Found by Love (47 page)

"Well!! Quit acting like such a baby and I won't hit you again."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're quite mean sometimes?" I batted my eyes at him and gave him my best smile.

"Little old me? Nah. Never! Haha!"

"Oh forget it. Okay. Here goes. I used to be quite the man whore and I'm sure you have probably come up with that yourself from what I've told you about me so far." I nodded my head.

"I've suspected as much and I'm not surprised. Continue."

"Okay well, quite a few years ago, I, along with some of the partners at the firm that I worked at before I branched out on my own, went to a weekend business meeting in Georgia." At the mention of Georgia I sat up because that's where Josie is from. He put his hand out to me to not say anything. "Let me finish okay? I can see your mind working already." He looked like his throat was closing in on him so he reached into the fridge and grabbed himself a water bottle and drank half of it before he could continue.

"As I was saying, this business meeting in Georgia, well... It ended up lasting about two hours and the rest of the time there was nothing but party after party. At one particular party there was a masquerade ball and everyone was wearing masks. There were tons of prostitutes there and one of them made my head turn as soon as she walked in and stared right at me. As she headed toward me, I watched her walk across the room and she was magnificent! The way she tossed her long black hair over her shoulders, the way that she moved her hips as she walked, and the way her gorgeous breasts bounced up and down with each step as she sauntered over to me. When she got closer to me I fell head over heels for her as soon as I looked into her gorgeous green eyes. They were the prettiest eyes that I've ever seen in my life. When she sat down next to me and smiled with her ruby red lips I about..." I looked at him in hopes that he wasn't going to go into any more detail which made him laugh. "Well, let's just say that a woman had never caused me to be that attracted to her without a bit of conversation or even a touch."

"I can understand that because that's how I felt when I saw Caleb the first time after years of not seeing him. I was so scared of how I was feeling that I wanted to run for my life but Olivia wouldn't let me. I guess that was a good thing though because everything seemed to work out."

"Well in your case you wanted to run away. I wanted to pick her up like a cave man and run up to my room that was six floors up and make her mine."

"Well did you? Make her yours that is?"

"Oh eventually I did after we talked for hours at the bar. I loved her laugh and especially her voice that sounded heavenly once the drinks started flowing. I knew she was a local because the accent that she was trying to hide turned very deep with her southern accent the more she drank. I loved everything about this woman from the get go and I didn't care that she ended up being a prostitute when I asked her to go to my room with me. I guess you could definitely say that it was lust at first sight." He waited for me to say something but I was too intrigued in the story to ask anything so I waved him on.

"So... long story short. I had the best night of my life with the most beautiful woman that I've ever felt a connection to and the sex? Even though I paid for it, was amazing and out of this world! The only problem that I had was that she refused to take off her mask, while the lights were on. She refused to give me her real name because I didn't believe for a minute that her name was Jasmine. I also knew that she had to be a natural read head because well...” He laughed because I know my eyes had about bugged out of my head from shock that he was going into such detail. “Yeah, she was a red head and she had the most beautiful blue rose tattoo on her left hip that I could see from the moonlight coming in through the window." I could tell that he was about done with his story but I already knew how this story ended.

"I had convinced her to stay another night with me because she admitted that she had as much fun as I did. So, we cuddled up and fell asleep after our six hour marathon of the best sex of my life." I could see that nerve in his neck working over time again and I knew that the rest of the story was going to end badly. "I thought she felt the same way as I did until I woke up the next morning and she was gone. I looked around the room looking for a note with her number on it but the only thing that she left behind was her scent of jasmine in the room…. along with two grand that was missing out of my wallet. I guess it was all about the money to her."

"It was Josie wasn’t it?" He nodded his head and I could see the anger again in his eyes.

"Yes and my problem isn't about the money she took from me because hey, it was her job and she was worth way more than that. I’m mad because she's denying that it was her. At least she did last night when I finally had a chance to talk to her after recognizing her when she showed up for Thanksgiving. I'm so pissed off about it that I want to go to a bar right now and knock the first guy out that gives me a dirty look! What a small freaking world this is." Well maybe she has a twin in the world and it's not her, maybe.

"Are you positive that it's her?"

"If there's another woman that looks the same as her and talks the same and happens to have the same tattoo in the exact same place then maybe I'm wrong but I'm telling you. It's her because I saw that same tattoo again last night before she kicked me out of her room! I can't for the life of me understand why she's trying to deny it either but I'm damn sure going to figure it out. So, the answer to your question earlier is that yes... I do intend on moving here. It'll take me a few months but I'm going to get to the bottom of why she's being so elusive."

I swear I could see steam coming out of his ears and for a second there I felt sorry for Josie in having to deal with his wrath but he's right. If it were me the curiosity would kill me and I would have to know why she did what she did and why she's denying ever meeting him. My biggest question is why Josie would work as a prostitute after having been born into a prominent family.

I heard the gates open up at the entrance and realized that we were at the castle. I looked over at Mattie and he was staring at me, trying to figure out what was going through my mind.

"You promised that you wouldn't say anything and I feel a little better having someone to talk to about this. Are you still going to keep our little secret? I doubt that anyone in the family would look at Josie the same if they knew that she used to be a prostitute."

There's no way that I could talk to Josie about this because we aren't that close and if I even mentioned anything about this to Caleb he would be all over her so fast she wouldn't have time to tell her side of the story before he told Cash to fire her. Ugh. She's going to be running the hotel and will of course be dealing with money daily.

