“Hadrian,” Brystin scolds, but she loves it. She’s practically glowing when I leave her to ambush my sister.
“Whatcha reading?” I ask, snagging a deck chair next to her.
“Smut,” she says, without looking up from her book. Her tone suggests that she doesn’t want to be bothered, and I quietly consider whether or not I should wait until I have her full attention.
She makes the decision for me when she sighs, puts down her book, and peers at me over her sunglasses. “What do you want, Hadrian?”
“I’ve decided what I want to do with my life.” Besides Brystin. Repeatedly.
Adly’s a supportive sister, even when I interrupt her reading, and she perks up. “Oh?”
“Bob Peterson has indicated he’d sell SHE for the right price. I want to buy it.” Without a job, I’ve spent the last six months focusing my entire life around Brystin, which gave me lots of time to learn more about the network. Me being me, I dug into all the available data and business reports, and I’m predicting SHE is on the verge of a big boom.
“That’s a great idea,” she says, but she’s wary. “But do you really think you’re the best person to helm a network for women?”
“No, I don’t. Which is why I think you should buy it with me.”
Her jaw literally drops. It shouldn’t be such a surprising suggestion, particularly because she’s so miserable being stuck in HR at SNC. Dad doesn’t believe women should have the “real” jobs, so she has no chance of ever getting out of the role unless she leaves.
But I understand how daunting it is to walk away from the family empire. I knew I’d likely be fired when I pulled the stunt that I did, and part of me wishes I’d had the strength to resign before that happened, but I stuck it out, devoted until the very end.
She blinks behind her shades, her mind already in motion. “Co-CEOs?”
I shake my head. “You’ll be CEO. I’ll be Chief of Strategy. I already have a lead on a new show we could bring to the network.”
She raises an eyebrow in question.
“Shiloh doing makeovers while she gives hairdresser style therapy. Brystin’s idea, but I think it’s got legs.”
“Oh, it does.” She’s in, I can see it. She’s planning the future right before my eyes. Except, “How will I afford it? I’m more than two years away from getting my trust fund.”
Grandpa is a firm believer that young people aren’t responsible with money, so all of our trust funds are off-limits until the ripe old age of thirty-six.
“We’ll figure it out,” I say. “Maybe work out a deal with Dad like Reid did with his father.” It’s a legitimate obstacle, and I know we’ll need to chat about it a lot more, but not now because it’s four o’clock, exactly. The time I instructed my staff to start serving champagne. “Later, though.”
“Is it time?” she asks as I stand up. She’s one of the only people who knows what this weekend’s gathering is really about. “Are you nervous?”
“Not in the least. Come on.”
I help her up, and together we walk to the higher deck where most everyone is already gathered. It takes a few minutes to get their attention, but when I have it, I call Brystin to my side.
“Last night, we all had the wonderful opportunity of watching the debut of Real Talk,” I say.
Everyone applauds, and I note Jessa’s confusion, probably wondering why I didn’t include her in the tribute, but this isn’t about that. “That’s not why I gathered everyone here this weekend, though.”
Murmurs spread through the crowd as they try to figure out what I’m up to. Brystin gets it right away, and starts crying before I’m even on one knee.
As soon as I’m down, I hear gasps and a smattering of early applause as I pull the ring out of my pocket and place it on my woman’s hand. “Brystin Shaw. I knew the first minute that I saw you that you were special. I tried to deny it so hard, it should have been obvious. I’m hardheaded, I guess, but I immediately loved you. I’m sorry it took me a minute to figure it out, but I know now. And when you say I do—if you say yes, that is—I’m never going to take my ring off because I want the whole world to know how I feel about you. Please say you’ll do me the honor of becoming my wife, and I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you that you’re the most important thing in my world.”
She’s a blubbering mess, but she manages to squeak out a yes.
Then I pull her to my knee and k**s the f**k out of her, in front of everyone, I really don’t give a damn who sees.
“You’ll be a married woman for real this time,” I promise her, quietly so just she can hear.
“Good thing,” she t**ses. “‘Cause I’m really into you, and I hear you have a thing for married women.”
“No, honeybee,” I say, giving her the brutal truth. “I only have a thing for you.”
———–The END
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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