An Irresistible Bachelor (An Unforgettable Lady #2)(88)

She pictured Anne again, lying on her deathbed.

And with a sudden, sickening clarity, Callie relived the last moment between her parents. She saw her mother, weak, unable to speak, her eyes the only things that moved. She saw her father, bent down low, face contorted in an anguish that was clearly from the heart. The words he had spoken washed over Callie and the pain they caused came swiftly, harshly. Immutably.

As she heard what he’d said once again, she realized it wasn’t just Grace she was protecting by keeping the past out of her life. She, herself, was hiding from the worst truth of them all. It was as if, by not speaking her father’s name to anyone, what had happened, especially at the end, had not been real.

But it had happened. It was real.

And Callie knew with complete conviction that if she couldn’t acknowledge the past openly, she was going to lose the one shot she had at everything she had ever wanted. A man who loved her. A family. A place where she belonged.

Someone who was hers.

She knew what she had to do.

On her way out, she picked up the letter, and holding it with care, she headed back to the house.





23


WHEN JACK left his study a half hour later, he was surprised by how good he felt, considering he was pouring $100 million or so into something that would at best be a break-even proposition. But part of it was Bryan McKay’s reaction. The doctor was over the moon and so enthusiastic that he was still stuttering a little when they’d hung up.

Hell, Jack figured, if he couldn’t make things work out for himself, at least he could play fairy godmother to a few others. All he needed was a wand and a tutu.

Now, there was a campaign ad.

“Jack! How are you?” The CEO of one of the state’s largest insurance companies was coming down the hall. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about worker’s comp.”

“I’m all ears.”

He and the man spoke for quite a while until Jack’s mother appeared in the hall. Nate was with her, dressed in chef’s whites and looking like he was anxious to get back to the kitchen.

“It’s time,” she said.

Taking both her sons by the hand, Mercedes led them to the living room and put a halt to the procession when they were in front of the fireplace, right under Nathaniel Six’s portrait. A hush fell over the party and people began to press in close to make sure they could hear her speak.

Looking across the room, Jack saw Gray leaning against a column in the back, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his eyes narrowed on Mercedes.

“If I might have your attention for a moment,” she began.

Jack hoped the speech was going to be quick this year. At every one of the holiday parties, Mercedes paid homage to his father in a litany of praises that stopped just short of being a eulogy. She seemed determined to keep the legend of Nathaniel Six alive. When Jack was feeling charitable toward her, he tried to see love in the gesture, but he was never totally convinced that her motivations were pure. He suspected she wanted to remind everyone exactly whom she’d been married to.

But what was the harm, he thought, eyeing his brother over her snow-white chignon. Nate was looking as awkward as he felt.

“My husband . . .”

Jack tuned out the words and looked around idly, coming to attention only as he saw Callie and Grace edging their way through the front hall. They went halfway up the stairs, until they cleared the heads in the room, and stopped to listen to the speech.

As he stared across the crowd, he had eyes only for Callie.

Standing amid the fleet of high-stepping women and men in sleek tuxedos, she was dressed simply in a black-and-white outfit he’d seen before. Her hair was falling over her shoulders in a glorious red wave, and unlike so many of the other ladies, her makeup was soft, natural.

To him, she was the most beautiful woman at the party. Hands down.

At the foot of the stairs, he caught a couple of men eyeing her and talking. One shrugged, as if to indicate he didn’t know who she was, and then they both stared over their shoulders at her.

The appreciation and hot speculation in their expressions had Jack curling his hands into fists. He wanted to tear through the crowd and kick them out of his house, even though one of them was his squash partner and the other he’d known since kindergarten.

Callie didn’t seem to notice the attention, though. She was looking at something in her hand, and when she finally lifted her head, their eyes met. A yearning went through his body and he had to stop himself from taking a step toward her.

With a soft smile, she lifted a tattered piece of paper up and waved it slowly in the air.

Had she found the answer?

Mercedes’s voice cut into his thoughts. “And then there is my son Jackson. As you all know, he’s made his father and me so proud with all he’s accomplished, and he’s about to take on another challenge. I’m simply thrilled to say that he will be running for governor of this fine commonwealth next November!”

Jack snapped his head around. As a wave of cheers rose up into the air, he stared at his mother in disbelief.

“How the hell could you do that,” he said through his teeth.

But she was too busy soaking up the adulation to hear what he said.

Frantically, he looked out to the stairs, but he couldn’t see through all the hands that were in the air. Fuck. He could only imagine what was going on in Callie’s head.