Page 21 of A Montana Childhood Promise (Sagebrush Ranch Sweethearts #3)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Noah burst into the boardroom. He’d taken a last-minute flight to Seattle where the headquarters had moved to last year. This meeting had been on the books for weeks, but Noah had planned on attending digitally.

Now, he had a reason to be here in person, and every single person in that room was going to regret it.

The ten board members he’d hired to run this organization once it had gotten too large for him to run on his own behind the computer screen jumped and rose to their feet.

They were all twice his age or older, but that didn’t matter.

Each one of them knew who was in charge—who signed their paychecks. He’d made sure of that when he’d hired them. He was the bankroller. He was the one who made all the final decisions. And if anyone attempted to do anything without him signing off on it, they were reprimanded.

Not one of the individuals in this room took a seat as Noah made his way to the head of the table. Their eyes darted to each other, not one of them breathing a word. Noah unbuttoned his suit jacket before pulling back the chair and taking a seat.

Here, he was a businessman. Here he wore a mask of the man he’d needed to be when he made the decision to start up this charity. He couldn’t afford to let people walk all over him, and that was exactly what the secretary had done.

He frowned at the men and women who stood around the table expectantly. Then, all at once, they settled into their chairs.

“Mr. Reese, you… ah… erm…” Jonathan was the head of his board—the liaison who passed information from Noah to his team when he couldn’t be present and vice versa.

He scooted his chair closer to the table and rested his clasped hands before him.

“We weren’t expecting you to attend this meeting… in person.”

“I didn’t exactly have a choice, now, did I?” Noah’s eyes scanned the room for the secretary who was responsible for responding to the emails the board received. If she couldn’t respond to them, she sent them on to Thomas, who was responsible for a wide range of interactions with the public.

The people in the room shifted uncomfortably. And why wouldn’t they be nervous? They knew the rules. He’d laid them out plainly when this charity had gotten too big for him to handle on his own.

Noah placed his palms on the table and rose as his irritated glare swept through the room. “Do any of you want to tell me why I’m being summoned to an event?”

A few of the individuals flinched.

“Because last I heard, that isn’t something I do. Did I not make it clear that I am not the face of this program? I do not make public appearances. I do not want my name plastered in the media. Everything we do is about the people we help, not the people who run this charity.”

Murmurs rumbled through the room.

“Of course, Mr. Reese. We all know?—”

Noah turned to Jonathan. “Then do you want to tell me why my presence is being requested at the event being held in Montana?”

To his credit, Jonathan didn’t shy away from Noah’s dark tone. He moistened his lips and gave a curt nod. “The young woman who is responsible for that email hasn’t been with us long. She was still learning the ins and outs of how we do things here.”

Noah’s brows lifted. “What happened to Pepper?”

Jonathan cleared his throat. “Ms. Mathewson gave us her two weeks’ a couple months ago. I made sure to include it in our notes.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Noah took a steadying breath.

He couldn’t exactly be upset with someone who hadn’t been working with them long.

It had been an honest mistake. Still, if this was the sort of thing that could fall through the cracks, then the new secretary would need someone to check over her emails before they got sent out.

She couldn’t be making official statements that went against the way he ran things.

“Has she not had the training needed for?—”

“We’re aware of how problematic this situation has become, Mr. Reese. She’s been reprimanded for her actions, and she’s been put on probation when it comes to public communication. The email she received requesting your presence should have been passed on to Mr. Daniels, but it slipped through.”

“What have you done to remedy the situation? From what I can tell, the people organizing this event haven’t been given a corrected statement.”

Jonathan shifted his focus through the room again then cleared his throat. “We haven’t made any corrections.”

Noah stiffened, his eyes narrowing. “I beg your pardon?”

The man fidgeted again. “We thought it would be wise to make an appearance. The charity has been so successful, there are rumors that?—”

“Do I look like I care about rumors? This charity is doing everything by the book. We pay top dollar for our bookkeeping, and everything is out in the open.”

“With all due respect, not everything .” Jonathan was referring to Noah’s name. The one thing that wasn’t public knowledge—his identity.

Noah shook his head. “No. I won’t have my personal life changed simply because someone wasn’t trained well enough to understand the parameters of how we run things. I will not attend this event in an official manner.”

Jonathan lifted his brows. “In an official manner?”

All eyes drifted toward Noah, and his skin practically burned with their attention.

“I will not be attending,” he amended. The event would be big enough, Noah would likely be able to avoid being seen by anyone in this room.

“I don’t care what happens to my reputation.

I am not the face of this organization. I do not make public appearances. It’s a matter of privacy and safety.”

Jonathan shifted again, then his focus swept through the room.

It was clear he didn’t like this turn of events.

Jonathan had always been vocal about Noah being front and center.

There weren’t many organizations that didn’t have the head honcho front and center.

Thankfully, he’d been the right guy for this job, because he simply nodded.

“We will send out a retraction and offer to send more of our board members.”

Noah nodded as he lowered back into his chair.

The rest of the meeting was as mundane as he’d been expecting, and he found he wished he could have remained back home for its entirety.

But if he’d done that, it would have been harder to get through to his people.

They didn’t understand his reasons for staying behind the curtain.

He was leading a double life, and the moment they bled into each other, his world would change.

People would look at him differently. He wasn’t ready for that to happen.

When the meeting was over, everyone slipped from the room, leaving Noah alone with Jonathan. The man could have been his father. Jonathan was a couple years older than Will Reese. But they couldn’t have been more different.

Noah’s father was a country man. He enjoyed being out in nature with the animals. He preferred to work with his hands. He’d taught Noah the importance of hard work, even though he hadn’t grown up on a ranch.

Jonathan was a steely businessman. He didn’t back down from much.

Occasionally, there were days like today when he showed his nerves.

