True Colors

by Amy Knupp

  “I thought it started at quarter till eight.”

  “You must’ve got your signals crossed. Eight a.m. start,” Connor said as they reached the doorway.

  Inside, Gabe and Logan, Connor’s younger brother, sat next to each other near this end of the long table, deep in discussion.

  “Hey,” Gabe said when he looked up, cutting off the conversation with Logan abruptly, which made Drake think it was HR business.

  All the other chairs were empty. Clearly Drake wasn’t late.

  “You said the meeting started at 7:45,” Drake said to Gabe. He’d confirmed the time just this morning during their workout at the gym. “Is it delayed?”

  Logan, who was the thirty-four-year-old VP of IT and the closest any of the Norths came to being blond, looked over at Gabe with an amused, assessing grin, and Drake began to understand what was going on.

  “You lied to get me here on time,” Drake said.

  “It worked,” Gabe said, smiling. “You’re early even.”

  “Would’ve been late for a seven forty-five,” Logan added.

  Drake grinned, unable to get too upset, because he was legitimately relieved he hadn’t missed the start of the meeting with the architects. “Thanks, asshole.”

  “Anytime,” Gabe said, then he went back to his discussion with Logan, and yep, it sounded like one of the accounting employees had given notice the day before and they were discussing when to close down that person’s access to company computers.

  There was coffee at a station on the far wall, and Drake followed Connor to it to grab a cup, more just to have a beverage than out of the need to wake up. He’d been up since five, gone to the gym for a full workout, and was enthusiastic about this meeting, ready to get to work. He hadn’t felt so enlivened for a long time, not professionally. Personally, Mackenzie had enlivened him and then some. Which reminded him…

  “How long do you expect this to go?” Drake asked Connor as they took chairs next to Gabe and Logan, and Cole sauntered in the door. Unlike everyone else, Cole was dressed in khakis and a button-down shirt, dressy for him. The middle North brother had a complex about wearing a suit, Drake knew.

  Connor blew out a breath. “I don’t know but it’s not going to be a short one. Probably two to three hours would be my guess.”

  It was the first meeting with the architects since they’d selected the firm from a pool of three, where they’d begin getting specific about the company’s needs and wish list for the new store. Drake hadn’t found out about it until Wednesday, as he wasn’t on the company email system yet and Mason hadn’t notified him until then. Luckily it coincided with one of his days off from the gym. Unluckily, it seemed Drake’s real estate date with Mackenzie was in danger of being screwed up.

  He pulled out his phone to warn her with a text message.

  Hey, beautiful. Just found out my early meeting with the architects could run long, so I’m going to be late. Get started without me and I’ll text you when I’m done and catch up with you and the real estate guy. I’m sorry and I’ll make it up to you.

  The dots that indicated she was typing did not appear, and he wondered what she was up to. Was she awake? Was she upset and trying to figure out how to respond—or whether to respond? Or maybe she was in the shower…naked and wet and…

  There was a commotion at the door, and Drake looked up to see three people he didn’t know walk in, followed by Mason, who invited the three to help themselves to coffee.

  “Morning, everyone,” Mason said. “Looks like we’re all here, as Bill Santini isn’t able to make it.”

  Two of the three, who Drake assumed were the architect team, took seats across the table, and the third went to the coffee station.

  “You remember Gabe and Connor,” Mason said to the visitors as he stood at the head of the table, “and Cole.” Mason turned to Cole, who was standing near Gabe, not having committed to a place yet. They each shook hands and exchanged greetings, the male on the architect team remarking on how many Norths there were.

  To Logan and Drake, Mason said, “This is Katarina Markham, senior architect and one of the partners at Martin and Baines, and her associates, Troy Greenstein and Nell Lopez.”

  Nell was apparently the one getting coffee, and she joined them at the table with a full steaming mug.

  Mason introduced Logan and Drake, and they shook hands and exchanged a minute or two of small talk before Mason started the meeting.

