Not liking the mocking voice going off in his head, Wes reached for the phone on his desk. “Adelle, would you kindly see if all my siblings are gathered in the conference room?”
“Hold on and I’ll check.” In less than a minute, she came back on the line. “Everyone is present. They’re waiting on you.”
“Thanks, Adelle. If you need me for anything in the next half hour, I’ll be with my family.”
*
“It’s about time you showed up,” Graham, the rancher of the family, spoke up as Wes entered the room. “We were all about to decide you’d ducked out of the building.”
Except for his sisters Sophie and Olivia, who were busy helping themselves to coffee and pastries, and Ben, who was still on his honeymoon, his siblings were already sitting at the long conference table. Seated next to his brother Graham was Zoe, the youngest of the family. Next to her was Rachel, then younger brother Kieran.
Wes started to take a seat at the end of the table, but when he noticed all eyes were on him, he decided to stand. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you waiting. I wanted to make sure everyone was here before I started. And thanks, Rachel, for making the trip all the way over from Horseback Hollow. I realize you’re a busy woman.”
“No problem, Wes,” his pretty sister replied. “Since I feel responsible for starting all this mess, I’m certainly not going to quit on it now.”
“It seems you’re the only one of us who’s heard from Ben since he and Ella left on their honeymoon,” Graham said to Wes. “Is everything okay with him?”
“Lying on a sunny beach with his new bride,” Kieran spoke up with a sly grin. “I’m sure everything is more than okay with our brother.”
“Ben and Ella are having a great time,” Wes replied. “No problem there.”
“So what is our dear brother up to now?” Zoe asked. “If he says he’s found another half sibling, I refuse to believe it.”
“This whole thing has gone to Ben’s head,” Olivia commented as she and Sophie took their places at the conference table. “He’s beginning to think he’s Mike Hammer. Next thing we know, he’ll be wearing a wrinkled trench coat and smoking unfiltered cigarettes.”
The group chuckled at Olivia’s observation, except for Zoe, who frowned in confusion. “Who’s Mike Hammer?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”
Graham shot his baby sister a patient look. “A fictional PI in books and movies,” he explained. “And I have to agree with Olivia. Ben is just about as brash as the famous detective.”
“You got the brash part right,” Kieran grumbled good-naturedly.
Deciding the comments about Ben’s endeavor weren’t going to improve, Wes went on with the announcement.
“I think it’s safe to say Ben doesn’t give a flip what we say about him or his quest to trace Dad’s past tracks.”
“That’s right. He doesn’t care about any of us. Especially Dad,” Zoe spoke up. “Ben or any of you don’t care how this must be affecting him.”
All eyes instantly turned on Zoe, and the attention turned her cheeks a bright pink.
“Well, Dad does have feelings,” she said defensively. “I see them. Even if all of you can’t.”
“That’s because you’re the only one of us kids who Dad gives a damn about,” Graham said.
Everyone in the room except Zoe seconded that notion.
“Dad has feelings, all right,” Wes said. “And they’re all self-directed. But we’re not gathered here today to argue that point. Ben has asked me to give you an update on the progress he’s making. Apparently, he believes he’s very close to finding the whereabouts of Jacqueline Fortune.”
“And who is she supposed to be?” Zoe asked candidly.
“From what Ben believes, she would be our grandmother,” Wes explained.
The group of siblings exchanged shocked glances before everyone began to talk at once. Long ago, Gerald told his children he had no parents. All during their childhood and up until now, the Robinson brood believed they had no paternal grandparents. Everyone at the table, including Wes, agreed that if Gerald had willfully deprived them of knowing their grandparents, it was a despicable thing for him to do.
Rachel finally managed to get a pertinent question heard above the din of voices. “Does Ben know exactly where this woman is living?”
All siblings looked to Wes for an answer, and he had to shake his head in response. “I asked. But Ben wouldn’t go into the particulars. He wants to search out a few more contacts before he tells us anything definite. But I can assure you that he sounded very confident about finding her.”
