The Business Plan

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  THE BUSINESS PLAN

  The Friessens (Neil & Candy)

  By

  Lorhainne Eckhart

  Neil Friessen has almost everything he’s ever wanted:

  His wife, the woman he’s always loved…

  His children, whom he never believed he would have…

  And an empty bank account.

  Until one day, that is, when he comes up with the business plan.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Other Works Available

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Links to Lorhainne Eckhart’s Booklist

  Copyright Information

  Chapter 1

  “What did you do?” Candy said. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking at when she took in her husband, Neil. His dark hair had once been short and impeccably groomed but was now curling around his ears and the back, brushing his shoulders. He also had a beard going on, and if truth be told, if someone asked her what she really thought about his new badass transformation, she would have to admit it was beginning to grow on her. She was thankful he had at least kept the beard trimmed, though, and hadn’t took it upon himself to grow a pair of chops—because those would have to go.

  “Do you like it?” He was dressed in a faded pair of jeans and a black T-shirt that was looking a little worn as he pulled off a pair of shades and tucked them in his shirtfront. A gleaming diamond stud sparkled in the light within his newly pierced left earlobe.

  She just stared at her hunk of a husband, who was far too good looking for his own good. He had everything going for him: He was smart, sexy, and confident, with linebacker shoulders, six-pack abs, and full red lips that had tasted every inch of her. He was her lover, her husband, and the only man to ever have stirred her passion.

  He raised his eyebrows, and his whiskey-colored eyes were filled with teasing and amusement. They were always filled with such confidence, such mystery, and were so intense that she could get lost in them forever. “It’s my new look. Seriously, don’t you like it?”

  She couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her. “One, yes, I do—but, Neil, seriously? You’re the most conservative man, or you were, who has ever graced my presence. Where the hell is my husband, and what have you done with him?”

  She was holding Michael, who was now walking and into everything, and he even pointed at the tiny jewel in Neil’s ear. “Dada,” he said, pointing, his other hand on her shoulder, grabbing a fistful of her shirt.

  “Yes, Daddy got an earring,” Neil said, making a playful face to Michael, who laughed and reached out to him, leaning his little body so Candy had no choice but to pass him over.

  Neil lifted his son, who was looking more and more like him every day, up high and then brought him down and kissed his cheek. The man was positively gaga over his children, Michael and Cat, the little deaf girl they had adopted in Mexico. Both adored him, and everything he did was for them.

  “So what brought on this need to get an earring?” She had noticed Neil slipping into this change, becoming someone different—not the man she’d married but an evolution, someone trying to become someone else. He was charming, fun, loving, and still possessive, which she doubted would ever change, but she saw the changes in him every day. He listened to her now, and at the same time she couldn’t help sensing him slipping, as if he were lost, trying to find his footing and searching for who he was. She frowned, or maybe he’d noticed where her thoughts had gone, as he furrowed his brow and looked deeply at her.

  “What?” He made a face at Michael again before pretending to take a bite of him. Michael giggled, a full-bellied laugh that filled Candy with such joy.

  “I’m starting to get a little worried about you, Neil.”

  His expression told her she was being ridiculous. He was trying to shake her off. “I’m the last person you should be worrying about. Seriously, over an earring? I thought you’d like it,” he said.

  “It’s not just the earring, which I have to admit I kind of like. It’s this change in you, as if you’re transforming into your evil twin.” She held her hand out to stop him when she knew he was about to lay into her, probably with some line about how she was misreading everything again and this was him changing to be a better man for her. “Seriously, Neil, I know how hard you’ve tried for me. You told me you were going to change, and I’ve watched you over the last year, how you’ve gone out of your way to put me and the children first. You stopped pushing and demanding and organizing—no, wait! You haven’t stopped. You’ve toned it down some, which I appreciate, but…” She held up her hand again when he opened his mouth to say something. “I have the floor. Let me finish, please.” She tapped his arm.

  He gestured between them and then wrapped both his arms around Michael, holding him on his hip. “Please, by all means, lay it all out there.”

  “You sold the resort for me.”

  “Sale isn’t final yet,” he added rather matter of factly, as if she needed reminding.

  “Okay, it’s in the works is what I meant to say. Your dream…you walked away from it for me.”

  When he looked at her that way, he gave all of himself. It could be so disconcerting at times, but she knew he was taking all of what she was saying in, as if he were listening with every one of his senses. She was sure that was what had made him such a success in business.

  “You’ve moved us way up here, about as far away from Cancun as we can get, and I’m not complaining. I find it rather nice, being this close to Emily and Brad, and the kids have their cousins close by, even though the cold and damp here is something I’m still trying to get used to. But, Neil, for the last while you’ve seemed to be floundering, as if you don’t have any idea what it is you want to do. That’s what’s causing me some concern. It’s this.” She gestured to his earring. “When you walk out the door and say you need to run an errand, I don’t know who’s going to walk back through it or what idea you’ve come up with to be your new project here. Last I looked, you have the deck you still need to build, a patio half started, and, oh yeah, then there’s the corral, the shed for my horse, and the pasture you keep telling me you’re going to fence off so I can have my horse and donkey there instead of having to run over to Brad and Emily’s all the time. The thing is, it’s all great and everything, but you haven’t finished one thing here.”

