Читать книгу Desire September 2017 Books 1 -4 - Yvonne Lindsay - Страница 17
ОглавлениеJasmine sucked in a deep breath as she saw Royce slip through the coffee shop door. Her stomach churned, forcing her to leave her café au lait untouched. She had no idea how to act after their last encounter.
No idea how to return to business as usual.
The week he had been out of town since Auntie’s fall should have helped give her some perspective. Frankly, it hadn’t. Because her thoughts of Royce had turned very personal and she had no idea how to combat that. Except to only talk about business.
She could do that, right?
But his smile as he sat down wasn’t business as usual. It sped her heart up a little...okay, more than a little. This wasn’t right.
She glared at the green ring sparkling in the sunlight for a moment.
“Everything okay?” Royce asked as he sat down with his coffee.
“Sure,” Jasmine said, consciously forcing herself to relax. “I appreciate you coming.”
Reaching down, she pulled several small poster boards from her bag. “I’ve put together some visuals for you to see what the decorator is suggesting.”
“I’m amazed you’re only letting me view pictures, rather than insisting I attend an actual meeting with her.”
Jasmine froze for a moment. Was he complaining because she’d excluded him? “Well, with you out of town, then her going out of town, I just thought this might be easier.”
To her shock, his hand lightly covered one of hers. “It’s okay, Jasmine. I’m just teasing you.”
“Teasing me?” She almost swallowed her tongue, because teasing had never been on Royce’s agenda.
“Yes,” he said, drawing the word out. “After all, you’ve stuck to your stipulation that I attend every planning meeting pretty hard. I can’t believe you’re letting me slide on this one...”
Feeling like she’d stepped into an alternate reality, one that tempted her with the idea that Royce might actually be human after all, she grinned. “Well, everyone should get time off for good behavior.”
His laugh rang out, startling her. The sound was oh, so sexy. Over his shoulder, she saw several patrons glance their way, most grinning in response to his amusement. Only one didn’t seem amused, a rather dour, expensively dressed man at a choice table by the window overlooking the river.
Jasmine would rather focus on the man opening up right in front of her.
She pointed out the various options depicted in the photographs. The dark purple-and-black color scheme was her favorite, with highlights of white and bright red. The elaborate table schemes included taper candles and crystals to mimic the chandeliers. Lots of rich fabric and sparkling highlights.
Event planning was her passion, so she could have gone on forever, but noticed the minute Royce’s gaze started to glaze over. “Okay,” she conceded, “I think I’ve tortured you enough.”
“Honestly, give me the details of a ship’s engine any day as opposed to decorating details. I only agreed to meet in the coffee shop so I’d have this to keep me awake.” He lifted his coffee a few inches off the table. But it was the sheepish grin that got to her.
She’d never imagined seeing that expression on this driven businessman’s face. Unfortunately, she liked it. Too much.
“So how are Ms. King and Rosie?”
“Oh, she’d just want you to call her Auntie.”
He nodded, his expression remaining open in a way she wasn’t quite used to or comfortable with.
“Physical therapy is going well, although she hates it.”
Royce shrugged. “Who wouldn’t? It’s torture.”
“Even more so for her, because she thinks it’s a burden to everyone that we’re juggling her appointments with our jobs and Rosie’s care. As if that matters to any of us girls.”
“My mother was like that,” Royce said, staring down into his cup. “She didn’t ever want to tell me when she had a doctor’s appointment or treatment—she felt it took me away from more important things.”
When he looked up, his eyes were serious in the same way she’d seen at the hospital. “But she got over it after the one time she took a cab to the hospital for a chemo treatment. After that, she knew in no uncertain terms I would be there for every appointment, no matter what I had going on.”
That had to have been a huge concession for such a driven man.
This led her to say what had been on her mind for over a week. “I really do appreciate all you did for us, for me, at the hospital. Especially knowing that there had to be a lot of bad memories associated with that place.”
“It was nothing—”
“Don’t.”
When he finally looked at her, she reached out and cupped his hand where it lay on the table. “It wasn’t nothing. No man in that frame of mind should have to hold a teething six-month-old for that long—it was a tremendous help to us. I won’t let you dismiss that.”
He glanced down at her hand over his. It wasn’t until several moments later—moments of anticipation that caused Jasmine to shake inside—that he spoke.
“My mother, no matter how sick she was, always had a kind word for everyone she came across at that hospital. She would help in any way she could, sometimes even pushing herself past what she was capable of to help her fellow patients.”
“And you were there to help her?”
“As much as possible.” Still he wouldn’t look up at her.
