Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (169 page)

But
Nicole
was struck dumb, staring at the logo on the side of the bag. Hampton’s
Executive Flights, with a logo of a helicopter below the name.
 
“Did you use this helicopter service
tonight, Kallie?”

Kallie
was
flustered as she tried to pick up her things.
 
“Yes.
 
I did.
 
I…I thought it might be fun.”

“So
you
weren’t just hanging out at a bar tonight.
 
Who did you go on this helicopter ride with?”
 
Nicole asked.
 
“I mean, it sounds like a blast, but
let’s be honest— you really can’t afford it.
 
Who took you on a helicopter ride?”

“Just
some
guy I met, okay?
 
It’s really not
your business, Nicole.
 
I’m an adult
and you’re not my mother.”
 
Kallie’s
cheeks were scarlet, and she was scooping everything into her purse.
 
“I’m going to the bathroom and when I
come down I’ll get you whatever you need.
 
But I’m not going to be interrogated about what I do on my day off.”

“I
don’t
need anything from you,” Nicole said, still holding the bag with the helicopter
logo on it.
 
“And I certainly don’t
need you staying in my house, eating my food, taking my money, while you have
an affair with my husband.”

Kallie’s
jaw
dropped.
 
“Are you crazy,
Nicole?
 
Have you seriously lost
your mind?”

Nicole
wanted
to slap her.
 
She really did.
 
How could this girl stand there and lie
to her face after everything she’d done for her?

“I’m
not crazy.
 
And I’m not stupid, either,” she said.

“Well,
I’m not listening to this,” Kallie
said.
 
“I’ll get my things together
and then

I’ll
leave.”

Nicole
was
about to respond, when she heard the door open again.
 
Footsteps came toward her from the main
entrance, and then Red entered the foyer.
 
He saw Nicole on the stairs and his eyes went wide.
 
“What’s going on?
 
Are you okay?”

“No,
I’m
not okay.”
 
She stared down at him.

“What happened?”

“Tell
me
the truth,” she said.
 
“Tell me
where you went today.”

He stared up at her.
 
“I was in a business—“

“Bullshit.”
She
tossed the bag down to him, and he caught it, his expression confused.
 
“What’s this?”

“It
fell
out of Kallie’s purse.
 
Now tell me
why you were both on a helicopter ride together today.
 
Better make it a good one.”

He
shook
his head.
 
“Nicole, I don’t know
what you’re talking about.
 
If
Kallie took a helicopter ride, it’s got nothing to do with me.
 
I didn’t even use this place.
 
There are dozens of helicopters coming
and going from The Hamptons at any given moment.”

“I
don’t believe you,” Nicole told him.

Kallie
had
already left, presumably to go to her room and pack her things.
 
For the first time, Nicole was wondering
if she’d actually gone crazy.
 
She
walked downstairs, slowly, and Red pulled out his cell phone.
 
“Okay, I lied about the business
trip.
 
But it wasn’t because I was
off on some secret helicopter ride with Kallie.”

Nicole
was
angry, and she was certain that he was about to lie in order to cover up
whatever had gone on between them.

Red
stood
there looking at his phone, and he then spent a minute tapping and swiping and
pressing the touch screen, which would have been comical if Nicole weren’t so
upset.

Finally,
he
handed the phone over to her.

“This is where I was,” he said.

Nicole
looked
closely at the pictures he’d pulled up on his cell phone.
 
There were dozens of pictures of one of
the rooms in their Connecticut home.
 
The room they’d talked
about
turning into a nursery.
 
Of course,
because of their superstitions, they’d agreed not to do any decorating or
furnishing of the room until the baby was practically on its way.

But
Red
had apparently taken it upon himself to do go against their agreement and make
it into a nursery anyhow.

The
room
results were simply incredible.
 
There were pictures of the room in various stages of renovation.
 
Red was in the pictures, along with some
of the guys from work—even Kane and Danielle were there, helping
out.
 
In one picture, Kane was
pretending to paint Danielle’s face with his brush, and she was backing away
with a horrified look.

Nicole
could
see from the date and time stamps that the pictures were from earlier in the
day.

“You
did all of this in one day?” she asked,
her eyes filling.

Red
shrugged.
 
“It took a lot of advance planning, but
we managed to pull it off.
 
I

wanted
it to be a surprise.”

Each
picture
showed a different, wonderful detail they’d built into the room.
 
The walls were painted a light shade of
pink, and there was a beautiful white crib in one corner.
 
Above the crib, a cute sign said “Fairy
Princess Sleeps Here” in swirling script. In the middle of the room was a white
changing table, and then to the left of that was a nursing chair with comfy
pillows.

Nicole
could
already picture herself in that sweet room, quietly nursing their child and
smiling peacefully.
 
She looked up
from the phone and Red was watching her.

His
eyes were sad.

“I’m
so sorry I doubted you,” she told him.

He
hugged
her and pulled her in tight.
 
His
hand stroked the back of her head as he kissed her lips softly.

