Romancing My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens) Contemporary Romance (17 page)

PIERCE STORMED OUT of the meeting with the due diligence team, leaving twelve of his employees to stare after him. He’d known something was off with Benson. Nearly five million dollars in uncollectable accounts receivables had been left on the books instead of written off. The sneaky bastard thought he could play Pierce for a fool. Well, Pierce was nobody’s fool.

He kept his head down as he entered the executive reception area, every determined step increasing his anger.

“Treat called when you were in your meeting, and so did William Benson,” Kendra said as Pierce stormed past her.

“Thank you,” he grumbled.
Benson, the snake
.

She followed him into his office with a notepad in hand and stood across the desk from him with practiced grace while he paced by the windows. He had a tough decision to make about the Grand—the issues with the books didn’t change the fact that he wanted that prime piece of real estate, but the deal just became far more complex and risky. He was glad he’d be speaking with Treat. He was a great sounding board. He knew how to handle tricky deals. But Pierce was too angry to think coherently at the moment. And then there was Kendra, standing on the other side of his mahogany desk in her proper suit, pen at the ready. A major deal was about to implode, and if he had been any other person, he might lash out, take it out on everyone in his path, but Pierce wasn’t that person. He drew in a deep breath and ran his hand over his face, stifling the anger boiling inside his chest.

“Mr. Benson was returning your call from yesterday requesting a meeting. He’s in his LA office and said he’s free Monday morning. Does that work? I can book you a flight out on Sunday evening and a room at the property near the airport.”

He turned to face Kendra. Her face was a mask of professionalism, her voice steady, businesslike.

“Yes. Monday. That’s fine, but I’ll stay with Jake. I’m sure he won’t mind, and I’d like to see him.” It would be nice to have some alone time with his younger brother before he came to visit for Luke and Daisy’s party.

“I’ll have a car waiting for you at the airport. Pierce, tell me what else you need and I’ll get out of your hair.” She knew him so well.

He hadn’t seen Rebecca at lunch today, and it was thoughts of her that eased the fire in his belly. She’d told him last night that she called her doctor and had an appointment Monday to get on the pill, and he agreed to get tested, as promised, when he went home for Luke and Daisy’s engagement party. He smiled to himself, despite the frustration of his earlier meeting. There wasn’t another woman on earth he’d do that for.

“Pierce?”

He looked up, feeling calmer now. “Yes. Sorry, Kendra.”

“It’s okay. Before your meeting, you said to have the legal team on standby. Should I get them on the phone?”

He tried to force his mind back into work mode, but his thoughts drifted back to Rebecca and what she’d said that morning about giving himself time to make decisions. He
should
take a few hours to talk to his accounting and legal teams and hammer out all the options for the Grand. He
should
take the time to decide if it was still a viable option or not. But that wasn’t what
he
needed
.
He needed to see Rebecca. A little time with her always centered him, and for the first time in his professional career, being with a woman was being moved to the top of his to-do list
.

“You know what? I’m not ready to do this yet.”

“What do you want me to tell them?”

“Tell them I need a day.” He went to his desk and glanced over the pictures of his family and realized that Rebecca was missing. He needed a picture of her. Hell, he needed her. Always. He was glad they’d driven in together that morning, because it would make the ride home that much sweeter.

“Can you please do me a favor?”

“Of course.”

“I forgot to make dinner reservations for tonight.”

Kendra rolled her eyes. “Of course, Pierce. But, you know, you need a wife.”

I think I might be working on that
.  “Believe it or not, Kendra, I do hear you when you say that. At least now I do. Would you mind making reservations at the Château? Four for eight o’clock, and please request a quiet booth.”

“Of course. I’ll also call Treat and let him know. Is there anything else I can do?” Kendra arched a brow. “You’re all jumpy, so you’ve got something going on in that brilliant mind of yours.”

He glanced down at his desk again. “Yeah, I do need something else, but it’s something I have to do on my own.”

Pierce stopped in the gift shop on his way to meet Rebecca after her shift. He walked into the restaurant with an armful of red roses as she was on her way out with another waitress. They were walking shoulder to shoulder and laughing.  Christ, he loved her laugh. Rebecca glanced in his direction and their eyes met. She smiled, and her gaze drifted to the flowers. She grasped the other woman’s arm. She was an older redhead with a friendly smile, and when she noticed the flowers, she patted Rebecca’s hand.

“Pierce.” Rebecca sounded breathless as she came to his side.

“Hi, babe.” He kissed her cheek and breathed her in. She smelled like fresh air, with a hint of cooking spices. “These are for you.” He laid the flowers in her arms.

