Once Upon A Valentine

by Emma Roman

  Her second skin may have been ice, but she’d learned to take the pressure and emotional beatings until nothing could crack it.

  To say she’d been waiting for this day her entire life was an understatement.

  She could have left before, could have found a new way to make her life, but she loved what she did, and it was her family’s name on the walls. It was her family’s legacy that she needed to be a part of.

  Her phone buzzed right then, and she held back a curse. Her phone was always buzzing with her numerous clients needing things. It was a wonder she ever found sleep at all. When she checked the screen, she smiled. This time, it wasn’t a client; it was her friend, Holly.

  Good luck.

  Arianna smiled and texted back. Holly had perfect timing, apparently.

  Thanks! I’ll call you when I know more.

  Kick butt!

  Arianna cleared her throat. “Daisy, I’m here for my father.”

  Daisy looked up from her phone and smiled, the confusion on her face a usual occurrence. Arianna might have tried to like her if the woman weren’t so bitchy most days. She wouldn’t last long as her father’s latest conquest, but at least Daisy looked like she was having fun.

  And on that revolting thought, Arianna raised a brow. Be ice, she reminded herself. Be ice.

  “Oh, go on in,” Daisy said breathlessly. “Xavier, I mean, Mr. King is waiting for you.”

  Arianna nodded before turning toward the door, letting thoughts of Daisy leave her mind, and the future behind that thick piece of oak taking their place. She gave a quick knock and then walked in. If her father were waiting for her, then he expected her to come right in and not waste time. Wasting time was not for Kings.

  Her father sat behind his gleaming wooden desk, his hair just now becoming more salt than pepper, and the perpetual scowl he wore when he wasn’t near clients on his face.

  “You’re late.”

  Arianna didn’t let the bite of his words sting, not when she’d heard far worse. Today meant something more than callous words and being ignored. Today meant change. She had to believe that.

  “I’m sorry, last-minute wedding detail,” she explained. Not that her father would know anything about those kids of things, but whatever.

  Her father waved a hand, already moving on to another topic in his head. “Take a seat next to Justin and let’s get started.”

  Arianna blinked and looked down at the man she hadn’t noticed sitting in front of her father’s desk. Odd, because she always tried to notice when Justin Rosso was around. Not that she panted after him, but because she wanted to stay clear of the greasy creep.

  What the hell was he doing in her meeting? The meeting where years of hard work would finally be completely worth it.

  That familiar feeling of dread and disappointment threatened to claw at her belly, but she shook it off. Justin was her father’s lackey, so she supposed it made sense in a weird sort of way that he would be there for this.

  Sort of.

  She sank into the leather seat and nodded toward Justin, not bothering to say hello. If she could get through his meeting without speaking to him at all, she’d be happy.

  Maybe not happy, but at least not wanting to dig her eyes out with a spoon. That was always a plus.

  “Arianna, the King family has owned and operated King’s Weddings since its inception over fifty years ago,” her father began.

  A history lesson. Great.

  Apparently, Xavier was going to take the long way to get to his point.

  “Yes, of course,” she said, not knowing if he actually wanted her to speak. From the way his eyes narrowed, she figured she’d made the wrong choice.

  Crap.

  “As I was saying, the King family has spearheaded this wedding planning establishment. While my mother, your grandmother, started with a vision of dainty weddings that fit the feel of couples and small venues, since I became president, we’ve grown into the billion-dollar company we are today. We provide services to the top-tier community and the cream of the crop. We handle hundreds of A-list weddings a year, and we only have room to grow. We’ve become the destination for high-end clientele around the globe, who want to come to Colorado and know our unique beauty.”

  Arianna stayed silent during her father’s speech. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had a hand in every piece of what he’d explained. Since her mother had died when Arianna was three, her father had done his best to make King’s Weddings exclusive. Her father’s only responsibility—beyond taking credit—was ensuring that King’s Weddings didn’t “stoop” to provide services to those…less fortunate.

  That would be one thing she changed right away.

  But first things first. She couldn’t get ahead of herself like she had been doing all morning.

  “As you’ve no doubt heard, I’ve decided to step back from the company. I’ve done this for long enough that it’s my turn to find new avenues.”

  She held her breath, trying to not make any sudden moves.

  “With what I’ve said before in mind, it’s only natural that in my absence, I worry about how the company will take root before continuing down the path I’ve paved and provided.”

  What the hell?

  Arianna frowned before forcing a neutral expression on her face. She hadn’t been able to hide it fast enough, though, because her father caught it.

  “Don’t frown, Arianna, it’s not becoming. I’m not going to beat around the bush. I don’t trust you. You might have thought you did your best in the years you’ve worked here, but you’ve slacked. You’re not as good as you think you are. I want the top. I want diamonds, while you are tainted glass. I want spun gold while you provide me with rust. I don’t trust you to follow the precise path I’ve laid out for you. You are my daughter, and you will listen to me. If I don’t believe that will happen, well, then I must take matters into my own hands.”

  Arianna blinked, unable to comprehend his words as hurt cascaded through her body, the crashing waves of torment and pain she hadn’t thought she’d feel at his callousness overwhelming.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, her throat too tight to say much more. She would not cry in front of this man.

