SEVERAL DAYS LATER, Tom looked out the window of the plane as the speaker crackled to life. “Welcome to Miami International Airport,” the pilot said over the loudspeaker. He looked out the window and saw the palm trees lining the runway. When the plane came to a stop at the gate, Tom was the first person off the plane. Quitting Cain Rum meant losing his corporate jet privileges. But he would have ridden a bus to Miami if it was his only option.
A short time later, he was getting into a rental car and he was on the road. But instead of taking a route that would lead him to Gemma’s home, he took a different one. Lila had given him the directions during their conversation the night before.
He drove up to a large white house and knocked on the door, hoping he wouldn’t be thrown out on his ass. The door opened, and Reid Rexford stood before him. Lila had told him Reid would be there. But she clearly hadn’t spilled the beans to her fiancé that he was going to show up. The other man’s eyes narrowed.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.
Lila had told him to expect such a reaction. “I was hoping we could talk.”
Reid crossed his arms. They were about the same size, but Reid had the home turf advantage. And Tom knew to respect that. “I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”
Tom shook his head. “That isn’t true. We have quite a bit.”
“Anything you have to say, it should be to Gemma.”
“Before I see her again, I need to clear the air with you. Is Quin here? I wanted to see both of you.”
Reid rolled his eyes. “Lila set this up, didn’t she?” When Tom neither confirmed nor denied, Reid sighed and wiped his palm over his face, and moved out of the way of the door. “Goddammit. Come in.”
Tom followed him into the house, and in the kitchen, he saw Quin sitting at the table, drinking a beer. When he looked up and saw Tom, he muttered, “What the hell?” He looked at Reid. “Did Lila set this up?”
“Yup.”
Quin still ignored Tom. “Why?”
Reid went to the fridge and pulled out another beer. “He wants to talk to us, apparently.” He opened the bottle and held it out to Tom. “Want one?”
Between Gemma pouring him a glass of wine before dumping him and Reid giving him a beer after begrudgingly inviting him into his house, the Rexfords were raised to be polite hosts.
He joined Gemma’s brothers at the table.
“So, what are you doing here?” Reid asked. “Why did you come to us?”
“I told you before that I’m in love with Gemma.”
Quin scoffed. “You’ve got a funny way of showing it. What do you think you were doing with that campaign?”
“Like I told her, I didn’t know about it until it was too late. But what happens at Cain Rum is no longer my concern. I left.”
“Is that right?”
“I quit.”
“Why?”
Tom gave an abridged version of the steps that had led to where he sat at that moment. He noticed Reid stiffen when he mentioned that Carolina was now in charge. “They attacked the woman I love. I couldn’t work there any longer.” He drank from his beer. “I need to get Gemma back.”
“Then why are you talking to us? We have no control over what she does.”
“Oh, I know that. Nobody does.”
“She’s miserable without you,” Quin revealed.
“I’m miserable without her.”
“So again, why are you here and not at her place?”
“I need your help.”
Even though a few days had passed, Gemma’s conversation with Tom was still fresh in her mind, Gemma drank her coffee and stared off into the distance of her backyard, not focusing on any one point on the horizon. Her phone rang, and a part of her wished that it was Tom, calling and telling her that he was on his way. But she knew it wasn’t. He’d made his wishes known. He might want her, but he wasn’t going to act on it. They were over.
When she saw the number for Reid’s office on the caller ID, she was surprised. It was Sunday morning. Why was he at the distillery? “Hey, Reid, everything okay?”
“I’m not sure,” he told her. “I came in to catch up on some work, and I’m in my office and there’s an alarm going off in the distillery. I think it’s one of the tanks, and I don’t know how to turn it off. You better get over here.”
She thought about it—maybe there’d been a malfunction in the tank room again. “I didn’t get a notification on my phone,” she told him.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Gem,” he said. “But you know I don’t know this new system. I don’t want to risk screwing anything up with it.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said, pushing up from the table and grabbing her keys. “I’m on my way.”
Disobeying the posted speed signs, Gemma arrived at the distillery in record time. She jogged to the door and unlocked it. Opening the door, she didn’t hear the alarm—had Reid figured out how to turn it off? “Reid?” she called. “You in here?”
Gemma turned the corner out of the foyer and onto the distillery floor. The overhead fluorescent lights were off, but the room was bathed in soft yellow light from the strings of lights that crisscrossed the ceiling. There were bouquets of white flowers lining workbenches, and candles on the table.
“What the...?” she said to herself. “Hello? Reid?”
“No, sorry.” She heard the voice behind her that turned her insides to jelly. “It’s just me.” She turned slowly and saw Tom standing there.
So many questions ran through her mind, but “How did you get in here?” was the first thing out of her mouth. Quickly followed by “How did you do this?” Did he break in? Did he force her brothers to let him in? Then she realized that her brothers must have been behind it. “Reid,” she muttered. He’d set her up. But she wasn’t angry about it.
“Reid and Quin,” Tom clarified. “They let me in. Hell, they even helped put up the lights.”
“Well, you must have coerced them at gunpoint, or they’ve been taken over by body snatchers,” she said, taking a couple of steps closer to him. “Because that’s one hundred percent more likely than them helping you do this.”
Tom shrugged. “You know, I thought so, too. But I guess we came to an understanding.”
“What kind of understanding?”
“They understand that I love you more than anything.”
Her heart stuttered in her chest. “Is that so?”
“Yeah.” He took a few steps closer to her. “What I said about us not making things any more complicated—I’m a goddamn idiot.”
Her heart thundered in her chest, and she nodded. “That is true. Good of you to say.”
“I’m sorry,” he told her.
“I’m sorry, too,” she said. “I was the one who pushed you away. I was scared. I wasn’t ready to fall in love with you.”
“I know. It is scary,” he told her. “It’s fucking terrifying to give yourself to another person. But I’m willing to try if you are.”
“What about the distance?”
“I might have a solution. I’m leaving New York.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “I had to get out of there. Work, my condo, the city. There’s nothing there for me anymore.”
“Where are you going?” she asked, hoping that his response was the one she was looking for.
“I think I might give Miami a try.”
She smiled. “You got a job down here? Because I’m not about supporting some guy who doesn’t work.”
“I was hoping you might have an opening down here on the floor.”
“You want to work for me?”
“I told you about opening my own distillery. I still want to do that. But I’m out of practice, though. I was hoping you might have room for an apprentice.”
She took one of his hands in two of hers. “I think I can find room for you. As long as you promise to do what I say.”
He chuckled, lacing his fingers with hers. “I think I can do that.”
“But if you think you’re used to the heat, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
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