by A. C. Arthur
“Don’t.” She whispered the word as if it were her last breath. “Don’t say that to me.”
“I need to say it.” He took a step toward her and she shook her head to warn him away. He stopped, sighed and then started again. “I don’t want you to go. Last night we were talking about the fake breakup and you had a plan for how it would go, but I was hastily thinking of a plan to make you stay.”
“You can’t make me do anything, Major.”
He closed his eyes, the eyes she’d been staring into every night for the past few weeks. Eyes she thought she’d come to know and to lo—Now, she was shaking her head.
“I know I can’t. But I was hoping, I thought we were feeling the same thing.”
“When did I ever give you the impression that I’d be willing to sell my business to be part of your world?” She wasn’t part of his world. Angie and Daisy had tried to tell her that yesterday. All these weeks she’d not only been part of a fake engagement, she’d been living a fake life. A life she’d never imagined for herself because it wasn’t who she was or who she wanted to be.
“This isn’t just about business, Nina. It’s so much more than that, and I dare you to stand there and truthfully tell me it’s different.”
She couldn’t and he knew it. Damn him, he knew how she felt about him. Just as Lynn had known how much Jacoby had loved her and yet she’d still walked out.
“My business is not for sale. I am not for sale!”
“Is that what you think this is?” he asked her quietly. “You think I’m so desperate for a fiancée that I’d try to buy your love in a mutually beneficial business deal?”
“You obtained a fake fiancée in a mutually beneficial business deal,” she snapped back.
His brow furrowed and, for the first time, she thought he looked as angry as she felt. Good, he could be angry. She didn’t care. He wasn’t going to run over her and take what he wanted just because he was one of the fabulous Golds! His money and prestige in the fashion industry wasn’t enough to take the life she’d worked so hard for away from her without a fight.
She was just about to say that and tell him exactly what he could do with his business deal and any other collaboration between her and RGF, when her phone rang. It was tucked into the back pocket of the pants she wore because she’d left her purse in her office.
“Please,” Major said solemnly. “Can we just sit down and talk about this like levelheaded adults? I could be wrong—this may not work. We should just talk it over and see how we can fix this.”
Her cell rang again and she yanked it out of her pocket, staring down at the screen. It was Angie. Nina turned her back to him and answered the phone.
“What is it?”
“It’s Dad,” Angie replied. “He fell. It’s bad, Nina. You’ve gotta come now.”
Her heart dropped and the room seemed to spin around her. Nina held tight to the phone as if that could ground her and keep her from falling. She took a deep breath and released it as slowly and as evenly as she could. “Okay. I’ll be right there.”
Disconnecting the call, she turned back to see Major staring at her. He looked so good in his gray suit pants and white dress shirt. The tie was a deep purple; she’d seen it hanging in his closet on the tie rack full of over one hundred others in different colors and patterns. He looked stricken, but maybe that was just because she was feeling that way. Maybe he’d looked so good and appealed to her so quickly because a part of her had wanted to see him that way. Perhaps everything she’d wanted to see and believe about this man and the situation he’d offered her was just a fantasy, a dream she hadn’t known she wanted to live, even if temporarily.
None of that mattered now.
“I have to go.”
“Nina—” he started to say.
“No!” Now it was time for her tone to be strong, for her to take the control her father had lost the day her mother walked out on them. “I’m leaving now, Major, and you need to let me go.”
“Please, just... Okay, let me take you wherever you need to go. If it’s back to your apartment, I’m okay with that, just don’t walk out of here without... I don’t know, Nina, just don’t.”
He couldn’t get his words out and she thought that was strange. Major always knew what to say. Well, that was fine. She knew what needed to be said.
“I have to go and Claude will drive me.” She didn’t wait for another response as she started for the door. This time when he reached for her, Nina didn’t pull away, she couldn’t find the strength to do so.
He touched her elbow lightly at first and then let his fingers trail to her wrist and finally lace with hers. “I messed this up,” he said quietly. “Let me fix it.”
She looked over her shoulder at him.
“There’s nothing for you to fix because I never planned to let you break me.” She let her hand slip from his grasp and walked out of the office.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MAJOR HAD NO idea what time it was or how long he’d sat in the dark on the couch in his living room glaring at the city skyline. He’d stood in his office for endless minutes staring at the open door that Nina had walked through before cursing fluently and grabbing his jacket and phone and leaving, too. He’d thought he’d find her at his place, gathering her clothes, but she’d been there and gone. The engagement ring he’d given her left in the center of the coffee table. So he’d just dropped down onto the couch where, coincidentally, twelve hours before they’d sat talking about their impending breakup.
He leaned forward, letting his elbows rest on his knees and feeling his head drop down. Where was she? How was she feeling? What could he say or do to make this better? Or, at the very least, to make the burning pain that had spread throughout his chest and settled there like an impending storm go away.
