Meanwhile Eliza was gently petting Calico. “He’s really soft,” she whispered.
By now Quicksilver was sticking his head out of the cage, looking for trouble as usual. To my amazement, he flew out, then came back and landed on my shoulder.
“That’s sweet,” she said. “Does he always do that?”
“No, he never has.” I petted and cooed to him, pleased that he was warming up.
After a few minutes, I set both birds up on the rope I had strung over the room, and Eliza and I took a seat on the bed. I gathered up all the papers spread everywhere, the ones filled with business name ideas and drawings.
She seemed interested. “What is all that?”
I told her how I was trying to find a different name for my maid service. Something stronger. “It was your brother’s idea,” I admitted. “He never liked Your House Sparkles.”
“It sounds like it could be a good tagline though.” Then she rolled her eyes and laughed. “Wow, listen to me. I’ve spent too much time around him and Gavin. Do you mind if I look at what you have?”
“Sure.” I handed the stack of papers to her.
As she read through them, it was on the tip of my tongue to ask how Philip was doing. I knew I shouldn’t though. I was supposed to be moving on. To be honest, I was worried for him after seeing how he looked on that YouTube clip.
“What about this one?” she asked, pointing to one of my top picks. “I like that.”
“I like it too, but I don’t know what kind of logo I could make.”
Eliza studied the paper. “Would you mind if I played around with it for a few days?”
“Sure, but do you know how to draw?”
She nodded. “I was an art major for two semesters.”
As she went back to looking through my notes, I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“How is Philip doing? I mean, I’m just wondering.”
She turned to me, her eyes filled with concern. “That’s the reason I came here tonight.” She put the papers down. “He’s not good, Claire.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s in terrible shape. He doesn’t want to talk to anybody. And when we do talk to him, he’s always in a bad mood. Even Gavin’s been walking on eggshells around him.”
If I were a different kind of person, I would have been glad to hear that, but I wasn’t. It made me feel worse.
“He’s holed up in that big empty house,” she continued. “My mom and I don’t know what to do. We tried going over there, but he won’t talk to us. He just sits there all day watching those stupid news channels.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Gavin told me he hasn’t been to work in two weeks.”
“Really? That doesn’t sound like Philip.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Eliza’s pale eyes, so much like her brother’s, fixated on me. “We know he got involved in that big land deal to get back at our father, but it was a mistake. My mom and I told him so.” She glanced over at my birds, who were sitting at the highest spot on the wall, their favorite perch. “Everybody here in town is still nice to us. Nobody blames us for what he’s doing.”
I nodded, glad to hear that.
“I wonder if you could try talking to him.” She bit her lip. “Maybe it would help.”
“What would I say?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I know you guys have broken up, but I’ve never seen him like this.”
“It’s probably not a good idea,” I said, being honest. “I think dragging this out will only make things harder for both of us.”
About a week later, when I drove down the driveway toward my house after work, there was a car sitting there I didn’t recognize. A black Acura. A middle-aged man sat in the driver seat.
I pulled up alongside it and paused. This is weird. Who is he? What am I supposed to do?
I didn’t have long to think about it, because he got out of his car and walked over to my side. He wore dark slacks and a beige button-down shirt.
I cracked my window a couple inches. “Can I help you?”
The man smiled. He was handsome in an older guy kind of way. Balding, and when he ran his hand over the top of his head, I saw he wore a wedding band. “Sorry, I hope I didn’t alarm you. I’m Sam.”
I blinked at him. “Who?”
“Mr. North’s—er, Philip’s personal assistant.” As he spoke, I realized he had an Australian accent.
Sam! My eyes widened. I couldn’t believe it. “Yes, I know who you are.”
“I’ve brought a few of your things. Clothing and a couple of other items. Philip asked me to see they were returned to you.”
I rolled my window back up and got out of my car.
“It’s nice to meet you finally,” I said, holding my hand out. He was on the short side, only a few inches taller than me.
“You too.” He grinned as we shook hands.
“Philip never told me you were from Australia.”
“Didn’t he?”
I shook my head.
“Let me get those items for you,” he said.
I followed him over to the rear of his car, where he opened the trunk. Inside was a brand-new Coach bag. He handed it to me.
“What’s this? This isn’t mine.”
“It is now.” He smiled and seemed a little embarrassed. “I needed to put them in something. My assistant, Lorna, suggested it.”
Thank you, Lorna. Curiously, I looked inside the purse. There was a peach T-shirt, a hairbrush, and the cord to my cell phone, which I’d already replaced.
“You didn’t have to come all the way out here for this,” I said, mystified. “You could have mailed it.”
He closed the trunk and turned to me. “I certainly could have done that, but I wanted to meet you in person.”
“Okay.” I nodded slowly. “Why?”
“I had a theory about you, and now that I’ve met you, it’s been confirmed.”
My brows came together. “What theory is that?”
“You’re completely different from any woman Philip’s ever been with.”
“I’m different?”
