Heart and Sole by Miranda Liasson Page A

let in. “I got sidetracked.” He picked up a stiletto, red and sleek, with an intricate flower embellishment. It was pretty, elegant, streamlined.
    “This is a beautiful shoe,” Nick said, hoping his grandfather would take the bait and discuss his work.
    His grandfather walked over and fingered the tip. “Not just beautiful, Nicky. Easy on the feet, too.”
    “Maybe you should market it.”
    “Maybe I should.”
    “I have contacts in New York. I could help you—”
    Gramps laughed softly. “I’m seventy-two years old. I think the gravy train has come and gone, son.” He stacked some scattered papers and turned to go.
    “I came here with Maddie Kingston for the weekend.”
    His grandfather turned back around. Those thick brows lifted again, but he didn’t say a thing.
    Now was Nick’s chance to tell his granddad he was buying the company so Gramps could have his final chance at success, at realizing his dream. But all Nick could see was Maddie silently trying to reassure her mother, that look of worried concern creasing a frown between her smooth brows as Derrick told him, Thanks for coming to help Maddie with her crazy scheme.
    Except it wasn’t so crazy. She was trying to bail out her family. Who could blame her for that? Nick opened the beat up fridge and grabbed two ice-cold beers, handed one to his granddad. It would be great to watch the rest of the game and forget about his problems.
    “Sorry to hear about her father,” his granddad said out of the blue.
    Nick snapped to attention. Shut the fridge door. “What?”
    “You don’t know what happened?”
    Nick must have looked as incredulous as he felt. A wave of nausea churned his stomach.
    “Stroke,” Gramps said. “Two months ago. Pretty severe. He’s still at the rehab hospital.”
    Nick’s heart tapped out a staccato rhythm that made it hard to hear. “Have you seen him?” A stroke? How could that be? He was only fifty-ish.
    Puzzle pieces clicked into place. No wonder why Maddie quit her job…and planned to take charge of a company without any business experience under her belt.
    Her dad was sick. How sick?
    “Not my place to go,” Gramps said.
    Of course not. The feud. Nick wanted to tell his grandfather that was precisely why he should take the opportunity to go see Henry Kingston.
    “Are you involved with her?” his grandfather asked.
    Nick barely heard the question. “With Maddie? No. She…needed my advice. Now I understand why.”
    “You’re offering business advice to them?”
    “She’s my friend, and she asked me, Gramps.” Now Nick was the one who didn’t want to talk.
    “Well, the whole thing’s unfortunate. I wish them well.”
    As Nick followed his grandfather back into the house, he wondered why the hell Maddie hadn’t told him about her father. She’d taken a huge risk quitting her own job to take on this burden, without help. No one with a grain of business sense would ever have done it. The whole thing made him feel physically sick.
    “We can order a pizza and watch your Phillies finish pummeling the Braves,” Gramps said.
    “Thanks, but I’d better be going.”
    Funny, but Nick left feeling like he was the one who’d just been pummeled.

Chapter Nine
    It was nearly dark when Nick pulled into the Kingstons’ driveway and punched his partner’s number angrily into his phone. Did Preston not know the circumstances about Maddie’s dad when they bought up those stocks?
    No answer. Nick pinched the bridge of his nose. Equal parts fury and sadness ripped through him in waves. His relationship with Maddie had eroded to the point where she couldn’t even tell him the truth, and he knew he was to blame. But he couldn’t understand why her family would allow her to shoulder this Herculean task alone. They’d taken advantage of her kind, self-effacing nature.
    All his pleasure at finally settling the score between their families faded as quickly as twilight’s last light. He never regretted a business