The Chase Is On
Автор
Brenda Jackson
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11
One
The present
He needed an attitude adjustment.
That thought flashed through Chase Westmoreland’s mind as he turned the corner to pull into his restaurant’s parking lot. Six months of abstinence, he concluded, had to be the reason he’d been in such a bad mood lately.
It had nothing to do with the fact that in the last three years, all of his four brothers and his baby sister had gotten married. Even his cousin Jared, the die-hard bachelor and divorce lawyer, had recently fallen victim. Chase was sick and tired of varied family members looking at him with a knowing smile on their lips. If they were waiting for him to be next, then they had a long wait ahead of them.
And it didn’t help matters that his brothers were cocky enough to say he would change his mind when the right woman came along. His comeback to them had been quick and confident. The “right woman” didn’t exist.
“What the hell!” He brought his car to a sudden stop in the middle of the parking lot outside his restaurant, which was buzzing with activity. He had forgotten that someone had purchased the building a few doors from Chase’s Place. From the way things looked, they were moving in.
He had received notice a few weeks ago that he would have a new neighbor.
He wasn’t surprised. Atlanta was a city of international renown that had managed to hold on to its southern charm. And the downtown section where his restaurant was located with its charming neighborhoods, tree-shaded streets and friendly communities, made it a prime area for doing business. If he remembered correctly, someone would be opening a confectionery.
When he’d first heard about it, the news had brought out his cravings for chocolate, but now seeing the mass of confusion surrounding him all thoughts of sweets suddenly turned sour.
Moving trucks were everywhere and taking up parking spaces his customers would need. It was barely six in the morning and he had a huge breakfast crowd. The last thing he needed was someone messing with the availability of parking. It was a good thing he had a reserved spot in front of his restaurant, or there wouldn’t be any space left even for him.
He sat in his car, forcing himself to breath calmly as a truck blocked him in. This was Monday, not a good day for his patience to be tested. He was just about to hit his horn when a woman walking out of the building caught his attention. For a moment he forgot his anger. Hell, he even forgot to breathe.
As she talked to the driver of the truck blocking his path, he looked her up and down. She was a prime specimen of a woman. She was dressed in a short baker’s smock, and he hoped she had on a pair of shorts since a good gust of wind would show him and anyone else what may or may not be underneath. A smile drifted over his lips. Even with the smock he could tell she had one helluva figure. And when his gaze lit on her face…
His skin suddenly felt overheated as he looked into a medium brown face too beautiful for words. She had a pair of honey-brown eyes and full, moist lips covered in what looked like juicy red strawberry lip gloss. He wanted to get out of his car, walk over to her and kiss the coloring right off her lips. Then there was her hair, a mass of dark-brown curls that tumbled over her shoulders. For the first time in quite a while Chase found himself physically affected by a beautiful woman.
That thought made him take a deep breath and he forced himself to pull back. He was a thirty-four-year-old hot-blooded male and there was nothing wrong with responding to visual stimuli. But he couldn’t let a great pair of legs and a gorgeous face scatter his wits. All he had to do was remember his last year at Duke University and Iris Nelson. Thinking of Iris made warning bells go off…the sound of reason.
Sighing deeply, he let his gaze drift over her once more before backing up his car and moving around the truck. He sighed, glad he was breathing again. As soon as he got inside his restaurant he would drink a strong cup of black coffee.
Chase only wished he hadn’t noticed the absence of a wedding ring on the woman’s finger, making him happier than it ought to.
Jessica Claiborne smiled as she looked around her shop. After moving in she was already set for the shop’s grand opening tomorrow morning. She had spent the day doing last-minute checks on inventory and confirming arrangement for deliveries. She had hired two high-school students to pass out flyers about the shop around the community. Since she intended for all of her products to be baked fresh daily, she had made a call to the children’s hospital and offered to donate any treats she didn’t sell tomorrow. Also, she had signed contracts with a couple of the hotels around town to supply their restaurants and coffeeshops with baked goods.
