It's Only Temporary - The Complete Collection Page 25

  Jackson huffed. “As close as a Caldwell gets.”

  “Which means no.”

  Jackson turned toward him, leaning against the bar. “She’s a cold bitch. Even to you, her brother-in-law. Family, but not really. Isn’t that right, Tanner?”

  Tanner remembered Maggie sitting him down, firing him. It had hurt, it had stung. And he wouldn’t argue with anyone about her being a cold bitch. She wouldn’t argue with anyone about that.

  But it had nothing to do with him not being family.

  Tanner said, “She’s a fair cold bitch. When she does dig Caldwell Holdings out of the red, she won’t hold it against you.”

  A look of fear entered Jackson’s eyes and Tanner said, “What did you do?”

  Jackson shook his head. “Nothing that she wouldn’t understand. Made credit hard to come by, interests rates a little high, repayment terms unfavorable. Just made things a little tougher for her than they could be.”

  Tanner nodded. That was business. Dog eat dog, the big dog getting the best scraps and pissing on the little dogs. And Maggie would understand it was part of the game. If she ever was in a position to return the favor, she would.

  Tanner nearly smiled when he said, “But now there’s Montgomery.”

  “Fucking Montgomery. How did that happen, Tanner?”

  Tanner would have sworn Maggie hadn’t seen Cole in years. But he shrugged and said, “You know how they were.”

  Maggie had always been Cole’s staunch defender. No one could understand it then, no one could see why she always sided with a snarling, sneering kid who liked to talk with his fists. The son of a man who destroyed families, legacies, right and left.

  Maggie had always said it wasn’t his fault who his father was.

  But Tanner knew from personal experience that the apple hadn’t fallen far from that tree.

  Jackson said, “Montgomery won’t be happy with just getting even.”

  Tanner smiled. He even laughed a little. Because Jackson was staring at Tanner as if he was looking at his own future.

  Tanner might have the distinction of being Cole’s first annihilation but he wouldn’t be the last. Cole only needed an excuse and Maggie had just handed him a truckload.

  Tanner said, “He’ll stomp on you.” He patted Jackson’s shoulder. “You could try and preempt it. Give her a call, offer her some better terms before Montgomery tells you to do it.”

  Jackson nodded.

  Tanner said, “Should I tell her you’re willing to beg?”

  Jackson swore and rubbed his face. “Think it’ll help? You can tell them whatever you want if it’ll keep me off Montgomery’s shitlist.”

  “You think he’ll listen to me?”

  “You’re going to be family, right? Barbecues and whatnot. Get in there, Tanner.”

  Tanner blinked. He looked around the room, at the handful of men in the room straining to hear their conversation.

  He had about as much hope of getting either Cole Montgomery or Margaret Caldwell to listen to him as the bartender did.

  But he did happen to live with the woman. Her sister loved him beyond all reason.

  He’d spent the last years surviving as the brother-in-law of Margaret Caldwell. And now he’d be related to Cole Montgomery.

  He knew about working connections, when connections were the only thing you had left.

  Even if those connections were spotty. Imaginary.

  He didn’t know if fate had just thrown a bouquet of roses into his lap or if it was a cactus.

  All he knew was there was something sitting in his lap full of thorns and he needed to move carefully.

  Tanner said, “I do have a project I’m working on. Could use some capital at decent terms.”

  Jackson nodded. “I’d love to hear about it.”

  The man Tanner had been waiting for rushed in, looking around frantically. He saw Tanner and relief crossed his face.

  “Sorry I’m late. I had a visit from your sister-in-law.”

  Gary Irvine ordered a stiff drink and shuddered. “Engaged to Cole Montgomery. The devil must not have been available.”

  Jackson leaned toward him. “Is she looking for blood?”

  “Montgomery is. Sat there the whole time looking like he wanted to rip my head off and eat it.” He muttered, “Do yourself a favor. Don’t look at her legs.”

  Jackson said, “Come on. What did they want?”

  “Better terms. A reduction in payments.”

  Tanner said, “Margaret will fix cash flow first. She’s been cutting expenses.”

  The men looked at him and nodded.

  Tanner said, “And then she’ll be looking for new revenues. She won’t let Cole stomp on you if she can use you.”

  Gary said, “Think she can stop him?”

  Tanner thought back to finding the two of them in the pool. The rage in Cole’s eyes when Tanner had interrupted them. Hard to tell if it was the interruption or if it was the who was interrupting them.

  Maggie had told Tanner once that she had Cole in their corner and look what had happened with that. Tanner wasn’t at all sure Maggie could keep Cole on a leash.

  He shrugged. “It’s your best bet.”

  Someone came and tapped Tanner on the shoulder. “Buy you a drink, Tanner?”

  He looked down at lovely amber liquid. He pushed it towards Gary and ordered a tonic water.

  Maggie sat back, stuffed. Bacon for breakfast, a huge salad for lunch. And now Cole was ordering dessert with a look in his eye that said she’d be eating it whether he had to spoon it down her throat or not.

  He looked like he was looking forward to it.

  She turned her phone back on, surprised to see five messages waiting for her. She listened, her smile growing wider and wider with each message.

