Page 91 of Forever Wild

“Bryn.” Conrad extends his hand, and I shake it. “Good to see you too.” He moves to sit back down, so Jameson and I both follow suit, Jameson helping me with my chair.

“Just to clear the air, I’ve filled Jameson in on our conversation last week. I apologize if our NDA caused any issues between the two of you.”

I shrug. “Surprisingly, it never even surfaced as an issue. But I do appreciate you sharing what you could with Jameson. It definitely will make things easier going forward, although I’m not sure it was worth the trip all the way to Wild Bluffs just to clear that up.”

“Ah, I’m not actually here for that. Jameson and I have talked on the phone a few times in the past couple of days. I informed him about our meeting and the unfortunate timing of your article on Saturday.”

“Oh.” I don’t know what else to say. I’m clearly missing something, and the stress of the day is starting to catch up with me.

Jameson, seeing my confusion, says, “It seems that Conrad and his brothers have a couple of big deals in the works that are going to make waves, so there have frequently been photographers stationed outside of their office. Bad luck, I guess.”

“I am sorry it ended up that way, Bryn. We didn’t know they were paying us any more attention than usual, though I’m inclined to believe it has more to do with my younger brother’s most recent breakup with yet another actress than our actual business. Unfortunately, it seems when your job is to photograph semi-famous people, you can sell to business sites or gossip columns. I suppose you have to respect a diversified income stream.”

“Well, I appreciate the apology.” I take a drink of the water our waitress brought, pretending to read the menu before ordering my usual burger and fries. The men both order as well, which answers my question about if Conrad is joining us for dinner or not.

Once the waitress leaves, I turn back to Conrad. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what brings you to Wild Bluffs?”

“Ah,” Conrad replies. “I think that portion of this story belongs to Jameson. And while he tells it, I’m going to hit up the bar for a drink.” He asks what we want and wanders off toward the bar, clearly trying to give us some privacy.

Jameson clears his throat, fiddling with the napkin in his lap before bringing his eyes up to meet mine. “I felt terrible after you left my hotel room. I could feel you slipping away, and I knew it was entirely my fault. You deserve more than the man I was the past week. You deserve someone who never stops focusing on you. But I can be that someone. I know I can. Yes, my job makes it harder, but I’m willing to do what I need to in order to make this work.”

It’s everything I want to hear from him, but also so unnecessary now. I’ve all but resigned myself to just designing my life around his. “Jameson, I really appreciate that. And I forgive you. I do.” I plaster on a fake smile as I add, “But, good news! I didn’t get the promotion, and so I submitted my letter of resignation on the plane. I’m totally free to just follow you around the country. If you want me to, of course. I definitely don’t have to. I’m sure I can find something else to do until I find another job. Oh! And it turns out Kyle and Alexis were behind the article the whole time.” I say it all in one breath, so it takes him a minute to parse it all out.

“You want to follow me around the country?”

Not the part of the statement I thought he’d latch on to, but okay.

“Yes! It’d be lots of fun. I have enough savings to last a while. Especially if you’re okay with me staying with you.”

Jameson rubs the back of his neck. “You, the most driven person I know, want to be a WAG who hangs out at all the tournaments?”

My spine hits the back of my seat as I slump a bit. “You say it like it’s a bad thing. Lots of women do it.”

He nods, reaching out his hand to grab mine from where I’m holding it across my stomach. “Yes. And if that’s what you really want, I would of course love that. But I think you may want to hear what Conrad has to say first.”

“Conrad?” I ask. “Why?”

“Like he mentioned, we’ve talked a lot the past few days. Please don’t be mad at me, but I didn’t know that you’d already talked to Conrad about your MyUsual idea. So, when I was trying to think of ways to let you know that I support your career, I realized I could use my connections to help. So I called Conrad. Unfortunately, he told me the same thing he told you, that his firm wasn’t interested in partnering with Hungry Guy on it.”

I nod, not that surprised that we both thought of Conrad. It still doesn’t explain why he’s here, though.

“I thought I failed,” he continues, running his hand through his hair. “I didn’t know how to prove to you that you could do it both. That you could be successful in your career and be with me. Because I know you can.” He lifts my hand, kissing my knuckles. My heart expands at the words, even as a small part of my brain argues that it can’t be true. Giving that part of my brain the middle finger, I convince myself to believe Jameson, this man who has never asked me to be anyone except who I am.

“But then Lila helped me out. And so I called Conrad back.”

At this point, he finds Conrad at the bar, clearly waiting for a signal that it’s safe to return to the table. Jameson gestures with his head, and Conrad makes his way back with our drinks.

“Is she caught up?”

“Ready for your part of the performance,” Jameson jokes.

Conrad relaxes back in his chair, one ankle crossing the other knee. “I’m sure Jameson mentioned that he also reached out on behalf of your MyUsual concept.”

He pauses, and I nod my agreement before he continues, “After explaining to him the same things I told you about why Hungry Guy isn’t the right partner for us for that app, he called back with a different idea—that the Ferguson Brothers Investment Firm develop the app ourselves and bring in all the major restaurant chains as partners.”

“Oh. I…that’s…” I stumble over my words, unsure what to say. Is he offering to buy the idea from me? Just telling me that they are going to take it? I don’t think they can do it without paying me something. I did get some level of protection from the NDA.

Conrad, sensing my confusion, continues, “I liked the idea, so I discussed it with my brothers, and we came back to Jameson with the dollar amount we thought we could buy it for. Jameson, however, thought that you’d prefer something other than the quick buyout, so I went back to my brothers, and what I’m here today to offer you is a director-level position with Ferguson Brothers Investment Firm. It’s a fully remote position that reports directly to me. You’d manage the development of the MyUsual app, and then, once that is running, you’d be responsible for building a portfolio of similar products.”

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