Chapter Nineteen
DAPHNE AND HENRY’S house was a modest brick rambler. It reminded Pierce of many of the smaller homes in Trusty, Colorado. It was built on a quiet street, and inside, the house was clean and smelled of home cooking. It had a calm, pleasant vibe, and as he followed Rebecca down a narrow hall to her bedroom, it brought back memories of his teen years. It had been a very, very long time since he’d followed a woman into a shared living situation.
Her bedroom was small, and it had a distinctly different feel from the rest of the house. This bedroom, with the photographs on her dresser, books beside the bed, and her clothes hanging in the closet, felt very much like Rebecca and smelled like the perfume she was wearing the first time they’d met. The titles on the bedside table caught his eye. Marketing and Branding. The Hidden Entrepreneur. Understanding Acquisitions and Mergers. The Art of Business. He wondered where the romance and women’s fiction titles were. Didn’t all women prefer light reading to business? Rebecca didn’t fall into any other typical womanly trends. Why would her literary interests be any different?
He picked up one of the photographs of her mother. There was no question about it being anyone else. She and Rebecca had the same beautiful, expressive eyes and high cheekbones.
“Your mom was beautiful.”
Rebecca came out of the closet with an armful of dresses, skirts, and blouses. Pierce wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in close.
“Yeah, she was.” She set her clothes on the bed and Pierce took her hand in his.
“And you were about the cutest little girl I’ve ever seen.” He kissed her temple and lifted her left hand, the one with the ring she ran her thumb over every time she spoke of her mother. “Was this ring your mom’s?”
“How’d you know?”
“Every time you talk about her, you rub it with your thumb.”
“Yeah, she said my father gave it to her. It was too big, so she always wore it on her index finger. After she died, I liked having it on. I can’t believe you noticed that.”
“I notice a lot.” He settled his lips over hers.
“Oh, excuse me.”
Pierce turned toward the man’s voice.
“Sorry, Henry.” Rebecca’s cheeks flushed, but when she looked up at Pierce, there was no embarrassment, only love. “This is my boyfriend, Pierce. Pierce, this is Daphne’s husband, Henry.”
Henry looked like the kind of man who would be right at home with a grandchild on each knee, with short gray hair and a friendly smile. He looked at Rebecca with a caring, fatherly gaze, and it warmed Pierce to know she had another person who seemed to care about her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Henry.” Pierce shook his hand.
“Nice to meet you, too, Pierce, and I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“We weren’t…” Rebecca stumbled over her words.
“We were just getting a few of Rebecca’s things for the weekend,” Pierce explained.
“Oh, are you two going away?” he asked.
“No. In fact, I have to work Sunday,” Rebecca said. “But I’ll be staying at Pierce’s.”
“Ah, right. Rebecca, I wanted to let you know that after our talk the other night, I got a little creative and put a few more feelers out in a different direction. You never know.” He winked.
“I’m so happy to hear that, Henry.” Rebecca embraced him. “I know everything will work out for you.”
“Well, you kids have fun.” With a nod, Henry disappeared down the hall.
“Creative?” Pierce asked.
Rebecca peered out of the bedroom and then whispered, “He was laid off from his accounting job and hasn’t been able to find anything for months.”
“Maybe I can hook him up. I’ll give him my number on the way out.”
“Pierce, you don’t have to save everyone.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “But it’s very nice of you to try to help him. I know they would appreciate any opportunity you can find. Thank you.”
“I’ll connect him with Chiara and we’ll see where it goes. Oh, before I forget, I need to shop for Luke and Daisy’s engagement gift. I know you said you have to work Sunday, but would you like to go shopping with me Saturday?”
“Sounds fun.”
He picked up one of the pictures of her mother. “Would you like to bring a few pictures over? Maybe put one on the mantel and one in the bedroom?”
“You wouldn’t mind? I do love having them near me.”
“This room feels like you, babe. Bring as many pictures and as much stuff as you’d like. I want my place to feel like you, too.”
