Fifteen minutes later, Jeremy came through his kitchen door and shut it behind him. Looking through the kitchen to the den beyond, he saw a light on. Bernie was lying on the sofa. The TV was on but muted.
He hung his keys by the back door and went into the den. Bernie stirred a little, then opened her eyes, blinking against the light.
“I must have fallen asleep,” she said, sitting up. “How is my mother?”
Jeremy sat down beside her on the sofa. “She’s fine.”
“She sounded so upset when she called.”
“Don’t worry. She’s okay now.”
Bernie let out a breath of relief. “I hope you don’t mind that I stayed in the living room to wait for you.”
“Of course not. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Just a little tired.”
Her eyes were heavy with sleep and worry. A strand of hair lay across her cheek, and he had to resist the urge to lean in and brush it away.
“About your mother,” he said. “How advanced is her disease?”
Bernie rubbed her eyes, then sighed. “Up to now, it’s just been small things. But if more stuff happens like this tonight…”
“She shouldn’t be driving.”
“I know that now. But if she doesn’t drive, I’m going to have to help her even more than I do now.” She put her hand to her forehead. “What am I going to do if I’m stuck in bed for several more weeks?”
“That’s not a problem.”
“Of course it’s a problem. She can’t get groceries, go to church—”
“I’ll put a car and driver at her disposal.”
Bernie froze. “You can’t do that.”
“Yeah? Why not?”
“Because it’s not your problem. It’s mine.”
“Starting tomorrow, if your mother wants to go somewhere, all she has to do is pick up a phone. I’ll call her and explain everything.”
“But—”
“It’s just temporary. Once you’re off bed rest, you can handle things again, right?”
“Of course.”
“Until then, she’ll have a way to get around. Problem solved.”
Bernie looked at him a long time, blinking with disbelief. “You’d really do that for me?”
It made him uncomfortable for her to act as if he’d done something wonderful. When he could throw a minuscule portion of his massive fortune at a problem and it ceased to be a problem, he couldn’t exactly claim it was a gesture from the heart.
“If this happens again and you get out of bed to run all over town, it’s not good for the babies.” He picked up the remote, clicked the TV off, and changed the subject. “Tell me about Billy.”
Bernie’s smile faded. “So you met him?”
“I did. He tried to borrow money from me.”
“Oh, God.” Bernie closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“He says he’s living with your mother because he’s a little down on his luck right now. Is that a normal state for him?”
“That’s a long, ugly story.”
“I’ve got time.”
Bernie sighed wearily, as if it wore her out just to think about it.
“Billy’s mother died when he was only eight years old,” she began. “My mother has been making excuses for him ever since. She thinks if she can just lend him another hundred dollars, or let him stay with her for a week, which always turns into a month, then he’ll get back on his feet again. The truth is that he’s twenty-nine years old and he still can’t hold a job. He borrows money from her and never pays it back, because my mother won’t tell him no, and I’m not there twenty-four hours a day to keep it from happening. I think the total now is $640.”
“Why haven’t you kicked his ass by now? You’re just the woman who can do it.”
“Oh, God, I wish I could. I’ve threatened him more times than you can imagine. But my mother always asks me to take it easy on him. He grew up without a mother, you see, so he just needs some understanding.”
“I grew up without a mother, too, so I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that. Kick his ass, Bernie. Things will be better in the end.”
“Truthfully, it wouldn’t matter even if I did. In the end, Billy knows I won’t kill him, and if murder is off the table, there’s only so much I can do. He pretty much gives me the middle finger and keeps on being a problem. Unfortunately, he has one thing in his favor that nobody can ever take away.”
“What’s that?”
Bernie shrugged helplessly. “He’s family. And in my mother’s eyes, that trumps everything.”
If there was one kind of person on this earth that irritated Jeremy, it was a deadbeat like Billy. If only he could go back in time and drop the guy into his own life as a kid, he’d find out what hell really felt like. And family or not, if a man crossed him the way Billy had crossed Bernie, he’d make damned sure it never happened again.
“When did your father die?” Jeremy asked.
“About eight years ago. After he was gone, I had to leave the military to come home and take care of my mother.”
“Why? That should have been long before her diagnosis.”
“I came home for my father’s funeral. I stayed two weeks, made sure my mother was okay. Three months later, I came home on leave, and I couldn’t believe what I found. Billy and his skanky girlfriend of the month had moved in with my mother. The spare bedroom was trashed. My mother had missed paying several of her bills since my father died. She’d never been terribly good at taking care of herself—my father handled everything—but I assumed she’d at least write all the checks she needed to. If I’d been gone another month, they would have started foreclosure proceedings on her house. I was stupid not to realize how impractical she really was, and how devastated she was by my father’s death. It just paralyzed her. And now with her illness…”
“Did your father have life insurance?”
