The Whole Package, page 15
Cash and he shared a glance, then Cash took a step closer to the door. “Maybe I should—”
“No.” Reid grabbed him by the arm and dragged him down the hall. “Let’s grab something to eat and get Evan in on this. Before my stomach is permanently stuck to my spine.”
“No shit.”
They ended up eating two large pizzas at home. Evan had work left to do but had agreed, via a phone call, with Reid’s rundown of the day.
Reid felt physically and mentally drained and couldn’t understand it. “I swear, today was harder than any day we’ve had so far, and that includes when I used to do the moving with you at the beginning.”
“Lightweight.” Cash mowed down his food as if he’d never get another meal.
“So what did you think of the last guy? Smith?”
“A ballbuster. He could be a real asset or a serial killer. I’m not sure which.”
Reid chuckled. “I thought it was just me. I got a weird vibe off him too. But hey, we have the four we needed and two we can use part-time. That’s it. I think we’re done hiring for a while. And you know, we’ll eventually have people coming and going. But if we can keep a core group, we’ll do well.” He and Evan had gone over the numbers to death, and they both knew that between insurance costs to cover the business and the employees, they would need to really move to make a profit. But hell, this venture was their own baby. They were the bosses; they made the decisions.
Reid glanced at his brother, now eyeing Reid’s pizza. He shoved a few slices at Cash. “Go for it.” Reid liked knowing that with Vets on the Go!, Cash had a job and a future. A way to build toward something more instead of always having to start over somewhere else with people who couldn’t always appreciate his work ethic because his mouth got in the way.
Someone’s phone buzzed. Reid checked his and found it clear.
Cash frowned at his phone, chewing. “Crap. Gotta go. See you later.” He left without mentioning where he was headed or cleaning up. No surprise.
Reid leaned back and contemplated grabbing a beer. It wasn’t too late, and though he wanted to relax, he had too much on his mind to chill just yet. Ever since he’d visited his mother last week, he’d needed to see for himself that she was still okay.
“We’ll see you in June, Ma,” Cash had said.
Her response, “I don’t think so,” still bothered him.
Reid drove to the assisted living home with an hour to spare. Visiting hours ended at eight thirty, so he hustled to his mother’s room. And found it empty.
Concerned, he knocked again, then used a key to enter.
Inside, he found her gone.
A knock at the door distracted him, and he turned to see an older gentleman with a walker and an oxygen tank watching him.
“You the boy?”
“One of them,” Reid said, trying to remain calm. “Any idea where my mother went?”
The old man nodded. “Angela had a seizure. They took her away this morning.”
Reid tracked down an orderly. After a few phone calls—and a twenty—the guy rattled off the name of the hospital Angela had been taken to. Reid raced to the administration desk at the front. Getting confirmation that the orderly had been correct, he asked the question burning at the forefront of his mind.
“Why wasn’t I told about this?” he asked the desk clerk.
The woman shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir. But according to your mother’s instructions, she listed someone else as a contact.”
“What? Who?”
“I can’t tell you that. Our patients’ privacy is important, and your mother was firm that her friend not be named.”
What the fuck? In an icy voice, he answered, “She’s my mother.”
The lady looked sympathetic but refused to budge.
Reid at least had the information he’d needed. At the hospital, he learned she continued to go in and out of consciousness.
The head nurse, after seeing his identification, called Angela’s doctor, who let Reid know that his mother likely wouldn’t make it past the week. She’d had a stroke, and her organs had started shutting down. She also showed signs of malnutrition and confusion.
He’d known his mother hadn’t been right and that of course someday she’d die, but the reality of it floored him.
Reid called Cash. “It’s Mom. She’s dying.” He rattled off her room number and the name of the hospital.
“On my way.” Cash disconnected.
Reid didn’t know what to feel. A hazy relief that she might finally know peace mingled with guilt and anger. Now he’d never know the mother he’d always dreamed she could be. Hell, his asshole of a father had spent more time raising him than Angela ever had.
