“Get rid of her?” Billy said. “Okay, you are officially crazy!”

     “I agree with Billy,” Alec said. “You are crazy, Steven, if you’re implying that we do something to harm her.”

     “Yes, why don’t you tell us exactly what ‘get rid of her’ means?” Billy challenged.

     “Don’t be dense, Billy,” Steven muttered.

     Billy was incredulous. “So you’re talking about… about killing her? My god, is that what you’re asking us to agree to do? What is wrong with you!”

     He looked so appalled and so ready to dissent, as did Alec, that Steven thought about his response carefully.

     “Did I say the word kill?” he asked casually. “Did I? I merely said we have to get rid of her. If you can think of a way to get her out of our lives and assure she will never be a problem to us and never get a dime of our inheritance, yet do all of this by managing to keep her alive, I’m open to your suggestions,” Steven said, putting all the pressure on Billy. “Let’s hear it, Billy.”

     “You’re assuming a lot of things,” Billy pointed out. “You’re assuming she will be found; you’re assuming she will want the money…”

     “The old man will find her,” Steven predicted. “He’s dedicated his whole ridiculous life to finding her, eventually he will be successful. And of course she’ll want the money.”

     “You don’t know that,” Billy insisted. “We don’t know her. She might not be…” he was about to say ‘like us,’ which made him cringe. Like them. Ruled by greed.

     “She might not be what, Billy? A problem?” Daniel asked. “I side with Steven on this; I think she’s going to be a big problem, no matter how you slice it. And you add into that the fact that she’s going to be married to Jasper Jacks… What chance do we have then if she’s controlled by him? If she doesn’t want the money, he’ll make sure she takes it anyway just to destroy our family and serve his agenda. Sorry, but she does need to be gotten rid of.”

     Billy ran an agitated hand through his chestnut hair, his gold-flecked brown eyes starting to look a little wild. “This is insane. I can’t believe we’re even talking about this!”

     “How do we know Jax even knows who she is to us?” Alec asked, gazing at Steven, the instigator of this unsavory conversation.

     Steven shrugged. “I don’t know if he does,” he admitted. “He might; he might not. Look, what difference does it make? If he doesn’t know already, he’ll eventually find out, just like grandfather will. She’s a dangerous weapon in Jax’s hands, whether he knows he has such a weapon at his disposal or not. He will be her husband. Entitled to half of everything that is hers,” Steven said, hammering his point home. “He will destroy us.”

     “He doesn’t need grandfather’s money to do that,” Billy mumbled. “Haven’t you heard all the rumblings about the CEO change that’s going down at JE in a few months? All the hot buzz is that Milt Barrymoore is out and Jax is going to replace him.”

     Steven shook his head. “Don’t buy into that, Billy. Jax is too young - he’d, in fact, be the youngest CEO there ever was in our field. The JE board is full of crusty old men who will never go for it. Jax’s ascension to the JE throne, as it were, is pure industry rumor.”

     Billy shook his head. “It’s more than just rumor, Steven. Wall Street is going crazy waiting and expecting Jax to get that position in one of those brilliant, last second maneuvers that paralyze his opponent that he’s known so well for. It’s his father’s company. The board could back Jax on that sentiment alone and overlook the whole age thing. And you know as well as I do that without that old dinosaur Barrymoore reigning him in, he’s going to come gunning for us like some corporate commando.”

     Steven let out a long sigh of impatience. “Billy, if his wife is heir to all that we have, why would he even bother to gun for us? He wouldn’t have to! He’d just sit back and laugh and wait until the old man keels over and then watch as his wife gets it all and we get nothing. Warner World will cease to exist, as it will fall into the hands of the Jacks family, lock, stock and barrel. And there won’t be a damn thing we can do about it then because our grandfather willed it away, like the complete ass that he is. We have got to launch our own preemptive strike. We’ve got to stop this girl from sending us into our worst nightmare. Now, I’m still waiting to hear your brilliant ideas on how to neutralize her and still keep her breathing. Because if you can’t come up with a way, then we do it my way, no questions asked, no dissention among us. Understood?”

Later that evening . . . Beaurivage Restaurant, Malibu, CA - Private dining room

     The waiter set down the entrees; the Spinach ravioli with butter and sage in front of the petite, dark-haired beauty, whom he kept eyeing to try and assess if she were a movie starlet; and the Filet Mignon in Cognac sauce in front of the tall, athletic blonde gentleman, whom he knew was that corporate raider whiz kid and son of one of Beverly Hills most famous family’s, Jasper Jacks.

     “Enjoy your dinner,” he said, stumped that he could not figure out who the exquisite, dark-haired young lady was with Mr. Jacks. He supposed she could be nobody famous, but she sure looked like she ought to be famous. He shut the door to the private dining room, still trying to figure it all out.

     Brenda took a sip of her Perrier and then leaned into the table, close to Jax. “The last Saturday in July,” she said.

     Jax looked up from slicing his Filet Mignon and across at Brenda, “Excuse me?”

     “I know it seems really soon, but we might as well do it in the summer while we have the time, right?”

     “What?”

     “Your question, Jax. I’m answering you question,” she explained.

     He nodded. “Oh, I see. Would that be the question I asked you two days ago at breakfast?”

     She shrugged. “It was brunch. We were seriously delayed getting downstairs, remember?” she corrected him and then offered him an angelic smile that went straight to his heart.

     “So… the last Saturday in, July, huh?” he murmured thoughtfully.

     “Yes!” she said excitedly. “What do you think?”

     Jax looked uncertain. “I don’t know. It seems awfully soon,” he teased her. “What’s that… in three-and-a-half weeks?” Privately he was extremely pleased by Brenda’s choice of wedding date. Had she not picked a date for this summer, he would have done his damndest to change her mind.

     “Oh.” She sat back in her chair, looking perplexed. “So you think it’s too soon then? I didn’t think you would feel that way.”

     He smiled at her. “You didn’t?”

     She caught onto his teasing mood and was smiling now, too. “Nooo… Because you love me so much.”

     “I’m not disputing that,” he said, blue eyes twinkling playfully.

     “And I love you,” she continued.

     “Nothing has ever been more obvious,” he sighed.

     She giggled and reached across the table and grabbed his hands. “So really we don’t need to have some silly, long engagement, and…”

     “And you can’t wait to be married to me. Just admit it.”

     She laughed. Then she nodded. “And I can’t wait to be married to you.”

     “You can’t wait - period,” he teased her, reaching across for her, plucking her right out of her chair and drawing her onto his lap. “And thank God for your impatient streak, if it means in three short weeks you’ll be all mine.”

     Brenda kissed him. “I’m already all yours. But now we get to enjoy being engaged for three weeks, and then we can get married at the end of the month, and we have the whole month of August to go on our honeymoon and find a house, and… Oh, we are going to get our own place, aren’t we? I mean, you don’t have your heart set on living with your family do you?”

     “The only person I have my heart set on living with is you,” he said, kissing her. “Alone with you. Until we have our own family.”

     Brenda smiled, relieved. “Good! So, as I was saying, we’ll have the wedding at the end of the month - it shouldn’t be that difficult to arrange everything. I mean, I have no friends, so the only people I’d want in the wedding party would be Holly and my grandmother. Oh, and I suppose I ought to include your sister,” she said unenthusiastically.

     Jax laughed softly against her ear. “You don’t have to do any such thing. She will be a guest and that’s all. I won’t have you gritting your teeth through your wedding day.”

