Secrets of a Shy Socialite (6 page)

“Because you’re so vile and disreputable no one wants to sink low enough in society’s regard to join you.”

Justin crossed his arms and nodded. “Not bad, Jerry. Sounds like someone’s developed himself a sense of humor over the past few years.” About damn time.

“Stay away from her.”

“No can do.” Justin walked over to Jerry, acting all casual and carefree like the bum Jerry thought him to be. “You see now that she’s back I’m thinking one night in the sack wasn’t near enough. And I plan to use my status as her
babies’ daddy to my full advantage.” Jerry wasn’t the only one who could taunt. “And a great big FYI,”—for your information. “My little security business is something I do on the side.” To earn enough money to keep him in his luxury high rise. “My full time gig is police officer.”

From Jerry’s surprise he had no idea.

Good. “That’s right,” Justin said nonchalantly, kicking the toe of his boot against a clump of something lodged in the thick grass. “I’ve taken an oath to uphold the law.” Which is the only reason Jerry wasn’t lying in a bloody ball for the crap he’d put Jena through. “And first thing Monday morning I plan to make use of every investigative and legal resource at my disposal to find out what laws you’ve broken by denying your sister access to her money.”

Jerry didn’t flinch. But he swallowed.

Play time over. Now to seal the deal. “Notice I’m planning to hold off until Monday.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “Because I think this weekend is all the time I’ll need to come to Jena’s rescue and ease her financial burden. How do you think she’ll show her appreciation? Huh, Jerry?” He elbowed Jerry in his stiff side then rubbed his palms together conniving style. “Maybe she’ll give me the opportunity to knock her up with another set of twins. You think?” Take that you overbearing, condescending jerk.

Footsteps sounded behind them. Jena ran down the stairs, a stuffed medium-sized duffel bag in one hand and a cloth carryall in the other. “I’m done.”

“Let me take that for you.” Justin grabbed the duffel, which turned out to be heavier than it looked, a bit surprised she hadn’t sought out a servant to carry it for her. With a few short hours in her presence, Justin had come the realization he’d made a few glaringly incorrect assumptions about Jaci’s homebody, except when out in high society, not as shy as he’d thought twin.

“Hold on a minute,” Jerry said. “I need to give you something.” He speed-walked toward the porch. “Don’t leave,” he yelled over his shoulder.

Atta boy. Go fetch Jena the info needed to access her accounts so they could put all this talk of marriage and Thomas what’s-his-name behind them, so she wouldn’t be in a position where she needed to take the job at the urgent care center and could stay home to take care of the twins. Where she belonged.

Jena looked up at him? “What was that about?”

Justin shrugged. “No idea.” He carried her bag to the car and placed it on the backseat next to Abbie.

No sooner did he close the door then he spied Jerald, hurrying back in their direction, too high class to full out sprint, but moving as fast as possible without officially lowering himself to the point of actual running. “Here.” He handed Jena an accordion file folder, panting from his exertion, although he tried to cover it up with an elegant cough. “It’s all in here.” He patted the folder now in Jena’s hands. “Your most recent bank statements, your checkbook, and a snapshot of your investment portfolio from August. You may not remember, but you signed signature cards when you turned eighteen so you can write your own checks.”

Jena clutched the folder to her chest, looking overwhelmed, relieved, and on the verge of tears. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“I’m happy to go over it with you and answer any questions,” Jerry said actually pulling off a caring tone. But the only things he cared about were his company’s bottom line and himself.

“Let’s go.” Justin put his arm around Jena’s shoulders and guided her to the car. Before getting in she looked over at Jerry and said, “I’ll think about Thomas.”

Oh no she wouldn’t.

“Thank you,” Jerry said. “Come back any time, Jena.” He glared at Justin. “You and my nieces are always welcome.”

The ride back to the condo was a quiet one and Justin used the time to think. And come to the conclusion, if Jerry acted as Jena’s business manager, paying all her bills and managing her money, there was the possibility she didn’t know how to do either on her own, which would explain the uneasy tension emanating from her side of the car.

Jena spent the trip staring out the window, maintaining a tight grip on her financial data like someone might try to wrestle it from her at any moment. Which was kind of disconcerting since the only other person in the car capable of wrestling was him.

