Bachelor's Secret

by Emily Bishop

  The anchor leaned forward. “Such as?”

  “All inspectors will have to work together in teams of two. One inspector will follow the other and double check every mechanism that is inspected. This will mean that if one person misses something, the other will most certainly pick it up and hopefully, prevent disaster.”

  “Should that not have been done in the first place?” The anchor was doing her best to trip me up. Too bad for her, I was prepared for every eventuality.

  “Not at all,” I said. “The current regulations do not require it, and no other company implements that strict level of precaution. Perkins Enterprises will be the first. We, as a company, want to be absolutely sure to prevent any future tragedies.”

  “There are a lot of people who are saying that, as one of the largest employers in the industry, you only take from people and don’t give anything back. What do you have to say to that?” She smirked, sure that she was about to win at least one round.

  She wasn’t.

  “I’ve heard the rumors, but I don’t agree with them.”

  “Well, there’s a surprise,” she chirped, cutting me off.

  I flashed her an indulgent smile, gritting my teeth to keep from snapping at her. “Well, let me tell you why I don’t agree, may I?”

  “Of course.” She still wore a self-satisfied smirk, but I was about to wipe it off her smug face.

  “Perkins Enterprises is one of the largest employers in the industry. That is true. And that means that a lot of families depend on us. We provide some of the best market-related packages, including medical care and many other benefits that most other employers do not.”

  “Well, I think that’s open to—”

  It was my turn to interrupt her. “That can be verified by independent and objective data, which I’m sure is all that your network is interested in?” I arched an eyebrow, challenging her silently.

  She simply nodded, her eyes darting toward the production room once more. I was sure that they would be scrambling for those statistics. I’d had some of the data I’d compiled scrubbed so that it could be shared, and ensured that my people emailed it to her producer during the course of the show.

  “If you’ll ask your producer to brush up on some research, you’ll find what you need to verify what I’m telling you.”

  I waited for her to listen to whatever was coming through her earpiece, and then continued when her eyes met mine.

  “What’s more is that I’ve also started a charity to benefit not only the employees of Perkins, but the good State of Texas as a whole. It has been incorporated as The Ruth Hall Foundation for Brain Cancer Research, and I’ve personally pledged ten million dollars to it.” I sat back, having said everything that I needed to say.

  The anchor’s eyes widened in surprise, and I watched with great amusement as a multitude of emotions flitted across her previously smug features. It was almost laughable watching her trying to come up with another plan of attack on the fly. There were some anchors who might have been able to think on their feet, and I would’ve been prepared for that, too, but she one wasn’t one of them.

  “We’ll have to look into that,” she finally stammered.

  “Please do. I hope that you’ll be around for a visit as soon as everything is up and running. We would love for the foundation to get the exposure.”

  She listened in her earpiece and smiled. The producers must have whispered something good into her ear. “Do you think it’s strange for your company, an oil company, to start a charity for cancer research? Instead of, say, a fund for victims of oil-related disasters or environmental cleanup?”

  “That’s an excellent question,” I said, leaning forward. “Our company already has funds set aside to help any employees and their families when it comes to accidents or injuries. But we fund that directly. We don’t run that as a charity. We do that because it’s right. But you wanted to know why cancer?”

  She nodded. “Yes, it seems unrelated to your business.”

  “It’s very related, although not directly,” I said. “In the past, when my father ran the company, he cared more about the bottom line than about people. But what’s good for profits isn’t what’s good for everyone else.”

  “Are you saying that your father did something illegal?” she asked eagerly.

  “No, nothing illegal,” I said, shaking my head. “But when another company works closely with us for many years, they come to rely on our business. But often, my father would stop doing business with those companies overnight. And when you pull the rug out from under them like that, their businesses might have to shut down. Putting people out of work and without insurance. And when that happens, people get hurt. I want to make it clear to the world that my father’s business practices won’t be tolerated anymore, and by funding cancer research, I’m hoping to right some of my father’s past wrongs.”

  I stood then, signaling that the interview was over as far as I was concerned.

  “Thank you, Mr. Perkins,” she said, shaking my hand. Then she announced that the news would be on next.

  With one of my hurdles for the day done, I headed back to the office without a backward glance at the still-gaping anchor.

  As soon as I was back in my office, I called my assistant. “Justin, get Bart in here, would you?”

  I shrugged out of my jacket, hung it over the back of my chair, and loosened my tie. Almost immediately, I felt like I could breathe again. The suit had been feeling like a straitjacket since I’d come back to Houston.

  Minutes later, Bart strode into my office and sank into one of my visitors’ chairs without being invited to do so. “What’s up, Shane?”

  “What’s up? Aren’t you a little old for that expression, Bart?”

  He paled at my tone, shaking his head. “What can I help you with, then?” he asked, his voice tight.

  I pushed the folder I’d compiled with all the evidence against him across the desk, then leaned back in my chair. “I think that’s fairly self-explanatory.”

  Bart’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he realized what he was looking at. “Shane, I can explain.”

