Chapter 6

Brook

As they pulled up to the Manhattan high-rise office building, David rolled his eyes when he saw the paparazzi waiting for him. His security guy was new and looked nervous.

David wondered if the man would make it in this line of work because this was nothing. If they’d landed at Kennedy, it would have been a zoo. Then he would’ve earned his keep by stopping David from walking the gauntlet.

Brook was on the phone with the building’s security.

“They say we should wait. They’re sending out someone to get us inside.”

Two minutes later, men in blue blazers with the building’s logo walked out and came to the car.

David leaned over to Brook and whispered, “Why didn’t we just pull into the parking garage to avoid all this?”

“My mom was hoping you might mention our new New York office.”

Brook saw the wheels turning and hit his arm. He wondered when she decided that hitting him was okay again.

“You be nice to my mom,” she warned.

“Welp, that takes the fun out of it,” David decided when the back door was opened.

He made a mental note to talk to Fritz because his security guy shouldn’t be sitting in the front seat while others did his job. The guy was about as useful as a fuel pump in a Tesla.

David got out first, then helped Brook out. All the while, he could hear the rapid fire of cameras and questions being shouted out.

He turned around and surveyed the chaos. He noticed that the paparazzi had begun to draw a crowd.

“If everyone will step back and allow us to stand in front of the building, I’ll give a brief statement and answer a few questions,” David said.

When that did no good, he barked, “If you don’t settle down, I will simply march inside and avoid all of you during my stay in New York.”

Brook almost blew it when she saw his new look, ‘stern dad.’ His own father hadn’t been amused when he’d learned what his favorite son had been practicing. David gave her a sideways glance when it worked as well on paparazzi as it did two-year-olds—not well at all.

While he dealt with the press, Kristen decided that she should stand on the other side of him to get her picture taken.

“Go upstairs and let Grace Davenport know we’ll be up in ten minutes,” David ordered his PA.

She gave him a dirty look but did as he asked.

“Put your hand on my back so I know where you are,” David told Brook.

While he didn’t expect trouble, he wanted to be between it and her if it happened. Once she did that, he put on his best smile and walked to the door. The security team created a semi-circle in front of the two of them to hold the crowd back once they were situated.

“Get the fuck out of my way!” a woman barked, punching a hole through the crowd.

She obviously had somewhere to go. She pushed past the security team and stepped between David and Brook.

“Move it,” the woman grumped as she pushed past.

David loved New York.

He gave a brief statement that included a plug for his movie and another for Holistic Wealth Management.

“Now, I’m going to take questions one at a time. If you shout over each other, I am done,” David warned.

He pointed at one of the scruffier ones. He’d found they needed the money more than the others and asked the most interesting questions.

“Where’s your mom? I understand she’s now the darling of the UK.”

“Yeah,” David drawled. “I don’t think you guys are ready for my mom. If I were you, I’d steer clear.”

He pointed at another one.

“Brook, everyone wants to know why you dumped David.”

David stage-whispered, “Tell them what I told your cousin.”

Brook thought about it for all of a second before catching on. Her cousin had been digging for dirt on Brook, so David had told her it was his fault Brook left him. He might have implied it was because she was scared of his ample package. He was sure that the movie folks would love that rumor to get started.

No, really. David was sure they would.

Brook gave some lame explanation about her moving.

When the following three questions were for Brook, he could see she was about ready to kill someone. He made a wise choice and grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.

That turned into its own shit show when half the building was in the lobby.

“I’m going to kill your mom,” David said under his breath.

By the time they reached the elevators, Brook understood why he wanted to just slip in through the garage entrance.

Brook led David to her mother’s office. The door was partially closed, and they could hear Ava talking to someone. Brook tried to grab his arm, but he walked in like he owned the place. He saw that Ava was talking to Phyllis, Grace’s PA, about the board meeting.

“How’s my biggest fan?” David asked Phyllis.

“David, could you give us a minute? We need to wrap this up,” Ava said in a very businesslike fashion.

“Actually, Brook needs to have a word with you,” he replied.

“I do?” Brook asked, clearly confused.

“You do,” he said and saw Brook understood. Then he turned to Phyllis. “I could really use a cup of tea. Could you please show me where it is so I don’t have to hunt for it later?”

David could see Phyllis was unsure what she should do. He assumed that she was worried that he shouldn’t be running for his own tea because he was a big-time actor. What she didn’t know was that he wasn’t that guy. David was more than capable of making his own tea.

“Go. It sounds like my daughter has to have a word with me. Just come back so we can print off the agendas,” Ava said.

Phyllis took him to the break room and then begged off because she had work to do. David realized too late that being alone while drinking a cup of tea was an invitation for everyone in the company to ‘stop by and say hello.’

Ava must have put Brook to work because it was over an hour before she came looking for him.

“Tell us another story,” Keira urged as David spotted Brook.

David was surrounded by Brook’s sorority sisters. Once he’d figured that out, he started to dig for dirt. They were savvy enough to make him tell a few Brook stories in return.

“What’s going on?” Brook asked.

“Did you really pay him to go out with you?” Mallory asked.

“You are not allowed to talk to them ... ever,” Brook said to him with a bit of heat.

“Sorry. I forgot that was a secret,” David said, acting timid.

“What else did you tell them?” she asked.

“That I am way better in bed than your boyfriend,” he whispered.

Yep. This whole hitting thing was new.

David really liked Brook’s sorority sisters. She’d made some great friends.

David had arranged a pre-meeting with his people. Brook took him to a conference room where he found his dad, who usually attended these meetings for him. Also present were Frank Ingram, one of the managing partners of IDC – Public Relations; Jack and Bev Mass, owners of Mass Investment; and Kent Crain, senior manager for Dawson Management. Kent had brought with him Kendal Miller, David’s first PA and now one of the managers.

They were all part of his original company that Grace Davenport had bought. Everyone was now under the Holistic Wealth Management umbrella.

David wasn’t surprised when Brook took the seat next to his. It really did feel like old times. The only one missing was Caryn Buckley, his former COO and president of Dawson Management. She now ran the California branch of Holistic Wealth Management and hadn’t made the trip. If needed, she would be available for the board meeting via video chat.

“I wanted to get the old gang back together to make sure the buyout was working for everyone. If there are any issues, I’d like to know about them before the board meeting this afternoon,” David said to kick the meeting off.

“Before we do that, you need to be brought into the loop about something,” Rob Dawson, David’s dad, said.

“There has been an offer made to take over Holistic Wealth Management,” Bev Mass shared.

Brook opened a folder and handed David the proposed terms of the takeover. The company potentially buying them was Morgan Fletcher Investments. They were one of the bigger ones and had recently been aggressive in gobbling up their smaller competition.