by Jade Kerrion
“Are Reed and Carolyn in?”
Her eyes widened slightly; she had obviously noted the casual reference. “They’re currently at dinner.”
“I want to see them.”
“I…who may I say is calling?”
“Cody Hart.”
Her lips parted.
He smirked. His reputation must have preceded him.
She stepped aside to let him into the foyer. “I’ll just…” She appeared uncertain as to whether to leave him alone.
“Don’t worry. I shan’t steal anything,” Cody said. He knew his nonchalance was overdone. Anyone who knew him well would have known he was nervous. Fortunately, his parents did not know him anymore; they never had. “Actually, I’ll surprise them. And no—” He held out his hand. “I know the way to the dining room.”
He realized, as he walked down familiar corridors, that he had neglected to ask whether his parents were in the formal dining room or the casual one. The absence of cars in the driveway implied the absence of guests. Betting on the casual dining room, Cody strode past large and exquisitely decorated rooms, each as silent as the grave. The quiet was like a shroud that dampened all sensation and all emotion.
He paused for a moment outside the dining room, inhaled deeply, and turned the corner to enter the room.
Three pairs of eyes snapped toward him.
“Cody?” His mother was the first to break the silence. She shot to her feet, her eyes never leaving his face. “You…you’re home.”
“Just visiting. No need to panic.” Cody held up his hand to cut off anything his father or brother might have said. He kept his gaze on his mother, Carolyn. She looked a little plumper than he remembered, but the extra weight looked good on her. Her hair was still blond, absent streaks of gray. The wrinkles on her face were few and subtle beneath her light makeup.
Reed Hart spoke, his voice crisp and strong. “Why are you here?”
“Thought I’d check out the old haunts.” Cody folded his lean body into a chair. It occurred to him that a half-dozen years earlier, he would have leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the table just to piss off his father, but the urge, oddly, was no longer there. “Not much has changed.” Especially not the welcome.
He shifted his gaze off his father to look at his brother who sat across from him. “Eric.”
Eric, older by two years, and blond where Cody was dark-haired, inclined his head. “Cody.” His tone was neutral. Too bad, Cody thought. He had hoped for friendly. He needed whatever support he could get.
Carolyn lowered herself into her seat. Her practiced smile was back in place. “How have you been?”
“Well enough.”
“We heard about the accident.”
The one that had killed Darrell. Cody pressed his lips into a humorless smile. “I walked away from the accident, though my luck didn’t hold. I ran into your lawyer in the hospital.”
She hastened to explain. “We wanted him available, just in case.”
“In case someone decided to sue for damages?” Cody asked, wondering why he felt offended. He had always known their priorities; his parents were protecting their assets as they had always done. He, on the other hand, wasn’t an asset. He was a liability. How it must have galled his parents to send their lawyer to ensure he didn’t get into too much trouble. His jaw tensed. “I need a favor.”
“What is it?”
“Darrell—”
Sympathy rushed into his mother’s eyes. Cody stared at her in surprise. Had she cared? Stay focused, he chided himself. “When Darrell died, his sister inherited his medical school loans.”
“Felicity?” Reed asked.
Cody jerked his gaze to his gray-haired father. How had his father known her name? To cover his confusion, Cody muttered, “Yeah. Anyway, she’s looking for a job, and I told her she could work here as a librarian for your personal library as well as for the foundation’s collection. I also told her she could stay here.”
Absolute silence greeted his proclamation.
Across from Cody, Eric’s mouth curled into a half smile. His parents exchanged glances. “Why would you do that?” his mother asked.
“She needed a job.”
“Isn’t she living in New York?” Eric spoke up for the first time. “Hartwell Financial Investments has an office in New York. I can talk to the regional manager there and have him bring her in for an interview.”
Cody shook his head. “I want her here. She needs a new environment. She’ll work herself to exhaustion unless someone keeps an eye on her and slams on the brakes. Here, she’ll have—”
“You?” Eric asked. “Are you staying?”
“No.” That part seemed perfectly obvious to Cody. He would never…could never move back home. Not for Felicity. Not for anyone.
“So who exactly do you propose keeps an eye on her?” Eric asked. “Me?”
Hell no was Cody’s instinctive response—Eric went through girlfriends almost as frequently as he changed his underwear. Cody bit back the sarcastic retort as he thought better of it. He wanted to give Felicity financial security and a family—his family—and Eric was the perfect entry point. Eric was, in fact, the only entry point. “Why not?” With effort, Cody kept his voice even. “It’ll give you something to do between making your next billion dollars.”
Eric gave him a mild look but said nothing.
Cody’s lips quirked into a half smile. Perhaps he hadn’t been entirely successful in suppressing all the sarcasm, but he had given it his best shot.
Reed scowled. “You’ve already told Felicity this, just like you’re telling us now? Damn it, Cody. This is not how we do things in this family. You ran away from home twelve years ago just because you couldn’t get your way.”
That’s not why I ran away, Cody thought, but considering the alternative, it was certainly safer to allow Reed to keep believing it.
Reed continued. “You haven’t learned anything. When will you figure out that we’re not going to give you what you want just because you demand it?”
