Up Close and Personal

by Maureen Child

  “Well,” her sister, Georgia, spoke up from the kitchen table. “That was dignified.”

  Laura poured herself a cup of coffee, then carried it across the room to take the chair opposite her sister. “I wasn’t going for dignified.”

  “Luckily.”

  She already knew Georgia’s opinion on the whole situation with Ronan—namely, Never mix business with pleasure—and she really didn’t want to go into it all again. Laura avoided her sister’s all-too-perceptive stare by sliding her own gaze around the comfortable kitchen.

  The soft yellow walls combated the gray day outside. White appliances gleamed and the black granite countertops shone like obsidian. The chrome-and-glass table sat before a bay window that overlooked the backyard where the few trees stood nearly bare in the autumn weather.

  Georgia tapped her finger against the glass tabletop until Laura finally looked at her.

  “Georgia, I’m not going to talk about this.”

  “Fine,” her sister said, setting her computer tablet down and flipping the lid over the screen. “I’ll talk. You listen. Did you really think Ronan wasn’t going to show up demanding his dog back?”

  “Of course not.” Beneath the table, Beast dropped to the floor, laying his heavy body across the tops of her feet. His heavy, solid warmth was a balm. “I knew he would come.”

  And a part of her had been anticipating seeing him again. Even though she knew it was useless. That they didn’t have a future together. That he had ended their amazingly hot affair before they could get too involved. None of that seemed to matter. He had been pretty much completely on her mind from the moment she had met him.

  “And your solution to this problem is to hold his dog hostage?”

  “Not his dog anymore. Sean brought him to me, remember?”

  “Yes. To hold for Ronan until he got back.” Georgia picked up her coffee and leaned back in her chair.

  Georgia’s blond hair was a more subtle shade than Laura’s and cut into a short swing that ended at her jawline. Her eyes were a darker blue, her body curvier and her heart a little more hardened. But she was loyal to the bone and Laura’s best friend as well as her sister.

  “What’s this really about, Laura? Are you trying to get back at Ronan?” She cradled her cup between her hands. “Teach him a lesson? Hurt him like he did you when he broke up with you?”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” she said, a little stung that Georgia would think she could. “Besides, he didn’t hurt me. I always knew that affair would end.”

  “Sure, but it’s better to be the ender not the endee.”

  In spite of everything Laura laughed a little. “Those are not even words.”

  “They should be,” Georgia said with a quick grin. “Anyway, I’m just saying, this is not only about the Beast and you know it. The least you could do is admit it.”

  Why should she? Laura frowned, opened her laptop and pushed the power button. The fan whirred and lights flashed as the computer hummed to life. And while she waited, she thought about what Georgia had said. Maybe it did sting to know that Ronan could end their affair so easily and then just walk away without a backward glance. Maybe it had hurt to know that he hadn’t felt what she had. Maybe she still experienced a twinge of pain at all she had lost in the last couple of months.

  But she had her home. Her sister. And now, a dog. What more could she ask for, really? If a little voice inside whispered How about love? She ignored it. Laura had tried love, and it hadn’t worked out. Then she’d tried a hot and sexy, no-strings-attached affair with Ronan and that hadn’t worked, either.

  “Maybe it’s time to consider a convent,” she mused.

  “Yeah,” Georgia said on a short laugh. “Because you do so well with authority.”

  Frowning at her sister, Laura was forced to concede that Georgia had a point. After all, if she did well taking orders, she would still be working for Manny Toledo’s real estate office instead of trying to build an empire of her own with Georgia.

  Beast snored from under the table and Laura smiled even as a trickle of guilt rippled through her before she deliberately squashed it. Ronan just didn’t want to admit that she was right, that Beast would be better off with her.

  “This is all his fault,” she murmured. “Yes, he owns Beast. But that’s not enough. A dog needs someone to love. To count on. Ronan can’t go flying off around the world and expect everything to be right there waiting for him when he gets back.”

  “Uh-huh. And we both know you’re not really talking about the dog.”

