“Ellen, I sent you some money last week,” Hailey said with a trace of asperity. “What happened to that?”
“A measly hundred dollars?”
“That measly hundred dollars was hard to come by,” Hailey said testily.
“I’m sorry, sis. I didn’t mean to sound as though I’m not grateful. Gosh, I am! But I used that to buy a suit. You didn’t expect me to start a new job without any decent clothes, did you?”
Hailey suspected that Ellen’s closet was fairly bulging with “decent clothes.” “I thought you said you needed that money for a deposit on a telephone.”
“Well, I did. But I managed to borrow that from one of the girls I work with.”
Hailey gnawed her bottom lip in vexation, but she put down her flash of temper and asked reasonably, “Do you think that’s a good idea, Ellen? To borrow money from someone you’ve just met?”
“Oh, she didn’t care. She’s becoming one of my very best friends.”
But for how long? Hailey wanted to ask. She rubbed her forehead, which had suddenly begun to pound. “Okay, Ellen, I’ll send you a little more, but this is the last time.” She recalled a pair of cold gray eyes glaring at her and remembered that she might not have a job herself.
“I understand,” Ellen said solemnly, then burst forth with accolades to all of Hailey’s virtues. “You’re the best sister in the whole world, Hailey. I’m so lucky to have you to take care of me.”
They said their good-byes, but it was a mechanical exercise for Hailey. Such scenes had happened too often in the past, and she admitted that they would probably happen again—in the near future. Breaking lifetime habits was difficult, if not impossible.
Ever since they were children, she had looked after Ellen. No one made a secret of the fact that Ellen was the “pretty one” and Hailey was the one with the brains. If Ellen was forgetful and irresponsible, she was forgiven because she looked so angelic. Their parents had never criticized her, nor rebuked her for letting her older sister do her thinking for her. Hailey had bailed Ellen out of numerous scrapes when they were children. Now, as adults, the pattern continued.
Hailey had always been burdened with a sense of responsibility. When her parents’ health had failed toward the latter years of their lives, it was Hailey who stayed at home and took care of them. Ellen left home because she couldn’t bear to be around sick people. Yet, it was she they yearned to see, to talk to. Hailey didn’t really blame them. During Ellen’s infrequent and hasty visits, the gloomy house would be filled with laughter and gaiety. Hailey’s dependability was no match for Ellen’s exuberance.
My God! Is this wallow in self-pity day? she asked herself as she flopped back against the pillows on her bed. What was wrong with her tonight? It was a rhetorical question that she already knew the answer to. What was wrong with her was Tyler Scott. She had built a life for herself, albeit a dull, colorless one. What would he do to that world?
As if on cue, the telephone rang again. Her hand hovered above it, dreading to answer it, knowing instinctively who was calling. She was right.
“Miss Ashton,” he said immediately after she said a low hello. “Tyler Scott.”
“Yes, Mr. Scott. How is Faith?”
“Fine. I’m calling for another reason. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
Was he serious? How could he pleasantly ask if it were a bad time when he was calling to fire her? “N … no. I was just lying down resting.”
A significant pause yawned between them along the connecting cables. It was a silence that didn’t need to be filled. It was already rife with innuendo. “Oh?” he asked on a lilting note. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
The insinuation was so bold, so blatant, so sexual that she sucked in her breath sharply. “No, Mr. Scott, you did not,” she said firmly.
“My condolences. See me tomorrow at one o’clock in Sanders’s office. Good night.”
Outraged, she slammed down the phone. It had already gone dead in her hand. Damn him! How dare he infer anything about her personal life? And even if his sullied mind made such inferences, how dare he speak them out loud? She’d let him know in no uncertain terms what she thought of his seedy insinuations when she saw him.
Tomorrow.
What was he planning to do, to say? Why was he keeping her on pins and needles worrying about her job? Why didn’t he take whatever action he planned to take and get it over with?
Forgoing the omelet, she stalked into her bathroom. She wouldn’t have trouble finding another job. Not with her experience. Why should she care what he did? Let him fire her. Let him have his job. Could he do any better at it than she? “Not on your life, Mr. Scott,” she shouted to the bathroom walls.
What she needed was a fling. Something unheard of. Even scandalous. She longed to do something totally unexpected and impulsive. Hailey Ashton had always been depended on to do the right thing, to behave properly. She always had, and she was sick of it. When had she ever disappointed, surprised, shocked anyone? Never. Such a thing would be good for her. What should it be? Rob a bank? Run naked through the streets? Have an affair?
Her head came up with a snap to look at her reflection in the mirror over the basin. Where had such an idea come from? She didn’t know. Nor could she imagine what prompted the next thought that forced its way to the front of her mind. I wonder what Tyler Scott thinks of me as a woman?
Purely objectively, he was an exceedingly attractive man, if the strong, domineering type happened to appeal to you. His handsome features radiated raw masculinity, yet Hailey had seen a ghost of a smile when he talked about his insecurities as a parent. The steeliness of his eyes was intimidating, but they had softened and grown warm when he looked at Faith.
But the censorious looks he had leveled at her had hardly suggested barely contained lust! She laughed to herself. Of course, there was that brief moment when his eyes wandered in the vicinity of her breasts as he read her name tag, but that couldn’t count. She had only imagined that it took an inordinate amount of time for him to read her name.