by Leanne Davis
But judging by Christine’s genuine fear and anger at his presence she hadn’t known he was coming. Why, then, had Terry risked him being in the same room? Why had Terry invited him tonight of all nights? He didn’t trust Terry, Trent, or Peggy for anything. They were up to something. The only thing he wasn’t sure of was what they were up to.
“Hello, Jason.” The low, cool voice came from behind him.
He turned slowly to his father. His gaze traveled over the man who had mistakenly fathered him and always denied him. He was an impressive man—successful, powerful, rich. And to his horror, as Christine had noted, he looked just like him. As did Trent. He hated what that meant.
“Why did you invite me here?”
“I’m surprised you came.”
Jason was sure he was. He would never have come if not for Christine. Only, it hadn’t been to punish her as he had let on; it had been to convince himself once and for all that she was engaged to his brother. He was nothing to her, and yet he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Seeing her with Trent had to do the trick.
“I was curious. What prompted this?”
“Well, you have been in prison. It’s been awhile since I could ask you to go anywhere.”
He stiffened and clenched his fists. The lousy, slimy bastard. “Is it to prove how wonderful Trent is for landing the Andrews heiress, or are we back to making sure I know my place with you?”
There was no point in pretending or idle chit chat. There was decades of history between them and none of it good, all capstoned by Terry’s strange proposition, where he had given Jason thirty thousand dollars simply to not let on to the community that he was Terry’s son.
Terry nodded but kept his face carefully blank. “I have been rethinking things of late. I was young when I... made the mistake of cheating on my wife. At the time I was horrified by my behavior and the fear of losing my family. Peggy was pregnant, too. And then Irene showed up, and my first instinct was to protect myself and Peggy from her. I didn’t take it to the place I should have. I didn’t feel like I was turning my back on a child; it felt like I was escaping Irene. I never let myself feel you were my son. I know it was a terrible reaction. It was the wrong one, but it’s what I did.”
“Why the sudden epiphany?”
“It was actually when I heard you were arrested. I began to comprehend what my lack of influence in your life had done to you.”
“That was almost two years ago. You did an awful lot of thinking just to get around to contacting me.”
“Yes, I know. I’ve contemplated what to do. I didn’t even know how to approach you.”
“And prison wouldn’t look good to those you want to re-elect you.”
“Correct. I don’t deny it. As I told you when I first ran, I can’t be the guy who has a son with a woman like Irene and ever hope to get elected. It was wrong. But it was fact. I know what I’ve done to you.”
“I’ve been out six months. Why now? Why the fuck did you call me now?”
“Because of her.” Terry pointed directly at Christine, who was seated at a table with a well-dressed couple he assumed were her parents.
He stepped back, shocked that Terry had been honest with him. It was almost unprecedented. “Who?”
“Christine Andrews. Trent’s fiancée. She found out about you. She found out about the contract between us. She about raised the roof off her father’s office building over it. And it started to sink in with me, how damn wrong I’ve been. What I’ve done to you. And not done for you.”
He stared at his father. Terry twisted his lips in a frown.
Jason stepped close and said quietly, “I don’t believe you. I will never believe you. I have no idea what you’re up to, but I know you are up to something. And make no mistake, I will figure it out. I came because I had never been invited anywhere by you. I had to see why. Fuck off, Terry. I know where we stand, the same place we have always stood.”
He pushed past his father. Terry slid his shoulder to the side to let him pass.
****
Christine looked around, watching and listening to all the people around her: Trent, their parents, their friends and family. The longer she sat there and listened to the chatter around her, the more she was crushed by how alike they all seemed. Lined up this way, every person she’d ever come in contact with seemed like a row of cut-out dolls.
The crowd in the room seemed to be marveling at what a perfect couple she and Trent were. As the din of polite conversations bubbled around her, she suddenly felt dizzy with the desire to leave.
She hated this. She hated this party. She hated smiling incessantly. She hated watching Trent work the room or listening as her father went on about how she was soon going to take the family business by storm. All that she wanted to do was leave. Leave and not be Christine Andrews, not be engaged to Trent Gallagher or stuck in Almstad for the rest of her life.
But no one, Trent included, noticed how miserable she was.
The real kicker, she realized, taking a long drink of wine, was why in the hell wasn’t she excited to be there with Trent? They were in love. They were celebrating their love, here, with everyone they knew. They were going to be married, and she felt what? What did she feel?
Complete and utter confusion, because her thoughts hardly drifted to Trent Gallagher at all. Because her thoughts were completely full of Jason Malone.
She had dated Trent and had assumed that since all the right ingredients were there, they were in love. She had never questioned how she felt about Trent. Until she kissed Jason Malone, that is.
When Trent had given her the diamond ring she now wore, she had accepted it, put it on, and made it a fact. All with little thought to how she felt. Coldly, analytically, she’d made the decision to get married.
What the hell was wrong with her? Who decides marriage like that? Who didn’t know how they felt about their fiancé? What kind of person did that make her?
