Taking Something (25 page)

I thought for sure that by the time I hit the runway in Los Angeles I'd have a dozen missed calls from Hollace. I’d come to learn that when it came to Hollace and phone calls, the only time you heard from him was if something was very wrong or very right. In this case, Sadie had probably filled his head with all the very wrong about Nick Kline.

The phone never rang. Not a text or an email. I contemplated calling him, but I wasn't quite ready to hear him tell me I was fired. Not at least until I had reasons to talk him out of his decision, and that wasn't going to happen until I talked to Gia and got that part of my life straightened out.

It was after midnight when I rented a car and went back to my hotel. I couldn't be the kind of guy who showed up at Gia's house in the middle of night anymore. I needed her to see that I was different. That I could be the kind of guy she needed me to be. If she was afraid to face reality, maybe I could face it for us. Sadie was out of my life, and if I could just convince Gia that she didn't need to be in her life either… Well, then maybe we could make it work.

I snagged a few restless hours of sleep and practically shot out of bed the next morning, ready to get her back. The California sun was shining down on me as I raced down the interstate to the exit for her neighborhood. The time away from her had given me a chance to figure out what I was going to say.

I'd start by telling her that things with Sadie were officially over. She didn't have to worry about being the other woman anymore—even though she'd always been the only woman. I had to make her see that she was all that mattered to me. Then I would tell her how I planned on making a living. My brother had always said that if I wanted a position with Kline Implements it was mine. No, I didn't know the first thing about farm equipment, but it didn't matter. I was a chameleon. I'd adapt. And besides that, I could sell ice to an Eskimo. It might take me a minute to find my footing, but I knew that I could support both Gia and her daughter comfortably.

I had it all planned out. I even stopped by a little coffee shop outside my hotel and picked up muffins, coffee, and one of those donuts covered in sprinkles for Audrey. Walking up to her door, I was sure that today was going to be the day I started the rest of my life. The grown-up, responsible, lie-free rest of my life with her.

Before I knocked, I peeked through the tiny slit in the curtains that covered the living room window, hoping to steal a glimpse of her and settle my nerves.

What I saw when I did was not the reassuring ‘go get her’ incentive I'd hoped for. Instead, I saw a pretty little girl and her mother snuggled up on the couch, resting their heads on the princess blanket-covered lap of none other than America's top-selling R&B singer. His head was resting on the back of the couch, sleeping as peacefully as they were. There was a bowl of half-eaten popcorn and a stack of DVD cases on the coffee table presumably from a movie night.

Somehow, while I was changing things in my life, Gia was changing things in hers. Landry was back in her life—and in a big way.

I wanted to bust through the door and tell him that he'd missed his chance. That he didn't get the girl.

My girl.

I was ready to fill the space in her life that he’d walked away from all those years ago, dammit. Ready to charge in and tell her that I could be the man she and Audrey needed. Or that I’d spend the rest of my life damn well trying to be.

A brief clip of it playing out in my head appeared behind my eyes. In my mind, I replaced Landry with myself.

But I didn't knock down the door, despite how desperately I wanted to. What would I say? How could I compete with him? I was a jobless con artist. He was Landry Westwood. I never expected him to be back in her life, especially after she’d told me how she felt about him.

How did this happen?

This had to be the reason that she hadn’t been answering my calls. Had she been lying? Had her night with me made her realize that she wanted to be a family with Landry? That she still had feelings for him?

I swallowed my pride and went back to my rented car in that unfamiliar city with my tail between my legs. This time, I was the one who had missed my chance. The one who had backed down from my dream.

Maybe this was karma's sick and twisted way of finally catching up with me. I'd decided to be a decent guy and now I was being forced to prove it. To walk away from her and let her have a shot at happiness with the father of her child. Audrey was an amazing kid. Bright and funny and dangerously observant and adorable like her mother. She deserved to have both of her parents in her life. She deserved the life I'd always wanted when I was a kid. Stable and full of love and support. One where people were honest and took care of each other.

If she didn't get it, there was a chance she'd grow up and be jaded and screwed up just like me.

I didn't wish that on anyone. Especially not a little girl I was realizing I’d already fallen in love with.

T
HE CURTAINS
were pulled in my hotel suite, which was fine by me. I felt dark and alone—might as well surround myself with it. As the door closed behind me, I fell face-first into my bed.

Fucking karma.

“You about finished with your tour of humanity?” a voice asked, sending chills down my spine. Like nails on a chalkboard.

“What are you doing here, Sadie?” I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, not needing to look at her. I knew she was smugly sitting in the chair across the room, letting my failure curl her lips into a smile. If she was here to gloat about the fact that I didn't have a job or a girl, she could kindly let the door hit her on the ass on her way out.

“Judging by your tone, I'd venture a guess that you've heard the latest Hollywood gossip?” she predicted. “My phone has been ringing off the hook since the story broke. Reporters wanting to know if my assistant actually hid a child from its famous father.” She chuckled. “Of course, I tell them yes since I have to field my own phone calls while I find a new assistant.”

“She quit?” I sat up, waiting for the answer. Was it possible that she quit because she wanted to be with me? Maybe she'd changed her mind and gone to Sadie herself.

Sadie shrugged. “Let's just say we parted ways.”

“Still haven't answered my question. What are you doing here, Sadie?”

