Chapter Photo credits:
@FotoJagodka Depositphotos.com
My eyes opened just enough to see the sunlight pouring in before I immediately shut them again. I needed to buy Nate room darkening shades, if I planned to start spending the night at his condo.
Nate's arm, draped over my waist, was like a deadweight crushing my side. As I turned onto my back, I roused him. In an instant, he nuzzled at my neck as his fingers started to wake my body.
We've been seeing each other for a couple of months and we typically spent at least one weekend night together. Last night was the first night, we spent at his condo. I preferred my own bed and the sun streaming in at seven on Sunday morning was reason enough.
The way, we got together, was very unlike me. Although we worked for the same company, we didn't know one another. I reluctantly went out for drinks, after a product development meeting to find the bar filled with lots of our other employees.
I had just arrived when Daniel Currier aggravated me over, I don't even remember what, so I drank more than I should have. Soon everyone had left except for Nathan Landry. He and I had been talking and when I stood to leave, I wobbled and fell into his arms.
He drove me home and I'm pretty sure I threw myself at him. I don't remember our first time very well, but the encore the next morning was memorable. The only way I managed to live through the mortification of a drunken hook up with an employee from the company, was to continue seeing him. The alternative was to hide around every corner anytime I left the security of my research and development domain and ventured into the business office building of O&C Biomedical.
I had no idea how the drunken sex was, but the sober sex was good ─ really good. In fact, I was still panting from our morning bout when my phone rang with my father's ringtone.
"Oh God," I groaned.
"Don't answer."
"I have to... Good morning."
"Paige honey, I need you to come by The Point house this morning. Jim's serving us brunch."
I knew the invitation wasn't optional. It was most likely a business brunch. The worst part was my father's business partner's son would probably be there, as well, since it was their summer house I had been summoned to.
Daniel Currier and I haven't gotten along since we were teens. It's debatable if we were ever friends. Unfortunately, the two people who could answer that question were gone. Our mothers were best friends until they were killed in a helicopter crash in Hawaii. They loved to vacation together while their husbands worked, until their vacation excursion ended in tragedy.
My dad and Jim Currier were roommates at Harvard. My father was the brains and Jim was the money man behind O&C. Our products revolutionized medicine and saved lives. They also turned a nice profit for both families and so I never grew up wanting.
"I need some time. I was... working out."
"No need to primp, it's just family."
Family ─ the Curriers were not family. We may have felt like a family when my mother and Auntie Deb were alive, but not now. With the exception of David Currier, the oldest of the Currier boys, we all worked for the company. Without our matriarchs, family time had been replaced with business and only business.
I disconnected my father's call and turned to Nate. "I've been summoned."
"You should just say no," he said as he tweaked my nipple.
I pushed his hand away. "My father doesn't like no. I love him, but he's my boss too. Would you say, no, if Jim Currier requested a meeting with you?"
"Jim doesn't know I exist."
"You'd be surprised, but okay Daniel then?"
"Of course, I'd go. I like my job."
"Well, I like mine." I climbed out of bed to dress.
As I head for the door, Nate called after me. "But you'll never be fired. The rest of us can."
I had spent a good part of my childhood summers at the Currier house. The Point was a community on the coast of southern Maine separated from the mainland by a tidal river and marsh. There was a beautiful stretch of beach where we played and swam as kids with our mothers looking on from their brightly striped chairs.
An hour and twenty-three minutes after my father's call, I crossed the causeway onto The Point.