Sweet Deal (19 page)

“Thanks.” She looked into her glass of milk, licked her lips, then took a cookie for herself. “So, what’s new, Mom?”

Her mother sighed. “I think your father is having an affair.”

Jake’s jaw dropped and his head whipped around to look at Shelby.

“I doubt it, Mom.” She seemed unconcerned by this accusation. “You and Dad have had a lot of ups and downs in your relationship, but I’m pretty sure he’s never actually cheated on you.”

Jake blinked.

“In fact, I’m pretty sure neither of you has even dated anyone else, even during the times you were separated, have you?”

Mrs. Leighton frowned.

“Did you try calling him?”

“No. I’m not going to be a nagging wife who keeps tabs on him all the time.”

Shelby bit her lip. “Well. That’s good.” Then she muttered under her breath, “For a change.”

Mrs. Leighton stared out the front window, oblivious to the fact that Shelby had brought a guest, not even trying to make small talk. Jake almost grinned. So much for his worries about being grilled by the parents, maybe interrogated about his intentions toward their daughter. Then Mrs. Leighton straightened. “Oh! There he is.”

Jake spotted a man walking up the driveway through the front window.

“Oh, we parked in the driveway,” Shelby said. “He couldn’t get into the garage.”

Her mom rose to her feet and sniffed. “Don’t worry about it. If he’d been home on time, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

The man walked in the front door and Mrs. Leighton rushed over to him. “Where the hell have you been?” she demanded as she grabbed his shirt.

“Working late,” he said. He looked past her. “Hi, Shelby sweetie. Didn’t know you were coming over or I would’ve been here sooner.”

She sighed. “You did know I was coming, Dad.”

“Your mother never told me.”

“Yes I did!” Mom screeched. “You never listen to me!” And she turned and disappeared down the hall. Shelby winced at the bang of the bedroom door slamming shut.

“Okay,” she said standing. “We should go.”

Jake rose too. “Uh…” He looked at her dad.

“Dad this is my friend, Jake. Jake, my dad, Steve Leighton.”

They shook hands and Mr. Leighton said, “Nice to meet you. Sorry you couldn’t stay longer.” He started down the hall. “I better go talk to your mother.”

Shelby’s eyes met Jake’s and the frustration in them made his heart clench. He wanted to pull her in for a hug, comfort her, reassure her that she was important. To somebody. To him.

Hell. What was that?

“Well,” she said to him once outside the house. “Sorry about that. But that’s pretty typical.”

“Didn’t they even care that you brought some guy with you?” he asked. “Jesus, if I had a daughter and she brought a guy home, I’d be all over that.”

She sighed. “Yeah, well. Like I said, they kind of distract each other from everything else.”

Jake held up his hand and she saw two cookies. He grinned. “I stole a couple of cookies, since you won’t bake any for me. These are really good.”

Her laughter made his heart constrict even more.

“I hate the way my mom is so needy,” Shelby said as they drove back to her place. Once again she looked out the side window, so his sidelong glances at her revealed only her shiny blonde hair. “I wish she’d have a little more confidence in herself. And in Dad.”

“That’s a crazy way to grow up,” he said.

Now she turned to look at him. “I’m sorry. At least I had two parents.”

“From the sounds of it, not really. Hey, don’t be sorry for me. I survived.”

She nodded, her lips curved into a sad smile. “Yeah, you did. And so did I. But even so, stuff like that messes you up, you know?”

Yeah. He knew. He knew he hadn’t handled Gianna leaving very well because of his mom and sisters having left. And Shelby apparently knew she hadn’t handled her relationships with men very well after growing up all but ignored by her parents. Neither of them had a particularly good example of a healthy relationship in their lives.

But that didn’t mean they weren’t
capable
of having a healthy relationship.

Why was he even thinking of that, seeing as neither of them even
wanted
a relationship?

Jake called on Saturday to see if she wanted to go for a run along the beach.

Shelby grinned. “Are you kidding me?” she demanded. “I already told you I can’t run with you. Your legs are three times as long as mine. I have to run to keep up with you when you
walk,
for heaven’s sake.”

He laughed. “Oh come on. I’ll run real slow.”

“As it turns out, I can’t,” she said, eyeing Taylor in her kitchen carefully cracking eggs into a bowl. “Taylor’s here. We’re making cookies.”

“Oh.”

She hesitated. “You can come over and help if you want.” Then she closed her eyes briefly. Why would he want to bake cookies with her and a twelve-year-old? She wasn’t even sure why she’d offered. But she would like to see him.

“I’ll go for my run with Wayne. At least he can keep up with me.”

She had to smile even as disappointment washed over her.

“Then I’ll come over after.”

“Oh.” Her smiled widened. “Okay. What’s your favorite kind of cookie?”

“Hmm. I think peanut butter.”

“All righty.”

She hung up, then opened a cupboard and pulled out a jar of peanut butter that felt disappointingly light. She unscrewed the cap and peered in. Yup, nearly empty. Damn.

“Hey, kid,” she said to Taylor. “We need to make a trip to the store.” When Taylor looked up she waved the empty jar.

“Okay.” Taylor wiped her hands on a towel.

“It’s time for lunch. You hungry?”

“Starving!”

“What’d you have for breakfast?”

“I…uh…didn’t have breakfast.”

Shelby made a shocked face. But she wasn’t shocked, she was sad, because Taylor often skipped meals when she was home alone. Taylor was capable of making herself something to eat, a sandwich or piece of toast, but she often just completely forgot about eating when she was on her own.

“I’ll take you out for lunch,” she said. She surveyed the counter. “We okay to leave this stuff for an hour? We should put those eggs in the fridge.”

