Want Me

by Jo Leigh

  “For one thing, Fitzgerald and Sons is getting a lot of publicity.”

  “That’s not the sort of publicity we want.”

  “Depends on what the objective is, doesn’t it?” Danny gave her a lopsided smile.

  Shannon leaned forward, wondering if she were still asleep and having one hell of a weird dream. “What are you talking about?”

  Looks were exchanged. None of them with her. Nate scooted closer to her.

  “First of all,” her mother said, “we love you, and we have no quarrels with you using the plant for your own projects. It’s your company, too.”

  “And?” Shannon said, her voice quivering.

  “And we all agree you’ve done a wonderful job at the plant. We would have closed a long time ago if it wasn’t for your efforts.”

  “We appreciate that,” her dad said. “I’m being a hundred-percent honest here. Every one of us knows you’ve worked yourself to the bone keeping us in business.”

  “But,” Myles said, “we think that the days of Fitzgerald and Sons are over.”

  Shannon felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. If it wasn’t for Nate’s steady arm slipping around her, she’d have crumpled into a tiny ball. “Oh, God. I’ve ruined everything. I knew it was bad. I didn’t think—”

  “Wait, wait. You didn’t ruin anything.” Her mother came closer, sat down across from Shannon. “Sweetheart, listen to me. This isn’t your doing. The truth is your father and I are getting on in years. We’re tired of worrying about that old plant. We’ve been talking about retiring.”

  “In Florida,” Danny said. “Tell her, Ma.”

  “That’s right. We’re also very tired of the snow. If I never see another flake…”

  “You’ve been talking about it?” Shannon asked. “For how long?”

  Her mother took in a deep breath. “For a while, Shannon. A while.”

  “The land’s worth a fortune,” Danny added, and damn him, he sounded excited. “That’s prime territory. We’re talking millions.”

  She could barely believe what she was hearing. They wanted to sell the plant. Move to Florida. Retire. She looked at every single member of her family, and each one was looking more abashed then the next. Except for Danny, of course. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Because you were working so hard,” her mother said. “Although, to give us some credit, you do realize I’ve been telling you for years that you should find your own dreams.”

  “I thought you were talking about a husband.”

  The doorbell rang, and her brothers all made a dash out of the room as if it were a fire drill.

  Shannon turned to look at Nate, and he seemed just as disconcerted as her folks. “Did you know about this?”

  He nodded.

  She pulled her hand free, feeling gut-shot. “How could you…?”

  “I didn’t want to tell you even though you needed to know. I’m sorry. I thought I was doing you a favor waiting until you’d had your interview.”

  “But why did you know before me?”

  He winced, then took hold of her hand again. “Because your family loves you, and no one wanted to hurt you. They thought it would be kinder coming from me.”

  “I see.”

  “They didn’t know I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t. I also know that you deserve a chance to find out who you want to be. You’re amazing, Shannon. You can be anything you want.”

  “I thought I wanted to keep my family together,” she said.

  “Sweetheart,” her mother said, looking right into her eyes, “we’re still going to be a family. That will never change. No matter where we live, or where we work.”

  “Shannon.” Tim motioned with his chin. “You’ve got some people here.”

  Dizzy with too much information, she rose on shaky feet. Nate got up, too, and together they went toward the foyer.

  Shannon stopped when she saw Rebecca and Bree, along with Katy and her cousin Ariel standing inside the door. As if she hadn’t had enough battering for the day. “I was going to call all of you,” she said. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  “For what?” Rebecca asked.

  “For putting you in such a horrible position. Everyone from the lunch exchange.”

  The women approached, none of them looking as if they’d been crying, or even upset. “There’s been a lot of explaining,” Bree said. “But no one’s mad.”

  “Jake said he was flattered as hell. Grateful to you for getting us together.”

  “We’ve been on the phone all morning,” Katy said. “Letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak. So far, everyone’s been cool about it.”

  Shannon turned to Bree. “Charlie?”

  “He’s fine.” Bree shrugged. “Quite amused, in fact.”

  “He’s more than fine,” Rebecca said. “Between his attorneys and mine, we will own that TV station. There’s going to be a press conference tomorrow morning where Grant Yost is going to make a very public apology. You’re going to be famous, but for all the right reasons. The trading cards are brilliant. Whether the men are in on the game or not.”

