Chapter 2
VAL
I called my sister Hailey as I flagged down a cab, grateful that this terrible date was over.
“Hey, sis! Where are you?” I asked when she picked up. I knew she was out with our other sister, Lori.
“Uh-oh. Date over so early?”
“Yep. Are you two still out? I can join you.”
“Right.” Hailey rattled off the address just as a cab pulled in front of me. They weren’t far away, which was a relief. Traffic in LA could be madness. I tried to push my crappy date to the back of my mind as the cabbie sped through town.
Half an hour later, I walked inside one of the many beach bars along Santa Monica, twisting my waist-long dark hair into a bun at the base of my head.
My sisters were sitting at a high bar table in one corner of the terrace. Hailey waved enthusiastically. As I approached them, I noticed three glasses of cocktails.
“What’s this?” I pointed to the third glass.
“You sounded like you needed it,” Hailey explained.
“So we thought we’d be prepared,” Lori added.
I climbed on the chair, sipping the cocktail. Yum; it was delicious.
“Spill it,” Hailey said. “The secret to getting over a bad date is to describe it in extraneous detail so we can commiserate with you.”
“Chad seemed like a nice guy,” I began. “You know, on paper. Decent job, not too bad to look at. He had no sense of humor, but hey, you can’t have it all, right?”
“Yes, you can,” Lori said with a dreamy smile. She was married to a great man.
“What happened?” Hailey asked.
“Turns out he’s an ass. Was checking out the waitress right in front of me.”
Hailey wrinkled her nose. “Ugh. You do have bad luck, sister.”
For the past two months I’d been seeing this guy, Ethan. Two weeks ago I discovered I wasn’t the only woman he was seeing. The humiliation of finding out still stung. One of the reasons I’d gone out with Chad tonight was to move on from that. The joke was on me.
“What if it’s more than bad luck? I think I must give off the wrong signal.”
I was usually a confident and optimistic person, but my recent experiences had done a number on me.
“Valentina Connor,” Hailey said carefully, “you are one of the smartest and kindest women I know, and you have great fashion sense. Don’t doubt yourself.”
She pointed to my attire—a dark green summer dress that reached my knees and brought out the green in my eyes. I’d paired it with black flats. I was tall enough even without heels. Hailey almost always wore sky-high heels.
I drank some more. “You have to say that, though. We’re related. You can’t be mean to me.”
Lori chuckled. “No, but we wouldn’t lie.”
Well, that was true. My family rarely minced words.
I could count on them to be honest. I looked at them warmly, happy I could spend the end of this evening with them.
Others needed ice cream after a bad date; I needed Hailey and Lori.
They weren’t just my sisters, they were my best friends.
We were a team, whether we were on a shopping spree or relentlessly teasing my brothers during our weekly Friday dinners.
Yeah, we had the kind of family dynamic that often made people wonder if we were grown-ups after all, but it worked for us.
“Val, what’s wrong?” Lori asked, pushing a hand through her blonde hair. “You’re usually optimistic. Is it the issue with Beauty SkinEssence?”
My stomach rolled. The second reason I’d accepted a date with Chad was because I’d been desperate to take my mind off that.
I nodded. “I have a meeting with a mediator tomorrow.”
“Val, you have nothing to worry about.” Hailey put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
I owned a cosmetic and fragrance company, Valentina’s Laboratories.
My team had developed a formula for an antiaging cream, and now one of the multinational conglomerates were claiming they’d done it first. There was no patent, and they hadn’t advertised it anywhere.
The only mention had been in a French trade magazine three months ago, but we’d been working on our formula for nine months at that point.
I was fairly certain that what Beauty SkinEssence wanted was for me to drop the line, because if we launched similar products at the same time, profits would shrink for both sides.
The company was my baby. It had taken me twelve years to grow it to the successful business it was today.
I wasn’t going to allow anyone to threaten what I’d built or smear the hard work of my team by calling us copycats.
I looked up from my cocktail to find my sisters exchanging a glance.
I suppressed a smile, certain that I knew what would follow.
“So, it looks like we have to plan an intervention,” Hailey told Lori, confirming my suspicions.
I laughed, throwing my head back. God, I seriously loved these girls. Interventions were a common thing in the Connor household. Whenever we thought one of us needed some shaking up, we’d pull one. If shit hit the fan, an ambush was needed.
I had introduced the concept of interventions at twenty-one.
After our parents died in a car crash, my twin brother Landon and I took care of our sisters and two brothers.
In that difficult time, we needed the goofing and silliness that came with interventions.
But the tradition stuck to this day. At thirty-six, I loved it as much as I had in my early twenties.
“How about I make you a deal? You wait until after my meeting with the mediator. Otherwise you might have to work on another intervention tomorrow.”
“We don’t mind,” Lori assured me. Hailey backed her up with a vigorous nod.
“Nah, we don’t have time. I should get going. I need to be up early tomorrow. The meeting is at eight o’clock.”
I’d insisted the mediator come to me so we could have that first conversation on my territory.
Despite leaving after only having one other drink, it was close to midnight when I arrived home. Alone in my house, I started fretting over the meeting again. My company wasn’t just a way of making money for me. It was who I was.
I put together my outfit for the next day, as usual.
Doing so bought me time in the morning, when I would sell pieces of my soul for a few extra minutes of sleep.
I’d taken out a fire-red pencil skirt and a black blouse with a sleeve that hung off one shoulder.
It wasn’t exactly typical office attire, but I loved it, and it was weather-appropriate for mid-September.
As a plus, it was my lucky outfit, and I was determined to turn around my luck.