Exactly ten minutes after my assistants had closed the door, my phone buzzed. With a sigh, I answered.
“Sir, the board wants a debriefing on your Kentucky trip,” Leighton, one of my assistants, said.
I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. Of course they did. “When?”
“Uh, right now…”
I bit back the curse that came out instinctively. It wasn’t Leighton’s fault. “Tell them it’ll be a minute. If that’s a problem, they can reschedule.”
“I’ll tell them.”
“And tell them I expect more coffee.”
“Noted.”
I hung up and scrubbed at my tired eyes, trying to rub some of the sand out of them. There was nothing to tell the board. The PR thing was still being put together, hampered by the fact that all the footage we had gotten at Ronnie Miller’s was no longer usable, since I was going into business with him personally instead of through Allory.
We could show him in the campaign, but all the extra videos he was posting of himself on the farm no longer had anything to do with making Allory look good. I hadn’t partnered with any other farmers, either, so there was no one else to take his place.
All in all, the trip hadn’t done a hell of a lot for Allory’s image. I had met the woman of my dreams, but since I was letting her slip through my fingers, even that couldn’t be counted as a win.
My accomplishments weren’t going to blow the board away. That was for sure.
I looked through a few emails, wanting to make the board wait. Fuck them for scheduling a surprise meeting first thing. I was tempted to not show up at all, but that would just upsetthem even more, and my father would never let me hear the end of it.
With a deep, steadying breath, I got to my feet and marched down the hall toward whatever fate had in store for me. All the seats at the table were occupied except for mine. I stayed standing, leaning my hands on the table for support.
I glanced around at everyone, including my father. “Full house this morning. I’m flattered.”
Dad took the lead as he usually did, still trying to run the company from his board seat. I wasn’t sure why he had retired in the first place if he didn’t want to step back from the business.
“We wanted to congratulate you on doing such a good job in Ferris,” Dad said.
I narrowed my eyes at him, but I couldn’t detect any signs of sarcasm or any hidden barbs. It sounded like an honest-to-God compliment. “Thank you?” I replied uncertainly.
He nodded. “Yes, the PR guys have put together some of the footage and it looks solid.”
I looked around at the other board members and all of them seemed legitimately pleased with the work I had done. I shrugged and grinned. “Well, that’s great,” I told them. “Excellent meeting.”
I turned to leave, but Dad stopped me. “Wait, there’s something else.”
Of course there is. With a sigh, I turned around. “What is it?”
“You know Shelby Whitaker,” he said. “According to the social media team, you spent a lot of time out at her farm.”
I nodded. “Yeah, she was the one who made that post that went viral. You bought her family’s farm and closed it. It pretty much wrecked an entire community.”
He waved all that away. “The board needs you to go back down there. Her egg farm might become a real threat someday.It’s already making a dent in our sales in her area. We want you to sign off on an acquisition and make it happen.”
My ears rang, but it had nothing to do with my hangover.Of course this is what they want. Of course this is how it was always going to end.
“Let me guess,” I said through numb lips. “We’re going to buy it just so we can close it?”
Dad shrugged. “Once you find a winning strategy, no sense in changing it up.”
I laughed at him. It was the bitter, broken sound of a man who had just realized he couldn’t do this anymore. The money, the status, I didn’t care about any of it. I was already a billionaire in my own right. I didn’t need the company or my fucking father’s approval.
“I have a different proposal for you and the board,” I said, looking around at them with fire in my eyes. “From here on out, Allory will leave Shelby Whitaker and the town of Ferris alone. They’re off limits.”
