by M. Malone
Say You Will (The Alexanders, Book 5)
Mara Simmons knows two things for sure: her instincts are always right and Trent Townsend is The One. So when she starts to suspect his frequent business trips have nothing to do with business, she knows what she has to do. Trust her instincts.
Trent Townsend is living a lie and his worlds are on the verge of colliding. He's done so much to separate his small town life from his past that one day he realizes he can't tell what's real anymore.
When Mara asks family friend Eli Alexander to investigate, she sets in motion a chain of events bigger than she can imagine. Soon she'll have to make a choice. Stand by her man or… watch it all fall apart.
WARNING: This book contains brazen lies, meddling sisters, encounters with the one percent and really hot, domineering billionaire bachelors. Just saying...
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Table of Contents
I.
Prologue
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
II.
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
III.
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22
Epilogue
Excerpt of TANK
Books by M. Malone
About the Author
Copyright
SAY YOU WILL
The Alexanders, Book 5
(Trent + Mara)
M. MALONE
CrushStar Romance
I.
“God hath given you one face,
and you make yourself another.”
- - Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Prologue
SAYING GOODBYE NEVER seemed to get any easier.
“You won’t forget about us, will you?” Travis gazed up at him with blue eyes the same shade as his own.
“I could never forget about you or your mother. I’ll be back as soon as I can, buddy. Be good for your mom, okay?”
“Okay. Here’s my picture.” The little boy thrust the construction paper at him. Trent looked down at the lumpy figurines. Travis pointed at each figure. “That’s me. That’s you. And that’s mom.” He had written across the bottom of the picture in crayon “M-y- f-a-m-i-l-e-e”.
Trent folded it carefully and put it in the inner pocket of his suit jacket. “I’ll keep it right here with me. This is too important to pack in a suitcase.”
Travis hugged him fiercely, then with typical toddler nonchalance raced back to the television. The sounds of his favorite cartoon resumed a few seconds later.
“He’s been working on that drawing for you all week.” Avery stood in the doorway to the kitchen watching him. Tears shone in her eyes.
“I can hardly believe he’s old enough for preschool. It really puts things in perspective.”
She wiped her hands on the dishtowel tucked into her waistband. “You’re all packed?”
“Yeah. I think I got everything this time.” His eyes swept the room, looking for anything he might have missed when he packed last night. He couldn’t afford to accidentally leave anything behind since he wouldn’t be here for a while.
He’d been coming to see them for the past few months and it was harder and harder to leave every time. Soon all the lies would be over and he’d be able to get back to his life.
Just a little bit longer.
He stood and slung his duffel over his shoulder. The weight of it barely registered. Packing light was a requirement for traveling under the radar. Lately, he’d been on the road so much that he could pack and unpack in his sleep.
Avery followed him as he walked to the front door. “He misses you so much when you leave. So do I.”
Trent pushed her dark hair away from her face. She wouldn’t meet his eyes which was a bad sign. She always did this. Just when she got her life back on track, then she backtracked and ended up in the same place.
“This is the way it has to be for now. It’ll all be over soon. Hang in there. I’ll be back to see you in a few weeks if I can get away.”
Avery bit her lip and looked away. “I didn’t think it would be this hard. I’m lonely living here all by myself.”
“It’s hard on me, too. I miss you. You know I love you more than life.” He kissed her on the forehead, the same way he’d done for years.
Her smile never faltered but as she watched him leave, he could tell she was crying.
Just a few more weeks and this will all be over.
Chapter One
MARA SIMMONS WOULD have never described herself as a badass. But to her co-workers at Lawson, Westbrooke & Hyde, she was a vigilante. A fearless crusader. Either that or they all just thought she was too stupid to be afraid.
“I really appreciate this. He keeps asking for these files and I’ve been making excuses until you got here.” Her co-worker, Lanie Roberts, hovered outside of the door to her boss’ office with a frightened look on her face.
Ethan Westbrooke had everyone in the company terrified of him. The only one he couldn’t intimidate was Mara, which was how she’d gotten stuck working for him. Usually he went through executive assistants at an alarming rate. The one before Mara had lasted only three days before calling down to HR in tears asking to be reassigned.
Mara had been with him for a little over a year.
“It’s okay, Lanie. I’ll take them in to him. I was just going in to bring him his coffee anyway.”
“Mara! Where are the contracts Lawson sent up?” Ethan’s loud bellow carried through his office door.
Lanie wrung her hands as Mara took the folder she’d been holding in a death grip. “Okay. I’ll just, ah, wait out here.”
Mara smothered a smile. Then after a perfunctory knock on her boss’ door, she pushed it open with her hip.
“Here’s your coffee and those contracts you’ve been waiting on.” Mara set the folder she carried on the edge of his desk and his coffee to the right of the report he was currently reading. He barely glanced up, just answered with a muffled grunt. The only thing visible was his perfectly styled dark hair. She held in a sigh. Grunting was better than growling. He was in a decent mood today. That was something.
