Epilogue #2
Confessing that to Braylon had the older man laughing and praising him for standing up for himself but not being reckless.
That was one word that would never describe Spencer Jensen in his career. Reckless.
“Not a problem. I wasn’t aware West was joining us.”
“Last minute thing,” Braylon said. “We’ll fill you in more when he gets here. Before that, we can just chat. How are you feeling here?”
And that right there made all the difference. The fact his boss was human. Cared enough to even ask that question. And not overwork his ass so much the first month that he hadn’t known if he was coming or going, but rather gave him time to catch up on the vast businesses that West Carlisle owned.
“Great. I’m up to speed with what has been given to me. I feel comfortable enough taking more on. Though I appreciate the lighter workload, I hate to say I’m not sure what to do with myself.”
“Go visit your sister,” Braylon said.
He laughed. “I went over Memorial Day weekend since I had the extra day. It was nice to see Zac. He’s getting huge.”
His nephew, Zachery Spencer Bond, was eighteen months old and racing through Coy and Angel’s home like it was his own personal racetrack.
“Foster said he saw you there one day,” Braylon said. “A dinner at Scott and Helena’s.”
“Yes. On Sunday.”
And that was the six degrees of separation. Foster Carlisle’s brother-in-law was the brother of Spencer’s brother-in-law. Coy’s brother, Drew Bond, was married to Charlotte Carlisle’s sister Amanda.
Crazy small world when you think about it.
Or not, as he was positive that when Coy found out the shaft Spencer was getting at his job, he’d mentioned it to Drew, then Amanda to Charlotte, who then told her husband, Foster, and here he was.
Not that he thought he was given a charity job. West Carlisle was the last person who would do that.
So instead, he should be thankful that his connection might have gotten his foot in the door.
He’d never asked, and they didn’t volunteer. He’d submitted his resume when the headhunter he was working with gave him the information.
“It’s nice to visit with family,” Braylon said. “And as you know, I’ve got a massive one. My mother, she’s on our case more than we’ve got time.”
“Is she still in town?” he asked. At his other job, he never knew personal details like this. And maybe he wouldn’t have here either if there hadn’t been so much commotion around Aileen’s visit to the office last week.
“She is. I’m not sure how long she’s staying with Laken and helping with the baby.
I imagine one of them will get sick of the other soon enough.
But I’m glad you’re able to breathe some.
You’ll be busy here. You might feel you were at your other job at times, but I promise it won’t be fifty-two weeks a year. ”
“And if it is, I’m used to it,” he said.
“Sorry,” West said, moving in. “Just firming a few things up.” West moved over with his hand out, Spencer stood to shake it. He hadn’t seen West since he last interviewed. “Have you been brought up to speed yet?”
He refused to let his nerves consume him again.
In the almost two months he’d been here, everything he’d felt had been self-imposed. He wasn’t here long enough to know what a last-minute arrival of the big man meant.
And with the way his conversation was going with Braylon, it couldn’t be bad news.
“Not yet,” Braylon said. “Just chatting about if he likes it here or not.”
“Oh, I love it,” he said, a genuine smile filling his face. For a man who gave little away at his last job, and was still guarding things closely here, he found he was more open for sure.
“Good to know,” West said. “You might not in the next few months.”
His grin stayed on his lips when he noticed the smirk between West and Braylon.
“It’s not going to be that bad,” Braylon said.
He looked between the two of them. “What?”
“We’ve got a new venture. A consulting firm.
Not something we’ve done much work in before, a service-type industry,” West said.
“Lean consulting. We’ve been doing a lot of this in house when we acquire new companies or take on investments.
Even managing those we’ve got. Laken oversaw a lot of this and with the baby and her workload, it was time to look at it differently. ”
“Are you buying a consulting firm?” he asked.
“No,” West said. “London and Paris Westerly. Sisters. They are starting a firm under our umbrella. They will have a small office on the floor below us. Westerly Consulting. We are retaining them for our exclusive use, but they will also work with multiple other businesses.”
His mind was racing, trying to keep up and figure out what to ask. “Do they have existing clients?”
“A few,” Braylon said. “They both worked for different firms previously. London focused more on operations, Paris more on personnel. Together, their wide range of industries, clients, and experience makes this a good fit for us. They will start more with Carlisle businesses while they reach out to other clients they’d worked with in the past and make connections here. ”
Trying to steal them away, he thought. But it was a common business practice.
“Were they based out of New York?”
“No,” West said. “Both worked down south but spent a lot of time on the road.”
“Big change,” he said. “Good for them.”
He liked go-getters.
“You’ll be the lead on this,” Braylon said. “Along with your team.”
He had two staff attorneys under him, both relatively young, and two clerks. One attorney being Noelle Kleinfield who seemed to clash with Kenzie. He was positive that placing her on his staff was on purpose to separate the two, but so far Noelle had been professional around him.
“Great,” he said. “Can’t wait to dive in. What can you tell me about London and Paris? Other than their parents must like those cities.”
Braylon laughed. “Something like that. They are twins. I think you’ll get along well with Paris. London is a bit intense. Not in a bad way, just more driven. A little impatient. She’ll benefit from your personality.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d been paired with clients for that reason. “I’m used to that.”
“We figured as much,” West said. “They should be set up and ready to go next week. Or their office will be. Braylon will give you the companies that they will work on first, the contracts to be signed, details to be gone over. You will be required to travel with them at first.”
“I knew that coming in,” he said. And didn’t have a problem with it. Most times he didn’t mind getting out of the city and seeing a little bit of the world.
“We’ll have you focusing on that for the next couple of weeks, along with a few other projects,” Braylon said.
“Sounds good.” He still wasn’t sure why West was in this meeting. It seemed pretty cut and dry to him.
“I’ll get everything to you within the hour,” Braylon said.
Which meant he was dismissed when Braylon stood. He did the same, nodded his head and went back to his office, ready to dive into what he could about London and Paris Westerly.
***
The minute the door shut, Braylon turned to West. “Do you think we should have told him who London and Paris were?”
“Not yet,” West said. “They don’t want anyone to know, no more than I’m positive Spencer doesn’t want it known that his resume landed on your desk on top of others after Foster talked to you.”
He sighed. “He hasn’t brought it up to me once, but he’s not stupid.”
“You wouldn’t bring it up either,” West said. “You wouldn’t have hired him regardless if you didn’t think it was a good fit.”
“I’ve got all the confidence in the world in him. And I think knowing this was coming with London and Paris, it made it a better fit. London can be... London.”
West snorted. “Yeah. So let’s see how much patience Spencer has in dealing with her. If he knew she was our cousin, he might tiptoe around her. I don’t want them to get any special treatment.”
“All I can say is this is going to be interesting. I think their firm is going to be a good thing for us in the long run. Everyone we talked to raved about them.”
“They did,” West said. “But they also said what we knew about London. Her looks are deceiving. She’ll get the job done, but she pushes the boundaries more times than not. I don’t need too many feathers ruffled. It’s best to have Spencer by her side to start. They’ve both got something to prove.”
“With completely different personalities,” he said.
“As if we didn’t have a family full of that growing up.”
“But we had Mom knocking our heads together. Or yours when you got too bossy.”
West laughed. “Nelson and Rowan when they got too wild.”
“At least things are getting quieter on that end,” he said.
“One can hope. Now let’s see what the next few weeks bring.”