Be My Neat-Heart (11 page)

B
est pedicure I've ever had, I thought later as I got ready for my facial. Definitely the most fun. Hearing Jared splash around in the foot bath, yelping every time the poor woman working on him tried to touch the soles of his feet made my mischievous heart sing.

I'm not a vengeful person by nature, and I do understand why Molly wants her brother and me to get along. She cares about both of us. Her world would be far easier if we didn't mix like oil and water when we were together. If Molly had been able to accept that, I doubt she would have had the madcap idea to send us on this hopeless trip to throw us together.

But Jared's presence isn't bothering me. Quite frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if, after that abortive pedicure disaster, he'd already packed up and left. I willed my lips not to twitch, but I couldn't help it. I was smiling like a ninny when I ran into him in the hall.

“What are you grinning about?” he said irately.

“Enjoy your pedicure?” I asked sweetly, truly surprised he hadn't already turned tail and run.

“Best thing that's happened to me all afternoon,” he growled. “Unfortunately I mean that.”

I tipped my head to one side, confused.

“Some crazed woman caught me in the hall wondering if I were her next
back-waxing
appointment.”

My eyes practically bulged from my head in my effort to keep from laughing. “Were you?”

“I didn't stick around to find out.”

I shrugged helplessly to show that I, too, was being swept along by the force of Molly's wave.

“I wish I hadn't fired her before. Then I could have fired her now,” he muttered.

“If you'll excuse me,” I said, trying to push by his large, athletic form. “I have a glycolic acid peel next. I'm going to be exfoliated.”

“I certainly hope so,” he mumbled irritably. “Sounds like something that should happen to Molly, too. Is it painful?” he added hopefully.

I found myself grinning. “Why don't you try it and find out?” In spite of myself, I had to give the man credit. He was clearly sticking this out not because he wanted to, but because he knew it was important to Molly. There was such a dichotomy in the dynamics between them. He could fire her, but he couldn't disappoint her by leaving the spa.

“Because,” he said as he thrust what looked like a dance card at me, “she's got me scheduled down to the minute. Next, I have a facial! They tell me men have them here all the time. What does this face need with a facial, anyway?”

Not much, my errant brain replied. There was very little that could improve on Jared's blatant handsomeness.

“I'm sure I don't know.” I felt a good mood rising within me. At some point during that hilarious pedicure, I'd realized I'd decided to relax and enjoy the weekend
because
Jared was
here rather than in spite of him. He'd provided good entertainment thus far.

“We might as well walk together,” I suggested. “Since we both have appointments for facials.”

“I thought you were having a peel of some sort, like having your skin ripped off, right?”

“Don't you wish. Sounds to me like we're having the same thing done.”

“Not me.” He started to turn away.

“But you'll disappoint your sister.”

He hesitated.

“And this will remove all your dead skin cells, fine lines and wrinkles. You'll be a new man.”

His eyes were slits when he looked at me. “What's wrong with the old one?”

“Ah, let me count the ways.” I slipped my arm into his and steered him toward our next appointments.

 

I didn't see Jared again until supper, when we met at our assigned table. The dining room had been dimmed and candles lit. The golfers had come in from the course and were having dinner with their pampered spouses. There was a happy hum of muted conversations throughout the room.

There was, however, more of a miserable, wretched, moaning grumble at our table.

For one thing, Jared and I had discovered something else we had in common. We are both sensitive to glycolic acid and had faces red as boiled beets. I, being fair, had gotten the worst of it. The last time I'd been this red was the day I walked across the stage to pick up my graduation diploma with four feet of toilet tissue dragging from the heel of my shoe.

“The skin will grow back eventually, don't you think?” I asked by way of starting a conversation. Were I with anyone
else—someone, for example, that I'd had a crush on—I might have felt embarrassed. Jared, however, had somehow become a comfort zone for me to be myself. After all, if I was a beet, he was at least a radish.

He leaned back in his chair and studied me. “Why are we doing this, Sammi? Why don't we both just pick up and go home?”

“Because we're having fun?” I ventured as I stirred sweetener into my iced tea.

“Your idea of fun is being tortured, poked, prodded, having acid thrown in your face and being forced to breathe noxious fumes? Excuse me, but you're loonier than my sister.”

“Come on, admit it. This will make a great story to tell your friend Ethan.”

“You think I'd ever admit this to Ethan? Are you kidding?”

“Afraid of jeopardizing your masculinity?” I teased.

“Not in the least. I'm very sure of my masculinity.” He leaned forward and his gaze captured mine. “I make you nervous, don't I, Sammi?”

Unfortunately at that very second, a wave of anxiety shivered its way down my spine. He
did
make me nervous. And what made me more uneasy still was that this unexpected feeling that had nothing to do with Molly and everything to do with me.

Batting the thought away like a bug in lamplight, I retorted, “You're talking nonsense.”

“Am I?” He shifted in his seat. “Then you won't mind spending the evening with me. I hear they have wonderful entertainment for the guests in the evening. Music, games, walks in the moonlight…”

Music and moonlight? Oh, no. I love M&M's—music and moonlight—the most vulnerable of my romantic weaknesses.

“Thanks for asking, but I'd better get to bed early. I'm
scheduled for aerobics and a session with a weight trainer in the morning.”

“Me, too. Molly probably planned it that way. She obviously wants us to kiss and make up, so why don't we oblige her?”

