Chapter 27
Jazzy whirled around, her eyes huge with astonishment. “What the hell did you say?” She glared at Big Jim Upton.
Caleb rushed to her, grabbed her arm and said, “Let’s not do this here.” He scanned the room hurriedly. “This is private business. Personal.”
She stared at Caleb. “Did you hear what he said?”
Damn, why hadn’t he already told Jazzy? Why did she have to find out this way?
“Yeah, honey, I heard what he said, but before everybody here at Jazzy’s Joint starts wondering what the hell’s going on—”
Jazzy looked back at Jim. “You have some nerve coming in here, in my bar, and spouting off such stupid nonsense. I know you’ve been under a lot of stress since Jamie died and Miss Reba had a heart attack. But you don’t have the right to go shooting off your mouth with some wild notion you’ve concocted about Caleb.”
“I apologize,” Jim said, his gaze fixed on Caleb. “Look, son, I didn’t mean to cause a problem for you with… are you two really together? I mean is she…important to you?”
Jazzy tensed. Her eyes flashed green fire. Caleb tightened his hold on her arm. “May we use your office?”
“What?” She stared at him, a dumbfounded expression on her face.
“Let’s go to your office—you, me, and Mr. Upton,” Caleb said. “So we can finish this conversation without an audience.”
“By all means.” Jazzy got right up in Jim’s face. “Follow me, Mr. Upton.” She emphasized the Mr. when she spoke.
When Jazzy sashayed off toward the back of the building, Caleb motioned for Big Jim to follow her, which he did. Within a couple of minutes, the three of them were cocooned in Jazzy’s small, cluttered office. Caleb closed the door, then glanced from his grandfather to the woman he loved. She was going to be mad as an old wet hen when he told her the truth. God damn it, why had he kept her in the dark about why he’d actually come to Cherokee Pointe in the first place?
“Start anywhere,” Jazzy said as she sat down on the side of her desk and crossed her arms over her chest. “Start with Big Jim’s crazy statement. Or start with who the hell you really are. Or even start with telling me you haven’t been lying to me for months now.”
“Jazzy, honey…please—”
“Don’ t you ‘please’ me,” she told him. “Somebody had better start talking right now!”
Jim cleared his throat. “I believe that’s your cue, son.”
“Stop calling him son!” Jazzy screeched at Jim.
When Caleb tried to approach Jazzy, her deadly glare warned him off. He threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. Who am I? My name is Caleb Upton McCord.” The moment Jazzy heard his middle name, her shoulders stiffened and she sucked in her breath. “My mother was Melanie Upton, Big Jim and Miss Reba’s daughter.”
Speechless, her mouth parting on a silent gasp, Jazzy sat there staring at him.
“I had no idea my mother had any family,” Caleb said. “Not until right before she died fifteen years ago. She told me about her parents, but…well, I was a wiseass kid who thought he didn’t need or want a family. It was only a few months ago, after I resigned from the Memphis Police force, that I decided I wanted to find my mother’s family.”
“That’s the reason you came to Cherokee Pointe—to find the Uptons?” Hugging herself nervously, her eyes downcast, Jazzy shook her head in disbelief. “You’re Jamie’s first cousin. And you knew all along who he was, who Big Jim and Miss Reba…you’ve been lying to me since the first night we met.” Lifting her head, she glared at him. “Damn you, Caleb. Damn you for making me care about you, for letting me think things would be different with you.”
“Things are different with me. I swear, honey. I swear—”
She flew off the desk, rushed toward him, and slapped him soundly. “What was it? Did you want everything Jamie had—including me? Was getting me in the sack some sort of prize?”
“Stop talking like that.” Caleb ignored the stinging pain throbbing through the left side of his face. “I wanted you the minute we met. Before I knew anything about your relationship with Jamie.”
Jazzy zeroed in on Big Jim. “How long have you known?”
“This is all my fault. I didn’t know that you and Caleb had anything serious going on.” He looked to Caleb. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Caleb told me yesterday,” Jim said. “But I didn’t believe him. Not at first.”
“Apparently you believe him now.” Jazzy kept her gaze fixed on Jim. “Got yourself some sort of proof, didn’t you? You wouldn’t have come here to claim the new heir to the Upton fortune if you weren’t pretty damn sure he was your blood kin.”
Jim glanced at Caleb. “I hired the best PI firm in Tennessee, Powell Investigations, to do a thorough check on you, boy. Every indication is that you’re definitely our Melanie’s son. My grandson.”
“Well, isn’t this nice?” Jazzy crossed her arms over her chest as she smiled sarcastically. “A warm and fuzzy reunion in my office. Aren’t I lucky to be witnessing such a heartwarming event?” Jazzy gasped mockingly. “My God, I’ll bet Miss Reba is thrilled. Lose one grandson, gain another.” Narrowing her eyes to mere slits, she fixed her gaze on Caleb.
“And once she finds out about me—” Jazzy laughed. “She’ll be fit to be tied. You see, I’m not good enough for an Upton. Jamie would have married me years ago if it hadn’t been for his grandmother.”
“Jazzy, don’t do this,” Caleb said.
She tapped him in the center of his chest, each punch a little harder than the one before. “It doesn’t even matter if you really do care about me. Hell, it doesn’t matter if you love me. And you know why? Because you’re the Upton heir now. You’re Miss Reba’s grandson and she’ll move heaven and earth to keep us apart.”
“It won’t be like that.” He looked to his grandfather. “Tell her. Tell her that Miss Reba doesn’t even know and that when she does—”
“Miss Reba doesn’t know yet?” Jazzy shouted the question.
