“Everyone keeps telling me that. I just have to start believing it.”
He grabbed their order and carried it out, them returning upstairs and her walking in with Ethan. Blair was sitting there eating a sandwich. She turned to look at him and he laughed.
“I bought you dinner for tonight,” he said. “I know you’re going to be here later.”
“Thanks, boss,” Blair said, taking it. “Saves me from running out to get it.”
Once Ethan left, Nora sat at the table to eat and flipped the lid on her laptop.
“What do you need me to do this afternoon? I should be done with the data analysis. I’m not sure if you’ll have a chance to look it over.”
“Eat your lunch and relax for a minute,” Blair said. “I won’t be able to get to it today but will later. I need to finish a few things for Ethan.”
She ate her lunch in silence, the phone ringing on Blair’s desk. She stood to get it, but Blair snagged it after looking at the number across the screen, then said she’d be right back and left.
There was a knock on the doorframe, and she looked up to see Mitchell standing there. “My son hasn’t scared you off yet, I see. Thank God.”
“No. He’s pretty easy so far. We’ll see once Blair is gone.”
Mitchell looked to both sides and then stepped in. “It will get better. I’m sure you’ve been told that by more than one person.”
Mitchell was talking about her father.
No, her father hadn’t told her it’d get better. He’d told her to make sure she worked hard, stayed professional and kept her head down and did what she was told.
Completely night and day from everyone else.
Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to listen to her father.
Or maybe that was a good thing.
18
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
“Is there anything you need me to do before I leave for the day?” Nora asked at four.
“Come in and shut the door,” he said.
Might as well let her know what was going on now. He hated not saying anything earlier, but he needed more information to know if it’d even move any further.
What Blair had gotten back from Griffin, sorted through, and then his meeting with his father and Darin gave him the information he needed to decide.
Then make an offer.
It was the last bit to go through for him to take the next step.
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m going to tell you what is going on. The conversation with Blair earlier that was confusing.”
“It was, but I doubt it will be the first one I’ll get bits and pieces of.”
“It won’t be,” he said. “Did she say anything?”
“That you’re buying a company on your own. I know some of my duties are going to overlap even though I’m paid by Bond Enterprises.”
“That’s right, it will. Here is the deal, or the shortened version of things. There are branches within the company. Eli has one, Egan has one, and so do I.”