  Not ever again.

  “You’re not a King, Arianna. Oh, I might have made a mistake with your mother long ago, but you’re not of my blood. Not in all the ways that matter. You may have the look of my mother with that blonde hair of yours and her green eyes, but you’re nothing. I’ve decided to sell King’s Weddings to Honor’s Designs with the caveat that they keep our name and ditch theirs. Honor isn’t a suitable name. Who the hell cares about Honor?”

  Arianna sprang to her feet, her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. “Our rival? You’re selling us to our rival?”

  “Not us. They won’t be taking you with them. They want nothing to do with you. Seems like there’s a theme,” he said. He didn’t sneer, but it was close. God forbid the man show any emotion.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. I put my life into this company. I’ve done more for King’s than you ever did, and we both know it.”

  Her father narrowed his eyes again. “Sit down, Arianna. There is a second option that you haven’t let me voice. It seems your impetuous nature is just the tip of the iceberg of where they went wrong with you.”

  They.

  Not him. He hadn’t raised her.

  Arianna sat down, her body shaking. She wasn’t sure her legs would be able to carry her at all at this point. This monster in front of her couldn’t be her father.

  She’d seen signs of the way he was acting now—his cruelty, his disgust—her whole life, but she hadn’t thought it could get this bad. How on earth had she missed this?

  “The second option is sitting right next to you.”

  Arianna froze and then slowly turned toward Justin, who had leaned back in his chair, his hands calmly resting on his stomach.

  “What?” she asked through clenched teeth. />
  “I’ll let you keep your position—thereby becoming president and owner—if you marry Justin.”

  Arianna blinked, unable to come up with words.

  Marry. Justin.

  Her father had to be fucking kidding her.

  “I’m not marrying Justin.”

  “No offense, right?” Justin sneered.

  “Fuck you, Justin. All offense intended,” she snarled then turned to her father. “No. I’m not marrying your precious puppet. What do you think you’re doing? This is the twenty-first century. You can’t just marry me off to the highest bidder.”

  This couldn’t be legal. Could it?

  She’d sue. She’d do something, but she wouldn’t marry that jackass.

  Xavier raised a brow. “Can’t I? Marry Justin or lose your precious company. I don’t really care as long as you do as you’re told. It’s about time you act the dutiful daughter and not the ungrateful bitch in front of me.”

  Arianna stood up quickly, almost knocking into her chair. Jesus, what the hell was happening? She’d walked into this room thinking she’d finally be free, and now her father wanted to shackle her even tighter.

  What was she going to do? She couldn’t let the company fall into their rival’s hands, it wouldn’t be fair. But if it happened, she’d be out of a job. And there was no way in hell that she would marry the prick beside her.

  She had a little savings, but she couldn’t afford the type of lawyer she’d need to fight her father.

  She licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry.

  There really was only one option.

  “I quit.”

  Her father blinked—a sign of emotion he more than likely didn’t even know he was showing—then stood up, his mouth opening to say something probably even more vulgar than usual.

  Arianna raised her hand, silencing him with a look. Rage made her limbs want to shake, but she stayed firm. She would not show weakness. Not now. Not ever. Never to this man again. “I’m done. Take your precious Justin and your precious plans and leave me out of it.”

  Surprised she’d been able to speak at all, she turned on her heel and walked out of the office. Her father and Justin may have spoken behind her, but she didn’t hear.

  She could barely think, let alone do anything else.

  With one conversation, she’d lost it all. Her dreams hadn’t come true. There were no such things as happily ever afters.

  Fate fucking sucked.

  2

  Harper Rosso cursed and fumbled with the hammer before putting it back in his tool belt so he could answer his phone. He’d thought he’d turned the damn thing on vibrate but had apparently forgotten. The shrill ring had pierced his brain, making his already annoying headache even worse.

  Taking a deep breath, he climbed off the ladder, pulled out his phone, and answered, not bothering to look at the display.

  He should have taken the time to read the damn screen.

  “What?” he barked, tired as hell and ready to get home. The first day of this damn job had taken longer than he’d expected, and he was going to end up behind on his timeline if he didn’t put more work in. When the Montgomerys had hired him for this project—restoring the old Mason Home—he’d done his research and had come up with a decent deadline. That didn’t mean shit when it came to mold, broken moldings, and shitty hardwood flooring. He didn’t have to fix it all today, or even by himself, but he had to at least make a list for all of the others to get started. He was one of the new guys on the Montgomery Inc. team, and if this project went well, the company would hire him on full-time. Everything he had was riding on this. He didn’t want to own his own business, but he wanted to work for those who knew what they were doing.

  “Is that how you answer your phone? No wonder you don’t get laid.”

  Harper closed his eyes and prayed for patience. Then he remembered he really didn’t give a flying fuck about his brother Justin’s feelings.

  “What do you want, Justin? You’ve got two seconds, and then I’m hanging up.”

  He could practically see the bastard’s smirk as he spoke. God, he knew it was probably a sin to hate his brother as much as he did, but honestly, the little maggot was lucky Harper hadn’t ended him when they were kids.

