Page 81 of Home Game

“You wouldn’t,” he said. “Emmett, I’m happy for you. Really happy. You needed this.”

I bit my lower lip.

I knew he was right. I really did need this. Even though it was still terrifying to admit.

“I’m not going to get my hopes up,” I said. “Everything is new. Stormwasunder the impression that he was straight until recently. And we did hate each other.”

“I don’t think you ever really hated each other,” Landry said. “I think you were just both too blind to see how good you are together.”

“I have to head into the office now,” I said. “I’ll see you there.”

I knew things would be bad with Cutmore, but I had no clue just how bad.

It seemed like a typical meeting at first—his expression was stern, and he looked at me like a school principal about to scold a first grader, but that was how Cutmore looked half the time, anyway.

This office used to be my dad’s, and Cutmore had taken it over, only a few weeks after my dad had passed.

I still hated it. I hated sitting in this chair across from him, knowing that I used to feel so happy, soloved, in this same spot.

“I was disappointed by you on this Racks deal,” he said a few minutes into the meeting.

Of course.

“I did everything I could,” I said. “The financial projections were so solid from the Fixer Brothers. Everything should have been a done deal.”

Cutmore’s icy eyes went straight through me. “Maybe it wasn’t about the, uh, Fixer Brothers’ financials.”

I blinked at him. “What do you mean?”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Maybe, for a good family company like Racks, it was more about the Fixer Brothers’lifestyle.”

That word hit me right in the chest.

Lifestyle.

From Walter Cutmore, that meant one thing and one thing only. The Fixer Brothers happened to be openly gay, and forCutmore, that meant they weren’t wholesome. Weren’t agood family company.

I cleared my throat. “That wasn’t an issue at all.”

“I don’t know about that, Emmett.”

“I’ve met the Vice President of Racks, and she and her son are both members of the queer community—”

Cutmore turned his nose up. “Yes, yes, I’m aware of that,” he said, the last word coming out with a venom in his tone. “Every company needs to play politics these days, don’t they?”

I furrowed my brow. “What are you insinuating?”

“Emmett, it’s well known in the business community that not everyone who is hired for positions is actually qualified for them.”

Anger flared through my chest.

Don’t react.

Just. Don’t. React.

“I think she was extremely qualified, but that’s not what the important part of this conversation is. I’m willing to take the loss for this Racks deal, but I know that going forward with the Fixer Brothers, we can find other avenues of branding and marketing that will be phenomenal. Trust me on this.”

Cutmore sniffed, looking down at his desk and tapping a pen on its surface.

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