Chapter 29
CASH
Istripped off my shirt and threw it somewhere in the direction of the chair. I was still buzzed, that warm loose feeling in my limbs, but underneath it was something else. Something that felt dangerously close to panic.
I’d walked away from her. She’d been lying there in nothing but her underwear and practically begged me to fuck her. And my dumb ass walked away because it was the right thing to do. Because she was drunk. Because she’d told me this morning that we couldn’t do this.
Because I was apparently a fucking saint.
I got my belt off and was working on my pants when my phone rang. I looked at the screen. Dad. Of course.
I considered not answering. Letting it go to voicemail.
Dealing with it in the morning when I was sober and composed and back in control of myself.
But that would only make it worse. My father didn’t call unless it was important.
He wasn’t the type that just called to shoot the shit. There was always a reason.
I answered. “Hello.”
“Cash.” His voice was clipped. “Are you drunk?”
“No.” I sat on the edge of my bed and tried to sound more sober than I felt. “I had wine with dinner.”
“How much wine?”
“A reasonable amount.”
“You sound drunk.”
“I’m not drunk.” I was definitely still drunk but there was no way I sounded like it. I knew how to hold my liquor. More like I knew how to pretend. “What can I do for you?”
“What are you doing in Rome?” he asked.
It took me a second. Was I drunk or maybe he was? He knew damn well what I was doing here.
“Working. Securing the Rossi deal like you asked me to.”
“Are you? Working?” His voice had gone flat. “Because from what I’m seeing, you’re parading around some goth girl and calling her your fiancée.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“The girl,” he said. “Who is she?”
I should have known. Should have anticipated that my father who had eyes everywhere and monitored everything related to the Bancrofts would find out about the engagement. About Cleo. About all of it.
I hadn’t anticipated that variable. I had been in a desperate situation and saw an easy solution. I truly thought being on the other side of the world would protect me.
Wrong.
“Her name is Cleo,” I said carefully. “And she’s helping me with the Rossi situation. You met her. In the Hamptons. Austin’s house. She’s Melody’s friend.”
I had a feeling he knew that, but he wasn’t asking who she was but more like why she was in Rome with me.
“Helping you.”
“Yes.”
“By pretending to be your fiancée.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it.” There was steel in his voice. “Now.”
I walked to the window in nothing but my socks and underwear. “Rossi wanted to see stability. Family values. I needed someone who could play the part at the fundraiser.”
“So you invented a fiancée.”
“It was strategic.”
“It was reckless.” He paused. “Does this girl know it’s fake?”
“Of course she knows.”
“And she’s willing to lie for you.”
“She’s willing to help me close a deal.” I rubbed my free hand over my face. “It’s business, Dad. That’s all it is.”
Another pause. Longer this time. “Do you know how many times this has backfired on your brothers?”
The Summer Situation. It was going to be hanging over my head for the rest of my days.
“This isn’t that.”
“You’re coming home in two days,” he said. “With Rossi’s signature.”
“Yes.”
“And your fiancée.”
I stopped pacing. “What?”
“The media has picked up on your engagement.” His voice was matter of fact now, delivering information like he was reading from a report. “There are photos from the fundraiser. Social media posts. Speculation about when the wedding will be.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Will you?” He sighed. “Because if you were planning to leave this lie in Rome, you’d better think twice.
The story is already out there. If you come home without her, people will ask questions.
It’ll look like another Bancroft scandal.
I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you kids.
Seriously? How do you all keep making the same damn mistake? ”
My jaw clenched. “So what do you suggest?”
“I suggest you figure out how to make this look believable for at least a few months. Long enough for the interest to die down. Long enough that when you do end it, it looks like a natural dissolution instead of a publicity stunt gone wrong.”
He was right.
“Fine,” I said.
“And Cash?”
“What.”
“Sober up.” He hung up.
And because Armand Bancroft was that powerful, I sobered up. He sucked the life right out of my buzz. The warm loose feeling was gone. In its place was the weight that I had been carrying for most of my life. It reminded me every single day that I wasn’t just Cash Bancroft.
I was a Bancroft. Full stop.
Everything I did reflected on the family. Every choice. Every mistake. Every impulsive decision to bring a sassy woman to Rome and pretend she was my fiancée.
I sat back down on the bed. This had gotten away from me. The whole thing. I’d thought I could control it. Charm Rossi, close the deal, and send her home. I dropped my head into my hands.
I didn’t do frazzled. I was composed, strategic, always three moves ahead. I fixed problems. I didn’t create them. Except apparently now I did.
I didn’t sleep well. When morning came, I felt like shit. Worse than shit. I always had a plan. I knew my purpose. But today I felt off. I felt like I wasn’t on sure footing.
