Under His Care by Kelly Favor

interaction with Easton Rather.”
    “Oh.” She was somehow disappointed in this part of it.
    “You’d work from home, so no need to be at the office at any particular time. All you’d need is WiFi access and off you go.” Red cleared his throat. “And might I add, the pay jump is significant.”
    Kennedy began tugging at her lower lip as she processed what he was saying. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s an amazing opportunity, but I’m afraid—“
    “Don’t let fear rule your decision making,” Nicole said, her tone intense for the first time that day. “It’s one thing to be sad and a little confused. But you’re going to miss out on something amazing if you don’t take this chance. And for what? Because of a little bad luck in the romance department?”
    “I just don’t want to fail again,” Kennedy admitted.
    “You haven’t failed,” Nicole corrected her. “You just had a breakup.”
    “I don’t want to mess up your lives anymore than I already have,” Kennedy said.
    At that, Nicole and Red looked at one another and started laughing. Nicole grabbed Kennedy’s hand. “Honey, you haven’t messed up our lives. You feel a little messed up right now, and scared. But it’s okay. We’ve all been there and you’re going to figure it out.”
    Kennedy laughed a little bit, and then she gave her sister a big hug. “I love you,” she said.
    Nicole sighed. “I love you too.”
    When they were done hugging, Red stood up. “So are you going to take the job or not?”
    Kennedy looked him in the eye. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make you glad you took a chance on me,” she told him. And she meant it.

    ***

    Over the following days, Kennedy was busy learning her new job. She worked mostly from home and then also met with Red occasionally for a meeting at a restaurant or went and spent time at his and Nicole’s home where she mixed work with spending time with her sister and Riley.
    It was a strange time, because in so many ways, Kennedy had never been happier or more fulfilled.
    But in other ways, it was the saddest she’d ever felt, all at once.
    So many moments of joy were spoiled when she thought to herself how amazing it would’ve been to share it with Easton.
    She’d be sitting on her laptop, working in a café, sipping a coffee while customers buzzed about, talked, came in and out. She’d be happy, grinning with pleasure at how cosmopolitan she felt being in New York City, working for Red Jameson on top-secret business intelligence analysis.
    But then her smile would fade as she’d turn to the empty seat next to her and realize that she didn’t have Easton to talk to, didn’t have his smile to warm her, or his witty banter to keep her on her toes.
    She missed him terribly.
    At night, she had dreams that were filled with images of loss and remorse, where Easton would be on a train speeding away while she stood rooted to the platform, watching him leave.
    Many mornings, she woke with tears still in her eyes, not even knowing for what reason she’d been crying.
    When her first check was deposited in her bank account, Kennedy celebrated. Red had told her that it was a big pay upgrade, but the truth was even more than she could’ve imagined.
    Kennedy was now earning close to three hundred thousand dollars a year, which, even in an incredibly expensive city like New York, was well beyond what she needed to be comfortable.
    I’m rich , Kennedy told herself, as she looked at her online banking balance and just stared and stared. I’m rich and I don’t know if I deserve it.
    But she was working hard, spending ten to twelve hours a day, seven days a week, engrossed in learning everything about Red’s business and his competitors. Red had told her that much of what he expected her to do was to actually figure out how she could add value to his business.
    He wanted Kennedy to look for patterns in the industry that would tell him whether to sell off a piece of his existing