Runaway Heir

by Cardello, Ruth

  Wiping the corners of her eyes, Nicolette put on her brave face. That’s exactly how she felt. She used to know where her loyalty belonged, where she belonged. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore. “It’ll all work out. Coming here was a good move for me. For now, I’m going to concentrate on helping you.”

  Jordan’s attention flew to Paisley. “You? What’s wrong?”

  She waved her hands and shook her head. “It’s not me, it’s the town.” She explained the dwindling population and lack of local jobs. “I wrote to Nicolette asking if she could help get us back on the map, and she came. She’s the answer to our prayers—a real miracle.”

  Nicolette added, “I don’t know about all that, but I’m going to do everything I can.” She briefly outlined her idea about using social media as well as blog posts to build interest.

  “I’d like to help,” Jordan said. “If that’s okay with you, Nicolette. This is your project.”

  Round eyed, Paisley looked as if she were holding her breath.

  In that moment, Jordan reminded Nicolette of the town. He was odd, but when someone needed him, he was right there stepping in and showing he cared. There was real beauty to his friendship that inspired Nicolette.

  She hoped he’d never change.

  MacAuley was a strange little town. They buried people at night in parks, but they also took each other in and even washed their own restaurant dishes. Community. Family.

  Maybe finding her transformation wasn’t something she had to do alone. “I’d love the help, Jordan. Paisley, is there room for him at your bed-and-breakfast?”

  Paisley looked Jordan over and spoke with some hesitation. “It’s nothing fancy. Just a few rooms in the house my grandma left me.”

  “Does it have internet?” Jordan asked.

  “Of course,” Paisley said with an easy smile.

  “I’m in,” Jordan declared; then his attention returned to Nicolette. “Is there a third room? Before I forget to tell you, Nicolette, your grandmother plans to fly out here. I thought you should know—in case you need to prepare yourself.”

  “She’s coming here? How do you know?”

  “Spencer told me he was trying to talk her out of coming, but your grandmother is a lot like you. Once she gets an idea in her head, there’s no changing her mind.”

  “I am not like—”

  “Jordan, you flew all the way out here to warn Nicolette?” Paisley spoke over Nicolette.

  “She’s like a sister to me,” he said. “I don’t have family of my own.”

  Paisley melted a little. “That’s beautiful.”

  He leaned closer to her. “You’re beautiful.”

  They both flushed and looked away before staring into each other’s eyes once again.

  Nicolette gathered up her purse. Her mood had just tanked. No need to kill theirs as well. “I’m going to walk around and take some more photos.”

  Neither looked up as she stood. No Laid-O-Meter was required to guess where they were headed.

  “I’m sure I can find a ride back to the house if you forget me,” Nicolette joked.

  Nothing.

  It was impossible to be upset when they both looked so smitten.

  Nicolette stepped out onto Main Street and into the sunshine, letting it warm her face. For just a moment, she embraced the feeling before reality came crashing back in.

  Delinda’s coming here?

  Shit.

  Chapter Nine

  At exactly two fifty-five, Bryant closed down his computer, stood, and stretched. He hadn’t heard from any of the Westerlys, but he was confident Delinda would make their meeting.

  She’ll be here . . . if Alessandro is right about her, if she really does love her granddaughter.

  Two fifty-six.

  Bryant’s phone beeped with a message from Lon. Is she there?

  Bryant: Not yet.

  Lon: You know you’re delusional.

  Bryant: She’ll be here.

  Two fifty-seven.

  Two fifty-eight.

  Bryant checked his phone. No messages. He opened the door and asked his secretary if anyone had called. Nothing.

  Two fifty-nine.

  Lon: No way. A helicopter just landed on our helipad. I’m going up to check it out.

  Bryant: It’s her.

  A few minutes later. Lon: It’s her and she has a king with her.

  Grandma, I like your style.

  Bryant: King Tadeas. Nice guy.

  Lon: We’re headed down to you. She just told me to stop texting because it’s rude.

  Bryant: So stop texting.

  Lon: Good luck. She looks pissed, but I don’t think it’s at me.

