“You got it.”
I walked toward the lobby, hating myself for what I was about to do.
I had no other choice, and I already knew how Nick would react.
He wasn’t going to like it one bit.
And how could I blame him?
Nick stood and stepped toward me, rubbing the side of my arm. “Is everything okay?”
I nodded, even though it wasn’t.
How was I going to tell Nick?
I avoided eye contact, trying to come up with the right words.
“Ruth. Talk to me.”
I sighed and looked him in the eyes. “I’m going to have to take a raincheck this evening.”
Nick’s jaw and shoulders stiffened. He glanced down the hallway, even though Gary was probably already back in the Courtyard Terrace.
“I have to work,” I added, even though I was sure Nick already was aware of that.
“I’d better get you home then,” Nick said coldly.
He walked past me and—
“Wait,” I said, grabbing his arm. “I just want you to know how sorry I am about this. I was looking forward to the rest of the evening.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
I swallowed, not enjoying the big lump that had just formed in my throat. “It’s just . . . we have an emergency staff meeting in the morning and I have to work all night.”
“That’s what you do, Ruth. You work and work and work.”
“I do have a job, you know. What do you want me to do? Quit?”
Nick shook his head. “I would never tell you to do that. You are the only one who gets to decide how you want to live your life.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s just one night of work. Tonight. I asked for a raincheck, so you know I want to see you again. We can even get together tomorrow night.”
“But what if something else comes up tomorrow night and you have to cancel on me again? And then something else comes up the day after that? Every day we have something planned I’ll be wondering if it’s actually going to happen or not. I’ve lived this life before. It didn’t work. That’s one of the reasons I’m divorced.”
I honestly didn’t know how to respond to that.
“And I’ll be honest with you, this was really the only negative thing I could see coming between us if there was going to be a relationship of any kind. How could I love a woman when she’s never around?”
I stared at him. “Love? Who’s talking about love?”
Yes, I was falling for him, but this was not the time to mention that.
“I was being hypothetical, but it’s like you said . . . things can happen a lot faster at our age because we have the experience to know exactly what we want and what we don’t want. We’ve already been through a lot of the crap that young people have yet to experience. Under ideal conditions, I could fall in love with you in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for that one question that keeps popping up in my head. Will your work get in the way of us having something meaningful?”
“And your answer is obviously yes.”
Nick shook his head. “I didn’t have to answer the question, actually. You answered it for me.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
RUTH
I thought of last night’s party for at least the hundredth time over the last ten hours. Except for the food and dancing with Nick in the banquet room, the party was a complete bust. The look on Nick’s face when I told him I wanted to take a raincheck broke my heart. It was almost enough to make me cry.
He didn’t deserve that.
And I did truly understand his point of view and couldn’t blame him for the way he felt.
We were silent in his truck when Nick took me home from the hotel. When he pulled into my driveway, he told me he would be finishing up the job in my backyard tomorrow, and he would get out of my hair and give me time to think about things.
I didn’t need time to think.
And I loved having him in my hair.
Lucky for me, I was never one to back down from a little adversity.
A bump in the road wasn’t going to slow me down.
I would repave the road if I had to.
I was confident things would work out well. Especially after I shared with Nick my idea for the company. He helped me come up with it and he doesn’t even know it.
It started during our conversation over dinner when he and I ate the leftover Italian food at my house. Nick had asked me if I was happy and what I did for living. It was obvious at that point that he didn’t approve of my chosen career. The thing that hurt the most was when he said that we were complete opposites because he built things and I tore them apart.
I hadn’t wanted to hear it, but it was the truth.
Then Nick asked me a wise question.
Why don’t you go in there and help them turn the company around instead of gutting it?
I had answered Nick by telling him because it wasn’t my job.
It wasn’t what my company did.
But why not?
Why couldn’t Stansfeld Investments jump into the arena of salvaging companies instead of buying them and piecing them out? With my idea, nobody would lose their job. Gary wanted a new revenue stream for the company, and this would be the perfect time to implement it.
Staying up all night wasn’t as easy as it used to be. With the help of six cups of coffee and plenty of determination, I had accomplished my goal of coming up with an idea that I was sure the company would love. An additional revenue stream for Stansfeld that could actually lead us in a completely different direction after I took over.
I was positive that my plan would also get Nick back into my good graces since it was because of his advice and his cousin, Jay, that I came up with the idea in the first place.
Arriving at the Stansfeld office, I said a quick hello to Dee and entered the conference room before most of the other staff had arrived.
I wanted to prepare and go over my notes one last time.
As everyone filled in the seats around me, we were just about ready to begin.
I took a few seconds for some positive affirmations.
I’ve got this. I’m ready to go. This is going to be flawless and well-received. They are going to love my idea.
Mason was the last of the partners to enter the conference room for the board meeting, sitting right across from me and sporting his usual cocky smile.
And as usual, I wanted to wipe it off his face, but I had bigger fish to fry.
Bagel Barney would have been proud of my food idiom.
I smiled, thinking of how different Nick was from Barney or any of the other losers I had met while trying to find the perfect match. I had come up with that ridiculous list of character traits when I had no clue that the man of my dreams was right under my nose the entire time.
“What are you smiling for?” Mason asked, crossing his arms.
“I guess you’ll find out soon, won’t you?”
Mason flared his nostrils and looked away.
Gotcha, bonehead.
Gary walked to the front of the conference room and grabbed the pen from the ledge of the white board. He pulled the cap off the pen and wrote, “New Revenue Streams for Stansfeld.” He dropped the pen back on the ledge and turned around, glancing around the room at all of us.
Here we go.