Fast-Break

The opportunity to work alongside Robert and Daniel Ravers and see how they do business intrigued Zack. Both men were known to be remarkable at what they did, though in different ways, that much had become apparent to the dark haired teen in just the few short days and brief hours he’d spent with either man. Experiencing their methods first-hand would surely have been enlightening for him as he begun his journey to become Heather’s second in command. And he had no delusions about that. This was and always would be Heather Raver’s company first and foremost.

Not that he could discount Brooke Lakefield. She was a formidable woman with the ear and respect of both Robert and Daniel. As the saying goes, behind every great man, there’s a woman who’s actually in control, and this would be a great opportunity for him to learn how to be a supporting player, helping those around him to succeed without getting in the way. However, the idea of spending the day with Heather made him nervous, especially if she happened to find out how far things had gone with his mother last night. That, and he felt awkward intruding on their mother-daughter pairing.

In the end, Zack realized that he was need more elsewhere.

“Actually, I think I want to go see my dad,” Zack announced. “The last time I agreed to join the company and help out, he ended up at your door, shouting and making demands, or so Heather told me. If I’m going to do this, and more permanently from now on, I need to clear it with him first. I won’t be asking permission, this is something I want to do, but I need to make sure he understands that this is my decision before I go any further.”

“That’s a wise idea, Zack,” Robert praised him, with an added slap on the back. “Do whatever you need to do, and let us handle the rest.”

“Okay, so everyone understands their roles. Robert and I will take the Wynwicks and the Harringtons. Brooke and Heather will deal with the Smiths and the Nordsteins, while Zack talks to Gregory.” Daniel looked at each of them in turn as he confirmed the details. “Do your best and good luck. This is the moment that will define how our company begins. The more investors and clients we can take with us when we break away from Ravers Enterprises the stronger position we’ll be in to face the uncertain times ahead.”

“First though…can I get something to eat?” Heather gave an awkward smile, her gurgling stomach interrupting Daniel’s rousing call to arms.

“Heather, I told you to eat something earlier,” her mother huffed. “Daniel made it very clear this is time sensitive.”

“Fine, go,” Robert acquiesced while he rubbed his forehead. “You can have twenty minutes, but that’s it.” He caught his ex-wife’s eye as she shook her head at him. “What? I’m saving you from having to listen to her complain about being hungry for the next few hours.”

“Yay. Come on, come eat with me,” Heather grabbed Zack’s wrist and dragged him out of the room with her. “I’ll even let you try a bite of Frida’s pancakes. Just a bite though.”

Watching the teens run from the room, Robert said, “I’ll have my car brought around. Twenty minutes?”

Daniel nodded to confirm then directed his attention to Brooke who was approaching his side, raising an apologetic hand and placing it upon his strong bicep as her ex-husband left them alone. Her other hand came up to his face, delicately touching her fingertips to the red mark she’d left upon his cheek before he had a chance to explain everything. He winced, his tender skin still stinging against even the roughness of the lightest touch.

“I’m sorry for hitting you,” she said simply, without flourish or excuse.

Shaking his head, he dismissed her apology. “Don’t concern yourself about it. To be honest, I expected worse. Robert and I have been through a lot, but I wasn’t so sure that he would accept that the old company needed to die for the new one to be forged.”

“Robert is a family man before he’s a businessman. He’s more sentimental than people give him credit for,” Brooke remarked, stroking his arm still as she lowered the hand from his face. “As are you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I know that you did this to protect me as much as Robert,” Brooke said pointed, staring with conviction back at his deep blue eyes. “Perhaps even more.”

“I…I mean, I did it for everyone,” Daniel stammered, an unusual reaction even for him. Though his brother had the reputation and the charm, the younger Ravers brother didn’t do too shabby with the women either, his cool, calm, confident personality making more than one or two ladies gush their panties. But his brother’s ex-wife had never been one of them. He respected his brother, and Brooke, too much to pursue that relationship. “I did it to keep the family together.”

