NO SECRETS NO LIES (SIN CITY HEAT SERIES Book 3) (19 page)

BURIED SECRETS NO MORE…

Chapter 25
  

      
Jerra drove up to the restaurant with a feeling of anticipation flowing through
her veins. She glanced in the rear view mirror and smiled at DJ, who was entertaining
himself with one of his favorite toy trucks. When he looked up and saw his
mother staring at him, a wide, toothy grin covered his face. At eighteen
months, he favored Darrell more and more every day. He had such a good
disposition and was the joy of their lives.

    
The valet came around and opened her door before opening the back door for her
to get DJ, who jumped up and down and kicked his legs in his excitement. She
laughed and spoke softly to him as she unbuckled the seat belt and helped him
get out of his car seat.

    
"You're such a good boy, D. Yes you are. Momma's baby is such a good
boy." DJ squealed and hugged her tightly around the neck. Jerra laughed
again and turned to the valet, startling him when she caught him looking at her
ass. "Could you get the gift bag that's in the front for me, please?"

    
He stared at Jerra with his mouth agape for a moment, entranced by how hot she
was. The Seven jeans she wore lovingly cupped her backside and showed it off to
perfection. When she drove up, he and the other valet had quickly tossed a coin
to see who would be the one to assist her, and he'd won. Their job could be
extremely tedious and the tips were not always good. Eye candy like the woman
who'd driven up just now was few and far between. She was absolutely beautiful.
She had smooth, mocha skin, long dark hair that, while she cursed the wavy
texture which made flat ironing a chore in itself, was healthy, shiny and
bouncy. Her curvaceous body would've put a bikini model to shame.

    
Coming out of his trance, he swung around to do Jerra’s bidding like an eager
puppy. He bent down to get the bag she indicated and bit back a curse just in
time when, in his haste, he hit his head on the top of the car. Jerra hid her
smile and thanked him again before handing him a generous tip. She turned to
walk away but paused when she heard the valet clear his throat nervously.

    
"Are...are you a model?" he squeaked out.

    
Jerra flipped her hair out of her face with the hand that held the gift bag and
hoisted DJ up on her hip with the other. The young man, who couldn’t have been
more than twenty years old, kept his eyes on her while at the same time
half-twisting his body to get into the car.

    
"What?" It took a moment before she realized he was serious. The
dimple at the corner of her mouth peeked out temptingly at the thought of such
a notion. "Umm, no. No, I'm not."

     
The valet ducked his head in embarrassment and mumbled, "Enjoy your lunch,
ma'am."

    
Jerra thought about how special today was. She was finally going to meet her
daughter. Quieting the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach, Jerra
nodded. "Thank you. I will."

    
Her heart raced as she walked inside the restaurant.  Once there, she
followed the
maître d'
to the fairly secluded table she'd
requested when she made the reservation. Jerra knew she was early, but had been
too nervous to sit around and wait any longer before leaving. Settling DJ in
the high chair that the waiter provided, she asked for an unsweetened iced tea
and informed him she would wait until her party arrived before ordering lunch.
While DJ played with his truck and crunched on the cheerios Jerra had placed in
a small bowl for him, Jerra tried to relax. Just as quickly, she blew out a
short puff of air and shook her head.

      
Relax?? Who was she kidding? She was a nervous wreck!

    
J
erra looked down at the outfit she'd decided on
and wondered for the umpteenth time if she should’ve worn something dressier.
She'd changed clothes about five times before she finally settled on the fitted
designer jeans and black, fashionable, high heeled booted sandals which were
all the rage at the moment.  She wore a black tank top under the white
tunic which was made to slip down and bare one shoulder, and completed the look
with silver jewelry. Jerra hadn’t wanted it to seem as if she was trying to
dress "cool" for her daughter - which she was - but she didn’t want
to come off as too stuffy either.

