Working Man (17 page)

She'd never seen his eyes look so cold. She'd never known his eyes could turn so pale and lethal. He let her finish her speech and he said nothing. Finally he said, “I told you, Dakota, when I'm through with something, I'm through. And I'm done with this. If you can't trust me, we have nothing and that's what I'm feeling right now. Not a damned thing.”

She couldn't have been more stunned if he'd just slammed the door in her face. What he did was much worse, though—he just walked away and left her in the kitchen to let herself out. She sobbed all the way home and sobbed some more after she got there. That's when she realized how much she really loved Nick. When Jonah had left her she hadn't shed a single tear. Now she avoided everyone, including her own family. Billie had come to visit unexpectedly and was horrified by what she saw. Dakota was down to a size twelve at best, and she looked awful. Her hair was dry and brittle and her skin was blotchy. Billie was ready to kill Nick with her own hands.

She cursed colorfully and eloquently in several languages before she was able to calm down a little. She could see it wasn't making Dakota feel any better and that's all she wanted to do.

“Look, baby sister, I did this. It was all me. I should have popped that hag in the head with a bag of nickels the minute I knew she was after my man, but instead I played right into her little trap. It was all my fault for being insecure and jealous. I was totally irrational. I was pathetic,” Dakota admitted. “I just never knew how much I loved him, I guess. I was totally invested in this man to the point I had lost myself in him. I love him completely, Billie, and the thought of him with someone else just about killed me. I've never been involved with anyone to the point where I'd lose my natural mind at the thought of losing him, but here I am. Manless and nuts,” she said harshly.

“So what happens now?” Billie asked quietly.

“Nothing. I go on with my life. I went to him and apologized, and he said he was through with me. I even wrote him a letter and it didn't do a particle of good; he never answered it. So, it's over,” she said with so much sadness in her voice that Billie wanted to cry.

Dakota saw the look on her sister's beautiful face and hugged her. “It's okay, baby sister. I'll be better tomorrow, I really will. Remember that song, ‘Trouble Don't Last Always'? It really doesn't. I might have to leave Chicago, but that's okay. I've had an offer for a new book and a job at the
New York Times
. I'm moving up, Billie. It'll be fine, it really will.”

Billie might have believed her sister if she hadn't burst in to wracking sobs at that very moment.

 

Nick was a miserable man. A miserable man in a really bad mood, the same mood he'd been in since he and Dakota had broken up. Everyone trod lightly around him because
foul
didn't even begin to describe his disposition. He was working harder than ever, but everyone he worked with was on the verge of a nervous collapse. Nick was a kind and understanding person to work for. He wasn't the kind to snap off your head and hand it to you. He was firm, but fair, and he truly cared about developing his employees. Overnight he'd turned into a micromanaging tyrant who flew into rages when things didn't go the way he dictated them.

He was estranged from his family, because Patsy had sided with Dakota. “Nick, I don't mean to be an I-told-you-so, but I told you that keeping that woman on was a mistake. Dakota was right; she's been after you for years, trying to get you back. If you ask me, you need to go over to Dakota's and beg her forgiveness because she was the victim, not the villain.”

Nick had snarled at her that he hadn't asked her and he wasn't going to ask her a damned thing. Paul took issue with the way his brother spoke to his wife and the two men who'd never fought in their lives almost came to physical blows. Nick was going downhill fast. When he stopped his twice-weekly washings of his beloved Escalade, even Leticia got nervous.

She was more than nervous, really; she was terrified. She'd gone way too far and she knew it was just a matter of time before the truth came out. It was going to come out one way or another and she wished with all her heart that she had the courage to tell him what she'd done. She might have, if she'd had a little more time on her side, but time wasn't her friend as she discovered one afternoon.

She came into Nick's office to tell him she was leaving for the day and she saw something in his hand that made all the blood in her veins freeze. He was holding a small pink envelope addressed to him and the letter it had contained was on the blotter in front of him. She didn't have long to wait because he lit right into her.

“I had an interesting talk with my mail lady today. I just happened to be leaving the house when she came and she asked me if I'd gotten the letter I was waiting for. Said that my secretary had been to the house several times to get the mail because I was expecting something special. Since you were in the house when she got there, she figured I had sent you. Since I had done nothing of the kind, I thought I'd better do a little investigating and I found this in your desk drawer. Why you were stupid enough to put it there, I'll never know, but I'm glad as hell that you did,” he said in a cold, dead voice. “If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed that you were capable of this kind of crap. I thought I knew everything about you, Lettie, the good and the bad, but you surprised even me.”

