TOML SW 2015-04-09 (6 page)

It wasn’t because she had feelings for him.

~~~

Opals are white with colors thrown in

Like pieces of candy where ice cream had been

The laughter of children so cuddled and dear

Rise up past our shoulders, sink down so they’re near

Treasure has brought men to war and to sea

Fighting for goods and for queens for a fee

Souls have been lost, powers gone and then gained

And after it all, the same treasure remains

~~~

Jed had been up for hours. The miracle was that he’d slept at all, wondering what happened between Tori and Gabe last night. She’d barely even noticed when he left, her eyes trained on the airport, excitement on her face like a kid staring at a Christmas tree.

He imagined he could hear her flirtatious laughter, the answering lilt in his brother’s voice. He could even picture Gabe’s mouth on Tori’s lips, where Jed so longed to be.

He remembered all too well the urge to kiss her when she’d been cuddled in his lap, that soft sweater brushing his skin and her supple body cuddled close to his. He could smell her sweet skin and feel the brush of her long, silky hair.

She was upset, and he should leave her well enough alone, but he just had to touch her, his hand snaking its way up her neck, grazing her with his nails.

He’d expected her to push him away, but she hadn’t. No, not even close. She’d responded to his touch, and it had just about driven him crazy.

The first rays of morning sun shone onto Moon Lake and Jed pushed off the dock, his body slicing into the cool water like an arrow. His arms and legs circled with a rhythm that mocked his disjointed thoughts.

He had to stop obsessing about Tori. Nothing good could come from wanting a woman in love with someone else, and Jed had enough trouble without begging for more. But his mind wouldn’t listen to reason, and he kept coming back to her face, that slow smile and easy grace. What softness was beneath that sweater, just waiting to be explored?

His arms pulled his body through the water as his mouth came up for air. Tori was drowning under a pile of debt, about to lose her business. He knew all too well what that felt like, with Henry waiting to take the reins of Trainor Enterprises. It wasn’t about money for him, but control. Jed may not be able to save himself, but he could certainly save Tori. So why wouldn’t she let him help?

Stubborn woman.

Just like me, refusing to go ask Edward for his shares.

The thought chaffed at him. He remembered his shock when he learned his mother had left her share of Trainor Enterprises to Edward. At first, Jed thought there must have been some mistake, that the will was old and must surely be invalidated by their divorce. But her lawyer assured him to the contrary. She had made this will just a month before she passed away.

Edward had no use for that stock, no need for that money. Jed had been filled with anger when he found out his father controlled even the tiniest piece of what he had built alone, and that anger had only grown now that Henry held the majority stake.

Jed flipped over and began to backstroke the way he came. Edward’s shares were nothing in themselves, but pooled with Jed’s, they were enough to take control of his company back from Henry.

It will be a cold day in hell before I ask that man for anything.

No, he had this time in Moon Lake to find another answer. Kevin Lambert and his staff were working hard to find more available shares, or make more of them available, as the case may be. And if that didn’t work, he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

“Hey, stranger.”

Jed stood up quickly and turned toward the familiar voice, shading his eyes from the sun. Gabe was standing on the deck in silhouette, but the shape of his only brother was as familiar to Jed as his own. A bitterness crept up the back of his throat as he reminded himself not to trust this man, and he swam up alongside the dock. “Hey, yourself.”

“Thought I’d come out and say hello.”

Jed nodded. “Now you’ve said it.”

Gabe stared into the distance. “You’re still pissed about Evelyn.”

“Nah.” He climbed up the ladder to the dock. “If she slept with you, she would have slept with anybody.”

“Ouch.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard worse.”

“Not from my big brother.”

Jed wiped his face with a towel, taking in the other man’s measure. “Sometimes the truth hurts. Let’s talk about Tori Henderson.”

“What about her?”

“She picked you up last night.”

Gabe narrowed his eyes. “Yeah.”

Jed wanted to ask what had happened. More than anything, he wanted those details. He wanted to call dibs like they were kids again. He wanted to threaten his brother to keep his hands to himself, but that wasn’t what Tori wanted. He clutched his towel too tightly in his fists. “Be careful with her.”

Gabe smiled. “Why, are you interested, brother?”

“This isn’t about me. Don’t mess with her unless you care about her. She’s a nice girl.”

“I’ve known Tori a long time. I don’t need you telling me how to treat her.”

“I think you do.”

Gabe chuckled. “Seems to me, that woman knows exactly how she likes to be treated.”

Jed closed the distance between them until they were eye-to-eye. “Be careful, Gabe. With her, and with me. I haven’t forgotten about what you did, and I haven’t forgiven you.”

Gabe took a step back and put up his hands. “Okay.”

Jed dried off his face, and walked past his brother, back to the cabin.

~~~

If there was anyone who could help save Trainor Enterprises, it was Kevin Lambert. He was smart as they came, and tenacious to boot. They’d been friends since a young Jed and his mother moved in next door.

Kevin came on the line. “Enjoying your vacation?”

“You mean my exile? It’s all right. What do you have for me?”

There was a pause on the line. “It’s not good news. I tracked down several of the larger shareholders, and they’re not willing to sell.”

Jed cursed. “What are our options?”

“I can keep going down the line, though the smaller the shareholders, the more of them it would take to tip the scales.”

Jed leaned forward onto his desk, resting his fingers on the bridge of his nose. “It’s getting less likely we can pull this off.”

“At this point, there’s only one shareholder large enough to give you the majority stake.”

“My father.”

“Yes.” Kevin sighed. “I know what it would mean to you, to ask him to sell.”

Indeed, his friend was probably the only person on earth who truly understood the weight of this decision. “Failure.”

“Yes. Failure, because you haven’t been able to completely shut him out of your life, prove to him you don’t need him. But it would be success in terms of your business. Your business, Jed. The one you built, Trainor Enterprises. And maybe that’s more important. Ask him for those shares. There’s no shame in that.”

Ah, but there was shame. All there was, was shame. “We’ll see,” he said noncommittally. “That’s a tough pill to swallow.”