“Are we to assume this woman is alive?” Graham asked.
Wes removed his glasses and rubbed his weary eyes. Vivian was distancing herself and breaking his heart, but he also had to be the bearer of his brother’s unnerving news.
“I suppose so, Graham. At least, that’s the way I took it. He didn’t say he’d located her grave. He said he believed he’d discovered the woman’s whereabouts.”
The brothers and sisters began discussing the prospect of having a real grandmother. For now, it was hard for them to wrap their minds around such an idea.
With the conversation still buzzing, Wes used the moment to step over to the coffee machine.
He was standing with his back to the group, taking a long sip of the fresh brew, when Zoe and Graham walked up behind him.
“What’s wrong, Wes? You seem tired,” Zoe commented.
Wes glanced over to see his youngest sister was helping herself to a cup of coffee. Bubbly and petite, Zoe was always full of life, and normally Wes enjoyed her company. But today he wasn’t ready to answer questions about his personal life.
“I’ve had a lot of work to deal with this week,” he told her.
The explanation was true enough, but who would believe it? Everyone knew he thrived on work. Yet he could hardly confess to his siblings that for once in his life, he was having trouble concentrating on his job. Doubts and questions about Vivian were consuming his thoughts.
Graham chuckled knowingly. “I think Wes has been spending way too much time with all those ladies he’s been dating. That’s why he looks like he’s been shoved through a wringer.”
Wes grimaced at the thought. The mere idea of taking out another app date made him want to curse a blue streak. He didn’t want a woman the computer matched him with. The only woman he wanted was Vivian.
“My Perfect Match has had me preoccupied,” he admitted. “Not the ladies. Vivian and I have to fly to Los Angeles at the end of the week to appear on Hey, USA again to promote the damn thing.”
Any other time he’d be excited about the trip. Spending a night with Vivian in a plush hotel would be special. But the way things were going, he wasn’t sure if she’d be receptive to being in his arms for ten minutes, much less a whole night. One thing was certain, though, Wes decided. He couldn’t let her continue to avoid him. Not without finding out why.
Studying her brother over the rim of her coffee cup, Zoe said slyly, “I think Wes is following in his twin’s footsteps.”
“How’s that?” Wes asked, thinking she meant he was joining Ben with the Fortune hunt.
She cast him a clever smile. “I think you’ve fallen in love.”
Before Wes could voice a loud protest, Graham laughed.
“Zoe, we’re not all hopeless romantics like you. Wes loves his computer. Not a woman.”
*
Later that same afternoon, Vivian was at her desk, trying to immerse herself in work on the new Perfect apps, but her thoughts kept straying to Wes. And the huge bouquet of white daisies sitting a few inches away from her left elbow wasn’t helping the situation.
This morning when the flowers had arrived, she’d stared in confusion at the attached card. “She loves me? She loves me not? W.”
Where did Wes come off using the word love with her? During all of their times together, he’d never so much as breathed the word to her or even hinted that he felt
anything close to it. In fact, the only time he’d discussed the emotion was the day they’d argued about My Perfect Match and whether it would ultimately fulfill its promise. And even then he’d dismissed the word as though it was something that only happened in fairy tales.
For the past three nights, she’d come up with an excuse not to meet him at his place or her apartment. While here at work, she’d done her best to avoid running into him in the building. Today, she’d been expecting him to call her to his office and demand some sort of explanation from her. And the idea had her nerves frayed to the breaking point. She wasn’t sure how she could explain her behavior. Mainly because she couldn’t exactly explain it to herself.
Wes had become everything to her. That much was clear. It was also plain to see that she was caught in a one-sided love affair. One that was heading nowhere fast. The fact was ripping her apart. And yet, in spite of all that, there was a tiny part of Vivian that wanted to believe Wes might eventually love her. She understood it was stupid wishful thinking on her part. But her heart refused to let go of the notion.
