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Max holdsthe door open for Will Brenner as he walks out of the Kings conference room then turns back and levels me with a frustrated glare. “Fuck...” He draws the word out as he crosses the room and pours a tumbler of whiskey from the crystal set on the credenza.
“Yeah.” I close the proposal in front of me. “Not so sure this deal is going to go through. He’s making an awful lot of demands for someone who came to us, asking us to solve his problems.”
My brother downs his drink in one swallow before leaning onto the conference table, his brows creased. “Tell me what you’re thinking, Scarlet? We’re talking about you taking over as president. If we agree to these terms, you’re the one who’ll be tied to them.”
“Let’s see.” I stand and cross the room to look out the windows at the dark stadium below. “We have to keep what seems like all his upper-level management staff in place for a minimum of twelve months. So it’ll be a long twelve months of arm wrestling with the old guard to get on board with the new way of doing everything.” And that’s not mentioning that I’ll be dealing with all of this while I’m balancing my dream job with a newborn. “Because you know they’re never going to want to change what they’re already doing. I mean, I’ll definitely get ridiculous pushback. That should be fun, right?”
“Right. Guarantee the GM and the...” He picks up the blue portfolio Will left behind, then flips it open before changing his mind and slamming it back down on the table. “Do we want this headache?”
I turn around and lean back against the cool windowsill and meet Max’s gaze. “I’m honestly not sure we do.”
I’m not sure I can handle this transition.
And that’s a tough pill to swallow.
I’m not sure how many balls I’m capable of keeping in the air.
I know I could handle this if I wasn’t expecting a baby. But I have no idea what my life will look like six months from now or how much help I’ll need. Add the learning curve of an entirely new organization to that, and I’m worried it might be too much.
Whoever said women can have it all needs to explain to me exactly when those women are supposed to sleep. Because I don’t see a lot of that in my future.
By the time I slide into my car after the meeting, I’m still undecided about whether to go to Cade’s house or just go home.
I’m tired.
So tired.
But I don’t think that’s going to change over the next few months. So I guess there’s no time like the present to get this over with. Cade’s not wrong. We don’t know each other anymore. And if he’s going to want to co-parent, I guess we need to fix that.
I plug the address he gave me earlier into my navigation system, then tell my Bluetooth to call Lenny.
She answers on the first ring. “Hey. How’d the meeting with Brenner go?”
“Not as good as we’d hoped. I just left the office. Max is still there, going over the official proposal.” I pause for a moment before quietly adding, “I’m on my way to Cade’s.”
There’s movement on her end of the phone before she practically whispers, “Holy shit. Seriously? I thought it didn’t go well when you went to Crucible on Friday.”
“Our brother has such a big mouth.” Not that I’m surprised.
“All our brothers have big mouths. Which one are we mad at?”
I appreciate that she automatically jumps in with me. “Don’t be dense, Len. If anyone knows Friday didn’t go well, it’s because Hudson activated the goddamn phone tree. PTA moms have nothing on him.”
“Yeah, he kinda made sure we all knew what happened before we went to bed Friday night. But we agreed to give you space over the weekend. And let me tell you, you might owe Max for the way he controlled Becks. It wasn’t pretty.” Lenny blows out a breath, and I can picture the look on her face.
The two of us catch up as I navigate the streets of Kroydon Hills.
My GPS has me turning right onto Cade’s street and pulling down a long, curved driveway until I come to a stop behind a sporty little SUV. When Len mentions the proposal again, I feel my temples throb. “Yeah well, Maximus is going to owe me if we go through with buying the Revolution. My head actually hurts, just thinking about it.”
“Well, you’re about to walk into a gorgeous man’s house. I’m sure he could come up with a few ways to make it feel better.” Lenny snickers, and I roll my eyes.
It’s not like she can see me.
“That would be a no. Friends, Eleanor. Your niece deserves for her parents to be friends. Wish me luck.” That’s what Cade said earlier that got me, and he’s right.
My daughter deserves for her parents to be friends.
God knows I spent enough time listening to my own parents fight, and I know that’s not what I want. Max, Becks, and I have the same mother—Adaline. Our father, the late John Joseph Kingston, cheated on her with Sawyer and Hudson’s mom, Elise. Eventually, he cheated on Elise with Lenny and Jace’s mom, Kristin. If he ever cheated on Kristin, he was at least discreet about it and managed not to get caught. It seemed like he finally found the love he was looking for. But Kristin died from cancer during Lenny’s senior year in high school.
