Preston Brothers The Complete Series Read online

  Not totally meaningless. She wasn’t there yet. But the search for a new job was missing something, and Penny knew what it was.

  It was Drew. And, to different extent, Logan.

  His footsteps coming across the hall put an end to her wallowing for the day. They had plans.

  He ran straight across the hall, took four running steps, and launched himself into her lap. “Playground!”

  “After breakfast,” she said. “Breakfast, get dressed, playground.”

  He counted them back to her. “Breakfast, get dressed, playground. Socks and shoes.”

  “Yes, you’ll need socks and shoes.”

  “Let’s go!”

  He pulled away from her, sprinting away as soon as his feet touched the ground.

  “Come on, Penny!” Logan yelled from his bedroom, sliding one drawer of his dresser open, then another. “Socks and shoes!”

  “Your socks are in the top drawer,” she said with a laugh as she followed him inside. Logan had already created a cyclone of clothing over the room. No doubt he was looking for his favorite red shirt. He found it in the third drawer down.

  “Let’s go, let’s go!”

  Yes. The end of this day was going to be the worst.

  She was still dwelling on that last day—the last hour, the last minute, the last time she waved goodbye to him at the door to the preschool—while she waited in another anonymous meeting room.

  This time, Penny would be getting a tour.

  The initial interview hadn’t been as meandering as the one with Howard. Twenty questions, rapid fire, all of her answers recorded in a shorthand scribble.

  “Ms. Fox?”

  She scrambled to her feet. Penny wasn’t even to the door when the lanky young man turned and led the way down the hall. She jogged to catch up.

  “I’m Penelope Fox,” she said, holding her purse tight to her shoulder. They were apparently going to walk at a high rate of speed.

  “Jonathan. This is the kitchenette, our second suite of meeting rooms. There’s the stairwell entrance. Everybody here is encouraged to get in several flights throughout the day. Keeps us healthy.”

  “That’s cool. So what—”

  “There’s a gym on the first floor, if you can squeeze in the time to use it. Copier room. Senior offices.” Jonathan pointed to one room after another. They were walking in a giant square, around the fifth floor of a building forty minutes from Tessa’s apartment, where she was living for the time being. “Collaborative space.” Jonathan huffed a laugh. “Don’t worry. You won’t use that.”

  She stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, but he kept going. “What do you mean?” she asked when she finally caught up. “Do people not use that space?”

  “People here aren’t huge on collaboration,” he said, keeping his eyes off hers. It was an easy task, with how fast he was walking. “In fact, friendly competition is highly encouraged.” Was his expression verging on bloodthirsty? What was this place? “But seriously, Ms. Fox, you don’t need to worry about that.”

  “What do you mean?” This time, when she stopped, he followed suit. “Before you go another step, tell me what you mean.”

  “I mean, I can tell you’d be a threat.”

  “A threat?”

  “People aren’t going to…take kindly to your presence here. Even if you do get hired, you’ll probably face a healthy amount of resistance.”

  Penny couldn’t fathom why anyone would say this to her…unless they were trying to do her a favor. “This is not a good fit,” she said flatly.

  Jonathan pressed his lips together. “Did you have any other questions about our company or culture? If you do, I’m happy to answer.”

  “No. No, I don’t.”

  “Thanks for coming to see us. We’ll be in touch.”

  Penny would not be in touch. She would not be answering any calls from this company. As soon as the sun outside hit her face, a weight lifted off her shoulders.

  If she had to leave the area, so what? Now that she didn’t work for Drew anymore, there was nothing keeping her here. Tessa, maybe. But one friendship wasn’t enough to pin her down in the new source of her heartbreak.

  It was so pathetic.

  Penny settled into the driver’s seat of her car and let her forehead rest against the steering wheel. This had been her fourth interview. There had to be a limit—a stopping point. One more. That would be it. If she had one more bad interview, she’d pack up the few things she had at Tessa’s, put them in the back of her car, and drive until…

  She didn’t know. She’d drive until someplace appealed to her.

  But a truth harder than steel had lodged itself in her belly: no place would appeal to her as much as this one did.

  And it was all because of Drew and Logan.

  It had killed her, watching him run into preschool for that last time. Logan had turned at the door and given her an enormous wave. “Bye, Penny!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, and then he’d gone inside.

  She hadn’t given him anything to remember her by.

  Penny dug in her purse for her phone. There was still time for a scrapbook, maybe. Did she have any pictures of them together?

  There were a few—selfies of her and Logan that she’d taken when he asked—but beyond that, there was only a photo of the three of them at the barbecue. Archer had taken it.

  Penny let the phone fall into her lap. A scrapbook was a dumb idea. By the time Logan was old enough to appreciate it, he’d have forgotten all about her.

  One hot tear slipped down her cheek, then another. Penny sat up as straight as she could and tried to breathe through the tears. Why did she have to miss them both so much? Why was it killing her to be away from them, even though Drew didn’t want her that way?

  She put a hand to her chest, trying to quiet the pain in her heart. Leaving Logan behind had added an awful new dimension to the situation. And working for Drew had just been…

  It had been natural.

