by Julia Kent
“What’s that got to do with me? Just spill it, man.”
He gave me a crossed look and I felt the icy grip of fear around my heart. Suddenly I understood what he was suggesting.
“I’m willing you train you the way I was trained. I need someone who can learn how the new cartel thinks and see when we can take advantage of their situation. You’re going to help me with my last job and then protect my family. In exchange I’ll make you richer than you can imagine. You’re still just a child—”
“I’m not a kid, I’m eighteen. I’m not even in high school anymore.”
“Dropping out of school doesn’t make you an adult. I’ll make you into a man you can be proud of. One your girl won’t look down on like she does now.”
I stood up and got in his face. Bill wasn’t disturbed at all and shoved me hard on my chest, forcing me back into the chair.
“You’ll work for me,” he said. People will think you’re my driver while I train you in the arts and methods that will help protect my family from harm. You’ll be well compensated, but no one must know exactly what you do. No one. Understand?”
I nodded. I understood more than he could imagine.
That night I entered Jeanne’s window like I always did. She sat at her desk writing and didn’t turn when I entered.
“I did it Jeanne. I found a way for us to get out of here. I’m going to make a great life for you,” I said.
She didn’t turn around at first. Instead she shook her head slowly until she smiled sadly at me.
“Let’s go to bed,” she said.
Present Day
“I never saw her again. She left in the middle of the night while I was deep asleep.”
“Oh Stewart, that’s so sad,” Deborah said now sitting at the edge of her seat, with her face in her hands.
“Turns out what she was writing when I arrived was a letter to me. She met someone else, someone she thought would be able to help her get the life she wanted. And he convinced her they had to leave right away.”
“Did you ever look for her?”
“No,” I said quietly. “I finally accepted she didn’t want me. She might have loved me, but I guess sometimes love isn’t enough.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Deborah
Alone in the suite after Stewart left, I knocked on Dianna’s door needing to talk. I heard a bit of a commotion on the other side of the door, then a male voice and a woman giggling. Did she change rooms without telling me?
Dianna opened the door a crack, her hair disheveled and a sheet wrapped around her body. My mouth dropped open in surprise.
“I know, I know!” She said as she pushed me further into my room and closed the door behind her. “We met yesterday. His name is Jean-Marc and I swear I’m already in love.”
“Well that explains that giant smile on your face,” I said laughing. “I just never thought you were such a slut!”
“Slut? Me? No! I followed the three date rule. We had lunch together, then dinner and then drinks. See, three.” She raised her brows at me and giggled again.
“Where did you meet him? Last I saw you were surrounded by models.”
“He came to our room. He’s a design assistant for Gucci and they sent him out to do some grunt work but he needed to borrow something. We just clicked. Even if we can’t understand everything we say to each other. Hmm, maybe that’s why we clicked,” she said before bursting into laughter.
“I’ll try to not keep you away for too long, but I wanted to talk to you about work.”
“He has to leave soon anyway, they have a lot of work to do too. Plus I can’t wait to hear about your day with Will.”
“That’s the thing, Dianna, it was the worse day of my life.”
I broke into tears I didn’t realize were waiting at the surface. Dianna tried to hug me while still holding onto her sheet. The sight of her waddling towards me, one arm outstretched made me laugh, ending my tears. Quickly telling her what I thought I could, I explained the day’s events.
“And now Will is gone. He’s back in Canyon Cove and I can’t think about anything else but going to him. He needs me. I know it.”
“And what about the show? This was your dream and you worked so hard on it,” she said.
“I know, and I’m torn but to be honest I almost don’t care. He means more to me than the show. I did it once, I can do it again. I’ll get another show.”
“Sure you won’t regret leaving?”
“Right now when I think about staying, I see myself regretting not being with him.”
“Then you know what to do.”
She was right. I did know what to do. I had to be with him. Even if being with him only meant waiting for him to open up again.
“He left the jet. I’ll ask Stewart about getting it ready so we can go. At least you’ll get to ride on the fancy jet.”
“Thanks Deb, but I’m going to stay. I have my plane ticket and I don’t mind slumming it on a commercial line. I need to see where things go with Jean-Marc. I’ve never met anyone else like him.”
“Well, I’m going to need details,” I said jokingly, echoing what she said to me the day before. “Call me when you get back. I know I don’t have to tell you to have fun.”
“You know it!” She said as she grinned widely and waved before heading back through the door to her bedroom.
I heard giggling then squealing almost immediately and laughed as I distanced myself as much as possible from her door.
***
Stewart was able to get the jet ready for us to leave later that day. As I sat in my seat across the aisle from him, I wondered where I was going to go once we got back. I didn’t have my apartment and all my things were at Will’s.
“You look like you have something on your mind,” Stewart said as he closed his eyes and leaned his chair back.
I sighed. “Yes, I do. You brought all my things to the house. What if Will doesn’t want me there anymore? I just realized I don’t have anyplace to go.”
