by Nicole Helm
“So you’re abandoning Gallagher’s. You’re abandoning me.” Which probably wasn’t fair, but that’s what it felt like. Their whole lives they had planned to take all this on, and now she was backing out. Quitting.
“I don’t think you’ll miss me, since you don’t tell me anything anyway.”
“I would have told you.”
“Yeah? When?”
Dinah didn’t have a good answer for that. She didn’t have an answer for any of this. It felt like her father leaving all over again. It felt like . . . She didn’t know. Things kept changing and people kept leaving. Everything that Gallagher’s was supposed to be was going all wrong, and no matter how hard she tried to fight it, everything seemed to unravel.
Kayla stood up, and that was when Dinah realized she’d been packing a box of things from her office.
“I’m sure I’ll see you around. If I’m allowed at family gatherings. Grandmother was pretty angry.”
“So we’re just . . . done. Not friends anymore. Not partners. Just ‘maybe I’ll see you at a family gathering’?” Dinah’s mouth wavered and tears threatened, but she fought them back with everything she had.
Kayla paused her uncharacteristic outburst, and Dinah held her breath. Surely Kayla would see this was all wrong. How on earth could she be quitting?
“You know what? I can’t do this now.”
“So you quit, and you leave, and you run away. How very brave of you, Kayla,” Dinah threw at her, because she didn’t know how to be hurt without pretending she wasn’t, but her pretending was failing her.
“I’ve never been brave, Dinah. If I ever have a chance of being that, I have to get out of Gallagher’s and . . .”
“And what?”
“And you. I’m sorry, but I have followed you around like a puppy and let you tell me what’s right and . . . I have to figure out who I am. Not who you want me to be.” With that, Kayla sidestepped her and walked right out of the office.
Dinah could only stand, frozen. She felt unjustly accused and angry and sad and hurt and a whole slew of things she didn’t have the emotional capacity to unravel.
She forced herself to take a breath and then another. She would not cry at work. She would not break down at work. She never had before, and she wouldn’t start now. Kayla was having a personal crisis and she needed some space. Well, Dinah would give it to her for once.
Maybe Kayla was even right. Maybe they both needed a break from each other.
The tears threatened harder but Dinah blinked them away and focused on Gallagher’s, because that was the thing that stood the test of time. People? Not so much. But a name and a place? Absolutely.
Kayla could think Dinah’s idea was a mistake, but Dinah knew the deal with Carter was a good idea for all of them. She wouldn’t be deterred from her conviction. She would sit down and she would work on a presentation for the board, even if Carter hadn’t agreed yet.
He would. He had to. He had to understand this was the best thing for all of them—Gallagher’s, and her and him, and even Kayla and Craig, damn it. The board would understand. Her idea made business sense, and the board wouldn’t let personal bullshit cloud their vision.
She would have the future she had planned for herself from the time she could remember. Dinah running Gallagher’s. Dinah in charge, making her mark, and damn happy doing it.
She stomped around Kayla’s desk and sat down in Kayla’s chair, ready to focus and get right to work on her proposal.
Instead, she buried her head in her hands and cried.
* * *
Carter had been restless for three days straight and it was starting to drive him a little crazy. On the plus side, he had certainly done enough work for three men. Plants were weeded, picked, packaged, watered, and he’d even made some random repairs that he’d been putting off around the house.
Now he was grilling dinner for what he assumed would be Dinah’s impending arrival. Without discussing much about schedules or the like, they’d gotten into the habit of having dinner together.
Dinah talked business and supplier ideas, and Carter mainly fed her and distracted her with sex. Dinah seemed to be energized by talking about business, but for Carter this was a decision he’d needed to make in quiet and in his own time.
So, he’d let her prattle on without talking much himself. All in all, it had begun to feel very domestic and . . . real.
Which was downright scary as hell. He didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, and he didn’t have anyone to talk to about it.
His friends weren’t the kind of friends you talked to about women or identity crises or whatever the hell he was having. He’d discussed the business portion of his issues with his family, but he hadn’t mentioned the complication of Dinah and Gallagher’s, and relationships. His sisters would just start talking about marriage and settling down and missing the whole damn point.
So he was left to fumble around trying to figure out the right thing to do when it came to the infuriating woman he couldn’t get out of his head.
The thing was, Dinah had tapped into something he had wanted to do for a while. He’d gotten a little taste of the possibilities of being someone’s local produce supplier a few years back, but Grandma’s restaurant had never fully gotten on board with that.
Someone actually developing a menu around what he grew? It was a hard thing not to get really excited about.
He didn’t trust Gallagher’s. He wasn’t even 100 percent certain he trusted Dinah. Gallagher’s would always come first for her. His farm would always come first for him, so he understood that. He didn’t even want to change that about her, but he didn’t know how to safeguard himself against the damage that Gallagher’s could inflict.
