7. Nova #2
I sat through the rest of the meeting in a tight, angry blur as Rick had everyone go around the room for introductions.
Beside me, Sofia looked like she was trying to blend entirely into the drywall, holding her folder against her chest like body armor after some disastrous elevator encounter she’d apparently had earlier.
I hadn’t gotten all the details, but I was willing to wager the man she’d accosted was none other than Rick.
The looks they kept sharing told the entire story, at least to me, since I knew them both so well.
I chuckled inside a little. How many years had I been trying to get the two to meet? Hell, since we were thirteen?
They may not know it, but I had always thought they would be perfect for one another.
But after the last time I’d tried to set Sofia up, which had ended disastrously, I promised her I wouldn’t meddle in her love life ever again.
Just as long as she didn’t meddle in mine.
After all, she knew exactly how I felt about Jax. Had always known.
When it was her turn to talk, she introduced herself as a junior marketing associate handling digital strategy, and Rick gave her a look that was entirely too calculating. I hid my smile.
Then it was my turn, and Rick winked at me as if the last five years since we’d seen one another had only been five minutes.
My worry for James was set aside as I focused back on my work after a very brief one-on-one meeting with Rick, who explained just why Jax had flown back to Vegas without me.
As far as explanations went, it was very shady and reminded me of the time the three brothers had convinced me that they were all adopted, just like I was.
None of them could keep their stories straight.
When Jax finally flew back into town on Wednesday afternoon, I expected him to be out for blood over the sudden shift in power. Instead, when I saw him walk down the executive corridor, he just looked defeated. He seemed entirely okay with Rick taking his spot as head of GSM.
But I knew him. Beneath that stoic, protective armor that he wore so well, I could see the rigid line of his shoulders and the dangerous tension in his jaw.
He was deeply upset about something. Was it something that had happened back in Vegas?
Or was this about his father’s health? He and Rick got along great, but there could be some turmoil about Jax not being chosen to take over.
There was a heavy dark cloud hanging over him, and he wasn’t sharing it with anyone. Least of all me.
By Wednesday afternoon, I couldn’t take the silence between us any longer.
I waited until the administrative assistants went on their lunch breaks, leaving the executive wing quiet, before marching down the hallway. I didn’t even bother knocking on his door. I turned the handle and stepped inside, then shut the door firmly behind me.
Jax was sitting behind his desk, a mountain of marketing proofs set out in front of him. He looked exhausted. Dark circles shadowed his blue eyes, and his hair was slightly disheveled, like he’d been running his fingers through it all day.
He looked up, freezing the second he saw me standing there. “Nova. I’m right in the middle of—”
“I don’t care right now, Jax,” I said, walking right up to his desk and leaning my hands flat on the polished wood, forcing him to look at me.
“You ghosted me for four days and then vanished back to Vegas without a word. You didn’t say a syllable when your dad handed the keys of the company to your brother, and you look like you’re carrying the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. Talk to me. Please.”
Jax closed his eyes for a brief second, letting out a long, ragged breath.
When he opened them, the defensive wall cracked just a fraction.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk, his voice dropping into that low, gravelly register that always made my pulse skip.
“Nova, I don’t care about Rick taking over.
It’s what my father wants for now. It’s… ”
The door suddenly swung open without a preliminary knock, the loud click of the latch shattering the quiet gravity of the room.
“Jax, my man, tell me you have those Q3 projections ready,” a loud, booming voice announced.
Rick strode into the office like he already owned the place.
He was wearing an aggressively expensive suit, his hair perfectly gelled, exuding the same loud, brash confidence from the Monday morning meeting.
He didn’t even seem to notice the heavy atmosphere he’d just walked into.
He stopped right next to me, offering a dismissive, charming smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Oh, sorry, did I interrupt a little briefing?” Rick asked, looking between the two of us and wiggling his eyebrows, a move he always made when seeing us alone together.
Jax’s expression instantly turned to stone, the shutter slamming down so fast it was almost dizzying. The vulnerability I’d just managed to tease out of him vanished, replaced by the cold, unyielding wall of a senior executive.
“We were just finishing up,” Jax said, his voice completely flat as he looked directly at his brother, deliberately avoiding my eyes.
Half an hour later, Sofia and I were at our favorite lunchtime spot just down the block from the office.
“He really handed you the reins?” I asked with a gasp, leaning back against the vinyl booth as Sofia finished recounting her latest update.
Everyone in the office had heard by now that Leonard had been fired by Rick on his first day, and that Rick had given the Clear Creek Brewery account to Sofia. The office’s grapevine was faster than fiber-optic internet. But seeing the manic, terrified thrill in Sofia’s eyes made it real.
“The entire thing,” Sofia said, shaking her head as she stirred her iced tea.
“I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Rick keeps giving me these hyper-focused corporate stares, and every time he looks at me, I swear he’s trying to figure out if I’m going to sabotage the job out of spite for our elevator incident. ”
I listened, nodding in all the right places and offering the standard best-friend reassurances. “You’re going to crush it. You know the demographics better than Leonard ever did.”
But inside, my mind was miles away, back in Vegas, back in Jax’s office with worry.
I looked at Sofia, the urge to spill everything pressing hard against the back of my teeth.
I desperately wanted to tell her. I wanted to confess that the safe, comfortable friend boundary between me and Jax had exploded into millions of pieces in an elevator in Vegas.
I hadn’t even told her the biggest part yet—that after the elevator, after the penthouse doors shut, we hadn’t stopped at a kiss.
We had spent the night tangled together, completely obliterating years of strict friendship rules.
We had slept together in Vegas, and it had been everything I’d ever dreamed of. And now he was pulling away. Again.
But as Sofia checked her phone, her brow furrowing over a fresh email from Rick about strategy alignment, I swallowed the words.
No. I couldn’t tell her. Not yet. Not until I actually knew where I stood.
I couldn’t drag my best friend into my messy, complicated reality when she was trying to secure the biggest break of her career.
And more importantly, I wasn’t going to talk about us behind Jax’s back until I forced him to talk to me first.
“Go,” I told her, forcing a warm smile as she started gathering her things. “Secure the brewery account. I’ll see you back at the bullpen.”
After Sofia bolted out of the diner, I sat alone, my jaw setting into a hard, determined line.
The ambush in his office today had been a bust, thanks to Rick’s flawless timing.
Jax had the company walls, the paperwork, and the family crisis to hide behind at GSM.
He could freeze up and play the role of the stoic senior executive while we were on the clock.
But he couldn’t hide forever.
I paid the bill, stood up, and checked the time on my phone.
I was done waiting for him to reply to text messages, and I was done letting him retreat behind his walls.
Tonight, I was going straight to his townhouse.
No corporate desks, no brothers interrupting, and no rules.
He was going to look me in the eye and tell me exactly what had happened in Vegas, even if I had to tear the wall down myself.