A Reclusive Heart
Page 34

“She has a right to know,” Barbara said, carefully smoothing her hands down her blouse and skirt as she turned her attention to Jamie. “I’m afraid when we searched for her we discovered that she’d passed away.”
He felt Jamie’s reaction like a physical blow. “Did she have any family?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.
“No,” her father said with a firm shake of his head. “I’m afraid that she was all alone in this world.”
Like Jamie.
Like him.
No, he realized a moment later. That wasn’t true. He had a great job and good friends that more than made up for what he lacked in family and Jamie had him. At least for now. But he’d make sure that she was taken care of even after his feelings for her faded. She was a great woman and deserved better than this.
“Is there anything else I should know?” Jamie asked, looking both hopeful and weary.
Her father didn’t even hesitate when he said, “No,” causing Nick’s bullshit meter to go off the charts.
Chapter 20
“I love you,” Jamie sighed heavily as she settled back against the hill of pillows she’d piled on her bed and hugged the pint of double chocolate, caramel and fudge swirl ice cream to her chest.
This was exactly what she needed after the day she just had. Admittedly it had been a strange one. She woke up with a sugar hangover, remembered she’d had sex, was pampered by Nick before he whisked her off to the airport and then probably had the last visit with her parents that she would ever have. Now she was back in her own bed in her own apartment with a week’s supply of junk food and absolutely no intentions of working.
She picked up her can of Coke and just because she could, she took a long deep sip of bubbly sugary drink that she craved day and night before setting it back down on her nightstand. After taking a big bite of her ice cream and wincing with a few “owies” from brain freeze she focused her attention on the first chick flick she’d started and couldn’t imagine life getting any better.
It was good to be her, she decided, grabbing a handful of M&M’s and munching them as she pondered her current situation. She wouldn’t have to worry about money for quite some time. Her books were selling like crazy. She had a great job, plenty of junk food, and sole ownership of the remote control. The cherry on the icing of course was that she was no longer a virgin. Life really did not get better than this, she thought warily as she downed another handful of peanut butter M&M’s and threw a look of longing towards her cell phone.
When it didn’t chime to let her know that someone was trying to reach her, she shot a look at the clock. It was ten o’clock at night and obviously Nick was taking their return as a pause in their tour, or rather technically an end to it. Right now he was probably between the legs of some hot model, laughing about how bad she was in bed, she thought with disgust as she took another huge bite of ice cream only to drop the spoon back into container to grab her poor head as she fought back against the dreaded brain freeze.
“I leave you alone for a few hours and this is what you do?” Nick said from somewhere in the vicinity of her doorway, but she was too busy squeezing her eyes shut to look.
“Brain freeze?” he asked, sounding amused.
Instead of answering him, because at the moment that was kind of impossible, she settled for nodding. When she felt him remove the carton of ice cream from her lap she contemplated murder. The telltale sound of her M&M’s being removed had her opening one eye to glare at the man.
Of course he just ignored her as he quietly worked on removing her junk food away from her. Her eyes shot to the large paper brown bag on her nightstand that was giving off the most delicious scents and decided to forgive him for daring to go near her junk food.
“What are you doing here?” she asked once her brain freeze vanished.
“Making it easier on you,” he said, as he unloaded white Chinese food containers.
“Making it easier for me to do what?” she asked, frowning.
“To make me breakfast in bed of course,” he said with a wink as he shoved a carton of chicken lo mein in her hand.
“Well, then I’m afraid you’re in for a huge disappointment because I can’t cook,” she told him casually as she fought against a pleased smile. She couldn’t believe that he was here never mind planning on staying the night. It was easily the sweetest thing anyone had done for her.
Wow, that thought was kind of depressing so she shoved it aside and focused on the man ejecting her DVD. “Hey! What are you doing? I was watching that!”
“I brought dinner that means I get to pick the movie,” he said, shrugging as he kicked off his shoes, grabbed a carton of food and joined her on the bed.
“Then I should still get to pick the movie since I was eating dinner when you got here,” she pointed out innocently, loving the little glare he sent her way.
“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just call that insane pile of junk food dinner,” he said, settling in closer as the movie started.
“Oh, but I did and I was planning on devouring a box of Krispy Kreme donuts for dessert,” she said, laughing when his scowl returned.
“Okay,” he said, sighing heavily as he moved a few inches away from her, “we’re no longer speaking.”
“You’re such a baby,” she said, rolling her eyes as she reached over and stole a forkful of honey chicken from his carton.
With a long suffering sigh he held his carton out to her as she moved closer to him. When she was less than an inch away from him he threw his arm over her shoulders and brought her closer. For the next half hour they sat like that sharing their food and watching a really horrible action comedy, but Nick seemed to enjoy it and she enjoyed being with him so she was content to sit back and watch the movie.
When they were both done she collected the rest of the cartons and brought them out to the kitchen. By the time she came back Nick was wearing only his underwear as he lounged back on her bed. The sight of his half-naked well muscled body did a lot to ease the tension left over from her day. It took her only a second to decide to join him. Biting back a smile she walked over to her bureau and pulled open the drawer she decided to use for her lingerie. When she went to reach for the baby blue number Nick suggested she buy, her hand brushed against the envelope her father had given her.
She hadn’t bothered to open it. There was no point. Her mother was dead and the mother she thought she had didn’t want her and neither did her father. At least this explained why they never seemed to want her around, because they hadn’t. She was a constant reminder of what her father did and on some level she actually felt bad for her mother. It must have been painful for her to see the physical reminder that her husband had betrayed her every day. She wasn’t sure she could handle something like that, but she knew she would never take it out on the child.
“Have you looked at this?” Nick asked, placing a hand on her hip as he reached around her and slowly took the envelope from her.
“No,” she said, forcing a smile as she shook her head. She hadn’t seen the point of torturing herself with something that would never be. Maybe a few years from now when this whole thing didn’t make her feel like crying she would open it and find out her mother’s real name, but for right now it was too much for her to handle.
“Do you mind if I take a look at it?”
“What for?” she asked, turning to face him.
“I might be able to hunt down a picture or a lost relative,” he suggested.
“Oh.” She hadn’t thought about that, but it would be nice to know what her mother looked like since her father hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with the details. After they’d announced that her birth mother was dead they’d practically shoved her and Nick out, but of course her mother and sister made sure to give them a tearful goodbye from the front door and wish her luck on her tour.
“I’ll take care of it tomorrow at the office,” he said as he placed the envelope on top of her bureau. “I did tell you that we’re expected at the office tomorrow to go over the tour so far, didn’t I?”
“No,” she said, smiling when he winced. “But that’s fine.”