“Your father’s right,” Carolyn agreed. “We’re not going to give you what you want just because you demand it, but we are going to give Felicity a job and a home—”
“Carol!” Reed protested.
“—because it is the right thing to do.” She glanced at her husband. “You saw how she looked at the funeral, darling.”
Cody’s jaw dropped. His parents had been at Darrell’s funeral? How had he not seen them?
Reed’s scowl deepened, but he nodded after a moment of silence. “When is she coming?”
His father’s tone was still gruff, but Cody heard a gentleness he had never noticed before. “Sunday night,” he said.
“Sunday, as in two days from now? What salary did you promise her?”
“Nothing specific. Told her it’d be above market.”
Reed grunted. “I’ll talk to Hagman tomorrow. He’ll draw up the employment contract. I guess I could mess up the library. Give her something to do.”
Carolyn spoke up, “We’ll have one of the suites prepared for her, unless you think she’ll prefer the guesthouse out by the pool. More space, more privacy.”
Cody inhaled deeply. His mind churned through his parents’ startling response. He had expected chilly silence and cold ultimatums. Their easy acquiescence seemed wildly out of character, but Eric seemed unperturbed as if he had expected no different from his parents.
What had changed in the twelve years since he’d left home?
Too much, obviously, and nothing that made any sense. He couldn’t tackle it now, not when his head was too full of half-thoughts to wring any coherence out of the situation. “I’ll prep the guesthouse for her,” he said. Focus on the practical, he thought. One decision at time, he would navigate his way to familiar waters as far as his family was concerned.
“You will be here, Cody,” his mother said.
His head snapped up. “What?”
“When Felicity
arrives.”
“Of course. I’ll pick her up at the airport.”
“No, more than that. I expect to see you around the house frequently. You’re her link to us. We’re giving her a home because it’s the right thing to do. You’ll be here because it’s also the right thing to do.”
Cody choked back a snarl. He had forgotten that his father was all bark and his mother all bite. She could, with the gentlest tone, hit the mark and twist the blade.
She smiled at him. “Why don’t you join us for dinner?” She gestured, and a maid scurried forward with place settings for Cody.
The thin layer of anxiety thickened into absolute certainty that he was out of his depth and had lost control of the situation. His mother was using Felicity to lure him back home.
He would be damned if he allowed it to happen. The consequences—
Cody stared at his mother. Their eyes locked, the challenge implicit. He could turn and walk out of the house the way he had done so many years earlier. That first time, he had survived only because Darrell’s family had taken him in.
A muscle ticked in his cheek. It was time to return the favor; it was time for his family to take Felicity in. As for the consequences, he would have to deal with them as they came up. Forcing a smile, he said, “What’s for dessert?”
CHAPTER FOUR
Felicity had felt half-hearted about returning home to Colorado, but when she landed at Denver International Airport, something clicked in her the moment she stepped off the plane. She drew in a deep breath as her shoulders relaxed. She glanced around, noted the slower pace and easier smiles, and wondered why she had left in the first place. New York City, with its lure of high-flying careers, had lost its charm long before she lost her career.
She followed clusters of passengers toward the baggage carousel. It was good to be back in Denver, although anxiety overlaid her homecoming. She didn’t know how to handle the tangled knot of emotions that made her stomach clench every time she thought of Cody. One day at a time, she thought. Time was the only currency she had at her disposal. Felicity reached for her bag handle as it swung past, but someone’s hand closed around hers. She yanked her hand back and jerked her startled gaze up at Cody. He lifted her heavy bag off the carousel as if it weighed nothing and set it beside her.
“Is this it?”
She pointed to another approaching bag, which he picked up as easily as the first.
He stared at the two large bags. “Is this all you have?”
The women standing around them shot Cody appraising glances, no doubt attracted to him, as she had once been. His baby blue eyes, chiseled features, and rakish grin, combined with his honed, muscular build left little to dislike, physically, at least. Emotionally, however, was an entirely different matter. She took a step back from him, acutely aware of how he filled the space—her personal space—with his presence. “I left a couple of boxes back in New Jersey.”
“Just in case this situation doesn’t work out?” Cody’s mouth tugged into a smirk.
Felicity shrugged. She supposed there was no point in lying to him. “Thank you for coming,” she said. “You didn’t have to.”
“Oh, yes, I did.” His smile turned ironic, but he did not elaborate.
They did not speak again until they were in his mud-splattered Jeep, driving away from the airport. Silence hung, thick and heavy, between them. Felicity peeked a glance at Cody from beneath her eyelashes. His dark hair curled at the nape of his neck and a plain gray T-shirt hugged his defined six-pack abdomen. His scuffed leather boots and faded denim jeans did not match the image of the trust fund baby she knew he was.
She stifled a sigh. Her chest ached every time she looked at him. He triggered memories of her brother. How could he not? For twelve years, it had been “Darrell and Cody,” “Cody and Darrell.” With his death, Darrell had torn more than a rift between Cody and him. He had also torn a rift between Cody and Felicity.
