Check your email.
Vague much? Morgan reluctantly went to his email, where he ignored the mounds of unread icons glaring at him and went directly to the one from the law firm he’d employed to maintain a barrier between himself and Bentley.
Just a heads-up, his lawyer wrote in the subject line. The body of the email read,The offer isn’t final yet, but I wanted you to know that this was in the works. They’ve asked for your phone number to talk with you directly, but of course, I refused. I said I’d pass on the information for your consideration, though. I’m sure we could get some concessions out of them if they’re serious about bringing you on as CEO, particularly when it comes to your ex.
What the … Morgan read on, his eyes getting wider with every line.We hope you will consider this position … realize that our initial hiring decisions were hyper-accelerated … pay package can be negotiated depending on the term of employment … open for your response until the first business week of the new year.
“What’s wrong?”
Morgan’s eyes jerked from his phone to Ty, who stood a few feet away, holding a spatula in one hand. Something was sizzling in the pan on the stove, but he wasn’t paying it any heed, all his attention on Morgan.
“Nothing,” Morgan said automatically, then grimaced. He actually wanted to talk to someone about this, get the roiling feelings he was suddenly full to the brim with off his chest. “No, not nothing. You remember what I said before about why I came here?”
“Mmm. You left your company.”
Morgan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “More like I was pushed out of my company. My business partner—also my partner partner—arranged a sale of our biotech start-up to another company, and he did it all behind my back. It was a very good deal, monetarily speaking, but I didn’t want to sell. The work we were spearheading, the projects we were bringing together …” Just thinking about it turned his stomach. “It was revolutionary. We were closing in on some new cancer treatments that could make chemotherapy obsolete, we were about to open an office in South Korea, and then everything just … stopped.”
Ty looked at him for a long moment, then reached out a hand to help him up. “Come tell me more while I cook.”
“You want to know more?” Morgan raised a doubtful eyebrow. “It’s not an exciting story, mostly dry corporate bullshit.”
“I want to know more about you.”
Oof. That hit in a way Morgan didn’t expect. When was the last time someone other than his sister or a reporter had been interested in knowing more about Morgan? Bentley had stopped asking a long time ago. But that was normal in long-term relationships, wasn’t it? You got to know each other so well that eventually, there was nothing left to say.
But Ty wanted to know more now, and Morgan wanted to talk. He followed Ty over to the stove and described the takeover process, how he’d lost control of not just his company but what felt like his whole life. It was more than he’d expected to say, and it continued through eating and into cleanup, but Ty never gaveany indication that he was tired or uninterested. By the time Morgan got around to the actual content of the email, he’d talked himself into feeling sanguine about it instead of panicked.
“It looks like the managing company wants me back as CEO,” he said as he dried the last plate. “My lawyer sent me their initial offer, and it’s very generous, but at this point, I’m not even sure I want to go through the stress of getting back into that game. It would mean having to deal with Bentley again on a daily basis, and I really don’t want to do that.”
“Mmm.” Ty hung the dishrag on a hook on the wall. “I can see why. He’s not a good person.”
“He’s a good person,” Morgan said automatically, compelled to defend his ex even though he privately agreed with Ty. Too many years of maintaining a united front, perhaps. “He just doesn’t always think through the consequences of his actions. I get the feeling he promised his new bosses more than he could actually deliver, and this offer is a way of covering his ass.”
“You think it started with him, then?”
Morgan shrugged. “They have no reason to want to work with me otherwise. I never even met any of the board.”
“But you did good work for many years. Surely there are more people who can attest to that than your ex.”
Morgan smiled at Ty. “That’s a nice thing to say, but—”
“No. It’s true.”
He said it with such conviction that Morgan honestly believed he meant it. And while Ty had no way to know that as a fact, his faith was … was … “Thank you.”
Ty smiled, and Morgan’s heart clenched for a second. He almost missed the follow-up question. “What will you do about the offer?”
Oh, right. “Probably ignore it, honestly,” Morgan said. “I have no interest in being a figurehead with no real power in someone else’s company. I’ll talk to my sister about it at Christmas, butunless they come up with something truly irresistible, I’m not going to change my plans for them.”
Ty smiled more broadly. “Then you’re staying here?”
Not for long.“For now,” Morgan said, as honest as he could stand to be.
“Mmm.” Ty looked away, then slowly turned toward the door. “I suppose I should go.”
“Stay.” It fell out of Morgan’s mouth before he could stop himself. “It’s just—it’s gotten dark,” he pointed out. “It’s a lot later than you usually stay,”—thanks to listening to me vent for over an hour—“and it’s probably not safe to be on the water right now. You should stay the night. We can start a new story,” he added. They’d finishedWolf Dictionaryweeks ago, with Morgan carefully leaving off the depressing last page to give Ty a more uplifting experience.
Ty had asked for more by the same author, and so Morgan was working his way through his entire collection of obscure Jane Wodening volumes. They were on a collection of short stories right now and had finished the last one a few days ago.
