stables when she was seventeen, Kayla had made a point of keeping a wide berth from Ethan every time they met. At first he’d thought he was imagining it. He assumed Kayla was embarrassed at her juvenile seduction attempt, but after the last party they attended a few years back, when she’d pointedly refused to dance with him, Ethan knew he wasn’t. How could she go from wanting him to not wanting to be near him? Ethan suspected that Kayla was as far from immune to him as she portrayed. “I will handle Kayla.”
“Are you sure about that?” Daniel asked.
Ethan chuckled. Kayla was a spitfire, and she wouldn’t take kindly to Graham International owning a stake in Adams Cosmetics, but Ethan was determined.
“Daddy, what are you doing back?” Kayla asked when she came down to breakfast the next morning and found her father sitting at the dining room table. It was a beautiful spring day in mid-March, and the flowers on the family’s eleven-bedroom estate in Atlanta’s Buckhead division were blooming. But Kayla didn’t feel as cheery as the weather.
“And where’s Mom?”
“Went to the spa,” her father replied, looking up from his paper. “She wasn’t too pleased that we cut our extended vacation short.”
“Of course she would be upset. You promised.”
“I know, but once I heard about Adams Cosmetics, I had to come back.”
“So you came back because of the company?” Kayla asked thoughtfully and rose from the table to serve herself some yogurt and fresh fruit from the buffet table behind them. Victor, their butler, always had a delicious spread for breakfast.
“Don’t be upset, Kay,” her father said, using the nickname he’d given her as a child. It was usually when he wanted her to do things his way, but it wouldn’t be that way this time.
“You don’t think I can save the company on my own?” Kayla asked as she sat down with her plate. She reached for the coffee carafe in the center of the table and poured herself a cup. She brought it to her lips and took a sip. It was as she liked it, strong and black, much like her men.
“No, of course not.” Byron rose from his chair and came to sit beside her. “That’s not it at all. I just know how much you want Adams Cosmetics to stay in the family.”
“It’s how it’s always been,” Kayla responded. “And now, Shane and Courtney want to bring in ‘investors.’” She used her hands to make quotation marks. “They want to bring outsiders into the company.”
“It’s what has to be done.”
“Then why did you never do it?” Kayla returned, a little too harshly for her liking.
“Because I was a fool,” Byron admitted to his daughter. “I didn’t want to admit that I could be wrong. I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you.”
“You weren’t wrong, Daddy. This is a family business,” Kayla persisted.
“One that could go bankrupt due to the bad decisions I made in the past. Kay, if you want to save Adams Cosmetics, we’re going to have to do what needs to be done and sell some of our shares.”
“I can’t let you do this. You and Mama started this company. How does Mama feel about this?” Kayla inquired. She doubted her mother would be happy to hear that they could be losing a part of the business it had taken them a lifetime to build. Not to mention the long working days and late nights they’d endured during the early days to make the company a success.
“She has given me carte blanche to do whatever is necessary.”
Kayla shook her head in resignation. “I just can’t believe it’s come down to this, selling off our shares for the almighty dollar.”
“It will keep the company solvent. More than that, it will give you the much-needed capital to invest in the new fragrance line Shane has created, as well as expand our skincare line. These are all projects you’ve wanted to do for a very long time, but didn’t have the finances.”
Kayla respected her father’s opinion and knew he was right, but it hurt all the same. “Okay.” She shrugged her shoulders. “You’ve convinced me. Now what?”
“Now what?” her father asked, stroking her cheek. “Once the company is back on its feet, it can finally allow you to have a personal life and give your mother and me our first grandchild.”
“Children!” Kayla huffed and pushed back her chair. “Where did that come from?” She took another sip of her coffee.
“It’s about time you started working on a family, old girl.” Her father patted her shoulder. “You’re not getting any younger.”
Kayla’s mouth upturned. “Thanks a lot, Dad.” She knew she was getting up there in years. At thirty-four years old, she was no spring chicken in the female reproductive world. Until now, she’d never really thought about having a child. She’d always been so focused on her career. Sure, there had been a number of men with whom she’d had casual affairs, but none of them had held a candle to her first crush, Ethan Graham.
She knew it was silly that she compared the men she’d dated to Ethan, but compare she had. Ever since he’d returned from boarding school at the ripe age of fifteen and picked her up when she’d fallen off her pony at nine years old and kissed her knee, she’d been infatuated. And as she got older, it only grew stronger. How could she forget those six-pack abs in swim shorts and those muscular arms as they swum in her family’s pool? Ayden Turner, her ex-boyfriend, had tried but failed to live up to Ethan’s dark good looks and rippled physique.
She’d seen Ethan in the years since and had effectively kept him at a distance. She’d had to. She’d made a fool of herself when she’d come on to him when she was seventeen and he’d turned her down flat. And since then, he’d dated a string of beauties and wealthy socialites, so even if she would have approached him again, he was too full of himself to even notice. So she focused on her career.
“I didn’t mean that how it sounded.” Her father spoke at her silence. “You know you have always been the light of my life, Kayla, and I only want what’s best for you.”
“I know that, Daddy. And maybe one day your wish will come true.”
“I’ve put together a great list of potential investors,” Michael said when he called another meeting of the executive committee of Adams Cosmetics on Thursday morning, “and quietly started putting the word out that we’re looking for capital.”
Kayla perused the names on the list and was startled to see Ethan Graham’s name. “Ethan Graham,” she said aloud, shocked. That’s the last name she’d expected to see. Hadn’t she just been thinking about him this morning?
“Of course,” Shane said. “I gave Michael his name. Ethan is a former family friend and he might be willing to lend a hand.”
“You know Daddy’s not going to like this idea,” Kayla responded. Actually, she knew how she felt. She hated the idea. She didn’t want arrogant Ethan Graham to have any part of the family business.
Shane’s brow furrowed. “Well, Dad isn’t running this company, you are. Whatever beef he had with Ethan’s father should never have translated outside of business. Ethan used to be practically one of the family.”
“Well, he’s not now.” The moment the words were out of her mouth, Kayla realized how juvenile she must have sounded. Shane and Courtney were both looking at her strangely.
“What do you have against Ethan?” Shane asked. “He’s a brilliant businessman.”
“Oh, leave her alone,” Courtney said, seeing how flushed Kayla’s mahogany skin was becoming. She may have been a few years younger, but even she had seen the monumental crush Kayla had had on Ethan back in the day. Trust her brother, being a man, not to notice.
“Have you thought about how many