Paige wasn’t so sure. She wanted to tread carefully around Helen just in case.
“Are you and Doug plotting my retirement?” Helen asked as soon as she came back from her break. “I always see you two together now. You’re probably planning to replace me.”
Paige fell into a chair next to her. “I’m not planning on replacing you,” she told her. “We don’t want to replace you. No one can ever do that. But Doug wants me to take the reins so you can rest and take care of yourself. He worries about you all the time.”
Instead of being at all touched by this, Helen narrowed her eyes at her. “You’ve been spending an awful lot of time cozying up to him, haven’t you? You’re not just trying to replace me here at work, you’re trying to replace me in his life.”
Paige shook her head. “No, not at all,” she said, trying her best to sooth the older woman and keep her from becoming especially agitated. “He loves you very much.”
After confiding a bit with June, she knew Helen didn’t have any actual dislike for her in particular; she was grumpy towards everyone and she’d been so for a long time. Likely because of her old age. I bet it’s frustrating, getting older and not being able to do things as easily as you once could. Paige wanted to sympathize with the older woman now instead of being constantly on edge around her. There was nothing to fear, really. In fact, Helen was more afraid than she wanted to let on: afraid of being replaced, afraid of her family splitting up, afraid of becoming feeble… afraid of dying.
Perfectly normal things to fear, Paige thought.
“So you’re not just after our money or land?” Helen asked her. “You genuinely are in it to help us?”
Paige nodded her head. “Yes. Don’t think of it as me replacing you. Think of it as me carrying on your legacy while you get to retire and do whatever you want all day. You’ve worked for so long. You deserve a nice break.”
She didn’t believe it, but she was actually getting through to the woman all of a sudden. It was as if she’d somehow suddenly managed to say the right thing. Talking with June really does help me. She’s got magical powers.
She wasn’t going to rejoice just yet, though. There was still the small matter of letting his mother know about the budding relationship between her and Doug. Her whole attitude might change once she found out Paige was going to possibly be a permanent part of his life… and perhaps take precedence over her sometimes.
Not on purpose, of course, but sometimes in relationships the significant others became the number one focus of each other’s lives. Not always exclusively, but…
I’m not ready to have this conversation with her. I’m so nervous about how she’s going to react. It might even negate all of the good progress I’ve made here with her today.
She told herself to be positive and keep following Doug’s lead, for he knew his mother better than anyone else did. He’d know when the time was right to let her know about them.
In the meantime, she spent some time in his office with him in the afternoon after work, looking over his plans for the new house. He also hadn’t told his mother about this, but they thought she wouldn’t take as much offense because she was free to still live in the main ranch house. It was, after all, still her home, even if the deed was now in Doug’s name. He would never evict her, even if he planned to move to a completely different city.
“I think it looks beautiful,” Paige said to him with a smile and a proud rub of his shoulder. “You’ll be able to have a nice get-away with your son every day and during the weekends when the events aren’t too crazy.”
Doug smiled at her and nodded. “Thank you for the inspiration. I think you’re beautiful, by the way,” he said to her, not even lowering his voice even though they were in his office and his mother was shuffling around nearby somewhere.
“One of these days, someone is going to hear us,” she said to him.
“Aw, let them,” he brazenly said. Turning in his desk chair to face her, he gently cupped her cheek in his hand and brought her mouth toward his, kissing her softly yet strongly. She felt the intensity of his kiss and she knew what it meant. He needed her. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.
Suddenly, there came the sound of his mother clearing her voice. They broke away from their kiss and looked over, finding Helen in the doorway of the office. Instinctively, Paige moved away from Doug’s chair, but the damage had already been done.
Or so she thought.
Helen’s face broke out into a smile. She wagged a finger at them. “I knew you both were up to something. You’ve been canoodling this whole time and you thought I wouldn’t catch on.”
Paige blushed and Doug just grinned. Apparently, things didn’t get past Helen easily. They hadn’t had to give her a big lecture after all. And what was the weirdest of all was that she was acting completely fine with them dating.
Helen slowly shuffled away again after that, and Paige decided it was time for her to head home. “What an interesting day,” she said.
Doug gave her a hug. “Every day has been an interesting day since you started working here.”
He was quite good at the platitudes. Paige wondered if what he said was really true. She could tell he wasn’t lying to her when she saw the look in his eyes, though. They couldn’t have been more honest.
She drove home as if on a cloud after the encounter with Helen and the sweet kiss from Doug, wondering what things were going to be like on the ranch now that everything had calmed down so much. How funny would it be if things suddenly became boring now? I supposed I’d be able to get the events done without fearing for my life or my job. She laughed a little. Imagine how much we could get done if we were able to focus instead of being anxious all of the time.
Paige was really looking forward to being able to get back to her roots as an events planner. She was going to have an easier time of it now, if Helen was more willing to step down and retire into a happy, peaceful life in the house. The older woman might finally have a chance to be a nice grandmother to Devon, too.
