Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
We.
The word plays in my mind.
“My brother is very loyal, but he also doesn’t care what small minds think of him,” Reid shoots back, proving he knows how to deal with pettiness. “As to moving on, there’s no moving on from Harper. I love her and we’re going to be together, so you can have this relationship with me where you snipe and swipe and I call you on all your shit or you can start being polite. If things go the way I plan, I’m going to be in this office every day.”
“What?” Paul sits up straight, a frown on his face. “We’re not hiring your fuck boy, Harper. We don’t even know if you’ll have a job at the end of today. The way you’ve ignored this company needs to be addressed.”
“Ignored?” Reid sits up, his jaw squaring. “She’s been on a sabbatical and yet she’s had to be in this office or on site every single day because of your mismanagement.”
“I inherited a mess,” Paul announces. “We’re down from last year, and I’m dealing with all the stupid changes she decided to make. So, no, I can’t promise she’ll have a job at the end of today, but I can tell you if I’m the CEO, I won’t be hiring you, Mr. Hollywood.”
I put a hand on Reid’s wrist, silently begging him not to engage with my cousin. He’s not worth it.
I’m starting to wonder why I’m here at all.
“Well, of course, she’ll have a job.” My mother ignores Reid’s testy ultimatum about their future relationship, but then she’s good at ignoring things she doesn’t want to deal with. “You can’t fire her. She’s invaluable to the company, and she owns a good piece of stock. If you decide to go a different way, perhaps she can take over something like human resources or accounting.”
In other words more feminine departments, though I’m sure she would say girls aren’t good at math, so maybe she’ll put me in charge of janitorial. But only until I marry my somewhat surprisingly loyal boyfriend who will still probably leave me for someone prettier and more feminine than me. According to my mother that’s pretty much all women.
“Will she? Or if she survives the vote and I can’t save us, will she hand the company over to this celebrity person?” Paul asks, looking Reid up and down. He’s sitting at the opposite end of the conference table, his sister, two cousins, two aunts, and an uncle between us. My uncle Jed is half asleep. He’s eighty-two and once was really salty since his two younger brothers formed the company and didn’t give him a job. He moaned and complained enough they let him buy in, hence the extra cousins. He doesn’t care anymore and comes around because he likes to vote.
“I thought only relatives could be on the board,” Claire says with a pout. “If we’re bringing in anyone, then I want my boyfriend here.”
“I don’t understand why we’re hiring this man when Harper told me she couldn’t find a place for my Gavin,” Aunt Helen says, pressing her glasses up her nose and giving me serious side eye. “I don’t think positions should be given to anyone unless the family doesn’t have someone to fill it.”
“Gavin is a twenty-two-year-old college dropout whose only professional experience is harassing customers at a Wing Stop.” This is well-worn ground, but it looks like I’m going to cover it again. A weird sense of fate comes over me. I’m always going to be here, sitting in this chair, fighting for my place, but I’m not as anxious as I should be because he’s here beside me. He’ll stay right here and take every blow they throw at us. “I’m bringing Reid in as a designer. He’s got a degree from the Parsons Institute, and I think having him on board will bring us an entirely new class of clients. Has Gavin worked in the field for years?”
“Gavin doesn’t end up in the tabloids,” Susan says primly. Gavin is her brother, and I’m pretty sure she’s helping pay his rent.
“Because no one cares about him.” I’m not being mean. It’s just the truth. Gavin is a massive tool.
Susan waves me off. “It doesn’t matter. He can learn. You can teach him like you’ve taught the others. Face it, Harper. You’re doing exactly what you always say the rest of us shouldn’t do.”
“That is hypocrisy,” Aunt Flora says, pointing my way. “You wouldn’t even let me borrow money for a new boat and yet here you are paying your little boy toy.”
Now my back’s up because while Reid is an excellent sex toy, I’m the only one who gets to talk about him that way. There’s a wonderful brain in with all that hotness. Also, I’m not sure how Flora’s husband’s second fishing boat is important to the company.