As soon as she left the office, Lanie appeared at her elbow. “Did you give it to him?”
“I did. Now that he has the contracts, he shouldn’t need anything else for a while.”
Lanie visibly relaxed. “Thank you so much. I almost cried this morning when you weren’t here. You’re the only one he likes.”
“He doesn’t like me. He yells at me, too. I just don’t listen,” Mara replied as she settled into her desk chair.
“Anyway, I was thinking we should do happy hour tonight. Or maybe a movie? I need to get away from Jesse. He’s driving me crazy.”
Mara chuckled. She’d heard all the ins and outs of the saga of Lanie and Jesse. The two had enough drama to fuel a reality show. But she couldn’t deal with that tonight. She had her own drama to deal with.
“I can’t. I have a family dinner tonight. Plus I want to stick close to home anyway. Trent’s been traveling a lot lately.”
Lanie smiled knowingly. “Say no more. I get it. You need a little quality time with your man. Take care of business at home.” She winked and walked back to the elevator bank to go back to her floor.
As soon as the elevator doors closed, Mara’s practiced smile fell. If only it was just a night of hot sex waiting for her. Lately Trent had been so distant and too tired to do much after work. He was also traveling more than ever. Except, he was strangely close-mouthed about the projects he was working on or what he was doing during the time he was gone. There was no one thing she could point to that was off but Mara just knew.
He was lying to her.
“If you’re done gossiping,” a deep voice interrupted her
thoughts. She was so startled that she jumped and knocked over her own coffee cup. The dark liquid quickly spread across her desk, snaking under her keyboard and soaking the pad of sticky notes next to her phone.
“Damn it.” She hopped up, unsurprised to see a dark stain on the front of her pale pink skirt. She inched the material up her legs, holding it away from her body. “This is just great. There’s no way this stain is coming out.”
When she looked up, Ethan stood as still as a statue, his dark eyes locked on her legs. Then he looked up at her. A muscle in his jaw ticked.
Stunned by the feral look in his eye, she immediately dropped her skirt. “Mr. Westbrooke. You startled me.”
Normally he would have had some cutting remark to make or chastised her for stating the obvious and wasting his billable hours. Instead he just blinked at her. Then said in a deceptively soft voice, “These contracts don’t contain any of the changes I requested. Find out why.”
He ran his hands through his hair, sending the dark strands into disarray. Then with one last piercing look, retreated back into his office.
* * * * *
LATER THAT DAY, Mara raced around her living room, straightening the pillows on the couch and collecting stray items of clothing she’d discarded in her frenzy to get to work that morning. Trent had originally been scheduled to fly in late but she’d gotten a text right before leaving work that he’d be home early.
By the time she made it back to her bedroom, she had a pair of gym shoes in her arms, the cardigan she’d decided not to wear that morning thrown over her shoulder and an earring she’d been missing for months in her hand.
Suddenly she stopped right in the middle of the room. “Why am I even bothering with all this stuff? I haven’t seen him in a week. I seriously doubt he’ll care about any of this.”
She dropped all the stuff in her arms next to the bed and then went into her bathroom. After yanking out her ponytail, she flipped over and fluffed her hair out, then applied another layer of lip-gloss. Just as she finished, she heard the front door open. Anticipation quickened her steps as she trotted down the hallway. Trent looked up when she entered the living room.
With a squeal she flung herself into his arms. “I’m so happy to see you!”
He fell back slightly until he hit the wall, accepting her noisy kisses all over his face. “I'm happy to see you, too. I really missed you, baby.”
The low rumble of his words spread through her. It made her heart soar to hear him say the same thing she was feeling. She looked at his suit in surprise. Usually he just wore slacks and maybe a tie. Since he was such a casual guy, he probably wouldn’t like it if he knew how arousing she found his corporate look to be.
“I missed you, too. And I'm really looking forward to having you home for a while.”
“Come with me while I unpack. I just want to look at you.”
She followed him into the bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed and in that moment, she could see how exhausted he was. It was all over his face, in the tight line of his lips and the pinched skin around his eyes. He looked awful.
“Why don’t you take a shower? I can help you unpack.”
A smile lifted the edges of his lips. “I think I’ll do that. Thanks. You’re the best.”
He stood and yanked his shirt over his head. She followed him with her eyes, enjoying the flex and play of the muscles in his back as he disappeared into the bathroom.
She turned back to his duffel and unzipped it. Layers of clothes sprang from the bag. With a muffled curse, she forced them back inside and tried to arrange them in some semblance of order. The sight of the jumbled clothes reminded her of the conversation they needed to have. Trent was usually a neat freak. It was confirmation of what she knew instinctively.
Something wasn’t right.