  She turned her phone back off, thinking she’d just let everyone wait a little longer. She said, “I’m not sure we actually need to go see anyone else today.”

  “No more bankers? I only got to scare one.”

  She patted his hand. “We’ll still need to work out terms. But it seems as if the news is spreading.”

  “We need to see at least one more. Hammer it home.”

  She laughed at his eagerness and when the waitress placed a large brownie sundae between them, it turned into a groan.

  Cole grabbed a spoon, dipping into the ice cream, the brownie, and taking a large bite. He scooped a slightly smaller bite and brought it to her lips.

  His other hand reached under the table and grabbed her knee, his fingers sliding under the hem of her skirt. He murmured, “Open up.”

  She opened her mouth, slowly sucking the ice cream off the spoon. She murmured, “Oh, Cole. You’re the one who’s going to have to stand up when I’m done having my way with this ice cream.”

  He scooped another bite, eating off the same spoon.

  He said, “Yep. Should’ve thought this through.”

  He dipped the spoon back in and held it to her lips again.

  She put her hand on his thigh and squeezed hard. She whispered, “If I eat one more bite, I will vomit.”

  He whispered back, “Sounds sexy. I’ll make you a deal, Empress. One last bite, one more banker to really get this weekend started, then we go back to my place and take a nap.”

  She laughed and he slipped the spoon between her lips.

  She swallowed, seriously worried it might come back up.

  She finally said, “One more banker and then you can go home and take a nap, old man.”

  “I said we.”

  “I will be returning phone calls.”

  He dipped the spoon in again and held it to her lips. She leaned back and shook her head.

  He stared at her a long moment before eating it himself.

  He said, “If we’re not going to take a nap, what else are we going to do?”

  She said again, “I will be returning phone calls.”

  “You’re the one who interrupted my workweek. You’re going to ha
ve to keep me entertained.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “We’ll go to dinner tonight.”

  She groaned. “No. No more food.”

  “Then we’ll go dancing.”

  She sighed. “Cole.”

  He sat back, a satisfied look on his face. “You want a nap, too. Admit it.”

  A nap sounded wonderful. She just wasn’t going to take one with him.

  She said, “I’m going to drop you back off at home so you can take a nap and then I will go do more work. I have even more to do now that the tide is turning.”

  “But now you have someone to help, so really you have less to do and you can enjoy yourself on a Friday night. We’ll get back to work tomorrow.”

  “I wasn’t expecting you to help me.”

  “I’m a full-service fiance.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows at her and it took everything she had not to laugh.

  He said, “Come on, Maggie. What else am I going to do? We’re engaged. I can’t go out on a Friday night without my fiance. I need something to do. Something to take my mind off that mountain of paperwork we will be going through again.”

  “What about your video games?”

  He looked interested. “We can do that. I have a first-person shooter I think you’d really like. Blood, guts, bullets. I don’t want to oversell it but there are bankers.”

  “You think I’d like something like that?”

  “I think you’d love it.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at him. “I had no idea you were a gamer.”

  “Recreational only. It’s relaxing and fun. Drilling for oil is not always fun.”

  She couldn’t picture him sitting still long enough to play a video game.

  “Do you really get to shoot bankers?”

  He tapped his fingers on the table. “I’m torn here. Because on the one hand I can see you’d come play with me if you could pop a cap in some bankers.”

  “So that’s a no.”

  “I could have just lied to you.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I don’t like lying to you, Maggie.”

  He’d never lied to her, ever. Not told her everything, sure. But he’d never lied. Even when he’d gone back on their deal, he hadn’t lied about it. If you asked Cole a straight question, you got a straight answer.

  And she knew that when he’d said he’d meant to go easy on the Beaumonts, it was true. He hadn’t made their deal intending to renege.

  If she’d known how much Cole and Tanner had hated each other, she might have done things differently. But she hadn’t known until years later that Tanner had planned Cole’s beating, had watched it. Had stood by silently when everyone else involved had been expelled, including Cole.

  It had hurt to have the blinders ripped from her eyes. It had hurt to have Tanner do it himself, drunk and unrepentant still.

  It hurt when the person you loved showed themselves to be someone else entirely. Especially when that someone was married to your sister.

  Cole put his hand on hers and she lifted her eyes from her plate. He said, “I don’t like lying, Maggie. The truth is usually ugly enough.”

  A little piece of her heart cracked. She knew why he didn’t like to lie. Richard Montgomery had lied to everyone. Had gone back on handshakes, spent millions in court to break down a contract he’d signed, laughed in the face of anyone who believed in anything he said or did.

  Maggie had no idea how many lies he’d told his son. But it looked like it had been enough.

  She said, “It’s too bad there aren’t bankers.”

  He nodded. “I don’t know why it hasn’t been done yet. But there are zombies.”

  “Of course there are zombies.”

  “Aliens?”

  She wobbled her head.

  “I can find something for you to shoot up.”

  “Oil drillers?”

  He grinned. “You want to come over and play with my controller, don’t you?”

  She didn’t know what it said about her but she did. It sounded fun, and she hadn’t had fun in a long, long time.

