wedding.”
“I had to. They could tell I was lying, and the more I talked, the bigger hole I dug.”
He wrapped her in his arms when she looked as though she was about to cry. “Jill, it’s okay. They won’t tell anyone, right?”
“Yes. I made them both promise.”
“Okay.” He knew the answer to his next question, but he had to ask anyway. “How reliable are they?”
“Lyle? He’s solid. I know he won’t tell anyone. Olivia?” Jill shrugged. “She’s the weak link. Ty, if my parents find out, they’ll be crushed, not to mention pissed after spending all this money on the wedding.”
“Mine, too. The flights to Colorado aren’t cheap, especially over Thanksgiving.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” she said. “God, this wedding can’t happen soon enough.”
“Just a few more weeks.” He prayed they made it that long.
***
Erica stood in the kitchen mixing olive oil and seasonings for her homemade salad dressing. It was one of Jack’s favorites and she liked to keep plenty on hand. She’d been in the kitchen non-stop, chopping vegetables, browning meat, and baking corn bread. She was making chili because she’d never been able to perfect her recipe and she needed something to focus on besides that kiss she’d shared with Lyle. That, and the fact that Olivia was coming over after dinner for their first reading lesson.
She was still furious with Jack for telling Olivia about her problem. It wasn’t that she couldn’t read; she just didn’t read very well. Road signs and two and three word sentences were okay, but anything beyond that caused her head to ache and her palms to sweat.
She’d wanted to read in school—when she was younger and still thought she had a chance in life—but the letters got all mixed up in her head. The last thing she needed was for Jack’s small town bimbo to think she was stupid.
When Jack came in from his walk, his smile made her want to smack him. “Chili?”
“Not because you like it,” she said. “I’m working on my recipe.”
“Whatever, as long as I get to eat it. Is there corn bread?”
“Who would make chili without corn bread?”
He mussed her hair as if she was five. “Not you.”
Erica set a steaming bowl in front of him before going back to the refrigerator for hot sauce. She sat down and scowled when he added half a dozen drops to his bowl. “At least try it before you start adding the heat. I put some local stuff in the mix.”
“You never get it hot enough.” He took a bite, then reached for his water and gulped it down. “Holy cow,” he said after he’d finally stopped coughing. “What did you put in this? Gunpowder?”
“I asked the lady at the grocery store for some chili spices. She said the Hispanics all add these pepper flakes.”
“Did you add the whole bottle?”
“No.” She got up and spooned him up another bowl. “I told you to go easy on the hot sauce.”
“I should have listened.”
“That’s temperature hot, so be careful.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already killed all my taste buds.” He broke off a piece of cornbread while the chili cooled. “Are you ready for your first lesson?”
“I guess. She’s wasting her time. I can read just fine.”
“Sure you can. Why don’t you bring me my laptop and I’ll pull up a document for you to read?”
“Go to hell, Jack.”
“I’m half way there, honey.” He ate one piece and reached for another. “You be nice to Olivia.”
“Why? I don’t want to sleep with her.”
“She’s a nice person, Erica. She didn’t have to offer to help.”
“I’m pretty sure she didn’t offer. You asked her.”
He put his hands in the air. “Guilty. I hate watching you struggle.”
“You can’t see me struggle, remember?”
“I see more than you think.” He took a sip of water and leaned forward. “What happened to you last night?”
Erica’s ears burned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you were upset when you got home from the movies.”
“I was not.”
“Erica.” Jack laid his fingers on her arm. “I heard you crying after you’d gone to bed.”
She shot up from the table. “I wasn’t crying. That was the television.”
“Erica…”
She stood at the sink with her back to the table. “Leave it alone, Jack.”
“Okay, okay. But I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
“I don’t. And I don’t want you standing around looking over my shoulder when your girlfriend comes over. If you’re going to make me do this, I want some privacy.”
“I know, that’s why I made arrangements for Lyle to take me to his place. We’ll be working while you two are here.”
“Fine, but she won’t be here long.”
“Erica, she’ll be here as long as I’m gone. Lyle is bringing her over.”
Erica spun around. “That’s…not fair. I thought you weren’t going to tell anyone. What does Lyle think Olivia and I will do all night?”
“I told him you were teaching Olivia how to cook.”
“That’s a ridiculous excuse. He’ll never believe it.”
“Apparently he does because he didn’t say otherwise when I told him.”
“I’ll bet the bimbo told him the truth. Damn it, Jack, I can’t believe you did this to me.” She threw her body back into the chair.
“She didn’t tell him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I asked her not to.”
“Oh, well, I feel sooo much better now.” She tapped her spoon on the table because she knew it annoyed him. “I don’t want you to be gone all night long. I’m not going to spend hours with the bimbo.”
“Don’t call her a bimbo. And you need to spend hours. Learning to read takes time and effort. I want you to try as hard at reading as you do at cooking. Just imagine how much easier it’ll be to cook when you can actually read recipes instead of guessing at ingredients.”
