Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (23 page)

He stroked her
cheek, and the sparkle in those crystal-blue eyes was on full blast. He shot
her an award-winning smile and said, “I wanted you to come to me when you were
ready. I didn’t want to rush you.” He leaned in, and his eyelids lowered as he
planted a gentle, savory kiss upon her lips. When he withdrew, his eyes stayed
hooded, and the sparkle dulled a little. “I’m sorry for not trusting you, for
thinking the worst about you. The truth is, Jess, as cliché as it sounds, it’s
me. It always has been. I’m the fucked-up one.” His blue eyes were drowning in
dark oceans of guilt and shame. “Will you ever forgive me? Can you?”

Jessina gazed
back at him, desperately wanting to tell him that all was forgiven. She wanted
to wrap her arms around him and kiss him. She longed to tell him she had missed
him like crazy for the past month, but she needed to hear him say he loved her.
She’d made a deal with Katrina, and she wasn’t about to back out on it. It was
a smart deal. Over the past month, she and Mrs. Caplin had gotten close, and
the older woman had been there for Jessina much more than her real mother ever
had.

Before she could
surrender, Chase had to admit that he loved her. She squared her shoulders,
glared up at him. “Is that all you have to say to me?”

Carefully, Chase
studied her face. When she remained reserved and tolerant, his hands slithered
from her, and he took a step back.

Jessina’s body
turned to ice. She was tempted to forgo the deal to get back into his big,
strong arms, but Katrina had been right. Men like Chase Lennox thought they
could have whatever they wanted, but she was ready to make him work for it. Katrina
had warned her that it was difficult for men like him to admit their love. It
involved giving up a lot more than just money. They also had to give up their
heart, which they knew was worth more than any amount of money they’d ever have
in the bank.

Besides, he
needed to break free of his fears.

“Yes.” Chase’s
eyes skimmed over her guarded body. “All I want from you, Jess, is your forgiveness.”

“That’s it?” She
searched him, praying he’d at least say that he cared for her, but when his
head tilted thoughtfully to the side, she had a terrible feeling that he wasn’t
going to deliver. She thought he might be telling the truth, that all he really
wanted from her was her forgiveness. For all she knew, he simply wasn’t in love
with her. Really, it didn’t seem likely that she’d land Prince Charming in any
fairytale anyway.  

“Yeah.” He
shrugged. “That’s it,” he finally said, crushing her whimsical storybook ending
to smithereens.

“Well, in that
case, I forgive you, Chase Lennox,” she said, and with that and her forever broken
heart, she turned and walked out of his office.

Chase waved at Hannah
as she trotted by on the horse. He should have been more excited, for her if
not for himself, but all Chase could think about was Jess. He wished she was
there to celebrate Caplin’s arrival, especially since she’d helped him make it
happen.  

Sure, three
weeks earlier, Jess had claimed she’d forgiven him, but that hadn’t been enough.
He wanted her in his arms, in his bed, and at his ranch. But back at his office,
when she’d asked if there was anything else he wanted to tell her, he’d kept
quiet. Chase recognized a defensive stance when he saw one. Jess may have been
ready to forgive him, but he couldn’t be sure she was prepared for his love. He
hadn’t wanted to scare her away, so he’d held back from telling her the truth.
That decision, however, only seemed to push her farther away, because he hadn’t
heard from her since.

Hannah came by
again on the horse, this time in a gallop instead of a slow trot.

Chase jumped up
from the porch steps. “Hey! Slow down!”

“Oh, she’ll be just
fine,” Mrs. Caplin said as she walked toward the house. “She’s on Missy, and that
horse is well trained. She’ll sense Hannah’s fear before the girl does, and
Missy will slow right down.”

Chase shoved the
tips of his fingers into the front pocket of his jeans, but he didn’t take his
eyes off his niece.

“I take it that trusting
doesn’t come easy for you, does it, Mr. Lennox?” Mrs. Caplin asked as she climbed
up the porch steps.

