Katherine Garbera – One Night With His Ex (страница 5)
He left the country club and the party, but once he got outside, he didn’t fancy going home to his empty penthouse apartment. He had always liked the place because Towers On The Green had been the first big development he’d done on his own in Cole’s Hill. And he’d claimed the penthouse that overlooked the square for himself.
But he’d also lived there with Hadley for a short time and it had been where she’d come home from Manhattan to find another woman in his bed.
“Mo, wait up,” Alec called from behind him.
He turned toward his twin and stopped. Growing up, they’d gotten into a lot of good-natured fun switching places with each other and pulling pranks on friends and their parents. But these days Alec was busy running his tech company and Mauricio didn’t see him often enough.
“Thanks,” Alec said. “I need a ride to the airport. Just got an email and I need to get to Los Angeles to take care of a problem.”
“Sure.”
“Want to come with me?” Alec asked. “A few days out of town would be nice and we could hang out. I feel like I haven’t spent enough time with you lately.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. I have a meeting tomorrow with Homes for Everyone. It’s one of my bigger projects. I agree we haven’t been hanging out enough. When are you back in town?”
“Ten days,” Alec said.
“For the polo match that Diego set up?”
“Yes. I can’t wait. Should be a good game,” Alec said.
Diego and Mauricio had been working on a new horse stable closer to town and had added a field that was big enough to host charity polo matches. Diego ran the Velasquez ranch, Arbol Verde, which had been in the family for generations.
Mo dropped his brother off at the airport and took the long way home, stopping by the old warehouse district where Hadley’s loft was. He told himself he was checking out the land because it might be a good development project. But he knew a lie when he told one to himself, and as he stared up at the corner loft unit and noticed that the lights were on, he had to force himself not to call her.
Hadley spent a restless night trying to forget that one little touch from Mauricio. She went for a run and then showered and pretended that her week was starting like every other one. She had this. Of course, she’d broken up with Jackson and now had to find something to fill her hours, which made her feel exactly like the old biddies who thought she needed a man to be complete. It was just... Her sister was engaged and most of her friends were in long-term relationships, and it was hard being the third wheel all the time.
She went into her shop and took a moment to look around. The best part of coming back to Cole’s Hill was opening this place. She’d always known she wanted to do something artistic as an adult. After college, her career had taken her into brand marketing and graphic design, which was challenging and rewarding but had too many restrictions. She’d quickly realized she didn’t mind following a brief but hated having someone tell her exactly how to design a project.
But here at her art studio, she was finding her true calling. She still had a few clients in New York that she was working with until she could make this studio start to pay. Her sister, who was a CPA, had designed a long-term investment strategy for Hadley and so far it was going pretty well.
She had designed some lithographs of the surrounding Cole’s Hill area and had a commission to do the Abernathy ranch.
The bell on the door to her shop rang and she glanced over her shoulder to see Helena coming toward her with two thermal coffee mugs and a pastry box from the Bluebonnet Bakery. “I brought breakfast.”
Hadley leaned her hip against the back counter, eyeing her sister. “What do you want?”
“What makes you think I want something?”
“It’s not even nine and you’re in my shop with a bribe.”
“Maybe I just love my little sister,” Helena said, putting the box on the counter in front of Hadley and handing her the thermal mug that was emblazoned with
“You could, but I haven’t known you to get out of bed this early unless you needed something,” she said. Helena was famous in their family as a late sleeper and ridiculously hard to wake up under normal circumstances.
“Well, I might need your help to run interference with Mother.”
Hadley took a sip of her latte and reached out to open the box. There were two cheese Danishes and a chocolate cake doughnut inside. Of course, Helena had brought her favorites so this must be serious.
“With what?” she asked.
“I had to ask Mom and Dad to put the deposit down on the flowers and now she’s trying to take over. I mentioned that you were the artsy one and had already designed the flowers for the church and the reception...”
