She wraps a hand around my bicep. “I want to. Whatever you need.”
Her smile is soft and gentle, and it’s one of the first times neither one of us is teasing. The gentleness hooks into me and touches deeper than I expected. It isn’t about the spark between us. It’s about a woman who’s been broken before, and yet she still cares for someone else. Someone she doesn’t even know.
And I think I want her to care more about me too.
Fifteen minutes later, we usher Erik out of a touristy, overpriced café and into an English pub around the corner. The floor is covered in sawdust, and names are carved into the wood on the table. Erik picks at a bowl full of peanuts. His eyes are red, but dry.
He raises a pint. “Cheers. Drinks are on me. Let’s get pissed.”
Elise raises her hand to catch a waiter’s attention. “We’ll have two more, please, and another for him.”
Erik smiles at Elise. “She’s a keeper. Always trust a woman who’ll drink a beer with you. Never trust the ones who thumb their noses at pints. Jandy hated beer.”
Elise smiles. “Sometimes you just need a pint.”
“I love her already,” Erik says, smiling like a sad sack at Elise. “And I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, but I’m glad to make the acquaintance of the woman who has captivated my little brother.” He stabs his finger against the table, grinning like a sloshed loon. “Did you know he said you were bold and daring the night he never met you? And so scrummy.”
I roll my eyes, but I don’t mind in the least that he’s shared what I said. I’ve told her as much myself.
Elise laughs. “He was bold and daring. But let’s talk about you. I wish you were having a better night.” She stretches out her arm and squeezes his hand.
His lip quivers, and he nods. “Me too. But it’s good to meet you. It’s good to see someone who can make someone else happy. I thought I had that.” He hangs his head in his hand, and my heart aches for him.
“Sorry, Erik. Tell us what happened,” I say, after the waitress drops off the round that Elise ordered.
Erik heaves a sigh, shovels his hand through his hair, and says, “She’s been working late, as you know.”
My spine straightens, and red smoke billows out my ears. “I will string her up from her tits.”
Erik shakes his head. “No, she’s not cheating. At least, as far as I know she has been faithful. She didn’t say a damn thing about another man.” He lets out a long, angry sigh. “She’s been putting this together. This horrid plan to leave me. She claims she needs to be independent. Said she needs to be able to do things on her own.”
I scowl. “This from the woman who was like a damsel in distress when you met her.”
My brother huffs. “I know. She fucking needed me so much then, and now she’s going on and on about how she needs to find herself. She said she feels like she has no identity of her own. That it’s all wrapped up in being married, and since her dad was such a wanker, she needs a breather from being attached to a man. But not a breather—a divorce.”
“She’s leaving to go find herself?” I ask, trying to sort out the mess she’s made of my brother’s heart.
“Yes. And to do that, she wants the firm. Says it’s all she knows. She needs it now. That’s why she’s been working late. To try to get it.”
A chill runs through me. “How can she get the firm? You and I have the majority of the shares, and we’re privately held.”
He knows this. He should know this. That’s how everything was set up in the trust. It outlined every detail about the shares of the firm, and he’s the goddamned trustee.
His expression is sheepish. “I gave her a few shares for her birthday, in her name. She’d mentioned she wanted some independence, and I thought that would help.”
“But not too many, right?”
He swallows. “Not too many. But she’s been using her salary to buy up shares, it seems. From some of the other shareholders.”
“Okay,” I say cautiously. “But how could she have enough? Between us, we should still have a controlling interest.”
He winces, and a look of shame crosses his eyes. “Because I also put my shares in both our names.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, my body going heavy, like it weighs a thousand tons. He can’t have done that. Please, dear God, make that a joke.
I open my eyes to find him offering me a “please don’t be mad at me” smile, and how can I possibly be mad when the love of his life is leaving him flat on his arse and trying to steal his company? “Say you’re kidding. That you’re just going on about something else.”
He shakes his head.
I try my best to stifle a groan, my frustration. “Erik . . .”
“We were married. She promised to love me forever.”
Elise pats his hand and gives him a sympathetic smile. “Of course you thought that. It’s normal to expect that.”
“I believed we’d be together. Just like Grandfather believed in love, and that’s why he left control of the company to his married grandson,” he says, and of course I know about that stupid bloody stipulation in the trust.
Elise furrows her brow. “What did he do?”
I jump in. “Our grandfather was happily married for more than fifty years. He was one of those true romantics. Very old-fashioned. His wife was by his side the whole time, and that’s what he believed worked for him. That’s what he wanted for the company he left to us. He put his majority shares into a trust, and his will appointed the married grandson the trustee. Basically, through the trust, that grandson has control of those shares—hence, control of the company, which was something we were all fine with. Our mum too.”
“What if neither of you was married?”
“Then the shareholders—a board of directors, really—have control until such a time as one or both find true love,” I explain heavily.
“That’s like a fairy tale.”
