by Teresa Hill
Wyatt laughed. “Oh, please. I don’t have any trouble getting women. Leo knows that.”
“Not any woman you’d ever want to keep. He knew that very well.” She fumed at him, then threw up her hands as if to surrender. “He was dying, Wyatt. Think about it. He knew he was dying, and he said the only regret he had about his life was that he was leaving you so suspicious of women that you might never truly trust one. He couldn’t stand the idea of being gone, and you being left all alone.”
“Leo knows I can take care of myself—”
“Of course. He just didn’t want you to have to do that. He said your father’s lousy and always has been, that your mother ran off when you were little, and that he’s been the only constant in your life. He loved you like a son, said he always thought you should have been his, and he spent his last days here on earth seeing that you’d be taken care of after he was gone, that you’d have someone to love you.”
“And this person I need so much in my life, this great love of mine, is Jane?” He almost choked on the words, but he got them out. “Give-me-half-a-million-and-I’ll-love-you Jane? I could find lots of women who’d swear they would love me for a lot less than that.”
“Show me the will. Right now. Did you even read the whole thing?” she demanded.
“I read enough—”
“We’ll see about that. Give it to me!”
He found the damn thing and shoved it at her.
Him and Jane? Someone to love him once Leo was gone?
Leo knew you couldn’t buy love. He’d tried his whole life, and it had never worked. He knew better than anybody.
So did Wyatt.
Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, my God!,” Kathleen said a moment later. “This is what you’re so upset about? I thought it might be this. It was the only thing I could imagine Leo doing. You object to Jane helping poor women get some kind of education or job training with Leo’s money? Honestly, Wyatt, that’s—”
“What?” He snatched the papers out of her hand. “Poor women getting an education? He left Jane a half-million. You’re trying to convince me that she’s going to run some kind of charity with Leo’s money? You never quit, do you? It’s one scam after another—”
“It’s right here in black and white. You didn’t even read it? You just glanced at this and jumped to the wrong conclusions and broke her heart? You stupid, stupid boy!”
“What?”
“Leo wanted to leave me some of his money. He wanted to make sure Gladdy and I never wanted for anything, and I had to work hard to convince him that we never would, that Jane had already seen to that. And he felt bad about how he’d treated her, all the trouble we’d caused trying to force the two of you together. I told him Jane didn’t want for anything, either, except a man in her life. Although if I’d known you were like this, I never would have gone along with it—”
“Gone along with what?”
“Setting up you and Jane. Leo and Gladdy and I are old, but we’re not stupid. We knew if we caused enough trouble or worried you and Jane enough, that you’d likely end up at Remington Park, hopefully working together to sort out our troubles. And it worked beautifully, I might add, until now!”
“You married him,” Wyatt reminded her. “You’re telling me, you and Leo got married as a scam to throw Jane and me together?”
“No. We never planned to actually get married, but once we got to Vegas, we were so happy. He was just a delightful person, and he finally told me that he was ill, that he didn’t think he had long to live, and…It’s silly, I know. I’m not really a romantic, but…He was so sweet, and I just adored him. We thought, why not? And then, he was gone.”
“And conveniently left Jane half-a-million dollars in his new will.”
“I didn’t know he was making a new will. We did the prenup together, and then I went to pick out a dress. I guess he must have gone back and had the will made up then.”
“Right,” Wyatt said, not believing a word of it.
“Leo kept wanting to do something for Jane, and I told him the only thing Jane really wanted that required money she didn’t have was to be able to help women like Max’s mother, Amy. Jane can get women like that loans and grants for tuition, but they still have living expenses, and there are only so many hours a day to work, take care of a child and go to school. She wanted to be able to provide grant money to help. I guess Leo thought that was a good idea and a good use of some of his money. Is that really so awful? Is that a reason to break Jane’s heart?”
“It doesn’t say anything about money for poor women like Amy,” he yelled. “It just says money for Jane. A half-million dollars for Jane!”
“I want you to know, I’ve never seen her cry like that, never seen her so devastated. And to throw her out of your apartment without even her clothes on, without her shoes. She hurt herself getting out of here, you know. She was bleeding. I told Gladdy to take her to the emergency room this morning, while I came over here to straighten you out!”
Wyatt was scanning the papers, looking for the part about Jane getting all that money, to shut up her grandmother, and started to feel a little uneasy, a little sick to his stomach, when he got to the details of the half-million-dollar trust for Jane.
No, not exactly for Jane. For Jane to administer, but for…Women seeking an education or job training, particularly those with children to support while they went back to school. Like Amy. Leo wanted Amy to be able to go back to school, so she could take better care of herself and Max.
Maxwell Carson, from the will, the $5,000 in a trust for his education.
Leo wanted Amy to be the first recipient of a grant from the half million in trust he’d set up, money for Jane to administer as trustee.
Wyatt closed his eyes, felt the most tremendous sense of relief and utter joy he could imagine.
Jane was Jane, the Jane he’d always thought she was, the Jane he’d always adored.
And he’d been an absolute ass to her last night.
“Oh, my God,” he muttered.
