by Kaylea Cross
When his aunt pressed for details, or a name, he remained vague and told his aunt that she could drop by the next afternoon to meet her.
As she listened in on Jack’s meeting with Andrew, Jennie had a clearer understanding of why he had told his aunt such a flat-out lie.
Chapter Two
“Not good news, huh?” Jack knew from the look on Andrew’s face he didn’t have anything but bad news.
“Sorry, Jack, but John Barton’s death put a real kink in things for us. Our plan to get enough of the share holders on our side to ensure your place as CEO may not work now. John held eight percent of the shares. Mabry holds ten percent of her own. It seems that John’s shares were left to his son, Bryan. I made some calls to try to find out more about the son so we can figure out how he’ll vote, but I can’t be certain yet. It turns out that Bryan Barton went to school with Chad. What I haven’t been able to find out is whether they were friends, enemies, or indifferent,” Andrew reported. “If he votes with Mabry and she has her shares plus control of the proxy shares, they’ll have a small majority.”
Jack leaned back in his chair and let out a frustrated growl. “This is a nightmare. How is it possible that it’s all falling apart at the last minute? If we don’t have Bryan on our side, I’ll be out.” Jack frowned.
“Oh hell, I know it’s wrong to talk about a man’s death like this, but the timing couldn’t be worse. Andrew, you know it’s not the money that matters to me.” Jack was silent for a long time as he stared at the wall and tried to come up with a plan that had this ending well for him.
Andrew nodded. Jack’s family had been wealthy before Jack took over Sutton Capital and Andrew had helped Jack wisely invest his inheritance and the money he had earned over the years. He was well aware of Jack’s financial comfort. Jack had more than enough money to last him ten lifetimes, whether he worked another day in his life or not. This wasn’t about the money.
“My dad started this company from the ground up and I was proud to take over for him. I think I’ve done a damn good job expanding it, too,” Jack said, crossing his arms as if he dared Andrew or anyone else to deny the assertion.
“I know it, Jack. We all do. That’s why any of the existing board members would have voted for you. Your risky decisions pay off as if you had the Midas touch and people trust your judgment. But, Bryan Barton is a wild card. We can’t predict know what he’ll do.” Andrew shook his head. He leaned forward, his forearms resting on his thighs. He looked at his longtime friend. “I guess you’re going to have to get married, bro.”
“I’m not getting married. I happen to like my life the way it is,” Jack said. But, even as he said it, he knew on some level he was lying to himself.
Jack would kill to have what his mom and dad had when they were alive; his parents shared a love so powerful, it lasted until the day they died.
Andrew sat quietly and let Jack vent. The ability to do so was one of Andrew’s strengths – knowing when to be quiet and wait out a storm. Jack knew there really wasn’t anything Andrew could say for the moment but it helped to gripe for a few minutes.
“I’m perfectly happy living as a bachelor. I don’t know why my mom couldn’t understand that. Just because they had a great marriage doesn’t mean that’s the only way I’ll be happy, does it? Well, does it?” Yeah, it does, thought Jack, but forced that thought out of his mind. He had never met anyone that made him feel the way he knew his mother and father felt together, so he was careful not to let those hopes surface anymore.
Andrew remained silent but shook his head.
Jack knew he sounded more like a toddler than the CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation, but he had come to realize a long time ago he wasn’t cut out to have the kind of love his parents had found. Being forced to marry to save his company sent his mood into a downward spiral.
“No. Marriage isn’t the only way you’ll be happy, but that’s hardly the issue now. What do you want to do? We can gamble that your aunt won’t be able to get the swing votes she needs or we can go to Chad and ask him to step in and stop her. I think it’s time to ask Chad to get involved.” Andrew suggested.
Jack ran his hands through his hair and leaned back in his chair to think. He stayed that way for a few moments and then sat up and turned back toward Andrew before speaking.
