He finally turned and saw Nicole standing there.
His lips came together and tightened, his eyes narrowed. “Were you just spying on me?”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she replied.
“Don’t spy on me.”
“I wasn’t spying on you,” she said. “I came out to talk with you, and when I heard you so upset, of course I wanted to stay and make sure you were okay.”
He looked down at his phone again, as if in disbelief. “Well I’m fine.”
“No you’re not.”
“I’m not in the mood to play games with you, Nicole. I’ve got real problems to deal with, the last thing I need is to try and manage your feelings about me raising my voice on a business call.”
Nicole wanted to storm out. The old Nicole would have done just that. But she’d grown a little over these last few weeks—at least, she liked to think she’d grown. And now she realized that Red was just scared. Being vulnerable wasn’t easy for him, and she needed to remind herself that his reaction at a time like this wasn’t really personal. He’d been trained to keep a wall between himself and everyone else.
She sat down on the wooden rocking chair that faced out to the rolling green hills and the pond in the distance. “Come sit next to me,” she said, patting the other chair beside her.
“I’m not in the mood,” he replied, petulantly, like a teenager.
“Humor me.”
“I’ve got some business to attend to.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m being reasonable. And I’m your fiancé, so I have every right to hear what’s going on.”
He nodded, resigned, and sat down in the chair next to her, but his posture was stiff and closed off.
“Hold my hand,” she said.
She could tell he didn’t really want to, but eventually he took her hand in his, and as he did so, Nicole felt the tension drain out of him just a little. His shoulders came down slightly and his face became smoother.
“There’s been a major glitch in Germany,” he said, finally.
“What kind of glitch?”
He sighed. “The kind that brings down empires.”
That sent a small chill up her spine. “Tell me more. What happened?”
Red glanced at her as if trying to figure out just how much he should reveal. “What happened is, I got greedy. There’s a very large and successful agency in Germany and the founder was supposedly looking to cash out. I’ve been trying to enlarge Jameson International’s global footprint, and this seemed the perfect opportunity. But it was a hefty price tag to buy the agency, and with some of our North American operations struggling—“
“Who’s struggling?” she asked, confused now.
Red looked at her again. “Things have slowed down domestically, Nicole. I’ve lost some big clients this past year. Nothing terrible, but it hurt our bottom line. This Germany acquisition was a gamble. A major gamble, given how much I paid for it and some of the cash flow issues we’re having.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m glad you’re telling me this.”
He looked at her again. “It gets worse.”
“Okay. Tell me more.”
“Our stock is very precarious at the moment. Every company in the world invests some of its capital in the stock market. And Jameson International is unlucky enough to be heavily leveraged in the EU market—we’ve lost boatloads of money the last six months.”
“So what does all of this mean?” she said. She knew it was bad. Her stomach felt like she’d drank curdled milk.
Red looked directly into her eyes. “It means that we’re on the precipice right now. It’s been a perfect storm of bad luck, bad decisions, some overreaching on my part. And it’s brought the company—and me personally—to a place where everything could go down in flames.”
“But you’re rich.”
“It’s like dominoes,” Red told her, smiling sadly. “A silly, cliché analogy, but very accurate in this case. If this new acquisition in Germany goes south, I could lose my company. You and I could lose the company, I should say.”
“I don’t care about the money,” she told him, meeting his gaze and holding it. Her chin lifted in the defiant way that she had when someone doubted her fighting spirit.
“I know,” he said, stroking her cheek. “But I do care about the company I’ve spent my life building. I’m not going to lose it all now.”
“What can I do to help?”
He sighed. “Just be you. And try to understand that I’m under some stress right now, especially with my mother’s unannounced visit. The last thing I need is that woman getting under my skin and having my mind twisted in knots. I need to be at the top of my game.”
“I won’t let her hurt you,” Nicole said. She squeezed his hand again.
“I believe you’d be quite the match for her, actually,” Red grinned. “And she might be just arrogant enough to underestimate you.”
Nicole smiled. “Everyone underestimates me, I’m used to it.”