“And?”
I shrug. “And they’ll come with me if I want to start out on my own.”
His eyes narrow. “Do you?”
“No,” I say emphatically.
I live alone. Sleep alone. I’ve had nothing but time in these past six months since Mia left me to think about my future. I have decided that if my father’s bullshit continues, I’m going to bail. I have enough money to be just fine—and if push comes to shove, I’ll find a job like a regular person. I have skills.
“I’d hire you as my CFO any day,” Huxley saysquietly. “Hell, I’ll give you my job, you can be CEO, and I can gallivant around, be the playboy I’m destined to be.”
He’d do it, too. That’s the kind of friend Huxley is. I’m humbled.
“First, the playboy crap is all smoke and mirrors. Second, you outwork every executive I’ve ever met—bar none.” My phone beeps, and I peer at the screen. I have a meeting in five minutes. “And third, I don’t think working seventy hours a week is how I want to live the rest of my life.”
“How do you want to live your life?” Huxley rises to his feet.
“With Mia.”
“That simple?”
“Yeah.” I feel the magnitude of my mistakes. “I wish I’d had this clarity before Thanksgiving, before….”
“You got this clarity because she walked away, Aiden,” Huxley reminds me. “Well, I’d better get back to work.”
His office is at the flagship Sinclair Hotel, Ellis & West, which is right next to the building where Winter Financial is housed, so we often found ourselves in each other’s offices. His EA knows how I take my coffee, and Jolene knows how he takes his whiskey, which is neat.
He stops by my door. “You know, I thought you’d be pissed with the board and would want to nuke the building, with your father in it.”
I know why he thinks that. I didn’t build WinterFinancial from the ruins by being agood guy. I am a relentless, ruthless businessman. I know how to win.
“That’s pride. I’m choosing sanity.”
He nods, then studies me for a beat. “These past months have changed you.”
“Yeah?”
“Less robot. More human. I don’t think I’ve ever seen youafraidbefore.”
“I was always afraid to disappoint my father,” I remind him.
He shakes his head, his hand on the doorknob. “Not exactly afraid, Aiden, more respectful. You were giving him what you felt he gave his father. It was tradition.”
“He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Hell, A, I’ve known that since I met him. Took you a few years to catch up to that.”
I rock back in my office chair and give him a pointed look. “What do you think I’m afraid of now?”
He grins faintly. “You’re more nervous about your date with Mia than you are about the board meeting. What does that say?”
“That I’m finally getting my priorities straight?”
“No shit!” He gives me a thumbs-up before he leaves.
CHAPTER 23
Mia
