Page 60 of Fighting Gravity

This will never be me.The thought hit him with force.Tate would balance love and legacy if he wanted to. If the first half of the equation ever found him again. His mother’s lifelong threats were empty words, and they didn’t scare him anymore. He’d lost George, Donovan, and Rosie, and survived.

“The OrbitAll segment is really suffering,” she said finally. “How do you plan to fix the deficiency?”

Tate laughed at the irony of her using the wordsufferingto describe the hangar full of happy, hardworking dreamers, some of the most talented people in the world. “I don’t. If you measured something besides gains, I think you’d see we’re far from suffering. We’re right onmytrack. From now on, I’m the only one who gets to define the success of OrbitAll.” His voice was rising in volume. “And you know what else? I’m going after both love and legacy. Matt chose. You chose. I won’t.”

His words couldn’t even be classified as a speech, but Tate stood as he finished delivering them. He downed his wine, set his glass down carefully on the gleaming table, and looked his mother in the eye. “I’m not coming out here anymore. You need numbers, I’ll email them.” He shook his head. “You’ve got your priorities all wrong, Mother. If you want to see what a successful company looks like, come to Victory. You want to see what a happy family looks like, go to L.A. and see Matt. We’re not the ones who need fixing.”

She opened her mouth to “how dare” him, Tate was sure, but he didn’t let her. Instead, he walked away.

“Legacy over love” wasn’t in his lexicon anymore.

34

It had been six weeks since Tate had stalked away from her at the construction site. Six weeks since his fingers had brushed her skin and Rosie’s heart had stopped beating for herself. For a moment, again, her heart had beat only for Tate.

The shoulda-coulda had tortured her for weeks, until Rosie remembered how horrible it felt to wait for the other shoe to drop. Better to go barefoot and alone.

She dialed up the web conferencing tool and steeled herself for another meeting with Tate and team. She’d become adept at pushing away any resulting emotions. His eyes didn’t even take her breath away anymore. She was winning.

Halfway through the construction meeting, during which Andrew and the contractor did most of the talking, Rosie’s phone vibrated with a message. She wasn’t one to check her phone during meetings; she tried to set an example in that way. But then the phone vibrated again. And again.

Frowning, she flipped the phone over and saw a series of messages from Betti, Elle’s stepmom. One sentence per text. It was Elle’s moving day and her whole family was helping. Even Rosie had taken a half-day. She planned on heading to Elle’s beach bungalow in Del Mar after this meeting, armed with lunch and her space-planning skills. Hopefully there hadn’t been an issue with the furniture. They’d scheduled all of it to be delivered that morning. It was going to be a busy day for Elle’s brothers, putting all the furniture together and lugging it around.

Hi, baby girl.

Chen’s going to call you in a few minutes.

You’re really going to want to pick up.

It took Rosie a solid half-minute to comprehend the messages.

Chen? What in the world? She had assumed the couches hadn’t arrived and there was nowhere for people to sit. What could Chen possibly need from Betti? Or Rosie? She looked up, her gaze locking immediately with Tate’s. Even on the screen, she saw the questioning flicker of his brows.

If anyone might know why Chen needed to speak to her, it would be Tate. She navigated to her texts and searched for Tate’s name. Her finger hovered over the screen. The last text, sent more than two months back, had come from him.Are you here yet? I can’t wait to see you. You’re the best part of my week.Back when they’d been moving toward a relationship. Before Rosie had walked away.

A small sigh escaped as she composed the text.Any idea why Chen is calling me?

She watched as Tate read her message. A smile twitched in the corner of his mouth.I might.

Rosie tried to glare at him without being obvious to the other people on the call.Care to give me a heads-up? Today’s kind of a big day.

An incoming call interrupted their exchange. “Excuse me,” she said to the group, shooting Tate a last look. She slipped out of the conference room and into the lobby. “Hello?”

“The lovely Rosie.”

Chen’s smooth, accented voice warmed her. She’d liked him. Still liked him. She just wished he’d chosen her friend over his career.

“My favorite astronaut.”

He chuckled. “Not anymore. I quit the space program, Rosie. I just landed in San Diego.”

A staggered breath left her. “You came for Elle.”

“She’s it for me. There’s no life without her in it.”

Her eyes closed in relief. In gratitude. “How can I help?”

“Meet me for dinner?”

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