by Lexi Cross
Regardless of how I felt about us, I was still happy for her that she’d managed to finally get around her father’s ridiculous demands for her to inherit the business from him. I knew it was something she really wanted. And I knew that once she started focusing on that, Jake Hall would fade into the back of her memory, right back to where I’d been for all those years before we ran into each other at the grocery store.
I was comfortable there. I didn’t need to be front and center.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Brooke
I was glad I hadn’t moved much more than my daily necessities to Jake’s mansion. It made packing to leave pretty simple. I made sure I grabbed everything from my bathroom and my closet. I treated it just like packing up at the end of a vacation. It was time to go home; the party was over.
I tried to maintain my composure even when I got to his place. I didn’t want anyone to see me break down, and I certainly didn’t want to admit that I had become attached to him in the short time we’d been back together.
Well, we weren’t exactly back together. It wasn’t like we were really picking up from where we’d left off during our senior year in high school. It was merely an arrangement. Or, it was supposed to have been an arrangement. We were letting it go. There was no arrangement anymore. I was gaining my father’s shares in the company and I was officially going to be taking his position without having to get married. Jake needed to focus on recovering from his various injuries so he could hopefully find his way back onto the field.
I packed my clothes into my suitcase. I hadn’t even taken it back to the house yet. I packed up all of my toiletries and makeup, trying the whole time to ignore the fact that I was leaving Jake all over again. I drug everything out of the house and tossed my bags into the trunk.
His house staff had disappeared into the background some time ago, while I had been staying with my pretend fiancé. I didn’t see anyone watching me from around the corner. No one asked if I needed any help. But I knew they were all there. They were watching me. They knew I was ready to leave.
I pulled my house key off my keychain and left it in the entryway, on an antique drop-leaf table just behind the front door. Putting it down felt like saying goodbye, a final goodbye. I knew it was over. It was real now.
I closed the door behind me as I walked back outside and took the steps down to the driveway. I turned at the door to my car and looked back at his expansive mansion, resembling a compound more than a single house. Jake Hall lived like he never expected the money to run out, but I was sure he had some way of managing his funds. Even with his multi-million-dollar deals as a star athlete, he had to have some way of managing his money to pay for the house and everything that went along with it.
I had heard rumors that he was involved in some sort of gambling ring or something like that. I had heard that he was getting extra money on the side through various underground connections. I hadn’t given the rumors much thought, and as I left the house for the last time, I figured I’d never know there had been any truth to them.
While I stood staring at the house and wondering what could have been, my phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it out and answered without checking to see who it was.
“Brooke.” It was Hollie, and it sounded urgent.
“Yeah, what’s going on?” I asked, pulling myself away from the failed pseudo-relationship with Jake.
“It’s your father. He’s made a counter offer to the board.”
“What kind of counter offer?” I asked, focusing back on work.
“He’s offering to buy his shares back from the company at their current value. That’s going to keep the board from being able to finalize any transfers. If they agree to his terms, that screws you out of everything you talked to them about,” she explained.
“He can’t do that, can he?” I asked.
“He can, and he is.”
I shook my head. It was all supposed to go down behind his back, but I had known something was going to go wrong when the two board members who voted in favor of my father left the room. The first thought that crossed my mind was Jake’s offer to spot me the cash to buy any shares I needed to, basically offering to finance overthrowing my father. I wasn’t ready to call him and ask for his money just yet.
“Brooke, are you okay?” Hollie asked when I was silent for a moment.
“Yeah. I’m just thinking. Do you know how much he offered?” I asked her.
“I didn’t get an exact figure. They made it pretty clear that they’re done negotiating. They’re going with your father’s offer, and they don’t seem too eager to discuss it any further,” Hollie explained.
“Well, I might just have to make them reconsider,” I told her.
“Don’t do anything rash, Brooke,” she cautioned me.
“Don’t worry, Hollie. I won’t do anything crazier than what my father is trying to do right now,” I assured her.
“What do you plan to do?”
“I’m going to call and make my own counter offer,” I told her.
She groaned on the other end. “I don’t advise it, but call me when you’re finished. Let me know how it goes,” she said. Her tone was somewhere between amused by my proposal and dreading the stunt I was about to pull.
We hung up and I climbed into my car. I pulled away from Jake’s house for the last time. I wanted to kick myself for speaking too soon and giving him good news that was blowing up in my face. Everything was blowing up in my face, but if I had been quiet about my good news just a little longer, I might have been able to keep our arrangement from crumbling.