“Fuck.” He wiped his eyes, furious to be crying over a woman more invested in soap opera weddings than her own sons.
Cash arrived, heard the prognosis, and responded with a much more stoic attitude. “Well, she’s finally gonna get to go live with her telenovelas in the sky.”
“Nice.” Reid managed a chuckle.
Cash’s smile was strained. “She say anything?”
“I haven’t been allowed in to see her.” Reid frowned. “She didn’t list either of us as her emergency contact at the home. I only found out because I swung by tonight to see her.”
“What the hell? Angela doesn’t have any friends. Not real ones, anyway.”
Reid ran a hand over his jaw. “I know.” He stared at Cash. “Where were you, anyway?”
Cash shrugged and sat next to him. “Jordan had a problem I thought I could help her with.” He grimaced. “Turns out she already had some guy helping her.” The grimace turned into a scowl. “Some dick named Rafi. Sounds like a stuffed poodle to me.”
Reid felt for his brother, but hadn’t he warned Cash not to get involved with Jordan? The same way he warned you not to get involved with Naomi?
Reid wanted to call her so much, it alarmed him. The need to share with her, to hear her voice, see her sweet smile. He still remembered the feeling of her hand touching his as she offered comfort.
He forced himself not to call her, not even to respond to her work email either. He’d deal with her later, when he could function again.
“We should probably tell Evan. Unless it’s Aunt Jane that Mom talked to.”
Hell. Cash was calling her Mom now. The big bastard would go squirrelly when she passed. Reid mentally geared up for his brother needing him. Like the business needed him and Evan and the others needed him.
He’d be strong, keep it together. His grief could wait.
He tucked it deep down, right next to his dreams of a happy family and a future filled with laughter and fond memories. A future that would now never come to be.
Chapter 13
Friday morning, Naomi had had enough. Reid had been terse with his texts and ignored her emails. She had no idea what she’d done to annoy him…and immediately stopped that way of thinking. Why did she have to be the one to reach out to him? He knew her number. Though they were friends, it seemed Reid had done the responsible thing and distanced himself from her personally. She should be grateful one of them had sense.
Instead, she missed him.
“Naomi, your sister is on line two,” Liz called from the main office, eschewing their intercom system in lieu of going old school with a yell.
“Got it,” Naomi yelled back, glad for Liz’s sense of humor.
Without her work, Naomi sometimes wondered how she’d function. Everything revolved around her job. This week, she’d picked up another client and finally had a meeting with Jon from Jennings Tech. It had been an exciting look at what she might be doing in the future. Except that while discussing working alongside Jennings’s PR people, she might also have to work with Tanner again, something she’d done her best not to contemplate.
Reid and Tanner had so much in common yet couldn’t be more different. Both handsome, confident, and talented. In bed, they’d both been about pleasing her. But her chemistry with Reid was off the charts. Just thinking about him got her aroused. God, such a talented—
Stop it! She hated that she had to constantly tell herself to stop thinking about her client, Reid, every five seconds.
“Still on line two,” Liz yelled again.
“God hates me!”
Liz chuckled.
Naomi bit the bullet and picked up the phone. “Hello, Harley?”
“You are impossible to reach.” On purpose. “So did you get the memo that we had the wrong dates for Ben’s award ceremony? It’s not the thirty-first. It’s next Thursday, the twenty-third.”
“Okay.” Would that mean her family would stay for less time? “Are you guys still flying in?”
“I don’t know. Shoot. I have to go. We have a doctor’s appointment today. We’re finding out what we’re having! I’m so excited. Love you. See you soon.” Harley hung up, and Naomi did her best to restructure her calendar.
After conferring with Liz and moving meetings around, she glanced at her cell phone again. She checked her emails too. Still nothing from Reid.
“Screw this.” She picked up her landline to dial Reid’s office and ended up getting connected to someone else.
