The Texas CEO's Secret

by Nicole Foster

  A sharp rap at the office door cut off Blake’s sentence. He considered ignoring it or telling whoever it was to leave them the hell alone, but when he looked at Katie to see if she shared his feeling, she made a helpless gesture and turned away.

  Cursing under his breath, Blake strode over and yanked open the door, surprised to find Charlie standing there. Hands jammed in the pockets of his jeans, shifting from foot to foot, his younger brother appeared uneasy about his reasons for showing up at Blake’s door.

  “What are you doing here?” Blake snapped out, letting his frustration speak before he could temper his greeting. “You’re supposed to be at school. Did something happen?”

  “No, or at least not anything you’re thinking. I need to talk to you alone. It’s important,” Charlie persisted when Blake showed no sign of giving way.

  Blake nearly refused, except the determination on Charlie’s face told him his brother wasn’t going to accept being dismissed before he’d had his say. Blowing out an irritated breath, Blake moved back from the doorway. “Come in, then. Whatever it is, you can say it in front of Katie,” he added at Charlie’s hesitation at seeing Katie standing there.

  “I should go,” Katie started, not wanting to be another source of friction between the two brothers. “I need to—”

  “Stay,” Blake cut her off. “We don’t have any secrets from you.”

  Their gazes locked and after a brief silent battle of wills, she nodded, and sat back down on the couch, her stiff posture telegraphing her awkwardness with the situation.

  Shaking his head at the chair Blake offered him, Charlie remained standing, facing Blake, his tension over whatever he’d come to say radiating of him. It gave Blake the unwelcome feeling that whatever his brother had come to tell him, he wasn’t going to like it.

  “I’m going to meet with my father tomorrow.”

  Charlie broke the news without any preliminaries and for a few long moments, there was a taut silence, with him and Blake staring at each other like adversaries about to do battle.

  Katie fervently wished she’d defied Blake and left when she had the chance. No matter what Blake said, she didn’t belong here, witnessing what should have been a very private conversation. She looked between the brothers, knowing from the hardened set of Blake’s face he wasn’t going to take Charlie’s blunt announcement well.

  Shifting her glance to Charlie, she recognized the same unshakeable resolve she’d seen so many times in Blake; she also, with new eyes, saw how much he resembled his father. Although he shared Blake and Tate’s lean build, he had the dark good looks of the Foley men, and she questioned why no one, herself included, had ever noticed how Charlie McCord stood out like a changeling amongst his own family.

  It was Blake who finally ended the quiet. “I assume you’re talking about Rex Foley,” he said tightly. His hands flexed at his sides. “How can you be sure he wants to meet you, or that he even knows you’re his son?”

  “He knows,” Charlie said. “Mom told him.”

  The revelation took Katie aback. She wondered if Eleanor had thought about how much angst she’d be causing both families by revealing a twenty-one-year-old truth. If Eleanor had believed it would somehow reconcile the two families, then she had far underestimated how deeply the antipathies between the Foleys and McCords ran.

  “She told him,” Blake repeated. He shook his head sharply in disbelief. “I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

  “She should have told him—and me—a long time ago.”

  “She should have stayed away from Rex Foley.”

  The harsh condemnation breached Charlie’s outward calm, leaving him scowling. “And maybe you should have stayed away from Tate’s girl, but it doesn’t seem to have stopped you.”

  The cold, unforgiving anger taking control of Blake’s features prompted Katie to her feet and she moved to his side. Underneath the tempering hand she curled over his forearm she could feel the steely clench of muscle.

  “I’m not the one who slept with the enemy,” Blake ground out. “And you’ve apparently decided to join them.”

  “I’m a Foley, whether you like it or not,” Charlie countered, not backing down from Blake’s fury. “You can’t change what happened. Everyone’s just going to have to find a way to live with it.”

  “What do you hope to gain by all this?”

  “It’s not a matter of gain. I want to know my father. Why can’t you understand that?” Pacing a few steps back and forth, Charlie swung on his brother again. “I’m not who I thought I was, all these years. I need to do this.”

  “So as usual you get whatever you want and damn the consequences to anyone else, is that right?”

  Katie gave credit to Charlie for keeping a hold on his own temper, though he looked like he wanted to take a swing at Blake. “I didn’t ask for this.”

  “You don’t seem too devastated by it, either,” Blake shot back. “Why did you bother coming to tell me? You can’t seriously believe I’d approve.”

  “No, but I thought you might understand. Obviously, I was wrong.” Not waiting for Blake’s reply, Charlie spun around and strode out the door, leaving it hanging open.

  “Son of a—” Turning away from Katie, Blake slammed a fist onto his desktop, rattling everything on it.

  Cautious about approaching him in this mood, his angry display unsettled her further. Katie, though, couldn’t completely back away from him. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “This must be hard, especially with everything else going on—”

  “What the hell does he think he’s doing? He knows how I—most of the family—feel about the Foleys.”

  “He wants to know his father.” She stood up to the glare he fixed on her. “He’s right, what happened between your mother and Rex isn’t his fault. You can’t blame Charlie for trying to figure out who he is and where he fits in.”

