Chapter 26 – Remington
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Hardware Joe has left the building
Remington
We stare at each other, and fuck me sideways, she is as stunning as I remember. Maybe even more so. I seem to be standing in the middle of a vortex, memories and emotions swirling around me.
I try to speak, but words fail me, and I’m beginning to wonder if maybe I’m having a stroke like my dad. Somehow, I’m finally able to utter a single word.
“Minnie?”
She merely blinks at me, and I hear Phoenix chuckle. “No, this is Mindy Espinoza. She’s your executive assistant. Try to keep up, bro.”
From my peripheral vision, I see Helix’s head go back and forth between us, and I can practically hear his mind working. “Wait. Did you say Minnie? As in… Minnie?” he asks, emphasizing the name the second time.
I nod slowly, never peeling my eyes from hers.
“Oh. Ohhhh shit,” Phoenix says, realizing what’s going on. “Um, wow. This is… something.”
“We’ll just, uh, give you two a minute,” Helix says awkwardly.
I hear two sets of footsteps retreating and then the door to the office clicking shut. And still I stare at her like if I look away, she’ll disappear again. At this point, I’m not sure if that would be a good thing or a bad one.
I’m ecstatic and confused, and to be honest, quite a bit aroused.
That last one pisses me off for reasons I can’t even fathom.
Maybe because she’s waltzed back into my life and taken control of my body without lifting a finger.
And if there’s one thing I prize, it’s control.
I’ve mastered it over the past seven years, and now it’s flown out the window like a bird trying to escape confinement.
Minnie or Mindy or whatever the hell her name is finally breaks the silence when she steps forward with her hand outstretched. “I’m Mindy Espinoza.”
I take her hand, but I don’t shake it. I merely hold it and stare into her pretty face.
She’s somehow gotten even more beautiful.
Over the years, I’d convinced myself I was overexaggerating her beauty, that her hair wasn’t quite as thick and richly red as I’d thought it was.
That her lips were a bit thinner. That her curves were much flatter and didn’t actually fit my hands like they were made for me.
“Remington Hale,” I manage to say. I’m about to pull her into me when she releases my hand and takes a few steps backward until her butt hits the desk. A frown etches its way across my forehead. Why did she step away? Did she not miss me at all?
“I didn’t know who you were when I came to work here,” she explains. “I saw your picture on the wall the first day and recognized you.”
My poor brain can’t process any of this. I searched high and low for this woman, and then boom. Here she is in my office.
“And you didn’t think to tell anyone?” I ask incredulously.
Her eyebrows lift. “What exactly was I supposed to say? Oh yeah, Remington Hale. I slept with that guy.”
“And then fucking left him without leaving your number or anything,” I bite out, all the hurt of the past seven years suddenly turning to anger.
She dips her eyes to the floor before slowly lifting them to look at me from beneath those long lashes. Her voice is so quiet I have to strain to hear her. “I thought you were married. Or that you were getting married the next day.”
I lift my hands and let them fall with a slap against my thighs. “What gave you that idea? I told you my brother was getting married, not me.”
“It was something I saw in your phone,” she admits.
“You went through my phone?” I ask, about to pop a blood vessel in my temple.
“Of course not,” she replies, looking affronted at the very idea.
“I meant to pick up my phone to check the time, but I accidentally picked up your phone. We both had black cases, so they looked similar in the dark. I saw the preview of a text message with a beautiful woman’s profile picture and realized I’d picked up yours by mistake. ”
“Soooo, you just assumed the woman was my wife?” I drawl. “How the hell do you jump to that kind of conclusion?”
Mindy props her hands on her small waist, and juts out one hip. My traitorous gaze drops to her curves before quickly returning to her face.
“I jumped to that conclusion because the name under the picture was literally Darling Fiancée.” She says the last two words slowly and pretends to underline them in midair with her pointer finger. “And the message preview said she was looking forward to seeing you at the wedding.”
“What?” I shake my head back and forth, trying to make this make sense. “That’s ridiculous. I’ve never been engaged. Not even close. I can’t even think of…” I halt as a fleeting memory floats through my brain. “Serena,” I say in realization.
Mindy lifts her chin and crosses her arms over her chest. My mind wars with my eyeballs. Don’t look down. Don’t fucking look down. The eyeballs win but only for a second.
“So you were engaged,” she states like it’s a goddamn fact.
