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I rolled my eyes. “The tea can wait.” Or maybe it wouldn’t come at all, which was what I was leaning toward. If Lana was going to refuse my tea, then no tea for her. All she’d had to do was toss that cupful and pour herself another if the piece of lint had bothered her so much. She probably swallowed more dust particles than that every time she opened her big, freaking mouth.
I shoved the teacup aside to see what papers could be salvaged. I’d been right on the first guess, half of them were ruined, which made me exactly eleven minutes late to the meeting.
Clutching them to my chest, where my frightened heart was trying to pound its way through my ribcage, I held my breath and eased open the door to the conference room, fully expecting it to make a loud creak and for everyone to stop their super important discussion to stare disgustedly at me for interrupting. But, wow, silence. From the door, anyway.
At the front of the room, Nash stood at the whiteboard, his back to the rest of the employees as he jotted down notes and talked about goals he’d set for the next quarter, only to be interrupted by Lana with some critical reason why she didn’t agree with him.
So really, no one even noticed me entering, except Brick. He brightened when he glanced over and saw me. Then he waved me forward to sit by him, a devilish grin quirking his lips as he pointed out the empty seat beside him.
It took me a moment to realize why he looked so mischievous. On the opposite side of the available spot was none other than Christopher Elton.
I blushed and took a step in reverse, shaking my head vigorously. But Brick started to make a bigger production of waving me over. His antics actually gained the attention of a few people who’d been listening to Nash and Lana argue. If he kept it up, the whole room would notice my presence. And worse yet, Shyla was one of the few who hadn’t realized I was there, while she was the only person I actually needed to see me so she could fetch these damn market reports I needed to drop off.
Since Shyla was busy taking notes, I gnashed my teeth and marched toward my stepbrother, who may or may not make it through the day alive—I hadn’t decided yet.
To house nearly eighty employees, the area was se
t up more like a classroom than corporate conference room. There wasn’t one big table everyone gathered around but instead about twenty small tables that faced the front, where a podium, white board, and enormous pull-down screen for PowerPoint presentations was set up. An aisle separated the room in half, where I guessed Lana’s employees stayed to one side and Nash’s took the other. The table Brick sat at was located at the edge of the center aisle about halfway up the room.
I was so busy glaring at him, I tripped over a pair of shoes some guy had sticking out in the aisle as he crossed his feet at the ankles. Thankfully, I caught myself before I crashed to the floor, but it was still embarrassing.
“Oh gosh. Sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t see—”
The words stalled in my throat when I took in my tripper. Hayden appeared to be on the verge of forgiving me—or maybe issuing his own apology—as he yanked his feet out of my way until he focused on my face. The irritated, harassed sigh that followed seemed to say of course it would be you.
I swear, my older stepbrother hated me almost as much as Lana did, but he seemed the type who wanted nothing whatsoever to do with me and not the type who relished my torture as his mother did. I think it stemmed back to when I was seven and our parents had first become engaged. I’d been so eager and excited to get to know my new brothers that I’d invited them to a tea party. Just a simple, innocent get-to-know-you tea party. At the time, sixteen-year-old Hayden had wanted to go to a concert with his friends, but Lana had made him accept my invitation instead. He’d been determined to ignore my existence ever since.
“Sorry,” I repeated. Then, cringing and hurrying past him, I focused my attention on Brick, who merely rolled his eyes over his brother’s attitude and pulled the empty seat out from the table for me to sit.
“I’m not staying,” I whisper-hissed. “I just need to get these reports to Shyla or your mother and then I’ll be on my—”
“What do you mean, you’re not staying?” He sent me an odd look. “These meetings are mandatory for everyone. How the hell do you get out of them?”
Oh geez. I guess he’d never noticed I hadn’t been present at one before. What an observant big brother.
Honestly, the meetings were only mandatory for paid employees. Lana had actually forbidden me from attending them, probably because she knew how desperately I wanted to be included. I was about to tell Brick all this when Nash’s voice rose from the front of the room, catching my attention.
“I’d be more willing to discuss this with you if you’d brought your own objectives to the meeting, Lana.” His deep voice broadcasted his authority as he loomed over my stepmother. “Or you actually had a reasonable argument.”
I silently cheered for him, glad there was one person in the building who always stood up to her. Though I guess who else would even try? He was her only equal here, which was Lana’s own fault. She’d nearly bankrupted JFI about a year ago and had to sell out half the company to Nash Corporation, so now she had a co-CEO to deal with every step of the way.
And though I wanted to hate the guy because his family had been the one to buy out half my father’s company while I’d been unable to get it myself, Ezra Nash had truly and honestly saved JFI when he’d come on board. He had a savvy business sense, and he kept the employees happy with reward incentives and after-hour activities.
“Just look at my mother up there,” Brick whispered in my ear. “Panting and drooling over Nash like a bitch in heat. I swear she’s half a second from mounting him on the conference table and shagging him in front of us all.”
“Eww, stop. That’s sick.”
Trying not to picture my stepmother doing any such thing, I nudged Brick with the pointy end of my elbow, hoping he’d behave.
I gagged every time he said his mom wanted Nash, though Lana did seem obsessed with the guy. It was always, Nash this and Nash that, in a very snide, condescending tone whenever she talked about him, which was a lot, like all that hate she held for him boiled down to a case of the throbbing, hormonal, sexy wants.
Not that I could blame her taste. Nash was flawless in a Matt Bomer, Henry Cavill, mixed with a dash of Ryan Reynolds kind of way. The man walked into a room and ovaries immediately began sizzling. Add that to the mysterious aloofness about him, and it only made him that much more appealing. He had an intimidating yet reverent allure that made him untouchable, un-talk-to-able, and almost un-breathe-around-able.
Would he go for Lana, though? Aside from the fact my dad had appreciated her enough to marry her—which had been years ago when she’d been much nicer—I couldn’t picture anyone willing to put up with her bitterness, no matter how pretty she was. Besides, she was old enough to be Nash’s mother. I’d lose all respect for him if he fell under her spell.
Lord, I hoped he never gave into her, business-wise or privately. I had a suspicion we’d all suffer if he did.
Brick leaned close to murmur in my ear, “Is it wrong that I want him to win every argument those two have, just to see her lose?”
