by Lori Ryan
Because he wasn’t talking about love or forever. He was just talking about a convenient extension of a lie.
Kelly’s eyes began to tear up. She closed her eyes and held them shut for a long moment, willing the tears back. She knew that she was falling in love with him. She also knew that this was all a game to Jack, and once the terms of their agreement were honored, she couldn’t stay with him after this year for anything less than love.
Her love was there, but there also had to be his love as well, and that wasn’t what he offered.
Kelly shook her head and opened her eyes as tears began to fall.
She grabbed the keys from a stunned Jack’s hands. “This isn’t a game, Jack. This is my life, and you can’t just tell me you want to keep playing house and expect me to stay until you get tired of this—until you don’t want to play anymore. That’s not fair. I have to go back to a normal life after this. I have to get past this.” Her voice broke. “I have to get past you.”
Kelly couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth—that she would have to find a way to stop loving him in a year. So, as the tears fell freely, she ran down the front steps and took the BMW because there wasn’t any other option.
She gunned the engine out of the drive and let the tears fall as she drove to the clinic. She didn’t know how, but knew she needed to find a way to protect herself from Jack Sutton and the feelings she had for him. Deep down, Kelly knew it was already much too late. She’d fallen in love with him a long time ago.
Jack stood on the steps stunned at what had just happened. Everything was perfect. He was so happy. They were so happy. At least he’d thought they were.
Anger and frustration boiled over, and he stalked back in the house and slammed the door behind him. Hell, all he’d wanted was to surprise her, to see that smile again. What had he done wrong? Jack wondered, but he didn’t find any explanation.
That incredible, sexy, luscious, funny, maddening woman was driving him out of his mind. Jack turned to go up to his room and found Mrs. Poole behind him. She looked ready to mother him and he groaned, knowing she wouldn’t let him get away without saying her piece.
“Oh, Jack, dear. She’s in love with you,” Mrs. Poole said quietly. She wiped her hands on the kitchen towel she held and shook her head at him. “She has been for a while.”
Jack felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. How had he not seen this? How had everything been so turned upside down and backward?
Jack wheeled and went back out to the driveway and got in his car. Mrs. Poole’s words echoed in his head as he drove down the drive and turned onto the road.
His hands gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles whitened and his teeth clenched as he stewed over what Kelly had said to him. Jack couldn’t understand why she would be angry that he asked her to stay.
They were good together. Life was pretty darned close to perfect with the two of them together so why was she so eager to leave? And if Mrs. Poole was right, and she loved him, why would she want to leave?
As Jack drove, the anger gave way to confusion and then to fear. Does Kelly want to leave now? No, he couldn’t believe that. She couldn’t be faking what they had. But, what did they have he began to wonder as he drove toward New Haven. Was she right? Were they playing house?
Damn it, Jack thought as he struck the steering wheel with the heel of his hand, it’s not playing house when you’re in love.
And then Jack realized the truth of it. He had fallen in love with Kelly somewhere in all of this. Once the realization hit him, it hit like a ton of bricks. He didn’t want a year, or two years, or anything less than forever with Kelly. He wanted it all. Their love, a family together, eternity with her.
And suddenly he understood why she couldn’t accept anything less from him. If Kelly really was in love with him, she couldn’t accept an extension on their time if he didn’t love her. She needed to know that he loved her too. She needed to know that it was the beginning of forever, and that he wasn’t playing house with her.
But even if she loved him, would Kelly want more? She was going on to law school soon, and school and her career might not leave room for Jack.
Jack wanted to drive right over to the clinic to see her and tell her he loved her. To find out if their love was enough to build a life together. He started to head that way when he hit New Haven, but stopped himself.
Kelly hadn’t wanted him to jump in and buy her a new car. She probably wouldn’t appreciate him busting into the clinic and announcing his love in front of everyone.
He slowed the car as he thought through his options. He would go to work himself and talk to her tonight. He could bring flowers, open a bottle of wine on the patio under the stars, and tell her how he felt.
Jack wasn’t a patient man, but he knew he needed to have patience here. It went against everything in his nature, but he made himself wait to see her. He needed to let Kelly calm down, and telling her how he felt and what he wanted, at home in private this evening, seemed the best option.
The decision made, Jack turned his car toward his office and tried to forge on with the day—when all he really wanted was to have Kelly back in his arms and secure in his heart.
Chapter 50
Chad knocked on Jack’s office door and poked his head in. “You have a minute? I want to touch base about the tail on Kelly.”
“Sure, come on in,” Jack said and waved his cousin into his office.
“So, what do you have?” asked Jack as Chad came into the room and sat in one of the large leather armchairs facing his desk.
“We’ve seen the tail on Kelly multiple times and occasionally on both of you when you’re out for the evening. My guys have run the plates, but they’re expired and they rotate the plates frequently, so we’re sure the registrations have no connection to the driver of the car. That makes me think this is a professional, not some crazed ex-boyfriend or stalker type that doesn’t know what they’re doing. We don’t have an ID on the guy yet.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. Starting tomorrow, let’s put someone with Kelly whenever she leaves the house. I want them to stay right with her. I’ll talk to her about it tonight and let her know she’ll have someone with her until we figure this out. I don’t care if it does scare the crap out of her, I’m not taking chances at this point,” Jack ordered.
