He cocked his head. “This last Friday. Your personal day.”

She nodded. “I flew out to Spectrum’s headquarters in Charlotte.”

Ian said nothing at first in response to that. Then he peered at her across his desk, with sadness in his eyes. “Are you leaving me, Brooke?”

The moment of truth. “Well . . . that depends on you, Ian.”

He sat forward in earnest. “Brooke, I would do anything I could to keep you. I hope you know that. But Sterling isn’t Spectrum North America. I can’t match that kind of package.”

“I know that. And I hope you know that in many ways, I consider Sterling Restaurants to be like family to me. Which is why I’m hoping, Ian, that you can give me something Spectrum can’t. Something that I’ve realized is more important than eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year.” Brooke paused. She’d practiced this at home, actually saying the words out loud. She could do this.

“I want more balance in my life.”

As soon as the words were out there, she felt . . . good.

Ian stared at her in surprise, as if waiting for another bomb to drop. When that didn’t happen, he nodded eagerly. “Okay. Yes. Absolutely. What can we do to make that happen?”

As a matter of fact, she’d been prepared for just that question. “Glad you asked. I have a few ideas on that front.” Brooke opened up the file folder she’d brought with her and pulled out the report she’d prepared.

“More charts and graphs?”

“Of course.” She handed Ian the report. “The first problem we have is that I’m basically doing two full-time jobs: general counsel and VP of sales. The other problem is that our legal department is still the same size as it was two years ago, before we built the sports and entertainment division. As a result, we’ve been farming out more and more matters to outside counsel—in fact, we paid them over four hundred thousand dollars last year. And as I’m sure you are aware, because I know you always read the monthly summaries and open matter reports I send you,”—she gave him a pointed look, they both knew he never even opened the darned things—“seventy percent of that four hundred thousand was related to employment matters.”

“I see that. Very colorfully illustrated on this pie chart here.”

“What this means, however, is that we could substantially cut back our legal expenses if we brought in an in-house labor and employment lawyer to handle the less complex matters. Do you realize that we pay a Gray & Dallas associate four hundred and fifty dollars an hour every time we need to respond to one of those ridiculously onerous IDHR charges?”

“I did not realize that,” Ian said indignantly. He held up a finger. “Question: what’s an IDHR charge?”

“Seriously, if you would just read the summaries I send you . . .” Moving on, Brooke gestured to the report. “Now turn to page two. From what I’ve estimated, bringing in an in-house employment lawyer will save us roughly ninety thousand dollars.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“I would then like to apply that ninety thousand toward hiring a second in-house lawyer who will take on some of my responsibilities,” Brooke continued. “Routine matters like reviewing our lease agreements, drafting the vendor contracts, et cetera, which will obviously lessen my workload. Given what I expect we’ll have to pay to get two quality in-house counsel, this should cost Sterling, in total, about seventy thousand dollars more this year.”

Ian stared at her. “That’s . . . it? Seventy thousand a year is all it will take to keep you here? Done. So done. Where do I sign?”

“Actually, if you turn to page three, you’ll see that I project, given the way the company is expanding, that by next year we’ll nearly break even and in the year after that this will actually save us money.”

Ian folded his arms over his chest, looking happy as a clam. “Sounds perfect.”

“I also want my job title changed to executive vice president and general counsel.”

Ian considered this. “I see no problem with that.”

“And . . . there’s one last thing.”

Of course there was one last thing. This deal she’d struck with Ian, to hire two in-house counsel, would help her get back the balance she’d been missing in her personal life. But she’d also spent the last few days thinking about what she wanted, professionally speaking.

And there was just one thing.

Ian must’ve seen the gleam in her eyes. He put his hands on the desk, as if bracing himself. “This one’s going to hurt, isn’t it?”

“It might sting a little.” Brooke met his gaze. “I want equity in the company.”

Ian exhaled heavily and steepled his fingers, remaining silent. He was, and always had been, the sole owner of Sterling Restaurants.

“I could give you a long speech about what I’ve brought to Sterling Restaurants over the last two years, Ian. But I’m hoping you already know. So instead I’ll just tell you that I believe in this company, and I know what I can do to continue building it. And I want to do that not as an employee, but as your partner.”

She sat there, sweating it out while he said nothing.

“What percentage?” he finally asked.

Brooke exhaled. Yes! In her head, she was doing an imaginary dance in the end zone. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve hit you with a lot of information this evening.” She smiled charmingly. “Why don’t you think everything over for a couple of days and get back to me with what you think is fair?”