Surprised by Family: a Contemporary Romance Duet (22 page)

While hurting his brother would never keep Steven from doing what he wanted to do, Baron suddenly realized that it wasn’t his primary motivation.

At times in the past, it had felt that way. At times, it felt that way now. But it wasn’t reality.

Steven hadn’t come on to Leila to hurt Baron. He’d done it to turn Leila into a weapon. A weapon that could be used—not to destroy Baron but to sustain their battle, their duel, their game.

Baron’s lips parted slightly as he processed this revelation, and the question that came to his lips wasn’t anything like the one he’d expected. “Why are we still doing this?” The words were spoken before Baron realized he was speaking them.

Then Steven shook his head, looking unusually tired in that moment. “You tell me.”

“Because there’s nothing left for us to do.”

It all made sense to Baron now. And he processed the truth—that deepest truth—with a lump lodged hard in his throat.

There was no victory for him in this game. There was no way the duel would come to an end.

They were standing in his office. His inheritance. The world his father had left for him to hold together. For years he’d been able to take what he wanted—money, women, thrills, the role his father had left him, a little church on campus he loved.

But he couldn’t have everything.

There was no walking unwounded away from this battle, so there was only one thing left for him to do.

He just walked away.

“But it’s Sunday, Mommy. Why are you leaving so early?” Charlotte was rumpled and a little groggy, since she’d just woken up.

“I’ve got these last papers and exams to grade, and I need to get them done because grades are due for the end of the semester. I want to get them done early, so I can spend the rest of the day having fun with you and Jane. Is that all right?”

“Yeah. It’s okay,” Jane replied for both of them. She looked a little more awake than her sister. “What will we do later?”

“We can go to the zoo, if you want. Or maybe the science museum.”

Leila wished she hadn’t mentioned the museum, since it reminded her so strongly of Baron. She’d gotten herself together after the first couple of days, but her chest still ached painfully at the thought of him.

Evidently it reminded the girls too. Charlotte slumped into her bed. “Mr. Baron came with us to the museum.”

“I know he did.”

“Why doesn’t he want to be with us anymore?” Jane asked in a thready voice.

“We’ve talked about this. Remember?  Since I’m not dating him anymore, he can’t spend time with you like he used to. But it was
me
that he broke up with. It wasn’t about not liking you.”

“But why did he break up with you, Mommy?” Charlotte twisted in her blanket and looked on the verge of being very upset. “You made him happy.”

Leila had thought Baron was happy with her too. “Sometimes things just don’t work out. He thought it was best not to see me anymore.”

“But he was wrong.” Charlotte was moving into dramatic mode. “He was wrong!”

“Can’t you tell him he was wrong, Mommy?” Jane added.

Leila took a shuddering breath. It felt wrong to her too. “That’s not the way it works, sweetie. If someone decides to break up with someone else, then that’s their choice, even if you don’t agree with it.”

“But how will he know he’s wrong if you don’t tell him, Mommy?”

Leila didn’t have an answer to that.

***

She stared down at the student essay on the desk in front of her, holding a pen and trying to force herself to concentrate. It was the first paper in the last stack she needed to grade for the semester, but she hadn’t yet made it through the opening paragraph.

It was hard enough to grade papers under normal circumstances. It was even harder to grade on a Sunday, even after she’d come into the office solely for that purpose. At the moment, she was finding grading impossible.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Baron.

She glanced at her email—but she’d cleared out her inbox earlier and nothing new had arrived in the last half-hour. Then she glanced at the clock. Still only 10:48 on a Sunday morning.

She turned back to the essay and noticed a run-on sentence . She added the comma. Circled it. Tried to focus on the next sentence.

Had to read it several times before she could even process what it said.

She’d always known this was possible. From the very beginning, she’d seen the end.

Baron was who he was. His life was what it was. And she and her girls could never really be part of it.

She needed to accept it and move on.

