Owned By Fate(57)

For some reason, her words caused his mouth to tighten fractionally, although she couldn’t fathom why. She turned back to Renee, who watched them with interest.

“A man who would fight this hard just for the chance to know his daughter should be commended, not condemned. Not by me or anyone else.” Caroline softened her voice. “He deserves a chance. You’re the only one who can give it to him.”

Renee looked down a moment, then raised her head. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a high-pitched giggle coming from outside the conference room door. Her eyes went wide. “I— That’s Gabby. My boyfriend was supposed to take her for ice cream, but—”

The conference room door flew open, and a whirlwind of sandy blond hair entered. A thin, harried-looking man jogged after her, followed by the receptionist.

“I’m sorry, they just—”

“You were supposed to—”

“We did. She wanted to come and sit quietly in the waiting room, but then—”

Renee pushed back her chair and stood. “Why would you do that? You know—”

“Are you him?” Everyone stopped talking at once when Gabby, wearing a chocolate-stained jean jacket, addressed Jonah from across the table. Caroline had to hold in her gasp when she got a good look at Gabby. Everything from the stubborn set of her chin to her soulful brown eyes screamed Jonah. For the first time since Gabby’s arrival, Caroline glanced over at Jonah to find his attention arrested by his newly arrived daughter, sitting as though moving would cause him to shatter into a million pieces. Her heart clenched hard at the sight.

“Yeah,” he finally answered. “I’m…him.”

“The one who wants to see me?”

Jonah smiled hesitantly and gave a slow nod. “Yeah, I—”

Gabby, now balancing on one wobbly leg, sighed impatiently. “Is there a park near your house or anything?”

“I don’t know.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “But if there’s not, I’ll build you one.”

With that, he had her undivided attention. Watching Jonah curiously, she rounded the table to stand in front of him. “No way. You can’t do that.”

“Oh no? Watch me.”

Gabby frowned, her freckled nose crinkling. “You smell like licorice.”

Jonah reached into his pocket and withdrew a package of Red Vines. As he tore the plastic end open, he looked at Renee for permission. After a tense beat, she nodded. Jonah handed Gabby a piece of licorice before taking one out for himself. As they both bit into the red candy, Gabby smiled, and Jonah looked like he’d just won the lottery.

Caroline had to remind herself to breathe. If she lived to be one hundred years old, she didn’t think she’d ever again have the privilege of witnessing something as pure and magnificent as Jonah meeting his daughter for the first time. And knocking it clear out of the fucking park. Part of her wanted to jump up on the conference table and cheer. Another part of her wanted to fall down on the floor and weep until sleep overtook her.

A stubborn voice in her head continued to plague her, though. Loudly and incessantly. Walk out of here, go home, move on. You’ve got it all, and he doesn’t fit into the perfect picture. This is not where you belong.

She clung to that belief like a lifeline. Maybe because it felt like all she had left.





Chapter Seventeen

Jonah stared straight ahead through the plastic partition of the taxi, barely registering the downtown traffic whizzing alongside them on Ninth Avenue. He knew if he looked over at Caroline seated beside him, he would have no choice but to hold her. He’d given up that right, however, so he focused on the passing buildings and the late-afternoon sunlight glinting off store windows instead. And tried valiantly to tamp down the need to drag her onto his lap and demand to know why she looked depleted of her spirit. How it had happened and how he could repair it.

She’d just saved him. Renee had agreed, against all odds, to allow monthly visitation with his daughter, and he owed that mostly to Caroline. Until she’d walked in, Renee had been unwilling to compromise. He’d seen the resentment on her face, watched her throw up a wall the second the meeting began. She’d been resentful of him, his lawyer, and the expensive office, pushing her already negative feelings to the fore. Any sort of compromise had seemed hopeless until Caroline walked in, looking beautiful and yet painfully fragile. He’d never once associated her with fragility, and it had taken everything in his power not to carry her from the room.

Yet she’d come alive, talking to Renee on a personal level, stripping those barriers down effortlessly. The dark cloud hanging over the conference room had lifted, daylight bleeding through. God, at one point, he’d actually believed she meant every word. She’d been that convincing. When she’d looked over at him during her speech, Jonah had foolishly let himself hope that she’d finally seen past all the trappings to the man beneath. Seen who they could be together, if given the chance.