Legends and Lies

“I wanted a family.”

“And Malcolm didn’t?”

She shrugged. No way was she going to admit to Jared that Malcolm had a very European attitude toward marriage and wives. He’d wanted a family with her, but only if she would look the other way when he had his affairs?something she simply couldn’t do.

“When you’re ready to tell me about it, we can talk.”

“I think I am ready for lunch,” she said.

“Good. But first I have a little present for you.”

He handed her the long slim box.

She took it from him but made no move to open it. “What’s this for?”

“To celebrate the start of our relationship,” he said and there was a confidence in him that made her want to believe that their relationship would be a good one.

CHAPTER SIX

JARED HAD PURCHASED gifts for women before and had all kinds of reactions to them. But this was the first time anyone had seemed almost embarrassed by the gift. And she hadn’t even opened the wrapping yet and seen the distinctive Tiffany blue box.

A part of him knew that it was too early in a relationship for a gift, but he’d been unable to resist the bracelet when he’d seen it in the window of Tiffany’s on Rodeo Drive. He had the image of it on her wrist.

She eased the gold foil gift wrap from the box and folded it neatly into a square, hardly even glancing at the box. She had to know it was jewelry but she wasn’t grasping at the box or hurrying to open it up.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” she said carefully, rubbing her finger over the raised imprint of the Tiffany name. She didn’t look down at the box but only stared at him.

“I wanted to. Open it.”

She did and just stared into the box without removing the bracelet. The longer she stared at it the more unsure he became of the gift. He couldn’t read her reaction at all.

“Annie?”

“Thank you, Jared,” she said at last, lifting her eyes to his. Her pretty brown eyes were wide and her emotions hard to discern. She lifted the bracelet from the box and held it in her long fingers.

“I’ll put it on you.”

She held the bracelet out to him. Her arm suspended between them as he took the platinum piece from her. He fastened it around her wrist and then bent to leave a small kiss under the clasp.

Her hand turned under his grasp, her long cool fingers brushing over his jaw. He stood back up and met her gaze. She kept her hand on his face. “Thank you, Jared. Really thank you.”

Before he could say anything to her, he got a call on his BlackBerry. It was Tucker. Jared decided the call could wait and instead went to the refrigerator, where he’d left a bottle of San Pellegrino chilling.

“Would you like a glass of sparkling water?”

“Yes, please.”

“I saw a magazine article about you with the photo of Dave and your father that won the photojournalism award. When did you take the photo?”

“About four years ago. It was the first time Dave made it into the chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. He was so jazzed standing there in Victory Lane and, well, you can see from the look on my dad’s face how proud he was.”

“It was easy to see. Tucker’s first time in the Chase was like that, too.”

“You two are that close?”

“He’s like the brother I never had.”

His BlackBerry started ringing again.

“I don’t mind if you get that,” she said.

“I do. I want to enjoy my lunch with you.”

He glanced at the caller ID display. Tucker?again. He let it go to voice mail and then heard the phone twitter. He glanced down and saw the text message on the screen.

Call me. Now!

Clearly there was an emergency. He simply couldn’t ignore him at this time.

“Will you excuse me? I have to take this call.”

“Go ahead. I’m going to sit here and watch the track. I love it from up here.”

He exited the suite and called Tucker.

“What so important that it couldn’t wait?” he asked without preliminaries.

“Where are you?” Tucker asked. In the background Jared heard Jay-Z being played loudly and guessed that Tucker was in his hauler. He liked to listen to rap music while he got ready to qualify.

“In my suite, why?”

“We’ve got a problem and I need to talk to you. Can you get down here now?”

“What kind of problem?” Jared asked, starting to get concerned by the tone of Tucker’s voice. It was small and tight, which meant that Tucker was ticked off.

“Someone tampered with my car.”

“What do you mean tampered?” he asked.

“Removed the tape off the front of the car,” Tucker said. Though the drivers weren’t allowed to use taping during the actual race they were allowed to do it during qualifying. Taping off prevented air flow from cooling the engine and enabled the driver to reach higher speeds.