Foolish Hearts

by Synithia Williams

  He didn’t answer. Ashiya glanced up, but he wasn’t looking at her. His jaw was clenched, and he stared back at the house. She nodded slowly. Elaina might have asked him, but it probably came with a heavy dose of Do this if you want to succeed in our family.

  Ashiya stood and took a few steps toward him. “You don’t have to help me. I’ll figure this out.”

  He met her gaze, and Ashiya’s breath caught. He hadn’t looked her dead in the eye in so long. She hadn’t forgotten how his stare took her breath away. The way he looked at her as if she were the most important and beautiful treasure he’d ever discovered. She’d craved that so much after they’d split, and she realized that regardless of all her history with Stephen, he hadn’t looked at her like that after the first few months they dated. Once she’d realized how much of a mistake she’d made, all she could do was hope Russell would look at her like that again. Hope to see the spark of desire that always let her know he was about to make her breathless in other, more decadent ways.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to work with you,” he said. “I just don’t know if it’s a good idea.”

  “Because of what happened between us?”

  “That and because you aren’t cut out for this. You said so yourself. You never wanted to be in charge of a major corporation or get involved in business the way your cousins did. I’m not interested in playing around with you again.”

  Ashiya’s spine stiffened. He didn’t think she could do this. The same indignation that had flared through her when Levi accused her of not being able to run the company roared to life. She closed the distance between them and poked a finger into his chest.

  “Not wanting and not being able to do something are two different things. I can handle anything put in front of me.”

  He stepped forward, pressing into the finger against his chest. Ashiya sucked in a breath, surprised by the movement, and the hard look in his eyes.

  “Oh really? Because when I came to you with everything you said you wanted, you backed away and went back to what was familiar. Why should I trust this will be any different?”

  Her hand dropped from his chest. He reached out quickly and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. His hold was firm but didn’t hurt.

  “Why should I put my efforts in you again, Ashiya?”

  The air sparked between them. The closeness of his body reminded her of their times together. Russell was a nice guy, but that nice guy exterior didn’t hide the skilled lover within. He knew how to get her off. Knew how to touch her, kiss her, make beg for more. Heat flowed through her blood vessels, and her nipples hardened to tight peaks.

  She tried to breathe. Tried to think, but her mind was filled with memories of how good it had been between them. She’d been such a fool for falling back on what she knew. Falling back on a relationship that had died years ago, but she’d tried to force it into something real because of her own insecurities and emotional baggage.

  “Because I’ve learned from my mistakes,” she said truthfully. She relaxed and leaned closer to him. His eyes dropped to her lips. Desire flared in her midsection. He used to nibble and suck on her lower lip when they kissed. The tender bites made her ache for his touch, and he’d known it. She ran her tongue across her bottom lip. His fingers tightened on her wrist. “If you put your effort, your trust, in me, Russell, I’ll give you all of me.”

  His eyes jumped up to hers. He didn’t believe her. The doubt in his eyes called her a liar. But there was something beneath the doubt. Desire. Desire and memories. He hadn’t forgotten what they’d had. They were close enough that she could touch him, so she did. She eased forward just enough for the hard tips of her breasts to brush his chest. The pleasure of the light touch was so sweet and torturous, she had to bite her lip to keep from groaning.

  Russell dropped her hand and jerked back. He took several long, heavy breaths and turned away. He stopped before walking out of the gazebo and glanced at her over his shoulder. The wall of defenses he put up whenever she was near masked all the longing and need that had brightened his eyes just moments before. “I’m sorry, Ashiya, but I can’t play the fool for you again.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, Russell sat on his apartment’s balcony overlooking the wooded area behind the apartment complex and called his parents. He called his parents at least three times a week no matter what was going on in his life. On days he didn’t call, he texted. He never wanted his mom to worry about where he was or if he was okay. Even at the age of thirty-four, he didn’t get upset when she checked in on him or asked what he was doing or where he was going. Not after what happened to Rodrick.

  He settled back in the wooden rocking chair and sipped the soda in his hand while the phone rang. His mom picked up after the third ring.

  His mom’s sweet Southern drawl came through the phone. “Hey, baby, I was just thinking about you.”

  “All good things, I hope,” he said with a smile.

  His mom’s delighted chuckle took him back to when he was a kid and he and Rodrick would sit at the kitchen table and tell her about how they’d leveled up on a video game while she made dinner. She laughed more often back then, and it had taken years after Rodrick’s disappearance for her to start laughing again.

  “I was just reminding your dad to send our travel plans to you. He said he was going to send them tomorrow, and I said he was going to forget. You know tomorrow is bowling night with him and the team. He won’t remember after work. Make sure you remind him to send them to you.”

  “I’ll text him for them tomorrow,” Russell said. “Where are you all going this year?”

  “Oh, we are finally taking that Alaskan cruise. You know I can’t wait.” His mom’s excitement was palpable through the phone.

  “That should be fun. You’ve always wanted to do that.”

  “I have, and I told your daddy we’re doing all the excursions.”

