The Texas CEO's Secret

by Nicole Foster

  She looked up from the pot she’d been refilling with the specially mixed fertilizer she used on her prized flowers. “You look tired,” she noted, more an idle observation than an expression of sympathy.

  Careful not to bump against any of her plants, Blake stepped a little closer. “I’m fine,” he said, brushing her off. “You wanted to see me?”

  Eleanor patted the soil with gloved hands then moved the pot she’d been working on from the bench back to its spot on her meticulously kept shelves. She pulled off her gloves and waved Blake to a granite garden bench near her. “Come over and sit down a bit. You’ve probably been running nonstop all day.”

  “I have, but frankly, I’d rather relax in the library with a scotch than out here.”

  “You’ve never liked my flowers.”

  Blake rolled his eyes. “That’s not true and you know it. I always compliment you on them. I’m just hot in this suit and I’d like to go change and wind down inside.”

  “I understand, but I wanted to meet with you out here because it’s about the only place on this property where two people can have some privacy.”

  Blake groaned inwardly. He felt a reprimand coming on. And he’d bet the Santa Magdalena Diamond it had everything to do with Katie. “That sounds serious.”

  “It might be.” Eleanor shook out her gardening gloves and placed them neatly beside her little trowel on the workbench. “That’s what I want to find out.”

  “Whatever it is, I’m not sure I can help you. But go ahead.”

  “I got a call from Anna Salgar.” She waited, looking at him as if that said it all.

  “And? So what? You two are friends.”

  “It wasn’t about me. It was about you. And Katie.”

  “Again, my question is, and?”

  “I don’t appreciate your sarcasm, Blake. You know exactly what I mean.”

  Blake was not in the mood for what was certain to soon turn into an all-out interrogation. “Let’s be honest. You don’t appreciate much about me, Mother.”

  “That was uncalled for and you know it.”

  He knew he should have stopped himself but exhaustion, suppressed resentment and a naturally short fuse egged him on. “No, I don’t. You’ve never had any tolerance for my issues, but with Charlie, for example, well, let’s face it, he can do no wrong in your eyes.”

  Eleanor bristled. “I don’t see what Charlie has to do with this.”

  “Nothing, except that if he were seeing a woman you had objections to, you’d still try to find a way to support him.”

  “This is about you and Katie. It has nothing to do with your brother.”

  She was partially right and he knew it, but inadvertently she’d opened an old, festering wound in him and this time, maybe for the first time ever, he wasn’t going to let her get away without facing it. Katie mattered a great deal to him and he wasn’t about to let his mother sabotage what he hoped were the beginnings of something lasting.

  “Yes it does, in a roundabout way maybe, but the fact is I know you’re going to give me grief about seeing Katie. And, I know if situations were reversed, you would do just the opposite for Charlie. He’s half Foley, yet he’s always been the golden boy, at least in your eyes.”

  “He’s my youngest,” she retorted defensively. “It’s typical for mothers to coddle the baby of the family a bit.”

  “Is it typical that the only time you want to talk to me, it’s because you disapprove of something I’m doing?”

  Eleanor stood stoically, completely ignoring his accusation. “It’s not like you to be petulant.”

  “I told you, it’s been a long day.”

  “I do appreciate all you do for this family,” she told him, softening her tone slightly. “And as for Charlie, this has all been very hard on him. He didn’t ask for any of this to happen.”

  “Neither did I. But then I didn’t have much choice, did I?”

  Glancing away, Eleanor fidgeted with the leaf of a nearby plant. “Blake, I am truly sorry for the terrible stress you’re facing now,” she said, still avoiding his eyes, until she added, “Don’t you think involving yourself with Katie is only adding to that?”

  “Look, I don’t know what Anna said to you. I probably don’t want to know. But for your information and hers, Katie is good for me. She’s a beautiful, fun, intelligent woman and I enjoy her company. In fact, unlike most other people, Katie actually helps me relax. She knows how to help me take my mind off business.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Blake balled his fists, struggling to keep his tone from going from sharp to harsh. “I mean she listens and she cares. What the hell is wrong with that?”

  “Nothing, of course. If that’s all it is. Anna and I are merely concerned about our children’s happiness, that’s all.”

  “If that’s true, then why don’t you both back off and let us live our lives. Neither Katie nor I need you telling us what to do.”

  “Well, I can see you’re not in a mood to listen to me, as usual, so we might as well drop this.”

  The odd rush of emotion, anger, resentment and frustration from years and years of listening with restraint and respect to his mother’s criticisms, corrections, suggestions and demands swelled now in Blake until he thought he would burst into a tirade he knew he would never forgive himself for. Why did her intrusion into his private life feel so much more offensive now than it had ever before?

  One word came to mind: Katie.

  It was different with her: the way he felt, the need to protect her, them, their privacy, their future. He’d never cared enough about another woman to feel defensive. But now that he and Katie had shifted somehow from friends to whatever they were at present, he wanted nothing more than for his mother, her mother, all of damned Dallas to butt out.

  With no small struggle, he banked the worst of his anger and tried to ease out of the conversation and out of Eleanor’s space.

