5. Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Vic
A s soon as Tanner is gone, I march directly to Spencer’s office and close the door behind me. He looks up, startled. We rarely close the doors to our offices at Blue Vista.
I take a breath. Because, now that I’m in here and no one else can see me, I’m starting to feel everything I’ve been holding in check while Tanner was here.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
I start pacing in front of his desk.
“Tanner was here,” I say. “He brought me some interesting news.”
“Is your father okay?” he asks.
I nod, but don’t say anything else, my mind racing with everything Tanner had said and suggested. I hold the paper crane carefully in one hand. Why do I even care? It’s just a stupid piece of paper.
“Vic,” Spencer says, his voice hard and sharp.
I stop pacing and look at him.
“Your nails,” he says, softer.
I look down at my hand that’s not holding the crane. I’d been about to chew on the thumbnail, a habit I’ve spent years breaking that always seems to sneak up on me in times of high stress.
“Sit,” he says. “Tell me what’s going on.”
So I do. I sit across from my best friend, the man who is closer to me than my actual brother, and I tell him everything Tanner said. When I’m done, Spencer stares at me.
He doesn’t ask if I’m insane for considering it. He doesn’t say it’s a terrible idea, though part of me is certain it is. Instead, he asks, “Are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know. It would be stupid not to, wouldn’t it? I mean, twenty-five per cent of Sterling. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but from the way it sounds, it’s as good as I’m likely to get.”
“That’s true,” he says slowly. “I’m going to ask you a few questions that I hope you consider. You don’t have to answer them now.”
I nod, biting my lip.
“Why do you want Sterling? I know you’ve always thought you were going to work there, but is that what you really want? Or is it just habit to want it? And if you get twenty-five per cent of Sterling, what happens to Blue Vista? You’re CEO here, Vic. We can’t run this business without you.”
My first instinct is to deny Spencer. I don’t want Sterling out of habit. I want it because it’s supposed to be mine. Then his last question hits me. What happens to Blue Vista?
I’d begged Spencer to help me start this business when Dad hired Tanner instead of me. I’d wanted to prove to my father—and to myself—that I could do it, I could run a successful business. And for the past seven years, I have. Not only is it successful, but it’s growing. We purchased our second location late last year at Crescent Beach in South Surrey and started taking reservations for this summer. We’d had to do some renovations, which had a couple minor setbacks and will be complete by the end of next month. Having it not available in July—the biggest month in wedding season—is not ideal, but our first wedding is scheduled for the second Saturday in August. From then to the beginning of October, it’s booked solid. We promoted our assistant, Denise, to act in Spencer’s role at the new location and hired people to take care of Adalie’s and Derek’s roles. They’ve been here, training with us for the past few weeks. Everything is going so well, I’d be a fool to give it up.
I sigh. “I don’t know. But I think I have to do this.” I meet his eyes. “I could maybe only take the shares. Not a position. Just be on the Board? Then I can stay here and still be a partial owner of Sterling. It was supposed to be mine, Spencer.”
He watches me for a long moment before nodding. “Okay. One more question. How are you going to feel being married to Tanner?”
A chill runs through me as I consider him. “What do you mean?”
He shrugs. “I’m just asking the questions. You have to decide what they mean and how to answer them.”
I stare at Spencer for a long time, wondering if he knows how much I felt for Tanner seven years ago. If anyone does, it would be him, though I never said the words out loud. Hardly even dared to think them. Now, here I am, considering marrying the man who I—
“It’ll be fine,” I say, more to myself than to Spencer. “I’m going for dinner with him tomorrow to discuss details. Will you come with me?”
Spencer rolls his eyes as though the answer should be obvious. And it is. I could have asked him, Derek, or Adalie this question and all three would come with me if I want. At this point, I could even have asked Lis, Ava, or Nate and I’m sure they would be the same. All my friends would drop whatever they’re doing to help me and I’m so grateful to have them.
Spencer seems to read my thoughts, because he says, “You need to tell Derek and Adalie what’s happening. And the significant others will be curious about why you’re suddenly getting married, so you’ll need to decide what to tell them.”
I nod, my hand coming up to my mouth before I stop the motion. I will not chew my nails.
“Maybe I can tell everyone tonight at Derek’s?” I say it like a question because the first rule of game night is no talking about business, and that’s what this marriage will be.
Spencer nods. “We can make an exception to the work rule tonight.” He smiles. “Especially since you’re giving us some pretty juicy gossip.”
I muster up a smile at that as well. Our friends love to be nosy and know everything about everyone. I’m glad he thinks it’ll be okay because then I only need to go through it once. And it’ll give me time to figure out exactly what I want to do and what I want to say.
“Are you going to tell them what happened between you and Tanner before?” Spencer asks.
When Tanner and I slept together all those years ago, Derek and Adalie were my friends, but we weren’t as close as we are now, so I never told them what happened.
I take a breath and let it out slowly. “Not tonight.”
He nods and I stand, intending to go back to my office. I turn at the door.
“You guys were going to tell everyone else about…” I trail off because I don’t want anyone to accidentally overhear me. “Won’t this kind of, I don’t know, steal your thunder or whatever?”
Spencer snorts. “I’m not worried about it. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll talk to Lis beforehand and tell her you have some news as well. If she has a problem with it, I’ll let you know.”
“I could go first. That way, your news will overshadow mine.”
