“Listen to yourself,” JW said. “You think I don’t know that you’ve been dating that Danni girl. Remember, I have eyes everywhere. So now you think you’re in love and you want to break tradition.”
“You don’t care about tradition,” Jaleen said, keeping his voice even. “You’re more concerned with breaking a business deal than anything else. You had two of your sons get married to women they didn’t love, and look how those business deals worked out for you. You just lucked out because your sons grew to love their wives and now they couldn’t be happier. And even you and Mom, and Uncle and his wife had grown up together, so the circumstances were different.”
“You and Cordelia grew up together.”
“As friends, not lovers.” Jaleen placed his hands on the conference table. “After all the decisions you’ve forced this family to make, the company is still failing, and unless you change the dirty way you do business, it’s only going to get worse. Hell, it already is worse.”
“Jaleen’s right,” Uncle Jake said. “We’ve all seen the writing on the wall for years. This is not the type of business Dad envisioned.”
“Maybe we should reevaluate the business,” Jeremiah suggested. “We’d have to make some tough decisions and downsize, but Jaleen has some great ideas about starting over and I think, if you’d just hear him out, you’d agree that it’s possible to save the company in the long run.”
JW cut his eyes at Jaleen. “Ideas! What? You think you could run this company better than me? No one could run this company better than me. I took Walker Realty Partner to a new level. It was my business sense that made shit happen.” JW pounded his chest. “You think I’m the only business owner playing dirty to get ahead? Think again.”
Jaleen looked at his father. Really looked at him. He’d aged a lot over the years and although he’d still maintained his looks, Jaleen noticed certain features about him that he hadn’t noticed before. There was a lot of regret in the stress lines of his forehead and fatigue from probably spending one too many nights trying to take shortcuts in the business rather than doing things the right way. There was also something else in his eyes when you looked past the anger. Something he couldn’t quite place. Out of all the times he’d tried to get his father to see reason, he’d never asked him one important question.
“Why are you so angry at the world and so jaded by your life that the only way you can see this business being successful is by becoming the very man you used to warn us not to be?”
For a brief millisecond Jaleen saw vulnerability in the way JW was looking at him. “Are you so blinded by your righteous attitude that you fail to see what I’ve been trying to get you to see for years?”
Jaleen had no idea what JW was talking about. “And what exactly should I be seeing?”
“You should be seeing that no matter how hard you try you could never be me. You could never take my place.”
“I’ve never wanted to take your place,” Jaleen said. “For years I wanted to work beside you to help make this company great. But you were so blinded by your hatred toward me that I never got the chance.”
“You’re damn right,” JW said, his voice growing louder.
Although Jaleen had already known that fact, hearing that his own father truly despised him was a tough pill to swallow.
“Why?” Jaleen asked, finally raising his voice. He stepped closer to JW, invading his personal space. “I’m your son. Your flesh and blood. What the hell did I ever do to you to make you despise me so much?”
“You were born,” JW said, his stare cold and unapologetic. “No son of mine would have done to me what you did.”
“What did I do besides love you as your child?” Jaleen said. “What did I do?” he repeated when JW didn’t speak.
“You loved him more,” JW finally said in a stern voice. “You loved my father more than you loved me and because of that, he loved you in a way he should have loved his own sons. Especially his oldest son. You robbed me of a relationship I should have had with my father because by the time that old bastard grew old and actually started giving a damn about his kids, you were the one that got his love. The only one. Not me, his son who’d been busting his ass to prove that he could run his business.”
Jaleen took a step back, briefly glancing at his uncle who seemed to already know that was the reason JW had been so difficult on him all these years. He looked at his brothers, noticing that they didn’t look too surprised, either. If he was honest with himself, he realized, he should have been the least surprised of them all. Jealousy, he thought. That’s the look I couldn’t place.
“All this time, you’ve treated me so poorly because you’ve been jealous of the relationship Grandfather and I had?”
JW just stared at him. His eyes still full of anger and his body language proving that, even at his age, he’d throw punches if he needed to.
Suddenly it didn’t matter that Jaleen loved the company his grandfather had built and had spent the majority of his life trying to maintain the legacy of the one man he looked up to. It didn’t matter that he’d spent years trying to get his father’s approval only to realize he’d never get it. It didn’t matter that he’d wasted years of his life living in the moment because he knew one sheet of paper and a man with way too much power would define his entire future. There was only one thing left to do and he no longer had a problem making the decision he knew in his heart he had to make.
“I quit,” Jaleen said. “I can’t do it anymore.” With that, he walked out the door for what he hoped would be the last time. He had better things to do than continue to debate a losing argument. There was only one person on his mind he wanted to be with. One woman who’d completely captured his heart and there was no way he was putting off seeing her any longer. She may have needed space, but he needed her...in every way.
* * *
Danni sat on the back porch swing, letting the sun beat down on her face. It was a beautiful May day and the birds were chirping away in the birdhouse she’d brought her mother.
