Chapter 13 Acting Skills
Chapter Thirteen
ACTING SKILLS
Jessa
Tetto’s was perched on the fifty-second floor of a gleaming tower, its floor-to-ceiling windows giving an exclusive five-star view of New York. Griffin had rented out the entire space for the evening for just his executive team and their partners, celebrating a major milestone toward the IPO.
I stepped out of the elevator, a bundle of nerves, in the dress Laurel had insisted on: midnight blue silk that hugged my curves too tightly with a neckline that dipped just low enough to be daring without crossing into scandalous.
The slit halfway up my thigh showed plenty of leg.
My hair fell in loose waves over one shoulder.
Earlier, while getting ready, Griffin had sent over large diamond stud earrings.
They were gorgeous and caught the light with my every movement.
A statement to wear in my ears far better than the cheap diamond chips from the Malmart.
He said they were on loan from a jewelry store, so I tried not to get any ideas about these being a gift.
I forced myself to breathe. If I’d survived mean girls in high school, worked double shifts at the Hops, raised two teenagers while caring for my injured mother, I could handle one cocktail party.
Under crystal chandeliers with a string trio playing in the corner, underscoring the din of conversation, I searched for Griffin.
At last I found him near the bar, deep in conversation with a few people.
His gaze locked on mine, traveling slowly from my face down to my heels and back up, lingering on every curve.
How handsome he appeared in a charcoal suit, his hair slightly tousled like he’d been running his hands through it. He excused himself and crossed the room in long strides. With each step he drew closer, my heart beat faster.
“Jessa.” His voice was low, intimate, meant only for me. “You look...”
“Like I belong here?” I asked, arching a brow.
“Like you own the place.” He offered his arm. “I’ll introduce you.”
Ready or not, I was in this now. The first person we met was Sam Whiting—Griffin’s legal counsel and the man behind that horrific set of rules. Would a copy of my rewrites have been shared with him?
Opposite Griffin, Sam was short and stout, silver-haired, with a crooked smile that left me uneasy. His wife, Tina, beside him couldn’t appear any more plastic, but I’m sure was lovely. She at least greeted me warmly.
“So this is the mysterious Jessa,” Sam said, shaking my hand a little too long and laughing. “Griffin has told me absolutely nothing about you.”
He’d tried to replace me with Sabine just days ago. The jerk.
“I hope I can win you over,” I said sweetly. Killing with kindness had always been a good place to start. And if that didn’t work, I’d figure something else out.
Another gentleman stopped to shake Griffin’s hand, taking him momentarily a step away, leaving me with Sam.
I stood uncomfortably caught in his gaze raking over me, assessing. Then he leaned in. “You’re not what I expected. Not his usual type.”
He couldn’t have used deadlier words on me. I coldly responded, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Everything okay?” Griffin’s hand wound around my back. “Is Sam on his best behavior?”
He forced a laugh. “Just making conversation.”
I decided right then that I didn’t like him. Thankfully, Griffin moved us past him.
Next came Gary, the CFO, and his wife Brenda—a friendly woman who immediately pulled me into conversation about her daughters.
They were about the same age as my sisters, so we had that in common to talk about, all the young female angst. When she asked where I was from, and I said Holly Creek, she lit up.
“Oh, I love that place! I try to attend the holiday festival there each year.”
“It has its charm,” I agreed.
More introductions followed. The VP of Operations. The head of marketing. A board member and her husband. Each one greeted me with curiosity, and I met them with honesty.
I would not put on airs and pretend to be something I wasn’t. If I was going to survive the next few months, I had to do it as myself. Surprisingly, it worked.
People laughed and understood my attempts at humor.
Asked me questions. Treated me as if I belonged.
Griffin stayed close the whole time, his hand never leaving the small of my back.
Whenever someone asked how we met, he’d smile and say, “She served me the best whiskey and microbrews in upstate New York and stole my heart in the process.”
The evening should have felt like a lie, but the way he looked at me when he said it made me stand taller.
Hors d’oeuvres were served—food I couldn’t even pronounce, each bite more delicious than the last. I kept my place beside Griffin, and for a couple of hours, I forgot this was all pretend, so natural we were together among everyone here.
Then Griffin tapped his glass with a fork, the crystal chime silencing the room.
“I want to thank all of you for being here tonight,” he began, his voice steady and commanding.
“We’ve reached a major milestone in preparing for the IPO, and none of it would be possible without this team.
You’ve worked tirelessly, and I’m grateful.
Of course, we still have a ways to go, but now and then I think it’s important to stop and celebrate the milestones. So cheers to you all.”
Applause rippled through the room.
His gaze found mine, and my heart stopped at the whimsical look in his eyes. He continued. “Tonight isn’t just about business. This is also about someone who’s changed my life in ways I never expected.”
Oh no. Was he putting the spotlight on me?
“Jessa walked into my life this year, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since.
She’s smart, funny, stubborn as hell, and she doesn’t take any of my crap.
” Laughter scattered through the room. “She’s been patient with me while I figure out how to balance work and life, while I convince her to move to the city and give us a real chance. ”
My hands trembled under the spotlight. Where was he going with this?
“Jessa, you’ve brought light into my life and Theo’s. You’ve completed our family.”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small turquoise box.
Tiffany blue.
I couldn’t move, hardly dared to breathe, my pulse speeding away with me. He took the lid off and pulled out a black velvet box.
He dropped to one knee.
The room erupted in gasps and excited whispers, but all I could hear was the pounding of my heart beating faster than a racehorse’s hooves around a track.
“I know this might seem sudden to some of you,” Griffin continued, his eyes locked on mine.
“To me as well, but when you know, you know. I want to spend my life with this woman. I want to wake up beside her every morning, and build a future with her, have her be my partner in every sense of the word.”
How did he find these words to say to me, so laced with meaning and heart? And to recite them with charm and precision, like he’d practiced all day.
He opened the box. Inside sat the most stunning ring I’d ever seen—a brilliant-cut diamond surrounded by smaller stones, set in platinum. It caught the light and threw rainbows across the room, the rock in the center the size of a dime.
My lips parted, a yes trembling there before I even thought it. For one wild second, I wanted it to be true—for him to love me, not because of a contract or a headline, but because he couldn’t help it.
But that wasn’t our story. Not yet.
“Jessa Cole,” he said, voice steady and sure, “will you marry me?”
The room held its breath as I stared at the ring and the man and the impossible choice in front of me.
Every word of his speech sounded so sincere. I wanted desperately to believe him, but I knew better. This was the performance we’d agreed to by contract. The role I’d signed up for. Only Griffin’s acting skills took me by storm.
The question was: how well could I act, too?
Because for one dizzy heartbeat, when he said my name, I almost believed it was real.