by Zoe York
And for her brilliant, nerdy, microscopes-and-books-are-my-crack sister too. Cori reached over and snagged Brynn’s notebook. She wrote SIX GUYS! and drew a heart and then some googly eyes. Brynn looked at the doodle and giggled slightly. Cori felt a surge of accomplishment at the sound. The idea of Brynn launching a social life was definitely fun now that Cori was thinking about it. Cori could help her with her hair and makeup. And hell, Brynn could borrow Cori’s entire night-on-the-town wardrobe. She wasn’t going to be needing it.
And there was a fourth fun thing on their father’s list. Pies. It was really hard to not have good feelings about pie.
“I don’t know, Ava,” Cori said, summoning her come-on-you-can-trust-me smile and her I-dare-you tone of voice. That smile and tone of voice had gotten Ava Carmichael out of her one-piece swimsuit and into the Gulf of Mexico bare-assed naked two years ago. “This could be an adventure.”
Ava gave her an I’m-allergic-to-adventure-remember? look. And Cori did remember. Adventures with Ava required a lot of spontaneity—i.e., not letting her think about it very long or hard—and a good amount of vodka. And proposing the plan while in a shoe store was even better. Preferably Gucci, but Louis Vuitton worked too. Shoe stores were about the only place on the planet where Ava Carmichael was at all frivolous and out of control. This alcohol-less meeting in a conference room that reminded Ava she was responsible and in charge was really working against this whole idea.
“What’s this thing about a pie shop?” Cori asked Evan. “We have to open one?”
Evan had been watching her and Ava and Brynn quietly. Seemingly just studying their reactions and interactions. Now he leaned in again. “It’s your dad’s shop. He wants you to take over running it. As a team. You each have something particular to be in charge of.”
“Our dad’s shop?” Cori repeated. “You mean like a huge pie company that distributes to restaurants and grocery stores nationally or something, right?” The word “shop” brought to mind a quaint little place with a glass display case and chalkboard menu and air that smelled like cinnamon and sugar.
Evan shook his head. “No, it’s just a little shop on Main Street. He made a few pies a week and mostly served them to his friends.”
Cori stared at him as Main Street echoed in her head. There was a Main Street in Bliss. A slide show of Norman Rockwell paintings suddenly flashed through her mind. “Our dad, Rudolph A. Carmichael, CEO of Carmichael Enterprises, billionaire, owned a pie shop in Bliss, Kansas?” Cori asked. “Where he made the pies. And had friends.” Cori wasn’t sure that she knew of anyone she would have called her father’s friend. He had a lot of acquaintances. Tons of business colleagues. Hundreds of employees. But friends? She couldn’t think of one.
Evan nodded. “Yes.”
And for the life of her, Cori could not picture Rudy in a kitchen even making a sandwich, not to mention making a pie. “Why?” That was maybe not the most important question at that moment but…it was really the one she was most fascinated with.
“Well, there was nowhere else to get pie in town,” Evan said. “And it was his favorite dessert. So he decided to solve the problem by opening his own shop.”
That made sense. She supposed. And pie was her father’s favorite food. She hadn’t known that. She had no idea what her father’s favorite…anything…was. A stab of sorrow hit her in the chest again.
“And he must have really loved the town.” She hadn’t been expecting to say that but it seemed clear. If he’d found a place that made him happy, where he’d been content to run a pie shop versus a worldwide conglomerate, and where he’d had friends, that really was nice. Strange. But nice. And now he wanted his daughters to know this place. Hell, that was almost fatherly.
Evan didn’t respond immediately, but after a second, he shifted and sat forward in his chair. “Bliss was very important to your father,” he said. “He felt that living in the town changed him, for the better.” Evan removed his glasses and took a deep breath. “Rudy had a lot of regrets at the end. The cancer progressed very quickly, and he realized that he had run out of time to say all of this to you himself. He believed that living in Bliss would help you see and learn the things he did and that this was the only way to get you there and for you to really give it a chance.”
