by Parker, Ali
Despite his state, anyone who caught even so much as a glimpse of him would know he was a powerful man. He was statuesque and strong, a presence to be reckoned with even in the confines of his hospital bed.
Blake strongly resembled his father, from the piercing blue eyes and jet black hair to the way they seemed to dominate the room and electrify the air around them. Wayne gave me a friendly smile, so much like Blake’s, and my lips responded automatically.
“Mr. McAllen, it’s so nice to meet you.” At least my mouth was still working fine. I was half expecting to blurt out something stupid like ‘I love you’ or ‘you are my hero.’
“Call me Wayne, please.” He extended a hand for me to shake. There were still tubes attached to his arm, but they didn’t seem to bother him. “And you are?”
“Dad, this is Aston Brier,” Blake said. “She’s our manager at the California branch.”
Wayne’s eyes lit up in surprise, the corner of his mouth twitching. “So she is. It’s very nice to meet you, young lady. I’ve heard great things about you.”
I frowned, raising one eyebrow. “You have?”
“Of course,” he nodded. “I like to keep up to date with my managers, and you, my dear, have impressed me.”
Heat flooded to my cheeks and my heart soared. This was what I had worked so hard for, to be noticed by those at the very top. I just didn’t think Wayne McAllen himself would have noticed me already. It was really a dream come true. “Thank you, sir.”
“You’ve really turned that branch around. The last numbers I saw were somewhat staggering,” he said, stealing a glance at Blake. I got the idea he knew that Blake had helped me in the last few weeks.
Given the timing that Blake showed up at my branch, I wondered if the old man had something to do with it or if it was all just coincidence. “Blake’s help has been a Godsend. I’m not sure we would have been able to do it without him.”
“Nonsense,” Wayne said insistently. “I started noticing the upswing long before he went out there. You were a bit of a wildcard in your appointment, but I’m glad you got the position. Your recommendation letters were spot on.”
Just when I thought I couldn’t get any redder, I felt like my face was on fire. I was probably glowing by now. “Thank you for the opportunity, Mr.—I mean, Wayne. I just can’t believe you noticed. I mean, I’ve heard you were a CEO who kept up to date, but I never thought you would know my name.”
I was seconds away from going all out fan girl on the poor man. He grinned, shooting a glance at his estranged wife. “Yes, well this company is my legacy. I’ve made it my business to know everything there is to know about it.”
“You’re a legend,” I told him. “Is it true you won your first award when you were only twenty-five?”
“Businessman of the Year,” Blake’s mom replied reverently. She wore a proud smile, though I still wasn’t quite sure what was going on between those two. They were holding hands and kept looking at each other, so obviously she hadn’t lied to Blake when she told him they had been talking before he fell ill.
Blake was also far more relaxed in their company than I had been expecting. He was warm toward his father and stood next to his bed as if he kept gravitating closer, but he wasn’t frigid toward his mom either.
Wayne waved off the praise. “It was a different world back then, much less competitive.”
“Nonsense,” Blake’s mom said. “You worked around the clock to win that award, if memory serves.”
“It serves,” Wayne sighed. When he looked at his wife, there was something that looked a lot like regret on his features. “I used to think that was what it was all about, but I’m afraid all work and no play made Wayne a dumb boy, if not a dull one.”
I didn’t quite understand the look they exchanged, but it seemed to be one of quiet understanding. Wayne caught my eye. “I hope your generation won’t be as obsessed as I was. Work shouldn’t become your life. You should work to make a living, instead of living for your work.”
Risking a glance at Blake, I saw he was smiling strangely at his dad. “Well, I think it’s been quite a life,” I ventured.
Wayne nodded. “It sure has, but balance is important, my dear. I probably shouldn’t be saying this to one of our managers, but you’ll remember not to work too hard, won’t you?”
I felt heat creeping into my cheeks. If Tiffany had been here, she would’ve told him I don’t know the meaning of the word balance. And she would’ve been right. It was only once I met Blake that I started allowing myself to loosen up a little, to focus on something other than work.
Immediately, I wondered if Wayne somehow knew that. I had arrived at the hospital with his son and wasn’t even in the same state as my job right now. But even the thought of telling him Blake was the reason I suddenly wanted balance in my life mortified me, so I decided to go with a slightly less embarrassing truth.
“I have a friend who gets onto me if I work too hard. She’s always dragging me to the beach after work and reminding me there’s life outside the hotel.”
Wayne grinned, shooting a look at Blake that I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to have noticed. “That’s excellent news. I always did think your generation was much smarter than mine. Not because of my sons, of course, they’re chained to their jobs.”
“Dad,” Blake groaned. I enjoyed seeing him in the role of slightly embarrassed son. It was sweet.
His father shrugged. “What? It’s true. We talked about this just a couple of weeks ago, didn’t we Blake? I told you—”
“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Blake said, reaching out to squeeze his Dad’s shoulder. “Let’s not bore Mom or Aston with all of that.”
