A wave of jealousy spread through Dylan at seeing how the brothers interacted with one another. Here was the family dynamic she’d desired her entire life. There had been a point, long ago, when Brent had acted like a big brother. That was long before her parents had stopped acting like parents and started acting like older siblings.

The last trip to Mexico had been one of many trips their parents had gone on in a four-year span, and the only time they’d taken her and Brent along.

“Trent is leaving now,” Trey said clearly, disengaging himself from his brother. “I’ve got a meeting to prepare for.”

“Right.” Trent straightened his brother’s tie. He was wearing worn jeans and a sweater so she had figured he wouldn’t be sticking around for the rest of the day. “I’ll leave you two alone.” Trent smiled and winked at her as he walked towards the front door.

“See, that’s something else we have in common,” Trey said, clearly.

“What?” she asked.

“My brother can be an ass too.” He made sure to say it before Trent had left the building. His brother just chuckled as he walked out. “I need to apologize to you,” Trey said once they were alone.

“You’ve nothing to apologize for.” She tried to keep her mind off what had almost happened in his office moments ago. “Your conference call isn’t—”

“Dylan.” Trey’s tone of voice stopped her. “Not about my brother. Everyone in town knows he’s an idiot. Once you’ve worked here for a few days you’ll understand there will be plenty more instances like that.” He nodded towards the doorway. “I’m sorry about earlier. In my office. I shouldn’t have pushed… things.”

“You didn’t push,” she corrected, trying not to fidget under his gaze. Even after four boyfriends, she still wasn’t any good at this sort of thing. Who was she kidding? She could have had a million boyfriends and Trey McGowan would still make her feel nervous when he looked at her like he was now.

Over the past few days working with him, she’d tried to tell herself that she was being overly dramatic, that she was reading more into what was there between them than really was. Until what had happened in his office, that almost kiss. Now, she was wondering when they would kiss, not if.

He moved closer to her desk, and she was thankful she was sitting down. She didn’t think her knees would hold her up at this point.

“You two are great together.” She decided avoidance was the best way to deal with her embarrassment. “I bet you never fought with your brothers.”

Trey walked over behind her desk and leaned against the side of it. The desk was raised so she was eye to eye with anyone who came in, so his hip rested against the edge of the desk.

“We fought like a group of baboons, or so my mother always said.” His eyes ran over her face slowly. She held perfectly still when he reached up and slid the pen she’d pushed behind her ear out. “Do you wear glasses?” he asked, frowning down at the pen. It was an old habit, one kids in school had always made fun of her for. She’d slide a pen behind her ear and forget it was there, then spend five minutes looking for it.

“Contacts,” she said, frowning slightly at how breathless she sounded. The fact was, she’d been wearing the same disposable contacts for more than two weeks. The things itched and irritated her eyes. But she couldn’t afford new ones and hated wearing her glasses, so she kept refreshing them with drops all day long. Small price for beauty, or so her mother used to tell her all the time.

Of course, her mother had had more than a dozen plastic surgeries that Dylan could remember. In the end, none of the price or pain had been worth it, none of it had really mattered.

“Hmmm.” Trey nodded. “Eye care is included in our health package. There’s a good eye doctor about half an hour from here.”

“Included…” She frowned. She’d forgotten all about the health insurance, even though she’d been the one to fill out and fax the forms in for her and Brent. She’d been too excited about the idea of a real paycheck to look over the health packet. “Right.” She nodded slowly. “I’ll make sure to set something up.”

He tilted his head a little, and she wondered what it would be like to have him watch her as he slowly undressed her. Which reminder her that her undergarments were not… top of the line. Who was she kidding? She was lucky she had one bra and the underwear she was wearing. The elastic had gone out on both and she was dying to spend some of her first check at the little boutique she’d driven by downtown.

“Are they colored?” Trey asked, breaking into her thoughts.

“What?” She almost choked out the question. She had thought at first he was asking about her panties and her cheeks flushed.

When he smiled, she guessed he’d understood where her thoughts were.

“Your contacts?” he said slowly.

“Oh.” She took a deep breath. “No, just disposable.” He nodded. “Why all the questions about my vision?” she asked, suddenly curious.

He chuckled. “Just curious. I guess it’s my way of saying you have nice eyes.” He stood up when the front door opened and glanced over his shoulder. “Looks like my next meeting is early.”

