TWO WEEKS after Jesse moved out, Mark Walker marched into Devon’s office and threw himself into a chair.
“Come and work for me,” he said without preamble.
Since the disastrous dinner with his mother, Devon had talked to Mark almost daily, either by phone or email, sometimes both. Erica, he had not talked to at all. Having gotten her way, his mother had retreated to the Alexander estate, which presumably meant she had gotten over her concerns about the running of the company. Mark turned out to be a good friend, as supportive as he could be from the other side of the Atlantic. He told Devon bluntly that he didn’t agree with the decision to break off his relationship with Jesse, but he understood his reasons—however misguided he considered those reasons to be. The night before, Devon hadn’t been able to get hold of him, but he never imagined it was because Mark was winging his way across the ocean to put in a personal appearance.
He put down his pen, pushed aside the stack of forms he was signing, and stared at Mark in disbelief.
“Excuse me?”
“I said, come and work for me. I told you I’m opening up a London branch, didn’t I? Well, I want you to run it for me. You’ll have complete control. I’ve already leased the office space, but you can employ whoever you like.”
“Why?” Devon asked.
It wasn’t that the offer was unappreciated, but Devon wondered what his motives were. Mark knew better than anyone how messed up his life was right now. Was he really the person he wanted in charge of his business? Or was Mark simply offering out of pity?
“Because you’re good at what you do,” Mark told him, with no hint of anything other than meaning what he said. “You deserve better than the way your mother treats you. I’m serious, Devon. I can have a contract drawn up by the end of the day. What is there to keep you here? Work for me and I promise you can have free rein. I won’t even tell you who you can date.”
“Look, it’s tempting, but I need time to think. The way things are at the moment....”
“You could get him back,” Mark said, accurately guessing Devon’s thoughts had turned to Jesse. He had given him up without a fight. To leave Alexander’s now without trying to make amends with Jesse would mean it had all been for nothing. “Once you resign, your mother will have no say in what you do.”
“It’s too late. My mother would still do everything she could to destroy his career. And I hurt him, Mark. This time I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.”
NOW, A month after he had forced Jesse out of his life, Devon stood in his new penthouse office, looking out over the bustling city he called home. In the end, leaving his job had been easy. Unsurprisingly, his mother kicked up a storm, threatening to sue, to disinherit, to ruin Jesse even though they were no longer together. For the first time in his life, Devon saw his mother for what she was: a bully and a bitter, resentful old woman. Her threats meant nothing. It had taken him a lifetime, but finally he realized there was nothing Erica could do to either him or Jesse.
Even so, Devon was afraid to contact Jesse. Not afraid of what Erica might do—he was certain now that his mother did not hold the kind of sway she imagined—but he was afraid Jesse would reject him outright. As he had every right to do after the way things had ended. Devon heard from Kenny that Jesse believed Devon dumped him to save his own career rather than Jesse’s. And Kenny had warned Devon to stay away. He had done Jesse damage enough, Kenny told him, appointing himself as Jesse’s father figure and protector.
There was a polite tap on his office door and Devon turned as Emily poked her head into the room. She still had a tendency to be quiet and reserved, but sweet, loyal Emily’s confidence had grown tenfold since he asked her to go with him when he left Alexander’s. Emily was one of only two people Devon had brought with him. The other was Larry, the former security guard, who now proudly manned the main reception desk and continued to watch over Devon like a faithful guard dog.
“I wanted to remind you about your appointment,” Emily said. “Do you want me to order a taxi?”
“No, it’s fine,” Devon smiled. “I think I’ll walk. It’s not far.”
The weather was fairly mild and he hoped the fresh air would blow away the cobwebs and wake him up a bit before he went into his meeting. Stuffy men in stuffy suits in a stuffy room he could do without, but the company had the potential to put a lot of business their way and he had promised Mark he would be on his best behaviour.
Sprinting across the street, Devon stepped onto the pavement and had barely taken two steps toward the other office building when a young man pushing a stroller sprinted around the corner, colliding with Devon head-on. Devon stumbled, and would have fallen if not for the man grabbing his arm and keeping him upright. He glanced up, not sure whether to bawl the guy out for being so careless or thank him for saving him from landing in a heap on the pavement.