Kicked her out, screamed at her, frightened her so much, she hadn’t even taken the time to get dressed before she ran away from him.
“I’m an idiot,” he said.
“Yes, you are,” her grandmother agreed.
“Wait…Did you say something about her getting hurt?”
“Yes, idiot boy!”
“Jane got hurt running out of here?”
“Yes!”
“Hurt how? What happened?” He’d been only half listening while he read the details of the trust. “Did you say something about her in the emergency room?”
Kathleen nodded, looking as if he was a man getting what he deserved right now, and she was happy about that, that no one got away with messing with Jane while she was around to stop it.
“What happened to her? Where is she?” He started looking for his keys. Where the hell were his keys? Where was Jane?
“I’m not sure what hospital they took her to,” her grandmother said.
“But what happened? What’s wrong with her? How badly was she hurt?”
“They hadn’t examined her when I left the E.R. Gladdy stayed with her, and I came to find you, to tell you what an idiot you are!”
He stared at the woman. “We have to find her. We have to find out what’s wrong with her. We have to make sure she’s okay.”
Kathleen just nodded.
And then he saw, he was afraid he saw, just how vengeful the Carlton women could be with a man who dared to hurt one of their own.
“You’re not going to help me find her? You’re not going to tell me where she is?”
“I’m not sure if she’d want you to know where she is.” And then the woman just stood there and glared at him.
“Call Gladdy,” he demanded.
“She’s not answering her phone,” Kathleen claimed. “And she’s even madder at you than I am. So I don’t think she’s going to help you, either.”
Wyatt raked a hand
through his hair, blinked to try to clear his blood-shot eyes.
Jane was out there somewhere, hurt, heartbroken, crying her eyes out over him, thinking he hated her, knowing he didn’t trust her at all.
“I have to find her,” he said. “I have to tell her how wrong I was. I have to get her to forgive me.”
“Good luck with that,” Kathleen said, looking as if she could enjoy torturing him like this for days for daring to hurt her beloved Jane.
He went to three emergency rooms, thinking of all the ways a woman could get hurt running out of an apartment building, begging E.R. clerks to tell him if they had a Jane Carlton there, before he finally started thinking halfway clearly.
Once he did, he knew in his heart that if Jane were really and truly injured, her grandmother would never have left Jane’s side, no matter how mad she was at Wyatt.
So this was just about payback, grandmother-style, and Kathleen was really good at it because he’d been terrified, running around town like a crazy man.
Okay. He forced himself to be still, to breathe. If she wasn’t badly injured, she was either at her apartment, with Gladdy at Remington Park or they were hiding her somewhere to torture him some more.
Wyatt frowned, thinking he deserved torture, deserved all sorts of despicable acts against his person. He’d been absolutely awful to Jane. Jane who’d been nothing but kind and generous and tender to him.
He decided he’d start at her townhouse and go from there. He got there and pounded on the door until Gladdy opened it, looking every bit as furious as Kathleen’s grandmother had been.
“Is she here?” Wyatt begged.
Gladdy just glared at him.
“Kathleen let me have it. I promise. I’ve been to three emergency rooms already, searching like a mad man. Gladdy, please? Is she here?”
“Three emergency rooms?” Gladdy asked.
Wyatt nodded. “I think I scared the clerks. I’m probably lucky they didn’t try to inject me with something to calm me down and put me on a psych hold. Then it might have been days before I could find Jane. Please, Gladdy. I have to find her.”
“She cried all night,” Gladdy reiterated. “Over you. Jane’s never cried like that over a man. She’s never cared that much for a man.”
And he was grateful to hear it. Not the tears part, but the caring part. If she was that upset about what he’d done to her, it had to mean she really cared about him, and if she cared that much, he had to be able to get her to forgive him eventually.
“Gladdy, I’m begging you. Tell me where Jane is.”
She just stood there, mute, outraged and without a hint of sympathy for him.
Damn. What was he going to do now?
“Sorry,” he said, literally picking her up and setting her to the side, to get around her and into the apartment, calling out as he went. “Jane? Are you here? You have to talk to me! I’m not leaving until you do. Jane?”
Jane heard the commotion. She was afraid half the building heard Gladdy yelling at him, Wyatt begging and insisting he had to find Jane.
She braced herself as best she could, but honestly, how could a woman ever truly prepare herself for the reality of Wyatt Gray in the flesh? The things he did to a woman. The things he made her feel, made her wish for, made her come to count on?
No woman could ever be truly prepared against that, Jane decided.
He found her in her bed, wearing a pair of soft cotton pajamas, her eyes still red from crying, and her foot, bandaged and propped up on a pillow.
“You are hurt,” he said, looking shocked as he came to sit on the side of the bed and inspected her swaddled foot. “I thought Kathleen had to be lying to me—”
“Because all women lie, right?” Jane shot back.
“No, because she wanted to torture me for what I did to you, and she’s really good at it,” he said, as if he admired a woman who was good at that. “And I deserve to be tortured. I know that. I’ve been like a crazy man. She just told me you were hurt leaving my apartment last night, and she wouldn’t tell me how. She wouldn’t even tell me which emergency room you’d been taken to. I’ve been all over town.”
