“I can’t wait to see where you came from.”
After we land and work our way off the plane and through the airport, Bella announces, “You have the largest mall in the US and possibly the world, and you have a huge mall here in the terminal. Apparently, Minnesotans like to shop.”
“Do you want to stop and do some shopping?”
“Not right now. I already know your parents are waiting for us. But maybe this weekend we can walk around the Mall of America.”
“That sounds like a fun diversion.”
As we enter the baggage claim area, I see Richard before he sees me. “Richard,” I announce and give him a warm hug.
“Bella, this is Richard, our family driver.”
Bella’s eyes widen for half a second, but she recovers quickly. “So nice to meet you.” I haven’t quite explained my family to Bella. I didn’t want to scare her off. Richard takes our luggage, and we follow him outside to his waiting car. As we drive across town, I point out several things that are special to those of us who are from here.
“Down that street is the Mary Tyler Moore statue that is from the show where she hails a cab. And this park has a magnificent waterfall that’s all natural. I’m hoping we can stop by this weekend. Here is the U. I went to undergrad here. There are fun tunnels that connect all the buildings, so we can hang out there and get lost.”
I love that she nods and is excited to sightsee. A small part of me loves this town. It’s a great place to raise a family, but I can’t stand the winters. It’s just too cold for me. We really aren’t here for very long, but if it goes well, we’ll come back.
I see that Richard is taking the long route. “Not in a hurry to get to the house, Richard?”
“No, sir. I just thought the scenic drive would make a better impression on Miss Bella.”
“You’re very sweet, Richard. Thank you,” Bella says.
Pulling past the gates and into the driveway, I see the house. It never changes. It stands quite stately. It is bigger than it looks from the outside—and it looks big from the outside. The walls are uneven rough rocks, the roof arched bricks.
Hazel, our housekeeper, opens the door to greet us. I lean in for a warm hug. “Hazel, it’s great to see you.”
“I’m so grateful you’re here. We miss you so much. It’s just not the same in the house without you,” she says with great affection in her voice.
“Hazel, this is my girlfriend Bella.” Turning to Bella, I say, “Bella, this is Hazel. She virtually raised us.” She blushes, and I put my arms around her. “I missed you too.”
I hear my mother walking down the hall. “Yes, Hazel raised you, but you act like I had nothing to do with your childhood.”
“Hello, Mother. You look beautiful as always.”
She smiles brightly. She’s wearing a navy St. John Knits skirt and blazer with a low Ferragamo heel. It’s her typical uniform. She holds both my arms and comes in for an air kiss by each cheek. There’s very little warmth in her touch.
“Welcome home, sweetheart.” She pulls back and looks at Bella with her eyebrows raised.
“Mother, I’d like you to meet Bella.” Again turning to Bella, I say, “Bella, this is my mother.” Bella starts to walk in to hug her, and my mother sticks her hand out to shake her hand. I look at Bella and just shrug and shake my head, embarrassed for my mother.
I can hear voices in the back of the house, and my father comes forward. “Father,” I acknowledge.
“It’s good to see you, Christopher. I’m glad you finally made it home. Who do we have to thank for that?”
“Father, I’d like you to meet Miss Isabella Vargas, but you can call her Bella.”
He extends his hand. “Nice to meet you, Isabella.”
I shake my head. My parents don’t realize what pompous jerks they come across as all the time.
My father motions for us to follow him. Two steps lead down to the sunken living room decked out in plush, vibrant furnishings in golds and browns and pale blues. Brick columns separate the cozy living space from the dining room, and beyond is a modern kitchen with granite counters.
I spot my brother sitting with his feet up on the coffee table. My mother throws him a warning glare, but he doesn’t move his feet until Hazel walks into the room. Then I see my sister and her long-term boyfriend. I’m convinced they are only together to please both sets of parents and that Alex is actually gay and my sister is his beard.
My brother stands. “Hello. I’m Stephen, but you can call me Stevie. Everyone else does.”
“Your father and I call you Stephen,” my mother says with in an exasperated tone.
He leans in and whispers, “Stevie.”
“This beautiful woman is my sister, Margaret, and her boyfriend, Alexander.”
“Nice to meet you,” Bella says.
“Please call us Maggie and Alex,” my sister says as she comes in for a warm hug.
My patience for my parents is quickly waning. I need a drink, and it’s like Hazel can read my mind. “Master Christopher, may I get you a predinner drink? Maybe a beer?”
I turn to Bella and say, “What would you like for a predinner drink? Trust me, you’ll want one. I was thinking scotch. What do you think?”
“A white wine is fine.”
My mother smiles because that is all she ever drinks.
Hazel quickly returns with our drinks, and we all sit around the living room. My father drones on about the business and then stops when it occurs to him he doesn’t want to let out any corporate secrets to an interloper. “Miss Isabella, what is it that keeps you busy?”
“I’m a doctoral candidate at the University of California in Berkeley.”
“And what is your area of study?”
She smiles. “I’m studying for biochemistry.”
