“What do you mean you haven’t told him yet?”
Later that night Jessica stared down into the cup of coffee she held in her hand. She had her sister on speaker phone and Savannah hadn’t wasted any time giving her the third degree. “Jessica?”
She raised her eyes to the ceiling. This was worse than Savannah being here in person. Her tone was just that effective. “I hear you,” Jessica said, taking a sip of coffee. Moments later she added. “The timing has never been right. Every time I get ready to open my mouth, he says something sweet and I can’t bring myself to tell him.”
“Sounds like you’re making excuses.”
Jessica sighed deeply. She was. “It’s not easy, Savannah. I told you how I feel about him.”
“Yes, but in order to give him a chance to feel that same way about you, you have to be honest with him. Put all your cards on the table.”
Jessica gazed down into her cup of coffee again. Of course her sister was right. While having dinner with Chase that evening she had had at least two opportunities to come clean and tell him the truth, but had taken advantage of neither. “If I told him now, without proof of my grandfather’s innocence he might think the worst.”
“And what if you can’t prove your granddad was innocent, Jess? What then?”
Jessica didn’t want to think about that possibility. Both Darcy Evans and Theodore Henry were hiding something. She could feel it. She closed her eyes and saw the image of a very handsome Chase Westmoreland smiling at her. Then suddenly another image invaded. It was one of Chase angry at her. The sexy line of his mouth had transformed into a deep frown.
“Jess?”
Jessica opened her eyes again. “Yes?”
“You’re special, and no matter what the outcome might be, if he doesn’t see how special you are then you’re better off without him.”
“You think too highly of me, sis,” Jessica laughed as she pushed her coffee cup aside. She’d had enough caffeine for one day.
“Hey, I can say the same about you.”
For a long moment, neither said anything and then Jessica broke the silence. “You would like him,” she said quietly.
“Yes, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s already taken. You did say he has brothers didn’t you?”
Jessica grinned. “They’re taken as well, however he has some very good-looking single cousins.”
“Umm, maybe I should come for a visit.”
“You know,” Jessica said smiling. “Maybe you should.”
“Storm says you’re pretty serious about some woman.”
Chase glanced over at his cousin Quade who had made an unexpected visit to town. Quade worked behind the scenes for the Secret Service and his job protecting the president could take him anywhere. Chase took a sip of his beer before saying. “Storm talks too damn much.”
Quade smiled. “Maybe he does.” He thought a moment, then said, “So tell me…who is she and how did she manage to get under your skin?”
Chase shrugged one shoulder. Although he rarely saw Quade these days, that didn’t diminish their friendship, best buddies since childhood, who rarely kept secrets from each other. “Her name is Jessica Claiborne and she moved here from California. She used to be a corporate attorney but got fed up with corporate politics and decided to try her hand at baking instead. She owns a confectionary two doors down from the restaurant.”
Quade lifted a brow. “She gave up law to make candy?”
Chase sat back and smiled. “Yes.”
Quade shook his head. “That was some career move. I wondered what her parents thought of that.”
Chase spent the next ten minutes or so telling Quade about Jessica’s past and her bastard of a father. “That had to have been hard on her,” Quade said.
Chase nodded. “I’m sure it was, but, at least she had her grandparents.”
Quade sighed. “Yes. It sounds like they were good people.”
Chase thought of the woman who was beginning to mean a lot to him. “I’m glad they were there for her.”
Quade sat forward. “So how did she manage to capture your attention?”
Chase stood and walked to the window. He remain silent for a moment pondering Quade’s question. He turned from the window and shrugged broad shoulders. “Hell, that’s a good question, but she’s there, Quade, under my skin and the strange thing about it is that I sort of like her there.”
Chase saw the surprised smile that touched his cousin’s lips. “Next time I’m passing through I’d like to meet her.”
“You will,” Chase promised.
Ten
“What are you thinking about, Jessica?”
Jessica glanced up and met Chase’s gaze. She had been staring down at their clasped hands as they sat at a coffee shop in Lenox Square Mall, thinking how comforting it felt for her fingers to be intertwined in his.
A week and a half had passed since she’d had dinner with him at his home and each and every day she spent with him she was falling deeper and deeper in love. But hanging over her head was the fact that she wasn’t being completely honest with him.
Theodore Henry had gotten downright rude and even threatened to file harassment charges if she tried contacting him again. That meant her only hope was Darcy Evans, who hadn’t returned any of her calls. She would make it her business to talk to the woman again.
She knew Chase was waiting for an answer, so she forced a smile and said, “Umm, I was just thinking about what a close-knit family you have.” And she really meant that. Chase had invited her to a Monday-night football party at Jared and Dana’s home to see the Falcons play the Cowboys. They had watched the game on Jared’s state-of-the-art home-theater system. She had met Chase’s parents and reacquainted herself with some of the family members she had met previously. And she had finally met his sister Delaney and her husband Sheikh Jamal Ari Yasir.
He smiled. “Yes, I have to admit that we are that. I can’t imagine it being any other way.” He leaned closer to her. “But you and your siblings are close, too, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “Yes. Savannah and Rico are great. Jennifer has a sister and a brother but they’re standoffish. They think she went a little too far including me in her family. After all, I’m the product of her husband’s affair.”
