Page 75 of Miss Treated

“You’re in town early,” I told Leo.

All six foot three, two hundred pounds of Leo plunked down on my couch. His dark hair was longer than the last time I’d seen him, and so was his beard. If I wasn’t mistaken, he had new ink on his arm. “Yeah, had some business in town and figured I’d come in tonight. Do I smell lasagna?”

Ava tsked. “You’re lucky Nicky probably made a big batch; otherwise, I’d fight you for it. Where’s your girlfriend?”

“She had to work late.” I’d snuck over to her hotel room last night, and although she’d appeared happy to see me, something was off. She’d claimed simple exhaustion from all the hours she’d put in this week, but I wasn’t convinced. The problem could have been any number of matters related to her mother or father. I only wished there was something I could do to help.

“Since when do you have a girlfriend?” Leo asked in surprise.

“It’s not official yet, but we’re heading that direction.” And it wasn’t freaking me out to do so.

Ava smirked. “Dominic is crazy about her, but he’s been all secretive about her identity.”

“Is she real?” my brother teased.

“Very. Mom has met her.”

“She coming to the party on Saturday?”

“No. She has to work, but I thought maybe she could come over here, and you could meet her after the party.” I wanted her to meet my brothers, but I understood why she wasn’t ready to attend my father’s birthday party while working for him.

“I don’t think my dad is coming to the party,” Ava stated, taking a seat on my kitchen stool.

“Why not?” I hadn’t seen Uncle Frank in months.

“I think he and Mom are having marriage issues. They try to hide it, but she’s definitely angry with him over something.”

“I’m sorry. Maybe it’s a phase.” They’d been married thirty years. Hopefully, they could work through whatever was happening.

“Hopefully.”

Friday morning, I went up to see my father only to have his assistant ask me to wait. “He’s in with the auditor currently and asked not to be disturbed.”

This was the third time this week they’d met. Kelsey was putting in so many hours it was possible she was approaching the end of the audit. Selfishly, I hoped it was winding down.

Then again, if it was, what did that mean? Would she return to LA? Would she consider another assignment down here?

I had a new idea to pitch to my father, one which might enable me to actually make it through the full year. We could both agree operations wasn’t my strong point, but what if I could add value in sales? Here my dad was worried about Gabe’s competitive company grabbing more of the market, but where was our strategy to ramp up new business development? Developing strategies around sales would be a hell of a lot more interesting to me than looking at budgets.

“I’ll come back in a few minutes.” I’d use the time to see if Shauna was around.

I knocked on the open door of the manager of sales. She looked up with surprise in her expression.

“Nic. Hi. It’s been a while. How are you?”

I cringed internally. It had been a while. Since the night Ava had pretended to be my girlfriend. “I’m good, thank you. How have you been?”

“Good. What can I do for you?”

“You have a couple minutes? I wanted to pick your brain.”

“Of course.”

I shut her door and took a seat in her guest chair. “I’ve been thinking about sales. Specifically, learning more about our strategies and how we go about our pitches.”

She wrinkled her nose. “But you’re the owner’s son. Why would you need to know more about sales?”

“I’m the COO, and the sales department falls under my umbrella. I’d like to start putting more focus on it. Taking more of an interest.”