Chase turned to
watch the elderly woman, whom he’d come to respect. He looked into her pale
blue eyes, trying to decipher the meaning of her words, since she tended to
talk in riddles, but her smile didn’t give anything away.

She glanced
around the ranch before moving, full circle, back to his cautious eyes. “Where’s
Mrs. Lennox?”

“She, uh…couldn’t
make it today,” he grumbled and looked away, running out of excuses for his wife’s
absence.

She stopped with
her hand still on the rail and let out a long, noisy sigh. The sound hauled his
eyes back to her. She arched a thin white eyebrow. “You haven’t admitted that
you love her yet, have you?”

“What?” Confused
by the question, he retorted, “She’s my wife. She already knows.”

Her smile
widened. “She may be your wife, but can you really say she that knows you’re in
love with her?”

Unsure how to
respond, he stared at the horse-trainer’s wife. He hated lying, so his mind
searched frantically for the right answer to her very direct question.  

“You can stop,”
she said, interrupting his efforts to come up with an explanation. “I know
about everything.”

Chase’s forehead
crinkled. “Everything?”
Surely Jess didn’t tell her—

“Yes
,
everything
. Don’t worry though. Arthur’s clueless, and because the two of
you are married and are obviously in love, I didn’t see any reason to tell him
the truth of it all.”

“Does Jess know
that you know?” Chase asked, scrubbing his unshaven chin.

“Yes. In fact, I’m
the one who told her to leave you.”

“You what!” he
nearly shouted at the woman.

“Sometimes those
who drag their feet just need a little push,” she said, sounding like a fortune
cookie, her disgruntled eyes reprimanding him. “Clearly, what you really needed
was a shove. Young man, what are you waiting for?”

Chase thought
Mr. Caplin was the only person who could get away with chastising him, but his
wife was just as capable of it. “The last time I saw her, I didn’t want to
overwhelm her. Just getting her forgiveness was enough. After the way I treated
her,” he said, shaking his head in shame. “I figured she needed more time.”

“Is that why you
denied her the annulment?”

“No. I did that
to show her I trust her. She’s now entitled to half of what I own.”

“It really was a
nice gesture, but I don’t think she caught on to it,” she said, stating what Chase
had already figured out.

He nodded his
head. “She wouldn’t. She’s too damn honest to even consider taking something
that isn’t hers.”

“I’m sorry, Chase,
but I think I may have underestimated you. I thought you were as blinded by
money as my Arthur used to be.”

“I was…until I
met Jess.”

“So you do love
her!”

“What I feel…well,
it’s just gonna have to wait because—”

“No, the time
for waiting is done. You need to
tell
her you love her. She won’t be
with you until you do.”

 “Why?”

“Because,” Mrs.
Caplin said, lifting her chin, “that was the deal. She left you, and she won’t
let you back in her life until you admit your love.”

“Really, a deal,”
he arched an eyebrow. “And just what are the condition for this deal, and who
gets what in return?”

Her eyes
softened as she patted him on the arm. “Well, for starters, after you tell her
you love her, you’ll get something you can’t possibly buy, Mr. Lennox.”

“Yeah? What’s
that?”

“A woman, who will love
you for your heart and not your bank account.”

The basket was
heavy, but Jessina managed to get it up the stairs while still fishing her keys
out of her front pocket. What she was having a problem with was balancing the
basket of laundry on her knee as she tried to unlock the door, and she finally
had to give in and set it down on the ground. Once she got into her small
apartment, she picked up the basket and kicked the door behind her. When she
didn’t hear the
click
, confirming it had closed, she glanced over her
shoulder.

Jessina dropped
the basket. “Katie?”

“Hi, Mrs.
Lennox,” Chase’s trusty little assistant responded.

