by Marina Adair
“I would have found it when I was combing through his estate,” Josh said, but he didn’t sound as confident as he had a moment ago. Gage felt for his big brother.
Gage and Kyle might have been polar opposites when it came to personality and interests, but as twins they shared everything. Or at least Gage thought they had. But after the past few days, he was beginning to wonder what else Kyle had kept from the family.
What else he’d kept from Gage.
“Kyle set it up with the beneficiary being Darcy, and, no, she hasn’t touched a cent.” Which was even more impressive, since he now knew how much debt she’d taken on with Belle Mont.
“That still doesn’t change the fact that we missed out on several crucial years,” Clay said, and out of all of the brothers, Gage knew that this was hitting him the hardest.
Clay looked up to Kyle, even followed him off to college. And it was clear by the haunted expression on his face, Clay was beginning to question things about his big brother that might change everything.
“No, it doesn’t,” Gage said, pulling out four more tumblers. “And I don’t know if she did what she thought was best for Kylie, or if she was acting out of anger. We all could have handled things differently back then.” Gage poured two fingers in each glass. “But at this point, the only thing that matters is getting the chance to know Kylie, and going at her balls out and fists swinging at her mother won’t win us uncles of the year.”
“Then we change our approach,” Josh said, taking his glass. “She wants to plan the wedding; let her plan Rhett’s wedding. Between the cake tasting and picking out flowers, it will give him time to see what’s going on, and find the best way to convince her we just want to know our niece.”
“Are you kidding?” Gage said. “What about Mom?”
“I think Mom would rather meet her granddaughter than have Darcy gone from the property,” Rhett said, getting on board.
“I agree,” Clay said, leaning forward to pick up his scotch. “Which is why I’m willing to throw in a signing bonus if she agrees to plan this wedding.” Before Gage could argue that it wouldn’t work, Clay held up a hand. “I don’t have anything against Darcy. I just want to see my niece, and I want Mom to know Kyle’s kid, I think that’s what Kyle would have wanted.”
Uncertainty coursed through Gage’s body at such a swift pace he could taste it. If that was what Kyle wanted, then he should have told them. This was exactly like five years ago, everyone acting in Kyle’s best interests, when Gage still wasn’t sure why he hadn’t told them. “I already told you, money has never been a motivator.”
Clay picked up a piece of paper and scribbled an amount on it, then slid it across the coffee table. “I think this will go a long way toward finding out some answers.”
Rhett picked it up and looked at the sum and nodded. “I’ll double that. The only problem is I leave tomorrow for New York. I’m in the recording studio all week and Stephanie is headed to LA. I was going to have Mom deal with the planner, but that’s no longer an option.”
All four brothers looked at Gage and a bad feeling started to coil in his gut. “No, I am not planning your wedding.”
“I’m not asking you to plan my wedding. Between Steph’s Pinterest board and her Wedding Binder, it’s all planned out. What I am asking,” Rhett leaned back, his grin too wide to be anything but trouble, “is for you to get to know Darcy again, remind her that we aren’t assholes, and find out what it will take to get on her good side.”
“You always said the key to closing a deal was to know the client’s weakness.” Clay held his tumbler in the air in a toast. “If you don’t think it’s financial, then here’s to finding out what it is.”
“Oh,” Rhett said. “You get to tell Mom.”
❀❀❀
“A hundred thousand dollars?” Jillian said, piping numbers on every one of the two dozen jersey-inspired cupcakes.
It was the first Tiny Tykes football meet of the new season, and with Sam being the Bull Frog’s newest member, Darcy had offered to help with the after party. She’d thrown lots of kids parties in the past; it was how she paid her way through college—well, that and dressing up like a clown. But managing twenty five-year olds in cleats and shoulder pads, double the amount of helicopter parents, and a cheerleader who refused to trade in the tutu for pompoms, was enough to give even the most experienced of planners a rash.
