Love Me: The Complete Series (53 page)

Amanda frowned. What was it about women that they thought all kids were adorable regardless of how round, bald, or red-faced? He was just calling it like he saw it. She tsked. “I don’t really know … and all kids are a little pudgy when new … that’s why they call it ‘baby fat.’”

Jackson shrugged. “Okay. So, they had a kid but he never came back. It’s a great story, very romantic and all, but it has nothing to do with my contract.”

“Ha!” Amanda punched a finger at him and Jackson crossed his eyes to be sure he wasn’t going to lose an eye. “That’s where you’re wrong. It has everything to do with your contract. The baby is the daughter of Marion and Jacob Rickert. Jacob is the fourth person in the trust. The missing sibling. If he’s dead, then Marion and/or the baby are the ones we’re looking for to make the deal.”

“So, how do you prove she’s the daughter? And they weren’t married so Marion doesn’t count.”

Jackson cringed as soon as he’d said the words. Amanda’s face turned red and she slammed a fist to her hip. “Doesn’t count? Doesn’t count! You really didn’t say that, did you?”

Holy crap, she had fire in those beautiful eyes. For all her professionalism, Amanda ran the gamut of emotions. Since they’d been together, she’d cried twice and lost her temper more. It was—fun.
Note to self, though: don’t make Amanda mad.
She looked like she was about to implode.

“They didn’t get married.”

“As a matter of fact, they did.”

That got his attention. “I thought you said the letters…”

Amanda pulled a paper from the pile she’d dumped. “The letters never mentioned it but it was there. Look, they ran off and got married that weekend. It wasn’t just a shore-leave romp in the hay. It was their wedding night. Isn’t that awesome? It’s so…” She met his eyes and closed her mouth.

Jackson knew what she’d intended to say. Romantic. It was romantic. A typical guy wouldn’t notice, which made him atypical. Crap. Look what she’d done—changed his whole perspective. Hell, she probably spent her nights watching chick-flicks and eating chocolate. No way in hell was he stepping that far out of his realm. “Amanda Gillespie, you’re a hopeless romantic—a soft-hearted sap.”

She lifted her chin. “I am not. Okay, I am, but what do you care? This isn’t about romance.”

No, it was about closing a deal for Dad’s company. Wasn’t it?

Jackson was running out of time on the contract. The board had tabled it for a month. He was already deep into that grace period and had to close the deal. His dad’s legacy and the company’s bottom line required success and by God, he’d make it happen.

If coddling to Amanda’s fantasy about love and romance helped make that happen, he wasn’t opposed to playing along. As long as she had no expectations that he’d get caught up as much as she was.

Amanda expected a little flack and the normal machismo from him that went along with a story of this magnitude.
Settle down now, girl. It’s not a story—it’s a contract case.
Or was it a project? She shook her head at his attempt to trivialize her emotion. “You’re laughing at me. Stop.”

Jackson better wipe that smug grin from his face fast.
She clenched her fingers into fists.

He sobered. “Sorry. Okay, so the family tree has an unexpected branch popping out. Where do we find this person?”

Amanda smoothed her skirt. “That’s what I spent most of the night working on. It appears that Jacob, our soldier, didn’t die.”

“That’s good.”

“He was injured and sent stateside for medical treatment. I think he must have wandered away or something. There was a missing persons report filed about a month after his discharge.”

“Was he found?”

“There’s no record of it that I can see. No police reports, no further legal documents with his name.”

“Do you think he’s still alive?”

She shrugged. “Not really sure.”

“So another dead end then?”

She tapped the pen in her hand against the table. “Uh-uh. I found the kid.”

Jacob’s eyes widened. “Marion and Jacob’s kid? Really? Where?”

Tap. Tap. Tap. She couldn’t stop the nervous energy. “Right here in town. Well, actually it’s the daughter’s kid. Marion has a granddaughter and she’s right here in town.”

“This is confusing.”

“Well, that’s the crazy part of the puzzle. See, Marion remarried after Jacob disappeared—to this news guy. From what I can tell, he was a friend before. There’s a news post about the wedding. He adopted the kid, Mary Caroline.”

“Good of him.”

“Yes, but you’re gonna love this…if Jacob isn’t dead, then...”

