Page 69 of Designed for Disaster

“What are you thinking about?”

I bit my bottom lip. “Do you ever think about patching things up with your parents? With your mom? It might be nice to have some more support with everything Nana Dee is going through.”

Trent scoffed, giving his head a hard shake. The muscle in his jaw twitched. “They’re not capable of being supportive,” Trent said. “Especially my mother.” His voice was hard. “Why are you asking me this?”

“No reason, really.” I shrugged, playing it off. I could feel the tension rolling off him. If the mood hadn’t been ruined before, it definitely was now. “I just noticed that whenever your mom calls, you send her straight to voicemail.”

“Because I haven’t gotten around to blocking her number yet,” he muttered.

“You wouldn’t really do that, would you? She’s your mom.”

“Nana Dee was more of a mother to me than she ever was. Frankly, I wouldn’t care if I never heard from her again,” he snapped. I flinched, and regret flashed across his face. He took a deep breath, as if he was trying to get a hold of himself. “I don’t mean to be short with you. But…there isn’t a reality where my parents and I are on good terms.”

This was worse than I’d imagined. “I’m sorry I brought it up. I suppose, well…you know I lost my parents. I have a hard time understanding how someone could just…decide not to try, you know?”

“I appreciate where you’re coming from,” Trent said, “but you lived a very different childhood than I did. You had two loving, committed parents. That wasn’t my experience. What I lived through you can’t just patch up over dinner and drinks. Can we just drop it?”

I nodded. It was clear that this was a subject he was not willing to budge on.

As I settled down by his side, a chill swept over me despite the warmth of his body close to mine. If Trent was okay with dropping his parents from his life completely, if he could just cut his mom off like that, then he could do that to anyone—including me.

Just when I was finally starting to feel stable and safe, reality came along to remind me that all this security might be an illusion. If I pushed Trent too hard on this, I’d lose him.

Which meant I couldn’t tell him I’d met up with his mom.

I couldn’t take the chance. If I did, I’d risk losing everything.

20

TRENT

“Morning, everyone,” I said, taking a seat at the head of the table. There were a dozen murmured replies. It really was too goddamn early for a board meeting. I’d much rather still be in bed with Natasha in my arms.

Adding an extra layer of hellishness, I also had to deal with the stares of my parents from the other end of the room. They’d been kicked out of their leadership positions and didn’t have any decision-making authority, but they still had seats on the board as “advisors.”

My mother sat there, her arms crossed, eyes narrowed like she was trying to laser a hole into my father’s forehead while he made conversation with the men sitting next to him. Knowing him, he was probably bragging about the latest model he’d managed to get into his bed. I averted my eyes, turning my attention away as Pam took attendance.

“That’s everyone,” Alice announced, her fingers clicking away on her laptop. “Should I review the minutes from the last meeting?”

“Let’s get into it,” I said. The group quieted to listen to her report. My mother in particular listened intently. I resisted the urge to grind my teeth.

“Thanks, Alice,” I said when she was finished. I looked down at my own laptop, reading off my operational report of the company’s performance. “Work on the new sustainable line is progressing well. We expect to provide a couple samples at High Point at the end of this month, with the rest of the line ready to go into development by Christmas.”

“When do you anticipate the product launch?” one of the members asked.

“Stateside,” I said, “we’re looking at early next year. We’ve set our sights on the beginning of February. If that goes well, we’ll hit the international markets by summer.” The board looked pleased with that information, and I closed my laptop as our CFO rose to his feet to review the financial report from the last quarter.

“These are our latest numbers,” he said, starting up a PowerPoint presentation. “As you can tell, we’re trending up?—”

“That’s what I like to see,” my father said, earning him a chorus of chuckles. “All green lines.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Of all people, my father had no right to use that bragging tone, as if he was in any way responsible for the company’s success.Hewas the one who had nearly driven it into bankruptcy, along with my mother. I was the one who had saved it—the son both my parents had written off years ago.

Thank god this meeting was almost over. I pulled out my phone, texting Natasha.Coffee when I’m done?

The Coffeezilla special?

I smirked.Only if you’re going to make it for me wearing tight jeans and that sexy little apron.

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