CHAPTER TWO
“Perfect. The pearls are perfect.” Katherine Jordan said.
Alexi watched in the mirror as her grandmother pulled on white gloves and adjusted her stylish hat. The weight pressing in on Alexi’s chest grew heavier. “They, uh, are beautiful.”
“They’re yours now, Alexandria. Now you’ll carry the Jordan heritage to the next generation. You and dear Roger will have beautiful children who’ll have the might of Savannah’s two most powerful families behind them. I’m so proud of you.”
Alexi stared in the mirror at the thick band of pearls encircling her neck, wondering why the strands felt so heavy. Kids? She and Roger had yet to decide what they wanted. Roger wanted to wait several years before even thinking about the subject. Alexi cleared her constricting throat. “Give us time. We aren’t even married and you’re hatching great-grandkids.”
“Psst. Too much time has been wasted already. Violet and I had given up hope to see you two together before we died. Having a child soon isn’t too much to ask of either of you.”
The vise around her lungs tightened. “There is plenty of time,” she told her grandmother. “You and Roger’s grandmother have too much vim and vinegar in your blood to die for a long time to come.”
“Hmmph. You young think that you’ve all the time in the world, but it isn’t so. You’ll be old before you know it.”
The more her grandmother talked, the less oxygen Alexi found to breathe. “Times have changed,” she managed to gasp as she rose from the vanity and paced across the room.
“Not for the better, mind you,” replied her grandmother. “In my day you’d have been married years ago, instead of wasting your time on art and soiling your hands at the hospital. Now that the Holstead’s social responsibilities rest on your shoulders, too, you’ll have to contain your activities to fundraising and stop volunteering to care for those unwashed hoodlums.”
Alexi ignored her grandmother’s bluster. They’d been at odds over her volunteer work at the hospital for years. “You’d best be off, Gran. I’m sure there are at least one hundred details you’ll want to check on before the ceremony.” Alexi kissed her grandmother’s cheek, opened the door to the air-conditioned Bridal tent, and urged her out.
“I’m proud of you, dear, and your mother would be, too,” her grandmother said as she sailed away.
Alexi sucked in a painful breath and shut her eyes. She wished her mother were here. Was that the source of her panic? Why she felt so unsettled? Every girl wished to have her mother’s support before she walked down the aisle and her father’s support while walking down the aisle.
“Are you going to pass out?” Nan walked up and grabbed Alexi’s arm.
“No, but we need to fix my train.”
Nan shook her head. “We just fixed it.”
“I messed it up again.” She’d tangled the train around a chair with her pacing.
“You’re supposed to be sitting still. Not prowling around like a caged tiger.”
Perspiration beaded Alexi’s lip. She’d been fine until her grandmother fastened the pearls on. They felt like a noose around her neck. Generations of Jordans were looking down from the heavens, ready to pounce on her should she do the wrong thing. Heart pounding, she touched the pearls. “I have to see Roger. Maybe I…oh, I don’t even know what I need to tell him. I have to see him.”
Nan's gasped. "Are you thinking what I think you are? That you’re not going to go through with the wedding—”
“I don't know." Alexi dried her palms on a cotton towel and adjusted the Venetian lace on her shoulders. Trimmed with satin rosettes, her dress hung in elegant lines to her feet, its candlelight hues matched the heavy antique pearls. The dress had been designed with the pearls in mind. Her mother, her grandmother, and every Jordan woman who’d married since James Oglethorpe arrived in Georgia back in the seventeen hundreds had worn the pearls for their wedding. And she felt as if every one of them were trying to grab her and drag her with them.
"I knew it." Nan tossed her hands up. "Roger is not the one. At least it's not too late. We’ve thirty minutes before the wedding starts. I’ll get your father to explain."
“No.” Alexi grabbed Nan’s hand. “No.” She straightened her shoulders. “This is my responsibility. I have to talk to Roger first. I’m not even sure that I don’t want to do this.”
“Sorry to interrupt but...” Walking in, Karin Taylor, Alexi’s main assistant at the gallery and Lucy’s mother, one of the sick children the auction would help, appeared anxious.
