by Natalie Ann
Her brother had always been into video games. She couldn’t care less.
“Whatever. You never do anything fun.”
She rolled her eyes. “I do a lot of fun things, but video games aren’t part of it. Anyway, is there a point to your video game nights and this conversation?”
“Force Frontier was created by Brendan St. Nicholas. That and several others. He’s the local good guy turned into more zeroes behind his name than we’d ever have. Anyway, he does this big toy drive every year.”
Now she knew who it was and she didn’t like where this was going. “What did he want with us?” she asked slowly.
“He wants to use Lane Tree Farm as the location for his toy drive this year.”
“Ryan,” she said slowly. “You know how I feel about this.”
“Too bad, Holly. This is a family decision and you know you will be overruled.”
She knew that. “How can you want to be involved in this after everything Granny went through?”
Their granny had always had a soft heart and wanted to help people out. She’d made some bad decisions and got taken advantage of. They all wished they’d known what was going on but they didn’t until it was too late.
“But Brendan isn’t like that. He isn’t asking us for any money. He isn’t asking us for anything other than the space to collect the toys.”
She hoped Ryan was telling the truth. And this could be huge, but she just had a distrust—more like a distaste—for any charity organization or do-gooder. They always wanted something in the long run, at least from her experience.
She wasn’t a sucker like her granny was. She was more practical. More serious, and more in your face. If Holly didn’t like you, you knew it.
“So what does he want?” she asked.
“Just what I said. He’d like to have the drive here at the farm. It’s perfect. Think of the business we would get. People will come here and drop off gifts for a few weeks before Christmas at the same time they will be looking for Christmas trees.”
“I suppose we could decorate the area well with wreaths and Christmas plants and such. Try to make a profit that way. At least more than normal. Mom will be all over that.”
“There you go putting that business mind to work. Maybe set up some decorative trees that people could buy? You know we’ve talked about that before.”
They had. Her mother loved to decorate and did a lot of the plants and displays around the farm. She’d just eat this whole thing up. As much as she wanted to fight this, Holly knew she’d lose, and if it meant a bigger profit, which they needed, she’d give in, as long as she didn’t have to deal with this guy.
“Mom would love that,” she said.
“She would.” Ryan threw another business card on her desk. “We need to make a decision tonight. He gave us twenty-four hours. If we don’t want to do it, he will move on to his second choice.”
“How did we end up as his first choice?” she asked.
“No clue, but when you talk to him, you can ask that.”
And there was the dread. “Why do I have to talk to him?”
“Because you run the business end of things.”
“Then why did he talk to you?”
“Because he walked onto the grounds and I recognized him. I knew it was better that I take the first step. You would have told him off or ticked him off.”
She laughed. “I’m not that bad.”
“I don’t know about that. Anyway, I’m going to go talk to Mom and Dad, then we can bring Granny in on it later tonight, but you know her...”
“No need to ask. She’ll say yes to anything that has to do with giving kids toys.”
“As should you,” Ryan said. “Brendan does good for the area. Look him up. He’s a great guy.”
“You say that because you like his game.”
“Games,” Ryan said. “He’s big. Huge. You wouldn’t understand.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” she said. “But I can be a good family player and suck it up for a few weeks.”
“You’ll be thrilled when you see all those black numbers on those spreadsheets of yours.”
“There is that,” she said, grinning. “So what? I’ve got to call the guy tomorrow or something?”
“I’ll go talk to Mom and Dad, get their take.”
“They will agree,” she said grudgingly and wondered why she was putting up a fight. The business needed it and she’d have to suck it up.
“They will, but I like to cover all my bases. Then I’ll come back and let you know. Give him a call in the morning and go from there. I’m sure he has all sorts of people that will do the work for him. You probably won’t have to talk to him much at all.”
“There is that,” she said, feeling better about that thought.
“I’ve got work to do now. Go back to your numbers, as we know that is the only thing that makes you happy.”
“It’s not the only thing,” she said.
“That’s right, Reese makes you happy.”
“Of course,” she said, looking over at the picture of her chocolate lab puppy on her desk. Normally she brought Reese to work with her, but twice a week she dropped him off at doggie daycare so he could play with his friends.
“Do you have separation anxiety for two days a week?” Ryan asked, grinning.
“Of course not,” she said.
“Liar.”
“Get out of here,” she said, waving her hand. “You got your way, now let me get to work.”
2
What He Had
Brendan left Lane Tree Farm and drove back to his office satisfied he might have the best location yet for his toy drive.
Ryan Lane had been nice enough, almost too jovial actually. Brendan was a pretty laid back guy himself, but Ryan was over the top carefree. He’d probably get along great with Kat.
Of course it was nice to talk with anyone who was into his games and Ryan was all about Force Frontier. Then again, Brendan couldn’t blame him, as that new release put him right up there in competition with the big guys of Apex Legends.