“I don’t want to leave things up to chance but I won’t ask Chad to step in and confront his mother over this. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but I remember what my Aunt Mabry was like before her husband walked out on her. You can’t see it now because she’s so filled with hate but she was once so happy and loving. In those days I loved her as much as I loved my own mom. When my uncle left her, she cracked.
“If Chad stands up to her and sides with me, she may think he’s abandoning her too. I can’t do that to her. I know it’s crazy but I can’t.” Jack crossed to the window on the other side of his office and stared at the view of the Yale campus. His commitment to what was left of his family warred with his drive to protect his position as CEO.
“I still don’t understand why she’s focused on hurting you,” Andrew said as he shook his head.
Jack sighed. “She went after my dad, before me. When my uncle left her, she wasn’t able to lash out at him because he just took off. He left her almost all their money and Chad was an adult so custody wasn’t an issue. There was no fight she could throw her anger into. I think she needed to lash out at someone and my parents were happily married. That seemed to make her angry so she began to attack them. Now that they’re gone, she’s moved on to me.” Jack shrugged, knowing his aunt’s anger made no more sense than his need to protect her in the face of it.
“All right, but let’s walk through this. Even if she gets the board to vote you out, Chad will refuse the position of CEO, won’t he? He doesn’t want the job, right?” Andrew reasoned.
“Yes, but at that point the board’s confidence in me may waver. If my own aunt takes me out, they’ll question my ability, so even if Chad refuses the position, the board could go outside of the company for a new CEO instead of coming back to me. If that happens, the business my father built will be lost. And, even if none of that happens, if she has the proxy rights, she can make every decision into a battle. We have a great board right now with really sharp people. We work well together. She’d tear this board apart if she had those voting rights and the company could crumble given enough time.” Jack couldn’t see any way around the mess he was in. And he knew he didn’t want to ask Chad to confront his mother.
“I told Aunt Mabry I was getting married, for God’s sake. She’ll be here at three o’clock to meet my fiancé. Hell, I thought I was just buying time. I planned to tell her there was no fiancé but that she would be powerless to oust me as CEO with the votes we had behind us. Now it doesn’t look like I have those votes. There’s got to be a way to fix this.” Jack laughed at the ridiculous situation he found himself in but there was no humor behind it. Only frustration and disbelief that something like this could have happened without him getting out ahead of it.
“Well, that’s three hours from now. Let me see if I can find out more about Bryan Barton or pull some other solution out of my hat. I tried tracking down Chad earlier so I could casually mention Bryan and see if they were friends, but I haven’t been able to reach him since he left your house this morning.” Andrew said.
“Okay. Let’s work the problem. We can’t exactly call Bryan Barton and ask what his vote would be since he’s burying his father tomorrow. But, let’s try to talk to other alumni we know to see if Barton and Chad were tight in school. And, keep looking for Chad to see what you can get out of him without letting him know what’s going on.”
“Why not tell him what’s going on?”
Jack shrugged. “Why tell him if I don’t want him to solve the problem.”
“Maybe he’ll have an idea. Another way out?”
“Can’t chance that.” Jack turned back to his desk. “He’ll want
to go to his mom and I’m not ready for that.”
“I’ll let you know what I come up with. In the meantime, start running through your little black book and figure out which of your booty calls may be looking for something more permanent,” Andrew said as he strode out of the office.
“Oh man, that isn’t funny,” Jack groaned.
* * *
Jennie quickly hit the intercom button as Andrew came walking down the hallway. She ducked down and pretended to rummage for something in a drawer as he walked by. Stunned, she grabbed her purse to head out for lunch. Boy did she have a juicy story for Kelly!
Chapter Three
Kelly Bradley pulled into the parking lot of her condo complex and shut off her car. Grabbing three bags of groceries from the trunk, she headed for the stairs but went right at the top instead of toward her own condo on the left. She raised her fist and pounded. Hard.
“Mr. Anders! Mr. Anders!” Kelly called loudly through the door. “It’s Kelly. From next door.”
Kelly stopped and waited. And waited. She knew it would take Mr. Anders a little while to work his way to the door. His car was in the parking lot and he wasn’t much of a walker, so chances were, he was home.
