Hatch had been so certain he could force the older man into splitting up the company, so confident of his own ability to deal with Vincent Benedict. He should have known right from the start that Benedict was too tough and too wily and too damn stubborn to get maneuvered into doing anything he did not want to do.
Hatch had played poker with an old pro and he had lost. He had risked everything on a bluff.
And threatening to take Jessie away had been nothing more than a bluff. Hatch told himself he should have known Benedict would be too savvy to fall for it. It was crazy to think Jessie would actually walk away from her family and her self-imposed responsibilities to go off with a man who made her nervous. Her first loyalty was to the clan. He had known that from the beginning. Hell, he'd used that knowledge to maneuver her into a relationship with him.
It was crazy to believe she would run off with a man she had agreed to marry in the first place only because everyone around her was urging her to do so. A man whose main attribute was that he was Vincent Benedict's handpicked candidate to take over the operation of Benedict Fasteners.
Hatch did not delude himself. He had been in this position once before and he knew how the chips would fall. Jessie was not Olivia. He was fairly certain she genuinely cared for him. But the fact that she had convinced herself she was in love with him would hardly be enough to make her run off with him when everything else in the relationship went sour.
Hatch told himself he had to be realistic about the situation. He had to see it from a woman's point of view.
Running off with him would mean leaving everything Jessie held dear. It would mean leaving Elizabeth. It would mean leaving Seattle. It would mean abdicating her loving responsibility to her family and her duty to Benedict Fasteners.
It would mean casting her fate with a man who would be essentially starting over. Women, Hatch knew from experience, rarely did dumb things like that in real life.
He glanced at the liquor cabinet and thought about pouring himself a drink. He needed one badly.
He decided to wait until he had seen Jessie. He would need one even more after that.
Outside the lobby door of Jessie's apartment house, Hatch leaned on the buzzer. He had the key Jessie had given him, but for some reason he did not want to use it. He was not coming home from work this time. He was paying a last visit.
“Yes?” Jessie's voice sounded odd through the speaker.
“It's me.”
She did not say anything more, but a second later a hissing noise told him the lock had been released. Hatch pushed open the door, walked inside, and started up the stairs.
He glanced around and realized how familiar it all seemed. He had gotten accustomed to coming here at the end of each day. He had gotten to like the idea of knowing Jessie would be waiting for him with a glass of wine and that there would be mouth-watering smells coming from the kitchen.
It was easy to see why there was a strong instinct in men to keep women in the home. They had a way of making things much more comfortable for a man.
Not that any man would ever be successful in keeping Jessie barefoot and pregnant, he thought wryly.
Pregnant.
The possibility of getting Jessie pregnant hung tantalizingly in the air. If she were pregnant, she might feel compelled to marry him, after all.
But he did not want her to be forced into that kind of decision, he told himself, trying to be noble.
On the other hand, it just might work. Jessie felt so strongly about the importance of fatherhood. She had spent most of her life building bonds between Vincent and his family. The last thing she would want to do was deny her own child its father.
But the odds of getting her pregnant before she found out what had happened this afternoon were staggeringly against him. They had, after all, been making love without protection for only two days. If he kept his mouth shut tonight, he might get one more shot at it, but the odds were still bad. And his luck had not been running well lately.
Jessie opened the door for him on the second level. She had her hair slicked back behind her ears and she was dressed in a black jumpsuit. He saw the anxiety leap into her eyes the instant she got a good look at him.
“Hatch, is something wrong?”
She did not know anything yet. Now was the time to keep his mouth shut. Give himself one more chance in bed with her. Maybe stack the odds a little more in his favor. But, hell, she had always been honest with him. He owed her honesty in return.
“Your father fired me today.” He was surprised at how calm the simple words sounded. Hatch stood there in the doorway waiting for the devastating reaction and wondered what he would do without this woman in his life. He could not seem to think that far ahead. All he could do was wait for the blow.
“He fired you?” Jessie finally got her mouth closed. “Dad canceled your contract with Benedict?”
“Yes.”
“You're unemployed?”
Hatch nodded, propping one shoulder against the door-jamb. He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Looks that way.”
“You won't be running Benedict Fasteners?”
“No.” He drew a breath. “I'll be leaving Seattle soon. I'll be starting over somewhere else. Oregon, maybe. Or Arizona. I just stopped by to tell you.”
“Hatch, this is incredible. I can't believe it.” She blinked and then her green eyes filled with mirth. She started to giggle, and the giggle turned into full-blown laughter. “Oh, my God. We've finally got something in common.”
Hatch frowned, at a loss to understand what was happening. “Jessie?”
“I got fired today too.”
Hatch looked at her. “What?”
“You heard me,” Jessie got out between gasps for air. “Mrs. V fired me. Said she didn't like the direction I was taking Valentine Consultations. Said she would give me nice references. Oh, my God, this is so funny. You and me both fired on the same day. I can't believe it.”
“Somehow I hadn't seen it in a funny light.”
Jessie blinked away the moisture the laughter had brought to her eyes and gulped in air. “No, of course not. You poor thing. I'll bet you've never been through this before, have you?”