  Harper inhaled through his nose then exhaled through his mouth, trying to calm himself. Only Justin could send him to violence so quickly.

  “You’re such an ungrateful brat,” Justin growled.

  “You’re running out of time,” Harper replied.

  Justin let out a huff. “Fine, I just wanted to call you so you could congratulate me on my engagement.”

  That brought Harper up short. Engagement? Since when was Justin seeing someone? Why Justin thought Harper would care about this development beyond feeling horror for the poor woman was beyond him.

  “Good for you. I’m hanging up now.” Any longer, and Harper might have to take his hammer to his temple and end it all for good.

  “Don’t you want to know who I’m marrying?”

  While normally Harper would have just hung up, there was something in Justin’s tone that forced him to pause. His brother was a little too cocky about something.

  And that worried him.

  “Fine. Who?”

  “Your lovely neighbor, Arianna King.”

  Harper blinked, his mind going momentarily blank, his throat dry. “Excuse me?” He couldn’t have heard right. There was no way Ari would fall for Justin. His best friend and neighbor couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her father’s lackey, his brother, let alone vow to spend the rest of her life with him.

  This had to be a joke.

  Or maybe a bad dream.

  Maybe he’d hit his head with the hammer already, and this was his subconscious playing some weird fucking trick on him.

  “You heard me,” Justin crooned. “She finally saw the light of day, and I’ll have her. It seems like you’re too late. Again. Too bad you never had the balls to come out and tell her you’ve been mooning after her for years.”

  Harper took a deep breath, ignoring Justin’s taunt. Despite the fact that the brothers rarely talked these days, Justin still knew what buttons to push, how to cut deep.

  Arianna was a sure-fire trigger.

  “Thanks for the heads up.” He ended the call before Justin could say anything more and put his phone back in his pocket.

  Engaged? That couldn’t be true. Ari wouldn’t marry Justin. There was no way. But that kernel of doubt spread through his body, and he rubbed his fist over his chest. Jesus, there had to be something more to it, and Harper had a feeling it had to do with Xavier.

  When it came to Ari making choices that not only hurt her but also left Harper out in the cold, her father usually had a hand in things. Xavier was the reason Harper had stayed on the sidelines for all these years while Ari focused on her work. Harper had wanted to support her without getting in the way.

  He ran a hand over his head, noticing that his black hair was getting too long. Harper looked over the work he’d already completed on the old place and thought of everything else on his list that needed to be taken care of before the Montgomerys showed up to help him. His job was to go in after Storm and Wes Montgomery had made the plans and get the house ready. Usually, that would be Decker’s job, but they had hired Harper to work under Decker in the near future. He might love restoring old places to their former glory, but right then, he couldn’t focus.

  No, Ari was the one on his mind, and that annoyed him to no end.

  She was just his best friend. The woman he talked to daily and shared almost every part of himself with—just not the part that loved her, he didn’t tell her that.

  She wasn’t ready for that, and he hadn’t been ready to change how things were. How she didn’t see it every time he looked at her was beyond him. Even his damn brother had noticed and now took great joy in fucking with Harper because of it.

  Now, it looked as if he might have held back for too long
.

  “Fuck,” he grunted then started putting everything away so he could head out for the day. He wouldn’t be able to focus with Ari and whatever trouble she might be in on his mind. He’d just go to her and find out the truth. Then he’d do what he’d been doing his whole life—fix it.

  Harper was a fixer, and despite the fact that Ari hated when he stepped in and tried to take over, he’d been good about letting her make what she thought were her own mistakes and stay with King’s Weddings. But he’d be damned if he stayed behind while she went off and married Justin.

  He cursed again and then stomped over to his truck. No, fuck that. She wouldn’t marry Justin. The sense of betrayal washing over him wasn’t because she might be marrying the twat—because that wouldn’t happen. No, the urge to punch something came from the fact that she hadn’t called to let him know something fucked up was happening around her.

  Again.

  She never called when she needed help because she thought she could handle everything.

  The point of being friends was that she shouldn’t have to handle it all.

  Harper would just have to remind her of that.

  Again.

  Then, when he figured out how to help, he’d take a good look at whatever the fuck he was doing with his life because waiting on Ari to be ready for him was damn near killing him.

  Sometimes, to find a way to make your life work, you had to take a leap of faith.

  That didn’t mean it didn’t scare the hell out of him, though.

  By the time he made it to his place and parked in his driveway, he’d just about gotten his emotions under control. Once he talked to Ari, he’d be able to breathe normally again. He got out of his truck and didn’t bother going inside his three-bedroom ranch home. Instead, he crossed the lawn to Ari’s two-bedroom house. Her car was in the driveway, and since he couldn’t feel heat coming from the hood, he knew she’d been there for a little while.

  Not good.

  She should have called.

  But he’d known she wouldn’t.

  Without bothering to knock, he unlocked the door using the key she’d given him a couple of years ago and walked inside. Despite the fact that the sun had just set, and darkness crept through the windows, she hadn’t turned on any lights. He closed and locked the door behind him, toed off his shoes so she wouldn’t yell at him for ruining her carpets again, and went in search of her.