“Well, I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Charlene said humbly.
“No. Believe me. We wouldn’t dare broach the conversation prematurely,” Dr. Campbell assured. “But the time has come.” There was a bitter sweet twinkle in her narrowed gaze. “You know, Gladys and I started this organization together after meeting Gloria Steinem. It was clear to us that every woman had a part to do in the advancement of women’s issues and this was our way of contributing. We have been good friends for over three decades. Our children’s children are best friends. Plainly put, I know best how she feels about Sophie’s Choice, and I know how she feels about you. She wants you in the position that you’ve been placed in because she knows that you have the passion that we have had for all these years. You’ll continue on our legacy, Charlene.”
The vote of confidence left Charlene speechless. Unexpectedly and most unlike herself, she reached out her hand and put it on Dr. Campbell’s. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “That means a lot to me.”
Mr. Campbell was also moved. He’d seen his wife and her best friend struggle to make this organization what it had grown to be, and he shared his wife’s sentiments about their protégé. “Well, you mean a lot to this organization. Nearly all of the new donors that we’ve acquired over the last two years have been your contacts, and the DLC brought a few very generous friends tonight simply because of you.”
Charlene’s bubble was suddenly popped. With a shrug, she sat back in her chair and pasted her lips together to prevent a scream. Sully Orrin. Dammit! She had nearly forgotten about him.
“What do you mean?” Charlene asked, truly confused.
“Sullivan Orrin brought the software mogul, Dane Withersby, with him tonight. When he’d asked to bring a guest, I thought he meant a woman. But he shows up with Withersby,” Dr. Campbell explained with greedy eyes. “From what I’ve heard, he’s a staunch democrat from a single-parent household who truly believes in elevating women in society.”
“There’s nothing better than a momma’s boy. I happen to be one myself,” Mr. Campbell joked, lifting his brow at his wife.
“Speaking of the devil, here he comes now,” Dr. Campbell said, turning in her seat and lifting her hand to wave over Sullivan. “Darling, over here,” she called out to Sully.
Charlene’s heart constricted tight, nearly knocking her out of her own chair. She turned quickly to her fiancé to draw his attention but his gaze had locked on to Sullivan as he gracefully moved through the chairs and people to greet the good doctor.
Alex had heard the stories about this Sullivan guy, but never had he laid eyes on him. His curiosity prevented him from now missing the opportunity to see what had captivated his fiancé and nearly destroyed her once upon a time. During their dating process, it had taken forever but he had gotten her to purge. She did so with the understanding that it would “never be brought up again.”
But Alex insisted to gain her utmost trust. His plan had worked. She dumped all of her baggage from past relationships at the door and stepped across the threshold of their relationship a new woman…so he thought. But the buildup about this man from the upper crust had him nervous, and he was an alpha male for goodness sake, incapable of feeling one-upped by a snobby little shit in a James Bond tuxedo.
Sullivan brought with him the previously discussed Dane. The two of them in their perfect tuxedos under the strategic lighting and votive candles looked like a pair of Kennedy brothers. Smiling ear-to-ear and capturing the attention of all the available women in the room, they both approached with blue blood grace and regal airs.
“Dr. Campbell, it’s so good to see you again,” Sullivan said in a throaty, crystal-clear baritone. With a chivalrous bow, he took her hand and kissed it. “You remember my dear friend, Dane.” He stepped to the side to introduce the taller gentleman standing beside him with slim shoulders and a sinewy frame. Dane’s red, fiery curls brought even more attention to his startling emerald green eyes and high cheek bones. He may have started out poor, but he looked like he was born from money.
“Dr. Campbell,” Dane said with a booming baritone. “It’s nice to finally make your acquaintance. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“And I you,” Dr. Campbell said charmed. “This is my husband Robert Campbell…”
The rest of the introductions were lost on Charlene. Unable to help herself, she took in all of Sullivan now aged like a fine wine and felt overwhelmed again. At thirty-eight his brown locks carried streaks of distinguished gray on the sides but his tanned face was etched with perfect features that were more pronounced now than she remembered even in her most vivid dreams of him before.
