An insistent ringing disturbed Nathan’s grim thoughts. The meeting with Lucas Smythe had gone worse than he’d expected. The guy was definitely considering selling his company and offering Case Consolidated Holdings first crack at it. Sebastian and Max were full of smug delight and Nathan was fighting hard to stop them from shutting down his venture with Montgomery Oil. With three weeks to go until Valentine’s Day, the only thing keeping his deal with Silas alive was the fact that Smythe was not one hundred percent ready to let go of the business his family had owned for the last hundred years.
Glancing at his cell phone’s display, he took the call. “Hey, Dad.”
Brandon Case’s rich chuckle filled Nathan’s ear. “Don’t you sound cheerful. Your brothers giving you trouble?”
Nathan gestured to the bartender to bring him another whiskey and stared at the hockey game on the television behind the bar. “You know they are.”
“How’s the deal going with Montgomery?”
“We’re talking a couple times a week. He’s got his people confirming our financial forecast. Cody’s looking into possible locations for the production facility.”
“Sounds promising.”
“Yeah.” Nathan knew his dad couldn’t possibly miss the lack of enthusiasm in his voice. He was under the gun from two quarters. His brothers were awfully enamored of Smythe’s company. How long before they convinced the guy to sell? Nathan had little trouble imagining a scenario in which he convinced Emma to marry him, and then couldn’t do the deal with her father because his brothers bought Smythe Industries. “But it all might be a big waste of time.”
“Let me guess—Lucas Smythe’s company?”
A cheer went up behind Nathan. Someone must have scored.
“It balances our product mix and provides Case Consolidated Holdings with conservative but steady growth,” he muttered.
“I was right to convince you to come home. I love those boys, but neither one has any instincts when it comes to taking risk. Too much education.”
Nathan rolled his head from side to side in an attempt to loosen the knots in his shoulders. “I don’t think having advanced degrees in business makes Max and Sebastian risk-adverse.”
“It’s because they take after their mother,” Brandon said. “Whereas you take after me and your mother. Never met anyone as strong and brave as Marissa.”
It wasn’t the first time Nathan had heard his father’s tone grow wistful when he spoke about Marissa Connor, but it was the first time Nathan asked a particular question. “Did you love her?”
He had no idea what had prompted him to delve into the relationship between his parents after avoiding the topic for so many years. Maybe he’d been thinking too much about Emma this trip and pondering how to overcome her determination to marry for love. He’d called her each day he’d been gone, getting her voice mail and leaving messages both times. She’d returned his calls, but he’d been in meetings and she hadn’t left a voice mail. He craved the sound of her voice right now. It bugged him just how much he wanted to talk to her.
“Love her?” Brandon sounded surprised. “I adored her.”
Was that true? Or was it a man’s fond remembrance of the woman he’d lost before he could grow tired of her?
“I only wished I’d met her before Susan and I got married,” Brandon continued. “I would have saved everyone a lot of heartache if I’d held out for the girl of my dreams instead of deciding it was time to settle down.”
His father’s words were like a left jab that came out of nowhere. His father had settled for marriage without love and lived to regret it. Nathan lurched back from the uncertainty that had appeared before him like a sinkhole. “But you didn’t leave Susan.”
Brandon sighed. “I wanted to, but Marissa wouldn’t let me. She said I had a family who needed me.”
Unexpected pain blossomed in Nathan’s chest. What about him and his mom? They’d needed Brandon, too. “You’re lying,” he growled. “She loved you. She’d smile and hum for days after you visited. Why would she tell you to stay married?”
“Because she was stronger than me. Than Susan. Than your brothers. You both were.” Brandon’s voice grew melancholy. “They needed me. You didn’t. Not really. Together the two of you could take on the world. It’s why I wanted you to work with your brothers. They need your strength. Your confidence. The three of you will do great things with the business.”
“Maybe, but we have to learn to work together first,” Nathan muttered bitterly.
“Do you want me to talk to them?” his dad asked, his voice gaining an edge. “They need to understand you’re an equal partner.”
Nathan knew his father was feeling restless since retiring. Brandon liked keeping tabs on the business and voicing his opinions. He didn’t understand how much that irritated his eldest son.
“Thanks, Dad, but this is something I need to handle.”
After hanging up, Nathan sipped his drink and let his thoughts drift toward Emma as they’d been doing all too often lately. Never before had he struggled so hard to keep his attention on business.
From the moment he’d boarded the plane in Houston, it had occurred to him that he was worried about leaving her to her own devices. Her inability to understand the limitations of her energy and strength irritated him. In the last glimpse he’d had of her before leaving on this trip, he’d seen that Emma was driving herself toward exhaustion.
Until he’d surprised her over lunch, he’d assumed that the only work she’d been doing had been at his condo, but seeing how pale she’d become since he’d moved her out of her loft, he’d gotten her to admit that she spent her nights crafting her designs.