“What brought you back?” she asked.
“A few years ago, I left the monastery to attend my niece’s wedding, and I was on a plane that had engine failure.”
“That had to be terrifying.”
“It was. But I tried to stay calm. There was a guy in a suit next to me. We all thought these might be our last moments alive, and he was freaking out about the Wi-Fi going out and not getting a proposal submitted on time for a work deal.”
She knew somebody like that. She swallowed hard and tried to ignore the ache of her broken heart.
“What happened?” she asked, taking notes.
“The plane started vibrating. It felt like it was about to come apart, like every nut and every bolt were separating. That’s when the guy realized this might be it. He started freaking out and confessed everything he’d done wrong in his life. After he was done, I asked him what he’d do if we lived, and he had another chance.”
“Wow! It sounds like you helped him find meaning in his life.”
Lloyd shook his head. “No, he told me if we made it out alive, he’d upgrade his sixty-inch flat screen to an eighty-inch, and then he’d try to sleep with his best friend’s wife. He indicated she was quite attractive.”
Elle stopped writing. “I was not expecting that.”
Lloyd raised his index finger. “But I was in the center seat, and the man to my other side was another story.”
“How so?” Elle asked, trying to stay objective. Trying not to imagine Jasper on that plane as the businessman consumed with work.
“He shared, that if he made it out alive, he’d go back to his hometown and ask the girl he’d loved his whole life to marry him. It was a big risk. He’d never shared his feelings with her, but when everything was spiraling out of control, he was able to focus on what mattered.”
Elle held the man’s gaze. “And what would you say that was?”
The ex-monk grinned. “Love, what else?”
She loved her mother and Abby. They were her family.
But what about romantic love?
After enduring the fallout from her father’s infidelity, living with the pain of Tate’s deception, and now Jasper’s rejection, could she ever trust in that kind of love?
“You think it’s that simple?” she pressed.
“It can be—especially when you’re falling from the sky,” the man answered, patting the rig pack that contained the parachute.
“Is that how you got into skydiving? You’re giving someone a chance to figure out what matters?”
A playful glint flashed in the man’s eye. “That, or maybe just for the adrenaline kick. It’s pretty awesome, too.”
Elle chuckled and added a few notes.
“Ready to head up?” he asked.
She nodded, and Lloyd signaled for the pilot to start the plane.
“Are you sure you don’t want to jump? I’ve got my tandem harness,” Lloyd called over the buzz of the plane’s propellers.
She jotted down a few more notes and shook her head. “No, I’m just a spectator today.”
“That’s weird,” Lloyd said.
“What’s weird about that?” Elle asked.
“No, not you. That is,” Lloyd said and gestured out the plane’s open door. “Are you expecting someone? We canceled all our jumps for this afternoon.”
Elle glanced out the open hatch and saw three men running toward them. The second she recognized as Lloyd’s partner and business manager, Bruce. She’d spoken with him when she’d arrived. Then she focused on the near-deranged looking man leading the pack, holding what looked to be a carton of eggs.
“Jasper?” she gasped.
Except it didn’t look like Jasper—at least, not the perfectly coiffed, buttoned-up Jasper she was used to.
No jacket. No tie. His dark hair spiked out every which way as if he’d driven through the city with his head sticking out the car window—and he was filthy.
“What’s going on?” the pilot asked from the cockpit.
“That’s just my…” she began but stopped.
Her what? Her baby daddy. Her sort of ex-boyfriend?
The man she shouldn’t love?
Jasper picked up his pace, sprinting the last ten yards then stopped outside the plane’s open door, his chest heaving. “Elle,” he panted. “You can’t jump out of an airplane. You’re pregnant.”
“You’re pregnant?” Lloyd echoed.
Men! She stifled the urge to smack them both.
“Yes, I’m pregnant. And no, I’m not skydiving. I’m working. I’ve been cleared by my doctor to fly. And guess what? Pregnant women work. They’re actual human beings who just happen to be growing a person inside their uterus.”