“Come on, Nick. Did you really think I was going to let you make a fool out of me? That you could just keep fucking my has-been assistant behind my back and I'd just turn the other cheek? I think you and your fuck buddy need a reminder of who I am. I'm the famous one, not you. I will not be taken advantage of by you.” Sadie crossed her legs and leaned back into the chair without an ounce of remorse over what she’d just said. “And certainly not by her.”

“What the fuck did you do?”

“When I got back from Chicago, Gia was waiting for me, ready to get back to work. I knew I had to do something to punish the two of you for thinking you could get away with it.”

“How did you—”

“Save it,” she sneered. “Do I have to remind you who I am?”

“How could I forget?” I glared, waiting for her to continue the sick, twisted way she was dragging this whole thing out.

“So, I totally should have fired both of you the second I found out about your little impromptu vacay, but then I thought, why would I do that?” She added with a maniacal cackle, “Because the two of you would have just run off together the second I was out of the picture, right?”

I didn't answer. The two of us probably would have run off together with Sadie out of the picture.

“Why would I give them the chance at a happily ever after? No one ever seems to give me the fucking chance at one? Especially her.”

“So what? You just called up Landry Westwood and told him about Audrey?”

“Not quite,” she said, shaking her head, her eyes full of some sick, twisted pleasure over this whole thing. “You see, you were a positive influence on me, Nick. Your decision to come clean with me in Chicago got me thinking about the lies I'd told over the years. If you could untell a lie, why couldn't I?”

“Are you talking in fucking riddles?” I snapped. “Get to the point so you can leave.”

“Okay,” she patronized. “My point is,
I
was the reason Landry never knew about the baby. Well, me and the fact that Gia was too big of coward to tell him herself. When she found out she was pregnant, I volunteered to talk to Landry for her. Which I never did. I wanted to be with him so I lied to her and said that he told me that he didn't want a baby.”

Holy mother of massive con-artists.
I’d done some shady shit in my life, but this took the prize of most diabolical deliberately shitty thing I’d ever heard of one person doing to another. To several others. At least from someone I knew personally.

This entire time neither Landry nor Gia knew the truth. This explained a lot. I knew Landry wasn't the kind of person who would desert her. I knew that Gia had had him all wrong. I should have known that there was a whole lot more to the story. But I had been too blinded by my own stupid agenda to pay attention.

All I could think about was how they all must’ve been feeling. Landry finding out he had this amazing kid out there who didn’t even know him. Audrey meeting a dad she thought she hadn’t wanted her for the first time. And damn it stung like salt in a gaping wound to imagine what Gia might’ve felt when she’d learned that Landry never knew. That he’d never blown her off and still might have feelings for her. Might want to step up and be the father and, Jesus Christ, maybe the husband in that familial scenario.

“That’s low, Sadie. Even for liars like me and you. These are people’s lives. An innocent
kid’s
life that you completely fucked with. Why would you do that?” I finally asked her, pretty sure that I already knew the answer.

“Really? You of all people should know why I did that,” she scoffed. “You are not that stupid. I wanted to drive a wedge between them and I did. Wanted them to be completely over so I could have my shot. I wasn't going to sit by and watch them spin their teenage pregnancy mishap into a love story. And I wanted Gia to go away. I knew she'd leave with the baby. She's always been too scared of hurting other people. Or facing them.”

“Too bad it didn't work,” I countered. “She was out of the picture and he still didn't want you.”

“Sadly, you're right,” she agreed. “But I was the one who deserved to be with him. She had ruined him with her bullshit.”

“Oh, you mean her bullshit of being a decent human being? What you did was horrible. And coming from me—”

“No more horrible than what you did to me. You've been lying to me this whole time, just like I lied to her.”

“You want to know the difference between what I did and what you did?” I stood up and walked over to her. Hovering above her, I pointed my finger in her face. “You deserved to be lied too.”

“Oh, Nick,” she said with a wicked look in her eyes and the hint of a smile. “We could argue this for days—who deserves what they got and so on—but the bottom line is you and I… We're the same.” She shrugged as if this were common knowledge. “We lie and cheat to get what we want. Like it or not, baby, we deserve each other.”

Wow. This was messed up. She was enjoying herself. She was
proud
of what she’d done and getting some sick pleasure out of telling me about it.

She was an even bigger sociopath than I'd imagined, but I was starting to think she was right. Maybe I did deserve her. Sadie Sinclair was penance for a life of deception.

I hung my head and stepped away from her. I couldn't look at her, couldn’t stand to see the reflection of myself, of my own lies and greed, in her eyes.

“Lucky for you, I'm going to let this whole little thing slide. Now that Gia and Landry are getting their happily ever after, it's our turn.”

“Our turn?” I turned back to her with a bewildered look, still unclear about what she was trying to say. “What in God’s name are you talking about?”

“You and me, Nick. We are going to act like this whole thing never happened. You are going to go back to being my loving, supportive producer boyfriend.” She paused, popping her hand up on her hip. “I'm going to keep being my fabulous self, only now I'll finally have a guy that's totally invested in just me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“What choice do you have, really? You lost the only thing that would make you give up your dream job.” She rose up out of her chair and slinked over to me. Bile rode the elevator up my esophagus as she slid her arms around me. “What do you even have to lose at this point except your career? Don't you think it's about time you got at least one thing right in your pathetic life?”