“You got it. I’ll have someone meet her at the house in the morning,” Chad said.
“Hey, Chad….” Jack hesitated and ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Do you think this could be your mom having Kelly followed? Investigated?” he asked even though he didn’t really want to bring up that possibility with Chad.
Chad’s eyebrows shot up. “What?” he said and he didn’t try to hide his shock. “What makes you think that? You can’t be serious.”
“Well, I know your mom’s set on proving my marriage isn’t real. Kelly’s theory all along has been that your mom hired a private investigator, and she wants to ignore the tail so that they can report back to your mom that she isn’t seeing someone else or hiding anything. I don’t know if she could be right or not. What do you think?”
“Jack, man, I’m so sorry. I don’t know why Mom thinks doing this to you is okay, but she seems to be getting worse.”
Chad looked deep in thought for a few minutes before he responded to Jack’s question.
“She did say she wanted to try to show the board members your marriage was fake. I guess she could’ve hired someone to try to find proof,” Chad said, frowning.
Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise since she’s moved in with us. She does seem to be taking this pretty far.”
“She did what?” Chad’s eyebrows were practically off his head now.
Jack laughed. “She didn’t tell you? I was going to ask you the night you offered her a lift home from the party. She’s been with us almost from the wedding. Made up some excuse about fixing up her kitchen and not being able to
stay in her townhouse or with you because you had a friend visiting. She’s been living with us for weeks. I figured I’d let her get it out of her system and she’d give up.”
Chad started to laugh. “Sorry, Jack, I know it’s not funny, only it kind of is. No wonder she said she didn’t need a ride home from the party the other night. I wondered how she was getting home but didn’t press it. I guess she was home!”
Chad sobered then. “Oh God, Jack. Kelly must think our family is nuts. What did she have to say about all of this?”
Jack joined Chad and laughed at the situation that now resembled a sitcom. How had his life become like this?
“Kelly’s been great about it. She barely batted an eye when your mom showed up. She didn’t even object when she had to move into my room.” Jack froze, realizing one second too late that he had let that little bit of information slip out.
Damn, there was a time when I was on top of every fact, every angle of a deal, and I never would have let a detail like that slip. This thing with Kelly has me a hell of a lot more tied up in knots than I thought.
“Wait…. What?” Chad wasn’t laughing anymore either. He stared at his cousin. “Jack?”
Jack stood and moved to the front of his desk and leaned against it, legs crossed in front of him. “All right, listen. If I tell you the truth, will you promise not to tell your mom yet? I need some time to convince Kelly to stay with me.”
“Oh, this I have to hear,” said Chad, and he moved to Jack’s couch and sat back with his feet up and his arms behind his head, ready for a good story.
Jack sighed and began. “Well, the day you guys met Kelly when she came to my office?” Chad nodded and Jack went on. “That was the first time I met her too.”
“You met her that day!” Chad said.
Jack knew Chad was loving every minute he had Jack squirming as he told the story. He’d never let him live this down.
Jack shook his head. “That minute. When she walked in and introduced herself to you guys? That was the first time I saw her,” he said and he looked more than a little sheepish.
Chad was now holding his stomach, he was laughing so hard. He sat up on the couch with his arms around his stomach, doubled over from the hilarity of Jack’s situation. He seemed completely unable to talk and there were tears running down his face.
“I know, I know,” Jack said. “Laugh it up. She’s had me completely wrapped around her little finger since the day I set eyes on her.”
Andrew poked his head in the door. “What’s all the noise?”
For some reason, Andrew’s presence only made Chad laugh harder, so Jack had to answer. “I’m telling Chad how Kelly and I met,” he said wryly.
“Uh, the real story?” Andrew asked, and he glanced over his shoulder to be sure no one had heard him, then came in and shut the door behind him.
“The whole nasty story,” Jack said with a shake of his head.
“So, he told you he thought maybe she was a call girl I hired for him? Or some random girl I picked up off the street?” Andrew said to Chad as he poured each of them two fingers of scotch from the small bar in Jack’s office.
“Oh, well, I guess not all of it,” Jack said wryly as Chad fell off the couch, laughing on the way down.
It took about ten minutes while Jack and Andrew drank and watched him, all the while grinning, but Chad finally got himself together enough to talk.
“So, what is she getting out of this?” Chad asked as he wiped tears off his face. Jack explained how she had found out about the will from his temp assistant and about their trade: Three years of law school tuition for one year of marriage.
“That’s all she asked you for? Man, she could have taken you to the cleaners. Would have if she was anything like those vultures you usually date.”
