She glared and stomped to the door. “Go to hell!”
“I’m already there, Kate. It’s been my damned zip code since I was ten!”
As she stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her, Garrett punched his fist into the pillow and yelled, “Goddammit!”
“We’re sitting at twenty-eight percent today...” Landon said. As usual, the man droned on and on about business.
Garrett made it a point to occasionally nod as if he were listening while he scrolled through his last text conversation with Kate. He’d texted her in the middle of the night after the debacle of their argument four nights ago. He’d been lying awake at midnight feeling medicated and as low as a dog. All he’d needed was for someone to put a bowl of Alpo out for him. Instead he’d found her food in the kitchen, cursed himself over and over again, heated up his soup and chowed down on several muffins, then grabbed his phone and texted her. Despite the fact that it had been past one in the morning, she’d replied. Which meant she’d been lying awake, too, as sleepless as he was.
Thanks for my food. When can I see you? I want to talk.
Everything is fine. I’ve already forgotten about it.
Garrett wasn’t so stupid as to believe this, but had answered.
K. So I hear you’re getting your dresses fitted Wednesday. I’ll drive you.
Won’t your girlfriend get jealous?
I’d like to explain to you about her.
It’s fine. The fitting is at five so I’ll see you before then.
“Are you even listening, Garrett?”
He lifted his head to Landon’s confused gray gaze.
“Hmm? What?”
Landon scowled and then continued, raising his voice as though to be clearer. “Clarks...new strategy...”
So, Kate thought Garrett had planned it all?
How could she believe that he’d planned to get sick, so that he could get her to bring over some food for him, get her into bed, seduce her like some out-of-control adolescent and conveniently forget a condom so she might have to stay? Well, hell, it sounded so brilliant, he felt like an idiot for not thinking of it before.
“Garrett, dammit, did you hear?”
“Yes. Clarks. A new strategy.” He set his phone aside, but putting thoughts about Kate aside wasn’t that easy.
“You’re the last single Gage. Will you or won’t you go through with this?” Landon asked.
With a major wrench of mental muscles, Garrett pulled his scrambled brain together and tried to focus on the topic today.
“All three of us know that I’m not really the last single Gage, Lan.” Garrett leaned back to survey both his brothers’ expressions across the conference table.
Landon’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t go there.”
“Why not?” He shrugged. “He’s still a Gage.”
“Mother wanted nothing to do with him. Hell, we paid him millions to get out of our lives for good, and you want to bring him back?”
“How badly do you want Clarks?” Garrett countered.
“As badly as you want it,” Landon returned.
Garrett scraped a hand along the tense muscles at the back of his neck. He wanted Clarks, but not as bad as he wanted something else.
“Plus who’s to say that selfish bastard will want to help us?” Landon rose to pace by the wall of windows. “He will want a big piece of the pie, and he’ll want even more than that. Do you remember Father refused to recognize him?“
“But we know he was Father’s son, no matter how many times he denied it to Mother,” Garrett countered. He’d been wracking his brain for other options and this was, fortunately or unfortunately, the only one he’d been able to come with.
To bring their illegitimate half brother, Emerson Wells, back into the fold.
Julian chewed on the back of a pen before he lowered it and spoke. “We could entice him with money. Stock. Something. Maybe we should call just him.”
“He’s trouble,” Landon said pointedly, his face furrowed in thought. “What does he do now anyway?”
“Last I heard he was in the personal security business here in San Antonio. Started as a bodyguard.”
“Seriously?”
“What can I say? He likes beating people up.”
“All right then.” Crossing the room, Landon clicked the phone intercom and rang his assistant. “If you’d please get me Emerson Wells on the line. You should be able to do a Google search and find his number. He owns some sort of personal security business here in town.”
Hanging up, Landon rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his gray eyes on Garrett. “If he denies us...would you still go through with it?”
Kate’s face and words surfaced in his mind with a vengeance, and his chest cramped. I would never marry for anything other than love!
For one painful moment, he wondered if she’d even care whether he married someone else, for whatever reason. But although her words had cut through him, her body had spoken another language. He’d lost control, and so had she. They’d both been so needy he hadn’t even been able to stop to put on a condom.
What had he done?
Perhaps Garrett hadn’t technically broken his promise to her father, but he felt like he had. There was probably no man more undeserving of Kate’s affection than he.
Clearly, you blew it, Gage.
But she had wanted him. Hell, she’d not only wanted him, she’d melted under his touch. Was he supposed to turn his mind blank and forget about a moment like that?
“Molls said they have a fitting this afternoon that you insisted on driving them to?”
He glanced up at Julian in confusion. “Molly? I told Kate I’d drive her. I didn’t know it included Molly.”
“And Beth,” Landon added with a grin. “They’re all going together.”
Garrett almost groaned. So much for talking to Kate one-on-one.
“Fine, then. I’ll drive the three of them,” Garrett reluctantly conceded. An infuriating hunch told him that Kate was doing this on purpose. Clearly, she had no desire to discuss anything with him.
Julian dropped his pencil on the table and angled his head, his eyes sparkling in amusement.
“You know, bro, I can’t help you here. Molls would strangle me if I see her in the dress.”
“That’s fine.” He plunged a hand through his hair. He’d wanted to spend some time with Kate and talk, but he would manage somehow. “I’ll drop Kate off last and see if she’ll do dinner with me.”
“So I take it this means whatever Emerson says, you’re not keen on the marriage of convenience?” Julian queried.
“Would you be?” Garrett countered. “Keen to marry a stranger? When your every thought is consumed by someone else?”