Henry snorted. “Oh, no! Shaun’s not my type at all. Lacking the right body parts, if you know what I mean.” His arms formed an upside-down V that started at the waist of his skinny gray slacks.
“Oh? Oh!” Cole swallowed, finally clueing in on Henry’s meaning, and not sure how to respond.
Henry rolled his eyes, smiling with amusement. “Relax! You lost your heart, and I take that kind of shit seriously.”
Cole scoffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh huh.” Henry crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, then I guess you wouldn’t care to know that Ms. Wright is currently in the building. And that maybe if you hurry, you might catch her downstairs before she leaves for good. There’s a car out front waiting for her.”
“Shaun? Really?” Cole jumped to his feet.
“Take the stairs, Dr. Denial. I’ll finish collecting your stuff for you.”
“Thanks, Henry. I mean it.” He considered giving the office assistant a hug. He started the motion, even.
“Go,” Henry replied, mumbling to himself as Cole sprinted out the door.
Cole sent up a quick prayer of thanks that his office wasn’t any higher than the sixth floor. When he pushed the stairwell door open, he caught sight of Shaun exiting the lobby.
“Shaun!” he shouted, weaving through a small crowd of suits on their way back from lunch. Maneuvering through the human traffic cones, he burst through the sliding doors like a linebacker. “Shaun!”
This time she heard him and looked his way, holding the door of a pearl-white Porsche Cayenne open. She shocked him when she closed the door and started toward him.
His hope was short-lived when Olivia appeared from the driver side of the vehicle. “Shaun, I’m parked in a no-standing zone.”
Shaun paused and replied over her shoulder, “My name is still on the building, Liv. I think it’ll be all right.”
Cole kept his own sharp response to himself and narrowed his eyes at Olivia, who scowled and got back inside the Porsche. Shaun, on the other hand, stopped walking a few feet in front of him.
“I won’t keep you,” he started. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. Sorry for everything that happened. Just … sorry.”
Her brow arched, her expression unreadable. At least she wasn’t cursing him out or kicking him off the sidewalk. “You said all that already, Cole.”
“I know.” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets, stopping himself from reaching out and grabbing her and refusing to let go. “I guess it’s like they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different outcome.” He shrugged, knowing that nothing could erase the mistakes he had made.
Shaun answered with a small smile. “I appreciate you staying on to finish what you started for Myles. He was extremely pleased the last time I spoke to him and doesn’t mind the new lead seeing the rest to completion.” Cole acknowledged the subject he didn’t give two shits about with a nod. “Well, I have to get going.” She took a step in the direction of the car and her ex.
“I hope she loves you the way you deserve.”
Shaun turned and studied him for a moment, exhaling a long breath. “Goodbye, Cole,” she said, voice trembling. He’d put that tremble there, and he would give anything and everything to take it away. Go back and makes things right from the very beginning. But he didn’t have that choice. Instead he would endure the rightful punishment. A life away from Mason. A life without Shaun.
“Goodbye, Ms. Wright.” He looked on as she stepped inside the vehicle and drove away with Olivia. If she’d intended to hurt him, she’d more than succeeded. She’d annihilated him. But in her defense, she’d appeared surprised to even see him.
Cole tugged his phone out and dialed Jake. “Hey, you all set to pick me up?”
“Mom!” Cole searched the big house frantically for his mother. “Mom!”
“Cole?” She popped her head out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She met him halfway and gave him a hug. “We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow.”
“Mom, Dad’s lumber company! What happened?” He had asked Jake to do a drive-by on the way home, needing to be reminded of what he’d hurt Shaun for, needing to know that the sacrifice remained worth it. But the Jacobson’s sign was gone and replaced with another sign – one that read HAINES & SON SUPPLY. Cooper and his family didn’t know jack shit about lumber, and from the looks of the nearly barren lumberyard, that wasn’t the intended direction of their new acquisition.
Her look of regret stood at war with her joy to see him. “Come in the kitchen. Let me get you something to eat.”
“No, just tell me. I need to know.” He pressed a palm over his heart as the pain he felt inside his chest grew sharper.
