Sweeter Temptation (Kimani Hotties) (14 page)

“The mailroom,” Kyle reiterated. “It’s the deal on the table. You can take it or leave it.”

“But I’m an Ellison,” Logan said.

Kyle leaned forward, crossed his arms on his desk and stared at his cousin. “And the mailroom is where Ellisons get their start. Adam did it. I did it. And if you want to be a part of Ellison Industries, you’ll do it.”

Logan swallowed as if he had just choked down a spoonful of awful-tasting medicine.

“I’ll take it,” he said, finally.

Kyle stood and extended his hand to his cousin. “Good,” he said. “Welcome aboard.”

Chapter 20

T
he phone rang and Nia walked across the office to pick it up.

Same as her old job, no one else would do it. And like the phones, any grunt work around the office fell on her.

Nia had gratefully accepted the position, after leaving her job in suburban Chicago two months ago. Even with the drastic pay cut, she couldn’t think of a job she’d rather do.

“I look forward to it,” Nia told the caller a few minutes into the conversation. “You won’t regret your decision to open your new regional distribution center in Candy, Ohio.”

Nia hung up the phone and pumped her fist in the air.

“Yes!” Nia exclaimed. Score one for the town of Candy’s newly formed Office of Economic Development.

“Am I in the right office?”

Nia turned to see Amy standing in the doorway eyeing her suspiciously.

“The door to this cubbyhole of an office says Nia King, but I haven’t seen a smile on her face in months.”

Nia grabbed her friend by the hand and pulled her inside the office. “You’re not going to believe this....”

Amy’s eyes lit up. “You finally took my advice and called Kyle.”

Like a two-hundred-foot drop on a thrill ride, Nia’s mood plummeted. She let go of her friend’s hand.

“No. I didn’t.” She plopped down in the chair behind her desk. “Anyway, I’m sure he’s moved on by now. He probably doesn’t even remember my name.”

Amy frowned. “You said he told you he loved you. A man doesn’t forget that easily.”

Nor would he forgive a woman who rejected his love.

Nia thought about contacting him only a hundred times a day. Each time the expression on his face the last time she saw him stopped her. Kyle was finished with her.

“So do you want to hear what I’m excited about or what?” Nia snapped, hoping her tone would make it clear to Amy she was done talking about Kyle Ellison.

“Actually, I had a half day at school so I came to take you to lunch,” Amy said. “You can tell me over a plate of fries at the diner.”

As the two walked down Main Street to the fifties-style diner, Nia couldn’t help notice another empty storefront. The gift shop had closed. It was the third small business to go belly-up since Peppermint Lane had closed its doors.

She pushed open the glass door and looked around the nearly empty restaurant. One of two eateries in town, it was usually packed and during the lunch hour seats were hard to come by.

The factory’s closing had meant a lot of belt-tightening. It was one of the reason’s Nia felt buoyed by today’s news.

They waved hello to the waitress who’d worked at the diner since they were teenagers as they seated themselves at their regular booth. A few moments later she sat two chocolate milkshakes in front of them.

“Fries will be up in a moment, girls,” she said.

“Pretty slow today,” Amy commented.

“Breakfast was even slower,” the pink-clad waitress said. “If this keeps up, I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to stay open.”

“Add two burgers to our order,” Nia said, earning a grateful smile from the woman.

When the waitress was out of earshot, Amy propped her elbows on the chipped Formica tabletop. “So what’s going on?”

Nia dropped the name of one of the country’s largest mail order companies. “I just got off the phone with them, and they’re opening a distribution center in Candy. That’s two-hundred full-time jobs.”

It wasn’t enough to make up for the two thousand jobs they’d lost when the candy factory closed, but it was a start.

Amy’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God! That’s great! If Matt gets a job there, we won’t have to move.”

The waitress returned with two burgers and a heaping plate of French fries.

Amy took a huge bite of her burger. She was still so excited, she talked and chewed at the same time.

“Maybe I should tell Matt not to take the Georgia job,” she said. “If there’s going to be work right in our backyard, there’s no reason, right?”

“They plan to start hiring in a few weeks.” Nia swirled a fry through a puddle of ketchup and popped it into her mouth.

