By Private Invitation (31 page)

“Thank you for coming, sweetheart. The recognition was such a surprise and to have
you all here was a real treat. I just wanted you to know I’m glad you came.”

Jared heard a note in his mom’s voice that made him take a
second look at her. Her color was high, though that could be attributed to the warmth
in the ballroom and the excitement of the event.

Then he noticed how hard she clutched Glen’s arm, her knuckles nearly white.

He smiled, tried not to let her see it was forced, and slid a glance at his father.
“I wouldn’t have missed this. So, are you staying much longer?”

“Well, of course we can’t leave yet,” Helena said. “I feel like I could dance all
night.”

Now Jared looked straight at his father and saw strain in the lines of his face.

Shit. Shit.

The tension in his head spread through his body as every muscle tensed.

“Are you leaving soon, sweetheart?” His mom smiled up at him, her eyes just the tiniest
bit glassy. “Taking your date back to the hotel for the night?”

Jared exchanged another glance with his father. “I think we’ll hang for a little while,
dance a little.”

“Well, you have a good time, dear.” She turned to Glen. “I’d like to dance some more
myself actually. I feel like I could dance all night.”

“Mom—”

“Jared, we don’t need a chaperone.” Glen smiled at him but it never reached his eyes.
“Go on back to your date. Your mom and I’ll be fine.”

Jared felt helpless as his parents walked away back into the thinning crowd on the
ballroom floor.

For a few seconds he merely watched them, watched his father
maintain his hold on his mother’s elbow, then take her in his arms and move to the
music.

They laughed and talked, smiled at each other.

Jared’s eyes narrowed. Okay, maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe his mom was just excited
by the party, the recognition. Maybe…

He turned back to the table where Belle was once again sitting with Nana and Tyler.
She looked tired, her skin a little more pale than normal.

He quickened his pace, wondering if she thought he’d deserted her.

Maybe—

A commotion behind him made him stop and turn.

Just in time to see his father carry his mother off the dance floor.

“You’re welcome to take a room for the night,” Jared said. “But I don’t think I’ll
be back. I’ll probably stay at the hospital.”

Annabelle nodded, seconds from a clean getaway. She gripped the door handle, ready
to jump out of the car and go back to her home.

Jared’s mother had been taken to the hospital. Helena’s doctor, who had been at the
benefit, had believed she was having a reaction to a new medication.

She understood Jared’s need to go with his mother. But something else was going on
here.

The man she’d arrived at the ball with had been replaced with a block of cold stone.
There was no way she’d misinterpreted the wave of frigid cold coming from Jared.

He hadn’t said a word since he’d told her he’d take her back to the hotel before he
went to the hospital.

Something else was happening here, something she didn’t understand going on in the
background.

And Jared had no intention of telling her what it was.

He couldn’t seem to be rid of her fast enough.

It was as if he was done with her. As if he couldn’t care one way or the other what
she did.

It hurt more than she’d thought possible.

Forcing a smile, which he never saw, she said, “I think I’ll head home, that way I
can open the shop tomorrow.”

Jared nodded, staring out the front window. “Thank you for coming with me tonight.
I’ll give you a call later this week.”

Right. Sure you will.
Annabelle got out of the car. “Good-bye, Jared.”

He nodded again, sparing her a quick glance. “Have a safe trip home.”

By the time she got her car started, all she saw was his brake lights as he pulled
out of the parking garage.

“It just doesn’t make any sense. That doesn’t sound like Jared.”

Kate lifted her whiskey sour to her mouth, nearly missing her lips as she shook her
head.

Or it could be that Annabelle had double vision. She’d lost track of the number of
whiskey sours she’d consumed in the past couple of hours after she’d closed the shop
Sunday at five. Probably more than she wanted to count.

Her brain was a little—No, her brain was a
lot
fuzzy and the alcohol was doing a hell of a job on that throbbing ache in the middle
of her chest. It had loosened considerably in the past few minutes. And so had her
mouth.

“Well, maybe I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did.”
Annabelle took another swig, no longer grimacing at the burn of the whiskey. “Hell,
I don’t even know what I’m bitching about. I was only in it for the sex.”

Kate snorted. “Yeah, right. If you think I believe that, tell me about the bridge
you want to sell me.”

“No, really. The sex was great but I knew he was never gonna be around long term.
Hell, I might as well have pushed him away. After that night with Dane and Jared—”

Oops.
Way
too many whiskey sours. Annabelle snapped her lips shut as Kate’s eyes rounded like
dinner plates.

“
What
did you just say?” Kate’s glass and the table collided at high speed. “Did you just
say Dane
and
Jared? Do you mean…
Both?
”

Oh, shit.
She’d let the bag out of the—No, wait, she’d let the cat out of the bag.

Definitely no more whiskey sours
.

But now that she’d opened her big mouth, she didn’t want to lie to her best friend.
In the past week since it’d happened, she’d wanted so badly to talk to Kate about
it.

