Chapter 15

Jason

“Thanks for coming over Jarad, I appreciate it.”

“Okay, so now you have to tell me about this girl. Who is she? Obviously, someone important to you if you just had to go to her birthday party.”

I didn’t really feel like getting into a lot of details about Anna with my brother. Jarad was a pretty by-the-book type of guy, and I just knew he wouldn’t approve—at least at this point with all the business dealings and Anna working with me. But I could see a time down the road where Anna and I could date, and I could tell everyone the funny story about how we met.

“She’s a contractor at work. Very nice girl. I wanted to at least show my face and wish her a happy birthday.”

“That’s cool. So, how’s this business deal going with your neighbor? Has he started shooting at you from his living room yet?” Jarad laughed.

To Jarad, all my business deals had to hurt the other companies. He just didn’t understand that my job was to find the best solution for companies so they could continue on. Sure, sometimes that meant we had to find a new parent company to take care of the smaller company, but that was the world, and that was the business. I didn’t run a hostile takeover company, unlike what Jarad believed.

“It’s going well. I know it’s going to be a tough week of getting deals put together, but I’m optimistic. Plus, Anna will be on the road with me, and people love her.”

“Anna? Is that the girl from tonight?”

“Anna? Is she here?” Clyde said as he ran out of his room with the Transformer in his hand that Anna had given him. Clyde had been carrying that thing around religiously since the moment she slipped it into his bag.

“No, buddy, Anna isn’t here. Let’s get you back to bed,” I said as I lifted him up and avoided the questioning gaze from my brother.

Of course, when I returned to the living room there was no way around telling him a little bit about her. He could tell by looking at my face that I was hiding something. My brother and I were only a year apart. Although our personalities were drastically different, we were extremely close and could practically finish each other’s sentences.

“She’s met Clyde?” Jarad asked with a knowing look in his eyes.

“Not like that. She hasn’t stayed over or anything.”

“Hmm, but she knows Clyde well enough that she is giving him presents? Oh, come on, fill me in. You know you want to.”

“She’s Edward’s daughter,” I finally said as I rolled my eyes. “The neighbor, the guy whose company I just put millions of dollars into. Yep, that’s her.”

“Oh, shit! Jason, you are a dog. That’s really bad ass. Like next level shit. You’re banging the daughter of the guy whose company you just took. You’ve got some major balls, buddy. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, and I’m not banging her. We are friends. We’ve gone on a date, kissed, you know. Keeping things a little slow right now.”

“Were you sleeping with her when Elizabeth was here?” Jarad asked as if he’d just figured out some gigantic secret.

“God, no. Geez Jarad, I didn’t cheat on Elizabeth. She just left because she couldn’t handle married life.”

Jarad had assumed that Elizabeth left me and Clyde because I had done something wrong. He’d said it more than once and just couldn’t believe that she would leave Clyde if everything had been alright. He was happily married, and his wife Jennifer loved married life, and Jarad just couldn’t understand how a woman could be so unhappy with a family.

“So, does the neighbor know you and his daughter are doing the nasty?”

“No, he doesn’t know anything. He doesn’t know we are breaking up his company or that I’ve got a thing with his daughter. I’m pretty sure that either of those things would give him a heart attack.”

“Wow, your life got exciting all of a sudden. Where have I been?” Jarad joked.

“Busy with your own life.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Alright, I better go. We are excited to have Clyde over to the house, and we will be back from our church event around two o’clock or so. You guys can come over then.”

“Sounds like a deal.”

When Jarad left, I finally let out a sigh of relief. I loved my brother, I genuinely did, but he was so nosey that I felt on guard when he was around and worried I’d say something I shouldn’t.

***

I spent my Sunday morning hanging out with Clyde. We went for a walk to the park down the street and brought a picnic so we could stay as long as we wanted. For a good three hours, we played on the swings and jumped around just as we had at that same park at least a dozen times before.

As much as I knew Clyde would be in good hands, I still agonized over leaving him for the week. And even though I knew he was going to have a blast with his cousins, I was more worried about my own guilt over being so busy lately and not getting to spend more time with him. I promised myself I’d take some time off after this deal and really get caught up with Clyde.

