by Cat Schield
When his phone chimed, it wasn’t the person he’d been hoping to hear from. Vince had sent him a terse text.
Call me.
The brevity of the message could only mean the network had decided to take the cooking show in a different direction and not use him. Ashton had been expecting this ever since he’d walked out and was surprised how little he cared. In the past few days he’d had a lot of time to think. Conversations with Harper regarding her ambivalence toward her career left him debating what he wanted to do versus what he thought he should do.
“Vince,” he said as soon as his manager picked up. “What’s the word?”
“Lifestyle Network wants you.”
Ashton didn’t feel the rush of satisfaction he’d expected. “That’s not the impression I got from the last meeting.”
“They took another look at the tape and saw what I see. You’re a star. Soon every household in America is going to know it. They sent me a contract. I’ve looked it over and everything we asked for is in there.”
“I need a few days to think about it.”
Silence greeted his response. Ashton imagined his manager was pretty pissed at him right now.
“I’ve put in a lot of time on this deal,” Vince said. “They’re giving us everything we want except for the whole Culinary Wanderer thing, but you’ve already quit, so that’s a nonfactor.”
“Frankly, Vince, when I left the conference room last Monday I was under the impression they wanted to go a different way.”
“But they don’t.”
With nothing standing in the way of signing onto the new show, Ashton had to tackle the doubts raised by his conversation with Harper. “I’m questioning whether staying put in New York is the best thing for me.”
Vince’s disappointment came through the phone seconds before he spoke. “I wish I’d known that three days ago.”
“Why don’t we table this for a while. I need to focus on the restaurant right now. Send me the contract and give me a few days to sort through everything.”
“Sending it now. Don’t leave them hanging too long about this.”
“I won’t.”
When he received Vince’s email a minute later, Ashton scanned through the contract with only half his mind on the words. He could really use Harper’s input on this. But the last thing he wanted to do right now was disturb her. She had enough on her plate.
Maybe he could talk to her when she returned to Las Vegas for the opening. If she returned. It occurred to him with her grandfather out of commission, it was a perfect time for her to step into the role she’d been training for. She’d decided to follow her head not her heart. He wasn’t convinced that was the right decision. And now he had the project that would allow him to be with her. If only it all felt right.
* * *
Harper entered her grandfather’s New York apartment and was immediately embraced by Violet. The warmth of her greeting was a delightful contrast to the indifference Harper had felt from LeDay. Biology didn’t make a family. Caring did.
“How’s grandfather?”
“Much better,” Violet said, reaching her hand back to her husband for support. JT Stone put his arm around his wife and hugged gently. “He’s already protesting the doctor’s order to rest.”
“Did the stroke cause any permanent damage?”
“From what Dr. Amhull told us, it was a very minor stroke so there shouldn’t be any lasting effects. It was a warning that worse could come. He prescribed medication and wants Grandfather to slow down.”
“Can I go see him?”
“Of course. And afterward, I think we should talk. Scarlett and Logan went for a walk. They should be back shortly. The six of us should sit down before dinner. There are some things we think you should know.”
“The six of us?”
“Isn’t Ashton in New York with you?”
“The restaurant is opening in a few days.” Harper’s stomach turned over as she pictured his tight expression when she told him to go on to Las Vegas without her. “He needs to be in Vegas for that.”
Violet stared at her a long moment before nodding. “Of course.”
Further explanations would have to wait until later. The most important thing was seeing her grandfather. “Is Grandfather in his room?”
“No. He’s in his study. We confiscated his cell phone to keep him from working, but nothing can convince him to stay in bed.”
Harper shook her head as she walked down the hallway toward her grandfather’s favorite room in the apartment. His work ethic had inspired her own. They were so much alike. Maybe that’s why it had been such a shock to discover they weren’t related.
She found him sitting in one of a pair of leather chairs that flanked the fireplace. He had a stack of magazines on the table beside him eight inches high. Pausing in the doorway, she scrutinized him. His color was better than she’d expected, and he was scowling at the article he was perusing. Temper was a positive sign.
“Grandfather?”
He looked up from his reading and waved her over. “This is nothing but a fluff piece.” The page he showed her had a photo of Gil Kurtz, one of her grandfather’s classmates from Harvard and a Connecticut state senator. They’d been rivals since they were twenty years old, and Henry rarely had anything but disparaging things to say about Gil’s political career.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. Your sisters won’t let me leave the house. Don’t they understand I have a business to run?”
“They’re just concerned about you.”
“Violet said you were in Africa. Feel like telling me what you were doing there?”
“I just needed a little break.”
Her grandfather grunted. “Bob tried not to give me the impression you’d cracked up, but wasn’t able to mask his concern.”
