A small group of Matthew's staff was huddled together, one consoling another who was in tears. Several others were running around with binders, laptops, tablets, files. What the hell was going on? Had the market crashed and no one told him? Were they suddenly bankrupt? Was a meteor heading for Earth and everyone was jumping ship to head for bunkers? Should he be playing Aerosmith and watching the news for signs they were sending Bruce Willis into space?
"Matthew!" Adam came running, his big green eyes wide. He threw his arms around Matthew and squeezed the life out of him. When he spoke, it was clear he was on the verge of hyperventilating. "Thank God you're back!"
"Breathe, Adam. It's okay. Breathe." It wasn't like his levelheaded assistant to panic. Adam was immovable. The voice of reason, the calm in the storm. He was the one who soothed Matthew when Bryce or Arianna wound him up so tight he wanted to scream. Whatever had spooked Adam had been bad. Very bad.
"I'm so sorry I didn't call. I thought I could get this sorted out before you got back, but...." Adam breathed in slowly through his nose and released the breath through his mouth until he was composed enough to talk.
"Everything's going to be fine. Now tell me what happened," Matthew prompted gently.
Adam's eyes went wide again, and his bottom lip trembled, reminding Matthew how young he was. Not that Matthew was that much older, but in that moment, Adam looked younger than his twenty-eight years. "Someone tried to access the client list and messed with the server, screwing with all the databases, and everything went down. The entire system went down, and when Bryce marched up here, asking what the hell was going on and why his computer was down, I told him. I thought maybe he might know what to do, but he went around telling everyone it was my fault, that everyone around here was incompetent and how he had no idea why you kept any of us around, and--"
"It's okay. I'm here. We're going to get to the bottom of this." And Bryce wondered why Matthew didn't believe he was ready to head his own branch. If he couldn't even be counted on to manage one crisis, how could he manage an entire section of Hart & Home? Instead of reassuring the staff, taking charge, and getting the job done, he was blaming others. Matthew addressed the floor. "Everyone! Can I have your attention please?"
As if noticing him for the first time, everyone's head shot up. They stared as if he were some specter come to haunt them from beyond the grave. He hadn't been gone that long. Then they realized he was flesh and blood, and Matthew found himself rushed by his staff, all volleying questions at him.
Matthew held up a hand. "Quiet down, please. Everything is going to be just fine. Go back to whatever you were working on before I was attacked by my salad."
Once he managed to ease everyone's nerves, Matthew went around to the IT staff, reassuring them everything would be all right. He approached the head of their IT department and smiled warmly.
"Sandra, I'm so sorry about all this. What can I do to help?"
"I can set up a recovery, but I need your access code. We were trying to work around it, but nothing's worked."
Matthew nodded, and she typed away at the keyboard, bringing up a black screen with scrolling white text. A log-in screen appeared, and Matthew put in his secure username and password.
A few mouse clicks later, and Sandra let out a sigh of relief. She beamed brightly at him. "It's all there."
"Great job. Let me know when it's all up and running." He started to walk off, then remembered what Adam had said. He turned back to Sandra. "Can you find out who tried to access the client list and why the severs went down?"
"It's possible that running the recovery could delete all the previous log-in information, if it isn't lost already."
"Just do what you can," Matthew said.
"Will do, boss." She sat down and went to it. Matthew might have brought his father's company into the digital age, but he never would have been able to do it without his team of experts. As much as he was willing to embrace technology, he still distrusted it. Greatly. His friends teased him because he used a paper agenda. Sure, he had his online calendars and management tools that synced up on all his devices, but for him, nothing beat paper and pen. Which was why Matthew left nothing to chance, and he always thought ahead, preparing for the worst. Except where his life was concerned, apparently.
With a sigh, he took a seat behind his desk, glad to be back. Before he could forget, he removed the new EpiPen from his jacket pocket, but instead of placing it in the drawer as usual, he unlocked the bottom drawer that only he, Adam, and Robert had a key to, and placed the EpiPen in there. His backup EpiPen was already secured in his briefcase.
