Capture Me: Alpha Billionaire Romance (Hollywood Dreams) (10 page)

Liam opened his door. “Sure you don’t want me to stick around? My calendar is clear.” I was pretty sure I overheard him tell Jason how much editing he had left to do with his current collection.

“Thanks, but you’ve already shuffled enough around to be at the service for me.”

“And I want to keep being here for you.”

It would be easy to forget about what all needed to be done and just lose myself with him for a week, a month.

I needed to be practical. “I’m good, really.”

“Hey, sis,” Dani said as she walked up with Jason in tow. “I’m going back to Jason’s for the night.”

“No, you’re not,” I said. Liam didn’t need to be there for all the boring things that still needed to be done, but Dani was a different story. How did she not see that? Maybe I took it too easy on her by arranging everything for the funeral myself.

Her black chiffon dress fluttered in the wind. She held it down and stared at me, mouth agape.

“We have a lot to do in Greenwich,” I reminded her.

“What is there that has to be done today? Mom and Dad aren’t going anywhere.”

“Dani.” I pressed my lips together and worked to level my tone. Her day hadn’t exactly been the easiest, either. “We’re in this together, remember?”

She chewed on her thumbnail and glanced at Jason. “Call you later?”

Liam kissed me on the cheek and whispered in my ear, “I’ll definitely call you later.”

CHAPTER 16

Tessa

A lump caught in my throat as I looked around my dad’s home office that afternoon alone.

An avid reader of non-fiction, floor-to-ceiling shelves covered two walls with topics ranging from historical biographies to mathematical theory. I ran my fingers down the classic molding of his cherished walnut desk. Dad had always been a dark wood kind of guy. To him, it spoke of class and money—the two things he knew best and loved to show off. He and Mom both loved doing things up in the new way, the new style, without flaunting their wealth in a distasteful way.

It’d been awhile since I spent time in this office. We really only talked about work downtown so there hadn’t been a real reason for me to be here. My freshman year of college, he started grooming me to take over the company—what was supposed to be a few decades from now. Between all the meetings and studying, I must have shadowed most everyone with a title over the last four years.

Though we had plenty of late nights at the office, he made sure we never brought our work home with us. From what I could tell, about the only thing that had changed here in the last six months were the piles of mail on the coffee table.

I sank into Dad’s high-back chair, turned my head, and breathed in the spice of his Cohiba cigars still lingering on the leather. It reminded me of when our family would go on our springtime walks. Every Saturday after breakfast, we’d hunt down a basket from the seasonal closet and use one of Mom’s older quilts. The four of us would head down from our back porch, walk and laugh as we made our way around the small lake behind our house, all the way to the park.

Smelling Dad’s cigar took me back to when I was eight and refused to hug him for a whole week. I’d told him that it was because I couldn’t stand the smell of his clothing after he smoked. He told me the next time we went on a picnic to lay down on the ground, cheek pressed to the grass, and let the midday sun warm my back.

Dad said smoking cigars was like returning to his childhood. Like the rich rain-soaked earth on a spring day. That next Saturday, I laid in the field and enjoyed spring like never before. Ever since, when I smelled his cigars, it took me back to that day and made me smile.

I picked up the framed picture Dad had kept on his desk since then. Our smiling faces stared back at me. Until today, it had always been the four of us—Mom, Dad, Dani, and me.

I took a cigar from the humidor, put it to my nose, and it was as though, for just that moment, he stood right beside me again, ready for that hug.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to start that nasty habit,” Dani said, making me jump. I hadn’t heard her come in. She leaned her head against the door and looked at the room as if seeing it for the first time. I wondered what she looked at. Her gaze focused back on the cigar. “Just because you’re taking over the company doesn’t mean you need to take that on, too.”

I carefully placed the cigar back in the same spot, even though there wasn’t anybody to notice it’d been moved. “I’m not planning on taking over the company.” I couldn’t imagine sitting in his chair for real like nothing ever happened. The leather tugged at the skin behind my knees and I shifted my weight.

“I’m going to go lounge by the pool,” Dani said. “Want to catch some rays with me?”

I shook my head. “Too much to do around here. Did you take care of the flowers yet?”

“They’re not going anywhere.”

I pictured the dozen arrangements wilting away in the car and the dozens more still at the church. “Find a couple places to donate them.” I sighed when Dani gave me a blank look. “Nursing homes, hospitals—”

“Kinda morbid, don’t you think? That’d be like getting your flowers before you die.”

“They don’t keep them in the same arrangements.”

She folded her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “I don’t want to do any of this.”

“None of us
want
to do this, but it’s something we
have
to do.”

Dani groaned. “Fine. I’ll figure it out.”

Dani’s footsteps retreated heavily against the tile and I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d been a little hard on her. I shook my head, reminding myself that we both had to step up.

I walked over to the coffee table set on the opposite side of the room from Dad’s desk. When Dani and I were little, we used to have a dollhouse in this exact spot. Looking back, I had no idea how Dad put up with us while he did his work. Most parents wouldn’t even let their kids step foot into their home offices, let alone play in there. Once a week, we’d dress up our dolls and have a fashion show on his desk.

I couldn’t blame him for switching out the pink, three-story, mini-mansion with this dark wood table to match his desk. Though, right now, letters covered half of the polished surface.

Leafing through a stack, I wondered when he last opened his mail. Part of me wanted to leave it. Like Dani had said about the flowers, the mail wasn’t going anywhere.

Then I reminded myself that I couldn’t very well do the opposite of what I’d pushed on her. It wouldn’t be fair.