Cori couldn’t respond right away. The words “cancer” and “a lot of regrets” and “at the end”, and hearing them from Evan with that note of gruffness in his voice, made Cori’s throat feel tight.
“That means his dying wish was for us to move to Bliss, for a year, and make pies,” Brynn finally said. She looked at Cori and Ava. “Together.”
“It was,” Evan said.
Cori groaned internally. Brynn had to use the term “dying wish” didn’t she? And yet the “together” made Cori’s heart thump just as hard. She glanced down at the note again. Number one was Move to Bliss. 1 year. Live in house together.
Together was underlined in red.
And that part suddenly didn’t seem crazy either. A little scary, for sure. Twelve months straight with her sisters was a big commitment for Cori. There were a lot of things she could screw up in that amount of time. But…Ava and Brynn would have to stay there with her anyway. Maybe that had been part of Rudy’s thinking too.
“This is just all so over-the-top,” Brynn said softly. “It’s like you’re talking about a stranger rather than our dad. He never did anything…dramatic.”
Maybe once you knew you were dying, you started not caring as much that your actions might be perceived as a little over-the-top. Cori felt her heart thump again with the thought.
Over-the top was her specialty. It was how she did most things. So there was something else she and her father had in common. Now. Ironic, that. His demands of perfection and her tendency to overdo and not respect limits and rules had always been a wedge between them. And now he was the one doing something crazy. Well, she supposed it made sense that she was the one thinking they should go ahead with the whole thing.
Evan rubbed a hand over his face and for a flash, Cori thought really hot before he pushed his chair back and got to his feet. Evan stepped around the corner of the conference table, and Cori was again distracted for a moment. He was tall, probably six-two, his jeans fit very nicely, and she couldn’t help but notice the way his arms and shoulder muscles flexed against the dress shirt as he tucked his hands into the front pockets of those jeans. And he was wearing tennis shoes. Had a pair of tennis shoes ever touched the carpet in this office before? But she quickly decided no way. And this guy clearly didn’t give a crap. She might not normally be attracted to a guy in glasses who studied and practiced law, no doubt surrounded by leather-bound books and fountain pens, but she was definitely a sucker for guys who didn’t give a crap.
“I didn’t know Rudy prior to his car breaking down in Bliss five years ago,” Evan said, his voice low and even. “All I knew was the eccentric, funny, incredibly generous man who came into my friend’s diner looking for a mechanic and a cup of coffee. He got both. The cup of coffee from my best friend, Parker, and the best mechanic in four counties, my buddy Noah. All he got from me was some conversation, but it was enough to forge a friendship. Over the three days it took Noah to fix Rudy’s Cadillac, Rudy fell in love with my town. I had no idea that he was rich until he came to me asking for help with his trust. For four and a half years, he was just this goofy guy who made everyone smile and treated Bliss like it was his hometown.” Evan’s voice got a little gruff. “He was a friend of mine. Someone I watched die with regrets. Someone I miss every single day. Someone who, in the last couple of months, wished he could have done a lot of things differently, especially with his daughters. I tried to talk him out of some of this stuff. But in the end, when he asked me if I would be sure that you all knew the things he wished he’d said to you and shown you himself, I couldn’t say anything but yes. Which means, I’m here to be sure that you all know exactly what he wanted and why.”
Wow.
The man was nerdy hot, was from small-town Kansas, and had worn blue jeans to an important meeting on Madison Avenue. But in that moment, Cori realized that he was absolutely going to be sure that her father got his way. And that determination was very attractive. She also admired his defense of someone he considered a friend. Even if it was her father. Funny? Generous? Goofy? How could this be the same Rudy Carmichael who had said “Seriously, Cori?” more times than she’d ever heard him say anything else?
“Dad was paying more attention than we ever thought,” Cori said.
Evan’s expression softened slightly. “He loved you all very much. He realized he hadn’t done a good job of being there for you, but he paid very close attention, especially over the past few years. He did a lot of soul searching, and talking with…local counselors.”
