“I guess it is.” I laughed, raising my hands in the air, but something in her expression clued me in that something was weighing on her. I wasn’t just being paranoid.
“Remember Gabriel Lyons?”
“Yeah.” He was one of the donors for the gala. I’d gone to college with him, and he’d always been a bit of a pompous prick, but when he’d shown interest in donating, I wasn’t going to say no.
“Well... he’s being a pain in the ass. Insists we have to put him as sponsor on any materials related to the event.”
“What the fuck? We don’t do that for anyone. Donations are donations. Not sponsorships.”
“I know. He knows that too and is just trying to pressure us.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Cole, dealing with existing donors is my responsibility. Yours is bringing new ones.”
I felt responsible anyway. I’d brought him on, and I wasn’t going to let Tess pick up the pieces on her own. Especially because she was shouldering a larger chunk of work at the store right now, with Skye taking it easy during her last months of pregnancy.
“Tell me if you need anything. I mean it. Whatever you need, call me. Or just stop by.”
She smiled again. “Are you sure? You were close to kicking me out earlier.”
“That’s because I thought you’d just come here to give me shit.”
My sister rose from her chair, coming over to me. She patted my cheek. “Looking out for you. That was me looking out for you, little brother.”
I rose from my chair too.
“Well, I’m off to the store. Good luck with you know what.” She clasped her hands in excitement, winking.
“Thanks.”
After she left, I actually managed to focus on work. We always had multiple projects going on, but for the upcoming months, I was going to prioritize two.
The first was the shopping center in Rome. Delimano was in charge of securing all the permits from the local administration. We were the ones raising the building.
The second project was the Centenarian. It was a project commissioned by the mayor of New York, a building smack dab in the middle of Manhattan. They were yet to choose a real estate company to whom to hand over the project, and several competitors were interested. There was a deadline coming up, and we had to submit a cost proposal for the mayor to review.
Hunter and I knew this one wasn’t going to be profitable, but it would bring a lot of prestige. Still, we didn’t want to take a loss on it, so I was crunching numbers to see just how much it would cost to build it.
In the afternoon, I went to Hunter’s office so we could decide on the next step for the Centenarian. “The numbers look good. As expected,” Hunter said, looking over the piece of paper I’d printed out. It contained the key figures for the project.
“I think so too. We should go for it. I think we have an excellent chance of winning it. I’ll get everyone to work on this until the deadline, and we can swing it by.”
Hunter looked up at me, then focused on the paper again.
“How was your meeting with Tess?” he asked.
I frowned. “How do you know she was here?”
Hunter shrugged, flashing me his best poker face. It didn’t fool me.
“You called Tess?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’ve had half the team storm into my office, complaining that you’re riding their ass. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but I thought Tess might.”
He looked at me questioningly, but I just stared at him. When Tess had said she’d talked to several of my colleagues, I hadn’t realized she’d meant Hunter too.
“You’re frowning. That means I was right.”
“How do you figure that?”
He leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers on the top of his head. “Otherwise, you would’ve bragged about me being wrong.”
Damn, they knew me too well.
“Fine, Tess had a point.”
Hunter burst out laughing. “So that woman you met in Rome made quite an impression. Damn, I love this. You gave me so much shit about breaking out of the bachelor pack that I’m just happy to have the privilege of returning it.”
“Still... calling my sister?”
“Remember when you thought I was sick and called a family council so you could figure out what was happening? I just about did that too.”
The best thing about family? We were very tight-knit. The downside? Nothing slipped by them, and no one forgot anything. When you least expected it, they held it over