Brushing Off the Boss: A Half Moon Bay Novel (Entangled Bliss) by Annie Seaton Page A

reached for a small container of ground enamel.
    …
    Jack unpacked the panniers and the one bag he’d carried on the bike from New York before he made his calls. He really needed to harness the ideas that were flowing through him. He pulled out a notebook and did a couple of quick sketches of the pictures in his mind before he lost them. Then he called the moving company, and now he was calling home to check on his father. As the phone rang, he looked around the small apartment. Every color and every piece of furniture reminded him of Sienna—her vibrancy. It would be a good place to chill while he thought about the work ahead of him.
    “Hey, Jack!” His dad’s voice boomed across the connection. “Great to hear from you, son.” Jack grinned. At least having a life-threatening heart attack had given Mike Montgomery a whole new perspective on life. They’d fought for years, about how Jack didn’t want to work in the family business, and his mother, Helen, was caught in the middle. His laid-back attitude really got under his workaholic father’s skin. Life was too short, and his father had finally realized that point with his heart attack. It had given him a huge wake-up call.
    “How are you, Dad?”
    “All good. Can’t talk long. I’m getting picked up for golf in a minute.”
    “Mom there?”
    “No, she’s at the office.”
    “On a Sunday?” Jack frowned. He hoped his mother wasn’t going to step into the shoes his father had vacated.
    “Yeah, the sooner Blake gets up here the better.” His father cleared his throat. “Uh-oh, scratch that. I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
    “Blake?”
    “He’ll tell you what’s happening. Forget I said anything. How’s that deadline looking?”
    Jack bit back a terse reply. “Fine, fine. Remember I only arrived here last night.” He hated the fact that he felt it necessary to make excuses to his father.
    After he disconnected the call, Jack walked thoughtfully into the small bedroom. Sienna had told him where to find some sheets, and after he’d made up the bed, he lay back with his hands behind his head, going over the events of the day. Nothing had really panned out like he’d expected, but that was the way he liked life to be. He wasn’t going to get trapped on the treadmill of predictability where he always knew what the day would bring, with too many people depending on him. Look what it had done to his father. Although when he’d been in New York, his own need to control what was happening in the company had surfaced a little, and unsettled him. He worried he had more of his father in him than he thought. Maybe that’s why they clashed for so long.
    So once he’d signed the contract for the sculptures, he’d hightailed it out of the business and out of the city. Now he’d have all day to work on his sculpture, focus his creativity, and do what he loved. The only small problem was the deadline on the contract he’d signed, but that didn’t bother him as much as not being able to work for two weeks. In a way, he already regretted saying Sienna could use the studio. He would have to be firm and stick to the timeline he’d given her. Then he’d move in there, finish his commissions, and start work on the ideas crowding his thoughts.
    When he had more done, he could think about his own exhibition.
    As long as Sienna would keep managing the gallery .
    If she was happy to stay at the gallery after her exhibition, that was fine. If she did choose to move on, he’d have to deal with it. And he wasn’t going to complicate matters with a personal relationship. As much as he would have liked to start up something between them, things had to stay on a business footing.
    He closed his eyes and frowned as her face continued to fill his thoughts. He rolled over and punched the pillow. This had to stop. He focused on where he would get the truck to deliver his stuff. He’d have to split it when it arrived and decide what would go where.
    It’d be