by Lindsey Gray
Emma laid Sam down for a nap after a few hours of serious playtime. The picture she posted of her snuggling with her nephew and Harry got an overwhelming response. The Nerdy Girl Nation rallied behind her one hundred percent and would be there for her when she needed them.
After she read some of the comments, she took a moment to check her phone. Disappointment held her heart as she noted no calls were from Terrance. Another number stood out, though.
“Aaron Russell?”
Al perked up and went in for a close-up at the sound of the name.
Emma listened to the voicemail Aaron left. Her mouth dropped, and eyes went wide. Without another thought, she tapped the screen of her cell phone to turn on the speaker and call him back.
“Emma, darling. Thank you for calling me back. How are you?”
“Still in shock, Aaron. Thanks so much for calling.” She enjoyed a marvelous relationship with Aaron. He reminded her of home and everything she loved about the east coast, not to mention how much fun they often had when they went out together. Aaron was a helpless flirt. He made her feel so much younger than her thirty years.
“The reports are true?”
“I’ve only seen the report on Gossip Greeting, but Garrett was pretty accurate.”
She heard Aaron sigh on the other end of the line. “I was praying the reports were false. I am so sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. I’m trying to concentrate on my family right now.”
“I’m glad you’re with them. You will send my regards to Mick for me?”
“Of course,” Emma responded. Aaron remembering her father after only meeting him once at one of the IWA events they’d attended in Boston was touching.
“This might be the worst possible time to bring this up, but do remember the last time you visited me in Boston?”
“I do.” Aaron took Emma to the new IWA training facility. She got to meet a few of the wrestlers and their trainers. A short segment even aired during the last season of the show.
“Together, we can do tremendous things.” Emma gasped in shock. “Admit you want you to work with me. The IWA is ingrained in your DNA. There is no better place for you.”
“Are you offering me a job?”
Aaron laughed. “Of course I am. We have a large vacancy.”
She swallowed hard. Two weeks earlier, Aaron fired his general manager on a live IWA broadcast. Her heart quickened at the thought of stepping into the role.
“Yes.”
“Don’t be coy, Emma. We all know about your IWA obsession. I’ve even talked with a certain former wrestler about your sessions at his gym in LA.”
She blushed, Al capturing every second. “Are you offering me a position as a wrestler or as management?”
“I want you to be my new GM of Televised Events and Executive Vice President in charge of Talent and Creative. If you’re willing to go in the ring, I could certainly see that happening in the future. There is a lot of travel involved, but your main office is here in Boston. You would be closer to your family and be around more often than in the last few years. I’m confident you can do this. Some people collect football or baseball stats; you collect wrestling ones.”
“I can’t believe this.” Emma’s head spun at the offer. Could she, in fact, combine her business savvy with her all-time favorite obsession? Not to mention all her crushes on the wrestlers. Her blush deepened even more at the thought of coming face to face with some men she considered the sexiest men alive.
“Believe, darling. I can email you a tentative schedule for the next few months and a full job description with salary details today. Wait until after the funeral to decide. There is a live event in Boston the first Monday in June, so your decision can wait until the end of this month.”
“I’ll call you later in the week.” She bit down on her thumbnail, not believing what she’d said.
“Wonderful and please don’t hesitate to call if you need anything. I’m in Boston for the rest of the week, so if you want to get away for a cup of coffee, give me a call.”
“Thanks.” They ended the call, and she set her phone on the coffee table.
She took a few seconds to let everything sink in. Emma turned to find Harry leaning against the archway to the living room with a huge smile on his face.
“You think I should take the job?”
“As your lawyer, I would advise you to read through all your contracts with Terrance and the network before making any decisions. As your brother, I say hell yes!” He pulled her up from her chair and into his arms. They twirled around in circles like when they were younger. He set her down after a round of laughter. “Can you believe this?”
“No. I never saw myself working for anyone else. Except for Irene and the long hours, working at Hunt is a dream job.” She shrugged her shoulders with a smile.
“What’s going on?” Her father, Mick, entered the living room and gave Harry a pat on the back.
“Em got offered a job working for Aaron Russell.”
Emma gave Harry the stink eye. She wanted to tell her father herself.
“With the IWA? Wonderful news, Princess.”
She shook her head. “No, Dad. I told you I would help you.”
“Emma, don’t you worry about me. Things might be tough, but with my personal angel guiding me, I’ll be fine.” He smiled with tears in his eyes.
“I’ll think about the offer.”
When the doorbell rang the morning of her mother’s funeral, the sound surprised Emma. The local police kept the media away from the house and stopped all deliveries. With cameras rolling, she answered the door to find an officer and a teenage delivery guy with a large box.
“Your brother inspected the package and said he could come up,” the officer stated with a head nod to the teen.
“Thanks,” Emma replied and took the offered board to sign for the package.
“It’s from Mr. Breyer, Miss MacLean. He told me to make sure to deliver the package into your hands.” The teen exchanged the board for the package.
A flush of excitement flowed through her at the sound of his name. The thought of Rob Breyer taking the time to send a personal condolence touched her.
