CHAPTER32
I’m sitting across from Jake at Eleven Madison Park, a bustling popular restaurant and his current favorite, and watching him mess with his cell while we wait on our food.
“Jake?” I interrupt gently.
“Emma?” he responds, without looking up. He’s deliberately being evasive.
“The Hunter merger?” My curiosity has been niggling at me all the way here, and I have been extremely patient. He sighs, puts his cell inside his jacket, and brings his steady green gaze back to me, his face unreadable.
“My father and Hunter are not what you would call the best of friends anymore,” he mumbles quietly, sighing that he can’t avoid this explanation any longer.
“Anymore?” I repeat flatly.
“Yes, Emma, anymore. They used to be as close as Daniel and I are.” He leans back, sliding down into his chair a little, and shifts his feet to cage mine on either side under the table, our upper ankles connecting slightly. Jake is a toucher; he always has to have some sort of contact it seems. It no longer bothers me, but it was such a slow thing that I just got used to.
“What happened?” I watch his face carefully; he’s good at giving nothing away, amazing poker face.
“My father had an affair with Elsa Hunter.” Daniel’s mother, and Hunter’s wife.
Crap.
I wasn’t expecting that.
Is that the basis of his bond with Daniel? Shared anger at their parents?
“It’s not exactly common knowledge,” he sighs and moves his water glass; he needs a point of focus. I can tell this is something he hates talking about. Jake only fidgets when he’s very uncomfortable, and it’s his biggest tell; he’s watching the items he moves around as though for distraction.
“When?” I know I shouldn’t pry, but Jake rarely denies me knowledge on any subject. Weirdly.
“When I was in my early twenties. My mother forgave him, but I didn’t, not for a long time,” he pauses, “I’m not sure I’ve forgiven him even now. He broke her heart.” Jake’s relationship with his mother is unparalleled. I can see now why he harbors so much anger towards his father, and I also see why Jake is a little apprehensive when it comes to real relationships.
“Is that why you pushed for this merger? To get back at him?” I nudge his ankle gently with mine so he’ll look at me.
“Yes … no … we stand to do well with this, but I guess it’s always been a factor,” he shrugs and avoids my gaze, signaling that the money hasn’t been the main reason. Jake’s also a ‘shrugger’; it has to be his most common mannerism, annoyingly so. It does, however, emphasize his shoulders and the sheer solid mass of them.
“How did you find out?” I try tearing my gaze from his upper body, still appreciative that he looks good in everything he wears.
“Carl Hunter caught them in bed together, in his own house.” He’s still focusing on his glass and turning it absent-mindedly, clearly not happy.
“So, that’s why there’s a weird atmosphere whenever your father’s around?” I watch his every movement, a little empathetic to how young he looks when he does this.
Makes so much more sense now.
“I don’t think I can ever forgive him for hurting my mom like that. She deserves better than him.” I know Jake is close to his mother; he visits her often and has me send her flowers every month: a dozen colorful gerberas … her favorites.
A thoughtful son.
“She stayed with him, though? She could have left him if she wanted to,” I point out, a little enamored with how deeply he feels for his mother’s heart ache."