“Tanner Ryan’s on line one,” Liz yelled a little too late.
“Hello, Naomi?” Tanner said.
She closed her eyes and counted to ten in her head. “Yes, hello, Tanner. What can I do for you?”
“I’d like to talk.”
“Go ahead.”
“In person.”
Not on your life, buddy. I’m busy. “I’m sorry, Tanner, but I—”
He knocked on her door, his cell phone at his ear. “You can spare a few minutes for an old friend, can’t you?”
Shit.
She sighed. “Come on in. I can give you…” She checked her calendar. “Thirty minutes.”
He smiled. “You’re busy, as I knew you’d be. You’re a star. No pun intended.”
She didn’t smile.
He sobered and took a seat across from her. “We need to clear the air.”
“It’s been cleared already.”
“No, it hasn’t.” He shoved a hand through his thick blond hair, and she suddenly preferred it shorter and darker. Like Reid’s. “I apologized. You didn’t forgive me, and I can’t blame you for it.”
Liz wavered by the door, her gaze wide on Tanner. “Um, sorry, but Mr. Griffith is here to talk to you about his campaign?” She kept looking from Tanner to Naomi and bit her lip.
Naomi wanted to laugh hysterically. “Mr. Griffith, oh, right.”
“I know he was scheduled for later, but he had something come up and needs to see you sooner. I can move your ten thirty so you can talk to him once Mr. Ryan’s gone.” Scheduled later? Reid hadn’t been answering her calls. Now, apparently, he wanted to talk to her.
Naomi had confided in Liz how much she wanted to talk to Reid. Liz, bless her, didn’t judge Naomi for lusting after the guy. Nor did she fault Naomi for liking him.
“Yes, do that.” Naomi cleared her throat to stem her jumpiness at seeing Reid again. “Thanks, Liz. Tell him I’ll see him then.”
Liz nodded and, after Tanner glanced back at Naomi, mouthed, “Oh, wow, two men,” and gave her a thumbs-up. She shut the door with a quiet snick.
Naomi did her best to keep a nervous grin off her face. “Now, Tanner. Say what you need to say.”
He kicked back and crossed an ankle over one knee. In a suit and tie, he still looked the epitome of the handsome, white-collar professional. Even though she knew him to be much less polished all the time. “I needed to say I’m sorry. I did that. But I wanted to explain. I was a jerk and an idiot.”
“You said something to that effect the last time we talked.” But she liked hearing it again.
He groaned. “It’s all been shit without you. The business is good, but it’s not fun anymore. Our people have great ideas, but they lack that sizzle you had. That flair for our clients’ needs.”
Hmm. He didn’t seem to be concerned with losing her as a girlfriend so much as he’d lost her talent at work.
He shifted his foot to the floor and leaned closer, a familiar spark in his eyes. “We made a great team. I miss having you beside me.” He sighed. “God, I miss you, Naomi.”
She blinked. “Seriously? After a year and a half. After gutting my professional reputation and—”
“Whoa. I never did that. Everyone assumed you’d left because you wanted to. Not because I made you.”
“Which you did,” she said between her teeth. “So what Beth told me on my way out was crap? That everyone knew I’d slept with the boss and been fired for being a slut?” Not that she’d believed Beth, the pushy secretary who’d always had a thing for Tanner. But that some of her colleagues might think that had bothered her.
“No way. Beth always did love to spread rumors. She was fired, by the way.”
“Before or after you slept with her?” A shot in the dark…that played out.
He flushed. “I told you I was wrong. I should never have allowed business and my personal life to intersect. I don’t do that anymore.”
Didn’t he? “Good for you.” She had to say it. “I worked my tail off getting this business together. And to think I’d imagined being a partner at PP&R one day.”
“You still could be,” he insisted. “You and me, together again. It would be amazing.”
