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Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: The Pretender and its related characters don’t belong to me. There is no money involved here and no copyright infringement is intended. Actually it is intended but I’m not making any profit so there’s really no point in suing me over it.
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Veil of Contentment - Part 7
- By Phenyx
- 04/27/04
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Parker stirred as she felt the mattress dip. A weight, large and warm, perched on the bed beside her.
“Parker,” Jarod’s deep voice purred. “How are you feeling?”
“Hmm,” she sighed. “Much better.”
The migraine had struck at about 9:30 this morning, right in the middle of a meeting with a group of accountants. Parker had managed to struggle through the agenda but within an hour, she’d begun to see spots. There were no longer any glowering rivals within the Centre’s infrastructure so, with nothing to prove to anyone, Parker had no reason not to go home for the day.
Unable to drive, Parker had called for Jarod to come fetch her. She could have simply ordered up a driver and ridden home in a limo. But having someone to call had just felt so damn good. Near tears from the stabbing pain, Parker had been barely able to dial the phone.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Jarod told her. Parker could hear the concern in his voice, the empathy she knew he had for her pain. Yet beneath it, layered under the worry, had been a distinct note of pride. Yes, having someone to call felt good for them both.
Jarod had come. He had immediately given her two tablets then scooped her up in a gentle embrace. Without regard for the looks he got from the other employees, Jarod carried Miss Parker to the car and rushed her home. Once there, Jarod demonstrated exactly how convenient it was to have a pretender in residence. He tenderly slipped Parker out of her high heels and suit, leaving her in only her slip and panties. He put her in bed on her stomach and lit a strange smelling candle. Not quite mint, but Parker was in no condition to bother identifying the scent.
Miss Parker then received one of the most wonderful massages she had ever had. Jarod had begun rubbing her neck, working his fingers through her hair to massage her crown. He kneaded her shoulders and her back, down her biceps and arms. The pretender paid special attention to her hands, finding pressure points between the fingers. By the time Jarod had begun to rub the muscles in her calves, Parker had fallen asleep. Long after she had drifted off, Jarod continued his ministrations, firmly working the arches of her feet and even her toes.
Now, stretching like a cat, Parker rolled over and dreamily smiled up at the pretender.
“Are you okay?” Jarod rephrased his question, just to be sure.
“Oh yes,” she replied. “I’ll be fine now.”
Jarod nodded. “Good. I wanted to know you were alright before I left,” he explained.
“Where are you headed?” Parker asked only half curious.
“Someone has to pick Teddy up from school,” he answered with a smirk. With an affectionate pat on Parker’s hip, Jarod stood and left the room.
Parker stretched again, sighed then threw back the blanket that covered her. Feeling reenergized and perfectly alert, she quickly shed her silk lingerie and donned blue jeans and a T-shirt. Parker ran a comb through her hair and took a moment to examine her reflection. The image that stared back at her was totally content. One might even say she looked happy.
“Be careful Parker,” she murmured to herself seriously. “You could get used to this.”
Parker was only too aware that Jarod was in hiding. He was essentially running from his problems. Sheltered here in Delaware, in probably the last place his parents would think to look, Jarod was avoiding the life he’d built in the Sunshine State.
One day, Parker knew, her old friend would stop running. Jarod would eventually face the music and return to his other life. He would learn to forgive his mother, though it was unlikely that the pretender would ever forget the incident. Someday the time would come when Jarod would need to go back to where he belonged.
The problem was that the pretender seemed to belong here quite nicely.
Standing there in the middle of her room, Parker felt the cold harshness of reality strike. Jarod wasn’t hers to keep. He could leave at anytime, without warning. He could even leave today if the urge came to do so. The niggling thought swelled and pierced her heart with the force of premonition. It was not a matter of ‘if’ Jarod would go back to Florida, but ‘when’.
Jarod would go and there wasn’t a damn thing Parker could do about it. Trying to keep him from that other life would be like holding on to mercury. The harder she tried to hang on to him, the more quickly Jarod would slip through her fingers.
