Chapter Thirty
Scarlett
I never thought of myself as a glutton for punishment. But here I am, hungry, it seems, for more.
Honestly, I should have taken up the offer of the Catskills. I almost did. But I was leaving for a bus to take me, keys are in my bag, when some kid gave me a printed note. Old school, but the paper’s expensive and it isn’t signed, and the kid said the guy gave him fifty bucks.
So here I am, back at Hudson’s place in the East Sixties, the streetlamps casting dappled light through the trees and couples strolling with dogs and cyclists zipping along make it all seem idyllic.
Seem being the word.
The note had to be from Hudson. Who else would send me something that said we need to talk?
I take a breath and force myself on reluctant legs to go to his door.
He doesn’t take long to answer this time, and he isn’t as ferocious as he was earlier. But he looks disheveled and he’s staring at me like I’m some horrible ghost.
No…he’s staring at me like he can’t believe I’m there. The rest of his expression I can’t read, but there’s something in his dark blue eyes that causes my heart to lurch and fill with a little hope.
“I got your note,” I say in a rush, holding it out.
Hudson takes it and scans it in moments. I mean, it’s four words long. Then he looks back at me. “Not mine.”
“Oh.” I swallow, taking the note and crumpling it in one hand. “It’s not a ruse to see you. I promise. You made it very clear—”
“That has my mother all over it, trying to be me.”
“Why—” I stop. What am I even doing? He doesn’t want me here. “I’ll go.”
I turn but Hudson speaks, stopping me.
“She thinks she can meddle, apparently. Used to do that when I fought with my brothers. When we were teenagers.”
I nod and force myself to take a step.
His voice is soft when he speaks next. And it almost floors me. “Scarlett…don’t go.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought you’d gone and I think she’s right. Come in. Please. Then you can go. After we talk.”
That…doesn’t sound overly promising, no matter what my heart might be thinking, but even if it’s the faintest hope, I have to take it. And I need to tell him how I feel.
So I turn and slip in past him, careful not to touch him and then I stop as he shuts the door, unsure which way to go.
“This way,” he says, moving ahead of me and pointing into a room I haven’t been in.
Any other time and I’d be fascinated. This is not him. At all. This has the fingerprints of an interior designer who went with tasteful money and didn’t know him at all. Hudson has taste, but not delicate pieces of furniture that make a statement.
He likes simplicity in his home if his bedroom is anything to go by. Even in his office…it’s beautiful, gorgeous pieces, an antique desk from the look of it, but it’s all functional, masculine without hitting anyone on the head, and it’s understated. This…is not.
“Who did the room?”
“Someone I hired. I don’t use a lot of the place. Why?”
I shrug. “It’s not you.”
He goes over to a drinks cart that’s straight out of a Gatsby wet dream and pours two drinks and hands me one. I hold it because I don’t know what else to do with it.
“I came here because…I’ve gone and fallen in love with you.” He doesn’t say a word, so I plunge on. “And I never in a million years meant to hurt you or screw up the job you hired me for. That’s why I—”
This time I take a sip of the smooth whiskey and I continue. “I never thought my lies would cause this havoc. The reason I mentioned the lawyer is I demanded the interview and I hope to God I did right. I didn’t open that package you got for me, the one on you, and that wasn’t out of anything other than I didn’t get around to it. And the thing is, I already know all the things that matter about you. When I saw it, I thought it was the updated contract you wanted me to sign.”
“I see.”
I bite my lip. “I know the report you left for me might have contained information, like when you lost your first tooth or the name and address of your first girlfriend, and I know you don’t believe in love. I’m not asking for that back. But I didn’t need to read the report, Hudson, because that stuff, that’s just details. Things anyone can find out. I know you.”
He’s just standing there, like he’s frozen, his expression betraying nothing, his focus completely on me.
So I continue. “You’re a martini with complexity. You’re a good boss and demanding. You work way too much, but you also love it. And…and you have a good heart, Hudson. Otherwise, you’d have made good on your word to finish me and those I love. You don’t speak idly. You have purpose. And you’re funny. You might not get my dumb references, but you know how to laugh and make jokes and poke fun at yourself and I’ve never seen you be mean to anyone, no matter who they are. Okay, me. But I deserved it. And you can dance. You’re a little wild in there, just like the perfect martini. Packing all the right punches in the right way.”
I set the drink down on the delicate side table and I cross the handwoven soft beige and earth-colored rug to the door to the hall.
