“Oh...”
Oh? That’s it?
“Jay, why is your appraiser sending you pictures that the two of you took? Better yet, why do you look so cozy in the pictures?”
Jaleen didn’t say anything. He just sat there, staring at her.
“Never mind,” Danni said. “It’s not my business.” In some ways she felt like it was. Yet in other ways she felt like it wasn’t.
“No, I need to explain,” Jaleen said. “I’ve put off telling you long enough and you have a right to know why I was so hot and cold when Cordelia arrived.”
Jaleen turned to face her and, by instinct, Danni pulled the sheet higher on her body as a protective shield.
“Cordelia’s family is very close with my family and the way our families operate is somewhat unconventional.”
Oh, no. Please tell me this isn’t a weird fetish thing. Danni had once dated a man she’d later found out loved to be with his dog a little too much. The entire situation disgusted her. She almost swore off relationships that day.
If she’d overcome the confession her ex had made when he informed her that he’d fallen in love with his dog, there was no way she couldn’t handle what Jaleen had to tell her, right?
“Twenty years ago, our parents made an agreement,” Jaleen said.
Danni squinted in confusion. “What kind of agreement?”
“A marriage agreement of convenience,” he said, maintaining eye contact.
Oh, crap, he’s serious.
“Your parents arranged for you and Cordelia to be married? Does that mean you’re engaged?”
“Technically, yes. But I never proposed. It was never that type of arrangement. They’ve discussed our future marriage since I was fifteen years old, but not in the traditional sense.”
“Are you kidding me!” she yelled, standing from the bed, not caring that she was naked. “You’ve been engaged this entire time? You’ve been cheating on your fiancée this entire time?”
“It’s not like that,” Jaleen said, standing beside her. “Our fathers made a business arrangement. I got my arrangement pushed back until my thirty-fifth birthday. Therefore, we aren’t officially engaged until then.”
“Oh, you’re right,” Danni said sarcastically. “You’ll be thirty-five soon, but who cares, right?”
Jaleen stepped closer to her. “That’s not what I mean,” he said in a calming voice. “There is no way I’m marrying Cordelia. The only reason I took those photos was to make her father happy. I may be going through hell with mine, but Cordelia is close to her father.”
Danni shook her head, unable to comprehend the fact that Jaleen was soon-to-be engaged. “Do you love her?”
“Of course not.”
“But you’d planned to marry her at some point?” She knew how arranged marriages worked, but she hadn’t actually met anyone who was already promised to someone else.
“Danni,” Jaleen said, lightly touching her shoulders. “I know that this doesn’t make sense to you and I’m a complete jerk for waiting so long to tell you. But please know that I do not and will never love Cordelia. And I’m not marrying her. My brothers’ marriages were arranged. My parents, aunt and uncle’s. My cousin’s, as well. So maybe at one point, I was fine with the idea because I was raised with the notion that life was going to be that way. But that’s before I met you. That’s before I fell for you.”
He took her face in his hands. “It’s before I knew what being with a woman who I truly cared about felt like.”
Danni calmed down...a little. “What happens if you don’t marry her? What about the agreement?”
Jaleen cringed. “If I don’t marry Cordelia, Walker Realty Partner will lose a lot of money.”
“Will it be able to survive the loss?”
“The South Beach renovations could help keep the company surfaced for a while.”
“But it couldn’t save it, could it?”
She already knew the answer. It was written all over his face. Nope, this is officially worse than my creepy dog-loving ex. At least she hadn’t been in love with her ex. Jaleen, on the other hand, had just broken her heart and then tried to piece it back together with sticky glue because there was no way she was going to be the cause of him losing everything he’d fought so hard to save.
“I’d give up much more if it meant being with you,” he said sweetly. “I never liked the idea of my future already being defined, but back then it felt like I didn’t have a choice.”
I can relate to that. She’d felt as if she hadn’t had a choice when Sonia had given her the ultimatum to pay up or she’d tell her secret. However, despite the fact that she’d felt that way, it hadn’t been her only choice. It had only been the choice she’d decided to make at the time.
“You said when you met me you knew you could never marry Cordelia.” She searched his eyes. “Is that true?”
Jaleen stepped closer to her. “I know I may not have always acted like it, but, deep down, I’d always known you would be my future... If it was something you wanted, too.”
I want that. Oh, man, do I want that. “But we never even dated until recently.”
Jaleen shook his head. “Just because we weren’t officially dating didn’t mean I didn’t know what type of woman you were. In all the ways that mattered, we’d dated. We just took our relationship to another level when I moved to Miami, that’s all. The foundations for an amazing relationship were already there. We’d been setting the stage for something worth fighting for the day we met at the bar.”
Danni sighed. I really want to believe him. However, she didn’t know how she was supposed to ignore the fact that he was still technically spoken for. The number-one fear she’d had when she’d started this journey with Jaleen was falling hard for him just to turn around and have to give him up. He was telling her everything she wanted to hear, but how could she trust him when he’d been lying for so long?
