by Lori Ryan
They waited twenty minutes, listening to Jesse shower, slam drawers, run the hair dryer. Twenty uncomfortable minutes of knowing Savannah knew what he’d done. She wasn’t stupid. He didn’t need to tell her why he was taking himself off the case. She’d know he was a hypocrite who didn’t follow his own rules.
The door to the bedroom opened and Jesse came into the living room, a whole lot of anger coming with her. Zach and Savannah stood. Was it wrong for Zach to be thinking how sexy and hot Jesse looked when she was pissed?
Yeah, that’s probably not right.
Jesse looked at Zach, then Savannah, then back to Zach.
“Really? A woman? Were you afraid if you sent in a man, I’d fuck him too?”
“That’s enough, Jesse,” he barked out.
“No. It’s not enough. And don’t talk to me like I’m a fucking child.” She ground the words out through clenched teeth.
Wow, she really sounds like a truck driver when she’s pissed. That shouldn’t be sexy. Should not be sexy. Damn it.
Jesse stormed to the door of the suite and wrenched it open. “The funny part is, you think I slept with you because I think you’re a hero, but I don’t. I think you’re a fucking coward who isn’t ready to face the fact that he has feelings for someone. Get out.”
Jesse stood by the door a full minute until Zach finally decided there wasn’t anything more he could say. This had been his screw-up. He’d have to live with the consequences. Right now, that meant having Jesse very pissed off at him. Maybe even hating him. Not taking his eyes off Jesse, he reached down for his duffle bag, slinging it over his shoulder.
“Savannah, I’ll call and check in later. Goodbye, Jesse.”
And, with that, Zach walked away from the most incredible woman he’d ever met.
Chapter Thirteen
Jesse watched the door close behind Zach and took two deep breaths. Then two more. Slowly, she turned to look at the suite and the woman who stood watching her. Jesse couldn’t believe someone had just witnessed that whole scene. A total stranger. She should be mortified, but she wasn’t. Right now, she was pretty far past caring about that.
Jesse picked up the hotel phone.
“Hello? This is Jesse Bradley. I need to move to a new room, please.”
Jesse was done with everything. Done staying in the room she’d shared with Zach. She was done hiding out in the penthouse suite with all its security and private elevators. She felt as if she were living in a gilded cage because she couldn’t handle the real world, and she was done with that.
“Is there a problem with your room, Ms. Bradley?” she heard on the other end of the line.
“No, no problem. I’d just like to downsize to a single room, please.”
“Will you be needing an adjoining room?” asked the voice.
“No. I don’t need an adjoining room. My bodyguard will no longer be staying here.”
“Very well, Ms. Bradley. I’ll make the arrangements and send someone up for your bags.”
“Can you give me an hour to pack, please?” Jesse asked, thankful it was a Sunday so she didn’t have to be at school today. She’d have time to figure things out, get settled into a new room.
“Yes, ma’am. That will be fine.”
Jesse hung up the phone and turned to Savannah.
“I’m afraid you can’t get rid of me that easily, Ms. Bradley,” Savannah said.
Ugh, she’s talking in that tone of voice reserved for crazy people. I’m not fucking crazy!
“You’re fired. Please leave,” Jesse said.
“I don’t work for you, ma’am. I work for Jack Sutton,” came the calm answer.
Jesse stared at the woman for a minute and then picked up her cell phone. She hit one of the pre-programmed numbers and waited for her brother-in-law to answer.
“Hi, Jack! It's Jesse.” She put on her bubbly, everything-is-great voice. She’d gotten good at that.
“Hey, Jess. It’s great to hear from you! How’re things there?” Jack asked.
“New York is great. School’s been wonderful. Just a few more months and I’ll be all set. How is the construction going on the bakery?”
“We’ve got the permits, and they broke through the outer wall. The windows look great. They built display cases right into some of the side windows, so they display straight out onto the street. It looks terrific.” Jesse could hear the enthusiasm in his voice and felt a surge of love for her brother-in-law. She felt guilty having to rush the conversation along, but she needed to get this bodyguard out of her way and try to eat herself out of the funk that was quickly taking over her.
