“Can I come over?” The minute she opened her mouth to speak, the tears threatened again. She fought to keep them from her voice. If she was going to break down again, it would be in his arms, and not before.
“Uh, sure. I’ll warn you that I’m not very good company, but you’re welcome to come by. I thought you were with your mom tonight.”
Georgia swallowed the lump that had lodged in her throat. “Change of plans.”
“I’ll be here. See you soon.”
She hung up the phone and set it back on the table. She conscientiously put all the perishable groceries away, leaving the pantry goods in the bag. Then she armed her home security system in case her mother returned for more, and headed to Carson’s place. Tonight she couldn’t face the “L,” so she hailed a cab instead.
“Come on in, Georgia,” he called as she knocked on the door. She slipped inside and closed the door behind her. “I’m in the exercise room!” he said just as she wondered where he was.
Georgia hadn’t known he had an exercise room, but she followed the sound of his voice down the hallway. There she found him in nothing but a pair of shorts and some boxing gloves. He was covered in sweat and wailing angrily on a punching bag hung from the ceiling.
She watched him for a few minutes. She kept expecting him to stop since she was here. To ask what was wrong. To console her. But he kept punching until exhaustion took over and his forehead dropped against the bag.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“We were supposed to meet with Sutton and his daughters today,” he explained as he ripped the Velcro open to pull off his gloves. “He stood us up.”
She knew that wasn’t entirely true, but she couldn’t tell him that. She had to pretend that she didn’t know. “Sutton wasn’t there?”
“No,” he said, throwing the gloves into the corner. “They said he was sick, which just confirms what you told me. But how sick could he be? He met with you the other day hoping for a piece of tail, but when he’s supposed to meet with his own sons, he can’t do it?”
Sutton had deteriorated pretty quickly. He was sicker than anyone could’ve guessed. “I’m not surprised. I told you he looked terrible.”
“Don’t defend him,” Carson snapped.
Georgia flinched at his sharp criticism. Carson was completely spun up. She’d never seen him like this before. He was always fairly calm and collected, but the news about Sutton really seemed to have rattled him. “Did you meet with Eve?”
He nodded. “Eve and Grace. They weren’t very receptive to our plan, but I didn’t expect them to be. They weren’t very receptive to me being their brother, either, as though I’d wrecked their parents’ marriage by existing. Like I had anything to do with it! I just… I think this whole thing is going to blow up in our faces. Mom was right. We were better off without having our father in our lives. He was a bastard then and he’s a bastard now. Nothing has changed on that front.”
Georgia didn’t have much to add on that note. She could tell that beneath all the blustering, he was really disappointed. The little boy deep inside had hoped his father and sisters would welcome him, just as she’d hoped her mother would be there for her. For all the good it did them. “You should give Sutton a chance to be your father. Maybe you’ll be surprised by how it turns out.”
Carson snatched a towel off the folded stack nearby and rubbed his face with it. “I sincerely doubt that. The man can’t be trusted. I don’t want you meeting with him anymore,” he said.
“What? Why? I thought you wanted me to continue getting information for you.”
“No. It isn’t worth it. I don’t want you anywhere near him. I don’t want to be anywhere near him, either. I just can’t believe this.” Carson dropped down onto the weight bench and shook his head. “I never should’ve dug through my mother’s things. I was better off not knowing the truth.”
“You can’t go back and change the past. All you can do is make the most of what’s done.”
Carson made an annoyed hrmph sound and slung the towel around his neck as he stood up. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not talk about this anymore. It will ruin the whole evening.” He walked up to Georgia and gave her a kiss as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “What’s going on with you? You said you were going to be with your mom tonight.”
Georgia’s gaze dropped to his bare chest as she nodded. “Yeah, that was the plan. But when I got home from work, I found that my mom is gone.”
Carson’s brow furrowed into a frown. “You mean she left early?”
“You could say that. You could also say that while I was at work, she robbed me to buy drugs and ran off.”
* * *
Carson eased back so he could look her in the eye. Certainly he hadn’t heard her right. “What?”
Georgia just shook her head as he pulled her tightly into his arms. “You were right all along,” she said as she started to sob against his bare skin. “I thought she really wanted to be a part of my life, but she was just using me. I feel so stupid for falling for this.”
Carson stroked her hair as he held her close. “I’m sorry, Georgia. I didn’t want to be right. I’d hoped I was wrong. Are you sure that she wasn’t just out somewhere? Maybe she went to another AA meeting?”
“Yes, I’m sure. There was no need for her to take my iPad, emergency cash and all my jewelry for an AA meeting. She destroyed my bedroom looking for stuff she could sell. She’s not coming back. And if she did, I’d turn her away.”
All Carson could do was hold her. He couldn’t make her mother a better person or erase what she’d done to her daughter. He could only be here for her now.
Georgia finally pulled away, rubbing the tears away from her cheeks and creating black streaks of mascara across her pale skin. “I’m sorry to just fall apart like that. Excuse me for a minute. I’ve cried all my mascara off. I’m going to run to the restroom and clean up a bit.”