He parked his Range Rover in the spot marked CEO, entered the front building, said, “Hi, Brittany,” to the receptionist and watched her flush like she always did. He didn’t get it; he was just a guy that blended in like the rest of the employees in his building.
At least in his mind. He hated to be singled out for who he was. Or rather what he had. It’d happened too many times in his life and turned him sour on relationships. Trust issues? Yep, he had them.
Instead of going straight to his office on the fourth floor, he walked to the other end and rapped his knuckles on Kat’s door. “Got a minute?”
“Just the man I wanted to see,” she said.
“Where’s Rosie?” he asked, looking around.
“You always want to know where she is before anything else,” Kat said, rolling her eyes.
“You know that. Why isn’t she in here with you?”
“Because Mom took her earlier and they haven’t been back. Rosie is probably in with the coders. You know they like to play with her when they get stuck on stuff and it’s her favorite place to be when it’s not by your side.”
“I’ll find her,” he said, not worried.
He looked at his sister more closely. It still amazed him that she turned into such a beauty queen. He’d always picked on her about her love for princesses, but here she was at twenty-eight years old as the VP of Marketing for St. Nick’s Entertainment.
“You go first,” he said, taking a seat across from her desk. She didn’t have a hair out of place, her brown straight tresses falling to her shoulders, parted to one side and tucked behind her ear. There was makeup on her face, but so subtle you couldn’t tell. He was still shocked she was single.
But then he wondered if she was as jaded as him about being wanted for her worth rather than herself.
“Have you started to think about where you are having your toy drive this year?”
“Tha
t’s what I was coming to tell you. I just left Lane Tree Farm and talked to one of the owners. He seemed on board but had to run it by the rest of his family tonight. I told him I needed an answer tomorrow.”
“I doubt they will say no. No one ever does. I’ve lost count of the number of people calling and asking if you’d consider their business. More call every year and earlier and earlier at that.”
He frowned. “You’ve never said that before.”
“Nope,” she said, grinning. “This is your thing and always has been. You know what you want and how you go about choosing businesses. We don’t need people calling us and begging.”
“Exactly,” he said. Sweet-talking, ego stroking, flirting to get what they wanted. It was all begging in his eyes. And yes, he wasn’t just talking about businesses but women too.
This was his baby. He did a lot in the community and for his family and he didn’t need people coming and asking him for it. He had his favorites of charities, he spread himself out as much as he could, but he couldn’t help everyone and had to remind himself of that.
Not only that, it seemed everyone wanted a piece of him and he wouldn’t help, give money, or spend time on anything that he wasn’t positive went back to those in need with at least ninety percent of his contribution. He wasn’t letting anyone pad their pockets off of his charitable work.
“So why did you pick them this year?” Kat asked.
“Aside from the atmosphere, it’s family run and has been for about sixty years. Handed down over the generations. They seem to be struggling somewhat though.”
“Which is what you like when you pick a place. Do you know they are for sure?”
“Not fully. I did some research, had Michael look into them too. He found the grandmother had medical issues that might have drained some of the funds in the past few years.”
Michael was his head of security who did just about anything Brendan needed him to, including looking into businesses that Brendan wanted to have any connection to.
“Ah, we know you’ve got a soft spot for that too.”
“With reason,” he said. He knew what it was like growing up with his own medical issues and the drain it had on the pocketbook, emotions, and with the family dynamics as a whole.
“Well, it sounds like this is the perfect spot for it.”
“That was my thought. They just redid a few of their greenhouses and Ryan said they could clean one out for us to use.”
“It would be a huge boost to their sales this time of year to do it there,” Kat said. “I can already see the promos in my mind, the media.”
She was rubbing her hands together showing some of the excitement he felt when he drove onto the lot himself. The smell of nature when he opened his car door. Nostalgia like right out of a family holiday movie.
“I think they will be pretty accommodating. Ryan said his mother loved this time of year and decorating for the holidays.”
“You know I like things done my way,” Kat said.
“You never used to be so controlling. Why now?”
“How dare you say I’m controlling,” Kat said, crossing her arms. “I’m not. But I know this is your baby. Of all that you do, this one has always meant the most to you and I want to make it perfect.”
“I know. I appreciate that. But I think this year, the hometown feel of this place; the family connection that they’ve got like we do; I think it would be perfect letting them run with ideas too.”
“You’re probably right. Maybe rather than going big and flashy, this is old school and traditional?”
He grinned. “That was my thought. I’m telling you, when you see this place, it’s like going back in time. And there isn’t even any snow on the ground. I just feel like it’s going to be almost magical there with little effort on your part.”
“You know I put a lot of effort into my job,” Kat said, laughing.
He did know that. Family, that was what it was all about.
When he got healthy, when he got strong as a teen, he saved up his money like he said he was going to do, and bought his first gaming computer.
