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* * *
The problem, Mitzy thought, was that she should have come back here way before now. Instead, she’d neglected to do so, figuring time and the birth of her children would ease her grief.
They had.
And they hadn’t.
Because being here at the warehouse-like workshop that her father had built over the course of forty-five years, in the very place that held so many bittersweet memories for her, was like a punch square in the solar plexus. Making her entire chest hurt to the point that it was hard to breathe. As images of her larger-than-life dad striding through the facility flashed in her brain, she remembered how he had called out to everyone, stopped to admire the workmanship even as he gently added suggestions for making the final product better. How he had charmed the customers and cared for his employees with the same loving familial attitude he exhibited toward her.
With a disgruntled sigh, she also recalled the day he and Chase had gotten into it right in the middle of the shop, their voices rising. How her dad had been forced to do what he had never done in his entire business life—fire someone outright. How furious Chase had looked as he had sworn he was quitting anyway and stomped out.
And most of all, she remembered how frail her dad had been, his body ravaged from multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy, the last time he had been able to walk through here. How he’d still kept up the cheerful attitude, even as he had been forced to lean on her for strength.
Her dad had been incredibly strong to the very end.
Just as she needed to be strong now.
Abruptly, Mitzy became aware that Chase was still watching her, ever so patiently waiting for her to confide in him what was really going on with her and her mother.
Telling herself there was no need to lean on his strong, broad shoulders, she drew a deep invigorating breath, said finally, “It’s just the usual stuff.”
He strode closer. Clad in a pine-green brushed cotton shirt, jeans and dark brown custom boots, he looked sexy and totally at ease. “Judith still doesn’t like the fact you’re a social worker?”
“Correct.”
He stopped just short of her and gave her the slow, thorough once-over. “I’m guessing there’s more.”
His soft, husky baritone sent shivers ghosting over her skin, but Mitzy stiffened her resolve, in a valiant attempt not to lose herself in his potent masculine allure. There was too much water under the bridge between the two of them, after all, and getting swept up again by passion would not be in either of their best interests.
Still avoiding her dad’s private office, she moved through the shop, surveying the various workstations, finding that everything looked the same as she recalled.
Chase moved with her. “She also doesn’t like me living here in Laramie, now that Dad’s gone.”
“She wants you back in Dallas?”
Mitzy suppressed a groan. “Permanently.” Coming to the rear of the building, she stepped out onto the covered patio, where employees often took their lunch breaks.
Chase rubbed the flat of his hand beneath his jaw. “That’s not so surprising, is it? Now that you’ve had children and made her and Walter grandparents?”
Mitzy perched on the edge of a picnic table and took in a breath of the bracing November air. “I can’t go back to Dallas, Chase.” She rubbed the toe of her Italian pump across the cement floor. “I never belonged there. For so many reasons, Laramie has always been my home.”
Chase settled next to her, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Me, too.” He slanted a commiserating look at her. “Even when I lived away from here, I always knew I’d come back eventually.”
In that sense, she and Chase were the same.
Maybe always would be.
It was too bad so many other things kept them apart. Their attitudes about business, and the role it played in a person’s private life, paramount among them. He hadn’t been able to understand that disrespecting her father had in turn disrespected her. And instead had insisted that she should have defended his right to speak his mind to whomever he chose. He’d also felt that, as his potential wife, she should have sided with him on principle! Even though he was clearly wrong!
When they couldn’t come to terms about that, he had wanted to pretend as if their quarrel had never happened, and simply move on. She couldn’t because she knew, as a social worker, that ignoring problems did not make them go away, it made them fester. A lasting relationship required a lot more than friendship, amusing repartee and incredible, skillful lovemaking. It required being on the same page—about everything important—and she and Chase weren’t. And weren’t going to be.
Heartbroken, she did the responsible thing and called off their engagement. Even as a tiny part of her wistfully hoped they might still find a way to meet each other halfway and work things out.
Instead, Chase had tersely agreed a split was probably for the best. Since she wasn’t giving him what he needed, either. And there was no reason for them to get married, if they were only going to get divorced down the road.
