by Leslie North
Daniel’s head dropped into his hands. Here they went again: back on the eternal work merry-go-round. Just as he was actually enjoying the closest thing he’d had to a vacation in too long. “No, Dad. I’m out of town. Remember?”
His dad scoffed. “For what?”
“Grayson’s wedding.”
“Jesus. Isn’t the wedding tomorrow? Why are you up there today?” He asked it like it was the most preposterous idea in the world. His dad would probably have a coronary if he realized that Daniel had spent the majority of the week up here.
“Oh, just trying to help my friend celebrate the biggest moment of his life.” But he knew it was pointless to get into it with his dad. His father would never prioritize anything that wasn’t amassing wealth.
“You are leaving for two weeks on Tuesday. What the hell are you doing spending the weekend in Napa when you need that proposal ready by COB Monday?”
“I already told you, Dad—”
“No. Listen, I thought you had your head in the game on this one. What business advantage do you get by taking the weekend off?”
“I’m hardly taking the weekend off. I’m still working on that proposal—I’ll have it ready on time. And anyway, I’m closing out the bet with Grayson, remember?” Maybe that would get him off his back. As long as there was some possibility of winning something. Something to remind his dad that his time spent here was somehow worthwhile in his eyes.
His dad harrumphed. “And you’d better win.”
“I will.”
“In our family, we are winners.”
“I know it.”
There was a long, tense pause. Then finally, his father said, “I need to get back to work. We’ll talk more on Sunday.”
When the line went dad, he realized that had been his father’s concession: giving him an allowance of the actual wedding day to focus on the bet instead of business. Fully expecting him to resume his workload on Sunday.
But this was nothing new. Even though it still stung, still irritated, still got under his skin, Daniel had expected all of it. A long sigh rattled out of him as he tossed his phone onto the bed behind him. When he lifted his head, he noticed Jackie standing in the doorway of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her while she combed her hair.
The way she was looking at him told him she’d probably heard the majority of that conversation…if not all of it.
And that realization made a sick knot twist tight in his gut, though he wasn’t entirely sure why.
Jackie offered a plastic smile before breezing past him. “Who was that?”
“My dad. Complaining yet again that I’ve taken more than three hours to myself.” He sighed, easing back onto the bed. He missed his chance at a steamy shower with Jackie; hopefully she’d want a steamy night under the covers.
“He’s such a hard ass,” she commented, her voice muffled from inside the walk-in closet.
“That’s how he grew his business.” Daniel stared at the ceiling, unable to pinpoint what, exactly, was the source of the swirling discontent inside him. But damn, it was raging strong today. “That’s how he provided for his family.”
“You don’t seem particularly inspired by the hard-ass tactics,” she said, emerging in her trademarked booty shorts. But this time, she had an over-sized T-shirt on that hid her curves. She raked a hand through her hair as she came to the bed.
“Well, I’m not.”
“So why don’t you find something else to do with your life?”
Her question hung heavily in the air. He wasn’t sure how to respond: whether to brush it off immediately, or to actually consider such an outlandish suggestion.
“That’s not possible,” he finally said. Because it wasn’t. Not in this lifetime or the next. Daniel Trent was married to the family business. It’s what he’d been bred for. It’s what he wanted to do…in theory, at least.
Although more and more, he was hating everything about his job and the life it brought along with it.
“Why not?” Jackie’s questions were light and airy. She still hadn’t looked at him, which was a little disorienting. It was like he wasn’t even there, even though they were talking to each other.
“I have no idea what I’d do if I wasn’t in the family business. It’s the only thing I’m cut out for.” As the words passed his lips, he realized how pathetic they sounded. But they were true. Sort of.
“You’re only cut out for being bullied by your father into sacrificing every minute of your life in the name of profit?”
It sounded ridiculous when she said it, but she wasn’t wrong. “Basically, yes.”
She laughed bitterly, fluffing the pillow beneath her. She lay out on the bed, reaching for the remote control on the nightstand. “Well, I guess if that floats your boat.”
Her voice held a new edge. Something he’d never heard before. Something that didn’t bode well.
“It’s not that it floats my boat,” he said. “It’s just the boat I’ve been dealt. Or something.”
“You know you can trade boats? Sell yours, and buy a new one? That’s a thing.”
He frowned. “My career isn’t a boat show, okay? I’ve worked really fucking hard to get where I am.”
“I’m not denying that,” she said. When she opened her mouth to add more, she clamped it shut suddenly.
“What?” he prompted.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I’m not from your world, so I don’t get it.” Her gaze was stuck on the TV, flipping through channels. “That’s all.”
That wasn’t all—Daniel knew it down to his bones. But suddenly, he was too tired to keep the conversation going and opted for a shower instead.
Maybe once he’d showered, they’d be able to smooth things over with a relaxing evening in bed after all.
Against the hum of the shower, Jackie repeated her mantra to herself:
Two more days. Two more days. Two more days.
