Caught on Camera (40 page)

Cat shook her head and looked back and forth between Vega and JP. “I think you might be more into denial than he is.”

Before Vega could ask what she meant, the others came into the room. Cat and the kids departed, and Vega went into action filming JP sitting with his mother and the governor, committing to doing what Vega was almost positive was the last thing he wanted.

He shook Governor Chandler’s hand to seal the deal, and his mother beamed with pride.

“Jackson,” Emma said as she reached out and hugged her son. “I am so happy for you. This is what you’ve always wanted.”

The look of disgust that shot across JP’s features caused Vega to jerk her head back from the camera and blink.
Wow
.

“See me to the door, Jackson.”

His mother stood at the edge of the room, her purse over her forearm and her lips purposefully set, with clear intent of sharing some final words of wisdom before departing. She had her shoulder angled away from the governor, who practically hovered by her side, almost protectively.

JP almost laughed out loud. The man had it bad. He either needed to get over his infatuation or make a move already. JP was tired of watching the warm-up.

He straightened from the bar he’d been leaning against while waiting rather impatiently for his home to clear of everyone but Vega. They were down to two left. “What is it, Mother? Forget the way?”

She gave him the look, and he laughed. Her looks wouldn’t work anymore. He’d just committed himself to her dream. That instantly negated any future looks from being able to keep him in check.

Moving across the room, he tossed a “Be right back” over his shoulder. Vega was repacking her equipment, and as soon as he got his mother out of his house, the two of them could finally share some secrets.

It was the moment he’d been waiting for. Now or never.

She was not leaving tonight without the two of them figuring out if they stood a chance in hell of making it work. He also couldn’t imagine an answer of anything but yes.

They stepped into the foyer, and his mother blinked up at Douglas. “Would you be a dear and wait at the elevator for me?”

Geez, she really did have something she wanted to say. A sizzle of tension raced up the back of his neck. “What is it, Mother?”

She lowered her voice. “I wanted to talk about Vega.”

Douglas quietly closed the door behind him while JP studied his mother. “What about her?”

She peeked around him as if making sure Vega hadn’t followed them around the corner, then leaned in and whispered, “How serious are you about her? This is just a fling, right?”

His jaw clenched. She’d better not be about to stand there and suggest Vega was in any way not good enough for him. She may not be a debutante or come from money, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fit in with the Davenports. Easily. He rolled his shoulders. “What does it matter?”

“I just…well, I wanted to talk to you about her. She’s a sweet girl and all, but I think—”

“No.”

She took a step back at his harsh tone. “No what?”

“No, we aren’t going to stand here and have a discussion about Vega while she’s twenty feet away in the other room.”

“But there are things I need to tell you. You need to know—”

“No.”

She harrumphed and planted her hands at her waist. “Now, Jackson, there’s simply no need to be rude.”

“Exactly. And talking about someone who’s in the other room is rude.” He took her by the elbow and turned her to the door. “You shouldn’t keep the governor waiting, Mother.”

Her feet dug into the rug for a brief second before apparently thinking better of it. She let him move her forward. “I’ll be by your office first thing in the morning. There are things you don’t know, Jackson. Things that could affect your plans.”

“I know all I need to.” And she had no idea just how big his plans were concerning Vega.

He opened the door and hustled her through before she could speak further. Edging his chin in the governor’s direction, he released her. “Please see her to her car.”

JP said his good-byes and closed the door, then went in search of Vega. It was time to come clean.

She stood by the piano, softly running her fingers over the ivories. “I had no idea you played.”

“Most people don’t.” He grabbed a candy from a dish on the sofa table. The crinkling of the plastic was the only noise in the room as he trod over the rug to stand directly beside her. He held out the butterscotch in question.

“No, thank you.” She fidgeted, picking up a lopsided bowl Becca had made for him in pottery class, then putting it back down, running her finger over the outline of a missing chunk from the lid of the piano, and just generally looking like she couldn’t figure out what to do with her hands. Finally, she tucked them behind her back. “So who knows you play?”

“As of right now?” He popped the candy in his mouth. “My mother, my sister, her kids. And you.”

She glanced at him from beneath her lashes, her high heels—from the looks of them, a new pair—putting her even with his eyes. “That’s not many people.”

“Only the important ones.” He stroked a path down the middle of her forehead and smoothed over a tiny crease. “Why the frown?”

A small shrug was all she managed. “Just confused about some things.”

So was he.

“You look beautiful in my home, did I mention that?”

“No,” she whispered.

He tugged her hands from behind her and turned them over to study the palm of each. Finally he lifted first one, then the other, and planted kisses on the inside of her wrists. She visibly shivered.

“Will you play something for me?” she asked.

“I’d love to.”

He squeezed her hands together, then stepped back and settled onto the stool. He began to strum out a song that spoke of longing and hurts and love, all rolled into one.

His eyes closed as his fingers glided over the keys, and he imagined it was Vega’s body he was playing instead of the piano. He couldn’t figure out why she was the one, but knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wanted her for his wife. And he did not want to blow that chance by moving too fast tonight.