“Have you missed a meal?” she asked, because damn it, he was right.
“No, although I might need to after trying to digest this chili. I’d go easy on the Hispanic spices from now on.”
“Either you be nice to me or I’ll use them in every meal.”
Chapter 29
Lyle pulled up to Jack’s house and looked around for Erica. He figured she’d be hiding if she knew he was driving Olivia over. He still couldn’t believe Erica had agreed to teach Olivia how to cook.
“Are you coming in?” Olivia asked.
“No. Just send Jack out.”
Olivia whipped her head around. “You don’t want to see Erica after last night’s tryst?”
He could happily strangle Olivia for seeing them last night. Her overeager imagination had them engaged in an illicit affair. If she was right, he would have been eager to see Erica again. As it stood, he wasn’t sure how to proceed. He hoped Jack could fill in some blanks about Erica.
“There was no tryst. She came over to the cabin when she heard you and Jack on your date. All the panting from the open windows probably chased her away.”
When Olivia’s cheeks turned red, Lyle’s antennae went up. Maybe his roommate was ribbing him in order to deflect from her own tryst. She grabbed a tote bag and opened the car door. “What’s in the bag?” he asked. “I thought she was teaching you to cook, not the other way around.”
“Just some recipes I want to learn how to make.”
“That’s an awful lot of recipes,” Lyle muttered.
“Yeah, well, I’ve been saving up.” She looked over her shoulder when the door opened and Jack walked out. “What time are you coming back to get me?” she asked without taking her eyes off Jack.
Lyle shrugged. “Depends on when we decide to break. Couple of hours, I’d imagine.”
“Okay,” Olivia said and stood back as Jack approached. “Hello, Jack.”
“Olivia.” Jack leaned in and sniffed her neck. Lyle pretended to check his emails on his phone. Jack mumbled something in Olivia’s ear that made her blush before she walked toward the house. Jack hopped in the car and slammed the door. “Ready when you are.”
Lyle pulled his SUV around in the drive and started back toward the Lower Fork. Jack whistled in the passenger seat for the first mile. “You hungry?” Lyle asked as they approached the Dairy Barn.
“No. Erica tried to kill me earlier with her chili.”
“I figured she wouldn’t cook since Olivia was coming over.”
“Erica cooks all the time. So,” Jack rapped his knuckles on his leg, “what do you do around here for fun?”
“Well, there’s the Tap in Lower Fork. Del Noches has a couple of good Mexican restaurants. Hailey has one decent bar, a handful of restaurants, the movie theater, and a bowling alley. If you really want a taste of civilization, you have to go to Westmoreland. There’s a nice brewpub with some good craft beer. It’s a college town, so they’ve got more bars.”
“College bars?” Jack said. “No, thanks. So if I want to take Olivia out to a nice restaurant, we’ll have to go to Westmoreland?”
“Yep, and make sure you keep your expectations realistic. Nice in Westmoreland doesn’t even come close to nice in Denver.”
“Gotcha.”
“So you and Olivia are hitting it off?” Lyle asked.
“You could say that.” Jack cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to pry, but she said something about having a reputation, yet she doesn’t strike me as the type.”
Lyle rolled his eyes. “She’s a flirt and she likes attention. There’s not much more to it than that. To be honest, before we started living together, I didn’t really like her that much.”
“How come?”
“I thought she was…I don’t know, an air head, I guess. She used to flirt with anything that moved and she liked to party. I think she mostly did it to irritate her brother.”
“Tommy, right?”
“Yep. He’s a good guy. Works all the time. When Olivia’s dad died, Tommy started looking out for her. It pissed her off and made her wild. Or it could have been the grief of losing her dad, but like I said, we weren’t that close until recently.”
Jack nodded and turned the radio louder when a Bon Jovi song played. They rode the rest of the way in companionable silence. Lyle parked and came around the front of the SUV. “It’s just up these stairs. Do you need a hand or anything?”
“No. Lead the way.”
Lyle unlocked the door and stepped inside, holding the door open for Jack. “Come on in. Have a seat on the couch in front of you. I’ll grab my things from the kitchen.”
“Do you mind if I use the bathroom before we begin?”
“Sure.” Lyle thought about the condition of his bathroom. “Ahhh, you might want to use Olivia’s. It’s probably cleaner. First door on the left. Bathroom’s in the back right hand corner, I think.”
“Be right back.”
Jack disappeared down the hall and Lyle grabbed two beers, his computer, a recorder with fresh batteries, and his notepad. He’d wanted to ask Jack about Erica in the car, but he couldn’t think of a subtle way to bring her up. They planned to talk about what happened when he got to Atlanta. Lyle knew Erica joined him there and had been by his side ever since. Come hell or high water, he would find out where Erica was before Jack lost his vision.
“The apartment smells like her,” Jack said when he took a seat on the couch.
“Who? Oh, Olivia. Yeah, I guess it does.”
“You’ve never been interested in her?” Jack asked.
