by Law, Kim
And that’s when she saw it. She cocked her head and studied the child standing at the front of the room, fidgeting from one foot to the other. Dark hair. Bone structure indicating a very attractive man would one day be standing in his place. And aqua-blue eyes.
Blood drained from her upper region to pool in the bottom of her feet. Those eyes were identical to two other people Vega had met in the past week. Two other Davenports.
She shook her head slowly back and forth, unable to believe what she was seeing, yet it was right there in front of her. A miniature version of JP.
He had a son.
Was this what was so secretive about this place? She glanced around to see if anyone else was aware of what she was witnessing, but there was only one other adult in the room, and she didn’t seem the least concerned with the two standing at the front of the class.
Her chest burned. She opened her mouth like a fish and sucked in gulps of air, all while trying to focus long enough so she didn’t pass out and topple from the tiny chair. But she couldn’t stop herself from zooming in on each of them, back and forth, from one to the other.
JP’s head tilted down as he listened to another student, but she caught the glint of his pupils as he peeked up at her through his lashes. His jaw clenched when she caught his gaze.
Oh. My. God.
She looked around for an escape route. Was she honestly sitting there looking at an illegitimate son of Jackson Parker Davenport Jr.? Damn, it was a good thing the two of them were over. She did not need to get mixed up in the media frenzy this was bound to be.
And then her eyes widened as she realized what this meant to her. And her interview.
Oh, my. She licked her lips, suddenly feeling more like the wolf about to devour Little Red Riding Hood. Only JP was no Little Red Riding Hood, and she would have sworn she was no wolf.
The redhead—she assumed the child’s mother—finally shuffled to the side of the room and settled in another chair, JP following her every move. He finally glanced Vega’s way and locked on to her. She told herself to look away; she didn’t want to get into this in front of all these people. But his steady, unblinking gaze held her prisoner.
After what seemed a full minute, she broke contact and stared at the tan carpet squares covering the floor at her feet. His clear gaze had repeated one word over and over. Innocent. Only, something else was in there, too.
Was he saying that wasn’t his son?
Then whose?
And why didn’t the world already know about this?
She squeezed her eyelids together, wanting it not to be as it seemed. He had looked so guilty. But then, he’d also pleaded for his innocence.
Whatever it was, she would definitely find out later. They had a long drive back to his office, then an even longer dinner after that. She would simply refuse to leave until he explained the situation.
With conscious thought, she relaxed her shoulders, pretended to ignore the giant pink elephant in the room, and focused on the remainder of the kids. All sat eagerly awaiting JP to do whatever it was they were here for him to do. She was just as eager to see what this was all about as well.
After two hours and another session, this time with older children, Vega had a vague understanding of what was going on. Every single child that had entered the room had either a learning disorder or a physical one. She watched JP talk to all the kids, sharing stories and reading to them. He then moved from person to person as they worked on their own, devoting time to each and every one. Her heart swelled at the passion the man put into this, but she could not figure out why he kept his work here such a secret.
She slipped from the room and headed to the front office.
Ms. Halloway looked up as the door signaled her entrance. “What can I do for you, dear?”
“Can you tell me how long he’s been doing this?”
She gave a motherly smile. “Almost six years this fall.”
Vega shook her head in disbelief. “How in the world has the press not been privy to this information?”
“Because that’s Mr. Davenport’s request.” Her eyes said if Vega dared to do the leaking, she would personally come after her. “It occasionally is noted that he’s visited. The kids like to share, you know. But if asked, we only say he stops by on occasion to read to the children.”
“And what is it he’s actually doing?” Vega couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but there was far more than reading going on in that room.
“He’s helping, dear. Helping all of them.”
“With whatever disability they have.” She spoke softly, trying to piece it together as she went.
“Yes. The school allows the children to progress at their own personal rate. Mr. Davenport helps more with their emotional well-being than their skills. His encouragement and patience help them understand that being different is perfectly all right.”
“But why? Why does he do this?”
Ms. Halloway patted Vega’s hand, a look in her eye that said she had her suspicions, but it wasn’t for her to share. “That’s something he’ll have to tell you himself.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Who has a word for me today?” JP stood at the front of the room, his stomach twisting as it always did at the end of his visit. Part of what he did each week to help the kids see it’s okay to do things differently, to do things in their own way, and—for some of them—not to be able to do everything was to let them try to stump him.
He’d spent years learning the tricks to overcome his dyslexia, at least to the public, but he still dealt with a few issues on a daily basis. Spelling was one of his more troublesome areas, so the kids always spent the week coming up with a word to test him.
A quiet, dark-haired boy raised his hand. JP smiled at the youngster, seeing way too much of himself in the boy. The child was the son of an up-and-coming movie star. As JP called on him, the door opened, and Vega and Ms. Halloway slipped in. He fought the urge to call a halt to this part of the day. He wasn’t ready for Vega to see him at his most vulnerable.
