Counting the Kisses (Counting the Billions 3)

I snorted. “If you really want to know, that’s about how I felt when I took the company over from my father,” I confessed.

“Bullshit,” Abby said, shaking her head. “I bet you’d been going to meetings with him for years by that point. Getting to know the shareholders and the other employees and all of that. Learning to understand how the business operates and its values and everything.”

I grimaced and shook my head. “I know you don’t believe everything the tabloids say about me, but I have to admit, they were pretty right about me back at the start of things,” I told her. “I wasn’t always as focused as I am now.”

Abby stared at me quizzically for a moment and then nodded slowly. “All right, I’ll grant you that,” she said. “But at least it was your family’s business you were taking over.” She made a face. “I just don’t want to make some stupid mistake and cost you or the company money. I don’t want to screw up.”

I stared at her for a moment and then stood abruptly, pulling her into my arms because I just couldn’t help it anymore. “Abby, that’s ridiculous,” I told her.

“No, it isn’t,” Abby protested, but her arms came around my back as well, her cheek pressing close above my heart. “Mistakes happen.”

“Of course they do,” I said soothingly. “But I trust you. And I know that mistakes happen. I’m not asking you to be perfect. You don’t need to worry about that. I’m not going to be mad at you if you drop the ball on something.” I sighed, nuzzling her hair. “I mean, let’s be real here, I’m the one who has really dropped the ball. That’s exactly why I need you to help me out. If you’re willing to.”

“I want to,” Abby said. “But I’m probably going to have a zillion stupid questions for you to answer. After the first day even.”

“And I’ll do my best to answer them,” I promised her. “Erin’s another great resource, believe it or not. She’s been with this company for a while now, and she knows things about it that none of the rest of the do, purely because she’s the one scheduling all of my meetings and working behind the scenes. She’ll be here to help you as well.”

“I’d expect you to be more bothered by the idea of giving up your company. Even temporarily,” Abby said.

I pulled back to grin down at her. “Is that your way of threatening that I’m never going to get it back?” I asked her.

She looked horrified that I had even suggested that. “No, not at all!” she said. “You’d better come back. It’s your family’s business, after all.”

I sighed and glanced away from her. “I know it is,” I said, surprising even myself with the level of bitterness in my tone. “To be honest,” I told her carefully, having a hard time getting the words out, “I’m almost excited to have a reason to take a break from it. Not that this is the kind of break I would have chosen for myself.”

Abby stared at me as though I had two heads. “I never would have thought I would hear that coming from you,” she said, and I could hear a faint tone of bewilderment in her voice.

I winced, realizing how it must sound to her. Given that she thought of me as such a workaholic, she was probably wondering, now, if she even knew me at all. If I’d just been lying to her or putting up a facade all along. If maybe I was exactly the man that the tabloids made me out to be.

“I love this company,” I hurried to clarify. “It’ll just be nice to step away from the meetings sometimes. I’ve known for a while now that I need to delegate more. Erin’s been hounding me on that one. And honestly, Gerrard was before that.” I frowned pensively. “I wonder if that’s what got him so frustrated at me.” It seemed like such a minor thing, but I supposed it would kind of make sense.

He must have realized that his career with McGregor Enterprises had gone as far as it could, and he had decided to seek out alternatives. I honestly couldn’t really blame him for that. At least, not until I considered the way in which he had ultimately sold out.

I shook those thoughts out of my head and bent lower to give Abby a soft kiss on the lips. “I’m going to be around, whatever you need,” I promised her. “I just won’t be here for meetings and that sort of thing. But it’s going to work, and you’re still going to see plenty of me.”

“Plenty of you?” Abby asked hopefully, her fingers brushing along the bare skin beneath the hem of my shirt.

I laughed and pushed her hands away. “Plenty of me,” I promised her, and she grinned up at me, clearly realizing just how flustered that simple touch had gotten me. When this was all over, I was going to show her just how much I reall

y cared about her, I vowed. We’d had one romantic weekend interrupted before, when her brother was in a car accident. Maybe it was time to plan another one.

Not for right now, of course. There was nothing we could do as long as I was tied up in court. But as soon as that was over, we’d see.

“So you’re off to court in the morning?” Abby asked quietly.

I nodded at her. “Yeah.” I sighed. “I won’t have time to swing by the office or anything; I’m supposed to be there pretty early. But like I said, this should be everything that you need, and then you’ve got Erin. And the rest of the employees as well. But I think you’ll do fine.”

“How long do you think the trial is going to take?” Abby asked, and I could hear the note of worry in her voice. “And what’s going to happen? Do you know what kind of sentence you’ll end up with?”

“My lawyer and I have discussed things,” I admitted, inclining my head toward her. On the one hand, I didn’t want there to be any secrets between the two of us. But on the other hand, I didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily. And telling her about all the myriad of punishments I might end up with certainly seemed to be worrying her for no reason. I doubted anything too terrible was going to happen. Sure, it would have been nice to settle outside of court, strictly for privacy reasons. And I was worried about what the jury would think of me.

But at the end of the day, justice would prevail. I was sure of that.

“I have a great lawyer,” I finally told Abby. “To be honest, I’m not expecting much to come of this. Gerrard was the one who betrayed me. He sold out my information to the press. I have a good case, a good argument, and at the end of the day, I’m sure we’ll come to some agreement. It’s more annoying than anything else.”

I felt kind of bad telling her that, since there was no way for me to know how things were going to turn out. But on the other hand, if I didn’t keep telling myself that things were going to be fine, I was really going to start to panic myself. I couldn’t imagine doing jail time. Or even therapy, if those anger management classes were going to keep me away from my business, which they surely would. If nothing else than for the reputation of the business.

But Abby seemed to understand, nodding at me. She leaned against my chest again, her fingers tangled with mine, her thumb stroking over my skin. “I wish you didn’t have to deal with this,” she said softly. She gave a short laugh. “I honestly wish that we could just get away from all of this madness and drama. Go off somewhere, just the two of us. Really explore our relationship and forget about all of the stress.”