24. Jensen
Chapter 24
Jensen
A s Jensen stormed into the lobby of Hidden Oasis headquarters, the memories from the prior evening followed in lockstep behind him. The defeated look in Daisy's eyes when she told him everything haunted him until sleep became impossible. He lay there, staring at the ceiling while fuming in the dark.
So, on the morning meant to be his greatest triumph, Jensen walked into the office, out for revenge.
He strode through the packed lobby, surrounded by strangers, while his pulse roared in his ears. Jensen felt his mouth move around the words but didn't hear them over the rush. Yet, people parted from his path, scrambling to move when their attention landed on him.
His anger must've shown on his face, or maybe the world finally started to sense how pissed he was at it.
Faces blurred together from the quickness in Jensen's steps, but he slowed down when one of the last people he wanted to see appeared in his peripheral vision. Delaney scurried to stand in front of him, blocking his path to the elevators.
Being in people's way was Delaney's favorite place to be.
"Delaney, get back here!" Easton hissed nearby, but Delaney's eyes raked over Jensen. Her lips pulled into a thin, tight smile, yet the glint shining in her eyes betrayed her feigned innocence.
"Jensen," she greeted coyly, spoken like she hadn't set all the dominoes in motion to fall in his favor. "Good luck with the vote today. I'm sure you'll make the best CEO for this company."
"Don't talk to me," Jensen hissed, watching as Delaney stumbled backward from his response. Shock registered on her face while her arms raised up, ready to gesture wildly during whatever defense she strung together. Hindsight removed the blinders from his eyes, and Jensen saw Delaney for who and what she truly was: a liar.
"The least you could do is thank me! I saved your future as CEO because you were too trusting not to report Daisy's past. I gave you that information freely!"
"Get out of my way. Now."
"Delaney, what are you doing?" Easton materialized by Delaney's side, gripping her shoulders to drag her away from Jensen. He refused to meet Jensen's eyes, even while Delaney squirmed out of his grip.
"I already gave you a fair warning that I'm not in the mood for your bullshit. Either you two clowns get out of my way, or I'll find it worth my while to give everyone a show," Jensen remarked, not easing up on the ire for a second.
That time, however, he didn't wait for the two lovers to step to the side before pushing past them. Jensen shoulder-checked Easton as he beelined for the elevators, back on the warpath.
He mustered a nod to security flanking the elevators before catching the next ride up, alone in the carriage when hitting the button for the tenth floor. The metallic hum trickled into his head, pushing through his angry pulse until all the noise subsided.
The doors opened, announcing his presence to the otherwise empty clusters of cubicles standing between Jensen and the conference room reserved for the vote. Across the room, he spotted the directors gathered behind the glass, renewing the anger washing over him. Everyone but his dad stood there, ready to crown him as king, while he questioned everything.
His anger deepened into a rage when his gaze landed on the man who orchestrated everything, pulling the strings like the gleeful puppet master. Kenneth’s grin cranked the heat under Jensen’s skin to the boiling point, burning over until he marched into the conference room.
Jensen threw the door open. All eyes fell on him, prompting a few stray “congratulations” from the Board. Their mouths shut quickly after noticing the less-than-pleasant twist to his demeanor. He probably didn't seem in a good mood for a new CEO.
Despite the hush falling over his puppets masquerading as Jensen's colleagues, Kenneth hobbled closer, his face brightening. "There he is! Congratulations to you, Mr. Ramsey, on your promotion."
“Shut up,” Jensen demanded, barely allowing Kenneth to finish his congratulations. In him, he spotted the tiny cracks in Kenneth’s fa?ade. The similarities to Delaney were overwhelming. Guess he knew where she picked up her lying habit from. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“Son, what are you talking about-?”
"I am not your son. I know what you did to Daisy and how this vote is a sham. Don't pretend you're a good guy while you and the other cowards in this room smile in my face."
Kenneth's face steeled into something colder but much more natural compared to the smile he once wore. He replied, “We did what was best.”
"For you, not the company," Jensen said, shaking his head. "You might as well have stuck the knife in my back, too, with how you manipulated everything. How do people like you sleep at night, putting your personal feelings about who should be in charge ahead of everything else?”
“You should be grateful to me, young man. I saved this company from a woman who would tarnish your family’s legacy with her weakness. She wasn’t worthy of this spot,” Kenneth’s voice rose, painting his face under the strain of his anger, but the malice in his eyes when avoiding Daisy’s name grazed Jensen like a bullet.
