Chasing Temptation (19 page)

Lynne watched in horror as he disappeared from the room. This was his situation. He should have been man enough to deal with the consequences.

With a sigh, She took in Nate's furrowed brow and the tightness around his mouth. The only thing gentle about him at the moment was his hold on Suzie in his arms. The dog was awake and watching silently.

“Good morning again.” She kept her voice chipper.

“I told myself I wouldn't come here until I could think straight, but you knew about them, didn't you?”

He didn't wait for an answer. “Yet you didn't tell me. You're frank. You would have pointed it out unless you were planning to do something underhanded. You set this up? You set up my employee so she would betray me? It's like the thing with the cookies and the town wager. You threw something in my path to distract me.”

The words refused to settle in her brain. “What?”

He walked up to the counter. The shadows in his eyes had darkened dangerously. “You knew my automatic reaction would be to fire her. You know I depend on her and that would have left me in a fix. Well, your big plan to put me out of business is foiled. I can't believe that you of all people would...” He shook his head.

It took her a minute to find the ability to speak, but by God she did. “You're such an ass. Let's not even mention the low opinion you have of me. Seriously, that would be my big bad plan to put you out of business? I told you from day one I don't play dirty. I don't even like to play this game in the first place.”

Building up steam, she stood to lean over the counter so he wouldn't miss a word. “And who in the hell says ‘foiled’ in this century? Yes, I knew about them. Here's the thing: Your right-hand woman, the woman who has worked beside you loyally for years, the same woman you just insulted because you believe she wouldn't have enough brains to know a ploy when fucked by one. You know what she did? She begged me not to tell you. Pleaded. With. Me. She had genuine fear in her eyes because she knew you would flip your wig.”

“Keep going,” he said softly.

She let out a breath. “I'm not the bad guy here. It's you and it's been you for a while. And,” she added raising her voice, “you have your head so far up your ass you don't even see it. You have this big company that people will be vying to buy without my little shop being included on that platter, but you can't let it go. And your reason has nothing to do with making the memory of your father live on. He would have been more than proud of your success so far. It's you who isn't happy. You aren't satisfied. You,” she said softly this time, “who can't forget where he came from because he still thinks it's what he is.” Nausea rolled in her stomach. “You can't accept the way you feel about me.”

“Are you done, Ms. Kelley?”

The formality almost broke her, but she took his cue. “I'm sorry, but I seem to have some other plans for lunch and won't be available.” Her announcement was petty and Lynne knew that, but it still felt good to say the words before he could.

“You broke our only rule,” he bit out. “We're done.”

“We had a rule?” Her tone was cool, but she had to ball her fist to keep her fingers from trembling.

“You were to never psychoanalyze me. For the record, you're wrong.”

Lynne finally ran out of steam. “Am I?” she asked softly.

He stiffened at the question. “You won't get Sylvia.”

“I'm not the one who is in the position to lose her. We were done before we even tried to start, but if you really love Sylvia, if she means even a little bit to you, don't make her choose.”

He scoffed. “At least I'm honest about what I am. What I want.”

She stilled. “What does that mean?”

He held her gaze, all darkness and grief reflected back at her. “Why'd you give me the dog?”

She was the first to break the gaze. “I told you why.”

“Exactly,” he said, his voice went cold.

She kept up the brave face until the bell on the door dinged, signaling Nate's departure. She hunched back on to the stool, placing her hands over her face.

“Oh, wow.” Jeremy's voice jolted her out of the position.

Not yet. She couldn't face someone else just yet. “Let's act like that scene didn't happen.”

“My offer to get my Uncle Joey to beat him up still stands.”

“You still don't have an Uncle Joey.” She bit her lip to keep it from trembling.

Jeremy moved to her side. Lynne wrapped her arms around him like she had so wanted to the first day Nate showed up.

“Just tell me everything's going to be fine,” she said.

“You're going to kick his all-business ass right out of town.”

And that was never what she wanted, but it was what she had to do. “I don't love him. I loathe the very being of him.”

