Beg for It(71)

“Oh, that’s so gross.” Corinne grimaced. Reese wasn’t picking up. She didn’t leave a voicemail.

She didn’t have to, though, because a minute later, her phone buzzed again, this time with a text.

At the diner.

Meet me?

Then, a few seconds later, before she had time to answer…

Please.





Chapter Forty



Tony had brought along his tablet instead of a pile of folders. Reese preferred the paperwork so he could flip through it, take notes. Papers were physical and tactile. They felt more permanent.

He scrolled through the various pages. There wasn’t much to note. At this point, the businesses in his portfolio, including Stein and Sons, were all running smoothly without needing any input from him—that was the point of it all, really. Hire good people to take over, and he could sit back and reap the benefits without having to be the guy overseeing every little detail.

“Coffee?” That rockabilly pinup waitress was back with eyes only for Tony.

Tony grinned and held out his cup. Reese rolled his eyes at the obvious simpering between the two of them, but waited until she’d gone before he tapped the tablet screen. “So, are you two a thing, or what?”

“We are not a thing. We are now, officially, partners.” Tony gestured at the diner. “I’m buying this place.”

Reese’s jaw dropped. “What the hell? Are you quitting?”

“Do I have to? I mean, especially now?” Tony frowned.

“No. Of course not. I mean, if you can own and run a diner and work for me, more power to you.” Reese blinked, still surprised.

“Gretchen’s going to run it. I’m the money man. She has the practical experience.”

“Sounds like you’re going to make a good team,” Reese said.

Tony shrugged, looking kind of irritated instead of happy. “That’s what I think, but that girl is hard, man. She is hard like…like concrete.”

“To work with?”

“To be with,” Tony said with a scowl.

Reese’s brow furrowed, confused. “So…you are or are not a thing? I mean a dating thing.”

“I have no idea what we are. I’m a damned booty call.” Tony crumpled up a paper napkin and writhed a little in the diner booth, letting his head fall back with a groan. “She makes me crazy. This deal is taking forever to go through. I’m in a hell of my own making, man, and the worst part is, I could get out of it, and I don’t.”

Reese laughed. Tony gave him the finger. Reese laughed harder, though he softened his hilarity out of respect for Tony’s clearly despairing situation.

“Can we get back to me?” Reese asked. “You know, business at hand?”

Tony waved a languid hand. “Yeah, yeah. Everything’s under control. I handled all of it, just like you wanted. Some final paperwork needs to come through, but all the i’s are crossed and t’s are dotted.”

“Good. Thank you. Now, get lost.”

Tony groaned, but got up to slide out of the booth. Tony had taken his tablet when he left, but Reese had a single folder on the table in front of him. All he had to do was wait for Corinne to show up.

He had another offer for her.





Chapter Forty-One



“I don’t have long,” Corinne said without preamble as she took a seat in the booth. “The kids both have homework and stuff.”

“Thanks for coming.”

Did he have to look so good? It wasn’t fair. She wanted him to at least look hollow-cheeked, shadow-eyed. Like he hadn’t been sleeping. Something, anything, that would’ve shown her he’d been missing her.

“I’m not taking that money,” she said, again without any hesitation. No point in beating around the bush. “You can’t buy or sell me like I’m a business.”

Reese smiled. “It’s your severance package. If you’d read the contract amendment I had you sign when I took over, you’d have seen that.”

“I did read it, as a matter of fact, because I don’t sign contracts without reading them first,” she answered sharply. “It did not say anywhere in it that you were going to give me half a million dollars for quitting.”

“It said, if I remember correctly, that the severance package would include full benefits for six months as well as a discretionary bonus.” He was still smiling.

Jerk.

Corinne sat up straighter. “I don’t want your payoff. The severance I’m owed will be fine. I don’t need a bonus.”

“I gave it to you, and I’m not taking it back,” Reese said complacently.

“I said I don’t want it!”

At last, that smug smile faded. “It’s not for you. It’s for your kids. So you don’t have to worry about another job, or uprooting or abandoning them.”

“I can take care of my kids just fine, thank you,” she snapped, keeping her voice low so as not to attract attention. “I don’t need you to take care of them. Or me!”

“I want to take care of you, Corinne. For the rest of your life, if you’ll let me.”

Not the words she’d been expecting. Startled, she sat back. “What?”