Page 129 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

“I’ll miss you too.”

“Listen, I’ve been thinking about this and I have an idea. Let me bring Piper in so we can pitch it.” He picked up the phone, dialing her extension. Not thirty seconds later, she waltzed into the office and took the chair at my side.

She looked me up and down. “You look like hell.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, knowing she was just saying it out of concern. The circles under my eyes were darker than any I’d sported during law school, but I hadn’t slept much in two weeks. Without Thea in my bed, I’d been restless.

“Okay, so we’ve got an idea.” Nolan leaned his forearms on his desk, nodding to Piper.

“I’ve been playing with the org chart and job descriptions.” She handed me a piece of paper, showing me the current structure of the foundation.

The circle at the top was me, the chairman of the board. Below that, a row of the other board members. Beneath them was Nolan, followed by a row of vice presidents. Next to each bubble was a brief description of job responsibilities.

It was the same as it had been for decades.

“Now look at this.” She handed me a new sheet.

The structure of the circles was the same except one vice president bubble had been removed and its job duties placed with me. With this new structure, I’d be taking over the team responsible for sorting through donation proposals.

My eyes snapped to Nolan and his smug grin. “What about Mike?” He was the current vice president in the role they were proposing to eliminate and had worked with us for a decade.

“He wants to retire. He talked about waiting a year, but I already spoke with him and he’s on board with leaving early. We’ll cut him a check and he’ll move to Florida a year earlier than expected.”

“But what about everything else? The events. The trips. I can’t be here to split them with you.”

“I’ve got them covered. With you weeding through proposals, it will take less time for me to review them. Mike does a great job, but I still spend a lot of time going through everything, mostly so I can get you up to speed. I won’t have to do that anymore. We can either ask other board members to become more active, or we can cut down on some of the events. Worst-case scenario, I go to them all.”

I sighed. “That’s going to cut into your time with your family. I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Not necessarily. If I’m hitting more events at night, then I’m going to cut back at the office. Spend more time at home in the mornings. I can take Tyler to school, hang with Kayla until lunch, then come in for the afternoons and attend the functions when they happen in the evenings. All of that’s possible if you take over Mike’s job.”

“Kayla would be okay with that?”

He nodded. “She’s one hundred percent on board.”

God, this would be amazing. More than quitting my career, one that I’d poured thousands of hours into building, I hated losing my place at the foundation.

It was my passion. It was my connection to my family. And more so, I could do this job and be home every night for dinner. I’d never miss a soccer practice or game. I’d have the chance to make up for the time I’d already lost with Charlie.

The last two weeks had taught me a lot. My eighty-hour workweeks were over. I was trading up for Thea and Charlie.

But if I could keep this tie to the foundation, to my family’s legacy, then maybe I could have my cake and eat it too.

“I love it,” I told Nolan and Piper. “But I just don’t see the board approving the change.”

The chairman of the board had always been a Kendrick, picked purposefully to be the face of the family. Before me, it was my uncle. When he’d been ready to retire, I’d taken over. I didn’t see how the board would want it any other way.

“It’s worth asking,” Piper said. “If they say no, then you can step down like you’d planned.”

“True.” My original plan had been to move and settle in to Lark Cove. When I got bored, I’d find a low-stress job. If this didn’t work out, I could always fall back on Plan A.

But damn, I wanted Plan B.

“The meeting with the board doesn’t start until ten.” Nolan checked the clock on the wall. “We’ve got thirty minutes. Let’s prep to pitch this, instead of the list of recommended chair candidates we came up with last week.”

I grinned at them both. “It’s worth a shot.”

Two hours later, the three of us were back in Nolan’s office, celebrating.