Guilt. That had been the hardest thing about dad’s death. Guilt festered within him about every recent conversation that had ended with frustration and snide comments. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to settle down. He just wanted to make sure it was with the right woman, on their own terms, not his dad’s. Mr. Bear had never listened long enough to care or grasp that.
Now his dad was gone, and Adrian had never taken the chance to apologize. He’d never gotten anything from his dad either. No apology, no attempts at understanding. Matthew Bear had left him nothing but a cold, gray box.
Adrian ran a hand through his hair and tapped his phone. It rang a few times before Rita picked it up.
“Whatever it is, I’m not doing it.”
He smiled, in spite of himself. He loved her dry comments. “Hi Rita, good to hear from you, too. I’m calling because I need a flight. It’s time to come home.”
“You’re sure this time?”
Adrian peered out the window, taking in the lack of Gabby’s white truck in the parking lot. It was time to move on like he should have done weeks ago. He needed to get back to his business, back to his life.
“I’m sure.”
Adrian took his time packing up his belongings and strolling across the ranch for the final time. He stopped in at the barn, looking in on the space where he and Goldie had hidden, where they’d shared their first kiss. He petted his favorite horses’ noses and said goodbye to the teens working as ranch hands.
That evening he bade his family goodbye, stopping by to hug his nieces, his brothers, and then on to the big house to hug his mom. He parked the Hummer at the airport, making sure the rental agency would be picking it up, and he boarded his private plane headed for Bear Financial’s airfield.
Rita was waiting for him near the car she’d arranged. Her gray hair was pulled into a ponytail and she wore a stylish jacket and jeans. She had a hand on her hip and a sign that read, It’s about time.
Adrian chuckled at the sight, warmed by her. “Good to see you, Rita,” he said.
“You too, sir. It’s good you arrived when you did. I used the sleuth skills you inspired in me and discovered this.” She handed her iPad to him.
Adrian had been keeping tabs on Market Sentry and managing as he could from home. But he hadn’t been able to check the listings yet that day, and one day in the stock market could mean life or death for a person’s business, depending on how it was run. He’d made sure it was never the latter option.
He skimmed over the stock reports. From yesterday to today, his numbers had plummeted. His eyes flicked to hers. “When did this happen?”
“This morning,” she said.
What was he going to do? He’d used his grandfather’s inheritance to invest in the first place, and that had taken ten years to build Bear Financial Investments. This could provoke uncertainty in his clientele. It could build distrust in his company. People might withdraw their accounts from him, and that didn’t bode well. What about his employees and those who would lose their jobs if his business went under?
Luckily, he hadn’t bought on margin. He knew enough how the fluctuating share prices affected things. Hopefully, the market would rebound and he could recoup his losses, but still, he had to make sure this wasn’t as drastic as it could be. He should never have stayed in Montana as long as he had.
Absentmindedly, he pulled the bouquet of lollipops from his pocket. It no longer seemed the right time to give them to her, but he did it anyway. “As promised,” he said.
Color flushed Rita’s cheeks. She gave him a sardonic smile, took the lollipops, and turned. “The car is waiting, sir.”
“Thanks, Rita.” They rode together to his office, and while inside, he couldn’t manage to settle his brain on the problem at hand, large-scaled though it was.
Thoughts of Gabby kept resurfacing. He paced, then strode to the window and stared down at the canals, at the busy streets, at the buildings streaking the skyline. Loneliness cascaded through him. Suddenly, the water seemed dirtier, the streets more claustrophobic. The glamor of this life here wasn’t holding up its luster.
He found himself missing the quiet, open range. The drivers who went ten under the speed limit. The town where everyone knew everyone.
He hadn’t realized what a light Gabby had been for him until that light was dimmed. Until that light deserted him.
Adrian knew he could fix his business, even if it meant losing out on a few customers. But what did all of this, the fast pace, the high rise office, the spacious apartment, matter if he didn’t have someone to share it with? Someone with golden hair, a sweet smile, and the uncanny ability to not only flip his life upside down, but give him exactly no desire to turn it right side up again.
He wasn’t sure what to do about her. If she wanted things to be over between them, he could respect that. He would try to, anyway. He had a business to remedy, customers to placate, and investments to restore. He needed the distraction anyway. A way to keep his mind off of her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
GOLDIE FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS ON the GPS and managed to find her own way to the freeway. It was a few days’ drive back to Wisconsin. She wished she could just appear there instead of having to endure it, but she made the trek all the same, swimming in her thoughts the entire time.
Hard as she tried to root him out, Adrian wouldn’t leave her mind. She’d been so
