ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR (17 page)

trouble and Matty, though she hated to admit it, might very well be her best choice. He would

want the best deal for DSI, she understood that, but he wouldn’t try to take advantage of her

disadvantaged position. At least she didn’t think he would. “Eight is fine,” she said, “but no

need to pick me up. Just name the place and I’ll get there.”

“I’m staying at the Ritz-Carlton,” he said. “We can have dinner there.”

Shay nodded. “Okay. The Ritz it is. At eight.”

“On time this time,” he said, grabbed his briefcase, and then left, with his two assistants

hurrying behind him.

When he did leave, Shay dropped to her seat, her heart barely registering a beat.

“Shay, what’s wrong?” Tasia asked her. Although she was Shay’s best friend, she

knew nothing about her history with Matty. When Shay dropped out of Franklin U and left

that condo in Baltimore that same day Matty had given her the news, she never looked back.

Now it was all in her face again, about to blow up again, and she was nearly traumatized.

“Excuse us, Lin,” Tasia said to her assistant.

Linda, accustomed to being forced out, left, closing the door behind her.

“Okay, give,” Tasia said. “Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?”

Shay closed her eyes, and then opened them back up again. “Because I have,” she

said.

TWELVE

Entering the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia’s Center City, with its opulent great white pillars

and dramatic staircases, immediately made Shay feel decidedly out of her league. Especially

since this was far more Matty’s turf than hers. But what could she do? Allow him to come

pick her up and risk him seeing DeAndre? He was no idiot. He’d see this sixteen-year-old bi-

racial kid who looked amazingly just like him and easily put two and two together.

Shay wasn’t ready for that. She had to see where Matty’s head was first, and if his

relationship with Alex Graham (or was it Alex Driscoll now?) could sustain this kind of news.

And she also knew she had to prepare DeAndre. Because she knew her son, and she

knew he’d probably hate her more than he already seemed to, if she didn’t do this right; if she

didn’t explain why it was that she kept his father a secret from him all of these long years.

“Shay!” a voice said from across the lobby and she immediately looked over to see

Jordy Lambert heading her way. And she beamed. He was much older now, but just like

Matty he wore it well.

“Girl, look at you!” he said jovially as he hugged her and lifted her up in a sweet whirl

around.

“How you doing, Jordy?” she asked as he sat her back on her feet.

“Fabulous, honey, how about you? Miss Absentee.”

“I’m good. I’m supposed to meet Matty.”

“I know. He sent me down. But come on, girl, let’s get a drink in the lounge. He’s

not quite ready yet.”

“Still dressing?” Shay asked as they headed for the Club Lounge. She would be

surprised if Matty was actually dressing up for her. It had been her experience they his work

suits were his evening suits and he rarely changed up just to have dinner. He just wasn’t that

kind of man. Or had he changed?

“No, no,” Jordy said, “he’s handling some business, you know how that goes, Miss

Magazine publisher. I was delighted when he told me you actually owned a magazine. Great

for you.”

“Not so great,” Shay admitted as they made their way to one of the tables. Jordy

placed their drink orders as they sat down. “I’m on the brink of receivership if I can’t find an

investor.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You know Mr. Driscoll always has your

back.”

“Still Mr. Driscoll after all of your years of service to him?” Shay had always been

bothered by Jordy’s solicitousness to Matty, but Jordy merely smiled.

“I know. We’re best friends so why do I call my best friend Mr. Driscoll, right?”

“Right.”

“He’s also my employer, that’s why, and I take my job very seriously. When we’re

alone, he’s Matty. Otherwise he’s Mr. Driscoll, my boss. When I get off of his payroll, that’ll

be the end of that, but not before.”

Shay nodded. “Understood.” Then she exhaled. This may be her only chance to

know, so she decided to take it. “So tell me, Jordy, how’s he been?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, how things have been going for him, for his family, all of these years?”

“Well . . .” Then he looked at Shay. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“About Alex and Clive?”

“Alex and who?”

“Well,” Jordy said, straightening the cuffs of the shirt underneath his suit, “it was awful,

actually. The truth, I mean. I never liked her, never. But I never dreamed she’d be that

calculating.”

“Jordy, what are you talking about?”

“Okay. I don’t know how much you know but the only reason Mr. Driscoll married

her was because she claimed to have ALS.”

“Yes, he told me,” Shay said, the pain still there. “She had Lou Gehrig’s disease.”

“Well, that’s what she claimed. Her and her doctor.”

Shay was stunned. “Get out! It wasn’t true?”

“Not an ounce of it. That girl was healthier than a Clydesdale. She only told that lie to

steal Mr. Driscoll away from you.”

Shay leaned back in her chair, floored. “Wow.”

“Wow is right. And the way it was uncovered.”

“What happened?”

“She and this doctor of hers, Clive Stewart, a one-time very reputable surgeon,

concocted the lie. I mean, they had Mr. Driscoll believing there were this team of experts at

Johns Hopkins confirming the diagnosis and everything. But the thing is, Dr. Stewart was

Alex’s lover, and he was a very married man. One night, the wife of married man came home

early from a business trip and caught hubby and Alex in bed together.”

“This isn’t going to end well, is it?”

“She shot’em both.”

“For real?”

“For real, yes, she did. Killed them both. It was during the autopsy that the truth was

revealed. She no more had ALS than you and I do. It was just devastating all around.”

Shay could only imagine the devastation, and how awful Matty had to have felt.

“When did all of this happen? How long had they been married?”

“Less than a year, girl. It all went down in less than a year.”

