A Clandestine Corporate Affair

chapter Sixteen

The Everette family estate looked exactly as it had the last time Nathan was there ten years ago, and ten years before that. In his entire life he didn’t think it had changed much.

Maybe that should have been a comfort, but it wasn’t.

He had no idea why he was here or what he planned to do, but suddenly he was out of the car and walking up to the porch. It was as if he was following some predetermined flight plan he had absolutely no control over.

He climbed the front steps and stopped at the door, raising his hand to knock. Then he dropped it back down to his side.

What the hell was he doing? There was a damned good reason he’d spent the last ten years avoiding this place. Avoiding his father. This wouldn’t solve anything.

He turned to leave, stopping as his foot hit the first step, unable to go any farther. Damn it. Somehow he knew that until he did this, until he faced his father, he wouldn’t be able to move on with his life. He would be caught in a perpetual cycle of self-doubt from which he might never break free. He needed to do this for himself, and for Max.

Before he could change his mind, he walked back to the door and rapped hard. Besides, what were the odds that he would be home at two in the afternoon anyway?

The housekeeper opened the door. When she saw who was standing there, she slapped a hand to her bosom, which along with her middle seemed to have expanded over the years, and her hair was more silver than the pale blond it used to be. “Nathan! My goodness, it’s been years!”

“Hi, Sylvia. Is my father by any chance home?”

“As a matter of fact he is. He’s just getting over a cold, so he’s working from home today.”

Dumb fricking luck. “Can you tell him I’m here?”

“Of course! Come on inside. Can I take your coat?”

“I can’t stay long.”

“Well, I’ll go get him then.”

She hurried off in the direction of the study while Nathan looked around. Unlike the outside, someone had given the interior a major overhaul. The gaudy and nauseating pastels his mother had been so fond of had been replaced with a more Southwestern feel. Probably one of his father’s multiple wives made the change.

“Nathan! What a surprise!”

He turned to see his father walking toward him, and blinked with surprise. For some reason he expected him to look exactly as he had the last time he’d seen him. And though only ten years had passed it looked as though he had aged double that. His hair was more salt than pepper and his face was a roadmap of lines and wrinkles. He was the same height he’d always been, but he seemed smaller somehow, a scaled-down version of his former self. In slacks, a button-down plaid shirt and a pullover sweater, he looked more like Mister Rogers than the monster Nathan remembered.

“Hi, Dad.”

“I would shake your hand but I’m just getting over a terrible cold. I wouldn’t want to risk passing my germs along to you.”

“I appreciate that.” Besides, he wasn’t here to exchange pleasantries.

“Why don’t we sit in my study? Can I get you a drink?”

“I can’t stay long.”

“Your brother tells me you’re both competing for the CEO position at Western Oil.”

That shouldn’t have raised his hackles, but it did. “I didn’t come here to talk about Jordan,” he snapped.

His father shrank back visibly. He nodded and stuck his hands in his pants pockets. “Okay, what did you come here for?”

He honestly had no clue. “This was a bad idea,” he said. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

He turned to leave, and got to the door before he realized that he couldn’t go, not until he had some answers. He turned back to his father. “I have a son.”

His father blinked with surprise. “I—I didn’t know. How old is he?”

“Nine months. His name is Max.”

“Congratulations.”

“He’s a great kid. He looks a lot like me, but he has his mother’s eyes. And he has the Everette birthmark.” A ball of emotion rolled up into his throat. “He’s beautiful and smart and I love him more than life itself, and I’m probably never going to see him again.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m so damned afraid that I’m going to do to him what you did to me.” He hadn’t expected to blurt that out, and clearly his father hadn’t, either. There was nothing like getting right to the point.

“Why don’t you come in and sit down?” his father said.

“I don’t want to sit down. I just want to know why. Why did you do it? Tell me why so I can figure out how to be different.”

“Not a day goes by that I don’t regret the way I treated you and your brother. I know I wasn’t a great father.”

“That does not help me.”

His father shrugged. “I guess…it was the way I was raised. It’s all I knew.”

Great. So, it was some twisted family tradition. That was just swell. “So in other words, I’m screwed.”

He sighed and shook his head. “No. You have a choice. Just like I did. I chose not to change. I spent twenty miserable years with a woman I loved more than life itself, and all she wanted from me was my name and as much of my money as she could get her greedy hands on. I was bitter and heartbroken, and instead of taking it out on the person who deserved it, I took it out on my kids.”

“You actually loved her?” Somehow he found that hard to believe. She was just so…unlovable. Stunningly beautiful, yes, but cold and selfish.