  She frowned at her sister. The more she thought about it, the more certain she became that she was doing the right thing. Beast needed more than Ronan could provide and besides, the dog had become a part of her life. She loved him, and she wasn’t going to give him up.

  As she’d had to give up too much already.

  For a moment or two, her heart ached and the sting of tears filled her eyes. But she blinked them back and lifted her chin. It was done, and maybe some dreams shouldn’t come into reality anyway. Besides, she had a home she loved, her sister to share it with and a business that she and Georgia were working hard to grow.

  Speaking of…

  “Can we just talk about work?” Laura deliberately avoided looking at Georgia, by staring instead at the laptop screen going through its wake-up routine.

  “Okay then, we’ll do a little more avoidance therapy.”

  “Appreciate it.” Laura was grateful for the reprieve.

  “So,” Georgia said. “Our beloved landlord is jacking the rent up in six months—”

  “What?”

  “But, he’s also offered to lower the price if we still want to buy the building.”

  “Hike the rent and lower his selling price? How does that make sense?”

  “It doesn’t,” Georgia agreed. “But as long as he’s in charge, he can pretty much do what he wants. And our lease is up in six months, so…”

  It felt good to get her mind off of Ronan, if only for a few minutes. Together, she and Georgia owned A Brand New Page real estate office and rented a small building on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. The rent was astonishing, but that area of Orange County was renowned for high rents. To sell the kinds of homes Laura and Georgia specialized in, they had to be in the center of it all.

  “Why’s he willing to lower the price on the building?”

  “Got me,” Georgia admitted with a shrug. “But the market’s down and he knows it. Plus, his wife wants to move to Montana to be closer to their grandchildren.”

  Their own parents had up and moved to the wilds of Oregon five years ago, Laura remembered and wistfully almost envied them the courage it took to pack up and go. To discover new places, see new things. But she was rooted in California and couldn’t see herself living anywhere else.

  “So all we need is a giant down payment.”

  “Yes,” Georgia agreed wryly. “That’s all.”

  “Okay, won’t be easy, but if we really work the next few months, we should be able to swing it. I could take out a second on this place and—”

  “No.” Georgia spoke up fast and firm. “That’s crazy, Laura. You’re not going to risk your home for this.”

  “Our home,” she corrected.

  “Thanks for that, but I still say no. We’ll find another way.”

  Thankfully, even in a bad housing market, there were always a handful of people looking for upscale homes. Enough of those commissions and they’d be able to manage it.

  “Okay then, we’ll find a way to make it work.”

  “Now see,” Georgia said, catching her sister’s eye, “why is it you can be positive about our prospects for getting enough money together to buy the building but not about Ronan?”

  “Can we not?” She stared down at her laptop, willing the darn thing to boot up already. Why did it take so long? She could be typing, entering information, focusing on work and more able to shut out Georgia’s questions.

  “
I’m supposed to be the cynical one,” her sister pointed out. “I am the one with the loser ex-husband. The one who had to move in with you when she got divorced because said loser took everything out of our bank accounts on his way out of town with Busty the Cheerleader.”

  Laura laughed shortly at the description. It was dead-on. Georgia’s ex-husband had been a football coach at a small college in Ohio. Two years ago, when their season ended, the beloved coach and the head cheerleader—who also happened to be the Page sisters’ distant cousin—ran off to Hawaii, taking every cent out of a joint account and most of Georgia’s self-confidence.

  It had taken her sister a while to work her way through the betrayal and the humiliation of being tossed aside. But finally, the Page family temper had come in handy and Georgia had finally gotten angry. Much easier to live with than feeling sad—as Laura knew all too well.

  “So,” Georgia said, “I know why I don’t trust men in the slightest. But my question is, are you ragging on Ronan because of what Thomas did to you?”

  Thomas Banks. Her ex-fiancé. Five years ago, she had lost a dream, but it was so long ago now, that she barely remembered why she had thought herself in love with the man anyway.

