Page 17 of Heated Takeover

“Well, if you decide to pencil it in, skip the apps,” Brittany says as she grabs her dusty rose Bogg Bag, her beige Stanley, and slips into her Birkenstocks and heads for the door. “They’re a nightmare.”

“Well, hopefully your date isn’t a nightmare,” I tell her.

“His name is Kip, and he works in influencing and wants to meet at a microbrewery in South Point. So we’ll see. He has nice teeth, though.”

“Always a good thing,” I say, and Brittany leaves. I sigh because even though I have no interest in IPA bros or men who are going to talk about their visions of the future and innovation and other Gen Z speak, it does seem a lot less complicated than my current situation.

“Mommy, look at what I made,” Jamie says. I follow him to the craft corner that we set up in the area made to be a breakfast nook. There are crayons and scrap paper and glue sticks everywhere. It kind of looks like a glitter bomb may have gone off; I love it. It’s messy, but it’s us.

I sit down and try to focus on Jamie’s newest project. But no matter how hard I try, my brain keeps trailing back to today and what I found out. Marcus “Ash” Ashford is my new boss, and I’m going to have to see him every day now. It’s wild considering I haven’t seen him since that night. A night I have replayed in my head repeatedly.

He’s the only man I’ve ever been with. Obviously, I wasn’t dating around after that because I was pregnant, and I realized it very early on. I could feel the change in my body before I even took a pregnancy test. I just knew. It was like we gave so much to each other that night, and even after running off into the crowd, I still felt like I had a piece of him with me.

And did I ever!

I watch and do my best to listen as Jamie chatters, but I am struggling. Marcus being back in my life isn’t just intimidating because of my feelings. It’s only a matter of time before he finds out that I’m a mother. What if he sees Jamie? What if he hears me call Jamie by his middle name, Ash? What if he does the math or recognizes himself in Jamie’s mischievous face?

What if he figures it out and I lose everything?

I wipe a tear from my eye before Jamie sees it and force a smile. I am going to have to force a lot of smiles from now on. Because no matter what, Marcus Ashford can’t turn my life upside down again.

Chapter 8

Marcus

“Why do you need an office?” Tuck asks me as I direct two men from a furniture company as they set down a desk in the middle of the room.

“Because I work here?” I point out. “It’s kind of convenient to have an office in the place you work. Can we move it a bit to the left? Just a couple of inches and pivot about twenty degrees. It’s not centered.”

“Technically, you work at Ashford,” Tuck says. “You know, that massive fifty-story building thirty minutes from here. You have an office there three times this size and with a much better view.”

“Right,” I say, still unsure about the angle of the desk. “Thirty minutes from here. I am going to be spending a lot of time in this building getting things organized and up to speed. I’d like a place I can slam the door while I’m here.”

“A lot of guys would just do virtual check-ins and meetings,” Tuck says. “People here do know how to run the place. I’m sure they’re going to do their jobs. I think it’s still crooked.”

The last part of his statement is regarding the desk, and I think he might be right. It does look off. Maybe it’s the room. Corner offices are always a little strange geometrically. Maybe I shouldn’t have chosen a corner office. Though I am pretty sure this was Jim’s before he decided to work exclusively from home.

I scratch my chin.

“I’m not a lot of guys, Tuck,” I say after the fact. “I would think you of all people would know that by now.”

“Oh, I do. Which is why I don’t understand why you can just rule with an iron fist back at headquarters.”

I turn to Tuck. “I don’t plan to rule with an iron fist. I just want to make sure that things are running the way I want them to. I want to see how the machine is operating so I can make changes as needed.”

“I heard you already fired a guy,” Tuck chuckles, changing the focus of the conversation. “It’s only been a week.”

“I fired him on day three,” I state.

“Damn.”

“He pissed me off on day one.”

I am referring to Beard Guy. It didn’t even take me twenty-four hours of working at ME to realize that guy is shit at his job. I replaced him almost immediately with someone else in the company who is much more competent. I think people liked seeing that I hired from within, so it’s more of a moving things around type situation. Watching Beard Guy pack up his cubicle sobered everyone up a little.

“Speaking of that,” Tuck says after the furniture guys leave and we are finally by ourselves. “You seem pissed off in general.”

“What are you talking about?” I snap and then I glance over at him.