It's My Business: It's a Woman's World, #2

By Lexy Timms

You are a woman, that is your superpower…

 

Our marriage is fake, but the truth is, I love her.

 

Life comes at you fast, and family tragedy turns everything I know upside down. Between navigating this new version of life and America's so-called sweetheart trying to take down Bree and her company, things get tough.

 

Is attraction enough to get us through life's ups and downs?

Or are we doomed to fail before we even begin?

 

It's a Woman's World Series

• Have a Voice
• It's My Business
• Never Say Sorry

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadow Publishing
• Release date: Jun 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227633132

Lexy Timms

"Love should be something that lasts forever, not is lost forever."  Visit USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, LEXY TIMMS https://www.facebook.com/SavingForever *Please feel free to connect with me and share your comments. I love connecting with my readers.* Sign up for news and updates and freebies - I like spoiling my readers! http://eepurl.com/9i0vD website: www.lexytimms.com Dealing in Antique Jewelry and hanging out with her awesome hubby and three kids, Lexy Timms loves writing in her free time.  MANAGING THE BOSSES is a bestselling 10-part series dipping into the lives of Alex Reid and Jamie Connors. Can a secretary really fall for her billionaire boss?

Book preview

It’s a Woman’s World Series

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Book 1 – Have a Voice

Book 2 – It’s My Business

Book 3 – Never Say Sorry

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Have a Voice Blurb

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YOU ARE A WOMAN, THAT is your superpower...

Our marriage is fake, but the truth is, I love her.

Life comes at you fast, and family tragedy turns everything I know upside down. Between navigating this new version of life and America’s so-called sweetheart trying to take down Bree and her company, things get tough.

Is attraction enough to get us through life’s ups and downs?

Or are we doomed to fail before we even begin?

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Contents

It’s a Woman’s World Series

Find Lexy Timms:

Have a Voice Blurb

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

It’s a Woman’s World Series

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Chapter 1

Bree

MY HEART RACED. MY hands shook so badly I’d barely managed to answer the phone. My fingers tingled. I was breathless because my chest was so tight I couldn’t get oxygen.

Drew?

Bree, hi.

The words were ordinary, a simple greeting. But tears instantly clouded my vision again, throwing the room into shattered fragments. I pulled Emmet into me, my arm wrapped tightly around him for the comfort. He squirmed, but I didn’t let go—not yet.

For fourteen hours, I’d tried to get ahold of Drew. For fourteen hours, I’d wondered why he hadn’t gotten onto the plane in Paris. For fourteen hours, my mind had gone to every catastrophe it could conjure. Was he lying in some hospital bed in Paris, tubes sticking out of him? Was he so damaged he was barely recognizable from the bruising and swelling? Had he left after my funding meeting with Carter Hendrickson, just as we had agreed about our fake marriage? 

It also didn’t occur to me that, one, the French police would not contact me using his personal phone. And two, though Drew and I were married according to the media, I was not his partner legally or in his contacts. The French authorities would have called his family, not me.

But that thought only popped into my head after the fact, after my panic had settled and I was more able to think rationally.

Are you okay? Where are you? Drew, what happened? Are you hurt? The words poured out of me.

I’m okay.

But Drew didn’t sound okay—he sounded exhausted, his voice flat and rough.

Are you sure? What happened? You weren’t on the flight, and I thought something—

I swallowed my next words. I didn’t need Drew to know the depths my anxiety reached sometimes. I was sure it would send him screaming the other way.

I’m sorry I didn’t call. I heard a rasping on the other end of the line and imagined Drew rubbing at the stubble on his chin the way he did when he was tired, or upset, or thinking. It sounded like he hadn’t shaved in a while, either. My phone died halfway across the Atlantic, and I couldn’t charge it until half an hour ago. And I didn’t want to disturb your meeting before that, he added, cutting off my next question. It was too important for you to worry about me.

Why would I be worried about you? I asked. Are you in some kind of trouble? Where are you?

He still hadn’t answered that question.

Emmet was squirming and whining to get down, and I released him to slip off my lap and run back to his toys. Waiting out the silence over the phone line, I watched my son scooping up scattered blocks in preparation for building another tower, his current favorite activity.

Or so Drew had told me.

Drew, who had come to know my son’s habits better than I did.

Drew, who was still silent on the other end of the phone. I would have thought he had ended the call, except the line hadn’t gone dead.

My anxiety swelled again until I heard him take in a deep breath and sigh it out, a long, slow, wearied exhalation.

That call that I got before you left? It was my brother. My mom had a stroke.