“I know Will better than anyone, Deborah. I also know you feel closer to him because of everything you both went through. I’m sure he feels the same.”
“Yes, but—”
“But,” he said interrupting me, “just because you haven’t heard from him doesn’t mean he’s not thinking of you. Trust me on that.”
It was hard to not trust anything Stewart said. While normally a man of few words, he never said anything unless it was true. Although Will’s father made the wrong choice of abandoning his son, despite his reasons, I definitely thought he made a good decision when it came to who raised him. Stewart was a dangerous man, but at his core he was one of the best men I knew.
***
It was late when we finally landed at the Canyon Cove airport, but I couldn’t help but think about my cat Trap and wonder how he was doing with Ashley and Xander. I sent her a text figuring that if she was asleep she wouldn’t respond until morning, but instead she called me back.
“Hello? Ashley?”
“You sound surprised,” she said as she laughed.
“I was worried it was too late. It’s 10pm and you have a baby.”
“Exactly, I have a baby. That means I don’t sleep. I’m kidding but seriously I’ve always been a night owl. Ten is too early for sleep. Is everything ok? I didn’t expect to hear from you while you were away.”
“I just got back. I’m actually still on the plane. I was wondering how Trap was doing without me.”
“He’s great. I’m not sure he even realizes you’re gone.”
“Damn cat. That sounds about right,” I said laughing.
“What’s really going on, Deborah? You’re home early, Fashion Week hasn’t even started, and all you’re talking about is your cat. I’m not stupid.”
“Fine, yes you’re right. I just…don’t want to go home just yet. That’s all.”
“Come over. I’ll make some hot chocolate and you can stay in the guest room and take Trap home i
n the morning.”
“You sure? I don’t want to intrude. It is late.”
“It’s not that late and I could use the company. Xander had to go away overnight on business.”
“Ok, I’ll see you soon then.”
***
As I turned onto the gravel driveway of the Boone’s home, I was surprised by how noisy it was. If they weren’t awake before, I definitely woke them now. Ashley stepped out of the old Georgian mansion with a large blue crocheted blanket wrapped around her shoulders and her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail.
“Hurry up!” She said. “I’m already heating up the milk.”
I followed her through the house to the long kitchen where she turned off the stove and portioned it into a couple of large mugs then dropped pieces of chocolate inside.
“This is how my mom used to make it when I was real little,” she said smiling. “I’m trying to redo all the things I remember fondly of her.”
As I sat down at the kitchen table, I felt the familiar nudge of Trap against my leg and reached down to pet him.
“Spill, Deb. what’s going on?”
“It’s so complicated I really don’t know what to say.”
“What’s complicated?”
“Will. Paris. Now. I don’t even know if he wants to see me. For all I know he wants nothing to do with me. I mean its ok, I’m not going to go psycho or anything. I respect his decision, but I just wish I knew what to do.”
“You’re really not making any sense. Back up.”
I told Ashley how Will gave me my own room in his mansion and how I let go of my apartment and moved all my things there. Then I told her a brief version of the trip, steering clear from giving her too many details and focusing on Will’s departure almost two days ago.
“That’s pretty much everything. I guess I just don’t feel comfortable showing up at his house when he couldn’t even be bothered to leave a note to say good bye. What if things changed?”
“Then don’t. Stay here as long as you want to. But can I say something?” I nodded to answer her before she continued. “If you really love him, you should go to him. You don’t know what he’s going through right now. He might think he wants no one around, but I bet that’ll change once he sees you came back early. Have you tried calling him?”
“No,” I said softly. “I was afraid he’d tell me to fuck off.”
“Listen, I don’t know exactly what you’ve been through, but the Deborah I know is the one who tells people to fuck off, not the other way around. Sleep here tonight, but I really think you should see him in the morning. It’s the only way you’ll know for sure what he’s really thinking.”
Ashley was right. I wasn’t acting like myself. I didn’t know if it was the trauma of the kidnapping, or the residual affects of the drug, but I needed to move on from this selfishness and be there for the man I loved. First thing in the morning I would head over to King Manor and find him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Deborah
I left Ashley’s in the morning, ready to face whatever might happen at Will’s. I couldn’t avoid it any longer and I didn’t want to. It was time to see how he really was doing and see how I could help, if he would let me. Unsure what to expect, my hands felt moist and my stomach turned a little, but I wasn’t going to back down.
Slowing down at the entrance, I was surprised to find the gate wide opened. My first thought was of the men who kidnapped us in Paris and I worried for Will’s safety as I felt a chill overtake me again.
The loud honk behind me startled me out of my fear and back to the King Manor driveway. I quickly moved my car over to the side as a plumbing truck drove past.
“That’s odd, I wonder what’s going on,” I said.
As I reached the circular part of the driveway with the fountain, I couldn’t believe how many trucks were there. Parking closer to the garden than the house, I surveyed each of the trucks as I tried to guess why they were there but couldn’t come up with anything.
