First Love (Love Collection)

by Natalie Ann

  He walked to the back of the kitchen and found that empty as well. He was just ready to go toward the stairs when he caught sight of a movement in the backyard. There was his father with a baseball hat and gardening gloves on, kneeling on the grass playing with flowers, of all crazy things.

  “Dad,” Jace said, opening the door. “I thought they said you needed to rest.”

  “This is resting, Jace. They didn’t say I had to stay in bed for the rest of my life. The doctors said I needed to cut out stress. Gardening is stress free.”

  “If you say so. I’ve got much more to worry about than flowers right now.”

  “No one told you to buy those food franchises,” his father said, standing up and walking over to a little table in the shade. “Have a seat and a drink with me.”

  Jace walked over and pulled a seat out to sit next to his father and accepted the glass of ice tea. He wanted to argue over his reason for the purchase of that business from the Robinsons, but didn’t want to get into it with his father, reminding himself he was older and more mature now. He didn’t need to argue over everything, nor did he have to prove he was right.

  There was no reason to tell his father again that he wanted something of his own. That he knew he’d take over the family business one day, but thought he’d have time to put his mark on something else first.

  He was probably crazy to buy both of these franchises when he was just stepping in as the CEO after his father’s heart attack less than two years ago, but he’d expected his father to return to work a year ago after he recovered fully from his open heart surgery. He didn’t expect him to say he was retiring and handing it all over to Jace.

  Hell, he hadn’t even been living in the area at the time. He’d been in California working for a start-up company and had to leave when his father had taken ill. Then he was thrown into his father’s position and it seemed he wasn’t going anywhere at this point.

  So much for wanting to experience his own successes first.

  Here he was, thirty-five years old, and he had thousands of employees and was lucky if he knew the names of the fifty or so he came into contact with out of the hundreds in the corporate headquarters.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “Michele went to the grocery store and I told the gardener he could have the day off.” Michele was his father’s housekeeper.

  “So you decided to do Bob’s job for him today?”

  “Please. I couldn’t do a fraction of what that man does. He’s an artist.”

  Jace tried not to laugh at his father’s face when he said that. He’d always thought his father was a tough son of a bitch. At least that was how he raised Jace. But in the past year, he’d mellowed. Or maybe it was because he wasn’t working anymore that caused his father to not be so hard.

  Jace was still reserving judgment on the change in his father. It was hard to wipe away the memory of the man you loathed at different points in your life.

  “I just thought I’d stop in and check on you before I went back into the office on Monday.”

  His father sighed. “You work too hard, and now with this new venture, you’ll be working even more.”

  Jace laughed. “This from the man who worked seventy hours a week if he was lucky. Normally more.”

  His father shook his head. “That was wrong of me. I probably didn’t do right by you. I sure the hell didn’t do right by your mother and that’s why she left me so long ago.”

  He didn’t want to talk about his mother who’d left them both, or his childhood that he felt he didn’t have much of. At least not with his father. The one he had with hired staff was tumultuous at best.

  “That’s why I’m single,” he said.

  “Do me a favor, Jace.”

  “What’s that, Dad?”

  “Don’t follow in my footsteps. I’d like to think I was making up for it with you now.”

  “You are,” he said.

  It was true, he and his father had an odd relationship. They’d grown close and he probably had a better understanding and appreciation for his father now than he did when he was a kid. Guess it was right what they say about near death experiences changing people.

  But that still didn’t mean he wanted to be anything like his father or condoned what he did back in the day. How profit was the bottom line and employees were just a means to an end.

  “Then slow down and enjoy life a little.”

  “I enjoy life,” he argued.

  His father rolled his eyes. “I’m not talking about going on a date now and again or grabbing a piece of ass when you can. I’m talking about finding a partner to spend the rest of your life with.”

  Jace laughed. His father could still be crude. “That’s the last thing on my mind and absolutely nothing I’ve got time for.”

  Office Gossip

  Jace stepped off the elevator and made his way down the hall, waving at those he made eye contact with. He stopped at his assistant’s desk. “Katy, hold all my calls for the morning while I catch up. We’ll meet at one to go over what happened this week that you held off letting me know about.”

  “Will do, Jace.”

  He walked past her. Katy was younger than him, probably late twenties, early thirties. He thought she was single since she was always watching him more than she should. Kissing up and offering to do more than any other assistant he’d ever had.

  A lot of guys would jump on getting to know her better, but he had no intention of venturing into that wading pool of office gossip.

  Carol, his father’s longtime assistant, decided to retire when his father did, saying she’d only stayed on because of him. So just as Jace was finally getting the hang of things with the help of Carol, he had to find and train someone new. If Katy didn’t at least do her job well, her annoying habits of clinging would force her out the door. But he didn’t have time to hire and replace her either, so for now she’d stay.

