by Lexy Timms
This wasn’t about me. It was about Jimmy and his company.
“For those of you who are here, I thank you for coming. Big Steps has seen a lot of success over the past few years, so it only stands to reason that someone would want to strike at the core of that. I know a lot of people are outraged by the accusations made against me last night, and if this was someone else’s company I would be just as outraged. So here’s what I’m doing. Right now, my tech department is releasing all my social media direct messages. Instagram, Twitter, and my Facebook business page. They’re going to be posted all online in a database for any concerned customer or potential customer to read through. Never once have I bribed anyone to purchase my product. Big Steps and I take pride in having our product speak for itself. The database of direct messages should be up for the public to view within the next couple of minutes, and then my lawyers will get to work on investigating the false claims made against my company. We’re taking this accusation seriously, and whoever is responsible for this claim will be sued accordingly. No one can walk around filing false reports with the police, and no one can walk around making false assumptions about someone’s business practices. I hope to be fully transparent to the public and swift in my legal action against the person who decided to try to negate all the hard work Big Steps and its employees have indulged in over the years. By the end of the day, I promise you these accusations will be cleared up and the proper papers served to the proper individual. In the meantime, feel free to browse the database.”
Jimmy stepped off the podium without answering any questions. He buttoned his suit coat and turned to me, his eyes beckoning me to follow him. Ross fell in line beside him, and I walked up to the other side, following him back into the building.
The moment we got into his office, I shut his door and threw my arms around his neck.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
“For what?” Jimmy asked
He slid his arms around me, holding me tighter than he ever had before.
“For giving you that crappy advice. For all this stuff you’re going through. For Nina and all of ... everything.”
“First off, your advice wasn’t crappy. It was a good tactic. Just one we didn’t have enough information to safely take. While we all assume it’s Nina, there are many people jealous of my success, businessmen who have never been able to keep up who would love to take a strike at me. If I’m going to use a weapon like you suggested, I have to have proof. I have to be sure it’s Nina before starting that war with her.”
“Part of it was out of selfishness on my part,” I said. “I want Nina to be put behind us so we can ... you know.”
I dipped my head down before his finger caught my chin.
“Look at me, Ashley.”
I lifted my gaze to his and got lost in his eyes.
“I know,” he said. “I’ve put you in a terrible situation, but I’m navigating it as fast as I can. I know you’re tired of sneaking around and having to avoid restaurants that allow photographers to take pictures of people. I know some of your favorite restaurants are those types of restaurants. I promise you, the time will come.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Stop apologizing. You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said.
There was a knock on Jimmy’s door, and I took a step away from him. He cleared his throat and situated his tie, smoothing his hands down his suit. I grinned at him as I turned toward the door, taking deep breaths to try and calm the blush on my cheeks.
“Come in,” Jimmy said.
“Hell of a press conference,” the man said. “Sucks to be going through, though.”
“Markus. You were supposed to call me when you landed.”
A man in his fifties embraced Jimmy tightly. He was an attractive man, alluring if that was a woman’s thing. White hair at his temples faded into his jet-black hair, and his deep brown eyes commanded a room with one look around it. He was Jimmy’s height, but his body was broader and stronger, not toned like Jimmy’s but stacked with muscle.
I didn’t recognize him, but I recognized his name.
“So this is Markus,” I said.
“And you must be Ashley,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I shook the man’s hand, and he gave me a kind smile. It was odd. He was this mixture of tough and firm but gentle in his eyes. Commanding, but relaxing. I felt confused looking at him, tense but excited at the same time.
And the look on Jimmy’s face. He was beaming like a son who was proud of his father. I’d never seem Jimmy smile in the presence of someone like that before.
This man was obviously very important to him.
“Will you be staying with us this morning?” Markus asked.
“Oh, no. An accountant’s work is never done. I’ve got balance sheets galore and investors expecting updates,” I said.
“Am I supposed to be getting that PDF today? I swear, it’s much more convenient than those damn packets you used to send out, Jimmy.”
“I better go get started on them,” I said. “It was really nice meeting you.”
“And you as well. I hope we run into one another soon. I want to get to know the woman who finally made Jimmy dump that witch.”
“Ah, another Nina fan, I see.”
The three of us shared a laugh before I slipped out the door.
I did have a lot of work ahead of me. With the scandal that broke on Jimmy last night, it had me worried about the irregularities I was finding on the balance sheets. I still didn’t have a reason for them, but there were many of them, multiple ones on multiple pages, and they only kept multiplying. Even the most basic of accountant would’ve been able to catch these downstairs, so it made me think it wasn’t user error.
But my fear was that it also wasn’t a technological error, either.
The irregularities weren’t only current, though. The greater they became, the more I began to dig back into the company’s history. That was the benefit of being the head honcho accountant in corporate. I could access almost anything with my badge, username, and password. I was pulling up balance sheets and printing them off. I was spending late nights in the office running figures in my head. I was taking this stuff home and curling up with Chipper and continuing to count out numbers in my head.
And the irregularities didn’t stop.
