Page 28 of Heart Like Yours
“Starting tomorrow, Evalyn will be taking over my role as Publishing Director. We are already working on filling her current job,” she answers smoothly. Pride fills me at the moment, at just how accepting and trusting this team is with the decisions.
Questions are thrown out faster than we can keep up with before Paige finally stands and gets the attention of the team.
“There will be an email sent first thing tomorrow to the entire team. In it there will be the answers to all your questions and details about the additions to the company. Garrett, Eva, and I will be around during normal business hours tomorrow to answer any questions that remain. After that, Mr. Walker and I will be out of the office to attend to some things in New York, but we will have our work phones and laptops with us and will respond to emails when we are able.”
Thankfully, everyone seems even more happy than we had expected. Slowly, the teams begin to filter out, taking the news with them and clearly ready to spread it. By the time the last person is out the door, leaving only Paige and me behind, all I can focus on is what’s next.
Paige drops into the seat beside mine and lets out a heavy exhale. She rolls her neck to the side, tilting her head and grinning at me.
“Well, that went better than expected.” She shrugs. “Not that I really knew what I was expecting to happen.”
“I knew they’d be happy with your new job.” I smirk and Paige rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, save the ‘I told you so’.”
“Gwen should have sent you an email with flight details for the week this morning.” I don’t take my eyes off Paige as I watch for any clues toward how she feels about traveling with me this week.
She pulls out her phone, taps the email icon, and nods. If I weren’t so in tune with everything she does, I might have missed the way she stiffens and chews on her bottom lip before speaking.
“If you didn’t need me for anything Friday afternoon, I was actually going to have her cancel my flight home. My dad still lives in Vermont and I might get a rental and drive up to see him. Then I’ll get a flight back Saturday night or Sunday morning from the closest airport.”
I shake my head. “I’ll have Gwen change our flight plans and book us a rental. She’ll just need the town and she can handle the rest. It’ll save you the money of a plane ticket if we just use my plane anyway.”
Paige blinks. “You…have a plane?”
“Personally, no. However, I share one with Leo and his father.” I scratch at the nape of my neck and change the subject. “I can drive up with you or I can hang around the city and meet up with you to fly back. Whatever you’re comfortable with.”
I should probably be embarrassed that I’m basically inviting myself to her hometown, but I can’t find it in me to.
“I don’t want to make you wait or feel like you have to be stuck in a car with me to drive to my hometown. It’s fine. I can always go another time.”
Reaching out, I place my hand over hers on the table.
“I truly don’t mind. Truth be told, spending uninterrupted time with you sounds fun. Just tell me the town and I’ll haveGwen handle the rest for us. I could use a couple days off. Plus, I’ve never been to Vermont.”
Paige stares at me with wide eyes, anxiously nibbling on her bottom lip as she searches my face. When she finally nods in acceptance, all of my excitement from earlier feels tame compared to the immense anticipation running through my veins. I was already looking forward to this week in New York with Paige. Now, my mind races at the idea of traveling to her home and spending personal time showing her that I meant what I said the other night.
I’m willing to do whatever it takes to prove to her that I’m here for her in every way.
PAIGE
“Please tell me that you didn’t offer me this job just so you have a torture buddy,” I groan to Garrett as we step off the elevator.
From the second we landed on Wednesday morning, we have been in and out of meetings with the lawyers. It’s been two days of stiff chairs, pouring over contracts, and merger meetings. My brain is five minutes from turning into mush from all the information and my hand will not stop tingling with pain from all the notes I’ve taken.
Garrett chuckles, stepping ahead of us and holding the door to the conference room open. He motions for me to go first and just as I’m passing him, he leans in to whisper so only I can hear. “Trust me, if I wanted to torture you, I’d make sure you’re enjoying it.”
His words cause me to stumble and heat flashes through my entire body. However, there’s no time to think of a response or even get my bearings as the team of lawyers greets us. Refusing to look at Garrett, I go through the motions of polite greetings, which is a new test to my strength I did not expect today.
It’s been easy to distract myself over the past couple days of being in New York with Garrett because we’ve been nonstopgoing since landing. Between all the actual work that needed to be done and going out to dinner with the teams, we had been going from morning to night. Yes, more times than not I would catch Garrett’s attention on me when it should be elsewhere, and there were more than a couple stolen grazes, but nothing like this.
We have one last meeting to sign the final documentation, making my new role in the company official, then drinks and dinner with Leo. After that? It’s the two of us alone for almost forty-eight hours.
Ultimately, I know if I had told him that I wanted to go to Vermont alone, he would have let it be and I could have gone on my own. However, the idea of Garrett seeing my hometown and having someone there with me when I go home for the first time in years was too tempting to pass up.
At least, that’s what I thought up until we were alone on the almost three-hour flight here. That’s when it finally dawned on me that if I was that affected from sitting beside him on a plane, being in a car for four hours was going to be even more torturous.
Shit…am I a masochist?