Goodbye Lonely (The Bancrofts: Book 4) Read online

  Well, she knew that he was a good programmer, and that he wrote apps for smart phones, had an Australian accent, and had lived in America for a while. Surely, that wasn't enough to know about a guy before you spend a whole weekend with him.

  She needed to know stuff like: How old was he? Was he single? Did he usually date black women, or was she the first?

  She snapped her head up and looked at him. He had been staring at her, and he quirked his lips as if in answer to her thoughts.

  Try as she might to dismiss the questions, they kept niggling at her brain. When she looked at her watch and realized that it was around the time that she had promised Bradley she'd meet him in the Business Center, she reluctantly got up. She wanted to ask Gareth a multitude of questions, but she couldn't, not in front of Janet.

  She got up. "I am leaving now."

  "What?" Janet gasped. "You are usually the last one leaving this place."

  "I have an... er... appointment," Kylie said, ignoring Gareth's surprised look.

  "Where?" Gareth asked.

  "Business Center," Kylie said swiftly.

  "With that guy I saw you with earlier?" Gareth asked. The hint of jealousy in his voice made Kylie look at him with a jolt of joy.

  Was he really jealous? Today was really shaping up to be the best day of her life.

  "Good for you," Janet said before Kylie could respond. "I have never ever seen you go out with a guy. I am actually not going to complain about that. I would complain if it were Lauren though. That girl..."

  Gareth got up and stretched. "I am going to the Business Center too, to grab a bite to eat. I will just walk over with you."

  Kylie paused. "Okay."

  As soon as they stepped out the door, Gareth spun her around. "Kylie, don't start a relationship with this Bradley guy, okay. You have me. I am the only one you are going to have fun with for the foreseeable future."

  Kylie stared at his chiseled lips in a daze. "Is this one of my elaborate dreams?" She barely restrained herself from pinching her hand.

  "No," Gareth smiled at her; little crinkles forming at the side of his eyes. "This is real. I am real. I have been dying to ask you out. I have been dying for us to get to know each other better outside of computers for close to a year, and then today I see you laughing with another guy. Call me scared."

  Kylie laughed. "I think Bradley felt sorry for me, so he invited me out to experience what regular student life is like. I have not been exactly sociable, if you haven't noticed."

  Gareth nodded, "I noticed. I notice everything about you." He touched her cheek. "Skin like dark honey, eyes like chocolate."

  Kylie imagined that she was turning into a puddle at the sound of his voice, but the thought came back to her that she really didn't know anything much about him.

  "How old are you?" she asked clearing her throat, and then in a rush she asked him all the questions that were piling up in her head. "Do you usually date your students, I mean black women? Are you single?"

  Gareth threw back his head and laughed. "Women are women; I don't exactly choose them based on skin color but more on compatibility," Gareth said still grinning. "I am thirty-two, and yes, as of last year September, I am single."

  "What happened?" Kylie asked, walking beside him slowly.

  "My divorce happened," Gareth said, gritting his teeth.

  "Oh." Kylie slowed down a bit. "Was it your fault or hers?"

  Gareth shook his head. "It was nobody's fault, I guess. It was our career's fault. She loved law more than she loved me. She's a lawyer. She divorced me."

  "Do you still love her?" Kylie asked, waiting anxiously for his answer.

  Gareth stopped and pushed his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky. "Do I still love Jackie Beecher?" He looked back at her and grinned, "I think not."

  "Where were you born?" Kylie asked feeling uncomfortable with his response. Why didn't he say 'no'? 'I think not' could mean anything.

  "I was born in Sydney, Australia," Gareth said easily. "My parents moved to the States when I was a teenager."

  "And you still have the accent?" Kylie smirked.

  Gareth inclined his head. "I honestly tried to quit the accent when I just arrived in America." He shrugged. "It's me."

  Kylie nodded. "So what are you doing in Jamaica?"

  "I was busted after the break up, so busted that I needed to escape."