“It can be that way sometimes.”

Lynne knew he was right, but didn't have any fight left to argue anyway.

*****

“You called your father again,” Eloise said.

The irritated tone greeted Lynne along with the scent of Greek cuisine. Any other day, she’d run headlong into the confrontation, revel in it to shake off the day’s drudgery and count the argument as a worthwhile experience. Instead she trudged into the hallway. When she made it to her room, she sprawled face down on the bed.

“Were you even listening to me, Lynne?” Her mother gasped and stopped her tirade. “Oh, honey, what's wrong?”

“You have this life that you believe is perfect.” Lynne turned her face to the side so she could talk. “Well, as perfect as life can get. Then God, who I am convinced is a woman, comes along with chaos to uproot your life. You start to like the chaos—No, you start to get used to the chaos. It becomes the norm.”

She lifted her head off the bed. “And then, here's the kicker, you have a solution, a plan to fix your life so it goes back to being the perfectly flawed thing it was before all hell broke loose. But you don't really want that life back.” Lynne sat up all the way. “Tell me that isn't a woman with a sick sense of humor?”

“Seeing you've convinced yourself life is one long depression after another, I won't tell you Megan called. She sounded so happy.”

Lynne lunged for the phone by the bed. She dialed the number and received: “This is the Blake residence.”

Lynne gripped the phone and waited for the beep. “I officially denounce you as my best friend. I've been going through hell and had no one to bitch to while you're off being happy and probably making cute little Aiden-babies. My life is a mess and I—” The sob caught her off guard. “Oh, ignore this message. No, seriously erase it. I'm a big black hole of unhappiness, spreading my crappy mood to everyone. I'm sorry.”

She pushed the end button and smothered her head in the nearest pillow. Her mother started to make hushing sounds that only made Lynne feel worse.

She murmured, “I've reverted back to a teenager.”

“You have.” Her mother kept rubbing her back though. “But you'll soon have your usual resolve in place. It's awe inspiring to watch.”

Lynne sniffed and rolled over to face her mother. “Compliments seem to work on the current woe-is-me mood. Keep going.”

Her mother let out a big laugh. “It doesn't matter what phase you're going through, or how you make yourself look on the outside. Deep down you're still Lynne. You don't know when to let something go. You're a walking advertisement for creating havoc, but it's why I love you. It's why so many people are drawn to you, Lynne.” Her mother straightened the cardigan. “And, if someone doesn't love my baby the way she is, they can bite me.”

Lynne hugged her mother until the storm wanting to rise inside her subsided. “You smell like onions. We're having fricassee of lamb, aren't we?”

Her mother sighed. “Walking havoc. Anyway, your father called and said everything will be in place tomorrow and that he'll be here.”

Eloise waited and Lynne caved. “I'm underhanded, but in a good way. You wouldn't tell him anything. You kept right on cooking and I couldn't take it anymore. Plus, I needed help. Anyway, he's clueless on any given day, so I decided to give him a clue. I figured to kill two birds with one stone.”

“The other bird is Nate?”

There went her somewhat good mood. “Yes.”

Her mother offered her hand to help Lynne out of bed. She took it.

Eloise said, “You might as well get a good meal before the final battle.”

“Ironic, isn't it? Like a lamb to slaughter.”

“At least this lamb is tender.”

Lynne didn't agree with her mother. Nate was tender once you stripped away everything else. It's why she felt like crap. She told him what had needed to be said so they weren't more. They couldn't be.

Nate leaned back on the couch in his home, letting out a breath. He'd struggled all day on how to approach Sylvia and had settled on being frank and planning the confrontation on familiar ground. The TV played quietly in the background, but the house still felt too silent and empty.

She shifted next to him on the couch, but her chin was still high in the air. Ready for any knocks he planned to throw, figuratively.

He sighed. “Do you love Jeremy or is this a fleeting thing?”

