CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Grayson

I pull Mia down in the chair, resting against the cushion as she settles her head onto my chest. I have not laid with this woman in my arms like this in what feels like an eternity. And so I hold her now, and damn it, I should never have let her go. I should have known that she would never betray me with Ri and her reasons for going to work for him, well, as much as I hate them, they also represent so many of the reasons I love this woman. My money is nothing to her. She’s proven that every day of our lives together. She didn’t even keep the ring and damn it, that gutted me, and that’s exactly where my head goes. The day I’d found out she’d taken a job with Ri and the day the ring found its way back to me…

Three weeks without Mia.

It might as well be the three thousand years it feels like. I can’t sleep. I can’t think. I can’t fucking breathe. I toss my pen down on my desk and stand up, walking to the window, staring out over the city without really seeing it. I just see Mia’s pain. “Coffee and a protein bar,” Eric says from the doorway.

I turn to find him kicking the door shut and walking my direction in a pale blue pinstriped suit which he only wears on “lucky” days. It’s his deal uniform. I’d normally ask what’s in the pipeline when I see that suit. Right now, I don’t give a shit. “Since when do you bring me coffee?” I ask.

“You need something, man, and I figure caffeine is about as close to good as I can give you right now.” He stops beside me and hands me the cup, then reaches into his pocket and hands me the protein bar. “And you need to fucking eat.”

I take the damn bar and stuff it in my pocket, but I don’t ignore the coffee. I take a sip. “What do you have for me?” I ask, certain him and his blue suit are here on business.

“The bids on the hotel properties were accepted. We officially have locations for the Dallas and New York City Bennett Hotel launches. The firsts of many. Once we ink, I’ll work on getting the Dallas law offices moved to the property.”

“And we make money on the property where we run our firm,” I say. “You’re brilliant, Eric. I’m quite certain your bonus will buy you a new lucky suit.”

“Try a new lucky Jaguar or ten.” He inhales, his mood shifting. “We need to talk.”

I narrow my eyes on him. “Talk?”

“About Mia.”

Tension radiates up my spine. “What about Mia?”

“She took a job.”

My lashes lower and I turn away. She’s officially gone. She’s not coming back to work here. “Where?”

“That’s the part I’d rather leave out of this equation.”

I cut him a sharp look. “What does that mean?”

“Ri,” he says. “She went to work for Ri.”

Those words punch me in the chest so hard that I want to punch the window, and that’s not me, that not how I operate. “Is she fucking him?” I ask, the anger I can’t control radiating in my voice.

“I don’t know, man. I wouldn’t have thought she’d take a job with him. Not Ri. She knows how much he hates you.”

I love you, she’d said on the phone days ago. More like she fucking hates me. “Leave,” I order softly.

“Grayson—”

“Eric, man, I love you, but get out of my fucking office. I need to be alone.”

“Right. I understand.” He turns and heads for the door. He’s just exited when Nancy, my forty-two-year-old, quiet, always smart assistant appears in the doorway, proving she’s not smart right now. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be about to speak to me. She shoves her black-rimmed glasses up her nose and clears her throat. “Courtney is here. She’s a—”

“I know who she is,” I snap because of course, I know Mia’s best friend. I look skyward and then say, “Send her in.”

I stay where I’m at, needing control in a way I normally assume in less obvious ways. Courtney walks into my office and shuts the door. She’s wearing funeral black, her blonde hair a mess, which tells me she’s a mess, which isn’t like her. “I know about Ri,” I say.

She reaches into her purse and closes the space between us and I’m aware of her hand in that bag, waiting to deliver another blow. “She gave this to me three weeks ago to give to you and I didn’t. I thought she’d take it back, but I can’t hold on to a hundred-thousand-dollar ring.” She pulls her hand from the bag and hands me Mia’s ring box.

“Two hundred thousand,” I say, not because the money matters to me, but because of the impact of Mia giving it back. She never wanted my money. Fuck. She’s perfect, and in this moment I know the war is lost. She’s gone. I’m not getting her back.

I take the box.

Courtney opens her mouth and shuts it. And then she turns and walks toward the door. A minute later, she’s gone and the door is shut and my mind goes where I don’t want it to go. The timing of the news about Mia with Ri and this ring are hard to ignore, no matter what Courtney claims about the timing. Mia’s made it clear to me that she’s with Ri now and I know she knows that’s the end for me, for us.

“Grayson?”

I blink back to the present to find Mia looking up at me. “Yeah, baby?”

Her eyes soften and warm. “God, I missed you calling me that. I just missed you, period. Please tell me what you’re thinking.”

“You could have sold the ring to help your father.”

“Sell my ring? I wouldn’t sell my ring. It’s—special. It was—”

I tangle my fingers in her hair and pull her mouth to mine. “I know you wouldn’t. I doubted you, too, though. You know that, right?”

“You thought I went to Ri to hurt you.”

“Yes. I found out you went to work for him the same day Courtney brought me back the ring.”

“But I gave her the ring the day we broke up.”

“She didn’t bring it to me.”

“She brought it the day you found out?”

“Yes. She did.”

She sits up and climbs on top of me, her hands going to my cheeks. “That must have felt like a ‘fuck you’ and it wasn’t. I would never—”

“I know. I should have known there was more going on than met the eye, but damn it, Mia, you should have known I wouldn’t fuck around on you. We were not as strong as I thought.”

“Don’t say that. Please don’t say that. I thought we were perfect.”

I turn her over, and lay her on her back, pressing my leg between hers, and I lean over her. “So did I. Maybe that was the problem.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We’re human. We’re flawed. We can’t be perfect. We need to remember that this time. We need to know that it’s our flaws, our imperfections, and how they come together to be perfect that makes us perfect. But we have to see the flaws and deal with them to get to perfect.”

“And what were our flaws?”

“That’s what we need to figure out, baby.” I stroke her cheek. “That’s what we need to figure out, and if we do, we’ll be stronger. We’ll be better this go around.”

“Promise me because I suddenly feel like the room is spinning like we’re uncertain.”

“I promise you that there is nothing uncertain about my love for you or my intention to keep you this time.”

She strokes my cheek. “I promise you that there is nothing uncertain about my love for you or my intention to keep you this time.”

I push off the chair and take her with me, carrying her to the bed, where I plan to hold her tonight and every night going forward, but I know that means dealing with our flaws. I know that means admitting we have them.

A long time later, I lay in bed with her in front of me, holding her close, and I think of that ring. I’m going to give it back to her, but not until I know she will never take it off again, and right now, I don’t know that and I don’t think she does either.