Negotiation Tactics (3 page)

As the day wound down, Jennie wandered away from the pool and sat in one of the teak chairs that faced the back lawn of Jack and Kelly’s house on Long Island Sound in Connecticut. The sprawling house had become one of the main gathering places for their group in the summer. With a yard that sloped down to a small private beach and a pool with outdoor kitchen, it was perfect for barbeques and parties.

A welcome cool breeze brushed gently over Jennie’s bare arms. She curled her feet under her on the chaise lounge and listened to the noises of the party, letting them engulf her. The sounds of her friends laughing and talking soothed her.

Her black lab, Zeke, had given up playing with Zoe, Jack and Kelly’s mixed breed puppy they had rescued from the shelter, and Jill’s labradoodle, Rev. Zeke now lay below Jennie, snoring loudly, but she was sure he kept one eye open for any opportunity to grab dropped food. The six-year-old dog gave new meaning to the term ‘chowhound.’

Jennie’s eyes landed on Jill and Andrew walking hand in hand toward the beach. She smiled as she watched Jill lean into Andrew, who said something that brought out a laugh. After heartache neither one of them deserved, they had finally found each other. They’d been married in the spring and had just moved into a new home in New Haven. Jennie knew they were both eager to have children and Jill had mentioned that they wanted to start trying for a baby right away. Jennie was happy for the new couple.

Today’s party was Kelly and Jack’s last chance to host a get together before their first baby came. Kelly was due in just three weeks, and even though she looked exhausted as she sat with Jack’s arms around her, she looked happier than Jennie had ever seen her. And that made Jennie happy.

Jennie’s eyes slipped over to Chad, who stood on the opposite side of the pool, beer in hand as he talked to friends. Jennie felt the familiar quickening of her breath that always happened when she looked at him. Her eyes roamed over his strong chest and muscled arms, the broad shoulders of his imposing frame.

His dark looks – even with the smattering of scars that etched his skin from his time overseas – rivaled those of the biggest and brightest stars of Hollywood. In spite of that, there wasn’t an arrogant bone in Chad’s body. This, of course, made him all the more attractive.

The man was stunningly handsome, unquestionably kind and gentle, and he sent the bones in Jennie’s body into a puddle on the floor when he glanced her way. She didn’t want to be attracted to him. But, Jennie found she couldn’t ignore his effect on her no matter how she tried. And that, unfortunately, tore at her heart. Jennie wished with all her being that Chad Thompson didn’t have such a powerful effect on her.

When Jennie had first met Chad, she tried to find his faults. If she could get herself to see him as an arrogant jerk, she might be able to ignore the physical attraction she felt for him. It would certainly make it easier to resist him, anyway. At first, Jennie thought he was just what she hoped for: a superficial jerk with no substance other than good looks and charm. Since Chad was born into the Sutton Capital family, he could have sat back and reaped the benefits of the family business without actually doing any work. Chad only worked until three o’clock many days, making Jennie assume he was living off of trust fund money and not really contributing at all. That made it easier to resist the outward allure.

Sadly, her first impressions didn’t last and Jennie soon had to admit that Chad was just as attractive a person on the inside as he was on the outside. It turned out that Chad left work early to volunteer at a nearby veteran’s hospital. And the more Jennie got to know Chad, the more apparent it became that he was anything but a selfish, spoiled trust fund brat. That certainly didn’t make it easier for Jennie to resist him. But, she knew in her heart, she didn’t want a relationship with him or anyone else. She didn’t want the chemistry between them to exist.

“Hey, sweetie,” Kelly said as she lowered herself into the chair next to Jennie. With her baby due in a few weeks, she wasn’t moving very gracefully. “I swear, this baby has an elbow in my lung right now. She somehow gets up under my ribs and digs in and won’t let go. How’re you holding up?”

Jennie had been in her own little world and hadn’t seen Kelly come up to her until she spoke. She pulled herself away from her thoughts and gave Kelly a smile.

“I’m good. You must be worn out, though,” Jennie said. Jennie sipped the last bit of lemonade from her glass before setting it on the table next to her. “Oh, Jeez, Zeke. Cut that out!” Jennie shooed Zeke down off the table where he’d been busy stealing the remnants of a hotdog off someone’s plate. Jennie hadn’t even seen him get up.

