Love Me: The Complete Series Read Free

attention. God knows the drab brick needed a boost. She wished she could call home and share the excitement.
    “You’re going to catch a cold if you keep standing out here admiring that sign.” Her friend and top employee-slash-partner, Caroline, peeked her head out the door then retreated.
    “I can’t believe it’s mine. Ours.” Abby closeted the touch of bittersweet victory and followed her in before twisting the door lock.
    Caroline shrugged. “It is. And so is the life-long debt associated with it.”
    “Not life-long. Just a ten-year loan. We’ll pay it off in no time.” She silently thanked the decision to cash in her company investment plan when she’d left her old job managing new store openings for her family’s retail business. Her parents still hadn’t gotten over the betrayal to their business heritage. She was the only one that hadn’t followed the flock. Still, after the big blow-up meeting, her heart wasn’t in it. The money cut her loan down significantly. Of course, it was also the only thing standing between her and destitution if the store failed.
    Losing everything was a little scary but losing her mind to that job had seemed worse. Abby shuddered, thinking about the meeting that had led to her decision. It had been a harried week at the office. Her dad had delegated one of their biggest new projects, the opening of ten new stores, to her. She wasn’t ready and she knew it. Still, he’d assured her she would get whatever support she needed from the real estate development contractors.
    Yeah, right. What a group of dirtbags
they
were.
    At the initial meeting, she’d started off by introducing herself. She was so nervous she’d forgotten to let them do the same and later had to ask each man’s first name.
    Halfway into the details, one of them kept interrupting. She tried to rein the group back in but he just kept asking her personal questions and it was—creepy. Why did the guy care whether she was old enough to run a project of this type? Why did he keep alluding to her “boyfriend” or “husband”? Was he fishing? Then he made the casual remark that they’d be going out for drinks after work and wanted her to meet them.
    She’d ignored the questions up to that point, but that one came off as if—the guy was hitting on her. Right in front of the entire team, on a conference call, no less. The hair on the back of her neck had risen. “No, I will
not
meet you for drinks, nor does it make one iota of difference if my “boyfriend” or “husband” is concerned about the time on this project since I currently have neither.
However,
right now what I actually
do need
is a real estate contractor that I can trust to do this project without taking this to a personal level. Someone that isn’t always chasing skirts or trying to sleep with the boss, secretary, or house-cleaning crew. That obviously
isn’t
you so this meeting is over.”
    A strained silence filled the space between each side of the call. Abby had waited for a response and right about the time she’d given up, one of the other voices spoke. “So, you’re one of the power-hungry bitches that rips a man’s heart out personally
and
professionally. What next? You send him packing or you just disappear? Isn’t that the way your type does things?”
    What the hell? Who had the balls to say
that
?
She hit the end button on the conference phone and steamed away from the meeting. Her brother, father, and one of the staff sat with their mouths agape, watching her leave.
    When her dad tried to talk her into making nice with them in order to get the project back on track, she refused. Instead, she packed up her office and left. She’d planned to do it for some time. That meeting just nailed the coffin in her corporate career.
    It wasn’t until later that she’d learned the company fired the guy who’d made the last statement. They apologized to her dad. Maybe they would have done so with her, too, but she was already