“Hello, Viv.”
The sound of Wes’s voice interrupted the turmoil in her head, and she slowly turned to see him walking into her cubicle.
Wearing dark-rimmed glasses and a white shirt tucked neatly into a pair of black khakis, he looked all business. But what sort of business? she wondered. Did he have the progress of the Perfect apps on his mind, or planning a night of sex with her?
“Hello,” she replied, her throat thick. “What are you doing here?”
The question sounded worse than inane. He was her boss, and this was the Robinson Tech building. There could have been all sorts of legitimate reasons for his visit to her cubicle. But his sudden appearance had rattled her senses.
He walked over and stood to the left side of her desk chair. With his hand resting near the vase of daisies, he said, “I wanted to talk with you.”
Her heart was hammering for him. And for everything wrong about their relationship. “Why didn’t you let me know? I would’ve gone to your office.”
“I just came from the conference room, so I didn’t have far to walk.”
Dropping her gaze from his, she tugged at the hem of her chocolate-colored skirt, but the fabric refused to cover her knees. “Oh. Big meeting?”
“A family thing. It didn’t last long.” He gestured toward the flowers. “I hope you liked the daisies.”
“Thank you. They’re lovely.”
She looked up to see his narrow gaze was cutting a path across her face. “But you viewed them as a cop-out. Like giving a gift to my mother instead of giving her my time. Right?”
She frowned. “I didn’t say that. But I’ll admit I didn’t understand the card.”
His expression turned stoic, and Vivian realized this was more like the old Wes she’d known before My Perfect Match rolled onto the scene. This was the blunt, no-nonsense businessman, driven by his job rather than personal relationships. This wasn’t the Wes who’d held her in his arms and given her more passion than she’d ever dreamed possible.
“The card shouldn’t have confused you. You either want to spend time with me or you don’t. And with all these flimsy excuses you’ve been giving me for the past three days, I can’t help but think that you don’t,” he said flatly.
So the card hadn’t been asking whether she loved him, Vivian thought dourly. She should’ve known a question like that had never entered his mind. “I’ve been busy. And in case it slipped your mind, one of those evenings was my mother’s birthday celebration—the one you refused to go to,” she added caustically.
“Your mother’s little party couldn’t have lasted that long. We could’ve met afterward. And what about the other two nights? Maybe you had app dates? Is Mr. Valentine still after you, even though you stood him up for me?”
He was making her, and everything connected to her, sound deliberately awful.
It is awful, Vivian. You knew better than to jump into bed with Wes, yet you made the leap anyway. Why are you suddenly expecting him to give you some sort of promise, a sign that you’re special to him?
Sick with the hopeless feelings stirring inside her, she swung her chair so that she was facing him head-on. “I’ve not been out with anyone! Why? Have you?”
One of his dark brows arched in question. “No. I wanted to take you out, remember? But you turned me down.”
She didn’t have to be standing in front of a mirror to know fire was flashing in her eyes. “Take me out? Out? Really, Wes? Out where?”
As her voice rose, his gaze darted furtively around them as though to make sure no one had overheard her outburst. The idea rubbed the raw wounds in her heart even more.
A sheepish expression suddenly stole over his face. “Okay, you know what I mean. I wanted us to get together.” Bending his head closer to hers, he added, “And you know we can’t do that in public.”
Truth be told, they would never get together in public, she thought sadly. Not unless it was a pretend sort of thing like their date of convenience for Ben’s wedding.
Feeling more defeated than she ever had in her life, she looked blindly down at her lap. “Well, none of that matters, Wes, because I—I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past few days, and I’ve decided that we need to slow down. This thing between us flared up so quickly that neither of us has had a chance to consider what it might do to us or the sales of My Perfect Match.”
His eyes narrowed, and when he spoke his voice was low and strained. “Oh, so the app sales are more important to you than us?”
