by Lucy Kevin
“And love her forever.”
His ex-wife leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Although I’d suggest you take a quick shower first. You wouldn’t want her to run away screaming when she smells you from across the room.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“What took you so long?” Krista said when Will barged into her Banks & Bidley law office in downtown Palo Alto.
“I take it you’re not surprised to see me?”
“I take it you had a really important business meeting you couldn’t get out of?”
It would have been impossible for Will to miss the sarcasm lacing her every word.
“I was an idiot. But I'm here now.”
His admission seemed to make Krista happy. “She’s in New York.”
“New York? Why?”
Krista shook her head. “You’re going to have to figure that one out for yourself,” she said, but she wrote Wishing Lake on a piece of paper and held it out to him.
“You’re going to look great as the maid-of-honor,” he said as he leaned across the table to give her a quick hug, then high-tailed it out the door.
Krista swiveled in her chair to watch Will run out to his car and speed off. She sighed and thought about Derek, who she hadn’t been able to get out of her mind for the past few weeks. Even though he was a total nerd.
“Why can’t I find my own CEO?” she muttered as she turned back to her latest case. “Heck, I’ll even take a VP at this point.”
She smiled as she thought about her best friend and the man who obviously couldn’t live without her. “He’s right about one thing, at least. I’m gonna look damn good at their wedding.”
* * *
The five hour flight to New York gave Will plenty of time to think about his life. Way too much time, in fact, considering he was still trying to stay clear of anything too deep or painful. Hoping to keep himself occupied with some light reading during the flight, he reached for the stack of newspapers next to his seat.
Will soon comprehended his tactical error. His picture was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Financial Post.
Playboy CEO walks out on takeover negotiations. Shareholders are outraged as PTI stock takes its biggest dip ever.
Tech Tycoon leaves company in jeopardy.
CFO alleges illegal activity at PTI. Will Scott, CEO, implicated in dirty dealings.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Will was hardly able to believe the newsprint spread across the table before him. He waited for his brain to start working on the best game plan for getting his company back on track.
“Come on,” he urged himself when no inspiration was forthcoming. “There’s got to be a good idea in here somewhere.”
He paced the small confines of his private plane, figuring that some movement was all he needed to get the blood going to his brain again. The only reason he had walked out on the negotiations in his boardroom was so that he could see Angelina. After that was taken care of, he was going to head right back into his office and throw himself wholeheartedly into running PTI again.
Will heard the little voice in his head taunting him. Hey buddy, you know you don’t ever want to go back into that place. So why are you fighting it? You’re too much of a sissy to be a painter, aren’t you? You always loved the excuse that you couldn’t be a painter because you needed the money.
But now that you’ve got money, you’re petrified to start painting.
Will wondered if he was going crazy from lack of sleep.
You go back into that office and keep playing CEO and you know what’s going to happen to you, don’t you?
He was responsible to his shareholders and...
You’d get that damn word ‘responsible’ gilded in gold if you could, that way you could run from ever having to feel anything again. You could just say, ‘Oh, look at me. I’m so important and responsible for everyone.’
No. He didn't do that. Did he?
Why do you think your wife left you? Now you’ve got another chance at being happy, but you’re gonna blow it, aren’t you?
No. He was going to ask Angelina to marry him.
Now isn’t that sweet, the voice mocked him. Won't she be ever so happy playing the cute little wife to the big, fancy, lady-killer CEO?
Will finally saw the truth: She was going to hate it.
That’s right, Einstein. So why don’t you admit that you hate it too?
But he didn't hate it. Not everything about it, in any case.
Fine. Let me just ask you this: Would you rather be standing behind a canvas right now painting, or back in the board room locked in for forty-eight hours?
Will punched the backrest of the seat beside him.
“Sir?” The pilot opened the cockpit door and leaned out, looking at him with concern. “Are you all right back there?”
Will quickly composed himself and nodded. “Everything’s fine, Charlie. Thanks for the smooth flight.” The pilot gave him a thumbs up and closed the door again, leaving Will alone with his thoughts.
He poured himself a glass of straight whiskey from the bar. It was time to stop focusing on doing the “right” thing all the time. Maybe all these years of being responsible simply for the sake of responsibility had been a fool’s game.
Will reached for the air-phone and called Jerry, his head legal aid, the only man he could trust to carry out his extraordinary decision in a fair, objective fashion.
It took nearly thirty minutes to outline his plan for stepping down as CEO of PTI and disburse the bulk of his owner’s shares equitably among the co-workers who had stuck with him through good times and bad.
He was about to hang up when Jerry said, “I’m proud of you kid. It’s about time you learned that there’s more to life than running this company. I had to almost lose my family, about ten years back, to figure it out myself. Mind if I ask you what you’re going to do now that you’re free?”
Will cleared his throat. “I’m going to get back the woman I love and convince her to marry me, even though I’m an idiot and don’t deserve her.”
