Page 5 of Never and Always
Chapter 2
It was stupid.
Oh so stupid, and on the scale of things that were going on right now, Nick should be the last thing on hermind.
God, what was wrong with her? It had been years since she last saw him, but she just slipped right back into her old ways where her brain would turn to mush just from the sight of him and she would forget everything that was going on, no matter how important it was. Likenow.
She was going through something incredibly serious, something that didn’t just affect her, but Glenn too, but when she saw Nick all of that faded away, out of her mind and into the back ofbeyond.
To her knowledge Nick was still in the Marines. Glenn had made her think that. She never thought she’d see him here. It never even entered hermind.
They’d lost contact over the years despite her attempts. She understood that sometimes he wouldn’t have gotten her letters and packages until maybe weeks or months after they were sent, depending on where he was stationed, but his responses, when he did eventually reply, were always so brief. And they lackedfeeling.
So she made herself stop, realizing that if she continued with her stupid Nick obsession it would make hercrazy.
As hard as it was, she came to accept long ago that the man didn’t want her. And it was fine. It really was, and she forced herself to get over the foolish childhood crush she’d had on her older brother’s bestfriend.
But sometimes, like just now, she was thrown off guard, displaced in time, and she couldn’t helpherself.
Nick was gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous that made you want to stare forever. Him with that spiky, dark brown hair that was always neatly cut, and those bright blue eyes that reminded her of the exotic Caribbean Sea. He had the kind of body you’d find on men from a wild sexual fantasy, with muscles that most men would kill for. And histattoos…
Mia was in the biggest shit she could be in in her life, but there she was mentallydrooling.
Until Glenn brought her back to reality and dragged her away from Nick, reminding her that she was introuble.
Every step she took with Glenn made her feel weaker, and made her regret her decision to come home. She always ran to him when she was in trouble, it didn’t matter what it was, so she’d foolishly believed she could do the same thing in this situation. After the hell she’d been through all she wanted was for him to take her into his arms and offer the comfort she craved since this nightmare took off, but Glenn had practically glossed over the fact that Mia had lost herbusiness.
Everything she’d worked so hard for over the last four years was gone. Just likethat.
When he led her into the study, she knew it was to really rip into her without Nick to protect her. Nick had always intervened when they were younger, even when she was in thewrong.
The thing about today was, on the scale of all the things she’d messed up, this was the worst. Glenn was furious. He was so mad that his whole face was bright red and his eyes were blazing. She couldn’t say that she could blame him, because she’d just lost two million dollars from the inheritance their grandparents left them, and she knew more was undoubtedly going to slip away fromthem.
She sat down in the chair set before the large mahogany desk and tried to compose herself. This wasn’t something she could run off and cry over, she had to deal with it.Theyhad to deal withit.
“What happened, Mia?” He rested his behind on the table and stared down ather.
“Alan robbed me.” That was the shortversion.
Alan was her accountant. She’d trusted him to manage her business and deal with her accounts, but he cleaned her out. Everything was gone; not even as much as a dollar was in heraccount.
When she realized everything was well and truly gone and there was nothing she could do, she decided to leave Florida and head back home toChicago.
She had to use the housekeeping money she kept in a little piggy bank to get home. Fortunately, it was just enough for a bus ticket. The excruciatingly long journey took a day and a half and only served to devastate hermore.
The last few spare dollars she had were used for a taxi, leaving her with five cents in her purse. That’s it. That was all she had to hername.
That fucking Alan. The lying son of a bitch had tricked her to another level. He made her think he had her best interests at heart and all that time—four years—he’d been stealing. Slowly, butsurely.
At first it was barely noticeable. He said it was necessary expenses and that she was in goodhands.
Mia had set up a day spa inFlorida.
Because she didn’t want to mess things up, she sought out who she thought were the best people. Her marketing team were amazing, the staff at the spa were fantastic, the developers, business managers, everyone was wonderful, and she thought Alan wastoo.
He was so great she thought the world of him, and trusted him. She also very stupidly fell prey to his enticements and got involved with him. That was so stupid of her. So very stupid, because not only had he robbed her, but he made her feel used, too. Like it wasn’t enough for him to take her money, he took her bodytoo.
“Last week all the accounts were cleaned out. Everything from my business and the money from ourinheritance.”
