by Lisa Suzanne
Every second I’m with her, I fall a little harder for her.
* * *
My dad is busy making his special and traditional green Christmas tree pancakes for breakfast after we’ve finished unwrapping gifts when Mark pulls me aside.
“I have one more gift for you,” he says.
“The Rolex was more than enough,” I say, holding my wrist up.
His eyes catch on it, and I spot a faraway look in them. “God, that really is a sexy fucking watch, isn’t it?”
I laugh. “Remember when women used to be sexy, not watches?”
He shrugs. “I only find one woman sexy these days, and she’s currently breastfeeding my child. Nothing hotter than that, man.”
I shake my head in awe. “I still can’t get used to the fact that not only are you married, you have a daughter. No more playing the field for this rock star.”
“That life was over the second Reese stepped into my life.”
“Despite what I did to stop it,” I say.
He presses his lips together and pats my shoulder a little harder than necessary. “While the bottle of Macallan and the awesome new dad shirt you got me are great, let’s add one more gift to the pile. Stop bringing up ancient history.”
I nod. “Done.”
“Come with me,” he says, and I follow him toward his office. He shuts the door and motions for me to sit, so I do.
He holds up a coffee cup to show me. “See what Reese gave me for Christmas?”
I read the cup. DILF: Dad I’d Like to Fuck. I give a loud laugh. “Seems perfect.”
He sets the cup down then steeples his pointer fingers in front of his mouth and folds the rest of them as he leans his elbows on his desk. It’s his standard business pose, predictable even, but I have no idea what he’s about to say. He seems to be gathering his thoughts as he eyes me, and I force myself to sit up with confidence even though I have no idea what he’s about to say.
Is he firing me?
That doesn’t even make sense. Ashmark needs me.
Except...do they? I trained Viv on my position and everything went off without a hitch when I was gone. Maybe he saw how expendable I really am.
He draws in a deep breath and exhales before he moves his fingers from their spot in front of his lips. He picks up a manila folder on the desk and hands it to me. “Merry Christmas,” he says, and he leans back in his chair as he motions for me to open the folder.
I read the words across the top of the page: Transfer of Ownership.
My eyes quickly scan through the rest of the document, but they get caught on one bolded line in particular.
I, Mark Ashton, do hereby relinquish all rights to FDB Tech Corp, Inc., and grant my entire 51% stake to Brian Fox.
A lump forms in my throat and suddenly I can’t seem to speak around it.
“I don’t want FDB, Brian,” Mark says. “I only agreed to the original forty percent as a way to help you get it off the ground, and I only forced you to roll your stake over to me because you were slowly killing it and running back to me every time you needed help out of your mess. But you’ve proven in the last couple months you’re ready to take action on your own, apart from me. You’re welcome to stay at Ashmark, so please don’t view that document as anything more than what it is. God knows you’ve made a huge impact on us in just the past few months. You can do whatever you want with this fifty-one percent. Combine it with your nine and sell it back to Jason and Becker. Go back and run the place.” He shakes his head. “I don’t care, but I’m officially washing my hands of it. Merry Christmas.”
I draw in a deep breath as I think about what I’m actually holding in my hands and what the hell I’m supposed to do with it.
What would Jason and Becker do if I just showed up one day with this document?
Do I even want to go back there?
I’m not sure, but it’s something Viv and I will have to discuss.
Viv.
Of course I’ll have to discuss it with her. I can’t just go back if it’s not what she wants, too. I can’t go if it’s not what’s best for the two of us, because we’re a unit now.
I love the idea of putting a little distance from my brother into my career. I’ve relied on him for my entire adult life, and it’s time to start living as my own man, providing for myself and for the woman I love.
I’m just not sure if that actually means going back to FDB or if it means something else entirely. Maybe starting something new with the smartest woman I know.
“Thank you,” I finally manage to say around that damn lump. I clear my throat. “And Merry Christmas to you, too.”
He stands and walks around his desk to shake my hand, but I bat his hand out of the way and give my brother a hug. In a brother’s embrace, I find my best friend—the one person in the world who has been there for me my entire life, whether or not I deserved it, whether or not I asked for it, and whether or not it felt like he was acting in my best interest. Unlike me, he usually is, and this little business transaction combined with our entire history—ancient and more recent—makes me want to be a better brother to him. He deserves it.
* * *
We’re lying in my bed at Mark’s place later that night when I finally have a quiet moment to tell Vivian about Mark’s gift to me. We haven’t had sex yet, mostly because my parents are in the room directly next to us and I can still hear their muffled voices through the wall. I’m biding my time until they fall asleep, and then I’ll pounce. Quietly, of course.
HGTV plays quietly on the huge flat screen television that appears to be floating in the middle of the wall, and Viv is engrossed in whatever Chip and Jo are fixing up. I wait until a commercial to give her my news.
“Mark gave me another gift when everyone was helping Dad make pancakes,” I begin.
She snuggles into my side and wraps an arm around my waist before she rethinks it and traces the ridges of my abdomen with her fingertip. “What was that?” she asks.