I didn’t have time to worry about that, though. I needed to put out the fire at the company. It was time to squash their resistance.
I pulled my phone out before I made it back to the office and called up to my secretary.
“Call an emergency meeting of the board,” I told her. “Tell them that anyone who doesn’t show up not only misses their chance to vote on a motion, but they also risk losing their place on the board.” I knew I couldn’t really kick anyone off the board until after the transition period. Still, I hoped my threat would be enough.
“What about your father?” she asked.
“He’s only an honorary member. He doesn’t need to be there. So no.” Part of what was driving me was the fact that I was over the idea that my father still had a place on the board even though he had retired and turned management over to me.
I hung up the phone and waited in the parking lot while the board members showed up. After a little while, I decided that anyone who was coming had already come in. There were a few who were staying back just in defiance of my threat to have them removed from the board. Oh well, it was their loss.
I stormed into the boardroom, surprising the old men sitting around the table. They all jerked their heads around to see me as I walked over to my father’s seat.
“Gentlemen, I’m getting tired of this little game we’re playing,” I told them.
“So are we, Brooke.”
“Then let’s settle this once and for all. I am prepared to pay whatever my father has offered plus ten percent,” I told them, with no idea of how much my father was offering to pay.
“Do you even know what your father is paying us?” one of the men asked.
“I don’t care. Whatever he says he’ll pay, I’ll add ten percent to it. Every time.” I put my hands on my hips and stood my ground.
“How do you have access to that kind of money?” another asked.
“That’s really none of your business now, is it?” I snapped.
“Listen, we’re really not prepared to accept a counter offer against Mr. Scott,” another board member spoke up.
“Looks like I’ll just have to call an emergency vote,” I told them.
“You can’t make up your own rules as you go along.”
“I’m not. Acting on my father’s behalf, I can do that.” It seemed to me that my father’s board had failed to read their own by-
laws.
“We don’t have to participate,” came another response. The board members began getting up and leaving the room one at a time.
“We’ll consider your offer to put ten percent on top of your father’s offer,” the one who usually spoke said as he followed the others out of the room.
“Just a spoiled little brat,” I heard one of them say as they left.
According to the by-laws, while I had the authority to call emergency meetings and votes, I also could have called an emergency suspension of the board. I placed my hands on the table and leaned forward, sighing.
It would have been nice to have had Jake’s input right then, but I had royally fucked that up. If I had just gone along with the plan, I could have made it all work. My ambition, my greed for power, was destroying everything around me. Still, I wasn’t going to give up. I was going to come out on top, or lose everything trying. There wasn’t going to be any in between for me. I was going to go all the way with this, one way or the other.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I put it on the table. It was my father. I didn’t want to answer. If I didn’t answer, he couldn’t say what he was going to say or do what he was going to do. I left it until the call went to voicemail.
He called again. I silenced my phone and slid it back into my pocket. Part of me wanted to stay in the office until the board contacted me with an answer. Another part of me wanted to head home so I could avoid my father’s wrath as much as possible. I had a car to unpack while I waited for the outcome of our little game.
I decided that was what I was going to do. I was going to unpack the car and wait to hear from the board or anyone else associated with the company. I was going to take ownership of the failed arrangement I had made with Jake. It had just been a business proposition, but it felt like a real relationship had crumbled, again. It felt like we had missed another great opportunity to try to make things work between us. I was going to go home and clean that mess up while I waited to see how the rest of my messes worked themselves out.
I marched out of the boardroom with my head held high. I wanted to look like I had been successful, or like I was at least confident that I would be in the end. I didn’t want to look like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. I wanted to look like I had it all under control, even though I felt like I had absolutely nothing under control.
I hopped in my car, loaded down with my personal effects, and I drove over to my house. I called Hollie on the way to let her know how things were going.
“I’m on the way back to the house,” I told her.
“Jake’s?”
“Oh! No, mine,” I told her, realizing I hadn’t told her what all was going on.
“Whoa, what’s going on, Brooke?” she asked.
“Everything seems to be falling apart. I might be losing the fight with my father over the company, and Jake has literally sent me packing,” I explained.
“You’ve got all of your stuff in the car right now?” she asked.
“Well, everything I took over to Jake’s.”
“Damn, Brooke, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It was just a business arrangement anyway, an agreement to help each other out,” I told her, trying to convince myself. I had to choke back the tears. Hollie was my best friend, but I wasn’t going to let her see me break down.
