Brant's Return

“Be well, Aaron,” I called after him as he and Brant turned away. And I meant it.

**********

We arrived in New York just after noon the next day. Brant bustled me through the airport, through baggage claim, and out to the sidewalk where a man held a sign with Brant’s name on it. I was overwhelmed but excited, and my head turned left and right as I watched the sights go by out the window of the luxury car.

Brant’s building was a brick and glass high-rise with a doorman who greeted us when we arrived, ushering us into the elevator that rose to the very top floor. I whistled when we stepped out of the elevator into the grand marble vestibule that featured only one door. “Yours, I presume, Mr. Talbot?” I asked, tilting my head and giving him a teasing smile.

He winked. “Your assumption is correct, Ms. Farris.” He pressed a code into a console beside the double door and it clicked open.

“I didn’t realize I was visiting royalty,” I said.

“Didn’t you?”

“Good grief, no.”

“And to think, all this could have been yours if only—”

I elbowed him softly in his side and he let out an overacted “Oomph.”

A laugh died in my throat as the doors swung open to reveal the most opulent home I’d ever seen. Wow. I stepped inside, wandering aimlessly, my mouth hanging open like a fish gasping for water. Everywhere I turned there was something to stare at. The floor-to-ceiling windows with a spectacular view of New York City. A marble staircase that swept up and around to a second level, gargantuan-sized furniture in leather and suede, glass, and shiny materials I couldn’t identify. Standing amongst all that grandeur, I felt so small. For the first time in years, I once again felt like the girl sitting at a simple wooden desk in a plain black dress staring out the window at a world that would never be mine. A disconcerting melancholy came over me, and I wrapped my arms around myself, turning in a circle. My gaze caught on Brant who had his hip leaned on the edge of a sofa and was watching me closely. The look on his face was slightly nervous, as if he wasn’t sure I approved of the place I’d call home for the next couple of weeks, and it meant a lot to him that I did.

I smiled. “It’s gorgeous.” And it was. I was just having trouble merging this starkly luxurious showplace with the man next to me. This wasn’t him . . . no, wait. It was him. It was the Brant Talbot I’d very first met. Buttoned-up blowhard. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment that I’d even had the thought in this moment when Brant was showing me his home, when he was standing so still next to me, obviously hoping for my approval.

I walked to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “I’m going to love it here.”

His eyes wandered over my features for a moment as if searching for something. Apparently happy with what he found, he smiled back. “Yes. I’m going to make sure of it.”

**********

After calling Harrison to let him know we’d arrived safely, I spent the rest of the day getting settled in the apartment.

I took a shower in the massive glass enclosure, mystified by all the knobs and levers, finally figuring out how to turn on the showerhead above me, though it pommeled me so hard it felt like I was being pelted by hail.

I changed into comfortable clothes, taking off the pair of gold studs I wore in my ears and placing them in my small linen jewelry bag. The key I’d once worn around my neck also stayed in the bag, along with the only other pair of earrings I owned. I’d bought the silver studs when I first married Ethan and had done the wild and crazy deed of having my ears pierced at a mall. God, that seemed like a million years ago. Just as I was closing the bag, I opened it back up and peered inside. The chain the key had been on was there, but upon closer inspection, the key itself was gone. What the heck? I’d remembered specifically putting it back in here after I’d used it and discovered the money in that storage locker.

When was the last time I’d seen it in the bag? I thought it was right before the party May had thrown at Graystone Hill. Since then . . . well, I guess I hadn’t noticed. Had someone taken it? Or had it fallen out during the last whirlwind week . . . through packing . . . traveling. Disconcerted, I started to zip the bag closed, noticing the zipper was coming loose at one end so that there was a pretty large gap. I poured the contents into my hand, noticing that one of the silver earrings was missing as well. That small missing stud made me feel a little less uneasy. Both the key and the earring must have fallen out of the gap between the broken zipper and the material. How else would that key have gone missing? No one knew what it belonged to except Brant and me. And the only thing in there now was a fancy car in my dead husband’s name.

Still, I mentioned it to Brant and he said he’d keep an eye out for it, reassuring me that it had to be because of the broken zipper.

We ordered takeout for dinner and feeling better, calmer, I tried a little bit of everything as Brant watched, laughing. I’d never had Chinese food before and everything was mouthwatering.

“I’m going to have fun feeding you here, I can tell,” he said, his eyes shining with both amusement and heat. I laughed too, digging back into the Szechaun beef.

And now, standing on the balcony overlooking the New York skyline, I felt a warm shimmer of happiness move through me. Brant was in his office working and I’d cleaned up from dinner and wandered out here to take in the heart-stopping view. I couldn’t imagine New York ever feeling like home, not like Kentucky. And I didn’t think Brant would ever ask me to move here permanently. He knew how important the horses were to me, how much I loved Graystone Hill and the calm it brought me. Be mine. We’ll figure it out. I wanted to figure it out. He’d asked me to join him for the bar opening, so at least I would spend a little time here with him to get a feel of this life. And maybe, just maybe, eventually, I’d have—we’d have—New York and Graystone Hill—the best of both worlds?

His arms wrapped around me from behind, his warmth enveloping me as he nuzzled my ear. “Hey. What are you so deep in thought about out here all by yourself?”

I smiled as I wrapped my arms over his. “Just enjoying this amazing view.”

“Are you still thinking about what Aaron told you yesterday?”

I sighed. “I’ve tried to move it from my mind, at least for today.”

“What do you want to do with the money?”

“I don’t know . . . I would have liked to give it back to Aaron, but since he won’t take it, I feel like something . . . I don’t know, something meaningful should be done with it. Something that turns it from tainted to pure, you know? Does that make sense?”

“Absolutely.” He turned me in his arms. “I think you’ll know it when it comes along.” He paused. “Aaron said the money was stolen from clients, but there’s still about a million unaccounted for. You said that when you met Ethan, he was investing for your father and others in your community. When you left with him, it was all very sudden—like he could have been running away. Is it possible . . .?”