The Heart Wants What It Wants

Chapter 2

“Mr. Hemsworth?”

George looked up, a little distracted.

“It’s time to board.”

“Of course.”

Chartering a flight had its uses. He didn’t have to fit his schedule around anybody else’s for starters.

George was in the plane and buckled in quickly, and the pilot was cleared for takeoff in a few minutes.

“All right, Charlie, let’s get to work.”

“Of course. I made the changes to the presentation and I think it’s good to go now. I added the latest reviews, changed the font on the slide about the platform, and tweaked the demo video.”

George nodded, took the laptop, and went through it. It was perfect. He was delivering the keynote presentation, not just there to represent the brand. Of course, representing the brand was important enough on its own. He was well aware of that. He’d built the brand carefully, far more carefully than he had built the rest of his life, and he’d never do anything to diminish it.

“It looks good, Charlie. Right, you’re off duty. We can take a break now.”

Charlie grinned, and George wished, once again, that he didn’t have such a hard and fast rule about not dating people who worked for him. Even if they made it very clear that they would like it, he never broke that rule. Things could get messy, and he made a point of hiring only the best people, so losing them because they found working with him too awkward was just not an option.

Still, Charlie was one of the most stunning and smartest women he had ever known. Estelle had tried to convince him to bend his rule a little after meeting her. But then, Estelle always thought that what her baby brother needed was a wife and a couple of kids, because that’s what had finally made her happy.

“Great, I need a nap.”

George chuckled, and Charlie curled up in one of the comfortable seats for that nap. Not one to waste his time, he sat back and looked through a few product ideas he’d been playing around with.

He was a lucky man. He knew that. He considered almost all of his work to be play. He liked making new things, he liked finding technological solutions to work that would be ordinary drudgery, and it was still a bit of a wonder to him that he’d gotten as rich as he was by just playing around and doing what he loved to do. It was a bit of a miracle.

Whatever price he had paid for it, he considered it worth it.

Estelle would’ve disagreed. She frequently did disagree. But between his work and his marriage, when it had finally come down to a choice, he had chosen his work, and really, Tracy had been more than happy with his decision when he hadn’t fought the settlement.

Tracy was a rich woman, and she was happy with whatever it was that she was doing. She was also out of his life. He paid no alimony because he’d made that settlement extremely enticing if she’d give up her rights to alimony.

He didn’t resent that at all. She deserved to be happy, despite how things had ended between them. It hadn’t been personal. It didn’t occur to George that the end of a marriage should definitely have been personal. Anyway, she seemed to be happy. It wasn’t like he checked up on her. When George let something go, he let it go. When he let people go, he did that completely, too. He didn’t hold on to a part of them hoping for something more.

He expected the same from people, too.

By the time he landed, he was refreshed and ready to go on. He liked conferences and workshops. He found them fun. There were always so many eager young people there, all speaking his language, all believing themselves to be on the cusp of greatness. He believed it, too. There was so much potential there. It kept him young, and at forty-two, he was beginning to feel like he needed it.

“Charlie, we need…”

“Got everything we need, chief. You know you can leave it to me.”

George grinned.

“Of course I can. San Diego. I feel like we should be able to catch a game of some sort.”

Charlie chuckled.

“Thanks, but my girlfriend will be here for the weekend and she’s not keen on games.”

Ah, there was the other reason he’d never have a shot with the lovely Charlie.

“Upgrade yourself to one of the nice suites, Charlie. You should have fun.”

“I think I might do that. Thanks!”

It was seven in the morning when they reached the hotel where the conference was happening. He hoped it would be well organized. George Hemsworth did not tolerate fools, especially incompetent ones.

He was in the penthouse suite, of course. He liked his comforts and his luxuries.

A workout, a few laps in the pool, and he was ready for breakfast and a day spent among his people – the kind who innovated, the kind who looked to the future and made it become yesterday.

He was ready.

But he really wasn’t, not for what was coming his way.

This was such a waste of her time, and a waste of a lovely trip and what was probably a perfectly nice conference. Somebody else really should have been there instead of her, thought Diana as she tried not to nod off.

She had dutifully gone for every session, and now she was desperate for it to be over. It was only twelve – not even lunch. Oh, if only it could be lunch! At least that felt like some kind of respite!

She’d checked her emails about a million times, but there was nothing that somebody else hadn’t handled. She’d done her job too well. She hadn’t left anything undone.

Coffee – coffee would probably wake her up a bit. If that didn’t work, she was going to download a book and read it. If she was forced to stay away from work, she might as well get some fun out of it. Look at it as a mini vacation for herself, maybe. Why not?

Thank heavens she hadn’t sat in the middle of a row! She was way in the back, at the end, and she could easily sneak away and get a coffee and a donut. Or maybe some of that carrot cake. It looked excellent. She loved carrot cake. And she could tell herself it was actually part vegetable so it was practically good for her. Didn’t most carrot cake recipes include applesauce? She wasn’t much of a baker, but that seemed right to her, and that practically made carrot cake a salad, as far as she was concerned.

She could definitely have a coffee and a slice of carrot cake. The caffeine and the sugar would do her good.

Slowly, trying not to call attention to herself, she got to her feet and walked to the table where the coffee, the donuts, the croissants and the carrot cake that had caught her eye so appealingly all waited for her.

“Ah, coffee, come to me,” she said softly as she poured herself a cup, added just a bit of milk even if she would’ve preferred cream, and no sugar.

If she was going to have cake – even a salad cake – she couldn’t justify sugar in her coffee.

“Sorry, donuts. I’m going to have to give you a pass. But don’t worry, I’m sure lots of people will come and they’ll all want you. Now, carrot cake, let me have a slice of you, and we’ll party, shall we? You look as out of place here as I do.”

“Do you usually have conversations with desserts?”

The amused voice nearly made her jump out of her skin. She’d really thought that she was alone. Everybody else had seemed completely engrossed in the speaker, who was talking about something to do with block chains, and she had no idea what they were.

Everybody else seemed to be very keen on them, bless them all.

Apparently not everybody else.