The Princess and the Pauper (26 page)

One look and April felt old and out of date by comparison, though Bettina was several years older than herself. “Hello, Bettina,” she said through dry lips.

“April.” Jesse’s sister regarded her consideringly. Her coloring was different than Jesse and Jordan’s, but her resemblance to both of them was clear, especially around the eyes. “You wanted to see me?”

April suddenly realized that Bettina thought she was being called on to the carpet. Resentment was clear in the set of her mouth and the steely look in her gray eyes. Bettina expected to be next in line to receive her walking papers. “Well, yes, I did. But it’s not—” She waved a hand and sighed. “It’s nothing to do with your work.”

Bettina waited with a cool patience that frazzled April’s nerves
. I wish I could learn that trick
, she thought.

Drawing a long breath, April managed a crooked smile. “It’s about Jesse, I guess.”

“You guess?”

Something in her tone made April realized that Bettina knew a whole lot more about their relationship than she was letting on. “He’s told you about me, hasn’t he? About our relationship, whatever it is.” She laughed harshly.

“Are you sure you want to talk about this with me?” Bettina regarded her steadily.

“No, I’m not sure of anything. But I don’t know where Jesse lives! I can’t get in touch with him except at the police station. Jordan doesn’t know where he is.”

“You want me to tell you where Jesse lives?”

“I want you to tell me anything,” April admitted.

Bettina’s reserve thawed a bit. “He told me about Eden.”

“Did he? Did he also tell you how he threatened me for parental rights?”

“Mmm.” Bettina rubbed her nose. “That isn’t much of a surprise, is it?”

“And did he tell you that my father made a jackass out of himself last night?” April asked, a catch in her voice.

Bettina’s gaze was solemn. “I didn’t see Jesse last night. I haven’t seen him for a while, as a matter of fact.”

“Will you help me?” April asked, dropping all pretense. “Jordan thinks I’m better off without Jesse. My father’s in complete agreement. Maybe I am better off without him.”

“But you don’t believe that.”

“No,” she answered with more conviction than she truly felt.

Bettina sighed. “You know, all those years ago, Jesse wanted to hate you. There were a lot of reasons, none of them that really had to do with you. Jordan was making a fool of himself over Tasha Bennington, and there were… things that happened to me, too.”

“Stef Tamblin?”

Color swept over her sculpted cheeks. She wasn’t quite as cool as she looked, April concluded.

“Yes,” Bettina said dryly. “Stef Tamblin. Jesse felt we’d all gotten the shaft one way or another from the Windsor Estates brats.”

“But that was all prejudice on his part,” April declared. “And it’s all over now.”

“Do you know what he felt when he found out you’d never told him about Eden? It was just one more way to push him down. How would you have felt, April? To find someone you cared for had hidden something so important?”

“Someone he cared for.” April choked on a humorless laugh.
“He left me!
I wouldn’t have hidden it. I tried to find him, but he was gone. And then time passed, and I don’t know…”

She could sense Bettina coming around to her point of view, though she wouldn’t have been able to say how. It was a woman thing, an intuitive knowledge that she’d reached a part of Bettina on a feminine level.

“What exactly did your father say to Jesse?” Bettina questioned.

April’s heart was heavy. “It was a direct challenge.”

“How direct?”

“He said he’d crush him,” April admitted glumly.

“My God.” Bettina’s eyes widened in disbelief. She wagged her head to and fro.

“I know, I know.” April paced the length of the room. “I’ve been tearing myself apart all morning. I haven’t even talked to my father yet. Believe me, it’s not something I’m looking forward to.”

Bettina crossed to wear April stood, the heels of her elegant shoes leaving tiny tracks in the thick carpet. “I don’t mean to be the voice of doom, but can’t you see? It will never work out. Jesse’s not that forgiving.”

April’s hopes died a slow, painful death. She’d known even before she spoke to Bettina. Now she couldn’t meet the other woman’s gaze.

“I suppose if I had a child all to myself, it would be difficult to share,” Bettina said, apparently feeling her way. “But it might be simpler to let Jesse have what he wants. You don’t have to worry. He wouldn’t hurt your daughter. He just wants to know her.”

April was aghast. “I know he won’t hurt her!”

“Then…?”

She regarded Bettina miserably. No one understood. Not Jordan, nor Bettina, nor even Jesse –
especially
Jesse… She wanted so much more than for Jesse just to be a weekend father. She wanted Jesse. And she knew, though she hated to admit it, that she’d hoped Eden would be the bridge that brought them together. She hadn’t realized how closely she’d held that hope to her heart until Bettina shattered it.

“The necklace Jesse gave Eden is beautiful,” April managed to say, as Bettina, recognizing the conversation was over, headed for the door.

“Thank you.”

“You do excellent work. Hollis’s is lucky to have you.”

Bettina hesitated, seemed about to say something more, then shook her head, darting April a glance mixed with pity and sorrow. “Goodbye, April.”

April listened to her departing footsteps. She rubbed her cheeks with her hands, feeling numb. Gathering her courage, she walked back to her father’s office.

He was seated at his desk, reading one of the trade magazines. Hearing April’s approach, he glanced up, his stern lips breaking into a tentative smile. “Well, hello. I wasn’t certain you would be talking to me today.”

“I shouldn’t be. What you did last night was unforgivable. If I were Jesse, I would be furious.”

“I’m sure he is furious.” Her father was unperturbed. “But he has to know that he can’t interfere. A person like that must be told at the onset.”

April felt like she was staring at a stranger. “I left home because you made remarks like that about Jesse last time he was in my life. You can’t make those kind of judgments. ‘A person like that?’ You don’t even know him!”

He slammed down the magazine. “I know enough to recognize trouble when I see it. All he’s caused you is grief, April. He’ll do the same for Eden.”

