Heartstrings and Diamond Rings (29 page)

“What’s she going to do when she finds out you’re leaving?” Tom said. “Hell, forget that. What’s she going to do when she finds out you never intended to stay? That you’ve been playing matchmaker all this time just to scrape thirty grand together to do the deal? That’ll be pretty.”

“I’ll handle it,” Brandon said. “Don’t worry.”

“Don’t you think maybe you should have had an exit strategy before you slept with her?”

No. There was going to be no exit. Somehow he was going to make this work. He wasn’t giving Alison up. But he wasn’t staying here and giving up the deal of the century, either. Somehow there had to be a way to work this out.

“Break it off with her,” Tom said. “And do it now.”

“It’s my problem, and I’ll deal with it.”

“You’d damn well better, or—”

Tom froze, staring over Brandon’s shoulder. Brandon whipped around to see Alison at his bedroom door, her hair wet, wearing nothing but a towel. He prayed to God she’d missed all that, but judging by the look on her face, she’d heard every word.

T
om,” Brandon snapped. “Out.”

This time Tom didn’t hesitate. He was out of the room in seconds. Alison hurried in to grab her clothes she’d laid on a chair last night, a look of anger and betrayal on her face. She tossed the towel aside and put on her underwear, then her bra.

“Alison, please,” Brandon said, coming to his feet and yanking on his jeans. “Stop. We need to talk about this.”

She reached for her shirt, but he came around the bed and caught her arm. She shook loose and spun around to face him.

“Is it true? Are you leaving for Houston?”

Brandon lowered his eyes.

“And not coming back?”

“Alison—”

“Oh, my God. Everything Tom said is true. You never intended to stay here. The moment you conned enough people out of fifteen hundred dollars, you were out the door.”

“I didn’t con anyone!”

“Then what do you call it?”

“I delivered the services people paid for. If I didn’t, I’m returning their money before I shut things down. Where’s the con in that?”

“You lied,” she said, putting on her shirt. “You lied about who you are and what you were doing here.”

“Come on, Alison. That was just business. I had to convince prospective clients I was the real deal. If I’d told people I was going to be around for only a few months, how much business would have come my way then?”

“Business came your way because I helped you!”

“And I appreciate everything you did, believe me.”

“I’m sure you do.” She reached for her jeans.

“Alison. Listen to me. You have to understand what we have going in Houston. It’s the deal of the century. There’s a development going in next door to our property that’s going to make its value go sky-high.”

She yanked on her jeans. She ran her fingers through her wet hair, then picked up her purse.

“Even with renovation costs, we could walk away with at least half a million apiece,” he went on. “
That
was why I did it.”

“I defended you to Heather,” she said, as if she hadn’t even heard him. “
Defended
you. I told her you weren’t what she thought you were, that you didn’t have an ulterior motive, that all you wanted was to carry on your grandmother’s business. I should have listened to her. I mean, it wasn’t as if every red flag in the book wasn’t there where you were concerned. But I ignored every one of them.”

She started for the door.

“Alison!”

She spun around and glared at him. “You coerced me into breaking up with Justin. Then you made love to me last night, making me think you cared about me. How could you
do
that?”

“I do care about you! Just because I’m leaving Plano, it doesn’t mean we’re never going to see each other again. People have long-distance relationships all the time.”

“That’s not what I want.”

“Come on, Alison! Do I really have to be at the dinner table at six every night? Is that the only kind of relationship you’ll accept?”

“You know what I’m looking for,” she said hotly. “You’ve always known. An absentee man isn’t it. And a man who lies to me
certainly
isn’t it.” She turned and strode out of the bedroom.

“You know what?” he said, following her, “I’ve been listening to you for months now, telling me what you want. Well, how about what
I
want?”

They reached the stairs, and she turned back. “Okay, Brandon. Why don’t you tell me what you want?”

“When I was a teenager slogging around in those crappy bars with my father, at least I was making him happy. As much as I hated it, I was doing what he expected me to do. Then he dumped me like yesterday’s garbage. I felt like the biggest failure alive. I told myself I was going to do something with my life. Something big. I happened into real estate, and suddenly I was raking in the money. Finally I was getting somewhere. Then the market fell apart.”

