“It’s simple,” she said, keeping her voice quiet, in an almost whisper. “I agree to go with Gabe to some events, have some pictures taken, say good things about him and our marriage possibly working out to the media and he gives me the condo in New York. In addition, he will retract the lies he told the production companies I wanted to work with, stating he had been in a bad place.”
I pivoted in my seat to look at her. She wasn’t looking at me. Her face was cast down, her attention on her hands, but I knew she could feel my gaze. I knew because her cheeks were filling with a deep shade of pink, and I could tell I was making her uncomfortable. Making her feel that way wasn’t my intention, but I was indescribably uncomfortable with that request. So uncomfortable that I wanted to yank her out of her chair and take her away from the attentive eyes of her father. I swallowed back my annoyance and the arguments that lay on the tip of my tongue.
“And you’re okay with that?” I asked.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, her head turned and her eyes met mine. She nodded. “I am.”
Our gazes stayed locked for a beat, or two, enough time for me to lose my train of thought as I looked into her deep-blue eyes. Enough time for me to recount the way her lips felt on mine, and the way she’d offered herself up to me. Will huffed from the other side of the table and both our heads whipped toward him. Spell broken.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Will said, looking at Nicole. “I think if you give in to these demands, you’re going to find that spending time with him may make you re-think the divorce.”
That thought alone made my heart squeeze in my chest. What the hell did I care? Why the hell did I care? I didn’t have an answer to that, but it was clear I didn’t want her going back and forth with a guy that treated her poorly.
“There’s nothing to think about, Dad. I wouldn’t have signed the papers if I even had an ounce of hope that this marriage would work,” she said.
I stayed quiet until Will addressed me and told me to draft up the agreement for her, then I excused myself from the table, took my plate to the kitchen, and went upstairs to the room Meire had put me in. It was a damn big room, with a king-sized bed and a balcony that overlooked the pool and the ocean. I stood there, thinking about the wording I would use. I’d drafted agreements for celebrities left and right without second thought. This one was going to make me lose my mind. I was startled when I heard a sniffle beside me. My head turned in the direction of the sound, but I didn’t see anybody. When I heard it again, I frowned, leaning forward in the balcony I was standing in and looking over to the one beside me. Nicole was sitting in one of the chairs with her legs propped up, her arms wrapped around her knees and her head tucked down. Was she crying?
I pushed off from where I was standing. I didn’t want to intrude on her private moment. I didn’t know how to handle her private moment. I could jump over and hug her, but that would be weird. I could knock on her door and ask her if she was okay . . . but that would be weird. I could just pretend I hadn’t heard her, but something about that option made me feel like shit. I cracked my neck, shook my arms and measured how close the balconies were. They were made so close to each other that my body wouldn’t fit in between them so I didn’t have to worry about a fall. I just had to worry about where Will and Meire were and whether or not they would see me jumping over. Fuck. What a thought. It was almost enough to stop me from doing it. Almost.
Nicole shrieked when I landed beside her, her head snapping up, her hands wiping her bewildered, tear-stricken eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?”
I looked at her for a beat before stepping in front of her. “I’m telling you up front. I don’t know how to deal with emotional women, and if you don’t want me here, tell me, and I’ll jump back over to my corner and pretend I never saw you.”
She opened her mouth to say something, and closed it again, a slight frown on her face. “I don’t.”
Okay. Easy enough. I turned back around and just as I was about to climb on the balcony, she held my hand to stop me. I closed my eyes at the jolt. I felt her touch everywhere. What was up with that? Had it always been that way? It’d been so long, and I’d been so young and stupid, I couldn’t even remember.
“Don’t leave,” she whispered. I opened my eyes and turned around, my hand still in hers as our eyes met.
“You said you didn’t want me here,” I whispered back, stepping closer. What I wanted was to scoop her up and put her on my lap. I wouldn’t, though. Couldn’t.
“Stay anyway,” she said. “You could have broken your neck trying to get over here. I don’t want your efforts to be in vain.”
I chuckled, dropping my hand from hers as I walked to the chair beside her, taking a seat there. “You wanna talk about it?”
She sighed. “Not really. It’s bad enough you saw me crying, and really, it’s nothing. It’s stupid.”