“Some. My mother gave it to a ‘financial planner’ at her church to invest for her. He lost most of it before I even knew what was happening.”
Jeremy couldn’t believe this. It was pretty clear that Eleanor trusted just about anybody she met, and it got her into trouble every time.
“So you moved back to Dallas,” he said.
“As soon as I could. In the meantime, I had all her bills rerouted to me so I could make sure they got paid. I’m still doing it.”
“Then you went to work for Gabe Delgado.”
“Yeah. And I’ve been there ever since. I still worried when I had to travel for a week or two at a time, but I got home often enough to keep things from falling apart.” She sighed. “Guess traveling isn’t something I’m going to have to worry about anymore.”
He’d had no idea. The entire time she’d been working for him, she’d been dealing with all this?
“What kind of health insurance does your mother have?”
Bernie closed her eyes. “She doesn’t have insurance. She let it lapse after my father died.”
“Nobody else would cover her?”
“She was fifty-seven years old with high blood pressure. Then she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. No insurance company in America would cover her now. I have to make sure I have options when the time comes.”
Jeremy couldn’t believe just how much Bernie was having to deal with. And now she was pregnant? He had always known she was a tough woman, but he’d had no idea just how tough.
Then all at once he understood something he’d never understood before, and the realization hit him like a brick to the side of his head.
“Is that why you’re living at Creekwood?” he asked. “To save money for your mother’s care?”
She shrugged weakly. “Doesn’t help much, but I’ve reached a point where every penny has to count.”
Jeremy’s stomach twisted with the realization of just how much of an ass he’d been. Telling her again and again to stop being cheap and go live somewhere decent, never knowing that circumstances were driving her to sacrifice her own well-being to help somebody else.
“You’ve taken on a lot where your mother is concerned,” Jeremy said.
“You’d have done the same thing. If someone in your family—”
“I don’t have any family.”
“Come on. Everybody has family.”
“A few distant relatives, maybe.”
“What about your mother and father?”
“I never knew my mother. And my father is dead.”
“Oh, God. I’m so sorry. When did he die?”
“Several years ago. But I hadn’t seen him since I was eighteen.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because the moment I graduated from high school, I was out of there.” He paused. “And I never looked back.”
“Why didn’t you want to see him?”
“Now, Bernie. Are you sure you want to hear my sad story?”
“You listened to mine.”
He shrugged offhandedly. “Let’s see. My mother ran off when I was three years old. My father was a shiftless, alcoholic bum who couldn’t hold a job. We lived in a hellhole of an apartment in the worst part of Houston.”
“Oh, my God. That’s awful.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Now, I told you it was a sad story, didn’t I?”
“Wait a minute. I read somewhere that you graduated from Stonebriar Academy. That’s not exactly in the low-rent district.”
“I did. When I was in the eighth grade, I had a teacher who thought I had a shot at getting a scholarship to Stonebriar. With his help, I did. Trouble was, I had to get there every day, and it was eighteen miles from where I lived.”
“Your father couldn’t take you?”
“My father refused to take me. In fact, he did everything he could to discourage me from going there.”
“Why?”
“Because he was a bitter, jealous old man.”
“So what did you do?”
“I rode a city bus thirty-six miles round-trip every day and walked the other two miles.”
Bernie was astonished. She’d always known he came from a bad background, but she’d never realized how much he’d had to do to climb out of it.
“That took a lot of guts,” Bernie said.
“I wanted a decent education. That was the only way to get it. But looking back, all the crap I went through turned out to be a real motivator. It got me where I am today. Everything turned out just fine.”
His nonchalance astonished her. It was as if his past had been nothing more than a speed bump on a side street, and he’d simply hopped over it to get to the freeway. He was an amazing man in more ways than she’d ever realized, and she was glad he’d risen above that background to have some of the best things life had to offer.
“Did what you went through with your father growing up have anything to do with you wanting to be part of these babies’ lives?” she asked.
He sat there for a long time, his arms crossed, staring down. Then he lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “To tell you the truth, Bernie, I don’t know if I can be a decent parent or not. God knows I had a lousy example. But I don’t want these kids growing up thinking they have a father who doesn’t give a damn. Because I do. You know that, don’t you?”
There had been a time when she would have sworn his capacity for caring was practically nonexistent, that he could never be the kind of man she or her babies could depend on. But tonight she’d seen a different side of him, giving her a feeling of warmth and comfort she’d never anticipated.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I do.”
