ter the meeting at Samantha Jones’s office. Amandine would take some time to review the settlement he’d proposed, and then she’d sign it. There was nothing objectionable about his offer.
He should have Hilary send a crew to get his stuff today. It was like pulling a Band-Aid: less pain if he just gritted his teeth and yanked it.
“Gavin, your brother’s here to see you,” Hilary said over the intercom.
“Which one?” The one whose ass I’m going to kick or the one I like?
“Ethan.”
“Send him in.”
The door opened, and Ethan bounced in like he was high on life or something.
At least somebody’s happy.
“What’s up? I didn’t know you were going to be in town,” Gavin said.
“I wasn’t, until last night.”
“What happened?”
“A situation at Global Strategies’ west coast subsidiary that required my personal attention.” Ethan sat. No, that wasn’t quite right. Gavin didn’t know how to describe the boneless way his brother sort of sprawled around in a seat. It reminded Gavin of one of Dali’s melting clocks. “Heard you were having a few domestic issues, so I decided to swing by.”
“News travels fast.”
“Meredith told Kerri yesterday during their call.”
“I see.”
“There’s no way to reconcile?”
“None,” Gavin said. “Amandine’s got the papers, and I’m sure she’ll sign them soon. My lawyer’s going to take care of the rest.”
“Jesus. Three years of marriage down the drain like that.” Ethan rubbed his forehead with his index finger.
Gavin shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about it. “So Kerri’s helping Meredith?”
“Yeah. It’s better this way. And before you start up about her being a spy for the enemy, she’s not. In fact, I’m going to propose to her as soon as I think of a suitably romantic way to do it.”
Gavin shrugged again. “Buy her an island and hide the ring in the sand. That’s pretty romantic.”
Ethan stared at him. “Proportion, Gavin. A sense of proportion. If you happen to find one lying around on the sidewalk or something, you really should pick it up.”
“Whatever. So you’re sure she has no intention of going back to granddaddy?”
“Nope. But the old man does want to see me to do his grandfatherly duty.”
“Ha.”
“Oh, I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got lots to say to him.”
“Ah yes. You’re never shy about saying exactly how you feel.”
“Yeah, usually. Actually…that’s not really true.” Something in Ethan’s face softened, grew almost regretful. “I almost lost Kerri because I wasn’t honest with her about what I wanted from her. Because she was so gun-shy about relationships, I made her think we were just going to sleep together until we grew bored with each other.”
Gavin’s eyebrows rose. “And that worked?” In his experience, women usually ran the other way when men made it clear they didn’t do long-term relationships.
“It was, ah, a special situation. But I never wanted that. I wanted something more.”