32
Chapter Thirty Two
Two weeks later, Lucas was on a flight to New York with Amanda. It was mid December, and they were headed to the fall/winter fashion show. He had received an invitation to attend the fashion week several weeks before, and he had decided to take her along. As far as everyone was concerned, they were travelling for work-related purposes as the CEO and creative art director of Lemaiyan Fits.
But Lucas had other intentions. He had been dying to get Amanda away from their daily routine, spend time somewhere they didn’t have to worry about someone discovering the true extent of their personal relationship.
And, for the last two weeks, he had been grappling with the truth he now knew about her family. Should he tell her? His mother had appeared at his boat two nights after the meeting with his parents, warning him against sharing what he knew with anyone. Especially Amanda. She claimed that Charles had a plan to silently cut her off, and if he wanted the best for her, he should let the Lemaiyan family handle the issue themselves.
He didn’t believe a word of that. Charles had used Amanda her entire life. He obviously didn’t care one bit about her. All that ‘favourite daughter’ treatment was engineered to make her trust him blindly. How else would he have managed to convince her to let him use her inheritance?
Lucas could think of a few ways a wealthy, greedy man could cut off someone he didn’t need anymore. Especially when he wanted to make sure no dirt splattered on him in the process.
The sooner Amanda found out about what she was truly against, the better.
But how could he even begin telling her? He could only imagine how distraught she would be once she found out. He wanted to save her as much of that pain as possible.
But he knew he couldn’t delay further. Because the longer he waited to spill the truth, the more time Charles had to think of a way to ruin her enough to kick her out of the family.
After their last day of attending shows, he went by her hotel room. They had gotten separate rooms, but had spent each of the four nights they had been there in hers.
When he walked in, her suitcase was on the bed, and she was folding her clothes.
“Have you packed your stuff?” she asked as he got closer.
He shook his head. “No.”
She gave him a bewildered look. “No? You got the tickets for eight o’clock, right? We have to leave now to get to the airport on time.”
It was about five o’clock in the evening.
He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “I didn’t get the tickets.”
Her head turned sideways, trying to get a glimpse of his face. “What?”
“Are you in such a hurry to go back home?” he asked.
“I… Well, that’s what we planned. And, we’re done with the show. We have work waiting, remember?”
“Nothing urgent,” he commented.
“Yes, but…”
“I want to take you to this place I loved when I used to live here. A cabin, in the Adirondacks. Five hours away. It’s the perfect place to relax for a few days.”
Amanda turned her body around in his arms, until they were standing face to face. “You want to take an impromptu vacation?”
He smiled. “Something like that.” He lifted his hand and ran his knuckles down her face. “It’s just for three days. It would be great to be just the two of us, without having to sneak around, and no work to think about. Like when we first met.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “This isn’t impromptu at all, is it?”
“What?”
“You had probably planned all this when you first asked me to come here with you.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Since that weekend, after your sister’s wedding, you’ve been acting weird.”
His brow rose. “Me?”
“Yes. We have been close for about half a year now and you have moments when you’re a perfect gentleman, but…”
“Moments?” he queried, his lip jutting forward in a pout.
She laughed at the gesture and poked at his lip. “Stop. You know what I mean. I’m just saying… You’ve been acting differently these last two weeks.”
“How?”
She shrugged. “For instance, you’ve cooked me dinner five times in the last twelve days.”
“You’ve been keeping count?”
“It was hard not to when you suddenly appeared to develop an interest in ensuring I wasn’t surviving on takeout.”
“I’ve cooked you dinner lots of times before.”
“Yes, usually on the weekends when I come over to your boat. You have been to my place more times these last two weeks than you have in, like, the last three months combined.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, though, right?”
“I don’t know. When you act like that, it feels as if we’re in a relationship.”
His lips tugged at the corners. “Don’t think too much of it. That’s just the perks of having a sex partner who’s also a great guy.”
She slapped his shoulder playfully. “Do you hear yourself?”
He chuckled. “But, is it a good or bad feeling?”
“What?”