  “I’m sure my mother is encouraging him,” Blake said as if she hadn’t spoken. “She never could deny Charlie anything.”

  The harsh bitterness in his voice caught Katie off guard. For the second time that evening, she realized what she’d never seen before: Blake was jealous of Charlie. She didn’t fully understand it, but she suspected that part of his angry reaction to Charlie’s news had more to do with his family relationships than his dislike of anything to do with the Foleys.

  Despite his dangerous mood, she felt compelled to comfort him. Beneath his furious reaction there was pain and it drew her to move closer and slip a hand over his shoulder, gently squeezing. “I know how you must feel—”

  “No, you don’t.” He pulled away from her, deliberately putting distance between them again. “Don’t pretend you do or that you care.”

  Katie flinched, hurt by his accusation. “That’s not fair or true.”

  “Isn’t it?” Blake stared a moment out the darkened windows then abruptly said, “I need to get out of here.”

  She almost made the mistake of thinking he meant that they should go together. But he strode over to the coffee table, focusing on gathering up papers and jamming them back into files, and it was obvious he was dismissing her. “I’ll call you tomorrow, then,” she said quietly, not about to let him see her upset again. “We can finish up anything we’ve missed.”

  Getting only a curt nod in answer, Katie grabbed up her purse and her own portfolio and left him, walking fast to where she’d parked her car to avoid the temptation of looking back or worse, turning back.

  On the drive back home, she told herself she should be furious with him for more or less throwing her out of his office without so much as an explanation or apology for his behavior. Yet she found herself more worried than angry. She knew Blake well enough to realize he would never treat her that way, even if he was angry with her, unless he was in some sort of emotional turmoil.

  Charlie’s announcement had bothered him, but his reaction seemed out of proportion. She couldn’t define what was bothering him but it seemed to be all tied together with h
is mother, Charlie, Rex Foley and the whole mess with his business. Maybe part of it, too, was her.

  Looking back, she wished she been a little less adamant about turning down his proposition they spend a weekend together. She couldn’t accept, not and feel good about herself afterward, but she also couldn’t suppress her disappointment with him.

  She’d thought they had something more than a basic physical attraction, that they were truly friends, with the potential to be more.

  What they were now—if anything—she didn’t know.

  Skipping the ice and water, Blake drank back his shot of scotch and poured out a second. It wasn’t an answer to the memories, the feelings he wanted to obliterate, it didn’t even dull them. But after a lifetime of suppressing his emotions instead of acknowledging them, he didn’t know any other way.

  He wished he’d picked a better place than his study to indulge his misery, though, or at least had bothered to close the door because he’d just raised his second drink when Tate looked in, brow arching at seeing Blake.

  “Charlie must have found you,” his brother observed, coming in uninvited.

  Blake’s reply was to finish off his drink and pick up the bottle to pour another.

  “This is something you can’t take charge of,” Tate said. “You can’t blame Charlie for wanting to know his father.”

  “No, I’m supposed to be understanding and accept he’s a Foley and support his decision to switch sides. Have I covered it all?” Leaving his drink untouched, Blake paced over to one of the large leather chairs and flung himself down. He didn’t like this feeling, that his life was out of control, and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it.

  “This isn’t just about Charlie, is it?” Tate asked, coming to sit opposite him. He waited a moment then asked, “Did something happen with Katie?”

  “If it did, it doesn’t matter any more.”

  “You’re giving up? That doesn’t sound like you.”

  “You’re the one who told me I didn’t know what I was doing with her. You’ll be happy to know you were right.”

  Tate shook his head. “When you’re through wallowing in self-pity, maybe you’ll take some advice. Talk to her,” he said, without waiting for Blake’s agreement. “Admit how you feel. Knowing you and how you prefer keeping everything to yourself, she probably doesn’t have any idea.”

  “What exactly is it I’m supposed to be admitting?” Blake returned.

  “I’ll let you figure that one out on your own,” Tate said. He got to his feet. “It took me a while, but once I got it, I realized it’s been there between you two for a long time.” Leaving Blake with that cryptic observation, Tate walked out, closing the door quietly behind him.

  For a long time afterward, Blake sat alone, staring at nothing, but seeing Katie, wondering if he was honest with himself and with her, if in the end, it would be enough to repair everything that had been torn apart.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Tessa,” Katie called out as she saw her assistant pass by her office. “Can you please bring me the final hard copy of the menu for the ball?”

  Tessa stopped and took a few steps backward to look in at Katie. “Sure. I was going to take it to the printer this morning. Do you still want me to?”

  “I need to look it over once more to make certain the changes are all correct. Last time I looked it over a few of the French words had the accents backward and one of the desserts had been entirely left off.”

  As the impending ball had drawn near, Katie was glad to be able to immerse herself in work. She needed to work to keep from spending all her time lamenting the state of her relationship with Blake.

  Tessa bustled back into her office, menu in hand. “Here you go. You do know about the change, right?”

  Katie looked up from her computer screen. “What change?”

  “Blake made a last-minute change in the menu.”

  “When did that happen? It took me weeks to put this menu together and do all of the tastings with the chef.”

