Best Friends With the Billionaire(17)

“What are your plans for today?” he asked as he began to fasten his tie.

“I’m hanging out with my mom and Lillian.” She stacked the dirty mugs in the dishwasher and banged the door shut. “We need to revisit the dressmaker, and I have to break in my shoes, and my mom and sister are arguing about the seating arrangements. So, yeah, a fun day ahead of me. What about you? Are you meeting with Hank Parnell again?”

“No, not until tomorrow.” He scowled but then remembered what he had planned for this evening. “You coming back for dinner tonight? Remember Lex and Jacinta and Holly are coming over at seven.”

“Yes, I’ll be back.” She paused, arching an eyebrow. “You do still want me to come, right?”

“Hell, yeah.”

Relations between him and Lex had improved vastly over the past year or so, but there were still unexpected tensions at times. And his little sister Holly liked stirring the pot. Kirk was looking forward to having his relatives over for dinner, but they could be a prickly lot sometimes, and having Cassie here would help smooth over any awkwardness. Besides, he didn’t want her staying away when she was only here on a short visit.

“Fine.” Cassie slung a satchel over her shoulder and picked up her wallet and phone. “I’ll see you tonight.”

He moved toward her, at the back of his mind wanting to kiss her before she left for the day. But he stopped himself just in time. They weren’t a couple. They should only kiss when she needed to forget about her ex. Which should be soon, if fate was kind to him.

…

“So the Parnell deal is almost closed?” Lex asked.

“It’s so close I can taste it,” Kirk replied, “but Hank Parnell likes playing hard to get. He’s dragging me off to a Giants game tomorrow.”

“What’s so hard about that? You like baseball.”

“Yeah, but…” Kirk glanced over his cousin’s shoulder to the trio of women sitting in the living room. Lex, his wife Jacinta, and Kirk’s sister Holly had arrived for dinner. Jacinta and Holly were chatting with Cassie while Lex had joined Kirk on the patio where Kirk was barbecuing steaks. Cassie had changed into a loose sweater and a pair of scruffy denim shorts, and the way the frayed cuffs brushed against her long, lean legs had been distracting Kirk ever since she’d appeared. He couldn’t concentrate when he was constantly reliving how great it felt to run his fingers up the length of her thigh.

“What?” Lex asked, bringing Kirk back to earth. “What’s wrong with going to the baseball with Hank?”

Kirk shook his head. “Nothing, except I don’t appreciate being strung along.”

“You gotta do what you gotta do, if you want this deal bad enough.”

His lips firmed. “I’ll get the deal, don’t you worry. It’s going to set us up well for the next phase of expansion.”

Kirk had ambitious plans for his hotel division. He was finally going to put his stamp of ownership on the company and succeed where his father hadn’t. To be fair, Ralph Rochester was more interested in art than business and was obsessed with running the Rochester Foundation to the point that he rarely visited his children. Kirk loved him, but his father had always been a distant man. Kirk’s mom had provided all the sunshine and warmth in their family, and after her death, Kirk’s dad had become even more withdrawn. Another example of love’s vagaries.

Kirk wasn’t prepared to be a bystander in his family’s fortunes. He was just as smart and ambitious as Lex. For years his jackass late uncle and his troubles with Alison had dampened his career, but now he was intent on turning Jubilee Hotels into the best premium hotel brand in the country. He wasn’t just one of the Rochesters, he was the Kirk Rochester, and he was going to build something to be proud of.

“I know you’ll succeed.” Lex clapped him on the shoulder. “Go for it.”

Yes, he’d have to suck it up and go to the game with Hank and Shawna. He wasn’t so accustomed to all this shmoozing that went on before a deal was struck. That had previously been Lex’s domain, but now Kirk would have to get used to it, too. If only Cassie were coming to the baseball game, she’d turn a work chore into a fun outing. But she’d be away for two days in Carmel. It surprised him how long and dull the weekend stretched before him without her around.

“Those steaks look done,” Lex remarked.

They piled up the meat and returned to the dining room to serve up.

