The Billionaire's Second Chance (61 page)

A second later Nick stepped from the shadows saying
,
“Not so alone, as you can see.” with a tone that said he’d noticed Shannon’s attempt to hide her natural reaction to her older brother.

Ted’s shocked expression said it all as he took in Nick’s imposing appearance and his sister’s presence by the big man’s side.

Nick didn’t care who this guy was, he didn’t like his look or the way
that
Shannon kept her distance.
He could see why they’d never been close, concluding it had a lot more to do with the man being an ass than the simple fact that he was so much older than her. He’d been in far too many board rooms and business meetings through the years not to recognize somebody as full of their own importance as this fellow was.

It was like being in the presence of angry, territorial beasts Shannon thought, except without all the snarling and aggression. Ted was being his usual sanctimonious self while Nick was clearly playing his well-deserved alpha male card. She was impressed that he knew without being told that her brother was a control freak who thought he knew so much better than everyone else on the planet.

“Ted, this is Nicholas Barrett. My fiancée.” She added for good measure.

“Your what?” he bellowed. “I didn’t realize you were even seeing somebody. When did all this happen? Don’t you think it’s a little awkward unveiling a secret fiancée at mom and Dad’s party?”

The man was a train wreck of negativity and Nick didn’t like him one bit.

“Hardly a secret
,
Theodore.” Shannon bit out in a tone that said even more than the way she spit out her brother’s formal name.

As if on cue Ted’s unctuous wife Jane appeared in the fray, trying to decipher what all the kerfuffle was about.

“What’s going on Ted?” she asked before she made out Shannon’s presence on the terrace.

“Oh my god
,
Jane!
The prodigal daughter has returned home and chosen this very moment to produce a fiancé to ruin my parent
’
s night!” he cried.

And just like that, she’d had enough. “Okay Ted,” Shannon snapped, “that’s quite enough. They are my parents too and nobody’s night has been ruined except yours, of course. I am sorry that my appearance as the quote, unquote ‘prodigal daughter’ as you say
,
has upset you but in the words of my generation, ‘tough titties pal.”

Nick almost laughed as his little one rose to the occasion
,
as he knew she could
,
and promptly put her shit
head brother in his place.

Jane looked stunned when she finally saw Nick and Shannon standing there. “A fiancé you say?”

Facing Shannon she pretty much said the same thing her husband had although with a somewhat more polite tone, “This is sudden, my dear. I didn’t realize you were involved with anyone
,
Shannon.”

Sighing deeply Shannon tried a half smile and made an attempt to introduce Nick to her sister-in-law.

“Not so sudden Jane,” she said. “Nick and I are, well…. we were friends a long time ago. We’ve recently reconnected and there you have it. Everyone needs to settle down. I’ve just become engaged, am at a reunion of sorts and have brought my fiancé to meet the family. Where’s the big deal in that? “

To say the conversation went from sibling snark to atomic a nanosecond later
wasn’t
doing the moment justice. A light
bulb figuratively lit up over J
ane’s head as she snapped frow
ning eyes at Shannon and
Nick,
pursing her thin lips and
looking
less friendly by the heartbeat.

Casting Shannon a withering look, Jane snapped at her, “Not sudden you say? Why am I not surprised to hear that?” Jane hissed.

“Ted!
” she cried at her husband, “it’s him. How can it not be, your sister being the fool she is!”

Ted’s
resentment
toward his sister was nothing compared to the anger evident on his face when he focused b
urning eyes on Shanno
n and the man at her side.

“That’s what this is, isn’t Shannon? This is the man who got you in all that trouble, isn’t it?
The man who left you on your own after
the
accident so your brother and I had to play caretaker!”
T
he woman was all but screaming now making Shannon cringe as each
vicious
word flew at her.

Wait!  What? Nick’s mind screamed. Accident? Trouble? What in the hell was going on here?

“How dumb can one girl be? Bringing him here like this.”

Nick was suddenly a statue, unable to move and unless he got control of hi
mself and started breathing, he was abo
ut to hit the floor from oxygen starvation. What the hell had that viper-tongued woman just said? Had he hear her correctly when she said he’d gotten Shannon in trouble?

A black hole was opening up in his gut while a fear so strong that his knees almost buckled, rocked Nick to the core.

In a voice he barely recognized Nick croaked out a strangled plea made up of just one word that said everything
,
“Shannon?”

Oh my god, no!
Shannon’s mind screamed. This can’t be happening. Damn Jane and her big mouth.

Nick was her first priority so she turned close to him and touched his arm to reassure him saying, “It’s not what you think, Nick. Okay, it probably is what you think but I can explain.”

“Is that woman saying what I think she’s saying?”

In one final desperate attempt at denial Shannon glared at Jane and said
,
“I’m not sure what Jane thinks she knows.” as she clung to the hope that her privacy had been respected.

“There was a car accident a f
ew weeks after I returned to Bos
ton. Got a good thump on my head, along with a few other issues and since I’d been staying at Ted and Jane’s they were more or less forced to take on my convalescence. I hadn’t realized till now how
much they rese
nted the intrusion in their lives.”

Shannon hoped her comments were enough to deflect Jane from any further damage with more comments.

