The Escape Clause (15 page)

Investments and the new trends in what’s being bought were not on his mind. The beautiful girl in the basement with the soft curves, the infectious smile, and a booming laugh was on his mind. However, even that lovely thought kept getting interrupted by the words
I love you
floating through the phone that morning.

Avery had really messed him up.

How could she possibly still love him? She didn’t love him enough to stay when he really needed her—and he’d needed her. No. She’d taken on the jet set life and vacations with
Marcus.

She’d made good on her promise and called his mother. He’d gotten that phone call quickly enough with his mother ecstatically squealing on the other end of the phone.

It didn’t stop the fact that it was time for him to forget about Avery and move on. How convenient was it to have Jill right there for him to do just that?

He was going to treat her right, he considered as he tapped his pen once more to his mug.

The heat from Gail’s stare had him putting the pen on the table and placing his hands in his lap.

As his boss’s voice dragged out the next best options for his clients, Pete thought about the night ahead. He didn’t have to move on sexually. That wasn’t what moving on was about. Oh, he’d take it if she offered, but he was thinking about impressing her first.

Music. Dancing. Flowers. Wouldn’t she just flip if he filled her apartment with flowers before she got home?

He’d make some phone calls.

The room lit up as someone turned on the lights overhead. Pete realized everyone was getting up and gathering their things. He wasn’t quite sure what the entire meeting was about, but he’d figure it out. He always did.

Gail handed him his pen as she gathered her items off the table. “Here, tap away.”

“Sorry.”

She gave him a smile and headed out of the room with the others.

Pete sat for a few more minutes planning out his evening with Jill. The thought, of moving on, had never seemed so appealing.

~*~

Pete sat at the top of the steps, a bottle of wine in his hands, and two glasses. He’d seen Jill pull up and head down the outside steps to her apartment.

They’d unlocked the door between their places nearly two weeks ago, so he felt confident she’d be pleasantly surprised by his gifts.

“Oh, my goodness!”

She’d found them and he was already grinning like a silly boy infatuated with a pretty girl.

He could hear her moving from room to room, gasping as she found another bouquet in each.

As he heard her move through the kitchen, he knew she was headed toward him. He put on his warm smile.

She gasped again as she turned the corner and found him on the steps holding the bottle of wine.

“Pete, what is all of this?”

“Me trying to impress you.”

Her eyes were wide. “Okay, you did a good job.”

“Glass of wine?”

The crease between her brows grew deeper. “Sure.”

Pete poured each glass full then handed her one. “Here’s to basement neighbors.”

He sipped from his glass and watched as she processed the moment. Finally, she too sipped.

“I have dinner upstairs. Can I convince you to join me?”

She thought about it a few moments longer than he thought she should have, but eventually, she nodded in agreement and followed him back upstairs.

His mother had taught him a few dishes. He figured it was her way of helping him impress the right woman.

“What do I smell?”

Pete set his glass on the table, which he’d set properly, thanks to his mother again. “I have a lasagna in the oven.” He pulled out a set of potholders, opened the oven, and pulled out the dish. “I hope you like lasagna.”

“It’s a favorite,” she said smiling and then took a sip of her wine. “Why are you trying to impress me?”

“We’ve been hanging out for about a month and a half. Just feeling it out, I guess.”

He pulled out a chair for her. “You kissed me this morning.”

He couldn’t help but smile as she sat down and then he sat next to her. “I did that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t think there is any secret that I’m attracted to you.

“You’re attracted to me? Why?”

It was a silly question, he thought. Why wouldn’t he be? She was wonderful.

“I think you’re smart and funny. You make me laugh and I’ve needed to laugh a lot this past month with everything going on in my life.”

“I’m smart and funny,” she said picking up her glass. “Haven’t I heard that all my life?”

He’d pushed a button he hadn’t meant to push. “I happen to think you’re extremely sexy too. I just didn’t want you to think I was a pig, so I didn’t start with that.”

