Joshua slowly rose to his feet, color flooding his face, fury thinning his lips. “I know what it’s like to want to prove yourself, to be your own man. Why do you think I left Sutherland Industries all those years ago and went to work for your mother’s father? I understand the need to leave a mark. But, dammit, I’ve worked hard all these years so you and your brother and sister would have that soft place to fall, not have all my years of work thrown in my face. Regardless of what you think about my method, Griffin, I love you—all of you, and I’ve only wanted you to succeed.”
“According to your definition of success. Under your control.” Standing, too, Griffin faced off against his father, and even though his father’s words scored a hole in his heart, the desk might as well as have been a divide keeping them on opposite sides, separated. “For all yourwork, Dad, your soft place was the hardest and most unforgiving of them all.”
Something deeper, heavier than anger settled inside him as he stared at his father. Grief. For who they could’ve been to one another. For the relationship they would probably never have. For…them. Inhaling, he turned and headed for the office door.
“If you leave, I will not sign over that land to you. And we both know how much it means to you.”
Griffin paused. Pivoted. “What do you mean by that?” But even as he asked, he already knew the answer. That sense of foreboding from earlier returned, hollowing out his gut.
“The playground. Sarah Montgomery.”
Pain blazed through him, incinerating organs. How had Joshua…? Griffin had only told one person about Sarah…
Hayden.
But even as her name popped into his head, seconds later he dismissed it. She wouldn’t betray him by revealing something so personal and private to his father.Of course she would, logic argued.She’s loyal to him first and foremost. She works for him.
But his heart clung tenaciously to the trust—to the love—in his heart for her. No. Five years of hurt, disillusionment and regrets lay between them like skeletons on an ancient battlefield, but she wouldn’t betray him. Not like this. She wasn’t the woman who had screwed his father behind Griffin’s back. She wasn’t petty, mean, grasping or a liar. An image of her from a couple of days ago again flickered across his mind’s eyes. Fierce and pissed on his behalf when he’d revealed what his father had done all those years ago. Honorable. Kind. Wounded, but trustworthy.
Besides, there had been one other person who had been aware of his plans for the property. The seller. Griffin hadn’t concealed his reasons for desperately wanting the land from the owner, hoping the purpose would sway him. He probably wouldn’t have seen any reason to not tell Joshua.
“It’s not going to work, Joshua,” he murmured. “Would I pay you ten times the money the land is worth to keep my promise to a sick little girl I love? Absolutely. I was willing to cater to you and your will for two weeks even though this is the last place I would rather be. But I’m not going to sell my soul for it. And because Sarah and her parents love me without strings attached or for what I can do for them, they will understand. That’s what family does. That’s what love does.”
Turning once more, he left without looking back.
* * *
Damn it,she was running late.
Jabbing the key to Griffin’s townhome-slash-office, Hayden unlocked the door and stepped inside. Not that her coma-like sleep should’ve been a surprise considering she’d had precious little of it this weekend. A smile tugged at her lips as she dropped her purse and bag on the living room couch. Heat curled low in her belly, and she pressed a palm there as if it could quell the delicious swirl. Nor could she smother the annoying but insistent urge she’d woken up with. The need to lay eyes on Griffin. To inhale his midnight and earth scent. To be surrounded by his big, hard body.
God, if she was this hungry for him after one week of daily interaction and two nights and days of hot, mind-blowing sex, what would she be like come this Sunday when he returned to Florida?
Cold doused her like a bucket of frigid water, immobilizing her.
Memories of endless, lonely, empty days flooded her mind. Of half-living like a zombie. Of the clawing grief that almost destroyed her.
Jesus, she was headed toward the very thing she feared and vowed wouldn’t happen.
“Hayden.”
She blinked, dispelling the pictures from five years ago that bombarded her, and focused on Griffin. Where had he come from? Shaking her head, she briefly closed her eyes.Get it together. She had to get. It. Together.
“Hey.” She cleared her throat, quickly scanned his white dress shirt and black pants, and glanced away. “I received your text about a meeting with your father. I didn’t expect you to be back so soon.” A few minutes. That’s all she needed to compose herself, form a make-shift shield around herself until she could retreat to her apartment and fortify the badly crumbling wall surrounding her heart.
“I’m leaving.”
Déjà vu. It hit her so hard, she swayed and clutched the back of the sofa for support.
“Shit.” Griffin lunged for her, but she slammed up a hand, palm out.
No. He couldn’t touch her. Not now. Not ever again.
Goddamn. Sucking in a deep breath, she straightened, forcing herself to stand on her own power, to face what was coming.
“Hayden,” he growled, stepping toward her in spite of her warning. Her palm pressed into the solid wall of his chest, and unable to help herself, she curled her fingers into the dense muscle.
Stupid. She snatched her arm down, crossed both over her chest.