Chapter Twenty
THE CHTEAU RESTAURANT was another one of the restaurants at the Astral, and it was a world away from any restaurant Rebecca had ever been to. Dimly lit, with waiters donning bow ties and black vests and patrons that smelled of money, it should have been intimidating, but thankfully, Rebecca drew upon her belief that people were people and money was like clothing—strip it away and the wealthy were just like everyone else.
She hadn’t been nervous about meeting Pierce’s cousin Treat or his wife, Max, until the second she saw them crossing the restaurant lobby. They were a handsome couple, both with thick dark hair, Max’s long and wavy, Treat’s cropped short and neat. Treat was well over six feet tall and dwarfed Max’s petite frame. He had one hand protectively around her shoulder, and his dark eyes locked on Pierce. The family resemblance—and the realization that she was meeting a member of Pierce’s family—hit her like a brick.
Gulp.
Pierce looked amazing in his dark suit and light blue dress shirt. He’d told Rebecca a million times how great she looked in her little black dress, and still there was something nerve-racking about meeting his family. She had no family to speak of. Her mother had been an only child, and her grandmother had died when Rebecca was a toddler. Rebecca’s mother hadn’t seen her own father since she was an infant. Pierce had become, she realized, the closest thing to family she’d ever had besides her mother.
“Pierce.” Treat opened his arms and embraced him.
“It’s good to see you.” Treat turned a sincere smile her way. “And you must be Rebecca. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
He kissed Rebecca’s cheek while Pierce hugged Max, who was simply stunning. Her dress was similar to Rebecca’s, a simple black, above-the-knee number. She was wearing it with heels that weren’t low enough to be dowdy and weren’t high enough to be slutty. She, like Rebecca, wore very little makeup, which made Rebecca feel at ease.
“Hi, Rebecca. I’m Max.” Max leaned in close and hugged her.
“Hi, Max, Treat. It’s nice to meet you both.”
Pierce slid his arm around Rebecca, and her nerves calmed a little more.
“I hope you brought pictures of Adriana,” Pierce said as they followed the hostess to their table.
“Treat has a thousand pictures of her on his phone.” Max laughed.
“There’s nothing wrong with being proud of our daughter.” Treat pressed a kiss to the back of Max’s hand.
That was something Pierce had done so often that Rebecca wondered if all the Braden men were as charming as Pierce, and apparently, Treat.
Once they settled into the intimate corner booth, Rebecca took a moment to drink in the surroundings and remembered what Chiara had said about the owner decorating the restaurants to honor his family members. The restaurant featured enormous scenes from motion pictures, which Rebecca guessed featured the movies that Pierce’s brother Jake had been in. It warmed her insides anew, that family was so important to Pierce. And as Treat shared some of his favorite pictures of his daughter, she realized again the magnitude of what it meant for Pierce to introduce her to Treat and Max.
“She does look like your mother, Treat.” Pierce leaned close to Rebecca as he scrolled through the pictures. He pointed out Treat’s brothers and sister in some of the pictures and told her a little about each of them.
They ordered dinner, and Treat and Pierce caught up on siblings and cousins.
Max leaned across the table. “Are you still nervous?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Oh, no, not at all. But I’ve been where you are. I remember how overwhelming it was to meet Treat’s family. At least it’s just the two of us. We’re the easy ones.”
“Easy ones?” Are there hard ones?
“Well, you know, big families tease a lot, but Pierce and Treat are the oldest siblings, so they’re more reserved, I think.”
Treat leaned down and kissed Max’s cheek. “Is she telling tales about me?”
“I’m telling truths.”
The waiter took their order, and Treat filled their wineglasses. “Pierce, tell me about the Grand.”
Rebecca’s ears perked up. She hadn’t wanted to ask about the acquisition, because Pierce seemed like he didn’t want to talk about it when she’d brought it up to him before work that morning.
All hints of Pierce’s smile disappeared, replaced with hooded eyes and a deep, serious voice. “It’s a mess, Treat. They’ve got liens on the property for unpaid payroll taxes, and it appears that the records we were shown weren’t accurate. Based on those books, the company should have a net worth of twenty-seven million, but with the new information my team turned up, it looks more like twenty-two million.”