Now she smiled easily, as if he wasn’t some freak.

“You think I’m sexy?”

“Very.”

He cut a piece of lasagna and placed it on her plate, added a scoop of salad, and a piece of garlic toast. He then repeated the process on his own plate before looking at her.

She raised her wine glass to her lips. “I think you’re sexy too, by the way.”

“Okay, I think this is heading in the right direction.”

Jill inched in. “And what direction is that exactly?”

“In the direction of non-bumbling neighbors trying to make passes at each other,” he said scooping a bite onto his fork.

When she laughed, he found an ease to it. So far he hadn’t scared her away. “You’re not just trying to get me into bed, right?”

“No. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a man. I think about it.”

“You’re also still in love with another woman.”

He’d lifted his fork to his mouth, but stopped short of taking the bite. “What?”

Jill sat back in her chair, her wine glass in her hand. “You still love Avery.”

It was matter of fact and out there. “Avery left me. She’s hooked up with some guy named Marcus and they’re having a wonderful life.” He snapped his teeth against the metal of the fork as he took his bite.

“Are you sure it’s wonderful?” She leaned in. “I saw your face when you talked to her this morning. Pete, she’s still a part of you.”

Now he took his wine and drank it down. “She always will be a part of me. She’s been my best friend since I was seven. It just happened to be a mistake to finally fall in love with her.”

Jill laughed. “Finally fall in love with her? Something tells me you’ve always been in love with her.”

He set down his glass. “You’re ruining my moving on,” he whined.

“I don’t mean to. Listen,” she said rolling her glass between her fingers. “You’ve introduced me to her family. You’ve taken me to the bar with her cousins, dinner at their house, and you’ve talked about her for over a month. You’re part of that family. How can you let her go?”

Pete reached for her hand. “Because I need to.”

“And I’m your fall back?”

Pete stood as he kept her hand, then pulled her from her chair. “No. Never a fall back. I’m interested, Jill. You have no idea how much I want to move on and I want to move on with you. And it’s not about Avery. It’s about how I feel for you.”

She softened against him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he encircled her waist. “How do you feel about me?”

“Lucky that you haven’t run away.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “I want to feel this out. You’ve been on my mind a lot lately. That says it’s important.”

“I won’t promise you anything. I’m not really good at relationships, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I don’t want it to go really fast either. A few more dinners. Maybe dinner with your family a few more times. You can come to my parents’ house too. But I’m not falling into bed with you. And like I said when I met you, I could fall in love with you, but I won’t.”

“Will you kiss me at least?”

Her smile widened. “That I could do.”

Chapter Seventeen

Leaving the phone, watch, and the necklace Marcus had bought her on the bed, Avery drove to the airport in the car her grandfather had loaned her.

She’d have liked to have driven it somewhere else and taken a cab, but she was very sure they would quickly figure out where she had gone.

Just as her uncle had promised there was a plane waiting for her.

Paris’s lights drifted away as a friend of her uncle’s from childhood flew her toward Nashville—toward home.

Her headache had never quite subsided so she took the opportunity to close her eyes and let the long flight become hours of rest.

She was quite surprised when she woke and discovered she had slept most of the flight. They were nearing Nashville in the wee early morning.

The thought that very soon she’d be wrapped in her mother’s arms had tears streaming down her cheeks. How would she ever repay her uncle for his generosity?

A half hour later the plane landed and Avery shook with the very thought that she was home. The air was different and so was the sky from her view atop the steps that would descend to the tarmac. She wanted to kiss the ground when she made it to the bottom.

As she and the pilot stepped down onto the Tennessee ground, a familiar car drove toward them. The threat of tears was real now and as her uncle’s car came to a stop, her mother rushed from the passenger side and her father from the back seat.

She ran to them.

“Oh, Avery.” Her mother held her tightly and her father embraced them both. “I have missed you. Tell me you are okay.” She held her at arms’ length and looked her over. “You are okay aren’t you?”