Sullivan walked over to Charlene, giving her a seductive grin as he stuck a hand out to Alex.
“Sullivan Orrin,” he said, standing right beside Charlene’s chair.
Feeling silently challenged, Alex stood reaching all of his six feet, four inches of height. “Alexander Mendoza,” he said, feeling the pull of his fiancée attention between him and her former lover as he shook Sullivan’s soft hand.
“Yes, the luckiest man in New York,” Sullivan continued. “I’ve heard great things about you through the grape vine. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your hard work during 9/11, and I’m very sorry for your losses.”
“My fellow firemen are still missed,” Alex said with a frown creasing his angelic features.
There was a pause as Sullivan gathered his thoughts. “My congratulations on your engagement to Charlie,” he said, finally turning to Charlene. “Sorry that I haven’t had the opportunity to call and wish you both well.”
“It’s fine. I’m sure that you’re a very busy man in D.C.,” Charlene said with a nervous chuckle, realizing that the table’s attention had all turned to the trio.
“Well, I plan to be here for about a week. I was hoping that maybe tomorrow we could have lunch,” Sullivan said with a cunning smile. “I would like for Dane to hear what Sophie’s Choice has done for this community and others like it. I believe that he might be a very beneficial friend to the organization. He’s currently in the market to find a non-profit that falls in line with his personal interests.” Sullivan looked over at Dane and raised a brow.
Dane chimed in quickly. “Yes. I flew all the way in from L.A. just for the event, but I have a hundred questions. Sully tells me that you’re the woman to inform me, Charlene.”
Charlie felt the quiet urging of her bosses even with her back to them. After a quick glance at her fiancé, she suddenly felt sick to the stomach. Leave it to Sully to put her in a terrible bind. Tilting her head, she ran her hand down her champagne flute and then smiled. “Tomorrow sounds great. I believe I read somewhere that you like oysters.” She looked over at Dane and pulled her composure together. This was business after all. No point in crumbling for her ex’s benefit. Besides, it could very well have nothing to do with her.
“You read correct. I love oysters. I grew up on them,” Dane said, lifting up on his tip toes at the thought of what an aphrodisiac they were.
“I know the perfect place,” Charlene said, swallowing down her pride. “I’ll have Frank set it up.”
“Sounds fun. Tomorrow then at noon,” Sully said, stepping away. “Well, if you’d excuse me. We don’t want to miss the rest of the program.”
“Enjoy!” Dr. Campbell said, oblivious to the undertones of the conversation. Even if she had known, she wouldn’t have cared. As long as Sullivan Orrin dangled Dane Withersby like a carrot on a stick, she’d be happy to oblige him near anything.
Watching the two men walk away, Alex sat back down beside Charlene and rubbed a hand down her back. “You okay?” he asked, concerned.
“Fine,” she reassured him with a pasted on smile.
“Excellent job,” Mr. Campbell said, proudly. “What did we tell you? You were made for this.”
Normally, his enthusiasm would not have been lost on Charlene, but she knew Sullivan too well to be comfortable. He had something up his sleeve.<
br />
***
Charlie could barely concentrate on fixing her tea that night after the gala. Standing in her Tuscan-style kitchen, looking out of the windows at the Manhattan skyline as the snow covered the city, she dazed off thinking about her long, lost lover. She hated the effect that Sully still had on her after all those years. The butterflies. The skipped heart beats. The elevated blood pressure. She loathed him for it, and she was sure that at the same time he enjoyed it immensely. Plus, she thought that she had gotten far away from him. She hadn’t taken his brother’s help, hadn’t used his name to climb the latter, hadn’t used him as crutch to close her heart. Yet, as far as she had run away from him, he had still found her.
“How long are you going to hold that cup up to your mouth before you drink some?” Alex asked, walking quietly into the kitchen.
