One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(68)
Though she could have managed on her own, Knox helped her into the sweater, then smoothed it down over her. “Thank God I’m getting rid of his worthless ass.”
Such a noble gesture. “I wish that were the answer, but I’m afraid that if you fired him, Haylie would stick by him, even if we all know he’ll take his humiliation out on her. If anything, firing him might make the situation worse.”
She dared a look at Knox again. His eyes had turned troubled and distant. When he caught her looking, he gathered her more tightly in his arms and kissed her hair. It was such a relief to be comforted in his sure embrace.
“I might not have a choice about laying him off,” Knox said. “It’s already in the works, actually. He and about fifteen other employees who aren’t pulling their weight. I don’t know if I can justify stopping it.”
“But you’re the boss.”
“Yes and no. The minute Ty signed that contract with me at my equity firm, Briscoe Ranch Resort stopped being a family business. Every decision I make, I’m answerable to a group of investors who have committed more than fifty million dollars to this property. Until I buy out their shares, they’re the majority shareholders. I work for them, and they’re already skittish because of some structural problems my building inspectors found at the resort.”
“Structural problems?”
“A story for another time. The point is, the pressure’s on me to turn a profit, and if I can’t demonstrate to them that I’m taking action, then they’re not going to sell to me and, worst case scenario, they vote to shut down the resort or sell it off, and then Granny June and Carina and all the Briscoes wouldn’t have a place to live. And there wouldn’t be a five-star restaurant to offer you. I’m not going to let that happen. I can’t.”
Well, shit. “I get that you’re under a lot of pressure, but be that as it may, you can’t go on pretending—” She bit her lip. That line of thought was taking it too far. Stupid, big mouth.
“Pretending what?”
So much for playing it cool. That really wasn’t her style, anyway. “Pretending that this is about your father anymore. Pretending you don’t care and this is all just business. I know you better than that.” And wasn’t that astounding in itself? She knew Knox Briscoe, inside and out. She got him and what made him tick, more than any other man she’d ever been intimate with.
His only response was the rippling of his jaw.
She knew what that meant, too. She’d hit a bullseye with her observation, though he was yet unwilling to admit to his shifting motives.
She melted against the stairwell wall and closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted by life. “I don’t know where we go from here. You and me, Haylie, the resort. No idea what should happen next.”
After a stretch of silence, he said. “I do. I’m going to delay the layoffs and find another way to appease the investors until I’m ready to make my buyout offer. And I’m going to offer Haylie a job at my Dallas office. A steady job with good pay might get her confidence up enough to take care of herself. And then, I’m going to invite the partners in my firm to that dinner party next weekend that I mentioned at The Smoking Gun. You’re catering it. It’ll be the best way to introduce you to them and showcase your skills as the secret weapon of the resort’s future.”
She’d been following just fine right up until that last part. Could he mean … was it possible? She searched his eyes. In them, she read desperation and tenderness. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you were spot-on when you warned me the day we agreed to the challenge that by the end of the month, I’d be begging you to take the restaurant. You were right. You’re a genius. I’ve known since the first meal you cooked for me. Hell, I’ve known since you overturned that bowl in my lap. Looking back at it, that was the day you wrapped me around your little finger. The restaurant is yours, Emily. Anything you want, it’s yours.”
Chapter Sixteen
Wednesday was another lucky hat day. And not only because Knox had settled things in his mind with Emily. Their relationship was still up in the air, but now that they were no longer challenging each other over the restaurant, he felt free to pursue her. Which he fully planned to do. But, today’s donning of his lucky Stetson had everything to do with business.
Because today was the day Ty and Knox were flying to Dallas for a meeting with the Briscoe Equity Group investors—the day of Ty’s reckoning, the day Knox would ask them to vote him in as CEO. The day that Ty Briscoe would officially lose all power. God, Knox wished his dad were there to see it unfold. Hopefully, he would be watching from up on High. Because Knox had no doubt that it was going to be epic.
Since Ty’s and Knox’s confrontation over the structural engineers’ findings, Ty had spent his days stomping around the office, silently fuming and pretending that Knox didn’t exist. Which had been fantastic. Without Ty looming over his shoulder, trying to be buddy-buddy with him, Knox was free to run the resort and forward his expansion plans as he saw fit.
When Knox arrived at the office to put in a few hours of work in advance of their midday flight, Ty had already shuttered himself away in his office, the blinds down, the door closed. No surprise there. In fact, the only surprise was the sight of Haylie at her desk, far earlier than she usually rolled in. She was hard at work typing up a memo for the retail division that he’d left on her desk the evening before. The word overcompensating sprang to mind. Or perhaps, instead, enthusiastic denial of the professional boundaries they’d inadvertently crossed the Saturday before at Emily’s house. Enthusiastic denial was a solid plan, but not one Knox could go along with if he wanted to consider himself a good boss.