When he finished, he opened his eyes and found her standing at the balcony doors, gazing out over the night sky.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said.

She nodded, but didn’t look his way. “Incredibly.”

“I often spend hours sitting here playing, just so I can stare out over the city.”

“That would be nice,” she murmured.

He slipped his hands back to the keyboard and started again, this time pulling from memory one of Beethoven’s more well-known works. He knew he was good, and hoped like hell he was not only impressing her, but also showing her a little piece of himself through the music. This had been the one thing that had come easily for him.

Not because he knew how to read music. Reading music had been as confusing as everything else. But because he could play by ear. His mother had bought him this very piano when he’d turned ten, and he’d thought that meant she was going to pay attention to him again.

When he opened his eyes this time, Vega leaned against the opposite end of the piano, looking perplexed.

“What is it?”

“You’re not playing to music. You must have a great memory.”

His lips curved in a smirk. “I have a terrific memory.” He’d had to or he wouldn’t have survived school.

Not wanting to get too serious yet, he began another song, this one a beautiful ballad that made him think of Vega and how she always seemed a fraction away from running back behind the curtain she used to shield herself with so protectively. As he played, she inched closer until she finally slid onto the seat beside him.

She kept a sliver of space between them, but his tension eased with her there.

When the song ended, her lips flattened and she asked bluntly, “Who’s the boy? If not yours, then whose? Your brother’s?”

He strummed his fingers in a quick up-and-down arpeggio. “My father’s.”

Next he ran over the lower octaves, producing a more sinister sound and ignoring her startled gasp.

When the music ceased, he felt her force a relaxed posture.

“Your father’s?”

“Yep.” His hands started moving again, but softly on the upper keys this time, so they could carry a conversation while he played. “He got a seventeen-year-old pregnant when he was running for president, then he got cancer and died.”

Her eyes grew wide. She didn’t look at him as if she thought he was lying, but instead like she didn’t know what to think.

“I met Lexi for the first time two weeks ago. And Daniel for the first time today.” He pounded harder for three bars, then eased off. “Pretty damn convenient; it was right after the rumor leaked that I would be announced the next senator.”

Vega’s hand lifted and rubbed at her temple, then dropped back to her lap with a thud. “So she’s blackmailing you?”

“She’s trying.”

“Trying? And what? You said no, of course?” Her hand lifted again, this time fluttering around her neck. “Supporting a kid is one thing, but you can’t let her blackmail you. Only…if you don’t pay, she’ll go to the media, won’t she?” She looked at him, her eyes widening again. “Even if she doesn’t, there’s no way this won’t eventually come out. You couldn’t stop it if you wanted to.”

She sucked in a harsh breath and reared back, then pinned a narrowed gaze on him. “Or is that why you took me today? Did you want me to expose him in the program to beat her to the punch?”

He lifted his hands abruptly, and the music stopped.

“Are you kidding me?” His voice was tight as he turned on the seat. “After everything that’s happened this week, you can ask if
that
is the reason I took you to the school?”

S
HE’D MADE HIM
furious. Vega reached out to put a hand on his, but at the look on his face, she stopped.

“I’m sorry, I’m just…” She shook her head, unsure what to say. “Floored, I guess. I’m…trying to piece this together in my mind. Your father…”

“Yeah,” he grumbled, turning back to the piano. “I’m trying to piece it together too.”

She waited, but when he didn’t continue, she pleaded. “I’m sorry, JP. I know you took me today to share a part of you few people get to see.”

“No one gets to see.” His tone was hard, the words spoken slowly.

She nodded, the intention clear. She was special to him, and he wanted to make sure she knew it. “I know,” she whispered. “A part no one gets to see. You wanted to show me you care.” She turned his head to her and nodded again. “I care too.”

She watched as the tension in his shoulders slowly eased, terrified she’d killed the moment, but knowing she couldn’t walk out tonight without finding out how this whole thing had come to be.

His father had sired a love child. This was the type of stuff she should be after if she really wanted the job, but the last thing she could do was run to the station with this news. Neither JP nor his half brother deserved that.

Finally, he put his fingers back on the keys and began to draw out a sad, lonely song.

“He’s dyslexic.” His words were flat. “She came to the office, demanding money. I refused. I won’t be blackmailed, and especially not for something my father did.

“Then I find out Dad had already paid her over a million dollars before he died.” The song built in volume then tapered back off. “Only, she’s blown through most of it and wanted more. So she tells me about Daniel.” He pounded on the keys. “And it’s not his fault he needs help.”

He closed his eyes and lost himself in the song for several minutes before suddenly jolting and turning to face her. He slipped one leg to the other side of the stool and straddled the worn cushion. “He needs a good school, good teachers, and a tutor for hours a day to even begin to maintain his classmates’ level. Don’t you see? I can’t say no and let Daniel suffer.”

His urgency took her by surprise. She knew he would do the right thing for the child, but the passion exuding from him was urgent, almost painful, and Vega was unsure of the best thing to say. She swallowed a deep breath. “Of course you can’t.”

“You don’t get it, I can tell. But the thing is…”