A Time To Give

He came up to them just as Emily let Hugo have it. “That language won’t be tolerated here. If you want to eat, you’ll behave yourself. Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can find more chicken for you.” She glanced at Ben, nodded and walked away.

He grinned safely behind her back; from beneath that cream-puff exterior, he’d often seen her tough side emerge. The contrast continually amazed him, and sometimes he wanted to plumb those depths—thoroughly.

Ben dropped into a chair. “Hey, Hugo, what’s going on?”

Desperate eyes leveled on him. Ben knew the expression intimately, had seen it in his mirror often over the past two years. “Aw, Ben, I didn’t mean to yell at that girl.” He shook his head then rubbed his hands over his eyes. “I wanna bring food to Josie, and Emily said they were done serving.”

“Cassidy Place doesn’t send home doggy bags, Hugo, you know that. Josie has to come here if she wants to eat.”

“She’s sick.” Translated, she’s either stoned or drunk.

Familiar with the latter, Ben laid a hand on Hugo’s bony shoulder. “There are free clinics to help her, man.”

Hugo’s body sagged beneath the old work shirt. “I dunno what to do.”

“Talk to Alice. She’s got names of places to help Josie.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“And apologize to Emily. She didn’t do anything to you.”

He returned to his seat before Emily came back, but he couldn’t focus on the paper. He was remembering when he’d needed one of those places that reformed drunks….

Ben had been on a long binge, and that night, dashing under a bridge to escape the rain, he’d slipped and fallen, and then passed out. He’d woken up with his face in a puddle of slime, a cop standing over him.

“Get up. You’re drunk.”

Ben had stared up at the officer through bleary eyes. His father had been a bum, often cornered by the police like this. And now Ben was the same. He’d struggled to his feet.

In a surprising move, the cop had pulled out a card. “This is a clinic to help you sober up, if you want to be more than a drunken bum.”

Something about the taste of slime in his mouth, the epithet of the cop, hell, maybe it was finally hitting bottom, had made Ben take stock and had given him the impetus to make changes. It had been a long road back….

Picking up the paper, he shook off the memories and turned to the business section, scrolling down the front page. When he found what he was looking for, his hand fisted, crumpling the edge of the paper. Mackenzie Enterprises’ stock was up another five points, credited to its hostile takeover two years ago of a company that made monitoring equipment for public utilities. That business was now flourishing. Earning money again. A lot of money. Ben’s hand started to hurt. Consciously, he forced himself to relax. Breathe deeply. That kind of tension would drive him back to the bottle and, though he’d lost everything, he wouldn’t go there again. Over the top of the paper, his gaze strayed again to the photo that graced the entrance. Mick Cassidy smiled down from the one and only picture Ben had managed to save of his father. Their nomadic travels from city to city, house to house, had made it difficult to keep mementos. Lost in thought, Ben missed Emily approaching his table.

“Thanks for calming down Hugo, Ben.”

He lowered the paper. “No thanks necessary, ma’am. Just take it as payment for my dinner.”

Again, that smile that could stop a truck in its tracks. “You pay for your dinner ten times over. And please, don’t call me ma’am—it makes me sound like my grandmother.”

He suppressed a grin.

She nodded to the paper. “Anything interesting in there?”

Sometimes, when he was feeling particularly lonely, he talked about current events with her. On occasion, he let her help him with the crossword puzzle.

“Not much.” Unless she wanted to discuss the business world’s corporate shark. If it was the last thing he did, Ben would get even with that man. He’d never been vindictive, cold and callous—until Lammon Mackenzie had entered his life. He hated the man most for that.

“Ben, is something wrong?”

Only my whole life. “No, why?”

“You look angry.”

“Nah. Just wish the economy was better.” He nodded over her head. “Seems Alice is looking for you.”

Emily rose when she saw the older woman in the doorway and smiled down at Ben. She squeezed his arm. “Someday, I’m going to get you to tell me more about yourself.”

His heartbeat accelerated. “Boring story.”

“I doubt it.”

He watched her leave. Well, she was right about that. His story was anything but boring. Sad. Infuriating. Stupid. But not boring. It was his own damn fault he’d let Lammon Mackenzie get his company. He’d lost everything to the bastard—everything but this place.

Which was why, once Ben had sobered himself up, he came here every Monday. Cassidy Place, which he’d started ten years ago in memory of his father, and was still solvent because he’d gotten funding from the United Way, was the only thing he had left in his life to prove he’d made a difference, made his mark on the world.

That was why he returned weekly and endured the torture of seeing Emily. In order to stay sane after all that had happened to him, he needed the reinforcement that he was more than an ex-drunk has-been who didn’t have the smarts to hold on to the company he’d built from the ground up. And there was no way in hell Emily Erickson was going to find out what a failure he was.

LAMMON MACKENZIE SCOWLED at the cell phone as he listened to the message. “It’s me again,” he barked after the beep. “Where the hell are you? Call me.”

Just as he clicked off, the office door opened. His assistant, Pete Heller, stood in the doorway and nodded to the desk. “There’s a call for you from your lawyer, Mac.”

“All right.” He scowled at Pete. “I suppose you’d like to leave now.”

The tall, lanky man arched a brow. “What, at 9:00 p.m.?”

“Funny.”

“We human beings need food and sleep.”

Mac hid a smile. If the guy wasn’t such a shrewd market analyst, he’d fire him for his irreverence. “Get the hell out of here.” He picked up the phone. “Jacob, nice of you to get back to me.”

“It’s only been a few hours since you called. I have clients other than you, Mac.”

“Nobody who pays you as much.”

“Well, you’ve got me now. What can I do for you?”

He knocked his knuckles against the paper. “I’m ready to sell off Rockford Instruments.” Formerly known as Cassidy Industries.

“Wow, that was fast. I had no idea this move would come so soon.”

“I’m that good at turning things around, Jacob.”

Of course this time, he’d had help. Cassidy Industries had been in bad shape when he’d snatched it out from under Benedict Cassidy. The guy was too fair, too optimistic and too foolish to make it in the business world. It had been child’s play, really, to take the company from him. Even easier to build it back up again.

“All right, I’ll start the paperwork.” Jacob hesitated. “What will you do now?”