Chapter 11
EVERETT
“I can’t believe you thought you couldn’t tell me.”
I look up as Graham walks into my office. My heart speeds up.
How did he find out about Ginny and me? And now? It’s been three weeks since I saw her. Two since I last texted her.
Yes, I’ve thought of her every single day—and night—and I’ve wanted to text, call, and see her. But I haven’t. I’ve resisted. I’ve been good, goddammit.
And now I have to deal with her brother’s questions and possible concerns?
But why the hell would Graham have concerns?
I’m his best friend. We’re in business together. Obviously, he trusts me. And fucking likes me. Why wouldn’t he be okay with me being with his sister? In my opinion, he should have been trying to set me up with Ginny from the beginning.
I force myself to take a deep breath. Part of my ire here isn’t about Graham at all. It’s about missing the hell out of Ginny.
I can’t just not see her. Talk to her. Want her.
So something has to change.
Soon.
I set my pen down as he drops into the chair across from me, a deep frown on his face.
“Okay, listen—” I start.
“Tell me exactly what he said,” Graham says.
I pause. He? What he said? Wait, what are we talking about?
“When?” I ask, stalling for time.
“When you talked most recently.” Graham seems frustrated. “When did he call?” He sits forward, forearms on his thighs. “Or did Sofia tell you?”
Sofia. Okay. So the ‘he’ must be Eduardo, her father.
I haven’t talked to either of them since the week right after Christmas and certainly not about anything that would cause Graham to frown like this.
I lean in. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what we’re talking about.”
“Eduardo is having second thoughts,” Graham says. “He wants to scale back the project. He thinks it’s too much too fast.”
Oh.
Shit.
Yes, that is definitely frown-worthy. For a number of reasons, but most importantly now because I’ve decided that the only way I can be with Ginny is to not be her boss, and the only way to make that happen is to get the company into a position where I can comfortably step away and sell my shares to Graham.
I’m not worried about…well, anything… after that.
Graham is the heart of the company. I’m just the money guy. What IES actually does is all because of Graham. I just make sure his brilliance is well-funded.
I’ll be sure that’s in place before I step back, but I’m not worried.
I’ll be fine financially if I step away. I’ll find another amazing company to support. Or a bunch of companies. And I’ll still consult with IES and keep up with what they’re doing. Hell, maybe I’ll retain a minor share. Just nothing that makes me Ginny’s boss in any way.
As for Graham and me and our friendship, I’ve finally realized over these past few months that we truly have a deep bond. I’ve never had a friend like him before, so it took me a bit to understand that our relationship extends far past the bounds of IES. We’ll be close no matter what.
Besides, I fully intend to be his brother-in-law eventually. That’s even better than best friends.
Graham and I will be fine.
But I have to get IES secure, and Eduardo Romero is a large part of that.
“How did you hear this?” I ask, matching Graham’s frown.
“Dad and Lauren. Eduardo told them not to ship the supplies for the next indoor farm building.”
That is not okay. “I didn’t know,” I tell him. “Eduardo and Sofia have said nothing to me.”
Graham sits back with a heavy sigh. “That’s also not good that they don’t want to talk to us directly about it.”
I agree. Innovative Agricultural Solutions, Mason and Lauren’s company, builds the indoor farms, which is, obviously, the first step.
But Eduardo decided to do that because of Graham and me and our presentation.
We power the indoor farms with IES’s technology, and the whole package intrigued Eduardo.
Well, it intrigued Sofia, who convinced her father to partner with us.
“So we need to talk to them about it,” I say. “And we need to be sure Sofia is a part of the conversation. I wonder if she knows Eduardo cancelled the second build?”
Graham shrugs. “I came straight to you. But we need to deal with this right now. That second building is supposed to go in next week.”
“Are there problems with the first one?” I ask.
The plan is to build six IAS indoor farms on Eduardo’s land, all fully powered by IES technology.
Eduardo has a huge operation and could eventually have fifteen buildings.
But these first six will transition a good portion of what he sells locally into indoor farming.
We’re also excited to introduce some new crops to him and his customers.
Indoor farming allows farmers the flexibility to grow anything anywhere.
Climate, weather, soil conditions—none of that matters with indoor farming—and we thought Eduardo was on board.
“No problems that I’m aware of,” Graham says. “But he suddenly wants to stop with this one building, give it a year, and reassess before we do any more.”
I shake my head. “Something happened. We need to find out what the hell is going on.”
“I assume you’ll call?” Graham asks.
I usually handle customer service for our work.
