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“It’s done,” she repeats, a sense of disbelief in her words.
I cup her face. “Now we begin our new life.”
Epilogue
Harper
Two months later…
Iexit the conference room in the Bennett corporate office with Dan Miller, the soon-to-retire head of Miller Enterprises, next to me, adrenaline coursing through me. The meeting was good, so very good. We pause in the hallway and shake hands, with him giving me a little wink as well. “You know how to make a grandpa happy there, ma’am. A second life after retirement. I’m excited.”
“As are we,” I assure him, thankful I’d bonded with him when he was supplying parts to Kingston in mass volume. “As are we.”
I hand him off to my assistant, Meika Reynolds, who looks about twelve and manages everything like she has a hundred years of experience. She’s amazing and a sweetheart to boot.
Once she and Dan depart, I dash toward Grayson’s office and his assistant is nowhere in sight, but I don’t even knock. I know the whole clan is inside waiting on me. I burst into the office and find Grayson, Mia, Davis, and Eric waiting on me. Eric is the one I’m focused on, though, and God, he’s gorgeous in a blue pin-striped suit, his blue eyes piercing as he anticipates my update. Everyone is staring at me and I explode with the news. “We did it!”
Clapping ensues and Eric and I rush toward each other, colliding in a huge hug. “You did it?” he confirms, kissing my neck and leaning back to look at me.
“Wedid it. He wired the final two hundred and fifty million we needed for the NFL buyout while he was here. It’s done.”
Shouts of joy explode all over in the room and they are loud and plentiful. When we all come down enough to speak, I breathe out, “Now I’ve earned my keep.”
Mia laughs and rushes around the desk to hug me. “Honey, you earned your keep the minute you walked in the door.” She’s become a good friend, the kind I didn’t make time for in Denver. The kind I needed and didn’t even realize how much.
“You earned more than your keep,” Grayson offers, while Mia releases me, and Eric settles his arm around my shoulders. “One percent of the profits,” he adds. “Your one percent. Not Eric’s. He already gets his share.”
I’m stunned, unable to fathom how much money that might be, when I shouldn’t be. I’ve seen who Grayson is up close these past couple of months. “You’re generous as always. Thank you, Grayson.”
“Very generous,” Eric says. “It’s a lot of money, but it’s not about the money, now is it.” He glances down at me. “It’s about your freedom.”
I instantly know what he means. It’s a part of the many things we lay awake and talk about often well into the wee hours. I’ve always had dreams and aspirations that I do not want to be swallowed by Eric’s money and power, any more than I want him to believe I’m with him for those things. As I’ve told him, if he knows I could walk away at any moment, he knows I choose to stay.
“Go celebrate with your man,” Grayson orders.
Thirty minutes later, Eric and I lounge on the leather couch in the corner of his office. We have glasses of champagne in hand and I swear the Manhattan skyline is dancing in celebration for me.
“It’s hard to believe we’re here now, after all the challenges we have faced. We’re like a television soap opera that got cancelled,” I joke.
Eric laughs. “Yes, I suppose we are.” He sets his glass down. “Speaking of, and I hate to bring this up now, but I heard from your mother.”
I can’t help but feel a little twist in my belly at this news. In the two months since she went to Europe, I’ve spoken to her once, and it was not pleasant. “What did she say?”
“Now that the drug test came back clear and the heart attack ruling was filed officially, she’s holding a service in Italy, where she plans to live with Gigi.”
“When?”
“Next week, but we’re not invited. Obviously, neither is Isaac. She just wanted to be sure, when we heard the buzz about invitations, we didn’t decide to come anyway.”
“Of course she did. Any news on Isaac and whatever might be going on with him?”
“Coincidentally I talked to Blake today, but I wasn’t going to tell you until after the deal closed. Isaac inherited and moved into the Kingston mansion. Nicholas invested money in the company. All is well for him, aside from the part where he’s ruled by the iron hand of the mob.”
“It’s better than he deserves,” I say, tilting my head to study him. “How do you feel about not being invited to the service?”
“I didn’t want to go in the first place. I will never mourn a man who denied my mother medical care.”
And he hasn’t. Not beyond a few days of battling through a few confusing emotions, he’s been at peace. I believe he really doesn’t want to go to Italy, not for the service.
