Page 24 of Damaged Billionaire Daddy (The Lanes Series #1)

Chapter twenty-three

Richard

I sat on an uncomfortable chrome and black leather couch. Across a glass and chrome coffee table sat Delard in a black and chrome chair.

“So, tell me again,” he said, “Why exactly is it that we shouldn’t pull the financial legs out from under Quinn Vineyards?”

I stared at him. Then I looked around the apartment.

Kayla had furnished it. The carpet was white, the walls were white, the chairs and couch were black leather and chrome.

The coffee table and end tables were glass and chrome. The only touches of color were a Mondrian style painting done in primary colors that were outlined in black and a red silk rose placed in a crystal vase in the center of the coffee table.

I hated it. I hated it when she did it, even though I thought I loved her. And I hated it even more now because it looked like Kayla and not like Kandy. And I had no idea how to explain to Delard why I just could not do to Pops Quinn what we’d done to other small business owners.

Or why I felt ashamed of some of the things we had done in the name of just doing business. Or even why, after listening to Kandis cry, I felt like the villain prince, not the hero who had given his all in the name of True Love.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It just doesn’t seem right. I can’t do it.”

Delard dropped a thin folder on the coffee table, nearly overturning the silk rose.

“Maybe it’s just as well. I’ve done my best. But Charles and Jocelyn Quinn are as squeaky clean as it is possible for any humans to be.

They pay their bills; they take care of their help.

They go to church, and they donate small amounts to local charities.

The only possible smirch on their record is their treatment of their daughter-in-law after their son’s death. ”

In my head, I could hear Kandis saying, “We agreed not to give Mom any money because in a couple of days it would be all gone, and she wouldn’t even remember having a good time.”

“I think that was justified,” I said. “The daughter-in-law is an addict.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Delard nodded. “And that they’d tried two or three times to get her dried out before they gave up and focused on their granddaughter. We could use it....”

“No,” I said, before he could even get started. “It’s not illegal to practice tough love. It’s self-preservation. When Kandy needed help, she went to her grandparents, not her mom.”

“All right,” Delard said. “I really can’t complain all that much. You paid me back everything I spent, and my commission on top of it. But where do we go from here, Richie?”

“Do I need more money?” I asked.

“Well, no,” Delard admitted. “Unless we have a zombie apocalypse, you could live the rest of your life on the proceeds from any single one of your investments. You even have enough to give some to charity if you don’t get carried away.”

“There ya go,” I said. “I want us to properly take care of the businesses we’ve got and that includes the people who work for us. I don’t need any more small vineyards. Maybe I’ll buy some land and learn to grow grapes.”

“Oh, that’ll be the day,” Delard chortled. “As I recall, you can’t even grow spider plants.” Delard had a whole wall of the creepy green and white plants in his office, and he’d tried several times to give me some.

“Then maybe I’ll start a little league team or something,” I said. “Or a scout troupe.”

“Lots of legal shit down those roads,” Delard said soberly. “Not a good way to travel for a single dude, unless you just donate to a group that’s established.”

“Hell of a note when you can’t even do something nice without getting into trouble,” I said.

There came a tap-tap-tappity-tap at the door, and Caleb let himself in. His eyes looked kind of wild.

“Boss, you ain’t never gonna guess who I ran into at the Espresso Shop on the corner.”

“Who?” I asked, bracing myself for the worst.

“Kandis Quinn. She was with this older guy, and they were talking about someone in the hospital. She looked really upset, Boss. Not mad like when she came down off the mountain, just scared and worried.”

I felt as if I’d swallowed a rock. There were a lot of reasons why a woman could be scared and worried. But from what Kandy had revealed during our pillow talk in the mountain cabin... I let that thought trail off.

“Did you catch who it was?” I asked.

“Her mom, I think,” Caleb said. “And something about where the heck they could stay when she got out of the hospital because the airlines wouldn’t let her fly because of her lungs.”

I turned to Delard. “Find out.”

“Say wha’?” he blurted, looking confused.

“Our next mission. Find out who Kandis Quinn is worried about, and what the problem is.”

“Why don’t you just go ask her?” Delard inquired. “You’re the one that’s got the hots for her so bad you’ve turned into a lovesick loon.”

“We didn’t exactly part on good terms,” I said. “In fact, I’m probably the last person on earth she wants to see.”

Caleb scratched his cheek and considered me for a minute. “Richard,” he said slowly, looking at me like he’d never seen me before.

I knew I was in trouble because Caleb usually called me ‘Boss.’ He was on the other team the day I was injured, and he’s been my driver since I left the hospital.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“I’ll go see about it,” he said. “Of the three of us, she’s least likely to throw me out on my ear. But you gotta promise me something.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“You got to promise me you’ll behave like a gentleman toward her. You’ve played Prince Charming to her Cinderella. I don’t want you to treat her like a toad if the glass slipper doesn’t fit.”

I just stared at him.

Delard said, “Well, listen to you gettin’ all poetic. Are you writin’ a book or somethin’?”

Caleb grinned. “As a matter of fact, I’ve written several. What do you think I do while I wait for Richie? Read comics?”

“Um...” I said. King of the snappy comebacks, that’s me. Then I added, “Caleb, find out what she needs. Whatever it is, I’ll help her somehow. I owe her that.”

“What do you want, Boss?” Caleb asked, and I knew that we were all right again.

I knew what I wanted, but there was a good possibility that I’d already blown my chances.

“I want to make sure she’s ok,” I said humbly. “Just that.”

“Then we are on the same page,” Caleb said. “You sit tight, and I’ll see what I can find out.”

Delard stared at me for a long moment. “Wow!” he said. “She’s really got to you. You wouldn’t have done that even for Kayla.”

I knew he was right. But Kandis had something that Kayla didn’t. She had me taking her around a common carnival instead of showing her the town like I’d intended. She put snow down my collar. She kissed me like I was her everything.

She hated me. And she was right to do so. I was every bit the asshole she called me. I didn’t even know if she would let me help her.

“Find out,” I told Caleb.

“Yeah, yeah, Captain Smith,” he said, “I’ll be your John Alden, and I won’t steal the girl.”

With that cryptic remark, he let himself out the door.

Delard shook his head. “You had a good run as a rich playboy, but I can see it is all over,” he said. “I’ll do what I can to make sure you don’t wind up begging with a tin cup. Don’t get up, I’ll let myself out.”

Then I was alone in the sterile apartment with a slim file folder that detailed a business life properly lived.

What the heck was I going to do with myself if Kandis Quinn wouldn’t let me back into her life?