“That doesn’t sound bad. I’m not sure you needed to bring the latte and the pastries to ask me to do your design. I was already planning to do it,” Hadley said.
“Great. Glad to hear it. Mom is going to be over later to give you some notes on how she’d like the church to look. You will need to make some time to go and visit with the pastor, as well as with Kinley. Now that Mom is on board, we’re going to have Kinley plan it.”
Kinley Caruthers was a local girl who’d moved to Vegas and landed a primo job with Jaqs Veerland.
“What?” Now the pastries were making a bit more sense.
“Sorry, sis,” she said.
“There aren’t enough cheese Danishes at the Bluebonnet to make this okay. Mom is going to be a complete tyrant about this,” Hadley said.
“I know. I’m sorry, but I had no choice.”
“Why not? I thought you’d budgeted to make sure you didn’t have to ask them for any money,” she said.
“I did, but something came up unexpectedly and we didn’t have enough for the deposit, so I had to ask Daddy.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.”
She shrugged. “You know how it is with brides.”
“Actually, I don’t. But I do know you and you have a backup for everything,” she said. She put her coffee mug on the counter and walked around to her sister. “What’s going on?”
Helena chewed her lower lip and turned away from Hadley, which made her even more concerned.
“Hel, whatever it is, you can tell me,” she said.
She put her arms at her sides and shrugged. “That’s just it. I don’t know what the problem is. Malcolm withdrew the money and I can’t ask him about it without it seeming like I’m checking up on him.”
“Uh, yes you can. It’s your wedding fund,” she said.
“I know, but I took out a large amount to buy him a wedding present and I asked him to trust me and he did...so now I have to give him the same trust,” she said.
“Did he say he bought you something with it?” she asked.
“No, he just said he’d have the money back in our account soon.”
“Soon? That doesn’t sound like Malcolm. When did he say that?”
“Six weeks ago,” Helena said.
“Uh...that doesn’t sound right.”
“I know. I asked Mauricio to see if he can find out what’s going on,” Helena said. “He was really sweet after you and Jackson left the party.”
Of course he was. She’d rather he was a jerk so she could go back to hating him and forget about how sexy he was, which she hadn’t been able to do since she’d left the party.
“Anyway, thanks for working with mom on this. How’s things with Jackson? He’s really cute. You two make a good couple.”
She shook her head. “I broke up with him.”
“What? Why?”
“For a reason I’m not sharing with you,” she said.
“No spark?”
“Yeah,” she said. She wasn’t planning to elaborate or let her sister know that Mauricio was still turning her on with a barely-there touch.
“So about the money...” Hadley said.
“I’m going to see if anything else comes of it from Mauricio. Otherwise, I just don’t know. Am I wrong to trust him?”
Hadley hugged her sister close. “I don’t know. My track record with trusting guys isn’t great. You know him the best.”
“I do,” Helena said, hugging her back. “You’re right. He’s fine. We’re fine. And you’re handling Mother so everything is good.”
She was glad she had her sister’s wedding to help design instead of focusing on her own non-existent love life. Of course, after Helena left the studio, all she could think about was that she’d said Mauricio had been sweet to her. She hated when he wasn’t a total douche because it made her remember how good things had been between them.
Closing a deal in Houston, picking Alec up at the airport a few days earlier than expected and then driving back to Cole’s Hill hadn’t been what he’d planned for Friday, but Mauricio was hopeful that after the long day he’d fall into an exhausted sleep and for once not be tormented by dreams of Hadley.
But his youngest brother, Inigo, was back in town due to some downtime on the Formula One circuit and their father was in a rare mood, treating them all to dinner at the Peace Creek Steak House. His father loved it when he had all of his sons and his only grandson to himself. To be honest Mo liked these times too. Then they’d dropped the old man and Benito off at home in the Five Families neighborhood and headed out to the Bull Pit for shots of tequila and a grudge-match pool game.