Next Door Secrets (Secrets Series Book 2) (14 page)

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

After he hung up
the phone, Parker cracked his knuckles. It was hard to lie to Beth and even
harder to be so mean. He didn't really mind watching sci-fi movies with her.
Spending time with her was the only way he could unwind and forget about work
for a while.

Sending her
flowers made him feel slightly better about the last time he'd disappointed
her. Maybe he needed to do something like that to compensate for everything
he'd be forced to do in order to leave her.

He pulled out his
laptop and started typing her a note.

Dear Bethany:

I hope you can
forgive me. I know I never say it, but I do love you. And that’s why I must do
what I'm doing. You desperately want to be a mother--I can see it in your eyes
every time you talk about
Kaylee
. I can hear it in your
voice when you second-guess your decision to place Hannah for adoption. Please
don't torture yourself this way. You’ll be a wonderful mother someday, but not
if you stay with me. You know I can't give you that life. That's why I'm
leaving. Once I'm gone, you'll have the chance to find someone who can make
your dreams of a family come true. I hope you'll forgive me for my cruelty
these past few weeks/months. Every time I cancelled our plans or said something
to put distance between us, it broke my heart. That's why I’m going to fill a
shoebox with tokens of my affection, to make up for my cruelty. Hopefully you
will have forgiven me and found someone new by the time you read this note.

Love,

Parker

He took a deep
breath. Now he needed to think of his penance. What could he give to Beth to
make up for everything? He could get gift certificates for her favorite
restaurant, but he knew she didn’t like to go out alone. What else? His mind
remained blank. He knew there wasn’t anything that money could buy.

Suddenly, he felt
the urge to wash all of the coins in his collection. Maybe that would make him
feel better.

# #
#

As Beth stood inside
Jim’s sparse apartment, he pointed a finger at her. "I've been meaning to
ask you something."

She wondered what
it could be. Was he really her secret admirer? Was he going to ask her if she
had a boyfriend?

"How in the
hell am I supposed to get that polish off of
Kaylee's
fingernails?"

Beth chuckled.
"I have some remover at my place. I'll go get it."

"Great. I'll
set an extra plate for dinner."

As she removed the
chipped pink from
Kaylee's
tiny fingers, Beth asked
about her day. She still liked sitting out of gym class, but recess was pretty
boring. Because her arm was in a cast, no one wanted to play with her. She’d
started bringing her Rescue Princesses book outside to read, but she was
feeling isolated and lonely.

"Dinner's
ready," Jim's voice called from the kitchen. Soon the three of them
gathered around the banged up table.

"Smells
delicious." Beth took a small helping of spaghetti and meatballs. After
she took a bite, she realized this wasn't out of a jar. "Is this
homemade?"

Jim nodded.
"I told you I used to work in a restaurant."

"Wow."
She knew if she ate like this every day, she'd gain a few pounds. The man knew
his way around the kitchen. "
Kaylee
, you’re so
lucky your dad’s such a good cook."

The girl shrugged
as a few noodles dangled from her bottom lip. She slurped them up, leaving a
bit of red sauce on her face. Beth couldn't help but smile.

Noticing the mess,
Jim handed
Kaylee
a napkin. "Wipe your
mouth." Then he turned his attention to Beth. "Got any fun plans for
the weekend?"

"I did, but
they just got cancelled. I was going to go see the new Star Trek movie, but I
hate going to the theater alone."

"Don't tell
me you're one of those women that needs a man on their arm."

Her spine
stiffened. "No, I don't
need
a man."

"I bet you
won't go out to restaurants alone, either."

Her face burned.
"Part of the fun is having someone to share the experience with."

He pointed his
fork at her. "Like I said, you're one of
those
women." He
looked at
Kaylee
. "Don't be like Beth. If you
want to see a movie, go. If you want to try a new restaurant, don't wait for
some guy to take you."

Kaylee's
eyes grew wide as she scanned her dad's face, then
Beth's. She didn't say anything, though.

