Chapter 2 #2
“I’m telling you now,” I say. “It’s not my favorite topic of conversation, and I had to tell Mom and Dad and Carver and Jefferson. And Harlow.”
Graham grimaces.
Our family is hugely supportive and will always have my back, but Harlow will happily go to jail for someone she loves. The blow-up Graham is imagining from Harlow on my behalf is accurate. She was livid at Stephen. I had to talk her down.
“What happened?” Graham asks.
“You remember the promotion I was offered?”
He nods. “That you turned down.”
I roll my eyes, but not at the judgmental tone in my brother’s voice. This eye roll is because he’s right. I never should have said no. “Yes, the one I turned down because of Stephen.”
Stephen, my boyfriend of two years, and I were co-workers.
Our company had a very strict policy about intra-office dating.
You could date someone in a different department, and you could date people in your own department as long as you were at the same level.
There could be no dating of subordinates.
If I’d taken the promotion, Stephen would have had to transfer to another department. Or quit. He didn’t want to do either of those things.
So I’d declined the promotion.
“Well, a week later, Stephen was offered the promotion,” I say. “And he took it.”
There’s a beat of silence as Graham processes this information. Then he smacks his hand on the breakfast bar. “He fucking took your promotion? The one you turned down for him?”
I nod and take another sip of my coffee. I’ve been through all the emotions already. I’m calm now.
Honestly, Clark Kent from last night helped a ton.
He not only exhausted me and confirmed that I could definitely have better sex than I had been having with Stephen, but he also made me feel beautiful and sexy and like everything I wanted in bed was an absolute pleasure to provide.
I’m so glad Margot and Graham couldn’t make it to the bar last night.
“And they fired you because he was suddenly your boss?” Graham demands. “No fucking way. You’re going to meet with my attorney in the morning.” He’s pulled his phone from his back pocket and is swiping across the screen.
I reach across the bar and grab it out of his hand. “No! No, it’s not like that! I got fired because I trashed his desk and punched him in the face.”
Graham stops. Stares at me. Then nods. “That makes more sense.”
I laugh and sit back on my stool. “He didn’t press charges or anything as long as I agreed to leave peacefully. I agreed to leave peacefully and not trash anything at the apartment if I got my full severance package.”
“And?”
“It’s all good.” I shrug. “I mean, I’m still pissed and now I’m living at home, but—”
“Okay, so this is where I’m caught up to,” Margot interjects.
She’s been living here in Denver with Graham for several months and I filled her in on all of this a few days ago, but we got cut off.
“Why aren’t you in Harlow’s house?” Margot asks.
Harlow has moved in with Jefferson. Yes, our best friend is now madly in love with, dating, having sex with, and living with our brother.
It’s…weird.
But she kept her house when she moved in with him for friends to stay in, and, I think, so she has a place to go if Jefferson ever pisses her off.
Which he will from time to time, no question about it.
“Jack’s living there,” I tell them.
So, yeah, if Jefferson pisses her off, Harlow’s going to have to make Jefferson sleep…I don’t know where. Probably at Mom and Dad’s. They’ve kept all of our bedrooms as bedrooms saying they always wanted us to feel free to come home anytime, no matter how old we are or where we officially live.
“Jack Bennett?” Graham asks.
I nod. “Yep. He and the girls were living at Tucker and Delaney’s, you know? But he felt ready to move out. Harlow’s place is perfect. The girls are sharing the second bedroom. They’re not ready to be apart yet.”
The Bennetts—Delaney and Tucker, as well as all their kids—are long-term family friends of ours. Jack lost his wife about a year ago, and he and his three young daughters moved back to Sapphire Falls and in with his parents in the aftermath.
“That’s so great,” Margot says. “I’m glad he’s healing.”
I nod. “Yeah, me too. Even if it means I’m back in my childhood bedroom.”
“Well, I guess this is a great time to tell you what I need to tell you,” Graham says.
I nod. “Please. Take my mind off of my jobless-loveless-homeless state.”
“I want to offer you a job,” he says.
“Offer me a job?” I ask. “You mean, you think you can get me a job with your company?”
He looks at Margot, then back to me. “No. I can offer you a job.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The company I work for—IES—is my company. Mine and Clark’s.”
I frown. I look at Margot. She nods. I look back at my brother. “What do you mean?”
“I own Innovative Energy Solutions. Clark and I do. We’re partners. I don’t just work there. I’m the CEO. Clark is the CFO.”
“But…” I shake my head. “That company is worth millions of dollars.”
“Yes.”
“It’s doing incredible work. Everyone is talking about it.”