Felicity braced herself. Hate was crippling, and she had promised herself that she would try not to hate Cody, not for his sake, but for hers and Darrell’s. One step at a time. Strive for normality, she coached herself. Chitchat, like normal people. If the topic of Darrell didn’t come up, she would have a passing shot at normality. She glanced over her shoulder for a final glimpse of the airport terminal. “I still think the canopy looks like a lemon meringue pie.”
Cody laughed. “Not what the designers aspired for, but definitely what they got.” He inhaled deeply. “I’m glad you came. I wasn’t sure you would.”
“Until the plane doors actually closed, I wasn’t certain I would either.”
He cracked a grin. “Things are going to be all right.”
Felicity wished she had his confidence.
“My parents are not monsters,” he continued.
“Which is a vastly different tune from the song you’ve been singing for twelve years.”
If Cody had complained about his parents at all, it was to Darrell, not her, but she could read between the lines as well as anyone else. Why would the scion of the wealthy Hart family run away at the age of thirteen if not for a terribly compelling reason? Felicity decided not to point out that his last statement had not exactly resounded with conviction or certainty either.
Cody scowled. “It’s too early to tell whether my parents mellowed, I grew up, or I’m wading through an alternate universe. But we’ll figure it out eventually.” He punched a button on the CD player, and the light banter of radio hosts filled the silence between them until he pulled up at his parents’ Boulder home. “Welcome,” he said simply before he stepped out of the car and went around to the trunk to take out her bags.
Instead of leading her to the front door, which was large enough to accommodate a twenty-foot-tall giant, he took her down a side path that curved around the mansion to an expansive tiled area featuring an outdoor kitchen and a resort-sized swimming pool. A charming building with a red-tiled roof, ochre walls, and wood-trimmed windows was tucked among a garden of foliage. “It’s the guest cottage,” Cody explained as he unlocked the door and flung it open. He gestured with his head, and she preceded him into the building. “There are suites in the main house, but we thought you might prefer it here.”
Felicity’s heartbeat raced as she took the full measure of her new quarters. It consisted of a large living room with an adjoining eat-in kitchen. The furnishings reflected a rustic Tuscan style that complemented the exterior, and the kitchen seamlessly blended the authentic look of a mid-18th-century Italian kitchen with spotless stainless steel appliances.
In awe, she followed Cody as he carried her bags through an open door into the master suite. The bedroom furniture set was a sophisticated and sleek European style made of polished rosewood, and the dark blue and gold-trimmed drapes on the French windows showcased a view of the mountains. The walk-in closet was larger than her New Jersey bedroom, and the connecting bathroom featured black marble countertops and a whirlpool tub large enough for two.
“Wow,” she breathed.
“It’s okay?” Cody asked. His eyes searched her face.
His expression was stoic, although Felicity caught a glimpse of anxiety in his eyes. She couldn’t imagine why though. “It’s incredible,” she said.
“I stocked the pantry and fridge, but I suspect you’ll want to come down to the main house for most meals anyway.”
He had stocked the fridge? Felicity’s jaw dropped, but Cody had already turned his back on her and, fortunately, hadn’t noticed.
He glanced at his watch. “Dinner’s at six, if you’d like to join us. My parents would certainly like to meet you.”
She nodded. “I’ll be there.”
They stared at each other. The two-foot gap separating them might as well have been the Grand Canyon. Casual chitchat, Felicity reminded herself. “Do you live here too, I mean, in the main house?”
“No, I’m still in Evergreen.”
He was probably still at the apartment he had shared with
Darrell. She froze. Don’t go there. Don’t talk about Darrell. “I…” Felicity did not want to sever the fragile thread of communication between her and Cody; she groped for something else to say but came up blank. The conversation lapsed back into silence.
Cody grimaced as if he, too, had noticed the awkwardness between them. How could he not? He dug a set of keys out of his pocket and handed it to her. “This is for the cottage, and that one is for the main house.” The corner of his mouth twisted into a mocking smile. His blue eyes gleamed with similar emotion. He walked out, leaving her alone in her new home and in the luxury that surrounded her.
She released her breath in a shuddering sigh. Apparently, Cody could not wait to get away from her even though she had relocated half the length of the country to relearn how not to hate him. In the silence of her mind, she uttered the words she wished she had had the courage to say aloud. I can’t do this alone, Cody. For God’s sake, please help me forgive you.
~*~
At a quarter to six, Felicity made her way to the main house, her heels clicking softly as she walked across the patio. Her hunter green sheath, she hoped, was appropriate for dinner. She paused for a moment in front of the glass doors of the main house to brace herself, but a tall man strode past on the other side of the door. He stopped and flipped the lock to let her in. “Did your key not work?” he asked.
Felicity glanced at the keys in her hand. “You opened the door before I could try. Hi, I’m Felicity Rivers.” She extended her hand.
“Eric Hart. I’m Cody’s brother. Welcome to Boulder.” He was blond where Cody was dark-haired, but he was as tall as Cody, with a clean-cut and polished style that reminded Felicity of Gabriel Cruz. Eric flashed an easy grin. “How are you settling in?”
“Very well, thank you. Do you live here too?”
“I have a condo in downtown Denver—close to headquarters—but I’m up here frequently to consult with Dad.”
“Business?”