They stepped into the office, and Holly closed the door behind her.
“Are you really here?” she asked, a hint of fear in her voice and eyes. “I thought you said you didn’t think this was going to work.”
“It wasn’t the way things were,” he told her. “But, I made changes. I hope I haven’t missed my chance.”
“No.” She shook her head and smiled. “You haven’t missed it. But I need to know you aren’t going to leave again. That we’re not just going to end up in the same place as before.”
Nathan reached into the back pocket of his Santa costume and pulled out a piece of heavy paper. He handed it to her.
“This says you’re the owner of Elements Computer Technologies,” Holly said, reading the paper. She looked up at him still confused. “I thought you were always the owner.”
“No. Paradigm was the owner,” he explained. “I bought it from them.”
It took her a moment to process what he just told her. Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open.
“I bought Elements Computer Technologies from Paradigm,” he explained. “They aren’t moving to California anymore because I don’t want them to. I want the company to stay here where it belongs. They are staying in Devonsville.”
“What about Paradigm?” Holly asked, staring down at the paper. “What about you?”
“I quit.”
“What?”
Nathan wasn’t sure her eyes could get much bigger or that her jaw could go much lower. He took her hands in his, setting the paper on Mark’s desk behind him.
“I quit. I’m not the CEO for Paradigm anymore,” he told her. “I own ECT and that’s my only business now. Even with that, I’m not going to be the CEO. I just want to build things again.”
He’d gone to the board meeting and told them he wanted to buy ECT. The board had been shocked. They were stunned when he told them he was quitting as well.
Fauna had been right. They were happy to have a reason to let him go. The lawyers had been called in for an emergency settlement, but Nathan had walked out with ownership of Elements. It hadn’t even cost him as much as he thought it would.
Paradigm was no longer where he wanted to be. It wasn’t who he was anymore. The money wasn’t what made him want to get up in the morning. He was still a billionaire. He didn’t need more money than that.
He’d told the board to promote Lucy. He hoped she’d find her way to the top of the company. She wouldn't be pleased with the sale of ECT, but she would survive. She would make money because that was what mattered to her.
It didn't matter to him like it used to.
Holly mattered.
For him, he couldn’t wait to just be an owner. Someone else could be the CEO. He planned on keeping the company mostly the way it was now, just focusing even more on innovation. He wanted to be one of the innovators again.
“Nathan...”
“I want to create things again,” he told her. “I don’t want to manage things. No more meetings. No more board meetings to discuss how the stock market will respond to market changes. I don’t want that life anymore.”
“So, you’ll be here?” The hope in her voice made his heart quiver.
“If you’ll have me,” he told her.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I’ll have you.”
And she kissed him, beard and all.
“The beard is terrible,” she told him, pulling back with a laugh. He tugged it off to the side, revealing his face to her. She touched his cheek, her eyes full of happy tears. “You’re really here?”
“I’m really here,” he promised. “You are what matter. You, me, us – we’re everything.”
She kissed him again, tears streaming down her face. He held her to him, crying and laughing himself. This was all he could have ever wanted for Christmas. Christmas was now his favorite holiday.