Hannah paused a moment. “Not Nathan.”
“Uh-huh.”
“No!”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At the deli. I was eating my lunch when I heard his voice. At the counter. And then…” She remembered the shock of meeting those amazing gray eyes. No. She couldn’t think of him like that. As attracted to him as she’d always been, she would never forget that he’d taken her sister away from her.
“And then what? Don’t leave me hanging.”
Picturing Hannah with her phone pressed to her ear, her long blonde hair falling forward as she concentrated on the call, Chloe smiled despite herself. Until she remembered how shaken she’d been. Her smile vanished. “And then he saw me.”
“No! What did you do?”
“Like a chicken, I bolted.”
A bus pulled up to the bus stop where Chloe sat, its door hissing open. She looked at the bus driver and shook her head. The man frowned, then he closed the door and pulled away.
“Can’t exactly blame you,” Hannah said, “but really, you’ve got to face him sooner or later.”
Tell me something I don’t know. “Yeah.”
“So? What are you going to do now?”
Chloe hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Go back to work, for starters.” She stood as she spoke and began walking the rest of the way to the office.
“You should think about what you’re going to say if you see him again.”
That was good advice. “What would you say?”
Hannah laughed. “You mean if I were you?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm. I guess I’d say, ‘Nathan, even though you’re super-hot and I’m glad you’re alive, I kind of hate you now.’ How’s that?”
“Pretty good, actually.”
“That’s because I know you well, darlin’. Now, get back to work and stop thinking about Nathan Hewitt.”
Easier said than done. “I’ll try.” She paused a beat. “Why were you calling anyway?”
“To see if you wanted to have lunch with me tomorrow.”
“I’d love to.” As a bonus, if she ran in to Nathan Hewitt again, she’d have reinforcements. Although the odds of that happening seemed pretty slim. Not sure if she was happy or relieved to realize that, she focused on not tripping over a crack in the sidewalk.
She and Hannah discussed where they would meet and at what time, then they disconnected. Chloe dropped her phone in her purse, and when she reached the office, she walked inside.
Two hours later the phone on her desk rang. Finally recovered after her near-miss with Nathan, she picked up the handset. “Hello?”
“Chloe?”
She froze. It was him. It was Nathan. Her mouth went dry and her mind raced.
What should I do? What should I do?
She could hang up on him, but what would that accomplish? He would just call back. Then she remembered her conversation with Hannah. Of course she would never tell Nathan that she thought he was hot, but she could tell him that she wanted nothing to do with him.
“Chloe?” he asked again.
With a purpose in mind, she straightened. “Yes, this is Chloe.”
A ragged sigh came across the line like this was hard for him, but Chloe shoved down any empathy she may have felt. She couldn’t afford to feel sorry for him. Not after what he’d done.
“This is Nathan Hewitt.”
“What do you want?” Her tone was harsher than she’d meant it to be.
“I, uh, I wanted to reach out. To talk to you.”
Clenching her teeth, Chloe glanced around to see who might overhear her conversation, but no one was close. Still, she lowered her voice. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
He was silent and she pictured the hurt in his eyes. Pinched with guilt, she trailed her gaze to the picture on her desk. The one of her and Lisa. Immediate pain and grief struck her, washing away any remorse she felt at her words.
“I understand,” he finally said. “I won’t bother you again.”
He was going to hang up. Maybe she wanted to talk to him after all. At least for a minute. “Wait.”
Crushed that Chloe wanted nothing to do with him, Nathan had been about to hang up. Maybe there was hope after all.
He leaned forward in his desk chair, the view of downtown Los Angeles visible in the floor to ceiling windows of his top floor office at Hewitt Consolidated. “Yes?”
“I…”
He wanted to make this easy for her, so when the one word trailed off, he said, “Will you meet me for drinks?”
She was silent and he pictured her face, her eyebrows drawn together in indecision, her blue eyes contemplative. It was easy to picture her because she looked so much like Lisa, and he hadn’t been able to get Lisa’s face out of his head since the yacht had gone down in the middle of the ocean.
“When?”
He wanted—no, needed—to do this right away. It was eating away at him, this need to express his regrets to Chloe, the woman who had once been his best friend.
“Would tonight work?”
She was quiet again, and he was on edge as he waited for her reply.
Finally, she said, “Yes. Tonight will work.”
Holding back the relief-filled exhale that wanted to burst forth, Nathan smiled. “Okay.” He suggested the place and time, and after she agreed, they disconnected.
Leaning his head back against his desk chair, he stared at the ceiling and tried to come up with a way to make things right.
Chapter Four
Chloe had never been so keyed up in her life. After carefully choosing the outfit she would wear for her meeting with Nathan—form-fitting jeans and a silky red blouse paired with heeled black boots—she called Hannah, who she’d called earlier to recount her conversation with Nathan.
“I’m so nervous for this meeting,” Chloe said. “I’m not sure I can go through with it but I need to go through with it.” She took a deep breath. “Talk me down, Hannah.”
