He nodded. “Yes. Sounds like Stevie really does you a lot of favors.”
“He’s an exceptional friend.”
Jett looked my way, and his smile was slow. “If that’s what you call it.”
I quirked a brow. “That’s what I call it. And I know what you’re insinuating. I’m honest. I’d let you know if I’d slept my way into a position. But I’m an associate and Steven hasn’t even asked me out yet. I hope he does though.”
We came to the fork in the road where our paths separated. Jett didn’t stop walking like I expected.
I thought maybe he would confess that he wanted my number, that we should try to give it a go back home. He turned to the right and said over his shoulder, “I hope he does too. I’m sure, even having only seen him on your annoying FaceTime, you would make a picture-perfect couple and your wedding would be just as beautiful as Brey and Jax’s.”
I glared at him. “You say that sarcastically, but it could happen.”
He kept walking away without looking back at me. So I yelled after him, “One day you’ll come across the love of your life and your cynical ass will miss it. You’ll regret it too. Just wait and see.”
His laugh carried over the wind. “Goodbye, Victoria.”
I let him go. That man wasn’t mine to change.
He was a glorious distraction that I had gotten too wrapped up in.
I had indulged myself and allowed everything I did with him to touch me deeply. But I refused to have regrets.
On the flight back, I wrote him off.
And back in Chicago, I forgot all about him.
Or so I told myself.
7
Jett
Livingin a city either makes or breaks a person. The constant movement—the way the streets are always alive, the lights always on, the noise persistently vibrating through your walls at night—can drive a person to work harder or fold under the pressure. It can irritate someone into leaving for the suburbs or lull them into the rhythm they were made to follow.
I was made for it.
The city pumped to a steady beat, and I loved knowing that I could alter that beat if I worked hard enough.
Stonewood Enterprises was one of the largest investment companies out there. We bought up businesses and turned them into lucrative ventures. We also invested companies’ money and pulled in so much that the market felt our every shift. Stocks moved when we moved.
I called those shots.
I focused on some of the largest accounts as well as a few small clients. One of them sat across from me, back straight as she went over her portfolio.
“I want to make sure this goes back into funds for your family.”
I sighed. “Brey, you are family. You were before and now you are legally.”
She cleared her throat. “Still, if you could keep this confidential …”
I slammed my laptop shut. The woman, I swear, did this shit just to irritate every one of us Stonewoods. She couldn’t handle that my mother and father gave her a trust fund when her dad went off the deep end and her mom died. Now she kept trying to pay it back, much to the irritation of me, my brothers, my father, and my mother.
Her ideas were actually respectable in my opinion, but I wasn’t going to honor them. The money had been a gift from my parents, one we all got as their children. They saw Aubrey as one of theirs. It was their choice, not mine. “I commend you for trying. I understand why, and I would probably try to do the same thing. But the whole family’s been pretty clear about this.”
“You go around them all the time,” she quickly retorted.
She had a point. She worked under me exclusively, and as my intern, she knew I had a habit of writing off my brother’s and father’s business suggestions.