Page 81 of To the Chase

“You are. I’m not sure if you remember, but Bea was the one who saved all of us from having to eat awkward pasta Saturday night. I think she’ll do very well by my side.”

He dropped his chin to his chest. “It sounds like you’re already serious about her.”

I opened my hands, palms up. “Like you said, I don’t do casual.”

“How does that work—dating and having kids, I mean?”

“I’ll make it work. That’s not anything you have to worry about.”

Henodded. “No one’s more levelheaded than you. Which was why I was surprised you were late Saturday night. Was that her influence?”

“It was my own fault. I forgot the dinner and had made plans with her. Iamsorry for that.”

He winced. “You forgot? Has that ever happened?”

“I’ve had a lot on my mind. And before you ask, yes, Bea is undoubtedly taking up the most room right now.”

“I’m happy for you. Glad you’re excited about her. Just…be careful.”

“Careful?”

He hesitated. “Yes. You never know someone’s intentions, and you’ve worked your entire life to be taken seriously. All I’m saying is not to let anything distract you from that now.”

There it was. Gentle. Subtle. Like he was looking out for me.

I knew Sam well enough to recognize when I was being steered.

I didn’t give him anything. “Bea’s not a distraction.”

Sam offered a flat smile. “Of course. You’d know far better than I would.”

“That’s right.” I straightened and walked back behind my desk. “And I don’t want another Gravis situation. It happens again, we’ll have a serious problem.”

Sam’s expression didn’t change much, but there was a flicker of something. Annoyance? Guilt? He blinked away too fast for me to pin it down.

“Look, I know I jumped the gun. I shouldn’t have approached them without your sign-off.”

“That will never happen. Gravis is a hard no.”

Hethrew his arms out. “Got it. Loud and clear. Gravis is off the table. I hope you know all I was doing was trying to help. That’s always been the goal. At some point, you’re going to have to trust people if we’re going to take Nox to the next level.”

I stared at him. “There’s a difference between helping and making moves behind my back.IfNox levels up, it will be thought out and deliberate, not over lasagna on a Saturday night.”

“I know that. Iknow.” He shot me a sheepish grin. “I have a big mouth and even bigger ideas. They run away from me sometimes. You remember in college when I told that recruiter I already had an offer to intern with a ‘rising cybersecurity firm’? Total bullshit. We hadn’t even finished building our firewall prototype.”

The memory came rushing back. “You convinced me to go to a meeting with that guy who thought we had funding.”

Sam laughed, unrepentant. “And ended up getting an offer out of it, didn’t we?”

“Heoffered. I turned it down. We didn’t have a company yet, Sam.”

I couldn’t help but laugh too. Those had been the days. Before things got complicated. Before contracts and deadlines and capital injections. When we’d been two friends with big ideas and parallel goals.

“Details.” He waved it off. “Everything worked out beautifully, didn’t it?”

I let out a breath, the tension in my shoulders easing slightly.

“Eventually,” I conceded.