Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
FIRST FIGHT
Griffin
The city slid past in ribbons of color as the Ferrari purred us home. It wasn’t every night I proposed marriage; the occasion called for a little spectacle with my most prized vehicle.
Jessa sat beside me, her left hand raised to catch the streetlights. The platinum and diamond ring glittered, a small fortune wrapped around her finger.
“It’s huge.” She studied it from every angle.
A cocky grin tugged at my lips. “I wanted to be sure it stands out, catches people’s eyes. Draw attention to us.”
“I was not prepared for this tonight, not so soon,” she murmured. “I wish you had told me.”
My gaze stayed on the road. “Call me old-fashioned, but I wanted to surprise you with it. Despite the contract we signed. If you had known it was coming, your response might have been less authentic.”
“And what if I had said no?” Her teasing tone matched her sly smirk.
“You signed a contract. Pretty sure you were going to say yes.”
“It’s all about perception.” She threw my words back in my face. Sam’s words, really. But they might as well have been mine.
“Yes, speaking of, in the morning, we should tell Theo.”
“But first, Sophie,” she cut in, lowering her hand to her lap. “Theo will be asleep by now. She’ll be waiting for us to get home, see this ring and lose her mind.”
“I thought you might handle that.”
Her head snapped toward me. “Excuse me?”
“I have more work waiting for me back at the office.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. There were emails piling up. Contracts to review. A call with Tokyo I’d rescheduled twice already. But the truth was messier. I needed space.
Tonight had leaned too close to reality. I had proposed like I meant it. ‘Yes’ left her lips like she meant it. It gutted me, and terrified me more than any hostile board meeting ever could.
I needed to remain in control, to pull back, to regain my footing. Remember this was only business.
“Griffin, it’s late,” she countered. “Come inside. We can tell her together, and of course we can celebrate.” Her hand settled warmly on my thigh and squeezed.
Heat hit fast and merciless. More proof I should retreat. I pulled steel into my tone. “A couple of hours, that’s all. You can handle Sophie.”
She withdrew her hand as if I’d scorched her.
We reached my building and I idled at the curb. I finally met her eyes. Hurt flickered there, then she set her chin, refusing to bend.
“Don’t,” I said, too cool. “You knew the deal. I have business to tend to—”
“And I’m only convenient when it suits you?” she asked, blade-clean.
“For five million dollars? Yes.”
She flinched, then rebuilt in front of me with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. She opened her purse. The ring slid into it with a clink. Silence thickened between us. I adjusted my grip on the wheel, and the car turned colder.
“You’re right,” she said evenly, though her hands trembled. “Five million is a lot for a girl like me. It’s not a license to treat me like crap, though.”
“Jessa—”
“You can hide at the office tonight,” she went on. “But tomorrow I expect you to show up like the family man your board wants to buy. I will not tell anyone about us alone. We do this together or not at all. We’re partners in this contract.”
I opened my mouth. She wasn’t finished.
“There’s no switch you flip when it’s convenient, Griffin. It’s all the time, or it’s nothing.”
She stepped out, slammed the door, and climbed the steps without looking back—shoulders squared, spine straight.
I sat, engine rumbling, jaw locked—and hard as a damn rock for her.
Jessa didn’t fluff my ego. She didn’t shrink. She shoved back and called me out. Every line she drew, made me respect her more. Want her more. A bad combination for desire.
“Fuck.” I forced myself to drive away.
She was right. I couldn’t bark orders at a woman like her and expect her to perform. I also couldn’t make a single misstep, or get caught playing anything less than a devoted fiancé, sunup to sundown.
The past suddenly reared up. I once held that kind of deep devotion for real, to Elsa, and did everything I could to be the man she needed. Look how that turned out for me.
Devotion had a price tag, and I’d paid it in full through the divorce. After that, I locked away my heart, buried it beneath rigid schedules and control. But with the IPO looming, I had no choice—I’d play the devoted man to Jessa and keep my walls up high, no matter how much it hurt.
Dawn leaked through the penthouse in a pale wash. I couldn’t sleep. I’d been at my desk for an hour, eyes on documents that wouldn’t stay sharp. Every time I blinked, I saw Jessa slipping the ring into her purse. It bothered the hell out of me.
At six, I gave up on pretending to work and on pretending I didn’t care. I padded to her room and eased the ring from her bag while she slept.
She lay on her side, hair scattered over the pillow, one hand tucked beneath her cheek. Peaceful and pretty.
