by Hart, Taylor
“Grace.”
Her head whipped around so fast she almost lost her balance.
Chad closed the car door of an old Camaro. The paint looked sort of new, the red still shiny but chipped in places. He stood next to it, looking better than she remembered, his blue shirt, unbuttoned at the neck and stretched just enough across his muscles, tucked into his tan pants. He took off his sunglasses and his warm eyes smiled back at her.
She found it difficult to remember his betrayal. This was the man who had found her and wormed his way into her life at his father’s request so that they could complete a business merger. At that thought, she admitted he didn’t look quite so handsome.
Her expression must have given some clue to her feelings because he held up his hands. “Can we talk? Please?” He stepped forward, but Bear growled, which she found hilarious, and Chad waited.
“Okay, talk.”
“I’d prefer talking in my car. But if you want to talk about this on the street…” He held up a manila folder. “I want to talk to one of the larger shareholders in the Townsend holdings, you, about a merger plan of my own.”
He wanted to talk business. A part of her deflated just a bit before she rallied. A business deal. She might be interested, at least she was curious. “Come on, Bear.” She led him to the Camaro. “Nice car.”
He held open the back seat for Bear and then the front door for Grace. “Thank you. She’s my hobby. Completely restored. Besides, I thought it spoke middle-class, normal guy more than if I’d come in the limo.”
She smirked.
“Though I don’t know what you have to complain about. Even if your parents disown you, you are one of the most wealthy women in the country right now.”
She looked away. This was going just how she would expect of any of her parents’ friends. She didn’t know what hurt more, that she had been so mistaken about him or that he didn’t really care about her.
“I just think it’s ironic that you of all people could hold a man’s wealth against him.”
She didn’t answer.
He cleared his throat. “Okay, the paperwork. The way I see it, we each hold significant voting power on our boards and could come up with our own merger that each would accept. Our parents seem incapable of accomplishing this on their own, especially while their children are at odds.”
“That is the most ridiculous—”
“Believe me, I know.”
“What? You’re just as bad as they are.”
“None of this was my idea. You won’t let me explain. I don’t know how to prove it to you. And I know it is highly suspicious that I just happened to meet you in Tahoe, but it’s true—I had no idea who you were when we first met. And to at least prove my sincerity now, I told my parents we are not doing the merger. I told them I refuse to date you, and that they were utterly ridiculous to expect such a thing.”
“You did?” Something about that was equal parts pleasing and sad.
“I did.” He leaned closer. “Now, I’m happy to toss the merger out the window if you don’t want to discuss it.”
“Oh yeah, and then what?”
“And then I’ll take you to breakfast.” His familiar sparkle was back. “And lunch.” He leaned his head forward on his steering wheel and watched her. “And dinner.”
Her smile grew. “Tell me more about how you didn’t know who I was?” A small flicker of hope tickled her happiness.
“There I was, an unsuspecting guy on a boys’ trip. I pulled into my favorite campground in Lake Tahoe, expecting to snatch my favorite spot on the whole mountain, and this eyesore of a camper was there instead.”
“What? How can you insult The Bullet like that?”
“You want the truth, don’t you?”
She nodded. “That’s fair. Okay, continue.”
“But I’m an easygoing guy. I thought I’d get to know my new neighbor and be so incredibly intrusive and, in your face, that you’d move to another part of the campground. I kept my music loud, and when that didn’t work, I made my way over to sit right next to you in my hammock.”
She laughed, remembering how effective he’d almost been. She had been about to leave him to it. “I see. And then?”
“Well, then I saw you. And it became fun to pester you a bit while you were trying to work. And then I stopped pestering because it was just more fun to watch you.”
She wrinkled her nose.
“Not in a creepy way. Your lips poke out while you type, and your eyes light up, and your fingers fly faster than I’ve ever seen a person type.” He shrugged. “And I decided instead of trying to get you to move out, maybe I’d move in.”
She shook her head. “And this is the truth? You really didn’t know who I was? Even though my face was all over the grocery store magazines that week?”
“The truth.” He watched her a moment. “You can trust me.”
Her eyes welled, and tears blurred her vision before she could stop them. She remembered the first time she knew she could trust him, their moments climbing and skiing and their kisses in the chalet. She had trusted him—she’d wanted more than anything for him to be what he appeared.
“I hope so.” Her whisper sounded pleading even to herself. “You’re the best thing that has happened to me in a long time. At least I thought you were.”
“And you mine. I was so afraid to lose you, once I found out who you were, that I’ve been trying to find a way to make this right. And I thought maybe me turning down the merger and offering our own version might be a good option.” He tossed it in the back seat. “But I don’t care about our business relationship, not really. I just want you in my life.”
“Well, now, let’s take a look at this merger of yours.” She twisted and grabbed the envelope.
“Can we talk about it over breakfast? Or at your place? It’s great, by the way, a definite upgrade from The Bullet.”
