Come Home Again (The Donovans) (3 page)

“Frankly, I would start with a hair cut and a shave. The clothes are actually fine for community events—they make you seem more authentic. But for the office, you’re going to have to upgrade your look. Suits for board meetings. It’s a technical office, so business casual that sets you apart from the other engineers but doesn’t alienate you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “This look works for Mark Cuban.”

Her chin tipped up. “Mark Cuban owns a suit or two.”

He cocked his head, and he couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips. She still had a way of getting her way. “Fair enough.”

Jake glanced between the two of them. “What Delilah means is that you’ll be required to do the pomp and circumstan—”

Nate cut him off. “I know what she meant. Please continue, Miss Donovan.”

Her eyes narrowed imperceptibly. “We want to make you a little less surfer. The leather jacket needs to go.”

“And that’s where I have to draw the line. I need it to ride.”

Her brows snapped down. “Ride?”

He nodded with a grin. This was fun. “My motorcycle.”

Her eyes widened before she slid a glance to Jake. “Well in most cases, I would suggest you park your motorcycle in a garage where no one will ever see it again, but given your industry, it might give you some cool factor. And we’ll want to establish your personality early. Something like ‘Knows how to wear a suit, but also knows how to have some fun.’”

“And these community events you were thinking of? I’m not a politician. Kissing babies isn’t really my thing.”

Her eyes flared then she smirked as if she’d thought of something funny. Maybe she was having fun too. “Well, I hate to argue it, but for now, you are a politician. And instead of kissing babies, how about you mentor young developers? Lots of software companies do internal hack-a-thons to foster new ideas and development. We can call it Coder’s Day. Maybe do one to find the talent of the future. After all, your main audience for most of your games is teenagers. What teen wouldn’t love the chance to program games?” She grinned then added, “And after, as a gesture of goodwill, we do a winner’s dinner with you for first, second, and third place winners and invite the press. Make it nice and splashy. Only the best outlets.”

Nate leaned back. She was good. But with his narrowed eyes and set jaw, Jake didn’t look happy about it. Maybe he had suggested she take over this part of the meeting because he’d wanted her to fall down a bit. But classic Delilah, she hadn’t. Always prepared. “It’s actually a good idea.” He glanced at Chase. “What do you think? Can we afford it?”

Chase shrugged. “You’re the CEO now. The funds are there. How you choose to distribute them is up to you. But it’s a great idea. I wish I’d thought of it years ago. Internally and externally. Well done, Miss Donovan,” he said with a smug smile.

Nate choked on a laugh. Chase was enjoying this. He might not know the reason, but he knew having Delilah in the picture fucked with Nate’s head, and Chase had spent years trying to figure out how to rattle Nate. No doubt Nate would be hearing about this for the foreseeable future.
Fanfuckingtastic
.

Nate still had one big issue. “Just one thing, I don’t want any press coverage.”

Jake blanched and choked on his mocha frappe whatever. “But, how are we supposed to create an image with no press?”

Nate kept his gaze on Delilah when he said, “I value my privacy.”

Jake shook his head. “That’s impossible. You’re tying our hands.”

“I think what Nate means, is he wants minimal pomp and circumstance. He doesn’t want the flashy treatment. Just a passing of the guard and a passing back. Maybe limit the press?” Chase added.

Delilah chimed in. “We’ll certainly have to do a press release, and if we do community outreach, we’ll want press to cover the event, but we promise you, this won’t be some ostentatious affair. We know what we’re doing. We’ll keep it tasteful. A few business journals. Key publications only. We value your privacy almost as much as you do.” There was a hint of bite to her whole ‘value your privacy’ comment.

“As long as we’re on the same page.” Press would be the noose Chase’s detractors used to hang him. But maybe if Nate was careful and Delilah kept her word and kept it minimal, he could pull this off. He knew he was blindly grasping at reasons to work with her, but he didn't care. And of course, Chase thought it was a good idea, but what his friend was really happy about was him taking over the CEO spot.

Jake beamed, and Nate wondered if the guy had had a genuine feeling in years. “Delilah is one of our best and brightest.”

Chase smiled. “It certainly seems so. I trust everything is ready to move forward.”