“Olivia?” Lyle chuckled. “No. She’s not my type. I mean, she’s beautiful. She’s a lot smarter than I ever gave her credit for, and she’s got a good head on her shoulders.” He handed Jack a beer. “But we’re just friends. Like I said before, pretty new friends at that. Okay, we left off when your assistant Elizabeth flew back to Greenwich to shut the business down.”
“Yes. Although by then, it was pretty much done.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d disappeared for almost a week. The gig was up after the first day.”
“How did your investors know something was wrong?”
Jack laughed. “Big money investors don’t play. They keep tabs on their investments and those who handle them all the time.”
“What kind of tabs?” Lyle asked.
“They employ investigators.”
“You were watched? Constantly?”
“Do you have any idea how much money I handled?”
“Yes, but…wasn’t that an invasion of your privacy?”
“I couldn’t afford privacy.” He took a sip and set the bottle on the coffee table before setting his leg over his knee. “Every job’s a give and take. I made a lot of money, more money than I could spend in a handful of lifetimes. That doesn’t come without strings attached.”
“Is that why you never married?”
“Even dating was out of the question,” Jack said. “No distractions.”
“That seems like a cold way of life.”
“It was, but when you’re in the middle of it, you can’t see anything outside the shine. The shine’s pretty bright.”
“Must have been. So you never dated?”
“I wasn’t celibate. Money buys a lot of things, Lyle. Women are more than willing to spend a night in your bed when you’re worth as much as I am.”
“This may sound like a silly question, but that never got old?”
“I never slowed down long enough to analyze it.”
“And now?” Lyle asked. “You’ve had some time to analyze since shutting down your business.”
“You mean since losing my sight? Yes, I’ve had the time.”
“Care to share your analysis?”
Jack blew out a breath. “It was what it was. I can’t change how I lived my life. I’m not sure I would if I could.”
And where was Erica, Lyle wanted to ask, when Jack was making money hand over fist and sleeping his way along the fashion runway? He bit his tongue and tried another tactic. “So the investors pulled out.”
“That’s a polite way to put it, yes.”
“When did Erica come into the picture?”
“I asked Elizabeth to call her and let her know where I was. If she needed me, I didn’t want her looking in Connecticut.”
“You didn’t ask her to come to you?”
“No.” Jack ran his hands down his jeans, taking his time to straighten the hem. “I didn’t want her to see me that way. I thought I could handle it on my own. Elizabeth thought differently. I often wonder if she’d have made the same decision if she knew she wasn’t losing her job.”
“You were upset she told Erica about your condition?”
“Furious.”
“Why?”
“Do you have any siblings, Lyle?”
“I have an older brother. He’s two years older.” Lyle couldn’t even guess what Jack was getting at.
“Erica was so much younger than me. Our father was, well, you know. He was a drunk. I was all she had and, believe me, that wasn’t nearly enough. I was supposed to take care of her. No matter what happened to me, I was supposed to take care of her.”
“Where was she when Elizabeth called her?”
Jack dropped his leg and shifted on the couch, putting his other leg atop his opposite knee. “New Jersey, I think.”
Lyle’s brows shot up along with his temper. He thought? “You weren’t sure?”
“No. Erica moved around quite a bit. She didn’t always share her whereabouts.”
“I’m sorry.” Lyle took a deep breath. He needed to change his tone of voice before Jack took offense. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean by not sharing her whereabouts. My brother and I aren’t exactly close, but if he moved, I’d know about it.”
“I’m not going talk about Erica in the book. I thought I’d made that clear.”
“You did, but I still need a little background. Your sister, who becomes your primary caregiver, can’t just appear out of thin air. Was she working? Looking for work? In a relationship?”
“Lyle, she was in New Jersey. That’s all you need to know for the book. Anything else you want to know, and I don’t think you’re asking for the book, you need to ask her yourself.”
“Because you don’t know?” Lyle asked.
“Because it’s not my story to tell.”
Chapter 30
Olivia tapped her fingers on the tabletop and narrowed her eyes at Erica’s back. “If you don’t sit down, we can’t get started.”
“I’m almost done. Hold your horses.”
Olivia glanced at her watch. It had been exactly twenty-two minutes since Jack had made her heart race when he’d told her he expected a full recap when he got back. She wouldn’t let herself wonder what he meant. She’d have nothing to tell him if Erica didn’t get her butt in the chair so they could get started. “You’re wasting both our time.”
“My brother’s not here, so I’m not keeping you from anything. Unless you’ve got another man you’re after.”
“No. I’m not after anyone.”
Erica turned around, leaned against the counter, and crossed her ankles. “That’s not true.”
“I’m not after your brother.”
“You’re not interested in Jack?”
“If I tell you, will you come over here and sit down so we can get started?”
Erica pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest. “All right.”
“I’m interested in your brother, as is any other woman with a pulse.”
“So you admit you’re no different than the others?”
Olivia’s heart dislodged from her chest and hit the floor. “What others?”
