Page 26 of Always Salty

What she didn’t do well was people.

She was staring at Copper, blinking rapidly, and pretty much making a fool out of herself.

Unable to stand it anymore, I said, “Thanks, Millie.”

Millie’s head whipped toward me and she mouthed, “Who is this?”

I grinned. “Millie, I’d like you to meet my brother, Copper. The new CEO of Castanon Enterprises. Copper, this is Millicent McDaniel, the best assistant to the CEO anyone could ever dream of. I pay her a hefty amount of money to pretty much run the day-to-day business and be my right-hand woman. When things go wrong, they call her. When decisions need to be made, she delegates and then decides who gets to contact me. Which, thankfully, is not that many people because Millie is so great at what she does.”

Millie’s face went flushed.

I grinned and said, “Is everyone here, Millie?”

“Y-Yes,” she stuttered. “Good luck.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “This time, I don’t think I’ll need it.”

The problem with being a woman in a male dominated field, and a woman that was superior to said males, was I caught a lot of shit.

Most of the men on the board didn’t think that I should be there—and they were probably right. I shouldn’t.

I didn’t have the knowledge, the know-how, or the desire to be there.

Yet, I was there. And they had to fuckin’ deal.

“What was that supposed to mean?” he asked as he caught my arm before I could enter the boardroom.

“Wait outside for a bit and listen from the open door,” I suggested. “You’ll see.”

He hung back as I made my way inside.

Every last one of the men in the room sneered at my outfit.

All of them thought it was inappropriate for me to dress in my scrubs for the day (because most of the time I worked after these meetings) and never lost a chance to tell me how inappropriate they thought I was being.

“Ahh, Ms. Clayborne,” one of my least favorites drawled from his position at the opposite side of the room. At the head of the table, might I add. “It’s nice of you to finally join us. And dressed so well.”

The condescension dripping from his tone made me want to launch myself across the table and maim him with my fingernails.

But I was better than that.

Most of the time.

I wished I could fire his ass.

Marcellus Lynch, head of accounting, and the biggest pain in my ass that there ever was.

Copper’d heard enough after just one comment and came through the door.

The second biggest pain in my ass, Martin Palmer, stiffened in his seat.

Why?

Because they all knew what it meant when Copper came back into the fold—and they all knew him because he’d once been a staple here, even at seventeen.

He’d done a lot of growing up over the years.

Copper wasn’t the sweet teenager he’d once been.

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