“Of course I loved her. Why did you think I married her?”

“Because she was pregnant.”

“She didn’t find out she was pregnant until after we were engaged. Almost two months, if memory serves.”

Nathan shook his head. “That can’t be right. I heard grandmother and Aunt Caroline talking when I was a kid. They said you had to get married.”

“Your grandmother never liked your mom. She thought she was beneath the Everette name. She was furious when she found out that I proposed. I think she had herself convinced that I would come to my senses and break the engagement, so when your mom got pregnant, I guess in her own twisted way, your grandmother probably thought we had to get married.”

Nathan was beginning to think that everything he knew about his life was wrong. Or at the very least grossly misinterpreted. There was only one thing that didn’t make sense…

“You said it’s the way you were raised, but didn’t your father die when you were four years old?”

“I don’t really remember him, but as far as I know, my father never laid a hand on me.”

It took a second for the meaning of his words to sink in. “Are you saying Grandmother…”

“She looked harmless, but that woman was mean as a snake.”

Damn. It was bad enough for a boy to be bullied by his father, but coming from his mother it had to be even more humiliating and degrading. Then to be married to a woman he loved who didn’t love him back. Picking on his sons, who were too young to defend themselves, must have made him feel empowered.

“Son, the bottom line is that your grandmother was a very unhappy person, and so was I. I was a miserable excuse for a father. And nowhere does it say that you’re destined to be just like me. You can be whatever kind of father you want to be. You make the choice.”

If it was his choice, then he chose to be different. And if he made mistakes, they would be his own, and hopefully he would learn from them along the way.

“I have to go,” he told his father.

He nodded, but he looked…sad. And for a second Nathan actually felt sorry for him. Which beat the hell out of hating him.

“Maybe you could stop by again sometime,” he said. “I don’t know if your brother told you, but I’m getting married. Again.”

“He mentioned it.”

He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe this one will stick.”

“Maybe I could bring Max by to see you some time.”

“Does that mean you will be seeing him again?”

If Ana would let him. And even if she didn’t, being in his son’s life was something he considered worth fighting for.

But before he fought that battle, he had a board meeting to crash.

“Okay,” Beth said, pressing the End button on her cell phone and jotting down a date and time in her daily planner. She set the book on the coffee table and sank back into the couch. “I have an appointment with the marriage counselor next Monday at 7:00 p.m. I made it later just in case Leo decides to come with me.”

But they both knew he wouldn’t. At least not yet. After finding a hotel room charge on Leo’s credit card bill, from two days after New Year’s, Beth finally took a stand. She insisted they go into counseling, and when he refused, she decided to go alone.

It was definitely a start.

Ana put her hand on Beth’s arm and gave it a squeeze. “I’m very proud of you. This is a huge step.”

“One that I wish my husband was making with me. But if he doesn’t love me enough to try to save our marriage, maybe it isn’t worth saving.” Tears welled in her eyes, but she took a deep breath and blinked them back. “But I’m going to get through it.” She put her hand over Ana’s. “We both are.”

Yeah, except Nathan did love her, and he loved Max, and he wanted to be with them, but he was just being a big idiot. And she was an idiot for believing him when he said he wouldn’t hurt her. But never again. He’d had his chance and he blew it. A few days ago she might have taken him back. She had still been in the mourning stage, crying every time she thought about him, but now she was angry—and boy, was she angry—and if he dared show up at her door, she was going to be the one gunning to “hurt” someone.

“I should probably pick Piper up from the babysitter’s and get home to make dinner,” Beth said. “Or better yet, maybe I’ll just grab something on the way home. Maybe Thai or sushi, Leo’s least favorites.”

The doorbell rang and Ana’s heart dropped into her knees. The way it had every time the doorbell rang this past week. But it wasn’t going to be Nathan. It never was. She didn’t want to see him even if it was, but it was just an automatic reaction, like Pavlov’s dog.

“I better get that,” she said, pushing herself up from the couch, deliberately not looking out the window before she pulled the door open.

She sucked in a surprised breath when she saw Nathan standing on her porch. Way to play it cool, Ana. Great job.

“Hi,” he said, and her heart dropped from her knees and landed in the balls of her feet. He looked good. So good that for a second she forgot to be angry. She very nearly launched herself at him.

“I’m very mad at you,” she said, more to remind herself than to warn him.

“I just want to talk,” he said, and the deep rumble of his voice danced across her nerve endings, making her shiver.

Whatever you do, just stay mad. Do not throw yourself into his arms.

“I have company over right now,” she said.

“And I was just leaving,” Beth said from behind her.

