Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (55 page)

He’d been thinking about this as he navigated
his truck down the slushy roads.
 
The first snow had come a few days ago, a couple of inches that had
looked pretty when it fell, but had quickly dissolved into a dirty, gritty
sludge.

He pulled into his driveway and when he got
out, his boots sloshing through the snow, he heard it.

A high-pitched shriek, coming from the other
side of the fence.

He turned, listening.
 
Had he imagined it?

But then it came again.

He looked over toward Lindsay’s house for the
first time in months.

She was laying in the driveway, sprawled out on
in the slush.
 
Grocery bags and
groceries dotted the driveway.

“Shit,” he heard her say as she started
gathering everything up.

It was pure instinct.
 
He ran over there.

“Are you okay?’ he asked.
 
Anxiety overtook him.
 
He remembered the day she hurt her
wrist, how helpless he’d felt seeing her lying there.
 
This was somehow worse.
 
This time, he really had no right to be
helping her, to be inquiring about whether or not she was okay.

“I’m fine,” she said, sounding grumpy.
 
“I was just trying to take in too many
groceries at once.”

“Jesus, Lindsay,” he said.
 
“Don’t scare me like that.
 
I thought you’d been out here for
hours.”

She snorted and then turned her back on
him.
 
Not that he could blame her.He
reached into her trunk and pulled out the last bag of groceries.
 
“Let me help you,” he said.

“No, thanks.
 
I got it.”

She grabbed the bag out of his hand, and he
felt shocked at the wave of emotion that overtook him.
 
In that small gesture, that small
moment, he realized he would never be able to protect her again.
 
He’d lost that right.

If she’d really fallen and hurt herself…his
chest constricted at the thought.
 
What would he have done? He should have been here, protecting her,
taking care of her, loving her.

She finished gathering up the bags and started
walking carefully up the driveway.
 
She had her key in the lock before he realized exactly what it was he
was feeling.
 

It was sadness, yes, but for the first time in
a long time, there was no anger inside of him.
 
In fact, the only thing overshadowing
the sadness was regret.
 
Because he
realized the reason he’d lost the right to protect her wasn’t because he was
damaged.
 
No, she’d known about
that, and she’d wanted him anyway. He hadn’t hurt her by just being in her life
– he’d hurt her by acting like an asshole.

His behavior had been inexcusable, and he could
have stopped it, could have controlled it.

Her hand was on the doorknob, turning it,
stepping inside.

He had to know if there was still a chance.

“Lindsay,” he called.

He held his breath.

He waited.

She stopped.

And then, she turned around.

***

Lindsay looked at him, standing there in her
driveway, still wearing that damn leather jacket even though it was twenty
degrees out.
 
His breath came in
puffs, his face lit only by the light in her front yard.

“What?” she asked.

Her heart was hammering in her chest.
 
She’d spent the last month trying to get
over him, was finally at the point where she could think about him without
feeling like her soul was being crushed.

Her house was coming along, going from a
ramshackle old cape to a cozy home with warm colors and soft furniture.
 
Her writing was going well -- she was on
track to meet her deadline, and had just signed a new book deal.
 
She wasn’t going to let him come into
her life and screw everything up again.

“I’m sorry,” he said.
 

She didn’t say anything, and he took it as an
invitation to come forward. He climbed the steps until he was standing next to
her.
 
She stayed on the porch but
kept the front door closed.
 
She
didn’t want him in her house, didn’t know if she could trust herself once he
was in there.

“For what?” she asked.
 
It was a test.

“For everything.”

“Be specific.”

“For blowing you off after we met.
 
I should have called you and told you
what happened.
 
I just… I didn’t
want to talk about it.
 
It was like
I couldn’t say the words out loud.
 
I was terrified of what you’d think of me.”

She felt tears prick against the back of her
eyes.
 
She wanted so much to believe
what he was saying, wanted it so much that it hurt.

He moved toward her and started to put his arms
around her, but she pulled back.
 

“Don’t.”
 
She shook her head.

“I know I can’t make you forgive me,” he
said.
 
“All I can do is spend every
moment proving to you that I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you.”

She looked at him.
 
She saw the sadness in his eyes, and he
sounded sincere.
 
But still.
 
How many times could she go through
this, expecting him to change while getting her heart broken?
 
Then again, he’d never apologized before,
had never told her he’d do anything to get her back.

In fact, it had been the opposite.
 
He’d never made her any promises.

“Please,” he said, taking her hands in
his.
 
His skin felt warm, his grip
strong and protective.
 
“Lindsay,
give me a chance.”

If she was wrong, she’d be devastated all over
again.
 
It would take only one
night, one hour, one moment, to undo all the work she’d done over this past
month.
 
