Been There Done That (Leffersbee #1) - Hope Ellis Page 0,115
to Zora, who was flinging the axe in dangerous practice arcs, “It’s okay. Not everyone can be good at everything. You’re unfairly talented at a number of things. Who cares if axe throwing isn’t—”
“Shut up and stay in your corner,” Zora said, and I saw the blood in her eyes. I eased back, mindful of the axe in her hand.
“Don’t pay her any attention,” Chase said soothingly. “I think you’re doing better. Give it a shot, now that your arm placement’s better.”
Eddie sent me a sly look, his eyes bright with mischief. I’d known him long enough to discern its meaning.
I planned to get rid of Gimli in short order. I just couldn’t do it in a way that would lead to Zora delivering another Beyoncé/Independent Women speech.
“Let’s make one last change to your stance for a sec,” Gimli said. He lifted a hand as if he meant to place it at her waist. “Do you mind if I make a few adjustments?”
I pushed off the wall. “That’s it. You’re done here. Get the fuck out.”
He turned to find me less than a foot away, ready to dismember him.
“No disrespect intended. I was just trying to help.” But I saw the cunning in his smirk.
“Get the fuck outta here.”
He scampered out.
Zora glowered at me.
I shook my head. “Nope. Just . . . nope.”
“So you like Neanderthals,” I overheard Leigh say to Zora.
Zora ignored her and came to me, draping her arms around my waist.
I calculated how long it would take us to get back to Green Valley and back in one of our beds. Where had all these damn people come from? Shouldn’t Zora and I be busy, reuniting?
“Hey,” she said, looking up at me with wicked eyes. I pushed away a mental flashback of the previous night.
There were other people around.
“I need to catch up with Leigh and find out what happened while she was back home. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind gossiping about us with Eddie when we’re out of earshot.”
Eddie snickered.
“We’re gonna get drinks, then grab a table for dinner. You stay here, catch up with Eddie. Talk about whatever it is CEOs talk about. Meet us on the other side in an hour.”
She puckered up and I met her, relieved to taste her again.
It had been too damn long.
Eddie watched the two of them leave the lane, then turned to me with a grin.
“Man, Nick. I never thought I’d live to see this day.”
“What day?”
“The day you got whipped. You’re in love, man. She just worked the hell out of you.”
I frowned. “She didn’t—”
“She just sashayed over there, calmed you down, and then told you what was going to happen.” He bent over, laughing. “Man, I wish some of the people in the office could see this. Mr. Demanding has been taken down.”
That didn’t sit quite right with me.
“So, my expectation that the people we pay hit the mark makes me, what? A tyrant?” I picked up a discarded axe from the nearby table and assumed the position behind the line.
Eddie stood beside me, his own axe in hand. “Everyone’s committed to doing their jobs, man. You know that. The problem is that you have impossibly high expectations for yourself. Which then get passed on to everyone else. You’re always charging into the next thing, taking on the next challenge, jumping into the next project, then insisting we all fall in line to accommodate the almost impossible circumstances you drag us in. You’re inexhaustible. Yes, you’ve built this company into an industry leader. We’ve prospered beyond what I ever thought possible. But when is it enough? Would you even recognize when you’ve hit the limit?”
He scrubbed a hand over his brow.
I hurled the axe at the board. It clattered off, completely missing the target.
Eddie and I switched places.
He lifted the axe, then lowered it, looked over his shoulder at me.
“I talked to Aunt Nan for a while.”
Awww, shit.
“Did you?”
“Yeah, I did. Just wondered what connection you might have to this little dusty town in Tennessee, the way you just up and disappeared and pushed the team to pilot the app here.”
“What did she tell you?”
“What I wish you’d told me. About your growing up here. What happened with your mom. How you had to leave.”
Thanks, Aunt Nan.
I looked at him and found him watching me, frowning.
“Why’d I have to hear all that from Nan? How is it that, in all the years we’ve known each other, you’ve never told me your origin story?”