“Your taking this job is the best thing that ever happened to Candy,” Amy said. “Who knew you would do such a fabulous job so quickly?”

Kyle had, Nia thought, already making a mental list of things to pick up from the hardware store.

After work, she’d start renovating the farmhouse’s kitchen, and she’d work until she was too exhausted to dwell on Kyle or anything else.

* * *

They’d put it off long enough, Kyle thought, standing outside of their father’s bedroom.

“You ready?” his brother asked.

Kyle nodded. Two months had passed since the Sunday they were supposed to have cleared their father’s personal belongings from his bedroom. Neither brother had been inside the room since David Ellison’s death last year.

Adam went inside first and Kyle followed him carrying three large cardboard boxes.

“You boys need anything,” Thomas Gayle peeked inside the open doorway.

“No, we’re good, Chief,” Adam said.

“You know, the staff or myself would be happy to take care of this for you,” Chief said.

“Thanks, but we’d rather do it,” Kyle confirmed.

He set the boxes down and looked around. The housekeeper touched up the room periodically so there was no layer of dust covering the dark furniture.

The room was as utilitarian as his father’s office, Kyle noted. No framed photos. No knickknacks. The closest thing to a personal touch was a copy of a business book that had topped the bestseller list last year.

“Not much to show for nearly seventy years on the planet, is there?” Adam asked.

“I don’t think we’ll fill even one of these boxes.”

They divided up the room, Adam began going through their father’s bureau and nightstand drawers, while Kyle started moving the suits in the armoire to the box slated for charity.

Adam held up the book on the nightstand. “Do you remember those book reports?”

Kyle chuckled. He had thought the exact same thing when he saw the book in his brother’s hand. When their teachers had assigned them book reports in elementary school, their father replaced the children’s books with ones he’d personally selected.

“I stood in front of my fifth grade class and read a report on
Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors,
” Kyle said. “I still remember the glazed-over expression on my classmates’ faces, not to mention my teacher’s.”

“You can recall the title after all these years?” Adam asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Can’t you?”

“Sure can.” Adam nodded. “My first book report was on
Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution.
Word got around and none of my teachers ever asked me to read a report aloud again.”

Kyle shook his head and laughed. “But you have to admit, it did save us a lot of time in business school. We’d read the most influential business management books by the time we hit high school.”

“You interested?” Adam turned the book around in his hands, before tossing it toward him.

“I’ll pass.” Kyle caught it and placed it the donation box.

He returned to cleaning out the armoire. When he got down to the last few suits, he spotted an old cardboard box in the back of the wooden closet. He pulled it out, pulled back the flaps and glanced at the items on top.

“Adam, I think you need to take a look a this,” he said.

He passed the box to his older brother who looked at the contents and sat down on the bed.

Adam pulled one of the framed photographs from the box and then another.

“It’s my mom.” His voice was a husky whisper.

Kyle looked on as Adam hurriedly pulled out photograph after photograph of his mother. In some of the photos she was with a baby Adam, others she was photographed with their father. In all of them, she wore a huge grin.

“She was beautiful,” Kyle commented, as he looked at the old photos of the young family. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dad so happy.”

“He does look happy, doesn’t he?” Adam asked. “I’ve never seen these photos. Until now, I’d only seen photographs of her when I visited my grandparents.”

Adam packed the photos back into the box and put it aside.

Kyle didn’t bother asking if there were any photos of his mother in the box. Nor did he scour the closet looking for another memory box. He knew better. The only memento David Ellison had saved from his short second marriage was the canceled check—a receipt for the hefty sum he’d paid for a divorce and sole custody of an infant Kyle. His mother had drowned in a boating accident fewer than three months later.

Adam went back to the bureau drawers, while Kyle pulled the last few suits from the armoire and placed them in the box slated for charity. He moved on to sort through his father’s ties, which both of them thought were too conservative for their tastes.

A half hour later, Kyle had divided his father’s clothes into the boxes slated for charity or the trash.

“You almost done?” he asked his brother.

“Yeah, I just have to close all of the drawers.” Adam slid the bureau drawers closed, and then went over to the nightstand. He leaned over to shut the bottom drawer.

