Page 11 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

Every year, my grandfather visited all of the Wolfe Enterprises hotels, resorts, warehouses, and distilleries. He made it a point to speak to each one of the thousand-plus employees personally. Since the company was global, that meant visiting over fourteen countries.

In the eighties, he used to be gone for a week at a time, but over the years, as the company grew, the trip got longer and longer. His European, Asian, and South American travels had expanded and now took six months out of the year. Once he returned to the States, he was gone another six to eight weeks, visiting Canada, Mexico, and the continental US before the Christmas holiday.

His work ethic was unmatched. And now, I needed to fill those shoes. I couldn’t do that and have a personal life that had question marks in it.

“I’ll see you tonight. Dinner. Eight.”

“Night. Eight,” Serena mumbled groggily.

I headed out of my Midtown penthouse to the black Range Rover parked in front of the building. Lester leaned against the passenger side, scrolling on his phone. When he saw me, he straightened and opened the back passenger-side door. “Good morning, Mr. Wolfe.”

“Morning, Lester. And it’s just Declan,” I reminded him for the dozenth time as I climbed inside. Ever since my grandfatherpassed, all the staff had immediately begun to call me Mr. Wolfe; it was like the name had been passed down to me. I didn’t like it. “Lookin’ sharp,” I observed.

Lester had always dressed to impress. He was old school, just like my grandfather. Today, he was wearing a black suit, gray tie, and a Kangol flat cap. In all the years he’d worked for my grandfather, I don’t think I’d ever seen him in casual clothes.

“Thank you,” he grinned as he shut my door.

Once he was in the driver’s seat and we were on our way, I asked, “How’s Maribel?”

“Doin’ much better. Thanks for asking.”

Maribel and Lester celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary two weeks earlier. My gift to them was an all-expense-paid trip for seven days in the Bahamas. When they got back last week, she was feeling under the weather, and it turned out she’d had a heart attack. It was mild, but she’d had to take it easy. Today was his first day back.

“If you need more time?—”

“No, sir.” He let out a forced laugh. “Mari told me I didn’t have to go to work, but I had to get the hell out of her hair, or one of us was going to end up back in the hospital, and it wasn’t going to be her.”

I chuckled. Lester Washington was a six-foot-six, two hundred and thirty pound, golden glove heavyweight boxer and a former special forces Marine. His wife Maribel was five feet tall on a good day and weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet, but she was a firecracker. If she said jump, anyone with half a brain would ask how high. He adored her and would do anything for that woman. He’d take a bullet for her. I knew it must be killing him not to be able to do anything to make her better. But if she wanted him out of her hair, it was probably for the best that he was here.

Lester was a protector by nature, which was why he’d always been good at his job. He’d worked for my grandfather as a bodyguard and driver and now was working for me. Besides the business, which I would be inheriting in nine months, I’d also inherited Lester. He’d been my grandfather’s driver for thirty-five years. When my grandfather passed, I offered Lester a retirement package, but he asked if he could stay on. So now, I had a driver, whether I wanted one or not.

The SUV came to a stop in front of the twenty-story building that housed Wolfe Enterprises. It held the corporate offices of our hotels, clothing line, and liquor company. Each was a separate entity with its own designated floors and staff under the umbrella of Wolfe Enterprises. Until now, I’d held an executive role as COO in the hotel business only. Over the past few weeks, I’d been brought up to speed with Wolfe Clothing and Wolfe Tequila. As acting CEO, I was now in charge of all three of the branches.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said as I stepped out of the SUV.

Lester dipped his chin in a nod. It still felt strange having someone drive me to work. I wondered if I was going to get used to it or if it would continue to be uncomfortable until Lester finally retired. If I had to guess, I would say the latter.

As I walked through the glass doors, Jake, the security guard, greeted me.

“Morning, Declan.”

“Morning.” He was one of the only employees who hadn’t started calling me Mr. Wolfe, and I appreciated it.

After pressing the button to call the elevator, stepping onto it, and hitting the button for the eighteenth floor, I sanitized my hands as it ascended.

Hannah Hayes was waiting for me as I stepped off the elevator. Six years ago, she was hired at Wolfe Enterprises as an intern, right after graduating from NYU. By the end of herfirst thirty days, she stood out to me. I recognized her attention to detail, her photographic retention of information, and her inability to begin a project and not finish it, among other traits that set her apart from the other interns who were hired.

I promoted her to my assistant by week five. When I did, my grandfather and brother accused me of doing so because of her appearance. She was the mirror image of Olivia Munn, who also bore a striking resemblance to my fiancée. But truly, her appearance hadn’t even been a consideration.

After working together for a few months, she shared with me that she was on the autism spectrum. It made sense to me that I felt a connection with her, considering I shared some overlapping traits of compulsion with my OCPD. Although I’d never disclosed my condition to her, I had a feeling she’d worked it out on her own.

“Morning, Hannah. Is Derek in?”

“Haven’t seen him.”

“What about Raquel?”

Derek was the COO of Wolfe Tequila, and his wife Raquel was the COO of Wolfe Clothing. She oversaw everything from design and production to distribution. I’d never paid much attention to either of their roles or whether or not they attended meetings or turned in reports or how they ran their teams because it never affected me or my side of the company. Now, it affected me, and their performance over the past month was… well, it was non-existent.

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