Chapter Twenty

I’m glad you decided to come, Jewell.”

Jewell looked at McKenzie Beaumont and attempted a smile. “I honestly don’t know why I did. I guess if you call, I come,” she replied softly.

“You came because, for some strange reason, the two of us have made a connection. Anyway, I have a surprise for you,” McKenzie said, and Jewell witnessed something she had never witnessed before with this woman — a sparkle in her eyes and an actual smile.

“Okay, you have me very curious now,” Jewell replied.

“Come on in first and sit down.” McKenzie ushered Jewell into the living room, done in beiges and reds. Jewell remembered McKenzie telling her once how a person’s color choices could tell a lot about them. Was McKenzie looking for peace in the beige and boldness in the red? Jewell didn’t know.

“I was able to arrange a visit with your brother,” McKenzie said. “I told you I wanted to help you, and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”

“How?” Jewell exclaimed. Was this a joke?

“I have connections,” McKenzie answered simply.

“But I’ve been getting the runaround for ages.”

“Do you really want to talk about how it happened, or do you want to just be happy it happened?” McKenzie asked her.

“You’re right. Where is he?”

“He should be here any minute,” McKenzie told her.

Jewell’s stomach knotted in anticipation. She was so afraid that Justin had thought she hadn’t been trying to keep her promise to him. “Thank you, Ms. Beaumont …”

McKenzie broke in. “That’s the last time I want to hear you say ‘Ms. Beaumont.’ I’m McKenzie, and don’t you forget it!”

“Then thank you, McKenzie. No one has ever done anything like this for me, and you can have no idea how much this means to me.” A sheen of tears reflected off Jewell’s eyes. “I won’t question you about who you had to bribe.”

The look on McKenzie’s face told Jewell that the woman might have actually done that, but the less Jewell knew, the better.

“I told you that I have connections. Once I give my word, I keep it. That’s all you need to know.”

“I can live with that,” Jewell said.

The two women had been sitting there for less than ten minutes when the doorbell rang and Jewell’s stomach clenched once more.

“Sissy!” The excited cry rent the air, and Jewell’s eyes instantly filled with tears as her little brother came barreling toward her.

“Ah, Bubby, it’s so good to see you!” Jewell exclaimed a millisecond before he launched himself into her arms. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to see you for so long. I know I promised, but I just wasn’t able to follow through. I tried, Justin; I really did.”

“I’ve missed you,” he said with a sniffle, and he held on tight.

“And I’ve missed you so much. Oh, Justin, I am so, so sorry,” she said again. How could she explain all of this to her beloved little brother?

“It’s okay. But I just want to come home with you.”

He sounded almost as if he were begging, and Jewell’s tears finally fell.

After she got herself back under control, she decided to change the subject before she found herself making him more promises that she wasn’t sure she could keep. “Oh, my goodness, you’ve grown a foot since I’ve seen you last!”

“I’ve been doing what you said, Jewell, and eating my vegetables and being good. I want to live with you so much.”

The boy clutched at his sister even more tightly. Nothing had ever felt so good for either of them.

“I’m working on it, Justin,” she said. When he grunted, she loosened her own grip around him. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Sissy.”

Before they could say anything else, they were interrupted. Tyler walked into the room and headed straight for Jewell. “Hello, beautiful. I’ve missed you,” he said before lifting her off the ground in a bone-crunching hug.

“Tyler! What are you doing here?” she asked when she was able to breathe again.

He threw her a broad grin. “I’m here for the party. You know I can’t turn a good one down.”

“Party? I didn’t realize there was a party,” Jewell said, and she turned to look at McKenzie.

“I’ve invited a few people over. It’s not a big deal,” McKenzie told her. Then the four of them made their way out back, where music was playing and about two dozen people were milling around.

“This is more than a few people,” Jewell gasped. She wasn’t acquainted with a single person there except for McKenzie, Tyler, and of course her little brother.

“The more people you have in your corner, the better, Jewell. See that man over there in the gray suit?”

Jewell nodded. He was currently laughing at something a beautiful brunette was saying to him.

“He’s the district attorney here. And that man sitting over there in the black jacket is a judge. I told you I know people in high places. It will benefit you today to mingle,” McKenzie told her.

“I don’t know how to mingle,” Jewell said in a panic as she watched her little brother run off to where a small group of children were swarming over a swing set. It didn’t take him long at all to make new friends.

“It’s a piece of cake and you know it. Or were those months of training wasted on you?”

“I’m sorry, McKenzie. I’m just so flustered right now.”

