Chapter Eleven
“Honey, you have to tell us what’s wrong.”
Keira and Camryn hovered around her shoulders as the three of them sat in Keira’s office with the door closed. Mayson poured out everything that had happened at dinner the night before, stopping short of divulging the news of Holt’s mother.
“I can’t believe he threw out that bullshit about your upbringing.” Camryn punctuated the comment with a harsh snort. “It’s low, and it’s not even remotely true.”
“It’s a shield.”
Keira’s comment caught Mayson mid-snatch on a fresh tissue. “He said it, K. Right to my face. He used my background and how I’ve grown up with privilege as a reason we’re not meant for each other.”
It was Keira’s turn to snort. “Right. I hate to sound gauche, but that man has more money than our family ten times over. He’s a business maven, and he gives Nathan a run for his money. However impoverished his childhood, those days are long gone, and I doubt Holt Turner has spent too many days worrying about it.”
“He’s afraid of something,” Camryn said. “And he’s trying to bluff his way through the fear.”
“Men like Holt don’t get afraid.” Mayson shook her head as she reached for another tissue.
Keira’s sudden burst of laughter was so unexpected, Mayson could only stare at her. “Why are you laughing?”
“He’s a human being, sweetie. And a powerful one at that. Of course he gets scared.”
“Nathan doesn’t get scared,” Camryn was quick to point out. “He’s tough, and frankly, if he wasn’t my brother-in-law, I’d very likely think he was scary.”
“Oh God, please do not tell him that. He’ll be insufferable.” Keira’s expression was serious. “Don’t take away Holt’s humanity. Just because he refuses to show fear, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any way down deep inside where we all keep ourselves hidden away.”
“I don’t know.” Mayson was prevented from saying anything by a knock on the door, and all three of them turned as their father’s voice boomed into the room.
“All my girls together.”
“Dad!” Mayson dragged the pads of her fingers over her tears, trying to hide the fact she’d been crying, but it was no use. He immediately zeroed in on the tears.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
Keira motioned Camryn with what appeared to be a “let’s get coffee” gesture, but Mayson knew it for what it was. The time had come to tell her dad about the baby.
Her father took the seat Camryn had vacated and leaned forward to wrap her in a hug. “What’s wrong?” For a moment, she simply allowed herself to be held. She took in the warmth and comfort of a parent and, without warning, the tears spilled out, like water over a dam. “There you go. Get it out.”
She tried to fill him in with fits and starts, before giving up and letting the tears flow until she was dry. He ran a fresh tissue over her cheeks before brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. A gentleness she’d seen rarely filled his eyes. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
So she did.
…
“A baby? You’re going to be a mother?”
Mayson nodded a few minutes later. “I know it’s not the way I’d have imagined it, but I’m so excited about this baby.”
“I’m going to be a grandfather? When?”
“In about six and a half more months.”
He pulled her close once more before wiping at the corner of his own eyes. “Wow. My baby. You’re going to make an incredible mother. Just like your mom.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
“You thought she was a good mom?”
“The best.”
While she didn’t want to ruin the moment, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask the questions that had been hovering in her mind since the entire discussion of marriage had begun with Holt. “You and mom didn’t have a good marriage.”
“No, we didn’t.”
“Yet you thought she was a great mother.”
“She was a great everything.” A hard slash of pain filled his features, and for the moment Mayson thought she’d overstepped. “I failed your mother, not the other way around.”
“Dad—” The truth of his words stopped her. They couldn’t go back. Couldn’t change what was. And in a very real sense, who she was as a person—and who she was professionally—was tied to his choices. “What if Holt and I end up in the same place?”
“That would be pretty hard to do since you’re different people than us. You see the world differently, you always have.”
“My eye in the sky.” He’d teased her with that moniker often enough in her youth Mayson had come to associate it with the dreamy state she often sunk into when she was designing something or focusing on a shoot.
“Don’t ever change it.” Her father leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I can’t rewrite the past, and I don’t deserve to. But I want you to think about what you want. What makes you happy. It took me a long time to realize what you girls created, and I’m so proud of what you’ve done. What you’ve built.”
“Thanks.”
“Now it’s time to focus on building your family. Don’t make the same mistakes I did. And don’t let anything stand in the way of your happiness.”
Of all the places she had expected to find wisdom, it wasn’t at the hands of her father. Funny enough, it was exactly what she needed to hear.