Leticia started stuttering and stammering and trying to explain. “I'm sorry, Nick, I'm sorry. I was wrong, I know I was, but I didn't know what else to do. Your lady wasn't wrong about me, I've been trying to get you back for a long time, but you never noticed. When she came into the picture I knew for sure it was hopeless, but I still had to stick my nose in. The night of that award thing, I didn't need a ride. My car was working just fine. I lied to you so you'd be even later than you were. I turned your phone off so she couldn't get through to you. I erased all the missed calls after she left. I knew she was coming to your house and yeah, I set up a little scene. I don't think she really believed we had done anything, but she was so hurt by then she just had to say something. And after you two broke up I went by your house every day to check your mail because I thought she might write you or something. And when she did, I stole the letter,” she admitted. “I'm not lying this time, I really planned to tell you the truth, but I didn't know how to get the words out. I didn't want to lose my job, and I didn't want to lose you, even though I always knew it was hopeless. I knew you'd never take me back. I know how you can be when you're through with something or somebody. But I deserved to be dumped and as far as I can see, Dakota didn't do anything except love you real hard. I'm real sorry about this, Nick. I really am.”

“Everybody's sorry about something. And I'm sorry to tell you that I'm giving you three months' severance pay. I don't want to see you here again, Lettie.” Nick was leaning back in his big office chair looking utterly exhausted. “Goodbye, Lettie.” He stared out the big window to the darkening sky and shook his head. He picked up the letter and read it again, the words searing into his heart like a brand.
Dear Nick,
he read.
It's taken me a long time to finally understand why I behaved the way I did. Nothing has ever meant as much to me as the relationship we shared. In a very short time you became as essential to me as the air I breathe and the intensity of that feeling overwhelmed me. It frightened me as much as it exhilarated me. When you cherish someone or something as much as I did you, the thought of losing that person, that closeness, is more profound than the fear of death. I made a dreadful mistake, one that I'll regret for the rest of my life. But I'll never regret loving you. Always, Dakota.
As soon as he was done with the third reading, he picked up the phone and called the last person on earth who wanted to hear his voice.

I
t was early evening when Dakota heard a familiar knock at her door. Her heart jumped and she hesitated before going to the living room to open it. She could see Nick's face in the light that shone outside the door and she hesitated for only a moment before opening the door.

“I tried to call you but you didn't answer the phone,” he said gruffly.

Dakota looked at him for a long moment before answering him. “I didn't feel like talking,” she said quietly.

“I figured as much, which is why I came over. I got your letter, Dakota. We need to talk,” he said in a low voice.

“Talk about what? I sent that letter weeks ago and you're just getting around to wanting to discuss it? That ship has sailed, Nick. This is what they call too little, too late.” She brushed her hair away from her face in a weary gesture.

“Can I come in at least? It's kind of hard to talk while I'm standing in the doorway.”

She hesitated, her hand tightening on the knob, which she hadn't let go. Cha-Cha came cannoning into the room and went for Nick, which made her decision a moot one. “Come in before she decides to run out,” Dakota said impatiently.

Nick scooped up the ecstatic cat and entered the room, walking over to the sofa. “Can I sit down?”

Dakota waved her hand and looked irritated for the first time. “Don't be ridiculous. Sit down,” she said with a trace of her usual feistiness.

While Cha-Cha clambered all over her hero with joy, Nick started talking. “Look Dakota, there's a lot we need to discuss. I just read the letter today because I just got it. Lettie had stolen it out of my mailbox when it arrived and I just found it today. I was wrong about a lot of things, but I wasn't wrong to fall in love with you. I want to put this behind us and start over.”

Dakota was walking around the living room straightening things that didn't need to be straightened. She finally sat down on the edge of the loveseat and stared at Nick. “I don't think we can, Nick. More importantly, I don't think we should. We fell into a relationship much too quickly. It was like a fire that burned out of control and we both got burned. I invested too much of myself too quickly and that's why I lost my head. I don't want to risk losing my heart again. It's too painful, it's too debilitating. I think we're better off the way we are,” she said with a chilling finality.

“So you're just going to give up on me? Just give up on love altogether, is that it? What happened to the woman I met a few months ago? You were a fighter when I met you, baby, what happened to all that backbone?” he demanded. He looked at her intently, taking in every bit of her appearance. She looked worn out, too thin and exhausted and it hurt him to know he was responsible for making her look that way.

She finally answered him with a faint smile. “I learned how to pick my fights better, Nick. I can't do this anymore. I think you should leave.”

And because he didn't want to cause her any more distress, he did so, but he had one more thing to say before he walked out the door. “This isn't over, Dakota. Not by a long shot.”

 

Dakota glared at Toni. “Tell me again, how do I let you talk me into these things? The fashion show was bad enough, but this jingle jolly whatever is way over the top, sister.”

“It's the Mistletoe Jam and this is not an idea of mine, for once. This is something the paper has sponsored for years and it's customary for everyone to take part in it. It's a nice Christmas show in the old-school tradition and it raises a bunch of money for Children's Hospital. So you'll do it, right?” Toni looked sweet but resolute. There was no point in trying to argue with her anymore.

“All right, all right, all right, all right! I'll do it, but I won't be happy about it. I want that on record,” Dakota said grumpily.

It was the week before Thanksgiving and they were taping the bloody spectacle for airing the day after Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, she didn't know which and didn't care. All she wanted to do was one take, just like Judy Garland did when they shot her singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” One take and boom, that was it. Well she was going to hit it in one take tonight or her name wasn't Dakota. Toni had not only coerced her into being in the show, she'd come up with a cockamamie song for her to sing. It was a very jazzy tune called “The Man with the Bag,” about Santa coming to town.
Somebody gag me with a big spoon,
she thought. She had to wear an off-the-shoulder red velvet dress with a slit up the side and mistletoe in her freakin' hair. Her only hope of salvation was the thought that her number opened the show and then she could scamper out of there. She wasn't even going to be in the big finale, they had a children's choir for that.

