Protecting Her(82)

No. My punishment for marrying Rachel will be much bigger than that. So what is it going to be? And when will it happen?

I can’t take it. I can’t take another moment of waiting and wondering. Another hour. Another day. Another week. Another year. I just want it to be over. Right now.

What are they waiting for? Why haven’t they done it? The longer they wait, the more worried I get. They wouldn’t wait this long unless it was something really big. So what the hell is it?





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


Four Years Later


PEARCE

“If you can get me those reports by Monday, we’ll be good on our deadline,” I say, ending the meeting. “I’ll see you next week.”

I leave the weekly marketing meeting and head down to my office. My father stops me in the hall.

“Pearce, we need to meet this afternoon about that new client in Ohio.”

“Yes, I know. I’m meeting someone for lunch. I’ll come to your office as soon as I get back.”

“Who are you meeting for lunch?”

“Logan. I mean, Dr. Cunningham.”

My father smiles. “Give him my best.”

“Yes. I’ll do so.” I hurry past him and continue to my office. I’m already five minutes late meeting him and the restaurant is ten minutes away. I call Logan quick to tell him I’ll be late.

On the way there I get stuck in traffic and end up arriving even later.

“I’m sorry I’m so late,” I say, taking the seat across from him. “You came all this way to see me, and then I show up late. I apologize. I should’ve kept a closer eye on the clock.”

“It’s fine.” Logan looks tired. Or maybe it’s stress. Logan has been working at the Clinic now for almost ten years and he’s slowly learning more about the organization. It’s a hazard of the job. The longer you work there, the more you find out.

“How is work?” I ask him.

Before he can answer, the waiter stops by our table. “Would you like a drink?” he asks me.

I notice Logan already has a drink. That’s odd. He rarely drinks, and when he does, it’s never at lunch.

“I’ll have a bourbon, neat,” I say to the waiter. He takes off.

I don’t usually drink at lunch, but if Logan’s imbibing, I might as well join him.

“How have things been with your father?” Logan asks.

“Better than usual. The past year or so, he’s been almost tolerable. He still tells me I’m doing everything wrong and need to work harder, but he doesn’t do it nearly as much as he used to. Just once or twice a day instead of his usual five or six times.”

Logan smiles. “I don’t know how you put up with it.”

“You learn to tune it out after a while.”

“Do you ever see Jack?”

“No. I haven’t seen him in years.”

Logan knows about my friendship with Jack. He knows Jack was like a father to me. When Jack moved, I told Logan that Jack was so busy with work that he didn’t have time for me anymore.

I told Rachel the same thing. Rachel talked to Martha a few times after they moved, but then Martha stopped returning Rachel’s calls. Rachel couldn’t understand why and the only explanation I could give her is that Jack and Martha didn’t have time for us anymore. She was deeply hurt and upset, not just for herself, but for Garret. He missed his Uncle Jack and Aunt Martha.

Eventually, we all moved on. We don’t talk about them much anymore. I see Jack at the end-of-the-year Dunamis meetings, but that’s it. He no longer attends the Dunamis events here in Connecticut. Instead, he goes to the meetings in DC. There’s a Dunamis chapter there because so many of our members live in the DC area.

“That’s too bad,” Logan says. “I know you two were close.”

“People move on. That’s just how it goes.”

Actually, I still talk to Jack. I just can’t tell Logan that. Or Rachel. A couple months after Jack moved, I received a box in the mail. I opened it up and inside was a very small cell phone. When I turned it on, there was a number already programmed in it. Instead of a name attached to the number, there was simply the word ‘rare.’ I immediately thought of Jack because that’s how he likes his steak. I hit the send button and he picked up on the third ring.

“You didn’t think I’d never talk to you again, did you?” he said when he answered.