne had
tied the belt on her coat, then opened the door.

Leeanne was surprised to see a young, beautiful blonde
standing in the hallway, a woman she'd never seen before.

"Mr. Callaway?" the woman said tentatively,
her gaze drifting from Jimmy to Leeanne. "May I speak to you for a moment?
I hope this isn't a bad time."

"No, it's fine. It's perfect," Jimmy said
hastily. He took in a deep breath, then let it out. "Do you have a problem
I can help you with? Or perhaps one of our tellers."

"It's not a banking problem."

Leeanne felt a catch in her stomach. There was something
familiar about the girl, but she couldn't decide what. Nor could she understand
what this young woman wanted with her husband or why her husband suddenly
looked so uncomfortable.

"Oh, well, come in," he said.

"Thank you."

Leeanne stepped aside so the blonde could enter Jimmy's
office. Her eyes narrowed as Jimmy tugged nervously at his tie. Why on earth
was he so fidgety?

"Go home," Jimmy murmured to her. "We'll
talk later."

"All right." Leeanne left the office,
strolled a few feet down the hallway, then looked back. Jimmy hadn't shut the
door. She took a quick glance to make sure she was alone, then tiptoed back
down the hall toward his office.

"I hope I'm not intruding, and you'll probably
think this is a crazy question," the blonde said. "But I saw a
photograph of you and a young woman at Golden's, taken a long time ago. I'm
hoping you might remember who she was."

Golden's? A photo? Leeanne knew there wasn't any photo
of Jimmy taken with her on Golden's Wall of Fame, because Jimmy hated to have
his picture taken.

"I'm not sure what you're referring to,"
Jimmy said. "What was your name again?"

"I'm sorry. Katherine Whitfield."

Katherine Whitfield?
The woman J.T. had thrown his bourbon at? Mary Jo had
been whining about the incident all morning. What on earth could Katherine
Whitfield possibly want from Jimmy?

"Could you tell me more about this photo?"
Jimmy asked.

"Well, the picture is in black and white. You and
a young woman are sitting at a table. She has long dark hair, parted in the
middle. I couldn't see her face. She looks thin, young, maybe nineteen or
twenty. The bartender thought her name was Evie. He said you'd know for sure."

Leeanne caught her breath at Katherine's question.
Evie? She'd never heard him talk about an Evie.

"I don't know anyone by that name," Jimmy
said firmly. "In fact, I don't think I'm in any of the photos. You must be
mistaken."

"Really? Both Zach and Justin seemed quite sure
the man was you."

"Sometimes pictures can be deceiving. If that's
all, Miss Whitfield, I have an appointment."

He's nervous, hiding something.
Leeanne shivered at the edge in Jimmy's voice. Her
boring, bland husband had a secret. An old lover perhaps? She could hardly
imagine. And while one part of her angrily wondered if he'd been unfaithful,
another part of her was somewhat titillated by the idea of Jimmy having a
secret life.

"What about an Evelyn Jones?" Katherine
persisted, obviously unwilling to let Jimmy go yet. "Do you remember a
woman by that name?"

Leeanne crept closer to the door, determined to catch
every word.

"I don't remember anyone with that name,"
Jimmy said. "Why are you asking?"

Katherine paused so long, Leeanne wondered if she was
going to answer the question.

"I think the woman in the photo might be my
mother," Katherine said slowly.

"You're trying to find your mother?" Jimmy
asked.

"No. I'm—well, actually I'm looking for my fa
ther
.
"

Leeanne bit back a gasp at the implication. She'd
never have expected this in a million years.