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She could imagine how much that would cost. But again, the woman was her boss’s mother. Did she know that their new executive director had also slept with her son?
Jackson moved the truck farther onto the elephant’s back. It slid off the other side. She couldn’t go to the function. She’d have to leave Jackson. She had no idea how to refuse.
“John’s arranged for a nanny to accompany us, and got a room in the hotel where the event is taking place. So that Jackson will be close by at all times,” Anne said next.
At that point, Tabitha started to cry.
Johnny was watching out for her, just as he’d said he would.
Didn’t he get that that only made being without him hurt more?
Chapter Twenty-One
Johnny made it exactly a month before he couldn’t take it anymore. Barging into his father’s office the day after his mother told him Tabitha had confirmed her upcoming appearance at a charity lunch, he paced in front of the older man’s desk, waiting for him to get off the phone.
Alex’s secretary had told him that while, yes, his father was alone, he was on an overseas call.
Business was important, Johnny conceded that. He didn’t want to interrupt. But he couldn’t just wait outside if Alex was engaging in small talk, either.
With raised eyebrows, Alex watched Johnny, completed his business—probably sooner than he would have otherwise—and dropped the phone into its cradle. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Johnny said, plopping down onto one of the expensive leather seats in his father’s office. The cost of the damned thing could have made Tabitha’s house payment for six months.
Alex gave him the eye. Not an “or else” look, but one that told Johnny his father knew he wasn’t telling him the truth.
It was up to Johnny whether or not he chose to correct the lapse.
“I’ve found my passion,” Johnny blurted, cringing as he heard himself sounding like a high school kid. Which was about how he’d felt for the past several weeks.
“Your passion.”
“Yeah, you know, the thing you have to do, no matter what. The thing you’re driven to do, even if you can think of a hundred reasons why it might not work.”
Hands folded on his desk, Alex nodded.
“I’ve never felt passionate about anything before.”
“You never had to. It all came easy to you.”
“Doing yardwork for an entire summer, cleaning the house for another summer—those did not come easy to me.” He wasn’t in a congenial mood.
Alex seemed to sense that Johnny was serious. And that things were about to change.
“So...what is this passion? What does it entail? How much time off do you need?”
He’d just returned to work. He had no intention of taking another vacation so soon. “I don’t need any time off.”
His father sat forward, looking a bit tired as he smiled. “I have to admit I’m relieved to hear that.”
“Why? Whatever made you think I was going to take time off?” He’d been handling his responsibilities and then some. Had closed two very lucrative deals in the month he’d been back, in addition to getting the Angel’s Food Bowls franchise operation started. They already had three trucks outfitted, painted and awaiting final permits to get out on the road.
“You’ve been...different since you got back. Restless. It’s been obvious to your mother and me that you aren’t happy. I’d hoped the sabbatical would help you get beyond Angel’s death, but if—”
“It’s not Angel’s death,” Johnny broke in, feeling a twinge. He’d loved his wife. Truly loved her. He’d been turned on by her, but there’d been no passion, other than sexual, from him to her. He knew the difference now. “As a matter of fact, I want to get married.”
Alex’s jaw dropped.
“That’s why I’m here,” Johnny said, only realizing the fact himself as he shot up from his chair. He wanted to marry Tabitha. “I plan to ask Tabitha Jones to marry me and to let me adopt her two-year-old son. There’s no father named on his birth certificate, so there shouldn’t be any legal obstacle.” Yep. That was it. He hoped to God the little guy liked him.