  The door of Bryant’s office swung open. Delinda swept in on King Tadeas’s arm. Her eyes narrowed as soon as they settled on Bryant.

  “How kind of you to meet me at the helipad,” Delinda said.

  Lon lingered in the doorway. If he was worried, it was needless. Unlike how he’d felt about respecting Nicolette’s privacy, Bryant had had no qualms about calling Alessandro for tips on how best to handle her grandmother.

  He stepped forward to offer his hand in greeting to the king. It was the greeting Tadeas had offered him when they’d met at the wedding. “Thank you for coming.”

  King Tadeas shook his hand, clasping it in his. “Good to see you again, Bryant.” In a low voice, he added, “Tread lightly, son.”

  Bryant motioned toward the seats. “Please, take a seat. Are either of you thirsty? Hungry?”

  Delinda settled into a chair, chin high, hands entwined on her lap. “Don’t waste our time, young man. If you have something to say, say it.”

  King Tadeas laid a hand over his fiancée’s in support. “It’s been a difficult few days. We’re all understandably a little tense.”

  Fair enough. “I went to Iowa to see Nicolette.”

  “How is she?” Delinda asked in a rush before composing herself and adding more calmly, “I didn’t realize you knew her that well.”

  “Alessandro asked me to check in on her.”

  With a disgusted sigh, Delinda said, “Alessandro will hear an earful from me about that, but right now, what is it you think you know that I don’t?”

  Bryant sat on the edge of his desk. “She loves you.”

  Delinda pinched the bridge of her nose as if his words had instantly given her a headache. “Tell me I didn’t fly all this way for nothing.”

  Bracing himself with a hand on either side, he didn’t let her tone deter him. “But you’re not the one she needs right now.”

  “And you think you are?” Delinda asked in a tone so haughty Bryant almost smiled.

  Now I get the king thing. He’s probably the only man she doesn’t scare the piss out of.

  Besides me.

  But I know this is an act. Thank you, Alessandro. So bring your best, Delinda. I’m not here to fight with you. And even if you can’t see it yet, we both want the same thing.

  “I’m not who she needs, either—not yet. Your son is. He needs to go to Iowa to see her.”

  Delinda looked close to telling Bryant that what her son did was none of his business; then her face crumpled. “She said she wants to see Dereck?”

  I know I’m treading into a gray area, but she needs to know. “Nicolette said she’s been waiting her whole life for him to come to her. It’s why she won’t get a blood test—she’s afraid of losing him before she ever really had him. He needs to go to her just like any other dad would.”

  “Dereck loves her. He always has. No test result would ever change that,” Delinda said in a thick voice, and her eyes misted.

  Bryant leaned forward. “Nicolette doesn’t know that. Part of her is still that little girl waiting for him on her mother’s porch. If he doesn’t show up this time, I don’t think he’ll have another chance to.”

  He took heart in the time Delinda paused before responding. “I was planning to go to her tomorrow. I’ll make sure he’s with me.”


  Deep breath. “He should go alone.”

  There goes that chin again. Damn, she’s as proud and as prickly as Nicolette.

  “Although I appreciate you bringing us the insight you gleaned from visiting with my granddaughter, I don’t require any further advice from you regarding my family, thank you.”

  Go big or go home. “You do. You and Nicolette are too similar to work this out without intervention. You’re both proud. Stubborn. Easily hurt. I don’t know what it looks like when the two of you are together, but I’m guessing it’s not pretty.”

  Delinda rose to her feet. “Tadeas, do you hear the way he dares to speak to me?”

  Her fiancé grimaced.

  She turned on him. “You agree with him?”

  With a slight incline of his head, he said, “I’ve seen you and Nicolette attempt to connect. It is, as he said . . . not pretty.”

  With a huff, Delinda said, “Because she takes everything I say as a criticism.”

  Although Bryant hadn’t seen them together, he took an educated guess and said, “And how do you take what she says?”

  “If you heard her tone . . .” Her voice faded away, and she sat down again. How could people not see that Delinda’s formidable days were over? Her frame was frail. The hand that came to her mouth shook slightly before she clasped it again on her lap. She was not nearly as tough as she wanted others to believe. “Am I supposed to pretend I agree with all of her choices?”

