She shrugged. “He was there. With you. It was convenient. One kid is just as good as another.”
Mick sucked in a deep breath, never as close to wanting to punch a woman in the face as he was right then. “Elizabeth. Listen very closely to me. You hurt Tara. And in doing so, you hurt Nathan. You put his face erroneously on national television without her permission and used him to promote me and the team. She’s furious. At me.”
“So? I’ve been telling you—and her—for months that it’s never going to work between the two of you. She just doesn’t get it.” She pointed at the television. “That was great promo. You with underprivileged kids. Great emotional angle. Come on, Mick. Awesome bonus points.”
He finally grabbed her arms, wanting to shake her so badly he had to grit his teeth to keep from doing so. “No, you don’t get it. She’s important to me. What you think—or want—isn’t. I love her. And if I lose her over this, you’ll regret it. Do you understand that, Elizabeth? Do you have any idea how much I hate you for what you’ve done? Right now you are about two seconds away from having your ass fired.”
He’d said the last two words loud enough to get her attention, because her eyes widened. “What?”
“Fucking fix this, Elizabeth, or you’re history. I’ve had it with you deciding what’s best for me and my career. You haven’t known what’s best for me for a long time now. If you had really known what was good for me, you’d have had your goddamn eyes open over the past couple months and seen what I needed.” He shoved her away from him. “You want to know what’s best for me? Tara is best for me. Nathan is best for me. They make me happy, something you obviously don’t understand, since you don’t have a goddamn heart.”
She’d gone pale, her normal snobbish bearing seeming to shrink.
Good. He didn’t give a shit how she felt.
“Get your ass out of my house right now. You have until tomorrow to figure out a way to fix this massive fuckup, or I will fire you. Do you understand?”
She nodded, rapidly blinking back tears as she grabbed her bag and headed for the door. “I got it. I’ll fix this, Mick. Don’t worry.”
He held the door open for her, and she hurried through it. He slammed it behind her with so much force the pictures on the wall rattled.
God, he’d never wanted to hurt someone more than he wanted to hurt Elizabeth. And he’d never once in his life laid a hand on a woman. But she’d infuriated him and messed with his life. And no one did that and got away unscathed.
Now he had to do something to repair the damage she’d caused.
Considerable damage. Maybe irreparable damage.
TWENTY
TARA SAT IN THE COOL DARKNESS OF HER LIVING ROOM, her knees pulled up to her chest, trying to keep the headache that had started last night from turning into a full-blown migraine.
Nathan, her thankfully oblivious son, had no idea what had set her off yesterday. And she wasn’t about to burst his bubble about Mick. Not just yet. Later, when she was stronger, when she’d shored up her defenses, she’d sit him down and explain to him that people sometimes weren’t who you thought they were, that sometimes they couldn’t live up to your expectations.
She would have to break her son’s heart. But her job as his mother was to hit him with the cold slap of reality and force him to step outside the bubble of fantasy that he—that they—had been living in for the past couple months. It was her own fault for trying to grab the brass ring, for thinking she could have it all— great career, great kid, great guy. She should have known it wasn’t possible.
Nathan had gone to the last preseason football game tonight. No reason to deny him the enjoyment of it, at least one last time. She’d given up her seat to one of Nathan’s friends, and the friend’s dad had taken them. He was spending the night at his friend’s house, so she had a reprieve. She hadn’t watched the game, didn’t even want to think about football right now.
She just wanted to hide out in the dark and not think. Unfortunately, all she’d been doing was thinking, and her mind was on overload. Was it too much to ask for a few hours of peace?
The knock at the door said that it apparently was too much to ask. She pushed off the chair and inched over to the door, determined not to open it if Mick was there.
No one was there. Huh. She pulled the door open and reached down to pick up the box that lay on her doorstep. It was too late at night for a delivery service, so someone must have hand delivered it. There was no name on the box other than hers. She closed and locked the door, brought the box into the living room, and grabbed her scissors to rip it open.
Inside was a DVD with an envelope on top. Scrawled across the top of the envelope in lovely penmanship was—Tara, Please Read Before Viewing.
She opened the envelope and pulled out a sheet of linen paper, opened it, and read the handwritten note.
Tara,