All He Really Needs by Emily McKay

wasn’t that Griffin had to tell her where he was going to be every
second of every day, but his disappearing act was getting old. As his assistant,
it was her job to know his whereabouts, and frankly she was getting tired of
feeling left in the dark.
    “I wish he had just called. I’ve already left the house and
won’t be back until this evening.” Apparently, Caro felt the same way as Sydney.
The other woman sighed and then continued in a confidential tone. “We could have
talked this morning and been done with it. As it is, it could be sometime
tomorrow before he catches up with me. Valuable time is wasting and he’s off
doing God only knows what.”
    Sydney hesitated a moment before asking, “Then you would be
willing to answer any questions he has? You’d be willing to help him find his
sister?”
    “Willing? Well, of course I’m willing. What sort of mother do
you think I am that I might not be willing to help my sons complete this
quixotic quest my husband has sent them on?”
    “That’s very generous of you. I’ll make sure I pass on the
message to Griffin.” When she could reach him. Where was he?
    “Or…” Caro let the word dangle there suggestively. “If you
happened to know what he wanted to discuss with me, you could join me for lunch
and simply ask me yourself.”
    “I…” Oh, God. How was she supposed to answer? “I…” On one
hand, Griffin was nowhere to be found and, as his mother had pointed out, they
were on a time crunch here. On the other, Griffin must have had his reasons for
saying he was going to his parents’ house and then not going.
    Maybe the same reasons he didn’t share his schedule with her
and made bizarre phone calls that he didn’t want her listening in on. If he were
a different kind of guy, she might think he was stepping out on her. Maybe she
was being naive. Sure, Griffin was a playboy and a charmer, but in the time
they’d been together, he’d seemed to curb his outrageous flirting. Plus, the
sheer scorn in his voice when he discussed his father’s philandering made her
think he just wasn’t a cheater.
    What would it hurt for her to go see Caro Cain and just talk to
her? Maybe it would even be for the best. After all, Griffin obviously didn’t
have a great relationship with her. Perhaps a neutral party could more easily
get an honest answer from her.
    “I would love to meet you for lunch,” she found herself
saying.
    She quickly jotted down the address, even though she and nearly
everyone in Houston knew the location of the River Oaks Country Club.
    As she packed up her bag, she even told herself she was doing
the right thing. She didn’t really believe Griffin would do anything to hurt
Cain Enterprises. Not intentionally. But clearly he was not objective here.
    Sure, there was a line when it came to respecting a boss’s
decisions. But if he wasn’t available to make the decision, that line was
blurry. And if he wasn’t being one-hundred percent logical and responsible, then
maybe the line even wiggled a little bit.
    *
    By the time Griffin pulled up in front of his parents’
house, he still hadn’t decided what do to about Hope 2 O. He was so lost in
thought he almost didn’t recognize the Jaguar XK parked at the curb. Only when
he saw the sticker for the rental car company did he remember that the same car
had been parked there nearly three weeks ago when Hollister had made his big
announcement. Which meant Cooper must be visiting. Of all his father’s possible
visitors, only Cooper was enough of an adrenaline junkie to rent a Jaguar every
time he came to town.
    Ever since their father’s first heart attack, Hollister had
been sleeping downstairs, in the room at the front of the house that had once
been his office. Now, all the furniture had been replaced by a hospital bed and
enough medical equipment to sustain a surgical ward in a third-world country.
Griffin knew this because he’d actually visited clinics in Africa that got by
with