“Oh, hurry up. I’m getting stung by something out here in this garden with all these darn flowers.” Fiona had the patience of a pea.
Dana opened the patio door and returned to her couch with the cereal bowl clutched to her stomach. “I don’t want to talk.”
“Good. Because we don’t want to listen to your B.S.” Belinda eyed her cereal bowl.
“Why are you coming at me like I’m the bad guy?” Dana filled her mouth with cereal.
“Oh, honey, we are here because you need us.” Fiona came over and hugged her.
“Since when?” Dana didn’t feel like any hugs.
“Is this your first heartbreak?” Trust Belinda to be blunt.
Dana nodded.
“The first is always tough.” Fiona patted Dana’s hand. Fiona’s phone buzzed, but she ignored it.
Belinda continued, “Look, the key to getting better is not letting the world know how much it hurts.”
“Oh, that’s really nice. You want her to pretend she doesn’t feel like crap because her boyfriend still had his hook-up while he was with her.”
“That sounds as ugly as it feels.” Dana looked at the rest of her cereal, now soggy and disgusting. “Did Grace tell you to come and harass me?”
“No. Grandpa did.” Fiona was rapidly texting.
“What?”
“He said that he was taking over this time.” Belinda looked at Fiona for confirmation.
Fiona nodded. “Taking over from Grandma. She was all worked up about something. The two of them are pretty funny, now that Grandma is home all the time. I think he’s wishing that she had something to do.”
“At least they have each other. Here’s to long-lasting love.” Belinda had retrieved the cereal box in the kitchen and now ate the dry, fruity circles.
“Shut up, Belinda.” Fiona motioned toward Dana as if she couldn’t see her.
“I don’t want your pity.”
“What do you want, boo?” That was Belinda between bites.
“Call me ‘boo’ and I’ll punch you in the nose.” Her cousins had teased her mercilessly as a kid. Her crying earned her that nickname until she did punch Belinda in the nose.
“You need to freshen up. Seriously.” Fiona swiped back the curtains, letting in as much sunlight as possible.
“Why? When you leave, I’ll go back to what I was doing.” Dana hoped they got the hint.
“You want to be looking pretty. Trust me.” Belinda emptied another handful of cereal, and a few pieces went rolling under the couch. “Oops.”
Something in their demeanor caught her senses, putting her on alert. “What’s going on? Please tell me you’re not dragging me out to a restaurant so you can shower me with your advice. Advice, may I add, that you don’t even live by.”
“Ouch. You’re a mean thing when you’re down.” Fiona’s phone buzzed again.
“Maybe I can help clear up some matters.”
That voice was like warm caramel syrup. Dana stood, upending the cereal bowl and its contents. Her cousins hadn’t moved. Instead, their grins were wide and smug.
“This was a setup.” Dana gathered her wits. She had to temper her excitement at seeing Kent. She had to remember that he was the enemy.
“Call it an intervention,” Fiona said.
“I couldn’t wait in the car any longer,” Kent interjected.
“She was being a bit stubborn, our wee lass,” Belinda attempted to say while chewing.
“Um...that’s Scottish. Kent is British.” Dana rolled her eyes at her cousin’s mockery.
“I’m not sure that was even Scottish.” Kent winked at Dana.
Her belly flipped and then flopped.
“Ladies, thank you for getting her to open the door. Please tell Grace that I’ll stop by when I’m done.”
Her cousins hugged her in turn and wished him luck.
“Looks like you’ve won over the family. Did you cast a spell? Did you offer up your firstborn? Did you slide a check to Grace’s favorite charity? Or did you do the usual B.S. flattery that renders one incapable of using their brain?”
“Actually, all of the above, especially the one about casting a spell,” Kent fired back.
“You have no right to be snippy.” She walked into the kitchen to get products to clean up the floor. By the time she’d returned, he was on his hands and knees, scooping the circular cereal bits back into the bowl. “I can manage. Been doing so all my life.” She pushed him out of the way to put down the paper towels.
“Would you agree that we have something of a perfect storm here?”
“It’s definitely a storm. I’m not sure how perfect it is.”
“Well, there are several factors coming from various directions and all meeting at the same time. So what, in a singular event, would be a minor skirmish has now turned into a colossal conflict.”
“Get to the point.” She gathered up the wasted contents of her cereal bowl and headed into the kitchen. She didn’t want to hear about any weather-related analogies.
“You had the misfortune of indirectly meeting my ex-girlfriend, Agatha Browles. I was the target of her wrath until she learned about you from Conrad. Agatha made destroying what we had her focus. She picked at your fears and pushed at them with scenarios that sounded real.” He paused. “None of it was real. None.”
“You didn’t talk to her about me?”
He shook his head.
“It sounded like what you’d say.”
“I’m sure it did. But that was your mind playing tricks. That’s the other point. You were already wondering if you should stay with me. You somehow felt that you didn’t deserve to be happy. Total contentment with a career and a personal life. You’ve used others as your measuring stick and feel that you don’t deserve having it all.”
“Career and personal lives are two demanding masters. Working on one without the other feels like a monumental betrayal. I’m ready to dedicate my life to one.”
“I hope that you didn’t see it as an either-or, but, if you do go down that path, I want to be the one that you follow.”
“You’d want me to walk away from Meadows Media?”
“No, I don’t want you to walk away from the career that needs you. But I’m not going to stand on a lie and act like I wouldn’t be devastated if you picked your career over me. I’d fight dirty if I had to in order to get you back in my life. We are a team, Dana, you and me. The problem is that you continue to see only you in your world. I’m not sure where in all those swirling thoughts you have me.”