“Until I land a client instead of you, or they ask me to take on their business and you can’t stand the thought of losing out to your ex-girlfriend. I’m sorry, Tanner. I just can’t do that again.”
“Not even if I asked you to come back to me in all ways? You know, us getting back together as more than just girlfriend and boyfriend, as more than colleagues.” He had a funny look in his eyes. “Naomi, I loved you.”
“I loved you too.” Which had been why his betrayal had stung so badly. “But that’s in the past.”
“It’s not.”
She hadn’t thought he’d go so low to win her back. Flattering, sure, but a little creepy too. “Tanner, enough. I happen to know you’re dating someone right now. What would she think about your confession?”
“She’s a sweet woman.” He kept staring at her. “But she’s not you.”
Remembrances of the good times they’d shared, of the way they could talk about work and laugh together, filtered past the bitterness, the hurt. “We did have some fun together.”
The hope on his face felt…wrong.
“Tanner, no. I’m sorry. I’m not coming back to work for you. I might actually end up working with you if this Jennings deal pans out.”
“Maybe.” He sat back and shuttered his expression. “Jon seems to like what PP&R has to offer. I’m pretty sure he’s going to hire us.”
“Oh?”
“But if he did, and you also came on board, you’d have to work with us—with me, Naomi. I’m the lead on this account. It’s going to be huge.”
“If you get it.”
“When I get it.”
She didn’t doubt he could pull it off. But she had an ace up her sleeve, and he was sitting outside in her waiting room. A back door into Chris Jennings’s good graces.
“Best of luck to you. I’ve learned my lesson, Tanner. I might be able to work with, not for you. But that’s all it’ll be. Work.”
He shrugged. “I’m not giving up on you yet.” He forced a smile, and she felt a moment of sadness for what might have been. Might still be, some small part of her forced her to consider. “In any case, thanks for seeing me. I’ll talk to you again soon. Bye, Naomi.”
She stood when he did. “Goodbye.”
She watched him leave, not sure how to feel. Triumphant that he’d come crawling back to her? Flattered he’d said all the right things? Suspicious he didn’t mean a word of it? But why shouldn’t he? Naomi was beautiful, smart, amazing at her job. He should want her back.
If only he’d said those words even six months ago. But something in her had changed. She no longer needed validation from Tanner.
No, she didn’t.
Yet the feeling she had decisions to make lingered.
Reid filled her doorway, and all thoughts about Tanner fled her mind.
“Ah, Liz said you could fit me in?” He looked haggard, as if he’d walked under the burden of something heavy.
“Sure. Come on in.” She smiled. “Would you like a coffee?”
“Liz already filled me up.” He held up a cup and took his seat. “Sorry I’ve been slow getting back to you this week. We’ve been slammed.”
“I know the feeling.” They discussed a few updates she’d had for him, and he mentioned what had gone on the past week. A lot of moving parts in his moving company.
Yet something more had happened. She could sense it. Should she ask? Oh, to hell with it. “Reid, are you okay? You look more stressed than usual.”
He gave a short laugh. “Besides my brother wigging out, hiring the rest of our wacky crew, and my mother in the hospital, I’m great.” He gulped more coffee.
She moved around her desk to sit next to him. “Oh, Reid. What happened?”
His gaze had a faraway look, and he wasn’t acting like his usual self. “I went to visit a few nights ago. Cash and I usually see her once a month. She doesn’t like too many visitors, but she allows us that monthly time,” he said, his tone bitter. “When we spoke Saturday, she seemed…off. So I went back to check and found out she’d had a stroke. She’s in and out of consciousness. They don’t expect her to recover.”
“I’m so sorry.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed, settling the connection on her lap. “Is there anything I can do?”
He smiled, and the sweetness in his expression brought tears to her eyes. Sure, her family drove her crazy, but she couldn’t imagine losing any of them. Reid not only had a tumultuous past with his mother and father, but his dad had died years ago. And now he was close to losing his mom.
