Chapter 41
41
KOLBI
Hey angel, I’m heading to your parent’s house now. You aren’t going to be there, right? You’re heading to barre right now?
I sent the text off quickly before pulling out of the parking lot. The Sinclairs had called me on Monday to discuss the final details of their summer campaign fundraiser which was happening right before the Fourth of July. With it being two weeks away, they wanted to make sure we were all on the same page with the level of security they would be needing. William had pulled ahead in the forecasting polls and they were expecting a large turnout for this fundraiser.
No, I won’t be there today.
Wait, how did you know I was heading to barre? Did I tell you I was going to class?
I squeezed my eyes shut, annoyed by my own misstep in assuming I knew where she was when she hadn’t told me. I knew though because I had just opened the app I used to check the trackers I had on the important people in my life and saw the little flower emoji heading down Church Street towards her barre studio.
Yeah I think so, the last time you were over I think.
Liar.
Bummer I won’t see you till tonight though.
Well, maybe not because I do have a hard time keeping my hands off of you when you’re around Especially when you’re wearing those tight yoga pants and crop tops.
Down boy, don’t go getting all riled up before heading into the lion’s den.
Here’s something to hold you over though
A text came through with a photo of her she’d clearly snapped while walking down the street. The sun was shining and she was pushing her lips towards the camera, carrying her yoga mat under one arm and blowing a kiss to her phone with her hand. I looked at the image and couldn’t stop myself from smiling as I clicked the little down arrow next to the photo to save it to my phone.
This amount of beauty should be illegal. How’d I get so lucky to be able to call you mine?
I wouldn’t call it luck, Jack. I would call it you nearly running me over with your skateboard. Now go and get this meeting done. Maybe I’ll let you take pictures of me doing other things tonight if it goes well
I cleared my throat as I read her message and smoothed my tie down as if doing so would also sooth my now climbing heart rate.
Yes ma’am.
Thirty minutes later, the tires of my SUV grinded against the gravel driveway as I pulled up to the hundred year old home. As I stepped out, closing the door behind me, a familiar face stepped out onto the porch to greet me.
“Well, hello, Ms. Ruthie,” I called up to her, raising a hand to block out the midsummer sun that was hitting its peak in the sky.
“Hello, Mr. Vesey. Welcome back to the Sinclair household. Mrs. Sinclair is just inside waiting for you.” I walked up the front steps and raised my hand for her to shake. She extended her hand and took mine, bowing her head respectfully as she did.
“How are you doin’ today?” I asked the kind woman. She shuffled her feet towards the door and gave it a good push.
“Ahh, I’m alright. Feelin’ a little tired here recently. I’m not as young as I used to be.” Her words were solemn but she smiled through them anyway.
“Maybe it’s time for you to retire then,” I offered. She looked like she could be in her late seventies or even early eighties. “Surely by now you’ve worked enough and have earned the break.”
“Oh, I don’t have that privilege. The Sinclairs have been good to me all these years, letting me live on the grounds and what not. I don’t have a family no more and I owe it to them to work and do my best.” She shook her head tightly and pursed her lips. I started to speak but was interrupted by the shrill sound of Susan Sinclair’s voice cutting through the enormous halls of the house.
“Mr. Vesey, welcome back to our home. I assume you made it okay since you’ve been here so many times before?” The smile on her face looked forced, as if she wanted to be anywhere but here.
“Yes ma’am, I did. Traffic wasn’t too bad either which is always a plus. Will William be joining us?”
“Mr. Sinclair is very busy and is unable to join us today,” she stated through tight lips. The passive aggressive correction of my using William’s first name wasn’t lost on me.
“No problem, you and I can talk about what you will be needing for the fundraiser then.” She waved her arm towards the dining room and I followed behind her.
We sat around the hand-carved oak table which had been set with fine china and finger sandwiches. It was just after lunch, so I wasn’t hungry enough to take any. Susan sat on the opposite side of the table, watching me like a hawk. Her eyes were narrow and her lips pressed together. I looked at her for a moment before pulling my shoulders back and meeting her eyes confidently.
“So the Fourth of July fundraiser will be a big one?” I started, trying to break the tension between us. Something about her demeanor felt off to me. I wasn’t sure if it was because her husband wasn’t here or because it felt like the air conditioning wasn’t working and the heat of the summer was starting to seep in, but the collar of my dress shirt was beginning to stick to my neck.
“Our biggest. We’re partnering with the booster club for it and there will be well over four hundred people here. We will need to make sure we have ample security so nothing goes missing and no one steps out of place.”
“Of course, I’m more than happy to have more of my team here for the event. Can you please remind me one more time of the?—”
“It would be a shame if someone forgot their rightful place and tried to fit in somewhere they don’t belong,” she sneered, interrupting me. Her hands were crossed politely on top of the table but the way her eyes were turned to me was anything but.
“I assure you Mrs. Sinclair, my people will make sure the event goes off without any problems,” I said slowly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as she tilted her head to one side. The silence between us was deafening—the only sound to be heard was the faint noise of a vacuum being run in some far off room in the house.
