Vegas, Baby Page 16

  But it wasn’t the best thing that had ever happened to him, he reminded himself now, sitting at their table with a barely speaking Sunny. Sunny was a pawn. A beautiful, funny, sexy pawn who he couldn’t imagine ever getting sick of as she’d insinuated he would, but a pawn nonetheless. But he didn’t want to end up like his grandfather, so besotted that he’d give a woman who knew nothing about business a position of control in his company. Or his heart.

  “Trouble in paradise?” Max asked, dropping into the seat on the other side of Sunny at their grandmother’s table. “Or did Cole infect you with his stiff shirt disease?” he asked Sunny.

  “Hi, Max,” Sunny said in a monotone and took another sip of her ice water.

  “That’s Nora’s seat. Your seat’s over there,” Cole said, pointing to a place card on the other side of the table that he’d shuffled when Sunny wasn’t looking, wanting his brother as far away from her as possible.

  Max just acted like he hadn’t heard Cole. “Hey, Sunny Delight, wanna dance?”

  “No, thank you,” she answered. “Where’s Nora?”

  Max shrugged. “Dunno, we got here twenty minutes ago, but you know her. Kept stopping to talk to people in the lobby, including some old dude from the board.”

  Cole leaned forward to look at Max, alarm sounding warning bells in the back of his mind. “Which board member exactly?”

  Max shrugged again. “Hell if I know. All those gray-hairs look alike to me.”

  Cole was about to press him for more details, when Sunny stood up and said, “Excuse me,” and then walked off without a word of explanation.

  Cole caught up with her halfway across the ballroom and took her by the hand. “Wherever you’re going, I’ll go with you,” he said.

  “Or at least fly me back and forth from there until you get sick of me,” Sunny said with a bitter note in her voice.

  Her words daggered into Cole and made him angry at himself all over again for not handling her confession of love better. He should have just said thank-you and found a way to bring up extending their arrangement in a way that wouldn’t set her off.

  Now he realized if he wanted to get back what they’d had before it all blew up in Palm Springs, then he’d have to do something big. Really big.

  “Please just let go of my hand,” she said, tugging to get it back from him. “We’ve been acting the part all summer. I think everyone gets it. You don’t have to keep on holding my hand everywhere we go at these things.”

  “No,” Cole answered as he walked with her out into the lobby.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” Sunny said, pointing to the short hallway off the ballroom’s main entrance, where the restrooms were. “Let go.”

  “No,” Cole answered again, not believing her flimsy bathroom excuse for even a second.

  “Cole...” She trailed off and expelled a shaking breath, her icy exterior melting. “I can’t do this with you. I can’t pretend to be in love with you when I’m really in love with you. I can’t stand there while you make some fake engagement announcement when you don’t feel the way I do. I thought I could, but I can’t. Please, I know you wanted to be a robot, but I’m not. I’m a girl with a heart and feelings, and I can’t pretend to be with you like that anymore.”

  “Sunny...”

  She shook her head. “You don’t really need me here to do this, anyway. Just tell Nora we got engaged in Palm Springs.” She held out her hand. “Give me the ring and I’ll wear it when I take Nora to The Benton Girls Revue this week and I promise I’ll act really happy about it. I can do that if you’re not there with me.”

  But she wouldn’t be taking Nora to that show this week. Cole couldn’t let her. Nora would tell her everything without giving Cole the chance to spin it. He needed more time to figure out how to convince Sunny to agree to his terms.

  “Sunny...”

  “No, Cole,” she whispered fiercely, snatching her hand back. “Those are my terms. Take them or leave them, but I can’t stay here with you another second.”

  “Sunny, will you listen to me.” He took her by the arms. “I want it to be real.”

  Sunny shook her head. “What?”

  “I want you to agree to marry me. For real. Then I want us to get married. For real, and live together as man and wife. Say yes...please,” he added as afterthought.

  Sunny’s eyes widened with joy. But just for a moment, only one shining moment.

