The Billionaire Playboy (25 page)

Maureen nodded.
“I can't lie. I'm hoping you take the position. But I don't think that's what's
been keeping you up.” Maureen picked up a pair of shorts, folded them and
placed them in Charlie's bag. “Jake called today. He wanted to talk to you. He
said he's been trying to get hold of you all week.”

Charlie reached
for her tea and took a sip. The lemon flavored tea which was her favorite
rolled down her throat. “I hope you told him not to call here again.”

“He told me what
happened and why he's in England.”

“And you
believed him! Come on, Ma. He probably has a stock pile of excuses that he
pulls out when he needs them.”

“I don't think
so Charlie. He sounded sincere.”

She wanted to
laugh. Obviously some people never learned to be a good judge of character. “He's
no better than my father, Ma. Come on, he just up and left for England to see
another woman without a word to me.”

Without warning
Maureen snatched the t-shirt out of Charlie's hands and tossed it aside. “He's
nothing like your father, Charlotte. Your father was manipulative. He wanted to
control every aspect of my life. I couldn't go out unless he knew where I was
going and who I was with. And he only ever thought of himself.” Maureen paused
for a moment.
 
“If anything Jake is just
the opposite. He worked his butt off here, and he didn't have to. Jake could've
let his workers handle everything.” Maureen's usual gentle voice took on a hard
edge as she spoke. “You're father never would've done that. And do you know
that he paid for that ramp at Mr. Quinn's house so he could get in and out
while he's in that wheelchair.”

Charlie could
only stare at her mom. She'd never heard her mom talk about her father in such
a negative way. In fact she rarely spoke of him at all.

“I'm not saying
you should run off and marry him, but I don't think you're being fair to him
either,” Maureen said with some calm returning to her voice.

While what her
mom said might be true, Charlie wasn't ready to accept any excuses Jake came up
with. “I have no desire to end up hurt like you Ma. I think it's best to let
things end now.”

“Hurt like me? You
can't stay out of a relationship because you're afraid to get hurt, Charlie.” Her
mom's voice had completely returned to its normal gentle tone as she reached
for Charlie's hand.

“Come on Ma. You
were devastated when my father walked out. No man is worth that.”

“It wasn't
entirely his fault. He left because I …. cheated on him. He'd gone on a fishing
trip. It was the first time we'd been apart since getting married. Even though
it only happened once, he somehow found out.” Maureen paused for a moment. “I
know you’re probably wondering how I could do that, but your father and I never
should've gotten married.”

She could guess
what her mom was going to say but still couldn't believe it.

“I was pregnant
with Sean when we got married. Our parents pressured us into it. Things were
never great between us. I kept hoping he'd change, but it never happened.”

Charlie could
tell her mom was embarrassed by the conversation. “But you were devastated when
he left.” She knew she hadn't imagined that.

Maureen nodded.
“I did care for him or at least the man he was when we first met, even if he
didn't love me. But what scared me the most was being a single mom. I had no
job, nothing but a high school diploma and two children. That was the hardest
part for me. If it hadn't been for Sean, I'm not sure what I would've done.”

She let her
mom's words sink in, wondering how she would react in the same situation. “Does
Sean know?”

Maureen smiled.
“No he just thinks he was born early. I think we should keep it that way.”

Nodding Charlie
returned her mom's smile. “That still doesn't mean I should give Jake another
chance.”

“No, but if you
do care about him and don't give him one, you'll always wonder. Trust me on
that.”

Somehow Charlie
knew there was another story behind her mom's words, but she didn't think she
would get it out of her. At least not now.

Maureen reached
for her own tea. “Just consider what I said, Charlie.”

“What grand
excuse did he give you for being in England? Did the Tower Bridge collapse?” No
matter what the excuse, Charlie didn’t know if she would believe it anyway.

“You sound as if
you've already decided to not believe it.” Maureen sighed and shook her head. “You've
always been stubborn.”

Stubborn? She
wasn't stubborn just determined; Charlie thought but kept to herself. She
didn't want to get into an argument with her mom on her last day here. “We'll
see.” For now it was all she would commit to.

“He flew to
England because his cousin overdosed and ended up in the ICU. Jake said he had
been having problems with drugs and alcohol for a while. The woman you saw in
the photo is his cousin's girlfriend. She met Jake at the airport. She asked
Jake to come to England.”

Charlie
remembered him mentioning a cousin who was having substance abuse issues. He'd
told her he'd been in England a few months earlier to help him; so it was at
least a plausible excuse. Still that didn't make it true.

“It doesn't
sound like a story someone would just make up,” her mom insisted interrupting
Charlie's thoughts. “People don't usually say those kinds of things about their
family.” Her mom stood.

“That doesn't
mean they couldn't.”

Maureen rolled
her eyes toward the ceiling. “Just think about what I said, Charlie.”

***

Man was it good
to be home. He'd only been gone ten days but it had felt like a lifetime. He
hoped AJ managed to keep things together this time. He didn't want a repeat of
his past two visits. Not that he wouldn't do it again if he got the call, but
he wasn't sure AJ could survive another setback and he knew for certain AJ
would lose Sophia if he did. One relationship had already suffered due to AJ's
problems, no reason to make it two.

Jake settled
onto the couch and turned on the baseball game. Dylan and Callie were due soon
and even though exhaustion threatened to overtake his body,
 
he was looking forward to their visit. He
hadn't seen them since the wedding. Another added bonus of their visit was the
distraction they would provide. More times than not when he found himself alone
he started thinking about Charlie. He still hadn't heard from her and he wasn't
sure if another phone call would make a difference. A face-to-face visit might
work in his favor with most women but he suspected it'd be a waste of time with
Charlie.