She glanced out the window. It was a beautiful day in early October. The movers had gotten everything set up on Monday and the artist she’d hired had come that morning to paint her shop’s name on the display window. Delicious Cravings was the name she had decided on, and she would be forever thankful to her grandmother for making her dream come true.
Sadness settled in Jessica’s heart whenever she thought about the grandmother she had simply adored and the inheritance she’d been left when her grandmother had died last year on Jessica’s twenty-fifth birthday. The money had made it possible to walk away from her stressful job as a corporate attorney in Sacramento and pursue her dream of owning and operating her own confectionery.
She sniffed the air, enjoying the smell of chocolate cooking. Already today she had made a batch of assorted pastries including éclairs and tarts. But what she had enjoyed more than anything was whipping up chocolate nut clusters and an assortment of cookies for her neighbors as an apology for inconveniencing them during her move.
Mrs. Morrison who owned the seamstress shop next door had accepted her apology but declined her treats since she was allergic to chocolate but had said she would love to try her shortcake. The Criswell brothers, who owned the karate school, had accepted her gift and apology graciously, welcomed her to the strip and said they looked forward to patronizing her shop. The only person left was the owner of Chase’s Place. Jessica hoped the restaurateur was just as understanding as Mrs. Morrison and the Criswell brothers had been and that he had a sweet tooth.
Grabbing the box she had filled with sweet treats, she walked out the door and locked it behind her. She had hired a part-time helper, an elderly woman who would come in during the busy lunchtime hours.
It was early afternoon but she could tell the restaurant was packed and hoped the business would eventually trickle over to her once people realized she was open. Before she got within ten feet of the restaurant she could smell the mouth-watering food and realized she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.
She walked into Chase’s Place, immediately liking what she saw. It was a very upscale restaurant that somehow maintained a homey atmosphere. Lanterns adorned each table and the tablecloths matched curtains that hung in the windows. There was a huge counter with bar stools and soft jazzy music coming from a speaker located somewhere in the back.
“Welcome to Chase’s Place, where you’re guaranteed to get the finest in soul food. Are you dining in or carrying out?”
Jessica smiled at the young woman who greeted her. “I’m the owner of the new confectionery a few doors down and wanted to bring the owner a gift for any inconvenience he might have encountered while I was moving in.”
The woman nodded. “That would be Chase and he’s in his office. If you follow me I’ll show you the way.”
“Thanks.”
Jessica followed the woman down a hall that led to the back of the restaurant. Everything looked tidy, even the storage room they passed. The hostess knocked when they reached the office door. “Who is it?” a deep, husky voice called out.
“It’s Donna. Someone is here to see you.”
“Hell, I’m surprised anyone can get through with all that chaos that’s been going on in the parking lot. I have a good mind to go over there and give my inconsiderate new neighbor a piece of my mind for all the problems she’s caused me the last couple of days. I couldn’t get my own deliveries through for—”
Chase stopped talking when his door swung open and the woman he had checked out Monday morning walked into his office past a speechless Donna. “I guess I’ve saved you a trip. I would think, considering the circumstances, you would have been just as understanding as my other neighbors and…”
Whatever the woman was saying Chase had stopped listening mere seconds after she walked into his office. Heat flared through all parts of his body and his full concentration centered on the shorts and tank top she was wearing.
Up close her legs were more of a turn-on than they had been on Monday morning. He blinked. The closer she got, the better she looked, especially those moist strawberry lips. She was angry…sexy as hell.
In addition to the honey-brown eyes and curly dark hair that tumbled around her face, she possessed perfect cheekbones and a cute perky nose. He couldn’t help noticing that the mouth that was moving was beautifully shaped and ready to be kissed.
“And I hope you choke on these!”
