Page 78 of His Rules

I approached slowly, using a single finger to push open the door. I hadn’t seen Drake’s car in the parking lot, which meant the man had been going for the element of surprise. There he was, standing in front of my window staring out at the bank of trees lining the rear of the property. The sun was just peeking through the window. Soon the glare would be harsh, yet he’d opened every blind in my office.

Those had definitely been closed when we’d left.

I gave my desk a quick glimpse. From what I could tell, nothing had been disturbed. He wouldn’t find anything I was working on either. I’d pulled my files onto a jump drive, grabbed a stack of financials, and had taken both home with me. Until I was ready to play my hand, I wasn’t about to tip him off to my plans.

“You have the better view,” Drake said, letting me know he was aware of my presence.

“Yes, well, you had your choice of offices.”

“I have additional square footage. I like that.”

I walked into the center of the room, pulling my travel mug to my lips. I was already on my third cup of coffee, which had done little but make me wired. I wasn’t in the mood to get into the situation with him today, but it would seem he had other plans in mind.

This should prove to be very interesting. Perhaps even informative. One way or the other, I had a feeling this was both of us drawing lines in the sand.

“Yes, you always enjoyed bragging rights.” I took the opportunity to sit down on the chair on the outside of my desk, even putting my feet up crossed on the surface. I could do what I wanted. This was my office.

He laughed softly and shook his head. “I deserved it after all the hard work I put into making this company something special.”

I picked at my tie, enjoying another sip of the steaming brew as I contemplated what to say or if I was going to bother playing tabletop tennis vocally with him. We’d done a lot of that in our youth, bantering like we were brothers. I’d grown weary of the childish behavior.

He wore an annoyed expression as he finally turned around, like since I hadn’t grabbed onto the dangling carrot.

That’s because I wasn’t hungry.

Not for what he had to offer anyway.

I quickly thought about the night before with Kacey. She continued to surprise me, both personally and professionally. She certainly wasn’t the introvert I’d known as a young childor the one clutching two romance novels before heading off to college. Now she’d turned into quite the vixen.

“If I seem to remember correctly, we both put in a lot of work and long hours. At this point in our careers, we should be enjoying our success instead of worrying when the layoffs begin.” Maybe I was just in a pissy mood, showing it by tossing the crumb in his direction.

His jaw clenched and he almost snorted. I could tell he had no idea what I was getting at or where I was going with the cryptic answers.

I was on a fact-finding mission at this point. I didn’t have anything else to say to the man.

“True. At least in the early days. You’ve been preoccupied, more so lately.”

“Things change. At this point, I’m trying to ensure we keep our fingers in the dike.”

He smiled and I had the urge to wipe it off his face. “Since when did we grow apart?”

“I think that happened years ago. You couldn’t understand why I was interested in attempting to keep my marriage going.”

“That was a waste of time.”

“Yes, it was.” Where was he going with this?

“I’m glad you got away from Ashley. She’s a manipulative person.”

“And you say this why?”

“Because she managed to grab more of your attention. If she hadn’t, we wouldn’t be in this place.”

“Ah, so you’re blaming me.” I did what I could to keep my voice calm. I even smiled in return.

“There’s no one to blame really. We lost our edge. It’s time to get it back.”

“I couldn’t agree more. Which is why I had a heart to heart with Francis Kane.”

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