MISTAKEN - The Complete First Season (21 page)

T
he dinner party
was a smashing success. It was held in a ranch house outside of Des Moines by an older couple, Owen and Clara Jones. They were gracious hosts, and no one at the party seemed to mind at all that I had needed to step in for my father. We raised a lot of money for my father's campaign with no complaints at all that he wasn't there to accept it. People seemed to want to be around me. I knew on some level it was the Hennessey thing, the thing I had never thought about. It was hard for me to believe that people wanted to be around me for
me.
Not for my father. For me. I was something I hadn't ever experienced, or at least hadn’t allowed myself to experience.

I was thankful that everyone that night had been so agreeable, and most of all, thankful that I hadn't had to see Will. The more I thought about him, the more sour my stomach felt. Just thinking about him made my mouth taste like stale vomit. I knew there was no way I was marrying him, but I didn't have time to think about that now. There were more pressing matters at hand.

I returned to my hotel room, exhausted from the long day. The last thing I wanted to do was track down an email address or phone number for Daniel. I tried to talk myself into giving it another night. Instead, I opted to open the envelope that I was sure was from him. I knew it was the right thing to do.

I pulled the white note from the bottom of my bag and held it in my hands for a few moments before tearing it open. I wasn't sure that I even wanted to read what it said.

It was typed, probably emailed or transcribed from overseas, so it wasn't as though I recognized his handwriting. Nothing about the letter made my heart melt. What the note said inside could have been another story.

It was an anniversary card. It threw me off for a moment, until I read the message.

Jenna, my love,

Today is the anniversary of the best day of my life so far. The day that I first met you. I remember seeing how your eyes sparkled in the sunlight that morning. I remember how I knew in that moment that I would spend the rest of my life with you.

You once made me the happiest man alive when you said you would marry me. There are no words to tell you the depths of my love for you.

I need to hear that you still feel that way for me. I need to know that I can have your heart again. I need to hear your voice, feel your body against mine. I need to hear you say that you love me, too.

I have so much more to say to you, my love. I know that I have hurt you. You need to know that everything I did, I did because of my love for you. I wish I could express in words how much you mean to me. I hope that the flowers show you even a small bit of what I feel for you, what I have felt for you since the moment I first saw you.

I love you, Jenna. Please be mine again.

Daniel

Shit. He had to be remembering that wrong—I was barely a teenager when we had first met. I did remember that I thought he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen at that tender age, even though he was far too old for me at the time. How he remembered the date was beyond me, but it did give me just a few butterflies. We did have something once, but it was more of a teenage fantasy of mine than anything else. And I wasn't a teenager anymore.

He had left his phone number at the bottom of the note. I took a deep breath and dialed the phone. It was late in Iowa, but that meant it was early in the day in Japan. The sound of the international ring was jarring and unusual, and I was afraid he wasn't going to pick up. I was just about to hang up when I heard his voice on the other end of the line.

"Jenna?" He must have known it was me from the phone number.

"Hi, Daniel." I pressed my lips together and tried not to let myself feel any sense of remorse at what I was about to do.

"God, baby, I'm so glad you finally called. You got the flowers, then?" The sound of hope in his voice almost killed me.

"I did. They're beautiful. I can't believe you remembered."

He blew out a humored sigh, almost a chuckle. "How could I forget? God, Jenna, I haven't forgotten anything."

"Me neither." My voice had a much more serious tone than his.

"We need to get you back over here. I know your dad is going through his campaign stuff, but I need to see you again. I need you to give me a chance here. When do you think you can come back?"

I gave my head a little shake. "I can't. I'm campaigning for him now, too. And…"

He cut me off. "Blow it off, Jenna. I need this.
We
need this."

I sat for a moment in silence. I tried to remember what Mel had told me. A clean break. Rip off the Band-Aid. "I can't, Daniel."

"I know you don't want to disappoint him, but I swear to God, if anyone would understand leaving for love, it's him."

I was taken aback. "What does that mean?"

He cleared his throat as though he'd said something he shouldn't have. "Nothing. Nothing. Just tell him you need to see me. He'll understand."

"I can't do that, Daniel. I just… I can't."

"Jenna, I know it's hard, getting away from your parents. Making that break. But this is something that you should do for yourself. And for us."

"It's more complicated than that, Daniel."

"It really isn't, Jenna. Just tell him you're going back to Osaka. I swear he'll understand. And God, baby, I need you here."

"He won't understand. He already promised me to someone else."

There was silence on the other end of the line. I pulled the phone away from my ear to check that I was still connected. I put the phone back up to my ear and there was still nothing. Just silence.

"Daniel?"

"Are you in love with him?"

"With Will Howard?" I don't think I could hide the disgust in my voice. "No, I'm not in love with him. But this was my father's idea."

"Your father's idea," he repeated. "Your father promised you to Will Howard. That's Dan Howard's little douche bag son, isn't it?"