“All the other bimbos he used to date back east.”
Olivia gripped her chest and closed her eyes. Thank God. “For a second I thought you meant he was seeing someone else in the valley.”
“Here?” Erica let out a mirthful laugh and pulled out the chair across the table from Olivia. “For some silly reason, he’s only got eyes for you.”
“Okay,” Olivia pulled a book from her bag as her heart settled back where it belonged. “I’ve brought along a few things for you to look at. The first thing I need to do is assess your current reading level.”
“I can read,” Erica said, her back straight.
“I know, but I need to know how much so I know how to proceed.” She shuffled the books around until she came to the one she wanted. She braced herself for Erica’s reaction.
“That’s a kid’s book,” Erica scoffed.
“Yes. Dr. Seuss is one of my favorites. Can you read me the first few pages, please?”
The way Erica sucked in a breath and blew it out meant Olivia had chosen the right place to start. If Jack left home when Erica was seven and still regularly attending school, she probably read at a first or second grade level.
“This is stupid. I’m not reading a kid’s book.”
“Would you like me to go first?” Olivia asked.
“Why? Don’t you know how to read?”
“Look, I can’t leave until Lyle comes back. He told me it would be a couple of hours. I figure you can keep this up for another minute or two, but sooner or later you’re going to have to let your guard down and trust me. I’m not here to make fun of you. I want to help you.”
“Because you want to sleep with my brother.”
“Because he asked me and because now that I know you need help, I’d like to help. I’m a teacher. Let me teach you.”
“If you’re a teacher, why are you working at that restaurant?”
Okay, that stung. Erica was an adult, yes, but when forced to learn something she didn’t want to learn, she wasn’t all that different from the kids. She’d do anything, say anything to deflect. “I’m not teaching at the moment.”
“Why?” Erica asked. “Are the hours too long? The kids too mean?”
Olivia sat back in her chair. Jack was right; Erica would use every trick in the book to keep Olivia from getting too close and from exposing her problems. As much as she hated to do it, she needed to pony up the truth to earn her trust. “I was suspended.”
“They can suspend a teacher? I thought only students got suspended. What’d you do? Steal chalk or something?”
Olivia gave Erica the rundown. When she finished, she linked her fingers on the table. “It’s under investigation, so I’m working at my brother’s restaurant to earn money and keep busy until the hearing.”
Erica sat in silence. Olivia was just about to pack up her things when Erica reached for the book and opened to the first page. “Don’t make fun of me,” she said.
“I would never do that.”
Erica struggled through the first few pages before she slammed the book shut. “I can’t do this. I won’t go through this again.”
“Go through what again?” Olivia asked. “Did something happen in school?”
“I was stupid!”
“Erica, you’re not stupid.” Olivia reached for the book and opened it back up to the first page. “It seemed as if you got hung up on certain letters.” She pointed at a lowercase ‘d.’ “Do you know what this letter is?”
Erica scowled at the page. “It’s either a ‘d’ or a ‘b.’ I get those two mixed up a lot.”
“Okay.” Olivia pointed at a lowercase ‘q.’ “How about this one?”
“A ‘p’?” Erica guessed.
“No. Any other guesses?”
“A ‘q’?”
“Yes. How about this one?” She pointed at a ‘t.’
“A ‘t’?”
“Yes. And this?” she asked when pointing at an ‘f.’
“F?”
“Good.” Olivia turned the page. “Can you read this page for me, please?”
Erica struggled through the next page and the next at Olivia’s prompting, confirming Olivia’s original hypothesis.
“Erica, I think you have a mild case of dyslexia. Do you know what that is?”
“I’m stupid?” she asked.
“No, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. It means you get some of the letters mixed up. It’s fairly common.”
“Can you fix it?”
“No, but I can help you fix it. If you’ll let me.”
“If I stop mixing the letters up, will I be able to read better?”
“Yes. You’ll be able to read a lot better. The letters are the foundation of reading. If you’ve been confused about the letters, it’s no wonder you’ve struggled with reading. Did any of your teachers ever test you for dyslexia or talk to your dad about getting you extra help?”
“I don’t remember getting tested, and if they talked to my dad, he was probably too drunk to remember.”
Olivia tried hard not to let the sympathy she felt toward Erica show. The woman wouldn’t take kindly to pity. “The good news is that it’s never too late to learn.”
Erica started turning over the books in the pile Olivia had brought. She picked up a dog-eared paperback and flipped through the pages. “Did you really think I could read this?”
“I wanted to show you some of the books I think you’d enjoy.”
“You don’t know me. How do you think you know what I’d enjoy?”
“Jack told me you like to go to the movies and watch chick flicks. That book you have there, that’s like a chick flick. It’s one of my favorites.”
“Looks like you’ve read it a few times.”
“I have. Don’t you watch movies you like more than once?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I reread books I really like.”
Erica studied the cover of a faceless woman holding a baby. “What’s it about?”
Olivia swallowed the smile she wanted to let burst from her lips.
