Authors: Mackenzie Crowne
Time stood still as the memories washed over her soul, as if to remind her how different things would’ve been had a pair of denim blue eyes been there to share those moments. A piercing sadness jumpstarted her heart,
and
the world, when an overeager reporter jostled Tom and he looked away, breaking the connection.
Tightening his arm around his wife’s shoulders, he pushed forward. Minus his typical carefree grin, Tuck stuck close to Sharon’s other side, using his body to keep the pressing throng from getting too close. Doug Costa had disappeared.
Like a mobile interrogation unit, the press tossed out their demands. The questions grew more and more personal, and rude, in Gracie’s opinion. Neither Tom nor Sharon answered. Not even to say no comment.
“Rumor has it, Gracie Gable is your daughter, Mr. Walden. Can you confirm that?”
“Why have you kept her existence a secret?”
“Are there any other secret children out there you haven’t mentioned?”
Dina shouted over the others. “Do you approve of your daughter having an affair with Manhattan’s most notorious womanizer, Mr. Walden?”
Gracie winced at the woman’s scornful tone until Tuck took exception to her premise. “Excuse me, but that title belongs to me.” Tuck caught Gracie’s eye and winked. For some reason, tears burned at the backs of her eyes.
Twitters of laughter rippled through the crowd. Dina’s lips screwed up as if she’d swallowed something foul. “Yes, I noticed you’ve been spending a lot of time at the Thompson farm. I wouldn’t have taken you, or Jake, as they type of men to share.” She turned and ran a dismissive glance over Gracie. “But when a woman is willing….” She shrugged.
Gracie stiffened, and a low growl rumbled in Jake’s chest. A shiver raced down Gracie’s spine when the snarky reporter met her gaze. A smirk stretched her thin lips. Both Tom and Tuck held up a hand when she shoved her small black tape recorder under Sharon Walden’s nose.
“Mrs. Walden, as the mother of Tom Walden’s sons, how do you feel about your husband having a love child with another woman?”
Sharon gasped, as did Gracie, and amazingly, several members of the press. Jake immediately released her arm and stalked forward. She scrambled after him and blinked when the crowd parted, effectively giving them access to the Waldens and Dina.
To her credit, Dina backed down…sort of. The snarky smirk slid from her lips and she pulled back her tape recorder. She even spun to the side as Jake approached, which brought her directly in Gracie’s path. Unfortunately, Dina flung out her elbow at the same time. With her eyes on her father, Gracie never saw it coming. Dina’s elbow slammed into her cheekbone with a sickening thud.
Stars burst before her eyes. She blinked and teetered on her high heels but remained on her feet. Strong fingers wrapped around her upper arm, steadying her.
A chorus of groans echoed off the tall ceiling and, though she couldn’t see him, she recognized Tuck’s laughing admonition. “Oh, shit.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Tom warned.
She turned her head and squinted in an attempt to bring her father into focus. When she did, he wasn’t looking at her. She glanced back at Jake and understood. Like a storm cloud about to unload its fury, he glared at Dina.
Oh, shit was right.
His inability to control his mouth when in a temper was the reason he was in this mess with her in the first place. As mad as she was at him, as hurtful as his words had been, she couldn’t stand by and watch him undo everything he’d done to repair his reputation over the past three months.
His fingers dropped away from her arm when she turned her back on Dina to look into his angry face. “Whatever you’re about to say, don’t. It’s not worth it. Think of the girls.”
Dina spoke behind her in a taunting command. “Listen to your girlfriend, Malone. She’s not worth it.”
Gracie might care about Jake’s reputation, especially since everything he did would now affect the girls, but she didn’t give a shit about her own. Her secret was out. She no longer had anything to lose, and Jake wasn’t the only one with a temper. She welcomed the hot splash of anger coursing through her. Dina was about to learn the first rule in self-defense. Don’t ever let your enemy get too close. Having delivered her sneaky hit, the reporter should’ve moved away. She’d lost her chance and would pay the price.
“Wait—” As if he’d read the intent in Gracie’s eyes, Jake reached out.
She didn’t bother moving stealthily. She stepped clear of Jake’s reaching hand, spun around, and had the satisfaction of seeing the reporter’s eyes go wide as she drew back her fist and let it fly. Dina crumpled to the floor like a broken doll.
