“Ah, here it comes.” His father rose to his feet. “We’re the reason for your misfortune and the bad press. Did you ever think to look in the mirror?”
Jaxon nodded. “Oh, I’ve had plenty of time to look in the mirror. I don’t deny that I should never have gotten involved in a casual relationship with Stephanie. Clearly she’s an unstable woman and I just fueled the flames. But you and Mother made it worse.”
“By wanting what’s best for you? What’s best for this family?” His father’s voice rose several decibels. “God, you and your sister are so ungrateful. You’ve had everything handed to you on a silver platter and now you’re whining about it?”
“What’s best for me is to find my own way,” Jaxon yelled back at him. “I’m your son. When did you stop being on my side?”
His father stared at him in shock. Before he could say anything, the door to the study burst open.
“I heard voices—” His mother stopped midsentence when she saw the other occupant of the room.
“Jaxon!” She cried and rushed toward him. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug. “Oh, thank God, you’re home. I thought we’d lost you for good.”
“It’s okay, Mother.” Jaxon patted her back. She was so petite at five foot one that sometimes he felt as if he might break her. It didn’t help that it looked as if she’d lost some weight since he’d been gone. Was it stress because of him? “I’m here now.”
She pulled away from him and smoothed her coiffed silver chignon as she digested his words. “For how long?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Jaxon said. And he didn’t. Coming back home was like opening up a wound that hadn’t quite healed yet. He’d hoped his stay at the Belleza would have helped, but it was like a scab had replaced the open wound and it was still raw.
“What’s going on, Charles?” His mother looked at his father. “Why is Jaxon talking of leaving again?”
Charles Dunham shook his head. “Because he doesn’t think that I’m in his corner.”
His mother turned to Jaxon and touched his cheek. “You know that’s not true. We love you.”
“Like you love each other?” Jaxon asked and his mother’s face blanched.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she inquired, taking a step back.
“You both have been in such a rush to marry me off. Why? So I can be like you two in an unhappy marriage? No thanks.”
Her mother glanced at his father, who lowered his head. “Your father and I are not unhappy.”
“No?” Jaxon snorted. “But you’re not madly in love, either. Never have been. I don’t want that kind of marriage. If I can’t have the real thing, I don’t want any part of it.”
“We may not have a perfect marriage,” his father responded, “but your mother and I have a mutual respect for each other.”
“Sounds romantic,” Jaxon snarled.
“Is that why you’ve shied away from marriage?” his mother asked. “Because of us?”
“Partly. I never felt I had a good example of one,” Jaxon said.
“Marriage is what you make of it, son,” his father replied. “But you have to be willing to take that risk. It’s why we pushed you so hard. It can have its advantages.”
“But can’t you see, the more you push, the more I retreat? Trying to force an engagement on me only made me want to run and hide.”
“Which is why you’ve been hiding out at the Belleza?” his mother asked.
“How long have you known?”
His father replied instead, “I’ve known for some time. I had an investigator looking for you.” He continued at Jaxon’s stunned expression. “Listen, I had to be sure no one had kidnapped you or something. You are the heir to a large fortune, but once I realized you were in no immediate danger, I decided to give you some space and hope you would come to your senses. And your mother, well, she just recently found out because Hayley let it slip that she’d seen you when she’d toured the Belleza for the Dunham Foundation gala.”
Jaxon nodded. He’d thought he’d been careful that day, but his sister had still found him out.
“Listen, Jaxon.” His mother grasped his hand. “We had no idea how unstable Stephanie was. I thought by telling her where you were that you guys could talk and clear the air. I had no idea she would behave so terribly by storming the hotel and demanding answers from you. It’s made your father and I evaluate whether we want someone like her in our family.”
“Your mother tried to call your cell and warn you that Stephanie was coming and that she was on the warpath, but you didn’t pick up,” his father said.
Jaxon remembered the call he’d gotten on his cell phone earlier that day when he’d been meeting with Gabrielle and how he’d let it go to voice mail. “Okay, so you tried to warn me and I’m sorry I didn’t pick up, but that doesn’t change the fact that you two stopped being in my corner. You have to stop interfering and let me live my own life.”
“We know that,” his mother said, “and we promise we will. If you promise not to shut us out of your life again if we make a mistake. We’re not perfect, Jaxon. And despite what you may think, we love each other and we love you.”
“Your mother is right,” his father replied. “We love you and we promise to have your back going forward, outsiders be damned.” With one hand, his father reached out and circled it around Jaxon’s head, pulling him toward him. “I love you, son.”
After several long moments, Jaxon patted his father’s back. “I love you, too.”
* * *
Jaxon was surprised. He’d never thought the conversation with his parents would be this positive, but they’d surprised him with their honesty and candor. It made him see that relationships were not perfect. They were complicated, messy and ever-evolving. It made him realize that if he didn’t stop running he might miss out on the best thing that had ever happened to him. Kimberly Parker.
