LITMIR.BIZ

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I want to stay in the business.”

      Naomi jumped off her bar stool and walked over to Kelsey at the stove. “Why? I don’t understand? Where is this coming from? Is Owen putting pressure on you to quit?”

      Kelsey stepped away. “He would rather I focus on our growing family and he has encouraged me to sell. He thinks the stress of pregnancy and working full-time has taken a toll on my body. And he’s right, to a degree, but I’m torn. Brooks and Johnson means a lot to me, but...” Her voice trailed off.

      “But what?”

      “I don’t know. It’s just not the same anymore like when we first started out. Some of the joy has gone out of it.”

      “Because we’re successful?” Naomi inquired. “It’s what we’ve always wanted, what we worked so hard for.” She turned away and walked over to the sink and grabbed both sides with her hands. “Or at least I thought so.”

      Several seconds later, she felt Kelsey’s hands on her shoulders. “Don’t be mad, okay? I’m just being honest and telling you how I feel. Just like I did when I first met you and saw you needed a little help in the beauty department.”

      Naomi chuckled and turned around to stare at Kelsey. At five foot four, Kelsey’s petite figure was still recognizable even though she was expecting, due to a regime of vegan food, yoga and Pilates. “Don’t sugarcoat it now. I believe you called me a hot mess.”

      Both women laughed.

      “Well, you were,” Kelsey responded with a grin. “You had acne and you wore your hair in a ponytail, and the clothes...” She snorted. “You were straight out of the ’90s. You wore those baggy jeans and plaid shirts. It was no wonder you couldn’t get a date.”

      Naomi rolled her eyes.

      “Now look at you.” Kelsey eyed Naomi’s figure up and down. “Your skin is clear and bright from using the proper facial products. And you finally listened to me telling you relaxers were killing your good hair, so it looks healthy now.”

      Naomi fingered the soft spiral curls that reached her shoulders and complemented her long face. She’d fought Kelsey in the beginning about going natural, but the look suited her. Though it had taken some practice and a good stylist to learn how to work her natural curls into coil and twist styles, she’d mastered it. “Yeah well, I’ll give you that one.”

      “And?” Kelsey countered. “Look at your clothes? We finally found your style—bohemian chic.”

      Naomi was wearing a bat-wing sweater with distressed jeans, fringed boots and clunky jewelry adorning her ears, neck and wrists. She was finally learning to show off her killer size-four figure. “I can’t thank you enough,” Naomi replied, “for taking in such a socially inept, fashionless woman as myself, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you’re ready to bail on our business after all we’ve endured.”

      Kelsey stirred the mixture on the stove one more time before turning off the burner. She was quiet for several long moments before responding. “You know I love you, Naomi, but my priorities have changed. I have to put my family first. But listen, I’ll give this some more thought before making any decisions.”

      Naomi gave her a bear hug. “Thank you. That’s all I could ask. But while you’re figuring things out I’ll be doing the same. Perhaps I can buy your shares.”

      “Naomi, that would be a steep sum and a lot of responsibility. Can you afford it and are you really ready to take on all the responsibility?”

      “I don’t know, but I have to find out,” Naomi replied. Because although Kelsey posed some good questions to give Naomi pause, she had to do something. Otherwise, the future of Brooks and Johnson, a company they both started, was in jeopardy.

      * * *

      After showering at the gym, Lucius and Adam headed to a local gentlemen’s club they liked to frequent. The service was top-notch and the scantily clad women that delivered them their drinks more than made up for the overpriced menu.

      “Ah.” Lucius sipped on his scotch neat and leaned back in the lounge chair to face Adam. “I needed this after that workout.”

      “Yeah.” Adam nodded. “Seems like you had some steam to let off today. What gives?”

      Lucius shrugged. “It’s nothing.” He wasn’t altogether keen on talking about the real reason for his bad mood.

      His mother, Jocelyn Turner.

      “Bull,” Adam stated. “I know when you have something on your mind.”

      Lucius frowned at Adam. He could always read Lucius even though outsiders never could. Lucius strove to always have a poker face in his business dealings. Most people never knew what was going on in his mind, and he liked it that way. It kept people off-kilter and gave him the element of surprise, which he needed when deciding whether to take over or dismantle a company.

      But Adam knew him too well.

      “It’s Jocelyn,” he replied. “She’s coming to town.” His grandmother Ruby had told him his jet-setting socialite mother would be stopping in for one of her semiannual trips.

      “Oh.” Adam nodded his head thoughtfully. “That explains it. How long is she staying?”

      “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

      Why should he? Jocelyn Turner had never cared about him. He’d had countless nannies before she’d finally sent him to a junior boarding school at the age of nine, and he’d acted out accordingly, so she’d handed him over to his grandmother. And bless her heart, his grandma done right by him. She’d brought Lucius to live with her in Long Beach and tried to instill good values in him, but Lucius had always known he was an afterthought.

      His mother didn’t want him, and his father? Hell, he didn’t even know who he was, and Jocelyn refused to tell him no matter how many times he asked or pleaded. Lucius had begun to suspect that his father was a married man. So what did that make his mother?

      At a young age, he’d learned to harden his heart and toughen up. It was a lesson that had served him well in life and in business. Of course, it also happened to get him in a lot of trouble as a teenager. His grandmother had been called constantly because he was getting in fights or being suspended from school. Lucius had gotten something of a reputation in high school as a bad boy because he rebelled against authority. Meeting Adam had changed his life and shown him he wasn’t as alone as he’d felt in the world.

      “I don’t think that’s true,” Adam interrupted Lucius’s musings. “It’s because you care. Every time your mother visits, you get riled up.”

      Lucius took a long drink of his scotch. “That’s not true.”

      “Do you remember the last time she was here? You were so out of sorts that it nearly cost us that Corinth deal because you insulted the man right when he’d agreed to not fight you on the takeover.”

      “Yeah, well, he deserved it,” Lucius commented, even though he knew Adam was right. His hotheadedness was one of his flaws. “Speaking of takeovers, let’s talk about Brooks and Johnson.”

      “Ah, are you ready to tell me why you’re so interested in the company?”

      “Have you seen the numbers they’ve been bringing in?” Lucius commented. “They’ve grown steadily over the last three years, and their revenue is impressive and can double now that they’ve been public for a few months. And I’ve learned that one of the principals might be open to selling. So we should strike while the iron is hot.”

      “Kelsey Johnson or Naomi Brooks?” Adam inquired. “Why would either of them sell?”

      Lucius rubbed his chin. “Didn’t the dossier on Kelsey Johnson say she’s pregnant with child number two? She could be thinking of downsizing and focusing on her family. That could be our in.”

      Adam

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