For Nick (2 page)

“Em…wake up, sweetheart. Breakfast is hot and ready.”

Zach climbed onto the bed and wrapped his arms around Emily. She hadn’t even stirred. He pulled the covers down to gaze upon her precious face.

Camille wandered upstairs when Zach didn’t make an appearance in the next ten minutes. The food was getting cold and Susan and Erika had already dug in. Emily’s bedroom door was wide open.

“Hey you two, aren’t you going to join us for…” her voice faded. The sight that met her left her staggered. Zach was quietly holding a lifeless Emily in his arms, slowly rocking back and forth. Em’s empty eyes stared past her into the distance as if she could see something she could not.

Emily was gone. She knew it. Zach knew it.

Camille noticed the towels at the door, at the window. She rushed to the fireplace, turned off the flames and checked the damper—it was closed. Her stunned gaze settled on Zach and Emily, both oblivious to her presence.

The towels had kept the cold out, but let death in.

-1-

“Zachary, it’s been five long years since you lost Emily,” the image on the screen told him directly. The face was dear to him, the eyes so achingly familiar. It was strange to imagine that he’d only spoken with his beloved grandfather in person two days ago. It seemed like a lifetime ago already. His passing had been unexpected, even though he’d been getting up there in years and Zach had known it was coming in the near future. His grandfather had always been there for him. Always. It didn’t seem possible that he was gone. The reading of his will was a necessary, but surprisingly poignant event. The video message left to Zach, his only grandson, was unforeseen however. The message contained therein was even more unsettling.

“I can’t stand to see you alone any longer. You haven’t dated, you haven’t even tried to find someone else. I don’t want you to live your life alone, forever pining after Em. It’s high time you find yourself someone to spend your life with. My dearest wish is for you to find the kind of relationship I had with your grandmother. She was the closest I’ve ever been to another human being in my life. She was my best friend, my champion, and yes, my lover. Yeah, I know you think that’s disgusting to think of old people having an active love life, but that’s the way it is—and it’s the way it should be,” he paused to take a deep breath, the sound raspy and a tad bit labored.

Zach closed his eyes, missing the man who’d raised him since he was fifteen more every minute.

“Therefore, after much debate, I’ve made a decision. All that I have is yours. Drake Enterprises is yours, you already know that.”

Yes, he knew. The reading of his grandfather’s will seemed like nothing more than an obligatory formality—and a painful one at that.

“But I do have one condition, Zachary.”

Zach’s eyes flew open.
What? A condition?

“Listen to me carefully, please. I’m not doing this to cause you grief…” His grandfather burst into a fit of coughing with an agonizing wheeze in between each outburst of air as he desperately tried to catch his breath. Even though he was already gone, the sound still made Zach tense with anxiety.

“So here it is, my final stipulation—and it is my dying wish, Zachary. Please honor it. Unless you find a young lady and marry, legally and lawfully for at least one year, Drake Enterprises will be sold on the predetermined date and the profits donated to charity.”

“No…” Zach let out his breath heavily, leaned forward in his chair, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. He couldn’t believe his grandfather would do this to him. It wasn’t as if he needed Drake Enterprises to survive financially, but the company was everything to him, the one thing in his life he was passionate about. As if his grandfather had heard his thoughts, he continued.

“Yes, you heard me correctly. I’m sorry, Zachary, but desperate measures are in order. I won’t see my grandson living a life of solitude, having nothing or no one to go home to at night. You’ve done amazing things with Drake Enterprises, Zach, but the business is simply a means to an end, a way to support the ones you love, it was never meant to be your life, your existence. Find someone, Zach Give it at least one year. I know you’ll find happiness if you do. Oh, and Zach, I expect a legal marriage—a
real
marriage. Mr. Chambers will be watching to ensure legality, as well as authenticity. I love you, Zach, and I want you to be happy.”

The screen went black and an ominous silence filled the room.
A grandfather’s final words to his grandson.
“He can’t do that,” Zach mumbled. He knew his grandfather was worried about him, but to go to this extreme was outlandish, if not absurd.

“I’m afraid he can. It was his dying wish. It’s all legal, Mr. Drake. I was there when he signed the will,” the lawyer, Eric Chambers, commented with an over confident smirk.

He’d just become Zach’s veritable watchdog, someone who would be basically spying on him and delving into his personal life—and to make matters worse, he’d just been given the legal right to do so.

“Look, Mr. Drake, I have no desire to meddle in your private affairs, but I’m legally bound to require proof of your marriage. Make no mistake, I will be checking up on you, but you needn’t worry that I’ll be watching your every move.”

Zach realized that, perhaps, Mr. Chambers wasn’t quite the snake he appeared to be. Zach estimated he was in his mid-sixties. With his pale, thin skin, slicked back gray hair, and outdated bow tie, he reminded Zach of an oily used car salesman attempting to appeal to the upper classes and failing miserably. He remembered his grandfather saying he was one of the best lawyers he’d come across. Those words suddenly seemed rather ominous. He’d be wise to tread carefully around Eric Chambers. He wasn’t what he seemed.

“Your grandfather was in his right mind. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t have it. He was very determined when he wanted to be.”

And I’m just like him. Determined and persistent. Heck, I’ve even been called unrelenting at times. But those are the qualities that keep Drake Enterprises a successful business.

They were the attributes that would serve him well now. His mind began to whirl with ways to get out of this situation. There was always a way out.

Always.

Some loophole, some way to dodge the inevitable. Business 101.

Regardless, one thought niggled in the back of his mind, haunting him.

My dying wish, Zachary. Please honor it.

-2-

Have you ever suddenly found yourself in a place where you know you don’t want to be? Besides that, you find yourself wondering, how did I get here?