Behind her, Jake’s groan registered. Tuck’s laughter mixed with gasps and exclamations of shock as Gracie danced from foot to foot and shook her hand.
Ouch! She’d forgotten how badly a bare knuckle punch hurt.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Jake’s furious whisper sounded in her ear as his fingers closed around her arm once more. “This situation isn’t bad enough already? You have to make things worse?”
Her gaze flew to Tom. No emotion showed on his blank face, but his eyes were wide with shock.
Well, shit
.
Jake gave her no time to defend herself. She didn’t even have the opportunity to tell him to go to hell. He shoved her at Tuck. “Get her the hell out of here.”
“It’s true. She’s my daughter, isn’t she?”
Jake raked his fingers through his hair. “She believes so, yes.”
Tux jacket cast aside and his tie removed, Tom sat with his head resting against the high back of his desk chair. He raised his glass to his lips and swallowed a healthy gulp of amber liquid. “How long have you known?”
Legs spread and forearms propped on his thighs, Jake sat across from the desk on the couch. He held his drink in one hand, dangling between his knees. “I didn’t know anything until earlier today. I had a friend check her out.” He winced at Tom’s disapproving stare. “Not a private detective, a friend who’s at home on the Internet. He finally sent me the links for a few articles about Simon White. I didn’t have time to read them. I only glanced at the first one, listing Doug Costa as one of his clients. Until he commented on
your
having dated Angela Gable, I thought Doug was her father.”
Tom grunted. “The pictures from the press conference don’t do her justice. She’s a beautiful woman.”
He stared into his glass. “You’ll get no argument from me on that point.”
“And an amazing one. Damn, she throws a mean punch.”
The laughter in Tom’s voice made him look up. He dragged a palm over his face. “She’s a piece of work, all right.”
Tom smiled softly. “Her mother was beautiful as well, though Gracie doesn’t resemble Angela, except for the shape of her eyes.” He met Jake’s gaze. “Angela had the most amazing eyes. A stunning, violet blue.”
“So does Gracie.”
Confusion wrinkled Tom’s brow. “I don’t understand. Her eyes are brown, aren’t they?”
“She was wearing contacts.” When Tom’s brow shot up, Jake shrugged. “Long story, but I think she was trying to disguise their distinctive color.”
Tom nodded. “If they’re anything like her mother’s, that would be some trick. Her eyes were what attracted me to Angela in the first place. It wasn’t long before I’d fallen in love.”
Jake shot a wary glance at the empty doorway. Sharon was in the house somewhere.
Tom followed his glance, staring at the empty doorway for a long moment before turning back. “It’s okay. She’s in bed.”
Jake nodded and wished her good luck. He wasn’t sure sleep would be possible for any of them after what they’d faced tonight. There would be headlines in the morning they’d have to deal with, but Sharon was his concern for the moment. “How is she?”
Tom smiled sadly. “You know Sharon. She cried for a while, then she kissed me and told me to get to work gathering facts because she doesn’t plan to face the press again until we have them all. She also demanded I invite Gracie to dinner tomorrow.”
Jake smiled, somewhat relieved. “I’m sorry about all of this. I fucked up. I should’ve gotten Gracie out of there the moment I realized what was happening.”
“Don’t do that. If anyone is to blame, I am. Sharon is the love of my life and I wouldn’t change our life together for anything, but none of this would be happening if I had listened to my inner voice all those years ago and tracked Angela down.”
“What happened, if you don’t mind my asking? If you loved her, why did you walk away?”
Tom rubbed a palm over his chin. “If you’re wondering if I’m like Pete, that’s not the case.”
He shook his head. “I’d never think that of you, Tom. If you’d known about Gracie, you would’ve made her a part of your life.”
Tom nodded. “Yes, I would.”
“Then what happened?”
A deep breath heaved Tom’s chest. “I was young, ambitious, and stupid. The pros were calling, and although I loved Angela, a wife would be a complication. I thought Simon’s warnings, when he discovered Angela and I were seeing one another, were a case of him looking out for me. In hindsight, I see he was protecting his investment. He stood to lose quite a bit of money should I wander off the career track he’d set for me.”
