by J. A. Coffey
"I remember."
"Jessie, I think you should know that you've had a trust fund in your name for the last year, making you a millionaire. I did this when I heard about that ridiculous contract Darius had signed for Beau, and didn't want you to get excluded from marriage on a technicality."
She snatched up the remote to stop the disk and frown at him. "What contract?"
He gusted out an absurd noise and lowered his head. When he looked at her, he could only grin. "It was the only way to get that man off my back. I agreed to marry- don't get mad- a rich virgin." He put his hands in the air. "I don't know if or how Ollie knew your...status, but I'm sure he was more worried about Father's insistence that you be rich, not intact." He gave her an apologetic grin. "It was the only thing I could think of to stop being harassed by his incessant need for gambling money.
"Also, at that time, Father's caveat stated that should I not marry within those parameters, he would get to sell my mom's favorite high boy. It's very sentimental to me."
Wry, Jess asked, "Not worth ten thousand?"
"No." He shook his head. "Probably worth only about three hundred." He drifted off into a past memory. "She loved her hats, and this chest had two compartments on top, instead of one. I remember her spending what seemed like hours every time they were going out, trying on her hats to see which one looked best that day." He chuckled. "Her favorite was a fascinator, worn mostly by her grandmother, but her face was perfect for it. It was small and black and lacy and she wore it right here," he pointed to his right temple, "all the time." His gaze turned inward while he smiled at the memories.
His words seemed to mollify her, for she smiled gently and turned back to the TV. "That explains all the weird mailings I was getting from a bank I don't have." She studied him carefully. "I'm really a millionaire?"
He liked the look of disbelief on her face. It made him feel that she wanted to be with him and not his inheritance. With a non-repentant shrug he reached over and took back the remote to resume playing.
"And, for your first wedding present, I'm giving you another million. So, together, that makes you both worth, oh," he raised a finger to draw in the air, muttered, "eighteen, carry the one," then louder, "twenty million."
"Oh my God." Jess covered her mouth when she flopped back into her chair, and tears filled her eyes as she shook her head. "Oh, Ollie," and she reached forward to touch the screen.
It was at that moment he recalled how much she had loved the man, how much she saw him as her own grandfather.
Merriment shone in those blue eyes on screen, and Ollie leaned forward and whispered, "Jessie," he faced the wrong side of the screen, "if he married someone else, that money was going to charity." He gave a big wink.
They both chuckled to stop from tearing up.
It was as if Ollie was on Skype and not on DVD, for his smile softened. "My boy, true love is a wonderful, rare, splendored thing. Treasure it every day, for one day you'll wake up and it'll be gone. Your world will no longer turn."
His face dropped with sadness, and Darius turned to Jess and whispered, "He always said he fell tragically in love in his youth but couldn't keep her. After that, he accepted his arranged marriage, but she died after only two years. Stayed single his whole life, until Clarisse."
"Which...." Ollie cleared his throat and looked down for a moment before facing the camera again, "brings me to the next order of business. You see, my boy...." he took a deep breath, then braced his elbows on his knees before looking up. "This will come as a shock to you, but, you are. My boy. My son."
Darius leaned back, finding all his Aikido training insufficient for this moment in time.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't tell you. Your father, well, Beau, refused to let me.
"You see, Elizabeth and I fell madly in love when we were both at Harvard University. But we were both already engaged to other people. We were, in this day and age you'd call it 'emotionally involved.' Intimate. And I couldn't believe that this warm, wonderful Elizabeth Johnson was the Elizabeth Johnson engaged to my brother in England, the cold fish.
"Naturally, when we found out, we called it off. But," his face reddened down to his handlebars, "there was one magical night, just before she and Beau married. I swore I wouldn't see her again. Even stayed here, in America, instead of returning home. But didn't that little cupcake talk Beau into moving back here." Although he punched his knee when he said, Darius could see how flattered Ollie had been.
And how much in love.
Although he would never condone adultery, it did soothe his heart to know his mother had known love. Real love.
Even though it had never been with her husband.
The screen flickered a bit, then Ollie continued. "I only saw you both at family gatherings. I tried so hard to not touch her." His fists gripped, and agony tore at his face. "Oh, my boy, that woman was so difficult to avoid. We were magnetized, she and I. Charged. And once, after Barbara had died, when Beau had gone back to London on business, you and your mom stayed with me."
He smiled and leaned back, hands laced behind his head, as sated and happy as a cat full of cream. "For two beautiful weeks we lived as a family. A real family."
Darius grabbed the remote and pressed the pause button. "I swear I remember that. I remember asking Father to play Injuns and Outlaws with me. He said he never played those games, and I said we had. Mom intervened and said I had had an imaginary playmate and all those random games I was 'remembering' were just my imagination."
Jess nodded slowly. "She had to have a cover story."
He inhaled a deep breath and pressed play. Ollie's smile disappeared and he squinted at the camera, giving it a slight adjustment before speaking. "It was during those two weeks that Lizzy told me you were my son. But, DNA testing was unheard of."
He tugged his handlebar. "Until 1987. Remember that trip to Leicester?"