He inched closer to her, wanting to reach out, wanting to touch her, but he knew he didn’t dare.

“When I came here in June,” he went on, “I was dead, flat broke. I had notes coming due I couldn’t pay. My credit was shot. When Tom contacted me about the Houston deal, I knew it was the opportunity I’d been looking for, but I didn’t have my part of the down payment. That was when I decided to use the matchmaking business to get the money to buy in.”

She turned away as if she was dismissing every word, and his frustration mounted.

“I want to be back on top again,” he said, desperation lacing his voice. “I want money in the bank. I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror again and not feel like a failure. What’s so wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong is that you lied in order to do it,” she said. “All those things you said on the radio, in interviews, in articles…you don’t believe in any of that, do you?”

“I gave people what they wanted.”

“But
you
don’t believe it.”

“I didn’t have to believe it. I just had to give them what they were paying me for. And that was exactly what I did.”

“All this time I put my heart and soul into helping you, and it wasn’t even a real business for you.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Heartstrings. My God. How stupid does that sound now?”

“It wasn’t stupid. Just because the business wasn’t forever, it doesn’t mean any of it was stupid.”

But he knew the humiliation she felt was just too much to bear. She’d gone on and on that day about soul mates and why he needed a name like that, thinking he understood, thinking he felt it, too, only to find out that all he’d ever been interested in was the bottom line. How had he let it come to this?

“Are you sorry you broke up with Justin?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. It wasn’t right.” Then she looked up at him plaintively. “But if not him, then who?”

Brandon opened his mouth to answer, only to close it again. He didn’t know what the hell to tell her anymore. He only knew he didn’t want her leaving like this.

“I don’t know,” he told her. “I just…” He shook his head helplessly. “I don’t know.”

“I have to go.”

She walked down the stairs. Brandon followed her, desperate to keep her from walking out the door. But he just didn’t know how to do it. When they reached the entry hall, she slowed down. Turned around.

And tears were streaming down her face.

The sight of Alison crying was just about more than he could bear. If only he’d backed away last night, shut things down, sent her home, she wouldn’t be standing there looking at him like this today. But he’d wanted her so much that he’d lost his head, and now he was paying the price for it.

And so was she.

“Alison,” he said. “Please believe me. I never wanted to hurt you. I don’t want you to leave here thinking anything else.”

“I know.” She looked away. “I know you wouldn’t do that. Not on purpose.”

He could hear it in her voice that she’d already begun to forgive him, just as she’d forgiven him for every lousy date he’d ever set her up on. He couldn’t believe it. After everything he’d done, her anger was already slipping away.

But the misery was still there.

“Do you know I’ve never been in love before?” she said, her voice hushed. “All these years…all the men I’ve dated…not once.”

He just stood there, no clue what to say to that.

“I thought I was a couple of times,” she went on. “But looking back now, I know I wasn’t.” She paused. “And then I met you. That’s how I knew. Because it had never felt like this.”

Her words hit him like a thunderbolt. She was telling him she was in
love
with him?

No.
He couldn’t let this go on. He couldn’t let her have any of those feelings, because if she thought he’d let her down today, it was nothing compared to how he’d let her down in the future. He’d want her so much that he’d promise her anything, and then the next deal would come along and he wouldn’t be able to turn it down. It was what he did. It was who he was. It was the only thing in his life he’d ever been a success at. He couldn’t give that up, so he needed to end this now.

“You didn’t fall in love with me,” he said gently. “You fell in love with the man you thought I was. But he was never real.”

“Are you sure?” she said, her voice a plaintive whisper. “Isn’t that man in there somewhere?”

Let her go, and do it now.

“You deserve a much better man than me, Alison. And I hope one day you find him.”

She wiped her fingertips beneath her eyes. “Yeah. I kinda hope so, too.”

God, what an understatement.

He hated himself for this. All of it. After what he’d done, she’d be so wary and so guarded that she might never open herself up again, and every dream she had of a husband and a family might never come true.

She started to leave, then turned back. “The home tour—”

“You can still use the house. We’ll work it out.”

She nodded. “Maybe I don’t know who you really are,” she said quietly. “But I’m still going to miss you.”

Brandon swallowed hard. “I’m going to miss you, too.”

