by Susan Meier
No. She knew better than that. That was part of the reason she loved him. He was responsible.
“But I won’t contact him. I tried about five years ago. I offered him one-third of our company. He refused it. He had an attorney call me and threaten to go after a restraining order if I didn’t stay out of Cooper’s life.” Ty closed his eyes but quickly opened them again. “He hates me, Maddy.”
“Oh, Ty! Don’t say that. You don’t deserve that.”
“He thinks I do.” Ty rose from his seat and began to pace. “Hell, most days I think I do. I didn’t believe him at a point in time when he was most defenseless.”
“You made a mistake.”
“Yes, I did. That’s why I don’t want to make a mistake with Seth. I don’t want him to leave our company. I want him to stay. Hell, if he wants to be challenged, I’ll give him a challenge.” Uncharacteristically vulnerable, he turned to Madelyn. “But how can I give him a challenge if he only talks in vague terms and won’t come right out and say what he wants?”
Madelyn couldn’t answer. Though she understood the question and even knew Seth’s rationale, something else unexpectedly occurred to her. Ty considered her a friend, someone he could confide in, or he wouldn’t be talking about Seth and Cooper the easy way he was. But, confusingly, he was being very careful not to make too much eye contact.
“And I’m going to lose him, Madelyn. He’s going to run out into the world to try to find himself and he’s not going to come back.”
Madelyn continued to study him, as something else struck her. He wasn’t simply avoiding eye contact. With the exception of his two-second glance at her hair and blouse, he’d hardly looked at her at all.
She took a breath and tried not to think about the things she was noticing and focus on the discussion. “Okay, first of all. you don’t know that. Second, he hasn’t gone. He may not go. Why not cross all those bridges when you come to them?”
“You’re right.” He sat again. “I’m borrowing trouble. Forget I said anything.”
“No, I don’t want to forget you said anything. I’m glad you can talk to me.”
He glanced at her and smiled. “I’m glad to be able to talk to you, too.”
There wasn’t a drop of real warmth or intimacy in Ty’s smile, and Madelyn suddenly understood what was going on. He’d relegated her to the role of friend. He knew she wasn’t going to be leaving his life—not if he gave her the PR job. So, to make it logical that he confided in her, took her advice and spent time with her, he called her his friend and suddenly everything they felt for each other was reduced to a simple, acceptable role.
“Ty,” she began, stretching his name out, stalling, not quite sure how to approach the subject. Finally she knew the direct route would be best. “Did you make the decision today that we were only going to be friends?”
“Madelyn, I don’t have many friends.” Saying that, he caught her gaze, and Madelyn knew he wanted her to really understand what he was about to say. “This is as good as you’re going to get from me.”
“Because you’re so sure you can’t trust enough to fall in love?”
“Because I don’t think we’re right for each other.” He drew an exasperated breath. “Madelyn, I’m ten years older than you are. I’m established. You’re just starting out. Our lives are in two different places.”
Sabrina banged on her tray and Ty turned to pick up the rattle she had dropped and handed it back to her. “And if that’s not enough to make you see we’re totally unsuited, I come with a ready-made family. I have a baby. I also have two brothers whose lives are a mess. You don’t want me.”
“Yes, I do,” she argued, feeling she had to make this last-ditch appeal. “You’re sexy. You’re handsome. You’re strong. You’re smart…and, yes, you’re responsible. Those are all reasons to love you.”
He shook his head. “Then maybe what I’m saying is that you don’t fit into my life except as a friend.”
“No, what you’re really saying is that you can’t take the risk. So it’s easier to tell me we’re unsuited, but you’d like to be my friend. That way you don’t have to try to have a relationship or hurt me with a complete rejection that will cause me to walk out of your life.”
“Did you ever stop to think that I’m trying to protect you? I have a child! I run a multimillion-dollar business, and if that isn’t enough to keep me busy, toss in two brothers whose lives are always in some kind of turmoil.”