When her phone broke the silence of her office, she snatched it up, her heart leaping the way it had at every phone call for the last two weeks, although her mind kept saying that it wouldn’t be Baron.

It wasn’t Baron. It was her brother.

“Hey,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. “What’s up?”

“Is everything all right?”

“What do you mean?”

“You sound strange.”

“I do not sound strange. All I said was ‘what’s up’?”

“Well, it sounded strange. Is something wrong?”

“No. Not really.”

“That didn’t sound convincing.”

She sighed. “If you must know, I’m still a little down about breaking up with Baron.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. You never told me the whole story. Why did you break up?”

She shrugged to her empty office. “You know Baron. It wasn’t likely he’d want to settle down with me.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Dave sounded more annoyed than anything else.

“Nothing. It just means I’m not really his type. We had fun, but he has this whole big life and all kinds of things going on. He wasn’t going to give it up just for me.”

“He told you that’s why he ended it?”

“No. He just said it was bad timing.”

“This doesn’t sound right, Leila. Didn’t you ask for more information?”

“Of course not. Did you think I was going to beg for him to stay with me, when he clearly wanted out?”

Dave was silent for a long minute. Then he muttered, “Damn, you make me crazy sometimes.”

She gasped. “What? What is your problem? I’m the one who got dumped here, and you’re blaming me?”

“I’m not blaming you. Well, maybe I am blaming you some. It’s just that you still think of yourself as that girl with a crush who is never going to get the guy she wants. Why the hell shouldn’t Baron be in love with you?”

Her heart was beating wildly with confusion and a strange sort of excitement, but her mind hadn’t caught up with it. “He’s not in love with me! He dumped me.”

“And you think there were good reasons for him to do it? You think it’s what he really wanted?”

She swallowed hard, suddenly picturing Baron’s face as they’d had that horrible conversation. She’d been trying so hard not to break down in a heap of heartbreak that she hadn’t fully registered it. But he’d looked lost, wounded. “But why—”

“Who the hell knows why? But I don’t think… He called me up last month. Did he tell you?”

“No. He called you? Why?”

“Just to talk. I think he wanted to reconnect. I thought it was a good sign. He sounded like his old self again. The point is that you were good for him, so whatever is pulling him away from you is
not
good for him. And it has nothing to do with you not being good enough for
him
.”

He was right. Dave was exactly right. She’d been acting on bone-deep insecurities, instead of like the reasonable grown-up she was supposed to be. She knew Baron. And she knew he’d been really happy with her and the girls.

And she was suddenly sure he wasn’t happy now.

“What should I do?” she asked, rather raspily. She wasn’t in the habit of asking her brother for romantic advice. They usually just talked about their kids. But she was paralyzed with hope and fear and the coursing excitement that pounded through her veins with her blood.

“I don’t know. Maybe you should talk to him.” There was an edge of sarcasm in Dave’s voice, but perhaps it was deserved.

Maybe Jane was right. Maybe Leila should tell Baron he was just wrong.

“Okay. Okay.”

She hung up soon afterwards and just stared at her phone for a long time.

She should talk to Baron. Get him to explain what he was thinking, how he’d convinced himself that this was for the best.

It
wasn’t
for the best. She knew it wasn’t.

A knock on her office door startled her so much she jumped. When she called, “Come in,” she stood up at the sight of a courier in the doorway, holding a package and saying he’d tried her at home first and they’d told him to come here.

Too surprised to figure out what it meant, she signed for the large envelope and thanked the courier.

Then she opened the envelope and pulled out a document.

She scanned through it, unable to process the words until she’d read them several times.

It was the purchase contract for West Church. And the deed.

It had been signed over to her name.

Baron had given her the church.

She almost choked when the knowledge finally broke through her blurred stupor.

She flipped the pages blindly, realizing there was a handwritten page underneath the documents.

You said that when people believe in something—really believe in it—we create beauty, discover the unknown, make the world better. No one ever believed in me until I knew you. I want you to have this because I know now that your belief has made me better. Everything I know of beauty and discovery and meaning is centered in you. B

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she read the note four times, trying to register what it said, what it meant.