Kelly laughed at Zeke as he swallowed down the hotdog in one bite, not looking the least bit chagrinned at being caught stealing food. Her face quickly turned back to Jennie, though, and Jennie could see the concern in Kelly’s expression.

“I forget sometimes, you know. Until days like this and then it hits me that this probably hurts like hell for you.” Kelly reached out and held Jennie’s hand, squeezing. Her voice was lowered now, maintaining the private nature of the topic she’d just broached.

Jennie shrugged and plastered her standard smile on her face. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have. “It is what it is. I can’t change it so why dwell?”

Jennie had a feeling her friend didn’t buy her act and if Kelly was thinking Jennie’s smile was just for show, she was right. Some days, it was all an act. But, for the most part, she’d found happiness with her friends and her life at Sutton Capital. They were really good friends she treasured. And, she loved her work. After feeling like she was floating around untethered, with no real goals for years, she finally had a job she loved. Good friends and a good job. That was all Jennie could hope for now.

Kelly reached over and put her hand on her friend’s arm. “I’m sorry, honey. I wish things were different. It isn’t fair.”

Jennie just nodded and swallowed. Hard. Her chest tightened and she willed away the lump caught in her throat and the tears that threatened to fall. Four years later and she still had a hard time talking about it. She and her husband, Kyle, had been more than just high school sweethearts. They grew up next door to each other, were best friends through junior high, began to date in high school, and managed to keep their relationship strong through four years of college.

The year they graduated from college, they were married. By the following year, Kyle was gone – he’d lost his fight with cancer a few short months after his diagnosis and just two days after their first anniversary. Jennie still hated vanilla cupcakes – the memory of the vanilla cupcake her mother-in-law had brought Jennie and Kyle in the hospital for their anniversary was too strong and painful.

Jennie and Kelly hadn’t been friends until two years ago and it had been awhile before Jennie told Kelly about her husband. The rest of the group had no idea Jennie had ever been married.

“No, really. I’m okay. Honestly, it’s harder sometimes with my friends who knew Kyle and me. They never forget. Kyle was like a part of my identity with them. With you, I get to forget. Or, at least pretend for a while. But, I’m good. I’m happy for you guys. For all of you.” Jennie looked out over the lawn at Andrew and Jill and at Jesse and Zach, then glanced to where Jack watched Kelly as only a man waiting for the arrival of his first child does. His look seemed to encompass so many emotions: everything from sheer joy to excitement to fear of the unknown.

Kelly didn’t say anything else. There wasn’t really anything left to say. The two friends sat quietly as Kelly’s kick-off-to-motherhood party wound down.

***

Chad watched his mother as she walked around the pool and approached him. He and his mother had a tumultuous relationship for several years when she’d been so angry over his father leaving her, she’d lashed out at all of the people around her. Oddly enough, Kelly’s marriage to Jack had helped her get over that and Chad was glad to have his mom back to her old self – overbearing and pushy, but now full of love instead of hate and spite.

Chad looked down at the grill in Jack’s outdoor kitchen as he scrubbed at it with a wire brush. The party had dwindled to close friends and family and the cleanup had begun.

Mabry Thompson sidled up to her son and sipped her wine as she looked out over the few remaining family members and friends. She ran a hand up and down his back as if he were still five years old and she could soothe him that way.

“Is it hard to watch Jack and Andrew building their own families?”

Chad knew his mother left off the part of the question she really wanted to ask. She wanted to ask if it bothered him to be left behind as his best friend and cousin built their families.

He shrugged a shoulder at her. “It’s not like they’re leaving me, Mom. We still work together, hang out together, see each other everyday.”

Chad cringed as he felt his eyes travel to Jennie before he could school himself.

He’d been out of the military for too long. His guard was slipping.
Damn. I should know better.

Mabry didn’t miss the glance and she didn’t bother to pull punches with her son. “Do you ever wonder if you do it on purpose, Chad?”

Now Chad’s gaze shot to his mother. His hand stilled for a minute as he studied her. “Do what on purpose?”