And that had been that. Until now.
Aware he was waiting for her to go on, Mitzy continued cavalierly, “And of course, Judith’s not happy about the whole ‘single mother via artificial means’ business. She would have much preferred I did things the old-fashioned way.” With even Chase as her baby daddy, instead of some anonymous donor. “But since I didn’t choose the more traditional route, she at least wants me to provide them with a proper father, to grow up with.”
He looked down at their perfectly aligned thighs. Though an inch and two layers of fabric separated their limbs, she could still feel the warmth exuded between them. And knew he could, too.
His glance returned to hers. Stayed in a way that had her heartbeat increasing.
“You’re not enthused about finding the quads a baby daddy?”
Surely he wasn’t volunteering for the position?
Was he?
And even if he were, in some alternate reality, it was impossible.
She returned his assessing look. Stood, and replied, as matter-of-fact as possible, “If I were going to get married, cowboy, I would have done so ten years ago.”
His eyes gleamed. “Funny. Me, too.”
Thinking maybe they should go back inside, before she did something really stupid, like kiss the smug look off his handsome face, Mitzy headed for the door.
Able to feel the heat of his smoldering gaze, she tossed the words over her shoulder. “This is no joking matter, Chase.”
For him, either, apparently.
He sobered, the heartbreak of the past dragging them back to the troubled confines of the present. They crossed the threshold. “I gather you asked me to come here to talk about business,” he prodded.
Not sure where or even how to begin, Mitzy nodded. She might not want to turn to her ex, but he had the expertise and the dispassionate outsider’s view that she desperately needed. “I did.”
He looked her in the eye with a sincerity and warmth she found disquieting. “What can I do to help?”
“I went online and read some reviews of our saddles after you and I talked. They weren’t as good as usual.”
He hooked his thumbs through the belt loops on either side of his fly. “I’m aware. I’ve been reading them, too.”
Guilt welled up inside her. She’d promised her dad she would take care of things. She hadn’t. Thus far, anyway. That was about to change. Deliberately, she continued, “Which got me to wondering what’s going on.”
“Have you talked to any of the Martin Custom Saddle employees?”
She shook her head. “I wanted to come in and look around first. And the perfect time for that is today since it’s Thanksgiving, and no one is slated to be working.”
“And I’m here to...?”
She led him toward the front of the facility again, where production of the saddles began, her shoulder briefly nudging his bicep in the process. “Look around,” she said, working to keep a more circumspect physical distance. “See if anything jumps out as a potential problem.”
The first was apparently easy for him to spot. “This leather isn’t top grade.” He moved to another workstation. “The oils and dyes they’re using aren’t top quality, either.”
She frowned, alarm causing her pulse to flutter. “You’re sure about that?”
“Positive.” His gaze narrowed. “But you don’t have to take my word on that. You can look up the reputation of these suppliers yourself.”
Mitzy rubbed the tense muscles of her forehead.
Chase squinted down at her. “I don’t recall your father ever skimping on materials.”
Mitzy winced. Admitting miserably, “He didn’t.”
His brows furrowed. “And you didn’t order it?”
“No.” Heaven’s no!
His expression remained maddeningly inscrutable. “Any idea when the change might have been made?”
Her throat constricting, she headed for her dad’s private office, thinking a clue as to why this all happened might be there. “I don’t know.” Hoarsely, she admitted, “I haven’t been here since Dad died last May.”
And as CEO, she should have been. Frequently. No matter how difficult or gut-wrenching she found it.
Silently berating herself for her inexcusable lapse in judgment, she slogged past the door that had always stayed open. Flipped on the lights. Saw her dad’s worn denim jacket slung over the back of his chair. A box of his favorite mints sitting open on the desk. The World’s Greatest Dad coffee mug she had made for him in elementary school sitting there, next to his calendar, clean and ready to be filled.
For a moment, it was almost as if her father had just stepped out for a spell. And would come striding back in, larger than life, at any second.
A sob caught in her throat, as she realized just how much she wanted that to happen.
