Wish You Were Here (25 page)

“
—and making everyone around you miserable. You haven’t cooked in weeks. Some days you don’t get out of bed until past ten. It’s not who you are, Nate, and it’s not good for your daughter, so just call Freya and, whatever happened, work it out and bring her back.”

“
I tried,” Nate said. “She doesn’t want me, okay? She said no, and she’s gone, and she’s not coming back, so just...” He sighed. “Just stop, okay? This isn’t helping.”

Ruby stared at him for a while, then patted him on the hand.

“Let me freshen up that coffee for you,” she said, reaching for his mug.

“
It’s fine,” he said.

She took it anyway, started for the house, then turned back to look at him.

“I’m going grocery shopping this afternoon,” she said, “and tonight, you’re cooking.”

Nate smiled.
“Look, I’ll do it tomorrow, okay? Today, I just—”

“
You’re cooking tonight, and that’s final,” she said. “No more pining. No more moping. I won’t have it. I’m gonna be a partner in this business, and I’m telling you right now, tonight you’re lighting bananas on fire if I have to stick a torch up your ass to make it happen.”

Ruby’s
serious expression as she threatened him made him laugh. “All right. Fine. I’ll light some bananas on fire.”

Ruby went into the house and Nate stared out at the trees, trying to get excited about cooking, but he couldn
’t.

Pining and moping,
he thought.
Great.

Then he pushed up off the swing and went inside.

Twenty-Three

Freya
stood at her father’s desk and waited while he read her letter. He finished and raised his eyes to hers.

“
If you need some time off,” he began, but she shook her head.

“
It’s not that,” she said.

“
It’s only been a month since all that... happened,” he said. “It would be perfectly acceptable for you to take some time off.”

“
That’s not what I need, Dad.”

He sat back and nodded.
“Well, then, I guess I accept your resignation.”

“
Good.” She forced on a stiff smile. “You should start the search to replace me with Suzanne. She’s very sharp, and I think she can slide right in so you won’t even miss me.”

“
Okay, then,” he said, in his regular business tone. “Thank you for everything. You’ve been an exemplary employee.”

“
Right,” Freya said, wondering how many girls dreamed of hearing that from their dads. Not that it mattered. Richard Daly was who he was, and it was time to accept that.

“
I’m selling my apartment, too,” she said.

He looked at her.
“Why would you do that?”

“
It’s a clean-slate thing,” she said. “Starting over. I’m going to stay with Flynn in New York while I figure it out.”

“
That’s not New York,” he said. “That’s upstate.”

“
You talk like the country is this terrible place,” Freya said. “I think you need to get out more, Dad.”

He nodded.
“You might be right.”

Freya turned toward the door,
then stopped herself. Things were never going to change for her until she changed them; she’d learned at least that much. So she turned back to face him.

“
I’m really proud of you, you know.”

Her father raised his head to look at her but his expression was, as always, unreadable.

“The way you confessed to everything,” she went on, “and are working so hard to retrieve all the stuff for the museum. You’re handling the bad press with dignity, too. I think you’re a good man, Dad. I really do.”

He didn
’t meet her eyes. “Thank you.”

“
You’re welcome.” She hesitated. “So, I’ll see you next month in Boise, when we testify for Malcolm’s trial, right?”

He nodded and stood up, walking her to the door.
“Yes. We’ll go out for dinner?”

“
Sounds like a plan.”

He opened the door for her, and she was about to leave,
but then at the last second she stepped up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.

“
Thanks, Dad,” she said.

He nodded.
“You’ll always have a place here if you change your mind.”

“
Thanks.”
I won’t.
Then she turned and left the offices of Daly Developers, Inc., for the last time.

***

Nate leaned against the marble wall of Freya’s apartment building, paper bags in his arms. Once again, the doorman eyed him suspiciously, so Nate walked over.

“
Okay, when you called up, she really wasn’t there, right?” he said. “It wasn’t that she told you she wasn’t there because she didn’t want to see me? Because all you have to do is tell me, and I’m gone.”

The doorman shook his head.
“She was not there.”

“
Okay.” Nate took a deep breath and went back to his spot, juggling the bags to check his watch. Five-thirty. When he’d called her father’s office earlier, Richard said she’d left the office early that day. So... where the hell was she?

“
Ruby and her stupid ideas,” Nate muttered. He should have just called. It was so much easier to get shot down long-distance.

Christ,
he thought, then set the bags down at his feet.
This was a bad idea.

“
Hi, Marcus.”

“
Good afternoon, Ms. Daly.”

Nate looked up. There she was, looking... damn, so far out of his league. No wonder the doorman had eyed him like that. She was in a sharp dark green suit, tailored perfectly to her body. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, which was what happened when you hopped on a plane on the spur of the moment, but still.

Bad, bad idea.

Freya waited for Marcus to open the door and for a moment, Nate held his breath, hoping that the doorman would forget about him, just let her in and let Nate sneak
away unnoticed. He could donate the food at a shelter and get the hell out of there with his dignity intact.

But then Marcus pointed, and Freya looked over at him. Nate watched her, his breath catching in his chest at the sight of her. Then she smiled and the air around him started to move again.

“Hi,” she said, walking over to him.

“
Yeah, um, hi,” Nate said.
Smooth.

“
What are you doing here?” she asked, but didn’t seem mad at all, which Nate thought might be a good sign.