“Cracked up?” She laughed a little at the thought. “Why?”
“Because you dropped the entire running of the hotel on him and disappeared.”
“I took a vacation.”
“When was the last time you took any substantial time off?”
“I don’t know.” She thought back over the past few years and couldn’t recall a span of more than three days where she’d been unavailable to her staff. “Which should make it even more evident I needed a vacation.”
“The last time was when I told you about Scarlett and Violet.”
“Was it?” She had a vague recollection of going to her grandmother’s Hamptons house for a few days.
“You were gone almost two weeks.”
“Sorry, but I don’t recall that. And I’m sure I had the time coming.”
“You did. And much more besides. You’re more like me than your father.” He was staring out the window at the park across the street. “But occasionally you remind me that you’re also your mother’s daughter. She’s an emotional woman who has difficulty handling any sort of turmoil in her life. Which leads me to wonder what is going on with you. Is that Croft fellow causing problems?”
“Ashton?” Harper was more than a little stunned by her grandfather’s analysis of her. He never appeared to notice anything that didn’t pertain to his business, but now she wondered if he saw everything and just kept it to himself. “No, he and I have reached a place where we’re working well together.”
“How about your personal relationship? Everything okay there, too?”
“Ah...” What was he asking? “We work well together.”
Her grandfather blew out an impatient breath. “I’m not dense. I know you went to Africa with him.”
“Technically, I went to Africa and he followed.”
“Why?”
What was her grandfather asking? “Why did he follow me to Africa?”
“Yes. And why did you go in the first place?”
“I wanted an adventure, and Ashton thought I was acting recklessly by traveling alone. Turns out he was a little right.”
“More than a little. You were mugged on the train. Had your passport stolen.”
How was she going to keep the truth about her biological father hidden when her grandfather was so good at keeping tabs on her?
“Who told you?”
“When I heard you were traveling to South Africa I called a buddy of mine in the State Department and had him keep an eye out for you.”
Harper was both touched and annoyed. Didn’t anyone think she could take care of herself? “Is that why I was able to get a temporary passport so fast?”
“Partially.” Her grandfather’s eyes narrowed. “Anything else you’d like to tell me about your time in South Africa?”
“Ashton took me on safari where I was fortunate enough to see three of the big five. Elephants, cape buffalo and lions.” She paused. “Although one night we heard a leopard, as well.”
“And that’s all?”
“It’s a beautiful country. We should consider putting a hotel there.”
“Maybe when you become CEO of Fontaine Hotels and Resorts you can do that.”
The walls of her grandfather’s study seemed to close in. Ashton’s warning sounded in her mind. She wanted to silence it, but couldn’t. He was right. Becoming CEO under false pretenses would never make her happy. “When that happens, I’ll definitely look into it.”
They chatted about her impression of Africa until Scarlett appeared in the doorway.
“Can I tear you away for a bit?” she asked Harper, giving Henry a fond smile.
“Sure.”
“Are you staying for dinner?” he asked. Despite his protests that he was feeling fine, he looked pale.
“Of course,” Harper said. She kissed his cheek and followed Scarlett from the room.
“He looks better than I expected.”
Scarlett linked her arm through Harper’s and guided her toward the den. “You probably thought he’d be in bed.”
“I did.”
Inside the comfortable room, Violet, JT and Logan awaited her. Feeling very much like a fifth wheel, Harper sat down in a chair and waited until everyone else had been seated before she broke the silence.
“You all look so grim. What’s going on?”
“How did your trip to South Africa turn out?” Violet began.
Sensing they were warming up to the difficult topic, Harper decided to play along. “It’s a lovely country. I told Grandfather we should look at putting a hotel there.”
“And what did he think of that?” Again Violet.
Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Stop dancing around what we want to know.” Her tone was exasperated. “Did you meet your father?”
“Yes.”
“How did it go?”
“No worse than you’d imagine. Being confronted by a twenty-nine-year-old daughter he never knew caught him by surprise.”
“Was he courteous?” Violet asked.
“He invited Ashton and me to dinner.”
Scarlet piped up. “Where is Ashton?”
“On his way to Las Vegas. The restaurant is opening in two days. I have no idea if it will go well.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Violet said. She glanced at Scarlett and then at JT, who nodded. “Logan was able to figure out who blackmailed your mother.”
In the craziness of the past week, Harper had forgotten that little tidbit. “Who?”
JT spoke. “My father. He needed money for a top-notch defense lawyer.”
“How did he come by the files?”
“It’s my fault,” Scarlett said. “If I hadn’t brought them home, I wouldn’t have lost them.”
