Death and Deceit (8 page)

“Exactly,” Alan said. “Sandra is overbearing and pushy. She practically tells Mom what do and she doesn’t want her to leave there. Why she’s the one that got Mom started on cigarettes in the first place. Sandra smokes like a chimney herself.”

“Alan!”

“Well, it’s true.”

“You’re so spiteful. It’s bad enough with me, but now you’ve taken out your hostility on Mom too. No wonder she wouldn’t want to live with you. And you must remember that Dad was as much an influence on Mom’s smoking as Sandra.”

Jessie slammed down the receiver, her eyes filling with tears. “That brother of mine,” she spoke in exasperation. “I don’t know why I even bother with him. He acted like he didn’t even care. His own mother.”

“Sit down, Jessie.” Liz guided her to the sofa and sat beside her. “You’re upset.
That’s understandable. And I’m sure he is too. He’ll probably call you right back and apologize as soon as he realizes how upset you are.”

“No he won’t. He’s too stubborn,” Jessie said, wishing with all her heart Alan would call and make up with her. But she seemed to be facing this alone except for her good and faithful friend, Liz.

“Liz, you don’t have to stay. I’m fine, really. I’ll call Sandra later and check on
Mom, then I need to get ready for my visit on Tuesday. I’ve got to get rid of those boxes
and wash clothes—”

“I’ll help,” Liz offered.

“No. I need to keep busy. But you can do one thing for me before you leave, and
that is check my mail.”

Liz patted Jessie’s hand then rose to turn on the computer.
“There’s no mail. What happened to that message?”

Jessie breathed a sigh of relief. “I erased it. I couldn’t look at it any longer. I hope you’re right, Liz. I hope it was a hoax. But who would do such a thing? Well, now with Mom sick I can’t think about that crazy thing. I don’t even want to dwell on it.”

Getting time off was pretty easy for Jessie. Three other instructors each offered to
take a class on Tuesday, when they heard of Jessie’s mom’s illness. This freed Jessie up and by Tuesday morning she sat across from a young mother battling with three-year-old twins on a stifling hot bus. It was only a two-hour trip to Wakefield, but it seemed like an eternity. The boys were restless and the mother had little control. After one child stepped on her ankle and skinned off the flesh, Jessie was ready to walk. Then like a miracle the bus pulled into a gas station and the mother and her sons got off.

Jessie sighed with relief and settled back to view the scenery. There were long
stretches of wooded countryside, and dark growths of spruce, pine and fir trees rolled by. Then scatterings of homes, an occasional school, a store now and then and several service stations.

As the bus drew nearer to Wakefield, the trees thinned and more fields appeared. Butterflies and daisies splashed their beauty in corner pastures. A family looked to be
gathering some kind of wild berries on a hillside, and a woman in a wide- brimmed straw hat hoed gently in her garden. Jessie smiled when she saw three little woodchucks munching away in a clover patch. As the bus crossed a small, bubbling brook, Jessie’s eyes rested on a couple of swallows that swooped and darted across the water and raced off with their beaks filled with food, probably heading for their nest and their young ones.

In Wakefield, Jessie got a cab and went directly to the hospital. She found her mother resting, while Sandra sat at her bedside reading. Sandra smiled and for once didn’t belt out anything. She tiptoed to the hallway and outside the hospital room she whispered to Jessie.

“Your mom is doing better. They say now that she might have had a slight heart attack. They’re going to do an EKG and if all is okay she can go home on Friday. Isn’t that great?”

Jessie was taken aback. A heart attack! She hadn’t even considered what would happen if her mom needed home care. This now entered her mind. “I don’t know if it’s great. I mean, it is, but will she be able to look after herself?
I don’t know if I can get extended time off. I’ll have to speak to her doctor.”

“There’s no need, Jessie.” Sandra’s voice rose back to its normal grit. “She’s going home with me. We’ve already discussed it.”

“But, your family. Earl—”

“Earl don’t care. He loves her just like I do. And we have no kids there anymore,
‘cept occasionally my grandgirl, and she’s a quiet thing, hardly know when she’s around.”

“That you, Jessie?”

Jessie peeked into the room. “Yes, Mom. You’re awake.” She strode in and took
her mother’s hand and kissed it. “You okay, Mom?”

Her mother smiled weakly. “They say I am. But I feel pretty run down. I have to
stay in bed for a while.”

As Jessie listened to her mother talk, she noticed that since she had been away her mother had lost a considerable amount of weight. She never was a big person but the weight loss was quite noticeable. She swallowed hard, a little shocked by this, but she didn’t want to mention it to her mother.

“I think I need to come home and stay with you, Mom. But I’m not sure when I can do that, with my job and all.”

“I know. But Sandra’s here,” Jessie’s mother said. She turned and glanced at the doorway which Sandra’s large frame filled. “Sandra’s going to look after me. What a friend, hey?”

“Yes, Mom, but only temporarily. Alan and I will work something out for the
future.”

“You talked to him?”

“Of course I did. And he’s very worried,” Jessie lied. “He can’t wait to get down here to see you, but he’s kind of tied up with work. But he’ll be here—”

“I know.” She patted her daughter’s hand. “Big city lawyer.
Alan’s a good boy. Like you. I have wonderful kids. Until then though I’ll go home and
live in Sandra’s guest room. Maybe you kids could get me some help? Do you think we could all afford that together?”

Sandra returned to the bedside. “No more of this foolish talk. You and I will get
along fine for as long as it takes.”