Chapter Eleven
Things were like night and day. Somehow, for some reason, Doug’s mom was finally being nice to Paige. And not only that, she saw them kissing and didn’t freak out! He was amazed. His mom was usually so grumpy and hostile. Had Paige’s help finally made his mother see the error of her ways?
“Can we talk about how crazy that was?” he asked her in a text later in the evening, once she was back at her home and she’d been given time to eat dinner and/or decompress. He knew she needed time for those sorts of things. He did, too. Most people did.
“I anticipated her being nicer to me,” Paige texted him back. “But I did not anticipate her reaction to us kissing! I’m still blushing, thinking about it. :)”
“Hopefully not just because my mom caught us. :)” he wrote.
He couldn’t help but wonder why Paige thought his mom would suddenly be nicer to her. Maybe it was just wishful thinking that came true because she’s magical.
“I spoke with your mom about how much we care about her,” she explained to him in a text. “She said she felt like she was being replaced, but I assured her it’s not true and she softened. I don’t know. But I guess I melted the ice somehow.”
“Aww, wonderful. I knew if you used your sweet charm, she’d eventually give in.” Doug was still thinking in magical terms. He wished they could be together instead of texting, but he respected her space during the weekends. Besides, he had a lot of work to do if he was going to get his new home up and running. It wasn’t going to build itself.
It took several months for his new home to be complete. During its construction, he of course stayed in the main mansion on the ranch, acting as if nothing was amiss or going to change. He hoped it could be a nice, big surprise particularly for Devon. He knew his mother wasn’t going to be too fond of the idea, but she would accept it in time as with everything else. While his home was quietly being built on the far side of his land, Doug continued to take
Paige out on dates. He’d meant what he said about taking her to New York, but he didn’t plan on going there anytime soon, what with all of the construction and other work he had to do. He was a bit like his mother in that case; he needed to watch over the construction workers and make sure they were doing a great job of creating his dream home.
At one time, a place exactly like his parents’ ranch house was his dream home, but over the years he’d decided to go a bit smaller and a bit less showy. After all, he didn’t want his new home to be a wedding venue. He wanted it to purely be a home for him and his son… and maybe someday a new Mrs. Crofton.
Finally the time came to tell his mom what his plans were. He didn’t want to let her know when he had his suitcases already packed; he thought it was better to give her the heads up sooner rather than later. “Mom, I have some news to share with you,” he told her one evening after work. Aunt Bea, June and some of the kitchen crew, and Paige were there as well.
They all sat around in the event planning room, carefully moving the legal pads into a neat stack on the coffee table so they had room. Doug hadn’t exactly been planning for a big ol’ business meeting, but apparently it’d turned into one.
“I’m going to move out of this house and live in a new mansion on the land,” he informed everyone. “I’ve been planning it for some time, but the house is finally complete. I think it’s the right thing to do, not only for me and for Devon, but for the company. I can leave work at work more and focus on what’s important: my son and my personal life.”
Everyone seemed surprised by this statement of his, but they didn’t exactly act shocked. They almost seem like they’re wondering what took me so long to come to this conclusion.
He looked at his mother’s face and he could see her frown and her sad, slightly frantic eyes. “I lived there in that room with Roxanne,” he said, focusing on reaching his mom instead of the others so much. “Every time I sleep in there now, I just miss her so much. I have a lot of good, happy memories in your house, Ma. But I think it’s time for it to be your house. I’m putting you in charge of running things in the home. I think you’ll approve, since you’re stepping away from event planning. You still have a role to play.” He smiled at her a little.
Aunt Bea nodded, smiling at her sister as well. “Yeah. You’ll be able to keep on bossing me around, sis. Just in a more private capacity.” She laughed, clapping her hands. “I appreciate what you did there, Doug.”
He laughed along with her. “I assure you, I wasn’t thinking about her bossing anyone else around. I just want her to have a nice home where she can be in control of things. What do you think, Mama?”
Helen appeared a bit uncomfortable to be put on the spot now. “I think y’all need to give me more credit,” she said. “I haven’t been controlling people lately. It might be I just want to relax and read all the books in our study now.”
Everyone had a good laugh. Sure, that’s what she wants to do with her free time. Doug couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his mom simply sitting and reading a book. If he ever did see her reading, he’d have to take a picture so it was preserved as proof.
As the group dispersed after hearing Doug’s big news, Paige sidled up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss on his cheek. “I’m proud of you,” she told him.
“Thank you,” he replied. “What about you – would you be interested in moving into my new house with me?”
She looked into his eyes and sighed vaguely. “I think I need to live on my own for a bit first,” she said. “I’ve been trying to move out of my parents’ place for a while now, but it’s hard. I don’t want to just move into an apartment and be renting from people for the rest of my life…”
He wondered if he should start helping her after she’d helped him create his own dream home. But then she let the subject drop and he didn’t want to pester her. It sounded like she craved space – not from him, just in general. He understood the feeling. He wasn’t just moving out of his parents’ old ranch house because of the sad memories. He also looked forward to having some personal space and freedom to relax after a long, hard day’s work.