He leans back in his chair. “You think a baby is going to overshadow a surprise engagement?” He seems to consider it for a moment. “It’s really a toss-up, but worth a shot.”
I return to my office, distracted all day. By the time I’m finished work for the night, everyone else is gone. It’s later than I’d intended, but I had to get a few things done, and with my distractions, they took longer than they normally would have. Instead of going home, I take an Uber to Derek’s house, where I’m the first to arrive.
Ava is in the kitchen when I walk in.
“Hey. How are you doing?” I ask, because she and Derek are getting married in one week.
She grins at me. “Excited, nervous, feeling like I’m forgetting a million things.”
I give her a smile. “Remember, we’ve done this a thousand times before. Spencer won’t let anything go wrong.”
She laughs. “That’s what Derek keeps telling me. I just really like to be in control.”
I laugh with her. “You’re preaching to the choir.”
Derek comes into the kitchen to the sound of our laughter, smiling at us before kissing Ava’s temple. “Got anything else for me to bring up?” he asks.
Ava hands him a tray of snacks and two cans of beer. I go to the fridge and grab one for myself, then follow them upstairs. We chat for a while on Derek’s rooftop deck, his cat, Abyss, dozing in the sun in her catio. Ava’s sister, Lacey, is out at her gymnastics club where she works as a coach now. A little while later, Spencer and Lis join us, followed by Adalie and her boyfriend Nate. Once everyone is sitting, and before we start the game of Codenames we’d decided on, I figure it’s time.
“I had an interesting visit from someone today,” I say.
Derek pauses, setting up the game, glancing at me. “Oh?”
I wonder for a second if he’d seen Tanner. Then I launch into my explanation about what happened this morning, leaving out how we’d slept together over seven years ago. I don’t want my and Tanner’s history to muddy the reality now.
When I’m done, no one speaks.
Lis’ mouth is dropped open as she looks between me and Spencer. He must have told her I had something to announce, but not what it was. I take a sip of my beer, more to give my hands something to do than because I want to drink it.
Adalie holds up her hand. “So, you’re getting married. To Tanner.”
“Essentially, yes,” I say. “We’re going for dinner tomorrow to discuss it.”
“Like on a date?” Adalie asks.
I make a face. “No. Spencer is coming. And Tanner’s brother, Wyatt. It’s not a date.”
“Don’t you think you should have a date before you get married?” Lis asks.
“What for?” I ask. “It’s not a love match. It’s a business arrangement.”
“A marriage of convenience?” Ava says.
I snort. “More like in convenience. But I guess so. It’s temporary.”
Derek sets out a few more cards for the game. Other than Spencer—who told me his thoughts this morning—and Nate—who I don’t expect to say anything since he usually doesn’t—Derek is the only one who hasn’t spoken yet. I can tell he’s thinking, so I wait for him to speak. It only takes a moment.
“If you own part of Sterling, are you going to leave Blue Vista? Not even you can run two companies. Especially not one the size of Sterling.”
“I don’t know what will happen. That’s something we’ll need to discuss. The four of us and Tanner.”
Because Derek is right, I can’t run two businesses. But I also want this. I need to go through with this. Sterling is my birthright. Mine and my brother, Liam’s, but Liam has never wanted it.
I glance at Spencer, begging him with my eyes to change the subject. He catches my look and squeezes Lis’ hand. She picks up her wine glass—filled with apple juice—and hands it to Adalie.
“Hey, I meant to get you to taste this new drink I found,” she says.
Adalie takes the glass, sipping it.
She seems confused at first, staring into the golden liquid. She has another sip and looks up at Lis.
“Is this… apple juice?” she asks.
Lis is fighting to keep her smile from getting too big.
“Yes,” she says.
The atmosphere changes in half a second, from confused to excited. Ava leans forward. “Amaryllis Cole. Why are you drinking apple juice instead of wine?”
“The doctors discourage alcohol during pregnancy,” Lis says, and everyone erupts into squeals of delight, congratulations, and overall happiness.
While the cacophony continues, Adalie stands next to me, linking her arm through mine.
“How are you feeling about this?” she asks.
“What do you mean? I’m excited for them.”
“Not this,” she says, waving toward the excitement in front of us. “You and Tanner.”
I turn toward her. Spencer had also asked about how I’m feeling. In fact, it’s a testament to how worried Derek is that he hasn’t already started teasing me about getting married. But Adalie is the definition of empathy. Of course she wants to know how I feel about marrying Tanner.
I haven’t said anything for a bit, so she continues.
“Something happened between you two right after we graduated.”
“How—”
She rolls her eyes. “He was your friend, then suddenly he wasn’t. It wasn’t gradual.”
She’s right. He’d been hanging out with us, then, one day, he was gone. I didn’t speak to him again until a couple years ago when Dad started inviting him to our family dinners. Ever since, he’s come to most of the family dinners, but I still tried not to speak to him if I could help it. Which is childish, I know. But seeing him again just reminded me about how much I wish things had been different.
The resentment that began with him getting my position has eased, but the fact that he is where I wanted to be still stings. I have come to accept over the last several years that it wasn’t his fault, which then began the regret. Now, there’s these conflicting emotions swirling within me, all wrapped up in one six-foot-two, brown-eyed, glasses wearing, sexy-as-fuck package.
I take a deep breath and turn to my friend. “Honestly, Adalie, I have no idea.”