Laughing softly, she smiled at him before taking a sip of the coffee. “Mmm…a man who brews a good cup of coffee and makes breakfast? It’s like seeing a unicorn; I didn’t think they existed.”
Settling in against the pillows, Logan laughed. “I’m not sure I like being compared to a unicorn, but I appreciate the compliment.” He reached for a fork and cut into the omelet he prepared for them. Holding up the fork, he gave her the first bite. “What do you think?”
“Wow, that’s even better than the coffee. Where’d you learn to cook?”
“It was more out of necessity. I got bored with takeout and decided to take a cooking class. It was really just the basics, but I’ve gotten pretty confident and always try to challenge myself a little more every time I cook. I’m no gourmet chef, but I’ll never starve either.”
“Good for you!” She accepted another forkful and it truly was delicious. “I can cook, but it’s not something I overly enjoy doing. Back in college, I ate a lot of ramen and mac and cheese. I was on a tight budget and those became the staples of my diet. Being home means I’m eating better and I know once I accept a job, I’ll have a little more breathing room so I can eat like an adult.”
Logan finally took a bite for himself before putting the fork down. “So where are these job offers? Anything promising?”
Piper thought about the conversation she had with her father yesterday and didn’t feel right about broaching the subject with him right now. Hopefully she could just leave that part out.
“I’ve got a couple of friends who are starting a company–a gaming company–and they’ve asked me to join them. It’s in Seattle and I’d be getting in on the ground floor with them, but…I’m not sure it’s the right fit.”
“How come?”
“I’ve gotten offers from bigger, more established companies, but they start you out like a glorified intern and…I can’t live like that. I’ve done my internships already and I should be able to get a job with regular hours and a paycheck. I mean, I have my master’s in game design, why would I accept an internship?”
“Good for you for holding out then.” He paused. “So if these friends are offering you a real job and the other companies aren’t, then why not give it a chance? If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. People change jobs all the time until they find one that fits.”
“Sort of like what you’re doing,” she said, reaching for the fork and she wanted to kick herself for bringing up his situation again.
“At least you have your choice narrowed down and fine-tuned. I’m still trying to figure it all out–you know, since I can’t take the helm.”
“You really don’t know that for sure. You should probably sit and talk to your father about it. For all you know, no one else really wants it. Just because he’s grooming Trey to take over doesn’t mean he wants to.”
“You don’t know my father. He’d never allow it.”
“So where does that leave you? If you had to make a decision today, where would you place yourself?”
Rather than answer, he took a long sip of his coffee and then took the fork from her hands and took another bite of the omelet.
Piper took the hint.
“I would feel bad leaving Michael and Eric. We’ve been friends since freshman year of college and we work really well together. I’d hate it if things didn’t work out and I had to quit. I’d risk losing two good friends.”
“If they’re true friends, they’d want you to be happy and would understand if you needed to leave to find a job you’re better suited for.”
“Maybe.”
“No maybes about it. Friends–real friends–want you to be happy, even if it means walking away from a job with them.”
“Speaking from experience?”
He shook his head and placed the fork back down. “Nah, not personal experience, just common knowledge.”
“What if…what if the real issue is that I don’t trust that they really know what they’re doing? Like they’re not smart enough or disciplined enough or have enough business savvy to make it work?” And dammit, she hated how she brought that up too!
Bad sleep-deprived brain!
For a moment, he didn’t say anything, just drank his coffee. Then he placed his mug down and looked at her. “I could probably talk to them–feel them out, if you’d like.”
Piper’s eyes went wide.
“I don’t know anything about the gaming industry, but I know a lot about businesses and if you think they’d show me their business plan, I’d be more than happy to take a look at it and offer any insight or advice I can.”
“Logan…oh my God…really?”
He nodded.
“I don’t…I mean…I don’t want you to feel like you have to or that I’m pressuring you to…”
“Um…I’m the one who brought it up, so I realize you’re not pressuring me.” He placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose before he reached for the tray and lifted it off of her. Scooting off the bed, he put it on the floor before lying back down on the bed beside her where he gently tugged at the sheet, exposing her breasts. “But if you wanted to tell me how grateful you are…”
Leaning in, he began to kiss the swell of her breasts before flicking his tongue against her nipple. Her back arched and she let out a soft gasp. He had a very talented mouth and there was no way she was going to tell him to stop. Couldn’t. Possibly ever.
Her hands raked through his hair as she held him close and slid down the pillows until she was lying beneath him.
It was a great place to be.
And before she knew it, they were right back to where they were for most of the night.
She could sleep later.
Much later.
Logan stared at the computer screen but everything just sort of blurred in front of him. He used to be able to stay up all night and then work the next day without any problems, but today it was kicking his ass. Nothing was making sense and his attention span was crap. Leaning back in his seat, he yawned and decided a cup of coffee–or three–was in order. He was almost out the office door when his phone rang. Glancing down at the screen, he saw his father’s number and cursed. He was definitely not in the mood to talk to him right now, but Logan knew he’d just keep calling.
