Isn't It Rich? (15 page)

“You’re amazing,” he said, pressing a kiss to Melanie’s cheek, grateful to her for making him put Destiny’s sacrifices into perspective.

“Thank you, but what did I do?”

“Opened my eyes.” And his heart, he added silently.

The brief vacation from the world passed in a blissful haze. If it hadn’t been for the one thing Richard hadn’t said—that he loved her—Melanie would have been totally content and rapturously happy.

They stayed up late, watched movies and ate popcorn. They danced to oldies on the radio. They made love in front of the fire time and again. Each time was a revelation, showing her new insights into everything but his heart. She despaired of that ever changing.

On New Year’s Eve at the stroke of midnight, she was cradled in his arms, spent but filled with contentment, when he gazed into her eyes, “There’s something we need to discuss before we go home tomorrow,” he said. “It’s a new year, time for new beginnings.”

There was hope to be found in his words, but his tone filled Melanie with a sense of dread. “What?”

He looked away from her. “The very public breakup I promised you.”

“You’ve been thinking about that?” she asked dully. She’d dared to envision happily-ever-after, and he’d been focused on extricating himself from the lie, starting the new year fresh without her and all of the complications she represented.

“Haven’t you?” he asked. “You said all along it was something we should do sooner rather than later. I think you were right. After what happened with Destiny the other day, all the shopping and planning, we can’t let this continue.”

“This is it, then,” she said bravely, refusing to
allow one single traitorous tear to fall. “What do you have in mind?”

He met her gaze then, searching her face for something, but she was determined not to let him see the hurt ripping her apart. Instead, she fought to keep her gaze neutral.

“I thought you should decide,” he said, his voice suddenly flat and emotionless.

Melanie nodded, because she didn’t trust herself to speak.

“You’ll think about it?” he prodded. “You’ll let me know? I’ll go along with whatever you want.”

“Do you want to do this very soon?” she asked when she could keep her voice steady.

“I think that’s best,” he said, his gaze averted.

“So do I,” she said. Then she could get on with the business of mending her broken heart.

Suddenly chilled to the bone, she reached for the chenille throw on the sofa, stood up and wrapped herself in it. “I’m going to bed,” she said in a voice so choked she barely recognized it as her own.

Richard didn’t reach for her, said nothing to stop her. Only when she was at the foot of the stairs did he call out softly.

“Happy new year, Melanie.”

“Happy new year,” she replied automatically, but her heart wasn’t in it. If anything, this new year was off to the worst start ever.

Upstairs, she barely resisted the desire to throw things. Unless something hit Richard in the head and knocked some sense into him, what would be the point?

Couldn’t he see what she saw? They could be happy together. She knew it. She could help him get
wherever he wanted to go in life. She’d be the perfect match for a man who needed some balance for all the demands he put on himself. She’d keep him from being stodgy.

But her hope of any future had died the instant he’d brought up the great breakup scene. Despite the emotional and physical connection she’d experienced over the past few days, they were obviously in very different places. To him this had apparently been nothing more than an interlude, something inevitable that had been building between them, something neither of them could have ignored forever. It hadn’t meant anything, at least not to Richard.

Melanie knew better than most that it was impossible to make someone fall in love. It was equally impossible to make them admit to love when they were too afraid to recognize the emotion. When it came to that, she was as cowardly as Richard.

So to protect her stupid pride and her heart, she would go back to Alexandria and throw herself into planning the party at which she would throw that damnable ring back in his face. She would make the scene so believable, so memorable, that it would haunt him forever. Richard might be willing to toss away what they’d had, but he’d never forget her.

Sadly, she wasn’t likely to forget him, either.

M
elanie hated the fact that she was deliberately going to ruin Destiny’s engagement party for them by creating a scene, but Richard’s aunt had virtually given her no choice. With her usual impulsiveness, Destiny had already been well into planning the event when Richard and Melanie returned from their getaway. With invitations already at the printer’s, it had been too late to turn back.