  “No, Bart, you can’t explain. It’s quite simple really. You’re fired.” My voice was completely devoid of emotion as I fired the man who had been at my right-hand side since I’d taken over. The man who had been groomed for the job by my father. The man who had effectively been trying to steal my company from me behind my back.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” he exploded. “I saved this goddamned company, and you think you can waltz back in here and just fire me? You’re insane. The board won’t have it.”

  I kept my cool, even though I was boiling right below the surface. “The board won’t, huh? I’ve already run it by them. Despite your lobbying, the majority remain loyal to me. And do you honestly think it was you who saved this company?”

  “It was,” he exclaimed. “It was my fucking idea that kept us from being swept away by this tide. I was one who stayed behind to take care of all this bullshit, while you were off in some hick town fucking some girl and doing nothing for the good of the company.”

  “I was doing nothing for the company? That’s what you think?” I was seconds away from erupting. “I went up there to get the papers that allowed us to stay afloat for long enough to formulate your safety plan. And I was part of every single bit of the approval process.”

  “You think that dialing into some meetings via the Internet and scanning some old paperwork is what actually saved this fucking place?” Bart gaped at me.

  “Maybe not, but it sure as hell beats sitting around, trying to look useful while betraying your boss. Your friend.” I wasn’t able to keep emotion from crawling into my voice at that accusation. Bile rose in my throat at the thought of exactly how much trust I had placed in Bart.

  “Those documents aren’t what they look like, Shane. No one knew when you were coming back. No one knew if you’d even be able to step foot in this town, for
at least the rest of the year, without being crucified and obliterating all the good work the P.R. team had done. We were just formulating a contingency plan for the next few months, until you came back.” He was pleading now.

  I stared daggers at him. I wasn’t falling for such a bullshit excuse. “Don’t you think I recognize a liar when I see one, Burrows? Fuck, man, I am one. Go pack your shit and get out. You have twenty minutes to clear the building. Security is standing by to escort you out, if need be.”

  He blanched. The vein in his temple throbbed as he clenched his fists at his sides. “You’re a heartless bastard, just like your good-for-nothing father. You know that?”

  It hit me that he was partially right. I was firing him for purely territorial reasons because he was fucking with what was mine. Bart was actually damn good at his job, and he’d done great with the new safety plan but I wasn’t about to admit any of that.

  Again, Perkins was mine. I didn’t like sharing what was mine. “I do know that, yes. Now get out of my sight.”

  Bart looked like he wanted to reach across the table and rip me limb from limb with his bare hands but his eyes flickered to the security button on my landline, and he settled for flipping me the bird instead.

  “This isn’t over, Perkins,” he threatened, storming out of my office.

  I felt like shit after Bart left. Watching him leave on the security feed on my computer didn’t leave me feeling as satisfied as I had expected it to. I honestly felt kind of drained. Empty. He had been by my side since day one and knowing that he wouldn’t be right down the hall from then on didn’t sit right with me.

  For the first time in my professional life, I was doubting the decision that I had made. On a personal level, all I wanted was to call Fiona.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Fiona

  I sat in bed and stared at my laptop screen, looking at Shane’s handsome face giving an interview. It wasn’t live. Someone had uploaded this clip, and a lot of the news websites had linked to it. The articles had explained Perkins Enterprises’ new charitable foundation but I had to see Shane announce it for myself.

  I turned up the volume as high as it would go when he brought up The Ruth Hall Foundation for Brain Cancer Research. I sat stunned at the name, and my heart pounded in my chest. Not only had he started a charity for cancer research, but he’d named it in honor of my mother.

  Tears poured down my cheeks as all this struck home. It was an amazing tribute to an amazing woman, but I never expected anything like this to happen, especially from Shane. Just when I thought I had him figured out, at least a little bit, he threw me another curve ball.

  My sobs drowned out the rest of the interview. I kept replaying the clip over and over, but every time I did, the waterworks started again, and I had to go back to the beginning.

  Finally, I was able to get through the announcement without crying but the rest of the interview surprised me just as much as the first part. Shane went on to publicly denounce his father’s business practices. My jaw dropped to the floor when he said that.

  I leaned back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, trying to process everything Shane had said. He was clearly determined to atone for the company’s past mistakes after learning what happened to my father’s business and my family.

  And he obviously cared about me. He wouldn’t make a grand gesture like this without having at least some feelings for me. But then why did the rest of his actions seem so confusing?

  He left, for crying out loud. Phone sex couldn’t exactly keep us going long-term, and the more I thought about it, the more I was starting to realize that. To add icing to the already deflating cake, he was Shane freaking Perkins.

  I’d forgiven him for lying, sure. But I harbored lingering feelings of guilt for getting to know Shane when my father hated him for who his father was.

  On that note, I decided it was time to talk to my dad. I trusted his opinion, and I wanted to get his take on what to make of the foundation.

  I called ahead but my father didn’t answer. I burst into his house like a bat out of hell and found him lounging on his sofa, watching the game.

  He looked mildly surprised to see me, carefully surveying how wild I must have looked, and he hit the mute button on the television before rising to pull me into a tight hug.

