The Billionaire's Heart: The Complete Series (Romance, Contemporary Romance, Billionaire Romance, The Billionaire's Heart Book 7)

by Nancy Adams

  Okay, so I had an ulterior motive; Katelynn began to talk more about herself, her childhood, her family and friends. I enjoyed the time we spent like that, not boss and employee, but just friends sharing with each other about the things that were important to us on a personal level.

  Then, one day about a week before I suddenly had to fly home, it hit me that it wasn't enough, anymore. I wanted to take things up a notch, explore our relationship without any of the business connotations interfering with our interactions, so I took the plunge and asked her for a date.

  To my utter delight, she said yes, and I almost lost my composure a few times that week, waiting for Friday night to come. When it finally did, we both left work at a reasonable hour, and I drove to her home to pick her up. As I had expected, her father met me at the door, and as two ex-Marines are wont to do, we had a bit of a hand-grip contest as he ushered me in. I think I won, but he was smiling like the Cheshire Cat when we released each other's hand, and I got the feeling I'd made a good first impression.

  That date was by far the very best one I'd ever had. We went to dinner at an exclusive little place I'd found some months before on a different trip, and then enjoyed a movie at a real, working drive-in theater (and don't ask me what it was, I couldn't keep my eyes on the screen). I kissed her, once, when she buried herself in my shoulder during a scary part, and it was the most wonderful kiss of all time! When the movie was over, we drove home, her fingers entwined in mine, and I kissed her goodnight.

  And then, when she got to the store the next morning, I couldn't resist and kissed her again. It hit me that I was far more than just interested in Katelynn Burke; I was genuinely feeling something that was much more exciting, much more consuming than I had ever known before, and it had me in a grip that would never let go. It didn't take me long to realize that I was feeling what the poets and singers have spoken of for centuries.

  I was in love.

  This was something entirely new to me. I'd had a number of relationships over the past few years, but none of them had ever affected me so much. The girls I'd dated, even the ones I spent months with in enjoyable adventures, had never meant more to me than some welcome company and the chance to explore vicariously what life might be like with a woman I truly cared for. I had fun, and I trust that they did as well, but I wanted someone who made me feel the way my father did when he looked at my mother. I wanted the same fire in my own eyes that I saw in his when Mom bathed him in the light of her smile, and none of these girls put it there.

  Katelynn did. I knew it even before our date, and wanted to make sure that the feeling wasn't something fleeting and false, that it was as real as it seemed to be, and so we went out together that Friday night.

  By Sunday morning, I knew I could not live without her in my life. I called her up just a bit after noon, and took her for a picnic by the lake, and there I asked her what she felt, and told her of my own feelings. She and I both confessed to being in love, and we were discussing our individual feelings about what we would expect in a mate, when I got the call that my father had suffered a heart attack.

  I had rushed to his side, of course, but Katelynn knew I would be back as soon as the situation would permit me. I had already begun to miss her on the flight out to San Francisco, but I'd been worried enough about Dad not to call her just yet. I planned to correct that when I got to our home, but for that moment, I simply let all of this pass through my mind as I gathered my thoughts to tell my parents about the woman I was in love with.

  “She's beautiful. She's smart. She's one of the most good-hearted people I've ever met in my life, and she's not impressed by our wealth. Her father is a former Senator, and does very well for himself in a private law practice, so while she might not be in our league with the banks, she's not going to be bowled over by the fact I could buy her anything she wants; in fact, she's as independent as you can imagine, wouldn't even let her father pay for her college education, and insists on paying her own way in just about everything.”

  I smiled, thinking of just how tough my little darling really is. “She's the one,” I said after a moment. “She's the one I've been looking for, the one who makes me feel like I'm the most special guy on the planet, the one who makes me want to get up and spend another day in this world.” I looked at my Dad. “She's the one who makes me feel the way Mom makes you feel, Dad, and I know that you’re both going to love her as much as I do.”

  Mom had a tear in her eye, and Dad just looked at me with a smile, then turned his attention to Mom. “Sounds like there might be something to the rumors, then, right, Katherine?”

  Mom smiled, then got out of her chair and came over to hug me again. “My Nathanael is a grown man, and since he's your son, I'm sure he knows his heart when it comes to choosing the right girl.” She looked up at me; I tower over her by about a foot. “Son, if you love her, we certainly will.” She stretched up to kiss me on the cheek, and I put my arms around her.

  “Of course, we will,” Dad said, “but we've got some other things to discuss, too.”

  Mom interrupted him. “Norman, he's only just gotten here, and he's been worried sick about you for hours. Give the boy a chance to relax before you try to ruin his life again!”

  Ruin my life? I thought. Oh, no… “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, and both of them looked at me. Mom didn't say a word, but turned again to look at Dad.

  He sat there for a moment, just looking at my face, and then he shook his head. “No,” he said to Mom, “he needs to know now.” He turned his face back to look me in the eye.

  “Nathanael, I'm not completely out of the woods. While the surgery got my heart back to working properly, again, the fact is that my cholesterol is so high that if I don't make some serious life changes, this is going to end up being only the first stage of a serious problem. I've got to be working with my doctors, now, so that I can get myself into much better shape and manage to stick around here for a few more years, and one of the things they're telling me I have to do is eliminate as much of my stress as I can.”

