“Stay. Liv doesn’t know who you are. She never knew your name or anything about you other than that I love you…loved.” But the admission had slipped before I could stop it.
I saw the subtle transition in her eyes, the way they jumped when it had come out. Right before they hardened again.
“You didn’t tell her about me? Of course, you didn’t because I was just some fling to keep you occupied. Biding your time with me. Playing house until you grew bored and moved back to your affluent life. Why would I expect you to have told her about me?”
She threw the blanket onto the couch and ran her hands through her hair. “I don’t think I can do this, Gabe. It took me so long to free myself of you, and even then…you left a stain. And it’s hard enough every time I look at Reid. I see you in him. In his eyes, his hair, the looks that cross his face, his gestures. He’s so much like you that it’s like this knife that continues to plunge into me and reopen the stitching on my wounds.”
And the walls around my heart continued to crumble, the pain like electrical shocks.
“To even consider working alongside you. I…I can’t.”
Taking a page out of my father’s playbook, I said, “You left Bradman for a reason. Unexpected and unexplained. I think you need this job, Tori.”
She stepped back, her eyes wide, before she recovered. “I don’t need a handout from you.”
“Damn it, it’s not a handout, which is why I want Liv to interview you. She’s an unbiased third party, so there will be no question about the decision. You’re qualified and the best candidate for the job. If Liv agrees, it’s yours, but it won’t be my decision. It will be hers.”
Dusty blue eyes stared back at me before they looked away. The urge to close the distance between us and tip her chin to force her eyes back to me had me palming my neck and dropping my head.
“Just stay, Tori.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Three o’clock. I’ll have a car here for you at two-forty.”
Not knowing what else to do, I walked away. As my hand reached the door handle, I heard, “Did you ever love me?”
Gripping the handle, I answered, “I’ve always loved you, luna mia.” The emotion threatened to tear me to pieces, so I left, not turning back as the sound of her inhale penetrated the silence.
A knock on my office door followed its opening to reveal Liv peeking in. I’d stayed locked in my office during the time Tori was talking with her, surprised that she’d changed her mind and accepted the second interview. When I’d left her suite, my confidence had been low, and I’d spent the night tossing and turning until I gave up at three thirty and went to the gym to release the tension.
“She’s good. Intelligent, sharp, detail-focused, confident. I wouldn’t bother interviewing anyone else. What is this? The sixth candidate you’ve interviewed?”
I sat back in my seat, putting my hands behind my head. “Yeah, but none seemed like the right fit.”
My father and I had been at each other’s throats over the last six months, and knowing what was coming, I’d accepted the demotion he’d thrown at me as punishment for questioning him. As if stripping me of my title would make him feel better about his failing company. He’d ensured I was the one interviewing, and while I’d only found one candidate who seemed like he might work, my father had vetoed the suggestion. Liv believed he was planning to hand the role back to me after he made me suffer, and that was his reason for turning the candidate down.
It had given me the chance to have Tina vet candidates for the day I would take him down and take over the company. And I supposed it was good that we’d already told the man I’d considered that he hadn’t gotten the position because fate had put Tori back in my life.
“Hire her,” Liv said. “I’m leaving. I have a manicure scheduled at four-thirty.”
“I can’t be the one to offer the position to her.”
She scrunched her eyes. “Then have Tina call her, but it makes more sense for you considering the position level. It’s not like you’re hiring her to manage the hotel. This is your CFO.”
Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on the desk. “That’s why you need to be the one to call and tell her.”
“I’m not in charge of this company. You are.”
“It’s her, Liv.”
More scrunching. “Who?”
“The woman I left in Florida. Tori was her name. You know her as Victoria Hent.”
It took a lot to shock my sister, but her mouth gaped, and she almost tumbled as she came over to my desk.
“I didn’t know until I reviewed the files the night before the interview. That’s why I wanted you to interview her. An impartial decision.”
