Page 22 of Love In The Spotlight

“You know but won’t do it?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “It’s not my place. But I do have a new staff member starting soon that is going to help implement a lot of the HR policies and procedures and help with hiring too.”

“Is this person going to be part of my HR team? Or the one for the business, or is it an employee on your team?”

“My team,” she said. “She won’t start until close to the end of the year. We’ll be hiring for months as we get the business up and running and Abby will help out and get things situated.”

“Abby?” he asked. “West’s girlfriend?”

“It’s complicated but not,” she said.

West knocked and came in. “Am I interrupting?”

“No,” he said. “Laken was just telling me that she hired your girlfriend as part of her team. Or would be.”

West looked at Laken. “Abby won’t work for me, but she’s excited to work for Laken. She will be a huge asset to the team but won’t start until around the end of the year.”

If he thought it was odd that his business partner hired his girlfriend, he was going to keep it to himself.

The guy knew what he was doing; no one could dispute that.

“Laken mentioned that you seem to have a plan in place or an idea about someone running things to help get set up. I’m assuming it's another member of your team but not someone that would solely be an employee of this business?”

“Yes,” West said. “Nelson. Our younger brother.”

“He’s mini West,” Laken said, grinning. “Or wants to be.”

“So he gets to cut his teeth on this?” he asked.

Jamie hoped to hell they knew what they were doing. This was his daughter’s future in his mind.

He’d only approached West with this deal because he felt if anyone could make it happen it was this self-made billionaire, but now he was wondering if it was more a placement for family.

“I can see your doubt,” West said. “But know one thing—we all have to start somewhere. By putting Nelson here, he will be mentored by me and Laken. I could put someone else in charge to get you set up and step back and that person would have other responsibilities at times too. Nelson will be giving this one hundred percent of his time once he closes a few other things. And because I’m the last person that would want him to fail, he will be a direct report to me.”

Which was more than he’d get if it was someone else. He understood that now.

He should have realized that West owning sixty percent of the company meant he would make sure it was successful too. It’s not like West couldn’t just make his decision without telling Jamie either.

He’d signed those rights away in a lot of decisions.

“I have no choice but to trust you,” he said. “Lay it out.”

7

SOMETHING TO PROVE

“Iknow you’re nervous about this,” Laken said once West left. “I can see it in your eyes. My brother doesn’t like to fail. He rarely does.”

“Neither do I. I hope this isn’t one of those rare instances.”

She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. Rather than wear a skirt today, she’d put on black pants with wide bottoms that showed her nude heels with the red soles. She had a fitted white sweater on and a leopard print scarf around her neck.

She knew Jamie would come in in jeans and they’d be meeting for hours again. Might as well be comfortable.

Lunch was arriving in a few minutes too. She’d gotten a club sandwich, Jamie a salad.

Guess he took healthy to another level.

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