“And I’m worthy? We’ll never know for sure since you lied. You hurt Daisy and used me to do it," he corrected Kenneth, bringing as much malice to the table as he had. Jensen hoped the old man could stomach his hatred spewed back at him. "Don't act like you did this for anyone but yourself.”
Jensen shot him one last lingering glare before turning on his heel, ready to be done with this farce of an election. He won the title but lost much more in the process.
"You're making a mistake talking to me like this," Kenneth shouted, following after him despite his slower pace and the cane.
Jensen paused, turning his face over his shoulder but not the rest of him. Kenneth might demand his respect, but that was earned by men far better than him, not a pathetic old bastard with a grudge.
He chewed on his words before he spat them at Kenneth’s feet, “Then, punish me. You can threaten to tear this position from my hands or whatever else your imagination comes up with, but I’m the monster you made. You and all your lackeys will learn that I won’t forgive you, not even when your heart gives out from all the poison you keep in there. You talk a big game for someone who won’t last the next three years.”
“Jensen,” his dad’s voice called from the elevators. The room froze, too stuck in the tension to interject. “My office?”
“Of course. I was just leaving,” Jensen replied, abandoning the shocked stares from the Board of Directors. Neither said a word while they caught a lift to the top floor.
Between the elevator's narrow metal walls, Jensen stewed silently and waited for guilt to bite him with a stinging admonishment. Yet, he felt nothing of the sort while ascending to his new office.
The one he earned on a rigged vote.
His dad guided him past Kendall's empty desk as the elevator's doors opened. Jensen stepped through the double doors to his future office but stopped short at the sight of sandy blonde hair and a dark suit.
Daisy’s hands dropped from her face before she looked over her shoulder at him and his dad. Her eyes—glassy and diluted by the tears—flicked over Jensen, unable to mask her shock at his presence.
Jensen stared at her, too, taking her in. Dark circles underneath her eyes underscored pure exhaustion. Neither of them slept last night, had they?
Despite it all, her beauty radiated through. Those whiskey-colored eyes, pouty red lips, and the tiny flicker of that recognizable fire gathering in her features beckoned Jensen closer. Come home, they begged him.
But no matter how hard she pulled him in, the words felt stranded in his throat. Jensen choked on them, silenced. Say something to her idiot!
“Have a seat, Jensen,” his dad stated while stepping around his desk. He and Jensen took their seats together—like father, like son. His dad laced his hands on top of the desk. “We’re long overdue for a talk. All three of us.”
Jensen glanced toward Daisy, finding her eyes already on him. Something downright electric zapped through a single look shared between them. Somewhere deep within him, he wondered if they had been found out.
Harrison didn’t wait to break the silence. “I can’t say I expected today to turn out how it did. After Daisy showed up to my office this morning with her resignation and Sandra called to warn me as soon as the vote finished, I struggled with how to proceed. The vote should've been fair, and my rational side demands a redo."
“But?” Daisy whispered hoarsely while Jensen sat there, still choking on the taste of his inaction.
"But you spoke to me honestly about how this life isn't for you. I can't force you into a vote or to be unhappy," Harrison replied. "I never tell you enough, but you've made me incredibly proud, Daisy. As your mentor, I've spent the last ten years witnessing your greatness grow beyond my wildest imagination. So, I’m letting you go if you promise not to become a stranger.”
A quiet hiccup escaped from Daisy, short of a sob. Jensen saw the smile pull at her lips, watery and fragile. Although her eyes watered, the softness eclipsing the sadness told the story of a woman who made peace with her decision.
Daisy shook her head. “I’d never forget you, not after everything you did for me. You know how to reach me.”
"I'm glad I do. But I have a small confession while I have you and my son here. Since the retreat, you and Jensen have grown significantly over the last few months. So, I must admit that I may have been responsible for the fiasco that was your rooming assignment.”
“What?” Jensen’s voice finally lodged free of his throat, startling himself and Daisy from how she perked up. “Dad, are you serious?”
“I am.”
“Why did you do that?”
“After years of you two fighting, I thought you’d be better off on the same side. And I was right.”
Daisy said nothing while she shifted forward in her seat. Jensen observed her profile in his peripheral, bearing witness to the slight changes before the laughter started. Guttural, unbridled laughing poured off Daisy’s lips, flowing with the honeyed smoothness of the wine.
Her head slumped into her hands as she laughed, filling the room with the resonance of the sound. Jensen loved that sound.
Daisy pushed out of her chair and grasped his dad’s hands across the desk, smiling hard while tears streamed down her cheeks. “Thank you for everything, Harrison. Take care.”