“They would have had a hard time pushing Robert out without your support. And you would have gladly given up your position if it meant Robert remained in control. But you also knew that, when Zurbrugg started culling Robert’s support, that I’d be first on the chopping block, and you wouldn’t be able to stop that.” Brooke folded her arms as she looked up at Daniel from under her eyebrows, an assured, knowing smirk on her lips. “Stop me when I’m wrong.”

“No, that’s all true, but…” But what? Daniel couldn’t finish the sentence, confused now by his own motivations.

“You kept us all together. Me included. That means a lot to me Daniel,” Brooke said softly.

“I know what it meant to you, your position on the board, and how hard you tried all these years to prove to those men that you got where you were because of your own strengths, not just because of my brother’s name,” Daniel told her, as he felt her shuffle even closer to him. “You’re the mother of my niece, and the heir to my brother, and probably my, fortune. No matter what, you’ll always be a part of this family. If any one of us had been expelled from Ravers Enterprises, it wouldn’t have felt whole. I was more than happy to do what I did, to keep us all together.”

“Yes, I’m happy too.”

She reached up and pulled his face down into hers. His surprised mouth collided with her smirking lips, snaking her tongue into his open maw. Despite the shock, he instinctively returned the kiss, deepening their passion as their tongues swirled together. It helped that Brooke was a good kisser, teasing him with her tongue, sucking on his, lips wetly smacking together, the sound permeating the room and filling his ears as he felt his blood rush south. A sensation he knew she could feel by the moan that traveled from her tongue to his. And she knew when was enough, to keep him wanting.

Breaking the kiss, she turned to walk away, saying, “Pity we only have twenty minutes. I’d have liked to properly thank you.”

“Get back here,” he growled, grabbing her swinging arm and yanking her into his embrace again, his lips instantly meeting hers once more as well.

She didn’t care that Robert could walk in on them at any moment, that Heather or Zack might see her making out with her ex-husband’s brother. She wanted this. She wanted to show him her thankfulness and she enjoyed feeling his appreciation in return. Appreciation that rose up along her inner thigh and nudged against the hem of her dress, that might have went even further were it not for his pants constraining him, binding it from being fully unleashed upon as she might have liked. And yet, when they heard the heavy front door slam shut, they jumped apart, just seconds before Robert appeared in the doorway. If he noticed how flushed Brooke appeared, he didn’t say anything.

“Are you ready, brother?” was all he asked.

--------------------------------------------------------In The Kitchen-----------------------------------------------------

“One! Just one bite I said!”

Their forks clanged like battling swords as Heather swatted Zack away, though she was just a little too late. The teen laughed as he brought the stolen piece of pancake, coated in chocolate, to his mouth, while Heather pulled the plate closer to herself and glared playfully at her partner. It was so strange for her to think of him like that. Before Spring Break they’d barely been acquaintances, mostly friendly through Brandon’s introduction after Zack tutored him, to their relationship souring as she saw how he treated Chloe. But he had proven himself to be trustworthy in other matters, and a true friend, since then, yet thinking of him as her business partner still felt truly alien to her.

“Mmmm, these really are delicious.” Zack said, genuinely moaning, simultaneously complimenting Frida whilst taunting Heather.

“If I had more time, I’d make you a plate of your own, Master Bishop,” Frida said politely, watching with a contented smile as Zack raised his fork, readying to strike at the plate again.

“If only!” Heather called as her battle cry, parrying Zack’s fork with her own before shoveling another forkful into her mouth. With a full mouth, she added, “Then he could stop eating mine.”

“There’s no need, Ms. Isidro. I ate at my girlfriend’s house before I came here.” Zack noticed Heather’s eyebrow twitch at the mention of Lisa, though he couldn’t be sure if it was resentment towards the Latina or his waiting fork. “Maybe you know her mother, Susan Rivera. She owns a restaurant in town.”

