Blown Away (Next Generation 8)

by Cheryl Douglas

  “Hey, come on in, bro. Don’t bother knocking or anything.” Keith grinned as he kicked his designer shoes up on his polished desk.

  “I own the goddamn building. I don’t have to knock.” Brent set the paper bearing Ava’s picture on the desk before thrusting a finger at it. “You care to explain this?”

  Keith’s lips twitched when he said, “So you do remember our friend Ava. I thought you might.”

  “A dating service? What the hell is this about?”

  Keith laced his hands behind his head and tipped his chair back. “She owns some upscale dating service here in Nashville. Caters to celebrities, actors, musicians, successful professionals.”

  “How long have you known about this?”

  “A couple of months.”

  The urge to throttle him was great, but since they had a board meeting in half an hour, Brent resisted the temptation. “And you’re just telling me now?”

  Keith lifted a shoulder as he regarded his brother carefully. “You’ve been so caught up in this Dunlop acquisition, I didn’t think you’d care.”

  Brent hadn’t spoken about Ava in years. Not since her trail in Europe ran cold. Admitting he was still interested in a woman who wanted nothing to do with him was humiliating, especially when he usually had the opposite problem. Ever since he’d started making the list of the country’s wealthiest bachelors, gold diggers had lined with their nets, hoping to be the one to snare him.

  “I care,” he said. He paced the large office with long strides, his designer shoes tapping out an impatient rhythm. “What do you know about her? Is she married? How did you find out she’s back in town? When did she get back? Have you seen her?”

  Keith laughed as he held his hand up. “Relax. One question at a time. I ran into her at a charity thing last month. She attends lots of these events. Given her line of work, those are the people she socializes with.”

  Brent had hoped his brother would answer the most important question first so he wouldn’t have to repeat it. But that was too much to hope for. His brother lived to torment him. “Is she married? Engaged? Seeing anyone?” Not that he cared. He’d crush anyone who got in his way. He’d been waiting too many years to see her again. Nothing would stop him from demanding answers about why she walked out on him without an explanation.

  Keith held up the paper with Ava’s photo. “Would her profile be on a dating site if she was married… or taken?” He shook his head. “How the hell can you be a genius when it comes to making money and so dense about everything else?”

  Brent glared at him. “Who was on the Dean’s List? Who had scholarship offers from every Ivy League school in the country? And you’re calling me dense?” Brent smirked. “You could barely tie your own shoes without me to help you.”

  With an absent mother and a father who worked all the time to put food on the table and a roof over their heads, Brent became his brother’s caregiver. When it was time for Brent to go off to college, his brother was still an impressionable kid. Brent didn’t want to see him go down the wrong path because no one was home to watch out for him, so he’d sacrificed his dream of an Ivy League education to give his younger brother the guidance and support he needed. Brent had never regretted his decision. He’d made it on his own, without the connections a fancy education would have afforded him.

  Keith shook his head. “And you’re never gonna let me forget it, are you?” That stung. Brent didn’t want his brother to feel indebted to him. Keith winced when he saw Brent’s hurt expression. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know you gave up a lot. Dad and I wouldn’t have a pot to piss in without you.”

  “Don’t say that,” Brent said, clenching his jaw. “You were always a smart kid and a good athlete. You would have found your way with or without me. And we both know no one has worked harder than dad. It means everything to me that I can finally give him the life he deserves.”

  Their dad wasn’t the chauffeur-driven, mansion-dwelling type. He drove truck all his life and still had the first hundred dollars he ever earned in a frame on his antique dresser. At least he let Brent hire a full-time caregiver to drive him to and from the senior center and his appointments.

  “I know.” Keith raked his hands through his hair. “You take good care of us, but what about you?”

  Brent laughed. “Why do you think I built a fitness center and healthy restaurant on the main floor? I probably take better care of myself than you do.”

  “I’m not talking about diet and exercise, and you know it. You don’t have friends, you have followers. You don’t have girlfriends, you have escorts.”