  He signaled for the check. “How about this? We go play with one more creditor so he can call up his buddies and do our dirty work for us, then I drive us back to my place while you return those calls you keep yapping about, and then we immerse ourselves in blood and guts so we can be relaxed tomorrow when we get back to work.”

  She thought about it while he signed. When he looked back up at her, she said, “I just want to make one thing clear.”

  He sighed. “Fine. No nap.”

  “Yes, no nap. But I was going to say I will not be eating anymore bacon.”

  He smiled and slid his hand under her elbow to help her up. “I’ll have something delivered for dinner.”

  “I’m not eating again until Monday.” She wasn’t sure she actually could.

  “I’d agree with you but then I’d be lying.”

  “You’ll have to tie me down to get anything else past these lips.”

  He looked up and whispered, “Thank you, Lord.”

  This time she laughed.

  They’d seen one more of Maggie’s creditors, though this one hadn’t been surprised by the visit. He’d already gotten approval to consolidate the loans and extend the time frame. Cole had been happy to point out that he’d forgotten a rate reduction.

  Afterward, Cole had driven them home while Maggie listened to even more messages, returning most of them before five o’clock rolled around.

  And then he’d grabbed her phone, happily turned it off, and handed her a controller.

  They started with spies. Maybe they weren’t quite as satisfying as bankers but the game was a classic.

  Cole sat in his large recliner and pulled Maggie into his lap. She elbowed him in the gut trying to climb back out but he held tight.

  He said with a wheeze, “I only have one chair.”

  “I’ll use a barstool.”

  “Trust me, this will be more comfortable. Once I teach you the controls, you can have it all to yourself. If you want.”

  She said, “Is this how you learned to play? Sitting in some man’s lap?”

  “Well now you just made it creepy.”

  He scooted back, snuggling her between his legs, and pointing to each button and telling her what it did.

  She said, “How do I know what to shoot at?”

  “Shoot at everything.”

  And then they got lost in the game, Cole wrapping his hands around hers and pushing the buttons when she was too slow. Her fighting him to keep control.

  She ripped her hands out of his and said, “Stop that. I’m playing.”

  He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her close. “You want to be in control all the time.”

  “I do.”

  “Me, too. Makes friends hard to come by.”

  She cocked her head, still shooting onscreen. “Do you want friends?”

  “Nope. I got all the friends I need.” He put his lips on her cheek, whispered into her ear. “Now that she’s come back to me.”

  “Are we friends, Cole?”

  “We’ve always been, Maggie. It’s just hard people are hard to live with sometimes.”

  They’d been friends first, from that very first moment. His father had bought the property next to the ranch house as soon as he could afford it. To rub it in Sam Caldwell’s face, to be a constant irritation.

  But Cole and Maggie had taken one look at each other and their souls had clicked. It wasn’t love. It was a connection. It was knowing that they were the same kind of people. The same kind of cold, hard steel that was unable, unwilling, to bend to make life easier for others.

  She, because she was out of the league of every man on the planet. The daughter of a magnate, too smart to not be a threat, her beauty just a tad too far this side of creepy. By the time he’d met her, she was taller than most of the teachers at the school. Taller than him, taller than eve
ryone. She’d come into her height early and she’d refused to hide it. No stooping, no slouching. If the other girls were wearing heels, she’d be wearing heels.

  Any other school, any other father, and she would have been tormented endlessly. But the sons and daughters of Dallas merely got out of her way. And when she heard the whispering, she responded with a look that said deal with it.

  And he, because he was unwelcome in both the world he’d been born into and the one he’d ended up in. His father had bankrupted a quarter of the school and it hadn’t started with them. Cole had spent his first ten years in a slum, knew Spanish just as well as English, and had had plenty of opportunity to build up callouses on his knuckles in his before-life.

  At his new school, with his father, the sons and daughters of Dallas stepped in his way. And when he heard the taunts and jeers, his fists came up along with a look that said I’ll make you deal with it.

  Maggie and Cole had looked at each other, seen the deal with it in each other’s eyes, and known they weren’t alone anymore.

  Cole had forgotten the last few years what it felt like not to be alone.

  When Maggie sitting in his lap became more distracting than the game, Cole pushed her out so he could order dinner.

  She groaned. “I can’t eat another bite. Really.”

  “I’m so looking forward to tying you up.”

  She glared at him, then turned back to the game and shot everything in sight.

  He smiled when she gave him a pointed look, and he said, “It helps some, don’t it?”

  She curled back into his chair, her feet going underneath her, her skirt inching up, her blouse loose.

  He looked his fill while he dialed. Looked at the hair she’d pulled back into a ponytail and remembered that long-limbed, gangly teenage girl. Wondered where they’d be now if things had been different. If he’d been able to keep his temper.

  He’d had her in his bed, had her as his friend. His only friend. The only friend he’d ever thought he’d need.

  Would they have stayed friends or would he have done something eventually to make them turn on each other? Because what he’d said was true. They were hard people. Odds were they would have butted heads someday.

  Would they have stayed lovers or would she have ended that once the Beaumonts were back on their feet? He wasn’t sure how he would have handled that. To have Maggie still, just not all of her.