Yet he’d wanted to bring her along today, knowing he would do this.
“Spell baccalaureate.”
He glanced at Vega, and she smiled at him, clearly impressed with his attention to the students. He could tell she didn’t realize the real issue, though. He turned to the class and began his “act” of pondering the word they’d chosen. Luckily, this was one he was pretty sure he could get.
As he wrote on the whiteboard, he knew each of the kids had the spelling memorized in their own minds. They would have studied it multiple times throughout the week until they each got it. Sweat formed on his brow from knowing Vega watched, but he pushed forward, using the marker to write out the letters. At the sound of simultaneous sighs, he glanced over his shoulder and laughed with the class. “Not the right letter, huh?”
He erased the error and called upon every trick he’d ever learned but couldn’t produce the correct letter. Finally, he shrugged and asked one of the less confident boys for help. “Blaine, can you help me with the next letter, please?”
Blaine bit his lip and glanced over at Vega, who sat quietly in a chair near his. She gave him an encouraging smile, but he continued eyeing her as if terrified she would find him lacking. It was rough enough being a fourteen-year-old and noticing girls for the first time, but to have a gorgeous woman show up in class could be torturous.
In the next instant, Vega winked at the boy and scooted her chair over to his. She leaned her head in close and whispered something that made him smile. Again, she leaned in and spoke, this time causing Blaine to laugh out loud. Finally, he pulled his shoulders back and sat up straight. With a healthy amount of confidence supporting his voice, the missing letter was announced. He then smiled at Vega, and JP’s heart swelled.
In less than a minute, she’d sized up the kid and moved in to boost his confidence. She totally got his purpose for being there. And he wanted to marry her and love her forever.
; The thought slammed into him, rendering him speechless. But he couldn’t stand in front of the class gaping like a lovesick puppy. Especially when the reciprocating puppy continued to insist they were nothing more than a weekend fling. That morning in his office had almost been his undoing. He’d been grumpy as hell since returning from chasing the moronic server to find Vega missing, but when he’d figured out she’d been sick with worry that he’d slept with Greta, he could have jumped over the moon. She may pretend she didn’t care, but he had no doubts she did. Now he just had to prove it to her.
With renewed determination, he returned to the board and finished out the word. The kids erupted in applause, and he smiled and held his hands out at his sides. “You guys got me again.”
And as soon as he figured out a way, he’d get Vega.
He caught sight of her from the corner of his eye, smiling and clapping along with the rest of the class, but she also bore a tiny line between her brows. No doubt, from the many things she’d witnessed throughout the day. He glanced at the empty seat Lexi had occupied earlier and frowned. He’d been prepared to meet Daniel today but had hoped Lexi wouldn’t come into the room at the same time. It hadn’t taken more than a few seconds for Vega to put two and two together and come up with five. First, she’d seen Lexi in his office, then she’d seen her here with a boy that had features very much like JP’s.
He hadn’t been quite ready to expose Daniel in that way yet, but it looked like that was another of the big conversations he would be having tonight.
They said their goodbyes and left the building, and he could see the questions lurking as he pulled out from under the school. He ignored them for the moment and headed south. Right now, he needed to focus on getting back to his penthouse and starting the meal, all while figuring out how to convince Vega that she loved him every bit as much as he loved her. Or, at least, she could love him that much.
Time was running out for them. Tonight was the last shoot before the press conference, when attention on him would become even more visible. It might also be his last chance to win Vega over. He would be laying everything on the line before the night was over.
“Thank you for taking me today.” The soft words hit his ears, and he glanced her way.
She wore black pants and a flirty, white shirt. One that tempted him to beg the opportunity to explore underneath. Her dark hair was curlier than normal and pulled back, held loosely with a clip against the side of her neck, and she once again had something shiny on her lips. A new kind of confidence seemed to be brimming just beneath her surface, making her more beautiful each day.
“I wanted you to see what I do, but I won’t approve any specifics being released. These kids deserve their privacy.”
“Of course.” Her lips rolled inward and flattened in a straight line before she gave him a tiny smile. “You were terrific with them.”
He reached for her hand, praying she wouldn’t refuse him as his fingers closed around hers. He’d been giving her space, backing off to let her get to know him more as a person than the public image, but he couldn’t keep his fingers from twining with hers when she didn’t pull away. “I’m glad you were there.”
She looked out the side window, and he returned his focus to the road.
“Those are the kinds of stories I once wanted to do,” she whispered. “In front of the camera.”
His breath stuck in his throat at the announcement. That was the first time she’d admitted the desire to be on camera. “About me being there or about the kids?”
“The kids.” She laughed at his question as he’d hoped she would, then turned in her seat and brought one knee up on the seat between them, excitement etching her features. “They were all so great. And I’m sure you’re the cause. I mean, I never met them before you started working with them, but they seem so extremely confident and proud of themselves. No doubt that’s because of you.”