“You don’t believe me, do you? You don’t believe that my feelings for you are real?”
“It’s not that,” she said in a soft voice. “I just feel blindsided and, given what I just put my sisters through, I’m the last one to judge. But hearing there’s a possibility that you belong to someone else is hard to wrap my head around.” She looked at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“Can I see the contract?” she asked. “I think I need to see it to truly understand.” She didn’t know why she wanted to see the contract that inevitably held her fate in its hands, too, but she needed more details. She needed to try to rationalize everything she’d just learned.
“Jay, I know how much our relationship has grown, but I understand more how my sisters felt when I told them I was their sister than I ever have before.” She blinked for a little longer than she’d meant to. “We’ve shared so much, but there is still so much more that we don’t know about each other. You’ve been saying those words for months and I wasn’t listening then...but I’m listening now.”
Jaleen observed her through tentative eyes. “I’ve got something better than the contract,” Jaleen said, walking to his closet. He pulled out a leather portfolio from the top shelf and handed it to her.
She read the inscription. “‘Diminished dreams and unspoken promises.’” She ran her hands over the deep ridges of the letters. “What’s this?”
“It’s everything about me,” he said, glancing at his portfolio. “The parts of my life that have been good. The parts of my life that have been bad. We’ve shared so much with one another, but you’re right, there is still so much more to share. Maybe this will give you some more insight into me as a man growing up in the type of family I have. Like you said to me one time, I’ve been the funny guy. The life of the party. I can play the role of Mr. Charming and work a room.
“On the surface, it seems like I have great comm
unication skills. But the truth is, I have a difficult time expressing myself sometimes, so I write things down to get them out. The stuff in that portfolio is some of the things that I have the hardest time articulating. If after you read it, you still don’t understand, then I’ll explain everything to you to the best of my ability for as many times as you need me to.”
Wow, I think I just fell a little harder for this man.
Danni held the book to her chest. “Okay, I’ll read it.”
* * *
If she had asked to take it back to her hotel room so that she could look through the portfolio in privacy, he would have agreed and even driven her there himself. But she hadn’t asked to do that. She hadn’t even asked him to leave the room.
Danni sat back in the bed and wrapped the sheets around her naked body. She was trembling as she opened the portfolio and knowing that he was the cause made him even more upset with himself than he already was. He sat next to her, covering himself with the other half of the sheet.
She’d taken the news much better than he’d expected, which meant Taheim and Jeremiah had been right all along...he should have just told her the truth from the beginning. She’s still uncertain if I really care enough about her to throw it all away. He couldn’t even blame her for being so unsure about the situation. He’d dropped a bomb on her after she’d already experienced a couple of weeks of heartache. Or more like years of heartache if he thought about the secrets she’d lived with.
“Oh, my goodness,” Danni said with wide eyes. “You lost your virginity to someone your dad picked out?”
“Yeah,” Jaleen said. “I was fifteen and apparently JW believed that was too old for a Walker man to still be a virgin. I didn’t think anything of it when the seventeen-year-old girl from down the street started spending time with me. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t enjoy it, but when I found out, I didn’t talk to my father for two months.”
Danni’s eyes saddened. “You were just a kid.” She looked back down and flipped another page in the portfolio. After a few minutes she dabbed away a few tears in her eyes.
“Are you reading about my grandfather?”
“Yes,” she said, sniffling. “He seems like he was a great man. You’ve mentioned him before, but it’s obvious that you two had a very close relationship. He’s the one who taught you how to flip your first property?”
“He did,” Jaleen said with a smile. “I guess that’s why I love what I do so much. My grandfather was grooming me to take over the business one day and he didn’t care that I was his youngest grandchild. We had a bond that couldn’t be broken.”
“And he was obsessed with names that begin with the letter J,” Danni said with a laugh as she read the list of names of his family members. “That’s too funny. What about your mom? Just a coincidence or did she change her name to purposely start with a J?”
“Just a coincidence. Her first name is actually Susan, but she always thought Jocelyn had more flare, so she’s always gone by her middle name. The entire J thing got so bad our dogs even had J names,” Jaleen said, joining in her laughter. “My grandfather even let me name all the family pets because I always came up with the best names.”
Danni’s eyes darkened. “So a part of the reason your father gives you a hard time is because you’re so much like your grandfather?”
Jaleen flinched. “If you ever want to get on JW’s bad side, remind him of the one person in the world he’d always tried to be just like but couldn’t even come close to.”
“Your grandfather...was his name Jay?”
“How’d you guess that? I didn’t write that in there.”
Danni briefly glanced at his lips before meeting his gaze again. “Because I know you and I’m learning to read between the lines.” She smiled sweetly.
Jaleen hadn’t known how badly he’d been waiting for a smile from her until she blessed him with one.