My voice was flat. "He's not little. But yes, Senator Howard's son."

"Fuck." I heard him mutter again under his breath. "I didn't think he'd do that to me."

"To you? You think my father’s doing something to you? I'm the one that's supposed to marry the son of a bitch, and you think he's doing something to you?"

"You're right, I'm sorry. I… I don't have any right to say anything."

"You really don't," I agreed. "Look, Daniel, I didn't call you to announce my engagement."

"Good. So I still have a chance?" He had that hopeful tone again that made me cringe.

My heart fluttered in my chest. My voice was uneven. "There's someone else."

"Someone besides Will Howard?"

"Yes. I tried to tell you in Osaka." I chewed on my lip and waited for him to respond.

He was silent for another long moment. "Who is it?"

I took in a sharp breath. There was no way I could tell him that I was in love with his friend, with the man he had sent to lure me back to him. "It… it doesn't matter."

"I don't believe you." He went silent again.

"I'm sorry, Daniel. I am. I thought you were dead and I moved on. It took me a long time. A really long time, and when I saw you…"

He interrupted before I could finish the thought. "When I saw you, it was like I never left, Jenna. It was like I never even fucking left. I feel the same about you as I always have. I've always loved you, from the moment I met you and I always will. I can't believe you gave up on us."

My eyes widened. "What are you talking about? You were dead. You really wanted me to grieve for you for the rest of my life?"

"I wasn't dead, though."

"But how was I supposed to know that? You didn't do anything to tell me that. You let me think you were dead for over a year. You honestly would have wanted me to grieve forever?"

"Yes. Yes, I honestly did. I expected you to wait for me. Because I would have grieved for you forever."

"No. No, that isn't fair, Daniel. We both know that isn't true. I wouldn't have wanted that for you. I don't want that for you."

"So that's it? You're ending us over the phone?"

It was like I was in an alternate reality. He couldn't see things from my point of view at all. Not even a little. I didn't think he would have wanted me to grieve forever if he had actually died. What kind of person would want that? "Daniel, I don't think you're really thinking about this."

"Bullshit, baby. It's all I think about. It's all I've thought about for the last two years. How I'd win you back. How I'd get you over here and back in my arms.
You
are all I think about. I can't believe you don't feel the same way."

"Because you were dead. You were dead! Why can’t you understand that? Why won't you listen to me?"

"You listen to me, Jenna. I'm not dead. I never was dead. And even if I was, our love should have been enough."

I shook my head in disbelief. "I'm twenty-three years old. You wanted me to wait for you for the rest of my life? Until we were… what? Reunited in death?"

"Fuck." I heard him mutter under his breath again. "I'm not giving up on this. None of this was my idea. If your father…" He paused and I could tell he wanted to say more, but couldn't. "Damn it."

"I can't do it, Daniel. I'm in love with someone else." I clapped my hand over my mouth and my eyes widened in horror. Had I really just said that out loud?

His voice was too even, too measured. "Then tell me who it is."

"No." My body trembled and I knew he could hear the fear in my voice.

"Jenna, know how
deadly
serious I am when I say this." His accent on the
deadly
sent a chill of fear down my spine that I had never experienced before in my life. "I will find out who it is. And I will kill him."

A
chill
of terror ran up my spine. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked down at the lock screen. I put it back to my ear. “Daniel?”

There was no response.

I looked down at the screen again and saw that the line had gone dead. Daniel was threatening to kill anyone who came near me. I wasn’t sure how much power he had, but I also didn’t want to find out.

I stood from the bed and paced for a few minutes, wearing a track between the door and window of my small hotel room. I needed answers, and there was only one person who might give them to me.

I stopped pacing and sat down at the small desk in the corner of the room. I dialed the phone and waited to see if he would answer.

“Jen?” Brandon answered after the second ring, breathless. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I answered, even though I was sure I wasn’t. “Are you still in Iowa?” I hoped, prayed, he would say he was.

He was silent for a moment. “Is Krystal there?”

My brow furrowed in confusion. “In my room? No.”

He let out a little sigh of frustration. “No, is she
there
? At your hotel?”

I shook my head. “No. No, I don’t think so. She’s in D.C. today. She left this morning, I think.”

He was silent for another moment. “There’s a bar downstairs at your hotel.”

“Are you asking?”

“I’ll meet you there in about ten minutes. I’ll text you when I get there.”

“Okay.” I heard the line go dead and I knew he had hung up.

I walked over to the mirror in the small dressing area outside the bathroom. I had never really cared a whole lot about makeup, but I fixed my mascara and put on a little lip gloss. Just knowing that I was going to get to see him again that day sent a thrill through me that overtook any amount of fear I might have felt about Daniel.

I sat down again at the desk, picking idly at my thumb nail and trying to come up with what I was going to tell my security detail when I received the text. I didn’t have long to ponder because it wasn’t even ten minutes before he texted.