My father gets a puzzled look on his face. “What do you expect to do with that?”
“Pharmaceutical research. I’m working on a new drug for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. My father has Parkinson’s, and while I most likely won’t come up with a drug for him, maybe I can prolong the life of someone else’s father.”
My father turns to me and says, “Good to see you found a smart woman. Maybe she can get you to use your medical degree or move home and take over the family business or maybe both.”
“Father, don’t start with me. I told you that I wasn’t moving home. I was only bringing Bella home so you could meet her.”
“We just want you here and close to the family,” my mother says. “It is important for you to take over the company.”
I see the confused look on Bella’s face. “What’s the family business?”
Maggie was taking a sip of her drink and almost spits it across the table at Bella’s question. Stevie turns to Bella and says, “My brother hasn’t shared with you our family business?”
Before I can answer, Bella says, “No. Are you undertakers?”
Maggie laughs. “I really like this girl.”
My mother speaks up and proudly says, “No, we are in the retail business. We own three department stores.”
“Department stores?” Isabella is confused, and then her eyes pop. She’s put some of it together.
“Yes, my paternal great-grandfather started Reinhardt Dry Goods. My maternal great-grandfather started Hudson’s. They arranged the marriage of my parents, which made Reinhardt Hudson’s.”
Her lips become a tight line. I know I should have told her before we came, but I couldn’t figure out how.
“My grandfather disliked Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, so much he decided to start his own five and dime store."
Isabella looks shocked.
“But there’s still one more. My grandfather had a long-term mistress, and he named a midlevel department store after their love child, calling it Murphy’s,” Maggie shares salaciously.
My mother interjects, “That is not true. He started Murphy’s for his long-time secretary as a sort of a pension for her and
her son. Unfortunately, her son died in the Vietnam War, so it is all run by my husband. We have three department stores for all economic classes.”
I’m embarrassed by how specific my mother is being. She turns to Bella and says, “Well, apparently my son did not want to tell you that he is independently wealthy.”
“I’m not independently wealthy, Mother. I inherited a bunch of money that sits in a trust fund that I don’t touch. I insist on earning my own way,” I explain.
“I hope you told her you are expected to come back and take over the business,” my father says.
“What’s wrong with Stevie or Maggie taking over the family business?” I demand.
My father turns to me and says, “Because it is designed to be run by the firstborn son.”
“You loved being a patent attorney until Grandfather died and left you the business. I saw what it did to you, and I’m not interested in taking over the business. I’d like to make my own way in life. I’m not interested in my trust fund. My expectation is that it’ll be something that I can pass to my children one day, as it was passed to me, and that for generations from now no one will ever touch it. It’s only emergency money.”
“You have such lofty ideas. California is really wearing off on you,” my mother says with bitterness.
“Like the liberalism in Minnesota? Mother, give me a break.”
Hazel rings a bell and announces dinner is served. When I sit in my place, Hazel puts her hand on my shoulder, and with Bella beside me, I calm down.
My father talks about the business during dinner. It’s boring, but Bella is polite and asks the occasional question. Alex just sits there. It’s like he isn’t even in the room.
I don’t care who runs the business quite frankly. I know that I own shares of the stock store, but I couldn’t care less.
Watching paint dry would have been more entertaining than dinner. When we finally break for the night, I lead Bella upstairs. I show her my childhood bedroom. It’s been redecorated since I moved out at fifteen.
The wide French doors open to a patio and dark view, and to my right I watch as Bella pushes another door open. Flipping on the light, she said, “This is the bathroom? This is bigger than my entire apartment at home. We can even take a bath together in here.”
My mother enters the room. “Bella, your room is down the hall.”
“Oh, that works.” She walks over to her bag and picks it up.
“Mother, Bella is going to stay with me here, or we’ll go stay at Kenwood Manner.”
“Christopher, it’s your mother’s house, and we’re guests. I will stay wherever she asks,” Bella says firmly.
My mother turns to lead her to her room, and Bella gives me the evil eye. When my mother returns, she says, “I like her, but I need to you to at least pretend you’re moving back here to take over the business. Your father’s health is very precarious right now, and he doesn’t need the stress of your plans to not take over the business.”
“I don’t know why that’s a surprise to him. He’s known since I was fifteen that I have no desire to touch the business.”
“That’s a lot of water under the bridge.” She’s been in the middle of this fight for almost fifteen years, and I know it exhausts her. “Good night, Christopher.”
“Good night, Mother.”
She shuts the door behind her, and I give it a few seconds before I go in search of my girlfriend. “Hey,” I say as I knock on her door. She’s dressed in cotton plaid sleep pants and one of my Carolina T-shirts.
“We probably have a few things to discuss,” she puts her e-reader down in her lap and looks at me critically.
“I know. I just didn’t know how to approach it. Usually people ask if I have anything to do with the department store, and that is how I approach it.”
“Fair enough. It’s a difficult topic. Not always easy to say, ‘I’m a billionaire heir to the Reinhardt retail fortune.’”
