Page 82 of Love.V2
I kept my mouth shut. Sitting down had been a bad idea. My head was swimming. Too much stress, not enough sleep. Had Tess slept last night? Where? At my hotel?
I would have given my right hand to transport myself to Chicago and burrow into her questionably rickety mattress and not come out for days.
“So, we just tell everyone, ‘Hey, Henry’s about to kick it. We don’t know what’s going to happen next, but we’re sure everything will be fine?’” Ramón was already shaking his head. “Then the questions start. Who’s signing off on paychecks? What if an emergency happensagain? How do I know this won’t affect the company long-term? How long do you think we can keep that up before we start losing clients?”
The door swung open. I blinked.
Tess stood on the threshold, cheeks pink. I blinked again. I was hallucinating. The lack of sleep and the shock of Henry’s hospitalization had done something to my brain.
“Hey.” She walked into the office, nodding at the others in the room. They gaped. Her hand on my face didn’t feel like a hallucination. “Dylan? Are you okay?”
I stared up at her, feeling like every muscle in my body was made of stone. “Henry’s in the hospital.”
Tess knelt next to my chair, rubbing soothing circles on my arm. “I know. Are you alright? Have you slept?”
“Excuse me, ma’am, this is a closed-door meeting. Highly confidential,” Ron snapped. Neither of us looked in his direction.
“Not really,” I mumbled. Her fingers felt good on my skin.
“Eaten?”
My head felt like it was full of sand when I shook it.
A frown marred her brow. “Alright. I think you should go home.”
I sighed, leaning closer. Home sounded divine. I didn’t even know where home was anymore, but I knew she’d take me there.
“He’s not going anywhere until we know exactly who we’re going to announce as CEO and the impact that will have on the rest of the organization and the price of our stocks.”
Tess turned to stare at Gina for a long moment. The other woman eventually shut her mouth and sat back in her chair. It was a wild,uncharacteristic display of dominance, and I wanted to pinch myself. I wanted to see it again.
Tess rose to her feet, taking in the state of the office. “All this can wait.”
Everyone in the room but Danny started talking at once, jumping at the chance to tell her exactly why this couldn’t wait. Tess held up a hand and waited for them to stop.
Who was this woman?
“We are not the government. We’re not the U.N. People’s livelihoods depend on us, yes, but not their lives. Stocks might go down.” Tess shrugged. Ron gripped his chest like he was feeling his own palpitations. “It’s just money. We can make more. Henry is in the hospital, and the first thing you think about is stocks. Don’t you want to go home and hug Diane? Because Henry might never get the chance to hold his wife again.”
Tess narrowed her eyes at Ron, who seemed to finally realize who Tess was and that she was well-acquainted with him and his wife. Tess had been on my arm for every company function for the last decade.
His mouth snapped shut.
“But what will we tell the shareholders? What’s the statement for the press release?” Ramon fidgeted when Tess turned to look at him.
“I think Tess said it perfectly.” Danny sat forward in his chair, resting his elbows on the table. “Henry is ill. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. We’re using this time to appreciate the work he put into building this incredible organization, and remembering how precious life is, and we hope others will do the same. If we needto put a name forward in the interim, just to calm people down, use mine.”
Ramón pursed his lips. “We’ll need someone from PR to workshop it, but it’s notbad.We’ll still need…”
I didn’t hear the rest. Tess was pulling me to my feet. I looked back once, but Danny waved us out. I could still hear their bickering voices all the way down the hall.
“How…” I trailed off, noticing Tess pulling my luggage behind her, the bag I had packed in a frenzy and only cracked open this morning for a new shirt after a few fitful hours of sleep on my old office couch. “What are you doing here?”
She hummed as we entered the elevator. “Call it a rescue.”
“I’ll call it whatever you want.” I felt loose. When the elevator dropped to one of the garage floors, I nearly tilted forward. Tess wrapped her hand around my bicep as we walked, finally easing me into the front seat of a silver rental car.
“I’m so sorry,” I babbled as soon as she was behind the wheel. “They want to keep everything quiet until we have a plan in place, or until they knew more about Henry’s condition. I couldn’t tell you.”