“Oh, give it up sister-in-law. Did you really think that Ted wouldn’t find out the truth? You were a basket case with a concussion being the least of your worries. He doesn’t even know does he?
” s
he bit out.
“
You haven’t even told him
.”
she said with disgust.

Next thing she knew her
parents appeared out of nowhere;
apparently having been in the shadows the whole time, listening to the awful sibling confrontation.

The expression
on the faces of her older parents didn’t help Shannon’s growing hysteria bank off any.

“Is this true
,
daughter?” her mother barked while her father turned cross eyes her way
snapping
, “Shannon, explain yourself.”

Could time stand still? Was there a pause button she could push to give herself the time to gather her emotions and not make this any worse? Shannon could feel Nick standing like a stone monolith at her shoulder.
Shit.

Ted and his uptight wife were tittering quietly to each other shooting looks of contempt her way. The sight of her parents though
,
with faces brimming with disappointment stiffened her spine. Time to put her big girl knickers on.

“Mom, Dad. It’s alright.” Shannon said quietly with a tremb
ling smile.

Reaching for Nick’s
hand she stepped a bit closer to him sending a clear message of where her loyalties were.

“Nick and I need to talk. Would you take Ted and get him
bourbon
,
Dad?” she asked sweetly while nodding
reassuring
ly
in her father
’
s direction. “I think he needs it!” Shannon added as she looked again at her mother.

“Mom, I love you. Trust me. Everything will be fine.”

The four retreated back inside to the lively celebration going on around them. Shannon’s mom had hesitated at the last second
.
Before
closi
ng
the terrace door
s so they could have some priva
cy she smiled at her daughter.

“I’m glad you know,” she said. “Glad that your head was full of fanciful, romantic notions as a young girl. They made you brave, my only daughter.”

Looking from Shannon to Nick and back again she chirped a final
,
“Use your head
and
your heart Shannon.”
while pulling
the French doors shut
,
leaving them alone on the darkened terrace.

Considering the import of her mother’s words Shannon knew there was a message in there. It’s how her mother was. She wanted her to think
and
to feel. It was the first time that Shannon could ever recall her mom approving of the fancy-filled colored rose glasses that had so marked her youth. She was letting her know that her romantic visions were okay and to also be brave.

Nick’s hand was cold as ice
,
reminding Shannon she couldn’t be a coward and that she had to do as he had done for her. Explain everything. Honestly. It was her turn in the batter’s box with the whole game riding on how she handle
d
the next ten minutes.

Drawing her quiet, maybe too quiet, giant of a man deeper into the private shadows to a small loveseat bench
,
Shannon pushed him to sit since he was not making any attempt to act on his own. When she slid to his side still clutching h
is hand like it was an anchor in
a storm, the look of shock, confusion and fear on his face slammed into her heart.

There was no way to dress up what she had to say so she took the band-aid approach … rip off the truth quickly and accept the pain so the healing can begin.

“I had a miscarriage.”

Her previous words to Nick when she’d said it wasn’t what he thought circled in his brain. She had a miscarriage but it wasn’t what he thought. Oh holy god, he thought. Did that mean it wasn’t his? Had she found comfort after the painful way he’d thrown her aside in somebody else’s arms? He thought he might throw up.

“Was it mine?” he asked in an anguished whisper that tore through Shannon’s soul. Every horrible thing he was feeling right now she understood. She’d been there herself and remembered with vivid clarity that feeling of being gutted, of having your heart quite literally ripped from your chest and how the overwhelming feeling of helpless loss froze the soul. Paybacks were a bitch and she w
anted to no parts of this one; t
hat particular emotional debt having been paid in full.

“Yes, it was yours. Could only ever have been yours. I’ve never been with anyone but you. Look at how
we are together
,
Nick. I couldn’
t ever be that way with anyone else!” she cried, shuddering at the thought.

Okay. Let in some oxygen his mind screamed. So it was his but she’d said it wasn’t what he thought. How many other options were there beyond parentage? Nick’s mind searched for
answers
but came up firing on every cylinder all over the emotional map.

Had she known when they’d talked that last time? Jesus, he felt sick. He had been a
vicious
, cruel prick as she cried and silently took
everything he’d thrown at her
while he destroyed their love.  Had she known then that he’d gotten her pregnant? The thought of Shannon
,
with his child in her belly while he hurt her so badly
,
made him wish for a quick death to escape the horror seeping into his veins.

For once, Shannon had n
o problem reading the thoughts
flashing across Nick’s mind. A grimace
he let loose
was like a road sign
,
letting her know what former moment along their j
ourney together he was re-visiting
in his mind.

“I never knew Nick. Didn’t have even the slightest clue, I swear.”

She squeezed his hand where it lay limp and lifeless in her grasp. Nick’s anguished e
yes
searched hers for more. Shannon sighed and squeezed a little stronger.

“None of the western women
had
regular cycles while we were in the middle of nowhere. Everyone manipulated their menses with the pill or an implant. It was one of the things the project recommended for all females since running out to the drug store for tampons every few weeks was not on the agenda.
There was no way for me to know when I’d missed a period.
”