Authors: Tracy Cottingham
“Cassie,” she heard him call out and picked up her pace. “Cassandra
wait!” Gunnar caught up to her right as she was about to pull her car door
shut. “I wouldn’t celebrate just yet.” He wedged himself between the door
and her seat and knelt down. “Wes has my power of attorney, so my not
knowing about this doesn’t make it null and void, it just makes it more
annoying,” she heard the irritation in his voice as Wes caught up to them.
“I’m sorry,” she put the key in the ignition and turned to face him, “Are you
speaking to me now?” She pointed to her chest and looked around behind
her. “Cause a moment before I let you in on “the brain’s” big secret over
there, I was sure you were completely ignoring me.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he rested his arm casually on the edge of her
seat and leaned towards her. “You’re not that easy to ignore,” he
whispered in her ear and remained close.
His eyes were doing their thing, dancing and playing with her,
making her intensely aware of his ability to make her feel like the center of
the universe. He had always done that, completely unraveling her every
time she even remotely tried to close him off. That is, until he decided
to close her off. “Why?” She smelled the fresh scent of newly applied
cologne and had to remind herself to focus on the conversation. “Why, if
you had no prior knowledge, and you’re now aware it involves me would you want
anything more to do with it? You made it very clear that you didn’t want
anything to do with me a long time ago.” She tried to remain aloof, but
she looked away when the words came out.
“Maybe it’s time to move on.” He toyed with a lock of hair resting above
her ear. “Maybe, I think not hating you for a while could prove to be far
more interesting.”
Cassie was starting to lower her guard. She shivered when her eyes met
his, and was shocked to find that she was wondering what it would be like to
have his lips brush against hers. She caught herself leaning towards him,
and shook her head free of such a ridiculous notion. “That’s it?” She
knew there had to be something more.
“Well that, and the fact that I’ve never known Wes here to make a bad financial
move in all the years we’ve been in business together, so if he bought half of
your company, then he must have had a damn good reason for doing it. Even
if I didn’t know anything about it till now.” The irritation was back,
and so was the look he gave Wes.
“This means nothing to you.” She felt the heavy weight return to her
shoulders. “To you everything’s just a big game. But this is my
life Gunnar, and I don’t want you two in it, even if it was my husband that
initiated the sale.”
She watched him close up, saw it the moment the comment left her lips.
“This isn’t high school anymore, you can’t dictate what does or doesn’t take
place,” he stiffened. “In fact, that’s what really gets to you about this
doesn’t it?” he shook his head. “You can’t control everything out here in
the real world and it terrifies you.”
She looked over to Wes, who had
been quietly watching their every move, and then back to Gunnar. “Look,
it’s obvious this nightmare is just beginning, and there’s no way out of this
for me, so I’ll just say what I came here to say and be done with it.”
“This ought to be rich.”
It took everything she had to ignore him, but she vowed not to stoop to his
level. “You may have succeeded in pushing your way into my business when
I was too vulnerable to fight, but I own fifty one percent of the stock in
our
business, and as CEO of the company, you two had better not make any more
decisions, on any level, without consulting with me first.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Gunnar looked to Wes, instantly disliking the look
he got back.
“Go ahead, ask “the man,” over there.” She motioned in Wes’s direction.
“I own the controlling stock, and if you want to make any more moves, you have
to clear them through me first.”
“The hell I will,” he growled.
“Like it or not God’s gift, those are the rules.” She leaned in close, just
inches from his face.
“I forgot what a mouth you had on you.” He turned the tables on her by
staying put. “It’s gonna get you into trouble one of these days,” he
smiled, completely knocking her off guard. “I told you a long time ago I
could find a much better use for it.” He ran his finger across her lips.
“And I remember telling you I wasn’t interested,” she pushed his hand away,
shut the door and started the car. She was going to just drive off, but he
knocked against the window, making it obvious he wasn’t finished.
“Just where is the love of your life anyway? Did he get tired of your
wicked little mouth and decide to leave you, is that why he offered Wes half
your company?”
She heard Wes groan in the background, and saw him give the cut sign to Gunnar,
but he was too far gone to notice. He wanted the last little jab, but
Cassie wasn’t about to give it to him. “You could say that,” she started
to reply and saw the look of triumph pass across his angular, tanned
face. “You see, he died nine months ago, and I just didn’t have the
energy to deal with his death and fight for the company at the same time.
That’s
how Wes got away with half the shares.” Finally, she’d
managed to wipe that annoying smile from his face, and shut his mouth.
She thanked Ben for that, and looked up one last time at a pair of chocolate
brown eyes she could easily lose herself in if she stayed any longer.
“Remember what I said.” She started to pull forward but he still had his
hands on the car. She waited for what was sure to come but he just stood
there motionless, daring her to look away. “See you in California,” she
broke the contact, and started to drive. She could see him in her
rearview mirror eyeing Wes angrily, and she could hear him call out after her.
“California?” He yelled the question to her while she was still within
earshot, and then looked to his longtime companion as if the idea of murder had
just become more appealing. “What the Hell’s in California!
Cassie was
still completely put out at the thought of having to uproot everything that she
and her daughter were familiar with as well as moving a successful business in
its own right to a new location, but if it had to be somewhere, she was
grateful it was Santa Monica. It was one of the few places that at least
felt like a second home to Cassie. It didn’t matter how much time she
spent building a life somewhere else, the beach was something she knew, and
could handle. As she drove passed her old high school looking for where
Wes had relocated their new offices, she remembered so many things about her
younger self that had been buried or forgotten over the last eight years.
She knew she was probably adding things to her memories and that no town could
possibly live up to, but she also knew that her childhood had been carefree
growing up near the ocean, and she was grateful for the change of
scenery. At least every road, every restaurant, well just plain
everything in general didn’t remind her of Ben and the constant ache that he
was never coming back. It was the only reason she had really agreed to go along
with this new venture in the first place. She was hoping desperately it
would be the fresh start that she and her daughter would need if they were ever
going to heal.
