Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (95 page)

“Who’s struggling?” she asked, confused
now.

Red looked at her again.
 
“Things have slowed down domestically,
Nicole.
 
I’ve lost some big clients
this past year.
 
Nothing terrible,
but it hurt our bottom line.
 
This
Germany acquisition was a gamble.
 
A
major gamble, given how much I paid for it and some of the cash flow issues
we’re having.”

She squeezed his hand.
 
“I’m glad you’re telling me this.”

He looked at her again.
 
“It gets worse.”

“Okay.
 
Tell me more.”

“Our stock is very precarious at the
moment.
 
Every company in the world
invests some of its capital in the stock market.
 
And Jameson International is unlucky
enough to be heavily leveraged in the EU market—we’ve lost boatloads of
money the last six months.”

“So what does all of this mean?” she
said.
 
She knew it was bad.
 
Her stomach felt like she’d drank
curdled milk.

Red looked directly into her eyes.
 
“It means that we’re on the precipice
right now.
 
It’s been a perfect
storm of bad luck, bad decisions, some overreaching on my part.
 
And it’s brought the company—and
me personally—to a place where everything could go down in flames.”

“But you’re rich.”

“It’s like dominoes,” Red told her,
smiling sadly.
 
“A silly, cliché
analogy, but very accurate in this case.
 
If this new acquisition in Germany goes south, I could lose my
company.
 
You and I could lose the
company, I should say.”

“I don’t care about the money,” she told
him, meeting his gaze and holding it.
 
Her chin lifted in the defiant way that she had when someone doubted her
fighting spirit.

“I know,” he said, stroking her
cheek.
 
“But I do care about the
company I’ve spent my life building.
 
I’m not going to lose it all now.”

“What can I do to help?”

He sighed.
 
“Just be you.
 
And try to understand that I’m under
some stress right now, especially with my mother’s unannounced visit.
 
The last thing I need is that woman
getting under my skin and having my mind twisted in knots. I need to be at the
top of my game.”

 
“I won’t let her hurt you,” Nicole
said.
 
She squeezed his hand
again.
 

“I believe you’d be quite the match for
her, actually,” Red grinned.
 
“And
she might be just arrogant enough to underestimate you.”

Nicole smiled.
 
“Everyone underestimates me, I’m used to
it.”

***

“So lovely to meet you,” were the first
words out of Red’s mother’s mouth as Nicole and Red greeted her at JFK Airport,
while Red’s limo driver lugged two large suitcases to the trunk of the car.

Nicole was surprised at how different the
woman seemed from how she’d imagined her to look and act. Based on Red’s
descriptions, Nicole had thought his mother would look severe, deranged, like
someone from a horror movie.
 

Instead, she found his mother to look and
act a lot like any normal mom. In fact, she hugged Nicole warmly right
away.
 
Nicole could smell her
flowery perfume as the two of them embraced.
 
“So nice to meet you,” Nicole said.

“Please call me Erica,” his mother
replied brightly.
 

She didn’t even look old enough to be
Red’s mother, Nicole thought.
 
She
was dark haired but fairer skinned than Red, and although her hips were wide,
Erica Jameson seemed to be in very decent shape for a woman in her late
fifties.

The biggest telltale sign of her age was
the slight sagging of the skin around her cheeks and chin, and the wrinkles in
her neck.
 
But they were small
details, and the fact was, Erica looked fantastic for any woman at any age.
 
She was wearing a black pantsuit with a
ruffled white blouse, and a black Gucci purse was slung over one shoulder.

Red gave his mother a quick hug and kiss
on the cheek.
 
Nicole could sense
his discomfort from the way his shoulders were hunched and the stiffness of his
jaw.
 
He’d been very quiet and
closed off on the ride to the airport, but Nicole didn’t blame him.
  

She’d seen him ignoring his buzzing phone
as texts and phone calls came in—he made a comment to her about waiting
for Monday to deal with business.
 
But Nicole knew it was killing him to have to worry about both his
mother’s visit and the troubles with his company at the same time.
 

Nicole just kept smiling and put on a
brave face, even though deep down the fear and anxieties were still there for
her.
 
She didn’t like seeing Red in
so much distress.

“I’m so excited to spend time with both
of you,” Erica said, as the driver opened the door for them to climb
inside.
 

“Great,” Red said, his voice displaying
little enthusiasm.
 
“We’ll get you
back to the house, you can take some time to recover from traveling and then
I’ve got a wonderful restaurant booked for an afternoon bite to eat.”

“Actually, I’ve made us other plans,”
Erica said, giving Nicole a wry grin and a wink.
 

Red’s face turned grave.
 
“Other plans?”

The driver turned around in his
seat.
 
“Where to, Mister Jameson?”

Erica answered for him, leaning forward
in her seat.
 
“West 45
^th
Street.”

The driver glanced at Red, who merely
gave a slight nod and sat back, his lips pressed together tightly.
 
Nicole tried to take his hand but he
moved it to his knee instead.

“Is it a surprise or can I ask where
you’re taking us?” Nicole said, trying to sound chipper.

Erica began rummaging in her purse.
 
