Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man(11)

Charles was shocked. “The judge agreed?” he asked loudly. “Are you kidding me? So he didn’t give a damn how the children felt about it?”

“Right, yeah? I couldn’t believe it either.”

Charles considered her. “You raised his kids while he was off getting his career together, while he was cheating on you, and then he treats you as if you’re the problem? That must have been a pretty bitter pill to swallow.”

She could never remember that hellish time without feeling an ache deep within. “I was devastated,” she replied. “To say the least.”

“And here you are now, thirty-two years old, and just beginning your career. It has to be, on some level at least, bewildering.”

“It’s scary as hell,” Jenay said honestly. And it wasn’t as if, a mere three years later, she had it all together. She didn’t. She wasn’t just nervous about her future, she was terrified. “But it’s done now,” she said.

“Yeah, sure,” Charles said. “You’re living with it now. You’re turning lemons into lemonade. You’re making the best of a bad situation. Or whatever other soothing cliché people who never been through shit love to throw your way.”

Jenay laughed. This man was too much!

“As if words are going to make you feel any better,” Charles went on. “Your ex-husband was an asshole, that’s all there is to it, and he ruined your life. At least the life you thought you were going to have.”

Jenay looked at Charles. And her laughter was gone. Never, not when she found out he was cheating, not during or after the divorce, had anybody blamed Quince. It was all about her and her bad decision to marry him in the first place. Nobody blamed Quince and his bad decisions. Until now.

“And you thought that prick was faithful as a birddog,” Charles went on. “Didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Jenay admitted. “That’s what I thought.” But reliving all of that past pain wasn’t helping anything, and she had a life to get on with. She stood up.

Charles, surprised, stood up too. “What? You’re leaving?”

“I need to get back to work, yes, sir. Unlike you, Father of the Groom, I’m not a guest at this reception.”

But Charles wasn’t convinced. “Was it something I said?” he asked her.

“No,” Jenay said firmly. “What you said was the truth. You call it like you see it. That’s a good way to be. Too many men love to flatter us ladies with sugary words, and then their actions tell the harsh truth after they get what they want.” She smiled and extended her hand. “It was nice talking to you, Mr. . . .”

“Charles,” he said as he shook her hand. “Charles Sinatra.”

“Nice meeting you, Charles Sinatra.” She attempted to retrieve her hand from his grasp, but he placed his other hand on top of hers, sandwiching her in. Her eyes met his gaze, and she was transfixed.

“What’s your name?” he asked her.

“Jenay Franklin,” she said.

“Je-nay,” he said. “I like that name.”

“Thank-you.” She moved to release from his grasp, and devastating gaze, but he kept talking.

“But you know what? You look like a woman with a nickname. Only very special people have nicknames. Do your friends call you Jean, or Nay for short?”

He really was a very perceptive man, she thought. “Both,” she said.

“Depends on the friend?”

She laughed. “Right,” she said, and then, with considerable effort, slid her hand out of his enclosure. She had work to do, and not even a charming man like him was going to distract her. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening,” she added, and then she quickly walked away.

Charles looked at her as she walked away. That ass was on fire, as it sashayed beneath that tight skirt she wore. His dick was still throbbing at just the sight of it. And she thought it was over? She thought he was going to enjoy that kind of view, and the joy he felt being around her, and just forget about it? Charles finished his remaining slither of a drink in one gulp, and then buttoned his Versace suit. She was out of her beautiful mind if she thought this night was over. It wasn’t over by a longshot.

He began mingling again, doing his due diligence as the father of the groom. And although he was attentive to the needs of his son and his new daughter-in-law, and to their friends and the bride’s obnoxious family, he also kept an eye on Jenay Franklin. She was moving through the crowd, making sure everything was going well, being the hospitality expert she was learning to be. But she wasn’t fooling Charles. Every time he was within a few feet of her, she moved further and further away. She was avoiding him like the plague. He found it amusing that she would think she could.