His Kiss (Summer in New York Book 2)

by Jolyse Barnett

  No answer.

  Jeremy looked down.

  Michael slouched on the top step with his head in his hands. “She’s had it rough.”

  “Who?”

  “Ashleigh. She’s not herself since…since she lost the baby.” He glanced up. “Don’t tell Elizabeth. She doesn’t want anyone to know. She said we’ll try again after we marry.”

  Jeremy moved to sit next to the man, trying to figure out what the hell the guy was saying. “How long have you been together?”

  Michael ignored the spitting rain. “We’ve known each other our whole lives, but we didn’t hook up until after I graduated from high school. It’s been six long years of drama, but I feel awful about what she’s going through now. I don’t know what to do.”

  Jeremy nodded, starting to put the pieces together. It had been six years this past June since Ashleigh had ditched him. So, she’d been telling him the truth about one thing when they’d spoken in the hallway outside the Desmond’s dining room a few minutes ago. She’d sharpened her teeth on him before moving on to the grand prize. He sure as hell hoped her father appreciated her talent when it came to controlling men. He turned to Elizabeth’s little brother. The guy had circles under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in a month. “Don’t get too down on yourself. The woman’s a master manipulator.” Jeremy watched as raindrops began patterning the red brick steps with dark spots.

  Elizabeth’s brother continued, his voiced filled with misery. “This past break we were apart for more than three months. I was finishing grad school and she disappeared to who-knows-where. Then she returned and told me she’d learned she was pregnant after we’d been together, but didn’t want to distract me from my grad school finals. So, she’d waited.” He shook his head. “But during that time, she lost the baby.”

  Jeremy cursed under his breath. Unbelievable. “What do you think? Is her story legit?”

  Michael rose and stepped down onto the driveway, wiping his hands on the front of his trousers. “I’ve had my doubts. A few of my friends told me they heard she’d been partying it up over spring break. But I don’t have any proof and she completely lost it when I asked about it.”

  “Ashleigh told me she was pregnant when we were together. Turned out it was all a lie.” Jeremy shoved his hands into his pockets. “Maybe she really was expecting this time. Maybe she really has changed. Hey, maybe she loves you and you’ll live happily ever after.” He locked eyes with the younger man before shaking his head. “But I doubt it.”

  “My mother was so excited about us marrying.”

  It was drizzling now, a fine mist cool on his skin. Jeremy rose. “Proposing to a woman because you feel guilty or because it’s expected of you isn’t a very good start to a marriage.”

  The big man nodded, running his hands through his hair, the same dark hair as Elizabeth’s. “Well, I should get back inside. Time to face the music, as my Gram would say.”

  Jeremy stepped off the porch, keys in hand, shielding his eyes with the other as a crack of lightning lit the air to the east. “Wish you luck.” A low rumble of thunder echoed his frustration. He’d hoped beyond hope that Elizabeth would defend him, come after him. But she’d had plenty of time to make her excuses and choose him. She hadn’t. He held out his hand. “Wish we’d met under better circumstances.”

  Michael shook his hand before moving to the door, looking more like a man now than a few minutes ago, one hand in his trouser pocket, legs wide and sure. “Elizabeth loves you. I can tell.”

  Jeremy looked down at the keys in his hand. He knew in his heart that the man was right. She loved him. But as he feared all along, their love wasn’t going to be enough. He didn’t blame her. He just wanted her to be happy. “She deserves more than I can offer. Why would she settle for me when she can have any man she wants?”

  “What if she’s not settling and you’re the man she wants?”

  Jeremy looked up to respond but Michael had already turned to head into the house.

  *

  Elizabeth knew she’d seen that brooch before. It was Jeremy’s. Grandma Bertie’s words came back to her. It’s a one-of-a-kind piece…he even had it inscribed.

  “It’s all true.” She stood, rising as tall as a five-foot-four woman could, angry and pointing at the proof Ashleigh wore. She wound her way around the table and stopped, inches away from the lying, manipulative little bitch. Her hand itched to slap that smirk off the other woman’s perfect face.

