“What are you doing?” Keeley asks, her eyes wide as she watches my uncharacteristic action. I can’t remember the last time I silenced my phone, let alone switched it off.
“It’s the New York office. They don’t need me; they’re just accustomed to running everything past me. I’ve already told them to stop.”
“You’re really handing the company over to Daniel?”
“I really am. I love D’Angelo Construction. It will always be my baby. But I don’t want to travel back and forth anymore. I want to spend every spare second building a life here with you, watching my grandchild grow, and seeing my team’s success continue. My goals have shifted. I’ve done all I can with D’Angelo Construction, so it’s time for Daniel to make it his own. God knows I’m not getting any younger.”
“Major emphasis on the latter,” Keeley teases and I flip her onto her back so fast that her jaw drops. Being careful of her ankle, of course.
“How’s that for an old man?” I hover above her, staring into the crystal-blue eyes I want to see every day for the rest of my life.
“You were fast, I’ll give you that. But…what if you regret it?”
“Flipping you onto your back?” My eyes rake over her, from her face to the hint of pink material peeking out from where her dress has risen.
“No.” She laughs as she tries to shove me back, lifting to her elbows to bring our eye level closer. “D’Angelo Construction.”
“I knew what you meant, Keels. But you don’t have to worry. I’m happy. I’m still the owner of the company, so if down the road I miss being hands-on, or we want a change of scenery for a while, it will be there.”
Keeley’s gaze softens, and I have no doubt it’s because the truth to my words has sunk in. There’s been a nervous energy hovering around her since I announced my decision. And while my timing could have been better, her broken ankle and the Mikkleson attacks weren’t the catalysts she believes them to be. I wasn’t lying when I said the decision had been brewing for years.I’d even mentioned it to my lawyers a few weeks ago. Before any of this happened.
New York may have been my life for the past five decades, but San Francisco is my future, and it’s time to give it my full attention. To give Keeley and my family my full attention.
It’s time to shake my workaholic persona. I don’t have to be that guy anymore. I don’t want to be him. I’m not ready to retire. In fact, I’m far from it. But I am ready to focus on the Storm. Ready to give them one hundred percent of my work commitment, even if that’s less than I previously thought it would be.
With Wes at the helm, I can work on the bigger picture and step back on all the day-to-day. We finally have a management team we all trust, players that fit our culture—a family we all love being a part of.
It’s my time to focus on what really matters—my family.
“What if I revert back to my old self when my ankle’s back to normal? Will you resent me for my workaholic ways?”
“Resent you? Keeley, your work ethic is one of the reasons I fell in love with you. If you hadn’t dedicated so much time to work, we never would have gotten as close as we did, and I never would have discovered that my perfect match was still out there.”
“Yes. However, when I’m back in the office full-time, you’ll see me less.”
“No, I won’t. I work there too. You can’t escape me.” I press a chaste kiss to her lips before pulling away and helping her sit up.
“I am never going to try to change you, Keeley. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I fell in love with you not long after we first met. In fact, it’s obvious to me now. You are you, Keels. And I love you exactly as you are.”
“Likewise. No matter how gray you get, you’ll always be the man I fell in love with, which was probably around the same time you fell. As hard as it was to admit that.”
“We took our time, but we got there in the end, and I think our relationship is stronger because of it.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” She grabs the knitted blanket that fell on the floor when I flipped her over, and twists my way, lifting her leg onto my lap before covering herself with the blanket.
“You know, it kind of feels like we’re an old married couple already, without the marriage part.”
“Or the old for some.” I wink and she laughs.
“If anyone calls you old again, I’m going to tell them what you did to me last night. I can’t imagine there are many grandfathers doing that.”
I groan at the visual of our session last night, almost wishing we could do it again, if we weren’t expecting Keeley’s mom to come over any moment.
“I’m looking forward to showing you how young I feel again later tonight.”
“Oh, hi, Mom.” Keeley waves toward the door, and I choke on thin air until she bursts out laughing. “I’m kidding. She texted to say she’s running late.”
“She did?”