Jasper’s gaze bounced between her to Lloyd. “But I thought…I mean, you’re in the airplane.”
“To interview the owner of Buddha Jump and watch him skydive. And it comes as no surprise that you’d expect me to be irresponsible and reckless,” she shot back.
His expression grew pained. “Can you please get off the plane so we can have a conversation?”
She had to stay strong. She couldn’t give an inch.
She shook her head. “No, I can’t. This should be easy for you to understand. I’m working, and I have nothing to say to you. You made your feelings loud and clear in Miami.”
She glanced over his shoulder as Bruce made it to the plane followed by Brennen.
Bruce pointed to Jasper. “Sorry, Lloyd! This dude is nuts! He came in with a carton of eggs and said I needed to stop you from going up with Miss Reynolds.”
Lloyd frowned. “What do you think you’re doing running toward an airplane about to take off?”
She stared at Jasper as he caught his breath.
“Can I get on the plane? I need to speak with Miss Reynolds.”
Lloyd shook his head. “I’m sorry. You’re not an employee, and you’re not jumping. So, no.”
Jasper met her gaze—and nothing in his eyes said hollow bunny or tin man. She saw passion and fire and determination. A look with such intensity she felt it in the tips of her toes.
Jasper nodded to himself as if he’d decided something, then looked from Bruce to Lloyd. “How would you like to join Bergen Enterprises?”
“What do you mean?” Lloyd asked.
What the hell was he doing?
“I’m Jasper Bergen, the CEO of Bergen Enterprises. My family owns Bergen Mountain Sports.”
Bruce’s jaw dropped. “I thought you looked familiar.”
“I’ll give you four times what your company is worth,” Jasper continued. “You’ll maintain your autonomy and continue to operate the business as you like. You’ll just be under the umbrella of Bergen Enterprises.”
“You’re buying a skydiving company?” she asked, disbelief lacing her words.
“No,” Lloyd said, sharing a wide grin with an equally elated-looking Bruce. “He just bought a skydiving company. You’ve got a deal,” he added, leaning out of the plane and shaking Jasper’s hand.
Her jaw dropped. “Lloyd, what was all that talk about giving up material things and finding a higher purpose? Wasn’t that the whole reason you chose to become a Buddhist monk?”
Lloyd shrugged. “Higher purpose still needs to pay for airplane fuel and parachutes.” He turned to Jasper. “Are we talking health insurance and 401(k)s?”
Jasper nodded as Bruce and Lloyd high fived.
Billionaire jackass!
She crossed her arms, furious. Jasper had no right intruding on her work. No right to buy the damn business to corner her into having a conversation.
Jasper turned to Brennen, and the two of them, along with Bruce, spoke briefly before Brennen and Bruce headed back toward the small Buddha Jump office.
“I was just starting to like you, Brennen Bergen,” she yelled from the plane.
Bren turned and shrugged his shoulders with an unapologetic grin then continued back to the small office with Bruce.
“May I?�
�� Jasper asked, gesturing inside the plane.
“Welcome aboard, boss!” Lloyd said, his wide grin still in place.
Elle rolled her eyes as Jasper climbed into the small space. Lloyd gave the pilot the thumbs-up then turned his attention to inspecting his gear as the plane bumped along the makeshift runway.
Elle glared at Jasper and scooted away from him, but she couldn’t get far—trapped inside a single prop Cessna. She sighed and cradled her head in her hands.
“How did you even know I was here?” she asked without looking up.
“I went to your apartment and found Bren there.”
That got her attention. “Why was Brennen in my apartment?”
“He was picking up your bag.”
Shit! That’s right.
Jasper leaned forward. “Bren said you had an ultrasound this morning.”
She sucked her teeth. “Yeah, we irresponsible types sometimes practice actual responsibility from time to time.”
“How’d it go?” he asked softly.
She looked away. “You don’t get to ask how it went.”
“I saw the bears on your dresser when I was at your apartment. I brought a few with me.”