  Ashleigh spoke in a rush. “Yes, yes. What I said is true. I’m sorry it hurts you. But it’s all for the best. He’s a very bad man. I’m sure Michael is teaching him a lesson right now, and we won’t have to worry about him anymore.” She reached out as if to comfort her future sister-in-law.

  Elizabeth evaded her touch by sidling around to sit in her brother’s recently vacated chair. “Tell me about that pin again. I couldn’t help but notice it. It’s so beautiful.” She smiled at her like a Cheshire cat, yearning for the moment the woman realized Elizabeth knew everything…and could prove it. “You told me you got it at an estate sale a while back. Where was that again?”

  “Uh, this.” She touched the flower, emotions flitting across her face.

  She leaned close. “May I look at it a moment? It really is lovely.” She reached out and unpinned the brooch.

  Ashleigh glanced at her in confusion. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

  “Where did you say you bought it?” Elizabeth made a show of tracing the individual petals of the daisy.

  Ashleigh’s throat convulsed. “I don’t remember. I go to so many of those sales.” She gave a feeble laugh. “Love antique jewelry.”

  Elizabeth turned the pin over in her palm and her breath caught, the proof staring back at her in the form of two sets of initials. “Oh, look. It’s engraved. Do you know the story behind these initials?” She locked eyes with her adversary.

  Ashleigh shook her head slowly. “Does it matter? It’s an accessory.” She moved to grab the brooch, but Elizabeth held it out of reach.

  “What are you playing at?” Mrs. Desmond’s voice held frustration with her eldest child. “Hasn’t Ashleigh been through enough tonight?” She shook her head. “This was supposed to be a special night and ever since you arrived with that troubled young man, everything’s been topsy-turvy.”

  “Sorry, Mother, but this is important.” Elizabeth reached across the table and placed the pin in front of her parent’s plate. “We’ve known Ashleigh a long time, and we care for her family, but sadly, I think she’s been dishonest, not only about Jeremy, but about herself.” She looked around the table. Her sisters nodded in agreement. She indicated the jewelry. “And I believe the key to unlock the mystery of our dear Ashleigh is this pin.” She paused, enjoying the idea of the woman who had put her man through hell going through a mini one of her own. Karma and all that.

  “You’ve got our attention, Lizzie.” Her grandmother’s voice rang out. “What’s the pin got to do with all this hullabaloo during our dinner party?”

  “Well, Gram, I happened to be talking to a sweet old lady about a week ago and learned she once owned a brooch just like that one. I remembered I’d seen one like it before, but she explained its story and I learned it was a one-of-a-kind and figured I must be mistaken. She told me how she had given the piece to her youngest grandchild, Jeremy. My Jeremy. See the initials on the back.”

  Her father turned over the brooch and examined it.

  “Those are the initials of his great-grandparents on his paternal grandmother’s side. The pin designed for Jeremy’s great-grandmother in the shape of her favorite flower before her love went away to the war.”

  “Why would the family let such a precious heirloom be sold in an estate sale?” Elizabeth’s mother asked.

  “That’s the problem. They didn’t.” She turned to the young woman sitting as rigid as one of her store mannequins. “Ashleigh lied about where she got this from.”

  All eyes turned to the woman sitting quietly
next to Elizabeth.

  Ashleigh’s voice was soft and measured. “Okay, so I didn’t want you all to know about my relationship with Jeremy. It was a long time ago and was a huge mistake. I was naïve. He gave me that pin to convince me he loved me when I began to suspect he only wanted to be with me because he thought my family had money.”

  Elizabeth stood, her body shaking with frustration. “Admit you stole it.”

  Ashleigh gazed at her with solemn eyes. “I’m sorry. As much as you want to believe him, he’s the liar, not me. I’m the victim, just like you, brainwashed by him.” She leaned forward and whispered very low, for Elizabeth’s ears only. “By his skills.”

  Her stomach clenched.

  Michael stood in the archway, hands on hips. “Ashleigh, could you come with me? I have something to say and I think it would be best to do it in private.”

  “You can’t possibly believe him.” Ashleigh jumped up, knocking her champagne flute over with her flailing hand. “And you’re all wet. Go change, then we’ll talk.”

