This is Love (High Stakes Billionaires)

by C. J. Thomas

  I shrugged and thought, fuck it, lifting the bottle to my lips. It burned on its way down but, damn, did it feel good. Trevor stepped forward, reaching for the bottle himself. I watched him toss it back, pulling two healthy gulps down before deciding he’d had enough. Then I said, “Maybe getting you into the office with me and Noah will be a good thing?”

  Trevor gave me a hard glance before skirting around me. He twisted the cap back on and put the bottle back where I’d found it. “Did Dad tell you to come recruit me? Is that why you’re here?”

  I shook my head. “I’m saying it because I think it would be good for you.”

  He held my stare for a minute before nodding as he went back to working under the hood. “Don’t worry, Dad is already on my ass. I’ll be wearing a suit and joining you and Noah soon.”

  Feeling the alcohol hit my bloodstream, I reached my fingertips to his car and let them drag over the waxed paint. Strangely, it reminded me of Sophia and how much I missed her. “You know you don’t have to do what Noah suggested.”

  “It’s not just him,” Trevor grumbled. “It’s Cooper, too.”

  I stopped moving and turned my head in his direction. He stood and peeked around the hood to look me in the eye.

  “He’s been pushing me to get involved in his campaign. Wear my uniform, show off my medals, be the decorated war hero that can win him votes.” He tipped his chin back—his muscles jumping with anger. “Even do commercials.”

  I listened to what Cooper wanted him to do. And even though I was in similar shoes with Cooper’s campaign taking over my life, I couldn’t help but think about escaping this mess. This campaign was going to ruin our family, I just knew it. Hell, it already was.

  Trevor’s gaze traveled over my left shoulder, landing on the bottle of whiskey. He stared at it as if that was his escape—how he was choosing to deal with the stresses plaguing him. I knew it was. Despite his best efforts, it was never good enough. Being a Foster never was. We could always do better.

  “You should just get away,” I said. “Get yourself a place in the country. Leave this family bullshit for a while. Find somewhere with less noise, somewhere you can hear yourself think.”

  Trevor gave me a knowing look, like he had already thought about it himself. And as he retreated inside his head, I watched his eyes dull and dry.

  Flashing across his pupils, I could read all the nightmares he experienced. The late evenings he stayed up drinking because he was too afraid to fall asleep. It was all plain as day, his hidden demons he tried to convince us weren’t there. It all played out before me without him having to say a word. And just when I thought maybe he was going to take my advice, he surprised me by saying, “It’s not my thing. Noah is the one that wants to be in the country. Not me.”

  “Then a vacation at least.” I stepped forward. “At least until Cooper realizes he can win this campaign on his own.”

  He blinked, dropped his head and turned to face the open bay. Gazing outside, he said, “I like the chaos of the city. It keeps my mind off of things. It’s the quiet that gets to me.”

  We all knew—even before he’d enlisted—that Trevor was soldier-tough. But now that he was back, it was clear that the time he served had broken him. He never talked much about what he had done, what he had seen, but we all knew that Trevor wasn’t the same when he came home. He might not want to be called a hero, but even with him being younger than I was, I would always look up to him for breaking family tradition and making the decision to join the military.

  Flicking my wrist, I glanced at the time. “Look,” I said. “Cooper has the fundraising dinner in a couple of nights—”

  “The launch of his campaign.” Trevor cracked his knuckles, blankly staring at the ground ten feet in front of him.

  Nodding, I stepped closer to him. Setting my hand on his shoulder, I said, “It would be really nice if you were there.”

  Trevor turned to fix his gaze on me. “I haven’t met her, but I’m sure she’s better than Audrey.”

  I stared into his eyes and squeezed his shoulder, silently telling him I’d see him around. As I left his garage, heading for my car, I knew there were a couple of patches that still needed to be sewed before everything would be back to the way things were. And the first order of business was finding a way to get Sophia to take me back.

  39

  Sophia

  “Traffic was such a bitch.” Sienna came barreling through my front door.

  She dropped her bags at the door and headed straight for the kitchen.

  I closed the door behind me and smiled, thankful that she didn’t ask why I’d asked her to come. I needed to break the silence and keep the dark cloud that threatened to settle inside my home away. But, more than anything, I could use the company. I was losing my mind with thoughts about Nolan, and if I didn’t get some things off my chest I was sure to explode.

  “God, I’m starved.” Sienna opened a few cabinets and rummaged around. “Do you have any food here?”

  I didn’t have much more than the necessities. Dairy, pasta, and a few quick freezer meals. Those tended to be my staples between eating out. “There are some bananas going bad next to the fridge.”

  “Way to sell it.” She turned her head and looked at me.

  “Or you can see if I have any frozen meals left.” I shrugged.

  Sienna went for the fruit bowl, reaching to the back of the counter. I couldn’t help but notice how good she looked in her suit. She was tall and thin and it wasn’t any surprise that she went straight for the rotting bananas over what masqueraded as healthy but was probably packed with salt and fat in the freezer.