  Neil frowned and glanced at Michael, taking in his expression, his face, as if studying him, then looked back over to Candy. She wondered for a moment whether she’d hit a nerve. After all, the Friessen men had their pride, and she was pretty sure Neil’s had taken a hammering.

  “Maybe there are days I wonder, too,” he said. “Trying to figure out what to do…I had my entire life planned out and saw everything happening one way, and then this curveball had me scrambling like I never had before. I get it, it’s all on me. I screwed up big time, all because of my need to make things happen a certain way. This other stuff here, I really will finish it. There’s just so much, and spending time with these guys…” He made another face at Michael and kissed his chubby cheeks, and Michael giggled and patted at him.

  He looked over at Candy wi
th such intensity she had to hold her breath. “But we can’t control things, life. It’s the other way around. And once you realize you have no control, it’s amazing, this feeling of freedom that happens.” His eyes simmered with warmth, with love, which had her heart flip flopping.

  She was resting her hand on her chest at the open V of her light sweater, skimming over the bare skin, thinking of what this was with him. At times, Neil took her breath away, and at times, like this, he left her speechless. She was about to say something more, but this evolved Neil had Candy scrambling, her mind blanking. At the same time, she was freaking out, wondering what the next transformation for Neil Friessen was going to be.

  “Maybe you should call Brad. Maybe this new and improved Neil could use some grounding from his big brother, help you get your head on straight and focused in one direction.” She stepped forward and reached for Michael, who went easily into her arms. “Come on, baby. Time for lunch.”

  When she glanced back at Neil, what she saw was him checking out his image in the hall mirror, taking in his look. On second thought, maybe it would be a better idea if she called Brad herself.

  Chapter 2

  Neil was digging post holes at the back of the house so he could put in the rails and finish the corral he was building for Candy’s horse, Sable, the gray Azteca he’d brought back from Cancun along with the floppy-eared donkey, Ambrose, whom she’d rescued from the side of the road as a baby. The donkey had now grown and was getting fatter by the minute along with Sable and the stable of other horses Brad currently had on his ranch, the family ranch. This was just one of the many projects he’d promised Candy he’d get to, and he knew he was leaving a trail of work left undone. The problem was that everything as of late wasn’t filling him with that burning excitement he got when he was doing something he loved. Life was too short for him to be doing things that didn’t interest him.

  Maybe he’d also realized now that it was easier keeping the horse at Brad’s. Since Neil and Candy had ended up driving twenty minutes to the ranch four times a week, he wasn’t having to shovel up all the manure, feed and water them, and send them out to graze. Those were all just more things that didn’t interest him. Working with animals, being part of the land was what drove his brothers, Jed and Brad, and even his cousin, Andy, with his herd of longhorns in Montana. Besides, they spent more and more time at Brad and Emily’s, where Candy and Emily had taken to heading out for afternoons on the trail, of which there were tons on the public land Brad’s ranch backed onto. Here, Candy would have to make do with just their fifteen-acre oceanfront. There was no other place to ride. Maybe he should reevaluate.

  It was better riding a horse over at Brad’s, with lots more places to explore. Neil had joined Candy and Emily twice, but after that he’d decided to hang back with the kids, giving Candy and Emily some girl time alone. They were becoming fast friends, and even though Neil enjoyed being with his wife all the time, he had to remind himself she needed space. It was his hovering and obsessive need to know where she was and everything she was doing that had started to come between them.

  That was something he’d once done, trying to control everything about her. He had to remind himself it had come out of his love for her, out of him never wanting her to struggle as she had before. He loved her so much, and all he wanted was to make everything easier for her, but she was stronger than that, and sometimes he had to let go and let her stumble on her own, within reason, for their love to grow.

  He’d promised to be more open, to stop pushing, controlling, and organizing, and to stop keeping his plans and dreams from her. He jammed the shovel in the ground, hitting a rock, and swore as he glanced back at the house again, where his wife was with Michael and Cat. He could see her in the window of the kitchen. She smiled and waved at him and gestured with a glass, holding it up. He nodded and watched as his wife opened the fridge and then, moments later, stepped outside onto the back deck. Cat walked out with her in a sweater and red leggings, and Candy smiled down at their little girl, who was turning six but had still not started school, as Candy said she wasn’t ready. She gestured for Cat to follow as she walked over to Neil with a glass of water.

  It was a sunny day for this early in the spring, not a cloud in the sky. He watched the confidence in his wife. She was dressed casually in blue jeans and a white tee, a cream sweater pulled overtop.

  “Wow, can’t believe how much you’ve done,” she said.

