twenty-six
EXCUSE ME, MR. Kingman.” The petite redhead stepped into King’s office. “Do you need anything else before I go home?”
King opened his mouth to speak. He caught himself before he said Sophie’s name and focused on the computer screen. “No. We’re done.”
Mandy unclipped the identification badge from the front pocket of her emerald dress. “Great. Oh, by the way—I catalogued your old messages in the computer. I also uploaded the new information from the acquisition advisor to your cloud account along with your expense report so you can review them.”
The notes Sophie had e-mailed undoubtedly paved the way to his new temporary assistant’s thoroughness. “Thank you, Mandy. Good work. Have a nice night.”
“You too.” She grinned and zipped out of his office.
Pixie. He couldn’t help it. Every time he looked at Mandy, he expected her to grow wings, whip out a wand, and spread magic dust in the air. He wished she had that power. Maybe she could fix things for him with Sophie.
“Hey.” Aiden rapped on the door. “You up for beers and burgers tonight? We can watch football at the sports grill around the block.”
“You don’t have to keep doing this.”
Aiden reached under the hem of his blue button-down and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He shrugged. “Doing what? I’m hungry.”
King loosened his red, swirl-patterned tie. He tossed it on the desk. “We’ve had more dinners and beers together in the past few days than we’ve had all year. I know what you’re doing.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah. You can stop. I’m fine.” King released the top two buttons of his black dress shirt. “I have enough work to keep me preoccupied.”
Aiden hadn’t remained angry at him about breaking their company’s relationship agreement or blamed him for Sophie’s resignation. Instead, Aiden hung around him more, as if letting him know he had his back.
Aiden dropped onto the sofa in the seating area. “Maybe work is keeping you too engaged. You look like hell. It’s obvious that you’re not sleeping.”
Between dreams of making love to Sophie yanking him awake and cold showers afterward, he was lucky to get four or five hours. He envisioned her in every room of his house. Imagined hearing her laughter floating in from the hallway. On phone calls, he’d had to stop himself more than once from telling someone to contact her to handle an issue.
Aiden’s brown boots thunked on the floor as he planted his feet wide and leaned his forearms on his thighs. “You should call her.”
“I did, but she won’t talk to me.”
“Then go and see her.”
“It’s a waste of time.” Weariness weighed on King as he stood. “Only Robin will answer the door at the apartment. Then she just glares at me and slams it in my face.” He turned to the wall of glass. “The other week, I waited for Sophie outside the boutique. She left with a guy. I think he’s a firefighter. She’s moved on.”
“You’re letting her go, just like that?”
“She’s better off without me.” The weight grew heavier. “Maybe this guy is the one.”
“Or maybe you are.”
“I couldn’t keep her happy.”
“Keeping her in your bed isn’t the same as making room for her in your life.”
A harsh chuckle burned King’s throat. “I should stop deluding myself. What do I have to offer her in a relationship? I’d just fuck it up the same way Gerard did with Mom.”
“Relationship? I’ve never heard you say you wanted more than just a hookup with a woman. Maybe you should start by admitting that to yourself and quit using what Dad did to Mom as a cop-out for not going after her.”
“It’s the truth. He’s the one I take after. Right?”
Aiden snorted and shook his head. “I don’t know what pisses me off more: what he did to Mom, or the number he did on you.”
“What he did? What about the things I’ve done? If you knew the whole story, you wouldn’t be on my side in any of this. Hell, you wouldn’t want me as your partner anymore.” Shame over what he’d hidden from his mother and Aiden about Gerard in the past drove King to look out the window. “I told Sophie about what really happened when I fucked up my first deal. I should have confessed it to you too.”
“Nothing will change. Whatever it is, you had a reason. What did Sophie say? Did she condemn you?”
“No. Amazingly, she didn’t.” King’s eyes stung, but not from staring at the sun. “She said that I was good in all the right ways. Guess I fooled her.”
“You are capable of good.”
“You have to say that. You’re my brother.”
“No, I don’t. If I believed for one minute you were a total asshole, you wouldn’t be my partner.”
“So I’m just part asshole. That’s comforting.”
“Actually, it is.” Aiden stood beside him. “The part of you that isn’t one is what’s making you want to reach out and contact Dad to share our suspicions about the Ivy Gate’s construction issues.”
Surprise made King hesitate. He’d dialed Gerard’s number several times, but had stopped short of letting the call go through. “How did you know?”
“You kept picking up your cell and putting it down during the conference call the other day when our construction expert told us the owners at the Ivy Gate had canceled another meeting with him.” Aiden shrugged. “I got curious, so I checked when you stepped out.”
“And I thought Mom was the nosy one.”
“I wasn’t spying. Exactly. Actually, I was wondering if you’d heard from Sophie.”
“You could have asked.”
“It was easier and more interesting doing it my way.”
Bet it was. Aiden had worn that same damned grin every time he’d denied messing with King’s Nintendo when they were kids. Sneaky fucker. “What if I had called him? Would you have had a problem with it?”
“No.” Aiden’s grin faded. “Honestly, I admire you for wanting to do the right thing. Here I was, all high and mighty, denying the past still bothered me. When this opportunity to burn Dad presented itself by just letting him buy the hotel and not telling him what we knew, all I could think about was finally evening the score.”
“You have every right to.”
“It won’t bring back what I lost.” Aiden squinted out the window. “I know it seems hard, but if you love Sophie, find a way to fix it. If you don’t, the pain you feel now will be nothing compared to the future. Trust me. I know.” The regret that showed in his face reflected in the window. “Don’t lose your chance at happiness because of Dad. Be better than him. For both of us.” Aiden cleared his throat. He clapped King on the back. “I’m going to the bar. Don’t want to miss the game.”
King picked up his cell from the desk. Would Gerard listen or would he go off on some tangent like he had in Virginia Beach?
A comment his father had made that day percolated. It didn’t make any sense. Did it?
“Hey.”
Aiden paused in the doorway.
“In Virginia Beach, when Gerard was trying to bust my balls, he said, ‘Out of all of you, I thought you were the smartest.’ What did he mean by ‘all of you’? There’s only the two of us.”
Aiden snorted a laugh. “Knowing him, it was another mind fuck to make you do what you’re doing now. Wonder about it. Don’t give him the satisfaction by asking about that shit when you call him.”
“Yeah. You’re right. Want me to let you know what he says?”
“Sure, but tell me tomorrow.” Aiden grimaced. “No need to ruin a good bacon burger and a beer buzz. I’m out.”
King dialed Gerard’s direct number.
His father picked up on the third ring. “You finally come to your senses?”
King sat in his chair. “I don’t need to, but you do. There’s a problem with the Ivy Gate Hotel.”