“There was one other time,” he reminded her deliberately.
She nodded, reaching out to yank him through the door. “That's right. I'd almost forgotten. Back when you were married to Olivia and your company got taken over.” She closed the door behind him and threw the dead bolt. “Still, that was years ago. You haven't had my vast experience with the situation. Come on in and I'll show you how it's done.”
Hatch felt as if he had just fallen down the rabbit hole. Nothing seemed to be going according to the script. “How what's done?”
“How you celebrate getting fired, of course. Since you've had such limited experience, I'll guide you through it. First, you sit down.” She pushed him onto a stool in front of the counter.
“What happens next?”
“Why, next you open a bottle of champagne, of course. As soon as I left the office this morning, I bought one. I stuck it in the refrigerator hours ago.” She opened the refrigerator door and grabbed the bottle sitting on the top shelf. “This is the real thing, you know. From France, not California. I splurged. I always do when I get fired.”
“I see.”
“Personally,” she said as she peeled back the wire that held the cork in place, “I vote for Oregon. I've been to Arizona, though, and it's very nice. We can go there if you think we should. But it would be easier for Elizabeth to visit if we went to Oregon. On the other hand, I guess we really can't be too picky, can we? I mean, both of us being unemployed and all.”
The cork came out of the bottle with a bang, striking the ceiling. Champagne started to billow forth, threatening to cascade all over the kitchen floor.
Hatch reached out, took the bottle from Jessie's hands, and quickly poured the sparkling liquid into the glasses.
Then he grabbed Jessie and pulled her into his
arms. She went into them willingly, laughter and love gleaming in her eyes.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Does this mean,” Hatch asked carefully a few minutes later as he slowly released her, “that you still view us as being engaged?”
Jessie picked up her champagne glass and shot him a startled glance over the rim. “Are you trying to wriggle out of the engagement?”
“Hell, no.”
“Aunt Glenna said you might.”
“Might what?”
“Might lose interest in me if I didn't bring Benedict Fasteners along as my dowry.”
Hatch was annoyed. “What a coincidence. I was wondering if you'd lose interest in me if marrying me meant losing Benedict Fasteners. Your father says he's going to cut you off without a cent, by the way. I don't think I mentioned that, did I?”
“That's Dad for you. He's so engrossed with the bottom line that he just naturally assumes it's everyone else's first consideration too. How did it happen, Hatch?”
“Me getting myself fired? I gambled. Tried to bluff an old poker player, and he called. I should have known better.” He thought about that. “Hell, I did know better. I realized there was a risk. But I had to take it.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to cut a few more of the knots that keep you tap-dancing between your father and the rest of the family. I thought that if I could arrange for Elizabeth and David to each get a quarter of the company, you'd be out of the loop permanently.”
“Out of the loop?”
“That was Plan A. Split up the company among the logical heirs and let me buy a quarter of it. That would put everyone on a more or less equal footing. No one would be dependent on you to make certain they got their fair share of the inheritance. The moms would stop pressuring you, and maybe a chunk of the company for David would appease Glenna. You would no longer feel like you had to hold the whole thing together all by yourself.”
Jessie's mouth fell open in amazement. “You tried to make Dad give us all an equal portion of Benedict Fasteners?”
“Yeah. Like I said, that was Plan A. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Dad has never been willing to even listen to that idea. I told you that. Lord knows I tried it out on him a few times in the past. He's been absolutely nonnegotiable on the subject. Seems to think it might tear the company apart.”
“I told him to trust me to hold things together. Obviously he didn't.”
Jessie propped her elbow on the counter and balanced her chin on the heel of her palm. “What made you decide to push him so hard if you knew you might lose everything in the process?”
Hatch met her eyes. “I told you, I was just trying to get some of the family pressure off you.”
She started to smile. “There's more to it than that, isn't there? You wanted to prove to yourself I'd marry you even if I didn't have to. Hatch, that's so sweet.”
“Sweet? Christ, lady, it is anything but sweet. It's a full-scale financial disaster. Talk about shooting myself in the foot.”
She bit her lip. “Are you really upset about losing Benedict Fasteners?”
“No, dammit. I can live without Benedict. But I don't think it's sunk in yet that you've lost it too, if you marry me.”
“Big deal.”
“Cutting you off from your inheritance,” he continued evenly, “also effectively cuts you off from your primary role in the family.”
“I'm no longer the intermediary, as you called it,” Jessie said slowly, nodding in comprehension. “It's going to feel a little strange at first.”
“Better be prepared to feel more than just a little strange,” he growled. “You don't seem to understand that everyone is going to be madder than hell. They're all going to feel threatened now. Marry me, and everyone's share of the big pie they were all counting on is at risk.”
“Why? What do you think Dad will do now?”
“Who knows? Vincent will either sell the company outright or he'll continue to run it as he has been running it. Either way, the family can kiss off the idea of taking Benedict Fasteners into the fast lane.”
“Dad loves that company. I can't see him selling out.”
