A Clandestine Corporate Affair

chapter Thirteen

As they sat down to dinner, Ana warned everyone that she wasn’t much of a cook, and to eat at their own risk. And maybe it was beginner’s luck, or she had hidden talents, because the meal was hands down the best Christmas dinner Nathan had ever had. Even her father, who Nathan had the feeling was not typically liberal with the compliments, raved about the food. Nathan hoped that now he would see how talented and resourceful Ana really was. In many ways she was still the woman he’d met a year and a half ago, only so much more, and he was proud of the person she had become.

Jordan, who in contrast was very liberal with the compliments, whether he meant them or not, seemed genuinely impressed. Nathan was surprised that despite the mixed company, the evening wasn’t nearly as awkward as he would have expected. It probably helped that everyone deliberately avoided the subject of the oil business. Even her father seemed to realize that he was on shaky ground. He seemed humbled. Maybe his making that comment, hurtful as it was, was a blessing in disguise.

Ana’s father left at seven-thirty, and Jordan hung around playing with Max until it was time for him to go to bed. If nothing else, it looked as though he would be a good uncle.

“He’s a great kid,” he said, after Ana took Max into his room to get him ready for bed, and Nathan walked Jordan to the door. “What is it with all the kids lately? It must be something in the air. First you, then Adam, now Emilio.”

“What about Emilio?”

He pulled on his coat. “That’s right—you left the party yesterday before he made his announcement. His fiancée is pregnant. They just found out. I didn’t think anything could shake that guy. He’s like granite, but I think he may have actually been a little misty-eyed. He looks really happy.”

“There’s definitely something to be said for finding the right woman,” Nathan told him. “Maybe you’ll be next.”

“The problem I find is that there are so many right women, I’m not sure which one to choose.”

Nathan grinned and shook his head. “It’ll happen. Probably when you least expect it. You’ll meet someone and you’ll just know.”

“Was it like that with Ana? Because I recall you saying that you broke it off.”

“And it might have been the worst mistake of my life. I’m just lucky that she was willing to give me a second chance.”

“You’re getting sentimental, which can only mean you’ve had way too much to drink.”

Actually he was stone-cold sober, but he didn’t argue.

Jordan slugged his arm. “Go sleep it off. And Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas. And drive safe.” He watched his brother disappear into the night, then he shut and locked the door and set the alarm.

He found Ana in the kitchen washing dishes by hand. “Is the dishwasher broken?”

“It’s already full and running. This is what’s left.”

He stepped up behind her, slipped his arms around her waist, nibbled her ear. “Are you sure you don’t want to leave these for tomorrow?”

“It’s tempting, but I really hate waking up to a dirty kitchen.” She smiled up at him hopefully. “If we do it together it’ll take half the time.”

Half the time ended up being an hour. When they were finished, they heated mugs of spiced cider in the microwave then cuddled up on the couch in front of the fire. Ana had barely spoken since everyone left, and Nathan was beginning to wonder if something was wrong.

“Is everything okay?” he asked her. “You’ve been awfully quiet.”

She sighed and rested her head against his chest. “Just tired. It’s been a really long day.”

“That it has.”

“It didn’t work out exactly as we planned, but I think it went okay.”

“Better than I anticipated, considering the guest list.”

“It was really strange opening the door and seeing my dad there. And even stranger when your brother showed up.”

“Yeah, that was definitely unexpected.”

“He was really good with Max. I wouldn’t have pictured him as a kid person.”

“As long as it’s someone else’s, I guess. He doesn’t seem to have any desire to settle down and have a family of his own. Of course, neither did I.”

“This is probably a terrible thing to have to ask, since he is your brother, but he’s not going to say anything to the board at Western Oil about us, is he? I know that you were concerned about him finding out.”

“He said he wouldn’t. He said he wants a fair fight.”

“And you trust him?”

“You don’t?”

She shrugged. “Maybe it’s because of the things you’ve told me, or just a gut feeling, but it seems as though he really resents you.”

“He has no reason to resent me. I saved his hide more times than I can count. He owes me.”

She lifted her head and looked up at him. “Saved it from what?”

“Our father. He was a hard-ass, and he liked making his point with a belt, or the back of his hand, or sometimes even his fists.”

Her eyes went wide. “Your father hit you?”

“I told you before, he was a bully.”

“I just figured that you meant he bossed you around. I didn’t think he was physically abusive. And you protected Jordan from him?”

“Jordan is younger than me, and up until college he was small for his age. Real quiet and shy. I was tougher, and a lot bigger, so I took the knocks for him.”

She was staring at him, mouth open in awe. “You let your father hit you instead?”

He wasn’t sure why that came as such a surprise to her. Maybe because she was an only child. “I was the oldest. It was my responsibility to watch out for Jordan.”

“It seems like it should have been your father’s responsibility to find a more constructive way to discipline his children. Or your mother’s responsibility to protect you both. Why didn’t she stop him?”