  It was some time before Drake was able to see that Mackenzie had finally replied. No worries. This is important to you. Keep me posted. I told you I can handle this on my own!

  The attitude made Drake smile to himself as the table discussed the challenges of the building site in general. Mackenzie was reasonable and used to handling things on her own—two of the things he happened to like about her. He’d reply as soon as he could.

  As soon as he could turned out to be much later. Like, lunchtime later. Drake was surprised as hell to see it was after eleven thirty. He’d been so engrossed in what they were doing he hadn’t looked at the time once. And the meeting wasn’t over yet. The nine of them had gotten a lot done—preliminary decisions, priorities listed, challenges brainstormed—and they’d agreed to continue over an early lunch.

  As they made their way out to their cars, Drake sent a text to Mackenzie, apologizing up, down, left, and right that it was so late and that he wasn’t done yet. He slipped his phone back in his pocket as he got into his Porsche, Connor getting into the passenger side, to drive to the restaurant.

  Could he have bailed and gone to meet Mackenzie? Probably. Technically, Mason couldn’t do a thing to him yet, as he was on his own time and they were lucky he’d been able to make it to the meeting today at all. But Drake was into it, so deeply into it, and he didn’t want to miss a second of it because this was his deal and his family’s business. It was them stepping forward, into the future, paving the way for other new stores, stores that would include the Home Fitness Division. Drake’s baby. As far as Mackenzie went, he knew the damage was already done and cutting out of lunch would do very little to save his ass if her understanding had run out.

  He’d make it up to her tonight.

  By the end of the day, exhaustion, emotion, and stress far outweighed the excitement of house hunting.

  Mackenzie let out a big, audible sigh and pressed her head back against the headrest of the passenger seat in Calvin Broderick’s Mercedes SUV as he pulled away from the ninth house of the day. It was nearing seven p.m. and the sun was well on its way to disappearing, the streetlights flickering on. They’d taken time for lunch, but it’d been hours ago, and her stomach had rumbled more than once since they’d gone in that last house.

  “That one didn’t stand a chance, huh?” Calvin said, and he was spot on.

  “The bedrooms were tiny and the layout made it…claustrophobic.”

  “I agree. You’ve been drawn to the homes with lots of windows and light and more of an open plan. You loved the house on Muller Street from the moment you walked in. What are you thinking about it?”

  She was thinking she’d never been so plagued by self-doubt in her life.

  She did love that house. It felt right, and it also lined up nicely with her wish list. It was twelve years old, three bedrooms, had a fireplace, a gorgeous kitchen, and a patio with a built-in fire pit. There was plenty of space for her now, and with a full unfinished basement, there was the potential for adding lots of square footage later if she ever threw a family into the mix. For being in a subdivision with only a handful of different floor plans, the house had lots of character and was, well, adorable. The yard was on the small side but well taken care of, and it backed up to a green space.

  The drawbacks were minor—one of the bedrooms was minuscule, the countertops throughout were laminate and ugly, the furnace was as old as the house, and there was more carpet than she liked, but those shouldn’t be deal breakers. Based on the other houses she’d seen today, she knew she could
do so much worse. It was only five thousand dollars above her budget, and she could make that work.

  According to Calvin, who she’d grown to like, respect, and appreciate over the course of the long day, there were two other parties interested in the house, so if she wanted it, she should act quickly. She believed him because he hadn’t been at all high-pressure and seemed to genuinely want her to make the best decision for herself.

  Whatever that was.

  She thought it was the Muller Street house, but she was struggling hard to give him the go-ahead.

  “I like it,” she finally said. “So much.” She realized, as she looked out the window, they were already nearing Calvin’s office and decision time. “I just don’t know if I can put in an offer tonight. I might need to sleep on it.”

  “It’s a big decision. Your first home,” Calvin said empathetically.

  “What if I wanted to have someone else go through it with me?”

