I could feel Jacob rolling his eyes behind me. He hates the way I tell this story because I go out of my way to make it sound more romantic than it really was. And, I suppose, it rubs the raw edges of a painful time for him.
“Every summer, the company has this big picnic. All employees are invited, even their families. The company goes all out, sometimes renting an amusement park, sometimes bringing in big musical acts. At the same time my dad takes this new job, the CEO of the company is going through his second divorce. And his son,” I gesture back at Jacob, “is acting up. He’s thirteen and thinks he can do whatever he wants because his mom is off in the Bahamas with her latest love interest and his dad is too busy with work to pay much attention.”
“You make it sound like I was a juvenile delinquent. I was just failing a math class.”
“There’s no telling what might have happened if you’d failed,” I said, glancing at him. “You might not be the man you are now.”
Adrienne laughed as Jacob rolled his eyes. Again.
“We’re all at this picnic,” I say, rubbing my thumbs over her hands still, looking her directly in the eye to make sure I have her full attention, “and Jacob purposely spills a glass of punch on my mom. His father comes rushing over, apologizing all over the place. My father is horrified to have drawn attention on themselves. But my mom… Jacob’s dad is so charming and so kind that she’s just swept away.”
Adrienne’s eyes widen. “They had an affair.”
“No.” Jacob was very quick in his denial. “My father is a lot of things, but a cheater isn’t one of them.”
I glanced at him and mouthed that he should chill. He shook his head and turned away, gesturing to a passing waitress to bring the bill.
“Ignore the sourpuss,” I said, focusing on Adrienne again.
“What happened next?”
“Jacob’s dad gave my mother his card. Told her to call him when she knew how much the dry cleaning would be on her white blouse. Instead, she called and just talked to him, and they became friends. He mentioned to my mother once about Jacob failing math, and she volunteered to tutor him. So then she started taking me over to their house, where she and Jacob would sit at the table for hours discussing multiplication tables and I would play quietly on the floor.”
“That sounds…interesting.”
I could see I was losing her. I glanced back at Jacob and caught him tapping his credit card impatiently on the table. Hell, I was going to lose them both.
“About three months into this little arrangement, my father had a heart attack.”
A surprisingly powerful sadness came into Adrienne’s eyes. I immediately wanted to ask her where it came from, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it came. I tugged at her hands, pulling them onto my knee, running my fingers over her palm and the tender skin of her wrist. A gentle smile touched her lips.
“He survived the initial attack, but my mom had to stop tutoring Jacob in order to take care of him. Jacob’s father, Karl, stopped by a couple of times to check in on them. The way my mom tells it, he even offered to hire a private nurse so that she could keep working with Jacob.”
“That’s sweet, I suppose,” Adrienne said. “A little self-serving.”
“But, you see, he was already in love with her,” I said, running my hands over her lower arms. She touched me, too, gripping my forearms so that we were holding each other in an odd sort of way. “A few months after the first, my father suffered a second heart attack and died.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry,” she said, lifting a hand to her mouth.
I tugged her hand away from her mouth. “I was very young. I don’t really remember him that well.”
“But, still, he was your father.”
“He was a bit of a loser,” Jacob said. “He was probably better off without him.”
Adrienne’s eyes widened.
I glanced back at Jacob. “A bit harsh,” I said in a loud whisper.
Jacob just shrugged.
“Anyway, Karl pays for the funeral without asking. Telling my mom that he was a good employee and he felt it was the least the company could do. And then he started sending us money every month, claiming it was part of some life insurance thing the company had. But my mom knew it was really from him personally. But she couldn’t afford to turn it down, so she kept careful account of every penny, determined to pay him back when she didn’t need it anymore. But they also stayed close, talking on the phone late at night. He helped my mom get a job at a department store, and she went back to helping Jacob with his math.”
Adrienne glanced at Jacob. “Did you like her?”
He shrugged. “Everyone likes Elizabeth.”
I leaned close and whispered near her ear, “I think he had a crush on her.”
She smiled, her eyes moving over my jaw, my throat, as I pulled back. There was definite interest there; I could feel it. I was definitely not going home alone tonight.
“Then what happened?” she asked.