Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Nothing more.
Twelve and a half million dollars for the exchange in ownership of Lucas’ twenty-five percent share of the family brewery. The bonus of incorporating a profit ownership to employees from those shares would be great public PR for Ronald as he began looking for the people he would soon be looking to hire. His position in the west needed to be filled. Lucas couldn’t say whether Ronald had found someone to take over his former position, either. The attention would also shift from private Dalton matters to what should matter more—the brewery and employees.
It benefited Ronald to get on with this situation, too. Lucas had already figured that part out himself.
Ronald signed first.
His lawyer followed.
Lucas put his name on the appropriate flagged places next. Lawrence came in last to zip through the ten pages, making a neat pile on top of the file as he finished each one. That was when Ronald leaned forward and grabbed the pile of papers, clutching tight and waving it proudly toward Lucas with a rueful smile.
His father should be happy. Ronald had everything he wanted. The Dalton Brewery was, on paper at least, a hundred percent his.
“That’s it.”
“That’s it,” Lucas echoed, no smile in sight.
That didn’t bother his father.
Ronald smirked and proved Lucas shouldn’t have given him any credit toward having a heart when he said, “I hope she’s nothing like your mother—but don’t fuck it up the way I did. Always get a prenup.”
Lucas decided then that he would get his meal to go.
Chapter 39
“Delaney?”
“In here,” she called back.
Lucas maneuvered the darkened apartment with ease, stuffing the key Delaney had given him at his first visit into his back pocket. He checked the bedroom first in the hallway beyond the small kitchen, but quickly realized he’d chosen wrong when a soft laugh echoed behind him.
He spun around.
Delaney waved two fingers, water droplets flinging from the tips, from a bathtub filled with bubbles. Other than the entry light over the front door, only candles flickered in the bathroom to offer any light. Covered in shadows, flickers, and bubbles, her sweet smile did the best things to his heart.
Lucas hesitated in the doorway, his hands holding the jamb to help keep him from entering like he wanted to right away. “Hey.”
She lifted one shoulder making bubbles and steam rise. “Hey, yourself.”
She’d tied her black hair into a messy bun high on her head, and a paperback novel sat overturned on the top of the toilet seat next to the bathtub.
Lucas wished he knew what to say.
Or where to start.
Anything.
Delaney saved him by asking, “So, how was the drive?”
Lucas let out an exhausted laugh. “Long and dark.”
From the start to the finish.
Pitch black highway all the way.
He rolled his shoulders, muttering, “My back hurts, but fuck it—what’s it matter?”
His pain wouldn’t compare to hers.
Surely.
“All in all, no complaints,” Lucas finished, winking.
Delaney smiled. “I can’t believe you were halfway here by the time I texted you to say I could head home.”
“I told you I would be here.”
Even if that meant driving fifteen over the limit and refusing to waste time on the phone because his heart had been racing too much to keep a conversation going without running off the damn road. Delaney hadn’t seemed to mind. She promised to wait up, actually.
She looked up at him, then, her quivering smile hitting him in the chest like a punch.
“Good,” she said, “I want you here.” Her chin tipped down when she added lower, “And there was a point today sitting in the hospital when I needed you, too. So, I guess I can say that sort of thing to myself. It just takes a lot.”
“I did tell you to set the bar higher,” Lucas replied.
That made Delaney smile.
Only a bit, though.
“I bet you didn’t bring anything with you, huh?”
“Didn’t even think to pack a bag.”
He didn’t care, either. The extra change of clothes he kept in the back of the Bronco in a reusable bag would do for a day until he figured things out.
“How are you supposed to move in with me if you brought nothing?” she asked, only half serious.
“Let’s just say you’re starting with the best part.”
That made her laugh the most beautiful sound in the world.
Lucas shed his spring jacket and hung it off the ball end of the rod where a towel dried on the wall. The apartment had its pros and cons. The main negative being the small size of the bathroom and kitchen, in his opinion. He barely had enough room to turn around in the space and doing so made him face all the important amenities, or the door, so hunching down next to the tub didn’t exactly leave him a lot of room to move.
Delaney made it worth it by reaching for him the second he got close enough for her to touch. Those warm, wet hands of hers clung onto his forearms first before crawling higher to his shoulders before wrapping around his back. He hugged back, pulling her out of the bubbly water slightly with his squeeze, not bothered at all by her wet body leaving imprints on his button-down shirt. The fact she held tight, refusing to let go, kept Lucas in the same hunched position.