“You look tired,” he said. “Why don’t you let me take you up to your room?”
Jeremy stood up and held out his hand. Bernie looked up at him, feeling elated and worried all at the same time. Elated because he’d gone so far to help her tonight, but worried that because of everything he was doing for her, one day soon she was going be so deeply in debt to him that getting out would be impossible.
She slid her hand into his. He helped her to her feet. She felt a little bleary-eyed and clumsy from falling asleep on the sofa, but then she felt Jeremy’s palm warm against the small of her back, guiding her to the stairs. She felt so tired that each step she climbed was a little harder than the last. When they reached the second-floor landing, Jeremy slid his hand up her back and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her next to him as they walked. A little voice inside her head told her that just letting him touch her was a mistake, but it felt so good that she just didn’t want to tell him not to.
They came to her room. She reached for the doorknob, but he gently pulled her around to face him.
“Bernie? Why didn’t you ask for my help tonight?”
“Because it’s not your problem.”
“It’s not Max’s or Teresa’s problem either, but you saw nothing wrong with asking them.”
“You were at a meeting.”
“I don’t care if I have an audience with the pope,” he said. “The next time you have a problem, you come to me. Will you do that?”
She shrugged weakly. “I guess it depends on the problem.”
Jeremy smiled briefly, shaking his head. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get through to you sometimes?”
“We’re both a little stubborn like that, aren’t we?”
He slid his hand behind her neck, leaned in, and kissed her gently on the forehead. She closed her eyes, savoring the warmth of his lips and the gentle strength of his hand against her neck.
“I promised hands off,” he said. “Was that out of line?”
“No,” she said, tipping her gaze up briefly before lowering it again. “It was nice.”
“Bernie?”
“Yes?” she said, meeting his eyes again.
“Tomorrow evening… will you have dinner with me downstairs?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’d like that.”
“Good. I’ll let Mrs. Spencer know.”
She nodded, then turned around and slipped through the doorway, closing the door behind her. She stopped and stood there for a moment, feeling breathless and lightheaded. She closed her eyes and put her fingertips against her forehead where he’d kissed her, feeling as if she was going to melt right into the floor. Then she lowered her fingertips to touch them to her own lips.
He’s not who you thought he was. He’s more.
He’s so much more.
At five o’clock the next afternoon, Jeremy left his office at Sybersense and climbed into his car.
“Home, sir?” Max said.
“We’re taking a little detour first,” Jeremy said.
“Where to?”
Jeremy gave him Eleanor’s address, which Max punched into the car’s GPS.
“Bernie’s mother lives on that street,” Max said.
“That’s where we’re going,” Jeremy said. “Bernie’s cousin Billy is staying with Eleanor. I need to have a talk with him. Know the guy?”
“Only by reputation. I’m not impressed.”
“Bernie’s had some problems keeping him in line. Would you like to help me put a stop to them?”
Jeremy could tell he had Max’s attention. “If it helps Bernie, yeah.”
“Good. Once we get there, I’m going to bring him out of the house. As soon as I start talking to him, you’ll know what to do.”
A few minutes later, Max pulled into Eleanor’s driveway and Jeremy went to the door. He rang the bell. Eleanor answered, giving him a big smile. “Jeremy. How nice to see you.”
“Nice to see you, too, Eleanor. I need to talk to Billy. Is he around?”
“You two have met?”
“He got home as I was leaving last night. I spoke with him outside.”
Eleanor stepped around the corner and looked into the living room. “Billy? There’s somebody here to see you.”
Jeremy heard some shuffling around. Billy appeared in the entry, looking confused when he came face to face with Jeremy.
“Got a minute, Billy?” Jeremy asked.
“Uh… yeah. Sure.”
He gave Jeremy a wary smile, probably hoping Jeremy had reconsidered giving him that loan after all, or maybe had dropped by to take him for a spin in his Mercedes so they could pick up chicks. After all, weren’t they almost like family?
Little did Billy know that hell wasn’t even close to freezing over.
They left the house, and Jeremy knew the instant Billy saw Max. He jolted to a halt, his eyes widening.
“Billy, this is Max. He works for me.”
He smiled nervously. “Uh, hey there, big guy.”
Max never moved. He just stood there, his arms folded across his expansive chest, staring down at Billy through those mirrored sunglasses. With no eyes visible, Max looked remarkably like Robocop, only bigger and badder.
Billy turned to Jeremy, considerably less elated than before. “So. Jeremy. What’s up, man?”
“We need to talk about you living with Eleanor.”
“Uh… what’s there to talk about?”
