The Secrets Between Us (Billionaire CEO Romance)

by Katie Mettner

  “If that’s true, why did you agree to design the building?” she asked quietly.

  I knelt and picked up a handful of snow. It was cold on my knee and my hands, but it grounded me, which was something I needed if I had to talk about my father. “Dad. I kept working on it for him. He always had unwavering faith in me and I didn’t want to let him down on the one project he thought was going to take this company into the twenty-first century.”

  She sat. I heard the puff of air coming from her lips when her butt hit the chair. “Hayes, this company is more successful than any other architecture firm in the country. This firm is old money. It doesn’t need the Mr. Lancaster’s of the world. It doesn’t make sense to me that your dad thought it did.”

  I bit my lip and squinted through the snow at Mercy’s cabin. Not even her bedroom light burned now. The entire cabin was dark as night. Suddenly, I was too tired to explain any of this to her. “Ange, would you just trust me on this, please?” I asked. “I’m not upset. Sitting here in the snow, I’m actually relieved.”

  “You’re sitting in the snow?” Laughter filled her voice now that she’d broken the bad news. “That must be a sight to see. Hey, did you say you aren’t coming back until the twenty-sixth? I thought you were leaving for home tomorrow.”

  I stood and tossed the snowball toward the lake. I watched it arc toward my target, a tree at the bottom, and knew I was taking for granted something Mercy couldn’t even do. She couldn’t hold her phone in one hand and throw a snowball with the other. Hell, she couldn’t even make a snowball. Yet, somehow, she lived out here alone, and never needed or asked for help. She had more strength in her one hand than I had in my entire one-hundred and eighty-pound frame.

  “Hayes? Did I lose you out there in no man’s land?”

  “I’m here,” I answered. “I decided to stay since I wasn’t finished with the design yet.”

  She snickered and snorted as if she was choking on her tongue. “It’s hard to finish a design when you’re not even at your computer. Don’t tell me you were either or you’d have seen my emails. We aren’t even going to mention the number of calls and texts you missed from me today.”

  “I was in the woods and there was no coverage. I apologize, okay. It was a last-minute thing.”

  “Fine, but now that the contract is gone you can come home. We need to sort this mess out.”

  I inhaled deeply again and shook my head. “No, you know what, Ange, I don’t think I will. You know what else? I want you to shut down the business as of now. We don’t open again until the day after Christmas. When I get off the phone, I’m sending you a plane ticket to Minneapolis. Go see your family.”

  “Hayes? What’s wrong with you? We didn’t even shut down the business for your dad’s funeral.”

  “No, dad never shut down the business for anything. Dad’s not here though, is he? It’s my business now and I’m tired of being the asshole who makes his employees work on holidays. There’s no reason for it. Send everyone but security home, leave a message on the machine saying we’ll be open again on the twenty-sixth, and find some joy in the season, Ange. No one is putting up high-rises on Christmas Day. They’re all home spending the day with their families.”

  “Really?” she asked, her voice hopeful.

  “So says I.”

  “Hayes, your dad—”

  “Is gone, Ange,” I said softly. “He’s never coming back. I’m not my dad and I can see there are things that need to change at Rutherford Designs. I’m the only Hayes Rutherford left, and it’s time I make it my own, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, I guess it is,” she agreed. “Promise me you’ll be back on the twenty-sixth?”

  “Cross my heart,” I promised, smiling for the first time in the last half hour. “Promise me you’ll go have some fun in the city with your family and stop worrying about the business?”

  “Cross my heart,” she whispered. “I love you, Hayes.”

  “Love you too, Ange. Now go home and pack, I’ll get you on the first flight out in the morning. Check your inbox.”

  She laughed and the sound was something I hadn’t heard in over a year. It was the first time I got to experience someone’s reaction to me being who I wanted to be. It was so much more rewarding than being who I was told to be. “I’d say check yours too, but now there’s no reason. Merry Christmas, boss.”

  “Merry Christmas to the real boss, because we both know that’s you.”