Because I wasn’t.
I got up, showered, and put on a fresh suit. Tried to build back the armor I’d let slip last night over too much wine. I didn’t have an option. I was putting on my cufflinks when I heard Cleo’s laughter.
Why did that sound make me want to pull off my suit and be the guy I was last night?
I heard her talking and realized she was on the phone. I stepped out of my room as she came down the hall, phone pressed to her ear, still in pajamas, hair a mess around her face. She looked soft and rumpled and so beautiful it hurt to look at her.
“Mel, I’m telling you, the Colosseum was insane,” she was saying. “We went underground and—” She spotted me and her smile got bigger. “Hold on, Cash is here. Want to say hi to your future brother-in-law?”
I did not want to say hi. I wanted to wallow.
There was a knock at the door. Cleo and I exchanged a look. She shrugged. I went to answer it and saw room service with coffee and pastries. Then I remembered I’d arranged for it yesterday. I let them in, tipped the guy, and busied myself with pouring coffee while Cleo kept talking to Melody.
“Yeah, I’m sending you pictures now,” she said, tapping at her phone. “This one’s from the fountain we found. And this is—oh, this is us at dinner last night. Cash looks so good in this one. Very European billionaire chic.”
I handed her a coffee. She mouthed thank you and took it. Then I watched her face change.
“Wait, what?” She stopped pacing. “Melody, what are you talking about?”
I knew. I already knew. Meldoy was telling her about what my father had told me last night. I waited to see what her reaction would be. Was she going to freak out or laugh it off? It was hard to say with Cleo.
“Hold on.” Cleo pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at me. “Melody says the engagement is in the media?”
I nodded.
Her eyes went wide. “What? How?”
“Photos from the fundraiser,” I said quietly. “Social media. It happens.”
“It happens?” Her voice pitched up. “Cash, this was supposed to stay in Rome. We were supposed to come home and be normal.” She stopped. I could see her processing. “Melody, I have to call you back.”
She hung up. For a moment we just stood there in the suite staring at each other. I’d had my mild freakout last night. Now it was her turn. I would give her time while I indulged in one of the pastries.
“We’re all over the internet,” she said as if she was in disbelief.
“I know.”
“People think we’re actually engaged.”
“Yes, we were pretty convincing.”
“Cash.” She set her coffee down with shaking hands. “What are we going to do?”
I wanted to pull her close and tell her it would be fine.
My instinct was to tell her I’d fix this.
She didn’t need to worry. But I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t get past the CEO mode that had kicked in the second my father called last night.
I knew how to handle a crisis. I could manage fallout.
It was ingrained in the fabric of my being to protect the Bancroft name above everything else.
I could manage the problem and still give her a fun trip.
“You’re going on your shopping trip today,” I said. “Like we planned.”
“Shopping? Cash, I don’t think you understand what’s happening back home.”
“I’m meeting with Rossi. Closing the deal. I agreed to give you a shopping spree. I don’t go back on my word.”
“This isn’t about the deal anymore!” She was pacing now, agitated.
“This is about us being caught in a lie. What happens when we get home? What happens when we have to explain to people that we’re not actually engaged?
Melody is going to—God, Austin is going to lose his mind.
Your whole family is going to have some questions. ”
“I’ll handle it.”
She stopped. Looked at me. “How?”
“When we get stateside, I’ll manage the press. We’ll do a slow transition out of the engagement. Make it look natural. No scandal, no drama. You won’t have to lift a finger.”
“I won’t have to—” She laughed, sounding nothing like her usual self. “Cash, this affects me too. This is my life you’re talking about managing.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? Because right now you sound like you’re presenting a business plan, not talking to someone who just got dragged into a very public lie.”
She was right. I knew she was right. But I didn’t know how else to be. It was a problem to be solved. A crisis to be managed.
“Cleo, this is going to be fine. I’ll handle it. Eat. Unless you want something else.”
“I need to shower.” She grabbed her coffee and headed for her room. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“Cleo.”
She paused in the doorway, not looking back.
“It’s going to be fine,” I said.
“Is it?” She did turn then. She didn’t look like herself. There was fear. Maybe regret and sadness. “Because from where I’m standing, Cash, nothing about this feels fine.”
She closed the door. I had dragged her into my mess. I’d be fine. I would recover from a minor scandal. Cleo would forever be known as the girl that was engaged to Cash Bancroft but didn’t close the deal. They’d blame her. Find fault with her.
I had a meeting with Rossi in three hours. Cleo had a shopping trip planned. Tomorrow we’d fly home. And somehow, between now and then, I needed to figure out how to fix this.
I needed to protect her from the fallout while keeping my family’s name intact.
And while doing all that, I had to figure out how to want her less.