Chapter Twenty-Four
Cash
“And then the woman had the audacity to ask me who I was?”
Goddammit, this woman would make a nun contemplate suicide. She’d only talked about herself since we sat down at the table. Luna had brought out the best-looking crab legs I’d ever seen, and she still hadn’t shut her trap.
Sydney hadn’t said more than two words since we’d sat down at her parent’s table. There had been a three-hour debate the night before about whether to go or not. But I knew in the end; it would be best to go.
After her mother had called me at the beginning of the week, I’d been on edge. I hated looking into her eyes and lying, and suddenly, I understood where Joey was coming from. This was what he’d been afraid of from the beginning.
“Cash?”
I looked over at Mrs. Henry. She’d bent over the table like she’d been trying to get my attention. “Ma’am?”
She gave me a narrowed look. “I was asking if you two had any plans for the holidays. We love Thanksgiving around here. Luna prepares such a wonderful feast for us every year.”
Glancing over at Sydney, I noticed she stared at her interlaced fingers in her lap. Her eyebrows pulled down in the middle, and a frown shadowed her mouth. I wasn’t sure exactly what her mother had said, hell, I’d been ignoring her for most of the evening.
Maybe I’d missed something.
“I need to use the restroom,” Sydney mumbled, keeping her head down as she walked swiftly out of the room. She took the long narrowed hallway toward the right, and I strained to hear the sound of her feet against the hardwood.
When I looked back, Mrs. Henry was still staring at me, and Mr. Henry’s eyes were at half-mast. I’d guessed that was how he coped with living with her for all those years—ignoring the shit out of her.
“So, you didn’t answer,” she pushed. “Any plans?”
Yeah, but not with her. I’d planned to start a new tradition—with Sydney. And her mother wasn’t included. “Not sure. I need to go to the restroom too; I’ll be right back.”
I got up and left before she could respond. I’d taken the hallway, following where Sydney had just disappeared. Not knowing the house, I walked slowly, stopping by a couple of doors before I heard her voice, but I stopped before I pushed through what I assumed was the swinging door that led into the kitchen.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
There wasn’t anyone but Luna in the house, and I expected it was her answering. I’d only heard her speak a few times, to mumble obscenities at Mr. Henry under her breath. “I’m sure she’s just trying, Sweetie.”
Sydney scoffed. “Since when does she try, Luna? They never invited me before this. Since he died, they haven’t invited me to anything.”
What the fuck? The next thing I heard was her quiet sobs, and the soothing sound of Luna’s voice. A voice that sounded a lot like my mother’s when I was young. When I’d scraped my knee, broken my arm and failed my first test. Not the sound of our maid. It burned me deep knowing that she never had that from the one person who was supposed to love her.
Her mother didn’t give a damn about anyone other than herself. She may have lost a child, but she still had one she barely acknowledged. In reality she’d lost Ryder, but she didn’t even know she was also losing the only one she had left.
Something stung the back of my mind, and a vague memory lightly danced around in my head, but I couldn’t pull it out. I’d heard soft cries like that before, a deeply-rooted hurt. I heard a chair scrape across the floor from the dining room. I figured it was Mrs. Henry. To avoid her seeing me eavesdrop, I walked into the kitchen. Sydney sat on the kitchen island, her hands covering her face. Luna held her close.
When the door swung shut, they both looked my way. Sydney hurried to wipe her eyes. “I didn’t realize I’d been gone so long,” she whispered, jumping down to the floor.
I stepped forward until I was standing in front of her. Luna took a step back, but she never looked away from me, like she waited to see what I would do.
“Peach,” I whispered, placing my hands on her shoulders. “We’re not doin’ anything with your parents over the holidays unless you want to. I think we need to make our own traditions. Starting this Thanksgiving.”
