Page 40 of The Merger

My tongue was tied and I couldn’t get out more than a squeak.

“For fuck’s sake, I don’t have time for a bunch of bumbling fools bothering me every few minutes,” he shouted.

A dozen retorts raced through my mind, but none of them came out. Instead, I stood there like an idiot. Fed up with all the bullshit, I spun around and stomped for the door. Before I exited, I tossed out over my shoulder, “Starve then. I’m getting lunch.”

I heard him call after me as I spun around and stormed away from his office, but I was fed up with the patriarchal bullshit Maxwell built his company on. There was only one person who could help me focus past the noise of this place, and it wasn’t Stryker. Jana was the only one who would be able to understand the hill I had to climb in order to help save her company.

Even though I could hear Stryker trying to catch up to me, I jumped into the elevator and ran out of the building. Of course, with the luck I had today I stepped out to find it had started raining since I’d arrived at work. Maybe Colter was right, not that I’d ever admit it to his face, but perhaps I should have spent some of my savings to buy a car. I had plenty of time to think about my stubbornness while I walked the few blocks to Anderson Global’s main office.

Rivers of water cascaded down my skin, and a puddle spread around my feet as I stood in the lobby on the executive floor. Evie and Jana came out of one of the conference rooms together and froze when they saw me.

“Oh my God! Did you walk here? You’re soaking wet,” Evie shrieked. She hurried to my side and grabbed my hand. “Let’s get you into Beck’s bathroom. He’s got towels.”

My clothes hung heavy with all the water they absorbed. I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and pulled it away from my skin. “I’m not sure towels will be enough to fix this.”

Jana shot me a small smile. “Go with her. I’ve got a change of clothes here.”

I rolled my eyes. “All I’ve been wearing for the last few days are your clothes.”

She shrugged. “Eh, Colter’s shopper still uses your measurements and coloring to choose all my clothes. Not to mention your brother is an obsessive shopper. I’ve got too many as it is, and you’re family.”

Family.My shoulders relaxed, and my lips tugged up. Until Evie appeared and shook up our world that was a foreign word to me. Colter and I worked together, and we were friendly enough, but I wouldn’t have said he felt like family. My stepbrother and I weren’t close to our parents. He was already a teenager when my mom married his dad, and I was a toddler. On the rare occasion when my mom had me around, he was usually out with Beckett. We never really developed much of a bond until I became friends with Evie and Jana.

He had bonded with Waverly though. One would think sharing a half-sister we might have grown close. We didn’t though. He doted on her, and I was always on the outside of their circle. My mother and his father were selfish. Their charities, business ventures, and vacations often kept them away from spending time with the family. While Colter and I had another parent to give us the attention we needed, Waverly only had her nanny.

Colter tried to compensate for her lack of parental affection. Our parents gave Waverly every material thing she wanted, probably to assuage any guilt they felt about the time they didn’t give her. She grew to value relationships based on what they could provide for her and didn’t reciprocate the exchange. Since I was only two years older than her I was more competition for our mother’s time than someone who provided her with anything she wanted. The older we got, the more she seemed to see me as competition than a sister.

While Colt never treated me as though I didn’t belong, he was constantly consoling her when she was upset by my mere presence. Whether he meant to exclude me or not, the two of them started doing more and more without me. By the time I was in high school Colt and I only saw each other during major holidays, and even then sporadically.

A knock on the door of the bathroom jolted me back to the present. Evie slipped in and shut the door behind her. She held up a hairdryer and handed it over to me. “Jana and I were going to grab lunch. Since you’re here, do you want to join us?”

“It’s pretty late, isn’t it?” I didn’t want them stepping away from their responsibilities just because they’re guessing I’m having a breakdown.

Evie shrugged. “Gracie was fussy last night, so I got a late start today. Jana lost track of time coding for the app she’s developing. Lunch wasn’t planned, so when we realized we’d both forgotten to eat we thought it seemed like the perfect excuse to cut out together. With you showing up at this exact time I think it was meant to be.”

“I think, maybe you’re right,” I agreed and switched on the dryer. After I was back in dry clothes and my hair and makeup were fixed I followed the girls to Jana’s car.

She looked up at the rearview mirror and caught my eyes. She gave a tiny shake of her head letting me know Evie didn’t know about my marriage. I sighed. “I think I need a drink with lunch.”

Jana nodded. “I know just the place.”

We found a pay lot down the block from a bar Jana and Colter liked to go to,Hot Spot. It was a tech-themed bar and restaurant. I’d ordered food from here for Colt many times, so I knew they had a decent menu. What mattered most to me was that they served alcohol.

The rain still came down in sheets. I wasn’t looking forward to being drenched again, but at least it was only half a block. Evie thrust an umbrella at me. “How you grew up in this city and don’t have one of these with you at all times is a mystery to me.”

Jana and I both shrugged. “Tourists carry umbrellas,” Jana told her for the hundredth time.

“Native Seattleites wear rain jackets,” I added.

Evie’s eyebrow curved up. “You weren’t wearing one.”

I shrugged again. “I didn’t have my stuff.”

“Why?” she asked, and I knew I stepped into something.

“Let’s have this discussion over a drink,” I put her off and stepped out of the car under my open umbrella.

Inside the bar we moved to the back corner where we could talk away from the few people who were inside the bar at two o’clock on a Monday. We used a small device to put in our order and waited for our drinks to arrive before we started talking.