The Yeah, Baby Series

1

Jade

“I’m sure your step-brother will be here shortly.”

“Step-brother?” I repeated dumbly, having no clue what the heck the lawyer was talking about. When I got the call yesterday, I thought the request to come to Mr. Wilkinson’s office to discuss my mom’s death was odd. She had died four weeks ago and I wasn’t expecting to inherit anything from her since she didn’t have much to pass down to me except maybe some debts. Although, when I attempted to take care of them, they’d been mysteriously paid off. Then, when I’d entered their posh offices and been ushered in to see one of the named partners without waiting, I’d wondered if they’d mistaken me for someone else. Now, the mention of a mystery step-brother cinched it. I knew for sure something weird was going on here. “There must be a mistake. I don’t have a step-brother.”

He rifled through a stack of papers on his desk and pulled one out. “Your mom was Diamond Jones, correct?”

I cringed at his use of her full first name. She hated it and preferred to be called Di, which was odd when you thought about it since she named me after a gem too. What kind of person who hated being named after a precious jewel turned around and named their only child after one? It made no sense to me. Then again, I never claimed to understand anything about my mom. She and I had always been polar opposites. “Yes.”

He stretched his arm across the desk and handed the paper to me. I glanced down and the words “Marriage Certificate” jumped out at me. My mom was listed as the bride, and it was dated for the day before the car crash which took her life four weeks ago. “My mom got married?”

Sympathy shone from the lawyer’s eyes. “Theirs was a whirlwind courtship. I’m sure she was going to discuss it with you when she and Jonathan returned from their honeymoon. He was a very private man, and there were public relations issues to work out before they went public with the marriage.”

My mom married a guy who had to take public relations issues into consideration? One whose fancy lawyer referred to him by his first name? Oh, Mama. You finally landed the golden goose you’d always dreamed of, only to die the next day. If that wasn’t irony biting you in the ass, I didn’t know what was.

“When I was contacted about her death, the police mentioned there was a man in the car with her at the time. Was it Jonathan? Did he survive the crash?”

“I’m sorry to say he lingered in the hospital for a week before passing away,” he explained. “Unfortunately, someone dropped the ball and neglected to contact you sooner so we could help with the arrangements for her funeral and make sure you were taken care of during this time of crisis.”

“Thank you,” I whispered. “But I have everything under control. My mom has already been buried. I spoke with her landlord and the rent on her apartment was already paid up for last month and this one too. I have a little time before I need to clear it out which was a godsend since I have a show to prepare for and not a lot of free time right now.”

“I don’t think you’ll find many personal effects at the apartment. I believe most of her things had already been moved into Jonathan’s estate,” he explained. “If you need additional time, I’m sure we can make arrangements to have the remainder of her items packed up and moved for you.”

“That’s kind of you to offer, but I guess I don’t really understand what I’m doing here.”

“My assistant should have explained when she called yesterday.” He sent an irritated glance towards his door, as though she could see him. “You’ve been named in Jonathan’s will.”

“Why would he even do that when we’d never met? I mean, I didn’t even know he existed,” I mumbled the last part, cringing a little at blurting it out like that. “When would he have had time to add me to his will?”

“Jonathan was a man who knew how to get things done quickly.” I held back an inappropriate giggle while thinking about how fast my mom had to have moved to get him to marry her so swiftly. Apparently spritzing men’s cologne in a high-end department store finally paid off. “And considering the size of his estate, he didn’t want to leave anything to chance once your mom was a part of his life.”

I couldn’t help but think of all the men who’d paraded through my mom’s world while I was growing up. As different as we were and despite the distance between us, I loved her dearly. It was deeply saddening to know she’d finally met a man who apparently treasured her the way she’d always wanted, only to die shortly afterward.

I stood, intending to step away for a moment to gain control of my emotions before I ended up sobbing in front of a stranger. My stomach had another form of embarrassment in mind instead. The breakfast burrito I’d gobbled down this morning crept back up my throat. My gaze darted around the room, frantically searching for a place where I could vomit. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I mumbled past the hand I’d slapped over my mouth.

The lawyer rolled his chair back and started to pull a trash can out from under his desk. I didn’t have enough time to wait for him and scampered around to his side, falling to my knees and thanking my lucky stars when my puke hit the bottom of the trash can. A couple minutes later, once my stomach was empty, I realized I’d trapped Mr. Wilkinson in his chair because the wall was right behind him. Grabbing the handkerchief he was holding out for me and lifting it to swipe at my lips, I felt my cheeks heat as I rose to my feet again.

“What the hell are you doing here, Jade?” The question was growled from behind me in a raspy voice with which I was intimately familiar. I swiveled on my heel and came face-to-face with Lucas St. James. In his three-piece suit, with his dark hair perfectly styled and chocolate brown eyes glaring daggers at me, he looked nothing like the man who’d left me tousled and naked in a hotel room bed six weeks ago. “And why the fuck were you giving my dad’s lawyer a blow job under his desk?”

I felt the little blood which was left in my face after my puke-fest drain. I wasn’t sure if it was because Lucas had just said “dad” which meant he was most likely the step-brother in question or if it was the blow job insult.

Mr. Wilkinson jumped to his feet and threw his hands up in protest. “She was doing no such thing, Lucas. You should be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting something so untoward of this sweet young woman.”

Lucas’s gaze dropped to my lips, his eyes heating. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d bet that he was remembering me on my knees, doing exactly what he’d just accused me of. But to him, not the lawyer. “I’ve done a hell of a lot more than suggest it.”

Yeah, that’s exactly what he’d been doing. My cheeks heated in embarrassment as the lawyer looked at us questioningly. Lucas had spoken low enough that he couldn’t hear what he’d said, but there was no mistaking the tension between the two of us.

“Please, why don’t the both of you take a seat so we can go over the details of Jonathan’s will?”

I circled his desk and dropped back down into the chair I’d been seated in earlier. Lucas moved forward, coming to stand to the side of the desk instead of taking the other seat. My gaze slid up his body, enjoying the sight of his long legs and lean torso, before coming to rest on his face. His attention was directed away from me, and I took advantage of the moment to savor the masculine beauty of his face. My fingers itched with the desire to paint him, to finally do justice to the portrait I’d started over again at least a dozen times when I should have been focused on the paintings for my first show.

Our weekend together was supposed to have only been a fling, but I’d quickly become fascinated by Lucas to the point of distraction. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in meeting a looming deadline for my show while also dealing with my mom’s death, I probably would have tried to find him weeks ago to convince him that I hadn’t known who he was and to see if this obsession was a two-way street.

“Why in the world would she need to be here to discuss the terms of my dad’s will?” Lucas’s question held a healthy dose of suspicion.

“Because the woman Jonathan m

arried the day before the car crash was her mom, and he made arrangements for Jade to be taken care of in the case of both their deaths.”

“She’s the gold digger’s daughter?” His eyes raked me up and down, icing over. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

There went the two-way street idea. Evidently, he didn’t share my feelings and wasn’t interested in more than what we already had together. It stung, but it was better to know now instead of later. I probably shouldn’t have found the irony of my mom’s situation the least bit amusing because now karma came back to bite me in the ass as I stared gape-mouthed at Lucas. Not only was he the man with whom I’d had a weekend fling, but he was also responsible for the most likely explanation for my persistent nausea for these past few days. Crapballs, it looked like I really shouldn’t have put off taking a pregnancy test and hunting him down if it was positive.