Sweet Surrender Read online

  “What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Pierce stared after the older man. He had a busy day ahead of him. No time to ponder cryptic messages.

  Anyway, he was meeting Haley for lunch. It would have to be a quick one since he had scheduled appointments with a couple of his chattier patients that afternoon. They tended to back up his entire schedule. His peers told him to adopt their fifteen-minute rule, but he wasn’t going to do that. If a patient needed extra time, then so be it.

  “Dr. Masterson, you have a call on line one.”

  “Thank you.” He depressed the intercom button. He hoped the call wasn’t from Haley to cancel their date. “Dr. Masterson, here.”

  “Hi, it’s Beth.”

  “Oh, this is a pleasant surprise.” He frowned, wondering why she sounded so excited.

  “I couldn’t get hold of Mom. I wanted to let you know that I won’t be there this afternoon.”

  “That’s fine.” The wall had long been completed. Recently, he had put her to work filing. Haley’s main goal was to keep Beth too busy to spend time hanging out with wild friends.

  “My dad is here,” Beth said.

  “Your dad?” Pierce stared at the phone. His throat had gone dry. “Good. I’m glad that your dad is there. With you? In the house?” He only had Haley’s accounts of the divorce. Haley’s ex didn’t seem to be a nice guy. Yet, Beth seemed gleeful that her father was there. “Did you call your mom?”

  “I told you. She wasn’t at work,” Beth said.

  Pierce heard a man ask a question in the background. It was too muffled to hear, but he did make out Beth’s response. “It’s mom’s friend. Yes, Daddy, boyfriend,” Beth said, adding, “Pierce, I’ve gotta go. See you later.”

  The line went dead. He tried Haley’s office and her cell phone. There was no answer, so he left messages. He didn’t want her going home without him.

  Pierce worked through his next two patients. Mrs. Keyes always wanted to fix him up with one of her choir members. Not that he discriminated against age, but he did have his limit. Meanwhile, Mr. Jefferson refused to drink the daily fiber nutrient that Pierce had described. Inevitably, he ended up in Pierce’s examination room looking for on-the-spot treatment.

  His office was always closed during the lunch break. He didn’t have to worry about anyone being left behind when he went to lunch or anyone arriving too early. Most times, he ate lunch in the office. But since he had started seeing Haley, he’d jumped on the opportunity to see her more than once in the day.

  In the middle of the business district, there was a deli shop noted for their thick milk shakes. He pulled up in the parking lot, scanning the cars for Haley’s. He glanced at his watch. He was five minutes early. If she had gotten Beth’s message, she might have gone home.

  The little diner buzzed with the lunch crowd. He had to wait for a couple to finish and remove their trash before he nabbed a table. He apologized for hovering over them.

  As the lunch hour continued, larger crowds poured into the tiny shop. Many patrons chose carryout. Only the lucky early birds were able to get a table.

  Today he would try the chicken chili and garlic toast. Haley would probably have a salad. Occasionally she’d try a bowl of soup.

  “Haley, over here.” It took her a few seconds to see him waving madly at her. Her face lit up when their eyes met. Immediately his mood lightened and he didn’t care that he had a full afternoon ahead of him.

  “Were you waiting long?” She pecked him on his cheek.

  He shook his head and kissed her on the lips. She giggled and pushed him away.

  “I don’t know why you’re embarrassed to be seen with me?” he questioned petulantly.

  “You know darn well that it’s because you kiss me and keep kissing me. It took a week to get people from my job to stop teasing me the last time.”

  “They’re just jealous,” he said.

  She laughed. “Probably. So tell me about your day.”

  “Let’s order and then we can talk.” He didn’t want to break the news about Beth to her just yet. Her eyes shone with such lightheartedness and easy amusement that he hated to upset her.

  She ordered while he held the table. Five minutes later they had their meals in front of them.

  “You never said, how was your day?” Haley prompted again.

  “Busy, as usual.” His soup smelled good, but he hadn’t taken a bite yet. “I had a call from Beth. She can’t make it this afternoon.”

