One White Lie: Barrington Billionaire's Series: Book One (3 page)

L
ena had been up most of the night with Nicholas, who had a low-grade fever. Unfortunately, while being up with Nicholas, she instinctively did what most new parents do: she called her mother on FaceTime and asked for advice. She was sure she knew what the issue was but found comfort in hearing it from someone else. Her mother said, “You spiked a fever with every tooth you cut at that same age. If we had a dollar for every sleepless night with you kids, I think we could’ve retired at age forty.”

Lena hadn’t given her parents any cause to worry throughout her teenage years, at least nothing like her brothers had. Her brothers teased her about always trying to be perfect, never making a mistake.
Boy did that all change when I became a single parent.
If she had let them know who she had been dating, she was positive her brothers would have searched out Nicholas’s father and demanded a wedding.
That would have been worse than doing this on my own. Being with someone who didn’t want me, didn’t want us.

She spent more than an hour on FaceTime, and Nicholas didn’t want to give up the phone. Even her mother seemed to be enjoying herself, especially when Nicholas called her Nana. It even melted Lena’s heart hearing her son say it for the first time. Before they hung up, Lena found herself agreeing to spend the weekend. Now, on little to no sleep, she wished she had declined the offer last night.
If I call now, they will only think I am avoiding going. They’d be right.

At least it was Friday, and when she picked Nicholas up later, they could spend the entire weekend catching up on the precious time they’d missed. After finally convincing him the grape Tylenol was yummy, she bundled him up in his hat, scarf, and mittens. On top of everything else, the weatherman decided to break the bad news that morning, saying it was going to be the coldest day of the year.
This day has to get better.

Once outside she quickly hustled to the bus stop. She was already thinking spring when the coldest day of the season hit.
Really? It’s the last day of February. I am so done with winter already.
On any other day, she would have kept distance between her and the crowd of passengers waiting to board. Today she found comfort in being surrounded by a mass of people huddled together.
At least they make a great wind barrier.
Pulling the blanket up around Nicholas to block the remaining wind, she stood amongst the noise of the early morning street traffic.
I need to win the lottery.

When the bus finally arrived, what was once comforting, she now found to be rude. People bumped and pushed their way past her to board.
Hello, you idiots, don’t you see I have a child in my arms?
Most days she felt invisible, so why should today be any different?
Maybe because I need it to be.

On days like this she wished she had someone to lean on for emotional support. Yes, she had friends, but none of them had children. When they were dragging themselves to work after no sleep, it was from a party the night before or from hooking up with some sexy hunk. It seemed like it had been ages that she’d done either. The last time had been . . .
Don’t think about it, Lena. It’s all in the past. Keep it there.

That was easier said than done. Even though she didn’t see Brice often, just being in the same building brought challenges.
Like his cologne that lingered in the air after he walked away.
She couldn’t believe he still wore it. Lena had purchased a bottle of Polo for him when they were shopping one day because the blend of the cologne and his natural scent drove her wild.
I couldn’t resist it then and still can’t.
Some things hadn’t changed.
God, you smell divine.
What she didn’t understand was, despite his obvious wealth, he still wore it. He could afford whatever he wanted, so why wear that?
Does he wear it because it reminds him of me
? That knowledge was bittersweet. There was a huge part of her that hoped he had some regrets and was tortured by sweet memories of their time together, but she didn’t see him losing sleep over her. Not after the cold way he broke everything off. No, he probably wore it because finding a new brand wasn’t important to him. That was how he functioned, after all.

Anger was building within her. The last thing she wanted to do was spend even a second of her time thinking about him and why he did things the way he did.
He doesn’t mean anything to me.
She was trying to brush the memories from her mind.
Not anymore.

The bus doors opened, and she made her way down to the subway with her son still sleeping in her arms. Nothing ever seemed to faze him, not the loud noises or bright lights. He was not like her at all. Lena was easily distracted and always had been. Even now she couldn’t bake cookies and watch television. She would become absorbed in the show until the blaring smoke detector snapped her back to the task at hand. Yet oddly when she was with her son, nothing and no one broke her focus. Since having Nicholas, she had changed so much. She was no longer living just for herself. Another person’s well-being came before her own.

Just another difference between us, Brice. You easily walked away. I could never do that. Not for all the money in the world.
She still couldn’t believe Brice’s father was on the “do not transfer call” list. Even though they’d dated for a year, she’d only met his father once, and that was one time too many. He looked at her like someone would look over a car they were thinking about purchasing then decide the car wasn’t worth it. It had been apparent he hadn’t approved of her for his son, and she hadn’t cared. Brice hadn’t appeared to be anything like his father.
Maybe I was wrong.

Lena had met Brice’s younger sister, Zoey, a few times and once they even double-dated. It had been a total flop. The guy she was dating had tattoos covering every visible inch of his body. She had no issue with that except that throughout dinner he wanted to show more of them to her and had taken off his shirt. Lena felt so sad for Zoey because Brice had grabbed her date and physically removed him from the restaurant before the manager could. When Zoey had opened her mouth to protest Brice stopped her saying, “Date who you want, but don’t bring them around me.” That was their first and last double date.

