Burn Out (25 page)

“Um, I have a
favor to ask,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “Evan’s dog is still
at my place with Chloe. Would you guys mind dropping him off or keeping him
overnight? I have extra food for him and…”

“No problem,”
Brianna said, shifting in her seat to look at her. “Are you okay?”

“Sure.” She knew
the sniffle gave her away when Ryan glanced at her in the rear-view mirror.

“Okay, what’s my
bonehead of a brother done to upset you this time?” he asked.

Erika smiled in
spite of her sadness. Ryan had this innate ability to make people smile no
matter how dire the situation seemed. “He didn’t do anything. He was just
being… Evan.”

“That’ll do it,”
Ryan muttered.

Brianna slapped
his arm. “Behave yourself, this is serious.”

“I can see that,”
he said, pulling up to a stop sign. “And I’m worried about both of them.” He
looked over his shoulder at Erika. “So tell me what I can do to help.”

She’d always loved
Ryan. He was the one to come to her the day after she left his brother,
offering her a shoulder to cry on and a friend if she ever needed to talk. “You
can’t do anything,” she said, pulling a tissue out of her purse. “This is
something we have to work through on our own, though I don’t know how.”

“I hope this isn’t
because of what I said this afternoon,” Brianna said, a crease appearing
between her arched brows. “I never meant to cause any trouble. I love you guys.
I want you to work this out. I just…”

Erika reached for
her friend’s hand. “Honey, you’re not the cause of this. It comes down to me
and Evan. We’re just two different people.”

“And you’re sure
there’s no way to find a middle ground?” Ryan asked, turning down the music
filtering through the speakers.

“I don’t know.
That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Deciding she needed all of the facts,
she asked a question she wasn’t sure she wanted answered. “Tell me something,
this time last month, how many days a week was Evan working?”

Ryan and Brianna
exchanged a glance and her worst fears were confirmed.

“Come on, guys,
how many? Six? Seven?”

Obviously trying
to make light of the situation, Ryan chuckled. “I’m the wrong guy to ask. You
know I put in forty hours on a good week. How the hell would I know whether
he’s there bustin’ his ass on weekends?”

Erika expected
that kind of loyalty from his brother, so she turned to her friend, hoping
Brianna would be honest with her. Their eyes met under the light of the
streetlamps when Ryan pulled up to a stoplight. “Please, Bri,” she said
quietly. “This is the rest of my life we’re talking about.”

Sighing, Brianna
folded her hands in her lap and said, “He’s been working seven days a week,
fifteen or sixteen hour days since y’all broke up.”

Ryan shot her a
meaningful sidelong glance. “I don’t think we need to get involved in their
business, hon.”

“Someone has to be
honest and your brother obviously doesn’t intend to be.”

Ryan’s grip on the
steering wheel tightened and he accelerated away from the light, but remained
silent.

“Thank you,” Erika
said softly. “I needed to know what’s been going on.” Her eyes met Ryan’s in
the rear-view. “Can I ask you a question?”

“No.”

“Please.”

He sighed as he
pulled up in front of her house. “Fine, but if it incriminates my brother, I
reserve the right to plead the fifth.”

Brianna slapped
his chest. “That only applies if you run the risk of incriminating yourself.
Besides, it only serves in a court of law.”

“I don’t care. I
won’t say anything that’s gonna make this worse for my brother, and you can’t
make me.”

Rolling her eyes
at his petulance, Brianna turned to face Erika. “What did you want to know?”

“Has Evan ever
talked to you about buying a house or adopting a pet before, Ry?”

Narrowing his eyes
at his fiancé, Ryan said, “I plead the fifth.”

“That’s okay,”
Erika said, reaching for her door handle. “You told me everything I needed to
know.”

Brianna opened her
car door and the two women faced each other on the street. “I’ll come in to get
the dog.”

Erika nodded,
trying to keep her lip from trembling. “Thanks.”

“Hey,” Brianna
said, pulling her into a fierce hug. “Are you gonna be okay?”

“Eventually.”

***

Evan was nursing
his second drink when the last party goer left his parents’ house. Ryan had
texted him to let him know that Skipper was spending the night with them, so he
had no reason to rush home to a big, empty house.

Luc sat down beside
Evan on the couch, slapping his son’s back as he stretched his legs out on the
upholstered ottoman in front of them. “All right, what’d you do this time,
kid?”

“Why do you assume
I
did something to screw this up? Maybe it was her fault this time,” Evan
said, scowling into the bottom of his empty glass.

Luc chuckled.
“Sure, it was. Come on, you gonna tell me or do I have to guess?”

Evan set his glass
down on the table beside him and stretched out beside his father. Tipping his
head back, he closed his eyes. “Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, Dad. Could be
Erika’s just not the right girl for me.”

“You don’t believe
that any more than I do,” Luc said, crossing his arms.

“It shouldn’t be
this hard.”

Luc laughed. “Boy,
you have no idea how long it took for your mama and me to end up on the same
page? Years. And when we did, there were still ups and downs. There always will
be. That’s just a part of life.”

Evan rolled his
head to the side, looking at his father. “Mom said something to me a while back
and it got me to thinkin’ about what it was like when we were growin’ up.”

“Oh yeah, what’s
that?” Luc asked, hiding a yawn behind his hand.

“She said you
always put her and your kids first. How the hell did you manage that? I mean,
buildin’ a successful company from the ground up, bein’ a good husband and
half-way decent father…” Evan chuckled when his father scowled at him.
“Seriously, how’d you find a healthy balance?”

“I didn’t,” Luc
said, staring straight ahead. “I missed out on the first fifteen years of Nikki’s
life ‘cause I was so obsessed with my work. I can never get those years back
and even now, all these years later, I still beat myself up about that.”