Since Melanie and Richard had concluded it was best to end the charade before it went on too much longer, the party was the most public way of accomplishing that. This way everyone would find out at once that she and Richard were no longer together. She’d even invited Pete Forsythe so he could witness the end of the romance his sleazy reporting—albeit at Destiny’s instigation—had triggered in the first place.

“Are you absolutely certain you don’t want your
parents to fly over for the party?” Destiny asked as they were doing one final check of the guest list. “I’m sure Richard would be happy to send the company jet for them.”

And have them here for this debacle? No way, Melanie thought. It was bad enough that they were likely to read about it in some wire service tidbit in their morning paper.

She had, however, insisted on having Becky at the party. She was going to need at least one friendly face in the crowd when things blew up.

“My parents hate flying,” she told Destiny truthfully. It was just about the only honest thing to cross her lips lately. “And Dad can’t get off work in the middle of the week to drive over. I’m sure they’ll want to throw their own party in Ohio sometime down the road.”

Probably when she was forced to move back home because her career here had gone up in flames, she thought despondently.

“Melanie, is everything all right?” Destiny asked, regarding her worriedly. “For a bride-to-be, you don’t seem very happy. You’ve looked sad ever since you and Richard got back from your little romantic getaway.”

“I’m just tired,” she assured Destiny. “We did too much and my desk was piled high when I got back, so I’ve been working a lot of late hours.”

Destiny seemed to accept the explanation. “Once you and Richard are married, you could stop working,” she said carefully. “I know that’s not a very modern attitude, but you certainly could afford to quit.”

“I love what I do,” Melanie told her. And soon it was going to be the most important thing in her life.

“I know and you’re good at it, but sometimes life forces us to prioritize. At some point your family might need to come first.”

“The way it did for you?”

Destiny’s expression remained neutral. “Yes,” she said quietly. “The way it did for me.”

“Have you ever regretted it?”

Destiny looked shocked. “How could I? Richard, Mack and Ben are like sons to me. They needed me,” she said fiercely. “I could never have lived with any other choice.”

Melanie heard the total conviction in her voice, even though she also thought she heard a faint note of wistfulness, something Destiny would never voice aloud. If there were regrets, she would clearly take them to her grave. It was not a burden she would place on her nephews.

“How do you know when the choice is right?” Melanie asked, her own wistfulness far more evident.

Destiny smiled at her. “You ask your heart. It will never lie to you, not about anything important.” Then she added wryly, “Of course, sometimes you have to listen carefully to hear it through all the clatter going on around you.”

Melanie wondered about that. Her heart seemed to have quite a track record of getting it wrong. Before she could pursue that thought, Richard came into the very feminine office that Destiny maintained at Carlton Industries. It was a stark contrast to the clean, modern lines in the other offices.

He came over and gave Destiny an absentminded peck on the cheek, then dropped an equally imper
sonal kiss on Melanie’s lips to maintain the charade for the moment. Even knowing it meant nothing, Melanie still felt the touch curl her toes.

“What are you two up to?” he asked.

“Finalizing plans for the engagement party,” Destiny said. “The invitations are going out this afternoon.”

He met Melanie’s gaze, his expression guarded. “Has Destiny roped you into inviting a cast of thousands?”

“Only hundreds,” Melanie said. “I cut her off when we hit three hundred and fifty.”

“A nice round number,” he said wryly. “Any media?”

“Pete Forsythe,” Melanie told him. “And his photographer.”

Destiny shook her head. “Why you want to invite Forsythe is beyond me.”

Richard regarded her with amusement. “I thought you were rather fond of Mr. Forsythe.”

Destiny looked suitably appalled. Melanie was impressed by her ability to feign indignation.

“Why would you think such a thing?” Destiny inquired coolly.

“You did use him to get that item about my cozy little getaway with Melanie in the paper a few weeks back,” he reminded her. “Why not give him the inside scoop on the resulting engagement?”

