“But you were: Did you have a falling out?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because writing a book like the one you’re talking about won’t please him.He may hate you.”
“MakingThe New York Times listwill be ample compensation for that.”
“There are no guarantees.If you write the book and it doesn’t make the lists, you’ll still have made an enemy.What then?”
“Life goes on.”The words came blithely.Lord knew she’d said them enough times in the last few days.
“Without John?”
“My God, Arlan, you have a one-track mind.Yes, life goes on without John!He isn’t the be-all and end-all of my world!Why are you making such an issue of this?”
“Because I don’t understand your relationship with him.It’s another piece of the puzzle you are, and, dammit, you are a puzzle.Your life before New York is a big blank to me.Each time I ask, you evade.”
“My lifeisNew York.”
“Baloney.You didn’t just grow like Topsy in a corner of Central Park.You spent six years in Boston before you came here, and eighteen before that in Tammany Hall—”
“Timiny Cove,” she corrected, smiling in spite of herself.“Why do you always do that?”
“Because the place has no meaning to me.You won’t say a thing about it.There are times when I wonder whether it isn’t fictitious.”
“It isn’t.”
“Then it must be some kind of evil little town that you had to flee on threat of death.”
“Not quite.”Her smile went flat.“But we all move on.You did it when you left Poughkeepsie.Do I ask you what it was like as a little boy growing up there?”
“You already know it was boring as sin.”He tapped a pen against his chin.“And anyway, maybe you’re not into understanding my mind the way I’m into understanding yours.I adore you.”
Hillary sighed and looked at the ceiling.
“I do,” he insisted.“If I didn’t have a perfectly good wife at home—”
“How is she, by the way?”
He settled back in his seat.“Pissed off that I won’t take her to Puerto Vallarta next month, but otherwise fine.”
“Why won’t you take her to Puerto Vallarta?”
“Because every time I set foot in Mexico, I get sick.I told her to find a place in Florida, maybe one of the Keys.But she wants Puerto Vallarta.What’s so special about Puerto Vallarta?”
“The person you’re there with,” Hillary replied, then paused, stricken.She’d spent her fortieth birthday in Puerto Vallarta with John.It was one of the few times they’d traveled together.John rarely took vacations.He was a workaholic in the truest sense of the word.His initial motivation had been building the business, but it had been a long time since the business had demanded the hours he still put in.To him, work was both an excuse and an escape.It was one way to keep people at a comfortable distance.For all his success, he had never come to feel totally accepted by, and therefore at ease with, society’s crème de la crème.
Of course, that hadn’t come out on20/20.
Spurred by that thought, Hillary took a breath.“I have to write this book, Arlan.It’s something in me that’s aching to be done.”
“All of a sudden?”
“No.I’ve thought of doing it before.”More than once over the years, as she’d watched John transform St.George Mining from a small-scale gem enterprise into the sophisticated parent ofFacets,she had thought to document the change.Corporate reports told only half the story.“But I was never quite sure before now that John was a big enough somebody to make the book a success.And I want a success.Ineedone.I’m forty-four and growing older every day.I’ve had two books published, neither with much hoopla, and dozens of magazine articles that may or may not have been read.I’ve reached a plateau.My career is stagnating.If I don’t hit it big soon, I’ll run out of time.Or strength.Or sanity.”She scowled.“Dammit, I want my turn onDonahue.I want to be written upinPeople.I want to go to parties and have people know what I do for a living.I want to be someone.”
“Like John St.George?”
His words stopped her cold.“Yes, like John St.George.”She didn’t hide her pique.“I can’t take away from what he’s achieved.No one can do that.John took over St.George Mining after his father died and built it into something his father hadn’t begun to dream of.Professionally, the man deserves kudos.As a person, he stinks.”