“You were also her husband’s child. Besides, her husband’s wrongdoing wasn’t your fault. I think it was admirable of her to accept that and do what she did. But I know that many women’s pride would not have let them do it.”
Jessica nodded again. “Yes, I know, and that’s what makes her so special to me. She made it her business to include me as part of Savannah’s and Rico’s life and I appreciate her for it. It really helped after Mom died.”
“I’m sure it was hard on your grandparents to lose your mother that way.”
Jessica sighed deeply. “Yes, she was their only child. For a while my grandfather blamed himself for not finding out about my father sooner. Another part of him questioned whether he had done the right thing at all by hiring that investigator and telling my mother the truth. He never thought she would take her life over it.”
Jessica didn’t say anything for a while, then added, “For the longest time I was bitter and resented her for what she did, leaving me alone. I had to go through grief counseling to let go finally and realize that the love my mother had for my father was an obsession and a sickness. That’s when I promised myself that I would never get that caught up over a man.”
Chase tightened his fingers around Jessica’s as he once again thought about the relationship they shared. He had to admit that the past couple of weeks had been pretty darn special. They had attended a laser show on Stone Mountain, played tennis together twice and she had watched Chase’s Crusaders clinch another win one week only to lose big-time the next. Last Sunday evening, a pack of them led by Thorn had taken their Thorn-Byrd motorcycles on the road to ride all the way to Augusta for dinner. No one in the family had seemed surprised that he’d brough
t Jessica along, nor had anyone questioned him about the amount of time the two of them were spending together. His family had accepted that they were now an item. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
“More coffee?”
They both glanced up at the waiter who was making his rounds. “No thanks,” Chase replied, releasing Jessica’s hand to glance at his watch. “In fact, I’d appreciate our bill now.”
When the waiter left, Chase smiled over at Jessica. “Thanks for going shopping with me.”
She chuckled. “There aren’t many people I know, men specifically, who do early Christmas shopping. You still have two months left.”
Chase grinned. “Yes, but like you said, I have a large family. Besides, giving out gift cards makes it easy. The kicker is trying to decide what stores they like best.” His grin widened. “The saying ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ doesn’t always apply in my family.”
After finishing their coffee they walked around the mall again. Although there were two months lefts before Christmas, many of the stores already had their holiday decorations up.
“This place is like a madhouse the day after Thanksgiving. You’ll have to come with me that Friday to see what I mean. But the crowd puts me in the Christmas spirit.”
Jessica suddenly felt breathless. Thanksgiving was a month away. That he assumed they would still be together had her walking on air. But she quickly came back down to earth when she thought of what was still lurking over her head. She decided to pay Darcy Evans another visit tomorrow. She had to give it one more try before finally telling Chase the truth.
Jessica was grateful Mrs. Stewart had agreed to work a full day so that she could make the trip to Macon to pay Darcy Evans another visit. She hated being a nuisance, but she was determined to give it another try to see if perhaps there was something the woman wasn’t telling her.
Darcy wasn’t at home but an older woman—Darcy’s mother—told her that Darcy owned a hair salon not far away. Thirty minutes later Jessica was parking in front of Darcy’s Beauty Box.
Jessica knew the moment she walked into the shop and her gaze connected with Darcy that the woman was surprised to see her. “Ms. Evans, how are you?” she asked, extending her hand. The set-up of the shop was very chic. Jessica was glad there was only one customer sitting under the hair dryer, who wouldn’t be able to overhear their conversation.
“Why are you here?” Darcy asked, reluctantly accepting the hand Jessica offered. “I thought we finished our discussion the last time we talked.”
A wry smile touched Jessica’s lips. “I was hoping that perhaps you might have remembered something else since then.”
“No, there’s nothing else. I told you everything I know.”
“Are you sure?”
Darcy tore her gaze from Jessica’s and glanced around the room, looking anywhere other than Jessica’s eyes. “Yes, I’m sure.”
Jessica still wasn’t completely certain and decided to try another angle. She didn’t want to push but she needed the truth. “Do you believe my grandfather passed those recipes on to someone who worked at Schuster’s, Mrs. Evans?”
Darcy’s eyes snapped back to hers. “No, of course not. He was one of the most honest men that I knew. I felt bad when Mr. Westmoreland accused him of doing that.”
Jessica lifted a brow. “You were there the day it happened?”
“No. Your grandfather and Mr. Westmoreland had an argument and then your grandfather quit. But he and Mr. Westmoreland were such good friends we all assumed he would be coming back.”
Jessica nodded. “Do you remember what the argument was about?”
She watched as the woman tore her gaze away from her again. A few moments passed then she said quietly, “It was about me.”
Jessica wasn’t sure she’d heard her correctly. “About you?”
The woman nodded. “I was going through a difficult time. My son Jamie who was only eighteen months old at the time was constantly sick, which kept me from work a lot. And when I was there I was so preoccupied worrying about him I was beginning to get my orders messed up.”
