A smile spread across Brett’s face. “Why not both?” He chuckled, sitting back and patting his stomach. “You boys know I’ve been working on my final offer. I’ll have it to you next month and I’m confident everyone’ll be happy.”
Craig glanced at Barney and suppressed a smile. It was clear that ol’ Brett was worried they’d sell to someone else.
Good. The sooner this deal was done, the better. He’d be able to breathe again and wouldn’t have to wake up at night in a cold sweat, panicked the company was going to come crashing down around him.
Craig had never imagined himself as the head of a company. He’d never wanted people to count on him. He’d just wanted to make a dating app. It had gotten out of hand so quickly.
Barney, ever a pro, gave nothing away. “We look forward to seeing your final offer.”
He stood and Brett followed his lead, offering handshakes all around. “Take care, fellas.”
Brett left the conference room, the members of his staff spotting him in the hallway and swarming around like he was a queen bee.
Alone again, Barney spoke. “I have to hand it to you. I didn’t see this coming.”
Craig shrugged. “I know, but I think he’s serious.”
Barney shook his head. “It’s not just that. It’s all this interest in our new resident matchmaker. People are falling over themselves to meet with her.”
Craig kept his eyes down. He wasn’t the only one charmed by her. “I know.”
“Is she going to be able to deliver?”
“Of course. Yeah.” He nodded. “I mean, I think so.”
He patted Craig on the shoulder. “I have no choice but to believe in you.”
Craig laughed. “Thanks, man.”
“I’ve got meetings all week.” His eyes drifted to the window and his stare fixed on a distant spot. “Supposed to be good weather for sailing, though.”
“Barney,” Craig said slowly, “you can’t float away yet. We need to make a graceful exit.”
Barney let out a grunt, still staring.
“We can’t let things fall apart. We’resoclose, and our employees don’t know we’re losing our minds. They count on us. They need their jobs intact when we leave.”
“You’re right.” Barney took a deep breath and turned back to face him. “I don’t know how we got this far, man.”
“Me either.”
He took a swig from the mug on his desk and shook his head. “All right. Meetings.”
After catching a reporter from the Seattle Ledger sniffing around the office, Craig sent Rose back to Orcas Island for the week. He didn’t want publicity about their new program getting out, and he didn’t want to put too much pressure on Rose.
Still, everyone and their mother seemed to know about her existence, and he needed to see how she was doing. He decided to take the trip to the island and spend some time working with her. It was the perfect excuse to get away for a few days, and it gave him a chance to finish up some tasks at the house he was renovating for his parents.
That afternoon, he caught a flight and met with his electrician for a final inspection. As he’d hoped, everything checked out, and after a short hour, he was left alone in the large, quiet house.
He’d picked a place on the west side of the island and blown out the walls to make space for enormous windows overlooking the water. The sunsets were breathtaking, and he’d tried to anticipate every little detail to make the house perfect.
A year in, perfection was still out of reach. He was running out of money, though, and his parents had recently mentioned plans to find “a nice place to settle down” for retirement.
It was time to show them the house. Once he got the profits from selling SerenadeMe, he could finish up the last details, maybe even buy a place to live himself.
It would work out. They would pull it off. They had to.
He took a deep breath and walked toward the ocean-view window, his footsteps echoing in the empty room.
