“Does she know that’s why you asked her out in the first place?” Fin asked.
He shrugged. “Probably not. But it’s moot now, because I found her out. And that’s all that matters.”
“No, that’s not all that matters.”
Cade jerked at the sound of Jessie’s voice, spinning to see her standing in the doorway, her auburn hair tumbling over her shoulders and her emerald eyes sparking like the crown jewels.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“I need to talk to Fin.”
Cade consciously stepped to one side, as though he could block Fin from the attacking enemy. “She doesn’t have anything to say to you.”
“Well, I have something to say to her. And I deserve the opportunity to say it.”
“I’ll call security, Fin,” he said, stepping toward the phone.
“Cade.” Fin stood up and rounded her desk. “I’ll hear her out.”
“Thank you,” Jessie said to Fin. “Finally somebody is willing to listen to an explanation.”
“But I won’t listen to lies,” Fin stated sternly.
“No lies,” Jessie said. “But I want to talk to you privately.”
“No,” Fin responded quickly. “I have no secrets from Cade. You made the decision to deceive him, and he has a right to hear what you have to say.”
“You don’t want him to hear what I’m about to tell you, Fin. Believe me.”
Cade caught the bewildered expression on Fin’s face, her normally smooth brow suddenly pinched as she stared at Jessie.
“This is private,” Jessie said softly, taking another step into the office. “This is between you and me.”
Fin’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes, as green as Jessie’s, widened slightly as she stared. “How old are you?”
Cade backed up as Fin asked Jessie the question. How old was she? Was her age suddenly an issue now?
But Jessie didn’t flinch at the question. In fact, she took a step forward and lifted her chin a notch. “I’m twenty-three, Fin.” She said it as though it really mattered.
Fin still stared and all of a sudden Cade saw the fine hair on her bare arms rise with a spray of goose bumps.
Cade turned to Jessie, taking in her trembling mouth and glistening eyes. God, was she crying?
Was Fin?
What the hell was going on?
“In the file, I found a letter,” Jessie said, her voice so rough that she could barely say the words. “So I hope you really are looking for me.”
“Oh my God.” Fin covered her mouth, tears now sliding over her bloodless face. “It’s you. It’s you. Why didn’t I see that it’s you!”
The two women folded into each other’s arms, as Fin let out a strangled cry. Jessie buried her face against Fin’s neck, her narrow shoulders shuddering.
“I didn’t know if I should tell you,” Jessie mumbled through her own tears.
“You have no idea,” Fin whispered. “No idea how long I’ve dreamed of this.”
Nothing, absolutely nothing of what he saw made sense. Why were they crying? And hugging? He cleared his throat noisily. “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Fin turned toward him, still clinging to Jessie as though her very life depended on the act. Tears streaked her makeup and her mouth quivered.
“Jessie is my daughter.”
Her daughter?
The words sucker punched all the breath right out of his gut. Her daughter?
Jessie managed to pull just far enough out of Fin’s grasp to look at him. He searched her face for answers, for an explanation, an apology, a look of anything that could reconnect them.
But all he could see was what she’d been trying to hide for five months.
Her eyes were exactly the same color and shape as Fin’s.
He took a step backward, holding up both hands as though he could stop the emotional waves that rolled off the two women, as though he could stop the surge of a new and different kind of disappointment when he realized Jessie had deceived him for a very good reason.
And he’d willingly, stupidly, foolishly believed the worst.
“I’ll let you two be alone,” he managed to say. “I’m sure you have a lot to talk about.”
Fin closed her eyes and squeezed Jessie back into her embrace, but Jessie held his gaze long enough to deliver one unambiguous message.
She’d never forgive him for not trusting her.
Ten
Fin couldn’t let go. Every time Jessie drew back to say something, Fin clutched her tighter, grasping her with a soft moan of disbelief and ecstasy.
Precisely the same sensations rocked Jessie right down to the bone as she held her birth mother. Vaguely aware that Cade had left and closed the door behind him, Jessie gave in to the overwhelming relief that flowed through her.
It was done. The truth was out. The secrets and lies, the wondering and observing and, best of all, the fear of the unknown response, were all over.
Fin backed Jessie just far enough away to scrutinize her face.
“You’re an Elliott,” Fin announced with a soft laugh of dismay. “How could I have missed that?”
“I did my best not to let you figure it out.”
“Why?” Fin gave Jessie’s shoulders a quick squeeze. “Why did you wait? Why didn’t you tell me right away? When did you find out? Oh my God, you took this job just to meet me, didn’t you?” Then her eyes darkened as she stole a glance at the credenza. “You weren’t spying on Charisma today. You found my investigator’s file.”
“I’m sorry, Fin, I—”
Fin placed a single finger on Jessie’s mouth. “I understand.”
An unbearable weight lifted from Jessie’s heart. “Thank you, Fin.”
“For wanting to know you? Are you kidding? I’ve been dying to find you. Ever since I was old enough to get out from underneath my father and look.”
“Your father?” An image of the gruff, white-haired man Fin had only seen from afar came to mind. Her biological grandfather, Patrick Elliott. “Did he know? Did he not want you to find me?”
