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“Perception. I forgot about your superpower.” She picked up her glass again and took a long sip. Instead of putting down the glass, she twisted it between her fingers. When she glanced at him, her eyes held storm clouds and lightning.
“Can you keep a secret?” she asked.
Sully planted his elbows on the table. “Fort Knox is my middle name.”
“I lied to you when I told you I was good at my job. Iusedto be good at my job. Do you remember when we first met at the winery?”
“How could I forget? I’ve still got the wine stain on my shirt.”
She blushed. “Sorry about that. I was an ass.”
“You were upset.” He leaned across the table toward her. He’d been so curious about her sudden mood shift that day, at the clear pain that had surrounded her like an aura of shattered glass. “What happened?”
Alanna took another long sip, then put down her wine glass. “That call I got at the winery was my executive assistant informing me that my co-owner and our two junior partners had fired me.”
Her voice was stone, but Sully knew a volcano lived inside her. He could feel the heat of it, the rivers of lava, of searing indignation, flowing just beneath the surface of her skin.
“So, what are you going to do about it?” Sully asked, knowing full well there was absolutely no way would she sit back and take it.
Alanna smiled, but the expression was anything but kind or warm. That smile was as sharp as daggers. “I’m going to ruthlessly destroy my partner and get my PR agency back.”
Over the next half hour, she relayed the sordid tale of her dethroning. Sully learned how Alanna had built her agency from the ground up. How she’d bound her people to her using respect rather than fear. How Chip Rupert the Third had been a necessary evil and how he’d stabbed her in the back.
By the time Alanna concluded the story with her plans of Chip’s total annihilation at tomorrow’s arbitration hearing, the bottle of wine was almost empty, and Sully seethed on her behalf.
“What a scumbag,” he said. “You’re going to demolish him tomorrow. I know you will.” Sully wasn’t a violent man, but he wouldn’t mind giving this Chip Rupert guy a swift stomp to the sternum and then dropping him in the tiger exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.
“Damn right I am.” Alanna reached over and clinked her glass with his.
She was beautiful like this, a little tipsy with her cheeks pinking up and the wind ruffling her short hair. And tomorrow she’d be in Los Angeles valiantly fighting for her company. Sully didn’t know a thing about partnership contracts or arbitration, but it simply didn’t seem possible Alanna could fail at anything.
And that’s exactly how he knew he’d lost her before he’d even had the chance to win her over. A gut conviction told him that if she went to Los Angeles, she wouldn’t come back.
Alanna laughed. “I’m being such an ass, talking your ear off about myself. I haven’t even asked about you.”
Sully forced a smile. How idiotic was it to mourn a woman he’d never had in the first place? “There’s really not much to tell. Honestly, I’m jealous of you.”
Alanna laughed again. “What is it? My sweet personality? My demon cat?”
“You’ve got an amazing personality, and the cat will come around.” He swirled the wine in his glass, watching the violet legs run down the sides. “I’m jealous of your passion,” he admitted. The wine was making him brave, giving his thoughts a little push before he could think better of them. “You love your company. You’ve worked so hard and you’re willing to fight for it. I wish I believed in something that much.”
Why were his father’s words echoing in his head all of a sudden? What had his dad said? Oh, right,What’s your purpose, son?
Alanna frowned as she stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, now that I have more free time, I’ve been working on myself,” he explained. “I’ve been fixing up stuff around the house, learning the guitar. I’m even weightlifting at the gym.”
Alanna clucked her tongue. “That’s what it is.”
“Huh?”
“I just…” she smiled into her glass. “Nothing. Keep talking.”
Sully cleared his throat. “Don’t laugh, but I have this thing I’m doing, I call itThe Sully Project. I want to be the best version of myself.”
Alanna didn’t laugh. “So, what’s the problem?”
“It’s just that…” He felt his shoulders slump. “I thought filling my life with all these new things, these projects, would make me happy. But it hasn’t. There’s something missing.” Sully finished the last of the wine in his glass. “My dad thinks I don’t have a purpose, and I’m beginning to wonder if he’s right.”
