3. Grayson

CHAPTER 3

GRAYSON

M y best friend looks at me as I sit down at the raw-edge table, grabbing the drink menu from the center. "You look like you've been through hell and back."

I groan and put the menu down. "It's been the longest week of my life, and it feels like it's going to get longer."

Mac chuckles, fingers wrapping around the long neck of his beer bottle. "Maybe it's time you stop trying to impress your father, then."

"This time it has very little to do with him." I turn to the waiter as he approaches the table, glancing at the drink menu again quickly. "Can we get a pitcher of whatever blonde ale you have, please?"

The waiter nods and hurries through the restaurant, dodging around a toddler who is busy racing up and down the aisle between tables, tossing crayons onto random tables.

Mac takes a long swig. "Then what is it? The last time you wanted to go out for dinner here instead of one of those fancy places was when that girl gave you a fake lead for that internship."

I glare down at the knots in the wood grain, wishing that I could travel back in time and push Dad harder to change the company.

If he had just listened to me for the first time in his life, I might have been able to prevent this disaster from happening.

The waiter comes back with the pitcher of beer and a glass. I take them both and pour myself a drink, downing a third of it before leaning back against the black vinyl booth.

Mac's eyes widen. "Is this about the same girl?"

"Yeah." I take the food menu and flip open the red cover, though I don't fully read any of the words on the page. "The company is going down. The budget meeting was the worst it has ever been. The board is insisting that we have the next quarter to get the business back into the black before they shut down."

"It's that bad?"

"Second quarter in a row that we've dipped into the red. Last month I had to lay off four different people. Two of them were new, but the other two were from the obituary department and had been with the paper forever."

Mac winces, drumming his fingers on the table. "That sounds like another reason to bail while you can."

I shake my head. "I've been working my entire life to earn my place at the head of the company. I'm not going to give up on that just because it's going through a tough time right now."

"And what does this have to do with the girl who ruined your chance at the internship?"

"She's the one the board brought in to fix the business."

Mac chuckles as he looks down at his menu. "That's too good."

"I don't see what's so funny," I growl.

"Karma really is coming to get you." Mac smirks, pausing his taunting long enough for us to order food when the waiter comes back around.

Once the waiter disappears, I scrub a hand down my face. "Jade Harper is nothing but the devil in a pencil skirt. She's spent the last week interviewing current employees instead of actually working on a plan for how to save the company."

Mac shrugs, leaning forward to slide his arms out of his suit jacket. "From a marketing standpoint, she probably wants to see how far the morale has gone before she starts digging into the actual planning."

"The morale is fine."

He rolls his blue eyes to the ceiling before looking back at me. "You would think that because you're the owner's son and nobody is going to tell you the truth."

"You really think so?"

"I own a marketing firm, Grayson. I know that when I have my monthly all-hands meeting, there's a percentage of the staff who are already looking for another job. You'd be a fool if you thought otherwise."

Even though I don't want to think about it that way, I know Mac is probably right. In a healthy business, there are always going to be people who are unhappy.

It has to be worse at a failing business.

I groan and take another long drink of my beer, then push the glass to the side as the food arrives. "All right, so maybe it makes sense that she's talking to the employees, but she could have spent the last week doing something better. Something that might have made an immediate change."

"Yeah, but that change is never going to work if she has to fight the employees every step of the way. Taking the time to talk to them was smart. It showed that she was willing to put in the time to get to know them. Consider their opinions."

"She doesn't need to take their opinions into account. She just has to make this a functional business." I pop a few fries into my mouth.

Mac pulls the pickles off of his burger, handing them to me to put on mine. "You're not that dense. You just want a reason to complain about her because you don't like her."

I slide the pickles into my burger and take a large bite, groaning at the familiar taste of crispy onions paired with the restaurant's signature barbecue sauce.

I don't know why I ever stopped coming here.

Well, that's not quite true.

Jade used to come with me during our college days. When she was still new and we were caught in the situationship we were in, I thought it would be good to take her out every now and then.

She ruined the barbecue sauce for me, just like she ruined the internship.

Mac swirls his fries in the sauce that drips from his burger. "Speak of the devil."

His gaze locks on the door. The sound of women laughing fills the restaurant, rising above the noise of the toddler who throws himself to the floor when he runs out of crayons.

