Love Handles (37 page)

She saw his big heart in his eyes, and realized she’d made a horrible mistake.

“Of course I believe him,” she said softly, never taking her eyes off of him. “I thought she was my grandfather’s girlfriend.”

Rachel made a disgusted sound that Liam ignored. “Me too,” he said, smiling at her, warm and warmer, and she felt her heart beat faster with each breath.

Ellen picked up a bottle, grimaced at the label, and dropped it back on the table. “Don’t be a sucker. Father told him everything else, why not that?” She looked at Bev. “Get ready for him to suddenly want to get serious. Now you’re the only one standing between him and the one thing he really wants.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Liam said.

He’d already suggested they get serious, and she’d doubted him, insulted him, pushed him away. “Is that true, Liam? You want to get serious about me?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Her breathing, already fast, became tight and uneven, a conscious struggle. “Oh?”

Gail burst into the room. “You’re all right!”

“Mom?” Then her sister popped up behind her. “Kate? What are you doing here?”

Gail rushed over and grabbed Bev’s shoulders. “You were supposed to be with him. Liam. I thought you were with Liam.”

Bev stared at the black circles under her mother’s eyes. “Were you crying?”

Gail grabbed her face in her cold hands. “Have you really been sleeping here? In this old building?
Alone
?”

Stuck in her mother’s grip, stunned by her mother’s visible worry, Bev said, “You wouldn’t back down. I had nowhere else to go.”

Gail closed her eyes. Mascara clumped unevenly near her nose on one side. “I never thought you would leave because of anything I said.” Her eyes popped open. “Since when have you ever listened to anything I say?”

“I always listen.”

“But you’re so independent. It used to drive me crazy that you wouldn’t wear the clothes I picked out, make friends with the girls I liked, do anything with your hair.” Gail released one cheek to stroke Bev’s hair, then glanced around the room.

The others were staring at them.

“Well, she’s all right,” Gail said, waving at them. “Everyone can go now. My daughter will come home with me.” She put an arm around Bev’s shoulders.

“Not right now, Mom, but thank you.” She put an arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze before she wiggled herself free. “How did you get in, by the way? The doors should be locked.”

Kate pushed past them and walked over to Rachel. “This the ho?”

Rachel rose unsteadily to her feet. “He was my father. My father. Who the hell are you?”

“Rachel, meet your other niece, Kate,” Liam said. He pushed Kate closer and moved over to Bev. “Does she kick women, too?”

Bev’s mouth went dry.
Don’t think about him now.
She caught a hint of cologne and leaned into him.
And for God’s sake, don’t smell him.

Kate put her hand on Rachel’s shoulder. “So, you’re the bitch who broke into our house.”

Rachel slapped her hand away. “That’s Aunt Bitch to you.”

One swift kick, and Rachel was down. Bev tried to stop her sister, but Liam put an arm around her, trapping her against his body, and she could only watch as Kate got violent with the woman who had caused so much trouble.

Knee pressed into Rachel’s throat, Kate said, “If it weren’t for you I’d be home right now, Aunt Bitch.”

Bev broke away from Liam. “Let her up, Kate!”

“This person claims to be—” Gail swung around to Ellen. “Is it true?”

Ellen shrugged. “Look at her. What do you think?”

Gail scowled at Rachel. “I think she looks like Grandma Roche.”

“That’s what I thought,” Ellen said.

“You didn’t tell me,” Gail said.

“You hated my guts.”

Gail looked at her. “You hated mine.”

Ellen raised an eyebrow. “Only because you left. I was fifteen, Gail. You left.”

“Dad kicked me out.”

“You could have written.”

Gail laughed unsteadily. “I could have written,” she said. “You have no idea what I was going through.”

“When you left,” Ellen said, “so did Dad. I didn’t see him for six months.”

“But—where—who stayed with you?”

Ellen’s face was cold. “Mom was dead. You ran away. Dad—” She cleared her throat. “I finally found him here. I don’t know what he did at first, before the kitchen and bathroom were installed, but when I tracked him down he seemed pretty damn happy. Had everything he needed.” She turned around, her back to the room.