  They reached the Business Center, and Kylie turned and looked at him. "I have to go."

  "That wasn't even twenty questions," Gareth said softly. "So now that you know my basic history are you coming with me for the weekend? I promise, I will not do anything you don't want me to do. No pressure."

  Kylie giggled uncomfortably. Admittedly, that had been on her mind. She made up her mind then and there.

  "I will go, but please note that I am not the life of the party, and I am not overly talkative, so I hope your friends won't mind."

  Gareth shook his head. "They won't mind. I promise."

  Kylie waved as she headed into the Business Center and looked around for Brad, who was sitting at one of the benches with two girls and two guys.

  "Hey," Brad said as she came over, "these are my friends. Friends this is Kylie Bancroft."

  "The president's daughter?" one of the girls asked excitedly.

  Kylie nodded.

  The girl patted the space beside her. "Tell me, where've you been, and can I get an interview feature on you?"

  "Nooo," Kylie said, sitting down. She looked over at Bradley, disappointed. Had he realized that she was the president's daughter earlier and had just wanted a story? She felt cheated and somewhat let down.

  Bradley read her expression and said quickly to the girl, "Simone lay off her. I invited her out so that she can meet some people. Kylie is a bit of a recluse."

  "Oh," Simone said, disappointed. "Sorry."

  Kylie still felt uncomfortable, even after the apology. She couldn't shake the feeling that Bradley had set her up, and she didn't want to participate in their conversation lest she saw it in the school paper the next day.

  She was looking at them talking and imagining some lurid headlines, Reclusive President's Daughter Thinks Weather Is Too Cold.

  Her thoughts had zoned out from them and she was itching to leave. It seemed as if Bradley had read her discomfort and excused the two of them after twenty minutes.

  "Sorry about that," he said to her as he took her elbow and escorted her out. "I just didn't think. My news hound friends are so unsubtle."

  Kylie nodded. "That's okay."

  "I hope this does not mean that you won't be hanging out with me again. I swear I don't need a news scoop on you. There are so many more of your siblings who are more interesting, new-wise"

  Kylie looked at him in shock.

  "Oh my gosh, I have put my foot in my mouth again," Bradley said hurriedly. "Kylie, forgive me."

  "I forgive you," Kylie said kindly, "I have to go now, I have an assignment."

  "Okay." Bradley watched her as she walked away. Drat Simone and her big mouth. He had finally gotten the chance to hang out and get to know the reclusive Kylie Bancroft, the Bancroft girl nobody really knew anything about, and now he was sure that his chances of her hanging out with her again were next to nil.

  Chapter Four

  Gareth rolled over in his king size bed. His phone was buzzing somewhere in it, and he struggled to find it in the tangled sheets. He had had one of those horrible nights. He glanced at his bedside clock. It was early morning, 4:30 actually.

  He found the phone and glanced at the screen. The side of the bed onto which he had rolled felt icy cold, so he rolled back to the side where he had had an uneasy, sleepless night, and scrolled through the missed calls. Five of them were from Jackie.

  He groaned and dropped the phone onto his belly. It made a plop sound and the lights came on, lighting up the gloomy room. He turned it face down and stared at the dark ceiling.

  He had mourned their marriage for
almost two years, though he knew that Jackie had drifted away from him long before she had handed him divorce papers. Like a fool, he had begged her to reconsider. "What we had is broken but it can be glued back," he had argued. Divorce was so final. She had looked at him coldly and declared that he was not good for her life or her precious career.

  He clenched his teeth as he remembered the pain. He was dumped for a job, not for another man, he was sure; Jackie had been too career-minded for that. How could a man compete against a job? She had been in the running for a senior partner position in a New York law firm.

  "Lawyers are a dime a dozen," she had bemoaned. "To stand out in my firm you have to give a thousand percent."

  A thousand percent was not compatible with sex, holidays, or even companionship, so after five years of marriage they had practically become strangers. He had been willing to try again because he remembered how she was before she turned into a cold self-centered lawyer machine.