I gasped and clapped my hand over my mouth. Is she okay?

Another pause, and then, No. She— The intake of breath was ragged, his next words jagged with emotion. She didn’t make it.

I could hear the emotion in his voice, hear the tears and pain and disbelief. It was all too familiar to me, a physical memory as much as a mental one, as close as if it had happened yesterday and not over a decade ago.

What can I do? I asked, fully aware that he would get all the sympathy, probably more than he could handle, over the following days, weeks, and even months, much of it empty. What he needed at the moment was support.

There’s nothing to do, Drew said. But I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. The meeting was too important to you, You had to focus, and I was the last thing you needed to worry about.

I drew a breath to argue but stopped myself. He was right—the meeting to secure funding for my company, Glow Generation, to go global had been one of the most important in my life. And I would have worried, would have lost my concentration, rushed a meeting that couldn’t be rushed.

But the fact that Drew had put me first during one of the worst times of his life said more to me than words ever could.

Where are you now?

I flew straight here. Drew didn’t elaborate on where exactly here was. I’m here trying to take care of everything. Mom has an iron-clad will and a huge estate she inherited from my grandparents, so we’re working through it with our lawyers.

Estate as in assets or an actual estate?

Both. Drew’s chuckle was humorless. She was old money, so there’s a ton to go over. I’m afraid it’s going to take a while.

My stomach flopped.

Footsteps became James, Drew’s best friend and fellow Mannies employee. He held up his phone and shook his head in a silent message—he’d been making calls on my behalf, trying to find Drew, and had come up empty. At least now I knew why.

It’s him, I mouthed silently, pointing to my phone.

James’s eyes rounded in surprise and frustration. Where the hell is he? he mouthed back.

I just shook my head, flapping my hand to indicate I would tell him when I was off the phone. Can you watch Emmet for a second?

Who is that? Drew asked as James nodded, and I hurried from the playroom toward my bedroom.

James. He was trying to figure out where you were.

Shit. I heard more rasping as Drew rubbed at his face again. I didn’t mean to worry everyone.

I shut the door behind me and made a beeline for my bed, which I collapsed onto, my legs jelly after the extensive onslaught of adrenaline.

It’s okay, I said again. What can I do? Emmet and I can fly out to be with you.

No, it’s okay. You’re too crucial to everyone. This is just the usual family stuff—Mom didn’t even want a funeral or any type of memorial. Glow Gen is more important.

My multi-million dollar company was important. It was the most important thing in my life aside from Emmet. But with sudden clarity, I knew if Drew needed me, I would be there.

For him, I would be there.

Bree, seriously. I’m fine. I know you’d come if I asked, and I miss you guys, but this is just family stuff. I’m okay for now.

How had Drew read me so easily?

You guys take care of you. I’ll be fine.

I wasn’t sure about that, but everyone grieved differently. Maybe Drew just needed space and time with his family to grieve together. Maybe he needed to get everything sorted out with his mom’s estate before he could tangle with all the mess that came with the sudden, eternal absence.

I’m here if you need me, I said. You can call any time.

Thanks. Another deep breath and a long sigh met my ear, and I expected him to hang up. But he didn’t. I had a really good time with you in Paris, Bree.

The words were entirely unexpected, said so softly I almost couldn’t hear them.

I had a good time with you, I managed to reply.

It felt wrong, talking about spending time together in the City of Lights while his mother had been dying at home.

It’s all I’ve been thinking about, Drew admitted. You don’t know how much it’s been helping me out to think about it. It’s giving me something else to focus on.

Even if I couldn’t be with Drew, I was glad I was helping him in some way through this horrible time.

How long are you going to be there? I asked.

I don’t know.

It was all he would say about that, skirting any real answer. I knew he probably didn’t have one, but I also heard the evasiveness in his words.

When we hung up, I gave in to the tears that had been pushing to get out, sobbing for the first time in years, trying to cover the sound with a hand clapped to my mouth. Sobbing in sadness for Drew, sobbing in relief that he was okay, sobbing because I knew what he was going through, sobbing at the memories and feelings that knowledge brought back.

And when my tears ran out, my eyes puffy, I lay back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering where the hell we went from here. Because, despite his feelings about Paris, I didn’t know if Drew would come back. Or if, as he had promised when he had agreed to pretend to be my husband until the meeting about the investment to go global, he was gone from our lives.

I took Emmet to the Mannies headquarters the next day and was surprised when he let go of my hand to run ahead. It cheered me up to see how at home he felt. Several teachers greeted him by name, and a few older kids ran up to say hello.