“I’ll tell you in the kitchen, Cole. I made some peach pie.” She left him behind without another word. Cole followed, dropping his bags on the floor along the way. She slid a half-full pie plate into the oven under the warmer and scooped crumbs into her hand. “Your uncle’s been threatening to sell for years but I never believed he would go through with it.” He watched her dust the crumbs into the wastebasket, wondering how she could stay so calm when inside he was a frantic mess.
“Why didn’t you stop him?” Cole asked, confused and dazed. He planted his ass on a stool, feeling his legs giving out under the heavy weight of his world crashing down on him.
“We didn’t have a choice, Cole. The loan he gave us came with conditions you didn’t know about. Clauses such as if a certain sales goal wasn’t met each year, a ridiculous sum, he had the option to sell before the profit margin shrank any further.” She frowned. Cole guessed she was able to see the anguish in his eyes. “The company meant so much to you, I would have agreed to just about anything at the time. Besides, we’d never reached the mark before, and he hadn’t followed through on his threat. I honestly thought he was just full of it. Thought the clause was just one last ‘screw you’ to his brother he’d never admit to being blindingly jealous of.”
“But then why have me promise…?” All the fractured pieces snapped into place. “He wanted me out of the way, didn’t he?” He’d kept Cole so wrapped up with Shaun and the idea of betraying her that Cole had never even thought to check on things back at the lumber company.
His mother shook her head. “I thought that maybe Robert had resigned to let you finally have Jacobson’s, your birthright. That he had summoned you to Mason to finalize that stupid deal he made you agree to.” She pulled the warmed pie out of the oven and placed a slice on a small ivory plate. “I never thought he would sink so low and sell it from under us.”
“Haines? Of all the families in Sweetwater, he sold to Haines?”
His mother nodded. “Russell Haines has been wanting that property for years. He had always envied your father growing up, and he even came calling back when your father died.”
The bastard. Cole found himself hating Cooper and his family even more.
“Why didn’t you say anything to me the weekend of the festival?” His eyes stung as if dozens of pins were pricking them from behind. Cooper must’ve known, even then, which made him sniffing around Cole even worse, having little to do with Christine like he’d thought. God, how could he be so stupid? About everything?
“I’d planned on telling you when you came home for the weekend that I suspected Robert was up to something, but you brought Shaun and, well, you both looked so happy. I didn’t want him to take any more of your joy. Not then at least. Not when you were back in the workshop doing what you love most.” She slid the pie slice in front of him. “Vanilla?”
“Vanilla, Mom? I don’t give a shit about the pie. Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand? Everything is gone. The business, Shaun… I’ve lost everything, and you’re here asking me if I want vanilla on my slice of fucking pie!” He hung his head, ashamed of blowing up at her. “I’m sorry,” he croaked, shaking his head. Embarrassed that his uncle had been right in the end – th
at he had played his role to perfection. He swallowed the lump lodged in his throat. “It’s like Dad is dying all over again.”
“Oh, honey, no.” Abandoning the carton of ice cream on the counter, his mother hurried over to him, pulling him into a tight embrace. She took a step back, holding his face in her soft, warm hands. “Your father would’ve been heartbroken to learn you were putting your dreams aside for his.” She searched his glistening eyes. “As long as that lumber company existed, you’d be willing to sacrifice anything to keep it going. Even your own future. That is not the life your father wanted for you.” She forced a smile, tears now streaking her cheeks, and dropped her hands. Cole hadn’t realized he was crying as well. “Now you can focus on what you love. All those pieces you gave to Shaun. Oh my goodness, they’re magnificent!”
“Wait, what?” he asked, confused. He wiped at his nose with the back of his hand. He hadn’t had a chance to show his mom the collection before the guys had loaded it onto the truck.
His mother grabbed the carton of vanilla ice cream again and scooped a dollop onto his pie slice. “She returned it, Cole. It all arrived yesterday.”
