True Love Read online

  “Is it too much to hope for that we’re about to land?”

  Shayla opened her eyes and tilted her head sideways to glance at Trent, who was looking at her with sleepy but hopeful eyes. She gave him a rather rueful amused look. “Sorry, we’re still about six to seven hours away. You may want to go back to sleep.”

  He smiled over at her. “I think I will, Ms. Kirkland.” Then he closed his eyes.

  Happiness slid through Nicholas when he pulled his car into the driveway and saw his mother, Angeline Chenault, on her knees tending her rose garden. He thanked God every time he saw her. Last year he had come very close to losing her when she had developed a brain tumor. On the same day she had sat him down to tell him about her medical condition she had also told him that he had a brother—a brother he hadn’t known existed.

  She had been married at seventeen to a man she had thought she loved, only to discover she had made a mistake marrying so young. A pregnancy soon after the marriage had complicated things, and six weeks after the child was born Angeline had asked her husband for a divorce, given him full custody of their child, and left both husband and child behind in North Carolina to pursue her dreams.

  She had worked in Atlanta for a couple of years before deciding to move to Miami. While she and a girlfriend made a stop in Jacksonville on their way to Miami she’d been fortunate enough to meet Alan Chenault. They had married, and a couple of years later Nicholas had been born.

  Nicholas had not known about his mother’s other life before she had met his father, and he sure hadn’t known that the world-famous movie actor Sterling Hamilton was the son his mother had turned her back on years ago. But Sterling had known, and he’d grown up bitter that Angeline could so easily replace the life she had shared with him and his father, wiping both of them from her memory, and start a new life that included another husband and son.

  After asking Sterling for forgiveness last year—for the actions of a confused young woman who at the age of seventeen had thought that fame and fortune were everything—Angeline and Sterling were working very hard to build the relationship they’d never had. Nicholas was enjoying the fact that he had an older brother. Even more important, Sterling had become a good friend.

  When Nicholas got out of the car he saw his mother had stood, and was smiling brilliantly at him. He smiled back. From the time he could remember, he and his parents had had a very close relationship, and he’d thought that he’d known his mother better than anyone. That was why it had been hard for him to believe what she’d told him about turning her back on her first husband and son. The person who had done such a thing could not be the warm, caring, loving woman he knew as his mom. But, as she had explained to him, she’d been young and naive and had believed that money was everything, and she had been willing to sacrifice the love of a good man and her child to search for it.

  But all that was in the past, and she had lived regretting her mistakes. His father had known the truth about her past, and had loved her with all his heart, anyway. Since she’d become his wife her values had changed, and she was an exceptional wife to him and a wonderful mother to their only child.

  “Welcome home, Nicky,” Angeline said, taking off her work gloves and placing them in a basket on the ground.

  Nicholas shook his head. His mother was the only one still brave enough to call him by his childhood nickname. He walked over to her and gave her a huge hug. “It’s good to be home, Mom.”

  After the hug Nicholas looked down at her. Even disheveled, dressed in an oversize workshirt and pair of frayed shorts, his mother was a fine-looking woman. She carried her age well, and didn’t look a day over fifty. And she sure didn’t look like a woman who had two sons in their thirties and a granddaughter a little over a month old.

  Angeline took Nicholas’s large hand in her smaller one and led him into the house. “Come on in and join me in a cup of coffee. I want to hear all about your trip to China. I also want you to tell me about the fire in the lab last night.”

  “So you heard about it?”

  “It was in this morning’s paper. Was there much damage?”

  Nicholas sat at the table while his mother went about pulling mugs out of a kitchen cabinet. “It’s not as bad as it could have been. I won’t know if the fire was deliberately set until the fire department finishes their investigation.”

  Angeline’s expressive face mirrored her doubts. “Do you really think that was the case?”

  “I don’t know what to think, Mom, but you know Paul. He’s willing to let the fire department and the insurance people come up with their own ideas, but he definitely has thoughts of Jordache being involved.”

  “Do you think he is?”

  Nicholas accepted the mug of coffee his mother handed him. It smelled delicious. “I don’t want to. Trent really believes his father has changed and intends to keep his promise and not cause Chenault Electronics any more problems. But still—”

  “You can’t let your guard down, right?”

  Nicholas’s smile widened. “Right.” A frown settled on his face. “I just wish I knew the entire story of what brought on this bad blood between Dad and Jordache in the first place.”

  Angeline came and sat down at the table across from her son. “It happened a few years before I met your father, and he never divulged the full story to me.” Deciding to change the subject, his mother took a sip of her coffee before asking, “So, how was Hong Kong?”

  “Hong Kong was fine, and we were able to close out the Ling Deal.”

  “Oh, Nicky, that’s wonderful. I’m glad to hear that. You must be pleased about it.”

  “Yes, I am. The negotiations were rough going for a while, but then a new employee of mine, Shayla Kirkland, saved the day. She was something else.”

  Something in Nicholas’s tone caught his mother’s attention and piqued her interest. “Really? Tell me about her.”