Jade laughs and turns to say something to the pretty woman beside her with jet-black hair and eyes nearly as dark. The woman leans into Jade as they weave around the tables and head for the bar close to us.

Mac gets a spark of mischief in his eyes. "What if we call her and her friend over? Maybe the two of you could work out your differences."

"Don't you dare." I glare at him over the edge of my glass as I finish the beer.

He nods to the small dance floor on the other side of the bar. "Looks like you don't need to worry about that. She seems more than content to dance."

Jade's hips sway to the music, showing off her curves in the tight lilac dress she wears. Her sun-kissed skin glows under the colorful lights that shine from above.

Even though I want to, I can't take my eyes off her as her hands raise above her body as she dances.

Her friend takes her hand, spinning her in a circle before the two start laughing.

I force myself to look away from her before I do something stupid, like picking another argument with her while all she's doing is dancing.

The less interaction I have with her, the better.

Mac chuckles and points a fry at me. "You might not like her, but I know that look on your face."

I finish off my burger, wiping my fingers on my napkin. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You look like you want to go over there and spend far too much time trying to convince her to come home with you."

"Not a chance." I lean back in the seat, but my gaze flicks over to Jade once more as she laughs and heads to the bar with her friend. "I'll be back in a minute."

It takes longer to get to the restroom by heading across the bar and into the main part of the restaurant. I dodge the toddler as he runs laps around the tables.

His parents don't seem to care, fawning over the new little baby in the woman's lap.

It's going to be a rough life if they're already like that, kid.

Thankfully, I didn't have a sibling. Or unfortunately.

I still haven't made up my mind about that.

I shove open the door to the restroom, where I take my time washing the sticky remnants of the barbecue sauce from my fingers. If I'm lucky, I can stay in here long enough for Jade and her friend to sit at a table, and then I can sneak past her.

I finish washing my hands, drying them off on a paper towel before heading back out.

A body collides with mine as I step out of the bathroom hallway.

I reach out to grab the person I ran into, steadying them before I get a good look at who it is.

When I see Jade standing there, I pull my hands back like I've been burned. She glares at me, her shoulders tensing.

I take a step back. "You should really watch where you're going."

Her eyebrows raise, full lips pursing together. "Of course you would be here. I came out tonight to let off a little steam after spending the entire week with you glaring at the side of my head, and now this?"

I scoff, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my slacks. "I was the one who brought you here in the first place."

"Look, can we just pretend that we never saw each other?"

"I wish." I go to step around her, but she steps into my path, planting her hands on those full hips. "What now?"

"You and I have to have a meeting on Monday. You're the only one who's dodging the interview I've been doing."

"Not happening." I try to step around her again, but she has a knack for getting in the way and taking up as much space as possible, even though she's all of five-foot-nothing.

"Unless you have better ideas for what to do with the company, you're going to be in that meeting with me first thing Monday morning."

Scoffing, I push past her. "Not going to happen."

Her heels click against the floor as she hurries after me, darting into my path again. "You think you have better ideas and that means you don't have to come to the interview?"

"You know I do." I look down at her, grinning just to annoy her more. "You don't know the first thing about LRH Global, and it shows."

"Fine." She smiles, and for a second, I think I've made a wild miscalculation. "If that's the way you feel, then you can present your ideas to the board at the meeting Monday afternoon, and I'll present mine."

"We'll see if you can. It looks like you plan to spend your weekend slacking off."

I've touched a nerve, but I don't care. She should know by now that I'm not going to let her take control of the company without a fight.

Dad might be willing to bow down to her every whim under the pretense that she's doing what's best for the company. He used to pay more attention to people and their tricks, but since he's started easing back, he doesn't.

Which means that it's up to me to keep the she-devil from ruining everything I've been working for.

Jade holds out her hand to shake. "Fair fight, Grayson. If you think you can do better than me, prove it."

I ignore her hand. "Fine. Monday afternoon, prepare to tuck your tail between your legs. Spending the weekend partying is only going to screw you over."

She looks like she would wring my neck if she could. "You don't know the first thing about my life, Grayson, so don't pretend that you know me."

I lean closer to her, my body nearly pressing against hers. "I know that you're no good, and it would be stupid to trust you again."

Jade steps closer, her body pressing against mine. "Prepare to be humiliated again."

Nails bite into my palms as I step around her and storm away.

Monday afternoon, she's going down.