It hadn’t happened yet, and I wasn't going to let it happen. I was determined to keep it together.
“I know you better than that, Brooke, but when you want to talk, I’ll be here,” she said.
“Thanks. Right now I’m going to try to focus on getting my father out of the way. I can’t go back to the marriage arrangement, so this is all I have left,” I told her.
“I bet you’ve got more left than you realize, Brooke.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and ended the call. My emotions were too close to the surface, and it was not time to let them out.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jake
“Looking good,” my trainer said as I walked along the treadmill.
“Yeah, right.” I shook my head. I couldn’t believe I was getting praised for walking on a treadmill! I was the team’s star receiver. I had literally carried us to more victories than I could count. And yet I was being trained on how to walk again because the injuries from my accident were severe enough to make healing a difficult process.
I had taken all of my speed and agility for granted, and I was paying the ultimate price for it. The unthinkable was happening. I was probably never going to play again. I was being forced to face that fact.
However, I was supposed to consider myself lucky that nothing had been broken. I had a lot of bruises, scrapes, and torn, pulled, twisted muscles. I had herniated discs in my back and damaged cartilage in both knees. In fact, my first session of physical therapy was just geared towards helping the doctors and trainers assess just how bad things were.
Movement was sheer agony, but I wasn’t going to let them know that. I was going to grin and bear it, and push my body just like I always had. I was mad at myself for getting wrapped up in so much nonsense outside of the game. I had lost focus, but nothing brought it back like the shooting pain in my back with every step.
“How are you hanging in there?” my trainer asked. He stood in his workout clothes with a clipboard in his arm. He was thin and muscular, in perfect shape and health. I hated him at that moment.
“I’ve got this,” I told him, panting against the pain.
“No, it doesn’t look like you do,” he said, and he reached up to hit a couple of buttons on the treadmill, bringing my walk to an end.
“Come on, Steve, let me finish,” I urged him.
“Jake, look, there’s no benefit right now to pushing yourself the way you would on the practice field.”
“Yeah, but if I don’t push, how am I supposed to improve?” I shot back.
“No dice, man. Your body is in a sad state right now, and it’s not going to heal faster just because you want it to. Now, it’s going to be slow at first, man, but don’t try to make your injuries worse. Maybe with some of your muscle injuries, you can push a little harder and get results, but with these bone injuries, that’s just going to make it worse. Trust me on this. It’s my job.”
I looked at him and felt the shit-eating grin spread across my face. He’d just walked himself into my territory.
“No, you sit in here at this facility every day and you deal with health insurance claims. You deal with people who have to get up off their couches or step away from their desks for the first time in forever, and because their bodies aren’t used to the abuse and exertion in the first place, you have to hold their hands,” I said.
“I work with athletes, too, Jake. I’ve worked with college and NFL teams. I’ve worked with the NCAA. I’ve helped basketball players get back on the court. I am a trained and certified professional. Helping guys like you is what I do,” Steve snapped at me.
“I want our trainers and doctors from the team,” I demanded.
“Who do you think put you in my hands? Your training facility isn’t equipped for the PT you need, and your trainers have other players to tend to every day. So, to put it nicely, you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not,” he replied.
“And not so nicely?” I asked.
“You’re shit out of luck, cupcake. Now, you’re done for today. Think you could handle a few more stretches before I send you back up to your room?”
I thought about it, taking into account how much I was hurting and what all he had just said to me. I wanted to be a man and tell him I could, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew I wasn’t there yet.
“No, I think I’m finished for the day,” I told him, shaking my head.
“Hey, you did a good job today. I know you’re used to expecting more from yourself, but be patient with your body. It’s been through a lot.” He patted me on the back. “See you tomorrow?”
“I guess so,” I told him as a nurse met m
e at the door to the PT facility to walk me back up to my room in the hospital.
“Alright, that’s the spirit,” he said, encouraging me further.
“You have a visitor waiting on you,” my nurse told me as we walked along the hallway. It was the same brown-eyed nurse from when I woke up. I had learned her name was Lisa, and it seemed like she never went home.
“Who is it this time?” I asked without even attempting to hide my exasperation.
“It’s a Mr. Clark. Does that ring a bell?” she asked.
I groaned. “That’s the team’s new owner.” I ran my hand down my face. On one hand, I was impressed that I was finally going to get to meet the new owner. On the other, I didn’t want to face him after everything that had happened.