“You know what I find utterly disgusting?” she asked in an even tone as she pulled a crystal glass to her mouth. As it caught the sunlight, I could see the frosted family monogram stamped into the base of the fluted glass.
“What’s that?” I offered, trying to choose my words wisely.
“When someone takes advantage of other people’s charity. There is truly no bigger disgrace than that. Don’t you agree?” She sucked in her lips and glared at me, carefully setting the glass down on the table.
“I can’t disagree with you on that Mrs. Sinclair. I also find that to be disappointing.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” she scoffed, twisting her face up in disgust.
“Excuse me?” I felt my brows meet in the middle of my face as I watched this woman and her pearls scowl at me from across the table.
“We welcomed you into our home, hired you to keep us safe, and what did you do in return? You started seeing our daughter behind our backs.” She spat the words at me as if they tasted like poison to her. My heart jolted in my chest as they sank in.
“How do you?—”
“It doesn’t matter how I know. But I do. And here’s what I want you to know.” She wiped her hands on the napkin in her lap and recrossed her legs. “You will stop seeing my daughter immediately. You will no longer be with her as she is destined for far greater things than you. And once my husband gets elected into office, your work with our family will be over.” As she spoke, not an ounce of emotion ran across her face. She simply looked at me with a tight smile and spoke evenly.
“And what if I refuse to do that? What if I refuse to stop seeing her?”
“Then your business will be ruined. I know some very important people, Mr. Vesey, and I don’t think they would take too kindly to knowing about how you’re stealing from them. Imagine what it would do for business if your highest paying clients found out that the man who they’d hire to protect their belongings, was actually pilfering them away like a bandit in the night.” She cocked her head to one side and flashed me a sickly sweet smile.
I shook my head, dumbstruck that she would stoop so low. I tried to steady my voice before speaking, but the rage growing inside of me due to her threat was starting to take over.
“I nor my people have ever stolen from our clients,” I said firmly without raising my voice too much. “How dare you threaten to slander all the hard work they’ve done. And for what reason? To get me to leave your daughter? Because I can promise you right now, Mrs. Sinclair, I will not be doing that. I love Magnolia and I will not do to her what you’re asking me to do.”
“Enough!” she shouted and stood from the table furiously causing the delicate china and crystal to shudder. Looking down at me with flared nostrils, I watched as her chest rose and fell heavily as she pushed out heated breaths. “Magnolia is destined for great things and she will not be taken down by someone like you. ”
I stood from the table and buttoned my jacket in front of me, taking a breath before speaking. “I love your daughter, Mrs. Sinclair. I won’t do what you’re asking me to do to her. I won’t break her heart. Because breaking her heart would mean breaking mine.” I took a step away from the table, about to see myself out but paused and turned to look at her again. “And because you mentioned it, something I find utterly disgusting is a mother who can’t see past her own personal gains when it comes to her daughter’s happiness. That to me is utterly disgusting. I hope you have a nice day now.”
As I walked out of the dining room, leaving Susan standing at the table glowering back at me, I spotted Ms. Ruthie standing inside the open kitchen door looking out, having heard the entire conversation. She gave me a grave look for a moment before dropping her head and walking out of sight.
I paced around the kitchen for almost an hour waiting for her to come over. She had told me she would be here after she and Margaret finished shopping for her father’s Fourth of July fundraiser. She tried calling me on my way home from my meeting with her mother but I ignored her call because I didn’t think I’d be able to keep what had happened from her. I needed some time to think about what transpired before she came to stay the night with me.
While I had managed to keep a level head in front of her, I was completely stunned by what Susan had said to me. What she threatened to do to me if I failed to comply with her demands. Never in my life had I been blackmailed, or, threatened to be slandered? I wasn’t really sure what to call what she had told me she would do if I didn’t break up with her daughter. But I couldn’t do that to her, I wouldn’t. I was crazy about her and wouldn’t be another person on the list of people who’d hurt her. Even if it meant the reputation and name of Sweetgrass Security came under fire.
On my drive home, I’d wavered back and forth on whether or not to tell her about what Susan had said to me. I knew how stressed she’s been about keeping our relationship from her parents, but now I knew that Susan was already fully aware of it. And she wasn’t happy about it. The spot on the back of my hand was starting to burn from how hard my thumb rubbed into it when I heard the keypad beeping down the hall that led to the front door.
She walked in carrying several large bags that rivaled the size of the smile on her face when she saw me. Looking at her from inside the doorframe, I knew I couldn’t keep this from her. If the roles were reversed, I would want her to tell me.
“Hey, you,” she said warmly as I walked down the hallway towards her. I needed to feel her, hold her, pull her into me so that I could hopefully slow the sinking feeling I had in my gut. “How was your meeting at my parents’? I can’t wait to show you the options I picked out for the fundraiser. I just hope one of them will be enough to please my psychotic mother.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head, setting the bags down on the ground and kicking off her shoes.
