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“We should head out for the day and try to get more pictures of us having the time of our lives here on the island.”
“Yes,” she chuckles, “Because we need to convince the world that you’ve indeed fallen in love with me, Casanova.”
“Hey … We need to convince them that you love and chose me also,” I counter in a playful tone.
She rolls her eyes as we laugh together, then she sighs heavily. “It’s just … I didn’t think I’d get married anytime soon, and I’m not doing it the traditional way of meeting someone and falling in love.”
I sense the hint of disappointment in her tone as she continues. “I’m doing this with you, and you are …”
“Sexy? charming? Too hot to handle?” I chirp in, trying to make her laugh again because I’m getting addicted to that sound.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she tosses back with sass, and laughter rolls from both our lips. The light mirth bubbles in the air and a smile draws out on my lips as I’m once again lost in her eyes.
My gaze drifts to her lips, and I want to kiss her again. I swallow hard as the urge spikes an unremorseful shot of desire right through me.
When she nibbles on her lower lip, the rush drowning every reasonable thought nearly overpowers my senses. Tom’s warning is the only thing that brings me back to my senses.
“I’ll make it less painful for you.” I sound huskier than I intend to, and Nelly slowly nods before she looks away from me.
“What happens when we get back to L.A.?” she asks, while toying with her fingers.
“I’ll meet with my grandfather and have him appoint me as CEO of Hart Holdings. You have nothing to worry about.”
She seems worried, though. Her complexion pales a little, and the way she licks her lips proves there’s something on her mind.
“I …” she begins, then trails off again. “It’s not ideal that I would ask this of you, but when we finally merge, can we minimize the cuts on the departments and staff we would have to lay off? I know it’s inevitable and some jobs will be lost, but these people have families, Ethan. I can’t be responsible for taking away their means of livelihood. When we merge, can we at least minimize the impact on the employees? I don’t want to be one of those employers that sells out and doesn’t care about their employees.”
Her misty eyes land on mine, and the softness of her tone proves to me that she really cares about this.
“I can’t promise you anything, Nelly. You know that,” I hate the tears in her eyes, but also, this is a business deal, and it’s normal that there would be some lay-offs and restructuring.
“I know but …”
“I understand what you’re worried about.” I reach for her hand across the table without thinking. “While I do intend to let you operate mostly autonomously, there will have to be some restructuring. The employees that we do lay off will be well compensated with their full pay, an advance for the next month, and a brilliant letter of recommendation that will help them find work somewhere else. I can do that at least.”
She draws in a full breath and releases a trembling one before her shoulders sag with the weight of her relief. “That’s more than I can ask for,” she says, a smile tugging on both corners of her lips.
Light returns to her eyes, and that fills me with an intense warmth. The feelings Nelly stirs in me aren’t new. They are just overwhelming.
I haven’t felt them in years.
Not since my ex-fiancé cheated on me years ago a few days before our wedding. I’d been young, naïve, and foolishly in love with her.
Julia Brene.Remembering her now leaves a sour taste in my mouth and a tightening squeeze of my chest that ends in an ache. I thought she was the woman I would spend the rest of my life with. I was madly in love with her and was willing to marry her even while we were still undergraduates at Stanford.
It didn’t matter how young we were. Julia had consumed me, and I thought I would stay in love with her forever.
Until I walked into a restaurant with Tom and Robyn for dinner and found her kissing Joe Storms.
An image of Joe Storms’s smile from the day he showed up at Nelly’s office came to mind.
I slowly withdraw from her and ball my right hand into a fist under the table. Julia is dead to me now, but it doesn’t change the ferocious twisting slice of pain in my gut each time I think about love and happy ever afters.
My parents didn’t have one either, so why should I believe it exists?
I’ve never loved another or let myself get close to anyone since then. It was strictly pleasure with every other woman I’d been with, regardless of what the media or anyone in my life thinks.
Better avoid falling for anyone than experiencing that sort of heartbreak again, right?