“I had to. They could tell I was lying, and the more I talked, the bigger hole I dug.”
He wrapped her in his arms when she looked as though she was about to cry. “Jill, it’s okay. They won’t tell anyone, right?”
“Yes. I made them both promise.”
“Okay.” He knew the answer to his next question, but he had to ask anyway. “How reliable are they?”
“Lyle? He’s solid. I know he won’t tell anyone. Olivia?” Jill shrugged. “She’s the weak link. Ty, if my parents find out, they’ll be crushed, not to mention pissed after spending all this money on the wedding.”
“Mine, too. The flights to Colorado aren’t cheap, especially over Thanksgiving.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” she said. “God, this wedding can’t happen soon enough.”
“Just a few more weeks.” He prayed they made it that long.
***
Erica stood in the kitchen mixing olive oil and seasonings for her homemade salad dressing. It was one of Jack’s favorites and she liked to keep plenty on hand. She’d been in the kitchen non-stop, chopping vegetables, browning meat, and baking corn bread. She was making chili because she’d never been able to perfect her recipe and she needed something to focus on besides that kiss she’d shared with Lyle. That, and the fact that Olivia was coming over after dinner for their first reading lesson.
She was still furious with Jack for telling Olivia about her problem. It wasn’t that she couldn’t read; she just didn’t read very well. Road signs and two and three word sentences were okay, but anything beyond that caused her head to ache and her palms to sweat.
She’d wanted to read in school—when she was younger and still thought she had a chance in life—but the letters got all mixed up in her head. The last thing she needed was for Jack’s small town bimbo to think she was stupid.
When Jack came in from his walk, his smile made her want to smack him. “Chili?”
“Not because you like it,” she said. “I’m working on my recipe.”
“Whatever, as long as I get to eat it. Is there corn bread?”
“Who would make chili without corn bread?”
He mussed her hair as if she was five. “Not you.”
Erica set a steaming bowl in front of him before going back to the refrigerator for hot sauce. She sat down and scowled when he added half a dozen drops to his bowl. “At least try it before you start adding the heat. I put some local stuff in the mix.”
“You never get it hot enough.” He took a bite, then reached for his water and gulped it down. “Holy cow,” he said after he’d finally stopped coughing. “What did you put in this? Gunpowder?”
“I asked the lady at the grocery store for some chili spices. She said the Hispanics all add these pepper flakes.”
“Did you add the whole bottle?”
“No.” She got up and spooned him up another bowl. “I told you to go easy on the hot sauce.”
“I should have listened.”
“That’s temperature hot, so be careful.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already killed all my taste buds.” He broke off a piece of cornbread while the chili cooled. “Are you ready for your first lesson?”
“I guess. She’s wasting her time. I can read just fine.”
“Sure you can. Why don’t you bring me my laptop and I’ll pull up a document for you to read?”
“Go to hell, Jack.”
“I’m half way there, honey.” He ate one piece and reached for another. “You be nice to Olivia.”
“Why? I don’t want to sleep with her.”
“She’s a nice person, Erica. She didn’t have to offer to help.”
“I’m pretty sure she didn’t offer. You asked her.”
He put his hands in the air. “Guilty. I hate watching you struggle.”
“You can’t see me struggle, remember?”
“I see more than you think.” He took a sip of water and leaned forward. “What happened to you last night?”
Erica’s ears burned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you were upset when you got home from the movies.”
“I was not.”
“Erica.” Jack laid his fingers on her arm. “I heard you crying after you’d gone to bed.”
She shot up from the table. “I wasn’t crying. That was the television.”
“Erica…”
She stood at the sink with her back to the table. “Leave it alone, Jack.”
“Okay, okay. But I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
“I don’t. And I don’t want you standing around looking over my shoulder when your girlfriend comes over. If you’re going to make me do this, I want some privacy.”
“I know, that’s why I made arrangements for Lyle to take me to his place. We’ll be working while you two are here.”
“Fine, but she won’t be here long.”
“Erica, she’ll be here as long as I’m gone. Lyle is bringing her over.”
Erica spun around. “That’s…not fair. I thought you weren’t going to tell anyone. What does Lyle think Olivia and I will do all night?”
“I told him you were teaching Olivia how to cook.”
“That’s a ridiculous excuse. He’ll never believe it.”
“Apparently he does because he didn’t say otherwise when I told him.”
“I’ll bet the bimbo told him the truth. Damn it, Jack, I can’t believe you did this to me.” She threw her body back into the chair.
“She didn’t tell him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I asked her not to.”
“Oh, well, I feel sooo much better now.” She tapped her spoon on the table because she knew it annoyed him. “I don’t want you to be gone all night long. I’m not going to spend hours with the bimbo.”
“Don’t call her a bimbo. And you need to spend hours. Learning to read takes time and effort. I want you to try as hard at reading as you do at cooking. Just imagine how much easier it’ll be to cook when you can actually read recipes instead of guessing at ingredients.”
