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“Good day, Mr. Sheppard.” The guard tips the brim of his hat toward me. “You’re the second Mr. Sheppard I’ve seen today.”
I laugh. “I take it the first got here early?”
He drags himself out of his chair to lean both elbows on the reception desk. “I doubt he ever left, sir. He’s unshaven, and his clothes are, shall we say, not pressed.”
Apparently, my brother looks like shit. I’ll use that to my advantage because I rarely see Holden in that state.
I start toward the elevators, not bothering to flash this guy my badge.
“Enjoy your afternoon, sir,” he says as I jab a finger into the call button.
I turn to smile at him. “I will. I hope you can do the same.”
He glances at the watch on his wrist. “My shift ends in less than an hour and then I get to see my wife. I’ll spend the rest of my day with the most beautiful woman in this city.”
I plan on doing the same, but in my case, it’s Sinclair I’ll be devoting my time too.
An open bottle of scotch, a bag of melting ice, and a brother who looks like the world stomped on him before it tossed him to the curb. That’s what I find when I enter Holden’s office.
“Holden?” I ask as I approach where he’s standing near a window that looks out to the city.
If he had a suit jacket on at some point, it’s been discarded. The back of his white button-down shirt is wrinkled, his pants aren’t any better, and his hair is sticking up in every direction.
When he turns to glance at me, I catch sight of the stubble covering his jaw. That’s new and foreign to me. I’ve never seen Holden with anything but a close shave. I swear he must take a razor to his face twice a day.
It’s obvious one hasn’t touched his skin recently.
He rubs a hand over his jaw. “You’re here.”
My gaze trails to the glass tumbler in his hand. It’s almost empty. “Partying hard by yourself, I see.”
He huffs out a humorless laugh. “I’m celebrating, James. Montgomery agreed to our terms.”
I spot three other tumblers sitting on a navy blue cloth on a shelf behind his desk, so I grab one, and fill it with a finger of scotch.
Just as I’m about to down it, Holden shakes his head. “Let’s toast to Grandmother.”
I won’t deny him that since she would be on cloud nine if she knew Holden had secured this deal.
Lifting his glass in the air, his eyes catch mine. “To Denia Sheppard. A woman with more determination than anyone I’ve ever met and a love of life that knew no bounds.”
I tap the side of my glass against his before I down the scotch. It burns a path to my stomach.
“Montgomery will officially sign the contract tomorrow,” Holden says, glancing at the window. “We shook on the terms this morning.”
“This morning?” I don’t attempt to suppress the surprise in my tone. “You met with Burton yesterday, didn’t you?”
He nods. “I bought him lunch. Then I brought him back here to tour the offices so I could pitch the deal.”
I glance at my empty glass, debating whether or not to refill it.
“He said he needed time to think it over.” He smirks. “It was one hell of a generous offer, James. The details are on my desk.”
I don’t need to glance at it to know the terms. Regardless of how much this will cost the company, it’s worth it. One of our grandmother’s wishes is now coming true. That’s priceless in my eyes.
“I expected him to go back to California to mull it over, but he agreed to it a couple of hours ago.” He lets out a sigh. “My first thought was to call her to tell her the good news.”
“Grandmother?”
He nods, his gaze dropping to the floor. “Yeah, but you know.”
“Yeah,” I repeat. “I know.”
“My next thought was to tell you.” He glances at me. “It’s a big win for us.”
Us.
It’s a small word with a hell of a huge meaning in this context. My brother and I haven’t been ‘us’ in years.
“I could have told you on the phone,” he admits. “But I wanted to do it in person.”
Again, his vulnerability is on display, and I’m not about to shove it back at his face. We have yet to discuss what went down between him and Finella. I want to ask but now is not the time.
“Have you eaten anything today?”
“A handful of jelly beans.” He laughs. “One of those lemon lollipops I liked when I was a kid, and I grabbed a couple of packages of the white chocolate covered raisins last night. I see why they’re not selling. We need to rethink that product.”
I laugh. “We will. Did you spend the night here?”