“Okay. First off, you have to meet him. If you don’t you’ll totally regret it.”
Softly exhaling, Chloe nodded. “You’re right.”
“Of course I am.”
Chloe chuckled. “Go on, oh wise one.”
Hannah laughed. “Second, despite everything, Nathan is your friend. Or at least he used to be. You should be celebrating that he’s alive.”
That hit Chloe hard. Not only because her sister was not alive, but because Hannah was right. Totally and completely. “Yes. That is true. Thank you.”
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes.” And she was. And now she was ready to face Nathan. At least she hoped she was. She and Hannah ended their call, and Chloe’s mind went back to the day she’d met Nathan.
It had been at a summer company party for Hewitt Consolidated employees and their families. At the time Chloe’s mother had worked for HC, so Chloe and Lisa had gone to the party. It had been held at an amusement park that HC had rented out for the day—just for the employees and their families. Chloe and Lisa, young teenagers at the time, had been having a blast when Nathan had literally bumped into Chloe. She’d been carrying a large cup of root beer and when Nathan ran into her, it spilled all down the front of her t-shirt.
Despite the fact that he was the cutest boy she’d ever seen, she was extremely annoyed with him. She had no idea he was the son of her mother’s employer. Holding her hands out to the side as she looked at her soda-soaked shirt, she said, “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?”
“I’m so sorry,” he said as a look of mortification swept over his adorable face.
“Then do something about it,” Lisa chimed in.
Nathan looked at them with wide eyes. “Okay.” But he seemed at a loss as to what to do.
With a smirk, Lisa looked at the nearby shops and said, “Buy her a new t-shirt.”
Nodding briskly, Nathan said. “Okay.” He took a step toward the closest shop, then turne
d and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Chloe shook her head at Lisa. “That was mean. Now you’re making him spend all of his money on a dumb t-shirt.”
Lisa laughed. “It’s the least he can do.” She pointed at the front of Chloe’s shirt. “You don’t want to wear that the rest of the day, do you?”
“No.”
A short time later Nathan was back, a large bag in his hands. He held it out to Chloe. “I didn’t know which one to get, so I bought one of each.”
Flabbergasted, Chloe felt her mouth fall open. “One of each?”
Nathan nodded like it wasn’t a big deal.
“Can I have one?” Lisa asked.
Nathan smiled at her. “Sure.”
Chloe and Lisa went into a nearby bathroom and changed and when they came back out, Nathan was waiting.
Still astonished that he’d spent so much money on the t-shirts, she handed him the bag. “You can return the ones we didn’t use.”
He didn’t seem at all concerned, but he took the bag.
“Are you here with your family?” Chloe asked, then she felt like an idiot. Of course he was there with his family. Unless he was an employee of HC. She held back a snort of laughter.
He got a funny look on his face, but he nodded. “Yeah.”
They chatted for a while, and then Chloe and Lisa invited him to hang out with them. He agreed, and after taking the unneeded t-shirts back to the shop, the three of them spent the day together. Eventually Nathan confessed that his last name was Hewitt and that his dad owned Hewitt Consolidated, but by then the three of them had become fast friends and his identity didn’t seem important.
After that day, the three of them hung out all the time.
Now, thinking back to those simpler times, Chloe felt a tsunami of emotions swirling within her. On the one hand, it seemed as if Nathan had always been in her life, but on the other, if they’d never met, her sister would still be alive.
Torn like never before, Chloe looked at herself in the mirror one last time before walking out to her car.
Nathan checked his watch for what felt like the hundredth time before looking toward the door of the restaurant. Chloe had always been prompt and it was twenty minutes past their agreed upon time. Had she changed her mind?
Sitting at a high table in the bar area, he faced the door. Moments later she walked in. At first she didn’t see him so he took the opportunity to look at her. The room was lit well enough for him to clearly see how stunningly beautiful she was—tall and slender, long brown hair, bow-shaped lips, and those blue, blue eyes. He couldn’t see her eyes from where he sat, but he knew them well.
Then those eyes landed on him. He stood.
As Chloe walked toward Nathan, she couldn’t help but notice how handsome he looked in his slacks and button-up shirt—dark gray with the top button undone. The beard on his jaw was perfectly trimmed and the healthy glow on his skin captured her attention. He looked good. Better than she remembered.
Seeing him face to face like this, with his attention focused totally on her, made Chloe feel a bit out of sorts. Ever since she’d met him she’d been attracted to him, had crushed on him more than a little, had always wanted him to notice her as more than a friend. But it had never happened. And then he’d vanished.
But now he was back. She remembered what Hannah had said. About celebrating the fact that he was alive.
“Hello,” he said, his voice the low, sexy timbre she knew so well.
Gathering herself, she smiled, but when he stepped toward her like he was going to give her a hug—something he’d done routinely in the past—she stepped to the side and slid into the tall chair beside the table. As good as he looked, her feelings for him were too complicated for her to let him touch her in any way. “How are you?” she asked as a way to deflect attention from her rejection.