He set the mama bear and the two little cubs on the bench between them, and she stiffened.
He ran his finger along one of the cub’s tiny plush paw. “I figured if you still had these, then I may still have a chance.”
She held his gaze. “A chance at what?”
“A chance you still care about me. A chance you could forgive me.”
She leaned back. “What did you think I’d do, Jasper? Cut off their cute little bear limbs or shove them down the garbage disposal?”
“Dean wasn’t there.”
Good! Let him think she’d chucked the lumberjack bear into the garbage! But her heart got the best of her, and she glanced at her bag where the stuffed animal sat nestled next to her wallet, house keys, and the fuzzy black and white ultrasound picture the doctor had printed off for her.
She could feel Jasper watching her, and she turned her attention to the plush bear cubs on the bench.
“What did Abby tell you?” She held her breath. Hopefully, not everything.
He looked down at his pants and scraped at something encrusted on his knee. “Not much. I tried to talk to her at Whitmore, but she was busy getting her class ready for a poetry thing. They were finishing up eating lunch in her classroom, and the kids mostly spilled food on me. One attacked me with a juice box,” he added, pointing to the spattering of red dots on his wrinkled white Oxford shirt.
She almost smiled, but the shake and bump of the plane taking off jostled her. She bumped against Jasper and steadied herself by grasping his arm. Strong and solid, the image of his limbs wrapped around her flashed through her mind before she forced herself to pull away.
She released a tight breath then glanced over as a smiling Lloyd gave her the thumbs-up.
Yeah, thumbs-up for you, buddy boy!
If it weren’t unprofessional to flip off the subject of an interview, she’d be rocking the bird at this Buddhist sellout.
She turned to Jasper. “You clearly made his day. But I can tell you one thing. You can’t buy me.”
“I know. I met with Allen today.”
“Good, because I don’t want a penny from you. I can take care of myself,” she added.
He nodded. “That’s why I’ve asked Allen to speak with your mom and have her help us choose a charity that supports people with Multiple Sclerosis, so that we can donate the money from your contract with Bergen Enterprises to them in her name.”
She opened her mouth to speak but was at a loss.
Shit! That was thoughtful—the bastard!
“And this came today,” he said and pulled the faded cap she’d had since she was a girl out of his pocket.
“That’s my…”
“Your Fell’s Peak hat. The one that blew over the guard rail,” he finished.
She stared at it in disbelief. A gift from her mom. A memento of life before her mother’s illness, before she learned of her father’s cheating. “How did you find it? Where did you find it?”
“I asked a few of the Bergen Resort employees to look for it a while back. It came today.”
Today. The day of her ultrasound. The day the word mother hit her like a one-two punch.
She turned the hat over and rubbed her fingertips over her name printed in her mom’s handwriting and swallowed past the emotion in her throat.
The hat. The ultrasound. This man who looked like he’d escaped a prison mess hall food fight to get to her. She wanted to believe he was here because he cared for her, but he’d told her he’d wanted her before. Told her that she was his everything.
Until he learned she was pregnant.
She lifted her chin. “Why the hell do you have a carton of eggs?”
“I had them in case you wanted to throw them at me,” he said, opening the lid and grimacing. “But they’re all pretty cracked and gooey now. They’re your eggs. I took them from your refrigerator.”
“You stole a carton of eggs from my apartment so that I could throw them at you?” She glanced at his clothing. “It looks like somebody’s already done that. And you smell like a fishmonger who rolled through a chicken coop.”
He pointed to a brown stain on his pants. “There’s some goulash, too.”
She shook her head. “Where would you get the idea that I’d want to throw eggs at you?”
“My dad.”
“Your father?”
His expression warmed. “Yeah, it turns out the Bergen men have a history of losing their shit when the women we love tell us they’re pregnant.”
Love.
She held his gaze. Unable to speak. Unable to move.
“After my mom told my dad she was pregnant with me, he told her he wasn’t even sure he wanted kids.”