Sydney opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I couldn’t understand her face, and I hated the feeling of not knowing how she felt. I stepped closer, running my thumb across her lower lip. “Your parents do not deserve your time. They are so absorbed with their own life, and how much money they have, that they don’t see you’re slowly slipping away from them. You deserve better than that. I want to show you that. Please, let me know when you’re feelin’ like this. I want to help.”
She swallowed hard, the tears in her eyes had evaporated, and the frown that’d etched her face had faded. “She’s always loved Ryder more,” she whispered. “And when he died—it worsened. She had a reason to hate me now. She blames me.”
Her mother’s heels clicked against the floor. “Where did y’all go?”
I glanced back over my shoulder toward the door, and then at Luna, she smiled ear-to-ear. “Is there a back way out of here?”
Luna lifted a brow and pointed toward a door to the left. “Leads to the back porch. I’ll show you out.”
I grasped Sydney’s waist, pulling her along toward the door. Her mother’s voice drifted away, and it was the most wonderful feeling I’d ever had.
Joey jumped as we got into the limo. “Y’all are back early,” he said through a yawn.
“Hurry,” I said, glancing over my shoulder.
Sydney giggled, and I loved seeing the light in her eyes. There hadn’t been any at the dining table.
Joey pulled out of the driveway with a squeal of tires. The dust from the gravel stirred up leaving a tornado in our place. Sydney reached over, her hand resting on top of my own. “Thank you.”
I leaned in to kiss her, hiding the anger I felt toward her family. The anger I felt toward myself. I’d made a deal with the damn devil, and it was to further myself. Not that I didn’t think about the outcome before I agreed, I did, that’s what made it so much worse.
“Joey, take me by the office. I need to make sure my laptop is locked.”
Joey gave me a look in the review mirror but didn’t say anything. We rode toward my office in silence. There was too much on my mind to try to speak. I was scared all of my thoughts would spew out like lava because they already burned my chest.
Joey pulled up to the front.
I looked up at the tall building, and my gut felt like fire. I turned to my left and pressed my ear against hers. “I’ll be right back, Peach.”
She nodded and settled into the seat. “I’ll keep the seat warm for you.”
I grinned, and got out quickly, opening the front doors, I raced to the security pad and typed in my code. The building was completely quiet, which made the entire situation worse. My thoughts vibrated in my head, loudly, like a high-school band.
My office light hurt my eyes and brought my entire future to life. Ash and I had always talked about the business being our baby because we would never settle down and have kids. But that seemed so—wrong now.
I made my way toward the desk, sitting in my chair like every morning. Except this time, I opened my side drawer and dug through until I had the check her mother had given me as collateral in my hands. I knew that she could offer me another one, but it felt right to rip it up.
I didn’t want her money. I didn’t want to be in any kind of agreement with her. Fuck, I didn’t want to be in an agreement with Sydney anymore either. I wanted her with me because she wanted to be here. I tore the check into tiny pieces until nothing on it could be made out.
Only nothing changed the way I felt on the inside. The pressure was still suffocating me. I needed to let her out of our contract too, and tell her mother where to shove our agreement. And I planned to.
When I got back down to the limo, Sydney’s eyes were closed. Her mouth parted a bit, which I’d found out she did when she was super tired.
I tried not to contemplate everything on the way home. Thinking about everything always made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. Joey opened the back door for me when we stopped, and I picked her up, bringing her to my chest.
I loved the feel of her against me; her soft breath against my face and the smell of her skin. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever felt before.
Instead of taking her to her bed, I took her upstairs with me. I wanted to feel her against me for the night. I easily took off her shoes and slowly pulled her clothes off. She stirred when her shirt got caught on her chin, but after a minute fell back to sleep.
After I’d gotten her into one of my shirts, I pulled one of my plush blankets over us. She rolled on her side, her ass pressing against me. I wanted to erase what I’d done, start over fresh with her. But I knew I couldn’t. The best I could do was be real with her from here on out. And hope that she didn’t find out what I’d almost done.
The fucking money-driven beast I’d become. If she did find out—she may not forgive me, and that scared me more than losing my business ever did.