He was jolted from his lust-filled thoughts when a box was suddenly shoved against his chest. It took only a split second for him to realize his visitor was leaving. When the door slammed shut, he looked at Donna, ignored the silly smirk on her face and asked, “What the hell did she say?”
He watched Donna’s try to hide a laugh. “I think, boss, that you’ve been thoroughly told off. I can’t believe you weren’t listening.”
No, he hadn’t been listening. He looked down at the box.
“That was supposed to be a peace offering,” Donna explained. “She came to apologize for the inconvenience over the past couple of days. I think that was downright neighborly of her. I guess she hoped you’d be more understanding of the chaos she caused while moving in.”
Chase nodded, suddenly filled with regret that he hadn’t been more understanding. But he’d been in a foul mood for the past week and had wrongly directed his anger at her. She was a woman after all, and a woman, or actually the lack of one, was the root of his problem.
Granted he wasn’t the ladies’ man his twin brother Storm had been, but usually he could pull out his little phone book and contact any number of women, who, like him, were more interested in getting down than getting married. But for some reason doing so didn’t suit him. The last woman he dated had read more into the relationship and he’d had one hell of a time convincing her that bedding her didn’t mean he’d be wedding her. He wasn’t into serious relationships of any kind and had told her that in the beginning. Evidently somewhere along the way she’d forgotten.
He dragged a weary hand down his face. Some women saw the single Westmoreland men as challenges. His brother Storm’s philosophy—before his wife Jayla had entered his life—had been that he enjoyed women too much to settle down with just one. Chase believed in learning from his mistakes, and his biggest one had been a woman by the name of Iris Nelson.
While in college at Duke, he had seemed headed for a pro basketball career when an injury had ended his dreams. He’d found himself facing an endless future when Iris, the girl he had fallen in love with, decided that with no chance at the pros he was no longer a good prospect.
Over the years he’d become wary of opportunistic women who only entered relationships to find out what was in it for them, and when the going got tough, they got going. Making women secondary in his life was the best way to eliminate the chance of a repeat heartbreak.
“So what are you going to do?” Donna asked, interrupting his thoughts.
He didn’t have a clue. One thing was certain, he owed his new neighbor an apology. “Tell Kevin to prepare a today’s special to go and be generous with the servings.”
Chuckling, Donna nodded. “You think you’ll find her soft spot with food?”
He looked down at the box he held in his hand and inhaled the aroma of chocolate. “Wasn’t that her game plan?”
Donna gave him a long look before slowly shaking her head and closing the door behind her as she left.
Chase placed the box on his desk. The top was marked Delicious Cravings. He thought of how she’d looked Monday morning when he had first seen her and just moments ago standing in the middle of his office. The name was definitely appropriate.
He opened the box and immediately fell in love—with the sweets. Yes, he definitely owed the woman an apology and before the evening ended he would make sure she got one.
That man had a bad attitude!
Jessica took a deep breath, refusing to get any more upset than she already was. How dare he say she was inconsiderate? She was one of the most considerate people she knew. It was one of the reasons she had walked away from her high-paying job as a corporate attorney.
She had gotten fed up with having to fight for things she didn’t believe in, pushing policies that ruined people’s lives, being forced to put corporate profits before the consumers’ best interests.
And her consideration for her family’s wishes was the only thing pushing her to seek out members of the Westmoreland family to right a wrong made against her family years ago. The nerve of them thinking her grandfather had been a dishonest man! He had been one of the most honest men she knew and if it was left up to her, she would give the Westmorelands a good piece of her mind and tell them just what she thought of their accusations. But before taking her final breath her grandmother had made her promise to come to Atlanta to clear the Graham name without starting World War III, and she intended to do that. After doing research on the area, she decided Atlanta would be a good place to live and not just visit. And so she had made the decision to relocate to the area.