Fin closed her eyes and exhaled. “We have so much to talk about.”
“Yes, we do,” Jessie agreed. “Twenty-three years’ worth.”
“I can’t believe it’s you,” Fin repeated, her voice still breathless with wonder. “Right here in front of me. And, Jessie,” she touched Jessie’s face again, her soft fingertips grazing her jawline. “You’re so beautiful. And sweet. And smart.”
Jessie laughed self-consciously. “You’re biased.”
“You bet I am. But I’m also proud of you.”
“And I’m proud of you,” she said, finally able to look Fin directly in the eye. “I think you’re amazing.”
Fin’s blinked back tears. “How did you find me?”
“Sister Tarsisius.”
“Excuse me?”
Jessie grinned. “The head nun at St. Theresa of the Little Flower finally told me your name. It took some tracking, but based on what my mother told me before she…” Jessie trailed off and sighed. “My mother—my adoptive mother—passed away three years ago.”
“Oh, honey.” Fin’s shoulders slumped in sympathy. “I’m sorry. I bet you were close to her.”
Jessie watched Fin for signs that talk of her adoptive mother might be uncomfortable. She didn’t know why it would be, but then, she’d never been in a situation like this before. “We were very close. And I’m close to my father, too.”
“He’s in Colorado?”
“Yes, I grew up on a ranch outside Colorado Springs.”
Fin beamed. “You’re a cowgirl.”
“A horse girl. But my dad is a rancher. He’s the real deal.” Jessie stopped for a moment. “I mean my adoptive dad.”
Fin took her hand and clasped it between both of hers. “Honey, you don’t have to qualify that. Your parents raised you and loved you and did a supremely fine job of both. I owe them a debt of gratitude.”
/>
Jessie cursed the tears that welled up again. She laughed and took a swipe at her eyes. “I think we better get a box of tissues.”
“Oh, yes. We will need tissues…and time.” Fin’s voice cracked slightly. “I want to be alone with you, and absolutely no interruptions from anyone until we’ve caught up on twenty-three years.”
Chloe cracked the door open and inched her face in. Her dark eyes flashed at the sight of the two women embracing.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Jessie stiffened. Would Fin want the world to know about her daughter?
“We are wonderful!” Fin exclaimed. “But, Chloe, you need to do me a favor.”
Chloe opened the door a little further, frowning as she regarded Fin, then Jessie. “Are you guys crying?”
Fin stepped forward protectively. “We are having a moment, Chloe. All women are entitled to moments.”
“Of course,” Chloe agreed, still a little tentative. “What do you need, Fin?”
“Cancel every single thing on my calendar for the rest of the day, and all of next week.”
Chloe almost choked. “Are you serious? You have some critical management meetings, including one with your father.”
“My father can take a leap from the top of this building.” The other two women gasped slightly but Fin just smiled. “He owes me this time and I’m taking it.”
“But what about the contest?” Chloe asked. “And the bottom line?”
“The bottom line just moved,” Fin said brightly, putting her arm around Jessie and squeezing her shoulders. “And Cade can look after it for the next few days.”
Chloe blinked again and struggled for a response. “Okay. If you say so.” She looked hard at Jessie, as though she were really seeing her for the first time. “And, I guess, you’re still shadowing Fin.”
“Yep.” Jessie grinned at Fin. “You might say that.”
“We’re taking the rest of the day off,” Fin announced. “No explanations to anyone. Just inform everyone that I’m taking personal time and do not want to be disturbed, for any reason.”
Chloe nodded, backing out of the room. “Do you want to tell all this to Cade before you leave?”
Fin opened her mouth, and then froze as though she was rethinking her response. She looked at Jessie. “I bet you want to talk to him.”
Did she? What satisfaction would it give her? He’d apologize or maybe he’d be mad she didn’t tell him, or he’d offer some explanation for why he asked her out when all he was doing was investigating her.
She could still hear the words she’d caught him saying as she marched up to Fin’s office, her confession ready.
I only went after her in the first place because I was so suspicious of her.
Is that why he slept with her? Did he think she’d confess her traitorous activities in the throes of all that sexual pleasure?
Distaste spiraled through her. No. There was nothing left to say to Cade. At the bottom of all their misunderstandings was a big bad case of distrust. He was determined not to make a mistake and she turned out to be one giant error in judgment for him.
“I don’t want to talk to him,” Jessie said quietly.
“But I want to talk to you.” Once again, he stood in the doorway, his gray gaze looking far less accusatory than the last time he’d walked in on her. “If I could.”
Cade had never, ever seen Fin cry. But there she was, tearstained and shuddering. She glanced at Jessie and nudged her with an elbow. “Go.” She tilted her head toward the empty conference room adjacent to her office. “You should talk to him before we leave.”
Cade shot Fin a grateful look as Jessie quietly walked to the conference room. Once in there, she went immediately to the bank of windows and stared out at New York, while he closed the door behind him.
Where the hell should he start? Knowing women as he did, his gut told him to get the hard stuff out of the way as soon as he could.
“I’m sorry, Jess.”
She didn’t turn from the windows. “For what, Cade? For asking me out under false pretenses, for making assumptions about my motives, or for threatening to call security when I wanted to talk to Fin?”