I ram my hands into my hair and tug. “No, I was not engaged. It was a joke.” She blinks disbelievingly at me.
“Serena is my best friend. When we were little kids, she said we should get married if we weren’t married to other people by the time we were thirty.
When I turned twenty-nine, she changed her name in my phone to Darling Fiancée.
As a joke,” I reiterate, pulling my hands from my hair.
I can feel it sticking up all over the place, and I’m sure I look like a crazy person.
Hell, I feel like a crazy person. Because this situation is fucked up beyond comprehension.
Mindy’s jaw tightens. “All I knew at the time was what I saw. Can you imagine how I felt?”
My eyes almost shoot from their sockets. “What about how I felt?” I retort. “I woke up and you were gone, no note or anything. I was afraid something happened to you.”
Her gaze skitters away. “I’m sorry I left like that, but I was freaking out. I thought I’d just slept with another woman’s man. I thought I was your last little fling before you got married.”
“It fucking pisses me off that you’d think that about me.”
“Oh really, Joe?” she asks, snapping my fake name like a whip. “You’re saying I should have trusted some man I just met who already lied about his name?”
“Yes, Minnie,” I shoot back, giving her a taste of her own medicine.
Her face is the picture of defiance, and that only elevates my anger. And maybe turns me on just a little.
“I told you my real name,” she says. “You just misunderstood it, and I didn’t correct you because I already knew you were lying about your name.”
“So you recognized me,” I say, a statement more than a question.
“No, you pompous jerk. I didn’t recognize you. I could tell you were lying by the way you said it and how you couldn’t make eye contact.”
I drag a hand through my hair, getting more frustrated by the moment. I can’t believe all this could have been cleared up with a simple conversation.
“Why didn’t you wake me up and ask me about the text?”
Mindy bites her bottom lip, and I hate that I can remember the way that lip tasted. “Because I was ashamed. I’d never had a one-night stand, and then I found out you used me like I was nothing.”
My armor cracks at her vulnerability, and I take a step toward her, catching a whiff of that sweet floral scent. I’d finally pinpointed it about a year after our night together. Magnolia flowers.
“It wasn’t nothing, Mindy. You weren’t nothing.”
Our eyes hold again, and I’m back with her in that hotel room, her lush body soft beneath mine. Sharing air and so much more.
“I thought I didn’t matter,” she finally says. “I had to get out of there because I’d felt something, and it would have hurt too badly to see the truth in your eyes when I confronted you.”
God, I want to take her in my arms and kiss away every single doubt, but I can’t do that.
Seeing her has brought up too much pain and regret.
I’d put my life on hold for her. I’d never sought a relationship with any woman I was with because no one else held a candle to her.
I’d basically given up any chance of having my own family because I didn’t want to settle for less than that deep, soul-bending feeling I had with her.
I’m so damn angry, and yet I’m letting myself soften after only a few minutes with her. Being so close to this woman is making me stupid, so I take a step back.
Yes, I understand how she came to that ridiculous he’s got a fiancée conclusion, but how could she have not felt what I felt that night?
How could she have looked into my eyes and not seen the raw truth?
The fact that she just said she didn’t think she mattered to me tells me everything I need to know.
That night meant two totally different things to us. And that hurts more than anything.
I pivot the topic away from the emotional shit and put a Band-Aid over the crack in my armor.
“So what were you hoping to gain by coming to work here? Did you find out who I was and decide you might want a piece of me after all since I’m a billionaire and not the heir to a mom-and-pop hardware store? ”
Mindy’s mouth pops open on a gasp. “Excuse me? I already told you I didn’t know who you were until I saw your picture on the first day of work.”
“Yeah, well, you said a lot of things.”
“So did you, Joe,” she says, once again hitting my fake name hard. She has a point, and that annoys me.
I narrow my eyes. “And you still decided to stay, knowing this was my family’s company?”
“I was informed you were out of the country and didn’t come here often. I planned to, uh…” She fiddles nervously with one of the buttons on her red suit, which I now realize is the same color as the dress she wore that night.
“You planned to what?” I demand, arching an eyebrow.
“I planned to conveniently get sick when you were scheduled to be here.” She gnaws on the corner of her lip.
My lips purse. “So you were going to lie to your employer and fake an illness to avoid me.”
“That about sums it up,” she replies, her face once again set with defiance.