Alexi's heart skipped. "What is it? Is Lucy worse?"
"No, Lucy's better today. The new medicine is helping." Karin held up a Fed-ex package. "This just came for you. The man insisted that you get this immediately. I need to hurry back. I promised Lucy she could hear the ceremony on my cell. She can’t wait to see the video of it. She is so excited."
“Thanks, Karin.” Alexi released Nan's hands and took the package. HOLSTEAD FAMILY JEWELS was written in bold black letters across the front. She frowned. “I wonder if Roger's grandmother sent something for me to wear for the wedding. But why at the last minute? And why Fed-ex it?”
"Well," Nan said, scrunching her nose. "Bad choice of phrasing, that’s for sure. Hurry and open it."
Shrugging, Alexi unsealed the envelope and peeked inside to see a packet of photographs.
"What is it?"
"Pictures." Alexi pulled them out and gasped at the photo of Roger naked at a pool with about eight nude women and two men. Her hands shook, making it harder to see. Roger and the others weren't just soaking up the sun's rays and Roger’s family jewels played a prominent role in keeping several of those women entertained. She tried telling herself that they had to be doctored pictures, but then she noticed the digital date at the bottom. Three days ago. The day of Roger's bachelor's party. The next day he’d cancelled their lunch and she hadn’t seen him until the rehearsal dinner. He'd been distracted and sunburned then, had said he was tired because he'd gone deep-sea fishing.
Nan leaned over to look. "OH MY! Those family jewels."
Alexi's mind reeled and nausea curled in her gut. Then anger gripped her. Fishing my ass! The jerk had been screwing every hook, line, and sinker in sight!
"Nan, have my father invite the guests to enjoy the food and entertainment, but there will be no wedding."
Clutching several pictures, Alexi ran from the tent.
"Wait," Nan called out, catching up. "Are you all right?"
"Fine." Alexi blinked back tears. "Just as fine as any woman is when she realizes she's wasted years on a jerk." She stabbed the pictures with her finger and shuddered. "Group sex? My God, Nan, can I really be that blind about a man?"
"No," Nan grabbed Alexi's shoulder. "No, don’t turn this on yourself. I don’t think you’re blind, but I do think you wanted to please your family so much that you didn't notice some things about Roger and yourself that you should have."
Alexi bit her lip, trying not to cry over Roger. He wasn't the man she thought he was, and he wasn't worth wasting Kleenex on. "I have a few things to say to Roger."
"Okay. You know I’m here if you need me."
"I know." Alexi headed directly to the groom's tent. Her attentive groom who always opened doors, sent flowers and chocolates for every occasion, held a responsible, prestigious position in his family’s bank, and carried a lily white reputation on his sterling heritage. Who could have known the family's silver was so tarnished? More like corroded.
An easy breeze laced with the salt of the sea tried to cool her cheeks, but she didn’t want calm. She wanted to scream.
Trust? Friendship? She was nothing but a fool. She reached Roger’s tent and gulped in air, bracing herself to face him as she brushed tears from her eyes. Inside, Roger stood, adjusting his bow tie in front of a mirror. She marched toward him, waving the pictures.
“How could you do this?” She threw a picture at him. "You’re despicable!” Tears fell against her will a
s she looked hard at the man she’d been about to marry. Without the backdrop of her rosy assumptions, he looked weak, as if he wouldn’t be able to stand, were it not for the starch of his tux.
Roger snatched up the picture. "Where did you get these?" He had the decency to flush a deep red, but there was no remorse in his eyes. There was no “I’m sorry. I made a mistake." But then, there were no words that could take away the hurt.
All the scathing remarks on the tip of her tongue vanished. They weren't worth the breath she'd waste to say them. With a few deft jerks, she tore the train emblazoned with the Holstead’s family crest from her gown and threw it at him. “You aren't worth the dirt on its hem.”
“Wait, Alexi. We need to talk. Work this out.”