“This is it,” she said aloud as she
pulled up to the small, but prestigious looking group of office
bungalows each with its own entrance and common area
parking. She praised Wes mentally for picking
such a nice spot to move to on
such short notice, and laughed when she caught sight of the name on the
door. One heading read
Gytus and Rosswell, Inc.
, and just below in
equally large letters was the name she was so familiar with. She ran her
hand along the smooth service of the letterhead. “Hello Leisure Time Air
Travels, nice to see you again.” She looked around to make sure no one
had seen her standing around talking to herself, and went inside.
It was obvious from the get go that money hadn’t necessarily been an object in
making sure the offices were well decorated and professional. She
could see a door that lead to Wes and Gunnar’s original company, and then
spotted one at the opposite end that first showed her name as owner, and then
her company name below it. It made her feel good to see that they had
taken her words to heart, and realized that she was just as important to the
company as they were. Gunnar probably didn’t like it, she smiled, but Wes
must have straightened him out about not making any more important decisions
without her.
On second glance she reflected on how pleasantly different these new
surroundings were, completely the opposite of the tiny, country kitchen kind of
ma and pa thing she and Ben were used to. Their business made a healthy
profit, but it was never really something they pushed. It must have been
the potential for long term growth that was so appealing for someone with a
business background. When she let herself admit it, Cassie knew that she
didn’t blame Wes for taking advantage of the opportunity to buy into her
business. The way the intrusion was handled made her more than a little
irritated, but it was the fact that her husband put all of this together before
she even knew what was happening that drove her crazy. He and Gunnar had
flown in some of the same shows across the country but they never had more than
a passing acquaintance as far as she knew, and how Wes got involved was an even
bigger mystery. She was about to get a closer look at her office but she
was thrown forward as the door hit her from behind.
“Oh my god, are you okay.” A stunning blonde, in a tight blue-gray mini
suit knelt down beside her, pushing a large handled Nordstrom shopping bag
aside in order to give Cassie a hand back up. “I can’t believe I did
that, you see, I thought I locked the door when I left, but, well I must have
been wrong.” She gave a nervous laugh, and pulled the edges of her large
rimmed, designer sunglasses slowly from her face, trying to gauge if Cassie was
going to be angry or not.
“Let me guess,” Cassie was laughing inside, “You must be the secretary?”
She watched the young woman bristle in response. “Well actually, I’m the
front office manager.”
“Oh.” Cassie nodded. “Of course. You’ll have to excuse me, I’m not
used to being a part of such a large organization so I’m a little inept at all
this politically correct stuff.”
“What?” The woman looked at Cassie like she’d spoken a foreign language
or something.
“Nothing.” Cassie waived her hand, and stifled an overwhelming urge to
roll her eyes at the obvious reason this particular woman had been hired.
“Listen, my name is Cassandra Harrington, and I’m he-”
“So you’re the new partner Wes and Gunnar were arguing about.”
Cassie watched in awe as the nearly six foot tall, all leg, uber- beauty
hiked it around the counter stopping in the middle just long enough to snap her
well-manicured, fire engine red nails together. “I have some keys around here
for you.”
Cassie instantly caught sight of the spare set tacked up to the back of a peg
board, with a bright yellow post it beside it that read, HER KEYS.
“Maybe, right, there, behind you?” She pointed after giving her a few
minutes to remember on her own.
“Yeah, there they are.” She took two long strides to the other side of
her work area and wrestled with the tack that held them on. “Of course if
I keep forgetting to lock the door, you’re not really going to need them are
you?” She laughed at her own joke, bent forward to riffle through her
bag, and came up with what looked to be a sandwich. “Lunch,” she held up
the food and whispered like it was a secret indulgence, instead of just a ham
and cheese on rye.
Cassie was too afraid to reply, so she changed the subject entirely.
“Speaking of my partners, any guess at where I might find them?”
“Sure,” she said through her bite. “They had this big lunch planned over
at La Margarita with a
Mr.-” she snapped those fingers again before staring down at
a larger size, yellow post it on the desk in front of her. “Mr. Nakamoto
and his daughter Mai Li, that’s right. You know it’s funny, but that
family just can’t get enough Mexican food whenever they travel to the
states. Anyway, where was I?”
“Lunch at La Margarita...” Cassie helped her get the story moving again,
while trying not to show how much she was reeling at the mention of that
particular restaurant.
“Okay, okay. They were on their way out the door when they started
arguing about you.” She pointed to Cassie to emphasize that fact.
“Then, Gunnar said something about this being the biggest client the new
business would ever see, blah, blah, blah, and they left.”
Cassie shoved her nostalgia aside and clenched her teeth, silently cursing
herself for being so gullible. Earlier, when she first laid eyes on the
office, she was so sure that they had taken her seriously. But a name on
the door was just that, something for show that obviously didn’t mean a damn
thing. Gunnar was determined to ignore her authority when it came to this
partnership, and Wes had probably been trying to remind him of that when they
got into an argument. She remembered what Gunnar had said about her
not being able to dictate what he did anymore, and she had to hold back the
urge to take the picture of him standing beside his plane to the left of the
front door and smash it to bits. He needed to learn that she wasn’t going
to let him run her out of her own company. She said her goodbyes and was
surprised that it wasn’t as hard to find her way to the restaurant as Cassie
first thought because she’d been there so many times her own personal GPS knew
exactly how to get there. In fact, as she sat outside in her car she
couldn’t believe that it looked exactly the same as the last time she was
there. Almost eight years had gone by and it was still frozen in time,
just like the memories that refused to leave her alone.
********