While she waited, Kelly propped her grocery bags against the wall next to her doorway and pulled out the cookies she’d bought for her neighbor. The door behind her opened. She turned to find the slender white haired man smiling at her with a mouth that was now fairly devoid of teeth.
“Hello, dear!” The old man bellowed, but it came out more like “hewwo deah” due to the lack of teeth.
His hearing had gone long before his teeth had. They compensated by hollering at one another most of the time.
Whenever it snowed, Mr. Anders always managed to beat Kelly downstairs to the parking lot. He’d clean off his car and then do hers. He would have scraped the ice from the windows before she even made it out of bed. Since he wouldn’t stop doing it even though she insisted he didn’t need to, Kelly had taken to bringing him occasional treats as a way of saying thank you. It was summer now, but she kept the treats up year round.
“Hi, Mr. Anders!” Kelly shouted back as she handed him the box of cookies. “I got you cookies since I was at the store.”
“You got me cookies from a whore?” He yelled back with a puzzled look on his face. Kelly felt her cheeks burn red and she sputtered, trying to figure out what to say.
Within seconds, her neighbor cracked a grin. “Gotcha,” he said and slapped his leg as he laughed. “Can you come in for a cookie?”
Kelly laughed but the red spots stayed high on her cheeks as she shook her head at the incorrigible man. “Sorry, Mr. Anders. I’m meeting a friend for lunch so I’ve got to run. I’ll stop by soon, though.”
He was still laughing when he shut his door. Kelly whipped into her place, unpacked the refrigerated and frozen items in her grocery bags, and grabbed her purse. She wanted to run to the mailbox before heading to lunch. With any luck, she’d get the final few envelopes she’d been waiting for today.
Kelly crossed the lawn to the large bank of mailboxes that served the entire complex. The letters arriving today would make or break Kelly’s dream.
* * *
Kelly sat at the café table waiting for her friend Jennie to arrive. She usually loved lunches with Jennie – she always had great gossip and funny stories. Kelly could never get over how gutsy Jennie was. She was the queen of espionage when it came to getting the scoop on things. Kelly was never sure why her friend wasn’t in journalism. But Kelly couldn’t get in the mood for lunch and gossip today. With no real job prospects in sight, it was beginning to look as if her bachelor’s degree in political science was every bit as useless as people said bachelor’s degrees were nowadays. To top it off, she’d finally received the last of the results of her scholarship applications for law school.
It was hard to believe she had fulfilled her dream of being accepted into Yale Law School. But, it didn’t matter in the end because she didn’t have the money.
Kelly looked up to see Jennie coming toward the table and pasted a smile on her face for her friend. She didn’t want her bad mood to ruin their lunch and she didn’t want Jennie to feel sorry for her.
“I have juicy gossip today! You won’t believe what I overheard,” Jennie started off but slowed when she saw the look on Kelly’s face. “What’s wrong? You don’t look like…well, like you.” Jennie frowned at her friend.
“I got my acceptance letter to Yale. I got in,” Kelly said, quietly.
“What? That’s fantastic! Kelly, that’s great. Wait, I don’t get it. Why aren’t you happy about this?” Jennie asked.
“I didn’t get enough scholarship money to cover half the tuition there. I thought I had a shot at more grants but they’re getting really tight nowadays. And if I take out that much money in loans, I’ll be paying for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, Kelly, I’m so sorry. It must feel good to know you got in, though, huh? Ugh. That’s sounds so ‘hey it’s an honor just to be nominated,’ doesn’t it? I’m sorry, Kel.”
“I know,” Kelly shrugged and tried to smile but she knew it probably came off somewhat sad.
“How much money do you need?” Jennie asked hesitantly.
“Well, it costs $52,000 per year for three years. I managed to get about $22,000 per year in grants and scholarship so when I say I’m short, I mean I’m really short. Even if I defer for a year and work the whole time I’m in school, there’s no way I’ll have enough,” Kelly explained.