  “So says I,” she agreed and the phone clicked in my ear.

  I took a moment to do as I promised and sent plane tickets to her inbox, then I jogged back to the cabin, grabbed my car keys, and left the camp in the dark of night.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  MERCY

  My eyes were gritty and sore from crying, and one look in the mirror told me my cheeks were splotchy and red. I was a sad, pathetic, heartbroken disaster this morning. At two a.m. I’d fallen asleep on the bed with the Christmas tree lights and fire still burning, and woke up to a cold bedroom and still empty cabin. He was gone. I knew he was gone because I went out to check the camp and his car was missing from the parking area. As much as it hurt, it was probably just as well. He didn’t have a place here in Cashmere Camp and I didn’t have a place in the city with him. We were the proverbial ships passing in the night. Now that the sun was up and the sky had cleared, I could see that. I would shower, put on some old clothes and go clean Mr. Boling’s cabin. I’d save cabin four for another day. A day when it didn’t hurt like a dagger through my heart to know he left without saying goodbye.

  “You did tell him to get out,” I said aloud in the shower while I scrubbed my hair. “Like you literally yelled at him to get out. You’re a dumbass,” I moaned, sticking my head back under the water to rinse out the soap. Once I was done, I climbed out, the room toasty from the space heater I’d plugged in before my shower. Later on, once my work for the day was done, I’d fire up the hot tub and have some me time. It wouldn’t be as nice as it would have been if Hayes had stayed, but I couldn’t blame him for wanting to be with his family on Christmas. They probably needed him this year.

  I figured something out about Hayes almost immediately. He pretended to be one person, but underneath all the fancy suits and expensive cars, he was someone else entirely. He kept a lid on his true self in order to be the guy everyone either wanted him to be, or expected him to be. I suppose that was probably his dad’s doing. When he spent time with me, I got to see the Hayes Rutherford who didn’t wear Armani suits. I got to see the guy who cut down a Christmas tree for a one-handed woman, a guy who could throw caution to the wind and run on the lake with a big lumbering dog, and a guy who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and skin some rabbits in order to enjoy a great meal. He was, and now always would be, a bit of a mystery to me. I could tell he wanted to be the guy he was when he was here, but there was something about his life back home that didn’t allow him to be. It was sad more than anything. I liked the guy who was in my cabin last night with me. I didn’t like the guy who showed up at my store a few days ago wound tighter than a drum. He was obviously struggling with something that tortured his soul. Even now, all I wanted for him was to find some peace and maybe a little bit of enjoyment in the life he’d built for himself.

  I dried my hair, knowing the dangers of walking around with a wet head in this country, and opened the bathroom door, my towel wrapped around me. I stopped three steps out the door and sniffed. What was on fire? I took two steps toward the living room and paused. Wait, if something was on fire, it must be a pig, because that smelled like bacon.

  A head peeked around the door and I screamed, jumping backward. “Are you fucking kidding me, Hayes!” I yelled, my hand going up in the air. “You’re supposed to be gone!”

  His eyebrows went up and his blue eyes turned to ice before my own. “But I’m not, and Merry Christmas to me,” he said, his eyes flicking to my now naked frame, again. I bent down to grab the towel and before I could say
anything, he did. “Blergly squergly, right?” he asked, his eyes dancing.

  I fixed the towel and sighed. “What are you doing here, Hayes? You should have stayed gone.”

  He pointed a pair of greasy tongs at me. “I’m cooking you breakfast. You should get dressed and come eat, or on the other hand, don’t get dressed. I’m cool with eating in the nude. I could join you if that would make you more comfortable,” he suggested, waiting with raised brows for me to answer.

  I spun around and stomped to my room, slammed the door, and dug out clothes from the dresser. Lots and lots of clothes. Eating in the nude, good Lord. What is he even doing here? I asked myself as I pulled my bra and panties on. I tried to ignore the fact that I had grabbed the only matching set I had. I rolled my eyes and threw the underwear back in the drawer, grabbed a different pair, and tugged them and then my leggings on. Once I had my biggest sweatshirt on, I stopped by the mirror to check out the presentation. It was about as unsexy as I could make it. That guy out there was sex on a stick and I wasn’t going to fall for his tricks. “Not today, Satan,” I whispered to the mirror. “Not today.”

