29. Dylan

29

DYLAN

" D on't stay too late, Dylan. You're burning the candle at both ends," Sarah said.

I looked up. She stood in my office door, ready to leave. I was still prepared to work for another several hours beating this last proposal into shape.

"I'm almost done on this one. I have to have something here that Thompson will accept," I said.

She nodded. "Is he still pushing for the Carmichael Project?"

"He is, and that's not going to happen," I confirmed.

"Hypothetically?" she teased.

I chuckled. "Hypothetically." The word had become a bit of an inside joke. There was nothing hypothetical about the trauma and pain he caused Jessica. First and foremost, I needed to protect her from that asshole, and that meant never working with him again. Ideally, I should still be able to keep my investors happy with another proposal, but Thompson was being a pain in my ass.

He was a double pain because this needless scramble to put together a replacement proposal was unnecessarily urgent, and it kept me away from home. I had a son I wanted to see more than while he was asleep, and Jessica was recovering and I should be there for her. Instead, I had shuffled another of my loved ones off onto hired help.

"Goodnight, Sarah. I won't stay too much longer," I said.

I spent the next several hours on and off the phone with Robertson. He was still pushing to reach out and apologize to Carmichael and see if we could make that deal happen. It was never going to happen.

I had a good proposal on my desk. I just needed additional figures to get everything to line up. Once the numbers looked pretty, everyone would fall in line. I was positive.

"I just need you to run the numbers against the 2023 projections," I said, not for the first time. I didn't understand why this was so difficult.

"Look, I talked to the CFO with Managed Spaces and he thinks that we would be better served if we pushed this farther south in the Central Valley," he said.

"I'm not arguing over the location, but he needs to provide the data before we can pull the trigger on this," I said.

"He's not willing to share until we can make certain guarantees," Robertson said.

"I can't guarantee anything without the data. Look, we're just going in circles with this guy. I can't do this anymore tonight. If he wants to spin us in more circles with his push-me, pull-you logic, then it's going to have to wait until the morning. Call me if something big changes." I slammed my laptop shut.

Raking my hands through my hair, I finally checked the time. I had been here more than three hours beyond the time I told Sarah I was planning on leaving.

I had missed dinner, and I had missed Max's bedtime. It was another night I would be arriving home to kiss my son goodnight after he had already fallen asleep. I packed up and left. I spent some extra time driving along the coast. I needed to settle my nerves and get in a better frame of mind.

The house was mostly dark and very quiet when I got home. It was too late to stop by and check on Mother. I hadn't seen her for a day or two. I was losing track of time. I just needed to get this replacement proposal done and accepted, and I could return to more humane business hours. In the kitchen, I found a covered plate in the refrigerator. A sticky note attached to the cling wrap instructed me on exactly how long to reheat it in the microwave.

I leaned against the counter, waiting for the beep telling me my food was done. This felt entirely too much like the early days after college before I returned to California. Working too hard and living alone. At the time, I hadn't realized I was missing out on so much. I had my weekends, when I drank too much and played too hard, but from Monday morning to Friday night, I had been nothing but a slave to economic growth.

Once I was back with Mother, and then when Max came into my life, I realized there was more to this life than work. I was at a point financially, and successfully, that I shouldn't still need to put in these ridiculously long hours to meet someone else's deadlines. I was tired of doing this to myself, to my family. And I had a family, one that I wanted to make bigger.

I ate in miserable contemplation and put my dishes in the sink for the staff to take care of in the morning. I headed upstairs. I turned into Max's room.

As expected, he was asleep. I brushed his thin hair from his face and gently kissed his forehead. My sweet little boy was getting bigger, and I was missing it.

Somewhere during the few steps between Max's room and my own, I had the crazy idea to just quit. I could sell, I could let the business fail. I could be done and walk away and still have plenty of money. The idea seemed to be a very good one when I stepped into my room and Jessica was asleep.

She was halfway sitting up, the TV remote just a few inches away from her hand as if it had rolled out of her grasp when she fell asleep. The TV cycled through a series of promotions for movies. She had fallen asleep watching TV. She had probably been waiting for me.

