Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (16 page)

They drove for half
a mile on a dirt road, until the ranch came into view. The place wasn’t the typical
weekend home but a three-story mansion with a wraparound porch. There were two
stables, each one large enough to fit at least twenty horses. She figured the
smaller lodge set back from the mansion had to be for the staff. A place like
that couldn’t possibly run itself and likely required twenty-four-hour care.  

When they got
out of the car, Chase called out, “I’ll get the luggage. Go on ahead. I’ll
catch up.”

Glad to get away
from him, Jessina didn’t hesitate to head for the mansion. She took in her
surroundings along the way, noting a van in the driveway with a rack on the
back of it. There was also a ramp leading up to the house.
Hmm. That’s
strange.
The unasked questions running in her mind were instantly answered
when a teenaged girl rolled out the front door in a wheelchair. They made eye
contact, and in the girl’s eyes, Jessina saw the resemblance right away.

“I know, right?
It’s always a bit shocking,” the girl said with a small, perceptive smile as
she stopped in front of her.

“Excuse me?”
Jessina shook her head.

“The wheelchair.
It throws people off.”

“Oh!” Jessina
wanted to shove her foot in her mouth, but not until she kicked herself in the
ass with it. “No, I wasn’t…um, I mean, it’s just that I-I, uh…I didn’t know
Chase had a daughter.”

Chase stepped onto
the porch. He bent down and kissed the girl on the forehead. “Hey, kiddo.” The
affectionate gesture was so natural, a side of Chase Jessina had never seen
before. In an endearing, guard-down kind of different way, and Jessina fell
right for it. Hook, line, and sinker, her heart was snared.

“Hi!” The girl’s
smile widened. She looked from Chase to Jessina. “It’s good to see you, Uncle
Chase.”

Uncle
?
Suddenly, it all made better sense to Jessina.

Chase’s gaze lingered
on his niece for a long moment, and then he turned, his expression transforming
from affectionate to indifferent. “Jessina, I’d like you to meet my niece,
Hannah.”

“Oh,” Jessina
uttered, after she shoved the proverbial foot further into her mouth and kicked
herself in the ass a few times more. Chase’s tight smile confirmed that she’d
jumped the gun the night before. “So this is Hannah,” she whispered to herself.

“Yes.” His smile
grew, but it didn’t meet his eyes. “This is Hannah.”

“Um, I think
we’ve covered that. Yes, I am Hannah,” the girl sarcastically repeated. “Hasn’t
he told you anything about me?” she asked Jessina.

“Uh…sure.” Jessina
pulled her eyes from Chase’s cynical ones. “He told me he loves you very much.”
She smiled down at Chase’s niece.

“Yeah? Well, I’m
not surprised. I’m kinda easy to love, aren’t I, Uncle Chase?”

“You sure are,”
he said with a wink and a chuckle, the same laugh she’d heard coming out of him
in his kitchen the night before. He pulled the duffle bag up over his shoulder.
“I’m gonna take this stuff in the house. Would you mind giving Jess the grand
tour?”

“Sure.”

Chase gave them
a curt nod, and then disappeared into the mansion.

“I can’t believe
you thought he was my dad.” Hannah giggled. “He’s not even thirty yet, at least
not until this October. I know he acts a lot older, he’s so serious all the
time.” Hannah gave the wheels on her chair a push as she started down the ramp.
“He does look a lot like Dad though.” She glanced over her shoulder. “It’s the
eyes, huh?

Jessina only
smiled, trying to get over Chase’s young age, and trying to keep up with the girl
as she quickly rolled down the incline.  

“Well, other
than that, those two had nothing else in common. Uncle Chase did tell you my
dad passed away, right?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”
Jessina nodded, but kept quiet, sensing that the girl had more to say.

“Yeah, after it
happened, Uncle Chase got custody of me. It was real hard for both of us in the
beginning, especially since he had to go back and forth between here and his
job, but things are getting better. I miss my dad, but it hurts a little less
every day. I’m not as angry anymore, and I’m doin’ okay now. I told Uncle Chase
he doesn’t have to worry about coming back here during the week. I go to camp,
and when I’m not there, I’m with Mamie. She’s been with me since my mom left
when I was five.” She stopped to wait for Jessina, who was tailing close
behind.

