The Accidental Boyfriend (11 page)

“Oh here we go,” Robert said with a weary sigh. His eyes were filled with disdain as he gave Holly a pitying smile. “Let me guess, he doesn’t like the word ‘couple’. He’s probably convinced you that it’s better if you keep things casual, am I right?”

Jack watched Holly stiffen, her jaw clenched as she faced his brother head on. He knew without a doubt that she wanted to lash out but was trying her best to remain calm. He wondered if that’s how he looked every time he talked to his brother.

He opened his mouth to respond on her behalf but before he could, Holly said in a quiet, controlled voice, “I believe Jack was just about to explain our relationship before you so rudely interrupted.”

Bravo!
Jack’s heart soared watching Holly put his brother in his place. No one ever did that. Nearly everyone, including Jack, had a tendency to cower before Robert’s smug righteousness. Even better was watching Robert’s mouth clamp shut and Miranda’s attempt to smother a laugh at her husband’s expense.

Robert recovered quickly and turned to Jack with one eyebrow cocked in sarcastic curiosity. “So tell me, Jack. Have you finally managed to make a commitment for once in your life?”

Jack ignored the comment. He would not be bullied into telling a lie. “As you may have guessed, Holly and I met under rather…
unusual
circumstances.” He turned to see Holly giving him a little smile.

“That may be the understatement of the century,” she murmured under her breath, making Miranda giggle. Robert was still watching, waiting.

“So it won’t come as a surprise when I say that our relationship is a bit unusual as well,” he continued. Even to his own ears, he sounded like he was justifying himself and he hated that. Why did he care what Robert thought?

Jack took a deep breath.
Just spit it out
. Robert, meanwhile, was starting to smile. He looked like the cat who ate the canary as he turned to his wife. “I told you. Jack will never commit.” Turning toward his wife, he held out his hand. “Pay up.”

Jack looked from Holly, whose eyes were wide with shock, back to his brother. Miranda scowled at Robert and slapped his hand away. “Stop it,” she hissed.

Robert just laughed. “Fine, you can pay me later.”

“You
bet
on this?” Holly’s voice came out in a squeak. “You bet on the fact that Jack wouldn’t possibly commit to me.”

Robert took a step toward Holly and reached out a reassuring hand. “Oh please don’t take it personally. This has nothing to do with you. We didn’t even know you when we made the bet.” Jack was watching Miranda but she refused to meet his eyes. Her cheeks were growing pink under his scrutiny.

“It’s just that we know Jack, that’s all,” Robert continued. “He’s never been able to commit to anything—not family, not business, and certainly not women.” He was laughing now, seemingly oblivious to the awkward silence that filled the room.

Holly looked to Jack, as though waiting for him to speak. Defend himself, perhaps. But what could he say? Robert was right, as always. He had lived up to his terrible reputation once again.

When Holly spoke, her voice was strong and clear. “It looks like you owe your wife some money because you are dead wrong.”

All three of them stared at her in shock. Jack knew it was coming but couldn’t bring himself to stop her. Stepping closer to his side so she could link her fingers through his, she said, “We are very much a couple and we are quite happy.”

There was a stunned silence before Jack heard his mother’s unmistakable voice coming from the doorway. “I’m so glad to hear that, dear. I always knew my son would find someone wonderful and settle down.”

Holly saw Robert and Miranda twirl toward the doorway in surprise and Jack’s grip tightened considerably on her hand. Holly’s heart kicked into overdrive. This could not be happening…again.

She and Jack spun around to face the owner of the voice—a pretty, petite older woman who was beaming at her and Jack like she’d just won the lottery. An older gentleman who bore a striking resemblance to Jack and Robert stood behind her. He too was grinning and shaking his head in an “oh you crazy kids” kind of way.

“Um, Jack?” she whispered.

Jack turned to her, a blank look on his face. “Holly Sinclair, I’d like you to meet my mom and dad.”