  I nodded, since all of this made sense to me. “So you’re going to retire?” I asked, though it was more of a statement than a question, and as soon as it was out of my mouth, I saw that look pass between them again. I knew it, I thought, they're going to make me take over, and I'm just not ready!

  Dad cleared his throat. “Nate, it's time. I'm calling a board meeting on Wednesday, and I'll be announcing that I'm stepping down as CEO of the company, and installing you in my place. As soon as that's done, I'm transferring the bulk of my stock to you, as well, then your mother and I are going to start taking life easy.”

  My head was swimming against a current that was threatening to smash me against some pretty big rocks! Me, the new CEO? He had to be kidding, right? And what was that about giving me his stock?

  “Dad, I'm...” I swallowed back my surprise and tried again. “I'm not ready to run the whole company, Dad. You've got a whole corporate office full of people who are more experienced and more qualified than me; some of them would probably quit if you put me in the big chair. And what are you talking about, giving me your stock? That's yours and Mom's, you should keep it!”

  He held up his hand in the gesture that always meant I'd said enough, and it was time to shut up and listen.

  “Nate, I've got to get away from the day to day business of running everything, and while there are people who may know more than you about it, you are the one they'll all be looking to to take the wheel and keep the ship moving on course. You're young and strong, I'm old and broken down..”

  “Dad,” I broke in, “you're only fifty-three, for cryin' out loud! That's not exactly decrepit!”

  “Hush and listen! While I may be only in my early fifties, my body has been through things that most men don't see until their eighties, and so I'm older on the outside than I am on the inside. That damage has now come home to roost, and if I don't do some things to change the way my life is affecting me, I'm n
ot going to make it another five years. That means I've got to start working on changing the factors that make my body think it's ready to quit, and I cannot do that unless I have complete confidence in the man who's running the company I built. That means you, because you are the only one who can take my original vision for the company and make it grow with your own.”

  Mom touched my arm. “Nate, this isn't quite as sudden as you might think it is. We've been talking to Doctor Monroe for several weeks, because they've been warning him that something like this would happen, but like everyone else, we thought that because we were planning to do something about it soon, we were staving off the inevitable. When your father had this attack, we simply knew it was time to stop stalling, and do it.”

  I looked at her, and shook my head. “But, Mom—I'm really not ready...”

  “Son, that's nonsense!” Dad said, and he was so emphatic that I worried for a second that he was going to have another heart attack right then and there. “You've already worked in almost every phase of the company, and you probably understand the whole thing better than even I do. You've got people who can run the departments you haven't managed to get to, yet, and they'll do a fine job, so that you can do what you need to do.”

  “And what would that be? Sit up in your fancy office and pretend I'm you?”

  He laughed, and I relaxed a bit, myself, even managed to smile at my sarcasm. “No, Nitwit, you'll start exploring the areas you want to take the company into in the future. You'll develop new markets, and look at trends in retailing to keep the company up to date with technology, with regulations, with benefits and everything else that can affect our success if we lag behind the big boys! You'll look for new products that haven't made it into the public eye yet, and get them into our stores before anyone else finds them, and you'll do a thousand other things that an old dinosaur like me wouldn't even think of, because you grew up in a world that is dependent on younger, faster minds!”

  “Nate,” Mom said as the Old Man ran down, “you've been telling us for years that you wanted to be the best possible CEO when the time came. Well, it's here. I can't lose your father, not when he’s finally ready to take life easier and spend the time with me that we've been missing all these years of business expansions and board meetings, and the only one he'll ever trust to run the company is you. He's asking you to do this as much for me as for himself, Nate, but I'm asking you to do it because we both love your father. If you won't accept this and take it off of his shoulders, then he's going to stay right in there and do what he's done all these long years, and we'll end up losing him long before his time.”

  There it was; that was the trap, and I'd walked into it like a mouse after cheese. There was no way I could refuse, not after Mom put it that way. I stared at each of them for a moment, and then I just nodded my head.

  “Okay,” I said. “If that's how it's got to be, then so be it; but, one thing—once I take over, I actually take over, and I'll run the company the best way I see fit. If you and I disagree, I get the final say. Right?”

  Dad smiled. “Wouldn't have it any other way, Squirt!”

  “And the first order of business is this: I was 'Squirt' when I was three years old; stop calling me that, at least outside of home!”

  They both laughed, then, and the tension that was building washed away. While we all smiled and talked about simple things for a bit, my mind was racing, and the thing that was foremost was wondering how Katelynn was going to react to this news.

  Chapter Two

  The Heart Of The Matter

  * * * * *

  The doctor came in a short time after that talk and suggested that Dad needed to rest. It was actually near midnight, there, and I was pretty tired myself after being so stressed out during the flight, so I hugged them both and kissed Mom, and went back down to the limo. Emerson, Dad's chauffeur, was waiting stoically beside the car, and he opened my door for me as he asked about Dad's condition.

