"How is Craig doing?" Eileen asked as she and Lucy had lunch together. When she stopped by Lucy's house earlier she thought Craig had seemed a little short. She was starting to wonder if that was just his personality.
"Fine. I think he's disappointed that I won't be going out of town with him after all. I can't now that they've finally made an arrest. I want to be here if there's any news and I have to be here when they have the trial . . . Craig was so sweet to postpone his work to stay here and support me."
"Yeah," Eileen replied absentmindedly. Her thoughts had veered off when Lucy mentioned the word "trial." There would be a trial and she would have to testify. What would Lucy and Arthur say when they found out how long she'd known the truth and hadn't told them?
"Are you ok, Eileen?" Lucy asked. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even think about how the news might have affected you. You were engaged to the man. Thank God, you didn't go through with it."
"Yes, I'm grateful for that."
"Me too. Just think how awful that would have been, for my best friend to be married to my father's murderer . . . as if things weren't terrible enough. I just can't believe that someone we have all known for so long and someone my father knew and worked with was capable of . . ." Lucy paused, momentarily overcome with emotion. She swallowed back her grief and continued. "I just can't believe it. This whole time he's been getting away with it, like it never even happened. It just makes me so angry. God, I hope they put him away for a very long time."
Eileen just nodded slowly. She knew Hector deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison for what he'd done, but after knowing him for so long, she couldn't help feeling just a little bit sorry for him still.
"You seem to be handling it well. Are you still in shock?"
"No, not really . . . I'm just relieved that he's finally been caught," Eileen answered. When she first heard the news that Hector had been arrested it was like a huge burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Now she was starting to realize that it wasn't over yet. She had to tell Lucy the truth, before she heard it from someone else. "Lucy-"
"Oh!" Lucy said, her eyes focused narrowly on the door. "You won't believe who just walked in."
Eileen turned around to see Victoria Burgess standing in the entryway. That was one person she definitely did not want to see, especially right now.
"You know . . . that woman has some nerve after the way she treated me," Lucy fumed. "I should give her a piece of my mind."
"Lucy," Eileen called wearily, but her friend was already making her away across the restaurant.
"Hey, thanks for checking in. What's going on?" Craig asked. He paced around the room and nodded thoughtfully as the person on the phone talked. "Cool. Is anyone else there? . . . Ok, that's good. Let me know if anything changes."
Craig hung up the phone and stooped down to pick up Stuart who was crawling around on the floor near his feet.
"Come here, kiddo. It looks like it's just you and Daddy today while Mommy's out with her friend."
As much as he hated taking time away from work, he was glad to have more time to spend with his son.
The kid was growing up too fast and as much as he was away, Craig was afraid Stuart was going to grow up barely knowing him. That was one of the main reasons he wanted Lucy and Stuart to come away with him so badly. He'd almost talked her into going until this arrest business came up.
When the doorbell rang, Craig bounced Stuart in his arms as he went into the foyer. He was startled to see who was standing on the front porch as he opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard you were in town," James replied. "I know I'm probably the last person you want to see while you're here, but I need to talk to you about something. Can I come in?"
Craig nodded and stepped aside to let James enter.
"Is this your little boy? He's cute."
"Yep." Craig turned to see the maid walking towards them to answer the door. He passed Stuart to her and asked her to take him to the nursery before speaking to James. "What do you want? Make it quick if you can. I'd like to spend some time with my son."
"No problem. I don't want to waste a lot of time here either. I've been talking with some people about an idea for a business venture I had . . ."
"Don't tell me you want to go into business together."
"No, no," James assured him. "I did think about it, but yeah, I think we both know by now that's not a good idea. I'm here because I came across your name when I was looking at property. I don't want to step on your toes or start another misunderstanding between us, so I was wondering if you were still interested in buying it or have you give up on the idea of starting a club."
"No, I haven't given up. I've just had trouble getting the funds."
"Really?" James said eyeing their lavish surroundings. "Well, I want you to know. I'm seriously thinking about starting my own club. I've looked into it and I'm waiting on approval for a loan, but I didn't want to take the building you were looking at out from under you."
"But you do want to take it."
"It's a good property, but there are others that I'm looking at. I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to try to sue me again because you thought I was stealing your idea."
Craig scoffed as he moved towards the door to show James out. "Do whatever you want, man. I'm over it."
"Great. Thanks," James replied. He hesitated a moment at the door. Times like these, when he remembered what kind of guy Craig usually was, he missed their friendship, but there was too many bad feelings between them now for things to be the way they were. "Hey . . . Have a good time with your kid."
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