“He saw a therapist?” Cori asked. That might have been the biggest shock of all.
“Well, he had coffee every morning with a group of guys who were fathers and grandfathers and involved in their children’s lives in ways he never was,” Evan said.
Then his lips turned up in a half smile that was full of humor and affection, and Cori felt a little tingle. Dang.
“So a bunch of old guys in Kansas helped him see what a crappy father he was?” Cori asked.
“Pretty much,” Evan agreed. His smile grew bigger. And her panties grew warmer.
“Alright,” Ava interrupted, clearly out of patience. “Is that everything?”
Evan looked over at her, almost as if he’d forgotten she was there. He nodded. “It is. In a nutshell. You have the documents.”
“I do.” Ava turned on her heel and started for the door. “And I’m calling my lawyer. Dad was clearly out of his mind. Maybe it was the chemo or the cancer or whatever but I’m going to have Kevin look into his medical records and figure out a way—”
“Miss Carmichael.”
Cori didn’t know if Ava paused because she was surprised by Evan’s tone of voice or because the low, firm, I’m-in-charge-here quality had sent goose bumps skittering over her body the way it had Cori’s, but Ava stopped with her hand on the doorknob.
“Yes, Mr. Stone?” Ava asked, finally turning back stiffly.
“It would be in your best interest to understand a couple of things before you contact your attorney.” Evan hadn’t shifted his posture a bit, but his expression was now one of fierce determination.
Ava crossed her arms. “And what are those?”
“The first is that I took my job with your father very seriously and, while I may not have agreed with everything he wanted to do, my job was to make this trust what he wanted it to be. You are free, of course, to have your attorney look it over, but I can promise you that this document is well constructed and not something that you’ll be able to have overturned.”
Ava swallowed hard but didn’t say anything.
“The next thing you need to know is that I am fully prepared to take the stand in a court of law and testify that he was of sound mind when he wrote it. As will a number of people in Bliss, including his physician, our Mayor, and a district judge. His mind was absolutely not impaired by his cancer or his treatment, and while I understand that you all had a complicated relationship with him, I won’t allow you, or anyone else, to disparage him.”
Cori shifted in her chair. Damn. That was hot too. She didn’t often see people taking Ava down a peg, and typically she would have rushed to put herself between one of her sisters and anyone who dared challenge them. However, Evan was right. Ava was frustrated and Cori got that, but going after their father’s mental capacity because she didn’t like what he’d mandated in his trust was low.
“And finally,” Evan said when Ava took a breath that might have been fueling a heated response, “I think I should point out that the time frame in your father’s trust doesn’t begin until you and your sisters move into the residence in Bliss. Which means that if you take several weeks, or even months, questioning this document or the stipulations within, and then realize that you are, indeed, bound to it, you are only prolonging the time it will take for you to resolve the terms and claim your inheritance. So it seems to me,” he said, lifting a shoulder, “that your best move here is just to get your butt to Bliss and get this all over with.”
No one said anything for several ticks.
Then Ava raised her chin slightly and said, “Thank you for making all of that so clear, Mr. Stone. But if you’ll excuse me, I would like to consult with someone who is perhaps a bit more objective about the situation.”
Cori watched Evan. It looked like he tensed his jaw, but finally he gave Ava a nod. “Fine.”
“Fine,” Ava agreed. Then she again turned on her three-inch, seven-hundred-dollar heel, jerked the door open, and then shut it quietly behind her.
Wow, that right there was a really good example of how Cori and her sisters were different. Ava would shut a door firmly, but quietly, always the picture of poise and professionalism. Brynn would never stomp out of a room in the first place. And Cori would absolutely have slammed that thing. Maybe after a good, loud, “Fuck you.”
Chapter 2
After a moment, Brynn sighed and got to her feet. “I’ll go check on her,” she said.
Cori nodded. She’d been expecting that. Brynn disappeared through the door and Cori turned her attention back to Evan Stone. He’d rounded the table and was gathering his papers.