“You didn’t lose them,” Logan reminded her, a muscle popping in his jaw. “Someone broke into your suite, knocked you out and stole them.”
“Technically,” she countered, “I opened the door thinking it was you.”
Violet stepped in. “I blame Tiberius. If he hadn’t poked his nose in where it didn’t belong there wouldn’t have been any files in the first place.”
“It was my father who went after the information my uncle had gathered on him and hired the guy who hurt Scarlett. He’s the one who blackmailed Harper’s mother,” JT chimed in.
Harper shut her eyes and let the voices wash over her. She floated in darkness until someone touched her arm and brought her back.
Logan knelt before her, his dark brown gaze confident and reassuring. “We retrieved both the information and the money.”
She sandwiched Logan’s hand between hers, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me.”
She gazed from him to her sisters and finally to JT. This was her family, she realized. Not some stranger in South Africa who wanted nothing to do with her.
“I’m so lucky to have all of you,” she told them.
“So, now that your secret is safe,” Violet began, “are you going to take the CEO job?”
This was important to all of them, she realized. It meant that Scarlett could continue pursuing her acting and Violet could stay in Las Vegas with JT. They expected her to do the job she was trained for.
“Whenever grandfather wants me to take over, I will.”
Twelve
Two hours before the restaurant opened for the first time, Batouri’s kitchen was operating more smoothly than Ashton had a right to expect. After being gone during the week before their grand opening, he’d half feared he was coming back to absolute chaos. Thanks to Cole, this was not the case.
Without any major crisis to deal with, Ashton had too much space to think. He tried to focus on the food, but bits of conversations with Harper kept intruding. He second-guessed how he’d handled things when she’d told him she loved him. Had it been a mistake to question her sudden change of heart? He’d been on the verge of sweeping her into his arms and agreeing to make all her dreams come true when the message about her grandfather’s stroke had come to her phone.
Carlo approached him. “Harper is here. She’s asking for you.”
Ashton followed Carlo from the kitchen, struggling to keep from rushing past the restaurant manager in his excitement to see Harper. She stood by the hostess stand, tense and uncertain in a white dress that draped her slim form in wispy layers of lace. Her hair had been pulled back from her face and loosely clipped in a romantic style. The impact of her appearance stole his breath.
He crossed to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. From her surprised expression, she’d obviously expected something different.
“I haven’t heard from you,” he said, making no attempt to hide his unhappiness. “How is your grandfather?”
“The stroke was minor and he’s stubborn. Keeping him at home for the past few days has been a challenge when he already feels strong enough to go back to work.”
“I’m glad to hear it. What did you tell him about South Africa?”
“That it’s a lovely country.”
Her answer disappointed him. “That’s not what I meant. Did you tell your grandfather the truth about LeDay and your mother?”
“He’s just had a stroke. It would be cruel of me to burden him with such a shock.” She looked down at her hands. “And thanks to Logan, my mother’s blackmailer has been stopped.”
“You don’t ever plan to tell him.” He saw the truth in the way she was avoiding meeting his gaze. “You don’t think he’ll love you anymore if you’re not his flesh and blood.”
“Five years ago he
went looking for Violet and Scarlett simply because they were his granddaughters. He loves them. What’s to say he wouldn’t stop loving me when he finds out we’re not related?”
“You don’t really believe he would do that.”
“I don’t.” Her voice didn’t rise above a whisper. “But I can’t take the chance. And they’re all counting on me.”
“Who?”
“My sisters. JT and Logan. They’re happy. Their lives are perfect exactly as they are. If I don’t take over as CEO either Scarlett or Violet will have to and neither one wants the job.”
In a flash, he saw the future unfold. She would take the CEO job and live in New York City. He would move on to bigger and better things with the new show. The network was ready to get behind him and push him into superstar range. There would be more shows, more opportunities to expand his career. Most important, he and Harper could start a life together.
But was it the life either of them wanted?
“Can we talk about this later?” he asked.
“There’s no need. I think you’ve told me everything you need to.”
“Not by a long shot.” But he could tell she wasn’t listening. “Meet me after the restaurant closes tonight.”
“I have too much hotel business to take care of before I fly back to New York tomorrow afternoon. I promised Grandfather that I would step into his shoes for a while. It was the only way I could get him to rest and not worry about the company.”
“When will you be back?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure. It might be a permanent move.”
Ashton’s heart sank. She would spend the rest of her life living a lie. He wanted what was best for her and this wasn’t it. But there was a bright spot to her decision.
“Then I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. Lifestyle Network agreed to most of my demands.”
“Not all?” Her half-smile was wry.
Ashton gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Those I didn’t get aren’t all that important.”
