Yesterday, though Valentina had clearly been extremely worried about her, Tatiana’s sister had accepted that she wasn’t yet ready to say more. Since then, of course, Valentina had sent a half-dozen text messages checking in, and they were meeting in a little while at her place so that she could finally tell her sister everything.
But now that she was sitting with Ian’s sister, who loved him as much as she did, Tatiana knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it all from spilling out another second. And if she was going to tell it, she figured she might as well start from the beginning.
“When we were at your parents’ house for dinner and I was helping your mom in the kitchen, I told her I had fallen for Ian.”
“Wow.” Mia’s eyes were wide with surprise. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that my mom loved hearing that.”
“I think she did,” Tatiana said with a small smile. “She gave me a big hug...and then told me to stay determined and not to give up on him.”
Emotion swamped Mia’s face. “We all love him so much.”
“I know you do. How could you not when I fell in love with him the first time I met him in Napa at Marcus and Nicola’s wedding? Partly,” she admitted, “because he’s gorgeous, but mostly because of how much he obviously loves you and wanted to make sure you were safe and happy.”
“Love at first sight,” Mia said with a sigh. “That’s so romantic. Only you don’t look happy, and I’m guessing that if I went to see my brother right now, he wouldn’t look happy, either.”
Knowing her voice would break on any words she tried to say, Tatiana simply shook her head.
“I was so sure things would turn out differently with you,” Mia said. “Hoping, praying that he’d finally open up with you, even though he’s isolated himself more and more from all of us over the years.”
“Me too,” Tatiana confessed in a hollow voice. “I kept thinking that if I didn’t back down or give up or go away, if I was just there for him, if I could just smash through all of his boundaries, he’d let me in. And when we were on the island, for a while...”
“Island?”
Realizing no one but her sister and Smith knew about their aborted trip to Alaska, she explained, “We were headed to Alaska for one of his meetings, but when that bad storm hit, we had to land way on the north end of Vancouver Island. While we were grounded there for three days without cell phones or Internet connections, I got to see another side of your brother when he actually let down his walls for a little while.” Tatiana didn’t realize she’d put one hand over her heart until it was already there. “Far enough that he started talking about wanting to try with me. He even said he’d give up the big deal he’s been working on for the past two years so that we could have more time together.”
Mia looked shocked. “He’s been obsessed with investing in that company.”
“He should be. I met the founder and the guy’s a genius. And that’s just the problem. If I let Ian give that up for me because he thinks there’s some sort of rule about how much time and focus you can give to someone you love versus your company—”
“He’d be miserable.”
Tatiana nodded.
“But if he didn’t walk away from it all,” Mia said, “if he still worked crazy hours, would that ever be enough for you?”
“After spending the past week and a half with him, and seeing how well he juggles it all—better than anyone I’ve ever seen—I know it would be. I don’t want him to change. I don’t need him to change. He’s perfect just the way he is. But—”
“He doesn’t see that, does he?”
“No, he doesn’t. And if we were together, he would live in constant fear of hurting me, and feel guilty every time he thought he was letting me down.”
“Ugh.”
Tatiana nodded. “Double ugh.”
Mia reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a box of Brooke’s chocolates. “This definitely calls for my emergency stash.” Once both of them had popped truffles into their mouths, Mia asked, “So, are you going to be okay with seeing him on Friday night?”
Tatiana figured there was no point in lying. “It’s going to be really hard to see your brother.” She sighed before admitting, “But—and I know this probably doesn’t make any sense—it would be worse not to see him.”
Mia’s lips had moved up into a little smile as she held out the box of chocolates. “Want another?”
Tatiana shook her head. “No, thanks. And I’d better get going or else I’m going to be late to meet up with Valentina. She’s already worried enough about me.”
Mia gave her a warm hug. “See you tomorrow night. And if you need to talk again before then, you know you can call or come by the house anytime, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“I wish my brother knew it.”
“He does, Mia.”
“Then why has he been shutting me out for so many years?”
“I don’t know. But maybe,” Tatiana said with a small smile that she knew wouldn’t make any sense to anyone but Ian, “it’s finally time for you to ask him.”
It had taken years of work, of focus, of dedication for Ian and his executive team to close the eAirBox deal. They’d celebrated last night, all of them, including Flynn and his team. But, for the very first time ever, Ian’s professional triumph wasn’t enough to make up for his personal loss.
There wasn’t a moment when he had stopped thinking of her during the past twenty-four hours. Hell, during the past several months since the wedding, if he was being honest with himself. Again and again he replayed every one of her beautiful smiles, the sweet sound of her laughter, the softness of her mouth on his, the bliss of feeling her skin heat and dampen as she came apart in his arms...and the honest emotion that he’d seen in her eyes every time she looked at him.
He’d gone around and around in his head trying to figure out a way that they could make things work, what he could do to convince her to give him another chance, but every time he was stopped by Tatiana’s voice in his head: It’s exactly what you did with your ex-wife. You tried to make a relationship work around your job and what she wanted from you. But it didn’t work. And I love you too much to let you make those mistakes again.
Ian was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realize his sister had walked into his office until she threw her arms around him and said, “I love you, big brother. You were gone so long that I didn’t get to tell you nearly enough. Now that you’re finally back home, I’ve got lots of lost time to make up for.” After a long while, she finally drew back to sit on the edge of his desk. “But before we get to the heavier stuff, I need to remind you about the party at our house tomorrow night. You’re in charge of the bubbly, so you’d better not be late or we won’t be able to toast Smith and Tatiana.”
Damn it, he’d forgotten about Mia and Ford’s party on Friday night. How could he go when he’d promised Tatiana that he’d—
Wait a minute, Ian thought, as he rewound back to the exact promise he’d made: not to answer her calls, or let her shadow him at work anymore, or take her away for a business trip on his plane. But he’d never made even the slightest promise about staying away from her at a Sullivan family event.
Thank God.
“Have you seen her?”
His sister nodded, looking far more serious than usual. “She just dropped by my office, actually, on the way back from her set.”
“How is she?”
He was surprised by his sister’s faint smile. “Head over heels in love with you. And I just found out that she talked to Mom about her feelings for you, too.”
“She did?”