  I whipped the door open and he was leaning against the wall, my old flower petal apron on over his plaid shirt, and a pair of flannel lined jeans hugging his strong thighs. I hated how he actually looked good in the damn apron, too.

  “Hungry?” he asked, his eyes sharp in the midmorning sun as they roved over me. This outfit was supposed to be a turn-off, but it didn’t seem to be working.

  Starving, I thought, but stopped myself in the nick of time. “Why are you here, Hayes?” I asked, the exasperation clear in my voice. “And how did you get bacon? I haven’t had bacon here for months.”

  He slung his arm around me and herded me toward the kitchen. “It’s ten a.m. and I don’t know about you, but I’m famished. I drove into Grand Forks and went shopping, which is how I have bacon,” he explained, sitting me on a stool at the island and sliding a plate in front of me. “Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Grand Forks was only a little over an hour from here. They have so many stores you just wouldn’t believe it. They even sell meat. You don’t have to go out in the woods and shoot it.”

  The scents wafting toward my nose made my stomach growl loudly. The eggs and bacon were placed neatly on the plate next to a gigantic muffin and bowl of fruit. He poured me a mug of coffee the size of my head, and added cream, before setting it by my plate. He stood across the island from me, since I only had one stool, and started shoveling in scrambled eggs.

  I picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite, the salty crunch like heaven to my taste buds. I finished the entire piece before I opened my eyes again and noticed he’d replaced that piece with another one already.

  “Okay, so I lied about having to hunt for my own meat,” I said, washing down the bacon with my coffee. “So sue me.”

  “Why?” he asked, taking a bite of the muffin. Mine was soft, sweet, and as fresh as you could get a muffin. He had to have bought them on his way out of Grand Forks.

  I shrugged and didn’t make eye contact. “I didn’t lie about the not going into town part. Sure, it’s not so far away that I couldn’t go, but I like being self-sufficient and living off the land.”

  He leaned on the counter with both hands, staring me down. “That’s all you would have had to say. I don’t care if you eat cow, pork, chicken, deer, rabbit, or none of the above. Just as long as you’re doing it because you like doing it. That said, I suspect that’s not the case. I suspect you stay away from society as a self-imposed punishment.”

  I dropped the bacon back to my plate. “Either it’s too early or I’m still asleep. That made no sense to me.” I grabbed my fork and took a bite of the cheesy eggs, then jammed in some muffin for good measure so he didn’t expect me to speak anytime soon. He stood there, unflustered and smiling, as if he knew exactly how flustered he made me. It wasn’t the bacon, eggs, other people, or even my past that was flustering me. It was him, and he was enjoying my uncomfortableness way too much.

  Beast came waltzing into the kitchen at that moment and budged my leg. “Hey, Beast.” I ruffled his ears tenderly. “Why do you let riff-raff come in the house all the time? I thought I told you to keep the pests outside,” I scolded, giving him a piece of bacon to chomp on.

  He didn’t seem sorry when he swallowed it and begged for more. “Traitor.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

  Hayes snorted and took a plate from the cupboard. He loaded some bacon and eggs on it and knelt to the floor. “Here you go, Beast, just like I promised. You didn’t rat me out. Much appreciated, my dude.” He patted the dog’s head, but Beast was already busy inhaling the plate of eggs.

  “You bought off my dog.” I shook my head. “That’s low.”

  “In my defense, he was a pretty big pushover.”

  I sighed and my shoulders slumped. “It’s true. He’s all pup yet. He’d do just about anything for a plate of hot eggs or a bone from the butcher.”

  “Which he also got,” he agreed, laughing at my reaction. “I wasn’t taking any chances.”