She went up on her toes and kissed him. “They’re beautiful, but you didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s not about what I have to do. It’s about what I want to do, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

He draped an arm around her and smiled at the redhead. “Hi, I’m Pierce.”

“Oh, sorry. This is Daphne. Daphne, this is Pierce.” Her eyes filled with love when she said his name, and it made him feel warm all over, like the luckiest guy on earth.

Daphne held a hand out to Pierce. “Mr. Braden, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Pierce, please. And the pleasure is all mine. Rebecca said you showed her the ropes. Thank you.”

Daphne glanced at Rebecca. “She’s amazing. The customers love her, and so do Henry and I.”

“I rent a room from Daphne and her husband, Henry,” Rebecca explained. “Daph, we’ll be over in a little while to pick up a few things for the weekend. I’ll see you then?”

Pierce had been trying not to worry about who Henry was, and as Rebecca explained, his hidden worries eased.

“Yes, and Henry will be glad to meet Mr. Bra—Pierce.” Daphne leaned in close and lowered her voice. “He worries about her like she’s his own daughter.”

“Then I like him already.”

“She seems nice,” Pierce said on the way out to the car.

“She is, and so is her husband.” She inhaled the beautiful flowers.

“How long have you rented from her?”

“Little while.”

Rebecca gave him directions to her old apartment complex. He parked the car in the parking lot. “Stay right there, please.”

“Why?”

He smiled. “I said,
please
.” He went around the car and opened her door, then reached in to help her out. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No,” she said quietly. “But it makes me feel weird.”

“Bad weird, or you can get used to it weird?” He scanned the parking lot, cataloging the group of five guys huddled around a motorcycle at the end of the lot and the run-down cars that filled the space between. He couldn’t imagine Rebecca living there. With a protective arm around her waist, he led her across the lot.

“Weird, weird, but to be honest, I kind of like you
wanting
to do things for me. I’m just not good at the accepting part. But you can open my car door if it makes you happy.”

“It makes me happy.” He opened the door to the rental office. “How long did you live here?”

“My mom lived here forever, but I moved out for a little while and moved back in after she got sick.”

An older man with dark hair and bright blue eyes looked up from the desk where he was working. When he saw Rebecca, a smile brightened his eyes. He rose to his feet and came around the desk with one hand extended, palm up.

“Rebecca.” He took her hand in his and patted it with his other hand. “So nice to see you.”

“Hi, Mr. Fralin. This is Pierce Braden.”

Pierce noticed that she didn’t introduce him as her boyfriend and he wondered why.

Mr. Fralin nodded and extended a hand. “Mr. Braden, it’s a pleasure.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“I brought you what I promised.” Rebecca handed him an envelope. “I’ll be back again next week. Thank you again, Mr. Fralin.”

Mr. Fralin’s smile faltered. “Rebecca, I’ve told you that this is unnecessary.”

She drew in a deep breath. “Yes. And I told you it was necessary for me. Thank you again, Mr. Fralin.”

On their way out of the building, Pierce noticed a rough-looking man wearing filthy clothes eyeing Rebecca. He draped an arm over her shoulder.

“What was that?” he asked.

“What?”

“The envelope.” He opened the door for Rebecca and set a dark stare on the man whose eyes were still trained on her.

“Oh, nothing.”

Pierce climbed into the car, and as they left the parking lot, he stole a glance at Rebecca, who was fidgeting with the stems of the bouquet. “It didn’t feel like nothing.”

“I owe him some rent money, and I’m just paying him back a little each week.” She looked out the window, and he could tell by the rigidity of her shoulders that she didn’t want to talk about it, but he couldn’t help himself.

“How much do you owe him?”

“Don’t, Pierce.” She sighed, still looking out the door. “It’s not much, and I can handle it.”

“Bec—”

She turned to face him. “This is one of those times when you need to wear sunglasses, okay? He helped me out when my mom was sick and I lost my job. He said I didn’t have to pay him back, but I am. Okay?”

He clenched his teeth. Her goddamn pride was thick as lead.  “I don’t like you going there alone.”

“I lived there without a bodyguard for a long time. I think I can handle it.”

There was more than one way to skin a cat. “How about if I pay him what you owe and you can pay me back?”

She reached for his hand. “Pierce, you’re doing it again. This is my thing, okay? Why do you think I didn’t introduce you as my boyfriend?”

“You tell me.”

“Because your suit costs more than the entire building.”

“So you’re embarrassed that I’m successful?”

“No, I don’t want him to get the wrong impression. He knows me, Pierce. I mean, he’s seen me at my most desperate, and I don’t want him thinking that…Damn it. This is so hard to explain.
Boyfriend
implies…Well, it implies our relationship, but I want to pay him on my terms, and I don’t want you to feel like you need to help. I don’t need you to fix it, and I don’t need you to protect me when I go there. I just need you to support my need to do what I feel is right.”

