Page 30 of Wrong Place, Wright Time
“But what, Banks? What’s fucking changed?”
“I told her I want more, and she said she didn’t.”
“Forever?”
“Jesus, Ronan! I don’t fucking know. Maybe after six months, she’s just realized that I’m not the guy for her.”
“Bull-fucking-shit. I think you just threw a bomb at her feet and when she didn’t give you what you wanted, you high tailed it out of there.”
“Fuck off. I was just honest about how I feel.”
“As was she. Right from the start, right? She said she didn’t want to get married again. And when you brought up kids, she didn’t say she didn’t want them—she just said she didn’t want them unless she was sure she was in a stable relationship. One where her partner doesn’t throw a fucking tantrum and leave her when he doesn’t get his way.”
“That’s not fair. I’m allowed to want what I want.”
“Yeah, you are. And I love you, man. You’re the closest thing to a brother I’ve ever had. But this isn’t you. You’re not the kind of guy who walks away. I mean, imagine you did get married and then later on you found out shecouldn’thave kids—would you leave her then?”
My mouth drops open, but my gut twists up tight. I really don’t want to hear this. But damn, he’s right. “No,” I say, shaking my head. “I would never.”
He places a hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “So why are you giving up now? You love her, right?”
“Of course.”
“So what would you rather do? Go and find some other girl to marry and have kids with? Or be happy and in love, taking a risk with Isla? She might change her mind, but she might not. Either way, do you really want to give what you have with her up?”
Looking across the room to the crate I put all our cross-stitch stuff in, I think back over the many hours we’ve spent together just being…us. And when I think of a future without that, it’s bleak as fuck. I want her back. However she comes, whatever the future holds, one thing is absolutely certain. She and I belong to each other.
“I want to spend my life with Isla.”
He claps me on the back. “Then you gotta go out there and get her, brother. Do the grand gesture.”
“Such as?”
“Tell me the one thing you can get her that she can’t get herself?”
“Fuck. There isn’t a lot she wants. Despite her name and her money, she likes simplicity. What she cares most about is fairness and being an agent of change when her and her cousins take over Wright Media. Not that any of those old guys seem willing to step down any time soon.”
Ronan grins as he sits forward and pulls his cell from his back pocket. “I have an idea.”
“What kind of idea?”
“Well, what are you and I both really good at?”
“Knowing the right business to invest in and which ones to steer clear of.”
“Exactly. We’ve made a lot of people a lot of money.”
“I have no idea how that’s supposed to help anything here. I’m not looking to invest.”
“No. But we know lots of people who invest in everything from bank bonds to bitcoin. Between us, I reckon know every broker, banker or financer on Wall St. That means, that with our powers combined—”
“Holy fuck, Ronan,” I say, his plan dawning on me and straightening my spine as energy floods my veins for the first time since I walked out of Isla’s apartment. “You’re brilliant.”
He laughs while he fires off a bunch of messages. “It’s why they pay me the big bucks, my friend. You want power? I can find a way to get it for you.”
And as we work through our combined contacts in an effort to formulate our plan, I wonder if it’s going to be enough to show Isla how much she means to me. I hate to admit it, but blindsiding her the way I did then storming off was childish. I let my pride get in the way of the facts that were laid out before me. I’m in love with Isla. And she’s in love with me. At our very core, she and I want the same things, but what Isla really needs is someone to standby and support her because no one else before me has. Everything else? Well, we’ll work it out eventually. But one thing is certain, I can’t walk away from her. I never should have, and I’m going to bend over backwards and accomplish something huge for her to prove to her that I’ll never turn my back again.
Isla
