Meant for You

by Michelle Major

  “Sam’s a big talker,” Chloe agreed. “And Kendall has that hard-nosed journalist stare down to a science. But I can take care of things. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to take your decision about filing for custody so badly.”

  Once they were around the corner, Jenny stopped and sagged against the cool brick of the building. “He told me he got fired today, and his company announced a partnership with Dalton Enterprises.” Her knees shook and her heart felt as if it might beat right out of her chest.

  She’d stood up to someone she’d always thought held more power than her and lived to tell the tale. “I think Trent’s anger had more to do with thinking I’d orchestrated some deal between his company and Owen than the letter from the lawyer.”

  It had been Chloe’s idea to speak to an attorney about what rights Trent actually had with regards to Cooper instead of allowing Trent to call the shots. Because of her work with victims of domestic violence, Chloe had far too much experience with one parent using their kid to manipulate the other. According to the attorney, Jenny could begin the process by filing for sole custody and, based on Trent’s response, take the next step of having his parental rights terminated.

  “Maybe Owen stepped in,” Chloe suggested gently.

  Jenny shook her head, then rubbed at the place on her chest where the physical ache of losing Owen felt like it would never ease. She’d been careless and selfish with his heart, and it had cost her more than she could ever repay. “I hurt him so badly. There’s no way he wants anything to do with me now, and I don’t blame him.”

  Chloe put an arm around her shoulder. “You’re making things better. That counts for a lot, Jen.”

  Jenny took a deep breath, the first one she’d taken in far too long without feeling like there was a weight sitting on her chest. “Let’s go home. I’ve got a lot of work to do before the garden center opens again this weekend, and I want to give my kid a hug.”

  “Am I throwing a party?” she asked as Chloe parked her car next to the hulking black Range Rover in front of Jenny’s house.

  Chloe unbuckled her seat belt. “All your friends are here. We wanted you to be surrounded by people who love you.”

  Jenny slowly climbed out of the car, swallowing her tears. She was claiming her life, and it made her happy. Not as happy as she could have been with Owen, but eventually her heart would mend. At least that’s what she told herself.

  Voices came from the back of the house and she saw Cooper running through the field with several kids chasing him in a frenzied game of tag.

  She looked over to the barn, which was still shabby and in need of plenty of work, but it housed her plants and flowers. And tomorrow it would be filled with customers. People who depended on and trusted her. Yes, the problems she solved were as simple as what kind of soil to choose for tomatoes or how much to water hydrangeas. But the nursery belonged to her, and she was good at running it.

  “I’m home.”

  “It’s always been here,” Chloe said, sounding like some sort of modern good witch.

  They walked through the house and into the kitchen. Sam was at the counter cutting tomato slices as Kendall placed hamburger buns on a plate. Both women turned, Kendall dropping the buns and rushing toward Jenny to wrap her in a tight hug.

  “Are you okay? Was it horrible? Did you tell him where he could shove his demands?”

  Jenny pulled back. “Chloe Tasered him.”

  “What?” Kendall and Sam asked at once, both clearly as shocked as Jenny had been.

  “Let’s just say,” Jenny told them, “that Trent had a really bad day and decided to take it out on me.”

  “I wasn’t going to let that happen,” Chloe added.

  “That’s my girl,” Ben said, coming in from the patio.

  “Damn straight,” Sam agreed. “Seriously, Red, how did it go?”

  Jenny shrugged. “All I care is that it’s over and I’m not going to let Trent or anyone make me afraid again. No more fear.”

  “Mom, you’re home.” Cooper burst through the back door. “Come to the yard. You need to see what Owen did to my plane. It’s so cool.” He ran back outside, the screen door slamming behind him.

  “Owen?” Jenny’s gaze tracked to each of her friends. “Is he here?”

  “Go find out,” Kendall said gently. Instead Jenny turned for the hallway, needing an escape. She couldn’t possibly face Owen and still hold it together. Kendall grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her back around. “What happened to ‘no more fear’?”

