by Maya Hughes
The pain in his chest was still there whenever he thought about those papers. Alex had been so upset with him that she’d wanted to take his little girl away from him. Although she’d said she never intended to give them to him, the fact that she’d had them drawn up was enough to cut him to the core.
Heading back to LA the following day would help resolve at least a couple of his current issues. Who would have thought that two weeks ago, He wouldn’t have cared less about Aaron? But he wanted to make that Aaron paid for what he’d done to the three of them. Shopping around for a new agency had been easy. It wasn’t too often that a franchise star sought new management, but he’d gone with the one that had a stellar reputation and would be on board with the future career plans Gabe wanted to put in motion.
31
Gabe’s hands were sweaty as he walked into the executive level conference room in the office of his new talent management agency He’d yet to confront Aaron in person and he wasn’t looking forward to it. He kept telling himself not to jump over the table to deck that smarmy little prick. It would be just what he wanted and he would use it to add some onerous crap to the escape clause in his contract. His new management team and their lawyers were standing, getting ready for Aaron and his former talent agency to come in the door, when who should slide in the conference room door but the fiery redhead he hadn’t seen in years—Jen Taylor.
Staring at her with his mouth hanging open, he didn’t get a chance to talk to her because Aaron and his entourage stormed into the conference room, sucking all the air out of the room in the process. Jen pulled up a chair alongside the rest of his team and pulled out her notepad and pen. He hadn’t known she was working for the talent agency.
“I want everyone to know that Gabriel Stevens being here, presumably under your representation, is a complete and total breach of his agreement with my agency and we will be looking for full damages,” Aaron challenged.
He started to come out of his seat when one of the agency partners placed a firm hand on his arm.
“Mr. Stevens came to us after a serious breach of confidence that was orchestrated by your agency. In light of this breach, he was fully within his rights to break his contract with your agency and pursue damages in the amount of all the agency percentages that he has ever made for your company, plus interest. We feel that it is quite generous that he’s willing to leave it there financially and not pursue punitive damages.”
“That’s ridiculous! We haven’t breached any confidence. We provided the best path forward to ensure that his career wasn’t derailed and continued to thrive,” Aaron snarled.
“Derailed?” Gabe roared, unable to hold back any longer. He launched out of his seat and the partner grabbed onto his arm to keep him from vaulting over the table. “My daughter is not a derailment. She’s my daughter and because of you, I lost out on six years of her life.”
“I only did what I needed to do to make you a star,” Aaron bit out.
“I didn’t ask to be a star. Not at the expense of my daughter and Alex.”
“Oh please—”
Aaron was cut off by one of his lawyers.
“While it seems like there is some disagreement on what has occurred in the past, there is still the case of Mr. Steven’s breaking his contract with our agency. Signing with you prior to terminating his agreement with us puts him in breach and we would require damages in the amount of any future earnings agreed upon under our current contract under until it expires in another seven years.”
“Like hell,” he snarled. “You’re not getting another cent from me.”
“Mr. Stevens—” before Aaron’s lawyer could continue, Jen stood up and distributed folders to the five people on the other side of the table.
“In the folders in front of you, I have registered letters signed for by Aaron Mitchell. I have included copies of those letters as well as copies of the photos inside. I have also included the email correspondence between Ms. Alexandra Davies and Aaron Mitchell where he repeatedly claims to be speaking for a fully informed Mr. Stevens, relaying his desire to have no contact with Ms. Davies.
“I have a restraining order taken out on behalf of Mr. Gabriel Stevens under false pretenses, which is a criminal offense. If you pursue this, we will push this as far as it will go and there will be criminal charges. We will also let this entire city know the type of agents you have at your agency. Actually,” she said with a snap of her fingers. “I think that another stipulation for this dispute going away quietly will be that Mr. Mitchell should be immediately fired, and at least a portion of the damages due to Mr. Stevens should come from Aaron’s own pocket.” His balls crawled up inside at the venom dripping from her tongue. She was one scary chick. He sure was glad she was on his side.
“I heard you picked up a very nice waterfront property in the Pacific Palisades, Mr. Mitchell. I’m sure that would go a small way toward some of those expenses,” she said with a smirk.
Things wrapped up quickly after Jen dropped the bombshell in the meeting. Aaron was shown the door by his agency. Gabe enjoyed watching him nearly burst into tears as the lawyers informed him that they would not be representing him and it would be in his best interest to cooperate with their demands.
“Jen, I didn’t know you were working for this agency,” Gabe said, pulling her aside once the meeting was finished.
“I don’t, but my law firm wanted someone here to help with the negotiations and I made it known that I had essential information, so here I am,” she said, gathering up all her things.
“Listen Gabe, I don’t know one hundred percent what happened with you two in Scotland, but I want you to know that she’s been through a lot and does want to make it work with you.”
He was still raw over the custody paper discovery, and started to walk away.
