If You Insist

  Big-Hearted Billionaires, Volume 1

  Heidi Hahe

  Published by Hahe Limited, 2026.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  IF YOU INSIST

  First edition. January 21, 2026.

  Copyright © 2026 Heidi Hahe.

  ISBN: 979-8233551826

  Written by Heidi Hahe.

  Also by Heidi Hahe

  Big-Hearted Billionaires

  If You Insist (Coming Soon)

  To Nebraska, With Love

  To Omaha

  Standalone

  Under One Condition

  Watch for more at Heidi Hahe’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Also By Heidi Hahe

  If You Insist (Big-Hearted Billionaires, #1)

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

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  Also By Heidi Hahe

  About the Author

  ​If You Insist

  ​One

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hayden Fink groaned as his time card disappeared from his computer screen for the third time in the last twenty minutes. He hadn’t touched anything, but the digital timecard was blank–again. He never thought he would miss the old, slower-than-molasses system that this faulty one had replaced. But he did.

  “What’s up?” his coworker Alex asked distractedly as he organized the incoming mail for his floors.

  “I’m doing my timecard,” Hayden explained, running a frustrated hand through his wavy, dirty blonde hair. “Or trying to.”

  “Yeah, good luck,” Alex said with heavy sarcasm. “It took me forty-five minutes yesterday.”

  Oh, yay, only twenty-five minutes to go! But, in the end, it only took him another ten minutes to finally submit the damn time card and get started on his mail delivery/pick-up rounds for the day.

  Despite the fact that Hayden had completed his Master’s degree in anthropology three years ago, the only job he’d been able to secure so far was this one as a mail clerk for Harrison International. He wasn’t even completely sure what the company did, aside from acquiring a myriad of other businesses, but, in his opinion, he didn’t need to. All he had to do was deliver the mail.

  Because, Master’s degree or not, Hayden didn’t really want to waste his life away in an office or a cubicle. He’d been sculpting stone since before his balls dropped, thanks to the Fink family legacy of traditional sculpting, and he had every intention of making sculpting his life. When he’d first embarked on his anthropology coursework, he’d wanted to become a curator, just to get the behind the scenes experience of the art world, but 100 applications with no replies to speak of had put an end to that goal.

  So for right now, he didn’t mind being the delivery boy for a faceless corporation, not when he got to spend the rest of his time working in his own, small studio. Working at a gallery had sounded like a nice goal until it hadn’t been an option, then he’d realized that what he really wanted to do was have his own studio, ideally one big enough for multiple artists.

  His mother had been kind enough to give up their entire two-car garage so that he could build his current studio and start producing small to medium sized sculptures. He sold pieces every now and then, but not nearly enough to get a return on the investment into his equipment. But he was choosing to be hopeful that one day that would change.

  The frustrating time cards were the primary topic of conversation as Hayden made his way up from the ninth floor, but they usually were on the day they were due. Before the new, very clunky system had been implemented, the main complaint had been the need to submit time cards at all for salaried employees, but the terrible system was all anyone could talk about now.

  As always, the programmers were the loudest, and most technical, in their complaints. Hayden certainly couldn’t blame them; their phones would ring back to back on these days.

  “I could make a better system in my sleep!” Roger, one of the senior programmers, complained to Hayden while he delivered the interdepartmental mail. “This shit costs millions of dollars and that’s all it is–shit! You can tell nobody important has to use it, otherwise it would change in five minutes.”

  “Have you ever pitched that?” Hayden asked, genuinely hoping that the man had. “Making your own system from scratch.”

  “Only every time I have my manager’s ear,” Roger said, laughing mirthlessly until the ringing of his phone cut him off. “Have a good weekend, Hayden.”

  Hayden pushed his cart back to the elevator lobby of the eighteen story building, hearing the tinny rings of telephones and people talking too loudly to each other over cubicle walls as he did. His elevator ride down to his domain on the second floor was solitary and Hayden’s mind began to wander to the nearly finished sculpture currently waiting for him in the garage. It still looked odd and ragged, but once he began to polish the surfaces, he knew that it would come to life.

  After emptying his cart and organizing everything he’d retrieved so far, Hayden pulled his insulated lunchbox out from under his desk and headed to the bustling lunchroom. He’d heard that the food from the different sections of the cafeteria was delicious and worth it, but Hayden could barely afford groceries after his giant student loan payments. He certainly couldn’t afford to buy cafeteria food.

  His first stop after lunch was the CEO’s office. It had surprised him during his first day of training when he’d been instructed to go straight into Joel Harrison’s apartment-sized office to collect the mail that he insisted on keeping on his own, imposing desk. The owner of the company had shaken his hand and asked his name and, to his intense embarrassment, he’d stuttered his name a few times before he’d managed to get it out.

