Page 53 of Mad Rivals (The Bradley Legacy #1)

I’m Caught

“Is it true that you were seeing Madden Bradley?” my father asks.

I’m caught.

There’s no sense in lying about it now, though. “Yes, but it’s over now.”

“I told you to stay away from him.”

“I know you did, and I tried. I really tried. But ultimately I also realized a few things. For one, your feud with his father has nothing to do with me or with him. And for another, I’m an adult who’s pretty darn capable, and you still see me as a little girl. I’m not.”

“I know you’re not, Kennedy. I just wish you would’ve been honest with me. I’m disappointed that you were in an important relationship that you chose not to tell us about.”

I sigh. “You never set up the kind of relationship with me that would’ve allowed for that.

You were adamant that I couldn’t go near him, and we didn’t have a choice but to be together when we were each given half of SCS.

The more we got to know each other, the more we knew it was useless to try to fight it. ”

“You’re right,” he says quietly.

“Excuse me? ”

“You’re right. He’s our top rival, and I never gave you the chance to be honest with us.

You’re not a kid anymore, and I think I can finally see that.

And that’s why I’m flying out this week.

My lawyer is sending over the paperwork today to name you the CEO of Van Buren Construction, and I’ll be there on Tuesday to celebrate with you. ”

I gasp. “What?”

“You heard me, Kennedy. You knew this was coming, and I trust you to take VBC to the next level. You’re smart, and you’re intuitive. You get to decide what that looks like.”

“Wow, Dad,” I say as I jump up from my chair and start pacing around the room. “I wasn’t expecting this. I mean…I was . Eventually. I thought you’d be there a while longer.”

“I will be for a little. I’m at a point where today’s technology has surpassed what I want to learn, and I’m ready to retire—or, for now, to cut back to part-time. Get out on the green a bit more. And even when I officially retire, I’ll still be around if you ever need anything.”

Tears spring behind my eyes at his words. I’m sort of shocked, at least in the sense that it’s all happening so soon.

“Thanks, Dad.”

I hang up, and the email from his lawyer is already waiting for me.

I print out the paperwork, read through it, and sign it before I scan it and send it right back.

Holy shit.

I’m officially a CEO. At twenty-seven. It’s sort of unbelievable, and there are a whole lot of ideas I want to implement. Probably. Eventually. It’s a lot of decision-making, and I’m honestly sort of glad my father will be around to help with the transition.

I stare at the screen in front of me, a little confused as I try to will some ideas into my head. What was I working on again ?

I have plenty of work to do—especially now . I have plenty of things that have gone unattended to over the last couple weeks as my mood swings from high to low at the drop of a hat.

But I need to pull myself together. Especially now.

The truth is that I thought he’d be here by now.

I thought he’d realize we belong together.

I thought he’d come back to me to fight for me. For us. For our future.

But training camp starts tomorrow, and as the clock ticks to eight o’clock on a Sunday night, it’s time for me to face the truth.

He’s moved on. Or he’s moved toward the season. Whatever. Same difference, or it may as well be. He’s not here with me, and he’s not coming.

Maybe I’ll never be okay with that fact, but it’s a fact that it’s time to face.

I need to move on, too. Or at least throw myself into work and try to figure out how to focus on all the new tasks that are suddenly on my plate.

I may be just the tiniest bit overwhelmed, and that’s why I’m not even thinking when my doorbell rings at nine o’clock on Sunday night and I throw the door open.

I guess deep down I assumed it was food that I don’t ever actually remember ordering, but it’s not.

Instead, it’s Madden Bradley.

In a suit and holding a bouquet of flowers.

Looking fine as hell, and also…wait. What is he doing here?

“Did you do something different with your hair?” he asks with a grin.

I can’t be moved to laugh in my total confusion and shock that he’s actually standing on my front porch. “What are you doing here?” I ask. “Don’t you need to be at camp?”

He nods. “Yeah. Tomorrow. I should be home packing. But this was more important.”

“What was? ”

“Being here with you.” His dark eyes are so sincere as they pin me to my place. “I missed you, Ken.”

I sigh. “I missed you, too. But I just convinced myself that I need to face facts that it’s over literally like five minutes ago, so let me ask again, what are you doing here?

Is this like some final goodbye? Or like a maybe we’ll see each other sometime once the season ends since you’ll be gone until then? ”

“It’s none of that.” He shakes his head. “And for the record, I have Tuesdays off. Sometimes Mondays, too. And if we move in together, I’ll be there as much as I can.”

“If we move in together?” I repeat. I blink, and I glance over at him. “Madden, you broke up with me. You said you had to in order to protect me. You left me. You gave me Newman so you didn’t have to face me. And now we’re moving in together? I feel like I missed something.”

“I was an idiot, Ken. I thought I was doing what was best for you by cutting myself out of your life. I didn’t give you Newman because I didn’t want to face you.

I couldn’t face you. I was far too broken without you, and the more time I spent apart from you, the more I knew how very wrong I was to let you go.

I may not be good for you, but you’re good for me.

I love you. I want to be with you. I want a future with you.

