In that moment, Kayleigh felt all of the blood drain from her face. “Go to hell,” she said before leaving the room and going up the stairs to her former room. She was packed within minutes and although part of her was appalled that neither Sloan brother came to her aid, she was relieved to make it out the door without having to look at either one of them.
When the front door closed, Brian sat back down at the table and looked at his brother. “Good job, Bro. Now what the hell am I supposed to do?”
Chapter Seven
It didn’t take long for Kayleigh to realize that she had made a colossal error in judgment. The man that she thought Derek Sloan to be, the man that she had fallen in love with, hadn’t existed. She always knew he was ruthless in business when he went after what he wanted, she just didn’t realized that he played by the same rules in his personal life.
Lesson learned.
It took her a couple of days before she was able to go back to work at the office and it took her less than a day to realize that she couldn’t stay. Derek had told her that she had talent and Kayleigh had to believe that if she put an effort into a job search, that she’d be able to find something as a designer. Besides, seeing Derek every day, being this close to him and not being able to talk to him or touch him was more torture than she was willing to endure.
To say that her supervisor was shocked was an understatement. If she suspected that Kayleigh’s sudden resignation had anything to do with her time away from the office, she said nothing. “We’re going to miss you,” she had said and Kayleigh knew that she was going to miss all of her co-workers, as well. It was just time to move on.
The original plan had been to give at least a two-week notice, but after the first time that she saw Derek from a distance, Kayleigh knew she wouldn’t survive that long. It may not have been the most professional move on her part, but the one-week advance was all she could do. The extra money she had made while caring for Emery would go a long way in keeping her covered until she found a new job. Luckily, being that she only had herself to take care of, she also had a decent savings account to keep her going just in case the job search went on for longer than she hoped.
“I still can’t believe you’re leaving,” Carol said later that day at lunch. “I mean, you were gone for three weeks, living with the boss no less, and then you come back and quit.” She gasped. “Oh, my gosh! Is that why you’re leaving? Is Derek as big of a jerk at home as he is at work?”
It would have been easy to lie, but Kayleigh had a feeling she wouldn’t sound believable. “He’s not a jerk. I just realized that this is not my dream job.”
“This is nobody’s dream job,” Carol said dryly. “It’s a paycheck.”
Kayleigh shrugged. “I’m tired of just getting a paycheck. I need to move on and do something that gives me a sense of accomplishment.”
“Do you know what you’re going to do?” Kayleigh told her about her designs and her plan to seek out a firm that would be interested in them. “Why not apply here? You and I both know this place could use a bit of new blood and some inspiration in the design department. You’ve gotten to know the boss pretty well, obviously, why not ask him for a chance?”
Because it would be emotional suicide. “It’s just time to move on,” she said instead. They ate their lunch in silence. “I’m really going to miss you.”
“It’s not like we can never hang out together again. I just hope you don’t forget me when you’re a big, famous designer.”
Kayleigh laughed. “Of course I won’t.”
****
With the last of her personal items in the box, Kayleigh looked around her cubicle. She had spent five years in this space and it seemed weird to see it look so bare. She had barely gotten any work done today; there had been cake and everyone took her to lunch and most of the time was spent organizing her files and passing them on to the people who would now be handling her customers.
The department looked a lot like the Super Target had several weeks ago. There were flowers and balloons everywhere in celebration of Valentine’s Day. While most people were excited that it fell on a Friday this year, Kayleigh would have been perfectly happy to not have to spend the day surrounded by everyone’s stories of their big plans for the evening.
Her big plans consisted of ordering Chinese takeout and watching anything that didn’t involve love.
Maybe she’d rent a horror movie.
That thought made her chuckle. She knew she could barely stand the sight of the covers for those movies; Kayleigh knew she’d never get through more than the opening credits of one. Well, there went that plan.
At four o’clock, her supervisor came over. “Eileen said for you to come down for your exit interview as soon as you’re ready.”
“Exit interview? What’s that?”
“Apparently it’s something new. When an employee leaves, the upper brass want to talk to them and do a survey on work conditions and get a general idea of your thoughts on the company. There’s paperwork to be signed for human resources, that sort of thing. Plus, I think because you had shared some designs with Mr. Sloan that there may be some paperwork involved in that as well.”
It was the first that Kayleigh had ever heard of such a thing, but she shrugged. “Where do I need to go? Human resources?”
“Mr. Sloan’s office.”
Kayleigh’s heart sank. “Wh…why? I thought this was a human resources kind of thing?”
“No idea. Besides, after taking care of his niece for three weeks, I would think that this would be easier than going down to human resources.” With that, she left Kayleigh alone.
Great. Now she would have to deal with an up close and personal exit from her job rather than having the freedom to run away without notice. “My life sucks,” she muttered as she made her way down to Derek’s suite. Eileen was at her desk and motioned for Kayleigh to take a seat. At least she knew what to expect from Derek’s assistant; cool disdain. What was going to happen once she stepped into his office? Was the human resources director going to be in there? Would there at least be other people or was she going to be forced to deal with him one on one?