  Brent tried to ignore his uneasiness. If anyone could zero in on his insecurities without even trying, it was the person who knew him best. “That’s the price of success. I knew that going into this. Letting anyone get too close is akin to suicide.”

  “You’re already dead inside.” Brent tried to hide his shock, but Keith’s statement was so unexpected, and so accurate, he didn’t know how to respond. “You have been ever since Mom left us. You were suddenly on this quest to control everyone and everything. You think the more money you have, the more control you have. You refuse to fall in love because you’re afraid she’ll leave you. Isn’t that what happened with Jamie? She got tired of trying to make you love her, so she went looking for it elsewhere?”

  Brent couldn’t believe his brother was blaming him for what happened with Jamie.

  Keith looked his brother in the eye. “You’re damn near forty and you’ve never been in love. That’s just sad, man.”

  Brent swallowed repeatedly, trying to coat his dry throat. Everything his brother said was true, but he would extract his own fingernails before he admitted it.

  Glancing at his watch, Keith said, “I guess we’d better get to the board meeting. We’ve almost got ‘em, man.” He put his arm around Brent as they walked out of the office. “You’re on the verge of taking everything away from our stepfather the same way he took everything away from us. Does it make you feel better? Does it give you the satisfaction you’ve been hungering for?”

  Brent prayed it would. If it didn’t, he didn’t know how he would fill the void he’d been living with for thirty years. Revenge against his mother and stepfather was the ticket to his gratification. If he found it wasn’t, he really was in trouble. The man who always had a plan didn’t have a backup plan this time.

  ***

  “You’ve gone too far, Tara!” Ava shouted. “How could you do this to me?”

  Tara winced and covered both ears. “I was only trying to help.”

  “Help?” Ava shouted. “You call this help? You’ve ruined my life! Humiliated me!”

  “How? All I did was upload your picture and fill in your profile on our site.”

  “Yeah, and our clients have been calling all morning to arrange a date with me!” She held up her left hand. Her parents had given her a diamond band when she graduated from college, but it looked so much like a wedding band that it deterred unwanted suitors. “Why the hell do you think I wear this?”

  “I’m sorry.” Tara sighed. “I guess I didn’t think it through. You’ve just seemed so down since things with what’s-his-name didn’t work out.”

  “His name was Carlos, and I couldn’t care less about him.” She sank into the chair across from her friend’s desk, the fight in her depleted. She couldn’t stay mad at Tara; her friend was only trying to help. “I was just disappointed. It seems like every guy I meet is a waste of time. I’m tired of dating. I need a break.”

  “You want me to take the profile down?” Tara asked, eyeing her computer screen.

  “Right now!” Ava took her ponytail holder off her wrist, secured her long blond hair, and sighed. It was going to be a long day. She was attending a benefit that night and she still had to go to Lena and Alisa’s boutique to pick up her new dress. “I know you were only trying to help, and you know I love you for it, but I really don’t need any help. I’m fine. Life is good.”
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  Ava’s little Yorkshire terrier, Oreo, toddled out of her mistress’s office, looking well-rested after her afternoon nap. Ava tapped her lap and cooed, “There’s my baby.”

  Tara rolled her eyes. “You spoil that little diva. She thinks she owns the place.”

  “She is not a diva,” Ava said, rubbing noses with Oreo. “Are you, sweetie? You’re just misunderstood.”

  “You haven’t seen what she does when the courier drops off a package. She may be small, but she’s feisty. I’m telling you, she’s going to bite someone one of these days. Then you’ll be sorry.”

  Ava frowned. “Oreo would never do that. She’s a little protective of me, and she doesn’t really like men, but she would never hurt anyone.”

  “Whatever you say.” Tara blew the dark bangs out of her eyes before reaching for her latte. “Okay, get out of here. I have to get back to work.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “By the way, that new promo we’ve got going with Bryson’s is really paying off. We’re up twenty-three percent this month.”