He parked in a guest spot close to the front door, turned off his SUV and shifted in his seat to face her. “You okay?”

She just sat there, gazing out the window, looking lost and in no apparent hurry to exit, her demeanor not that of someone he’d identify as okay. But she nodded in response to his question.

“I’m not sure if you’re aware,” he said. “But in addition to my undergraduate degree in criminal justice, I minored in finance. And I worked at my dad’s investment firm every summer from the time I turned sixteen until I graduated college. I’d be happy to take a look at everything Jerry gave you and help you make sense of it,” he offered, half on edge, waiting to see if she’d lash out at being insulted by him thinking she didn’t know how to manage her money when she did.

Instead of a reply, she reached up to dab at the corner of her eye with her knuckle and Justin wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay. That she could count on him to help her and take care of her.

Whoa. That came out of nowhere. But there was something about her, a naiveté long worn off in the women he dated, that made him want to be the man to teach her and tend to her, placing him in unfamiliar territory.

“Thank you,” she said, so softly he almost didn’t hear her. She inhaled a deep breath, let it out then turned to look at him. Light from the outside fixtures reflected in her watery eyes. “It’s not that I’m dumb or lazy. It’s the way I grew up,” Jena explained, lowering the folder to her lap.

“While Jaci fought for independence I was content to be taken care of. I chose to blindly trust Jerald to manage my money. I chose to leave rather than fight him for control. But I have worked from the age of thirteen, managing the house and as a nurse for my mom, even while I went to college. After she passed away, I took on the role of Jerald’s social secretary full time. Yet I never received a formal paycheck. Jerald made sure there was cash in the safe in his office, and I took what I needed when I needed it. My credit card bills came to the house and he paid them when he paid all the other bills. If I had to go somewhere there was always a car and driver waiting to take me.”

She looked down and fiddled with the elastic band holding the folder together. “And now I’m a twenty-four-year old mother of two who can plan a dinner party for fourteen with two hours’ notice, coordinate an exquisite gala for five hundred on a strict budget, and manage a staff of thirty-six, half of whom only speak Spanish, but I can’t drive, I have no idea how much money I have aside from the two hundred thirty-six dollars in the envelope in my dresser drawer, and I don’t know the first thing about paying bills or writing checks.”

Justin reached out to take her cool hand into his. He squeezed it. “I promise you, by the end of the weekend, you will have your bills sorted and paid, you will know how much money you have in the bank and in your investment accounts, and you will know how to write a check.”

She peered up at him from the corner of her eyes. “And the driving?”

He smiled. “If we can’t find the study guide for a driver’s permit test online, I’ll pick one up from the DMV,”—Department of Motor Vehicles—“on Monday. As soon as you pass the test, I will personally teach you how to drive and you can use my SUV to take your road test.”

She dropped her precious papers to the floor, lunged her upper body across the center console, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she kissed his cheek. “So much.” She kissed him again.

Then they were kissing for real. Because he’d turned his head, intent on catching her lips with his. Success.

For a split second she stiffened and he thought she might pull away. Then she melted against him, opened for him, and before he knew what he was doing he’d dragged the rest of her onto his lap like some hormone-crazed teenager looking to get lucky in daddy’s Dodge.

His eyes may still be working on identifying the differences between Jena and Jaci, but his body sure recognized Jena, and at that moment, was most interested in rekindling their naked acquaintance.

They came up for air, both breathing heavy. “I’m sorry.” He wasn’t. “I shouldn’t have—”

“It’s okay.” She started to move away. He let her go but was not at all happy about it. “I guess I made the first move.” She patted down her hair and readjusted her blouse. “Again.”

He smiled. “Next time it’s my turn to make the first move.” In a room with a bed, when the babies were sound asleep and Ian was somewhere else and there was no chance they’d be interrupted. Then he’d wipe “fine” from her memory and replace it with amazing, unforgettable, stupendous. Never to be topped by any other man.

She looked away, like she often did when she didn’t want him to know what she was thinking. “Can we not tell Jaci how inept I am at managing my life?” she changed the subject. “I’d rather she not know.”