“It’s not boring to me at all.” His mother’s eyes shone with humor. The corners of her mouth were pressed in as if she was fighting a smile. For a woman who hadn’t been around for so long, she looked positively motherly at the moment.
“I’m not bored either,” I piped up, but Blake started moving toward the door anyway.
He cocked his head, holding his hand out for me. “I’m sure, but we should get going.”
“Okay.” I smiled at both of his parents. “It was lovely to meet you both. I hope to see you again soon.”
Both of them nodded. His mom said goodbye and his dad grinned like he knew something I didn’t. “I’m sure you will, dear. Keep up the good work.”
“I will,” I said, then followed Blake out the door. He took my hand when we were out in the hall, guiding me back to the front exit. “What did you two talk about that I’m not allowed to know?”
“It was nothing, just him rambling about all my traveling and stuff.” There was probably more to it, but he would tell me when he was ready. At least, I hoped he would.
But it didn’t look like that was where his mind was at anymore. There was a determined edge in his clear blue eyes, and he looked different somehow. Taller, almost. Broader. He was walking with purpose now, instead of the relaxed gait from before.
“Where are we rushing off to?” I asked, quickening my strides to keep up with him.
“Being in there with my father and listening to him talk about the company, I realized there were some things that I had to get done sooner rather than later. I can’t put it off.” His jaw tensed and his whole body seemed coiled to spring into action.
“This has to do with your brother, doesn't it?” The changes in his body language made me sure that he was finally going to confront his brother. I didn't have the faintest idea what was said in his father's hospital room before I went in there, but there was something slightly different about Blake.
He nodded. “There are things I need to take care of before Danny does irreparable damage. The longer I put it off, the more time he has to set things in motion that might take me months to fix.”
“I understand.” There was an urgency in his tone, even more so than when he had shown me the hotel’s financials and told me we had to do something about it. I might not have
known what was going on with him right now, but I hadn’t known then either.
I knew enough about Blake to trust him, though. Whatever was going on, it was important and required his immediate attention. I wasn’t going to stand in his way. “I left my return flight open, but I think I’ll head home. Unless you want me to stay and help you with Danny?”
Shaking his head, he pulled me to his side and slung an arm over my shoulders. “I’d rather not have you witness what’s about to come between us. It’s not going to be pretty. You don’t want to get caught up in that.”
“Is there anything I can do for you before I leave?”
He chuckled and dropped a kiss on my temple. “Unfortunately, not. Well, except to make a mental note that if I ever have a son, just chuck me in the madhouse the day he is born.”
I lifted an eyebrow, wondering where that comment had come from, but I didn’t ask. The son he was referring to was obviously Danny, since it hadn’t looked to me like Blake drove his father crazy.
“I’ll just go ahead and book you a room at the institution so it will be ready whenever your baby mama falls pregnant.” I joked with him, trying to lighten the mood.
Blake chuckled again, but I could see and hear that his heart wasn’t in it. “Thank you, Aston. For being here, and for understanding.”
Suddenly, I wanted to get out of his way as soon as possible. It wasn’t that he was making me feel unwelcome or that I should leave, but I got the sense that what he had to go and do really was important. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to worry about me. I was fine. I came here to help, not hinder. I didn’t need him to baby me or to worry about me getting to the airport.
“Are you going to headquarters straight from here?”
Blake gave his head a quick shake. “No, I’ll come back to the hotel with you first. If you are set on going back to California today, I’ll help you get on your way, but you could always stay. Take the day to look around. I might not be around much during the next few days, but that doesn’t mean you have to cut your vacation short.”
“No, you do what you need to do. I’ll go do what I need to do. You go ahead and get on with things, you said there was no time to waste. Coming back to the hotel with me would be doing just that.”
Blake turned to me when we got to the front of the hospital, brow furrowing. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I got here just fine, don’t worry about helping me get back.”
Bringing his arms up, he looped them around my waist and held me in the circle of his arms. He gazed down at me with an expression in his eyes I hadn’t seen before. It was warm and almost—loving.
“Aston, I—” he paused, seeming at a loss for words for the first time since I met him. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I was pretty sure he was about to tell me that he loved me.
But he couldn’t say it yet. It was okay that he couldn’t say it, because I already knew.
Chapter 44
Blake
Dad was awake. Mom was apparently back in our lives. It remained to be seen how long she would stay around this time. Aston was here, then she was gone. I would be seeing her again soon, though.
Everything was different than it had been when I opened my eyes just a couple of hours ago, but nothing more so than I was now walking into our corporate headquarters as the acting CEO of the company.
I didn’t know how long Dad would be out for, but he hadn’t mentioned coming back at all. I got the distinct feeling that he was retiring for good, not just taking some time off to recover. I was sure he would still be around, and that he would never step out completely, but it felt like he’d placed the reins firmly in my hands.
They were heavy, but they felt good. It was like I could see everything more clearly now, like the world had shifted on its axis and everything had finally come into focus. I’d never even considered that I might head up the company one day.