She’d be right back where
she started, only this time, it would be worse.
 
But if she didn’t take a chance, then
she’d never know.
 
And maybe, just
maybe, it would work out.
 

She opened the door, stepped inside, and turned
around.
 
“Do you want to come
in?”
 
She held up one of the
bags.
 
“I bought stuff for chicken
parm.”

“You’re going to make chicken parm?”

“No.”
 
She shook her head.
 
“You
are.”

Chace grinned, and then followed her inside.

E
pilogue

The grand re-opening of The Trib was in full
swing.
 
New tables in white oak
dotted the dining room, the booths had been reupholstered in a soft beige, and
the walls had been painted the color of pecans.
 
Candles flickered at every table, and
the heavy double doors had been left open, allowing the warm spring breeze to
fill the restaurant.

“Everything looks great, man,” Bo said to
Chace.
 
“You’ve done an amazing
job.”

“Thanks.
 
But it’s not me who did it.
 
Most of it was Lindsay.”

He looked down at her with that smile, the
smile she was seeing more and more of these days, and Lindsay couldn’t help but
smile back.
 
Butterflies turned in
her stomach.
 
She loved that he
could still do that to her, even after spending almost every moment together
for months.

“Thanks for coming,” she said to Bo, giving him
a kiss on the cheek.
 
She loved Bo,
was glad he and Chace had worked it out.
 
Chace had apologized, told Bo he’d been out of line, and Bo had forgiven
him, no questions asked.
 

“There’s no cilantro on this, is there?” a
woman asked, wandering by.
 
She was
wearing a purple hat and a matching light purple pantsuit.

“No,” Chace said, smiling.
 
“There’s no cilantro in that.”

She wandered off.

“Who was that?” Bo asked.
 

“Don’t ask,” Chace said, shaking his head.

They spent the night talking and chatting with
their friends, eating the hors d’oeuvres that the new kitchen staff had
prepared.
 
At Lindsay’s urging,
Chace had finally taken a good look at the restaurant, and started making the
hard decisions it was going to take to make it a success.

He’d fired Carmela, and had a long discussion
with Dolores about what he expected of her.
 
The fact that he’d let Carmela go must
have sent a message, because Dolores immediately snapped into line.
 
He’d hired two more kitchen staff, chefs
from Hyannis whose food was amazing.

Business had already started to pick up.

Lindsay felt Chace’s arm encircle her waist as
she looked out among their friends, family, and community.
 
Everyone seemed happy and relaxed,
chatting and eating.
 
Even Lindsay’s
mom, usually so high-strung, looked like she was having a good time.

“Attention, everyone,” Chace said, banging his
fork against his water glass.
 
Everyone turned to look.
 
“I
want to thank you so much for coming here tonight, for supporting me and The
Trib.”

The guests clapped and cheered.

“This last year and a half has been a hard one
for me.
 
But I’m learning as I go,
mostly about the power of forgiving other people, and the power of forgiving
yourself.”

Lindsay knew how hard the words were for him to
say, and she squeezed his hand, letting him know she was proud of him.

The crowd was at rapt attention, listening as
Chace talked.

“My father always used to say that when people
came to your restaurant, you wanted them to feel like they were family.
 
I was never very good at that kind of
thing, I’m trying. I’d like to think that if he were here, he’d be proud of
me.”
 
His voice caught on the last
word, but there was a smile on his face.

The crowd clapped again, and Bo yelled from the
back, “We love you, Chace!”

Everyone laughed.

“The other thing that’s happened to me this
past year is that I’ve found the love of my life.”
 
He looked down at Lindsay, and she
melted as his eyes met hers.
 
She
thought about that day he’d found her in her driveway in the dead of winter,
her groceries spilled around her.
 
She thought about that split second decision she’d made to let him in,
thought about how close she’d come to saying no.
 

It was crazy, when you thought about it, how
differently things could have turned out.
 
But that was what life was – just a bunch of split second
decisions that slowly added up to create a life.
 

“Lindsay, I feel as if, in some ways, you
taught me what it was like to be happy again.”

Everyone awwwed.

“And that’s why,” he said, kneeling down on one
knee. “I’d like to ask you right here, right now, to give me the honor of
spending every moment making you as happy as you’ve made me.”

Lindsay’s heart pounded in her chest as she
looked down at this wonderful man, kneeling in front of her.

He pulled a small box out of his suit pocket,
then turned to the crowd.
 
“Bo was
holding this all night,” he explained.
 
“I didn’t want to lose it.”

He opened the box, and Lindsay gasped.
 
The ring was beautiful, a gorgeous
square cut solitaire with a white gold band.
 
But it wasn’t just the ring that made
her choke up.
 
It was
everything.
 
Being here, with her
family and her friends, and the man she loved.