  “I’d be happy to set that up. You know with this one we’re up against time and other people, but I want you to feel good about your decision. If a second opinion could help, let’s do it.”

  Who would she even get to go through with her? Her best bet was Sierra. She trusted her as a friend and as an expert on construction. But it would have to happen tomorrow, preferably early, and she hesitated to ask. It would be an imposition and Sierra had her own house hunting to do.

  Of course, there was Drake, in theory, but he’d proven today he might not follow through.

  Okay, that wasn’t fair of her. He’d never let her down in all the weeks she’d been back, except for today, and as she’d told him, she understood the importance of his meeting. She wouldn’t have wanted him to miss that to go through houses with her.

  But damn that man. He’d gotten into her head with the whole second-opinion thing.

  No, that wasn’t quite right. Damn herself. She’d let him get into her head.

  Mackenzie wasn’t the type to dither over decisions. She’d been on her own for so long, since she was seventeen years old and her mom had left her with a friend’s family for her senior year. She’d been making big decisions ever since. Where to go to college, where to live, who to live with, whether to drop out of school, whether to move across the country… None of it slowed her down. She weighed her options and followed a combination of heart and head and plowed forward, making the best choices she could.

  Was buying a home the biggest decision yet? Maybe. It was a giant one, but so was quitting college. So was moving cross-country.

  What it came down to was that she’d let happen exactly what she was trying to avoid. Her involvement with Drake, no matter how unstructured and unofficial, had affected her judgment. Her emotions had swayed her life plan, or tried to. It didn’t matter that she knew in her head he was temporary. She’d let her heart and her hopes override her logic on this one. She didn’t need Drake’s opinion on her house.

  “You know what, Calvin?” she said. “Go ahead and draw up the contract for full price. If you could check one more time that no offers are coming in tonight, then I’d like to sleep on it, but I’ll let you know for sure first thing tomorrow morning. No need to go through it again.” They’d spent over an hour in the house already. “Will that work?”

  “Absolutely,” he said as he pulled into the lot behind his office. “I’ll call the sellers’ agent and let you know yet this evening if we need to expedite things.”

  There were only a few cars in the lot, and as Calvin drove into a spot close to the building and down the row from her car, Mackenzie’s heart lurched.

  There was an orange Porsche next to hers. Drake sat in the driver’s seat. He looked in her direction, and she felt a reaction in every cell of her body. She bit on the inside of her lip and turned away, back to Calvin as he killed the engine.

  “Thank you, Calvin. For everything. You’ve been amazing all day, just like Sierra said.” She offered her hand across the front seat, and they shook awkwardly in the small space. “I’ll talk you in the morning at the latest.”

  “Have a good evening, Mackenzie.”

  She got out of his SUV, shut the door, and took in a fortifying breath.

  It was time for her to look out for herself. Time for her to make a change.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Drake tried to read Mackenzie’s mood as she made her way across the parking lot toward him with unrushed, measured steps. She wasn’t smiling, but she wasn’t frowning either. She looked confident and determined and so damn pretty. Her hair was down and being rustled by the breeze, and she wore skinny jeans, a long shirt, and a fuzzy vest, along with ankle boots and lots of jewelry. She’d turn his head even if he didn’t know her.

  He’d texted her the second the meeting with the architects had finished, but unfortunately, that hadn’t been until after two p.m.—a marathon meeting that could not have gone better. Mackenzie hadn’t replied. He knew she’d been busy, in and out of houses with her “guy”—who he reassured himself now was mid to late forties and way too old for Mackenzie—and probably wrapped up in discussions and decisions as well, so Drake refused to jump to the conclusion that she was mad at him. But he wasn’t going to assume anything. And she wasn’t giving him a single clue.

  Mason had wanted to meet with him and Melody, who’d been charged with branding the new division, after the architects left, so when Mackenzie hadn’t answered, Drake had joined his brother and the marketing VP. They’d finished that meeting around four thirty, and Drake had come directly here, to the real estate office, determined to show Mackenzie he was sorry and to spend the evening—and the night, if he was lucky—making it up to her.