  “That’s great.” Ava smiled. More business meant more people were finding their soul mates thanks to her. She poured everything she had into Lasting Connections, and nothing gave her greater pleasure than bringing two people together and watching them build a lasting bond. She’d attended more engagement parties, weddings, and christenings than she could count, and her calendar was full again this year. She loved celebrating the best moments of their lives with her former clients.

  “You want to grab a late lunch?” Tara asked.

  “I can’t. I’m going to check my email, then I have to pick up my dress from Alisa’s. It was nice of Bryan to offer to take me to the fundraiser tonight.”

  “Please. You know my brother. If there’s free food, he’s there.”

  Ava crossed the hall to her cozy office, feeling infinitely better after clearing the air with her best friend. She hated fighting with Tara, but every friendship had to have clear boundaries, and Tara had just crossed one. Big time.

  “You’ve got mail.”

  Ava wrinkled her nose. She really should turn off that notification. She cringed every time she heard it. She’d already responded to half a dozen emails when one caught her attention. The subject line was: Remember Me? Curious, she opened it. There was no message, just a link to the bio of the Chairman of the Board of an investment company. But not just any investment company. Armstrong’s. Oh my God. Brent Armstrong was contacting her. How? Why? Of course, his brother had told him they’d crossed paths. Her heart thumped and Oreo whimpered at her feet, obviously sensing her mistress’s distress.

  She hadn’t seen or heard from Brent Armstrong since the night she snuck out of Tara’s bedroom. That was ten years ago. Why was he reaching out to her? A sickening thought occurred to her. Had he seen her profile? Did he think she was still prowling for a man? Thinking about the way she’d practically begged him to take her virginity made her skin crawl. She’s been too ashamed to respond to his voice mails and emails in the weeks after she left Nashville. That, and she heard the irritation in his voice. She knew he would demand to know why she hadn’t told him she was leaving. The truth was, she was afraid he may have been able to convince her to stay.

  Ava ran back across the hall and closed her friend’s office door after Oreo slipped inside.

  Tara barely looked up from her computer. “Didn’t I tell you I have work to do? You’re not paying me to socialize, are you?”

  “You’re never going to believe who emailed me!”

  Tara gave her friend her full attention. Gossip, chocolate, and lattes were her weaknesses, in that order. “Who?”

  “Brent Armstrong.”

  Tara slapped a hand over her mouth, her green eyes wide. “Shut up!”

  “I’m serious.” Ava chewed on her lower lip.

  “Stop doing that,” Tara lectured.

  Another voice saying that slipped into her consciousness. It had the same effect as always. She couldn’t think of Brent Armstrong without thinking about the best sex she’d ever had… bar none. “What do you think he wants?”

  “He didn’t say?”

  “No. The subject line was: Remember Me? And there was a link to his bio on his company’s website.”

  “Interesting,” Tara said, reaching for her latte. “You know he’s still single, right?”

  “Yeah.” He made the country’s wealthiest bachelors’ list every year, and since she moved in the same circles as Tennessee’s elite, it wasn’t exactly a secret. She’d been very careful to avoid any party or event he was expected to attend. “I know.”

  “I still can’t believe you gave him the brush off after y’all--” Tara wriggled her eyebrows “--you know.”

  “I told you why I did.” Ava tickled Oreo under her chin. She loved that. “I wanted to have a good time that summer. I didn’t want to worry about some guy back home expecting me to check in every five minutes.”

  “You don’t know he would have been that bad.”

  “He probably would have been worse.”

  “Is that why you stayed in Germany?” Tara asked, setting her cup down before leaning forward. “Were you afraid of him?”

  She wasn’t afraid of him per say, just the way he made her feel. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Then why should it bother you that he reached out now? Just ignore him.”

  “Right.” Ava nodded. “I’ll just delete the email and forget all about it.”

  ***

  Lena’s face lit up when Ava walked into Alisa’s boutique. Lena was her birth mother, and the two had developed a close relationship since Lena maintained a friendship with Ava’s adoptive parents. She was like a favorite aunt and trusted confidant Ava couldn’t imagine living without.