Darius nodded, then cringed at Jess when he realized he answered a recording. Jess smiled and patted his knee.
"That was the first time DNA testing became readily available. Lizzy took you there, and I paid for the results." Ollie stroked his jaw, stayed silent a moment. "Beau found the results in her bag when you both returned. That started the fight, Darius." His eyes dropped, and when he looked in the camera, a sheen of tears glistened. "That was the day Lizzy died."
The old man leaned back and blinked away his pain, and Darius gripped Jess' hand with a fervor that surprised him. He swallowed hard in rapid succession, blinked fast, looked up.
Jess touched his shoulder in sympathy and solidarity.
Then Ollie resumed his monologue. "Beau was never the same after that. Threatened, well, everything. Became vile and toxic. I told him I'd go public and claim you, cut him off from the family fortune if he ever harmed you. So he behaved. Mostly."
Darius muttered, "Explains the drinking and gambling."
"But he never treated you as his child after that. When you were twelve, I renegotiated. I wanted you here, with me, every summer. No excuses."
Darius slumped back in his chair, pinched the bridge of his nose. "I always felt like I was at home here, with him."
"You were my boy," Ollie harrumphed, "and I did the best I could those three months each year."
"You did great." He tried to smile at the screen.
"So now, son, if your father- well, Beau- is still alive, you can tell him you know the truth. Amos has proof of the DNA results, just ask him. If you don't want to tell him this, then I respect your decision.
"On the off chance that my brother is deceased as well, then I'm so sorry you had to put two fathers to rest."
The screen fuzzed for a second, and Ollie seemed happy and vibrant again. "So go forth, spread joy, and embrace every day you have with someone you love." The screen went black.
Jess massaged his shoulder, studying him silently as he absorbed this shocking news.
It all made sense. All of it. How Beau went from fatherly to distant. From happy to irritab
le. Why he stopped calling him son. As a child he had blamed himself, after hearing his name so often in the argument. As he aged, he began to understand how people coped. Sensei had been instrumental in helping him work through his anger and loss and achieve peace with the passing events.
But how Ollie had battled for him was something he had never learned. In fact, he remembered Ollie had crushed him to his side that first day at the bus station, when he had been so scared and alone, and Beau had refused to go with him, saying it was only an hour away. The first words out of Ollie's mouth had been to complement Beau on his generosity in sharing Darius with his only brother.
Ollie had been gracious in victory.
As bitter as Beau had been in defeat.
"Dar? Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he glanced over to Jess and wiped his cheeks. "Just a lot to...."
"I know, hon. I know."
They stood up together, and when he reached for the lights, Jess yanked him back and nestled close. "Even at his last, he thought of you." She tilted her head back to gaze up at him. "That's true, fatherly love."
Until she voiced it, Darius had not realized how much he had craved it, and how challenging his life had been without paternal support. Having this dark family secret brought to light made him realize how much his life had lacked- how much better his life would have been being raised by the man he loved the most. The last decade entailed dealing with a man who hated him, taking out his angst on his opponents, breathing out his self-loathing through guided meditation, and finding meager solace by distancing himself from his only blood kin.
It was so unfair, learning Ollie was his real father when it was too late to change, too late start over.
Too late to beg forgiveness for not knowing.
Discipline deserted him; he crushed Jess to his chest, letting each of the blasted teardrops fall.
Chapter Fourty-Four
Eleven a.m., and Jess paced behind the curtain while the camera crews and radio stations and newspaper reporters gathered outside for the announcement. She had no real idea of what she was going to say, except to offer thanks.
She couldn't stop thinking about Ollie's gift to her; if she had a million dollars at her disposal, could she give it to the zoo and work out an arrangement for the rest she had promised? She hated the thought of letting Ollie's last desire go unfulfilled, and the blueprints for Covington Cove looked amazing.
But if she did that, then what would she do with the inheritance? Could she ignore Ollie's bequeathal and let Darius keep them? How would that affect sales? Would her store suffer from the negative publicity of prized pieces never coming up for sale? If so, how would that affect her staff? Would she be forced to let people go?
She heard Darius come up behind her, looking incredibly dapper in his gray Armani suit. His smile waylaid her dark thoughts. "You look very nice." He grabbed her hand and kissed her fingers.
She shoved her anxieties out of her mind as she nodded her thanks. "Do you like it?"
"Very much." He grinned.
She smoothed down the navy skirt to dry off her hands. "You look great. I feel so nervous."
"Public speaking does that to people."
"Not just about this." She faced him. "We're getting married in two hours, which means my parents are going to come home to a married daughter. Your father is still on the loose. And I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to say to those people out there."
He took her hands in his warm ones and held her gaze. "You'll be fine. Just speak from the heart. That is all I, or anyone else, could ever ask for."
He leaned forward and gave her a fortifying kiss.
Someone from the TV station waved her forward. "You're on."
Jess shot a worried glance to Darius and parted the curtain to the stage. Tons of people crowded the streets, including her staff. She saw many fellow shop owners, neighbors, and police officers she knew by name. She rummaged through the index cards in her hands for a moment before leaning in to the mike.