“Feeling like we’re in a relationship.”
“Sometimes it’s nice.”
“What about other times?”
“Other times, I wonder if we’re still on the same page.”
“Oh,” he muttered.
“Yes, I…” she extracted herself from his arms and took a step back. “Look, I don’t want to push you away, or make things awkward—”
“I understand,” he cut her off. “And I haven’t forgotten what we agreed on at the beginning. I’m not trying to push you towards something you’re not ready for, I promise.”
She sighed. “Okay.”
“If the trip is too much, I can get us the next available flight home.”
She was silent for quite a while, and he was convinced she was going to say no.
Then, she looked at him and said, “You’re right, we could both use a break.”
***
“How much farther do we need to go?” Amanda asked, halting and leaning on her trekking pole.
“We are almost there,” Lucas replied.
“You said that ten minutes ago!” she pointed out.
Lucas stepped over to her and took her elbow in his hand. “Look, you can see we’re almost at the top.”
They had been hiking for the past hour or so, and Lucas had told her it wasn’t going to take long to get to the top of the mountain.
“Right, it looks like that. But when we get there, you’ll say we need to go higher,” she grumbled.
Lucas muffled his chuckle behind his woollen gloves. “I swear that’s it. There’s nothing but amazing views up there. You’ll love it.”
“I’d better. Otherwise, all this will be for nothing.” With new determination, she grasped her pole and trudged onwards.
“You will,” he promised.
Another ten minutes and they were finally at the top. Amanda’s eyes widened at the view in front of them. They were high up, and below, the snow covered forest and a half-frozen lake gleamed in the winter sun. There was also a series of mountain peaks ahead. It felt like she was in a picture.
Lucas came to a stop beside her. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
She grinned. “It’s amazing!” She peered at him. “Totally worth the hike.”
“I knew you’d love it.” He took out a camera and took a shot of the landscape. “This is my favourite place here.” He turned to her, camera still in position, and took another photo.
Her hand rose to cover her face. “I wasn’t ready!”
“It makes the best photos.”
She turned away and walked towards the edge of the mountain, her hiking boots sinking in the snow. Taking a deep breath, she spread out her hands. “Ah, this is good.”
Lucas took another photo of her, taking a good shot of the mountain peaks beyond. He smiled as he checked it. It was a good idea bringing her here.
A while later, they sat on a rock, watching the landscape. Amanda had the camera, and she was taking photos, mostly of him.
“Are all your dreams tied to your mother?” he asked when she was busy looking through the viewfinder, the lens pointed at his face.
She lowered the camera to look at him directly. “What?”
“You started the fashion company because it was what she would have done, right?”
“Yeah.” Her eyebrows pulled together. “Why are you suddenly asking about that?”
He focused his gaze on the peaks ahead. “I just realised that everything you do is related to her.”
“Kind of.”
“Is it because you feel guilty? That she died giving birth to you?”
There was a moment of silence before she sighed heavily. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel like that. She had so many dreams that got cut short only because she chose to save me.”
Lucas turned to face her. “What do you mean?”
“After the accident, there was little chance that the both of us would survive. She asked the doctors to prioritize me.” She lifted the camera to her face again, this time targeting the mountains. “That’s what Dad told me.”
Lucas’s hand closed into a fist. Of course, he told her that. He had taken care even of the littlest details, hadn’t he?
“So I have to live for the both of us,” Amanda said. “Before she passed away, she was working on a plan for a fashion company with the same model as Lemaiyan Fits. When I get it back, I’ll rebrand and rename it after her.”
She was never getting it back. And she would be losing so much more.
“What if you weren’t in fashion?” he asked. “What would you be doing?”
“I’ve never really thought of that. I’m not in this just for her, you know. I like it too.”
“What if you couldn’t do it, even for you? What else would you do?”
She chuckled and gave him a curious gaze. “Why? What’s with you? I thought we came here to escape work. Stop talking about it.”
“I…” he trailed off. Should he just tell her? He looked away at the scenery below. There was no need to ruin the moment.
When they went back, he would tell her.
