Destination Connelly (The Colloway Brothers Book 4)

by K. L. Kreig

  I look to my left to see Miles, the restaurant manager and a good friend, nod once in understanding before snapping into motion, trying to rein in the current chaos.

  My gaze sweeps down to the floor, landing on Alan’s prone form. He’s holding his throat, which is no doubt tender and will carry evidence of his betrayal for weeks to come. His eyes are filled with guilt. He’s not physically dead like I’d wanted, but he’s now dead to me.

  The damaged boy I once knew apparently grew up into an even more damaged man, taking things away from Nora and me that can never be replaced. His jealousy and cunning ruined so many lives, perhaps even his. It’s painfully obvious to me that he’s still in love with Nora.

  My thoughts fill with vengeance—of ruining his life, his career, his very own marriage—but the moment it lands, it disappears. He’s not worth the effort and karma is always kindest to people like him. He’ll get his due, just not by my hand. I have other, far more important things to worry about than getting my revenge. Besides, I think the fact that I’m holding the woman we both love in my arms is revenge enough.

  I start to walk away, Nora still wrapped around me like a vine when I hear Alan rumble through what I hoped was a permanently damaged windpipe, “I didn’t…sleep with…her. I…swear. I just…let her…think that.”

  At that, Nora cries even harder, burying her head in my neck. If he thinks his long-overdue admission makes it better, it doesn’t. In fact, it makes this entire fucked-up situation far, far worse. He let her believe a heinous lie for so many years. A lie that forever changed all of our lives.

  As I look down into the face of my ex-best friend for the very last time, I see genuine remorse. I see honesty. I see his silent plea for forgiveness.

  Too bad it’s eleven fucking years too late.

  And I’m fresh the fuck out of forgiveness.

  Chapter 38

  Conn

  “I was wondering when you would show up,” Carl Steele says, eyes twinkling before he takes a long swallow of his Bud Light draw.

  “You know, Carl, I’ve been on to you this whole time.” I watch him, taking a pull of my own beer.

  Unbeknownst to Nora, I flew into Cincinnati for lunch with the former owner of SER, but I plan on being home in time for a date tonight with the Blackhawks and Red Wings. Hazel and I have front row tickets. She’s been strung tight for a week in anticipation. That girl can trash talk even better than my brothers, I think. Trouble is on the horizon with her, I can already tell. I’m not much of a gun carrier, but I think I need to invest in a shotgun and learn how to use it. There’s not much a boy finds sexier than a girl who can talk sports with him and match him stat for stat.

  The penance of my past womanizing comes in the form of a beautiful, rambunctious almost eleven-year-old. I’m sure I’ll be blessed with about four more girls to round out years of atonement.

  “This whole time, son? I’m not so sure about that.”

  I admit it took me a while to put everything together, but it only took a few times of meeting with Carl before I noticed the subtle similarities between him and Nora. The way they both crinkled their noses as they silently formed an argument in their head. The way the shade of his eyes matched hers almost exactly. The fact both of their hearts are as wide and deep as the ocean. But the thing that gave Carl away was his unabashed pride in Nora.

  There is no mistaking the love of a father for his daughter. I should know.

  “When did you know?” I ask. Curiosity has gotten the better of me, but that’s not the real reason I’m here.

  “When did I know you were Hazel’s father?”

  I nod, a slight smile on my lips.

  Across the wooden table, he pins me with a thoughtful gaze. I wonder what he sees. Does he see someone worthy of his daughter? Of his granddaughter? Or does he simply see a ruthless businessman who has a sordid, playboy past? I hope it’s the first two, but I fear it’s the latter. And if that’s the case, I know I’ve earned it. But for some reason, he still wanted me to be with Nora anyway, so that has to count for something.

  “When your face showed up in Forbes a few years ago.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “I’m not.” He pauses, thinking over his next words carefully. “I remember you, you know. I knew you recognized me the first time we met about the acquisition. I could tell you couldn’t place me, but I’ve never forgotten the boy who made my ladybug’s heart run like a race car.”