“Hey there, angel, did you have a good time with Margaret?” My voice was somber as I pulled her into a hug which she gladly accepted. Her arms wrapped around my neck as mine looped around her waist. As I held her in the embrace, I felt her feet leave the floor and I wondered if she could feel my heart pounding behind my sternum.
“Hey.” She pulled away as I set her back down and looked up at me with worried eyes. “What’s wrong?”
I ground my lips between my teeth and took her hand in mine. “Come on, we need to talk.”
She followed me silently down the hallway without any interjection—a first for her and a clear sign that she knew something was up. I pulled a seat out for her at the dining room table and took the seat next to her, reaching for her hand before speaking again. Looking into her eyes, which were full of love and worry, I struggled to produce any words. I bowed my head, looking towards my knees because I knew that what I was about to say wasn’t going to be easy. When I felt her hand on my cheek, I looked back at her and tried to swallow my fears.
“What’s going on?”
“So I talked with your mom today,” I started, trying to piece this together as delicately as I could.
“I know, about the fundraiser.” Her eyes darted around my face, trying to pick up on any clues as to what was causing me to act like I was.
“Flower…she knows.”
She furrowed her brows at me. “What do you mean she knows ?”
I trapped both her hands between mine and pulled them into my lap. “I mean she knows about us.”
“ What ?” she exclaimed, feverishly shaking her head at me trying to make it untrue.
“She told me so this afternoon as we sat across a table covered in finger sandwiches and fine china.”
“How did she?—”
“I don’t?—”
“Daniel,” she interrupted, connecting the dots in her mind about who would have possibly gained from telling her mother about us. “He must have said something to someone who brought it back to her. I can’t believe he would do that.”
“Baby, that’s not all she said,” I added before she could run away with her thoughts. She snapped her eyes towards me again.
“What else did she say?”
I took a deep breath and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. The last thing I wanted was for her to think that any of this was her fault when it wasn’t. She had followed my request to keep our relationship a secret and I didn’t want her to think I was upset with her or disappointed. She got enough of that from the people who were supposed to love her unconditionally.
“She told me that if I didn’t break up with you, she would spread some pretty damning rumors about Sweetgrass. Ones that would ruin everything I’ve built over the last five years…” my voice broke just imagining having to let people go because we lost too much business. The thought of having to close the doors on what I’d worked so hard for made me weak in the knees.
“Oh my god,” she gasped. “Kolbi I–I’m so sorry.” Tears sprang in her eyes and she squeezed my hands. “I can’t believe her…but I also can.” I felt my face screw up into a confused expression.
“You don’t understand my mother–my parents. They have a very set idea on what their lives should look like—what my life should look like—and when it doesn’t go their way they do anything they can to try to make it right.” She took a breath before continuing. “To them, you’re anything but right for me. You’re not who she saw me walking down the aisle with and now she’s trying to put things back the way she wants them. Just like everything else in my life. My clothes, where I went to college, my condo, my car. Everything I have or do is because it’s what they wanted for me.” The tears that had been threatening to slip from her eyes had finally won and were now freely falling down her cheeks. Visual representations of the years she’s lost after being forced into a box she never wanted to be in. Her shoulders were hunched and her eyes were locked on our intertwined hands.
“I understand if you leave me,” she whispered after a few moments, choking back a sob as she did. It was my turn to bring my hand to her cheek to get her to look at me.
“I will never leave you, ever, and I told your mother as such at lunch.” Her eyes went wide and her mouth formed a small O.
“You told her no?” Her words came out surprised, as if she couldn’t believe that I had chosen her over my business. That she couldn’t believe that someone would pick her over their own happiness or success for once. But I would do everything I could to show her that she would always be my number one choice in life. Using my thumb to wipe away some of the tears on her face, I leaned in to press my lips to the apple of her cheek.
“I told her no.”
“But–but no one ever tells a Sinclair no. Your company, what about Sweetgrass? What about you, your name?” Her words were coming out panicked and I could see her starting to spiral. The mess of it all landing squarely on her shoulders causing her to try and fix it so no one was upset with her. I pulled her hands until she stood and then looped my arms around her waist, pulling her into my lap.
“You remember what I told you in March? When we were in Aspen together?” Her brows were worried in the center of her face and her lips were pulled together.
“You told me we would figure it out…” She lifted her eyes towards mine and chewed on her bottom lip.
“I did.” I nodded slowly. “I told you we would figure it out and we will, angel. Because I love you and nothing is going to change that. Not what people might think, or what might happen if a few rumors are spread around, and especially not your mother.”
Hope filled my body when I saw her lips pull up into a small smile. I wasn’t sure how we would figure it out, but we would. I’d been in a spot where I needed to figure shit out quickly many times before and made it out okay. I knew this would be no different.
“You and me,” she started hopefully.
I pushed into her lips and kissed her hard. Pulling away gently, I rested my forehead on hers and whispered a promise I knew I never wanted to break. “Together.”