Dating A Saint (7 page)

“You own this place?” Casey asked casually. He had a lot more questions to ask, but someone needed to admit how strange this situation was first.

“Yes,” Jim said. “I have family living in the facility. I bought Whispering Pines a little over five years ago. They don’t have break-ins. Well, what I mean is, crime is not the problem here. They just need a more elaborate monitoring system to keep up with patients, and an alarm system that calls for help when needed. I’m not sure of all the requirements. We’ll get the rest as we go along.”

“Aren’t there specialty companies to handle installation of monitoring systems in medical facilities?” Ben asked, still not yet seeing the missing information his instincts were sending off alarm bells about.

Jim paused in walking down the sidewalk. He put his hands in his pockets and felt them shaking a little against his legs. He looked at Casey and Ben, hoping like hell he was doing the right thing. The work could have waited a year more, but Jim couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to share it with someone, had recently realized he was tired of handling everything all alone.

“Yes,” Jim said smoothly, letting no trace of his apprehension show, “there are companies who specialize in medical monitoring systems, but I wanted a level of discretion I felt you and Casey could better provide. If you don’t want to do the work, then I’ll try them next.”

“I’m sure we can do the work,” Casey said confidently. “It may take us longer than some of the other things we’ve done, not to mention disturbing the residents. Are these all retirees?”

“All but two,” Jim said, looking for the words to start explaining what had to be explained. Before he could come up with them, the all-too-familiar blond woman dashed over and threw her arms around Jim. Out of habit, Jim hugged her back and laughed.

“Jim! You didn’t tell us you were coming. This is a wonderful surprise. Let me see if I can find Samuel,” she said, turning her cheek up for Jim to kiss, which he did.

She smiled at Ben and Casey. “Are these your friends? You’ve never brought friends before. How perfectly lovely. Introduce me.” She held out her hand to Ben first.

“Ben. Casey. This is Cassandra Gallagher-Simpson. Her better half, Samuel, is probably at work outside planning his spring garden,” Jim explained, hoping his voice sounded light and neutral. Cassandra could pick up pretty quickly when he was distressed.

She shook Ben’s hand, and then moved to Casey’s. “Please call me Sandy. It’s so nice to meet you. My brother almost never brings friends here. I mean—I know why. I have some bad days sometimes, but oh—it’s just so nice to meet you. Jim always said it was hard to make friends when you travel as much as he does.”

Both Casey and Ben were surprised at what she was saying but asked no questions, not wanting to contradict her. They exchanged a look about the travel remark, but said nothing. As far as they knew, Jim rarely travelled.

“Casey and Ben are going to be doing some work here, Sandy. They’ll be in and out for a couple of weeks replacing the monitoring system in the medical facility. That would be okay, wouldn’t it?” Jim asked, trying to gauge her comfort level with the news.

“Well of course. I promise to not go all Anna-Banana over it. I haven’t done that in a long time,” Sandy scolded, smacking Jim lightly on the arm.

“Of course you haven’t. I didn’t meant to imply you would,” Jim said, smiling and placing an arm around her shoulder to hug lightly. “Why don’t you go find Sam and tell him to come have lunch with us.”

“Really? You’re all staying for lunch? Oh, Jim, that’s so wonderful! This is the best day ever,” she said, hugging him tight before bolting away.

Later they would think it was some instinct that held their tongues, but after the woman was out of hearing distance, Ben asked the inevitable. “Jim, you never said you had a sister.”

“That’s because I don’t—I’m an only child,” Jim replied. “Cassandra became delusional from a severe illness she got in her mid-thirties. She never fully recovered from it. Part of her delusion is that she’s my sister and married to Samuel Simpson, the other special resident here. Sam loves her deeply and goes right along. They’ve been together for about five years now.”

“Wow,” Casey said. “Are you even related to her at all?”

“Something like that,” Jim said sadly. “Cassandra is actually my wife.”

Ben and Casey stood rooted to the spot, openly staring at Jim in shock, before turning toward Sandy again, who was busy dragging a man over to them.

“Jim,” Sam said. “It’s good to see you. Sandy said you brought friends with you today. That’s new.”

“They’re good friends, Sam. Everything’s good, okay?” Jim asked.

“Sure,” Sam said shyly, but understanding the code. “Whatever you say.”

