As soon as everyone was cleared out of the conference room, Leila walked right up to Jackson. “Tell me the truth, did you think I was using insider information?”
Jackson held her gaze. “Honestly, I didn’t know.”
That stung. Hurt like the dickens, actually.
“I ran every possible scenario I could think of in my head,” he continued. “Unlike the others, I did know that there was a science involved. But without knowing your algorithm parameters, again, I just didn’t know. I did hold on to the belief that there was an explanation, however. And regardless, I still wanted to…protect you if I could.”
At least he was honest. Grant would’ve lied his ass off; she imagined a lot of guys would have.
But not Jackson. “Would you and I have been okay?”
Pain streaked across his face. “No. But that wouldn’t have stopped me from helping you, Leila. Even if you’d been guilty as sin, I still didn’t want you to suffer. The thought of your termination was killing me.”
Yes, she believed that. Even if she did something so heinous that she ripped his trust to shreds, she could see him still showing her mercy. That was very…Jackson.
“When did you know?” she whispered, thinking back to his smiles during the meeting, trying to pinpoint when she’d seen the first of his smiles. Had he believed her when she denied the accusations? Or was it only after she said she could provide evidence to prove herself. She needed to know. “When did you believe that I was innocent?”
His eyes softened…and that’s when she remembered.
“Sunshine, I knew the very second I saw your face when you came in the room.”
Hearing him confirm her thoughts practically stole the ground out from under her. A long emotional breath shot out of her lungs. “Good. That’s good.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t more sure before. I don’t want you to think that I—”
She shook her head and cut him off. “No, don’t apologize. This wasn’t a black-and-white situation. I know how it all looked. And if the situations were reversed, I’m sure I would’ve wondered until I saw you as well.”
He directed a weighty gaze her way. “You could’ve told me, you know. I would’ve kept your secret.”
“I know,” she reassured him gently. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you with my secret. I wasn’t keeping it from you at all, really. From everyone else, yes, since I had my family and the success of the site to consider. But with you, it was different. I never had to be L. J. Hart with you. Ever. You were the only person in my life with whom I’ve ever been able to be just me. All the time, just Leila. And I liked it. So it wasn’t something I was keeping from you, it was something that truly didn’t even exist around you. Does that make sense?”
His eyes ran over her face as he nodded. “I’m glad, then. That you didn’t tell me. That you could be just Leila with me.”
Relief washed over her. His understanding meant more than simple blind trust. “That said,” she continued, “I’m sorry that you had to find out like this.”
“No apologies necessary. Honest. Besides, we told each other no deep, dark secrets until we were ready.”
A part of her speculated what his secrets were and how she’d react when, if, she ever discovered what they were.
As if he were wondering that as well, he stood there in his token Jackson silence.
Unsure of what more to say, she turned to leave. She hadn’t been exaggerating earlier. She had grand plans of eviscerating Grant online the second she got home.
Leila got exactly two steps away before she was drawn to a stop by Jackson’s hand clamping shut around hers. “Why did you call me?”
She spun around. “What?”
“Clearly, you didn’t come back early from Utah because of your ex’s video, since you hadn’t even known about it yet. So why did you come back early? And why’d you call me right after you landed?”
Here it was. That classy, non-insane declaration she had to give him.
Taking a deep breath, she said softly, “I called because I missed…talking to you. After months of talking to you nearly every day, I missed hearing your voice.”
She looked up into his eyes. “I missed you.”
Heart hammering like a damn drum in his chest, he replayed her whispered confession a few more times in his head to make sure he’d heard it correctly.
Then he dragged her into his arms.
“I missed you too, sunshine. Three longest goddamn days of my life. I kept picturing your ex touching you, upsetting you, hell, breathing the same air as you, and I wanted to strangle the son of a bitch with my bare hands.”
“That can still be arranged,” she muttered in a muffled grouse against his chest, before he felt all the tension drain out of her body.
Her arms wrapped around his torso and she turned to lay her head against his chest, directly over his heart. “Say it again,” she whispered.
He chuckled. “I missed you like hell, Leila. So damn much I honestly think that if the whole video fiasco hadn’t happened, I would’ve caved and jumped on a plane to Utah to see you.”
Her gasp came swift, and he felt her hold it in her chest like a balloon of air.
After a few long moments, he looked down at her, puzzled, worried she was going to turn blue in the face soon. “Sweetheart, what’re you doing?”
With a tremulous smile, she exhaled and confessed, “I’ve been trying to think of a way to ask you a question in a classy, non-insane way, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to fail miserably so I’m trying to keep it to myself.”
Good lord, this woman never failed to do and say things that nailed him square in the chest. “Don’t keep it to yourself. Let me hear your question, baby, exactly as it is in that brilliant, busy little head of yours.”
She took a deep breath, and then whooshed out, “Do you have plans tonight? If not, do you want to have a movie night at my place? I was actually planning on grabbing takeout from that brewpub in your neck of the woods, the one your friend is the co-owner of. You can help me disband my website and send all my regulars into a blind panic before football season.”
It all came out as one long adorable run-on sentence request.
Too focused on finally having her in his arms to be able to answer her just yet, it was all he could do to keep his caveman instincts from throwing her over his shoulder and pulling her into a cave so he could just spend a day kissing her senseless.
Kissing her until she never left him again.
Even the mere idea of kissing her had his arms tightening around her until she squeaked.
But he just couldn’t let her go.
He’d meant what he’d said earlier. It had taken just a single look at her face for him to know she was innocent. He hadn’t needed any of the proof she’d offered them. He’d seen it in her eyes and heard it in her voice.
But more important, he’d felt it in his heart.
So while the rest of the men in the room had been busy quizzing her about her site, Jackson had been busy listening to what his heart had to say.
Essentially, it came down to one thing: He trusted her. More than he’d ever trusted any woman in his life.
It had been a jarring but grounding revelation that, on instant replay now, was provoking yet another pythonlike hug around her perfect little body.
A muffled murmur puffed out against his chest and he grinned at the question, loosening his hold just enough so he could see that smile he’d heard in her question.
“Yes, sunshine,” he replied finally. “Dinner, movie, all of it sounds great.”