“I hope I didn’t lose them…” she
muttered, as the limousine started moving slowly forward into traffic.

“Lose what?” Red asked.
 

Erica looked up at him with a little
grin.
 
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Yes, I would.”

Just then his phone began buzzing in his
pocket, but Red ignored it.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” his
mother asked.

“No, I wasn’t planning to.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m trying to give me attention
to you, and to my fiancé.”

“That’s nice, honey.
 
But still, I think you should
answer.
 
It could be an important
business call.”

He folded his arms.
 
“What were you looking for in your
purse?” he asked.

Erica smiled, once again giving Erica
what felt like a secret look, as if they were already the best of friends.
 
“I’m just going to wait a little longer
before I ruin the surprise.
 
I think
you’ll both enjoy it, though.”

Red turned and stared out the window of
the limousine.
 
The way he looked
now reminded Nicole of that horrible first night they’d spent together in the
mansion, when he’d suddenly become strange and distant from her.
 
She’d seen him sitting in his chair in
the study, staring out the window and drinking as if he’d just heard a friend
had died.
 
That was the same night
he’d been so cruel to her, and later, he’d thrown plates and glasses all over
the dining room.

Nicole broke herself from her morbid
reverie.
 
“Miss Jameson—I mean
Erica—what do you do for work?” she asked, trying to fill the
uncomfortable silence that had descended over the car.

 
“I’m a nurse,” Red’s mother said.
 

“Oh, wow, that’s amazing.”
 
Nicole meant it, too—she deeply
admired caregivers and teachers, people who spent their lives dedicated to
helping others first.

“I’ve been a nurse since I was twenty-six
years old and haven’t stopped yet, even with a son who’s made sure I never have
to work another day in my life if I don’t want to.”
 
Erica smiled at Red.

“She’s a very hard working lady,” Red
said, his gaze landing everywhere but his mother.
 
“Taught me a lot about having a great
work ethic.”

Erica waved his comments off.
 
“I’m nothing special, really,” she said
to Nicole.
 
“I’m just a mother and a
nurse.
 
A simple person,
really—always have been.”

“I think you’re sweet,” Nicole told her.

His mother looked surprised.
 
“Sweet?
 
Did you hear that, my darling son?
 
Your wife-to-be thinks I’m sweet.
 
I haven’t heard that term used to
describe me very often.”

Nicole shrugged, feeling strangely
embarrassed.
 
She was trying to
figure out if Erica made her uncomfortable because of the stories Red had told
her, or because of something that Nicole sensed about the woman.
 

Red patted Nicole’s leg.
 
“Nicole sees the best in everyone.”

“You do, don’t you?” Erica said, her dark
eyes locking on Nicole’s.

“I try to.”

The older woman nodded sagely.
 
“It seems to me that you’ve been given a
gift, darling.
 
A positive outlook
is worth more than all the money in the world.”

Red grimaced a little, just a
flash—but Nicole noticed it.
 
Erica, however, just nodded her head, as if agreeing with herself.
 
Then she began rummaging through her
purse again.

The driver glanced at them in his
rearview mirror.
 
“Excuse me, ma’am,
but what address on West 45
^th
?”

Erica closed her eyes.
 
“Oh, I forget the exact address.
 
Driver, do you know where the Lyceum
Theatre is?”

“Yes, ma’am.”
 

Red stared at his mother.
 
“The Lyceum Theatre?
 
Why are we going there?”

She didn’t answer him.
 
After rummaging a bit more rummaging,
she gave a shout of happiness.
 
“Here they are!
 
I was
starting to think I’d left them at home.
 
That’s what I get for carrying a purse filled with junk.”
 
Erica pulled three tickets out of her
bag, somewhat bent and battered.
 

Red took them from her.
 
“Venus in Fur,” he muttered, reading the
tickets, his eyes narrowing.
 
“I’m
not sure I’ve heard of it.
 
What
kind of play is it?”

“It’s gotten rave reviews,” his mother
said.
 
Then she looked at
Nicole.
 
“Are you a fan of the
theatre?”

Nicole wasn’t sure what to say.
 
She’d been to Legally Blonde and Wicked,
but somehow she wasn’t sure that was the kind of theatre that Erica was talking
about.
 
“I’d love to see a show,”
she said, not sure how else to answer.

“You see, Red?
 
This girl’s a keeper.
 
Up for anything.”
 
She winked at Nicole slyly.

Red handed the tickets back to his
mother.
 
“I wish you’d at least
mentioned the idea to me beforehand.”

“You’d just have come up with an excuse
not to go.
 
I know my son too well.”

Red looked at her. “And I know my mother
too well.
 
What’s the play about?”

“It’s about relationships,” she said,
meeting his gaze.
 
“I thought it to
be very appropriate subject matter, given your recent announcement.”
 
Erica took the tickets from him and put
them back in her purse.
 
“Not that
you bothered telling me about your engagement.
 
But you let the world know through the
tabloids, as usual, so I suppose I should be thrilled.
 
And I am thrilled.”
 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Red
said, sighing.
 
He looked weary
already, Nicole thought.