     Brenda hugged him. “See, this is why I love you.”

     He cradled her face in his hands. “No, this is why you love me,” he said huskily, as his lips descended onto hers and time stood still for them as they were drawn deeply into the magic of their kiss.

     He lifted his head several moments later.

     “Very convincing argument,” Brenda said, gazing in a bit of wonder at his mouth.

     Jax grinned.

     “And, yes, that is one of the many, many reasons that I do love you,” she conceded with a tiny laugh. “But this,” she said, placing her hand over his beating heart, “this is really why I love you - why I will always love you. You are… the most wonderful person I have ever known,” she told him in a heartfelt whisper.

     “I feel the same way about you,” he said softly. “And all I want to do is to make you happy every single day. It’s what I strive to do from the moment I get up in the morning to the moment I close my eyes at night, in fact. So let’s get planning this wedding of ours, shall we?”

     “Okay,” she agreed excitedly. “We don’t need a big wedding, you know.”

     “Yes, we do. I asked you what kind of wedding you wanted a long time ago and you said you wanted a big wedding.”

     “Jax, big weddings are for people who have huge families and tons of friends. Now, while that applies to you perfectly, it doesn’t apply to me at all,” she laughed. “I have exactly one friend - besides you, who are my best friend in the world - and that would be Holly. My family consists of two people - my father and my grandmother. And my sister, too, I suppose, but I won’t be hypocritical and act as if she and I are close or that I’d want her anywhere near my wedding, or that she’d even want to be there.”

     Jax was silent as he realized the irony of the truth that Brenda actually had quite a large family if she were to add in her four brothers, a grandfather - and God only knew how many other Warners littered the planet. Of course, she’d have to know about them to be able to count them. And it was his hope that she would never count those people as family.

     “My family is your family,” Jax said to her. “So my big family is your big family. And they will all be in attendance - everyone from Australia to Scotland - so we will be having a big wedding. A huge wedding,” he said, not about to deprive her of what he knew she really and truly wanted.

     “But we only have three weeks,” she reminded him, even as her eyes lit up at the prospect of a big, fancy wedding. “It’s impossible.”

     “Nothing is impossible,” Jax dismissed. “I promise you, we can do this. If things get too crazy, we can just hire someone to attend to all the annoying little details. Now, what else…”

     “Well,” she said, her eyes radiant and beautiful with excitement, “printing up and sending out invitations would probably be the first order of business. And then we have to pick a church to get married in, of course. Oh, and a place to have the reception. And a place to go on our honeymoon. You see that’s the beauty of getting married in three weeks, Jax. Because then we have the whole, entire month of August to do things like go on a honeymoon, come home, look for a place to live, move in, get settled, be deliriously happy… you know, before the world intrudes on us. Like your job, since I’m positive you will get that CEO position,” she said, showing off her complete confidence in him. “And I’ll be busy with classes, plus I’ll have to set aside time to fulfill the specifications of my recording contract. And before we get bogged down by all that, I just want time for me and you making our life together.”

     His smile warmed her heart. “I love the way you think,” he said.

     “So does this mean we just actually set a date? We actually just decided that we’re really going to get married on July 28th?”

     “I think we just actually did all that, yes.”

     She threw her arms around him. “Perfect!” she exclaimed.

     “I couldn’t agree more. Now would you please unhand me, woman,” he laughed, “so that I may honor you with a toast?”

     “Okay, a toast, a toast. Honor away,” Brenda said, unwrapping herself from Jax and accepting the glass of champagne he handed her.

     “May love fill our hearts,” he began, “and happiness our days…”

     “Oh, I know this one! And may truth and honesty light our way,” she finished, as they clinked their glasses together.

     Brenda’s concluding the toast with the importance of truth and honesty in a relationship, especially a marriage, connected with something deep inside of Jax. And he knew at that very moment that he would not lie to her; that he would not keep things from her. He’d have to tell her about her Will Warner connection. But not now. He was not about to do anything that might spoil, disrupt or possibly put a halt to the wedding he had been planning his life around, the life he’d been planning his days around.

     After the honeymoon, he decided. He would tell her everything then. Her father would object vociferously, of course, as this was going against Brenda’s late mother’s own wishes. But Jax was committed to telling her, and when he made a decision, he could very seldom be swayed.

     Later that night, after enjoying the heady decadence of their lovemaking, Jax and Brenda lay in his bed, wrapped up contentedly in each other’s arms. It would be Brenda’s last night at the Jacks Mansion because the insurance company had arranged for a hotel suite for them until Ruby’s home was repaired. Although, as it turned out, Brenda would not be staying there. One of her father’s colleagues, Dr. Collins, was going to Europe for three months and had arranged for Harlan to stay at his place, so Brenda would be staying with her father at Dr. Collins house. Ruby, always the independent sort, had preferred to stay at the hotel.

     Brenda didn’t really want to think about not coming home to a house where Jax was every night, not laughingly falling into his arms at night, not being sent off to sleep either in a blaze of erotic passion or with the most tender, heart-melting kisses. She sighed softly. She couldn’t wait until they were married and had a home of their own that belonged to just them. A home neither of them would ever have to leave. And even if they did, it would always be together.

     She was enjoying the soothing sound of his strong heartbeat when she asked, “Where do you want to live, Jax?”

     “With you.”

     She laughed. “Location, location,” she said snapping her fingers.

     “Oh that. “I think we should stay in the southern California area,” he said. “My immediate family’s here; so is yours.”

     She nodded.

     “I’ve always wanted to live by the ocean,” he said. “My parents were the same way.”

     Brenda tilted her head up and kissed the underside of his chin. “They must have loved this house then.”

     He nodded. “They did. And so do I. But I can love another house just as much. Especially with you in it. I just really want it to be by the ocean. I want to be able to look out of any window in our house and see the water. And we need a dock. For the boats.”

     She smiled. “Oh, so your boats are moving in with us, then?”

     He smiled, too. “Yes. My father… he left them to me. He and I were the sailors of the family… In love with the ocean and all that. He taught me how to sail and steer a boat from when I was six years old. I couldn’t even reach the wheel; he had to lift me up.” Jax laughed softly in remembrance. It was amazing how ever since Brenda had first come into his life, the memories of his parents no longer automatically felt like reopening a crippling wound. Now they felt much more like healing that wound. Something he had not even thought possible.

     Brenda’s hand came up to stroke his face. “Maybe we should look in the Hermosa Beach area then. Or, hey, how about Malibu? The beachside area?” she suggested.

     “Yeah… I do love Malibu,” he said, his hand stroking her back in a soothing pattern that was making her sleepy. In his voice she heard a note of definite interest in her suggestion.

     “Yeah, you do,” she echoed. “Maybe the Malibu Cove Colony Drive area or by Malibu Colony Road, or anything on PCH. It’s gorgeous there. Lots of magnificent beachfront houses with ocean views and water views. Hey, we could even find one with great views of the Santa Monica Mountains, too - Wouldn’t that be amazing? We’d have the ocean and the mountains right there all around us. And there’s lots of privacy out in Malibu, which I know a future CEO, such as yourself, will appreciate.”

     “And a future singing sensation, such as yourself, would appreciate as well, I would imagine” he said.

     She laughed. “You think I’m going to be famous?”

     “Yes,” he said without hesitation.

     “Hey, I know you’re going to be busy with that whole CEO battle thing, so if you want me to take care of looking for houses for us, I’d be happy to do that,” she offered, brushing her lips softly against his throat.