  His mom went into details about their plans for the cruise. Russell listened and laughed as his mom updated him on all the adventures she hoped to have during their trip. He was excited for them. After his brother disappeared during his spring break trip his junior year of college, his parents had spent so much time trying to learn what happened to him. They’d begged the police for assistance, tried to get national news attention, but in the days before hashtags on social media could bring the spotlight on a missing twenty-one-year-old Black man, no one had cared outside of the local newspaper in the small town outside Raleigh, North Carolina, where he’d grown up and one mention on the local evening news.

  His brother disappeared without a trace, and no one seemed to care except his family. Seven years after Rodrick’s disappearance, his dad had convinced his mom to take a trip around the time of year when his brother disappeared. Getting out of town visiting all the places Rodrick would have enjoyed was their way of not spending the anniversary of the loss of their son agonizing over the lack of information and wondering about what might have happened.

  “Sounds like you’ve got it all planned out,” Russell said when his mother stopped to breathe.

  “I do. I wish you could come with us this year.”

  “I wish I could, too. But things are hectic at work.”

  “Any word on the promotion?” Expectation filled his mom’s voice.

  Russell leaned his head back and suppressed a sigh. “I’m being considered, but I don’t know if it’ll work out.”

  “Why not? No one is better for the position than my baby,” his mom said as if that were a truth universally known.

  “That may be, but there are other things at play.”

  “Things like what?”

  Like Ashiya, and Elaina’s request that he help her. He’d considered it. That was why he’d stayed out in the gazebo with her instead of going back inside as soon as he’d seen her. He’d stayed only to be drawn to her. Being
close to her was like a pull he couldn’t ignore, and he’d remembered the difficulty of forming coherent thoughts whenever she smiled at him. Then she’d licked her luscious lower lip, and in that moment, he’d realized helping her would endanger him.

  He couldn’t say all of that to his mom. One: he was not in the habit of talking about his relationships with her. No need to have her thinking every woman he went out with would be her new daughter-in-law. Two: he didn’t want his mom to know he still craved a woman who’d hurt him.

  “Just office politics,” he said.

  “Whatever the politics are, play them. Remember people with money and power are the ones who get things done in this world. You’re working hard and climbing the ladder at Robidoux Holdings. Maybe if you become a CEO, then the new detective with reopen your brother’s case file.”

  Russell sat forward. “New detective?”

  His mom sighed, and when she talked, the old pain of losing a son crept back into her voice. “Yeah. They’ve given it to another newbie at the sheriff’s department. You know I call every year, and every year they give me someone new to talk to.”

  Russell gripped the phone. “What did he say?”

  “The same thing. No case is ever closed until it’s solved. They will continue to keep an ear out for leads. They’ll let me know if any new information comes up. But we know it won’t.”

  All the tension left his body. Another year, another new detective, another round of disappointment. Every year he hoped a new set of eyes would give some insight on what happened to Rodrick, but the case was colder than a glacier in Antarctica.

  “Give me his name and number. I’ll call as well.”

  “Thank you. Maybe he’ll listen to you better than he listened to me.”

  “No matter what, Mom, I’m not giving up on this. If I have to drive down to Hilton Head myself and meet with him, I’ll do that.”

  He hated not knowing what happened to Rodrick. The practical part of him said his brother was gone. They’d legally declared him dead ten years after his disappearance in an attempt at closure. They’d even had a headstone placed in the cemetery next to the family church. Still, the hopeful part of him wanted to believe Rodrick was still out there. That someone would eventually come forward and tell them how to bring his brother back to the family.

  “I know you will.” The pride in her voice made him feel a little better. “I’ll send you the information after we get off the phone.”

  “Good.” He would call this detective tomorrow.

  “Russell.” His mom’s voice sounded hesitant.

  “Yes ma’am?”

  “I appreciate everything you’re doing for me and your daddy, the way you keep looking for Rodrick and trying to find out what happened. But son, I also want you to live a good life. Find a nice woman. Get married. Have a family of your own. Your daddy and I won’t be around forever.”

  “But you will be around for a long time,” he said, forcing lightness in his voice he didn’t feel. Living in a world without Rodrick was hard enough. He didn’t want to imagine a world without his parents. “I’m dating, and as soon as I meet your future daughter-in-law, I’ll let you know.”

  “What about that Ashiya girl you mentioned a while back? Whatever happened with her? You seemed to really like her.”

  “It just didn’t work out. Look, Mom, I’ve got to get some things together before work. Send me the detective’s number, and I’ll remind Dad to send me your travel plans.”

  His mom’s chuckle said she knew he was tired of her prying. “Okay, baby. You have a good night.”

  “You too, Mom. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  He ended the call and stared at his phone. Three years after their breakup, his mom still remembered Ashiya’s name. She didn’t remember the names of any of the other women he dated. She’d never met Ashiya, but he’d talked about her once right when he thought they were getting serious. Right before Ashiya’s ex confirmed that Russell was just the toy she’d used to make him jealous.