Walking back to the desk, he sat down. “Hey, Dad. How are you?”
“I hear you’re back up in King Harbor,” Graham Blackthorne stated. His father wasn’t particularly warm and loving with his family. He tended to talk to everyone as if they were business associates.
Which was a large reason why his mother had taken off and still hadn’t come home.
“I am,” he said, forcing a cheeriness into his voice that he wasn’t particularly feeling. “Every year at this time, I come and cover for Charles.” He paused. “So what’s up?”
“I don’t know why you insist on doing that, Logan. There are people we pay to run the bar and it’s a bit beneath you to be there doing it. You’re a Blackthorne and we don’t work in pubs tending bar.”
Rolling his eyes, he slouched belligerently in his chair. “I’m not just tending bar, Dad. Right now I’m in the office going over contracts we have with suppliers and earlier today we worked on updating the menu. Tomorrow I have a meeting with…”
“I’ve been patient long enough,” his father said, as if Logan wasn’t in the middle of speaking. “All of your brothers and your cousins have found their places and have their careers. I’m tired of you drifting around and not taking life seriously.”
Mentally counting to ten, Logan knew it was best to think before he spoke. “I happen to take life very seriously, Dad. Just because I don’t have an office on the fifty-third floor with my name on the door doesn’t mean I’m slacking off or anything. I do a lot for this company…”
“And you could be doing more!” Graham snapped. “I’m done waiting for you to make a decision. I’ve been too soft on you and that’s over now. You have until the end of the month to decide where it is
that you will put your name on a door.”
Sitting straight up, he asked, “Or what?” He was thankful his voice sounded so calm because right now he was seething with rage.
“Or I’ll pick a position for you and make sure you honor it. I will not have you making a laughingstock out of me by continuing to flit around from place to place. Your great-grandparents did not work to build this empire so you can spend their money and make no contributions. You’ll do what is expected of you and show some respect for this family.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to remind his father how he was the one who wasn’t showing respect to the family by the way he was behaving. There had never been a divorce in the Blackthorne family and if his father didn’t step up and make things right in his own marriage, he’d be the laughingstock of the family.
But he opted not to bring up that sore subject.
At least not now.
“Do I make myself clear, Logan?”
So many thoughts raced around in his mind. He wanted to yell and scream and fight this out, but no one fought with the great Graham Blackthorne and won.
Least of all him.
“Yes.”
“Excuse me, what was that?” And yeah, the son of a bitch was goading him.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“Good. I expect to hear from you before the end of the month.”
The office phone rang and Logan had never been more thankful for a distraction in his life. “I need to go, Dad. I’ve got a call coming in.”
“You’ll do well to remember that you don’t need to be the one answering those calls. Get one of the managers to handle this stuff and get yourself back to Boston. I’ll have my assistant email you some reports that might help you with your decision. Maybe if you take this a little more seriously and do your research, it will make it easier for you to pick a division. Of course, I can’t guarantee you’ll start at the top–chances are you’ll come in as a junior executive and work your way up.”
Awesome. Way to make it even less appealing.
The phone continued to ring and Logan finally huffed, “I really need to take this call, Dad. I’ll talk to you soon.”
He hung up before his father could respond.
Tossing his cell phone onto the desk, he was relieved that someone else answered the call because he wasn’t sure he could handle a civil conversation right now.
Jumping to his feet, he began to pace and fought the urge to throw something. He knew his father was getting impatient with him, but he never thought it would come to this. There was no way he was going to let the old man force a career on him that he didn’t want. How the hell was he supposed to make a decision about his life when he was freaked out? And making a rash decision could make him miserable and then what could he do?
Racking his brain, he tried to think of who he could possibly talk to about this, otherwise he’d go crazy.
“Ross,” he murmured. Not that long ago, his daredevil brother crashed his car during a race. That’s when their father put his foot down and tried to force him to give up his racing career and take a place within the company. Basically, the old man wanted Ross to prove himself within the company before he’d give his approval for him to race again. It wasn’t pretty and he knew Ross had a lot of resentment about it for a long time.
While he was still revved up and angry, he grabbed his phone, pulled Ross’s number up and hit send.
“Hey, Bro,” Ross said as he answered the phone. “To what do I owe the honor?”
It was the perfect comment to break Logan from the negative wave he was riding. “I need to vent,” he said.
“Oh God, what did Dad do now?”
Logan described the brief phone call and how it ended and then sat back down behind the desk. “What is his deal?” he asked. “I mean, it’s not like I’m traveling the world and pissing away money. I work and I work hard!”
“I wish I knew,” Ross said with a weary sigh. “You know he’s a control freak who is all about appearances. I’m sure someone asked what it is that you’re doing and it got him all worked up. These days it doesn’t take much, you know?”
“Yeah, but…maybe he should spend a little less time worrying about my life–all of our lives–and maybe work on getting his own life straightened out.”
