“Love and kids aren't in the cards for me. You have Jax for that.”
“I have every single one of my boys for that.” Her voice cut through the office as she strode towards me with purpose. Mom was the most forbidding woman I knew when she wanted to be. Her striking blue eyes and tall willowy frame could come across as severe if she maneuvered herself just right. With a tailored pantsuit and deadly heels, she was a starkly beautiful older woman.
Maybe raising three boys and dealing with my father all these years had taught her something about authority, but I'm pretty sure it came naturally to her. “Each of my boys will give me grandchildren, you understand?”
She whispered, but her cold-blooded-killer stare screamed how serious she was.
“Mom, come on.”
“Don't disappoint me. I'm so, so sick of being disappointed in you not finding the right girl and settling down.”
I stood. “You two have fallen off the sane train. I mean it.” I pointed at my father who was grinning like a fool. “You know I'm right.”
He shrugged.
If it had just been him, I would have stormed out. But I couldn’t leave my mom like that, so I wrapped up that crazy woman in my arms and kissed the top of her head. “Love you, Mom. If you're here after I'm done with work, we can get dinner.”
Her blue eyes connected with mine and all I saw was love, no disappointment. “Sure, sweetie. Tell Brey I said hi.”
I nodded and walked out.
When I rounded the corner, the damn weight of a whole industry came down on my shoulders. Stonewood Enterprises was mine, and I knew better than anyone that one misstep could fuck it all up.
15
Vick
After three weeksof being on Jett’s team, we'd fallen into a routine. I’d learned the names of everyone in our space, knew that Josie in marketing got coffees in the morning, that Bob could whip up a legal contract faster than I could boot up my laptop, and that Gloria handled every one of Jett's needs.
Perfectly. With ease.
Much to my annoyance.
I also knew Brey showed up at about 9 a.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. We decided if we got a lunch break, we would take it together.
We hadn't gotten one yet.
Steven and I barely had time to peek at each other across our desks or discuss the weather. I'd wanted to discuss a lot more than the weather with him too. The man had finally gotten up the courage to ask me on a date now that he wasn't my boss.
Or so he'd said. Yet, with the hours we were working, we hadn't gotten around to figuring out when that date would happen.
In our first week, Jett Stonewood announced his team was about to step in for Senior Stonewood. He was stepping down, and we were stepping up.
I nearly lost my lunch. He handed me and the rest of the legal team about a million files and said he would be e-mailing more over. Contract after contract had to be rewritten or reworked. His father had solidified loyalties with a lot of companies through handshakes and backroom conversations over the years. Now that he was stepping down, nothing could be off the books anymore. Jett wanted everything in writing. He’d said as much to our team before he disappeared.
Over the past couple of weeks, he’d pop up in his office sporadically and then be gone again. Gloria would report that he had flown to New York or LA or some other place. His schedule was booked out for weeks at a time. And then he'd waltz in and nod to us all, stopping at certain desks to discuss anything of importance.
Bob would receive visit after visit about certain wording in an e-mail. Josie would perk up when he had a question about financials.
Steven and I would grind away in our corner, knowing that Jett would never stop by.
Misfits. Outsiders. The ones no one believed truly belonged.
I tried to look on the bright side day after day. Thousands of people were gunning for our seats. We were at one of the top-grossing businesses in the country where innovation met sophistication and thrived.
Yet, the feeling of being left out, of feeling inadequate, of someone passing you by time and time again was like sanding an open wound. If I tried to help Bob with a contract, he would scrunch his nose at me. I attempted to help Gloria rework an approach to a company about an investment, and she let me know she worked better alone. The woman cut right to the chase.
I even asked Josie if I could help her get coffees one day. Her doe eyes went wide, and she backed away like I was poaching her only job. Which maybe I was, but I wanted to do something that would make me feel part of the team.