I clear my throat. “His stake in FDB.”
She pauses in her tracing and looks up at me. “What?”
I nod. “His fifty-one percent is mine. I own sixty percent of a company my friends fired me from.”
She sits up. “And you just remembered to tell me now?”
I chuckle as I sit up, too. “It seemed like a bigger conversation than having it in the middle of Christmas dinner with my entire family surrounding us.”
She nods, conceding, and then she furrows her brows and throws a hand out in the direction of the television. “You let me watch my show before telling me?”
I lift a shoulder. “You seemed really into that shiplap or whatever it’s called. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
She laughs. “You always come first.” She grabs the remote and turns off the television to prove her point. “What are you going to do?”
“Did you really just turn off Chip and Jo?”
She rolls her eyes. “It was a repeat. I’ve seen it. Spoiler alert, they fix it up and the owners love it. So what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’ve never considered shiplap because I don’t actually know what it is if I’m being completely honest, but if it’s the trend, I’d be open to looking into it.”
She smacks me in the chest. “Be serious.”
“I don’t know,” I say softly. “I think the better question is what are we going to do.”
“We?”
I nod. “Like it or not, we’re a we now. I’m serious about my future with you, and if you want to stay here in Los Angeles and that’s what’s best for us, that’s what we’ll do. If you want to run FDB with me, that’s what we’ll do. If you want to buy some spacesuits and take a ride up to the moon, I’ll make it happen.”
“Run FDB together?” she asks. “What about Jason and Becker?”
“I own sixty percent now,” I say. “I have a higher stake than the two of them combined. They were on board with it when it was my brother giving us money, so if we dec
ide to fire the two of them and take it back, it’s within our rights to do so.”
“You wouldn’t.”
I shake my head. “No, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t, but I also never thought they’d gang up on me and fire me, either. Money, business, working together...it’s hard.”
“All relationships are hard, Brian. But bring money into the equation and it’s near impossible to maintain the same friendship.” She’s pensive, and I get the sense she’s thinking about her ex. We’ve only touched on some of what tore them apart, but considering he took the house and tried to take more from her, clearly he was money-driven.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admit.
“Let me ask you this: Do you want to go back to Vegas?”
“Will you be there?” I counter.
She gazes at me for a beat before answering. “I don’t need to stay in LA. I can work from almost anywhere since I’m a consultant. Besides, I’m serious about my future with you, too, and I think it’s safe to say I’m going where you’re going.”
“But your dream to live by the beach...” I say, trailing off.
She shrugs. “Dreams change, and my dream now includes you. We can always visit the beach. Besides, we’ve wasted enough time being apart. I just want to be together.”
“Then let’s move to Vegas and run FDB together. I’ll sign thirty percent over to you.”
Her brows furrow. “You’ll what?”
“You heard me. I want you to run FDB with me. Together. Not me as your boss. Not you as my boss. Partners.”
I watch as the wheels turn in her mind and her thought process plays out in her expression. After a few beats, she nods the tiniest bit. “Yeah.” She nods a little harder and her lips tip up. “Yes. Let’s do it.”
“Yeah?” I ask.
She grins. “Yeah. I’ll run it with you, but I don’t want a full thirty percent.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“It’s the company you started with your friends. It’s not fair for me to step in and hold more of a stake than they do.”
I lean my forehead against hers. “God, I love you.”
“I love you, too. No matter what happens, we’re in it together.” She presses her lips to mine, and I notice how quiet the house is.
Everyone must be asleep, so I take the opportunity to pounce. Quietly, of course.
chapter twenty-six
Six days later is the official last day of the year. My parents and sister have returned to Chicago, and Vivian and I are excited to bring in the new year together. We’re staying at Mark’s place together in the room I’ve occupied for the past several months, but we’re moving back to Vegas next week. We haven’t found a place yet, but we also haven’t looked. Instead, we’ve been spending time with Mark, Reese, and Ashton. I’m going to miss these three—not just my brother, but Reese, who has become a good friend to both me and Viv, and the sweet baby girl who gives me hope that someday I might father children of my own with the woman I love.
I’m so caught up in the cloud of love I feel I don’t even think to make plans for New Year’s Eve. In the past, this was always the night I’d play wingman to Jason or Becker before Jill came along, and vice versa. We’d find a group of single ladies at our favorite bar, and we’d each find one begging to be kissed at midnight.
I wonder what Jason is up to tonight and whether he’ll be kissing Tess as they ring in the new year together.
I don’t miss the random hook-ups or the women I knew I’d never see again after a single night, and I don’t miss the thrill of the chase. I’m still in the honeymoon phase with my new girl.
But I do miss my friends, and as I look toward a new year and changes on the horizon, I know it won’t be long before I find myself confronting them at FDB’s headquarters in Vegas.
Those are the thoughts in my mind as I’m curled up with Vivian on the couch in the family room with a blanket, a fire blazing in the fireplace, a glass of red wine in her hand and some whiskey in mine as HGTV plays softly in front of us.
