by Lisa Dyson
Even if he had begun to have second thoughts about discontinuing their relationship.
Relationship.
That was a word he never used when it came to the women he dated.
But he was definitely using the word now when it came to Allie.
* * *
ALLIE LEFT JACK’S OFFICE feeling good about how the meeting had gone. They certainly had been businesslike, hardly a personal word between them after their opening discussion.
Business, strictly business. That’s what she needed to remember, even if she had a difficult time concentrating when he was wearing that perfectly fit suit and she was well aware of the sexy body beneath his clothes.
She picked up a sandwich on the way to her office. She’d barely taken her first bite when she decided to call her mom. It had been too late to call her last night to tell her the news about Charlotte, and this morning she’d been busy working on ideas for her meeting with Jack.
“Hi, Mom,” Allie greeted her when she answered. “Do you have a minute?”
“For you, always.” Her mom really was the best.
How would Allie’s life have been if she’d been raised by a twenty-year-old ex-con?
“You sound like you’re in a good mood, Allison, what’s going on?”
“Well—” Allie suddenly got choked up. She swallowed and started again. “Charlotte and I found out last night that we’re twins. We haven’t gotten back the DNA test yet, but that’s a technicality. I have a biological sister.”
“Oh, Allison, I’m so happy for you both.” Her mother was crying, but Allie knew they were tears of joy. “How wonderful to find each other. I want to hear all the details.”
Allie explained everything they knew, from having the same mother on the same date in the same hospital to the fact that her biological mother was very young and a prison inmate when she gave birth.
“She was in prison?” Mom exclaimed. “Oh, my. And so young. Poor thing.” Allie’s adoptive mother—or her real mother, as she would always think of her—was a mom through and through. She was even concerned about the woman who gave up her babies for money, seemingly without a care whether or not they were separated.
“She sold us,” Allie insisted. “And split us up. She didn’t care about us, just the money.”
“Maybe she didn’t know you went to different families,” her mother pointed out. “You don’t know what the lawyer was up to. Didn’t you tell me he was disciplined several times during his career?”
“True,” Allie said. “But she could have taken the time to find out what happened to us.”
“I’m sure there’s a good reason, sweetheart. You need to forgive and forget.”
Allie wasn’t as forgiving as her mother. Maybe time would soften Allie’s attitude about the woman who gave birth to her.
“Besides,” her mother continued, “if not for her, we wouldn’t have been so blessed to have you in our lives.”
That was exactly what Allie needed to hear, even if she hadn’t realized it until her mother spoke the words. “Thank you, Mom. Thank you for raising me. I love you.” This was one time she wished she were standing in front of her mom so she could give her a big hug.
Mom sounded surprised. “I love you, too, sweetheart. More than you’ll ever know.” She paused and then added, “We need to have a party.”
“A party?” Allie smiled and blinked the moisture from her eyes.
“Yes, we need to welcome Charlotte into the family.”
“Wait a minute,” Allie said. “Don’t be in such a rush. She’s still pretty raw since losing her adoptive mother. And she has more questions than ever about her adoption.” She explained about Charlotte’s birth certificate from New York.
“I understand,” Mom said. “I promise we won’t pressure her. Let’s make it an ‘Allison found her sister’ party instead.”
Allie laughed, appreciating her mom and realizing she could never tell her fully how much she meant to her.
“I really do love you, Mom.” She choked up as she said it. What was with her? She never got this emotional.
“I love you, too,” her mom responded. “So can we have the party?”
Allie laughed and wiped at the tear that escaped down her cheek. “Yes, we can have the party. As long as we do it after I finish this account. Which will be by the Fourth of July.”
“Then let’s do a big party for the Fourth.”
“Let me check with Charlotte. I’m pretty sure her art show is the weekend before, but I’ll double-check.”
“I’d love to go see her work,” Mom exclaimed. “Do you think that would be okay? I don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“How about I talk with her and see how she’s feeling?”
“Yes, you talk to her. And if she’s not comfortable with me coming or if she wants to hold off on a party, then you let me know. The last thing I want is to alienate your sister.” She laughed. “How funny is it that I’m not talking about Rachael when I say ‘your sister’?”
Allie smiled. “Very weird, Mom. Very, very weird.”
“Listen, we’ll set the date soon, if Charlotte is okay with it, and you will be bringing Jack with you, right? He’s the reason the two of you met in the first place.”
“Mom—”
“Uh-oh. What?”
“I don’t think Jack will want to come.”
“Why not? Did we do something wrong when he was here?”
“No, no, it’s me. I’ve disappointed him, and I don’t think he wants to have anything to do with me once this campaign ends.”
“Then apologize to him, Allison. Don’t you want him at least as a friend?”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Allie said, leaving off the “again.” “I just don’t see how Jack and I will recover.”
“You never disappoint me,” her mother said. “I’m always proud of you. I’m disappointed that you and Jack aren’t together.”
“I’m sure someone else will come along,” she tried to assure her mother.