…
Holt slammed around his apartment, unable to get the last image of Mayson out of his mind’s eye. She’d just stood there in the middle of her living room, watching him leave. And he’d been the stupid a*shole who’d left.
He was on his fifth day without sleep and knew he was ragged and frayed, on the edge of losing everything he held dear. Everything in the world that really mattered.
Mayson and his child.
His phone line buzzed and he recognized the ring as his doorman, and wasn’t surprised to discover Nathan was in his lobby, interested in coming up. The brisk knock a few minutes later had a renewed wave of anger coursing through the pounding in his head. “What do you want?”
Nathan’s eyebrows shot up, but he avoided answering, instead tossing his own opening volley as he walked through the open door. “You look like hell.”
“And I’m sure you know why.”
“I do.”
Before he could say anything, could even come up with a thought, a heavy fist planted itself in his face and Holt staggered backward with the force of Nathan’s punch. “What the hell?”
Nathan bent down and shoved his face within inches of Holt’s. “That’s for my sister-in-law. The only reason I’m not adding one for my wife is because you look so damned pitiful.”
With an extended hand, Nathan pulled him up and walked him toward the living room. “Sit down and I’ll get you some coffee. Then you can give me your side of the story, which, I’ve got to tell you, doesn’t make you look like anything but a raging a*shole.”
“Probably because I am a raging a*shole.”
“I’ll reserve final judgment until I hear your side from you.”
Nathan walked back in a few minutes later with two steaming mugs of coffee and handed him one. Holt took it and downed a first sip. Despite the heat, the hit of caffeine went a long way toward helping him focus his thoughts. “My mother is a thief. World-class.”
“I know.”
“What?” Holt’s gaze flew to his friend’s, the smug smile there nearly sending him out of his chair to throw a few punches of his own. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. I know. I’ve known since our first deal.”
“You did a background check on me?”
“Likely from the same firm who ran the one on me that you commissioned, so you can get off that high horse.”
“I’ve covered it up. The part about my mother,” he said, still curious how Nathan could have known he’d checked him out all those years ago.
“Then maybe we didn’t use the same firm, because the one I secured was still able to dig it up.”
“She’s a train wreck I’ve carefully and meticulously distanced myself from.”
“So what’s the problem?”
Holt stared at his friend over the rim of his mug as he took another sip. “You really need to ask me that?”
Nathan leaned forward, his forearms on his knees. “She’s not you, Holt. You’ve made something of yourself that’s good and strong and honest. What she chooses to do is her own path, and not acknowledging that undermines what you’ve worked on and built all on your own merits.”
Holt wanted to believe that, but he knew the reality was often different. “Craddick found out, and he has no interest in doing a deal.”
“Teddy Craddick is a blowhard who thinks he’s got way more influence than he does.”
“He’s not a trifle, Nathan.”
“He’s also not nearly the mover and shaker he once was. And he shouldn’t be. Hell, the man should be enjoying his damn retirement instead of poking his nose into deals. His sons are more than capable of running the company, and have been doing a damn fine job of it.”
“Craddick’s one of my mother’s cons.” Realization dawned in Nathan’s eyes and Holt couldn’t resist a jab. “Didn’t get that one out of your damn background check, huh?”
“So you want to incentivize him to assuage your conscience?”
“Something like that.” Holt took a sip of the coffee. “It’s worked with others.”
“She’s a poison, and she needs to be dealt with.”
“I know. And I have an idea if you want in.”
“Hell yeah I want in.”
Holt rubbed his chest as he took another sip of coffee. “How’s she doing?”
“She’s about as miserable as you.”
“I love her.” The words were so simple, so easy, he wondered why he’d run from them for so much of his life. Maybe because Mayson Elizabeth McBride had never been a part of his life. But now that she was here, nothing else mattered the way she did. “I screwed this up big time.”
“Yeah, you did. But you can fix it.” Nathan hesitated for the briefest moment before continuing. “I do need to know something.”
“What?”
“Are you happy about the baby?”
“I want both of them, Nathan. I want that so damn much I can’t see straight.”
“Then let’s get started.”
…
Holt stood outside Teddy Craddick’s office, still amazed at the irony of what he was about to do. He glanced down at the slim file in his hands and flipped through the already-memorized pages once more.
Damn, but the universe did have a sense of humor.
Teddy’s assistant waved him toward the door. “Please go on in, Mr. Turner.”
The inner sanctum of Teddy’s office was pretty much what he’d pictured, including the small putting green in the corner. Holt strode across it to shake the man’s extended hand. “Thanks for taking the time to see me.”