For the hour Trey was in the meeting, her entire body vibrated from his compliment. She tried to focus on her work, but each time she thought about his words, her body would react again. What was going on? The guy wasn’t even her type.

Sure, he was tall, sexy, and full of lean muscles. Those blue eyes of his seemed to bore directly into her soul, and she was pretty sure that if he ever touched her, she would melt or combust.

By the time he walked out of the office again, she was back under full control. That was, until she got a call from her brother. She was a little surprised that he knew the office number, but after hearing where he was, she realized what had happened.

“I’m at the police station. You’ll have to—”

“What did you do now?” she hissed into the phone, hoping Trey couldn’t hear her from down the hallway. His door was open, so she spoke quietly.

“Nothing, it’s just a misunderstanding. Can you come? They impounded my truck.”

“What?” She knew it had come out louder and glanced down the hallway.

“I’ll explain when you get here.” Her brother hung up the phone quickly, leaving no choice but to make an excuse as to why she couldn’t see the rental house during her lunch break.

Straightening her shoulders, she pulled out her purse and the keys to the company sedan she’d enjoyed having all to herself and made her way down the hallway.

Knocking on the open door, she waited for Trey to look up from his computer screen. Her breath stuck in her throat when she noticed the black wired frames sitting on the bridge of his nose.

He turned towards her and she felt her heart actually skip a beat. She’d never fallen for a man in glasses, but wow. Trey McGowan wasn’t your normal man in reading glasses.

“Yes?” he asked, pulling off the glasses and giving her a slight frown when he noticed her bag.

“I… something has come up and I need to go check on my brother during my break. I really wanted to see the rental, but…”

“It’s okay.” He set the glasses on the table and waved her inside the office. She moved automatically. “Is everything alright?” he asked.

“Yes, no.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure. But he needs me and…”

“I understand.” He smiled. “If you want, we can swing by the place after work.”

Instantly, she cheered up. “That would be great.” She’d been dreaming of getting out of the hotel and having a real house again since he’d mentioned it earlier. At least when she wasn’t fantasizing about his hands running all over her body.

“Great.” He turned back to the screen. “Can you lock the front door behind you? I’m going to work through lunch.”

“Oh, sure.” She instantly felt guilty. Maybe he’d been looking forward to taking off for lunch. There wasn’t anything to eat at the office, and she thought about stopping at Frankie’s Deli on the way back and picking something up for him. Turning back towards him, she watched him slip on the glasses again and held in a sigh. “Mustard?” she blurted out. His eyebrows shot up with humor.

“I’m sorry?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes. “My mouth just acts on its own sometimes.” She sighed. “I can stop and get you a sandwich at Frankie’s on my way back. Do you like mustard?”

He chuckled. “That would be great. Yes, the works. If you tell Frankie it’s for me, he’ll know how I like it.”

“Great.” She smiled. “Thanks, again.” She rushed from the room before she could blurt out anything else stupid.

* * *

Why was it that the week his brothers decide to leave him alone at the office, it was so busy he didn’t have time to breath, let alone give the attention he wanted to Dylan. Still, he made his way through the rest of the day with the help of his favorite sandwich from Frankie’s Deli. When Gary knocked on his office door, he waved him in.

“I’ve got that special order you were asking after.” Gary held up the box.

“Great.” Trey stood up and met the man halfway across the room. He signed for the box and tried to avoid small talk, but with Gary, it wasn’t likely to work. He nodded towards his computer. “Sorry, can’t chat now, I’ve got to get back at it.”

“Oh, sure, I bet you’re swamped with Tyler and Trent out this week.”

“Yeah.” He waited until he heard the guy leave the building before making his way down the hallway to where Dylan sat behind the desk.

“I’ve got something for you.” He set the box down in front of her. She looked at it for a moment, then opened it.

“What is it?” she asked as she opened the box.

“Since it’s important that we can get ahold of our office manager at any given time, and since I noticed you don’t have a cell phone…” He shook his head. “Seriously, who nowadays doesn’t have a cell phone?” He smiled as she pulled the new phone from the box. She set it on the table like it was made of glass and she was afraid it would shatter in her hands. “It’s a company phone,” he added, feeling the need to talk her into the idea of carrying it around.

“I…” She shook her head. “I can’t accept this.”

He laughed. “Sure, you can. Like I said, it’s a company phone. We all have them.” He held up his matching phone. “It’s a little hard to call the hotel phone when we need to reach you.”