“I can. He doesn't like being pushed around any more than I do. He's fully capable of selling it just to prove he can't be manipulated. He's into revenge, in case you haven't noticed. Look what I've gone through to beat out Yorland and Young for him, just because the company once undercut him on a contract.”
“True. And you, of all people, understand vengeance, don't you?”
Hatch sighed. “Yes. I do. And even if he doesn't sell, he won't be able to turn Benedict Fasteners into what everyone wants it to become. The firm is thirty years out-of-date and so is Vincent's management style. He won't be able to revitalize the company unless he gets someone like me on board. He knows that. I doubt he'll bring himself to trust anyone like me again.”
“Which means that Benedict Fasteners will stay a small-time regional business. I don't think that's such a bad fate.”
“Everyone else sure as hell will, including your father. They've had the carrot dangled in front of them now and they won't forget what was once within reach. They're going to blame you for depriving them of it. I'm sorry, Jessie.”
“I'm not.” She was quiet for a minute. “Tell me, just out of curiosity, did Dad leave you a way back?”
Hatch smiled wryly. “Sure. All I have to do is come to my senses, crawl back, and tell him we'll do things his way.”
Jessie looked surprised. “He said that? He ought to know you'd never go back on those terms.”
Hatch lifted one shoulder in dismissal. “It was probably all he could think of on the spur of the moment. When he recovers from the shock, he'll turn the pressure on you. So will everyone else.”
“Let'em. I've already made my decision.”
He still did not completely understand what was happening here. “Why?” he asked bluntly.
“Because I love you, of course. I told you that.”
“Yeah, I know you said that, but—”
She silenced him by putting her fingertips over his mouth. “Do you love me?”
He allowed himself to think about it for the first time. “Hell, I guess so. I wouldn't have gone through all this otherwise.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Be still, my beating heart. Let's try this from another angle. Would you have given up your chunk of Benedict Fasteners and the future you've got planned for it and for yourself for the sake of any other woman of your acquaintance?”
“Of course not.” He swallowed champagne and hid a slow grin.
“Then say it, damn you.”
He smiled into her eyes, finally beginning to relax for the first time that day. “Jessie, I love you.”
Her own smile widened happily. “Was it worth it? Losing everything for love?”
A great weight seemed to be lifting from his shoulders. “Is that what I just did?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You tell me if it was worth it,” he said softly.
“Yes. Most definitely yes.”
“Yes,” he repeated. “Most definitely yes.” He took the wineglass from her hand and set it down on the counter next to his own. Then he got to his feet and scooped her off the stool and into his arms.
“Lord,” she whispered, eyes filling with passion as he carried her toward the bedroom. “I just wish I had a staircase. This would be so much more romantic if you carried me up a staircase, don't you think?”
“No. At my age a man has to consider his lower back,” Hatch said seriously.
She punched his shoulder. “That was a joke. Darn it, this time I know that was meant to be funny. Wasn't it?”
Hatch started to chuckle. The next minute he was laughing out loud, a deep, full-throated roar of a laugh that came from far down in his chest. And as his own triumphant mirth echoed in the white bedroom, he realized he could not remember the last time he had allowed himself to surrender to sheer, unadulterated happine
ss.
Hatch woke from a pleasant, dozing sleep and felt the soft warmth of Jessie's body curled into his own. Her sweetly curved derriere was nestled against his thighs, and his hand cupped one rounded breast. A nipple thrust into his palm. Hatch squeezed gently.
Jessie shifted against him. “You rang?”
He chuckled and kissed her shoulder. “Just wanted to see if you were still awake.”
“Ummm. Actually, I've been thinking. I know how much you counted on getting your paws on Benedict Fasteners.”
“I'd rather have my paws on you.”
She smiled and turned her head on the pillow to look at him. “That's nice and it certainly represents a drastic reordering of your personal priorities, for which I am extremely grateful. However, I also feel a little guilty about all this.”
Some of Hatch's good mood started to slip. “Don't say that, Jessie. You've got nothing to feel guilty about. If anyone should be feeling guilty, it's me. In one fell swoop I've just changed your whole life.”
“You mustn't say that.” She touched his cheek gently. “As far as I'm concerned, that one fell swoop proved for certain that you loved me and I shall treasure the memory forever.”
“Then what are you thinking about so seriously?”
“I could try talking to Dad for you,” she said. “See if I can get him to climb down off his high horse. I know neither one of you is the type to back down. You're both so stubborn. But maybe if I sort of mediated things, I could find a compromise for both of you.”
“Try it and I'll paddle your butt so hard you won't sit down for a week.”
She blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me. Jessie, this is between your father and me. You are not involved. Got that?”
“But I am involved.”
“No. You said yourself, you've already made your decision. You're going to marry me, right?”
“Yes, of course, but—”
“Then you've made your choice. Your first loyalty is to me now, not your family.”
“Yes.”
“You aren't going to play go-between this time, honey. I won't let you. You're on my side of the fence and you're not going to try to straddle it. I don't need you to rescue me. All I need or want is you. Got that?”