  And then everything fell apart.

  “Cole!” Nora screeched behind him.

  He turned to see his grandmother bearing down on them like a vengeful red-haired harpy.

  “You’ve been going behind my back, trying to get me kicked off the board? Threatening my friends and their family members to get your way like some kind of bully? Why would you ever do that?”

  Cole inwardly cursed, knowing without having to be told that Jasper Whittaker had been the board member Nora had been talking to in the lobby. He’d run like a crybaby to his grandmother.

  “So that’s what you were up to?” Max said, emerging from the shadows, just beyond the ballroom door. “Man, that’s cold, bro.”

  Cole took a moment to glare at his brother. How long had he been lurking there? How much of his conversation with Sunny had he heard?

  But he’d have deal with Max later, he decided, and turned back to his grandmother.

  “Nora,” he said, keeping his voice calm. “We’ll talk about this in private.” He glanced at Sunny. “Sunny doesn’t need to hear this.”

  “Oh, I think she does, because I set her up with you, thinking she’d keep you from becoming a complete stone. But obviously I didn’t realize you were already there. She’s the one who needs to be saved from you!”

  “Nora, you didn’t set me up with her. You threatened to take away my company, the one I’d worked like a beast to grow if I didn’t marry her.”

  Sunny gasped. “What?”

  Nora swiped her hand across her body, as if threatening to hand the company he’d built over to his derelict brother had been a minor thing. “I had to figure some way to get you to take me seriously, and tell me, dear, is it my fault the only way to get through to you is to make it about business?”

  “Wait a minute,” Sunny said, looking between the two of them. “Nora, obviously something has been lost in translation. If Cole’s ousting you from the board, it’s because he knows it’s what’s best for you. I know you want to live your last few months on earth fiercely, but it’s important that you rest and take care of yourself.”

  “Sunny...” Cole began.

  “What do you mean my last few months on earth?” Nora asked Sunny. “I’m healthy as a horse. My doctor says I’ll outlive all of you.”

  Max’s eyes went wide and he made a little explosion sound behind his teeth. “Well, that secret’s blown.”

  Cole’s fist bunched up at his side. “Max, I swear if you say another word, I will make sure to break your nose this time. Again.”

  But Max didn’t have to say anything further. From the look in Sunny’s eyes, she was already beginning to put it all together. “You’re not sick,” she said to Nora.

  “Of course I’m not sick!” Nora answered.

  “But at the Benton Girls show you were hobbling.”

  Nora sniffed. “Okay, dearie, I’ll admit to needing a little upkeep these days to maintain this fine figure. But I wasn’t going to let a little nip and tuck on the old tum make me miss the show.”

  Sunny covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Sunny, let’s go back up to the penthouse,” Cole said, feeling desperate and urgent inside. “I’ll explain everything in private.”

  “You told her I was sick?” Nora said to him. “Why?”

  “Apparently to get me to pose as his girlfriend while he worked
on getting you kicked off the board,” Sunny answered, her voice bitter with discovery.

  Nora gasped. “You didn’t!”

  “You left me no choice, Nora,” Cole roared, turning on his grandmother. “The Benton Group is my life, and I won’t have it threatened. Not by you or anyone else. You tried to manipulate me, and now you’re going to get exactly what you deserve.”

  Nora shook her head. “I can’t believe you would use poor Sunny like that. How could you?”

  His grandmother didn’t give him a chance to answer before turning to Sunny. “Sunny, I won’t let him get away with this. I’ll call my lawyer and get the shares transferred before the meeting tomorrow.”

  Max smirked. “So it looks like I’m going to be the new power player at The Benton Group, after all.”

  “No, you won’t,” Nora snapped. “You knew Cole was lying to Sunny, leading her along from the start and you didn’t say anything.” She patted Sunny on the shoulder. “I’m so sorry, dearie, for everything these worthless boys have put you through. That’s why I’m going to give you my shares in The Benton Group tonight.”