“Believe it or not, I think this is a distraction for him. Like by riding all of us over one trivial thing or another, he won’t have to think about Mom and what a mess that whole situation is.”
It kind of made sense, but didn’t make Logan feel any better.
“Still, he needs to back the hell off because I’m not going to get trapped in some job I hate because he needs a whipping boy. Not gonna happen.”
“Okay, let me ask you something–and don’t get all pissy with me,” Ross said cautiously. “But…what is it you want to do? By now you’ve got to have some idea where you feel like you fit. I mean…what are you waiting for?”
“I wish it were that easy.”
“It can be. Just…decide. Take the control away from Dad and know that you stayed in control.”
“Some days, I think I know what I want and where I want to be,” Logan explained. “I get confident and ready to just lay it out there to Dad and then…I feel like I can play out the entire conversation scenario in my head and it always ends up with him telling me no.”
“What is it you want?”
Did he want to share that with his brother?
No.
“It doesn’t matter, but everything else–all the other options available–I can’t see myself doing any one of them for the rest of my damn life. I’d go crazy!”
“Oh, I know that feeling. Believe me.”
“I was talking with Piper the other night and she mentioned the possibility of me doing something that wasn’t…you know…Blackthorne-related.”
“Wait…Piper?”
Oops. He didn’t mean to mention her.
“Uh, yeah. Piper Stewart. You know…”
“Yeah, Connor’s daughter. Since when do you hang out with her?”
“What the hell’s wrong with Piper? Don’t tell me you’re a snob just like Dad and are going to tell me that hanging out with the groundskeeper’s daughter is beneath me because let me tell you something, Bro, you have no right…”
“Logan! Holy shit man, you are spiraling out of control!” Ross interrupted. “I wasn’t saying there’s anything wrong with Piper or that I thought she was beneath anyone. All I meant was I didn’t think you two really knew each other, that’s all. Sheesh, unclench dude.”
He took a minute to compose himself, wiping a hand over his face. “Uh, yeah. Sorry.”
Ross chuckled. “So, you and Piper, huh?”
“Shut up.”
“Not gonna happen. You might as well just admit it now.” He paused. “Wait, didn’t you just get into town?”
He explained how Piper was working at the Vault part-time and how they started hanging out.
“You didn’t even recognize her? Damn. That’s bad. I’m surprised she wanted to give you the time of day after that. We’ve known her our entire lives. She couldn’t have changed that much.”
And that’s when it hit him that she really hadn’t changed much.
Making him feel even worse about that part of their history.
“She just wasn’t on my radar that night and yeah, I know it makes me sound bad, but once I put two and two together, we were cool.”
“O-kay, so…what, you guys just hanging out at work and talking or are you getting involved with her?”
“It’s really none of your business,” he said with a little more snap than he intended.
“So you’re sleeping with her,” Ross stated, clearly amused.
“Can we focus on why I called? This situation with Dad is out of control! Maybe we all need to sit him down and confront him?”
Ross’s initial response was a snort of derision. “Please, how do you think something like that would go? The
great Graham Blackthorne is never wrong and no one should challenge him–least of all his family.” He paused again. “And nice deflection, by the way. You almost got away with neither confirming nor denying where you’re at with Piper.”
“And I’m still not,” Logan said, his tone a little lighter than it was a minute ago. But then something hit him. “Maybe Piper was onto something though.”
“You mean other than you?” Ross said with a chuckle.
“Dude, grow up. I’m being serious.”
“Okay, go on.”
“What if I did decide to go into something not directly related to Blackthorne? What if I decided to…I don’t know…turn the Vault into a chain? Or…or…I don’t know, anything else I can think of!”
“First off, that’s not a half bad idea about the Vault. But you know Dad’s going to have a say in that and it will probably piss you off and take some of the fun out of it for you.”
“You think so?”
“Remember when Jason was starting up his production company? Remember what a hard-ass Dad was?”
He groaned. “Yeah.”
“Granted, Jason was starting up something completely new and different. With the Vault, you already have the business blueprint and…I would imagine…you’d just be replicating what is already there.”
“Probably, but I really haven’t given this any thought at all. I was just throwing something out there.”
“Well, it was a good idea and you should think on it some more.”
“Listen, Ross, I’m not sure…”
“Logan, I hate to cut you short, but I’ve got a video call I need to make. Call me later if you want and we can talk about this Vault thing some more, okay?”
And then he was gone and Logan slowly placed his phone back on the desk.
Open up another Vault? Could that really be a thing? Where would he even do it? How many locations would he try to open?
Yawning loudly, he forced himself to stand and stretch, remembering the coffee he had wanted to get for himself before his father’s call. For the time being, he was going to push all thoughts of opening whisky bars aside and focus on the things he needed to accomplish today. Piper wasn’t working tonight and if they were well-staffed, he was going to cut out early and maybe grab some sleep and see if she wanted to come over again tonight.
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