  By the time she spun around, she already had the fruit peeled and half-eaten. “Wait,” her eyes went big, “how did you get here before me?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek as I watched her eyes move from my face down to my ankles. I hadn’t bothered to dress—still wearing my pajamas from the night before. What was the point in putting in the effort just to stay home? I didn’t have anything to do, no one to see. It was days like this that I’d dreamed about when I working sixty-hour weeks, but now that I had it, it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

  “Sophia.” Sienna dragged my name out as she pointed at me. “Did you play hooky from work today?”

  Hiding my face inside my hands, my brow furrowed. It was worse than hooky. I could go back if I was only playing hooky. But this? This was a decision I was stuck with.

  Reluctantly, I peeked through splayed fingers to find Sienna still giving me a questioning look. Then I shook my head.

  “Sophia, what did you do?” She hurried over to me, standing only inches away from my face.

  Her gaze darted over me as she peeled my hands away. I turned my head, not wanting her to see the truth hiding inside my eyes. I didn’t know where to begin, if I should tell her the complete truth, or only that I’d quit my job.

  “Oh my God. Did you get fired?”

  I snapped my head to her. Meeting her curious gaze, I shook my head.

  “Then what is it?” Her lips pinched. “Did you take a sick day?”

  “No, not that either.”

  Slowly, Sienna took her eyes off of mine and looked around my small apartment. It didn’t take her long to find my laptop still open on the coffee table with the first draft of my résumé still open.

  “I kind of quit.” I held my breath.

  “You kind of quit?” Sienna quirked a brow, taking another bite from her banana.

  I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I told her everything. From how I’d left her at breakfast with the confidence to walk into that office and take those men by storm. “It wasn’t like I’d planned to quit my job,” I said, continuing to tell her how my name had already been passed over before they even interviewed me.

  “Whoa. That’s cold shit.”

  “I know.” I finished my story by saying how I couldn’t stick around and work at a place I clearly wasn’t valued.

  Sienna f
inished her banana as she listened, hanging on to every last word. “It wasn’t because of Audrey using Nolan’s brother’s campaign as a way to get back with him, was it?”

  “No,” I said, taking her hands off my shoulders and moving back to the living room couch. That was a completely different issue.

  I still wasn’t convinced that this was the best move, but there was no going back. Sienna came and sat next to me. She reached out and took the laptop between her hands before pulling it onto her lap. I watched her read over my résumé with a knitted brow.

  “You don’t need this.” She turned her head to me. “Not when you’re going to start the next greatest company the city has ever seen.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know. I’m a good employee.”

  “You just quit your job.” Her tone was clipped. “Trust me. Good employees don’t quit.”

  I fell back and folded my arms under my breasts. “I don’t know what I want to do.”

  “Let me tell you what you should do.” She turned to face me. “You should call up your new boy-toy and have him fund your venture. The Fosters know business.”

  I pulled my knees to my chest and sat in a tight ball. I was nervous to tell her how I’d ended things with Nolan. I was terrified of what she would say, how she would respond, because I knew how it looked. And it wasn’t like I was trying to quit my job and Nolan on the same day, but that was how it happened.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” Sienna jutted her chin.

  Rubbing the back of my neck I gave her a sideways glance. “I kinda quit him, too.”

  Sienna lurched forward slapping her hands down on top of my knees. “What? Why? Because of Audrey?”

  Dropping the balls of my feet to the floor, I paced my apartment and told Sienna everything. Including running into Nolan’s arms immediately after I quit.

  “Wait,” she held up her hand, “you mean to tell me that he was just waiting outside of the building at the exact moment you quit your job?”

  I rubbed my arms and nodded.

  “Either the universe wants you two to be together, or that dude was stalking you.”

  I told her it wasn’t weird, that I seemed to have surprised him as much as he’d surprised me. I went on to share that Nolan took me to the park, we had ice cream, and that we were interrupted by his father surprising both of us. “And that’s how it all started.”

  Sienna tipped forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “How what all started?”

  “How our breakup started.”

  Sienna squished her brows. “His father caused your breakup?”

  “Or was it that I told Nolan now wasn’t a good time?” I glanced to the ceiling and scratched my chin. “Whatever it was, his father was the one to tell him that I wasn’t good enough for him.”

  The white in Sienna’s eyes filled half her face. “I thought my family was crazy, but that takes the cake.”

  I moved to the kitchen and pulled out a new bottle of wine. Popping the cork, I poured my glass and took a swig then filled Sienna a glass of her own. I walked back to the living room and handed her a full glass. Tucking one leg under my bottom, I sat on the corner of the couch, curling my lips over the rim. “So, how was your last 24 hours?”

  We both laughed.

  Then Sienna groaned. “There is some stupid gala my dad is making me go to.” She flicked her eyes over to me. “He’s running for Senate again.”

  “How many times can he do that?”

  “As many times as he gets elected.”

  Just Sienna’s last word had me thinking about Nolan again. I thought about how his brother was running for governor and how that was the cause of our breakup. I knew the stakes were high—that I could be a potential liability—but it still should’ve been Nolan’s decision to make. Not his father’s.

  Then it hit me. “You don’t think Nolan will be there, do you?”

  Sienna rolled her eyes over to me, biting the inside of her cheek.

