AstonTiffany pouted her lips, disappointed in my lack of indulgence of her theatrics. The fact she had even asked set me on edge. “Seriously? I do some major super sleuthing and you don’t even care about the process.”“I don’t, just tell me. Please. He just burst in here, told me he had to go back to the office and then practically ran out the door. I’ve had enough drama for one day. What is it?”Tiffany frowned at the wall in the direction of the outside exit door. “I hope he’s okay. For more reasons than just because you’re into him. We could all be in trouble if he’s not.”“Business has been doing amazing the last few days, so don’t worry about whatever trouble we might be in and just tell me already.” Maybe I wouldn’t miss her that much. I hoped I wouldn’t, but if she didn’t tell me soon, I was going to explode.There was a severe shortage of creative murder weapons in my minimalistic office, so my bare hands would have to do. “I swear Tiff, if you drag this out any longer I’m no
BLAKEIt was late by the time I landed in Florida. My mind was in a daze. It felt like I was stuck in a bad dream. I replayed the morning over and over again in my mind, trying to change the way it ended. But it never changed.All I could hear was Danny’s voice telling me our father was in the hospital. That he’d had a stroke and I had to come home. To my dad’s home, anyway. I didn’t really have a home anymore. I guess I thought of Florida as home because that was where my father was.If anything were to happen to him—my throat threatened to close up. Breathing was hard enough as it was without those kinds of thoughts.It felt like it took ages to get to the hospital, but in reality it was only a matter of hours. Unless my watch was broken and it had, in fact, taken as long as it seemed.The roads were quiet this time of night around here. Dad’s neighborhood was one of the quieter ones and the hospital Danny told me they were at was right on the outskirts.It was dark except for the p
BlakeA white haired man stood next to the bed. He looked up from a clipboard he was holding when I entered the room. “You must be Blake. I’m Dr. Richards. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”I wondered how many people he had said that to. And how many of those family members left the hospital with only memories of their loved one.On auto pilot, I shook his hand. “How is he?”The doctor gave me a grim smile. “He’s not good, son. I won’t sugar coat it, he’s in bad shape. We’re doing all we can for him, of course.” My heart stuttered. “Of course. Do you have any information about what happened yet? My brother said it was a stroke.” The doctor nodded. “It was definitely a stroke. We won’t know the full extent of the damage until he wakes up, but with the test results we have, things aren’t looking too positive.”I blinked. This wasn’t possible, but plenty of evidence that it was all too real was right there in front of me. It was absurd. Surreal.There was a clenching
BLAKE“How’s it going today, Dad?” I sat down beside the bed in the intensive care unit, checking the wall of monitors hanging behind my father. It had to be the world’s most depressing headboard. The machines beeped and blinked rhythmically, the only sound in the glass bubble that was my father’s bedroom for the time being.I touched my hand to his forehead.It was clammy, cool.My stomach rolled. I hated seeing him this way. The man was a titan of industry, a legend whose name was associated with success and spoken with the highest regard the world over.It was getting harder to remember that with each passing day. Lying in his metal framed hospital bed, he was wasting away right in front of my eyes. More worrying still was that he hadn’t yet opened his own.It was day three of my own personal hell, waking up to come spend the day with a man who wasn’t even conscious. The doctors still couldn’t say if he ever would be again.We were playing a waiting game, waiting on a man I’d never
Blake“Wake up, Dad,” I murmured, gently squeezing his cool hand. “You have to wake up soon, you hear me? You can’t leave us yet.”Again, there was no response. I kept on talking to him though. I wasn’t giving up on him. Not now, not ever.“The McAllen Group needs you, Dad. I need you. Danny needs you too, whether he knows it or not.”I took a deep breath. Jesus, this was hard. “Come on, Dad. I need you to wake up. If you wait too long before you wake up, there won’t be anything left to save. You built this company from the ground up, but Danny’s going to tear it down from the inside out if you don’t wake up soon.”Unfortunately, I wasn’t exaggerating. I knew the plans my brother had for the company. Some of them anyway. They weren’t good.The company Danny envisioned wasn’t the one we already had. He thought it was too old fashioned.Out with the old and in with the new, he told me once when we talked about the company. To him, hotel chains were fast becoming outdated. He was convinc
ASTONSighing, I tossed my phone down onto the bed beside me and let my back fall to the mattress. I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms. I was so damn tired, but I couldn’t sleep anymore.Sleep was getting harder to come by the longer I didn’t hear from Blake. At first, it was worry about my job that kept me up at night. Sleeping with the son of the owner of the hotel was the single most unprofessional thing I had ever done, and I hadn’t even known it at the time.I was terrified I was going to get fired for being the worst manager the hotel chain had. I told Blake the truth about being a virgin before we slept together, but jumping into bed with a guest wasn’t a great first impression.Another worry was that he didn’t believe me about being a virgin. At first, I wondered if he was avoiding my calls because he thought I slept with guests all the time and was processing the paperwork to have me removed from my job.There was nothing in our company policies that specifically proh
AstonTaking in a deep breath, I released it slowly. “Not yet. I called him again earlier, but he didn’t pick up.”“Kudos for calling.” Tiffany nodded approvingly, sipping her coffee. Her flaming curls were pulled up into a messy bun at the very top of her head. They bounced with her movement. “I’m proud of you for reaching out, I know you’ve been worried since I told you who he was.”“I am, but whatever is going on with him must be important. He told me to call him if I needed him, but he hasn’t answered. He’s not the kind of guy to just blow someone off. Something must be going on.”“Just keep trying to get a hold of him,” she told me, pointing her coffee cup at me. “This is exactly the kind of guy who you should be with.”I tilted my head. “Not that I disagree, but why?”Sighing, she gave me a look that told me I was obviously missing something. When I didn’t react or catch on immediately, she sighed again. “Because my dear, innocent, oblivious friend, he’s hot and rich. Plus, you
BLAKEThat was my second night in a row in the same clothes, I realized when I woke up.Awesome. I was becoming a hospital hermit. I was even starting to smell like the hospital. For two days, I kept promising myself I only needed another hour or so with Dad.After the hour or two passed, I decided to stay just another hour or two. And round and round I went. Two days later and I still hadn’t gone anywhere. I groaned and shifted on the chair next to Dad’s hospital bed. The same chair I spent the night only semi-sleeping on. A spring was sticking into my ass. I smelled like hospital and shit. My muscles were stiff.Tonight, I really had to go to the hotel and get some sleep in a real bed. Stretching my arms, I rolled my head to the side just in time to see Danny parting the curtains to walk into the room.“Rise and shine, Blake.” Danny had clearly slept better than I had. He was looking shiny, clean and new in a gray morning suit and a cup of actual coffee, not the flavored dishwasher