An anguished cry left her mouth.
And then the grief and tears she’d been holding back came pouring out in a harsh, wrenching torrent.
The next thing she knew, Chase’s arms were wrapped around her. He pulled her close as even more tears flowed and her slender body shook with sobs. She clung to him and he held her until the worst of the storm passed. And for one sweet moment, time really did stand still. There’d been no decade apart. No heartbreaking end to their engagement. No years of them pretending each other didn’t exist. No years of not speaking.
There was only him and her, and her overwhelming need for comfort and the urge to lean on his incredible strength.
The surprising yearning to kiss him one last time.
So she lifted her head, and did.
Though it was supposed to be the goodbye kiss she had never given him, the final denouement in their ill-fated relationship, the brief caress quickly turned into something else entirely.
A reminder of all they had shared that was at once passionate and tender, sweet and loving, as well as a jarring testament of all they had given up.
And that, too, was more than she could bear on this very emotional day.
She and Chase had let each other down and crushed each other’s hopes and dreams once. She’d be a fool to venture down the same path and hope for a different result.
Hand pressed against his chest, she tore her mouth from his and pushed him away. “No,” she gasped, common sense returning with reassuring speed. It didn’t matter how much she was hurting or how alone she felt.
She looked Chase in the eye. “There’s no way in hell we’re getting involved again!”
Chapter Two
Mitzy half expected Chase to argue with her. Try to persuade her otherwise, as he had during the days immediately following their breakup, years ago. Instead, he stood there, watchful, patient, infuriatingly silent. His implacable calm—in the wake of her complete emotional upheaval—leaving her even more on edge. Finally, he said, “You’re right. We have more important issues to address right now.”
What was more important than where the two of them went from here? If not straight into bed? “Like what?” Mitzy asked, wishing he didn’t look so big and strong and completely irresistible.
He lounged against the wall, arms folded in front of him. “The fate of your dad’s company.”
Needing some distance between them, Mitzy walked around her dad’s desk, then stood facing him with her hands hooked over the back of the chair. She gestured at the dust gathering everywhere she looked. “Obviously, I need to cowgirl up and get it back on track.”
He nodded seriously, then warned, “Before you can do that, however, you’re going to have to assess the depth of the damage.”
His sexy baritone kindled new heat inside her. Aware he was watching her, gauging her reactions as carefully as she was measuring his, she tilted her chin. “You think there’s more?”
“There usually is.”
She inhaled deeply. Breathed out slowly. And tried not to panic considering what else she hadn’t been aware of and didn’t yet know.
“You’re speaking of some of the small companies you’ve purchased and turned around,” she guessed.
He nodded.
Before he could say more, a loud knock sounded on the outer door of the facility. Mitzy looked at Chase. “Expecting anyone?”
“No. You?”
With a mystified shake of her head, Mitzy crossed the cement facility floor. Her sixty-seven-year-old stepfather was standing on the other side, in the usual expensive sport coat, slacks and button-down. His thick silver hair was as neatly combed as always, his eyes warm and assessing behind the silver-rimmed glasses.
“Your mother sent me to check on you,” Walter Fiedler said. “She was worried about you being here alone, but—” his glance took in Mitzy’s just-kissed state and moved to Chase “—I guess she needn’t have been. Hello, Chase.” He extended his hand.
Chase stepped up with his usual masculine grace. “Walter.”
“Good to see you.”
“Likewise.”
The two men exchanged polite smiles. An awkward silence fell.
Walter turned back to Mitzy. “I don’t mean to pressure you, dear, but I think your mother’s feelings are a little hurt by the way you disappeared so soon after we arrived. So if you could wrap this up...and come back to the house soon...?”
Inundated by guilt, Mitzy said, “I’ll be right there, I promise.”
The older gentleman nodded in approval, then turned back to Chase. “Will you be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner? Judith’s cooking all of Mitzy’s favorites.”
It wasn’t such a far-fetched assumption to make, given the two men had initially met at a Thanksgiving dinner, hosted by her mom, years before. Before Mitzy could decline on Chase’s behalf, a spark of mischief lit his eyes. “What time?” he asked genially.