She was startled out of her daydream when someone tapped her on the shoulder, breaking through her frantic thoughts. She turned towards the waiter and in the process knocked into his hand, which held a fresh glass of red wine that turned and spilled all over her white satin dress.
The wine went all over her hand, her arm, down her dress, splashing all the way down to the waiter’s shoes. The waiter groaned in dismay, making all eyes turn towards them. Christine got up quickly and grabbed a napkin to try and mop up the mess.
She’d proven her point. She didn’t belong here.
The room was too crowded. Too many people were looking at her. She mumbled an excuse about going to wash her dress and fled the room, and didn’t stop until she was running out of the building, away from Trent, away from the crowd, her parents... her entire life.
Chapter Five
She rushed to the end of the dock that bobbed gently on the lake out in front of the resort. The large sky, clear and wide, loomed over her. A brilliant white moon shone like a flashlight across the water. It was cold and quiet and peaceful. The air felt refreshing on the heat of her cheeks. Tears were building in her eyes; she finally let them slip out as she leaned against the wood railing. The engagement party was at a resort only a half hour out of Almstad, but the setting made it feel far away.
What was she doing with her life? Who was she committing herself to? Trent? If yes, then why had she kissed Jason? How could she have let Jason kiss her? It was not only wrong, but not the way someone head over heels in love with their fiancé would behave. She gripped the wood railing tightly and let her shoulders drop in defeat. She stood there alone and confused for several long moments. Her frantic thoughts halted when she heard a sound behind her. She jumped when something heavy and warm enveloped her shoulders.
She turned.
Expecting who? Trent? No, she supposed she wasn’t surprised when it was Jason who stood there and whose large jacket now hung over her shoulders. Jason watched her without a word. His gaze flicked over her, pausing on her damp tears. He pulled her
forward and wrapped his arms around her. She hesitated a second before her own arms crept around him. She buried her face in his shirt. She let the still-forming tears fall. Not in a hiccupping hysteria, but a confused, quiet sadness.
He felt wonderful. She wanted to stay against him forever, enveloped in his warmth and strength. His hand slipped into her hair and pulled through the thick curls in repetitive strokes. Shivers ran down her spine at his touch. He held her for a long while. His mere presence made her feel less alone, her thoughts less chaotic and crazed, her future less big and lonely.
Finally, the tears lessened until she was quiet. She stayed there wrapped in his arms, not wanting to let go. She didn’t want the moment to end. She didn’t want to face her own thoughts, or Trent, or that room full of people, or what she felt for Jason.
Most especially, what she felt about the man who now held her.
When she finally pulled away from him her body was cold without his warmth. She wrapped her arms around herself, huddling under his coat. Looking out over the quiet lake, she sighed. He reached over close to her and pulled something out of the pocket of his coat. It was cigarettes and a lighter. He took one out and lit it, his face illuminated for an instant. He smoked. Jason smoked. Why did that surprise her? And it explained the taste in his mouth she hadn’t been able to totally identify when they kissed. She blushed at the direction of her thoughts and turned her face away.
“What are you doing out here?” His voice was husky and low.
“You didn’t see?”
“No, I was leaving when I saw you run out.”
“I spilled an entire glass of wine in front of everyone, and I ruined this stupid overpriced dress,” she said, pointing to her wet sticky dress.
He took a drag of his cigarette before answering, looking at where she pointed to on her dress. A gust of smoke followed. “So what? Why are you out here crying?”
“Making a spectacle in front of every person I’ve ever met isn’t exactly how I pictured spending my engagement party.”
“Yeah, well, it was a lame party anyways. But it is a shame about the stupid overpriced dress, I liked it.”
She almost smiled, but not quite.
“What?”
“You can’t do that. You can’t say things like that to me.”
“Things like what?”
She nearly groaned in frustration. “Just, things like that.”
“I’m not supposed to flirt with you?”
She shook her head, her gaze caught by his. “No, you’re not. Trent’s your brother. My fiancé.”
“Trent is also a conceited prick, which I have a feeling you were noticing back there. But that’s another story.” He dropped his cigarette butt and stomped on it. “Anything else wrong? Doesn’t seem to me you’d get this upset over a glass of wine.”
She shrugged listlessly as an answer.
“What is it?”
“You.”
“Me?” His eyebrows shot up.
“Well, aren’t you here to do just this? Make me feel guilty? Make me realize what I’ve been doing lately? It worked. I’m totally guilt-ridden and uncomfortable.”
“That’s not why I’m here. I told you, it’s about Terry. Not you.”
“Right. After all these years, the timing is just a coincidence?”
“You think I’m going to do something to ruin your party? Or worse, your engagement?”
“Aren’t you?
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Curiosity, I guess. The Gallaghers are scrambling to make some kind of peace with me. I think they realize with your knowledge of my connection to them, they can’t simply hide it anymore, and so for the next election they will try and manage me, no doubt. Or at the least mend some fences. It will all be stupid fake shit, to get what they want out of me. But I already told you, I won’t tell anyone about what’s gone on.”
“You really think that low of them, don’t you?”