They weren’t, but pride had her saying otherwise. “Of course. This is my work. It means everything to me.”
His nostrils flared, and she wondered what he could possibly be thinking. Were his thoughts already moving on to some other woman sharing his bed? The idea was so unbearable, her mind slammed a door, shutting out the mere thought.
“I see. Then you’ve not forgotten that we’ll be traveling to Los Angeles in a couple of days for the Hey, USA show?”
“No. I’ve not forgotten. Adelle informed me that she’s already booked our flight and made hotel reservations for us.”
“Separate rooms, I’m sure,” he quipped.
Her chin lifted. “Adelle is a free-spirited woman. Especially for her age. But she wouldn’t expect us to be sleeping in the same room. And neither would I. If anyone happened to notice—well, you know, we can’t have that, now can we?”
“Okay, Viv. I get your point. You’re getting annoyed with all this sneaking around. But you’ve not stopped to think what you’re asking of me. It’s too much.”
She gave him a wan smile. “You don’t have a clue what I’m asking of you. And that’s the whole problem, Wes.”
His lips a grim line, he shot another quick glance over the walls of the work cubicle. To make sure no one overhead his next phony line, Vivian decided.
She was drumming her fingers on the desktop, waiting to hear what sort of excuse he was going to come up with, when his head suddenly bent downward. The moment his lips landed on hers, she sat frozen in place, too stunned to react.
Like the swift touch of a hot iron, his mouth seared hers, and for a split second all Vivian wanted to do was hang on to him, to pull his head closer and kiss him until both of them forgot where they were.
But before that could happen, common sense stepped in, and then it was all over as he abruptly pulled away from her. “You don’t know what I’m asking of you, Viv. So think about that kiss and perhaps you’ll figure it out.”
He walked out of the cubicle, and Vivian turned back to her computer screen. But instead of seeing her work, all she could see was a wall of hot tears.
Chapter Eleven
The rest of Wednesday passed in a miserable blur for Wes, and Thursday wasn’t much better. Even though he’d just spent the past hour with Vivian in his office, he might as well have been working with a complete stranger. She was as cool and distant as a snowy mount
aintop and just as unreachable. The invisible wall she’d erected between them was always present, barring him from carrying her to the couch and making love to her right there in his office.
Now, with their work for today concluded, Wes watched with a sick heart as she gathered her things to leave. He desperately wanted to take her in his arms and remind her how good things had been before she’d had this stubborn change of mind. He wanted to promise how wonderful it would all be again, if she’d only let him make love to her.
“I hope you’ve not forgotten our trip to Los Angeles tomorrow,” he said.
She pulled the dark-framed eyeglasses from her face and dropped them into a pocket on her blazer. “I’ll be ready.”
When she didn’t elaborate, he said, “We’ll need to be at the airport by eight in the morning, at least. I’ll send a taxi around for you. That way you won’t have to leave your car in the airport parking lot. Better yet, I’ll come pick you up myself.”
She looked at him, her expression unyielding. “No, thank you. We’ll only be gone for one night. I’ll drive my own car.”
Out of the blue, Adelle’s voice whispered through his thoughts. Could it be that you’re feeling a little jealous? That you’re not the one on a honeymoon?
At the time, he’d scoffed at his secretary’s suggestion. Him, married? And on a honeymoon? The idea was ridiculous. So why was he wishing their night in LA wasn’t going to end with just one? Why was he picturing her at his side long into the future?
His intimate thoughts put a husky note in his voice when he replied, “If that’s the way you want it. I’ll meet you at the airport.”
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Yes. We should probably go through security together.”
They should go through everything together, Wes thought. Like each day of their lives. How or when he’d decided that, he didn’t know. But the reality of his feelings was settling in on him, scaring him with their depth.
Rising to his feet, he skirted the desk and dared to wrap a hand over her shoulder. “Vivian,” he said gently, “I hope tomorrow we can—”
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