  Michael moved into the room. “I don’t care about my clothes, and I can’t wait to have this discussion. I didn’t want to do this here, but I guess we might as well get everything in the open. I was willing to give us one last chance, for the sake of our families, because of our history, because of all you’d been through because of me, but I realize now that I may not have been seeing you clearly. But I do now. You need help, Ashleigh, and I’ll do my best to help you get it. But us, we’re over. I’m done.”

  “Fine.” She placed a hand on her flat stomach. “I can see there’s no talking to you right now. Take the night and sleep on it, think about what you’re throwing away. I could make you very happy.”

  Elizabeth’s father stood and turned to her brother. “I’ve stayed quiet these past years, let you make your own decisions in your personal life, even when I worried Ashleigh may not be a good fit for you. You have to do what makes you happy, Michael, and I’ll stand behind you.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  Elizabeth’s mother joined her husband. “You can stay in one of the cottages tonight, Ashleigh. Then I suggest you return home to your parents. We’ll be calling them, letting them know of your arrival.”

  She pouted. “I can’t go home.”

  “Why not?”

  “They cut me off.”

  Mrs. Desmond’s expression hardened. “Well, that’s between you and your parents.”

  Tory chimed in. “You’re twenty-six. Ever considered getting a job, princess? Just a thought.” She smiled before popping a truffle in her mouth.

  “I don’t need this.” Ashleigh stood and turned to Michael. She wrenched the ring from her left hand and tossed it on the table. “I never loved you. You’re nothing to me.” Her eyes swept from one person to the next then rested on Michael. “If you’d choose to believe a nothing like Jeremy Engel over one of your own, you’re not worth the ground I walk on.” Nose in the air, she pushed past Elizabeth’s parents and click-clacked her way to the front of the house, the front door eventually slamming shut behind her.

  Claire grabbed the bottle of Dom Perignon from the silver ice bucket. “Champagne, anyone?”

  Michael grabbed his flute off the table. “Me first, if you don’t mind.”

  She poured his and turned to Elizabeth. “No?”

  Elizabeth shook her head and turned to her grandfather, stoic as ever throughout the unfolding drama. “Gramps, may I borrow your car?”

  “You going after that young man of yours?”

  “Yes, definitely.” She smiled through her tears. “If he’ll have me.”

  “The keys are under the driver’s side mat.”

  She accepted the brooch from her father then moved to give her grandfather a big hug, and Gram’s cheek a kiss.

  She gazed at her family. “I love you all. So much. But I love him, too, and I’m going after him.” She turned, not waiting for them to try to talk her out of it, but as she ran through the winding rooms to the front of the mansion, she heard her sisters and brother yell, “Go get him, Lizzie!”

  *

  Elizabeth’s heart pounded in her ears as she raced through her grandparent’s house. Jeremy had said he didn’t want her to choose. She didn’t want to, either. But she couldn’t just let him leave without knowing for sure he was okay, that he knew she believed him, that her family believed him…and that she loved him. If he didn’t want a future with her after everything that had transpired tonight, she’d be strong and respect his decision.

  She reached the entry and ripped open the front door to race onto the porch. She stopped short. Rain pelted down. She’d be soaked to the skin in seconds. She didn’t care. Eyes adjusted to the light, she navigated the slippery steps and splashed onto the driveway, her pumps likely ruined. But that didn’t matter. All that mattered was finding him.

  She searched the darkness for Gramps’ Caddy, dashing through the gathering puddles as she made her way along the line of cars. She sighed with relief when she reached it. She opened the driver’s side door, grabbed the key from its hiding spot, and started the engine. By a stroke of luck, she managed to locate the knobs for the headlights and windshield wipers then shifted into gear and she was on her way.

  As she drove carefully down the long driveway, she couldn’t help but replay the events from dinner in her mind. The sadness in his eyes when he’d said good-bye had ripped at her soul. She couldn’t bear to see him hurt. She had caused that pain. She’d brought him there when he’d told her over and over he didn’t have a good feeling about tonight.

  But he’d done it for her anyway.