But rather than turn into a professional gamer like he had plans of, he decided to put his talent to better use and create his own world. His own series of games.
He went to college for programming. He found investors. And he worked hard. He paid back everyone he could so he could have ninety percent ownership of his business and he was never letting it get less than that.
And when he made his first million, he paid off all his parents’ debt, bought them a nice house and told everyone in his family to quit their jobs and he’d take care of them.
They all quit their jobs, but they came to work for him. His father had always been in management so Brendan found a place for him easily enough, letting him pick and choose what he wanted to do. In the end his father’s expertise had come in handy and made him Brendan’s right-hand man for dealing with crisis and management issues.
His mother had a knack for dealing with people and she found a spot in HR that let her come and go when she wanted but feel important at the same time. She did new hire trainings, organized conferences and team meetings, parties, and helped boost morale when it was down.
Just like a mother should, she was good at pulling his employees together, finding out what they were looking for in a job to make things easier, and scolding when they got out of hand.
Kat, well, Kat was perfect for promotions. She’d actually gone to college for marketing and her calm nature had her handling the media like a pro.
Family teamwork allowed him to put all his effort into being creative. Coming up with new ideas and working with his core group of programmers and coders.
He had over two hundred employees now and, thanks to his family and a great senior support team, he had very little stress and he wanted to keep it that way.
And he picked Lane Tree Farm for his Christmas toy drive because what he saw in that business was what he had with his own family. That meant more to him than anything.
3
Shame and Guilt
“So I’m outnumbered?” Holly said later that night when they were having dinner at her parents’ house.
She’d shown up after work with Reese at her side, trotting along, his tongue hanging out. She’d been told he played hard all day, which was good because maybe now he’d sleep.
“You knew you would be,” her mother said. “Aside from how wonderful this would be for the business, I’m so excited. You know how much I love the holidays and I’ve already got a million ideas of how I can decorate.”
“I’m sure he has a big team of people who will do it all for him,” Holly said. “Didn’t you say he’d handle it, Ryan?”
“Yes and no,” Ryan said, looking around the room. “You know how big his business is. I told you all about it. But he led me to believe that we’d have some say. It is our business so we’d have to set it up for how it works for us so it didn’t hinder us in any way.”
“How could it possibly hinder us?” her father asked.
“It could disrupt our flow,” Holly said. “Be a big distraction.”
“Holly,” her granny said. “Stop it. We’ll make sure it’s set up so that doesn’t happen. We don’t use all the greenhouses this time of year anyway. We clean one out, get it set up. Let your mother talk to whoever she needs to and give her ideas on decorations. We should take advantage of this and use it to market our own products too.”
“If he lets us,” Holly argued.
“Stop being so ornery about this,” her father said. “I don’t understand you. Of all of us, I’d figured you’d be the most excited over the profit this could garner.”
She was trying to push the shame and guilt aside. She should be excited over it. She actually was, but it was just having to deal with a man like Brendan St. Nicholas. Maybe she wouldn’t have to.
After Ryan left her office earlier today, she’d done some research on the guy that was too hot and
sexy—not to mention young—to be the one heading up this toy drive.
Men like him looked perfect, presented like they had it all, and everyone bent over backward for them. Women were probably drooling and kissing his feet while men kissed his ass.
She hated people like that. People who usually had agendas…and secrets. Or secret agendas. Yep, that was probably it.
“Holly,” her granny said. “He’s not like the rest of them. He isn’t asking or taking anything from us.”
She felt the heat fill her face, knowing her grandmother hit the nail on the head. Holly was still bitter over her grandmother being taken advantage of.
Granny had always been a softie and wanted to give back. Anyone that came knocking on the door looking for something, Granny gave it over like candy to trick-or-treaters.
The business had lost money for years because Granny didn’t think twice about donating trees, flowers, plants, labor, money, whenever anyone asked without even checking out if it was legit.
When Holly’s father took over the business, he reined his mother in on that front, but what they didn’t realize was that her grandmother was draining her own personal accounts left and right still handing out money to anyone who came knocking with a story.
Granny had a heart of gold, there was no doubt. But she’d been taken advantage of one too many times and when she got sick with cancer and the medical bills started to pile up, her savings were gone and she’d been embarrassed to tell the rest of the family.
Did anyone come forward and offer to help her granny out? Any of those businesses she’d donated to in the past? Nope, not a one of them.
“I know. I get it,” Holly said, trying to push past her bitterness. It was hard though. She’d been the closest to her grandmother growing up, always looking up to her and admiring her strength to hold the business together when her grandfather passed.
To find out that her grandmother let things go and wasn’t as strong as Holly had always thought had been a blow to her.
It was probably wrong to think that way, but she’d loved her grandmother so much and thought they were alike. It made her look in the mirror and realize that yeah, they were and Holly had been taken advantage of too—more like blindsided. Not with money or possessions but with emotions.