“You need to hear this,” Jen said, putting a hand on his arm to stop his retreat. “She came to me when Emma was one and asked me to draw those up. Alex was deathly afraid of losing her. She’d already lost you. She thought you wanted nothing to do with her, but she thought that maybe one day you would want to see your daughter. She was in a dark place; heartbroken and terrified of the power that you had.”
“That’s crazy! I would never have tried to take Emma away from her,” he argued.
“I know that and she knows that. Now. But think of Alex before. As far as she knew, you wanted nothing to do with her. Cut off all communication, had her forcibly removed from your agency’s office and filed for a restraining order. She thought she meant nothing to you and that you cheated on her less than a day after she left. And from that desperation came that custody agreement. She never intended for you to see them. I don’t even think she remembered she had them in her bag.”
“I never would have cheated on her. It always seems like something is getting in the way when it comes to us,” Gabe said.
“I know that, Gabe. But you two are finally in a place where this can work. She knows you never slept with Lesley. You know about Emma and you know how much she loves you. And how much you love Emma and Alex.”
“More than anything. And I sent her away in Scotland. We’ve done video chats with Emma every night, but she must hate me,” he lamented, his shoulders slumped.
“She doesn’t hate you, not at all. She’s scared to tell you how much she wants to be with you because she’s afraid she will be rejected again.”
“I would never. Those two are my heart. So, what do I do now?”
“You go get your girls!” Jen insisted, pushing him toward the elevator.
He said a few hasty goodbyes to the people on his new management team, and then he threw himself into the open elevator before jamming his finger into the Lobby button. He called the driver and told him to pull up around the front of the building. The phone cut out before he could call his assistant, so he practically bowled over the two people who were waiting for the doors to open in the lobby.
Jumping into the car that pulled up outside of the bui
lding, he was on his phone talking to his assistant, trying to make arrangements for the next flight out of LAX—he had two hours to get to LAX, but the car came to a sudden stop. He stared out the front window and it was absolute gridlock. Groaning, he glanced at the time and started doing calculations in his head. He had to get to them tonight, he felt it in his bones.
32
Alex was packing up a small bag for her and Emma as she was one the phone trying to get through to someone at the airline. She tried to book online, but it seemed that she was too close to any departure times. Hoping that putting a call through would get them a ticket a little faster, she rushed through the house picking up any essentials.
Emma was sitting at the bottom of the steps with her little flight bag ready to go on another adventure. A beep in her ear let her know that she had another incoming call. Pulling the phone from the side of her face, it was Jen calling. Not wanting to lose her spot on the phone queue and not knowing how to put the other line on hold, she decided to let Jen’s call ring out. She put the phone on speaker and sent Jen a text.
A: Heading out soon. Going to get Gabe back.
J: What do you mean?! Answer your damned phone.
“Your estimated waiting time will be twenty-five minutes, please stay on the line,” the robotic voice repeated back to her.
Sprinting down the stairs, taking them two at a time, she hustled the two of them to the front door. She’d seen a flight to LA that left in three hours. If she was quick, she could get there in time. Another beep let her know that Jen was calling back again. Deciding that it must be urgent, Alex hung up the phone, hoping that she would be able to purchase a ticket at the airport.
“Jen, what’s going on? I’m in a bit of a rush,” she said, gathering up their bags and corralled Emma out the door. The sun was setting and she would be racing the sunset to get to the airport before the flight. Locking the front door behind her, she raced to the car, opening the back door for Emma, and threw the bags in the backseat.
“What are you doing? Why are you so out of breath?” Jen questioned. A male voice murmured in the background. “Shh,” Jen said to whoever was there with her.
“I’m on my way to the airport. I realized how stupid this all was and I’m not going to let either one of us being afraid of getting hurt stop us from being happy together. I know we can be happy together,” she said, ducking into the car, putting the keys in the ignition and turning on the headlights.
“Alex, don’t go to the airport!” Jen shouted. She jerked her head away from the phone.
“Why not? You’re the one that told me it was stupid for us to be apart and we were so great together.”
“I know, but definitely don’t go to the airport. I had that meeting with Gabe and his new management team today.”
“Okaaaay,” Alex drawled out. “What does that have to do with going to the airport?” she said, straightening her rearview mirror. “Em, do you have your seatbelt on?”
“Ready to go, Mommy. Let’s go see Daddy!” she exclaimed, bouncing up and down in her booster seat.
“Jen, I’m headed there right now. I’m already in the car with our bags packed. I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up on Jen before she could say anything else. Putting the car into reverse, she pushed on the gas, then jabbed the brakes to keep from hitting the car that pulled up directly behind her in the driveway.
“What the hell?” she called out before throwing open her door to tell whoever it was to get the hell out of her way. She didn’t make it two steps before the driver’s side door of the car behind hers swung open and out stepped Gabe, duffle bag slung over his shoulder as he looked up at her with an uneasy smile.
Unable to contain herself, she sprinted toward him and jumped into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist, and peppered his face with kisses. Her heart soared as she held onto him and realized he was actually there. He dropped his bag, leaned against the side of his car, and brought his arms up around her back to pull her close to him.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Emma cried out excitedly as she crawled out of the driver’s side door. She unwrapped her legs from around his waist and hopped off him. He crouched down to catch by an Emma sized ball of energy. “We were just coming to see you, Daddy!” she said.
