“I won’t be your employer. The board will be. Although, maybe they won’t, if your face is betraying your inside thoughts.”
“Shit,” I mutter, wincing a little. “I’ve always had an expressive face. It’s mostly a curse. It’s not you, I swear. Your whole operation is brilliant and so impressive. Anyone would be lucky to work here. To lead the team you have obviously put together with a lot of care and intention. You’ve built something really special.”
He nods. “You get it. I knew you would.”
Propping my chin on my hands, I study him. “Can I ask why you’re stepping down? What’s also clear to me is that you love it here. It makes me wonder why you’re walking away.” I ask because I’m curious and also because it will distract me from the fact that it’s my birthday and eleven hours from now, I should be sitting in the Hansley’s backyard on a striped blanket celebrating birthday night, but instead I’ll be sitting in a boring ass hotel room entirely Tyler-less and without even one single chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, and that completely fucking sucks.
Luke nods, pulling his phone out of his pocket and unlocking it, clicking a few times and handing it to me. On the screen is a picture of Luke with a beaming blonde woman tucked under his arm, each of them with a chestnut-haired toddler on their hip. Two dogs sit in front of the family, and the picture so dramatically radiates love and happiness it makes my chest pinch, thinking of my own love and happiness I left behind yesterday.
“You have a beautiful family.”
Luke takes the phone from me and smiles at the screen before slipping it back into his pocket. “They’re my whole damn world. My wife Emery and I met in college in Los Angeles, and we settled there. She was getting her PhD when I was getting MasterLab off the ground, and then she got a tenure-track professorship in L.A., so when it was clear MasterLab needed to be in the Bay Area, I divided my time between the two cities.
“That must have been hard,” I say, thinking, for the millionthtime of what it would be like to live across the country from Tyler. L.A. to San Francisco is far. San Francisco to Pittsburgh is forever.
He nods. “It really was. And it got even harder when we decided to try for kids. It took us a long time and a lot of medical intervention, and I wasn’t there.” His face is pained. “Or, at least, I wasn’t there nearly enough. Emery is…god, she’s amazing. The best person I know and my biggest supporter in the world. I alternate weeks between here and L.A., but it’s not enough. Every time I leave it kills me, and it’s gotten so much harder since the twins were born. For two weeks out of every month, all my girls are four hundred miles away from me, and it’s way too much.” He blows out a breath. “I miss them. I miss them so damn much, and I don’t want to have to say goodbye to them anymore.” He shrugs, his lips curving up in a smile as he looks around the lab. “I love it here. I love this company, and I’m so proud of what I built, but it’s time for me to go home. To be the dad I want to be, and to get to go to sleep every night next to my girl. I’ve done the work here, but it’s time for me to put it down now. To let someone else take over.” He studies me carefully. “I’m getting the feeling that someone might not be you.”
I replay his words over and over in my head, feeling the weight of them pressing down on my shoulders. “It’s complicated.”
Luke laughs, propping one leg up on his opposite knee and taking a sip of the probiotic drink with the unpronounceable name he’s been carrying around with him all day. “It’s always complicated. Except when it’s the easiest thing in the world. What’s his name? Her name? Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”
I blow out a breath and lean back, crossing my legs and once again admiring the perfect pink pants that go with the perfect pink suit that couldn’t be more out of place in a startup full of jeans and T-shirts, but I love it anyway. I take myself wherever I go. “Tyler Hansley,” I say, wincing inwardly when Luke’s eyebrows wing up. I spend so much of my life in a bubble thatcontains all manner of famous people I mostly forget are famous that I forget saying Tyler’s name tends to garner a very specific reaction from most others.
“Like, starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Renegades Tyler Hansley?”
I nod. “The very same one. Although, to me he’s mostly just lifelong best friend Tyler Hansley who has recently become way more than friend. Our moms have been best friends since their law school days,” I explain at his questioning look. “Tyler and I literally grew up together.”
Luke grins. “Childhood best friends to lovers. I dig it.”
I snort out a laugh. “Tyler and I are basically a trope factory. I’ve been in love with him for years, but it took him until a couple months ago to catch up. And now the idea of moving across the country?” I shake my head. “I don’t love it, and he can’t come with me what with the whole, him being the Renegades’ franchise quarterback with a contract and a legacy and all that stuff.”
“Well, as someone who is currently giving up a multi-billion-dollar company because I can’t bear to be away from my wife anymore, I’m not sure I’m the best person to offer objective advice.”
I huff out a laugh. “Advice is the last thing I need. What I need is someone to tell me exactly what to do and give me step-by-step instructions. I’m chaos under the best of circumstances, and my decision-making skills leave something to be desired. Although that’s probably not something I should tell you when I’m trying to impress you.”
Luke gives me a warm smile. “Sophie, you’ve been impressing me since you graduated college and took the executive director position at your foundation. This isn’t an interview so much as it is aPlease let us impress you so you want to come work here. I want you to take over my company, but I also love love, and as one person deeply in love, I can recognize another, so I’ll just say this. You’re choosing between right and right. If you move out here and takeover, I have no doubt you’ll be successful and take this company to the next level, and a million levels after that. But if you decide to stay in Pittsburgh and keep running the foundation, you’re going to do incredible things there too. You’re smart and intuitive, and no matter where you land, you have a long and brilliant career ahead of you.”
“That’s a whole lot of faith to have in someone you barely even know.”
Luke shrugs. “I didn’t get where I am by being a bad judge of character.”
He says it so matter-of-factly I have to laugh. “Are you sure you aren’t my long-lost brother or something? You remind me so much of my dad, it’s spooky. It’s the whole, captain of industry but in the really nice, kind way, entirely unaffected by all your wealth and success when so many other people in your position are total assholes about it. Not to mention the fact that my dad also gave up his company to go be with my mom.”
“No way,” Luke says with a grin. “That actually happened?”
“Sure did. They fell in love in college and broke up senior year. Ten years later, he sold his company and moved to Pittsburgh to beg her to take him back.”
“I met your dad once when I was first starting the company. I was no one, but he was so nice and talked to me for a solid thirty minutes when there were a million way more important people vying for his attention. He’s good people.”
“The best,” I agree. “My parents are another reason why moving here would be rough. And my best friends who are basically my sisters. And my favorite city in the world.”
And Tyler’s house.
His grilled cheese.
Rom-com movie night.
Perfectly icy Dr Pepper.
