Page 38 of Mister Cowboy
Sliding under the covers she turned on her side and curled up with the phone pressed to her ear. “They’re white.”
“Mmm. And the tank top?” His voice was muffled and she imagined him turned on one side like she was.
“Pink.”
“I take it back. This visual makes up for all the others you’ve wrecked.”
A noisy yawn escaped her lips and his deep chuckle crossed the airway into her soul.
“Good night, January.”
“Night,” she whispered. She waited for the sound of the line disconnecting and then clutched the phone to her chest.
19
Brecken
Tappinghis foot quietly under the table, Brecken counted the seconds until he could respectfully excuse himself. He should have sent Tina on this trip. His head wasn’t in it. A certain brunette had taken over his every thought. What was she doing? Was she at the ranch? Had she thought about him today? What was she wearing? The list went on.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he reached for it, pulling it out to check the screen. He made no apologies about looking at his phone during the meeting. Or any meeting for that matter. It wasn’t that he was a pompous ass who busted out his phone and checked his social media every five minutes, but what good was a cell phone if you didn’t answer it, or at the very least screen it, when it rang?
Not recognizing the area code, he declined the call and returned his attention to the presentation. Fifty-fucking-five slides in and they were no closer to the point than they’d been four hours ago when they’d started the meeting.
“Dan.” He waved his hand and leaned forward, elbows on the table. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but can we get to the point here? We all know the pros and cons of merging, we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. I care about the how. How do we pull this off and what does it mean for me and my company?”
The others in the room nodded along, and there was some murmuring and shifting in their seats as Dan put down the slide clicker and placed both hands on the table.
“That is the multi-million-dollar question.”
His phone buzzed again, the same number with a California area code displayed on the screen. Standing with an uneasy feeling, he started for the door. “Excuse me, I need to take this.”
Ducking out of the room, Dan’s voice filtered into the hallway as he called for a short break as Brecken headed to the stairwell to answer his phone.
“Hello?”
A slight pause and then a familiar voice he hadn’t heard in years spoke. “Brecken, how’s it going, little brother?”
Jaw clenched, Brecken made a gruff noise that was met with laughter.
“I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
“You changed your number.”
“I’m calling from the hospital. You’ve been dodging my cell. Did my mom give you my number?”
“What do you want, Henry?” His teeth were clenched as he ground the words out.
“I have a few things I want to discuss with you. I’m flying into Denver next week. I’ve already made an appointment with your assistant, but I wanted to let you know personally so it wasn’t a surprise.”
“Don’t bother. I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“See you on Monday morning. What better way to start out the week than catching up with your older brother?” His tone was light and carefree, but each word settled like a boulder on Brecken’s shoulders.
“Stop calling yourself that. You arenotmy brother.”
Henry laughed and said, “See you soon, Brecken.”
Six more hours of brainstorming and talking circles with Dan and the other CEOs and they were no closer to reaching a plan that everyone was happy with. Dan, the CEO of D&R Software, a small software company primarily focused in the farming industry, had brought them all together to discuss merging their companies so that together they could compete across the entire agricultural market.
