The Wager

“Laura, if you’d just—”

“You’ll have to excuse me, Uncle Paul. I really do need to get back to work.” She tossed down her napkin and stood, eager to retreat to her office and put an end to the discussion.

Her uncle frowned as he rose. “Will I see you for brunch on Sunday?”

Pain swift and sharp hit her as memories flooded back—memories of the Sunday brunches shared with her uncle and her mother for most of her childhood and a great number of her adult years. It had been a lovely ritual, but now it, too, was a part of the past. “I’m afraid I can’t make it. I promised the Realtor who’s going to list mother’s house that I would finish packing up this weekend so they can begin showing the house next week.”

“You’re selling Juliet’s house?”

The devastation in her uncle’s voice matched his expression. She’d long suspected Paul Shaw’s feelings for her mother ran much deeper than those of a friend. Losing her had been as difficult for him as it had been for her, Laura realized. She touched his arm. “It’s for the best, Uncle Paul. A house needs to be lived in.”

“But it’s your home, too.”

Laura shook her head. “It hasn’t been for a long time now. It’s too far out for me to commute every day. And you know I work crazy hours and weekends. The house is being neglected, and it shows. Mother would hate that. It’s better if I sell it to someone who’ll take care of it properly.”

“Juliet loved that house.”

“I know.” Her mother had adored the country cottage, and she’d spent countless hours tending its gardens. But each time she’d been to the house since her mother’s death, Laura found herself missing her mother more. “She’s gone now, and I have to let her go. We both do, Uncle Paul. We need to get on with our lives.”

“Yes. You’re right, of course,” he said, his voice sad but resigned.

“Listen, I’d better get back upstairs before they send out a search party.” She kissed his weathered cheek.

When she started to withdraw, he held on to her. “I really am sorry. About…about everything.”

“I know,” she whispered, and gave his cheek a pat before stepping back. She was sorry, too—sorry to have the fantasies she’d believed about her parents shattered into a million pieces.

Some of her thoughts must have shown on her face because her uncle caught her off guard when he said, “Maybe it would be a good idea if you were to talk to someone…a professional—”

“No.” Laura stepped back from him, eager to escape. The last thing she wanted was to share the shameful truth she’d discovered. How could she possibly tell anyone that the father she’d worshiped all her life had actually been a philanderer? A man who had abandoned his pregnant lover and child so that he could marry his society bride and father three legitimate children? Anger welled up inside Laura again—toward her mother, toward the man responsible for giving her life. How she wished that she’d never learned the truth, that the secrets had gone with her mother to the grave.

“But—”

“Thanks, Uncle Paul. But really, I’m fine.”

Only she wasn’t fine, Laura admitted the next afternoon as she rummaged through her desk drawer for a file. Her fingers stilled when she spied the framed snapshot of her parents. Her heart ached at the sight of the photograph that, until two months ago, had sat on her credenza. After learning the truth about her father, she’d banished the picture to the back of her desk drawer, hoping to banish with it the ache of betrayal. It hadn’t worked, she realized as she retrieved the photograph. Grief and anger warred within her as she stared at her mother’s young and smiling face. “Oh, Momma, I miss you so much,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes.

She traced the edges of the small pewter frame and thought of all the years her mother had spent alone. Wasted years in which her mother had turned away suitors, claiming she had found and lost the only man she would ever love. Laura squeezed her eyes shut and recalled her mother’s voice, the dreamy look on her face whenever she’d spoken about her fairy-tale romance, her great love and loss.

And it had all been a lie.

Just as her childhood, her very identity, had all been rooted in that lie.

Opening her eyes, Laura stared at the face of the handsome navy lieutenant with his arm wrapped around her mother.

Her father.

Not Richard Harte. Not the dashing hero she’d loved and respected and longed for all of her life. Her father was the wealthy, irresponsible Andrew Jardine—the man who had so carelessly discarded her mother and gone back to his society life. It wasn’t fair, Laura thought as anger burned in her heart toward the man. He had led a full life. He had had a wife, other children. While her mother…her mother had been left with a life built on lies and a child to raise alone.

The intercom on her desk buzzed, jarring Laura from her thoughts. She shoved the picture back into the desk drawer and reined in her emotions. “Yes?”

“Hello, sunshine.”

Laura smiled at the sound of Nick Baldwin’s voice. The general manager and owner of the Ambassador Grand and her boss for the past year, Nick was smart, charming and one of the nicest men she’d ever known. He was also one of the best-looking—a fact that was not lost on the hotel’s female guests or staff.

“How’s my favorite assistant GM this afternoon?”

Laura chuckled at his remark. “I’m fine. And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m your only assistant GM,” she reminded him.

“That’s right! How on earth could I make a mistake like that?”

“Beats me.”

“Maybe it’s because you do enough work around here for two people.”

“And maybe I’m wondering why you’re laying it on so thick,” she teased.

“Just stating the facts.”

A rush of gratitude spilled through her at Nick’s praise. He was a great boss, one who never failed to let her know she was appreciated. He was also a dear friend and had proved so often during the past couple of months. She could think of few people who would have done what he had—handling the arrangements for her mother’s funeral, insisting she take as much time as she needed before coming back to work even though the hotel was extraordinarily busy. And there had been genuine worry in Nick’s eyes last week when he’d expressed concern about how she was holding up. Yet as much as she liked and respected Nick, she hadn’t been able to tell him the truth. She wasn’t sure she ever could tell him or anyone.

“Laura, you still there?”

Shaking off her gloomy thoughts, Laura attempted to recapture the happy mood Nick’s call had sparked. “Right here and worrying because I have a feeling that you’re about to drop some major catastrophe in my lap.”

“You’re a cynic, Ms. Harte.”

“Hardly, Mr. Baldwin,” she said with a laugh. “I distinctly recall the last time you were laying on praise this thick. It was just before you told me that the hotel was overbooked and I had to find fifty rooms pronto.”

“An honest mistake. Besides, I wasn’t the one who failed to block the space in the hotel’s main system.”

“Yes, I remember whose fault that was,” she conceded. She was sure that Nick remembered, too. The fault had rested on the very attractive, man-hunting reservation agent in the hotel’s sales department who had been so busy trying to catch Nick’s eye that she tended to let minor things like her job slide.

“The important thing to remember is that it all worked out okay.”

It had. Thanks to her scrambling like mad and absorbing the cost of those extra rooms at a neighboring hotel. The unexpected expense had played havoc with her budget, but she’d taken the hit to preserve the goodwill of the account.

“You got a few minutes?”

Laura eyed the file folder on her desk. “I was about to go over the meeting room charts for the cardiologists’ convention that’s arriving tomorrow before I sign off on it. After that, I’m free.”

“Great. How about coming by my office when you’ve finished?”

“Sure.” She paused, worried over her last conversation with Nick. She didn’t want to get into another discussion with him about what he perceived as her unhappiness lately. “Was there something in particular you wanted to see me about?”

“Actually, there’s someone that I’d like you to meet.”

A prospective client, Laura guessed, and felt a measure of relief. Perhaps it was just what she needed—the challenge of a tough new account to sink her teeth into and get her mind off of her own troubles. “Give me ten minutes to wrap this up and I’ll be there.”