  “Oh.” Haley frowned. “It’s been so busy and I had to go to a couple meetings.” She pulled out her cell phone and turned it on. The message light popped on, it’s red color announcing that she had voice mail. “Maybe this is Beth. Maybe she told me why she can’t make it. I hope you didn’t let her pull a fast one on you.”

  He stayed her hand. At least she had made a dent in her salad. Once he told her the news, he suspected that lunch would be over.

  “Beth told me why she wouldn’t make it.”

  Haley put down her fork. He knew there was no way to make this easy for her. “Your husband, I mean ex-husband, is here.”

  “Here. In town?”

  He nodded. “At your house.”

  She grabbed her pocketbook and pushed back the chair. “You didn’t think that was important enough to tell me right away,” she accused.

  “I left a message.” He pushed back his chair and rose. “Damn.” He picked up their lunch bills and headed for the cashier.

  Haley walked ahead of him. She hadn’t said anything further. He impatiently waited for the woman to ring them up. “Haley, would you wait for a minute.” He relaxed only a little when she stood outside the diner with her arms folded.

  Shoving his change into his pocket, he ran up next to her. “Are you heading over there now?”

  “Of course. I didn’t know he was coming. I can’t believe Beth let him in. I can’t believe that he just showed up. I didn’t tell him where I lived, not that he couldn’t find me. But it’s been months since I left and he didn’t come to see Beth when she was in the hospital. So what does he want?”

  “Honey, take a deep breath. I think that Beth probably contacted him. He’s her father and she loves him. Maybe she doesn’t understand why you won’t see him,” he said.

  “Darn it. I have a meeting that I have to attend in fifteen minutes. I can’t get over there for another two hours.”

  “I’ll go check on Beth,” Pierce said.

  She looked up at him. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I can be civil,” he assured her.

  “It’s not you I’m worried about.”

  He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Hey, trust me. I will simply go to the house. Tell Beth that I’m checking on the rail on the porch. It needs tightening anyway.”

  “You have patients.”

  “I’ll head over to your place now and make sure everything is okay. Then I’ll only be about fifteen minutes off my schedule,” he said.

  “Well, okay,” Haley said and smoothed the hair along his sideburn. “You are such a lifesaver.”

  “I’ll call you after I leave the house.”

  They parted ways so that Haley could get to her appointment on time. Pierce drove to her house. He had to admit that he was nervous. Was her ex-husband a hulking beast of a man? Would he be a menacing clean-shaven sociopath? Good grief, he couldn’t remember the man’s name.

  He pulled up in front of the house, noting the new red convertible that was parked in the driveway. Normally he would have jumped out the car and raced up the lawn, but now his feet moved like lead, one step at a time. He headed up the three steps onto the front porch and knocked on the door.

  It swung open instantly. Beth beamed at him from just inside the door. “Hey, Pierce, come in.” Then she looked over her shoulder. “Dad!”

  Pierce looked in the direction that Beth had bellowed. He heard the heavy footsteps against the wooden floor. Then he shifted his scrutiny to Beth. She looked fine
, positively radiant.

  At that moment, the man who had once been married to Haley appeared in the doorway.

  “Pierce, I want you to meet my father, Vernon.”

  Chapter 11

  Haley rushed through her meeting. Afterward, she called into the office to tell her boss that she had to take some time to handle personal business. With these details taken care of, she drove out of the downtown area and headed home.

  Pierce had called to say that everything was fine. He hadn’t elaborated. She’d invited him to come over later. After dealing with Vernon, she knew that she’d need to talk to Pierce.

  She pulled into the driveway, irritated to see Vernon’s familiar convertible parked in her driveway. It gave the impression that he belonged in her home and that they were a couple. She slammed the door shut and marched into the house.

  “Hi, Mom, surprise!” Beth announced.

  Surprise, my foot, Haley thought. She glared at Vernon who sat on the couch with his foot elevated on a stool. The dining table was set for three. Tantalizing scents filled the air. If she wasn’t mistaken, she smelled salmon, Vernon’s favorite.

