Mia hadn’t needed to work as hard as she did. She came from money. Real, generational money. She was heir to the Best family. Her great, great grandfather Randolph Best was a pioneer in the steel industry and had made fortunes several times over. But Mia never rested on the financial safety net. In fact, she’d used her mother’s maiden name when she applied for the job because she hadn’t wanted any special treatment. Some trust fund kids were notorious for partying and blowing money that they didn’t earn. Mia hadn’t touched a dime of her family’s money since she turned eighteen. She’d wanted to make it on her own, and now, she had.
“Alex, this is…” I saw moisture build behind her lids as she stared at me in disbelief. “This istoo much.”
“No. It’s not. Five years ago, you stepped up to the plate in a way that you didn’t have to. Everything would have fallen apart if it wasn’t for you. We’ve built this business together. You are as responsible as I am for Vaughn Holdings’ success. And now your title and shares reflect that.”
A single tear slid down her cheek. “I don’t know what to...?”
It wasn’t often that Mia was speechless, and I decided to leave on that note. I was turning to get into the SUV when I felt her arms wrap around me.
I hugged her back and she said a quiet, “Thank you.”
I tightened my hold on her. “Thankyou.”
She sniffed and pulled out of the embrace, wiped her cheeks, and straightened her shoulders. “See you tonight.”
“See you tonight.”
I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face as I walked to the SUV. I’d been concerned that I might regret this decision once it was done. Giving away half of my company was not something that I did lightly. Not only that, but I just lost my assistant. Mia ran my life and that didn’t fit into her new job description. But I didn’t feel an ounce of regret.
“You did good,” I heard Ashley’s voice in the back of my head.
“Everything copacetic?” Frank asked from the front seat.
“Yes. It is.”
As we drove away Mia was still standing on the loading dock. Her expression was one of disbelief and maybe a little fear.
I knew that this was not something she would have seen coming. It wasn’t the normal way that things progressed. But if life had taught me anything, it was that there was no normal.
Two momentous events had happened today, and I would have thought that the feeling I hadn’t been able to shake would be gone. But it wasn’t. If anything, it had intensified. From the moment I’d opened my eyes I’d been overwhelmed with this sense of anticipation.
At first, I’d thought it was because of the Takahashi meeting. But that wasn’t it. And it wasn’t because I’d been ninety percent sure that today would be the day I was going to pull the trigger on making Mia COO.
Now that those two milestones were behind me, I knew that what I’d been feeling all day, all week if I was being honest with myself, was due to one person and one person only, Sadie.
My phone rang and for a split second, I was sure that it was her cancelling. I couldn’t remember ever worrying about someone cancelling on me. Not that I’d had that extensive of a dating life. Ash and I had been together since we were twelve and the few dates I’d been on as an adult had been forced on me.
Tonight, was the first time I’d asked someone out of my own accord, not because people were worried about me, or I got ambushed. Even though I only had the balls to ask after I thought Maddox had made a move.
But it wasn’t Sadie cancelling. It was Mia.
Mia:Thank you.
Me:You earned it.
As I rode across the city to my high-rise condo, I wondered what Sadie was doing at this moment. Was she as excited as I was for the night? I’d texted her several times during the week, going over logistics. Well, that had been my excuse for texting her anyway.
In my life, I’d always known exactly what I wanted, and I’d gone after it. But my relationship with Sadie was different. I wanted her, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I didn’t know how to navigate a relationship. Not that we were in a relationship, but this was definitely a date.
Part of me wanted to lower my walls and text her in the middle of the day that I was thinking of her. I wanted to send her flowers randomly and call her before bed to tell her goodnight. Hell, who was I kidding? I wanted her to be in bed with me.
And that was the problem. My feelings for her were so far past the dating stage but my commitment to her and ability to let her into my life were barely even reaching casual.
I was a walking contradiction. I knew that I was giving her mixed signals, I just didn’t know what the hell to do about it.