I looked at her. Her brow was pinched in her sleep. Her feet must have been hurting. I had this lovely woman in my bed, and I had barely spoken to her in days. The last meaningful conversation we had was over text messages. Something was going to have to change.

I picked up the things she had scattered over the bed, the remote, her craft project, a random plastic dinosaur Max must have left behind. I turned the TV off and set it back to looking like framed art. A smile touched my lips as I recalled how excited Jessica had been upon discovering my stealthy television.

I finished getting her tucked in.

She moaned and rolled her face up to mine. She didn't open her eyes. "You came home?" Her voice was sleepy.

"I came home," I confirmed before placing a soft kiss on her mouth. She was so soft and warm and tasted of berries and something else sweet. I could have fallen into her right then, woken her up and claimed her body. I wanted to, was seriously considering it, when my phone rang.

"Fuck," I said under my breath as I grabbed the phone and headed into the hall. I didn't want to disturb Jessica any more than I already had.

"What?" I demanded.

"We need a kill switch," Robertson announced.

"Couldn't this have waited until the morning?" I asked.

"If I want to get the data out of Managed Spaces, I'm going to have to let their CEO know in the morning. So, no, this couldn't wait."

"Okay, fine, what's this kill-switch idea of yours?"

"We simply point out that if certain data points aren't met, the deal can't happen, but if those numbers are what we want to see, we will go forward with the deal."

I thought about what he was saying. I didn't like it. It still put me on the line. I needed that information to run past the investors for their approval. I couldn't guarantee their reaction. I couldn't even guess how Thompson would react. Hell, originally, I thought he would jump on the Carmichael Proposal, but he dragged his feet. In the end, that turned out to be fortuitous, but I never could have predicted that.

"Okay, pull the offer. If this kill-switch is the only recourse we have, then I'm not playing. I'm not signing away on a full project without the data. If he's not going to give the data without guarantees, then I can't do it and we have to find another partner for this."

"You want to take it away from Managed Spaces?" Robertson asked.

"Not at all, but if they are going to be this difficult during the asset discovery process, I don't want to think about how big of a pain they will be once we are underway. Look, I need to get some sleep. We can strategize another approach in the morning." I ended the call.

"Everything all right? Jessica asked in a sleepy voice.

"I'm sorry I woke you up. It's just work BS."

"It's late, though," she pointed out.

"It is. Go back to sleep. I'll join you in a few minutes," I told her.

She made some half asleep muttering sounds and rolled onto her side.

I went into the bathroom and got ready for bed. It had been a long and frustrating day. I was looking forward to wrapping around Jessica and holding her all night long. At least in my sleep, I could have the comfort of her presence and body.

It felt like only a few minutes before my phone was ringing again. I opened my eyes and grabbed the phone. As I rolled out of bed, I realized it was already morning and it hadn't been my phone ringing, but my alarm. As tempted as I was to hit the snooze on the alarm and go back to sleep, today was the day I wanted this proposal to be completed.

I rolled out of bed, leaving Jessica's warmth behind. I crossed the hall to check in on Max. He wasn't up yet, and the day's nanny hadn't yet arrived. I watched him sleep for a moment. "I'll be home for dinner tonight, I promise." He couldn't hear me. The promise was to myself. I missed my family.

I returned to my room and managed to get in a shower and get half dressed before my phone started ringing continuously.

"What?" I tried not to bark. Jessica was still asleep. She moaned and shifted in her sleep.

I grabbed my shoes and headed out to the hall.

"I got a nasty call already this morning. Frisco Investments wants Managed Spaces on this. We're going to have to go forward with the kill-switch idea," Robertson informed me.

"Don't you people sleep? It's barely eight," I complained.

"It's already eleven on the East Coast," he reminded me.

"That goes against my better judgment, but if that's what they want, I'll suck it up and figure out a way to deal with it." It was a good thing I was already dressed. I left for the office without stopping for breakfast. I'd have Sarah order something once she got in.