An Irresistible Bachelor(86)
He brushed her hair back.
"I... this is hard to talk about for me because I've never told anyone before. I was taught to keep quiet. It was the only way he would stay in our lives." She tried to smile but couldn't pull it off. "Old habits and all that."
"I’m glad you told me."
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she murmured, "So am I."
Jack's hand rubbed her back in circles.
She tilted her head so she could look up into his eyes. "I don't know what I thought would happen if I actually told someone. If I told you. It's not like my head exploded or anything. I suppose I thought it might." She tried to laugh a little, but the sadness she felt came out raggedly instead. "It was hard growing up. Other girls talked about their fathers with such... ownership. My father did this, my father did that. I had a father. After a long time of hoping he'd come around and be who I wanted him to be, I realized I was never going to make the possessive pronoun fit. Talking about him as my father was like claiming something that wasn't there."
Jack took her hand and urged her out of the chair. "Come over here, I want to hold you for a while."
Which was what she wanted, too.
They settled on the couch, and he pulled her onto his lap. "You know your father's bad judgment was not your fault, right?"
"I know."
"You deserved a hell of a lot better."
She hadn't really thought about that much. Growing up, she'd been too busy trying to please. As an adult, she'd been preoccupied with trying to forget.
"So am I forgiven?" she said against his shoulder.
"Absolutely."
"Because I don't want to lose you."
"I'm not going anywhere." His hand stroked the back of her neck.
"I really wanted to tell you, but—”
He silenced her with a soft kiss. "Don't worry. I understand completely. And when it comes to the election, I don't want you to be concerned. This is not going to be a problem. "
She pulled away. "Excuse me?"
"The press would only care if your father was someone already in the public eye. We can easily protect you and argue there's nothing newsworthy in your past."
"I can't possibly be hearing you right," she muttered in disbelief.
"Callie, I'm not downplaying the effect this had on you," he said. "Not at all."
She started shaking her head. They were back to square one. "You don't get it. I still don't want to answer anyone's questions, especially not a journalist's."
"But you don't have to worry. It's going to be okay. Nothing is going to get out in the media."
Callie gripped his shoulders. "Yes, it will."
Jack's eyes narrowed. "Who exactly was your father?"
She dropped her hands. She couldn't go that far. Even with Jack. "Isn't it enough to know what happened?"
"Clearly not. Who was he, Callie?"
She broke free and walked across the room.
"You're shutting me out again," he said darkly.
"Stop pushing me, okay?"
"Callie," his voice was sharp, "if I'm pressuring you, it's because I only have half the story. You're leaving out the most important part."
She wheeled around. "I would have hoped the most important part was me."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"But you do, Jack. You truly do. You're trying to force me to fit into your plans."
"Because I want you in my life," he said, throwing up his hands.
"On your terms."
"Don't hit me with that, Callie. I'm trying to make this work and you're putting up an obstacle. Something that seems fairly arbitrary to me, I might add, unless you're willing to tell me the whole story."
"Can't you just trust me?" she whispered.
He put his hand on his chest. "How about you trusting me?"
She looked away.
He let out a curse. "So what are you telling me? If I run for governor, you're out of here?"
She closed her eyes, thinking, oh, God, was that where they were headed?
"I don't know, Jack. I just don't know."
When she didn't see him for the rest of the day, and he didn't come by her room that night, she figured he was cooling off and giving her an opportunity to do the same. But after a couple of days passed with no more than cursory meetings in the kitchen, or hallway, she knew Jack was avoiding her.