  But Joel Harrison was an imposing person in so many ways that he’d nearly knocked the wind from Hayden’s chest that day. The man was wildly successful, in fantastic shape, and he still managed to have a warm handshake and a genuine smile. That was on top of the fact that he had thick, dark brown hair that was always perfectly styled and perceptive, green eyes. He was so good looking that it made Hayden have to admit, although not for the first time, that he was something other than straight.

  It was no wonder he’d stuttered, he thought as he got his daily peek at the sexy CEO. Unlike every other office in the building, Joel’s office had solid walls and doors so no one could see in from the outside. There was a slightly cluttered desk just outside the door, for the CEO’s personal assistant Shelly, but she was usually sitting next to Joel’s desk, listening in on his calls and taking notes.

  Today, however, the impressive CEO was alone. He was still on the phone, Hayden was pretty sure that the man spent most of his life on the phone, but the no-nonsense PA was nowhere in sight. Joel’s white shirt was rolled up to his elbows as he stood with his hands on his hips with the tiny headset he had on most days, but there was a surprisingly easy smile on his classically handsome face. How did he manage to look disheveled, but still suave and professional at the same time?

  God, he must have women standing in line to date him.

  As he did most days, Joel acknowledged Hayden’s presence with a smile and a slight nod as he neared the ridiculously large, wooden desk to collect the thicker than the usual pile of outgoing mail and memos.

  “Absolutely,” Joel said into the headset in his usual, gregarious tone. “We couldn’t be happier with TimeAssure, Mike.”

  Hayden’s hazel eyes immediately widened in horror at what he’d just heard. TimeAssure, the source of everyone’s frustration today, was the worst system Hayden had been forced to work with in his entire life! Was this guy really that out of touch? Like Roger had said this morning, if the higher ups had to use–

  “Hayden, right?”

  Looking up at the unexpected sound of his name, Hayden met the rather intense, green-eyed gaze of Joel Harrison. “Yes.”

  “Don’t move.”

  Hayden’s blood pressure skyrocketed as he stood and watched Joel punch a button on his phone. Maybe he didn’t love this job, but he definitely loved paying his bills. It wouldn’t be the first time that his face, and his apparent inability to control it, had gotten him into trouble.

  “Mike, I’m so sorry to cut you off,” Joel said into the headset. “But something urgent just came across my desk and I need to give it attention. Could I call you back? Great, thanks.” Obviou
sly ending the call, he turned his intimidating gaze back to Hayden. “Why did you react that way? You were reacting to what I said, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?” Joel insisted, leaning his hair-covered arms on his desk and dialing in to Hayden with his intense gaze.

  Well, he wasn’t getting out of this, so he might as well just say it, Hayden thought as he took a deep breath. “You’ve obviously never had to use it.”

  One dark brown eyebrow rose as a sarcastic smile formed on Joel’s perfectly shaped lips. “Being that it’s my company, I don’t submit time.” Then his face completely altered, becoming serious and inquisitive again. “But that’s not what you meant, is it?”

  Hayden shook his head. “No. I’m saying if you’d used it once, you’d understand why I reacted that way. The entire building is talking about how awful it is.”

  Joel didn’t react the way that Hayden had imagined and feared he would, with anger or condescension, instead Joel’s eyes moved from Hayden to his cart and then back. “Because you walk around the entire building. That’s not an exaggeration from you.”

  “It’s not,” Hayden confirmed. “I mean everyone I’ve talked to today, in every department, on every floor.”

  The space between Joel’s thick eyebrows knit as he considered this news. “What’s wrong with it? Specifically?”

  “What’s not wrong with it?” Hayden said, feeling like this conversation wasn’t going to end in him being fired. Hopefully. “It’s slow, it’s–” Hayden’s words were, unsurprisingly, cut off by the sound of the phone ringing.

  “Damnit,” Joel said as he looked at the screen of the high tech desk phone. “I have been waiting for this call, so I need to take it. What’s your last name?”

  “Fink.”

  “I’m going to put a meeting on your calendar. I want you to come back up here so we can talk about this. And be completely honest with me, please.” Without waiting for a response, Joel pressed the small button on his equally small headset and answered his incoming call. “Ali, I was beginning to think you weren’t going to return my call.”

  Pushing his cart back out the double doors, Hayden breathed a sigh of relief and tried to will his pulse to slow down. It wasn’t the first time that he’d interacted with Joel, the man seemed surprisingly personable, but it was the first time that he’d been on the receiving end of the intense, tycoon stare while discussing something that actually mattered. And now he was going to have an entire meeting with him? He was surprised that the CEO would even have time in his schedule for something like that when he barely had two minutes between important phone calls.

