"I haven't known her very
long."
He nodded. "That's why
you're smiling so much, and here I thought you were glad to see me."
"What about you? Is there
anyone special in your life?"
He cranked the car and pulled
out into traffic. "No, I can't seem to connect with anyone. It seems like
all the women I know are happily married or lesbians."
Rona gave him directions to
the interstate and they chatted about San Antonio and the Navy until they
reached the house.
Tammy and the girls were
walking up the driveway when
Lenny pulled
into the driveway. Rona directed him to park to the side so that Anna could
still get into the garage.
"Man, you didn't tell me
she had kids," Lenny said. "Are they twins?"
"That's Tammy," Rona
said. "She lives here also. Anna won't be home until later." She saw
a look of fear pass over Tammy's face when she spotted the strange car. She
rushed the kids inside the house.
"Do I look that
scary?" Lenny asked.
"It's not you. She's
running from an abusive husband. She's terrified he's going to show up here
someday."
A low rumbling sounded in
Lenny's chest. "Somebody ought to use the bastard as a punching bag and
show him how it feels."
Rona saw a slight movement of
the front blinds. "Come on." She stepped out of the car and waved at
the house so that Tammy would know everything was all right.
"Maybe I should come some
other time," Lenny said. "I don't want to upset her."
"She was only upset
because she didn't recognize the car. Now come on." Rona leaned down and
poked her head back into the car. "She's a great cook."
"Really?"
"You should taste her
shrimp pasta. It's good enough to make a grown man cry."
Lenny unfolded his large frame
from the car. "Well, what are you waiting for? You know how I love to
eat."
As they walked to the house,
Rona pushed away the memories of how the band members had once all gathered at
her and Mary's apartment to talk over sets and eat. Lenny could eat a large
pizza by himself and be looking for a snack in less than an hour.
Once inside, Rona quickly made
the introductions. They soon had a pot of coffee brewing, and the remainder of
the chocolate cake Tammy had baked the day before appeared on the table. It
didn't take Lenny long to win over the girls. He was a natural-born storyteller
and soon had them all laughing.
After one of his better tales,
Rona dried her eyes and noticed Anna standing in the doorway leading to the
hallway.
"You're home," she
said, jumping up from the table. "I didn't hear you come in."
Anna set her briefcase on the
counter. It was plain to see she wasn't happy. "It would've been pretty
hard for you to hear anything over all that laughter. I could hear you all the
out in the driveway."
"Lenny was just telling
us about his days in the Navy," Rona explained as she tried to pinpoint
what Anna was so angry about. "You didn't come in through the
garage."
"No, I couldn't get my
car into the garage."
Lenny jumped up. "I'm
sorry. I thought I was over far enough. I'll go move."
"Don't bother," Anna
replied sharply. "I parked on the street. If you'll excuse me." She
turned and left.
"Anna," Rona called
after her.
"Oh, man, I didn't mean
to make her mad. I'm sorry, Rona. I swear I thought I was over far
enough."
"You are," she
replied and exchanged glances with Tammy, who shrugged slightly.
"I think I'd better
go."
"No, wait," Rona
said. "Let me go see what's going on. She's not angry because you're here.
Something must have happened at work. Sit down. I'll be right back."
Anna's bedroom door was shut. Rona tapped on the door before pushing it open.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
"Looks like you already
have." Anna was changing clothes.
"What's going on? You
seem angry."
"Angry? Why would I be
angry?"
"Anna, I'm not very good
at guessing games. If you're pissed at me, I'd rather you just tell me."
Anna turned to her. "All
right. I don't like coming home and finding strange men here. I've already told
you that."
"Lenny isn't a strange
man. You would have already known that
if
you had given me time to introduce him. He was in Leather and Lace."
"Ah, yes," she said
and nodded. "The band."
Rona closed the door.
"Look, I don't know what the hell's wrong with you."
Anna took a step toward her
and lowered her voice. "I came home expecting a nice quiet evening. I
thought you and I had plans. You could have called me. I get here and a strange
car is parked in my driveway. It sounds like a party is going on and I find a
stranger sitting at my table. The same table, by the way, where I was expecting
to find dinner."
"Well, fuck you very
much," Rona spat as her fists flew to her hips. "Who the hell do you
think you are?"
"I think I'm the owner of
this house, or at least I was until it became a halfway house for
vagrants."
Rona felt as if she had been
slapped. She spun to leave, but Anna grabbed her arm.
"Rona, I'm sorry. Please
. . . please, just please forgive me. Today has been—" Her voice broke as
she began to sob.
Rona's anger vanished.
"What's wrong?" Anna cried harder. "Anna, has something happened
to your family?"
She shook her head.
"Then what's wrong?"
Rona led her to the bed and helped her sit down. She tried to talk to her, but
Anna was crying too hard to listen. Rona gave up talking and held her.
Eventually the sobs began to lessen. "Can you tell me what's wrong
now?" Rona asked cautiously.
"I can only tell you part
of it. I have a client who owns a small company. I helped them set up their
retirement plan. Anyway, this company went public last year. They recently
found out that the item they manufacture is going to be used by the federal government.
As soon as this is announced, this company's stock is going to skyrocket from
its current price of about eight dollars a share to"—she waved her hands
in the air. "It's impossible to say, but there's no reason why it
shouldn't hit fifty dollars before it starts to level off. I was in the process
of helping them expand their retirement plan to include profit-sharing."
