by Kori Roberts
Nick stared at his mother in silence and waited for her to continue.
“I did the same thing to Rylee that people did to your father when we first met. I refused to believe that a woman her age could possibly be interested in you and Noah for anything other than the obvious.”
Nick saw her eyes well up with tears. “And, I did the same thing to you and Noah that people once did to me. I just couldn’t accept that the two of you weren’t kids anymore, but grown men, who were old enough to recognize true love when you found it — even if it was with the same woman.”
“What are you saying, Mom?” Nick’s heart ached. He was torn between the anger he felt at his mother for the way she’d treated Rylee, Noah, and him; and the pain he felt as he looked into her eyes that were filled with so much sorrow.
“I’m saying I was wrong.” She sniffed. “I was wrong about a lot of things.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “She came by to see you.” She spoke so softly, Nick almost didn’t hear her.
“Who came by?” Nick and his mother both looked up to see Noah in the doorway.
“Rylee…she came by to see you last month right after the breakup, and I sent her away.” Her voice cracked. “I was wrong. I’m so sorry.”
“You did what?”
“And you’re just telling us now?” “You had no right!”
Nick and Noah were talking at the same time, their angry words clashing. The
anguished sound of their mother’s sobs stopped them instantly, and they stared at her in shocked silence.
Nick didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t seen his mother cry like that since his father died.
“Mom, please…don’t.” Nick’s words seemed to make her cry even harder, and he
looked at Noah helplessly.
Noah walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her in comfort.
“I’m sorry that we yelled at you. But…” Noah sighed. “You really should have told us.”
“You’re right.” She nodded, and her body trembled with emotion. “I thought I was helping, but I realize now that I only made things worse for everyone.”
She reached up to stroke Noah’s cheek. “I just wanted you to be happy. I won’t pretend to understand it, but I can accept the fact that Rylee is the person that makes you happy.”
She turned to Nick and gave him a tremulous smile. “That makes you both happy.”
*
After they locked up Zeus and checked on the other dogs, Nick and Noah walked their mother home. They sat and talked with her for a while before they headed back to their own house.
Nick knew that it was still going to take some time before their relationship with their mother returned to normal. But it was a lot better than it had been in a long time.
When they got home, Nick looked at Noah. “Should we try and call her?”
Noah shook his head. “I think she changed her number. She hasn’t answered her home phone in weeks.” “Yeah, she must have changed her cell phone number, too. The old one is disconnected.”
“I see I’m not the only one who’s been trying to reach her,” Noah commented.
“Yeah, well, as pissed off as I was about what happened, I still didn’t like how things ended between us.” Nick sat on the couch and put his head in his hands for a moment.
Finally, he looked up at Noah.
“What if we got it wrong, man? What if it was no big deal, just like Rylee said? What if we were the ones who screwed everything up, and not the other way around? We never even heard her side of the story, never gave her a chance to explain herself. We just walked away.”
“You’re right.” Noah shook his head, his expression filled with self-disgust. “If she doesn’t hate us already, she probably should.”
“So,” Nick said quietly, “what do you want to do?”
Noah’s determined gaze locked with his, and he confirmed what Nick already knew. “I want to go and find our redhead.”
Chapter Twenty-six
“I’m sorry, sir. Ms. Putnam no longer works here,” the front desk clerk said.
“What?” Nick and Noah’s shocked responses sounded at the same time. They stared at the man in disbelief.
“Since when?” Noah demanded.
“I’m sorry…I’m not at liberty to say,” the clerk said apologetically.
“Does she still live here?” Nick pressed.
“Sir…I really can’t discuss —”
“Yeah, yeah. I got it.” Nick turned away from the clerk and looked at Noah in disbelief.
He didn’t know that to think, couldn’t believe Rylee was actually gone, and couldn’t imagine that they were never going to see her again. “What are we supposed to do now?”
Noah sighed in resignation. “The only thing we can do. We go home and figure out a way to find her.”
As they left the hotel, they saw Rylee’s two friends standing outside.
“Hey, Drew…Mya,” Noah called out. The pair looked at them in surprise.
“What do you two want?” Drew’s face became tight with anger. “We were looking for Rylee,” Nick told him. “The clerk told us she didn’t work here anymore. Do you know where she went?”
“Don’t you think you’ve hurt her enough already? Or are you trying to completely destroy her?”
“Fuck you!” Nick snarled at Drew and crowded into the smaller man’s face. This entire situation had him quickly losing his battle to control the anger brewing within him. “You don’t know dick about this situation!”
“I know enough!” Drew didn’t back down. “I know you two assholes ripped her heart out and pissed on it!”
“Drew, don’t —” Mya tried to pull Drew away, but he wouldn’t budge.
“It wasn’t enough for you to break her heart that night, was it?” Drew continued, and his face turned red with anger. “You had to humiliate and embarrass her in front of her peers, her staff — people she had to work with every day, people who looked up to her!”
Drew stepped closer to Nick; only inches separated them.
