Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(17)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

She moved to stand beside him, so she could see what he was talking about, and tried again to ignore the luscious fragrance that was coffee and Matthias Barton.

He pointed to the middle of the second paragraph and said, "You left out a comma here."

Certain she’d misunderstood, she looked up at him and

said, "What?"

He pointed again. "A comma," he repeated. "You left one out here. This is a compound sentence. There should be a comma before and here. And then on page three," he said, quickly turning the next page, "in the first paragraph here, this semicolon should be a comma, too. I’m sure of it. And on the last page," he continued, flipping back to that, "you didn’t make the signature line long enough.

There should be at least another quarter inch there, to allow space for Donovan to sign. His first name is Elliot. You don’t want to add insult to injury, not giving the man enough room to sign his name."

Kendall couldn’t believe her ears. This was the problem with the Donovan contract? A comma? A semicolon? A signature line? For this, she’d risked hacking off her new boss? For this she’d driven a half hour one way? For this she’d bought him coffee using money out of her own pocket?

But even more offensive than all that was the fact that he was completely wrong. There was absolutely no need for a comma where he said there was—that wasn’t a compound sentence—and the semicolon was perfectly fine. As for the sig line, she’d seen Elliot Donovan’s signature before, and a more cramped bit of writing didn’t exist anywhere. There was more than enough room for the man to sign his name.

She narrowed her eyes at Matthias. "You brought me all the way down here for a comma, a semicolon and a signature line?"

He clearly didn’t see anything wrong with that. "It’s details like that, Kendall, that people notice."

"Not unless they’re wrong. Which these aren’t," she told him.

He looked surprised at that. "Really?" "Really." "You’re sure?" "I’m sure."

"Oh. Well. Then I guess I brought you down here for nothing."

If looks could kill, Kendall thought, Matthias would be radioactive wind just then.

"But now that you’re here," he said, "why don’t you stay for lunch? The caretaker left some great stuff in the fridge."

There were so many ways Kendall could have answered his question—not the least of which was headbutting him, something she very much wanted to do just then—so she settled on a simple, "No. Thank you," and hoped he would hear the edge in her voice. And then, you know, fear for his life.

Instead, he smiled and asked, "Then how about if I offer you your old job back, and then you won’t have to worry about getting back to Stephen DeGallo on time, because you’ll already be where you need to be."

At that, Kendall decided that head-butting was too good for Matthias. What he really deserved was being hit with a brick. No, two bricks. Oh, what the hell. The same number of bricks it took to build the British Museum. However, she again managed to reply, "No. Thank you." And then she added, "Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to, as you said, go where I need to be. Which is not here."

And with that, she spun on her heel and exited the office. Without looking back once. Without even saying goodbye.

Five

Matthias watched Kendall through the front window of the cabin as she descended the steps toward her car.

He’d told her the truth about having good memories of Hunter and the rest of the gang since coming to the lodge. But he’d been plagued by even more bad ones. Not just of Hunter’s death, but of how he and Luke had let their own relationship fall apart. Hunter had been the one in college who’d somehow managed to help the brothers turn their competition with each other into affection for each other. When he died, it was almost as if the bond that had held Matthias and Luke together died, too.

Matt and Luke, he corrected himself. Back then, he hadn’t been Matthias. He’d been Matt. A regular guy, an easygoing student, the kind of kid who liked keggers and Three Stooges movies and games of pickup rugby in the park. It had only been after college, when he’d heard the

terms of his father’s will, that he’d begun to go by his given name of Matthias. Matthias had sounded more studied than Matt, more serious, more seasoned. Matthias had sounded like a grown-up. And, thanks to the terms of his father’s will, Matt had been forced to grow up fast.

Even in death, the old man had pitted the twin brothers against each other, decreeing that whoever was able to make the first million would win the estate in its entirety. The one who didn’t would be left with nothing. When the attorneys had read the stipulation to him and Luke, Matthias had been able to picture their father in the afterlife, leaning back in his celestial Barcalounger, rubbing his hands together with relish and saying, "Let the games begin."

And at first it had kind of been a game. Luke and Matthias had each good-naturedly joked that they would leave the other in the dust. Both had started their own companies, and then got down to business. Literally. For the first couple of months, they’d gone at it as they had every other competition they’d indulged in over the years, be it for a game, or a grade, or a girl. Then, little by little, Matthias had started edging ahead. A deal here, an acquisition there, and the money had begun to pile higher. A hundred thousand. Two hundred and fifty thousand. Half a million. Until that final deal that had cinched it for him and ensured he would win.

The problem was that the final deal had been tainted— unbeknownst to Matthias at the time—by some shady dealings inside his own company. Luke, suspicious, had cried foul and accused Matthias of cheating, an accusation Matthias resoundingly denied for years. An accusation that had split the brothers to the point of not speaking. Until Matthias discovered—only recently, in fact—a rat in his

own corporation who had double-dealed him and Luke both and then disappeared with his own ill-gotten gains. And even though the two brothers realized now that they’d both been taken advantage of back then—even though the lines of communication were open now—things still weren’t quite settled. Yeah, Matthias had helped his brother win the woman he’d once planned to marry himself. That the help had come in the form of a punch to Luke’s eye had just been cake. But Luke had apologized for being an ass. Matthias, in turn, had apologized for being an ass and not trying harder to keep the lines of communication open.

Those lines were open now, he reminded himself. But things with Luke still weren’t where they should be. He supposed there would never again be a day when they were the carefree college kids Hunter had helped them to be. But they could be brothers again.