“Here’s a refresher course. Listen this time! You just walk up to someone and start talking. If you remember that everyone loves to talk about themselves, you will get along fine. So ask about their families, work, hobbies, and interests, and you can have a full-on conversation while saying less than a dozen words yourself. The beauty of that is you get to know them well, and what they like, and they walk away thinking you’re a wonderful conversationalist.”

A man approached, and said, “Hello, McKenzie. Is this the woman you were telling me about?”

“Yes, Mr. Rice, this is Jewell Weston,” McKenzie said. “How are the twins doing?”

“Oh, they’re as active as ever. My wife doesn’t know which day of the week it is on most days, she’s so sleep deprived,” he said with a genuine laugh.

“I can understand that,” McKenzie said, laughing with him, though Jewell noticed the bleakness in the woman’s eyes.

How much of what McKenzie put forth of herself was an act, and how much of it was real? The more Jewell was around this woman, the more she wanted to know the answer.

Jewell soon lost count of how many people she’d spoken to and how many stories she’d heard. All she wanted to do was visit with Justin, but she was pulled from one person to the next. Still, if this sort of schmoozing is what it took to get her brother back permanently, she could suffer through the awkwardness of meeting and greeting new people.

After a couple of hours, she felt more optimistic. She could do this. She even had a job interview with a man named Mr. Rice, who owned a prestigious ad agency in Seattle and had an opening in his offices. McKenzie had more than come through.

Maybe, Jewell thought, she could do this without Blake.

She stepped inside the house to give herself a moment to breathe and to let her face rest — pasting a constant smile on it was too much like hard work. But instead of relief, she found Blake, who was standing there looking devastatingly handsome. Yes, she’d seen him only two days before, but neither of them had been in contact after their argument on the boat, and she wasn’t ready to have the conversation she knew was sure to come.

“Have you had enough time to cool off yet, Jewell?”

Just the way he spoke brought out every violent tendency in her body — and before knowing him, she hadn’t thought she’d possessed even the ability to glare at another human being.

“I’m cool enough,” she told him. She could paste on a neutral expression too. Or she could try.

“Obviously,” he replied.

“Aren’t both of us so damn polite?” she said with a tinge of malice.

“I’ve said this before, Jewell. In any battle between the two of us, I’m going to come out the winner. All we’re doing is dragging out the inevitable.”

“I won’t bow to you,” she told him, looking away from the power of his eyes.

Blake paused. This was where he told her that her feelings didn’t matter, right? Of course it was. This was where he went back to being the hard bastard she hated. But instead, he surprised her.

“You will.” He said nothing more, but there was so much assurance in his tone, she thought he might be right.

“Why are you here?”

“Do you care to add more to that?” he questioned.

“When McKenzie called me, I thought she just wanted to speak to me, but why this party? Why this elaborate setup? I wish I just knew more of what everyone was thinking or doing. I don’t understand any of this.”

He turned the question around on her. “Why do you think any of us do anything we do, Jewell?”

“I think that you’re bored,” she said with a frustrated sigh.

His eyebrows rose as she spoke and he looked … confused. That wasn’t what she was expecting at all. He wasn’t acting in a way that she could read. She almost wished for the iceman she’d originally met to reappear, because at least then she’d know exactly what to expect.

“If you’d let down your guard, Jewell, you would see that I’m not a monster.”

“I need to visit with my brother.” She turned and walked away from Blake.

She hadn’t gone far when she ran right into Tyler.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asked with a laugh. Then he looked up and spotted Blake, who was quickly approaching.

How could she get around Tyler without seeming too rude? “I’m thirsty,” she said. The excuse didn’t work.

“I’m sure you are after a conversation with my brother,” Tyler said, placing his arm around her waist and turning her around to face Blake.

Blake looked pointedly at the way Tyler was holding her, and he sent his brother a look Jewell couldn’t interpret. “I don’t appreciate your sense of humor, Tyler,” he said.

“Ah, I think you really need to lighten up, brother dearest.” Tyler kept his fingers right where they were.

“I can think of a few ways to loosen up, and they all end with you picking yourself up off the ground,” Blake said in a faux-pleasant tone.

“Do you really think, after all these years, that you frighten me?” Tyler let out a hearty guffaw.

“Don’t mistake my love for you as weakness,” Blake warned him.

“Love isn’t a weakness,” Tyler told him.

“It sure as hell was for our father,” Blake retorted.

That one sentence seemed to suck all the oxygen from the air. Tyler’s arm tightened around her as his muscles locked up and he looked daggers at his brother. “There’s no reason to bring that up right now, Blake,” he said grimly.