Chase!
Not
a second had gone by when she hadn’t thought about him. Even as she carried the
basket up the stairs, the granny panties she’d worried about pulling of her
suitcase the first day she’d met him were staring up at her from the top of the
pile. “Uh, hi, Katie,” Jessina said, her heart stuttering all the way up to her
voice. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been sent
to pick you up. Mr. Lennox said you should pack the troublemaker.” Katie threw
a hand up in the air. “I’m not even going to ask, nor do I wanna know, but when
you’re done with this troublemaker thing, I’ll be out in the car, waiting for
you.”

“To take me
where?”

Katie grimaced,
and shrugged her shoulders. “To Mr. Lennox, I presume,” she said before she
left the apartment, leaving Jessina standing there alone, and dumbfounded.

After pacing the
apartment for a few seconds, Jessina decided too much time was a wasting. She
wanted to go with Katie, to see what Chase was up to now. Within minutes, she
had the troublemaker all packed and was lugging it down the stairs.

The ride was
quiet, but Jessina was thankful. Her stomach was queasy, and she feared that if
she opened her mouth, she just might puke. It’d been a month since she’d left
Chase’s office, and she still missed him like crazy. The ten-minute
get-together in his office hadn’t fulfilled her need for the man. In fact, she
would’ve been better off not seeing him at all, for it only left her wishing
for more…and wanting forever. 

When it became
apparent where they were going, it made sense that she’d been asked to bring
the troublemaker.

Katie pulled up
to the north end of the airport parking lot. She hit the button to pop the
trunk and looked over at Jessina. “Okay, we’re here. You can get out.”

Jessina didn’t
hesitate. She climbed out of the car, casing the lot for Chase, but he was
nowhere in sight. She pulled her suitcase out of the trunk, and when she
dropped it closed, Katie took off, leaving her there.

Five minutes was all it
took before she started toward the trolley stop, pulling the troublemaker
behind her. Too far away, to make it to the last trolley, she watched all the
passengers shuffle in, all of them but one. When the tall figure formed into
the man of her dreams, her heart stuttered again, and she felt his presence in
every crevice of her body. The seconds it took for her to get to him were long
and agonizing, but she was grateful for the extended time. She needed to pull
herself together. His smile was melting her with each step, and she didn’t want
to be a pool of mush when she greeted him.
What if he’s here to…

“Hey.” His deep voice rippled through the worst of her
thoughts.

She stopped a safe distance away and pushed a few
strands of hair back from her face. “Hi,” she half-whispered, as if making too
much noise might make the situation more real than it already was. Trying to
avoid eye contact, she glanced around, attempting to slither her eyes by him.
Mistake. He snatched them and wouldn’t let go.

Holding her to him with that effective gaze, he nudged
his head. “Come here.”

She didn’t understand how the sound of a man’s voice
could so easily have her falling to pieces. Everything inside, her fears and
hopes, dropped to the ground. And she was sure the shaking of her upper body
had to be visible. She wanted to go to him, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t
withstand another let down.

Chase took a step toward her and touched her trembling
arm. “I thought we cured you of this?” He pulled her into his warm, unwavering
body. Her face fell against his chest, and his scent filled her. His arm
tightened around her waist and a hand stroked over her hair.

“I’m sorry, baby.” He kissed the top of her head. “I
never meant to hurt you, and I didn’t want you to leave.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. “What?” Hope
lifted from the ground and consumed her. “Why didn’t you say anything then?”
She’d waited a whole month for him, and now he was going to tell her this!

“I tried to our last night together, out in the hall.”
He tapped her on the nose and chuckled. “But apparently we have a communication
problem, for you misunderstood me once again.”

“No.” She pushed back from his tender touch, and he let
her go. “I understood you just fine. You said you didn’t want to pretend
anymore.”

“You’re absolutely correct.” He hooked a finger into the
waistband of her jeans and yanked her back to him. “I didn’t want to pretend
that I didn’t care about you.” He gripped her behind the neck and pressed his
forehead against hers. “Truth is…I wanted it all to be real. I wanted you to be
mine, and not because of some deal, for the money, or so you could get your
damn inheritance.”