     He nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to do it with you, but you’re right, things at JE are going to get a little hectic so I may not be available all the time.”

     “Don’t you worry about a thing, I can handle it,” she said confidently, excited about the responsibility. It was a little scary how happy she was, how good life was.

     “Okay,” he laughed softly, hearing the excitement in her voice. “You take care of finding us a house, and I’ll take care of… arranging the honeymoon - How’s that?”

     “Deal. But I do think we need to… umm… maybe pick a church first to get married in?” she said, raking her nails playfully over his ribcage. “What do you think of St. Paul’s? You know that big church off of Wilshire, right over in Santa Monica? Jax, it’s really beautiful - I’ve been in there before with my grandmother. And it’s big enough to hold all of your relatives,” she added with a laugh. “What do you think?”

     “What I think is that that’s a very popular church and so we should reserve it first thing in the morning. Any ideas on where you’d like the reception to be?”

     “I actually really loved the restaurant you took me to tonight. It’s right by the ocean, and those gardens and fountains outside were amazing! Not to mention the food was incredible. Can we see if they take wedding parties and try to book something there?”

     “They do take wedding parties,” Jax told her. “Ned’s cousin got married there two years ago and had the reception up on the second level. It was pretty fabulous, as I recall. I’ll tell you what - we’ll talk to the manager tomorrow night and have them reserve the date for us. Then we’ll go over menus and seating with him, and all that kind of stuff.”

     “Okay,” she said. Her voice was soft and mellow and very sleepy.

     “Uncle Ian’s going to want to handle the wedding cake though. He already told me that,” Jax mentioned.

     Brenda’s sleepy little laugh was adorable. “He did?”

     “Yep.”

     “Hold on a minute here. Is he going to actually attempt to make it himself?”

     “I have no idea,” Jax said with a soft laugh. “But the one thing I do know about my uncle - about any Jacks, actually - is that there’s nothing they won’t try. I told you that Jerry ate a slug once, didn’t I?”

     Brenda hit Jax on the stomach. “Oh god, yes, you did,” she shuddered, “and I believe I asked you not ever to elaborate on that.”

     He laughed and kissed her temple. “Sorry.”

     “I like Jerry,” she told him, snuggling up for more comfort as she felt the lure of sleep pulling strongly at her.

     “Yeah, so do I. He’s kind of like a brother to me.”

     They both laughed at that bit of silliness.

     “I envy you growing up with a brother who loved you and who you loved,” Brenda confessed. “I see how close the two of you are and I compare it to me and Alexa, who - you know - sometimes treated me worse than a stranger would treat me, Jax. Growing up you knew how much your brother loved you and that he’d do anything for you. Growing up all I knew was that my sister wished I would disappear into a black hole somewhere. I actually always wished I had a brother.”

     Ironic, Jax thought. She had four of them, but he had a feeling she would never wish for these particular brothers.

     Steven and Daniel Fillmore sat at the isolated end of the bar of The Cocoa Beach Pub. Steven took a healthy swallow of his vodka tonic while Daniel merely swirled the stirrer in his Martini.

     “Are you seriously going to leave the problem of the girl up to Billy to handle?” Daniel demanded.

     “He can think he’s handling it,” Steven said with a shrug. “I intend to keep pushing the sister into a jealous rage. I’m telling you, Danny boy, she can get rid of Brenda for us. The jealousy is eating her alive. Apparently she was involved with Jax first - wanted to marry the guy, even. And, lo and behold, he dumps her, falls in love with her baby sister and proposes to her instead. It’s a classic setup for a crime of passion.”

     Daniel nodded in agreement. “Especially if this Alexa woman is drowning her sorrows in the bottle now. Intoxication and a jealous rage can have very tragic consequences,” he murmured silkily.

     “Exactly,” Steven smiled. “She was so outraged over the car Jax bought Brenda that she set the garage on fire - nearly killed everyone in the house. So you see… she’s quite capable of criminal behavior. If I can keep egging on her insane jealousy of Brenda, she’ll take care of the Brenda problem for us. Trust me. She’s been inept so far, but she’s bound to get it right eventually.”

     “Just as long as nothing leads back to us, Steve,” Daniel said. “I get a bad feeling that Billy and Alec would split with us on this one. You saw their reactions the other day. If they thought we had anything to do with any sudden tragedies involving Brenda Barrett, I think they might go to the police and bring up that conversation where you talked about getting rid of her and I sided with you. They have the information you found in grandfather’s will as the motive. The police would latch onto that in a hot second. Not to mention Jax would crucify us. Literally.”

     “That’s why this is so perfect,” Steven insisted. “Alexa Barrett will be the only one who takes the fall for whatever happens to Brenda because she is, after all, the one who’s going to actually commit the crime. I’m doing nothing but fueling her anger and resentment. I’m not buying her any weapons or telling her to kill anyone. The police will arrest her. Jax will crucify her. We won’t be suspected of a thing.”

     Daniel nodded. “So then I guess you’ll be taking another trip to Beverly Hills soon…”

     “Yes. I’m sure I’ll find her at the bar.”

     A dark grin touched Daniel’s lips. “Wouldn’t it be simply tragic if at Jax’s wedding his bride gets gunned down at the altar by his drunk, insanely jealous ex-girlfriend, who also happens to be the bride’s sister?”

     Steven just laughed and downed the rest of his vodka tonic.

     The next morning, Jax had just carried a sleeping Brenda back into her bedroom, gently placing her back into her own bed with a kiss, and was jogging down the stairs on his way out to the marine store, when he spotted his pregnant sister-in-law coming out of the kitchen with a bowl of ice cream.

     “Hmm, ice cream for breakfast,” he murmured teasingly, eyeing the scoop of Rocky Road.

     “Good morning to you, too,” Holly greeted him with a smile. “Going out?”

     Jax nodded. “Yeah, I’m just running to the marine store. I need to pick up some supplies for the yacht.”

     “Oh. I thought maybe you had to make a stop at the jeweler,” she said with a big smile.

     “What makes you think I haven’t made that stop already?” he responded with a mysterious smile.

     Holly’s eyes widened. “Have you?”

     Jax shrugged. “Let’s just say that I’ve known I wanted to marry Brenda for a very long time, and anyone who knows me knows that I’m always one step ahead,” he said.

     Holly laughed. “Of Brenda?”

     Jax grinned. “Of everyone else, actually. Brenda’s pretty much the only person who’s always right there with me. My beautiful kindred spirit.”

     Holly’s smile was warm. “Ain’t love grand?” she said with a chuckle.

     “Yep, it is that,” Jax concurred.

     “You’re perfect for each other, you know,” Holly commented.

     Jax nodded. “Would you mind telling her grandmother that?” he muttered.

     Holly laughed. “Oh, she’ll come around. I think she’s just acting a bit prickly over it all because Brenda’s only eighteen. Did you tell Katherine yet?”

     Jax shook his head. “I spent most of the last two days helping Brenda and her family go through the house for anything salvageable. Then we had to deal with the insurance issues on her car, and then I took her out to dinner last night. By the time we got back here, I didn’t see my sister, and I haven’t seen her this morning, so she’ll find out when she finds out, I guess,” he said, grabbing his car keys. “Although I have a feeling she already knows and that’s why she’s been scarce. Probably thinking up ways to change my mind,” he said with a roll of his blue eyes.

