by Addison Fox
“I’m not sure my gentlemanly urges can handle a woman paying.”
She pointed toward a vendor about twenty yards ahead of them. “It’s only hot dogs.”
“Well, when you put it that way, how can I refuse?”
Keira had been a revelation. While it seemed as if they’d hit a tentative truce the night before, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that what was building between them was temporary.
Or that she was looking for a reason to run. He’d suggested a day away from the office so they could try and get back some of the magic they’d experienced in Las Vegas. What he hadn’t banked on was her ability to truly push the office aside.
There had been one moment earlier, by the sea lions, when he’d felt her stiffen next to him. At first he’d ignored it, but the expression on her face had him reconsidering, so he watched as a play of emotions worked its way across her face.
And then the moment vanished as if it had never been.
When her laughter returned at the sea lions’ antics, she’d looked up at him with such a wholesome freshness he’d almost convinced himself he’d imagined it.
Almost.
“What do you take on your hot dog?”
“Ketchup only.”
“No onions?”
“More Shrek insinuations?” He reached for the red plastic container of ketchup as she handed him one of the hot dogs.
“I’m a mustard, ketchup, and relish girl myself.”
He watched her fix her own hot dog, a ritual as elaborate as a general preparing for battle. “Doesn’t the hot dog get cold?”
“It doesn’t matter if the ketchup, mustard, and relish ratio is exactly perfect.”
“And people call me Type A.”
“Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” She winked at him as she took a big bite of her lunch before closing her eyes. “You could take me to the best restaurant in New York and I don’t believe it could compare to this taste.”
“New York street vendors do produce some unique food magic out of those little steel carts.”
“The best.”
They found an empty bench to finish eating. A light breeze rustled stray leaves at their feet and Nathan couldn’t hold back just how satisfied he felt.
How complete.
“So how does it come to pass that a born and bred New Yorker has never visited the Central Park Zoo?”
“I’m really not sure.” She shrugged as she wadded up the aluminum wrapper that had held her hot dog. “There are some days I remember my childhood vividly, and others where it seemed to pass in a morass of experiences.”
“Your parents never took you and your sisters places?”
“We had a very dignified family vacation every year to somewhere spectacular like the French Riviera or Chile or Bora Bora. And then we’d come home and my parents would go back to their respective corners.”
“Sounds lonely.”
“I had Mayson and Camryn, and it’s hard to be lonely with the two of them.”
He heard the telltale quaver behind the gentle smile. “But your parents?”
“My mom did the best she could. She was around far more often than my dad, but she was embarrassed to go out without him. Like it would somehow be admitting we were a dysfunctional family. So we did a lot at home. And we had a wonderful relationship, don’t get me wrong.”
Keira hesitated and he gave her the room to gather her thoughts.
“I think in a lot of ways that’s why the business part of our lives has always come so easily for my sisters and me.”
“How so?”
“Relationships are hard, but talking business is easy. You figure out what you want and you figure out what your opponent wants and you make a deal. It’s way easier to navigate than those sticky landmines of human emotions.”
She stood and extended her hand. “Come on. Let’s walk.”
By unspoken agreement, Nathan sensed she didn’t want to discuss her family any longer, and he wasn’t about to push. He reached for her hand and linked their fingers. He knew all about those sticky landmines, had stepped on more than a few in his youth, and he’d made it a practice in his adulthood to avoid them at all costs. Which was why the words that spilled forth as they moved toward the Reservoir, the large body of water that dominated the center of the park, were an unexpected surprise.
Or a confession, he amended to himself.
“The day I graduated from business school, my father offered me a job at his company.” She looked up at him, a question in her eyes, and he answered it before she even asked. “I didn’t accept it. Turned him down cold.”
“How’d he take the rejection?”
“Not well. Badly, actually.”
Nathan pulled up that day in his mind’s eye, the memory one of his easiest to recall. His mother had still been alive then and she’d been delighted West had arrived at their small Lower East Side apartment for a visit. And she had been equally upset when West had walked out twenty minutes later.
“What happened?”
“A full-court press by my mostly absentee father, followed by the worst fight of my life with my mother.”
“Why did you have a fight?”
“She attempted to convince me how ungrateful I was being by rejecting the offer. She only pushed harder each time I insisted he couldn’t just reappear in my life and think he had any influence.”
“But he does have an influence, as my father does on me. It may be more negative than positive, but it’s still an influence.”
He’d never looked at his relationship with his father through that lens, and, as he did, Nathan realized it made sense.
“Maybe your mother fell victim to the classic parental blunder.”
“What’s that?”
“Our parents sometimes think the path of least resistance is best, and it’s usually not because we don’t stretch and grow on that path. But pushing us in that direction keeps their fears about us getting hurt at bay.”
He hesitated but figured he owed it to her to keep going. “I think her concern was even more personally motivated than fear.”