“Mr. Sloan will see you now,” Eileen said without even glancing in Kayleigh’s direction.
“Always a pleasure,” she mumbled before standing and thanking her.
Her feet felt like lead and her heart was beating way too rapidly as she walked through the doors to Derek’s office. A quick look around showed that it was only the two of them. Kayleigh looked across the room and saw Derek sitting behind his desk sorting through some paperwork. “Please have a seat, Kayleigh,” he said as if he was speaking to a stranger and not someone who had shared his home and his bed just weeks before.
Kayleigh slid into one of the chairs opposite his and waited, secretly hoping that someone else was going to join them.
“I have your employee file here,” he began and effectively crushed her hopes for company. “It looks like we have some paperwork for you to sign regarding your health insurance,” he said as he placed the papers in front of her along with a pen, “and your 401K.” He shuffled through the papers some more. “You have two weeks of vacation time that are due to you and payroll has been instructed to send that to you with your final paycheck next week.”
Kayleigh nodded, studying the papers in front of her rather than looking at Derek. Once her signatures were on everything, she slid them back toward him. And then had nothing to do but look at him. “Was there anything else?” she forced herself to ask.
Derek leaned back in his chair and drank in the sight of her. He knew her well enough to know that she was nervous and that she would rather be anyplace else in the world but right here with him. “Did you find the working conditions here favorable?” he asked, searching for something to say to keep her here with him.
“Yes. Everyone has been great to work with.”
“Did you have any trouble assigning your customers to other reps?”
She shoo
k her head. “We are a team out there so everyone stepped in to help.” Silence. She wondered why he was dragging this out and why, for that matter, did he feel the need to conduct this meeting himself. For all that they were doing, it would have made more sense for him to have Eileen handle it.
“What are your plans now?” he asked quietly. “Do you have another job lined up?”
“Not yet.”
He nodded. “Well, I realize that the designs you shared with me were done off the clock, but I shared them with the designers here and we would like the rights to them. I have some papers here for you to sign if that’s all right with you; you’ll be compensated for them, of course.”
So this was it. Not only had he gotten someone to take care of his niece so that he wouldn’t have to, he also got some new designs for his company and a couple of nights worth of sex. All in all, Derek Sloan made out like a bandit. When he slid the contract her way, she practically ripped it from his hands and signed it without even reading it.
He pointed that fact out to her. “You should never sign something without reading it first.”
Looking up, she stared at him. “Is there anything else?”
A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. “As a matter of fact there is. But before I give it to you, I want you to pay close attention to it before signing it.”
“Sure; whatever.” She just wanted to be done with all of this and leave. He could have the damn designs for all she cared. She had dozens more and with any luck, some other firm would appreciate her talents and not take advantage of her as Derek had.
Watching her intently, Derek slid a contract across the desk to her. “Make sure you read it; including the fine print.”
Sitting back in her seat, Kayleigh took the paper from him and began to read. It didn’t take long for her to look up at him, confusion written all over her face. “I…I don’t understand.”
“Keep reading,” he said softly.
She did and by the time she got to the bottom, she was crying. “When…? How…?”
“Did you read the fine print?” Kayleigh quickly scanned the document down to the fine print and her heart felt full to bursting. “Are those terms agreeable to you?” he asked as he stood and walked around to the front of the desk.
She was shaking. This couldn’t be happening. The papers dropped to the floor beside her as she stood. “Why did you do this?” Her voice trembled as she spoke and she had to fight the urge to reach out and touch him.
“Are you going to sign that?” he asked, motioning to the papers.
“Derek, those are adoption papers. I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Taking her by the hand, Derek led her over to the sofa on the side of the room where they both sat. “After you left that night, Brian and I sat down and had a long talk. Not just about Emery; but about everything. This company is my dream; not his. He has no interest in it. I guess I knew that for a long time, but didn’t want to fully acknowledge it. He likes living abroad and he’s made some business contacts over the years during his travels and apparently he has the opportunity to get involved with some resorts. He enjoys numbers and financing and he seems pretty good at it. Either way, he doesn’t want any part of Sloan’s.”
“What does that have to do with…?”
“We came to an agreement and rather than buy him out, he signed over his share of the company to Emery.”
“Is that legal?”
Derek nodded. “He also signed over his parental rights to me.”
“But…but what about Melissa? She’s Emery’s mother!”
Just the thought of the woman made Derek sick. “She never wanted Emery. She was hoping to get money from Brian. She also signed away her parental rights. To me.”
“So you’re…you’re Emery’s father now,” she said shakily. “Wow. When did all of this happen?”
“It’s been a fairly busy week,” he said with a sad smile. “My grandparents came to visit and they are spending time with Emery and helping take care of her, but she’s not doing well.”
“Who? Your grandmother?”
He shook his head. “No. Emery.”