  “There you are,” Lena said, opening her arms. “I was just getting ready to leave, but I was hoping to see you first. How are things?”

  “Good.” Ava widened her smile when Lena frowned. “Great, in fact. Business is booming.”

  “I didn’t ask about business. I asked about you.” Lena linked arms with Ava and led her into the ‘Employees Only’ section. “Tell me what’s up with you.”

  “Not much, busy, busy. One event after another. You know how it is.” Ava’s cell phone rang, but she ignored it. Her time with her friends and family was rare and precious, so she tried not to let work interfere.

  “I worry about you,” Lena said, squeezing her arm. “You can’t keep up this pace without burning out.”

  “I love what I do. It doesn’t even feel like work.” Ava giggled. “I still can’t believe I get paid so well to do this. Honestly, I’d do it for free.”

  “That’s how you know you’ve found your calling.”

  “How’s Alisa?”

  “She and that gorgeous hubby of hers are off on some fabulous cruise while I’m stuck here doing the grunt work!” Lena winked. “The cow!”

  Ava laughed. She could always count on Lena to make her smile. Her upbeat personality reminded the people around her that life was never as bad as it seemed. “You don’t mean that.”

  “Of course not. I’m the one who insisted they take the cruise.”

  That sounded like the Lena Ava knew and loved. “Good for them.”

  Lena poured Ava a coffee, strong and black, just the way she liked it. Brent had gotten her hooked on the stuff that night. After his email, she couldn’t help but think of him. If she thought he looked good in faded jeans and long sleeved T-shirts, nothing could have prepared her for the sight of the billionaire business tycoon he’d become. She’d only seen his headshot though. Maybe he’d let his body go… and maybe Oreo would be the first dog to visit the moon.

  “Your mind is somewhere else today,” Lena said, observing her carefully. “I can always tell when you’re distracted.”

  Ava knew better than to try to hide the truth from Lena. She always managed to pry it out of her. “A guy I used to know contacted me earlier. It just
kind of caught me off guard, I guess.”

  “Anyone I know?” Lena curled up in one of the oversized armchairs in her office.

  Ava claimed the chair beside her. “I knew him back in college. His younger brother was in some of my classes.”

  “Huh, so why did he contact you?”

  “I have no idea. I haven’t even thought about him in years.” That wasn’t entirely true. She’d spent the years since she returned from Germany fearing she may run into him at a party and have to explain why she left town so quickly.

  “But he’s obviously thought about you or he wouldn’t have reached out.”

  Ava shrugged, wishing they could talk about something else, anything else. “I guess.”

  “Is he cute?”

  Ava nearly spewed her mouthful of coffee. “Uh, I don’t know if that’s the word I’d use to describe him.”

  “Okay, now you’ve really got me curious,” Lena laughed. “What’s his name? What does he do?”

  “Um…” There wasn’t a person in Tennessee who hadn’t heard the name Brent Armstrong, and Ava didn’t want to fuel Lena’s curiosity.

  “Why are you being so secretive? That’s not like you.”

  Great, she’d offended Lena. “His name is Brent--” she surrendered when Lena raised an eyebrow “--Armstrong.”

  “Shut up!” Lena set her coffee down on the table at her elbow. “Not the Brent Armstrong?”

  “That’s him.”

  “Oh my God, that man is gorgeous. And rich, filthy, filthy rich.”

  Ava laughed and slapped Lena’s knee. “Behave. Since when did that matter?”

  “It doesn’t,” Lena said, grinning, “but it sure doesn’t hurt his chances.”

  “He doesn’t have a chance.” Ava took a sip of her coffee. Coming to the boutique when she was still reeling from Brent’s email was a bad idea.

  “Why not?”

  “He… I…” Ava couldn’t explain without telling Lena the nature of their relationship. If she found out Brent was the man who’d taken Ava’s virginity, there’s no telling how she might react.