Jake nodded. “Someone from my team will be in touch with you tomorrow to set up the preliminary meeting with Mr. Williams.”

“And what about you, Miss Donovan?” Chase might have addressed her, but he kept his eyes glued on Nate. “Are you comfortable moving forward?”

She slid her glance between Nate and Chase. “Y-yes. But, Mr. Manning—”

“Chase. Please. Call me Chase. I figure if you’re saving my ass, you should call me by my first name.”

“Okay, Chase. We’ll be making some arrangements with your rehab facility to make sure it’s a safe and secure environment. And by secure, I mean that the only communication you will have to the outside world is through us.”

He nodded. “Fine with me. I’ll need to be in touch with Nate and Lach though.”

“We can arrange that.”

“Understood.”

As Jake closed the meeting, Nate watched Delilah. He needed a minute to talk to her alone. Clearly she wasn’t too pleased to see him. But maybe they could work things out if they just talked. All he had to do was keep his hands off her. Easier said than done.

D
elilah tapped her foot nervously as she and Nate waited for the elevator. She couldn’t do this.
Work with him?
There was no way. He was a liar...and he smelled too good. She shook her head, hoping for rationality to take hold. He’d betrayed her family and broken into her mother’s clinic with someone who would later turn out to be his brother, despite having said he had no family, when her family took him in.

No
. She was not going to fall for the charm that was Nate’s MO. Embarrassment washed through her as her memories of her sixteenth birthday flooded in. While her friends danced and reveled in the house, Nate had taken her to the gazebo out back and given her a present, a silver, star pendant. He’d called her his lucky star and thanked her for saving him. Then he’d put the pendent on for her. Just as he’d pulled back, his gaze had flickered to her lips. And like the idiot she was, she’d thought that he wanted to kiss her. In that frozen moment of time when they’d sat under her parent’s gazebo, she’d been so certain of him and what she wanted. But like a cruel joke by the cosmos, his phone had rung.

Not once did his gaze waver from hers though. But that buzzing phone had added a timer to the moment. She knew if he didn't kiss her then she’d lose her nerve, so she’d let the thought that had been clattering around in her head for a year spill from her tongue and whispered, “I think I love you.”

Delilah had imagined the moment in her head hundreds of times. She’d been so sure of her woman’s intuition. So positive he would want to. There had been something about the way he looked at her in the weeks leading up to her birthday. But he hadn’t kissed her. Nor had he said ‘I love you too.’ Instead, his phone continued to buzz, and with a curse, he’d mumbled ‘excuse me’ and run off to talk to whoever it was in private.

She dragged her thoughts back to the present.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid
. If she could invent a time machine that transported people back in time to keep their younger selves from saying and doing stupid shit, she’d make a killing. Losing her wits around Nate was a recipe for disaster. And now she had to work with him?

Delilah willed her hands to steady as she stared at them. Nate Williams, of all the people she’d never thought to see again. Her stomach knotted and roiled, threatening to let loose an eruption of bile. Unwilling and unable to look at him, she pushed the elevator call button...again.

Beside her, Nate chuckled. “You know, I’m pretty sure you only have to push those things once and the elevator will come.”

She slipped him a side-eyed, narrowed glance but kept the reins tight on her temper. That only lasted so long though. The elevator arrived and was blessedly empty. As soon as the doors closed, she rounded on him. “What the hell are we going to do?”

He studied her closely, his gaze sweeping over her whole body. Suddenly she wished she’d gone for something baggier and not quite so bam-here-are-my-curves.

“You’re going to show me around downstairs, as Jake asked you to do.”

“Don’t be deliberately obtuse. You know what I mean. This is disaster.”

The corner of his lips tipped up. God help her, even his smirk was sexy. “This hardly qualifies as a disaster, Lila.”

The way he almost whispered her old nickname made her skin tingle. How could he not see the mess they were in now? “What are you doing here, Nate?”

“I’m the new CEO of Synth Games, here to get my image redone,” he drawled.

“Stop screwing with me. I don’t see you for seven years and suddenly you walk into my office?” She dragged in shallow breaths, but somehow, not much oxygen made it to her brain.

He sighed and took a step away from her. “Listen—”

She shook her head and started to pace the length of the elevator. “I need to think.”