  He’d been at his desk for almost two hours going through emails when he came across one from his CFO telling him that Sue had hired and trained a new auditor for the fast food acquisitions and put her in an office at the end of the hall.

  It was time to stretch his long legs and go meet the person he was hoping would find out why he was able to swoop in and get such a good deal for this business when he figured they’d be turning a profit rather than ready to go bankrupt.

  “Is there something I can do for you, Jace?” Katy asked when he walked past her desk. He’d caught her on her social media page scrolling but chose to ignore it. For the most part, she did good work. He wasn’t so hard that he didn’t cut the staff some slack now and again, though he’d keep it in the back of his mind.

  “I’m good. I’m just going to meet the new auditor.”

  “Oh,” Katy said, her smile huge. “I can bring you down and introduce you to her.”

  He held back his laugh. “I’ve got it covered.” Did she think he couldn’t handle talking to some new employee? Sometimes he couldn’t figure people out.

  This end of the hall was always quiet with people working away. The higher ups were located on this floor, but he carved out a few offices for his newest venture, knowing some of those high-level staff would end up here eventually, if they were lucky.

  He stopped in the doorway and saw a woman hunched over a computer, her hand going a mile a minute on a calculator and then the number pad on the keyboard, back to the calculator again. She had no clue he was standing there and decided to see how long it’d take for her to realize it.

  A few minutes went by while she scrolled through files on the computer and pieces of paper on her desk, scooted her chair to a filing cabinet for more papers, then brought a highlighter out and a red pen. He was trying not to laugh.

  When he told them to hire an auditor, this was exactly what he expected to see in terms of work performance. He didn’t expect to see someone so young.

  Shit, she was dressed nicer than him with just tan pants on and a flowery shirt.


  His father had told him to relax and enjoy life, but his father still wore a suit and tie into work until the day he had his heart attack. Jace might have owned two suits tops. Maybe three if he looked in the back of his closet.

  He was too used to the laid back vibe of Silicon Valley where people wore jeans or shorts to work on a daily basis with flip-flops, if they weren’t barefoot in the office, and often brought their dogs to work.

  His jeans and button-down shirt with dressy sneakers were his compromise. Most at his old job would ask if he had a business meeting planned, here they thought he had the day off.

  “Oh my God, you scared me.”

  Almost five minutes before she realized he was there. Good work ethic for someone so young. Maybe Katy could learn something from this one.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to do that, but you were so engrossed in your work, I didn’t want to interrupt something.”

  “Not a problem. Can I help you? Are you lost?”

  He started to smirk at her. She obviously had no clue who he was. “Lauren Towne, right?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry, I’m new and I don’t know too many people. I don’t mean to be rude, but what department are you from?” She was looking at him and then behind. “You don’t have the files?”

  “What files?” he asked.

  “Sue told me someone was bringing up a couple boxes of the receipts that I asked for. I just thought maybe that was you.”

  He walked into her office and held his hand out. “Jace Stratton. Sorry, no files with me, but when you get them and you find something, I want to be the first to know.”

  Her jaw opened and hung there for a second, then she closed it quickly and jumped up almost tripping over her own feet. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know it was you. Yes, I’m Lauren Towne. It’s nice to meet you.”

  ***

  Why hadn’t anyone told her that Jace Stratton was so young? Sue kept referring to him as Mr. Stratton and she was thinking he was really old. Not to mention Sue said Mr. Stratton was friends with Dr. Clinton.

  This guy was smoking. Not that she should be looking at his light brown eyes, dark wavy hair that was in need of a trim. Long legs that easily had him topping six foot. He didn’t look like he sat behind a desk let alone held the title of CEO.

  Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he was just a relative.

  “I can tell by the look on your face that you were probably expecting my father.”

  Guess she wasn’t very good at trying to put a poker face on. Not that she ever was.

  “No one told me. Sue keeps referring to you as Mr. Stratton and I just assumed.”

  He laughed and the sound shot heat to places in her body that hadn’t felt anything other than cold chills for way too long. The last thing she needed was to have them ignited at work or by her boss.

  “I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve told Sue to call me Jace. Most of the staff do. She can’t seem to break out of the habit and often confuses people because she calls both me and my father Mr. Stratton. But call me Jace.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Jace.” At least that explained her confusion about Sue saying Mr. Stratton knew Dr. Clinton.

  “Please, have a seat.”

  She walked back over to her desk and sat down and he sat in the chair opposite of her. “This doesn’t feel right,” she said.

  “What?”

  “You sitting on that side of the desk. Do you want to switch?”

  He laughed even louder. “No, thank you. Accounting isn’t my thing even though I was forced to take a year of it in college.”

  This was why she kept to herself most of the time. She just didn’t do well in situations like this. She was used to talking to co-workers and middle management but not someone as high up on the feeding chain as Jace. Hell, he provided the food for the feeding chain.

  “Is there something I can help you with?” she asked, hoping he didn’t take that as if she was trying to push him out.

