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“Come now, Nick,” James pressed, with a coaxing smile. “Not even a sympathy laugh? I was sure you, of all people, would be happy about th
is.”
“Happy?” Nick raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You’re walking away from something you deeply care about, something you have a talent for. You have a chance to make that company great again, to clean up the disaster your monster of a brother has made of it.” His handsome face hardened with sincerity as the two of them locked eyes. “You’re my best friend, James. Why in the world would you giving up make me happy?”
For the first time that morning, James seemed to falter. A tiny shadow flickered across his face, and while he cleared it quickly away, his façade didn’t fool anyone. “Now things can go back to the way they were before.” He shrugged with what looked like a supreme amount of effort, trying to find his way back to that casual smile. “Only now, I’ll have someone as well. As you know, I truly love her. Not sure how it happened, but it did. And I know that probably shocks the hell out of you. And I can’t imagine not having her in my life. Now, we must plan our adventures for four, instead of you and Abby having to haul around a third wheel.”
“You don’t have to sacrifice your career for love, James. You’re a lucky bastard who can have both, and you’re an idiot if you can’t see that.” Nick set his over-sweetened coffee down and stared entreatingly at his friend. “There’s no law that says you have to choose.”
“Isn’t there?” James’s eyes darted over to me before he turned them back on his best friend. “Imagine if you and Abby had to go even another month tied to the wellbeing of your dad’s company. I’ve never seen the two of you as unhappy as you were then. It almost tore you apart, and—”
“My dad’s company, James,” Nick insisted. “It was his, because that old asshole is so pickled with hate that he’ll never die off. This is not the same at all. You won’t be under anyone’s thumb. The company will be all yours—”
“As well as all the obligations that go along with it,” James interrupted, finally raising his voice. “Of course I’ll be under someone’s thumb, a whole board of directors’ thumbs, as well as the thumbs of countless employees, not to mention our constituents and investors and—”
“Is that what this is really about?” Nick countered fiercely, stepping forward till they were face to face. “Are you telling me you’re afraid of the responsibility?”
“I’m not afraid of anything!” James argued. “I’m just trying to protect what I have!”
An arm linked through mine as Abby came to stand beside me, and together, we watched the men shouting. It was frightening seeing two such powerful people square off, and it charged the air with an intensity I hadn’t felt since James confronted his brother the last time. It was as if we were witnessing a real, live clash of the titans, and it was easy to forget that even the foul, angry curse words they screamed at one another were spoken with the best of intentions. Every time they shouted, they did so out of love.
“No one is trying to take anything from you!” Nick yelled. “For fuck’s sake, James, if you were actually required to make a choice, I’d applaud you for choosing Della. Don’t you realize that I know what a huge step that is for you? It makes me proud as hell, you idiot!”
“Then how about a little damn support?!” James demanded, his eyes flashing angrily in the sun. “I shouldn’t have to tell you take my side, Nick. You’re supposed to just...automatically stand up for me.”
“Your side? There are no sides, you dumbass,” Nick said with a growl. “Until you get that through your thick British head...” He trailed off suddenly and stared over James’s shoulder. “Er, uh...your lovely head.”
The two stopped shouting at the same and turned around with matching smiles to greet the little girl who wandered into the room. She took one look at their friendly posture, one leaning casually against the other, then tilted her head to the side. “Daddy, why were you and Uncle James shouting at each other?” she asked with a curious frown.
Their posture dropped simultaneously, and Nick withdrew his arm. He cast James a sideways glare, but he was quick to regain his faux smile as he knelt down in front of his princess. “I’m sorry I was shouting, darling. It’s just... Well, your Uncle James is about to make a very stupid mistake, one he can never take back, and that makes me a little angry.”
Her eyes grew cartoonishly wide as they fixed on James. “Did you tell him not to?”
Nick glanced over his shoulder with a look that could have melted the world’s largest glacier. “I’m trying.”
She flew forward instantly and wrapped her tiny arms around James’s legs with heartbreaking concern. “Don’t do it, Uncle James. No remorse, no regrets!”
Remorse and regrets?
Abby looked at her husband. “Did you teach her that?” she asked, crossing her arms at him.
Nick shook his head and looked at her with wide-eyed innocence. “I wouldn’t dare! It must have been Max. He’s always reading those stupid self-help books.”
Arabella glanced over her shoulder and frowned. “Don’t fib, Daddy. You said that is the basic rule of —”
“Silence, child!”
James knelt down and took her tiny hands. “Sweetie,” he said with a gentle smile, “I’m not making a mistake. I’m trying not to make one, so I can be with your Auntie Della.”
“Then why does Daddy think you are?”
James flashed her a sad smile. “Because your father is a deeply disturbed man. He didn’t grow up the same way as the rest of us. He was actually discovered hanging upside down from a tree. Didn’t I ever tell you that?”
Arabella snorted in laughter as James leaned forward to give her a tight hug.
“Now, you’ve got to get going, or else you and Max will miss your flight home.”
“But I don’t want to go,” she whined, turning to her parents. “I wanna stay and see Uncle James’s press conference.”
