Romancing My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens) Contemporary Romance

by Melissa Foster

  Jake pushed from the bar. “No chance in hell. Family first. Just give me a minute.”

  Two hours later, they were eating dinner at the Palm, an exclusive restaurant that catered to the stars. Jake loved nothing more than flashy lights and starstruck women. While Pierce enjoyed fine meals and used to enjoy the company of racy women, he didn’t need the fanfare.

  “Jake.” Brad Parlor, an A-list actor recently named Sexiest Man Alive by The Stars magazine, opened his arms as Jake rose to greet him. “How’s it going, man? I heard you were wrapping up Trojan. That’s gonna be a blockbuster.”

  “Thanks, Brad. I’m slated to work on your movie next month.” Jake touched Pierce’s shoulder. “You know my brother, Pierce. He’s in for the night.”

  Pierce rose and shook Brad’s hand. “Good to see you again.”

  “I was down in Texas last week, hit your casino and lost a few grand.” Brad flashed the smile that won women over worldwide.

  “Sorry, man, but hey, thanks.” Pierce sat back down while Jake talked to Brad and then greeted two brunettes with hugs and promises to call.

  Until tonight, Jake’s lifestyle hadn’t seemed like it was lacking a damn thing. Pierce watched his handsome and charming brother in action while he longed to be with Rebecca, and that longing made him realize all that Jake was missing out on. Sex before Rebecca was fun, a great stress reliever at the end of a grueling week. Making love with Rebecca filled his soul with emotions that carried through their intimacy, making it more meaningful, and in doing so, more intense and passionate.

  God, he missed her.

  Jake was busy with a blonde now, making small talk about the party he’d skipped. Pierce pulled out his cell to text Rebecca. He must have forgotten to turn the ringer on after he got off the airplane, because there was a missed call from her. He turned his ringer on, thinking of how she’d have reminded him to do it if she’d been traveling with him, then dialed her number.

  The call went to voicemail, and he left her a quick message. “Hi, babe. Just missed you. Hope your night is going well. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Jake settled back into his seat. “Sorry ’bout that. You sure you don’t want to hit the party later?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. But you can go, Jake. I’m a big boy.”

  Jake waved to another blonde across the room, and that small act rubbed Pierce the wrong way. Just because Pierce had become a one-woman man didn’t mean he had to thrust his behavior on Jake. He was too damn edgy with all the stuff going on between him and Rebecca. He’d only annoy Jake. He needed to go back to Jake’s, look over the documents for tomorrow’s meeting, and hopefully sleep the hours away so he could get back to Rebecca quicker.

  It turned out that convincing Jake to go to the party was easy. Dude, what would you rather do, sit around with your boring older brother or hook up with some gorgeous chick? If he couldn’t change Jake’s mind about women, he might as well use it to his advantage. He also knew his brother well enough to understand that he wouldn’t come home before three in the morning—long after Pierce had gone to sleep. Pierce didn’t mind. He was too preoccupied to visit anyway. He took a cab back to Jake’s house and used the key his brother had given him to let himself inside.

  Every floor in Jake’s house, with the exception of the bedrooms, was either hardwood or marble. The ceilings were all nine feet or higher, and Jake’s high-end taste in furniture gave his house a model home feel, so different from the feel of Pierce’s. Granted, like Pierce, Jake owned several homes. Real estate was a solid investment, and all of the Bradens were careful with their investments. But Pierce knew Jake preferred this particular residence. It suited his lifestyle perfectly—posh location, entertainment at his fingertips with a billiards room, the pool, and a large media room. It had all of the amenities that used to make Pierce feel at home and comfortable. Now it made him long to be back home with Rebecca.

  He grabbed his bags and headed up to the guest room. He was toweling off from a shower when Rebecca called.

  “Hey, babe.”

  “Hi. I hope I’m not interrupting you and Jake. I went out to the store with Daphne and forgot my phone.”

  It was so damn good to hear her voice. “You’re not interrupting. Jake’s at a party. I came back to prepare for tomorrow.”

  “You skipped going to a party with Jake? I hope he didn’t mind.”