Beth's hackles
rose. "Hey, I can do stuff by myself. I've been living on my own for the
majority of my adult life. I can unclog the toilet and I kill spiders, I'll
have you know."

He chuckled.
"Wow. You kill spiders? I stand corrected."

Still fuming, Beth
sighed. Why had she agreed to eat dinner with him?
Kaylee
was a sweetheart, but her dad put Beth on edge. She shoveled the spaghetti into
her mouth. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could go back to her place.
Alone. Which was sounding better and better by the minute.

After a while, Jim
broke the silence. "All I'm saying is going to the movies by yourself
isn't so bad. In fact, it's the perfect place to sit alone. They turn out the
lights and you lose yourself in the film for two hours. No one’s staring at you
or thinking you're a loser."

"Anyone who
goes to the movies by themselves isn't a loser. They're brave."

"That's my
point. If you arrive early, bring a book to read."

Beth tried to
envision buying a ticket and walking into the theater alone. The hardest part
would definitely be those few minutes while the lights remained on before the
previews. "Maybe I will." She had a defiant tone to her voice. She'd
show Jim Stein that she was a modern woman, capable of entertaining herself.

"Good."
He smirked and finished his meal in record time.
Kaylee
mimicked his fast eating and Beth realized they really needed a woman in the
house to reign in the frat house mentality.

Kaylee
got up and placed her dishes in the dishwasher,
which impressed Beth.
    

"Bath
time," her dad said. He grabbed a plastic bag and wrapped the cast.

Kaylee
paused beside Beth. "Will you still be here
when I get done?"

Her gaze landed on
her plate. Just a few more bites and she'd hoped to be out of there. "I
don't know. Maybe if you're fast."

One little arm
wrapped around Beth's neck in a tight hug. "Please don't go. I'd like you
to read me a bedtime story."

How could Beth say
no to her? She'd always had a soft spot for kids, but especially girls.
"I'll wait. But wash up fast."

Nodding,
Kaylee
skipped out of the room.

Beth turned her
attention back onto her meal. She bit into one of the meatballs and marveled at
the Italian spices that burst inside her mouth. "You’re really
talented."

Jim cleared his
dishes except for his water glass and sat back down across from her. "So
are you
gonna
go to the movies this weekend?"

She shrugged and
kept eating. "Maybe." Part of her wanted to go to prove to Jim that
she could and part of her wanted to go to spite Parker. It bothered her that if
he cancelled on her, she didn't have anything fun to do. And he'd been
cancelling on her an awful lot lately.

"What's
wrong?" Jim raised an eyebrow at her.

"Nothing."

"Your face
just turned sour. What were you thinking?"

She shook her
head. "I'm mad because my boyfriend is a workaholic. He'd rather be at the
office than be with me." Once the words slipped out of her mouth, she
wished she could take them back. She certainly didn't want Jim to see her
vulnerability.

"Is that the
guy who sent you the flowers?"

"I don't
know. He said he didn't, but if it's not you or him, I have no idea."

"Is he a
flower-sending kind of guy?"

She searched her
memory. "We've only been dating a few months, but so far, he's never sent
flowers." Did that mean Jim sent them? Was he toying with her?

"Tell me
about him." He took a sip of his water.

"There's
nothing to tell. His name’s Parker and lately he's been acting kind of
odd." Why wouldn't she shut up? "But it'll be fine."

"Odd
how?"

Shrugging, she
finished her last bite of spaghetti. Worried about how many calories she'd
consumed, she planned on hitting the gym first thing in the morning. She rose
to help clean up.

He grabbed the
plate in her hand. "Sit down. You're my guest. I'll do it." Once she
let go, he walked the dishes over to the dishwasher.

In the background,
she heard
Kaylee
singing "Twinkle, twinkle
little star" and it soothed Beth's soul. "Your daughter’s really
special."

"I think
so."

Narrowing her eyes
at him, Beth couldn't quite figure him out. In the past, when she'd
complimented
Kaylee
, he'd point out that she lied all
the time. But this time, he agreed. Plus, he'd finally admitted earlier that it
wasn't easy raising a daughter on his own. He was starting to let down his
guard with her. "Have you heard from CPS lately?"