"Take care, Daisy," Harrison murmured, letting go of her hands. For a shining moment, Daisy gathered Jensen’s attention with a gentle look. Her fingers twitched toward him, but she left the office with her wordless goodbye.
Jensen watched her leave while the world crumbled around him. His vision tunneled when the elevator doors opened to pull her in. He would’ve waited until they closed, but his dad’s voice cut in.
“Jensen, look at me.”
“Yes?” Jensen whispered, reluctant when facing his dad.
“Son, I’m about to say this with unconditional love, but you’re terrible at being subtle. A girl like Daisy doesn’t walk into your life every day and doesn’t wait around for you to wise up. Don’t let her walk away,” Harrison said.
“What are you—”
“You’re in love with her.”
The clench of Jensen’s chest around his heart would’ve hurt more, but he focused on how his dad’s proclamation ripped the air straight out of his lungs. He had seen right through him.
Jensen nervously ran his tongue along his lips. “How long have you known about Daisy and me?”
"That you two have hooked up? Right now, watching how you two snuck glances at one another when you thought the other wasn’t paying attention." His dad's smile quickly abandoned him, face crestfallen. "But I knew you would fall in love with her the night you met. Your mom and I listened to your rant about your first meeting for an hour, and we went to bed in agreement. You were already gone."
“That- why didn’t you say anything?” Jensen asked. His voice begged, betraying a thin veneer of calm. The words came out cracked, splintered into small pockets of weakness in his soul.
He loved Daisy?
He loved Daisy. . . and he spent all his time lost instead?
What had he done?
"You weren't ready to see it yet, but you outgrew Delaney long ago. No one wanted to push you before you saw it on your own. Jensen, you’re the type of man who needs an equal match—a partner in every sense of the word. Your love needs to grow alongside you and challenge you to be better. Deep down, you know who does that for you.” Jensen didn’t process a damn word before he found himself flung out of his seat, thrumming with energy.
He swallowed. “I have to go.”
“If you intercept her before she leaves, you’ll ensure that Piper wins the betting pool," his dad murmured, catching Jensen's eye. His dad almost glowed with an impish twinkle. "After Piper's birthday, your sisters joined the bet between your mom and me about when you'd realize."
“I’ll be mad about it later or laugh. I can decide after I speak with Daisy,” Jensen promised, bolting from the room. He sprinted for the elevator, jamming the button several times to watch the button glow.
The elevator would be too slow, letting Daisy slip through his fingers.
Jensen abandoned the elevator, in too much of a hurry to wait around and hinge his bets on a miracle. He wasn’t letting Daisy slip from his hands, not when he had already wasted so much time.
He scrambled toward the door in the corner of the spacious room, yanking on the handle. Due to the size of the building, elevators became the default method of travel around the office. However, the stairwell ran through every floor.
No one used it. . . until today.
Jensen yanked with all his might until the door swung open, promptly dashing down the stairs. His hand skimmed the railing while skipping every few steps in his oxfords, but Jensen only had Daisy on his mind.
His legs burned in his slacks with each flight of stairs he rounded, sprinting regardless of the pain. The burn could encompass the rest of him with its stinging sensation while his legs threatened to collapse. Still, Jensen would run as long as he had adrenaline in him.
The number of stairs dwindled from the dozens to the single digits until the door to the lobby appeared. Jensen grasped the handle and yanked it open.
Jensen emerged into a lobby full of people, eyes scouring the crowd for Daisy. He looked high and low, spotting the dark suit and blonde hair heading directly for the revolving door. He lurched forward, propelling toward her.
“Daisy!” Jensen shouted, not caring how loud he was. People’s heads swiveled toward him while he raced past them. He mustered another breath and begged, hoping she heard him. “Daisy, stop!”
That time, however, she halted while the rest of the room did. A hush fell over the lobby, truly silent after Jensen's plea. As Daisy turned around, Jensen felt the world fall away; he and she became the only people left.
He stepped forward on numb legs when Daisy sighed, "Jensen, if you've come to convince me to change my mind, I—"
She barely got through the words as Jensen reached her, passing by the faces of the strangers and the likes of Easton and Delaney. His hands grasped her face despite all the witnesses around them, cupping her cheeks to tenderly graze his thumb along her skin.
Then, he pulled her close and laid his lips onto hers, kissing her without remorse. Jensen’s mouth moved on its own accord; he poured every unspoken feeling into the embrace while holding Daisy close to him, refusing to let her slip through his fingers.