Once she understood, she ran for her bag and keys, propelled into action. She couldn’t wait for the slow elevator, so she ran down the stairs. Then she ran for the parking lot, trying to remember how to get to Baron’s apartment from campus.

When she reached the parking lot on campus, she saw a familiar car, one that made her heart jump into her throat.

She turned on her heel and jogged in the opposite direction, down the path, through the trees, to the church.

He was standing with his back to her, facing the church, wearing jeans and a black t-shirt and looking somehow lonely.

He turned as she approached, and she started to run flat out as she saw his face. Her bag banged her thigh, and her keys jangled in her sweaty hand, and her throat was raw from running, and her cheeks must be embarrassingly red.

But none of that mattered. Nothing mattered but Baron.

He must have realized she wasn’t going to stop because he braced himself and caught her with both arms as she threw herself toward him in a hug.

The momentum swung them both around, but then he tightened his arms around her as she clutched at him, wheezing and almost in tears.

“Oh, baby,” he mumbled into her hair. “It wasn’t a way to manipulate you into forgiving me. I want you to have it, whether or not you can—”

“Of course I forgive you,” she gasped, trying desperately to catch her breath as she pulled away just enough to look up at his face. “And your timing is remarkable. I was just planning to storm your place and force you to talk to me, so I could make you see how stupid you were being.”

He almost smiled. “I figured it out for myself.”

“You don’t have to give me the church, you know. I know it was important to you—because of your parents. I know you’ll take care of it. I don’t need the church. I just want you.”

“Well, you have me. And you have the church. I want you to have it.”

She reached up and pulled his head down into a hard kiss. “Thank you.” Her sprint started to catch up with her then, and her knees felt a little shaky. “Can we maybe sit down now?”

Baron laughed, and they went to sit by the bench.

She told him about her conversation with Dave, and he told her about his conversation with Steven.

Leila leaned into him, and he put his arm around her to pull her close. “So what are you going to do?” she asked.

“I’ll try to settle something with the will. I’m going to give him what he wants.”

“Are you sure? I know it means a lot to you to do what your dad wanted—”

“I know. But there’s no way for this…this mess to end without giving something up. I can’t give you up. I was an idiot for even thinking that was possible. I’m not going to give you up, so I’ll give this up instead. I’ll let him win. Then, when things are finalized with the will, I’ll reorganize processes in the company so I’m not having to do everything. I know my dad… But I can’t. I won’t let myself be that man. I’ll bring on whoever we need to get the work done so I’m not always drowning in it.”

She knew he was making the right decision. She knew it would be hard.

But better to walk away wounded than to not walk away at all.

“It’s not what my dad would have wanted,” Baron added, almost idly. “But it’s the only thing I can do.” He wasn’t looking at her. He was still gazing out at the lawn, his face calm, as if the topic didn’t mean that much to him.

She knew how much it did.

“I think,” Leila said, a little hesitantly. “I think that’s... right.”

He inclined his head in a slight nod, but it was a long stretch of silence before he slanted his eyes back down to her face. “Thanks.”

She smiled up at him, feeling ridiculously emotional, worried about him but so incredibly happy.

“Do you want to come home with us after lunch? Miss Martin is bringing the girls over here after their gymnastics lesson. You could come home with us, if you want. We’re not going to do much, but you could hang out with us—if you wanted.”

“Yeah. Thank you. I’d like to.”

She let out an exhale and relaxed against him. His arm tightened around her.

The weather was crisp and cool—it less than two weeks until Christmas—but the sun was out and it was warm on Leila’s face. It felt good to sit outside like this, and Baron’s strong body felt exactly right against hers.

“You know I think you’re incredible, right?” she asked, without thinking through the words, prompted by feeling she just couldn’t suppress.

Something transformed in Baron’s eyes. They blazed for a moment with something deep and tender and breathtaking.