“Why? Is she ill? Is she cutting a tooth? The books all said that teething can be…”
“She’s not sick and it’s not a tooth,” Derek interrupted. “She misses you.” He waited a beat until Kayleigh’s eyes met his. “I miss you.”
“Oh,” she sighed.
“Come home.”
“But…”
“Sign the papers and come home with me. Make a family with me. Marry me.”
It was all happening so fast that Kayleigh wasn’t sure she wasn’t actually dreaming this. “I don’t know, Derek. That night, you said…”
“I know what I said and I’m sorry. I was devastated by the thought of Brian being back and actually taking Emery away. I had to detach myself because I didn’t want to feel the pain. I know that I was horrible to you and I’m so sorry. Please say that you’ll forgive me. Tell me that I’m not too late. I love you, Kayleigh.”
Those three words were what did it for her. “I love you, too,” she finally said and launched herself into his waiting arms. She kissed him with all of the pent up frustration and longing of the last weeks. Never in her wildest fantasies could she have imagined being here like this. Derek’s mouth and his touch were so familiar and so much a part of her that Kayleigh wondered how she had gotten by for almost two weeks without them.
Raising his head, Derek took her by the hand and led her back over to the desk. “As much as I want to keep kissing you and touching you, I certainly don’t want to risk having Eileen or anyone walking in on us because if we keep that up, I’ll end up making love to you right here in this office.”
The thought made Kayleigh blush. She reached down for the papers she had dropped earlier and quickly signed them. Looking up with him, she smiled sexily. “Then we’ll have to go home and do it in private.”
“I like the way you think, but there’s just one more thing that we need to do.”
She was just about to growl in frustration when Derek picked up the phone and simply said “We’re ready” before turning back to her. The door opened and in walked an elderly couple who she had to assume to be Derek’s grandparents. His grandmother was carrying the infant seat and there she saw Emery, dressed in a beautiful red dress with a matching bow in her hair. In her lap was a heart shaped box that Kayleigh presumed to be chocolates. It was the most precious site she had ever seen.
Introductions were made and soon she was able to lift the little girl who was now hers out of her seat. “Did you bring me a present?” she cooed to the baby.
“You should open that now,” Derek said from beside her, leaning down to place a kiss on the baby’s head. “She spent hours shopping for it.”
They were both adorable, Kayleigh thought to herself. Humoring him, she shifted Kayleigh in her arms and did her best to open the box of candy. After all, it was Valentine’s Day; you had to eat chocolate. It was the law.
Only it wasn’t chocolate that she found inside. But a ring. A beautiful, antique cut stone set in platinum. She gasped. “Oh, my…” Derek took the ring from the box and took Kayleigh’s hand and placed it on her finger. She stared at it in wonder. “Mighty confident of yourself, aren’t you?”
“I was…hopeful.” He reached down to Emery’s infant seat and pulled out another box. This one was velvet and rectangular. He handed that to Kayleigh. “Open it. This one’s from Emery.”
“I thought the last one was from her,” she teased.
“She was simply the messenger. I figured you might be tempted to say no to me but you wouldn’t be able to say no to our daughter.”
Our daughter. No words had ever sounded sweeter. Smiling, she took the box from him and opened it. Inside was a platinum chain with a diamond heart pendant surrounded by blue topaz stones. “Emery’s birthstone,” Derek said as he took the necklace from the box and made to place it on Kayleigh. �
��She wanted you to have something pretty for Valentine’s Day from her.”
“She’s gotten pretty vocal since I left.”
Derek laughed. “You have no idea.”
Epilogue
It was after midnight and Kayleigh was exhausted. After they had left the office, Derek’s grandparents had offered to babysit so that the two of them could go out to dinner. She had wanted to protest; after all, what she really wanted was to get Derek into bed. Unbeknownst to her, Derek had made dinner reservations for them and after leaving Emery at home, they had gone to Kayleigh’s so that she could change her clothes.
She managed to get him into bed before dinner.
Now, as they lay tangled together in Derek’s bed, now theirs, she sighed with contentment. “This has been quite a day. It started with me wondering where to send resume’s to and I never thought it would end here. I had planned on Chinese and a slasher flick.”
“I can only hope that this is better.”
“Much,” she said and placed a kiss on his chest.
“We can still find a slasher flick on cable if you’d like,” he teased, knowing full-well, that she never would have watched one.
“Thanks, I’m good.”
“Yes you are.” He pulled her in close. “I was afraid that I’d lost you; that you would turn me down.”
“I was afraid that you were going to let me leave again.”
“I didn’t want to let you leave the first time; I just didn’t know how to handle everything. I was so completely overwhelmed and I handled it badly. I promise to never do that to you again. You have it in writing.”
She lifted her head from his shoulders. “What are you talking about?”
Derek laughed. “I knew you didn’t read the fine print!”
“Fine print? What?”
“The adoption papers,” he said as he tucked her head back on his shoulder. “In the fine print it said that not only are we now officially Emery’s parents, but that we promise to love each other forever and that you forgive me for being a grade-A jackass and that I promise to never let you down again.”
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