  “Sweetheart, what brings you here?”

  I buried my face in the crook of his neck and let his familiar scent comfort me. After a few deep breaths, I was still feeling amped up but I’d calmed down enough to talk. Not enough to sit down, though.

  Instead, I paced the length of my father’s living room, and he quietly waited for me to vent.

  “Did you hear about the foundation that Shane started?”

  He looked at me, a little stunned and shook his head.

  “He started a foundation for cancer research in Mom’s name,” I began. “Then he personally donated ten million dollars to it. Can you believe that?”

  To my great and everlasting surprise, he nodded but didn’t say anything just yet.

  “I have no idea what to think about this, Daddy. I mean, he’s a Perkins. His family ran you out of business, and now he’s running around, opening charities in our family name and throwing money at them?”

  It was a rhetorical question, and he clearly knew it because he let me keep venting without saying a word. He simply nodded every now and then and followed my every move with his keen eyes.

  “I’ve forgiven him for lying to us about who he was, and I’m over that. I understand why he did it now, but I still can’t get over who he is. Where would our family have been if it wasn’t for his? Would we even have been in Mystic? Would we still have been in Texas?”

  I kept on ranting. “The Perkins family completely and irrevocably altered the course of our lives. How could I get involved with one of them?” I moaned and covered my eyes with the heels of my hands, finally standing still. “Why did I get involved with him in the first place? You hate him, even if it is by association. I can’t believe that I did that to you.”

  My dad hesitated, then walked up to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, leading me to the sofa. “Sit down, baby.”

  I did as he asked, still too embarrassed and confused to sit completely still. I drummed my fingers on my thighs and bounced my right leg. “I’m so sorry, Daddy. I should never have done this to you.”

  My father dropped down to his haunches in front of me, gently taking my hands in his. “You didn’t do anything to me, Fiona.”

  “That’s not true.”

  A rueful smile played on my dad’s lips, stopping me from continuing.

  “You know, I’ve never seen you quite so passionate about anything,” he remarked, heaving himself onto his side of the sofa since I’d stopped bouncing.

  “What?” I asked. I’d been thinking that I couldn’t possibly feel more confused. I’d been wrong.

  A faraway look appeared in my father’s eyes, and they became slightly glassy. I wasn’t sure if it was from memories or from tears that were threatening to spill. “You remind me so much of your mother sometimes.”

  Tears and memories, then. It made tears jump to my eyes, too. My voice cracked with emotion. “Why are you telling me this now?”

  “When she was younger, your mother used to do the exact same thing when she was passionate about something. She would rant and rave and vent for hours on end. Watching you just now was exactly like watching her, though I never watched her do it over another man.” He winked playfully at me as he said the last sentence.

  “I’d hope so,” I breathed.

  He released a genuine chuckle, a fond smile lighting up his face as he remembered. “Yeah, I sat through her vents on just about everything else, though. It was because of her that I became passionate about sustainable energy and why I passed that passion on to you.”

  He’d never told me that. A tear escaped from the corner of my eye as he continued, “She was a hell of a woman, your mom. I loved her
with everything that I had in me. I still do.”

  I hadn’t seen my dad looking that wistful in forever, if ever. He turned his eyes back to me. “Did she ever tell you that she claimed to have known that she was going to marry me the second that she laid eyes on me?”

  I shook my head, my eyes wide as I waited for him to gather his thoughts. I hated sometimes that there was so much that I’d never learned from my mother, that so much of who she was had to be learned from my father’s memories. I was lucky that he had the memory of an elephant when it came to her.

  “She believed that something clicked into place when you met your soulmate, like the universe would pull you toward that person, no matter what, and that as soon as you met—” He snapped his fingers. “—click.”

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. “What are you saying?”

  “What I’m saying is… I wonder if Shane isn’t that person for you. The way you’re raving, it certainly looks that way.” My dad didn’t look angry or resentful. If anything, he looked at peace as he said the words I never thought that I’d hear him say.

  I could do nothing but gape at him for several long seconds. “Are you serious right now?”

  He nodded as if he was deep in thought, then met my eyes again. “I am. I think you’re in love with him. Are you?”

  I felt like someone had dunked a bucket full of icy water over my head. As if my mind was emerging from a haze, I realized that, while the idea was laughable this early in a relationship, it might just be true.

  I had no choice but to answer honestly. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, only you can answer that for sure, but I want you to know that I won’t stand in the way if that pull toward him exists for you.”

  It did. I was stunned.

  “But he’s a Perkins,” I blurted out stubbornly.

  My dad let out a low laugh. “He is, but that doesn’t change the way that you feel about him, sweetie. The heart wants what it wants.”

  “Even him?” I asked hesitantly. “What about you? And what Mr. Perkins did to you?”

  “Even him,” he replied confidently. “The truth is that what Mr. Perkins did might have been unethical under the circumstances, but he was a businessman who saw the opportunity to make more money by using cheaper suppliers in the procurement process. If he’d given us notice, it wouldn’t even have been unethical, and it would’ve had the same result.”