CHAPTER 29
Shaun pulled her Jag into the gravel parking lot and sat back against the black leather seat, head tilted, eyes closed. The car idled while she reevaluated her reasons for returning to Sweetwater. She hadn’t seen Cole in three months, and she wasn’t so sure she should even be here. Recalling the way they had said goodbye in front of what had then been Jacobson-Wright Contracting gave her little hope that he would even want to see her. Regardless, she’d come to Cole’s hometown to do a job, her most challenging thus far.
Releasing a long, uncertain breath, Shaun exited the car, grabbing her small clutch, and took a good look at the former Sweetwater Rec Center, now renovated, at the corner of Main Street and Maple. She had remembered seeing what had been a brick building on the tour Cole had given her the weekend of the Corn Festival. The one weekend she would never forget, no matter how hard she tried. The building, now wearing a custom wood and stone facade, had been an afterschool boys’ and girls’ club that had lost funding due to budget cutbacks. A place where Cole had said he and Jake had spent many afternoons playing pool. And breaking young hearts, mostly likely.
A small sign above the open door read JACOBSON RENOVATION AND DESIGN. Shaun had known Cole would be successful if he only gave himself the chance. He just needed the right backer, an experienced and savvy individual to guide him on the right path. She had even considered drawing up a proposal for him to look over, but that plan had died once the two of them had waded willingly into the personal end of the relationship pool. Shaun had always felt personal relationships complicated business ones, and in truth, theirs couldn’t be more complicated.
Done stalling, Shaun ventured inside and smiled at a familiar face on the other side of a small slab counter.
“Shaun?” Cole’s mother moved from behind the receiving desk and gave Shaun a long, rib-crushing hug. “Oh my goodness! Just look at you, beautiful as always.”
“Thank you, Becky.” Shaun inhaled the homey scent of cinnamon and squeezed the older woman back. Reluctant to release her hold, in need of all the support she could gather, Shaun only let go to say hello to the other welcoming friend, who was nudging her thigh, Jester. The exuberant collie attacked her face with wet kisses when she dropped to her knees, while she laughed and tried to keep her mouth out of striking distance. “Um, Cole here?” she asked, focusing her eyes on the dog, not confident enough in her poker face. She’d seen his truck outside in the parking lot, but decided to ask anyway. Three months was a long time. There was always the chance that he wouldn’t be alone, she thought, remembering when she’d met his ex. Shaun attempted to corral the pangs of jealousy set loose in her gut by the memory of Christine. She didn’t do jealousy. More like she’d never cared enough before to bother with the uncharacteristic emotion.
“Yeah, he’s in the rear workshop.”
Shaun mustered the strength to look up, and Becky pointed in the direction of two gray swinging doors that appeared to have once led to a kitchen. “He did a real nice job with this old lot, don’tcha think?”
“He sure did,” Shaun said with a nod, rising back up to her feet. “He was meant for this kind of work.”
“Yep,” Becky agreed. “Just like his father.” The older woman remained silent for a few solemn beats as if reflecting on her long-lost husband. “Well, I better get a move on. Carl might burn the house down if I leave him alone with dinner too long.” Becky returned to the counter and retrieved her purse. “Can you let Cole know that Pete and Carlos have left for the day and that I’ve finished closing up out here?” She reached into the tan leather satchel and produced a small set of keys, jingling her find in the air. “Also, tell him I’m taking Jester home with me.”
“Okay. I will.” Shaun chewed at her bottom lip. A nervous tick. “Thanks, Becky.”
“It really is good to see you, Shaun.” Becky gave her a hopeful smile and another quick hug, as if she could see through to Shaun’s real reasons for being there, even if Shaun chose to deny them herself.
Shaun reached down to rub Jester one last time behind his ears, then started for the swinging doors, appreciating the privacy Becky had alluded to. She wiped the undesirable perspiration from her palms onto her beige linen slacks, hoping she could somehow get her scattered emotions in check, and pushed into a cluttered space that smelled of fresh-cut wood and lacquer.
Shaun didn’t have to try hard to find the subject of her gold medal–worthy belly flips. Cole stood in front of a well-used workbench, shaving the arm of a suspended rocking chair with a smoothing plane. His jeans were dark and worn. His long-sleeve henley was off-white and threadbare around the elbows that were scrunched up high on his forearms. The work-honed muscles stood in stark relief on his sun-kissed skin with each thrust. Cole looked even better than she remembered, with a hint of scruff along his jawline and his short, dark brown hair in his typical sexy, “just rolled out of bed” style.