Nate registered the shock on Sylvia's face. He refused to think about what Lynne had hurled at him that morning. She wasn't right. He had acted a little irrationally, like he knew he would. Not because he didn't care very deeply for Lynne. Or due to an indifference to Sylvia for that matter.

“I do love him,” she confessed. “It's strange. We just met, but it feels right.”

Exactly how he felt when he was with L— “Then go for it.”

Sylvia narrowed her eyes. “You're not going to fire me for disloyalty? For not using Jeremy to get an edge against Hart and Style?”

“Having a life outside of work isn't disloyal, and I would never have used you like that.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits. “You wouldn't have asked me to do it long term, but you would have asked me after the first time to see what I could find out.”

He wasn't the only person with a low opinion of people. “Have I ever asked you to before?”

Slowly Sylvia’s chin lowered. “No, but when you get focused on a goal, you aren't exactly fair.”

He thought back to all the deals he had closed over the years. All the ways he’d closed the tougher ones. He believed in stooping low if it closed the deal. Sylvia was being diplomatic in her description of him.

Nate shifted under her glare. “I am an ass.”

“The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

He fought the laugh. “I can still fire you.”

She pffted. “I should have quit a long time ago. I just didn't want to leave you alone. You're...” She shook her head and didn't finish.

He steeled himself and asked her to finish.

“Even when you're in a crowded room, charming the socks off anyone near you, you're still lonely. I can see it because I've known you for so long.”

He held up his hand so she wouldn't continue. Sylvia ignored him.

“And Lynne saw it. Despite all the crazy things she's done, she made you a part of this community. You know people's names, and not because it might become handy.”

He gestured his head to the bay window. “I still don't have curtains.”

“Not even Lynne can perform miracles.”

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “Earlier I was angry because you didn't tell me.” And because Lynne had him feeling so open. So vulnerable. If he loved her, then he could lose her. When he found out about Sylvia and realized Lynne had known, it felt like losing her.

He sighed deeply. “I wish you the best, Sylvia. When the deal closes, I can try to pay you what you're worth, what you've been worth to me, but I don't think the potential buyers have deep enough pockets.”

Sylvia moved over to him and kissed his brow. “You just did.”

Then the only best friend he had ever allowed himself to have left him alone. Nate went through a mental list of the things he needed to do, but only one of them mattered. He hoped that would be enough.

*****

Lynne prowled the front of the store, looking down one side of the street to the other one through the glass doors.

“You could stand outside and wait,” Jeremy suggested.

He had taken a break from humming and had folded the same shirt four times. At least she wasn't the only one suffering from nerves.

“Trust me, when the chariot arrives, you want to be prepared.”

“Why have I never met your father?”

“He's intimidating. By the end of the meeting—it feels like a business meeting—you would have looked at your career and demanded a raise or else. My father has a way of making you feel like you deserve more, and if not, something's wrong with you.”
You were less for not wanting more.
“Meaning you should be exactly like him and want to conquer the world. It's annoying, to say the least.”

“Why haven't you given me a raise?”

Lynne rolled her eyes. “It's a surprise. At the end of the year I planned to promote you to manager. You would have been able to hire your own minion to boss around. I wouldn't even have asked you to change your shirts.”

He stopped mid-fold. “You like me, you really like me.”

She snorted. “Will you stop folding that shirt?”

Lynne glanced back outside and saw the champagne-colored Cadillac SUV. If she stared directly at the custom-made grill, she could blind herself.

Instead she walked over to the mirror next to the necklaces and scarves. She looked professional in the navy suit, but the polka-dot red shirt told a different story. She ran her hands through her hair and hated that her mother had been right. Even with the chestnut-tone highlighted with caramel streaks, she still looked like Lynne. No one would mistake the crooked grin as anything other than mischief.

Taking a deep breath, Lynne stepped outside. The smile blossomed as she turned to greet her father. His team, minions, filed out of the car after him.

At some point Preston Kelley ditched the jacket but kept the vest and tie on tight. The gold cuff links were subtle, but she would bet they cost more than the rest of the outfit. They were his initials. In diamonds.

“Daddy.”