Drive and Determination (18 page)

Chapter 17

            “Hello, George. How are you?” Elyssa stared at the man in front of her, strangely aware that she had barely thought of him in the past few days.
            “Just fine. And yourself?”
            “Fine, thank you. Come in. How was Colombia?”
            “Thanks.” George stepped in and shook his head. “Colombia was just as I suspected. There was nothing there that needed my attention as urgently as Will made it sound. The guy needs to get a life.”
            Elyssa raised her eyebrows at his critical spirit -- especially aimed at his boss. She was surprised that she hadn’t paid attention to it before.
            George walked into the living room and casually looked around. “So, you had a pretty good time at Lake Atitlan.”
            It sounded more like a statement than a question and it appeared as though George wasn’t really expecting an answer. Elyssa replied anyway, “It was beautiful, just as you said.”
            “Yeah, I bet.” George was holding some rolled up papers and he tapped them several times into the palm of his hand. He looked down at them briefly.
            “What do you have there, George?”
            “Oh, these?” A frown froze his features and he took in and let out a long, deep breath before he answered.
            “Look, Elyssa,” he said, an expression of concern accentuating his features. “I hate to be the one to show you these. But I think you ought to know.”
            “Know what? What are they?”
            He slowly unfolded one of the papers, and as he handed it to Elyssa, she could see that it appeared to be a printed picture of a photograph from a web page. When she looked at it more closely, she recognized it as herself being carried by Will across the street in Panajachel during the downpour.
            The picture was bad enough, but her eyes went down to the caption below it which read,
Pemberleo Coffee’s wealthy and quite eligible president William Denton sweeping mystery woman off her feet in a downpour!
            “No!” she exclaimed. “Where did this come from? Who took it?”
            George shook his head, as if in disgust. “It came from some internet site where people post pictures of celebrities they see.”
            “You have got to be kidding. Will’s not a celebrity!”
            George looked very somber. “You and I both know that! But he’s got that ridiculous title of being one of the top 50 most eligible bachelors, so people with nothing better to do take notice.”
            Elyssa’s voice shook as she asked, “Are
those
more pictures?”
            George gripped them tightly. “Maybe you better sit down.”
            “I don’t need to sit down, George! I want to see them!”
            He handed her the next and she saw the two of them walking into the hotel in Panajachel. To her benefit, the picture had been taken from behind them, but with the other incriminating photo, there was no denying that it was them. The caption read,
William Denton checks into one of the finer hotels with brunette bombshell.
            Elyssa closed her eyes and looked away. “Why would anyone do this?”
            “I am of the opinion they do it only for the money. Ridiculous if you ask me. They hope some magazine will see them and buy the rights to print them.”
            Elyssa spun her head toward George. “A magazine? These might end up in a magazine?”
            “Not necessarily. They would have to feel there is a story here.”
            Elyssa felt sick. She could see by the stack of papers still in George’s hand that there were several more. As she reached out for the next, her hand was shaking.
            George remained gravely silent as he handed her the next.
            Elyssa gasped as her eyes took in the next picture of her and Will on the balcony at the hotel the next morning. She was standing next to him in her robe and he was shirtless, with only a towel slung over his shoulders.
            “No! This is not the way it was!”
            She looked down at the caption.
It appears to have been a pleasant, cozy night for Will and his lady.
           
“We were standing on separate balconies! He was in the room next to mine! There is a divider between us for goodness sake!”
           
George reached up and placed his hand upon her shoulder. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that.”
           
The next picture was of the two of them on the boat to the village. Her eyes flashed at George. “The American on the boat! He had a camera and was taking pictures. I thought he was just a tourist taking pictures of the scenery!”
           
“He must have known who Will was. Probably some aspiring paparazzi.”
           
Elyssa brought her hand up to her head. The beginnings of a headache were making themselves known.
           
“I think I
will
sit down.”
           
“Look, Elyssa. You don’t need to see any more of these. I just wanted you to be aware of what’s out there.”
           
When Elyssa was seated, she reached up her hand. “No, George. I want to see them all!”
           
With the next picture in her hand, Elyssa found herself looking at the two of them walking into Chad and Janet’s small house. She cringed at the caption.
Very little was seen of Will and his lady once they checked into their private love cottage.
           
She slammed the pictures down onto her lap. “This makes it sound like we… like we…” Elyssa could barely speak. “Nothing happened between us. Nothing happened! I was sick all afternoon Saturday and was still recovering Sunday morning. Nothing happened!”
           
George looked at her oddly. “You’re really serious, aren’t you?”
           
Elyssa nodded and held out her hand, but George held tightly to the last picture.
           
“I was hoping you didn’t fall under the spell of the lake.” George tilted his head as he eyed her doubtfully. “Or under the spell of the
man
!”
           
“No, George, I didn’t fall under
any
spell,” Elyssa rubbed her head.
           
George slowly extended the last picture out to her. “You still hate the guy?”
           
Taking the picture from George, Elyssa looked down at it and was quite sure that he probably already knew the answer to his question. In it, Will was holding Elyssa in his arms in the lake. Elyssa was clearly laughing and enjoying herself in the photo. She didn’t even bother to read the caption.
           
“No, George, I no longer hate the man.” Elyssa closed her eyes and shook her head. “But nothing happened.”
           
George sat down next to her and leaned in. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear that. I was really worried when I saw these pictures. But I had faith in you. I knew you weren’t like all those other women who absolutely love to see their pictures in magazines with him by their side.”
           