“Have you missed a meal?” she asked, because damn it, he was right.
“No, although I might need to after trying to digest this chili. I’d go easy on the Hispanic spices from now on.”
“Either you be nice to me or I’ll use them in every meal.”
Chapter 29
Lyle pulled up to Jack’s house and looked around for Erica. He figured she’d be hiding if she knew he was driving Olivia over. He still couldn’t believe Erica had agreed to teach Olivia how to cook.
“Are you coming in?” Olivia asked.
“No. Just send Jack out.”
Olivia whipped her head around. “You don’t want to see Erica after last night’s tryst?”
He could happily strangle Olivia for seeing them last night. Her overeager imagination had them engaged in an illicit affair. If she was right, he would have been eager to see Erica again. As it stood, he wasn’t sure how to proceed. He hoped Jack could fill in some blanks about Erica.
“There was no tryst. She came over to the cabin when she heard you and Jack on your date. All the panting from the open windows probably chased her away.”
When Olivia’s cheeks turned red, Lyle’s antennae went up. Maybe his roommate was ribbing him in order to deflect from her own tryst. She grabbed a tote bag and opened the car door. “What’s in the bag?” he asked. “I thought she was teaching you to cook, not the other way around.”
“Just some recipes I want to learn how to make.”
“That’s an awful lot of recipes,” Lyle muttered.
“Yeah, well, I’ve been saving up.” She looked over her shoulder when the door opened and Jack walked out. “What time are you coming back to get me?” she asked without taking her eyes off Jack.
Lyle shrugged. “Depends on when we decide to break. Couple of hours, I’d imagine.”
“Okay,” Olivia said and stood back as Jack approached. “Hello, Jack.”
“Olivia.” Jack leaned in and sniffed her neck. Lyle pretended to check his emails on his phone. Jack mumbled something in Olivia’s ear that made her blush before she walked toward the house. Jack hopped in the car and slammed the door. “Ready when you are.”
Lyle pulled his SUV around in the drive and started back toward the Lower Fork. Jack whistled in the passenger seat for the first mile. “You hungry?” Lyle asked as they approached the Dairy Barn.
“No. Erica tried to kill me earlier with her chili.”
“I figured she wouldn’t cook since Olivia was coming over.”
“Erica cooks all the time. So,” Jack rapped his knuckles on his leg, “what do you do around here for fun?”
“Well, there’s the Tap in Lower Fork. Del Noches has a couple of good Mexican restaurants. Hailey has one decent bar, a handful of restaurants, the movie theater, and a bowling alley. If you really want a taste of civilization, you have to go to Westmoreland. There’s a nice brewpub with some good craft beer. It’s a college town, so they’ve got more bars.”
“College bars?” Jack said. “No, thanks. So if I want to take Olivia out to a nice restaurant, we’ll have to go to Westmoreland?”
“Yep, and make sure you keep your expectations realistic. Nice in Westmoreland doesn’t even come close to nice in Denver.”
“Gotcha.”
“So you and Olivia are hitting it off?” Lyle asked.
“You could say that.” Jack cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to pry, but she said something about having a reputation, yet she doesn’t strike me as the type.”
Lyle rolled his eyes. “She’s a flirt and she likes attention. There’s not much more to it than that. To be honest, before we started living together, I didn’t really like her that much.”
“How come?”
“I thought she was…I don’t know, an air head, I guess. She used to flirt with anything that moved and she liked to party. I think she mostly did it to irritate her brother.”
“Tommy, right?”
“Yep. He’s a good guy. Works all the time. When Olivia’s dad died, Tommy started looking out for her. It pissed her off and made her wild. Or it could have been the grief of losing her dad, but like I said, we weren’t that close until recently.”
Jack nodded and turned the radio louder when a Bon Jovi song played. They rode the rest of the way in companionable silence. Lyle parked and came around the front of the SUV. “It’s just up these stairs. Do you need a hand or anything?”
“No. Lead the way.”
Lyle unlocked the door and stepped inside, holding the door open for Jack. “Come on in. Have a seat on the couch in front of you. I’ll grab my things from the kitchen.”
“Do you mind if I use the bathroom before we begin?”
“Sure.” Lyle thought about the condition of his bathroom. “Ahhh, you might want to use Olivia’s. It’s probably cleaner. First door on the left. Bathroom’s in the back right hand corner, I think.”
“Be right back.”
Jack disappeared down the hall and Lyle grabbed two beers, his computer, a recorder with fresh batteries, and his notepad. He’d wanted to ask Jack about Erica in the car, but he couldn’t think of a subtle way to bring her up. They planned to talk about what happened when he got to Atlanta. Lyle knew Erica joined him there and had been by his side ever since. Come hell or high water, he would find out where Erica was before Jack lost his vision.
“The apartment smells like her,” Jack said when he took a seat on the couch.
“Who? Oh, Olivia. Yeah, I guess it does.”
“You’ve never been interested in her?” Jack asked.