Worrying her lower lip between her teeth, Parker sighed. There was no point dwelling on the subject. Jarod’s departure was inevitable. Shaking off the dark mood that had engulfed her so suddenly, Parker left her bedroom and made her way toward the kitchen.
As Parker rummaged in the refrigerator, an icy shiver ran down the back of her neck, making the hair at her nape stand up. Only half aware of what she was doing, Parker abandoned her son’s semi-prepared snack on the counter. She had nearly crossed the livingroom and stood only a few feet away from the front door when someone knocked loudly on the other side.
With a sigh of resignation, Parker reached out and opened the door. The woman on the threshold wasn’t Jarod’s wife, that much Parker knew. Though Parker had never met the pretender’s bride, she had seen the picture he dutifully carried in his wallet. Zoë was a red-head, but the woman staring at Parker now was blonde.
For a long moment the two ladies stared at each other in silence. Through the process of elimination, Parker determined the identity of her visitor. “You’re Susan,” she said finally.
The blonde woman smiled. “We’ve met, but were never properly introduced,” the other woman said holding out her hand. “Susan Granger.”
Shaking the offered hand, Parker frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t recall meeting you Ms. Granger.”
Susan nodded. “You were chasing Jarod through a window in my office. Fired a few shots at him as I recall,” her voice dripped with wry curiosity.
“He isn’t here,” Parker bit. Realizing how petulant she sounded, Parker did her best to rein in her temper. Sighing sadly, she stepped aside and gestured Susan into the house. “He’s gone to pick up my son from school. He’ll be back any minute.”
The other woman smiled politely as she quickly surveyed the room. “You’re Miss Parker then,” she said.
Parker nodded. “I shudder to think what Jarod may have told you about me,” she added.
“Don’t,” the blonde replied. “He rarely talks about his past. The only reason I’m here is that this was Jarod’s last assignment before he disappeared. It seemed a logical place to start looking for him.”
“Jarod has been here for nearly three months,” Parker gasped. “You’re only just now starting to search for him?”
“It wasn’t my place to go looking until someone hired me to do so,” Susan said flatly. “Jarod is a friend and my employee. But he can take care of himself. If he decides to go on an extended vacation,” the woman shrugged. “I say he’s earned it.”
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Parker asked abruptly. She found herself liking this boldly honest blonde detective.
As the two women headed for the kitchen, Parker asked, “So who hired you?”
“Zoë and his folks,” Susan answered.
“Took them long enough,” Parker growled.
With a mild shrug Susan said, “I’m not exactly on his wife’s list of favorite people right now. As I understand it, for the first couple of weeks that he was gone, his family assumed he was with me.”
Parker offered a steaming mug to the other woman without comment.
“He’s been here all along hasn’t he?” Susan asked confidently.
Parker nodded.
“Are you sleeping with him?”
“I’ve made the offer,” Parker admitted. “But he sleeps in the guest room, or on the couch.”
For several minutes the two women drank their coffee in awkward silence. Neither volunteering any information to the other. It was Parker who submitted to curiosity first. “If Zoë sent you to find Jarod,” she speculated. “I would gather that she wasn’t the one who sent him packing.”
“He didn’t tell you what happened?” Susan asked.
Parker shrugged. “He told me enough. His wife was banging some other guy and Jarod caught her. If she wants him back,” Parker added. “She’ll have a hard time doing it.”
Susan’s blue-green eyes flashed with concern as she quickly looked away. “That isn’t why she hired me to find him,” the detective admitted. “There’s some paperwork she needs Jarod to sign.”
Parker nearly choked on her coffee. “She wants him to sign the divorce!” she cried. “That bitch wants out of their marriage and you’re helping her speed up the process!” Parker spun out of her chair in fury.
“Miss Parker,” Susan said. Her voice was calm and soothing as she tried to diffuse her host’s anger. “This is a terrible situation, I agree. But in all honesty, Jarod’s marriage has been making him miserable for ages. I hate to see him hurt but until this is taken care of, it will fester like an open wound.”
