Tapping his foot quietly under the table, Brecken counted the seconds until he could respectfully excuse himself. He should have sent Tina on this trip. His head wasn’t in it. A certain brunette had taken over his every thought. What was she doing? Was she at the ranch? Had she thought about him today? What was she wearing? The list went on.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he reached for it, pulling it out to check the screen. He made no apologies about looking at his phone during the meeting. Or any meeting for that matter. It wasn’t that he was a pompous ass who busted out his phone and checked his social media every five minutes, but what good was a cell phone if you didn’t answer it, or at the very least screen it, when it rang?

Not recognizing the area code, he declined the call and returned his attention to the presentation. Fifty-fucking-five slides in and they were no closer to the point than they’d been four hours ago when they’d started the meeting.

“Dan.” He waved his hand and leaned forward, elbows on the table. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but can we get to the point here? We all know the pros and cons of merging, we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. I care about the how. How do we pull this off and what does it mean for me and my company?”

The others in the room nodded along, and there was some murmuring and shifting in their seats as Dan put down the slide clicker and placed both hands on the table.

“That is the multi-million-dollar question.”

His phone buzzed again, the same number with a California area code displayed on the screen. Standing with an uneasy feeling, he started for the door. “Excuse me, I need to take this.”

Ducking out of the room, Dan’s voice filtered into the hallway as he called for a short break as Brecken headed to the stairwell to answer his phone.

“Hello?”

A slight pause and then a familiar voice he hadn’t heard in years spoke. “Brecken, how’s it going, little brother?”

Jaw clenched, Brecken made a gruff noise that was met with laughter.

“I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”

“You changed your number.”

“I’m calling from the hospital. You’ve been dodging my cell. Did my mom give you my number?”

“What do you want, Henry?” His teeth were clenched as he ground the words out.

“I have a few things I want to discuss with you. I’m flying into Denver next week. I’ve already made an appointment with your assistant, but I wanted to let you know personally so it wasn’t a surprise.”

“Don’t bother. I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“See you on Monday morning. What better way to start out the week than catching up with your older brother?” His tone was light and carefree, but each word settled like a boulder on Brecken’s shoulders.

“Stop calling yourself that. You are not my brother.”

Henry laughed and said, “See you soon, Brecken.”

Six more hours of brainstorming and talking circles with Dan and the other CEOs and they were no closer to reaching a plan that everyone was happy with. Dan, the CEO of D&R Software, a small software company primarily focused in the farming industry, had brought them all together to discuss merging their companies so that together they could compete across the entire agricultural market.

Some thought it was a good idea, others didn’t, but they were all there because they knew if they could pull it off, it meant a great deal of money in future contracts for everyone involved. However, deciding the details of how that impacted their current companies, employees, and their own positions was a bit trickier. One man suggested a total buyout where they would completely wash their hands of their current businesses, but he was in the minority. Most everyone wanted to hold on to a piece of what they’d built, Brecken included.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he wanted or why he was there. He didn’t need to merge. He had everything he’d ever set out to achieve, but something about changing and starting a new challenge intrigued him. Also, there was no denying that being part of the agricultural world was a part of who he was, or at least who he’d been. He was good at it because he knew the business.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.” Dan loosened his tie and slouched back in his chair. The exhaustion on his face was a dead giveaway that he wanted this more than anyone. His company needed it. “Let’s meet back tomorrow, same time and place.”

After shaking hands and making his polite departure spiel over and over, Brecken found himself outside walking toward the hotel. It was several blocks away, but getting into another small space with anyone after an entire day crammed in a conference room with ten people was out of the question. He needed time to himself to think and to breathe without anyone expecting him to say or do anything.

His mind should have been on the prospect of merging his company and deciding if it was a good move for him, not on Henry and their meeting next week. A meeting. Ha! He could remember back to when they were kids and held meetings in their fort. Those had mostly consisted of figuring out what pranks they were going to pull for the day or how they were going to talk their parents into letting them go into town by themselves.

It’d been years since Brecken had seen Henry. He did the math in his head quickly, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk when he realized it’d been nearly two decades since he’d been in the same room as his childhood best friend. God, it felt like yesterday in some ways. He refused to admit it aloud, but it also felt like a lifetime.

Brecken had spent the first five years after leaving home holding steady in his hate for Henry and his father. Pride and stubbornness ruled him. He’d focused on school and had done his best to forget everything he’d ever known that felt like home. Except his mom. Thank goodness. He’d never have forgiven himself if he’d wasted time punishing her. As it was, he hadn’t had enough time with her before she got sick.

By the time he reached his hotel, he wanted nothing more than to shower and then lay in bed and watch television until sleep saved him from his memories. Almost as soon as the door to his room clicked shut, his shoes were off and he was peeling off his suit jacket, shirt, and tie. He undid his pants and let them fall to the floor, stepped out of them, and met his reflection in the mirror. He watched his own face transform from a pitiful, angry glower to a ridiculous smile as he checked himself out in his zebra print underwear. They reminded him of January’s reaction to the leopard print, and his dick was twitching as he remembered that day. Had it really only been a few days since then? A little over a week since he’d met her?

Feeling playful, he snapped a quick pic and sent it to her before he jumped in the shower. By some small miracle, the woman seemed to be his own personal happy place, elevating his mood without even being in the same room.