Chapter 6
Cole
One week later, pushing Laney out of my mind proved to be nothing more than wishful thinking. It just wasn’t my style to walk around frowning or barking commands. Half my team was looking at me warily whenever they passed me; the other half was avoiding me. I didn’t like this one bit.
Was I ruthless when necessary? Hell, yes.
But I was also the type of boss who always kept his door open and was close enough to his team to know when anyone had personal problems or wanted a new challenge. You could say I was a considerate… tyrant.
Just before I left for Rome, I’d promoted one of our employees from the operations to the finance department. Even he was avoiding me. Great. Just great.
On Thursday afternoon, Tess surprised me by visiting me at the office.
“Tess, anything wrong?” I asked the second she entered the room.
“I can’t visit my brother?”
“Of course you can. You just usually don’t come by yourself. Do you need anything? Is anything wrong with the store?”
Her store was in Soho, and my office building was on the Upper West side—not exactly on her way home.
The only other time Tess had come to see me alone was when she’d wanted to ask my opinion about quitting her job to focus full-time on the store.
She’d been at wits’ end, completely drained of energy, and had admitted that she couldn’t do both things anymore.
I’d felt oddly proud that she counted on my advice.
We’d run the numbers, and they had looked encouraging. It was a risk, but a calculated one. She’d then talked to Skye about it, and they’d both quit their jobs.
I tried now to guess what this was about, how I could be of use.
Tess sat on the chair in front of my desk, looking straight at me.
“Brother dearest, everything is fine with the store. I’m fine. I think you aren’t.”
I stared at her. “What? Why would you say that?”
“Hmm… let’s see, you were awfully quiet during the working lunch yesterday when you usually fight everyone else for airtime.”
“Maybe I was just tired, jet lagged, you know.”
She held up a finger as if saying, that’s not all.
“And I’ve been hearing worrying reports from several of your colleagues that you’ve been a bit of an… ass this week.”
I groaned, dropping my head. “If I’d known you were going to befriend every single coworker we sent to your shop, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Yes, you would, because you’re an amazing brother.”
It had been a clever idea to send business their way.
When they’d opened the store, we’d told our employees about it in a general meeting.
We’d made it clear there were no expectations, obviously, but I’d wanted to use any opportunity to pimp the girls’ business.
They’d also offered a “friend and family discount” for the occasion.
More than half of our employees checked it out, and Tess had become friends with quite a few of them.
It was just who she was. I didn’t think anyone could meet Tess and not instantly like her.
However, that also meant she found out about stuff like this.
“What did you do, interview everyone?” I joked.
“Believe it or not, I didn’t actually ask anyone about you. They just up and told me.”
I actually did believe it.
“So, let’s take it step by step so we can get to the bottom of this,” she said.
I laughed, dropping the pen, putting my own hands on the table too, mimicking my sister’s pose.
“I’m listening.”
Tess nodded, holding up a finger. “First, how long have you been like this?”
“Like you don’t know already. I’m sure your spies told you everything.”
Tess grinned. “They did… but I want to hear it from you.”
“The whole week,” I admitted. “I’ve been in a shitty mood for a week.”
Tess beamed, as if that was somehow something to be proud of.
“Yeah, you weren’t really yourself on Sunday when we saw you. So it started after you came back? Or were you grumpy in Rome too?”
“It started after I came back.”
“Is there something about the deal that is bothering you?”
“No.”
“Do you think you could have done something better?”
I shook my head, opening my mouth to tell her that this wasn’t going anywhere, but Tess held up a hand, probably guessing from my expression that I was losing my patience.
“Bear with me. We’re eliminating causes.”
“Oh, okay. I’m glad to know there is a method to this madness and you’re not just torturing me.”
Tess gasped, clutching at her chest. “I never do things just to torture you. I always want to help. Now, if some things feel like torture… growing pains, you know?”
I had no clue what she meant, but experience had taught me that listening to my sister was a good idea, even if sometimes her method was dubious.
“Yes, well, I think I have it. All signs point to you missing Laney.”
I stared at Tess, waiting for her to continue. She didn’t say anything else.
“That’s it?”
She nodded. I groaned. “I know I’m missing her, genius. I was hoping you were gonna have a solution to snap me out of it.”
“I do.”
That caught my attention. I straightened up again.
“Shoot.”
“You should contact her,” Tess said on a grin.
“That wasn’t our deal.”
“But you miss her.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe she misses you too, and you’ll never know if you don’t call. I have a golden rule: I never ignore my heart.”
I barely bit down a reply, because it wasn’t a nice one. Tess had followed her heart more times than I could count, and she’d gotten it broken just as often. That didn’t keep her from putting herself out there and going after what she wanted every time. I had no idea how she did it.
“I don’t follow that rule, Tess.”
“Maybe you should. What’s the worst thing that can happen?” She leaned back, tilting her head. “Oh, brother, you really, really like her. You’re afraid she’s going to turn you down.”
“I don’t get afraid.” That had always been my motto. I want something, I go after it. So why was I now not going after Laney?
Tess grinned. “This right here is proof that you do. Maybe she misses you too. Is she back now?”
“Her return flight was this morning. She landed at nine forty-five.” She’d told me when she was flying back right before I left.
