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

by Avery James

  “What the hell?” Maggie said. “Who wrote this?”

  “Nolan’s lovely reporter,” Abby said. “He said they were going to push hard, and I might be uncomfortable with some of the things they published. I didn’t think he meant this.”

  “Maybe he didn’t?” Maggie said. She was still scanning through the article. “This is libel. She’s literally accusing you of committing a crime. What did Nolan say about this?”

  “I told him I didn’t want to talk about it.” She paused and took a moment to pull herself together. She wasn’t going to let this article tear her apart. She felt betrayed, but she’d been betrayed before. She just needed to pick herself up, dust herself off, and figure out what to do next. “Do you think I could crash at your place tonight?” Abby asked. “I just don’t want to see Nolan right now, and if I go home, I know he’ll show up and try to explain himself, and I really just can’t.”

  Maggie gave a little pout and placed her hand on Abby’s arm. “You’re welcome anytime. You know that. It’s not like we don’t have the space.”

  “I still can’t believe he’d do that to you. There has to be more to the story.”

  “Honestly? I don’t care what else there is,” Abby said. “I can’t keep doing this. It’s never going to end.

  “Come on, you two are perfect together. I’m sure there’s some explanation.”

  “I don’t know,” Abby said.

  “I’ll ask you the same thing I asked myself when Harry and I were having trouble: Do you love him?”

  “Who, Harry?” Abby asked with a weak laugh.

  “You know I mean Nolan,” Maggie said.

  “Of course I love him,” Abby said. “I’m just not sure if that’s enough.”

  During the rest of the work day, Abby ignored a dozen calls from Nolan. She holed herself up at her desk and tried to find some way to keep busy. Since the catastrophe that was the Heck case, she hadn’t gotten any new assignments, so she spent the afternoon just wondering where things had gone wrong. Was it ever as good as she had imagined? Or was it all a fantasy, one last fling before accepting reality?

  Maggie stopped by her desk at the end of the day and gave her a long look of pity. “Normally, I’d say let’s get a drink,” she said as she rubbed a hand over her stomach, “but my little friend here doesn’t think it’s the best idea. How about we go back to my place, find some pajamas, and watch old movies? I’ve been bugging Harry to rewatch Casablanca.”

  “Oh yeah, star-crossed lovers,” Abby said. “Sounds perfect.” It didn’t really sound perfect. For a while, her life had seemed perfect. Perfect guy, perfect job, perfect everything, and now it had all fallen apart.

  Chapter 28

  Where the hell is she? Nolan wondered as he pressed the buzzer for Abby’s condo. He’d been trying to get in touch with her all day. He needed to explain what had happened. He needed to tell her that he had a plan to make things right, but as soon as she heard about the article, she’d disappeared.

  He wasn’t sure he could blame her. When he read the article, he’d been furious, and he’d only been betrayed by an employee. He couldn’t imagine the anger and betrayal she probably felt. She had every right to feel betrayed. He’d told her that he’d do anything for her, that he’d protect her, and then he’d found a way to hurt her. Even if it hadn’t been intentional, he’d allowed Erin to go after her, and now he was paying the price.

  Nolan stepped back from the building and looked up. There weren’t any lights on in Abby’s place. Was she working late? She was probably burying herself in her work. If only she’d answer his calls and texts, he could tell her that he was going to do everything in his power to keep that article from going out. He needed to apologize to her for not believing her when she’d said Erin was out for blood.

  Hiring Erin had been a mistake. Maybe he’d been too distracted to give the whole thing the attention it deserved. From the moment he saw Abby, everything else had taken a back seat. Even when he was working, he was thinking about her. No, he told himself, you’re not going to blame this on your feelings for Abby. This is your fault. End of story.

  Nolan decided to take a walk around the block to clear his head. One time around the block turned to two and then three. He wasn’t feeling any better, and there was still no sign of Abby coming home. He needed to do something. He pulled out his phone and made a call.

  The person on the other end of the line picked up immediately.

  “Have you given any more thought to my proposal?” Nolan asked.

  “I ran it by my editor,” the reporter from the Post said. “He thinks there’s a story here with everything about Haven Communications and Ruth Heck. We have three people looking into it now.”

  “Like I told you before, I can give you something better. I can also save you some time. That article isn’t true. What about my offer?”

  “Well, I also talked to him about that,” the reporter said. “He’s open to the idea. If I’m being honest, I don’t think he’s thrilled about the idea of making an enemy out of Amy Haven.”

  I should just buy your damn paper, Nolan thought. It would take everything he had, and even then, he’d probably need to bring in other investors, but he could afford to buy the Post. No, that’s ridiculous, he told himself. You know what you need to do. “Tell your editor I want to talk with him tonight. Soon enough you’re going to find that story about Haven Communications doesn’t have enough supporting evidence, and then all you’ll have accomplished is pissing me off.”

  “Hold on. I’ll have him call you now,” the reporter said. As Nolan waited for the call, he wondered what Abby would say about it. She’d either hate it or love it and nothing in between. Either way, he was starting to think it was the only way forward. He stopped one last time in front of Abby’s building and looked up for any sign she was home. Nothing.