  His fingers touched Candy’s as she handed him the cool glass. “Thank you,” he said, then guzzled it down and wiped the water from his mouth with the back of his hand.

  He was shirtless and sweaty from all the digging he’d been doing, and Candy didn’t try to hide her interest or amusement.

  “What?” he said when he noticed the teasing light in her eyes.

  “Can’t remember ever seeing you get your hands dirty, either. You’re the one who’s always hired help to do the grunt work.” She smiled brightly. “I kind of like it.”

  The old Neil would have hated this, but there was something refreshing about all this back-breaking work that seemed to help him think through some of the nagging issues he’d been tossing around in his mind.

  “You know how we talked about not keeping things from each other?” he said, noting the moment her eyes darkened and a hint of worry flickered there. He reached out and touched her arm, feeling her stiffen. He knew she was worried about what he’d done now. She took a moment, thankfully, and didn’t pull away as Cat latched on to his leg, looking up with a bright smile, flashing her white baby teeth, her cochlear implant attached behind her ear.

  “Daddy, play,” she said, her voice flat. There was something about the way she looked at him, adored him, that could make him do anything for her. He reached down, his hands caked with dirt, and tickled her chin.

  “Can’t, baby girl. Got to finish this for Mommy.”

  “Please?” she said, holding his leg, bouncing on her toes.

  He glanced over to Candy, who still appeared distracted as she smiled down at Cat and over to Neil in amusement.

  “I’ll tell you what. You let Daddy just talk to Mommy for a minute, and then I’m all yours. Meet you in the sandbox,” he said and watched as Cat ran in her awkward way, slowly and unsteadily, to the small plastic square sandbox Neil had bought. “We need to get her balance checked, I think. Maybe we should put in a swing set, or maybe I could put together one of those giant backyard treehouses with a slide and swings and a teeter totter to give the kids something to really play on.” He took in the cleared empty lot, which went for a long ways over to the bank that dropped off to the ocean, then glanced to Cat. “You know what? I think I need to put up a fence in the back to keep the kids in.” When he looked over at Candy, her entire expression had changed as if she were trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

  “Neil, that’s an awful lot of projects you’re planning. You haven’t finished one thing you’ve started, and now you want to start something else. How about sticking to one task and finishing it?” She firmed her lips then. “Are you keeping secrets? Is there something else going on, something you need to tell me?” She had completely misunderstood. He didn’t like seeing the worry that seemed to come over her so quickly, as if she were remembering how it used to be.

  He shook his head. “No, I was kind of alluding to you, my dear wife.” He gripped the handle of the shovel, squeezing, watching her expression, which went from shock to confusion. He gestured between them as he often did in business to get things moving. “So tell me, Candy, are there any secrets you’d maybe like to share with me?”

  Chapter 3

  He’d promised to give her space. He wouldn’t push. Those had been his exact words to her after what had seemed to be the beginning of the end of their marriage. Neil had been so controlling about everything about their relationship, and his obsession had almost destroyed them. Over the past year, she’d watched him do everything in his power to change, to become a
better man.

  She was watching Neil from the deck, resting her hands on the railing as he ran with Cat across the backyard over the damp grass, both of them dirty and covered in mud. They were laughing and giggling, and Neil was now on the ground, tossing Cat in the air. She was laughing with such joy shining from her that it brought tears to Candy’s eyes.

  The happiness he provided their children had her heart filling up so full that at times she couldn’t breathe, fearing her chest would burst. She loved Neil deeply, but there were times she wondered whether that was enough. He was an amazing father and an incredible lover, but there was still that gulf there where she’d always wonder if there was something more he was hiding from her. There was still that distance where he couldn’t be her best friend. She knew he wanted that ultimate trust, that confidence, to know everything she was thinking and feeling.

  He had created such a horrible lie, though. It had been so cruel that it had almost destroyed everything good because of his need for a child, a child that was his. Michael had come from a surrogate to whom, in the end, Neil had given everything he had so she would go away. He had been obsessed and had made the choice not to tell her who Michael really was until the letter had arrived in the mail from the surrogate, begging to see her son and Neil, with whom she’d fallen in love. That letter had sliced through her heart like a knife, gutting her. She had felt her entire marriage, world, and family fall away.

  “Hey, what’s with the heavy thoughts?” Neil was carrying a giggling dirt-covered little girl with rosy cheeks and a smile that should be on every child’s face. Neil was just as messy, wearing his sweat-covered green striped T-shirt with ground-in dirt and grass stains. This was an image of her husband she’d never expected to see. He put Cat down. “Boots off. Go on in the house, baby. Daddy will be right there, and I’ll get you cleaned up.”

  “Just thinking of things,” Candy said.

  Neil stepped closer and reached up, running his hand over her cheek and touching the side of her ear. “You were frowning, a look I’ve seen before when you’re upset. Remember how we talked about no secrets, about talking, not hiding things from each other? But here you’ve been keeping a lot from me.” He gestured, and she didn’t miss the concern for her in his expression.