Parker frowned, gnawing at her lower lip as the rage began to evaporate.
Susan Granger smiled sadly. “It seems to me that you care about him very much.”
Parker didn’t respond.
“His parents are worried sick,” the detective added. “They think they have lost him again.”
“I’m not lost,” came a quiet voice from the doorway.
“Jarod!” Susan’s face broke into a delighted smile as she jumped from her chair. Wrapping Jarod in a warm embrace, the detective quickly chided him, “Give me a little warning next time you decide to vanish would you please?” Susan whacked the pretender in the arm as she continued, “I’m supposed to be a better than average detective you know. It looks bad when I misplace my own people.”
“Sorry Sue,” Jarod said with chagrin. “I was being terribly selfish. It won’t happen again.”
“I’m just glad you’re all right,” the blonde told him. Glancing up at him suspiciously she asked, “You are all right, aren’t you?”
Jarod thought about it for a moment and then smiled. “Yes,” he said. “I would have to say that I am doing just fine.”
“Then call your mother and tell her so, “Susan stated brusquely.
“I will,” the pretender vowed.
“Good,” the detective straightened and eyed her employee critically. “Shall I tell her how to get in touch with you?” she asked.
“No need,” Jarod replied. “Tell her you’ve contacted me and that I promised to be back in a couple days. I’ll need to make some arrangements here.”
Parker sat, silently staring into her suddenly tasteless brew, as Jarod walked his employer out to her rental car. Teddy blew into the room a few minutes later, already changed out of his school uniform and into play clothes. Parker did her best to listen as the boy prattled on about his day. But her thoughts kept slipping away from the child’s chatter.
Teddy would be heartbroken when the pretender left them. The boy was of an age to be craving paternal relationships. Though Teddy adored Sydney, the child had quickly found a much stronger bond with Jarod than he’d ever had with the older man.
Jarod returned and casually began sautéing onions and peeling potatoes for the evening meal. As he worked, he regaled Teddy with an odd tale about two starving soldiers, a couple of rocks and a big black soup kettle. Parker listened closely, somehow expecting the story to lead up to news of the pretender’s imminent departure. But instead, the moral of the narrative dealt with cooperation and sharing.
All evening, Parker waited. As time wore on, Jarod still said nothing to the boy about leaving. Long after the house had gone quiet for the night, Parker laid in bed staring blankly at the ceiling. It occurred to her that Jarod might go without saying goodbye to her or her little boy. A sudden rage flared in her but it was quickly doused.
It was possible that Jarod would move on without saying anything to Parker. That had always been the nature of the strange relationship they shared. But the pretender would never abandon the child without any explanation. Jarod wouldn’t leave the boy wondering what had become of him.
Parker slept little that night. She tossed and turned, her emotions swinging back and forth from anger to sadness. She tried to convince herself that her turmoil was for Teddy’s sake, for how the child would be hurt. But by the time dawn crept over the horizon, Parker had admitted to herself that her son would not be alone in his pain.
Heaving her weary body out of bed, Parker pulled on a robe and stumbled through the house. A stab of panic struck when she walked through the livingroom and found only a rumpled blanket on the couch. Her fear quickly changed to irritation as she heard a sound from the kitchen and realized that Jarod was making coffee.
Standing in the doorway, Parker glared at the pretender. He must have woken up only a few minutes before she had. Jarod was naked to the waist, the blue jeans he’d worn yesterday riding low on his lean hips. Dark hair stuck up in disheveled tufts on Jarod’s head and as Parker watched he combed the stray locks back with one hand.
Registering her presence, Jarod turned toward Miss Parker and grinned. “Good morning,” he purred.
With the early morning sunshine streaming through the window at his back, the pretender was a beautiful specimen. Parker shook her head sadly and sat down at the table. Unable to say what she really wanted to, she chose instead to say nothing.
Jarod worked wordlessly, fixing two mugs and placing one in front of Parker before he sat at the table next to her. They sipped at their cups in silence for a long time. Parker could feel the pretender’s eyes on her but she stubbornly refused to return his gaze.