Jack’s mom, who introduced herself as Claire, rushed toward her and enveloped her in a tight hug. When she pulled back, she was giving her a huge grin. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

Holly forced a smile to match Claire’s. “You too.” Before they could talk further it was Jack’s dad’s turn to pull her into a bear hug. “Let me take a look at the woman who managed to capture my son’s heart,” he started.

“Dad, don’t get carried away,” Jack said from behind his father.

“Yeah, we just started dating, really,” Holly added. Jack raised a brow at her over his father’s shoulder.

“It’s true,” he added. “Don’t go getting too excited.” He was looking at his mother who was bouncing on her toes for a better look at her son’s new girlfriend.

“What are you doing here?” Jack asked. “I mean, it’s great to see you but Robert and Miranda didn’t mention that you’d—”

“We’re just stopping by on our way back to the base,” Jack’s father said. “We were supposed to head back today but when Miranda called and said you were in town, we pushed back our flight.”

“You should have told us you were coming to Paris,” his mother said, swatting his arm lightly.

“Oh well, this trip was really just a last minute impulse,” he said. Holly noticed he was actively avoiding looking at her, but whether it was because he was angry or afraid he’d burst out laughing remained to be seen.

His mother looked back and forth between Jack and Holly and sighed. “A weekend getaway to Paris, how romantic.”

“Mom, please don’t get carried away,” Jack said, a note of warning in his voice. Holly remembered what his brother had said about how upset his mother had been when she learned that his relationship with Ivy was a lie and the guilt that had been gnawing at her stomach grew a million times worse.

Holly fidgeted with the strap of her purse, trying desperately to fade into the wallpaper.

The whole point of coming here tonight was to set the record straight and she’d gone and dug the hole even deeper. But really, it wasn’t entirely her fault. The way Robert was talking to his brother, demeaning him—she would have done anything to take that smug look on his face. Was it really her fault that she just happened to have the absolute worst timing on the planet?

Once the initial excitement settled down, Holly watched Jack’s family interact. With their parents acting as buffer, Jack and Robert were on their best behavior. They never spoke directly to one another but she noticed that they laughed at one another’s jokes and listened to each other’s stories. If she hadn’t seen the tension between the brothers with her own eyes, Holly would have been convinced they were one big happy family.

Holly did her best to stay on the outskirts and not get drawn into their intimate family reunion but neither his parents nor Miranda would allow her keep her distance. After a while she gave up trying and found herself being treated like a long lost member of the family.

When they went to leave a little while later, his mother made them swear that they would meet up again for dinner on their last night in town.

* * * *

Stepping out of the cozy apartment and into the fresh night air, Holly inhaled deeply and let it out with a sigh. “We survived,” she said.

“Barely.”

She glanced over to see Jack watching her with a wry smile. “Okay, I’ll say it,” she said. “I’m really sorry I made your parents think we’re a couple.”

“I’m not.” She looked over in surprise at that and he added, “I think we did a fairly good job of clarifying that we’re not serious so it won’t come as a shock when we break up.”

The words gave her heart a bit of a pang but she shook off her own nonsense. Breaking up should not be painful for two people who were not in a relationship.

“Besides, it was nice to see them so happy, even if it’s not totally real.”

“They did seem pretty happy.”

He laughed, “Even Robbie managed to loosen up a bit, did you notice?” She nodded. “So when are you going to tell me what happened there?”

They were strolling back toward the city center and Jack shoved his hands in his pockets. “Simple, really. We were always competitive. Always. But Robert always won. He got the good grades, kicked my butt in sports, and got the girl.”

She peered over at him, her suspicions confirmed. “Miranda, you mean?”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t go getting crazy ideas. I got over that one quickly. It’s obvious that she chose the right brother.”

“What happened?” she prodded.

“Oh the usual, she was ready for a commitment and I…couldn’t give it to her.”

Holly ignored the pain in her jaw from clenching it so hard. “So it was serious between you two then.”

Jack gave a little nod. “It was serious for a little while. But then she wised up and realized I don’t have long-term potential. Not like Robert.”

Holly studied his profile. He didn’t seem too terribly broken up about his lost love—in fact he sounded a bit bored.

“How long ago was this?”

“High school.”