****

As soon as she returned to the city on Tuesday night, Jessie called Kent. In less
than an hour after she’d arrive home, he was at her place. Seated beside her on the sofa he let her lean on him. Gently he brushed his hand across her soft hair then settled his arm around her shoulder.

“You feel so good,” she whispered, her eyes closing.

“I want to be here for you,” he replied. “Why didn’t you call me sooner?”

She opened her eyes and stared into his. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I did. I called Sunday and the line was busy — twice. I called Monday night too.”

“At the very times I was speaking to Sandra and my brother no doubt. I’m sorry to doubt you, but I half feared you were...” She looked down at her hands and twisted them.

“You doubted me?” Kent asked. “Why? Did I give you any reason? The last time we were together I could barely leave you.” He turned a little in order to get a good look into her face. She was still looking down so he tilted her face towards him. Their gaze finally locked. “I miss you every minute,” he said.

Jessie moved towards him, pulled by a passion she could no longer resist. When their lips met, shivers — good ones — caressed her neck and ran down her spine. His lips were soft and sweet. It was their only touching part now, but she felt as if they were together in all other ways.

When the kiss was over she said to him, “I’m sorry. I was thinking of Liz and how you had dated her and—”

“And dropped her?”

She nodded. “I shouldn’t have, but I’ve been feeling guilty ever since we started
dating.”

Kent rose suddenly. He walked to the window and looked out. “You’ve got to get over that, Jessie. And if Liz is bothering you with it, I’ll talk to her.”

Jessie walked up behind him. “No, that’s not the case. Not at all. She’s been
wonderful. She stayed with me Saturday night...after I got that horrible message, and on Sunday she offered —”

“What message?”

“Oh, it was nothing. Well, it was something. It was awful, but it was a prank...I think. I mean, Liz said it had to be.”

Kent looked concerned and turned towards her. “What was it?”

“It’s nothing. Forget it.” Jessie didn’t even want to think about it. She looked at
his concerned, handsome face and melted into his arms. “Just hold me, please.”

Kent knew he could do better than that. No one had ever had this effect on him before. No woman had ever entered that part of him that was his own sacred ground. No woman...until Jessie.

****

Liz got her chance to fill in for Jessie on Saturday. And Kent got his chance the night before to take Jessie out of the city and homeward. The house smelled slightly musty, and Jessie travelled from room to room opening curtains and raising windows to let the soft, evening breeze drift through her family home.

Her mother was already set up in Sandra’s spare room, which made Jessie feel strange. She’d never come home before to spend a night without her mother there. When she’d visited the week before, she had only briefly gone to the house to check things. Now she was preparing to spend the night...and not alone. Kent would be in the house with her. Although they had spent a lot of time together and Kent had been more than attentive since her arrival back from Wakefield on Tuesday night, she still felt apprehensive about spending the night with him.

As soon as they’d arrived Kent felt Jessie’s urgency. How she’d flitted through the house opening windows, then she’d busily begun making up the beds with fresh sheets. She had told him he would occupy Alan’s old room, and he could see from her nervous reaction that spending the night under the same roof with him was giving her anxious tremors.

In order to stay out of her way while she bustled about, Kent ventured outside. He walked to the far edge of the front lawn and looked over the property. The one-and-a-half story Cape Cod house was clapboarded in white. It had a sharply pitched green roof and rose above tall, dark cedars that stood like sentinels on each side of the front door. Green shutters adorned the windows. And although the grass needed a good mowing, which he planned to tend to if Jessie would allow him, the house had been well kept and was shaded by two identical sized maple trees.

He strolled around the back and looked up into the branches of a giant willow, spreading its protective branches downward. A small, but well-worked flower garden stretched out behind the willow in a rectangular shape. Weeds now crept between the rows threatening to overtake the diligent work that probably had been done earlier in the season by Jessie’s mom. A hedge surrounded the backyard. Kent returned to the house and passed closed French doors that separated the dining room from the front hall entrance.

Jessie smoothed out the last wrinkle on the bed that Kent would occupy, then backed away wondering how he would look stretched out in her brother’s bed. A warm hand on her shoulder jolted her from imaginary scenes to the real Kent.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.

She didn’t move or turn around, for the feel of his hand on her shoulder was too
comforting, and she didn’t want to lose that feeling. “I was preparing the beds,” she explained.

His hand slipped off her shoulder and both arms went round her waist. “The beds?
You went to a lot of extra work while one would have done.”

It surprised her and she turned in his arms. “Oh no, Kent, not in my mother’s
house, not like this.”

He kissed her immediately almost ignoring her words. She didn’t resist as he caught her waist again and pulled her to him. With one swoop he had her in his arms. She was a lightweight — all that aerobic stuff made her firm though. He carried her the few steps to the bed and laid her down gently, placing himself just above her. Her eyes were closed now and she looked like she might be waiting, anticipating
the next kiss or caress. He wouldn’t disappoint her. He touched her cheek which flamed with heat. His soft caress of her hair off her forehead made her tremble. This he could feel, as his body touched hers.
“My God, Jessie. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever been near,” he whispered.
“You do things to me I never knew existed.”

Jessie’s eyes popped open and she pushed hard on his chest thrusting him backward. For a moment she had almost given in to temptation, right under her parents’ roof. “Get up, Kent,” she said.

He obliged and standing above her, his hands on his hips, he smirked. “Oh, right.
Not in your mother’s house.” He made a gesture now with both palms up in front of his chest. “Sorry. I got carried away. You...do that to me, you know.”

She gave him a sideways smile. “So, you’ve been telling me,” she said, then bounced off the bed and smoothed it again.

He laughed. “You’re a neat freak, aren’t you?”