“Is something wrong Miss Parker?” he asked after a time.
“No,” she growled in return. “Everything is just peachy.”
“Uh-huh,” Jarod replied in a voice that dripped with disbelief. Silence reigned again for several minutes. As Jarod rose and refilled his cup he asked, “Do you need to be at the Centre on Monday?”
“What?” Parker asked with a frown.
“Monday,” the pretender teased. “Day after Sunday. First day of the work week. The day most working stiffs dread.”
Parker’s confusion deepened.
Jarod shrugged. “I’ll have to see a lawyer while we’re in Miami and I highly doubt that I’ll get in to see one over the weekend. Therefore, I’ll need to make an appointment for Monday.”
“While we are in Miami?” Parker felt as though she’d come into a movie five minutes after the main plot had been revealed. She had definitely missed something here.
The pretender sat back down in his chair and gazed at Parker earnestly. “You don’t mind coming with me do you?”
“But,” Parker started.
“I’ve asked Sydney to watch Teddy for a few days,” Jarod went on. “I’d love to take the kid with us but this first trip is bound to be a little ... uncomfortable.”
“Jarod,” Miss Parker said with a wary sigh.
Reaching across the table, Jarod abruptly grabbed Parker’s hand. “Please don’t say ‘no’,” he urged. “They’ll want me to stay and I don’t know how to tell them otherwise. If you are with me, and your son is still here in Delaware, I won’t have to say anything. They’ll know.”
“I thought, “Parker stuttered.
Jarod simply would not let her finish. “Please Parker. Three days. One long weekend. I know it will be awkward and my mother is liable to be a little hostile,” the pretender sighed. “But it’s time we all faced the truth.”
Parker swallowed, her eyes locked on the two hands clasped on the wooden tabletop. “What truth?” she whispered. She watched in fascination as Jarod’s fingers flexed, squeezing her hand gently.
“The truth about their runaway son,” Jarod said softly. “And where he really belongs.”
“And where, exactly, would that be?” Parker felt a delighted grin spreading across her face.
“Annoyingly close to the only person who ever had a chance of catching him,” the pretender smiled.
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Veil of Contentment - Part 7
- By Phenyx
- 04/27/04
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Parker stirred as she felt the mattress dip. A weight, large and warm, perched on the bed beside her.
“Parker,” Jarod’s deep voice purred. “How are you feeling?”
“Hmm,” she sighed. “Much better.”
The migraine had struck at about 9:30 this morning, right in the middle of a meeting with a group of accountants. Parker had managed to struggle through the agenda but within an hour, she’d begun to see spots. There were no longer any glowering rivals within the Centre’s infrastructure so, with nothing to prove to anyone, Parker had no reason not to go home for the day.
Unable to drive, Parker had called for Jarod to come fetch her. She could have simply ordered up a driver and ridden home in a limo. But having someone to call had just felt so damn good. Near tears from the stabbing pain, Parker had been barely able to dial the phone.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Jarod told her. Parker could hear the concern in his voice, the empathy she knew he had for her pain. Yet beneath it, layered under the worry, had been a distinct note of pride. Yes, having someone to call felt good for them both.
Jarod had come. He had immediately given her two tablets then scooped her up in a gentle embrace. Without regard for the looks he got from the other employees, Jarod carried Miss Parker to the car and rushed her home. Once there, Jarod demonstrated exactly how convenient it was to have a pretender in residence. He tenderly slipped Parker out of her high heels and suit, leaving her in only her slip and panties. He put her in bed on her stomach and lit a strange smelling candle. Not quite mint, but Parker was in no condition to bother identifying the scent.
Miss Parker then received one of the most wonderful massages she had ever had. Jarod had begun rubbing her neck, working his fingers through her hair to massage her crown. He kneaded her shoulders and her back, down her biceps and arms. The pretender paid special attention to her hands, finding pressure points between the fingers. By the time Jarod had begun to rub the muscles in her calves, Parker had fallen asleep. Long after she had drifted off, Jarod continued his ministrations, firmly working the arches of her feet and even her toes.
