Yeah. He knew.

Chapter Thirteen

If Sarah thought the scene in the parking garage was bad, she really should have taken sick days the rest of the week. Watching Ginny wiggle through the office every day to visit Falon was killing her. She felt physically ill every time she watched him place a talented hand on the small of her back and ushered her out the door.

The happy couple had just left for another lunch date. Her stomach turned as she realized they probably weren’t eating. Well, food anyway.

She lowered her head to rest on her crossed arms. She was lost. And she didn’t know what to do about it. A part of her wanted to rail at him until he listened. Understood that, yes, she did set out to get under his skin. But her intentions had been good. She only wanted him to remember what it was like to live with his heart. Instead, she had lost hers to the only man who had successfully frozen his.

Another part of her, the part more prone to roll over and play dead, told her that she could talk until she was blue in the face and it wouldn’t make any difference. He was probably looking for a way to get rid of her anyway, and her little slipup in the bathroom was just the exit he needed. Look how fast he attached himself to Ginny.

Sarah groaned. Maybe there was a nice hole somewhere she could go crawl in.

“Come now, it cannot possibly be that bad.” The deep accented voice pulled her head from its resting place. Standing just inside her door was an extremely well dressed older man. He appeared around her grandfather’s age. And like him, he stood tall in his custom-tailored suit. His rich dark hair, snow white at the temples and the lines on his tanned skin were the only clues to his true age.

“Can I help you?” She wondered if the man was an actor looking for Frank. She had never seen him before, but their prospective client list had picked up a little to the work Falon had done.

“Yes, my name is Armand Cortinovis, am looking for someone actually.” The man’s Italian accent and charming smile had her relaxing. He had a great smile. Almost familiar. Maybe she had seen him in the agency before.

“If you’re looking for Frank or Ralph, I believe they are out to lunch.” She found herself returning his smile, even if hers was a little sad. “Can I take a message?”

The man stood studying her for a moment and the comfort of the moments before fled. “You’re her aren’t you?”

She was startled. “Her who?”

“The woman that has my grandson tied up in knots.” She had to remember not to let her jaw hang open. That was why his smile looked so familiar. Falon had flashed her the same grin whenever he was up to something. Studying the man closer, she noticed they shared the same liquid brown eyes. Only where Falon’s were now full of icy disdain this man’s were a story of regret.

“I don’t think …”

“Mind if I have a seat? I think there are a few things you need to know.” Not waiting for her to tell him it wouldn’t be a good idea, that he couldn’t possibly be more wrong where she and his grandson were concerned, he swept further into the room and claimed a chair across from her.

“Don’t look so nervous. I promise what I have to say will help you to understand the man whose heart you hold.” He raised a staying hand when she made to argue that last fact. “Just listen and draw your own conclusions.”

She nodded. Wondering what had the concern flashing in his eyes.

“I’m sure Falon told you, or at least hinted at, his distaste for me. I cannot fault him for it as it is very well founded. You see, his mother fell in love with the son of my gardener. For a man such as myself, to have my only daughter choose a man who digs in the dirt, it was inconceivable to my ego.” He paused, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I let my ego push my daughter from my life. She had a choice, that man or her legacy.”

“She chose love.” He looked deep into her eyes. “I can see that now, but then I was so lost in my own pride I cut them from my life. I acted as though they did not exist, lost track of them.” The regret filled those expressive eyes, the eyes so much like Falon’s. “I was in Italy when I heard about the accident. It had happened six months earlier and I knew nothing about having a grandson. Grief stricken, I didn’t return to America for another six months only to learn of Falon. He was lost in the system by then and there is only so much foreign money can buy.”

“He said you contacted him at Northwestern.”

His eyes lit up. “So he did open to you.”

The statement caused her to issue a very unladylike snort and the smile returned to his face. “I think you are underestimating your position with my grandson. Life has dealt him some blows. He feels he cannot rely on anyone. A part of that is my fault. A part of it is the people who the state trusted to care for him after his parent’s death.”

“What do you mean?”

“After I cut his mother off, their life was hard. They did not have money, but they were rich in other ways an old man is only now beginning to understand. They had love. When they died that love was ripped from Falon and he was thrust into a world he wasn’t prepared for.” He looked so guilty she fought the urge to comfort him. “One home he was in, they should have never been trusted with children. Falon came home early one day and found the man trying to rape one of the girls in the house. He reacted, putting the man in the hospital.”

“Oh my gosh.” Sarah raised a hand to her mouth. She knew Falon had pulled himself from poverty to become the success he was today, but she had no idea it was that bad.

“He won’t talk about that day.” He shook his head sadly. “I had to access the closed police file for what little details I know. But I believe that day was the last straw, he was only seventeen and had to witness what lack of self-control can do to a man. That, coupled with what I did to his mother, it changed him.”

“You can’t blame yourself.”

“I can, and I do.” He rose from his seat. “My grandson has connected with you in a way I had been praying for, for years. You are in his heart. The question is Sarah Maxwell, what are you going to do about it?”

She sat frozen watching him walk out of the room. At the door, he turned to study her once more. “There are many faults with the man he has become. He cannot see past his own resolve to see his life is to mean something more than the money that keeps him from the world he is running from. Money is never a replacement for love. This old man should know.”

Then he was gone and Sarah was left to make sense of what he had told her. There was no way he could possibly be right. Right? From her understanding, the man barely knew Falon. How would he know if he … if she … God, just the idea that he might be right made her heart leap into her throat.

A high-pitched tittering filled the outer office as the man in question stepped off the elevator, Ginny securely attached to his arm. His eyes clashed with her for only a moment before he focused on his companion. She wasn’t sure, but the look she saw in that second their eyes connected gave Sarah the confidence to enact one more mission.

***

Falon had listened to Ginny begging him to take her away for the weekend the entire hour they spent at lunch. She wanted his last days in Chicago to be spent in utter—naked—seclusion with her. She had been regaling him with her sexcapades schedule when they stepped off the elevator and his eyes tangled with liquid topaz. He forced his gaze back to Ginny before he crossed the room and took Sarah in his arms. Making a fool of himself telling her how much he missed her eyes, her laugh, how their bodies fit. Missed her.

Shaking off the sentiment, he smiled down at the woman on his arm. “I’ll call you.” He gave her a peck on the cheek and pulled his arm free. He let out a relieved sigh when the elevator doors slid shut.