Page 44 of Here to Stay
“Phil has been trashing the program all week. He thinks because our little brother has let him run the IPO show that we’re going to just let him mislead the board.”
“I’m glad you felt good about the visit.” There was no fucking way I was getting caught giving an opinion about Phil or Duke.
“Julia was with you at the baseball game,” Muffy informed me teasingly, but my panic was too intense to tell what she was getting at.
Were they joking? Or were they fishing? Fuck.
“Yeah. She was.”
There was a weird pause, as if they were expecting me to fill them in on exactly what was going on between the two of us. Not happening.
After a very heavy pause, Mitzy leaned in and whispered, “Let’s make sure Phil doesn’t figure that out.”
Fuck.
Her voice was pleasant and her eyes kind, but still this was so not okay. Mitzy must have figured out I was dying inside, because she squeezed my arm and smiled. “Don’t worry, he won’t get wind of this from us. We’d never give him an excuse to say the consultants are compromised, not now that we know you’re not trying to fuck us over.”
The coughing fit started before I could help it, and I knew I was red in the face.
“I would never make a recommendation that would jeopardize my client.”
Muffy flicked her hand at me, dismissing my comment.
“We know that. It’s why we can keep this little bit to ourselves. We trust that you will not play fast and loose with the way that we’ve always done business at Sturm’s.”
Mitzy angled her head toward the hallway. “Phil and Duke can’t wait to get us out. So they can run amok giving themselves Fortune 500 CEO salaries.”
She was not wrong. If it was up to those two, Sturm’s would be one more corporation trying to slash costs and line the pockets of the executives without any regard for employees or their community. The issue was, I wasn’t sure if there was a way to keep that from happening—at least in part—if they did go public. My job was to get them there though, and no matter what feelings I was feeling, there was no deviating from that. Maybe I’d finally give Julia a reason to hate me and I could move the fuck on.
“All I can promise is that I will do my job.”
“We know.” Mitzy pointed at the Porsche SUV in the lot. “We’re headed home. The only reason we even came in was because of the visit.” I couldn’t blame her for sounding annoyed. “But first, let’s pretend we’re just your nosy aunties.”
These two looked cute and innocent but their gossip approach worked: the urge to spill my guts was strong.
“Tell us. What’s going on with you and that beautiful woman? You certainly only had eyes for her today.”
Oh, God.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” I felt like Judas, denying what I was feeling for Julia like that. Dismissing her. But I could not let the twins get the wrong idea.
Matching eye rolls came my way in unison. “You’re no fun. Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving?”
I shook my head and tried not to look too much like a loser. “I think I’m going to take the day to relax.”
Muffy nodded while Mitzy fished for something in her bag. “We’ll see you on Friday for the barbecue right?”
“I’ll be there.” The Sturm twins threw a Thanksgiving Friday BBQ that was apparently a famous occurrence in Dallas high-society circles, and my Queens-born-and-bred ass had a formal invitation.
“Great. See you then, and if you change your mind about tomorrow, just come by.”
I needed to keep some kind of proper distance, so I just waved them off without a definite answer.
As I headed up to the office, I saw my phone flashing on my desk. When I looked at the screen, my stomach lurched with the dread I always felt whenever I saw one of my parents was calling me. I couldn’t ignore them, in case something terrible had happened, but I also knew there was no chance it could be good.
“Hello.”
“You weren’t even going to bother to call? Your mother’s been crying all day.” My father was slurring, so this entire conversation was going to be a fucking mess. This was what it was like every holiday. My father would start drinking days before and made everyone miserable. Because in his house, if he was unhappy he made damn sure everyone else was.
