4. Jade

CHAPTER 4

JADE

L ara pops her head into my office right after lunch Monday morning. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

I look down at the posterboards spread across my shiny new white desk. "No. I think I have nearly everything ready now."

She steps inside, looking down at the black and white photographs I pulled from old editions of the newspaper. The earliest ones date back to when the newspaper first started, showing Leo Harris proudly standing in front of the tiny building he bought at the time.

"This is incredible." Lara runs her fingers over one of the pictures of the latest building from the day they started renovations. She's at the front of the group, wearing a hard hat, with a couple other company interns.

"Thank you."

"I'm serious. Getting back to the roots of the company while starting to integrate into the new age is brilliant. Leo's going to love it."

"Leo isn't the one I'm worried about."

I grin and glue on the last picture, showing Leo and Grayson standing on the printing room floor, surrounded by reams of newspapers.

Lara perches herself on one of the beige suede chairs on the other side of my desk. "Grayson has a hard head, but he's been doing all that he can to get Leo's approval for years."

"I saw that." I smooth down the picture in place. "He didn't come to the interview this morning."

She laughs and shakes her head. "Okay, so maybe hard head isn't the right word. He's difficult at the best of times, but I think in this situation, he does mean the best. This is his livelihood, and you're coming in with the intention to change the company."

I can't help but sigh. "If he would take five minutes to talk to me, he would see that the change I'm proposing gets back to the roots of the journalism empire Leo built."

I glance at the clock on the wall, but as I do, I glimpse Grayson walking into his office. He glares at me through the glass wall before walking over to pull the curtains shut.

Lara shakes her head. "Sooner or later he's going to get over this and get back to acting like a normal human."

"I wouldn't hold your breath about that." I smile and stack the boards ready for the presentation. "I've known him since college, and he's always been like this. Honestly, it's nice to see that some things are still consistent."

"Well, I guess there is that. If nothing else, Grayson is consistent." Lara glances around the office, taking in the plants I put along the credenza this morning. It was nice to have all the old furniture hauled out of here and a fresh start brought in.

It's the same energy that I'm trying to bring to the rest of the company.

It would be a lot easier to do that if Grayson stopped trying to make it harder at every turn.

I sit down and pull up my presentation notes before turning my laptop toward Lana. "Would you mind going through these notes and making sure that everything sounds all right?"

She leans forward, scrolling through my notes twice before turning the laptop toward me. "You're going to kill it in there. The board is going to love this."

I beam and draw the laptop back. "This isn't the first company I've come in and done a refresh for, but it is the biggest. I don't want to risk ruining everything."

"You're not going to." She nods to the time on the clock. "Looks like it's time to go. Do you need any help setting up?"

I collect my laptop and the boards. "No. I should be good with this, but thank you."

Lara leads the way out of my office, holding open the door for me.

I stride through the office, stopping at a couple desks to say hello to the people working there before continuing into the conference room.

A podium sits at the front of the room, and I stand the foam boards on it. I set my laptop on the little gray pedestal near the front, flipping it open and taking one last look over my notes.

The board of directors starts to filter into the room, Victoria leading the charge. She takes a seat at the front of the room, close to my presentation.

Leo is the next to come in as the rest of the board are settling in their seats, talking to each other about whatever game was on last night. He nods to me and sits close to the front, on the other side of the table from Victoria.

Grayson is the last person to walk in, strutting with his hands in his pockets and a stubborn set to his jaw. He takes the seat beside his father, not acknowledging that I'm in the room in any way.

I smile as Lara filters in last and closes the door behind her.

As I turn my attention to the rest of the people in the room, I take a deep breath. "Thank you all for agreeing to take a look at my presentation for the future of LRH Global. Before we get there, Grayson expressed interest in sharing some ideas with the board as well."

Grayson glares at me as he stands, the color draining from his face.

He moves to the front of the room and I snag his empty seat.

Clearing his throat, he tucks his hands back into his pockets.

He's trying to seem like he's comfortable at the front of the room, but the way he rocks slightly on his heels says otherwise.

While we were in college, he was never much of a public speaker, and it looks like that hasn't changed.

Serves him right for spending an entire week attempting to run me off at every chance.

Grayson puts on his best charming smile, and I would be lying if the butterflies in my stomach didn't start to stir. They've been in hibernation for a long time, and if one smile from him is enough to have them try to come to life, I have a big problem on my hands.

He keeps his gaze off me, directed to the back of the room. "When I thought about the future of LRH Global, I thought about connecting with the youth. Newspapers are a thing of the past. While there are demographics who still purchase them, the young people of today want their information at their fingertips."

I cross one leg over the other, smirking when it draws his attention to me.

Anything I can do to get in his head right now, I'm going to do.

The only reason he's doing the presentation is because he thinks he's better than me.

