His gaze slid to his hands and then back to her. “No.”
“Then you must have wanted to lie. Not one little lie, but over again so many times. You must have kept a chart to keep yourself straight. It’s quite a talent, when you think about it.” Thinking of his massive web of deceit angered her.
“Let me explain.”
“You’re sitting there, Jack. Weave the best lie ever, but get it over with. I don’t want Danny to walk in and have any hopes that his Uncle Jack is here to shower him with more attention and gifts.” Danny was the innocent one here.
Jack’s gaze leveled with hers. “The night we met, after the guys and I returned from Vegas, I walked into your diner and collided with the woman I wanted to share my future with.” His words were slow and backed with emotion. “I wasn’t expecting you, Jessie. But there you were. All sass and smiles. You blew me away.”
Don’t fall for it, Jessie, she warned herself.
“Mike, Dean, and Tom are friends I’ve had for years. True friends that don’t hang around because of what I can do for them, of where I can place them on the corporate ladder. Friends who have never and will never use me because of the financial mecca behind my name. I’ve been feeling like I was missing something for a while. After a weekend with them, I realized what I was missing in my life. I’ve dated a lot of women. My name has cast a shadow on every relationship I’ve had.”
Jack stood and started to pace. “When you smirked and made that comment about my wallet and my ego, I was both amused and, I’ll admit, enchanted.”
The memory of that night floated in and out of her head. Her attraction to Jack had been just as instant, although she’d done her best to ignore her feelings.
Jack stood before her mother’s fake Christmas tree and ran his finger over an ornament either she or her sister had made when they were about Danny’s age. “So I lied to you. Omission of truth, really. I won’t deny the overall lie.”
A tug in Jessie’s neck brought her attention to the fact that she was clenching her jaw. “What else?”
“Excuse me?” He dropped his hand from the ornament and pivoted to face her.
“What else did you lie to me about?”
Jack tilted his head back, as if the answers were written on the ceiling. “There isn’t a grand lost and found at the hotel. I bought the dress, shoes…”
“Earrings?”
“I told you I bought those.”
That’s right. She couldn’t fault him for the earrings. Costume jewelry was relatively cheap. “Oh God. The earrings…they’re not real. Right?”
Jack’s brows lifted and he shrugged one shoulder.
“Holy cow, Jack. What were you thinking? You don’t give a woman diamonds and pass them off as cubic zirconium. I could have tossed them on my dresser and lost them.” She hadn’t, but she could have easily misplaced them like so many pairs of cheap dime-store trinkets.
“I was on duty the night of the Christmas party at the hotel,” he continued where he’d left off.
“What?” Jessie was still reeling from the earrings.
“You want me to come clean. I’m telling you that I was serving the guests at the hotel the night of the party. We had a management and waitstaff reversal for the night. Sam, he was the man who was having trouble balancing the tray.”
She remembered him and the comments they’d made to each other. None of which clued her in to Jack being anything other than a waiter. “I remember.”
“He is the manager of the Ontario Morrison.”
“Did you bring me to the party to help me find a date, or was that a complete lie, too?” Even as the question came from her lips, Jessie knew the answer. Jack’s half-assed attempts to show her other men in the room had been lame at best.
Jack sat on the arm of the couch and ran a hand through his dark hair. “I’d be lying to myself if I said I wanted you to meet someone who knocked the wind out of you.”
He had already done that, she thought.
“I wanted to spend more time with you, get to know you. I wanted to show you that money doesn’t buy happiness. All those men at that party might have had money, but none of them would have made you happy. I’ve had money all my life, but I’ve never been as happy as I am with you.”
“Jack, stop—”
“No, Jessie, I mean what I’m saying. I wanted to come clean with you. The first night we made love, I went to your room to tell you everything. Tell you about me, the hotel, my lack of a job waiting tables.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He was staring at her now, not letting her eyes waver from his.
“Because you kicked the words out of my mouth when you took off that ridiculous nightshirt and made love with me. Then the next morning I ran away with myself and proposed.”
“A proposal you knew I wouldn’t accept.” It was then Jessie remembered the woman hanging on Jack in the picture snapped by the media photographer. “Besides, wouldn’t the other woman at the hotel find fault with a second woman in your life?”
Jack’s mouth widened. “What are you talking about? There is no other woman.”
“I saw the picture on the news, Jack, heard the headlines about your rumored impending marriage.” The photo had cut deep.
Jack started shaking his head. “The only woman in my life is you.”
“You forgot the blonde at the hotel already?”