  He walked back to the car that had been waiting for him and climbed inside. His phone rang again. Even though he knew it was the editor, he just wanted the call to be from Abby. He wanted to hear her voice, her wit, her laugh. Would he ever get back to the point where he’d hear that laugh again? First, he needed to deal with the editor.

  “Nolan Ross,” he said. “Have you thought about my offer?”

  “It’s unusual,” the editor said, “but if it’s newsworthy, it’s newsworthy. I have the details here. For the record, I find this kind of stuff distasteful.”

  Nolan laughed. He’d built his empire on exactly this kind of stuff, and he was sure the editor knew it. “It will sell,” Nolan said. “I know a successful story when I see one.”

  “Well, in this case, you’re the story,” the editor said. “It’s a little outside our wheelhouse, but based on what you told my team, my data guys say it’ll drive traffic.”

  “That’s right,” Nolan replied. It was hard not to see the irony of the situation. He’d built a fortune on the back of sensationalized celebrity gossip and pop-culture news, but in his first attempt at doing something with real social value, he was going to rely on his old standby. He was going to create a scandal. And he was going to give the story to a competitor. The whole thing was crazy, but it looked like it would work. At the end of the day, that was all that mattered. He wasn’t going to play games while the Post dug into Abby’s background. Either they’d go along with his plan, or he’d find another way. “So, do we have a deal?”

  ***

  Even though she hadn’t answered any of Nolan’s calls or looked at any of his texts, Abby couldn’t help but notice when her phone stopped buzzing sometime around nine. She wondered if Nolan had gotten that she was mad at him or if he’d simply given up. She spent the night with Maggie, watching movies while Harry tried to make light of the situation from the other room. Abby wasn’t much in the mood for joking, and she went to bed early, curling up in the guest room’s too-comfortable bed and falling asleep within minutes.

  When she opened her eyes again, it was morning, and Maggie was standing in the doorw
ay. “I knocked, but I didn’t want you to sleep in.”

  “Thanks,” Abby said.

  “Smoothie?” Maggie asked cheerfully.

  “Sure, why not?” Maybe it would help turn her luck around.

  To her surprise, her smoothie was delicious. She had a feeling that the lack of prenatal vitamins had something to do with it. It was cold and tasted like apples and bananas with only a hint of the bright green kale that gave the drink its color. By the time she finished it, she’d actually convinced herself that she could make a go of it, and that there was at least a sliver of hope that this day wouldn’t be completely horrible.

  “You two have fun at work.”

  “Well, if things don’t go well, I might be back tonight,” Abby said.

  Harry shot Maggie a look and said, “Well, I’ve got a thing tonight. Of course, you’re always welcome here.”

  “Well, might just be you and me,” Abby said to Maggie. “Just like the old days.”

  “No offense,” Maggie said as she looked around the enormous sun-filled kitchen, “but I really don’t miss the old days.”

  “That makes one of us,” Abby said. Even as she spoke, she wondered if she truly meant it. Sure, things had been simpler before, back when she was single and had her friend by her side as she made the town hers, but there was something wonderful about being in a relationship. She saw how happy Maggie and Harry were, and she thought about how great it felt to be with Nolan. Being with Nolan had never been the problem. How she felt around him had never been the problem. It was everything else that tore them apart. The outside world didn’t care what they felt for each other. Apparently it had other plans.

  Abby caught a ride to work with Maggie and sleepwalked through the rest of the day. She was helping out with some background research for a case the twins were handling in Virginia. It was their first case on their own, and Abby was glad to lend them a hand. Watching them work together was like looking at herself and Maggie only a few years before. The twins had come so far in their few months at Haven. Even since the whole debacle with Andrew Heck in the elevator, both Liz and Sam had become so much more self-assured in their jobs. As she talked through a few aspects of their current case with them, it felt like they were the ones who’d been doing the job for years and years.

  Abby wasn’t sure why, but she thought back to the talk she’d had with Amy when she first returned from Scotland, about how she and Callie saw Abby eventually running the office someday. As she watched the twins working, she wasn’t sure the office needed her. Abby’s life had fallen apart, her career had fallen apart, and everyone else was doing fine. Hell, they were thriving. She wasn’t sure what to think.

  Even the particulars of the cases didn’t seem to hold as much interest for her anymore. Instead she found her mind wandering. It wasn’t just because of everything with Nolan or the fallout from Ruth Heck, either. For the first time in her career at Haven, Abby found herself questioning why she enjoyed doing the job at all.

  By the time the work day ended, Abby’s mood had slumped lower. Well, that wasn’t right. She wasn’t sad, per se, but she was pensive, reflective. It was starting to occur to her that maybe Nolan wasn’t the cause of all her problems. Maybe her desire for one last fling and her frustration with her personal life had been about something more—maybe she just felt stuck. And then Nolan had come along, with his charm and his charisma, and he’d unstuck her. And it felt great being in motion again for the first time in years. It felt like everything was possible, except nothing had changed, not really. She was still in the same job in the same place, and she was still living the same life. Her time with Nolan just showed her how much that life was lacking.