  “I love how you worry about everyone else. He’s fine. He loves parties and I…” He sat down on the bed. He didn’t want small talk, and he didn’t want to minimize what he was feeling. “I used to love them, but, Rebecca, I can’t pretend that everything is fine. The whole scene up here is so far from where my head is now that we’re together that I just want to be with you. I miss you.”

  Pierce grabbed his wallet from the dresser and took out the picture from the photo booth.

  “I miss you, too.” Her voice softened, and he pictured her eyes warming and her cheeks lifting with her smile. “I’ve been thinking about things, and I think I need to bite the bullet and instead of taking my last classes in the fall, I’ll use that money to go to Punta Allen and spread my mom’s ashes. I think part of my trouble is that I haven’t had any closure with my mom’s death. Having that might help me move forward and see things more clearly.”

  “God, I wish I was with you right now. I’ll support whatever you want. Whatever you need.” He set the picture on the nightstand by the bed, fighting the urge to tell her that he’d buy the tickets tonight and that she didn’t need to finish her last two classes or work another damn day in her life if she didn’t want to. Whatever she wanted, he would make happen. He had enough money for two lifetimes—for both of them. But if there was one thing he understood now more than ever, it was that until Rebecca believed—one hundred percent trusted—that what she saw in his eyes was love, all the gestures in the world wouldn’t change a damn thing.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  JAKE ARRIVED HOME from a hard night of partying as Pierce was heading out Monday morning. Jake had called just after midnight to see if Pierce wanted him to head home, but Pierce had already crashed for the night and missed his call, retrieving the message only an hour ago. Now, as his brother sauntered through the living room with a sated grin on his face, Pierce shook his head. He knew he had no right to judge Jake. He’d joined his brother in carousing too many times to count.

  Pierce dropped his bags and embraced Jake. “It was good to see you, Jake.”

  “You, too. Call me next time; let me know you’re coming. We’ll make plans.” Jake rubbed the stubble that peppered his square jaw. “And despite me giving you shit, I’m happy about you and Rebecca.”

  “Thanks. I know it’s gonna sound crazy coming from me, but I hope that one day you’ll allow yourself to settle down and be loved the way you deserve. Not everyone’s like Buddy.” Pierce saw Jake’s body stiffen and the muscle in his jaw bunch. Their father had done a number on all of them, and whether it was buried deep in their subconscious, as Pierce thought was the case with Jake, or they wore it on their sleeves, like Luke had, the scars ran deep. Pierce didn’t think for a second that he was above being counted among Buddy’s casualties. No, he’d been aware for more years than he’d care to admit that his need to control his environment and his need to earn enough money to be able to buy his family anything they could ever need both stemmed from Buddy’s abandonment. As the thought rose to the surface, he realized that while he’d never shared those thoughts with anyone, it was time he shared them with Rebecca.

  An hour later, Pierce sat across from William Benson in Benson’s corporate office. Between worrying about today’s meeting and thinking about how much he wanted to help Rebecca accomplish all of the things she wanted to but feeling hamstrung by her pride, he hadn’t gotten much sleep. Running on just a few hours of sleep had been a way of life for Pierce for so long that whether or not he was rested, he remained a shrewd businessman. It was the ability to push past what most people stumbled through tha
t gave him his edge.

  “Are we going to cut to the chase, or shall we piddle around the issue?” William Benson was an elderly man with stark white hair, bushy eyebrows, and midnight-blue eyes. He wore eyeglasses with thick black frames and lenses too large for his narrow face and sat behind his large mahogany desk with his legs crossed and his hands folded in a relaxed fashion.

  Pierce was an up-front guy, and he’d like nothing more than to nail the old bastard to the wall for misleading him about the value of the Grand. Maybe a team of lesser-skilled accountants would have overlooked the millions in accounts receivables that, for various reasons, should have been written off—renegotiations after the fact, businesses closed, delivery of goods and services deemed unacceptable. Pierce’s expert staff uncovered those misappropriated, uncollectible funds, as well as other issues.