It was one of many mantras she was employing to keep herself sane. Because she needed the help—that much was certain. Now that she’d been reminded by Daniel’s crazy father that anyone born into the Trent family was destined to continue their workaholic lifestyle, it was the final nail in the coffin of any dreams she’d had about the two of them having a future together. She wasn’t willing to lead that kind of life, and Daniel wasn’t willing to leave it behind.
He was never going to change. Not for her. Not for anybody. So Tania had been right.
Jackie just needed to start preparing her heart to let him go.
Hearing that conversation shouldn’t have hurt so much. It only confirmed what she knew in the darkest reaches of her heart—that for Daniel, this had only ever been a charade. Even though she’d been swept up in the magic of the moment, she should have known better than to let her heart get involved.
How could you have been so stupid?
The thought kept crashing back into her, bringing choking waves of regret. She should have known better, and she had known better, yet still she managed to find herself here. Skittish and the first to have a broken heart. Even if it was pre-emptive.
It hurt like hell—but she reminded herself that she should be grateful. To Tania, for helping bring her down to earth before things got really out of hand. To Daniel, for allowing her to have a little escape from her regular life—even if it meant she’d be missing him for the next year.
But the truth was, they’d never had a chance. Not in a million years.
Daniel embodied everything that was silver spoon and acquiring more. And she was…well, she was hard-scrabble and intent on squeezing out joy where she could find it.
The two of them never would have worked.
But no matter how many times she repeated it to herself, it didn’t prevent the tears from pooling in her eyes.
When the shower snapped off, she turned off the TV and buried herself in the covers.
She wasn’t fit to talk to Daniel anymore today.
She just needed to fo
cus on making it through the wedding tomorrow and eventually getting out of here with her heart intact.
13
Silverware clinked as Daniel and the rest of the men settled around the long table at a local restaurant nestled in the rolling hills of Napa Valley. This was the guys-only breakfast on the morning of the wedding. The women were doing the same thing at a restaurant a few miles away.
The sun was shining through the enormous windows of the breakfast café, the smell of home fries hanging in the air. His stomach had started grumbling from the second they stepped foot inside here. He was determined to make this the best day of his year, or at least one of the top contenders. No work. Just relaxed fun involving his best friends, and the unexpected beauty he’d convinced to join him. Even if that unexpected beauty was still kinda-sorta acting strange around him.
He tried not to think about it—god knows he’d spent enough of the previous night pondering the source of her strange mood swing—and the only thing he could come up with was the sex. Even though it had been amazing—life-changing, as she’d said—maybe she just didn’t want to go there with him. Maybe he’d been reading her all wrong.
And that possibility sent a cold fear cycling through him. He didn’t want to lose Jackie. He wanted to keep this thing between them moving forward. No matter what.
Once everyone was seated and drinks orders were placed, Daniel lifted his glass of water.
“To the groom. May you and your bride find happiness forever,” Daniel said, looking around at all the smiling faces of his friends and Grayson’s colleagues. “Because I’m not sure any of us can take off this much time from work again to join you in another wedding with a second wife.”
Laughter rippled through the table. Blake whooped, clinking glasses with Grayson and Daniel. After a few congratulations from others at the table, Daniel and his two best friends sank into their own world.
“So now that I’m heading to the altar, I think Daniel’s next,” Grayson said with an easy smile. “You and Jackie look solid. I’m surprised.”
Daniel smirked, both because of the jab about his commitment problems and because the current truth of that couldn’t be more different. “Yeah, well, I guess we’ll see.”
“You don’t sound so confident,” Blake said. “Should we be expecting a break-up announcement sometime next week?”
The joke felt more like a spear landing in his chest. He didn’t want to consider that. “Definitely not. I want to be with her. I just feel like this wedding week has been a little…hard for her.”
“Hard how?” Grayson asked.
“I have no idea. But I do know she’s withdrawing from me. I don’t get it. We haven’t talked about getting married yet, but I feel like I already know she’s the one. If I get married to anyone…it’ll be her.”
The words had tumbled past his lips before he’d even been able to think them over. Were they true? It seemed somehow preposterous to be so certain so soon, but also…oddly right.
“So she is a keeper. I knew it. I could tell.” Grayson clapped him on the back. He must have noticed Daniel’s uncertainty, because he added, “But listen, if you want this to be long term, you’re gonna have to make a real effort. We all know how you do relationships: you don’t. So if you want to keep a woman—especially someone like Jackie—you’re going to have to give it your all.”
Daniel sighed, rubbing at his face. “I know. And believe me, I want to. I just feel like my two-week trip right after your wedding is going to ruin us.”
Blake shrugged. “Just call her every day.”
“But after that? I’ll be heading away on another trip. For maybe longer. I’m gone more days than I’m home. I just don’t know how much longer she’ll put up with it.” He was stretching the truth—they’d never had to deal with it before, so he had no idea whether she’d put up with it at all…if she even wanted to try her hand at something serious with him.
She deserved to have someone who’d come home to her every night—who’d be there for all the important events and milestones a couple shared. And maybe he deserved that, too. Deserved a home he could share with someone he loved rather than a life lived out of a suitcase with no one to welcome him back but his fish.
But he’d never gotten that far. Not with anyone. And for as much as Jackie made him eager to try…he was terrified he didn’t have it in him.
