Goldie made for the door, pausing at the sight of the gray cat sleeping lazily on the back of the couch. She turned back. “You should know, I’m leaving. They gave me two weeks off, but it took three days to get out here, and I’ve waited for three more since searching for you. I have to make it back in time if I want to keep my job. I have to leave.” More so now than ever. She needed to speak with her—well—with the woman she’d thought was her mother.
Bethany folded her arms. “I understand. Thank you for telling me. And Gabrielle?”
Goldie paused at the door and kept her gaze on the blue paint.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
Sorry she’d given her up? Sorry for contacting her at all? Sorry for avoiding her? Goldie couldn’t be sure, but in the moment she didn’t want to know. She’d had enough bombshells for one day. It was like cold oatmeal, bland and lumpy and distasteful, making her want to spit out every bite she’d been fed. She couldn’t digest this, not now. Maybe not ever.
Goldie turned the knob and headed back out to her truck.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ADRIAN NEVER THOUGHT HE WOULD willingly come here again. Then again, he never thought his mom would have entrusted his inheritance to Danica Foster, either. So many memories were resurfacing, of ten, even twelve years before, back when he’d thought things could be different. He’d thought he could, in fact, set up his business while living at the ranch, to be closer to his family. His mother had been converting their home to a bed and breakfast while his father had been working on constructing a pair of homes. One for him and Danica. One for the rest of them.
But the closer he and Dani had stepped to matrimony, the more choked he’d felt. It was as though a rope had been tied around his torso, securing his arms to his sides, and he’d been gradually dragged toward the edge of a cliff. He couldn’t take that plunge with her. Not then, and certainly not now.
Seeing the house his dad had already begun to build had been the last straw. He’d been tired of his father trying to control everything he did. Never mind that he wasn’t sure he wanted to live right next door to his parents, in the house Chase and Kimmy ended up inheriting instead. Never mind that he was trying to get his own two feet on the ground. Never mind that Danica seemed to confide more in his mom than she did in him. It wasn’t the kind of relationship he’d ever wanted.
Standing here on Danica’s sidewalk, he was reminded of exactly all the reasons why he’d left.
Even so, the feelings he’d had then weren’t making their usual appearance. He expected the typical impatience to get outta Dodge, to leave this all behind and make for Chicago as soon as he could. To solitude and busyness and distraction.
Gabby was his hesitation now. Adrian meant what he’d told his mom, when he’d confessed his feelings about Gabby. The problem was, he wasn’t quite sure what to do about those feelings, not until he got his father’s lockbox.
He also hoped things were going well with her aunt, who may or may not be her birth mother. He hoped she would understand why he hadn’t told her the truth himself.
Resting his sunglasses on his head, he gritted his teeth and made for the door.
Danica jerked it open after the first knock. She looked casual in jeans and a knotted gray T-shirt. “You came,” she said brightly. “I’ve been waiting all day after your mom told me you wouldn’t be there—”
“It’s no use,” he said, resting a hand on the door jamb. He couldn’t believe how badly he was trembling. Out of anger, frustration, flat out disbelief, he couldn’t be sure. “I loved you once, but I don’t anymore, Dani. I’ve moved on. I need you to accept that.”
Her lips flattened into a thin line. She folded her arms and cocked her hip. “And if I don’t want to?”
“You can’t force a hard chair to feel like a soft one. Please. I think you have something that belongs to me.”
Her mouth gaped. “Your mom told you?”
“She did. Which means I think you know it’s over for good this time.”
He knew how harsh he sounded, and part of him regretted the words. But he’d tried to help her get the hint in much nicer ways than this so many times before now, and she wasn’t getting it. If there was anything he’d learned in business, it was that bluntness was sometimes necessary. It would be better for Dani in the long run too, not to think fondly of him.
Danica pouted her lip, inhaled, and nodded in defeat. “I’ll be right back.”
