Chapter 25
I’d clearly heard the simple two-word response, but I didn’t understand it. My head snapped up and my anxiety rose with every tick-tocking second that passed. My stomach coiled, and I prayed like hell the bile in my throat didn’t spew all over the floor.
“Come on, I’ll tell you more once we’re boarded.” Garrett took my hand in his and stood, dragging me with him.
My mother.
I was more confused than ever.
What was my mother’s involvement?
As soon as we found our spacious seats at the front of the cabin, I slid in next to the window and Garrett took his place in the seat next to me. I absorbed the burn of his intense gaze into every single pore of my skin while the cabin crew went through the normal hustle and bustle, making everyone comfortable.
It felt like it took forever before we were cleared for takeoff, and once the aircraft started toward the tarmac, I met Garrett’s eyes. The engines revved, and we began darting down the runway before lifting off the ground.
“Does flying again make you nervous?”
“Terrified, but I’m more terrified of you.”
Turbulence was the farthest thing from my mind.
His gaze locked onto mine, filled with fear. For the first time since meeting Garrett, I saw fear in him.
I’d held back as long as possible.
“I’m listening.”
“It’s a long story.”
“Good thing we have nothing but time and nowhere to go for seven hours.” I glared, waiting for answers.
“After our first meeting with Jennings, I was so pissed that I wanted to fire you on the spot. I had your personnel file on my desk and flipped it open with every intention of sending Cordelia an email to terminate you, effective immediately. No one has ever dared to put me in my place like that and kept their job.”
I remembered that day vividly. Looking back, I knew his sarcastic remarks about my boring panties had rubbed me the wrong way because I was attracted to him and didn’t want to admit it.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Suncoast Jet Airlines. At this time, you’re free to walk about the cabin. The weather is perfect for flying, and we should land in Dallas on time at approximately seven fifteen.”
Jesus. No more interruptions!
“Go on.”
“I tried to do the right thing, tried to let you walk away. You weren’t supposed to find out, and it’s not my place to tell you.”
“Just spit it out, dammit.” I pivoted toward him and softened my tone. “Just tell me.”
The strange look in his eyes made me question if I wanted to hear his confession. I saw the torment suffocating the warmth I yearned to see swimming in his gaze. My heart thudded in my ears like a bass drum, and I reached over, clutching his hand.
“More than anything, I want to know what’s going on, what you’re keeping from me, but I’m also torn, Garrett. You were so different when we were on the island than when we were in the office. I can handle the man who walks around like thunder, like he’s more powerful than the electricity in lightning, but I can’t handle this…can’t handle what it’s doing to you.”
“I’m not ready to lose you.” He dropped his head. “Regardless of how you find out, I’m fucked.”
“I don’t know how it’s going to end for us, but what I know more than anything is that in order for us to have a chance, I need honesty.”
“First, your resume with your full name in bold type caught my attention: Brooke Indigo Sheridan. I must have stared at your middle name for the rest of the afternoon. I didn’t know how I knew, but I just knew.”
An attendant stopped next to our row. “Would you like a glass of wine?”
“Jack and Coke, please,” I said coolly, biting back the agitation brewing within me.
Ice clinked against the glass as she filled my order. “Sir, may I get you something?”
“Water,” he said politely.
She beamed with eyes that looked drunk on his perfection, and a part of me wanted to tell her he was already taken…but I wasn’t sure of that anymore. Pain twisted in my chest.
When she moved along, I took a long sip of the strong drink, looking at him over the rim.
“Go on.”
“Jennings Lockwood once played in a band called Indigo Whiskey. An old sign still hangs in his office, and as soon as I saw your full name in the file, I fucking knew. Jennings is your father.”
I gulped. Speechless, I brought the glass back to my lips, downing the drink in one gulp.
“You think Jennings is my father because he played in a band with indigo in the name?”
“Do you remember Jennings asking if you’d ever lived in Austin? That’s where he met your mother.”
“My mother never lived in Austin.”
“She went to college there.”
For the first time in my life, I doubted the only honest person in my life—my mom.
“You have his eyes and the same smirk when you’re pissed off.”
“This is what has had you acting like a lunatic? Garrett, my mother would never lie to me,” I said, though deep down I was trying to convince myself it was the truth.
“I went to see Rachel before we left.”
“You went to see my mom?”
“Yes. She wasn’t forthcoming at first, but then I told her I would fire you for insubordination if she didn’t answer my questions. Funny how a little blackmail can make the weak talk.”
This can’t be true…it can’t be.
But it was—I could see the seriousness in his face.
“She was sick, for God’s sake. None of this was or is any of your business.”
“Jennings is like a second father to me, and I stop at nothing to get the answers I want. For God’s sake, he didn’t even know he had a daughter. I’ve never let anything or anyone stand in my way, especially for people I care about.”
“Is he…my father?”
“Yes,” he whispered.
“Did my mother confirm this?”
Please say no. My entire life my mother had claimed my father had left town and later overdosed.
“Yes.”
All along, my father was right there under my nose in the bright lights of Dallas.
“Did he know about me?”
“No. He never even knew she was pregnant.”
“Does he know about me now?”
“Yes.”
I gave him a blank stare, in complete shock.
Nothing had prepared me for this.
Nothing.
Part of my life had been stolen by my own mother. She’d known how to give me the one thing I’d wanted my entire life. She’d let me watch other kids at birthday parties with their dads, had let every Father’s Day roll around without me having anyone to make a card for. She’d robbed me of something I’d desperately longed to have.
“How did he take it? Finding out about me?”