She stood quietly, awaiting her cue. She strolled onto the stage as though she owned it and launched into the complicated riffs with the silly lyrics: Hey, Mr. Kringle, the man with the jingle, blah, blah, blah. She ripped through the song with ease and at the very end she even manage a wink, a smile and a jaunty, “You'd better watch out!” That's when things got crazy. A very tall Santa had appeared at her side and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder.
Thanks for changing the script, Toni,
she thought as she continued to smile and wave. They could throw anything at her they wanted, she was doing one take and that was it. Santa lumbered off the stage with her, and kept trudging along.

“You can put me down now. Yo, Santa, the take is over, I'm done, put me down. Hey, Kris Kringle, you want to put me down now? Drop me, mister or I'll sue this station for a large sum of money. Where are you taking me, crackpot?”

By now they'd reached the parking lot where a light snow was falling. The runaway Santa had finally set her on her feet and took her upper arms in his gloved hands. “I'll take you to the North Pole if you want me to, but I'd rather take you home,” he said.

It was Nick dressed up in that idiotic costume. Nick, the man she'd lost forever.

“Dakota, I owe you an apology. I owe you a lifetime of I'm sorry. I was wrong, baby, I was completely out of line. I was asking you to believe everything I said without hesitation on your part and I wasn't willing to do the same thing for you. I wasn't being fair to you. I know what a low-down liar my ex-wife can be and I should have paid attention to you when you said she was up to something. I got your letter late because she stole it out of my mailbox. I fired her, Dakota. Patsy was right. I should never have kept her on after she got on her feet.
You
were right, she was trying to get with me and I was too stupid to notice. I was as wrong as two left shoes and I need you to forgive me. I need you back in my life, Dakota, because it's been hell without you.”

Dakota was too overcome to say anything, something that caused Nick great anguish. “Say something, baby! Even if you tell me to go straight to hell, say something.”

Finally, she smiled through the tears that were rolling down her face. “You talk too much,” she murmured as she pulled his head down to hers.

She was so engrossed in his kiss she didn't notice the studio's door open. Toni, Billie and Zane were standing there pumping their fists in the air and making all kinds of joyful noise, but Dakota didn't hear a thing.

 

Later that night, the two of them were in the living room in front of a roaring fire and the scent of the dozens of roses that filled the solarium. There was a pile of pillows, a mink blanket, Cha-Cha and a big bottle of the most expensive champagne Nick could find. He'd gotten up for a minute and come back with a small velvet box. “Dakota, catch,” he said as he tossed the box gently in her direction. She opened it to find a perfect five-carat diamond ring set in platinum. The center stone was a brilliant cut and the high, Tiffany-styled prongs were also studded with diamonds, as was the band. It was like a constellation for her finger. It sparkled like a cluster of stars in the night sky and it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Nick was at her side at once with a fistful of tissues.

“How about us getting married on Christmas Day? I can't risk you coming to your senses and running off,” he said between kisses.

“It sounds perfect. I love you, Nick.”

He pulled her into the shelter of his arms and kissed her again. “I love you, Dakota. And nothing is ever coming between us again. I'm going to start delegating more. I want to spend more time with you. I missed you, baby.”

“No more than I missed you. You're my other half, Nick.”

“And you, Miss Lady, are my heart.”

“How did you pull off the Santa coup? That was so sweet. And funny, too,” she added as she stared at her ring in the firelight.

“Well, I called Billie and when she got through cussing me out, she got Toni on the phone and we put our heads together. Your boss helped, too. He seems like a pretty cool guy to work for,” Nick said as he got more comfortable on the pillows and pulled her into his arms.

“Zane is a pretty cool guy, period. He's crazy about Toni, but she doesn't know it. She's engaged to some macho hockey player and she has no idea Zane adores her.”

Nick wasn't really listening to her words, he was enjoying the feel of her against his body too much. “Dakota, I'm serious about getting married on Christmas. I want us to be together as soon as possible for the rest of our lives. I'm making some changes at work, too. I can still get everything done without being there twenty-four seven. It's time for me to quit micromanaging and start letting people do what I pay them to do. And I hired a new office manager, too. I think she's going to work out real well. You're going to like her, I guarantee it.”

Dakota was rubbing her cheek against the soft hair on Nick's but she sat up when she heard that. “Don't be so sure of that. As your wife I may demand the right to have final say on this applicant.” she said in a mock-stern voice.

“Oh, You'll approve this candidate,” he drawled, “Her name is Billie Phillips and she's highly motivated to succeed.”

“Billie? I can't wait to hear how this happened,” Dakota said with a laugh.

Nick's eyes turned hot and passionate. “You're gonna have to, baby, because right now I don't want to talk about anything. I have better things to do with my mouth, like this here,” he said as he took her lips in a long kiss that signaled forever.