Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry(60)

“Meg, I’ll honor that agreement. I am going to find out what’s going on at REL News. If I come across information that suggests that you or your daughter are in danger, do you really not want me to contact you?”

Meg stared straight ahead. “All right. But no more showing up at my workplace or my house. If we have to be in touch, email me.” She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “Time’s up. Please get out of my car.”





65





Ted read the email in disbelief. Yesterday, Gina had written how much she was looking forward to seeing him. Now this.

Gina was one of the most focused human beings he had ever met. She was certainly not the kind of woman who acted on impulse.

What had changed her?

Who had changed her?

There was another meeting about the REL News prospectus starting in fifteen minutes. Ted shoved the phone into his pocket then took long strides across the lobby.

As he pushed the button for the sixth floor, he could only wonder if it was something he had said or done that had made Gina drop him like this.





66





Gina felt her breathing return to normal as she slowly jogged the few blocks west from Central Park to her apartment. It was approaching seven o’clock in the evening. She tried to avoid running in the Park after dark. Tonight she had been lucky. Eight members of a running club were just beginning their six-mile loop. Safety in numbers. She had fallen in behind them. Allowing them to set the pace freed her mind to wander.

Just before she had left her apartment, a call from her father had taken her by complete surprise. While running she had replayed the conversation in her mind.

“Gina, I have to tell you something. You know how tough it’s been for me these six months since your mother died. I want to thank you again for going with me on the trip. It was nice to not be alone among all the other couples.”

He paused.

Gina waited, apprehensive about what might come next.

“Just before I left for the Nepal trip, I was down at the dock, doing a little cleanup on the boat.”

Gina remembered smirking at the image. It had been an inside joke she and her mother shared. A few years earlier arthritic knees had forced him to stop playing tennis. Her mother’s encouragement that he take up golf had fallen on deaf ears. “It takes too long,” he had protested.

“Dad, you’re retired, the one thing you have a whole lot of is time!” they had argued.

He had spent his career on Wall Street in the bond business, and he had landed at Chubb Insurance.

He had loved his job, but when the company was sold he retired.

The following winter a friend suggested they try renting in Pelican Bay in Naples. During their first week, on a walk around the neighborhood they had bumped into Mike and Jennifer Manley, a retired British couple in their seventies.

“Have you been to the beach to watch the sunset?” Jennifer asked.

When her parents answered no, Dr. Manley said, “We’ll pick you up at five-forty-five and ride to the tram together.”

The tram, an oversized golf cart that would have looked at home in Disney World, was used to shuttle Pelican Bay residents from designated parking areas through the enchanting mangrove forests to the three miles of unspoiled beach.

A few weeks later the Manleys stopped by for coffee. Mike said, “A villa in our section is being put up for sale.” Six weeks later Gina’s parents became the new owners.

It was originally a place to escape the nasty New York winters, but by the second year her parents were telling her how much fun Naples was in the fall when it was less crowded. Instead of returning in early April, they stayed through Memorial Day weekend. Following the advice of their accountant, they became Florida residents. It was then that they had encouraged Gina to move into the Upper West Side apartment and treat it as her own.

Life had been so good for her parents. They loved their life in Naples. Friends from New York had retired to nearby Bonita Springs and Marco Island. Her father had become so smitten with boating that he had purchased a secondhand cabin cruiser that could sleep two. There was always something more to do on the boat, and he loved to stay busy. With Mom as his first mate, they joined groups making overnight excursions up and down the Gulf.

Then came her mother’s diagnosis. What should have been another twenty plus years of fun morphed into rounds of chemo and radiation, hospice, and then the end.

And now her father, while tinkering on his boat, had met somebody. I want to be happy for him, Gina thought. But it’s only six months since we lost Mom!

Gina slowed her pace and walked the remaining half block to her apartment. She was about to cross the street to her building when she glanced into the lighted lobby. Miguel was shaking his head while talking to a man who clearly appeared to be agitated. Ted! He was turning toward the door and about to exit the building.

If he looked across the street, he would see her. Gina dove to her left and crouched behind a parked Cadillac Escalade. Peering through the windows, she was able to see Ted turn and head east toward Broadway.

She wanted to run across the street, tap him on the shoulder, and at his surprised expression tuck her arm into his. But she could not. What explanation could she give him? There was none. She knew that if she ever decided to see him, there would be no way she could then stay away from him.