It was good for him to be reminded that his position here could be snatched away as quickly as it had been given to him.

Noah would never do that, of course. Jonathan was too good at what he did.

The fact that he would be focusing on damage control said it all.

Jonathan cleared his throat. “Mr. Reese… a word?”

Noah glanced at him, dragged from his thoughts. “I told you. Call me Noah. When we’re not in front of…” He waved a hand toward the boardroom. “All of this, then you don’t have to call me Mr. Reese.”

Jonathan chuckled, but his expression remained taut. “Might I speak frankly with you?”

Noah nodded. This was the side of Jonathan that he could appreciate. The man knew better than to argue with him in front of the board. He knew better than to question his motives, too. But when they were alone, he didn’t seem to have that same sense of self-preservation.

“You’ve been running things from behind your so-called curtain for a long time now. The whispers in the beginning revolving around who really runs this charity have gotten louder.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Noah asked without any ire.

Jonathan pressed his lips together firmly. “People are generally curious. They want to know who they’re giving their money to.”

“They know who,” Noah balked. “It’s all there in black and white in our statements.”

His number two shook his head. “They want to know who they’re trusting their money with.

You have a board of people supporting you and a document stating your mission.

But ultimately, you make the final decision.

You are the one who can veto a plan or change things up.

It’s hard to trust a faceless man.” He was quiet for a moment. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Noah grunted. “You still think I should tell everyone who I am.”

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

He didn’t know what he was talking about.

A few years ago, Noah might have been inclined to listen to his statements.

But right now? There was too much at risk.

Jane wasn’t the type of person to be interested in a guy like him.

She’d said herself that she wouldn’t want to marry a man with money out of fear it would change her.

Well, if he could keep this side of his life separate from the one he led when he was around her, then there shouldn’t be a problem.

“I know you have your reservations about sharing that information. But Noah—” He stopped until Noah met his eyes again. “It might get to a point where it will do more harm than good to keep it a secret. People tend to stop trusting what they can’t see.”

Noah got to his feet with a nod. “Thanks for your advice. I’ll think about it.

” No, he wouldn’t. He had made his decisions a long time ago when Jane wasn’t even a possibility.

Now that she was, he wouldn’t risk losing her over something so trivial.

There were secrets that simply needed to be kept.

Maybe one day, that would change. But right now?

He had no intention of sharing this side of himself with her.

It wasn’t the side she was falling for, anyway, so it shouldn’t matter.

“You have got to be kidding me!”

Noah glanced over at Jane where she sat with her laptop settled on her thighs. Her face was flushed, and her eyes sparked with fire.

He smirked. “Is the internet down again?”

She snapped her head around as if she only just remembered she had an audience. Then she swiveled the computer to face him. “They’re backing out.”

Noah frowned. “Who? One of the vendors?”

Jane shook her head with vehemence. “No. The stuck-up suits that run the charity. They said that there has been a conflict of scheduling, and the CEO won’t be able to attend.

They don’t even give his name.” She threw her head back against the couch cushion with exasperation.

“I don’t believe this. It’s like they don’t even care.

I’ve already made an announcement about them coming. ”

Noah shot up in his seat. “You did?”

She nodded, not noticing the tension that exuded from him as she chewed on her fingernail with a scowl still on her face. “Of course I did. We sent out that update two days ago. We thought it would get the excitement going, and the response has been phenomenal.”

He muttered a curse under his breath, which caused her to turn her head.

“I know, right? Why would they do that? Don’t they realize that agreeing to come only to change their mind is really suspicious?

I can’t even imagine what the guests are going to say when they find out.

This could really blow up in our faces.” Her face flushed red, and she groaned as she dragged her hands down her cheeks. “What am I supposed to say?”

Noah couldn’t utter a single word. He’d assumed that Jonathan would have told Jane right after their meeting, but apparently, it hadn’t been at the top of his list. His meeting had been on Monday, and today was Thursday. She’d sent out the update on Tuesday.

He should be livid—utterly and completely rageful that his employees had messed this up for him so badly. But all he could feel was worry. For Jane. For himself. For his charity. For his relationship. What was this going to mean in the long run?

Jane was right.

If he didn’t show up after saying he would, then the people who trusted his company would start to look closer at the fact that they didn’t know the identity of the generous man behind the mask.

But if he did show up, then Jane would be let in on his biggest secret.

Both options would mean his life would change.

She glanced over at him and offered him a small smile.

“You know what? This is all my fault. The email they just sent says that there was a mistake in the first response. I knew it wasn’t likely that whoever it was would come.

And yet I just accepted the email at face value.

I should have just waited until the night of to announce to everyone that we’d be having a special guest.”

Emotion brimmed in her eyes, and Noah wanted nothing more than to tell her everything right here and now.

If he did, maybe she’d understand why he couldn’t come.

It wasn’t just about a secret he was keeping from her, anyway.

This was about keeping his second life a secret from people who would want to hurt or manipulate him. Trusting people was hard these days.

He reached over to her and took her hand in his.

She looked so upset, and he needed to take away that pain, seeing as he was the one who caused it.

“Maybe…” he hedged, “they will change their minds again.” That definitely wasn’t going to happen, but he was her boyfriend, and it was what he was supposed to say.

Jane scoffed. “Honestly, the flip-flopping would be worse than just leaving it the way it is.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.” Noah cleared his throat, dropping his gaze to their interlocked fingers.

“This is business. And businessmen realize when they’re in jeopardy of losing something special.

If changing their minds on this gets the uproar you think it will, they might have no other choice.

” He prayed that she wouldn’t hear the lie in his voice.

Jane would get over this. She’d move on to something else.

The event was still a month out. Eventually, she’d forget about this embarrassment.

And if she didn’t?

Well, he wasn’t willing to think about that.