‘So how are all the folks at home? How’s business?’ He made an effort.
‘Everyone’s good at the minute, touch wood,’ she said lightly. ‘The downturn is hitting us badly. I had to make some of my employees redundant. Hard times universally. You’re getting your share this side of the Pond.’
‘Tell me about it. I suppose you know I got stuffed by Madoff.’
‘I heard. We all got stuffed by the banks,’ she sighed.
‘That Anglo Irish carry-on is something else. Your regulator was really asleep on the job. How could he have missed that?’ Des shook his head.
‘How indeed, but he did, and the rating agencies were way off the mark, and we’re paying for it. But hey, he got a great salary and a big fat pension. Gas, isn’t it?’
‘Practically everyone I knew and played golf with in Dublin had shares in Anglo,’ Des observed. ‘I remember an Anglo banker trying to persuade me to get into some hotel gig here in the States. Went belly up, I believe. Glad I stayed out of that one. He was a pushy little bloke, you know, smooth talker, slithery, a wide boy. I bet he didn’t get caught.’
‘Probably not,’ murmured Hilary, thinking Des could have been describing himself and he didn’t even realize it.
‘Where’s your mom, what’s she doing today?’ He turned to Jazzy who was staring out the window at the Manhattan skyline etched against a leaden sky.
‘She’s gone for a jog around the reservoir. We’re meeting her in the Met for afternoon tea in the Patrons Lounge. She said we’d better make the most of it cos it looks like we won’t be renewing our membership. She’s going to move back to London! Did you know that?’ She gazed at him dolefully.
‘No I didn’t.’ He looked stricken.
‘Look, why don’t I leave you and Jazzy to chat for a while. I’ll wait outside in the waiting area,’ Hilary suggested. ‘Get well soon and take care, Des.’ She stood up and patted his hand and walked out the door, glad to have the excuse to leave. She didn’t know if she would ever see her friend’s soon-to-be-ex-husband ever again.
‘That woman has a kind heart. She’s a good friend to your mother. A better friend than Colette is to her,’ Des remarked when the door closed and they were alone. ‘When did your mom say she was going to London?’
‘Today. She said I could come if I want. It’s up to me.’
‘And what are you going to do?’ He looked at her despondent expression and felt a surge of guilt. He’d brought them to this, no one else. The responsibility was his and his alone.
‘I don’t want to leave Jackson, I don’t want to leave you, but I don’t want Mom to be on her own in London either. Do you think you could persuade her to stay?’ she pleaded.
‘I’ll try but you know what your mom is like when she has her mind made up about something,’ he said tiredly.
‘Just try, Dad, try hard,’ Jazzy urged.
‘I will, Pippin,’ he said, using his pet name for her. But privately Des felt he didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell.
‘Jazzy tells me you’re going to move back to London. Please let’s talk about it, Colette, you owe me that much,’ Des begged, holding fast to his promise to his daughter to try and persuade his wife to stay in New York. He had decided to call Colette on her cell as soon as Jazzy had left.
‘There’s nothing to talk about, Des. I’ll stay until after you’ve had your surgery. After that you’re on your own. You can get Miss Battery Park to nurse you back to full health. And just for the record I owe you nothing!’ Colette said icily before hanging up.
Des stared at the dead screen on his phone. He knew Colette of old. When she made up her mind to follow a course of action that was it. There was no changing it. He should cut his losses and try and salvage something from his current situation.
He tapped a number he knew off by heart onto his phone.
‘Hello?’ came a familiar voice.
‘Kaylee, it’s me,’ he said hopefully. There was silence.
‘Hello? Kaylee?’
‘Yes, Des, I hear you. How are you?’ Kaylee said coolly.
‘Not the best. I’ve to have a bypass.’ He played the sympathy card but didn’t say it was a triple. He didn’t want to make out he was a complete crock.
‘Sorry to hear that,’ she said as though she was speaking to a stranger, and not someone she used to wrap her long shapely legs around and beg to make love to her.
‘Look, can we talk? I want to be with you. I miss you very much,’ Des said softly.
‘What’s wrong? Did your wife kick you out?’ Kaylee sneered. ‘Well it’s like this, Des, you had your chance with me and you didn’t take it. I’m never going to be a second choice for anyone and especially not for you. Don’t call me again.’ For the second time that day his phone went dead as an angry woman hung up on him.
If he was lucky he might die under the knife, Des thought dejectedly. Because he didn’t want to have to deal with what was facing him when he left the unlikely haven that his room in Lennox Hill had become.
Kaylee lay curled up on her bed and cried her heart out. Great gulping, heaving sobs that wracked her body. She could have had the man of her dreams. He’d practically thrown himself at her just now, and for one moment when