“But not someone like Jack. Watching the two of you—the sparks between you—reminds me of your father and me when we were falling in love.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHARLOTTE WAS IN her home studio when the phone rang. “Good afternoon, my dear sister!” she answered when she saw that it was Allie’s number.
Allie laughed as expected. “I still can’t quite get over all this.”
“Neither can I,” Charlotte agreed. “In one second we found out we were twins. Our lives should have changed, but life’s still going on as usual.”
“Good way to put it,” Allie said. “Hey, I talked to my mom earlier to tell her our news, and she’s very excited for us.”
“I’m glad she’s taking it well,” Charlotte said, wondering how her own mother would have responded to Charlotte finding her long lost sister.
“Me, too,” Allie said. “But my mom’s a mom, and I guess she wants all her kiddos happy. She can see how happy this has made me, so that’s all that matters to her.”
“How lucky that you have her,” Charlotte said wistfully.
“I know—she’s great. And actually she’d like to have a party to celebrate our news. If that’s okay with you. I told her not to push you into accepting my whole family all at once.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Charlotte said. “When was she thinking?”
The two women discussed what Allie’s mother had in mind, and then Allie said, “My mom would love to speak to you, to welcome you and invite you personally.”
“I’d like that. I’m anxious to meet her.”
“I’ll text you her phone number, and then you can call her whenever you’re ready.”
“Sounds good. I need to finish up some things for my art show next week, but I’ll call her later today.”
They ended their call, and Charlotte felt a warmth envelop her. She had been given the gift of the large family she’d always wanted.
Several hours late
r, Charlotte finished packing up some of her things that she had to transport to the show. She looked at the phone.
She wanted to talk to Allie’s mother, but she had another call to make first—to Felicia Monroe.
“Hello, Ms. Monroe,” Charlotte said when Felicia’s answering machine message was over. “This is Charlotte Harrington. I believe you knew my mother, Grace Harrington. I have a few questions about my mom I’m hoping you can answer.” She left her phone number and disconnected.
Next she called Allie’s mother. “Hello, Mrs. Miller. This is Charlotte Harrington,” she greeted her.
“Oh, my dear, it’s so good to hear from you.” Mrs. Miller couldn’t have been more excited. “And please, call me Eleanor. There’s no need to be formal. You’re my daughter’s twin sister. That makes you family.”
Before Charlotte could say anything, Eleanor continued. “I’m so sorry. Allie warned me not to be too pushy.”
“That’s okay,” Charlotte assured her. “I’m as thrilled about the news as you are.”
“Allie told me about your mother. I’m very sorry for your loss, dear.”
“Thank you. It was devastating to lose her, especially when I had no other family.”
“Well, you do now,” Eleanor told her. “You can have as little or as much family as you want.”
Tears came to Charlotte’s eyes. Last night when she and Allie had read their birth certificates together, Charlotte hadn’t realized what a huge gift the information would bring.
“Thank you, Eleanor. You have no idea how much that means to me.”
They talked a few minutes, and then Eleanor brought up the subject of Allie and Jack. “She tells me they have no interest in being a couple.”
“Well—”
“So there is something going on. I knew it. The spark between them is so obvious.”
“I agree,” Charlotte said. “If only they’d keep business out of it, they might have a chance.”
“So what shall we do?”
Charlotte laughed. “What are you thinking?”
They spent the next few minutes discussing the best way to handle the situation. They both had the same goal, and when they disconnected, Charlotte felt really good about her new relationship with Eleanor. And about Jack and Allie’s future.
* * *
BY THE THIRD DAY of their new working arrangement, Allie was surprised to discover that she was actually looking forward to video chatting with Jack. They’d decided that meeting face-to-face every day in one of their offices was unnecessary and took too much extra time.
Jack had several employees working as a team on the Fairleigh project, and Allie was impressed with their range of talent. One was a web designer, one a graphics expert and the third had an impressive number of media contacts.
“I’ve arranged for Bob, the city planner, to appear on the local six and eleven o’clock news shows,” Allie told Jack, trying to concentrate on work and the notes in front of her instead of remembering how his mouth felt. “Not only can he talk knowledgeably about the rebuilding process, but I also think he’s the most personable of the town employees and will make a great impression on the public.”
“Good call,” Jack said without looking up. He wrote something on a legal pad and requested that one of his employees report on their progress.
Allie half listened, trying to take notes, but knowing the only reason she was even part of this team was because of Charlotte. That fact still nagged at her.
“I talked to Charlotte last night when I got home from work,” Jack told her. “She said she was available for the date we’d talked about to be the guest artist at the workhouse.” He shuffled some papers. “August something.”
“August eighth.” Allie was surprised by the twinge in her gut when Jack mentioned talking to Charlotte. How would it be, living across the street from him and seeing him every day? Allie felt a touch of jealousy.
“Sounds right.” Jack wrote a note of the date. “A local winery is also setting up a tent, and we’ve already begun advertising it.”