~~~

Chapter 5

“No, she wants whipped cream frosting, not buttercream frosting.” Tori massaged her neck as she listened to the baker carry on. “Yes, I understand it needs to be refrigerated. There’s a refrigerator at the reception hall that can handle the cake as long as it’s not assembled into layers.”

Melanie scooted behind her. “Tell me you’re not going to put that cake together yourself, sunshine.”

“No, no, I understand,” Tori said into the phone, “I’ll take full responsibility for assembling the layers. Okay, thank you.” She hung up.

“Not the sharpest pencil in the class, are you?” asked Melanie, shaking her head.

“What am I supposed to do? Mom hates buttercream.”

“Then by all means, take it upon yourself to assemble a wedding cake. Just remind me to bring my videocamera so I can enter to win $10,000.”

Tori closed her eyes. The wedding planning wasn’t going well, and it wouldn’t surprise her if she did end up dumping the cake on the floor. “I’m in over my head, Mel, and sinking fast.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Not unless you know a wedding planner with an altruistic streak.” Tori instantly regretted her words. She knew Melanie had her hands full taking care of her ailing mother, but she also knew Mel would walk through fire for a friend. “Seriously, I’ll be fine. Just a little overwhelmed this morning.”

Melanie rubbed her bottom lip. “So, I’ve been thinking about that second clue.”

“I’m not telling you anything.”

Melanie held up her hand. “I’m not asking you to give me the answer. I’m playing fair and square, just like anyone else.”

“You know you can’t win, right?”

“Of course not. I’m your employee. But I still want to play. I just have a question, is all.”

Tori sighed heavily. “What?”

“‘Pieces of candy, where ice cream had been.’ Does that mean the candy’s all mixed up in the ice cream, like the colors are in an opal, or that there used to be an ice cream shop at the place the clue’s talking about?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“One of those is exactly right.”

Melanie shook her head. “You’re killing me.”

The bell over the shop door chimed and Tori looked up, directly into Jed’s intense stare.

Melanie hummed, “Mmm, mmm, mmm.”

Tori kicked her. “What can I do for you, Jed?”

“Your personal assistant, reporting for duty.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“Your mom said you were running behind schedule on the reception plans, and asked me to help out.”

Irritation made her snap, for every time she’d screwed something up and her mom was there to point it out to her. “I don’t need any help. I have it all under control.”

If you hadn’t dropped the ball in the first place, she wouldn’t be sending you handsome, dangerous helpers.

He cocked one sexy eyebrow. “I can’t disobey my future step-mother number four.”

“Something tells me you weren’t so wonderful to numbers one through three.”

“Water under the bridge.” He smiled.

She crossed her arms.

“Let me help you,” he said sincerely. “I’m not totally useless. Think of me as a trained monkey, here to perform simple tasks.”

A beat passed, then two. She could really use the help, but what would it mean if she took it? Surely she’d never hear the end of it from her mother, but more important, she didn’t trust herself and her feelings around this particular volunteer. She shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“So, you have everything under control, then.”

“Completely.”

“That’s great.”

“Isn’t it?”

He looked slowly around the shop. “Guess I’ll look around while I’m here. I still need to buy a wedding present.”

The idea of him wandering around her shop made her downright squirrelly. She smiled sweetly. “Of course. Melanie would be happy to help you find something, I’m sure.”

She would just go upstairs and work on the wedding rings. Totally not what she intended to do today—she absolutely had to finish inventory so she could decide what to reorder with her limited funds—but something that certainly needed to be done.

She pushed her hair out of her face and climbed the narrow staircase to her studio, resisting the urge to slam the door behind her. No, she’d leave it open, so she could get down on her knees and peek downstairs to make sure he was gone before she went back down.

I’m a pathetic loser.

She rested her forehead against the cool metal of the wall safe and sighed. Something about that man really got her back up and her guard down, a dangerous combination that left her feeling like a teenager.

Lifting her head, she unlocked the safe and took out the rings. They’d just come back from the caster’s this morning, their gold dull and unpolished.

Resisting the urge to spy on Jed downstairs, she turned on some music and selected a metal file from her tools. She sat at her jeweler’s desk and began to work, filing down the rough edges of the casting and sprue, metal falling into the catch pan in a sprinkling of fine gold dust.

The muscles of her shoulders and neck, already tense from her run-in with Jed, promptly tightened as she bent over her work and filed away at the rings, first Edward’s band, then her mother’s more intricate setting.

It was beautiful, if ambitious. Tori’s mind wandered back to the day her mother announced the engagement, just a week ago but feeling more like a month or even longer. Tori had spent hours in her studio that night creating the wax mold, carving and scraping the intricate design until her eyesight was blurry and her back was a wonder of knotted muscle.