CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Zachary
Gavin and I had this thing in college. Whenever one of us looked like we were getting too much play from a girl, like it might have been straying into serious territory, we sounded the alarm. We called it Code Red. At that point, we would help each other do whatever we could to backtrack out of it. Usually, it involved sending in other women or lying to the Code Red to get them to leave. Whatever we could do, we did.
By Sunday, there was no doubt about it.
I was in a Code Red situation with Juliana.
Not that I’d seen her much in the past week. In fact, the less I saw of her, the more I wanted to see her, and the farther into dangerous territory I tread.
But as I rode in the limo to JFK International, I knew this would ordinarily be the point where I’d send up the SOS signal to Gavin.
But the thought of being with other women, or lying to Juliana?
I didn’t want to.
I just wanted to see her again. Be inside her again.
Tomorrow. I’d see her at the board meeting with our R&D team. We’d arranged this big thing in the downstairs event room. Actually, Juliana had done all the arranging without much help from me. I had no idea what we were in for.
I didn’t really care. Truth be told, Vaughn Industries was well aware that our snacks could be a little healthier. But all of our efforts in the past to bring healthy snacks to the marketplace had failed miserably. Starting with the massive tanking of low-fat GoodSnacks in the early nineties, and then the tanking of carb-free Guiltless Goods later, it had proven to us that no one turned to Vaughn for healthy snacks. We were okay with that.
But I’d had to give Juliana her chance. If it meant she wouldn’t hate me, and I’d get to see her again, I’d give her the chance.
My father was waiting at the curb as the limo pulled up, suitcase and custom golf clubs in tow. He slid inside next to me, smiling, and even though his green eyes were covered by sunglasses, I knew they were sparkling. My father usually had pale skin, but the constant Florida sunshine on him had done wonders — he was tanned and looked healthier than I’d ever seen him. “Hey, Dad. How was your flight?”
“Not bad,” he said, yawning. “Not bad. How’ve you been?”
My father had just started living year-round in Florida, and though he was retired now, he still made it up to the city at least monthly for business and to see my mother. He still hadn’t been able to completely relinquish the reins of the business to me, so he’d assumed the role of Director Emeritus, which meant that he still came up to and presided over our monthly board meetings.
I nodded. “Fine. Hot down there?”
He shrugged. “Oh, you know. You get used to it. Still better than here.”
My father was not an old man. Even with his shitty ticker, he still had plenty of life left in him, so I could still see him staying active with the company for the next two decades. He had a full head of silver hair and still looked young, save for an open-heart surgery scar and a little pooch in the belly, despite the fact that he was responsible for… what had Juliana called them? A food worse than heroin? The bane of her existence?
I found myself smiling as I thought of her. How passionate she’d been. How fucking sexy.
My father began going over the agenda of our Monday meeting, and meanwhile, my thoughts stayed on Juliana. When I realized he was talking about lunch plans, I stopped him.
“Actually, we have a special guest presenter for lunch,” I said. “Juliana Hurley is a nutritionist who has a plan to help us, you know, make our recipes a little healthier.”
His normally jovial mood turned sour. “What? How did that come in? I don’t want to waste my time—”
“Dad…” I held up a hand. “I know, I know. We’ve been through it before. But I still think we should give her a chance. She presented at that forum on school lunches last week and had a lot of people on her side. We want to at least give the appearance that we want to do healthy. Right?”
He nodded, conceding. “But I’d rather we not waste the board’s time—”
“It’ll be worth it.” My tone was blunt. “She’s really… something.”
My father’s face broke out into a smile as he inspected me. “Something?” He crossed his arms and laughed. “Something as in, she has a nice set?”
“Dad.” Something told me he’d been away from my mother too long. “No. I mean, she does, but—”
“Come on, come on,” he said. It was a funny thing about my father. When he was with my mother, he was as strict as she was. But when he was apart from her for any period of time, he became more relaxed, and this fun, bachelor side of him came out. I could almost see him as the single, fun-loving guy like me. Now that he wasn’t running the company, it was even more pronounced. “Your mother told me about the stunt you pulled at the gala. An escort? Really?”
I shrugged as he laughed, a long, hardy belly laugh that shook the pooch of a stomach under his polo.
“Technically, she wasn’t one, but…” I stopped. Technically she’s the nutritionist who’s presenting to us on Monday. “Forget it. Long story.”
He shook his head. “You should’ve known how well that’d go over with her. You sure do like to get her riled up, don’t you?”
I looked out the window. It wasn’t that I liked it. It was just too easy. Anything I ever found interesting or exciting, my mother usually frowned upon. “Look. I’m just trying to live my life.”
“By inviting a girl with a nice set into the boardroom, hoping it’ll get you laid,” he said with a small smile. “Nice. Nice work.”
“That’s not it—”
He held up his hands as if to say he wasn’t taking offense. “Hey. I’ve been there.”
Okay, that was partly it. “I do think she has some valid points and even if we don’t make the changes she suggests, it’ll only help our image to listen to her.”
He ran a suspicious eye over me as I reached over and poured myself a glass of scotch. Sure, it was only eleven on Sunday morning, but I needed it.
“And if it gets you laid, all the better,” he added.
I looked at him. He’d definitely loosened up since retiring. I couldn’t help but laugh. “Juliana isn’t… it really isn’t like that with her. She’s different,” I admitted. “She’s funny and awkward, but… so gorgeous. She has this drive, this ambition… but she can be uptight. Really uptight about things.”
My father stared at me, a vaguely astonished look on his face. I’d never spoken to him about women before. “Well, in case you didn’t notice, I have a little experience in the realm of uptight women.”
I chuckled. That was the understatement of the year.
“Mom wasn’t always so uptight, was she? She did know how to have fun once?”
My father nodded. “Well, some things she was always uptight about, but we had fun together. Sometimes I felt like I was the only person who saw that side of her. It made me feel a little special.”
“Yeah? When did you fall in love?”
“In college. She was a cute co-ed but obsessed with saving the environment. She was actually protesting in the student center and got on my case for using Styrofoam. She told me I was killing the children of the future. It was that passion that got me.” He grinned. “I asked her out right there. I have no idea why she said yes, but she did. I think she hoped to convince me to see the light. I ended up seeing a lot more than that, that night.”
He raised his eyebrows suggestively.
“Dad,” I laughed awkwardly. “TMI.”
“Well, I can’t wait for this meeting then,” he said with a smile. “Juliana, you said her name was?”
I nodded, half wishing I’d kept my mouth shut. My father would now be giving me eyes the entire time. Just what I needed.
I quickly changed the subject. “Up for a few rounds of golf today?”
He nodded. My father had kept his membership at Piping Rock, just for that reason, so I wasn’t surprised. “Always, my boy. Always.”