“Whatever,” Destiny said airily.

“Indeed,” Richard replied. Then he asked, “Mind if I steal Melanie away? We need to firm up some plans of our own.”

“By all means,” Destiny said eagerly.

Melanie reluctantly followed Richard back to his office. “Is this about the campaign?”

He shook his head. “You quit, remember?”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t ask me something in an unofficial capacity,” she told him, regretting now that all their ties were about to be severed.

“Well, it’s not about the campaign. I needed to ask you about something else. I have a business dinner to attend tonight. Will you come along?”

Melanie stared at him. “Under the circumstances, don’t you think that’s a bad idea?”

“Probably, but these people will be offended if you’re not there. They’ve heard about you, and they’re anxious to meet you before the big party.”

Melanie hated this. How could she go out with Richard tonight and fake being deliriously happy in front of strangers when she was already plotting their breakup?

“Could we have a spat tonight and end things before dinner?” she inquired hopefully. “Then we wouldn’t have to go through with the rest of this, not dinner tonight, not the party, none of it.”

He regarded her curiously. “I thought you wanted the big scene. It was one of the conditions when we went into this phony engagement.”

“Honestly, I’m losing my taste for it.” She didn’t want to humiliate him, any more than she was looking forward to embarrassing herself or spoiling Destiny’s hope for the two of them. She just wanted it all over with.

She reached for her ring and tried to twist it off. “Let’s end this quietly, here and now.”

Unfortunately, the ring wasn’t budging. Nor, judging from the grim scowl on Richard’s face, was he.

“You picked the time and place,” he reminded her. “Backing out now is out of the question.”

“Why?”

“It just is,” he said, his expression set stubbornly.

If she hadn’t known better, she might have entertained the crazy thought that he was trying to buy himself a little more time. But of course that couldn’t be.

He should have let Melanie have her way and ended things in his office the other day when she’d pleaded with him to get it over with, Richard thought as he forced himself to take out his tuxedo in preparation for the upcoming engagement party.

What idiotic part of his brain had thought that waiting another week was a good idea? If he’d been hoping that having dinner with a couple of business associates would change anything, he’d been sadly mistaken. That evening, much like this one was destined to be, had been a disaster. Melanie had been quiet and withdrawn. The other couples had been uncomfortable. He wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the deal they’d been discussing fell apart. Not that he could manage to work up much dismay over that. All of his dismay seemed to be reserved for the prospect of losing the only women he’d ever allowed himself to love.

“Why so glum?” Mack asked, when he found Richard pouring himself a stiff drink. “Tonight’s party is supposed to be a celebration.”

“Oh, can it,” Richard retorted. “We both know better than that.”

Mack seemed genuinely surprised by his reminder. “But I thought—”

“What? That something had changed? That we really were going to go through with the engagement and the wedding?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Mack said. “All the signs were pointing in that direction, especially when the two of you slipped out of town for a romantic little getaway.”

“Well, where Melanie and I are concerned, things often aren’t what they seem to be. She chose that time to let me know that we were going through with the previous arrangement.”

Mack gave him a hard look. “And you did what to persuade her not to?”

“What was I supposed to do?” Richard demanded. “She’d obviously made up her mind.”

Mack groaned. “Did you tell her you loved her?”

Richard frowned at him.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Mack concluded. “What is wrong with you? Never mind. I know the answer to that. Believe me, I’m as gun-shy when it comes to romance as you are, but we’re talking Melanie here, bro. The woman is crazy in love with you, and you’re obviously in love with her. Don’t let her slip through your fingers.”

Richard wasn’t ready to admit his feelings, not even to a man he trusted with his life. “You’re forgetting one thing. This whole engagement thing has been a farce to prove something to Destiny.”

Mack, damn him, laughed. “You still think Destiny doesn’t know that? You’re delusional. All of this may have started as a stupid, immature game—”

Richard’s scowl deepened.

