Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“Knock, knock.”
I glance up and find my dad standing in the doorway of my office. I was so lost in what I was doing that I didn’t even hear him approach.
“Hey, Dad,” I say, smiling through my annoyance at my concentration being broken. “What’s up?”
“I, uh …” He clears his throat, and I can’t help noticing he looks nervous. A million thoughts go through my head, but when he speaks, I’m a bit confused. “I was wondering if you might want to have lunch with me.”
He wants to eat with me?
I look at the time and see it’s noon. Technically, I can take a lunch, but …
“I’m in the middle of working on my pitch,” I tell him.
With us only having a couple of days before the meeting, he must know we’re going to spend every second possible on it. Yet he pretty much demanded I go home early last night, and now, he wants me to take a break to have lunch.
His face falls, but he nods in understanding.
“No worries,” he says. “Another day.”
He forces a smile and then retreats, leaving me alone.
I turn back to my laptop screen and continue to work, but I can’t get the sad look on my dad’s face out of my head. And the way he was nervous to ask me to eat with him …
And then Julian’s words come back to me. “But every Wednesday, she came to the office and brought him lunch, and every week, he told her he was too busy. Eventually, she stopped coming.”
And it hits me. Today is Wednesday, and I just did the same thing to my dad that he had done to my mom. He’s trying to right his wrongs, but he’s right. Instead of doing the opposite of the man I resented, I’ve become him. Only I justify it because I refuse to get married and have kids, so I’m not hurting anyone but myself—and now him.
Grabbing my card and phone, I rush out of the office and over to the sub shop we used to frequent when I was little and order our favorites, hoping it’s still his. Then, I go straight to his office, hoping to find him there. When I find his office empty, my heart sinks. But then he steps out of his private bathroom, and our eyes meet.
“I bought us subs,” I tell him, lifting the bag as proof. “If you’d still like to have lunch with me.”
His eyes turn glassy, and a beautiful smile spreads across his face that makes me hate myself for going six years without seeing him. Yeah, he fucked up. But he’s human, and after we lost Mom, we only had each other. But instead, I left, thinking I was punishing him—without realizing I was punishing us both.
“That would be wonderful. How about in the conference room?” he suggests despite him having a table in his office.
“That sounds perfect.”
chapter eleven
JULIAN
“Hey, Josie, have you seen Samuel?” I ask after not finding him in his office.
I have a bunch of contracts that need his approval and signature, and I want to get them back to our legal team so I can work on this damn pitch.
“He’s in the conference room,” she says, “having lunch with Anastasia.”
I stop in my tracks at her words. “In the conference room?”
He hasn’t had lunch in there since …
“Yep, and today’s Wednesday,” she notes, having been here long enough to know what that day symbolizes.
I walk around the corner and stop when I see Samuel and Red sitting together at the table, eating their lunch. She throws her head back in laughter, and even though I can’t hear her, I imagine the melodic sound that comes from her. She smiles softly at her dad, and my heart clenches in my chest. Only a few short days ago, she was smiling at me, laughing with me, kissing me, and I was imagining what it might feel like to settle down.
Now, despite the fact that I’m still attracted to her, she’s the enemy, and regardless of what she told her dad about us not having any hard feelings, I know damn well if I get the CEO position, Anastasia will not take it well.
I watch as she rests her hand on her dad’s arm and her eyes crinkle in happiness. A part of me is happy for them, happy that Samuel finally has his daughter back after all these years. I know how much he missed her. The hurt that would cross over his features when he’d talk about her.
But another part of me—the selfish part—knows this is a problem. It doesn’t matter what I do, what pitches I come up with, how much I prove that I’m clearly the better candidate to take his place as CEO, Anastasia has something I don’t have—his blood running through her veins.