by Lauren Dane
However, before his father had run totally off the rails, he and Obie were thick as thieves. Obie was a calming influence on his big brother. One who kept his father’s worst ideas at bay. For a while anyway. At times Obie helped Beau’s father, at others, well, at others Beau wondered where his uncle’s true loyalties lay.
“He may not be with them anymore, but chances are, he knows where your father is. And if we can finally find him, maybe we’ll find your sons,” Jeremy said.
It’d been multiple years since anyone in the group had direct contact with Beau. The last had been the final in a series of demands for money in exchange for information or access to his sons. Another fruitless payoff.
Beau ruthlessly tamped down any hope he’d allowed himself. His uncle could be the link they’d been waiting for. Or it could be another dead end. There’d been so many disappointments that it had become a defense mechanism. It was that or let it eat him alive.
“Where?”
“South Florida. He didn’t enter the country under his own passport. We know that since his has been revoked. The team is down there now. I’ll update you when and if I hear anything else. I debated telling you at all. I hate reopening old wounds.”
“I want to know. Always,” Beau told Jeremy.
Jeremy nodded. “I know. It’s why I told you. And it’s why I’m going to ask you if you want me to have a background check run on Cora and her family. Just to be safe.”
Beau was paranoid sometimes when it came to what people might want from him. It made no real difference that it was due to how he was raised. The result was the same. He doubted people’s motives and was slow to trust. Usually. Cora was an exception it seemed.
“Look,” Jeremy began, “wanting to be sure she’s not a criminal and that she doesn’t have ties to anyone at Road to Glory doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you careful. Maybe even tell her you do it with everyone? I don’t know. But I do know you’re going to wonder until it’s done so let me have the standard run handled.”
“It feels wrong. With her it feels wrong.”
Jeremy appeared to follow up on his point but then just sighed, sitting back in his chair. “Fine. Tell me what you decide.” Beau got the feeling Jeremy would do one anyway and if it was bad, he’d say so. Otherwise he’d stay quiet.
* * *
CORA LOOKED DOWN at her phone to read a text from Beau telling her his plane was delayed. Again.
Poor dude. That had been the third time and it was already after nine and it looked like he wasn’t getting in until the following day.
Disappointment tinged her concern for how tiring it was to deal with that sort of flight delay after delay. Thankfully it was a relatively short flight and she’d see him soon enough.
She texted back.
Check into a nice hotel room and get a good night’s sleep. I’ll see you when you get back.
“What? You have a face. A sad face. What did he say?” Maybe demanded, underlining her words with a stab at the air with her pizza crust.
“Ease up there, sport,” Rachel mumbled.
“I just want to be sure he’s being nice,” Maybe said.
“You’re being very aggressive there, ma’am. How much caffeine have you had today?” Cora asked Maybe, who snorted. “He’s actually quite nice to me. I promise. His plane was delayed again so they booked him for a morning flight instead,” Cora told them with a shrug. “It happens.”
“But you have sadface.” Maybe hugged her. “You didn’t even have sadface when Dr. Cheaterpants broke up with you.”
“Oh him. Whatever.” Cora waved a hand. Nearly three years before she’d caught her ex with another woman’s underpants in his bed. “He’s a cliché. Then again so am I because I haven’t had a serious relationship since then.” And not even because she’d been in love and had her heart broken. Just because she’d sacrificed parts of her life so she could straddle the world between her mother and the gallery.
Rachel said, “You’re not a cliché at all. You’ve been busy. Your focus was elsewhere and that was what you wanted. You chose your priorities. Don’t apologize for that. Now your direction is shifting at the very same time Beau Petty shows back up in your life. It’s not a coincidence.”
Cora dropped her gaze down to her phone when it buzzed with an incoming video call from Beau. “How do I look?” she asked her friends quickly.
Maybe tousled her hair and Rachel brushed pizza crust crumbs off her boobs so by the time she answered, Cora looked pretty damned cute.
Beau didn’t look cute. He looked tired and sexy as hell. So far away.
“Hi. I’m sorry about all your flight stuff,” she told him.
“Corny as it sounds, seeing your face makes things a little better. I’m on my way to the hotel now but I just wanted to call. To check in. You look pretty.”
Every once in a while, his smooth demeanor would slip just a little and he’d be very sweet. Even slightly hesitant. It got to her, made her want to bring a smile to his lips.
She knew she sighed and had heart eyes at him, but she wanted him to know he made her gooey in more ways than one.
Maybe and Rachel found things to do in the kitchen but Cora knew they were listening.
“You look handsome as usual. But tired. Drink some hot tea when you get checked into the hotel,” she urged. The light from the city and traffic outside the car he rode in cast shadows over his face in all the right ways. “And I need to add that you look like the hero in a gothic romance novel.”
His puzzled smile shot straight to her swelling heart. “Is that a good thing?” he asked.
“Oh yes. I love gothic romance. Love, love, love. You’re broody and mysterious. A scandalous past.” Broken and not a little torn at the edges. Unattainable almost certainly. But she wanted him anyway.