“She probably didn’t want to risk losing her meal ticket.”

“So she let her husband abuse her children? That’s just wrong. They put people in jail for that sort of thing. I believe it’s called depraved indifference.” She wasn’t just mildly disturbed, she was furious. Maybe because she was looking at it from the point of view of a parent.

“It’s not worth getting this upset, Ana. It was a long time ago.”

“It’s just not fair,” she said, reaching up to touch his cheek. “You should have had a better childhood. It’s not right that your parents failed you so badly.”

“Maybe, but the world doesn’t always work the way it should.”

“And look at all you’ve done with your life, despite it. You’re the CBO of a billion-dollar company. That’s a huge accomplishment.”

“You want to hear something weird? Your dad sort of offered me a job.”

She laughed. “Seriously?”

“He said he didn’t like the idea of his son-in-law working for a competing company.”

“Did you remind him that you’re not his son-in-law?”

“Well, not yet. He was talking about the not-so-distant future.”

Her brow crinkled. “Are we planning to get married in the not-so-distant future? Because I think I missed the memo.”

“Unless you don’t want to marry me,” he said.

She sat up and set her cup on the coffee table. “I didn’t say that. I just didn’t know that you wanted to. We’ve never actually talked about it.”

Of course they had. “I told you I wanted to make this work, that I wanted to be with you. Eventual marriage seemed like a foregone conclusion.”

“A single woman never takes that for granted. And when she does, she tends to get her heart filleted and handed back to her in little pieces.”

It took him several seconds to connect the dots, and when he did, he understood why she wouldn’t take anything he said for granted. “You’re talking about me, right? When we were seeing each other before Max.”

She shrugged. “I thought everything was going great, that we had a future. You kept telling me how happy you were. Then pow, out of the blue you dumped me.”

“I guess I did, didn’t I?” He pulled her into his arms and held her. She snuggled up against him, soft and warm. She was so tough all the time, so direct and resolute, he sometimes forgot that she had a sensitive and vulnerable side. She’d gone through life probably feeling abandoned by her mother then rejected by her father. Then Nathan came along and made her feel wanted, and he let her down, too. He wasn’t going to let that happen again. Besides, he needed her as much as she needed him. He needed to show her that he meant what he said. That this time it was different.

“I have an idea that I wanted to run past you,” he said.

She tilted her head back and looked up at him. “I’m listening.”

“I’ve been thinking that eventually we’re going to need a bigger place. Something single-family, with a big yard for Max. Because of work, I thought it would be best to wait, but it is a buyer’s market. It couldn’t hurt to start searching now.”

She sat up a little straighter, looking as though she wanted to let herself be excited, but she was still wary. “Are you sure? What if we find something right away?”

“Worst case, we could move in and I can keep my apartment as my formal mailing address. Although I doubt anyone would question me buying a house. Emilio, our CFO, owns investment properties all over.”

She still looked unsure.

“If you don’t want to, we can wait,” he said.

“It’s not that at all. I want this. I really do. It’s just…everything is happening so fast.”

“And it seems to me that it’s about a year and a half past due.”

“I just don’t want us to rush into anything. I want you to be sure.”

“I am sure.” It was the most sure he had been about anything in a very long time. Ana grounded him. He would be a fool to let her go again.

She smiled. “Okay then. Let’s look for a house.”

“I’ll call an agent after the first of the year.” They would have to work out the logistics of actually viewing the properties, since they couldn’t be seen together house hunting, but they would figure something out.

She leaned back against his chest and sighed. “I’m exhausted.”

“Why don’t you go crawl into bed. I’ll get the lights and check on Max.”

She yawned and shoved herself up from the couch. “I’ll see you in there.”

As she shuffled off, yawning and rubbing her eyes, Nathan shut off the lights and unplugged the Christmas tree. On his way to bed he slipped into Max’s room. He was asleep on his stomach, and as usual he’d kicked the covers off.

Nathan tucked the blanket up around his shoulders, then he pressed a kiss to his fingers and touched them to Max’s cheek. When the three of them were living together, he could do this all the time, since odds were pretty good that he wouldn’t be home every night in time to tuck Max into bed. A lot of women would have a problem with their husbands or significant others working such insane hours, but Ana grew up around the oil business, so it was second nature to her. Even back when they were dating the first time she’d never made an issue out of his work schedule.

Nathan closed Max’s door behind him and walked to the bedroom, pulling his shirt over his head, wondering if Ana was too tired to make love. He got his answer when he stepped into the room and heard her slow, even breaths from under the covers.

She was out cold.

He put on his pajamas and crawled into bed, curling up behind her. She murmured something incoherent and cuddled against him. And as the digits on the clock neared midnight, he couldn’t imagine a better way to end his Christmas than lying in bed, holding the woman he loved.

So why did he have a nagging voice in his head saying that things were so good, so perfect, something was bound to go wrong?