“Ah,” Jerry said, his voice full of memories. “Sounds like true love to me. Beg if you have to, you hear?”
“I’ll try and remember that.”
“And one more thing,” Jerry said.
“What’s that?” Will asked, looking forward to any additional advice the wise older man had to give him.
“I’ve been thinking about those drawings you were doing. Boy did they make me laugh. You should let more people see your talent.”
* * *
Angelina dropped her bags onto the knotty pine floor of her new home. She breathed a sigh of relief that this lakefront cottage had a clear sense of comfort and well-being. Just being inside the house, she felt a small bit of contentment seep into her system.
In fact, as she walked around admiring the furniture and the artwork, she was reminded, to a great degree, of being in Will’s mother’s house. Needing to make the cottage seem like hers, even before the truck came with all of her belongings the next day, she wheeled her suitcase into the master bedroom to unpack a few pictures of her family and friends.
As she walked through the doorway into the large suite, she was stunned by the phenomenal view of the water before her. Still, she saw Will was everywhere she looked.
“Give it some time, Ang,” she told herself, as she bent down to unzip her bag. “One day you’ll be able to make it a whole five minutes without thinking about him.”
She finished unpacking and decided to go for a walk along the lake. Maybe she’d even get up the nerve to go and see Joyce, she told herself, still unsure how she was going to explain her sudden move.
“Oh well,” she said as she laced up her tennis shoes. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”
Before she left the house, however, she did the one thing she should have done so many months ago: She went to the Love & Marriage corner of her new rental home and plac
ed a small porcelain statue of a man and woman, entwined in their love for each other.
Feeling much more centered with just that small Feng Shui touch, she headed off the porch onto the white sandy beach that stretched all around the fresh-water lake. She wasn’t too surprised when her feet took her to the left, away from Joyce’s cottage.
“It seems that my feet are cowards too,” she said, making fun of herself.
She didn’t know how long she had walked before she was standing in front of the Ferris wheel.
Several kids were outside enjoying the rides. Angelina sat down on the bench she had shared with Will to watch them play.
She held her hand over her still flat stomach and whispered, “One day, you’re going to be riding that roller coaster and coming home with pink hands,” to the life growing inside of her.
* * *
Upon landing at the small air-strip by Wishing Lake, Will headed straight to his mother’s house.
He strolled in the front door, which he knew would be unlocked, without knocking.
“Guess who?” he said, hoping to surprise his mother with his presence.
“So you’re finally here for her, huh?” Joyce replied, unceremoniously, not even bothering to stop the brushstrokes she was adding onto her canvas.
The whole thing was so damn preposterous, he felt like he was on the roller coaster at the carnival. “I stepped down as CEO this morning. It’ll hit the news by tonight.”
“And?” his mother prodded.
“And I’m going to start painting again.”
Joyce pumped her fist by her side, like a pro basketball player after swishing a three-pointer.
“Yes!”
Will grinned crookedly. “Glad to have your support, mom.”
Joyce pointed a finger at him. “Only if you have some other good news to tell me, young man.”
“First you need to tell me where she is.”
“She’s renting your cottage on the lake with an option to buy.”
“You can’t be serious?” Will couldn’t figure out why Angelina would have picked up, left California, and rented his house within a span of just a few days.
“But she, uh...” Joyce said, stopping to clear her throat. “She doesn’t exactly know that it’s your cottage, or that I was the person who leased it to her.” At Will’s confused look she added, “Her friend Krista arranged all the details with me directly.”
Standing in his grandparent’s summer home, where he had spent so many perfect summers as a kid, he was more excited and nervous about seeing Angelina than he ever had been about anything else, his whole life. He patted the box in his pocket and took a deep breath.
“Everything is going to be just fine, honey,” his mother said, and then, “Now get out of here.
You’ve done enough worrying and thinking already. It’s time to win over a very important woman.”
* * *
Taking off at a blazing clip down the beach, Will headed towards the Ferris wheel that was just barely poking up through the trees on the other side of the lake. He was sure he'd find her there, in the special place where his heart had always been.
Winding past the food booths and the roller coaster, he caught sight of her silky hair blowing in the breeze as she handed her ticket to the man running the Ferris wheel. Increasing his pace to a run, he pushed past the teenagers in line and handed the man a $20.
He barely slid in next to Angelina before the gate for her seat shut.
“Will?” She put a hand over her heart in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Angelina. You're beautiful.” He brushed his hand over her cheek. “I’m sorry I let my work take me away from you. But that won’t ever happen again. I’m officially unemployed.”
“What do you mean?”
“I stepped down from my company this morning.”
“Are you joking?”
Will made a lightening quick move and managed to catch both of her cold hands between his warm ones. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my whole life.”
Angelina closed her eyes and shook her head. “This can’t be happening.”
Will felt like a piece of him had just died. “I want to be with you. I thought you wanted to be with me too.”