“You were?” He looked from Emma to Alex and truth shone in her eyes. He stood up with Emma in his arms, took her hand, and walked with them into the house.
Maybe there was hope for them yet.
Gabe walked into the house and set Emma down. She was jumping up and down and running all over the house crowing that Daddy was home. This was a feeling he could get used to; a feeling that he wanted to get used to. The reception he had gotten when he got out of his car had caught him a little off guard. He was sure that he would have some groveling to do after what happened back in Scotland, but they seemed to be on the same page about what they wanted. Finally!
“I’m so glad you’re here Daddy! Now we can all go to the airport together!” Emma crowed.
“Emma, honey. We were going to the airport to see Daddy, but now that he’s here, we don’t have to go.”
“But I wanted to go to the airport and go on the plane, Mommy.”
“I know, chickadee,” she said, crouching down. He knelt beside Alex.
“What if we all go on a vacation soon, Emma? You still have your whole summer break, so what if we go away on a trip somewhere really cool and fun in the next couple of days. What do you say?”
“Really cool?” Emma squinted her eyes, trying to figure out if that was a good deal.
“Really cool.”
“Really cool, like Disneyworld?”
“If that’s the exact amount of cool that you want then yes, Disneyworld,” he said.
Emma eyed them both warily until a bright smile spread across her face.
“We’re going to Disneyworld!” she exclaimed and resumed her house-running marathon, pumping her fists over her head. They spent the rest of the evening holding hands or finding small ways to touch each other. The frantic phone call from Jen when he was less than ten minutes from the house had freaked Gabe out. He’d hopped on a plane as soon as he left the contract negotiation meeting. Once the plane had landed and he turned his phone back on, he let Jen know that he was heading straight for Alex’s.
Jen had called to tell him to floor it and get there as soon as he could. He’d been imagining the worst and thought that something had happened to Alex or Emma. To his surprise, when he’d arrived at the house, she was all packed up and ready to come to him. He was glad he hadn’t missed them. It would have been the story of their life—two ships that kept passing in the night and never meeting at the right time.
Tonight, he would make sure that they were together forever and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Emma passed out after some pizza and half of a movie. He picked her up, carried her to bed and tucked her in. He kissed her on the top of the head and smoothed down some of her wild curls that were sticking up all over her pillow.
Making his way downstairs, he found her in the kitchen cleaning up the dishes. He came up behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist as she stood at the sink. Feeling her sink into him, Gabe pushed her hair aside and placed a kiss on her on her pulse point, which he could feel beating wildly under his lips.
“You were really coming after me today?” he asked against her neck.
She loosened his arms and spun around to face him.
“I realized I couldn’t let fear drive me anymore. Not even the fear of you rejecting me. I had to talk to you face-to-face. I had to explain and I hoped that you might still want to be with me,” she whispered with her eyes downcast. He took hold of her chin and tilted her face up to his. Catching her eyes, he gazed into hers.
“I have always wanted to be with you. Always. I thought that you were never going to be able to be with me without reservations and I didn’t want you to be with me just out of the fear of losing Emma.”
“That wasn�
��t it at all. I love you. I love you so much, but I didn’t know how much until you were back in my life and then gone again. I couldn’t stand it, I couldn’t eat. Emma was so sad that not even pancakes could cheer her up,” she said with a watery laugh.
“That makes me feel a little better. If not even your pancakes could raise her spirits, she must really love me.” He pulled her to him and tucked her under his chin, breathing her in and knowing that he would be able to do this every day.
“Does this mean we’re moving to LA?”
“No, we can stay right here. I’m not going to be acting much anymore.” She pulled away from his chest and stared up at him.
“What do you mean?”
“I might do one movie every other year or so, but I’ll mainly be sticking to producing. My new management team is completely behind it. Other than a few trips out to LA or to visit a production on set, I’ll be able to be here and work from home. Do you have room for another desk in your office?”
“I think I could make some room,” she said with a smirk.
“You’d better.” He gave her ass a smack and his playful gesture turned into something more as the air between them electrified and she took his hand. He followed her lead as she pulled him toward the stairs to begin their new life together.
Epilogue
Alex gazed up at Gabe and he smiled and brought her hand to his lips for a kiss. The dark auditorium was filled with proud parents watching their kids perform the Spring Concert. Little lambs and lions prowled around on the stage in a semi-choreographed manner. Emma couldn’t help but pop out of line to give them both a wave. They both raised their hands and waved back before shooing Emma back into line.
Their little girl was getting so big at seven now. She gasped as a sharp bump pulled her attention away from the stage. She rubbed her rotund belly and he placed his hand over her stomach before bending down to whisper, “Hey, kiddo. Give your mom a break, okay? We’re trying to watch your sister perform.” Immediately, the intense kicking subsided and the baby was lulled back into a state of contentment by Gabe’s voice.