Daisy didn’t fight or pretend for their audience. Instead, she coiled her arms around Jensen's neck and kissed him back. Their lips molded together like two perfect puzzle pieces, speaking in the language made for them alone.
A soft moan from Daisy stoked the burning in Jensen’s chest, bringing her closer to him. Who gave a fuck if they had an audience? He didn’t want to wait for privacy, not when he was done hiding from the world.
Shaky hands cupped Daisy’s face when they pulled back, heaving for air while their lips stayed close together. Jensen’s breathless laughter pooled onto Daisy’s parted lips when he murmured, “Just listen, please. I didn’t run down over a dozen flights of stairs for me to lose you.”
“Okay, I’m listening.” Daisy’s head leaned back enough for him to meet her eyes. But staring into those whiskey-colored irises, drenched in enough longing to start a fire, only made Jensen want to kiss her until she deciphered the confession on the tip of his tongue.
"If you keep looking at me like that, I'm going to kiss you again," Jensen said loud enough for the world. The lobby stayed quiet enough to hear a pin drop while he paused, collecting his words into something presentable for Daisy. "You created this fire in me that I didn't realize I needed to keep going every day. But I need it as much as I need air. I love the way you laugh, the passion you carry for every project, or how you’ve never let a bad hand stop you from trying. I love your intelligence, loyalty, and kindness hidden behind your tough attitude. I love the way we bicker, how you put up with my endless shit, and how you keep me on my toes with that exacting tongue. But most importantly, I love you, Daisy Riggs. I don’t know who I’d be without you, and I never want to find out.”
Daisy's eyes widened, but speechlessness took hold of her like it had held Jensen hostage in his dad's office.
So, he stroked her hair with a gentle hand, pushing a strand back from her face, “I will walk away from this damn job if you ask me to, or I can march up there right now and demand a revote.”
"Jensen, that's not necessary," Daisy shushed him before he descended into further plans to blow up his career. Jensen waited, quiet while she processed his words.
His voice shook, exhaling, “Please say something?”
Daisy looked him over, but then her mouth crashed back to his. Jensen's body melted into her embrace, eyes closed and hands tugging her close despite no space between them left.
The feel of her mouth on his felt right. She kissed him like they might uncover the universe's secrets in one frenzied embrace. Her tongue swept over his lips and asked for shelter, softer than when she prepared a barb for his ego. Fuck, she completed him when he never realized he was missing something.
Daisy’s lips broke the kiss enough to whisper against Jensen’s mouth, “Does that answer you?”
“It does.”
“Good. Just for the record, I love you too, Jensen Ramsey. I want you when we’re up, when we’re fighting, and when the world seems stacked against us. After knowing you, I realize that our souls are cut from the same piece of the universe. I was always meant to find you.”
Jensen’s hands held Daisy’s face, stricken by the heat of tears behind his eyes. Yeah, fuck their audience. “What’s the plan now?”
“Honestly, I negotiated a nice severance package for my resignation. Your dad signed off on everything,” Daisy remarked while her arms slid further down Jensen’s shoulders. “I have a monetary settlement plus a full scholarship to continue my education. Your dad's writing me a letter of recommendation so I can work on that thing we discussed."
"The astrophysics thing?" Jensen asked, earning a nod from Daisy. He grinned hard; Dr. Daisy Riggs, PhD in astrophysics, rolled off the tongue quite nicely.
Daisy scrunched her nose. “What about you? Don’t you have a meeting to proceed over?”
“Hah, no. I called everyone a coward and told Kenneth that I didn’t see him living long enough to unseat me, so they could all fuck themselves.” Jensen laughed when Daisy yanked him into another kiss, that one having more oomph behind the touch.
“Yeah, tell me more.”
"Well, I'll use the winter break to move out of my old office and into the new one. I might miss you too much if I have to stare at your empty office.”
“Oh my god, you’re such a sap.”
“My apologies, Your Highness.”
Daisy shushed him with a chaste peck. “I don’t care how sappy you get. I want all of it, you hear me?”
"Yes, ma'am," Jensen murmured while peppering her face with kisses to her laughter. "Can I take you back to my place, or will we go to yours? I want to spend quality time ignoring our phones and littering the floor with clothes."
"Yours. Your bed is softer." Daisy grasped one of her hands in his, and Jensen pulled her toward the door. Of all the arguments they waged over the little stuff, Jensen looked forward to loving Daisy.
That, he knew, was a game he’d always win.