“Eden is his daughter!”

“You’re twenty-eight years old. I would have thought you would have learned something by now. He’ll never be socially right for you.”

April stared at her father in dismay and disgust. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“I’ve waited for you to come to your senses. You defied me for years, and it was painful for both of us. It was pure hell. And now, just when we’ve found each other again, you’re letting a man like Cawthorne come between us.”

“A man like—” April choked, cutting herself off. “His name is Jesse!”

“Your sister married someone she can be happy with. You’ve wasted all this time, remembering one past indiscretion as something more important. Put it behind you, April.”

Suddenly she remembered the escalating fights they’d had when she’d told her father she was pregnant and that Jesse was the father. She could be eighteen all over again, being given a lecture on how to run her life. “I love Jesse,” she said steadily, admitting it aloud to him for the first time in years.

“How can you?” her father thundered, crashing his fist onto the desktop in frustration. “What is romantic love, anyway? A myth.”

April fixed him with angry, furious eyes. “I know what I feel.”

“I won’t have him as a son-in-law. Choose him, and you’re out of the family.”

There was a roaring in April’s ears. For the second time in her life her father was using his power against her – by pulling out the familial rug from beneath her feet.

“Then I’m out of the family,” she said hollowly, turning as if in a fog.

“Don’t be a fool, April. Do you know what that means? I’ll disinherit you. You won’t have anything.”

She would have laughed if she could have trusted herself not to cry. She didn’t have anything, anyway. She certainly didn’t have Jesse. “You accused Jesse of trying to insinuate his way into our family. Of being after
money!
I’d say you’re the one worried about financial status. Consider this my notice of resignation. I won’t be back.”

She crossed the threshold of his office before the first tears started to fall.

Chapter Thirteen

I
t was all well and good to stand on principle, but it didn’t put food on the table, April decided two weeks later as she was walking down a street in Old Town. Early May sunshine, unseasonably warm, fell onto her head and shoulders, forcing her to remove her jacket. Even the white silk of her blouse felt like a tremendous barrier, and she almost longed for one of the outrageous, strapless tops she could see slithering down the torsos of Touché’s window mannequins.

The kazoo announced her entrance and the girl with the short spiky hair – Martha, April remembered – grinned at her. “He’s in the back,” she said a jerk of one purple-lacquered thumbnail.

“Thanks.”

Jordan was dressed rather outrageous for himself: in shiny suit pants and a body hugging, black T-shirt. He was staring down at some ledgers, however, and April smiled at the incongruity.

“Have a seat, if you can find one,” he said, glancing up.

She chose an overturned box, smoothing her palms on her skirt. She cleared her throat, uncertain how to begin, but Jordan snapped the ledger shut and took the initiative.

“So you want a job, huh?” He smiled.

“You’re a prince to even consider me,” April admitted humbly.

“Don’t sell yourself short. You were doing a great job at Hollis’s. You know it, and your father knows it.”

“My father doesn’t know it.”

Jordan, who was aware only that April had suffered a major falling out with her family, eyed her sympathetically. “Tell me this whole thing doesn’t have anything to do with Jesse.”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with Jesse.”

“Hmm. You’re lying.”

April sighed. “Yes, I am.”

He laughed. “You’re hired, you know. You didn’t even have to ask. And yes, I’m in the process of buying this store and the one on the other side of the river.”

“I didn’t know there was another Touché on the eastside,” April said in surprise.

“It was just an idea three weeks ago. It’s turned into reality since I got the go-ahead from the bank.”

“Jordan, that’s wonderful!”

“So you see why I need you so desperately? Your being, er, let go from Hollis’s was providential for me. Come on, I’ll show you around. We’ll talk salary later over dinner.”

“Thank you.” April’s throat tightened.

Jordan glanced at her perceptively. “It’s been a tough time for you, hasn’t it? Never mind. I’ll try to take your mind off it, seeing as my family’s partly to blame…”

The tour of Touché took less than an hour; it wasn’t very big. The scope of Jordan’s plans for expansion took the rest of the day; he had very aggressive and innovative ideas. By the time seven o’clock rolled around, April’s head was whirling. She hadn’t realized how stunted Jordan had been, even at Hollis’s, and for the first time she clearly saw his potential.

Two hours later, she was sipping her third banana margarita at Casa Mañana and squinting at Jordan, who was looking decidedly fuzzy. It was a celebration. She and Jordan were working together. April had some savings – courtesy of dear old Dad over the past year — that she could maybe even opt for partnership. But she was getting ahead of herself. She was lucky enough just to have a job.

A sharp pang of regret pierced the happy haze of alcohol. She wasn’t going to think about her father now. Even her mother’s phone call, begging her not to listen to his angry edict, hadn’t alleviated April’s pain. She wasn’t going to let him ruin her life.

And she wasn’t going to let Jesse, either.

“Where do you think Jesse is?” Jordan asked, as if somehow divining her thoughts.

“Who cares?” April stuck her nose back into her drink. “Jesse is an arrogant, insufferable, ego–egotist with an authority problem.”

“You sound just like Bettina,” Jordan said and laughed.

April suddenly felt melancholy. She rested her chin on her palm and sighed. “He’s caused me more misery…”

“Love sucks,” he decreed.

“You really feel that way? My father says love is a myth.”

Jordan considered. “No. You love Jesse.”

“Have you ever been in love? Seriously, I mean?”

Jordan reached across the table and clasped her hand. His grin was lopsided, and April realized he was in even worse shape than she was. “Love is overrated. Now, if you want to talk about lust, that’s one I can relate to. I have been in lust more times than I can count.”

She smiled at him, wishing intensely for a moment that Jordan had been the man she’d fallen in love with.