     “Wait, Jax,” Holly said, delaying his exit, “I’m actually glad I ran into you because I want to throw an engagement party for you and Brenda and…”

     “You don’t have to do that,” he assured her.

     “I want to,” she insisted. “I really want to, Jax. The both of you, especially Brenda, made my hasty wedding to your brother into actually quite the most wonderful day of my life. Brenda didn’t even know me and yet she was so concerned with it being a happy day for me - she went out of her way to ensure that. I’ll never forget that, and I want to do this for you both.”

     Jax nodded. “All right. Well, thank you.”

     Holly beamed. “You’re welcome! Now, what I need from you is a list of Brenda’s friends to invite,” Holly explained.

     Jax hesitated. “Well… the thing about that is that Brenda really doesn’t have any. She’s never been close with her sister - I think you already know that much. And she never really had any friends growing up either.”

     “Oh, I see,” Holly said quietly.

     “Then she was sent off to boarding school in England before she’d even hit her twelfth birthday,” Jax continued his explanation, “and the other girls there apparently took one look at her, got some serious cases of the green-eyed monster, and made it their mission to exclude her from everything at every turn.” Jax’s voice grew quiet. “Can you imagine how it would feel to be twelve years old, in a strange school in a strange country far away from your family and not one person will befriend you? Can you imagine that kind of loneliness and isolation? Not to mention the depth of courage and strength that little girl would have to possess to emerge from such a situation unscathed after enduring it for six years.” He shook his head. “I love her. With all my heart, I love her, and I will never allow anyone to make her feel that way again.”

     Holly was nodding her head in hearty agreement with her brother-in-law, outraged by how Brenda’s classmates had cruelly ostracized her.

     “But no matter what they did to her,” Jax continued, a smile touching his lips, “she always excelled. And the one thing she didn’t excel at, she used to give them their just desserts now and then,” he said with laugh, recalling Brenda’s stories about her wayward archery arrows. “And do you know I actually think that in the end, when they saw her standing up at that podium, the valedictorian of their class and the most beautiful girl that ever walked the earth - I think they finally realized what they should have known by seeing her at first sight - that they were in the presence of a truly extraordinary person. She’s so beautiful, you know, that people look at her and it’s what jumps out at them - they’re just hit with that ‘god-she’s-so-pretty’ thing. But she’s so much more than that exquisite face people see - she’s everything that’s sweet and good and beautiful.”

     Holly nodded again, feeling a lump in her throat at the obvious adoration and love in Jax’s eyes and voice when he spoke about Brenda. “That would probably account for that monstrous applause when she had finished her valedictory speech,” Holly mentioned. “I thought she was the most popular girl in the school,” Holly admitted, “until you just now told me otherwise. Jax, Brenda is so very dear to me. Like a sister, really. You know she comes to me to discuss things of importance to her, and it means the world to me that she values my opinions so much. I couldn’t be happier that she and I are soon going to be family.” Holly then clapped her hands together. “All right then, don’t you worry about my little engagement party. I’ll plan it for two weeks from now, the two of you are going to have a wonderful time and Brenda’s friends will be in attendance.”

     Jax gave her a look that was half amusement, half puzzlement.

     Holly just patted his shoulder, her eyes smiling. “Just leave it all to me. Run along now; I’ve kept you from your errands long enough.”

     Laughter erupted from the corner booth at the El Coyote Café for the fourth time in the last five minutes as the five women enjoyed a casual lunch. In attendance at the lunch gathering were Holly Sutton -Jacks, who had organized it, her good friends, Dr. Simone Hardy and designer Jackie Templeton, Jackie’s younger sister Laura, and Holly’s future sister-in-law, Brenda.

     As Holly had suspected and banked on, her friends adored Brenda, and Jackie’s 20-year old-sister, who was a UCLA student and had endured the schooling of a Swiss boarding school herself, became fast friends with her future fellow student and fellow boarding school victim. Holly had had a hunch that Laura and Brenda would hit it off fabulously because they both had hated the boarding school experience - already they were laughingly exchanging boarding school horror stories like lifelong chums. And they both had the most marvelous personalities and were bound to fascinate one another. Adding to their instant karma was the wonderful little coincidence that Brenda was getting married and Jackie and Laura happened to be the Templetons of the chic Templeton Bridal on Rodeo Drive.

     Wedding chatter filled the table as well as lots of talk about wedding attire and weddings in general, and then babies, at which point Holly simply had to proclaim to all that her dear friend Simone was the most brilliant obstetrician on the planet. She went on to tell Brenda that when the time came for her to be a mother she would have to get Simone as her doctor. Then there was plenty of humorous gushing about Brenda landing the catch of a lifetime in Jasper Jacks.

     “Okay, Holly and Brenda, so is it really true that Jax and Jerry’s mother was related to some kind of royalty?” Laura wanted to know.

     “It’s true,” Brenda said.

     “Yes, the lineage goes back to the Scottish King Edgar, I believe,” Holly added. “So since Jax and Jerry are the offspring of Lady Jane then that bit of old Scottish royalty flows in their veins, too.”

     “But they are so pure Aussie-American,” Brenda said with a laugh, “although Jax can actually do an amazing impression of his Uncle Ian.”

     “Who actually is Scottish,” Holly clarified for the others.

     By the time their long, delightful lunch was over, Brenda had plans to meet Jackie and Laura at “Templeton Bridal” the next day to choose wedding gown designs, and then on Friday afternoon to have a private showing of the dresses of her choice at the Jacks Mansion, modeled for her so she could see how they look on a bride and then pick one. And Laura and Brenda had made their own plans to go and see the movie Miss Congeniality that Thursday, both laughing about how both Jax and Laura’s boyfriend, Joel, would never be able to sit through that movie - that it was a girl thing.

     Brenda was floored by being around so many other females who actually liked her. So this was what it was like to have friends . . . who knew? It was pretty great, she had to admit.

     The next afternoon, after spending several hours at Templeton Bridal looking over a great number of wedding gown sketches with Holly, an excited Brenda left with a handful of them, anxious to get her grandmother’s opinion. She had already fallen in love with one particular dress, but wanted to see if her grandma had the same reaction.

     The light summer rain had turned into a downpour by the time Brenda arrived at the Beverly Crescent Hotel to see her grandmother. Rapping on the door, Brenda shook her wet windbreaker and graced her grandmother with a radiant smile when the door was opened.

     “Hi, Grandma!” she said, greeting her with a kiss to the cheek as she stepped inside the suite and excitedly pulled the envelope with the wedding dress sketches from inside her jacket. “You have got to see these! I think I’ve decided on one, but I want to see what you think.” She took off her wet jacket and went into the living room, tugging her grandmother behind her. Once there, she came to a dead stop as she saw her grandmother was not alone. Ryan Thornton, dressed in sailing attire, which looked ridiculous given the state of the weather, sat in a high-backed arm chair, sipping a beverage and munching on something that looked and smelled suspiciously like one of her grandmother’s amazing apple tarts.

     Upon seeing Brenda, he immediately sprang to his feet, a smile breaking out on his face as his eyes were trained intently on her.

     “Brenda!” he said. “What a pleasure it is to see you again.” His eyes seemed to race hotly over her, although he was gentleman enough that it did not come off as undressing her with his eyes.

     Brenda managed to give him a smile, but could not quite cover her confusion at his presence in her grandmother’s hotel suite. “Hi, Ryan. What are you doing here?” she asked point-blank.

