Page 90 of Begin Again
“No, I don’t.” I smile. “I want you to think about it, please. And if you decide you still want to go through with the sale, I’ll make this my last one.”
“Your last?”
“I’ve been a bit of a workaholic the past…well, my whole life. And this whole thing has been a wake-up call. I don’t want to blink, and it’s been forty years, and I haven’t been able to enjoy my life. My family. I don’t want to end up like my dad.” My arms fold over my chest as I rock back on my heels, staring down at my feet.
The thought breaks my heart. Daddy never got to experience a life without work. Even on vacation, he would still be handling business affairs—I can’t remember a single time he didn’t. And when he finally started to consider retirement—and divorcing Brina, but that was a whole other problem—he died a few months later. It didn’t seem fair that when he was about to start enjoying life, it was ripped away from him. I don’t want the same thing for me.
“It’s time to loosen up the reins a little. Let other people do their jobs and handle it for me. That way, I can finally enjoy time with my husband and our daughter.”
“A daughter?”
I smile and pull my phone out of my back pocket, opening it to show him a photo. “Elena. She’ll be four in August.”
Joseph places his hand on my shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. “I can attest that the work will always be there and there willalwaysbe more after it, but the memories with your family are what stick with you. Don’t waste this time you have with your daughter. You won’t be able to get it back.”
“Thank you.” I step forward into his embrace and he squeezes me again before we part. “I should help him get his stuff together so we can go home. We have a bit of a drive ahead of us and a family wondering where I am.”
Part Three
THEM
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Nick
CHARLIE GLARES UP AT me from the door of her bedroom. It had taken five minutes just trying to convince her to open the damn thing. She’s hurt. I think she’s more upset about this than what transpired the other night.
And me? I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.
The biggest part of me was fucking elated to see my wife standing there. After all this time, to finally remember something…someone. Her name was the first thing on my mind and then my own. No one and nothing else mattered when I saw her. But then, the smallest bits of concern and regret pushed their way through the elation. What changed back home in the year I’ve been gone? Did Nina move on? Does Elena even remember me? Did Alex get married? What about Joseph and the ranch? What about Charlie? Will Nina be mad when I tell her about Charlie? Does it matter what happened with Charlie?
“I’m sorry you feel like I was leading you on, that was never my intention, Charlie.” I sigh, leaning back against the banister. “I told you I wasn’t ready for something like this. I didn’t even know who I was. I didn’t—”
“Whatever you say,Nick.” Charlie practically spits my name, and I won’t lie, it hurts a little. “Why don’t you run back to yourperfect life with your perfect wife? I’m sure you even have a kid waiting for you in your mansion back home.”
“Enough, Charlie.” She can say what she wants about me, but I won’t let her bring Elena or Nina into this. This is not their fault. “I can’t help it if you choose not to listen to me. I made it very clear I wasn’t looking for anything.”
“Didn’t seem that way the other night.”
My gaze narrows.
Charlie smirks. She knows she has me backed into a corner. “That was nothing, too?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and pray Nina doesn’t walk inside. The thought of her hearing any part of this right now…I don’t want her to find out like this. I need to break it to her at the right time. I don’t know how she’ll feel about what happened here.
“You can’t tell me it meant—”
“Charlie, it didn’t mean anything,” I say and meet her eyes again. “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea, but—”
“You didn’t even think they were looking for you!”
There’s a creak at the bottom of the stairs and I don’t have to look to know who it is. Charlie doesn’t, either. Her heated gaze doesn’t flinch, remaining on me. “Shewasn’t looking for you,” Charlie says, loud enough for Nina to hear.
She’s angry, and I suppose part of her anger is valid, and if she could, I’m sure she’d set me ablaze right here and now. It would be easier than facing the heartbreak she brought upon herself. I can’t give her what she wants. I can’t. I don’t love her. I care for her, but the woman standing at the bottom of the stairs will always be the one who owns my heart.
“You’re right, Charlie, I didn’t think anyone was looking for me. But obviously, I was wrong.” I motion toward the window at the end of the hallway overlooking the front of the house. “She’s here. And she is theonething I had to hold on to this entire time.Almost every memory I’ve had since I woke up in the hospital, she was there…I may not have known who she was, but I knew she was the answer to finding myself again.”
I can see the tears blurring her vision, and when I step toward her, Charlie takes two steps back.