“And even after the way you treated her, she still drove all the way to Wisconsin —
prepared to beg, if necessary — to ask you to forgive her for something that she didn’t even do! And now, a month later, after all the damage is done, you decide to come looking for her? And you have the nerve to say ‘fuck me?’ No! Fuck you two selfish bastards!”
A car pulled up to the curb in front of them, and Tom and Jacob got out. They wore similar expressions of confusion and concern. Tom rushed over to Mya and wrapped his arms protectively around her.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on here” — he scowled at the group — “but it’s upsetting my wife, which means it’s upsetting our baby. So everybody needs to calm the fuck down!”
Jacob put his arm around Drew, pulling him tightly against his chest. Drew continued to glare at Noah and Nick. Noah placed a restraining hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Look,” Noah said, “we don’t have a beef with you, and we’re not trying to cause any problems. All we want to do is find Rylee.”
“I know you all love her, and want to protect her.” Nick spoke to the group, but his eyes were locked on Drew. “But, we love her, too. And, I swear to you, we’re not going to hurt her again.”
Nick’s chest tightened, and he swallowed around the lump in his throat. He felt Noah squeeze his shoulder in support. “We know we fucked things up with Rylee. But we’re trying to fix it. We need your help. Please.”
Nick watched as Jacob whispered something in Drew’s ear. Finally, Drew sighed and looked at Mya. He nodded his head slightly, and Mya turned to Noah and him.
“Rylee left,” Mya told them. “She accepted a job in another city and moved away.”
“What?!” Noah sounded incredulous. Nick felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He just stared at Mya.
“Where?” he managed to croak out.
“She asked us not to tell anyone where she went.”
�
��But —” Noah started to protest, but Mya cut him off.
“Look, I believe you meant what you said today. But I promised Rylee that I wouldn’t tell anyone where she went, and I won’t break that promise — not even for you.”
“But,” she added, “I will let her know that you’re looking for her. It’ll be her decision to contact you or not.”
“Okay,” Nick said finally. “That’s fair enough. Thank you.” He and Noah walked in the opposite direction of the group. Nick stopped suddenly and turned around. He looked at Mya and Drew.
“When you talk to Rylee, let her know that we’ve regretted that night since the moment it happened. Tell her that we never stopped trying to contact her, and we never knew that she came to see us until today. Make sure…make sure she knows we never stopped loving her.”
Mya gave him a watery smile. “We’ll let her know,” she said softly. “And hopefully, you two will get a chance to tell her yourselves.”
Nick nodded once more, before he and Noah walked away. His heart was heavy,
knowing there was nothing else they could do at the moment but go home, wait, and hope that it wasn’t too late to make things right between the three of them again.
Chapter Twenty-seven
“Good morning, Ms. Putnam. You’re just in time. You have a call holding on line three,” Rylee’s assistant told her as she walked in.
“Good morning, Joyce.” She smiled. “Thanks. I’ll grab the call in a moment.” She went into her office and threw her purse and bag in the chair before she walked around her desk and picked up the phone.
“Rylee Putnam,” she answered.
“Hey, boss lady.” Rylee recognized Mya’s voice and smiled.
“Hey, yourself, stranger!” She sat down in her chair. “How’s my favorite mommy-to-be doing?”
“Oh, God.” Rylee heard Drew’s groan through the phone. “Please, don’t ask, unless you want to be on the phone for the next two hours.” Rylee burst out laughing.
“Hey, sweetie!” she spoke to Drew. “How are you?”
“I’m good, babe,” Drew told her. “Are you doing okay?”
“Yeah…yeah, I’m good,” Rylee lied.
“We miss you,” Mya told her softly. “It’s just not the same without you here.” “I miss you, too.” Rylee suddenly felt like there was a ball stuck in her throat, and she fought the urge to cry.
Stop being such a fucking baby, and suck it up. “So,” she said brightly, “what’s up with the two of you?”
“You had some visitors yesterday.” Rylee frowned at Mya’s words.
“Visitors? I guess those bill collectors finally caught up with me, huh?” she joked. There was silence on the other end.
“It was Nick and Noah,” Drew said. Rylee’s heart pounded so hard in her chest, she could barely breathe, much less speak.
“Rylee.” Drew called her name. “Did you hear what I said?”
“Yes…” Rylee’s voice was a faint whisper. She swallowed and spoke again. “W-what did they want?”
“Well, you of course!” She heard Mya’s familiar laughter through the phone. “They wanted to know where you were.”
Rylee was filled with panic. “You didn’t —”
“Relax, babe,” Drew spoke up. “We didn’t tell them where you were.”
“What did they say?” Rylee was almost afraid to hear the answer.
“They said that they’ve been trying to contact you,” Mya told her. “They also said that they didn’t find out that you came to see them until yesterday.”
They never knew? It really shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did. “I should have known.” Rylee snorted. “Their mother hates me.”
“Well, she may hate you, but they obviously love you very much,” Drew commented.
“Did they say that?” Rylee sat there with her mouth open, torn between elation and disbelief. “Yeah, they did.” Drew sighed. “Look, Rylee, as angry as I was at those two assholes for how they treated you, I still believed them when they said they were sorry and that they still loved you.”
