| |
“You know, that fellow has the most attractive way of putting his foot in his mouth.” – Ingrid Randall
THAT DARN CAT
Leo
The day after Izzy left, I woke up in my bed at mom’s house aching with missing her. I’d stayed awake as long as possible last night, but exhaustion dragged me into sleep before Izzy texted to let me know she’d arrived home.
I checked my phone. Still no text. I frowned, but a glance at the clock told me it was way too early to call her to check on her, even if my fingers itched to do so.
Instead, I sent her a text. Waking up alone today wasn’t near as fun as having you here yesterday morning. Call me when you wake up.
***
IT WAS AFTER TEN O’CLOCK before I heard from Izzy, and then it was just a text. Sorry. Super late home last night and running today. Dad’s here. Everything’s nuts.
I had to hold back the growl. Having her father breathing down her neck and micromanaging everything as Izzy worked on this campaign would be a nightmare for her. The guy was good at his job, but was crap at being a father or dealing with women in roles of responsibility.
If they had a photo for misogyny in the dictionary, they could put Bart Collins’ photo there. The guy was old-school corporate America in all the worst ways.
The fact that he was in Austin today meant Izzy was probably already having a crap day.
I texted back to her. Don’t let him get to you.
Too late. I’m lucky to have a job today.
My stomach sank in empathy. I wish she’d quit. I didn’t think there was truly a way to change her father’s point of view, but he might at least realize the loss if she left. More importantly, she’d realize the truth of her own value. He took advantage of her, and she let him do it.
My cell phone rang. When I saw Izzy’s name, some of my nerves settled. “Hey you,” I answered, my voice softer than how I normally answered the phone.
“I don’t have much time, but I just needed to hear your voice.” Her words hitched on a little sob that she choked back.
“Sweetheart...” I hated I was so far away. The helplessness of not being able to help battered me.
“No. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
Even though I couldn’t see her, I knew she’d just straightened her shoulders and cleared her face. That was Izzy’s way of dealing with her father’s criticism. I’d watched it repeatedly throughout the course of our lives.
“Iz, you know you can lean on me anytime.”
“Just a moment of weakness that I shouldn’t have let happen.”
Seriously, it didn’t matter that he ran the company. That Bart Collins made his only child feel like this made me furious.
“Ready to quit yet?” I asked with a thread of humor in my voice, but I wasn’t joking. She needed to leave her father’s toxic sphere. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make that decision for her. I could only continue to remind her it was an option. No one forced her to work for her father, no matter how much she acted like she had to.
“No.” She laughed, but the noise still sounded too close to sobbing. “Are you kidding? I just landed the account of my dreams. There’s no way I’m walking away now. If he wants me gone, he’ll have to fire me and if I know one thing about my dad, that won’t ever happen. The rumor mill would be too much for him.”
Yeah. The guy excelled at marketing because he knew how to spin even the worst story. “He’d probably survive it,” I said drily. “Hell, he walks around New York with children that he calls girlfriends on his arm and pretends like all of society isn’t scandalized by it. It would surprise no one that he treats his only child like shit.”
Izzy gasped, a slight noise that I barely heard across the distance.
I winced. Yeah, that was probably too harsh.
But, dammit, she deserved so much better.
“Iz, I’m sor...”
She didn’t give me a chance to apologize. “I called because I thought you’d make me feel better.”
The pain in her voice ravaged me.
That had probably been a bit too much honesty to handle this morning when she was already having a crappy day.
“I have to go.” Her words rushed out, and then the call dropped.
“Fuck!” I slammed my phone on my desk.
***
I WAS WORRYING ABOUT Izzy. It had been a week since I’d actually spoken to her.
We exchanged texts several times a day, but they were just surface business about the photos for the Mod Appeal campaign or about how my mom was doing. Nothing about what might happen between us personally, our last conversation, and definitely no mention of the fact we’d engaged in sex. I’d tried to call her several times, but she let the calls go to voice mail.
It was like we were business associates now, with nothing else left.
Now, when I loved her more than ever.
Maybe the sex hadn’t been as life altering to her as it had been to me.
I didn’t know what to make of it. I felt like she was slowly slipping through my fingers. But with seventeen hundred and forty-two miles between us (yes, in one of my more pathetic moments, I’d looked up the exact mileage), I didn’t know how to fix it. If she didn’t answer her phone, I couldn’t talk to her.
There simply wasn’t time right now for me to jump on a plane to Texas to check on her, no matter how much I worried about her. And I didn’t have time to stew about any of that right now.
Today they planned to transfer my mom to a rehab facility where she would learn how to use her rebuilt pelvic floor under the close supervision of physical therapists so she didn’t fall and injure her already scrambled brain again or the myriad of other broken parts of her body.
I promised her I’d be there shortly after she arrived to make sure her accommodations were up to her standards.
Unfortunately, House of Bennett seemed to have one pressing emergency after another and I didn’t make it up to the facility until about six hours after my promised arrival time.
Because of the Bennett name (and I’m sure a little to do with the thousands of dollars we were contributing to make sure my mom got the best care), the nurses didn’t give me a hard time about dropping by after visiting hours.
They gave me directions from the front desk that looked more like a hotel reception desk rather than one for a medical facility, even such an exclusive one. They mentioned mom was still awake so I should be able to go right in.
Good, because I had some paperwork I needed her to sign. Her door was closed when I approached it, but it had a doorbell that I rang. My mom’s voice called out over the intercom, “Yes?”
I hadn’t even noticed the sleek speaker system.
