“Yeah, you’re right. They wouldn’t go that far.” Michel gave a sigh. “I guess I’m just jittery after the last prank they pulled. Hard to believe we’re talking about two grown men, isn’t it?” He shook his head as if in disbelief.
Sloane chuckled. “They’ve been like this since high school. What did you expect?”
“Maturity?” He said the word but the expression on Michel’s face said he knew it wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
“Soakin’ up some sun, eh?” Marc bent his long frame and sank into the seat across from Sloane while the other man pulled out the last free chair.
“What did we miss?” Patrick asked as he sat down.
“Nothing. I just got here,” Michel told them. “Sloane’s been here a while, though.”
Marc snorted. “As usual.”
“He’s lucky.” Patrick jerked his head in Sloane’s direction. “No kids to babysit before running over here. No wonder he’s always early.”
“Lucky?” Marc scoffed. “Is that what you call it? The man has no life.”
“Hey.” Sloane put up his hands, ready to defend himself. “Just because I’m not married it doesn’t mean I don’t have a full life.” He shrugged. “Okay, so you guys are married. So what? And you,” he eyed Michel who had settled back in his chair, listening to the banter with great interest, “you used to be on my side. Now it’s me against the lot of you.”
“Join us,” Marc moaned, zombie-like. “Become one of us.”
Michel laughed but then he turned earnest eyes on Sloane. “Seriously, Sloane, when are you going to take the plunge? You’re thirty-six, for God’s sake. You want to wait until you’re gray to start a family?”
“Who? This guy?” Marc looked amused. “He’ll never settle down. Every few months he’s got a new lady on his arm. This is definitely not a one-woman man.”
“Yeah,” Patrick chimed in. “Just like his motto, 'Love 'em and leave 'em'.
“Hey, who said that was my motto?” Sloane glared at Patrick whose eyes immediately went to Michel.
“I didn’t have to say a thing,” Michel said, putting a hand up. “It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”
Sloane frowned. “Obvious that what?”
“That you’re one of those rolling stones that gather no moss,” Marc said with a sardonic smile.
“I’ve got corporations to run. I’m a busy man.” Sloane scowled. What the hell? He hadn’t come here for his friends to gang up on him.
“Yes,” Michel said, giving the other two a stern look then turning back to Sloane. “You’re a busy guy but so are we. And we still found the time to focus on what’s important. Family.” He paused, giving Sloane a pointed look. “Just something to think about.”
Marc barked out a laugh. “You’re telling that to 'Mister love 'em and leave 'em’? It will never happen.”
Sloane gave him a baleful stare. But then, how could he deny it? He’d gotten that reputation because it was like he’d done his best to live up to a certain image – the typical ‘bad boy’.
But Michel’s question was like the shock of ice-cold water. At his age, how long could he keep that up?
CHAPTER TWO
“I thought my schedule was free for the rest of the afternoon?” Sloane frowned as he listened to the voice of his personal assistant on the phone. “I was planning to leave early for a round of golf.”
Megan Frawley killed that dream real fast with her next words. She’d seen his schedule open and had slipped in a last minute appointment. He bit back a sigh. “All right. I’ll stay.” She was about to hang up when he stopped her. “Hang on. Who’s it with?”
“Melanie Parker,” she said, “of Parker Broadcasting.”
That made Sloane sit back in his chair. The Melanie Parker? His biggest competitor in the media business? Talk about an unexpected guest.
But what would she want with him? The competition between their two conglomerates had always been fierce, his a legacy of four generations and hers a company that had been started by her father forty years earlier before either one of them, the current rivals, had been born. And the rivalry between Quest Media and Parker Broadcasting had started from day one.
Quest Media was founded almost a century earlier by Sloane’s great grandfather who launched with a newspaper, The Observer. A radio station was added twenty years later then that was followed by television. By the time Sloane took over Quest Media Group was a multi-billion dollar business serving markets all across North America and parts of Latin America. Under Sloane’s leadership, the internet became a large part of their portfolio, garnering a worldwide audience and accounting for almost thirty percent of revenue within three years of launch. And it was a good thing, too. With the increased usage of the internet and the growing popularity of e-readers, sales of print newspapers began to hemorrhage, but the growth of Quest Media’s electronic business was perfectly timed and business boomed.
That is, until a certain company appointed a new CEO who revamped that company’s structure and core strategy and aggressively went after the market share of the leader in the business. The market leader and target of Parker Broadcasting’s attack was Quest Media, and that CEO was the very woman who would be in his office in less than an hour.
A woman who had always intrigued him…
He hadn't had any personal dealings with her but they weren’t total strangers. On the contrary, decades earlier both their fathers had been members of the same country club. And although Melanie Parker might not even remember it, they had actually gone to the same exclusive high school.
He'd been a senior, popular with the ladies even from then, not necessarily because he was from the wealthiest family in the region – all the kids at his school were from ‘money’ – but because he was on all the major sports teams. Hockey, soccer, football and basketball. And there was nothing that attracted hot females like being a sports jock. Apart from having the coolest Porsche on campus, of course.