She finally turned, the backlighting from the windows enhancing the flare in her green eyes. The look she gave him stabbed as much as the bitterness in her voice.
“All of the above,” he said, propping a hip on the corner of the conference room table. “I should have trusted you. I shouldn’t have made the comment about security. And I didn’t ask you out just to find out the truth.”
Her tight grimace told him exactly how much she believed that.
“And, more than anything, Jess, I didn’t make love to you for any reason other than the fact that it felt…” Good? Amazing? “Real.”
She closed her eyes and didn’t respond.
After a moment, he asked, “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Fin had a right to know first.”
Of course she did. That much he’d figured out in the last ten minutes as he sat in his office and tried to piece it all together.
“Anyway, Cade, you wouldn’t have believed me.” She crossed her arms and took a step toward him. “I’m not going to get ugly or nasty. What just took place in that room, with Fin, is the most monumentally happy thing that’s happened in a long time. I’ve waited…my life, really, to know if—” Her voice cracked and he instinctively reached for her.
“Jessie, I’m happy for you.” She stiffened as he took her shoulders. “How did you know Fin is your birth mother?”
She met his gaze. “I found out her name and saw she’d listed herself on an adoption finder’s Web site.”
“So, you came here just to meet her?”
She slid out of his light grasp. “I do have a degree in graphic design and a minor in fashion, if that’s what you’re implying.”
He blew out a breath. “I’m not implying anything.” They had so far to go to get back to the closeness they’d had last weekend.
“When I found out that Finola Elliott, the woman who’d edited my very favorite magazine, was my birth mother, well, it just made sense. The fashion and design gene,” she said with a weak smile, “must be pretty strong. I wanted to get to know her, to determine if she really wanted to meet a child she’d given up for adoption. So I applied for the internship.”
“Why did you avoid her, then?”
“I thought she’d take one look at me and see this.” She indicated her face with two hands.
How could he have missed how much she resembled Fin? The arch to her brows, the slight upward tilt in her green eyes, even the delicate jaw and that pepper spray of freckles. “Funny how you don’t see things when you aren’t looking for them,” he mused. “Even if you hadn’t worn those glasses, I don’t think I would have made the connection.”
For a moment, she just regarded him, doubt and pain so evident in those wide green eyes. “You really hurt me,” she finally said.
The simplicity of the statement cut through him. “God, I’m so sorry, Jessie. Can you forgive me?”
He waited while she decided, while she searched his face and, no doubt, her heart. “I can forgive you, Cade. I can even understand why you would think what you thought.”
He reached for her, but she stepped back, avoiding his touch.
“But I saw your true colors, Cade.”
“My true colors?” He hated the sound of that. “I was watching out for—”
She silenced him by holding up one hand. “You did what you thought was right. You put your company and work first and that’s very admirable.”
“But?” There had to be one.
“But you made love to me and all the while you doubted me.”
“I didn’t. Not after I’d spent any time with you at all.” How could he get her to believe him? “But then I heard you on the phone talking about secrets. When you wouldn’t answer me, it all made sense,” he repeated, hearing the miserable defense fall
flat between them.
“It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Jessie.” This time he grasped her hands and pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her. “Please give me another chance.”
He lowered his head and kissed her soft, sweet-smelling hair. He’d give her time. He’d give her the opportunity to handle what was surely going to be an Elliott-rocking event. But then he would show her that…
That what?
She slipped out of his hold. “Cade, I’ve waited too long for this day to let it be ruined.” Then she walked back into Fin’s office without turning around.
He closed his eyes and let the ache roll over him. When he opened them, his gaze landed on a burst of yellow on the layout wall. In the picture, she looked so sexy, so pretty, so fresh. All the stuff he loved about Jessie captured in one candid shot.
Loved?
Oh, yeah. Why fight it? This was love, and this was real.
And this might very well be over.
For a man who hated making mistakes, he’d just committed a whopper.
Sipping the dry chardonnay after a long and satisfying dinner at Fin’s apartment, Jessie tucked her bare feet under her and looked out at the darkened skyscape of New York and the smattering of lights throughout Central Park.
It had taken a full fifteen minutes just to absorb the view from Fin’s magnificent Upper East Side apartment. But it had taken the remainder of the afternoon and well into the evening for Fin and Jessie to absorb the overwhelming newness of their relationship. For hours, they’d talked about everything. And still they hadn’t covered a few important topics.
Like who was Jessie’s father, and why had Fin decided on adoption.
Instead, Fin seemed focused on inhaling moments of Jessie’s life that she’d missed. How old Jessie had been when she took her first steps, when she talked. What her high school years had been like. Why she was so mysteriously drawn to fashion and design. What it had been like to grow up on a Colorado ranch.
But now, as night took hold of the city, Fin finally seemed ready to share.
“I always told myself if I found you, I might be able to forgive my parents.” Fin fingered the fringe of a silky throw pillow she cradled in her arms, her high heels long ago abandoned for comfort as she, too, tucked herself onto the same sofa with Jessie.
Dynasties:The Elliots, Books 7-12 Page 41