“So…what are you going to do?” Mya asked.
Scream…laugh…cry. “I don’t know.” She closed her eyes, and leaned her head against the back of her chair. “Listen, I have to go,” she told her friends. “I’ll call you later tonight.”
“Okay, babe,” Drew said. The concern in his voice echoed through the phone. “Just promise us that you’ll call if you need us before then.”
Rylee smiled. “I promise, sweetie.”
“We love you just like Nick and Noah do,” Mya told her. “Well…maybe not just like they do. But…you know what I mean.”
Rylee couldn’t help but laugh. “I do know — and I love you both, too. I’ll talk to you soon.”
She hung up the phone and sat at her desk for several minutes. Finally, she picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number.
“Hi…Ethan. It’s me…Rylee. I was just wondering…is that Weisman property still available?”
Chapter Twenty-eight
“Thanks, Mya.” Nick hung up the phone and rubbed his hand across his face. It had been almost two months since they’d learned from Rylee’s friends that she’d moved to another city. Her friends still hadn’t been able to convince her to contact them. And he still hadn’t been able to convince them to tell him where she was.
But he couldn’t be angry with them. Rylee’s friends were fiercely loyal to her, and it was obvious to Nick that they would do anything to protect her.
In the weeks after they’d learned Rylee had left, he and Noah had spoken to Mya and Drew several times by phone, and Nick had grown to really like and respect them even more than he had before.
There was one good thing that had come out of the situation. Although Rylee’s friends still wouldn’t tell him where she was, they’d been more than willing to tell him the real story behind what happened that night.
Nick could feel his throat tightening, and he had to swallow back his own emotions as he thought about Rylee trying to juggle two jobs, willingly sacrificing everything in her life just so that she could be a part of theirs. And every time he remembered the way he and Noah had treated her that night, he felt physically sick. Nick knew they didn’t deserve a woman like Rylee, but he refused to give her up. The thought of never being with her, never seeing her again, was more than he could bear.
He was still sitting there, lost in thought, when Leslie burst into the small office.
“Hey!” She was breathless, her face flushed with excitement. “There’s a client outside who needs to see you. Right now.”
Nick leaned back in his chair and blew out an impatient breath. “I can’t deal with a client right now, Leslie. You go talk to them. Or, make José do it.”
“No, it has to be you,” Leslie persisted.
“What the fuck do you mean, it has to be me?” Irritation laced Nick’s voice, and he frowned.
“The client specifically asked for either you or Noah,” Leslie explained, seemingly unfazed by his attitude. “And, since Noah’s not back from his delivery yet, that just leaves you.”
“I really don’t need this shit right now, Leslie.” He glared at her, thoroughly annoyed with the entire conversation.
“Trust me on this, Nick. You’ll want to talk to this client.” Leslie smiled mischievously.
“Goddammit!” Nick practically shouted. He pushed away from the desk and stood up so fast, he almost knocked his chair over.
“This client had better be as important as you claim, or your ass is fired!” he threatened.
Nick walked to the office door and yanked it open. He hoped that he didn’t look as pissed off as he felt. “Hi, I’m sorry to keep —” His words died in his throat at the sight of that familiar red hair. She turned around, and Nick found himself staring into amber eyes.
“Rylee?!” He was just thankful that he was still gripping the door, because it was the only thing that was keeping him from falling to the f
loor at that moment. Rylee nodded and smiled hesitantly. “Hi, Nick.”
He was too busy staring at her to respond. Just the sight of her still managed to leave him speechless.
Nick saw her smile fade away, and a slight frown took its place. He realized that he still hadn’t spoken. So many questions raced through his mind, he didn’t know where to begin.
He decided to start with the easy ones first.
“How are you?”
“Good.”
“You look” — beautiful, amazing, perfect — “well.”
“Thanks…so do you.” Yeah, right. He looked like shit, and they both knew it.
“Where did you go?”
“Seattle.”
Nick blinked. Seattle? Damn. “Wow…Seattle is…”
“Rainy? Green?” Rylee smiled, but it looked strained and never reached her eyes.
“I was thinking, far away,” Nick clarified.
“Yes…it is.”
“So…how long are you in town?”
“Indefinitely.”
“Yeah?” Nick said carefully, ignoring the acceleration of his heart rate at her response.
“Where are you staying?”
“I…I was hoping I could talk a couple of friends into letting me stay with them.” Rylee spoke hesitantly and stood there nervously wringing her hands, her teeth worrying her lower lip, while she stared at him with apprehension.
“I’m thinking they’d love to have you stay with them.”
“I hope so.” “I know so.”
Nick didn’t know when they had started to move. One moment, there were several feet of space between them. The next, they stood directly in front of each other, their bodies so close, they were practically touching.
“Nick, can we talk —”
“Shh,” he interrupted. “We can talk later. Right now, I just…”
Nick ached to touch her, and he gave into the temptation. He put both of his hands to the sides of her face and tilted her head toward him.