“Sometime in the next two days, you’re going to move out.”
Billy licked his lips, then let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, man,” he said. “You’ve been talking to Bernie, haven’t you? Sheesh. Takes nothing to get her panties in a knot, know what I mean? Aunt Eleanor’s got no problem with me living here.”
“This has nothing to do with Bernie. This has nothing to do with Eleanor. This is between you and me, Billy.” Jeremy inched closer, skewering him with a no-nonsense stare. “If I come back here in two days and you’re within a hundred feet of this house, I’m sending Max here to find you. And when he gets finished with you, there’s not going to be enough of your face left for a plastic surgeon to make you look human again. Did you hear that, Billy?”
Billy flicked a horrified gaze to Max, who deepened his frown, lifted his chin, and cracked his knuckles, like every hit man in every B movie ever made.
“But… but I don’t have anywhere to go!”
“That’s not my concern,” Jeremy said. “I don’t care if it’s ten degrees below zero and you have to sleep in the street; you’re not living with Eleanor ever again. If I find out you are, I’m turning Max loose. Now, are we clear on that?”
“Uh… sure, man. Sure. I hear you.”
“You also have a habit of borrowing money from Eleanor and not paying her back. That’s going to stop, too. Do you know why it’s going to stop?”
“W-why?”
“Because I hate deadbeats. And do you know who hates deadbeats even worse than I do?”
Max cracked his knuckles again, and Billy’s eyeballs got so big and round they just about burst out of his head.
“If you so much as mention money to Eleanor again,” Jeremy went on, “Max is going to be mentioning a few things to you. Got that, Billy?”
Billy swallowed hard. “I hear you, man. No more money from Aunt Eleanor. Yeah, I hear you just fine.”
“And you’re going to pay her back every dime you’ve borrowed. I believe that’s $640.”
“Now, wait a minute, guys,” Billy said, laughing nervously. “I’m sure it’s not nearly that much. It can’t be. It’s—”
Max took a step forward. Billy threw up his palms. “Okay, man! Just chill, okay?” He wiped his hand over his mouth. “Okay. Six hundred and forty dollars. Yeah. Now that I think about it, you’re right. That’s what I owe her.”
“I don’t want Eleanor knowing we had this little discussion,” Jeremy said. “I’d just like her to think you suddenly became the responsible nephew she’s always hoped you could be. Do you have any problem with that?”
“Problem? Hell, no, man. ’Course not. I won’t say a word.”
“One last thing,” Jeremy said, dropping his voice to a malevolent drawl. “From now on, if I find out that you’ve said or done anything to Bernie that causes her one single second of worry, disgust, or dismay, I’m coming after you. Max has muscle, Billy. I have money. And you can’t even imagine what kind of retribution money will buy.”
For a moment, Billy looked as if he was having a hard time breathing.
“That’s it, Billy. It’s been nice talking to you.”
Billy backed away one step. Then two.
“Get packing,” Max snapped.
Billy turned and hightailed it back into the house, stumbling a little on a sidewalk crack. He flew back through the door, shutting it behind him with a solid thunk.
Max watched him go, shaking his head. “He doesn’t even have to sponge off Bernie’s mother. I’d be happy to mess him up just for being an asshole. Not sure why Bernie hasn’t done that already.”
“She feels as if her hands are tied with that guy,” Jeremy said. “He’s family. And her mother’s involved. That messes with her judgment.”
“Wish I’d known the extent of it,” Max said. “I’d have taken the little bastard out years ago.”
“You didn’t know because Bernie has a bad habit of trying to deal with everything by herself. I’m doing my best to help her get over that.”
“And what she can’t deal with, you will?”
“Every chance I get.” Jeremy nodded toward the car. “Let’s go.”
Max slid into the driver’s seat, then glanced into the rearview mirror at Jeremy in the backseat. “Sir?”
“Yes?”
“If you need my help eliminating any more of Bernie’s problems, just say the word.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Where to, sir?”
“Home.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jeremy sighed. “Max? I thought I told you to lose all that yes, sir, no sir crap.”
Max slowly reached up and removed his sunglasses. He sat up a little straighter and met Jeremy’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“I’m just showing respect, sir.”
Max continued to look in the mirror, without blinking, until Jeremy acknowledged his words with a nod. Max slipped his sunglasses back on, backed out of the driveway, and headed for Jeremy’s house.
Respect.
It was as if all the negative feelings that had stood between them like a brick wall had suddenly been blasted away, leaving Jeremy with a feeling of satisfaction he’d never experienced before.
Bernie’s trust and Max’s respect. Two things he never wanted to be without again.