The Mistresses Collection. Оливия Гейтс

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       Ten

      Trinity didn’t want to stay for breakfast. She didn’t want to stay, period.

      So after they’d showered and were properly dressed, he relented and called a cab. But he insisted on accompanying her to the airport. He’d wanted to wait until she was booked on a flight, but she was just as insistent that he needed to plow on with this day.

      Get on with his life.

      After his “we need to let it go” speech, guess he’d asked for it.

      He kissed her goodbye outside the terminal but the caress was as different to last night’s as today’s blue sky was to the previous gray. Their lips didn’t linger, her smile wasn’t convincing and as she walked away, it was all he could do not to drag her back and demand that she stay until they’d found some way to make their peace. Get beyond this somehow.

      Instead he watched her disappear into a building thrumming with a backlog of folk needing to make up for the lost time that freak snowstorm had created. He wasn’t aware how long he stood there, watching, thinking, before the cabbie wound down the window and gave him a verbal prod.

      “Where to next, sir?”

      Zack glanced back. Where to, indeed.

      He slid into the back passenger seat and gave a Denver city address.

      Trinity arrived in New York later that day feeling exhausted but unwilling to delay taking action on the decision she’d made during the hours spent waiting at the airport and during the flight back home.

      Now she slid out of the cab and headed through the automatic glass sliding door of the familiar downtown building remembering how that word—home—had tugged at her heartstrings for as long as she could recall. She’d worked hard to put herself through college and find the wherewithal to move from Ohio, to get away. She’d never forget her exhilaration when she’d been awarded a position with Story. Her apartment in Brooklyn was tiny but she’d filled it with bits and pieces that made her happy—paintings by talented new artists, books that were favorites and felt like old friends.

      But that apartment wasn’t hers. Wasn’t truly home.

      As she thumbed a foyer elevator button, she could admit that those walls and neighbors had only ever felt temporary. She would never tell Zack although she thought perhaps he’d guessed: despite her initial disapproval of him, his cabin in the woods had felt more like a safe haven than any address she’d known.

      But that time was over. After their amazing night together, Zack had said he wanted to keep in touch. But something wiser than blind hope said he wouldn’t call. She didn’t blame him. He had a brilliant life with concrete goals, as well as family and friends and associates to keep him company whenever he felt the urge. He didn’t need her moodiness and baggage bringing down his party. And, honestly, she didn’t need him, either. She had a plan.

      As Trinity moved out of the elevator, nodded a greeting to the receptionist on her way to Kate’s office, she knew precisely what she needed to do. She’d never felt more determined, anxious—right in her life. Today was the beginning of all her best tomorrows.

      “I know I said I’d get Dirkins to sign,” Zack said. “I haven’t given up yet.”

      Thomas sat on the right-hand side of the mile-long conference table, elbows on chair arms and fingers steepled as he watched his older brother pace the length of the Harrison Plaza District office suite. Zack knew he must look like a caged jungle cat because that’s precisely how he felt. Since he’d arrived back from Colorado two days ago, he hadn’t been able to settle into anything, including coming any nearer to closing that Denver deal.

      He’d thought about Trinity’s suggestion, putting forward an offer of a partnership of co-ownership to Dirkins. Although a big part of Zack wanted to help the older man out if he could, that simply wasn’t the way he did business. Equal equity meant disputes down the track. Any weakening of the Harrison foundation—even in a small way—was anathema to his motto.

      Stay calm, stay focused and succeed.

      With his father floating in and out of the office and his brothers happy with nine-to-five, someone had to man the bow.

      “Maybe we should let the deal slide,” Thomas said. “Since Mom and Dad had their split, he’s not nearly as hell-bent on soaring through this economic downturn. Not that their break is permanent,” he added.

      Really? Who said it wasn’t?

      “Our family’s not invincible, Thomas. We all just like to pretend that it is.”

      The steepled fingers lowered. “Where’s this coming from? You’ve been a royal pain in the butt since getting back from Colorado. You did nothing but frown and growl at Nicki’s school play last night. What the hell happened out there?”

      “Nothing of consequence.”

      “Every time I ask about those female guests you had holed up in your cabin, you fob me off. Now I’m telling you, I want to know.” Thomas swore. “Is someone blackmailing you?”

      Zack moved to the wall-to-wall windows. “Don’t be melodramatic.”

      “From what you told me, that actress you were seeing wanted to test those waters.”