Doug packed up his things – or, rather, had some maids do it for him – and then a moving crew took the furniture he wished to keep and placed it into his new home. He decided to leave his old bed behind to become a guest bed. A new chapter included new sleeping arrangements.
“You and I are going to live in our own new house, buddy,” he told Devon, carefully carrying him to the waiting car. “It’s close, on the same land, but it’ll be nice to be able to run around your own house, right? No one will tell you to get out of the way.”
Devon smiled at this idea. “Is Eleanor coming too?”
Doug nodded. “Of course, if that’s what you want. You like Eleanor?”
His son nodded back. “Do you like Paige?”
Doug didn’t quite know what to say. He didn’t see how the two women were related… Then it dawned on him. Devon thought Paige was taking care of him. And he wasn’t wrong.
“Yes, I like Paige a lot,” he said. “Do you like Paige?”
The little boy looked a bit shy, but he nodded. “Yes, she’s cool.”
Doug hoped there would now be a lot more opportunities for Paige and Devon to spend time together. In all of the constant uproar of his mom and aunt fighting, Doug’s son and personal life had sort of been brushed under the rug. He hadn’t even noticed until Paige made him realize.
As soon as they got to the new house, Devon had fun running all around inside it, exploring all of the new rooms. It was a fine, wood-paneled place, not too dissimilar from the main house, but pleasantly smaller and more cottage-like, even though it was still a mansion. The little boy had his own playroom again, but this one was twice as big and on the main floor of the house – because he didn’t have to be sequestered all the time anymore.
Doug spent the rest of the day with Devon, playing games and playing with toys with him, watching short kid’s movies, eating ice cream. It was a great day, the best day he’d had with his son in recent memory.
“I’m sorry for letting work take over,” he said. “That wasn’t fair to you.”
“It’s okay,” Devon said, not fully understanding but knowing enough about what he meant. His daddy had been a bit absent without meaning to. “I know you’re busy with work.”
Doug picked Devon up and swung him around so he was sitting on his lap. “I’m not going to let it be so busy anymore. When each day is done, I’m going to be right back here with my best bud, okay?”
I should tell Eleanor, if she ever sees me on the computer when I’m here, she should unplug it. He knew this was a bit dramatic, but he also knew a dramatic change was needed.
Now that he lived in a separate house, Doug noticed he was less stressed out by the goings-on of his mom and his aunt. He was better able to focus on his work because he wasn’t as caught in the middle. It definitely also helped to have Paige running the events now.
“How have things been?” he asked her when they went out to dinner together on the Friday after his move. “Hopefully things are settling down now?”
She took a sip of her soda and nodded her head. “Oh yeah. They still argue whenever something slightly doesn’t go their way, but since they work together less often, it’s much improved. Your aunt is nowhere near as bossy as your mom. Maybe it’s because I don’t work in the kitchen.”
Doug laughed, pointing at her for emphasis. “Bingo. Aunt Bea works those people ragged. She’s great at what she does, but… yeesh.”
“How’s it been to be able to spend more time with Devon?” she asked with a smile. “I imagine things are nice and calm at your new place.”
“So calm,” he said happily. “To go from all of the chaos to living with just Devon has been so nice. Even though the house is smaller, it seems bigger than it is because it’s just the two of us and we don’t have all of the constant projects going on in each room.”
P
aige nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Speaking of moving and houses,” Doug said. “How are things coming along for you? Have you found any good places?”
She sighed and shrugged. “There’s one cute place I like, but it’s so competitive. Even if I do have the money for the down payment, I might have to get in line.”
“Well, you never know until you try,” he sagely said. “I can still help you out if you need my help.”
She smiled at him appreciatively. “Maybe you could put in a good word for me.”
He could tell she didn’t like the idea of asking him for help. She wanted to be independent and he understood. She’d been working a long time to try and make a better life for herself and she didn’t need some rich guy to solve all of her problems. But if she wants me to put in a good word, I do in fact have friends in all sorts of high places…
During the weekend, he checked into it and discovered he knew the man who was selling the house she was interested in. He didn’t know him well, but he’d been to soirees with him enough times to know it wouldn’t be a problem to ask for some help or special treatment. He called him up from his new home’s telephone. This was technically working when he was supposed to be off, but it was also a personal thing. He didn’t really work with Paige in a normal sense. He worked adjacent to her. There was a difference.
“Hello, Paul?” Doug said into his phone. “This is Doug Crofton. It’s been a while.”
“Hello, Doug!” Paul Winston said enthusiastically into the phone, like he was greeting an old friend. Doug was glad to know he’d apparently made a good impression on the other man when last they saw each other. “How are things? You’ve made quite a business on your land. You’re not thinking of selling, are you?” There was a wink to his voice which told Doug he was kidding. At least a little.
Doug chuckled. “Nah, it’s much too profitable,” he said. “Anyway, I’m calling about the home on Stoney Crossing you’ve got for sale.”
Billionaire Hearts Club- The Complete Series Collection Page 33