“Hey, what’s this?”

Kyle watched as his brother unearthed a file folder wedged between the nightstand and the bed. Adam opened the file and skimmed the contents.

“What is it?” Kyle asked.

“Something you’ll be very interested in.”

Kyle read the label outside the folder and practically snatched it from his brother’s hand. He quickly thumbed through it.

“Son of a...” He cut off the muttered curse.

It was all there.

He scanned the papers, which contained signed contracts, correspondence and a large check that had yet to be mailed. Attached to the inside of the folder with a paperclip was a handwritten copy, the only copy, of Nia’s grandmother’s toffee recipe.

David Ellison had purchased the Peppermint Lane Candy Co. with the intention of turning it into a toffee candy factory.

Nia.

This is the file her grandmother was trying to tell her about, the one she’d been desperately searching for all this time.

His first instinct was to contact her immediately, but he decided to hold off.

Kyle turned to his brother. “I know your specialty is pastry, but do you think you could make this for me?”

Adam glanced at the recipe. “Sure,” he said.

“How soon can you do it?”

“Now if you’d like. We’re done here, and Brandi is having a spa day with her mother.” Adam hefted the box filled with photographs of his mother. “Let’s head over to my condo. We can stop at the store and pick up the ingredients on the way.”

Hours later, Kyle paced in front of the kitchen island workstation in Adam and Brandi’s condo waiting on the completed candy to finish cooling. His brother had put on a pot of his favorite chocolate-laced coffee blend, but Kyle had refused a cup. He was wired enough.

“It’s been thirty minutes.” Kyle looked at his chunky platinum watch. “Is it ready?”

“Not quite.” Adam leaned against the counter and sipped his coffee.

The aroma of coffee tickled Kyle’s nose, and his mind flashed to his first morning at Nia’s farmhouse.

“I never missed your coffee more than I did when I was trapped at Nia’s place,” he said. “Hers was like kerosene.”

Memories of the time he’d spent snowbound with Nia frequently came to mind. Most days he was good at shoving them out of his head, on others, like today, he wasn’t.

Finding the folder had put her at the forefront of his head and his heart.

Adam eyed him over the rim of his coffee mug. “You still haven’t talked to her?”

“No,” Kyle said, shortly.

“Well, after today’s discovery, you’ll have to contact her.”

Kyle nodded. “About the file, but that’s it. I’ve never chased after or begged a woman until Nia, and I won’t do it again.”

Adam removed the chilled toffee from the fridge just as Brandi and her mother walked through the door.

“Is that candy?” Kyle’s chocoholic sister-in-law, who usually only had eyes for his brother, zeroed in on the toffee.

Brandi reached for a piece, but Adam maneuvered it out of her grasp.

“Sorry, sweetheart. I made this for Kyle. He needs it for work.”

“No, go ahead, try it.” Kyle turned to his sister-in-law and her mother. “You too, Jolene. I want to hear what you think.”

Kyle waited before pouncing on the tray of candy, wanting to note his family’s reactions first. He didn’t have to wait long.

Brandi finished her piece and immediately grabbed two more.

“Wow!” Adam eyes widened. “This is good. Really, really, good.”

Like his wife, he reached for more.

Kyle looked over at Jolene. Brandi’s outspoken mother didn’t know how to be anything but honest. She definitely wouldn’t hold back on her opinion.

“This is the best damn candy I’ve ever eaten,” Jolene declared. She smacked the hands of her daughter and son-in-law, who were practically attacking the tray. “Leave some for me.”

Kyle managed to swipe a few pieces for himself, before heading to the door.

“Where are you going?” Adam called out.

“To the office,” Kyle said.

“But it’s Sunday,” Brandi said.

It didn’t matter. Kyle had a lot of work to do before he made a return business trip to Candy, Ohio.

Chapter 21

N
ia climbed down from the kitchen step stool to admire her handiwork.

Not bad, she thought, scrutinizing the freshly primed kitchen cabinets.

New ones would have been her first option, but her budget wouldn’t allow it. For now, her renovations would have to be solely a do-it-yourself project.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and she peered out of the open window. The skies were darkening, but the rain hadn’t started. Hopefully, she could leave the windows open a little longer.

