Why Not Tonight (Happily Inc. #3)

By the time Ronan made it up the mountain to his house, he was marginally less aroused. As long as he didn’t think about Natalie too much, he might make it through the night without too much pain. He let himself inside, but instead of heading to the kitchen or his study, he walked through to the hallway leading to his studio, then went into the storeroom he’d had built.

After flipping on the light, he looked at the shelves and tables, all filled with his finished work. There were dozens of pieces, maybe over a hundred. Some were small enough to fit on the palm of his hand while others stretched nearly to the ceiling. There were abstracts, animals, people, plants and creatures that had never existed outside of his imagination.

Some were promised to Atsuko. They had a plan to release various collections over time—a way of keeping his work in the public eye while he worked on larger commissions. But others were simple things he’d made because he’d seen something in his head and had needed to get it out. And here they sat.

He walked down one aisle and up the other, passing various creations. He’d never much thought about his personal inventory—why it existed or what he should do with it.

He paused by a display of flowers and thought of how Natalie was spending her evening—working hard so she could pay the rent. He picked up one of the glass blossoms. He could easily get ten thousand dollars for a single flower—how fair was that? How ridiculous?

He hesitated, thinking he could also drop it, shattering it into a million pieces, and what would it matter to anyone?

Natalie wouldn’t do that, he told himself. She would sell it or use it for something, but she would never destroy it. He could learn from that.

He turned slowly, taking in the collection of his work, and knew he couldn’t just let it sit here gathering dust. He had to do something with it. Something Natalie would respect.

He walked up and down again, this time taking pictures with his phone. When he’d chosen a dozen pieces, he sent Atsuko an email, telling her he wanted to talk. A dozen pieces for a dozen charities, he thought. They could auction them off or whatever. Use the money to make a difference.

Before he left the storeroom he returned to the display of flowers and picked out a black one in honor of Natalie’s wedding project. That one he would give to his girl.

*

NATALIE CAREFULLY FILED the receipts. She had to pay extra attention because she was a little tired from her date night with Ronan. As promised, there had been dinner, sex, the movie and then more sex. She hadn’t gotten much sleep, but was hardly in any condition to complain. Not when Ronan did those delicious things to her body.

She picked up an invoice for one of his pieces and opened the file cabinet drawer devoted to him and his work. While Atsuko kept her records digitally, she liked to have a paper backup. Natalie checked the item sold, then searched for the correct file. She found it up front and pulled it out to add the invoice. It was only when a second folder fell to the ground that she realized she’d grabbed two by mistake. The second one contained his personal information, including his address, tax ID info and his birthday.

Natalie quickly closed the folder—she didn’t want to pry—then opened it again and looked at his birth date. It couldn’t be right—she must have read the date wrong. Only she hadn’t. His birthday was next week! How could she not have known that?

She put the folder back in the file drawer and continued her work all the while trying to figure out how that information could have not been public knowledge. She knew when Nick’s and Mathias’s birthdays were. Not that anyone made a big fuss but she usually created a custom card and brought in a cupcake. Something she’d never done for Ronan because she hadn’t known the date.

When she finished her filing, she went back to the work studio. She happened to know that Ronan had a video conference call with a gallery owner in London that morning, something he would do from home, which meant she could talk to his brothers without him knowing.

She found Nick sketching at his desk while Mathias polished the edges of a new light fixture he’d made the previous day. They both looked up when she walked into the studio and said, “We have to talk.”

“Sure,” Nick said easily. “What’s up?”

“Ronan’s birthday. It’s next week. I never knew the date, so I haven’t ever made him a card or anything. We should do something.”

Nick and Mathias exchanged a look. Natalie tried to figure out what they were thinking, but there was too much brother communication for her to decipher.

“We know when his birthday is,” Nick told her. “As for doing something, Ronan’s not really a party guy.”

There was something about the way he spoke, she thought. Not the words as much as the tone. As if he was trying to warn her not to wade out too far into the emotional pool.

She knew that, until a few years ago, Mathias and Ronan had thought they were fraternal twins. To make that story work, they would have shared a birthday, only it wouldn’t have been their real birthday—at least not for Ronan.

“You usually celebrate together,” she breathed, staring at Mathias. “You and he probably planned the parties, or at least told your mom what you wanted. But that’s been lost, too, along with everything else, and you haven’t known what to do about it.”

Mathias set down the light pendant and settled on a stool. “Maybe.”

“Have you talked about your birthdays?” she asked.

“Talk?” Nick asked. “Right. You’ve met our other brother, haven’t you? Ronan’s not exactly a chatty guy.”

She pulled up a third stool, took a seat and looked at Mathias. “What happened when he found out about who he was? Did he leave right away? Did you come up with a plan together?”

“There was no plan,” Mathias told her. “He didn’t say anything for weeks. I mean, anything. He didn’t work, didn’t do much of anything. Then one day he came to me and said he was leaving. He’d found a town where he wanted to live. Happily Inc. We’d sold a lot of our work through the gallery here. It’s not a huge place, like a gallery in New York or Chicago, but Atsuko has connections.”

Natalie nodded. She was forever shipping pieces all over the world or collecting payments from international clients.

“Did he ask you to go with him?” she asked.

“No. He gave me the information. What I did with it was up to me. But he was my twin, no matter what our father said, so I came with him.” He hesitated. “At first it was okay. We rented a place together, and Atsuko gave us this studio so we could work. I thought we were going to go back to the way it had been.”

Only they hadn’t, she thought sadly. Ronan had started pulling away. She’d seen that when she’d started working here. How week after week he grew less and less communicative. How he wasn’t working, or if he was, he worked from home.

“If he leaves again, we’re going to lose him,” Nick said bluntly. “Mathias can’t go with him this time. He’s got Carol and everything else.”

Of course, she thought. Mathias loved his wife and Carol was tied to Happily Inc. Her work was here and it wasn’t as if the animal preserve could be packed up and moved.

“He’s not going anywhere,” she said quickly. “Why would he? His work is here, his family.”

Me. Only she couldn’t say that. She and Ronan weren’t involved—not seriously. They were having fun. Even if she wanted more, it wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t give her heart to someone she couldn’t trust to treasure their connection as much as she did. He’d turned his back on his brothers and his mother. What if he decided to turn his back on her? On their children? She hated to admit it, but she and Ronan didn’t have a future. She would enjoy what they had now and be careful to keep herself from getting too emotionally involved with him.

That sensible plan in place, she returned her attention to the conversation at hand. “Whether or not he’s leaving isn’t the issue. What about his birthday? His actual birthday. Have you ever celebrated it?”

Nick and Mathias looked at each other.

“I don’t think so,” Nick began before Mathias interrupted him.

“No. He never wanted to acknowledge it.”

“Then that is going to change. We’re going to have a party.”