I sat on the edge of the mattress. It dipped.
“Jessa,” I whispered, brushing a knuckle along her shoulder.
“Griffin?” She stirred, lashes fluttering.
I took her left hand and slid the ring home and then linked our fingers together.
“You were right. I was wrong. We’ll amend the contract and add the clause: ‘Jessa may put Griffin in his place as needed.’”
A sleepy snort. “Might be daily.”
“Probably.” My mouth twitched. “And we’ll tell Sophie together next time we see her.”
She squeezed my hand, still half in dreams. “Okay. Thank you. First fight, right?”
“Probably the first of many.”
“Then kiss me to make up.”
I bent and took what she offered, kissing her mouth first, then dipping lower to her pulse. Down the column of her neck my lips grazed, and further still along her creamy, smooth skin to her cleavage. She moaned—until a door down the hall clicked.
Her eyes flew wide. “Theo’s up.”
“Rain check later tonight?”
“I’d like that.” A flicker of worry chased across her face as she got up. “My stomach’s a little off this morning.”
“Still a bug left over from the other day?”
She shrugged. “I just wonder if we’re doing the right thing, telling Theo.”
“You don’t think I’ve thought about that? What kind of father would I be if I didn’t consider the ramifications our contract could have on him?”
“I didn’t mean any slight toward you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “If he heard anything about us from someone else, he’d be upset. We could be in the social pages tomorrow, and someone like Clare could bring it up in front of Theo at school drop-off. We can’t hide this from him.”
“But our contract has an expiration date. What then?”
Shit. Having a fake fiancée became complicated. Wasn’t this whole thing started on the premise that it would make things easier for me with the IPO?
I didn’t want a stranger as my fake fiancée, but a stranger would have been easier for Theo to dismiss in the end. Jessa would be hard for him to get over. Unless there wasn’t an end to our contract…
What am I saying? Of course there would be. This was temporary. But I understood her concerns about Theo.
He was a baby back when Elsa left us. They had little connection to begin with, and he always took it in stride that she wasn’t an active part of his life.
She visited the U.S. a few times a year, and she sent cards and gifts from her travels now and then.
He never seemed bothered by it, but then I’d always tried to be everything he needed.
Things were different with Jessa, and he was older now. Definitely more complicated.
“If you’re not ready to tell him today, we could wait,” she offered.
“No. We need to do it now. Don’t worry. Follow my lead.”
“If you think that’s best.” She nodded and slipped into the bathroom.
I left and found Theo in the kitchen, already rummaging through the pantry.
“Hungry?”
“Starving. Can we have this?” He held up the granola with the chocolate chips.
“Nope. Let’s have the regular granola today. Save the other for a special occasion.” Although telling your kid you were newly engaged to his nanny is a certain sort of occasion.
We were two bites into our bowls when Jessa padded into the kitchen—hair brushed, pale-blue cashmere sweater, leggings, no makeup.
Her cheeks flushed pink, fresh like she’d splashed cold water there.
A natural beauty. I noticed every detail in her presence; the sight did complicated things to my breathing.
I went to her, hugged her, and smoothed a hand down her back. “You look lovely. Relax.”
Theo tracked us like a scientist. “What’s going on?”
I settled her on the stool beside him and rested a hand on her shoulder. “We have something to talk about,” I announced.
Theo’s eyes narrowed. “Am I in trouble?”
“Is there anything you’d like to confess?” She winked at him.
“Uh… I snuck a handful of chocolate chip granola before Dad walked into the kitchen.” He hung his head.
I covered my laugh with a cough. “We’ll let it slide this time, buddy.” I paused, and chose my words carefully. “Do you remember the day you met Jessa?”
“At the wedding with the frog?” Theo scratched his head, making his hair stick up in one spot.
“Exactly. But I actually met her about a year before that. I saw her every time we visited your Aunt Sophie up in Holly Creek. We eventually developed feelings for each other, and um…” I hesitated. Peering into his sweet face, this was harder than I thought it’d be.
“What your dad is saying is that when two adults have feelings, they naturally want to spend more time together,” Jessa easily picked up where I left off.
“You mean like kissing and stuff?” He wrinkled his nose.
“I have to admit, I do like to kiss her.” I lifted her hand, letting the ring catch the light. “Buddy, Jessa is going to be more than the nanny. I asked her to marry me.”
Theo’s eyes blew wide. “Can I get a little brother?”
“Maybe,” Jessa chuckled.