He knew she was
stubborn, but he hadn't imagined it was this bad. And he wasn't going to beg.
Beside, if she was unwilling to at least listen to him what kind of future
could they have together?

Even Callie had
been willing to hear Dylan out after his disastrous faux pas. And in that case
Dylan had been in the wrong.

Forget about it
for tonight, he told himself. He couldn't do anything about it at the moment
anyway.

***

“How long are
you guys staying in Washington?” Jake asked. He, Dylan and Callie were on the
deck enjoying dinner.

“The rest of the
week. We'll leave on Sunday morning. I'm expected back in the office on Monday,”
Dylan answered.

Jake couldn't
remember the last time he'd seen his half-brother look so relaxed. A
type-A
 
workaholic, the guy rarely sat
down and put his feet up. At least Dylan had always been that way before
meeting Callie. While he was still a workaholic he did at least take time off
now to enjoy life and spend time with the woman he loved. Jake envied Dylan in
that respect. He wouldn't want to deal with running Sherbrooke Enterprises, but
he would like to have someone special in his life. For a short time he'd
thought he found her, but apparently he'd been wrong.

“Earth to Jake. Come
in Jake.”

Callie's teasing
voice pulled Jake's mind away from his own thoughts. “Sorry about that. I have
a lot on my mind.”

Callie studied
him for a moment with a quizzical eye but didn't ask him to elaborate. “I asked
if you were still seeing the woman you brought to the wedding. Her name was
Charlotte right?”

Of all the
topics his sister could have brought up, why did she have to choose that one? He
wanted to keep his mind off her, not talk about her.

“We broke things
off about a week ago.” Jake tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice. By
the look on Callie's face though, he figured he hadn't succeeded.

His sister
reached for her wine and took a sip but Jake could almost see the wheels
turning in her head.

“Because of
Blair?” she asked.

The paternity
suit was just one more thing he didn’t want to think about. “No, she handled
that okay. She saw a picture of me with AJ's girlfriend and assumed the worst.”

Callie opened her
mouth to speak, but Dylan interrupted before she got the chance. “When did you
see her? Are they here?”

Damn. He told AJ that he wouldn't let anyone else in
the family know.
“Last week. I flew to England to see AJ.” Jake chose each word carefully. “I just
got back. It was a last minute trip.”

Dylan's eyebrows
knitted together and Jake knew more questions were about to follow.

“Must have been.
What prompted that? Weren't you just there a few months ago?”

He should've
come up with an excuse just in case family asked about his recent trip, but the
thought hadn't crossed his mind. “AJ and Sophia needed some help.”

While not the
complete truth, it wasn't a lie either.

“Help? What kind
of help.”

Jake knew Dylan
was like a dog with a bone. He wouldn't let a topic go until he was satisfied.

“I can't go into
it. But Sophia called and I flew out to help. Some photographer took pictures
of us at the airport. Charlie saw them on the Internet and jumped to the wrong
conclusion. End of story.”

Dylan clapped
him on the back. “I hope you gave her more details than that. It's a rather
vague excuse.”

Jake knew he
should be pleased his brother wasn't pressing for more details. “She didn't
give me a chance to explain anything. I tried.”

Jake didn't miss
seeing Callie elbow Dylan in the side in an attempt to shut him up before
saying, “Maybe she just needs some time. She's not used to the way the media
plays things up. Try calling her in a week.”

He knew Callie
meant well but it was so obvious she didn't understand anything about male
pride. A guy was only going to take no for an answer so many times. After that
it would be like begging. He had no intentions of doing that.

“How was Paris?”
Jake figured if he got Callie talking about something else she might forget
about Charlie for tonight.

His ploy worked
beautifully. Without mentioning another word about Charlie, his sister launched
into a detailed playback of her and Dylan's European honeymoon.

Chapter
14

With a groan
Charlie kicked her heels off then began to unzip her skirt. After spending more
than six hours in the awful shoes her aching feet reminded her why she didn't
wear them more often. Today there had been no avoiding it. There was no way she
could show up for an interview wearing running sneakers or the clogs she wore
when on duty at the hospital.

After slipping
on a pair of denim shorts and a t-shirt she put the suit she'd worn in a bag
for the dry cleaners and headed toward the kitchen. She'd missed lunch, but she
guessed she'd find something yummy in the kitchen. Thanks to Beth there were
always freshly baked treats in the kitchen. And judging by the cinnamon scent
filling the kitchen, Beth had baked something that morning.

Charlie had one
of the rolls half way to her mouth when she saw the magazine pages on the
kitchen table. Her roommate was a regular reader of all the popular magazines. She
never missed an issue of the weekly publication. By the looks of it her copy of
Today had arrived and she'd forgotten to take it with her.

Most of the time
Charlie didn't bother with the magazine. Occasionally she would do the
crossword puzzle in the back but that was about it. But today it was as if her
arm had a mind of its own. It dropped the cinnamon roll and reached for the
magazine. Once again on the cover was a close-up shot of Jake. A smile lit up
his face and she had to force herself to look away from his sapphire blue eyes.
They seemed to almost jump off the page at her.

In an instant
her appetite disappeared. For more than two weeks now she'd tried not to think
about him, and every time she did, Charlie forced herself to remember the
picture she'd seen of him on the internet with his arm around the blonde. Yet
every once in awhile a tiny voice in her head whispered what if you are wrong?