Chapter 38
A few days later, Gray told the nurses that his pain was at an all-time high, and no medication seemed to take the edge off. Shockingly, his heartache was even more painful than any of the literal pins and needles that now lurked within him. Riley’s terror up there on that trail and the harsh words that had flown between them were something he would never forget. They tried to talk in the hospital, but their words often crumbled to harshness; she would grow silent then and just sit by his bed until they threw her out. Gray would lie there, equally silent and unable to pull together enough coherent thoughts to keep himself from going crazy. In the end, there were just too many things standing in their way, and it was certainly not just about the money.
To make matters worse, Gray felt like a fool and an asshole. How could I say such cruel things to her? For that matter, though, how could she say that shit to me? He had no idea what had broken down between them to carry them to the point of being evil to each other, but somehow, it had reached a painful pinnacle.
Some of what she had said was true, and that was the worst thing about it. He was too stubborn and proud, and she didn’t want to live in poverty, eking by on tips and worrying that they wouldn’t be able to pay the rent on time. He admired that she was willing to work hard and even wanted to, but he knew there was no way in hell she would ever be happy living as they had.
He was still angry at her bold admission, though, for it cut right into his ego, which was already taking a beating from so many other angles. How can I possibly compete with that money? Hell, her cabin is really a mansion, and she acts like it’s normal for everyone to own places like that.
In one second, he was defending his own ideas, but in the next, he was furious with himself for what he’d done. “Damn it!” he muttered, punching the mattress beside him, even though it hurt to move his arm. “How could I have said all that to her?” He knew, even when he spouted off at the mouth, that he was being unfair, shallow, and stupid, and he was still acting that way toward her. He had hurt her deeply, and he wanted to tell her he was sorry, but instead, he just always managed to get into another argument with her.
The door opened, and his heart leapt in his chest as hope surfaced. Maybe she’s cooled off enough. Maybe she’s got enough sense to realize I’m a freaking douche canoe for saying those things, but she knows there’s still love left between us, a love worth saving. Maybe—
His hopes crashed when he saw a man step through the door instead, a man anyone would recognize, from their TV sets or internet news stories. The visitor was dressed to the nines, as always, in a handmade, custom-tailored Italian suit and perfectly shined shoes that Gray was sure cost more than the annual salary he used to make at the bar.
Gray shifted in the bed with a groan, his senses instantly on high alert as Teeters approached and gave him a scrutinizing once-over.
“I see you are awake,” said Richard Teeters, Riley’s father.
“Yep, and not a lawyer in sight,” Gray answered, his voice weary. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan to file a claim against you or your homeowner’s insurance.” He knew his words were coming out tight and angry, but it was really just in self-defense; something about the disapproving scowl on Mr. Teeters’s face made him feel as if self-preservation suddenly had to be a priority.
Teeters gave him a tight smile and angled his body so they were looking at each other.
Gray tensed again but managed to hold his stare.
“I know exactly what is going on here.”
“Uh…it’s not that hard to figure out. I fell off a cliff?” The sarcasm was biting but was totally lost on Teeters.
“Not that. I mean what’s going on between you and Riley.”
“Hmm. Well, it isn’t like we’ve made much of a secret out of it.” Gray’s eyes met Teeters’s and refused to look away. There way was he going to let the man turn him into an apologetic, cowering zombie, like everyone else did around him.
Teeters shifted; obviously, the talk was not going the way he had planned, and Gray’s brashness caught him a bit off guard. “I mean that I know why you are with her.”
“Maybe you think you know more than you actually know,” Gray countered. “But just for shits and giggles, why don’t you go ahead and fill us in? You’re obviously dying to tell me your thoughts on the subject. I mean, you came all this way, and I’m sure it wasn’t just to bring me flowers.”
Teeters glared at him. “I had you checked out.”
“I never doubted you would,” Gray said. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask for a blood test and DNA samples. Tell me… Am I related to anyone famous, maybe ten or twelve generations back?”
“You are dead broke, and so is your father. If there is anything left over after the sale of that cesspool he calls a resort, you won’t even see a penny of that. You’ve been…disinherited.”
Cesspool? Damn, that stings, Gray said, and it also pissed him off. As for his loss of any family fortune, Mr. Teeters wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. “Well, okay then. So what?”
“So you do not have one single thing to offer to my daughter but your dick. While I’m sure she very much appreciates that, I don’t see how you can support either of you if she is blind enough to marry you or, worse, breed with you. I’m here to cut you a deal so we can all move on as quickly and painlessly as possible.”
Gray laughed, even though it wasn’t one damn bit funny; it was just too out of bounds for him to even comprehend. “Wow,” he said.
“I’m being blunt on purpose, as I don’t want any misunderstanding here.”
“You’re being a giant asshole, but call it what you will.”
Teeters’s eyes narrowed. “I know your type.”
Gray snorted. “Again, maybe you think you know more than you actually know. I don’t want Riley for her money.”
“It has become known to me that there have been…arguments, that the two of you aren’t getting along so swimmingly.”