  Nicholas looked into the coffee mug, thinking of what he could say to his mother about Shayla. There was so much to tell. “She’s smart, intelligent, and used to manage the Business Department at Howard University. She came to work for us a week ago. She speaks four languages, and, with an MBA from Harvard, she has a great sense of business. I think she’ll be an asset to the company. Even Paul thinks highly of her.” He couldn’t tell his mother that he also thought highly of her, but for other reasons—she was beautiful, sensuous, and he had enjoyed making love to her. The bottom line was that Shayla Kirkland had gotten to him in a way no other woman had, and truthfully, that scared him. Now that there was distance between them and he had reclaimed his space, he needed to think things through. He had actually slept with one of his employees, something he’d never done. He needed to get his mind back on track and put things between him and Shayla back into perspective.

  “Will I get the chance to meet her, Nicky?”

  Nicholas shook his head. “I doubt it. She works out of the Chicago office. I see no reason for her to ever visit my office here. Besides, there’s no reason why you would ever have to meet her.”

  Angeline nodded. Her son was saying one thing, but the wistful look in his eyes while he’d been discussing Shayla Kirkland had hinted at something else. Angeline decided to change the subject, for now. “Sterling and Colby have sent more pictures of Chandler. Do you want to see them? She’s getting bigger every day.”

  Nicholas smiled. “Yes, I’d love to.”

  When his mother left the kitchen to get the pictures, Nicholas stood and walked over to the window and looked out. He was missing Shayla something fierce, and—although he was fighting thinking about her—he was doing so, anyway. Her plane should be arriving in Chicago about now. He had told her he would call her, and he’d intended to, but now he knew that wouldn’t be wise. The attraction that had developed between them had been a mistake from the start. He had been thinking more with a certain part of his body—the one below the belt—than with his head, and that was what he had acted on. It had taken something like the f
ire at the lab to reel him back in. He didn’t have time to let his mind wander, to allow his body to start constant cravings. He had gotten caught up in the moment. Chances were that Shayla, like him, was also regretting what had happened in Hong Kong.

  Nicholas turned away from the window when his mother returned carrying a large envelope filled with photographs. Somehow he would get Shayla out of his mind, and when he did see her again he would be able to deal with it.

  “Are you sure you don’t need a ride?”

  Shayla smiled up at Trent. “I’m positive. My aunt is picking me up, but thanks for asking, anyway.”

  “No problem. Nick would have my hide if he thought I’d left you stranded.” Trent reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a business card. “Pass this on to that Realtor friend of yours.”

  Shayla accepted the card. “Thanks, and I will.”

  “Well, take care, and when you do talk to Nick ask him to call me.”

  “Okay.”

  “I hope to see you around.”

  “Same here.”

  Trent turned to leave, and Shayla watched him until he got lost in the crowd of people rushing across the terminal.

  “Who was that?”

  Shayla turned, hearing her aunt’s voice. She hadn’t heard her approach. She dropped her carry-on and gave her aunt a hug, glad to see her. “That was Trent Jordache…my half brother.”

  Shayla watched the expression on her aunt’s face turn into one of total shock. “Come on, Aunt Callie, let’s get out of here. I’ll tell you everything in the car.”

  Chapter 13

  “So what do you plan to do now?”

  Frowning, Shayla briefly mulled over her aunt’s question before finally answering, “There’s only one thing I can do, and that’s to quit. I’ll turn in my two weeks’ notice when I go into the office on Wednesday.”

  Callie looked over at her niece, who was sitting across from her on the sofa. Shayla’s shoulders were hunched slightly forward, her gaze was pinned to the floor, and the expression on her face was one of abject misery. But it was the sadness she saw in her eyes that bothered Callie more than anything. There was no doubt in her mind that there was more to Nicholas Chenault than Shayla was saying, and that he meant more than she was admitting.

  She watched her for a moment, thinking about another young woman who’d once had that same look of sadness in her eyes over a man. A part of Callie didn’t want to see Shayla make the same mistake.

  “And then there’s Paul.”

  Callie shot her niece a quick look. “Paul?”

  “Yes, Paul Dunlap, Nicholas’s top security man. He worked for Chenault long before Nicholas was born, so he had to have been there when Mom worked there. A couple of times I saw him looking at me oddly. Do you think he made the connection between me and Mama?”

  Callie thought long and hard as she studied Shayla’s face, carefully examining her features. She had a resemblance to her mother, but not so much that anyone would easily make a connection. After all, it had been over twenty-seven years. And in Callie’s opinion, she looked more like her father. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Good.”

  “What about Trent Jordache?”

  Shayla lifted her head and held a calm level gaze with her aunt. “A part of me wants to tell him, but then another part of me wants to forget that I’ve discovered we’re related. Trent being my brother makes the fact Thomas Jordache is my biological father that much more real. And I don’t want to deal with that man being connected to me in any way.”

  “People make mistakes, and they do change, Shayla.”

  “He hasn’t changed if he’s the one responsible for that fire at Nicholas’s lab.”