“I can’t deny I’m curious.”
“You willing to keep what we discuss in this room?”
Holt saw the interest flare in the old man’s eyes, and Nathan’s words came rushing back. He’s also not nearly the mover and shaker he once was. As Holt assessed Teddy through that new lens, he realized he’d been the one who had made the man larger than life. And he’d allowed his guilt to force his hand in ways it shouldn’t have.
On a deep breath, he dived in. “About twenty years ago, you and your wife lost some very valuable belongings. I can’t get them back for you, but I may have a way we can call it even.”
…
Holt settled into the conference room at Craddick Inc. The urge to check his watch was strong, but he put what was to come out of his mind. His mother would be taken care of and the Craddicks would be made whole. While he knew it didn’t fully absolve him of his silence, it went a long way toward making things right. What he cared about even more was phase two of his plans. Making everything up to Mayson.
If his emotions dealing with his mother were a blend of calm indifference and the dull relief things would finally be over, his anticipation at seeing Mayson again was sky-high. A light knock at the door indicated Teddy was ready for him and Holt stood, ready to do his part.
He and Nathan had coached the older man on exactly how he needed to play Eloisa, and as Holt walked down the hall toward Teddy’s office, he got a thumbs-up from Nathan where he hid with a team of NYPD detectives.
True to form, his mother was impeccably dressed, and Holt adopted a sneer as he walked into the room. “What are you doing here?”
“I was invited.”
From that moment, he and Teddy played her like a pair of virtuosos. Craddick laid out the deal on the table. Holt sweetened the pot.
Teddy discussed incentives and his need for a business partner, suggesting Eloisa’s connections might be more than suitable. Holt cut down each of her suggestions, frustrating her into making a mistake. And finally Teddy went in for the kill, suggesting he’d remembered Eloisa from an earlier meeting. Holt watched, fascinated, as his mother shifted from one technique to the next, tactic after tactic as she tried to salvage the meeting.
It was only at the end, when Holt presented Teddy with a check for the lost items, that they finally broke her. The cracks he’d seen in her composure in their latest dealings had been the final piece that had convinced Holt they might have an advantage over her. He’d been proven correct when she went into one of her wild outbursts, her increasing sense of entitlement her ultimate downfall.
…
He stared at his mother where she sat handcuffed and awaiting a trip to police headquarters. Teddy had given them a few minutes alone in his office, time Holt didn’t want or need. After three decades of living with her choices hanging over his head, he thought it almost poetic her downfall had taken such a short amount of time. He felt no remorse for the set up, only a fierce sense of relief.
Her eyes blazed with a blend of anger and hatred as she stared at him across Craddick’s office. “You set me up.”
Holt shrugged. “You should have left me alone.”
“I gave you everything.”
“No, Eloisa. I gave me everything. You’ve done nothing but try to take it away.”
She waved her hands at him where they were bound at the wrist by handcuffs. “This is entrapment. Nothing’s going to stick.”
“It will when I testify to what you’ve done.”
“Things you took part in.”
“Well, then, it’s lucky for me I’ve spent the last decade working on cleaning up your messes and maintaining some rather detailed files of my own.”
It was Nathan who’d finally convinced him that he had nothing to hide from. His business practices were honest and above board, and he had made clearly concerted efforts to make reparation to those she’d stolen from.
The detective who helped arrange the sting knocked before opening the door, and raised Eloisa to her feet. Whatever façade she’d hidden behind in the past vanished, and her words were as dark as they were self-recriminating. “You’ve always thought you were above me. That your books and your education made you better than me.”
“I wanted something else. Something I earned.”
The detective led his mother from the room and Nathan walked in after they’d departed, slapping him on the back. “Time heals all wounds, buddy. You’re well rid of her.”
“You can gloat later.” Holt nudged his friend away from the door. “I’ve still got some groveling to do.”
“Go get her.”
…
Mayson stared down at the layout and tried to focus on the words that underpinned the various images in the piece. She stood over her light box with a series of alternative images and couldn’t seem to focus on any of them. She’d already read the accompanying text a half dozen times, but the words refused to sink in.
The art department had outdone themselves—one photo was more vibrant and vivid than the next—and she wanted to give the work the proper attention, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get her head in the game.
And she couldn’t get Holt out of her mind.