  “What?” both Cole and Max said in unison.

  “You heard me!” Nora answered, her voice sharp as a knife’s blade. “You both need to learn that people aren’t pawns to be used in your childish rivalry.”

  “No,” Sunny said. “I won’t let you do that, Nora.”

  “Sunny, maybe you don’t understand,” Nora said, her eyes full of pity on Sunny’s behalf. “Cole doesn’t really have feelings for you, after all. He was just using you to get his revenge on me. You don’t owe him anything. Nothing at all. Let me do this for you. It’s the only way he’ll learn.”

  “No,” Sunny said again. Just one word, but its power resonated over them all.

  Her eyes landed on Nora. “You were wrong to try to force Cole to marry me.”

  “Yeah, you were,” Max agreed. “I mean you could have at least opened with a date and gone on from there.”

  Sunny shook her head. “Even a date would have been wrong. Cole is a grown man who has worked extremely hard to make The Benton Group what it is. He has a vision for the company and you can’t just ruin everything he’s worked to achieve in order to get your way, Nora. That’s not fair. Or right.”

  Nora frowned, having obviously never thought about it that way before. “Maybe that’s true,” she said with a sniff. “But still, he had no business using you the way he did.”

  Sunny shook her head. “No, this is my fault. He told me exactly what he was the first day we met, a businessman first and foremost, and I chose not to believe him. Then I did something even more stupid. I fell in love with him.”

  Max and Nora stared at her, stunned.

  But Sunny’s eyes landed on Cole. She still wasn’t any good at hiding her real emotions, and Cole could see every ounce of hurt and pain his actions had caused her. “Lesson learned.”

  With that, she turned and walked away.

  “Sunny...” He started to go after her, but Max moved to stand in front of him.

  “Let her go with some dignity, bro,” Max said. “It’s the least you could do.”

  “The very least,” Nora agreed, stepping in beside her youngest grandson. “I’ll give you my chair position on the board, you don’t have to vote me out, but only if you let poor Sunny go in peace. She’s right, I was wrong to ever force you on her. I think we can all agree now that you don’t deserve her or her forgiveness.”

  Cole stopped, not because of Nora’s offer to give him control of the board, but because of the realization that dropped down on him then like a ton of bricks. Sunny had been nothing but good to him, forcing him to be a better person, and even defending him against his grandmother despite the humongous wrong he’d done her. Cole realized then that both his brother and his grandmother were right: she deserved her dignity, and Cole didn’t deserve anything. Especially not her.

  He let her go, watching her dash across the lobby and out The Benton’s front doors.

  Thanks to Sunny, he’d gotten everything he wanted. But watching her walk out of his life forever, he’d never been more bereft.

  Chapter 24

  “How did you do it?” Rick demanded as soon as Sunny answered the phone. “You’ve got to tell me.”

  “Do what?” Sunny asked, balancing her phone in the crook of her shoulder as she loaded up Pru’s small hatchback with the cat tutus for tonight’s recital.

  It had been money she couldn’t afford to spend to get the costumes, but Cole had promised the girls he’d buy them new costumes for the show, and she didn’t want to disappoint them.

  “Cole Benton’s secretary just came by here,” Rick told her. “Allison? Andrea?”

  “Agnes,” Sunny supplied, wishing the name of the woman she’d considered a friend by the end of summer didn’t now bring her such pain.

  Her mind went back to the last time she’d spoken to Cole’s assistant, two days after Nora’s ball, when Agnes had called to coordinate sending Sunny’s things over to Pru’s apartment.

  “I’m not sure why you broke up, but it’s obvious he cares about you,” Agnes said in a moment of unprofessional candor. “I mean, he took off work. A lot!” she said in the same tone of voice others would use to talk about someone taking an unexpected trip to the moon.

  Sunny had cut her off right there, telling Agnes she didn’t need or want any of the clothes she’d kept over at Cole’s. In fact, she’d insisted, “feel free to burn them.”