“Yes. Both.” She drew in a deep breath. “Oh, God, do you think I’m a slut?”

Kate continued to stare at her. “Holy
crap
. Wait, who’s Dane? When was this? Was it good?”

Annabelle closed her eyes and let her head fall back. “Dane is Jared’s friend. Last
weekend. And if I say yes, will you ever talk to me again?”

Kate’s face broke out into a smile so wide it had to hurt. “Hell, yes, I’ll talk to
you again. Damn, I can’t even get decent sex from one guy and here you are, getting
it good from two.”

Relief at Kate’s response made her suck in much-needed air. “Oh, thank God. It was
amazing. I mean, really freaking amazing. I
thought maybe it was just that it was naughty, you know? Forbidden. I thought that’s
why it was so freaking good. But…”

Kate leaned forward. “But what?”

“But I think it was because of Jared. I think I really liked the guy.”

“Oh, Annabelle.” Kate’s expression fell into despair. “That’s so…so…sad. And you wanna
know why? Because I don’t think I ever felt that way about Arnie.”

Annabelle bit her bottom lip.
Damn, maybe whiskey sours were good for something other than getting shit-faced. Maybe
they were the key to unlocking whatever was stuck inside.
“What do you mean?”

Kate’s mouth twisted. “Oh, please, you know what I mean. You never really liked Arnie—”

“No, that’s not true—”

“And I know now I don’t love him enough to marry him.”

Annabelle shut her mouth tight before she could say anything else. Even as drunk as
she was, she still had enough brain cells left to know Kate had to come to this decision
on her own.

Kate took a deep breath, tears shining in her eyes. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe I
said that out loud. I mean, I’ve thought about it but I never came out and said it.
It sounds…so final.”

Annabelle reached across the table to take Kate’s hand. “Kate…”

“No.” Kate shook her head, as if trying to clear her thoughts. “No, I don’t want to
talk about it. Not now. Right now, I want to know more about this wild side of yours.”

Wild side? Was she really as passionate as her mom? Did she
have
a wild side? Or had it all been about her trying to please Jared?

No, that wasn’t right. He hadn’t coerced her. She’d been a more than willing participant.
“I don’t think it matters much
anymore. I think…I think I probably won’t be seeing Jared again. At least not in a
personal way. I don’t think he’ll back out of our business arrangement. He’s not like
that. And it’s an amazing opportunity for me to work on the spa. But I’m afraid if
we continue to have a sexual relationship while we work together, it’s going to be
messy when it ends. At least for me.”

And despite all her protestations that she wasn’t looking for a relationship, that
she didn’t want a guy in her life, that what she and Jared had shared was lust and
a business relationship, she finally realized she’d been lying to herself.

“Jared, honey, why don’t you go home and get some rest? I’m pretty sure you didn’t
sleep at all last night and I’m in no danger of expiring at this moment.”

Standing by the window in his mother’s bedroom, Jared turned to find her staring at
him with a faint smile on her pale face.

He reached for a smile and found one hard to dredge up. He’d been running on adrenaline
since last night and was starting to crash.

“I’ll go in a little while. You’ll start to complain of the stench soon anyway.”

His mom actually laughed at that. “You would never stink, dear. Besides, I lived with
you as a teenager, remember?” Then she sighed. “I really did a number on you, didn’t
I?”

He frowned as he walked back to the bed, checking her eyes to make sure they were
clear and not glassy. He knew the doctor had said she hadn’t had a manic episode last
night. That she’d had a reaction to the new drugs she’d just started taking. A new
regimen
Jared had known nothing about. That had been something of a shock.

Even more of a shock was that his father had known. He’d been going to the doctor
with her, had known what symptoms to look for to know if she was having an episode
or a reaction to the meds.

Still, for so many years Jared had been assessing her condition and her mood, it was
now second nature.

“What are you talking about?”

She shook her head, her lips twisted in a slight grimace. “You lived your childhood
wondering what mommy was going to show up that day. The manic or the depressive. Not
a good way to raise a child, is it?”

“Hey, Mom—”

“We never talked about it back then, your father and I. My parents never suspected
anything was wrong. I was merely high strung. And the worst of the episodes only started
after we married.”

Yeah, because his father was a lying sack of—

“And you can stop with that line of thinking right now, Jared.” Her voice held a note
of command he didn’t hear from her often. “No, your father is not perfect but what
you never knew was that I told him flat out to take a mistress. That I no longer wanted
a sexual relationship with him.”

Whoa
. His head snapped back in shock. “Mom—”

“No, let me finish, Jared.” She took a deep breath, then continued. “We had two sons
who meant more to me than anything in the world. And everyone knows your father and
I didn’t marry for love. We united two fortunes. But your father got more than he
bargained for with me. Honey, you and your brother were the
lights of my life but your dad…Your dad took the brunt of my depression. And it wasn’t
pretty.”