Begin Again: Short stories from the heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

you referring to Sam?”
    “You had help with this, Richard. Just admit it.”
    He shook his head. “I didn’t. I swear to you on the company’s name that she knew nothing about my plan. She came to me after the night at the club and begged me to stop playing matchmaker. She said you weren’t the kind of man to be toyed with.” He sighed. “This was my doing. All of it. Even poor Eugenia doesn’t know I’ve been plotting to get you and Sam together. She won’t be happy when she finds out and eventually, she will.”
    “I’m not going to tell her,” Jack said, wishing he could put the whole thing behind him and forget about it.
    “Of course you won’t tell her, but I will. That’s one thing you learn early on in a marriage. Be truthful, no matter how bad it is because when the other person finds out, and they always do, it’s a thousand times worse.” He sighed again. “I really thought you and Sam would be sending us a wedding invitation, but I was wrong.”
    A wedding invitation. Jack coughed. Twice. Richard sure as hell was wrong.
    “Jack, I’d like you to stay and finish your project and then we’ll talk about a promotion to president. Without marriage,” Richard added.
    Jack hesitated a moment. He didn’t want to be the one to ask but he had to. “What about Sam?”
    Richard blinked a few times then shook his head. “Sam’s gone. The project is yours.”
    “Gone?”
    “She headed back to New York this morning. I’m sure going to miss having her around.”
    Jack nodded. She was gone. He should be elated. This was what he wanted, his project back, free reign, a new title. It was all there, all his for the taking, exactly as he wanted it.
    But somehow it felt like an empty victory, one he refused to think about.
    ***
    Three months later, Jack finished the project, two months ahead of schedule. He poured himself into the task, working late every night, sleeping little or not at all and eating only an occasional meal for sustenance.
    But the dream was a reality. Finally. Thousands of people flowed through the museum doors in the three weeks since the grand opening. City projections showed the museum would serve as a great draw for the influx of tourists and suburban dwellers. Jack hoped it would be only the beginning of Cleveland’s rebirth.
    He sat back in his chair and smiled. Soon he’d be moving to another, much larger office. Richard Deeling had announced his partial retirement and named Jack the new president of Deeling & Associates. And he hadn’t even had to marry to get the title.
    Unbidden, unwanted, the image of Sam floated to him, wrapping itself around him, tighter and tighter, the vision so real he could almost touch her, smell her, taste her.
    His smile vanished as he thought of her. He’d long since regretted his rash behavior and the cruel things he’d said, but pride and hurt kept him from contacting her. And something else. The knowledge he could be so weak, and she could still affect him, even after all this time. He remembered the last words she spoke to him. I love you . Had she meant it? Did he care?
    He’d walked out on her and the next morning she was gone. He should be grateful she wasn’t still around to torment him. Jack opened his desk drawer and whipped out his darts. Wham! Why the hell wouldn’t she just go away? She haunted him as he remembered her with tears in her eyes, begging him to understand.
    Had he been wrong about her? That thought plagued him daily but he had no answers. He told himself she’d deceived him, probably manufactured her feelings to please her uncle. He could never trust her let alone marry her. He wasn’t marrying anybody. He’d been more physically involved with women before but none of them had ever branded him the way this one had. Why? Was it because he’d believed she’d played him?
    Wham! The dart landed dead center, crowding out the others on the board. He wished he didn’t have to go to Richard’s retirement party