Graham just isn’t as good at it. But I shake my head.
“I think you need to go to New Mexico. That way you can check everything over. See if he’s got questions about the technology, the growing, whatever.
” It goes without saying that Graham is the one to handle that.
I’m better at the big picture and general schmoozing when I have to be, but Graham can get into the nitty-gritty, and we’re past generalities and chit chat with Eduardo.
We need to really dig in. No pun intended.
“Fine. But you’ll come? If we need to talk him into doing more, taking the chance, thinking big, I’ll need you.”
I shake my head. “Take Ginny.”
God, even saying her name makes my chest warm. Jesus, I’m so in love it’s ridiculous.
Graham sits up straighter. “Hey, that’s right. She’s officially on the payroll now.”
She would have jumped in to help anyway, but yes, this is now her job. “Exactly. Eduardo will love her. She can help us through whatever this is.”
I’m confident she’s exactly who we need in this moment.
And it also means I will not be going to New Mexico this time.
I can’t be around her without saying or doing something that is not appropriate for a boss-employee relationship. And I’ve heard her. I understand where she’s coming from, and I want her to know that. I’m going to respect our roles and not do anything to make her uncomfortable.
So until I turn in my resignation, I’m going to avoid Harriet Ginger Riley.
Eduardo better get his shit together quickly.
“You really don’t want to come?” Graham asks. He gives me a grin. “Come on. Amazing food? A lot better weather? A very pretty woman who would love to see you?”
Yes, a very pretty woman who might want to see me but who’s made it clear that I can’t kiss her or tell her how much I miss her or talk about a future together as long as I’m the CFO of IES and she’s getting a paycheck with my name on it.
Though Graham isn’t talking about Ginny.
“Graham,” I say, meeting his gaze directly. “I’m not interested in Sofia.”
He sighs. “You’re an idiot.”
I decide to ignore that. “Take Jack Bennett with you,” I tell him. “He can see Eduardo’s nearly finished building, and the two of them can talk shop. Maybe it would be good for them to talk as peers. Jack can help remind Eduardo of his initial enthusiasm.”
Graham frowns. “What if Eduardo talks Jack out of the plan?”
But I shake my head. “That won’t happen. Ginny sold Jack on the plan. He’s all in.”
I truly believe that Ginny is the missing ingredient with Eduardo. Once he talks to Ginny, he’ll come back around. He’ll probably want to build eight indoor farms instead of only six.
Jack has committed to four buildings total. His farm is smaller than Eduardo’s, and four is perfect for what the Bennett farm does right now. Then there’s room to expand with additional crops. Jack was especially excited about growing citrus fruits in Nebraska.
“Okay, I’ll call Ginny right now,” Graham says, getting to his feet.
For a moment, my mind spins with reasons I could give to be the one to call her instead. But that’s the opposite of what I should be doing. I just need to resist her for a couple of months. It shouldn’t take longer than that to get things in place for my resignation.
Ginny and Graham can get Eduardo refocused. Then he’ll get his four friends committed to indoor farms as well, we’ll keep moving forward with Jack’s, and he’ll convince four more farms around Sapphire Falls.
With the contracts for those ten farms signed and sealed, I’ll be able to meet with the investors in New York and get them on board.
Once their first contribution lands in our bank account, I can pull Graham in, tell him I’m resigning, sell him my shares, and then head straight to Sapphire Falls and his sister’s front porch.
My timeline puts me kissing Ginny again by March first.
So what if it’s the second week of January now?
The plan simply requires people to say, “This is a great idea,”—which it is—and sign paperwork.
It’s not that hard. That doesn’t need to take even six weeks.
Everybody better just fucking cooperate.
Because I’m already feeling withdrawals from Ginny.
And Adrianne’s buttercream.
The bakery’s lack of mail-order capabilities is something else I’m going to need to address.
So much to do. So many people who have to simply say, “Whatever you say, Everett.”
“I’ll let you know if I run into any issues,” Graham says as he heads out of my office.
“Do not have any issues,” I tell him. “Just get it done.”
He laughs. “You think they’ll just say, ‘you know what, this is a great idea’ and sign the paperwork?”
“Why not?”
He grins. “If only everyone would just say ‘whatever you say, Everett’, but sorry, I don’t think that’s how this is going to go.”
I groan and rub my temples as he heads back to his office to call the woman who is turning my life upside down so that she can accompany him to New Mexico to help get everything back on track.
I want to text her so badly.
But absolutely everything I want to say to her is an HR violation.