“Exactly,” Gray said, “but the reason we fight all the time because I don’t fucking know how to be with someone who has access to that kind of cash, and she doesn’t know how to be without it.” As soon as the careless words left his lips, Gray knew he’d given Teeters ammunition in his fight, but it was too late to take it back.
Teeters twisted his lips into a feral grin. “As I said, I have a deal for you.”
“I think I’ll take what’s behind Door Number Three,” Gray tried to tease, but the joke fell flat, as no one in the room was in a laughing mood.
“We’re men, Grayson, presumably adults. I want you out of her life immediately. You have done enough harm to her. Because of you, she has spent the last several months slaving away like—”
“Like a real person? Like everyone else?” Gray cut in. “What’s the matter, Daddy Dearest? Does that make you look bad on the campaign trail? Gee, I’d think you could twist your daughter’s everyday working woman angle to your advantage to make it look like your rich ass champions the people at the bottom of the totem pole.”
“This is not about me,” Teeters said woodenly.
“The hell it isn’t! You don’t give a damn about her. You only care about your campaign, your money, your reputation in the media, and your social status.”
Teeters snapped out, “This is it, Grayson. I will not argue with you. I’m here, as I said, to make a deal with you, one that will make us all…happier.”
“Happier, huh?”
Teeters reached into one of his fancy pockets and pulled out an envelope. He eyed Gray’s arm for a moment before opening the package and setting a check on the small table.
Gray picked up the check and looked at it. It took a moment to count the zeros, but when he rolled his eyes up to the spelled-out amount, its worth was instantly clear: three million dollars, just to leave Riley alone. “What the hell?” he spat, wondering if the whole bunch of them was nuts. No, just really rich, he told himself with a smirk, which is basically the same thing. He looked back up at Teeters again. “You can’t be serious.”
Teeters asked, “Do I have to spell it out?”
“I think maybe you should.”
“That, Grayson, is for you.”
“Yeah, I’m keenly aware of that, since my name’s on it. Why though? I mean, why so much?”
“As I told you already, I want you to leave Riley alone. I want you out of her life, out of all our lives. If you agree, this large financial settlement will ensure that.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I said no.” Gray slid the check across the table, his eyes blazing at its signer. “You will never be able to buy me out of her life. I know you think I’m after money, but I’m not. Unlike you, I’m not driven by greed, some sick need for a bunch of material bullshit and cabins that look like freaking royal castles. What I want is Riley, that wonderful girl you and your wife only see as a pawn and a status symbol, a walking ad campaign. I love her, and while we’ve been… Look, I’ve made a lot of dumb mistakes and all that, and I know my family background is iffy at best, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you end us with a fucking check.”
“Perhaps I’ve simply made too low of an offer.”
Gray stared at Riley’s father, his lip curling into an angry grimace. “I beg your pardon?”
Teeters cleared his throat and said, “I think I made myself clear.”
Gray said, “Oh, but I don’t think you did.”
Teeters inclined his head. “Apparently, you feel the sum is…problematic.”
“No, what’s problematic is you coming in here and thinking you can fucking buy me off,” Gray said, his anger cranking up a few notches. His frustration was only worsened by the fact that he was a prisoner of that hospital bed and all those bandages and tubes that tied him to bleeping machines. How dare this asshole do this to me now, when I’m already so broken and bruised? If I could get up, I’d break his fucking—
“Take the money, son. It’s relatively clear that this little fling of yours is over anyway. Riley has had her wild time, her rebellion that we all go through, but it will come to an end on its own. You may as well make a profit off of it, right?”
“Why, you slimy bastard!”
Teeters held his hand up to silence Gray. “I understand. She’s been a good girl all her life, and I’m sure she grew bored with that and wanted to experiment. You promised her fun and adventure, gave her a reason to do things she would never have done, but it can’t possibly last, because it just isn’t who my daughter is. Take the money. Get out with something now, because you will leave her life eventually anyway. As her father, I prefer you do it sooner rather than later, so she has a better chance of recovering from all of this nonsense. If you care about her, as you claim you do, give her a chance to move on to her real life, what she really wants to do. She will never be able to do that with you.”
“How do you know what she really wants?”
“I know she wants to live in the city. While she loves her excursions to the sun and sand now and then, she also adores shopping and this place. Let’s face it, Grayson. Young men like you, raised in the tourist trap strips, with local yokels rubbernecking at you because you’re a rich guy in their eyes… Your type does not fare well out of your own little pond. You’d die in her world, and you already are. Look at you, all laid up in a hospital. Just do the right thing, son. Go back to where you belong and take that money with you.”
“Daddy?” a small, quiet word came from the doorway, a word freighted with shock and heartache.
Gray’s eyes darted toward it, and he saw Riley there, her face pale and her eyes wide.
Richard Teeters turned to look at her, but his expression gave nothing away; clearly, he’d been trained well in the art of politics.
“How could you, Dad?” Riley asked, advancing into the room, her tone angry and hurt all at once.