“I probably know it. There isn’t a place to eat in this town that I haven’t sampled. Even Alfred’s,” she said, another smile growing on her face as she watched the amused expressions of the teens as they imagined the world class chef chowing down on a burger at their favorite diner. “Rivera, you say? That would be ‘The Lakeside’, yes?”

“Right. She runs it with Vanessa Cole, I don’t know if you know her. She handles the business side while-”

“You’ve met her daughter, Madison,” Heather interrupted, at least taking the time to swallow first this time. “She’s come around with the other cheerleaders sometimes.”

“Oh, yes,” Frida mused. “The brunette with the temper.”

“That’s the one. Runs in the family.”

“-WHILE Susan is in charge of the food,” Zack finally managed to finish his sentence, narrowing his eyes at Heather’s smug, chewing face.

“Their food is good. Susan has a well-trained flavor palate, that much is obvious. The small menu allows them to focus on quality too. It’s all extremely competent, there isn’t a single thing they do badly, but there’s also nothing especially wowing either.” Frida digressed with a shrug. “But, it’s possible I simply have quite high standards.”

“Well, nothing they make could be as good as your food, Frida,” Heather replied, seconds before taking another bite.

“It’s not a fair comparison though. I make food for two to three people, at most five, a few times a day, and only occasionally anything into double figures. The Lakeside in all likeliness, serves over a hundred people a day, all while maintaining a respectable level of competency,” Frida argued calmly, minding her position as it related to the young Ravers heiress. “There’s a skill all of its own in what they’re doing.”

“Still, Daddy has said that he offered you your own restaurant many times,” Heather noted. “If you took him up on the proposition, I’m sure any restaurant you open would blow all the others out of the water.”

“And get to miss your chubby face light up when I serve your favorite pancakes?” She reached over the counter to pinch Heather’s face. “Never.”

“F-Frida!” Heather sat up straight, mortified, first at the Chef, then at the embarrassment of being teased in front of Zack. With her hands on her hips, she scolded her, with none of the maturity or authority of one in charge. “I-I am not chubby!”

“Only where it counts,” Zack said with an overt glance down at her hefty bust.

Aghast, Heather recoiled, leaving her plate wide open. Fork poised and at the ready, Zack flew in, snatching the last piece of pancake with the last strawberry on top. Too late Heather realized her mistake, watching as her future business partner shoved the last bite into his mouth before she could do anything to stop him.

“You bastard!” she jumped from her stool at he breakfast bar, fork raised in preparation to **** him. “The last piece is the best bit. It’s meant to be savored.” Zack leapt up too, and grabbed his stool, holding it between them to keep her from getting too close, his mouth busy eating and laughing, incapable of saying anything in his defense. “I take it all back. I don’t want to own a company with you!”

“What are you kids doing?”

They both stopped at the voice, looking over to the kitchen doorway, to see Brooke watching them. Her expression wasn’t exactly one of anger, more bemused, somewhat amazed to see Heather playing, messing around, in a way she hadn’t really done in several years. When her daughter was at home, or around her father, she acted mature, older than her years, but it warmed her mother’s heart to see that she wasn’t growing up too quickly after all.

“Sorry, mom, we were just playing.” Heather lowered the fork and wiped her mouth. “Is it time to go?”

“Yes. Your father and uncle have already left.”

Heather bounded across the kitchen, following her mother out through the doorway, though not before she shot one final narrow-eyed glare at Zack over her shoulder, signalling that it wasn’t over between them.

Grinning and feeling lighter than he had in days, Zack swallowed and wiped his own mouth. “Do you need any help tidying up?” He asked the chef.

“No, no, you get going,” she dismissed him. “This is my job.”

“Well, thank you, Ms. Isidro. I thought for a moment it was going to my last meal,” he said, moving towards the door. “But if it had been, it was a mighty fine meal to go out on.”

“It’s my pleasure. It’s always a joy to cook for such young lively people. Though I don’t know how I feel about my food causing murders. But, please, call me Frida.”