He said more, but Allie didn’t catch everything—she was too preoccupied thinking about Jack on a level that wasn’t business. Though she didn’t know why she tortured herself. He’d made it clear that he didn’t want a personal relationship with her, and he didn’t agree with the way she conducted business.
How else could she survive? She’d been taught by the best when she started at DP Advertising. If not for Jimmy taking it too far, she’d still be at DP, business as usual.
At DP she would have been praised for getting the scoop on Fairleigh, for using Charlotte as a lure, for fostering Harvey to win the animal-food account.
“Allie?” Jack was speaking to her.
She blinked. “Yes?”
“I asked if you had anything else to add.”
“Um, no, that’s it for today.” But she didn’t want him to disconnect. She wanted to talk to him. Really talk to him.
She couldn’t explain her reaction to him. She should move ahead and not look back.
“Same time tomorrow, then,” Jack said, and they disconnected.
Probably for the best.
When she compared Jack to the other men she’d dated, he was almost the exact opposite.
Maybe Jack was simply too good for her. He wasn’t a Jimmy, who landed in jail, or a Tony, who never mentioned his wife and three kids, or even a Steve, who sold fake designer purses as a sideline to his bartending gig.
She needed to tamp down her feelings for him—they were beginning to consume her.
Besides, Jack had always made it clear he wasn’t into relationships. He’d warned her that sex with him was up to her, but it had to be with no strings attached.
Problem was, now she wanted those strings.
Not that it would ever work out. They were too different. As hard as she tried, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to live up to his expectations.
* * *
A WEEK LATER, the Fairleigh project was nearly done, and Jack had a different matter on his mind.
It was now clear that his grandfather could no longer live by himself. But Jack was shocked when his grandfather agreed to move to an assisted living facility in a small town not too far from Jack’s house. He hadn’t even argued.
Jack had arranged for movers to come and pack up his grandfather’s house, so by the time Granddad moved, his things would be in place.
When the day came, Jack drove Granddad to his new home in a lovely establishment that provided all kinds of services, including the security of knowing someone was watching out for him 24/7.
Jack’s first idea had been to move Granddad into his own house in Newport. That would have required outside help since Jack would be at work all day, but Granddad wasn’t about to “impose,” as he phrased it.
“You know you can still change your mind and move into my house with me,” Jack said as he parked at the assisted living facility. “I have plenty of room.”
“That’s for you and your family,” Granddad said as he slowly got out of the car.
“You’re my family.”
“You should have a family of your own. It’s about time. What are you, thirtysomething now?”
“Thirty-two,” Jack answered. “Since when have you pushed for me or anyone to have a family? You certainly avoided that.”
“And I’m paying for it now.” Granddad’s tone was serious, full of regret. They walked slowly on the path to the main entrance.
“How do you figure?”
Granddad had never talked like this before.
“If I’d married your grandmother when she came to me and said she was pregnant with your mother, then maybe we would have had more children and more grandchildren. Then you wouldn’t have the sole burden of my care now.”
“It’s not a burden,” Jack said and meant it. “You raised me when my mother died and my father deserted me. I owe you so much.”
They reached the main entrance, checked in a
nd headed down the hallway where his grandfather’s apartment was located. The facility was clean, the staff friendly. Jack had done his homework when it came to finding the right place for Granddad. In addition, there were several other residents whom his grandfather knew quite well.
“She married someone else,” Granddad said suddenly.
“Who did?”
“Your grandmother. I did my duty, paid child support and took your mother for several weeks over the summer and the occasional holiday. But I should’ve married her mother.”
Jack had no words.
“She got tired of waiting for me, so she married someone else.” Granddad paused, and his eyes were bright with tears. “I never should have let her go.”
Jack swallowed. Granddad had never spoken about this before. He’d never thought his grandfather had regretted any of his decisions.
Would Jack someday regret letting Allie go, too? The thought of her with another man made his gut churn.
He got his grandfather settled and was ready to leave when Granddad said, “Don’t do what I did, son. You need a family. Don’t think you can do it all alone and never settle down. Your father made a lot of mistakes with women, and I know you’re afraid to turn out just like him. But don’t be like me, either, avoiding anyone who would tie you down or push you to look at life differently. In the end, you’ll be sorry.”
A little while later, as he drove to his office, he couldn’t help thinking about Allie. He was attracted to her, loved the sex, the playful banter. Working with her had been great, much better than he’d expected. One of them would express an idea, and the other would add to it. He’d looked forward to speaking with her every day, even if it had been only by video chat.
The emptiness in his chest when he wasn’t around her was something he’d never felt before.
Did he have feelings for her?
Honestly? Yes.
Was this what love felt like? He’d never been in love before.
Now what?
* * *
AT LAST THE DAY of the party for Allie and Charlotte arrived. Allie had wanted Charlotte to drive to Allie’s parents’ with her, but Charlotte had insisted she had things to finish up Friday night and would be there early the next morning.