Page 83 of Forty, Flirty & Fall Inn

"This shirt looks like you had athletic sex and then slept in it."

"That's...accurate, actually."

She laughs, some of the tension breaking."Come on, Mr.CEO.Let's make you presentable."

She finds me a t-shirt from a stack of laundry.It's soft and smells like her detergent and has "Alder Ridge: Get Lost in Our Beauty" printed on it.

"Perfect," I say dryly.

"You'll start a trend.Billionaire chic."

I'm dressed and ready to leave in record time, but I can't resist pulling her close for one more kiss.

"I'll call you later?"

"Sure."She nods against my chest."Go save your company from international incidents."

I'm halfway to Seattle, definitely breaking those traffic laws, when the full weight of the situation hits me.

I missed the warning signs.

Just like I'd missed them before.

I pass the familiar turn-off for Lakeview cemetery, a place I haven’t intentionally driven by in years, pressing harder on the accelerator.

Whatever bug caused the Tokyo incident, there should have been alerts, reports, something.

But I've been distracted.

For weeks now, I've been focused on Sage, on the inn, on this thing building between us, and I've let my actual company slide.

The board meeting is goddamned brutal.

Twelve faces staring at me with varying degrees of disappointment as I explain how our flagship product trapped a diplomat in a bathroom.

"The lock mechanism interpreted his repeated attempts to exit as a security threat," I explain."It activated full lockdown protocol."

"For three hours," Board Chairman Barbara Todd emphasizes."Three.Hours."

"The override system also malfunctioned."

"And where were you when this was happening?"Richard Stein asks.He's been gunning for my position since I started the company."My understanding is you were...unavailable?"

"I was in a meeting."The lie tastes like ash.

"A meeting.At midnight Tokyo time.Which would be..."He makes a show of calculating."Eight AM here.On a Sunday."

I was in Sage's bed at eight AM on Sunday.

Probably doing something that would make the board clutch their pearls.

"The important thing," I say, steering away from my whereabouts, "is fixing the bug and ensuring it doesn't happen again."

"The important thing," Barbara interjects, "is leadership focus.Lucas, you've built something remarkable here.But lately..."

She doesn't finish, but the implication hangs heavy.

Lately, I've been distracted.Lately, I've been absent.