““Emergency room?” Gram told him that? “Wyatt, I’m fine. I got three stitches from stepping on some glass in the parking lot because I didn’t take the time to grab my shoes before I ran out. The only reason we went to the emergency room was because my doctor’s out of town, and her office couldn’t work me in today. They said I really should have a tetanus shot, to not let it wait.”
He put his hand on her foot, holding it through the bandages, as if he still couldn’t stand the idea that she’d been hurt. What had Gram done? Made it sound as if she’d run out into the street and been plowed down by a car or something?
Jane felt a teensy bit sorry for him.
“I didn’t know anything about the money. I swear,” she said, still hurt that he could so easily believe she was just like every other woman he’d ever known. “And I won’t take it. I’ll just refuse. Leo can’t make me take his money.”
“No, he wanted you to have it. I’m sure of it now. You should have it.”
Oh, God, Jane thought, deciding it still hurt more than she would have thought possible. Was that it? The money but not him? Was that what he was trying to say?
She shouldn’t be so surprised. She didn’t think he’d ever trusted her anyway. Not after what she’d seen last night. And honestly, who could blame him, the way he’d grown up? She understood. She felt like a fool for ever trusting him, too. For putting aside all the lessons she’d learned in her mixed-up childhood. She’d been so smart about protecting herself. Until she had met him.
“Wyatt, there is no way I’m taking that money. Now, would you please go?” She turned to stare at the window, blinking back tears, mad as could be at the idea of them actually falling and him seeing her cry again.
“No,” he said. “I won’t. I’m an idiot. I’m a mean-tempered ass. I took the least little bit of information and blew up at you. I let years of experience with women—none of whom were you—ruin something beautiful between us.”
“If you hadn’t ruined it, something else would have,” she admitted.
He moved up on the bed until he was right in front of her, leaned down until even with her head hung low, trying to avoid his gaze, she couldn’t.
“My only excuse is that I’ve never felt like that before, Jane. I never thought I would. Hell, I never wanted to. I’m terrified here. I’ve never really trusted anybody in my life, except Leo, and he’s gone. I can’t even talk to him to tell him how terrified I am at the idea of loving you.”
“You don’t love me,” she insisted.
“I think I do. God help me, I do. And I think you love me, too. What are we going to do about that?”
“Ignore it. It’ll go away. These things never last,” she told him.
“I won’t go away. In fact, I’m not leaving here. Just try to throw me out. You and Kathleen and Gladdy, give it your best shot. I’m not going.”
“Someone always leaves, Wyatt. We both know that.”
“I won’t. I meant it. I’ve never found anyone like you. As smart and funny and sexy and sweet as you. As delightful as you. As adorable as you. And I’m not leaving.”
He sat there like a man taking root, content to wait her out, to wait out anything.
“This is ridiculous, Wyatt! You apologize to women by ignoring everything they say and just doing what you want?”
“I’m not leaving.”
She felt hot, wet, stupid tears fall down her face then, and she was so mad she could hardly stand it. Crying! She was crying! Over a stupid, stubborn man! He looked panicked at her tears, as if she was fighting dirty or she might have finally found something to use against him that might work.
“Please don’t do that,” he said.
She stared at him, defiant, her tears still falling.
“Jane, come on. You have a strong sense of fairness, and I’m sure you abhor all
sorts of feminine trickery when it comes to dealing with men. Fight fair here.”
“I don’t want to fight at all!”
“Well, good. Neither do I. I am so sorry. God, I’m sorry. I’ll never be able to say it enough. I panicked. That’s all there is to it, and I won’t do that again, I swear. And I won’t leave you. This man is never going to leave you, Jane. How can you not accept that there might be one man in the whole entire world who won’t ever leave you?”
“One?” she scoffed. “Just one? And you think you’re it?”
“I know I am.”
“It hurts too much, Wyatt,” she sobbed, unable to hold it together at all anymore. God, she hated this! “It’s too hard, too big a risk to take. We both know that. We’re both so sensible. It’s one of the first things I liked about you. We both know better than this.”
“No, we were wrong, and you know it. Look at Leo. Eighty-six years he had here, most of them as happy as could be, but in the end, what mattered to him? Just the people who loved him. That’s it. The rest was just…details. Details and silly things we use to keep score because we’re not smart enough to know any better. I can see that now. You can, too, Jane. I know you can.”
“No—”
“You were happy with me. I made you happy, I know I did. And I was terrified with you most of the time, terrified of wanting you too much, loving you too much, and losing you. But I’m done with that. I’m here. I love you, and I’m staying. You couldn’t make me leave if you tried.”
“Gladdy?” she yelled. “Call the police!”
“Go ahead,” he dared her. “They’ll let me out of jail eventually, and I’ll be right back here. I’m the most stubborn man you will ever meet and the most determined.”
“The most unreasonable, you mean.”
“That, too,” he promised, still sitting there.
She heard Gram and Gladdy whispering at the door to her bedroom.
“How’s he doing?” Gram asked.
“Better than I expected,” Gladdy admitted.
