by K. A. Linde
It’d probably helped that Austin left Saturday morning with no explanation. Jensen had been pissed that Austin disappeared with his truck, but all the Wrights had been tight-lipped about his reasoning. Even Heidi had just shrugged it off.
I’d given him the chance to explain himself on Friday night. It wasn’t my fault if all he’d wanted was a distraction I wasn’t willing to give.
Whatever had happened, it didn’t matter to me. I’d had a better time without him there. Or at least…I thought so.
I didn’t have much time to think of it the rest of the week. With an extra day off for the holiday, I was swamped at work. To be honest, I was always swamped at work. Being the head of HR for a company as large as Wright Construction meant that things never slowed down. Not ever.
“Did you get the memo that was just sent over?” Heidi asked, popping her head into my office.
“Uh…” I pulled up my inbox and clicked the refresh button. “I don’t have anything.”
Heidi huffed and plopped down into the seat in front of my desk. “It should be there.”
Heidi was a lead civil engineer for the company. The first woman ever in that position here at Wright. How she still had time to come harass me when she had so much work to do was beyond me. Not that I minded. We worked on the same floor, which was how we had become such good friends.
I refreshed again, and there it was. I clicked the latest email that had hit my inbox. My eyes scanned the document.
“Meeting upstairs for the whole company at three o’clock? Attendance mandatory for all staff?” I asked, my brows knitting together. This was the kind of memo that I was supposed to send. I didn’t know what the fuck was so important that I wasn’t even informed about it in the first place. “What’s this about?”
“It’s super exciting. I can’t believe I was able to hold in this secret all week.”
“You didn’t even share it with me,” I said with mock offense.
“I know. I’m legit the worst.”
“Indeed. If you’re not going to tell me, get the hell out of my office.”
Heidi laughed and stood. “Are you still on for the First Friday Art Trail tonight?”
I nodded. “It sounds awesome. How have I never been before?”
“You lack culture. That’s obvious.”
“That’s clearly it.” I rolled my eyes and pointed my finger at the door. “Out, Martin.”
She held her hands up in surrender. “All right, but meet me for the meeting.”
“Done.”
I grinned at her retreating back. Heidi, like everyone else in my life, save for Austin, had no idea that I had an artistic bone in my body. They probably should have guessed it from the artist’s flavor I put into my tats and makeup and, God, the incredible things my hairstylist, Lisa, did with my red mane. But art was a secret I kept close to my heart. My charcoals were for healing purposes only. I no longer used them to bring myself joy, like I once had. Too much had changed in my life. And they held too many memories of the old Julia that it hurt to pull them out.
But I was dying to see the Art Trail. I had a minor in art and a healthy appreciation for all artistic endeavors. As long as it wasn’t my own art.
The rest of the day flew by as I had a dozen one-on-one meetings to help people with various functions of their jobs—from new training to various coaching methods to disciplining troublemakers to hearing and resolving the latest fight on the job. Every day was a new challenge.
I packed up right before the meeting and met Heidi outside of my office. She was bouncing around, as if she were on a pogo stick. I had no idea what this new announcement could be or why she was so freaking excited. But she wouldn’t explain, and I silently followed the rest of the company upstairs.
The top floor of Wright Construction was an incredible restaurant with a panoramic view of the skyline, overlooking the Texas Tech campus. It was used for the annual Christmas party among other events and apparently had closed down from lunch early so that all of the Wright employees could have this meeting. I didn’t know why they wanted to get everyone in one room instead of sending the reason for the meeting in the email. Would have saved everyone a lot of time.
I surveyed the crowded room and snagged on Austin, as if I had a radar for him. He must have felt my eyes on him because he shifted and glanced over at me. I blushed. Shit. I’d been caught. He smirked and nodded his head, signaling for me to come over toward him. I bit my lip and then averted my gaze. Austin was bad news. Why can’t my brain grasp that?
“So…you and Austin?” Heidi asked with a pointed cough in my direction.
“No.”
“Are we going to go stand with him and Patrick?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Trevor could see,” I said lamely.
“And so what? You broke up, and you’re not interested in Austin. Right?”
I grumbled under my breath. Wow, I’d backed myself into a corner.
“Heidi, no,” I whispered as she tried to drag me across the room.
I tried to put up a resistance to her, but Heidi was the kind of girl who always got her way. I had no idea why she was trying to push us together, but even if I still found him hot as sin, I wasn’t interested in him. I wasn’t. Seriously.
Heidi wove us through the crowd to where Austin and Patrick were standing near the front of the room. Austin arched an eyebrow at my approach. Patrick was grinning like a fool.
“Babes,” Patrick said.
“Hey,” I said, shifting from Patrick to Austin on instinct.
He had on a suit. A black suit with a white button-up and a pink tie. He looked sharp as fuck and made me feel like a total sucker.
His eyes swept over my knee-length black skirt and V-cut blouse. I was showing off cleavage today—well, more like every day if I wasn’t wearing a turtleneck—and he appreciated it. In fact, he came away looking thirsty.
“Jules,” he said with a head nod.