“You memorized the flight number too?” she teased. “Brother, just call her. Even if you just had a one-night stand?—”
“We didn’t.”
“Wait a second. You’re all grumpy, and you didn’t even sleep with her?” She clapped her hands, grinning from ear to ear. “Holy shit, I think you’re ready to forsake your bachelor ways.”
I laughed, drumming my fingers on the table.
“Just putting it out there, but since she and Isabelle are best friends, we can probably invite her to some family events, accidentally bring the two of you together.” Tess was practically jittery with excitement. She’d been bursting to say this for a few minutes.
I cocked a brow. “I don’t need outside intervention.”
“Ha! You hesitated for a millisecond. That means you wouldn’t mind… too much .”
“Tess, was there anything else you needed?” I wasn’t just trying to shift the focus from me.
I genuinely wanted to know. Tess was usually forthcoming, so if she’d had something to share, she would have already done so, but it never hurt to insist. Some things she did keep quiet about, only voicing them when she was vulnerable.
“You mean that counseling my brother isn’t reason enough for me to stop by?” she batted her eyelashes.
“I guess it is.” I laughed, raising my hands in the air, but something in her expression clued me in that something was weighing on her. I wasn’t just being paranoid.
“Remember Gabriel Lyons?”
“Yeah.” He was one of the donors for the gala. I’d gone to college with him, and he’d always been a bit of a pompous prick, but when he’d shown interest in donating, I wasn’t going to say no.
“Well… he’s being a pain in the ass. Insists we have to put him as sponsor on any materials related to the event.”
“What the fuck? We don’t do that for anyone. Donations are donations. Not sponsorships.”
“I know. He knows that too and is just trying to pressure us.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Cole, dealing with existing donors is my responsibility. Yours is bringing new ones.”
I felt responsible anyway. I’d brought him on, and I wasn’t going to let Tess pick up the pieces on her own. Especially because she was shouldering a larger chunk of work at the store right now, with Skye taking it easy during her last months of pregnancy.
“Tell me if you need anything. I mean it. Whatever you need, call me. Or just stop by.”
She smiled again. “Are you sure? You were close to kicking me out earlier.”
“That’s because I thought you’d just come here to give me shit.”
My sister rose from her chair, coming over to me. She patted my cheek. “Looking out for you. That was me looking out for you, little brother.”
I rose from my chair too.
“Well, I’m off to the store. Good luck with you know what .” She clasped her hands in excitement, winking.
“Thanks.”
After she left, I actually managed to focus on work. We always had multiple projects going on, but for the upcoming months, I was going to prioritize two.
The first was the shopping center in Rome. Delimano was in charge of securing all the permits from the local administration. We were the ones raising the building.
The second project was the Centenarian. It was a project commissioned by the mayor of New York, a building smack dab in the middle of Manhattan.
They were yet to choose a real estate company to whom to hand over the project, and several competitors were interested.
There was a deadline coming up, and we had to submit a cost proposal for the mayor to review.
Hunter and I knew this one wasn’t going to be profitable, but it would bring a lot of prestige. Still, we didn’t want to take a loss on it, so I was crunching numbers to see just how much it would cost to build it.
In the afternoon, I went to Hunter’s office so we could decide on the next step for the Centenarian. “The numbers look good. As expected,” Hunter said, looking over the piece of paper I’d printed out. It contained the key figures for the project.
“I think so too. We should go for it. I think we have an excellent chance of winning it. I’ll get everyone to work on this until the deadline, and we can swing it by.”
Hunter looked up at me, then focused on the paper again.
“How was your meeting with Tess?” he asked.
I frowned. “How do you know she was here?”
Hunter shrugged, flashing me his best poker face. It didn’t fool me.
“ You called Tess?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’ve had half the team storm into my office, complaining that you’re riding their ass. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but I thought Tess might.”
He looked at me questioningly, but I just stared at him. When Tess had said she’d talked to several of my colleagues, I hadn’t realized she’d meant Hunter too.
“You’re frowning. That means I was right.”
“How do you figure that?”
He leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers on the top of his head. “Otherwise, you would’ve bragged about me being wrong.”
Damn, they knew me too well.
“Fine, Tess had a point.”
Hunter burst out laughing. “So that woman you met in Rome made quite an impression. Damn, I love this. You gave me so much shit about breaking out of the bachelor pack that I’m just happy to have the privilege of returning it.”
“Still… calling my sister?”
“Remember when you thought I was sick and called a family council so you could figure out what was happening? I just about did that too.”
The best thing about family? We were very tight-knit. The downside? Nothing slipped by them, and no one forgot anything. When you least expected it, they held it over your head.
Yeah, I’d done exactly what Hunter said. I’d actually called the council, but I hadn’t been able to figure out what had gotten into Hunter. I should have known that what goes around, comes around. That was how things always worked in my family.
“We’re moving on with the Centenarian?” I asked.
Instead of getting back to business, Hunter gave me a shit-eating grin.
“Yes. A word of advice: ignoring a problem won’t solve it. Take action.”
And didn’t I know it? Taking action was my middle name. I’d even been called hotheaded because of it. I usually didn’t weigh all the pros and cons. I followed my instincts and went after what I wanted. So that was exactly what I was going to do.