With a soft sigh, she thought of the small photo she kept tucked in her top desk drawer. The image on the ultrasound was so tiny, but it was there all the same. Her baby. A warm flutter at the photographic evidence of her pregnancy filled her and she smiled. No matter how bad she’d bungled things with Holt, she had this. Their child. And she was determined to make the very best choices she could for this baby she loved more than she’d ever thought possible.
A hard knock echoed from her doorway and the breath caught in her throat as Holt filled the jamb.
“Hi.” He smiled, and she saw the tired lines that framed his eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve got a lot to tell you.” He glanced around the office. “Mind if I come in?”
“Sure.”
“Mind if I close the door?”
“Should I mind?” Her fingers itched to touch him, to smooth out those lines she saw on his face and kiss his lips, but she stayed where she was, in front of her light box, her hands full of layouts.
“I had a big day.”
“What happened?”
“Well, in no particular order, I cut a deal with Teddy Craddick, scammed my mother, then had her arrested, and finally came to my senses.”
She knew there was something else in his words, but she couldn’t pull her attention off the news of his mother’s arrest. “What happened?”
“The short version is your brother-in-law is a genius who helped me figure out how to set her up and make it stick. A slightly longer version is that it was a long time coming and I should have done something a hell of a lot sooner. I’ll give you the Lifetime Movie of the Week version over dinner, if you’ll share it with me.”
“There’s nothing to share, Holt. I thought we both understood that clearly when you left my apartment the other night.”
“I’m a stupid a*shole. That’s all that happened in your apartment the other night.”
“A stupid a*shole who has stayed away for nearly a week.”
“I thought the term ‘stupid a*shole’ was sort of self-evident?”
She didn’t want to laugh, but damn it if he couldn’t make her smile. “What else did you do today? Rule the boardroom? Manage a little world domination while you were at it?”
“I closed a deal with Teddy Craddick.” He took a few steps closer.
“Very nice.”
“And I came to my senses.” He took another few steps closer, enough so that he could reach out and touch her hand with his index finger.
She fought the shiver incited by that simple touch. “What did that involve?”
“Knowing that I love you. That I want to make a life with you and have babies with you.”
The ever-present tears that she couldn’t seem to get rid of pricked the backs of her eyes.
“Why are you crying?”
“Because I can’t seem to stop lately.” She waved a hand. “Pregnancy hormones or something.”
“Can you always use that excuse when I act like a raging ass? You know, even when you’re not pregnant? Because I can’t promise I’m not going to mess up in the future.”
“According to you and all the babies you want to have, it sounds like I may be pregnant for a while.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Not if you don’t mind sharing the load.”
Holt moved forward and lifted the layouts from her hand, setting them down on the table behind her back. “I want to share the load. If you’ll have me, I’ll share it with you every day.”
She tilted her head to stare up at him. So much had happened in such a short time and there were so many things she wanted to tell him. So many things she wanted to say. But in the end, only one thing really mattered. “I love you.”
His mouth came down over hers, full of warmth and passion, affection and understanding. And love. Underpinning it all was love.
He lifted his head from hers and gazed down into her eyes. The emotions she saw there were pure and so very, very full of promise. “I love you, Mayson Elizabeth McBride. And I want to marry you and make a family with you.”
“I want that, too.”
He smiled broadly before he stared down at her hand. “Where’s your ring?”
She felt the hot blush creep up her neck. “In my purse. You forgot it last week when you left and, well…”
“Go get it.”
She pulled her purse from the bottom drawer, her fingers closing over the ring. As she did so, she thought about the other things she kept in her desk and removed the sonogram photo. He captured her as she came around the desk. “Let me.”
She handed him the ring and watched, mesmerized, as he dropped to his knee before her. “Mayson Elizabeth McBride. Will you marry me?”
Love, strong and true, welled in her heart. They might not have had the most logical of starts, but what they had was pure and true. More than that, she was committed to making it work. To making a life with him.
She pulled the photo out from where she held it behind her back. “We will.”
With trembling fingers, she handed him the first photo of their child and watched as every dream she’d ever held, every truth she’d ever whispered in the depths of her heart, reflected back at her in his gaze. “This is our baby.”
“Yes.”
He exhaled on a heavy breath as his gaze returned to the photo. “Amazing.”
“And all ours in about six and a half months.”
A look of wonder rode his features as he pulled her close once more and slipped the ring on her finger. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her stomach before standing and pulling her close.
As she lifted her mouth to his, Mayson put every ounce of promise into the kiss, the truth of her love undeniable.
The promise of their future awaiting them both.