He hadn’t liked to be told no as a teenager, which had led to his ardent pursuit of Jenny. At the time, she’d been flattered by his tenacity. Now it made him seem like a spoiled brat.
“What do you want, Trent?”
“Your little lecture at the reunion got to me, Jennifer. I’m here for my son.”
Every mama-bear instinct Jenny had went into overdrive. She straightened and stalked toward Trent. “No way,” she said through her teeth. “That isn’t how this shit works, buddy.” She jabbed a finger into his chest, satisfaction bursting at the smear of dirt she left on his bright white shirt. “You don’t get to prance in here and pretend like you haven’t been a deadbeat dad for the past twelve years.”
“Of course I do,” he returned, brushing at his shirtfront. “It’s what you wanted.” He leaned in closer. “Or were you just busting my balls? I went home and told my other kids they’d soon be meeting their older brother. You wouldn’t want me to break their little hearts?”
Panic cut off her breath. “I don’t—”
“What about Cooper?” he continued. “The boy needs a father.”
“He has Owen,” she said, even though it was no longer true. She’d walked away from Owen today, and a sad, sorrowful part of her knew it was for the last time.
As much as she hated to admit it, Trent was right. Everything Jenny had learned about Owen’s family and the truth her mother had revealed about Jenny’s father coalesced in her mind and her heart. How would it have changed her life or who she believed herself to be if she’d known her father hadn’t abandoned her? What would be different for Owen if he understood the circumstances of his birth and the choices his parents had made to protect him?
No matter what she wanted and in spite of the doubts that still circled through her, she had to do what was best for Cooper. If Trent wanted the chance to be a father to him, how could she stand in his way? “Okay,” she said with more calm than she felt. Her heart was racing inside her chest. Every cell in her body urged her to fight or run. To keep Cooper all to herself. But she kept talking. “We have to do this the right way. You have another family, but Cooper is my only priority. I want to start slow.”
Shock flashed in his eyes. As if he couldn’t believe she’d acquiesced so quickly. His gaze shifted away but not before she’d seen something that looked like guilt replace the shock.
“What?” she demanded.
“I . . . uh . . .” He stepped away from her. “I didn’t expect you to agree.”
“Then why are you here? Does your wife know you’re here?”
He kicked at an invisible rock on the barn floor and refused to look at her. But she’d seen enough guilt etched into this man’s features to recognize it a mile away. He wasn’t there for Cooper.
“I’m in town for business,” he answered. “She doesn’t—”
“What the hell is going on, Trent?” Jenny had trouble controlling her tone.
“I thought you’d fight me harder.” He laughed without humor. “Based on our run-in at the reunion and the fact that you haven’t returned my calls, I figured there’d be no way to convince you.”
Yet she’d blindly trusted that he was finally doing the right thing. After spurning her when she was pregnant and pretending their son didn’t exist for all these years, she’d believed his intentions were good.
“Get the hell out of here,” she told him, almost as angry with herself as she was with him.
He shook his head. “You’re going to need to give me some incentive to leave.”
“Is that what you think? After all this time, I have something to give you? Look around, dumbass.” She threw out her arms and turned a circle on the hard dirt floor. “I don’t have anything.” The only thing of value in her life was Cooper.
“You have access to Owen Dalton.”
Jenny dropped her hands to her sides, her whole body going still. “No.”
“There are rumors going around the tech world that he’s working on something new.” His brow arched. “Something big with regards to the Department of Defense.”
She thought about the military technology Owen was working to develop. The project had him at odds with his board, his management team, and even his own inner north star. From what she understood, the Labyrinth Web had the potential to change the way troops communicated in combat situations, but it might cost him everything he’d worked for until now.
“I don’t know anything.”
“You’re lying,” Trent said, his voice low and deceptively gentle. “I need the information.”
“What does it matter?” she demanded. “Why is this so important to you?”
He shrugged. “My company has DOD contracts and relationships already in place. If I can figure out how Dalton Enterprises is positioning this big reveal, we might be able to partner with them on bringing it to market. I had a couple of deals fall through, and my boss . . . let’s just say I need a win.”
“I’m not going to give it to you,” she said through clenched teeth. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I’m not one of Owen’s employees. If your company has a business proposition for him, take it through the proper channels.”
“I saw the way he looked at you,” Trent said. “You can have anything you want from him. I don’t have time for the proper channels. I need a win, and I need it soon. Find a way to get information on his new technology. Something my company can use.”
“Or what?”
“I have rights as a father,” he said. “I will make myself a part of Cooper’s life and—”
“You should want to be a part of his life anyway,” she screamed, no longer able to keep her temper at bay. She stalked toward him, stopping only when they were toe to toe. Just barely holding herself back from smacking the hell out of him. “You have an amazing son, Trent.” She forced her voice to a lower tone. “He’s smart and funny and has the biggest heart of anyone I know. How can you use him like this when you don’t even know him?”
“This has nothing to do with Cooper,” he shot back. “You tried to trap me into marrying you.”