Ten minutes later Jaleen had witnessed Danni go through a range of emotions. She laughed. Cried. Got angry. Got happy. The portfolio really was a snapshot of his life, all enclosed in the warm confines of a leather binding. She’s almost to the contract. There was a chance that the contract wouldn’t go over as well as he hoped.
Her shoulders tensed when she got to a picture of him and Cordelia as kids. “So you both have known each other for years?”
“Yes, we met when we were kids. Our families are good friends and, as I said before, we were raised with a lot of the same values.”
“I didn’t know marriages were still arranged for reasons other than religious ones.”
“It’s not exactly an arranged marriage,” Jaleen said. “More like a marriage of convenience for financial, political, social and business reasons, which has always been the case with my family. Marriages between families such as mine and Cordelia’s are meant to help both families profit financially and help secure a solid relationship between any businesses those families may own. We’re taught that it’s one of the strongest bonds a business can make. It all started in the 1930s when family businesses had to band together to try and survive The Great Depression. Over time, it continued and morphed into what it is today.
“My great-grandparents believed in it and it was passed down to their children, their children’s children, and so on. Cordelia’s grandfather and my grandfather used to be best friends. My grandfather founded his real-estate business while Cordelia’s grandfather started a property appraiser’s business. So naturally, JW and Cordelia’s father became friends, having grown up together. JW took over my grandfather’s company and Cordelia’s father took over for his father.”
Danni glanced from the portfolio to him. “And your father betrayed Cordelia’s father?”
“Pretty much. JW and Mr. Rose often invested in some of the same businesses. JW made a bad business deal and the only one who really lost any money was Mr. Rose. Since they had once been close friends, Mr. Rose trusted JW again, only to have his trust betrayed, again.”
“And none of that was grounds to break the agreement that you and Cordelia marry?”
I wish. Jaleen ran his hand down his face. “If anything, it only made things worse. You’ve met Cordelia. She’s always been...unique in her own way. She’s a good person but, like I said, our families share the same values and despite the fact that JW has wronged her father one too many times, her father is a businessman. JW owes him and he owes him big. A marriage between the Rose and Walker family would also mean JW would receive a silent investment from Mr. Rose in a hefty lump sum of money.”
“So to both your fathers, you and Cordelia are just...”
“A business deal,” Jaleen said, finishing her statement. “A marriage of convenience to keep it all in the family. It’s almost like Cordelia’s father and JW know how ruthless the other is, so you keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”
Danni closed the portfolio, anger evident in her eyes. It didn’t seem directed at him, though. It was anger over the situation. “Were you going to marry her for your father? Your family? Or your grandfather’s legacy?”
“My grandfather’s legacy and my family,” he said quickly, until her intuitive look made him reconsider his response.
Who am I doing this for? Jaleen really thought about her question. He definitely wasn’t doing it for himself, but his initial response hadn’t been completely true, either. “And my father,” he finally said. “In some really messed-up way, I guess I didn’t want to be the disappointment he always saw me as. Even if I’d done everything wrong in his eyes, I wanted to finally do something right.”
Her eyes softened as she placed the portfolio on the bed. “Thank you for sharing this with me.” She reached out to clasp his hand. “You already know that I think you are an amazing man. Your portfolio only confirmed what I was already feeling.”
I feel a “but” coming. He
didn’t want to lose her, but the situation was less than ideal.
“But I think I need to spend some time with my mom back in Tampa,” Danni finally said. “I believe you when you say that you won’t go through with the wedding and don’t want to lose me. However, I also know how much Walker Realty Partner means to you and it seems like you still haven’t quite figured out how to get out of this dilemma.”
Jaleen had an idea of what he was going to do next, but he didn’t want to tell Danni until he knew for sure it would work.
“Between what happened with my sisters and learning about you and Cordelia, I think I need to take some time to focus on myself and try to piece my life back together.” Danni placed her hand on his cheek. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not here if you need me. That’s the least I could do after you’ve been by my side through all my drama.”
Damn, she’s amazing. Even after an emotional morning she’d never seen coming, she was still offering to be there for him.
“I understand,” he said, relieved when she allowed him to pull her into his arms. As unrealistic as it was, he wished he could keep her there forever.
Chapter 19
“Do you understand what your decision will do to the company? What it will do to our reputation?”
Jaleen stayed standing, refusing to sit. “You can’t play with your children’s lives as if we’re pieces on a chessboard,” he said, his eyes trained on JW. “It’s always about how someone else’s decisions will affect the company, but you fail to see the fault in your own actions.”
It had taken Jaleen five days to get JW to agree to meet with him. He’d even flown to Chicago to make it as easy as possible. When he’d arrived, he hadn’t been surprised to see Jeremiah, Joel and Uncle Jake already in the conference room. Jeremiah had already warned him that JW had invited them to the meeting. His cousin Jasper was even on speed dial.
Nights of Fantasy Page 18