Gail was the first to speak. “So you were alone?” She went over to her sister. “But you were—didn’t anyone—”

Ellen shrugged. “At first I had trouble with things like groceries and permission slips and bills, but Dad left the checkbook and kept the account loaded. Once I got good at forging his signature, I was fine. I’m tough. I survived.”

“Oh, Ellen.” Gail’s voice shook. She hesitated then put her hand on Ellen’s shoulder.

“He never did come back,” Ellen said. “And neither did you.”

Gail burst into tears.

Bev felt Liam moving closer to her, and looked at him to see the concern in his eyes. She realized her cheeks were wet.

“Damn,” Kate said, distracted by the scene.

“Get off of me.” Rachel rolled out of range, kicked her, and staggered to her feet. Eyes wild, she looked at Bev. “Tell her to leave me alone.”

Bev was still staring at Ellen’s back. “Tell her yourself.”

Rachel, shaking, held her finger up, pointing at each of them in the room in rotation like the spinner in Chutes’n’Ladders. “All of you, do you hear that? Leave me alone!”

“That will be easier when you actually leave,” Bev said. “And when you stop driving over to Oakland to break things.”

“You will never have his money,” Rachel said. “Not one of you.”

Ellen turned around. “What money?” Her cheeks were splotchy.

“You thought I wanted to be part of the family,” Rachel spat out. “As if that was some kind of fucking prize.”

Ellen’s voice dropped. “What money?”

Bev leaned over to pick up the framed photograph and got to her feet. “She got some money.”

“What money?” Gail stood shoulder to shoulder with Ellen.

“He told me he gave it to charity. Putting a down payment on his immortal soul,” Ellen said. “You didn’t let on a thing.”

“He found out he was dying before Christmas. He wanted to look out for me,” Rachel said.

“And so he did.” Bev tilted the picture up, careful not to tip out the broken glass, and bent the back out to release the photo, which she carried over to Rachel. “It’s time for you to go,” she said, taking Rachel’s arm tightly in her hand.

“But who is she?” Gail asked. “Is she our sister?”

After a moment Ellen laughed. Her voice surprisingly gentle, she said, “I’ll explain everything later.”

Bev forced Rachel out into the hall, and she went easily, probably because Kate was assuming another fighting position. When they were ten feet out of the room in the dim corridor and alone, Bev said, “One year from now, you are welcome to come back here.” She loosened her grip on Rachel’s arm. “We’ll go out for coffee. We’ll talk. I won’t give you a job, but I promise to listen.”

“Sure you’ll be here? Any of you?” Rachel pulled her arm free and rubbed it. “You think it’ll be easy to keep this place running without me? Without my money?”

“Without you breaking windows and ripping up samples?”

She pinched her lips together, looked away. “I wanted to believe you were for real. I did, for a while.”

“I am real.”

“You started screwing Liam. And then, the fit modeling. I really, really hate fit modeling.”

“Noted.” Bev shoved the picture at her. “You’ll never do it again.”

“Nothing works here without me making it work.”

Bev nodded towards the exit behind her. “Maybe nothing will break, either.” She turned and saw Liam watching the exchange from the conference room doorway, back lit and huge and unreadable.

Did he come back for Fite, or for her?

Rachel was still standing there in the semi-darkness. “I hated—what I did to the Target presentation—that just about killed me.” She burst out with a noise that was a laugh or a sob. “All that work. It was horrible.”

“You need a break, Rachel. Book a trip somewhere, bring a friend. Get away from this place for long enough to make a difference.” Bev sighed. “And if anything weird happens around here or at the Oakland house, to Liam or to anyone in my—our—family, I’m calling up your mother in Borrego Springs and telling her everything. She worked here for twenty years, right? I don’t think she’d like to know what you’ve been up to.”

Rachel gasped. “How—”

“Do you understand?”

The hallway went quiet. Bev could see the conference room light reflected in Rachel’s eyes.

“Yes,” Rachel said.

Bev said, “See you when you get back.”

Chapter 25

S
tanding in the hallway, watching Bev stride back towards the conference room, Liam longed to haul her up into his arms.

Not yet
. She still had the rest of her family to deal with.

Eyes locked with his, she stopped a few feet in front of him. The shadowy hallway swallowed up her dark hair, emphasizing her pale face like an actor on stage. He stared back at her.