“Really?” Evan
knew his father and half-sister had been estranged for a long time before he
was born, but they rarely discussed the circumstances surrounding the split.
Now they were as close as any father and daughter Evan knew, so he just assumed
they’d made their peace with the past.

“Sure.” Luc rubbed
his eyes. “You never get over abandonin’ your own kid. But let me tell you, I
sure as hell didn’t intend to make the same mistake with you boys that I made
with Nik.”

Evan could
understand how Luc’s life experiences would have shaped the kind of husband and
father he was, but he didn’t see how he could apply that to his own life.

“It’s not about
how much time you spend with your family, Evan. It’s about what you do with the
time you have. The memories you make.” He smiled. “You guys wouldn’t have
noticed if I was there to watch your favorite TV program with you after dinner,
but you would’ve noticed if I wasn’t there to read you a story or tuck you in
at night.”

Evan smiled at the
memory of their bedtime ritual. “I guess you’re right.”

“You wouldn’t have
cared one way or the other whether it was me or your mom helpin’ you with your
homework after school, but if I wasn’t at one of your baseball games or school
concerts, you would have missed me.”

“I don’t know
about that,” Evan joked. “You always embarrassed us by yellin’ at the umpires
or whistlin’ like a crazy man while the other parents applauded politely.”

Luc threw his head
back and laughed. “You loved it when I did that.”

“Whatever.”

“Seriously,” Luc
said, slapping his son’s knee. “Those are the things your kids are gonna
remember. You have to make time to make those kinds of memories. You’re gonna
have to travel, and you may not make it home in time for dinner every night,
but as long as you spend quality time with them and let them know you’ll always
be there when they need you, your kids are gonna be just fine.”

Evan knew his
father was right. Luc had worked a lot while he and Ryan were growing up, but
that taught him about working hard to achieve success. Evan hoped to pass that
on to his own kids one day. “Can I ask you somethin’ else?” He didn’t even know
how to broach the subject, but if anyone could offer him insight into this
dilemma, it was his father.

Luc tipped his
head back and closed his eyes. “Anything, you know that.”

“How did you and
Mom, you know, stay connected?”

Luc opened one eye
and chuckled. “Surely to God you’re not askin’ me about my sex life, boy?”

Mortified at the
mere suggestion, Evan hit him in the arm. “No! Are you crazy?”

Luc laughed. “I’m
just messin’ with ya, kid. Marisa and I stayed connected the same way most busy
couples do, I guess. We had date nights, a couple of times a year we went away
for long weekends, just the two of us…” He smiled. “We bought an extra deep
couch for the family room so we could take the back cushions off. It became our
cuddle couch
. After you boys went to bed, we’d cuddle up there and watch
TV together.” He shrugged. “Intimacy isn’t all about sex. It’s about lettin’
her know you care, that you couldn’t do what you do without her.”

Maybe that’s where
he had gone wrong. He’d never shown Erika how much he needed her. He let her
believe that his work was a separate part of his life that didn’t involve her.
Little did she know, he’d never been happier or more productive at Titan than
he was when they were together.

“Thanks, Dad,” he
said, getting to his feet. “I think I know how to make things right. Um, you
mind if I go and grab somethin’ out of the safe?”

They shared a
look. Both men knew Evan had only been keeping one thing in that safe.
His
grandmother’s ring.

“You sure this is
the right time?” Luc asked, raising an eyebrow. “That’s not a Band-Aid
solution. You need to be on solid ground before you even think about-”

Evan held his hand
up. “I know what I’m doin’…” He smiled. “Thanks to you.”

“Okay,” Luc said,
reaching for the phone. “Let me call the driver. You can pick your car up
tomorrow.”

***

Erika was tossing
and turning, trying to escape her thoughts, when Chloe started barking to alert
her she’d spotted something or someone outside. Holding her breath, Erika threw
her legs over the edge of the bed, hoping it was just a squirrel or the pesky
raccoon that was always getting into her garbage cans.

A light tap on the
door and Chloe stopped barking and started dancing around to show her
excitement. That could only mean one person.
Evan
. Chloe was hoping he’d
brought her favorite playmate back for a sleepover.

Looking down at
the black silk nightgown, she grimaced, wishing she’d taken the time to grab a
robe before making her way to the door. Oh well, she couldn’t do much about her
state of undress now. Not that it mattered. Evan had seen her in much less.

She took a
fortifying breath, trying to steel her resolve. Just the sight of him often
dissolved any residual anger, leaving her with the overwhelming urge to kiss
and make up instead of hold him accountable for his actions. Not this time, she
vowed, reaching for the door handle. This time would be different.

She looked up,
expecting to meet his eyes. Instead, her gaze drifted down.
Oh my God.
He
was on bended knee, holding a black velvet ring box containing the largest
diamond she’d ever laid eyes on.

“What are you
doing?” she whispered. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she was certain he
could see the effect his surprise was having on her.

He grinned. “What
does it look like I’m doin’, beautiful?”

She gripped the
door knob, shaking her head in stunned denial. This could not be happening. It
must be a dream. But if it was, did she really want to wake up?

“You wanted to
marry me not so long ago,” he said, reaching for her hand. “But I was too
stupid and self-absorbed to realize that I’m nothin’ without you.”

Erika couldn’t
stop the flow of tears. She’d been waiting for this moment for years. “That’s
not true,” she whispered, wanting desperately to believe every word. If only
they didn’t share a long and complicated history that made believing they could
finally be getting their happily ever after so difficult.

“Yes, it is.”

Chloe ran off
towards the kitchen when the draft teased the hem of her mistress’s nightgown.
It was cold outside, but Erika was numb to everything, including the elements.