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She shakes her head. “No. I don’t mean the pact.” She sighs. “But I have always thought you all took that a bit far. I mean, all five of you didn’t need to become billionaires to take care of your parents. They didn’t have to have a giant house in the country with fields for a yard. And a forest. And a lake.”
How the hell did we get to discussing the house we bought for my parents? “We can talk about the house another time. But if you don’t mean the pact, what do you mean?”
She folds her arms across her chest and fixes me with that sad determination. “The subclause to it.”
“Oh…” All hope drains out of me and sucks my head into my hands. “Ow.” My back twinges at the sudden movement. My heart joins the pain parade. As does my stomach. And every part of my being that thought she didn’t know about it forms a marching band behind them.
“I know why Anna left,” she says.
Anna was Max’s assistant before Charlotte. She was as important to him as his right hand. She nursed him through the growing pains when he started Harvest and worked as many hours as he did when it took off.
Then she quit out of the blue.
Except, it wasn’t really out of the blue. Connor, my middle brother, had been pestering her for a date for months. No matter how much Max, our cousin Walker, or I told him to take a hint, he wouldn’t give up.
Eventually Anna got so fed up she walked out and left Max high and dry.
“I know that after that, Max made you all agree to never mix work and relationships. He told me it’s a subclause to the pact.”
Well, thank you, big brother. Thank you for explaining your obsession with never mixing family and business to your staff.
The sub-fucking-clause.
But if that’s the only thing stopping her, if I’m lucky enough that she wants to be more than friends and colleagues, I’m not going to let that ridiculous thing stand in the way. These are completely different circumstances.
“But that was because Connor was being a dick.” I reach across the canyon and place my hand on her arm. She doesn’t pull away, which must be a good sign. “This isn’t like that. This is different. This is real.”
“Max wouldn’t think it was different. If I were involved with you, Max would think that as soon as things went sideways I’d quit and he’d lose another trustworthy employee.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.” I can feel my face pleading with her, and it’s probably not a good look. But we’re on the brink of something amazing here, and I’m not going to let her give up on it without a fight. “He’d blame me. He totally blamed Connor last time. So if he was pissed off with anyone, it would be with me, not you.”
Her eyes search mine, looking for a part of me to understand her. “But he couldn’t do anything to punish you, could he? You’re his brother. And you don’t even work for him. The only person he could punish would be me.” She pokes herself in the chest, dislodging my hand.
“How could he punish you? It’s not like he’d fire you. You know how to run that place almost as well as he does. And he’s trying to cut back so he and Polly can have kids. So I know he needs you more than ever.”
She reaches for the water bottle again but doesn’t open it, just stares at it. “It’s him needing me that’s part of the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to be Max’s assistant forever. I want to be an executive.” She runs a finger around the edge of the bottle’s label. “Well, a project manager to start. But eventually an executive.”
“You could do that anywhere. You could come and work for Two Coast and be a project manager.”
Her eyes snap up from the bottle to meet mine. “You can’t buy me with a job, Elliot.”
Shit. Just when I thought I was saying something right. “I wasn’t trying to b?—”
“Even if I did want to quit, I couldn’t because I’d have to pay them back tens of thousands for my tuition fees. But I don’t want to. I want to work for Max. I fucking love Harvest Enterprises. He’s built the most incredible empire. And I want to grow in it. I want him to give me a business to run.”
“And I bet he would. He knows what a brilliant mind you have. Ask him.”
“I have,” she says softly and drops her gaze back to the bottle.
“From that look, I guess he must have said no. Which is nuts. I saw you in action today, and he sees you in action every day. He must know he’d be lucky to have you running any part of his business.”
“He didn’t say no. He told me that if I could pull off your launch on schedule, he’d give me a little something to run, to get my feet wet, to prove myself.”
Oh. My heavy heart plummets and hits my stomach like a rock. So there’s a different reason than the one I’d hoped for all the attention she’s been giving me. It’s not about helping me because she wants to help me. It’s all about hitting the launch deadline to get the promotion she wants. That’s a kick in the groin I wasn’t expecting.