Robert and his team were still working on the mystery of the disappearing EpiPen. Matthew had no idea where it could have gone or why it wasn't where it should be. No one but Adam came into his office when he wasn't there, and Adam's desk was right outside the office, so someone would have to get by Adam without being seen. So far, the security footage recorded the day of the incident showed nothing out of the ordinary. The only people to have gone into Matthew's office by themselves that day were Matthew, Adam, and Ellen, who took out the trash in Matthew's office throughout the day, just as she'd done every day for the past thirty years, whistling cheerfully and using the organic lemon-scented cleaner she knew Matthew loved. She used to bring him homemade chocolate chip cookies when he came to the office after school to be with his dad.
With five boys of her own all grown up, Ellen cared about Matthew, and he refused to believe she would ever do anything to hurt him. Matthew hated that she'd been investigated. It had been hard to watch the footage of her being questioned and the way she burst into tears at the thought someone would think her capable of hurting Matthew. Robert had assured them both it was necessary to investigate everyone. He'd been firm with her but respectful.
Robert was leaving nothing to chance. He even interviewed Adam to get his account of the day, and then Ruth had been called in to discuss the delivery. As of yesterday, Robert and his team still had no leads. Everyone who'd been in Matthew's office that day had been cleared. The fact there were no cameras inside Matthew's office made Robert's job more difficult, but Matthew refused to budge. When clients came to Hart & Home to speak with him, they sat in Matthew's office, confident of the privacy and confidentiality they received. Matthew wouldn't compromise his clients' trust.
A knock on the glass door brought his head up, and he smiled at Robert. At least until he saw Robert's grim expression.
"What's wrong?"
"We were going through security footage for the past week when the servers went down. I don't know what happened, but when everything came back online, the footage was gone."
Matthew cursed under his breath. "How much of it?"
"The last two months. With the recovery, we lost the log-in information for the past six weeks as well. There's no way of knowing who tried to access the client list." Robert let out a heavy sigh. "Sandra says the data could have easily been corrupted and lost during the recovery process, but there's no way of knowing for certain."
Well, so much for that.
"I'm not giving up, Matthew. We're working with Lettuce Eat and will be reviewing their security footage as well."
"Thank you, Robert. I really appreciate it. Let me know if you find anything."
Robert nodded, greeting Adam as they crossed paths.
"I brought you a latte. Extra shot."
"Thank you." He took the latte Adam held out to him. "Feeling better?"
Adam nodded. "I'm sorry about earlier. I thought I was stronger than that."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. It's been a trying few days for everyone."
"I think it all just caught up with me. Almost losing you, then the servers going down, everyone looking to me to fix it, and then Bryce blaming me. I'm sorry, Matthew. I don't want you to think you can't count on me during a crisis."
"Hey, I know I can. I'm sorry you didn't have the support you needed. I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen again. Any wor
d from Bryce?"
Adam wrinkled his nose. "He hasn't left his office since this morning."
Matthew scoffed. Of course. "Probably hiding from me. With all the crap he gives me about being ready to lead, he blows the first opportunity he gets to show me he can. I swear, I never know whether I'm coming or going with him. I don't think even Bryce knows what he wants. He owes you an apology."
"God no. The day that happens, the apocalypse is truly upon us."
Matthew chuckled, and Adam was about to leave when Matthew stopped him. "Will you close the door? I want to talk to you about something."
"Sure." Adam did as instructed, then took a seat in one of the chairs across from Matthew's desk.
"When I woke up in the hospital, I had a moment of panic."
"That seems to be going around lately."
Matthew wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, well. When they invent an alert system for human train wreck approaching, let me know. I'll take two." Normal seemed to be a relative term where his life was concerned. "I thought about what would happen to Hart & Home if... I wasn't here anymore. It was frightening enough thinking about it, much less getting a taste of it. Bryce would run this place into the ground. Everything my dad worked so hard to build, everything I've worked so hard to achieve wouldn't just be destroyed, it'd be poisoned. That's if Bryce didn't sell it off to the highest bidder."
"I still don't understand why your dad put that in his will. Why would he trust Bryce?"