Nate ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t—Hell. This is a surprise for me too. You were the last person on earth I expected to see today.”

She narrowed her eyes, unsure if she should trust him or not. “Why did you pretend not to know me? Jake is no idiot. He’s going to have a shit ton of questions. Questions I can’t answer.”

As the elevator passed each floor, there was a soft ding. He sighed. “Look, it’s not like I planned this, okay?”

Her heart thundered. “I mean, I have a million questions. Starting with where have you been?” She heard her voice going shrill, but she was powerless to stop the panic.

“Lila, you need to calm down, okay? We’ll figure this out.”

She stared at him. Of course he would say that. He wasn’t the one with his job on the line. Okay, maybe he was, but then why was he so calm?

“Figure this out?” Her voiced pitched a degree higher. “We’re supposed to work together for two months and pretend we don’t know each other. That we don’t have a history. I know that’s the way you’d like it to be, but I’m not that good at pretending.”

“Shit, look, I didn’t know what else to do, you were standing there, and you looked so shocked, and I couldn’t think, so I introduced myself. I didn’t mean to make you complicit in some lie. I’ll fix it.”

“Is that before or after you disappear from my life again?”

He winced, and she almost wished she could take back the words.
Almost
.

He softened his tone. “Lila, I’m sorry—”

She was perfectly aware of what was happening. He’d surprised her, and she was losing it. Willow called this her Delilah spiral when she got so worked up she couldn’t calm herself down. “You’re sorry? For which part, deserting me seven years ago or for showing back up after all these years as if nothing has happened?”

“I told you I—”

“How the hell am I going to get out of this?”

He frowned. “Get out of this? Oh no.” He shook his head. “I’m not doing this without you.”

She stared at him, pretty sure he’d lost his mind. “You’re insane. We can’t work together.”

“Of course we can. You were there just now. We’ll be good together. You’re freaking out.” He leaned back against the elevator wall, and she barely resisted the urge to hit him. He had no right to look so sexy with his lean body and insolent stance.

“Of course I’m freaking out. This is my career you’re messing with.” She desperately tried to ignore the scent of sandalwood that wove around her. He’d always smelled so good. And he’d always had a way of pulling at her emotions.

“I’m sorry this screws with your equilibrium or whatever, Lila, but I need your help.”

His voice was smoky and low and felt like the rasp of a lover’s stubble all over her body. She shook her head to clear the hypnotic effects. “Not happening, Nate. I’ll have Jake assign someone else.”

“I don’t want someone else.” His gaze was intent on hers. “I need someone who gets me to help me pull this off.”

“Gets you?
Gets you?
” She realized she was screaming and modulated her voice “I don’t
know
you. The
kid
I knew walked out of my life seven years ago. Haven’t heard a damn thing from him since.” She sucked in a breath. “You know, Dad and I looked for you for months. He’d pick me up after school, and we’d drive around
searching
. Just like when we first found you.” She rolled her shoulders. She could regain control of this situation. It would be fine. All she had to do was stay in control. Where was a Kit Kat when she needed one? “I’m not doing this. I don’t know you.”

Nate winced. “You
do
know me. I’m trying to help a friend. I had my reasons for leaving. I never meant to screw with your life, okay? I had no idea you would be here today.”

She stiffened. “And if you had known? Then what?”

“Lila—”

The sincerity in his voice wove insidiously around her heart. She didn’t need to hear this. She didn’t
want
to hear this. She didn’t want to be reminded of the boy she’d loved. “No. It’s not going to happen. I can’t.”

“What is it you want from me? I have to admit I’m pretty desperate here. I have to pull this off. Jake and Chase might be friends, but I don’t trust the guy. He wears his insincerity like a cheap suit.
You,
I trust. I owe Chase, and you can help me repay him. Next to you guys, he’s the only person I consider family. So whatever you want, it’s yours.”

“I’d have to trust you to help, and I don’t.”

He stalked over to her, crowding her personal space. “You think I don’t remember that last night I saw you? You think my decision to leave doesn’t haunt me most nights? I
had
to leave. You, and your folks—the last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. I shut the door on that part of my life when I left. Trust me when I say I never thought I’d be seeing any of you again. But here we are. And it doesn’t change the fact that I need your help.” He backed off again and leaned back against the wall.