The One Night(23)

Anger with myself makes me slip my shoes on and grab my wallet, phone, and keys.

Hatred for my inability to make the right decisions forces me out the door of Nora’s apartment without a goodbye or a note.

This is not the man I’ve been trying to become. I don’t sneak around like this. Granted, I’m no longer married to Dealia, but Nora is her best friend. I’ve created an impossibly messy situation, one that could ruin their entire friendship. This will hurt Nora—no doubt, this will hurt her. I should have never crossed that line.

Leaving is the right decision.

Not calling her is the correct thing to do.

Not returning her texts means cutting ties I should have severed at the beginning of our wonderful, terrible night.

At least that’s what I thought until over a year later, when I’m forced back into her bakery and find myself getting lost in those dark, mysteriously angry eyes all over again . . .





Fall more in love with these characters in THE REUNION, by Meghan Quinn





Chapter One


FORD


“Larkin, did you get the invitations sent out?” I call from my desk as I type out a quick email to our head of marketing. I was supposed to receive mock-ups for our rebranding by end of day. It’s end of day, and there are no mock-ups.

“I did.” Larkin sweeps into my office, tablet in hand and blue light–blocking glasses perched on her nose. “They were sent out at lunchtime. The calligraphist did an impeccable job on the addresses. And as an added touch, I took one of the pictures from your parents’ recent photo shoot and made it into a stamp.”

I smile. “Did you make sure to send them one?” Larkin nods with a knowing glint in her eye. “They’ll get a kick out of that.”

“I also got word from your housekeeper that your bags are all packed, your suits are freshly pressed, and the remaining food in your fridge has been taken care of so nothing goes bad while you’re gone for the next month.”

“Great. And have you heard from marketing about the mock-ups? I drafted an email to ask where they are but thought I would check with you first.”

“She clutches her tablet to her chest. “Yes, they brought them to me early this afternoon, but they were missing color swatches and a few other things I knew you would ask for, so I asked them for a redo. I told them I’d stay late to grab them so we can bring them with us on the trip tomorrow.”

“I can stay late—you don’t have to. I’m sure you have to go home and pack.”

“I woke up this morning and packed in preparation for late mock-ups.” She smiles, and I can’t help but shake my head.

Larkin Novak is one of a kind. I hired her four years ago, and I’ve given her significant pay raises every year just to keep her. She’s efficient, incredibly intelligent, vastly organized, and can anticipate what I’m going to need before I even know it. She’s such an integral part of this company and my day-to-day that I don’t know what I would do without her.

“Do you ever sleep, Larkin?”

She pushes her ice-blonde hair behind her ear. “Who needs sleep when there’s so much to do?”

“You need sleep.” I stand from my desk and walk up to her. Carefully, I take her precious tablet from her hands. “Go home. I’ll wait for the mock-ups.”

She eyes the tablet in my hand and then looks back up at me with those intensely blue eyes. “I get plenty of sleep. A solid eight hours every night.”

“Then you need a life. Go home.” I chuckle and walk past her to her desk, where I slip her tablet in her work bag, pick the bag up by the strap, and drape it over her shoulder. “Go, Larkin. We have a strenuous month ahead of us with the rebrand and the anniversary party. Have a second to yourself before you’re forced to be at your boss’s side for precisely every second of every day for twenty-nine days.”

The rebrand is the first business-altering project I’ve taken on since my dad retired, and I’m spending every waking hour working toward perfection—if there’s something I never want to do, it’s let my dad down, especially after everything he and my mom have done for me, for my siblings.

“You do paint an awful picture of what’s to come. If that’s the case, I’m going to go grab some dinner, which will be ice cream, and drown my sorrows in my one and only night to myself before I’m inserted into apparent hell on Marina Island.”

“Yeah.” I grip the back of my neck. “Are you prepared to be around my family? They can be a bit much.”

“You act as if I haven’t met them before.”

“But you haven’t been in the same space with all of them together.”

“Nervous I’ll quit after a week?”

“Yeah.” I let out a dry chuckle. “I am.” Folding my arms across my chest, I lean against the doorframe of my office and take a second to relax. I’m constantly wearing the CEO hat, and it can be exhausting after a while. Larkin and I have a good enough relationship that she knows when I need to “kick my shoes off” and take a second to breathe.

“It’s going to take more than your family to drive me away. You know I can’t find a benefits package quite like yours anywhere else.”

“Ah, the true reason you stick around,” I joke.