“No,” I scowled and blurted out at the same time. Her shoulders dipped. I stood there, dumbfounded for a moment.
She smoothed things over. “Maybe one day. Right now we’re a team of three.”
“I know what it means when people get married. So please, please, please, give me a brother. I could teach him how to play hockey. Jackson, the goalie on my team, has a little brother who is only two and can already skate and handle a stick and puck.”
Jessa leaned forward, quickly placing a hand on his shoulder. “What matters most is that we’re both here for you, Theo.”
I cleared my throat and pulled it together. “That’s right. The three of us together against the world. In fact, how about today we go hang out at Central Park? Take advantage of one of the last fall days before winter hits.”
“Cool.” Theo shrugged, and spooned granola into his mouth. Then he hopped off his stool and headed back toward his room. “I’m gonna get ready.”
I gaped after him. “That went easier than I expected.”
She gave me a wary look. “Don’t celebrate yet. It might take time for it to register what this really means.”
“Central Park was a nice touch, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” She smiled. But it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Are you really taking the afternoon off?”
“Yep. Besides, you can’t be considered a true New Yorker until you’ve been through the park.”
“Is that what I am now? A New Yorker?”
“Well, this isn’t Holly Creek.”
“Have you ever thought about living anywhere other than the city?” Something in her tone made me pause.
“No,” I said automatically. “Why?”
“Look at Richard and Rex. Brooks and Archer. They’ve all made the transition to small town life. “
“Jessa.” I turned her stool so she faced me fully.
“Let’s just keep ourselves grounded in the city and the situation at hand.
And please don’t encourage his questions about having a sibling.
Okay?” I shut it down, trying to recall any clause in our agreement preventing procreation.
“Have some breakfast. Want me to make you some granola?”
“No.” She wrinkled her nose, hand on her belly. “I think I’ll stick with dry toast this morning.”
“Are you okay?” I frowned.
She hesitated, like she had something to tell me but wasn’t sure how.
“What is it?” I asked.
Her mouth opened. Then closed. Finally she asked, “How should I dress for Central Park?”
“It’ll be chilly. Jeans, sweater, walking shoes.
We’ll all need jackets and scarves.” I took the bowls to the sink and leaned against the counter.
“I thought we’d take a horse and carriage ride first. Theo loves those, and they give a good overview of the park.
Then we’ll see what he wants to do. Maybe the zoo, or the carousel. ”
“Sounds lovely.” She began making her toast when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out. “I need to take this. It’s Tokyo calling,” I muttered, already swiping to answer. “West here—”
Before I could get another word out, Jessa plucked the phone from my hand, turned it off, and dropped it into the kitchen drawer.
“Hey,” I said, half a laugh, half a growl. “That call’s been a moving target all week. Tokyo isn’t—”
“Perception, remember?” She stepped into me, arms looped at my waist, chin tipped up. She used my words against me, and damn if it didn’t work. “If you want to be a family man, act like it. Give Theo this one day, please.”
“So you’ve put my phone in time-out?” I arched a brow. “I could easily reach for it.”
“Not if you want more of the best pussy in the state,” she said, deadpan, eyes dancing.
Heat slammed through me; humor chased it. “In that case, I’m an excellent rule follower.”
“Good.” She slyly smiled. “Fast learner, too.”
I kissed her slow until the kitchen, the city, the IPO—all of it—blurred out. For a minute, there was only her.
When we broke apart, I admitted I needed this, to set the spreadsheets aside, and the phone down, and be a person who wasn’t always chasing the next number.
I’d missed that from the start with Elsa—chaos from day one, her storms, her leaving, the custody grind, a parade of nannies.
Completely different from my ex, Jessa had a way of making hard things look simple. Even if none of it was, and we had an expiration date stamped in legal ink. For one afternoon, I could let the pretending take hold, be with my son, and fill my soul.
“Go get ready. We have a park to conquer.” I tucked a strand behind her ear. “Together.”
She headed down the hall, and my eyes strayed to the drawer where my phone called to me like a heartbeat. It might as well have been another organ in my body these days—always vibrating, always hungry. I hated admitting it, but a Sunday unplugged would do me more than good.
I opened the drawer, turned the phone back on only long enough to text Sam: Offline. Family day. Handle it. Then I shut it again.
Of course, I owned a successful company. Nobody could fire me for taking one day off.
Leave it to Jessa to see right through me, right to the core of what I needed. For one Sunday, I wasn’t a CEO or a headline; I was a man taking his family to the park.