“Shocked would be an understatement. He remembered your mother. He said she used to come to a hole-in-the-wall bar his band played at along with a lot of other girls. He started noticing her flirty eyes, and after a couple of shows, they started getting together when the bar closed. She admitted to me that she was a rich girl away at school having one hell of a good time with the boy from the other side of the tracks. It was a game to her…until she got pregnant. Indigo Whiskey started playing gigs all over, and Jennings jumped when they had a chance to start touring. They were heading to Nashville when the lead singer overdosed on prescription drugs with a bottle of whiskey. The band fell apart after that, and Jennings came home and went to college.”
“We were in the same city and I never knew.” I sounded vulnerable…because I was.
“Before we left, I went to see Jennings and told him everything. He called while we were in St. Thomas, wanting to know when we would be returning.
Jennings Lockwood.
My father.
I turned my head toward the small window, watching the fluffy white clouds float in the blue sky. Garrett’s fingers tightened around mine in a tender hold as I pressed my forehead to the glass.
A thousand what-ifs rolled through my mind, and he sat in silence, letting me adapt to the hard truth I’d just learned. He caressed the side of my hand with the pad of his thumb, and I could feel the tension still lingering.
Slowly, after what must have been more than thirty minutes, I turned back toward him with dread.
“There’s more,” he said softly.
This was the part where I was going to hate him; I saw it in his eyes.
I remembered how warm, kind, and gentle he could be.
I remembered how happy he’d made me on the shores of our private harbor.
He’d made me strong and fearless.
He’d made me realize how much I craved love.
He’d made me love again.
“Did you mean everything you said? Do you want me, to be with me and only me?”
“Yes,” he replied, his voice husky.
“I want that too, and if what you have to tell me is going to end us, then don’t tell me. I don’t want to be less than happy when you make me happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“I want it to be that simple. Truth, honesty, integrity, and trust are so important to me. If any of those things are lacking then it’s a failed relationship, even if it’s in the past. I have to make this right, and hope I can win all of those things back.”
His gaze was filled with guilt, consuming him, eating at him.
My heart clenched and I grit my teeth. The ugly truth was coming.
Before he said another word, I instinctively reached over and cupped the sides of his face.
“Kiss me. Before you say one more fucking word, kiss me.”
Regardless of what he told me, I needed to feel his mouth against mine. I was terrified by the sadness crinkling the corners of his eyes, worried this was going to be our last happy moment.
His lips found mine, and he was so damned gentle and careful, as if I were a china doll about to be shattered into tiny fragments. He traced his lips along the seam of mine and I opened, inviting him in. He plunged his tongue inside and I circled my arm around his neck, holding him captive against me.
When he drew back, he held the sides of my face between his palms, not letting me move. Garrett’s beautiful face morphed into sadness, and I wanted to forget there was something errant lingering between us. But, undoubtedly, he was about to crush my heart and soul.
He swallowed hard and pushed himself away, pressing his back flat against the leather seat. Looking straight ahead, he squeezed his eyes closed, and I felt sick.
“The morning we left for St. Thomas, I knew her donor was dying. The kid was on life support and they anticipated his death within days. I knew, Brooke. I knew and never said a word because your mother asked me not to.”
My shoulders stiffened. Surely I hadn’t heard him correctly. I felt tingles spread throughout my body, and finally, my shoulders sagged.
“She called and said she’d gotten word of the grim prognosis for the boy. He wasn’t expected to live more than twenty-four hours. He lived thirty-two. Rachel and I came to an agreement: I would make sure you went, and she would sign the deed to a small tract of land in the city. Did you know she owned the lot across the street from The Valencia? She’s been offered millions and always refused to sell. Because she wanted her daughter out of town in case she died, she threw it on the table for me.”
Pain stabbed my heart…sliced it in half.
It wasn’t so much because she’d wanted me out of town, but because she’d thrown him a golden bone and he had scooped it up.
Not once had he tried to come clean.
I’d lost my shit more times than I could recall, drowning in worry over her. I’d cried on his shoulder and he’d given me comfort, but he’d never, not once tried to make it right.
Because he’d wanted the lot that was worth millions.
I’d been a business deal.
Opening my mouth to say something, I stalled. What could I say?
I was angry at both my mother and Garrett.
“Say something.”
I blinked, and a lone tear slid down my cheek. “There’s nothing to say, nothing to make this better, nothing to make me forget. You had so many opportunities to tell me. You chose the business deal. It was always about the money.”
“It started out as business—”
“And it ended with business.” I reached into the compartment in front of me and pulled out my headphones. “I don’t have anything else to say, and there’s nothing I want to hear from you.”
Placing the headphones over my ears, I made my selection and music began to play, but it didn’t soothe the pain of coming to the end of us, didn’t ease the shock of learning about my father. I felt Garrett’s eyes burn into me as if clinging to a morsel of hope for a second chance.
I thought about Jennings, about that day in the conference room. It now made sense why he’d asked about my last name and stared at me for a second, as if going back in time with a memory.
Acoustic tunes played in my ear, but I didn’t register a single note. Closing my eyes, I leaned into the hard wall of the plane and wished to be home, far away from Garrett. I needed the sanctuary of my own house to try to make sense of it all.
He’d lied, and my mother…she may have had my best interest at heart, but I felt deluded and misled, and she’d disappointed me more than words could ever express.
Garrett had used her unfortunate situation for gain, to acquire a piece of land I’d had no idea she even owned. He’d used me. The way he’d seared into the depths of my eyes when he looked at me…the way he’d made me come alive and be vulnerable with his touch…I’d never been more alive than when he worshipped my body, and it all meant nothing. It was all for a payout.
My mind was foggy the remainder of the flight. Numb and empty, I realized I’d thought Jason had broken me, but he hadn’t.
Garrett had truly broken me.