Carson nodded. “Okay. How about I pour us some wine and order a pizza? I think we both need a little alcohol and cheese tonight.”
“That sounds great. Thanks.”
He watched her disappear down the hallway to the powder room. Then he went to the kitchen to open some wine and dig out the pizza-delivery flyer. Georgia’s giant purse was sitting on the stack of papers he needed to search through. Since the day she’d interviewed, he’d been curious about what she had in that thing. His life fit in a wallet. What could she possibly need to carry around with her all the time?
When he lifted the straps to move the bag aside, curiosity got the best of him, and he leaned forward to peek at what she kept in there. It was hard to make out much, but he did see a white envelope with his name written on it. He knew he shouldn’t do it, but he reached inside and pulled it out. When he opened the envelope, he found a check inside from Sutton. For twenty million dollars. It was made out to the Cynthia Newport Memorial Hospital for Children fund. Carson almost couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
“What kind of pizz—?” Georgia stopped when she saw what was in his hand. “Did you snoop in my bag?”
“I picked it up to move it and saw this envelope with my name on it. What the hell is this about?”
“It’s a check for the hospital,” she said, snatching her purse from his hands. “I told you that Sutton was going to make a donation.”
Carson scanned the check again and shook his head. Why had he given so much? And how long had she been holding on to it? “When did Sutton give you this check?”
Georgia frowned and her gaze dropped from his to the check in his hands. “This afternoon.”
“Wait…you saw Sutton today? After he stood us all up for our meeting?”
She nodded. “He asked me to come out to his home to pick it up.”
“And you didn’t think to mention that to me b
efore? You were supposed to tell me when you were going to see him. Going to his house isn’t very safe, Georgia.”
“You weren’t around to tell. Anyway, I was going to give you that as soon as I saw you next, but I completely forgot about it with everything that happened with my mother. So here you go. He asked me to give that to you.”
He wouldn’t even meet his own son face-to-face, but he’d asked Georgia to come all the way out to his mansion just to give her a check? Something didn’t seem right with any of this. “What did you guys talk about?”
“You, mostly.”
Carson chuckled bitterly. “So he’d rather talk about me with you than actually see me or spend time with me now that he knows I’m his son?”
Georgia looked genuinely pained by his words. “You know, I don’t think he’s the villain you’ve made him out to be. All you know about him is what your mother told you and what you’ve learned from your cutthroat business dealings. I really think you need to spend time with him and form your own opinion.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s your father, Carson. You should at least give him a chance to be one to you.”
“Yes, because that plan worked out so well for you and your mother.” Carson snapped. It was a low blow, but he didn’t care. She didn’t understand what she was asking of him.
“I don’t regret it, though. Yes, it didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, but at least I tried. I learned more about my past and my family—things I never would’ve known if I hadn’t taken the chance. Yes, it cost me some personal belongings and some emotional pain, but it was worth it. You won’t even give Sutton the chance.”
After everything that had happened with her mother, and after Georgia had been at his side through all the drama with Sutton, Carson couldn’t fathom why she would encourage him to spend time with his father. “I don’t understand why you’re pushing so hard for this. Whose side are you on, anyway?”
“I’m on your side, of course. Your situation with Sutton is different from mine with my mother. You’ve got a better shot at making this work. I would just hate for you to miss the opportunity to have a relationship with your father. That’s what you’ve always wanted, right? You’ve lost so much time already. Every moment you can have with him is precious.”
Sutton had said something to her. He’d woven some sob story to lure her over to his side, because she’d never stood up for him like this before. Did twenty million buy her loyalties? “What did he say to you today? What’s changed?”
Georgia looked at him with conflict lining her eyes. “I can’t tell you.”
“You can’t or you just won’t? Where do your loyalties lie, Georgia? It sounds like you’re choosing Sutton over me.”
She gave him an indignant frown and crossed her arms over her chest. “I am not choosing Sutton over you. I want you. I only want you. I just care for you very much, and I know how important this is.”
“If you cared for me, you’d tell me what he said,” Carson stated.
“I can’t. I gave my word that I wouldn’t tell anyone before he got to talk to everyone, including you. I’m telling you this much because I care and I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret later. You’re going to have to trust me on this.”
“Trust you? How can I trust you when you’ve been spending so much time with him under the guise of being a spy? When my corporate rival sends me a check for twenty million dollars with you as the only courier he trusts? Am I not right to get a little suspicious?”
Georgia’s eyes widened. “Twenty million dollars?”
Was she really surprised? “What? You didn’t know how much he’d written it for? Certainly he didn’t give me this much out of the kindness of his heart. This had to be some kind of payment, like you’ve earned every penny on your back.”
Georgia gasped, her mouth dropping open in surprise. “That’s a hateful thing to say, Carson. My dedication to your mother’s charity only goes so far. I have not, nor would I ever, have something to do with Sutton outside business.”