“Your mom left?”

“Yep. I wasn’t
always…like this. She took off about a year after my accident. It was just too
hard for her to handle, I guess,” she said, starting toward the stables. “I’ve
forgiven her, but Uncle Chase never will. I can’t really blame him. His mom, my
grandma, also bailed out on him and my dad when the going got tough. I think
Uncle Chase is sore at all women because of it. I hope he gets over it someday
though. He deserves to be happy, and I know he could make some lady real happy
as her husband. He doesn’t like to show it, but my Uncle Chase has a huge
heart. He always says, ‘Hannah, when you fall in love, love that man for his
heart and not his money.’ I figure any man who says somethin’ like that must
wanna be loved that way too.”

After imparting
her young but wise analysis of her uncle, she wheeled herself into the stable,
where horses neighed and hooves pranced. Hannah stopped and looked up at Jessina
considerately. “Thanks for doing this, by the way.”

“For doing what?”

Hannah giggled. “I
can’t believe Uncle Chase hasn’t told you anything. Caplin, the meeting, and lying
about being married to him? You’re doing it all for
me
.”

“For you? How
so?”

The girl sighed.
“It’s probably best if I start from the beginning, since Uncle Chase obviously
hasn’t filled you in.” She parked the wheelchair and relaxed in her seat. “My
dad always tried to make me feel normal, as if I’m not handicapped. His
intentions were good, and because we have money, I’ve been able to do a lot of
the things other paraplegics can only dream of. I have fancy shoes, and I can
put them on my feet, but I accepted a long time ago that one thing I’ll never
be able to do is walk in ‘em.” She glanced down at her lap and lifted her face
up again, still wearing a smile. “Anyway, when I was nine, Dad took me to this place,
a therapeutic horse stable. And let me I tell ya, when I got up on that horse,
that beautiful animal walked
for
me. For the first time since my
accident, I was free. I could actually move, without this chair.” Hannah looked
around the stables. “My dad promised when I was old enough, we’d start our own
therapeutic stables to give other kids a chance to experience it too.”

“Your dad sounds
awesome,” Jessina said, admiring the love Chase’s brother obviously had for his
daughter.

“Yeah. He was,” she proudly smiled. “Just before he died, Uncle
Chase found out what he was up to. It was supposed to be a surprise for my
sixteenth birthday, but my dad died six months before I turned sixteen. My
birthday’s come and gone, but Uncle Chase still wants to honor what my dad was
doing for me. The trouble is, he knows absolutely nothin’ about horses. Mr.
Caplin specializes in training the staff and the horses for these kinds of
stables. He’s well known for it. There’s special equipment to be bought, and the
horses need to be trained properly too. My dad was right to go after Caplin. And,
six months ago, when you and Uncle Chase first met—”

“He told you about
that?”

“Yeah.” She nodded.
“Last night, on the phone. He felt so bad about your aunt’s ashes. He said he
stepped on them!”

Jessina placed a
hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. She could only imagine Chase telling his
niece about the whole ordeal.

Hannah gave her
an odd, questioning look. “Yeah, he told me all kinds of things about you. He
says you’re a bit stubborn, but that’s a quality I admire. I think he does,
too, even if he doesn’t say so.”

“If I’ve learned
anything, it’s that
not
being stubborn around a man like your uncle will
get you into all kinds of trouble. He’s a very, um…” She paused to search for
the appropriate word. “He’s a very serious and intense man.”

This time,
Hannah appeared to be stifling a giggle of her own.
annah
who stffled back a Hann
“Yeah, you could say that. It’s one of those
differences I was talking about between him and my dad. My dad was easygoing.
Uncle Chase, not so much, but he makes an effort to loosen up when he’s around
me.”