She sighed as her thoughts drifted back to the owner of Chase’s Place. He had reminded her of dark chocolate of the richest kind and she knew one of the reasons she had gone off on him the way she had was that she couldn’t afford to get caught up in his sheer beauty. Even with his horrible attitude she had to admit that he was handsome as sin. Taller and well-built, his features took her breath away. He had reminded her that she was a woman, something she often tried to forget.
The last thing she needed was to get attracted to a man. She refused to get so carried away that she forgot how deceitful they were. She had learned her lesson even if her mother never had. Jeff Claiborne may have been the man who had fathered her, but he was also the man who had kept her mother dangling on a string for over fifteen years with promises of marriage. When Jessica had been born he had given her his name, but her mother’s last name had remained Graham.
It had taken her grandfather’s paid investigator to deliver the news that there was no way Jeff Claiborne could ever marry Janice Graham. He was already married to another woman and had a family living in Philadelphia. The news had been a terrible blow to her mother—one that she had never recovered from. She took her own life rather that live with the heartache and pain.
At the age of fifteen Jessica had watched as her mother’s coffin was lowered into the ground and had vowed never to give her heart to any man. She wouldn’t be fooled by a man as deceitful as her father had been, one man who could take undying love and abuse it in the worst possible way.
Her grandfather, angry and hurt over what Jeff Claiborne had done, had made sure the man didn’t get away unscathed. He had paid a visit to Jeff Claiborne’s wife and had presented her with documented proof of her husband’s duplicity. Jennifer Claiborne, a good woman, hadn’t wasted any time filing for a divorce and leaving her husband of eighteen years. And Jennifer had gone one step further by welcoming Jessica into her family, making sure she got to know her sister and brother, and making sure Jeff Claiborne contributed to her support. She knew Jennifer had been instrumental in helping to set up the college fund that had been available when she had graduated from high school.
Savannah and Rico were as close to her as any brother and sister could be. And Jennifer was like a second mother to her. She’d known she could always go visit her extended family in Philadelphia.
Jessica heard a knock at the door and frowned. Dusk was settling in but she could plainly see through her display window that her unexpected visitor was the man from the restaurant.
She had a good mind to ignore him. For the last couple of weeks since moving to Atlanta she had begun thinking she had finally found peace, but now he was convincing her otherwise.
She heard his knock again and decided that she wouldn’t hide. Like everything else in life she would deal with her problems, and in this case, her problem was him. He had sought her out and she supposed she needed to make nice because she’d be seeing him a lot. This building was not only the place she would work but thanks to space above the shop, it was also her new home.
Deciding she had let him linger long enough, she made her way to the door and unlocked it. She took a deep breath before opening it. “What do you want?”
He had been standing with his back to her, looking up at the sky. The day had been beautiful but it seemed that tonight it would rain. He turned around and as soon as their gazes locked she felt the temperature go up about one hundred degrees.
He still reminded her of rich dark chocolate rum balls but now something else had been added to the mixture, she thought, as her gaze moved from the baseball cap on his head to the features in his face. A slight indention in the bridge of his nose indicated it may have been broken at one time but she didn’t even consider that a flaw. Nothing, and she meant nothing, distracted from this man’s good looks.
Jeeze. That wasn’t a good sign.
And to make matters worse, his smile was so potent that she was forced to grip the doorknob to support her suddenly wobbly knees. Forcing her eyes away from that smile, she met his gaze once more and it angered her that he had this kind of effect on her. “I repeat, what do you want?” she all but snapped.
His grin widened. He was either oblivious to her less-than-friendly mood or else he chose to ignore it. “I came to apologize and to deliver a peace offering,” he said, widening that killer smile even more and holding up a bag that smelled of delicious food.
“I was out of line earlier,” he said. “And I do understand how it is moving in. The only excuse I can give for my behavior is that this has been one hell of a week. But my problems are not your fault.”
His apology surprised her, but it didn’t captivate her as he had evidently assumed it would. Long ago she had learned to be cautious of smooth-talking men.
“Will you accept my apology?”
She jutted her chin. “Why should I?”