Tears
began
streaming down her face and he brushed them away with his thumb. “Don’t cry,
beautiful.”

“I’m
such a jerk.”

“I
lied
to you and you were too smart to fall for it.
 
I should have known better.” “And then I
yelled at Kallie and accused her of having an affair with you.
 
That’s practically
as bad as what the other family did to
her.”

“So
go
upstairs and tell Kallie you’re sorry, that you’ve been under a lot of stress.
She’ll understand.”

“You
think?”

He
sighed.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Maybe she won’t.”

Nicole’s
shoulders
sagged.
 
“I don’t know what to do
about this.
 
I feel so unattractive,
Red.
 
I feel like you don’t want me
the same way you used to want me.”

“It’s
been
hard for me to resist spanking you and tying you up,” he said.
 
“But I just
didn’t want to take any chances with the baby.
 
I got a little gun shy, I suppose.”
“Red, you can’t hurt the baby by doing that stuff.”

“I
know you’re right, and I’m not going to
worry about it anymore.”

She
kissed
him then, and he kissed her back with passion she hadn’t felt in some
time.
 
He smiled at her.
 
“Tell you what.
 
Let’s you and I drive back to
Connecticut tonight.”

“Now?
It’s so late.”

“We’ll
get
home and then we can sleep and cuddle and lay in bed together—just you
and me.”

“That
sounds nice, actually.”

Red
grabbed her hand.
 
“I’ve been thinking about it.
 
About you and me together. I thought
about you all day today.
 
I planned
on doing a lot more than just surprising you with that nursery.”

“Really?”

He
smiled
and one of his hands moved down to her buttocks and gave a firm slap. “Yes,
really.”

So
it
was decided.
 
They were going back
to the mansion for a getaway, just the two of them.

Red
went
to the master bedroom to pack some clothes and sundries, while Nicole went to
Kallie’s room and knocked twice.

“I
don’t
want to talk to anyone right now,” Kallie called from inside.

“Please, Kallie.
 
Can I just talk to you for one minute
and apologize?”

There
was a long pause
and then footsteps.
 
The door opened
about six inches and

Kallie
stood
there, watching her warily.
 
“I
don’t have anything to say to you right now.” “I deserve your anger,” Nicole
said.
 
“And you totally didn’t
deserve what I said to
you
tonight.
 
I’m so sorry for insulting
you and attacking you and mistrusting you.”

Kallie’s expression was stony.
 
“I had a really strange night
tonight.
 
I had some

things
happen…it would have been nice if I could
have told you at some point, gotten your advice.
 
But no.
 
All you did was think about yourself,
your own fears—you didn’t care whether or not it was fair to me.”

Nicole
felt
it like a blow. “Please stay, and let me make it up to you.
 
I want to rebuild our trust.”

“I
don’t know Nicole.
 
Maybe I’ve outstayed my welcome here.”

“You
haven’t
done any such thing.
 
We hit a bump
in the road, but we can get past this.
 
I really value your friendship, Kallie.”

Kallie
shook
her head.
 
“I think I’m going to
book a flight back to Ohio for tomorrow,” she said.

“Red
and
I are going away for the next day or two.
 
Can you just take some time and think it over?
 
You’ll have the place to yourself.”

“I
don’t think so.
 
I think I’ll probably be gone by the
time you guys come back.” Kallie looked down at the floor.
 
“I do accept your apology, and you’ve
done so much to help me…I’ll always be thankful for that.”

Nicole
apologized again, but it was no use.
 
Kallie’s mind was made up.

***

Nicole
was
feeling sad on the ride home, even though she finally felt better about things
between her and Red.

As
Red
pulled off the exit about fifteen minutes from their house, Nicole sighed in
relief.
 
She needed to get some sleep at this
point—she was exhausted and getting back to her own bed would be nice.

Despite
her
exhaustion, she just couldn’t stop thinking about how quickly she’d rushed to
judgment and mistrusted two of the closest people to her.
 
“I understand why Kallie’s angry with
me,” Nicole said.
 
“What I don’t
understand is how you aren’t angry with me even a little bit after the way I
treated you.”

“You’ve
been
cooped up and it’s been very difficult,” Red told her, trying to alleviate her
guilt.
 
“The stress of being
diagnosed with preeclampsia along with the history we had with the last
pregnancy—who could blame you for having a short fuse?”

“I
don’t know.
 
I feel as though I let everyone down.”

“I’m
fine,
Nicole, and Kallie’s not your responsibility.
 
She’s an adult, and she can handle
it.
 
And if she
can’t—well—that’s not our problem.”

“I
suppose.”
 
Nicole looked out the window.

Red’s
hand
found hers and he squeezed.
 
“I’m
just looking forward to it finally being the two of us alone again.”

“Just
us
and Chef Roland.”

“Right, I forgot,” Red laughed.

Nicole
felt
a sudden cramping, painful sensation in her abdomen.
 
She made a face and groaned a little.