The sound of her fiancé’s voice made Charlie jump. She turned, startled and smiled at him. “My mind won’t stop running back to the event,” she answered truthfully. “I hope the speech was powerful enough, you know.” She lied.
There was a long pause.
Alex watched her face carefully before he continued. Taking the tea out of her hand, he walked over to the microwave and popped it in. “I would have thought that your mind would have been more on the meeting you have tomorrow with your ex and his money.”
“By money, you mean Dane?” she asked, trying to keep her tone even.
“Him too,” Alex smirked.
Charlie lifted a brow. “Does it bother you that I’m meeting him? I assure you it’s only for business.” Even as the words left her mouth, she knew that she was lying. But telling him that would be like shooting herself in her own foot.
“Maybe if I hadn’t met the guy, it would not have bothered me, but after meeting him…” Alex rolled his eyes. There was no way in hell he was going to finish that statement and sound like the guy was punking him out.
Charlie hung on to his every word. Alex was an alpha and if he felt upstaged, she knew it was her job to reaffirm her position in this.
Alex continued when he knew that he had baited her. Left eye twitching, he continued in a more soothing voice, “But I can see why you guys broke up.”
A frown laced her brow. “Wh…why would you say that?” She folded her arms.
Alex shrugged. “Well, he’s blue blood. He’s not the type of guy who marries anything less than his own kind. He’s the page-6 type whose family announces his wedding engagement on CNN. I’m sure he has a family crest and papers that follow his lineage like 30 generations or some shit.”
“And what am I?” she asked with a grimace.
Her twisted bottom lip made him choose his words more carefully.
“You’re an amazing woman who pulled herself up by her own bootstraps,” he said, giving her her props before he ended up on the couch tonight.
Charlie softened just a little, but countered anyway. “I can’t believe that you are making such a republican statement.”
He raised his palms in defense. “Just hear me out. You’re awesome, but you’re not one of the first families to arrive on Pilgrim Rock. And Sully’s family was.” There was an unmistakable smirk on his face now.
“They were settlers, but I don’t think that they arrived on Pilgrim Rock,” she corrected. Suddenly, Malcolm X was on the brain.
“You know what I mean. I mean, hey, I’m Puerto Rican and proud of it, baby, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know how these things work. He’s destined to marry a Rockefeller or a Kennedy. And you know that I’m right. He may like to play in the mainstream, but he’s definitely a two-percenter.”
“Like the gang?” she asked.
“No. Like the two percent of America that holds the country’s wealth, smart ass.”
For some reason, Alex’s statement angered Charlene. He didn’t know Sully or his family at all. They were far from elitist. Still, she couldn’t argue that point. Not right now. For all she knew, Alex was testing her to see if there were still some feelings there. Walking over to the microwave beside him, she opened the door and pulled out her mug.
“Even if Sully wanted me, and I seriously doubt that, all I want in this world is you,” she said, rising up her tip toes to kiss his lips. “So this conversation is pointless regardless of if he should marry a Kennedy or a crack head.”
“Is that right?” he asked with a seductive growl. His brown eyes pierced through her as he licked his lips. He knew it wasn’t right to goat Charlie, but he just wanted to see for himself if she had truly crossed that threshold bagless or not. She was about to be his wife. He had to know that she belonged to him and him only. Divorce rates were unbelievable in New York and he didn’t want to add to the count. But she had passed his test…with flying colors. “You know how much I love you, right?”
“This much,” she said, putting her thumb and index finger an inch a part with a crooked smile.
“No,” he whispered, pinching her side. “This much,” he said, opening his arms for her to come into his embrace. “And it only grows each and every day. I just want to make sure that we’re on the same page.”
Her words sated his alpha intentions. Wrapping her arms around him, careful not to spill the hot tea, she pushed her body up against his. “I do believe that I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”
“You are.” Taking the coffee cup out of her hand, he picked her up in his arms and carried her out of the room. “Time to stop thinking about work,” he grunted, feeling his body come alive at just the sight of her.