He drove over to Nate’s place to talk over his next steps and how he could win Kimberly back after screwing up royally. He’d walked out on her after she’d told him she loved him. He’d been so stunned to hear her admission out loud that he hadn’t known what to do. If he was honest with himself, he’d suspected how she felt about him. How could he not? She’d worn her heart on her sleeve. Even when they were making love, she’d been honest with her responsiveness to him. And instead of cherishing what she’d offered, he’d thrown it back in her face as if their time together had meant nothing at all. No wonder she hadn’t answered any of his calls or texts.
“Hey, when did you get back?” Nate asked after Jaxon walked into his home later that afternoon. The house was theirs, since his kids were at a birthday party.
“Yesterday,” Jaxon said. “Had to deal with some family business.”
Nate quirked a brow. “And how did that go?”
“Got a beer?” Jaxon asked.
“Hey, the last time I drank with you, I ended up on the couch for two nights,” Nate replied. “It was awfully lonely on that couch.”
“Sorry about that, man,” Jaxon said, following behind him. “But a lot has been going on.”
“All right. C’mon, I’ll take pity on you.” Nate led him to the kitchen at the back of his ranch-style three-bedroom home. It had a spacious floor plan that overlooked an enormous family room, which right now had several toys scattered over the floor. Jaxon stepped over one of them as he slid onto a stool at the counter while Nate fetched two beers out of the fridge.
Once he cracked it open, he slid it toward Jaxon and he happily accepted, taking a long drag. “So,” Nate said, opening a beer for himself. “What’s got you all fired up?”
“Kimberly, Stephanie, my parents.”
“That’s a mouthful. What happened?”
“Stephanie showed up at the Belleza, where I was staying.”
“I know, I know,” Jaxon replied, “but I needed some space to clear my head.”
“But instead of finding space, you found your way into Kimberly’s Parker’s bed.”
Jaxon smiled sheepishly. “But here’s the thing, Nate. She found her way into my heart.”
“What?” Nate’s brow rose in surprise.
“I think I’m in love, man.”
“You think or you know?”
Jaxon was silent for a long moment as he pondered the question. His mind went back to the very first time he’d seen Kimberly when she was poolside with her friends. He recalled the first time they made love and how incredible it had been. Or that highly charged encounter in the cave. If he was honest with himself, he’d known then that he loved her. He had never felt that connected with another person, but he hadn’t been ready to admit his feelings to himself until now. “I know.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know.” Jaxon took a swig of his beer. “I messed things up with Kimberly, Nate.”
“What happened?”
He filled in his friend on Stephanie’s histrionics. “Afterward, Kimberly told me that she loved me and asked me point-blank how I felt about her, but I couldn’t say it back to her. That’s when she told me to take a hike, that she wasn’t interested in being Stephanie part deux.”
“Ouch!”
“What do I do? You’ve been married for seven years. You guys have had fights. How do you recover from it?”
“This is way more than a fight, Jaxon. She broke up with you because you weren’t willing to tell her those three little words that every woman wants to hear from the man she’s sleeping with.”
Jaxon lowered his head in despair. “How do I make it up to her?”
“You need a big gesture,” Nate said, taking a swig of beer. “One that shows Kimberly exactly how you feel about her and that you’re in it for the long haul.”
“But what?”
“You’re a smart guy. You’ll figure something out.”
* * *
Kimberly stared at her cell phone. Jaxon had called and left a voice mail. Actually, he’d left several over the past few days since he’d gone, but she couldn’t bear to listen to any of them and had deleted each and every one of them. She was better off if they just made a clean break. No amount of talking was going to change the fact that he just wasn’t that into her or at least not how she was into him. She didn’t just like him. She loved him, but Jaxon didn’t want or seem capable of accepting that love and she wasn’t about to beat her head against a brick wall. If he didn’t want her, she had to move on.
It wouldn’t be easy to do, but she had to try. Work helped. Yesterday, she received a call from Cole, the R & B artist who’d attended her tasting menu last month. She hadn’t much cared for him, especially the way he’d put down her staff, but he wasn’t the first entitled celebrity they’d dealt with at the Belleza and he certainly wouldn’t be last. The request, however, caught her off guard.
“You want us to do what?” She stared back at the receiver.
“You heard correctly,” Cole said. “I need you to plan a last-minute wedding for me. My manager or publicist can’t find out anything about it or they’ll try to nix the nuptials. The bride is a celebrity like me, so this has to be extremely hush-hush.”
“But in a day?” Kimberly asked. Sure, they’d done last-minute events before and pulling off the impossible was a knack they’d developed...but in twenty-four hours? Even Kimberly wasn’t sure they could pull it off.
“You have to,” Cole said. “It has to be tomorrow night.”
“What about the bride? Doesn’t she have a say in this? I mean, we need her input to ensure this day is all that you both imagined it would be.”
“My bride just wants to marry me. She’ll be happy with whatever you decide given your restraints.”
“But why the rush?” Kimberly inquired. “If we can have at least a week, I promise you we can do more. You’ll have the—”
Cole interrupted her. “We want tomorrow. Can you do it or not?”
Well, he was direct, Kimberly thought. “Let me speak with my event planner. I’ll get back to you within the hour.”
