Cowboy Baby Daddy

“I was using my father’s company as a way to hang onto him. To keep him alive so I wouldn’t have to deal with the fact he was gone. I lost my father and the only woman I ever considered to be my mother on the same day, and I never stopped to think Christian had lost the same. That he had lost his mother and the only person he had ever considered a father.”

I felt my chest hiccupping and tried to calm myself down. I had to get through this speech. I didn’t know if I was going to see Christian after this, and I needed him to hear me.

To hear what I’d learned in the last couple weeks.

“I started this crusade to get the company back because I thought that giving the company to Christian meant my father trusted him more with the best of him than he did me. I thought this was my father’s way of communicating how much of a disappointment I had become to him, and I wanted to get it back so I could provide myself the opportunity to show that I wasn’t a disappointment. That I could be better. That I could be more than whatever it was I thought he had reduced me to. But, that wasn’t what happened. That wasn’t what he was planning, and it was Christian who brought that to my attention. Your Honor, Christian is a genius. He might have been wading in thick waters there for a moment, but he was made for this business, and my father knew that. But, more importantly, Christian was right earlier. My father had a plan. He knew the company needed both of us, both of our respective knowledge and skill sets, for his company to thrive. It’s why he split his personal stock in the company between the two of us the way he did, and it’s why he gave Christian the company: because he knew if he handed it to me, I wouldn’t hire him on. Because of how our relationship was.”

“So, you agree with Mr. Gunn on that, then?” the judge asked.

“Yes, Your Honor. If there is one thing Christian and I can agree on, it’s the fact that my father was a cryptic son of a bitch.”

“Language, Miss Harte.”

“Sorry, Your Honor. He always had this roundabout way of implementing a plan and then giving you time to digest, figure it out, and grow in the process. We followed his plan accordingly without even realizing it. Until now, that is. Your Honor, Christian influenced the company in a way I had never seen before, even under my father’s control. And he only sat in that seat for two weeks. Imagine what he could do in two months, or two years, or two decades! Imagine the people we could help, the charities that could benefit monetarily. It would be—”

“Miraculous?” Christian asked.

I whipped my gaze over to him, relishing in his voice. For the first time in over a week, he was talking to me. He was addressing me, looking at me, studying me with those eyes that brought me so much warmth and comfort. I locked my gaze with him, never wanting to let it go. Because I knew if I did, there was the risk I’d never get it back.

Not after all I’d done and put him through.

“Miraculous,” I said, grinning. “Your Honor, I want to drop this case.”

“It’s not your case to drop, Miss Harte,” the judge said.

“Then I want to drop the case,” Christian said.

“If you drop the case, the company defaults back to Miss Harte. If the two of you would sit down and listen to what I have to say, I think you are going to enjoy it,” the judge said.

The two of us sat back down into our seats before our eyes finally broke from one another’s. I had no idea what the judge was going to say, but in my book, this company would always be Christian’s. That office would always be his, and those responsibilities would always be done better at his hand.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“My order of this court, I hereby give the company Harte To Heart Medical Supplies over to Christian Gunn as per Charles Harte’s will.” the judge said. “Whatever the two of you choose to do with regard to who runs the company and who doesn’t, that is up to the owner. But as of this court hearing, Harte To Heart Medical Supplies is under Christian Gunn’s ownership.”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Christian and I said together.

“Good.” He banged his gavel on his desk before he went to sign the official order, and I saw Christian get up and go to the judge’s desk. I felt a slight pang of disappointment as I watched him walk away from me. Holy hell, he looked incredible in the suit he had bought, and I felt tears crest my eyes before I got up and began to exit the courtroom. I looked back, taking one last look at Christian before I left. One last look to commit him to memory.

I was going to miss him and the relationship we had developed.

I walked out of the courtroom and down the steps of the courthouse before I headed for my car. I would have to make a note to inform Christian that I didn’t know if I was coming back to the company, but I would also have to let him know that he would need to hire a new company lawyer.

It was finally done. The company was back in the hands of the person it needed to be in, and I started to come to grips with the fact that my father was gone. Maybe this was to try and get Christian and I to work things out. Maybe all of this was orchestrated by some man who had some grand plan to bring his two children together.

Or maybe this was the move of a man with wisdom beyond his years who simply knew more than I did.

All I knew was that now, I could start coping with my loss. Now, I could start coping with my grief. With my heartache and my sleepless nights and all the things that spawned the moment I had to pull the plug on my father’s life-support machines.

I panned my gaze over to the courthouse one last time before I gritted my teeth to start my car. I saw Christian come running out, his head darting in every direction. It looked like he was looking for someone, possibly the lawyer I was with.

A part of me deep down inside hoped he was looking for me.

/> But, even if he was, I couldn’t face him. Not the way I looked and not after everything I had put him through. He had suffered enough at my hands, and he didn’t need to endure it any longer.

So, I pulled out of the metered parking space and drove off, watching as Christian continued to look around while he faded slowly into the background.

Chapter Thirty-Five