He noticed she didn’t invite him in, and that was just fine. He waited at her eave, tossing his key fob from one hand to the other impatiently.
Minutes later, Dani returned with a gray lockbox under her arm and passed it over. Adrian’s blood split, scattering in all directions inside of him. He couldn’t believe the shock, the relief washing over him now that he finally had the thing in his grip. All the questions he’d had since the trust had been read spiraled through his mind. Of his father’s vast fortune, of all the other things he could have bestowed to his firstborn son, he’d given him a container no bigger than a shoebox.
“You never should have kept this from me.”
She lowered her head, clasping her hands in front of her in humility. “I know. Your mom thought it would be the catalyst to get us talking again. I agreed, Adrian. But I shouldn’t have.”
At least she was being humble now. “Thanks for being honest with me,” he said, reaching a comforting hand to her shoulder. The touch seemed to have the desired effect. She lifted her soothed, sorrowful gaze to him.
“Do you want to come inside?” The question sounded feeble.
He took a cleansing breath. “I think you know the answer to that.”
She dipped her chin, nodding. “I guess you can’t blame me for trying.”
“You’ll find someone else, Dani. You deserve someone else.”
She shrugged in an embarrassed kind of way. “Who knows? It’s nice of you to say, considering everything.”
It meant a lot to have her acknowledge the state of things instead of trying to ignore them and force old feelings to be what they used to. While he was ready to turn around and leave, he didn’t want it to be as brusque as that. Still, sometimes brusque was best.
“Thanks, Dani. I’m glad you gave this to me.”
The phone in his pocket buzzed, as did his eagerness to get back to his car. He tipped a finger to his forehead. “Goodbye.”
“Good luck with her. With Goldie.”
Goldie. Gabby. Lockbox tucked under his arm, Adrian nodded and turned away, making it toward his awaiting rental. Now more than ever he was anxious to get back to her. To see her again. A quick glance at his phone displayed a text from her.
She told me the truth. I’m assuming you knew since I think you tried to tell me before I left. Thanks for everything. It was great meeting you, but I think it’s time I go home.
Adrian stared at the words, reading them over and over.
I’m assuming you knew.
That meant she’d spoken with her aunt. That meant Rita’s discovery—his suspicion—was true. Bethany Harold had, in fact, given birth to Gabby. He could only imagine how she must be feeling right now.
He wasn’t going to communicate with texting, not over something like this. Chances were, Gabby was emotional, and for good reason. No, this was definitely not the time for a text. He pushed her name on the phone to call.
Several rings made him suspect she wasn’t going to answer, until she picked up.
“Hi, Adrian.” Her voice was choked.
He wasn’t sure what to say. “How are you?”
“Why did you do this?” she asked.
Confusion rippled over him. “Do what?” Had something else happened? Had his mother said something to her? He was planning on telling her his mother knew the truth about them now.
“Why were you so nice to me? Why did you help me, let me stay with your family? Why are you so nice?”
Adrian tried to wrap his head around where she was coming from. Undoubtedly, she
’d just received a shocking bit of news from Bethany Harold. He couldn’t think how to bring the conversation around and get to what was really bothering her. “You think I helped you just because I’m nice?”
“I know you are. I saw how you interacted with your nieces. How you bought a gazillion raffle tickets just to help out a town you claim to hate.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I still don’t know what you’re asking.”
She huffed through the phone. “Why me? Why did you even care? You could have left me on that mountain. You should have left me. If only I’d stayed lost.”
“Gabby,” he said, wishing he was there with her. “Where are you? Let’s meet up, we can talk.”
“Why?” she demanded.
He knew she wasn’t asking about meeting up. He got to the point. “I did it because something about you struck me, and I didn’t want to let you go, Gabby.”
“My name is Goldie.”
“You told me yourself, it’s Gabby. I want to call you who you really are. Gabrielle Bybanks, a woman with fire inside of her, a woman who glows and warms people just by being near them. You are like the sunlight. Not gold, but sun. You’re Gabrielle, and I’m going to call you that.”