     She felt her grandmother’s arm touch hers. “Now, Brenda, is that any way to talk to our guest?” Ruby chided with a smile, motioning for her granddaughter to have a seat.

     “Well, actually he’s your guest, Grandma. I don’t live here,” Brenda corrected. “Anyway, if I’m interrupting you guys, I can come back tomorrow,” she said.

     “Actually, I ran into Ryan at the mall when the sun was still shining, and he invited us out for a sail, which I thought would be just lovely, but it appears to be out of the question now,” Ruby said, gazing at the rain through the window. “Perhaps we can all catch a movie instead, or… you know what may be better if you two go without me… and…”

     “Ryan,” Brenda interrupted, “could you please excuse my grandmother and me? I don’t mean to be rude, but…”

     “Not a problem,” Ryan said, sensing the restrained anger behind Brenda’s polite request. “Another time perhaps?”

     Brenda looked at him for a moment. “Did my grandmother happen to mention to you that I’m engaged to be married?”

     The look of shock that passed over his features gave her her answer. “To Jax?” he asked, naturally assuming it had to be Jax.

     “Yes,” Brenda said.

     Ryan smiled, a smile of concession, Ruby thought. “Well, my congratulations to you, Brenda. I hope you’ll be very, very happy.”

     “We will be,” she said with a smile. “Thank you.”

     “And I certainly understand why you need to have some words with your grandmother,” he murmured, shooting her an understanding smile as he took his leave. “Very badly done, I’m afraid, Mrs. Barrett,” he murmured to Ruby as he took his leave.

     When they were alone, Ruby at least had the decency to look guilty. “You’re angry with me,” she said.

     “Yes,” Brenda said, arms folded; everything about her voice and posture and even her breathing indicating that she was very upset. “How dare you do that to me, Grandma? How dare you try to set me up on a… a date when you know perfectly well that I am engaged to be married!”

     “I apologize if I was out of line, Brenda.”

     “Grandma, you were out of line. You know you were.”

     “Yes, perhaps I was. But Brenda, I do have some very grave concerns about your marrying Jax. And I think I have to speak my piece here. Have you really thought about this at all?”

     “I love him, Grandma. Why do I have to analyze that?”

     “I know that you love him. I know that you’re caught up in what you’re feeling…”

     “Grandma, please, I really don’t want to fight with you. I’m going to marry Jax. You can’t possibly talk me out of it. So please let’s just drop this,” Brenda said.

     “Darling, I just don’t understand why you’re so set on this course…”

     “And I don’t understand what on earth you could possibly have against Jax!” Brenda said, getting more upset by the minute. “I mean, you don’t really know him at all, Grandma. You’re judging him so unfairly based on assumptions you’re making and not facts.”

     “Oh, so it’s not a fact that he dated your sister and then dumped her when his interest faded?”

     “How can you possibly compare high school dating to this?” Brenda asked incredulously. “Jax loves me.”

     “Speaking of high school dating,” Ruby said, changing the subject since she could hardly argue with the fact that Jax loved Brenda and had not remotely loved Alexa. “Isn’t it a shame that you never got to experience that? And now your engaging yourself to Jax will mean you will never experience college dating either.”

     “Oh, I see. So experiencing college dating is more important than experiencing love, Grandma? So I should… I should give up the love of my life so I can have the experience of dating a bunch of guys at UCLA that I don’t even care about?”

     “Brenda, please, I’m not meaning to upset you, honey. But isn’t the point that you don’t know if you’ll care about them or not until you try?” Ruby pointed out gently.

     “No, Grandma! The point is that I have found the one person in this world that I love more than anything and my own grandmother is trying to tell me to give that up. I’m an adult, Grandma, and I can make my own decisions, and I certainly know my own heart. I love Jax. I love him and I want to marry him. And I’m going to marry him. I feel honored that he asked me, that he loves me enough to want to make that kind of commitment to me. Can’t you see how happy I am? Does that just not matter? Does it just not count? I don’t understand this… You should be happy for me instead of trying to talk me out of it. You know, I expected opposition and harassment and all of that raining on my parade stuff from Alexa, and maybe from her mother, too. But not from you, Grandma,” Brenda said, the hurt in her eyes unbearable for her grandmother.

     Ruby was stunned. “Harassment? Oh, honey, please, please don’t think…”

     “Grandma, I am not finished,” Brenda said firmly, the tears shimmering in her eyes, but stubbornly refusing to fall. And as Harlan had often warned, Brenda’s defense of Jax was quite impassioned. “Now, I know that you don’t approve of Jax for me, and I guess you have your reasons, but I think you’re wrong. I will always think you’re wrong. I love him with all of my heart and I won’t let anyone put him down, judge him falsely, or try to make me think badly of him. And that includes you, Grandma. I love you, but I will not let you do this to Jax or to me. He is the finest, most wonderful man I know, next to my Dad, and if you can’t treat him with respect and respect that he is going to be a part of our family, then I’m sorry, Grandma, but I can’t have you as a part of my life then. I know what it feels like to be excluded and unwanted, and I won’t ever allow anyone to make Jax feel that way. Not ever. Especially not a member of my own family!”

     “Oh, Brenda, darling please… I’m so… I’m so sorry, I… let me explain… I…”

     Highly upset by the entire conversation, Brenda walked out of the hotel suite, too angry to be there any longer. And her day went from bad to worse when she ran into Jax’s sister in the hotel lobby.

     “Brenda, I was just on my way up to your grandmother’s suite. I was looking for you,” Katherine said, waylaying Brenda, who was feeling sad and upset and really needing to see Jax.

     “I’m sorry, this really isn’t a good time,” Brenda mumbled. “Excuse me.”

     “Wait. Please,” Katherine said, taking hold of her arm. “This is really important, Brenda. I must speak with you. Right away. This won’t take long,” Katherine stated.

     Brenda rubbed her temples to fight off the migraine she was getting. “All right,” she said. “What is it?”

     “I wanted to ask you something,” Katherine said.

     “Yes?”

     “I wanted to ask you… not to marry my brother.” At Brenda’s look of disbelief, Katherine let out a dramatic sigh and continued, “Please hear me out. You cannot marry Jax. If you do, you see, you’re going to be responsible for ruining his life.”

The offices of Jacks Enterprises, 5:15 p.m.

     “There is a very beautiful, very dejected looking young lady waiting for you in your office,” Devlin mentioned to Jax, who had just come back from a business lunch.

     Jax gave him a curious glance before walking into his office and shutting the door. He found Brenda inside, curled up in one of the large, burgundy leather chairs by the window, gazing out at the pouring rain.

     “Brenda?” he called out softly, not wanting to startle her, since she hadn’t appeared to hear him enter.

     Brenda spun her head around and saw him and then got up out of the chair and all but ran into his arms.

     “Hey, hey,” he said soothingly, feeling the tension in her body. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

     Petite and divinely feminine as she was, her embrace was crushing, but he found that he loved that. She gave the absolute best hugs on earth, in his opinion.

     “Jax, I had the worst day,” she said, her voice muffled against his shirt. She pulled away slightly to look up at him with those magnificent chocolate-and-gold eyes of hers. “And I just needed to be with you,” she said, her love extremely vulnerable in her eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t call. I’m sorry if I’m keeping you from anything important.”

     Jax pulled her back to him, stroking her back soothingly as his lips brushed against her temple. “Nothing is more important to me than you. Nothing. And you know that.”

     Yes, she did, she thought, feeling much better already.