Darcy inhaled deeply as if remember that time. “Some of the customers started complaining to Mr. Westmoreland. Your grandfather knew how much I needed my job to pay for Jamie’s medical bills and asked Mr. Westmoreland to give me another chance. They argued about it. Then I heard your grandfather walked out.”
The woman shook her head regretfully. “I felt bad about everything. But Paula Meyers, who had worked with your grandfather and Mr. Westmoreland a lot longer, told me not to worry about it because your grandfather had quit before after having words with Mr. Westmoreland and would be back. When two weeks went by and he didn’t return, I got worried and started blaming myself.”
Jessica’s eyes began softening. All it took was a close look at Darcy Evans to know she was still blaming herself. “I think my grandfather and Mr. Westmoreland would have eventually patched up things, too,” she decided to say. “But a couple of things happened right after that. My mother had to be hospitalized for pneumonia and my grandparents flew to California to take care of me.”
Jessica smiled, remembering. “While they were there I think they decided that my mom and I needed them closer, especially when they couldn’t talk her into moving to Atlanta. They returned home a week or so later and my grandfather found out about Mr. Westmoreland’s accusations. His integrity had been questioned by someone he considered a good friend and he was hurt. Nothing he said to Mr. Westmoreland could prove his innocence, and I think that was one of the reasons he felt moving to California was best for everyone.”
For a long moment neither she nor Darcy said anything. But Jessica could swear the older woman had an odd look on her face. And if she wasn’t mistaken, it was a guilty one. “Are you sure there isn’t anything else you can tell me, Ms. Evans?”
For a brief moment Darcy didn’t answer, and then she said, “No, there’s nothing else.”
Jessica still didn’t believe her. “It’s important to me that if you do remember anything you contact me. I’m caught in the middle of a bad situation right now.”
Darcy lifted a brow. “What kind of a bad situation?”
Jessica knew she had to be completely honest with Darcy and hoped the woman would eventually tell her whatever she was holding back. “I’ve fallen in love with Scott Westmoreland’s grandson Chase.”
Darcy nodded. “He’s the one that owns that restaurant in downtown Atlanta, right?”
Jessica smiled. “Yes, that’s right.”
“I always knew he would be the one who would eventually follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He would hang around the restaurant and help out more than any of the others. He always seemed like a nice young man.”
Jessica smile widened. “He is. We’ve been seeing each other for about three weeks now, but he doesn’t have any idea that I’m Carlton Graham’s granddaughter.”
Darcy raised a surprised brow. “He doesn’t?”
“No. Because of what happened all those years ago, bad blood was left between the two families. I promised my grandmother before she died that I’d prove my grandfather’s innocence to the Westmorelands and end the feud.” She inhaled deeply. “I hadn’t planned on meeting and falling in love with Chase.”
Darcy nodded. “But surely something that happened years ago wouldn’t keep the two of you apart.”
Jessica smiled wryly. “It might. He was pretty close to his grandfather and I can tell he’s still pretty bitter about the entire thing. Besides, honesty means a lot to Chase. I should have told him who I was from the beginning. But I wanted to prove my grandfather’s innocence before doing that. Now I can see I made a mistake in waiting.”
“What will you do now?”
“Tell him the truth and hope he believes me. Hope he’s willing to put the past behind us and move on.”
Darcy didn’t say anything for a few moments, then asked, “Do you think he will?”
“God, I hope so.
”
Chase glanced down at his watch thinking Jessica should have returned by now. He had stopped by the shop at closing time to let her know that he had to leave town unexpectedly, and found Mrs. Stewart was still there. The only thing she would tell him was that Jessica had an errand to run and she didn’t expect her back before seven o’clock that night.
He couldn’t help wondering what sort of errand Jessica had to do that could have kept her away from the shop practically all day. He glanced around when he heard a knock at his office door. “Who is it?”
“Donna.”
“Come in.”
He watched his most dependable waitress walk nervously into the room. In the months she had worked for him he’d never known Donna to be nervous about anything. But a part of him saw beyond that. For a split second he could see a hint of sadness behind those big brown eyes of hers.
When she didn’t say anything he decided to urge her on. “Donna, what can I do for you?”
She looked away, hesitated, then she said, “I came to give you this.”
Chase’s eyes brows shot up when she handed him a piece of paper she had in her hand. It took him a quick second to scan it. His eyes widened, and he lifted his gaze, giving her a surprised look. “You’re quitting?”
She looked away again and shrugged her shoulders. “Yes. I like working here but I need to start going to school full-time if I ever want to finish. I got a letter yesterday from a college in Tennessee offering me a scholarship to finish my last two years, and I’ve decided to take it.”
Chase smiled. Although he regretted losing Donna, he knew that was an offer that was too good to pass up. Opportunities like that didn’t come often. “I’m happy for you, Donna.”
At last a smile touched her lips. “Thanks. I’m pretty happy for myself. I keep rereading the letter to make sure I’m not dreaming. They want me to start in January, which means I’ll have to pack up and move. With the holidays coming up I didn’t want to leave you in a fix, and I wanted to let you know now, although I can probably work another month.”
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