“I love New Year’s Eve,” Vivian says when the house flip show we’re watching cuts to commercial.
“Did you want to do something tonight?” I ask.
She shakes her head and snuggles into my side. “I want to stay right here, drink more wine, and low key ring in the new year.”
“Is that how you’re supposed to use the phrase low key?”
She giggles. “I don’t care. We’re old.”
“Not that old. And you’re six months younger than me.”
“You’re practically ancient.”
I chuckle. “What are you looking forward to in the next year?”
“Being with you.” She tightens her arm around me and looks up at me.
“That’s it?” I ask.
She muses on that for a minute. “I try to come up with a word or a phrase to guide me every year. I think this year it’ll be navigation.”
“Why?” I ask.
“We’re navigating this new life together. We’re co-pilots together, exploring what lies ahead.”
I already know what I want to lie ahead of us, and I think it’s on par with what she wants, too.
“What’s your word for next year?” she asks.
I think for a few beats. “I don’t know yet. I have to think about it. What was yours last year?”
She clears her throat. “Diligence.”
“Why diligence?”
“To me, that word has never just meant hard work. It means persevering with an earnest effort. When I decided on that word, I thought I needed to put the effort into my marriage, but as the year progressed, I realized I owed myself that effort. I wasn’t taking care of myself because I was trying to please other people. My father. Trent. His father. It was never about what I wanted...until I met you.”
She rests her head on me, and I kiss the top of her head. We sit in comfortable silence with those words between us for a few beats. Then I ask, “What do you love about New Year’s Eve?”
Her head’s against my chest when she speaks, so I can’t see her expression. “I just like thinking about the past year. Remembering, you know?”
“There’s a lot I’d like to forget about this year,” I murmur as I think about my friends and the company I lost yet again.
“Me, too.” She’s quiet as we both think about the things we’ve gone through this year—both together and separately. She sits up and looks me in the eye. “But in the end, there was more good than bad, don’t you think?”
I ruminate on that for a second. She got divorced this year. She ended a marriage to a man she’d been with for a decade, someone she’d known even longer than that. She made some hard decisions. She had an affair, something I still have a hard time wrapping my head around considering what I know about her. She’s loyal and honest, straight-laced and demure. Cheating just doesn’t fit who she is at her core, and I’ve finally realized she only did it because she had no other way out. She wanted out of her marriage but didn’t know how to end it. She wanted to be with me but didn’t know how to be honest about her life back home. She wanted all these things, and it culminated in this volcanic explosion of feelings between the two of us.
“The last ten days have been the best ten days of my entire life, not just this year,” I finally say.
“I absolutely agree,” she murmurs. “In fact, I’ve never been happier or more content than I am this very second.”
My heart races. I planned this differently. We’re supposed to be on a beach, warm sand between our toes as the sun sets behind us, and I’m supposed to get down on one knee and we’re supposed to toast with champagne. Maybe traditionally we should even actually be together longer than ten days, but if there’s anything our time apart taught me, it’s that I don’t have another moment to waste without committing to her. Sometimes the right moment just plows into you even if it isn’t the perfect moment. “Then let’s not ever let it end.”
Her lips tip up in a small smile. “
We won’t.”
“I’m serious, Vivian. I want to marry you. I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy. I want to make babies with you and make you laugh and call you my wife.”
“I know, Brian. I want all that too. And we’ll have it. I know we will.”
I shake my head and flip off the blanket. She’s not getting it. I’m not just talking about wanting those things. I’m actually trying to ask her.
I know what’ll convince her I’m really asking.
I kiss her before I stand, and then I say, “I’ll be right back.”
Her brows furrow in confusion, and I run to the bedroom we’ve been sharing the past few days. I grab the small black box out of the dresser drawer beneath my socks where I’ve been hiding it since I bought it the night before Christmas Eve as we went our separate ways to finish wrapping gifts.
I’m a little nervous as I rush back toward the family room. I’m not nervous she’ll say no, and I’m not nervous this is a bad idea. It’s just a few nerves that rattle around any man’s chest as they ask the single question they only plan on asking once in a lifetime. The nerves fall more to the gravity of the question, not the unease about the answer.
When I return, the show is back on and she’s taking a sip of her wine. She’s stolen the blanket completely now even though we were just sharing it, and I kneel on the floor in front of her. Her eyes widen as they land on the box in my hand, and she flips the blanket off, sets the wine glass on the end table beside her, and sits up a little straighter. She shuts off the television. “Oh my God,” she whispers.
“When I met your father, I asked him for his blessing. He said if it’s what you want, he won’t try to stop us, and I think this is something we both want. I’m serious, Vivian. I’m ready for this whenever you are. It doesn’t have to be today or tomorrow, or next week or even next year. I just want to make a commitment to our future. Will you marry me?” I flip open the box and reveal the simple princess cut ring set in a platinum band of pavé diamonds. It’s traditional and elegant, and the moment I saw it, its utter beauty seemed to match Vivian perfectly.