The doorbell rang and he ignored it. Whoever was on the other side wasn’t going to make this better. Because no matter who it was, it wouldn’t be Nina. He was certain of that.
She wasn’t coming back, not to him, and definitely not to RGF. RJ was going to be pissed about the latter but Major didn’t care. Once upon a time, business—his family’s and the one he’d built for himself—had been all he’d cared about. But that was before the marketing plan. Before Nina.
The bell rang again and this time it was followed by a familiar voice.
“Major Frederick Gold, if you don’t open this door, I’m going to take it off its hinges.”
He lifted his head at the sound of his mother’s voice.
When he was seven years old, he and Maurice had spread peanut butter over the floors in one of Riley’s dollhouses. When Riley had seen it, she’d been hysterical for hours. Maurice had laughed it off and taken his punishment in the nonchalant way he always did. But Major had been devastated by the pain in Riley’s cries as well as the fury and disappointment in his mother’s voice. He’d locked himself in his bedroom to get away from it all and Marva had stood outside the door, knocking for a few moments before repeating the same threat she’d just stated.
Major stood and walked to the door. Moments later he found not just his mother but Riley, too, standing on the other side.
“Silly boy,” Marva said as she entered, stroking him on the cheek.
Riley shook her head as she walked past him.
He closed the door and prepared himself for the barrage from the only two women he’d ever thought he’d love.
Riley sat in one of the side chairs, placing her purse on the end table. Marva sat, too, and patted the cushion beside her as a signal for Major to take a seat.
“Are you done sulking?” she asked once he settled beside her.
“I’m a grown man, Mom. I don’t sulk,” he said.
“Ha!”
That came from Riley and Major chose to ignore it.
“What did you do to mess things up with her?” Marva
asked.
He didn’t even bother to question how she knew. Somehow his mother always knew everything, and he suspected Landra may have overheard the last portion of his argument with Nina. His assistant didn’t miss much that went on in the office.
“She overheard me talking to Ruben about combining our businesses so that she wouldn’t have to work to get recognition in the industry.”
“Dumb ass,” Riley quipped.
Major glared at his sister.
“Well, you have to admit that wasn’t very smart,” Marva said.
He sighed. “In retrospect, I can see that. But at the time—”
“You thought you were doing her a favor,” Marva finished for him.
“You thought you were saving her,” Riley added. “Men are so dense sometimes.”
He should have left them in the hallway.
“If you wanted her to stay with you, Major, why didn’t you just ask her?”
“I didn’t know how.”
“Oh, it’s simple. ‘Nina, I love you. Please don’t go.’ Seven measly little words,” Riley said.
Times like these Major hated having a sister, especially one as smart as Riley.
“Again, at the time, I didn’t think to start it off that way. But I did tell her I loved her. She didn’t seem to care,” he admitted, feeling a renewed wave of pain soar through his chest.
“It’s hard to believe someone loves you when they try to take what you’ve worked hard for. Isn’t that what you thought your father would do if he found out about you wanting to leave RGF to start your own business?”
Major straightened and stared at his mother.
“Your father and I’ve known for some time that you were itching to move beyond RGF,” she replied in answer to his unspoken question. “You and Maurice always thought you were keeping your little twin secrets, but you forget Ruben’s mother and office manager is a longtime friend of mine.”
He sighed again because he hadn’t forgotten that, but he had instead relied on confidentiality from his attorney’s office. While that professional courtesy should’ve stretched to Ruben’s staff, Marva didn’t play when it came to her children and if Ruben’s mother had let anything slip about Brand Integrated, Marva would’ve pried the full story out of her.
“Look, I’m not here to talk about your business. You know I love and believe in you, whatever you do and wherever you do it,” Riley said. “But Nina’s a good woman and I’m really pissed off that you pushed her out of your life. Out of our lives.”
It was hard for any of them to have real friends, unless they’d been there since childhood like Ruben had been for Major. But for Riley, with all that she’d been through with her past scandals involving idiotic men, it was doubly hard for her to form bonds with people other than family. She’d obviously bonded with Nina.
“I didn’t want her to go, Riley. I tried to get her to stay.”
“Well, now it’s time to try to get her back,” Marva said as if that were as simple as making a phone call.
“I don’t know how,” he said, dragging his hands down his face. “She’s got so much on her plate right now. I don’t want to be another issue in her life. If this isn’t what she wants, I have no right trying to force it on her.”
“Did she say it wasn’t what she wanted?” Riley asked. “I don’t think having you in her life is adding a responsibility. To the contrary, I think the time she was here may have been the most relaxed she’s been in years.”
Just last night she’d been in her element at the trade show. The moment she’d found those African pieces, she’d lit up like a Christmas tree, all bright and giddy with her idea. And it was a brilliant idea, one that had sparked the plan he’d eventually come up with.
Major stood and walked over to the window. He folded his arms across his chest and stared into the night, wishing it were as simple as reaching out into the big city and touching her.