  ​Two

  By the time Hayden sat back down at his small desk two hours later, the promised invitation for a meeting was waiting in his inbox and he quickly accepted it. His route was done with time to spare, as usual, and he wished that he could leave for the day. Of course, even if he hadn’t had the surprise meeting with Mr. CEO, his manager would write him up if he left early without asking. And asking was rarely fruitful.

  He was about to win his tenth game of solitaire when the ten minute warning for his meeting popped up in the corner of the screen. Both his manager Rudy and his co-worker Alex had left an hour ago–apparently it was okay to leave early if Rudy wanted to, Hayden thought as he logged off of his computer and pocketed his car keys.

  He certainly hoped this meeting was as innocuous as Joel had made it seem when he’d requested it.

  The assistant’s desk appeared to be tidied and shut down for the day as Hayden passed it and pushed on the doors of the office, but they didn’t budge. Weird, these doors had never been locked unless Joel was out.

  Did this man forget about the meeting he’d scheduled? Hayden thought as annoyance began to prickle at the back of his neck, but then he heard a distinct click and he tried the doors again. They opened.

  Of course he had a button to lock and unlock his door from his desk, Hayden realized as he walked into the spacious office and Joel was still planted behind the prodigious desk. Could he blame the man? If Hayden were the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, he would have all kinds of gadgets in and on his desk, not to mention some kind of secret room somewhere.

  “You’re not on the phone,” Hayden commented as he approached the desk and he immediately wished that he hadn’t. There were so many times in his life when he would hear words coming out of his mouth only to realize he sounded like a child. “I thought it was your natural state.”

  To his relief, Joel actually smiled up at him. “It certainly feels that way sometimes.” His dark eyebrows knit again as soon as his attention returned to his computer screen, but after typing for just a second, he locked the screen. “Thank you for staying late. I realized when I scheduled this that you leave at five.”

  “The lengths I wouldn’t go to for a better system.”

  “Is it really that bad?” Joel asked, walking over to the small fridge tucked into the credenza along the back wall. “Would you like a drink?”

  “Sure.”

  “Would you like a beer?”

  Was this a business meeting or a hang out? Hayden wondered as he stood with his hands in his pockets in the middle of the office, unsure of where to go. “That feels like a trick question...”

  One dark brown eyebrow rose on Joel’s forehead as he looked at Hayden and popped open a brown bottle of beer for himself. “It’s after hours. Do you want a beer?”

  “Yes, please,” Hayden said, feeling oddly chastised. There was an energy in the room that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, but the beer and the three open buttons of Joel’s shirt were giving this a much more informal vibe than he’d expected.

  The second beer was opened and Hayden knew that his eyes were following Joel as he walked across the room, but damn, he couldn’t help himself. There was dark chest hair peeking out through the top of his well-made shirt and thick chest hair on a fit man was apparently Hayden’s kryptonite when it came to the same sex.

  “Let’s sit over here,” Joel bid and headed over to the long, L-shaped couch to the right of the desk.

  Just sit on a couch and drink beer with the stupidly sexy CEO, no big deal. Hayden’s heart was pounding in his chest and he took a long swig of the hoppy IPA before he sat down. Hopefully the alcohol would relax his chaotic nervous system.

  “Ideally, I would like these meetings to be informal,” Joel explained as soon as Hayden sat down. “Just a conversion about the pulse of the building, which you are uniquely positioned to take.”

  “Meetings?” Hayden asked, not certain that he’d heard the other man correctly.

  “Yes, I scheduled a series with you, every Friday evening, like this,” Joel explained. “To discuss anything important from the week. If you’re willing to, of course.”

  Every Friday with the CEO. How had he missed that? This was going in a direction that hadn’t even been on his radar. “I think I am, except that I want to be very clear, I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus or be the reason that anyone loses their job. I’m not a snitch.”

  “And I don’t want you to be,” Joel assured him. “Be vague, don’t use names, unless it’s something good that you should give someone else credit for, but I’m not asking you to snitch. What I want to know about are more systemic issues, like the time management software you apparently hate, and things like that. If I want to improve the work life of my employees and retain good people, I need someone to be honest with me. Are you willing to do that?”

  The very fact that Joel seemed so sincere and earnest as he said that he wanted to improve his employees’ experience made Hayden want to agree to the unexpected task. “I am, as long as you remember that you asked for it.”

  “I will,” Joel chuckled before taking a drink of his beer, the warm, smooth sound making Hayden nearly choke on his own spit. “Now tell me what’s wrong with TimeAssure.”

  “Everything,” Hayden said. “It’s slow, it’s clunky, the user interface isn’t remotely intuitive and that’s before you get to the worst part.”

  “That’s not the worst part?” Joel deadpanned before taking another drink.