“Why else would he give me that much? Does he have a sudden fondness for sick children?” He shook his head and put the check on the counter. “I guess I should give you a raise for going above and beyond for the company. Not everyone at the Newport Corporation has that much dedication to their job.”
* * *
Georgia stumbled back as though he’d struck her. It truly felt as though he had. She reached out for the counter to stabilize herself and gather her wits. “You can take that raise and shove it, along with the job, Mr. Newport. I thought we really had something, but I was being naive. You’ve spent your whole life thinking you aren’t good enough and didn’t deserve a woman’s love, so you wouldn’t know it if it bit you. You’d rather push me away, so fine. Your wish is granted. If you can’t trust me, then we don’t have anything. I didn’t go behind your back and I didn’t sleep with your father. I don’t want to be with someone, or work for someone, who could ever think otherwise.”
His brow raised in surprise. “You’re quitting?”
“Yes. I think I am.”
Carson crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “Are you going to run back to Sutton and beg for that job he offered you?”
“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer. I knew it was a bad idea to get involved with you. I shouldn’t have let my emotions rule my head. Lesson learned.”
Turning on her heel, she marched out of Carson’s apartment. Angry tears streamed down her cheeks as she exited the building and stopped at the street corner to wait for the light. She pulled a tissue out of her purse and blew her nose. She was getting tired of crying.
The day had started out so well. She’d been basking in her newly discovered love for Carson and her budding relationship with her mother. And now, only twelve hours later, she had nothing—including a reason to stay around Chicago. She needed a break from this town.
Raising her arm to hail a taxi, she climbed inside one as it stopped at the curb.
“Where to?” he asked.
“O’Hare Airport.”
Georgia wanted someone who would listen to her. She couldn’t count on her mother or her lover for that. The only person she could count on, the only person she’d ever been truly able to trust, was her old social worker, Sheila. She gave the best advice in the world and maybe, just maybe, she could help Georgia sort her way out of his mess.
TWELVE
Carson sat on his couch, staring at his silent cell phone. It had been three days since Georgia walked out, and there hadn’t been the slightest sign of her. He didn’t think she would call, not really. After everything that had happened that night, he expected her to tuck her tail and go running back to Sutton. He did, however, expect her to at least show up at work to pack up her things.
So far, her office remained dark and untouched. He could’ve had Rebecca pack it for her, but frankly, he was hoping she would change her mind about quitting. They had no business dating, but she was still a damn good PR person, and it would be hard to replace her. He needed to remind himself of this exact moment if he ever looked at another employee with interest again.
He was just about to set his phone back on the coffee table when it rang in his hand. It was Graham’s ringtone, not Georgia’s.
“Yes?” he answered.
“I have news,” Graham said. “Sutton has called a meeting for tomorrow. We’re all to be there, but he didn’t elaborate on why.”
“I suppose he’ll show up for his own meeting,” Carson said bitterly. As he said it, he was reminded of what Georgia had said to him—that Sutton was waiting to make some kind of announcement that she couldn’t share with him. This must be it, although Carson couldn’t fathom what it could be about. Bringing all the kids together seemed like a recipe for disaster. “Do you think Eve w
as able to talk him into changing the will?”
“I have no idea. If she did, I’ve underestimated her, because she’s worked a miracle in days.”
“Will we get the test results back before we meet with them?” The paternity test on the twins was being run a second time, and they expected to hear from the lab any day now.
“Who knows? Maybe that’s what Sutton is anticipating. If he knows we’re his sons and the test is just a formality, he may be tired of fighting and ready to just accept us even without the results back. I’ll let Rebecca know to put it on our calendars for tomorrow.”
If Sutton was about to deliver the news that Georgia had hinted at, it would be big. Big enough that she couldn’t tell him despite how many times he demanded she do it. “Okay,” he replied after an extended silence.
The line was quiet for a moment. “Carson, what’s wrong?”
Carson had deliberately not mentioned the blowup with Georgia to his brothers. They had enough to worry about with Sutton. They didn’t need his relationship drama on top of the task of finding a new PR director to handle the hospital promotions.
“Is it Georgia?” Graham pressed. “I noticed she wasn’t in the office today. She hasn’t quit to go work for Sutton, has she?”
Carson couldn’t avoid the topic any longer. “She has quit, but I don’t know where’s she’s gone.”
“What happened?”
“This crap with Sutton happened, and when she said some things I didn’t like, I lashed out at her. Then she quit.”
“Sorry, man. I guess that’s why you don’t date coworkers. When you break up, it impacts everything else. Should I have HR open a requisition for a new PR person?”
“Not yet,” Carson said, although he really didn’t know why. The odds were that Georgia was not coming back. He certainly wouldn’t after what was said between them. “Give it a few days,” he suggested. “Let’s deal with Sutton’s meeting and the fallout from that first.”
One fire at a time.
Saying Yes to the Boss (Dynasties: The Newports) Page 13
