Owned by Fate (Serve #1)(49)

Jonah smiled hesitantly and gave a slow nod. “Yeah, I—”

Gabby, now balancing on one wobbly leg, sighed impatiently. “Is there a park near your house or anything?”

“I don’t know.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “But if there’s not, I’ll build you one.”

With that, he had her undivided attention. Watching Jonah curiously, she rounded the table to stand in front of him. “No way. You can’t do that.”

“Oh no? Watch me.”

Gabby frowned, her freckled nose crinkling. “You smell like licorice.”

Jonah reached into his pocket and withdrew a package of Red Vines. As he tore the plastic end open, he looked at Renee for permission. After a tense beat, she nodded. Jonah handed Gabby a piece of licorice before taking one out for himself. As they both bit into the red candy, Gabby smiled, and Jonah looked like he’d just won the lottery.

Caroline had to remind herself to breathe. If she lived to be one hundred years old, she didn’t think she’d ever again have the privilege of witnessing something as pure and magnificent as Jonah meeting his daughter for the first time. And knocking it clear out of the f*cking park. Part of her wanted to jump up on the conference table and cheer. Another part of her wanted to fall down on the floor and weep until sleep overtook her.

A stubborn voice in her head continued to plague her, though. Loudly and incessantly. Walk out of here, go home, move on. You’ve got it all, and he doesn’t fit into the perfect picture. This is not where you belong.

She clung to that belief like a lifeline. Maybe because it felt like all she had left.





Chapter Seventeen


Jonah stared straight ahead through the plastic partition of the taxi, barely registering the downtown traffic whizzing alongside them on Ninth Avenue. He knew if he looked over at Caroline seated beside him, he would have no choice but to hold her. He’d given up that right, however, so he focused on the passing buildings and the late-afternoon sunlight glinting off store windows instead. And tried valiantly to tamp down the need to drag her onto his lap and demand to know why she looked depleted of her spirit. How it had happened and how he could repair it.

She’d just saved him. Renee had agreed, against all odds, to allow monthly visitation with his daughter, and he owed that mostly to Caroline. Until she’d walked in, Renee had been unwilling to compromise. He’d seen the resentment on her face, watched her throw up a wall the second the meeting began. She’d been resentful of him, his lawyer, and the expensive office, pushing her already negative feelings to the fore. Any sort of compromise had seemed hopeless until Caroline walked in, looking beautiful and yet painfully fragile. He’d never once associated her with fragility, and it had taken everything in his power not to carry her from the room.

Yet she’d come alive, talking to Renee on a personal level, stripping those barriers down effortlessly. The dark cloud hanging over the conference room had lifted, daylight bleeding through. God, at one point, he’d actually believed she meant every word. She’d been that convincing. When she’d looked over at him during her speech, Jonah had foolishly let himself hope that she’d finally seen past all the trappings to the man beneath. Seen who they could be together, if given the chance.

A man who keeps his word, she’d called him, enunciating every single word. Caroline’s unique way of letting him know the terms were still in effect. To sternly remind him of his earlier promise to let her go after the meeting, on the off chance he’d forgotten.

He hadn’t. Not remotely. It had been excruciatingly difficult, saying those words to her over the phone. I’ll let you go. If he didn’t know she wanted him out of her life so badly, saying those words would have been impossible. But he did know. Yes, she wanted him physically, but it ended there. He’d finally accepted that fact during the meeting. She wanted him out of her life badly enough that she’d flown across town in a cab and lied for him, something he knew went against her morals, her very nature.

Jonah was assaulted by a flashback of her, sitting at the bar of his club that first night, so questioning yet full of conviction. Now, she looked positively drained. He’d done that to her. She’d told him she couldn’t stand being a hypocrite, but he hadn’t listened well enough, turning her into one on several occasions. He’d unconsciously used their attraction against her the way she’d accused him of doing, and he’d dimmed the fire inside her. The knowledge killed him. Yet he wouldn’t take back a single moment of their time together, making him the world’s biggest bastard.

No matter how badly he wanted to hold her, share his incredible happiness over meeting bright, challenging Gabby for the first time, he needed to keep his word. He wouldn’t cause her one second more of distress or self-hatred. Not when he could help it by leaving her outside her apartment door and driving away. It might be wiser to drop her outside her building in Battery Park, but in her present state, she didn’t look like she’d make it up the stairs.

In perfect timing with his thoughts, the cab pulled up outside a luxury high-rise. Having no other choice, he glanced over at Caroline, surprised to find her green eyes watching him steadily.

When she spoke, her voice sounded strained. “Are you leaving n-now?”

Jonah smothered the pain as best he could. She couldn’t wait to have him gone. “In a minute. I want to make sure you get upstairs without falling and breaking your neck.” He pushed open his door. “It’s the least I can do after this afternoon.”