     “Okay, sweetie, just tell me what happened,” he encouraged, leading her over to the chair by the window that she had recently vacated, and settling her in his lap. She lay her head against his chest, his presence so calming and reassuring; his love such a stronghold in any storm.

     “Well, first,” she began, “I had this awful fight with my grandmother,” she disclosed. “She was trying to talk me out of marrying you, and it was really awful, Jax, and I got really angry with her. I told her if she couldn’t accept you, then she couldn’t be part of my life with you, and I walked out.”

     “Wow,” Jax said quietly. He knew how much Brenda loved her grandmother and could only imagine what Ruby must have done or said to stir Brenda to that point of anger. “Oh, baby, I’m sorry. This isn’t right. She’s your grandmother. You love her.”

     “I love you,” Brenda said.

     “Well, this is not an acceptable solution, this her-or-me business.”

     “She really didn’t leave me any choice, Jax.”

     “I won’t have you moping down the aisle on our wedding day, sprite,” he said, tilting her chin up to look at him.

     She managed a smile that was a little sad, but still, oh, so lovely. “I won’t,” she said. “I love you, Jax. I’ll be too happy to mope. No matter what. But… umm… speaking of our wedding day… Jax… maybe we should push back the date.”

     He was so surprised to hear that that he nearly dropped her from his lap. “Push it back?” he said.

     “Well…”

     “How far back?”

     Brenda shrugged and looked to be quite miserable. “A year?”

     “What?!” He could not believe what he was hearing. “Why?”

     She bit down on her lip, clearly not wanting to disclose her reasons. “Well, why do we have to get married so soon?” she countered in the most unconvincing tone he had ever heard. What was going on here?

     He gave her a look of exasperation. “You were the one who picked the wedding date, as I recall.” He forced her to look at him as his voice grew more gentle. “Come on, I know you, sweetheart. I know you don’t want this. So why are you asking me to do this?”

     “I don’t want to cost you the CEO position, Jax. I would never do that to you. I know how much you want it, how important it is for you. Why don’t we just - why don’t we wait until you get it first and are firmly entrenched in the job?”

     He was truly baffled now. “How is it that you think your postponing our wedding is possibly going to help me get the position?”

     Brenda dropped her head back against his chest. “This was the second part of my bad day,” she said. “I ran into you sister as I was leaving the hotel, and she told me that I…”

     Jax held up his hand to stop her. “You don’t have to say anything else,” he said, a dark flicker flashing momentarily in his eyes.

     “I love you,” she said. “I just… I love you. You understand? And what your sister said actually made some sense to me.”

     Jax’s voice was very low and somehow dangerously quiet when he asked, “What did she say?”

     “That I would ruin your life, Jax. That I would be the reason you don’t get to be CEO of your father’s company. She told me that it was hard enough for you to convince them to give you the position because they’re so wary of your age, and other corporate politics are at play, and they’re just looking for any reason to be able to deny you this. So then you add me to the mix - an eighteen-year-old wife, who’s going to have a career in show business, of all fields. Well, a stuffy, conservative board would really be turned off by something like that, wouldn’t they? I’m not Alexa, Jax. I’m not the perfect CEO wife, who can be cool and detached and unaffected and… and hopelessly dull, quite frankly.”

     “Jesus Christ,” Jax muttered. “That’s what she said to you?”

     Brenda nodded. “But you have to admit, it makes sense. I’ve seen the wives of CEO’s, Jax. None of them look like me. None of them act like me…”

     He took her in his arms. “No, it makes no sense at all. And furthermore it’s blatantly untrue. Honey, you are not going to cost me the CEO position. That is a lock, all right? An absolute lock, Brenda. And my sister damn well knows that. It’s bloody inexcusable of her to use your feelings for me to manipulate you like this! I only wish you would have talked to me about it instead of listening to anything that came out of her mouth.”

     “But she’s your sister, Jax. And she does love you - I’m not wrong about that, am I? I know I’m not her favorite person, so I was pretty suspicious of her at first, but as she kept talking, I really got the feeling she was only looking out for you.”

     Jax shook his head. “She was looking out for herself. For her interests and the future she wants for me. Brenda, she doesn’t even want me to get the CEO position at JE. She intends to vote against me.”

     Brenda could not believe what she was hearing. “What?” she said softly.

     “She knows nothing she could ever say to me would make me change my mind about you, so she decided to try to work on manipulating you instead. Trust me though, this time she will realize she went too far and her games will end once and for all,” Jax stated. He was very calm, but Brenda saw the anger glittering dangerously in his eyes.

     Brenda was suddenly incensed on his behalf. “She has been trying to sabotage your efforts to be CEO all this time? Your own sister?”

     Jax nodded.

     “So you mean to tell me she said all that to me and laid that huge guilt trip on me not to help you get the position, but for the sole purpose of trying to get me to. . . leave you?”

     He nodded again.

     Brenda’s eyes narrowed. “Jax, right now I could yank out every hair on your sister’s head!”

     “I’d help you,” he assured her. “But don’t worry about her. I’ll take care of her.”

     “Between her and my grandmother - our own families, Jax! -- trying to sabotage this wedding…” Brenda said, getting good and riled up again and shooting up out of Jax’s lap.

     He pulled her back down into his arms. “No one is going to sabotage this wedding,” he promised her. He cradled her face in his hands. “Do you believe me?”

     She nodded. “Yes.”

     “Then you have to stop worrying about this.”

     She nodded again. “Yes, okay.”

     “And you have to trust me.”

     “Yes. I do trust you, Jax.”

     “I want you to be happy, Brenda. That’s all I want.”

     Her eyes filled with tenderness. “I know. I want you to be happy, too. With me, of course.”

     The faint etchings of a smile graced his lips. “Then you have to tell me you love me now.”

     She laughed. “I do love you, you already know…”

     “And you have to kiss me now. Right now,” he said.

     “Hmmm. You’re very bossy tonight, Mr. Jacks,” she said.

     “I’m very in love with you, Miss Barrett.”

     And then there were no more words as they fell into a passionate kiss.

Later that night . . . The Beverly Carlton Hotel . . .

     Ruby opened her hotel room door at 8:27 to find Jax standing on the other side, a bit rain-soaked and looking quite striking wet, she had to confess. But then again she didn’t think it was possible for the young man to look anything less than striking, night or day, rain or shine.

     “I’m here,” he announced, “to give you the opportunity to lay all of your objections to my marrying your granddaughter out on the table, so that I can shoot them all down and show you the error of your ways.”

     “Do you always come out and say whatever is on your mind, like that?” she asked him, seeming genuinely curious.

     “Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Your granddaughter happens to love that particular personality trait of mine.”

     “I don’t think there’s anything about you she doesn’t love,” Ruby responded and then moved aside from the doorway. “Please come inside, Jax. Can I offer you some coffee or tea to take the chill off? You’re a bit soaked.”

     Jax shook his head. “No, thank you. I can’t stay long. I have another person who needs to be shown the error of her ways as soon as I leave here.”

     A smile jostled around on Ruby’s lips. “I see. Well, do, at least, sit down.”

     He did. “If you really meant what you said,” he began, “about knowing that Brenda loves everything about me, then why in God’s name do you oppose this marriage? Do you doubt that I love her?”

     Ruby took her glasses off to clean the lenses then put them back on and looked at him. “No,” she admitted.

     “Do you think I’ll make some sort of wretched husband then? And if so, I don’t know what you could possibly be basing that misguided opinion on, but allow me to shoot it full of holes.”