  “What happened? I wish either you or Mr. Benton would tell me. Is there anything I can do to help?” Agnes asked, her voice distraught.

  Sunny had just smiled sadly. As amazing an assistant as Agnes was, even she couldn’t fix this.

  “Okay, then how about this matter of the apartment at The Benton New York. Mr. Benton was adamant about me giving it to you. He says you can stay there as long as you want.”

  Sunny had been forced to get a little more firm then, telling Agnes she wouldn’t be using the apartment, and that as much as she liked Agnes, she didn’t want her to call her anymore.

  “I need a clean break from Vegas,” Sunny explained. “And everyone that reminds me of...Vegas.”

  Though they both known when Sunny said Vegas, she meant Cole.

  Known and understood. Agnes had solemnly gotten off the phone with a promise not to bother her again.

  But Rick was on the phone now, bringing up Agnes’s name.

  “Yeah, Agnes. She came down here this morning with my new contract. Gave me a twenty-year extension. Said I could die with the show if I wanted, because it wasn’t going anywhere.”

  “That’s great, Rick!” Sunny said. “But I had nothing to do with it. Mr. Benton and I aren’t seeing each other anymore.”

  “Uh-oh, what’d he do? Must’ve been big, cuz obviously The Third’s trying to get you back. I say let him have you. Maybe I’ll get a big raise.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Sunny answered.

  “We’ll see. He’s spending an awful lot of money on ‘never going to happen.’”

  Sunny sighed. Rick had no idea. In Cole’s messed up mind, he probably thought of keeping The Revue open as honoring his part of the original agreement. It had nothing to do with her, really. Just another piece of business for him.

  I want you to agree to marry me. For real. Then I want us to get married. For real, and live together as man and wife.

  The memory of his marriage proposal cracked her heart open all over again. Why had he done that? To keep her from leaving before the jig was up? To keep her as his sexual plaything? Of all the things he’d done, pretending he’d really wanted to marry her had been the thing that haunted Sunny the worst.

  God, she’d be happy when she finally stopped thinking about him every other m
inute, when her body stopped aching, because he hadn’t touched it in so long. When she stopped waking up every morning, only to get hit with a fresh wave of sadness because Pru’s couch wasn’t his bed.

  How stupid could she be? First she’d let herself get tricked into Cole’s power play on Nora, and now she couldn’t get herself to stop longing for him.

  “Rick, I’m really happy to hear the news. But I’ve got to go or I’m going to be late to the recital,” she said, settling into the front seat of Pru’s car.

  “So I guess that means there’s no chance of you coming back to the show?”

  Sunny’s heart sunk, but she guessed this was the perfect opportunity to finally tell him. “Actually, I’m moving to New York next week...”

  After a summer of avoiding this conversation with Rick, it turned out not to be as bad as she’d thought it would. Rick was disappointed that he wouldn’t be seeing her in person for a couple of years, but he wished her luck and told her that if she ever moved back to Vegas to look him up. He’d use his dance contacts to make sure she landed someplace good doing whatever she wanted.

  “You’re a great kid, Sunny,” he told her. “You deserve to get everything you want in life.”

  It was a truly touching thing for Rick to say, and was completely ruined when Cole Benton’s image immediately sprang into her mind on the echo of “everything you want.” She was beginning to think of Cole’s memory like a lethal snake. Always lingering in dark places, lying low, and then striking her with its sharp teeth just when she least expected it.

  Sunny cursed herself. Then she cursed again when she noticed the time on her car clock. Thanks to her heart-to-heart with Rick, she was now officially late.

  She hung up with Rick and drove like a madwoman over to the community center.

  Carrying the large box that was so unwieldy, she had to position it in front of her in a way that meant she couldn’t see past it, but that was okay. The class was using their small dance studio as their dress room, since the community center’s auditorium didn’t have a real one, and she knew how to get there by heart.