I silently scolded him, and he only smiled broader. I swore he called me that just to irritate me.
“You’re looking good today, Julia,” Patrick said with his own grin.
Austin shot him a look of anger, which only made Patrick laugh. I wondered if Austin had told Patrick about what I’d said.
“Thank you,” I said to him.
Heidi held her hands out. “Anyone going to say how nice I look?”
“Uh, Landon?” Patrick asked. “Last time I told him you were hot, he threw me into someone else’s truck. I’ll stay on his good side.”
“He did what?” Heidi cried.
Austin laughed. “I don’t think that was actually what happened. Or at least…you said something worse.”
“What the hell? He never told me that!”
“I bet he didn’t,” Patrick said. “Y’all weren’t dating yet.”
Heidi moved over to Patrick’s side and started grilling him on everything that Landon had said and done in that conversation last year. That meant, Austin and I were somehow alone together even though we were in the middle of a roomful of people.
“So…do you know what this meeting is about?” I asked. “Heidi wouldn’t say.”
His eyes went distant and unfocused, as if he were very far away. “Yeah.”
“Not good?”
“No. I mean, yes. It’s a good thing. Smart decision.”
“But you don’t like it?”
“Do you care?” he asked.
“Just making conversation,” I said defensively. “Why do you always have to make it an argument?”
He shrugged. “I like the way it makes you flush all over.”
I shivered at the intensity in his eyes but refused to look away. I was sure he’d said it in an attempt to disarm me. And it’d worked, but I couldn’t show that. I had to remain stoic and unaffected by him. Otherwise, things would devolve quickly.
“Unless that’s what you want,” he said, taking a step toward me.
“I don’t,” I told him firmly.
He leaned forward until his lips nearly brushed against the shell of my ear. “I know every one of your tells, Jules. Say whatever you like, but I know the truth.”
I roughly jerked back. Patrick and Heidi must have noticed that things weren’t going that well because they both whipped their heads over toward us. My hands were balled into fists, and I shot him a look filled with venom. He might think he knew my tells, but he sure as fuck couldn’t tell when he’d crossed the line. Or he didn’t care.
“Oh, look, Jensen is on the stage now,” Heidi said, placing her hand on my elbow. “Come on, Julia.”
I turned my back on Austin, still wired with energy from our brief altercation. He was the only person I’d ever met who could do that to me. Who could make me so freaking angry…yet turned on.
“Thanks so much for joining me here today,” Jensen said into the microphone. He was in a crisp suit and looked ever the part of the perfect Wright brother. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I asked you to be here today. It’s not every day that I’m letting you all out of work early on a Friday afternoon.”
The room chuckled. But I could feel the relief in it. Whenever this was all over, we would get to leave. I was pumped.
“I’ll try to keep this whole thing short. I know everyone would rather get their weekend started. So, there are three main things on the agenda. I’ll start with the good news.”
I glanced around at the rest of my coworkers. Austin had said that it was a good thing, and Heidi seemed excited, but I didn’t like change. Bad news usually meant change. I was still frustrated after the Tarman Corporation merger that had happened six months into my job here. From an HR standpoint, it had been a nightmare to deal with. I was not looking forward to something like that again.
“The good news is…we got the new Disney contract for Walt Disney World! Construction starts next summer, so we have our work cut out for us. But I know that, the last time we had a major project like this, we all knocked it out of the park. I’ll expect nothing less this time around.”
“Plus,” Heidi whispered to me, “Disney perks! I bet we’ll be able to get some discounted tickets.”
“I’ve never been,” I admitted.
Heidi’s eyes bugged out of the sockets. “You’ve never been to the most magical place on earth?”
I shrugged. “Nope.”
“Uh…we’re going to have to fix that.”
Having a friend like Heidi was a whole new experience for me. I’d never really had girlfriends before I moved to Lubbock. And what a culture shock it had been for me, coming from Ohio. It wasn’t a small town or anything, but it had the small-town vibes. The everyone-knew-everyone kind of feel. Plus, the flat, dry, dusty aspect still felt foreign to me. Maybe it always would.
“But the main reason that I brought you here was because I wanted to announce that I’m stepping down as CEO of Wright Construction,” Jensen said.
My jaw dropped. “What?”
Heidi bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.
“What is happening?” I hissed at her.
“This was a very hard decision to make, but after careful consideration, I have decided to follow my passion and move back into architecture.”
He smiled wide, and it was clear that he was excited about the change, but holy hell! What did this mean for Wright?
“And, without further ado, I would like to introduce you to your new CEO, my sister, Morgan Wright.”
The applause held a split second of hesitation, as if the room wasn’t sure what to make of this new change. I sure as hell didn’t know what to make of it. Morgan was awesome, totally amazing really. I didn’t know her that well, but she seemed to know her shit. But Jensen had run Wright Construction for nearly a decade. It was hard to believe that anyone else could take over when he was still so young.
“Thank you all so much,” Morgan said, raising her hand to silence the applause. “I’m deeply honored to move up as the CEO of this company that I have loved my entire life. I know that it will be a big change for everyone, including me. I hope to be able to fill my brother’s shoes.” She grinned. “Who am I kidding? His feet are huge.”