His chest filled like a hot-air balloon. He hoped so, but he also liked knowing that Vega thought so highly of him. “In part, because of me. But the school is the best I’ve seen at nurturing students.”
He also hoped their progress would continue without his visits. Once he stepped into the Senate, not only would he not be around every week, but his visits, if continued, would be exploited. Both he and the kids would come under tight scrutiny, and that would eventually lead some nosy reporter to one shining, yet-to-be-uncovered fact about him.
It came down to a simple question. Did he reveal his own dyslexia and keep working with the kids as he had time or stop his visits altogether? Stopping would also end his plans of starting a similar program that spanned the country.
He rubbed his thumb over the back of Vega’s hand as he contemplated the right course of action and felt a tremor shake her body. He loved that she had that reaction when he touched her. It gave him hope.
Pushing his own struggles to the back of his mind, he concentrated on her. “Why not consider changing careers and focus on stories like theirs?”
She tugged against his hand, but he didn’t let her go. Instead, he braked at a light and faced her. “Don’t pull away from me, Vega,” he pleaded. “Talk to me. Tell me why you won’t even consider it.”
“Quit pushing, JP, please. I’ve made my decision, and you know it.”
“Yet I can’t help but think it’s the wrong one. If being in front of the camera is what you want, then why won’t you go for it?”
“Seriously,” she said, trying to make her voice stern, but it came out more like begging. “Stop it.”
The light changed to green, and he gave her hand a squeeze before once again facing the road. “You can start by doing the interview with me Saturday.”
* * *
Fury scraped her raw nerves. Why wouldn’t he give it a break? She jerked her hand out of his and crossed her arms over her chest. Instead of arguing about it further, she decided to turn the tables. “How about you answer a question of mine instead of badgering me?”
He closed his fingers around the steering wheel. “Shoot.”
“The boy at the school.”
She paused. His knuckles turned white, but everything else about his demeanor remained calm.
“Is he yours?” The breath pushing up and out of her lungs thinned as the words came out. It wasn’t that she was against him having a kid, only…why had he never acknowledged him? It didn’t speak well of him if he’d kept a child hidden all these years, refusing to offer the parental support every child needs.
She eyed him, watching his jaw work back and forth as his mind raced through his own thoughts. He glanced over his left shoulder a split second before his car surged forward, and he switched lanes, cutting off another driver.
The driver of the car now behind them laid on his horn. Vega peeked back, catching him throw up his hand and flip them off, as another question slammed through her mind. If JP truly wanted them to be as close as he kept saying, then why hadn’t he told her he had a son?
Her chest burned as if experiencing a record-breaking case of heartburn.
“Is this for the interview, or is it a woman asking a man she cares about?” he finally asked.
“I never said I care about you.” But they both knew she did. Way too much.
He crossed back to the other lane, barely squeezing between a car and a semi. The SUV jerked as he overcorrected to keep from swerving onto the shoulder.
“Are you trying to kill us now so you don’t have to answer my question?” She wanted to be angry with him for keeping this from her but knew she had no right. It was his life, and she’d said over and over she didn’t want to be a part of it. She sighed, the soft sound the only one in the car. “How is it you have a son, JP? And please tell me you’ve only been an absent parent in the physical sense.”
He shot her a look, confusion marring his brow. “What do you mean?”
“Financial support. If you’ve refused financial support all these years, you know that’ll come out, even if I sit on the i
nformation.”
And that’s how she knew she loved him. She may be brokenhearted over the fact he had a kid and hadn’t thought enough of her to share the fact, and she may be disappointed in him if he confessed he hadn’t supported the child. But even knowing that revealing this information could prove herself as a reporter, she wouldn’t throw him under the bus. She couldn’t hurt him that way.
But it would eventually surface. There was zero doubt in her mind about that.
JP faced forward, his jaw clenched and both hands wrapped securely around the wheel, and turned off the road to head to his office building. And just that fast, the tension seemed to seep completely out of him. “He isn’t mine.”
Relief washed through her.
“But how can that be? I saw him.” She leaned across the seat and got in his face. “He looks so much like you.”
JP shook his head, and his shoulders sagged. “I swear, Vega.” He made eye contact, and the look touched the bottom of her soul. “He isn’t mine.”
Her mouth opened, but she had no idea what to say to that.
“But he is a Davenport.”
Or to that.
* * *
Vega stood shoulder to shoulder with JP in the confined space as he inserted his keycard, and they shot to the penthouse of his office building, the near-silent hum of the elevator sticking in the thick tension like a spoon in hard-packed ice cream. It had been that way since he’d declared the kid a Davenport, then promptly pulled into the underground parking lot, refusing to say more until they were inside.
She stood with her head lowered, eyeing his loafers, and wondered how much longer he thought they could go without continuing the conversation. Whose kid was he? The brother who never came home? It had to be.
Unless JP was lying.
“So.” She couldn’t stand the silence. “You’ve lived here for a while, then?”