All He Really Needs(27)

Finally, he shoved the pages back into the envelope and buried it at the back of the drawer. He ate more nuts, hoping the salt would quell the queasy feeling in his stomach. It didn’t.

If he hadn’t felt like a total jackass before, he certainly did now. Here he’d been bitching about his sad childhood as the poor, ignored rich boy, and Sydney had real tragedy in her background. She was one bowl of porridge short of being a character in a Dickens novel. And he’d had the gall to complain to her.

He was surprised she hadn’t thrown his drink in his face and walked out on him right then.

Naturally, his first impulse was to apologize. But to do so he’d have to admit what he’d done, which would relieve his own guilt, but she wouldn’t be happy about it. Somehow, he didn’t think this was the kind of information she’d share with just everyone. After all, they’d been sleeping together for months and she hadn’t mentioned that she’d been a foster child. That Child Protective Services had removed her from her birth mother when she was six. Of course, before this morning, he hadn’t trotted out his pathetic tortured past, either. He hated being the object of pity and he suspected that Sydney felt the same way. No. It would be much better if he didn’t tell her at all. If he just buried the information in the nether regions of his brain and forgot all about it.

Which still left him with the issue of how to make it up to her for acting like an ass earlier. But that was an issue easily resolved.

He pushed back his chair and dropped the now empty almond container in the trash. On his way out of the office, he stopped back by the conference room. Sydney looked up as he stuck his head in the door, her expression wary.

Before she could ask, he said, “I’m going to follow your advice and go talk to my mother. See what she knows.”

Surprise flickered over Sydney’s face. “You are?”

“Yeah. I figure maybe you’re right about her. Maybe she can help.”

“Do you think she will?” Sydney closed the file in front of her and leaned forward eagerly. “I mean, she has nothing at stake in this. If she’s anything like you’ve described, maybe she won’t want to help.”

Strangely, that idea hadn’t actually occurred to him. “She might not be able to help. Her help might be more of a hindrance—” He gestured to the boxes to make his point. “But I’m sure she’ll want to help.”

“Even if finding the heiress gets her nothing?”

“She won’t see it that way. If I find the heiress, she knows I won’t cut her off cold. Dalton would never have done that, either, though I’m not sure if she’d have thought it through. It’s Cooper she has to worry about. Well, that and the whole shebang reverting to the state. No, she and I may not have a great relationship, but she knows I’ll treat her fairly. She’ll help if she can.” Sydney smiled so brightly, he added, “I’m still not sure how helpful she’ll be, but I’ll try.”

Sydney’s grin didn’t diminish a bit. “Thank you!”

*

In that moment she looked so lovely that he wanted to cross the room, pull her into his arms and kiss her. Not the kind of soul-searing kiss that would lead to her spread over the conference table naked, but a simple kiss. The kind that would honor the delicacy of her beauty. The kind that would salve the wounds of a broken childhood. The kind that would promise her a lifetime of safety, security and emotional support.

But he didn’t know how to make those kinds of promises, let alone how to keep them, so instead he just nodded and walked away.





Seven


Traffic in Houston sucked. It always did. But for once, Griffin didn’t curse the snarl of cars slowing his trip to his parents’ house. He did not relish the upcoming conversation or the maternal theatrics that were sure to accompany it. The traffic on the loop was practically at a standstill, so instead of getting on, he pulled into a nearby parking lot and used the Bluetooth in his car to put in a call to Carl Nichols, his second in command at Hope2O.

He hadn’t yet told Carl about what was going on with Cain Enterprises. Until now, some part of him had genuinely believed that this would all blow over. That after a couple of days of crazy sex with Laney, Dalton would come to his senses and ask for his job back. But apparently, a little sanity on his brother’s part was too much to ask for. And because finding the heiress was proving more difficult than he’d expected, Griffin figured it was time to come clean with Carl so that things at Hope2O wouldn’t devolve too much while his own attention was elsewhere.

After Griffin explained, Carl was silent for a long minute. Then he said, “That sounds more like something you would do.”