  “That depends on whether or not you want to be part of her life.”

  A silence fell over the room.

  Tadeas took Delinda’s hand in his. “What is your horse in this race, Bryant?”

  “I like Nicolette. I want to see her happy, and I believe that starts with Dereck.” Lon’s warning echoed in Bryant’s mind, but this still felt right. “Then you.”

  She shook her head as she processed what he’d said. Looking pained by the idea, she asked, “Then you?”

  He leaned forward and looked her directly in the eye. She wouldn’t respect less than the truth. “Maybe.”

  A small smile lifted the corners of Delinda’s mouth. “She sent you home, didn’t she? A lady never makes the chase too easy for a man. Nicolette does have some of me in her.”

  Tadeas laughed. “These Westerly women are trouble, Bryant, but the kind of trouble that makes life worth living.”

  Delinda beamed. “Keep talking like that and I’ll show you trouble.”

  “Don’t make promises you’re too old to keep,” Tadeas teased.

  With her sparkly, unexpected laugh, she transformed before his eyes into someone Bryant could like. Similar to her granddaughter, she kept the best of herself hidden.

  They fit, this proud woman and her king. Tadeas stood taller when she looked at him. He was at her side, but not to control her or even necessarily to protect her. He was there because there was nowhere else he wanted to be.

  Bryant understood that feeling—had from the moment he’d laid eyes on Nicolette. He knew that he belonged with her. The feeling couldn’t be explained, nor could be it be ignored. It just was.

  Delinda’s attention returned to Bryant, and she pursed her lips. “Was this the only reason you asked me here?”

  Bryant held her gaze with ease. “Yes.”

  “You couldn’t have said all this over the phone?” she asked, watching him closely.

  He shrugged. “Would you have heard me out?”

  Tadeas coughed and covered his mouth as if concealing a smile.

  “I never thought I would say this to a Taunton,” Delinda said while holding Tadeas’s hand, “but I like you, Bryant. Although I don’t know what I think of the man standing in the door like a toddler avoiding bedtime. Lonsdale, did your mother never teach you that it’s rude to eavesdrop?”

  “My mother was a prostitute,” Lon said without missing a beat.

  Delinda opened her mouth to say something, closed it, pursed her lips, then said, “Well, it’s never too late to learn good manners. Come in or step away.”

  Lon stepped inside like a man walking to his own slaughter. Did Delinda even see how she made people feel inferior? Was he wrong to encourage Nicolette to let such a woman back into her life?

  An emotional shark who circled, waiting for a sign of weakness.

  Lon was a badass. Always had been, always would be. Why would such a man find it difficult to look Delinda in the eye?

  The answer came to him in a blast of clarity. The one time Lon had described his deceased mother, he’d been drunk and had said he’d been raised by a string of strangers his mother had shacked up with. He’d never known his father.

  Lon thinks she is better than he is—that he deserves whatever criticism she doles out. Just as Nicolette does. Just as I once did with my father.

  “Delinda,” Bryant said with a clap of his hands, “I have an idea.”

  “Is it really as exciting as all that?” Delinda asked.

  “It is,” Bryant assured her. “I know how to help you now.”

  “Excuse me?” Up went the older woman’s chin.

  “Don’t go getting all defensive—I’m on your side. Look at Lon’s face. Now, you don’t know my business partner, but I’ve never seen that expression on him.”

  Lon’s hands cut through the air. “I’m outta here. Bryant, we’ll regroup tomorrow.”

  “Wait,” Bryant said, halting Lon before he reached the door. “Please.”

  Tight faced, Lon sat down. “This had better be important.”

  Bryant sat in the chair beside him. “It is, trust me.”

  “Only for you,” his partner said with frost in his tone, but it was an endorsement Bryant didn’t take lightly.

  “Delinda, you love Nicolette, but she doesn’t feel it when you talk to her. I propose you practice on Lon before you go see her.”