"I won't say anything but I will say this, I'm quite nervous about her stealing from you and at the thought of her running The Plaza terrifies me." He looks to be pondering what I said and cocked his head at me.

"I'll make sure that she doesn't do anything stupid."

"And how are you going to manage that if she's denying that you've met each other."

"Oh Claudia. You let me worry about that. The less you know the better off you will be."

"Oh boy! Okay Mattie but don't hurt her."

"Oh don't worry. I'm not going to hurt her but I'm definitely going to let her know that I'm watching her."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

"Olivia! I swear.... Blechhhhh! If you don't shut up right now.... Blechhhhh.... Oh my GOD why can't I quit...... throwing up?" I waited to see if anything else was going to come up and my stomach seemed to finally settle down.  I turn around and sit down on the toilet and wipe my mouth off with toilet paper. I've never felt so bad in my life.

"I'm sorry Claud but I'm telling you; you’re pregnant. There's no way that the three of us ate the same thing for lunch and you're the only one that ended up with 'food poisoning'. Sorry, but I don't buy it." I opened the bathroom stall and ignored her and her finger quotes. Instead I went to the sink and cupped water into my hand to rinse my mouth out.

"Claudia I'm sorry but I'm going to have to agree with Olivia here. Don't you feel the same way that you did when you found out you were pregnant with Grayson?" At least someone sounds reasonable.

"Actually Josie, I would have to say no. I had morning sickness a few times with him but it was actually an easy pregnancy until his delivery. Now THAT took forever! I barely even showed thank God which made it easier to hide from everyone." An idea came to mind and I grinned realizing that Olivia was probably wrong. I looked over at her and leaned my head down in front of her face and she started looking at me weird and backed up.  "Hey. Feel my forehead. Do I have a fever? I feel kind of flush." She reached up and felt my forehead and started laughing.

"You probably feel flush because you're pregnant. No fever Claud! Just face it and accept the fact that you're having a baby. Isn't it exciting at all?"

After the way I had acted a few weeks ago in front of Caleb about how happy I was that I wasn't pregnant had me nervous. Yes I was upset that the test came up negative because I didn't realize how much I wanted his baby but how is he going to react is what I wanted to know.

Oh who am I kidding! IF I AM pregnant he's going to be unbearable to live with because he will be ecstatic.  How Grayson is going to react to having a sibling so soon is what I'm most worried about. He has adjusted really well going to school with Gideon and Eden and even made the basketball team after getting his cast off and has actually formed some friendships for the first time.

The therapist that I started taking him to has told me, that in their sessions, he talks her head off about how happy he is living with us and that his only wish is that his Uncle Mattie would move here because he misses seeing him all of the time. Mattie calls him every chance he gets and they're usually on the phone for an hour each time but it's not the same. He will be here next week for Christmas to spend his break with all of us until after the New Year and he is going to look for a place to live and has been talking to Cash about a job in his company.

I look over at Olivia and Josie and roll my eyes. "Let's go finish this shopping trip up. I'm through with this conversation. I wanna go try that gorgeous coral gown on that I saw before I ran in here." I walked out of the bathroom not wanting to discuss anything about the possibility of being pregnant. If I am I only want to share it with Caleb and not Olivia and Josie. I owe him that much after the way I acted after I took the last pregnancy test.

The girls and I had decided to shop for gowns for the annual Christmas party at Cash's company. We had already found the kids outfits and I bought Grayson his first tuxedo and can't wait to see him in it and I know he's going to look so handsome in it. Ugh... I want to be pregnant but then I don't because of him. I wanted more one on one time with him before Caleb and I added to our little family.

"Claudia? Are you not even going to talk about the possibility?" Oh why can't she just leave me alone? I turn around and stop Olivia before she can say anything else.

"Listen O. Okay, maybe you're right and I AM pregnant. Please don't be hurt because I know we've always been the first to know everything in our lives but I want to share this with Caleb first. Okay? Yes. I'm going to buy a test on the way home but I want HIM to know first. Can you respect that?"

"Aww. You really love him don't you?" Little tears formed in her eyes and she was grinning from ear to ear.

"Of course I do! Did you think I'd marry him if I didn't? He has... He has my heart O!" She walked over to me and gave me a tight squeeze and I hugged her back while both of us cried happy tears.

"Oh my God! I can't handle this mushy shit! I'll be over there when you girls get done with the tears. Ewww... I don't want any of that rubbing off on me." We pulled away and giggled at Josie's abrupt departure. We caught up with her quick and I took her unaware by my question.

"Have you never been in love J?" She rolled her eyes at my nickname for her because she has repeatedly told me that she hated it.

"Which time? I've been in love lots of times and I always got burned. Love isn't for me and I have finally given up."  Wow! I'm having a déjàvu moment and I look at Olivia and I know what she's thinking.

"Josie? You sound like Claudia and look at her and Caleb now. It'll happen when you least expect it. Trust me! I know this for a fact because it happened to me and Cash. I thought my life was over when Derek and the kids died and who knew that hours after Claudia forced me out of the house, after locking myself up in a deep depression, my whole life would be changed forever." She looked around and turned her head towards us and lowered her voice and I could tell that she seemed upset.

"Look. You two have never had it as bad as I have and you don't know what I've had to.... do." She looked around again and turned around and has tears in her eyes. "To survive." She shook her head and threw her hands up into the air. "That's all I'm saying about any of it! So…. are we going to shop or not?" She faked her smile and batted her eyes at us letting it known that she was done with the conversation.