In my mind, it had always been Danny who would end up in control. Somehow though, it felt right to be taking over from Dad, despite it never having been part of my plan to do so.
Dad and I shared a vision for the company, or more accurately, I shared Dad’s vision for it. Danny wanted to run a company, but he didn’t want it to be this one. As conceited as the thought was, I agreed with Dad about Danny not being a great leader.
He was impulsive. He’d proven it by announcing those cuts as his first official piece of business. There had been no consultation, no review of the business, just a decision to fire people based on a whim to invest money elsewhere.
I didn’t know if he’d considered how the cuts would cripple our existing business, it sure didn’t feel like it. It was a move made to prove he could do it and it was purely because it was what he wanted. A team player, my brother was not.
He took direction from Dad all these years because Dad was right about him being a good soldier. Carrying out orders, provided he could do it in the way that served him best, was what Danny did.
How much damage he’d caused in his short tenure up in Dad’s office, I didn’t yet know. What I did know was that the longer I stayed in that hospital, the more the news that Dad wanted me to take power sunk in. The responsibility wrapped itself like a cloak around my shoulders, warming me and urging me to begin wielding that power.
In the back of mind, there was a voice screaming that I had to get to headquarters. It told me that I had no idea what Danny was up to and that if I had any hope of reversing the plans he was setting in motion, I better get over there. Fast. Like immediately.
Thank God Aston understood. She didn’t even question it. She seemed to understand instinctively that something big was happening and sensed my urgency.
If it was any other girl, I had no doubt there would’ve been a fight about it. She did take a vacation to come see me, after all. I felt bad that she was cutting it short because of this, but she didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.
If anything, she seemed quite eager to get back to work after meeting Dad. She was the one woman I knew who understood my drive, even without me explaining anything to her.
When Dad brought up that conversation, we’d had so many weeks ago, I knew he was going to ask if I’d decided to settle down after all. It wasn’t a decision I was ready to make and I didn’t want to make it on the fly with Aston right there.
I wanted to be with her, but I needed to sort this out first. I couldn’t even think about our future together when I had this hanging over my head. I’d been getting antsy to get out of there already, and when Dad brought it up, I knew it was time to leave.
That conversation was one Aston and I had to have when the time was right. And it wouldn’t be right with my showdown with Danny still looming. I wouldn’t have been able to give the conversation the thought and focus it deserved.
As soon as I was done with Danny and got things back on track at the company, I was going to have to face what was happening with Aston and figure out exactly what it meant. What I knew for sure though, was that she was much more than just a passing fling.
Stepping off the elevator onto the floor where Dad, Danny and I had our offices, I pushed Aston and my thoughts from my mind. I had to get my head in the game and give everything I had to the conversation ahead of me now.
“Is he in?” I asked Norma. Her face split into a wide smile as she nodded. It made me wonder how much she knew about what was about to happen. One day, I would ask her, but that day wasn’t today.
“Thanks, Norma.” I strode past her desk and into Dad’s office where I knew Danny had set up shop. Choosing to work in Dad’s office instead of his own was yet another sign to me that he didn’t respect the chain of command and simply took what he wanted.
Danny was sitting behind Dad's desk barking orders into the phone. He had spun the chair to be facing the ocean instead of the door and didn’t notice me walking in right away.
I didn’t hesitate or wait for him to see me. Instead, I walked right over to the desk and hung up
the phone for him. Danny stopped midsentence and jumped up, pivoting to face me. “What the fuck do you think you are doing?”
“Relieving you of your duties in this office,” I told him, feeling authority surging through me as if all the hours Dad had put into this office were left behind in the form of energy he was now transferring into me.
I wasn’t on some kind of power trip though. I didn’t give a fuck about that kind of thing. Danny’s head snapped back in surprise. “What are you talking about? You have no right to march in here and end an important call. You sure as shit don't have the right to tell me I’ve been relieved as the CEO of my company.”
“Hang on.” I lifted my hand and raised three fingers, counting them down as I talked.”
“Firstly, it’s not your company. Secondly, I have every right to march into any office in this building if I damn well please, and lastly, I actually do have the right to relieve you of your duties in this office.”
Danny glared at me. “It’s official, you’ve lost your fucking mind.”
I was tempted to grab him by his collar and chuck him out of the room, letting him figure out for himself what had happened. But that just wasn’t me. I didn’t shy away from confrontation if it was necessary and I wasn’t so petty that I wouldn’t be straight with my brother. “Dad’s awake. And in case you didn’t know, Mom’s at the hospital with him.”
A deep line appeared between his eyebrows as his eyes narrowed to slits. “What’s she doing there?”
I shrugged. “You should probably go and ask her that yourself. The highlight reel is that it looks like they are getting back together and that Dad has given power of the company to me.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Danny said hotly.
“Strange, because I just left the hospital and that’s exactly what he did. He’s apparently had the papers drawn up for some time and he’ll be making it official soon,” I told him, rounding the desk and gathering up Danny’s things for him. “If you don’t mind, you should get going. I have a feeling I’m going to have a lot of work to do today.”
