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Yes, Dax was the kind of man who would keep a commitment. Hadn’t she seen that in the way he’d wanted to be certain she and Sophie were safe and well after the unexpected birth? Maybe that’s why he’d never recovered from the divorce. “Do you know what happened with his wife?”
Crystal’s long hair fell forward as she nodded. “Everyone in Saddleback knows. She left him for another man.”
“After Gavin was born.”
“Yes, and to make things worse, the man she ran off with was Sam Coleman, Dax’s younger brother.”
Jenna’s stomach dropped to her shoes. “Oh no. Poor Dax.”
“Some thought Reba suffered from postpartum depression, but I never believed that. She was always wild and needed constant male attention. Sam wasn’t her first lover. She’d been cheating on Dax for a long time. I guess everyone knew but him.”
No wonder Dax had become so reclusive. He’d been as humiliated by Reba as Jenna had been by Derek. More so. Both his spouse and his brother had betrayed him.
Jenna’s conscience tugged. Wasn’t it betrayal of a different kind not to tell him about her trust fund?
She fought off the worry, convinced she and Sophie were safe as long as no one knew who they were. Not even Dax.
She and Crystal went on talking, jumping from subject to subject. Crystal was a wealth of information about babies and housekeeping, Dax and the people of Saddleback, and the best places for Christmas shopping. Gaining this woman as a friend had been nothing short of a pre-Christmas miracle.
Finally, Jenna glanced at her watch. Gavin would be home soon, so the women reluctantly parted ways with the promise to meet again the following week.
All the way back to the Southpaw, Jenna mulled over the personal revelations that had come out over a chicken salad sandwich. She was falling in love with her employer, her rescuer, a man with deep emotional wounds. Gavin, though he’d never known Reba, was wounded, too. He sensed his father’s pain and overprotection. The insecurity had given rise to an inner fear and a timid nature. Jenna didn’t know how she understood this, but she did.
Maybe love gave a woman insight.
Casting a glance at Sophie in the rearview mirror, she smiled at the thought. What she’d had with Derek could never compare to this. She was almost ashamed to admit that Derek had been an escape route, a means to escape the prison of her life under Elaine Carrington’s paranoid eye. What she felt for Dax and Gavin went deeper—all the way to the center of her heart.
The troubling conscience pressed in again. If she loved Dax, didn’t he deserve to know the truth about her situation?
She bit down on her bottom lip, gnawing the skin in the same way the question gnawed away at her heart. Maybe she should tell him.
But what if she was being a fool again? What if her emotions clouded her reason? She’d thought she was in love before and look what had happened.
But this was different. Dax was different. She was different.
But Dax was not in love with her. He didn’t even find her attractive enough to kiss, a fact that had been painfully clear the night of the Christmas movie. He was good to her and Sophie, but kindness did not translate into love. Her nanny was kind. Her bodyguards were kind.
She was an employee just as they had been.
By the time she had taken Sophie into the house and had returned for the shopping bags, she was convinced that keeping quiet was the best thing to do. Any decision she made affected her daughter, and Sophie’s life would not be a repeat of hers. Until she could win love on her own terms, without the lure of the Carrington fortune, Jenna would keep her secret.
Bending, she reached into the backseat for the bags. The cold wind swept through the car, beneath her jacket and made her shiver. Paper and plastic crinkled as she hurried, eager to get inside the warm house. A masculine arm snaked from behind her and latched onto a bag. Her heart reacted happily. Dax must have seen her struggling in the wind and come to assist.
She spun around, smile ready. “Dax,” she started but then the pleasure drained from her.
Rowdy stood, trapping her between the car door and the backseat, a grocery bag in hand.
“Sorry, darlin’, if you were expecting the boss. It’s just faithful Rowdy coming to your rescue. You don’t mind some help with these bags, do you?”
Jenna swallowed back her disappointment and misgivings. “Thank you. I can manage.”
She bent for another bag before realizing that Rowdy was probably staring at her backside.
“Old Dax would have my hide if I let a lady handle this alone. It’s cold out here.” He stood too close, that insufferable grin taunting her.
Jenna sighed and tightened her jaw. She was not going to let this guy get under her skin. “As you wish, then. I’ll offer my thanks if you will please be so kind as to get out of my way. My daughter is already in the house and I don’t like to leave her alone.”
