Snowbound with the Boss(26)

“Damn straight it is,” he told her, then pulled her in for a hug. And as he held her, Sean realized he really didn’t want to let her go.





Ten

The next morning, Kate was gone. She left early, with a kiss and a promise to stay in touch. And Sean let her go.

What choice did he have? She was the one who’d brought love into this. He’d been after a simple arrangement between lovers. Between parents of a child they both wanted. What the hell did love have to do with this anyway?

Kate leaving was for the best, he told himself. It just didn’t feel like it at the moment. But instead of thinking about her or having to spend too much time in a condo that seemed to echo with emptiness, he threw himself into the launch of the new game.

So far, “The Wild Hunt” looked to be their biggest success yet. Sean spent hours every day on the phone, tracking numbers, making new contacts and negotiating new deals with their old customers. The packagers were having a hard time keeping up with demand for the game, and that was good news.

When the first sales reports began trickling in, Sean and Mike made a video call to Ireland so all three partners could talk about the latest news.

“The European numbers are every bit as exciting,” Brady told them with a wide grin. “We’ve got more orders than we can fill—I ordered a second run at the packagers so we can move quickly and take advantage of the buzz the game’s getting.”

“Good idea,” Sean said.

“And,” Brady added, “I’m thinking we should line up an extra packager before we launch ‘Dragon’s Tears’ this Christmas. We don’t want to be caught coming up short again.”

“Makes sense,” Sean agreed, looking to Mike and getting a nod in response. “I’ve been scouting for more packagers already, since we’ve had the same problem here, needing an extra run to fulfill orders. Think I’ve lined up a new one—in Montana of all places, so I thought I’d go and check it out this week. Get things rolling way ahead of schedule.”

“Montana. Isn’t that close to Wyoming?” Brady swiveled in his desk chair and behind him, they caught glimpses of the Irish countryside, complete with dark gray skies and trees twisting in the wind.

“It is,” Mike told him from his chair behind the desk. “And no, he’s not stopping off to see Kate.”

“Why the hell not?” Brady asked. “She’s having your baby, you idiot.”

“Thanks for all the support, guys,” Sean said tightly, aiming a narrow-eyed stare at his friend and then at his brother. “But I think I can handle my own life, thanks.”

“Not from where I’m sitting,” Mike muttered.

“Me, either,” Brady chimed in. He scowled into the camera. “Did you learn nothing from watching Mike and I make messes of everything?”

“Yeah, I learned that being in love is mostly a pain in the ass,” Sean said and took a sip of his beer.

It was after hours in the office. Everyone else had left for the day. Soon Mike would be heading home to be with Jenny, and Sean would be...alone. And that was how he liked it, he reminded himself.

“Hey, loving Jenny’s the best thing I ever did,” Mike argued.

“Yeah?” Sean tipped his head to one side and gaped at his brother. “How many times have you complained about losing your damn pool table? Or how many houses has Jenny had you out to look at this week?”

Mike sighed. “Eight. And I’ll get another pool table when she finally decides on a house.”

Sean snorted. “And you.” He looked at Brady. “You moved all the way to Ireland for your wife.”

“Best move I ever made.”

Sean wasn’t convinced. He’d watched Mike and Brady take the plunge and though he’d encouraged them both, he just couldn’t see himself taking the same fall.

“Jenny told me she talked to Kate this morning,” Mike said.

Sean whipped his head around to look at him. “Why? Is everything okay with her?”

“Did you see that?” Mike asked Brady, then snorted at Sean. “Yeah, you don’t care about Kate. I can see that now.”

“I never said I didn’t care,” he argued. “I said I didn’t love her.”

“Sell it to someone who might buy it,” Brady said and even all the way from Ireland, the sarcasm in his tone rang loud and clear.

Sean took a breath and told himself not to let them get to him. “Fine. Just tell me what she wanted when she called Jenny.”

“I don’t know.” Mike shrugged. “Something about the baby moving around a lot and Kate wondering if Jenny’s baby was doing the same thing.”