I pulled aside the stack of mail that had come over the last week. Most seemed to contain a word of condolence. Once every card’s message of “sorry for your loss” began to run together, I set that stack aside and slid an older group toward me.

These letters had been piled up so precariously that several fell from the top and went right off the table. This stack contained mostly long envelopes, obviously from companies rather than sympathy cards. I figured the impersonal might be easier to swallow right now.

After the first half dozen, a frown carved its way onto my forehead and stayed there.

“Dani?” My voice rang through the house and the silence that followed made me wonder if she really had skipped out to lay out.

After about half a minute, her heavy footfalls returned. When Dani poked her head around the door, she said, “Jesus. What do you want now?”

“The name’s Tessa.”

Dani gave me the half fish-face look that she got every time she bit the inside of her cheek. The look she constantly wore when dealing with Mom.

I held up the first stack of notices. “Do you know anything about these?”

“What are
these
?” She scrunched up her nose as though the letters smelled of three-month expired yogurt.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself she’d lost her parents, too. “That pile is cards, but the rest seem to be bills.” I held one up. “Notice. Three months overdue.” I grabbed several more. “Notice. Two months, four months. All overdue.”

By now Dani walked over and began opening a pile I hadn’t gotten to. “These are the same. Two thousand dollars, five thousand here. Ten-thousand for a downtown parking spot?” She dropped the bills on the table. “That better be for the year.”

Exactly the reason I didn’t bother to own a car in the city.

“Isn’t there auto-pay or something?” Dani asked. “So maybe all these have been paid.”

“Maybe.” But then why were so many past due?

I kept my concerns to myself. No sense worrying Dani when Dad always had a good explanation for everything.

“Edward.”

I turned to Dani and frowned. “Ed—? Of course.” Dad’s attorney would know what was going on.

I took my phone out, ready to dial his number when I scrolled through my recent email alerts. “Looks like he beat me to it. Edward wants us to come to his office on Monday.”

Dani zoned out, staring at the dozens of letters. “None of this makes any sense. Didn’t you work with him? How do you not know about any of this?”

I opened my mouth to answer her, except nothing came out. What did I have to say? Four years of working with him and there was never talk of any problems with the company. Even if he kept things from me, there was still a lot to consider.

I took Dani by the shoulders. “Hey. It’ll be okay. They had life insurance, the company. Look around us. We’ve got this house. We’re going to be okay. Everything will be answered Monday.”

Except no matter how hard I tried to convince my sister there was nothing to worry about, my gut told me something wasn’t right.

CHAPTER 17

Tessa

“Feels like I’m back in the principal’s office,” Dani murmured. Her knee bounced up and down, like the nervous rhythm attempted to keep time with my heart.

While still upscale, I couldn’t picture a more opposite waiting room to Dad’s if I’d tried. Half the room was still under construction from the recent office move and remodel. Based on the upgrade in location, Edward had landed some pretty big clients over the last year. The half of the room that wasn’t sectioned off with wall-length plastic had a cozy vibe, something I would have never placed in a law firm. Probably why they were redoing the windowless room. Though it did nothing to calm Dani. I held her hand and her knee stopped for a moment before starting up again.

“We’re here together,” I reminded her.

Dani shook her head and eyed the large bag I’d brought with us. “All those letters . . .”

I should have never called Dani into Dad’s office when I found all his overdue notices. I don’t know what made me think he would have talked to her, especially if he hadn’t talked to me.

Edward popped his head out of his office. His short stature appeared even more abbreviated compared to the door nearly three times his height. “Come in. Come in. We have much to discuss.” He slipped his head back in so fast, it reminded me of those whack-a-mole games. He had that same scrunched up face the little figures had just before you smacked them over the head.

I draped my arm around Dani’s shoulder and gave a small squeeze as she stood. Her knee-length blue sundress swayed as I followed her into the office.

Two broad, leather chairs—that seemed much more fitting for a law office than where we’d waited—were pulled out from the table, clearly waiting for us.

“Please, sit. Sit.” Edward gestured to the chairs even though they were the only real place for us to go in the room.

It occurred to me that he hadn’t met our eyes yet. I pulled out a few of the overdue notices I’d found on Dad’s desk. No point in letting them sit unanswered through whatever he wanted to tell us. “I realize that you called us in here to discuss our parents’ estate, but I want to make sure we also get to these before we leave.”

Edward dropped his head as though he’d fallen asleep in his chair. Dani and I shared a look. He finally breathed a long nasally whistle before looking us in the eyes. “Here’s the way it goes . . .” Before he finished the sentence, he popped out of his chair—which barely changed his height from sitting—and began to pace along his side of the table.

Dani pressed her palms against the table. “Stop. Stop!” She blew out a breath when he turned to her. “Please, just tell us what’s going on.”

Edward rubbed his hands together and nodded. “Okay.” He frowned, maybe remembering something he’d planned to recite. “Your father made a few ill-advised decisions regarding new acquisitions. He was too stubborn to come to me until a few weeks ago. We were working through options but nothing turned around in time.”

“Edward, please.”

He looked at me, surprise at my interruption, making his eyes widen.

Dani leaned forward. “Tell us already.”

He nodded and opened his arms to us with a long pause, when all we wanted was information. “The savings accounts are depleted and both life insurance policies were canceled when Dani turned eighteen.”

“That was just a few months ago,” Dani said, like it was her fault. “Isn’t there a way to reverse—”

Edward shook his head.