Funny, Zoey was the only name she recognized on Nancy’s call list of people Brice would answer.
At least she hadn’t made it into the doghouse yet.
It seemed that Brice had cut most everyone out of his life.
Why? What made you change so much, Brice?
Something major had to have gone down. All this time she had thought it was only her, and he had somehow grown tired of their relationship. In taking this job, she realized there was much more going on with him than she knew. Maybe over the next few weeks the answers to her many questions would be revealed. Although, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Her heart had been broken with his cold dismissal, and it had taken time to stow the aching pain associated with the memories of Brice Henderson.
Better I think of him as an asshole than not.
After all, he hadn’t tried to get in contact with her again.
No, keep your distance, Lena, and guard your heart. What’s done is done.

One of the things he hated most about winter was the damn cold morning runs. The last few years he’d run religiously no matter what the weather. This morning was far too cold even for him.
One day won’t throw off anything.
It wasn’t only for the physical activity; it helped burn off any lingering frustrations and kept him clearheaded throughout the day. The lack of a run wasn’t going to have an effect on him as much as it was on his staff. If they were smart, and they usually were, they would quickly pick up on the signals and wouldn’t push their luck today.

He usually rushed to shower, dress, and go to his lab, but no one was going to be in until nine, so he had plenty of time to catch up on the world news.
It would be nice to have my coffee now.

Lena had been able to handle the calls and his every demand just as Nancy had promised. She hadn’t made one mistake. Brice hated to admit it, but he was impressed with how she’d handled her first week. Not that he’d spent any time with her, but his staff had no problem reporting back. They were extremely loyal and seemed to have the motto: he who finks first finks best.
As long as they are only giving me the intel and not sharing mine, I don’t care what they do.

When he and Lena had been dating, he’d never doubted her capability and responsibility, but she hadn’t seemed quite as focused or driven back then as she was now. Something had changed. Lena was more confident and outspoken than before.
Damn it. I’ve gone on with life after her, and have tried to put her out of my mind. Singularly focused on my career. But seeing her again now? It’s as though no time has passed. She’s intelligent, perceptive, and even more beautiful than before. She’s even sexier. Fuck.

Brice never second-guessed his decisions. Even now he knew the choice to end their relationship three years ago was the correct one. Lena wanted something he wasn’t ready for then or now. The look in her eyes that night had said it all.
She was falling in love with me.
It was a split-second decision that he’d made that night, but it was the kindest thing he could’ve done. End it quickly.

He’d known he’d hurt her; the expression on her face had been one of utter shock. But he’d made a decision that had flipped his entire life on its axis, and even though he’d cared about her, he couldn’t have taken the next step if he were worrying about how his choices affected anyone else’s life.
It had been all about me.

He had recently left his father’s company and had needed to focus on getting his own business off the ground. It hadn’t been something that had happened overnight. In fact, had it not been for bumping into his old friend, Asher Barrington, it probably wouldn’t have been as close to going live then as it was today. Yes, he had the chemical engineering background, and the formula was all his. But Asher brought something to the team he didn’t care about, then or now.

He handled everything in Trundaie, from building the plant to getting all the governmental paperwork, or whatever he called it, taken care of in that country.

Though he wasn’t his father, he wasn’t sure how far the apple had fallen from that tree. Growing up in a house without a mother figure was difficult, but the revolving door of nannies over the years was more than any of his siblings could take. When the nanny became close to them in any way, she was gone the next day. Six kids were raised by a father who treated women without respect. At least none he’d ever seen. As he thought back to the few women he had seen his father with late at night, they looked more like hookers picked up from a street corner than actual dates.
Maybe they were
. His father abruptly stopped bringing them to the house when Brice became old enough to question who they were.

He always wondered why a man with so much wealth couldn’t find a woman to love him.
Maybe he was just as abusive to them as he was to us.
Brice remembered the last day his father ever hit him. He hadn’t returned on time after one of his late night football games. Instead of going right home, he’d decided to have some fun with one of the cheerleaders. He was hours past his curfew, but he thought if he was careful and quiet, he would be able to slip into the house unnoticed. That hadn’t been the case. For some unknown reason, his father decided to wait up for him.
Why had he that night?
When the smeared lipstick was seen on his cheek, he gave Brice a backhanded slap across the face. Brice wasn’t sure what possessed him to do it, but he grabbed his father and jacked him up against that wall. “Touch me again and it will be the last thing you ever do.”

His father never laid another hand on him, though he wasn’t so sure about his siblings. He was too young at that time to take the weight of responsibility for them all on his shoulders. By the time he was out of college, he was the liaison for all family issues that arose between his siblings and their father. Most were still in college, and he made sure they had an apartment of their own instead of moving back home after they graduated. Of course, he’d only accomplished that by working for his father at Poly-Shyn. The day he walked out of that company, they must have felt as though he walked out on them.