The breath left her lungs in a whoosh, her anger extinguished suddenly like a flame denied oxygen. All that was left was the charred remains of her blackened self-respect. “That’s not true. My pregnancy was an accident.”
“Sure it was.” His lip curled. “It would have been quite a coup for you and your mother to tie yourselves to my family.”
“You were the one so intent on having sex with me, Trent. I didn’t realize I was just a piece of ass to you. I thought you loved me. I thought you would have done the right thing without being forced.” She swallowed against the disgust rising in her throat. “For your baby.”
“It would have ruined me.” He leaned in, anger flashing in his eyes. “You would have ruined me.”
“No.”
“I don’t care if he’s a great kid. Cooper was a mistake we both made. I handled it the best way I knew how.”
The crack of her hand against his cheek echoed in the silence of the barn. “Don’t you ever use the word mistake in the same sentence as my son’s name. You pretended he didn’t exist. That’s not handling anything. That’s being a coward.”
He pressed two fingers to his cheek and winced. “I’d been recruited to play football at Notre Dame. A baby would have changed everything.”
“I get how becoming a parent changes things,” she fired back. “I was the one raising him.”
He shrugged. “If you would have listened to me and gotten an ab—”
“Get out!”
“You have until end of business tomorrow.”
She wanted to hit him again. She would have liked to claw out his eyes, rip him limb from limb until he disappeared into pieces so small they couldn’t hold sway over her.
“I will never let you see Cooper,” she said. “Not when I know you just want to use him.”
“You know how to make sure that happens.” He turned and walked out of the barn, the heavy
door slamming shut behind him.
Jenny sank to her knees on the dusty ground. She wrapped her arms around her waist and leaned forward, unable to catch her breath. How was she going to untangle this mess without hurting either Cooper or Owen? It would destroy her son to learn that his father was only interested in using him as a pawn in some kind of scheme to salvage his own career. She could never let that happen.
But she couldn’t tell Owen about Trent’s demand. He was already bailing her out of her current financial crisis with the ring still tucked into the top drawer of her dresser. She couldn’t ask him for more when she couldn’t give him anything in return. Not when her goal had been to finally make it on her own.
Attending the reunion had been one more stupid decision added to her long list of mistakes. What had she thought she would prove to anyone? Her big plan to confront Trent had blown up in her face, and now it had given him an entry back into her life.
She’d told herself she would do anything to build the life Cooper deserved. What price would she pay in the end?
“You love her.”
“So what?” Owen called over his shoulder, then concentrated on pulling air in and out of his lungs as he pedaled his mountain bike up the dirt path deep in the foothills west of Denver.
“So stop being such an asshat”—Ty panted as he moved just ahead of Owen at a place where the single-track trail widened—“and tell her.”
Owen dug in hard and forced his legs to pump double time. He inched past Ty, but the last hundred yards of the trail got even steeper. He let his anger at Ty’s words propel him forward. He reached the place where the trail leveled off and an outcropping of rocks provided the perfect spot to view the Denver skyline in the distance.
He unclipped his riding shoes and climbed off the bike, bending forward with his hands on his knees and gulping in air.
A few minutes later, Ty joined him. He was breathing just as hard as Owen and leaned against a tree as he struggled to take normal breaths.
The trailhead was over seven thousand feet in elevation and, according to the GPS on Owen’s bike, they’d climbed over a thousand feet during the five-mile ride. Altitude could be a real bitch.
“You realize I’m your boss,” he said when he finally caught his breath. “And you just called me an asshat.”
Ty took off his helmet and dropped it next to the bike, then sprayed his water bottle over his head. “I called my friend an asshat,” he clarified. “Right now I’m talking to the guy who is messing with a woman who’s been like a little sister to me since she was in diapers. You’re not my boss right now.”
While Owen didn’t appreciate being called out, he liked the fact that Ty could separate their working relationship from their friendship. Since Dalton Enterprises had become a runaway success, and particularly since he’d taken the company public, Owen had a difficult time figuring out who were his true friends and who wanted something from him.
It felt like everyone wanted something.
“She doesn’t want to be with me,” he told Ty. “Jenny made it clear that our arrangement was short-term. There was practically a trail of scorched earth behind her with how fast she took off after we got back from the wedding.” To save face he added, “I’m not looking for a commitment, so it’s really a moot point.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” Ty countered, “but I know you don’t believe it.”
“I have to,” Owen muttered, then he took a long drink from his water bottle, letting the cool liquid wash away the fire that had nothing to do with the way his lungs burned.
“Why?”
How to answer that? Because he wasn’t sure he’d survive another broken heart care of Jenny Castelli? Because she was already so deep under his skin, he could feel her pulsing through his blood with every beat of his heart?
“I’m not looking to be on the receiving end of the kick in the teeth when she has another emotional freak-out.” He tipped the water bottle toward Ty. “You understand our little redheaded friend has some definite issues with love?”
Ty leveled a look at him. “But she’s worth it. You know she’s worth it.”