She couldn’t resist pushing a little farther. “But I don’t understand. You say she took care of you, you took care of her, but also that she abandoned you. What happened?”
“It wasn’t because she didn’t want me...” His husky voice trailed off. Beneath her palm, she felt his hand curl into a fist. Then she noticed the shadow across their table.
Glancing up, she found the stern man from the far table standing over them. He didn’t look her way or acknowledge her. His gaze was trained tightly on Royce as he said in a gruff voice, “Getting involved with your employees never leads to anything good.”
Then he turned and walked away.
* * *
“That was my father. Guess he didn’t want to stick around and be introduced.”
The bitterness in his own voice made Royce cringe.
Jasmine glanced over her shoulder to watch the man disappear out the door. “I’m confused,” she murmured.
Join the club.
“He looked familiar,” she said with a faraway tone in her voice.
Though he never talked about him, just this once Royce was happy to provide the basics. “He should. His name is John Nave.”
He could see the light of recognition dawning in her sexy blue eyes. “That’s right. The John Nave, from one of the oldest families in Savannah, and one of the richest.”
“But I don’t understand...” Jasmine said, her brow wrinkling in confusion. “He’s your father?”
“My mother was his housekeeper.” Royce hated saying it that way, because it sounded like he was defining his mother by her profession when she’d been so much more.
To her credit, Jasmine’s expression didn’t change. If anything, it turned a little stiff. “I’ll be honest, I’m appalled he would say something like that to you, considering...”
She didn’t know the half of it. “That’s mild, for him. When he bothers to acknowledge me at all, he’s usually pretty nasty.”
“But isn’t he married?”
“To one of the coldest women in the world,” he murmured. “But that was a while after my mother had broken contact with him.”
“How did your mother manage?” Jasmine whispered, her voice full of empathy.
“When she didn’t get rid of me like he wanted, it took her a long time to find more work. But when she did, she worked her fingers to the bone, because the bastard made sure she couldn’t get a judge in the county to award her child support.”
Jasmine closed her eyes tightly, shaking her head. When she opened them, he noticed the glossy sheen of tears.
Were they for him? No one but his mother had ever shed a tear over the way he’d been treated.
“I’d like to say it surprises me,” Jasmine said, “but I’ve seen it often enough at the mission. Dads who simply couldn’t care less about a child out in the world with their DNA. Men who would have preferred for them to die than take on any obligation in their own lives.”
Oh, how well he knew that type.
She leaned back, studying him. He wasn’t sure when she’d stopped touching his hand, but he felt the loss of contact keenly. “I’m not really upset about me,” he said, waving the thought away as if it were a particle of dust in the air. “It’s more about my mom. What she was left to deal with.”
“That’s why she left you, isn’t it?”
He glanced over her shoulder instead of looking into her eyes and seeing the knowledge there. He nodded. “She had to work a lot to keep us afloat.”
“And you made it up to her.”
Royce sat a little straighter. “I did. She loved that house. She used to work there when she first started.” He could remember long stories she would tell about the few parties she’d helped serve at, then caring for the house until it was closed. “I wanted her to be in a place she loved, so I bought it for her.”
Jasmine covered his hand with hers once more. “That’s wonderful, Royce.”
“It’s what she deserved after all of her sacrifices for me. By damn, I was going to give it to her.” He let a little smile slip out. “She was happy.”
“She never fell in love again?” Jasmine asked. “Never wanted to have more children?”
“When would she have had the time? Nope. She loved me, but she wanted no more children to complicate her life. And I’ll never have children, either.”
Jasmine didn’t draw up in shocked outrage the way he might have expected. She simply asked, “Why not?”
“I’ve made my choice. Business is a demanding mistress. I refuse to do both.”
She pressed her lips together for a moment before letting herself speak. “It’s a shame. You were good with Rosie.”
“Raising a child is a lot different than holding one for thirty minutes.”
She smiled, though there was a hint of sadness around the edges. “I’m learning that all too well. My mother died, too, when I was fifteen.”
He’d gotten that impression but never asked the details.
“Both of my parents, actually. They were killed in an automobile accident.” She absently ran her finger around the edge of her cup. “We came to live with Auntie. She took all three of us in when we had no other place to go. No other relatives. Not even distant ones.”
“That’s a big responsibility.”
“Auntie said something to me then. Something I’ve never forgotten, even though I didn’t fully embrace it at the time.”
“What’s that?”
“That children aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.”
It made sense, especially to Royce.
Jasmine wasn’t done, though. That sad smile returned as she added, “But some people should learn to be tea drinkers.”