“There are probably trains leaving for York as early as seven tomorrow morning,” he said more to himself than to his mom and sister. “Or I could just drive. Be there first thing in the morning, ready to grovel if need be. Anything, just so long as I get the chance to apologize to her and to tell her how much I love her.”
He didn’t wait for a response from anyone, just went into his bedroom and started to pack.
* * *
Jacoby yelled out in agony as he sat up in his bed.
“I told you to wait and let me help you,” Nina said, coming around to the side of the bed and slipping her arm under his to help bear his weight so he could stand. “And you need to use the crutches, like the doctor told you.”
“Well, I want to go sit out on the back porch. That pain pill had me sleeping so long this morning, I missed my normal coffee time.”
That was true, but Nina had appreciated those three hours of solitude. It had been the first time she’d been able to sit with her thoughts since she’d raced home yesterday morning.
“I got some iced tea in the refrigerator. I want a glass and some cookies while I sit outside,” Jacoby said.
“Okay, I’ll get you settled outside and then I’ll get your tea and cookies,” she told him.
“Where’re your sisters? Did they run out the moment you got here? Those two stay busy.”
Nina sighed and concentrated on easing her father to the crutches so that she could get his weight properly distributed and keep them both upright. His fall down the last four stairs in the basement had left him with a broken left ankle and a gash on his head that had to be sutured. He was now sporting a white patch of gauze over his right eye to match the white cast on his ankle.
She settled him on her right side and worked her way around him with the other crutch, tucking it under his left arm.
“There, now take it slow. I’ll get your snack and sit on the porch with you and go through my emails.”
Since she was certain her deal with RGF was over.
Jacoby huffed and mumbled some more as she stayed a few steps behind him to offer support should he need it. Her father was a proud man; a stubborn and opinionated man who loved his girls more than he loved life at this moment.
“I want the Oreo cookies, not those dry butter ones Daisy keeps buying,” he said when they finally made it into the kitchen.
The master bedroom of the ranch-style house was closer to the kitchen than the other two rooms, so their trek had been short. Nina immediately went to the cabinet to grab a glass and filled it with the crushed ice her father preferred from the ice machine on the refrigerator.
“The butter cookies have less sugar,” she told him even though she knew he couldn’t care less.
“Yeah, well all the baked goods and snacks could cause elevated cholesterol or diabetes. Everything does something bad and something good. So with the time I have left, I’m doing whatever makes me feel good. I want eight cookies. Count ’em and put them in a napkin for me.”
He was already heading for the back door, which Nina had left open when she’d gone out onto the porch to sit while he slept. After this morning, she now knew why her father liked to sit on that porch so much. It was quiet, peaceful, revealing. She’d come to terms with a few things about herself and her life while sitting in one of the twin rocking chairs just staring out toward the sky.
With the glass in one hand, his eight cookies folded into a napkin in the other, and her laptop tucked under her arm, she walked out onto the porch just as her dad was trying to settle himself into a chair. She hurried over to him, placing the glass, cookies and laptop on the small wooden table between the rocking chairs that looked as if they were on their last legs.
“Here, let me help you,” she said and eased the crutches from one arm and then the next.
Standing in front of him, she put both her arms under his and then bent her knees as he reclined into the chair.
&
nbsp; Jacoby huffed when he was finally seated. “Your sisters should have stayed here to help,” he grumbled.
She ignored him because she was glad Angie and Daisy had left. They’d been a nagging, arguing pain in her ass from the time she’d arrived yesterday, until the moment she’d told them to go late last night. They weren’t being helpful, just judgmental and annoying, traits they’d spent most of their lives perfecting.
“It’s okay, Dad. We’re fine,” she told him, sitting in the chair next to him before grabbing her laptop from the table.
“Not okay,” he said when he reached for his cookies.
She could hear him crunching on the first one as she booted up her laptop and waited to log in to her inbox.
“You should be in New York working,” Jacoby said after a few moments.
“You weren’t happy that I’d stayed in New York, remember?”
“No, I wasn’t happy if you were in New York pimping yourself out to some rich dude,” he snapped. “But you said that’s not what you were doing.”
“It’s not,” she replied, clicking on an email from RJ Gold, wondering if this was his message telling her she’d breached her contract with them by leaving town.
“And that guy you were in New York with? He was helping you with your business?”
She was only half listening to her father now, but she replied, “Yeah, his family’s company was taking a chance on my app.”
If you’re reading this right now, I’m on my way to you and it’s too late for you to stop me.
That’s what the first line of the email read and her heartbeat had immediately picked up its pace.
I hope you’ll hear me out this time and once you do, whatever you want, whatever you tell me to do, I will.
RJ hadn’t written this email. Her eyes shot up to the subject line of the message again as she read the oldest Gold brother’s name and email address.
“He sounds like a good guy. You should hear him out.”
Her head snapped up at her father’s words and she looked over at him and then past him.