Wife By Accident (Vows and Veils #8)

1. Leo

LEO

Leo Barclay sat back in his desk chair and stretched his back, which protested at the sudden change in position.

Yawning, he glanced at the large wall clock beside his office door.

It was almost eleven p.m. on a Tuesday night.

Leo knew from experience that he was probably the only one left in the Palasa offices, but the empty corridors and deserted desks didn’t bother him.

The only absence that did bother him was the large, very empty mahogany desk across from his own, the one that would never be occupied again.

Leo shook his head and turned back to his computer.

His to-do list was open in front of him, and almost every single item had been checked off, from vetting the new CFO candidates, to reviewing the KYU contract, to attending the New York area tech mixer.

There was only one item Leo hadn’t managed to do, and it stared at him reproachfully from the screen.

He had been putting it off for nearly three months now.

He could put it off a little more.

Standing, Leo ran a hand through his sandy-blond hair and crossed to the picture window that looked out over the New York City skyline.

Even though he had had this view for more than a decade now, he never got sick of it.

He loved seeing the outlines of skyscrapers and the silhouette of the Hudson River in the distance.

Even though he’d grown up in a city, LA, New York was completely different, and it always took his breath away.

We’ve got to be grateful for this, bro, his older brother, Kyle, had always told him.

The two brothers were only three years apart and had always done everything together; attending the same elementary school, going to the same college, then starting Palasa together.

Even when the company had taken off and they could have afforded their own spaces, they’d shared the same office as well as the title of CEO.

Every success had been achieved together.

Now, Leo felt very alone.

“I’m doing my best to honor your memory,” he whispered to the empty desk.

Then he immediately felt silly, talking to himself late at night.

He quickly turned away from the window and returned to his desk.

Before sitting in his ergonomic chair, though, he caught sight of Kyle’s empty desk again. He let out a sigh.

It was time. He’d waited long enough. Slowly, as though the very air was holding him back, he crossed to the desk. The surface was slightly dusty — he hadn’t even let the janitorial staff touch the desk. He’d wanted to keep everything exactly as it was.

A silver urn rested on the desk, engraved with ocean waves and the outlines of cliffs.

It was the only new thing there. Kyle had always loved dramatic scenery, so Leo knew he’d love this urn.

But he’d also say: What are you waiting for?

Time to scatter my ashes. I don’t like being trapped inside like this.

Leo smiled at the memory of his brother’s voice.

He’d been wanting to scatter the ashes ever since Kyle’s funeral three months ago.

It didn’t feel right that his outdoorsy, adventurous, hardworking brother would be sitting here on his old desk like a paperweight.

The problem was, Leo had no idea where his brother’s final resting place should be.

Leo and Kyle had spent uncountable hours together, but most of their time had been spent in boardrooms, in this office, or on their jet.

Building Palasa, a well-known tech company that offered software solutions to large companies across the country (and much of the rest of the world), had been very time-consuming.

Neither Leo nor Kyle had minded. Working together had been so fulfilling that it hardly mattered that neither had time for hobbies or dating, or much of a life outside of work.

But as a final resting place? Leo couldn’t imagine pouring his brother’s ashes onto the green-and-beige office carpet or the shiny mahogany desk where they’d spent so many hours. None of these spaces were right.

“What do you think, bro?” Leo asked. Then he shook his head. He was clearly going over the edge, talking to himself like this.

Over the months since his brother’s unexpected and sudden death in a car accident, Leo had thrown himself into work — partially because he believed it was the best way to honor Kyle’s memory, and partially because he couldn’t bear to think about anything but lines of code and spreadsheets.

He’d closed himself off from everything and everyone — which, in retrospect, may have been a mistake.

A little human contact might have prevented him from talking to himself in the darkened office.

Leo scanned over Kyle’s desk. It was laid out just as his brother had left it, apart from his laptop, which Leo had taken to continue his work.

But there was Kyle’s datebook and pencil — he insisted on writing all his appointments on paper, no matter how many times Leo teased him that the co-CEO of a major tech company should really be a little techier.

There was his coffee cup that said I Ran the New York Marathon!

Kyle had laughed, saying it was pretentious to have a mug like that, but since it was a gift from Leo, he’d kept it.

There was a spare pair of running laces in one of the drawers and a collection of pens and magnets from their clients in another.

Then, Leo caught sight of something he hadn’t expected, something he hadn’t seen in years.

It was a photo of them both from when Kyle had been eighteen and Leo fifteen.

Kyle had just graduated from high school, and he’d taken Leo on a road trip from their California home across the Southwest. Leo had just gotten his learner’s permit and had helped with the driving.

They’d stayed in cheap motels, eaten too much fast food, and sung along to classic rock on the radio until they almost lost their voices.

It was on that trip that they’d first had the idea of starting a tech company together.

It was also when they’d decided to build that company in New York City.

LA was where their family was, and the Barclays were well-known there because of their grandfather’s department store.

They’d wanted to step away from their family’s legacy and build something new.

In the picture, teenagers Leo and Kyle stood with their arms around each other in front of a canyon in Nevada.

It was a hidden gem, something they’d stumbled across while taking the back roads.

Both boys were grinning hugely. They had the same sandy-blond hair and blue eyes, the same jawline, the same smile.

More than once, people had asked if they were twins, which had made them laugh.

What stood out most in the picture, though, was the canyon: the undulating walls of banded rock; the achingly blue sky overhead; the memory of fresh air and the scent of dust and cacti.

“That’s it,” Leo said quietly. This time, he didn’t even feel silly — this moment was so important that it deserved to be said out loud.

That canyon was where his brother’s ashes needed to be scattered. It was a landmark of a trip that had brought them together and made them who they were. And it was a majestic enough place that Leo could return someday and remember his brother.

Finally, Leo was ready to pack up his brother’s desk.

He arranged everything neatly in boxes and labeled them with a marker.

It was difficult, but he tried to be efficient, not wanting to unearth more memories than he had to.

When he was finished, he left the boxes by the door for his assistant, Julian, to take care of in the morning.

It was time to finally say goodbye to Kyle.

Usually, Leo would never have taken time off work.

He and Kyle had prided themselves on rarely taking sick days and never taking vacation days.

When they’d both gotten the flu, they’d worked from Kyle’s living room without taking a break.

But this was important. Important enough that Leo returned to his computer and rearranged his schedule for the next few days so that he could fly to Nevada, scatter the ashes, and come back to work.

Then he called his pilot and arranged for a flight the following day to the Nevada desert.

Not for the first time in the last few months, Leo wished that Kyle had had a family of his own, someone Leo could share the memories and the grief with.

Their parents had attended the funeral and supported Leo as they mourned together, but they weren’t close to their sons.

Leo was the only person who knew and loved Kyle so strongly.

And Kyle had been the only person who’d known and loved Leo.

If one of them had been married, or even had close friends, Leo wouldn’t have had to journey to Nevada alone.

But as it was, he was the only one who would be there for the sendoff, and he hoped to do his brother justice.

Even though he had to do it alone.