Nia heard the faint sound of her cell phone ringing. She put down her paintbrush and followed the sound upstairs to the alcove.

The mayor’s number flashed on her phone screen, and she answered immediately. He and his wife had been on a cruise for their anniversary, and Nia had only been able to leave messages on his voice mail.

“I just got your message,” his voice boomed through the phone. “A distribution center and two hundred jobs!”

He was so excited, Nia had to hold her phone away from her ear. They talked for a few minutes, and when Nia disconnected the call she was glad she’d returned to her hometown.

She hadn’t decided if she’d stay permanently, but she’d remain until she helped attract enough jobs to the small town to make up for the ones lost with the closing of Peppermint Lane.

The doorbell sounded. Amy had mentioned stopping by this afternoon, and Nia hoped she remembered to bring Oreos.

“Come in, I’ll be right down,” she shouted.

Nia bounded down the stairs. “Did you bring the cook...”

The sight in the living room stole her words along with her next breath.

Kyle.

Nia stood rooted to the spot. She blinked twice to make sure she wasn’t daydreaming. No. It was Kyle. All six foot four dreamy inches of him, looking better than she remembered.

“How did you know I was here?” she stammered, still reeling from the bone-deep thrill of seeing him again.

“I tried contacting you at your old office, and they told me you’d resigned.”

Nia nodded. “I decided to move back here.”

“We need to talk.” His deep voice rumbled through her reaching places aching for his touch. “It’s business.”

Nia soaked in the sight of him. He wore slacks with a dress shirt, having obviously ditched the suit jacket and tie earlier. She looked down at her rolled jeans and paint spattered T-shirt.

“Okay, give me a moment to wash some of this primer off my hands.” She retreated to the bathroom where her hands trembled every time she tried to turn on the faucet or pick up the soap. Finally, she calmed down enough to wash her hands and splash her face with cold water.

When she’d initially saw him she’d hoped he’d come back for her.

It’s business,
he’d said. The expression on his face had backed up his words. It was identical to the one he wore when he’d announced his decision to close the factory.

You had your chance, Nia reminded herself as she returned to the living room. And she’d blown it.

“You’ve redecorated,” Kyle said. “Looks good.”

Nia glanced around at the gleaming hardwood floors and creamy walls, once hidden by shag carpeting and wallpaper. The furniture from her apartment now filled the room along with a smattering of lush, green plants.

She nodded and pulled the scarf from her head. “I was working on the kitchen.”

“I have some business to discuss with you,” he said. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“Business?” For the first time Nia noticed his leather briefcase.

“Can we sit down for a moment?”

“Um, sure,” she said. Still stunned he was actually in her living room. “Can I get you a glass of lemonade or something?”

He shook his head. “I’d like to get this done as quickly as possible and get out of your way.”

She stole a look at his profile as they sat on the sofa. Right now, she’d give anything for the snowbound camaraderie they’d shared on the ancient orange sofa.

Tell him how much you’ve missed him,
an inner voice prodded. Tell him how much you regret not believing in his love for you. Or yourself.

Nia opened her mouth to do just that, but the hard set to his jaw stopped her cold. It really was too late. He’d moved on.

Kyle opened the briefcase and retrieved a folder. He handed it to her.

“What’s this?” Nia asked.

“It’s the file you’ve been turning this house upside down for,” Kyle said. “Adam and I found it in my father’s bedroom.”

“What?” Amy opened the folder, and her eyes landed on the toffee recipe written out in her grandmother’s script. “I don’t understand.”

Kyle sighed. “My father bought Peppermint Lane with the intention of turning it into a toffee factory based on your grandmother’s recipe.”

“But how?” Nia asked, still stunned.

“It’s all there in their correspondence. Your grandmother managed to push her way into my father’s office with her candy. He fell in love with the toffee, of course, and your grandmother sold him the recipe on the condition he buy the factory to produce it. Unfortunately, they both died before revealing their plans.”

Nia covered her open mouth with her hand as she absorbed his words. “Oh, my God. I still can’t quite believe it.”

“Actually, there’s more.” Kyle handed her an envelope. “It’s a check. I had it reissued to your grandmother’s estate, which is you.”