She didn’t touch it again, so picked it up and flipped it on. “I’ve already texted my brothers your number, as well as the site managers.” He watched as the new phone booted up. “All that’s left is for you to program all the phone numbers in it. You can just log in to your corporate email and your contacts should sync.” He handed her the phone. “Then everyone will be in your phone automatically.”

“I…” She shook her head. He could see she wanted to say more, but she just swallowed and started the process of entering her login information into the phone.

He helped for a few minutes, then had to go finish his work. When an alarm popped up on his screen, he smiled and pulled out his phone and texted her.

-Five minutes left before we can get out of here.

He waited and when the reply came back, he smiled.

-Four now.

When he walked out of his office, she was still bent over the new phone. Seeing him, she frowned.

“I can’t get the accounting software app to work on this.”

“We have an app for our accounting program?” He moved over behind her desk.

She nodded. “Yes, their website shows it. I’ve downloaded it, see?” She held out her phone for him to see. Sure enough, there was the logo and login screen for the app.

“Maybe it needs the admin user name and password instead of yours.” He punched in the access and smiled when it logged in. “Well, I’ll be…” He shook his head. “Here you go.” He handed her the phone.

“I shouldn’t have access to the admin login.” She started to delete the app.

“No, it’s okay. I can officially say your trial period is over.”

“Why would you say that?” She was still frowning up at him.

“Trent liked you.” He chuckled.

“But…” She continued to look down at her screen.

He could tell she was having a hard time with it, so he changed the subject.

“Come on, let’s go look at the house.” He stepped back, allowing her to close down for the night.

He was locking up the front door when they heard a car pull into the parking lot. Glancing back, he groaned.

“You’re about to meet Darla, the woman I warned you about.”

“The one who set fire to your sister-in-law’s car?” she asked quickly.

“Yup,” he said as the woman climbed out of her old clunker. The car had seen better days ten years ago. Now it was just waiting for a reason to die.

“I heard congratulations are in order,” Darla said as she approached them on the sidewalk.

She wasn’t wearing a jacket even though there was a light dusting of snow covering the ground, so he figured she’d probably just gotten off work. From the smell of her, he estimated she was too drunk to be driving and reached in his pocket for his cell phone.

He didn’t respond to her but asked his own question instead. “Darla, should you be driving yourself home?”

“Oh, I only live a block away.” She leaned closer to him, almost falling over. His hand reached out automatically to steady her. What could he say? He’d been raised to help a woman in need, no matter who that woman was. “So, your brother and that… woman had a child.” She ran her hands over her flat belly. “I was pregnant once.” She said this to Dylan as her eyes raced up and down her.

Dylan, for her part, was wrapped in a jacket. Not the thickest one, but at least it would keep most of the cold out. She’d worn black leggings with a long grey sweater skirt and ankle-high boots. Her hair was tucked under a black cap and she was wearing black gloves that had seen better days but would keep her digits warm. All in all, Dylan looked a lot sexier than the stripper trying to rub her double Ds against his arm.

Setting her away from him, he cleared his throat and pulled out his phone. “I’ll get you a ride home.”

“Don’t bother,” she purred as she walked back to her car. “Tell Tyler I stopped by.” She waved as she pulled out of the parking lot.

“Wow,” Dylan said under her breath, “were those natural?”

He stopped texting Tony and glanced up at Dylan. Then he laughed and hit send. He knew Tony would have someone drive by and make sure Darla didn’t hit anything or anyone on the way home.

“Come on.” He took Dylan’s gloved hand and walked her to his car. “I’m driving.”

He’d gotten his truck back from the shop and was happy that the thing would now stop when he hit the brakes. It was an older truck, but it was paid off and reliable enough.

“Nice. This is a better version of my brother’s truck,” she supplied.

He glanced over at her as he drove out of the parking lot. “I heard that your brother’s truck was towed for the tags being expired. Two years expired.”

She sighed. “Small towns.”

“Yup, you can’t escape gossip.” He turned down the street the little home sat at the end of.

“I wrote them a check, but I’m hoping they won’t cash it until I get my first paycheck.” She turned slightly towards him. “And then that will leave me dreaming about moving out of the hotel but having no money for a deposit until my second paycheck.”

“We can probably work something out with the landlord. The place is empty now. I’m sure they’ll want someone in it now, rather than later.” He turned into the cul-de-sac and nodded. “There she is.” She glanced out the windshield and her eyes went huge.