“Do you want to postpone?”
I shook my head. “No, not at all. I want you to know them, and I want them to know you. Besides, I think you’ll really hit it off with my brother, and I don’t want the first time you meet them to be at the wedding.”
“So, it’s official?” He smirked. “I’m your wedding date?”
“If you say yes.”
“Absolutely.” He leaned in and caught himself again. “I really hate this no kissing at work rule.”
I giggled. “It’s necessary.”
He turned me around so that I was facing the office and popped my ass.
I yelped, swatted at him, and hurried away. “Jake!”
He splayed his hands innocently. “What?”
“No kissing, no ass grabbing, swatting, or squeezing. You got that?”
His lips turned down in a pout. “That’s no fun at all.”
“Reports about sexual conduct at work won’t be fun to deal with, either. So, let’s keep it clean, shall we?”
He sighed and sank down into one of the conference room chairs. “Fine. On another note, what should I bring when I meet your folks? Is your mom a flowers, chocolates, or wine sort of lady?”
I sat down at the chair to his right. “Honestly, you’re going to be the present. She’s been wanting me to step back into the dating pool for five years. She’s tried to get me to make online-dating profiles. She’s tried to hook me up with her friends’ sons. Orthodontists, lawyers, realtors. You know the type. Me walking through the front doors with a tall drink of water like you? It will make her night. It might even make her year.”
“I’m still not showing up emptyhanded like some dickhead.”
I laughed. “Fine, flowers or wine. No chocolates. She’s always watching her figure, especially now with the wedding coming up.”
“Noted.”
I drummed my fingers on the table. “So, when are Theo and Banner coming?”
He glanced toward the elevators. “They should be here any minute. Let’s go down so we can meet them when they arrive.”
* * *
Half an hour later, Jake and I were back in the conference room with Theo and Banner, who’d brought up boxes and boxes of sneaker products with them. They’d added more customizable pieces, including some special edition pins for several upcoming holidays, like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. A lot of the pins were kid friendly, and they were cute as hell. I couldn’t stop playing with them and customizing a pair of kid’s shoes while we talked business.
Theo clasped his hands together on the table. “We want to be totally transparent with you guys. We had other appointments with investors, and our brand now has a lot of financial backing, which is really exciting.”
My stomach dropped and I glanced at Jake. He didn’t even flinch. Was it a threat to our investment if a bunch of other businesses were also investing in the brand? Did it give us less power? Less profits?
Jake nodded. “Smart. This is good news for everyone. If you guys have a lot of partners in your corner, that just reassures me that I’ve invested in a company that’s going places. It’s not a competition. We’re in this together.”
Theo seemed to like this answer because he grinned. Beside him, Banner looked relieved.
“We hoped you’d say that,” Theo said. “We have a few documents written up by our lawyers that we’re getting all our investors to sign.”
Banner withdrew several pages of documentation from a small laptop bag and walked down the length of the table to hand them over to Jake. He flipped through the first top pages before nodding approvingly.
Theo continued. “We need everyone to sign these before we go forward. I hope you understand. This is to cover our bases and make sure we maintain control over our product. Our investors will make up part of our board if we do take off in the future, but at the end of the day, all operating, marketing, and brand decisions will lie with us.”
Jake nodded. “Your decision making has got you this far. I’m not deterred. When do you need the paperwork back?”
“Tomorrow by eleven o’clock in the morning,” Banner said. “Will that give you enough time to review?”