  I’m speechless.

  Almost.

  “So the whole sale was…” A setup on his part to push Nora and me back together? And here I thought I was holding the golden ticket. All along it was Carl.

  “Yep. You played into my hands beautifully, Connelly. Sam Makey was always in my pocket, not yours,” he winks, a big-ass grin on his face.

  “What about the gambling? The stock market shit?”

  He shrugs. “What about it?”

  “Was that all a farce, too?” That’s one of the reasons I knew Carl needed to sell SER. Another card in my hand, a tidbit I’d heard from…Sam Makey. Fuck. Me.

  “I’ve made some bad decisions for sure, but let’s just say I’ve made a couple of decent investments as well.”

  “You’re fucking kidding me.” I’m stunned. Utterly. I was played by the savviest player I’ve ever come across and I was none the wiser.

  “Nora’s always been a little stubborn, in case you didn’t already know that,” he tells me sarcastically. “She needed you. Hazel needed her father. You both needed a push. I just happened to have all the right cards at the right time for once and I played them.”

  We fall silent as I digest everything he just told me.

  “Why all the push and pull during the sale? Why all the crazy demands? You tried to stop this more than once.”

  “I think you know the answer to that, son. You may have been the man she never got over, but you’re also the one who broke her in the first place. It was my job to put you through your paces. Make sure you were willing to do anything for her. Change your lifestyle for her. For my Nora. For your daughter. I knew if you were, everything else would work itself out between you two.” He takes a swig of his beer before continuing. “When I saw war in your eyes in that boardroom, I knew you’d stop at nothing until you had her. I saw a man uncompromising and resolute. I knew then you were worthy. Had I not seen that, we wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

  Except he’s wrong. I would have stopped at nothing to get Nora, sale or no sale. “I would have found another way had you not sold me SER.”

  “I know,” he smirks.

  “I’m…wow. I’m impressed, old man. Well played.”

  Carl just laughs. A full, hearty belly laugh.

  “You knew I would win,” I say, more than a little amazed. I was so cocky at first, so overconfident and I doubted myself, doubted us, many times over the past few months, but Carl always knew. He believed even when I didn’t.

  His head dips and he answers softly, “If you’re meant to be with someone, it’s a shame not to.”

  “Sounds like experience talking.”

  Carl clams up, finishing his beer on a long chug. I move on to the real reason I’m here, but I’m not done discussing this topic. It’s not lost on me that Nora being unaware Carl is her real father is just like me not knowing about Hazel. True, he’s been a part of her life, but not in the way he should have been. Hazel’s been in the dark all these years about my true identity, but so has Nora. How she can’t see that this man in front of me is her flesh and blood is beyond me.

  It’s as clear to me that he’s her father as it is to Carl that I’m Hazel’s.

  “I’m going to ask Nora to marry me. I want your blessing.”

  “You don’t need my blessing, Connelly. But if you feel like you need it, you have it.”

  I didn’t expect anything less, but now’s my time to move in for the kill.

  “I thought it was customary to ask t
he father of woman you want to marry for permission.”

  I’m not sure I could have surprised Carl more than if I’d sat here telling him I was a transvestite.

  “Her father’s passed away, son. You know that.”

  “No, the man who didn’t deserve that title is dead. Her real father is alive and kicking and still very much a part of her life, but for some fucking reason, he’s wearing a mask.”

  “Connelly,” he growls. “Let it go. It’s not your business.”

  It’s my turn to laugh, but it’s full of disbelief instead of humor. Oh, the irony. He pushed Nora and me together because of Hazel, but he refuses to own up to his own mistakes and be part of Nora’s life the way he should.

  “Oh, it is my fucking business, all right. These are my girls we’re talking about. Their happiness is my responsibility. I am their protector now. I will not keep this from her, Carl. There are no more secrets between us. Nora needs a father. Hazel needs a grandfather. Time to man up.”

