Page 33 of How to Resist Prince Charming

“What are you talking about?” he hedged.

“I’m talking about your plans to go international.”

Braxton gave the other man a blank look before he sank back into his chair. “Oh. Uh…well, I haven’t actually decided to do that yet. I was only researching the possibility of—Wait a second—” He cut himself off. “How do you know about that? I haven’t discussed this with anyone in the firm yet.”

Tom shook his head and brought his hand to his brow as if he thought Braxton was hopeless. “Kid, when are you going to learn that nothing is a secret around here? If someone sneezes on the first floor, someone else on the fourth is going to say, ‘Bless you.’”

“Right.” Braxton ran a hand through his hair, shocked the rumor had spread so fast. He was going to have to mind his P’s and Q’s from here on out.

“Do you realize how risky this venture is?” Tom demanded. “If a project like this fell through, everyone on staff would feel the aftershock. You’d have to lay off—”

“I know exactly how risky it is,” Braxton cut in. “That’s why I haven’t made a decision yet, why I was looking into every detail before I even brought it up. But I can see from his notes, Dad was considering the possibility too, and—”

“You’re not your father.”

Back going straight, Braxton waited a moment to keep from exploding. As calmly as he could, he gritted out, “I realize that.”

Tom sent him a meaningful scowl. “Then what’s to decide? Don’t risk it, and you won’t lose the company. We’re doing fine as it is.”

But Braxton didn’t want to do fine. He wanted to do amazing.

Shaking his head, he frowned at Tom. “Even you can’t deny what an achievement it’d be if we succeeded in getting an international company like Renault on our account and kept them there. Do you know what kind of profits we could spike to if we got a successful overseas trade set up? Hell, it would triple our entire customer base.”

“Yeah,” Tom admitted, clenching his teeth as he pointed an accusing finger at Braxton. “But it’s still dangerous. If you try this, put all kinds of money into it, and then it falls through, you’ll send us into a decline and maybe put us out of business.”

Braxton nodded. He was well aware of that fact. But he murmured, “Truth be told, I have every confidence this crew can carry a global seller. Don’t you?”

Tom just stared at him. “You better do all your research before you make this decision.”

“I am,” Braxton assured him.

Turning away as if satisfied with that answer, Tom paused before whirling back to squint at Braxton, dissecting him with his gaze. “Where’s your usual cheeky comeback?”

Braxton gave Tom a small smile. “Fresh out.”

Tom studied him a moment longer, looking wary. “What were you talking about earlier, with all that crap about how you knew what I had to be thinking and you going too far?”

Shaking his head, Braxton shrugged. But from the expression on Tom’s face, he could tell the older man wasn’t going to give it up until he revealed something.

“I...ah, I went ahead and had Beth order the yellow paper for the warrantee slips, even though I knew you wanted to stick with white. I…I was just going to get a sample sheet printed and run it past the group first, but she ordered an entire batch.”

He bit his lip and hoped to God Tom bought that excuse. It was true, just not the truth he’d been referring to.

Brow furrowing, Tom shrugged. “So? Why would you be so bothered with what I thought about it? They’re warrantee slips for crying out loud. Who cares what color they are?”

Braxton’s mouth fell open. “Who cares?” he exploded. “You’re the one who made such a big stink about it in the first place. Remember?” He ground his teeth together. “You spent twenty minutes in the last meeting arguing your case. Jesus Christ!”

He propped his elbows on the tabletop and cupped his head in both hands. “I’m getting real tired of having an employee who contradicts me at every turn, especially when I come to find out he never even gave a shit what color the fucking paper was. He just wanted to be an ass.”

Oh, God, he was starting to lose it.

“I’m fed up with this, Tom. I would like to have a peaceful work environment one of these days. I would like for us to at least learn to compromise. I’m sick of constantly butting heads with you. At this point, all I really want is to do something you actually approve of without you nitpicking it to death, because your bitching isn’t getting anyone anywhere.”

Braxton closed his eyes. More than anything in the world, he’d love to have Thomas Davenport’s approval. And his blessing too.

Letting out a sigh, Braxton opened his eyes and found Tom giving him an odd look. Instead of replying, the older man turned and walked from the room.

Braxton watched him go. An awful premonition that things were only going to get worse from this point on constricted his chest, making it hard to breathe.

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