Whichever, the words died on his lips as his gaze met with familiar, warm brown eyes. Jesse looked just as shocked to see Devon. He released his hold on Devon’s arm and stood back with a hesitant smile. He stepped behind the stroller, using it—and the child in it—as a shield.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Devon snapped. Irrational, yes, but seeing Jesse had taken him by surprise. And what was he doing with a kid?
The smile faded and Jesse’s eyes filled with hurt. “I’m working round the corner,” he said quietly. “I’m running a bit late. That’s why I was hurrying. I didn’t see you. And when I did, I didn’t know it was you. Not till you looked up. And then....” He gave a little shake of his head. “But you don’t want me prattling on. You probably just want to get wherever it is you’re going.”
“Actually, yes.” Devon hated the coldness in his tone, and the crestfallen expression on Jesse’s face, but he really had no idea how to deal with seeing him. So close. So incredibly beautiful. Devon felt frozen to the spot, his heart pounding. There was so much he wanted to say, but the words just wouldn’t come. “I have an appointment. It was nice to see you. Take care of yourself, Jesse.”
Jesse hesitated for a moment. It was clear he was being dismissed, but he seemed to be debating whether it was worth arguing. After a few uncomfortable seconds passed, he gave it up as a lost cause and turned away. Watching him leave, Devon noticed he was no longer in a tearing hurry to be somewhere on time. Now Jesse walked with a heavy gait, shoulders hunched over the stroller, his head bowed.
“Jesse,” Devon blurted out suddenly, surprising himself as much as Jesse. He walked slowly toward him, not sure what he was going to say. All he knew was, he didn’t want Jesse to walk out of his life again. There was, of course, one obvious topic of conversation. “Who does the kid belong to?”
Devon glanced down at the little girl in the stroller, answering his own question. With her dark, curly hair and big brown eyes, there could be no doubt as to her parentage.
“She’s yours!”
“Yeah. Well, I think so.” Jesse flushed, embarrassed, but he looked at the child with something akin to affection. “The mother said she is.”
“Where’s the mother now?” Devon asked. Not that he was any kind of expert, but the kid had to be about eighteen months old. Add another nine months to that... his mind raced, trying to do the math.
“It was before I met you,” Jesse said stiffly, accurately guessing what Devon was thinking. “Her mother took off right after she dumped Anya on my doorstep. Last I heard, she was back in Poland with some boyfriend.”
“So why am I just hearing about this?” Devon demanded. “You weren’t going to tell me, were you? If I hadn’t bumped into you, I would never have known.”
“It’s nothing to do with you, Dev. This is my problem, not yours.”
“I could have helped you.”
“Why would you even want to, Dev? You hate me.”
“I don’t hate you. I love you!” Devon protested, taking both of Jesse’s hands in his own. “I’ve always loved you.”
“Yeah? You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
“I was trying to protect you!”
“I don’t need protecting!” Jesse yelled, snatching his hands out of Devon’s grasp. “Not by you and not by Kenny. I’m not a kid, Dev.”
“I know you’re not. But you could have talked to me, Jess.”
“Right, and what would you have said?” Jesse demanded, his temper rising. “If I told you I’d been left with a kid, Dev? What would you have said?”
“I would have said keep her,” Devon cried in earnest. “I would have said give this kid the chance in life you never had. I would have said give her all the love nobody ever gave you. I would have said let me look after you. Both of you. I would have said... marry me.”
Jesse stared at him, his mouth hanging open. Devon had asked Jesse to marry him once before and he been knocked back. And Devon had refused when Jesse asked him. Was it a case of third time lucky, as the old saying went?
“Okay,” Jesse said, and it was Devon’s turn to look dumbfounded.
“Okay what?”
Jesse took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll marry you. But you have to be sure, Dev. You have to want both of us.”
“I do!” Devon swept Jesse up into a huge bear hug. Anya stared at them curiously.
“We need to talk about this seriously,” Jesse warned once Devon put him down. But he was smiling and so was Devon, his first real smile since forcing Jesse to leave. “It’s not going to be easy, Dev.”
“Hey, we’re getting married and we’ve got a baby,” Devon said, grinning like an idiot. “What could be easier?”