“Well okay then. Remind me to follow up on this sexy little side story when I finally get back,” he said with a look that made her go hot all over.
“You betcha,” she managed to say. “Hot shower. Cup of tea. Bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Are you working?”
“Tomorrow? From three until ten or so.”
He frowned. “Can I see you after that? Would you like to eat a late dinner with a bunch of chefs? You can meet Ian. And afterward...”
She smiled. “Okay. Yes to all that.”
“Good night, Cora.”
“Night, Beau. See you tomorrow.”
Cora tucked her phone, screen down, onto a nearby table, cheeks heated with her blush.
“You’re dumb over him,” Rachel declared with a happy sigh. “This is the best.”
“I’m enjoying myself and the sex, as I’ve said but will share again, is incredible. That much sex appeal is enough to render certain parts of myself dumber than others,” Cora said.
“Ignorance is bliss I guess,” Rachel deadpanned.
After the giggles subsided, Cora settled back and sipped her soda.
“Finley said you’d had brunch and were finally going to tell your mother you wanted to take over the gallery,” Rachel said.
“That clearly falls in the Cora’s news to tell folder,” Cora grumbled. Having her best friend work with her sister meant sometimes news would get shared by other people and not always on her schedule.
Finley couldn’t keep a secret to save her life so it was frustrating to expect anything else, even if it was annoying sometimes.
“You could have told us first,” Maybe reminded her.
“This is the first time I’ve seen you both where we’ve had some privacy since that brunch. Anyway. We’re having dinner with my parents to talk about it.”
“Good. I know it might come off like Finley isn’t taking you seriously. She is. She’s just got her own business with Walda and it gets in her way sometimes.” One of Rachel’s gifts was her insight
into other people’s hearts and minds. And what seemed to be a bottomless well of empathy.
“I can’t take anyone else’s shit on right now, Rachel. She’s a big girl. Older than I am. I’ve done the heavy lifting and I’m not going to keep it up because Finley can’t be a big girl and confront her mother. If I can, she can.”
Maybe’s clapping and cheering made Cora feel better about standing up for herself.
“Neither of you has just yet,” Rachel reminded her. “But you shouldn’t take Fin’s shit on. Other people shielding her is why she and your mom have this messed-up dynamic even now. I’m always on your team. Always. I’m just providing some context, that’s all.”
“Have you talked with Javi or Bee yet? To get their support?” Maybe asked.
Cora shook her head. “Neither of them is involved. To try to drag them into it would only complicate everything. You know how my mother is when it comes to Javier.” The oldest child and the overbearing mother. It was like textbook family drama. “It’s best for everyone that an entire continent separates them. I’ve already shifted my hours. Traded off the load with Beto—who really wants to work more with my dad and he can now. It’s a good time for this to happen. Walda is close to home for a while so the possible upheaval at this point is mainly emotional. We’ve all lived with my mother enough to weather one of her tantrums.” She hoped.
“I’m super proud of you,” Rachel told her with a quick hug. “You’re a pleaser. You like making people happy and taking care of them. You’re doing this for yourself. Which I know is really hard. For whatever it’s worth, I think you’re doing the right thing for your mom too. I mean, I do feel pretty sorry for whoever you hire to replace you.”
“Even if it means I’ll be at Ink Sisters less?” Cora wasn’t just leaving her mom’s full-time service, she was giving up doing the books for her sister’s shop.
“It was time for that too. Not that I won’t miss you but it’s not like we don’t see each other pretty much every day outside the shop anyway. And let’s be honest, she needs to depend on herself more too,” Rachel said. “So much amazing change about to happen for us all.” She looked back and forth between Maybe and Cora. “I’m pregnant.”
Cora smiled so hard her cheeks hurt. “Shut the front door!”
“Get out of here! How did you not tell me until right now? How long have you known?” Maybe demanded. “All that talk about uteruses a few weeks ago! Did you know then?”
Cora couldn’t stop laughing, even as tears started rolling down her cheeks.
Rachel shook her head. “I didn’t know for sure until two hours ago. I promised Vic I’d cut tonight short so we can go over to his mom and dad’s place to tell them. I was late when we had that conversation about kids but I honestly just didn’t think about it too much. But the throwing up started and Vic started to nag me about taking a pregnancy test and finally just brought some home tonight. Five of them.”
“This is good news, right? I mean, we’re all laughing and crying and schmoopy over this but how are you?” Maybe asked after the hugging stopped.
“It is. I wasn’t even sure if it was possible...after all the physical damage.” Rachel had been kidnapped, tortured and held captive by a serial killer several years before. It had left her in a coma, and then facing multiple surgeries and physical therapy. The emotional therapy had taken longer, but it was there. She’d done the work, and then had fallen for Vic at just the right time.
Cora dug out a box of tissues and handed them out to everyone.
Rachel mopped her face before she grinned at them. “It’s good. Let’s just hope the baby isn’t as huge as Vic. At least not until after the birth. I’m going to be a mom. Holy shit.” Rachel thumbed away her tears.
“Thank god you finally told them,” Vic burst out as he came into the room. “I’ve been lurking like a creeper, just waiting. You all talk a lot.” He frowned but once he caught sight of Rachel he smiled so big Cora started to cry again.
