What’s wrong? Was he serious? He’d left without telling her at all, and now he was wondering why she was asking? She typed: I want to know what happened to the nursery.
Her screen lit up with a text: Someone else needs that furniture more than I do. I felt guilty leaving it unused.
She really wanted to talk to him. She wanted to hear the tone in his voice, to feel his emotions as he spoke. Her phone rang.
“Hi,” she said. “How did you know to call me?”
“You always end up asking me to, so I did.”
“I thought you were planning to take some time off for Christmas?” she asked.
“I will. I promise. When I get a lull.”
“When you get a lull? What if that doesn’t happen again until after Christmas? Why did you feel the need to sell this company in Chicago right now?”
“It’s a big offer. I wanted to pursue it before the buyer lost interest. It could really help my own company’s standing.”
“Would it help enough to keep you from spending all your time working?” She waited for his answer with shaky hands. She was letting him in on her feelings.
“I’m still going to chase things when they come up. And things will always come up. It’s the nature of what I do.”
Abbey let the words linger in the air, feeling the icy chill of them. The thing was, though, it was Christmas, a time when miracles happened, when people showed each other how they felt. “I watched you with Max this morning. Is moving to New York what you want? What you really want?”
The buzz of the line echoed in her ear as she waited for his answer. It wasn’t immediate, and she knew that it probably frustrated him because the pause itself was an answer. “Yes,” he finally said. “It’s what I want.”
She wasn’t trying to argue with him; she just wanted to make the point that there was so much here for him if he’d just give it a chance. “You never told me why your dad left the business to you in particular. You’d only guessed that Robin couldn’t or wouldn’t run it. Perhaps your father didn’t ever intend for you to run it. Maybe he just wanted you to figure out what to do with it. You could sell it, get it off your shoulders, and be done with it…”
“Then what in the world would I do? I’d just come up with some other business and I’d have to start from the ground up. I’d rather not.”
“You could write music.”
He laughed. It wasn’t a funny laugh, though. “You’re dreaming, Abbey. That isn’t a career. It’s a few pages of rambling notes I put on paper.”
“No it isn’t,” she said emphatically. “Look, decorating your house has been a huge challenge for me. I was terrified, but I did it! It took me deciding to take a risk and believing that I could do it. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. You’re good at putting down bets, at taking risks.”
“Calculated risks. You’re asking me to be ruthless with my choices, to risk my income on a dream.”
“It’s not all about money, Nick. You don’t strike me as a person who cares to impress those around you. Who are you making all this money for? You never enjoy it, you always want to spend it on someone, but you won’t let anyone get close enough to let you.”
“I really need to go.”
“No! You’re not going to get off that easy. Talk to me.”
“What do you want me to say, Abbey? That I’m going to give up a two-generation company that makes me millions of dollars so I can live in Richmond and scribble notes on paper all day, doing nothing with my life?”
“That’s not what I want you to say at all. I want you to say…” She didn’t want to admit it. She didn’t want to have to voice it. Just the thought of saying what she was about to say was filling her with anxiety and she was trembling all over.
“What? What do you want me to say?” His voice was quieter now, anticipating what she was about to tell him. Did he know? Did he want to hear it from her lips? Or would she make a complete fool of herself?
“I wanted you to say that you liked being relaxed. That you wanted to spend more time with me and with Max and your family. That you’d rather give up your millions than lose the chance for a wonderful life with lots of memories of time spent with people you love. There are people here who love you. There are people who want you here.”
“I would let my mother down. I would dishonor my father. I would lose my ability to maintain my lifestyle. It isn’t as easy as running off into the sunset, Abbey.”
“I know that. Believe me. I know.”
“I wish it were.”