As Hannah talked
about the plans for the ranch, about her father’s and Chase’s differences,
Jessina listened, but she heard something else behind the girl’s words. It
whispered softly around her, around Hannah and the ranch. Even after she’d
discovered the ranch was his brother’s, Jessina had discerned this had to be the
place where Chase Lennox docked his heart. For the first time, she could hear
it, see it, and feel it everywhere. He loved Hannah, and he obviously couldn’t
hide his heart from his niece. Jessina sensed that Chase must have known that when
he took her there, opened her up to that place, she’d discover that there was
more to him than the cutthroat businessman on a mission.

Chase watched Jess
tiptoe into the bedroom. He followed close behind and stopped when she pressed
her ear against the bathroom door. He leaned in mere inches from her hair. The
flowery, sweet scent of her shampoo enticed him. He inhaled and held his breath
for a brief moment before he released with a whispered, “Looking for me?”

She spun around,
bringing with her a scream and a quick smack to his arm. “What are you doing? You
scared the hell out of me!”

“Really?” He
grinned. “I couldn’t tell.”

Her eyes
narrowed. “Why are you sneaking up on me like that?”

“Me? You’re the one
with your ear to the door.”

“I…” She stepped
forward to try to move past him. He held his ground, and kept her between him
and the bathroom door. She sighed. “I was looking for you.”

“In the
bathroom?” He couldn’t dismantle his grin.

“No!” she huffed. “I
mean…well, yes!” Her hands landed on her hips. “Why didn’t you tell me about
Hannah?”

Cramming his fingers into the front pocket of his jeans, he
shrugged. “There was no reason to. From the very beginning, you made it
perfectly clear that you were all about the money and for the right price you’d
help me.” He paused to soak in her fury. “We finally settled on the acceptable
price of $300,000, right? So, there was no need to involve Hannah until now.”

“No need? It’s
all
about Hannah! You’re doing everything—paying me, staying married to me, playing
with me— you’re doing it all for the love of your niece.”

“You’re damn
right I am, and 300 grand is nothing to me. As far as ‘playing’ with you,
that’s been pretty easy, too, hon’. It’s the married part I’m having a
difficult time with,” he grumbled under his breath.

“Believe me, you
aren’t the only one who feels that way, Chase. Still, maybe it would have been
a whole lot easier if you’d told me about Hannah from the start. You say I’m
all about the money, but I would have done it for that girl for free, you
dumb-ass!”

“I find that a
little hard to believe.” He grunted.

“I am
not
in this for the money, Chase Lennox. As you might recall, you’re the one who
refused to give me an annulment. You threatened to tie me up in court for
months, years. Remember? You’re the heartless bastard here, not me!”

“And there it
is. The truth comes out. Sure, I’m the kind of bastard that lets you worship me
on your knees and then, a few hours later, tell another woman that I love her,
right? Yeah. I’m that guy, right? That’s what you’re really sore about here,
isn’t it?” Chase hadn’t realized until just then that he was still a little pissed
about the incident too, infuriated that she had thought so little of him.

“Worship you?”
The indignant look on her face spoke volumes about her disdain for his choice
of words to describe the awesome blowjob.

“Yeah, what you
did to me on your knees,” he tapped her bottom lip, “with this pretty mouth. No
other word does it justice other than
worship
.”

“Why do you always
have to be like this?”

“Like what?” he
asked, confused, since he thought he’d just given her a compliment.

She ignored his wonderment.
“It’s obvious that you can be kind. Surely you’re not completely insensitive
and heartless, because that little girl adores you. It’s here, isn’t it?”

And, just like
that, Jess managed to stagger him not once, but twice in a single day. He stared
at her, unsure what the hell she was talking about.

“Your heart,”
she clued him in. “This place, this home is where your heart is. I saw it in
Hannah’s eyes, heard it in the way she talks about you.”

Wow.
Wait a damn minute. How did my heart get pulled into the conversation? Didn’t
she just say I don’t have one?
Apparently, a little reminder
was in order. “Well, don’t get used to it. The minute Hannah leaves, it’s gone
too. I can assure you my heart isn’t going to show itself again anytime soon. I
mean, I wouldn’t want to soil my insensitive, heartless reputation or
anything.” It was the truth. It was too dangerous to offer Jess any part of
himself, his heart included. A woman like Jess could destroy the frequently
absent organ in his chest, leaving nothing for him to give to Hannah.