“I know.”
“You own a company that everyone is talking about and that makes millions of dollars?” This shouldn’t be so hard to wrap my brain around. Our father owns a company like that.
“Yes.”
“So…you’re rich.”
He laughs. “Well, yes. But more importantly, my company is doing amazing work and I want to hire you.”
Yes. Of course, his company is doing amazing work. I thought so when I thought he just worked there. I thought that’s why he worked there.
This actually makes even more sense.
As does the name, now that I think about it.
How did I miss that? Innovative Energy Solutions is clearly a nod to my dad’s company, Innovative Agricultural Solutions.
They call it IAS for short, and that’s almost all I hear, so it didn’t click at first. And, I suppose, it never occurred to me that Graham had anything to do with naming the company.
“I’ve been working in pharmaceuticals,” I say. “Why would you want to hire me?”
But I’d love for him to hire me. I’m jobless. I’ll run through my savings eventually. I really like expensive coffee and electronic gadgets. I can’t be broke.
My mom’s been having me help her at her bakery, and that’s actually been kind of fun. But so far, I’ve just been doing it since she’s housing me and buying me groceries. It’s not a job.
“You can easily get caught up with what we’re doing. Your talents are exactly what we need as we seek to expand and start doing more projects in smaller communities. As you know, we’re going to be opening a second office in Sapphire Falls and teaming up with Dad and Carver on some things.”
I frown and lean in. “Dad and Carver don’t know, do they? They don’t know that you’re the CEO of Innovative Energy Solutions? The name didn’t even tip them off?”
“No. They’ve been dealing with Clark.”
“Why?”
“Because they would have jumped in with money and advice. I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted them to want to partner with us without knowing it was me. I wanted them to choose us based on the merits and the work.”
I sit back. I get that. “And they did.”
“Yes.” He looks pleased.
“But now you have to tell them.”
“I will.”
“And you really want to hire me?”
“You are perfect for what we need. I was going to try to poach you anyway.”
My specific skill set is “dumbing down” the science.
I can sit in meetings with scientists and engineers and developers of all kinds and understand every word, but then I can turn around and explain it in regular terms to literally anyone else.
From scientists in other related fields to first graders, I can make the science accessible.
That means I can get people on board with projects.
I can help with marketing a new product, I can help mitigate PR nightmares, I can convince investors to give more money, and I can help educate the public about why they should be supportive and excited about… whatever.
In this case, it would be new green energy programs and projects in small communities.
I would be great at that. I don’t just understand the science. I also understand small towns.
“I would love to work with you, Graham,” I say. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Would you…”
I lift a brow. “What?”
“Would you be willing to work in Sapphire Falls?”
I laugh. “Yes. Are you going to be paying me enough that I can buy my own place?”
He grins. “Yes. Eventually.”
I groan. “How long are we talking until that can happen?”
“We’re thinking spring.”
“It’s November!”
“I know. Sorry. I can loan you some money.”
I shake my head. “No. It’s fine. I have savings I can use if I need to.
” My parents have tons of money, and they would happily give me anything I need.
“Living with Mom and Dad is fine. There are actually nice things about it.” I grin and reach for a cinnamon roll.
“I mean, you’re the second-best baker in the family. ”
Our mom owns a bakery in Sapphire Falls, and if I don’t gain at least five pounds living at home, I’m doing something very wrong.
“Hey, wasn’t Clark coming over? I thought you wanted him to meet Ginny,” Margot says.
Clark. It’s weird that Graham’s best friend’s name is the same as the name my guy used last night. That might be a problem for me. Because when I hear it, heat swirls through me and I’m immediately back in that hotel room last night.
Graham nods. “Yeah. Something came up. But you can meet him the next time he visits Sapphire Falls.”
I smile stiffly and nod. “Sure.”
“He’s been a couple of times to check out the town and meet Dad and everyone,” Graham goes on. “But we’ll be making more regular visits now that we’re going to start building the new office and everything.”
“Your mom and dad really like him,” Margot says with a smile.
“They must, since they agreed to go into business with him,” I say. “They’re going to be proud of you, though, you know,” I tell my brother.
He smiles. “I know.”
“So when will you guys be in Sapphire Falls next?” Clark must be an interesting guy. My brother is wonderful, and they’ve built Innovative Energy Solutions into something really impressive. But Clark must be the people person because Graham is nerdy, quiet, and a little socially awkward at times.
“Oh, he’s going to come home with us for Thanksgiving,” Graham says. “So just a few weeks.”
“Great. I can’t wait to meet him.”