I thought he would've learned the first time.

Grayson shifts his weight to the side, looking at his father. "You built this company because you believed in getting news to the people. That looks a lot different now than it did before."

I clear my throat, bracing one arm on the desk as I look at him. "Does this mean that you're thinking of getting rid of the newspaper altogether?"

When he pulls his hands out of his pockets, there's a slight tremble to them. He looks like he's seconds away from trying to kick me out of the meeting, but I don't think that would work in his favor.

A well-timed and innocent question is all it takes to send him spiraling.

Grayson shakes his head, panic shining bright in his eyes as he looks to Leo. "I don't want to get rid of the paper, but it's time to admit that it shouldn't have been the focus for as long as it has."

Victoria taps her fingers on the desk. "There is still value in a newspaper. Moving away from that could alienate older readers, resulting in a loss of sales as well."

Leo clears his throat, sitting up taller as the wrinkles on his forehead deepen. "The goal of the next three months is to bring the company back in the black, Grayson. Proposing to lose the people still loyal to this paper is only going to send us deeper into the red."

I smile, the pieces all falling into place.

If Grayson hadn't insisted on bickering with me at the bar, we wouldn't be here right now.

He was the one who started the war between us in college, too.

Though I already know I don't have the energy to keep up the back-and-forth this time, I'm sure that he'll back down long before then.

He wants to save the business too, even if he's having a hard time seeing that I'm attempting to do the same thing.

Victoria sighs. "We'll take your idea into consideration, Grayson. Now, Jade, if you would like to show us your proposal?"

I stand up, smoothing down my skirt. "If we don't know our history, we're doomed to repeat it. It's an old saying, and one that still rings true today."

As I point to the first presentation board, I take my time to look at the people surrounding me. They all lean forward a little, pens poised over the notepads in front of them.

The only one who wants nothing to do with what's happening right now is Grayson.

I move to the second board, showing off the start of the company. "The issue we're having is that people keep looking at the situation like it needs to be solved with the creation of a new company."

"It does." Grayson grits his teeth together, hand curling into a fist where it rests on top of the desk. "The newspaper is one company. Anything else we do is an entirely new creation."

The next board shows off pictures of the staff from the first year of the company to the current one. "These are the faces that built the business, but they're not the only ones loyal to it."

Grayson taps his pen on the desk, the noise growing faster and louder with every passing second. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"It has to do with everything. If you want to make a profit in this company again, you need to be loyal to the people who built you." I pull the board out of the way, revealing the final one with pictures of current subscribers on it. "Some of these people have been getting the newspaper delivered to their doors every morning for decades."

Leo lights up, the corners of his mouth creasing as he takes a look at what I'm assuming are familiar faces.

"All right." Grayson gets up and comes over to me, looking down at the pictures. "So there are subscribers. There will be more. I don't see why this group is the one we want to focus on. I think your plan is a little misplaced."

Right now, I would like to make him a little misplaced. Perhaps on the other side of the world so he can get out of my way and let me do my job.

Leo gestures at Grayson to sit back down. "No. I like this. Keep talking, Jade. What else do you have?"

"I went to previous and current employees, asking what they loved and missed about the business. After I was done talking to them, I started going around to subscribers, asking them the same thing."

Grayson rolls his eyes as he sits back down. "That's what we've been paying you to do for the last week? How is talking to the people about what they miss going to make a difference? If they really missed anything, they would be working harder to keep this company going."

I keep my expression as even as I can, looking at the other people in the room and ignoring him. "Their answers were varied, and I've sent the answers to everyone here so you can review for yourself, but what it all boiled down to was that people are missing the connection they used to get."

"Connection." Leo snaps his fingers, pointing at me. "You've got something there. I like what I've seen here, Jade. It's clear that you understand the business I built, but what's the plan for moving forward?"

Smiling, I flip to the last board. "We're going to expand on what the paper is. We're going to start featuring more articles written by your average people. Go back to the days of having a write-in advice column as well. And then, we're going to put all of it on our own app."

"That simple?" Grayson scoffs and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. "It can't be easy, even if you seem to think it is. We've tried an app."

"No." I point to the picture of what their website and old app looked like. "You had things that weren't connecting with people because they're impersonal and, to be frank, poorly designed."

Victoria smiles slightly. "All right, so, what's your first step?"

I clasp my hands together in front of me. "We're going to start with building out an advice column again. It's going to take time for people to write in their questions, but we can source some from the staff to begin."

Leo nods and stands up. "Very good. Get started right away and have Grayson work with you."

The high of having the better presentation crashes and burns, even as I do my best to keep a smile on my face. "Absolutely."

This is going to be miserable. I can already see the future unfolding in front of me, and I know that Grayson's going to do everything he can to hurt my project.

Men like him never change.