Owen looked out to the edge of the overlook to the city he called home. He’d always loved Denver, but the happiness he felt with Jenny blew out of the water anything he’d known before her. As different as they were, she fit him like the piece of a puzzle he hadn’t realized he’d been missing. Work had always been his life—his refuge.
Jenny gave a feeling of sanctuary and purpose that was more than he could have ever imagined.
Yeah, she was worth all the trouble she caused.
Because he loved her.
“Take it from me,” Ty continued, “if you can work out the messy details, it makes the reward on the other end all the sweeter. The women that make you work for it are the game changers.”
“I think I can take credit for your happy marriage,” he told Ty, “since I dated your wife while you were falling for her.”
“Nothing like a little competition,” Ty said, inclining his head, “to motivate a guy to up his game.”
Owen gave a short laugh. “I was never competition and we both know it.”
“When two people are meant to be,” Ty said as if Owen had played into his hand, “there’s no denying it.”
“Now you’re an expert on romance?” Owen clutched a hand to his heart. “God help us all. So tell me, oh wise sage of matters of the heart, do you have any great tips from all your experience with women?”
Ty gave him the biggest shit-eating grin Owen had ever seen. “Don’t be an asshat.”
Owen returned to his office after stopping at the company’s health club for a shower and change of clothes. He hadn’t expected to get the chance to try out Ty’s advice so soon, but his secretary waylaid him as he got off the elevator.
“Jenny Castelli is in your office,” she told him, her tone almost panicked. “She got here about an hour ago and insisted on waiting. I tried to tell her—”
“It’s okay, Diane,” he told her, glancing down the open workspace toward his corner office. A heavy thrumming pounded through his body that he realized was coming from inside his chest. Jenny had come to his office. He’d given her the choice, and she’d chosen him.
Anticipation made his skin tingle, like Jenny was an itch he’d finally been able to reach. He was ready to take a chance again, to convince her to take the risk with him. They could make it work. He was certain she felt more for him than she’d been willing to admit. And if she wasn’t ready to admit her feelings, his love for her would have to be enough.
The way they’d left things at the airport had been awful. She’d barely been able to make eye contact as she said good-bye. But that was nerves. He understood nerves. She didn’t trust herself or her track record.
He had enough faith for both of them.
He walked down the corridor, his heart pumping harder with every step. The door to his office was closed. Unable to stop himself, he burst through, ready to fall on bended knee or whatever it was men did to declare their love to a woman.
He should have known nothing could be so simple with Jenny. As he walked in, he heard the telltale click of a camera phone. Jenny jumped away from his desk, looking as guilty as if she were a toddler with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Do I even want to know?” he asked, all the excitement he’d felt moments earlier draining out of him in an instant.
“It’s nothing,” she answered, staring at a place just beyond his shoulder. “I was playing Candy Crush while I waited and took a screenshot of my score.”
He almost smiled at the ridiculousness of the lie. “You don’t play Candy Crush.”
Jenny didn’t move, but her eyes burned with a mix of guilt and regret that made it difficult for him to keep his gaze on her.
“What are you doing, Jenny? Why are you taking pictures of my paperwork?” He came to the front of the desk, placed his palms on the wood, and leaned forward to see what was
on top of the stack she’d photographed.
Then blinked.
His mouth went dry even though what he was looking at didn’t make sense. It couldn’t make sense.
“This is a report on the Labyrinth Web project.” He straightened. “Why are you interested in that?”
“I’m not,” she said, regulating her tone.
He straightened, stared at her a long moment. There was something he was missing. There had to be an explanation. Jenny was a landscape designer who owned a gardening store. She had no need for information on emerging military technology. None of her friends would have cared. There was no one . . . except . . .
“Cooper’s father.”
She tried to hide it, but he saw the small tremor that snaked through her. “What about him?”
“That night at the reunion,” Owen said, feeling like a gumshoe detective in a dime-store crime novel. Sorting out the pieces of the puzzle to determine where they fit. Where he fit.
It was almost laughable to think he’d believed he fit with Jenny.
“I have to admit I didn’t see this coming. I really must scare the hell out of you.”
“You don’t—”
“I suppose I should take it as a compliment.” He said the words with utter calm, but her face tightened in pain as if he’d thrown a sucker punch.
He didn’t feel a thing. Not this time. He wasn’t going to let himself believe her reaction meant anything. The walls around his heart rebuilt themselves as if they’d never been lowered in the first place. They’d been crafted with such care and precision as a child to protect himself against the pain of his father’s continual rejection. That was nothing compared to the emotional destruction Jenny Castelli left in her wake.
“Owen, you have to understand—”
“I understand that you’ve manipulated me for the last time.”
“I didn’t—”
“I played right into your hand with my pathetic sob story about earning my father’s love with the Labyrinth Web.”
“You don’t have to earn his love, Owen.” She came around the desk and he instinctively took a step back. “I believe your parents love you. They messed up a lot of things, but they were trying to do right by you. To protect you from your real father so that—”
Meant for You Page 22
