The Billionaire's Last Fling (Scandal, Inc Book 5)

by Avery James

  As soon as the food came out, Abby felt less ridiculous and more overwhelmed. There was enough food to feed twenty people. And there was platter after platter, all kinds of meat she’d never seen before. She was pretty sure everything had been boiled, but after Abby took one hesitant bite, she couldn’t believe how good everything was.

  “Mom, did you really cook this?” Nolan asked.

  “If you came home more often, you’d know that I’ve been taking cooking lessons,” she said.

  “Nolan too,” Abby said.

  His father snorted. “Is that what you’ve been up to?”

  “I’ve been working on a new project. Actually, it’s how I met Abby. Our paths crossed while I was working.”

  “And what do you do, Abby?” Neil asked.

  “Crisis management,” Abby said. “Political campaigns, corporate communications, we’re kind of a one stop shop.”

  “I can see how your paths crossed,” Neil said. “What did he do this time?”

  “He didn’t do anything,” Abby said. “He offered to buy me a drink, Scotch, of course, and I accepted. The rest is, as they say, history.” She reached out and put her hand over Nolan’s forearm. She thought it was best to leave out the whole one-night stand part of the story.

  “Well, while we’re on the subject of work, when are you going to get serious?” his father asked him. “We tolerated all of this celebrity stuff when you were younger, but don’t you think it’s time to grow up?”

  Nolan laughed and shook his head. He shot Abby a look that said, See, I told you. “How about a different topic?” he said.

  “No, I’ve been trying to have this conversation with you for the past ten months, and you keep shirking it off.”

  “Shirking,” Nolan said incredulously. The smile vanished from his lips.

  “Do you really want to do this right now? I don’t know what else there is to tell you.”

  “You have responsibilities here, you know,” his father said. “People are counting on you, and instead you’re off running around playing games in America.”

  “Playing games?” Nolan asked. “I’m working for a living. Maybe you don’t remember what that’s like, but I have employees. I have customers and partners, people who count on me.”

  “We count on you,” his father said.

  Nolan groaned under his breath. “That’s not true.”

  “It’s time to grow up,” his father said. “What would your brother think if he were here? It’s bad enough that you ran off when things got tough. But to think of what you’ve done to the family name he cared so much about.”

  “Don’t bring him into this,” Nolan said. His voice flared as he spoke, and there was a menacing edge to his words, an anger simmering below the surface. He placed his hands on the table and bent his head down. Abby could see the tension in his fingertips and the tightness in his jaw. He looked like he was ready to explode. He took a deep breath and pushed himself back from the table, his chair screeching against the stone floor.

  “I’m getting some air,” he said as he walked out of the room.

  Abby sat at the table, silently staring at her plate. She wondered what to say. She didn’t know all the history between Nolan and his father, but she’d seen scenes like this before, and defusing tense situations was her job. All she had to do was say a few soothing words to deescalate Nolan’s father, and then she could run off and deal with Nolan.

  That was what she should have done.

  Instead, she looked Neil in the eye and glared. “Do you have any idea how torn up he is?” she asked. “Did you ever ask yourself why he did the things he did or were you too busy worrying about your own image? Did you ever step back for even a moment and think that maybe his success has something to do with his hard work and intelligence? Did you ever think that maybe beneath that public image, your son is working towards something more?

  “I’ve dealt with many powerful people in my life,” she said. “And there’s one thing they almost all have in common, they think everyone else owes them something. And Nolan doesn’t. He’s not like that. He won’t say it to me, but he wants your approval so badly. He’s always trying to live up to his hero of an older brother, always trying to do something more, and it’s pushing him away from you, further and further every year, and some day, he’ll have drifted completely away. Ask yourself what really matters, your family name or your actual family. I know you didn’t ask for my advice, but your son deserves better.”

  She tossed her napkin on the table and turned her attention to Nolan’s mother. “Thank you for dinner, it was lovely,” she said. “Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go find your son because I care about him deeply.” She placed her napkin on the table and excused herself. She headed upstairs to look for Nolan, but he wasn’t there.

  She went over to the window and looked out to the grounds. Though the light was fading and a thick fog blanketed the area, she caught a glimpse of motion in the distance and the soft glow of a light. Of course Nolan was out there. She grabbed a jacket and ran back downstairs to head after him. The large arched door took nearly all her effort to open. The cool night air felt heavy against her skin. She ran her fingers through the fog. Nolan hadn’t been kidding when he said it was like its own world. She sped her steps as she tried to follow him.

  After a minute, she turned around and looked at the house. Its lights blazed through the fog and seemed to shift and shimmer, like the house itself was in motion. At least she’d be able to find her way back if she didn’t find Nolan.

  And that possibility seemed more and more likely. She didn’t see Nolan’s flashlight, couldn’t find his steps in the soft earth.

  She stopped and listened. There were birds cooing somewhere in the distance. The sound of water not far off. Or maybe it was a steady breeze whispering through the tree tops, she couldn’t tell. She pushed on into the darkness, sure she’d find him if she just kept going straight. She came to short fence and followed it until she found a gate. There was a fresh bootprint in the mud, and large paw prints, too. She hoped Nolan was out with the dog instead of the alternative. Are there wolves in Scotland? Abby wondered.