“Then don’t make asinine statements,” Blake replied.

“Why in the hell do you always have to act so cold?” Tyler asked him. “I know who you are. Why can’t you let other people see the man I have always idolized?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Blake shifted, his anger instantly draining away.

“You know perfectly well what I’m talking about. You aren’t an ogre, but you try so hard to act like one that people believe that’s what you are.”

Jewell had a feeling that both of them had forgotten she was standing there with them.

“Ah, my brother, how I have you fooled,” Blake said. “Yes, I care about a few things, but you must have a conscience to care what others think about you.”

So the iceman Jewell had hoped to see again had indeed reappeared, but now that he had, she wanted him to go away ASAP.

“You have a conscience, Blake,” Tyler said. “It’s just buried down deep. With very little effort you could find it again, sweep the cobwebs off it and show the world what you have shown to both me and Byron — not that Byron is acting any better than you are right now.” He gave out a frustrated sigh.

“I’ll consider what you’ve said,” Blake told his brother, and Jewell knew he was done speaking about himself.

“I think I’m going to take Jewell to get that drink now,” Tyler said, and he turned and led her away before Blake was able to say another word.

“You know this is going to really piss him off, don’t you?” Jewell told Tyler.

“Yes, I know, but I can’t help but do my damnedest to get underneath his skin,” Tyler replied as they reached the bar set up in one corner of the yard. “I keep hoping that it might humanize him.”

“You’re not the one who will have to deal with his anger,” Jewell pointed out, but she couldn’t find the energy to be upset with Tyler. He was just too sweet to her.

“Jewell, you have to come to grips with your own power as a woman. You are beautiful, kind, smart, and funny. You could easily have the old boy wrapped around your finger if you only tried.” Tyler handed her a soda and grabbed a beer for himself.

“I think you way overestimate my abilities,” Jewell told him.

“I am watching you blossom even as we speak. You’re no longer a woman too afraid to stand up for herself, and you don’t just accept what life is throwing your way. Sure, you’ve endured some less than great circumstances, but you haven’t stayed down too long.”

“How can I blossom when I can’t even find the sun?” she asked lightly. But she’d never felt anything more true.

“The sun is there — take my word for it. Don’t give up, okay? Promise me you won’t, Jewell.” Tyler placed his hand on her shoulder and forced her to look into his eyes.

“I’ll never give up,” she told him. “I can’t. I have my brother to think about.” And she was grateful for that, because without Justin, she probably would have given up a long time ago.

For the next couple of hours, Jewell avoided being alone with Blake, but she couldn’t avoid his gaze, which followed her everywhere she went. Jewell’s life seemed to become more and more complicated by the minute, and as the party wrapped up and it came time for Justin to return to his foster home, she felt even more unsure of what was coming next than she had even the day before.

Tears filled her eyes as she told Justin goodbye and watched him be driven away. And then she found Blake right behind her. She couldn’t spar with him right now — she was just too drained.

“I hope you enjoyed your visit with Justin,” he said.

Since she was on the verge of tears, she simply nodded and turned away so Blake couldn’t witness the rush of emotions she was fighting, and with only limited success.

“It was great to see the two of you together. I can see why you’re fighting so hard to have him back in your life,” Blake said as he lifted a hand and moved a piece of hair from her face to behind her ear. The tender gesture just about threw her over the edge.

“We are all each other has anymore — just the two of us,” she finally said, her voice quiet.

“That’s not true, Jewell. I’m standing right here.”

“You’re also not real, Blake,” she said, throwing her arms across her body in a protective hug. She felt cold, so cold inside, after all the upheavals of the day.

“I’m very real, Jewell,” he said, and then to prove that to her, he pulled her into his embrace and kissed away any protests she might have.

She was locked tightly against him while his lips caressed hers, and though she tried to keep her distance, tried not to let him in, the feel of his tongue on her lip and the feel of his body pressing against hers was more than she could withstand.

She melted against him, and for a few brief moments, her worries evaporated, and she let go of the pain and anguish that seemed to be the principal components of her life right now. When she was ready for him to carry her off into the nearest private space, he pulled back and put his hands on her shoulders to steady her while she opened her eyes.

“I will see you tomorrow, Jewell.”

Before she could say anything, he turned and walked away. She was left standing there in shock, and then anger, and then a deep sadness. The man kept doing the same thing, leaving her hanging and walking away before she could respond.

Jewell managed to make it home, but she didn’t make it far once she did. She collapsed on the nearest couch, where she finally cried herself to sleep.