She turned and left his house, and as he stood at the doorway and watched her walk down the steps to her car. He gripped the door frame tightly, tormenting himself by watching her drive away. As her car disappeared from sight, he realized it might be the last time he’d ever see her.

What had Tom said?
In the end, you’d make her way more miserable than Justin ever could.

And that was exactly what had happened.

Ten minutes later, Alison knocked on Heather’s door. When Heather answered, her eyes flew open wide with concern.

“Oh, sweetie,” she said. “What
happened
?”

Alison opened her mouth to answer, but tears overcame her for the umpteenth time since she’d left Brandon’s house, and she couldn’t speak. Heather led her inside, sat her down, and brought her Kleenex, and Alison told her the latest sob story in her quest for a husband and family. Heather hugged her and told her everything was going to be all right, even though Alison was pretty sure nothing was ever going to be right for her again.

“I should have listened to you,” she told Heather. “You had it right. Brandon was just what you said he was.” She balled her hands into fists. “God, Heather, I’m such an idiot! I keep making mistakes, over and over. I just want a man to love me. Is that really so much to ask when the world is full of them? What’s wrong with me that I can’t find at least
one
?”

“I don’t know,” Heather said quietly.

“You managed to do it,” Alison said, wiping her nose for the twentieth time. “And I don’t know how. I don’t know how one day you could have been groveling around with me in the dating muck pile, and then suddenly you looked up, and there was Tony. The perfect man for you. And he carried you off on his white horse like you were some kind of princess, and I was still sitting there with nothing. I
still
have nothing.”

Heather didn’t say anything. But really, what could she say?

Alison wiped tears from beneath her eyes with her fingertips. “I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be that awful woman who’s forty or fifty years old who has nothing to talk about except her health problems and her cats. I can’t bear the thought of that. I just can’t.”

Alison felt as if there was a hole in her heart that grew bigger with every beat, and judging from the look Heather was giving her, every bit of the despair she felt was showing on her face.

“Alison?” Heather said gently. “Are you going to be okay?”

Alison took a deep yoga breath. Let it out slowly. Then she wiped her eyes for what she was determined was going to be the
last
time.

“Oh, come on, Heather.” she said, smiling through the last of those tears. “I’m always okay eventually.” She paused. “This one may just take a little longer than usual.”

And then, damn it, she was pulling out another Kleenex and crying all over again, because this time it was different. This time she hadn’t felt as if she was settling for an average man and hoping she would eventually learn to love him. She felt as if she’d found that one wonderful man the universe had been holding for her, just waiting for the right time to hand him over. And there would have been no learning to love him, because she already did.

The trouble was that she didn’t know how to stop.

On Wednesday morning, Brandon drove to Houston and met Tom, who had driven down the day before. At two o’clock, they sat down at a conference room table at United Title, and over the next forty‑five minutes, it seemed to Brandon as if he signed his name fifty times on that pile of closing papers. And every time he did, he felt as if he was betraying Alison one more time.

Good God. Would he ever get her out of his mind?

“So what do you think, buddy?” Tom said as they left the title company, a big grin on his face. “We pulled it off. We actually pulled it off. It’s going to be smooth sailing on this one, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. It is.”

“Listen, I’ve already checked into the hotel. I reserved a room for you, too. What say you check in, and then we go have a drink or two, and then have dinner at some ridiculously expensive restaurant? And then, who knows? One way or the other, we are
celebrating
.”

Brandon stopped at his car. “You know, I’m not so sure I’m up for that. I think I’ll just head back to Plano. I have a lot to do there.”

“Oh, come
on
, Brandon! Don’t flake on me! Tell you what. I’ll spring for champagne. The good stuff this time. Not like that stuff in Kansas City that tasted like old sweat socks.”

“No. Really. I’m going to head back.” He pointed the remote and flicked open the driver’s door.

Tom grabbed his arm. “Hold on a minute.”

“What?”

“We just pulled off the deal of the decade. You don’t sound properly excited about that.”

 “Come on, Tom. You know I am.”

“I’m not so sure,” He eyed Brandon carefully. “Are you good with this deal? I need a partner who’s one hundred percent on board.”

“I am,” Brandon said. “I just have a lot on my mind.”

Tom let out a sigh of resignation. “Yeah. And her name is Alison Carter.”