  “Nolan?” she called out. “Are you there?”

  She remembered Nolan’s talk about the cow chasing his brother, and she wondered if she’d just placed herself in actual danger. “Nolan!” she called again. But there was no answer. She stopped and wondered if she should head back to the house. She heard something that sounded like the snapping of branches. Then she heard another noise that sounded like keys jangling, followed by footsteps. It sounded almost like galloping. Her pulse jumped as she saw an animal emerge from the darkness, headed straight for her.

  “Angus!” she said as the deerhound jumped up on his hind legs and started licking her face. “I’m so happy to see you, boy.” Her heart still raced as she laughed at herself.

  “Angus, here boy!” Nolan called from somewhere in the dark.

  “Nolan?”

  “Abby, what are you doing out here?”

  “I came looking for you,” she said. “I was worried.”

  “I’m sorry, I just had to get out and clear my head, and then Angus took off like a shot. I was afraid he’d seen an animal.”

  “Just me,” she said.

  “I didn’t even think that I’d left you in a bad situation. I’m sorry.”

  “I’ve been in worse,” she said.

  “How did it go?”

  “Depends on your definition of well,” she said. She was glad it was too dark for Nolan to fully see her expression as she scrunched up her face. “I might have lectured your father.”

  “You lectured him?”

  “About showing some understanding of what you’ve accomplished,” she said. “I realized part way through that I don’t even know why you’re doing what you’re doing.”

  Nolan reached out and grabbed her hand. “I guess I owe you an explanation,” he said. “I’ve been trying to find the words to explai
n it, to say what I’m trying to do and why I’ve been so cryptic about everything. It’s just very… personal.”

  “A man who can declare his love but can’t figure out how to explain his business?” Abby asked.

  “More common than you think. Let’s walk, and I’ll give it a shot.”

  Abby held Nolan’s hand like it was the tether that would keep her from floating off into space. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see a little better. They were walking along a path through a broad field with tall grass. In the distance, Abby could barely make out the ragged peaks of trees. The house was getting smaller and smaller behind them, its lights growing dimmer the farther they walked.

  “It really is like its own world,” Abby said. The sound of a stream grew stronger as they walked. Soon, they found themselves at the water’s edge. There was a small bench soaked with dew, but Nolan sat down on it anyway. Abby walked down to the water’s edge and dipped her fingers into the frigid stream.

  “This was my brother’s favorite spot,” he said. “I liked the fields better, the way you could feel completely enclosed and in the open all at once. You wanted to know why I’m doing what I’m doing? It’s for him. I was young when he died. I didn’t handle his death well. I went into a tailspin. When I started to come to my senses, I hated myself for it. He’d gone off and died for a greater cause, and I’d gotten rich off of being a handsome drunk.”

  “That’s not true,” Abby tried to tell him, but Nolan cut her off.

  “You don’t have to protect my ego, Abby. I didn’t want to have that fight with my father because he’s right. I dragged our family name through the mud for my own personal gain, but he doesn’t see the rest of it. I’m trying to do right by him, Abby. I’m trying to do right by everyone. My brother marched off to a war he knew nothing about because he was sold a story, one that wasn’t quite true. No one was held responsible for his death or the thousands of others like his. No, they were just reelected. Their friends were given bonuses and they were called patriots. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing, because he deserved better than what he received, and now that I’m in a position to ensure that, I’m going to do everything in my power to do right by him.”

  “So that’s why your company is getting into politics,” she said.

  “Someone needs to hold people accountable, Abby. And apparently, I’m the only one willing to do so. My father thinks I should run for office. He doesn’t get that my past makes that impossible. He doesn’t see why I can’t.”

  I’ve worked with a hundred candidates with far worse pasts than you and not one had a scrap of your wit or your soul, she thought. There was a part of her that wanted to tell him that his father was right, that he had the ability to do whatever he wanted, but she knew it wasn’t what he needed to hear, not then, anyway.

  As she stood at the water’s edge, Abby felt aware of the incredible distance between them. She was almost close enough to reach out and touch his hand, and yet she might as well have been a thousand miles away. He was fighting ghosts, not just the memory of his brother, but a thousand years of family history, and all those ghosts were stacked between him and the world, between him and her.

  Abby stood up and walked over to the bench. She placed her hand in his again and felt his fingers wrap around hers. She wanted to tell him that he wasn’t alone, that he wasn’t a disappointment to anyone, that he was the smartest and kindest man she’d ever known and that she loved him, too. She could almost feel the words forming on her lips, but she just didn’t know how to say them.

  “Your fingers are freezing,” he said.

  She sat down on his lap and placed her lips against his in a slow kiss. The warmth of his lips was all she needed in the world. But what did he need? She wondered if she’d ever be enough for him, if she could fill the void inside his heart.

  “We should head back,” he said.

  “We can stay here for as long as you’d like,” she said.