Dana excused herself to change into something less intimate, less revealing. Besides, she needed a bit of physical distance to bolster her weakening resolve. When she returned, Kent was still standing in the kitchen. She hoisted herself onto the kitchen counter. Wherever he was in her thoughts, she knew where he was at this very minute. He was pleading his case. She didn’t seem to be putting up much of a fight. Agatha sounded real—kooky, but real.
Once the common enemy was removed, there was still more to be dealt with.
“You are a fixer. It’s how you make your living.” She was very conscious that she was wearing a T-shirt. Her hair was unkempt and crying out for conditioner. Her emotions were a bit fragile. But she was ready to be CEO nonetheless. What he’d accomplished in getting her ready for the position was phenomenal. “You see me as a product, a brand that moves between either the right or wrong decision, without a thought toward my hang-ups and nuances with regard to the way I think. I feel like a prizefighter being conditioned for the fight of her life, and also a statistic in your belt.”
Kent bowed his head.
The doorbell sounded. This time, Dana swore. Who was left to barge in to fix her life? She stormed to the door and flung it open. “Grandpa? What are you doing her
e? Is Grace okay?” Dana stepped onto the porch to see if there was an ambulance on the property.
“No, dear, it’s only me.” He walked in past her and stopped short when he saw Kent. His face broke into a wide grin. “Oh, good, I’m so glad you two made up. I was afraid that I’d missed Kent and I wanted to offer my congratulations.”
Kent said nothing. His downward gaze said it all.
Dana came in behind her grandfather and motioned for him to have a seat “Oh, this doesn’t feel good.” Henry looked between them. “I’d hoped that you could work out the issues. You’ve got something—”
“Please don’t say ‘special.’ That’s too cliché for what’s happening here. I was explaining to Kent why I am choosing to stick with Meadows Media as the only master to serve in my life. I plan to fly solo with my career aspirations. It’s best to sever the emotional ties. And he can go do his job without dealing with the personal investment of my success or failure weighing on his résumé.”
“Kent, are you going to let her get away with that ratty logic? These Meadows women will run all over you if you show any signs of weakness. I didn’t realize that this one had learned it so young.”
“Grandpa, I’m not in the mood.”
“Not in the mood for good sense, if you ask me,” Kent spoke up.
“Ah, the wolf has finally awakened.” Henry clapped his hands. He shifted his gaze to Kent as if waiting for his verbal parry to Dana.
“You can’t run Meadows Media without me.”
“I don’t need you to help me run my grandmother’s company.”
“No, you don’t. You have a qualified executive staff and loads of loyal employees for that. But you only think of one aspect of running that company. You only think about the physical demands and at your age, yes, you’ve got the stamina. But there are other necessary components that you don’t have on your own. Not unless you’re supernatural or a robot.”
“Grace did it.”
“Grace didn’t do it. I know you’ve put her on a pedestal. But take off the blinders. Look at your grandfather. He was, and is, as much a contributing factor to Meadows Media’s success as your grandmother. I didn’t realize it until I saw how my mother and stepfather had a rhythm that worked for them and brought them happiness in each of their individual pursuits—she as a homemaker and he as a mechanic. Simple lives built by something so complicated and beautiful.”
Dana sat next to Henry. Her dear, quiet grandfather who had observed the lives of his children and grandchildren. Who had been taken for granted by all, but had the patience and wisdom of a sage when any one of them bothered to bring their problems to him.
Kent’s profound declaration was like the removal of a veil from her eyes. Understanding dawned like light that grew brighter as the shade was removed.
“I want to be there with you, at your side, even behind you cheering you on. I’m not afraid of your light and I’m not afraid of your shadow. Maybe I am overzealous. I see life as a competition. I do think in terms of knockouts. But my love for you and who you are isn’t about a win, lose or draw. It’s about building and holding on to each other for the long term. It’s about filling in with our strengths and weaknesses, forming a union that is unbreakable, that no one can rip apart, even when they spread salacious lies that would normally rock a foundation.”
“Grandpa?”
“Yes, sweetheart.”
“Is he really good folk?”
“He’s the real thing.” Henry pushed himself up. “Can I now say congratulations? Grace is out for another hour and I want to go light up for a quick one.”
Dana nodded. She hugged her grandfather. Her tears and laughter mixed as he urged her to let him go so he could get going.
Kent hugged him, too. They didn’t look like father and son, but clearly had bonded like family. “I’ll be right over, so I can put out that cigar.”
Henry waved and he walked briskly back to the main house.
Dana locked the door, sliding on the security chain. Then she went around the house, closing any gaps in the curtain.
“And we are under house quarantine because...?” Kent asked.
“Because, I want no more interruptions while I properly make up with my executive coach.”
“I’ve been fired.”
“Good. I have another position...or two...or three that needs to be filled.”
“I hope that I’m up for the task.”
She rubbed the front of his pants. “I’d say that you more than meet the qualifications.”
“You only want me for my body.”
“Is that all you’re prepared to give me?”
“My soul.”
“Hmmm.”
“My heart.”
“Now, you’re talking. In return, I give you my heart and soul.”
“What about your body?”
“It’s yours forever.”
Kent lowered his mouth to Dana’s and sealed it with a long, searing kiss.
* * * * *
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Kimani Romance.
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ISBN-13: 9781460325827
ONE OF A KIND
Copyright © 2014 by Michelle Monkou
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