“You’re not inept you’re inexperienced.” He reached out, gently took her chin in his hand, and turned her head to face him. “By Monday that will no longer be the case, because I have the next two mornings off, and I plan to spend them teaching you.” Hopefully about more than her finances. “And on account of the major secrets your loving sister and my alleged best friend have kept from me, I’m kind of looking forward to having some secrets to keep from them. You got anymore?”

She nodded. “You know the rich, gooey, chocolate cake Jaci delivers to you on your birthday?”

“Of course I do.” With milk chocolate ganache frosting, layers of the best buttercream mixture he’d ever tasted, and dark chocolate shavings on top. His mouth watered. “Every year since I turned fifteen.”

Jena smiled sadly and nodded. “They weren’t from Jaci, they were from me. And she didn’t buy them at a bakery, I made them.”

“You?” No way. That cake was pastry chef quality. “From scratch? Come on.”

“I spent a lot of time at home. I made friends with the staff. They taught me things.”

She stared back at him, confident, seeming to dare him to question her. Well wudda you know? “That explains why Jaci missed my last birthday. That little liar. I’m going to—”

She smacked the base of her palm to her forehead. “I forgot your birthday. I can’t believe it. I’m so sorry.”

He reached out to move a curl that’d fallen down close to her eye. “I’m guessing you had a lot going on at the time.” Since she would have been around eight months pregnant.

She nodded.

He leaned back in his seat. “It’s been quite an evening,” he said, letting out a huge breath, feeling weighted down by all the revelations of the past few hours.

She stretched. “I’m exhausted.” She angled her watch to catch a ray of light. “Annie should be up for a bottle soon. Then hopefully I can sleep for a few uninterrupted hours so I’m bright and cheery for my new job tomorrow.”

“Wait a minute,” Justin said. “You have your money back. You don’t
need
to work.”

“Maybe not, but I like working as a nurse. And I promised Mary I’d help her out this weekend. She needs me.”

“Your daughters need you, too,” Justin pointed out. If given the choice, didn’t women
want
to stay home to take care of their babies?

“Relax,” Jena said. “It’s sixteen hours. It’ll be good for me to have some time away from the girls, to use my skills, and engage in professional conversation. I’m not in a position to commit to more hours right now. And if I come to an agreement with Thomas, I’ll be moving into the city in the next two months anyway.”

Thomas. They were back to her considering a marriage to Thomas. “What is this fixation with marriage? You. Jaci. Your brother. I don’t get it.”

“Keep your voice down,” Jena whispered.

He froze, waited to see if he’d woken Abbie, and said a private thank you for blessed quiet.

“When my father died,” Jena said, keeping her voice low, “Jaci and my inheritances went into a trust. To be distributed on our twenty-fifth birthday.”

November twenty-eighth. In two and a half months.

“Typical of my dad, controlling tyrant that he was, he placed stipulations on the money.” She looked up at him. “To receive it, Jaci and I have to be married and living with our respective spouses by our twenty-fifth birthday. To be sure we don’t enter into a sham of a marriage, the payments are to be broken up over five years at five million dollars per year for each of us. If one of us doesn’t marry by the age of twenty-five, we forfeit our portion of the trust and the money will be donated to charities designated by my father before his death. If we divorce or separate during the five year period, we forfeit any monies not yet paid.”

Even dead that evil, arrogant menace managed to exert his power. “Twenty-five million dollars is a strong incentive to marry.”

Jena nodded. “It’s my daughters’ legacy, their future. And I will do whatever it takes to see they get it.”

“Even marry a gay guy?” slipped out before he could stop it.

“Trust me when I tell you, he is a million times better than most of the other men Jerald’s tried to pair me off with.”

The opportunistic bloodsucker. “What’s his interest, anyway?”

“Fathers come to Jerald looking to make a good match for their wayward sons. Men come to him looking for a quick infusion of cash our trust would provide to bolster their failing business endeavors and dwindling bank accounts. Both promise Jerald favors or contracts or something that he wants.” She shrugged and turned to look out the window. “Not exactly how I’d hoped to meet my future husband,” she said sadly.