  Danny popped up between Nate and Ariel. “Brady’s on the phone,” he said, speaking to Shannon. “He needs to speak to you. Now.”

  She took the phone, wondering what bombshell Brady was going to drop.

  “Shannon?”

  “What’s going on?”

  “The phones are going crazy. I haven’t had a second to do anything else. People are insane.”

  “What people?”

  “Women. Men. From all over the damn country. First it was local, then it started spreading west.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “They want the trading cards. Women want to start their own clubs and men want to be on the cards. It’s nuts.”

  Shannon pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it, sure there must be something wrong with it. “He says people are calling. To do their own trading cards. Women. Men.”

  Nate helped her bring the phone back to her ear. Brady was saying something she didn’t catch. “What was that?”

  “Not just the trading cards,” he said. “But that literary publishing house in SoHo?”

  “Yeah?”

  “They want us to be their printer.”

  “I called them weeks ago.”

  “They’re not the only ones. We’ve had three new orders placed, all from your cold calls.”

  It was too much. Shannon couldn’t take in anymore. She handed the phone to Nate as tears filled her eyes. That wouldn’t have been so bad if she weren’t having so much trouble breathing.

  “Shannon.” Ariel came over and hugged her. “What’s wrong? This is good news, isn’t it? That everyone can see what a great idea you had? How many people you’ve made happy?”

  Shannon nodded, but she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t stop crying, either. Then she was being shifted from one pair of arms to another—to the right pair. Nate held her close and tight, rocking her gently. “It’s going to be okay, sweetie. You’ll see. It’s just overwhelming right now. Breathe, okay?”

  “The only thing is,” Rebecca said, “we can’t figure out how WNYC found out about the trading cards. No one in the group would want this. We were all enjoying it too much.”

  Shannon sniffed, wiped at her face as she stepped away from Nate. “It wasn’t anyone in the group. I’m pretty sure it was someone at the plant.”

  “Who?” Danny’s eyes blazed.

  “Never mind that,” she said. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “I hope whoever it is will be happy on unemployment.”

  “Danny, you don’t know the situation. You’re always so quick on the trigger.”

  “You okay?” Nate asked.

  “I will be. Once I sort things out. I don’t understand half of what’s going on.”

  “Right. Executive decision.” He looked at the women in front of him and the family behind. “I’m taking Shannon away for the night. Fo
r two nights, in fact. We’re going to pack her a bag, and then we’re leaving. She needs time to think, and so do you all. We’ll see you again at the Easter egg hunt, where I expect all of you to donate as much as possible.”

  Shannon stared up at him. “But—”

  “We need to talk. I have some calls to make, which I’ll do while you’re packing your bag. Make sure you’ve got your Sunday things with you. Now go on upstairs. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”

  She sniffed again and smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Then he kissed her. Right in front of everybody.

  * * *

  THE FIRST THING HE DID WHEN he got Shannon inside their room at the Gramercy Park Hotel was order dinner. Nate knew she’d barely eaten a thing, and that the past twenty-four hours had turned her world upside down. He also knew he was going to be adding yet another layer of improbable to the mix.

  They’d ordered nothing more extravagant than pasta and salad with a good bottle of red wine. He liked the idea that they were staying at the hotel where they’d first danced together. That so much had happened since that wedding was difficult to believe, but he was used to that. It was a wild ride, this life, and things happened at breakneck speed. The trick was to be holding on to the reins, not the tail.

  His poor Shannon wasn’t quite in saddle yet. She hadn’t spoken much, but he could see by her eyes that she was sorting and sifting and working hard to get her bearings. He was ready to help, but he needed her more stable before he got to the main event.

  Luckily, room service had believed him about the extra tip, and he made good on his promise when the food arrived. The waiter set them up on the table in the room, the pasta steaming hot, the salad crisp and the wine excellent.

  For the first ten minutes or so, there was just eating. Getting the hunger under control had been vital, and now that they were both slowing down, he felt ready to begin.

  “So, I’ve made a couple of changes to my itinerary,” he said.

  “Don’t tell me you have to leave sooner than you’d planned.”

  He shouldn’t have started off so glibly. Shannon looked as though one more blow would do her in. “No, I’m not. In fact, I’m not leaving at all.”

