22. Hayden
TWENTY-TWO
“I fucked up. Bad,” I tell Brody when he answers the phone. “She found out about my original motives and demanded I leave, saying it’s over.”
Brody curses under his breath but thankfully doesn’t pull an ‘I told you so.’ “What are you going to do?” he asks, raw emotion seeping through every word. We might’ve agreed that we would walk away if Bree only wanted to be with one of us, but we both know that this lie by omission will be the reason we lose her if I don’t fix it. We both knew about the situation. And based on her question regarding Brody, Bree knows too.
“There’s only one thing I can do. I’m going to tell my father once and for all that it’s not happening. Then I’m going to beg Bree for forgiveness.” I pull into the underground garage where my parents live and turn off the engine. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
We hang up, and I head up to my parents’ place, already learning from Carly that he’s working from home this afternoon. I ring the doorbell, and a minute later, my mom opens the door with a glass of white wine in her hand. The woman always has a damn drink in her hand.
“Hayden,” she coos, opening the door and kissing my cheek as I walk in. “To what do we owe this pleasure?”
“I’m here to speak to Dad. Is he in his office?”
She nods. “Since you’re here, you should stay for dinner.”
I nod noncommittally since I have no idea how this conversation will go.
I find my dad in his office, typing vigorously on his laptop. When I walk in, he glances up, then does a double take. “Son, I heard you took the day off. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I need to talk to you, though.” He removes his glasses and sits back, giving me his attention. “Aubree Heart isn’t going to let you buy her out of her lease. She’s emotionally attached to it, and no amount of money you can offer will change her mind. I have a list of other properties that I would like to present, and I’d like your support on this?—”
My dad holds up his hand. “Benitez said he saw you there a little while ago. Said it looked personal. Is there something you want to tell me?”
I was afraid that asshole would run to my dad. “We’re dating. Well, we were before she found out my part in all of this.” Though, technically, since I never once spoke to her about selling out, I don’t really have much of a part in any of it… But that doesn’t matter since I knew and kept it from her.
Dad nods. “Everyone has momentary lapses in judgment. You’re young and still have a lot to learn. Starting with not choosing pussy over business. But now that it’s over, and I’m assuming you’ve learned your lesson the hard way, you need to handle this.”
His words grate me, the way he callously refers to Bree like she’s something of insignificance when she means so much more to me than that.
I release a calming breath. “She’s not just pussy,” I tell him, needing him to understand. Wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt. “I care about her. She’s become someone important to me. She’s not going to sell, and I’m not going to ask her to. We need to figure out another option.”
His eyes widen fractionally before he schools his features, shaking his head. “How the hell do you expect to run a company when you can’t separate business from pleasure?” He stands, towering over me. “Either you convince her to sign over that goddamn lease, or you can kiss that CEO title goodbye.”
I stare at him, wondering how in the hell I was raised by someone so emotionally detached. His son, his flesh and blood, just told him he cares about someone, and his only response is to threaten me.
“I quit.” The words are out before I even realize what I’m saying, but I don’t regret them. For years, I’ve given this man every damn part of me, but it’s never enough. It’s never going to be enough.
“You don’t mean that,” he says, looking stricken like he never imagined I could say such a thing.
“I do.” I stand, ready to be done with this conversation. “I quit. Gretchen can have the CEO title.”
As I’m heading toward the door, he calls out, “You’re making a big mistake. Think about what you’re doing. Take some time off to rethink this. You’re about to throw away your entire future for a woman.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing,” I tell him. “And she’s not just a woman. She’s the woman I can see spending my life with. Goodbye, Dad.”
After saying bye to my mom, I take off. I don’t call Bree, knowing she won’t answer. Instead, I go home so I can talk to Brody, and we can figure this out together. When I walk through the door, he’s pacing the floor. He looks up at me. “How’d it go?”
“I’m unemployed.” I chuckle humorlessly.
His eyes widen. “He fired you?”
“Nah, I quit after he told me to stop choosing pussy over business, even after I told him I care about Bree. Fuck him.”
“You don’t need him,” he agrees. “You only worked for him because of familial obligations. Now you can come work with me.” He grins, and I shake my head. On several occasions, Brody’s asked me to come work with him, but he’s right. I felt like I owed it to my dad, to my family, to work for the family business, even though he never appreciated me. I kept hoping if he could let go of the reins, I could take over and turn it into a place I wanted to work at.
“We’ll see,” I say with a smirk. “I think I’m going to take a few weeks off. Use that paid vacation I never fucking use.”
Brody chuckles. “Makes sense. And while you’re off, you can beg Bree to take us back.”
“Us?”
“I tried calling and texting, and she sent my ass to voicemail and didn’t respond to my messages. She’s lumping me into this shit, and you need to fix it.”
“She asked if you knew. I didn’t confirm, but I think she put it together since we’re close. I’m sorry, man.” I clasp his shoulder. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make this right.”
The first thing I do is text Bree, asking to talk, hoping maybe she’s calmed a little. When she doesn’t reply, I look up a common “I’m sorry” flower and then order a bouquet of blue hyacinths to be sent to her immediately.
Since I know that won’t be enough, I wait for the confirmation that she received them, and then I go over to her place since I know she’s home. I slip in with someone else so she can’t deny me access and then knock on her door.
Without asking who it is, she swings the door open, her eyes widening in shock, telling me she was expecting someone else.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” she says, ready to slam the door in my face.
“Please, just give me a few minutes.”
“I don’t have a few minutes,” she says, sniffling. “I thought you were the car service.”
“Car service to where?” My heart beats like a drum in my chest. Where the hell would she be going?
“To the airport,” she answers robotically. “I’m going to visit my kids for a few days. I miss them.”
She’s running. This isn’t good.
“Please don’t do this,” I say, stepping toward her.
She takes a step back. “Go visit my kids?”
“No, run. I fucked up. I know I did. But Brody wasn’t a part of this.”
“He knew and didn’t say a word. He’s guilty by association.” She grabs the handle on her suitcase and pops it up. “I gotta go.”
She pushes me out the door and locks it behind her, ignoring me the entire time. I follow her to the elevator, unsure what to say but too scared to let her go—like when she gets into the car it’s going to be the end of us when we’ve only just begun.
With that thought, fear drives what I do next. Reaching out, I press the emergency stop button, halting the elevator.
“What the hell are you doing?” she yells over the blaring alarm.
“Please don’t go,” I beg again, crowding her in the corner. “Please don’t get in that car and get on the plane with the purpose of running. I know I fucked up, but fuck, Bree…” I shake my head, tears pricking my lids. “I care about you so much, and I never meant to hurt you.”
“But you did,” she says so softly I can barely hear her over the alarm. Tears slide down her cheeks like twin waterfalls, and it feels as though I’m at the bottom, drowning in her emotions. “If you care about me, you’ll let me go. You hurt me, and now I’m done.”
“I’m afraid if you go, this is the end,” I admit out loud. “You’re the best thing to happen to me. For years, I was only focused on work, and it wasn’t until I met you that I realized I’d been going through the motions. You walked into my life, and suddenly, I can see an entire future I never considered before.”
“Then you should’ve thought about that.” She presses the button, and the ringing stops, the elevator continuing its descent.
When the doors open, she stalks out before me, and I follow her out the door and to the car, wishing I could kidnap her and hold her hostage, so she’d be forced to listen and let me make shit right. But life doesn’t work that way, and as she gets into the car without so much as a glance back at me, I know she’s done. And as the car drives away, I watch Bree take my heart—and Brody’s—with her.