His youngest sister had hooked him up with a possible lawyer, and though he couldn’t afford it, his family had rallied around the idea, offering what they could. If he wanted to do this, he had support. Even from thousands of miles away, his family had his back on this.
Finally.
“Something smells delicious.”
He glanced over his shoulder to where Dinah was walking through his rows of beans. She was wearing a skirt and impossibly high heels, and how he had fallen for such a put-together, business-type woman was completely beyond him.
But he had fallen for her. Pretty damn hard.
“Thought I’d grill tonight.”
She walked up next to him and hovered there. He glanced at her face, noticing that something was off. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what, and maybe she was just feeling awkward because he hadn’t agreed to anything yet, but there was a strange lack of energy from her.
“You know a girl could get used to not having to cook for herself. Although I have the sneaking suspicion that under that lid you probably have just as many vegetables as you do pieces of meat.”
“My evil plan uncovered.”
She smiled at him, something a little wistful in her expression. So he reached out and touched a strand of hair that was curling around her cheek.
“Rough day?”
“Very,” she said emphatically.
“I suppose if we’re going to be business partners, you could probably tell me about it, if you wanted to get it off your chest.”
She reached out and grabbed his arms, her eyes wide and a smile hovering at her mouth. “Does that mean you’re going to agree?”
There was so much hope in her expression that even if he’d been about to say no, he wasn’t sure he could’ve said it. Which was certainly scary, to know she had that kind of power over him. No one had ever had that kind of power over him.
He’d fought his family, the people he loved, every step of the way for everything he had, and knowing he might not fight her . . .
Damn.
But here he was, and he didn’t know how to go back. Reversing had never been something he’d managed to do. He was all plowing ahead, forward motion, pounding against the world until something worked in his favor.
Why should this be any different? “If we can agree on some terms, then I don’t think it would be a terrible idea.”
She flung her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him into the grill. Her grip around him was so tight she practically squeezed the breath out of him.
“You don’t know how much I needed to hear this tonight,” she said, her voice a little rough. “This is fantastic.” She pulled back, a broad smile on her face, but something nearly manic in her expression.
She started pacing in front of him like some sort of whirling dervish. “This is going to work. I know it’s going to work, and it’s going to really be great for everybody. I promise you, I will not let you down.” She grabbed his arms again, squeezing. “You will not regret saying yes. I promise. I promise.”
“Baby, you can’t promise that. That’s all beyond your control.”
She looked at him with a kind of horror in her expression that didn’t fit the situation.
“Things might not work out, but we’ll give it a try. You don’t need to promise things. We’ll give it a shot.”
“Things are going to work out. I believe that with my whole heart.” She covered her heart with both her hands and he wanted to reach out and soothe some of this overly serious earnestness.
He opened his mouth to argue with her before realizing it was futile. Maybe she needed to believe everything would work out. One of those optimists. He should probably let her keep that delusion.
“There’s a board meeting on tomorrow night. I think the best course of action is to work on a presentation to give them. Together. Work on it together. Present it together.”
It was his turn to step back in horror. “Board meeting? Me at a board meeting?”
“You should be the one to present the safeguards you want. We should work together to come up with a presentation, fine-tune what we’re each going to say, but I don’t want to speak for you. I think it’s important we’re separate entities.”
He grimaced. Dinah had a point about the separate entities thing, but the absolute last thing he wanted was to be in a boardroom full of Gallaghers.
“It’s not going to be easy,” she said somewhat cautiously, wringing her hands.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen such a nervous gesture from her before. “What’s not going to be easy?”
“My uncle, Craig Gallagher, the director of operations, he, um, knows about us.”
“About . . . us?”
“He followed me at some point and worked out that we’ve been . . .” She shook her head. “I can’t believe he did it, and it’s gross and creepy that he did, but the bottom line is he knows we’ve been involved, and he’s made it very clear he’ll use it against me.”
“Which will make the board question your judgment on me as supplier.”
She stiffened considerably and he was sorry to have said something that clearly hit a sore spot. But it was also clearly true. “We don’t know what they’ll think, and we won’t know their opinion on the business matter until we’ve presented this to them. It’s such a good idea.”
“Not all good ideas come to fruition.”
“It will. This one will. It has to. Carter, I . . .” She took a deep breath, back to pacing, back to un-Dinah-like behavior after un-Dinah-like behavior. “Kayla was always my ally,” she said softly. “She always had my back, and she quit.”
“Over this?” he asked incredulously. Jesus H, the last thing he wanted was to get deep into Gallagher-family crap.
“No,” Dinah replied firmly. “She’s having her own weird thing. Hell, half the Gallaghers are having their own weird thing.” She shook her head before straightening her shoulders and quelling her nervous hands. She met his gaze fiercely. “We are definitely going to be up against some opposition, but we have right on our side. We have the best interests of Gallagher’s on our side. There’s no reason not to do it, I just wanted you to know so you’re prepared.”
