by Donna Hill
The phone clattered to the floor.
Craig groaned when she melted into him. His arms looped around her to cup her head in his hands and seal his mouth to hers. He felt her heart bang and hammer, his thoughts swirled. There was no turning back now.
* * *
They sat shoulder to shoulder on a flat rock overlooking the brook that ran behind the house. A warm breeze blew around them. Craig linked his fingers between Jewel’s and slowly and honestly told her about his past relationship with Milan, his reasons for hiring her and what really went on at the restaurant.
“I’ve been telling her since day one that we were done and that our relationship was strictly professional.” He pushed out a breath. “But she kept it in her head that she could change all that. Her performance the other night was the last straw. I had our lawyers contact her agent to remind them that we would invoke the morals clause if she stepped out of line again during filming.” He waited a beat. “I need to tell you all of it.”
She whipped her head to face him. He held up his hand. “It’s not whatever it is you’re thinking. The real reason why she flipped the other night was because of you.”
“Me? What are you talking about? I don’t know the woman.” Her expression twisted in confused outrage.
“She saw me put you in the car when you spent the night at the hotel. She asked me about you and if you were the reason why I refused to be with her.”
“And...what did you tell her?”
“That it was none of her business. I also told her that you were the owner of the house. She pretty much lost it after that. Said some pretty ugly things.” He lowered his head then looked at her from an angle. “I never meant to hurt you, Jewel. Never. I need you to believe that.” He squeezed her fingers. “I know that we don’t have a lot of time and I have no idea how things are going to work out when I’m done here, but I want you to believe me when I tell that whatever time I have, I want to spend it with you.”
“I do, too,” she confessed and felt as if a boulder had been lifted off her chest. A smile beamed across her mouth. “So do I.”
Craig leaned in and kissed her so tenderly that she felt as if her heart would break into a million pieces of joy.
Jewel leaned back and stared at him, let her eyes take him in. Yep, she’d done him justice, she concluded. “Come, I want to show you something.” She took his hand, and they walked together to the cottage.
She switched on the lights and walked him around to the front of the canvas that took up the center of the floor.
His mouth opened then closed. His eyes registered his amazement.
“This...” He looked at her then back at the portrait of himself. “It’s incredible,” he managed. He stepped closer. “It seems alive... I seem alive...” He laughed. “I don’t know what I mean.” He whirled toward her and clasped her shoulders. “Baby, you have a gift.” He leaned into her. “A God-given gift, and it’s gotta be some kind of mortal sin not to share it with the world. You need to do this. This is you. It’s in your soul. You’re an artist down to the marrow of your bones.”
Jewel pressed her lips together to keep from crying. It had been so long since she even dared to feel that way about herself and longer since someone told her. The feeling was overwhelming.
“It’s okay to cry,” he said, wiping a tear away with the pad of his thumb. “Tears of happiness, I hope.”
She nodded vigorously and sniffed.
Wrapped in his arms she shut her eyes. This could be the real deal with him if she let it happen. And if he did the same.
Chapter 13
Filming continued for the next week with at least another week until completion of the interiors. The schedule was grueling, as it didn’t end with cut but continued into the nights, when the dailies were reviewed. But as promised, Craig spent whatever time and energy he had with Jewel. While he worked on set, she worked in her studio, pouring years of pent-up creativity onto canvas. Whether he knew it or not, Craig had given her part of her life back.
They shared dinners at her home, moonlit walks and phone conversations late into the night. It was agreed between them that they would keep their relationship private. The last thing he wanted was for Jewel to become fodder for the tabloids and speculation about his love life. Not to mention that he needed to keep Milan in control. It was a delicate juggling act.
But leave it up to his sister, Alyse, to add her drama to the mix.
“If I had to wait for you to call me, we would never speak,” she chastised.
Craig gripped the phone in his hand and inwardly groaned. “Sis, you have to know how busy I’ve been. We’re right in the thick of things right now.”
“According to TMZ you certainly are with that...woman. Craig, how could you? You know what she’s like. I know she was your rebound after Anastasia, but she’s bad news.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Oh, really? Then what is it? You’re back in bed with her, aren’t you?”
“No! Christ. Give me a little credit. I’m not involved with Milan Chase. I’m seeing someone else,” he blurted out before he could stop himself. Dammit.
“Oh, really? Who?”
“Alyse...”
“Tell me, who is it?”
“Her name is Jewel Fontaine.”
There was a moment of silence on the line.
“Her name sounds familiar. Wait, the Jewel Fontaine? The artist? Wait. Hold up. She owns that house. The one you’re filming at! It was in the paper.”
Craig didn’t respond. He already knew he’d dug a big hole for himself. All he could hope was that he didn’t get buried.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “That Jewel.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. How’d you pull that off, big brother? Flash her your pearly whites and Lawson charm?”
“Not funny, Alyse.”
