By Private Invitation

by Stephanie Julian

  Maybe he wasn’t as much like his father as he’d thought.

  He missed a step and apologized to Darcy.

  That topic was obviously not a good one to think about now. He’d only been out of the loop for a few weeks and already he thought himself above it all. That might’ve been the most dangerous thought he’d had all night.

  Hell, look at his parents. His father claimed to love his mother, but he’d still cheated on her.

  He vividly remembered his father trying to explain his adultery to a sixteen-year-old. How the relationship he had with his wife forced him to seek “comfort” outside the home. That Helena’s condition made it difficult for them to have a true relationship.

  It was the first time either of his parents had ever touched on the subject that there was something wrong with Helena.

  Shit, that really wasn’t what he wanted to be thinking about now.

  Thankfully, the song ended, and he untangled himself from his dance partner. It took longer than it should have. The woman had wanted to continue their discussion but he managed to get away without drawing attention to himself. Goldens never made a scene.

  Finally, he made his last regret and, on his way to reclaim Annabelle from his brother, he passed close enough to his parents that Helena stopped him.

  He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. “Great shindig, as always, Mom. Guess we know where I got it from, hmm?”

  “Thank you for coming, sweetheart. The recognition was such a surprise and to have you all here was a real treat. I just wanted you to know I’m glad you came.”

  Jared heard a note in his mom’s voice that made him take a second look at her. Her color was high, though that could be attributed to the warmth in the ballroom and the excitement of the event.

  Then he noticed how hard she clutched Glen’s arm, her knuckles nearly white.

  He smiled, tried not to let her see it was forced, and slid a glance at his father. “I wouldn’t have missed this. So, are you staying much longer?”

  “Well, of course we can’t leave yet,” Helena said. “I feel like I could dance all night.”

  Now Jared looked straight at his father and saw strain in the lines of his face.

  Shit. Shit.

  The tension in his head spread through his body as every muscle tensed.

  “Are you leaving soon, sweetheart?” His mom smiled up at him, her eyes just the tiniest bit glassy. “Taking your date back to the hotel for the night?”

  Jared exchanged another glance with his father. “I think we’ll hang for a little while, dance a little.”

  “Well, you have a good time, dear.” She turned to Glen. “I’d like to dance some more myself actually. I feel like I could dance all night.”

  “Mom—”

  “Jared, we don’t need a chaperone.” Glen smiled at him but it never reached his eyes. “Go on back to your date. Your mom and I’ll be fine.”

  Jared felt helpless as his parents walked away back into the thinning crowd on the ballroom floor.

  For a few seconds he merely watched them, watched his father maintain his hold on his mother’s elbow, then take her in his arms and move to the music.

  They laughed and talked, smiled at each other.

  Jared’s eyes narrowed. Okay, maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe his mom was just excited by the party, the recognition. Maybe…

  He turned back to the table where Belle was once again sitting with Nana and Tyler. She looked tired, her skin a little more pale than normal.

  He quickened his pace, wondering if she thought he’d deserted her.

  Maybe—

  A commotion behind him made him stop and turn.

  Just in time to see his father carry his mother off the dance floor.

  “You’re welcome to take a room for the night,” Jared said. “But I don’t think I’ll be back. I’ll probably stay at the hospital.”

  Annabelle nodded, seconds from a clean getaway. She gripped the door handle, ready to jump out of the car and go back to her home.

  Jared’s mother had been taken to the hospital. Helena’s doctor, who had been at the benefit, had believed she was having a reaction to a new medication.

  She understood Jared’s need to go with his mother. But something else was going on here.

  The man she’d arrived at the ball with had been replaced with a block of cold stone. There was no way she’d misinterpreted the wave of frigid cold coming from Jared.

  He hadn’t said a word since he’d told her he’d take her back to the hotel before he went to the hospital.

  Something else was happening here, something she didn’t understand going on in the background.

  And Jared had no intention of telling her what it was.