  “No. I was reading my emails and came across the one from Skip. You’ve met my CFO, Skip, I’m assuming.”

  She’d met him. Nice guy. Reminded her of an old uncle someone might have that would fall asleep after eating too much of a holiday dinner while watching TV.

  “Yes. He’s been in here once or twice checking on things. Is there a problem?” She didn’t think she’d done anything wrong.

  “Not at all. I read Skip’s email that Sue had hired and trained you and since you’ll be working more closely with me than most people in your position, I wanted to see if you had any questions.”

  “Oh. So far I’m good. I’ve got a lot of stuff to keep me busy. I’m just lining it all up in order of priority and levels of revenue and expenses. Trying to figure out the cash flow from the actual locations to the corporate headquarters.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Because you need to establish any level of risk and you have to check all the paths that money crosses hands. It’s just more along the lines of checking boxes off that I’ve looked it over and it’s fine. I like to work from the bottom up first.”

  She was sounding like a nerd, she knew it. Oh well.

  “It sounds to me like they got me the right person for the job. I’ll let you get back to it.” He stood up and she did too. “If you don’t get your files by the end of the day, let me know and I’ll make sure they’re here first thing in the morning.”

  She didn’t expect that. “Thank you. I’m sure they’ll show up. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy if they don’t.”

  “I’m sure you do,” he said, looking around her desk. It was a mess, she knew it, but she was working. It’d be neater than a soldier during bed check before she left though. “But this is important to me and if it gets held up for any reason, I’d like to know.”

  “How should I let you know?” she asked. She liked to be told everything upfront rather than guessing. “Should I go through Sue or Katy?”

  “Nope, just shoot me an email.”

  “I can do that,” she said.

  He walked out the door and she let out a huge breath that she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. Holy cow, her new boss was hot and she’d be working with him more closely than others, he’d said. She might need to request a fan for her office soon if this continued.

  From the Bottom Up

  A few days later, Jace swiped his card to get into the building and made his way to the sixth floor. Lights were on but no one was around other than some of the maintenance staff.

  When he stepped off the elevator and made his way to his office, he noticed a light on at the end of the hall and turned that way instead.

  There was Lauren working away like she’d been at it for hours rather than just walking in. Papers were spread all over her desk and a box on the floor was open with files laid out around her chair. He’d popped his head in after she’d left yesterday and saw she meticulously put things away for the day.

  Rather than stare at her like he wanted to see if she was the same person that kept popping up in his dreams for some unknown reason, he knocked on her doorframe.

  She still jumped and he fought back the laugh. “Sorry. It seems all I do is scare you.”

  “I didn’t think anyone would be here this early,” she said, pushing her hair out of her face where it’d fallen with her sudden movement.

  “Which begs the question why you are.”

  It was barely six thirty in the morning. He’d been out of the office more than in in the past two days and was hoping to get caught up on some things before staff showed up knocking on his door.

  “I woke up thinking of something and I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I figured I might as well come in and start. Is that not okay? Do I need to work from eight to four thirty every day?”

  Sometimes she asked the funniest questions. “You’re salary, you can work as much as you want without me paying you overtime.”

  He was grinning when he said it, but she didn’t smile back. “I
wouldn’t ask for more. It’s my job and I just want to do it properly.”

  He shook his head. “I was kidding. You’re doing a great job, but that doesn’t mean you need to be here twelve hours a day.”

  She sighed. “I know. I’m really into what I’m doing and I don’t sleep much. Sometimes I wake up with an idea and I just want to get to it.”

  He wanted to ask why she didn’t sleep much but figured that might be too personal of a question.

  “So what idea did you have that caused you to get here so early? I’m almost afraid to ask how early you arrived.”

  “I’ve been here about thirty minutes.” She paused for a second, almost hesitating, like she didn’t want to answer him but finally said, “Can I put a few more things together before I tell you? I just want to make sure my calculations are correct. I’d hate to give false information.”

  He could appreciate that and wished more of his employees gathered all their facts before they presented him with something. “That works.”

  “I could have something to you before the end of the day if you really want to know. I don’t know that it’s a huge thing though.”

  “From the bottom up. I get it.”

  “You remembered I said that from the other day?”

  He remembered a lot about her. Like her long straight dark hair that she was always pushing behind her ear when she was nervous. Her brown eyes that took in everything around her before she spoke. Her neat and trimmed nails that never had polish on them.

  She wore makeup but not a lot. He was still trying to figure out her age, and wasn’t quite sure why it mattered. Young he was guessing, probably in her twenties. It’s like she was dressing and trying to look older than she may be, but it wasn’t his concern. She was doing a great job and age didn’t matter.

  He had to keep reminding himself that. That she was an employee and a new one. Not someone he should be thinking about or dreaming of, whether he could control those thoughts or not.

  “I’ll let you get back to work then. I’ll be looking for a report when you’re ready.”