Shaun thought back to the first time she’d seen him at Cask in Mason, wearing much the same clothes he was wearing now. Although she’d been with Olivia then, she’d noticed him as soon as he’d strolled in and sat down at the bar wearing a confidence that surpassed his casual attire. He stood out from the usual twenty-somethings more concerned with the society who’s who scattered among the small crowd than anything else. A jagged, square-like peg in a room full of smooth, circular ones. An instant attraction to the different and unknown had made Shaun’s body tingle all over. Much in the way her body buzzed like a freshly snipped live wire now that she was again in his proximity. She had caught herself looking in his direction more than once that night, as had her ex, which subsequently led to their fight that evening and the end of their already strained relationship.
Shaun allowed herself to stare at the man who still haunted her thoughts for a few precious moments longer. These surroundings suited him much more than the office ever had. He looked happy. Satisfied. Who was to say that her being there wouldn’t ruin that for him? Hell, he could’ve already moved on, forgetting her altogether. Silencing the whispers of doubt, Shaun cleared her throat and froze when Cole realized she was standing there, his blue eyes pinning her in place, sapphire pools tugging her down into their mesmerizing undertow.
“Shaun?” he choked out, wearing an expression of shock and disbelief. Shaun’s brain short-circuited under the sudden rise of her body temperature, and she waved.
Waved? Shit, she thought, feeling too much like a schoolgirl fawning over a secret crush who’d finally looked her way. Yeah, real smooth.
“What are you doing here?” he added.
“I…” Shaun frowned, searching for the words she had rehearsed repeatedly before this crazy venture. The whole scenario had seemed a hell of a lot easier in her head. Now, not so much. Shaun had been bred, since she learned to talk, to take on a room full of professional peers ready to que
stion her every decision. But this man, this man before her now, who made her self-control come unglued at the carefully constructed seams, forced her to second-guess her every thought. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“No!” Cole threw his hands up in the air, the accompanying smile stealing the remaining breath from her lungs. “I’m glad you’re here. Really. I just didn’t expect to see you again.” He wiped sawdust from his hands on a varnish-stained towel and moved closer, cautiously, as if sudden movements would startle her into making a run for it. Shaun couldn’t challenge that line of thinking, with the way her heart threatened to break free of her chest in search of his mere contact. A sensation she hadn’t felt since the last time they’d seen each other in Mason. She had run that time, unable to conceal her true feelings from him on the sidewalk a moment longer.
“I came to give you this.” Shaun slipped her hand into her clutch and offered Cole a folded piece of paper, careful not to brush her fingers against his in the quick exchange. She longed for the feel of his warm skin, but feared one touch would fail to be enough.
She watched nervously as he unfolded the square into the original rectangle and looked up at her in confusion. “What’s this for?”
“Um…” She paused, reassessing the best way to go about this, disaster looming from all directions. “My father never expected Robert to reach the magic number for my share of the contracting firm. You see, my father’s a very shrewd businessman and insisted on acting as my council. Contrary to the whispers circulating around the office, he was only there to support me.”
Shaun wasn’t sure how much Cole knew about her father. Very little, from what she had discerned at the cocktail party her parents had hosted, and his ignorance had been an unexpected breath of fresh air. No eclipsing shadow for her to shed. Shaun loved her father very much, but she often succumbed to the pressures of being his only daughter and the expectations that came along with the relation.
“When I learned the news about the sale of Jacobson’s,” she continued, “and dug into the matter further, I realized how Robert had got his hands on that kind of money.” From Cole’s resulting wince, Shaun could see that the wounds he had incurred from the loss of his father’s company had yet to heal. “I’m sorry, Cole; I know how much your father’s business meant to you.” All too well, she thought, as she tried to ignore the residual pain from what he’d done to her. Or, more like what he thought he’d done, as a result of his uncle’s twisted schemes, in an attempt to save the beloved business.
Drawn Through You Page 24