I’m here.

I didn’t know how he knew where I was and I didn’t really care. I opened my door and one of the guards was standing by, per usual.

He directed a nod to me. “Miss Davis.”

I looked him in the eye. He wasn’t my babysitter, after all. “I’m going downstairs to the bar.”

He gave me a small nod and followed me to the elevator. My floor was empty, and it occurred to me that my father’s campaign had probably booked all the rooms, at least on this floor. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought about it before.

I walked with purpose towards the almost empty bar and the guard said nothing. Brandon was sitting in the back of the darkened lounge, only a few tables from where Krystal and I had sat the night before. The scent of stale cigar smoke hung in the air.

I tried to calm the butterflies that always tended to fly every time I saw the man. Even seeing the back of his head, those silky black curls, sent my belly twisting into knots. I nodded at the guard when we passed the bar, letting him know without words that this was far enough. If I had known it was this easy to do what I wanted, I might have tried before. He stopped at the bar, taking a seat within visual range, but didn’t escort me to the table.

I smoothed my dress down and slid onto the bench across from him.

Goosebumps rose on my arms as I turned my head up to look at him. His blue eyes glanced at me over those damned sexy glasses that he seemed to wear whenever he wanted to drive me insane.

He pulled them off and put them in the breast pocket of his white, button-up dress shirt. “Sorry.” He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw line, a slow, wicked grin crossing his face.

“They drive me crazy.” My own delicious grin came to my lips.

“Not as crazy as I am for you.” He fingered the bottle of beer that was in front of him. “I need to apologize.”

The waitress from the night before arrived at the table. She recognized me at once. “How are you, Miss Jenna? You want your usual?” The woman grinned down at me.

I returned her smile. “No, I’ll have a Long Island, thanks.”

Brandon looked up at her. “She’ll have a white wine.” He looked across the table at me with an almost admonishing look.

I shot daggers back at him with my gaze. “I’ll take a Long Island.”

The woman stood over us, her eyes darting between us like a tennis match. “Okay.” She drew out the word in a long sigh. “Long Island for the lady. Another beer for you, sir?”

He grunted his response and the waitress left the table.

I leaned across the table, my voice lowered. “I’m almost twenty-four years old, Brandon. I can order my own drinks.”

He leaned toward me, almost close enough to plant a kiss on me if he wanted to. His voice lowered to match mine. “I know. I’m sorry.” He leaned back in his chair, his voice back to a normal range. “I don’t want you to think you owe me anything.”

I leaned back myself, pressing my hands across the smooth leather of the bench. “I don’t.”

His eyes narrowed a bit. “I’m not trying to seduce you.”

I returned the look. “I know.”

He nodded and leaned closer to me. “About today…”

The waitress returned with our drinks and set them on the table. “Anything else for either of you?” I shook my head and the woman winked at me. “You’ve got your hands full with this one.” She motioned with a tilt of her head toward Brandon.

I lifted an eyebrow in agreement and she walked back behind the bar. I looked across Brandon’s shoulder to make sure my guard was still out of earshot. “What about today?”

I could see that he was bouncing his knee. His fingers drummed on the table and he leaned in toward me again, lowering his voice. “Look, I’m sorry. It was reckless.” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have put you in that situation. I wasn’t planning on, you know,
that
.”

He was referring to our romp in the office, of course. “I’m not sorry.” I directed my stare right into his, unapologetic.

He pressed his lips together, nodding. He leaned toward me again, his voice lowering even more. “I know we haven’t really talked about this, Jen.” He fluttered his eyes, then opened them to look at me. “If you were to get pregnant…”

I waved my hand in front of me, dismissing his concerns. I leaned toward him and lowered my own voice to a whisper. “I’m on the pill, Brandon. I have been since I was a teenager.” I motioned to my face. “Acne.”

His shoulders dropped and he leaned back in his chair. He let out a long sigh, obviously relieved.

My face fell a little. That was what he had been so concerned about? That I might get knocked up from our little tryst? It was nice that he cared, I supposed, but still. I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m glad you’re so relieved.”

He looked like I had just slapped him across the face. I saw the sting in his eyes. “Jen, it’s just…”

I waved my hand, dismissing the words again. “It’s fine.” My arms crossed in front of me again.

He folded his own arms across his chest, mirroring my own demeanor. “So I hear you talked to Daniel.”

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped open a little. “Seriously?”

He gave me a small shrug, then unfolded his arms to reach for his beer. He took a swig from the bottle. “That’s what I heard.”

“How?” I tilted my head, eager to hear an explanation.

He gave a small shrug again and pushed the bottle away from the edge of the table. “I’m guessing it’s pretty hard for you to have secrets.”

I lifted an eyebrow in response. This seemed like the first time in my life that I had ever really needed to have any.