  Once they’d spent some time together, she had known how to anticipate his needs. She had known which things annoyed him and which things he liked to do with Logan. She had known when to push back and when to back down.

  Until she hadn’t known, and it had all crashed and burned.

  There was never going to be another job like that one.

  That was the cold, hard truth, and she had to accept it. No office building on the planet would ever offer the kind of chemistry she’d shared with Drew, and no job that she could think of would be as fulfilling as spending her mornings and afternoons with Logan.

  Penny took a deep breath.

  Drew was never going to change. He was who he was, just like she was who she was, and anyway, she didn’t want him to change. What she wanted, in the end, was for Logan and Drew to be happy. If that meant never seeing them again, then so be it.

  She swallowed an enormous sob at the same instant her phone rang.

  Penny picked it up, swiping at the screen. She didn’t recognize the number, but this wasn’t the time to be picky about the distractions she was offered. “Hello?”

  “Good afternoon. I’m looking for Penelope Fox.”

  “This is she.” The voice sounded so familiar.

  “Ms. Fox, this is Jack Holloway. Do you have a few minutes to meet with me?”

  15

  Jack Holloway sat across from Drew, the wide expanse of Jack’s desk between them. Jack reached out and tapped its surface with his knuckles. “I kept this desk through my entire career, believe it or not. Just moved it home from my office last week.”

  Drew took in its chipped surface, which had obviously been polished and repaired many times over the years. “I believe it.”

  “It’s seen a lot of successes,” Jack went on. “And a lot of mistakes. I think we’re here to talk about the latter.”

  “Yes.” Drew cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, I’d…I’d like to say a few things.”

  Jack nodded and settled back
in his chair, folding his hands into his lap.

  Drew still couldn’t believe he was sitting here in Jack’s study, in a small town thirty minutes from Preston Logistics. He’d expected the man to reject him completely. What reason would he have to take his call in the first place? But he had taken his call and scheduled the meeting, and now…

  Now it was time to come clean.

  “I should never have misled you about the nature of my relationship with Ms. Fox,” Drew began. He had to rein in the speed of his words. They wanted to rush out of him like a waterfall, and he wanted them to cool their jets. “It’s no excuse, but I was trying to bolster Preston Logistics in your eyes. I’d set an ambitious goal, one that my brothers and board were depending on, and when you mistook her for my wife—” He shook his head with a short laugh. “It seemed like the right thing to do. Obviously, it wasn’t, and I shouldn’t have put anyone in that position. But it’s what I did, and I’m sorry for it.”

  “I accept your apology.”

  Drew swallowed hard. The apology—that had been the easiest part. He’d made similar apologies already to his brothers. They still ran circles around his head at night. There was one apology in particular he’d probably never get to make in person, but that hadn’t stopped it from being a broken record in his own thoughts.

  “This is probably the harder sell,” he admitted. “But I want to be entirely honest. I’m no longer interested in acquiring your company to be part of Preston Logistics.”

  “No?”

  “I plan to give it to Ms. Fox.”

  “You’d buy the company and put her in charge of it? And then what?” Jack’s eyebrows rose.

  “Then I’d step back and get out of her way. Forever, if that’s what she wants. She has a brilliant mind for logistics. She’s wonderful at connecting with people. She deserves to lead a strong company, and she’d be great at the helm of yours.” He looked Jack in the eye. “That’s my plan. If that affects your decision, so be it.”

  It had come to him in the middle of the night that it didn’t matter whether they were apart or not. He’d still worry about her. He wanted her to be set. He’d give her Jack’s company, and he’d walk away. There would be other companies to add to Preston. He’d just have to work harder to find the perfect one.

  Jack considered him. “Let me tell you something.”

  Drew nodded, the hope too wild for him to speak.

  “I ran this company for thirty years, with Lisa right by my side. We both worked hard, and it was hard. Running a business of any size isn’t easy, but…” A nostalgic smile played over Jack’s face. “It never felt like work to us.” He looked down at his hands, then back up at Drew. “About a year ago she woke up one morning and didn’t want to go to the office. She wanted to spend the day with me, choosing our own adventure. It had become work. I didn’t see it until that day. But for us, there’s still time.”

  Still time. What did that mean?

  “You still have time, too,” Jack said, looking Drew in the eye. Jack, Drew noticed, had very green eyes. “Son, I’ll admit it—I was disappointed to hear that the two of you aren’t married. But only because it’s so obvious that you belong together.”

  Drew rubbed at his chin, trying not to let his emotions get the best of him. “I know. I know that now. I know that I can only hope to find someone as brilliant as she is. And who I love just as much.”

  It was the first time he’d admitted it out loud, but Jack didn’t look shocked in the least.

  “I’ve lost a lot by not having her in my life, but I’m—I’m not going to force her into anything. Not again. Not anymore. So I’m going to do this for her, if you’ll allow it. If she’ll accept it.”

  It was the only decision that made sense to him. He’d give Penny what she deserved—a job that didn’t involve Drew as her boss—and find another way to steady his family business. He could do it.

  “I lied to you once before,” he told Jack. “But I’m not lying now. I want this for her, no matter what it means for me. The only thing that makes sense to me right now is to stop putting my own goals first.” He blinked back a sudden wetness in his eyes. “She’s first for me, even if she doesn’t know it.”

