Chapter 2
Olivia Bancroft
Noah Westcott changed the course of my life forever.
I rush to my office, carefully closing the door behind me as if I could act normal under these circumstances. Scrambling to grab my phone from my purse in the drawer, I push the number in my contacts.
“Mom?” I say before she has a chance to greet me.
“What’s wrong?” Panic shreds her tone.
“I didn’t mean to alarm you.” I try to calm the shake to my voice before I worry her more than needed. What kind of concern is required in this situation because this feels like a four-alarm fire. Steady, Liv. “He’s here.”
“Who’s here?”
“Him.”
Silence begins to stretch before she asks, “What do you mean him? Maxwell is napping right now.” My heart clenches. Maxwell. My sweet boy.
Shaking my head, I can feel my hands doing the same. “No, not Maxwell. Noah.”
“Honey, who’s Noah?”
I hold the phone tight in my hand and walk to the window to pace in some feeble attempt to calm myself. “No-ah, Mom.”
“You can say it as slow as you want, but I still don’t know who you’re talking—” She doesn’t have to finish that sentence for me to know that she’s realized exactly who I’m talking about. I hear her breath on a slow exhale before she asks, “How? Why? Did you know?”
I’m still shaking my head in disbelief. I finally take a deep breath and stop, staring at the Financial District’s skyline.
Lowering my voice, I reply, “He’s the new accounts rep.
Dad hired him, recruited actually.” I can’t stop annoyance from coating my tongue.
It’s not fair that I feel betrayed. I know my father had no idea who he was hiring, but that one decision has major consequences for my life.
“I don’t know what to say, Olivia.”
“Me either.” When my knees buckle, I sink into my desk chair and drop my head into my hand. With the phone still pressed to my ear, I whisper, “I can’t lose him.”
“You won’t. I promise.”
“He’s . . .” Tears fill my eyes, but I tilt my head back, hoping they won’t fall. “He’s my whole world, Mom.”
“I know. I know, honey. Don’t do anything rash. We’ll figure this out when you get home.”
“And by rash, you mean try to convince him to quit on his first day of work? If that’s rash, it’s too late.”
“You’ve spoken?”
“I panicked. It’s all I could think to do.”
“Okay.” She sighs and pauses. I don’t have to see her to know she’s pacing like I was seconds ago.
Much like me, I’m sure my mom has all the scenarios playing out in her head.
I wonder if any of hers come with a happier ending than I’m envisioning.
“Until we can make a plan, you need to avoid him. Do you understand?”
“Should I call my lawyer?”
“No. Let’s not escalate the situation before we know what we’re dealing with.”
“And who we’re dealing with.” I nod again, knowing I have at least one ally, my mom, in my corner. Relief doesn’t wash over me, but it does trickle through me. “You’re right. We’ll get a plan together before I need to tell him that he has a son.”
“Olivia?”
“Yes?”
“It’s going to be okay.”
I know she can’t see me nodding, but those damn tears roll down my cheeks from the reassurance my mom has always given me. I’m lucky to have her.
She says, “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Love you.”
“I love you, too, honey.”
A rap on my door startles me before I have a chance to hang up. “One moment,” I call out just as I hit the end button.
I’m wiping my tears away when the door opens. “Hey, Liv—”
Dammit. I spin around, hiding my face from Noah. I refuse to give him the pleasure of seeing me upset. “Don’t walk into my office without permission.”
“I thought you said to come in.”
“I didn’t. I said one moment.”
“Are you okay?” I hate how nice he sounds, like he actually cares about me.
After a quick double swipe across my cheeks, I spin back, holding my chin up. “I’m fine. What do you need?”
“Need?” The word sparks something in his eyes—an idea, a rogue thought, or maybe it’s revenge he seeks.
He looks like the type with his great-fitting suit and smirk that sends butterflies scattering in my stomach.
The only thing I can’t force myself to be mad about is the color of his eyes.
They’re so close to the ones I love that I’ll never tire of staring into the wealth of colors that make up my son’s.
He says, “I don’t need anything.”
“Are you here to tell me you’re quitting?”
“Now, why would I do that?”
I shrug. “Figured you want to do what’s best for the company.”
“Best for the company?” He bursts out laughing. “Look, Liv—”
“It’s Olivia.”
“Olivia. Oliv-vi-a.” He rolls my name around on his tongue like he’s tasting it for the first time. “Look, Olivia, I’m not sure why you want me gone, but we need to talk about what’s really going on here.”