“Never." As she left, the long flow of her veil caught on tent’s support pole. She slid the veil’s cap off her upswept hair and jerked hard on the resilient net. The pole gave way and the tent collapsed on top of Roger. She could still hear his muffled yells three tents over when she came face to face with her grandmother's cast iron frown.
"Alexandria Jordan! What is the meaning of this, dear?" Katherine Jordan's reign in Savannah's society had never had the least blemish of scandal attached to it. This was a scandal.
"Roger is a philandering jerk. The wedding is off." Alexi fisted her hands, forcing calmness. Ladies didn't scream.
Katherine Jordan didn't even blink with surprise as she handed Alexi an old-fashioned laced handkerchief. Lowering her voice, Katherine patted Alexi’s shoulder. "Men do that, dear. Your grandfather wandered like a country road. Now go back to your tent and I'll fix this disaster. You don't allow emotions to dictate the wellbeing of your family, your position in society, or your wealth. My goodness, I thought I'd taught you better. Merging the Jordan shipping empire with the Holstead's banking assets is insurance that both families need during these troubling economic times. Just make sure you get diamonds for his indiscretions and everything will work out all right."
Alexi stared, shocked. “Diamonds for indiscretions!”
“Yes, dear. There isn’t a woman in Savannah who doesn’t envy my collection.”
Alexi’s mind reeled. Her grandmother had an extensive diamond collection. What Alexi had thought beautiful suddenly became nauseating. “I'll never settle for that in life.”
"Dear, there are things that are more important than your feelings, like your heritage and financial well-being. I’ll explain to the guests that you are ill, and a private ceremony will take place at a later time. We’ll fix this problem and the scandal will soon die out.”
“Scandal! Money! Heritage! That’s all you care about?” Alexi had never realized how irrational her grandmother was when it came to her position in Savannah’s society. Katherine Jordan was ready to sacrifice anything for it.
“By knowing what’s important, I’ve kept the Jordan wealth intact and our name without blemish.”
Alexi shook her head, seeing her life in a whole new light. Tears flooded her eyes. “I’m not willing to pay that price.”
“There she is!”
She looked to see a blur of reporters zooming her way and turned in the opposite direction, hoping to escape in the maze of tents. Word of the wedding's cancellation was out, and she had no interest in facing reporters now.
"Alexandria, you can’t do this!" her grandmother cried.
It was the first time in her life that Alexi heard her grandmother yell. Apparently, despite what she’d been told all her life, ladies did scream after all. That was good to know. Stiffening her shoulders, she marched through the park, a frenzy of flashbulbs and questions trailing behind her. She wanted to run, but she had too much training and pride to let them see her hurt. Up ahead a band was busily unloading equipment to play in one of the reception tents for her wedding.
Her grandmother's insensitivity hurt as badly as Roger's betrayal. For the first time in her life, she didn’t want to be Alexandria Jordan. She didn’t want to have a place in society. And more than anything else, she didn’t want to be the kind of person that ended up with a man like Roger.
Diamonds for indiscretions. Was that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow she’d been chasing all of her life? She looked up toward heaven and it started to rain.
* * *
Stripping off and tossing his shirt aside because he felt a spider crawling on him, Jesse Weldon brushed off his back and then moved passed the speakers he'd delivered to his brother Jackson when he heard a loud commotion in the park. Jackson's band would be playing in one of the entertainment tents for the Jordan-Holstead wedding. The day had started out sunny, but intermittent rain showers were quickly turning it into a downer. Stepping out into the rain to see what the ruckus was about, he had to shake his head and blink twice.
Damn. What was the bride doing marching through the rain and the grass in her wedding dress instead of walking down the aisle like she was supposed to be?
Hell. He knew the second his brother Jackson had asked him to bring the forgotten speakers that it would be a mistake. Ever since he'd learned Alexi was getting married, he’d told himself that after today he could wipe her out of his mind. Once she married, he could forget her, her made-for-kissing mouth, and move back home without being tempted to see her, without having to revisit the wrenching past.
Apparently, she’d decided not to marry after all. He ducked out of sight, despising the relief stealing through him.
