“I’ll do whatever you want.” Cracks formed along his insides, ready to shatter into a thousand pieces if she took off his ring. He pulled in a deep draught of air, determined to listen to every word she spoke—even if it killed him. “Just tell me what’s going on, honey.”
“There’s no time. Everything is falling apart. I need to leave before I fall apart, too.” She swallowed and looked at the door. “Go home. I’ll find you tomorrow. We’ll talk then.”
He forced himself to walk, but his movements felt stiff and robotic. The doorknob seemed too small in his numb fingers, but he wrenched open the door. A cold gust slapped him in the face, reminding him this was terribly real and not some vicious nightmare. Stepping onto the massive porch, he turned to catch one last look at the girl he needed more than anything else.
She rushed to him in a blur of yellow, framing his jaw with soft, loving hands. Her mouth landed on his in an excruciating kiss that felt so good, he had to grip the doorway to stop from falling face first onto the threshold.
He had no idea if the kiss meant yes.
Or no.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Wearing a pair of jeans into Davis Software wasn’t an act of rebellion but a declaration of Jaye’s independence. She was no longer a slave to her father’s dreams. To drive home that simple fact, she stood in front of her father’s desk with empty hands. No electronic tablet filled her palms. All she had was an engagement ring on her finger, stunning evidence the future no longer belonged to him, but her.
Her father’s dark eyes zoned in on the diamond. His regal mouth curled into a disapproving snarl and he jammed the phone to his ear. “His name is Mitchell Blake. I want you to do a thorough background check on him. I need to see his criminal record and credit rating. Dig into his private life and find out if there are any illegitimate children, gambling problems, or hookers in his past. Check his family, too. I need this information yesterday. I don’t care how much the investigation will cost. Get a report to me fast.”
He hung up and sorted through the papers on his desk.
Jaye sighed. “I haven’t said yes to Mitch, but you look like you’re already preparing for our wedding.”
“We won’t attend any wedding you plan with that jerk.”
“Don’t call him a jerk.” The sharp tone of her voice bolted through the air. As far as she was concerned, her parents weren’t invited to any wedding of hers. They’d suck the joy out of the ceremony like a virus infecting a computer.
“You should be marrying a man like David. He understands the complexities of running a multi-million dollar business.”
“Yes, he does. Too bad he doesn’t understand me.”
Her father leaned back in his chair, looking every bit the raven eyeing a helpless mouse. “Did you at least have the common decency to speak to David this morning?”
“Yes, I have common decency. No, I didn’t speak to him.” She refused to drop her gaze. “I called him yesterday to say I was leaving. If David told you we’d be speaking today, he lied. I urge you to not to work with him. He’s an unethical man.”
“I’ll be the judge of his character. Frankly, I’m more concerned with the man who came to our house yesterday.” He tapped one finger on his desk. “Glassblowers don’t make much money. Have you thought about how a huge drop in income will affect your life?”
The threat was clear—her father would cut her off from the family fortune if she married Mitch. The notion made her feel small, like she was never anything more than a tax write-off. Thanks to decades of her mother’s tutelage, Jaye hid her devastation behind a serene mask. “I’m used to living off the money I make, Dad. Money has never been an issue.”
“Money will become an issue when you have very little.”
The snub stung. Clearly, her father thought she couldn’t take care of herself. She was too numb to defend herself, but she wouldn’t stand there and let him demean Mitch. “You have no idea of what Mitch can do, how he runs Blake Glassware, or his vision to expand the business. I believe in him and spent four weeks designing a marketing plan to set his plan into motion. I sent you the link to the website I designed. Did you visit it?”
His fingers twitched. “I’m too busy to surf the web.”
In other words, her father was too busy to invest any time in his daughter or her potential fiancé. What better punishment for veering off the carefully mapped road toward her future?
She strolled to the window and wondered if her father ever looked at the landscape. Knowing him, he’d find a virtual view more intriguing. He preferred anything he could control. Jaye no longer fit in that illustrious category. “I asked Mitch to leave last night because I didn’t want him to hear this. He’d blame himself if you disowned me.”
“He deserves the blame.”
“No, Dad. We were torn apart long before he showed up.”
In the reflection of the window, she watched him pound away at his computer like she was as insignificant as an outdated memory chip. The message was clear. She’d gone ahead and proved what he’d known all along: she was a rotten excuse for a son.
Luckily, she was a daughter. A good one, too.
The time had come to be herself…and she knew exactly who that was. Ready to leave the suffocating silence of her father’s disapproval, she walked out of his suite, past his sneering secretary, and didn’t spare a glance into the office set aside for her.
An uncharacteristic mess littered Mitch’s garage. A table saw sat in the empty bay, surrounded by scattered tools and paint cans. The heap of drywall