“You two will be aunties and that’s a big deal,” Rachel said. “You have to help me not be a terrible mother.”
“You don’t need help to be a good mom. You’re going to be a fantastic mom.” Maybe hugged her sister once more before settling next to Cora so Vic could sit with Rachel.
“It’s totally a big deal and I take it so seriously. I’m ride or die for that baby,” Cora said, making an X over her heart. “Maybe is right though, you’re going to be good at this mom gig.” She looked to Maybe. “We have so much baby stuff to make and buy and design and shop for.”
“Yay!” Maybe hugged Cora and then they all hugged Vic and Rachel and it was a weepy, sweet, happy mess.
“Now will you please marry me already?” Vic asked, still in the midst of a hug pile.
He’d asked her once a year since they’d started seeing one another, and she’d said she wasn’t ready. Even when Maybe had married Alexsei, Rachel had said she wasn’t ready.
Cora and Maybe sat back, unsure as to whether or not they needed to leave. But hoping they didn’t have to.
“You don’t have to marry me just because you knocked me up,” Rachel told Vic. “No matter what your mother says.”
Vic rolled his eyes heavenward and muttered in Russian. “Have I not been asking you to marry me for years? Long before you got pregnant with what will surely be the most beautiful baby ever born.”
“It’s nice that he’s keeping his expectations manageable,” Maybe said to Cora with a snicker.
“Oh. Well, that’s true.” Rachel’s mouth quirked up into a smile. “Okay. I guess I need to make an honest man out of you or people might think you were easy. But we get the final say with the wedding stuff. I don’t want some gigantic affair at the church with eight thousand people. I want it to be small and full of the people we love and your mother needs to be kept in check.” She sized him up. “And I don’t mean by me. I mean you have to tell her no if and when it comes up.”
Cora tried not to snicker but it was impossible.
“And I will never ever want to eat beets so let’s establish that,” Rachel added.
Vic made an admirable attempt not to look confused. “Duly noted and witnessed by Cora and Maybe.”
“You must really love me to want my crazy mixing up with your crazy. You do realize we might have just bred the Kwisatz Haderach, right?”
“Did you just make a science fiction reference from Dune as a way to accept a marriage proposal?” Vic asked her.
“Yeah. I’m totally weird. Are you new here?” Rachel asked.
“So much happiness!” Maybe said as she threw her arms around her sister again.
Cora headed home not too much later, wanting to snuggle down in her bed and sleep a solid nine hours.
Beau would be back the following day and her dearest friend was going to have a baby and get married. Things were really freaking good.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Unexpected. A storm of tears washed over me, leaving my insides clean and peaceful.
BEAU ROLLED INTO his borrowed apartment just before noon. The temptation to drop by the gallery or even her house since she said she wasn’t working until three was strong.
But he had a dinner to plan. Friends to corral and lecture and/or threaten into good behavior in Cora’s presence. He wanted to clean up a little around the place, change the sheets and all that just in case she wanted to stay over.
“So, this is new,” Ian said, tone very dry. “You’ve never asked any of your romantic interests into my kitchen before.” They stood just outside the open kitchen at Luna, the smallest and most intimate of Ian’s restaurants. And where they often ended up after closing, taking turns making meals for the crew of local chefs and other restaurant people who made up his knot of friends.
“I want her to meet you. Or you to meet her. Both. I want to cook for her when she’s surrounded by my
friends.”
Ian smirked. “You want to show her off. Show off for her too.”
“Fuck yes I do. She’s not only pretty and funny and weirdly fascinating, she’s smart. Charming. I want her to know I have a community. I’m not some aimless pretty boy.”
“Even when you were an aimless pretty boy you weren’t really that bad,” Ian said. “She’s someone you want me to meet and that alone would be enough. I’ve got to admit I’m seriously curious about this woman.”
“You’re going to like her. It’s impossible not to.” Beau had watched in serious awe as she’d worked that gallery and the patrons and artists who’d come in.
“You want to do leftover roulette?” Ian asked of the game they made of creating an after-work menu with whatever each particular chef brought with them, or had remained after dinner service had ended.
Because Cora would like the game and he was pretty sure he could make something delicious out of most ingredients his friends would present him with, he agreed.
* * *
AT THE END of a very long day Cora usually just wanted to go home, take a long hot shower and go to bed. But that day had started with a text asking her to be a maid of honor in a Christmas Eve wedding and was going to be ending with a guy she hadn’t seen all week and had missed more than she’d really thought she would.
She’d sent Beto home an hour before but she needn’t have worried about being alone when she closed up because Cora looked up to catch sight of Beau coming in from the street. He wore a navy blue peacoat with a pale gray sweater beneath. Dark trousers showcased just how tall he was.
She watched him as he searched the room, looking for her. And when he found her and his gaze locked onto hers, she felt it ping-pong through her, that zing of chemistry they shared.
Beau looked like he’d walked straight off the photo shoot for a menswear line, or a line of luxury cars. All predatory and masculine but smooth as fuck at the same time.