Jennie frowned at her friend. “I’m so sorry. I know you had your heart set on Yale, but maybe you can apply to other places? Maybe the state law school?”
Kelly raised her chin. “You’re right. I’ll apply at University of Connecticut next year and save my money until then. UConn is a really good law school, too. Top fifty. It was really stupid of me not to apply there as a backup school this year, but I’ll apply next year. It’ll be fine… So now, distract me.” Kelly pasted another bright smile on her face for Jennie. “Tell me your latest tidbit. What have your secret spy skills found today?”
In hushed tones, so no one around could hear, Jennie launched into the story of the infamous Jack Sutton’s desperate need for a wife. As Kelly listened to Jennie talk she wished she could sometimes be as brash and brave as Jennie. I mean, really, who had the guts to listen in on their boss’s conversations like that? Sounded like her boss would have to find someone. Fast. In fact, she was surprised Jennie hadn’t marched into the room and proposed to Jack right then and there – just for the fun of it.
Propose to Jennie’s boss, Jack…? What if I propose to Jack? What? Whoa! Where did that thought come from?
Sure it was a crazy idea, but why not? If she married Jack Sutton for one year, he’d get his shares, his job and his company would be secure. She’d get the money to go to Yale for three years. She and Jack would go their separate ways at the end of the year. Voila!
Oh. My. God. I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here thinking about this. Kelly shook herself and tried to get rid of that crazy idea. But the more she thought about it, the more it sounded like a good one. A reasonable idea. The kind of idea she could pull off if she took a page out of Jennie’s playbook for once.
“Is Jack nice?” Kelly suddenly interrupted Jennie.
“What?” Jennie asked. “Oh, well, yeah, I guess he’s a nice boss. Scares the hell out of most of the people he does business with. If you cross him or try to cheat him in a deal, you better look out. But, he’s actually really good to the people that work for him. It surprised me at first. I always thought he would be a real ball breaker.” Jennie leaned forward in a conspiratorial whisper.
“He has a whole division that he calls his security division and they do some security but they’re really mostly there to investigate any companies he’s going to invest in or anyone he’s negotiating with. They say he never goes into a deal blind. If you enter a deal with Jack Sutton or walk up to t
he negotiating table against him, he’ll already know what color underwear you have on that day.” Jennie prattled on, not understanding where Kelly was headed.
“Well…but I mean, is he a nice guy? Like, would you date him or would he be a total jerk?” Kelly clarified.
“Noooo, he’s not bad. He’s a really good guy,” Jennie said slowly, looking at Kelly as if she were trying to figure out what Kelly was thinking. “I’d date him… Oh my God! What are you thinking? Oh my God! Don’t answer that. I know what you’re thinking.” Jennie dropped her voice down to a stage whisper. “You’re thinking you’ll marry him!”
“It could work.” Kelly blushed. “I go in there and ask for my tuition in exchange for a year of marriage. We head to the courthouse, then a neat and easy divorce a year from now.” Kelly had always thought she would marry for love. That when it happened to her, it would be forever. But, she supposed a fake marriage would be okay as long as it had an expiration date and it was to a man she could trust, a good man. It wouldn’t stop her from finding the real thing someday and it meant that she’d be able to get her law degree.
“Besides,” Kelly said, as she continued to justify her plan, “I might as well. It’s not like I’m going to miss out on falling in love with someone else because I tie myself up with Jack Sutton for a year.”
“Kelly, don’t be silly. Of course you’ll fall in love some day. You just haven’t met the right guy yet.”
“Maybe someday, but I’ve dated some really great guys. I mean really, really great. But I’ve never felt more than ‘like’ for any of them – even when they said they were in love with me. I really don’t think love is in the cards for me and even if it is, what are the chances that during the year I take off from dating for a fake marriage, I’ll miss out on the one guy that I’m destined to fall in love with? I think the chance of that is slim. And, if it’s true love that’s meant to be, wouldn’t it somehow work out after my fake marriage?” Kelly knew how to push Jennie’s helplessly romantic buttons to win the argument.