  When they finally did head back, they walked slowly, arm in arm as Angus ran back and forth ahead of them. Abby felt an ache deep inside, a longing to make the moment last forever. There was so much more to Nolan than she’d ever imagined, depths that she hadn’t seen, and as she walked, she wondered just how much more there was to discover.

  The house was quiet when they returned. The table had been cleared and Nolan’s parents were nowhere to be found. There was a stillness in the air of the house that felt inescapable. More ghosts, Abby thought as she walked down a dreary hallway.

  “Nolan?” his mother called from one of the rooms, “can you two come here for a moment? There’s something your father and I would like to say to you.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked. “We’ll be in in a moment.” His voice echoed down the empty hall.

  “Just you,” his mother said.

  Abby waved him forward and sat down on one of the bottom steps of the staircase. She was surprised when Nolan’s mother came into the hallway a moment later.

  “About what I said at dinner,” Abby started.

  Eileen smiled and laughed quietly. “If you’re thinking about apologizing, don’t.”

  “I don’t know what came over me,” she said.

  “You made quite the impression on my husband,” Eileen said as she sat down next to Abby. She looked her over as she leaned back.

  “He probably wants me out of the house,” Abby said.

  “On the contrary,” Eileen replied, “he was relieved.”

  “Not what I would have guessed.”

  “We both were,” she said. “We’re glad Nolan’s finally found a woman with her head on right. I wanted to apologize for our behavior. There are a lot of unresolved issues from when Nolan’s brother…” she trailed off. “Maybe this will be our chance to reset. My husband is under strict orders to make nice, but if we leave them alone for too long, they’ll find something to fight about. Come on to the study, we’ll take another try at getting to know one another.”

  When Abby accompanied Eileen to the study, Nolan and his father had reached a detente.

  “Nolan here tells me you haven’t had the local drink,” Neil said.

  “I’ve had Scotch, just not from this area.”

  “Well then, dear, you haven’t had Scotch at all,” he said as he grabbed a bottle and started pouring glasses.

  It wasn’t like everything was hunky-dory, but the next hour passed without a blowup, which seemed like a victory to Abby. The Scotch burned as it went down, and Nolan’s mother drank wine instead, but Abby could see what Nolan meant about the stuff. It was strong, and it was unique. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. But as she drank it, she seemed to get its appeal. And in Nolan’s parents, Abby saw flashes of the wit and humor that had drawn her to him. He had his mother’s eyes. His laugh he got from his father. She sat there in the study and listened to Nolan’s parents laugh at embarrassing family stories until the Scotch ran dry, and then she listened a while longer. It was clear that there were old wounds, but she was hopeful that maybe they’d be able to heal.

  Chapter 20

  “So, what would you like to do today?” Nolan asked when Abby woke up the next morning. He was already dressed and looked ready to take on the world.

  “I think I might be hung over,” Abby said. She had a bit of a headache, and the bed was so comfortable that she didn’t want to get out of it for any reason. “And my throat’s a bit raw. Did I drink drain cleaner last night?”

  Nolan laughed. “The local drink is a bit of an acquired taste, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard that comparison.”

  “Is it early?” she asked as she finally got herself up.

  “Not too early,” he said, “but if we hang around too long, we’ll get drafted into helping prepare for the memorial.”

  “Do your parents need any help? I’d love to lend a hand.”

  “A crew comes in and sets up a tent,” he said. “And I get drafted into helping my parents w
rite remarks.” It occurred to Abby that, among her other duties, she was paid to draft public statements for a living, but she guessed that Nolan really didn’t want to spend the day on that.

  “What did you have in mind?” she asked.

  “I thought we could go into town. I can show you the rough and tumble streets where I grew up.”

  “If they’re anything like this… house, I’m sure they’re just terrible,” Abby teased.

  “Hey, it was hard when I was a kid. We only had one butler and three maids. I guess when you add in the cook, the groundskeeper, and the guys who helped with the animals, we couldn’t have had more than a dozen employees here making sure we didn’t have to lift a finger.” Nolan sat down on the bed next to her and slumped his shoulders in faux sadness.

  “You poor thing. It’s a wonder you survived.” She kissed him on the cheek.

  After breakfast, they hit the road. “So where exactly is town?”

  “Let’s see if I can remember,” Nolan said.

  Of course, he knew the route by heart, and a few minutes of tight turns and sweeping straightaways later, they were pulling into town.

  “Welcome to Lyford,” he said. Lyford was as quaint as anything Abby had ever seen. The tangled streets of the town were so crooked they could only have started as cow paths, and the buildings with impressive sandstone and granite façades told of a time when the town was a far busier commercial center. With the hills rising up from the river that wrapped around half the town in an oxbow, it was like Abby could see each layer of the town's history being folded together. There were families out shopping, and old ladies wearing funny hats. There seemed to be kids all over the place.

  "It's had a turnaround since I was a kid," Nolan said as he pulled the SUV into a parking spot outside a row of particularly quaint shops. "Fifteen years ago, half the windows on this street were boarded up."