“Our girl Marion is a polygamist? Wow, this one’s getting pretty tangled.” Jackson reached out and put his massive hand over Amanda’s fingers to still the tapping.

“Oh, sorry.”

“No worries.”

“Very tangled. I was curious though—why wouldn’t she file for separation or abandonment? Or maybe just have him decreed dead? If you were going to get remarried, that would be pretty important, right?”

“Unless maybe she knew he wasn’t dead or missing.”

Amanda held up a forefinger and lifted a thumb like a pistol. “Exactly. It was the only explanation so I started researching. I found a state document from the Texas Mental Hospital in Austin that listed a man whose first name was Jacob. It had his last initial but not name. R.”

“How do you know it’s our guy?”

“I just have a feeling—I don’t know.”

“Why don’t we just ask Marion?”

Amanda dropped the pen and Jackson strung his fingers into hers. “Well, that’s the one thing I
do
know. Marion passed away three years ago and her
daughter, Mary Caroline, moved to an unknown location.”

“So let’s go to the mental hospital.”

“It’s a four hour drive from here, shouldn’t we just call?”

“And take all the fun and anticipation out of a good mystery? No way. Come on, gorgeous, let’s go be detectives for a day.” Jackson leaned over his desk and punched a button on an antiquated landline. “Rena, I’m going to be out of the office the rest of the day. There’s a potential lead in Austin on some things related to that contract I was talking about. We’re going to go check it out.” Jackson turned to Amanda. “Do you need to check in with your office before we leave?”

She made a few calls. They loaded up the documents she’d dumped on his table and headed for the parking garage. An hour later, they were on the outskirts of the city. Would they find their lost trust fund member? She’d been to the state hospital before and wasn’t keen on the place. It was depressing. She couldn’t put a finger on the reason but imagined how dismal it would be to have so much going on in your mind that you have to be locked away from society. Was it to protect the individual or the people made uncomfortable by the person?

According to the hospital, Jacob Rickert had left years earlier. No one knew where he went or who he went with. The files pre-dated computer databases and were scanned copies of handwritten paperwork that had been uploaded to their system. He had been visited much of the later years by a young woman named Mary Caroline and was suspected to be the daughter, though she never admitted such relationship. In fact, she’d been listed on the visitor logs simply as a friend.

After a little digging, Amanda was able to find birth records that showed Mary Caroline later married and took the name of Sanders.

Mary Caroline gave her daughter her middle name. Caroline owned a florist’s shop. Co-owned, according to the business filing. Amanda wanted to learn more, to meet her, to understand why her mother had visited the mental hospital all this time but never told who she was. Was she embarrassed? Doubtful, her father was a war hero. Nope, the only logical explanation was…she didn’t know? If she had no idea he was her father, why would she visit?

Nothing made sense.

“Let’s go by her shop and see what’s she’s like.”

Jackson watched the snap of her hips pacing along under the blue skirt. “Amanda, what are you planning?”

“I want to understand why a girl visits a man in a mental institution when she has no reason. Does she know he’s her father? If so, why does she purposely hide it from the staff?”

He didn’t like the sound of her statement. “So you’re going to stalk the poor woman’s daughter?”

She whirled around and met his gaze. “No, we can pretend to be there for a reason, maybe ordering flowers or something. I know, we can pretend we’re planning a wedding. That way we can ask a lot of personal questions without making her nervous.”

• • •

Less than a week later, Jackson followed Amanda into a cute little flower shop downtown. It was conveniently located across from the police station and a couple blocks from fire and rescue. How the hell he’d let her talk him into this façade was a mystery. She grabbed his hand as they entered and he remembered their talk that night about his contract. Apparently it was his karma to have been thrown into the mess, and for some divine reason, he was expected to clean it up. Had she really believed all that hype?

He’d wanted to argue at the time but she sat on his lap and her orange-scented body lotion wafted over him. Images of him rubbing the stuff over her legs made him swallow his pride and agree to their pretend engagement. Hell, he would have agreed to just about anything at that moment. She had gorgeous legs. Gorgeous everything.

“Ready, babe?” Amanda moved in and gave him a ridiculous kissy face. Hmmm, was he?

“You bet,
babe.
”

He drew the door back and they walked into the store, linked together like two people deeply involved in each other. It should have been uncomfortable but it wasn’t.