  I finished my muffin and sipped my coffee, the food stoking the fire inside me enough to bring me back to life after the fitful night of sleep. “Thanks for breakfast,” I whispered. “I appreciate it, even if it seems like I don’t. I didn’t sleep well. I saw your car gone, and—”

  “And you thought I took off without saying goodbye.”

  I shrugged and set my cup down. “I can’t say I’d blame you.”

  “It wasn’t you,” he promised, the laugh lines at the edges of his eyes crinkling in the cutest way when he smiled. “I planned to come back in and talk to you, but Ange called and gave me some news about the business. Suddenly, I had some things to think about.”

  “Who’s Ange? I thought you didn’t have a girlfriend.”

  He held up his hand instantly to calm me. “I don’t. She’s an ex-girlfriend, actually.” He laughed at my expression, which was probably angry with a side of pissed off. “Relax, we went on about four dates. She’s my assistant. Mind you, she’s actually the boss, but she lets me pretend I am.”

  “What did Ange, the assistant who’s actually the boss, want?”

  “To chew my ass out for being off the grid and not answering my phone or emails. Apparently, as the head of the company, I’m not allowed to do that.”

  “Even I know the head of the company isn’t allowed to do that.” I didn’t say more, but it was enough for him to read between the lines. I knew exactly who he was and how many times he’d lied to me.

  He spun on his heel and put our plates in the sink before he grabbed my hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”

  I pulled back and waited for him to stop his forward motion. “What if I don’t want to go for a walk?” I asked. “Maybe I have things to do.”

  “With no one in the camp?”

  “I have a cabin to clean and snow to plow, for your information.”

  “I’ll help.” He dragged me to the front of the store and took my coat down off the tree by the register. He helped me on with mine and then slung his around his shoulders and waited for me by the door. “If we work together, we’ll get it done in half the time. Then we can take a walk.”

  “What is it with you and taking a walk?” I asked curiously.

  He shrugged, suddenly unsure of himself. “I guess I’ve gotten used to the fresh air on the lake the last few days. Beast expects me to take him out on the lake for a run now.”

  “Really? Beast expects it.”

  “Yep.” He held the door open and ushered me out into the cold. It was brisk, but not anything I wasn’t used to. In fact, it might be warmer than it had been in a couple of weeks. “Want me to plow while you clean?” He took in the look on my face and grimaced. “That wasn’t a sexist suggestion. I just figured I wouldn’t know how you clean the cabins, but I can handle plowing snow.”

  I giggle snorted and white smoke flew from my mouth and nose. “Sure, because you’ve
plowed so much snow in your life.”

  “Maybe I have,” he teased, tickling my side as we walked through the soft snow. “My parents made us do chores, you know. We didn’t have servants running the house.”

  I paused at the end of the cabin and looked up and down the camp. “You know what, no one is coming in or out of this place for a while, other than you, anyway. I could throw caution to the wind.”

  He nodded, his brow up. “You could. It would be acceptable, being that it’s a holiday and all.”

  “But then it would be hanging over my head the whole time.”

  “Okay, how about we compromise?”

  “Compromise?” I ran to catch up with him by cabin five.

  “That’s this thing where we meet in the middle on something,” he explained, motioning his hands around in the air.

  I punched him in the shoulder, shaking my head as he grabbed his arm. “I know what compromise means!”

  “Excellent. I didn’t want to have to mansplain it.” He winked and my entire body quivered. I was no longer cold, either. Suddenly, I was Hawaii beach on the Fourth of July hot.

  “I think you just did.” I laughed and keyed us into the cabin. When I closed the door against the cold air and glanced around, a smile filled my face. As usual, Mr. Boling had left the place nearly spotless.

  “My compromise was that we’d clean the cabin together and we’d get it done that much faster. Looking around, I’m not sure we need to. It’s like no one was even here.” He walked toward the kitchen where the clean dishes were in the drainer and the fridge was empty.

  “Mr. Boling is here so much I don’t even charge him anymore,” I explained. “He always takes care of keeping up the cabin and all I have to do is wash the towels and sheets when he checks out.”