“I’ll say. Very different.”
I took that in, thinking back to Madison. I was certainly different than her.
“I’ve worked with Philip for years now, and it’s almost like he’s been waiting for something, for someone. And it’s obvious that someone is you, Claire.”
I was taken aback. Was this really the place of a personal assistant? My guess was Philip would fire him on the spot if he knew he was here saying these things.
“I see you’re surprised by my candor.” He grinned. “Sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong, eh? What has Philip told you about me?”
“To be honest, all he’s told me is that you’re an excellent assistant.”
Sam nodded and tipped his head forward. “And now you get to see why I’m an excellent assistant.” His brown eyes met mine. “In action.”
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. He was more charming than I’d expected.
“He needs you, Claire.” His expression turned serious. “This mess with his father is only going to get worse. He’s made a mistake, and now he’s drowning in it. Stuck in the past and can’t move forward.”
I took a deep breath. This sounded like the same thing Eliza told me.
“You need to go to him,” he said.
“I can’t do that. Not after what he’s done. This is my home, and he’s destroying it.”
“I understand. But you should reach out to him anyway.”
“You’re kind of pushy, aren’t you?”
He grinned. “I’ve always liked the word ‘persistent.’”
After he left, I slipped into my normal evening routine, fed my birds, made my dinner. It turned out Eliza had come up with some amazing artwork ideas for my new business name, and I was thrilled as I studied the pages.
Eventually I’d have to go to bed though, and that was the hardest part of my
day.
The part I dreaded.
That was when I missed Philip the most. I missed lying together and talking. I missed our occasional wrestling matches, and, of course, I missed being intimate. Finding that part of myself again with him was something I’d be forever grateful for.
Some nights I cried, but others I lay awake as memories swam to the surface. I kept thinking about that crazy day when he came to me in the storm. His expression when he found me. No one had ever wanted me that much. It wasn’t the kind of thing you forgot.
I remembered other times too. Sitting outside together late at night enjoying the woods. And then there was the time we got into a debate over the most satisfying way to eat a Kit Kat bar. Philip insisted on biting the whole thing, whereas I preferred breaking it into pieces and nibbling the edges.
“It takes forever to eat it that way,” he’d pointed out.
“I know. I like savoring it.”
He’d leaned in, nibbling my neck. It had tickled, and I couldn’t stop laughing. “The only thing I’m interested in savoring is you, sweetheart.”
Even if we couldn’t be together, I hated the idea of him miserable and lashing out at everyone. I thought about how I’d moved past my anger toward Ethan and Ivy. I wished Philip could do the same.
Impulsively, I grabbed my phone off the bedside table. It was the middle of the night, but I opened a text message to him.
I stopped for a second.
And then I typed five words.
I stared at it for a long time before I finally touched Send.
I hope he reads it, and I hope he does exactly what it says.
Chapter Thirty-One
~ Philip ~
“I have employees?” Doug’s voice warbled over the phone. “Since when do I have employees?”
“Since I hired them.” I reached for the remote control to turn down the volume on screen three. It was a financial news update but appeared to be a repeat of the same one I’d seen a half hour ago on screen two.
“How… how many do I have?” He sounded scared to find out.
“Five.”
“I have five employees?” He gulped.
“That’s correct. Are we done now?” Glancing over, I could tell C-SPAN had started live coverage of a congressional hearing. I wanted to get back to my screens, but Doug wouldn’t stop talking.
“What is this Bradley Renovations name I keep seeing on everything?” he asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“That’s your new business name.”
“My what?”
“I had to rename it.” I got up and went into the kitchen since I couldn’t concentrate on the news anyway. I opened the fridge. There wasn’t much food. Some Italian takeout, but when I looked inside the box, it had hair growing on it.
“But my business name is Bradley Wood & Paint.”
“Not anymore.”
“That’s not… I don’t… how…?” he sputtered.
I sniffed at the Italian food. It smelled okay. Maybe I could scrape the bad parts off. But then I remembered the food poisoning I’d gotten in Mexico City and decided not to chance it.
“You’ve gone too far, Philip. This is too far.” I pictured him pacing around his living room with his usual unhappy expression. “I can’t believe you would do that!”
“Look, I had to. The old name was fine, but it wasn’t working anymore.” I opened the garbage can and dumped the leftovers inside. “Things change.”
“And who asked you to make these changes? I sure didn’t.”
“You left me in charge of a business that was barely solvent. I turned it into a highly profitable enterprise.”
“So? So what? Nobody asked you to do that!”
I rolled my eyes. So now Doug was angry at me? After that punch in the jaw, I thought we were straight, but I should have known better. Nothing with Doug was ever straight.
“I’m just a simple guy,” he ranted. “I don’t know anything about running a business this size. Do I have to give stock options? I don’t even know what that is!”
“Calm down. Jesus, you’re acting like I put you on the Forbes list.” I opened the cabinet to see if there was a can of chili or soup I could warm up, then wished I hadn’t when my eyes landed on a stack of Kit Kat bars.