  “This is survival,” Jenny muttered.

  “Coward,” Sam said, pointing the knife at her.

  “Are you brandishing a weapon at me?”

  “Are you seriously going to run away right now?”

  Jenny opened her mouth to argue, then snapped it shut again. She glanced at Ben. “Do you have any manly words of advice to offer?”

  “Don’t take the stun gun,” he said, one side of his mouth curving.

  “A chef and a comedian.” Jenny rolled her eyes. “How did I get so lucky to have such multitalented friends?”

  They all laughed at her lame joke, but in that instant she realized how true it was. She was lucky and blessed, and a lot of that had to do with Owen. Her heart wanted so badly to believe he was there to forgive her, but the chances of that were so slim as to be virtually impossible.

  Even so, she needed to talk to him. Needed to apologize. She only hoped she could do it without making a fool of herself and begging him to give her another chance.

  Only one way to find out. Drawing in a fortifying breath, she walked out to the back patio.

  Her heart gave a little leap at the sight of Owen, standing with Ty next to the grill. They were talking intently, the way men did about cooking meat, and a swift stab of longing went through her.

  This was what she wanted. He was what she wanted.

  He wore a gray T-shirt, loose cargo shorts, and flip-flops, looking more like the college student who’d started a company out of his dorm room than the Fortune 500 CEO.

  “Mom, look at how high it flies,” Cooper called from the far side of the backyard. He stood with Sam’s niece, Grace, and Ben’s niece and nephew, Abby and Austin. She felt Owen’s gaze lift to her but kept her eyes straight ahead, moving forward until she was at the edge of the lawn. The helicopter dipped and swooped, much like her heart was doing at the moment. It looked more like a tiny fighter jet than a cheap toy she’d picked up when they first moved to the ramshackle property.

  After a few minutes, the plane went down on the far side of the barn. The kids headed that way and she had no excuse not to turn and face Owen.

  She found him standing a few feet behind her. “Seriously, is it legal for a toy to fly like that?” she asked, nerves making her voice sound breathy.

  He shrugged. “I wouldn’t mention it to the aviation commission,” he answered, “but what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Cooper is happy and that’s what counts.”

  She smiled but the ache in her heart only grew. Glancing over Owen’s shoulder, she saw that the patio was empty.

  “Don’t think for a minute that they aren’t watching from the kitchen window,” he told her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I should have never tried to protect Cooper by hurting you.”

  He inclined his head. “I went to visit my mom and . . .” He paused, then said, “My parents.”

  “Hank is your father, Owen. He’s been there since the start.” She took a step forward until they were toe to toe. “I should never have—”

  “I’m glad you did.” He took a visible breath, his dark eyes unreadable but his face relaxed in the soft light of early evening. “It explains a lot, although I still have plenty of questions.”

  “Your mom—”

  “How did you know?” he asked suddenly.

  She blinked.

  “I told you I never fit in with my family, but how was it so obvious that I wasn’t even Hank’s son?”
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  “It had nothing to do with Hank,” she answered. “There was a look your mother gave you when we first arrived. It was a mix of love and guilt and longing. Like there were regrets she’d lived with for a long time. I recognized them because . . . well, why doesn’t matter. But coupled with what you’d told me, it made sense.”

  “Nothing about it makes sense.”

  “I think if I’d had that option, I would have taken it.” She gave a small laugh. “If Ty hadn’t been like a brother to me and he’d offered marriage, I would have said yes to give my baby a real family. To protect him.”

  “The way you did when you took that picture.”

  “That was wrong,” she said, shaking her head, “even if I never planned to give any information to Trent. I know it doesn’t excuse what I did, but—”

  “The package you sent arrived yesterday. Why give back the ring? You earned the ring.”

  She shook her head. “I couldn’t sell it. It’s . . .” She broke off, took a step back.

