At Your Service - A.C. Arthur Page 0,63
because I never planned to let you break me.” She let her hand slip from his grasp and walked out of the office.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MAJOR HAD NO idea what time it was or how long he’d sat in the dark on the couch in his living room glaring at the city skyline. He’d stood in his office for endless minutes staring at the open door that Nina had walked through before cursing fluently and grabbing his jacket and phone and leaving, too. He’d thought he’d find her at his place, gathering her clothes, but she’d been there and gone. The engagement ring he’d given her left in the center of the coffee table. So he’d just dropped down onto the couch where, coincidentally, twelve hours before they’d sat talking about their impending breakup.
He leaned forward, letting his elbows rest on his knees and feeling his head drop down. Where was she? How was she feeling? What could he say or do to make this better? Or, at the very least, to make the burning pain that had spread throughout his chest and settled there like an impending storm go away.
The doorbell rang and he ignored it. Whoever was on the other side wasn’t going to make this better. Because no matter who it was, it wouldn’t be Nina. He was certain of that.
She wasn’t coming back, not to him, and definitely not to RGF. RJ was going to be pissed about the latter but Major didn’t care. Once upon a time, business—his family’s and the one he’d built for himself—had been all he’d cared about. But that was before the marketing plan. Before Nina.
The bell rang again and this time it was followed by a familiar voice.
“Major Frederick Gold, if you don’t open this door, I’m going to take it off its hinges.”
He lifted his head at the sound of his mother’s voice.
When he was seven years old, he and Maurice had spread peanut butter over the floors in one of Riley’s dollhouses. When Riley had seen it, she’d been hysterical for hours. Maurice had laughed it off and taken his punishment in the nonchalant way he always did. But Major had been devastated by the pain in Riley’s cries as well as the fury and disappointment in his mother’s voice. He’d locked himself in his bedroom to get away from it all and Marva had stood outside the door, knocking for a few moments before repeating the same threat she’d just stated.
Major stood and walked to the door. Moments later he found not just his mother but Riley, too, standing on the other side.
“Silly boy,” Marva said as she entered, stroking him on the cheek.
Riley shook her head as she walked past him.
He closed the door and prepared himself for the barrage from the only two women he’d ever thought he’d love.
Riley sat in one of the side chairs, placing her purse on the end table. Marva sat, too, and patted the cushion beside her as a signal for Major to take a seat.
“Are you done sulking?” she asked once he settled beside her.
“I’m a grown man, Mom. I don’t sulk,” he said.
“Ha!”
That came from Riley and Major chose to ignore it.
“What did you do to mess things up with her?” Marva asked.
He didn’t even bother to question how she knew. Somehow his mother always knew everything, and he suspected Landra may have overheard the last portion of his argument with Nina. His assistant didn’t miss much that went on in the office.
“She overheard me talking to Ruben about combining our businesses so that she wouldn’t have to work to get recognition in the industry.”
“Dumb ass,” Riley quipped.
Major glared at his sister.
“Well, you have to admit that wasn’t very smart,” Marva said.
He sighed. “In retrospect, I can see that. But at the time—”
“You thought you were doing her a favor,” Marva finished for him.
“You thought you were saving her,” Riley added. “Men are so dense sometimes.”
He should have left them in the hallway.
“If you wanted her to stay with you, Major, why didn’t you just ask her?”
“I didn’t know how.”
“Oh, it’s simple. ‘Nina, I love you. Please don’t go.’ Seven measly little words,” Riley said.
Times like these Major hated having a sister, especially one as smart as Riley.
“Again, at the time, I didn’t think to start it off that way. But I did tell her I loved her. She didn’t seem to care,” he admitted, feeling a renewed wave of pain soar through his chest.
“It’s hard to believe someone loves