Walking up the path to the house, I noticed a man in jeans and a button shirt directing the contractors to different locations on the first floor and outside.
“Excuse me,” I said as I tapped his shoulder hoping to find out where Will was.
“Deborah!” Will exclaimed as he turned around. “I was hoping you’d come home.”
He picked me up and spun me around then kissed me by dipping me back, leaving me breathless and woozy.
“What’s going on here? And where’s your suit?” I said teasing him.
“Come, walk with me,” he said slipping his arm around my shoulders and pressing me against him. “I want to show you something.”
We walked past the gardens and towards the furthest part of the property, away from the mansion. Following a stone path that curved through the fields, I wondered where he was taking me.
“After everything that happened in Paris, I had to leave. I needed to get as far away as possible. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I needed some time alone to think about things.”
“I figured that’s what happened, Will. But I was still really worried.”
“I know. And for that I apologize. My whole life came into question. Everything I believed about my father was wrong. All this time I thought he was dead, I remembered his words to live life without regrets and I did the complete opposite. I hid away not wanting to feel loss again. I let the danger he put me into rule everything I did. Instead of living without regrets I regretted not only everything I did, but even the things I didn’t do.” He stopped and turned to look into my eyes. “That is until I met you.
“That first day I saw you in the store changed everything for me. Suddenly I wanted to live, to be a part of something. You were so full of life it was contagious. I began changing things and letting myself be vulnerable to you was one of them.
“When you got upset on the plane, I almost came home. I realized how hard everything was and I didn’t want to deal with it. It was easier to hide and be alone, but I realized I’d regret if I never spent another minute with you so I waited for you to stop being so stubborn and realize what happened wasn’t that big of a deal. Even if I was wrong and should have told you exactly who I was,” he said with a lopsided grin.
“Jeez, if this is an apology, I think it needs some work,” I said grinning back at him.
“Just listen to me. I took that commercial flight back instead of my jet because I didn’t want to be Will King for once. I just wanted to be like everyone else. What I saw while I waited were families and couples. I watched how they were with each other and I understood that my father faking his death wasn’t a selfish act like I first thought, he did it because it was the only way he knew how to protect me. He had just lost his wife and didn’t want to lose his son too.
“The ironic thing is what he did kept me from having my own love. But I didn’t realize I was missing that until I met you.”
We arrived at a large clearing where bulldozers and other construction vehicles were digging and moving dirt around as they flattened the area. Behind the clearing was the gentle slope of the lush green valley just beginning to change colors for fall and in the distance I could see the ocean.
“Oh wow, what a gorgeous view!” I said. “What’s going on here?”
“The night I lost my parents, my father wanted to show me my future. He said that future was Hargrove’s and he was right. If it wasn’t for Hargrove’s and that particular store, I would have never met you.”
Will took both my hands into his as he spoke. The world stood still as I listened to him intently over the noise of the construction, lost in the glittering green flecks of his eyes.
“You are my future, Deborah Hansen. In the past two days I’ve been home, I’ve begun transforming the original mansion and the grounds surrounding it into an art museum to show off all of my mother’s collections. I also started this,” he said as he waved his hand to point to the construction. “I only have preliminary sketches so th
ey can begin clearing the land, but I want us to design a home together for us to live in. It can have whatever we want. If you want a design studio then we can build one there too.”
“I…I don’t know what to say—”
“Don’t say anything at all, I’m not done. You are incredible, you know that? I love how you’re so passionate about things that you can sometimes get irrational and crazy. I love how you’re so stubborn that even though you know you’re being a little nutty, you won’t apologize for it.”
“Umm, I’m not sure I like where this is going,” I said as I crossed my arms in front of me.
He laughed and took my hands back and held them. “Bear with me. I’m not used to talking about my feelings.”
“Ok then, keep talking.”
“See, right there. I love how your brow furrows whenever you’re not sure about something. Or how every single thought is reflected on your face. I love how you know you’re talented, but refuse to accept it at the same time. And I love your body, your curves, your softness.”
He lowered himself down on one knee as he looked up at me. Letting go of my hands, he reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a small Tiffany ring box. My hands flew to my open mouth in surprise as I held my breath while Will opened the box. It was the longest two seconds of my life.
The ring had an oval deep blue sapphire surrounded by a halo of small glittering diamonds. It was set in platinum and sparkled as if it had a life all its own.
“My world began when you entered it and it would end if you left it. I can’t imagine my life without you. Deborah, I love you. Will you marry me?”
“Yes, oh yes!” I said as I wrapped my arms around him, knocking him off balance. “I love you too, Will. Oh my God, yes!”
He laughed and kissed me, making my heart pound wildly in my chest.
“I went shopping for it as soon as I got home. I know its not a traditional engagement ring, but as soon as I saw it, I knew you would love it.”