  “No. This is different. Thomas was supposed to be forever—well, until he broke up with me in favor of Dana—”

  “May she’ll go blind from the sun glinting off that tacky huge ring he bought her,” Georgia put in.

  “Good image, thanks!” Laura took a deep breath. “Anyway, losing Thomas didn’t really hurt, Georgia. I don’t think I ever loved him and he deserved better.”

  “So did you,” Georgia put in.

  Smiling, Laura said, “And I shouldn’t let myself be hurt by Ronan, either. I knew going in that he was just temporary. He’s danger. I’m cozy. I’m stay at home, he’s adventure. Never the twain is going to meet or whatever.”

  “And yet, you kept his dog.”

  There was that small ping of guilt again. Especially when she recalled the dumbfounded expression on Ronan’s face when she refused to hand the dog over. “Well, it wasn’t Beast’s fault who his owner was.”

  “Was?”

  Beast whined in his sleep, and Laura reached a hand down to pat him. “Beast is mine now, and he’s going to stay mine.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  She’d need it. Yes, Ronan had left, but he’d be back. Laura knew that. Ronan Connelly didn’t accept defeat. Ever. Ronan was the kind of man who made things happen to suit himself. He had built his company into the premier private security business in the world. He traveled by private jet. Knew the famous and the infamous and swept through life with the confidence of a gladiator.

  Which was both attractive and annoying. Impossible to have a good argument with a man who never thought he was wrong.

  “This isn’t really about the dog anyway,” Georgia reminded her softly, “and we both know it.”

  Laura’s gaze flicked to her sister’s, and she braced herself. She didn’t want to talk about this.

  But Georgia was too stubborn to let it go.

  “You can’t blame him for something he didn’t even know about.”

  “I’m not blaming him,” Laura countered, though a part of her did, as ridiculous as that sounded. “I’m really not. Ronan’s in the past, that’s all. That affair of ours had an expiration date stamped on it. I knew that going in.”

  “Doesn’t have to be over,” her sister suggested.

  “I’m not the one who ended it, remember?”

  When Georgia would have argued, Laura spoke up fast. “He’s not here forever, Georgia. He’s going back to Ireland and we both know it. Well, I live here. And besides all of that, we want different things. Move in different worlds. It’s just…doomed.”

  “And you’re not going to tell him what’s behind all of this? Don’t you think he’s got a right to know?”

  “Maybe he does.” Laura shifted her gaze to the trees outside and watched the last few yellowing leaves flutter in the wind before snapping free of the branches and flying off in a twisting dance. Rain pelted from the sky in a burst and tapped at the windowpanes like impatient fingertips against a table.

  Funny, their mother had always hated fall and winter. She’d actually called autumn the Death of Hope season because it would be so long until summer again. Funny that she’d chosen to move to such a rainy place. Laura hadn’t thought of that in years. Now, it seemed unerringly apt.

  Because in this Death of Hope season, she was finally accepting that what she had had with Ronan was over. Finished. Hope was ridiculous when there was absolutely no reason for it.

  Turning her gaze back to her sister’s, Laura said, “What point is there in telling him that I miscarried his baby?”

  “You said it yourself,” her sister pointed out gently. “It was his baby. Maybe that’s point enough.”

  But it wouldn’t change anything, Laura thought. And what if she told him and he didn’t care? She didn’t think she wanted to find out what Ronan’s reaction would have been to almost being a father.

  Two

  He didn’t go home.

  Instead, Ronan went to work.

  Even with jetlag clawing at him, he knew he was in no mood to rest. At their new office in Newport Beach, his company, Cosain—Irish Gaelic for ‘defend’—was just taking root. Situated on Pacific Coast Highway, the two-story building was small, but elegant, with a view of the sea. More important, Cosain was now in the center of one of the wealthiest communities per capita in the United States.

  Here, the powerful and the paranoid lived, exactly the kind of clientele Cosain depended on. Here, Ronan was building the American branch of his company.