  “Vernon, what are you doing here?”

  “Mom?” Beth’s voice took on a shrill tone. “I wanted Daddy to be here,” she said. Beth’s face begged Haley to go along with the situation. “He said that he can stay here for a couple days. I gave him the third bedroom.”

  “What?” Haley dropped her pocketbook to the floor. She felt a cold white fury sweep over her. “Vernon, why are you really here?”

  “I missed my family,” he said. He reached for Beth, who snuggled against his chest. Once, that would have been cute. Now it was a pathetic display of manipulation. Something that Vernon had perfected and she had hidden from her daughter.

  “Mom, we did dinner. Like the old days.”

  Haley nodded, barely glancing at the table.

  “Pierce stopped by earlier today,” Vernon said.

  She shrugged, not trusting herself to talk to Vernon about Pierce. Vernon was very perceptive and she didn’t want him to guess how much she cared about Pierce.

  “Seems like you’re moving on with your life. I wish that I could say the same.” He sighed. The sound grated on her nerves.

  “Beth, could you go to your room so that I can talk with your father?”

  “Sure, Mom.” She leaned up and kissed her father on the cheek. “I’ll go to Elaine’s house and hang out for a bit. I’ll be back for dinner. We can eat like a family.”

  Haley waited until Beth left the house before she entered the room where Vernon still sat. It irritated her that his simple gesture of leaning back in the sofa made him appear as if he belonged there. No such thing was true.

  “Don’t be mad at our daughter. She doesn’t know how deep her mother’s animosity toward her father runs,” he said.

  “Animosity would mean that I hate you. Vernon, I don’t hate you. But my disappointment does run deep. I no longer look to you with anything close to love or like. I tolerate you for our daughter’s sake. And that doesn’t mean that you come into my house,” she said.

  She headed upstairs toward the third bedroom. His overnight bag was on the bed. She grabbed the bag and carried it down the steps. Vernon was in the kitchen, stirring various pots. She dropped the bag in the doorway of the kitchen.

  “I can’t stop you from staying in this town. But you won’t be staying here,” she said.

  “Let’s call a truce. Let Beth have her way for tonight.” He raised his hands to stem her protest. “I will get a hotel in town for the remaining two nights. I need to make it up to her for not showing up at the hospital.”

  “All girlfriends busy this weekend? So you decided to squeeze Beth into your life.”

  The smile disappeared and a cold look came over his face. She had pushed too far, but he was on her turf now. And she wasn’t quaking in her boots. She wouldn’t back down.

  “I’m heading out of the country in a month.” He turned off the stove and removed two pots from the range. “Where are the serving dishes?”

  She pointed to a cupboard above his head. So he was going out of the country. He couldn’t possibly dangle that piece of news without further explanation.

  He took down a dish and stared at it. “Don’t recognize these,” he said.

  “I replaced all my dishes.”

  His mouth twisted into a half grin. “Wiping me out of your life one dish at a time, huh?” He looked at the clock on the microwave. “Beth should be home soon. I told her that dinner would be at six.”

  “And heaven help us if we are late.”

  “I’ve mellowed,” he said.

  “You’re going out of the country?” This softer, gentler Vernon unnerved her.

  “I accepted a transfer to Spain for three years.”

  “Have you told Beth?”

  He shook his head. “Of course, unfortunately this will affect my opportunities to visit her,” he said.

  She knew that some countries were more tolerant when it came to fathers obtaining custody of their children. She needed time to think.

  “I was hoping to avoid all the legal claptrap. I want us to get back together. We made a good team. I think that I’ve changed. Looks like you have, too. We could be a unit again.”

  “Maybe you didn’t understand me before. I don’t love you,” Haley said. Her heart raced and she felt a shortness of breath. Good heavens, she felt as if she were on the verge of a panic attack.

  “And that’s what these three days are for. We will reevaluate what we had. Then make a decision. I’m prepared to accept whatever your decision is, but I want a fighting chance.”

