When Tadhg looked back at me, there was something unguarded in his expression. “I’ve been trying not to be like him ever since.”
His jaw worked, and a pained shadow passed over his face as we came to a stop in front of the exterior door to my room.
“I’m sorry for bringing it up,” I said, hating that I’dkilled the moodin Naomi Speak.
“Don’t be. So far, your willingness to say exactly what’s on your mind to me is what I like most about you.”
His thoughtful expression morphed into something much more intense. “Pardon my language, Strawberry, but my parents’ marriage was a piece of shite. They couldn’t talk to each other. My mam was afraid of my da. I don’t want that for us. For our children. If you ever have a question for me, ask it...”
I opened my mouth.
“…when you see me next. Like I said, now’s the time for rest.”
Any protest I might have had was pushed back by another soft kiss. Another lingering song. And my heart continued to beat to the melody when he let go of my hand and said, “Good sleep, Sadie.”
Limits
Declan
So far,I’d managed to avoid the two kings who had completely derailed my next two years in less than two days. There’d been arrangements to make—though not as many as I’d thought.
When I called my assistant, Gerard, to let him know about my hiatus, he’d acted like I’d come down with early-onset dementia.
“Yes, the PR package is all set up and ready to launch,” Gerard said in the same tone he used to remind the cleaning service never to enter our suite if I was still in the office, no matter the hour. “Eileen and I have been working on it for weeks.”
So not only had Gerard been in contact with Tadhg’s executive assistant, but…
“You were putting together a PR package for my hiatus, and it didn’t occur to you to consult me about it?”
“Eileen said you weren’t to be bothered with it. Same as Davos. We cleared your schedule without interruption,” Gerard replied in his defense. “By the way,The Irish Timesis asking to move next year’s summit. Any idea how long this hiatus is meant tolast? Eileen gave us a six to sixteen-month window, which... raised a few flags.”
Of course it did.
I hadn’t taken six days off in a row in years. Gerard and the rest of the team probably reckoned Tadhg and I were having some kind of twin mental breakdown.
My jaw clenched. I wanted to correct him. To say there’d been some kind of administrative mix-up. That I wasn’t about to step away from the helm of the fastest-growing tech company in Europe for over a year. That I’d be back in the office shortly.
I just had to pop over to Scotland to clean up one last piece of bear business.
That was what I wanted to say, what I’d been trying to say for the steadily increasing hours between now and when I discovered the other two Irish Bear Kings had completely fucked our ability to do business in The Above.
“Declan?” My assistant’s voice cut through the rising static in my brain. “Do you have an answer for me? OrThe Irish Times?”
I gritted my teeth. But in the end, all that came out was, “Hold off on the announcement package for the hiatus until you hear otherwise from me.”
“Will do.”
Gerard sounded relieved. He’d probably thought I was calling to say I no longer needed an executive assistant while I was secretly checked into a psychiatric facility.
“And as long as I have you on the phone, there are a few more questions I’ve been fielding from the teams?—”
Questions with answers I already knew I didn’t have. I ended the call before he could finish, hating this situation.
Hating myself for not being able to de-escalate this disaster like any CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company should.
I tried to work. The hiatus hadn’t been announced, so as far as everyone else knew, I’d just stopped answering my carefully curated-by-Gerard email and abruptly canceled all in-person meetings for a day or two.
There were still plenty of reports to follow up on, and of course, I’d have to tap our chief strategy officer to return to the GoNoTo table and close the deal I’d been working on before Tadhg and Cian unleashed this unmitigated clusterfuck into my life.