“Bullet’s my old friend. You saw the inside. Top of the line.”
He turned the car around, and within minutes they were in front of her white picket fence. “Can I come in?” he asked
“Inviting yourself back to my place again.” She laughed. “I should have known there was something sketchy about you when I first met you.”
As soon as they were up on her front porch and Bear pushed through the front door into the house, Chad pulled her into his arms. “Do we have a chance?” His eyes held hope and pain.
For a moment, she let herself consider it. She felt the tingly expectation of his strong arms holding her, felt the rise of his chest against hers, felt the eager expectation of his kiss.
Then she shook her head. “I don’t want that life. I really don’t want to be caught up in all that. Those people. Our parents. I can’t stand to be around them.”
Instead of his expression falling, his hopes dashed, his eyes looked almost triumphant. “I think you need to take a look at my merger plan.”
Curious now, she pulled him into the house, and they sat on the sofa while she skimmed through the papers. “This looks pretty standard.”
“Keep going.”
Then she got to the section about the executor and her role in the newly made company. “What is this?” The merger made her a board member, and, with the shares she owned, she would have a significant vote. But the contract also granted her honorary status, meaning she was not required at any meetings.
Her smile grew. “You gave me a get out of jail free card.”
He laughed. “If that’s the way you want to look at it.”
“Yes.”
“And we don’t have to get caught up in all that. I mean, we might have to make an appearance now and then at our parent’s socials; We can otherwise do what we want, but…”
“But?”
“I draw the line at The Bullet. If we travel, can we stay somewhere nice? My neck and back…”
“Next time we go to Tahoe, I’ll show you my family’s home.”
“You have property there too?”
“On the west side of the lake. It’s my favorite place in the world.”
He shook his head. “That clinches it. We are perfect for each other. Please, can you give me another chance?” He got down in front of her on one knee. When the panic rose in her throat, he laughed. “This isn’t a marriage proposal.”
Breathing out in relief, she nudged his shoulder. “What are you doing down there?”
“I just want you to know I’m serious. I’m in this for the long haul. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
She considered him and all that he offered. He’d given her a place in the company without having to be caught up in the mess she detested. He had been trapped in the same mess as she was, and, instead of running, he had returned to the trenches and worked out an arrangement that could work for both of them, that could give a space for them to get to know each other better.
“Chad, I don’t know what to say. I’m so relieved you’re not a total creep.” She laughed at his indignant expression.
He stood and pulled her up to stand in front of him. “I can’t tell if this is good news or bad news. Your lips are doing that pouty concentration thing.” His head tilted to the side while he waited. Then he ran his fingers along the back of her neck. “Though I’m not above using other measures to influence you.”
His other arm pulled her closer, and he pressed his lips to her forehead, her cheek, her neck, the side of her mouth. “I want you in my life. I love you, Grace. And I love who I am when I’m with you.”
Then he pressed his lips to hers, and she melted against him. She gave in and responded with all the hope of this new man in her life—a new life she could see herself working in while being herself and moving forward with her causes, and, most importantly, loving him in return.
She nibbled his bottom lip and then pressed her mouth to his again and again, responding as his kisses lengthened and became more insistent until at length she pulled away and murmured against him, “I love you too.”
The End
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If Lauren Fisher hadn’t already decided to sell Vista Cosmetics, the company she’d founded, today’s deluge of business-related emails and texts—all of which claimed to be urgent—would have convinced her. After boarding a train at the Helsinki station, Lauren put her phone on Do Not Disturb mode so no more of them would bother her and stress her out even more. Nothing short of a natural disaster would be truly urgent, and she was determined to enjoy the ride in peace.
The wheelchair she’d rented was folded and tucked out of the aisle, ready for use by Lauren’s CFO, Ulla, who’d broken her leg in three places thanks to a car accident. Now Ulla was flying back after her less-than-stellar vacation in Rovaniemi, one of the northernmost cities in Finland. To help out, Lauren had rented a wheelchair and was heading to the airport to meet Ulla with it so she could go home and get around a bit easier.
As the thick pine forests slid past the train window, broken by the occasional apartment building or street, Lauren let the hum of the train relax her, washing away the stresses of running an international company. She was proud of her cosmetics and how they not only didn’t exacerbate acne but healed it. The one business thing she was proudest of was moving her headquarters to Helsinki. Sure, the taxes were higher than in many places, but this was the hub of so much scientific discovery and so many creative people eager to work hard that it just made sense. And once she got here and had bought her own cottage on a small island off the coast, she’d fallen in love with the country and never wanted to leave.
The cottage was on an island near enough to the downtown district to be convenient, but far enough away from the bustle of the city that she could enjoy solitude and quiet as she looked out over the Baltic Sea as the sun set.
She’d even taken a liking to genuine Finnish sauna—which, she’d quickly learned, wasn’t pronounced SAW-nuh like she’d always thought.
