“She’s not crazy,” Deacon defended her. “She just knows her boundaries.”
Blake tapped her forefingers and thumbs together in what he assumed was applauding his support of her mom.
“Welovea supportive king, but sheiscrazy.”
“Come on!” Tabby tugged on Blake’s hand, clearly bored since the conversation had nothing to do with her. “Let’s do our nails!”
“Oh, my gosh, yes!” Blake enthused. “I could totally go for a mani-pedi night!”
Tabby giggled. “Come on, Rocco, mani-pedis!”
Rocco ruffed as he followed the girls up the stairs.
Seeing Blake with Tabby tugged at Deacon’s heartstrings. Tabby wanted a sibling so badly. He hated that he couldn’t provide that for her.
He headed into the office to finish up the last-minute emails he needed to send. He’d met with Mikayla Parsons earlier in the day. Six months ago, he’d decided to make her co-CEO of St. Claire Global. She’d thrived in the role. If Tabby ever did want to be involved in the St. Claire business, she would be an incredible mentor to have.
He owed her some answers that he wanted to send out so she wasn’t waiting for him. He’d be seeing her tonight at the gala, but he wanted her to know he was green-lighting all of her proposed initiatives. She had what some would consider radical ideas, but Deacon loved her out-of-the-box thinking. She was constantly pushing the company toward green technology and employee-centered workenvironments modeled after Scandinavian countries, including longer maternal and paternal leave, free childcare, four-day work weeks, higher education incentives, including covering costs of living and tuition, and innovative health insurance and sick leave plans. St. Claire would be one of the first American companies to implement a lot of these changes, and he was excited to be on the forefront.
Mikayla wasn’t worried about making herself a billion dollars richer, she wanted everyone in every part of each company under the umbrella of St. Claire Global to thrive, from herself down to Carlos, a single father of four, who joined the janitorial staff at the airlines three weeks earlier who wanted to be a pilot, or the Claire the part-time hostess at St. Claire vineyards who was working part-time to put herself through college to be a lawyer and had dreams of working for the company in that capacity, or the Tremiane, the dishwasher at St. Claire Montreal Hotel who found out he had a brain tumor eight weeks after getting hired. She truly cared about everyone equally, Deacon wasn’t sure how she could possibly remember each employee’s story, he supposed having a photographic memory helped and a heart of gold.
He’d actually been surprised his father hired her in the first place until he found out that he thought she was his child. It turned out her mother, who worked in the corporate offices of St. Claire Airlines for forty years, lied and forged a paternity test because she wanted the best for Mikayla.
Mikayla’s mother told her the truth after Deacon’s parents passed in the car accident, and she was angry that his father hadn’t left her anything despite believing she was his illegitimate daughter. Mikayla came clean to Deacon as soon as her mom told her, but he didn’t blameher or her mother for that matter. If his father messed around and was that easily blackmailed, that was on him. And if he’d believed that was his daughter, which he clearly had, and hadn’t left her any of his business, shame on him.
He hoped he was turning over in his grave over the power he’d given her. He deserved to. After green-lighting all eight of her proposed implementations. Deacon stood and headed into the kitchen to get dinner out of the oven. He found the girls at the kitchen table finishing setting up their beauty salon.
After pulling out the roast, he went over Tabby’s nighttime medication with Blake once more. He’d shown her the day she’d come for the interview and texted her the instructions, but he felt better reminding her once more.
She listened intently. “Got it.”
“Call if you need anything, and when Blake says it’s time to go to bed, no bargaining.” He kissed Tabby on the head.
“Okay, Dad.” She shrugged away from him.
Oh no. He’d embarrassed her. She’dneveracted like that when he’d given the same instructions to her in front of Poppy, who she now called Aunt Poppy. His little girl was growing up. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Not good. Right now the verdict was not good.
When a text came in, he nearly ignored it, but he saw that it was from a company he’d been working on a deal with for two years. He’d worked on getting We-C-U into Japan, and this was the company that would make it happen. They had a big meeting coming up next Wednesday, and he needed to make surenothingwas going to jeopardize it.
“Shit,” he mumbled under his breath when he read the message.
“Five dollar word!” Tabby announced.
“Oh, right.” He hadn’t even realized he cursed.
They wanted to move the meeting to Monday. It was Thursday, and Monday was not a day Poppy typically worked. He figured he would see her at the gala, but he would rather take care of this now. He hated things hanging over his head. He thumbed through his contacts and pressed on her name as he walked over to look out on the backyard.
“Hey,” Poppy answered on the second ring.
“Hi. Sorry, I know you’re probably getting ready for the?—”
“No, actually, I’m exhausted, I think I’m gonna skip it.”
“Everything okay?”
Poppy was in her second trimester, and although things had gone well, her pregnancy was considered high risk. She’d gone back to school, online, and Deacon was worried that her watching Tabby was too much, which made him feel like an asshole for the reason he was calling.
“Yeah, just tired. I overdid it yesterday thinking I was a landscape artist. I learned my lesson.”
