Chapter 22 Jude
TWENTY-TWO
JUDE
The sound of my phone vibrating wakes me up from a deep sleep.
I groan, pulling a pillow over my face in an effort to ignore it.
I’m trying to force myself back asleep when my phone vibrates again.
Ava.
I bolt up in bed and grab my phone, swiping to answer without even checking to see who is calling me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, throwing my legs over the side of the bed. I figured if something bad were to happen with Ava, Charlotte would just come in the room and wake me up, but maybe it’s so bad that she can’t even make it in here.
“I think I should be asking you that,” a familiar voice says from the other line. I frown before reaching to my bedside table and sliding on my glasses. I pull my phone away from my ear and check the caller ID.
It isn’t Charlotte calling me. It’s Matt, my assistant.
“What?” I ask, letting out a deep breath. Nothing’s wrong with Ava.
“I’ve been texting you all morning with questions about the acquisition of Bowden Jewelers. Your dad wants a report on his desk by Monday morning, and as far as I can tell, it’s Sunday, and you still haven’t finalized the report. Are you still planning to?”
Fuck.
I scrub a hand over my face. After everything with Ava yesterday, I’d completely forgotten about the Bowden deal.
As director of acquisitions at the Kensington Corporation, a company founded by my grandfather, I’m in charge of every acquisition we take on.
The family business started out as a luxury handbag brand that’s turned into much more.
I’m lucky enough to have been given a seat on the board.
My dad took over being the chairman and CEO of Kensington Corporation from his dad, and one day, the position will be mine, but I want to earn it the same way my father did.
Dropping the ball on what will be one of our most profitable acquisitions in the last decade isn’t the way to do that.
“Jude?” Matt prods, his voice full of confusion.
I’m lucky enough to have a team of people underneath me who do their job well.
It allows me to not work as much as I did in the beginning and have more flexibility with my life.
But this Bowden Jewelers acquisition was all my idea.
Dad didn’t know if they were worth the expensive price tag, but I talked him into it.
I can’t drop the ball now by not giving him the report he needs.
“Sorry, I’m here,” I tell Matt, my brain spinning with all the things I need to do before tomorrow morning.
“Should I have Emerson write up the report?” Matt asks.
I like that he minds his own business. He doesn’t ask why the report isn’t already done or chastises me.
As my assistant, he handles a lot for me.
He keeps me organized. I just don’t normally drop the ball in this way.
It’s not a bad idea to ask Emerson, one of the higher-ups in acquisitions, to take over the job for me.
I shake my head. “No, I can write it. Will you and Emerson just work together on pulling all the numbers and organizing it for me? Whatever information you can collect to give me the best chance at quickly writing the report would be great.”
Matt’s been my assistant for ten years. After I graduated from college and started at Kensington, my dad quickly let me interview personal assistants.
He said his assistant was the best hire of his career and to choose wisely.
It took me six months to find the perfect fit, but I’m so happy I went with Matt.
“Need anything else from me?” he asks. Even though it’s out of character for me to forget things, especially something as important as this Bowden deal, Matt doesn’t ask me what’s going on.
Eventually, I’ll tell him about Ava. Maybe he can give me advice as a dad of three girls himself. But for right now, I focus on work.
We talk for a few more minutes before hanging up the call.
The moment it ends, I let out a long groan.
The time on my phone tells me that Charlotte allowed me to sleep for almost six hours.
I can’t believe I was able to sleep that long without waking up, but I also can’t believe that I got so distracted by things with Ava that I forgot all about this Bowden deal.
I’m exhausted, and my head is all over the place.
Maybe sleeping like the dead for six hours isn’t so odd after all.
I move my glasses out of the way for a moment to rub my eyes with the heels of my hands. Despite getting six straight hours of sleep, I still feel exhausted. I could easily go back to sleep, but between work and Ava, that isn’t going to happen. I slide my glasses back on and take a deep breath.
I’m going to need an industrial-sized cup of coffee today.
I know I should probably look at my appearance in the mirror before opening my bedroom door and stepping out to the hallway, but I don’t. I miss Ava, and I want to check in on things. I don’t know if I should be nervous or relieved that Charlotte let me sleep that long.
“C’mon, sweet girl,” I hear from what I think is the living room. I haven’t made my way down the hallway yet to find out. “Give me that smile,” Charlotte continues in a high-pitched baby voice that makes me smile before even seeing her.
I stop in the opening of the hallway before leaning a shoulder against the wall. Charlotte hasn’t spotted me yet, and I want it that way. For a moment, I soak in the sight of her with Ava.
She’s moved the coffee table to the side and laid out some sort of play blanket we purchased at the store. She holds a camera up as she continues to talk to Ava in a baby voice.
I fold my arms across my chest and take in the moment.
It feels like someone’s reached inside my chest and squeezed. I can barely breathe because of the intensity of it.
An overwhelming amount of gratitude washes over me that I’m lucky enough to bear witness to this moment.
“Let me see that smile, Ava girl,” she coos, reaching down and tickling Ava’s belly. “So close!” she excitedly mutters to herself. She beams while continuing to hold the camera to her face, and I already know that I wear a matching smile.
If you’d told me a year ago that Charlotte would become one of the most important people in my life, I wouldn’t have believed you.
It was about a year ago that I met Charlotte because my best friend, Cal, hired a private chef who happened to be Charlotte’s best friend.
He’s now engaged to that chef, Lucy, and the closeness of those two meant Charlotte and I became close as a result.
We developed a fast friendship. My usual charm didn’t have any kind of effect on her.
She didn’t fawn over me the way other women did.
She told me from the very beginning that nothing would ever happen between us.
I wasn’t used to the honesty, and it drew me to her even more.
When summer ended last year and everyone left the Hamptons, I found myself coming back here more and more in the off-season just because Charlotte was here.
I don’t know what it is about her, but I’m drawn to her.
I’ve always found myself wanting to spend as much time with her as I can.
And now with this new season of my life, I can’t imagine figuring it out with anyone by my side but her.
I’m lucky to have her. And walking out this morning to catch this moment between her and Ava is just another reminder of that.
“Oh.” Charlotte lets out a sound of surprise, which pulls me out of my thoughts. I blink and focus on her, finding her staring at me, still wearing a smile. “Good morning.”
I push myself off the wall and head toward her and Ava. “You didn’t have to let me sleep that long.” I give her a smile, hoping it conveys my gratitude.
Charlotte shrugs. “You needed to sleep, and we were having fun. Weren’t we, Ava?” She looks down at Ava and tickles her belly.
Ava excitedly kicks her legs. I think I’m still too far away for Ava to see me, but I’m able to take in the pink outfit Charlotte’s changed her into. It’s one of the ones I picked out at the store, but what really catches my attention is the giant bow on her head.
“Oh my God.” I laugh, closing the distance to my daughter. I bend over and grab her from the blanket and lift her up. “That bow is as big as your head, baby girl.”
Ava gives me the biggest smile, and I swear all the exhaustion leaves my body, and my world makes sense for the first time in I don’t know how long.
“Ah!” Charlotte yells from my side. A clicking noise fills the living room as she must begin to take pictures as I stare at my daughter with a matching grin on my face.
“Did you just smile at me?” I ask, even though she can’t answer me.
It feels like my heart swells in my chest as Ava shows off her deep dimples. She lets out an excited squawking noise as she continues to smile at me, almost as if she’s excited to see me.
“I’ve been trying to get her to smile like that for thirty minutes,” Charlotte says from my side. The camera continues to make clicking noise after clicking noise as she captures another moment where my daughter completely steals my heart.