“The first syllable rhymes with cow,” Ulla had informed Lauren. “It’s SOW-nah.”
“Oh, I am so sorry,” Lauren had said in the washroom.
They’d been getting ready for her first authentic Finnish sauna, located inside the company’s headquarters. She’d planned for a small employee gym and locker rooms, but then several people suggested she add saunas to each of the two locker rooms, one in the men’s and another in the women’s. When she asked why and began to learn more, she discovered that sauna was such an ingrained part of the culture that the country had more saunas than cars.
At first, she hadn’t understood why saunas would make her staff happy, but that didn’t matter. Her employees did matter, and they wanted one. If company saunas would make for a happier, and therefore more productive, work environment, then Vista Cosmetics would provide a sauna experience for its staff.
Ulla had laughed with a genuine smile. “No need to apologize. Sauna is the one Finnish word the world knows, and they all say it wrong.”
Lauren had smiled in return and followed Ulla into the sauna, where they sat on towels and soaked in the heat. At first, Lauren was so self-conscious that she murmured, “Maybe I should have worn a swimsuit.”
“No,” Ulla said, eyes closed as she leaned against the wood wall. “Remember, sauna isn’t about worldly things like how our bodies look or any of the lascivious things people from other places tend to associate with it.”
“Oh?” Lauren asked, slowly relaxing her position from one that probably resembled a knot when she’d tried to cover herself.
“It’s almost a holy place for us,” Ulla said. “We’ve had it for centuries. Families used to build their sauna before their houses. Babies were born in them, because they were clean and warm. Many people were even brought into a sauna to die.”
“Wow,” Lauren said. “I had no idea.”
They spent nearly an hour enjoying the sauna, going out periodically to cool off under a cold shower—an exhilarating feeling. By the time she walked out of the sauna and turned on the shower for the last time, she realized that she hadn’t felt awkward or embarrassed for the last half of the sauna. Suddenly, she felt rather proud of that fact. She was absorbing the culture, bit by bit.
She relived the experience in memory on the train, thinking about how different, strange, and yet soothing that first sauna had been. How many others she’d experienced since, and how, if she ever moved back to the States, she’d have to build a sauna into her home. Sauna had helped to manage the crazy stress of the business, but it never could erase her longing to return to laboratory work.
The truth was, Lauren had never wanted to be a businesswoman. She felt most at home in the lab, where she’d created her cosmetics line. The one that had led to years spent in an office, where she was expected to crunch numbers and make executive decisions about things her doctorate in chemical engineering hadn’t prepared her for.
With her phone tucked away in her purse, she’d enjoy the quiet ride to the airport, grateful that Finns tended to be very quiet on public transportation, so she really could just relax and let her worries slip away. She’d look at the slew of “urgent” notifications later.
No doubt they were all about the upcoming merger with Carmichael Industries. She hoped that would go through without a hitch. Their reputation was one of excellence and trustworthiness, which was something important to her. But the higher-ups were oddly secretive; she couldn’t find much online about the foun
der, Frederick Howard Carmichael III. Yet she had her bio and a headshot on Vista’s website. So far, she hadn’t been able to speak directly with the founder of Carmichael Industries, but everything else had clicked along smoothly. She’d meet him in person at tomorrow morning’s meeting. Until then, she didn’t need to get herself stressed out over things she had no control over.
If all went well—and oh, how she hoped it would—then their executives would run the day-to-day business operations of Vista Cosmetics. She’d keep a decent amount of stock and have a lot of say in how things were run, but she’d be able to leave her claustrophobic, though beautifully designed, office and get back to the lab. That’s where she felt most alive: where she could create and invent and discover and do so without the constant burden of knowing that on her leadership hung the futures of two hundred employees and their families’ well-being. A lot hinged on tomorrow’s meeting; she’d found exactly one company she’d trust her brainchild with. Carmichael Industries had better live up to her expectations.
Needing a break from it all was one more reason she left work today to bring a wheelchair to Ulla. Everyone else would finish their work just fine without her for a couple of hours. She was just glad that Ulla had managed to get back in time for the meeting. Lauren would be lost without her.
Pushing the wheelchair before her, she stepped off the train at the underground airport station and marveled—as she did every time—at how clean it was. Not a piece of litter in sight. No smells of exhaust or urine or anything else you might find in a big city subway like New York’s. Just a clean platform surrounded by a tunnel of granite.
Lauren knew the Helsinki airport well, but she’d never needed to take an elevator with a wheelchair, so finding one on her way to meet Ulla at baggage claim took a little work. Buying herself a treat at the little candy shop next to baggage claim had become a tradition, whether or not Lauren was the one flying in. On her way there, she checked a monitor for arrivals, then glanced at her watch—still not checking her phone, which would be filled with urgent notifications—and was glad to see that the flight had just landed. Even with her elevator detour due to the wheelchair, she had time to stop at the candy shop before Ulla got here.