I laughed along with the rest of the crowd as Morgan lulled us into a sense of security. I didn’t like change, but I did like Morgan.
“My spot as the CFO will be vacant at the present time as we work with the board to find a suitable replacement. In the meantime, we’ll have an open search to try to bring in someone new and fresh to take this company into the future.”
My eyes split from Morgan’s at the news that…they hadn’t filled the CFO position. Second-in-command hadn’t gone straight down the Wright line?
I turned in my spot and found Austin’s eyes glued to Morgan, but he was distant. He’d already known about this. But…I didn’t understand. Shouldn’t Austin be next in line for this position? Landon was too busy with golf, and Sutton was raising her baby. It seemed to make perfect sense to me for them to just move Austin up.
But, when his eyes shifted to me, the realization dawned on me.
They weren’t going to give him that position.
Part of me wanted to laugh, wanted to feel good that he hadn’t gotten what he wanted. But I didn’t. I felt awful. He was a Wright after all. Even if he was kind of a fuckup.
I opened my mouth to ask all the questions floating through my head. But he shook his head and broke eye contact.
My heart sank. No wonder he’d left this weekend. It hadn’t been me. It’d been this. I was sure of it. Heidi had known. They’d all known. And none of them had gone after him. None of them had tried to stop him.
He might be an asshole, but this was harsh. I couldn’t imagine what he was going through. And I had to remind myself…it wasn’t my business. He didn’t want to confide in me. He didn’t want me to console him. He didn’t need to be fixed.
Austin Wright was broken…and I wasn’t about to try to fit the pieces back together.
Eight
Julia
“I really, really wanted to tell you,” Heidi said with a sheepish grin a few hours later.
We were at Emery and Jensen’s house before we were going to head out to the Art Trail. It was still strange that Heidi and Emery didn’t live together. I was used to showing up at their little apartment and finding them both being ridiculous. Their love affair was legendary. I was just lucky to fit in with their tight bond.
Though, at first, when Emery had come back from college, I’d felt a bit like a third wheel. Not anymore…at least not for the most part.
“It’s fine,” I muttered. “I cannot believe that Jensen is stepping down.”
“I’m so glad,” Emery said, appearing in black shorts, a black tank, and black Converse.
Sometimes, I swore, she and I had been separated at birth.
“Oh, look, you match,” Heidi singsonged, glancing between Emery and me. “I’m so shocked.”
“Okay, Barbie,” Emery said, smacking Heidi’s ass as she passed.
Emery really wasn’t far off. Heidi’s favorite color was hot pink, and she wore it all the time. Though Emery had tried to convince me that this was a step back for Heidi’s color choices…I found it hard to believe.
“Oh, do it again.” Heidi winked and bent over at the waist.
Emery laughed. “I love your face.”
“And my ass?”
“What ass?” I asked with a laugh.
“Don’t be jealous of my ass,” Heidi said.
“Oh, she’s not,” Emery said. “Julia has it all.”
“Anyway, like I was saying before I was interrupted,” Heidi said with an eye roll, “Morgan is so up for the task, and this will make Jensen happy.”
“So much happier,” Emery added.
“Right…but why don’t they have a CFO already?” I asked.
Heidi and Emery exchanged the glance. The one that said they both knew more than they were supposed to tell.
“It’s not really our place,” Emery said softly.
“It’s stupid really,” Heidi added. “They just want a broad search.”
I wanted to ask the obvious question—why not Austin? But I couldn’t seem to get the words out. Asking about Austin was like opening a can of worms.
“Okay,” I said with a shrug, like I didn’t really care. “Are we ready to go then?”
“Yep!” Heidi crooned. “We’re picking Morgan up along the way?”
“We are?” Emery asked.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I invited her to have girls’ night with us to celebrate her promotion.”
“So, we’re a foursome,” I said.
Emery raised her eyebrows at me. “Now, you’re talking.”
I laughed and followed them out to Emery’s Subaru Forester. We all jumped into the car and drove out to Morgan’s apartment complex. It was downtown and nearly walking distance to the office. A really ritzy, upscale kind of place with gates and a doorman. Heidi buzzed Morgan down and grinned when she realized that Morgan lived on the top floor. Because…of course, she did.
Morgan moved into the backseat, next to me. “Hey, Julia.”
“Morgan,” I said with a head nod.
“Thanks for inviting me, y’all,” Morgan said with a genuine smile.
I wondered if she had many girlfriends that she could do this kind of thing with. She didn’t really seem like the type. Maybe because I knew Jensen was kind of a loner, and Morgan was a smaller female version of her older brother.
But what did I know? I’d never been like this before either. Though…truth be told, it hadn’t all been my fault in the past.
“We’re super glad to have you with us,” Heidi said. “Now, let’s go hit up food trucks and wine.”
“Wine!” Emery cheered.
“Is there actually art to look at?” I asked.
Morgan cocked an eyebrow at me. “Have you never been to a First Friday Art Trail?”
