Page 365 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

At her desk in the outer office was Barbara, my secretary who was old enough to be my mother. I told her, “I’m quitting early today. Any calls, anyone needs to see me or talk to me, find a place for them on my calendar for next week.”

Barbara knew better than to ask me any serious questions when I was as preoccupied as I must have looked just then. All she asked was, “Next week? You won’t be in tomorrow?”

“We’ll see,” I said to her over my shoulder on my way out.

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I spent the rest of what would have been regular business hours at the gym. In my tank top, shorts, and sneakers, I went at the machines in the gym with a vengeance, as if I could work out the worries in my head by working my muscles until they ached.

On the sit-up bench, I worked as hard as I would have worked at the office, if not more so, losing myself in one crunch after another, feeling the burn in my midsection and wishing it could burn all the bad feelings out of my mind. The steady rhythm made me think of the other physical activity that was the best thing for taking my mind off whatever might be bothering me. Unfortunately, I was in the wrong place and the wrong situation for that. For that, I needed a bedroom and a beautiful woman.

So, puffing hard, I crunched away, trying to think of what sum of money might encourage Kane not to settle back in Cincinnati again.How many thousands would get him to go to Seattle, perhaps? Or British Columbia or the Yukon? Let him go there, I thought,and be someone else’s problem.

A familiar, friendly voice broke up my rhythm. “What have I told you about working out too hard? You want to work to fatigue and failure, not to where you hurt yourself.”

Puffing one last time, I sat up on the machine and settled my eyes on Ben, both my trainer and a hell of a lot better company than I used to keep. He was a good-looking guy with more hard muscle mass on him than I had. His looks were his best advertisement as the owner of gym.

“Hey, Ben,” I huffed at him, my muscles complaining at me for the punishment I’d given them.

“You’re here kind of early, aren’t you?” he inquired. “This isn’t where you make those billions of yours, you know.”

“No, it’s where I keep my head on straight to make them,” I sighed.

“Uh-oh,” he said. “What’s this now? Girl troubles? You and Kathleen aren’t back on again, are you?”

Rubbing at my neck, I couldn’t help but give him a chuckle for that one. If it wereonlyabout getting back with her. Kathleen would be aloteasier to handle than what I was dealing with at the moment.

“No,” I replied, slouching. “It’s definitely not Kathleen. But it issomeone.An old…friendwho’s coming back to town. Not a woman, just…someone from my past.” I gave him a meaningful look to go with that. I’d shared a lot with Ben, feeling as though I could trust him with the facts of my life as much as I trusted him with the state of my body.

He picked up on my meaning. He had this way of being as supportive as a friend as he was tough as a trainer, something that I’d quickly learned to appreciate about him.

“I get it,” he said. “Listen, you know this place is here for you. And, you knowI’mhere for you. You’re a new guy now, on a new road. Stay on it, hear? Keep it real.”

“I will,” I told him. “Thanks.”

“Any time,” said Ben with a wink in his eye and a crook of one corner of his mouth. He left me alone and went to see another guy on another machine, and I sat there for a moment, appreciating my friend and the place that he and his gym occupied in my life.

It was a place much better than someone else I could name had taken up.

CHAPTER2

Corinne. Friday

Where I was going was on the opposite side of the state from Youngstown. But, at least I’d still be in Ohio. Cincinnati isn’t on another planet, after all. I’d still be in the same state as my parents.

The point was that I’d be moving to a different “state” in my own life. And, it would just about have to be better than the “state” I’d been in lately.

As I took inventory of the contents of my suitcases to make sure I had everything, my father stood in my bedroom doorway, arms calmly folded, looking on with concern and love.

“You know you can always come home, sweetheart,” he gently said.

Daddy had a way of announcing his presence that wasn’t unsettling or unnerving, one of many things I loved about him. He was good at easing himself into a moment. So my reaction to his being there wasn’t a startled one, just quietly surprised. I got up from hunching over my bed and my bags and faced him, wishing I could pack the sight of him into my bags to take with me.

“I know, Daddy,” I said. “This is still home. Thank you.”

He unfolded his arms and came into the room. “And,Iknow that you are going to be just great in your new internship. They’re going to be so impressed with you.”

Pretending to adjust his tie, something that I liked to do in these father/daughter moments, I said, “I’ll have to remember how to speak up with confidence the way I learned from you and your sermons. Which I promise I’ll keep watching online.”

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