“No. Don’t. Please don’t.”
He could hear the heartache in her tone. He longed to reach through the phone and hold her the way he had the night before. No one should be alone after finding out news like what she’d discovered.
“She’s my birth mother,” Gabby blurted. “Bethany Harold. She’s my real mom. I can’t do this. I can’t be your fake girlfriend. Does everyone lie? Isn’t anyone ever honest? I thought I was getting to know you, but maybe I don’t know you at all.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I never should have suggested being my girlfriend the way I did. I didn’t see our relationship that way. It was never a lie to me. Believe it or not, I do care about being honest.”
“Most people don’t, I guess,” she said. “My mom didn’t, apparently. Or rather, the woman I thought was my mom.”
Adrian was anxious to make it right. “I told my mom the truth, right after you left. I told her I just met you and how hard I’m crashing for you.”
“Adrian—”
“I mean it. You’ve become more to me in these last few days than I ever thought possible. Please don’t leave without saying goodbye.” Without letting him see her one last time.
“I’m saying it now. Goodbye, Adrian.”
He made a final effort before she hung up. “Don’t go yet. Take a detour, come to the cabin with me. There’s something I want to show you.”
She waited long enough to reply that he thought maybe, just maybe, she was about to give in. Her voice came through more muffled than before. “I can’t. Bye, Adrian.”
“Gabby? Gabby!”
She didn’t respond. She’d ended the call.
Adrian darted the rest of the way to his car. He’d intended on opening the lockbox right away, but this couldn’t wait. He had to get back to the B & B before Gabby headed for home.
CHAPTER TWENTY
GOLDIE’S LIFE HAD TURNED UPSIDE down. It was so common for her to take a wrong turn here and there, to find herself displaced without meaning to be. But she’d never felt more lost than she did right now.
She managed to make her way out to Rustic Ridge, to gather her students’ papers back into her portfolio and stuff her belongings into her duffle bag. She managed to mutter to Jordan at the reception desk that she wasn’t coming back. She topped her truck off with gas, and then she was on the road.
Part of her wanted to wait for Adrian, but she rammed that part way off her emotional grid. She couldn’t handle anything else right now. She couldn’t handle him or his family. She couldn’t handle being in the same town with a woman who’d cast her aside. She didn’t want a relationship, not when everything ended in betrayal or displeasure or angry spats.
What she really wanted was to close her heart to anyone ever again.
She thought of Adrian’s confessions about his family, and how they were the reason he’d opted to build his company several states away. Was there a family anywhere that got along? What was the point of family if this was all it turned out to be?
Her phone blinked his name. He was calling her.
She gripped the steering wheel, waiting for the call to pass. She couldn’t talk to him right now. The road was before her, and she drove with more confidence than she’d ever had. There was that, at least. At least this time, she knew exactly where she was going.
Too bad it did nothing to appease the sorrow in her heart.
***
Adrian stared at his phone. He should probably stop trying to call Gabby. It was clear she wasn’t going to answer. Maybe he should have told her when she’d first arrived at his house. Then again, it wouldn’t have made things any better, and he wasn’t entirely sure it was his place to tell her something that important. She was feeling betrayed, and he couldn’t blame her.
With the lockbox perched on his bed, he figured he could understand the feeling.
He hadn’t really grieved his father’s death. Part of him didn’t want to open the lockbox. He had the feeling his dad was doing all of this to mock him. He’d always belittled his business ideals. It hadn’t mattered how much Adrian had achieved. No matter how many smart investments he made, they weren’t Rustic Ridge. They weren’t home. Which meant it was exactly what Adrian wanted because he knew how much it got under his dad’s skin.
Guilt. That had been the hardest thing about dad’s death. Guilt festered within him about every recent conversation that had ended with frustration and snide comments. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to settle down. He just wanted to make sure it was with the right woman, on their own terms, not his dad’s. Mr. Bear had never listened long enough to care or grasp that.