  “I’m not a piddler, William. Despite the inappropriate books you provided, I’m going to make you an offer, and then I’m going to get up and walk out that door. You’ll have twenty-four hours to make your decision. After twenty-four hours, the offer will be null and void.” Pierce leveled a narrow-eyed, serious stare on the old man. “I want to be very clear about the terms of the offer. They are written in stone. I will not negotiate, and I will not return with another offer should you turn it down.”

  He pushed a file containing the offer across the wide desk. “Asking price, twenty-two million. Two-year earn out. You’ll find all of the details within the written offer.” He rose to his feet and extended a hand. Normally he’d say something akin to, It’s been a pleasure, but Pierce was still busy repressing the urge to tell the snake that he looked forward to taking over the business and leaving William Benson’s measly twenty-two million in the dust when he turned the Grand around and tripled the profits.

  With a firm handshake and a silent nod, Pierce headed out the door—and back home to Rebecca a day early.

  REBECCA RAN FASTER, lifted heavier weights, and did more sit-ups than she’d done in months. Working out usually cleared her mind, but today her mind seemed to be filled with quicksand. It held on to uncomfortable thoughts and wouldn’t let them go. How could she even think she saw pity in Pierce’s eyes? She knew it wasn’t real, but at the same time, it felt as real as the floor beneath her.

  “Chin up, Rebecca.” Andy crouched beside her. “You know you’ll get better results if you go a little slower and use better form. What’s going on? You’re racing through your routine like a bat outta hell.”

  She continued doing crunches. Even if they were too fast and too sloppy to do much good, the exertion felt great.

  “Working out the kinks in my head.” She panted as she pushed her body through too many searing, painful crunches. She wasn’t scheduled to work today, and after working out, then going to her doctor appointment, she planned on stopping by Mr. Fralin’s to pick up her mother’s urn. She’d left it there under the premise that the urn was more secure in his wall safe than it would be in her car until she was settled. She had a feeling that leaving her mother’s ashes there was one of the niggling kinks in her head. She wouldn’t always be the woman whose mother recently died, and the faster she got her own head out of that position, the quicker she’d heal. She needed to put her mother in her final resting place. The sooner the better.

  “You didn’t tell me that you were dating Pierce Braden. Chiara mentioned it the other day, but until I saw you at the mall, I thought it was just a rumor.” He pointed to the client he’d just finished working with. “Greg. Great job.” He gave the guy a thumbs-up.

  “No rumor. It’s real.”

  “He seemed like a good guy. Chiara raves about how he treats all of his employees. Talk about luck, going from your car to dating the richest guy in Reno.”

  “It’s not like that.” She stopped doing crunches and sat up, sweat beading every inch of her skin. “In fact.” She inhaled deeply, trying to calm her breathing from the difficult workout. “He didn’t know about me living in my car until you mentioned it.”

  “Oh, shit. Really?” He pushed a hand through his short hair. “I’m sorry. Geez, I should have recognized the way you ran off without him when I mentioned the car, but I was only thinking about getting my new phone. I hope I didn’t screw things up for you.”

  “Only in my head.” She wiped the sweat from her brow with her forearm.

  “What does that mean? Were you dating him when you were still staying in your car?” Andy’s eyes widened, and when she didn’t answer right away, his voice grew more serious. “Rebecca?”

  They walked to the water fountain, and Rebecca drank mouthfuls of cold water.

  “Yeah. I was.”

  “And you didn’t tell him? Was he pissed?” Andy gave her a hand towel and a bath towel.

  Rebecca wiped her face. “No.”

  “I’d have been,” he admitted.

  “Why? What business would it have even been of yours where I was staying?” She knew she should have told Pierce, but hearing it from Andy just drove that regret deeper and pissed her off.

  Andy leaned against the doorframe. “Are you really asking me that? Aren’t relationships all about trust? Rebecca, you of all people know this crap.” He lowered his voice. “Remember when that girl I used to date came in every day for a week and tried to get me to start seeing her again? You told me to tell Chiara even though I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

  She rolled her eyes. “That’s different. She could have misunderstood and thought you were cheating or leading her on if she found out from someone else.”

