Authors: Tamara Larson
“Oh. Come on. Aren’t you just slightly curious? Here I’ll open it for you.” Theresa said eagerly, not waiting for Jessie’s permission to untie the white satin ribbon.
Jessie turned her head away, not wanting to see what was in the box. Whatever
Duncan
had sent, it was bound to touch her heart, and she couldn’t have him affecting her when she was so determined to forget about him. She held her hand out as if to ward Theresa off. “Seriously, I don’t want it,” she said, her voice tight.
“Just look,” Theresa said impatiently.
Jessie couldn’t help it. She looked. Inside the box, on a black velvet background, sat twelve tiny, lavendar, crystal roses in a clear crystal vase. Tears stung her eyes, and she looked away again. “They’re beautiful,” she said huskily.
“Good, then you’ll keep them?” Theresa asked eagerly. “
Duncan
was so worried you wouldn’t like them. He was driving me completely nutso asking me if he should send something else. I knew these would be perfect. So delicate and elegant. Kind of like you,” she said awkwardly.
Jessie snorted very inelegantly. “You think I’m delicate and elegant?” She asked incredulously, gesturing down at her work clothes.
Theresa rolled her eyes. “It has nothing to do with your ensemble. You’re just kind of vulnerable-looking.” In a whisper she continued, “Nothing like Jamie. She’s fabulous, but not delicate at all.”
Jessie smiled at the younger girl. Rarely did comparisons to her sister result in a compliment. “That’s really sweet of you to say, but I can’t take the gift. I wish I could. I wish things were different between your brother and me, but it just wouldn’t be right. Will you take it back to him and tell him I’m sorry?”
Theresa stood up, gently setting the tiny box on the chair where she’d been sitting. “I don’t know exactly what happened with you two, but I can’t take these back to him,” she said bleakly.
Jessie picked up the box and held it out to Theresa. Desperately, she said, “Please, Theresa.”
Theresa looked at her with huge, tormented eyes. “You’re going to have to do it yourself, cause I’m not taking it back,” she said stubbornly. “Throw it in the garbage if you want, but it’s not coming with me.” She pointed at the box weakly. “That has been sitting on the coffee table for a week. He wouldn’t admit this, but he’s afraid to send it after you didn’t respond to the book.” Jessie tried to interrupt, but Theresa wouldn’t let her. “Don’t you understand? He doesn’t know I’m here and if I tell him you wouldn’t accept the roses then I’m going to have to be the one to watch him act like it doesn’t matter when it really matters a lot. I can’t do that anymore.” Theresa turned away and walked quickly toward the front door, not looking at Jessie, Clay, or Jamie. When her hand touched the doorknob, she called back to Jessie, “He’ll be home around nine tonight. You could return it then if you want. I won’t be home.” With that, Theresa was gone, leaving Jessie to contemplate the tiny roses in her hand and avoiding Clay and Jamie’s curious looks.
Chapter
24
Duncan
hadn’t realized how lonely he was until he’d spent a week with Theresa. It was so different having someone to come home to besides
Hannibal
. The poodle was good company, but it wasn’t the same as having someone around to talk to.
Duncan
actually found himself looking forward to coming home for the first time in his life. Usually leaving work was something his superiors had to force him to do. Now he realized that dedication to his job wasn’t the only reason he’d spent such long hours there. The truth was he didn’t have much else going on in his life and that was why work consumed him.
Tonight his sister was at a movie with one of the waitresses from the Kitty-Kat Club, and he was completely alone. Walking around his empty apartment seemed strange to him now. He felt a bit lost without Theresa’s chatter and music playing in the background. A few days ago, she’d bought some kind of video game system and a huge television for the living room, and the noise from both grated on his nerves something fierce, but just then he missed them terribly. It was so quiet, too quiet.
Idly, he sat down on the couch and tossed
Hannibal
’s orange tennis ball back and forth between his hand. The dog watched him intently, poised to fetch if called upon.
Duncan
smiled at the dog’s ready-for-action pose, and gently tossed the ball toward the kitchen.
Hannibal
scrambled after it, nails clicking on the tiles, and settled down on the kitchen floor to give the ball a few good chews.
Duncan
wished he was as easily amused. Being alone gave him time to think about Jessie and what had happened between them. He’d messed up royally. He’d be lucky if she ever spoke to him again. He should have told her about Kerry right away. There was no excuse for it, even if his wife had deserted him three years ago.
Kerry was still in town, staying at the Hotel Vancouver and harassing him whenever she got bored. She called him daily to see if he’d changed his mind. He hadn’t. There was no way he was going back to
Ontario
and the family business. Vacationing in Hell seemed more appealing to him than being an executive. But he was beginning to think about calling his grandmother. She had always bitterly disliked Kerry, considered her common and unremarkable. Maybe Evelyn would be willing to lend him some money from his inheritance to buy off his troublesome wife. Not ten million dollars, but a tenth of that might not be out of the question. How else was the old woman going to get some Reinhold grandchildren in the near future if he didn’t remarry? Evelyn was quite determined to carry on the line, but would it be worth paying a hefty bribe to the woman she despised?
There was another problem with asking his grandmother for money. To do so, he’d actually have to talk to her, and he had been avoiding that since finding Theresa. He knew it was wrong, but he still hadn’t told the old woman that he’d found his sister. He wanted to reassure Evelyn, but telling her meant risking losing Theresa, and he just wasn’t prepared for that yet, so he screened her calls and left voicemail messages late at night, detailing his hunt. It was completely shitty behavior, but he did it anyway even though he knew the longer he waited, the more angry Evelyn would be when she learned the truth.
The front door buzzer interrupted his thoughts. He answered it and was surprised when Jessie’s sweet voice said awkwardly, “Hi…uh…
Duncan
. It’s me. Jessie.”