  “It’s what, Jenny?”

  “That ring belongs to the woman you marry. It represents something and—”

  He used one finger to tip up her chin. “It belongs to you.”

  “I talked to the bank,” she said quickly, “I can get another loan and—”

  Owen leaned in and kissed her, a soft brush of his lips. But the connection ricocheted through her, making her heart squeeze painfully. This was what she wanted, but how could she let herself believe it was real?

  “The ring is yours,” he said, “because you are the woman I’m going to marry.”

  “You can’t mean that,” she said against his mouth. “After everything I’ve done.”

  “You belong to me,” he told her. “I’m not going to give up on you, Jenny. On us. You drive me crazy and it’s all I want. You and Cooper are what I want.”

  “And you belong to me,” she answered, so much emotion filling her chest she could barely breathe around it.

  “That’s what your mother whispered to me at the church. It wasn’t about our wedding plans. She told me to take care of you because you belong to me now. At the time it scared me because I didn’t think I could ever deserve the happiness I felt with you but . . . I love you, Owen.” He tipped up her chin, searching her gaze. For once, she didn’t hold back. She let everything she felt for him show in her eyes. “I promise I will never give you another reason to doubt me.”

  “I love you,” he said, and kissed her again.

  The kiss turned heated and for a few moments, she lost herself in the feel of Owen surrounding her. It was still hard to believe this was happening, but he pulled back when cheers erupted from the house.

  Her friends were crowded in the doorway, smiling and catcalling.

  “I hate them,” she muttered.

  “Liar,” Owen said, pulling her close. “They are your family.”

  “You are my family.” She snuggled closer to him. “You are my heart, Owen. I’m sorry I had to put us both through so much pain to realize it.”

  “You’re worth the trouble,” he said with a laugh, then dropped down to one knee.

  Jenny gave a little squeak. “You don’t have to—”

  “We’re getting it right this time.” He pulled the familiar velvet box out of his pocket. “Jenny Castelli, will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

  “Yes,” she answered without hesitation. He slipped the ring onto her finger, then stood and kissed her again.

  “About time,” Sam called.

  “Can we eat now?” Cooper asked as he walked up to them, a broad smile on his face.

  “Why don’t you look surprised?” Jenny asked her son.

  “I asked his permission first,” Owen told her.

  “Don’t worry,” Cooper assured her, “Hawaii is still part of the deal.”

  As Jenny laughed, their friends spilled out of the house, carrying plates of food. “It’s an engagement party,” Kendall called, and Owen kissed Jenny again.

  “Are you sure?” She needed to hear it one more time.

  “I’m positive,” he told her. “This is all I want. You are all I want. I love you, Jenny.”

  She took a breath, finally allowing happiness to wash through her. It filled her, bright and golden, erasing all of her fears and doubts. She was living the life she’d always dreamed of and Owen was essential to that. Essential to her.

  “Forever.” He laced their fingers together.

  “Forever,” she agreed.

  EPILOGUE

  “This is the best honeymoon ever.” Cooper dropped to his knees in the sand next to Jenny’s lounge chair.

  “I’m glad you think so,” she said with a smile. “How are the surfing lessons?”

  “I’m pretty good.” Cooper grinned. “But it’s hard to concentrate when I’m too busy taking pictures to prove this all really happened.”

  “I know the feeling.” So much had changed for Jenny and Cooper in the past month. She and Owen had been married in a small ceremony in her backyard the week after he’d proposed for real. Neither of them had wanted to wait to join their lives together. Cooper had been over the moon, and Owen’s parents and Gabby plus Jack and Kristin had flown out for the occasion.

  There was a noticeable easing of the tension between Owen and Hank that made Jenny wish Owen would have learned the truth about his family earlier.

  But Jenny was coming to understand that things happened in their own time and every moment—good or bad—was a chance to learn and grow.