A girl in crazy colored leggings approached. Her hair was spiked out like a punker and her eyes were lined with black. Bright round earrings dangled from her ears like saucers. She smiled and it transformed her entire look. She was pretty in a wild-eyed in-your-face way. “Hi there! You must be our newlyweds.”

Jackson cringed and shot Amanda a look. “Not yet.”

Punker girl laughed. “Of course not, sorry. That’s why you’re here. So, our manager Abby should be out in a second. She ran back to the stock room to get…something.” The girl shot a nervous look at the door near the back of the shop. A mirror next to the door was obviously a two-way used for observation.

Jackson wanted to get things moving. “Hi, I’m Jackson and this is Amanda.”

Punker girl took the hand he’d offered and gave it a quick shake. “I’m Caroline and…”

Amanda reached in front of Jackson. “Caroline Rickert?”

Caroline’s spikes rattled stiffly as she shook her head. “No, Caroline Sanders, and this is our caterer, Samantha. She’ll talk to you about anything food related. Did you have anything in particular in mind?”

Amanda sighed, obviously disappointed. “For food or flowers?”

Jackson had to hand it to the girl, she may look punk but she had huge eyes that captivated and a smile that wouldn’t stop. He wondered if her face ever tired of the customer service pleasantries. Caroline flipped a book open and turned it over the counter toward them. “Here’s a few pictures to look over. If you don’t mind, I’ll go check on Abby to see what’s taking so long.”

Caroline’s flat shoes were silent on the floor as she trounced to the back room. Her friend Samantha shrugged apologetically. Jackson heard laughter and soft voices. He leaned into Amanda pretending to snuggle her ear and whispered. “I thought you said she worked here.”

Amanda returned his pathetic stare. “She does according to the hospital. That has to be her, but…”

“I’m sorry, Abby will be out in just a minute. She’s taking care of something. We’ll just wait.” Caroline’s approach startled them. Her face was red and her eyes watering. Either she’d had a good laugh with the unknown manager—or a good cry.

Amanda shrugged. “No worries. I’m curious. Is Caroline a family name? I have an aunt who’s named Caroline but we all call her Carley.”

“Actually it’s my mother’s middle name.”

Amanda shot Jackson a smug
I told you so
look. “No kidding? What’s her first name? Please tell me her dad didn’t make her take his name and it’s Bobbie or Randy or something.”

Caroline laughed. “Nothing that terrible. It’s Mary, after
her
mother, Marion.”

Amanda’s eyes turned to marbles and she nodded. “Ahhhh. Nice.” The woman was acting delusional and Jackson had a strong desire to escape.

Except this was the person they wanted to find. Jackson cleared his throat. “Well, it’s certainly better than Bobbie or Randy. This shop is new, isn’t it? I come this way for work sometimes.”

“We’ve only been open a short while.” Caroline jumped right into a lengthy story about her business partner and how they met overseas and traveled together. Then they both decided to take the business-owner plunge together. Hearing her enthusiasm was infectiously inspiring.

Jackson rubbed Amanda’s neck as he listened and smiled. Amanda started to pull away but he pinched to hold her in place. She shot him a look.

“Ah, there she is!”

Jackson and Amanda turned and both of their mouths dropped. He didn’t even hear the rest of Caroline’s words. “You!” He and Amanda both said the word at the same time. Holy shit, it was the chick that had poured water all over him in Jackson’s office. But—did Amanda recognize her?

He frowned. “You know her?”

Amanda stepped toward the woman and tossed her hair back. “You’re the hate flowers girl.”

Jackson popped his eyes. “What?”

“She sent me hate flowers from Carter. I mean
she
didn’t send them, he did but…”

Jackson stepped back. “Flowers. You didn’t say anything about Carter sending flowers.”

Amanda stomped a foot. “Yes. He sent me flowers. Remember when I came over to your place that night and was crying?
She
delivered them that day. Don’t tell me—” She dropped a hand to her hip. “You sent Jackson hate flowers too?”

The manager, Abby, rattled her head back and forth as if embarrassed. She pointed to Jackson. “No, he got a bucket of water on his crotch.”

Jackson and Amanda both dropped their hands and stood side by side, touching. For all observers, they were definitely a couple completely in sync with each other. “Seriously?” Amanda and Jackson said in unison.