He couldn’t believe it. She was here. Maybe she wanted to talk or better yet, maybe she’d missed him and wanted to pretend that whole Kerry nightmare had never happened. Unlikely, but hope bloomed in his heart anyway. “Jessie, here I’ll buzz you up, okay?”
“Wait. No. I’m not coming up. I’m going to leave the things you sent in the vestibule. I was going to mail them, but I wanted to tell you to stop sending me things.”
Things? He thought to himself. He’d only sent the book. He looked over at the coffee table and noted that the small blue box was gone. Inwardly he groaned his sister’s name. “Jessie, can’t we talk about this?” He asked. Without thinking or waiting for her response, he opened the door and sprinted to the elevator, slamming his door closed behind him.
When he reached the lobby, Jessie was gone, but the book and the crystal roses were sitting on the window ledge of the vestibule. He ignored them and rushed out into the courtyard. At first, he didn’t see her, but then he spotted a familiar curvy form in jeans and an oversized man’s white shirt, hurrying down the dimly lit harbor walkway, her hair bobbing in a high ponytail on the back of her head. He had to run to catch up to her, but his long legs ate up the distance until he was upon her, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her toward him. “Jessie,” he gasped, out of breath from his sprint.
Jessie tried to pull away, but he held on to her. “Oh, why couldn’t you just let me go,” she said, glaring up at him.
“Because I don’t want to let you go,” he said desperately. “Ever. I want you to come upstairs with me so we can talk about this.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk about this,” she said fiercely. “I want you to leave me alone.” She tried to pull away again and this time she succeeded, but she didn’t make a graceful exit as she’d planned. Instead she hesitated, looking up at him in the warm twilight; she realized that being rid of him wasn’t what she wanted at all. What she wanted, more than anything, was to wrap her arms around him and forget about everything that was complicating their relationship.
After her initial shock of discovering that
Duncan
was married had passed, she’d started thinking that maybe she didn’t really have any right to be angry with him. After all, she hadn’t known him very long and yet she’d reacted like they were in some kind of serious long-term relationship. Why would she have done that unless she was falling for him? That thought had made her avoid him more than anything. His wife was really just a convenient excuse to avoid him and any potential heartache he might cause.
Duncan
stared down at her intently, trying to sort out from her expression if she was over him as she claimed. If she was, then why had she shown up at his apartment? Seemed like an excuse to him when there were about a million courier companies in the metropolitan area alone. But maybe he was wrong. Maybe she didn’t want him. He held up his hands. “Okay. If that’s what you want, I don’t have any choice but to honor your wishes. I’ll leave you alone if you can tell me one thing.”
“What?” She asked uncertainly.
“If you can tell me that the night we spent together was all about getting rid of your virginity, then I’ll leave you alone.” Trying to look casual, he crossed his arms and waited for her response with a held breath.
Without much thought, she answered evenly, looking him straight in the left eyebrow. “The night we spent together meant nothing to me.”
“You’re lying.”
“What if I am? We can’t be together. What about your wife? The one you lied to me about?” She clung to that excuse like it was a life raft. She needed to keep reminding herself that they simply could not be together. It was much harder with him standing in front of her looking at her with so much emotion in his eyes.
“Hey, I never lied about her,” he said defensively. “You never once asked if I was married. You just assumed I wasn’t when I told you I hadn’t dated in three years, which I haven’t.” The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying. Somehow, his effort to stand up for himself for a change had come out sounding rather weaselish.
Jessie turned sharply on her heel and began to walk away. This was ridiculous. He was still making excuses instead of being straight with her. How had she ever thought he was someone she could care about? He was as slimy as a used car salesman.
Duncan
caught her elbow. “Listen, Jessie, that came out wrong. What I meant to say was I know how it must have looked, but I swear I haven’t even seen my wife in three years, almost four. She’s been in
Europe
. As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t been married since the day she left a good-bye note on the kitchen table and emptied our joint bank accounts. You have to believe me.”
“No, I don’t,” she said through gritted teeth, pulling her elbow free of his grip.
“Okay, no you don’t. But I hope you will because I don’t know what else to say except I’m sorry. I was wrong, but I never meant to hurt you, Jess.” He reached out and gently touched her cheek. She flinched and he closed his eyes in pain. “I wanted to make you fall in love with me, and instead I’ve made you hate me. Can you ever forgive me, Jess? Please, give me another chance?” He’d never begged for anything in his life before, but right now he was tempted to get down on his knees. He’d do it in a second if he thought it would help.
It was just about impossible to stay angry with him when he spoke to her so sincerely with his blue eyes shiny with unshed tears. She wanted desperately to believe in him. She’d been so alone since the night she’d left his apartment in tears. Was it possible that he actually cared for her? “You wanted to make me fall in love with you?” She asked quietly, looking up at him with mistrustful eyes.
“Of course,” he said, smiling slightly at her innocence. “Why else would I send flowers and try to be a gentleman despite your best efforts to seduce me? I knew you were special the first time I saw you. This wasn’t about sex for me.” She gave him an incredulous look and he grinned down at her. “Okay, a little bit it was about sex, but mostly it wasn’t.”
Underneath one of the old-fashioned street lamps nearby, there was a bench that looked out on the water. He gently put his arm around her waist and led her over to it so they could sit down. Once they were perched on the bench, she edged out from under his arm, but didn’t move away from him completely. He considered that a huge personal victory.
She turned sideways so she could watch his face. “But why didn’t you tell me from the beginning that you were married?” She asked warily.
“Well, I’d like to say it was because it never came up, but I’m pretty sure that would just piss you off again.” She nodded and he chuckled. “The truth is that I meant to tell you but I was afraid it would scare you off. You were so sweet and inexperienced, I thought the slightest complication would give you an excuse to head for the hills.”