Chapter 31
MEGA BUCKS
Molly hoped she was doing the right thing.
She’d wanted to go with Dean and be there for him. She’d offered and he’d said no. But wouldn’t he appreciate her being there anyway?
She thought so, so she took the day off and drove to New York on Friday morning.
He’d told her the hospital his grandfather was in, so she went straight there. All she knew was Dean’s grandfather’s surgery was scheduled for nine and it’d be several hours. It was just eleven now so she was hoping he’d be there.
After getting directions at the front desk, she made her way to the waiting room only to find out Dean wasn’t there.
She was going to have to call him; otherwise, she’d have to find a hotel room.
So much for having a grand entrance to show him she was there for him.
She was starting to wonder if this was a bad idea.
It’s not like she could ask anyone in the waiting room if they were Dean’s family. Well, she could, but she wouldn’t.
She was just walking out in the hallway, moving off to the side to call him when she heard her name. “Molly? What are you doing here?”
He was standing there looking like he hadn’t slept in days. His short hair was a mess, his fingers most likely running through it. He had a coffee in his hand and looked to be turning down a different hallway.
“I wanted to surprise you,” she said. “I know you said you didn’t need me to come, but I wanted you to know I was here for you.”
He hesitated a few steps, then came forward. “I knew you’d be there for me, but you didn’t have to take time off work and drive here.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You do things like this when you love someone.”
He leaned his head down and put his lips to hers. “Thank you.”
“Dean, who is this?”
She felt him stiffen, then turn and put his arm around her waist. “Mom, this is Molly Clarke, my girlfriend. Molly, my mother, Elizabeth Easton.”
“You never said you were dating anyone, Dean.”
“It hasn’t come up and I’m here for Grandpa.”
Dean’s mother looked her over as if she were examining a purchase. “Willow doesn’t know, does she? She never said a word.”
“We’d just started dating when Willow showed up,” he told his mother. “And it doesn’t matter. Molly, why don’t I bring you to the hotel so you can drop your stuff off. There is time yet before I need to come back.”
“You don’t have to leave,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“I need some air,” he said. “Mom, you can go back into the waiting room. You don’t need to stand here and listen to this conversation.”
“Fine,” his mother said, turning and walking off.
“Sorry about that.”
“Where is she going? The waiting room is over there,” Molly said.
He hesitated. “We’ve got a separate waiting room.”
Dean’s mother looked kind of snooty and she had more diamonds on her hands, ears, and neck than Molly had ever seen in one room let alone on one person. Maybe they had a private room to wait.
“If you don’t mind leaving, then it would be nice to put my car somewhere and my things.”
“The hotel isn’t far. I’ll drive if you want and we can walk back. If you’re hungry we can stop for a bite to eat too.”
“I’m sure you want to get back here,” she said. “I can get food in the cafeteria.”
They turned to leave, going down a different hall than she had come from. The lace on her shoe came undone so she moved over to the side and bent down to fix it. When she stood up she was face to face with a picture of a man on the wall.
Her eyes lifted and she saw the name Dr. Dean T. Easton. Next to it, the wing that was named after him. The wall was filled with pictures of people and donors. What were the chances she’d stand up right next to this one?
She turned to look at Dean, saw his face had paled, and her jaw dropped. “Tell me this isn’t your grandfather.”
“It is,” he said.
“There is a wing named after him. People who have wings named after them have mega bucks.”
“They do,” he said. “Can we please have this conversation at the hotel?”
She wanted to have it now. She wanted to show him that a redhead had a temper, but she wouldn’t cause a scene here.
Instead, she sat quietly in her car while all sorts of things went through her head and he drove them to his hotel.
He went to Columbia. His family wanted him to be a doctor.
He didn’t want to be what others expected of him so he left. Just like she did.
His house. The nanny.
Everything.
It was right there in front of her face.
She even brought it up and he sidetracked.
Talked about good investments.
But she never kept her life a secret like this.
She may have dressed differently and acted meeker than when she was around him, but that was not the same as having a grandfather with a wing named after him.
She pulled her phone out and did a quick search. When she saw that not only was D.T. Easton a cardiac surgeon but that he also patented several medical devices and got a tiny glimpse at his net worth on Wikipedia, she felt like the world’s biggest idiot.
Once they were in the hotel room she felt like the top of her head was going to blow like a geyser.
She shoved her phone under his nose. “Care to explain this?”
“If you’ll give me a chance.”
“Do it now,” she said, crossing her arms.
“You already know about my grandfather then. He wanted me to be like him; I didn’t want any part of that. I told you it was expected I’d be a doctor and it wasn’t what I wanted. I told you I didn’t get along well with my family either and left.”
“But you didn’t tell me your family was worth close to a billion dollars,” she said.
“It’s my family.”
“No, it’s not just your family, is it? You own Pulse, don’t you?”
He sighed. “Yes, I own Pulse.”
“Why couldn’t you tell me this?” She felt her eyes start to fill. “Why was it such a secret? Wait, does anyone know you own the bar?”
She was thinking back to the times he’d slipped and said things like my bar or my employees.
She’d even called him out on it twice, but he’d said it was a figure of speech and she believed it because she’d often heard of him referred to as the manager and not the owner.
Then she remembered when he’d said he was career driven and goal oriented, yet that didn’t make sense if he just wanted to run a bar.
Why hadn’t she put this all together before?
“Only Carly. She knows most things. Everyone else thinks I manage it, which I do. They don’t know who the owner is and no one really thinks much about it.”
“Why all the secrets?”
“Because I don’t like money to control me.
I don’t like to be looked at like everyone else in my family.
I don’t like to be looked at like the brainy kid I was before.
I don’t want to be wanted for my bank account either.
I just wanted to be Dean the bartender.” He was pacing.
“My sister has met Jonah a half a dozen times. That’s it.
My grandfather has never even acknowledged that I have a child.
You have your family issues and I have mine. We deal with them differently.”
She was shaking her head. “You made me feel guilty and horrible about hiding the way I was from you!” she yelled at him.
“I cried all night over that. I was miserable, but I told you my reasons. That I always wanted to make this change but had been afraid and you helped me do it. You helped me feel good about myself. You had plenty of opportunities to tell me about your past and you didn’t.
I even asked you and you still kept it hidden. ”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I just told you the reasons. After I talked to my grandfather last night I realized I needed to come clean with you. I was going to tell you when I got back.”
“That’s convenient for you to say now,” she said. She had to look like a train wreck. There were tears running down her face, and what little makeup she wore was probably smeared on top of it.
“It’s the truth,” he said urgently. “You’ve got to believe me.”
“You think I’m going to believe anything you’ve got to say right now?” She paced around the hotel room, sidestepping him. When his phone went off, he pulled it out to look at it. “Go back and be with your family. I’m sorry I came. I started to have doubts and I should have gone with my gut.”
He looked torn over what to do but finally said, “We’ll talk later. I need to go. He’s out of surgery earlier than expected.”
She nodded her head and he left. She’d get another room at a different hotel and plan to leave first thing in the morning.