Chapter Twenty
Her two sisters’ and Dana’s faces stared at her from the screen of her laptop. She had just told them about Darryn’s idea that she should quit her job.
Dana leaned forward. “And he didn’t say anything about getting married?”
Hannah sighed, not so sure anymore that talking to her family would help. “Nobody is talking about getting married,” she said irritably. She had been wondering the same freaking thing.
“But he wants you to quit your job and move in with him?” Caitlin asked.
“Stay with him, was how he put it,” Hannah said.
“And you don’t want to?” Zoe asked.
“Want to what?”
“Stay with him.”
Hannah rubbed her face. “Yes, I want to be with him, but not if he has this ultimatum—leave your job or else.”
“But is that what he said?” asked Zoe.
Hannah frowned. “No, but that’s what he implied,” Hannah said indignantly. “My work is the problem; I have to quit my job. You should have seen his face when I suggested he stopped working and stay with me.”
Caitlin smiled. “Hannah, sweetie, let’s begin at the beginning. Darryn is a man. And a man is…” she motioned with her hands.
“A man?” Dana giggled.
“Yes,” Caitlin said, nodding her head. “They know what they want, they have long conversations about things with themselves, and by the time they talk to you, they only mention the tail end of that whole conversation. The result usually is that what they say and what they mean are two completely different things.”
Dana and Zoe nodded in agreement.
“He was very clear with what he wanted,” Hannah grumbled. “My job is what is keeping us apart, and that has to change.”
Caitlin cocked her head. “So you don’t have a problem being away from him for long periods of time?”
“That’s not what I said!” Hannah cried in frustration. “But why do I have to make all the sacrifices?”
“Well, if you feel that being with Darryn means you’ll have to sacrifice something, you shouldn’t do it.
He is obviously not the right one for you then, because I can tell you, for the right man, you’d give up everything in a heartbeat,” Zoe said and shrugged.
“A pity, I thought you two are a cute couple.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to give up everything for him, it’s…” Hannah began hotly but realized she didn’t know how to finish the sentence. It was only what?
“And if he asks you to marry him, will that change what you are willing to give up?” Zoe asked. “Is that your ultimatum?”
“It’s not an ultimatum, but—”
Before Hannah could continue, though, Caitlin looked over her shoulder to something behind her.
“We have to go, Hannah. You and I have talked about this. You are the only one who can decide what to do, what will be right for you. The question you have to answer for yourself is this—will you be happy being away from Darryn?”
And with waves and smiles, they ended the call.
Hannah sat staring at the blank screen. She had hoped to get some sympathy from her sisters—they were all twenty-first century women, for goodness sake! But she was obviously mistaken. But then they all still worked. Nobody had asked them to quit their work.
Granted, Caitlin moved her rooms to her home with Don; Zoe still had her interior design business, although she did most of her work for the hotels now; and Dana was still teaching although she had to move to Cape Town.
They all had to adjust.
Hannah stood up slowly. They all had to adjust. Did the men, though?
No, the damn men… Her thoughts trailed off.
They also had to adjust, she grudgingly acknowledged.
Don wasn’t cycling competitively anymore, not because Caitlin asked him not to, but because he wanted to have more time with his family.
The same was true of Dale and David. Their previous lives as footloose bachelors came to a screeching halt once they’d met their wives. But they didn’t look unhappy—on the contrary.
Was the reason she was so angry because Darryn asked her to quit her job or because he hadn’t asked her to marry him? Would she have reacted differently if he’d given her a ring? Why?
A ring on her finger and a signature on a piece of paper didn’t make that much difference. Somewhere along the way, he’d be tired of her and would leave, whether or not they were married. That was what her dad did.
But Darryn wasn’t her dad. She remembered his eyes. On her. Like Caitlin said—the Cavallo men only had eyes for their loved ones.
Hannah groaned out loud. What did it all mean?
Her brain refused to work, she was so tired.
She walked back to her room and crawled under the sheets.
Darryn’s scent was still hanging in the room, was still lingering on the sheets.
She pressed her face into it and with his name on her lips, drifted off.
She’d think again tomorrow.
*
Darryn threw the hotel room key on the small table near the door and looked around him. He didn’t want to be here. But how did he get Hannah to listen to him? After he’d left Hannah, he’d gotten a hotel room and had then walked around the city, trying to figure out what to do.
