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“Good.” He kissed her temple while the limo below them became a toy-size plaything. “Because the past two weeks have been something special for me. I wanted you to know that, even if this engagement got off to an awkward beginning, it’s been...eye-opening.”
She reached for the edge of the basket and gripped it, feeling as though she needed an anchor in a world suddenly off-kilter. What was he saying? Had her mother guessed correctly that Dempsey cared more than she’d realized?
“How so?” Her voice was a thin crack of sound in the cool air, and she tugged the pashmina closer around her. The landscape spread out below them like a patchwork quilt of green squares dotted with gray rocky patches and splashes of blue.
“We make a great team, for one thing.” He turned her toward him, his hands on her shoulders. “You have to know that. And you’ve spent years helping me to be more successful, always giving me far more help than what I could ever pay you for. I want you to know that teamwork goes both ways, and I can help you, too.”
He withdrew a piece of paper from the breast pocket of his tuxedo. It fluttered a little in the breeze as the temperature cooled.
“What is it?” She didn’t take it, afraid it would blow away.
“The deed to the manufacturing facility you looked at with Evan last week.” He tucked the paper into her beaded satin purse that sat on the floor of the balloon basket and straightened.
“You bought it?” She wasn’t sure what to say, since she’d told him she didn’t want this to be a Reynaud enterprise. “You haven’t even seen it. I was going to ask you what you thought when we got back home—”
“I toured it Thursday before practice. It’s a good investment.”
The balloon dipped, jarring her, but no more than his words.
He’d toured it and bought it without speaking to her. She didn’t want to ruin their balloon ride by complaining about what he’d obviously meant as a generous gesture. But she couldn’t help the frustration bubbling up that he hadn’t at least spoken to her about it.
“I hadn’t even run the numbers on the operating costs yet.” She didn’t want to feel tears burning the backs of her eyes. She understood him well enough to know his heart was in the right place. But how could he be friends with her for so long and not understand how important it was for her to make her own decisions regarding her business? “I hadn’t decided for sure yet—”
“You showed me the business plan, remember? I ran the numbers. You can afford the expenses easily now.”
Except she needed to make those decisions, not him. Didn’t he have any faith in her business judgment?
“Perhaps.” She watched an eagle soaring nearby, the sight so incredible, but more difficult to enjoy when her world felt as if it was fracturing. “But I can’t accept a gift—”
“I know you don’t want anything handed to you, Addy, but this is no more of a gift than all the ways you’ve anticipated my every need for years. How many times have you worked more than forty hours in a week without compensation?”
“I’m a salaried employee,” she reminded him, still feeling off balance.
“In a job that you took to help me. Don’t try to make the deed mean more than it does, Adelaide. You’ve worked hard for me and I’m finally in a position to achieve everything I’ve always wanted with the Hurricanes this year. Let me be a small part of your dream, too.”
Some of her defensiveness eased. She had to admit, it was a thoughtful gesture. A generous one, too, even if a bit high-handed. And the way he’d worded it made her feel a teeny bit more entitled to the gift, even though it far surpassed the monetary value of what she’d done for him. Still, the gift left her feeling a little hollow inside when she’d just convinced herself that he’d taken her on a balloon ride because he’d realized some deeper affection for her.
“Can I think about it before I accept it?” She cleared her throat, trying not to reveal the letdown she felt. The wind whipped a piece of her hair free from her updo, the long strand twining around her neck.
“No. You can sell it if you don’t want to use the facility. But it’s yours, Addy. That’s done.” He reached to sweep aside the hair and tucked it into one of the tiny rhinestone butterflies that held spare strands. “I have one other gift for you, and I want you to really consider it.”
That seriousness in his eyes again. The look that had made her nervous all week. What on earth was on the man’s mind?
