“The new computer lab is working out great,” the man told them. “I’d love to have you visit the kids when school is in session.”
Owen inclined his head. “I’ll check my schedule in the fall.”
“Great.” The man threw a questioning look at Jenny but didn’t ask for an introduction. Owen didn’t offer one. Jenny wasn’t sure why that small oversight grated on her nerves. If the guy was a friend of Owen’s, someone to visit on his next trip to Hastings, it made sense that Owen wouldn’t want to involve her. She wouldn’t be part of his life at that point.
Yet she could no longer fool herself into believing she didn’t want to be.
“Who was that?” she asked after the man walked away.
“Tom MacFarlane,” Owen answered. “He was a year behind me in school, and now he’s the head of the math department at Hastings High School.”
“Where you donated the money for a computer lab?”
Owen paused with his hand on the bar’s front door. “Among other things,” he said quietly. “Tom asked and I was happy to help.”
Before she could question him further as to what other things, he opened the door and foot-stomping country music along with a cacophony of voices drowned out anything she would have said.
They were ushered into the back to a private dining room where Kristin and Jack were holding court among their friends. The atmosphere immediately cooled several degrees, which Jenny couldn’t understand. Back in Colorado, Owen was a well-loved member of the local community, known for his down-to-earth attitude and easygoing manner.
The reason became clear as the meal progressed. They’d been seated at the end of the table furthest from the bride- and groom-to-be. Owen was deep in conversation with Brandt Tomlison, a sheriff’s deputy in Hastings and one of the few people at the table who didn’t seem to view Owen as the enemy.
Jenny turned to the deputy’s wife, Missy. “Have you lived in Hastings all your life?”
The curvy woman with dark hair pulled into a neat ponytail nodded. “Actually, I was in Owen’s grade. We only had classes together through middle school because he was in all the advanced courses during high school.” She smiled. “He probably doesn’t even remember, but the only reason I passed seventh grade math is because he let me copy his answers on the final exam.”
Jenny felt her eyes widen. “Owen cheated?”
Missy took a deep breath. “My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer that year and I was kind of a mess. Owen didn’t say much about it—none of the kids did—but he helped me.”
Of course, Jenny thought. Owen had cheated to rescue someone in need. Always the white knight.
Missy glanced at her husband and Owen across the table. “It’s why I had so much trouble believing the things Jack said about him.”
A trickle of apprehension skittered across Jenny’s skin. “What things?”
“Nothing horrible,” Missy said quickly. “Jack thinks success made Owen’s ego inflate.”
Jenny actually laughed at that. Owen was the least egotistical man she’d ever met, especially given how much he’d accomplished in life.
Missy smiled. “I know. It seems odd now that we’ve spent some time with Owen—I think Jack got it wrong.”
Jenny thought Jack was an asshole.
“What else did Jack say about Owen?” Jenny asked.
“A few offhand comments about how Owen thought he was better than the rest of us. That’s the reason he never came back to visit.” She twirled her wine glass between two fingers. “When he first came home, Jack was trying to set up a nonprofit to help injured soldiers, and he’d gone to Owen for funding. Owen said he didn’t want anything to do with this town.”
“Owen would never make a comment like that.”
“Right?” Missy leaned forward, as if sharing a big secret. “Once we found out how much Owen had given the school—he’s paid for new computers, a sound system for the theater, and a scoreboard for the football field—it made even less sense. I guess he donated all that money with the stipulation that it be kept anonymous.”
“But everyone knows?”
Missy shrugged. “It’s a small town. I think Jack was pissed, but then it became personal. He said Owen refused to fund his business because of hard feelings from when they were kids. I mean, Owen wouldn’t even agree to be part of the wedding party.”
“He wasn’t asked to be in the wedding,” Jenny said, not bothering to hide her disgust at the way Jack had tried to poison the town against Owen.
“Seriously?” Missy let out a little gasp. “But they’re brothers.”
“Yes,” Jenny agreed, “and Owen is still here supporting his brother despite the purposeful snub.” She glanced to the end of the table and met Jack’s gaze. By the way his jaw clenched, she figured he must know what she and Missy were discussing. “Do me a favor,” she said, “and let people know the truth of the situation.” She flashed Jack a saccharine-sweet smile that she hoped he knew was her appropriate-for-public-consumption version of flipping him the bird. “I don’t want to cause trouble, but Owen isn’t the man he’s been made out to be.”
“Sure, honey.” A small smile curved Missy’s lips. “Jack Dalton has always been a little too big for his britches if you ask me.”
Jenny’s head jerked back. “Too big for your britches” was one of her mom’s favorite phrases. In fact, to Mona Castelli, it was the worst criticism she could give someone. It felt strangely prescient to hear the words at this moment.
“I’m going to the restroom for a minute,” she said and stood. Owen threw her a questioning look from across the table but she smiled and said, “I’ll be right back.”
This situation was becoming more complicated by the second. Again, she wished she could call her mother to ask for advice.