They dated all the way back to the inception of the company.
The irregularities themselves were small. There weren’t thousands of dollars missing at any one given moment. Totals were being fudged to cover thirty and forty dollars going missing, or fifty dollars being slipped into an account and not being noted on the balance sheets. It was easy to miss those small numbers, especially in the beginning of a company. These balance sheets were done once a quarter, so it wasn’t like other people had the luxury of looking at them all at once like I could.
But it was still odd to me that everyone missed this from the start of the company.
I kept flipping through documents whenever I wasn’t working on stuff for the investors. I sent out the PDFs with projected earnings despite the scandal and sent reassurances that things were okay and stable. I worked through lunch again and occasionally heard Markus and Jimmy laughing in his office, and it would give me pause. The happiness that fell from Jimmy’s voice made me smile. I was looking forward to getting to know Markus, whenever that chance might be.
Six o’clock rolled around, and my back was beginning to ache. I needed to go get Chipper from the doggie resort I signed him up for, and I wanted to stop in on my mom one last time. I printed out the final balance sheet—the very first one the company ever had—and sighed when I found more irregularities.
The totals never breached fifty dollars per transaction, but there were a lot of them.
I needed to tell Jimmy. I needed to take all of this to him and go through it with him. But with Markus in town and him getting a bit of relief from all this stress, I figured it could wait. I didn’t want t
o ruin his happiness with yet more issues with his company, and there was still some research I could do to rule some things out.
I slipped the file folders of balance sheets into my desk and locked it and then gathered up my things. Monday would be a good day to bring it up to Jimmy. He would get some time with Markus, things with this social media issue would settle down, and we could tackle it head-on together.
Monday.
Not tonight.
Chapter 7
Jimmy
I picked Ashley up for our wonderful dinner ahead. I couldn’t wait for her to get to know Markus. I hadn’t given a damn about introducing Nina to him, but I really wanted Ashley to get to know him and to like him the way I did. I felt nervous like a guy introducing his girlfriend to his dad.
But the moment Ashley opened the door, she robbed the breath from my lungs.
She was in this gorgeous dress. The navy-blue bodice framed her breasts perfectly before cinching in just underneath them. The skirt fell all the way to her feet, stripped with whites and yellows and deep reds. The colors made her hair and eyes pop, and she looked absolutely radiant in the light of the moon.
“Ready for dinner?” she asked.
“You look spectacular,” I said.
I offered her my arm, and we made our way to dinner. I drove us across town and led us to the table that Ross and Markus were already sitting at. There was a very young woman at his side. Pretty little thing. Long black hair that matched his and dark hazel eyes. The kind that changed colors with whatever she was wearing. But her age wasn’t something I was going to judge. She was leaning into Markus, and he was whispering in her ear. I hadn’t seen him with a woman since his divorce from his arranged wife, and it was nice to see him cradling a girl who seemed to make him happy.
So I was happy for him.
“Jimmy Sheldon,” I said as I introduced myself. “This is Ross Fowler, and this lovely lady is Ashley Ternbeau.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Ashley said.
“Jamie Scott. I’m sorry if I’m intruding. Markus told me it was okay to come, but I still wasn’t sure,” she said.
“The more the merrier,” Ross said with a smile.
“You’re welcome among us anytime,” I said.
“So, Miss Ashley, I hear you’ve caught the eye of Jimmy here,” Markus said.
“I’m not sure if ‘caught’ is the right word. Possibly stolen after a few too many drinks,” Ashley said.
“That sounds more like the Jimmy I know. He can’t keep his hands off a beautiful woman once he gets going,” Markus said.
“Sounds like there’s a story to be told,” Ashley said.
“If it’s the one I’m thinking about, we can definitely leave that to another day,” I said.
“See? Now I have to know,” Ashley said.
“Oh, I like her,” Markus said. “One time at the beginning of his company, I convinced him to throw a party to celebrate their first large customer and give his employees a real blowout bash.”
“You’re the mind behind the parties,” Ashley said.
I squeezed her knee and felt her skin pucker underneath her dress.
“Nice to know traditions are still carried on. But, at this party, he kept throwing back shots of tequila.”
“Tequila? I’ve never seen him drink tequila,” Ashley said.
“Not after that party, nope,” Markus said. “He got drunk enough to hit on one of his first investors. A beautiful woman. A bit old for him, but still a looker. He tried dancing with her and went to dip her, and she knocked her head against the tiled floor. She went to the hospital with a concussion.”
“No, she didn’t,” Ashley said. “You did not.”
“That was a hell of a party,” Ross said.
Ashley threw her head back and laughed. I enjoyed watching her interact with Markus and enjoy him like I had over the years. I’d missed him. I wished he came into town more often. He was my very first investor in my company and the man who guided me throughout all the biggest decisions I’d made as a businessman. He was the father I never had, the father I wished I’d had when I was growing up. I hated that he had moved to Canada to set up his headquarters, but I understood. Canada fit his needs more than Miami or even the East Coast did.
But that didn’t mean I couldn't miss him.
