It was sneaky, and a part of me felt bad. I had never been the sneaky type. I, also, had never been the type of girl to hide things from my dad. We were always close when I was growing up. I didn’t keep secrets from him.
But this was something that I didn’t have a choice with. He would be sorely displeased if he found out, and I didn’t have a doubt that he’d sabotage this upcoming deal. We had to wait until that wasn’t an option, and after that, I wanted to become official with Jordan. I didn’t want this to be in this relationship that we had to hide.
I wanted for him to be able to show me off, and for me to do the same. And he had to have felt the same way, right?
My phone started ringing. My heart jumped in my chest because I thought it was Jordan. Maybe he was calling to claim his love, or perhaps he was calling to get another time and location for the next place that we were going to get it on. Whatever it was that he was calling for, I was more than eager to answer the phone.
I was left disappointed when I realized that it was only Jake. I sighed before answering the phone.
“Jake,” I said his name in greeting. I had started to be more formal, mainly because now he wasn’t just my best friend’s brother. He was someone I had to do business with. My father had always taught me never to mix business and pleasure, but sometimes, I believed, it could be done without making a mess.
Especially when Jordan’s name was involved.
“Cat!” he exclaimed. “I am so excited about this takeover tomorrow.”
I smiled, as I thought about his words. I pulled up my calendar, and he was right. Tomorrow was supposed to be the first merger meeting where I would sign the documents that would release Heartstrings from Jake and Lucas and into the names of Mark, Jordan, and myself.
I had been so lost in my thoughts that I’d completely forgotten that. “Yeah, our first merger, how exciting.”
“Have you guys gone over any big changes you’re going to make yet?”
“Even if we had, I wouldn’t be able to discuss them with you.”
“Guilty,” he said, jokingly. “I know, I know. I’m just excited to see my baby going into such good hands.”
“Your baby?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, I did help build her from the ground up.”
“I know,” I told him. “And, you’ve done an amazing job. Really good work.”
“Hey, Cat,” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
“What?”
“This company, it’s going to be time consuming, but don’t let it take over your life. When it’s time to go home and spend time with family and friends, do it. And don’t leave Izzy to herself for too long because then she comes to me to do things with her, and there are just some things a man shouldn’t do. You should have seen the movie she forced me to watch last night.”
“What movie?” I asked.
“A Walk to Remember.” He gagged.
“That’s an amazing love story, what’s the matter with you?!”
He laughed. “Just promise me, okay.”
“I promise.”
17
Jordan
It was time to make everything official. Heartstrings was going to be transferred into the names of its newest three partners. I was going to be the acting CEO while Mark was going to keep sole proprietorship, as the owner, and Cat, because it was her first job, was going to be acting as the president, the largest role that she’d ever gotten in a business setting before.
We met in the lobby, each of us beaming with excitement. With all of us on edge, in the best possible sense, we proceeded up the elevators and met with Jack and the Meadows siblings in the conference room. They had gone all out with big fresh vases of flowers and bottles of champagne on ice to celebrate the occasion.
“The day has finally come,” Lucas smiled, coming over to shake each of our hands. His siblings greeted us in a line to do the same. “Hope you don’t mind all the fuss,” he waved over the line of photographers and reports who were joining us—ready and poised to take pictures. “People make a big fuss over this type of thing.”
“No, I totally understand.”
Cat flashed them an eager smile. I could see the stars in her eyes. She was imagining a photo of us circulating with her name in the caption: Heartstrings newest Executive President—Catherine Whitaker.
I was pretty excited about seeing my name right in there with theirs next to the title of CEO. I had claimed many titles in my career, including CEO a few times before. But never for a company as big as this. We were all teeming with adrenaline from everything finally falling into place.
Of course I still had the worst case scenarios flashing through my mind—like Mark somehow piecing everything together at the last second, if he somehow hadn’t already, and snatching the pen from my hand right before he beat my ass. Or what if Cat went on some wild hair and decided to rat us out? She’d screw herself over just as much by doing that, but the stakes were high and it was making me paranoid. I was getting crazy enough to expect the most bizarre and impossible outcomes, just trying to be prepared and stay on top of it all.
For a moment I thought about how much I was going to lose if Mark knew the truth. This wasn’t the only business that I shared with him and acted as CEO. Being the owner, he could easily fire me. I’d still have my name, but it would be hard to get amazing jobs without people asking why I’d been dropped, in the first place. And having to tell them