Shay could hardly believe it. She stayed away from Matty, erased him from her mind,

because she knew, despite her pain, that he was doing the right thing by marrying Alex. That

was why she kept DeAndre as her secret. That was why she didn’t try to interfere in his life in

any way. She didn’t want to add to his stress, to the burden she just knew he was bearing as

the husband of a dying woman.

But to have it all exposed as a lie, and exposed in such a horrific fashion, and less than a

year after the marriage, was unimaginable.

“Poor Matty,” she found herself blurting out.

“Indeed,” Jordy said, as if he, too, was still feeling Matty’s pain. Then he hesitated,

and looked at her. “He looked for you, you know. Afterwards, I mean.”

Shay looked at Jordy. “He did?”

“Hired a private eye and everything. And they looked for a good solid year. But it was

as if you had dropped off of the world. They knew you had dropped out of school the same

day Matty broke up with you, and they knew at one point you went back to your hometown

and stayed there a few months. Then your trail went ice cold. They turned up nothing. So he

stopped trying, figuring you had gone on with your life and didn’t need to be encumbered with

him, anyway, especially the emotional state he was in.”

“He was in a bad way?”

“A terrible way.”

“He’s recovered?”

“Not fully, no. I don’t know if you ever, quote-unquote ‘recover’ from something like

that. But he’s putting one foot in front of the other one and moving right along.”

That didn’t exactly sound like living to Shay. “So after a year he called off the search.”

“Yes, he did. I think he was afraid he’d drag you down, too, I don’t know. But that

was thirteen, fourteen years ago when he stopped looking. Didn’t hear a word about you until

here recently, when we found out you published some magazine we’d never heard of, and that

you hadn’t moved to Antarctica, after all, but lived just a mere hundred miles away.”

“Initially, I did move far away. Not out of the country, I couldn’t afford that, but I

ended up working at a small newspaper in a tiny town in Texas. I actually enjoyed it. I didn’t

move to Baltimore until I got a job as a writer with a magazine there. The magazine folded,

but I liked the business so much that I started my own little rag. Destiny Magazine, because I

felt it was my destiny. If he would have still been looking for me then, I’ll bet he would have

found me.”

Jordy nodded. “I know. But life’s that way, isn’t it? As soon as you think it’s over,

it’s not.”

He reached for his cell phone, looked at the caller ID, and immediately answered.

“Yes, sir?” he said, and then proceeded to listen. Then he closed his phone. “He’s ready for

you,” he said, standing to his feet. Shay stood, too. “He’s still tied up on a conference call

and can’t come down. You don’t mind going up, do you, Shay?”

“No, not at all,” she said, although she knew, deep down, as they headed for the

elevators, that it probably wasn’t the wisest move she could have made.

THIRTEEN

After Jordy deposited her inside of the suite and left, Shay could hear Matty in an

intense conversation in the back room.

“Is that you, Shay?” he yelled out in a voice that bespoke familiarity. It almost

sounded comforting to hear him call her that way.

“It’s me.”

“Have a seat, sweetie. I’m just wrapping up.”

Then he continued his intense conversation before she could respond. Shay was

thrown by his term of endearment. It was almost as if time had stood still and they were

still that wonderful couple from all those years ago. All those wonderful years ago, until,

of course, that morning when he left her.

Oh, well, she thought, walking over to the window overlooking the magnificent

Philadelphia skyline. It was probably just something he’d say to anybody, like the maid,

his secretary, Jordy.

She moved over to the sofa and sat down. She was tired, once again, and knew

she couldn’t continue working this hard. But until Destiny was out of danger, she knew

she had to keep pushing it. But she couldn’t forestall the tiredness that was attempting to

overtake her.

She attempted to sit more comfortably, as she leaned back with her arm on the

armrest. Before long, she closed her eyes-just to rest them, was her plan. Before long,

by the time Matty entered the room, she was asleep.

Matty stood there, watching her, and his heart squeezed with the kind of

compassion he thought had long since left him. After that craziness with Alex, and her

tragic death, he didn’t think he would trust another woman even if she personified

trustworthiness.

But it was different with Shay. He knew that for certain now, looking at her. She

didn’t have to prove a thing to him. She was one woman, the only woman, he would

trust with his life.

He walked to the sofa and hovered over her. She appeared to be sound asleep

with that wee snore he had come to know so well. If only he could have seen through

Alex’s lies. If only he could have agreed to help her, but only with the condition that

Shay would remain in his life. If only he was the kind of man who could have dismissed

his long, drawn-out history with Alex and selfishly choose Shay, instead. If, if, if. His

heart ached with ifs.

He sat on the edge of the sofa beside her. The urge to touch her, just to touch her

smooth skin again, was almost too overwhelming. So he did it. He reached out and

touched her smooth, gorgeous face. His hand felt seared by the touch.

Shay’s eyes opened at the feel of his touch. And as soon as she realized it was

Matty, and his eyes were aflame with the kind of passion she used to crave, she smiled.

She couldn’t help it. “Hi,” she said to him.

But Matty couldn’t say a word. He was too overcome with emotion. Too filled

with feelings that were bubbling to the surface like a tsunami overtaking him. They stared

into each other’s eyes, without moving, without attempting to talk their feelings away.

Those feelings ran too deep. Their eyes showed too much regret. And when he leaned

over and kissed her, just a tender kiss was all he was after, she leaned ever so slightly into

him and allowed the kiss. And time did stand still, because the passion they once shared

became as real to them as if sixteen years of their lives had not come, and was long since