Brooke Logan used her tongue to slide the olive off the toothpick, then drained her glass of gin. Her eyes swept over the upscale club and she sighed. Everyone wanted to have someone for Valentine's Day and she was alone.

"Need a refill?" A man sat next to Brooke, but she didn't look over to him.

"That would be nice. Thank you."

"You're Brooke Logan. My ex-wife used to wear your line."

"That's a terrible pickup line." Brooke turned her new suitor: he had clearly been handsome once, and still was for the most part, but age had dulled it somewhat. Men were allowed to become distinguished with age. Women just became old, and that's how Brooke felt. "And who is buying my drink?"

"Julian Crane," he offered as he beckoned the bartender over. "How is it that on the most romantic night of the year, a woman as refined as you is with me?"

"Crane." Brooke ignored his question. It wasn't his business. She took her gin from the bartender and played with the rim of the glass. "Would you be from New England? Forrester used to ship custom orders to a boutique there until about 2009 or so."

"2008," Julian corrected as he straightened his tie. "My family is old blood in from Massachusetts."

"My family is not." Brooke was bored already. She didn't need some blue blood millionaire thinking he could pick her up because he had money. Money was the one thing she did have.

Nodding and smiling, Julian raised his tumbler of scotch to Brooke. "Humble beginnings, and now you and yours are practically royalty in the fashion world. I may not know much about clothing, but I do know the story of how you became CEO of Forrester Creations. The company was such a massive success that everybody had to take notice."

"And just what do you want, Mr. Crane?" Brooke threw back her drink, then took his. He wasn't even startled.

"Ms. Logan, what if I told you that I had come to Los Angeles to start my own fashion company? We already have a couple talented designers, but what we need is someone like you. Someone who can take a company from humble beginnings to the top of the world."

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass, Mr. Crane. Right now, the last thing I need is to compete with Forrester Creations."

"Except that's exactly what you need."

A young man, no older than twenty and certainly not old enough to be in a bar, sat on Brooke's other side. She spun in her seat, spilling the scotch on her top and not caring. It was him. The dyed green hair, the piercings all up and down his right ear:

"RJ?" Brooke gasped at her son.

"Mom, we want you to be the CEO of Logan & Crane, the world's newest fashion empire."

Looking at her son, Brooke felt her mouth drop open. Then she laughed. "You can't be serious. You're a Forrester, RJ. That's your birthright. That company is where you'll make your stamp on the world, not some startup. Do you know how few new companies even make it past the first year?"

"Not many. We know. But Julian is the one who found me. I guess he's a donor to my school or something."

"Mr. Crane..."

"Julian, please," he interrupted. "This isn't meant to be an ambush."

"Right. Julian. I don't know how they do things in Massachusetts, but in California we don't just discuss important business like this in a bar, and we certainly don't do it with a child too young to even drink present."

"Mom, I know you're resistant, but I also know your contract with Forrester is up for renewal next month. Rick's running that company and I say let him."

"You're still a Forrester, RJ. This isn't right."

RJ shook his head and laughed. "No, Mom, I may be a Forrester, but I'm also a Logan. And a Marone. This company? It's a way for me to make my own mark on the world. Our own mark. The Logan name will be more than an extension of the Forresters."

"Honey..." Brooke reached out and held her son's hand. "You didn't even go to school for fashion design. You wanted to be a cartoonist."

"Mom, Julian saw something in me that nobody else did. The fact that I'm from the cartoon world is exactly why this is so perfect. My designs, and you'll love them when you see them, they aren't like Forrester with its focus on elegance and glamour. I'm dirtier and younger and exactly what the world wants."

"Ms. Logan, we obviously can't pay you what a Forrester Creations can," Julian interjected, "but what we can offer you is control. It would be your company as much as mine."

"No it won't, Julian," Brooke argued. "If I come to work at Logan & Crane, it will be MY company. I want 51%."

"Yes, well, we can certainly discuss that later."

"No later." Brooke gave Julian back his half a glass of scotch and smiled as she looked into his eyes. "This is non-negotiable. I don't care who has the rest of the stock, but I need autonomy and 51% is the only way I'll get that. That is my only condition."

"I'll draw up the paperwork, Ms. Logan." Julian cleared his throat and rose from the bar, but Brooke released RJ's hand and grabbed Julian's. Then she shook it.

"You can send your paperwork to my attorney. He'll look it over before I sign anything. And if we really are going to work together, then you can call me Brooke."

Nodding, Julian smiled back her. "Yes. Brooke. Welcome to the Logan & Crane family, Madam CEO."

B&B

"So your mom is onboard?"

"Completely." RJ nodded as he sat on his desk. "It's just... She doesn't know about you. Julian and I decided that it would be better to reveal you to her after she signs the papers. She demanded 51% of the company and he gave it to her, but there's a clause in the contract that she won't know about unless her lawyer is really, really thorough."

"And what is that?"

"For the first year of her tenure, my mother will have no say over the hiring or firing of the creative department. They will report directly to the president."

"And since your mom is CEO..."

"Julian is the president. We hope that a year will be long enough to get her to accept you being a part of the company."

"But he will only own 49% of L&C. And after that year is up, I'll be gone."

"No you won't," RJ assured his partner. "Julian doesn't know, but my mom told me. She's having an amendment made to the contract that gives me 5% of her 51%. She thinks I'll side with her, she wants me to have a stake, but when it comes to you I won't. You're the one who came in and helped me and Julian start this company. Without your help, I wouldn't be designing anything worth anything."

"You lie, but thank you. But am I the only person you're hiding from your mom? Because if anyone would be supportive, it would be her."

"I know she would. It's not her. It's my dad. He works in fashion, but Forrester has never... Besides, he's back in Wisconsin with his family and pretending to be straight."

"Right. Right. You're more than someone's dirty little secret, RJ. I want you to remember that. Because we're about to blow up the world, and if he won't be by your aide, then he isn't worth it."

Smiling, RJ lay back on the desk and kicked his legs into the air. "It's really happening, Amber. We're actually going to do this. And they aren't ready."

Laughing, Amber Moore agreed. "No, they are not."

B&B

Julian laughed as he read over his copy of Brooke's contract. If she could pull it off, if she could make this fledgling company a success, then everything he sacrificed would be worth it. He'd burned every bridge he could find before he left Harmony. He would never go back to that town. No, Los Angeles was his future, and the Logan family was a part of it.

It was going as smoothly as he had planned. Brooke Logan's libido may have been the fastest way to get on her radar, but her children... That was how you got her on your side. Now that she was on his, he would ruin Forrester Creations. He would ruin the woman who had broken his heart all those years ago.