Page 121 of Mad Rivals
Holy shit.
I’m officially a CEO. At twenty-seven. It’s sort of unbelievable, and there are a whole lot of ideas I want to implement. Probably. Eventually. It’s a lot of decision-making, and I’m honestly sort of glad my father will be around to help with the transition.
I stare at the screen in front of me, a little confused as I try to will some ideas into my head. What was I working on again?
I have plenty of work to do—especiallynow. I have plenty of things that have gone unattended to over the last couple weeks as my mood swings from high to low at the drop of a hat.
But I need to pull myself together. Especially now.
The truth is that I thought he’d be here by now.
I thought he’d realize we belong together.
I thought he’d come back to me to fight for me. For us. For our future.
But training camp starts tomorrow, and as the clock ticks to eight o’clock on a Sunday night, it’s time for me to face the truth.
He’s moved on. Or he’s moved toward the season. Whatever. Same difference, or it may as well be. He’s not here with me, and he’s not coming.
Maybe I’ll never beokaywith that fact, but it’s a fact that it’s time to face.
I need to move on, too. Or at least throw myself into work and try to figure out how to focus on all the new tasks that are suddenly on my plate.
I may be just the tiniest bit overwhelmed, and that’s why I’m not even thinking when my doorbell rings at nine o’clock on Sunday night and I throw the door open.
I guess deep down I assumed it was food that I don’t ever actually remember ordering, but it’s not.
Instead, it’s Madden Bradley.
In a suit and holding a bouquet of flowers.
Looking fine as hell, and also…wait. What is he doing here?
“Did you do something different with your hair?” he asks with a grin.
I can’t be moved to laugh in my total confusion and shock that he’s actually standing on my front porch. “What are you doing here?” I ask. “Don’t you need to be at camp?”
He nods. “Yeah. Tomorrow. I should be home packing. But this was more important.”
“What was?”
“Being here with you.” His dark eyes are so sincere as they pin me to my place. “I missed you, Ken.”
I sigh. “I missed you, too. But I just convinced myself that I need to face facts that it’s over literally like five minutes ago, so let me ask again, what are you doing here? Is this like some final goodbye? Or like a maybe we’ll see each other sometime once the season ends since you’ll be gone until then?”
“It’s none of that.” He shakes his head. “And for the record, I have Tuesdays off. Sometimes Mondays, too. And if we move in together, I’ll be there as much as I can.”
“If we move in together?” I repeat. I blink, and I glance over at him. “Madden, you broke up with me. You said you had to in order to protect me. You left me. You gave me Newman so you didn’t have to face me. And now we’re moving in together? I feel like I missed something.”
“I was an idiot, Ken. I thought I was doing what was best for you by cutting myself out of your life. I didn’t give you Newman because I didn’t want to face you. Icouldn’tface you. I was far too broken without you, and the more time I spent apart from you, the more I knew how very wrong I was to let you go. I may not be good for you, but you’re good for me. I love you. I want to be with you. I want a future with you. I want to work with you. I want to play with you and laugh with you and live fucking life with you. I want it all, and I want it with you.”
I sniffle, not sure how to respond to all that.
He clears his throat. “I came here to tell you that and some other things.”
“What other things?”
He chuckles. “I realized pretty quickly how much I need you in my life, but I needed to find a way to get you back while still keeping you safe. And so I told my father about us. I also told him that he needed to extract all traces of illegal activity from Bradley Group and then he needed to sign the company over to me.”