Just when I thought my cheeks couldn't get any redder, they did.
Kiss
and make up?

“So to speak. Come on, Sammi. I dare you.” His eyes glittered as he leaned so close I could feel his breath on my cheek.

Dare.
A challenge. Another Achilles' heel. One of these days I'm going to pay dearly for my pride and deserve every bit of it.

“Shall we?” Jared offered me his arm and nodded toward the grounds bathed in moonlight. The walks were lit by unobtrusive path lamps, and the bullfrogs and cicada were warming up their band. I was dizzy from the fragrance of freshly trimmed grass and floral scents I couldn't name.

“Oh, why not?” I said brightly. For being with a man I didn't like, I was certainly having difficulty fending off his charms. But it was only for tonight. Reality and tomorrow would come soon enough.

We walked a long time without speaking. Our steps matched perfectly, one benefit of being a tall woman paired with a tall man. For once I felt practically petite in comparison to my escort. I'm often told I have the build of a model. It's not all its cracked up to be. Being tall and long-legged sometimes makes it hard to find a date that I don't tower over. Especially in high heels.

The beauty of the night and the grounds was staggering in its perfection. It was almost as if I had spoken my own thoughts when Jared said, “God really knew what He was doing, didn't He?”

Though Molly had told me that Jared was a Christian, this statement still surprised me. I'm not sure what I expected of him. I suppose in my own mind, I'd become both judge and jury concerning him.
Shame on me.

Still, I blurted, “Do you believe He's a God of compassion and mercy?”

“Yes. And justice, too.” He paused by a large oak.

“Jared, there's something I have to ask you.” My mouth went dry and the wings of the butterflies in my stomach were large as palm leaves.

“Hmm.” He led me toward a wooden-platform swing tucked beneath the tree. In front of it was a small pond lit from beneath. I could see the koi resting near the bottom. He settled me in it as tenderly as if I were a child before dropping down beside me. We sat there, gently moving back and forth, sharing an innate rhythm.

Finally he spoke. “What question might that be?”

“If you are a Christian and if you love your sister, how could you fire her? I see such affection and respect between the two of you on one hand and such frustration and anger on the other. If what you say is true, how could you treat your sister this way?
Firing
her from her own business? Putting her out—” I snapped my newly polished fingers “—just like that.”

“‘Just like that'?” He frowned, but I saw genuine sadness in his expression. “You think it was easy, then?”

“No. It couldn't have been easy. Molly respects and admires you. She
loves
you. Help me to understand.”

He was silent so long that I was terrified I'd offended him and ruined this new, sweet truce between us.

Finally, he spoke. “I fired Molly because she asked me to.”

Shock made me sit bolt upright. “What?”

I could see him shake his head and scrape his fingers through his hair, the signal of his greatest agitation. “Molly did something at the office…
to
the office…that I found unconscionable. I let my anger get the best of me, I'm afraid. God forgive me. I've regretted it ever since, but there was no way I could pull back my words. In my rage, I told her that
if she were anyone else, I would have fired her on the spot. That I
should
fire her. That if she didn't get her messes straightened out, I
would
fire her. I regretted it immediately but there was no way I could take it back.”

I stiffened. What was he saying?

“Molly, being Molly, jumped on it. She said she
wanted
me to fire her. That it would be best all-around.” His breath caught in his throat. “She knew I was angry. She also knew why I was angry. She demanded that I tell people what she'd done and then fire her.”

I'd tipped over and fallen through the looking glass were everything was topsy-turvy. “I don't understand.”

Jared pulled an envelope from out of his pocket and handed it to me. “I'd forgotten this was in my jacket until I noticed it while I was dressing. Maybe it's for the best. You can read the instigating message for yourself.”

I opened the envelope and pulled out the impressive letterhead. I leaned forward to read it in the dim lamplight.

“I didn't want anyone to know what had happened. Neither did I want it to reflect badly on Molly. She's a smart woman with glaring weaknesses that she can't seem to overcome. She knew I wouldn't announce to the world that she'd made a blunder, so she decided to help me. At our staff meeting she made it known to one and all that she'd been fired.”

What?

“How was I supposed to sort
that
out? It couldn't be done right there, in front of everyone. Her reputation would have been ruined. So I played along. I told them that I would fire Molly if she made another error—and I refused to say what the error was—but that I was giving her one more chance to redeem herself and that everyone would have to trust me to decide if Molly were to stay in the company or not.

“She was furious with me. She'd hoped she'd maneuvered me into a corner and had trapped me into letting her go. She knew I wouldn't let her quit, that even if she didn't come to work, I'd still send her a paycheck, and so she tried to make the problem public.”

“I don't get it, Jared.”

He looked at me fixedly and I could see the intensity in his eyes. “That's because that's where you came in—as Molly's ‘second chance.'”

“Me?”

“It's why Ethan introduced us and why I hired you. I didn't want to fire Molly. I wanted her to get her act together. And
I didn't want anyone to know the kind of blunders she'd made. I wanted to protect her. But her self-esteem has dropped to such a desperate low that I believe she was
trying
to get me to punish her.” There was a catch in his voice as he added, “And now, it seems, she's succeeded.”

My mind wasn't agile enough to comprehend all he was saying. Still, there was one refrain that seemed stuck on a loop in my mind.
He isn't the bad guy after all. He isn't the bad guy. He isn't the bad guy.

So if Jared Hamilton isn't the bad guy, who is he?