“Sandy, can I ask you for a favor? Will you fetch meal vouchers for the three of us? I believe Angie is already working on them. We’ll meet you and Sam in the dining hall for lunch,” Jim said, stroking her hair as he gazed into her radiantly happy face.

“Lunch with you is a special treat. I have the best brother in the whole world,” she proclaimed to Casey and Ben.

“Stop bragging on me. It’s making me hungrier,” Jim teased, making her giggle. “Go get our vouchers.”

“I’ll clean up and be right there,” Sam said gently.

“Come on, I’ll help,” Sandy said, all but dancing. “You’ll make us even later if you take too long.”

Sam nodded at the men and walked away with Sandy chatting animatedly by his side.

When the couple had disappeared, Jim turned back to them.

“I have never shared this with anyone but those who absolutely had to know. I couldn’t risk the press or anyone else distressing her. It took me a long time to find an environment Cassandra could thrive in and not just stay sedated all the time. I felt you needed to join the category of those who need to know, but now I’m going to ask you not to share it. Regina knows. Please don’t tell Alexa until—,” Jim faltered.

“—until you decide if you want to tell someone else?” Casey finished, suddenly understanding. “Don’t lose a minute’s sleep over it. Regina isn’t the only one with ethics in this group. You can trust us, Jim.”

“No doubt,” Jim replied. Trust is what he’d been learning about Casey for weeks. Kaiser, he already knew had a heart of gold. “If you’ll excuse me for just a bit, I need to deal with some paperwork. Feel free to look around. We can meet here in about twenty minutes and go to lunch.”

Jim walked quickly down the hall and through some glass doors into an office area.

Ben and Casey remained where he’d left them, too stunned to move.

“Holy shit,” Casey said softly, putting a hand over his mouth to keep everything else he was thinking from just pouring out in a further flood of swearing.

“You can say that again,” Ben said. “Damn it, I knew Jim was a good man, but hell—he’s more a saint than even Lauren.”

Casey just shook his head from side to side, unable to fathom how a man could live with such a situation.

“Ben, your wife keeps stuff like this to herself all the time. I can’t even imagine carrying this kind of emotional burden around. I think I’d be the crazy one. No wonder Jim’s struggling over his attraction to Lauren,” Casey said.

“I think Jim would have problems with any woman, but at least Lauren is trustworthy,” Ben commented. “I hope like hell he tells her. Not that it would fix everything, but at least there would be some honest communication between them.”

They stood there in silence for a couple of minutes as they tried to absorb the shock of what they had learned.

Casey finally broke the silence.

“Don’t look now, Benjamin, but Regina is starting to rub off on you,” Casey remarked with a smirk. “You’re sounding like her more and more.”

“Not surprising,” Ben said proudly. “I spend a lot of time rubbing us together. That much friction has to cause some transference.”

A low laugh rumbled in Casey’s chest. “You can never make fun of my military euphemisms again.”

“Deal,” Ben said with a wicked grin.

*** *** ***

Jim walked out with them at five that afternoon when they were leaving. “We’ll draw up the contracts tomorrow. Casey and his crew can start the work after he gets back from his honeymoon or whenever time allows.”

“No crew,” Ben said easily. “I’m in on this one. If we need to bring someone else in for the complicated wiring, we’ll let you know.”

When Jim put his hands in his pockets automatically, it occurred to him he had been doing the nervous action a lot lately. He pulled them out and forced himself to let his hands relax by his side. He could trust these men. There was no reason to keep the tension inside.

“I’ll leave the details up to you,” he said. “Sorry you’re getting a late start back.”

“No worries,” Casey said. “Girls are out on the town tonight. It’s Alexa’s bachelorette party, or whatever it’s called these days. I just want to be there when she gets home. Older women party hard. I’m sure large quantities of alcohol will be involved.”

“You planning on taking advantage of it?” Jim teased.

Casey snorted. “Doubtful. Alexa’s a lightweight. Kaiser might get lucky. Regina can hold her liquor.”

Ben was already making plans, but he wasn’t telling these two about it. Instead, he just smiled.

“Thanks for coming by,” Jim said. “I appreciate this—and everything.”

Ben put his hand on Jim’s arm. It was Casey’s turn to simply smile.

“We’ll see you tomorrow morning at your office,” Ben said, motioning to the car with his head. Casey nodded his chin in agreement and climbed inside.