By the time I dropped Clyde off with my brother and Jennifer, it was nearly four o’clock in the afternoon. Luckily, I had already packed my things and given Anna a little bit of a heads up about what time I’d be over to her house. When I pulled into the parking lot, she was looking out the window and came straight down.

Her hair was pulled up into a loose bun, and she was wearing a baggy T-shirt with shorts. It was certainly a comfortable car outfit, and I couldn’t help thinking she looked a little hungover from her birthday night.

“How are you?” I asked, not willing to assume she had a hangover.

“Tired. We pretty much stayed up all night. I got a few hours this morning after you texted and told me what time you were coming. I’ll try not to be too cranky.” She laughed.

“Yeah, I’ve seen you angry, and I don’t want to see that side of you again.”

We got on the interstate going south toward Champaign, Illinois. It wasn’t a long drive, but it would take us a couple of hours with traffic. I wanted to get into town and get settled so we could get a good night’s rest and be fresh for the morning. I’d reserved two hotel rooms for that night, just because I didn’t want to assume anything would be going on with us, and I thought it was much more professional this way.

Anna wasn’t very talkative at all as we inched along in the traffic, and I noticed she was nodding off and falling asleep. I grabbed a sweatshirt from the back seat and handed it to her. She balled it up and leaned against the window to take a nap.

As we drove, I found myself constantly looking over at Anna. Of course, she was beautiful, but there was such a connection forming between us that I genuinely wanted to let her rest. I was just enjoying admiring her and the fact that she felt comfortable enough around me to sleep.

When we arrived at the hotel, Anna started to stir and finally woke up when I came back out to the car after getting us checked into the room. Her hair was all over the face, and she had an array of crease marks on her face.

“Wow, I’m sorry I slept the whole way. I bet that was a boring drive.”

“It was really peaceful. Here’s your key. We are just across the hall from one another,” I said as I pulled her luggage out of the trunk.

We had both brought one rolling bag and a small shoulder bag and we wheeled our luggage behind us and into the building. It was a standard road trip hotel, with complimentary breakfast in the morning and a small snack shop just off the lobby. There was a pool out back, a laundry room, and a workout center; none of which we would have time to use.

“My own room, hmmm,” Anna said when we got to our floor and started walking down the long hallway. “This is exciting. I’ve never stayed in a hotel room alone.”

“You’re welcome to come visit me if you get bored,” I teased with a wink.

“I might do that. What time do we need to be up tomorrow?”

“I’d say heading down to breakfast at eight o’clock. We’ve got an eight-thirty appointment with the company.”

Anna slid her key card into the door and pushed it open. She stood there for a minute admiring her room before she slipped inside and put her bag behind the door.

“I’m going to take a bath in this giant tub. Want to order a pizza for dinner and watch a movie on the expensive pay-per-view?” Anna asked.

“Deal.”

We both went into our rooms and closed the doors behind us. As much as I was excited to have Anna with me on the trip, I really did have work to do. As soon as I got into my room, I pulled out the project portfolio for the Myer’s Engineering. This company was looking at buying the engineering division. It was the largest of all the deals we were trying to set up, and if this one got locked into place, then it was likely the others would fall in fairly easily.

I was deep into thoughts and reviewing all the files an hour later when Anna knocked on my door. She was dressed in some comfy sweatpants and the same T-shirt and moved straight over to the pile of papers I was working on.

“Should we order a pizza first or go over this stuff?”

“Oh, you don’t have to go over this. It’s okay, I can do it.”

“No, if I’m going to be of any help, I need to know more about this company and how the engineering division would help them.”

“Okay, let’s order the pizza, and we can get to work while we wait,” I said, excited to see that Anna was taking this so seriously.

We went over the details of Myer’s Engineering. They were a small firm that was growing rapidly and was in desperate need of trained engineers. They were looking to get into the construction business in the Chicago area, and setting up this deal would be perfect for them. From all the research I’d acquired, it looked like Myer’s Engineering was an amazing firm to work for, and people talked highly about their jobs there. I’d even read a GlassDoor review from a former employee that spoke very highly of the company.