Kendall, Sam, and Chloe were too close to Owen to give unbiased feedback, which left only one person to call. She bypassed the bathrooms and let herself out onto the narrow alley behind the bar. The smell of old liquor and rotting food hit her hard in the thick air, so she quickly dialed Dina’s number.
Dina picked up on the first ring. “It was a tiny kitchen fire,” she said by way of greeting. “I’ve already repainted the wall behind the stove. Seriously, you need new appliances. John came over and helped with the kids while I—”
Jenny pressed a hand to the rough brick of the building’s back wall, reminding herself to stay focused and grounded in this moment. “Dina, stop.”
Silence on the other end of the line.
“I didn’t call because of the fire.” Jenny gave a laugh that she hoped didn’t sound as hysterical as it felt. “Or because you let your dirtbag husband into my house.”
“John has been really great,” Dina argued quietly. “Did Trent get a hold of you?”
Jenny’s mind went blank. “Was Trent looking for me?”
There was a pause and then Dina said, “He left a couple of messages. He sounded pretty intent on speaking to you.”
“No,” Jenny answered numbly. Trent could only want one thing, and the thought of him coming after Cooper sent another wave of panic running through her. But now wasn’t the time for a baby-daddy freak-out. She’d deal with Trent when she returned to Colorado. “I’m not calling because of Trent.”
“Oh.” Dina’s voice was hopeful. “Did you call just to talk? Because we’re friends?”
“Not exactly,” Jenny muttered. “Well, maybe. I called because I’m in over my head here and—”
“Yeah,” Dina interrupted. “The trials of dating a bajillionaire. Woe is you.”
“Um . . .” Jenny had made a categorical error in calling her uninvited houseguest. She’d forgotten that Dina didn’t know about her arrangement with Owen. Hell, she’d forgotten the relationship wasn’t real. “Let me call you back.”
“You’re fine, Jenny,” Dina said. “I saw the way Owen looked at you. That man is head over heels. There’s nothing that’s going to tear the two of you apart.”
Then she heard the door to the back of the building creak open.
Jack Dalton stood in the entrance for a moment, silhouetted in the shadowed glow from the hallway. He took a step toward her, letting the door bang shut. Night had fallen in earnest, and the only light in the alley came from a streetlamp in its opening. It was difficult to make out the look in Jack’s blue eyes, but from the stiff line of his shoulders, he hadn’t followed her out to ask advice on his wedding vows.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jack moved closer and she instinctively took a step back. “Take a wrong turn?”
“I could ask you the same question,” she answered. “If you’re looking for someone to kiss your ass, you’ve come to the wrong place.”
White teeth flashed in the encroaching darkness. “I guess the stereotype about redheads and their tempers is true in your case.”
“Maybe,” she said evenly. “Or maybe I got an earful about the lies you’ve been spreading around town.”
He didn’t bother to deny it. “So what? Hastings is nothing to my brother. Christ, he’s famous all over the world. This is my place.”
“This town is important to Owen,” she argued. “He loves every member of your family, and you treat him like he’s dirt on the bottom of your shoe.”
“Let him use his money to throw a big fucking pity party for himself,” Jack shot back.
Jenny’s temper spiked even harder. She moved toward Jack, unwilling to let his size or anger intimidate her. “Do you realize how big of an asshole that makes you? Owen has spent his whole life trying to fit in to your family and the long shadow you cast. I’m not sure he can even appreciate his success because it doesn’t make him you.”
“I bet Owen’s not the only one who wishes he was more like me,” Jack drawled, then easily caught Jenny’s hand as she reached up to slap him. “And you’ve only heard one side of the story. I spent my whole damn life working my ass off to prove I was worth something. It all came so damn easy to Owen.”
“What?” she asked. “What came easy? Being left behind on family vacations? Never having your father’s approval?”
Jack snorted. “Is that what he told you? Give me a fucking break. Owen didn’t go on vacations because he was sick and Mom coddled him. Dad still talks about how brilliant Owen is to anyone who will listen. Since I came back from the marines, he doesn’t say crap about me.”
Jenny knew from growing up with Ty and his brother and sister that siblings often had different views on how childhood events played out. But the way Owen described his family had seemed so cut-and-dried.
“Your father is proud of your military career,” she said, her temper somewhat appeased by Jack’s unnerving reaction. “You’re just like him.”
“Right. Just like him.” His face went as hard as a sheer mountain cliff. “You know, Red, things aren’t always as they seem.”
“Is this a private conversation or can anyone join you in the foul-smelling alley?”
Jenny jumped away from Jack at the sound of Owen’s voice, shaking off his brother’s grasp and moving quickly toward the door where Owen stood. “I called Dina to check in on things at the house,” she told him, but he was looking past her to his brother.
Another time when Owen had looked past her to a man flashed through her mind. A fund-raiser more than two years ago when she’d grabbed the meatstick guy who’d been eyeing her all night and kissed him at exactly the moment she knew Owen would find her.
God, she never again wanted to witness the look she’d seen in Owen’s eyes. She couldn’t make out their dark depths in the alley, but it killed her to think he believed she would make a move on his brother. Would she ever be able to regain his trust?
