Page 20 of The Acquisition

I saw the muscle tick in Colter's jaw. He grabbed my plate and removed the dome.

"I can feed myself," I whispered.

He seemed to come back to himself and smirked. There was a sarcastic retort ready, but with a quick glance at the table, whatever he was going to say was forgotten.

Maybe he finally understood why I was so adamant we couldn't be together. Last night was a drunken fluke, and we could move forward as if it had never happened. Sure, that kiss would replay through my dreams probably for the rest of my life, but it needed to remain in the realm of fantasy. The reality was someone we both cared about would be hurt if we pushed forward with this.

Colt leaned down. "You look like you're thinking of running. Before you try and convince me we can't do this, you should know I'm not going to listen. She'll come around."

"Why would she need to?" I breathed out.

He shook his head and stepped back from me.

I quickly finished grabbing food and then joined everyone else at the table.

Once I was seated and eating, Beckett addressed everyone. "We are heading to the airport as soon as we are done with breakfast. I've called an emergency board meeting to address the efforts to have me removed as CEO of Anderson Global."

Fitz and Grace entered the kitchen, and immediately Fitz gestured with his head for Beckett to follow him out of the room. Beckett pushed back from the table. "Let's talk on the plane."

Colter came around the kitchen island and put his hands on the back of my chair. "Let's go grab our bags and get out to the car. Beck is going to want to leave right away."

No one spoke on the short drive to the airport. The mood on the plane was tense and sullen. Considering a handful of hours earlier we were celebrating a wedding, it seemed a rather dramatic turn.

Once we were at cruising altitude and the pilot turned off the seatbelt sign, Beckett turned and faced us. He didn't need to speak to gain our attention because the tension he radiated was pulling us to him.

Beck looked at me, and there was pity shining in his blue eyes. "My father has been working to consolidate the shares of the company owned by the board. This incident has made it clear that having a board of directors is more of a hinderance to our vision than a benefit."

Fitz leaned forward. "All the board members have agreed to sell me their shares, except for one person."

It hit me then, why they were both watching for my reaction. "My father is the hold out, isn't he?"

Fitz nodded. "I suspect he's also the one who has been going behind our backs and stirring up my nephew to make a play for control of the company."

Beckett grumbled something about having been given the opportunity. He was angry his father mandated he had to get married to keep the company. I didn't doubt he loved Evie. Part of him was probably grateful he was pushed to move forward with his life, but he did not appreciate the vulnerable position it put Anderson Global in with the board of directors.

It was clear Fitz heard him more clearly than I did, since he appeared chastened by what Beck said. "I promise, everything will be cleared up today," Fitz promised.

EIGHT

COLTER

Izoned out on the drive from the airport. For years I'd looked at my daily life as a placeholder until I reached a distant point in the future. I hadn't voiced it aloud, but I'd assumed my life would really start when I was reunited with Jenny. As a result, I hadn't taken the last twenty-three years seriously.

It's a hard thing to look back and realize I'd passed thirty-eight without accomplishing much of anything. Sure, I was a CFO of a global company, but Beckett deserved most of the credit for that. I'd been floundering, living off my trust fund, until he insisted I join him in working for his father.

What did I have to show for all this time? An adult daughter I'd only just met and the knowledge my first love died alone and in turmoil. I'd waited for my life to start, and instead it passed me by. There was a Maya Angelou quote one of my high school teachers liked to tell us, "When you know better, do better."

Instead of lamenting about all the time I've wasted in my life, I needed to get on with the business of living it. Really living it this time, with a purpose I'd yet to implement.

The driver took us straight to the office and immediately Beck, Fitz, and I gathered in Beck's office to discuss the particulars of the board meeting. Fitz informed me how the required shares were going to be distributed.

A quick calculation of Beckett's forty-one shares, my thirty-nine, and the ten that Fitz retained still left ten shares unaccounted for. "Maxwell Easton holds the remaining ten shares, doesn't he?"

Fitz nodded. "For now."

"What are you going to do with them?" I asked.

Beckett and Fitz shared a look. "We were thinking of demanding Easton transfer them to his daughter. It can't be said we stole the shares from him if ownership stays within the Easton family."

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