She turned to Beth and glared at her. Traitor.

Beth pulled her coat on and kissed Ana’s cheek. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” As she stepped down to the porch beside Nathan she looked up at him and said, “Hurt her again and I will take you out.”

Nathan’s brows rose a fraction, and she could swear she saw the hint of a smile. What did he have to smile about? She hoped he wasn’t here thinking he was going to get her back. Because that was not going to happen.

He stepped inside and took off his coat. He was still dressed for work. “Is Max here?”

She shook her head. “He’s at Jenny’s for a play date.”

“That’s good. We can talk without any distractions.”

“Who says I want to talk?”

“Well, you let me in, didn’t you?”

Not a smart move on her part. Because maybe she wasn’t quite as mad as she’d thought.

“Can we go sit down?” he asked.

That would be a bad idea. She wanted him close to the door so she could shove him out on a moment’s notice if she got any funny ideas. Or if he did. “I’m comfortable right here.”

He shrugged and said, “Okay.”

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

“I have had an interesting day.”

“Oh yeah? And why should I care?”

“My brother and I had a heart-to-heart talk today. I think we may have resolved a few things.”

“That’s good, I guess. Although I still wouldn’t trust him.”

“And I went to see my dad.”

Whoa. She definitely hadn’t expected him to say that. “Why?”

“I’m not sure. I went out for a drive, and I just ended up there. Maybe subconsciously I figured that when you have a problem to solve, it’s best to go to the source. He was my source.”

She folded her arms and against her better judgement asked, “How did that go?”

“It was…enlightening. It would seem that my dad actually loved my mom, and when he proposed to her, she was in fact not pregnant.”

“Oh.”

“He loved her so much that he stayed married to her, even though he knew she only wanted his money. And he was miserably unhappy.”

“That’s kinda sad.”

“That’s the difference between him and me, I guess. I wasn’t unhappy. At least, not until I screwed everything up. Before that, I was really, really happy.”

Yeah, so was she. But it was over.

She inched closer to the door. If he kept this up, he was out of here. Or maybe she should just run.

“I think I wanted you to fix me,” he said. “I just needed to figure out that the only person who can fix me is me.”

If she yanked the door open, grabbed his sleeve and tugged she could probably muscle him onto the porch. “Are you saying you’re fixed now?”

“I’m saying that I’ve isolated the problem, and though I’m not one hundred percent there, I’m definitely a work in progress. But there is a problem.”

Well that was good, because she needed a problem or two to firm up her resolve. “What problem?”

“I’m in love with you, and I miss my son, and without the two of you in my life permanently, I don’t think I can be happy.”

Don’t even think about it. You are not giving him another chance. She was inches from the doorknob…

“I went before the board today.”

“What for?”

“To tell them about you and Max. I assured them that being married to a Birch was not going to diminish my loyalty to Western Oil. I don’t know if they believed me, but they didn’t take me out of the running. I guess time will tell.”

“Nathan, why did you do that?”

“Because it was wrong of me to try to hide you. Max is my son. Keeping his existence a secret is tantamount to saying that I’m ashamed of him. And I’m not. I love him and I’m proud of him and I want everyone to know that. And I want them to know that I love his mother, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving her.” He reached up and touched her cheek. “And she is the most important thing to me. Not the job.”

She had waited an awfully long time for someone to feel that way about her. To put her first. “You know, you’re making it really hard for me to stay mad at you.”

He grinned. “That’s sort of the point, since I could really use one more chance.”

Like she had any hope of resisting him now. She threw her arms around him and hugged him hard. “One more. But if you screw up this time, I swear I’m siccing Beth on you.”

“This time you’re definitely stuck with me.” He wrapped his arms around her, held her close. “I missed you. And Max. This has been the most miserable week of my life.”

“Mine too.” But she was good now. Really, really good.

“I love you, Ana.”

“I love you, too. Why don’t I go get Max? He’s going to be so happy to see you.”

“Wait. Before you do, there’s one more thing we have to talk about.”

His face was so serious, her heart plunged. “What?”

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled something out. It took her a second to realize that it was a small velvet box. A ring box. Then he actually dropped down on one knee.

Oh my God. Her heart was beating so hard she thought for sure it would break right through her chest.

He opened the box, and inside was a diamond solitaire ring. It was so beautiful it took her breath away. “Ana, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

She had fantasized about this day since she was a little girl but could never have imagined how truly special it would be. She was getting everything she ever wanted. That and so much more.

“Yes I will, Nathan,” she said, through a sheen of tears—happy ones this time—and with a grin, he slipped the ring on her finger.