MORGAN WALKED INTO The Karston Foundation Friday morning with the goal of getting Jacqui Karston out on a date. He had been dwelling about it since Wednesday afternoon, and finally decided to just go for it. His life needed some challenge in it, at the moment. It was going to be a risk, of course, keeping her from running to Neal about his inappropriate employee, but that was part of the game. It was a rush to do what you know you shouldn’t do. Besides, with Dustin back in Orlando and Erin, his usual distraction, not around, he needed something new to keep him entertained. Morgan didn’t do boredom too well. He didn’t do it at all, actually.
He made it past the first receptionist barrier at the elevators and wandered down the hall to where he knew the second wall to the domain of Jacqui Karston waited. He couldn’t get over how hard Jacqui made it for people to reach her.
Jacqui’s young assistant sat behind her desk, her dark hair framing her face and drawing out her hazel-brown eyes. He smiled as he thought of their last exchange. She’d be a challenge as well, but why waste effort on someone who didn’t really care for what he wielded between his legs. At least with Jacqui, the chase had a possible finish line. There had to be some belief in a reward when it was all said and done, after all.
Lily glanced up from her computer screen as he approached, a smirk on her face that made him curious. He didn’t ask, though. “Good morning, Mr. Brewer. What brings you by this morning?”
He leaned on the desk, his fingers laced together, a smile decorating his face. “I came by on the off chance that our Mrs. Karston had a free moment.” He sat on the corner of her desk, leaning over as, with raised eyebrows, he appraised Lily’s form-fitting blue dress. “A nice choice for a Friday,” he said with a nod of approval.
“Thank you. I have a date right after work and didn’t feel like rushing home.”
“Lucky lady.”
“Yes, she is.” Lily smiled up at him as she pressed the intercom button. “Mrs. Karston, Mr. Brewer is here and would like a word.”
It was quiet a moment and Morgan knew Jacqui was hesitating because she didn’t like random acts and his visit was very random. “Send him in.” Brusque. Blunt. Morgan smiled.
Rapping his knuckles on the top of Lily’s desk, he said thank you and walked around to Jacqui’s office door, whistling a random tune as he did. When he entered, she was standing and walking across the floor to meet him, her hair draped around her face and falling over her shoulders. She wore a business suit, gray slacks and jacket with a cream-colored blouse that hid her breasts from a voyeur’s eyes, much to his dismay. Her expression was a blanket of confusion she tried to hide behind a smile, but it didn’t work.
“I’m sorry. Did we have an appointment this morning?” She reached a hand out for him to shake, which he took, holding it just a little longer than was professional and giving it a slight squeeze.
“No, no. No meeting. I just wanted to pop by and see how your week has been going. Make sure Rutherford is meeting all of your expectations.”
She gave him a sideways glance with narrowed eyes. “You haven’t really done anything yet, so it’s hard to meet or not meet any expectations.”
“I suppose that’s true.” He walked over to her large picture window and gazed out at the Biloxi landscape. “Nice view, looking down on the city.”
She joined him. “Mr. Brewer, this is most unseemly. I have work to do as I am sure you do as well. I do not have time for random visits.”
Instead of gazing out the window, Jacqui stared at him, her eyebrows bunched in annoyance, an annoyance he chose to ignore. He gave a slight smile as he gestured out the window with an upward tilt of his head. “How often do you stand here and just soak it in? I mean, it has to make you feel something to stand here and see all the people out there.”
He heard her take a deep breath as she turned her attention out the window. “It reminds me of my purpose. I’m up here, so that I can help those down there. I’m trying to make some of their lives better, easier.”
He nodded slightly as he turned to her. “A noble goal.” He clasped his hands behind his back as he turned back to the view outside the window. “But what about you? Who is it that takes care of you, makes your life better, easier?”
“I take care of me.”
He glanced at her, a frown on his face. “That sounds sad.”
“Excuse me?”
He turned to her. “That sounds sad. Why don’t you allow people the opportunity to help you?”
“I have plenty of people who help me. Lily. Brent. Sophia…”
“Who’s Sophia?” he asked, not caring that he was interrupting her.
She let out a frustrated breath and he fought the urge to chuckle. “She is my housekeeper. I assure you, I am well taken care of. Is this why you’re here? To make sure I’m properly cared for?”
He chuckled softly. “No, not really. Actually, I’m here to see if you’ll have dinner with me tonight.”
She let out a breath of frustration as she turned and walked back to her desk. “Then you should have saved yourself a trip and called. I don’t go out with people who work for me.”