“Your brothers are adults who can take care of their own problems. If you’re in their business, you’re meddling. And in case you haven’t noticed, I love Sabrina, too. She’s been part of the package for me all along.”
“Not really. You might have helped with her, but responsibility for her has always been mine. Up to now, you’ve been playing house.”
Madelyn gaped at him. “Playing house?” His comment stunned her so much she was forced to wonder if they weren’t unsuited. Anybody who had the audacity to accuse her of playing house hadn’t been paying one whit of attention to what was going on. And maybe that was the problem. Maybe hoping for anything real between them was pointless because he didn’t see her actual place in his life. And maybe it was time for her to accept that.
She rose. “You know what? I’m tired of arguing. I think we would be very good for each other. You don’t. And there’s no middle ground. I’m going home to pack for Atlanta.”
He tossed his napkin to the table and rose, too. “Madelyn,” he said through a long-suffering sigh, “you don’t want to go back to Atlanta when there’s a good job here in Porter for you.”
“No, thanks. I refuse to be the town old maid, pining after a guy who’ll be perfectly happy to be my friend, but who’ll never see me as anything else.”
“The town old maid?”
“If I accept your job, you would keep me on your staff, as your trusted friend, and I would never break away. I would always have the stupid hope that some day you would see it’s not a mistake to love me. But you never will, will you? I’ll be another Cooper. Somebody you can’t completely control, but somebody you keep on a short leash.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Not really. But you have a right to your opinion just like I have a right to mine. I have to handle my life the way I see best for me.”
“What about your parents? I thought you wanted to live close to them?”
Madelyn noticed that in all the arguments he made to get her to stay, he never once said the company needed her, or the employees would miss her, and especially not that he would miss her. He argued everything but the things that might get her to reconsider or at least weaken. Almost as if he wanted her to be clear that if she stayed, she stayed for her reasons…not for any reason that would make him indebted to her.
“I would like to live in Porter in case my dad has another heart attack. I would also like to live here so my parents could enjoy my children—if I ever have any—since all their other grandchildren live in different states. But I’m not going to be another person you fit into your life the way you want me to fit. No matter where you put me, I’ll still love you. Every day I’ll probably love you a little bit more. But every day as you get accustomed to seeing me as only a co-worker, you’ll forget you might have had even the tiniest bit of feeling for me once upon a time.”
He didn’t even hesitate. “Madelyn, I’m doing this for your own good.”
“Then you’re nuts.”
Madelyn walked out of the dining room with her head high, but before she turned to go, Ty could see in her eyes that her heart was broken. For the first time in his life he wished that he could love someone, that his life wasn’t so crazy and difficult, but he was who he was and he had the life he had.
And he also knew she deserved better than him.
Chapter Eleven
When Madelyn left his house, Ty called Fran Baker, one of the two candidates he had chosen for the nanny position, and told her she had the job. Then he spent a nearly sle
epless night, worried about Seth, worried about Madelyn, wondering why the hell so many people were dreamers.
Fran arrived the next morning at ten o’clock as they had agreed, and he brought Sabrina into the den and put her in her walker with some toys while they finalized her employment agreement.
He worked from home the rest of that week, as Fran and Sabrina got adjusted to each other, and he realized Madelyn had taught him to think of things like that. He told himself to stop relating everything to her, but everything in the house reminded him of her. When Fran laughed at something Sabrina did, he heard Madelyn. When he burned his morning toast, he remembered Madelyn telling him any burned toast was his. When he bathed Sabrina to get her ready for bed, he realized Madelyn taught him the football hold.
She taught him everything he knew about babies. And PR. But she hadn’t taught him anything else because when it came to life, she was naive. She might know how to diaper a baby and get a reporter to see the good rather than the bad, but she didn’t yet realize that life was complicated. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t supposed to be fun. At least not for people like him.
