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Dec was glad to hear it. Kell might be stubborn, but eventually he’d acquiesced to what was right. “I want DJ to feel like a real Montrose.”
“What does that mean?” Allan asked.
“Just that I never really felt like one. I was always aware I was adopted.”
“To us you were always a Montrose. I don’t want to hear you say that again,” Kell said.
He was glad to hear that from his cousins; he felt the acceptance he’d always searched for was finally his. Now he needed to get Cari back, and then he’d be able to relax. There was only one way to do it. He had to prove to her he had roots.
He thought of his big mansion in Beverly Hills standing empty and he knew what he wanted to do. “I have to trade in the Maserati. Will you two do me a favor?”
“Why do you have to trade it in?”
“It’s not a kid car,” he said. Then he explained what he needed his cousins to help him do, and they were more than happy to do their part. He had the feeling that Kell still felt bad about his outburst of temper earlier. Dec wasn’t too sure if they would succeed in doing everything that he asked, but he left them to go put his part of the plan in motion.
He went to the Porsche dealer and traded the Maserati in on a Cayenne and then drove to Cari’s house as the sun was setting. He was surprised to find it empty. He called Cari’s number, but the phone just went to voice mail. Damn. He didn’t want to leave this rift between them any longer.
Now that he knew he loved her, he wanted his life with her to start right now. He finally called Allan and asked him to call John’s wife and get Jessi’s number. Thirty minutes later he had it. It was after nine, which was late, but not too late. Not when his future was at stake. He called the number.
“This is Dec. Can I speak to Cari?” he asked when Jessi answered the phone.
“She’s not here. She went home, but I don’t think she’s in the mood to see you,” Jessi said.
“I’m at her house and she’s not here,” Dec said, feeling a sense of real panic. What if she’d had an accident?
“What? Are you sure she’s not just hiding from you?” Jessi asked.
“I’m positive. There is no one here and her car isn’t in the driveway,” Dec explained. He looked at that empty house and saw what he’d brought to her life. Maybe he should just respect her wishes and let her stay hidden from him. But he couldn’t do that this time. The first time he could walk away because he hadn’t let himself care, but this time he loved her too much. And he needed her back by his side.
“Let me see what I can find out,” Jessi said after a long minute. “If I help you with this, you are going to owe me.”
“Okay. I’ll owe you a favor. But I can’t do anything to stop the takeover,” he warned her.
“That’s okay. I’ll think of something you can do for me. I’ll call you back,” she said.
“I’ll be waiting.”
Dec sat in the driveway of Cari’s house for forty-five minutes before his phone finally rang.
“Yes?”
“She’s at a hotel. She said she couldn’t face sleeping in the bed she shared with you,” Jessi said.
Her words cut him like a knife. He’d never meant to hurt her like that. “Where is she?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Why do you think?”
“I think you want her back. That you realized that you screwed up. But I want to hear you say it,” Jessi said.
“I screwed up,” he admitted. “Now tell me where she is.”
“Ritz Carlton in Marina del Rey. She checked in two hours ago. So she must have gone there straight from Emma’s house,” Jessi said.
“Thanks,” he said, disconnecting the call. She was staying less than a mile from the yacht club where he lived. He wondered if she’d done it deliberately. But he was glad she was so close. He knew it was too late tonight to go to her room, but in the morning when she woke up… He finally had the right gesture to show her how much she meant to him.
He drove to the hotel and talked to the concierge. They wouldn’t give him Cari’s room number but they did agree to deliver his invitation to her. He went to the yacht but couldn’t sleep, so he spent the night vacillating between excitement at seeing her in the morning and the very real fear that she might not accept his invitation or his apology.
* * *
The envelope sitting in front of her suite door was white and embossed with the Ritz Carlton seal, but when Cari looked at the front of the envelope she recognized the handwriting as Dec’s. She slowly opened it and drew out the card inside.