    
"Maybe I just should've played it safe and worn my black pantsuit,"
Jerra mumbled to herself as she straightened her necklace. Still trying to
mentally come up with clever conversation to talk about over lunch, she was
startled when she heard Giselle's father softly call her name.

    
"Jerra?"

    
She lifted her head and saw Robert Valentine standing by the table with a smile
on his good looking face. Robert was tall, bald, and dark with a neatly shaped
goatee. Jerra had found him to be an intelligent and kind man the couple of
times she’d met him, but most importantly, he loved his daughter enough to want
to help her through the transition of meeting the woman who gave birth to her.

    
Jerra acknowledged Robert with a quick smile before her eyes were magnetically
drawn to the beautiful teenager beside him. Jerra's breath caught midway
between a gasp and a cry when she saw the child she'd given up what seemed like
a lifetime ago.

    
Blinking furiously and taking a large gulp of air, she stood up on trembling
legs. She had envisioned this moment a thousand times over, wondering what she
would say, what she would do. But it was nothing compared to the reality of the
actual experience.

    
Glancing up at her father, the young girl took a hesitant step forward and
extended her hand. "I'm Giselle. It's nice to meet you."

    
A shaky smile twitched at Jerra's lips as she enclosed Giselle's hand in hers.
Mother and daughter studied each other with curious, eager eyes before breaking
into identical smiles.

    
Jerra reached out and lovingly touched Giselle's hair. "You're so
beautiful."

    
Giselle smiled and shyly looked down. "Thank you. So are you."

    
"Like mother, like daughter," Rob said softly, his gaze lingering on
Jerra's face before turning to his daughter. "It's amazing how much you
two look alike. You're almost a mirror image of each other."

    
Giselle's smile widened as if her father's statement pleased her. DJ, having
had enough of being ignored, chose that moment to make his presence known. He'd
always been extremely intelligent, but now his language skills were progressing
rapidly. He grinned at Jerra and reached his arms up   towards her to
get him out of the chair. 

    
"Get out, Mommy. DJ get out."

    
"Okay, baby, hold on."

    
Giselle and Rob watched as Jerra lifted DJ into her arms. He immediately
twisted around to look curiously at Rob then Giselle.

    
Jerra smiled and ran a hand over his curls before turning to her daughter.
"This is your brother, Darrell Jr. We call him DJ for short." Jerra's
voice was quiet. She didn’t know how Giselle would feel about the fact that
Jerra gave her up for adoption while obviously choosing to raise her second
child.      

    
However, she needn't have worried. Giselle's lips parted in delight the moment
she laid eyes on DJ. Forgetting her earlier shyness, Giselle immediately
stepped closer and touched DJ's hand. Jerra silently watched the interaction
between her two children. DJ studied Giselle before his eyes went back to Jerra
as if asking what was up with the resemblance. The next thing any of them knew,
he leaned towards Giselle with arms outstretched. Giselle readily settled him
on her hip and kissed his cheek.

    
Jerra and Rob's eyes met briefly. They shared a smile of understanding before
the four of them sat down at the table. While Giselle held DJ, they all made
small talk until lunch arrived. After Jerra got DJ settled back into his high
chair, he immediately stuffed a french fry in his mouth and grabbed a chicken
nugget in his other hand.

    
Now that the buffer of DJ being the center of attention was somewhat removed,
Jerra expected an uncomfortable silence to follow, but to her surprise the
conversation continued to flow smoothly. Jerra asked Giselle about her school
and learned she was captain of the cheerleader squad. Her face lit up with
excitement as she talked to Jerra about how they were headed to the state
championship within the next couple of weeks.

    
"Maybe you could come and watch the competition," Giselle suggested
tentatively. "If you're not busy, that it," she added in a rush.

    
Without thinking, Jerra reached over and covered Giselle's hand. "I would
love to. Thank you for inviting me."