  He couldn’t seem to be rid of her fast enough.

  It was as if he was done with her. As if he couldn’t care one way or the other what she did.

  It hurt more than she’d thought possible.

  Forcing a smile, which he never saw, she said, “I think I’ll head home, that way I can open the shop tomorrow.”

  Jared nodded, staring out the front window. “Thank you for coming with me tonight. I’ll give you a call later this week.”

  Right. Sure you will. Annabelle got out of the car. “Good-bye, Jared.”

  He nodded again, sparing her a quick glance. “Have a safe trip home.”

  By the time she got her car started, all she saw was his brake lights as he pulled out of the parking garage.

  “It just doesn’t make any sense. That doesn’t sound like Jared.”

  Kate lifted her whiskey sour to her mouth, nearly missing her lips as she shook her head.

  Or it could be that Annabelle had double vision. She’d lost track of the number of whiskey sours she’d consumed in the past couple of hours after she’d closed the shop Sunday at five. Probably more than she wanted to count.

  Her brain was a little—No, her brain was a lot fuzzy and the alcohol was doing a hell of a job on that throbbing ache in the middle of her chest. It had loosened considerably in the past few minutes. And so had her mouth.

  “Well, maybe I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did.” Annabelle took another swig, no longer grimacing at the burn of the whiskey. “Hell, I don’t even know what I’m bitching about. I was only in it for the sex.”

  Kate snorted. “Yeah, right. If you think I believe that, tell me about the bridge you want to sell me.”

  “No, really. The sex was great but I knew he was never gonna be around long term. Hell, I might as well have pushed him away. After that night with Dane and Jared—”

  Oops. Way too many whiskey sours. Annabelle snapped her lips shut as Kate’s eyes rounded like dinner plates.

  “What did you just say?” Kate’s glass and the table collided at high speed. “Did you just say Dane and Jared? Do you mean…Both?”

  Oh, shit. She’d let the bag out of the—No, wait, she’d let the cat out of the bag.

  Definitely no more whiskey sours.

  But now that she’d opened her big mouth, she didn’t want to lie to her best friend. In the past week since it’d happened, she’d wanted so badly to talk to Kate about it.

  “Yes. Both.” She drew in a deep breath. “Oh, God, do you think I’m a slut?”

  Kate continued to stare at her. “Holy crap. Wait, who’s Dane? When was this? Was it good?”

  Annabelle closed her eyes and let her head fall back. “Dane is Jared’s friend. Last weekend. And if I say yes, will you ever talk to me again?”

  Kate’s face broke out into a smile so wide it had to hurt. “Hell, yes, I’ll talk to you again. Damn, I can’t even get decent sex from one guy and here you are, getting it good from two.”

  Relief at Kate’s response made her suck in much-needed air. “Oh, thank God. It was amazing. I mean, really freaking amazing. I thought maybe it was just that it was naughty, you know? Forbidden. I thought that’s why it was so freaking good. But…”

  Kate leaned forw
ard. “But what?”

  “But I think it was because of Jared. I think I really liked the guy.”

  “Oh, Annabelle.” Kate’s expression fell into despair. “That’s so…so…sad. And you wanna know why? Because I don’t think I ever felt that way about Arnie.”

  Annabelle bit her bottom lip. Damn, maybe whiskey sours were good for something other than getting shit-faced. Maybe they were the key to unlocking whatever was stuck inside. “What do you mean?”

  Kate’s mouth twisted. “Oh, please, you know what I mean. You never really liked Arnie—”

  “No, that’s not true—”

  “And I know now I don’t love him enough to marry him.”

  Annabelle shut her mouth tight before she could say anything else. Even as drunk as she was, she still had enough brain cells left to know Kate had to come to this decision on her own.

  Kate took a deep breath, tears shining in her eyes. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe I said that out loud. I mean, I’ve thought about it but I never came out and said it. It sounds…so final.”