Now, stretching like a cat, Parker rolled over and dreamily smiled up at the pretender.
“Are you okay?” Jarod rephrased his question, just to be sure.
“Oh yes,” she replied. “I’ll be fine now.”
Jarod nodded. “Good. I wanted to know you were alright before I left,” he explained.
“Where are you headed?” Parker asked only half curious.
“Someone has to pick Teddy up from school,” he answered with a smirk. With an affectionate pat on Parker’s hip, Jarod stood and left the room.
Parker stretched again, sighed then threw back the blanket that covered her. Feeling reenergized and perfectly alert, she quickly shed her silk lingerie and donned blue jeans and a T-shirt. Parker ran a comb through her hair and took a moment to examine her reflection. The image that stared back at her was totally content. One might even say she looked happy.
“Be careful Parker,” she murmured to herself seriously. “You could get used to this.”
Parker was only too aware that Jarod was in hiding. He was essentially running from his problems. Sheltered here in Delaware, in probably the last place his parents would think to look, Jarod was avoiding the life he’d built in the Sunshine State.
One day, Parker knew, her old friend would stop running. Jarod would eventually face the music and return to his other life. He would learn to forgive his mother, though it was unlikely that the pretender would ever forget the incident. Someday the time would come when Jarod would need to go back to where he belonged.
The problem was that the pretender seemed to belong here quite nicely.
Standing there in the middle of her room, Parker felt the cold harshness of reality strike. Jarod wasn’t hers to keep. He could leave at anytime, without warning. He could even leave today if the urge came to do so. The niggling thought swelled and pierced her heart with the force of premonition. It was not a matter of ‘if’ Jarod would go back to Florida, but ‘when’.
Jarod would go and there wasn’t a damn thing Parker could do about it. Trying to keep him from that other life would be like holding on to mercury. The harder she tried to hang on to him, the more quickly Jarod would slip through her fingers.
Worrying her lower lip between her teeth, Parker sighed. There was no point dwelling on the subject. Jarod’s departure was inevitable. Shaking off the dark mood that had engulfed her so suddenly, Parker left her bedroom and made her way toward the kitchen.
As Parker rummaged in the refrigerator, an icy shiver ran down the back of her neck, making the hair at her nape stand up. Only half aware of what she was doing, Parker abandoned her son’s semi-prepared snack on the counter. She had nearly crossed the livingroom and stood only a few feet away from the front door when someone knocked loudly on the other side.
With a sigh of resignation, Parker reached out and opened the door. The woman on the threshold wasn’t Jarod’s wife, that much Parker knew. Though Parker had never met the pretender’s bride, she had seen the picture he dutifully carried in his wallet. Zoë was a red-head, but the woman staring at Parker now was blonde.
For a long moment the two ladies stared at each other in silence. Through the process of elimination, Parker determined the identity of her visitor. “You’re Susan,” she said finally.
The blonde woman smiled. “We’ve met, but were never properly introduced,” the other woman said holding out her hand. “Susan Granger.”
Shaking the offered hand, Parker frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t recall meeting you Ms. Granger.”
Susan nodded. “You were chasing Jarod through a window in my office. Fired a few shots at him as I recall,” her voice dripped with wry curiosity.
“He isn’t here,” Parker bit. Realizing how petulant she sounded, Parker did her best to rein in her temper. Sighing sadly, she stepped aside and gestured Susan into the house. “He’s gone to pick up my son from school. He’ll be back any minute.”
The other woman smiled politely as she quickly surveyed the room. “You’re Miss Parker then,” she said.
Parker nodded. “I shudder to think what Jarod may have told you about me,” she added.
“Don’t,” the blonde replied. “He rarely talks about his past. The only reason I’m here is that this was Jarod’s last assignment before he disappeared. It seemed a logical place to start looking for him.”
“Jarod has been here for nearly three months,” Parker gasped. “You’re only just now starting to search for him?”
