Sweet Fortune

you can pry out of him and spend it on a degree in philosophy. You couldn't ask for a better revenge, believe me.”
    “Yeah, that did occur to me. He really can't stand the idea of me getting a degree in philosophy,” David agreed with grim satisfaction.
    “Just make sure you take your revenge all by yourself,” Hatch concluded quietly. “Don't involve Jessie in it.”
    David looked up swiftly. “Mom always said it was easier for Jessie to get the money from Benedict.”
    “Not anymore. I'm in the way now. Besides. Take it from me, David, vengeance is a lot sweeter when you take it in person. That's my little bit of philosophical wisdom for the day. Based on a lot of real-life experience. Think about it.”
    Hatch went out the door and walked to where he had parked the Mercedes.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

    I hope you did the right thing. I'm not so sure about this, Hatch. I just don't know.” Jessie twiddled her fork in her penne pasta and sun-dried tomatoes and gazed uncertainly at Hatch.
    “Stop worrying about it. It's done and that's the end of it.” Hatch tore off a slice of bread from the loaf in the basket and sank his teeth into it.
    The noise from the evening dinner crowd sharing the cozy restaurant with Jessie and Hatch was a contented hum. The food being served at the tables was typical Northwest-style cuisine, which meant intriguing and innovative combinations of fresh fish, pasta, and vegetables.
    “I don't know.” Jessie gazed moodily down into her pasta as if it were a particularly cloudy crystal ball. “Maybe you shouldn't have been so hard on him. I've told you David's very sensitive.”
    “I don't give a damn about his sensitivity,” Hatch muttered. “I just want to make sure that from now on he does his own dirty work.”
    “He and Dad don't get along very well. I've told you that. They barely even speak to each other.”
    “You of all people should know it's not necessary to get along well with Vincent in order to deal with him. You've just got to have some staying power. It's up to David now. If he wants the cash for grad school, he can ask for it himself. You're out of it. No more rescue operations on behalf of the family.”
    “You're making up new rules for me and the others based on the way you like to do things. That's not fair, Hatch. The rest of us don't work the same way.”
    “I don't care how the rest of the clan works. I just want you out of the loop. At least for a while.”
    “What gives you the right to interfere in my life this way?”
    “I don't see it as interference. I see it as cutting through a few of the knots in which you've got yourself tangled.”
    Jessie was speechless for an instant. “You have an incredible audacity, Hatch. Cutting through the knots, my foot. As if you knew what you were doing. You're not some kind of professional family counselor.”
    “Damn right I'm not. But I learned a long time ago that it's usually easier to cut through a knot than it is to unravel it.”
    “Stop talking about knots,” she snapped.
    “All right. What would you like to talk about? Our forthcoming engagement?”
    She tensed instantly, the way she always did when he mentioned marriage. “We don't have any concrete plans for an engagement.”
    “Maybe we'd better make some,” he mused. “I'm beginning to think we've been fooling around long enough.”
    Jessie felt goaded. “Maybe I like fooling around. Maybe I'd be content to fool around forever. Did you ever consider that possibility? The situation isn't bad the way it stands now. Not for me, at any rate. I'm getting the best of both worlds. All the advantages of an affair and none of the disadvantages of marriage.”
    “So you're just using me, is that it?” He gave her a thoughtful look. “Should I start withholding sex in order to prod you into marriage?”
    Jessie flushed warmly. She glanced quickly to the right and then to the left, trying to ascertain if anyone at a neighboring table had overheard the remark. Then she glowered at Hatch. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”
    “No. I have no sense of humor, remember?”
    Jessie stopped fiddling with her fork and picked up the knife instead. She began tracing small agitated triangles on the tablecloth. “I'm not so sure about that.”
    “Is that right?” Hatch munched on a clam. “What changed your mind?”
    “I haven't changed my mind. Not yet, at any rate.” She raised her chin. “But I am reconsidering the issue.”
    “How about doing