“You’re leaving?” she asked, pushing up from her chair.
He looked up. “I’m happy to answer any questions you have. I can review anything we covered before you got here.”
Cori thought about that. Then glanced at Rudy’s note again. “I think I’m clear on everything, actually.”
“You sure?”
Rudy’s three main objectives were crystal clear. “Yep, I’m good.”
“Okay, then.” Evan tucked a manila folder into the leather briefcase that looked like it had been taken out of the box that morning.
“They’re not planning to buy furs coats or build a vacation house in Vienna or anything, you know,” she said. For some reason, she felt compelled to make Evan Stone understand Ava’s and Brynn’s motivations. Provided Ava’s attorneys couldn’t undo the entire thing in the end. And the idea that they might actually get out of this sent a stupid twinge of disappointment pinging through her. She was definitely going to ignore that.
Evan gave her one of those half smiles. “Really? Rudy mentioned something about Brynn wanting a private jet.”
“Only because it would make it easier to travel with her research and teaching,” Cori said quickly. “And he probably also said that Ava has a limo, but that’s so she can work while she’s commuting. She never stops. Even on the way to the symphony or an art show, she’s on the phone or her computer.”
Evan’s smile went from half to full, and Cori cursed herself for loving it.
“I know all of that. I’m just pushing your buttons.”
Cori crossed her arms. She didn’t have many buttons, but her sisters—and anyone’s criticism of either of them—was definitely one of them. “Ava doesn’t want the money for limos and shoes. She thinks that heading up this company is the only way to ensure security and safety for us long-term. She wants me to be able to travel and Brynn to be able to continue her research and our mother to continue her charity work.”
“She thinks money can buy happiness?” Evan asked. He stood at the end of the conference table, his shiny had-to-be-new briefcase in one hand, the other tucked into the front pocket of the blue jeans that molded to his body in a way that said they definitely were not new.
Cori shook her head, pulling her thoughts away from the fact that she really liked a guy in blue jeans. “She knows that money can buy security and that the ability to pursue goals and dreams without limitation can lead to happiness.”
“Ah.”
Cori frowned. “This company’s money allows my mother to fundraise for nonprofit organizations.”
In fact, their father had provided their mother, Jennifer, with enough money to take care of Cori and her sisters and to continue her nonprofit work long before Ava had taken over at Carmichael Enterprises. Their mom and Rudy had never been married. They’d met at a fundraiser and he’d swept Jennifer, his junior by almost fifteen years, off her feet and into a love affair that had resulted in a pregnancy. With triplets. But he’d never been able to talk her into walking down the aisle. They’d always been friendly though, and Cori could admit that the way he’d respected and supported their mom had made it easier for Cori to like him. She’d often wondered if her mom was the one that got away for Rudy. He’d never had a serious relationship after her. At least that Cori knew of.
“It also lets Brynn to do life-saving research without politics and policies getting in the way of her funding,” Cori went on. “They are literally working to make the world a better place with Ava’s support.”
“Ah.”
What did that mean? “What they’re doing is important. And it’s important to Ava to know that we’re all taken care of. She’s very protective of all of us.”
“I see.”
Okay, this was getting annoying. Even with his sexy smiles and his well-fitted blue jeans, Evan Stone was beginning to irritate her.
“This company isn’t just about making money to have money,” Cori insisted. “It’s about the things that money can help accomplish.”
“And what about you?” Evan asked.
“What about me?” But she knew what he meant.
“What’s your role in this make-the-world-better machine?”
Well, Cori did give money away. By the tens of thousands. And she had a lot of causes that could benefit from her share of twelve-and-a-half billion dollars. But no one knew that. Not even Ava. And Cori loved her even more because she supported Cori even thinking that all Cori was doing was partying her way around the world. That was part of why she kept those details to herself. Was it a way of testing the people who said they loved her because she’d had a father that she could never please? Well, that’s what her shrink said.