She crossed the distance between them, curling her fingers around his forearms. “Don’t change your mind. Please, don’t change your mind. I can see the wheels turning.” She gave his arms a squeeze, her expression imploring. “I just need someone to stick with me on this. Because I know that it’s the right thing.”
He wanted to tell her no. He wanted to put the kibosh on the whole stupid idea. What were they thinking? This idea was idiotic and probably going to bite them both in the ass, and yet she looked at him with those big hazel eyes and clear desperation. He couldn’t say no to her. He couldn’t run away from someone who needed him to stand up with her. He’d been there. He had felt that desperate need for someone—anyone—to stand with him, to fight by his side.
“I’m not going to back out,” he said.
She squeezed him into another hug. “Thank you. I promise—”
“On one condition.”
She pulled back a fraction, cocking her head. “Condition?”
“You have to stop promising me things, Dinah. You can’t make promises in business. We don’t know what will happen in the boardroom, and God knows, me in a boardroom is a scary enough prospect on its own, let alone if people know we’re sleeping together. But it’s business, and I know part of this is so we can be Carter and Dinah, together.”
She stepped back a little bit as if she was uncomfortable with his admission, but it was true. The only reason she’d come up with this plan, and the only reason he was agreeing to it, was because they had feelings for each other.
“Even with that being the case, we have to draw a little bit of a line between what happens with Gallagher’s and what happens with us. Every business I’ve been a part of has included people I love.” He almost immediately regretted using the word love, so he kept steamrolling on, hoping there were no meaningful pauses in there. “I’ve had to fight my family and disagree and argue, and it sucks. I don’t want to fight with you, if we’re going to do this. I don’t want business crap to become a part of us.”
“But . . . I thought the whole point was so we could combine our lives as who we are, and I am Gallagher’s.”
“I’m not quite sure what the whole point is, but I know I need a little bit of distance between what’s going to happen in that boardroom and who you are here.”
“It’s the same person. Dinah in the boardroom. Dinah in the bedroom. That’s . . . the whole point.”
“You really think Dinah Gallagher is the same as D?” Because he didn’t. He’d met both, spoken to both, understood both. D was more of the truth underneath all those things she was so certain she had to be.
Hell, he knew it because he’d used C for very similar purposes. To be someone he didn’t know how to be in real life.
“I’m not D. She was a little fantasy I indulged when I had time. In reality, right here and now, I am a Gallagher. My business means everything to me.”
“If you were happy with that, you wouldn’t have needed D. You can’t argue with me. I did the same thing. I was drowning in my own life, so I created this other one. But it was me. If it wasn’t honest, we wouldn’t be here . . . having feelings for each other.”
She wasn’t looking at him now, her face all scrunched and so not the powerhouse woman she usually was. He felt like shit for undermining any of her confidence, but he had no idea how to get through to her that there was a danger in her thinking she was Dinah Gallagher and nothing of the woman he’d gotten to know in emails. In sex. In the past few days. Words, at least spoken ones, had never been his strong suit.
“Let’s pause and eat. Maybe talk a little bit about what you want this presentation to be.”
“And not fight?” she asked, sounding very weary.
“I’m tired of fighting, remember?”
“I don’t want to fight either.”
“Let’s enjoy dinner. Then we’ll talk business, and then . . .” He forced himself to smile at her, trailing off.
“And then?” she replied, some of her spark returning.
He grinned. “Dessert.�
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Chapter 13
Carter served her a delicious dinner of grilled local pork chops and—not quite, but almost as delicious—corn and beans. He’d bought her a nice bottle of wine and poured her a glass with dinner while he drank from a can of beer.
She had never been in a relationship like this. Where the guy did really nice things for her without her ever having to drop hints. Where they could talk about their jobs and be interested in each other’s families and memories. She didn’t know if it was because they shared a similar passion for businesses rooted in their family histories, or because their personalities simply made it easy for them to talk.
All Dinah knew was she really, really enjoyed him. She’d been able to relax after her shit day and their odd conversation.
It was important that the board meeting go well, and even more important that she live up to the promise she’d made Carter: that this would work out and be good both for his farm and for Gallagher’s. He could say he didn’t want promises, but ensuring this idea’s success was of paramount importance.
If they worked together, if they planned everything out, they would succeed. They would have to succeed. “All right. We’re done eating. Now we discuss business.”
He leaned back in the little chair on his porch. They’d eaten outside in the cool fall evening, and Dinah couldn’t express how much she enjoyed these little moments. Outside. Stars. Meals together.
Business, Dinah. Focus.
“You sure you don’t want to skip to dessert?”
“Unless you’re referring to an actual brownie and not a euphemism for sex, no. I want to focus on business first.”
He pushed out of his chair, still grinning. She thought of her first impression of him, all scowly and grumpy, the enemy. But there was so much under that rough and gruff exterior.
“Sit tight,” he murmured. He disappeared into the kitchen, and when he returned he had a pie. “You like cherry?”