“Thank you. I will make sure to let him know you did as instructed.” Emma smiled back at the teen.
The officer rolled his eyes and hauled the teen off the porch.
Emma took the package to the kitchen table to open. Al and Ben were only feet away catching every moment.
The box contained another box. A Seeds of Life logo adorned the top. This box contained an oak tree planting kit. The instructions detailed how to plant the seeds in a smaller container first. After the tree grew so much, she could plant it in a special spot in memory of her loved one.
Emma let a few tears slip before she spied the envelope with her name scrawled across the front. She sat down to find a personal note from Rob.
There was also a card with his phone number and email address enclosed with the letter. She remembered what a connection she shared with him the two times they met before. In love with her high school sweetheart, she didn’t understand how she could feel so strong for someone she just met. Could it be possible their brief encounter impacted his life as much as hers? If she took the job Aaron offered, their lives would intersect a third time.
Third time’s the charm.
The funeral of Elaine MacLean took place in a packed church. Several people stood in the back, including Terrance and Lydia Hunt.
The town of Marblehead said goodbye to their beloved leader and a family laid to rest the woman who made them one. Terrance pulled out his handkerchief to dab the tears away from his eyes while his wife held his hand tight in hers.
As the priest finished his final words, Terrance, Lydia, and their camera crew were able to slip out a side door. They waited at the family house for the MacLean’s to return from the cemetery.
When the family vacated their limo, Terrance, Lydia, and their crew got out of their S
UV and approached.
“Terrance?” Emma walked over to him with a trill of shock in her voice.
“Hello, Emma.” He took her in his arms and gave her a tight, but he hoped, comforting hug.
Lydia pulled Emma from her husband’s arms and into her own. “I’m sorry we didn’t get here sooner.”
Emma pulled back as her father came to stand behind her. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“Mick.” Terrance held out his hand, and Mick extended his to shake Terrance’s.
“I think you might want to discuss a few things with my daughter. Why don’t you come in and use the office? The funeral dinner starts in about an hour, so there’s time for you to talk.” Mick kissed Emma on the cheek before he led them all toward the house.
Emma sat in her mother’s desk chair and waited for Terrance to speak from his perch on the couch. Al and Ben situated themselves in the corner of the room to capture every second.
“I’m not sure where to begin,” Terrance stated with an unusual uncertainty to his voice.
“I don’t either.” She crossed her legs and smoothed down her knee-length black dress.
“You are not only an employee to me. You’re like another daughter to Lydia and me. Irene was in the wrong. There was no reason for you to be in on the conference call, and all the other reasons she presented me with were utter bullshit.”
Emma let out a soft laugh. “You think?”
He scratched behind his ear, a nervous tick Emma recognized over the years. “I want you to stay on. You are an important member of the team and irreplaceable to me.”
Emma shook her head, and a few tears ran down her cheeks. She did some serious thinking while she was at home. Harry scoured all her contracts down to the last detail. There were less than six weeks left of filming on Hunt for Life. She would fulfill her commitment to the show without working for Terrance. The time to move on arrived.
“Talk to me, Emma. You’re lost in your head again.”
“I hate leaving things like this.” She held her hand up to stop his imminent protest. “Let me finish.” He nodded with a tight-lipped smile. “Irene has never been fond of me. Some things happened between us, things you aren’t aware of. When she fired me, I wasn’t sure what to think. I love you and Lydia and will always cherish the time I worked for you, but I think now is the time for me to move on.”
“You can’t. We have a contract.”
Emma furrowed her brow. “Are you telling me I’m not fired?”
“Of course you’re not fired. You’ve done more in your position in the last five years than your predecessor did in twenty. You can take as much time off as you’d like. I know how much Mick and Harry must need you now.”
Emma shook her head in disbelief. She had made her decision to take Aaron Russell’s offer. Life at Hunt was her past.
“If I’m not fired, then I resign.”
“Emma, that is just not possible. Legally speaking, you have certain obligations.”
Some nerve. Emma knew Terrance was a cutthroat businessman when he needed to be, but this was ridiculous. “You’re seriously talking to me about contracts right now?”
“You are what is best for my company. I need you with me. Why do you think I gave you all those perks when you renegotiated your contract?”
“Perks? More money, a car when I already had a company driver, two weeks vacations that I hardly ever took because I worked fifteen hour days. Those perks?”
“Well …” Terrance seemed a bit flustered. She didn’t mean to seem ungrateful, but she was well within her rights to quit.
“Just a minute.” Emma stood and walked to the door. She opened it and called for Harry. He came in and Emma took her seat once again. “Harry, as my attorney, can you explain to Mr. Hunt why I am well within my rights to resign from my position at Hunt Consolidated if I choose?”
“Mr. Hunt, according to Emma’s employment contact, she can resign her position at Hunt Consolidated if she agrees to not take employment at a competitor for five years. Currently, Emma is considering employment at a company that would not fall into the competitor category. Therefore, she is well within her rights to terminate her contract with Hunt.”
Emma smiled at her big brother. He nodded at her then gave her a wink.
