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My meetings with Neil were always ridiculously dry. I understood everything he was saying for the most part, but he decided to go through everything in excruciating detail, like I’d never taken a financial management course in my life.
I appreciated it, I guess. He cared about my father, and by extension, me. My dad hadn’t chosen him as my financial advisor just for fun.
But that didn’t mean I looked forward to these meetings.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Neil said as I walked into the conference room where we always met. He gave me a hug, holding on slightly longer than I was comfortable with. But he was old—not as old as my dad was, but old enough that he wouldn’t be fully aware of hug etiquette. Like the weird uncle in sitcoms.
“Hi, Neil.” I smiled. “How are you?”
“I’m great.” He squeezed my shoulders. “You look lovely today.”
“Thank you.” My cheeks flushed. I hadn’t been in the mood to wear anything particularly cute. Just jeans and a pink cashmere sweater.
“Let’s get started.” Neil glanced at Ethan, who was tasked with being my main guard today.
All three of them were intimidating, but Ethan was particularly so, and Neil was obviously affected. He never quite looked any of them in the eye, and he hated the fact that they were always with me. I thought back to what he’d said last time, about the guards not being a good idea. I still thought they were, even though Cody had dumped me. I didn’t feel any less safe after the incident, either. I definitely wasn’t going to tell Neil about that.
“All right.” Neil pushed a stack of papers toward me. “Here’s what’s going on with your stock options. I invested in a few of the things we discussed before, and you’re on track to get a return on those investments.”
I looked over the charts. He had wanted to invest in some new industries beyond the safe, steady ones that I was already into. I didn’t like to take a lot of risks with it, as my dad had always said to keep it on the cautious side, but investing a small amount wasn’t going to break me.
Neil droned on about a few more financial topics until we reached one of the last pages he’d put together.
“Now.” Neil cleared his throat and folded his fingers together, giving me a concerned look. “I do have to tell you that I’m concerned about some of your spending on superfluous items. Some charter jets, property, your bodyguards, things like that.”
“Oh?” I spent pretty freely, if I was being honest. I didn’t really budget because the money was always there, and I wasn’t the most outrageous spender out there. “What do you mean?”
“It’s just a matter of spending over time,” he said. “For instance, the hundreds of thousands on the charter jet could build up into something detrimental over time. The bodyguards are a very big expense per month, too. And your property purchases have been good investments, but if you keep buying in a market like this, you could get into trouble. See what I mean?”
I bit my bottom lip. Dad had always told me that property was a good investment, so I bought buildings from time to time and had them updated to rent out to people. I’d bought a few, but they hadn’t been all that expensive in the big scheme of things. But Neil had his pulse on it all. Maybe I’d been too reckless. I trusted him.
“Okay. I’ll ease up on some of it.” I wasn’t even going to humor the idea of getting rid of my bodyguards.
“Good. I want you to continue on to further the Bailey name and give to charity, so cutting back on some spending will definitely help.” He smiled, the skin around his eyes tight from the fillers and Botox he got. “Now, let’s talk about charity, now that we’re on the topic. The Bailey Foundation is doing very well.”
“I’m glad to hear it!” My father had founded it around the time I was born to help children who had gaps in their education get back on track. “What else can we do this quarter to help?”
Neil guided me through all the options and how the planning of the big Bailey Foundation gala was coming up. My worries about my spending faded into the background of my thoughts. Neil was always going to help. I didn’t have to worry about it.
CHAPTER25
Taylor
My days had been more and more routine lately. I worked at one of my favorite cafés in the morning, had lunch with a friend or a business contact, and had a meeting or two in the afternoon. Some days I went to work out before dinner, wherever I was having it. Then in the evening, I finally got to relax with Ethan and Harrison.
Cody was still staying at his apartment, arriving before I even woke up. I missed having him in the same bed as me, but seeing him first thing in the morning helped ease how much I missed him. He missed me, too. He couldn’t hide that. But when was he going to come around and understand that we could still work? I wasn’t going to be able to convince him of it unless something changed. I just didn’t know what that change would be.
“Ready for lunch?” Harrison asked, resting one of his big hands on my upper back as he guided me from the café to the big, black SUV where Cody and Ethan were waiting.
“Yeah, I’m so hungry.” I was going to a new Thai fusion place with another influencer friend, Karri, so we could discuss some possible collaborations in the future.
“Traffic is pretty bad, so you might want to tell your friend that we’ll be running late.” Harrison opened the door for me, and I got inside.
I pulled up my texts to my friend and let her know as Cody pulled away. Once I texted her, I checked my DMs. Most of the messages were pleasant, but I had my usual influx of creepy and mean people, which made my stomach turn. I did feel safe with the guys, but the fact that the man who had tried to snatch me off the street was still out there was terrifying. The guys were doing everything they could to find him, but they hadn’t yet.
I scrolled through my filter to see if I could find anything that could help. Nothing relevant was there. The guys who harassed and followed me usually didn’t broadcast who they were or even use a profile picture at all. The only thing that might have been helpful were the messages from different accounts telling me that they wanted to marry me. But honestly, sometimes those messages were from genuine fans who just really liked me, so I had no idea.
Traffic really was awful, mostly because some part of a sidewalk had collapsed two blocks over, so all the traffic had to be diverted to another street that was also under construction. I sighed and texted Karri again. She was already there, and her schedule was packed. I didn’t want to leave her waiting.