“No, Reba doesn’t know,” Jim said. “I had hoped Caleb would meet me at the hospital in the morning so we could tell her together.”
“Ah…how sweet.” Jazzy marched across the office, swung open the door, turned and aimed her gaze on Caleb. “Take your grandfather and get out of my office. And while you’re at it, get out of my bar. You’re fired.”
“Jazzy, we can work through this. It’s not as bad as you think.” Caleb held out one hand to her.
“Get out. Now! Out of my office. Out of my bar. Out of my life!”
“Jazzy…”
She stood there trembling, her cheeks flushed, anger boiling over inside her. He knew when to accept defeat. But this was only one battle, the first skirmish. This battle might be lost, but, by God, he intended to win the war.
“Let’s go.” Caleb laid his hand on his grandfather’s shoulder. “I think the lady has made her feelings perfectly clear.”
Without saying another word, Jim exited the office and Caleb followed. The very second they entered the hall, Jazzy slammed the door shut.
“Jazzy’s always been high-strung and temperamental,” Jim said. “The girl’s got grit.”
“You sound as if you almost admire her.”
“I do, in a way.”
“Then why—”
“Miss Reba hates Jazzy,” Jim admitted. “If you’ve got serious intentions where she’s concerned, you might as well know your grandmother isn’t going to like it one little bit.”
“Meaning no disrespect to Miss Reba, but my relationship with Jazzy—or any other woman—is none of her business.”
Jim slapped his hand down on Caleb’s back and laughed. “Damn, boy, you sound just like me.”
“Is that good or bad?” Caleb asked.
“Neither. It’s just a fact.” Still chuckling, Jim walked down the hall beside Caleb.
Once they reached the smoke-filled hub of Jazzy’s Joint, Caleb said, “Wait for me outside, will you? I need to talk to Lacy, the bartender, before I leave.”
Jim nodded, and as soon as he headed for the door, Caleb walked over to the bar.
“What’s up?” Lacy asked when he leaned over the counter.
“Jazzy and I just had a major falling out,” he said. “She fired me. And she kicked me out of her life. For the time being.”
“All because of Big Jim Upton? What’s that about anyway?”
“Big Jim is my grandfather,” Caleb told her.
Her eyes round and wide, Lacy whistled loudly. “And you didn’t bother mentioning that fact to Jazzy? Good God, man, you must have a death wish.”
“Listen, this thing isn’t over between us by a long shot, but until she cools off…you understand. She shouldn’t be alone tonight. Give Sally a call and tell her what’s happened. Tell her to come on over to Jazzy’s apartment and spend the night. Once Jazzy’s had a chance to cool off and think things through, I’ll talk to her again.”
“That could take a while.”
“I’ll give her until noon tomorrow.”
Lacy rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Keep an eye on her, will you?”
“You really do love her, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Caleb admitted.
Jazzy swept everything off the top of her desk in one angry pass, letting things hit haphazardly against the wall and scatter over the floor. Lifting her foot, she kicked the swivel chair and sent it sailing halfway across the room and into a file cabinet.
“Damn him! Damn him to hell and back!” she shouted.
Once a fool, always a fool!
How could she have been so stupid? Why did she think she could actually be happy? You were born under a damn unlucky star, she told herself. Hell, a witch must have placed an evil spell on you the day you came into this world.
The last time she’d been this angry, she had threatened to blow off Jamie’s balls. She hadn’t thought any man could ever hurt her the way Jamie had. Boy, had she been wrong. Putting so many hopes and dreams for the future into her relationship with Caleb had been a huge mistake. She should have known better.
When will you ever learn that happily ever after isn’t for you?
Of all the men on earth to have fallen for—another goddamn Upton! Oh, his last name might be McCord, but he had Upton blood flowing through his veins. High society, Miss Reba blue blood. Rich, powerful Big Jim blood. Just like Jamie! She’d gone and traded in one Upton grandson for another.
He should have told her. She’d had a right to know. Why had it taken him all these months to approach Big Jim? Why had he waited around, working as a bouncer at Jazzy’s Joint, when he was the heir to a vast fortune?
Maybe she should give him a chance to explain. Surely it hadn’t all been an act. If he’d been pretending to care about her, then he deserved an Academy Award. Just thinking about the way things had been between them—all hot and wild—upped her body heat a few degrees and moistened her inside as if his big hands were stroking her naked flesh.
No, no, no! You aren’t going to give in to him, allow him to weave some believable tale to explain away his behavior. You can’t trust him. Even if he swears on a stack of Bibles that he loves you, you cannot believe him.
Okay, Jazzy, stop and think about what you’re telling yourself. Just who are you talking about anyway? Caleb or Jamie?
Caleb might be Big Jim’s grandson, but he was not Jamie. Caleb and Jamie had very little in common. Caleb was totally different. Everything Jamie hadn’t been.
But he’d change now that Big Jim had declared him an Upton. All that money and power would get to him sooner or later. Give him a few months and you won’t recognize him.
Hey, girl, what makes you think that in a few months he’ll even want you? Add wealth and social standing to all of Caleb’s other fantastic qualities, and there wasn’t a woman anywhere who wouldn’t jump at the chance to belong to him.
Jazzy poured herself a drink and downed it in one long swallow. The whiskey burned a sizzling streak down her throat and set her belly on fire. She coughed and spluttered a few times, then poured herself a second drink. As she lifted the glass to her lips, she thought about how she’d been so sure she could count on Caleb, how she’d believed he would see her through the nightmare her life had become lately.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked herself. “Now that Caleb isn’t going to be looking out for you?” She downed the second shot of eighty proof and wondered just how much liquor it would take to get riproaring drunk.