Page 11 of To the Chase

He crossed his arms, tucking in his normal, easygoing energy. “That’s it? You won’t even read what I spent hours laying out for you?”

I shook my head. “Your timeline is impossible. If you take a step back and remove the dollar signs from your eyes, I think you’ll acknowledge that.”

“The dollar signs?” He shot to his feet. “Are you kidding me? That’s what you think this is about?”

He wasn’t even trying to hide his anger anymore. Along with the sighs, he’d been losing his temper with me more often. It gave me pause, but not about my decision. I was certain about keeping Nox private.

I wondered if Sam had outgrown Nox. If he needed more of a challenge. There was a decent chance he’d outgrown me as well. As uneasy as those possibilities made me, I wouldn’t have blamed him. I had a particular way of doing things that couldn’t be changed easily.

I’d done more than my fair share of changing after the upheaval I’d gone through two years ago. Finally in a good place, where things were running smoothly again, I had no interest in turning it all upside down.

“I don’t know what it’s about. I—”

A flash of blue passing my open door robbed me of speech. Sam turned to follow my gaze, but all that remained was an empty doorway.

There was no way…

Not two weeks in a row.

Paul hadn’t said anything.

Then again, he had no reason to say anything. Except he knew I didn’t like surprises.

“What was that?” Sam asked.

“Nothing.” Leaning back in my chair, I refocused on him. “I’m sorry for the dollar sign remark. The point stands, though. At our last valuation, we were worth—”

“Iknowour valuation, Tore. If you’d read the proposal, you’d understand my reasoning. I wrote itforyou. So yeah, it hurts you won’t even take the time to read it. How can we have a real conversation if you won’t?”

As sure as I was about my decision, I didn’t like the idea of hurting Sam.

A long time ago, I had been a gawky, lonely nineteen-year-old college senior, and he’d taken me under his wing. First, as a partnerin class, then as a friend. Since interpersonal relationships had never come easily to me, I’d never taken our friendship for granted.

At least, I hadn’t before.

There was a chance I had in recent years.

Another flicker of unease churned in my gut. Dismissing him outright was not the way to go, even if I already knew reading the proposal would be a waste of time.

This was Sam. He’d been beside me every step of the way in building Nox. He’d supported me when I’d needed it most. I could do this for him.

“I’ll read it,” I told him. “But you have to understand—”

“I understand you think you won’t agree. All I’m asking is you keep an open mind when you read it.”

I nodded once. “I’ll do what I can.”

His mouth hitched into a crooked grin. “And I know you’ll tell me exactly what you think without pulling a single punch.”

I let out an internal sigh of relief at Sam reverting to his usual lighthearted self.

“Do you want me to?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Absolutely not. You wouldn’t be you if you pussyfooted around.”

Problem solved for now, my mind was already elsewhere when I pushed back from my desk. “Is there anything else?”

“Uh…no. I guess not.”