‘Is this the guy?’ Dora asked, picking up the photo that was resting in the middle of the table.
‘Yep. That’s him.’
‘He’s handsome.’
Jessie had thought so too. Far better looking than the other creeps she’d had to flirt with. And younger. In his thirties instead of forties or fifties. But she had no doubts about the type of man he was.
‘Handsome is as handsome does, Dora. He’s married with two little kids, yet he spends every Friday night at a bar in town, drinking till all hours of the night.’
‘But lots of men drink on a Friday night.’
‘I doubt he’s just drinking. The particular city bar he frequents is a well-known pick-up joint,’ Jessie pointed out drily.
‘You could say that about any bar.’
‘Look, the wife says this behaviour is out of character with her husband. She says he’s changed towards her. She’s convinced he’s being unfaithful to her and wants to know the truth.’
‘Doesn’t sound like compelling evidence of adultery to me. She might wish she hadn’t started this.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know, Jessie, I’ve never thought it was very fair on the men in question, sending a girl like you to flirt with them. This man might not have been unfaithful at all. Maybe he’s just working very hard and having an extra drink or two at the end of the week to relax. Then you come along tonight and give him the eye, and he might do something he wouldn’t normally do, something he might regret.’
Jessie had to laugh. Dora made her sound like some kind of siren. Irresistible she was not! Just ask all the male bosses who hadn’t given her a job this past year.
No, poor Dora didn’t know what she was talking about, especially regarding tonight’s target. Still, Dora was sixty-six years old. In her day, maybe more men had more honour.
‘Trust me, Dora. By the time wives go to see Jack Keegan and spend the kind of money he asks for, then there really isn’t any doubt over their husbands’ philandering. All they’re looking for is proof to show the lawyers. Our Mr Curtis Marshall here,’ she said, taking his photo out of Dora’s hand and looking down into his baby-blue eyes, ‘is not some poor, hard-working, misunderstood hubby. He’s been playing out of his patch and he’s about to get caught! Now I really must get going,’ she said as she slid the photo in a zippered side-section of her bag. ‘I’ll just go check on Emily before I leave.’
Jessie tiptoed into the bedroom, where a sound-asleep Emily had kicked off her bedclothes. The evening was quite warm, so Jessie switched the overhead ceiling fan on to the slow setting, then pulled the top sheet up around Emily and tucked her in. Emily had not long given up her cot for a single bed and looked such a dot in the larger bed.
Pressing a kiss to her temple, Jessie straightened before just standing there and staring down at her daughter.
Her heart filled with love as it always did when she looked down upon her child.
That was what had surprised Jessie the most when she’d become a mother. The instant and totally unconditional love which had consumed her from the moment she’d held her baby in her arms.
Had her own mother felt like that when she’d had her?
Jessie didn’t think so. She suspected that any love her mother had had for her had been overshadowed by shame.
Jessie pushed this distressing thought aside and bent to stroke Emily’s dark curls back from her forehead before planting another gentle kiss on her daughter’s cheek.
‘Sleep tight, sweetie,’ she whispered. ‘Mummy won’t be long.
‘Thank you so much for staying here and minding her, Dora,’ Jessie said on returning to the combined kitchen and living room.
‘My pleasure,’ Dora said, already settled on the sofa in front of the television.
‘You know where the tea and biscuits are.’
‘I’ll be fine. There’s a good movie on tonight at eight-thirty. That’s only ten minutes off. You’d better get going. And for Pete’s sake, take a taxi home after you’re finished. It’s too dangerous on the train late at night, especially on a Friday night.’
‘Hopefully, I won’t be too late.’
Jessie didn’t want to waste any of the travel expenses Jack had given her. She wanted to make as much profit out of this rotten evening as she could. Why waste thirty dollars on a cab?
‘Jessie Denton,’ Dora said sternly. ‘You promise me you’ll take a taxi home.’
Jessie gave her a narrow-eyed look from under her long lashes. ‘I will if I need to, Dora.’
‘You can be very stubborn, do you know that?’
Jessie grinned. ‘Yep. But you love me just the same. Take care.’ And, giving Dora a peck on the cheek, she swept up her bag and headed for the door.
KANE sat at the bar, nursing a double Scotch, and pondering the perversities of life.
He still could not believe what his brother had just told him: that he was miserable in his marriage and that he spent every Friday night drinking here at this bar instead of going home to his wife and children. Curtis even confessed to going into the office on the weekend sometimes to escape the tension and arguments at home.
Kane could not have been more shocked. There he’d been these past few years, envying Curtis for his choice of wife, his two gorgeous children and his seemingly perfect family!
The truth, it seemed, was a far cry from the fantasy world Kane had woven around his twin brother’s home life. Apparently, Lisa was far from content with being a stay-at-home mum. She was bored and lonely for adult company during the day. On top of that, two-year-old Joshua had turned into a right terror this past year. Four-year-old Cathy threw tantrums all the time and wouldn’t go to bed at night. Lisa could not cope and their sex life had been reduced to zero.
Curtis, who was never at his best at the art of communication, had started staying away from home more and more, and Lisa was now giving him the silent treatment.
He was terrified she was thinking of leaving him and taking the kids with her. Which had prompted his call of desperation to his brother tonight.
Kane, who’d been working late at the office, solving the problem of a defecting designer, had come running to the rescue—as he always did when his twin brother was hurt or threatened in any way. He’d been coming to Curtis’s rescue since they were toddlers.
‘I love my family and don’t want to lose them,’ Curtis had cried into his beer ten minutes earlier. ‘Tell me what to do, Kane. You’re the man with all the solutions. Tell me what to do!’
Kane had rolled his eyes at this. OK, he could understand why Curtis thought he could wave a magic wand and fix his problems with a few, well-chosen words. He had made a fortune teaching people how to be successful in getting what they wanted out of their working life. His motivational seminars drew huge crowds. His fee as an after-dinner speaker was outrageous. His best-selling book, Winning At Work, had been picked up in most countries overseas.
Earlier this year he’d gone on a whirlwind tour in the US to promote the book’s release, and sales there had been stupendous.
His hectic schedule in America had drained him, however, both physically and emotionally, and since his return he’d cut back considerably on his speaking engagements. He’d been thinking of taking a long holiday when his friend Harry Wilde