“Olivia?” Lyle chuckled. “No. She’s not my type. I mean, she’s beautiful. She’s a lot smarter than I ever gave her credit for, and she’s got a good head on her shoulders.” He handed Jack a beer. “But we’re just friends. Like I said before, pretty new friends at that. Okay, we left off when your assistant Elizabeth flew back to Greenwich to shut the business down.”
“Yes. Although by then, it was pretty much done.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d disappeared for almost a week. The gig was up after the first day.”
“How did your investors know something was wrong?”
Jack laughed. “Big money investors don’t play. They keep tabs on their investments and those who handle them all the time.”
“What kind of tabs?” Lyle asked.
“They employ investigators.”
“You were watched? Constantly?”
“Do you have any idea how much money I handled?”
“Yes, but…wasn’t that an invasion of your privacy?”
“I couldn’t afford privacy.” He took a sip and set the bottle on the coffee table before setting his leg over his knee. “Every job’s a give and take. I made a lot of money, more money than I could spend in a handful of lifetimes. That doesn’t come without strings attached.”
“Is that why you never married?”
“Even dating was out of the question,” Jack said. “No distractions.”
“That seems like a cold way of life.”
“It was, but when you’re in the middle of it, you can’t see anything outside the shine. The shine’s pretty bright.”
“Must have been. So you never dated?”
“I wasn’t celibate. Money buys a lot of things, Lyle. Women are more than willing to spend a night in your bed when you’re worth as much as I am.”
“This may sound like a silly question, but that never got old?”
“I never slowed down long enough to analyze it.”
“And now?” Lyle asked. “You’ve had some time to analyze since shutting down your business.”
“You mean since losing my sight? Yes, I’ve had the time.”
“Care to share your analysis?”
Jack blew out a breath. “It was what it was. I can’t change how I lived my life. I’m not sure I would if I could.”
And where was Erica, Lyle wanted to ask, when Jack was making money hand over fist and sleeping his way along the fashion runway? He bit his tongue and tried another tactic. “So the investors pulled out.”
“That’s a polite way to put it, yes.”
“When did Erica come into the picture?”
“I asked Elizabeth to call her and let her know where I was. If she needed me, I didn’t want her looking in Connecticut.”
“You didn’t ask her to come to you?”
“No.” Jack ran his hands down his jeans, taking his time to straighten the hem. “I didn’t want her to see me that way. I thought I could handle it on my own. Elizabeth thought differently. I often wonder if she’d have made the same decision if she knew she wasn’t losing her job.”
“You were upset she told Erica about your condition?”
“Furious.”
“Why?”
“Do you have any siblings, Lyle?”
“I have an older brother. He’s two years older.” Lyle couldn’t even guess what Jack was getting at.
“Erica was so much younger than me. Our father was, well, you know. He was a drunk. I was all she had and, believe me, that wasn’t nearly enough. I was supposed to take care of her. No matter what happened to me, I was supposed to take care of her.”
“Where was she when Elizabeth called her?”
Jack dropped his leg and shifted on the couch, putting his other leg atop his opposite knee. “New Jersey, I think.”
Lyle’s brows shot up along with his temper. He thought? “You weren’t sure?”
“No. Erica moved around quite a bit. She didn’t always share her whereabouts.”
“I’m sorry.” Lyle took a deep breath. He needed to change his tone of voice before Jack took offense. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean by not sharing her whereabouts. My brother and I aren’t exactly close, but if he moved, I’d know about it.”
“I’m not going talk about Erica in the book. I thought I’d made that clear.”
“You did, but I still need a little background. Your sister, who becomes your primary caregiver, can’t just appear out of thin air. Was she working? Looking for work? In a relationship?”
“Lyle, she was in New Jersey. That’s all you need to know for the book. Anything else you want to know, and I don’t think you’re asking for the book, you need to ask her yourself.”
“Because you don’t know?” Lyle asked.
“Because it’s not my story to tell.”
Chapter 30
Olivia tapped her fingers on the tabletop and narrowed her eyes at Erica’s back. “If you don’t sit down, we can’t get started.”
“I’m almost done. Hold your horses.”
Olivia glanced at her watch. It had been exactly twenty-two minutes since Jack had made her heart race when he’d told her he expected a full recap when he got back. She wouldn’t let herself wonder what he meant. She’d have nothing to tell him if Erica didn’t get her butt in the chair so they could get started. “You’re wasting both our time.”
“My brother’s not here, so I’m not keeping you from anything. Unless you’ve got another man you’re after.”
“No. I’m not after anyone.”
Erica turned around, leaned against the counter, and crossed her ankles. “That’s not true.”
“I’m not after your brother.”
“You’re not interested in Jack?”
“If I tell you, will you come over here and sit down so we can get started?”
Erica pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest. “All right.”
“I’m interested in your brother, as is any other woman with a pulse.”
“So you admit you’re no different than the others?”
Olivia’s heart dislodged from her chest and hit the floor. “What others?”