He felt like she was cutting off his balls.

But the truth was, he respected the hell out of her for it. As painful as it was—and it was goddamn torturous—he shoved his ego aside. “Okay, but a compromise means two-way street, not bulldozing. I would rather you didn’t go there alone.” Pierce felt like he was taking a walk down Rebecca Lane, learning more about who she was, what it really meant to care for her mother and live paycheck to paycheck, and how strong and resilient she really was.

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re impossible.”

“Maybe so, but you’ve got me so hamstrung that you don’t let me be half the man you deserve.”

“Fine. It’s a deal.” She climbed over the console and kissed him. “Trust me, baby. You are every bit of a man in all the ways it counts.”

DAPHNE AND HENRY’S house was a modest brick rambler. It reminded Pierce of many of the smaller homes in Trusty, Colorado. It was built on a quiet street, and inside, the house was clean and smelled of home cooking. It had a calm, pleasant vibe, and as he followed Rebecca down a narrow hall to her bedroom, it brought back memories of his teen years. It had been a very, very long time since he’d followed a woman into a shared living situation.

Her bedroom was small, and it had a distinctly different feel from the rest of the house. This bedroom, with the photographs on her dresser, books beside the bed, and her clothes hanging in the closet, felt very much like Rebecca and smelled like the perfume she was wearing the first time they’d met. The titles on the bedside table caught his eye.
Marketing and Branding. The Hidden Entrepreneur. Understanding Acquisitions and Mergers. The Art of Business.
He wondered where the romance and women’s fiction titles were. Didn’t all women prefer light reading to business?
 
Rebecca didn’t fall into any other typical womanly trends. Why would her literary interests be any different?

He picked up one of the photographs of her mother. There was no question about it being anyone else. She and Rebecca had the same beautiful, expressive eyes and high cheekbones.

“Your mom was beautiful.”

Rebecca came out of the closet with an armful of dresses, skirts, and blouses. Pierce wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in close.

“Yeah, she was.” She set her clothes on the bed and Pierce took her hand in his.

“And you were about the cutest little girl I’ve ever seen.” He kissed her temple and lifted her left hand, the one with the ring she ran her thumb over every time she spoke of her mother. “Was this ring your mom’s?”

“How’d you know?”

“Every time you talk about her, you rub it with your thumb.”

“Yeah, she said my father gave it to her. It was too big, so she always wore it on her index finger. After she died, I liked having it on. I can’t believe you noticed that.”

“I notice a lot.” He settled his lips over hers.

“Oh, excuse me.”

Pierce turned toward the man’s voice.  

“Sorry, Henry.” Rebecca’s cheeks flushed, but when she looked up at Pierce, there was no embarrassment, only love. “This is my boyfriend, Pierce. Pierce, this is Daphne’s husband, Henry.”

Henry looked like the kind of man who would be right at home with a grandchild on each knee, with short gray hair and a friendly smile. He looked at Rebecca with a caring, fatherly gaze, and it warmed Pierce to know she had another person who seemed to care about her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Henry.” Pierce shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you, too, Pierce, and I’m sorry to interrupt.”

“We weren’t…” Rebecca stumbled over her words.

“We were just getting a few of Rebecca’s things for the weekend,” Pierce explained.

“Oh, are you two going away?” he asked.

“No. In fact, I have to work Sunday,” Rebecca said. “But I’ll be staying at Pierce’s.”

“Ah, right. Rebecca, I wanted to let you know that after our talk the other night, I got a little creative and put a few more feelers out in a different direction. You never know.” He winked.

“I’m so happy to hear that, Henry.” Rebecca embraced him. “I know everything will work out for you.”

“Well, you kids have fun.” With a nod, Henry disappeared down the hall.

“Creative?” Pierce asked.

Rebecca peered out of the bedroom and then whispered, “He was laid off from his accounting job and hasn’t been able to find anything for months.”

“Maybe I can hook him up. I’ll give him my number on the way out.”

“Pierce, you don’t have to save everyone.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “But it’s very nice of you to try to help him. I know they would appreciate any opportunity you can find. Thank you.”

“I’ll connect him with Chiara and we’ll see where it goes. Oh, before I forget, I need to shop for Luke and Daisy’s engagement gift. I know you said you have to work Sunday, but would you like to go shopping with me Saturday?”

“Sounds fun.”

He picked up one of the pictures of her mother. “Would you like to bring a few pictures over? Maybe put one on the mantel and one in the bedroom?”

“You wouldn’t mind? I do love having them near me.”

“This room feels like you, babe. Bring as many pictures and as much stuff as you’d like. I want my place to feel like you, too.”