"Because my dad loved his brother, and for all of Bryce's faults, he loves Bryce. When my uncle was dying of cancer, my dad promised him he'd take care of Bryce. My dad set up a trust fund for Bryce and stated in his will that Hart & Home would always be passed down to a Hart heir unless there was no heir. Bryce is a Hart, through my uncle. If I have no one to pass the company to, it rightfully goes to Bryce. We were just kids when my dad made that promise. He had no idea Bryce would turn into such an ass, or that I'd have no one to leave our legacy to." Martin Hart was a man of his word, and if something happened to Matthew, his father would do as he promised, most likely doing everything in his power to steer Bryce in the right direction, if that was even possible.
"I need to secure the future of Hart & Home. I never thought I'd admit this out loud, but my mother was right."
Adam's eyes widened, and Matthew held a finger up.
"If you tell her I said so, I swear I will deny it with everything I have."
Adam snickered. "Got it."
"I need you to help me with something." He felt his face burning up, and he cleared his throat as he opened his top desk drawer to pull out a small lined notepad.
"Of course."
"It's... kind of personal."
"Whatever it is, Matthew, you know I'll help."
If he couldn't trust Adam, who could he trust? They weren't just colleagues; they were friends. They'd known each other for years. Adam had cried on his shoulder when his last boyfriend cheated on him and broke his heart into tiny pieces. The bastard. Matthew had been there to help Adam pick up the pieces, and when Martin had a heart attack, Adam was there to help Matthew from falling apart. He'd kept Hart & Home running in Matthew's absence while his father recovered.
"I know you'll help," Matthew replied, meeting Adam's gaze. "It's just a little...." Desperate? Embarrassing? "Private."
"And you don't think I can be discreet?" Adam arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him.
Matthew frowned. "Don't be silly. There's no one I trust more."
"Okay, then. Out with it."
"I need you to...." Matthew shifted uncomfortably in his chair. His words were almost a mumble when he spoke. "Get me a man."
Adam nodded. He pursed his lips in thought. "Okay. How long do you want him for?"
The question caught Matthew off guard. "Well, I was kind of hoping... forever, or something along those lines?" Adam was more laid-back about this than Matthew had anticipated.
"Oh, you mean, like a mail-order groom? I thought you just wanted an escort."
"What?" Matthew gaped at him. "A what? Mail-order--an escort? I don't want either!" He threw a hand over his mouth when he realized how loud that had come out. He lowered his voice. "I meant a husband. I need you to help me find a husband. You know, introduce me to some guys who are looking to settle down, and maybe one of them might, I don't know, want to settle down with me."
Adam's eyebrows shot up near his hairline. "You want to get married?"
"Why do you look so shocked?" Matthew wasn't sure whether to feel insulted or touched that Adam knew him so well. "When you thought I wanted a prostitute or a mail-order groom, you didn't blink, but I tell you I want to get married and suddenly your eyebrows fly off your face."
Adam's expression turned deadpan. "Matthew, milk has a longer shelf life than the majority of your relationships."
"Wow. Thanks." Matthew couldn't argue with Adam. He was mostly right. "I'm being ridiculous, aren't I?" He covered his face with his hands. "It's just... I suck at the whole 'dating to get someone to stick around' thing."
"Well, that's going to happen when you're the one who doesn't stick around," Adam stated gently.
"I know," Matthew groaned. Why was he so terrible at relationships? It wasn't as if he hadn't tried. It was just, after the first or second date, he always found something about the guy that bugged him.
Adam cocked his head and studied him. "You're serious."
"Yes." Matthew was determined. If something happened to him, he wanted to leave more behind than magazine articles on his life and his company. He loved his company, but after his little brush with death, he wanted more. He wanted his own family, a husband to come home to, someone he loved, and should the unthinkable happen, someone who could be trusted to make the right decisions for Matthew and Hart & Home. If Matthew were married to the right man, Hart & Home would go to his husband and not his neurotic cousin.
"Okay. Who was the last guy you were crazy about?"
Matthew was puzzled by the question. "Why?"
Adam frowned. "Why what?"
"Why do you want to know about the last guy I was crazy about? How is that relevant to now?"
"I know what I'm doing. Just answer the question. You're the one who asked for this, and you're already fighting me on it." Adam gave him a pointed look.