Moving around a lot. And he wasn’t there to experience it with her. That chewed at him. Hell, it had been her choice to leave. He’d wanted her to stay, hadn’t he? Asked her to marry him, for God’s sake, when he’d never wanted to marry anyone. She’d been gone four weeks now, and missing her was just part of his life. He still couldn’t walk into his own damn house without seeing her, smelling her, wanting her.

He gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll call her tomorrow and check in.”

“Yeah,” Mike said, nodding with a smirk on his face. “Give the mother of your kid a phone call. Good idea.”

“What’re you riding me for?” Sean turned in his chair to glare at his brother.

“Because you’re being a damn fool and it irritates me.”

“Me, too,” Brady said from Ireland.

“Thanks.” Sean gave his friend a hard look. “Nothing like being insulted long-distance.”

“What else do you want?” Mike leaned forward and slapped one hand down on his desk. “She’s been gone a month, and you’re more miserable to be around than ever.”

Sean took a breath and huffed it out in a long sigh. Maybe he had a point. But hell, it wasn’t like Mike was a vacation to hang out with half the time.

“Look,” Sean said, trying for reasoned calm, “Kate had to go back home. She has work. I have work here. It’s no big deal.”

Could they hear the lie? he wondered. Could they see that his tongue nearly rotted and fell off just telling that lie? She said she didn’t need him. And the bottom line was what had punched at him the hardest. Adrianna had said the same damn thing, and he’d lived through it.

He’d be fine this time, too. If she didn’t want him there, he’d stay the hell away. But he wouldn’t walk out on his kid. That baby was his, and nothing would keep him from her. Not even her mother.

“So you’re gonna let her make the call on this.” Mike shook his head sadly, disappointment gleaming in his eyes.

Sean ignored it and gave his brother and friend each a hard stare. “My business. My life. Back off.”

“Fine.” Mike turned to face Brady and shrugged. “There’s no cure for ‘idiot.’”

“So I hear.” Brady cleared his throat, checked a readout on his tablet and changed the subject. “We’re already getting preorders for the Christmas game. With that video of ‘Dragon’s Tears’ we tacked on to the end of ‘The Wild Hunt,’ gamers are primed. Hell, they haven’t even finished this game and they’re already talking about the next one.”

“All good,” Mike said shortly. “Sean, what’s the story on this new distributor?”

He pulled out his notes and lost himself in the details he was most comfortable with. Going over plans and strategies, he focused on the work, because thinking about Kate would push him over the edge.

* * *

Kate had been back in Wyoming for two months, and she still woke up stretching her arm out across the mattress reaching for Sean. Starting every day with disappointment and misery was taking a toll. She was tired a lot of the time, and the growing baby was like a ticking personal clock. Every day brought her closer to delivery, to meeting her child for the first time. And every day reminded her that Sean wouldn’t be with her.

He should have been there, experiencing it all with her. Every time the baby kicked, she thought, Sean should feel this. When she bought a crib and put it together herself, she thought how much more fun it would have been to have Sean helping. Even though his skill with tools was less than brilliant, they’d have been together, doing something for their daughter.

And the misery filled her.

Phone calls and video chats weren’t enough. Seeing him, hearing him, only made her miss him more when the call was over. Molly did her best to distract Kate, Harry worried and hovered and her crew had all taken on more work to pick up the slack, since she wasn’t at her most productive at the moment.

The familiar symphony of power tools and voices shouting to be heard welcomed Kate when she stepped into the hotel. Nearly finished now, the guys were just taking care of a few finishing touches. Today, detailed wood carvings were being added around the mantels of the fireplaces, and low cabinets were being added to the walls in the main dining room. They still had to replace some shingles on the roof and add a few hand-crafted flower boxes to the front porch railings, but then the work would be done, except for whatever the Celtic Knot artists would do to the interior walls. Most of the crew was now working on the individual cabins, and just looking at them as she walked out to the wraparound porch made Kate smile.