“All the other bimbos he used to date back east.”
Olivia gripped her chest and closed her eyes. Thank God. “For a second I thought you meant he was seeing someone else in the valley.”
“Here?” Erica let out a mirthful laugh and pulled out the chair across the table from Olivia. “For some silly reason, he’s only got eyes for you.”
“Okay,” Olivia pulled a book from her bag as her heart settled back where it belonged. “I’ve brought along a few things for you to look at. The first thing I need to do is assess your current reading level.”
“I can read,” Erica said, her back straight.
“I know, but I need to know how much so I know how to proceed.” She shuffled the books around until she came to the one she wanted. She braced herself for Erica’s reaction.
“That’s a kid’s book,” Erica scoffed.
“Yes. Dr. Seuss is one of my favorites. Can you read me the first few pages, please?”
The way Erica sucked in a breath and blew it out meant Olivia had chosen the right place to start. If Jack left home when Erica was seven and still regularly attending school, she probably read at a first or second grade level.
“This is stupid. I’m not reading a kid’s book.”
“Would you like me to go first?” Olivia asked.
“Why? Don’t you know how to read?”
“Look, I can’t leave until Lyle comes back. He told me it would be a couple of hours. I figure you can keep this up for another minute or two, but sooner or later you’re going to have to let your guard down and trust me. I’m not here to make fun of you. I want to help you.”
“Because you want to sleep with my brother.”
“Because he asked me and because now that I know you need help, I’d like to help. I’m a teacher. Let me teach you.”
“If you’re a teacher, why are you working at that restaurant?”
Okay, that stung. Erica was an adult, yes, but when forced to learn something she didn’t want to learn, she wasn’t all that different from the kids. She’d do anything, say anything to deflect. “I’m not teaching at the moment.”
“Why?” Erica asked. “Are the hours too long? The kids too mean?”
Olivia sat back in her chair. Jack was right; Erica would use every trick in the book to keep Olivia from getting too close and from exposing her problems. As much as she hated to do it, she needed to pony up the truth to earn her trust. “I was suspended.”
“They can suspend a teacher? I thought only students got suspended. What’d you do? Steal chalk or something?”
Olivia gave Erica the rundown. When she finished, she linked her fingers on the table. “It’s under investigation, so I’m working at my brother’s restaurant to earn money and keep busy until the hearing.”
Erica sat in silence. Olivia was just about to pack up her things when Erica reached for the book and opened to the first page. “Don’t make fun of me,” she said.
“I would never do that.”
Erica struggled through the first few pages before she slammed the book shut. “I can’t do this. I won’t go through this again.”
“Go through what again?” Olivia asked. “Did something happen in school?”
“I was stupid!”
“Erica, you’re not stupid.” Olivia reached for the book and opened it back up to the first page. “It seemed as if you got hung up on certain letters.” She pointed at a lowercase ‘d.’ “Do you know what this letter is?”
Erica scowled at the page. “It’s either a ‘d’ or a ‘b.’ I get those two mixed up a lot.”
“Okay.” Olivia pointed at a lowercase ‘q.’ “How about this one?”
“A ‘p’?” Erica guessed.
“No. Any other guesses?”
“A ‘q’?”
“Yes. How about this one?” She pointed at a ‘t.’
“A ‘t’?”
“Yes. And this?” she asked when pointing at an ‘f.’
“F?”
“Good.” Olivia turned the page. “Can you read this page for me, please?”
Erica struggled through the next page and the next at Olivia’s prompting, confirming Olivia’s original hypothesis.
“Erica, I think you have a mild case of dyslexia. Do you know what that is?”
“I’m stupid?” she asked.
“No, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. It means you get some of the letters mixed up. It’s fairly common.”
“Can you fix it?”
“No, but I can help you fix it. If you’ll let me.”
“If I stop mixing the letters up, will I be able to read better?”
“Yes. You’ll be able to read a lot better. The letters are the foundation of reading. If you’ve been confused about the letters, it’s no wonder you’ve struggled with reading. Did any of your teachers ever test you for dyslexia or talk to your dad about getting you extra help?”
“I don’t remember getting tested, and if they talked to my dad, he was probably too drunk to remember.”
Olivia tried hard not to let the sympathy she felt toward Erica show. The woman wouldn’t take kindly to pity. “The good news is that it’s never too late to learn.”
Erica started turning over the books in the pile Olivia had brought. She picked up a dog-eared paperback and flipped through the pages. “Did you really think I could read this?”
“I wanted to show you some of the books I think you’d enjoy.”
“You don’t know me. How do you think you know what I’d enjoy?”
“Jack told me you like to go to the movies and watch chick flicks. That book you have there, that’s like a chick flick. It’s one of my favorites.”
“Looks like you’ve read it a few times.”
“I have. Don’t you watch movies you like more than once?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I reread books I really like.”
Erica studied the cover of a faceless woman holding a baby. “What’s it about?”
Olivia swallowed the smile she wanted to let burst from her lips.
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