Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
I’m not even sure I like my job anymore. I know that many of the people who work for me don’t appreciate me.
But they’ll get rid of my cold, dead body before they force me out.
“She’s awkward and often unfeminine.”
“Only because you have one narrow definition of femininity.” I’m getting irritated. She’s not usually this bad. Usually she comes over, fusses that the apartment isn’t perfect, makes some tea or coffee to go with the muffins she brings, and then tells me how all of my cousins’ kids are doing. I can listen to tales of Bobby’s T-ball game if it makes her happy, but I’m not going to do this with her. “Sometimes women don’t get the option of being sweet and unassuming. We’re not a monolith.”
“I don’t even understand you when you talk like that.” She frowns. “I’m sorry you had to find out about your dad.”
“It wasn’t like I thought he was a great guy.” He was complicated. I won’t use the word complex. He wasn’t. He was simple, but his relationships were complicated. Especially the one he had with me.
You’re a good one, Harper. You’re almost one of the guys.
She’s back to tears. “Well, I can see I’m not wanted here. You have a wonderful time in Europe away from your family.”
“You were invited.”
“What would I do in Europe?” she asks as she moves to the door. “Besides, I would miss Kelly’s dance recital, and her grandmother is awful. Can you believe she’s choosing a work conference over her granddaughter’s recital?”
I know this story well. “She’s getting a lifetime achievement award for her research into cervical cancer. Janie is missing it, too, because she wants to support her mother. Dave will be there, and he can tape it.”
She pulls her fussy cardigan around her. “Well, that doesn’t make up for having a maternal figure there to watch all of her hard work. Think about what I’ve said, Harper. I know you love running your father’s company. If you don’t start listening to your board members, you’ll be out of a job. I know I’ve always advised your cousins to vote for you, but I have to think about the health of the company and quite frankly, your future.”
“And Paul will run the company into the ground within five years and then where will the family be?”
“He will not. Some things are more important,” she insists. “You think about that while you’re with your friends. Who are starting their lives with their husbands. A thing you claim isn’t important.”
She’s out the door before I can argue that I never said that. It doesn’t matter. My mom tends to make up her own history. For the longest time after my father died, she simply followed me around and tried to “help.” Now she’s found a new place in the family as the free babysitter, and she’s back to hounding me to give her what she wants—a model daughter who stays home and knows her place.
He didn’t want me to run the company.
He thought I would get married and my husband would run it.
I can’t help it. The words shake the foundation my life is built on. And it isn’t like that ground was solid in the first place. No, I’ve always known my father wanted a son and I was a disappointment, but at least I thought he came around to the idea that I was competent. When I felt bad that I disappointed my mother, I told myself at least my dad wanted me to work with him. He taught me. I kind of convinced myself it was his love language. My father wasn’t a good man, but I thought at least he cared about me enough to give me the one thing he did love. His company.
I sit at the bar when I should be packing, thinking about everything my mother said to me.
And wondering if there’s a place for me anywhere.
Chapter Four
I look out over the grand ballroom and breathe a sigh of relief. The wedding went off without a hitch. Well, without any hitches that wouldn’t be perfectly normal for a televised ceremony. Luca was resplendent in his military uniform. Anika looked every bit the queen in her custom-made gown. There was a formal coronation right after the wedding ceremony, and now my bestie is on the glittering dance floor with a crown on her head.
The last week has been something of a whirlwind, to say the least.
“You look relieved.”
I turn slightly and Reid Dorsey is standing next to one of the pillars that decorate the grand ballroom and give the whole place a Baroque feel. Though I suppose it isn’t so much a feel as when the palace was built. He’s gorgeous in his obviously tailored tux—no rentals for this guy. He looks perfectly comfortable in a European palace, like a superhot James Bond, except instead of government secrets he’s looking for designer ones. I am not so comfortable, but there’s a reason for it. “I’m glad I managed to make it through the ceremony without tripping or a wardrobe malfunction.”