20. Mira
MIRA
“I promise I’m fine. I just needed a week to rest.” I turned away from the window overlooking the grounds of our Santa Barbara resort, pacing the suite as I talked to Papa on the phone.
Watching so many happy, playful couples and families out there only made my heart ache.
“You’ve been running me ragged, you know. I’ll head back home soon.”
“You sound tired. Maybe you need more time off. Another day or two at the very least,” he insisted when I clicked my tongue. “It might be wise to dispense with the twice daily visits too.”
“What? Jeez, you really know how to make a girl feel valued,” I joked.
“ Cara Mia , I love you, and I know you care, but I won’t have you sacrificing your health.” I could imagine him sitting up in his hospital bed, watching his financial news reports, scowling at me from a hundred miles away.
“All right,” I relented with a sigh. “We can compromise on that. As for being tired, there’s nothing more important on my schedule than going for a swim.” My suit was already on the bed, silently beckoning me.
“You do that, and you make sure everyone over there knows they are not to interfere with you while you’re on vacation,” he warned. “Or they’ll have to answer to me.”
I loved the fierceness in his voice, even if he didn’t really have a say in what went on around here anymore.
It didn’t matter so long as he believed I was on vacation.
I had been licking my wounds since early Saturday morning, with it being past midnight when I arrived.
I was so upset that I never thought to call ahead and let them know I was on the way.
There was a suite available, though, and I took it once I had a promise from the front desk staff that they wouldn’t tell anybody I was here.
I tried to make it sound like a game like I was hiding out and didn’t want to be bothered. They couldn’t know how serious it was.
If only I were able to figure out what the hell to do next.
Clay called me several times a day throughout the week, like clockwork, but I didn’t have it in me to talk things out yet.
I had settled for letting him know I was alive and well, that I only needed time to think things over.
It was a surprise when he accepted that without throwing a fit.
I knew better than to overthink my good luck. Granted, for all I knew, he had packed up my things and sent everything back to my apartment. There was a time when I wanted to stay there, overjoyed at getting my life back.
Now? I wasn’t sure what I wanted my life to be. Everything was so mixed up, and I was running out of time to make sense of it. Add a surprise pregnancy to the mess, and it was no wonder I could barely go an hour without shedding at least one tear.
Instead of mulling it over and crying yet again, I changed into my swimsuit and layered a caftan over the top. There was already a book in my straw tote, along with sunscreen and my room key. I slid into a pair of sandals, grabbing a straw hat and my sunglasses before striding from the suite.
It was obvious from the energy in the air once I reached the lobby that there was something going on, but I didn’t know what. I sensed it from the electric charge in the air, the way the staff moved, how fast they were as they answered calls and crisscrossed with room service trays on carts.
“Chairs only.” Janine came my way, talking with a pair of men I recognized from the events department. “The podium has been set up. Make sure there’s water waiting.”
Whatever was happening, it was a big deal. It was so big Janine didn’t notice me as we crossed paths. I stopped and turned around, clearing my throat loudly once the guys hurried off.
She spun on her heel, running a hand over her curls in a distracted, flustered gesture. “Oh! Where did you come from?” she asked with a laugh. “It’s like you appeared out of thin air.”
“No, you were too busy to notice me.” I winked, grinning so she would know I was teasing. “So what’s up? Sounds like there’s something big happening here today.”
“Oh, not really.”
I stared at her. She stared at me. “Janine. How long have we known each other?”
Her throat worked when she gulped. “Are you hanging out at the pool? I’ll have one of the servers check on you to see if you need anything out there. How about a mimosa?”
“No, thank you.” She was giving me flashbacks of when I was a kid and Papa came up with ways to distract me when he had important things to do.
“You know, Janine, I don’t like throwing my weight around, but I am sort of your boss.
It’s obvious something is happening today that you don’t want me to know about.
I’m a little concerned that you won’t fess up. ”
“It’s not that I’m trying to keep anything from you. It’s only…” Her shoulders sank as she released a heavy sigh. “I give up. I did my best.”
“All right, you’re starting to worry me,” I admitted. “What is going on?”
