The Billionaire's Christmas Son - Leslie North Page 0,43
it from me. It came from Rachel’s mother shouting it for all to hear across the lobby.” Jonas ran his hands through his hair trying to make sense of it all.
Chase had the grace to look abashed. “I’m sorry, Jonas. I wish it hadn’t turned out that way.”
“Please.” Acid rose in his throat. “You do wish that, deep down. You wanted Rachel to leave before.”
“Well, I don’t now.” Jonas met his brother’s eyes. “Not judging by the look on your face. You look…” He trailed off, not saying whatever it was he’d planned to say. Chase grimaced. “I was unfair before. I had a situation with Tana that wasn’t as complicated as yours, but I still didn’t do everything right.”
“That’s a far cry from breaking Grandmother’s heart,” he pointed out. Jonas’s heart had been flattened, beating with a kind of weakness that scared him. He sat back down on the sofa.
“I had things happen, too. With Tana.” Chase said, sitting down beside him, his mouth set in a thin line. “It took sacrifice to make things work with her.”
Gabe reappeared then, dropping into a nearby overstuffed chair. “She’s settled in her rooms and asked to be alone.”
“I really messed this up,” Jonas said, shaking his head.
Chase snorted. “I was trying to tell knucklehead here that the women we care about, change us—and it’s not a bad thing.” His expression went solemn again. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay here. In fact, I wanted to be anywhere, but here. Tana changed all that for me.”
“Same here. I didn’t ever want to come back. And it didn’t go well if you remember,” Gabe said.
Jonas’s face burned. They’d all taken a hand in embarrassing Gabe’s new girlfriend, Anna, and it had come from a place of deep fear on his brother’s behalf. Not something Jonas wanted to admit any more now than he had then.
“But we got through it all, and Anna and I are still here. Where we belong,” Gabe added.
“I don’t know if what I have is salvageable,” Jonas said. “I’ve really made a mess of it all.”
“Grandmother will forgive you,” Gabe said, his voice like a solemn promise. One Jonas wanted to hold on to.
“Maybe she will. But Rachel might not be so forgiving. Her past…” He outlined it for them in broad strokes, without giving away too many details. “How can I earn her trust a second time if she never really gave it to me in the first place?”
The brothers were silent. Across the lobby, a pair of guests laughed with the hostess at the check-in desk. The music had changed to a song about silver bells. Jonas felt the ghost of an old evening across his face, night air a long time ago. His parents’ voices in the back of a sleigh on the grounds of the Elk Lodge. He’d been trusting, then. Trusting they’d always be there, but it hadn’t worked out that way.
“You should go after her,” Gabe said softly. “I had to go after Anna. I flew to California with my heart in my throat, and so should you. Go after Rachel.”
Jonas stood, ready to end the discussion. “She doesn’t want me there,” he argued.
Chase let his head fall back on the sofa. “Are you kidding? Of course she does. If she didn’t want to be near you, she wouldn’t have come back to let you take care of her. You should go,” Chase added, seconding Gabe’s suggestion.
Maybe they were right. No, there was no maybe about it—they were right. Jonas needed to fight for what he wanted. For what he loved. For his family. He patted his pockets. Keys—he’d need keys. And her address. And—then what? He had no idea how to convince her that she could trust him, or that he would do anything to be with her and Scott.
Start by getting there.
His brothers rose from their seats, watching him. “Do you need anything before you leave?” Gabe asked. “Anything we can do here?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say no, but... “If you can keep an eye on things for me at the lodge, that’d be great.” It was the first time he’d ever left his brothers in charge of the resort. “And more importantly, I need you to make sure Grandmother’s going to be okay. Tell her I’m sorry and trying to fix things.”
Suspicion grew in Chase’s eyes. “Are you coming back?”
“Yes.” Whether he convinced Rachel or not, he would be back. For most of Jonas’s