He’d been a grouch all weekend, though he’d stayed nice to her—so far. She was probably what was causing his bad mood. She was bugging him, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Nick!”
She jumped up and rushed to the door of his office. “Yeah?”
“Would you make us some lunch, honey? I think there’s enough bread in there for peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. That’d be easy.”
“Sure, Uncle Bryan,” she said, and hurried away before she did something to make him mad.
She tripped over Lucy on the way to the refrigerator for the jelly, but she didn’t mind. She couldn’t believe how happy she felt when she hugged the dog. It was almost like hugging her mom again.
Lucy began to bark as soon as Nicki had the jar of peanut butter open, and Nicki quickly scooped up a fingerful for the dog, telling her to hush. Lucy was a peanut-butter freak. She ate an awful lot of food, in fact, and she ran around the house a lot, too, sometimes knocking things over. She was probably part of the reason Uncle Bryan was so grouchy. He’d never had to take care of a kid before, let alone a pet. Nicki hoped they found her other mother soon. She needed some other family out there somewhere just in case Uncle Bryan couldn’t stand to keep her anymore.
And she hoped they liked pets. She’d just die if she lost Lucy now.
She put two sandwiches and some chips on a paper plate, about the only kind Uncle Bryan used, not like the china ones her mom and grandma had always used, grabbed up a napkin and a glass of milk, and took it all into Uncle Bryan’s office.
“You didn’t have to do this, Nick. I could’ve come out there with you,” he said when she set the plate down beside him.
“That’s okay. Lucy’ll share mine,” she said.
He looked at her over his drafting table. “Just make sure you get the bigger share.”
Nicki went out to the couch and curled up again. She’d have liked to snuggle up on her bed, but it seemed to bug Uncle Bryan when she did that. Anyway, she didn’t want a sandwich. She wasn’t hungry. She hadn’t been feeling too good since she’d woken up that morning, and she was really afraid she might be going to start her period. She’d just die if she did. She couldn’t go to the school nurse with it being summer, and they lived too far away from the store for her to go there by herself and get stuff. Besides, she didn’t have any money and she wasn’t even totally sure what to get. But one thing was for sure—she couldn’t go to Uncle Bryan for help if it happened.
He’d probably faint if she asked for those pad things. She’d probably faint, too.
Nicki thought again of her other mother, something she did almost all the time lately. She thought about how wonderful it would be if she found her mother before she started her period, and if her mother wanted her, she’d have a woman there to help her through the whole yucky thing.
She thought about how happy Uncle Bryan would probably be to have his freedom back again. And she tried not to think about how sad that made her feel.
JENNIFER SPENT all day Sunday with Sam, changing the plugs and belts and oil and filter on the Mustang, and eating ribs Sam barbecued himself on the old grill he kept outside his apartment building. Sam had been living in the same six-unit building Jennifer’s whole life, though he was no longer a tenant. He’d bought the building a few years before when Jennifer had promoted him to corporate mechanic, a fancy title that allowed her to pay him a lot of money to do what he loved to do. And he was worth every penny.
When she went back to work on Monday she was ready for business. The first thing she did was refuse all calls. She instructed Rachel to pick up her private line for her through the remainder of the week and to send Bryan Chambers’s calls to Dennis from then on. Her vice president could handle the rest of the One Price campaign himself.
She made it through the day better than she’d expected to, and by Tuesday morning she was certain she’d done the right thing. She got a lot more work accomplished when she wasn’t waiting for her phone to ring. It was also easier to pretend she wasn’t missing Bryan so much when she wasn’t constantly hoping to hear his voice on the other end of the line.
Dennis’s familiar knock sounded on the door of her office shortly after nine.
“Come on in,” she called. She hadn’t seen Dennis since before her shopping spree with Tanya on Friday.
“Mornin’, Jen. Did you get my message about the newest One Price films? Chambers is bringing them over tomorrow morning for us to take a look at them. He says they’re dynamite.” Dennis took his usual seat in the armchair next to her television set.
“Rachel told me, yes, but I can’t make it. I’m meeting with Peterson tomorrow,” she said. John Peterson was the architect they’d hired to put up the new truck building next to Teal Chevrolet.
“Put him, off, Jen. We need to get these commercials on the air.”
“I trust your judgment, Dennis. You can okay them without me.”
Dennis settled his ankle on the opposite knee. “Chambers expects you to be there.”
“Then he’s going to be disappointed.” She tapped her pen against her desk pad. She’d made her decision.
“What happened?” Dennis asked, frowning. “I thought you two had a thing going.”
Jennifer knew it would be useless to deny it, especially since his wife had almost as big a mouth as he did. “We did. But I’m having a little trouble dealing with his niece.”
“I didn’t even know he had a niece.”
“I didn’t know it, either, until last week. She lives with him.”
She figured that was all she’d have to say. Dennis would figure out the rest. Tanya would’ve filled him in on Friday’s conversation, as well as the one she’d had with Jennifer that day in her penthouse. He’d know what she was dealing with. More so than Tanya really, since Dennis had been with her since the very beginning. He’d already been working for her father when she’d met Tommy Mason. He’d watched her jump through hoops for the older boy. And he’d also been her sole emotional support in the year that followed.