“I’m only trying to help you, my love, as any good father would.”
“Help me how?” Riley put her hands on her hips and faced off with Teeters.
Gray admired her, but a battered wariness crept in as well. Things had gone too far too often. It was not the first time her folks had shown up to try to lure her away from him, and he knew they would never stop doing that. He was sick of it all, sick of being the poor one in the relationship, sick of apologizing for his financial situation, and sick of his financial situation himself. He was angry at Jon for cutting him off, but he was also angry at himself for having done and said all those horrible things to Riley, not the least of which was forcing her to work a menial job just to help them make ends barely meet, which they seldom ever did.
“I don’t need your help, Father,” Riley spewed, her words ragged with fury. Her eyes blazed so wildly that Gray was actually a little frightened by the intensity of her glare. “Get out! I mean it. Get out of here and don’t ever come back!”
“Riley, you have no idea what you’re—” Teeters tried
“I have plenty of ideas, Dad, and you don’t want to hear what they are right now. Just get out. I am a grown woman, and I can handle my life myself, whether you and Mom and your security goons and PR people like it or not!”
Teeters paused to stare at her for a moment, gave Gray an eye-roll and a grunt, then started for the door. “He’s no good, Riley,” he threw over his shoulder.
“Why don’t you let me decide what’s good for me, for a change?”
Without another word, Teeters stormed out and slammed the door behind him.
Gray watched as Riley walked to the bed. She picked up the check, tore it into a dozen pieces, walked into the bathroom to throw it away, and quickly returned. “Gray, I’m so sorry.’
“Me too.”
She eyed him, wearing the same wary, troubled expression he’d caught a glimpse of on Richard Teeters’s face. “What are you sorry for?”
“I’m sorry because… Your dad is right, Riley. We won’t last.”
Her lips began to tremble. “What the hell are you saying, Gray?”
“Tell me you don’t know that. Really, Riley. Look me in the eye and tell me you think we’re still…like we used to be, that things are really okay between us.”
“No couple stays the same forever,” she said as tears began to shine in her eyes.
Regret ate into him, but Gray knew he had to end it. He could not do it anymore, and he knew, even if she did not, that she could not either. We’re just done. Hell, maybe we’ve been done for a very long time, he convinced himself, wincing from the pain of that admission.
He loved her, really loved her, but she was too many things he was not and never could or would be. Living in his world would only stifle her, and he could not live in hers. They were opposites in many ways, and that might have been one of the reasons for their strong attraction, but he didn’t know how long that could possibly last. When will it stop being an attraction and disintegrate into resentment and misery? He had already hurt her too much as it was, and he didn’t want to drag that on even a minute longer. No use prolonging the agony…for either of us.
“Why are you doing this to me, Gray? Why? I love you. I really do.”
“I know, and I love you, too, but that’s just not enough, not for either of us.”
Suddenly, her sorrow took a swan dive into a fit of rage. “Wow. I had no idea you felt so strongly about it. Maybe I should get my dad to write you another check.”
“I do not want or need that money.”
“Or mine, right? That’s what it all boils down to, isn’t it? I have money, but instead of sharing it with me, like any normal couple shares things, you have to let your damn ego get in the way.”
“Riley, we’ve gone over this time and time again, and the last time, I went off a literal cliff. There’s no use rehashing it. I just don’t have it in me right now. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever have it in me to keep beating this fucking dead horse. I love you, I do, but I… We can’t do this. He’s right. I know this is hurting you. I hate New York, and I don’t really like it much here either. I can’t live where you do, and you can’t live where I do. It’s impossible, and we were stupid to think otherwise.”
“I would,” she said, her voice shaking.
“You would what?”
“I’d live anywhere, Gray, as long as it’s with you.”
“We tried that, and it didn’t work,” he said, trying to sound gentle, but he knew nothing was gentle enough. He didn’t want to hurt her again, but this time, it couldn’t be avoided. There was no setting her down lightly. She was already in deep pain, and he knew the only way to stop it was to suck out the venom, to cut himself out of her life so she could go on and, as her father had said, have the life she was made for, the one she deserved and was meant for, a life she would never have with him.
“Gray…”
“Go home, Riley,” he said, in a stern tone that left no room for argument.
Her eyes told him she was wounded, that she was bleeding inside, but he maintained a steady grip on his own emotions. He had to be the strong one, the one to end it. She had rescued him from a shark, from drowning, and from a cliff fall by calling for help. Now, it was his turn to rescue her from himself. He had to keep her safe from pain, had to let her go before the love she had for him was stripped away by all the things that were impossible to surmount.
“Please go,” he said, words that nearly broke him. “Just go now.”
She wavered for a moment and looked as if she might reply, then turned and silently walked away and out, closing the door behind her.
Gray lay there, hoping against his better senses that she would come back, even though he’d basically forbidden her from doing so. He listened to the beeping machines and stared at the walls, so shockingly white that they made him feel even blacker than the empty hole within him. It was a long time before he dared to cry, but when he did, many, many tears soaked his pillow.