  When Maggie stopped by her desk and asked her if she wanted to go get dinner together, Abby decided she just needed a little time alone. “I should really get back to my place,” she said. “I feel like I need to do some thinking.”

  “If you need me, call,” Maggie said.

  “You know you’re always my first call.”

  “Damn right,” Maggie replied. “You should talk to him, Abby. Tell him what you’re thinking.”

  “That’s just it,” Abby said. “I’m not sure what I’m thinking or feeling. I just feel disoriented, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “Well, when the time comes, you will,” Maggie said. “You’ve got this. And if that doesn’t cheer you up, just remember that you’re still allowed to drink caffeine.”

  Abby laughed. “Thanks.” That did cheer her up, just a little.

  When Abby got back to her condo, there was a small pile of mail against her front door along with a note from her neighbor saying the mailman had left it all in her box again. Abby tucked the mail under her arm and headed inside. She flipped on the lights and looked around. Her place was small, and clean, and nice. It really was nice. It wasn’t the same as Nolan’s parents’ castle, or the house that Maggie and her billionaire husband owned, but it was nice, and it was hers. This was the life she’d built for herself, and for at least a moment, she reminded herself, she should be proud of it.

  She tossed the mail down on the counter and headed for the fridge. There were still ingredients for another dinner waiting to be prepared. Well, there was a whole cleaned chicken that she’d bought to retry the dinner she’d so badly burned the time before. She surveyed the contents of the fridge. The food all looked great, and if she thought about it, she could imagine just how delicious the meal would be, but she wasn’t sure if she felt like cooking. Then again, maybe that was exactly what she should do. An hour or two in the kitchen might do her some good. She could concentrate on the task before her instead of letting her mind run wild as she wondered what the hell she was doing with her life.

  At some point, she had to talk to Nolan. She just hadn’t reached that point yet. He’d hurt her. And maybe she was being too hard on him, or maybe she wasn’t. She didn’t know, but a few more hours wouldn’t hurt. She’d spent all of her twenties being single. She’d loved it. So what about being alone frightened her so much now?

  That settled it. She was going to make dinner for one. She didn’t need Nolan to be happy. She could cook a damn bird to perfection on her own. She pulled out her old radio, found a station playing embarrassing pop songs, turned the volume up, rolled up her sleeves, washed her hands, and set to work.

  She washed and chopped vegetables. She dressed the chicken. She did absolutely everything right, and by the time she’d pushed the chicken into the oven and checked on everything she had cooking on the stovetop, she was starting to feel better. She could even say, for the first time since she’d seen the article, that she felt good, damn good. Things were going to be ok. Now all she had to do was wait the appropriate amount of time until the chicken was done.

  She decided to set two timers.

  Then, all that was left was the waiting. She walked over to the cabinet, found a good bottle of red wine, and popped the cork. As she sang along with one of her favorite songs, she went over to check the mail. On top of the pile was a picture of highland cattle staring back at her.

  The post cards. She laughed and shook her head. So much for reading them together. She flipped the card over and read Nolan’s note.

  Hey, Abby,

  I know you think this whole thing is corny and that’s because it is. I don’t care though. I love you, and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of making every sappy romantic gesture I can. I want you to know that this is just the beginning. Now if you excuse me, I have to tell you that you’re beautiful, and I might die if I can’t kiss you right now. Here’s to last flings,

  Nolan.

  Abby shook her head. It was quite the fling. She’d almost convinced herself it was something more. Maybe it had been. Maybe it still was. She didn’t know. She wondered if Nolan remembered what he’d written. She sure didn’t remember what she’d said. The whole thing felt like a distant memory instead of something that had happened two weeks before.

  She picked
up the second postcard and started to read.

  Nolan,

  I’m not really sure what to write to future you, but here’s a shot. At some point, we’re going to fight, and I’m not going to take it well. I know I joke about it, but there’s a reason why I don’t do long term relationships. I suck at them. I find some small thing and I pick at it. I ignore phone calls, I get bored. Right now, everything is perfect, but I need you to do me a favor. When things aren’t going perfect, give me this postcard, and remind me of a time when they were. Remind me of the way I feel at this exact moment, so hopeful, it feels like my heart could burst. Remind me to trust this feeling and to trust you, and I will. I promise,

  xoxo, Abby.

  Abby felt a pit in her stomach. She felt like she’d been hollowed out, and she didn’t know what to do about it, so she read the postcards again. And then she read them again. She pored over them until the timer went off for the chicken. She thought it over as she pulled the chicken out. This time, she’d cooked it to perfection.

  As she finished preparing the meal, she thought about the advice she’d given herself. This was one of those imperfect times, and she wondered if she was overreacting. She should at least hear Nolan out about his side of things. Even if she didn’t want to hear it, she owed him a chance to explain. She owed herself that chance to make their relationship work. She’d call him. There was already enough food for two people. Worst case, she could show him that the cooking class hadn’t been for nothing.

  She went to her purse and dug her phone out; she had ten missed calls from Maggie in the last ten minutes. The music had drowned out the sound of the phone buzzing. It wasn’t like Maggie to call over and over again unless there was some kind of emergency.