Read Online Better Not Love Me by Dan Kolbet - Free Book Online Page A

fact, the longer he could stay at the cabin doing this project or anything else, the better off he’d be. He had no specific return date to his post at Riddell. And he didn’t know if the same job would be waiting for him when he returned anyway. Never in his life had he been without a job. He called it a leave of absence when he left, but the company had nothing in its Human Resources policies that allowed such a thing. His boss, a man named Graham Barnes, approved the leave with the caveat that if he was needed, he could be called back. Nate had so much vacation time that he was technically just taking days off, but it didn’t feel that simple to him. It felt permanent and very different than anything he’d done before.
    Since the age of 13 Nate had held a job. His father demanded it. He received no allowance or pay for any work around the house, so he had to find work in the neighborhood if he wanted any spending money. He’d shovel walks, weed garden beds, wash windows or trim hedges for the elderly ladies in the neighborhood. He'd be lucky to get paid a few dollars for his efforts. On a good day, they'd offer him some lemonade before he headed off to his next job.
    He worked through high school flipping burgers after school and on weekends. He got free burgers and fries and that was the only real benefit. The experience was awful, but he learned a valuable lesson: the higher you went in management, the fewer people were above you to boss you around. He made himself a promise to never be the grunt again.
    This strong work ethic and attitude served him well throughout his working career.
    He got a degree in business from Baylor University and had a job lined up following his junior year after two summers of internship at the investment firm of DiLuciano, Dempsey and Leaf in Austin, Texas. He helped the big boys swing deals to buy and sell companies by exploiting their weaknesses and moving the right pieces into place. Despite his age and lack of experience he became a valuable member of the team, and upon graduation he actually had job offers from several investment firms. He decided to return to the place that gave him a chance after graduation and became a junior associate at DiLuciano.
    It was at DiLuciano that he met Stephanie, his future wife and Chloe's mom. At the time Stephanie was a paralegal for a company he had never heard of before—Riddell Industries. DiLuciano was helping a client merge its manufacturing operations in Mexico with a subsidiary of Riddell. Nate was assigned to the team, but again wasn't the lead representative. Stephanie was assisting the Riddell team. The attraction between Nate and Stephanie was instant. Maybe it was the late nights poring over legal paperwork or the complete lack of a social life for either of them; but they found something together that was passionate and uncontrollable, and for three weeks they were nearly inseparable on and off the job.
    When the merger was complete, Stephanie headed back to Dallas, and Nate reluctantly stayed in Austin, all the while hoping that something would fall apart on the merger so he had a good excuse to see Stephanie again. He missed the woman in ways he never thought possible. Nate had never felt this way about a girl before. Sure, he'd had some long-time girlfriends in the past, but nobody like her. He began to apply for jobs in Dallas almost immediately. He had to be near her. He didn't want to come on too strong and say he was moving there just for the relationship though. That kind of pressure could kill a relationship very quickly.
    At the same time, unbeknownst to him, Stephanie started looking for paralegal openings in Austin; but just like Nate, she didn't want to seem too eager. They were young twenty-something kids who just wanted to be together, but they were afraid to tell the other for fear of scaring them off.
    Fate intervened in the best way when Riddell posted a position for a business analyst to work on mergers and