“What’s really going on is that you invited yourself into my world without even so much as a hello—”
“Interesting requirement since you struggle with goodbyes.”
I laugh just to mimic, to stay on even footing, though there’s no humor or believability in it. Not even to me. I’m the worst faker, even if it would serve me better after having the rug pulled out from under me.
“Hello.” His voice is calm, too comfortable for someone who shouldn’t feel that at home here, much less act like he has the upper hand. But moreover, why does he have to look so handsome in his arrogance?
It takes me a second, but then I realize what he’s doing. He’s toying with me.
I can’t even look at him without anger taking over.
Walking to the window, I tighten my hands to my arms because if I don’t, I’ll be fisting them again, and I refuse to show him that weakness.
“Look, Noah . . .” I start, sounding calmer at least. Keeping my eyes set on the avenue below, I shift, lowering my arms just before turning to face him.
“This may be a joke to you, but it’s my life, my career, and my reputation that will be ruined in an instant if—”
“If word gets out that we slept together? Is that what you think I’d do?
” He stands on the other side of my desk, an ease in my presence taking over his hard body.
“You think I’d tell everyone about our night in the Hamptons, gossip about that night just to win them over as if this is a competition and only one of us survives? ”
“I don’t know what you’d do because I don’t know you. Sleeping with you—”
“We didn’t sleep together.” His voice is firm, the edges of his patience tested in the reply. “I fell asleep waiting for you, so you don’t have to dance around the act of sex to make it more palatable. Just call it what it was.”
“What was it?”
“Fucking.” His eyes leave mine as his temper flares—the tic of his jaw, the hard lines of his shoulders returning when he stands.
“I can’t argue with that, but I need it to stay in the past forever.
” I sit back down and pull myself forward.
Clasping my hands together on the desk, I say, “I’ve worked hard to get where I am.
It’s not been easy. In fact, the hoops I had to jump through to prove my value to this company and to my own father would have deterred most people.
But I jumped. So if anyone finds out, it will set me back again and—”
Staring at me, not a blink shared between us, he sets his phone down and presses his palms to my desk, lowering himself until he’s eye level with me. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“Thank you.”
He straightens his back and pulls at the front of his suit jacket.
“But you need to work through whatever has you so hell-bent on me leaving this company because I’m not quitting, Olivia.
” I shoot daggers when he turns his back to me.
Opening the door, he adds, “You’ll have to excuse me. I have a meeting.”
When he walks out, he closes the door behind him.
I suck in a harsh breath, not realizing I had stopped breathing when he was so close. I want to hate him . . . so much. But the best I can muster is hating him for turning my world upside down twice. Though I can’t hate the outcome.
Feeling a smile cross my face, I turn back to look out the window again.
My gaze travels the three blocks, and my smile grows, my chest feeling lighter as joy fills me with images of my son.
“It will be okay, Liv.” I jump, my smile wiped away before I could find comfort. Noah adds, “I forgot my phone.”
Our eyes go to the desk between us. He slips the phone from the surface and tucks it in his pocket. He says, “We don’t have to be enemies.”
Enemies? Is that what I’m making him?
I just worry about the damage he could do If I even open the door an inch to let him in. Until I know the man behind the smirk, the sexy swagger, and who he is on the inside, Noah Westcott is the key to my demise.
Moving to the door, he looks back over his shoulder at me. I ask, “Is there any other option?”
His chest fills, and his shoulders rise before he exhales slowly. He doesn’t bother hiding the disappointment. I’d know that look anywhere. I’m used to it from my father. Noah’s eyes leave mine, and he walks out the door again without another word shared between us.
I’d say that’s calculated on his part, but a feeling in my gut has me believing it was a genuine reaction. How did Noah manage to turn this around so I’m feeling sorry for him?
Don’t second-guess yourself, Liv. I can’t take the risk. I won’t lower my guard to make him feel better. Most importantly, I refuse to leave my son’s future to chance with a man I once barely connected with.
“Define rash for me again?” Frustration rolls through me as I push my apartment door closed behind me and set my purse down on the bench in the entry. I kick off my shoes and continue down the hall.
“Oh no,” echoes down the hall, my mom’s voice reaching me before I see them.
As soon as I enter the living room, my mom looks up from the floor.
With her perfectly coiffed brown bob and light touch makeup, my mom is always put together and tasteful.
Wearing ankle-length pants in navy and a shock of pink sweater, she puts me to shame when I’m home with Maxwell. “What happened?”