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CHAPTER 32
Kylie
“Have I told you how beautiful you look today?” A sexy baritone voice said next to my ear.
I turned around and smiled at Dylan. He’d snuck up on me while my thoughts had been wandering during the wedding reception.
The ceremony had been perfect, and the weather couldn’t have been better if we’d custom ordered it.
Nicole had looked radiant in her gorgeous ivory dress, with her hair swept up in an elegant arrangement that suited the vintage style gown.
The ceremony had been short, but achingly sweet, as Damian and Nicole had pledged their lives to each other.
I put my arms around his neck. “You’ve told me that a few times, but thank you…again.”
The dresses Macy and I wore were simple but beautiful. They were deep blue with a sweetheart neckline and small, off-the-shoulder short sleeves.
My heart skittered as he grinned down at me and asked, “Care to stroll down to the lake? The crowd is finally starting to thin out. I think our duties are done here.”
The reception had started right after the noon wedding, so everything was winding down.
I nodded. “Let me just dash inside and use the bathroom before we go.”
Dylan had taken me down to the lake that was hidden in the trees once before, and it wasn’t far, but I really had to pee.
I took a quick glance around at the remaining guests as I hurried toward the house, but I hadn’t spotted Macy, Nicole, or Damian.
Oh well, it wasn’t like Dylan and I would be gone long, and I had my cell phone tucked inside the silver wristlet I was carrying.
I headed for the bathroom right next to the library and quickly did my business, stopping to slap on a little more sunscreen from the small tube in my purse before I exited.
This part of the home was quiet and empty, so I stopped short, right outside the bathroom door, when I heard Nicole’s voice as she said, “This just doesn’t feel right to me, Damian. I really shouldn’t sign these papers to sell ACM to Dylan without discussing it with Kylie first. We’re partners.”
My entire body tensed as I moved closer to the library door. It was partially ajar, but I couldn’t see Nicole and Damian. They were obviously right behind the opening, near the library desk.
Are they signing paperwork?
It wasn’t possible that I’d heard Nicole correctly, right?
She couldn’t be selling ACM. To Dylan?
“You were never legally partners, Nicole,” Damian said in a soothing tone. “Dylan is buying the entire company. He’s going to do right by Kylie. You know he will.”
How? Was he going to be magnanimous enough to give me my old job back?
I stood there, frozen, my entire life and everything I’d worked for crumbling beneath my feet.
Technically, it was Nicole’s business to sell. We hadn’t made a legal agreement yet, nor had I given her a penny yet, so I could hardly barge into the library and tell her she had no right to sell her business to Dylan Lancaster.
What I had saved toward a company of my own would only buy a tiny portion of interest in ACM, but I’d been okay with that since I knew I could keep paying Nicole for a bigger percentage over time.
Maybe I’d never get to the half-ownership she’d wanted to legally sign over to me for absolutely nothing at all, but I’d known that I could keep chipping away at acquiring more and more of the company I loved like it was my own.
That had been the solution I’d planned to present to Nicole once she was back from her honeymoon since there was no way I could just take half interest in ACM for free.
I’d been the one who hadn’t wanted to be named as a legal partner until I’d worked out the details.
I’d known I was going to get pushback from Nicole because I would be the working partner in the future, but we could have haggled things out. Somehow. Now, because I’d hesitated to reach out for what I wanted, someone had snatched it away just when that goal had been so close I could almost taste it.
