Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,7
was all part of the game – and led to big rewards. That’s how he’d become the youngest Vice President in the history of his billion-dollar hedge fund, by keeping his nerve when everyone else played it safe. He knew he had a reputation for being a workaholic ass sometimes, but his attention to detail and 24/7 work ethic had put him on top, time and time again. So why would this be any different? He’d been so sure that his golden touch wouldn’t fail that he’d bet the house, putting millions of the fund’s assets on the line. It wasn’t some impulsive move: His team had worked for months, running computer simulations running every possible outcome…
Except for a hurricane that hit the South Pacific, at the same time a dictator got overthrown, the rice crops failed, and a stray flock of geese grounded a new jet-liner model for another round of safety checks.
Really.
Aidan had factored in a couple of worst-case scenarios to his calculations, but not all of them. And definitely not all at once. It was a Black Swan event, the term they used in finance to describe something you could never have seen coming in a million years. But that didn’t make a difference for Aidan, watching the currency valuation plummet on his screen, wiping tens of millions of dollars off their balance sheet. It was his strategy, he’d made the call.
And now it was his career in ruins.
He pulled up at the house and just sat there a moment, feeling the crushing weight of failure in his chest. He was supposed to be the stable one. The oldest. The guy the rest of them could rely on when they needed help and support.
How was he supposed to explain this?
Aidan’s cellphone rang, and he snatched it up, hoping it was one of the top-flight headhunters he’d talked to back in New York. But instead, it was his sister calling.
Cassie.
“Hey kid,” he said, getting out of the car. “What’s up?”
“I swear, you have a doppelgänger running around Sweetbriar Cove.” Cassie announced. “I just saw a guy who looked exactly like you. Except you would never be caught dead at Hank’s Hardware. No VIP rope,” she teased.
Aidan forced a laugh. “Huh, weird,” he agreed, then quickly changed the subject as he let himself into the house. “How’s Wes?”
“He’s good, working hard. Nearly as hard as you,” Cassie added. “Although Archie’s decided he’s his new best friend, he won’t leave him alone, not even on video calls….”
Cassie launched into a story about the new puppy and Wes’s business meeting, while Aidan unloaded the groceries, basking in the cool of the open refrigerator. It was another five degrees hotter in the house now, at least. If Hank’s guy didn’t come through, he’d be camping out in the yard tonight.
“Anyway, we were saying, you need to come for a visit,” Cassie steered the conversation around, the way she always did. “There’s some festival in town this week, it’ll be fun. Blueberries, I think.”
“CranberryFest,” he corrected her automatically, before realizing his mistake.
“That’s it. Wait, how do you know?” Cassie asked, sounding curious.
“I, uh, talked to Luke the other day.” Aidan covered quickly.
“Oh, right.” Luckily, Cassie seemed to buy his story. “You should see him and Natalie these days, they’re the worst,” she added affectionately. “I’m surprised they haven’t already eloped.”
“Mom would love that,” Aidan gave a chuckle.
His sister groaned. “Don’t get me started! She’s already got her heart set on a summer wedding.”
“For Luke?”
“For any one of us!” Cassie exclaimed. “Me, Jackson, Chase... I bet she’d send you down the aisle with whatever supermodel you’re dating this week.”
“C’mon,” Aidan protested. “I’m not that bad.”
“Aren’t you?” She laughed. “What happened to the last one, that fashion designer-slash-social media star?”
“Nadia.” Aidan replied. “It… didn’t work out.”
That was an understatement. The minute Aidan’s life began to crumble, Nadia had packed up her designer purses and backlit selfie mirror and hit the road. He couldn’t really blame her. He’d gone from high-flyer to crash landing overnight, and she hadn’t signed up for that.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll bounce back.” Cassie said cheerfully. “You’ll probably have a new model by the weekend – pun intended.”
“Gee, thanks.” Aidan said, looking around the house. It felt painfully empty, there all alone, and he was almost tempted come clean. His siblings would be over there in a heartbeat, bringing pizza and gossip, a cacophony of noise to fill the empty space.