  “Mom, please, give Daddy a chance.”

  Haley felt as if someone had punched her in the gut. This couldn’t be happening. It shouldn’t be happening. Her daughter stared at her with tears shimmering in her eyes. Meanwhile, her ex-husband stood in her kitchen with a pot in his hand, scooping salmon and vegetables into a serving dish. The scene seemed pretty homey, except it wasn’t her fantasy.

  “Beth, give your mother a chance to recover. Let’s eat,” Vernon directed.

  Haley sat at the table, barely eating. This was like a play that had gone awry. Vernon had taken the lead and hit on all the emotional points to manipulate the outcome. Once again, she would emerge as the bad guy when she had to break it to Beth that there would be no reunion.

  “Daddy, this is delicious.” Beth finished off her plate. Something that Haley hadn’t seen her do in a long time.

  “I’m glad you liked it. I’ve been taking cooking classes,” he said.

  From the way he said it, Haley suspected that one of her replacements had been a chef. Well, he certainly got around.

  “You don’t like the meal?” Vernon asked.

  “I don’t have much of an appetite.”

  “I made your favorite dessert. Crème brûlée.” Vernon went into the kitchen and retrieved little dishes of the sweet custard.

  She watched him distribute the bowls around the table. This could not be happening. Vernon could not stay in this house, not for one night. She didn’t trust him. If given the chance, he would try to come into her room. She didn’t care how much he said that he’d changed. It was his nature to be overbearing and chauvinistic. He wouldn’t understand that she didn’t want him any longer.

  “Beth, Vernon, thank you for going to all this trouble,” Haley said with a forced smile.

  “No trouble at all,” Vernon replied.

  “You can’t stay in the house, even for one night.”

  “Mom, why do you have to spoil things?”

  “Your father is leaving, Beth. Why don’t you tell her why you came in the first place?”

  Vernon explained while Beth shook her head furiously. Haley wanted to grab her and hold her, but knew that her teen daughter’s emotions were volatile.

  Beth shoved back her chair. “Does anyone care what I think?”

  “That’s why I’m here, B
eth,” Vernon said to Beth’s retreating figure. She headed up the stairs and a minute later Haley heard Beth’s door slam.

  “Seems like she needs a firm hand,” Vernon said.

  Haley heard the criticism. If he thought that he would wear her down by battling her, then he didn’t know who he was dealing with.

  “Do you need directions to the nearest hotel?”

  “Despite your daughter’s wishes, you’re going to be stubborn. Pride is a destructive vice. I hope you don’t regret this later,” Vernon warned her.

  “I’ll live with it,” Beth said.

  He stood over her at the dinner table. He smoothed back her hair. She cringed with each touch. Then his hand gripped the back of her neck and she gasped.

  “Listen to me, Haley. I haven’t forgotten that I told you that no one is breaking us up. You want to pretend that you have the ‘cojones’ to deal with me. Is this new bravado because of Pierce Masterson?”

  Haley pulled her head away from his hand and stood. Her chest heaved from the force of her anger. “Put a hand on me again and you’ll spend the night in jail. You can’t threaten me anymore. Beth is my responsibility and I’ll fight you with every breath to make sure that you don’t use her in your little game. Are you really going to Spain?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s the best news I’ve heard in years,” Haley said.

  He walked over and retrieved his bag. “Maybe you think that you can re-create the family life we had with Pierce. Here’s a little info that I think you should know. Pierce can never replace me in Beth’s life. Trying to force him on my daughter may earn you her resentment. Can you live with that?”

  “I’ll be in touch,” Haley said.

  He opened the door a second before Pierce knocked. Both men stared at each other, long and hard. Haley remained rooted in her spot. Vernon turned and smiled at her, touching his hand to his brow in a mock salute before walking past Pierce.

  Pierce stared at her. She ran into his arms and held him tight. They said nothing as they hugged in the doorway with the light from the house outlining their silhouette.

  “Pierce, you’re here.” Beth ran up to him and hugged him. “Guess what I did yesterday.”