“Look, do you. Just do it right, okay? You don’t have the best track record, if you know what I mean. There are a lot of broken hearts in your wake.” She paused. “I want you to be happy, brother of mine. I really do. I know you put up a good front after Ana, but I also know that she hurt you. Bad. I want you to have someone in your life that means something. That’s there for you, in your corner. Work can’t be everything. Dad is a perfect example of that. He’s rich, successful, feared and completely alone. All the success and money in the world can’t keep you warm at night or fix the things inside you that are broken.”
“Psychology 101,” he playfully snarked. Although the imploding of his relationship with Ana had covered all of the tabloids for weeks, that was the tip of the iceberg when it came to the women who had come and gone in his life. The only upside was that the world didn’t chronicle all of those details.
“Whatever. But I’m serious.” She pushed out a breath. “Anyway, the other reason for my call was to invite you to dinner. Myles is in town for a week, and you promised we would all get together.”
“Fine,” he conceded. “When?”
“How’s tomorrow night.”
“It doesn’t sound like a question.”
“It’s not. Brad will be there, and Myles is bringing his new girlfriend—Jessica, I think her name is. You should bring Jewel. I’d love to meet her and talk about her work.”
“Aw, I don’t know about that.”
“Think about it. I swear I’ll be on my best behavior.”
Craig chuckled. “Highly unlikely, but I’ll think about it. I’m not promising anything.”
“See you tomorrow. Eight. Love you,” she said before he could get a word in.
He placed the phone on the nightstand. It was nearly eleven. He was too tired to drive over to see Jewel, but he wouldn’t let the night end without talking with her.
He knew what he felt for her was way beyond w
hat he’d thought it would be. He’d only known her for a matter of weeks, but it felt as if she had always been a part of his life. When they talked it was easy. They laughed, they listened, they shared.
She told him what it was like growing up without a mother and how her father worked so hard to make it up to her and ensure that her dream to become an artist was realized. She went to the best schools, traveled and made a name for herself in the art world, and her father had been with her every step of the way, never asking for anything in return except that she be happy.
The only thing they’d ever bumped heads about, she’d said, was her ex, Simon. Her father had never liked him, didn’t trust him, said he was a charmer—and not in a complimentary way. He’d been right, and the breakup took more out of her than she realized; compounded with her father’s then escalating illness, she never really recovered. Her father was her reason for everything. She wanted to thank him for all that he had done, so she’d worked tirelessly to make him proud, to pay back the debt of gratitude, and so she barely hesitated when she realized that she would have to give up her career because her father needed her. She hinted at the degree of his illness, only saying that he needed twenty-four-hour care, which was why she’d given up her career, which ultimately led to her dire financial situation. But she said no matter what, she would not have done anything differently.
It was that selfless attitude that he so admired in Jewel. Her depth of caring was like nothing that he had experienced. His father was the polar opposite. To show that you cared was a sign of weakness in Jake Lawson’s book, and weakness was unacceptable. But it was more than that. His father’s vehement disdain for what Craig chose for a living was totally irrational. He knew that it had something to do with his mother, but he never knew exactly what that was. And if anyone else in the family knew they never told him.
He would make himself crazy going in circles about his father. He reached for the phone and called Jewel. He knew that the sound of her voice would quell the questions and quiet the unending storm within him.
* * *
Much to his surprise, he asked and Jewel agreed. Even more surprising was that his baby sis actually kept her promise and behaved.
Dinner was a fun-filled event, with Myles and Alyse vying for the best recounting of their childhood antics. Alyse’s new beau was a corporate attorney on the partnership track, and Myles’s latest was, of course, a model. He was, of all the Lawson clan, a mirror of their cousin Rafe. Women generally tumbled over themselves to get to Myles, and he’d charm them with his good looks, unavailable demeanor and good old Southern charisma. It was a quality that all of the Lawson men shared. They believed in making a woman feel like a queen.
Alyse and Jewel got on as if they had been friends for years. He got a little jumpy when Alyse whisked Jewel away into the other room, but later found out that Alyse wanted Jewel’s opinion on a piece of art that she was thinking of purchasing. Had Alyse asked that question weeks ago, he was sure that Jewel’s response would have been quite different. Now that she’d started painting again, her love of the arts had been reignited, and talking about it only fueled her fire. He hoped that in time she would consider showing her work again. But one step at a time.
* * *
“I really like your sister and brother,” Jewel said as they headed back to her place in Craig’s Suburban. “Brad seems like a nice guy, and your brother’s girlfriend is stunning, to say the least.”
“They liked you, too.”
Jewel grinned. “I loved the stories about you guys growing up. I have no idea what it’s like to have siblings. You’re lucky.”
A warmth spread inside him. “Yeah, I guess I am.” He turned to her and grinned. “I don’t think I realized how much I missed them,” he said in a faraway voice. “We were really close.”
“You still can be.”
“That’s pretty hard.”