“It wasn’t my place to go looking until someone hired me to do so,” Susan said flatly. “Jarod is a friend and my employee. But he can take care of himself. If he decides to go on an extended vacation,” the woman shrugged. “I say he’s earned it.”
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Parker asked abruptly. She found herself liking this boldly honest blonde detective.
As the two women headed for the kitchen, Parker asked, “So who hired you?”
“Zoë and his folks,” Susan answered.
“Took them long enough,” Parker growled.
With a mild shrug Susan said, “I’m not exactly on his wife’s list of favorite people right now. As I understand it, for the first couple of weeks that he was gone, his family assumed he was with me.”
Parker offered a steaming mug to the other woman without comment.
“He’s been here all along hasn’t he?” Susan asked confidently.
Parker nodded.
“Are you sleeping with him?”
“I’ve made the offer,” Parker admitted. “But he sleeps in the guest room, or on the couch.”
For several minutes the two women drank their coffee in awkward silence. Neither volunteering any information to the other. It was Parker who submitted to curiosity first. “If Zoë sent you to find Jarod,” she speculated. “I would gather that she wasn’t the one who sent him packing.”
“He didn’t tell you what happened?” Susan asked.
Parker shrugged. “He told me enough. His wife was banging some other guy and Jarod caught her. If she wants him back,” Parker added. “She’ll have a hard time doing it.”
Susan’s blue-green eyes flashed with concern as she quickly looked away. “That isn’t why she hired me to find him,” the detective admitted. “There’s some paperwork she needs Jarod to sign.”
Parker nearly choked on her coffee. “She wants him to sign the divorce!” she cried. “That bitch wants out of their marriage and you’re helping her speed up the process!” Parker spun out of her chair in fury.
“Miss Parker,” Susan said. Her voice was calm and soothing as she tried to diffuse her host’s anger. “This is a terrible situation, I agree. But in all honesty, Jarod’s marriage has been making him miserable for ages. I hate to see him hurt but until this is taken care of, it will fester like an open wound.”
Parker frowned, gnawing at her lower lip as the rage began to evaporate.
Susan Granger smiled sadly. “It seems to me that you care about him very much.”
Parker didn’t respond.
“His parents are worried sick,” the detective added. “They think they have lost him again.”
“I’m not lost,” came a quiet voice from the doorway.
“Jarod!” Susan’s face broke into a delighted smile as she jumped from her chair. Wrapping Jarod in a warm embrace, the detective quickly chided him, “Give me a little warning next time you decide to vanish would you please?” Susan whacked the pretender in the arm as she continued, “I’m supposed to be a better than average detective you know. It looks bad when I misplace my own people.”
“Sorry Sue,” Jarod said with chagrin. “I was being terribly selfish. It won’t happen again.”
“I’m just glad you’re all right,” the blonde told him. Glancing up at him suspiciously she asked, “You are all right, aren’t you?”
Jarod thought about it for a moment and then smiled. “Yes,” he said. “I would have to say that I am doing just fine.”
“Then call your mother and tell her so, “Susan stated brusquely.
“I will,” the pretender vowed.
“Good,” the detective straightened and eyed her employee critically. “Shall I tell her how to get in touch with you?” she asked.
“No need,” Jarod replied. “Tell her you’ve contacted me and that I promised to be back in a couple days. I’ll need to make some arrangements here.”
Parker sat, silently staring into her suddenly tasteless brew, as Jarod walked his employer out to her rental car. Teddy blew into the room a few minutes later, already changed out of his school uniform and into play clothes. Parker did her best to listen as the boy prattled on about his day. But her thoughts kept slipping away from the child’s chatter.
Teddy would be heartbroken when the pretender left them. The boy was of an age to be craving paternal relationships. Though Teddy adored Sydney, the child had quickly found a much stronger bond with Jarod than he’d ever had with the older man.
Jarod returned and casually began sautéing onions and peeling potatoes for the evening meal. As he worked, he regaled Teddy with an odd tale about two starving soldiers, a couple of rocks and a big black soup kettle. Parker listened closely, somehow expecting the story to lead up to news of the pretender’s imminent departure. But instead, the moral of the narrative dealt with cooperation and sharing.
