Page 79 of Flyboy
"And Gina."
Closing her eyes, Alyssa drew in a deep breath. The last thing she wanted was to have her life up for public consumption but what choice did she have? If she wanted to stay married to Jack,thiswas her life. And she'd done nothing wrong. She might have a horrible mother, but she'd done everything she could to protect her sister once she'd found out about Penny. No one could argue different.
Opening her eyes, she focused on Jack. "Okay. Let's do it."
17
"You can't stay."
Jack stared at Lys. He knew she was right. In the two weeks since the ball he'd either flown to Vegas or to Sunnyville every day. Most days he'd done the round trip so he could sleep in the same bed as his wife.
They'd settled into their marriage more solidly since he'd made the announcement. Unfortunately, he'd been forced to double down on his CEO and Chairman roles. Emmaline might not have the power to remove him from his position, but she did have the ability to make his life difficult. And Maryn's.
Jack was pretty sure his stepmother was sleeping with their most vocal opposition.
"Jack." Lys moved into him, slid her arms around his waist, and pressed her cheek to his chest. "You need to go home."
“This is home.”
She leaned back and met his gaze. “You know what I mean.”
Fuck!
He'd been putting it off, hoping he could find a solution that would allow him to step down from his position as CEO. Maryn wanted it. He wanted her to have it. But the board…
Add in that Vegas no longer felt like home, and he didn't want to make the decision he knew he had to. He sighed. "I can keep flying—"
"Jack, you can't. It's killing you and I don't want to get a call saying you're actually dead because you crashed your plane. Do you have any idea how much I dread every call out at work for fear it's you in need of rescue?"
"I'd never fly—"
"Dammit, Jack, you have!" She pulled from his arms and put her hands on her hips. "You flew here yesterday at four in the morning and I had to pick you up because you were too tired to drive. A fifteen-minute drive. You were asleep before we left the airport. How the hell you didn't fall asleep midair is beyond me. You've tried to make this work, we both have, but it doesn't, and we're both deluding ourselves by thinking otherwise. I know it's not what you want to hear, and it's not what I want to say, but… You can't stay in Sunnyville."
"Come with me." He knew her answer before he'd uttered the words but, in his desperation, to keep them together, he'd said them anyway.
"I can't. You know that."
"You can. Quit your job. Penny can transfer to a school in Vegas…" She was shaking her head, tears welling in her eyes. "Dammit, Lys, this isn't worth losing you."
"You won't. We'll do the long-distance thing until the board lets Maryn take over."
"They won't let her." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "I haven't told her because they will consider it." He blew out a harsh breath. "In a decade or so."
Lys snorted. "Most of the board will be dead before that."
She was right. They would be, or at least retired, and you could guarantee he'd be filling their vacant seats with people openminded enough to allow a woman to head a multibillion-dollar company. Especially when she was a majority shareholder.
Jack still couldn't believe as the other major shareholder he didn't have the power to override the board. He understood the caveat in the company’s bylaws. It had pissed him off so much the day he'd found out his hands were tied on who took the CEO position, he'd thrown a paperweight at the wall in his office. The glass orb was still stuck in the drywall. He'd refused to allow maintenance to remove it.
"Why won't you consider moving? Mrs. A would be happy to return to..." Oh shit! He'd forgotten Lys didn't know how she'd come by her housekeeper. Or her house…Ah fuck.
"Return where?" she asked, her arms coming up to cross over her chest, her eyes narrowing. "Where did Mrs. Alverez come from, Jack?"
Dammit. When they'd returned to Sunnyville after the ball they'd promised no more secrets—he'd promised. And he'd meant it. From then on, he'd told her everything. It was why she knew he was stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to the Townsend Group and why she hadn't batted an eye when he'd told her he was quitting Mercy-Life. Except he hadn't revealed all the secrets he'd had before that.
"Um, maybe we should sit down?" He indicated the bed behind her.
"Where did Mrs. Alverez come from, Jack?" she repeated without moving.