Keira squeezed his hand. The thoughts he’d harbored about his mother ever since that day had burned a hole in his heart. He knew they were ungrateful and more than a little judgmental. What he hadn’t known was how much easier they were to bear with the support of someone else.
“She thought I should go with the man she’d always loved and whose faults she was blind to.”
“We often forget our parents are human, too. They’re such imposing figures in our minds, I think we shortchange them their humanity.”
The judgment of his mother’s actions subsided, replaced with the anger he’d spent a lifetime honing to a razor-sharp point. “She never got over him. And never once, in all the time since the day she met him, did he treat her as she deserved. Not once.”
“She loved him.”
“He never deserved it.”
“No, from the sound of it, probably not.”
A cool breeze lifted off the water of the Reservoir and blew over them. A few strands of Keira’s hair slipped loose from their knot and flew around her face. He spotted an exit off the path around the water. As soon as they were out of the way of oncoming runners and walkers, he pulled her into his arms. With aching sweetness, he brushed the strands of hair behind her ear, then leaned in to press his lips to hers. “Thank you for understanding.”
“Thank you for trusting me with the information.”
And when their lips met, something was different. He felt it immediately.
Whereas before, spending time with her had been fulfilling and exhilarating, now it had become something even more.
“Nathan,” she whispered against his mouth. “Let’s go home.”
…
Keira answered the call from her doorman and let him know he could send up their dinner.
“You can get dressed faster and you don’t have to put on a bra.” She gave Nathan a winso
me, toothy smile, picking up the debate they’d started around the time she had called in the Chinese food order. “So you can go grab the food when the delivery guy knocks.”
“You don’t need to wear a bra. You look amazing without it.”
“Yes, well, unless you’d like the deliveryman to think the same thing, go answer the door.”
As if punctuating the statement, the buzz of her doorbell echoed through the apartment.
“Fair point.”
He nodded and dragged on his khakis as he went. She couldn’t help but once again admire his firm butt and the broad back that rose up from slender hips to expand into those magnificently broad shoulders. Nor could she help the self-satisfied smile that refused to vanish from her lips.
Taking the afternoon off had been a truly inspired idea.
Spending half of that afternoon in bed had been an even better one.
“Moo shu’s here!” His deep voice carried down the hall. “And you’ve given me quite an appetite, so get down here before it’s all gone.”
His T-shirt still lay in a discarded pile on the floor and Keira reached for it as she stood. As she pulled it over her head, she heard the muted ring of her cell phone. She poked her head through the cotton and glanced at the readout.
Camryn.
The urge to ignore it and just talk to her sister in the morning was strong, but the small kernel of guilt that had planted itself that morning when she ducked out of the building was too strong to bypass.
“What’s up?”
“Are you near a TV?”
“Yeah. I’m at home.”
“Put it on. Hurry up.” Camryn barked out the channel and Keira could hear Mayson and Sally in the background as well.
“What are Mayson and Sally doing there, too?”
“We’ve got you on speaker.”
Camryn’s terse orders, coupled with their frantic voices, had her hand shaking as she reached for the remote on her bedside table. “Clearly you’re not calling with good news. What’s going on?”
“The news of last night’s event has broken.”
“Okay, well, we knew it would happen. Charlie’s abrupt and unhappy departure this morning was a clear sign he wasn’t going to let this lie quietly. We talked about it then.”
“It’s a little more personal than that, Keira.” Mayson’s normally cheery voice flicked through the end of the phone like a whip.
Images flashed up on the screen. “Okay, I’ve got it on.”
“They’re coming back from commercial with the story.”
Before the words were out of Camryn’s mouth, an image of Nathan and her, captured the night before, flashed on the screen. Although nothing overt was happening in the footage, they were looking at each other with a level of adoration not normally found in business adversaries. The reporter’s comments suggested as much, and a complaint was forming on Keira’s lips when a new image filled the screen, one taken that afternoon of them kissing at the sea-lion pool.
“What? How?”
Nathan’s broad frame filled her bedroom doorway. “Food’s out there. What are you waiting—” He broke off when he saw her face.
“What’s wrong?”
And then West Harrison’s face filled the screen and Nathan was as mesmerized by the images as she was.
“My son’s recent behavior is in no way a reflection on his business sense. He needs to stop thinking with his—” A loud beep overlaid the news footage, but she had no problem figuring out West’s crass language.
“He’s using our relationship as an excuse to incite a firestorm of interest about your takeover attempt of McBride.” Keira pointed toward the image of West Harrison. “You know this is tomorrow’s headline on the Financial Journal.”
“It’s already on the website.” Camryn’s voice echoed from the phone, and Keira abstractly realized she still held it up to her ear. “And based on your comment, I take it Nathan is there with you?”
“Yes.”
