“Family blessed it?”
“They did, although apparently my grandmother raised some concerns about the financing, saying she didn’t understand the arrangement, but my grandfather said that was just stuff they had to put into the contracts to satisfy the lawyers.”
“And did it? Satisfy the lawyers, I mean.”
“It satisfied the seller’s lawyer, which is no surprise since he wrote everything up. My family didn’t consult one. We didn’t have any lawyers in our circle of friends and family, and the seller was a friend. What could go wrong?”
He pulled into his parking space at the airfield and squeezed her hand again. “What went wrong?”
She turned and offered him a sad smile. “Everything. Basically, my parents got swindled. The shops they bought primarily served a military installation. Guaranteed customer base, right? Except these attractive, well-maintained shops were absolute disasters beneath their shiny surfaces. There’s not a ton of equipment involved in a dry cleaning business, but none of it worked. Employees had claims for unpaid wages. Customers had open claims for lost or ruined garments. Suddenly my parents had to shovel more money into their investment just to keep the doors open. Then, within a year, the powers that be closed the base—an event I’ve always suspected the seller had gotten wind of through back channels, which was why he wanted to unload those shops in the first place. Keeping up with the payments became impossible. Interest and penalties accrued until it was a mountain of debt. Their ‘friend’ foreclosed. My parents had to sell everything back to him—including their original two shops—to get out from under the mountain. They sold our house to have money to live on.”
“That’s awful. I’m sorry.” A financial catastrophe like the one her family had suffered placed an extreme amount of stress on the adults involved. He couldn’t imagine how confusing and alarming it would have been to tiny Isabelle, watching her world change so drastically and having absolutely no control over any of it. “Your parents must be incredibly proud of you, choosing a career path that helps ensure situations like theirs don’t play out under your watch.”
“They are.” Her smile widened. “But I’m proud of them, too. They got up, dusted themselves off, and started over. My parents and grandparents pooled their money and started another shop.”
“And how’s that going?”
“Pretty good. Soon after I graduated from law school, they bought another shop. A year later they expanded again.”
“You looked over the deals, made sure everything was on the up and up?”
“Damn right.” Her smile thinned into something a little lethal. “In my third year at HH&R, I oversaw the re-purchase of their two original shops from that so-called friend. He ran them into the ground. We scooped them up for pennies and sent that sonofabitch into retirement with his tail between his legs.”
“Revenge is a dish best enjoyed with family?” He meant it as a joke, but her smile disappeared.
“Huh.” She blinked at him, almost stunned. “I never thought of it that way. It wasn’t that way for my parents. They were just so happy to have their ‘babies’ back in their arms, on fair terms. They weren’t looking to stick it to that son of a bitch. But, for me, yeah.” She nodded, clearly viewing a personally satisfying event through a new lens. “I guess you could say a desire to even the score motivated me to choose mergers and acquisitions. Holy crap. My career is a revenge story.”
If his aim had been to boost her pride in her accomplishments, he’d crashed and burned far short of the runway. Not only that, but the flames of his failure managed to cast shade on her future aspirations. Could he walk it back? “It’s a story about wanting to protect people and prevent what happened to your parents from happening to others. People like me.” He skimmed his fingers along her jaw, touched the corner of her mouth drawn down in a small frown. A frown he’d put there. “The fact that you got a chance to help right a wrong on their behalf was just icing. It’s not like you engineered it.”
“That’s true, I guess.” She pressed her cheek against his palm. “I didn’t make the circumstances. I just did everything in my power to optimize things for my parents.”
“Of course you did. And they’re considerable powers, as it turns out. I’m relying on them, myself, and Chuck wouldn’t let me if you weren’t the best at protecting my interests.”
Her lips twitched. “Hard to believe big, strong Trace Shanahan needs protecting.”
“I do. And you know what, Izzy?”
“What?”
He leaned in and gave her a long, deep kiss. Her hand curled around his neck, and she hung on. When he raised his head, he said, “I like the idea of you protecting me.”
The slow focus of her pupils turned him on more than he’d ever imagined such a tiny, involuntary movement could. The curve of her lips had a similar effect. “I better get back to it, then.” With that, she grabbed her messenger bag, opened the door, and hopped down from the passenger seat.
He got out as well, and, propelled by an urge he didn’t stop to examine too closely, walked quickly around the front of the Yukon to meet her on her side. Standing there in her pink parka, snug white sweater and white jeans, she looked vibrant and bright against a dull, gray background. “What if I feel the need for more protection, once this is all done?”
Her eyebrows knit. “I don’t understand. Are you contemplating another deal?”
He went with it. “I’m not sure.” Wrapping his arms around her, he cocked a brow. “I’ll probably need to consult with you, in person, as often as you can squeeze me in. To protect my interests while I figure it out.”
Her brow smoothed and her smile lit the world, then faded as she considered his request—the unwieldy nature of what he suggested and, possibly, the shadow it cast over her career. Her arms snuck around his waist. She buried her face against his chest and hugged him fiercely. “I’ll think about it.”
The vow went into his sweater. He tipped her head up and kissed her. Lips to lips, mouth to mouth, it felt like a promise, a plan. It felt like flying high and coming home at once. It felt like—he pulled her closer and tipped his head to seal the deal from a different angle. She went up on her tiptoes to recapture his lips. It felt like—
“Jeez, you two. Get a room.”
Bridget walked past with Key at her heels, laughing when the dog tossed its head back and howled.
“Wooo.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Izzy watched from across the bubbling hot tub as Bridget raised a plastic tumbler of Pinot. “Here’s to the second gathering of the Smart, Sexy Sisters of Captivity.”