"Thank you all for coming. Today is a very big day for me, as you all probably know. For anyone who knew Ollie, you knew how much I saw him as a loving grandfather figure. He supported me through most of my adolescence and adulthood with love and encouragement. He always had a kind word or gentle hug whenever I was down.
"Uncle Ollie rewrote his Will when he saw how prosperous my store had become. He said over and over how this inheritance would make me 'the single richest woman in the Northeast.'"
She noticed her staff nodding and mouthing along to the familiar words.
Ollie's favorite query came suddenly to mind: What makes people rich, Jessie? She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts, remembering. She flipped through the sheaves of paper to find the letter Ollie had written and scanned to the end:
Cash, quite simply, is what makes this world go round, and let no one tell you differently, for it is truly a many splendored thing. To buy and spend freely is to receive a glimpse of heaven, and this is what I grant you.
Splendored. World turn. What he wrote totally conflicted with what he said on the recording they watched.
She inhaled. What he wrote was wrong. Love made the world go 'round. Love was a many splendored thing. To love freely was to glimpse heaven. It was all right there, in black and white and curlicues, just waiting for her brain to engage and understand. It all made perfect sense now, and she couldn't believe how obtuse she had been all this time. Of course Ollie would have made it into a riddle, would make her think outside the box, make her challenge what she knew versus what he wrote.
Behind those plaids and polka dots was a deep, warm, reflective man who believed wholeheartedly in the power of love.
People in the audience stared at her, silent and waiting, and the cameraman made a circle motion with his hand, encouraging her to keep talking.
"Sorry. I was just thinking. Ollie had been rich as long as I'd known him. He came from old money. His investments made him even richer. He gave freely to venture capitalists, the more crazy the idea, the more he sponsored it. Remember the dog bark translator? He loved that one."
A ripple of laughter carried across the crowd.
"But I just remembered that what Ollie always believed in was the power of love. Love makes people rich, makes the world go round, is what he always said. He spoke often of a woman he loved so fiercely, he felt the absence of light when she left the room."
She heard a few "aww's" from the audience.
Her throat tightened as she thought of Darius' mother and Ollie being head over heels in love, and how much of a shock that must have been for Darius to hear, yet how comforting to know the man he loved most was his true father. "I realized Ollie's message to me was two-fold. He never cared about money, and he knew how self sufficient my store was. But what he knew most was that by giving me the antiques, Darius would come back into my life."
She scanned the crowd. "For those who don't know, Darius and I met ten years ago, and would have dated had his father not intervened. But Ollie knew we were more than ships crossing in the night. He must have deduced how each of us felt for the other, even though a decade had passed. And seeing Darius again brought all those feelings to the forefront.
"So, when he proposed yesterday, I said yes. We're getting married in," she looked at her watch, "less than two hours, and we shall make a decision as to the disbursement afterwards as a husband and wife should."
Cheers and applause erupted from the crowd, along with a few howls of disappointment- Mrs. Crowley's being the loudest.
She motioned to Darius, and he made his way to the podium to hold her hand. "Here he is, the only man who has ever held my heart."
One hand cradled her hip. She saw the look in his eye and knew what he intended to do just as he scooped her close and planted a big one on her.
The crowd went wild.
Chapter Fourty-Five
"I don't know how you can insist on me eating lunch when my stomach is tied up in knots." Jess sti
rred her fries with her finger, unable to bring them to her mouth.
Darius stopped, burger hovering before his mouth, and smiled at her. "Because, my beautiful bride, you are going to need all your strength immediately afterwards."
His wolfish grin did nothing to calm her nerves. "Thanks for reminding me." She pushed her plate back.
"Lots of books at home to study. Lots of homework, too." He gave her a big wink.
She glared at him.
He chuckled, returned his burger to his plate, and eased himself over beside her on her bench. He lowered his voice and whispered, "I've been waiting for this day for ten years, Jess. If you don't want to eat, that's fine with me. All I care about is you. Okay?"
Tension left her at that. "Really?"
He nuzzled into her ear and whispered, "It's my foresworn duty to harass you on the day you lose your virginity." He leaned back and chuckled, "I'm a guy, what can I say?"
She stared at him and calmly added, "That you love me."
He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. "Jessalyn Swan, I love you deeper than I ever thought possible to love anyone."
She wobbled him a grin, and he leaned over to accept her kiss. He whispered, "Now it's your turn to say it."
She cracked open her lids to regard him. "I will."
"Oh? When?"
She parted him a grin. "I'll tell you after you commit the deed." She felt her face flame, but she wanted to be made love to. Really and truly made love to.
He looked down at her chest, and she felt her skin grow hot under his gaze. "The deed?"
She nodded, feeling her nipples tighten at their brazen conversation in the middle of a lunchtime restaurant. "The deed."
He leaned close again to whisper in her ear. "You realize this foreplay is in a public place, don't you?" He leaned back and smiled. "Looks like someone's been doing their homework."
She swatted him, and he cringed in mock pain. "Jess," he offered her an unwavering right hand. "I accept the terms of your offer. Will you shake on that deal?"