Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Did you have an appointment with Mr. Parker today?"

Diane just got back from a court date and her head was still full of names and details of the case, the name Parker didn't ring a bell at that moment.

"Jason Parker, he was here about an hour ago, I surely didn't schedule this for you for today."

Of course the name was more than familiar to her, in fact she'd kind of expected a visit from him that day after what had happened the previous night, even though he hadn't announced himself. She felt a little bad for having missed him, but she couldn't do anything about it anymore.

"I didn't schedule a meeting with him either, but I wanted to call his wife today, thanks for reminding me."

"So it wasn't you he came to see?" Evelyn's questions started to actually bother Diane, she though they'd already wasted enough time on someone who had left the place an hour ago without even leaving a note behind.

"Obviously, why are you asking again?" she felt she'd missed the point of this conversation or maybe she was really concentrating on other things that moment.

"I'm not sure," Evelyn paused and looked at Diane for a few seconds, before she continued, "Maybe it's nothing…"

"Come into my office," Diane motioned to her and walked through the door, she had a feeling her assistant did have something important to say after all.

"I really don't want to cause any trouble," the young woman said as she sat down in the armchair and she actually looked a bit worried.

"If there's anything you think I should know about, I'm listening."

"It's just that Mr. Parker has always insisted on talking to you and you alone when he called or visited."

"It's because his wife and I are friends."

"I know, but today I saw him talking to Chris," she finished the sentence carefully, obviously waiting for some kind of reaction on Diane's side.

"He probably just came to thank him personally, for helping his son, that's really kind of him," of course she wished he had thanked her as well, but Chris obviously did some heavy lifting last night, he deserved the appreciation.

"It is, they seemed to be very friendly already, I just had this odd feeling, he had always been so distanced with everyone, including you."

"Everyone changes when it's about their children, you'll understand it one day. Which reminds me, I better check up on my son again," she diverted the conversation, but Evelyn's observation did put an unwanted thought in her head, she just didn't want to show.

"I hope he'll be healthy again soon, give him a kiss from me."

"I will," she pulled out her phone and Evelyn stood up right away to give her the privacy.

But before she made the call to her sister-in-law her mind got back to their previous topic. Maybe Evelyn's instincts weren't so wrong after all and something had happened there between Chris and Jason that she probably should have known about.

o-o-o

"Damn," she said, a little louder than she should have, but she couldn't help it.

That damn egg landed on the floor and she had to clean it up right away if she didn't want to slip on it the next minute. The next thing she dropped was the wooden spoon and she had to remind herself why she was trying to bake in this tensed state she was in, on a Monday evening. One of the reasons was her son of course, she wanted to make his favorite cake, so that he might start eating again. Not to mention baking had always calmed her down, but it somehow didn't seem to work that day.

"You need any help?" Will appeared in the kitchen door, with the most innocent look on his face, which normally would have made her smile, but she wasn't in the mood to smile at all.

"No," she gave him the shortest possible answer and continued mixing the ingredients as quickly as she could hoping to get rid of her anger that way.

"Are you all right?"

"I am," she lied, unsure whether or not she should tell him anything on the first place. In her mind she already heard his 'I told you so' and she really wasn't up for his lecture that night.

"You seem a little…edgy," he said and stepped inside the kitchen, obviously not fearing to get nearer to her, even though she'd bitten his head off several times in similar situations. He should have known better.

"I'm fine, everything's fine," she finished mixing and poured the dough into the cake form. After putting it in the oven she literally threw all pots and tools into the sink.

"Want me to wash them?"

"If you insist," she shrugged and got rid of her apron, "I'll be back in twenty minutes, I'll just take a quick walk."

"All right, I'll be here if you want to talk or something," he said quickly, raising his voice as she walked out the room while he spoke.

She knew she had to tell him eventually, but she wasn't up for it yet, first she had to try to deal with it on her own. It would have been his problem as well, had he made a different decision a few months ago. In fact in that case this incident would probably have never happened. She couldn't believe that she actually found a way to blame Will for it, but blaming someone else always helped a little.

It wasn't such a bad idea after all not to tell him anything yet, she might have prevented a fight between them. Maybe a few hours later she would be able to discuss it with him without biting his head off or shifting the blame on him, which he didn't really deserve. After all she also had no idea what she would have done without him.