  He shakes his head slowly. “It’s too late. I can’t…it’s…it’s too late.” The sound of defeat just plain pisses me off. I imagine I sounded much like this when I was sitting across from my mom only weeks ago.

  “No, you’re wrong,” I tell him adamantly, remembering my mother’s words. “It’s never too late. You don’t want to be on your deathbed with regrets, Carl. This would be the pinnacle of regrets, not coming clean with her. She deserves to know.”

  “She’ll never forgive me…or her mother.”

  There’s a story here I ache to understand, but it’s not mine. It’s Carl’s and Nora’s. And he couldn’t be more wrong. If anyone will understand the angst he’s feeling, it’s my soon-to-be wife. If anyone can forgive him, it’s her.

  “Wrong again.” My tone is so harsh, his gaze sweeps up to mine for the first time since we’ve started this difficult conversation. “She’s walked in your shoes. If there’s anyone who will forgive you, Carl, anyone who will understand, it’s your own daughter.”

  He nods as understanding dawns on him.

  “It’s never too late,” I add again. “Never. I’m the poster child of second chances.”

  Chapter 39

  Nora

  “Been a lot of change this year, Ladybug.”

  “Yes, a lot,” I agree. So much I have to not think about it most days or it’s overwhelming.

  New city, new job, new life. New chances at true happiness.

  I found out our high school best friend was a psychotic turncoat who deviously plotted to keep Connelly and me apart. Oh, and bonus, that I never did sleep with him as he’d led me to believe. It all makes sense now. My lack of memory, no evidence of our indiscretions, no soreness between my legs, and most of all, his insistence about the whole surprise remaining top secret.

  And, finally, in the biggest plot twist of all, my father isn’t dead but has been with me all along, guiding me, loving me, being the supportive father figure that mine never was.

  When Carl came to see me last week, I immediately knew something was wrong. I thought he was going to tell me he’d lost every cent he had or that, God forbid, he was dying. But as soon as he divulged his secret love affair with my mother, everything clicked. The same temperament, the same ideals, the same love of life. I was more like him than I ever was my father. Things went too far the one and only night he and my mother were together. I was conceived and none of them ever spoke about it, but they all knew I was Carl’s, not my father’s.

  It makes so much more sense now—how my father let Carl have so much leeway in our lives. When I questioned Carl about why my mother didn’t just divorce my father and marry him, all he would say was that my mother loved my father, too. I guess I’ll never know the complications of their love story, and I’m not really meant to. What I do know is that Carl loved a woman who loved him back but they couldn’t be together.

  Carl hasn’t admitted it to me and Connelly refuses to say, but I know he set up the whole sale of SER so Connelly and I wouldn’t make a similar mistake. That’s the selfless love of a parent for their child.

  “She’s going to be after you for a brother or sister pretty soon,” my father says, throwing his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close. We watch Hazel dote on Grant and Cash like a little mother hen. She even tried her hand at changing their diapers, and when she found a little surprise in one, she handled it like the true champ she is. She’s going to make a great big sister.

  Laughing, I reply, “She already is. Daily.”

  I have to admit, I was nervous about today. I haven’t eaten much this week leading up to Thanksgiving. It’s the first time I have seen Barb Colloway since Connelly and I reunited. She came to Chicago a couple of weeks ago, but I was out of town for a business meeting and missed seeing her. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I was quite ready anyway. Regardless of Connelly’s forgiveness and the wrongs that were done to both of us so long ago, I still carry a tremendous amount of guilt. I’m working through it, but that doesn’t disappear overnight.

  Now I know where Connelly gets his capacity to forgive: his mother. The second I walked through that door, she had me in her arms, whispering how glad she was to see me again and how happy I make her son. I held it together. Barely.

  “You get that CEO spot filled yet for Kinnick?”

  I snort. “Finally. Last week. In my seven years of doing this job, that was the most difficult man I’ve ever worked with. I’ve already made it known to Connelly that in a few years when this next CEO is fired, I will not work on his replacement.”