“There you are,” Regina said as she stepped out onto the porch. “I’ve been looking for you all over the house. Are you okay?”
Am I okay? She’d asked herself that question several times over the past two weeks and now she could honestly say that she was.
“I’m fine, Mom.” Danni had done quite a bit of soul-searching since she’d arrived in Tampa and her mom had been there to support her up-and-down emotional journey the entire time.
“Good, because there’s someone here to see you,” Regina said, nodding at the back door.
Danni sat up immediately. Could it be Jaleen? She’d missed him so much. They’d texted and had long calls, so she knew that he officially wasn’t marrying Cordelia, but he hadn’t told her any details. He’d respected that she’d needed space. Now all she had to do was to tell him that he was giving her too much space.
Her eyes were trained on the door when it opened. Oh, my goodness, she thought. It may not be Jaleen, but it was the next best thing.
Winter, Autumn and Summer stood on the other side of the screen.
“Or I guess I should say, several people are here to see you,” Regina said before going back into the house to give them some privacy.
“Um, hi,” Danni said, her mouth suddenly dry. They hadn’t talked in over a month, so she had no idea what to say to them. Should I start with sorry? Or maybe let them talk first?
“How have you been?” There, that works.
“We’ve been okay,” Winter said. “Wondering how you were doing, too.”
“We shouldn’t have let you leave the boutique like that,” Autumn said. “It was wrong of us not to make sure you were okay.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Danni said. “I was the one who betrayed your trust and lied about my identity. You had every right to be upset.”
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“That may be true,” Winter said, glancing at Autumn and Summer before looking back at Danni. “But when it comes to sisters, even if we’re mad or fight with one another, family is family even if they make stupid decisions. We’re sorry for taking this long to see it.”
Danni laughed nervously. “Do you mean that? That you consider me a sister?”
“Danni, we’ve always considered you a sister,” Winter said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have made you the offer to be partner.”
“And invited you into our lives,” Autumn added. “We never needed a DNA test to tell us how we felt about you. All we wished was that you had been honest and told us the truth up front.”
Danni was overwhelmed with happiness, but there was one person present who had yet to say anything. Danni glanced over at Summer who was looking at her with a look she couldn’t decipher. Although she’d missed Winter and Autumn, she’d missed her relationship with Summer the most.
“Are we okay?” Danni asked, stepping closer to Summer. Summer’s eyes filled with tears before she surprised Danni by what she said next.
“I need my best friend and Bare Sophistication partner back,” Summer said, pulling her into a tight hug. “Miami isn’t the same without you and neither is the boutique...or me.”
Danni hugged her back just as tightly. “I’ve missed my best friend, too. More than you’ll ever know.” Danni stepped back to look at all three of the women.
“I love each of you so much and I am so sorry for what I did.”
“We’re sorry, too,” Autumn and Winter said at the same time.
“And we love you, too,” Summer chimed in as the four hugged in a way that let Danni know that everything was going to be okay.
“Oh, wait,” Danni said, snapping her fingers. “What about Sonia’s threat to go to the tabloids? You think she will do that?”
“Of course she would,” Autumn said. “But she hasn’t yet, which means she’s stalling for something. Probably waiting for one of us to pay her off.”
“So we have an idea,” Winter said. “We’ll offer the exclusive story to a well-known magazine instead. There are a couple we’ve worked with in the past that we trust.”
“Are you willing to do that?” Danni asked, looking at each of the women. “Are you willing to tell the world about me and Sonia?”
“Sweetie, there’s nothing to tell,” Summer said. “You’re our sister and that’s that.”
Autumn placed her hands on her hips. “And regarding Sonia, the only thing the article will do is expose what a horrible mother she is. But we don’t want her to be the main focus. We’re going to focus on our business and sisterhood instead.”
Sisterhood... I actually have sisters!
“There’s someone else here who’s been dying to see you,” Summer said, clearing her throat. “Oh, lover boy, you can come out now.”
Danni turned in time to see Jaleen coming through the back door. Oh, I’ve missed him so much. She never thought it was possible to miss someone so much. She noticed her mom in the kitchen window looking at her with the biggest smile on her face. That woman will always be the only mother I’ll ever need. Regina was one of a kind and Danni wouldn’t trade her for anything.
“We’ll wait for you two inside,” Winter said, tugging on Summer’s and Autumn’s arms.
“Good idea.” Autumn looked at Winter. “When you said family is family earlier, you weren’t including Sonia Dupree in that, were you?”
Winter shot her a look of disbelief. “Do you even have to ask that?”
“Just making sure,” Autumn said. “Because I refuse to believe that awful woman gave birth to us.”
Danni laughed as the women filed inside before turning her attention to Jaleen. He looked a little tired, like he’d been through hell and back, but he was still devastatingly handsome. When she sat on the porch swing, he went to sit beside her.
“I’ve missed you,” Jaleen said, intertwining his hand with hers.
“I’ve missed you, too,” Danni said. “I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to come see me.”