Anna paid close attention to all the details as we reviewed the documents, press, and financials of the company. I really hoped that having her with me would help soften the negotiations and make the sale a little more palatable to the buyers. Many companies didn’t like the idea of taking over another company because of the feelings of the employees. Even good employees could have a lot of animosity toward the new owners. But with Anna involved in the deal, I hoped they would see how this transition could be very successful.

When the pizza arrived, Anna and I devoured it like neither of us had eaten all day. The sandwich I’d had on my picnic with Clyde was certainly not enough to keep me feeling full.

“Did you eat anything today?” I laughed as she grabbed her fourth piece of pizza.

“No, I slept, and that was it. I’m starving. Sorry for pigging out.”

“Uh, don’t ever be sorry for eating like a normal human being. I hate when women feel like they can’t eat. You eat, damn it,” I said as I handed her another piece of pizza.

She laughed at me, but sure enough, she ended up eating it. We stayed up eating and reading the files until eleven o’clock and then both decided to get some sleep so we could be well rested for the meeting in the morning.

“Wake me up in the morning, please. I tend to sleep through my alarm when I’m really tired,” Anna said as she opened the door to go back to her room.

“I will. Get some sleep.”

“I’ll do my best. Okay, I’ll probably be asleep before you even finish picking up those papers.”

I was probably asleep only shortly after Anna. It was sort of nice to have separate rooms so I could stretch out and relax and not worry about sharing the room. But as I drifted off to sleep, I did think about Anna lying in her bed all alone and how cuddling with her and making love to her was becoming more and more of a priority in my late-night dreams.

By morning, I finally felt well rested. I hopped into the shower and dialed Anna’s room to make sure she was awake. After getting dressed, I went straight to her room and knocked, but there was no answer. I knocked again, and she peeked out with a towel around her.

“Sorry, just got out of the shower. Go eat, I’ll catch up.”

“Okay,” I said without arguing.

We didn’t have much time to waste, and I definitely didn’t want us to be late for our meeting. I grabbed a few items from the breakfast bar and a coffee as I sat in the large dining area and waited for Anna to come down. Seven-thirty came and went, then seven-forty-five, and finally, it was eight o’clock when she strolled into the room.

“Damn girl. Are you trying to show me up?”

“What? This old thing,” she teased as she spun around in her new gray suit.

It wasn’t a normal gray suit, though. The shirt and jacket were extremely fitted, and she was wearing a red blouse underneath. She had on red heels, and her hair was put up elegantly in a fancy bun. She looked like a businesswoman from some sort of style magazine, and it was impressive.

“You really do look fabulous. They are going to buy the company for sure.”

“I’m sure it will be your sales technique that will get them convinced. We better get going, though,” Anna said as she grabbed an apple from my tray. “We don’t want to be late.”

There were at least six businessmen in the dining area watching Anna as she put the apple to her mouth and bit in. It was erotic and sexy, and I couldn’t turn away, much like the other men in the room. Anna didn’t look like she was trying to be sexy, but damn she was. Her confidence radiated throughout that room, and with each bite of her apple, she had one man after another falling for her. I could feel their dagger eyes on me trying to assess if we were a couple or just business partners, and I couldn’t help sliding my arm around her waist as I led her out of the room. She was mine; they couldn’t have her.

When we arrived at Myer’s Engineering, there was a guy not much older than Anna who greeted us at the door. He wore a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, and he walked us back to the main conference room where we were met with a crowd of lookalikes. This was a very young firm, and the diversity in the room was impressive. Finding women engineers was a difficult task, but Myer’s had three women in the room all of different ethnic origins. The only downside I could see to this company so far was that none of them looked older than thirty.

As I looked around the room, I quickly started to get nervous. Although I clearly wasn’t that much older than this group of engineers, I was sitting there in a buttoned-up black suit with a white shirt and a navy tie. I couldn’t have looked more traditional if I’d tried.

