Page 25 of It's Always Been You
Without knowing what else to do, I reach for the false bravado I’ve used so many times to get out of uncomfortable conversations.
“Oh, you know me. There’s always something amazing happening and ten years is a whole boatload of amazing.”
He gives me an understanding look, and I can see he doesn’t buy one single word of my bullshit.
“There’s time for the big stuff, so let’s start small. Tell me why you were frustrated when I walked in. Tell me anything. Just talk to me, Rory, because I fucking missed the sound of your voice.”
I can’t give him everything. Not yet. But I can give him something.
“I missed your voice too.”
He grins at me and reaches behind him to grab the coffee and plastic bag, handing them both over.
“Provisions, for your story.”
I take another sip of coffee and then open the bag to find four boxes of my favorite candy-coated black licorice. My friends think I’m crazy because who likes black licorice, right? The answer is, I do. It’s a controversial favorite candy, but I’ve never been much for conforming.
“Bless you,” I breathe, opening one of the boxes, tossing a couple of pieces of the purple and white candy into my mouth, and holding out the box to Gabe.
He shakes his head, wrinkling his nose, and fuck, it’s so damn adorable.
“I never could learn to like it.”
I grin at him and eat more candy. “It’s an acquired taste. Much like myself.”
He gives me a heated look that has lust shooting straight to my core. “And yet I developed quite the taste for you.”
“Keep it in your pants, dude.”
“When you’re around, Rory baby? Never.”
I need to change the subject before I just straight up maul him on this couch. The mixture of swoony, adorable, sexy Gabe is a recipe for bad decisions.
“It was an email from one of my clients. The reason I was power posing in the middle of my office,” I say at his questioning look.
“Was it bad?”
I make an irritated noise. “Stupid is what it was. The client owns a huge family business in the city, and I helped them set up their family office to manage their wealth, investments, and everything from estate and tax planning to philanthropy and personal household staff. It essentially centralizes the financial management for their entire family. I manage it for them, coordinating all their outside advisors, and I handle the estate and tax planning piece myself. It’s complicated and a ton of work, but I really like it.”
Gabe nods in understanding. “You always did like a challenge.”
“Exactly. And I’m fucking good at it. Like, really, really good. So good that when I left my old firm to start this one, they followed me, and they’re by far my biggest, most complex client.” I eat more candy, my irritation boiling.
“So, what’s the problem?”
“The problem is,” I bite out, my voice taking on a bitter edge. “That the client has a nephew who works for a big firm in town. I know the nephew from law school, and he’s a dude-bro assholenamed Brad who has been gunning for his uncle’s legal business ever since we opened our firm. Carrying on about how my firm is too small to handle a matter of this caliber, and a business of their size needs a firm with more resources. Itdefinitelyhasnothingto do with how Brad wants to make partner but is too much of a lazy, whiny-ass baby to prove he’s worth it by going out and getting his own clients.”
“He wants to steal your client, who happens to be his uncle, to show his firm he can bring in business, so they make him partner.”
“Nailed it in one,” I say darkly. “I have a meeting with them next week, and I just got an email telling me without telling me that asshole Brad will be there too. They say it’s because they have too much legal work for just one firm, but that’s not it. It’s Brad running his mouth and his uncle being enough of an old boys’ club member to listen.”
“I fucking hate guys like that.”
I chuckle, thinking of all the articles I’ve read over the last ten years about Gabe’s refusal to play the corporate game, his commitment to gender parity in his companies, and his consistent bucking of Silicon Valley norms.
“Oh, I know. Your dedication to women in STEM and refusal to spend even one single minute on the golf course has been well documented.”
Gabe grins at me. “You keeping tabs on me, Rory?”