  She slowed the Caddy, struggling to see through the heavy rain crashing onto the windshield in sheets, grateful she didn’t have to punch the code on the way out. She chewed on her lip, waiting until the gate opened and she could drive through. What if it was too late? What if he couldn’t take a chance on her after learning her family owned Starling mines? Or that his ex turned out to be a family friend? He’d said he didn’t blame her, but how could he not? And if he truly could forgive her, would his family be able to? She swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel harder. She had to think positive.

  Straight ahead, twin beams of light glared at her, a horn honking. She stopped on the narrow road, her breath stolen by fear for a millisecond as a figure exited the vehicle blocking her path, but then she saw that sexy walk she’d recognize anywhere lit up bright as day by a bolt of lightning.

  Heart beating triple time, she grabbed the item she’d dropped in the cup holder then scrambled out of the car.

  He shouted over the thunder. “Where are you going?”

  “You left,” she shouted back. “I had to find you.”

  Water dripped off his hair, his nose, his chin. He didn’t seem to care. “I had to think. Get my head together. When I did, I remembered this.” He opened the umbrella in his hand and held it over them, giving them shelter as the storm howled around them.

  She peered up at him through wet bangs and blinked. “Anything else?”

  Leaning closer, he tipped her chin up with an index finger to look deep into her eyes. “I came back because I realized I couldn’t leave the woman I love.”

  Had the last boom of thunder muffled his words, making her hear what her heart wished and not what he’d actually said?

  “Did you hear me?” he shouted, then leaned closer. “I love you. Completely. And I’m not going to give you up, even if your entire family hates me. I’ll convince them, one by one, that I deserve you.”

  She clutched his hand with both of hers to her soaked silk blouse. “They don’t hate you.”

  “No?”

  He gazed down at her with a heady mixture of tenderness and lust, his scent making it difficult to think straight. She released his hand, moving her hands to rest on the waist of his low-slung denims. “Michael confronted her. They’re not getting married. I don’t think he ever wanted to, just couldn’t figure out how to rid of her. She’s li
ke a leech.”

  “Really?” He didn’t sound surprised. “Michael and I spoke.” A smile tugged at his lips.

  “I see.” She stepped into his arms. “Does he hate you?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t think so.” He paused. “He said you love me.”

  “Does that scare you?”

  “No. I kinda like the ring of it. I’d rather hear it from you though.”

  She tugged on his shirt to lower his lips to hers. How she craved his kiss. She always would. “I love you, too.” She breathed, grabbing hold of the umbrella to allow him to move closer, hold her in his arms like she wanted.

  Needed.

  “I like the sound of that. I’ll never tire of hearing it.” He wrapped her in his embrace, warming her chilled skin, sliding his hot hands down the length of her back and cupping her ass through her wet skirt like he had that first night on the beach.

  This time, she didn’t back away but snuggled closer. “I think this belongs to you.” She held up his grandmother’s daisy brooch, his headlights reflecting off the gemstones.

  He tucked the pin in the pocket of his denims and crushed her close. A long moment later, he spoke against her ear. “I don’t want you living at that house anymore. Move in with me.”

  She nuzzled him, seeking his safety as the storm swirled around them. “I won’t cramp your style, bad boy?”

  “Baby, you are my style. One hundred percent. Now shut up and kiss me.”

  Epilogue

  ‡

  The following July, Jeremy leaned back in the gondola carrying Elizabeth and him to the summit of Little Whiteface Mountain. He took a deep breath. The course of his future all hinged on one little word from her today.

  Would it be yes?

  Or no?

  He was eager to start the next chapter of his life.

  “It looks so different in the summer.” Elizabeth leaned against the window closest to her seat opposite him. “Look, there’s a stream.” She pointed to the picturesque valley below. “Wow, there’s the village and Main Street, I think. Could that be my shop over there? I knew I should’ve brought binoculars. Oh, and there are the ski jumps.” She smiled at him then turned her attention to the east. “That’s Lake Champlain. This is so awesome. I’m impressed how much we can see from here. I’ve got to hand it to you, this date rivals our first at the drive-in. Remember that?” She winked at him.