“Choose women you can’t have. It’s safer that way. You can’t ever be happy if you continue to make the choices you do. Do you wonder sometimes if you’re sabotaging yourself on purpose? If you’ve made sure you haven’t found love and happiness and a family because if you do that, you’ll really have to deal with the guilt of coming home safe? Of being here when others aren’t?”

Chad stopped cleaning the grill and looked down at his mother. How this woman who was 5’ 2” had given birth to large man like him remained a mystery. “Clearly you do. What makes you think I would do that – sabotage my own happiness, Mom?”

Mabry looked at her son for a long time. Long enough to irritate the tar out of him, but didn’t let her see that. He met her stare and waited, not speaking. Not squirming under her gaze.

Finally his mother spoke. “I know you think you don’t have the baggage that a lot of your friends came back with, but sometimes I wonder if that’s really true, Chad.”

Chad considered himself lucky. Damn lucky. He’d come home from three tours of duty with a few scars and, yes, with horrifying memories and dreams that sometimes haunted him. But, he hadn’t been seriously injured. He didn’t suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, where the dreams followed you into the daylight, making you edgy and anxious and irritable.

And, most of all, he had his life. He had lived.

When he had first come home, he tried to isolate himself, unable to face being back in a world that functioned so differently from the one he’d become accustomed to. But, Jack and Andrew hadn’t let him hide himself away. They were there day after day, pulling him back into the world. He knew he wouldn’t have found his way back without their support.

So Chad worked with other veterans, helping them adjust to life at home. That didn’t mean, as his mom implied, that there was something wrong with him. It was with this in mind, that Chad narrowed his gaze at his mother, and challenged her preposterous assessment.

“That's ridiculous, Mom. You came up with this theory because I happen to like a woman who I’m not willing to date, for obvious reasons.”

As far as he was concerned, as an employee he supervised, Jennie was off limits for dating and his friends and family all knew that. It was common knowledge Chad wouldn’t act on the chemistry that was evident to anyone who spent time around the pair.

“Uh, uh. Way off base, Mom.”

Chad turned back to the grill and continued to scrape. He felt his mother’s eyes watching him but he was finished talking about this. She couldn’t be more wrong about him. So, he liked Jennie? He’d liked a lot of women. Some he’d dated and others he hadn’t. Liking Jennie when he couldn’t date her didn’t mean he was damaged in some way. And it didn’t mean he wouldn’t date the next woman who came along and caught his eye.

Right?

Chad’s eyes found Jennie again, but he forced himself to look away. He really needed to make a point to start seeing someone. He needed to get Jennie out of his system, for good. His mom might be overbearing at times, but she was right about one thing. It was high time for him to get the hell past Jennie Evans. He’d let this go on way too long already.

Chapter Three

Jack and Andrew listened as their friend, Peter Mahalik, described the resort property he wanted them to evaluate for him. He was looking to purchase the property from a friend of his family. He wanted Jack’s and Andrew’s opinion of the property as an investment.

“The owner, Jonathan, has carried his nephews for years. Their father was his brother,” Peter explained as he cut into his steak. “Apparently, Jonathan’s brother and sister-in-law were killed in a car accident when the brothers were twenty and twenty-one. They were a little wild and out of control. They partied a lot, got into a mess of trouble, and brought a lot of stress on the rest of the family. Jonathan had the resort, so he sent them out there to run it. It’s never been entirely clear to me why he thought that would be a good idea. They’re not the brightest guys and I think they’re pretty damn lazy. I’m pretty sure the brothers let the managers run the place and they just party and live off their uncle,” Peter said with a shrug.

“Why is he looking to sell it now?” Jack asked.

“He’s getting older and he owns Master Blend Winery so his focus has been on wine for years. He doesn’t get out to the resort at all anymore. Seems like he wants it out of his hair. Wants the brothers closer to home. I’m pretty sure he’ll set them up with a cushy job here. But, if I’m right about them not actually doing any work, despite drawing a salary, and living on the property, then the investment would be a good one. For anyone buying the property, the brothers’ salaries would become instant profit. If the general manager wanted to live on the property, she could take over the villa the brothers share,” Peter said.