"I'm not--okay, fine." Matthew couldn't believe he was going to say it. Well, this was his stupid idea. He had no one to blame but himself. Time to put his money where his mouth was. "Jax Foster."
"Did you love him?"
Matthew straightened his tie. "Um, yeah. I guess."
"You guess?" Adam peered at him. "Let's move on to an easier question. When was the last time you saw him?"
Oh boy. "You're going to laugh." He couldn't believe he was bringing up Jax Foster.
"No, I'm not. Why would I laugh?"
"Because I was fifteen."
Adam blinked at him. "You fell in love with this Jax guy when you were... fifteen years old?"
"Yeah. We met in school when we were ten years old."
"Wow. Okay." Adam seemed to be having trouble grasping this new information.
Matthew jumped from his chair and started pacing. "I know. I'm pathetic. I'm going to be single and alone for the rest of my life, or until I get killed by my next salad." The more agitated he got, the higher in pitch his voice went and the more animated his gestures became. "Then Bryce will take over everything, do a tap dance on my grave while he sells the company to those soulless vultures who'll mass-produce our catalogue and stuff everything in DIY boxes with missing pieces, craft glue, and instructions with tiny pictograms that don't make sense."
"I'm not sure what's happening right now, but I'm just going to blame it on your near-death experience. Sit down before you hurt yourself," Adam insisted, and Matthew listened, dropping into his chair with a huff.
"What I meant is that this Jax guy must have really done a number on you if you remember him after all these years."
"I tried re
ally hard to forget him. Believe me."
Every time Matthew thought maybe he'd gotten Jax out of his system, something would pop up to prove how wrong he was. Over the years, he kept himself so busy he wouldn't have time to think about Jax or what could have been. First it was school, then college, then work. Still, no matter how hard he tried, Jax was always there at the back of his mind.
"It's probably no surprise that I was a shy kid. Small for my age. I'd get picked on for being a rich kid, for being a sissy, for blushing like a girl. The reasons were many, as were the bruises left behind. My parents spent as much time in the principal's office as I did, but I was too scared to tell anyone who was beating me up. My mom wanted me to go to a private school, but I didn't want to. I loved my school. Some of the kids, not so much. Changing schools felt too much like running away, like letting the bullies win. And what if my new school was as bad or worse?"
"Kids can be jerks," Adam agreed.
"Yeah. Then one day, I was receiving my daily recess beat-down when the kid who was about to give me that week's shiner went flying. His cronies scattered like roaches, and when I looked up, in that instant, I knew I liked boys. As in like liked. He held out his hand, and I thought the butterflies in my stomach were going to burst out of me at any moment." Matthew couldn't help but smile at the memory.
"He was so handsome. Blond, with these incredible blue-green eyes, and this wide smile. I took his hand, and he helped me up. We sort of just stood there, looking at each other for what seemed like forever. Well, I had to look up because he was taller than me. He said his name was Jax, that he was new at school, and asked if I wanted to be his friend. I couldn't even talk. I just nodded. After that, wherever Jax went, I went.
"The other kids talked about him behind his back, how Jax was poor and had no right being there. How his dad was a con man who came back from the war all messed-up, and that the only reason Jax was allowed to go to our school was because his dad was one of the custodial staff. They didn't care that Jax had been accepted into the gifted arts program on his own merits. They said horrible things, but they didn't dare push him around. They stayed clear of him, and me, since we were always together, which of course led to more teasing. They called me his boyfriend.
"Jax never argued against it, so I didn't either. It made me stupidly happy, actually, not that I would admit it to anyone. During recess, we'd sit under the bleachers, and he'd hold my hand. That's where I had my first kiss. With Jax. It was so innocent. So sweet. Before Jax, I used to dread going to school, but afterward? I could barely sleep from how excited I was to see him the next day. I even gave him my 3-D viewfinder and the reels. Man, I loved that thing. Used to get lost looking at all the different movie reels, imagining I was in the movie. Anyway, the way Jax's face lit up when he was looking through that thing, the way he smiled.... I didn't want him to ever stop smiling like that. He didn't want to take it at first, because he knew how much I loved it, but I told him I loved him more."