Rather than answer in words, she crooked a finger, beckoning for me to follow.
I almost trotted behind her to keep up with her rapid footsteps as she led the way out of the lobby and down the hall, taking me back to the ballroom where Clay and I agreed to embark on our marriage of convenience.
Instead of being set up for a wedding reception, the room was full of rows of chairs positioned in front of a small, raised platform where a podium had been set up.
“What is all of this about?” A stack of papers on the podium caught my eye. A little impatient now, I went over and picked one up.
“He wanted to surprise you. Please, don’t tell him I told you.” Poor Janine. She was stricken, her voice tight. “I don’t want to be the one who ruined it.”
I barely heard a word of what she said, my attention absorbed by the press release in my hand. I had to read it three times for the message to sink in. “How? When?” I was still staring at the words in front of me, my head spinning along with the entire room, my heart racing. “How is this possible?”
A voice much deeper than Janine’s offered a reply. “You’d be surprised what a handful of well-paid lawyers can accomplish in a week.”
It was him.
The heart that was so busy pounding now tried to burst out of my chest at the sound of his voice.
With the paper clutched in my hand, I turned to find him lingering in the doorway, as painfully handsome as ever in his dark suit.
I couldn’t find my breath, much less put my confused, chaotic thoughts into words when he looked so good.
Especially not while my instincts begged me to run to him, to throw myself in his arms. I knew I’d missed him, but it wasn’t until that very moment that I understood exactly how much.
Janine cleared her throat. “I’m sure there’s something else I need to do.” I barely noticed her hurrying out of the room, which left us on our own.
He took one slow step, then another, almost like he was testing the waters. “I thought I might find you here. It’s the place you like best, right?”
He remembered. Big deal. I had already given him too much credit. I wasn’t about to applaud the fact that he paid attention every once in a while when I spoke.
Straightening my spine, I asked, “Are you going to find some way to turn my personal story into something you can use for yourself?” I lifted my chin, remembering how much it hurt when he took credit for yet another thing that didn’t belong to him.
“What?” He blinked rapidly, shaking his head a little like he was trying to clear it. “What does that mean?”
“It means you stood there, right in front of me, and had the nerve to pass off my idea as your own in front of our employees. It means you never so much as whispered my name during that speech you gave.” The more I thought about it, the fresher and more immediate my anger became.
The hurt, the betrayal. It wasn’t all about the anecdote.
That had only been the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.
“Then you left too soon. You didn’t give me a chance.” He came to a stop a few feet from me, his shoulders rising and falling in a deep breath. “You didn’t give me the chance to find out about the baby either. I had to do that on my own.”
It was a good thing there were chairs nearby since I dropped into the closest one when my knees gave out. “Oh.”
“Oh? That’s all you have to say?” I couldn’t tell if he was angry or amused. His face was a stony mask. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to. I was going to do it after the gala, honestly,” I insisted when he snorted. “Can you blame me for worrying about how you would react? You were pretty clear on being uninterested in starting a family.”
“When it was only a hypothetical possibility, sure.” He threw his hands into the air, exasperated.
At least he was showing a little emotion instead of that stoic act of his.
“Put a positive test in my hand, and you’d be surprised at how my feelings change.
You didn’t give me the chance to process it before you decided to run away. What were you thinking?”
“No. We’re not going to ignore all your bullshit.” I waved the press release I was still clutching. I held the paper up in my trembling fist. “Let’s start here. What is this?”
The question calmed him. “That is what I should have done from the beginning,” he explained, quieter now. “That is my attempt at setting things right. Giving you what you deserve.”
I smoothed out the crumpled paper and read it again. “You’re renaming the company?”
“That’s a small part of it, yes,” he murmured, moving closer.
“Instead of Manning Hospitality Group, we are now the Manning-Rinaldi Group. And you will serve as co-president if you want to,” he added.
“No more making decisions for you. You can make them on your own. If you want the job title, it’s yours. ”
“You know I’d want to,” I muttered. “Or you wouldn’t have put the details in a freaking press release before ever discussing it with me.”