Jim watched them drive away. For a moment, he wondered what kind of condition Lauren would come home in tonight. He’d never seen her drink more than a glass of wine. The idea of Lauren being drunk made him laugh a little.

Across town, Alexa and Regina were trying their best to get a very drunk Lauren into the limo. It was hard to do when they stopped to laugh every couple of minutes.

“But Shaun said he was going to wait for me,” Lauren whined. “You’re messing up my plan.”

“You have good taste in hunky men, but Shaun’s going home alone, honey. So are you,” Alexa told her. “You’ll thank us tomorrow.”

Alexa watched Lauren stomp one black-strappy-heeled foot, her bottom lip pulled into an obstinate pout. It was taking both Regina and her to convince their totally inebriated friend she couldn’t go home with the stripper she’d gotten a little too friendly with in the club. They both sighed when Lauren finally climbed into the limo, butt up in the air, flashing a passerby with a sample of Alexa’s amazing lingerie.

“Maybe I need to change my advertising campaign for that style of underwear,” Alexa said, laughing. “Lauren’s given me a new idea about how to market them.”

Regina laughed so hard she had to bend over. “I swear I’ve laughed more this evening than I have in months. Who knew? Lauren is a hoot when she’s drunk.”

“Yes, but
I
was supposed to be the one getting smashed tonight,” Alexa complained, as she watched Lauren’s rear move deeper into the backseat.

Regina laughed. “You were too busy doing the mother thing and worrying about Lauren to have a good time.”

“Yes, I know. Why aren’t you more concerned? Didn’t you see what she did to Shaun the stripper?” Alexa asked, hands on hips, glaring at Regina who just laughed harder.

When the round of laughter subsided a little, Regina rubbed Alexa’s arm in apology. Alexa had been growing more and more worried about Lauren’s changing behavior. Only Regina knew it was positive sign.

“Yes, I saw what Lauren did. I just couldn’t react for laughing. It was funny enough to see her trying to stick a dollar bill into Shaun’s g-string while he was gyrating. I thought it was quite brilliant of her to hold him still with a hand clamped to his crotch. We’re lucky Shaun pulled her loose before the bouncers caught her doing it. That must have been some grip for Shaun to want to take her home. The man was actually begging her.”

Okay, Alexa thought. It was really funny to think of
Saint McCarthy
picking up a male stripper, but she was still miffed the attention was on Lauren and not her. It was supposed to be her night.

If they had known what emotional condition Lauren was in, they would have been watching her more closely. Lauren had been quiet all night—too quiet, Alexa now realized. Neither she nor Regina even knew how much Lauren had drank until she’d boldly copped a feel of the stripper’s crotch, all but stroking the man as he danced.

“I’ll take Lauren home,” Alexa said to Regina. “Come on, we’ll drop you first. It’s only ten. You and Ben still have time for hot monkey sex before your buzz wears off.”

“We had that last night,” Regina joked around a grin. “Seriously, I don’t mind babysitting, Lauren. How many times did you take care of me when I was drowning my sorrows? Just because you’re the old lady among us, you don’t always have to be the mother.”

“No,” Alexa said. “I need to assuage my guilt for making Lauren continue dating when she didn’t want to anymore. She’s not been the same since the fundraiser dinner, but come to think of it—that was
your
brain child.”

“Who knew her ex-husband would show up?” Regina asked, lifting her hands in the air. “I’m glad she got some closure. Smith was an ass while they were married, and apparently still is one.”

“And who knew Jim would start an emotional fight with her there?” Alexa asked snidely. “Wait. You did. Lauren was practically ill from the stress of dealing with the only two men she’s been sexually attracted to in her life.”

“I repeat—
Lauren is a big girl, Mom
. See her home if you need to, but give her space to experience the consequences of her drinking. It’s character building for her to realize she has emotions that aren’t so nice,” Regina said, reaching out to rub Alexa’s arm again. “She’s been in denial for years.”

Lauren opened the door of the limo and tried to climb back out. They stopped her, stuffed her back inside, and climbed in themselves this time.

Regina’s condo wasn’t too far from the bar. She and Ben were living there while their new house was being built. Once she and Lauren were delivered to Lauren’s house, Alexa sent the limo on its way. She helped Lauren into the living room and deposited her on the couch.