She folded the clothes as the sounds of the shower filtered out of the bathroom behind her. By the time the water turned off she'd created three neat piles, one for underwear, another for his dress shirts and another for casual clothes.
“Hey baby.”
Trent stood in the doorway to the bathroom, a towel tucked snugly around his waist. Even as her mouth watered, she had to remind herself of her plans. Dinner first, then they needed to talk. She was determined to keep her head on straight so they could have a conversation. It wouldn’t do to get lost in passion and ignore the lingering tension between them. So Trent and his mouthwatering abs would just have to wait for a few hours.
“Matt and Penny are coming over for dinner. I have to go to the store to pick up a few things. If I’d known you were coming in so early I would have done it last night.”
“That's fine. You. Go. On.” He punctuated each word with a mind-drugging kiss. By the time he was done, Mara was ready to rip his towel off. Especially since his skin was appealingly warm and still slightly damp from his shower.
“I'm going to get some work done while you’re gone then I can give you my undivided attention tonight. Actually, can you bring me my laptop case? I must have left it on the couch up front."
He pulled her up on her toes to meet his kiss, anchoring her against him in the way that never failed to turn her to mush. He was so handsome with his sun-kissed blond hair and those piercing blue eyes that always made her melt.
By the time he released her, she could barely remember her own name let alone what he’d asked her to do.
Grocery store. I’m supposed to be going out.
“Okay, I’m going. I love you.”
She hugged him tighter, suddenly overcome with emotion. It was easy to assume the worst when he wasn’t here but she just couldn’t believe the emotion he showed toward her was feigned. No one had ever treated her the way he did or so openly showed his affection. There was probably something bad going on with work which would explain why he was suddenly traveling so much.
Guilt tightened her belly. She’d been stewing in her own insecurity this whole time and assigning him false motives when he was likely just trying to keep from losing his job. Trent had always had weird hang-ups about money. Her brother had given her a sizable loan to buy the townhouse and when Trent had found out about it, he’d been furious.
Like a lot of men, he seemed to think that if he couldn’t financially support her, then she wouldn’t love him. But Mara didn’t need that from him. She’d been supporting herself since she was old enough to work.
Trent pulled her closer and kissed her forehead the way he always did. “Be careful out there. You know I love you more than life.”
A smile on her face, she left the room and headed back down the hallway to the living room to grab her handbag.
When she spotted his laptop bag and suit jacket on the chair, she remembered that he’d asked her to bring his stuff. The jacket was one of her favorites on him, a pale gray pinstripe that brought out the intense color of his eyes. She folded it over her arm carefully. Something bulky poked out of the fabric.
With one hand, she slung the laptop case over her shoulder and then reached into the inner pocket. Her hands met what felt like rough cardboard. She pulled it out. It unfolded in her hands, showcasing the bright colors of what was obviously a child’s drawing.
But that wasn’t what turned her heart to ice. It was the childish scrawl at the bottom right above a painstakingly written name.
Travis.
Quickly, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and took a photo. Her hands shook as she refolded the drawing and tucked it into the inner pocket of the jacket where she’d found it. She dropped the laptop case and coat jacket back on the chair and then grabbed her own handbag. Her mind was in a whirl as she let herself out, locking the door behind her.
Different scenarios ran through her head as she drove through the familiar streets of New Haven. She soothed herself with the sight of the cheerful red awnings of the businesses on Main Street and the graceful arch of the trees that bordered the road.
It wasn’t until she pulled into the parking lot of the grocer
y store that she spoke the words aloud that had been screaming through her brain for the entire drive.
“Trent’s middle name is Travis.”
* * * * *
AS SOON AS he heard Mara drive away, Trent opened his laptop and got to work. Running a company in absentia was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. But the knowledge that he wasn’t doing it for his own benefit was what bolstered him. His older brother had borne the brunt of his father’s expectations for years. He could take the reins for a short time, at least until his father was back on his feet.
He logged in to Townsend Industries remotely and spent a few minutes catching up on email. His assistant, Gina, usually responded on his behalf to anything that wasn’t pressing and sorted the rest of his correspondence into folders. It was always hard to catch up after he’d been visiting Avery. When he was there he wanted to spend as much time as possible with Travis. As a result, his own work tended to slide. Now that he was helping his father out after a health scare, his work was compounded.
As he read through some of the documents his assistant had forwarded on, he thought of how it must be killing his father to have to step back. James Townsend III had taken over Townsend Industries from his own father twenty years ago and Trent didn’t think he’d missed a day of work since. Having a heart attack was probably the only way to make him miss a day at the office.
After a call to Gina to clarify a few things, he applied his digital signature to several proposals from department heads. There was one in particular that Gina had flagged as urgent. It was a request from the head of HR to expand employee benefits. He glanced at the time. It was already after business hours but if he called him now, then he could take care of it before Mara got back home.