Darcy picked up a waffle cone, filled it with fruit salad, and stuck it in the serving tray, fashioned from an old egg carton. “That was their counter offer, and it just covers my fee.”
“That would go a long way toward paying down the loan,” Jillian said, and Darcy thought about the septic tank, the AC, and just what she could do with that much money. “Who are they bringing in for entertainment?”
Darcy rattled off a few of the names from Gage’s email, and Jillian slapped a hand over her mouth. “Are you kidding?” she said through her frosted fingers. “That sounds like the lineup for this year’s Grammies.”
Darcy understood her friend’s excitement. Having a VIP list of that caliber, having them come and spend an evening at Belle Mont would send its popularity soaring. Overnight, her historic labor of love would become the premiere venue for events in the Pacific Northwest.
“I know. Makes it hard to say no, huh?”
“This is your dream, your business, your daughter. There is no wrong answer here.” Jillian placed the cupcakes on a green felt board, lining them up in a starting position. “Out of curiosity, what did you say?”
Darcy closed her eyes and willed her stomach to stop churning. “That I’d be willing to talk about it.”
“Oh my God.” Jillian said, taking Darcy’s hand and jumping up and down. “Oh my God! This is so exciting. Rhett Easton and that stellar butt of his, which I believe was voted best backside of the year in People Magazine, is going to marry Stephanie Stone at Belle Mont House. This is huge!”
“I still haven’t said yes.”
“But saying you’re thinking about it is like a yes in Darcy-land. You’re too sweet to give people false hope.” Jillian stopped. “So why aren’t you jumping?”
“I found the letter,” she admitted, feeling like a loser.
Any smart businesswoman would know when a contract that had the potential to put your company on the map said, Please discard the earlier letter, they wouldn’t go in search of the letter. They’d put their emotions aside, sign on the dotted line, and take their daughter to Disneyland to celebrate.
But once Darcy knew there was a letter, she couldn’t sleep until she’d found it. And when she found it, buried among her bills, and saw that it was written in Gage’s writing, she cracked the seal. It didn’t take a genius to guess what she’d done next.
So, yes, she was too emotional right then to be smart.
Jillian took the cone out of her hand, that was cracked and dripping blueberries onto the grass, and tossed it in the trash bin. “You want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“You sure?” Jillian placed a cupcake on a napkin and sat on the park bench behind them. “You look like you want to talk about it.”
“Maybe.”
Jillian waved the cupcake in the air, then patted the bench next to her.
“Fine, I want to talk about it.” Darcy took a seat next to her friend, took the cupcake, and took a big bite. “He ruined what should have been an easy yes.” She looked out at the herd of laughing kids, her eyes immediately zeroing in on Kylie. In her tutu and cheer shirt, she was chasing a group of boys around the bounce house. “He said he was sorry.”
“That jerk,” she teased.
“He made it personal. Took what was supposed to be a simple business decision and added all of these warm fuzzies to it.”
“Warm fuzzies? That must have been some note.”
“Rhett might be the songwriter, but Gage was always good with words.” Darcy opened the note she’d tucked in her dress pocket. Unfolding it, her hands s
hook as the faint scent of cologne and Gage escaped into the warm summer breeze. She ran her finger across its edge, then released a deep breath.
“He wrote you notes a lot then?” Jillian questioned, sounding a little too suspicious.
“In a notebook,” she defended. “Nothing big. I had this composition book in college.”
“Like that?” Jillian pointed to a black notebook on the picnic table. It had a worn spine, tabs sticking out the top, and fabric swatches hanging from the bottom. It was how she put together an event, collected her ideas and designs.
“Exactly like that, except this one was for taking notes in my calculus class. I hated calculus, and Gage was great with numbers.”
“Great with words, great with numbers, and you chose the self-centered philanderer?”
Darcy ignored this. “Every time he’d come to my dorm room, he’d write some silly note in the margins for me to find the next day. It was this thing we had.”
“And you never dated?”