“You’re funny.” I tickle her lightly, and she squirms away. “You had a great relationship with your dad. I didn’t. I moved out of here and in with Hazel and Richard when I was fifteen and applied for formal emancipation. They took care of me. I went to the U because there is an endowment there, and I went to medical school on loans until I was old enough to control my trust, and then I got out of debt. That’s the only time I’ve touched that money. I also have no plans to do anything more than give it to our children one day. I was serious with my mother. That money is for emergencies.”
“I’m good with that, but I think your family needs you, and you need to figure out how to be here for them.”
“I’ll make my father feel like I’ll take over the business. Stevie, Maggie, and I all agree that once my dad steps down from Reinhardt Hudson, we will hire someone who better understands the business and can take us into the digital world.”
“Good. Give me a big kiss, and then I will meet you in the morning.”
I kiss her and our tongues do a delicate tango, making me moan. “Please let me stay with you tonight and do all sorts of naughty things to you.” My hand moves under her T-shirt, and I massage her breasts.
She nips at my bottom lip. “I’m a guest in this house, and your mother was very clear we had our own rooms.”
I leave, and I’m sure I’ll have blue balls for the rest of the night.
I wake before Bella does. She deserves the sleep, so I let her be. I walk downstairs and find the family has been up for a while because they are more accustomed to the time difference. I see my brother sitting at the kitchen table. “Hey, what brings you home?”
“You. I’m just here to watch more family drama. This is more entertaining than anything I could watch on television.”
“Aren’t you funny. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine,” I assure him.
“Did Mother tell you about Father?”
“Yes, she told me that Father is dying, but hasn’t he been dying for years?”
“I think this is different. I think the cancer has spread, and he’s refusing treatment this time,” Stevie says quietly and with some concern.
The news is a mixed bag for me. Part of me is indifferent. He stopped being a caring father once he took over the business, and the other is scared for my mother and our family.
“I can’t do this, Stevie. You need to understand. I don’t like this business. But honestly, if you wanted to take it over, I’m really okay with that. You can even have all my shares. I—”
“Good grief, retail is awful. I don’t want the business, and I’m positive Maggie doesn’t either. When you suggested hiring a CEO from outside the company, and we would just advise, I think she celebrated, but this has been hard. It’s not been going well because of Father’s health, and he’s carrying a lot of stress over the business struggling as our competitors continue to close stores and go out of business.”
“None of us have a passion for the business, and all we’d manage to do is drive it into the ground. We’ll work it all out. But this weekend isn’t about that. I want Bella to meet everyone, and I’m getting Grandmother’s ring and proposing.”
He pats me on the shoulder. “She’s smart, beautiful, and she held her own with Mom. She’s perfect for you. Congratulations.”
We spend the afternoon exploring the Twin Cities, and I take her by where I went to school and my favorite restaurants. Our waitress in is a short black skirt and a tight black shirt that hugs every curve and shows a lot of cleavage. “I can see why you really like this restaurant. The girls here don’t leave a whole lot to the imagination,” Bella quips.
“The food’s outstanding,” I assure her.
“Everyone here is blonde. Is there such a thing as a brunette in this town?”
I look around and laugh. “We are all descended from our Nordic ancestors. Our winters scare dark-haired people away, so we all tend to have blond hair.”
“And beautiful blue eyes,” she adds with a salacious smile.
“True, we have to
import brunettes.”
“Are you planning on importing me?”
I look at her thoughtfully. “I don’t think so. I really don’t feel like this is my home anymore.”
“Do you know where you want to go?”
“I want to be with you and for you to find a cure for Parkinson’s with Everest Therapeutics.”
“Despite what you think about your family, this has been a good trip, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely. I can’t say that I’m in a hurry to come back during the winter. I don’t miss the cold here. But we still have to go shopping at MOA.”
“MOA?”
“Mall of America. We’ll head out after lunch and go before we fly home. I hope you’re not too disappointed.”
We head to a park and walk down the path holding hands. People stop and stare at her. Bella is beautiful. I can’t help but feel eight feet tall knowing that this woman holding my hand loves me. We stop by the waterfall. “This is not a man-made waterfall—it’s very natural.”
“It’s beautiful,” she says.
“Thank you for coming this weekend. I just want you to know that you mean the world to me. I didn’t know what love was until you came into my life. I thought it was something you read about in a book. Something intangible. I certainly never learned it from my parents. But you changed all that. You changed everything with your mesmerizing smile and your sweet, unfailing compassion. You taught me how to love, and you saved me. You saved me from something I never wanted to be. Every single day you make me want to be better than I am. I’m nothing without you, Isabella.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “Marry me. Please?”
I take out my grandmother’s single carat, center-stone diamond ring surrounded by pavé diamonds.
She kisses me. “I’d love to marry you, Christopher Erikson Reinhardt.”
Chapter twenty-six
Isabella
“Are you serious? His family wants him to move home and take over the family business?” Ellie asks.
Longing (Billionaire Venture Capitalist #7): A Billionaire Romance Page 18