“How long have you been working for the company, Ashley?” Markus asked.
“About four years, but I recently took a new position as—”
“Account Rep for the investors,” Markus said.
“I see someone’s been talking about me,” Ashley said.
“You’re his favorite topic when he’s not talking about work,” Ross said.
“Or avoiding tequila,” Jamie said.
The five of us laughed at her joke before she stuck her foot in her mouth.
“Though I have to ask. What happened with Nina? The two of you looked so happy together.”
Ashley looked over at me as my eyes connected with the woman at Markus’s side. Ashley placed her hand on top of mine on her knee and squeezed, trying to get me to calm down. I felt the wave of anger rearing its head throughout my body, but this wasn’t the time to cause a scene. It was a question I knew would come up eventually, and I needed to go ahead and smooth things over. Get the conversation started.
At least she hadn’t asked about my wedding ring.
“Relationships come and go, but the ones that are important are the ones I tend to cling to. My relationship with Ashley is more than simply romantic, and I’m lucky she’s at my side.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Jamie said with a smile. “Markus, isn’t that sweet?”
“Not as sweet as you, beautiful,” Markus said. “Nothing’s as sweet as you.”
The two of them shared a kiss, and I looked down at Ashley. I watched her eyes light up as she took in their moment, and I chanced a kiss on top of her head. She looked up at me with those sparkling eyes behind those thick-rimmed glasses of hers.
This evening couldn’t get any better.
After three hours of drinking and eating and catching up, it was time for us to part ways. Jamie was yawning on Markus’s shoulder, and Ashley seemed to be fading a bit as well. Everyone said their goodbyes before I led Ashley to my car and drove us back to my place.
I enjoyed the way she had looked in it the first time I’d brought her home.
“Would you care for a glass of wine?” I asked.
“I think one more might be okay,” she said.
“Red or white?” I asked.
“Whichever you’re having is fine.”
“So, what did you think of Markus?” I asked.
Ashley reached out for her glass as I settled beside her on the couch.
“He seems really nice, and I can tell he’s fond of you.”
“I’m fond of him. He’s an important person to me,” I said.
“I think he’s charming, and you can tell there’s something there between him and Jamie. Is it odd that their age difference shocked me, though?”
“Not odd,” I said. “I was taken aback as well. But they both seem happy, and that’s all that matters.”
“I hope they make it. They seem really sweet together,” she said.
“Do you think you’d like to go out with Markus and me again while he’s in town?”
“Of course, I would. In a way, I feel like I’m getting to know your father. Though I know he’s not actually your father,” she said.
“He’s like a father. He’s been with me for a long time in this company. First investor, advice-giver, the whole nine. He’s a good man, and I’m glad you like him. I was nervous you wouldn’t.”
“Why wouldn't I? He’s charming and sweet. Obviously, knows how to make people feel comfortable around him. What’s not to like?”
“You’ve never witnessed him in a boardroom meeting with his company,” I said with a grin.
“And hopefully, I never will because I don’t like that gr
in on your face.”
Ashley settled into my arms as we each finished our glasses of wine. I saw her eyes drooping as she cradled into me, her legs coming up to rest on the couch. Part of me didn’t want to move us because of her falling asleep. I was excited at the prospect of her staying over, but neither of us was going to get a good night’s sleep if we tried to do it on the couch.
So I shifted her head and picked her up in my arms.
“Where we going?” Ashley asked.
“Figured sleeping in the bed might be a bit more comfortable,” I said.
“Mmm, okay.”
I grinned as I laid her down in bed and then watched her lazily kick her heels off. I plucked her glasses from her face and set them down on the nightstand. She looked so peaceful curled up underneath the blankets of my bed.
The sight was heavenly.
I undressed and tossed my suit over a chair in the corner. I slipped in beside her in nothing but my boxers, hoping I wasn't crossing a line with her. This was a first for us, spending the night with one another. My arm wrapped around her, and I pulled her close to me, feeling her ass wiggle against my pelvis.
“You might wanna be careful with that,” I said into her ear. “That’s a weapon you’re flinging around.”
She turned in my arms as a sleepy smile crossed her face. Her hand came up to my cheek, and she brought my lips to hers. I could taste the wine on her tongue. The spice of the alcohol against her cheek. I slid on top of her as her hands tangled in my hair, her legs opening up to me.
I kissed every exposed part of her. My lips trailed along her cheeks and her neck. I nuzzled my nose against her exposed breasts as her lips kissed my forehead. I sank myself into her, breathing in her scent as her hands ran through my hair.
“I never thanked you for the other night,” Ashley said.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The one at my apartment. With that fun little gift you gave me.”
“No thanks needed. Though I meant what I said about working up your tolerance.”
Ashley giggled a sleepy little giggle as I looked up at her. She looked peaceful. Content. With a happy little smile on her cheeks. Her eyes were closed, and her chest was steadily rising and falling. Her grip was already growing lax against me as I shifted on top of her body. I fell back to the side and pulled her close, tucking her head underneath my chin.