“I do, but once I tell you my secret you’re going to hate me forever and then you won’t even have a company to go back to and then you’re going to hate me even more.”
Tucking his hand gently under her chin, he lifted her face to his. “Nothing you could say would ever make me hate you. I love you Angelina, don’t you know that?”
Whatever impact Will thought his words of love would have on Angelina, they weren’t the new explosion of tears that slipped down her cheeks and onto their hands. He had no idea what to say to her, sensing somehow that it would be wiser to wait for her to tell him about the horrible thing that was eating her up inside.
She looked at him, her beautiful hazel eyes full of emotion. “I’m pregnant.”
“Say that again?” He was unable to comprehend her words.
“I’m pregnant and I know you don’t want to have a baby and I’m not asking you to act like a father, but I’m going to keep it and love it, and I hope you know I don’t ever want any of your money.”
“We’re going to have a baby,” Will whispered reverently, gazing at Angelina with sincere love in his eyes.
“You’re not mad?”
“How could I be mad about the best news I’ve ever heard?”
“But Joyce said you had decided never to have...” she began, only to be cut off by an earth-shattering kiss.
Will captured Angelina’s mouth in his and drank his fill of her. When they came up for air, he said, “I love you Angelina and I want to marry you and have lots and lots of babies together.”
Angelina gaped at him, her mouth a tiny circle. “But what about your father?”
“It's taken me nearly thirty years to put that pain to rest. But with your love, I think I'm most of the way there.”
She was still staring at him like she could hardly believe what she was hearing, and he said,
“I’m not doing this right, am I?”
Still on the ride, he couldn't get down on one knee. But he didn't care. He needed to ask her now.
Right now.
“Angelina, will you marry me?”
Angelina was trying to catch her breath, which was impossible with everything spinning so fast.
“What are you going to do without your company?”
“You know we could probably discuss this later,” he said, grinning at Angelina, falling more in love with her every second that passed, “but to answer your question, I’m going to paint.”
Her eyes lit up for a moment, but then dimmed again. “I’m thrilled that you’re going to paint, but you can’t give up something you’re passionate about. I saw how reverently you held those circuit boards in your office.”
“You’re right. I did have a dream to build a company, and it was great for a long time, but –“
Angelina cut him off. “I love you with all of my heart, Will. If you need to me to be a corporate wife, I can do that. Please don’t give up your dream for me.”
Will rubbed his thumb over her lips. “You’re the reason I’m daring to dream again. I’d rather play around doing chip design on the side than sit in board rooms making executive decisions. But most of all, I’d rather take all that faith you have in me and try to paint again. Now it's your turn to promise me something.”
“Anything,” she whispered.
“I know how hard you work, honey, and how good you are at what you do. But I want you to promise me you’ll take care of yourself. That you'll let me take care of you. For our baby, but mostly for yourself.”
This time Angelina gave Will a loving kiss. “As soon as I found out I was pregnant I realized that I needed to do what I’d been telling my clients to do. I promise you, I’m going to figure out how to balance my work with the
rest of my life. With you. With our baby.”
Will stole one more kiss. “Now that we've got all that figured out, I'd really like to hear your answer.”
Angelina looked deep into Will’s eyes. No matter how much she had tried to fight it, no matter how far she ran to escape it, she would love Will with all of her heart until the day she died.
“I love you, Will.”
“And?” Will prompted her, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.
“Yes. I would love to marry you.”
He finally remembered to pull the little box out of his pocket. “I almost forgot to give you this.”
Angelina didn’t want to leave his warm embrace, but the light blue box beckoned. Still safely ensconced in his arms, she took it from him and opened it up.
“Oh my god, Will,” she said, staring opened mouthed at the incredible ring he had bought for her.
“Do you like it?” he asked, hope ringing in his voice.
She looked at him and laughed. “It’s absolutely beautiful.”
He slipped the four-carat ruby, surrounded by six ½ carrot diamonds arranged on a simple gold band onto her left ring finger.
“A jewel of fire, for a woman whose fire outshines everything else.”
“Come here, my darling ex-tycoon,” she whispered as she pulled his head down towards hers,
“and you just might feel my flames licking at your skin.”
And with that, Will let his entire soul be consumed by the woman he loved.
EPILOGUE
After dealing with the media frenzy that resulted from Will’s resignation, new painting career, and whirlwind engagement, Will and Angelina considered eloping at City Hall. Instead they were married on the beach, in front of his summer cottage, which had become their permanent home.
Will’s ex-wife, Susan, was overjoyed by their nuptials, and if anyone at the wedding was surprised by how well she got along with both the bride and groom, they didn’t show it.
Angelina’s father held his new wife’s hand and watched his daughter with pride, overjoyed that she had finally found true love.
Joyce, who was normally very steady with her emotions, was constantly wiping back tears throughout the ceremony and reception on the beach.