All evening, Parker waited. As time wore on, Jarod still said nothing to the boy about leaving. Long after the house had gone quiet for the night, Parker laid in bed staring blankly at the ceiling. It occurred to her that Jarod might go without saying goodbye to her or her little boy. A sudden rage flared in her but it was quickly doused.
It was possible that Jarod would move on without saying anything to Parker. That had always been the nature of the strange relationship they shared. But the pretender would never abandon the child without any explanation. Jarod wouldn’t leave the boy wondering what had become of him.
Parker slept little that night. She tossed and turned, her emotions swinging back and forth from anger to sadness. She tried to convince herself that her turmoil was for Teddy’s sake, for how the child would be hurt. But by the time dawn crept over the horizon, Parker had admitted to herself that her son would not be alone in his pain.
Heaving her weary body out of bed, Parker pulled on a robe and stumbled through the house. A stab of panic struck when she walked through the livingroom and found only a rumpled blanket on the couch. Her fear quickly changed to irritation as she heard a sound from the kitchen and realized that Jarod was making coffee.
Standing in the doorway, Parker glared at the pretender. He must have woken up only a few minutes before she had. Jarod was naked to the waist, the blue jeans he’d worn yesterday riding low on his lean hips. Dark hair stuck up in disheveled tufts on Jarod’s head and as Parker watched he combed the stray locks back with one hand.
Registering her presence, Jarod turned toward Miss Parker and grinned. “Good morning,” he purred.
With the early morning sunshine streaming through the window at his back, the pretender was a beautiful specimen. Parker shook her head sadly and sat down at the table. Unable to say what she really wanted to, she chose instead to say nothing.
Jarod worked wordlessly, fixing two mugs and placing one in front of Parker before he sat at the table next to her. They sipped at their cups in silence for a long time. Parker could feel the pretender’s eyes on her but she stubbornly refused to return his gaze.
“Is something wrong Miss Parker?” he asked after a time.
“No,” she growled in return. “Everything is just peachy.”
“Uh-huh,” Jarod replied in a voice that dripped with disbelief. Silence reigned again for several minutes. As Jarod rose and refilled his cup he asked, “Do you need to be at the Centre on Monday?”
“What?” Parker asked with a frown.
“Monday,” the pretender teased. “Day after Sunday. First day of the work week. The day most working stiffs dread.”
Parker’s confusion deepened.
Jarod shrugged. “I’ll have to see a lawyer while we’re in Miami and I highly doubt that I’ll get in to see one over the weekend. Therefore, I’ll need to make an appointment for Monday.”
“While we are in Miami?” Parker felt as though she’d come into a movie five minutes after the main plot had been revealed. She had definitely missed something here.
The pretender sat back down in his chair and gazed at Parker earnestly. “You don’t mind coming with me do you?”
“But,” Parker started.
“I’ve asked Sydney to watch Teddy for a few days,” Jarod went on. “I’d love to take the kid with us but this first trip is bound to be a little ... uncomfortable.”
“Jarod,” Miss Parker said with a wary sigh.
Reaching across the table, Jarod abruptly grabbed Parker’s hand. “Please don’t say ‘no’,” he urged. “They’ll want me to stay and I don’t know how to tell them otherwise. If you are with me, and your son is still here in Delaware, I won’t have to say anything. They’ll know.”
“I thought, “Parker stuttered.
Jarod simply would not let her finish. “Please Parker. Three days. One long weekend. I know it will be awkward and my mother is liable to be a little hostile,” the pretender sighed. “But it’s time we all faced the truth.”
Parker swallowed, her eyes locked on the two hands clasped on the wooden tabletop. “What truth?” she whispered. She watched in fascination as Jarod’s fingers flexed, squeezing her hand gently.
“The truth about their runaway son,” Jarod said softly. “And where he really belongs.”
“And where, exactly, would that be?” Parker felt a delighted grin spreading across her face.
“Annoyingly close to the only person who ever had a chance of catching him,” the pretender smiled.