“Because it will prove that you’re a much nicer person than I am and someone with a forgiving spirit.”
Jessica leaned against the doorjamb, thinking that she was definitely a much nicer person than he, but she wasn’t all that sure about having a forgiving spirit. She inhaled deeply, deciding she didn’t want to accept his apology. She didn’t like the chemistry she felt flowing between them and she also decided she didn’t like him. She knew it all sounded irrational, but at the moment she didn’t care. “There are a lot of things I can overlook, but rudeness isn’t one of them.”
Chase lifted a brow and frowned. “So you aren’t going to accept my apology?”
She glared at him. “At the moment, no.”
His frown deepened as he peered down at her. “Why?”
“Because I don’t feel like it. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to—”
He held up a hand, cutting her off. “Because you don’t feel like it?”
“That’s what I said.”
Chase felt frustration take over his body. He had dealt with many unreasonable people, but this woman gave new meaning to the word. Yes, he had been rude. But he had apologized, hadn’t he?
“Look,” he said slowly, while trying to overlook the irritation plastered on her face. “I know things got off to a bad start between us, and for that I apologize. And you’re right. I was rude, but now you’re the one who is being unreasonable.”
Jessica sighed deeply. The dark-brown eyes focused on hers were intense, sharp, and to-die-for, but still…
“But still nothing, Jessica Lynn,” she could hear her grandmother saying in the recesses of her mind. “You can’t judge every man by your father. You can’t continue to put up this brick wall against any man who gets too close.”
Sighing again, she smoothed a hand down her face. Her grandmother was right but the need to protect herself had always been elemental. For some reason she had an inkling that the man standing before her was someone she should avoid at all costs.
“Please accept my peace offering as I did yours, okay?” Chase asked, interrupting her thoughts. “By the way, everything was delicious, especially the chocolate chip cookies. They’re my favorite and I haven’t tasted chocolate chip cookies that delicious in years. They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious.” He slanted her a smile. “And I didn’t choke on any of them.”
“Too bad,” she said dryly. Their gazes held for a moment, and she knew she was a puzzle he was trying to figure out. No doubt other women didn’t cause him any trouble. He probably flashed his smile and got whatever he wanted. Just like her father.
She wrapped her arms around herself knowing he didn’t intend to leave until she accepted his apology. “Okay, I accept your apology. Goodbye.”
He grabbed the door before she could slam it shut in his face. He held up the bag and smiled. “And the peace offering?”
She snorted a breath. “And the peace offering,” she said reaching for the bag.
Chase chuckled. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” Instead of giving her the bag he held his hand out to her. “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Chase Westmoreland. And you are?” he asked taking her hand.
Jessica knew if she had a lighter skin tone he would have seen all the blood drain from her face. “Westmoreland?”
He grinned. “Yes, does the name ring a bell? There’s a bunch of us living in Atlanta.”
Deciding she wasn’t ready to tell him just how familiar it was, she shook her head. “No, I recently moved here from California.”
He nodded and after a few moments he said smiling, “You never told me your name.”
She blinked, recalling that she hadn’t. “I’m Jessica Claiborne.”
His smile widened. “Welcome to Atlanta, Jessica. Do you have family here?”
“No,” she answered truthfully, “I have no family living here.” Her head was still spinning at the realization that he was a Westmoreland.
There was a bit of silence between them when Chase remembered the bag he was holding. “Oops, I almost forgot. Here you go,” he said handing the bag to Jessica. “It’s today’s special. I hope you enjoy it.”
“Thanks.”
He hesitated for a moment then said, “I guess I’d better get back. The dinner crowd is arriving. Will you be living upstairs?”
“Yes,” she said, gripping the bag in both hands. She needed to get away from him to think.
“Well, every once in a while if it’s a late night, I sleep over my place, too. If you ever need anything, just let me know.”
Don’t hold your breath, Jessica thought, closing the door on temptation.