  “People are also innocent until proven guilty.”

  The frown on Shayla’s face deepened, and she lifted her chin a notch. “Why are you coming to that man’s defense?”

  “For the same reason I didn’t want you involved with Chenault Electronics in the first place. You don’t know the full story of what happened twenty-seven years ago, and you don’t know the full story of what’s happening now. I think you’ll do everyone an injustice if you assume anything.”

  Shayla nodded. “That’s why I’m turning in my resignation. There’s no way I can work there now.”

  “I think you should rethink that decision.”

  Shayla was startled by her aunt’s suggestion. “But why?”

  “Because, although you haven’t admitted it to me and possibly not even to yourself, I think that you care a great deal for Nicholas Chenault.” She stood and crossed the room and sat down next to her niece. “I think I can even go so far as to say you’ve fallen in love with him.”

  Callie held up her hand when Shayla started to interrupt her. “Don’t bother denying it, especially to me. I don’t know what happened between you and Nicholas Chenault in Hong Kong, and maybe it’s for the best that I don’t know, but what’s important is how you feel for him inside, here,” she said, placing the same hand over her heart.

  Shayla gazed lovingly at her aunt, wondering if she’d ever been in love. For as long as she could remember, her aunt had never been involved in a serious relationship, although she was sure numerous men had been interested. Callie Foster was too good-looking for men not to have been. She did speak like a woman who had experienced love at some point in her life.

  The look in Shayla’s eyes turned soft, curious. She thought about what her aunt had just said. She didn’t have to wonder if she was in love with Nicholas. She knew that she was. “What if everything’s one-sided?” she asked her aunt quietly. “What if Nicholas was just caught up in being happy about things working out the way he’d wanted regarding the Ling Deal? What if what he felt was nothing but a case of lust and nothing more, and what if—”

  “And what if,” Callie interrupted, “he left Hong Kong caring as deeply for you as you care for him? Don’t you think you’d want to know the truth?”

  “The truth…” Shayla’s voice trailed off with those words. A thick lump formed in her throat. “How can I expect the truth when my working at Chenault Electronics has been a lie from the very beginning? I only went to work there to destroy the company.”

  “Then at some point you’ll have to be completely honest with Nicholas, tell him everything. And if he loves you he’ll understand.”

  Shayla rose and walked over to the window and looked out. She knew what her aunt had just said was the truth. At some point in time she would have to tell Nicholas everything, and hope he understood.

  Callie came and stood beside her. “I suggest you put everything out of your mind for a while and get some rest. You have too many issues to deal with, and you don’t have to tackle everything all at once.”

  She put her arms around Shayla’s shoulders. “Go on and take your shower and get into bed. When you wake up you’ll feel better.”

  Shayla nodded, but she knew it would take more than a shower and a few hours of sleep to make her feel better.

  It was close to midnight when Nicholas shut the door behind him, thinking how good it was to be back home. This was his place. His space. And he shared it with no one. He wanted to take a shower, but was too keyed up to do it right then.

  After he left his mother’s home he had gone back to the office to see if Elliott had any news for him. He had. Just as was suspected—arson. Someone had deliberately set fire to the lab. Traces of kerosene were found in one corner of the room near a window.

  Nicholas inhaled deeply, wishing for something stronger to drink than the can of beer in the refrigerator. Better still, he felt the need to slam his fist into a wall. It was a good thing the phone rang right then. He picked it up. “Yeah?”

  “Nick? This is Trent. You okay?”

  With a heavy sigh Nicholas sat down on the edge of his desk. “I’m just fine and dandy, for someone who discovered that someone tried to burn him out.”

  There was a pause. “You think my father had something
to do with it, don’t you?”

  Nicholas rubbed his palm against his forehead. “Considering his past track record, I’d be lying to you if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind, Trent. But I want to be fair.”

  “You always have, and I appreciate that, Nick.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not always easy where your old man is concerned.”

  Nicholas heard a slight chuckle. “I know that.”

  Nicholas frowned. “There’s going to be an investigation. Whatever the outcome, it’s out of my hands,” he said carefully.

  He heard Trent draw in a slow breath. “Yeah, I know.” There was another pause, then Trent asked, “Did Shayla give you my message?”

  The raw ache Nicholas had been battling all day intensified. “I haven’t talked to Shayla since I left Hong Kong.”

  “Oh?”

  “But you have?” Nicholas found himself almost snapping out the question.

  “Yes, we were on the same flight returning to the States. I managed to get a seat next to her.”

  For the second time a feeling of jealousy began to take root inside Nicholas, and that infuriated him as much as the thought of Trent and Shayla spending time together on the long flight. He was tempted to tell him to find a woman of his own, but stopped short. No woman had ever made him feel jealousy toward his best friend. He knew that Trent, like any man, would appreciate a beautiful woman. But he also knew his best friend could be trusted.

  “Nick?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why haven’t you talked to Shayla?”

  Nicholas’s frown deepened. “I’ve been busy.”