6. Lee Has Another Day at Work

Chapter six

Lee Has Another Day at Work

After fielding three calls with panicked clients, who were freaking out over nothing and dealing with a mound of paperwork, I needed a break. Some days, I wanted to walk away from it all. Was this promotion worth it? It would only give me more of the same. Running a team wasn’t supposed to be this soul-draining. Was it? But. I was good at it. Clients loved me. The team respected me. The prestige and the paycheck were going to be massive. I held on to that as I locked my screen and headed to the break room.

Before I made it to the sophisticated room with wood paneling, sleek countertops, and, more importantly, a fantastic coffee machine, I was interrupted by Jarod. My boss.

“Lee! Glad I caught you. I have a new referral to Rakuten. It’s in New York, but I don’t want those guys up there to handle it. You know the Rakuten account better. And you know what we’ve been working on with their security.”

“And?” I knew what he was going to say before he said it, but I wanted him to spit it out.

“I need you to fly to New York.”

“When?”

“Now. Tomorrow. You’ll be up there until next week sometime.”

“Next week? Jarod, it’s Christmas.” There was no way I could leave Danny alone on Christmas. “Surely they want to wait.”

“No. They don’t. Our contact doesn’t have family and wants to keep working straight through. Which is another reason I wanted you—”

“I have family.” I held up my hands. “And this really interferes with that. I have time off already put in. Hell, I requested it six months ago.” He was going to let this hurt my promotion. I knew it.

“Okay. I get it. I’ll send over the stats, and you call him. Today. Set up something before New Year's. I mean it.”

“Fine.” With that being the only concession he would make and the expression on his face that said he wasn’t happy about it, I turned around and headed back to my office. There was no way I was getting a break now.

It was past lunchtime when I finally made a run for it. I needed food and quiet time without worrying about work, worrying about my relationship with Danny. Not to mention, how the hell was I going to tell him that I was going out of town the day after Christmas? I would be cutting our vacation in half. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and ran right into someone. “Oh, sorry.”

The guy backed up and looked at me. “It’s okay—hey, Lee.”

“Levi, hello.” We were at his house the day before. Since meeting on the PRIDE cruise, he and Danny had become fast friends. It was odd seeing him here. “You’re Brianna’s brother, right? Is that what’s bringing you here?”

“Brianna, yes.” He held his hand out for me to shake. “I’m visiting her. Trying to pry her away from that desk for lunch. You know how hard that is.”

“Yes. Good luck with that. Hey…” Inspiration struck. “Can I pick your brain for a minute?” I had enjoyed chatting with Hudson, his daddy, who was a wealthy investor. But it was Levi I wanted to talk to now. To get his perspective as a Little like Danny.

“About what?”

“Well, this isn’t the place for it. Do you have a few minutes to come back to my office?” At least there, I knew we could have a modest amount of privacy.

“Oh, that kind of brain pick. Yeah, sure. I guess. Let me tell Bri where I am.” He thumbed over his shoulder toward her office. Brianna was a hard worker with a fantastic reputation. I would love to get her on my team, but she’d been promoted to project lead when Royce left. He’d been a superstar here and left to invest in that yacht company that had put on the PRIDE Cruise. I was pretty sure Levi knew him too. It seemed like a small world. Or a large network he had tapped into. Either way, I knew they all had their kinks of one kind or another. Royce was a pup, and his daddy worked at the same law firm where Danny worked. What a web. It was confusing, and most probably couldn’t keep half of it straight. I did pretty well, though, because I’d trained my brain to work like that over the last few years. To remember names, faces, and connections. It was one reason I got along so well with my clients.

Levi jogged down the short hall and stuck his head into Brianna’s office, then jogged back. “Lead on.”

“Great.” I mulled over how I was going to start the conversation as we headed the other way toward my office. “I appreciate this. Danny and I have been, I don’t know…having trouble connecting lately.”

“Oh? What do you mean?”

I opened the office and motioned for him to enter. “Sit, please.” Instead of sitting behind the desk, I pulled another chair around and faced him. “Yeah, so he didn’t seem upset at all yesterday at your play date?”

They often got together to play. Mostly, they rolled cars around a big mat and sometimes, Danny added dinosaurs to the mix and had them chase Levi’s cars. It was incredibly endearing. Often, Hudson and I left them to play while we got coffee or fixed lunch. “Uh…no, sir.” Levi’s voice slipped a step into little mode, becoming softer.

“I don’t want you to give up his confidence or anything. I only want to know if I need to worry.”

Levi shook his head, his curly, brown hair bouncing around his pixie-like face. “He was fine. We played. And laughed. Like always. You saw us laughing.” They had, in fact, been hysterical when we walked in. Which was adorable, but I still didn’t know what the heck was so funny. It didn’t matter, though. They should be able to have their private jokes.

“Okay…”

“You look worried anyway. Did you fight with him?” Levi was a pretty perceptive kid. Though, he wasn’t really a kid. He was in his twenties. And he had a birthday coming up. We’d been invited to a party for him right after the holidays.

“I, uh, we had a disagreement. I’ve been really busy with work. And stressed. And I didn’t want to play when I got home. And I know it upset him. I don’t know how to get him to understand…” I’d probably said entirely too much.

Levi’s eyes grew wide. Then he sighed and leaned forward with hands on his knees. “I don’t know as much about all this Little stuff as you guys do.” All traces of his little was gone, and his tone was serious. “I’m new at it. But I think the key thing Da-Hudson and I found out was that we had to balance things. We had to talk and tell each other what was going on. You can’t play guessing games or ask their friends.”

Wow, I had received a stern talking-to from a kid a good ten years younger than me. Well. “You are one hundred percent correct.” I stood and stuck my hand out. I couldn’t dispute a thing he said. “Thank you for reminding me of relationship One-Oh-One.”

He stood but didn’t shake. He looked at my hand, then up at me. “Are you being sarcastic, ‘cause I can’t tell?”

“No. I’m serious. I’ve been so stressed and not thinking straight. But you’re right. And I appreciate that.”

He put his hand in mine. “Thank you, sir.”

“Go on. Go have lunch with Bri. Tell her I said hello and to not be a stranger. She’s only down the hall, for Christ’s sake.”

“Right. She gets busy. I’m sure you do to.” He smiled sweetly. “Bye.” When he turned around, I could tell he wanted to skip, taking a little half-hop, but then he remembered where he was. He waved as he left my office. He was delightful, for sure, and I could tell Hudson was a lucky man. But so was I, and I needed to remember that.

It was a lot easier said than done sometimes.