Now his dad was gone, and Adrian had never taken the chance to apologize. He’d never gotten anything from his dad either. No apology, no attempts at understanding. Matthew Bear had left him nothing but a cold, gray box.
Adrian ran a hand through his hair and tapped his phone. It rang a few times before Rita picked it up.
“Whatever it is, I’m not doing it.”
He smiled, in spite of himself. He loved her dry comments. “Hi Rita, good to hear from you, too. I’m calling because I need a flight. It’s time to come home.”
“You’re sure this time?”
Adrian peered out the window, taking in the lack of Gabby’s white truck in the parking lot. It was time to move on like he should have done weeks ago. He needed to get back to his business, back to his life.
“I’m sure.”
Adrian took his time packing up his belongings and strolling across the ranch for the final time. He stopped in at the barn, looking in on the space where he and Goldie had hidden, where they’d shared their first kiss. He petted his favorite horses’ noses and said goodbye to the teens working as ranch hands.
That evening he bade his family goodbye, stopping by to hug his nieces, his brothers, and then on to the big house to hug his mom. He parked the Hummer at the airport, making sure the rental agency would be picking it up, and he boarded his private plane headed for Bear Financial’s airfield.
Rita was waiting for him near the car she’d arranged. Her gray hair was pulled into a ponytail and she wore a stylish jacket and jeans. She had a hand on her hip and a sign that read, It’s about time.
Adrian chuckled at the sight, warmed by her. “Good to see you, Rita,” he said.
“You too, sir. It’s good you arrived when you did. I used the sleuth skills you inspired in me and discovered this.” She handed her iPad to him.
Adrian had been keeping tabs on Market Sentry and managing as he could from home. But he hadn’t been able to check the listings yet that day, and one day in the stock market could mean life or death for a person’s business, depending on how it was run. He’d made sure it was never the latter option.
He
skimmed over the stock reports. From yesterday to today, his numbers had plummeted. His eyes flicked to hers. “When did this happen?”
“This morning,” she said.
What was he going to do? He’d used his grandfather’s inheritance to invest in the first place, and that had taken ten years to build Bear Financial Investments. This could provoke uncertainty in his clientele. It could build distrust in his company. People might withdraw their accounts from him, and that didn’t bode well. What about his employees and those who would lose their jobs if his business went under?
Luckily, he hadn’t bought on margin. He knew enough how the fluctuating share prices affected things. Hopefully, the market would rebound and he could recoup his losses, but still, he had to make sure this wasn’t as drastic as it could be. He should never have stayed in Montana as long as he had.
Absentmindedly, he pulled the bouquet of lollipops from his pocket. It no longer seemed the right time to give them to her, but he did it anyway. “As promised,” he said.
Color flushed Rita’s cheeks. She gave him a sardonic smile, took the lollipops, and turned. “The car is waiting, sir.”
“Thanks, Rita.” They rode together to his office, and while inside, he couldn’t manage to settle his brain on the problem at hand, large-scaled though it was.
Thoughts of Gabby kept resurfacing. He paced, then strode to the window and stared down at the canals, at the busy streets, at the buildings streaking the skyline. Loneliness cascaded through him. Suddenly, the water seemed dirtier, the streets more claustrophobic. The glamor of this life here wasn’t holding up its luster.
He found himself missing the quiet, open range. The drivers who went ten under the speed limit. The town where everyone knew everyone.
He hadn’t realized what a light Gabby had been for him until that light was dimmed. Until that light deserted him.
Adrian knew he could fix his business, even if it meant losing out on a few customers. But what did all of this, the fast pace, the high rise office, the spacious apartment, matter if he didn’t have someone to share it with? Someone with golden hair, a sweet smile, and the uncanny ability to not only flip his life upside down, but give him exactly no desire to turn it right side up again.
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