“That’s great, Jack. I can’t wait to see it. Oh, hey Jack. Can you please call Zach’s company and tell them I don’t need their services anymore? I’m ready to try being on my own now.” She knew she’d get a fight from him but she was ready for it.
“Are you sure, Jesse? Is everything okay there? Zach told me he can’t work the case anymore, but said he was sending one of his best people to take over. Is there a problem with the new person? It sounded as if Zach had to go handle something else, but if this new person’s a problem, I can try to get Zach back or see if he can send someone else.”
“No, no problem. I’m just ready to try being on my own two feet again.” Jesse turned her back on Savannah. “I’ve been going out without Zach on occasion and things are fine. No panic attacks. Minor anxiety, but I can get through it. I’m just ready, that’s all.” Jesse held her breath, knowing she needed to convince Jack if she were going to get rid of Savannah.
Jack’s response came slowly, after a long pause.
“Okay. If that’s what you want. I’ll call Zach and let him know. But listen, you call me if you feel like you want them back. It’s no problem. I want you to be comfortable. Promise?”
Jesse smiled and turned back to Savannah. “I promise, Jack. I’ll call if I need them again. Thank you!”
Jesse hung up the phone and went to the door once again. She hoped for the last time.
“That’s it. You’ve been relieved of duty. You are officially fired. Now get out.”
Savannah picked up her bag and left without a word. Jesse took a deep breath. Alone. Finally. She leaned against the door and closed her eyes. She wanted to cry, but she’d had her five minutes. She’d pack her bags, move to her new room and then figure things out from there.
***
Jack frowned at the phone for a minute and then hit his wife’s name in the contacts.
“Hi, Jack,” came her sweet, sultry voice over the phone. The voice he’d never tire of hearing.
“Hey, sweetie. You feel up to a trip to New York? I thought we might grab Andrew and Jill and go visit Jesse for the weekend.” In reality, Jack wanted the girls to visit Jesse to make her feel better, and he wanted to pay a visit to Zach. Something wasn’t right. First, a message from Zach saying he couldn’t work the case, then an all-too-chipper call from Jesse saying she didn’t need a bodyguard anymore. Something was up, and Jack wasn’t going to let his sister-in-law deal with things on her own again. They’d all screwed up before when they failed to notice something was wrong with Jesse. He’d be damned if it was going to happen again.
Chapter Fourteen
Jesse had settled into her new room, called room service to order more food than she could possibly eat, gorged, showered again and was now watching Sixteen Candles on some crappy cable channel. And, beginning to feel like crying again. She really liked Zach. A lot.
Even though they hadn’t technically dated, they’d spent a lot of time together, and she didn’t want to think about what it would be like to be without him. She missed him. And she’d really hoped... Well, it doesn't matter what she’d hoped. It wasn’t gonna happen. Nothing was going to happen with Zach again.
And that sucked.
She was well past the cursing, angry stage and into wallowing in self-pity. If she didn’t have school in the morning, she’d see if Kelly could come pick her up for the weekend. Suddenly, Jesse want
ed her sister. She wanted a shoulder to cry on and someone to tell her it would be all right, even though she knew it wouldn’t.
A knock on the door startled Jesse, but the voice she heard through the door was even more surprising. Kelly.
“Jesse, it’s me. Me and Jill. Open up,” Kelly said.
Jesse ran to the door and threw it open.
“What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to travel, are you?” Jesse asked Kelly. At this stage of her pregnancy, Kelly wasn’t supposed to travel more than an hour away from home, so New York was a bit of a stretch.
Kelly brushed her off. “I’m not that far out of the no-fly zone, as Jack puts it. Besides, there was no way in hell I wasn’t coming when Jack told me something was wrong.”
Jesse couldn’t believe it. She thought she’d hidden everything from Jack on the phone. She took one more look at her sister and Jill standing in the doorway and lost it. She threw her arms around Kelly and let the tears flow. Kelly and Jill came in and flanked her on the couch, holding her hand as she told them how her day had begun.
