And I Love You by Marie Force Read Free Book Online

“Don’t give Nolan too rough a time about being concerned for you. He loves you almost as much as I do.”
    “Yeah, yeah, whatever. He’s a pain. Keep me posted on what happens with Megan, but leave out the gross stuff.”
    “You’re jinxing me,” he said as he walked down the stairs and headed for his SUV thinking about gross stuff and hoping there’d be something to report.

CHAPTER 5

    H unter left Hannah’s, thinking about everything she’d said. As an accountant and the fiduciary steward for his family’s business interests, he was extremely risk averse. He didn’t take unnecessary chances. He didn’t gamble. As a rule, he didn’t risk anything he couldn’t afford to lose.
    So taking a gamble on Megan went against everything he believed in, especially because he had no way to do his due diligence, to fully investigate all his many questions and options before he put his heart on the line with her.
    Perhaps he was overanalyzing the whole situation, which wouldn’t be the first time he’d done that. He couldn’t help the way he was wired, and that wiring had served him well in his professional life. However, his instincts, which he usually trusted implicitly, were telling him that his overanalyzing tendencies might not be useful to him in this case.
    He arrived at the office late, which was also not like him. Hunter was a stickler for family members setting the right example for the rest of their employees and insisted everyone get to work on time. So when he walked in to find an impromptu family staff meeting going on in the outer office, he wasn’t surprised to see his siblings check their watches—even the ones who didn’t wear watches.
    “Yes, thank you,” he said without actually looking at any of them as he headed to his office. “I know I’m late. First time for everything.”
    “And you look like hell, too,” Will said. “What gives?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Something,”
his sister Charley said, making the others laugh.
    “Leave him alone,” Ella said, earning a permanent place in Hunter’s heart. “He gets to be human like the rest of us once in a while.”
    “No, he doesn’t,” Charley said. “If he becomes human, the whole operation will fall apart.”
    “I can
hear
you,” Hunter said from his office.
    “I intended for you to hear me,” Charley retorted in her usual pain-in-the-ass fashion.
    “Don’t you people have work to do?” Hunter asked.
    “You’re not the boss of us,” Charley said.
    “Dad! Tell them to work!”
    “Kids, get to work,” Lincoln said from his office. “You’re making your brother mad.”
    “Who’s mad?” Elmer Stillman asked as he came up the stairs and into the reception area.
    “Hunter,” Charley said. “Rolled out on the wrong side of the bed this morning and was
late
to work.”
    “You don’t say,” Elmer replied. “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”
    “Right?” Will asked with a laugh. “That’s what we said, too.”
    “I expect better from you, Gramps,” Hunter said, even though he was amused by his grandfather’s contribution to the expected abuse. Sometimes working with family members truly sucked. Most of the time, however, it didn’t.
    Elmer came to his door, eyes twinkling with mirth. “I apologize profusely.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” Hunter said with a grin. “The damage is done.”
    “May I come in for a minute?”
    “Of course.”
    Elmer closed the door, which surprised Hunter.
    “Everything okay?”
    “Oh sure. I just have some personal business I’d like to discuss with you.”
    “What kind of personal business?”
    “The financial kind.”
    “That’s what I’m here for.”
    “And you do a damned fine job of it. You know how proud I am of you, don’t you?” Before Hunter could form a reply to the unexpected compliment, Elmer continued. “Smartest kid I ever met grew up to be the sharpest, savviest man I know.”
    Hunter swallowed hard, unprepared for the wallop of emotion that