He lifted his drink again then set the glass aside without drinking. “One day, shortly before I was due back at school my senior year, he met me for lunch instead of calling me to his office where she worked. He was sorry, he said. Hated to be the one to tell me, but he’d discovered I wasn’t the only boy Angela was seeing that summer.
“I’d never been in love before. I was hurt and angry. My uncle had a horse farm in Tennessee. He’d been after me to come down that summer. Said he’d put me to work for a few weeks. I packed my stuff and took off. I kicked myself a million times over the next couple of months for not going to Angela and giving her a chance to refute Simon’s charge, but by then it was too late. I’d left without a word and, according to Simon, she moved away less than a month later.”
“From what Gracie says, he fired her.”
Tom’s eyes slid shut.
Jake cleared his throat. “Are you positive she wasn’t?”
Tom’s eyes opened, and he arched a brow in question.
“Seeing someone else?”
One of Tom’s shoulders lifted in an abbreviated shrug. “I have no idea, and with Angela dead, I’ll never know.”
Jake’s heartbeat tripped into triple-time. Considering the way he’d yelled at her earlier, questioning Gracie’s paternity stunk of one more betrayal on a day where she’d already seen too many, but was there a chance this entire mess was a bullshit misunderstanding? Could her father be some faceless man her mother spent time with in addition to Tom? Had he screwed up royally, lashing out at her over a fucking mistake?
He’d been angry enough, panicked enough, to say some shitty things to her. Shitty? He’d been a complete prick, accusing her of not caring about Tom and his family when the complete opposite was true. He knew first-hand how much she yearned for a family and yet she’d denied her chance to know her father because she wasn’t willing to see him hurt.
What kind of asshole starts a shouting match in a public bathroom, anyway, then expects the conversation to remain private? He
was
an asshole, plain and simple. Instead of growling at her for dumping Dina on her ass, he should’ve kissed her and thanked her for doing what he wanted to do but couldn’t. He grimaced inwardly, remembering the way she refused to look at him as she walked away with Tuck. Pale and silent, her righteous anger couldn’t hide the hurt in her eyes, as if her heart had been scraped raw.
If he could reach his own ass, he’d kick it. Twice. Then again, the self-abuse probably wasn’t necessary. Knowing Gracie, he’d most likely end up with a bruise or two before she forgave him.
If
she forgave him.
He shook his head. She’d forgive him. She had to. The alternative was unacceptable.
He set his drink on the coffee table. “Gracie believes you’re her father, but what if Simon was telling the truth? What if Angela was seeing someone else?”
Tom shook his head.
“A DNA test would give you the answers you need.”
“She’s my daughter. Of that I have no doubt.”
Jake sighed. “That’s nostalgia speaking. With negative DNA evidence, this story will fizzle in less than a week. Think of Sharon. Think of your kids.”
Tom sat up and rested his elbows on his desk. “I
am
thinking of my kids, particularly the one I left behind to race after my career.” He pushed to his feet and crossed to the oak credenza along the far wall. Shifting several framed photos, he selected one, returned to the desk, and sat. He passed the photo over the desk.
Jake held the frame up to catch the light. The breath caught in his throat. A young blonde woman smiled at him in full color. Her eyes were the exact shade of Gracie’s in her chocolate brown disguise contacts. Jake swallowed. The woman in the photo could’ve been Gracie’s twin, right down to the sexy mole at the left corner of her mouth.
He slowly dragged his gaze up to lock on Tom’s.
Tom nodded. “My mother the year she turned twenty-one.”
“Holy shit.” His breath escaped on a rush.
“Exactly. I don’t need a DNA test, my friend. Gracie Gable is mine.”
* * * *
“Would you mind doing me one more favor?”
“For you, babe, anything.” Fingers wrapped around the steering wheel of his ridiculously expensive sports car, Tuck turned his head and smiled at Gracie. “Although, I think we should go somewhere besides the farm to get naked. Jake may whine like a baby when he loses, but he
hits
like a sledge hammer.” He glanced at her bruised knuckles where her hands were clenched in her lap. “Come to think of it, you two have that in common.”
He grinned and winked. She attempted a smile and failed. Trading quips with him wasn’t possible when her world was falling apart, but she appreciated his effort to charm her out of the sober funk threatening to tug her under like a riptide.
“I don’t want to go to the farm.” She followed his gaze when it slid to the clock on the dash. Ten forty-five.