  He’d mistakenly assumed she and the Realtor would be done close to five. He’d spent the past two and a half hours in his car jotting down notes after the day’s work, his mind spinning on two tracks, home fitness and Mackenzie. It was a relief to have work to focus on instead of giving in to trying to figure out what he was doing here, waiting for so long. It wasn’t his way. He’d never done anything like this. It went into the same category as chasing her around the world, maybe not quite as drastic, but for him to sit in a small sports car for hours on end…

  Instead of walking to his driver’s-side window as he’d expected, Mackenzie went around to the passenger’s side, opened the door, and dropped into the seat next to him.

  “Hello,” he said, still waiting for any kind of cue to cross her face. “How did it go?”

  “I found my house, so I’d say really well.” She smiled then, but the smile was off, not deep enough, more of a surface thing, and Drake’s early-alert system sounded in his head.

  “That’s exciting,” he said, genuinely happy for her—if she was, in fact, happy. “You don’t sound excited.”

  “Oh, I am. I’m going to sleep on it, but the house feels good. It’s a short drive from here. Near Weston and Muller. A two-story with three bedrooms and an unfinished basement.”

  That wasn’t far from his mom’s house, but in a newer neighborhood, he knew. A family neighborhood. One of those that brought to mind kids playing basketball in the driveway and dogs running around a fenced-in backyard. The thought of Mackenzie there sent an uneasy ripple through him that he couldn’t quite define. Wasn’t sure he wanted to define.

  “Maybe you can show me sometime,” he said. “I’m game as long as I can get away from work. Mackenzie, I’m sorry about today.” His instinct was to grasp her hand, but she had both of hers wrapped tightly around her clutch wallet.

  “I told you I understand and I meant it. Drake…” She was sitting so rigidly, and she absently stuck one finger in the loop of the wallet’s wrist strap and started circling that finger around and around, twisting the strap.

  Drake tensed and waited, then prompted, “What’s up, Mackenzie?”

  The looping motion stopped abruptly, and she turned slightly in the bucket seat and looked him in the eyes. “This isn’t working for me.”

  He felt his mo
uth open as his brain floundered and tried to catch up. Before he could, she continued.

  “I knew going into it that you don’t do long-term relationships. I knew what I was getting into. None of this is your fault. It’s mine, but I can’t do it anymore.”

  He swallowed, feeling like a deer must feel when it leaped onto the road and landed smack up against a moving car. He wasn’t dead, but he was panicked and stunned into stupidity and having trouble plucking out a coherent thought to voice. Mackenzie had looked back at her wallet as he mentally stumbled around. Finally, he managed, “Can’t do what?”

  She sucked in an audible breath. “I can’t be with you casually. I can’t do day-to-day part-time. Not with you. I let you talk me into being together in Jiva because, well, I’d like to say it was because you traveled so far for it, but it was more than that. It’s because I couldn’t resist you. And then, when you came over last weekend with your good news, again, I couldn’t resist you.”

  That seemed like a good thing to him, not a bad one, but the look on her face said the opposite. And then she stunned the breath right out of him.

  “I’ve done the dumbest thing I could ever do and that’s”—she closed her eyes and inhaled—“fall in love with you.”

  He closed his eyes too, as if maybe that could stop the clusterfuck of feelings that hit him in that moment.

  The silence in the car was so loud his ears were ringing as he processed. Shit. Damn. Fuck. She wasn’t supposed to fall in love. They were supposed to be two adults enjoying the hell out of each other. They had a good thing going just the way it was. He was fully aware he was emotionally stunted—she knew it as well—but the L word had never been part of the deal.

  Of course, he’d been the numb nuts who’d chased her around the damn world, literally. He was all kinds of fucking idiot and all wrong for her. How he could want to pull her into him and tell her it would be okay at the same time he wanted to rant at her was beyond him.