Page 111 of The Rebel

“Right.” I’d almost forgotten that we were still searching for an assistant.

“She asked if you’d be willing to provide a reference for Daisy, since you’re her current employer.”

I stilled. “Daisy got a job offer?”

“Yes. She didn’t give me any details except that it’s in North Dakota. Anyway, I thought I’d pass on her request. I figured it would be no problem, but I didn’t want to agree to something before checking in with you.”

It wasn’t easy to stun me into silence, but right now I couldn’t even form words. A few seconds later, I snapped out of it. “Of course. We can send her our usual stuff.”

Dorothy laughed. “We don’t have any recent standard recommendation letters for assistants. Need I remind you that none of your previous assistants wanted to put you down as a reference. I think they might have been afraid you would make them look bad or something.”

“Jesus, I sound like an asshole when you put it like that.”

“No. Far from it. Anyway, I was so hoping Daisy would stay on.”

“Me too,” I said honestly.

Fucking hell!She truly was considering a job in North Dakota? She’d mentioned it at the farm, but I didn’t think she’d follow through. I thought we were actually going to be together—I’d been even thinking of rings. What had I missed? Besides, things at the farm were going well according to Annelise. I could come up with a hundred other solutions to help her family that wouldn’t include Daisy moving to North Dakota.

“Tell Samantha that we can give her whatever she needs.”

“Perfect.”

For the next few hours, I couldn’t stop thinking about Daisy. She hadn’t mentioned this to me.

It doesn’t matter, Anthony. It’s a personal decision.

But I just couldn’t get behind that. All my life, I’d been adamant that my brothers were too pushy when it came togetting what they wanted. But now I understood that impulse. I didn’t want her to leave.

I wanted to burst into Daisy’s office, throw her over my shoulder, and take her straight to my house, where I’d convince her to stay for good. Yeah, that was right. That was what I wanted. Not just for her to stay in New Orleans but to live with me. Be with me.

I had half a mind to cancel the meeting with my brothers, but that wasn’t fair to them.

At six o’clock, I went to the meeting room. Chad was sitting next to Julian. Beckett was on the other side, Xander sitting a few chairs away from him.

“Where is Zachary?” I asked.

“He can’t make it. By the way, you’re late to your own meeting,” Xander chided. I knew he was only half joking, though.

“What can I say? Showing up on time has never been my forte. So, did everyone have time to look at what I sent you?”

“Yeah, we did,” Chad said.

Julian whistled. “Bold expansion, brother. But I think it’s a very good idea. In fact, I’d like to chip in too.”

I laughed. “You know, I was going to pitch that to you eventually. There are a lot of synergies between bars and music, and we need to utilize them more often.”

“I agree.”

“The financials look good,” Xander said, immediately sliding into CFO mode. “Your cashflow will be limited for some time, but you’ve got enough reserves. It shouldn’t be dangerous.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.” I could always count on Xander to give me the truth. He didn’t sugarcoat anything.

“Perfect. Then I’ll start working on things.”

We discussed some more pros and cons to my idea, and Julian came up with some excellent suggestions. I couldn’t wait to work more closely with him. We’d make a great team. Julian would set up temporary bars at each venue, keeping themflexible and easy to install and tear down for the length of each event. It was genius, if I did say so myself.

“Where is Daisy, by the way? I figured she’d be your shadow,” Chad said once we finished business talk.