“From what I hear, you don’t go out period. And I work for Neal. He works for you.” He followed her back to her desk, where he sat on the corner, his body facing away from her as he watched her sit down. “And what’s wrong with a nice dinner out? I stayed in this town alone, because you wanted me to hire from within the city. I think you could at least go out to dinner with me to keep me from getting lonely.”
She gave him a pitiful look. “Does that high school line really work for you?”
He laughed. “I don’t know. Will it?”
Her intercom buzzed and Lily’s voice came over the speaker. “Mrs. Karston, Sophia is on the line. She says it’s an emergency.”
Jacqui snatched up the phone. “Sophia? What’s wrong?”
Morgan watched as Jacqui listened, her entire body tense. She had snatched up a pencil and was drumming it on the desk.
“Okay, I’ll be right there. Tell Dad I’m on my way.” As she hung up, Morgan noticed she sounded more frustrated than worried.
“Everything okay?”
“My father is at the hospital. Apparently, he fell down some stairs.” She stood, shoving her cell phone and some files into her bag.
“Fell? Isn’t he in a wheelchair?”
“He convinced Sophia to take him to his house because he wanted to work on his porch. A rail needs to be fixed. Apparently he leaned over too far, and his chair tipped over. She had to call nine-one-one to get someone to come take care of him. They took him to the hospital for x-rays just to make sure nothing is broken.” She started to make a mad dash out of her office, and he followed her.
“Anything I can do to help?”
She turned back and he almost ran into her with her sudden stop. “Yes. Go to work and leave me to mine.” She turned back around and told Lily where she was going as she passed the younger woman’s desk, heading for the elevator. Morgan stopped beside Lily’s desk and watched her go. “Well, if you need anything else, please let me know.”
She didn’t turn around. “I’ll be fine, Mr. Brewer. Thank you for your concern.” She turned the corner toward the elevators and disappeared out of sight.
Morgan just shook his head. Yes, I’m definitely going to need my vitamins.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
She was furious with Sophia. The woman should have known better than to take her father back to his house without someone there to watch what he was doing. She knew Sophia was only trying to make her father happy and, knowing him, he probably whined and badgered her until she gave in just to shut him up. Her father could be very persistent when he wanted something. She was going to have to talk to Sophia about being in better control. It was vital that Sophia was the sensible one when it came to Bert Clydesdale.
As the elevator began its trek to the ground floor, Jacqui took a deep breath, suddenly feeling worried about the housekeeper. She knew the woman would be beside herself with worry and blame. To be honest, Jacqui blamed her father more than she blamed Sophia. He was a cantankerous old man, used to getting his way and manipulating people into doing what he wanted. Jacqui had fallen for his manipulations several times, too many times.
But he could have really hurt himself this time and for what? An old porch railing at a house he isn’t even staying at. She remembered well the day she told him he was going to live with her. It didn’t go over too well. Once he was able to leave the hospital, he had spent some time in a rehab for physical therapy to learn how to get around in his wheelchair. He would never walk again, and Jacqui had decided—without his input—that she was not going to take a chance of him getting hurt with no one around to assist him. That had already happened to others that she loved. No, her father was going to come live with her where she could take care of him. Sophia already lived there and could tend to him during the day while Jacqui was at work. He had not been thrilled at all.
“I want to live in my own damn house, Jacqui. I may be paralyzed, but I’m far from crippled.”
“And what happens if you fall? You won’t have anyone there to help you back into your chair.”
“Then I’ll take a nap on the damn floor until someone shows up. I have my own life still. I’m not ready to be put to pasture. I need to fix the railing on the porch and all of my stuff is in that house. I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for years.”
“Not paralyzed, you haven’t. It’s too dangerous, Dad. Sophia can take care of you during the day and we’ll spend the evenings and weekends together.”
“Bah! You don’t do anything except work. That’s not particularly good company for me, in my opinion. Take me home!”
“No. I’m sorry, but it has to be this way for your own safety.”
“Stop treating me like some invalid. I’m your father, damn it.”
“And what kind of daughter would I be if I left you to get hurt again? Trust me, Dad. This is the best thing for you.”
He looked at her, his eyes taking a sad glaze as he shook his head. “Sweetheart, you are not responsible for everyone. You weren’t then and you aren’t now. You have your own life to live, if you ever get out from behind that desk. I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. It won’t always be easy, but I’m not without my own resources.”
Jacqui knelt beside her father, her hand on his arm as she stared up into his eyes, her own holding pools of tears she was trying desperately to contain. “Dad, please, for me. I can’t go through all of that again. If something were to happen to you, I don’t know what I’d do.”