“No,” Darcy said, smiling at the question they’d received a million times over the years. “He wasn’t looking to get married, and a guy would be insane not to marry me.” She looked up. “That’s what he used to tell people.”
Jillian gave a disbelieving snort. “Did he have to tug your ponytail to make you wonder if there was more there?”
“Oh, I had a thing for him when we first met, but he had a long-time girlfriend, then Kyle came for a visit and he charmed me into a date.” She shrugged. “Gage was all for it. Said I needed to get out and have some fun. Then Kyle and I started dating and people stopped asking, and well—”
“Here you are all these years later, and he wrote you a note?”
Darcy looked at the words once again and that strange humming, the one that had started when she unintentionally felt him up during their fall, came back. “It’s a good note.”
Darcy handed it over to her friend. She didn’t need to read it again. She’d already memorized every curve and line.
D ~
I know I am a better man than my past actions have shown. It shames me to know that the one person who helped me through my father’s death didn’t benefit from the honorable man he raised me to be. A friend doesn’t walk away without a goodbye, and you, Darcy, were one of the best I’ve ever had. You deserved more from me. And for that I am truly sorry.
~ G
Jillian finished, held up a finger so she could read it again, then slid another cupcake in front of Darcy. “That was a good note.”
Without a word, Darcy pulled out the newest offer that Rhett had emailed last night and handed it to Jillian. “Now, read this again and tell me if you see a problem with it.”
“I think I need a cupcake before I do.” Grabbing Darcy’s cupcake, her friend dove in, not coming up until the wrapper was licked clean, and she’d finished the contract.
“Oh, boy,” Jillian said dramatically. “He said he was sorry, then gave you the wedding of a career, and a hundred-thousand-dollar venue fee.” Jillian set the wrapper on the bench. “I mean, yes, it was clear there’s no wiggle room on most all of his conditions, but I don’t see a problem at all. You get demanding clients all the time. You are the Bridezilla’s kryptonite.”
“The email was titled, We need to talk. He never mentioned Kylie, but I know that’s what he meant.”
Jillian set down the contract. “You do need to talk. About a lot of things. He needs the chance to understand why you never told him about Kylie, and you need a chance to finally clear the air and get past the big Easton rain cloud that has been following you for five years.”
It wasn’t all the Eastons who had haunted her memories. More like one specific Easton.
Gage.
“But that isn’t the Gage I knew,” she said, pointing to the contract. “That guy is calculating, unwavering, and cold.” She held up the note and felt her resolve soften. “This is the Gage I remember. The one who was humble and honest, and always did the right thing, no matter how hard. The guy who would never use his family’s name and money for leverage. This is the guy who I miss.”
The guy who would know that, although Darcy might make her own mistakes, she didn’t need a hundred-thousand-dollar bribe to set things right.
“He told me to disregard the apology, and offered me money.” Exactly what Kyle would have done. What he had done—several times.
“What if the money had nothing to do with his apology?” Jillian offered, as if handling a dispute on the playground. “What if he apologized, then changed his mind in giving it to you because he didn’t want it to get lumped in with your decision about Rhett’s wedding?”
“Maybe.” That did sound more like Gage, and took some of the sting out of his offer.
She hated to think that after all of the years of friendship, it would end with a signature on a contract and a payoff. Not that she’d been excited about the thought of having him back in her life, but after seeing him, and how much he looked like Kylie…
She shook her head. The similarities were astounding and had left her spinning with all of the possible what-ifs. She’d tried to keep busy, tried not to dwell on things that couldn’t be changed. But in the middle of the night, when the house was quiet and Kylie was fast asleep, doubt would creep in. Take over until decisions she’d been confident in started to show their cracks.
Margo had accused her of marrying Kyle for his contacts and money. Only to dump him when his career took a nosedive. And she didn’t want to prove the woman right.
Both his career and their engagement had taken a nosedive because he’d slept with his boss’s daughter. And a six-figure bonus didn’t erase the heartache the Eastons had put her through. It also didn’t erase the fact that Kylie had a whole other family out there who she didn’t know anything about.