“
Well,” he said, his heart beating way too fast to be justifiable. “I, um, I realized after you left that, uh...” He glanced down at the grocery bags at his feet. “I made you a promise that I didn’t keep.”

Her eyebrows knit.
“What promise was that?”

“
I said I’d teach you how to make an omelet,” he said. “And I realized this morning that I never did.” He met her eyes. “And you know how I am about keeping my word.”

Her face broke out in the most beautiful smile he
’d ever seen, and his heart almost flew out of his chest. God, she made him happy, and she didn’t even have to do anything to do it. Just her existence lifted his soul. How had it taken him this long to realize he couldn’t live without her?

“
So,” he said, smiling back, “are we gonna cook or what?”

She nodded.
“I’d like that, Cap’n.”

***

Freya turned the key in her apartment door, her heart flip-flopping as Nate stood behind her. She hadn’t stopped smiling like a fool since she’d seen him outside her apartment building, and the only thing that kept her from throwing herself at him in the elevator was the grocery bags in his arms.

“
I have to warn you,” she said, pushing the door open. “I don’t have a lot of kitchen things. I’m not much of a cook.”

“
We don’t need much,” he said, stepping in past her and beelining to the kitchen, “and what we do need, I bought.” He set the bags down on the counter and grinned at her. “It’s the Boy Scout in me. Always be prepared.”

“
Yeah?”

He whipped a crisp, white apron out of the bag.
“Yeah

He hooked it over her head and then reached aroun
d her waist to grab the strings, tying them over her stomach. She watched his face as he did, so happy she almost wanted to leap in the air.

He cinched the apron and looked up at her.
“Too tight?”

She shook her head.
“No.”

“
Good.” He turned and went back to the bags, and she almost felt grief at his being that far away again.
No fair,
she thought, and trailed after him. He tied his own apron around his waist and clapped his hands.

“
So,” he said. “Omelets with goat cheese and spinach, right?”

He pulled a heavy frying pan out of one bag and set it on the counter.
“Before we get started, I have a confession to make.”

Freya stood next to him at the counter and reached into another bag, pulling out some eggs.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“
Well, I’m kinda here on business,” he said.

“
Business?”

He stopped unloading groceries and turned to face her.
“Yeah. Turns out, I have this big piece of land, and I have no idea what to do with it.” He angled his head to the side a bit, looking like a little boy trying to get something past the teacher. “And I was thinking you could help me with that.”

She crossed her arms over her stomach.
“You want my... professional help?”

“
Yeah,” he said. “I’d like to hire you. And then...” He paused and cleared his throat. “Then I’d like you to come back with me.”

“
What?” she whispered, her breath gone.

“
Yeah,” he said, and the smile disappeared from his face as he looked down at the counter. “I know I’ve already asked you to stay, and you’ve already said no, but I am nothing if not a glutton for punishment. I figure, even if you shoot me down again, it can’t be worse than being back there without you, so...”

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out, and Nate laughed nervously.

“You know what?” he said. “I was gonna cook this whole meal before dropping that on you, so let’s just do that first, okay? I want to enjoy some time with you before anything goes bad.” He pulled the spinach out and put it on the counter. “I was much smoother when I practiced that in my head, by the way.”

He reached back into the bag, and she grabbed his hand.

“Nate, stop,” she said, and he hung his head and sighed.

“
Okay.” He held her hand in his, and put it to his lips. “I can take a hint.”

“
No,” she said, her eyes filling with tears as she looked at him, easily the most beautiful man that had ever walked the earth. “I don’t think you can.”

She put her hands on his face and leaned in to kiss him gently. He kissed her back, tentative, unsure, and when they pulled back, he put his hands on her waist and leaned his forehead against hers.

“Don’t toy with me,” he said. “It’s not nice.”

She kissed his lips and then his cheek and pulled
him into a hug, unable to believe how good it felt to have him close to her again.

“
I didn’t think it was possible to miss someone much,” she said. “Every day, I woke up thinking it would get better, but it never did.”

“
You, too?” He tightened his hold on her and kissed her on the shoulder, his voice coming out breathy and strained. “Oh, thank God.”

She pulled back and looked up at him, her heart cracking at the sight of his red-rimmed eyes
. He’d been suffering without her; how had she not realized he’d be suffering, too? She’d been so immersed in her own misery, she hadn’t stopped to think about what he’d be going through.

“
Oh, God, Nate,” she said, reaching up to touch his face. “I’m so sorry. I was just scared, and I didn’t realize…”

“
What?” he said, then laughed and swiped at his eyes. “Oh, this? It’s nothing. It’s just that I have this eye condition...”

She laughed and reached up, wiping the moisture from under his eyes with her thumbs.
“Don’t worry. It’s temporary.”

“
Good to know,” he said. “So... you’ll come back with me?”

“
Yes,” she said, and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back and then laughed when they came up for air.

“
What?” Freya asked.

“
That coin of Piper’s,” he said, shaking his head. “It really works, huh?”

Freya smiled.
“You used it?”

His face flushed a bit.
“Well, you know what they say about desperate times.”

She put her arms around his neck.
“So, what did you wish for?”

“
It’s kind of hard to explain.” He grinned at her. “I think maybe I should show you.”

Much, much later, they finished cooking that omelet.

It came out perfect.

The End