Anna stopped and took a deep breath. "Neal was at lunch and I really
needed a file he has been working on. You know how we keep a spare key beneath
our desks?"
Rona's cheeks burned when she
recalled pilfering through the desks in Anna's office. She looked away and
nodded.
"The file wasn't in the
top side drawer where we usually keep the accounts we're working on," Anna
said. "I checked the rest of his desk. In the back of the drawer I found a
file." She paused again. "I found a confirmation statement showing
that Neal had recently purchased over twenty thousand shares of this company's
stock."
"I suppose that's
considered insider trading," Rona said.
"It's not just that.
Rona, he's a twenty-two-year-old college student who makes twenty thousand a
year working for me. Where did he come up with one hundred and sixty thousand
dollars?"
"What are you going to
do?" Rona asked. She held her breath as a fresh stream of tears started
sliding down Anna's cheeks.
"I've already done it. I
fired him. Then I called the Securities and Exchange Commission and reported
him."
Rona stared at her.
"What's going to happen to him?"
"He's in jail." Anna
sat down beside her. "If he's found guilty, and it's glaringly obvious
that he is, he'll go to prison."
"What about you?"
Rona's stomach twisted into a knot. "Can you get into trouble over
this?"
"No, not me personally. I
don't own any stock in the company, but I can't be sure how the publicity will
affect us. I'm positive there will be a full-blown investigation."
"But surely people won't
hold you accountable for what he did."
"He was an employee. It's
bound to cause some backlash." She slid her arm around Rona. "God,
I'm so sorry. I was such an ass to your friend."
"Don't worry about Lenny.
He's cool."
"You can't tell anyone
else what I've told you. I'm going to have to testify against Neal. I was told
not to discuss the case with anyone."
Rona kissed her forehead.
"Well, I'm not just anyone and I promise I won't talk about it."
"How do I explain my
actions to Lenny?"
"Tell him the truth. You
had to fire an employee. If anyone asks why you fired him, tell them he was
stealing," Rona said as she pulled Anna to her feet. "Come on back
and meet him. I think you'll like him."
They started to leave but Anna
stopped her again. "I'm sorry about what I said about dinner and the
halfway house. I don't know why I said it. Please, don't tell Tammy."
"I won't mention it, but
since you brought it up, are you sure you don't resent having us here? We can
talk about it later, but I've been thinking. Now that I have a job, maybe I
should be looking for a place of my own."
"Don't leave because of
what I said." She took Rona's hand. "It did bother me when I saw
Lenny sitting at die table. I was jealous."
"Jealous," Rona
asked, dumbfounded. "What could you possibly be jealous about?"
"The way he made you
laugh. You've never laughed that way with, me."
Rona pulled Anna into her arms
and kissed her deeply. "And Lenny has never made me feel the way that you
do." She looked into her eyes. "Okay?"
"Okay."
"Good, then let's get
back out there."
Chapter Thirty-one
When they returned to the
kitchen, it was empty. There was a note on the table from Tammy letting them
know Lenny was taking her and the kids to dinner.
Anna read the note and moaned.
"He must think I'm a first-class bitch."
"Don't worry about it.
They probably just wanted to give us some time alone," Rona said as she
pulled a chair away from the table and sat down.
"Let's go
somewhere," Anna said.
"Where?"
"I don't care. Let's just
drive."
Rona hopped up. "Can I
drive?"
"Sure."
The phone rang as Anna was
getting her keys. "That's probably Mom wanting to know if we'll be there
Sunday." She grabbed the phone.
Rona was leaving the room
until she realized that it wasn't Mrs. Pagonis on the phone. The look of
concern on Anna's face stopped her.
"Can you tell me what he
wants? ... I understand, but it's rather hard for me to drop everything at a
moment's notice ... Yes, I understand that Mr. Tanner is an important client,
but he needs to understand that he's not my only client . . . Yes . . ."
Anna pressed the heel of her hand against her temple. "I understand
but—" There was a long silence as Anna scribbled something on a pad.
"Yes," she replied. "I'll be there. Of course, I
understand." She hung up the phone.
"What's wrong?"
Anna ripped the page from the
pad and crossed her arms. "That was Tanner's secretary. Tanner wants to
see me first thing tomorrow morning. He's sending his private jet to pick me
up."
"That's the guy from
Midland right?"
"Yes." She ran her
finger over her lip as she stared at the pad of paper. "Do you think he's
already heard about Neal somehow?"
"I don't see how. What
makes him think you'll hop on a plane anytime he wants?"
Anna gave a cynical smile and
said, "Because he has a boatload of money that he has entrusted to me.
He's well aware that I'll jump through hoops to keep his business."
"What do you think he
wants?"
Anna's shoulders dropped.
"Who knows? I just hope it's not about Neal."
"When do you have to
leave?" Rona asked.
"As soon as I can get
packed and get to the airport. The plane is already here waiting on me and a
car is on its way to pick me up."
"He was pretty damn sure
of himself," Rona said as she followed her to the bedroom. "It's
eight o'clock at night." It irked her to sit idly by and watch Anna
hurting while this Tanner guy ordered her around, but all she could do was
watch her pack. "I wish there was something I could do," she said as
Anna closed the suitcase.
"Just be here when I get
back," Anna said.
"That you can depend
on," Rona assured her as she pulled her into her arms and held her.
Anna stepped back when the
doorbell rang. "That's probably the driver." She handed Rona her car
keys. "Use the car while I'm gone. It'll give you a break from having to
take the bus."