“I knew when I came here that I had to have a good reason for bringing you back to Miami. So I wanted to tie up a few loose ends first.”
“Like what?” Danni asked.
“Like the fact that I quit my job a week ago.”
Danni’s eyes grew big. “You quit your job?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story that I will definitely tell you all about later. And I know I already told you that you didn’t have to worry about the situation with Cordelia since that’s no longer an issue.”
“How did she take it?”
“You’ve met Cordelia. She cursed me out with a few Southern metaphors,” Jaleen said with a laugh. “But in the end, she agreed that we were better off as friends. I honestly don’t think she wanted to marry me any more than I wanted to marry her, but she was trying to make her father happy.”
“I feel bad for her,” Danni said. “It’s not easy disappointing a parent.”
“It’s not,” Jaleen agreed. “But it’s even worse when you’ve been working so hard not to disappoint a parent, just to learn it had all been a complete waste of energy.”
“JW?”
“The one and only.” Jaleen placed a kiss on the back of her hand. “I’d planned on seeing you a week ago right after I quit. But a few hours after I left, my uncle called and told me he’d been investigating my grandfather’s will.”
“Did he find anything?” Danni asked.
Jaleen was already shaking his head in disbelief. “JW had paid my grandfather’s lawyer to forge part of the will. My grandfather had never left him the company. In his original will, he’d stated that JW was to run the company until my thirtieth birthday.”
“So your grandfather had left it to you to run?”
“Yes, he’d wanted me to run the business and had even left a letter stating that he knew I’d take the company in the direction it needed to go.”
“And JW found out and took matters into his own hands...” Danni’s voice trailed off. “So what does that mean? You didn’t quit after all?”
“It means, after we figure everything out, I’m initiating my plan to completely rebrand Walker Partner Realty. I spent the past week in meetings with my lawyers, brothers, uncle and cousin trying to figure out a plan of action as to how we want the information to get to the press and how we will inform the employees.”
“So you’ll be saving the company,” Danni said in excitement. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I haven’t saved it yet, but I’m confident that I have what it takes to make it happen.”
“I know you do,” Danni said, briefly kissing his cheek. “When do you get to work?”
“In a few days,” Jaleen said, holding her gaze. “I told my uncle that I couldn’t start anything until I found the woman I love and told her how much she means to me.”
He loves me... Danni was pretty sure her smile was so wide that it looked as if her face was stuck that way. “Oh, really,” she said, placing her forehead on his. “That’s funny, because I was here in Tampa waiting for the man I love to find me and he just so happened to pick the most beautiful day in May to do so.”
When Jaleen pulled her in for a kiss, she poured all her love into it. It was just the beginning of the beautiful journey they were about to embark on...together.
This kiss ended way too soon. “I love you,” he said, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. “I’ve wanted to tell you that for so long.”
Her heart swelled. “I love you more,” she said, sneaking another quick kiss. “But you know what sucks?”
“What?”
“All the sex we missed out on while we were both unemployed for a week.”
“I’m sure Summer wo
n’t make you start work right away. And I don’t plan on starting for a few more days.” Jaleen looked at his watch. “If we leave right now, we can make up for lost time.”
“You’re crazy.” Danni was laughing so hard, her stomach hurt. “I’d have to pack up my stuff and tell my mom I’m going back.”
“Can you pack up fast? You have three sisters in there who can help you.”
“Let’s go inside and ask them.”
Danni and Jaleen walked back inside to find her mom showing baby pictures of Danni, her brothers and her father to Winter, Autumn and Summer. The sight nearly brought tears to her eyes. After having to deal with a mother like Sonia, her sisters needed to bond with a mother like Regina.
“I can’t leave while they’re bonding,” Danni whispered.
“I understand, but I have an idea.” Jaleen brought his mouth to her ear. “Four blocks down, I saw a house for sale that sits right on the beach.”
“Looking for new properties to flip already?” Danni asked.
“No, I’m looking for a place to bring the woman I love so that I don’t have to spend the night sharing her with four other people.”
“You’re insane,” Danni said with a laugh. “But I love you for it.”
“So does that mean you’re in?”
She quirked an eyebrow. “In for what exactly?”
Jaleen glanced at the other women to make sure they weren’t eavesdropping. “I still owe you a fifth and final fantasy date.”
“So you want us to trespass on private property for our last date? We could just get a hotel. Besides, I doubt the house is even furnished, so it may not be comfortable.”
Jaleen held her gaze. “Full disclosure?”
“Full disclosure.”
“I contacted the Realtor of the property and got the keys for the night. I want to check it out as a possible investment.”
Danni’s eyes widened in surprise. Lawd, I love this man.
“It’s also fully furnished,” Jaleen said. “I packed a cooler containing vegetarian dishes and treats from Artemela Rojas. It’s in the trunk of my car. I also packed a big fluffy blanket and two pillows...the same ones from that special night we spent on the balcony. All you have to do is pack an overnight bag.”
Nights of Fantasy Page 19