“Excellent. I know you won’t let me down,” he said before hanging up.
Kimberly immediately dialed Robyn and then Gabrielle and cryptically said, “Drop whatever you’re doing. My office now.”
In minutes, her two best friends stormed into her office with matching scowls.
“Listen, missy,” Gabrielle said, as she pointed her finger at her, “I know you’re going through a lot and all, but I don’t appreciate being summoned when I’m in the middle of preparing one of my signature soufflés.”
Robyn nodded her agreement. “What gives?”
“I just got a call from Cole,” Kimberly said, glancing at the phone. She was still in disbelief at his request. “You remember him, right?”
“That obnoxious singer from last month’s tasting-menu dinner?” Gabrielle asked. “How can I forget? He treated the staff like servants.”
“He contacted me today and wants me to arrange his wedding.”
“Is that all?” Gabrielle huffed and began walking toward the door. “He can take a number like everyone else.”
“The wedding is tomorrow.”
Gabrielle spun on her heels. “Excuse me?”
Robyn sank into the seat across from Kimberly and unbuttoned the top two buttons on her orange silk shirt.
“He is willing to pay us an enormous sum if we can pull off this wedding in time,” Kimberly replied.
“But that’s insane,” Gabrielle said. “It’s just not possible.”
Kimberly ignored her. “It’s a small wedding with approximately ten guests. How hard could it be to put a menu together and have a small cake?”
“Do you have any idea what you’re asking? I’d have to be up all night,” Gabrielle responded.
“I told him I would never agree to such a thing but that’s when he offered each of us an outrageous sum plus 20 percent bonuses,” Kimberly replied.
“How much?” Robyn wanted to know. “Because what he’s asking for, in the time frame he’s asking for, doesn’t come cheap.”
Kimberly wrote the figure on a slip of paper and passed it across the desk to Robyn. Robyn rolled her eyes before reaching for it, but when she saw the amount, she looked up in utter shock. “He’s willing to pay us that much?”
Kimberly nodded. “You see, we have to do it.”
“Wait just a minute,” Gabrielle said, walking toward the desk. “My job is the hardest here. I want to know how much that jerk is willing to pay.” When Robyn handed her the piece of paper, Gabrielle stopped in her tracks and looked at both of them. “We can’t turn this down.”
“That’s exactly what I just said,” Kimberly replied.
“But you didn’t lead with the money,” Gabrielle responded. “Next time lead with the cold hard cash.”
Kimberly smiled at her friends. Although they were both paid well by the Belleza, she knew what a saver Robyn was because she never wanted to be broke ever again and end up in the projects where she came from. And Gabrielle wanted to show her parents that living well was the best revenge. “So can we do this?”
“Yes!” they both said in unison.
Kimberly was glad they were on board because it was going to take a miracle to create a wedding in one day, especially when she was heartbroken knowing hers may never come.
Chapter 20
The night of Cole’s wedding arrived. All the arrangements had been made and the stage was set for romance. The past twe
nty-four hours had been a flurry of activity for all of them and Kimberly couldn’t have been more proud of her team and her best friends. They’d all put in long hours, whether they were decorating or setting up chairs with Robyn or in the kitchen with Gabrielle helping prep the menu. Gabrielle was right about one thing: she had the hardest job, because hers took deliberate precision.
Gabrielle had been working on the wedding cake from the moment she’d left Kimberly’s office. Baking the layers was the easy part, but the fondant decoration was quite another. If anyone was up for the challenge, it was Gabby. When Kimberly had called Cole to find out the flavor of cake he’d wanted, he’d deferred to her.
“Whatever you like will be just fine with me,” he’d said. “My gal isn’t all that particular. All she wants is to marry me.”
Kimberly wished she could say the same, but she knew if she ever got married that she would want everything just perfect, so she selected a cake she would want from the three ideas Gabrielle had presented to her. She went with a three-tiered square cake with a lace background and cascading roses.
Robyn had done her part, too. The main lawn and waterfall area had been transformed into a Garden of Eden. White roses and hydrangeas adorned the pillars, and a wedding arch adorned with white roses had been erected and swathed in chiffon to frame the bride and groom during the ceremony. Kimberly was amazed at what Robyn could put together in such a short period of time, and with no help from the groom.
But now that wedding fever was starting to die down and all the elements were in place, Kimberly didn’t want to go to the wedding. Her staff was quite capable of handling the event in her absence. How could she stand there and watch Cole pledge his love to some female he’d known for all of two seconds when Jaxon had just walked out of her life? She couldn’t do it. It would just be too hard to watch another couple’s bliss when her own had been torn away.
Was it terrible of her to leave this on Gabrielle and Robyn’s shoulders? Yes. She recognized she was being selfish, but she needed to take this time to grieve for a love that she would never have. Last night she’d been so exhausted from the wedding preparations that she’d come back to her condo and fallen asleep. But her body, her traitorous body, hadn’t forgotten what it was like to have Jaxon sleeping beside her. Her body hadn’t forgotten the way he’d held her in his arms as they slept or the way it had felt having him drive deep inside her, bringing her the ultimate pleasure.
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