  To that end, Jenny’d had a somewhat awkward but ultimately sweet phone conversation with her biological father, Joseph Fienas, who she’d tracked down with the help of one of the jazz singers he’d once toured with. Joseph lived in Kansas City and had responded to her initial e-mail within minutes, asking to speak to her. Jenny hadn’t mentioned anything to her mother, but she and Owen were flying to Missouri when they got back from Hawaii so she could meet her father in person.

  She’d done a lot of learning and maturing in the past few weeks. The attorney she’d hired had filed the petition for sole custody, and although the court date wasn’t until next month, Trent’s attorney had already told them that he wouldn’t fight her.

  Dalton Enterprises’ Labyrinth Web was on the fast track, but not with regards to use by the military. As it turned out, the network was even more effective in socially impacted neighborhoods and in the aftermath of natural disasters, when stable and secure communication channels were in high demand. The change in direction had seemed to remotivate Owen, and he spent as much time as his daily schedule would allow working in the lab with his research and development team.

  Jenny would have never guessed that she could find talk about mesh networks and secure routers to be a turn-on, but Owen’s renewed excitement about his work only made her want him more.

  Sometimes it still scared her how much she loved him. She felt unsure and a little fragile as she navigated the unfamiliar terrain of love and marriage. Owen was infinitely patient with her, and she was quickly learning to trust that she wasn’t going to screw up the precious love she’d found with him.

  Owen had even been the one to suggest making their Hawaii vacation an official family honeymoon.

  Cooper shook out his hair, spraying her with ocean water. “I’m going to go out again,” he said as he picked up his surfboard.

  “Be careful.”

  “Got it, Mom.” Cooper stood and hooked the colorful board under one arm. “Want to come with me, Owen?”

  “I’ll be out in a minute,” Owen answered as he walked up to them. Cooper nodded and ran for the waves. Owen placed a frozen drink with a pink umbrella stuck into it on the table next to Jenny.

  “You’re the best cabana boy I’ve ever had,” Jenny told her new husband. He wore low-slung board shorts and a faded MIT T-shirt. His hair was longer than normal and tended to curl in the breeze at the beach. He was the hottest techie nerd Jenny had ever seen.

  “J
ust wait until you see the service you get later tonight,” he said as he dropped into the chair next to her.

  His words made Jenny’s skin tingle and butterflies dance across her belly. “If it’s anything like the service in the shower this morning, I’m all for it.”

  “I’m thinking about a bath tonight.” Owen took her hand and grazed his lips over her knuckles. “You and me and a tub full of bubbles.”

  “Now I understand why you rented a four-bedroom house for the three of us,” Jenny said with a laugh.

  He winked. “It seemed like the best way to have a family vacation and a honeymoon.”

  “Thank you for making this week so perfect for all of us.” She shifted on the chair so she could lean over to kiss him.

  His mouth was gentle against hers, but he quickly scooped her off her chair and into his lap. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I thought you were going surfing.”

  “One more minute to hold my wife.” He grazed the edge of her jaw with his lips.

  “I love how those two words sound coming out of your mouth,” she said softly. “‘My wife.’”

  “My heart. My soul. My life.”

  Her heart tripped over itself. “Owen.”

  “I mean it, Jenny. I think I fell in love with you the first time you walked into my office. I knew right then there would never be anyone else but you for me.”

  His words and his love were like a balm to her soul. “I love you so much,” she told him. “I never understood it was possible to feel this way. I never trusted myself or my heart until you. You make me so happy.”

  “That goes both ways, Mrs. Dalton.”

  “I was meant to be yours, Mr. Dalton.” She kissed him again. “Always and forever.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  It takes a village to bring a book to the hands of readers and I want to thank the one supporting me, especially:

  Everyone at Montlake for the best publishing experience every step of the way. Chris—thank you for the support and the smiley faces. Jessica and the whole Montlake Author Relations team—you guys amaze me with your creativity and dedication. Melody—your expertise is invaluable in making each book so much stronger.