Cassie pulled a face at the modest portion Kirk set before her. “You’re torturing me here. That’s still too big.” She cut her steak in two and slid one half onto his plate. “And no baked potato, either.” She turned to the others. “My sister’s getting married next week, and she’ll kill me if I don’t fit into my bridesmaid’s gown.”

“You shouldn’t care,” Holly immediately piped up as she dove into her steak. “Eat what you like and be damned what others say.”

“Well yeah, that’s my general philosophy.” Cassie grinned at Kirk’s feisty sister. “But I’m trying to get along with Lillian and my mom, and this wedding is important to both of them.”

“Can’t see myself ever getting that worked up over a wedding,” Holly said.

“You’ll change your mind when it’s your wedding.” Lex glanced at Jacinta, his face softening as he squeezed her hand. “One day it’ll happen to you.”

Holly snorted. “Not if I can help it.”

Kirk concentrated on his steak, but he couldn’t help remembering his own wedding day. Alison had insisted on a no-expenses-spared extravaganza; it was only right and proper since the Hancock and Rochester families were so well-known and well-connected. Anything less would have been unthinkable. So he’d gone along with her wishes, wanting to make her happy, but the wedding had left him cold. What was so special about celebrating what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life with hundreds of people he didn’t know or care about?

It was also on his wedding day that he and Alison had had their first argument—over Cassie. Cassie had seemed so pale and out of sorts he’d worried she was seriously ill, and he’d been sitting with her in a quiet spot until Alison had dragged him away. She’d muttered something about him wasting time on a “fugly girl” that had made his blood run cold. When he’d challenged her, she denied she’d said that, but his anger lingered. As soon as he could, he’d returned to where he’d left Cassie, but a friend had told him she’d left because she hadn’t been feeling well. Kirk had called Cassie to check if she was okay and then returned to his wedding spectacle.

Now, when he recalled the incident, his shoulders grew rigid. That argument with Alison had been an omen, but he hadn’t heeded the warning.

He looked up from his plate to find Cassie’s eyes on him. Did she know how quickly his relationship had soured? He doubted it; no one knew except him and Alison. He’d thought he was in love with her, but within six months of marriage he’d discovered he’d been fooling himself. His beautiful, elegant, sophisticated wife was everything he could have wished for in public, but Alison’s beauty was a facade that hid her insecurities. Gradually, as the novelty of marriage wore off, she revealed herself as self-centered, mean, and obsessed with her appearance and status.

Kirk blamed himself more than Alison. She was the first girl he’d believed he was in love with, but he should have known not to trust his emotions. He tried to see the best in her, tried spending less time at work and more with her, but when their first anniversary rolled around, he knew in his gut they didn’t have a future. When he mentioned separation, she was appalled. To her, their marriage was no worse than her friends’ or her parents’, and the humiliation of being divorced and dumped so quickly back on the singles market was too much for her. She used all her wiles to convince Kirk to hang in there, and like a fool, he took her at face value.

Then came the unplanned pregnancy. When she told him, she glowed with satisfaction, whereas he was sick with dread. But there was no going back. With a baby on the way, he’d stick by her no matter what. The miscarriage happened three months later. Alison fell apart. Her devastation moved him; for the first time he felt something more than resignation. She refused to tell anyone about her depression; only Kirk and her doctor knew. As she gradually improved, Kirk discovered a newfound softness for her, but it was nothing like love. They’d long since stopped sleeping together or being any more than housemates, and as their second anniversary loomed, he judged it was time to ask her for a divorce.

The day he planned to bring up the subject, was the day she had a chest x-ray for a cough that had nagged her for months. The experts gave her at most two years to live. Two years of wretchedness, of painful treatments, of humiliation and grief and waiting. But also two years of growing respect and snatches of happiness. As Alison lost her health, her looks, and her friends, so she lost her insecurities and her vanity. She had a horror of hospitals, so Kirk took care of her at home right up until her final day. He was only too glad to do this for her, and when she finally slipped away, he grieved for her, for the pain she’d endured, for the future she’d never have.