Jennifer Greene - The Billionaire’s Handler

“Then it would probably be extremely wise for you to shut the h up, Henry.”

“But in my opinion, you don’t just need to call her. You need to find her. I have no idea what was wrong with the men in South Bend in the past, but they can’t all be shallow and blind. Someone is going to take a look and have the sense to realize that she’s absolutely one of a kind.”

Maguire’s eyes narrowed. “You think I don’t know that? But she’s not a keeper for me, Henry. I kidnapped her, remember? She didn’t ask me to be in her life.”

“So if she needs help now, you wouldn’t be there?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’d be there in two seconds.”

“Then call her yourself. To find out if she’s all right or not.” Henry’s voice rose a full decibel before he shut down and turned around, stiff-necked and red-cheeked. “I’m going to bed, sir.”

Maguire didn’t answer, just stared after Henry. He’d never heard Henry yell before. Henry didn’t even raise his voice for football games or tornados.

He could have fired him, of course, but Maguire couldn’t imagine doing that for a single indiscretion. It wasn’t as if Henry regularly-or ever-stepped out of line, or had given Maguire any reason to doubt his dedication.

Henry was loyal. Apparently he’d picked up some mighty loyalty to Carolina as well.

Henry just didn’t understand, Maguire thought glumly. Once he’d kidnapped Carolina, everything changed. He’d had good reasons to steal her off, but the “force” word was the bear. She’d been forced to be with him.

Now…it would have been easy, so easy to call her, fly to see her, tell her he’d fallen crazy in love with her, that nothing had been right since she left. It was the truth.

But it was also the truth that he couldn’t, ethically or morally, force Carolina to be with him again on any terms. To manipulate another situation would be the act of a control freak, not a lover. A bully, not a man hopelessly in love.

How could he ever know how she really felt if she’d never been free to make her own choices?

So he’d tied his own hands.

And it was killing him.

Carolina parked in front of the old, redbrick house with a feeling of doom and gloom. Naturally, the wind was blowing up a tempest, shaking all the red-and-gold leaves, slapping her cheeks, sneaking down the neck of her old plaid jacket. She loved her parents, she reminded herself.

She was just looking forward to this particular visit on a par with, say, a double root canal.

She pulled a satchel, packages and bottle of wine from the backseat, then had to juggle them as she walked up the familiar brick path to the back door. “Mom! Dad!” she called out.

She’d spent a couple days feeling sorry for herself… and trying to face that she’d never likely see Maguire again. The woman he’d kidnapped wasn’t the kind of woman who belonged in his life. Things might have been different if they could have met like normal people. But they hadn’t.

It just didn’t pay to be kidnapped.

Rather than pine and whine any longer, she figured she’d better face her demons.

Her mom showed up in the doorway first, her dad stepping on her heels. Her mother was wearing a tiger print, had new highlights in her chin-length bob, wore snazzy red-framed glasses-and hurled herself at Carolina with a sob, a hug and a fog of Chanel No 19.

“Honey, I’ve missed you so much! I don’t understand why you went off like that! Why you’d ever shut us out! I was so worried and upset! I just don’t understand!”

Then her dad took over, enveloped her in a giant hug with tears in his eyes. “I’m so glad you’re home again, princess. Your mom was terribly upset. Not me. I know you’re a big girl, and can take of yourself. We’re just used to being able to talk to you whenever we want to.”

“I know. And I’m so sorry, both of you.” Actually, Carolina knew they’d been told where she was, and how to contact her in case of an emergency. Her parents just couldn’t conceive of any occasion where they couldn’t immediately reach her. She wasn’t about to get into Maguire and the kidnapping, but they needed some explanations.

And she needed to face them as well.

Wine got poured. The wailing went on for a while. Apple pie slowed it down. So did the presents she’d brought for both of them. Eventually they all sat in the rust-and-brown den-no one ever sat in her mother’s living room; life revolved around the TV. Family pictures dominated the walls, her mom’s angel collection dominated the bookshelves and her father’s latest model took up half the coffee table. All of it was as familiar as her childhood, evoked equal amounts of love and stress.

As did the conversation.

Her father hunched forward at a gesture from her mom, making Carolina guess that they’d choreographed this talk ahead of time. “Honey, your mother and I have been thinking. We think it’s a good idea for us to move in with you. Or, if you’d rather, that you move in with us.”

“Dad, that’s not necessary,” she said quickly.

“We think it is. We understand that you’re grown up, that the last thing a young single woman would normally want is parents looking over her shoulder. But this whole inheritance business has been too much for you.”

“We can protect you,” her mother chimed in. “Take care of things. Your dad could handle the finances, and I could take charge of your place, redecorating or whatever you need. We’ll take the stress off…”

Before this got any hairier, Carolina stood up, opened the satchel she’d brought in. “You two are both right. I wasn’t handling stress well. But actually, one thing I needed to figure out had nothing to do with me. It was about you two. And, Dad, I need to ask you a favor.”

“Anything, princess.”

Carolina pulled out the sheaf of papers. “This is the paperwork for a trust that I created for you and Mom. It’s set up to give you two a monthly discretionary allowance, but there’s a lot of give-and-take in the setup. You might want something bigger now and then-like a car or a trip or something? Then you’d have to figure out how to work that out with taxes and social security and all.”

Before her parents could say anything, Carolina said quickly, “It’s just all too much for me. I needed some expert advice. That’s partly what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks. Getting that advice. Getting a crash course in finances from experts. That wasn’t hard. But it would be hard for me to handle this trust on top of everything else, so I was hoping that between you and Mom-”

“Carolina,” her mother said firmly, “I still feel you need us close by. This whole new lifestyle has put so much pressure on you, and-”

“Ruth Marie.” Her dad had been looking over the papers, had homed in on some of the bottom-line numbers.

“Don’t interrupt me,” her mother started to say, but her dad sank back on the couch and grabbed her mother’s hand to make her sit down with him.

“I’m stunned, honey,” he said. “And of course I’ll take this on. You’re the most wonderful daughter…”

She wasn’t sure Maguire would give her the same heaps of credit. She’d narrowly escaped having her parents live with her. Much as she loved them, it was that kind of suffocation that made her so crazy…weeks ago? Was it really only weeks ago?

It was dark when she left her parents’ place, but she had one more thing to do before going home. The drive to Kalamazoo was a long two hours, but it was a city where she knew no one. It only took a few extra minutes to find an outside U.S. postal box.

She slipped the package in, and finally headed home.