“Mom, it’s me, Leo.”
The door buzzed as she let me in. I liked the system. It gave the residents at least a semblance of control over their lives, which most live-in facilities didn’t have.
As I entered, I took in her new residence.
Mom’s room looked like a very nice, upscale efficiency apartment with all the rooms open to one another. Elegant with overblown crown molding everywhere, the fixtures were classic and upscale while remaining modern, definitely designer styled.
Mom lay semi-prone on the most hospital looking thing in the room, her bed with its decorative side rails, but she still had on her clothes, a loose, designer, velour tracksuit. That was definitely not my mom’s usual style, but I could see the benefits under her current circumstances.
She studied my appearance as I strode in, and she frowned at me. “Have you just come from House of Bennett?”
“Yes. Sorry to arrive so late. It’s been another crazy day. I’m sure you can relate.” I buzzed a kiss across her cheek. “How are you feeling? You must be pretty tired after the excitement of the day, but you look good. How’s your head?”
She’d dealt with a constant headache—usually a full-on migraine—since she’d awoken. I hated she was in so much pain, but her doctors told us that was perfectly normal after the seriousness of her head injury, so I tried not to worry about that aspect too much even while making sure we didn’t do anything to exacerbate the issue. I was trying really hard to shield her from the stresses that came with running House of Bennett.
“I’m fine. They seem really on top of things here, so you needn’t worry about me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not worried about you.” She cupped my cheek and studied me more now that I was closer. “Why were you at the office so late? You don’t even work there. I’d think Cassandra could run things without your help, especially since she obviously doesn’t have time to even drop by for a visit for me.”
We hadn’t divulged the reason behind Cassandra’s absence, trying to save my mom from worry and stress while she was still facing major surgeries, but with her relocation today and pushback from the board, I couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Mom, there are some things I need to discuss with you.” I took a deep, fortifying breath. “Cassandra is no longer at the helm of House of Bennett.”
Her eyes widened in distress. “What? Why? What happened? I knew she didn’t want me to retire, but I didn’t think she was so petty as to just quit and leave, especially after my accident.”
I reached forward and grabbed her hands that she’d been wringing. They were ice cold. I grabbed the throw blanket off the back of the couch and laid it over her to give her some added heat.
“I’m fine,” she fussed. “You know my hands are always cold. Stop procrastinating and tell me.”
So I explained to her what I knew about Cassandra’s situation, which still felt like a pathetically weak amount, all things considered.
Lines marred her face. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before? Who’s running the company?”
“We didn’t want to add any more stress to everything going on, and you’re looking at him.” I waved my hand up and down my suit-clad body that once again I had Franklin to thank for. He’d outfitted me with a closet filled with suits when we discovered I needed to be the face for House of Bennett for the foreseeable future. We couldn’t have the head of a fashion company look anything less than perfectly fashionable at all times.
“But the board is getting restless, so I need you to sign some documents to make everything more legal. Mr. Harvey drew up the paperwork to name me as temporary CEO while we’re allowing you to heal and Cassandra to get her shit together.”
“You?”
I wanted to be offended by the disbelief in her voice, but since I’d never done anything with House of Bennett besides take photos for some of the fashion shows early in my photography career, I could see why she’d question the decision to put me in charge.
“Yes. Neither Danielle nor Denae feel capable of doing the job, and while I’m sure I’ll have to learn a ton, I think I can handle the business side of it all. I’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks already.”
“Of course you can handle the company. That was never in question, but why would you want to? I never thought you wanted to work at House of Bennett. You have your own life in Texas.” She scowled at me.
“I would have thought you would be happy about this. You always acted like I should be working for House of Bennett.”
She drew back as if shocked.
“No. That’s never what I wanted. You’ve always had your own dreams and aspirations. While I’d love for you to work at House of Bennett if that’s what you wanted, I thought photography was always your passion.”
“It was. It is.” How had I completely misread my mother for so long?
“And what about Isolde?” she asked.
My chest twanged as I thought about the fact that I still couldn’t get hold of Iz.
“I saw the two of you together right after my injury and yes, I was high on pain meds, but I thought you might finally have made some headway with her.”
While I’d been able to hide the truth from Izzy for years, my mother had known about my crush on her as soon as I hit puberty.
I rubbed a hand over my tired face. “Yeah, we did...kind of, but now she’s avoiding my calls. I just don’t have time to deal with any drama there, you know? I won’t abandon House of Bennett right now.”
She scoffed.
That hurt.
My mom openly scoffed at me when I told her that I was making the family company my priority.
Shouldn’t that make her at least a little happy?
“House of Bennett doesn’t need your sacrifice. We built a worldwide fashion house. It will run without Cassandra or myself temporarily. That’s why we have a board in place. They can step up and do their part and Franklin can handle the rest. He’s more than capable.”
I wanted to argue, but what she said made sense.
“What you need to prioritize is Isolde. Whatever went wrong between you...fix it. Don’t waste a single day. Love matters more than almost anything else, certainly more than a business. I lost your father twenty-six years ago, after only fifteen years together. While I treasure the years we had, I wish we’d had so many more. Don’t ignore the fact that life can change in a moment and you could lose your chance. Go home to Austin. Find Isolde, and see what you can do about finally making that girl part of our family. It’s taken you both too long already to find one another.”
“You make it sound easy.”
Mom laughed. “Love is never easy. I think you already know that, but it’s so worth it when you have your soulmate to turn to at the end of the day. That’s not something to take for granted.”