She watched him closely for any sign of anguish or disappointment—but his smile widened.
“Apart from my grandad, my father is…was the best man I’ve ever known. He loved us. He adored my mother. He worked hard. He loved our company, but he always had time for family.” Jasper ran his hand over the leaky carton of eggs. “I figured if my dad could turn things around and prove to my mom that he was ready to be a father, then there has to be hope for me. Hope for us.”
“And the eggs?” she asked with a shake to her voice.
“My dad made the mistake of freaking out just as my mom was about to make breakfast. She was so mad, she started pelting him with the carton she’d taken out to make scrambled eggs.”
Elle stared at the bear cubs. “I think I would have liked your mom.”
“I know she would have loved you.”
She looked up and met his gaze.
Jasper took her hand. “Both of my parents would have because anything important to me was important to them. And you and our baby are what matters the most to me—over any spreadsheet or board meeting.” He threaded their fingers together. “I want to fight with you. I want to salsa dance with you. I want to lose at every single staring war with you. I want to eat junk food off your body, and I don’t want to spend another moment without you by my side. I want this baby, and I want you, Eleanor. I love you.”
He brushed his thumb over her wrist, and a heated charge surged through her body.
He leaned in. “I’m ready, Elle. I’m ready for everything. I’m ready to take the plunge, and I’ll do whatever it takes to prove that to you.”
“Anything?” she asked.
He tightened his grip. “Anything.”
She glanced past him to where Lloyd was doing the last check of the parachute’s automatic activation device.
“Lloyd, what’s your altimeter reading at?”
He looked down at the device strapped to his wrist. “Ten thousand feet. We’re over the drop zone, and I’m good to go.”
She squeezed Jasper’s hand. “You say you’re ready to take the plunge—that you
love me and that you’ll do anything?”
He nodded. “I’m ready. I’m all in.”
“Would you jump out of an airplane for me?”
His brow creased. “Me, jump?”
This was it. He hated skydiving. He’d said as much the night they comforted Bodhi.
“Yes, you.” She waved to Lloyd. “You’ve got all the equipment to do a tandem jump, right?”
Now it was Lloyd’s turn to frown. “I can’t jump with you, Elle. You’re pregnant.”
“But your new boss isn’t,” she said, excitement building in her chest.
Jasper looked out the opening in the plane. “You want me to skydive?”
“You said you’re ready to take the plunge. Call it your dramatic flair and prove it.”
Lloyd held up the harness. “You’ll love it, boss!”
Jasper went as pale as the egg whites splattered all over him. “I don’t know the first thing about jumping out of a plane.”
Lloyd waved him off. “That’s the easy part.”
“It is?” Jasper said, the color returning to his cheeks.
Lloyd patted Jasper’s shoulder. “Yeah, it’s the landing that can kill you.”
“What?” Jasper replied, back to his shade of egg white.
“Don’t worry! As long as we don’t bounce, we’re golden,” Lloyd said, handing him a helmet.
“Bounce?”
“On the ground,” the ex-monk replied and pointed out the open hatch.
Jasper turned to her. “If I do this. If I jump out of this airplane—like a lunatic and embrace my dramatic flair—you’ll forgive me? You’ll give me another chance?”
She held his gaze. “Yes.”
He took a breath. “I don’t want to be apart from you. I want us to live together. I want to marry you.”
She cupped his cheek in her hand. “Are we negotiating the terms of the man feast?”
The panic in Jasper’s gaze receded, and he schooled his features. “I’d like to offer you a permanent man feast.”
“An infinite extension to the extension to the extension?” she asked, biting back a grin.
Minus the slight curve to his lips, he kept his CEO mask in place. “Those are my terms, Miss Reynolds. What do you say? Could you spend the rest of your life with a hollow bunny?”
She stroked her thumb across his cheek. “Nobody who can salsa like you could be called a hollow bunny.”
Man Feast (Bergen Brothers Book 2) Page 22