“Two o’clock.”
“Consider me in, then.”
“Splendid.” Walter opened the door. “See you shortly.” He headed back to his Bentley.
Mitzy turned back to her ex. Another silence fell, this one more fraught with tension than the last. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know why he had just accepted an invitation that would have them spending even more potentially awkward time together. Unless it was to get under her skin. A feat that he had always been able to do extremely well. “You really don’t have to feel beholden to attend.”
He shrugged, once again about as movable as a boulder. “I’m not.”
Her nipples pearled under the hot male intensity of his gaze. “Surely, you have a McCabe family function.”
He hovered closer, apparently done talking business—for the moment, anyway. “At eight this evening. Two of my brothers are working today, so my mom pushed our holiday gathering back until later. But if you’d rather not have me there to act as a buffer between you and your mother, I’d completely understand.”
How well he knew her. And Judith.
She studied him, tamping down the whisper of long-suppressed desire, and the notion they might ever make love again. “You’d really put yourself in the line of fire?” she asked, emotions in turmoil.
He tipped his head at her. “For you, darlin’?” He winked. “I’d even put on that sport coat and tie I’ve got in the back of my truck.”
Mitzy had almost forgotten how turned on she got by this inherently gallant side of him and it reinforced what she had to do. “How about, then,” she suggested brazenly, “we take it one step further...”
* * *
Chase had not seen Judith since he and Mitzy had broken up. He wasn’t surprised to see the petite dynamo hadn’t changed. Except to get thinner and blonder and even more elegant than she had been then.
“You’re doing what?” the older woman gaped, after a brief explanation had been made.
“Going to work together to find closure,” Mitzy repeated. She lifted a hand in traffic-cop fashion. “I know it sounds really basic, and in a sense it is, Mother, but the truth is Chase and I never really ended our engagement in a proper—or healthy—manner. And that lapse has kept us both from moving on the way we should.”
Chase knew that to be true for him.
He’d never gotten over losing Mitzy.
It was a shock to hear her admit it so openly, though.
“As a social worker, I should have realized this a whole lot sooner,” Mitzy opined, taking Chase by the hand, and leading him all the way into her cozy but well-equipped kitchen. She gestured for him to take a stool at the island, next to Walter, then sat down beside him. “But I didn’t and now that I have, I want to do something about it.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Judith looked up from the mushroom tartlet canapés she was arranging on a silver tray.
Like Mitzy, she was dressed in a chic dress and heels. A strand of diamonds glittered at her neck.
Judith smoothed a hand over her pristine white chef’s apron. “And how long is this going to take?”
Mitzy paused, seeming to be taken aback by the inquiry. “Um. I’m not sure.” She looked at Chase as if waiting to be rescued again. “At least...?”
“Through the holidays,” he decided.
That would give him plenty of time to figure out what that incredible kiss they’d shared earlier meant. Was she still, as it had seemed, as turned on by him as he was by her? Still privately wishing they’d never broken up. Or trying to prove to them both that it really was over between them. Romantically, anyway.
Judith exchanged a look of concern with her husband. “And then what?” she asked.
Mitzy shrugged. “We say goodbye.”
Or not, Chase thought, figuring that could be negotiated, too. “When did you conclude all of this?” Judith asked.
Pink color swept into Mitzy’s high sculpted cheeks. “Chase stopped by to see me a few days ago. And I, ah, I guess I started putting it all together. Today, I realized I should start following the advice I give my social work clients, and work though the residual emotions so I can move on.”
“And, of course,” Chase added sincerely, “I want to do that, too.” More than Mitzy knew.
In fact, he had wanted to help her for months now. But worrying his presence would make her grieving worse, he had stayed away.
“Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” Judith asked.
Mitzy rose and went to pour glasses of chilled sparkling water for everyone, handing the elders theirs first. “Because I knew you’d probably think it was all unnecessary and wouldn’t approve.” As she turned to hand Chase his, their fingers brushed. A jolt of heat went through him.
