AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Suffice it to say…Calvin didn’t take too kindly to my appointment as CEO, and he definitely didn’t like the fact that I was now his boss. Over the last five months, he’d taken every possible chance to rebuff my efforts to usher in a new, more modern era of our business. Every little change I wanted to make was either picked over with a fine-tooth comb under the guise of making sure it was a “sound financial decision,” or outright vetoed.
It amazed me that someone who only held ten shares of our company stock had managed to make my life and job such a living hell.
Then again, Calvin had been making my life a nightmare since the night I met him.
What an absolutely cruel twist of fate that the man I’d instantly had such strong chemistry with wound up being the same man my dad had just hired as our CFO. I’ve spent the last five years questioning…everything.
But again…now was not the time.
I specifically arrived early for this board meeting so I had the chance to run my new marketing ideas by my dad. There was no one on this earth I trusted more than him when it came to business, and I knew he’d shoot me straight. Before I went ahead and made a fool of myself—or, hopefully, not—he’d be the one to save me from myself.
Even though he was retired, his opinion mattered more to me than anyone else’s. His grandfather had built our family fortune on the backs of Chateau Delatou, the winery that remained our flagship business. My grandfather had taken it over from him in the sixties, and my father in the late eighties.
I was officially the first woman to head this company, and I had to admit…sometimes I was definitely in a little over my head. But I had some truly genius ideas to usher us into the twenty-first century, and today’s meeting was my opportunity to pitch them to the board and get approval to move forward.
Not only was I owner and operator of the winery, but I was also in charge of managing all our other business ventures, which included the restaurant on the grounds that had been my father’s major brain child during his tenure, our short-term rental, The Villa, and my sister Brie’s bakery in town. It may have her name on the building and I had no active hand in running it, but it was still considered a DI asset. Delatou, Inc. also owned nearly half of the land on Old Mission, from the town limits all the way up to the point that jutted out into Lake Michigan, where Mom and Dad’s house was.
So, yeah…maybe I was a little overwhelmed, and maybe I needed reassurance from my parents that I was on the right track.
After I handed Mom and Dad one of the bound packets I’d created as a guide for my presentation today, I took my seat at the head of the table and reviewed my notes, resisting the urge to fidget while they studied my plans.
Unfortunately, my mind floated back to thoughts of Calvin, and all the ways in which he could ruin my day during this meeting. Hell, him simply walking into the room would be enough.
Unbidden, my cheeks heated at the memory of that night five years ago, when I met him at the bar, fell under his spell, and almost had sex with him. It had taken me some time to realize he’d done me a favor when he kicked me out of his place, but that didn’t stop his final words from ringing in my head with irritating frequency, threatening to shatter my already fragile confidence.
I’m not about to risk my career for some fucking…party princess one-night stand, no matter how hot you are.
Shame coiled in my stomach. Thankfully, Daddy had never found out what went down that night. He chalked up the animosity between me and Calvin to some childish perceived slight that we’d allowed to fester all these years and had never bothered me about it.
I’d grown a lot in those five years, but it was clear that to Calvin, I’d always be the twenty-three year old recent college graduate who partied too much and wasn’t worth risking his career for. God, that stung. I didn’t have any delusions about where that night would’ve taken us. I had just gotten home for the summer and went out to celebrate finishing undergrad with my friends. I hadn’t been looking for anything more than one night—maybe two or three or, who knows, an entire summer of them before I officially started working for the company and my job duties, not to mention grad school, took me to Europe.
From the moment I’d run face first into his impossibly hard chest, I’d been entranced by Calvin. He was funny and sexy. Within a few hours of quiet conversation in the VIP at Lawless, I’d become so mesmerized by him. How his focus had been solely on me the entire time. How he made me feel treasured—like a princess.
Now, that term of endearment had become anything but.
“These ideas are good, Mar,” my father said, pulling me out of my reverie. “Really good.”
“You say that like you’re surprised.”
He shared a look with my mom before returning his gaze—those green eyes, like emeralds flashing with something I couldn’t name—to me. “I’ll admit, kiddo, this wasn’t exactly what we had planned. We spent years grooming Chloe to take over. We’d never anticipated it being you. But now that it is, now that I see how seriously you’re taking this, how seriously you’vealwaystaken the success of this business, well…we’re just so proud of you.”
I gave him a watery smile and reached out to squeeze his hand. “Thanks, Daddy. The only thing I want to do is make you proud, so I’d say my tenure is already a success.”
“With ideas like these,” he said, tapping the booklet in front of him, “I think we can expect great things from you.”
I moved to his side and he rose from his chair, wrapping me in a bear hug that did everything to calm my nerves.
And not a moment too soon, as the conference room door swung open to admit my sisters.
As the eldest, Chloe entered first, her dark hair—the same shade the five of us shared—recently cropped for her usual mid-back length to just above her shoulders. She was the only one of my sisters older than me, having entered the world the year before I did. Lately, she’d been so busy with deadlines while pursuing her novel writing career that I’d hardly seen her, and I relaxed further as she pulled me into a warm embrace.
“How’s it been going?” she asked.
“Really well,” I assured her with a smile, and I meant it. Getting acclimated had taken some time, but I knew what I was doing.
At least, I thought so.
“Good,” she said. “I’m excited to see what you’ve come up with.”