I went still. I hadn’t realized those were there. My chest tightened, and the back of my throat closed up. I blinked a few times, then forced myself to take a deep breath.
Doug was still carrying on about stock options, corporate taxes, and 401(k) plans.
I closed the cabinet door. “Look, you can do whatever you want with your business. Sell the damn thing for all I care.”
“Sell it?” That seemed to give him pause. “I could sell it?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Bob wanted to buy it.”
“Who’s Bob?”
“Your general manager.”
“Oh.”
We both went quiet. I kept thinking about those chocolate bars and Claire. Always Claire. I didn’t want to think about her, but she found ways of sneaking in.
Watching the news seemed to be the only thing that kept her at bay.
Because it’d been hard without her. The days had been terrible. The nights were even worse. Somehow my life had gone to shit.
It didn’t help that everyone was angry at me. My mom and sister—even Gavin was acting strange. When Mom and Eliza came to stay, they both voiced their disapproval over what I’d done. They wanted to talk about my “feelings,” but that was the last thing I wanted. Finally, they went back to Truth Harbor.
“Could… could you ask Bob if he’d like to buy it?” Doug ventured. “I think I might like to sell.”
“No,” I said irritably. “Ask him yourself.”
There was a doorbell in the background on his phone. “I have to get that. Daphne and I are going to the movies with… um… with no one. We’re going with no one!”
I remained silent, though I could feel my heart pounding.
“It’s just the two of us tonight,” Doug carried on. “That’s right, Daphne and me all alone at the movies.”
I still didn’t say anything.
“Fine! I admit it. We’re going with Claire. Daphne thinks she could use a night out.”
I licked my lips and lowered my voice. “Is she there?” I imagined Doug handing the phone to her. I imagined hearing her pretty voice again. A terrible yearning took hold of me. My grip tightened. I shouldn’t be allowing this. An addict hoping for one last fix.
“No, we’re picking her up at the carriage house.”
Disappointment echoed through me. But then I realized what he’d just said. “Why does Daphne think Claire needs a night out? Is she okay?”
“Oh, sure. She’s okay. It’s just that she’s working all the time. Daphne said she even hired a new person.”
That’s my pirate princess, I thought with satisfaction. Using her energies to build something. Meanwhile, I was watching television day and night. I couldn’t muster the energy for anything. Not even work.
“I have to go,” he said. “Would you… um… ask Bob if he’d like to buy me out? I’d really appreciate it.”
I nearly said no again but then stopped myself. It wouldn’t kill me to help. “All right, fine, I’ll talk to him.”
The news wasn’t the only thing I watched. I also watched my father. I tracked his financial health closely. Not long after we signed that partnership with Atlas, rumors swirled that his company was in trouble.
I was glad to hear that, but it wasn’t enough.
A few days later, the people I had monitoring him told me the banks had begun seizing his assets. Not only his business assets but his personal ones too. He’d been living in a house of cards, and it had come crashing down.
I was glad, but, of course, it wasn’t enough.
When my people got back to me a week later and told me he’d declared both business and personal bankruptcy, I was glad again.
But it still
wasn’t enough.
I didn’t understand.
Why wasn’t it enough?
I soon had my answer.
It was a hot summer night. I had the air conditioner blasting and didn’t notice how warm it was outside until I answered the door for the pizza delivery guy.
“Wow, this is some place,” he said, his eyes bugging out of his head. He was dark-haired, portly, and covered in zits. “A real palace.”
I didn’t reply as I signed the credit card receipt.
“Where’s your furniture though?” He craned his neck around me, trying to see inside. “That’s weird. Why don’t you have any furniture?”
“None of your fucking business is why.” I slammed the door shut.
I ate the first slice of pizza in silence, chewing slowly since my jaw still bothered me. Popping open a can of soda, I took a swig. Sam made sure groceries were delivered once a week, though I mostly ordered out. It occurred to me that the only people I saw anymore were delivery people.
Gavin came by the other day, but his visit was short.
“What the hell is going on with you?” he’d wanted to know. “When is this self-imposed exile going to end?”
“When I’m good and ready. Anything else?”
He sighed. “C’mon, Philip. We’re all worried about you.”
“Don’t be.”
He studied me. “Is there any way you and Claire could patch things up?”
I turned my head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then what do you want to talk about?”
“Nothing.”
Gavin sighed and ran a hand down his face. He leaned forward. “This isn’t healthy. Eliza tells me all you’re doing is watching the news day and night. You should at least come into the office.”
I rubbed my jaw, which ached like a sonofabitch. I knew I should have it X-rayed, but I didn’t want the hassle. “My father declared bankruptcy recently.”
Gavin’s brows went up. “Really?” He leaned back. “Well, you should be pleased. That must be very satisfying.”
I nodded. But it wasn’t satisfying. Not at all.
Truth About Men & Dogs Page 39