“Nicely done,” he said finally, smiling.

She gave him a warm, tentative smile that made his throat ache. Then she shrugged a shoulder, laughing off his compliment. “Thanks. It got a little messy.”

“You were great.”

She stared at him, glanced past him into the conference room. “Will you wait for me?”

He reached out and caressed her hair, watching her lips part while he stroked the cool silk. “That’s what I’m doing,” he said softly.

She leaned into him, eyes heavy with desire.

He dropped her hair and cleared his throat. “Go on. Get rid of them. I’ll be right here.” He strode off towards the lobby before he could succumb to temptation and drag her into a quiet corner.

First he wanted to have a few words with Rachel. She was just walking past Carrie’s desk, heading for the street. “Hold up!”

Rachel shot him a look and kept going.

Liam jogged over and stood in front of the front door, more pissed than ever. “You’re going to listen to me.”

“Get out of my way.”

“You’re in no position to demand anything.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Before, I wasn’t. I am now. What are you going to do—fire me?”

“Here’s the deal. You are never coming back into this building.”

“Bev—my
niece
—thinks differently.”

“Let her. It helps her sleep at night.” He leaned closer. “My needs are different. My needs are to issue a restraining order if I ever see you here again, because as a manager here, I have a responsibility to act on the sixteen documented cases of co-workers complaining about your erratic and violent behavior.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You do not.”

“I accept the inevitability of you popping up every once in a while over the years in Bev’s family’s life,” he said. “Just so you understand, I’ll be there watching, and these touching reunions will never happen anywhere near Fite. Or anywhere we live.”

She choked out a laugh. “We?”

“Me and Bev.”

“You cocky bastard,” Rachel said. “She’ll never forgive you for taking off when she was in trouble. Not that she really needed you—she got a teenage slut to fix everything. She won’t even give you your job back.”

He smiled and pushed the door open for her. “Remember what I said.”

“Kiss my ass.” She walked out with the large photo flapping at her side.

We’ll spend the holidays with my family
. He locked the door and watched her disappear down the sidewalk.

“Let her have the house, Mom,” Bev was saying when he got back to the conference room. “All she really wants is to have Johnny live nearby, and her future grandbaby, right, Aunt Ellen? And if I let you get involved with Fite—”

“Not me,” Gail said. “Kate.”

“If I let Kate get involved with Fite—”

Gail leaned forward. “Not just involved. A real career.”

“—then you’d be willing to give the house to Johnny?”

Kate threw the t-shirt she was holding onto a chair. “This people stuff isn’t my thing. It would have to be something where I could really get creative.”

Bev shot her an icy look that reminded Liam of her aunt. Both of them. “Help me out here, sis. We can work out your job description later.”

Kate shook her head. “No way. I’m too young to sell out. I need to know I’m signing on to something I can believe in.”

“How about you, Liam?” Ellen asked. “Are you too young to sell out?”

Liam met her gaze. Looked over at Bev, who frowned.

“Leave him out of this,” Bev said.

Ellen put her hand over her heart. “Goodness. How romantic.”

He didn’t care what Ellen thought. It was the wariness in Bev’s eyes that bothered him. “Bev and I need to talk. In private.”

“There’s no reason for you to be here,” Bev said to him. “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than worry about me and my family.”

“No, I don’t.”

Distress flickered across her face. “Please. Just go. You wanted out of here, go ahead.”

“I made a mistake.” He caught Ellen’s eye. “And no, I’m not feeling too young.”

“Now you want to sell out?” Bev asked. “Is that what Ellen meant? You’re willing to do anything to have Fite back?”

She wanted to force this here, in front of everyone? Fine. “Quite the opposite.” He walked over to her. “I’m willing to do anything to get
you
back.”

He saw the shock in her face, the fear, and wished he could relish it after the weeks of his own suffering, but all it did was stab him with more pain. He lifted his hand to her cheek. “I was wrong to leave. I didn’t give you a chance.”

She swallowed. “To call Annabelle?”

“To love me,” he said. “But now I’ve decided I can do all the loving for a while. Until you catch up.”

Bev’s eyes, wide and bright, shifted to turquoise. “Oh,” she whispered. She gazed at him with such open disbelief, such hope, he was able to tamp down his own panic.