  Russell wanted everything his mom wanted for him. A wife, kids, a family. He couldn’t imagine life without his parents, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t keenly aware they wouldn’t live forever. If something happened to them the way something happened to Rodrick, he’d be alone. They were all he had left, and he constantly felt an underlying desperation to start his own family. He just wasn’t desperate enough to start one with someone he didn’t love or trust. No matter how much he still thought of Ashiya and what they could have been, he knew he’d be a fool to trust her again.

  * * *

  ASHIYA LEFT PIECE TOGETHER in Lindsey’s capable hands in order to make an appointment with Elaina at Robidoux Holdings. As much as it irritated Ashiya to know Elaina asked Russell to help her, she also understood her cousin’s reasoning. Elaina was busy not only trying to put Robidoux Holdings back on track after the shake-up, but also overseeing the workings of a separate manufacturing facility she’d recently opened. Elaina really didn’t have the time to mentor Ashiya on being a new company CEO, so she’d done the next best thing.

  Understanding her reasoning didn’t take away the embarrassment, though. Now Russell could add incompetent to the list of things he thought of her. In the brief time they’d dated, he’d looked at her as if she were the most fantastic thing he could’ve ever discovered. A sexy, smart businesswoman he could respect and admire. She hated how much she missed that gleam in his eye. Now he looked at her as if she were poison.

  She arrived at the Robidoux Holdings building and was quickly ushered up to the executive suite and into Elaina’s office. Elaina stood gracefully as Ashiya entered. The stylish white pinstripe pantsuit Elaina wore fit her perfectly, and her hair was pulled back in a loose but neat ponytail. Elaina’s discerning gaze traced over Ashiya before she raised a brow.

  “Nice suit. Chanel?” Elaina asked.

  Ashiya grinned and nodded. “It is. I found these vintage pieces in Hilton Head and decided to keep them instead of putting them in the store.” As soon as she’d seen the orange Chanel skirt and matching jacket, she’d known she was keeping them. Bright colors were her weakness.

  Elaina came around the desk and motioned toward the leather chairs arranged around a glass table. “I don’t blame you. That almost tempts me to try brighter colors.”

  “You should. I mean, you look great in the neutral tones you tend to stick with, but you’d look fabulous in an emerald green or red.” Ashiya settled into one of the leather chairs.

  Elaina’s eyes widened. “I get enough attention without wearing red.”

  “If they’re going to notice you, might as well let them see just how fabulous you are,” Ashiya said.

  Elaina’s lips lifted in a slight smile. “I appreciate the sentiment, but fabulous is not the word I’d use to describe me. Thank you for the subscription for the tea, by the way. I didn’t get the chance to talk to you at the engagement party.”

  Ashiya knew the change in subject was on purpose. Elaina didn’t like talking about herself and especially any reference to her being anything but the bitch most people took her for. She hoped her cousin would slowly get used to accepting compliments from others instead of deflecting.

  “You’re welcome. I enjoyed the party. Alex’s family seems really great.”

  Warmth filled Elaina’s brown eyes. “They are. It’s sometimes hard for me to believe there are actual normal, healthy families out there.”

  Ashiya chuckled. “It is a novelty for us.”

  “A good novelty. What about your father’s family?”

  Ashiya cocked her head to the side. “Answer that question yourself. These are the same people who disowned my dad for marrying my mom and haven’t spoken to him since.”

  “Do you know why your grandmother left everything to you?”

  Ashiya sighed and shrugged. �
��I think to make up to my dad. Her personal assistant says my grandmother followed me and was proud of what I accomplished. I don’t know what I did that was so great for her to leave everything to me.”

  “You own your own business, and your store was featured in several travel magazines.”

  Ashiya waved off Elaina’s praise. She was proud of what she’d done with Piece Together. Nothing could take that pride away from her. Still, it wasn’t the same as being in charge of a large-scale corporation. “Again, it’s just a small consignment shop. I was planning to give my inheritance away.”

  “What changed?”

  Ashiya thought of her cousin’s words, and her hands balled into fists. “They don’t think I can do this. They expect me to mess up or ruin the company.”

  Elaina smirked. “Never underestimate a Robidoux.”

  The arrogance-laced confidence in Elaina’s voice washed away Ashiya’s righteous indignation. “Except I’m not quite a Robidoux.”

  Elaina waved a hand. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re Aunt Liz’s daughter, and she is a Robidoux despite what she changed her name to after marriage. Never forget that. You can do this.”

  “But can I do it without help? Let’s be real, Elaina. I’m not cut out for this.” She indicated Elaina’s office. “The most I did for Robidoux Tobacco was my summer internships on the philanthropy side. Now I’m supposed to help run a multimillion-dollar beauty company.”

  “Who in this family knows fashion and beauty trends better than you?” Elaina’s voice was direct and practical. “The first thing you have to do is stop acting as if you’re some tragic case who flunked out of school. You’re smart. You know you’re smart. Stop whining and step up to the plate.”