Page 70 of The Loophole
“And that changes something, as far as you’re concerned?”
“Yeah, it does. I can’t fucking do it, because I like Embry, and I don’t want to get him blackballed from the family. I hate myself for being so sentimental.” He held up his phone and showed me as he deleted the recording. Then he grumbled, “So, you win. Enjoy your inheritance and your awesome relationship and your perfect life.”
I grabbed him in a hug, and he went as rigid as a mannequin as he asked, “What are you doing?”
“Hugging you. Just go with it.”
“Stop it.”
I let go of him and said, “I always knew you were a good guy, Fallon.”
“I completely regret deleting that recording.”
“No, you don’t. You know you did the right thing, and I hope this can be a fresh start for you and me. If you ever need anything, I’m here for you, brother.”
I could tell I was getting through to him, even though he tried to brush it off. “Whatever. I’m going to go get drunk now. For the love of god, please don’t bone for the rest of the weekend, because I don’t want to hear it. My therapist already has his hands full without adding that trauma to the mix.”
As he started to walk away, I called after him, “You earned yourself some major karma points, Fallon. Just watch. I’ll bet something good is headed your way.”
He muttered, “Yeah, right,” before disappearing into the main building, and I grinned. I was going to be proven right very soon, but he didn’t know what our grandfather planned to tell him after dinner.
I hurried back to our room to tell Embry the news. He’d put on the pale pink suit he’d bought secondhand and had tailored for this weekend, along with a white dress shirt and a pair of sneakers. I murmured, “Wow, you look gorgeous.” Then I swept him off his feet and spun around in a circle, which made him laugh.
“I guess whatever your grandfather wanted to talk to you about was good news,” he said, as he draped his arms over my shoulders.
“You won’t believe it.”
I took a seat on the small sofa with him on my lap and told him everything that had happened with both Granddad and Fallon. When I finished, Embry looked stunned. He took a few moments to process it, and finally, he asked, “So, what happens now?”
“Well, first I’m going to pay off all my debts, including both mortgages on the house. Then I guess I’ll contact a commercialreal estate agent and start shopping for a building to house my restaurant. Even though I still have a ton of planning to do, it makes sense to secure a location, and?—”
“No… I mean, what happens with us? Do we annul the marriage, and do we keep living together?”
That caught me off guard. “Nothing has to change, does it? Living with you has been wonderful, and I want to keep doing that—assuming that’s what you want, too.”
But maybe he didn’t want that at all. Maybe he wanted to move back into the house he’d loved with all his friends, instead of staying with someone he’d only been dating a few weeks. I was afraid of what he might say, so I barreled ahead with, “And, obviously, I’m going to write you a check as soon as we get home. It’ll be for double the amount we agreed on. I got more than I was expecting, and you should, too.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want any money.”
“What do you mean?”
“We said I’d get paid if we fooled your family, but your grandfather knew we were faking it. Also, the agreement was that we’d keep this going for a year, but it’s only been a month. There’s no way I’d take a huge payout for any of that.”
“But I really want you to have the money, so you can get your cake business off the ground.”
“You already gave me everything I need to launch my business,” he said. “And I’m serious. I didn’t earn it, and taking it would feel wrong.” I started to protest, but he gently pressed a finger to my lips. “Your family is expecting us for cocktails and dinner. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.”
He was right to shift our focus. We really couldn’t begin to tackle any of this today, or even this weekend. There was too much to sort out, too many decisions to be made. And the money thing was going to turn into an argument, I just knew it. I was going to insist that he take it, and he’d probably dig his heels inand keep refusing. But the fact that this hadn’t exactly gone to plan wasn’t his fault.
We both got up, and I kissed his forehead and said, “To be continued.”
Then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror over the dresser, which made me frown and go in search of a comb. I hadn’t checked my appearance before I went to meet with my grandfather, and I was a mess. My family was probably used to it, but I needed to step up my game. Before long, I was going to be running a restaurant again. My staff would be looking to me for leadership. It would be important to project an air of confidence and competence.
And there was that nauseous feeling again….
Embry and I finished getting ready and left our room hand-in-hand. On our way to the stairs, he said, “It’s creepy that Fallon recorded our conversation.”
“It was. I think he knew that, too. That might have been the real reason he didn’t take the recording to our grandfather. It would have made him look really bad.”