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The tension between mother and son was so strong Gracie could almost feel the air twang. Way began to address the table in general in a voice that was a shade too effusive.
“I have an apartment not too far away. When I stopped in here for a bite to eat a little while ago and saw Mrs. Denton sitting alone, I persuaded her to let me join her, but I need to be getting back.” Turning to her, he took her hand and shook it. “It was good to see you, Mrs. Denton. Nice seeing all of you.” With a final nod, he left the restaurant.
Gracie had seldom heard a less convincing cover-up. She noticed that Suzy’s gaze followed Way as he wended his way through the tables and turned out onto the walk.
Since Bobby Tom continued to be mute, she took it upon herself to invite Suzy to join them. “We’re just having dessert. Why don’t we ask the waiter for another chair?”
“Oh, no. No, thank you. I—I need to get back.”
Bobby Tom finally spoke. “It’s a little late for you to be driving home tonight.”
“I’m staying over. A friend and I are going to the symphony at the Performing Arts Center.”
“What friend?”
Gracie could almost see Suzy crumpling under the force of his displeasure, and she was furious with him for bullying her. If his mother wanted to see Mr. Sawyer, that was her business, not his, and Suzy should tell him so. But at that moment, Suzy seemed more like a child while Bobby Tom had adopted the role of a stern, judgmental parent.
“No one you know.” Suzy’s hand fluttered to her hair. “Well, good-bye, everyone. Enjoy your dessert.” She hurriedly left the restaurant, turning to the left when she reached the sidewalk, the opposite direction Way Sawyer had taken.
Suzy’s heart thudded against her ribs. She felt as if she had just been caught in an act of adultery, and she knew Bobby Tom would never forgive her for this. She rushed along the sidewalk, dodging couples with baby strollers and groups of Japanese tourists. The low heels of her brown and-black spectator pumps tapped a frantic cadence on the uneven fieldstone walk. Nearly a month had passed since the illicit night she and Way had spent together, and nothing had been the same since.
She remembered how tender he had been with her the next morning, despite her condemning silence. As they’d driven to the golf course, he’d told her that he wouldn’t ever touch her again but that he’d like to continue seeing her. She had acted as if she had no choice in the matter— as if he’d close Rosatech if she didn’t do as he asked—but in her secret heart she hadn’t believed it. Despite his tough facade, that sort of ruthlessness wasn’t in his nature.
In the end, she had continued to see him. As long as there was no physical contact between them, she told herself it wasn’t a betrayal, so there was no harm. And because she couldn’t face the truth, she let herself pretend she was with him against her will. As they played golf, talked about their gardens, and flew around the state to entertain his business associates, she privately acted out the role of the reluctant hostage, just as if the fate of Telarosa rested on her shoulders. And because he cared for her, he had let her get away with it.
But what had just happened had put an end to that. In the space of minutes, the fragile world of illusion she had built for herself had been smashed apart. God forgive her, she wanted to be with him. Their times together were like bright splashes of color against the monotonous predictability of her daily life. He made her laugh and feel young again. He made her believe that life still held possibilities and filled her aching loneliness. But by letting him come to mean so much to her, she had betrayed her marriage vows, and now her dishonor had been exposed to the one person on earth from whom she’d most wanted to hide her weakness.
The doorman let her into the building where Way lived, and she took the small elevator up to his apartment. She dug in her purse for the key he’d given her, but before she could fit it in the lock, he swung the door open.
His face was set in the same grim lines she remembered from their early encounters, and she almost expected a scathing comment, but, instead, he shut the door and drew her into his arms. “Are you all right?”
For just a moment, she allowed herself to rest her cheek against the front of his shirt, but even that brief comfort felt like a betrayal of Hoyt. “I didn’t know he was going to be there,” she said as she pulled away. “It was so unexpected.”
“I won’t let him badger you about this.”
“He’s my son. You won’t be able to stop him.”
He walked over to the window and, bracing the heel of his hand on the wall next to it, gazed out. “If you could have seen the look on your face when we were standing there . . .” His shoulders heaved as he drew a deep breath. “He didn’t believe me when I told him we’d met accidentally. I wasn’t very convincing. I’m sorry.”
He was a proud man, and she understood what it had cost him to lie on her behalf. “I’m sorry, too.”
He turned to her, and his expression was so bleak she wanted to weep. “I can’t do this anymore, Suzy. I can’t keep sneaking around. I want to be able to walk down the sidewalk with you in Telarosa and be invited into your house.” He gave her a long, searching gaze. “I want to be able to touch you.”
She sagged down on the couch, knowing the end had come but unwilling to accept it. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.
“I have to let you go,” he said quietly.
Panic spread through her, and her hands knotted into fists at her sides. “You’re using what just happened as a way out, aren’t you? You’ve had your amusement, and now you’re ready to get rid of me and move Rosatech, too.”
If he was startled by her unfair attack, he gave no sign of it. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Rosatech. I’d hoped you would have known that by now.”
She hurled her pain and guilt at him. “Do men like you have some kind of corporate locker room where you go to tell each other stories about all the women you seduce with your threats? They must have laughed at you for going after an old biddy like me when you could have had some busty young fashion model.”
“Suzy, stop it,” he said wearily. “I never meant to threaten you.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to screw me again?” Her voice choked on her tears. “Or was it so distasteful that you only wanted to do it once?”
“Suzy . . .” He came toward her, and she knew he wanted to take her into the comfort of his arms, but before he could touch her, she jumped up from the couch and moved away from him.
