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Emma
We leave the restaurant to find Savage, once again, leaning on the SUV, waiting for our return. I hand Savage a bag filled with muffins. “Enjoy, big boy,” I say, climbing into the back seat, with Jax following right behind me.
A few minutes later, we pull up to the Knight offices and the impact of our arrival for me is surreal. This isit,I realize. Nothing will ever be the same after today. My brother is going to go through with this merger. I’m moving to Maine. I may never work another day in this building. This place has been my life: the good, bad, and in between.
“You okay?” Jax asks, squeezing my leg.
I give a small nod. “Yeah. Just leaving this place behind is strange.” I shrug and look at him. “But it’s not going to be the same here anyway, and I’m not sure why I’d want it to be.”
“We can get an apartment here, Emma.”
His offer slides from his lips with such ease and sincerity that it’s as if he cares little of the consequences to himself and his business. But I do. “No,” I say firmly. “You have an empire to run. And I can’t watch how you do it from here.” Savage opensmy door, and I place a peck on Jax’s freshly shaven, baby butt smooth cheek. “Let’s go do this. We’ll close a chapter and then start a whole new book.”
His blue eyes warm with appreciation, amber flecks of sunshine from the open door, catching in their depth. “That sounds like an excellent plan, baby.”
Itisan excellent plan, but that does nothing to dissolve my nerves over this contract signing. I pray my brother does right by us all. I exit to the street and Jax is quick to join me. His big strong hand settles possessively on my back, his touch somehow bringing me down a notch. Okay, half a notch.
“Should I join you?” Savage asks. “I have yet to hang that toad, Randall, up by his toes. This could be the day.”
Laughter bubbles from my throat. “Thank you for that visual that I will cherish the entire time I’m in this building.”
Jax slides his arm around me. “Eat your muffins, Savage. We got this.” Jax rotates us, and we start walking, only to have Savage call out, “I inhaled them. Blueberry rocks my world.”
Jax and I burst into joint laughter. “I do believe I’ll miss him when he’s gone,” I say. “Is he coming back to Maine with us?”
“I asked him to stay through at least Thanksgiving.”
What he doesn’t say is that he’s having him stay on to ensure that I don’t end up drugged by another masked man. I don’t say it either. I’d rather think of Randall, the toad, hung up by his toes.
My brother’s assistant, Becca, a pretty blonde who is all business and quite efficient, greets Jax and I at the elevator on the executive floor. “Your attorney’s already in the conference room.”
“What about Chance?” I ask.
She purses her lips. “Dealing with some crisis at the Denver location. Apparently, the manager has been stealing from us.”
I don’t gasp. This is the way of life in the hotel business. You just take the blows on the chin. “Just feed him cookies and he’ll be fine,” I say, catching Jax’s arm. “We’ll be in the conference room when he’s ready.” I tug Jax to the left, and Becca calls out, “I ordered chocolate chip.”
I smile and glance at Jax. “He eats cookies when he’s stressed, which explains why he jogs five miles a day. He’s always stressed.”
“Maybe the merger will actually eliminate that,” Jax suggests.
“One can hope,” I agree, halting us at a heavy wooden door. “This is it.”
Inside the conference room, we’re greeted by a Clark Kent kind of dorky, but nice-looking man in a suit who is actually named Billie. We’re quick to huddle at the table with Billie and go over the paperwork, which seems to be in order. There is, in fact, a document that is to be signed before the contract that spells out the exact reason for the signatures.
“It seems like you’re well protected,” I comment, surprised at how well this has come together.
“He absolutely is protected,” Billie assures me.
Jax grabs my hand and kisses it. “Stop worrying.”
“I’m here,” Chance announces, entering the room in a rush of spicy cologne, and wearing his favorite, lucky blue suit that he wears on negotiation days. I hope that doesn’t mean he’s here to negotiate.
Jax stands up and shakes his hand while I wave. “Nice suit.”
“It’s for luck,” he says, “and you know it. Don’t read into that.”
I smirk as Billie stands and greets Chance, while Jax casts me a curious look I answer with, “That’s his luckynegotiationsuit.”