  “Bet you’re glad to have that behind you.”

  “No truer words have been spoken.”

  I hear commotion to my right and see that Connelly and his brothers have returned from their annual game of HORSE. Connelly looks absolutely victorious.

  “I don’t know why I even bother to play that stupid game with you every damn year. You’re unbeatable,” Asher grumbles. Alyse throws her arms around him, planting a big kiss on his cheek before whispering something in his ear that makes his eyes fall half-mast with desire. He lifts her so her legs wrap around him, even with her growing belly, and walks out of the kitchen.

  Well then. Guess Ash will be getting a consolation prize that will make his loss sting a little less.

  “Hey there,” Connelly murmurs against my neck before snuggling me in his arms.

  “You won, I take it?” I almost moan when he lightly nips my lobe.

  “As if there was any question.” So cocky. Good thing he has me to keep him in line. His eyes flit to my dad before landing back on me. “Let’s take a walk, princess.”

  “Where? It’s about thirty-two degrees outside. If I can see my breath, I’m out.”

  “The dock.”

  “It’s cold,” I whine.

  “Then put on a coat.” He laughs, tapping my nose with his finger. I almost refuse, but he looks earnest.

  “What about Hazel?”

  “She’s a big girl. She’ll be fine for a few minutes. Besides, you’ll probably have to pry her fingers off of those babies to get her to go anywhere. She’s quite a doting cousin.”

  I tear up watching Hazel in the rocker singing Cash a lullaby. “She loves kids.”

  “I know,” he whispers, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. “I intend to give her lots of them to babysit, so we’d best get started on that. I’m not getting any younger, you know.”

  I tilt my head back and latch on to the most breathtaking eyes I’m sure were ever made. The love floating in them is tangible. It touches me everywhere.

  Kissing the tip of my nose, he grabs my hand and pulls me toward the door, yelling that we’ll be back in a bit. I try to catch Zel’s attention to make sure she’s heard but see her grinning at Connelly, a secret passing between them. They seem to have a lot of those these days.

  Hazel and I have been on our own so long, I thought it would be an adjustment to have Connelly in our house and lives twenty-four seven. It’s not. Other t
han experiencing the occasional cold, wet ass from falling into the toilet when the seat’s left up, it’s been relatively smooth sailing.

  I’m ashamed to admit it, but I also thought it may be an even bigger adjustment to have her affections split between the two of us. But just as a parent has the capacity to infinitely love all their children, so do kids. I’ve seen Hazel grow and blossom in ways I’ve never dreamed of. The way you only can when you have a father or father figure.

  Bundled in our winter jackets, Connelly takes my ungloved hand in his and we head around the left side of the house, down the dull, now hibernating grass. Dry blades crunch under our feet with each step. The air is crisp, a few flakes already floating aimlessly from the overcast sky. I see my breath with each exhale and the cold burns my cheeks already.

  Nearly a foot of snow is forecast by morning. Zel is already planning an epic snowman-building competition tomorrow with her aunts and uncles, all of whom are on board. Guys against girls, of course. Looks like she inherited the competitive gene from the Colloways, too. She’s in absolute heaven with her newfound family. I pinch myself often to be sure I’m not dreaming.

  A few short minutes later, we’re standing at the end of the Colloway dock, hand in hand, gazing out on the peaceful, glass-top lake. The view is simply breathtaking even in the chill of winter. Oak, maple, and ash trees have shed most of their leaves, but full, lush evergreens and pines add color to the picturesque landscape.

  “Do you know when I fell in love with you, Nora?”

  I gaze at his profile as he stares out into the majestic scenery before us. It’s sometimes hard to believe this beautiful man is mine.

  “No.”

  “It was the week after you’d started at DH. I was building up my nerve to talk to you…”

  “You? Building up nerve? Now that I don’t believe. You were awfully cocky when you slid next to me in the lunchroom that day like you already owned me.”