And as for her saying he kept Cooper on a short leash…Well, that just made him mad. He couldn’t believe she had gall enough to insinuate that he didn’t have the right to keep track of his brother, and was glad—damned glad—she had gone. Or was going. He hadn’t been out of the house to officially hear that she’d actually left town. But she would. There really wasn’t enough work for a public relations person in Porter, and if she wanted a job, she would have to move to a big city. And he was not taking the blame. He had offered her the job she wanted. She refused it.
Ty spent so much time thinking about Madelyn, he was eager to get back to work the following Monday. His first order of business was straightening out Seth. He silenced the little voice that reminded him Madelyn and her interfering in his adult brothers’ lives was meddling, because it wasn’t. His brother was one-third owner of the most successful developer in his state. Only a fool would throw that away. Ty would not let another of his brothers live close to the poverty line, just because he was stubborn.
Ty had Joni call Seth into his office, and when Seth arrived he cut right to the chase. “What’s going on with you?”
Seth laughed and fell to a seat in front of Ty’s desk. “What’s going on with you is a better question. You haven’t been here in a week!”
“I was home getting Sabrina adjusted to her new nanny.”
“That confirms one rumor I heard at the diner. But I heard another, more interesting rumor. I attempted to confirm it, but Madelyn wouldn’t take my calls when I tried to reach her at her parents’ house.”
“If the rumor you heard is that Madelyn refused to work for us, then you’re batting two for two.”
Seth stared at him. “What did you do?”
Righteous indignation flooded Ty. “What do you mean what did I do?” This was why he meddled—if he really meddled. He wasn’t accepting that accusation just yet. He got the blame for everything that went wrong anyway. At least when he got involved, one of two things happened. Things either worked out or he deserved the responsibility for the failure. “How do you know she simply didn’t decide this job wasn’t right for her?”
“Because I know Madelyn.”
“Well, good for you, but I offered her the job and she refused it. So, it’s time to move on. I want to know what’s going on with you. Are you thinking of leaving?”
Before Seth could answer, the intercom on Ty’s desk buzzed and Joni’s voice came through the speaker. “Ty, there’s an attorney on line one.”
“Tell him I’m busy.”
“I already did. He said if you didn’t take his call, there would be a court order on your desk before noon.”
“A court order? For what?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Damn it!” Ty grabbed the receiver and punched the button for line one. “What?”
“Mr. Bryant, this is Gil Montrose. I represent your brother Cooper. He’s asked me to remind you that you promised not to interfere in his life.”
“I’m not interfering in his life!” This one he knew with absolute certainty. He might keep track of Cooper’s whereabouts, but he hadn’t done anything. He simply watched sadly as his brother struggled.
“Then perhaps you would like to explain why there’s a private investigator asking about him.”
Because Ty’s source of information about Cooper was not a private investigator, he calmly said, “I have no idea.”
“Mr. Bryant, it will only take me a few phone calls to find out who hired him, so stop pretending…”
“No! You stop! I made a promise to my brother five years ago that I would not interfere in his life and I not only do not interfere in his life, I also didn’t send an investigator to check on him.”
With that Ty slammed down the phone, and when he looked at his brother, Seth was cringing.
“You’re the one looking for Cooper, aren’t you?”
“Yes. But it sounds like you already know where he is. Like you’ve always known.”
At the accusing tone of Seth’s voice, Ty groaned. “Damn it, Seth, what was I supposed to do? I had to make sure he was okay, but he doesn’t want us in his life. I couldn’t tell you where he was.”
“Were you afraid I’d just go and visit him someday?”
“Yes. He doesn’t want us visiting him and I felt that if you knew where he was you might some day get in a mood and go to Texas.”
“Well, thank you very much for trusting me and treating me like an adult.”
Ty jumped out of his seat to pace. “Don’t you start, too!”
“What do you mean, don’t start, too?” Seth asked, his voice sounding angry. “Who else have you been talking with about Cooper?”
