"Yes?" Kell asked. Even though he kept his dark Ray-Bans on, Dec could feel the cold glare of his stare.
"It's just not going to be as easy as we'd hoped to separate the Chandlers from the operation."
"But you're a genius at this kind of thing. Don't sell yourself short, Dec. I'm sure you'll do what any Montrose would do," Kell said.
Dec nodded. What any Montrose would do. Those words haunted him. He knew how to prove to Kell he was a Montrose through and through, but he was also adopted and his mother's son. And she'd hated old Thomas Montrose more than anyone else.
Kell pulled his cell phone out. "Sorry, I've got to answer this email."
Dec moved away and let his oldest cousin get back to what he did best: business. It was clear to Dec that Kell wasn't interested in moving on from the past.
But he'd been raised by their grandfather in that old dilapidated house that Thomas had refused to move out of. His own father was the middle child and Dec had often noticed that his father never measured up. Kell's father had been killed in the first war in Iraq-Desert Storm. And there was no way Dec's dad could compete with a dead man even after he married an heiress and poured billions into the family coffers.
"Ready to get your butts handed to you, boys?" Allan called as he and John walked over to them.
"Has he been drinking already?" Dec asked as he shook John's hand.
"Just cocky as ever," John said. "Good to have you back in the country."
"Thanks," Dec said. "I've missed our Sunday games."
"You don't look like you've been sitting on your ass," Allan said.
"Not at all. I played squash in Sydney with a few boys from Kanga Games."
"Good to hear it," Allan said, reaching over to give him a slap on the shoulder. "John and I have been keeping our game strong. We're getting to be something of a legend around here."
John laughed and Kell put his cell phone away to come and join them. "Ready to do this?"
"Sure," Dec said.
A coin toss determined that Dec and Kell would serve first. Dec took the ball and went to the line. As the game progressed Dec and Kell held their own, but there was a marked difference in the two sides. John and Allan laughed and joked when they missed a shot and had the most ridiculous victory high five that Dec had ever seen.
He and Kell just got on with it and played. He wondered what made Allan so different from them. Was it the fact that his Montrose was a woman? And Grandfather Montrose had treated Aunt Becca like she was a princess instead of pitting her against her brothers?
He thought of his son and realized he wanted DJ to be more like Allan than he or Kell. He wanted his son to be happy and have friends that he laughed with.
He wanted a life of happiness, not bitterness, for the boy. And he knew that if he fired Cari there was no way DJ wouldn't someday be affected by it.
He'd never been so close to having full-blown acceptance in the Montrose family as he was at this moment, and he'd only just accepted the fact that to make his adopted family happy he was going to have to sacrifice the happiness of his own blood and his own future.
He didn't fool himself into thinking that Cari was going to stay with him if he followed the plan that would make Kell happy. And if he didn't follow it? How was he going to keep his place at Playtone?
He held a big-enough chunk of the shares to block Kell if it came down to it, thanks to his mother buying back some of the public stock, but he didn't want to make it about a power play. He wanted to find a way to make all sides realize that building the future involved a lot more than avenging the past.
And he had no idea how he was going to do it.
"Are you going to serve or just stare at the ball?" Kell asked him.
"Sorry. I just thought of something about the Infinity acquisition," Dec said.
"Don't apologize to me for thinking about crushing the Chandlers," Kell said. "That's all I do."
"All?"
"Well, I sleep, too," Kell said.
Dec felt a knot settle in his stomach. His cousins were like his brothers. The thought of hurting them was almost too much to contemplate, but he had a feeling Allan wouldn't be as upset about keeping one of the sisters on as Kell would. He was going to have to be very careful about how he managed this.
"We need to get you a hobby," Dec said.
"What do you call this?" Kell asked.
"Winning," Dec said, serving the ball and getting the last point.
"Great game," Allan said.
"Want to come back to my place for a beer?" Allan asked. "I've got some steaks and we can watch the NASCAR race."
"I can't," Dec said. "I've got a date."
"With?" Allan asked.
"If you must know, I'm going out with Cari."
"Cari Chandler?" Kell asked.
"Yes, we've been seeing each other."
"Is that smart?"
Dec just gave his cousin a hard look. "My personal life is personal. It's not going to affect our business."
"Unless you let it screw up your priorities," Kell said.
"Back off, man," Allan said while John took a few steps away and walked down toward the beach.
"My priorities are fine," Dec said.
"You say that now, but … we're so close to finally fulfilling Grandfather's destiny for us. Why would you chance that for a woman?" Kell asked.
"She's not just a woman."
Kell looked like his head was going to explode. "Starting tomorrow, I will take over the transition."
"My report is finished. I have a few more notes to make but I'll be presenting it on Monday. You don't have to pull me out of my job."
"What are your findings?"
"I'd rather wait until Monday."
"I need to know that Gregory Chandler didn't pull another fast one on us in the form of his seductive granddaughter."
"She's not like that," Dec said.
"We will see," Kell said.
He walked away before Kell could say anything else, but in his heart he knew that he was going to have to choose between his past and his future. And for a man used to living in the now, that was a very uncomfortable place to be.
Twelve
Cari put DJ down for his afternoon nap at four. She'd tried to get him to sleep earlier so he'd be awake when Dec came, but he wouldn't cooperate with her. Now she was running behind on getting dinner ready.
She gave up her plans of making a roast and settled on pasta instead. It was quick and easy. Plus she knew that Dec wasn't going to suddenly realize he loved her simply because she'd made him dinner. She knew that when she was in her rational mind, but not when she was in that crazy gotta-make-him-love-me mind.
She had started an espresso granita for dessert, and since all it required was scraping the icy mixture once every thirty minutes, she was set. She rubbed the back of her neck and realized her hair was still down and probably looked a mess. She set the timer for the dessert and ran to her room.
Where was the time going? It was almost six. She spent extra time on her hair and makeup and then got dressed in a simple sundress that showed off her arms and hid the tummy she had since she'd given birth. Pleased that she looked her best, she went back to the kitchen, but the doorbell rang before she could get there.
She took a deep breath and tried to relax. It wasn't like this one night was going to completely change her life. But she hoped it would. She'd never anticipated these feelings for Dec even two months ago. Somehow the man who'd abandoned her and left her with a child to raise had come through in a way she hadn't anticipated.
She walked to her front door to the staccato sound of her own heels and realized she hadn't put on any music. She opened the door and Dec stood there with his hair still damp at his collar, wearing a pair of khaki shorts and an open-necked shirt and deck shoes. He had on a pair of sunglasses, which he pushed up on the top of his head when she opened the door.
"Hello, gorgeous," he said. "It seems like forever since I've seen you."
"Me, too," she said with a blush. She stepped back so he could enter. He handed her a bouquet of multi-colored flowers. The bouquet was large and she glanced down at it.
"Thank you."
"I didn't know which kind you liked so I settled on this bunch of gerbera daisies because they reminded me of you."
She looked down at the yellow, pink and orange petals with their large brown centers. This was such a warm bouquet of flowers. "How do these remind you of me?"
"They make me smile," he said.