“Only as hard as you make it. You have the means to travel at a moment’s notice. You can offer to fly them out to where you are for visits. You can make it a point to come home for holidays.”
He pulled onto her street. “You want me to stay?” he asked, smoothly switching topics.
“Of course. But don’t think you’ve gotten away from what we were talking about,” she said with a knowing arch of her brow.
“Yes, ma’am.” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss of acquiescence.
* * *
A frantic banging on her bedroom door jerked Jewel and Craig out of a deep sleep. Jewel leaped up, disoriented. The banging came again, along with the wailing of her name. She jumped out of bed, grabbed her robe and ran to the door.
She tugged it open with her heart pounding. “Minerva, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, God. Oh, God. I went to check on him and he wasn’t in his room! I looked everywhere.” She squeezed Jewel’s arms.
“What! What are you saying? He has to be here.” She shoved her arms into the sleeves of her robe. Waves of hysteria began to build.
“Jewel, what is it?” Craig asked from the shadows of the room.
“My father. He’s not in his room.” She turned to dart out.
“I’m coming with you.” He grabbed his clothes from the floor and quickly got dressed. Minerva was already halfway down the hall.
The trio fanned out in the house, searched every room, every crawl space, but it was Craig who discovered the back door was not locked and partially open.
“You have flashlights?” he asked.
“In the drawer near the sink,” Minerva said and hurried to get it.
“Oh, no, if he’s gone outside...” Jewel’s voice disintegrated into terror.
“We’ll find him, and everything is going to be all right. I promise.”
Jewel beat back tears with rapid blinks of her eyes. She nodded. “Stay here, Minerva, in case Daddy wanders back,” she instructed then followed Craig out onto the back of the property.
* * *
Jewel and Craig combed every inch of the property, and more than an hour later they still had not found her father. Jewel was beyond frantic.
Craig held her tight. “Baby, we need to call the police.”
She nodded her head against his chest. Together they returned to the house, and Jewel made the call.
While they waited for the arrival of the police, Jewel finally told him the full story of her father’s illness.
“He suffers with an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Medication worked for a while, until it didn’t. We tried everything. Every doctor. Nothing worked.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “They told me I would have to put him in an institution so that he could be cared for. My father! I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t. After the debacle in New York, he got worse, and I’d lost my confidence. It made sense to put that part of our lives behind us and move to whatever this new one held. I took on caring for him full-time.” She swallowed. “Until it got to be too much. That’s when I hired Minerva. At first she would come during the day, but after about a year she started staying longer...into the night, until it was twenty-four hours a day.” She lowered her head. Craig clutched her hand.
She drew in a shuddering breath. “We were on the verge of losing the house,” she whispered. “I’d all but exhausted my earnings, ate into my savings. And then like magic, you came along.” She laughed sadly and sniffed back tears. “I thought, a miracle. But then I met you, and I looked into your eyes and you turned my world upside down. I didn’t want to risk caring about and losing anyone else, even at the thought of losing the house. So I said no. I was scared.” Her voice wobbled. “It was Minerva that told me to take a chance on being happy...even if it was only for a little while.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he blurted out. “I don’t want it to be. I’m in love with you. Crazy in love with you.”
“You...you love me?”
“With every ounce of my being.” He leaned over and kissed her with all of the love that had burst from his soul. “We can make it work,” he said against her lips.
“How?” she whispered through her tears.
“We’ll find a way.”
The lights from the police car lit up the lawn.
“I promise,” he said before they ran down to meet the officers and Jewel gave a description of her father.
* * *
The trio waited in frightened silence for some word from the police. It was more than an hour later when the officers returned with Augustus in tow. He’d wandered nearly a mile away and had fallen asleep. He was disheveled and totally disoriented, even lashing out at Jewel, which broke her heart into a million pieces. Oddly, it was Craig who was able to soothe him, talk to him in quiet tones and get him cleaned up and back to bed.
By the time Augustus was settled and asleep, they were all beyond exhausted. Daybreak was on the horizon.
“I don’t want to leave, but I have to get back. We have an early shoot in town. Will you be okay?”
“Go. I’ll be fine.” She looked into his eyes. “I can’t thank you enough for everything that you did.”
“There’s no need to thank me for anything. Whatever you need, whenever you need it.” He turned to leave.
“Craig...”
He stopped and turned back.
“I love you,” she whispered.
He smiled. “I needed that.”
She hugged herself and watched him hurry away.
Chapter 14
The filming in town took another two weeks to complete. Craig was beyond busy. As much as he hated it, there was little time to spend with Jewel, but he made it a point to check in with her every day and ask about her father.
The experience that night and seeing the depth of her love for her dad and all that she had sacrificed for him forced him to rethink his relationship with his own father and the importance of family. Even if his father couldn’t put his personal issues aside, Craig knew he had to make one last effort, swallow his pride and confront his father.