She was there. Andie remembered her father telling her an amusing story where this very thing happened to him. He was moving a mattress he’d just purchased in the back of his pick-up truck, traveling down the freeway at normal speed, when the mattress flew out of the truck and landed in the middle of the road. He couldn’t leave it there, it would cause an accident. Quickly, he pulled over, knowing it was his responsibility to remedy the situation. When the road was clear he ran out and picked up the mattress. By then, more cars were coming. Thinking fast, he positioned himself and the mattress on the white hyphenated lines of the roadway and stood as still as a statue waiting for a break in the traffic. As the cars whizzed by, he asked himself, ‘What am I doing here? How did I get here? This is not a place I want to be.’ It wasn’t until he got to the part where the policeman stopped and asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ and he answered back casually, ‘I’m holding a mattress,’ that they all burst into laughter whenever he related the story.

I’m there dad, I’m there
. Only her predicament wasn’t funny at all. Andie couldn’t imagine ever telling this to one of her children someday and finding the story amusing or even interesting.

A nice elderly man had given her heads up about an excellent job opening at a Fortune 500 company. “You’ll find the working conditions quite favorable,” he’d said with a wink. She’d looked into the posting and shown up for the job interview and found that the interviews were running late. The order in which they would be seen was on a first come, first served basis. ‘Would she mind waiting?’ the receptionist had asked politely. She’d agreed and now here she was. The sun was setting, she’d been sitting there for three hours and she was the last interview. Last! The twentieth girl. Great. Surely he’s already chosen the one for the job. He was just going through the motions at this point. This entire afternoon has been a phenomenal waste of time, time that she could have spent with Nick…

There’s not a chance I’m getting this job, I should sneak out.

Too bad, it would’ve been a nice working environment. Elevator music wafted gently from strategically placed speakers in the ceiling. The reception area was elegant with dark mahogany woodwork combined with a mauve paint on the walls. A chandelier graced the ceiling sending sparkles of light around the room. The chair she sat in was so cushy and soft, she could fall asleep in it. Air conditioning kept the room comfortable and fresh, letting them escape from the hot and humid June weather.

As the time passed she entertained herself by watching the various women who sat with her, waiting to be called into the office of Zachary Drake. There was the lady who smacked her gum non-stop, her bracelets jangling with every turn of the magazine she flipped through nervously. She kept her legs crossed and the top leg swung back and forth with surprisingly fast motions. Maybe she was bionic. Andie nicknamed her ‘nervous girl.’ Then there was ‘hair girl.’ She combed her hair about every five minutes, not just a simple brush through, mind you. Oh no. She flipped her head upside down, combed wildly and then tossed her head back letting her hair land wherever it pleased. It gave her quite the windblown look, which she obviously liked. She liked her own reflection a little too much as she couldn’t seem to stop staring at herself in her compact. She applied a new coat of lipstick equally as often as fixing her hair. ‘Silicone girl’ had sat next to her. Her blouse was low-cut and deliberately left unbuttoned. A surprising amount of cleavage was showing and Andie was positive those
girls
couldn’t possibly be real. A cloud of perfume surrounded her that had made Andie sneeze several times. Then there was ‘chatty girl.’ She talked almost constantly to no one in particular, hardly taking a breath in between her words. She laughed and flittered in between each sentence as if her words were funny. No one responded, but the receptionist, Mrs. Edwards, smiled at her now and then, perhaps feeling sorry for her. ‘Cell phone girl’ sat in a corner, living in her own little world, talking incessantly to her boyfriend saying, “You’re kidding?” every other word. Then there was the typical ‘blond bombshell.’ She had bleach blond hair and wore a tight pencil skirt with a sweater that was two sizes too small. She could barely walk in her heels, but insisted on teetering around, pacing the carpet, making Andie nervous she would fall over any minute.

Andie watched each one enter the office of Zachary Drake, all the while wondering if she should give up and go home. Once they entered, they never came out again. Perhaps they didn’t want the just interviewed girls to collaborate with the soon to be interviewed girls. The door to his office began to represent the fate to which she must soon face…the big, cavernous door where girls entered and then never came out again. They were eaten alive by the big, bad monster.

Zachary Drake.

Her imagination was running away with her. She’d been sitting here for much too long.

She had to admit, the paperwork she’d filled out had been a little strange. A non-disclosure agreement was included that she’d been required to sign before the interview. She wasn’t quite sure why such an agreement was necessary for an interview. It made her even more uncomfortable.

She let out a deep breath, feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. It was pushing her down, grinding her into the dirt, breaking her into a million little pieces. Perhaps the other girls had nicknamed her ‘burdened girl.’ Surely it showed on her face. She felt old and worn out at twenty-eight, having already lived a lifetime. She wanted to turn, run, and never look back. Too late now. The door to the cave…office…had just opened. She was stuck going through with the interview. She needed a job desperately. Otherwise she would have left long ago. She’d just made the move to the Pacific Northwest two weeks ago. She’d done it for Nick. Everything she did was for Nick, but that was just the way it was.

To her surprise, Zachary Drake himself entered the reception area and was studying her resume with feigned interest, hence a hasty escape at this point would be inexcusable. Yep, she was stuck. To make matters worse, he had visited with his receptionist for several moments before he realized there was one more girl waiting to see him. He hid his irritation quickly. He must be fatigued. After deciding she was going to apply for the job as the personal assistant to Zachary Drake, President and CEO of Drake Enterprises, she’d googled him to learn a little about him. Although he’d inherited the business that had been in his family for four generations, he’d taken it to new heights, bringing unmitigated success to the company. She’d stared at his picture for an embarrassing amount of time, something she would never admit to anyone. At thirty-two, no one could argue that he was an amazingly good-looking man.
Handsome and successful.