     Ruby smiled wryly. “My goodness, you really do just say what’s on your mind. That’s very refreshing, you know. Although it does take a bit of getting used to. Most people are not so at ease speaking so candidly about what they’re thinking.”

     “I am trying to figure out what you are thinking, Mrs. Barrett,” he said somewhat impatiently. “Why do you oppose this marriage?”

     Ruby sighed. “I don’t.”

     Jax raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Really? Because Brenda thinks you do, and she’s bloody well hurt over it, I might add. And frankly, you’ve never come across as very accepting of us to me either.”

     Ruby lowered her head. “Brenda was so upset with me, she never gave me a chance to tell her that I was wrong. So wrong. And that I was deeply sorry. When defending you, Jax, my granddaughter becomes quite passionate, you see, and really was not listening to me any longer after a point.”

     “I’d like to know something,” Jax said. “What was the basis of your concern over Brenda marrying me? Was it even a valid objection? Was it worth the pain you caused her here today or the sadness in her eyes? Was it worth the respect she lost for you?”

     Ruby looked up at him. “I was married at eighteen, Jax. I believe it was the worst mistake of my life.”

     That got his attention.

     She swallowed and folded her hands in her lap. “My husband, Benjamin Barrett- Brenda’s grandfather - was dashing and handsome and could talk me into anything. I thought I could be so happy with him - that it was a dream come true. But once we were married, everything changed. I was no longer a challenge to him; he’d gotten me, you see - the thrill was gone.”

     Jax began to see where she was going with this.

     “He became bored and began to go after every pretty little thing in a skirt that caught his eye. He was only marginally interested when I got pregnant and showed no interest in Harlan when he was born. I was miserable. I didn’t shed one tear for him when he died in a boating accident while out with some floozy, instead of being at home celebrating his son’s fourth birthday. And deep in my heart I always blamed my mother for the marriage. She had been so star-struck by him, you see. So willing to encourage the union because the man was so magnificent - a veritable prize to be fought over by the women of the town. I was so angry at her - so angry that she never looked out for me and allowed me to walk into that trap and end up enduring so many years of married misery.”

     She paused and took a breath and then said quietly, “I can’t tell you how much you remind me of him - not exactly in looks, but moreso in the way people are so mesmerized in your presence. Brenda included. I’ve seen her looking at you in that mesmerized way with that blind adoration. She has never really had a mother figure in her life, and I love that girl more than life itself. I thought I was looking out for her. Doing for her what my mother never did for me.”

     Jax let that explanation sink in for a moment. “I understand your personal experiences shaping your views of this,” he finally said. “I really do understand that. But the reality is that I am not your husband and Brenda is not you. And if she were to ever suffer one millisecond of misery during our marriage, it would not be because of me, I can assure you that. I don’t mean to be cruel, but I’m not sure your husband loved you, Mrs. Barrett. I don’t see how he could have treated you so unkindly if he did. I, however, do love Brenda.”

     Ruby nodded. “I know.” Her voice sounded strange and hoarse, as if she were about to cry.

     “I didn’t mean to upset you,” Jax said quickly, not at all ready to deal with Brenda’s grandmother breaking out into sobs. “It’s just that Brenda was very upset about her argument with you, and I…”

     “And you love her and don’t like to see her upset,” Ruby finished for him.

     “Yes.”

     “Please tell her how sorry I am. How wrong I was. And please tell her to come and see me so we can mend this breach because it breaks my heart to think of her so upset with me. And to know that I’m the cause of it all.”

     Jax rose to his feet. “She loves you. She doesn’t want to be at odds with you any more than you do. I’ll tell her everything you told me.”

     Ruby walked him to the door and stunned him when she grabbed him into a very grandmotherly hug. “She’s very lucky to have you, young man, although you’re still too damned handsome to tolerate. You can tell her that, too. Now run along. I’ve got wedding plans to get involved with. Goodnight.” And then she all but shoved him out the door as she swiped suspiciously at her eyes.

     “Goodnight,” Jax said from the other side of the door. And then he headed straight home; his sister Katherine next to be lined up in his crosshairs.

     He found her in the den, reading a book and seeming not at all surprised to see him. Her calm demeanor galled him.

     “You are unbelievable,” Jax said, his voice quiet and not raised, but his eyes letting her know the chilling extent of his anger, even if his voice did not. “Didn’t you think Brenda would tell me?”

     Katherine put down her book slowly. “Yes, I knew she would tell you.”

     He nodded, disgust and incomprehension filling him. “I see. And did you not believe me when I told you I would disown you if you did anything to hurt her?”

     “Jax…”

     “Well, today you hurt her,” he continued in that same quiet voice that was really starting to distress and unnerve her. “And she was having a miserable enough day without you adding to it. So you can consider yourself off of the wedding guest list. And you can bloody well consider yourself out of my life,” Jax said quietly, turning to leave.

     “No! Now you just wait, Jax. You’ll change your mind when I tell you what I found out. I swear you will,” she promised.

     “No, I won’t,” he said as he kept going.

     “Jax, wait!” she called out. “There’s something you don’t know about Brenda, and I know you won’t believe me, but I’m working on getting the proof…”

     He didn’t even turn around, just kept going, forcing Katherine to leap to her feet and race after him into the hallway.

     “Jax, please! Come on. Won’t you at least listen? You’ll thank me, you really will. What I have to tell you is huge!”

     She may as well have been invisible for all the attention he was paying her as he began to descend the stairs.

     “Brenda,” Katherine said, saying each word slowly, “is the daughter of Harlan Barrett and a woman named Grace Fillmore. Grace Fillmore is the daughter of Will Warner. Did you hear me, Jax? Will Warner! Jax, don’t you understand? Brenda Barrett is Will Warner’s granddaughter! I found this out, and I knew I couldn’t let you marry into that family knowing how much you hate them. I know this must be a shock…”

     He turned around when he reached the bottom of the stairs. “I already know who Brenda is. I have known for months. And if you thought that would somehow kill my love for her, you know me even less than I thought you did.”

     Katherine felt her whole world splintering apart. Jax knew? He knew?

     “I can see you’re completely crushed that your little scheme blew up in your face,” he commented, watching her frozen features. “I would advise you to stay away from me, Katherine. Do not seek me out, do not speak to me, do not write me notes, do not offer me useless apologies. I don’t want anything to do with you anymore. And do not - do not - go near Brenda… ever… again.”

     And with that softly spoken warning, he disappeared down the hall and she heard the front door click open and then close.

     Still frozen in horror at her awful miscalculations and what it had ultimately cost her, Katherine grabbed onto the staircase railing, as regret sliced through her gut and the ramification of what she had done chilled her to the bone. On shaky legs, she sat down on the top step, buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

     The next afternoon a high-spirited Brenda arrived at the Jacks mansion for a lunch date with Holly to go over the dinner menu for the wedding. Having patched things up with her grandmother, she was feeling so much better. And it was rather amusing how Ruby had now actually become one of Jax’s biggest champions.

     Brenda did feel sad for Jax, though, and the division between him and his sister.

     Thinking this was her fault, Brenda had done her best to assure Jax that it was all right and that she could forgive Katherine for her machinations, so he should not hold anything against her on Brenda’s behalf. But Jax could not be swayed, insisting he had given his sister plenty of warning about what her continued campaign to run his life would result in. A distraught Katherine had taken off to Scotland to drown her sorrows in Uncle Ian’s comforting presence, and so, with her absent from the house, there was a decidedly cheerier, tension-free atmosphere all around.