He placed his hand on top of hers as he leaned closer to her. “Baby girl, one day something is going to happen to me. It’s all part of the circle of life. We don’t live forever. You need to be ready for that.”
She nodded. “But not today. Today you come home with me and allow me to take care of you.”
He stared at her, his inner-turmoil quite obvious in his eyes. Finally, he just gave a curt nod. “Okay, but only for a few days. Then I need to go home. I want to be around the life your mother and I built together.”
She smiled. “For a few days.”
The few days turned into a year and Bert Clydesdale was becoming restless. She should have taken him to his house and allowed him to putt around. She just became too busy with the community center project and days had turned into weeks which added up to a year. Now he was in the hospital and it was all her fault. The thing she had tried to avoid came to fruition and her father was hurt. This is exactly why she couldn’t go out and have fun like Brent and Lily suggested. She simply had too many responsibilities, people depended on her.
Jacqui stopped at the emergency room nurses’ station at the Biloxi Memorial Hospital. A young lady with short brown hair and a patient smile sat behind the desk, typing in some statistics. “Excuse me,” Jacqui said, leaning over the counter. “I’m looking for my father, Bert Clydesdale.”
“Stop sticking me with that damn needle!”
Jacqui took a deep breath. “Never mind. I can follow the yelling.” She turned towards the room from which her father’s voice bellowed and stepped quickly inside. Sophia was standing against the wall under the mounted television, her arms crossed over her chest and her handbag dangling from her arms. She was watching the scene before her as Jacqui stepped in and didn’t see Jacqui until she was standing right beside her.
“Look, if you can’t find the vein, how about we just call it a day and send me home?” Bert looked as if he was ready to smack the nurse, who looked like she had just finished nursing school.
“Mr. Clydesdale, if you would sit still one minute this would be a lot easier.”
“I’m paralyzed. Sitting still is all I do. Did you even read my chart?”
“Dad, let the nurse do her job.”
“I’m not sure she knows what her job is.”
The nurse jabbed the needle into his arm and Bert screamed. “I think I got it that time.” She was smiling as she said it, but Jacqui thought it was more from her father’s scream than from the success she achieved.
“What happened, Dad?” Jacqui stepped up to the side of the bed, her hand clasping her father’s fingers.
“You saw what happened. She just speared me with that needle like I was a roasted pig.”
“I asked you to sit still,” the nurse said.
“I meant at the house. What happened at the house?” Jacqui turned to Sophia. “The house you weren’t supposed to be at, by the way.”
Sophia ducked her gaze in embarrassment at the rebuke. Jacqui decided to deal with her housekeeper later. Right now, she needed to know what was going on with her father.
“I fell. Period. It happens when you lean over too far in a wheelchair. Why the hell I’m being stabbed, though, I have no idea. I’m not sick.” He turned his gaze back to the nurse who was still working on getting him hooked into the bed.
The nurse kept her eyes on the tubes and buttons she was working with as she answered. “Just procedure, Mr. Clydesdale.” She tried to smile, but Jacqui could tell her father was wearing the girl out. “They want to take some x-rays and scans to make sure you didn’t hurt anything when you took your tumble. That’s all. I’m sure you’ll be out of here in no time.”
“I doubt that. No one ever leaves the hospital quick if they ever leave at all.”
“Father!”
He just gave Jacqui a look and shook his head. “This is a waste of time. Sophia overreacted. People fall down all the time.”
“Sophia did what I pay her to do. And no, people don’t fall downstairs all the time. You could have seriously hurt yourself.”
The nurse stood beside Jacqui and tried to give her a reassuring smile. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. The doctor just wants to run some tests to make sure he doesn’t miss anything, just to be on the safe side. You should be able to take him home soon.”
“Thank you,” Jacqui said as she returned the nurse’s smile before the she left, pulling the door closed behind her more out of courtesy for the other patients’ peace and quiet than for Bert’s privacy. Jacqui turned to Sophia. “Now, why was my father at his house and not safe at mine.”
“Because it’s my house and not yours,” her father cut in, bringing Jacqui’s attention back to him. “Sophia didn’t do anything wrong except help me escape my prison. I’ve been living with you for over a year. I want to go home, and I will, damn it, with or without your help.”
“And what if this happens again? You’re lucky Sophia was there.”
“With my luck the guard will be around all the time anyway. I doubt you would allow me to go home without her, Warden.”
“Dad, you’re not a prisoner.”
“Bah!”
She wrapped her arms around her chest, suddenly feeling cold. If he had hit his head just right, she could have lost him today. She had to convince him to remain with her in her home. It was safer for him there. She couldn’t lose him. She needed him too much.