  Annabelle reached across the table to take Kate’s hand. “Kate…”

  “No.” Kate shook her head, as if trying to clear her thoughts. “No, I don’t want to talk about it. Not now. Right now, I want to know more about this wild side of yours.”

  Wild side? Was she really as passionate as her mom? Did she have a wild side? Or had it all been about her trying to please Jared?

  No, that wasn’t right. He hadn’t coerced her. She’d been a more than willing participant. “I don’t think it matters much anymore. I think…I think I probably won’t be seeing Jared again. At least not in a personal way. I don’t think he’ll back out of our business arrangement. He’s not like that. And it’s an amazing opportunity for me to work on the spa. But I’m afraid if we continue to have a sexual relationship while we work together, it’s going to be messy when it ends. At least for me.”

  And despite all her protestations that she wasn’t looking for a relationship, that she didn’t want a guy in her life, that what she and Jared had shared was lust and a business relationship, she finally realized she’d been lying to herself.

  “Jared, honey, why don’t you go home and get some rest? I’m pretty sure you didn’t sleep at all last night and I’m in no danger of expiring at this moment.”

  Standing by the window in his mother’s bedroom, Jared turned to find her staring at him with a faint smile on her pale face.

  He reached for a smile and found one hard to dredge up. He’d been running on adrenaline since last night and was starting to crash.

  “I’ll go in a little while. You’ll start to complain of the stench soon anyway.”

  His mom actually laughed at that. “You would never stink, dear. Besides, I lived with you as a teenager, remember?” Then she sighed. “I really did a number on you, didn’t I?”

  He frowned as he walked back to the bed, checking her eyes to make sure they were clear and not glassy. He knew the doctor had said she hadn’t had a manic episode last night. That she’d had a reaction to the new drugs she’d just started taking. A new regimen Jared had known nothing about. That had been something of a shock.

  Even more of a shock was that his father had known. He’d been going to the doctor with her, had known what symptoms to look for to know if she was having an episode or a reaction to the meds.

  Still, for so many years Jared had been assessing her condition and her mood, it was now second nature.

  “What are you talking about?”

  She shook her head, her lips twisted in a slight grimace. “You lived your childhood wondering what mommy was going to show up that day. The manic or the depressive. Not a good way to raise a child, is it?”

  “Hey, Mom—”

  “We never talked about it back then, your father and I. My parents never suspected anything was wrong. I was merely high strung. And the worst of the episodes only started after we married.”

  Yeah, because his father was a lying sack of—

  “And you can stop with that line of thinking right now, Jared.” Her voice held a note of command he didn’t hear from her often. “No, your father is not perfect but what you never knew was that I told him flat out to take a mistress. That I no longer wanted a sexual relationship with him.”

  Whoa. His head snapped back in shock. “Mom—”

  “No, let me finish, Jared.” She took a deep breath, then continued. “We had two sons who meant more to me than anything in the world. And everyone knows your father and I didn’t marry for love. We united two fortunes. But your father got more than he bargained for with me. Honey, you and your brother were the lights of my life but your dad…Your dad took the brunt of my depression. And it wasn’t pretty.”

  She stopped to shake her head, her smile becoming bittersweet. “I don’t blame him for seeking comfort elsewhere. But you do your dad a disservice by treating him like the bad guy. He could’ve divorced me years ago. Hell, he should have. But—”

  “When you love someone, it’s not that easy to let go.”

  Jared turned at the sound of his father’s voice. Glen leaned against the doorjamb, dressed in faded jeans and an old Temple sweatshirt. The man looked damn good for fifty-eight. Jared knew he still worked out and swam to keep in shape.

  When Glen started toward the bed, Jared noticed the smile he wore for his wife. Jared barely recognized it because he hadn’t seen it for years.

  Or maybe he just hadn’t been looking.

  “You really should get some rest.” Glen bent down to kiss Helena on the lips, a rare display of open affection. Another shocker. He could probably count on his fingers the number of times he’d seen his parents kiss like that. “The doctor said you’d have no lasting effects but you need to rest. Jared can visit tomorrow.”