     When Jax and Jerry entered the living room several hours later, it was to the amusing sight of Holly and Brenda turning the Jacks living room upside down, looking for something.

     “What’s going on?” Jerry asked, staring at the women, who were on their knees, turning over the cushions on all the chairs and couches.

     “Brenda misplaced her bracelet,” Holly responded.

     “Well, do get up, love,” Jerry insisted, gently pulling his pregnant wife to her feet. “I’ll look for it.”

     “Oh, Jerry, I’m pregnant, not an invalid,” Holly said, getting back down to help search.

     Jax watched the three of them in amused silence for several moments before casually asking: “Which bracelet?”

     Brenda’s head popped up from behind a cushion to answer him. “The one you got me for Valentines Day, Jax,” she said. “I can’t believe I lost it! I’m always so careful with it.”

     Jax allowed them to search for several more entertaining minutes before he mentioned: “I believe you’re looking in the wrong place. I saw it in my bedroom.”

     Three heads popped up from behind the scattered cushions to glare at him.

     Brenda took it one step further and hurled one of the cushion seats at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?” And with that she raced up to the bedroom to look for it, as Jax slowly followed. “Where’d you see it Jax?” she asked.

     “Right there,” he said, nodding at the bedside table.

     Brenda had just searched that table with no luck. “Are you sure?” she asked, scanning the table again. “Because I don’t see it,” she said.

     “Oh. Well, that’s probably because I picked it up,” Jax mentioned.

     Brenda swung around to look at him, grabbed the nearest pillow from the bed and sent it flying at Jax. “Okay, where did you put it?” she asked.

     Jax stroked his chin thoughtfully. “You know, I can’t seem to recall…”

     “JAX!” She charged at him.

     He laughed at the impact and grabbed her into his arms. “I might have possibly put it in my pocket,” he relented.

     She gazed up into his beautiful eyes. “You do realize that if it’s not in your pocket, I’m going to have to kill you, right?”

     He grinned at her. “Yes.”

     Brenda reached into Jax’s pocket and smiled as she felt her bracelet. She pulled it out and then let out a tiny gasp of utter delight when she saw a new charm dangling from it: a sparkling, glittering, dazzling diamond ring, haloed by tiny pink sapphires, all in a brilliant platinum setting.

     “Well, now what on earth could that be?” Jax mused.

     “My engagement ring!” she squealed as she excitedly tried to open up the clasp so she could get it off.

     Jax laughed and took it from her. “Allow me.” He slid open the bracelet clasp and slid the ring off into the palm of his hand. He then took Brenda’s wrist and put the bracelet back on and then took her hand. “For the woman I love,” he said, sliding the engagement ring on her finger.

     “Oh, Jax. I just love it,” she breathed.

     “I’m sorry I didn’t give it to you sooner, but I had to wait for them to set the sapphires in, and you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to get pink sapphires.”

     “How did you know?” she squealed, tossing her arms around him.

     “Your father told me,” he responded. “He said you’d always been fascinated with your neighbor, Mrs. Kennaly’s, impressive jewelry collection and how you’d been positively enchanted when you were home the summer of your fifteenth birthday and she’d shown you a tiara encrusted with pink sapphires. Your father said you couldn’t stop talking about them for months.”

     “Oh, I love you, I love you, I love you!” Brenda said, wrapping her legs around his waist and scattering laughter-filled kisses all over his face.

     They fell back against the bed and Brenda’s lips melted against his, kissing his lips slowly from one corner of his mouth to the other - something she knew he loved for her to do.

     “Oh… sweetie, just do that again just . . . one more time,” he murmured against her lips with a sexy laugh.

     Her soft laughter was thrillingly seductive as she repeated the titillating manner of kissing that he so loved.

     She was pulling away with a smile, when his hands in her hair stopped her head from ascending. “Maybe just ten more times,” he whispered.

     Later that evening Brenda, Holly and Ruby were all in the family room figuring out seating arrangements for the reception when Jax stood in the doorway and crooked his finger for Brenda to come to him.

     When she met him at the family room doorway, he stroked the underside of her chin with his fingertips, smiling at her. “Jerry asked me to go on an ice cream run for Holly. Want anything?” he asked.

     “Yeah. I want to come with you,” she said.

     “Well, come on then,” he murmured with a smile, grabbing her hand and whisking her away.

     In the parking lot of the Ben & Jerry’s, Billy Fillmore turned sharply to his brother Steven and asked, “Is that her?”

     “Yes,” Steven answered. “Wait until they come out. You’ll get a better look at her. You know, you never told me, Billy, how it is you plan to eliminate her as a threat to us and still keep her breathing?”

     But Billy was not listening to his brother. His eyes were glued to the petite, dark-haired girl coming out of the ice cream shop, wrapped playfully around the back of Jasper Jacks. They were both laughing and she kept trying to snatch the bag of ice cream from his hand as they headed back towards his Jaguar.

     Billy was astonished at the likeness the girl bore to his deceased mother. He had thought his mother the most beautiful woman there ever was, until now. This miniature version of her was somehow even more beautiful, and immediately Billy knew why. It was the radiance within her, the happiness, the joy. Something that had seldom graced his mother’s life.

     This was his sister. His baby sister. She was no phantom. He could not tear his eyes away from the shimmering chestnut hair, so identical to his own. And the carefree happiness of her laughter seemed to pierce at his soul.

     He felt a stab of jealousy that his mother had sought to protect the girl by ensuring she was raised far away from Will Warner, while allowing her sons to be contaminated by the man. Why couldn’t she have found a way to protect them from him as well? Had she loved Brenda more? Had Brenda been a product of passionate love, while he and his brothers had been the product of a cold duty fulfilled to a husband she had never loved? A painful lump formed in his throat.

     But then slowly the jealousy he was feeling began to dissipate and all that was left was a strange sense of connection to this young girl - his sister. It was a familial connection he’d once felt with his brothers when they were all much younger, but that had since disappeared long ago. The only thing that bonded them now was mutual greed and mutual hate mixed with fear of their grandfather, not a bond of love or family or any kind of tender feelings.

     And yet he felt that familial bond now - with her. Just by sitting here in this car and looking at her.

     He swallowed in shock as another feeling rose up in him as he watched her. A fierce feeling of protectiveness.

     He could not let his brothers harm her, he realized. He would not.

     Steven was watching the emotions play across his brother’s face with a scowl of displeasure. “I don’t know what’s going on in your head, Billy. But surely now that you’ve seen her for yourself you can see our dilemma. You know that one look at her and the old man will know. Surely you can see now why we have to get rid of her.”

     “No, we do not,” Billy said in the most forceful tone his brother had ever heard him use. “I told you that I would handle the problem of our sister, and I will. I’ll ensure that you don’t lose your inheritance to her. I’ll do that. So you leave her alone. I mean it, Steve. You leave her alone.”

     Steven shrugged. “Sure,” he said agreeably, but his eyes were cold and distrustful as he took shocking note of how Billy had inadvertently said ‘your inheritance,’ as opposed to ‘our inheritance.’

     He was going to protect the girl at all costs, Steven realized that now. Some ridiculous, misplaced brotherly feelings must have been stirred within Billy upon seeing their mother’s daughter, and he was now putting himself between her and his brothers as her shield. How sweet, Steven thought.

     And how futile.