Camryn’s voice was quiet when she spoke. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“The reporter has no right to insinuate one has anything to do with the other.”
“Maybe not, but the connection’s been made.”
“I’ll talk to you later.”
“Keira—” Camryn hesitated for a moment. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
She tossed her cell phone onto the bed as the image of West faded from the screen and the anchors moved onto the next story.
“What is he trying to prove?”
“That he has the right to interfere in my life.” Nathan’s voice had a hard edge to it as he crossed the room and took the remote from her, snapping off the TV. “I need to go talk to him.”
“For what? Why would you give him the satisfaction of knowing his comments hit their mark?”
“He can’t get away with this.”
“He already has, Nathan.” She flung a hand toward the now-dark TV. “What do you think you can do about it?”
“He’s been meddling for far too long and it has to stop.”
“You’ve done a pretty good job of ignoring him and doing your own thing up until now. Why change?”
“Because it isn’t enough. It’s never enough. It’s like no matter how hard I try, I can’t get away from him. Even this week, with his damned visit in Vegas, it was all part of some elaborate machinations.”
Nathan’s words caught her up short as she hunted in her dresser for a pair of shorts. “What visit in Vegas?”
“It was nothing.”
“It doesn’t sound like nothing. Your father was in Vegas?”
“On Monday.”
A sick feeling swirled in her stomach and Keira sat on the bed, her legs suddenly giving out. “This week? After we were together?”
“He claimed he was in the neighborhood and stopped into my new offices for a father-son chat.”
That day’s events whirled through her mind, culminating in Camryn’s frantic texts and their conversation about the emergency board meeting set for the following day.
“You initiated the board meeting after you saw him, didn’t you?”
Nathan’s jaw fixed into a hard line as his shoulders stiffened at her words. “One wasn’t related to the other.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I’ve made my intentions toward your company no secret.”
“Yes, but the timing. It has bothered me, needled at me all week. Why you did it so fast. Especially after the weekend we spent together.”
“What’s between us isn’t related to the business.”
“Oh, come off it, Nathan. Of course they’re related. It’s all related!” She flung out a hand as the words exploded from her in a rush. “And I’m through pretending we can keep them separate.”
“We can.”
“No.” She shook her head. “No, we can’t. Neither of us can separate who we are when we go to work.”
“Our jobs don’t define us.”
“They contribute to who we are, to how we see the world and what we want out of our lives. And I can’t believe I let my love for you make me forget that.”
“You love me?”
She rubbed her hands over her arms, suddenly cold in the room that had felt so very warm only minutes before. “Isn’t it obvious?”
He crossed the room, his strides long and sure before standing before her and pulling her up from the bed. His arms came around her and he crushed his lips to hers, the moment so full of passion and promise it nearly destroyed her. Because no matter how much she loved him, he’d never be hers until he dealt with the demons that had haunted him since childhood.
…
Nathan poured every ounce of emotion into the kiss. Passion and need, longing and fulfillment—they flowed from his mouth to hers as he sought desperately to brand her.
“Stop.”
The light pressure of her hands on his chest pulled him from the moment.
; “What?”
“We can’t do this.”
“We can, Keira.”
“No.” She pushed again and moved from the circle of his arms. “I want to know what happened on Monday.”
“It was my father making a nuisance of himself.”
“Dismissing it only gives it more credence.”
“But it was nothing.”
“It was more than that, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“Admit it?” The slow burn of frustration at being pushed away steamrolled into something deeper. Hotter. And considerably more lethal.
“What am I supposed to admit?”
“That your father had an impact on your actions on Monday.”
“He did no such thing.”
“Oh no? I got less than twenty-four hours’ notice about Tuesday morning’s board meeting. And so did my board. Funny how that all came together after your father visited you.”
“He thought he could bluster his way through my office, tell me what he thought of my new projects.”
Anger that matched his flared in her eyes, even as she kept her tone even and cool. “Like McBride?”
“Like the new Vegas property.”
“And like McBride Media.”
He’d be damned if he’d lie to her, even if none of it happened the way she seemed to think it did. “Yes.”
“What did he say, Nathan?”
“Nothing of importance.”
“Then why’d you push the meeting through like a bull barreling into a proverbial china shop?”
“I’d already set a course of action for the takeover and I saw it through. The meeting and the paperwork that generated it were in the works for more than a week. I even canceled a business dinner with Holt that night because of it.”
“But why did you choose that moment to execute it? That day? Our bed was barely cold and suddenly you decide to amp up your efforts to go after my company? My birthright?”
Like a dog with a bone, she wouldn’t let it go. In that moment, he knew he’d not only underestimated his ability to manage his feelings for her, but he’d sorely missed the mark on how hard an adversary she could be.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then tell me what it was like. Explain it to me.”
Shades of that horrible conversation so long ago--and his mother’s tearful questions he couldn’t answer--roared through his memory.