“He wrote that note before he met Kylie, and his “disregard the apology” was his way of saying he thinks I made a mistake. What if he’s right, what if I did make a mistake?”
The one bite of cupcake she gotten before Jillian stole it soured in her stomach.
Gage might have made a rash decision to end their friendship in a grief-clouded moment, but he was the most steadfast person Darcy knew. He wouldn’t recant an apology, knowing it would hurt her, if he didn’t believe she was truly at fault. And he wouldn’t offer an outrageous amount of money unless he thought she’d be swayed by it.
“What if I let my pain and anger overshadow what was right for Kylie?”
“Stop!” Jillian yelled, jumping to her feet.
Startled, Darcy looked up just as Jillian cupped her hands to her mouth like a megaphone. “No cleats in the bounce house!”
“Okay, Auntie Jillian,” Kylie hollered back, then proceeded to explain to each and every boy that they needed to remove their cleats.
“Seriously, you were worried about being a bad mom? Your four-year-old just took on boys twice her size and forced them into following the rules. And all with a smile. Trust me, you’re doing a great job.”
Darcy tossed the wrapper in the trash bin, then picked up a cone to finish with the fruit salad. “I know, it’s just…I look at her and I see so much of Kyle in her. I want to make sure that I’m taking into consideration what he would have wanted too.”
“But he isn’t here. You are.” Jillian took Darcy’s hand. “And being a single parent means making all of the choices by yourself, and every once in a while you might make a wrong one. But I know you’ve never made decisions based on how it would hurt someone else. You’ve always done what’s best for Kylie.”
“I’d like to think that I have, but sometimes the right choice isn’t so easy to see.”
“No, it’s not.” Jillian opened a bag of sliced oranges and poured them into a bright green bowl. “But I promise you that at the time you made the decisions you did think they were the right ones. But life goes on, goals change, we grow, and sometimes what was best in that moment isn’t the best thing now.”
Jillian w
as right. Kyle’s brothers might have turned their backs on Darcy, but they never would have walked away from Kylie. Which was a huge part of her reservations.
“Kyle’s brothers are a force. His mother is a nightmare. And Gage looked so angry when we ended things the other day.” She didn’t even want to think about Margo’s reaction. The woman would navigate from anger to resentment like a Formula-1 driver. No one did guilt and vengeance quite like Margo Easton. “Once they meet Kylie, there is no getting rid of the Eastons. Even if they make my life hell.”
“It sounds like Gage reacted out of shock, and you can’t blame the guy,” Jillian reasoned. “That was a hard way to find out he had a niece.”
“I know.” Remembering his shocked expression was enough to forgive him of everything he’d said. “I should have handled it better back then, but I wasn’t strong enough to face any more rejection.”
“Strong enough? Honey, Hitler would have been scared of Margo Easton. She blamed her son’s cheating on you, said you weren’t woman enough, then sued you,” Darcy’s biggest cheerleader said. “I think you are a saint for even being open to her meeting Kylie.”
“I don’t want to keep her from Margo, I just don’t want Margo’s hate for me to affect Kylie.”
“If you’re afraid of Kylie getting stuck in the middle, or them making things hard on you, then meet them on neutral territory and voice your concerns,” Jillian said. “That’s what Jerry and I had to do when we separated, to make sure Sam didn’t miss out because of our issues.”
“You want me to sit down with all of them? Have you seen the Eastons together? They are like a gladiator team.”
“Fine, then start with Gage. You said you were friends? Friendship is a great place to start. You can set the boundaries and the rules up front, leaving zero room for misunderstandings.”
“And if Margo won’t listen?”
Jillian’s face took on a fierce expression that only came out when she was talking about her family—and she thought of Darcy and Kylie as hers. “In the end, you’re Kylie’s mom. Period. So what you say goes. Including who she gets to spend time with and how they spend that time. It’s that simple.”