“Oh, honey,” Jill said, squeezing Jesse’s hand when she had finished telling them how she’d kicked Zach out. “We’ve both been there. I know it hurts right now, but if it’s meant to be, things will work out. And, if it isn’t meant to be, you’ll heal. I promise you will. It just takes time.”
Jesse knew in her head Jill was right, but her heart felt as if it’d been run over by a Mack truck. She just wanted Zach to change his mind. To take back the words that showed he had no faith in her, no confidence in her to know what she felt, what she wanted. She wanted to rewind it all and somehow come out with a different ending. Because this ending just hurt too much.
***
Zach sat at the bar in the hotel lobby nursing a beer. Shoulders hunched, he stared down at the reflective surface of the polished mahogany bar. He wanted to kick himself for the way he’d handled things. If only he had been able to control himself until the job was over. He could’ve waited a couple months until Jesse was back into her routine and then connected with her again. He wouldn’t have had to worry that she was just projecting feelings of hero worship instead of having true feelings for him. He wouldn’t have to feel as if he'd betrayed Jesse. Like he’d betrayed Jack Sutton’s trust, a man who’d placed his trust in him with both his wife and his sister-in-law’s care. And he wouldn’t have to feel as if he’d lost the best woman ever to come his way.
Damn it. He wanted a shot with Jesse. A chance to see if there was something real there. To see where things could go with them. Because he had a feeling things could be great between them. And he’d lost that shot because he was too weak to keep his dick in his pants.
Savannah had called and told him Jack Sutton had supposedly let her go, but he hadn’t received a call from Jack yet so he’d wait for the official word. It was no less than he deserved though. A voice behind him pulled him out of his thoughts and had him shooting up off his bar stool.
“I don’t know, Jack. He looks like someone stole his favorite puppy. Maybe you should go easy on him,” Andrew Weston said as he leaned against the bar next to Zach.
Jack Sutton stood just inside the door, hands low on his hips, glaring daggers at Zach. The bar was empty, but the bartender watched them warily.
“Hey, Jack,” Zach said, running a weary hand through hair that looked as if it would fall out if he didn’t leave it alone soon.
Andrew stepped in front of Jack. “You look like shit, Zach. Wanna tell us what happened? I promise I’ll keep him on a leash for you.”
Zach heard a growl come from Jack, but he knew he deserved it.
“No,” Zach said.
“No?” Jack bellowed behind Andrew, but Andrew stood his ground and Jack didn’t move to get around him.
“No,” Zach repeated. “I don’t want to tell you what happened. I can’t tell you what happened. I won’t do that to Jesse.”
Now Jack moved and got right in his face. Zach didn’t move. Didn’t flinch.
“Seriously, Zach? You slept with her, didn’t you? I asked you to help her and you slept with her!”
“Uh, Jack,” came Andrew’s voice behind them, but Zach ignored it and apparently so did Jack because he stayed right in Zach’s face.
Zach didn’t say anything. He just waited for Jack to hit him. What the hell could he say? He’d fucked up so bad, there was no fixing it. That’s why the sound of Jack’s laughter shocked him so much. He looked up to see Jack laughing and Andrew grinning like a fool behind Jack.
“What?” Zach asked. “How is this funny?”
“Does she know you love her?” Andrew asked.
“Or were you too stupid to tell her?” Jack chimed in.
Zach just looked at them.
I’m an idiot.
“I’ll take that to mean, ‘no, you didn't tell her and yes, you’re an idiot.’” Jack walked over to one of the empty stools and sat down. He raised two fingers to the bartender and nodded at Zach’s beer indicating he wanted two beers for he and Andrew.
“Okay, spill it. If you didn’t tell her you love her, what did you tell her?” Jack asked.
“That I made a mistake. That I shouldn’t have taken advantage of her misplaced feelings of hero worship.” Zach winced as he said it, realizing how arrogant and idiotic the whole thing sounded.
Jack and Andrew were grinning like fools, confirming Zach’s worst fears.
“I really screwed up, huh?”
“Oh, yeah. This is like…new-diamond-necklace level of screw-up, not just flowers and a sad face,” Andrew said.
“Oh, no. This is groveling on the floor level,” added Jack.
Jack took out his phone and sent a text message.