  Her fork clattered on her plate. “What? What does that mean?”

  He reached over and put his hand on top of hers. “It means I’m not going back to Bali. Or going to Africa. Well, okay, I’ll have to go to Bali to get my things, but I’m hoping you’ll come with me, because you really need a vacation after this week.”

  Shannon stared at him, her lips parted, her eyebrows raised in a perfect picture of shocked surprise. “That makes no sense.”

  “Why not?”

  “You love your job. Your work is everything to you.”

  “Not…quite,” he said. Then he picked up his glass of wine and held it as if in a toast. “Turns out, you’re everything to me.”

  That didn’t make her any less shocked. In fact, he wondered if she should be worried about how pale she looked. “Shannon?”

  “Did you just say…?”

  “Yeah. I’m staying here, in New York. In the co-op I just bought. And I’m hoping you’ll consider moving into that co-op with me. When we’ve finished furnishing the place.”

  “What about…everything?”

  “I’ve decided there’s my kind of work to be done right here in the city. I’m going to buy out Albert Gill’s half of the business. We’re still going to make fast-food franchise buildings and ugly strip malls, but I’m also going to repurpose our business plan to include restoration and rebuilding of community areas, starting with a certain corner basketball court. If the owners let us, that is. Anyway, I’m an urban planner and architect, and New York needs my kind of people. So I’m staying.”

  Shannon’s mouth opened, then closed. Then she leaned forward. “You mentioned living together?”

  “Right. That’s kind of key to the whole deal. See, I’ve fallen in love with you. I didn’t expect to, but you are just the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met, and the idea of leaving you doesn’t work for me anymore. I want to start a new life here, Shannon. With you. I’d like for you to consider working on the nonprofit side of the new firm. Only if you want to. I still think you’d be fantastic on the city council, but more than that, you should find out what you want. I hope that what you want includes me.”

  “You’ve fallen in love with me.”

  He hadn’t seen her blink in a while. “Yeah. Pretty hard, to be honest.”

  “Oh. I…”

  “Shannon? You okay?”

  She blinked. And then she smiled. And it was one hell of a smile. “I’ve fallen in love with you, too.”

  “Thank God.” He put his wine down, then went over to where Shannon was sitting. He leaned over and kissed her. Then he kissed her again. “This is a whole new beginning.”

  “We can start our own legacy,” she whispered, her eyes moist and sparkling.

  He brushed the back of his fingers across her pale cheek. “It’s going to be fantastic. Even the scary parts.”

  She laughed. Then she stood up, and they kissed some more.

  * * *

  BY THE TIME THEY GOT TO THE park on Sunday, Shannon had gotten a lot of things straightened out in her head. She had personal apologies yet to make, and no matter how many of her friends from the lunch exchange said it wasn’t necessary, she would be in touch with every single trading card man.

  She’d gotten on a speaker call with the family, who’d made a few decisions of their own. They weren’t going to sell the plant after all. Brady wanted to stay, and there were so many new orders and so much interest in the trading cards that they were going to hold off. See what happened. But they were going to have to find themselves a new Shannon. Because after she’d helped train whomever they hired, she was going to be busy.

  Moving out of the brownstone was going to be a huge undertaking. For everyone. Her parents would be heading off to sunny Florida. Brady was moving in with Paula. And she was heading to a brand-new life with Nate.

  The booths were all set up, the Easter baskets looked terrific on the beautiful April day and her whole clan was already in position. Little kids were arriving in their Sunday best, Easter bonnets were everywhere and the sound of laughter rippled in the breeze.

  When Shannon tried to get behind the counter to take donations, she was summarily dismissed by one of her mother’s book-club friends. In fact, Shannon wasn’t needed anywhere. Friends from the lunch exchange, from the neighborhood, the church, business contacts…it felt as if everyone she’d ever met was in the park that afternoon, and they all wanted to speak to her about the trading cards, about that horrible Grant Yost and how he was so apologetic on the news. And on the internet. And on every other local New York TV station.

  It was all pretty glorious. But the best part was the man with his arm around her shoulders. The man she’d fallen head over heels in love with.

  The man whose trading card was still in her purse.

  * * * * *

  ISBN: 9781459225824

  Copyright © 2012 by Jolie Kramer

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