"No. They
said they’d stop by again, though." He rubbed his clean-shaven chin.
"When did the doctor say the cast
can
come
off?"

"Three weeks,
I think." It was amazing how quickly kids could heal.

"Do I just
take her back to the hospital?"

"Or to her
regular doctor." But the other night he'd said she didn't have a doctor.
"I know a good pediatrician in town if you need a recommendation."
She'd taken her ex's niece a few times for ear infections.

"I’d
appreciate that." He pulled a scrap piece of paper from a drawer and
handed it to her. A second later, he added a pen beside it.

Kaylee
continued to splash and sing in the tub while Beth
wrote the name Dr. Peterson. "I don't know the phone number, but you could
look it up."

"Thanks."
He tucked the paper into his jeans pocket.

Beth looked toward
Kaylee's
playful noises coming from the tub. She
couldn't leave yet. "So, you asked about my personal life. What about you?
Do you have a girlfriend?"

He let out a
laugh. "No thank you. When would I have the time? If I'm not on the road,
I want to be home with my daughter."

A warm spot filled
her heart.
Such a devoted father.
"If I were a
single parent, I'd feel the same way."

"You seem
like you adore kids. Why don't you have any of your own?"

Her heart sped up
as she considered her response. Wiping her damp hands on her jeans, she drew in
a breath. "Actually, I had a baby a long time ago, when I was in college.
I wasn't ready to take care of her, so I placed her for adoption." The
words spilled out of her as she stared at a scratch on the tabletop. "I
always figured there’d be time for me to have a family later, but
now.
. . I guess I was wrong."

“I bet your father,
the minister, wasn’t too happy about you being an unwed mother.”

Without wanting to
go into details, she simply nodded. Her father hadn’t known about the situation
at the time, but once he found out, he’d been cold. They were still treading on
uneven ground.

"What about
Mr. Workaholic?” Jim asked. “Doesn't he want kids?"

"Parker likes
kids, but they're not in the cards for him, either."
 

"Why don't
you two get married?"

Her shoulders rose
and fell with her breath. "It's complicated.
He's.
. ." Did she dare tell someone about Parker's condition? It wasn't really
her place, but it wasn't as if Jim even knew the guy. As long as she didn't say
his last name or mention his tie to Mall Land, it should be OK. "He's
sick. He has Huntington's disease."

"Is that
bad?"

"It's
terminal." Beth heard him gasp and she appreciated his acknowledgment of
the grave situation. "He could live several more years, but he will
progressively get worse. He doesn't think it would be fair to put me or a kid
through that."

“No, I suppose it wouldn’t.”

“But I want to be
there for him. Doesn’t what I want matter?” Grabbing her napkin from the table,
she squeezed it into a ball.

Wrapped in a pink
towel with Disney princesses on it,
Kaylee
padded
into the kitchen. “What are you two talking about?”

Jim pushed
Kaylee’s
too-long bangs out of her eyes. “Somebody needs a
haircut.”

Kaylee
shook her head. “I want to grow my hair as long as
Ariel’s.”

“Who’s Ariel? A
girl in your class?”

The girl rolled
her eyes at him.

Beth raised her
index finger. “Oh, I think I know.” She turned
Kaylee
around and pointed to the
red-headed
mermaid with
waist-long hair. “You mean Ariel, the Little Mermaid.”

Stroking his chin,
he looked at Beth. “Sometimes I think you understand her better than I do.”

# #
#

Parker touched the
bills laid out on the executive washroom’s counter to see if they were still
damp. He’d forgotten about them and was pleased to see the janitor hadn’t been
tempted to take even one. Since they felt dry, he piled them up according to
their value and tucked them into his wallet. As he did so, he realized
his credit cards had been handled by cashiers
across the
country. He pulled out his Visa and American Express and ran them under hot water.

Someone knocked on
the door.

Parker unlocked it.
“I’m almost done. Come in.”