“Don’t pull that look on me, big brother,” Mack said, undaunted. “You can’t intimidate me. The im
portant thing here is to admit that the game is over and try to fix everything before it’s too late. Don’t be stubborn, Richard. Not about something this important. If you want to make the whole engagement thing real, it’s entirely possible that she does, too, but was too scared to admit it given your ridiculous agreement about an exit strategy.”

Richard stared at him, startled by Mack’s insight. Could it be that Mack was right? Had he simply backed Melanie into a corner, the same way she’d backed him into one, both of them unwilling to risk being vulnerable?

“When did you get to be so smart, especially about matters of the heart, Mack?”

“I’m not the stupid one, bro. You’re the one who hasn’t seen the handwriting on the wall till now.”

It seemed pointless to keep denying his feelings when Mack wasn’t buying it. “Then what do I do?”

“You’ll think of something, some grandstand play, and don’t take no for an answer. Melanie can stage her scene, then you stage yours. I’ll put my money on you.”

With that kind of faith in his persuasiveness, how could Richard say no? Not when it meant getting the only thing he’d ever wanted this desperately. He picked up the phone and called his jeweler, then gazed at his brother.

“I have an idea, it just might work.”

“Even if it doesn’t, at least you’ll know that you did everything you could. That’s a hell of a lot better than giving up without a fight.”

Mack was right, Richard concluded, feeling marginally better. He knew all about the importance of seizing the initiative in a negotiation. Why the hell
had the tactic slipped his mind until now, when this was the most important deal he was ever likely to close?

Melanie was impatiently swiping at tears when Destiny found her in the ladies’ room moments before she was supposed to break her engagement. Until now the party had been a rousing success. She should have been smiling. In fact, she had been smiling till her jaw ached. She’d come in here when she couldn’t bear it a moment longer.

“Darling, is anything wrong?” Destiny asked, her expression oddly smug rather than worried or sympathetic.

Melanie studied Destiny’s expression, then sighed. Mack had been right. Destiny knew exactly what she and Richard had been up to. “You’ve known all along, haven’t you? You’ve known that it was a charade?”

“Of course I have,” Destiny said cheerfully, as if she hadn’t just blown a fortune to celebrate something that had never been. She patted Melanie’s hand. “But I also know you’re in love with my nephew and he’s in love with you. I don’t have a doubt in my mind about that.”

Melanie didn’t ask her how she knew that. She needed advice and she needed it in a hurry. “Then how do I fix this?”

“You don’t,” Destiny advised gently. “You let Richard fix it. There are some things men have to figure out for themselves. Otherwise the balance of power is always off.”

“Do you think he will?” Melanie asked plaintively.

“If he’s even half the man I think he is, you’ll be walking down the aisle in a month,” Destiny declared confidently. “And no one knows my nephew better than I do.”

“Then I break up with him as planned?”

Destiny nodded. “He’ll be expecting it. Don’t disappoint him. Or if he’s been counting on a last-minute change of heart, this will really shake him up.”

An hour later Melanie took a deep breath and tossed a glass of champagne in Richard’s face. It wasn’t what she’d mentally scripted for the opening gambit in the scene, but it felt good. Sometimes the man was so dense, she could barely stand it. Maybe the champagne would snap him to his senses.

“What the hell was that for?” he demanded, looking genuinely shocked.

“I was hoping it would wash some of that fog away from your eyes so you’d start seeing things more clearly.”

Suddenly, to her surprise, he chuckled. “Is that so?”

“Yes, it’s so. For a supposedly smart man, you’re dumber than dirt about some things.” Okay, this wasn’t the way Destiny had advised her to go, but Melanie was tired of leaving her fate in other people’s hands. She’d left it to Destiny, Richard, the gods, for too long already. She’d forgotten that she was in charge of her own future, that no one cared more about the outcome of this relationship more than she did…unless it was Richard.

“Are you breaking up with me?” he inquired, clearly amused despite the large sea of stunned faces surrounding them.