Watching my son toddle off to play, I realized it was the first time I’d ever seen Emmet join in anything. He’d always hung back, watching the other kids. And that was all because of Drew. If not for the man who had come into our lives so unexpectedly, Emmet would still be at his old preschool, unhappy and withdrawn, no doubt his speech still behind his peers.

I didn’t even mind when Emmet barely said goodbye to me—I was entirely comfortable leaving him there for the day, a feeling I hadn’t experienced before Drew and Mannies.

Hey, Bree.

Nearly at the door, I looked over my shoulder to find James coming down the stairs.

Hey. I greeted him with a smile.

I talked to Drew. He says it’s still going to be a while before he can get home.

Oh. Despite knowing this information already, my heart still plummeted.

But I have an opening for the next few weeks if you’re up for that. The family I usually nanny for is on vacation for a while.

That would be great. Emmet obviously feels comfortable with you. I tried to put warmth into my smile because I was grateful, but it wasn’t as bright as I would have liked.

Despite my initial hesitation and distrust, I liked James, and from Emmet’s visible comfort around him, my son did, too. James was the next best option if Drew couldn’t be there for my kid.

But he wasn’t Drew. I would go home after work to find James in my kitchen, not Drew. We would exchange information, and then he would leave. I hadn’t realized how used to talking out my day with Drew I’d gotten—how much I’d come to rely on it.

How much I’d come to rely on him and not just having a nanny—on his presence and the comfort he offered and his support.

I had known I felt something for Drew, but I hadn’t realized just how strong. Paris, the explosion of our feelings, had seemed too good to be true. And now I didn’t want to let him go. Did Drew feel the same way? I had no idea—we hadn’t had a moment to talk over our feelings. And now wasn’t the right time.

At all. 

But I knew what I felt for Drew, whatever those feelings were, made him more than just a casual date to me.

I had been terrified when I didn’t know why he wasn’t on the flight back to Paris, and that meant one thing—I truly cared for him. The entire flight and drive home from the airport, my mind had been spiraling to the worst-case scenario until I had been sick with it. Until it was all I could do not to have a panic attack 30,000 feet above the Atlantic.

The last time I’d been that terrified, Emmet had been three months old and struggling to breathe in the emergency room. Alone, holding my infant in a room decorated in pastels and illustrated animals, counting the tubes coming out of and going into him, and watching the beeping monitors incessantly, I had been sure I was going to lose him. That life was, yet again, going to take something important from me.

What did that mean? What did that mean about the depths of my feelings for Drew?

Drew wasn’t supposed to be anything to me, and a small part of me wished he wasn’t. He was Emmet’s nanny, and we’d had precisely two nights, a fake date, and a short twenty-four hours in Paris together, half of which hadn’t been with him. The rest had been a sham, and I had a signed document that said when Paris was over, he was done.

If life took Drew from me, it certainly wasn’t his fault. We—I—had known from the beginning what our time together meant. Had I felt something that night in Paris? Did I feel something toward him that may be falling? Yes, but that didn’t mean he felt the same. And now his mother was gone, and he would be dealing with intense grief and family dynamics that didn’t sound like a walk in the park.

On a whim, I asked the car to dial his number, but it went unanswered, and I didn’t leave a voicemail, my heart sinking again.

It could very easily spell the end of anything we had together—death and grief had a way of transforming life like that. It stopped your world and turned it on its head so that you could never right it again. It changed everything, and whatever possibility had existed between us would probably be part of that change.

Drew and I hadn’t had much, if anything, and I had to face that fact. Maybe I would get to talk to him about it, and maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe it was better to let things go now instead of letting them carry on, letting Emmet get too attached. Letting myself get too attached.

As I turned onto the freeway onramp, my eyes on the line of brake lights ahead of me, I tried to ignore the little voice that told me I was far past something as simple as attachment.

Chapter 2

Bree

WORK SWALLOWED ME WHOLE as soon as I got to the office and didn’t let go. Part of me was glad—I didn’t have a lot of time to wonder about Drew, about what might be. Or might not be.

But I still missed him when I crawled into bed. I missed knowing he was in the guest house across the lawn. I missed knowing I would see him in the morning, hear him talking with Emmet, be the recipient of that bright, sexy smile.

I missed being able to talk to him about work, knowing he would simply listen or offer advice when I needed it. Maybe crack a joke to get me to smile.

And in the darkest hours of the night, I wondered if I would ever have that again.

I knew what it was to feel loss, knew it intimately, could remember in excruciating detail what it was to lose