  Delinda turned to Tadeas. “I was mistaken. This is ludicrous. We shouldn’t have come.”

  He folded his arms across his chest. “We should hear him out.”

  “I don’t have time for games—”

  Bryant spoke over Delinda. “It’s not a game. More like a crash course in how to speak to certain people—to Nicolette.”

  Delinda rose to her feet. “This is not only a waste of time, but also insulting. Tadeas, I’m disappointed that you don’t see that, but—”

  “If you run away, how do you expect to convince Nicolette she shouldn’t?” Bryant asked. “Lon is cursing me out in his head right now, but he’s still here. He knows I have his back, as I know he has mine. That’s what Nicolette needs with you. But to get there, you have to change how you talk to her.”

  His friend shook his head. “He’s disgustingly optimistic, but I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”

  “Nor would I,” Bryant said. “That’s the point. Lon is a brilliant, successful businessman with a heart of gold. And, believe it or not, Delinda, he wants you to approve of him.”

  “I do not,” Lon said in a breath.

  “Just like Nicolette does. Talk to him. Say something nice. Make your mistakes with him, not her.” Bryant smiled. This is genius.

  “No way.” Lon stood. “If you think I’m going to sit here while she insults me as a stand-in for some woman who isn’t even your girlfriend, you invited the wrong person to your therapy session.”

  “She won’t insult you,” Bryant said. “That’s the point.”

  The look Lon gave Delinda hinted at a deep pain. “You don’t even know me, but you think you do. Well, guess what? I don’t give a flying fuck what you think of me.”

  Tadeas rose to his feet. “That’s enough, son.”

  “Yes, it is.” Delinda stood as well. Bryant tensed. He hoped he wasn’t wrong about her.

  Lon remained where he was, glaring down at the tiny woman as she approached him.

  She held out her hand.

  He appealed to Bryant.

  Bryant shrugged. He had no idea where Delinda was headed.

  Expression unchanged
, Lon enveloped her hand in his scarred one.

  Delinda gave it a visible squeeze. “Don’t go. I’m a work in progress. You don’t get to my age without making a good amount of mistakes, and I’ve made more than my share. I’m learning to be softer, less controlling. If I said something that offended you, I apologize. Let’s start over, shall we?”

  Lon’s expression remained skeptical. “Sure.”

  “Stay and we’ll have a chat?” She flashed him a bright smile.

  His eyebrows rose, and he disentangled his hand from hers. “I have a meeting in five.”

  With a frown, Delinda turned to Bryant, who motioned for her to take it down a notch.

  “I’m grateful for whatever time you have,” she said, making her way back to her seat. She patted the chair Tadeas had vacated. “Be a dear and come sit beside me.”

  As he walked by, Lon mouthed to Bryant, You owe me, then sat next to her.

  Feeling a bit like a referee, he said, “Delinda, Lon won’t tell you if you make him uncomfortable. He’ll hold it in until he can’t anymore; then he’ll start swearing and storm out. Your goal is for that not to happen.”

  Lon rolled his eyes heavenward. Delinda did the same. Could they do this? Yes—if they could get past the walls they both protected themselves with. “Now—”

  “I do not require coaching to be cordial,” she snapped.

  “Not cordial—warm, supportive. Imagine it’s Nicolette sitting here. What would you say to her?”

  Neither Delinda nor Lon spoke for long enough that Bryant was beginning to think he’d misjudged both of them. Maybe Lon couldn’t see past the first impression Delinda gave. Maybe she could acknowledge her behavior but couldn’t control it. Or neither had any desire to.

  The king came to stand beside Bryant in silent and welcome support. It wasn’t that Bryant couldn’t see that sometimes situations were unfixable. His mother’s condition had been long and undeniable proof of that. But the only way any of her pain and death made sense was if she—he—everyone was part of a greater design. He didn’t believe he could change the world, but he could make his small corner of it better. That had to be what life was about.

  Watching Lon and Delinda sit in prolonged silence was enough to shake Bryant’s optimism. Lon had made a good point—Bryant had issues with his own father. Was it blind arrogance to believe he could heal anyone else’s relationship?