He sat across from her, unruffled, calm and cool. “I’m good.” He smiled. “You look lovely, Chloe.”
“Thank you.” Now would be the time to tell him that she was glad to see him and how thankful she was that he’d survived the tragic yachting accident, but when she pictured Lisa sinking into the cold waters of the Pacific, her fingers desperately outstretched and her eyes frantic with terror as sea water filled her lungs, the words stuck in her throat.
They ordered their drinks, which gave Chloe a chance to regroup. Once the server left, Chloe lifted her eyes to Nathan. “Are you working at HC?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “Have to put that college education to good use.”
The waitress set their drinks in front of them. Nathan took a sip of his, then he said, “So, you’re an interior designer?”
Chloe nodded. “Yes.”
“How long?”
Ever since I graduated, which was when you vanished and killed my sister. “One year.”
“How do you like it?”
This was a topic of conversation she could be more enthusiastic about. “I love it.”
He smiled. “I remember that you were always redecorating the room you shared with…” His words trailed off. An uncomfortable silence followed.
“With Lisa,” Chloe said, not about to let her sister be forgotten even if Nathan didn’t want to speak her name.
“Yes,” he said, not meeting her eyes, instead picking up his drink and downing half of it.
How was he going to do this? How was he possibly going to tell her how horrible he felt about what had happened? When Chloe had said Lisa’s name, her eyes had snapped with fury. It was obvious she held him responsible for Lisa’s death. He held himself responsible, so there was no argument there. Clearly, she would always hold it against him. Even so, he had to express his regrets.
“Chloe,” he began, but she held up her hand and shook her head.
“I don’t want to hear it, okay? I’m not ready.”
Pressing his lips together in frustration, he exhaled through his nose. “Then why did you agree to meet me?”
She huffed a laugh. “I don’t know.” Then she stared at him a moment. “Maybe…maybe I just needed to look you in the eye and tell you…” Her chin quivered and tears filled her eyes.
Seeing how grief-stricken she was tore at him, ripping his heart to shreds and embedding the guilt deeper inside him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and comfort her like he would have…before. But since he was the cause of her distress, it didn’t seem right that he should be the one to offer solace.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said, his voice soft. He wanted her to know he was ready to hear whatever vitriol she needed to pour upon him. He deserved it.
The look in his eyes, like he carried the weight of the world upon his shoulders, saddened Chloe. But she could only handle her own grief. And even that was nearly too much.
She opened her mouth to speak, to tear into him, but suddenly she knew it wouldn’t help her, it wouldn’t heal her. And she knew Lisa wouldn’t want her to do it.
Instead, she stood from her chair, slipped her purse over her shoulder and said, “I’ve gotta go, Nathan. Thanks for the drink.” Then she turned and strode out of the restaurant.
Nathan watched her go, devastated that she’d chosen to leave rather than tell him what was on her mind. Obviously she couldn’t stand to be around him. And that wounded him more than he would have thought possible.
Chapter Five
“Was I wrong?” Chloe asked Hannah as they sat across from each other at lunch the next day. “To leave like that?”
Hannah pierced a chunk of chicken in her salad and lifted the fork, but stopped before placing it in her mouth. “No, I wouldn’t say you were wrong, exactly. More like…” She waved the fork around and pursed her ruby-red lips. “Procrastinating.” Then she popped the chicken into her mouth.
“Procrastinating? Why do you say that?”
“Because, my dear, don’t you see? You’re going to have to get your feelings off of your chest and into his ears eventually. Otherwise you’ll be stuck in this
loop of blame-anger-grief forever.”
“Wait. I thought your degree was in business, not psychology.”
Hannah laughed. “The workings of the mind have always fascinated me, so I took a few psych courses.”
Chloe shook her head as she smiled. “Uh-huh.”
“You know I’m right.”
She did, but that didn’t mean she was ready to call Nathan and set up another meeting. Anyway, she didn’t have his number.
She and Hannah chatted about other things, and when Chloe got back to the office, she lost herself in her work, grateful she had something to take her mind off of Nathan Hewitt.
“These came for you,” Sally, the receptionist, said to Chloe late that afternoon, holding an enormous—and gorgeous—bouquet of colorful flowers.
Eyes widening in surprise, Chloe stood and took the bouquet from her, setting it on the side of her desk.
“Who are they from?” Sally asked, her eyebrows raised in question before she glanced meaningfully at the card poking out of the arrangement.
Chloe was fairly certain who had sent them, and though she didn’t want to advertise the fact that she and Nathan had met the evening before, with Sally standing there waiting it would be awkward to ignore the card. Suppressing a sigh, Chloe tugged the card out of the arrangement, confirmed that the flowers were from Nathan, then smiled at Sally. “From an old friend.”
“Nice friend,” Sally said, her eyebrows raised and her tone showing she wished she had a friend like that.
Without responding, Chloe tucked the card into the pocket of her slacks, then she sat at her desk. Sally must have gotten the message that no other information would be forthcoming because she turned and walked away.
The Missing Billionaire Page 2