“No, I’m
not
like them,” she said softly.
           
“His only concern is for his company. He rarely considers other people’s feelings. I knew you were too smart to fall for a man like him. I knew you’d be able to see through him.”
           
Unlike before, a strong yearning to defend Will rather than join in George’s assault on him surfaced deep inside of her. As she opened her mouth to come to his defense, George began to shake his head slowly.
           
“I couldn’t even imagine how you tolerated the man who tried to talk Chad out of marrying your very own sister.”
           
Elyssa’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened in shock at his revelation. “What?”
           
“I’m sorry. You mean you didn’t know? Almost everybody else did!”
           
“Will tried to talk Chad out of marrying Janet?”
           
George looked down and stared at the floor.
           
“Yeah, nasty business. You gotta love Chad, but he often doubted his own judgment. For some unfathomable reason, he always checked things through with the big man. When he told Will he wanted to ask Janet to marry him, well, Will told him he didn’t think he should. He was adamantly against their marriage.”
           
George looked up and could see the pain etched in Elyssa’s face. He had suspected that her feelings for Will must have changed when he saw the pictures. Now he was certain that she no longer viewed him as the monster she once thought he was.
           
“Why? Why would he do that?”
           
George laughed. “Oh, you may have spent three unbelievable days with the man in an exotic, romantic locale, but he still is a manipulator, obsessed with controlling other people’s lives! Everything revolves around the company, whether it’s this project or that! He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and Pemberleo Coffee!” There was fire in George’s eyes as he spoke.
           
Elyssa thought back to their day in Antigua when they were standing on opposite sides of the dome room in the monastery ruins. She overheard Will refer to her as a “project” to the man next to him. She shook her head violently.
           
“I can’t believe it!”
           
“Well, believe it. You can even ask the Walkers. They knew. Once Chad talked with Will, he asked other people what they thought.”
           
“But he didn’t listen to Will,” Elyssa protested. “He
did
ask Janet to marry him.”
           
“And I give him credit for having the guts to defy him.”
           
Elyssa looked down at the pictures in her hands. “How did you find out about these internet pictures, George?”
           
“I almost hate to say.”
           
“Just tell me,” Elyssa barely eked out.
           
“Some guy from a magazine called the office today while I was in. He wanted to know if we’d give them a name.”
           
“He was from a magazine?”
           
“Yeah, I forget which one.”
           
“And he wanted
my
name?”
           
“Yeah, Pemberleo won’t give it out, but unfortunately, these guys can usually find a source who will divulge the information they’re looking for in exchange for a little something in return.”
           
Elyssa lowered her head into her hand and she dug her fingers into her scalp, trying to rub away the headache that was now throbbing. “George, I think I would like to be left alone.”
           
“Yeah. Sure. Look, I’m really sorry I had to be the one to show you these. I wish that we… well, maybe if you ever come back, we can carry on where we left off.”
           
Elyssa smiled. “Thanks, George. It’s not your fault. My one consolation right now is that the only people who will see these pictures are ones who visit that website. If they appear in a magazine, well, I guess I’ll have to deal with it then.”
           
“You will, Elyssa. You’re strong. Will always shrugs these things off. He’s seen enough pictures of himself with women in magazines that it doesn’t mean a thing to him anymore.”
           
George walked slowly to the door. “I suppose your travel arrangements are all set for tomorrow?”
           
Elyssa stood up to see him out and glanced toward her luggage. “Yeah, everything’s arranged.”
           
“Well, then, until next time.”
           
“Thanks, George.”
           
George shook his head. “Yeah.”
           
He turned to leave and then stopped. Looking back at Elyssa, he asked, “Hey, was that Maria that stopped by earlier?”
           
“Yes, it was.”
           
“I didn’t know you knew her.”
           
“Oh, I only just met her today. I understood that she faithfully goes out each week and places flowers at the little memorial cross on the highway where Chad and Janet died. I wanted to meet her.”
           
“Oh.” George looked down and then back at Elyssa. “Sweet kid.”
           
“Yes, she seems to be.”
           
“Good night, Elyssa.”
           
“Good night, George.”
           
Elyssa shut the door and her hand tightened into a fist, crumpling the pictures. The tension and throbbing in her head echoed the new feelings of anguish in her stomach. Her mind and heart swirled with the insinuations from the website and the accusations George made about Will. She needed to talk to someone, but she needed to sort out her thoughts first.
           
She sank back down into the chair and wrapped her arms tightly about her. She tried to think, but her muddled mind wouldn’t cooperate.
Just who exactly is Will?
 Elyssa asked herself.
Why was I so sure about his character and prejudiced against him when I first came, how and when did that change, and now, why do I feel so confused?
           
As her head began to throb, she lifted a hand to gently rub it. It was not long before she was reminded of an evening two nights ago when Will did the same. She crashed her hand back down into her lap.
           
Had she merely been a project in his eyes? If so, what kind?  Did he dislike the fact that she didn’t fall head over heels for him like every other woman? Elyssa let out a moan. Was he merely trying to make amends to her for his part in sending Chad and Janet here? Did his behavior reflect his true feelings for her or was he merely fulfilling an agenda?
           
Feelings clashed with reason as she tried to make sense of it all. George’s words hit her as painfully as any spear piercing through to the depths of her.
           
Elyssa sat up with a start, suddenly remembering Janet’s journal. She wasn’t sure what her sister may have written about Will in it, but she could at least see if there appeared to be any sort of concern over his character or behavior.