Brenda Jackson - Duty Or Desire

“Yes, and the few you’ve dated were women you deemed safe. For some reason you’re afraid if a pretty young woman like Myra got underfoot that she might thaw your frozen heart.”

First she accuses him of breathing instead of living and now she’s saying he has a frozen heart.

His heart wasn’t frozen. He just wore a thick protective shield around it. Pete refused to ever go through the pain he’d felt when he lost Ellen. Pain that could still creep up on him even now, twelve years later. Had Ellen not died, they would be married by now with a bunch of kids and living in this very house where he’d been born. They would be happy, just as they’d been that day when they’d been sixteen and had decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend forever.

Forever…

For him, forever was still going on. It hadn’t died the day Ellen had.

“Have you forgotten about that dream you shared with me, Pete?”

He didn’t have to wonder what dream she was talking about. “What does that dream have to do with anything?”

She sat down in the chair beside his. “Because in that dream you said your hands had been tied and Ellen was untying them for you. Not only did she untie them but then she tried to push you out some door.”

A part of him now wished he hadn’t shared any details about that dream with Bonnie. But he had done so mainly because it had bothered him to the point where he’d awakened in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. He’d gotten up to go into the kitchen, needing something to drink and found Bonnie in the living room, sitting in the chair, rocking Ciara back to sleep. While downing a glass of lemonade, he had told Bonnie about his dream and she’d listened and said nothing.

It had been the next morning when she’d told him what she thought the dream meant. Ellen was trying to release him, free him from all the plans they’d made together. She wanted him to enjoy life. To live and love again. To do more than just breathe.

Pete sighed deeply. He hadn’t accepted Bonnie’s interpretation of the dream then and he wouldn’t accept it now. “I don’t want to talk about that dream, Bonnie.”

“Fine, Pete. But you need to accept that I’m leaving and your niece needs a nanny. I honestly don’t think you’re going to find another person more qualified than Myra Hollister, especially not in two weeks.”

He slid back his chair to stand. “I intend to do just that, Bonnie. I’m determined to find someone more qualified.”

He had to.

Two

Myra looked up from reading the morning paper and sipping her herbal tea. She tipped her head to stare at her cell phone. It was ringing and she didn’t recognize the ringtone. Granted, she hadn’t assigned a specific sound to everyone who called her. Only those that mattered. She was about to ignore the call and then remembered it might be Sheriff Higgins.

She had run into Miss Bonnie and Ciara at the grocery store two days ago and had been so glad to see them. Ciara’s chubby arms had automatically reached for her and she’d been happy to hold her. That had been the first time she’d seen Miss Bonnie since that day a week ago when the sheriff had turned down her employment as a nanny.

According to Miss Bonnie, the position hadn’t been filled and she felt the sheriff would come to his senses soon enough and realize Myra was the best candidate.

Deciding to appease her curiosity, she clicked on the phone. “Hello.”

“Gosh, Myra, you had me worried there for a minute.”

“Wallace? Why are you calling me from another number? One that I don’t recognize?”

Wallace Blue had been her father’s protégé. The man Elias Hollister had groomed for years to replace him at the company whenever that time came. At least her father had the good sense not to make Baron his successor, recognizing at an early age that her brother lacked the skills, knowledge and compassion to ever head a company the size, depth and magnitude of Hollister Enterprises.

Her father thought his only son’s lack of character stemmed from Baron having been raised by his mother, who’d been Elias’s first wife. He thought Charlene had raised her son to be just as callous, calculating and cruel as she was. Myra hadn’t known just how true those allegations were until her involvement with Rick Stovers.

She should not have been surprised that Baron’s behavior would get worse after her parents died unexpectedly. The first thing Baron had done was go after Wallace, who’d been in place to head the company. Rumor had it that Baron, along with his devious mother, had gotten to the stockholders after obtaining damaging information on their pasts. Baron and Charlene had threatened to expose the information if the stockholders didn’t vote Wallace out and put Baron in as Myra’s father’s replacement.

“It’s a burner phone and I wanted to check to make sure you’re okay,” Wallace was saying. “Your brother is more devious than ever and I think he might have put a tracker on my regular phone. He’s desperate to find you.”

Myra could believe that because in two months, when she turned twenty-five, the entire company became hers and there was nothing Baron or the stockholders could do about it. It was Baron’s intention that she not show up at that meeting where she would take control of the company, appoint Wallace as the CEO and show Baron the door. How he planned to stop her was anyone’s guess, but she didn’t want to take any chances.

“I can’t understand why you’re still working there,” she said.

“Because while I’m here I can make sure Hollister Enterprises stays profitable until it’s time for you to take over. Otherwise, Baron will bankrupt it. All Baron’s friends are working here and they don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”

Myra believed Wallace. Her father had said often enough that Baron had no business sense and as far as Myra was concerned the men he hung out with, mostly frat brothers, were just as bad. “Well, let Baron continue to look for me. I think this is the last place he’ll think to look. According to Cleo, he thinks I’m somewhere in Spain, which is why Charlene tried to have my passport revoked so I couldn’t return to the States.”

“Don’t put anything past her, Myra. Over the years she’s been known to have bed partners in some pretty high places.”

Myra could believe that. Baron even bragged about his mother’s past lovers and how she could get some of them to do just about anything for her. Baron and Charlene disliked Wallace because they saw him as taking Baron’s place in Elias’s life. Baron and Wallace were nearly the same age, and yet as different as day and night. Wallace, whose father had been Elias’s best friend since childhood, always carried himself with professionalism and honesty.

“So, what’s going on with you?” Wallace asked her, breaking into her thoughts.

She shrugged, not surprised he’d asked. She considered him the big brother Baron had never been. “Not much. Paula needs to turn this house back into an Airbnb for the holidays, so I’ll be moving out in a week.”

“And going where?”

“Not sure. There’s a woman I’ve met who relocated from Savannah,” she said, thinking about Bella Westmoreland. “She owns a private B and B. I plan to talk to her about moving into one of the rooms there for two months. Just till Christmas. I told you why I’m avoiding hotels.”

“Yes, because Baron could trace your whereabouts if you don’t,” Wallace said. “I just hate you’re on the run like this. If your father was alive, he—”

“But Dad isn’t alive, Wallace, and we need to carry out his wishes like he would want us to do. I’m fine, just a little inconvenienced.”

She and Wallace knew the truth. She was being inconvenienced a whole lot. It was never her desire to get tied to the family’s business. Her father had always respected her decision. But she’d known, because he’d told her, that if anything happened to him and her mother simultaneously, the company would become hers. He’d instructed her to make sure Wallace was CEO so he could run things. And that was what she intended to do. Her twenty-fifth birthday couldn’t get here soon enough. Now, if she could only stay hidden from Baron until then.