It wasn’t until that moment that Avery realized that when her mother was panicked her accent deepened.

“I’m fine.”

“I told you not to go. I told you…”

Her father touched her mother’s arm. “She’s home.”

Her mother nodded. “We need to take you home. You look so tired.”

Avery nodded.

She saw her uncle speak to the man who had flown her home. They shook hands, shared a laugh, and she watched as Zach handed him an envelope.

How could she ever pay that debt off?

As her uncle drove them away from the airport, Avery rested her head against her mother’s shoulder. No one spoke the entire drive home.

When her uncle pulled into the driveway, her mother unbuckled her seat belt. “I will make coffee. Yes, Zach, come in for coffee.” She opened her door and hurried into the house.

Avery’s father took her suitcase from the trunk. “I’ll try to calm her down.” He smiled at her as she climbed from the car. “You’re okay, right? No one hurt you?”

“No, Daddy, no one hurt me. I was just wrong to think someone I never knew would embrace me.”

He set her suitcase on the driveway and cupped her face in his hands. “You were embraced for who you are right here. Avery, what did we do that made you feel as though you needed something else?”

“I wanted what she had,” she whispered.

Her father shook her head. “She didn’t have anything until she had you.” He kissed her on the cheek, picked up her suitcase, and walked back to the house.

Avery let out a sigh as her uncle came around the front of the car.

She lifted her eyes to him. “I don’t think I can ever repay you for what you did for me.”

Zach pulled her to him. “You never have to repay me. Your mother’s peace of mind is payment enough.”

Avery looked up at him. “She was worried.”

Zach wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “She knew what you’d learn. Her father, though very powerful in the business world, is a horrible father.”

That made her chuckle, but just as quickly she felt lost again. “I thought he’d let me become something important. But the vineyard was just another business to him. I never was given the opportunity to run or do anything.”

“You were his face.”

Avery turned to face her uncle. “His face?”

Zach nodded and leaned up against his car. “He used to send your mother to meetings. Investor meetings,” he specifically added. “I suppose she was a distraction while he was gathering information. But she was never a vital part of his company.”

“So he used me?”

Zach shrugged. “I don’t know what his true plan was for you. But you mentioned a Bravard?”

“Yes, Marcus.”

He nodded. “Long before your mother met your father, before I ever met Regan, your grandfather tried to set her up with a Bravard. They are a very wealthy family with a lot of connections. Your grandfather is all about connections, wealth, and power.”

“Do you think that’s why Marcus hovered over me as he did?”

“I would assume so.”

“He asked me to marry him. Told me I’d be marrying him is more like it,” she corrected.

Zach nodded. “That would solidify a union of assets in the end.”

She felt raw inside. Her own grandfather had sold her out.

“I think I need some rest. I have a life to piece back together tomorrow—later today.”

“We’re all here for you, Avery.”

“Uncle Zach, I owe you everything.”

He laughed. “I think your mother is still paying off her debt from when I rescued her from your grandfather’s house.” He pulled her in one last time. “Having you two here with us is payment enough. Never give it a second thought.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“I need to head home. Tell your mom I’ll catch up with her later. Maybe over lunch.”

“She does love to lunch.”

“She always has.”

He gave her cheek a loving pat and circled back to the driver’s door, pulled it open, and climbed inside.

Avery had never been so thankful to have this family as she was tonight. Watching her uncle drive away she swore to herself she’d never doubt them again. Wanting to live with wealth and power was a silly dream. She had all the wealth she ever needed right there in Nashville.

~*~

A song was stuck in Pete’s head. He’d been dreaming about it all night.

As he forced his eyes open, he realized it wasn’t just stuck in his head, it was actually playing on the TV.

The small moan from next to him had him smiling. Wrapped in his arms, pressed tightly next to him in her Wonder Woman T-shirt and shorts was Jill. Her hair fanned out over his shoulder and her breath warmed his bare chest.