  Jack tapped his fingertips on the desk, then stood up, knees creaking. “That’s just what I was hoping to hear. Give me a minute. I’ll be right back.”

  It was weird, having a meeting in someone’s house, but not nearly as weird as pretending to be your boss’s wife.

  How long had Jack Holloway been gone, anyway? Penny had forgotten to look at her phone when he left. Maybe she should go looking for him. She was about to stand up and start the search when the door to the formal sitting room opened and Jack came back in.

  “I apologize for the wait.” The smile he gave her was…genuine. That’s the only way she could think to describe it. Penny shrugged off the awkwardness that had settled over her shoulders like a heavy blanket.

  “It’s no problem. I’m happy to have the chance to talk with you.” Why not, after all? What did she have to lose? Jack might not end up selling his company, after all.

  Jack sat down on a loveseat across from the wing chair where she sat and looked her in the eye. “It’s my understanding that Mr. Preston thinks very highly of you.”

  An instant rush of blood to her face made her lightheaded. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

  “I do. And that’s part of the reason I’ve asked you to come here.”

  “Because—because of Drew?”

  “Because of what I saw between the two of you, and because of what I know to be true about you. And he has just confirmed an old man’s hunch.”

  She smiled to cover the fact that this was one of the strangest conversations she’d ever had. “I’m not sure you do know much about me, with all due respect, Mr. Holloway.”

  “I saw you with Drew and his son on several occasions,” he reminded her. “And each time, I saw nothing but love and respect from each of you. Barring one single time, which I’m going to chalk up to a bad night.”

  She bit her lip, totally mortified by the memory of the gala. “You caught me at my worst that night.”

  Jack laughed. “Ms. Fox, if that’s your worst, then the best of you must be an utter delight.” He shifted his weight to his other side. “Let’s get down to brass tacks. I want to offer you a job. My job. Running the company.”

  Penny’s mouth dropped open. “How—” So many questions, and most of them irrelevant. There was a bigger point to be made. “Mr. Holloway, don’t make an offer on my account. Instead, accept an offer on Drew’s account.”

  He lifted his eyebrows.

  “Sell your company to Drew,” she pressed. “He’s a good man and a good father, and I’ll be all right. I’m going back to Toronto to help my own father to get back on his feet. You deserve to sell your company to somebody like Drew. No—to Drew. I promise you.”

  Jack shook his head. “He doesn’t want to buy my company. Oh, I suppose he does, in a way. But he wants to give it to you.”

  Her heart was going to explode.

  Drew was going to do that? Drew, who had wanted her to lie for him in order to close this deal? Drew, who had fretted over presentations and company finances?

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Think about my offer,” Jack told her, standing up as abruptly as he’d come back into the room. “Take your time—the room is yours for as long as you need it.”

  She watched him go, her mouth hanging open until she snapped it shut with a click of her teeth.

  What a bizarre meeting. Her heart was in turmoil, her lungs struggling for air. Drew wanted to give up the company for her? To her? What was he thinking?

  Penny paced—it was just as well Jack had said she could stay, because she wasn’t sure she could drive just now. As she held up her hands to watch them tremble, she heard his voice. Drew’s.

  It couldn’t be.

  Penny turned her head, and there he was, walking next to
Jack Holloway down the hall from the opposite end of the house. As she watched, Drew raised his eyes and saw her.

  Heartbreak and hope chased each other across his face, and then Jack took him by the arm and propelled him across the space that divided them.

  The older man stood nearby, like the officiant at a wedding, and brandished a finger at Drew. “I will only sell you this company if you allow Ms. Fox to be your partner in all things. And as for you, Ms. Fox…I’ll let you work for my company, if that’s your choice. But only if you look past this man’s stubborn outer wall and see how much he cares for you.”

  “I more than care for you,” said Drew. “I love you.”

  Penny burst into tears. “I love you, too. This—this has been terrible. Not your house, Jack. You have—a lovely—home.” The hiccups caught up with her at the worst possible moment, and then Drew was kissing them away along with her tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered when he came up for air. “I’m sorry I never told you about my dad. I wanted you to see me for something other than his mistakes.”

  “I made my own mistakes,” Drew insisted. “I should have let you in when I knew I loved you. And I’ve known it for days. Weeks.” He got slowly to one knee in front of her. “I don’t have a ring, but…”

  “I do.” Jack pulled a paperclip from his pocket and shaped it into a circle with deft hands. “I hope this will do for now. I didn’t think of a ring when I was planning this meeting. And I accept your offer, Drew.” He winked at them, then made his way back down the hall.

  Drew held the ring for a solemn moment.

  “I can’t stop thinking about you. I still can’t stop rooting for you,” Penny told Drew. “I tried to get Jack to sell to you.”

  “That’s what he said.” Drew’s eyes were filled with awe. “Because that’s you. You make everything better in people’s lives. In my life. And I never want you to be apart from my life again.” He steadied himself. “Penelope Fox, will you marry me?”

  “Only if it’s absolutely, one hundred percent real this time,” she said, unable to keep her smile in check.