Page 58 of Beauty
“That’s why we asked you to come in.” Liv’s voice is gentler now, her smile warm. “We need help.”
A knock at the door interrupts us, and Gavin appears. “My turn yet?”
I frown. “Huh?”
“We’d like you to come work for Langfield Corp.” Beckett thumbs over his shoulder at Gavin and smirks. “You’d be his boss.”
Gavin grins. “Promise you’ll be nicer than my other boss?”
“I’m the best boss,” Beckett grumbles.
Liv, eyes dancing, snorts.
“I’m confused.” I frown at one brother, then the other, before turning to Liv. “What is it you want me to do?”
“We want you to beme,” Liv says, “for the hockey division.”
“You?” I question.
“Yes,” Gavin says. “We need you to head up the Bolts. You’d step into my old position. I’ve been juggling the tasks of both CEO and coach since we fired Seb. We hired a GM when I took over coaching, and it’s helped cut down on my workload, but it’s time I pass over the reins. The hockey division of Langfield Corp needs a dedicated CEO again.”
“But I know nothing about hockey.” This seems like an important detail. Sure I’ve been to many hockey games in my life, but I’ve always spent those hours sketching designs. I’d yell when the crowd around me yelled, but otherwise I paid little attention to the game.
“But you know business. You’ve run one for the last six years. An extremely successful business, at that. And one you built from the ground up. You’re the only one of us to accomplish that feat,” Beckett points out.
Sure, I built a business. A business that’s now bankrupt.
I cross my arms, my fingers instinctively tracing the butterfly on my wrist.
“I can help you with the hockey knowledge,” Gavin explains. “But what we really need is someone with a mind for business.Who can look at numbers, advertising budgets, and the big-picture stuff. All the stuff you’ve been doing for half a decade. You’re qualified, Sienna. We wouldn’t ask you to do this if you weren’t.”
“And I’m a Langfield,” I point out.
Beckett shrugs. “For better or worse, yeah, you’re a Langfield. Gav and I are here because of our name too. But that name means I trust you more than anyone in this world, and I’ll do anything to help you succeed.”
I swallow down the emotions clawing up my throat. Those words are almost identical to the ones he spoke the day he agreed to fund my business. My brothers have always believed in me. Maybe I failed once, but for the first time in a long time, I feel a flutter of excitement in my belly. Maybe it’s time to attempt to fly again.
NINETEEN
NOAH
“Ollie,”I call. “Come on. We’ve got to meet your mom in fifteen minutes.”
I pluck his bag off the floor and hold it out. The thing has to weigh fifteen pounds. Probably because of the damn Chromebook he has to tote back and forth to school every day. Kids his age will probably end up with back problems later in life from lugging all this stuff around.
Then again, the five textbooks I once hauled around in a tattered JanSport were likely worse.
“Ollie,” I holler from the doorway.
My six-year-old saunters out of his room, the picture of nonchalance, wearing a pair of aviators, new Michael Jordan sneakers, and what I swear are skinny jeans.
Daniel, my teammate-slash-brother-in-law, took him shopping this week, and Ollie has come out in a new outfit every day since. I can already picture Jen’s eye roll. She complains often about how spoiled our son is, but I swear I have no hand in it, despite my hefty salary. We’re aligned when it comes to the values we want to instill in him. We both strive to shape him into a humble, hardworking person.
Hannah and Daniel are the problem. They’re both over-the-top in all kinds of ways, and Ollie is good at exploiting that.
My son stops halfway across the room and waves a hand, motioning to my stance. “You’re killing my vibes, Dad. You’re killing my vibes.”
I groan. My kid is so much cooler than me and he knows it. Fortunately he still thinks I’m cooler than his stepdad. “You have everything you need for school tomorrow?”