  “Now that I’ve been with Chiara for so long, there’s no difference in my eyes. I think, if anything, he’d have a right to feel like you didn’t trust him, and you know what that does?”

  Oh God, really? Why did I open my mouth? “Go ahead; burst my bubble.”

  “Hey, you know my motto. Anything worth having is worth the pain it takes to get it.” He nodded as if doing so validated his creed. “I know you, Rebecca. You’re a good egg. You’re honest to a fault—usually, anyway—but you’re also overly sensitive.”

  She rolled her eyes. She hated being called overly sensitive, but Andy had pulled that card before, and he knew her well enough that denying it wouldn’t work.

  “You know that keeping something from him is the same as lying, which tells me that you didn’t tell him because of the whole sensitivity thing that you hide behind.”

  “Hide behind?” She glared at him.

  He paused while a woman walked past and then lowered his voice. “Rebecca, don’t you see? This is way bigger than you being worried about how people see you. It was just you and your mom for so long. Rebecca and Magda Rivera against the world. It was hard. It was all-consuming. And you and I both know that even though you wanted to be the one caring for your mom, it was torturous.” His eyes filled with empathy and understanding that only a true friend could possess. He wasn’t making fun of her, and as he touched her arm, she felt that it hurt him as much to bring the truth out in the open as it did for her to hear it.

  A sharp pain shot through her heart. He knew her too damn well, and it pissed her off, but part of her thought he might be right. When she opened her mouth to reply, nothing came out.

  “Look, I know it’s hard for you to let anyone into your world, but guys like Pierce Braden are one in a million, and I saw the way he looked at you. Chances are, he knows you’re sensitive, too, and he’ll overlook this, but if I were you—” He shook his head. “I’d worry about what else this makes him question. Trust is trust.”

  She swallowed past the thickening lump in her throat. “Great. So you’re saying that when I see pity in his eyes, which is what I feel like I see, I’m reading it wrong? He’s really questioning my trustworthiness?” Holy shit. What else can go wrong in my life?

  “No. I don’t know the guy. He might not question your trustworthiness at all; that’s just what it would make me think. But if you think you see pity, you might be misreading it. I don’t mean this judgm
entally, but pity is like a recurring theme in your life. When anyone tries to help, you immediately go down the pity trail. And don’t think I didn’t see it flash in your eyes when I told you to call Chiara.”

  He had her there. She had felt it when he suggested that she call Chiara. A recurring theme? Could he be right?

  “Why don’t you just talk to him?”

  “I did.” She banged her forehead on the wall.

  “Hey, don’t get sweat on my wall,” he said with a teasing smile. “What did he say?”

  “That it’s…” She could hardly believe she was saying this out loud. It would be the first time she’d said she loved a man to anyone other than Pierce. She did love him. I do. I really do.

  “He says it’s love that I see, not pity.”

  His eyes widened. “Damn, girl. Is that where you’re at? That explains a lot.” They walked back to the registration desk.

  “It explains nothing except that now I’m also worried that he doesn’t trust me.”

  “I said I could be wrong about that, but if you’re worried, fix it.” He went behind the desk and pulled out a chart, scribbled something, and lifted his eyes to her when she didn’t respond. “Rebecca, trust is a two-way street. If he says he loves you, you have to trust that as much as he has to trust that you’ll tell him things. You should know this. Do you love him?”

  “Yes. I really do.”

  “Seems easy, then. You’re not a shy girl, Rebecca, so why are you not in his face telling him whatever’s on your mind?”

  She sighed, thinking about what Pierce had said about her trying to regain control of her life. “I do trust that Pierce loves me. There’s no doubt in my mind. So, what does that mean? Am I projecting my fears onto him?”

  Andy shrugged. “Now you’re out of my league. Trust, I get. Projecting fears?” Andy held his hands up in surrender. “That’s way out of my realm of understanding.”

  She leaned across the desk and grabbed him by the shirt, tugging him down so they were eye to eye. “You are a great friend even if it’s your fault I’m in this mess.”