Mitzy’s smile was fixed as she slid back onto a high-backed stool, this time being very careful not to touch him in any way. “And I didn’t want to ruin your holiday. But since Walter found us together and the secret is out—” she turned to give Chase a bolstering glance “—Chase and I figured we might as well come clean. So you wouldn’t have to go to all the trouble of fixing me up with anyone else.”
Fixing her up? Chase’s gut tightened with jealousy. Mitzy had said her mother wanted her married. She hadn’t said anything about any matchmaking! But of course, it made sense. This was why she wanted him here. Not just for closure. Which, he figured was real. But to be a detriment to her mother’s plans.
“I see.” Judith’s eyes gleamed knowingly.
She was on to Mitzy, too.
The soft sound of a baby crying had Mitzy heading for the stairs. “I’m going to see if the nannies need any help,” she said.
Judith turned to check on the turkey roasting in the oven, then faced off with Chase yet again. “I’m not sure how I feel about any of this,” she said.
Chase wasn’t, either, if all it was, was a means to the end of him and Mitzy.
“Maybe we should let the young people figure it out for themselves, sweetheart,” Walter said.
“I can’t.” Judith continued, “You broke my daughter’s heart once.”
Chase didn’t mind accepting blame where it was due but he wasn’t about to shoulder all of it. “I think a more apt description was that we broke each other’s hearts,” he clarified gruffly.
Judith paused. In the awkward silence that fell, Chase could see Mitzy’s mother mentally going down the laundry list of all his faults.
As expected, she tried once again to dissuade him.
“The point is, Chase, Mitzy deserves more than you can give her.”
Chase knew he’d been far too focused on fulfilling his ambition then, to the detriment of all else. He nodded. “She deserves more than I did give her, ten years ago.”
Judith’s gaze narrowed. “I’m not just talking about time and attention, although there is that. I’m talking about the financial aspect, too.”
Obviously, although his ex had kept up with his accomplishments, her mother had not.
Chase was still trying to figure out how to disclose his greatly improved status, without sounding like a braggart, when Mitzy came back into the kitchen, an infant in a BabyBjörn carrier, snuggled against her chest. To Chase’s frustration, the infant’s face was turned away from him, so all he could see was the outline of the baby boy’s sturdy little body, encased in the canvas carrier, and the blue-and-white knit cap covering his head.
Clearly, she’d overheard enough of the conversation to know what was going on. “Can we please not talk about money today?” Mitzy swayed back and forth, gently lulling the child. A more natural mother had never been made, Chase thought admiringly. “Besides, haven’t you heard, Mother?” Mitzy added wearily. “Chase is wealthy in his own right now.”
Her spine stiff with indignation, Judith gave the gravy another stir. “Darling, there’s wealthy. And then there’s wealthy.”
Mitzy made a face. She walked farther away from the trio. Giving him an even better view of her enticing backside and spectacular legs.
Judith continued brightly, “The men I have lined up for you to meet at the quadruplets’ debut have fortunes on par with Walter’s.”
Only one problem with that, Chase thought, as he swept another wave of unwanted jealousy aside. Money and/or influence had never been what Judith’s daughter wanted. That had been his ambition.
“Your mother could have a point,” Chase said, playing against Mitzy’s widely stated values.
She met his eyes.
New sparks flew.
He shrugged affably. “The fifty-million-dollar company I started is probably nothing compared to what those dudes likely inherited.” And if their blood was as blue as he imagined, they probably did nothing to earn...
Mitzy shot him a droll look and glided nearer, giving him another tantalizing but maddeningly incomplete glimpse of just one of her four sons.
What was it going to take to get an introduction?
Although he knew very well why she wasn’t showing him her boys.
She was trying to keep at least some boundaries erected between them.
“I want more than money from anyone I’m involved with,” Mitzy said sternly.
Chase was glad to hear that. It meant Mitzy was as deeply romantic as she had once been before practicality trumped all and she had decided to have her babies the new-fashioned way. Sans intimacy of any kind.