“What are you doing?” Zach asked.
“Asking Kelly if it’s fixable,” came Jack’s answer just before the chime indicating a new text message. Jack winced.
“We’ve gone from crying to ticked-off and back twice already,” Jack read to Zach.
Three more texts came in quick succession, indicated by the tiny chimes going off one after the other without pause.
Jack read the stilted language of text messages. “Pretty bad. Maybe fix but needs to be something big. Think—” Jack stopped, not finishing the last text.
“Think what? What did she say?” Zach asked.
“Think she’s in love,” read Jack.
Zach grinned. “All right. Then I just have to figure out how to grovel, how to get her to listen to what an ass I am. How do I do that?” He looked back and forth at the other men expectantly.
Unfortunately, two very blank stares looked back at him.
“Um, we rescued our wives from crazed kidnappers. I don’t think you can use our approach,” Andrew said.
Zach sighed and fell back in his chair, head in his hands. He stayed that way for several minutes, until he knew what he had to do.
“I got it,” Zach said, standing and heading toward the door.
“You wanna run it by us?” Andrew asked.
“No time. I need to get to Jesse.” Zach kept going. He didn’t plan on stopping until he was with Jesse. Not even for his two biggest clients who could probably make or break his business. One of whom, with any luck, just might be his family someday. Nope. Not stopping for anyone.
Chapter Fifteen
Jesse had finally stopped the flow of tears. She, Kelly and Jill were now eating ice cream sundaes from room service and watching The Breakfast Club. It was apparently a John Hughes marathon day. Just as Ally Sheedy began filling in her landscape with dandruff, there came a knock on the door.
Jill and Kelly looked at each other.
“Probably Jack and Andrew,” Jill said. “I’ll get it, Kelly. You stay put.”
Kelly was eight months pregnant so she got dibs on keeping her seat.
Jill opened the door with Jesse following behind her. And there stood Zach, flanked by Andrew and Jack.
“Jesse,” Zach started, looking at her
with those sad brown eyes that could melt her heart in an instant. Jesse knew she should fight it, but she felt a flip of hope in her stomach and her heart started tap dancing in her chest. Or maybe that was all the ice cream and junk food she’d consumed in the last few hours.
“God, Jesse. I’m such an ass.”
“Wait, this is your idea of big? We said it needed to be big, Zach,” said Andrew from somewhere out in the hall.
“This isn’t big at all, Zach. When we said big, we meant a surprise of some sort. Jewelry. Flowers, at least. A poem. Something. I don’t think he gets it, Andrew,” came Jack’s reply.
“Jeez, Zach. You should have told us you needed help. We would have rented you a helicopter. A limo at the least. Something. Some way to whisk her away on a surprise vacation. Anything. Fuck, you went with nothing,” Andrew continued as Zach just stood, eyes on Jesse, looking more miserable than she’d ever seen him.
Kelly stood, with no small amount of effort, and waved her hands at the boys. “You two. That’s enough. Jess, we’ll take Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum here home so you guys can talk. And no arguing over who’s Tweedle Dum. It’ll only make you both look bad,” she added to Jack and Andrew as she ushered them out the door.
Jill and Kelly wrangled Jack and Andrew down the hall, and Jesse took a step back to let Zach in the room. She thought she’d feel angry, but her mad had long ago left the building. It was replaced by a big old case of relief and longing and hope.
Jesse watched as Zach seemed to collect himself.
“I screwed up, Jesse, and I’m so sorry. For the last month and a half, I’ve been telling myself the signs I saw from you were only because I was helping protect you. I kept telling myself it wasn’t real. And, at the same time, my feelings for you were getting stronger and stronger.” Zach took Jess’s hands in his. She let him but didn’t say anything. She just waited, watching.
“I was so incredibly happy when we made love, when you told me you felt the same way, but then I freaked. I just kept thinking you’d wake up a month from now or two months from now and realize you didn’t really love me. That you just fell for me because of the circumstances, and I knew I couldn’t take that. I wouldn’t be able to handle losing you. So I told myself you couldn’t possibly feel for me what I feel for you after such a short time.”