He might not be cut out for the long-term love game.
“Buddy, if you guys are starting with a strong foundation,” Grayson said, squeezing his shoulder, “which it seems like you have, then I know you’ll figure something out. Relationships grow, and change. You make sacrifices. Especially if it’s meant to be.”
Daniel knew Grayson was speaking from the heart. Grayson had been as hungry for financial success as anyone Daniel had ever met—and yet, the man had side-stepped his plans to launch his business’s IPO earlier that year because his focus on work had gotten in the way of a committed relationship with Mila. It had rocked their world. He’d never seen Grayson as someone to step away from the IPO dream. Yet here he was. Happy…successful…a dad-to-be. And not an IPO in sight.
It made Daniel wonder how he could reconfigure his own life, to allow some more happiness to peek through. Conversation swirled around him, but he stayed stuck in his head. It was a conundrum he just couldn’t look away from.
Creating something long term with someone seemed so impossible. His job and his father—they were the perpetual roadblocks barring the way to any personal fulfillment. Finding a different job was technically an option…and then again, so was colonizing Mars. There was too much involved with the prospect, and more than that, he had no idea where to start.
Which meant that he was better off just staying put.
Jackie’s cheeks hurt from all the fake smiling she’d been doing that day.
And it wasn’t even eleven o’clock. This ladies-only breakfast was dragging, despite how laid-back and delicious it was. With a belly full of omelet and two mimosas down, she was buzzed and sullen when she should be buzzed and bubbly.
She furtively checked her phone, already wishing for the soft comfort of that king-size bed in the plum orchard. Which felt like further proof that she’d already been ruined by her little taste of luxury. Dipping her toe into the waters of Daniel’s life had now made her accustomed to king-size beds with down comforters and pillow-top mattresses. How was she supposed to return to her drifting, homeless lifestyle now? She’d never be able to acclimate to Geri’s bumpy fold-out couch again.
Inevitably the house-sitting gig at Daniel’s would expire, and she’d move onto her next assignment, with far less comfortable surroundings.
If only that were the main thing plaguing her about the future.
Really, she was still completely unable to accept the fact that as of tomorrow, her and Daniel’s bet would be over, and they’d be back to their true stations in life: wealthy businessman and lowly house sitter. Her early bedtime and full night of sleep had done nothing to help her overcome her doubts and insecurities. If anything, they’d only festered overnight—turning into something unwieldy and ugly.
As plates were cleared from their long table of smiling and beautiful faces, Mila’s mother turned her attention toward Jackie.
“So, Jackie. Will you and Daniel be the next ones to have us out here for a fantastic wedding weekend?”
Mila laughed, rubbing her stomach over the white cotton sundress she had on. “Mom. They can pick a different venue. It doesn’t have to be here.”
Jackie forced a laugh of her own, toying with the wisps of hair at her neckline. “Oh, who knows. Daniel and I haven’t even talked about any of that yet. Knowing us, we’ll probably just date for the rest of our lives.”
Mila’s mother’s smile fell slightly. “Oh, come on. That man would throw you a proper wedding. One that all your friends and family could come to.”
Jackie’s gut cinched. No, her family wouldn’t be attending. Not like Mila’s moth
er knew that, of course. But still, the comment sliced at her in the way that all reminders of her sad, lonely upbringing did. Pushing her back into that dark space she struggled to climb out of daily.
This had happened countless times in her life. People were always well-meaning—nobody ever truly meant their off-handed comments about family to be so depressing to her. Luckily, after her twenty-five years navigating this situation, she knew just how to brush this kind of blow off and keep moving. To hide the pain and swallow the ache.
“Mom—” Mila began.
“What?” Mila’s mom returned. “They are gorgeous together. I just want to know when I’ll be getting the invite to their wedding.”
The table tittered with laughter, and Jackie tried to join in. To play the coy, demure girlfriend part. To conjure all the energy associated with oh, it’s just a matter of time.
But she couldn’t. It was too hard. It was too sad. So she did the only thing she could do. She deflected to talking about somebody else’s happiness. Since her own was never a sure bet.
“I just want to celebrate Mila and Grayson today,” Jackie said, sending her best sweet smile toward Mila. “And their little nugget, of course.”
Murmurs of approval rippled through the table, and soon everyone had their glasses lifted in cheers. She felt like she’d managed to avoid the heat—she just hoped that others didn’t try to pry throughout the day. She wasn’t sure how many more times she could hold it together like that with so many pairs of curious eyes on her. She was barely holding it together now.
Because god, she wanted what Mila’s mom talked about. She wanted the grand proposal, the gorgeous wedding venue, the hullabaloo and the excitement. More than that, she wanted the stability. The assurance that someone was there to scoop her up if she fell. Someone to lean on, someone that she could always turn to.
But she’d never have it. Not just because she’d fallen for a man who didn’t slow down for anybody, but because she had no family to back her up. No father to give her away. Nobody to root for her, except for the small handful of friends she considered family. And wasn’t that what made weddings special? Friends and family coming together to celebrate not just a new couple, but the lives that led them together?