65
The Contingency Plan
Chapter 3
Charlene had never put so much thought into trying to look carefree in her life. She had thought about wearing a suit, thought about caring on with title that she would soon hold, but today was Saturday and she was meeting people who would see straight through any façade.
Looking at herself in the full-length mirror of her white-on-white Victorian themed bathroom, she turned to the side and looked at her butt in her new jeans. It still looked perky…thank God. But what about the rest of her?
She stood to the front and put her hands under her breasts. Perky enough…hopefully.
Turning on her lamp, she pushed up further against the countertop and looked at her face. Did she look as young as she did seven years ago? Sully didn’t, but he looked even better as an older man, aging like Sean Connery.
Pulling at the sides of her eyes, she blinked and wiped the extra liner from the slits. Everything had to be perfect, not just to impress Dane but also to impress Sully.
For some reason, Charlene wanted him to know what he had missed out on. She wanted him to grovel and possibly beg, just so she could send him back to D.C. hating himself and counting seven years ago as the biggest mistake of his life.
It was a tall order.
She would admit that, but it was one that she was hoping to fill anyway.
The catch, however, was that good old Sully never regretted anything. He always thought his decision through, played out scenarios, contemplated before he acted. That is what made him the man at the DLC. Sully was pragmatic and strategic. Only just this once, she needed him to regret her.
Why? She wasn’t sure yet.
Maybe it was because she never got closure or maybe it was because she had spent last night thinking about Alex’s statement. “Sully was a blue blood.” She had never seen him that way before, but what if Sully did regard himself in such a way? What if he never had any intention of ever staying with her? What if he never truly cared about her? The questions multiplied by the hour, and with each question came more dead air – no answers, no closure.
All she knew is that for the first time in forever, she remembered what it was like to really feel, and that disturbed her. She had learned to be a reasonable woman with her heart instead of throwing it about like she had a spare. She had learned that men thought women were expendable, and so the best thing to be was guarded. But the one thing she had not learned to do was
get over Sully.
Checking her watch, she brushed through her long ponytail one last time and sprayed perfume. Grabbing her purse and shades off of the sofa nearest the door, she took a deep breath and emerged into the world.
***
Sitting in the back of Clément’s Oyster House in a large, dark empty booth only illuminated by the dim tiffany lamp above him with a khaki-colored Ralph Lauren Polo baseball cap pulled down over his chocolate curls and his eyes glued to the menu, Sully took a sip of his dirty martini and debated on what to order. Oysters were Dane’s favorite, but he preferred a big juicy medium-well steak to seafood.
Pulling his I-phone closer to him, he checked the time covertly, then continued like he wasn’t nervous, wasn’t anxious, wasn’t…waiting to see Charlie again, even though his heart was beating like a drum in his chest.
Last night, she had looked even more amazing than he could have ever imagined. Her skin glowed. Her eyes beamed. Her presence encapsulated him, utterly and completely.
It had driven him crazy to see her cuddled up to her fiancé. Even he wasn’t prepared for his reaction – a heady mix of jealousy and want had overtaken him, and he was forced last night to leave before he said something about it.
It was like the first time that they had met seven years ago. He still remembered what he had felt like when she walked in with his brother to the headquarters in Miami.
But he wouldn’t get too ahead of himself with all of that today. First, he had to pitch her on the entire crazy concept of his new and biggest idea to date.
His heart made a thud when he heard high heels clicking his way. Finally looking up when he was certain that he would not gawk, he eyed Charlie.
She sported a very sexy ensemble: a dark pair of skinny jeans that fit her thick hips and wide calves perfectly, a soft white lace shirt and nude chemise underneath that showed just a hint of supple cleavage, taupe red-backed heels and a white Coach purse with a heavy leather coat thrown over her arm.
The Contingency Plan (The Lonely Heart Series) Page 4