  “He's going to be okay, Emerson,” I told him. “They got to him fast enough, and operated immediately, so his prognosis is good. He's got to make some changes, though, slow down a lot and take life easier, so he's sticking me with running the company from now on. Why is it he has a heart attack, and I'm the one who has to get clobbered?”

  Emerson had been with us for almost twenty years, and knew us all quite well. He chuckled as he put the car in gear and pulled away from the hospital.

  “Mr. Nate, that man's been courting this kind of thing for as long as I've known him. Please don't let the business end of life do to you what it's done to him; be sure you take time for your own life, not just for the company.”

  “Believe me, old friend, I'm planning to do just that. I got into fitness in the corps, and I'm going to do my best to keep that focus. I don't want to find myself in the hospital in twenty years, going through the same things.”

  We rode the rest of the way in silence, and got to the house about an hour later. Dad had bought a big mansion when we'd moved there, outside of the city a ways, and the estate was beautiful, wooded and private. Emerson parked me right at the front door and carried my luggage up to my room for me. I sat down at my computer desk and looked at the time; almost one in the morning, which meant that Katelynn was almost certainly sleeping. I pulled out my cell phone and texted: Hey, Baby. Dad is going to be okay. Lots I need to talk to you about tomorrow. Will call you in morning during your break. I love you:)

  I set the phone down, and had just risen to my feet to head for the shower when it chirped at me. I looked, and sure enough, it was a reply from Katelynn.

  I'm so glad! I will be waiting to hear your voice. I love you, too. :)

  I smiled; for the first time in my life, I felt the happiness that comes from knowing that someone loved me, and that I loved that person, as well. I went to the shower, and was in my bed and asleep in less than thirty minutes.

  Morning sunlight filled my room a lot earlier than I would have liked, but I was used to operating on less than optimal sleep. I got up and shaved, then dressed for the day and went down to the kitchen for breakfast. Carla, the cook, gushed over me like she'd done for more than a decade whenever I put in an appearance at home, and I had a plate of waffles and sausage in front of me a few minutes later. I filled her in on Dad, and then went through it all again with Ed the butler and Charlotte, the housekeeper. I let them tell the rest of the staff, so I got to eat my breakfast while they did so. Everyone peeked in to tell me how glad they were that the Old Man would still be griping at them for a while, yet.

  Mom came home while I was still at the table and joined me for a cup of coffee.

  “He's doing so well, the Doctor says he's probably going to be released later today,” she said, “and he's already called the board meeting this morning. It's set for Wednesday at nine AM, and everyone already knows that he's going to be stepping down as CEO, and putting you in.”

  I let my eyebrows rise a bit. “And no one is throwing a fit about that yet? I'm pretty sure some of the board members aren't going to be too happy about his kid taking over this soon.”

  She laughed softly. “There may be a little opposition, but it won't be much, and it doesn't really matter since your father holds controlling interest, even without my shares or yours. His votes are the ones that will make the decision, so you're in, no matter what anyone thinks. And then he's transferring most of his shares to you, so from then on it will be your votes that decide any issue.”

  I sighed. “That's the part I don't get, Mom. I mean, I'd eventually inherit his stock, he's shown me his will; but why give it to me now? Why would he give up his earnings on it?”

  Mom smiled at me. “There are several reasons, Nate, but the two most important ones are these: first, he wants to be done with making the tough decisions on his own, and he wants there to be absolutely no doubt about who is running the company from now on; and second, you're probably going to be getting married and starting a family sometime soon. The worst thing we c
ould do to you is let you begin married life with your new bride living under your parents' domineering rule, so by giving you your inheritance now, he's eliminating any risk that she might ever feel that way.” She rubbed my arm. “Nate, we didn't always have money, you know. When you were born, your father and I both worked for the big department store in town, but he wasn't the kind to be content making money for other people, and he never liked the way we were treated by the company. He had a dream of a store that would treat employees like people, rather than as assets, and he worked his butt off to find a way to start one of our own. You were just a little thing, then, so you don't remember how we worked alone to get it started for that first year. It was called 'Simmons General,' back then, and you used to sit in your playpen all day, right behind my cash register. You were such a good baby, and the customers always used to talk to you when they were checking out. One of them told me that her daughter always wanted to go to 'Little Nate's store' when they went shopping, and I shared that with your father, and when he decided to start branching out, he changed the name of the company to Nate's.”

  I grinned at her. “Mom, I know all this...”

  She raised a hand to shush me. “Hear me out,” she said, and I shut up and listened. “What you don't know is that it was your Grandpa Simmons who loaned us the money to start the first store, and he made it clear to us that he wanted absolute veto power over everything we did with it. At first, it seemed okay, but before long we came to understand what it would really mean. He stood over your father's shoulder for the first three years. Every decision your father made, he questioned, everything we did, and it was a miserable time. I got to the point I hated your Grandpa, because it always seemed like he thought he should be running the business and was always calling us up to complain about how we were doing things. It didn't matter to him that the bottom line said we were doing well, or that our customers and employees loved us; he just didn't like not being in control, and so sometimes he'd call us at two in the morning, just to complain.”