  He had taken the time to mourn her rejection of him, and now he had found somebody he could relate to, somebody who had a lot in common with him, and he wanted to get to know her better. Jackie was his past and Kylie was his future.

  He was looking forward to spending time with Kylie this weekend. He had had an anxious few hours wondering if she would spend the weekend with him at his friends, Clay and Yasmin Lipschitz. They usually had a motley crew of friends over their seven-bedroom villa on the seashore of the parish that he considered the most beautiful in Jamaica.

  Portland was so rustic and peaceful. No wonder several of his friends settled there for several months of the year. If there were a university in the parish he would have wanted to work there, but he had gotten the opportunity to come to Mount Faith for three years to teach programming and he had taken it with both hands. At least Mount Faith was still Jamaica and he looked forward to traveling around the island every free time he got.

  That he could share it with a native was a pleasure, even if she didn't know the country as well as he did.

  His phone rang again, jerking him from his musings and he saw Jackie's name on the display. Against his better judgment, he pressed the talk button and reluctantly put the phone to his ear.

  "I am sorry, okay!" Jackie was sobbing in the phone. "I am burnt out and tired. You were right. I was wrong. I was a fool for putting my job before everything."

  He waited for her to stop sobbing. Her tears did nothing to him now. Her sorry was a couple months too late.

  "Gareth, are you there?"

  "Yes," Gareth said wearily. "Stop calling me so often Jackie. I see several missed calls from you on my phone. Have you forgotten that we are divorced?"

  "Can't we remain friends?" Jackie asked desperately. "I need a friend right now."

  "There is always Jesus," Gareth said half-seriously. Jackie had given up on church and religion a little after her first promotion. She said she would get to know God when she went to Heaven. He always pointed out to her that her doctrine was wrong. There was no going to heaven without first having a relationship with God on earth.

  "Yes," Jackie said solemnly and then blew her nose. "About that: I went to church one night. I was leaving work early for once, and was compelled to stop by. You remember that church on 42nd Street? The one where they feed homeless people on Wednesdays?"

  Gareth tensed. This wasn't the Jackie he knew.

  "I went and I was convicted by the thought that I need to do something drastic with my life, Gareth. Last week I was looking at a contract and the words were jumping all over the page. My nerves are shot. My doctor said I should to take it easy. Apparently, three hours of sleep and using coffee to perk me up every morning for one year straight is not healthy. I got scared for my spiritual and physical health, and I am turning over a new leaf."

  "Good for you," Gareth said, "That's just what an ex-husband likes to hear several years after begging you to do that for him."

  Jackie was silent. "I still love you."

  Gareth felt a sliver of sympathy run through his body, and then it died. "I am sorry to hear that Jackie." He sighed. "Our 'time apart to sort out things' has past. You telling me that you love me is calculated and selfish, just like everything you do."

  "I am taking a leave of absence from my job for a year," Jackie said, as if he hadn't spoken. "I already squared it off with my boss, Sebastian. He knows that if I don't take a break it's a certain nervous breakdown for me. I finished up a big corporate case last week. I deserve it. They offered to keep my spot in the firm."

  "Good for you," Gareth replied politely. He had always found her single-minded approach to her job a tad bit threatening. The old resentment he had toward her rose up in his mind, and with some effort, he stamped it down.

  "Can you imagine my surprise, at the height of the new movements in my life," Jackie said slyly, "when I happened upon your school's website and found out that they are looking for somebody to fill in for a year in the office of legal counsel. That person would also be required to lecture in the Law Department."

  "No!" Gareth said harshly. "No. No. No!"

  "But why not?" Jackie asked, a childish pout in her voice. "I am perfect for the job, and it's in Jamaica. I can always sign a one-year contract and have a lovely little time in that part of the world. You and I can get to know each other again, and before you forget, I am part Jamaican; my father was born there."

