Chapter Six
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Cove
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“Ihad to postpone yourmeeting with Tim Northam.Your grandmother and your two aunts are coming up to see you.”
“What?”I ask, because surely I misheard.
“You heard me, Hollister,” says our PA, Denise Angers, also a member of our grandmother’s army.She’s fifty-five, served our adopted fathers before us, and has no plans to retire, so she’s basically been bossing us around forever.
“Rafe and Tylan are on their way to your office as we speak.”
Ah, fuck.This is not good.
“What the fuck?Did you do something wrong?”Rafe asks as soon as he enters my office.“Because it isn’t me or Tylan.”
“No,” I say almost defensively, narrowing my eyes at Rafe Winslow and Tylan Carver.I’ve known these two men my whole life.We were each adopted by a couple in the Thomas family and raised to one day take over Acclivity.
That day arrived two years ago when the reins of the multi-billion-dollar company were handed to us.We’re formidable, feared, respected, and revered around the entire world, except when it comes to our adopted grandmother.
She doesn’t care how much money we’re making.What she wants is for us, at the age of thirty-two, to get married and give her grandbabies.
We’re just too busy turning our multi-billion-dollar company into a triple-billion-dollar company.We don’t date.The women we take to bed know this.Our grandmother and her entourage––our aunts––not so much.
“What do you think is going on?”
“Guess we’re going to find out.”
As soon as the words are out of Tylan’s mouth, Denise opens my office door and ushers in the matriarchs of our family.
Our grandmother, Esmeralda Thomas, at seventy-five, still cuts an imposing figure.Dressed in her signature shade of blue, with her eyes still glittering with youth, she allows us to kiss both her cheeks.
Our aunts, Louise and Jane, whom we kiss the same way, are replicas of her, only twenty years or so younger.
“To what do we owe this unexpected visit?”I ask, although it doesn’t feel like a visit.More of a summoning...in our own domain.I groan silently on the inside.We have major deals closing, takeovers pending, new negotiations to handle, and merger meetings to attend.Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean we stop making money.
What are they up to?
“So, Adalynn Miller?”our grandmother says.At least she got straight to the point.
“Never heard of her.”We chorus because it’s true.
She gives us a pointed stare, then glances at our aunts sitting on either side of her.
“Are you saying you aren’t engaged to be married to this lovely girl?”Aunt Louise says, pulling out a sheet of glossy paper from her large handbag and placing it on the desk.
With Rafe and Tylan standing on either side of me across the desk from our grandmother and aunts, I pick up the sheet.
A woman stares back at us.The image looks to have been taken with a powerful telephoto lens from another building across from hers.Wearing what seems to be a tattered robe, the belt untied to reveal a bright green t-shirt and overly baggy track pants, she was caught bringing a cupcake to her mouth with her left hand.