  “It has nothing to do with my mood. It has more to do with the fact that the only times in my life you’ve taken a genuine interest in me have been when my decisions might in some way affect or interfere with your life or your plans for my life. By contrast, since Charlie was born, you’ve always been preoccupied with everything that could possibly help him.”

  For the first time in as long as he could recall, Eleanor flinched. “That’s a horrible thing to say to me.”

  “I didn’t say it to hurt you. I just think it’s time for both of us to be honest.”

  “Well,” Eleanor said briskly, now clearly out of her comfort zone, “I promised Anna I’d try to talk to you and so I have. That’s all I can do. You’ve taken this far beyond any conversation I intended to have.”

  “That’s the point. If I didn’t we’d never have had this conversation.” He turned his back to her. “I’m going to get that scotch now.” With that he strode away, leaving his mother to ponder, although he knew she’d never address the issues he raised.

  Still, it felt good for once to say what he was really thinking instead of what he knew she wanted to hear. He owed that to Katie, too; she’d given him the motivation.

  At that moment he realized he didn’t want to have that scotch, or anything else for that matter, without her.

  A little concerned but glad to hear from him, Katie wondered at the slightly weary note in Blake’s voice when he’d called. It didn’t sound at all like him. And asking her to simply take a walk in the park certainly wasn’t like him. Nonetheless, she agreed to meet him, wondering what was on his mind.

  They found each other at the prescribed spot along the north end of a little known but lushly beautiful park nestled in an unexpected corner of the wealthier Dallas suburbs.

  “You’re here in time to watch the sun set,” Blake said from where he sat stretched comfortably over a wood and wrought-iron park bench, one of several that surrounded a granite fountain and small pool.

  “Well, I’d say you look relaxed, except for th
e pinstripes and tie.”

  Blake glanced down at his shirt and suit coat. “I forgot to change.” He laughed a little at himself. Something few people ever saw him do, Katie mused. “I just needed to get out of that house.”

  In all the time she’d known him, Katie had never heard him sound quite like this and it worried her. She walked past the spouting water and sat down beside him, instinctively laying a hand on his thigh. “Hey, what’s up? You don’t seem like yourself at all.”

  Blake stared off, mesmerized by the rhythm of the fountain’s water show. After a long distracted moment he turned to her. Glancing over her, as though part of him just realized she was there, he said, “You look beautiful.”

  “In sweats and cross-trainers?”

  “Especially.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “You do surprise me. I was just getting out of the bath when you called—”

  “That’s not playing fair, Katie, putting that vision in my head.”

  “Who says I play fair? I threw this on because I didn’t actually know what you meant by going for a walk.”

  “Sorry, I’d love to walk through the park with you, but after I got here and sat down and started watching the sunset I pretty much forgot about the walk.”

  Now she was truly concerned. Rather than his usual take-control self, he seemed distracted.

  “Blake, did something happen today?”

  He laughed ruefully. “Your mom called my mom.”

  She stiffened. “What?”

  “If you’re up for drama, we could be Romeo and Juliet except for the fact that we’re twice their age and ironically we aren’t the ones from enemy families. Not to say that hasn’t happened.”

  Katie knew he was referring to his mother’s affair with Rex Foley. Eleanor herself had revealed to Katie a few details of her past with Rex, and both Tate and Gabby had told her about the brief liaison between Eleanor and Rex, the one that produced Charlie. She suspected Blake was also alluding to Penny’s new dalliance with Jason Foley.

  “Luckily that’s not us,” she tried to say lightly. When he kept staring off into the pinks and purples lighting the sky above a fading sun, waning remains of what must have been a trying day, she decided to risk being more direct. “Did you and your mother talk about us or about her affair with Rex?”

  He shrugged. “Mostly us, but a little of the other. She doesn’t like to go there, needless to say.” He sat up from his leaning position on the bench, then turned and took her hand in his, running soft patterns over her skin with the pad of his thumb. “She got on my nerves, it’s not an issue and it’s nothing new. I just needed to get out and away for a while. I needed to be with you.”

  Katie’s heart swelled. That he had thought of her, wanted to be near her when his heart and mind were troubled made her feel more cherished and needed than Tate ever had.

  She smiled, leaning into him to touch her lips to his. With a gentle kiss, she murmured, “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Just being here,” she said as a substitute for all the things she could have said. “I needed to be with you, too.”

  They did end up strolling through the park after sunset, holding hands like old lovers by the light of big round gas lamps lighting the tree-canopied trail. In a dozen lifetimes, Blake never would have imagined himself relaxed and actually enjoying a simple walk in the park. Yet surprisingly, he felt more comfortable revealing his feelings to Katie than he had to anyone previously about his mother, her affair with Rex, the uncertain future of McCord Jewelers and his sense of responsibility for that ultimate outcome.

  And Katie simply listened. Something no one else in his life had ever done. She didn’t offer correction, guilt, advice or make demands. She merely asked a question to clarify here or there, offered a word of encouragement or support and patiently stayed focused on him.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve gone on about my dramas long enough,” he said, realizing with a touch of self-consciousness that he’d scarcely asked her anything about how things were going in her world.

