Jared rubbed his hair back down with both hands. “Dinosaur?” he asked.
Sabine crouched down, settling him on his feet and pulling her bag off her shoulder. “He’s right here.” She pulled out the plush triceratops from their trip to the American Museum of Natural History.
Jared happily hugged the dinosaur and leaned against her leg. He wasn’t traumatized by the whole ordeal, but Mommy was gone a little too long for his taste. She wasn’t going to be out of his sight for a while, and she knew exactly how he felt.
“I want to make this up to you,” Roger said. He was shuffling awkwardly in his loafers. “At least I want to try. I doubt anything can make it better.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over this, Roger. You can’t control what your kids do when they’re adults.”
“No, Gavin. I’m taking responsibility for this whole mess. I kept waiting for him to grow up, and I let things go too far. Now I want to change what I can. If you’re still interested, I want to make sure you get these planes you’re after. There’s no way in hell I want my son to ever have his hands in the company—rehab or no. Because of everything that happened, I’d like to sell it to you for twenty percent less than we previously negotiated. How’s that sound?”
Sabine watched Gavin’s eyes widen in surprise. Twenty percent of the money they were talking about was apparently a huge amount. She couldn’t even imagine it.
“Roger, I—”
“And I’ll throw in Beth.”
“No.” Gavin shook his head. “Absolutely not. That’s your private jet. You named it after your wife!”
Roger smiled and patted Gavin on the shoulder. “My first wife,” he clarified. “She’s not a part of the Exclusivity Jetliners fleet, I know. But I want to give her to you. Not to BXS, but to you. Even if the merger is off the table. I know you’ve always wanted your own jet, and it doesn’t get much better than my Beth, I assure you.”
“What about you?” Gavin asked.
“I’ll take some of the money I make off the sale and maybe I’ll buy a smaller plane. I don’t need such a big one anymore. Anyway, I don’t want to give Paul too many options. Maybe I’ll just get a nice yacht instead and take the missus to Monaco.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. I’ll have my lawyers redraft the agreement and we’ll be back on for Tuesday.” Roger smiled and looked down at Jared with a touch of sadness in his eyes. “Again, I’m sorry about all of this. Please, take your son home and enjoy your afternoon with him.”
Then he leaned in closer to Gavin. “And for the love of God, stop by the bank and get that cash put back someplace safe. You can’t just walk around with a million dollars in a backpack.”
Twelve
“Well,” Gavin said, breaking the long silence. “Tomorrow I’m going to call the Realtor and let her know that the apartment overlooking Washington Square Park is out.”
“Out? Why?” Sabine asked from the seat beside him. The town car had picked them up after Roger left and was taking them back uptown to his apartment.
“I’m not paying five million dollars for a place that will do nothing but remind you of all of this every time you look out the window. This location is tainted.”
Sabine sighed. “We looked at over half a dozen apartments last week, and that was the only one I really liked. I understand your concerns, but I hate to start over.”
Thankfully, Gavin had no intention of putting her through all that again. There was only one apartment she needed to tour. It had taken him a long time to come to this conclusion, but now his mind was made up. “We’re not. A place has come available that no one knows about yet. I think you’re really going to love it.”
Her brows arched in question, but she didn’t press him. At least not now. She was too busy holding a squirming Jared in her lap. After the past twenty-four hours of hell, she probably didn’t think apartment hunting was high on their agenda. She would question him later.
Besides, they hadn’t spoken—really spoken—since their fight on the beach. They were angry with one another and then they set that aside while they focused on getting Jared back. Now, with all of that behind them, they had nothing to do but deal with each other and the fallout of their heated and regretful words.
Gavin wasn’t ready to start that awkward conversation yet. He was much happier to watch Sabine and Jared interact as they drove home. Occasionally she leaned down and inhaled the scent of his baby shampoo and smiled, very nearly on the verge of tears. How could she ever have thought he could split the two of them up? It was an impossible task.