  “Only if Jared wants to visit.” Helena’s gaze came back to him. “I’m fine, honey, really. You don’t need to hover. No one,” she said, looking at Glen, “needs to hover.”

  His father just patted her hand and smiled.

  And Jared realized maybe she was right. “Actually, I need to be out of town tomorrow. There’s someone I need to see.”

  “A female someone?” Helena lifted of her eyebrows. “Maybe a certain pretty redhead?”

  He nodded slowly. “Yeah, though I’m not sure she’s going to want to see me. I may have been a little…brusque with her.”

  More like rude, cold. An idiot.

  “Oh, you might be surprised at what a woman will do for a man she wants,” Helena said. “Just be prepared to grovel a little.”

  “Yes, groveling goes a long way,” Glen agreed, his gaze steady on Jared’s. “So does just being there.”

  The conversation had turned surreal. His father was giving him relationship advice…that sounded almost reasonable.

  Yeah, he was so not ready to deal with his dad and their issues. Not yet. Maybe soon…

  But first, he needed to brush up on his groveling.

  Seventeen

  The doorbell was a torture device from hell, Annabelle decided around ten Monday morning.

  Its only purpose in life was to make her head feel like she’d pounded it against the wall for a few hours last night. Of course, the only thing she’d been pounding had been whiskey sours.

  Luckily for whoever was laying on her bell, she’d just taken a shower and was feeling slightly more human than when she’d rolled out of bed an hour ago. And the three acetaminophen she’d taken had brought her hangover down from traumatic to merely mind-splitting.

  As she stumbled to the door, she really, really, really hoped it wasn’t someone she had to be pleasant to. In fact, she almost wished it was Gary. She would love to be able to just slam the door in his face.

  She didn’t think she could manage pleasant. Upright was about as good as it got.

  What she definitely couldn’t handle was the man standing on her doorstep, holding two cups of fragrant, steaming coffee.

  Jared Gol
den looked good enough to eat. She swore she could actually taste him on her tongue.

  Damn, who would have thought her libido would still work this morning?

  She couldn’t stop her eyes from eating him up, from the top of his golden-brown head to his luscious lips to the broad shoulders she’d clung to not so very long ago in the throes of passion.

  Her mouth dried and her lungs caught on a hitch. Okay, that was not a good thing to think about now.

  She had to stop herself from grabbing for the coffee. She knew a bribe when she smelled one. She should just say “Thank you very much” and close the door in his face. Gently. Definitely no slamming.

  Instead, here she stood, staring at him like a fool, wondering if he’d drop the coffee if she threw herself at him. Probably not. He was that good.

  And even though she was still smarting from Saturday night’s treatment, she wanted to throw herself at him.

  Damn, have I no self-respect?

  “Good morning, Belle. May I come in?”

  A sharp gust of cold air made her catch her breath, and she took an automatic step away from the door, which Jared took as permission to enter.

  And really, it wasn’t like she would have refused him anyway.

  Not when he made her stomach flutter when he smiled at her with that wry grin. He almost looked apologetic.

  No, stay strong. The guy practically told you to get lost.

  After his mother had been rushed to the hospital.

  Jesus, of course I should cut him some slack.

  “How’s your mom, Jared? Is she okay?”

  As he handed her the coffee, he nodded. “Much better, thank you. She had a bad reaction to a new medication. She told me to tell you she’s sorry we had to cut our night short.” He took a deep breath. “And I’m very sorry too. Please forgive my attitude. It was unconscionable and I have no other excuse than that I was worried about my mother.”

  He looked so sincere, her pique with him dissolved in a puddle at her feet. It just shouldn’t be that easy, she thought. He should have to work for it, right? Maybe grovel a bit more. Or at least bring doughnuts with the coffee.

  “The medication she’s taking is for bipolar disorder. She’s been dealing with it since I was a kid.”