“Kind of hard not to hate the family that pays you money to keep secret you’re related to them. But again, what has you out here crying?”
She remained quiet. Finally she sighed and stared off towards the lake. “I didn’t live at home for the last several years. I haven’t had a lot of contact with my parents, or the Gallaghers, on a daily basis. Even Trent and I have been separated much of our relationship. So seeing them all there, together, looking so much alike, acting alike, sounding alike, it freaked me out.”
“So it’s not just me being here that freaked you out?”
A small smile crossed her lips. “My entire life isn’t about you.”
“Then what? What is your entire life about?”
“Andrews Enterprises. Yet I don’t want it to be. I don’t want to work there. With my father, beside Trent. Do you have any idea how planned out my life has always been? How it’s still planned out? I just wish sometimes—” She trailed off. She wished she could tell her parents some of the thoughts that were in her head that lately seemed to be percolating towards a boil. Thoughts like, she didn’t want the office, the job, or the lifestyle that so defined who she was and who her family was. She didn’t want it, at least not yet.
“Sometimes what?”
He lit another cigarette and looked out towards the water. He was silent. His only movement was as he smoked the cigarette down to almost nothing.
“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t Christine Andrews.”
“Nobody wants their lives all the time. Yours doesn’t seem so bad.”
“Why? Because of my rich parents?”
“No, because you have parents.”
She shut her mouth. She hadn’t expected him to say that. Nor did she expect him to turn towards her.
The space between them suddenly seemed to crackle with heat. They were close together against the railing. The night was beautiful; romantic, even. They looked at each other as they spoke. He lifted a hand and brushed her long hair out of her face, where the breeze had pushed it.
“I’d better get back,” she whispered.
“Why? Because Trent’s so concerned about you?”
She had to stretch her neck to look at his face. She felt breathless. His legs were spread and his arms were crossed over his chest as if he was holding them safely in check. She was nearly standing in the V of his legs. She could feel the heat of him against her. He had a point about Trent, but she wasn’t ready to deal with it, nor could she muster up any words to defend him or herself.
“Why did you come after me?”
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
She stared at his unsmiling, intense face. His stern expression, directed at her. She shook her head and stepped back. No; judging by the look on his face she didn’t want him to answer that. Not now. Not ever. The only safe thing for her to do was to turn around and start walking back. Back towards her party, her fiancé, her life.
Jason walked beside her. His mere presence made it hard for her to breathe. They stopped in front of the door. He reached up and slid his coat off her shoulders. He leaned down. Her heart leapt and froze. Crap, was he going to kiss her? But instead, he leaned close to her ear. “You were right. Terry isn’t the reason I came tonight; he was the excuse.”
She was rooted to the spot, unable to think. All she could feel was the warmth of his hand. And the ring on her finger that suddenly seemed to brand her. Her throat went dry.
“Jason?”
He shook his head, then dropped her hand. Turning to leave he said, over his shoulder, “Go back to your party.”
She stood there feeling confused as she watched his tall frame disappear into the shadows. Debating. Unsure. Longing. Her whole life she’d done everything she was supposed to. Behaved as was deemed socially acceptable. And what had it ever gotten her, but a life she felt didn’t fit her? But just then she’d felt more then she’d felt in the last four years. It had to mean something. Something more than just nervous to be getting married.
And just that quick, she was running after him, awkward in her heels.
“Jason, wait!”
He turned again. She stopped dead.
“Take me with you.”
Chapter Six
Jason’s gaze drilled into her. “What did you just say?”
“I can’t go back in there. Please, take me with you. I’m not ready to deal with everything right now.”
“Are you crazy? You have over a hundred people waiting for you, including your family and mine.”
She hesitated, a little surprised by his reaction. She’d thought they’d just had a moment back there. And his response to her now was to chastise her?
“No, I’m not crazy. I just thought—”
“What? That I’d be a good way to piss your daddy off? That you’d continue our little game? That’s what I am to you, isn’t it? A fun diversion from all the pressure of being you. Of being Aaron Andrews’ daughter.”
Her jaw dropped and nothing came out.
“Come off it. Look at yourself, you’ve probably never even met a mechanic before. And now you want to come home with one?”
“I just wanted a lift away from here. It wasn’t an invitation to have sex,” she said, sputtering in anger. “And I can assure you; I am not playing games with you on purpose, nor am I bored with my life. It’s the opposite; I’m completely confused with my life. And my dad has nothing to do with this. So just go to hell.”
“Been there, done that.”
She glanced at him puzzled. What did that mean?
He sighed and smiled with a wicked, mean gleam in his blue eyes. “The Gallaghers never mentioned where I spent the last few years, did they?”
“No.”
“Prison. Been out about six months. They didn’t mention that in their file on me, did they?”
She stepped back in surprise.
“I figured right off you didn’t know. You wouldn’t have come looking for me otherwise, would you? You still want a ride? A ride with the big bad scary ex-con?” he jeered, looking her over. He turned with a sneer. “Just what I thought. Go back to your little party.”