She hasn’t asked me what will happen when we go back to New York, but I see it in her eyes whenever we are alone together. There’s more. She has been spending a lot of time with Fianna, heads together, wide grins on their faces like they’re plotting something behind my back. But whenever I ask them what’s going on they tell me I’ll know soon enough.

Then, on New Year’s Eve, I get the call I’ve been waiting for. A plot of land in Syracuse is going on the market, and I’ve been promised first refusal. If I close the deal this year.

“Can’t it wait a couple more days?”

I wander past the cinema room, phone pressed to my ear, and spot Mary and Fianna inside watching a Hallmark movie where everything is covered in fake snow and the actors are still walking around in stilettos and lightweight coats.

“The client wants to close today. If it doesn’t happen, it’ll go on the open market and get snapped up by a developer who’ll turn it into a new Vegas.”

Shit!

“I know it’s New Year’s Eve, but hey, you can celebrate in style in Times Square with the rest of us.”

I inch back to the doorway of the cinema and peer through the crack between the door and the frame. Both women have their back to me, but Mary’s hair tumbles over the back of the seat as she tips her head back and laughs out loud at something Fianna said. There’s a huge tub of popcorn on the mini table between them, and I’m struck again by Mary’s resemblance to a colorful bird in her natural habitat.

I’m not ready to drag her away from all this. My family has spent the last few days bigging up the New Year celebrations which are always held at their friend’s property on a farm overlooking the reservoir at Roundwood. I know she’ll be disappointed to miss it.

But this deal is too good to pass up. I’ve already got the plans drawn up for developing an exclusive hotel complex.

Peering through the doorway, the couple on the screen kiss, and Fianna and Mary both cheer, toasting the movie with cans of soda. New York, the office, this deal, all feels a million miles away suddenly, something that exists in the life of someone other than Emmett O’Hara. If I’m going to do this, I need to get my head into gear.

“I’ll be there.” I turn away from the cinema and head back to my room to pack.

“What about the party?”Mom slumps back in her seat in the kitchen, and Dad stands behind her massaging her shoulders. “You said that you were staying until the New Year.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I have to close on a deal today, or it’ll be too late.”

I can hear the disappointment in my own voice and clear my throat. This deal is important. I’ve been waiting for months for it to happen.

So why do I feel like it’s the last thing I want to think about right now?

“So, that’s it?” Mom says, her eyes growing large with tears. “You’ll fly back to New York and the holidays will be over. When are we going to see you and Mary again?”

That’s what this is all about. She has loved having Mary here and was probably hoping that Mary would encourage me to visit more often.

“It isn’t over yet.” Granny Nina has been staring at the jigsaw puzzle piece in her hand since I came into the kitchen, and now she squints at me myopically over the top of the spectacles perched on the end of her nose. “There’s still the party.”

“Emmett’s flying back to New York today, Ma.” Mom instinctively raises her voice because Granny Nina refuses to wear her hearing aid. “They’ll miss the party.”

“You’re flying back to New York today?”

I didn’t hear Mary and Fianna come in and guilt floods my chest. I wanted to tell her in private, to explain why we’re traveling back early so that she would understand it has nothing to do with her. Not like this.

She watches me from the doorway, the color draining from her face, and it hits me like a blow to the gut that fucking her was a mistake. I never promised her that it would change anything. I never said that this relationship was more than either of us had bargained for, but she’d nurtured the seed of hope anyway, and here I am throwing it back in her face.

This reaction right here is the reason why I always love ’em and leave ’em.

O’Hara Developers is my life, and there isn’t a woman alive who will ever understand that. I’d hoped that Mary might bedifferent, but she isn’t. She doesn’t want to come second to the family business, and I can’t have it any other way.

A spark of anger, disappointment, and resentment erupts inside me. I let her get under my skin, and she thinks that she can control me because she’s wearing my grandmother’s ring.

“Yes. I’m already packed.”

My voice sounds way colder than I intended. It’s self-preservation. Mary Chrysler has no say in the matter. I brought her here, and now I’m going to take her back.

“Wh-when were you going to tell me?”

Fuck!How does she always do this, turn those huge green eyes on me and make me feel bad?