  She turned and smiled up to him. “Don’t be sorry, I like it when you talk to me, really talk to me, like you are now.”

  The soft pools in her eyes told him she meant it. Pausing on the path, he pulled her close. Nuzzling his face in her jasmine-scented hair, he kissed her neck. “Thank you for listening.”

  “After all these years of knowing each other, I feel like I’m only now getting to know the real you.”

  “That could be dangerous.”

  Now averting her eyes to stare out beyond his shoulder, she admitted softly, “It is. But not for the reasons you might think.”

  “Worried I’m messed up from my mother’s fling with Rex Foley and my family’s endless expectations?”

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Cupping his chin in her hands, she kissed him slowly, with a tenderness that melted the edges of what felt like an iceberg that had lodged itself somewhere in his heart so long ago he couldn’t remember when it hadn’t been there.

  Blake wrapped his arms around her and matched her kiss, moonlight drenching them in a soft glow. Pliable and willing, she melded to his chest, her supple body inviting him to touch. Sliding his hands down her back, he nudged her closer and when she responded, he deepened their kiss. As it always was between them, it suddenly became urgent—roaming hands, impatient tugging at clothes, forgetting where they were in their need to get even closer.

  He could have kept on kissing her but through the moonlit shadows came the approaching sound of giggling teenagers down the path. She drew back and Blake distanced himself reluctantly, both of them resuming their walk.

  Trying to catch his breath through a haze of frustrated desire, Blake attempted to attribute the intensity of his need to mere lust. Katie was a stunningly beautiful, sensuous woman after all. But he knew he was lying to himself. What he felt for her went far deeper, down to a place he’d never allowed himself to go.

  “That was close,” she said finally, with a small laugh, breaking their long silence.

  “Do you think they got an eyeful?”

  “I doubt it. It’s too dark and they weren’t that close.”

  They were nearing the parking lot but he didn’t want the night to end here. He had more to say to her, wanted to feel her in his arms again.

  She stopped at a fork in the path. “I’m parked over there. It’s been so nice, though, just walking and talking. Peaceful, isn’t it?”

  After pressing her to him until his arousal ached, Blake’s body felt anything but peaceful. And his mind wasn’t any better. But he lied, lest he scare her off. “We should do this again. It’s still early, though. How about a bite to eat?”

  “I’d love to but I can’t tonight. I left a stack of paperwork for the charity ball unfinished. I’m falling terribly behind and it’s getting close.”

  Her answer hit him hard, like an out-and-out rejection of him personally, not the simple thanks-but-no-thanks he knew it was. His reaction was unreasonable, caused in part he was sure by his unsettling confrontation with his mother, even if it didn’t feel like it at the moment. Well trained in stoicism and buried emotions, he simply shrugged it off. “Another time, then.”

  “Oh, definitely,” she said with a light kiss and a squeeze to his hand. “Thank you again for a really lovely evening.”

  Her gestures and her words left him worse than unsatisfied. The pit of his stomach went hard, felt suddenly cold and empty.

  She held the key to a feeling of intimacy he’d never experienced and wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue to feel because when she left him, that feeling wrapped itself around his heart like the platinum watch around his wrist, beautiful, essential to the point that without it—without her—he’d begun to feel lost.

  Chapter Ten

  “Are you sure I can’t change your mind?” Blake asked the question, knowing the answer he’d get from Katie, but reluctant to leave without her. They stood together at the gate leading
to his private jet, the close warmth of the small room a contrast to the cool gray mistiness of the early fall morning outside the tall glass windows. She’d driven him to the airport today, though it was unnecessary, but her presence wasn’t enough to dispel his doubts about yet another separation. Since he’d made plans, two days ago, to make a quick trip to Toronto to personally complete the purchase of several canary diamonds, he’d been plagued by the uneasy feeling that he was going to regret walking away from Katie at this juncture of their relationship, even briefly. If he could call what they had a relationship in terms of it being more than friendship or simple desire, and that was something he hadn’t allowed himself to consider too closely yet.

  She shook her head, her small smile regretful. “You know I can’t. Between work and finalizing the plans for the ball…I wish I could, though.”

  “Do you?” He stopped her from answering, lightly shaping her cheek with his fingertips. “Katie—” This time he hesitated, uncertain of what he wanted to say to her, more unsure of his own feelings.

  “It’s only for two days,” she said. “We’ll both be busy. And you’ll be back by the weekend.”

  “Who are you trying to convince that this doesn’t matter?”

  “Both of us, I guess. Is it working?”

  “Not at this end,” Blake told her flatly.

  A faint color stained her cheeks. “Why was this not an issue when I went to New York?”

  “Hell if I know. Maybe because things haven’t been quite the same since you came back.”

  “I’m not sure what the same—” she gave a slight emphasis to the words “—is with us. Are you?”

  “No, but I’d like the chance to define it. I’d like to think that you do, too.”

  Her hesitation was damning, adding to his overall uneasiness that something had changed between them and not for the better. “I’ll take that as a no,” he said shortly.

  “It’s not that.” She briefly bit her lower lip before reaching out to smooth her hand over his shoulder, following the gesture with her eyes. “If I could just think clearly around you…”