Going Up! by Amy Lane Read Free Book Online

unsupported by his heart.
    “I like the view.”
    She sighed and moved close enough to pat his cheek. “Well, good. Because I think you just went to a whole lot of time and expense to make that view your personal property, baby. And Jenn’s gonna be pissed, because she was enjoying the hell out of Frisbee too.”
    Zach’s smile grew sounder, even if it was still crooked. “You know,” he said meditatively, “I haven’t been to Monterey since I was a kid. Before dad started running for office, we had a cottage off of Pebble Beach. I really loved it there. Maybe, we get this done, you, me, Jenn, we drive down to Monterey and spend a weekend. Watch whales, play on the beach—just, you know.”
    “Get out of the city and go somewhere fun?” Leah said, and because they were in his office—his nice, big, important looking office with the dark-paneled wood and the cream-colored carpeting—she could give him a brief peck on the cheek. He was getting used to that from her. He was getting used to having friends. He was even getting used to the idea that Sean might want to see him sometime out of the elevator.
    “Yeah,” he said with dignity. “Go be somewhere outside the box.”
    “Good,” she said. “I think you’ve been in that box for way too long.”
    He wasn’t sure how he would have made it through the next two months without her.
    The first month sucked hard enough—he had to find the new space, make a bid, secure the loan, all while servicing his clients, whom he absolutely couldn’t let down. How could he look at the teacher with four kids who’d had her schedule completely rearranged when she was on pregnancy leave and tell her that she wasn’t important enough to fight for? How about the gay teacher who’d been let go midsemester because a student had walked in on him during his prep period while he was talking on the phone to his husband about who was going to pick the dog up from the veterinarian, and who suddenly found himself charged with unprofessional conduct for exposing his personal life? What about the strict old battleax whose students had decided to sabotage her career by refusing to take her STAR tests, simply because she refused to be bought?
    Zach had grown up with privilege, but he’d never had anyone to fight for him. Now, as he fought for his business in a way he didn’t know he’d ever had the guts to, he realized how proud he was to fight for people who didn’t get enough as it was.
    And, in the middle of this, he had to tell his staff why they were moving.
    Since more than one of his employees was not only from the LGBT community, but actively in the community, he was pretty sure nobody at the firm was going to shun the boss for being gay.
    But explaining that Daddy was just that much of a douche bag was humiliating.
    Oddly enough, Leah helped with that too—but probably not in any way she’d planned.
    On the first day of unpaid overtime, when the whole office was in packing the least-necessary stuff and preparing to move it, he called them all in to explain why exactly they’d lost their lease on the pricey commercial building they occupied now, and why they were moving to something a lot less opulent—and for some of them, a lot farther away.
    “I’ve heard the rumors,” he said apologetically, because Leah had been the one to pass the rumors up to him. “You’re worried about mismanagement; you’re worried about missing funds. The truth is, we were in this building on the sufferance of my father—I’m Gordon Driscoll’s kid, and he owns the building. I just came out to my parents—”
    The smattering of applause surprised him, but he managed to bow through his blush anyway.
    “—and their response was to revoke my business lease. Fortunately, the language around your discounts for those of you who are renting from a Driscoll property is not affected—believe me, that was the first thing I looked for, since I rent from him too.” Polite laughter, and some