I want to work with you. I want to play with you and laugh with you and live fucking life with you. I want it all, and I want it with you.”

I sniffle, not sure how to respond to all that.

He clears his throat. “I came here to tell you that and some other things.”

“What other things?”

He chuckles. “I realized pretty quickly how much I need you in my life, but I needed to find a way to get you back while still keeping you safe. And so I told my father about us. I also told him that he needed to extract all traces of illegal activity from Bradley Group and then he needed to sign the company over to me.”

I gasp .

“Once that was done, which was just this morning, I went to talk to your father. I asked him for his blessing for the two of us to be together, and then I proposed another idea.”

I gasp again. “Did he give you his blessing?”

He shakes his head and hands the flowers to me, and I take them in my hands.

“No. But I told him it didn’t matter.” He bends down onto a knee right in front of me, right there on my front porch in my doorway, since I still haven’t invited him in. “I told him I was going to ask you to marry me either way.”

His words prompt my third gasp in the last thirty seconds.

“This may not be the most romantic time or place to ask you this, but I can’t wait another second.

I love you, Kennedy. I thought I could keep you safe by pushing you away, but it turns out I just needed to pull you closer.

The last month has been the worst in my life, and I realized it was because I didn’t have you by my side.

I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

I’ve never had anything so powerful and incredible, and I never want to let you go.

Will you marry me?” He pulls a box out of his pocket and flips it open, and my eyes fall to a ring with a huge round-cut diamond inside.

My hands fly to my mouth.

I haven’t spoken to him in a month, and he shows up here today out of the blue to ask me to marry him.

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I’m equal parts confused and giddy and unsure and positive.

“This is all so fast,” I say, and it sounds very much like a no .

“I know it is, and I’m not expecting you to answer right this second. Take your time. Think about it. I’m just running short on time, and I had to ask before it was too late.”

I blow out a breath, reach out to pull him up from the ground, and slip the box back into his pocket before I slide my arms around his waist. “I feel like I need some time to be sure I can trust you after you walked out on me. ”

He pulls me close as he wraps his arms around me. “I’m back, Ken.”

He’s back.

But I don’t know if we are back quite yet.

“Come on in,” I say, and we walk inside my house and over toward my couch. “What was the other thing you proposed to my father?” I ask softly once we’re sitting.

“I asked him to sign VBC over to you today,” he says, and I school my reaction to his words carefully.

“I had this idea that we could work together instead of against each other, that we could merge Bradley with VBC and run this supergroup together. You know…make actual billions together the legal way. I’ve thought about little else since I had the idea months ago.

I thought someday we’d get married, and once we merged our lives, we’d merge our companies.

” He shrugs with a bit of sheepishness. “Maybe it was only ever a pipe dream, but I loved the idea of working with you ever since I saw you working on SCS. If I’m the CEO of a development company, I’d rather work with my top competitor than against her. ”

Heat pinches behind my eyes again at his words, but that call I got earlier today is enough to give me the confidence that what he’s saying is genuine.

“Say something,” he urges.

“My father called me earlier today. He forwarded the paperwork to me to officially name me CEO, and I signed it earlier today.” I duck my head a little. “I think it might be his way of giving us his blessing, not that either of us really needed it.”

He looks surprised by that.

“He made it sound to me like he was just ready to retire, but he specifically said that he knows I’m ready to take VBC to the next level. I think this might be what he meant by that.” I press my lips together as a tear escapes and rushes down my cheek. He thumbs it away.

“I know it might take time for you to trust me again, and I deserve that. I never should have left. But I hope you can see that I was just trying to protect you from the illegal things my father was doing. You deserve so much better than getting tangled up with that. Just tell me what it’ll take.

I’ll do anything to prove to you that this is genuine. ”

I chew my bottom lip as I think quickly. I mean…he has sort of proven that, hasn’t he?

First by trying to protect me from getting involved with his father’s illegal activities, then by basically handing over Newman, and now by getting the ball rolling by talking to my father and extracting his own father from Bradley Group.

It feels like he’s doing what he can to take care of me in the way he will for the rest of our lives together.

All that feels like enough, but the feeling like I’m finally home again after floundering for weeks seems to be the most overpowering thing right now.

“VanBrad Construction Group. VBC Group. You make me fifty-one percent owner to your forty-nine, and we’re co-presidents.

I want full financial transparency from both sides as well as an exit strategy in place before I sign anything, and I will demand a prenup that protects my family business in the event this goes south.

We’ll also need a conflict resolution plan as well as a plan to separate work and personal life.

” I give him my most intimidating pointed gaze.

He doesn’t even blink at my intimidation techniques. “God, you’re hot when you go full-business mode on me. Now when you say prenup…am I hearing a yes?”

I laugh, and it’s one of those deep belly laughs—a truly light and happy feeling that I haven’t felt in far too long. Probably since the last time we were together. Once I take a breath and can use my voice again, I say, “It’s still not a no. I just need some time.”

“I understand, and I will wait forever if I have to.” He reaches over and takes my hand in his, and it’s this display of patience right here that tells me we’re going to be okay.