“I talked with Madelyn!” And now he could hardly remember why. Confiding in her came so naturally that he’d told her way too many of his secrets and now he didn’t remember how Cooper had come into conversation to defend himself to Seth.
Seth studied Ty for a second. “You told Madelyn about Cooper?”
Ty sighed. “Didn’t I just say that?”
“You told her, but you wouldn’t tell me?” Ty returned to his seat. “I’m not going over this again.”
Seth stared at him. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You have two brothers who are adults. Yet, you haven’t really let me out of your sight much in the past fifteen years and somehow or another you’re monitoring Cooper.”
“All right. When you put it like that it sounds as if I’m some kind of overbearing big brother, and it’s not like that,” Ty said, totally aggravated now. “But you know what? It doesn’t matter if I was overbearing or not. I’m done. If you two want to be responsible for yourselves, I will let you.”
Seth grinned. “Well, thanks.”
Furious, Ty returned to his chair. He absolutely was not saying you’re welcome. Seth made him feel like an idiot for caring for his own brothers, but he wasn’t an idiot. He was responsible. In a week or a month, Seth would see…
What? Ty unexpectedly wondered. Seth was thirty. Nothing was going to happen to him if Ty backed off.
He picked up his pen, then tossed it down again. “All right. Look, I get it. I’ve been a little too present in your life.”
“And Cooper’s?”
He shook his head. “No. I really have stayed out of Cooper’s life. I just sort of keep tabs.”
“Well, stop that, too.”
“Seth, I offered him one-third of our company and he threw it back in my face. I’ve been holding his share of the profits in an account that’s his to use. He said he doesn’t want it, but he’s just barely living above the poverty line. He needs it.”
“He was really mad when he left.”
Ty nodded. “And apparently he’s still mad.”
“So maybe we should figure o
ut a way to make him unmad. There’s got to be a way we can get him to take the money.” Seth paused and drew a quick breath. “Especially if he needs it.”
“He does, but in the past five years I haven’t thought of a way to get him to accept an apology, let alone take his money.” Ty paused. He hadn’t had any luck with Cooper, but Seth had always had a closer relationship with their middle brother. He quietly added, “Maybe you should give it a shot.”
Seth grinned. “Maybe I should.” He rose from his seat.
“Okay, but no more private investigators,” Ty said. “Cooper lives in Texas. He bought a ranch with a friend, but it’s mortgaged to the hilt. He drives a truck to pay the mortgage. That’s about all I know and about all you get to work with to figure out how we can get him to take his share of the company.”
“That’s good enough!” Seth said, then left the office.
And silence echoed around Ty. It didn’t feel weird to give Seth the assignment of figuring out a way to get Cooper to take his share of the company profits. It felt right. It also felt right to take a step back from Seth’s life. After all, Seth was thirty and Ty had another Bryant to raise in Sabrina. It wasn’t like he needed to be interfering in his adult brothers’ lives to keep himself entertained. He wouldn’t be bored.
He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. Actually, with all the honesty that had floated around his office in the past few minutes, he felt compelled to admit, if only to himself, that he was bored. It was why he’d sent Orelia Makin to Boston. Negotiating had lost its appeal. Even building had lost its appeal. He didn’t intend to stop. But he just didn’t get the big kick out of running the company that he had in the past years.
And that was why he decided he couldn’t stay in the office that morning. With his brothers’ lives out from under his care, Sabrina very squarely in his care, and Seth figuring out a way to get the situation with Cooper straightened out, his life was suddenly totally different from what it had been only the month before. It wasn’t exactly empty, but it wasn’t in sync, either.
He knew he needed to think this through. He left the Bryant Building, got into his SUV and simply started driving. He didn’t know where he would go or what he would do, but after only a few blocks he understood what he was feeling. He had time on his hands and mental energy. And the thing that kept popping into his head was that he now had time for everything Madelyn wanted.