Holly stopped walking and he had to turn to face her.

“High school?” she repeated. “How old were you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Seventeen?”

“Why do you keep repeating me?” he asked, that slow smile spreading across his face, making him look entirely too sexy under the soft glow of the streetlamps.

“Because you were
seventeen
,” she said. “Of course you weren’t ready to make a commitment. You’d just learned how to shave, you couldn’t possibly have been ready to make a lifetime commitment.”

Jack let out a little laugh and kept walking. “I told you, that’s all in the past. She and Robert are a much more logical fit.”

“Okay, so then what else?”

Jack sighed again and for a moment she thought he wouldn’t respond. But then he said, “That was just the first of many times I let everyone down. Especially Robert. We started growing apart during college, when Robert became even more….”

“Smug? Superior? Self-righteous?” Holly suggested.

“Stubborn. And I became more and more…willful.” He ignored her sarcastic snort and continued. “Push came to shove shortly after graduation when I asked Robert to be a backer in my company. He still had some money left from our inheritance from our grandparents. I’d blown through all of mine, of course, but Robert had squirreled his away as a nest egg for him and Miranda.”

“And?” Holly nudged. She had an idea where this was going but she wanted to hear the whole story for herself.

Jack shoved his hands into his pocket. “I was supposed to be the idea man—they were my prototypes we wanted to make—and my friend Evan would handle the business end. He’d gotten his degree in business and marketing and he was one of my best friends. I trusted him.”

He was silent for a little while and seemed lost in thought. “So, Robert leant you the money…” she prodded.

“And I lost it all. Every penny.”

Holly gasped, more from the self-loathing tone in his voice than anything else.

“The worst part was, by the end of it Evan ended up owning all of the intellectual property, so he found other investors and started from scratch with my ideas but without me. Or my brother.”

“Oh my God,” she murmured. Her heart ached at the bitterness she heard in his tone.

“But that’s not your fault,” she said.

He glanced over at her with a wry smile. “If only Robbie felt that way.”

Before she could protest further, he said, “I may not have been the total traitor that Evan was, but I failed my brother. I promised him that I would see it through, that I would commit to the business. I made him believe that he could trust me to do something right for a change.”

Holly placed one hand on his arm. She wished she could do more but even that brief touch seemed far more intimate than it should. He stopped and turned so they were facing one another, only inches between them. Every bit of guilt and resentment was etched on his face and Holly realized that she would do absolutely anything to make his pain go away.

Jack’s eyes were filled with self-reproach. “You’ve got to understand. Our whole childhood and all during high school, I was always getting into trouble and Robbie was always getting me out. Even in college I was always starting projects but never seeing them through. I managed to convince Robbie to trust me for once in his life and he did. And I blew it. I should have been paying attention to the deals Evan was making, I should have read the fine print. I should have been responsible with the money that I was making…but instead I partied it up like a rock star and let Evan take everything.”

Holly reached out again and let her hands rest on his shoulders. She waited until his eyes locked with hers before she spoke. “You were young and naïve and you trusted the wrong person. That doesn’t make you the bad guy.”

The look in his eyes was so soft, so vulnerable, it took Holly’s breath away.

“Try telling Robert that,” he said. “That was my one chance to prove to my brother that I’d changed—that I wasn’t the screw-up kid he’s always seen me as…” his voice faded off and he shrugged.

“But you
were
a kid,” she said. How did he not see that? How did his brother and the rest of his family not recognize that? Frustration was slowly replacing sympathy and she crossed her arms across her chest and gave him the look that her second graders had dubbed the “stare of doom.”

“Listen up, Jack Everett,” she said. “You have got to stop blaming yourself for things that happened when you were young and dumb. You are a grown up now so it’s time to act like one.”

His grin turned to a smirk and she saw the frustration in his eyes when he said, “So what are you saying, I should rush out and get married?”

Holly shook her head in annoyance. “Of course not. Marriage doesn’t make you responsible. Any idiot can throw a wedding. If you want people to respect you, then you’ve got to demand respect. Prove that you’ve changed.”