Fisting his hands, he forced his erupting emotions back into the neat box he’d built around them over the past twelve years. He didn’t care what her problem was. This time, he wasn’t going to rush to the rescue. This time, Savannah’s reigning royal princess, the pampered darling of one of Georgia’s oldest moneyed families, could save herself.
The Weldons had always been considered dirt beneath people like the Jordan’s feet. He’d learned the hard way that by fair means or foul, people like the Jordans would keep it that way.
Half hidden by hanging gray tendrils of Spanish moss burdening a sprawling oak tree, he watched Lexi’s stiff walk, thinking it poetically ironic that she was dressed to the nines just like she'd been dressed the last time she went running.
Reporters, like hounds after a fox, followed her as she marched his way. Damn, he tried to look away, but couldn’t keep his gaze from drinking in the visage of beauty bearing down on him. The seventeen-year old girl had become a woman worth more than a passing glance. Hell, even a two hour movie of her wouldn’t be enough and he couldn’t put his finger as to the reason why. She wasn't Cosmopolitan material. Alexi was slender, almost frail. No Pamela Anderson curves were hidden beneath her satin dress. Was it her regal bearing? The porcelain quality of her skin? Or her sexy mouth that still played in his dreams. His blood rushed and his chest tightened, making him remember all too well his want of her and her betrayal of him. You’re a fool, Weldon.
Eight years in the army, mostly in Special Forces, and building a highly specialized security company hadn’t left much time for leisure. He could count on three fingers the number of times he’d been back to Savannah, and this was the first he'd seen of her since the night he'd been railroaded by her family.
He should have stayed away, he thought, stepping deeper into the shadows as she drew nearer. He saw she was wearing the damn pearls. Of course she would, it was her day to wear the cursed things. He’d never forget what she and those pearls had cost him. Reporters, like sharks in a feeding frenzy, snapped pictures and yelled questions. Alexi ignored them all. He had to admire that, he thought, his jaw clenching in protest.
Where she was going?
He knew what it was like to be shark bait and Alexi was sailing through the water with her head held high, but even through the light rain he could see she was bleeding inside as she drew abreast of him. Tears streamed down her face and her full lips trembled. She stumbled and reached for something to break her fall, but only grasped air.
Shit. He rushed forward and caught her arm before she hit the
ground, his instinct towards her stronger than his will.
"Oh!" She turned and surprise washed over her face. She breathed his name, as if he were an answer to a prayer. “Jesse.”
Hell, she still looked too damn innocent and vulnerable for his good. Twelve years and she still had the power to get under his skin even though he knew how deadly she could be. Maybe it was time to turn the tables, collect on what he missed and wipe her from his mind. She couldn’t be as good as he remembered her being.
Alexi blinked as heat invaded the chill that had stolen through her since she’d seen the pictures of Roger. She tingled as she looked at the rugged face and chiseled chest of the man who'd just saved her from falling. Half a day’s dark stubble covered his rough jaw; and his deep sea-blue eyes, crinkled at the corners from the sun, warily assessed her then stared at her mouth. Tension oozed from him. She had no trouble connecting the man to the wild devil who'd led her astray years ago then broke her heart.
Small towns had their good side and bad side of the tracks, and the wild Weldon boys had been known a time or two to paint their side a bit blacker. Jesse’s reputation had been the worst. She hadn’t believed that until he'd used her to steal from her family. Over the years, she’d heard from Jesse's mother Emma, who worked at the hospital, about Jesse’s stellar military career and security business in Washington D.C. Knowing he’d turned his life around made her glad, but didn’t ease the hurt he’d left behind.
“Still a virgin on the run after all these years, Lexi?” he drawled. His voice, as steamy and seductive as Southern summer day, challenged her on an elemental level, a sensual one.
"Almost," Alexi said, letting the last illicit picture she had of Roger fall from her grasp to the ground. She'd only ever been with Roger and he didn't count. Not anymore. She sucked in air, latching onto Jesse’s appeal. The reporters encircled them. Jesse lifted his hot gaze to her eyes and smiled.
Wild Irish (Book 1 of the Weldon Brothers Series) Page 2