Still not a word from Hudson and I nod, my heart shriveling up, all the hope gone. He doesn’t need to love me. It’s not a selfish thing, me loving him. It just is. And I’ve said my piece. Except one thing.
“You’re a good man. And I think you believe in love, deep down. Not with me. But I hope you find the right person.”
“Do you?”
I nod again, pressing my lips together, wanting desperately not to cry here. But I’m so close. “I need to go. I thought all of this, what we set out to do, would be easy.”
“Yeah,” he says, putting his drink on the trolley. “I thought so, too.”
“Goodbye, Hudson.”
“You know what?” He doesn’t wait for me to answer. He keeps speaking. “Fuck it.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said fuck it. Fuck the damn Sinclair jewel. Fuck my wounded pride, fuck everything. It’s not worth it.”
“What are you saying?” My head is starting to spin and I grab hold of the doorway.
Hudson starts crossing to me in slow, measured steps. “I’m saying I worked something out tonight. I do believe in love. If it’s you. I’m in love with you, too. And, Scarlett, nothing is worth losing you. Not my stupid pride, not a jewel, not even my piece of the family business and my heritage. Because without you, that’s just meaningless shit.”
He’s in front of me now, so close and the sweet tension that exists between us rises, made sweeter by the singing in my blood and the sudden lightness in my heart. He traces the curve of my cheek with his finger and I sigh, a tear slipping free. One he catches and smooths away with his thumb.
“I want you, Scarlett. You. Your mouthiness and inappropriate comments. The way you think and move and challenge me. I’ve never felt like this before and I’m going to make mistakes. Hopefully not like this one, but I know I will. I’m not infallible. And I need you, too. Since you came and worked for me, life got more interesting, it got better. And I’m always going to be Hudson Sinclair, so I have to say that my work life got better. You have a way of doing things in all walks of life that I need. I’m not good at going outside the box in the way you are. And you don’t have to work for me, but if you could help me train your replacement and then you can do whatever you damn well want. I’m going to need you.”
“You are?”
Hudson smiles slowly. “You’re going to be involved in developing those damn AIs that are going to take over the planet, so I’d like to be by your side.”
I suddenly laugh. “You’re admitting you’re using me as your personal shield?”
“I don’t lie.” His smile fades. “Joking aside, I’m ridiculously in love with you. I never realized it until I thought I’d lost you. Marry me, Scarlett.”
“Yes.”
It’s that easy to say, that word to his question. I’m spinning and I don’t care. I throw my arms around him and go to kiss him when his doorbell rings.
Hudson groans. “I’m having that removed. Wait here.”
I do. I even do a little dance while he’s gone. Maybe this is fast, but I don’t care. I want to be with him. I’ve never felt like this before and it feels utterly right. Like something clicked into place.
“Scarlett?”
I go still. He has a manilla padded envelope in one hand that’s open, and he holds something in the other. He shows me. On a piece of paper with writing is a ring. It’s utterly beautiful. A pink diamond.
“Is that…?”
“Yeah. My Sinclair jewel.” He drops the envelope and takes my hand. “And a note. I passed, apparently.”
I try to read the cursive script upside down but can’t. “That’s a lot of words for that.”
“It says to keep the family business that means something beyond money to the Sinclair brothers, each and every one of them will be given their own test, with four weeks, within a twelve-month period. If they don’t pass, they lose the Sinclair family business. Out of private and into public hands. It will be lost forever.”
I gasp. “But—”
“I’ll let my brothers know tomorrow,” he says, dropping the note and pulling me closer. He still has the ring in his hand, though. “But this is their problem now, not mine.”
“Hudson. We’re talking the family legacy, something that’s beyond important to you.”
“All my life, that was right, but not anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I want to keep it in the family, but you mean more to me.”
I’m trying to breathe, my heart almost bursting. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, my sweet Scarlett—” he slips the ring on my finger “—is I have something better to live for. You.”
“Stop it. You’ll make me cry.” I look at the ring, and it’s beautiful, almost as beautiful as him. It’s slightly loose, but I don’t care. I meet his gaze as I slide my hands up around his neck.
He kisses me, soft and loving and full of hope and the future. And then he says, against my mouth, “We can start our own legacy. One built from love. What do you say?”
“Yes.”
And when we kiss, it’s the beginning of our own legacy. This is no dark inheritance. It’s new. A bright, shining future full of love.
This is the end of Hudson and Scarlett's love story.
But the two, as well as all the other Sinclair brothers, return, very soon