All she wanted was Owen, but she had no right to him. No business making demands or promises when she was bound to disappoint them both, purposely or not. This moment was another stellar example of that.
“Are we good, Jack?” The “I don’t give a fuck” tone of Owen’s voice was at odds with the question.
“Never better, Owen,” came the reply from the darkness. Jack hadn’t turned around, and stood with his hands on his hips.
Jenny felt Owen begin to surge forward, and threw her arms around his waist. “Take me home.” All the emotions swirling through her seeped into her voice. “Please.”
He stilled for a moment, then grabbed her hand and hauled her down the hall.
“My purse,” she said on a gasp as he moved through the crowded bar toward the front door.
“I’ll pull the car around while you get it,” he said without looking at her.
“Owen, you know I wasn’t—”
“Just get the damn purse, Jenny.”
He stalked away from her, maneuvering through clusters of people until she lost sight of him.
She pressed her knuckles to her chest, ruing the pain she’d once caused him. At the same time, it stung to think that he might believe she’d repeat that moment of selfish stupidity or that she hadn’t regained his trust.
Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Jack hadn’t followed them out of the alley, she entered the private dining room and grabbed her purse from the back of her chair.
“Owen and I need to leave,” she said to Missy. At the head of the table, Kristin was deep in conversation with the woman Jenny recognized from the bridal shower as her maid of honor. “Would you make our excuses to the happy couple?”
“Sure, honey,” Missy said, gently squeezing Jenny’s arm. “You take care of Owen. We’re real proud of him around here.”
Jenny forced a weak smile, then hurried back into the bar, keeping her eyes trained in front of her. Like most things in life, there was nothing else to do but move forward and hope the moment would pass.
Owen’s rented SUV waited at the curb. He was the type of stand-up guy who would never stop being a gentleman, no matter how angry he was. She climbed in and as soon as her seat belt was buckled, he hit the accelerator.
There was so much she wanted to say to him, but all of her words felt inadequate. She felt inadequate, and so she let the silence swallow her until she was drowning in it.
Owen didn’t speak during the short drive back to the rental house. He parked in the driveway and handed the house key to Jenny as they met at the front of the SUV.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand. “I need a minute,” he said and stalked around the side of the house, the motion-sensor lights illuminating a path. He kept moving until he stood at the edge of the woods that bordered the far edge of the lawn.
He took several deep breaths of the sultry summer night air, something he hadn’t been able to do as a boy for fear an allergy-induced asthma attack would wrap like a fist around his lungs.
He was no longer that helpless kid, but returning to his hometown sent him reeling back decades at every turn. Tonight’s highlight was reliving the moment he’d caught his then fiancée cheating on him with his brother.
A low point he’d thought at that time, but surprisingly it hadn’t compared to the more recent heartbreaking discovery of Jenny kissing another man at a fund-raising event when she’d been his date. He knew charity functions and the rarefied social circles he sometimes found himself traveling through weren’t her cup of tea, but he’d been so damn proud to have her on his arm. He’d fostered the foolish belief that being together was enough to make any situation palatable.
“Nothing happened between your brother and me,” she said a moment later, as if he’d conjured her like a citrus-scented ghost out of the darkness. He continued to stare into the dark shadows of the trees. Crickets chirped and the thick, earthy odor of underbrush filled the air.
“I know,” he said, giving her a sidelong glance.
In the soft moonlight, her skin looked like alabaster and made the pink of her
sweet mouth appear even more delectable. He wanted to pull her to him, rake his fingers through her thick hair, and pretend that nothing mattered but the two of them.
Christ, her beauty slayed him.
She eased closer, nudged him with her elbow. “Then why are you back here sulking?”
He knew she was teasing, trying to ease the tension, but he couldn’t snap out of his dark mood.
“Feel free to leave,” he said, not caring that he sounded like a complete dick. “If you’re finished bonding with Jack, my parents are probably still awake. I’m sure they’d love to see you for some late-night laughs at my expense.”
He heard her sharp intake of breath, then she disappeared from the periphery of his vision.
He’d finally done it—used his messed-up family history to push away the one woman he wanted to keep close. Jenny had been different this time around—softer and more open to the connection that still held between them. He’d actually started to believe she agreed that what was between them deserved a second chance.
A moment later the heat of her body pressed against the fabric of his linen shirt. She wrapped her arms around his waist, inching her hands under the hem to splay across his skin, erotic and unexpected. He could feel the rise and fall of her chest and allowed his own breathing to slow until it matched hers.
“There is nowhere I’d rather be than here with you. You and Cooper are the only things that matter to me.”
His eyes drifted closed as her words washed over him like the cool shower of a summer rain, washing clean all the broken and bleeding places inside of him.
Her voice dropped even further as she said, “Even if you’re acting like a dick.”
He felt his mouth curve. This woman was something special.
“Thank you for the reality check,” he told her, and turned away from the woods so that he faced her. She tipped up her chin and smiled, but there was a wariness in it.
“Jack and I were arguing,” she said.
“I don’t want to talk about my brother.”
“I need you to know there was nothing more to it,” she insisted. “I need you to believe me.”
Meant for You Page 19
