Chapter 9 Desmond
DESMOND
Iwas early to my meeting, along with Ellie, one of my employees from the public relations department. Earlier in the morning, she had texted me, letting me know that we needed to meet ten minutes before the rest of the team arrived to discuss some of the recent policy changes I’d made.
“A reporter from Business Today magazine contacted us recently. A Bianca Rutherford,” Ellie said, sitting down at the long table with her laptop. “She said she wanted an interview with you, our CEO, about the recent workplace relationship policy that the board set up and how that’s going.”
“Tell her she can have that interview as soon as aliens invade Earth. Anything else of importance?”
“I’m working to douse the last company fire, so I’m not telling her to go to hell,” Ellie retorted.
The last?
I raised an eyebrow at that, and she understood my implicit question.
“Where our subsidiary Gridwell Inc. had an embezzlement that they secretly tried to cover up.”
I remembered now.
I groaned and nodded. “It’s coming back to me. We had five different media companies stalk one of those employees to get the gory details from her.”
“Now, can you see how hard I’m working to get a good company image out? And to make sure we don’t repeat the last mistake?”
I exhaled. “Ellie, I don’t know what Luxe Hotels would do without you,” I said with more feeling this time.
I did value the head of PR. Which was why, even though she’d tried to leave us twice in the past year, I’d worked every angle I could to hold her back.
Including more vacation time and what I knew would work in Ellie’s case—more access to media.
She was a natural at these interviews and working with journalists, and she loved seeing the company she worked for in the news every other day.
So, if keeping Ellie with us meant that more of my employees had to be pressed into meeting with journalists, so be it.
“I assume I can give her access to Thomas? She said she’d like to interview Thomas about the recent restaurants we’ve acquired.”
I nodded. “If Thomas doesn’t mind, you can let her interview him. If you’re sure it will do no harm, then it’s fine. I trust you.”
Ellie smiled her thanks and typed on her computer.
I frowned as I went over the conversation again mentally. “What did you say the reporter’s name was?” I asked.
Ellie gave me a knowing smile. “Bianca Rutherford.”
The smile disappeared from my face. “That can’t be right.
Didn’t Bianca Rutherford recently write a nasty article about me and my dating life?
I distinctly remember being referred to as the snarky bastard who has a thing for women with red-blonde hair—which she’s totally wrong about, by the way. Are you sure you have the name right?”
Ellie gave me a smug smile. “She is a business reporter who also writes for a gossip magazine on the side. I believe it pays better than the business reporting.”
“She referred to me as ‘an entitled prick, whose good looks will be the death of him.’ ”
Ellie suppressed a grin. “She might have said that.” She hesitated. “A year ago, Bianca tried to get a job at our firm. She almost made it—until you interviewed her and decided she wasn’t a good fit for our media team. I don’t think she’s ever forgiven you for it.”
I groaned.
“Also, she suspects you knew she was dating someone from our media team and that you put a stop to hiring her because of that relationship.”
I stared. “I didn’t know that.”
Ellie gave me a small shrug. “I learned about it later too.”
The doors to the meeting room opened, and I looked up briefly before returning to my notes. Then, I looked up again, a smile taking over my face.
Ava was here. Her red-gold hair was thick and extended up to her mid-back. I swallowed and looked at Ellie, who was observing me intently.
“I need coffee,” Ellie said, getting up and walking over to the station while Ava set it up on the counter at the end of the room. “We’ve not even begun this meeting, and I can feel a headache coming already.”
Ava nodded at us briefly, her eye catching mine before she resolutely turned her head away.
Her face was bright and her cheeks pink.
As though she’d been walking for a long time in the chill early morning before getting here.
She placed the carafes of decaf and regular coffee on the counter while Ellie and I continued to speak.
For the next few minutes of the meeting, I kept my eyes off Ava.
When Ellie spoke regarding legal work and papers that needed signing, I chanced a glance at Ava.
She was bending down to pick up the stacks of sandwiches.
Her amber eyes were fixed on Ellie, her hair falling over her shoulder.
She was petite, with a graceful figure, with curves in all the right places, but her skin didn’t have that healthy glow that I remembered.