Taylor was happy with fast food, although Shelby wished she’d suggested cooking a meal for her instead. Even if her cooking wasn’t all that great. They were probably better off with burgers and fries. And they had fun, laughing and talking over their lunch in the noisy restaurant.

Then they stopped at the grocery store and picked up peanut butter and a few other things Shelby needed. She added a six pack of beer…just in case maybe Jake stayed later. And a bottle of wine for her. And a package of Eggo waffles for Taylor to take home. “For your breakfast tomorrow,” she said sternly. “You have to eat breakfast.” It wasn’t the healthiest breakfast but it was easy for Taylor and better than nothing.

“I love these!” Taylor said, clutching the box. “My mom won’t buy them.”

“Do you have syrup to put on them?”

“I don’t know.”

A bottle of syrup went into the cart and then a jug of Taylor’s favorite juice.

They arrived back at Shelby’s apartment at the same time as Jake, just emerging from his Jeep parked on the street. She waved at him as she turned into the parking lot.

“Hey,” he said when she climbed out of her car, having followed them. “Where were you? I thought you were baking cookies.”

“We went to McDonald’s!” Taylor jumped out of the car. “And we had to go buy peanut butter.”

Shelby’s eyes met Jake’s and heat washed into her face. A faint smile touched his lips. “Ah,” he said. “Here, let me help.” He reached for the two heavy bags Shelby held and she got the other two out of her trunk.

In her little kitchen, the music of Jason DeRülo played from speakers in her living room as Jake helped unpack the groceries and put them away, and she and Taylor resumed their baking. Shelby moved a little to the music as she found ingredients and set them out and they measured and mixed. She caught Jake’s eye at one point, her mouth curving in response to the half smile he sent her, watching her groove a little.

“If you dip the fork in flour it won’t stick to the cookie dough,” Jake offered helpfully when Taylor had dropped spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheet. She was carefully pressing the tines of a fork into the mounds to create a criss-cross pattern but was getting frustrated when the dough stuck. Jake dumped a little flour onto the counter and showed her. Shelby smiled as she watched him, her insides warming at the way he was so…present. He listened to Taylor and helped and made jokes that had them both laughing. It felt like he really wanted to be there, baking cookies with them. Shelby’s hands paused, holding a big mixing bowl, and she swallowed.

Once again she had that strange feeling, almost like fear, her stomach tightening, her skin prickling. What were they doing? This felt so normal and real, and it wasn’t, it shouldn’t be. It couldn’t be.

Shelby was at work Thursday, starting to feel sick because of what she was learning about the intake process that needed to be addressed in her project plan, and also because she hadn’t heard from Jake for a few days. They’d texted back and forth but she was annoyed at herself for caring that much that she hadn’t seen him.

She rubbed at the ache at the back of her neck that was spreading up over her scalp and turning into a headache. This intake process was so screwed up. She’d barely gotten into the process diagnosis phase and was finding all kinds of pathologies in the existing processes. This was going to have huge impact on her project. In fact, this could be a whole project on its own.

But that wasn’t what she’d been told to do. She sighed then reached for her phone when it rang.

“It’s me,” Riley said. “I just heard from Kiara.”

The thickness of her voice told Shelby this wasn’t good. Her stomach immediately clenched so hard it hurt.

“He’s gone,” Riley continued, almost choking on her words. “Adam’s gone.”

“Oh no.” The world slowed to a stop around Shelby, sitting there in her cubicle, everything fading away around her. “Oh no.” Her eyes stung, her throat ached and she pressed a hand to her trembling lips.

“Yeah. This sucks so bad.”

Shelby didn’t even know what to say. “Where is she?”

“At home. He died a few hours ago.”

“Was she with him?”

“Yes.” They both sniffled together and Shelby fought not to burst into tears.

“Is she okay?”

“Oh god, you know Kiara. She sounded all together, but Christ, she must be hurting.”

“I’m going over. Are you coming?”

“Of course. I’m calling Myra next.”

Shelby tried to swallow, her throat painful. She hung up the phone, stared around her cubicle in a daze, not even sure what to do first. She couldn’t just get up and walk out. She stood, put on her suit jacket. Her head whirled and she lifted a hand to her eyes. Her purse. She needed her purse.

It was in her bottom drawer as usual, but it took her a moment to figure that out in her confusion. Then she walked to Andrew’s office. He was out for lunch.

She turned to Susan. “Could you tell Andrew I had to leave?” she asked. Susan’s eyes widened with concern.

“Are you okay, Shelby?”

“I’m okay. My friend just…died. I have to go.”

“Of course. Go! I’ll tell Andrew.”

“Tell him I’ll call him. Later. Or something.”

Susan nodded vigorously and made a shooing motion with her hands.

Shelby wasn’t even sure how she got to Kiara’s house, the big ranch-style home she’d shared with Adam since their marriage. A big house for a woman all alone, now. Except she wouldn’t be alone for long. Her baby was due in less than three months.

Shelby parked on the street and had to stop and put her head on her arms on the steering wheel and cry. She knew she had to get that out of her before she went in to face Kiara. Painful, bitter emotion rose up inside her, and she cried and cried as she thought of the baby who would never know his or her father, and how unfair, how fucking,
fucking
unfair it was.

Then, sniffling, she rummaged in the glove box for something to blow her nose and sat there for another moment while she pulled herself together.

When she opened her car door and stepped out, Myra was just pulling up to the curb, so she waited for her. She watched her friend approach. Myra might seem tough, but her eyes were red and her mouth wobbled when she tried to smile. They hugged tightly there on the street before going in to see their friend.

Riley was already there, and so were Kiara’s parents and Adam’s parents and his brothers. The house seemed full of people. Did Kiara really need her friends there?

“Kiara.” Shelby took her in her arms and held her for a long, long time, rocking her friend a little, the tears starting again. “Oh, Kiara.”