  At Katie’s sharp tone, Tessa gave an apologetic shrug. “I’m sorry. He told me you wouldn’t mind, so I went ahead and made the change.”

  “I see.” So much for teamwork. “Well, from now on tell him you have to run everything by me first.”

  “I will, I just thought that since you two were seeing each other that you’d have already talked it over.”

  Shoving back from her desk, Katie stood, turned and stared out her window. “No. We haven’t.” She didn’t elaborate. Rehashing the whole mess with Tessa wasn’t going to do any good. “I’ll call him about this, though. Looking at this menu, I don’t understand why he would change the shrimp scampi to prime rib.”

  “Are you sure you want to talk to him?” Tessa asked, eyeing Katie doubtfully. “If there’s a problem, I can call him and ask about this for you.”

  Katie sighed. “No thanks, I’ll talk to him.” Even if he were still angry with her, she missed hearing his voice.

  After Tessa had left, she delayed making the call, though, barraged with reminders of the last time they’d seen each other. The scene at his office had been so painful in so many ways, for him in regard to Charlie and his mother and for her because she hurt for him. His sexual proposition had only muddied the waters further, making her feel cheap and disposable, like any other of the women with whom he’d had brief flings. But right now, despite all of that, she was missing not only his voice, but their former closeness.

  If only they could go back to when their friendship was on the verge of being so much more.

  Shaking herself free of her useless musings, she picked up the phone and dialed his cell.

  “Hello, Katie,” he answered, all cool formality.

  “Um…” For a moment she lost her train of thought. Hearing him sound so distant, so guarded after the closeness and passion they’d shared hurt, momentarily throwing her off balance. Then she glanced to her desk, seeing the menu that jogged her mind back on track.

  “I’m calling about your menu change. I don’t understand why you would switch shrimp for prime rib. I worked it out meticulously with Chef Bedeaux.”

  “I changed it because several members of my family are allergic to seafood and a number of other people are, as well,” Blake explained.

  “Oh, I guess I never thought about that.”

  “You can change it again, if you want to.” There was more in his conciliatory tone than in his words. His voice had gentled, sounding almost weary now.

  “No, this will be fine. I’m done with revising this menu. It will have to do.”

  A long awkward silence followed until he broke it with, “Katie, I don’t want us to argue. The other day was rough.”

  A lump rose in her throat. There were so many thoughts and emotions she’d been banking since last they were together, she didn’t dare express them now or she’d fall apart crying. “I know,” she said softly. “Let’s just get through this ball and then we can try to sort everything else out, okay?”

  “Okay. I’m willing if you are.”

  “Of course I am. I just think we need to get past this event before we can focus on anything personal.”

  “It’ll be over soon enough. I’m buried in McCord’s business as usual, but please call me or e-mail me if you need any help and I’ll drop what I’m doing.”

  She longed to tell him she needed help now. Not with the ball. With him. With her. With them. Instead she simply thanked him and listened for the click of his phone that ended the call with a sense of loss and the flat sound of emptiness on the other end of the line.

  Shoving the pained conversation with Katie from his mind, Blake forced himself to turn his attention back to pressing matters at McCord’s, namely, finding the Santa Magdalena Diamond. He hadn’t spoken to Paige recently to check on how her hunt for the diamond was progressing—and come to think of it, he’d seen neither hide nor hair of Penny lately, either.

  Dialing on his cell, rather than risking
using the office line, he connected with Paige. “I haven’t heard from you lately. Anything new on the mine?”

  “I didn’t want to bother you. With the ball being so close, I figured you were up to your ears in last-minute details.”

  “I am, but this is far more important. Can you talk?”

  “Yes. I’m just driving to Café Zozo to have lunch with a friend.”

  Blake rocked back in his leather chair and whirled it around to gaze out at the Dallas cityscape. “Sorry to interrupt but I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

  There was a pause and then Paige answered. “Well, it’s not like you’re around much, either. You’re with Katie a lot.”

  “You’re mistaken about that. I’ve scarcely seen Katie in weeks,” he said gruffly. He felt suddenly defensive, unwilling to even broach the subject of Katie, afraid his hurt and frustration might seep into his tone of voice. The last thing he wanted was his little sister probing him about his messed up relationship with Katie.

  “I’d ask you what was wrong, but I know you wouldn’t tell me,” Paige said. “You can ask me about the diamond though.”

  “Okay—any news on the mine?”

  Paige’s voice brightened. “As a matter of fact, yes. I was able to get to the mine. That’s the good news.”

  “And the bad news?”

  “It’s old, rickety, unstable. It’s going to be a dangerous venture getting inside and navigating my way to where the diamond is hidden. I’ll need to plan carefully and take the right gear with me or I might not make it back out of there.”

  Silent, Blake considered the risk. It worried him terribly that his sister could wind up trapped in an old collapsing mine. “I don’t like the sound of this,” he said finally.

  “It’s okay, really. I’m going to take every precaution. I’ve been researching how to prepare for and anticipate anything that could happen down there. I’ve spoken with some old-timers who know the ropes where mine shafts are concerns. They’ve given me a lot of helpful information.”