    
As the conversation continued, Jerra barely ate. She was focused on every
single aspect of Giselle and soaked up the minutest of details about her life.
Rob remained relatively quiet, letting mother and daughter get acquainted. He
only contributed to the discussion when he was asked a direct question. Jerra
was so into Giselle that she didn’t notice that his eyes seemed to stay on her
the majority of the time. 

    
After about an hour or so, Giselle asked if she could take DJ to look at the
large aquarium located across the restaurant. Jerra gave her consent and kept
them in eyesight, watching as Giselle pointed out the colorful fish to her
excited baby brother. Jerra was unaware of the beautiful smile that stretched
across her mouth as she placed a fist underneath her chin. Rob's eyes were
glued to her face as if mesmerized by the picture she made before following her
gaze.

    
"You make gorgeous children, Jerra."

    
Jerra pulled her attention away from DJ and Giselle and looked at him with wide
eyes. "Thank you. And you've done a great job with Giselle, Rob. She's a
beautiful young woman." Her expression dimmed somewhat as sadness, mixed
with awe, covered her face. "I still can't believe I gave birth to her.
She's...she's perfect."

    
Rob laughed and took a sip of his iced tea. "Well, people might think I'm
a bit biased, but I have to say I agree with you."

    
As he hoped, Jerra brightened a bit. After a few moments, Rob's expression
turned serious. "While Giselle is away from the table, I did want to tell
you this, though. The last time we met, I could see you were still struggling
with the decision you made to give her up all those years ago. You don't have
to go into it, but I got the feeling you'd gone through some things. I've
always hoped I’d be able to say this and now that I have the opportunity, here
goes: ‘thank you’."

    
When Jerra tilted her head in inquiry, Rob expanded on his statement.

    
"I can't even begin to know how difficult it must have been for you, but
giving Giselle up for adoption was very brave. You were young and could’ve
chosen to terminate the pregnancy. Instead you chose to give Giselle a chance
at a better life. My wife and I tried to have a baby for a long time, and after
we discovered she couldn’t have children, adoption was our next choice.
Although my ex-wife turned out to be nothing like the person I thought I knew,
I never regretted our decision for one second."

    
Rob's lips twisted in bitter remembrance at how his wife told him having a
husband and child wasn’t fulfilling to her anymore and she wanted to focus on
advancing her career to the next level. She felt she couldn’t do that while
still being a wife and mother because all of her attention would need to be
focused elsewhere.

     The
entire time Rob was speaking, Jerra fought to hold back the tears. She wasn’t a
woman who showed emotion easily outside the circle of her family and close
friends. In fact, other than Darrell and DJ, her friends
were
her
family. But sitting there listening to Rob, her heart swelled and threatened to
burst. She had never thought about it in quite those terms. She always hoped
and prayed that God would give her child a safe, loving home. Looking up at
Rob, it was apparent Giselle had been blessed with just that.

    
"Thank you," she whispered in a husky voice before clearing her
throat. "Giving her up was one of the hardest things I've ever had to
do."  Jerra could've added so much more, but she didn't want to get
into the horror she'd lived through at Earl's hands. "Suffice it to say,
I've felt so much guilt and uncertainty. In my head, I knew it was the right
decision, but the day they took her away, I lost a piece of my heart."

    
Rob covered Jerra's hand with his and placed his arm over her shoulder. He
dipped his head in order to catch her eyes with his. "You have nothing to
feel guilty about. You did what was best for you and your baby. Don't ever feel
guilty for acting out of love. Okay?"

    
Jerra blinked and inhaled a deep breath before nodding. "Thank you,
Rob."

    
Female heads turned as Darrell strode through the restaurant with a confident
swagger evident in his step. Although casually dressed in a pair of indigo
faded jeans, black leather boots and a white long sleeved shirt which he had
rolled back over his forearms, he carried himself as if this was his world and
everyone else merely existed in it. His demeanor wasn’t something that was
learned or practiced; it had always been a part of him.