“My lawyers will need to examine your contract. I don’t want to let you go, Emma. I’m sorry, but if it comes down to it, I will fight for you.”
Emma got a tiny thrill thinking of Terrance fighting for her, but her mind was made up. “We’ll be ready.”
One way to survive an event where the whole town is involved is to have a De Lacy by your side. Emma couldn’t find Nell and Annie was glued to Harry’s side, so Emma chose to hang out with the youngest De Lacy, Seamus.
The two huddled together in the corner of the MacLean living room in an attempt to avoid all the mourners, but with a camera crew watching her every move, it was a little hard to do.
“No more LA then?” Seamus asked and casually slung his arm around Emma’s shoulder.
“Nope,” she answered the twenty-year-old younger brother of her dreams.
“Bummer. I really loved that pool at your apartment.” Seamus took a drink from the bottle he’d been sipping on then wiped some liquid from the red scruff on his chin.
“You just like my neighbor’s daughter prancing around in her bikini.”
Seamus quirked one side of his mouth up in a half smirk and shrugged his shoulder. “Guilty. I like hot babes. I can’t have you, so I gotta look somewhere.”
“What about your friend? What’s her name?”
“You mean Ellie?”
“Yeah. You guys have been joined at the hip for years.”
Seamus was a bona fide genius. When his teachers realized he wasn’t a brat, just bored with the work, they suggested his parents have him tested and see if the Boston School for the Gifted would be a better fit. He met Ellie Stanton on his first day there and had been her best friend ever since. Emma didn’t know Ellie personally, but from the way the De Lacy siblings described her, she was a match for Seamus in every way.
“Nah. She’s more like another sister. Besides, we’re business partners. It would just be weird.” Seamus tightened his grip on Emma’s shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to give me a go? I am in my sexual prime.” He nuzzled her ear with his nose.
Emma moved away with a laugh. “Number one, you are way to young for me. Number two, I used to change your diapers. And number three, you cannot hit on a woman at her mother’s funeral.”
“I made you laugh, though, didn’t I?”
Emma leaned back into Seamus’ arm. “Yeah, you did.”
Emma escaped the cameras and the town of mourners after two long hours. The air on the back deck seemed to bring clean breath back into her lungs. Once she took a few large gulps, she realized how much she missed the scent of the east coast water wafting through the breeze.
She sipped the tumbler of Irish whiskey she brought out with her and used the moment to think about her mother. Days at the beach. Weeks spent working on school projects together. Bedtime stories. College graduation. The mayoral swearing-in ceremony. All the smiles. The image of her mother’s devastated face when she walked into Emma’s hospital room twelve years earlier came out of nowhere.
A tear slipped down Emma’s cheek as she remembered what little her brain retained of the horrible day. One moment, she ran toward her car, afraid to be late to school. The next, she woke up in an ambulance. Brief flashes of the events of the attack stayed with Emma, but her mind blurred the colors and sounds. She recalled the pain with perfect clarity. Ropes burned into her skin where they restrained her. Her bones lit on fire with each break. Most of all, her breasts throbbed when her assailant bit into her flesh, leaving a permanent reminder. Her memory loss seemed to be due to a blow to the head and concussion. Even after twelve years of therapy, nothing came back.
“Penny for your thoughts, Emma Jean.”
Emma
gazed up into the hazel eyes of her first love. A warm smile complemented the rest of his comforting features. Six foot three with sandy blond hair and a muscular frame gave Emma an old familiar feeling of safety.
“Derek. Hi.”
He sat down next to her on the wooden steps of the deck. “How are you holding up?”
“Still processing everything.”
Derek slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. “That brain of yours is working overtime again.”
“Always.”
He slid his left hand into hers and she felt something unexpected. She picked up his hand and skimmed his naked ring finger.
“Oh, I guess Annie never mentioned my divorce.”
Emma gasped in surprise.
“No. She didn’t say anything.” Emma didn’t want to imagine Derek’s picture perfect life. She asked her family and friends not to mention him either. Even though her romantic feelings for him disappeared long ago, she still wasn’t comfortable hearing about his love life.
He threaded his fingers through hers. “Sarah Beth didn’t like small town life as much as she thought she would. She took a job in Seattle a day before she filed for divorce. I haven’t heard from her since we finalized everything six months ago.”
“Wow.” Emma’s mouth gaped open in utter shock. If any man needed the label of husband material, Derek would be that man. He delivered the total package. Ryan-Gosling-gorgeous, charming, and intelligent. He worked as a history teacher at Marblehead High, lived in a beachfront home, and possessed phenomenal bedroom skills.
“I don’t want to talk about me. What’s going on with you? Did you really get fired?”
“Yes and no.” She reached for her drink and took another sip. “Irene stormed into my office and fired me without authorization. I talked with Terrance earlier today. He said he wanted me to stay. Blah, blah, blah. I told him I resign, and Harry backed me up. I’ve got another job offer doing something different, but I’m not going to finalize anything until Harry talks with Terrance’s lawyers.”
“Another job as an international businesswoman?”
“Not quite, but I’d be based out of Boston.”