“So is she a delinquent or what?” he asked, leaning forward with his forearms resting on his knees.
Jennifer looked at him, surprised. “I don’t know. I haven’t met her. She’s twelve,” she said.
Dennis’s eyes filled with understanding. “I can see where it might be a little rough at first, but I still don’t see that as a reason to avoid the man if you’re really interested in him.”
“I do.”
“You’re twenty-eight years old, Jen. Don’t you think you’ve been punishing yourself long enough? Isn’t it about time to forgive yourself?”
“It’s a little hard to forgive someone for being irresponsible enough to create a life with no means to care for it,” she said. Peace, she’d thought she’d found. Acceptance, she knew she’d found. Forgiveness, she didn’t think she’d ever find.
“If you’d done it consciously, maybe, but you didn’t, Jen. And you’ve paid for your mistake. Tenfold.”
“I was paid for it, you mean.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Dennis asked, getting up and sitting on the corner of her desk.
Jennifer didn’t like having him tower over her. She already felt menial enough as it was. “I took their bribe, Dennis, remember? Give up the baby and get the car I’d always wanted.”
“That’s bull, Jennifer. Even your parents wouldn’t offer a car in exchange for a child. They gave you that car to appease their guilt, not buy you off.”
Jennifer hadn’t seen it that way. “I still took it. I still gained by giving the baby up,” she said.
“But you’d have given the baby up either way, Jen, because it was best for the baby. You took the car to please your parents, just like you’d been doing your whole life. You knew it would make them feel better if you allowed them to do something nice for you.”
“I loved that car, Dennis.”
“Sure you did. You still do. It’s a great car. And
it served you well back then, too, giving you the distraction you needed.”
Jennifer smiled sadly. “I’d love to think you’re right, my friend. I’d love to think I wasn’t as awful as I’ve always thought, but pretty words can’t change the past. If I’d been stronger, I could’ve fought them. There are places I could’ve gone where they’d have helped me find a job and take care of my baby.”
Dennis leaned down, holding her gaze with his. “And what kind of life would that have been for that child, Jen? Could it have competed with the two-parent, financially secure family you sent her to? You’re one of the strongest people I know, lady. It took one hell of a lot of guts to give away the one thing you loved most in the world.”
Jennifer’s eyes filled with tears as she listened to her friend. He’d pulled her through some hard times in the past, taught her how to hold her head up high again when she’d gone back to high school branded a tramp.
“So you think two people with money raising her compensates for the fact that she’d been denied her own mother’s love?” she asked. She’d driven herself crazy all weekend, the questions going round and round in her head.
“I think if they love her as if she was their own flesh and blood, she’s just the same as every other kid on the block.”
“Except that she knows she has a mother out there someplace who didn’t want her.”
“If her adoptive parents love her enough, it doesn’t matter. You wanna know what I think?” he asked, his eyes filled with challenge.
“What?”
“I think you’re getting a little stuck-up in your old age, lady, placing so much importance on yourself in that girl’s life. I’d wager a guess that if she ever thinks about you, it’s fleetingly.”
A slow grin spread across Jennifer’s face. Dennis had always known just what to say to make her feel better. “Why couldn’t I have fallen in love with you?” she asked him.
“You knew I was saving myself for Tanya,” he said, grinning back at her. But they both knew there’d been a time when he’d have married Jennifer in an instant if she’d have had him.
“Yeah, and you’d better be saving your money, my friend. That woman plans to buy out the stock in every baby store in the city over the next five months.”
“Yeah. I saw all the loot she bought on Friday.” He sobered. “So you’re really okay with our having a baby?”
Jennifer set her pen down. “It might be a little hard at times seeing Tanya go through all the stages I went through, but I’m ready for it. I have to let the past go.”
“If you really mean that, why not let Chambers introduce you to his niece and see what happens?” Dennis asked. “Maybe spending some time with a twelve-year-old would help you get on with life, rather than avoiding it.”
“You think that’s what I’ve been doing?”
“Isn’t it?”
Jennifer shrugged, not sure of anything anymore. “Don’t press me on this, okay? Meet him for me tomorrow?”
Dennis got up. “If that’s what you want,” he said, heading for the door. He didn’t bother to hide the fact that he thought she was making the wrong decision.
“It’s what I want,” Jennifer said. But she heard the lie in her words even if Dennis didn’t. She honestly didn’t know what she wanted, except maybe to be fifteen again, to have the chance to do it all over—and get it right this time.
HER MEETING with Peterson took as long as Jennifer had expected, but just to ensure that she missed the meeting with Innovative Advertising, she stopped at the drugstore on her way back to the office. Walking up and down the aisles, buying an extra deodorant when she already had a spare at home, stopping for more of the toothpaste and bubble bath she’d picked up over the weekend, she wondered how strong Dennis would think her if he could see her now.
By lunchtime, having stopped at the cleaners and her favorite jewelers, as well, she figured it was safe to return to the office. She’d have Rachel order her a sandwich of some kind while she caught up on the work she’d missed that morning. She wanted to get moving on Peterson’s plans as soon as possible. Which meant she had several phone calls to make to get the city permits they needed.