Nia peeked inside the envelope. When she saw the cluster of zeroes, she pulled it out to be sure she was reading it correctly. “Is this some kind of joke or mistake?” she asked.

“It’s the price your grandmother negotiated for her recipe,” Kyle said.

Nia continued to stare at the check.

Kyle snapped the briefcase closed. “Well, that concludes our business,” he said. “A team from Ellison will be here next week to supervise the reopening of the candy factory and retooling it to make toffee.”

“So you’re leaving?” she asked.

“I have to check on an Ellison subsidiary in Greece next week, so I’m flying back to Nashville as soon as I get back to the airstrip,” he said. “I know how much the file meant to you, so I wanted to give it to you in person.”

A big check and news of the candy factory reopening should have her on the top of the world. Instead, all she could think about was what she’d lost as she watched him walk toward the door and out of her life.

“Kyle,” she called out as he stepped into the rain.

He turned to look at her, not a trace of warmth in his brown eyes. “Goodbye, Nia.”

She looked on as he drove off in the rental car, and her tears matched the falling rain. She’d lost him forever, all because she hadn’t thought she was woman enough to have him or keep him.

Go after him,
her inner voice kicked up again.

Nia looked outside at the falling rain and immediately thought about her mother going out in the pouring rain to chase after her father.

But you’re not your mother, and he’s nothing like your father.

“Screw it,” Nia said, letting the check fall to the floor. She wasn’t going to let an ugly past cheat her out of a future.

And she prayed she and Kyle still had one as she grabbed her keys, pushed open the door and ran to her grandma’s old pickup. Nia jumped inside, threw it into gear and peeled out of the drive.

Kyle had gotten a good head start, so she took a short cut intending to cut him off on the main road. Don’t let it be too late, she pressed the gas pedal to the floorboard.

She was less than a mile from the main road, when the ancient truck’s engine started to sputter.

No, this couldn’t be happening. Not now. Nia kept her foot on the gas as the truck slowed. A truck that had given nearly thirty-five years of reliable service wouldn’t give out on her when she needed it most.

“Come on,” she coaxed, even as the truck gave one last cough before coming to a dead stop.

Nia stared out the windshield at the pounding rain, before dropping her head on the steering wheel in frustration. She’d finally found the courage to go after him only to end up stranded in a broken-down truck.

She’d laugh if her heart didn’t hurt so badly.

A loud tap sounded on the window, and Nia jumped. The door opened, and Kyle stuck his head inside the truck’s cab.

“You okay?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Stranded.”

“What are you doing out in this weather?” he asked, raindrops trailing down his handsome face.

“I was coming after you,” she said. “I needed to ask you something.”

He motioned for her to scoot over, and he climbed into the truck. “This is like some weird kind of déjà vu,” he said, staring straight ahead at the rain hitting the windshield.

Or kismet, Nia thought.

“So, what did you want to ask me?”

“I need to know if you can give a woman who had to learn her lesson the hard way a second chance?” she asked. “I’m worthy of and deserve the very best. That’s you, Kyle. I love you, and I don’t want to waste another moment being without you.”

Nia could hear her heartbeat as he slowly turned to face her.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known, Nia, inside and out.” Kyle smoothed his knuckles down her cheek. “I never stopped loving you.”

He leaned in and brushed his lips over hers in a kiss so sweet her toes curled inside her wet sneakers.

Thunder shook the ground, and lightning electrified the sky. Kyle pushed open the truck door and reached for her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where are we going?” Nia asked.

“I know the perfect, out-of-the-way farmhouse where we can ride out the storm,” he said.

Once they were seated in the rental car, he took her hand again.

“Nia, you picked me up in the middle of a storm not even knowing my last name.” Kyle used the fingertip of his other hand to turn her chin until she faced him. “I’m picking you up in this storm, to ask you to
change
your last name, to
Ellison.
”

“You want to get married?” Nia asked, her question a surprised gasp.

“Of course, don’t you?”

Nia threw her arms around his neck. “When and where?”

Kyle smiled. “You’re a wealthy woman now, baby,” he said. “Surprise me.”

* * * * *