That had been a few hours ago, and he still didn’t know what he should do. Why was she being so difficult? She said she loved him, but she didn’t want to be with him? How was that supposed to work?
His phone rang, and he quickly picked it up.
But it was his brother Don, not Hannah as he’d hoped.
“Well, at least you had the brains to go to Hannah, but it sounds as if you made a mess of the rest!” Don exclaimed over the phone.
Darryn swore. “What the hell do you know about it?”
“Women talk.”
Darryn grimaced. “So I’m the bad guy without giving my side of the story? I really don’t need this from you now. I—”
“Why did you go to New York?” Don interrupted him.
“To be with Hannah, of course.”
“And?”
“And to ask her to quit her job so we could be together. That’s what you guys did, right? I’d thought that would be what she wanted as well, but obviously—”
“What exactly does this ‘be together’ mean?” asked Don.
“That we’d get married, stay in the same house, in the same place, I assumed but—”
“And did you ask her to marry you?”
Darryn did a double take. Married to Hannah. He hadn’t thought about it, but he liked the sound of it.
“No, I didn’t ask in so many words, but isn’t that what being together means?”
Don laughed. “Man, you have a lot to learn, and clearly you haven’t learned anything from the mistakes Dale and David made.
When I gave them a few pointers, you fled, if memory serves me right.
I was the only one who knew what to do,” he said, sounding pleased with himself.
“Let me give you a tip. You have to tell a woman exactly what you mean, what you want. I know, we don’t understand that.
But you can either love a woman or understand her. I know what I prefer.
“So if I ask her to marry me, she’ll quit her job?”
“You don’t tell a Sutherland woman what to do. Haven’t you learned anything? Get a ring, go down on one knee, ask her in so many words to marry you—the whole shebang. As for the rest? You ask, you suggest, you compromise, you never, ever tell her.”
Darryn swore.
“If you love her, you do whatever it takes. It’s that simple.”
Long after Don had ended the call, Darryn still stood with the phone in his hand.
His phone rang again, and he grimaced when he saw the caller ID. So someone had spoken to his mother as well. Bloody hell.
“Mom,” he said in a clipped voice.
“Wow, you sound chirpy,” she said.
“I know why you’re calling.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. You heard that I haven’t asked Hannah to marry me already, and now you’re phoning to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do. I’m all grown up, damnit!”
“I haven’t spoken to any of your brothers today, but thank you for telling me how stupid you’ve been. You love the woman; what is the problem? Don’t you want to marry her?”
Darryn bit off a swear word. “Yes, I want to marry her, but she doesn’t want to quit her job!”
“Please tell me you didn’t ask her to do that?”
Darryn swore. “It’s much more complicated than that, Mom,” Darryn said, wishing he’d never taken the damn call. “What about her career? She became angry when I suggested she quit her job. She asked if I would quit mine. What would I do? It’s a bloody mess!”
“Life is complicated and messy, Darryn. Surely you know that by now? As a couple, you give and take. You’re spoiled. Just because you and your brothers are owners of hotels and have money doesn’t mean things will always work out as planned. And you definitely won’t always get your way.”
“I know that!” he called out, frustrated.
“Any woman who can use her high heel as a weapon when she has to is someone to fight for, in my book.”
“I know that too.”
“Marriage, my dear boy, is a partnership. You compromise, you talk, you give, and you balance. Your dad knew I loved cooking and, as soon as he could, he helped me to start Rosa’s, even if it meant our whole lives moved to the restaurant. It’s not always easy, but the upside is priceless.”
“Yeah? And what is that?”
“You get to love one another.” And with those words, she ended the call.
Darryn stared at the phone for long minutes, images of Hannah flitting through his mind—Hannah on the beach, her toned body moving to his silent requests.
Hannah in his bed, her hair sprayed out over his pillow.
Hannah standing up to Stephen White, her shoe high above her head, ready to defend herself.
Hannah loving him with abandon, pleasure lighting up her face.
And then those messy pieces in his mind that had fallen into place two years ago when he’d seen Hannah for the first time, moved, shifted and settled again, this time creating a clearer picture—of him and Hannah, together.
And somewhere in the background a couple of kids were chasing a Labrador, kids with their mother’s blue eyes and blonde hair.
None of the questions that had been bothering him earlier seemed to be problems any longer. They had to find a way to make it work, because… He grinned.
Like Don had said, it really was that simple. He loved her; he wanted to be with her. Whatever it takes.