Jack nodded and laughed to himself. “I gave her my credit card and told her she could use it for anything. I looked at the statement the other day. You wanna’ know what she’s bought in all this time?” He paused before he answered his own question. “A dress for the cocktail party and shoes to go with it. No jewelry to match. Not two or three dresses in case she changed her mind the day of the party. What she needed and nothing more. Hell, I gave her a BMW today, and she was pissed.”
Andrew and Chad shook their heads. They had enough money themselves to understand where Jack was coming from. Women often preyed upon them for their money, their positions, their power—and were really interested in nothing more. Andrew had learned that lesson in a particularly painful way several years ago so Jack knew that Andrew, most of all of them, understood how important it was that Kelly didn’t care about Jack’s money. Most women would have taken the credit card and run up a huge tab with no concern for the fact that it wasn’t their money to spend.
“I still can’t believe you got beat at your own game, Jack,” Chad said as he shook his head. “You always have all the dirt on your opponents so you can win any negotiation. That’s pretty amazing that she turned the tables on you like that.”
Chad stopped and looked at his drink for a minute, then shook his head with a grin. “And that she had the guts to walk in here and pull that off. Man, that is one classy lady.”
“I know,” Jack said. “Now I need to convince her to stay with me.”
“Damn, she wants to leave you already? What happened to the deal?” Andrew asked.
“No, I don’t mean that. She’s staying for the year,” Jack said, “but I want more. I want the real thing, a real marriage, kids, her. For the rest of my life. The whole thing.”
“Oh man,” Chad said as he stared at Jack. “You love her.”
Jack looked down at his drink and nodded slowly. “Yeah. I couldn’t even admit it to myself at first, but I think I might have fallen in love with her that first day she walked in here, and it keeps growing every time I’m with her. It grows when I’m away from her too.
“The only problem is she has plans…you know? Things she wants to do, and I don’t know if marriage fits in there. She has three years of law school, and that means going off for clerkships and internships and then long hours when she graduates to make her mark and build her own career. I don’t know if there’s room in there for me.”
They all grew quiet for a very long moment, staring down at the amber liquid in their glasses and then quietly, Andrew chuckled. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” he said in a low voice.
Chapter 51
Chad drove straight to Jack’s house after leaving Andrew and Jack at the office. He pulled his Range Rover to the edge of the driveway and stepped out. Mrs. Poole answered when he rang the bell.
“Hey, Mrs. Poole,” Chad said as he dropped a peck on her cheek. She had been a fixture at Jack’s for so long that both he and Jack had begun to treat her like an aunt more than an employee. “I’m here to see my mom.”
“Hi, dear. I’m not sure where she is. Would you like me to find her for you?” Mrs. Poole responded.
“No, I’ll find her, thanks.”
He wandered through the rooms looking for his mom, and found her sitting in Jack’s living room reading the paper and drinking tea by the window. Mabry spotted him and silently put down her teacup. She set the paper aside before looking up at him.
Her expression was like that of an insolent little child who knew she was about to be scolded, but she laid her hands in her lap and greeted her son, “Hello, Chad. What brings you here in the middle of the day?”
Chad shook his head at her. He was afraid to open his mouth for a moment. Not because he was afraid of what she might think, but because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control himself. He had been holding back with his mom for so long, trying to protect her. There was so much built up in him, he was afraid it might all come spewing out in one fell swoop.
Chad stood with his jaw clenched and his arms crossed as he waited for his mother to say something. Unfortunately for his mother, his patience had been honed in his years as an army ranger. There was no question
who would win this standoff.
His mother broke quickly. “Don’t look at me like that. This marriage isn’t real and you know it. I don’t know where he got her from, but Kelly is a fake trophy wife to get Jack past the terms of the will. I need to show the board that….”
“Stop it, Mother,” Chad spit out through clenched teeth, cutting her off mid sentence.
He’d had enough of his mother’s hate and anger affecting all of their lives. “What you’re doing is disgusting. It’s embarrassing and hurtful and cruel. Did you know Jack has been protecting you this whole time? He stands up for you. He made sure I didn’t come in and intervene between him and you. He thought that would hurt you too much and he didn’t want to see you hurt. His parents always stood up for you too, but you’ve lashed out at all of them, over and over.”
Now that Chad had started, he couldn’t stop. “For God’s sake, Mom. Jack’s dad was your brother, and for the last years of his life and the last years of his wife’s life, you treated them like enemies.”
Mabry sat with a stunned look on her face for most of his tirade, but now she stood and lashed back. “You don’t know,” she said slicing her hand through the air in front of her son as if to strike out at the words he had thrown between them. “How dare you judge me? You don’t know how it feels to have the person you love walk away as if you meant nothing. As if you were nothing. And then to have to watch them. To have to see how happy and perfect their family was.”
Chad couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew she was sick, but she was acting as if Jack’s parents, or even Jack himself, had something to do with his dad leaving his mom.
“Mom, stop! He left you. And that sucks. I wish to God he’d never hurt you. But you’ve let him turn you into this hateful person. It’s turned you into a person I don’t want to know anymore.”
Chad saw his mom begin to falter, but he couldn’t stop.
