Page 26 of You, Me, & Après-Ski
“You just don’t want to share me with Dominic,” she teased.
“I don’t want to share you with anyone.”
Val paused mid bite, her tawny eyes locked to mine, and I swear all the air sucked out of the room. My remark that had been in jest but came out sounding too serious hung in the air between us. But then pots and pans clattered from the neighboring kitchen, catapulting us back into reality.
I continued as if nothing had happened, although I tugged at my collar, feeling hot and bothered. “Cyrus calls him a vagabond cowboy, but I understand Dominic’s choice. The freedom to be whoever he wants—you can’t put a price tag on that. And both of my brothers didn’t. They gave up their inheritance, and I’m the sorry sap who decided to stick around.”
“Poor Nolan the billionaire,” she joked, falling back into our conversation with ease. “But it sounds like you regret it. So why’d you do it?”
“I don’t regret it. I’m a walking, talking cliché, Val. I won’t deny it. My father was a cold bastard who never saw me or my brothers as good enough. But I always liked a challenge, so I’ve been working my whole life to prove to Cyrus that I’m better than how he treated all of us.
“But being CEO is about more than sticking it to my crappy dad. In her will, my mom said she wanted me to be CEO. As the CRO, she was always looking for ways to take the company to the next level. But since her death, Cyrus has been more concerned with raking in as much profit as possible to fill his void rather than building a legacy worthy of her. Sure, the money is important, but it’s not everything. I want to create something she would be proud of. SomethingIcan be proud of.”
Talking about my mother only reminded me of the fact that she might have been murdered, and I’d made no progress in my investigation. I should be lettingthatdistract me, not…whatever this was with Val.
Val must have sensed my mood shift because she changed the subject. “How’d you get so good at all this?” she asked, gesturing to the food.
“As a kid, I loved cooking with my mom and grandma, and ravioli di zucca was one of our family recipes. Ravioli of any kind, really.” I smiled as I thought of a warm-lit kitchen, my mother’s laughter, and piles of flour. “I don’t cook often, but every now and then, I’ll whip something up if I’m feeling nostalgic.”
Val ran a fingertip around the rim of her wineglass as she turned that warm smile of hers on me, the smile that could make me feel like I was the only bastard in the room. “Nolan Keller, sentimental. I never would have guessed.”
I shot her a mock harsh look. “Don’t tell anyone. You’ll ruin my carefully cultivated image.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” she said. “But I don’t think you’re an asshole, or whatever else the tabloids say. I did at first, but I know you better now. I think that’s all it is—a carefully cultivated image.”
Without knowing it, Val had walked me up to the edge of a precipice, and now I had to make a choice. Which Nolan did I want to be in her eyes? Before I’d met her, there had been only one choice. One Nolan—one Nolan that mattered. The Nolan in the public eye. The Nolan who lived up to and actively fueled every false narrative about my life. I didn’t want anyone to truly know me, because with knowledge came power. Power to use me, to own me, to manipulate me just like my fucking father. So I stayed above the fray, exchanging emotional intimacy for frivolous flings and shallow business partnerships.
With just one smile, one look, one touch, one goddamn statement, Val had barreled past the defenses I’d been stacking sky-high for years, awakening a side of myself I’d been stifling since setting my sights on CEO. The side of me that longed for somethingmore. Something deeper. I could continue opening up to her. I could let her see the Nolan that only Daphne and Cressida ever caught glimpses of. I could let her know the real me. I could take a step off that precipice and plunge over the edge. With her.
But no.
That wasn’t a real option. After learning more about Val tonight, she didn’t belong in my cutthroat world. She was good, kind, and completely wrong for me. And would I really risk my reputation, Cressida’s reputation, my career, my mom’s legacy—everything—for a woman I’d just met? I needed to get my head on straight before I royally fucked up my own life.
So I stuck with the status quo.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Val. I am exactly as ruthless as everyone says I am. You should remember that.” I finished off my wine and left her sitting there, staring daggers into my back. But before I left, I put the final nail in the coffin of any possibility of us. “And that night in my office? It was a lapse of judgment on my part. It should never have happened. It won’t happen again.”
Pausing at the door, I caught a glimpse of her face, color high on her cheeks, temper sparking in her eyes. But I was surprised to see a sad curve to her lips. Disappointment. Rejection.
Better she thinks of me as a selfish asshole who only saw her as a conquest.Because if there was even the slightest chance that Val could or did see me any other way, it would ruin everything. Ruinme. I had too many people counting on me to let that happen. My personal life did not factor into my career ambitions.
But maybe it should, whispered a small, traitorous part of me.
I squashed it out of existence and headed back to my cabin, leaving Val behind.
Chapter 14
VAL
Asoundlikeanenormoussoda can bursting ricocheted in the hall, and I jolted awake, lurching out of bed and falling on the floor in a heap. Before I had time to process what was going on, Frankie exploded into my room.
“What is it?” I asked, swiping hair out of my mouth.
“It’s like fucking Niagara Falls out here!” said Frankie. “The pipes on our floor burst and water is pouring into the hallway.”
“Shit, what do we do?”
“Hugh went to find someone to turn off the water, but it’s three in the morning, Bobby is asleep, and Ryan is probably fucking off somewhere. It’ll take Bobby years to wake up and get moving, meanwhile all of our shit is getting flooded!”