  Gareth's mind was racing with objections. Just minutes before, he had been priding himself that he had moved on. Jackie was a force to be reckoned with, and he would prefer if he were not exposed to her ever again. He imagined her luscious red lips near the phone, and he stiffened. He did not want to think of Jackie again. He had moved on.

  "Gareth, say something," Jackie said after a long pause.

  "Leave me alone." Gareth said petulantly. Grabbing at straws and his relationship with Kylie, which had not even gotten off the ground yet, he said, "I have somebody else in my life now. I am moving on."

  Jackie chuckled wickedly. "There is no moving on from me; you know that. We were always meant to be together. Tomorrow, I am calling the president… what's his name again? She pondered, then answered her own question, "Bancroft. He can pass on my resume to recruitment."

  Gareth sighed. "Please don't do this Jackie. Recover from your lifestyle somewhere else."

  Jackie sighed regretfully. "I realize how single-minded I was in the past, Gareth. I am making a change. Please understand that now I have realized that you were the best thing to have happened to me. Please don't punish me and push me away."

  Gareth listened to her incredulously. He wanted to shout that that had been his line before the divorce, but he knew better than to argue with a lawyer.

  "Goodbye, Jackie."

  "Till later," Jackie said gleefully.

  Gareth kicked away the sheet and got up out of the bed. He shouldn't have answered the phone. He walked barefooted to the sliding glass doors of the master bedroom, and looked out on his neat garden then looked up the street on which he lived, Mount Faith Close.

  Even so early, people were jogging past the entrance to the Close. He glanced at his clock then dragged on his tracksuit. He felt vulnerable and out of sorts because the woman who had hurt him most in the world would soon be arriving at Mount Faith to turn his world upside down.

  Chapter Five

  Deidra was looking at Kylie skeptically. "It is mid-afternoon, Wednesday. You are going out with a guy for the weekend and you are not sure that you should do anything about your dowdy wardrobe or your hair? Do you even comb it?"

  "Of course I comb it!" Kylie looked at Deidra uncertainly. "Do you think I'm boring because I always have it in a ponytail?"

  Deidra nodded readily. "Boring, boring, boring. Let it loose sometimes. Do creative styles, it's thick and curly and healthy."

  Kylie frowned. "I never really learned to comb it, you know. I was the only girl before Jessica, and I was sickly so my Mom was too involved in seeing that I get over my asthma attack
s to be concerned about my hair."

  Deidra raised her eyebrows. "How often do you have those attacks now?"

  "Infrequently," Kylie shrugged, "I always have my pump though, just in case, and I am allergic to a couple of hair products. I love to keep my stuff natural."

  "Yeah." Deidra nodded absently as if she wasn't hearing what Kylie was saying. "Come over here and sit in front of the mirror."

  Kylie uncurled herself from her chair and slowly walked in front of Deidra's mirror. She sat down and cocked her eyebrow. "Now what?"

  "Now you allow me to do my magic."

  Kylie shook her head, "I don't think so."

  "Trust me." Deidra headed to her closet and started rummaging around for her makeup kit. "I have years of experience under my belt. I have been in beauty pageants from before I could walk. I know a thing or two about how to do make up, and I have an eye for design. Don't you tell me that all the time?"

  "Yes," Kylie said, reluctantly. She moved closer to the mirror and looked at her skin. Gareth had described it as dark honey. She had never thought to compare her skin to honey before, and he had said her eyes were like Belgian chocolates. They looked like plain old brown eyes to her.

  With her contacts on she could see a little line over her nose bridge where her glasses used to rest and her skin was mercifully blemish free. She had her Dad's nose, which was straight as an arrow but flared at the tips. It looked better on him and his sons than it did on her. She had a fairly wide mouth, and lips that tended to be pale red.

  "Your hair would look so good short," Deidra said over her head. "You know, like a page boy style, kind of like that detective girl your brother, Taj, is seeing. It would bring out your cheekbones and highlight those wide expressive eyes of yours."

  Kylie shook her head and removed the scrunchy from her hair. Her hair was long and extremely curly, in tight little spiral curls.