“Hi, I’m Jason Hartley, and this is Anna Cook, everyone,” I said in my most upbeat voice.

“It’s so nice to meet you both,” the man at the head of the table said. “I’m Bryce Myers, and this is the crew. We won’t bore you by going around with introductions. Let’s look at the deal first.”

This man means business. I liked that, and it terrified me all at the same time. He had nearly the whole office in the meeting with us, and I hadn’t brought that many copies of the information on our engineering department. Luckily, they had enough copies of their proposal to go around.

“I’m going to let Anna lead you through what we have here. Do you want copies for everyone?” I asked.

“No, we are good. Go ahead, Anna,” he said as he looked at her to begin.

I hadn’t actually told Anna that I was going to have her lead the meeting because it hadn’t occurred to me until that very moment. Although she looked at me with a bit of surprise, Anna was a true professional and went right into the information we had about our engineers. Before long, I noticed Bryce and a few other engineers were nodding their head in agreement with Anna as she read through the numbers and specialties of our engineers.

“Oh, and then there is Salina.” Anna smiled. “She’s been with us forever. My father hired her as a secretary and paid for her to go to college when she said she wanted to become an engineer. She could have chosen to work for any company in the country, but she came back to work with us designing cold storage centers.”

That was exactly the sort of thing I’d hoped would come from having Anna with me. She might not have realized it, but that sincere statement about Salina could be what sealed the deal on the sale. It made our deal more relatable and much more interesting to a company like Myer’s that worked so hard to provide for their employees.

After nearly three hours of talking back and forth, Bryce finally handed me a copy of their full proposal with the price they wanted to bid. It was enormous—nearly twice what we had hoped to get for the engineering division. But I had some things that had to be settled first before we could officially accept the offer.

“Thank you for the offer,” I said. “As you know, this is a big project, and it will be a couple of weeks before we have secured all the final deals. Are you alright with a thirty-day acceptance of this deal?”

“Of course, and I’d like to come visit with the engineers before we finalize the deal just to let them meet me. I think it will help with the transition. And please relay our intention to keep every single one of them, and we will be providing them with company-covered health care and four weeks of vacation a year.”

“I’ll let them know.”

“Anna, what do your father and Marcus think about this deal?” Bryce asked as he turned to Anna.

Panic set in as I reached over and squeezed Anna’s hand in hopes that she could come up with an appropriate answer. I clenched my jaw and put on a smile as she started to talk. This was the deal changer. If Bryce knew that Edward didn’t have any idea about the sale yet, it might all be over.

“Bryce, my father has been very interested in retiring for a while. His most important wish is for his employees to be taken care of. Beyond that, he’s always believed in going with the flow for what is best for the company.”

“So, he doesn’t know about this deal?” Bryce astutely surmised from her answer.

“He has put his faith in Jason and the team, and he has me here to ensure his interests are covered. Our hope is to get the whole deal put together and surprise him with the news that he will finally get to retire,” Anna said with a huge smile on her face.

The way she talked to Bryce was admirable for sure. She didn’t lie at all. Every statement was truthful and from the heart, and I knew it was exactly what she hoped would happen when her father found out about the deal. It was what I wanted as well.

“Okay, well let’s give him his retirement,” Bryce said as he stood up and came over to shake hands with us.

Anna and I maintained our composure as we said our goodbyes and were walked out of the building by the same young man who had walked us into it. Although we had huge smiles on our faces, neither of us broke character as we got into the car and calmly drove out of the parking lot. It wasn’t until we were a block down the street that we let the excitement out.

“You did it! Oh, my God, Anna you were amazing,” I yelled as I put our windows down and let one of my hands fly out the window. “You were meant for this. Those guys were eating out of your hands. I honestly can’t believe how smooth that went.”

“I can’t believe you threw me to the wolves like that.”

“Sorry, but I’m so proud of you, this is amazing. Did you see how much they offered? It’s unheard of. And they are going to pay for all the benefits and extra vacation. This is the dream company.”

“My father would be really happy about this. I just hope we can get these kinds of deals from the other companies.”

“Me too.”