The locket still glinted on her neck. With her cargo pants and sweater, she looked more like the girl I had known back in high school than she had in our meetings before.
I frowned when that thought brought up the memory of the jerk she’d been out with.
She had refused to answer my question about whether she would be seeing him again, and I liked to believe that she had the better sense to not make that mistake again.
Before I could dwell on it, Ellie turned the projector on and asked me a question.
For the next few minutes, Ellie and I kept up a casual conversation while Ava finished setting up the sandwiches.
She was obviously not comfortable that I was her new boss.
When our glances met, she was the first to turn away.
All day today, I had wanted to text her, but couldn’t come up with an excuse to do so.
Now, I had many.
I got a call on my phone just as Ava left the room. I looked at my phone and saw, to my utter fear, that it was from my cousin. A mid-day call from him was always a reason to be nervous.
“Brody?” Ellie asked, looking up from her computer.
The woman knew me too well.
“Ten points if you can guess what this is about,” I said, getting up while she looked thoughtful for a minute, her pale skin, which was flawless, stretching out into a smile.
“Girl trouble,” she guessed just as I walked to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the end of the boardroom and dialed his number.
The phone rang on his end for a bit until I got his voice mail.
I exhaled, and keeping my voice low, I spoke into the phone, hoping my fears weren’t evident to Ellie.
“Brody, is everything okay?” I asked. “Call me ASAP.”
Perhaps I am overreacting, I thought, pocketing my phone.
Brody had suffered a few epileptic attacks in the past year but had gone through the past six months without a seizure.
Even so, when I got a call from him once it was done, I’d rush like mad to the hospital where he was at.
Nowadays, a simple missed call from him was enough to send my heart rate up.
No one at work knew about his health issues though. Like Ellie, most of them thought I overly worried about Brody’s girl troubles, and I never bothered to correct them. It had been six months since his last attack. Since he’d needed me this way.
I hung up and walked back across the room to Ellie, regret filling my expression, as I was about to postpone this meeting for the second time.
She met my gaze evenly and understood. “Leaving?” she asked in a smooth voice. I’d always thought she had a great voice. Honeyed and confident.
“Going to see Brody. I’ll ask him to say hi to Nick for you,” I said, flashing her a grin.
Nick was Brody’s bandmate, and he and Ellie had been in an on-again, off-again relationship for many months now.
“You know far too much about my dating life than is appropriate for a boss, you know,” Ellie said, her eyes lighting up as she looked at me.
“Some employees are easier to know than others,” I said, grabbing my computer and walking to the door. “I’ll let you know when I’m back, and we can continue this meeting later.”
She gave me a thumbs-up. “Tell Brody to take it easy.”
I nodded and left the boardroom. I walked out onto the carpeted corridor and made for the elevator at the end, just as another door opened behind me.
Ava stepped out, pushing the empty cart out.
I got into the elevator and held the doors open for her to wheel her cart in.
“Thank you,” she said as she got in.
“Which floor?” I asked as I pressed the button for the lobby, noticing as I did so that Ava’s voice was as delicate as ever.
“The lobby for me too,” she said, turning to me. “Is everything okay?” she asked, her expert eye on my face, reading me like she used to.
I hesitated. Ava had met Brody a few times when we were dating back in high school.
“I hope so. I need to get to Brody,” I said, wishing I didn’t have to leave so quickly.
Her eyes widened. “Is he okay?”
I turned to her in surprise, and when our eyes met, I knew that even though she had no idea about his epilepsy, she could see through my concern.
“His …” I hesitated. “His health has not been great lately.”
I was surprised at my own honesty. I hadn’t seen Ava in years, but speaking a part of the truth to her came naturally to me.
“Oh, Brody,” she muttered, and for a split second, she put her hand on mine.
The touch was warm, her hand soft, and it left me with a longing for more. She took it away in an instant and looked flustered just as I stared at the back of my hand, where goose bumps raged.
My cousin was probably in the hospital, but all I could think about was a certain woman’s touch.
The elevator jolted to a stop, and Ava swayed at the sudden movement and gripped my arm tight to keep herself upright.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, her voice shaking.
I nodded and pressed the button to reach the operator. “Jim,” I called out to our operator. “The elevator’s stuck between floors ten and eleven.”