He put the mask back on and went back to his chair.
Lila witnessed the whole thing, eyes wide. “Well, well, well. I don’t know what kind of falling out you two had, but it seems like all is forgiven.”
I blushed. “Shush. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
CHAPTER 24
CARTER
When Mrs. Presley first roped me into being the town’s Easter Bunny, I had resisted, and when I put the costume on, I had felt like an asshole, but as the afternoon wore on, I had to admit to myself that I was having a nice day.
I was hardly ever around kids. I didn’t have brothers and sisters, so there were no nephews or nieces running around. And there weren’t any kids at the office, where I spent the vast majority of my waking hours. Now that I had gotten a chance to interact with some little humans, I had to say I liked them.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had smiled so much, even though no one could see it behind the mask. The kids’ excitement and enthusiasm were infectious, getting me hyped up right alongside them. Easter had never really been on my radar most years, but I had a feeling it would be a bigger deal for me going forward.
Maybe I could try hosting some kind of big Easter event back in LA next year. It was impossible to get the same sense of community there as you could here in Ferris, considering the sheer amount of people concentrated into a single area, but there had to be a way to do something similar. As silly as they seemed from the outside, it had become clear to me thatevents like these really helped bring people together. The world definitely needed more of that.
Or maybe I could come back next year to be the Ferris Easter Bunny again. I already knew the suit fit. I sighed and shook my head slightly, not wanting to mess up the photo for the kid standing beside me at the moment.
I couldn’t come back to Ferris next year just for fun. The only reason I had been able to spend so much time here now was because Allory was in crisis mode with this PR stuff. I never got a chance to slow down like this and take some time to get to know a place.
That was probably for the best, considering most of what I had learned was that Allory had fucked over lots of people in its quest for profits. If I went to some of the other places my father had meddled with, would I find more of the same story as I had in Ferris? A town destroyed, families torn asunder, good people struggling just to get by.
And for what? More money in Allory’s bank accounts? Numbers on a spreadsheet went up while people suffered and went hungry. Our stock price soared while good Americans crashed and burned.
I hadn’t signed up for any of this when I took over the company. Money was obviously important, but personally, I couldn’t remove the human cost of success from the equation. If Allory’s success was built on people getting hurt, I couldn’t just ignore it. How many people were out there like Shelby, with similar stories about what we had done to them?
I shuddered to think about it.
Putting those thoughts aside as much as I could, I got my head back into Easter Bunny mode. I welcomed kids and parents alike, now that the line was thinning out. People were just having fun now, doing more joke poses with me. I was happy to oblige them. My favorite had to be when a couple of tipsy gentlemenpicked up the huge foam carrots and had a sword fight with them in front of me. It was a lot of fun. Way more fun than exploiting farmers to make a few bucks.
That wasn’t the way I was running Allory, but new leadership didn’t erase the past mistakes my father had made. I was trying to do things a better way, balancing success for the company with success for the people I worked with.
Small farmers like Shelby needed partners, not mega corps acting as competition. They were the heart and soul of this country, keeping us fed without filling us with pesticides and synthetic hormones. We needed more farmers like that instead of less. I knew Allory was part of the problem, but these days, I was desperately trying to make Allory part of the solution.
That required more than just good PR videos online or pretending to change our ways. It required real commitment to change, strength to withstand all the pushback from board members and shareholders, and the tenacity to see it through to the end.
I couldn’t say for sure if I could be the change I wanted to see in the world, but I knew I could try.
Once the event wound down, I headed back to my room to get out of the suit. Taking off the itchy bunny costume was the best feeling in the world. The cool air on my sweaty skin was like heaven. As good as that felt, it wasn’t as good as having Shelby watch me all afternoon.
She hadn’t bothered with playing games or getting fair food that would make a cardiologist weep. Her attention had been firmly focused right on me. I knew that because my focus had also been onherall afternoon.
Shelby was a special girl. I loved the way she teased me relentlessly. She knew I was the billionaire CEO from Allory, and she didn’t care about my money or status. It was such a refreshing change of pace.
I couldn’t remember the last time I dropped my guard like this. Back home, whether I was in the office or sharing a drink with a friend—of which I didn’t have many—I was always putting on the front of who I wassupposedto be. The tightly wound billionaire. The guy who made moves, closed deals, and turned money into more money. The unyielding, stubborn, relentless businessman.
Here? With her?
I was none of those things. And if I started thinking about that for too long, it started to freak me out. I needed a distraction. So instead of showering in my bathroom at the B&B, I decided to head up to Shelby’s farm.
The drive over there felt like it took an eternity. The truck still had a funky smell, but I barely even noticed it. My thoughts were all about Shelby. It was amazing how quickly someone could become important in my life. We’d barely just met and I couldn’t imagine life without her already.
That was a serious problem. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay here in Ferris. People back at the home office were already starting to send passive-aggressive messages about when I was coming back, saying there were things I needed to review in person with the whole team. And they weren’t necessarily wrong.
If nothing else, it would probably be a good idea to head back for a few days, check in with everyone, keep folks in line and on task. But the problem with that? Once I was back in LA, I couldn’t really justify returning to Ferris. Not on the company’s dime and not on the company’s time.
