Page 91 of False Evidence

He cleared his throat. “The last one is my will, which I update every year. You’ve been my primary beneficiary since before we got engaged. I added Gemma to ensure that if anything happens to both of us, she’ll be taken care of.”

Alexandra was on her feet. “Taken care of? Like life insurance taken care of?”

“No. She gets everything not specifically willed to Lee and his family. Same thing you would get if you survive me.”

“Lord, JT, I have never been certain I would survive you.”

He pulled her into his arms. “Everything I have is yours. It always has been. I never changed the will except to add more assets and now Gemma as a beneficiary. Honestly, I’d give it all up if I could have you back. What’s the point in having all the money in the world if I can’t share it with you?”

“Buying Christmas presents for homeless kids?”

“I’ll always do that. Hell, after I sell T&D, I’ll have more time and money to devote to that and other charities. Maybe by the time I’m done, I’ll have given it all away and Gemma will only get a nice college fund. But whatever I have when I leave this earth will go to you and Gemma. Outside of Lee, you’re my only family. It doesn’t matter that we’re not married or that Gemma’s not mine. You’re the family I choose even if you won’t choose me.”

“I’ve always chosen you. But it’s not just about me and what I want now. It’s Gemma you need to win over, and you can’t buy her off. You’ve got toloveher. Change her diapers and put her in time out and…who knows how she’ll be in the terrible twos, and we’re not even talking about how difficult adolescence can be…”

“Will you let me try? Consider every day for the next ten years an audition, and if I pass, maybe consider marrying me? Eventually let me adopt her?”

She rose on her toes and pressed her lips to his. “Your audition started when you picked Gemma up from Lee’s.”

ChapterThirty-Four

They made love again in the guest bed where JT had spent the previous night. They took their time with the second round. Alexandra feeling the promise in JT’s touch that had been missing in the last year of their relationship. Afterward, when it came to deciding where to sleep, it was natural for her to invite him to share the large bed in the primary suite. Gemma was sound asleep in her crib, and she wouldn’t understand the significance of seeing a man in her mother’s bed.

Alexandra would be a fool not to accept JT’s offer to audition for the role of father figure, not when it meant she could actually have everything she’d ever wanted. It was hard to believe he’d already claimed Gemma by making her his heir, but she’d seen the paperwork. Signed and notarized.

Could he really be a daddy to Gemma?

She’d never imagined he’d want the role.

It was midnight when they moved to the primary bedroom, and for the first time in seven years, she slept in the arms of the man she loved. They woke up together on Christmas morning when her daughter started chattering to the stuffed panda and dinosaur that shared her crib.

“Huh,” JT whispered. “When she woke up in the hotel room with me, she was always grouchy and hungry.”

Alexandra snickered.

Gemma shot up in her crib, grasping the rail above her head, and said, “Hungy!”

JT laughed. “Ah. That’s my girl.”

His laugh rolled back the years. She remembered their first shared Christmas so many years ago and what it had been like to wake in his arms.

She brushed her lips over his. “Merry Christmas, Jay.”

His eyes lit at her use of the private name. “Merry Christmas, Lex.”

“Hungy!”

He rolled from the bed, circled around the foot, and lifted Gemma from the crib. Or rather, as JT called it, the baby jail. Then he climbed back into bed, depositing her daughter between them.

He kissed Gemma’s round cheek. “Merry Christmas, Gemmy.”

“Hungy!”

Alexandra laughed. “She doesn’t really have the concept of Christmas yet.”

He snickered. “I picked up on that.”

He moved to lift Gemma, but Alexandra stopped him with a touch. She wanted to enjoy this moment a little longer. It was unfathomable to wake up on Christmas morning with the two people she loved the most—and this might well be the only holiday she’d get to have with both of them.

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