  Of course, there were other security companies out there. Some very good ones. Like King Security. Also headquartered in California, though they’d opened up a European branch in Cadria several months ago.

  Ronan smiled to himself. If the Kings moved into his territory, it was only right that he move into theirs. Besides, Cosain didn’t go after the same jobs as the Kings. They specialized in security for buildings, events. Cosain specialized in personal security. Bodyguards. And if it pissed off the King family to have Ronan’s company here, then that he considered a bonus. Not that the King cousins weren’t good guys. They were. But competition was healthy, wasn’t it? Business rivalries always inspired everyone to be their best. And Ronan being in what the Kings would no doubt consider their territory just made his success that much sweeter.

  Ronan wasn’t a man easily satisfied, even with success. There was always more to be found. And in this community of celebrity and money, Ronan was going to make Cosain the most talked about game in town.

  Winning. It was about winning. Ronan had learned that early from his father. A ruthless man, the elder Connolly had made a fortune by buying up badly run businesses and turning them around. He used to say the first thing to do was separate the wheat from the chaff—firing the dead weight and promoting the ones as ambitious as himself. He hadn’t made many friends along the way, but he had taught his son that winning—coming out on top—was everything.

  Ronan walked through the ground floor, his heels sounding out against the gleaming hardwood. His sharp-eyed glance took everything in. Pale green walls were dotted with paintings by local artists and by framed photos of grateful clients. Though most of those he worked for preferred to fly under the radar and not have their personal business known, there were always the celebrities who came alive at the sight of a camera.

  There were a few comfortable couches, a low-slung table with an array of magazines fanned out on top of it. A pedestal table held a crystal vase filled with bright blossoms that scented the air like springtime.

  A tidy receptionist sat at a desk and she nodded warily at him as he strode past. “Morning, Mr. Connolly.”

  He nodded and went past her, disregarding her nervousness. Ronan’s mind was already busy with racing thoughts—not all of them about his business.

&
nbsp; He took the short flight of stairs to the landing and then to the second floor above. The bustle of this floor, associates at their computers, muted phone conversations and the purr of a printer, soothed him. Centered him. This was why he’d come to California. This was what was important in his life. Not a woman. Not a dog.

  Business.

  What the Connollys did best.

  He’d had it hammered into him from a young age that a man took hold of his life and shook it until it fell into place. Well, he’d done just that, though he knew that if his father were still alive, the old tyrant would refuse to be impressed.

  Didn’t matter. What he did, he did for himself, not to please a long dead parent who had never approved of him anyway. He made a sharp left and headed for his own office.

  “Mr. Connolly!”

  He recognized Brian Doherty’s voice, but didn’t slow down. Brian had come with him from Ireland to help get the new branch up and running. He’d been with Ronan long enough to know his boss slowed down for no one.

  “What is it?” he asked, even as he reached for the sheaf of papers Brian held out to him.

  “The Bensons. They’ll be here in a few minutes for the meeting you scheduled from the plane.”

  “Right.” Shaking his head in disgust, Ronan realized he’d actually forgotten about the meeting with all the drama at Laura’s house. The woman was not only affecting his life but his business. Just went to show how tired he actually was.

  Turning his mind to the task at hand, he pushed thoughts of Laura aside to be dealt with later and mentally reviewed the Benson file. Benson Electronics. Jeremy and Maria, wealthy, devoted parents of two teenagers who had already burned through a series of bodyguards from lesser companies. Now they wanted to hire two of Cosain’s guards on a long-term contract. Just the kind of client Ronan preferred.

  “Send them in as soon as they arrive,” he said, stepping into his office. He closed the door, and stalked across the room. Taking a quick look around, Ronan assured himself that nothing had changed in his absence. Six weeks was a long time. If he hadn’t had Brian on-site and access to Skype, satellite phones and fax machines, he never would have been able to take a job himself at this stage. But Cosain was a well-oiled machine, and though they were new to this country, Ronan had brought along much of his already trained staff to ensure a smooth transition.