  “I mean, his brother is running for governor.”

  She shrugged and sighed. “It’s possible.”

  Turning away, I wondered what the chance of Nolan being at the same event was. Then I changed the subject. “What did Gary think about the wedding photographer? Did you show him the sample images?”

  Sienna’s neck stiffened as a pained watery gaze fell over her face.

  I could see that something was wrong. “What is it?” I asked.

  She swallowed down a stone. “Gary and I got in another argument.”

  I hadn’t known about the first, but with what Monica told me the other day I knew that something wasn’t right between Sienna and Gary—especially with how our conversation ended over breakfast yesterday. “Is everything all right?”

  “Don’t ever get married.” She stole a healthy gulp from her glass. “It sounds fun to start planning the biggest party of your life, but that’s when the secrets start coming out.”

  “Secrets?” I reached up to touch my throat.

  Sienna tucked her hair behind her ear and turned to me with a knowing look on her face.

  Suddenly, I was glad that I was single and didn’t have to go through the relationship struggles that she was experiencing. Heartbreak was the worst. And though I never admitted it before, it was partially the reason why I tended to focus on my career instead of on building a relationship. “Like what?”

  She set her glass down on the coffee table and leaned back, shrugging her shoulders. “Gary is acting weird, it’s like he’s forgotten I exist.”

  Seeing my friend doubt the man she was supposed to love made me shrivel up inside.

  “Monica thinks he’s cheating on me.” Her words lacked the life that was generally there.

  “Monica has always hated Gary,” I said.

  Sienna chuckled. “Yes she has.” And then she looked at me and said, “Mind if I stay here tonight?”

  Scooting across the couch I wrapped her up in a tight hug. “I would love to have a girl’s night.” I kissed her forehead as she melted into me.

  “Now, let’s tighten up this résumé.” Sienna reached for the laptop, pulling it back on her lap.

  “That sounds like a great idea.” I smiled.

  40

  Nolan

  I glanced at the clock on the dash.

  Then I swallowed down the pain in the back of my throat. It had been exactly 48 hours since I’d last seen Sophia. But it felt like an eternity.

  Noah pulled the key from the ignition, then paused as he turned to look at me.

  He must have seen my body tense, maybe noticed me staring with dull unblinking eyes. Either way, when I didn’t make a move to get out of the car, he said, “Don’t worry, Nolan. The meeting doesn’t start for another 10 minutes.” He opened his door and stepped one foot out.

  I turned and met his stare. “Ready?”

  “More prepared than you look right now.”

  I flung my hand across the seat and punched him in the shoulder. “Let’s make history,” I said, following his lead.

  Slamming our doors shut, we moved through the damp, cool parking garage, making sure to dodge the puddles. Sprinting up the steps, I was relieved to have escaped the smells of exhaust as we headed across the street. But when I glanced up at the building, it was impossible not to think about Sophia.

  This was where it happened.

  The day my world turned upside-down.

  The hour before I lost her and had to say goodbye.

  Slowing to a near stop, I relived that morning. It was like she was here, standing in front of me now. I could still see her eyes pop wide open just before she came flying into my arms. And when I closed my eyes, I could still hear her soft voice sending shivers down my spine, could still see the water pooling in the corners of her gorgeous honey-browns as she came to terms with what she’d just done. The way they glittered underneath the sunshine, staring up into mine as if looking for answers was something I would never forget. I could still feel my sto
mach clench when noticing the pain crumbling her world apart deep inside. It was half the reason why I was here. Because I, too, needed to know what could have been—what could still be.

  Noah let his hand come down on my shoulder as my brain scrambled to find a logical excuse as to why I was no longer with Sophia. Because I swore we were meant to be together. I knew she was the one.

  But fate interrupted our plans and showed us it had another idea.

  “This is it, right?” Noah dropped his hand away from his brow and turned to look at me.

  I licked my lips and nodded. “Yeah, this is it,” I murmured.

  Noah glanced at his watch. “Let’s get going then. I don’t have time to waste.”

  We hurried into the building, pushing through the front doors as if we owned the place. The cool air-conditioned breeze whipped across our faces and when I spotted the directory on the opposite wall, we made our way there.

  “I spoke with Trevor,” I said as we walked.

  Noah barely glanced at me as he scrubbed a hand over his face. “The other night, I pushed him too far.”

  “He doesn’t blame you.” A man heading straight for me stepped out of my way, allowing me to pass without interruption.

  Noah gave me an arched look. “And who does he blame? You?”

  I shook my head. “Cooper.”

  Noah patted his thigh with one hand, lifting his opposite finger to the directory. Looking for the software company listing, I found myself listening to the men on cell phones pass behind us. I forced myself to block out the distractions and read the names of the listings to better gauge the building’s environment.

  “There it is,” Noah said. “Hera Software Technologies—”

  “Ninth floor.” I turned to face the elevators.

  Passing by the coffee shop, I made sure to inhale the sweet acidic aroma before dodging two more men wearing suits who were deep in discussion. “What kind of name is that, anyway?”

  Noah took his hand out of his pocket and pressed the button on the wall, fetching an elevator. “Hera?”