You and Me, Baby

YOU AND ME, BABY WESTON PARKER STAR KEY PRESS CONTENTS Find Weston Parker Description Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Epilogue Insider Group About the Author Copyright FIND WESTON PARKER www.westonparkerbooks.com DESCRIPTION The last thing I need is to fall in love. Especially with him… My twin sister has other plans. She works for a hot new dating agency that’s all the buzz. And I made a pact with her. If we were still unmarried at thirty, we’d put ourselves out there fully. Well, the time has come. And my sister isn’t letting up. Now I have to start “dating in the dark,” whatever that means. The rules are strict but simple. No real names. No seeing each other for the first few dates. No exchanging personal info. Straightforward but never easy. Plus, I don’t have time for relationship drama. I have a hot, overbearing businessman breathing down my neck to buy my company. He’s easy to forget about when I start dating Mr. Perfect. My new “sight unseen” date is the stuff dreams are made out of. Until I realize that business guy and the new love of my life aren’t two people. It’s the same guy—the one I love to hate and love to love. Maybe it’s better to be single forever. Or maybe it’s you and me, baby. Forever. Introduction Hey! We’re missing you over here at the Parker’s Insider Group. Where you at?!? Come grab your spot with the best book part in town and let’s connect. Also you get a FREE novel when you join, cause, why not? See you on the inside… Get it HERE 1 SHARP Seattle was famous for its waterways and the iconic Space Needle. People came here from all over the world, seeking the romance of the ferries and dinner seemingly at the top of the world. Living here wasn’t quite as magical or romantic as tourists seemed to believe. At least, it wasn’t for me. Considering that David had just sauntered into the office five and half minutes late, I suspected he bought into the more relaxed pace out-of-towners believed we kept. I cocked an eyebrow at him, folding my arms as I turned away from our reception desk to face my tardy employee. “Welcome to work, David. I’m glad you decided to grace us with your presence.” Everything and everyone around me ground to a halt, the entire open-concept workspace suddenly so quiet that I might’ve had a shot at hearing a pin drop. David paled, stammering as he tried to come up with a good excuse. “I, uh, I…” he trailed off, clearly unable to come up with something I would deem good enough to excuse his decided lack of punctuality. Some people believed cleanliness was next to godliness. I didn’t like dirt, but I absolutely despised people being late. To my mind, punctuality was next to godliness. Everyone around here knew it, too. While calling him out in front of all of the others probably wouldn’t seem entirely professional to an outsider, it was a good opportunity for me to remind my employees what happened to those who didn’t take their work seriously enough to bother showing up on time. “This is your last warning, David,” I said, rocking back on my heels as I looked him over. Pale and frazzled. Definitely not in the right state to do what we did here. “Take the rest of the day off. I’ll take over your meetings.” His eyes widened. “No. Please. I can do it. I’m sorry. Just let me work. Please.” I sighed. The guy was too shocked and terrified to speak in full cohesive sentences. In this game, a person had to be one hundred percent with it, one hundred percent of the time. If they weren’t, they didn’t close deals. And if they didn’t close deals, they were of no use to me. What we did here was high-paced and cutthroat. The business of buying and selling companies was no picnic. If an opportunity presented itself, we had to be there to take it before anyone else was—hence my intense hatred of tardiness. When my employees didn’t get to where they needed to be on time, then someone else would come along and steal the deal from right under our asses. It cost me money, and I liked making money. I did not like losing it simply because an employee had proven to be incapable of reading his watch correctly. “No,” I said firmly. “Go home, David. If you wanted to work, you should’ve been here to do it. You can try again tomorrow.” He sputtered, his face turning bright red before he huffed out a breath, turned around, and shuffled back out of my building. To anyone who had been watching, I knew that would’ve seemed ruthless of me. It wasn’t like I got off on having to treat a fully grown man like an errant schoolchild, but I’d lost too many acquisitions to mistakes like the one he had just made. Only five minutes late had cost me thousands, and I couldn’t let it slide. Not ever again. The companies we were looking to acquire or absorb and then either restructure or sell off part by part were mostly struggling. The takeovers weren’t hostile exactly, but oftentimes, it required a certain finesse to get the owners to agree to sell. More often than not, making a bad first impression meant losing that owner’s interest in our services almost immediately. Worse yet was when that allowed one of our many,