She spent a frustrating twenty minutes talking with the mayor’s office, ten of them with the mayor himself, which only resulted in having to make more calls than she’d started with. If the pollution didn’t suffocate the world, she figured the red tape would. It made no sense that she had to beg the city to allow her to spend her own money to develop a garbage dump into a valuable piece of property that the citizens of Atlanta could be proud of.
The door to her office burst open and Jennifer glanced up, her heart rate accelerating at the sight of Bryan Chambers.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Teal. I told him you weren’t to be disturbed,” Rachel said behind him, wringing her hands.
“I didn’t figure that meant me.” He held his ground as if he owned it.
Jennifer stood. “It’s okay, Rachel,” she said, dismissing her secretary. As much as she’d done to avoid him, she didn’t have the strength to demand he leave now that he was there.
“You weren’t at the meeting.” Bryan strode into the middle of her office, challenging her.
“Hello to you, too,” she said, stalling. She’d come to no decisions about him. About them.
Had she?
“I wanted you to see the tapes.”
“I’d planned to look at them tonight. I had an appointment this morning. With my architect.”
His brow rose. “You’re building a house?”
“A truck building next to Teal Chevrolet.”
Their eyes caught and held as they stood across the office from each other, as if neither knew where to go from there. He was dressed as usual in blue jeans and a short-sleeved pullover, his ponytail hanging down over his collar. He looked wonderful.
“Have dinner with us tonight,” he said, his words soft, seductive.
She let out a breath, one she hadn’t realized she’d been holding until he’d asked the question. And it was then she knew she’d made her decision. Dennis had said a lot of things the day before that had struck home. Things she’d needed to hear.
“On two conditions,” she said.
He took a few steps toward her, his face slowly breaking out in a grin. “What might those be?” he asked.
“We go someplace neutral, a restaurant, and we drive there separately.”
“Giving yourself an escape route?” he asked, but he didn’t seem to care. He was still grinning.
“Maybe.” She wished she could take this as lightly as he was. She felt like she was strangling.
“Then I have a condition, too.” He was no longer smiling.
“What?”
“If you run out on us, you make certain Nicki knows it doesn’t have anything to do with her. Fake a sickness or something, I don’t care, but I don’t want that little girl upset. She’s been through enough.”
“Of course,” Jennifer said, hurt that he’d found it necessary to warn her, as if he wasn’t sure he could trust her around his niece. But then, she couldn’t blame him. She didn’t trust herself, either.
She agreed to meet Bryan and Nicki at seven o’clock at a steak place closer to her penthouse than the office, and she wondered suddenly if she was doing the right thing, if she shouldn’t have followed her instincts and left well enough alone…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NICKI DIDN’T WANT to go to dinner. Bryan had thought his niece would’ve been eager for some female companionship for a change, but though she hadn’t argued, he’d seen the resistance in her eyes. Eyes that were exactly like her mother’s.
“What’s up, Nick? I thought it’d be fun for us to get out,” he said.
Apparently he’d said the wrong thing. That fear was back in her eyes. And he had no idea why. Hell. He’d climb a damn mountain for the child, if only she’d tell him which one.
“You can go, Uncle Bryan. You don’t have to drag me along on
your date.”
“Who said anything about it being a date?”
“It’s with a woman, isn’t it? The same one you took to the symphony, you said, and out to Stone Mountain that day.”
Bryan’s eyes narrowed. Apparently Nicki paid more attention to what went on around here than he’d thought. “It’s with the same woman, yes, but tonight’s not a date. She wants to meet you, Nick.”
Nicki’s eyes widened. “Me?”
“Of course, you. It’s the whole reason for the dinner. We’re a pair now, Nick. You and me. My friends need to be your friends, too. Besides, why wouldn’t she want to meet you? You’re a pretty spectacular kid.”
“And you’re positive I wouldn’t be bugging you if I’m there?”
He grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her steady while he looked her straight in the eye. “Positive.”
“But what would I wear?” she asked, her expression worried again.
“How about that flowered thing we bought a couple of weeks ago, the one with the thin straps?”
Her brows came together as she considered his suggestion. “The one that’s shorts that looks like a dress?”
“Yeah. The color looked great with your hair.”
She smiled, nodding. “Okay. When do I have to be ready?”
Bryan looked at his watch. “A couple of hours,” he said.
“Then I better get moving.” She was already pulling her long hair out of its ponytail as she headed toward her room.
Bryan watched her go, well aware that she could be ready in an eighth of that time, but he’d give her all night if she wanted it, as long as she kept looking as happy as she’d looked walking down that hall. She had a purpose.
Bryan went in to change, uncomfortable with the power he unwittingly held over the two most important people in his life. He was orchestrating something between them that was highly personal for both of them, and neither one of them even knew about it. But when he considered his options, he couldn’t see any other way.
And it might just possibly be the right one, too. First Jennifer had surprised him by agreeing to the dinner at all, and now Nicki actually appeared to be looking forward to it. Maybe it was meant that mother and daughter finally meet.
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